Berlin Encounter Read Online Free

that was soft and yielding, yet utterly practical. “It had to be you, Jake. All my life I’ve been waiting to meet the man who rides the wind, the man who travels the paths that no one else even wants to find. The man filled with faith and mystery and strength and action.” Her voice quivered, but she forced herself to finish, “And danger.”
    “Sally—”
    “Wait, let me finish. I knew you had the strength and that special focus that is all your own. This is what appealed to me from the very beginning. But I’ve been lying here, waiting for you to wake up and hold me and then get up and walk through that door, and now I understand that this really is part of it. Now and for the rest of our lives.” She shifted, made uncomfortable by the raw truth. “Oh, I don’t know if you’ll stay with this work. I don’t really care, to tell you the truth. But I know that you’ll always find something that requires more from you than most other people are willing to give.
    Jake found himself unable to speak. He just lay and watched her and marveled at her ability to see to the very depths of him.
    “This is who you are. Living life to the fullest for you means living beyond the borders, going into the places where others are afraid to walk, maybe even to see. Only now there are two of us, Jake.” Her eyes welled up at this, and a single tear escaped to descend in gentle sorrow across her cheek. “You aren’t alone anymore.”
    “I’ll be careful,” he whispered, and reached across to catch the tear. It rested on his finger, an incredible gift of her love.
    “That’s not enough, Jake. You were always careful. That’s why you’re still here. But now you need to remember that you carry two hearts with you everywhere you go.” She reached for him then, pressing her entire length to him, melding to his form and holding him close. “Our two lives are woven together now, my beloved. Two destinies follow in each footstep you take. So you’ve got to take more than care. You must promise to return.”
    She drew back just a little, to meet his eyes again. “I will learn to let you go with love and confidence. But you must always return. Always.”
    ———
    That same evening, when Jake had returned to headquarters to complete his preparations, he had been approached by one of the senior administrators. Harry Grisholm was another American, whose misshapen body disguised a rapier-keen mind. He had started as a field operative, but a bad night-landing in Holland had shattered hips and legs so badly that neither could be completely corrected. But instead of returning to a desk job and well-earned honors, Harry had seen out the rest of the war coordinating clandestine radio operations throughout northern Holland.
    He walked with a rolling lurch, his oversized head bobbing like a poorly strung marionette. Months of agony had etched deep lines across his forehead and out from his eyes and mouth. Yet his cheerful demeanor had altered the creases into permanent smile lines. “What did you think of our Mister Helmsley?”
    “Made me wonder if maybe I hadn’t made a mistake taking this job,” Jake replied.
    “He and his kind are the wave of the future, Jake. Best you get used to them.”
    “This is supposed to cheer me up?”
    “Listen, my friend. In our business, we must be the ultimate realists. Our very existence depends upon it.” He fastened Jake with a piercing ice-blue gaze. “He has been shaped by his background just as you have been shaped by yours. Both have pluses and minuses, my level-headed friend. He would never make a field operative and would most certainly never handle men very well. His is the kind who would vastly prefer to fire every human being in the service and strive for ever more sophisticated electronic devices.”
    “So?”
    “So a service such as our own will never survive and do its job when given over to people like this,” Harry said patiently. “Field operatives are the service’s