Editing City Series:Volume6b Chapter2 (section)

===Part 6===

“Ow, ow, ow, ow.”

Berger held his cheek while descending the wooden stairs.

The first floor was a cramped front desk and the hallway was too narrow for two people to pass each other. The window in the entrance next to the front desk provided a view of a main road lit up by streetlights.

There was a black cedar forest on the other side of the road. The forest was so close to the road that there was no room for homes or shops alongside it.

The view out the window showed only the stillness of the summer night.

“Potsdamer Strasse there runs through the Grunewald forest park,” said a voice from the counter. “Will your job tonight be taking you south along that road?”

Berger looked up to see a short old man behind the counter.

“That girl looks like she’s going to be yet more trouble for you,” asked the old man. “Does she have a story?”

“You could say that, yes. I was hoping you could look after her for a bit.”

The old man gave him a puzzled look, so Berger leaned back against the wall and pointed up at the ceiling.

“I think the Geheimnis Agency is after her. I’m on my way to pick up her things hidden in a locker at Unter den Linden Station. That includes my next instructions, so I will head out on that mission once I have them. My mission is to destroy the Gard-class warship that we’ve heard is being constructed at the Geheimnis Agency’s Base #8.”

“Hold on. This is an inn, not a home for runaways.”

“But you have connections, don’t you? I’ll write her an introduction, so call her a ride you can trust and send her to the Borderson hidden village in the morning. I have to complete this mission. Rumor has it that Gard-class is an Eingeweide, so we’re in trouble if I can’t sink it before they get it up and running.”

The innkeeper frowned and then gave Berger an exasperated look.

“So what’s her name?”

“Hazel. Hazel Mirildorf. She’s Oscar Mirildorf’s daughter.”

Surprise flashed across the innkeeper’s face, but then he shut his eyes.

“So she’s the one person who ever managed to injure you on a job, huh?”

“Yes, and it’s been two years since then. She sent me a few letters through my old upperclassman, but she only ever talked about cheerful things in those letters. Never anything gloomy and never asking about me. I know none of that was what she really wanted to write.”

“Knowing you, you didn’t respond.”

“Of course not. I’m not an official AIF member – I’m just their hired Wild Hund. I’m the second least romantic guy in the world.” He sighed. “Besides, she belongs on the other side of the wall…of that wall I could never break through. I have no business being anywhere near her.”

He smiled and held up his black-gloved left hand.

“Have her leave this land as soon as possible. Europe will be engulfed in war in another month, but barely any of that will reach her new home in America. Her father seems to understand that.”

“That’s pretty cold of you. Is that what destiny has in store for the two of you?” asked the innkeeper while looking up at the ceiling.

Berger’s smile did not reach his eyes.

He stuck a hand in his pocket and tossed three small shining things onto the counter.

“I picked up these imperial coins in the Soviet Union. Give them to her and tell her to visit Paris on her way home. Tell her she won’t want to wander around the streets in the nude after that.”

“What did I do wrong to deserve this job?”

“This is just what destiny has in store for you,” spat out Berger as he opened the door.

The wind blew in. That summer wind was racing through the black cedar forest.

“Hazel can see this wind now, can she?”

His lips silently mouthed a poem.

It was a section of the Unreif Germane.

He recited it as he stepped outside into the dark forest. All alone.

<noinclude>
{| border="1" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="0" style="margin: 1em 1em 1em 0; background: #f9f9f9; border: 1px #aaaaaa solid; padding: 0.2em; border-collapse: collapse;"
|-
| Back to [[City_Series:Volume6b_Chapter1|Chapter 1]]
| Return to [[City_Series|Main Page]]
| Forward to [[City_Series:Volume6b_Chapter3|Chapter 3]]
|-
|}
</noinclude>