Berlin

Hanna continued down the road two steps behind Nephilum. To their right stood the Max Planck Institute for Genetics. To Hanna, it looked more like a college then a high-security laboratory. There were no walls topped with barbed wire and security cameras, but there were one or two guards to take note of. She took a side-ways glance at Nephilum then decided to ask: "What was your life like before now?" It was evident that the question came as a surprise to him, but he quickly answered.

"Kind of like you I expect. My mother had a cousin who worked for Mossad, so she handed me over to him. Ever since then, I lived and worked in the Israeli intelligence service."

"Did you have to kill?"

"It wasn't required, I wasn't an assassin. The missions I went on often involved the protection of Israel and what little assets it had. It wasn't at all that bad actually. My adopted family treats me well." Hanna eyed two men who were about to pass them by, switching to German to avoid suspicion.

"Wie war deine 'familie' so?"

"Sie waren nett; nicht liebevoll, aber nett." They passed the pair of Germans and Nephilum started laughing.

"What's so funny?"

"You didn't need to switch languages. Actually, truth be told, it would be better for you to not blend in." Hanna frowned.

"I fail to understand."

"Well, think about it this way. What would be the worst place to try and find someone?" Hanna had to think about this before answering.

"A market, or a fair."

"Very good, why?"

"Because there would be too many people to look through."

"Same with a military base, but many would prefer to find someone under those circumstances then a shopping place or a festival." He has a point. Even though she would want to be anywhere but a base or headquarters of any sort, she would have to admit looking to find someone there would be better than looking for a needle in a hay stack.

"Then I guess..."

"Does everyone wear the same clothes?" What? Why did he bring that up?

"Well no, but what has that got to do with trying to find someone in a fair or market?" Nephilum stretched his arms, placed them behind his head and looked up at the sky.

"When you leave a young child in the middle of a crowd of strangers, the child will soon become scared and frightened. Nothing is familiar, everything is different. The child will turn and run this way and that, just to find something or someone that is similar somehow in someway." He then glanced at Hanna. "Do you see what I'm saying?"

"That it would be hard to find someone in a market because everyone looks different?"

"Yes, exactly, thats it. So what would you do to hide in a crowd?"

"Change outfits, hide your face, don't make eye contact with anyone, keep moving?" At this, Nephilum began shaking his head and hands, laughing again.

"No no no! Absolutly wrong! That's how you get caught!"

This guy, Hanna thought, she just couldn't make any sense of him. She knew instinctively that she could trust him, but how can she understand him? He has been living in the world for much longer than she was, so he would naturally know more about the world than her. So why won't he help her out in a way she could understand? She can't learn everything through Sophie after all.

Hanna and her companions weren't the only ones surveying the Institute. Two figures looked on from a distance. The first was older and played with a lighter as he looked on. His partner was younger and wore various articles of clothing, some of which were made out of rubber. He ruffled up his already messed up hair as he looked on through a pair of binoculars. The first was getting irritated.

"Well Tesla, what do you see?"

"I see food on a plater. Nothing more, nothing less. Quite a bit boring actually."

"I don't want to know if it looks boring Tesla, I want to know what we're up against!" Tesla was getting really annoyed at this point. He lifted a specially-gloved hand and snapped his fingers. A nearby telephone pole sparked dangerously, causing the first one to actually flinch.

"I'm telling you that it is BORING because it is EASY!"

"Okay, fine, understood!" The first one ran his fingers over his hair-devoid head. "In whatever case, I'm bringing Envy along."

"Oh she will love that."

"Of course she will; fate has decided her friends and her foes, and one of her mortal rivals is our target."

According to the plan, in order not to draw suspicion, the two groups would conduct the Reconnaissance and then go off in different directions while cutting through Berlin. Sophie and Ethan at this point were in the Grunewald Forrest. It was a nice place but Sophie didn't really care, she just couldn't wait to get back to the hotel. Ethan on the other hand was just enjoying himself.

"This is paradise!"

"What are you talking about?" Sophie questioned, her sour mood obvious in her voice. "It's a beautiful place certainly, but its just another evergreen forest Not much different from your Ireland."

"Can't you smell it?"

"What?"

"I know that we are still within city limits but still, the air is different from that of Ireland."

"How so?"

"It is...stronger...and also more sorrowful." Sophie laughed.

"Okay, whatever."

"You don't believe me?"

"Well since what you say is so ridiculous, then yeah." There was an excruciating pause that followed after which Ethan sighed and summed up his observations with:

"You haven't lived outside very long have you?" Sophie gave him a dirty look which was the non-verbal equivalent to "shut up," but Ethan didn't get that. He continued. "Of course you wouldn't know of such things, over-sophisticated Brit and all that."

"I don't any reminders that you're on the opposite side of the fence, thank you!" snapped a now irritated Sophie. "I didn't ask for any of this you know. All that I wanted to do was help Hanna, nothing to do with interrogating old scientists and chatting with a terrorist from a wayward cause."

Ethan then shoved Sophie against a tree and held her in place with an arm across her throat, whatever cheerfulness in his voice now gone.

"Whatever my cause may be, it is anything but wayward." Sophie was actually scared. Ethan wasn't like this at all before now, why now. Ethan then released her, roughly pulling his arm back and shoving his hands in his pockets. "Do both of us a favor and don't broach the subject again." And with that, he walked off, leaving Sophie to retrace her steps to a road and to call a cab. She was barely able to say: "Zum Ritz-Carlton bitte," without showing the fear that just came over her as a result of coming face-to-face with the radical Ethan truly was.