“I can tell them everything,” the colonel said as he rolled to a stop. He turned to Brano. “There’s no need for you to return if you don’t want to. You’ve done your service to the state. You’ve earned this right more than anyone. I can delay a search for a day or so, but you have to make the decision now. Before this light turns green.”
Brano gazed at the dashboard. “Leave?”
“You killed Lutz before I arrived, then left. I never saw you. But now, Brano. It’s your choice.”
Brano put his hand on the door latch. “What about my family?”
“I can protect them, Brano. No problem.”
The colonel’s pink face was very serious. Brano nodded but took his hand off the latch. The yellow light came on below the red. Cerny sighed.
At Ebendorferstra?e, Brano spotted Ludwig’s gray Renault but couldn’t see the man inside. They stopped at the iron gate, where a guard checked both their papers. When Brano rolled down the window and handed over his real passport, he glanced back at the Renault. The crew-cut Austrian stared at him a second before fumbling for his radio.
A short paved driveway led around the side of the building, and they got out together. Through the front door they arrived in a foyer with a bulletin board covered in notices for upcoming symposiums on international peace and, in front of them, a desk below the bronze crest of a hawk with its wings folded into its side.
“Good afternoon, Silvia.”
A petite woman with thick black hair smiled at Cerny. “Hello, Comrade Colonel.”
“Do you have the plane schedules?”
While Cerny leaned over the desk and discussed flight arrangements, Brano wandered to the bulletin board and read a warning, drafted on Yalta Boulevard, about enemy intelligence officers.
WARNING SIGNS: 1. UNPROVOKED FRIENDLINESS
2. INTEREST IN YOUR PRIVATE LIFE
3. TENDENCY TO AGREE TOO QUICKLY WITH YOUR UNDERSTANDING OF THE IMPERIALIST THREAT
The notice ended with a final thought:
THE COUNTERREVOLUTIONARY INSTIGATOR OF IMPERIALIST AGGRESSION SEEKS TO DESTROY WHAT THE WORKERS OF THE WORLD HAVE BUILT WITH THEIR OWN BLOOD — VIGILANCE IS THE ONLY DEFENSE!
“Comrade Major Sev?”
Brano turned to face a thin man whose eyes bulged from a chronic glandular problem. He was the Ministry representative in the embassy, responsible for the staff’s political education. “Comrade Major Romek, it’s good to see you again.”
Major Nikolai Romek spoke with a slight quiver. “Comrade Major, would you come with me?”
“Why?”
“So we may discuss your adventures.”
Cerny hurried over from the desk. “Comrade Romek, I’ve already debriefed Comrade Sev.”
“I understand,” he said, then shrugged. “I’m afraid, though, that I’ve been asked to repeat the procedure. I’m sure you understand.”
“Who ordered this?” asked Cerny.
“The Comrade Lieutenant General.”
The colonel gave Brano a look. “All right, but don’t take too much time. We’re flying out in the morning.”
Romek smiled. “Of course, Comrade Colonel.”
29 APRIL 1967, SATURDAY
Although there were no windows in his cell, he was sure that by now the plane home had left. Romek, with the assistance of a guard, had brought him downstairs to an empty office with a lock on the outside of the door, asked him to take a chair-there was one on each side of a table-then left and locked the door. Someone had turned off the lights after a few hours, and Brano climbed on the table to catch up on his sleep. He woke to a bright room.
The walls were white and clean. He couldn’t remember if they had someone to clean up after each interview session, or if, as at Yalta Boulevard, they simply repainted such rooms once a week to cover the blood.
In other circumstances he would not have been afraid. Although he and Major Romek had had their differences, Romek was in all ways an officer of the state, a simple man who had devoted himself to that training- school creed of living by his orders. But now, his orders came from Yalta Boulevard, specifically from the Lieutenant General.
Major Romek arrived, followed by a squat, heavy man with a black beard who stood silently in the corner. Romek sat behind the table, and Brano took the seat opposite him.
“Brano, I can tell you I was surprised when I heard you’d walked in here. I thought we’d lost you.” The quiver had left his voice.
“As you can see, Comrade Major, I didn’t run away.”
Romek smiled. “Before we get started, though, let me tell you that I’ve always admired your work. Last year, if you remember, I was upset that you questioned my security in this building. You had my men sweep the offices and, upon finding microphones, gave me quite a reprimand. At the time, I took this personally. I did. But later I realized that you were right. So, before we begin, I want to tell you that I bear no ill will toward you.”
“I’m pleased to hear that.”
Romek scratched the corner of a bulging eye. “But since then, the world has become a little more complicated, hasn’t it? You attacked Josef Lochert in August-yes, he was open with us here at the embassy about what you’d done to him-and after returning home you murdered an innocent worker and have since finished what you began with Lochert. You’ve spent a lot of time in this city with known counterrevolutionaries-the moderately famous Filip Lutz, as well as a whole cast of curiosities connected to the Committee for Liberty in the Captive Nations, which we believe to be a front for the CIA. Do you deny any of this?”
“I did not attack Josef Lochert last year, nor did I kill Jakob Bieniek. But the rest is true.”
“Better than I expected,” said Romek.
“I came here of my own free will.”
“Free will.” Romek grunted, as if this were funny. “I suppose you did. But now, what I need from you is complete and utter honesty. Forget about the outside world. There are prisons and work camps out there, but they have nothing to do with what we are doing in here. What I want from you is the whole story.”
So Brano Sev began with August 1966, outlining what happened with Josef Lochert and Bertrand Richter. Romek used his notepad sometimes and did not interrupt. Brano told him about the appearance of Jan Soroka and about the murder of Jakob Bieniek, arranged by Pavel Jast. Then he explained why all of this had happened, that it was the Ministry’s plan to get him into Austria for his mission.
“Wait,” said Romek, frowning at his notes. “You’re telling me that all this was simply to get you into Austria?”
“That’s what I’m telling you. Colonel Cerny will verify this.”
“Okay. Go on.”
Brano described his time with Ludwig in that suburban house and told him what information he’d been forced to give.
“That’s all you told them?”
“It’s all I remember. I might have told them more, but I don’t think I did.”
“Well, Brano. It’s important we know everything you told them. So we know what’s been compromised.”
“Of course. I’ll work on it.”
“You do that.”
Brano outlined his time in Vienna, his meetings with Filip Lutz and Ersek Nanz, the lecture at the Committee for Liberty. He told them the names of everyone he recognized there.
“Andrezej Sev?”
“Yes.”
