“Too bad,” said Navot. “I’ve always liked the name Sophie.”
30
Vienna Woods, Austria
Sophie was a safe flat in East Berlin near Unter den Linden. The building was an old Soviet-style monstrosity with several courtyards and lots of ways in and out. A girl lived there; she went by the name Marguerite. She was about thirty, skinny as a waif, pale as milk. The flat itself was quite large. Apparently, it had belonged to some Stasi colonel before the Wall came down. There were two entrances, the main door off the landing and a second one in the kitchen that led to a little-used flight of service stairs. It was classic old-school tradecraft, thought Uzi Navot, as he listened to Werner Schwarz’s description. A Moscow Center–trained hood never set foot in an apartment that didn’t have an escape hatch. Neither, for that matter, did an Office-trained hood.
“Which door did you use?” asked Navot.
“The front.”
“And Sergei? I suppose he’s a backdoor man.”
“Always.”
“And the girl? Did she stay or go?”
“Usually, she served us something to eat and drink and then beat it. But not that day.”
“What did she do?”
“She wasn’t there.”
“At whose request did the meeting take place?”
“Sergei’s.”
“Routine?”
“Crash.”
“How was it arranged?”
“Thursday-night phone call, wrong number. ‘Is Fraulein Sophie there?’ I made up an excuse to consult our German partners on a pressing security matter and flew to Berlin the next day. I spent the morning at BfV headquarters and popped over to the safe flat on my way to the airport. Sergei was already there.”
“What was so urgent?”
“Konstantin Kirov.”
“He mentioned Kirov by name?”
“Of course not.”
“What exactly did he say?”
“He said there was going to be a considerable amount of intelligence activity in Vienna in the coming days. Israeli, British, Russian. He wanted my service to take no steps to interfere. He suggested it involved a defector.”
“An SVR defector?”
“Come on, Uzi. What else would it be?”
“Did he mention that a Russian assassin was going to blow the defector’s brains out?”
“Not specifically, but he did say Allon would be dropping into town for the festivities. He said he would be staying at a safe flat.”
“Did he have the address?”
“Second District, near the Karmeliterplatz. He said there was going to be some unpleasantness. He wanted us to follow Moscow’s lead and place the blame squarely on the Israelis.”
