“Ah, the scent of old people,” Mrs. Schroeder volunteered with a laugh, and indeed, the place did have a certain… bouquet.
“It’s lovely,” Lena grimaced.
“Oh, shut your mouth.” she laughed. “Kraut and I don’t need all that much. But we can’t very well move or maintain any of this on our own, now can we? Besides, I like being surrounded by pictures of family and things we collected over the years. And what need do I have for redecorating? Kraut and I absolutely hate people.”
“You what? You hate people?”
“When you get to be my age, dear, you hate almost everything. I love the Lord, and the Lord tells me to love people. But I’ve found that pretending to love them suffices, where he’s concerned. Jesus only made it to 35 before he was put to death. I’ve made it to 65—that makes me older than God, so I’m allowed certain luxuries.”
“I suppose I don’t have much to say on the subject,” Lena laughed.
“On God or aging?”
“Either, I guess.”
“Take it from me.” Mrs. Schroeder said as she walked over and fumbled around on a nearby desk. “It’ll all make more sense when you’re older. Young people are dumb and impetuous by design. So, until it dawns on you, just try not to be too much of a twit.”
“And if it never does?” Lena raised an eyebrow.
“Oh, it will,” she said, as she grabbed at a piece of paper and looked it over. “Don’t assume it won’t, and don’t try to anticipate it until it does. Maybe your God will look different than mine; maybe ‘he’ will be a ‘she’; maybe she won’t care so much about this rule or that; maybe he’ll have a strict purpose for you; or maybe she’ll just want you to be happy. Whatever ‘dawning’ occurs—if it truly feels like a dawning—just embrace it. Because no matter which form enlightenment takes, if it’s based off of love it’ll lead to the right place… because all love comes from the same place.”
“Jesus?”
“Or Buddha, or Allah or whatever.” Mrs. Schroeder dismissed her nonchalantly. “Just as long as it isn’t tapping into something of this world, that’s what matters. I found Jesus because that’s the face of God that wanted me, so that’s who I follow. But Jesus was Jewish because his parents were. The God part of Jesus was bigger than one man, it was bigger than the Jews, and it is bigger than one single book. That means God isn’t a Christian… which means I don’t think too much about it. He’s all the same God, regardless of the book or the face. Maybe you will get one of the spikey-haired lesbian faces that wants you to write more music about stabbing children.”
“I’m not a lesbian, damn it!” Lena yelled, giggling.
“Sure you aren’t.” Mrs. Schroeder teased. “Now, before you head home, Jesus has a message for you.”
With this, Mrs. Schroeder took a final look at the piece of paper she had fumbled for, and then placed it in front of Lena. As she read it, it said, “SUNSHINE—Currywurst—Gustavo’s—Tues - 9am”.
“I…” Lena stuttered, “I don’t understand.”
“I think I got it all…” she said, “sometimes they play an ABBA song where they are supposed to play a Beatles song, and then it all gets jumbled up. I keep telling them that the New Testament book of James only has five chapters in it. So every ‘James’ or ‘Philemon’ month, things get twisted up because of that damn DJ. He’ll end up playing AC/DC song after AC/DC song and… well, I’m so sick of hearing ‘Dirty Deeds’ I could kill Brian Johnson myself. But never mind. Gustavo’s is relatively busy at nine in the morning anyway.
“So, here’s the part that won’t come through in the messages. We have crypto keys that are switched out every few months, and they are only known by the radio operators. When you get to Gustavo’s, you have to ask for the specials. Ignore those and order the currywurst. When he brings you the wrong food—it doesn’t matter what it is—inform him that he forgot the salmon.”
“You… you…” Lena stuttered some more.
“You have to remember the salmon, alright?”
“I’m confused.”
“I figure The Boss likely didn’t explain it all to you,” Mrs. Schindler laughed. “He had to make sure that you wouldn’t squawk to your HVA handler before you received sensitive information. That’s why you’ve been followed since you got back across the Wall. But now that we are sure you aren’t going to run off and tattle the first chance you get, here’s what you need to know.”
Lena shivered at the thought that she had been followed once again. “Dammit! Why can’t I see these stupid people!” From that point on, she promised to never trust someone wearing a brown jacket again.
“I’m the radio operator, and it’s my job to receive drop locations for agents.” Mrs. Schroeder continued, “When I get them, I pass them on to the agent—you’re agent Sunshine, if you hadn’t figured that out—then that agent goes to the designated place and waits around for the information. It’s the best way we have to ensure multiple degrees of separation, just in case.”
“But…” Lena stammered “…why you? Why the… and why ‘Sunshine’, of all things?”
“It seemed the best thing to name you, apparently,” Mrs. Schroeder laughed. “The Boss has a sense of humor about his agents.”
“That’s bullshit! What a stupid code-name.”
“And that is precisely why he chose ‘Sunshine.” Mrs. Schroeder teased, “He probably figured you would hate that. In any case, I know it all seems inefficient. But after they captured Grips, it became necessary to crack down on security.”
“Grips?”
“Oh you know precisely who Grips is. That’s one of two reasons you and I are talking. That and bringing over your little punk rocker friend so he can do whatever he’s supposed to do here.”
“Okay, wait. I’ve got a few questions about all of this.”
“And please understand that I have few answers, dear. That’s not my job. I just help coordinate between folks who have answers for each other. Anything else I know is strictly for my own personal benefit. We’re family, Lena. I love you like a granddaughter, so please understand that I will never knowingly put you in any danger. But there’s a lot of other people I love just the same, and I have to make sure I don’t put them in danger either. The more information you have, the more you grow attuned to seeing and hearing things you aren’t yet supposed to… that means you might make assumptions. Assumptions get you captured. If you get captured, that means I get captured. Which in turn means that others get captured.”
“But what about Ha… err, Grips? He was captured.”
“Grips is a remarkably strong boy,” Mrs. Schroeder admitted. “But I very much doubt he hasn’t talked. More likely, he spilled everything that he knew eventually, and now the agents he mentioned are under surveillance 24/7. But those agents won’t be arrested until the entire network can be brought down simultaneously. We’ve been able to isolate all the agents that Grips encountered—they are being fed a constant stream of our very best counter-intelligence to ensure the Stasi are all on the correct snipe-hunt together. But it still presents a huge danger. And we worry that the Soviets may eventually grow restless and pull the trigger on the known assets. After that point, all of our efforts are sunk.”
“What sort of counter-intelligence?” Lena asked honestly. “I’ve been hearing that term over and over, and to be honest, I still don’t understand it one bit.”