Edge of Tomorrow (5 page)

“If you will let me. That way, you don’t have
to take me home in the middle of the night,” she answered.

“And you get to soak in my tub in the
morning, right?”

“Of course! I am not stupid about all
things!” she giggled sheepishly.

They sipped drinks, had long bouts of French
kissing, and much more breast kissing for another hour or so. He
stoked the fire and added wood twice during that time. They had
switched to wine, because heating water for the rum drinks was too
time-consuming and distracting. Finally, they were both exhausted
from the long day’s activities, and the drinking, so they decided
to go to bed. He got her one of his large tee shirts to wear. She
stripped off her black pants and he saw that she was wearing black
bikini underwear. He nearly melted at the sight of her. She pulled
his tee shirt over her head and climbed into his bed. He undressed
and climbed in next to her. She kissed him sleepily and rolled onto
her left side.

“Snuggle me, please,” she stated.

He got into a spoon position and put his
right arm over her and his hand cupped one of her breasts. He was
surprised that he did not get another erection. He attributed it to
being tired, and the booze.

“Goodnight, Bob Kelly,” she whispered and was
asleep immediately.

“Goodnight, Katerina Klaus,” he whispered
back.

• • •

That night was the end of the old Bob
Hatcher, and the beginning of the transformation to a new Bob
Hatcher. He began a whirlwind courtship of Katerina Klaus. They
spent as much time together as their schedules allowed. Although he
never dropped his cover as Bob Kelly, under her gentle guidance,
parts of him that had been buried for years began to emerge. His
cynicism was blunted, his gentleness returned, caring for life
blossomed, and he began to think he could actually love
someone.

Two weeks later, after their petting game
progressed to heavy petting, she finally let him “take her pants
off.” That was on Christmas Day, Sunday, December 25. It was the
best Christmas present he had ever received. By then, she had
captured his heart and soul totally. He was in love with her, and
she with him. In the weeks that followed their first love-making,
they grew closer and closer together. Although he felt guilty for
not telling her who he really was and what he really did, that was
one area of his life he could not divulge—not yet. He did, however,
learn all of the details of Kat’s sordid life. She confided that
she was tempted many times to go to the U.S. Embassy and defect,
asking for political asylum in the United States. But she knew that
would be a death sentence for her family, so she suffered on, doing
as her superiors in the Stasi demanded.

In June, seven months after they had first
met, things took a turn for the worse. The first bit of news that
complicated their furious love affair was Katerina’s discovery that
she was pregnant. Neither of them could reconstruct exactly when
their birth-control precautions had failed. This event was both
good news and bad news. They were both actually pleased that they
were going to have a child, but the negative consequences were
overwhelming. If the Stasi found out about it, there was no telling
what their reaction would be. Hatcher decided he must take
immediate steps to get her out of Germany. Although it was within
his power for this to take place, it was complicated by the certain
dire consequences that would befall her mother and sister.

The second event was even more devastating. A
few days after he found out Kat was pregnant, before Hatcher had
formulated a plan, the Stasi abruptly sent Katerina back to East
Germany. Hatcher was furious with himself. He should have acted
sooner! Now things were exponentially more complicated. Before he
could propose a plan for her extraction, he had to know where she
was, and why she was suddenly sent back. That meant he must go to
East Berlin and nose around. This was not what bothered him—he had
several personas that could infiltrate the GDR. It was what he
might find there that scared him. Was she in prison? Or dead?
Besides, time was no longer on his side. Something must be done, if
she were alive, before her pregnancy was discovered.

Three days later, he returned from East
Berlin feeling somewhat optimistic. He had found her alive and
living at her mother’s farm. As far as Kat knew, her recall was
strictly routine. She was scheduled to take some classes on some
new surveillance equipment. She had no idea when she was to be
returned to West Berlin. She had been both panicked and relieved to
see him. She wanted to know how he got into East Berlin. He had
lied, telling her he called in a favor from an old friend. She was
so happy to see him that she did not pursue it.

When he got back to his apartment, he wrote a
coded message for the drop man in West Berlin. It was for his
handler in London. It described his plan to get a defecting Stasi
agent out of East Berlin, and it included a sub-plan to take her
mother and sister to safety also. Later that day, he left the
message at his drop. Now all he could do was wait for an answer.
Was he too late?

East Berlin, Germany

August 12, 1984

5:45 P.M.

The Hatchet Man took another scan of the
plaza below. The new, compassionate Bob Hatcher that Kat had
created was being repressed for the moment. Hatcher had to call
upon all of his instincts to ensure the success of this mission.
His entire future life was now in the hands of the highly trained
senses of the super agent, The Hatchet Man. There was no room for
sentiment, or fear, or feelings of possible failure. Every move had
to be cold and calculated.

His plan had been approved by the London
Station Chief, John McGinnis, who was also in charge of the NOC
agents in Europe. Hatcher knew the approval came, not so much
because the CIA wanted this agent, but because it was Hatcher doing
the requesting. They went out of their way to keep him happy. He
had received the details of the approved plan at his usual dead
drop, which changed by the day of the week. He had gone back into
East Berlin and met secretly with Kat to explain the plan and its
timetable. They had met in a barn close to her mother’s home. She
had been so thrilled to see him that she immediately insisted on
screwing in the hayloft before they discussed anything else. He did
not put up any resistance to that suggestion. While they lay naked
in each other’s arms, he explained the plan to her, his hand on her
stomach where his child was growing inside. On August 12, her
mother and sister were to go into the market place to shop. They
would be contacted by a CIA agent and would be secretly whisked
away through a pre-planned route into West Berlin. They would
eventually arrive in New York, then would be reunited with Kat and
Bob Kelly. Kat was to meet Kelly in the square he named at 6:00
P.M. that same day. He would then escort her to safety. She was
amazed at the plan when he finished explaining it to her.

“You said that you had friends at the U.S.
Embassy, but I never thought you could arrange something like this!
Those friends must be CIA. You’re a spy also aren’t you, Bob?” she
stated, a little flash of anger showing.

“Sort of,” he replied sheepishly, putting his
hand on her crotch and massaging it, trying to diffuse her
anger.

“Well! You are obviously a better spy than I
am! I never suspected you. Was it your job to get me to defect?”
she snapped, but tightened her thighs on his hand to keep it where
it was. “Will I ever see you again after your mission is
accomplished?”

“Kat, I love you! We’re going to spend the
rest of our lives together! My job didn’t have anything to do with
you! I was just trying to screw you, remember? You made me fall in
love with you. You’re the little sneak here!” he replied, kissing
her to stifle her reply.

“I guess I believe you—I can’t be mad at you
right now. Maybe later. When do you have to leave?” she asked.

“Before dawn. Not much time left.”

“Just enough time for you to screw me again,
if you are up to it,” she laughed, feeling for his crotch.

• • •

Hatcher looked at his watch. Five more
minutes until six. Then he saw her come into the square and sit
down on the agreed upon bench. She lit a cigarette, signaling that
she had not been followed. He had told her to come armed, just in
case, so he hoped she had her Sig Sauer MP210 in a shoulder holster
under her left arm. He did not want it in her purse—it would take
too long to get at it if it were needed. He could see that she
looked nervous when he zoomed in on her beautiful face.

Only a few more minutes, darling, and we’ll
be on our way to the rest of our lives!

He scanned the area one more time on infrared
and saw only her heat source. He put his binoculars in their case
and secured the case to his waist.

Time to go!

He took the rope in his gloved hands and
fitted it onto the karabiner brake on his belt. He went over the
wall like a wraith and rappelled to the ground without a sound. He
stood in the shadows for a long two minutes, watching and
listening. He then lit a cigarette and knew that she had seen him
do so. She got up and sauntered toward him.

Come on, baby! Come to Daddy. Get off that
square and into these shadows!

She continued walking toward the burning end
of his glowing cigarette, trying to look nonchalant. She was
sweating, and quite afraid. She was so close to freedom!

When she was about ten yards from Hatcher’s
position, all hell broke loose. A man dressed in black clothing
stepped out of a doorway behind Kat and shot her three times in the
back with a silenced pistol. Blood spurted from her chest and
stained her blouse red as she fell to the ground. The Hatchet Man
lost all control—abandoning his instincts, his training. Instead of
killing the assassin immediately as he should have—and could
have—he ran toward Kat, dumbstruck.

“No! No! Kat! Sweetheart!” he sobbed as he
ran to her fallen body.

The man in black raised his pistol and took
aim at Hatcher, but was spun around by the force of two bullets
fired by a man who suddenly emerged from a doorway a few yards to
the right of Kat’s position. Hatcher was oblivious to all of this.
He was on his knees and held Kat in his arms, calling her name over
and over. Then he realized she was truly dead.

The Hatchet Man returned with a vengeance. He
took in the scene around him. The man in black who had shot Kat was
down and not moving. He looked at the other man, the one who had
evidently shot the man in black. Hatcher recognized him. He was
Gary Gaines, the man who worked the drop areas in this part of
Germany, passing messages back and forth between NOC agents and the
London Station Chief, John McGinnis.

What the fuck is going on
here?
thought Hatcher.
What
is Gaines doing here? Who killed Kat? And why? This smells of a
very big setup! And Gaines is in on it somehow!

He pulled Kat’s body closer to him and
rotated slightly toward Gaines, who was walking in the direction of
Hatcher’s position, his silenced gun pointing at the ground.
Hatcher wished he had not acted like such a fool. His gun was in
the middle of his back and he wished it were in his hand where it
should have been.

“What the fuck is going on, Gaines? What are
you doing here?” spat the Hatchet Man, his hazel eyes flashing like
cold steel.

“I was just watching your back, Hatchet Man,”
Gaines answered, looking around furtively.

“That’s bullshit, Gaines! Nobody watches my
back unless I tell them to. Who is the asshole who shot Kat?” he
fumed, still trying to piece things together.

Trying to ignore the challenge to his story,
Gaines replied, “A Stasi agent. They must have got wind of this
operation. You should be thanking me for being here, not getting on
my case! You would be dead, too, if it wasn’t for me. You acted
like an amateur, Hatcher!” snorted Gaines with a sneer.

Hatcher looked at him with contempt.
This entire scene smelled of treachery. That Stasi agent had to
have been there in hiding for some time, or Hatcher would have
spotted him arriving. The German
knew
about the rendezvous and its timing. Gaines
being here meant he was part of the treachery.

Gaines was enjoying seeing one of the CIA’s
legends reduced to the wreck of a man there on the pavement. He was
not very good at reading people, so he had missed the danger
signals that flashed from Hatcher’s eyes like laser beams.

“If you hadn’t been fucking the enemy slut,
none of this would have happened,” Gaines went on.

Hatcher’s stomach knotted, and he gritted his
teeth. He had to figure a way out of this mess, buy some time to
think.

“Enemy slut? She was my fiancée and the
mother-to-be of my child! She was carrying my child, you sack of
shit! Now they’re both dead!” Hatcher moaned, pulling her body
closer to him, running his right hand under her coat.

“She was pregnant? They didn’t tell me that!
Jesus, Hatcher, if I had known …” said Gaines, doubt showing in his
voice.

“You never would have what? Set us up? You
son-of-a-bitch! Who else is in on this? You wouldn’t have the guts
to do this on your own,” Hatcher snarled.

“I told McGinnis this was a bad idea,”
stammered Gaines. “He’s the one who gave me the order!”

Hatcher knew he was
really
in trouble now. Gaines would have to
kill
him
, too. Gaines had
blurted out too much. Hatcher knew he wouldn’t be able to reach the
gun in the middle of his back in time. Hatcher pushed his hand
further under Kat’s coat as Gaines raised his silenced gun and
pointed it at Hatcher. His eyes revealed his fear, and the decision
he had made.