Читать книгу Three Brothers - Jörg. H. Trauboth - Страница 10

Also, on this day, the 17th of December, the barely legal exhaust pipe of a Harley Road King roars a little too loudly in the garage entrance of the German Federal Foreign Office in Berlin. The officers on duty at the local police station know right away: Rudi’s here. Dr. Rudolf Kürten is the man to call when German citizens find themselves in grave danger somewhere around the world.

“Good morning, Dr. Kürten.”

Rudi flipped up the visor on his helmet.

“I told you already to forget that doctor business!”

“Yes, sir, Dr. Kürten!”

Indeed, this man is rather atypical for an undersecretary of the Foreign Office sporting a leather biker jacket, a stud earring, a pointy goatee, and a ponytail.

His domain is the underground, high-security, twenty-four-hour Crisis Response Center. The finest in Germany. His people are experts from the Foreign Office, the German military – the Bundeswehr, and the various intelligence agencies. People whose résumés he himself has sometimes never seen. But Rudi has to rely on them completely. Any incorrect coordinate or time specification, any incorrect name, weather analysis, or political evaluation can be life-threatening. It’s Rudi’s job to save lives. He only wishes he could do it first-hand.

But he is not a soldier on the front line, his place is behind a desk. He is something like the nation’s chief crisis manager. Often enough, he finds himself at the helm of responsibility when the administration or even the head of state herself doesn’t want to make a decision.

Rudolf enters the Crisis Response Center via the steel vaulted door, a relic of Germany’s old central bank, the Reichsbank, that used to inhabit this site.

The location was a smart choice. The steel-reinforced, soundproof walls of the building are almost four feet thick and the two and a half feet thick steel window shutters are the best defense against anyone listening from outside. However, since the enemy could also potentially come from within, each participant of a crisis meeting is forced to lock their cell phone in one of the eighteen small lockers outside the entrance, including the ministers.

Rudolf quickly peaks into the Lombard Room, the control center of the operation.

“Good morning, everyone, anything special happen?”

What a dumb question he thinks to himself. Every night there is something that happens that the night shift, under the command of the employee on duty, takes care of. Kidnapped persons are recovered, family members are called and consoled, paramedics and social workers are arranged, and they are constantly on the look-out for all the German citizens reported missing, who, very often, just reappear on their own. Nothing special. For those in the know, there is a distinction made between incidents and special events. Special events are the kinds for which those on the nation’s night watch would pull him out of bed.

Those on duty sit in front of four telephones, one of them is marked “Caution: possibly tapped.” Not really necessary anyway, thinks Rudi, my people are naturally confidential. They also only use the encrypted devices and only say the minimum amount necessary. Preferably only: “Understood” – “Roger” – “Over” – “Out”.

The entire outside world is packed into this single room. Nine clocks marked with the names of the various capital cities are identical to those of the current crisis areas and their time zones. On one wall hang maps and the private and cell phone numbers of the ministers and state secretaries. Sensitive information that must be concealed in case an outsider enters this most sacred of rooms. Reports come in around the clock from agencies via picture and text, as well as the German Federal Intelligence Service, the BND, and the German Federal Criminal Police Office, the BKA, plus those of the more than two hundred forty German Consulates and Embassies. They are still called “wires” even though they have been electronic now for many years. Television screens flicker all over the room, there are ten specifically designated for the various news channels. A file exists for almost every country. There is almost nothing here that wasn’t thoroughly thought through.

Every morning, Rudi arrives and is amazed that it doesn’t stink to high heaven here in this room with round-the-clock operation divided into three shifts. When things get really busy in the ministry, he has a back-up reserve of two hundred fifty trained government employees to man the phones. Everything goes through Rudi. He is a geek of a very special kind.

His office, though, is not a drab basement dungeon. On the contrary, it is just like all the other offices on the same level as the other department heads and directors and those on salary grade B 6 and is furnished according to the usual standards. A mahogany desk, heavy rug, conference corner with refined black chairs, an oil painting of the current foreign minister.

The man in the painting, the head of the Foreign Ministry, George von Rüdesheim, has a pleasant, friendly face.

Ministers come and go. And with them, the oil paintings. All that remains is the little black nail stuck in the wall. Decades long. It has also achieved a sort of ministerial status. A nail like the ideal governmental employee in this ministry – unseen and never failing.

Rudi has a sign fixed to the wall in his office that will, in contrast, never be removed and reads:

Failure is not an option.

Rudi lives his life according to this principle. It comes from NASA and is the phrase connected to the Apollo 13 crew in space that needed to be rescued. Avoid catastrophes by avoiding mistakes. This applies to his motorcycle just as much as to the crisis center. For Rudi, there is no room for error.

He enjoys working with the thirty-eight men and women of Department 04 in the secretive crisis reaction center – and they like him. Dr. Rudolf Kürten is not like the typical, slick-as-an-eel government employee. He is easy-going, heartfelt, and highly competent. He got his first taste of crisis management along with his first post as an Ambassador to Kenya, which included responsibility also for Somalia and Burundi. No one else in the bureau understands the delicate and vexatious issue of piracy as well as he does. At fifty-two years old, he has also come to learn that a casual work environment is the best guarantee for success.

His experience on the front and cooperative leadership methods are one thing, however. Rudi is by no means naïve. Here in the nation’s crisis management center, analytical and emotionless expertise is the key to success. No ifs, ands, or buts about it.

Rudolf has come up with and internalized a certain concept for solving complex situations.

It was four years ago, during a briefing for the top economic executives at the Bundeswehr Command and Staff College in Hamburg Blankenese. He can still see the colonel standing before him: his left arm in a sling, a scar above his right eye, and a very severe look. Reminiscent of World War II resistance fighter Graf von Stauffenberg who was executed on July 20, 1944.

“Before you make your decision, Ladies and Gentlemen, please follow these four steps:

1. Analyze the situation:

List all the factors of the situation without any evaluation. We soldiers call this ‘your own situation and your enemy’s situation.’ For you economics experts, this could be a product range and your competition, for example. For the ladies and gentlemen from the Foreign Office, your country’s political framework and the political situation in the troubled land. Understood? Okay, moving on.

2. Assessment:

Now use your analysis to evaluate your situation and that of your opponent. But please, no emotions! Remain objective. You will find it easier to evaluate according to factors. I can see, you are looking at me with questions in your eyes, what are factors? Very simple. For example, the ability of one’s own or their opponent’s resources, the market situation, the political situation, depending on where you are working. For us in the military, the weather can be a factor for example. The more you can break down the factors you are evaluating, the easier it will be to make a decision. Is that understood? Now, this brings me to:

3. Objectives:

You think you are ready to make a decision now? Sorry, Ladies and Gentlemen, but you are wrong. At this point, it is typically still too early and can result in making the wrong decisions. Take things down a notch. Look inside yourself and ask yourself: what do I want to achieve with my actions in this situation? What are my objectives? Your answer will determine the course. Do you perhaps want to win the big battle or prefer to satisfy the media at this point? In the case of the latter, your actions will be directed toward crisis communications options. You can see how quickly one can take the wrong path. And as such, on to the final point.

4. Conclusions:

Now, you can make your decision. Perhaps you already had one in your pocket. Very good, at least that confirms things. But perhaps after this assessment, you have come to a completely different decision. But be careful, Ladies and Gentlemen – there are usually many options! Make a list of them and chose the decision that best fulfils your goals and objectives. Weigh your options. But always keep in mind your means and possibilities and stay realistic.”

The colonel drew four letters.

“We call these the Leadership Process SAOC,” he points to the first letter from Situation Analysis, Assessment, Objectives, and Conclusions.

“This is the classic leadership strategy of the Special Forces. Wars are won this way, or at least avoided. Many of my comrades are now colleagues of yours in the world of economics and use this tactic with great success. Train your staff to use this process. And when the situation changes, you can adapt SAOC and reevaluate.

Last but not least: Don’t forget to take control. Any questions? Thank you very much.”

Rudi could have gone home afterwards, but that was something special! Sometimes things just simply click in life. And it sometimes helps to have a sympathetic and guaranteed authentic man in a uniform delivering the message.

Since then, SAOC has become ingrained in Rudi’s head just like shifting through the gears on his bike. From first, to second, to third, to fourth, and to fifth as he rides his motorcycle from the Spreewald to the ministry. Nevertheless, he has long given up trying to teach the SAOC method to his subordinate – Deputy Assistant Undersecretary of the Crisis Response Center Dr. Hartwig Bloedorn. He just can’t seem to get through to this man, or there is simply no chemistry between them.

Rudolf looks at the board on the wall. Twelve kidnapping incidents paired with various hand-picked crisis teams depending on the country where the incident happened. He knows every case in detail. Every circumstance. Every person. Every family.

But one case is different. One kidnapping incident has been dragging on for more than two years now without any new developments. Two men are being misused as human shields against permanent military threats.

In the meantime, the Federal Criminal Police Office has dismissed the team that was helping both families in Germany to cope. Yet, these families truly need psychological support most of all. To compensate for this, Rudi has access to a twenty-four-hour hotline that guarantees him a crisis intervention team available in almost every German city.

And for the last eight weeks, the ministry has been worried about two German company employees, Helmut Weier and Josef Fischer, who, despite the ministry’s travel warning, have gone to work in Northern Iraq. Thankfully, at least the two men registered with ELEFAND, a free, electronic registry of German citizens abroad. The Federal Intelligence Service fears they are in the hands of the Islamic State, a rapidly-growing group of militant Muslim terrorists that has long surpasses al-Qaida in its reputation world-wide. So far, however, there has been no indications from any side.

The crisis team Weier/Fischer, internally abbreviated to WEFI, has to rely on the reports from the intelligence agencies for any new developments. And, in fact, the CIA recently reported that two Germans were taken hostage and presumed to be in Northern Iraq. All efforts from Team WEFI are being spent looking into these reports.

Rudolf is aware that the relatively comfortable times of when kidnappers were only interested in a ransom are now over. Since Germany has become more involved in the fight against international terrorism, the number of cases of political extortion have sharply increased as the chances for the hostages have dramatically decreased. On his way to the crisis center, he sees Dr. Bloedorn approaching him frantically.

“Dr. Kürten, I’m so glad I found you! We just received a YouTube video with a threat from the Islamic State with an ultimatum. They are threatening to behead Weier and Fischer on December 25th if Germany does not cease its support in the fight against ISIS!”

For a moment, Rudolf forgets that he is no fan of this eellike Dr. Bloedorn. The man is an expert at talking for twenty minutes without ever saying anything remotely meaningful. The top of the class at the school of diplomacy. The ministry has actually only parked him here in the crisis center. He even starts to hyperventilate in crisis situations as though he’s having some kind of a crisis orgasm. Unfortunately, more due to blind activism than out of true concern for the people involved.

It is those people whom Rudolf is now thinking about as his eyes scan the situation room, passing over the computers, fax machines, and encryption machines, before coming to rest on the nine synchronized railway clocks quietly ticking on the wall.

Northern Iraq is two hours ahead. When are they supposed to be beheaded? On December 25th, nine days from today! That allows a little bit of time at least. Every hour is now precious. They need to switch to full speed.

“Mr. Bloedorn, call the WEFI Crisis Team for a meeting at 4 o’clock local time. And inform the executive level.”

Rudi rushes into his office, the unforgiving ticking of the clocks still resonates in his ears.

“Sandra, call Silverlocks to come here and give me my blazer, please.”

His secretary Sandra knows that when he trades his Harley jacket for his blazer, then it’s serious. And she also knows, of course, that Director of the German Federal Police Office Hartmut Busch, a.k.a. “Silverlocks,” is the top expert on Islamic terrorism and a shrewd negotiator as well.

“I wanted to tell you that both Weier’s and Fischer’s wives have just called. Chief, they are each at the end of their ropes.”

“Are we able to contact them?”

“We are.”

“Please tell them both, I will call them after the meeting.”

He knows how terrifying it can be for the families to hear about threats of beheading in the news media and even to potentially witness such beheadings somewhere on the internet.

He then immerses himself in the reports on the situation. What do we know? What will the assessment be?

It’s already clear to him that this could be the first beheading of a German citizen this year. Somehow, the RAF was more predictable, he thought, we knew who the enemy was then…

“Sandra, I think we will be getting an important visitor today.”

“Do you really think so? She has been here only one single time in the past two years and then it was only an official visit to commemorate her inauguration.”