Chapter 1

Failed Mission

Bad information was about to get him killed. As a former analyst, this was particularly upsetting for Solomon, especially as it was his first mission as a field agent. He had always taken his job very seriously, knowing agents’ lives relied on impeccable information, and now that he was on that outside, he was experiencing that deadly reality firsthand.

He amended his thought. A.I. is going to get me killed. After all, a human analyst would have never overlooked the glaring red flag in his target’s file.

Solomon pulled the lapels of his heavy wool coat over his ears and tugged down on his wool cap, picking up his pace. He was trying to make it look like it was the cold driving him forward, not the tail he spotted a few blocks back.

Pushing aside his anger, he mentally reviewed his field training. Losing a tail was Training 101, but enacting it in the real world, in a foreign land, isn’t as easy as it looks in the movies. Still, Solomon was prepared for this situation. He just needed to make it to the market on the next corner.

Solomon purposely bumped into a passerby, giving him an excuse to turn back and glance at his pursuer as he apologized. The man was keeping his distance, biding his time until Solomon turned off the main road, no doubt.

One hundred more yards and Solomon could make his move, which was a relief as he had only been one hundred yards away from a trap that had been set for him mere minutes ago. Thankfully, luck or God or kismet had intervened. Solomon had been scouting the meetup point, sipping a coffee in a shop across from the Russian Embassy in Berlin when he overheard the key detail that AI analysis missed.

“I’m surprised Ivan took this assignment,” the man at the table behind Solomon laughed, “If I had his wife, I’d never leave Russia! I’d certainly have more kids by now, too.”

Surely, he can’t be talking about Rostov, Solomon thought. He glanced back at the man’s idea card hanging from a lanyard around his neck and cursed under his breath. He works in the same department as Rostov.

Solomon became hyper aware, scanning the city square filled with people between him and the embassy. That’s when a detail he had overlooked caught his eye. A man in dark clothing was reading yesterday’s newspaper. His posture was all wrong, too. He was stiff, almost as if he was waiting for a commander to say, “At ease, soldier!”

If Rostov had a family, there is no way he would turn. The pieces started to fall together. As Solomon reviewed Rostov’s file in his mind, it started to look too appealing, too perfect for attracting the Mossad’s attention. The Russians knew they were on the hunt to turn one of their agents and they decided to deliver one on a silver platter. They knew how heavily the Mossad has relied on A.I. in recent years and they used that to their advantage. They must have spoonfed the algorithm with carefully crafted information. Clever bastards.

Solomon wasn’t supposed to meet Rostov for thirty minutes. He made a show of acting like he forgot something, digging through his satchel and checking his pockets. All the while, he kept the stiff man with the newspaper in his peripheral vision. He was definitely watching Solomon. Hopefully, Solomon’s act convinced the man that he was unexpectedly leaving to retrieve something before the meet.

The café was only several yards away. Solomon looked at his watch and shrugged as if to say, I have enough time, and then ducked into the café. As soon as he crossed the threshold, he sped to the back door and ran down the back alley and around the corner. He followed a predetermined route, checking his six for his pursuer before turning every corner. He arrived at his safehouse within several minutes, leaning his back against the door after bolting its two deadbolts.

After a few deep breaths, he got to work. He removed the satellite phone from the hidden compartment in his valise case floor and called his handler at The Institute. After relaying the code phrase, “Your package is ready”, he closed his valise and waited.

Hurry up and wait, he thought. The hallmark of any mission.

He tried to distract himself in the cold apartment, but there was nothing but bare walls and shoddy furniture. The apartment was next to the Berlin Alexanderplatz Bahnhof at 34 Panoramstraβe and around the corner from dm Drogerie Markt. As an agent knowing certain risks, it was always wise to have a drug store near your apartment. He had picked this apartment himself via the brochures given to him by an estate agent who they’ve used in other instances when working surreptitiously in Germany. Control had paid in advance for 6 months’ rent, which always left fewer questions and less prying in the affairs of this renter. Their Estate Agent was instructed to provide a cover story that the temporary tenant was a visiting film producer searching Europe for the right setting for its new streaming film series, aptly coded by control as “Where the grass only grows green.” A fictious story about a family emigrating to eastern Europe from northern Africa. It was timely given the immigration issues creating negative sentiments amongst the countries of Europe feeling the brunt of migrating populations coming from Africa. All he could do now was review the mission and get angrier as its shortcomings now seemed blaringly obvious.

This is what happens when you rely on machines and not on-the-ground intelligence!

Solomon’s mission was to turn an FSB operative, and the research team had identified Ivan Rostov as the perfect mark. Too perfect, he scoffed. Instead of playing Ivan, though, he was being played by the Russians. Solomon looked the fool, and surely the very research team that fed him bad information would try to pin this failure on him, citing his inexperience in the field.

He could hear the whispers now. See, he wasn’t cut out for the field. Just because his daddy is the Director, he was placed on a mission above his paygrade.

The departure plan was set up by his contact Elias. Elias was a German Jew double agent working with the Mossad while serving in the Bundes Polizei (BPOL) in Germany. The BPOL was established in 1951 as the uniformed Federal Police Force subordinated to the Federal Ministry of the Interior (Bunde ministerium des Innern) or the BMI. Just six years after the war the BMI began the Bundes Polizei under the Marshal plan, establishing agencies like what the US government employed such as the CIA for foreign intelligence, the FBI for domestic security and the secret service as a Federal Police Force. Unlike the US, given Germany was a smaller country, the US administrators advocated for simply a Federal Police force whereas America might consider the FBI as our Federal Police force, but America had individual state police forces. There were far too many memories among the allies to forget how easy a charismatic leader like a far-right Hitler fascist movement, the brown shirts, etc. could begin without the right guard rails. So, the US government administrators, through the Marshall plan, were determined to have the right structures implanted with the right oversight with the various security services. After all, Germany was being rebuilt as it once was after WWI but in this instance, it was critical for strong security structures to be created.

Solomon had chosen Elias for a covert departure by car as opposed to any public transport where he might be recognized by CCTV at a train station and bus terminals or be stumbled upon by human agents if they were monitoring faces known through the security services using AI facial recognition patterns. The car would be a special SUV with a raised back floor for him to be hidden in case there were any stops by the Bundesnachrichtendienst, Germany’s Foreign Intelligence Service, who had suspicions about this op. The Germans Bundesnachrichtendienst do not like covert operations on their soil from other allied nations without advance notice and yet this operation had to be done covertly without alerting any agency. The Mossad were conducting this solo covert operation to turn a Russian FSB agent, Rostov, into a double agent. They didn’t want to share Ivan Rostov with the Germans. This Rostov was tied to many of the Arab terrorist cells funded by the Russians operating inside Germany. The goal of this was to find those cells keeping Russia’s finances strong to fund Middle East operations, where formerly the US and western allies, mainly France and the UK carried the sense of We’re with the West, but this was shifting as the right-wing conservative parliaments were acceding to power. The Israelis did not have confidence that any of new right-wing governments were on top of this terror related situation with Russia. They were concerned about possible terror attacks against Israel. The Mossad always felt direct communication was the most dependable when it doesn’t get filtered by intermediaries, despite whatever the alliances had been historically. It was part of the Israeli bunker Trust mentality.

The Israeli’s and the Germans shared intelligence information on a regular basis but there were special times within each nation, on a basis of sovereignty, it was a necessity to bend the rules. After all, each nation’s sovereign security was their priority. With the growth of what one might call “negative nationalists” in Europe, the Israelis were no longer confident in sharing certain information pertaining to Israel’s security given the right wing thinking among the growing European fascism. The German parliament was no exception with a...