Blitzkrieg: Origins of the Prime: A Superhero Spy Thriller by Christopher Vale Read Free Book Online Page A

order,” she said with a laugh that was much too boisterous. “May I sit?” she asked, but then sat without waiting for permission.
    He smiled to himself. Americans. “Would you like some coffee?” he asked his new companion.
    “No, thank you,” she replied shaking her head. Then she smiled happily at him like she had known him for years. “My father was German, so I speak it almost fluently.”
    He nodded. “Yes, your German is very good.”
    “I am Alena,” she said. “With an ‘A’.” She smiled again, that ditsy tourist smile Americans always seemed to manage. “My mother was a Slav,” she said to explain the spelling of her name.
    This caught Michael off guard and he sat back in his chair and stared at her for a quick moment. Something was wrong and he knew it. A seemingly American girl in her early to mid-twenties who spoke perfect German, with a German father and Slavic mother who just happened upon him at a cafe in Santiago? That seemed an odd coincidence. Besides all that, she looked eerily familiar to him. He forced a smile once again and then reached forward and lifted his cup of coffee draining its contents quickly. He then folded his paper, placed it under his arm, and stood.
    “It was a great pleasure making your acquaintance, Alena,” he said with a slight bow. “However, I am afraid I must be going.” He turned on his heel and hurried quickly away.
    “Wait,” she shouted after him in German. “You never told me your name,” she said.
    “Michael!” he shouted back to her over his shoulder. “Good-day.” He hurried as fast as he could, crossing the street and glancing over his shoulder as he did so. Alena still sat at the cafe and had apparently returned to studying her map. She stared at it intently and seemed completely uninterested in him. She was certainly not rushing to follow him. His breathing began to slow to normal, though his pace did not. Maybe he had been wrong about her. Maybe it was all coincidence, but that did not mean he couldn’t hurry on his way anyway.
    He decided that he would take a long walk around the city today, just in case someone was following him. It was always better to be cautious. He scolded himself for becoming lackadaisical the last few years. Walking the same routes, taking coffee at the same cafes. He had grown far too comfortable here over the last two decades. He needed to once again start presuming he was being followed and take precautions to give anyone who might be out there the slip. Then, hopefully, if someone actually was following him, he would lose them. He hurried three more blocks taking long strides, before turning to the right. He walked just a few steps and turned to glance over his shoulder again. When he turned back to face forward, he jerked to a halt as he almost collided with Alena. She smiled at him. He stared at her with his eyes wide and his mouth agape. His skin turned pale with fright and he felt goose bumps dancing up his arms. How had she moved ahead of him so fast?
    “I never got a chance to ask you for directions,” she said in German. Her tone was conversational and completely non-threatening. Still, she frightened him.
    “I-I am afraid I do not know my way around the city,” Michael stammered before turning and running out in front of traffic to cross the street. Drivers blared their horns as they slammed their brakes to avoid colliding with him. As Michael reached the other side of the street he glanced back over his shoulder, but again saw no one pursuing him. In fact the girl just stood where he had left her, casually leaning against a building, watching him as he ran. She had a knowing smirk on her face and it chilled him.
    Michael did not slow, but instead quickened his pace, dropping his newspaper as he fled Alena and whomever else might be following him. He realized, that if this woman was here for him, and now he was almost certain that she was, that she would not be alone. He ran several blocks, wending