Author's Note: This story is part of my (ongoing) five part series forming what I like to call "my personal second season of Pan Am".

For a complete overview of the series, please see my profile page or the last chapter of this story.

– – – – – – – –

Pan Am – "We'll Always Have Beirut"

Burning Questions

v1.0.1 (June 21, 2013)

"Fräulein Cameron, do you zink zis is a joke? Zis is no joke!"

The angry man's thick German accent made Kate remember what she had been told about the German intelligence agency: when the Bundesnachrichtendienst had been created eight years ago, the Germans had recruited the best trained spies and counter-espionage operatives they had been able to find – only the most experienced officers of Gestapo, SS, and SD. The man not only sounded exactly like a Nazi officer from a war film, he most probably really was a former Nazi officer. He looked at Kate, and when she didn't answer, he slammed his fist on the table.

"Why did you come to Munich? Who were you going to meet? What is your mission? Who are you working for? Tell us!"

"Listen, I've already told you that I work for Pan American World Airways, that my 'mission' in Munich is just a regular flight, that I was just doing some sightseeing in the city – when you kidnapped my from the streets! I don't know what you want from me, I don't even know who you are! I want to speak to the American consul…"

Kate had tried to keep calm and cool, but she flinched when the man's fist violently hit the table again.

"We know sat you are not an ordinary stewardess, Fräulein Cameron!"

"Jetzt bin ich dran, Gustav."

For the first time since Kate had been brought to this interrogation room, the other man spoke. All the time he had been sitting on a chair in the corner and had watched his fellow agent shouting at Kate, but now he raised and stepped closer. He drew a pack of cigarettes from his jacket and offered it to Kate. She wasn't a heavy smoker, and under other circumstances, she would have declined. But now, it offered a welcome moment to sort her thoughts. Up to this point, everything had gone so fast, Kate needed a short pause to think about what she should do. The younger interrogator seemed willing to give her this pause, because he casually sat on the table and gave her a light. Then he watched her smoke for some seconds before he switched to English:

"Miss Cameron, my name is Herbert. You seem to be a clever young woman, and I'm sure you have seen enough movies to understand what is going on here."

His voice was calm and soft, and his accent was far less pronounced than the older man's. The unfamiliar German pronunciation of his name really stood out. He also was younger than the other man, and Kate thought that he was too young to have been a Gestapo officer. The man smiled at Kate and continued:

"My friend Gustav here is angry, he is shouting at you, and he is aggressive. He is playing what you Americans call 'the bad cop', and his task is to intimidate you. I, on the other hand, am calm and friendly, I've introduced myself, and I've offered you a cigarette. I'm 'the good cop', and my task is to win your trust. I'm honest with you, so honest, I even revealed our little strategy to you."

Gustav bristled with anger at his younger colleague's revelation, but Herbert didn't seem to care. Kate didn't care, too. She had been trained in interrogation techniques, and the old game of good cop/bad cop had been just one of many approaches she had been made familiar with at 'the farm'. At the time, she had hoped that she would never be in a situation in which she was neither of the two cops, but the interrogated – and especially not on her first mission after completing the course.

"I'm sure you're expecting me to say something like: 'But I'm not good either, I'm as bad as Gustav' next, aren't you, Miss Cameron?" He still smiled at Kate, as he had done all the time since he had left his chair. "But I can actually help you – as long as you cooperate with us. You are an American citizen, and America and Germany are allies. We should help each other."

He drew a photo from his jacket pocket and looked at it, so that Kate couldn't see what it showed. When he finally put it on the table, Kate had to do her best to control her facial expressions. The photo showed her and Anke, the young translator she had helped to escape from East Germany when she had been in West Berlin a little over one year ago, on her second assignment for the CIA.

"This is a picture of you and a woman from the Soviet occupation zone. You brought her to the U.S. Mission in Berlin. The two gentlemen in the background are agents of the Stasi, the East German secret police. We believe that the young woman is a Stasi agent, too. You contacted her, and you arranged for her departure to America. We have been waiting for you to return to Germany since we watched your interaction with those East German agents one year ago."

Herbert tapped his finger on the photo and bent down to Kate. When he spoke to her, his voice was still calm and soft, but nevertheless insistent:

"Miss Cameron, my government isn't very keen on foreigners coming to our country and helping the communists to infiltrate it. We already know enough to put you in jail, like we do with all communist spies we catch. But as I said, you are not just some foreigner, you are an American citizen, so you are our ally. If you cooperate and tell us what you were up to this time, we'll hand you over to your authorities." Herbert's smile froze when he continued: "But arresting and jailing an American citizen is always problematic, and if you don't cooperate, we'll have to make sure that your case won't disturb the good relations between our governments. We'll have to find other ways to make sure you won't continue your work, without officially taking you into arrest – if you understand what I mean."

He still smiled, but there was nothing nice in it, and the young man suddenly reminded Kate of the cold, sinister Gestapo officers she knew from the movies, far more than Gustav ever had.

"As I said, Miss Cameron, I'm just playing 'the good cop', but I'm neither a cop, nor good."

When Kate thought about Herbert's offer, and the threat that came with it, she noticed how ironic her situation was. Just like the German on the other side of the table, she had to consider the status of the relations between their governments. This was her first assignment as a proper CIA agent, and Richard had told her that it would be an easy mission, nothing she hadn't done before. Her task was to meet a high ranking German air force officer and to get some information from him in exchange for money. It was just a little bit more than a simple courier job, and Kate had completed more challenging tasks in the past. An easy job for beginners. Most importantly, Kate shouldn't have to be afraid of any interference by the local authorities. After all, America and Germany were allies.

But exactly that was the problem, and in fact, the German authorities had been Richard's main concern. For quite some time, the Pentagon and the CIA were suspecting the Germans of having their own plans for the American nukes that were stored at both American and German air force bases in West Germany. In the event of war, the Americans would give some of the nukes to the German air force to use them against the invading communists, but the Americans would maintain control over the weapons until the very last moment. The Pentagon was afraid that the Germans were making plans to get their hands on the nukes, no matter whether the Americans approved of it or not. The German colonel Kate had been sent to meet was offering to reveal exactly those plans.

There was a very easy way out of this for Kate. She just had to identify herself as a CIA agent, and all this was over. Kate and Herbert, they really were allies, in the most literal sense. But Richard had made it very clear that Kate wasn't allowed to reveal this, under no circumstances. The Germans were plotting to steal American nukes, and the Americans knew about this, and most probably the Germans even suspected that the Americans knew. But this was all part of the game. However, bribing an officer to sell military secrets was not. If Kate revealed her true mission to the Germans, she would be free to go, but it would seriously damage the American-German relations.

"I take your silence as indicator that our little 'good cop/bad cop' game wasn't successful. Let's try something else."

The younger German gently took the cigarette from Kate's hand and took a drag on it. He looked at Kate, and smiled. But then, he suddenly grabbed Kate's right wrist and violently pulled her arm over to him. Before Kate could react in any way, she felt Gustav's hands grab both her upper arms from behind her back. He forcefully hold her down so that she couldn't move, and she had to watch as Herbert took another drag on the cigarette, which made the glowing end light up.

"I want you to understand, Miss Cameron, that I consider this measure disappointingly uninspired and stereotypical, and it isn't even especially impressive. Not only that, it also is extremely ineffective compared to other techniques I could demonstrate you. But I'm no longer 'the good cop', and I have to prove it."

Kate struggled, but Gustav's strong hands hold her down on the chair. Her thoughts were racing when the glowing cigarette closed in on the bare skin of her forearm.

"Wait, I'll talk!" Kate shouted. "I'll tell you everything, but please, just don't hurt me."

Herbert stopped the movement of his hand, and he looked disappointed, as if he had wished for Kate to not give in. With a silent gesture he invited Kate to go on.

"You are right, I was going to meet someone." Kate took a deep breath and looked Herbert directly in the eye. "I was going to meet a man who had offered to sell me something I want. The money you found in my purse was for him. I'm a smuggler."

Herbert skeptically furrowed his brow, but Kate could feel his grip on her wrist easing. This gave her new confidence, but she wasn't going to let him know this. It was time for a confession, and it had to be dramatic. Kate hold the eye contact just for a split second, and then she averted her eyes. She made her lips tremble, and she even managed to press a tear from her eye.

"I'm a Pan Am stewardess, I can go wherever I want without having to clear my personal baggage through customs, and I have direct access to the plane's luggage compartment. It's the perfect opportunity for smuggling, it was just too tempting."

"And what is it that you were going to buy for 15,000 Dollars?"

"Swiss watches. I'm in contact with a man who smuggled them to Munich from Switzerland. They are worth around 50,000 Dollars in the States." For a moment, Kate thought about giving Herbert a smile about the profit she was claiming to expect out of the watch deal, but then she decided to not go over the top with it. She better stuck to her role as an intimidated criminal who was ready to do anything to get out of jail. "I don't know his name or how he looks, but maybe I can contact him again and arrange for another meeting. You will be able to arrest him…"

"What's about you and those Stasi agents in Berlin?"

Herbert cut in on her and tapped on the picture of Kate and Anke. He was still holding the cigarette, and ashes dropped on the photo. Kate was confident that he believed her story about Swiss watches, and compared to this urgent improvisation, inventing some convincing explanation for what had happened in Berlin was easy.

"I didn't cooperate with the Stasi, Anke and I both fled from them! She was my contact in East Berlin. We were smuggling nylons – they don't have those in East Germany, and they are paying good money for it. But the Stasi found out about her and me, and they tried to abduct us to East Germany. We had to flee, which was easy for me, as a stewardess, but hard for Anke. I brought her to the American Mission, and from there on, she did the rest. I don't exactly know how she got out of Berlin, maybe she had enough money for some bribery, or she had to sleep with one of the diplomats."

Herbert looked at her, and for two or three seconds he was seemingly pondering what Kate had been telling him. But then his grip on her wrist tightened again, and he jerked her arm over the table, at the same time bringing the cigarette back very close to it.

"Explain Moscow!" he said in a low voice. "What did you do there? Getting new orders from your Russian masters? Your sister got arrested for espionage, but the communists let her go just minutes before you left! How did you get her free? Did you use your influence with the KGB? Or is she a spy, too, and her arrest was just a ploy to cover up for some extended briefing?"

"Laura has nothing to do with all that – the smuggling, that is."

Kate's voice was telling more about her genuine concern for her sister than she had intended. Dragging Laura into this affair was the last thing she wanted to do. But then, she also was kind of glad that Moscow had been brought up. This was even easier to explain than Berlin, she just had to tell Herbert what really happened.

"Her arrest was just a misunderstanding, she didn't do anything. But I really had a partner on this flight. In fact, he's the man who brought me into this business in the first place. We sold American whiskey and cigarettes to high ranking members of the nomenklatura. When my sister got arrested, my partner spent most of the money we had made to get her free. In hindsight, this may have been the Russians' plan all along, because that way they got the whiskey and the cigarettes, and got to keep their money, too."

Herbert's hand with the cigarette came to rest on the table, so that the glowing ember was no longer hovering directly above Kate's skin. Even Gustav eased his grip on her now, and Kate sensed that she had to make just one last good move to get out of this. She removed the fear from her facial expression and put on another mask. She tried to display a feeling of relief over that the two Germans were believing her, and then she infused a little hint of newly won confidence.

"I'll give you his name if you let me go. He's smuggling for years now, all over the world! I'm just a small fish, let me go and I promise to deliver you a real major criminal."

Kate hoped that the impression she was making on Herbert was that of a desperate girl that had just found what she thought was the way out of all her problems. It wouldn't hurt if he came to the judgment that she was probably thinking of herself as a more intelligent woman than she actually was.

"Miss Cameron, I'm not interested in catching smugglers, it's my job to catch spies."

Herbert lifted his hand from the table and nonchalantly placed the barely glowing cigarette in the left corner of his mouth. He absentmindedly started smoking it, and Kate hoped that he had lost interest in it, just as he had hopefully lost interest in the mere petty criminal he believed her to be.

"And I'm still not convinced that your aren't one."

This time, he didn't give Kate a warning by grabbing her arm harder or by pulling it into position. In one fast and totally unexpected movement he pushed the cigarette onto her arm. The glowing tobacco burned on Kate's skin and through it. The pain was focused on just one very small area of her body, but it was far worse than Kate had feared when Herbert had first threatened with it. The physical pain made Kate scream, and then cry. But besides this, there was also the terrifyingly cold expression on Herbert's face. He looked her in the eye, and then, for the first time, he shouted at her:

"Tell me the truth!"

It was the first time in her whole life that Kate saw a man shouting while his face kept calm and cold at the same time. His face told her that he could go on with this forever, that he could torture her for hours without even the slightest trace of humane sympathy. But this one little cigarette on her skin was already far more than Kate could endure.

"George Broyles, his name is Captain George Broyles." she cried out. "Just ask Interpol, I'm sure they can tell you something about him. Please, stop it!"

"Enough!"

The burning cigarette immediately disappeared from Kate's skin when the angry shout sounded in the small interrogation room. A third man had entered through the door in Kate's back, and now he pushed Herbert away from her. When Kate looked up, she saw Richard Parks.

– – – –

"I'm sorry for what I did with the cigarette, Miss Cameron. I have to admit I got a little bit carried away by your elaborate story. We didn't expect you to go this way, we thought you would either reveal yourself immediately or get caught up in contradictions after some attempts to extricate yourself from the situation. We really expected you to fail either way, we just wanted to find out how long it would take. But you didn't fail."

"So you're telling me this is my own fault, because I was too good?"

Kate pointed at the bandage around her forearm. Even one hour later, and after a doctor had treated her with ointment, it still hurt. Herbert put on an awkward smile, but when he realized that Kate wouldn't smile back at him, it disappeared from his face.

"Again, I'm sorry, Miss Cameron." he repeated. "But then, if this had been real, you would have been tortured sooner or later, anyway. And it was just a cigarette. You have to expect far worse in case…"

"We have to go now, Miss Cameron has to catch her flight."

Richard interrupted Herbert, and the German agent nodded. Gustav, standing behind him, did the same, and then they both turned around and walked away without looking back at the two Americans. Richard opened the door of his car, and Kate got in. Some seconds later, they were on their way from the little town of Pullach back to Munich.

"Now I understand why you didn't congratulate me on completing my training at Langley." Kate said eventually. "I hadn't passed the final exams yet."

"But you did now." Richard answered. "So, congratulations. Not on the burn scar, but on how you did in the interrogation. Your story was very convincing. Herbert may have been right about a situation in which the enemy already knows about you, but in a setup like this, when they aren't sure themselves, it would have probably been convincing enough to get you out of it. Tell me, how did you come up with this Broyles guy when he asked you about Moscow?"

"Let's just say that Captain Broyles is a friend, and that therefore I would appreciate it if you could keep his name out of your report."

"Don't worry about this. As Herbert said, we're not interested in catching smugglers, our business is espionage."

Richard smiled at her and then looked back on the road. Kate touched her bandaged arm. The doctor had told her that her skin would heal eventually and that there would be no scar left, but in the moment, it just hurt. And the worst thing was, that Kate couldn't even tell herself that she had been wounded in the line of duty. It had been just a test, a game.

"A stewardess with a bandage." she said. "I can't even cover it with my uniform, the sleeves of our blouses are too short. What am I supposed to tell my crew?"

"You're a trained spy, don't ask me for a cover story. If you can't make something up, this isn't the right job for you." Richard smiled, but Kate didn't feel particularly amused. "Besides, don't worry too much about what 'your crew' will think about you, we've already arranged a new assignment for you."

"Will I get back to my old crew?"

For a moment, Kate forgot about the pain on her arm. The prospect of being reunited with her friends of the Clipper Majestic made her happy. She hadn't seen them since she had left for Langley, Virginia in the second week of January. For more than six months she had undergone training at CIA headquarters and at a nearby facility called 'the farm'. She had learned how to code and decode messages, how to use a dead drop, how to make contact with an informant, how to shadow an enemy spy, and how to disappear in the streets of a city she had never been to before. She had learned how to pick locks, how to use a microfilm camera and a short-wave transmitter, and how to fire a pistol. She had learned – and practiced – how to act under cover and how to beguile the enemy, how to resist interrogation, how to convince a man to do what she wanted him to do, and even how to seduce him if it was necessary. She had learned Russian with an accent that allowed her to pass as a girl from Leningrad, and she had learned all that and much more in just six months. For six month she had have no direct contact with her friends and her family, other than one phone call to explain her sudden departure to Laura and one or two letters.

"No, we've found an even better position for you. Remember when we told you to tell your sister that you're doing a special course for international stewardesses?"

Kate nodded when she remembered the cover story for her half year absence. She had told Richard that this story wasn't very convincing, that she as a stewardess herself wouldn't have believed it, and that it would just entail even more questions. But Richard had insisted, and Kate had done her best to sell it to Laura. After all, she had been happy to get this opportunity at all. On last New Year's Eve, when she had been sitting at Richard's sickbed after he had been shot by Anderson, he had told her that she had to choose: either go to Langley to become a real agent, or stay at Pan Am as a stewardess. The next day, after spending the night with her friends, she had told him that she declined his offer. Kate had been willing to be a mere courier as long as she could stay with her friends. But when he had called her three days later, and had told her that they had come up with a possibility for her to have both – Pan Am and the CIA –, she had accepted without any hesitation.

"Well, that training will come in handy." Richard said, referring to her supposed training at Pan Am's special stewardess school. "We've worked some contacts at Pan Am headquarters, and they are sending you to Paris. You will be permanently stationed there and work as a standby stewardess."

"As a standby stewardess? I've never heard of something like that, what is this supposed to be?"

"To be honest, we're pretty proud of this." Richard looked at Kate, and she could tell from his smile that this idea had been his own. "Pan Am will keep you in reserve to fill in whenever a stewardess won't be able to do her job, for whatever reasons. Every time Pan Am needs a stewardess available for a flight that departures from any city in Europe, you will be the one they come back to. You'll be based in Paris, but you'll fly to destinations all over Europe, and beyond."

Richard really was very proud of this arrangement the agency had found for its newest operative, and Kate began to understand why.

"I guess you'll take care that I'll be busy all the time."

"Don't worry, we won't poison any of your colleagues." Richard said in advance before Kate could voice any concerns. "We'll just arrange for ample work opportunities for you. And it may turn out that there is additional work waiting for you in most cities your duty will take you. In the beginning, you'll do a lot of courier jobs, just as you're used to. We have a lot of agents all across Europe, and you'll be the most flexible and reliable way for them to send documents and packages between each other. Later, especially when you got to know our men closer, they'll probably have special assignments for you. We haven't invested that much time and money in you to get an overqualified mailman."

"Well, that's a relief, I already thought about exchanging one blue uniform for another." Kate laughed, and Richard looked at her and smiled.

"Seriously, we know what you are capable of. As I said, we have a lot of agents in many cities, but we don't have our men everywhere. You, in contrast, can go everywhere in very short notice. You will find yourself being on your own in a foreign and hostile country sooner than you desire."

Richard's voice had gotten more serious with the last sentence. He didn't look at Kate this time, because he was passing an unclear road junction and had to watch the road, but Kate understood what he was talking about. She had done much more than just simple courier jobs in the past, even before her training at Langley, and some of her missions had turned out to be unexpectedly challenging and even dangerous. But after all the things she had been taught and after all the months she had been prepared for this new step in her intelligence career, she realized that from now on, she was supposed to expect her work to be dangerous.

"And with your position right at the European front lines in the Cold War, you're predestinated for becoming a case officer on your own in the end." Richard continued. "It will be your job to spot and recruit new agents, and to handle and to oversee them. Sooner or later, you will have to take care not just for your own safety, but you'll have to make sure your protégés are safe, too."

"Just like you did when you stopped Herbert from torturing me?" Kate meant it as a joke, but she could read in Richard's face that he didn't take it as one. "I'm sorry, I didn't meant to make you responsible for what happened." she added quickly. "I understand why this was necessary. I really wish I wouldn't need this bandage, but I understand the purpose of this whole test."

Richard didn't answer, and he didn't even look over at Kate. Without saying anything on this matter he kept his eyes on the road. After the distraction of talking about her new assignment, the wound pain returned now. By this time, they were already in Riem, only a few minutes away from Munich Airport, and Kate checked her watch. Her flight back to London was scheduled to departure in just half an hour.

"So, Paris it is." she eventually broke the silence. "When will I start working there? And where will I live?"

"We've already rented an apartment for you, close to the center of Paris, but not too far from Orly. I hope you'll find it quite acceptable."

Richard stopped the car in front of the airport's main entrance and looked at Kate. He was finally smiling again.

"We've sent you here directly from Langley, and now you know why." he said. "This mission was still part of your training, it was your final exam, and you passed with flying colors. After the last six months, and what happened today, you've earned yourself some vacation. Enjoy July in New York. You haven't met your sister since January, and I can imagine you want to tell her about your new assignment in Paris."