An Interlude in Berlin by Jefferson Flanders

Author:Jefferson Flanders [Flanders, Jefferson]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Jefferson Flanders

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Christa was two blocks from the Stasi compound, on her way to the S-Bahn, when she heard her name being called aloud. She turned to see Comrade Lothar striding toward her, a smile on his face. She stopped and waited for him, wondering why he had followed her.

“A brief word,” Lothar said when he reached her.

She regarded him warily. “What is it, comrade?”

“I’m sympathetic to your situation,” he said. “I know this has been abrupt. But it is all for a good cause.”

“Is that so?”

“We wouldn’t ask you to do these things if it were not so. If you help us, you help your brother.”

“I’ve done everything Comrade Mikhail has asked me to.” She met his eyes. “Do you doubt me? Does he doubt me?”

Lothar raised his hands slightly in a conciliatory gesture. “You’re also a woman. You must have some feelings for the American. It can be confusing.”

“As I told Comrade Mikhail, I’m not confused,” she said. “I’ve slept with him because I had to. He has no call on my emotions or my loyalty.”

“That’s as it should be,” Lothar said. “There should be no mistake about that.”

“There isn’t,” she said softly. “Nor will there be.”

“There’s another reason for you to cooperate. I’ve read your father’s dossier. You should know that he ordered his men to do many shameful things during the war, things that no honorable officer would ever countenance. Crimes against humanity. You can make amends for your father’s war crimes by what you do now.”

“I will be late for my performance,” she said. Christa didn’t trust herself to say anything more. Did Lothar think she felt any guilt over what her father might have done during the war? Franz von Schiller at least had tried to stop Hitler, and had paid for his resistance with his life. And was the regime that Lothar served any better than the Nazis? She saw little difference.

She turned to leave, and Lothar stepped back to let her go.

“We’re counting on you,” he said. “Don’t disappoint us.”

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