Lady Death

flowers filled the air with a pleasant scent. Raven waited with a mix of uncertainty and confidence.
He had to win Hannah over and fast.
He hoped his approach worked. And he hoped he could keep Hannah out of danger.
Getting out of her suit and stockings was always the best part of Hannah Schrader’s day. She traded her work clothes for jeans and a sweatshirt. In the kitchen, she filled a pitcher with water and proceeded to water the plants around the living room. Some hung from the ceiling, others supported on stands in corners. They were lush and green and added to the apartment’s color explosion. She’d covered the walls with brightly colored Egyptian tapestries. Red and green furniture, loud throw rugs. She lived alone and had nobody else to impress.
She flipped the latch on the patio door and stepped onto the balcony. More plants lined the top of the wooden rail.
She hadn’t minded meeting Jenny and Val at the hotel bar. Catching up with the pair was always a highlight of her week. They’d grown up together and had a tight bond. But their regular bar had dancing. She needed a few drinks and a couple of spins on the dance floor to rid her mind of the funk she fell into every day she worked for her father.
Hannah worked in the press office. She coordinated coverage for the company’s business activities. She didn’t interact with her father often. Their differences had become too great over the years. He kept trying to maintain contact, but she always pulled away. Especially since Tanya left.
Her father was not a good man. Deep down she knew he’d never see the error of his ways. He’d instigated too much violence already; several murders she was sure of.
She wanted to quit and leave Berlin. With her mother gone, and Tanya playing guns with terrorists, she was the only one who might be able to shed light on their activity. But she knew her father often had men watching her. Contacting German intelligence or visiting the US embassy was out of the question. She’d be intercepted and taken to her father and then what?
Hannah didn’t have any interest in politics and didn’t understand the appeal of setting off bombs and killing people over disagreements. Somehow her father had pulled Tanya into his point of view, but not her.
She filled two pots and returned to the kitchen for more water. Out on the balcony once again, she watered the third plant in the line, and paused. A man sat on a bench in the courtyard. She didn’t recognize him as a regular resident. The community within the building was small and she knew most of the faces. His was different. What was also odd to her was that he wasn’t fiddling with his phone. He was sitting still.
She continued moving down the plant line. Maybe he was more comfortable being alone than she. She didn’t want to live alone, but decent guys were hard to find. Hannah filled the last pot with water. As she turned to go back inside, she stopped. The man at the bench had gone.
Then she heard a knock at the door.
Raven cleared his throat as he waited. He stood dead center to the apartment door’s spy hole to give Hannah an unobstructed view of his face.
The peep hole darkened a moment before he heard her say, “Who is there?”
“My name is Sam Raven. I need to talk to you about Tanya.”
A sharp intake of breath; a latch rattled. The door opened but stopped when the chain above the locks pulled taut. Part of Hannah’s face appeared in the gap.
“What about Tanya?”
“I’m an American agent,” he said, keeping his voice low in the hallway. “Tanya is planning to kill thousands of people and I need your help to stop her.”
Hannah’s eyes widened.
“If you let me in, we can talk about it,” he added, “and if you say no, I’ll leave.”
The door slammed. The chain rattled. The door opened again, and she moved back. “Hurry.”
Raven stepped inside.

8
“Why were you waiting on the bench?” she said.
“Making sure your minders weren’t watching you.”
“The two men at the bar?”
“I saw them,” Raven said. “They went their own way when they saw you come home. I thought they might have backup waiting.”
Hannah Schrader dropped her head and ran both hands over her face. “He always has people watching me.”
They stood in the entry way. Hannah turned and went into the kitchen. Raven stayed a few steps away as she filled a glass of wine. She didn’t offer him one. Hannah leaned against the counter and said, “Okay, talk.”
Raven told her the story from the beginning to his arrival in Germany. Hannah didn’t touch her wine the entire time. She set the glass down.
“I think I’m going to be sick.”
She brushed past him on her way down the hall. The bathroom door shut. Raven wandered into the living room. He blinked in surprise at the colorful decorations. He sat on the couch.
The toilet flushed and a few moments later Hannah emerged. She grabbed her wine from the kitchen and sat across from him.
“This has been their plan all along.”
“What has?”
Hannah said, “Creating a new terrorist group. I know everything! I suspect a whole lot more.”
“Sounds like it’s your turn to tell a story.”
“My father’s a nut. When Tanya started going out with Ahmad, he didn’t like it at first. Then he started getting ideas.”
“What kind of ideas?”
“After that truck attack, there was this wave of anti-Muslim sentiment through Berlin,” she said. “It didn’t last long. Couple weeks. But there were roving gangs going around attacking Muslims and I think my father was paying them.”
“Why?”
“Ahmad and Tamal were paranoid about being targeted,” she said. “They were doing their speaking events, right? Visiting the beer halls, trying to get people to understand not all Muslims are terrorists.”
“I think I know where this is going,” Raven said.
“Take a guess?”
“Ahmad and Tamal’s families were attacked,” he said. “Somebody