A Full Moon Phase

"No."

"Good. But wherever you are, better get them moving as well."

"I don't think that's a problem."

"What is it?"

"Don't know, but I'm positive it's untraceable."

"Give me an hour and call me, okay?"

"The others?"

"They're compromised already. I can call them."

"I would, but I don't have the numbers with me."

"I know. We planned this. Let me do my thing."

"Thanks Trix."

"Of course my love. Just call me in an hour or I'll worry, okay?"

"Okay," Gretchen handed Wolf the phone to shut it off.

"Tell me how you figured us out?" asked Wolf.

"Karl recognized you and Maria. He saw you as a couple at some fancy party two years ago."

"Two years. The crooner with the slicked back black hair."

"That'd be Karl. How could you remember?"

"He tried putting the moves on Maria."

"Sounds like Karl. What happened?"

"I guess I glared him away. If I hadn't or we weren't on assignment, I'm sure he would have found her most agreeable. I suppose he found that out two years later unfortunately for him."

"Is she that bad in bed?"

Wolf laughed with his entire body. "No, Gretch. I'm sure that part of it he found most pleasurable."

She frowned, instantly jealous. He noticed. "We're not a couple, Gretch. Not yet."

She became uncomfortable, the reason for her visit returning. "I should go."

"Gretchen, why exactly did you come here?"

"I...I wanted to congratulate you for joining the troupe."

"Really?"

"Of course."

"Gretch," he said as she moved towards the door, his hand catching her arm and pulling her to him. She ended up on his lap somehow as he sat on his chair. "Don't lie."

For an instant she resisted his kiss, but it was as powerful and dangerous as the rest of him and she felt the heat of it thrilling her heart and belly and her vagina which sang a wet hymn of rejoicing. Her fingers slid through his seemingly premature gray hair. It had a slick smoothness and yet felt weirdly bristly like the rough coat of a german shepherd. When their lips finally parted, she asked him, "Why are you gray? You don't look more than late twenties?"

"I'm older than I look Gretch, but it's the hair I was born with. I won't dye it or shave it if it bothers you. Sorry."

"I wouldn't want you to." Her fingers continued combing through as they continued kissing. "I need you," she panted when they stopped, her deep blue eyes piercing his steel blue/gray eyes.

"How much?" he answered, combing through her soft wavy brown locks.

"What do you mean?"

"Would a night sate you?"

"I...I never felt like this."

"Me neither."

"You must have had girls..."

"Yes, Gretch. And you've had men."

"Not many."

"And women."

"Yes. A few."

"So?"

Suddenly she began to sob. Her arms circled his thickly muscled torso as her face pressed against his chest. Through her sobs and muffled by his chest, she spoke. "I want to be brave, Wolf. I knew this might come, that I'd be caught and...tortured even. I believe in our struggle with every beat of my heart and every breath. I want us to own our own country again instead of being subjugated by Soviet puppets. I want an impossible world, a world grounded in the earth from which we emerged and for which we shall inevitably return. I want that stupid wall torn down, but I don't want the wave of capitalism that will drown us when the dam wall releases the greedy exploiters living only for the mighty buck. I want to be free to be a human being and to exult in all the best we can be. It's a pipe dream, but it's mine and no one can take it. If they catch me, I'll die. I won't accept torture or a hard cold stone and metal cell. I'll kill myself, rip my veins open with my teeth if I must. I thought I was the brave one, the proud one, the righteous one, kicking against the pricks, but I feel so weak and cowardly and vulnerable and stupid.

"I'm your enemy, Wolf. And I'm clutching you like a defenseless child begging for mercy. Except what I want isn't mercy. You're a soldier, an agent of the regime, and you've captured me. I don't understand this. You're asking if I want to be with you beyond this moment. You let me call Trix to warn her. And yet you should be bringing me in to your leader. You're Stasi, Wolf. You're the most treacherous of the treacherous. Tell me what this means or put me out of my misery, please."

Gently lifting her face, so beautiful and expressive it caused his heart to throb, he kissed beneath her eyes, tasting the salty wetness. "It means, my love that we must go. It's time for me to return to my home. I have been away too long. And now that I found you, it's time for me to return and reclaim my place as alpha. We will be safe there. I'll make sure of that."

Instantly Gretchen abandoned his lap and ran to the door, opening it and attempting to dash away. Two steps into the hallway, she found herself whisked off her feet and back into his apartment. Held like a vise around her waist, she thrashed her arms and legs, but had the wisdom not to scream. She grumbled instead, "What kind of psychological trap have the Stasi created now? Luring me to some sanctuary and pretending to placate me so I confess in some kind of lover's embrace?"

Wolf chuckled, causing Gretchen's grumble to become a frustrated roar. "My sweet little drama queen," he smirked. "You already told me you know nothing of Yablonski's plans. And as for your little troupe's plans to get rid of the regime, however grandiose it might have been, its disbanding seems to have curtailed that." He carried Gretchen into his water closet.

In horror she watched Wolf use his free hand to pull a syringe and a vial from a hidden stash, sliding out the wood frame of the medicine cabinet door to extract it. Pushing the needle into the rubber top, he turned the vial upside down and pulled the plunger back. His teeth held the vial as he pulled out the needle.

"What about the troupe?" she whined.

"Name those you trust the most," he demanded.

"Trix and Joseph and Michael and Karen and..." She couldn't think of anyone else for some reason.

"Not Karl?"

"He's been found out."

"You all are."

"Karl...I guess I don't trust him completely."

"Karl's a dick."

"Yes. Don't."

"It will only make you sleep. When you wake, just some rather nasty dry mouth." He stuck her in her neck. She passed out.