THREE MONTHS AGO
Berlin, Germany
01:04 AM

At this time, only few people are still around at this street housing various nightclubs, late-hour discos and bars full of drunk people. And they hurry to unknown destinations to escape that ugly rain with heavy water drops making loud clicking noises…

A young couple, sharing an black umbrella, pass along a nightclub with big vertical written “TONY’S FUN FUN” in flickering bright pink neon letters.

Suddenly the woman of couple shrieks as a ton of glass shards rains right in front of them! And no second later a human body hits the floor with a loud and painful crunch midist in the shards! The body groans. The couple notices that the laying human before them is a rather tall woman wearing militaristic black gear. And she is quite beaten up, blood and scratches are all over her face and a seemly big bleeding wound is visible on her left arm. But the tall woman seems not to care about this as she tries to stand up in haste, then trips over her own feet and falls. She wheezes shortly then she stands up again and runs to a car parked nearby. She opens its door violently, jumps into and wastes no time to start the engine. The rear wheels spin crazy, causing two little water fountains behind the car. Then finally the tires grasp the tarmac and her BMW launches forward into the street! After only few seconds she disappeared around the corner.

Two men, obviously angry, jumps out of the door at “TONY’S FUN FUN” and look fiercely after the disappearing black BMW, surprising the same couple for second time. As they discover that both men sports handguns, they run away around the corner. The bald, taller man grunts to the second smaller man with Fu-Manchu beard.

Tall man: [in Russian]

Fu-Manchu man: [in Russian]”... this German bitch!”

== IN THE CAR ==

The so-called ‘German bitch’ drives still fast on mostly empty street in the direction leading out of the main city of Berlin. She is breathing heavily and as she looks at her left arm, her face changes to a sore grimace and grunts while inspecting the wound which is still bleeding. She groans again but tries to ignore the great deal of pain. Her right blood-smeared hand rises in her sight to reveal a tiny silver USB flash drive. She nods tightly with some pleasure…

== SOME MINUTES LATER ==

The same tall woman unlocks the door to her apartment. After entering a small corridor with some closed doors, she turns right into a bathroom and switches the lights on. After few more steps she now stands before the sink and mirror. Her slightly maimed face - mainly because of many little cuts from broken shards - stares into the mirror in serious manner. Then she sighs and takes her black long sleeve shirt out revealing a muscular torso with black sport bra. There are some little bloody cuts, too, but luckily she has wore full-body gear which protected her from most sharp shards. She groans as she holds her left arm under the running faucet. The sink gets red and brown pretty fast as she washes the wound. Then the woman hits the tap and grabs a “Melissengeist”, a high proof germicide from a shelf nearby. She opens the bottle, then take a quick gulp from it and finally pours over the wound with showing her teeth as unbelievable pain hits her immediately.

Katarina: “...hate fucking Russian knives…”

She rips the first-aid-box out of the wall and unlocks in the sink to get noodle, thread and gauze to stitch the wound together….

== AFTER SOME PAINFUL STITCHES ==

With some revelation Katarina plumps into one of two armchairs in her living room and closes the eyes for a moment. She is still wearing only the bra but now a gauze covers a part of her left arm. Katarina opens a bottle of ‘Heineken’ and takes a big gulp of the beer then she looks around in the room. Her apartment is pretty spartanic with only few furnitures in it. There are mostly blank walls with some little photos and pictures, a big plant standing lonely in the corner and that’s it. She lifts the right hand to inspect the USB flash drive again which reminds her why she risks her life once again…

== FLASHBACK - TWO WEEKS EARLIER ==


Headquarters of Bundesnachrichtendienst - the intelligence service of Germany
Munich, Germany
2:40 PM

Katarina Jaeger traverses the big room filled with many offices and ignores the most working clerks around whom ignore her as well in return. She has only one destination: the big separated office of her supervisor in Field Office for Counterintelligence. A man, apparently the supervisor of this department, catches her stare accidently. He waves quickly to signal her that she should come over to her office. After she crossed the office’s door, the man moves next to the rather large desk. Mr. Rothmeier is smaller and thinner than Jaeger but with serious looking eyes, always pulled down corners of the mouth, finely put dark blue tie and sharpened pants he emits kind of authority aura.

Mr. Rothmeier: “Shut the door, Miss Jaeger.”

Katarina unwillingly slams the door behind her and turns to the man. Rothmeier sighs like he has to wear a big burden.

Mr. Rothmeier: “After long and deep consideration and meetings we - I and the members of the board - have to announce regrettably that…”

Katarina: “Cut the ‘we’re-sorry”-crap and talk to me, Rothmeier.”

It seems that is not the first time that his subordinate interrupted him in such way. He scratches his neck.

Mr. Rothmeier: “Alright. I say what it is. You’re retired, Miss Jaeger. You are not longer a field agent.”

Few seconds of silence follows. Katarina’s face shows no reaction or any emotion. It’s a perfect pokerface which makes Mr. Rothmeier a bit uncomfortable - she just stare at him.

Mr. Rothmeier: “Uh, don’t you want to say something?”

Again the pause of no noise.

Katarina: “No. I’m waiting for an explanation.”

The boss scratches his neck again. He’d prefer an angry woman throwing things around and insulting him. He won’t even mind. But this woman is just standing calmly around and stares at him which makes much more nervous for him, even as superior.

Mr. Rothmeier: “Well, time changes, right? We - the BND - have to adapt to new environments and therefore new threat assessments. Which leads to training new agents in different styles than the old agents. We don’t need sturdy and battle-hardened women and men anymore, we need people with high socializing skills and more flexibility in certain public areas. For example, in your case you stand out in publicity as a tall and rather strong woman. But today we want to employ women with more… femininity and ladylike behavior attitudes who don’t make too much attention. Of course you’ll get a proper compensation and some longlife tax advantages and a honourable job recommendation to any profession you might join to in future.”

But Katarina says nothing at first. Only the left eyebrow goes a bit up. There is awkward silence again. But before Mr. Rothmeier can say something, Katarina preempts.

Katarina: “This is truly most dedicated, most astonishing and most genuine…”

She steps forward close to her supervisor.

Katarina: “...bullshit I ever heard in my life. And you seriously expect me to believe… that?”

Mr. Rothmeier: “No, but I seriously expect that you will stand down and enjoy your well deserved retirement.”

Katarina. “Fuck this retirement. You fired me, Rothmeier, because I look too buff to you according to your ridiculous arguments. Seriously, Rothmeier? I am one of be - the heck - the best field agent of this puny BND!”

Mr. Rothmeier: “You’re not fired. And the decision is made three month ago.”

Somehow Katarina manages to keep her voice low although she is obviously unhappy with the decision.

Katarina: “Three months ago?! At this time I was knee-deep in the political bullshit and digging in Ukrainian mud to get some intel if the Russian FSB is actually spying on us or not, deliberately escaping from madmen of Russian mobs while your ass sitting on that comfortable chair where you just decide by a coffee sip that I’m not longer suitable for your business for no reason, Rothmeier?”

Mr. Rothmeier: “Stop calling my name every time. The decision is made. You’re out. Period. Now move your ass out.”

At this moment, you would expect a bad-ass closure line from her but no. She just stand straight, staring at him with a bit of anger flashing through her face. Then she just turns herself around and leaves the office.

Mr. Rothmeier: “And close the damn door behind you!”

Which she ignores with full intent.

== END OF FLASHBACK ==

Katarina sighs again. Of course she never bought that reason to cast her out because she is physically tall and strong. There must be something else. And that USB flash drive is the answer. Suddenly she feels every cut on her face and the pain from the left arm has the intensity risen. The USB flash drive and the answer have to wait then. She needs rest…

Katarina: “... and some goddamn good hot shower.”


TO BE CONTINUED...