the film to Nina. He could keep the camera.

My heart was in my throat as we crossed to the center of that bridge at the appointed time.

Three men met us in the center. They had Mary. She looked a little worse for the wear. More like grumpy for not getting her sleep.

The man holding Mary put her down. She ran to me but I redirected her to Nina who scooped her up and took off running.

This quick action caused some confusion with the men who hadn’t expected it. I took the opportunity to give the one to my right a left hook that took him off his feet.

Rather than fight the three I ran to the bridge and jumped into the middle of the river. I had enough wits about me to go feet first and cup my privates as taught in lifeguard school.

I hit the water with a tremendous splash, it turned out the river wasn’t very deep, but it was deep enough that I didn’t break a leg.

As I bounced off the bottom of the river I kicked my shoes off. Then rather than surface immediately I let the current carry me. I didn’t have enough air to go very far but I wanted to be certain I was oriented so if I made it out of the water it would be on the West German side.

The river was fast enough that I got a good sense of which direction to go. I went up as quickly as I could and drew a breath then went down again. As I submerged I heard gunshots but they missed.

This time I turned and went towards the center of the river before surfacing. I hoped this would throw their aim off as they would be looking toward my previous path.

My gamble paid off, I was able to get a deep breath in before diving again. The best part was that a bend in the river was coming up and it would put me out of their sight if I moved fast enough.

It worked, as soon as I surfaced the next time I was out of sight of those on the bridge. I made a dash for land and made it safely.

I didn’t take any chances but kept running deeper into Berlin. I got about a block and West German police, who had been called because of the sound of shots fired, picked me up.

My water-soaked diplomatic passport was enough to get me a ride to the British Embassy where I was reunited with Nina and Mary.

A quick explanation of what happened to the Ambassador resulted in a phone call to The Meadows. Mr. Hamilton answered. I quickly told him, I had Mary, we were safe and in Berlin, oh and may I talk to Mum or Dad.

To say my parents were upset was an understatement. You could tell they were relieved that Mary, Nina, and I were safe. They were also mad as hell at me for taking off on my own.

I was glad I was far away, I hoped they would cool down by the time I got back home.

The embassy arranged a flight back to Switzerland for Nina. Before she left I had a short conversation with her. I figured another girlfriend down the drain.

To my surprise, she asked if every date could be this exciting.

“I hope not, or least in different ways.”

She blushed like crazy when I said that, then I realized that could be taken several ways. I tried to explain but the more I said the worse it got. I was a stuttering, stammering mess before my brain caught up with my mouth and I shut up.

Again she surprised me.

“You are so cute when you get flustered. I will have to remember that.”

She then laid a kiss on me to remember.

“Call me Rick, when you are home safe.”

She took off with a jaunty wave, telling me the girls will eat their hearts out.

I wasn’t allowed to fly my plane home. I was put on a US Air Force C130 and taken back to London.

There I was debriefed by MI6. I told them everything but ‘forgot’ to mention I had a roll of film of the whole incident at the bridge. I wanted to know who those men were, especially the leader who had Mary.

Chapter 32

As far as I was concerned the cold war had just gone hot. This had become personal. Not only were they after me they had once again brought Mary into it.

You would think they would learn. I realized the first time it had been the KGB, and now it was the Stasi, maybe they didn’t share lessons learned.

My parents and I had a long discussion about the events. I gave Mum the film. She would use her backchannels to try to identify the main man in the pictures.

If I got the other two they would be counted as bonuses. I had decided I was going after them.

This was on Monday, by Tuesday Mum had a name and address for the man who had been holding Mary.

He was a Walter Konig, head of the East German unit assigned to Berlin. He lived on a small farm just outside of Berlin.

The best of the information was that he was a man of habit. He was picked up for work Monday through Friday at 8:30 in the morning. There was a guard and driver.

I explained my plan to my parents. They approved it because of its sheer simplicity. No James Bond gadgets required here or fancy sports cars or parachute dived.

I intended to walk to his house, wait for him to come out, put an arrow through him, and walk back to West Germany.

Mum and Dad weren’t really thrilled with the whole plan but

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