We passed down one of the many corridors before entering an office, James haphazardly threw his jacket at his chair. "Make yourself comfortable kid. You're safe here, no one can get to you here."
I wriggled into the surprisingly comfortable cushions of the sofa before taking in the office, with its polar opposite sides of the room. James moved to his desk filled with messy folders scattered next to the mismatched pens and pencils in an old tea mug, crumpled papers not far from a sandwich with bread from the morning, its crumbs scattered around in orbit of it.
As I was checking out his desk Robert returned and made his way to his desk which was on the opposite side. He sat next to comfortably stacked folders, the same style of pens and pencils in a metal meshed cup, nicely presented pages of reports sat next to him, written in fine handwriting depicting detailed deep analysis, of what seemed to be Russian military movements of East Germany. I quickly looked away as Robert picked the page up, reviewed it quickly then placed it in a folder.
"Alright kid," James said as he took a bite out of his sandwich, he finished it before speaking, thankfully. "We should start your process. You got your passport right."
Robert looked in annoyance at James. "You didn't ask that before."
"Ahe, he is a good kid, smart too so I don't doubt that he has it."
"Here Sir," I said passing it.
"See, good kid." James grinned at Robert as he started to process me whilst Robert gave an annoyed blank stare before he continued with his work.
"Alright Cooper, the company will be willing to take you in based on your language skills and intelligence, not many kids can speak two languages let alone three, so we have to check that."
At that moment someone knocked on the office door and peeked their head inside. "You called for me Robert."
"Perfect timing David." Robert stood up from his chair before jesting to us. "Need your skills in Russian."
David looked at me, then looked at Robert. "We interrogate kids now?"
"If they hold useful information." Robert blankly stated.
"This is not an interrogation; we just need some help to see if Cooper here can speak Russian and how well he can."
David smiled before bringing one of the chairs forward and putting it down in front of me.
(Russian.) "Well kid, how about you show me how good your Russian is? Tell me a bit about yourself."
"Well, my mother was a simple shop clerk, and my father was a US marine during the Second World War."
"You sound like you're from Rural Russia, where did you grow up." I may not be skilled enough yet to change my English accent, but my Russian is easy to do.
"Yes Sir. Grew up in East Germany and was forced to learn Russian in school, our teacher was a Slav from 'the Motherland' as she would say."
"I sure she was a lovely fellow. Haha."
What followed were benign questions one after the other, which felt more like an interrogation than a simple chat.
(English.) David turned to James and Robert. "Well, he can speak Russian, he is quick, and it sounded natural." He turned back to me. "You're a smart kid, most people in Germany don't bother to fully learn it."
I shrugged. "I just seemed to pick it up." After this David worked on my reading and writing skills which he seemed impressed by.
Finally, after much testing, I passed. James patted me on the shoulder. "Thanks for your help, David." Robert took David to the door as James went back to his desk. "Well, this is good news for you kid, with your ability for three separate languages along with your mostly likely American father, the US will take you in. But I can do you one better."
Robert returned to sit at his desk giving James an odd look.
"I can offer you a Job Kid, you see Robert and I work for the Defence Intelligence Agency of the US government, and you have the exact types of skills that we like in people." James smiled whilst Robert looked up from his work, his brow scowled and a frown setting in.
I started at James, genuinely Gobsmacked as my father would say. My mission was to get to the US and get a Job in some kind of government at best or at least access to intelligence in some way, but to get an instant job is one of the US intelligence agencies was amazing, though the fact I had never heard of them did not bode well.
"Um Sir, that sounds incredibly nice of you but are you sure, I mean I am a Kid and I don't think I have much to offer."
James waved me off. "Oh, nonsense Kid, you speak the same number of languages than both Robert and I can speak, combined. You're smart, who could do with a new lease on life." James smiled at me. "Sometimes you just need a helping hand."
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Robert shake his head. "I don't think this is a good Idea James, he is just a kid with no other skills, he's practically useless to us other than his language."
James waved him off. "It's fine, he can do a lot of good with his skills so why not take him now before anyone else can? Besides we can offer him the best place for him to show off his skills!" My stomach lurched from his words, they might be partially true but I can show that I learn quickly.
Robert mumbled under his breath about 'saving kids'.
I turned back to James "Well, if I am going to do anything I'll need to know more about what you do."
"That's simple enough, our objective is to collect military intelligence about our enemies, anything from troop movements to the number of missiles they have, anything that can give us a picture of what the enemy is doing and their strength." James smiled as if that was all the information I needed.
"Is that all you do?"
He grinned and shook his hand. "Well, we are still trying to figure out all the details as we continue to expand our operations, last I heard there were even talks of creating some home operations, something about us being defence intelligence for if the enemy came to our lands or something, can't imagine the CIA are too happy to hear about that. Besides the point, we work to collect information about our enemies in whatever way we can so that the big brass at home can act on that information."
Robert lightly coughed as he gave James a look causing James to roll his eyes. "Yes, I know, we don't a get a lot of action, though hopefully that will change, lord we would love to have some, but it is good work, and someone needs to do it. So, what do you think kid."
I looked down trying to hide my excitement that I had started my mission so well off. I looked back up to James.
"I would be a foul not to accept." I genuinely smiled at James.
"Haha, I know you would not let me down, kid. I think you'll be a great spy, I mean who would ever expect a kid to be one? Haha." Robert seemed to grunt in agreement whilst I awkwardly smiled at them.
"Come on Cooper, let's finish this paperwork and I can send a message back home about you."
/
After that not much happened, I was processed after James had to do, what sounded like a lot of convincing on my behalf to get his boss to see the skills and advantages of me joining the agency. After that I waited around whilst James and Robert continued with their work, sometimes they would head off somewhere for the day, and other times they stayed in their office writing reports whilst getting phone calls from people who gave them important information. It was mostly soviet movements so little use getting back to my future handler about.
I spent my time chatting with who I was allowed to, which was just everyone I had met at the embassy so far as they were all a part of the Agency. The rest of the people were part of different Western allied nations who use the place, I was not allowed to chat with them just in case my new status as a potential US citizen and agency recruit got leaked. It was only after a few days of waiting that the agency moved forward with fully recruiting me and I was to start heading off for the US.
"Alright kid, it's time to get a move on," James said, waking me from my sleep. "We've got a long road ahead of us so up and at them." I rose quickly and dressed before grabbing my already packed backpack of some clothes James and Robert was kind enough to buy before I was hidden away in the back seats again as I was smuggled out of Berlin.
We travelled through East Germany and crossed the border easily by being diplomats. In West Germany, I was finally allowed to sit in the car rather than hide away. We travelled to Frankfurt airport and took a commercial flight to Washington D.C, the headquarters of the DIA and the start of my 'carrier'.