Norman Smith's Berlin Adventure - Chapter 4

Chapter 4

?Arlene was gazing into space, lying on a divan fully clothed, in small apartment on Unter den Linden. Her mind seemed to be on low power and the act of thinking was almost impossible She was not quite sure if she really lived in the flat or had just borrowed it for a few nights. Its features did not register in her memory.

?Through the edges of the thick floor to ceiling curtains she could tell that it was just getting light outside and she could hear the drone of traffic, indicating that a new day was underway.

?This morning Arlene was feeling more disorientated that ever. Her mind was befuddled by unclear memories and she only partially recall the events of the previous day. Neither could she remember much further back than that either.?Of most concern to her was the exact nature of her identity. Who was she and what was she doing in this room?

?She was aware that her current persona had something to do with Gerhard Zahne, but she was not sure exactly what it was. Furthermore, who was Norman Smith anyway, and why did he keep appearing in her mind’s eye?

?She reluctantly decided to get up and creep down the corridor to freshen up in the shared bathroom, a route she seemed to know instinctively. In the mirror, a pale face stared back at her, still made up from the night before. Nonetheless, it was rather a beautiful face even if slightly troubled, she decided. The vision reminded her of other reflective moments in front of mirrors, usually in ladies’ powder-rooms. Her clothes, she noticed, were of an indeterminate fashion and could have been acceptable in almost any era over the past hundred years, as could her hair style, now slightly misarranged due to lying on it.

?“Am I an actress or an escort girl?” she suddenly thought, for no apparent reason. Perhaps these two professions were suggested to her by her reflection, or perhaps she had remembered something of her recent role. “Who are my friends and who are my enemies? I have simply no idea.”

?At that moment there was a loud knocking on the bathroom door.

?“Fraulein, I would be much obliged if you could hasten your ablutions. I am in urgent need of relieving myself,” said a man’s voice with a familiar timbre.

?“Yes, of course,” replied Arlene, drying her face with a dirty hand-towel. “I will be out immediately.”

?When she unlocked the door, a familiar face met hers, all be in with a rather distraught expression on it. “Vielen Danke, meine fraulein,” said the man rushing past her. It did not require much memory to recognise the face, characterised as it was by a small toothbrush moustache, demonic eyes, and a diagonally slanting fringe of greasy black hair.

?“You are much obliged, Herr Hitler,” she said moving swiftly out of the way.

?‘Now that is a coincidence,’ she thought. ‘Meeting the Fuhrer twice in as many days. This must be the 1930’s. At least that clears up the era issue.’

?Back in her room, Arlene made the bed and drew the curtains back to reveal a thick fog. “It is a clear as my mind out there,” she thought, without emotion.?

?Just then, the telephone rang.

?“Ja? Arlene hier,” she said, robotically.

?“Alrlene, this is Herr Zahne.”

?“Gerhard, how nice to hear from you. How is real life?”

“You will never know, Arlene, humanlike as you appear. Well I was just ringing to ask how things went last night with Smith.”

?“With who?”

?“Norman Smith – you know, that bumbling idiot of an accountant from England.”

?“Ah yes, Her Schmidt. He is a most accommodating escort partner.”

?“I hope you have not been fraternising with the enemy, Arlene.”

?“Of course not. He is not really the fraternising sort.”

?“But you did spend some time together, didn’t you?”

?“I think so. It is all a bit of a blur, especially as we were chased by the Stasi.”

?“The Stasi? Are you absolutely sure? It may have been the security police, but the Stasi was disbanded in 1990.”

?“Then I must have got mixed up. I could have sworn they were Stasi. One of them was a ferret-like creature who called himself Vlad.”

?“Vlad the Impaler, I expect.”

?“No actually, Vlad Putin. The boy-wonder from Moscow.”

?“Never heard of him.”

?“Don’t you read about him in the papers?”

?“Only when I’m on the bus. Now look. Never mind all this nonsense. Did Smith reveal anything to you about his work here?”

?“Where?”

?“In Berlin.”

?“I can’t remember. I think we were talking about other things mostly.”

?“One other thing. Did he leave any of his personal belongings with you such as his wallet, passport or travel documents?”

?“I don’t think so, but I’ll have a look round and call you if I find anything.”

?“Good girl. Now. Are you prepared for your assignment this evening?”

?“Sort of.”

?“Well are you, or aren’t you?”

?“No. I’m not.”

?“In that case I will ring you later to remind you of the details.”

? ~

Smith struggled to concentrate on the accounts throughout the morning and had to make a number of visits to the balcony to smoke his pipe to try to clear his mind. Flick had steadfastly refused to provide the missing invoices and Government loan terms, a fact that would normally have led Smith to refuse to complete the task. Furthermore, it was unacceptable that several of the larger sales invoices were supposedly lost, indicating at the very least slack accounting procedures, so he could not, in all honesty, verify the source of several credit entries on the company accounts. From a professional perspective, he was not satisfied that the accounts were entirely clean, and even if they were, they were not strong enough to engender confidence in the future of the company, especially in the light of the decline in demand for its core product. Obviously, he was only supposed to consider the current financial position of the company, not its potential future, but he was concerned that a hasty sign-off may put Bailey and Benfield at both financial and reputational risk.

?Set against this, was the apparent pressure being exerted on him by Sir Hugo and Herr Zahne, and the implied threats from both of them if he did not comply with their wishes. He felt weakened in resolve, as if the events that had overtaken him since arriving in Berlin had drained his integrity. He wondered why he was resisting the overwhelming pressure on him to just adopt the accounts and write a positive report.

?To make matters worse, whilst he had an air ticket which proved to be flexible so it would be easy to reschedule his return flight, he had not been able to locate either his passport or his wallet in the office. He had no ideas where to look for them.

?In the early afternoon Frau Karlsen brought him a cup of coffee. The finance office was empty of employees at the time due to an internal meeting.

?“How is the work going, Herr Schmidt?” she asked. “Surely you must have nearly finished now? Better hurry or you might miss the naturism this afternoon.”

?“I do not feel inclined to talk to you after your preposterous threats earlier,” said Smith, still rattled by her insinuations. Furthermore, I will not be attending any naked frolics today. I expect someone photographed me there yesterday.”

?“Nudity is nothing to be ashamed of,” Herr Schmidt. “It is a great leveller of people.”

?“Frau Karlsen, whilst nudity, in itself, may be an innocent state of undress, it can also be linked to sexual desire and hedonism. It would not be difficult for someone to see a photograph of someone lounging about in such a state with other people present to draw salacious conclusions. I do not wish for that to happen, if it has not already.”

?“You are a very suspicious man, Herr Schmidt, and possibly sexually repressed I would imagine.”

?“I don’t know how you come to that conclusion. After all, I am here to do a job which does not involve disrobing in public. It is, to some extent, a matter of decency, if not morals.”

?“I am very comfortable to be naked in front of other people. For me it is an expression of personal freedom.”

?“I wonder if you will say that when you are old and wrinkly.”

?“That is not the point. We cannot stay beautiful, but we can stay proud of our bodies.”

?“Frau Karlsen, thank you for the coffee, but right now I do not have time to engage in a philosophical debate about the merits or otherwise of nudism. I still have work to do.”

?“I wanted to apologise for what I said this morning. There was no excuse. Herr Zahne set me up for it and I was not at all comfortable putting such unreasonable pressure on you. You see, he has a hold over me and every single member of his staff. We are so beholden to him and he is so well connected.”

?“I am not sure how to take that comment Frau Karlsen. On the one hand it is most commendable of you to apologise, but on the other it is quite unprofessional for you to implicate your boss, if indeed you were doing his bidding.”

?“Herr Schmidt, something is not quite right in this firm. I do not know exactly what it is, but I thought you should know.”

?“It is interesting to hear someone else say that. Until now I seem to have been the only person with any suspicions. Are you able to expand at all on what you feel is ‘not quite right? By the way, your English is perfect, I wonder where you learned to speak it so well.”

?“I was born add brought up in Ashby-de-la-Zouch. I only moved to Berlin after university. So, in many ways, I am seen as an outsider here. Virtually all the other employees are thoroughbred Berliners. Perhaps that is why I can see how this company works from a more objective perspective. Let me give you a few examples. The company is authoritarian. There is absolutely no questioning Zahne’s power and authority. He is party to much private information about his employees who are encouraged to grass on each other. He is an expert at using this knowledge for leverage as and when it suits him. Secondly, he is not at all open and honest about the company with the employees. In my position, I see certain communications and overhear conversations that might lead me to conclude there is a hidden agenda. Thirdly, Her Zahne has some unusually close ties with powerful men in Berlin, including the some in government. You may have concluded that the volume of preferential credit afforded the company from public funds is unusually high as a percentage of the balance sheet, especially for a non-essential business. I cannot be more specific than that.”

?“It seems you are taking something of a risk telling me this, Frau Karlsen. Your position would be severely compromised if I were to tell Zahne about our conversation.”

?“But you would not do that, would you Herr Schmidt? Because I am telling you what you already think anyway. I am affirming your suspicions, am I not?”

?“That may be the case, but my limited knowledge of Berlin is that here walls have ears. You are possibly being somewhat rash talking to me in this manner in an office building.”

?“That is not your concern, Herr Schmidt. By the way, I hope you enjoy the coffee. I have added a bit of jungle juice to it to help you concentrate.”

?“What do you mean, jungle juice?

?“A little tonic that helps Herr Zahne when he is feeling unwell. By the way, did you know that he is really quite ill?”

?“No. But that information is not of any concern to me.”

?“It might be if he was very unwell. Might that not require for the company to have a succession plan of some kind?”

?“Surely he is not that unwell?”

?“I do not know the details, but he is definitely having ongoing hospital treatment.”

?“Well, thank you for being so forthcoming, Frau Karlsen. It is much appreciated and very welcome. By the way, I assume you are married to a Berliner, with a surname like that?”

?“I am indeed. My husband is a Government Minister, but we are separated, like most Berliners.”

?“I am sorry to have been so indelicate.”

?“There is no need to be. I am glad we are separated. I no longer love him. Are you married, Herr Schmidt?”

?“I am indeed, and I have been for many years. Sometimes it works out and sometimes it doesn’t.”

?“Indeed, that is the case. Now, here is my phone number if you need any help or information. I cannot stay longer. Enjoy the afternoon, Herr Schmidt.”

?Smith pondered for a while and then started to write his report for Sir Hugo. He was now determined to highlight his concerns, whatever the consequences. Nonetheless, he would need to allude to them simply as aspects of the accounts that could not be verified and leave an open question as to the reasons for this. He had no proof of financial misconduct. If Sir Hugo was really concerned, it would be his responsibility to demand answers to the gaps Smith had highlighted.?

?In normal circumstances, having done the groundwork, Smith could usually complete a report of such complexity in a couple of hours. It was simply a matter of summarising his findings in writing and attaching the relevant spread sheets he had compiled during his review. However, whatever Frau Karlsen had put into his coffee, whist relieving him of much of his anxiety, seemed to make his brain work slowly yet clearly. He was unable to rush even though he commanded perfect concentration. By the time Herr Flick and Zahne came to collect him for the daily naturist routine, he was barely halfway through the task.

??“I’m afraid I will be unable to join you this afternoon, gentlemen,” he said. “I have to complete the report and dispatch it to Sir Hugo so he can review it first thing tomorrow morning.”

?“So, I gather you now have all the information you need. Splendid,” said Zahne, looking conspiratorially at Flick.

?“I have enough information to write my report, Herr Zahne, even if there are some minor inconstancies with respect to the verification of entries. You can remove the files now. I have seen all I need to.”

?“In that case, we will leave you to complete the task. Will I be able to see the report when it is finished?”

?“Of course you will. But only after Sir Hugo has seen it. I am staying another night and tomorrow morning we will have a conference call with Sir Hugo after he has considered my submission. Perhaps you could arrange that for around 10am, which is 9am in London. Sir Hugo has asked me to attend this, but my role will simply be to answer any technical questions regarding the report, not to make any recommendations or come to any conclusions.”

?“But will I be able to see the report before the conference call?” asked Herr Zahne.

?“I am not at liberty to allow that. It is contrary to our normal practice whereby the Senior Partner reviews confidential reports before presenting them to our clients. By the way, I may need some help password protecting the document I send to him by email, could anyone help me with that?”

?“As you wish, Herr Schmidt, we wouldn’t want to undermine the preposterous security protocols of Bailey and Benfield LLP at a time like this, would we? I will ask Frau Karlsen to help you to dispatch the email after her naturism break. Will you be ready to send the document by 6pm?”

?“Perfect, I will still be here then. Also, I wonder if you could do me a small favour. You may be aware that I have mislaid my passport and wallet. Would it be possible to check in the sun lounge and the changing rooms in case I inadvertently left them there yesterday afternoon?”

?“Of course, Herr Schmidt. It will be our pleasure. Also, after the report is dispatched, as you will be here for another evening, perhaps Herr Flick and I could invite you for a pre-dinner cocktail? I have to be home by 8pm, and I think Herr Flick has an appointment later as well, but we could meet here at 6.15 pm if that works for you, Herr Schmidt? Afterwards, I expect Arlene will be wishing to say a fond farewell to you. Perhaps she will even join you for dinner”

?“Yes, of course. That is extremely kind of you. Now, I must get on to meet the deadline.”

?As the two directors left, he could hear them talking to each other animatedly in German as they walked down the corridor outside the office. There seemed to me much merriment in their banter.

?By 6pm the report was completed and ready to dispatch to Sir Hugo. Arlene arrived on time and showed Smith how to password protect the documents and send them by email. He then deleted the sent items from the Outbox.

?“Of course, it’s by no means fool-proof,” explained Frau Karlsen. “It would be a simple matter for a skilled hacker to reinstate the deleted emails from the server, but at least some attempt has been made to secure the files. May I suggest that you also print and delete the original files.”

?“Of course. Nothing is fool-proof when it comes to IT security. I am well aware of that, but this is not a matter of life and death, is it. Frau Karsen?”

?“I sincerely hope not, Herr Schmidt.”

?As Smith printed hard copies of the documents, Frau Karlsen seemed to hang around, in no hurry to leave. He looked at her impatiently.

?“I am not waiting for a sneak a preview of your report, Herr Schmidt,” she said. “I have to leave soon as I have a dinner appointment with Herr Zahne later, but I just thought I should let you know that he is in possession of your passport. I found it in his jacket pocket when I was looking for something else this afternoon.”

?“Good gracious. He must have picked it up yesterday when I was having a puff on the old pipe. I am not sure whether to be relieved it is found or furious that he had the temerity to steal it. Incidentally, do you often go through his pockets?”

?“As often as I can. You never know what you might find.”

?“I hope you haven’t been rifling through my jacket pockets as well?”

?“Oh no, Herr Schmidt. You are too honest to have interesting things in your pockets.”

?“I don’t know whether that is a complement or a criticism.”

?“It is a complement, Herr Schmidt. I admire your integrity, a quality seemingly in short supply in this company.”

?Smith felt a flutter of excitement as ordinary and plain looking men do when a charming young woman makes a complementary remark. It was almost as if he believed her.

?“Nonsense, Frau Karlsen, you do not know me at all.” Unfortunately, this was an ill-conceived act of self-deprecation which was not likely to earn him any more compliments.

?“That is indeed the case, Herr Schmidt. You give very little away and are an enigma, but not in a particularly interesting way.”

?At that moment, Zahne and Flick arrived, and Frau Zahne left without a word, not even mentioning that she was expecting to see Herr Zahne later.

?“I hope Frau Karlsen discharged her duties efficiently, Herr Schmidt, and that the report is complete and has been sent to Sir Hugo.”

?“Indeed so, Herr Zahne. Most efficient.”

?“She is a fine-looking woman, don’t you think, Herr Schmidt?”

?“Exceedingly handsome, Herr Zahne.”

?“Did she proposition you?”

?“Of course not. I am a happily married man, for a start.”

?“But she doesn’t know that, does she?”

?“I think she does.”

?“Would you say Frau Karsen is a handsome woman, Herr Flick?”

?“I would say so, Herr Zahne, but as you know, I am not really a connoisseur of female beauty.”

?“Ah, yes. Probably the wrong person to ask. Now, Herr Schmidt, the cocktail bar is near Alexanderplatz. Herman is bringing the car round.”

?Smith was not particularly enthusiastic about another evening in Berlin, especially not with Zahne and Flick who would no doubt try to tease out of him the contents of his report. Furthermore, he wondered what tableaux might be laid on for him this evening. The cocktail bar was in the Belle Epoch style with waiter carrying silver trays to the tables and wearing starched aprons.

“Incidentally, Herr Schmidt,” said Zahne once their drinks had arrived. “It seems that your passport and wallet have turned up in the locker room, as you guessed. I will give them to you tomorrow after the conference call.”

?“But why not now?”

“Oh, I left them in the office. How silly of me.”

?It was clear to Smith that the items were being held as some sort of ransom, presumably to encourage him to be supportive during the forthcoming conference call. He did not have the strength to argue against such mal-practice, still feeling relaxed and calm after Frau Karlsen’s tonic.

?“Let’s drink to the job being done, Herr Schmidt,” said Flick, holding up his glass. They all toasted each other, continuing the deceit of bonhomie. The ensuing conversation was not easy as the three men had only been together the previous evening and were beginning to run out of topics of conversation, especially as Smith had made it clear from the outset that he was not willing to discuss anything to do with the report.

?“I wanted to ask you what you think of Kaiser Wilhelm II, Herr Schmidt?” said Herr Zahne, unexpectedly, possibly just for something to say.

?“I am not really sure, Herr Zahne, not being a graduate of modern European history. Nonetheless my impression is that he was a swaggering militarist and conservative patriot responsible mostly for the carnage that became World War I. As such, his legacy would not seem to lie comfortably with modern day German values.”

?“You are a very funny man, Herr Schmidt. I think you have read this cliché in an English history book, no?”

?“That is perhaps the case. As I said, I have no real expertise in the subject.”

?“The reason I ask, Herr Schmidt, is that Sir Hugo, bears a striking resemblance to the late Kaiser, both in looks and temperament. Isn’t that a strange coincidence?”

“I had never noticed that, nor has it ever been pointed out to me.”

?“Could it be that, perhaps, Sir Hugo has some aristocratic or royal blood in his lineage? After all Wilhelm was the grandson of Queen Victoria.”

?“That is possible, I suppose. I know little of Sir Hugo’s family tree. I just work for him. But I expect it is mere coincidence.”

?“Nonetheless, a man we have to deal with carefully, do you not think?”

?“My advice is to take care with all business associates. You never know when you might be inadvertently put in a corner.”

?“That is indeed true, Herr Schmidt. And now, I see Herman has arrived to take Herr Flick and I home. I will ask him to pick you up at your hotel at 9 am in the morning. “

?Herman minced across the cocktail bar in his shiny leather boots and chauffer cap and the two businessmen met him halfway. Herr Flick appeared to kiss him on the cheek, but this was probably just a German custom.

?“Arlene will be here soon,” said Zahne, winking at Smith, and departing behind Flick and Herman, as if there was some sort of intimacy between the two of them.?Not for the first time, Smith noticed how frail the Managing Director appeared. He looked like a twig that could snap in two at any minute.

?