The Berlin Device: A Xander Berlin Adventure, #1

By Tammy Wunsch

Xander has led a life of luxury with a cushy job in the family business. After his father's mysterious disappearance, Xander became CEO of the multi-million dollar, international enterprise and tries to prove himself to everyone, including himself.

 

Xander discovers encrypted files in his father's hidden safe that detail his illicit activities. His father was more than disreputable—he was a member of a secret and diabolical organization whose sole objective is world domination. In the files are plans for the Berlin Device—a satellite weapons system that has the potential for unparalleled destruction.

 

Chloe has scrimped and saved for an amazing hiking vacation. When nothing goes right in her travels, fate intervenes and she and Xander are thrown together in a hopeless quest across Europe to recover the device before more innocent people die.

 

Dodging bullets, bombs, and barbaric henchmen, Xander and Chloe discover a mysterious facility that could become their final resting place…if their enemies have their way.

 

Can they escape with their lives?

 

More importantly, can they save the planet from The Berlin Device?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tammy Wunsch
• Release date: May 28, 2022
• ISBN: 9798201632403

Tammy Wunsch

Tammy Wunsch currently resides in the Quiet Corner of Connecticut though she has also called both New York City and Los Angeles home. Formally educated in business, she has worked in a variety of industries and is both entrepreneurial and adventurous by nature. In addition to writing two novels, she is a Content Writer who specializes in the travel, wine, and animal welfare niches. She is passionate about animals and loves to travel, cook, kayak, and read. Visit her online at www.TammyWunsch.com.

Book preview

Prologue

North Korea

October 2018

Alexander Berlin, Sr . leaned over the hotel balcony railing ten stories above the waterway that would eventually become the Han River flowing through Seoul. Alexander was in North Korea to meet with the directors of the Pyongyang Satellite Communications Factory for an update on his latest project, as he had done annually for the past three years.

The factory was nowhere near Pyongyang, but the name made it sound more globally acceptable. To be truthful, calling it a factory was a bit of a stretch, too, but they did manage to produce some essential part needed by satellites worldwide that had nothing to do with his project. His stockholders and Board of Directors at Berlin Industries had no idea where he was – nor did they care as long as the company continued to earn obscene profits. Nobody would think to question what he did—and that suited Alexander’s needs perfectly.

Alexander was the primary investor in the factory, through one of his numerous holding companies, and he saw the potential for the product being secretly developed. He was already wealthy by anyone’s standards, but this risky new venture could conceivably make him the richest man on the planet.

Alexander smiled to himself as he looked south toward the border with South Korea. If he squinted his eyes just right, he could make out the glow in the sky from the lights of Seoul. He thought that the South Koreans would soon be seeing the world a bit differently after the product was finalized and firmly in the hands of the North Koreans who had helped finance the research and development for this project. That is, until he sold the South Koreans the same product. He didn’t have any geopolitical loyalties!

The news he had received that day was very good. The project team was close to finishing the development of the Berlin Device. In the short term, he would realize a minimum ten-time return on his nearly one-hundred-million-dollar investment when he took the device and auctioned it to the highest bidder.

Of course, Alexander would have to tread carefully when reporting to the clandestine organization of which he was a member. The Organization’s sole purpose was the acquisition of money and power, with loyalty to no single country. They also required a whopping eighty percent of profits from any member project. That was just not acceptable to Alexander with such a massive potential payout from the device.

Alexander had gone outside of regular channels when he enlisted the services of the Pyongyang Satellite Communications Factory to develop and manufacture his idea for a satellite-based weapon. He had managed to keep the project quiet, but as it neared completion, he knew that arranging a secret auction of people who could afford the Berlin Device would require a great deal of skill and deception.

Alexander already had clandestine bank accounts under various aliases to hide the mountain of money he would receive from the sale of the device. The astronomical sums he had paid out to bank employees to keep those accounts secret were still far less than he would have to pay out to the Organization.

At that moment, Chun Cho stepped out onto the balcony. Alexander straightened up and stepped away from the railing. He didn’t particularly care for Chun Cho, but Alexander acknowledged that he ran a tight ship at the Pyongyang Satellite Communications Factory and the device’s development had run smoothly.

Chun Cho barely spoke a word, neither in English nor Korean. He was also one of the largest men that Berlin had ever encountered, standing well over six and a half feet tall with broad shoulders and no discernable neck. When Chun Cho did speak, it was always a surprise because his refined accents illuminated the fact that he had been schooled overseas with the finest education that Great Britain had to offer. Alexander had heard rumors of Chun Cho’s more uncultured side, such as workers suddenly disappearing after asking for better working conditions and competitors’ factories mysteriously burning to the ground. Alexander always made a point of being politely friendly with Chun Cho and he generously compensated him on top of his already substantial salary. He also made sure Chun Cho’s vulgar and sadistic sexual needs were fulfilled as well. Alexander knew that money could only buy loyalty to a certain extent.

You are enjoying your time in North Korea? inquired Chun Cho as he gestured to the river and the open lands beyond.

Yes replied Alexander. It is a beautiful country. It appears that we are close to a breakthrough. Sung-Ho reported that we will soon be ready to test the device. If all goes as planned, I will auction it within one year, and then we will all be wealthier than anyone could possibly imagine.

Some of us will be, murmured Chun Cho as he quickly took a step toward Alexander, grabbed him, and threw him over the railing in one fluid motion. Alexander barely had time to scream as he flailed downward, the sound becoming fainter the further he fell.

Chun Cho smiled imperceptibly, looked contentedly at the view for a moment, and murmured, Sung-Ho should have reported that news to me first. He then went inside the factory to find Sung-Ho and punish him harshly for his betrayal to a westerner.

Far below, a black SUV pulled up next to Alexander’s mangled corpse. Two men exited the truck and began the tasks of removal, disposal, and sanitation.

Part I

New York

Chapter One

November 2021

Alexander Berlin, Jr ., Xander to his friends, was thinking about steak. Not just any steak that you throw on a grill in your backyard, but the definitive steak. He had a reservation at Peter Luger Steak House for eight o’clock tonight and was salivating in anticipation of the meal. Of course, he would have to suffer the company of Stuart Bergstrom and Max Hoffman, but he would endure anything for a Peter Luger steak.

It wasn’t that he didn’t like Stuart and Max, but they were still angry at Xander for replacing them when he had taken over Berlin Industries. It hadn’t been Xander’s sole decision—the two had engaged in highly questionable business activities. As CFO, Max should have alerted the Board of Directors about the vast sums of money that Xander’s father had poured into his off-book, mysterious research projects.

As to Stuart, a leaked memo had showed that he had negotiated some questionable deals for his father as General Counsel. The Board had demanded that both men be terminated. Xander had fought for them and managed to negotiate early retirement packages instead of turning them over to the police or the SEC. Frankly, he thought that they should be grateful. Instead, they continually droned on and on, complaining about how their lifestyles had been compromised. They could now only afford the South of France twice a year instead of their usual four times.

Xander wondered if anyone ever appreciated anything he did or the sacrifices he made. His father certainly never appreciated nor respected anything that Xander did, and his mother was just a vague memory. He was often blamed for the sins of his father which infuriated him even more. Xander made sure that people never referred to him as Alexander to further distance himself from his father’s reputation.

When his father disappeared without a trace three years ago, Xander had been forced to step up from his role as Chief Marketing Officer, a role he had loved. His main responsibilities had been to wine, dine, and entertain clients at some of the most exclusive restaurants, clubs, and events in the city and around the world. Xander had not wanted the promotion to CEO, but his father had named him as successor and, as he now held fifty-four percent of the outstanding stock, the Board insisted that he fill the position. Xander continued to pay private investigators to search for his father, but he was afraid he was going to have to give up soon. There hadn’t been any new leads in over a year.

Xander’s first few years as CEO had been difficult. He had to untangle the company’s finances and straighten out a variety of legal issues. Xander’s father had played fast and loose with regulatory rules and anti-trust regulations. He had bribed and blackmailed everyone from U.S. senators to Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents to world leaders. It was a nightmare.

Two years ago, Xander had discovered a hidden safe when he decided to redecorate his father’s study. Xander had been forbidden from entering the study while his father was alive but had concluded that it was finally time to make it his own.

For all of his father’s devious ways, he had stupidly used his own birthday as the safe combination. He uncovered a thumb drive that contained files that were written in gibberish. Xander recognized the gibberish as a variation of a cypher that his father had used to communicate with him when he was younger. His father had had high hopes for turning Xander into a miniature version of himself but gave up when he realized that Xander would not participate in his tyrannical power plays. It was his father who had started calling him Xander to distance himself from his son, but Xander had gleefully accepted the nickname.

It took Xander two years to decipher the files and he was still reeling from what he had read. His father had been a member of a covert organization that he referred to in the files only as The Organization. Research on the dark web had provided little additional information, but the decoded files clearly spelled out the Organization’s primary goal of world domination and their roadmap to achieve this goal. It was a dastardly, complex plot to rule the world by a cabal of wealthy and unscrupulous individuals. Each member of the Organization had a directive to devise methods that would sow discord and revolution so that the Organization could step in and discreetly install world leaders of their choosing.

The decoded files supplied Xander with a description of a device that his father had been developing. It used advanced weapons technology on a satellite to destroy a structure or area and was controlled by a simple GPS device that looked like a mobile device. His narcissistic father had named it the Berlin Device. Xander could only imagine the terror that such a device would inspire if unleashed on the world. He couldn’t find any evidence that the device had been completed or that it existed, but he continued to search.

The drive also contained what appeared to be a directory, but the names and contact information were encrypted with a different cypher that Xander had, so far, been unable to decipher. He had finally contacted one of his former college professors for assistance in deciphering the code.

Professor Jameson was a master code breaker and taught a class on decoding complex computer cyphers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, more commonly referred to as MIT. Xander had attended MIT as a business major but had taken the code-breaking class as an elective. After graduating, he had discovered that Professor Jameson managed a clandestine network of former students that subcontracted simple jobs from various government agencies.

Professor Jameson called his network Eris, though Xander didn’t know how it had been named. Xander had the perfect cover in his real job at Berlin Industries to join Professor Jameson’s network, though so far, the jobs Xander had been assigned were merely document deliveries to dead drops for more senior operatives.

As CEO of Berlin Industries, Xander had been trying to figure out how to terminate his father’s questionable and traitorous projects around the world. He felt overwhelmed disengaging all the layers of his father’s treachery while trying to run a legitimate Fortune 100 company.

He also had to contend with the Board of Directors. No matter what he did or how hard he worked, the Board still wasn’t happy. The main result of turning the company toward purely legal and ethical projects had been a drastic reduction in profits. The Board was still compensated more than generously, just not quite as obscenely as before. Xander shrugged as he looked out the window, tuning out the current CFO. He was still thinking about tonight’s steak.

What do you think, Xander? inquired Sherry Underwood, the current CFO.

Sherry’s question jolted Xander back to reality. He sat up abruptly in his chair and looked around the room in confusion, realizing he had no idea what had just been discussed. He could not even begin to formulate a response.

He felt the weight of the Board members’ collective sigh and tried not to react to the exaggerated eye rolls of the Board members participating via satellite. He suspected that the Board secretly thought that he was a complete idiot, but he was just utterly exhausted from the discovery and dismantling of his father’s illicit projects. Fortunately, he noticed an icon flashing on the bottom far right video monitor. He gulped some coffee and stood up.

I need some time to decide the best course of action, Xander attempted to appear decisive. Did his voice sound weak and whiny only to him? Let’s reconvene at three o’clock and I’ll give you my decision then.

This time, nobody hid their contemptuous looks, snide head shakes, and sarcastic eye rolls. Chairs were pushed back silently on the silk Isfahan rug, and papers gathered quickly. The Board dispersed, filtering out of the Executive Conference Room, not bothering to whisper about his ineptitude as they left the room. To them, he would always be little Alexander, playing on the floor while his father ran the company as his own private kingdom. If they only knew what his father had actually been up to, they wouldn’t be so contemptuous. Xander had half a mind to report them for dereliction of duty in allowing his father to utilize company funds for his illicit projects. As the satellite attendees disconnected, the video monitors returned to muted, pre-programmed news channels.

Except for the far-right video monitor.

Xander picked up his tablet, ensured it was paired to the video monitor, and clicked the flashing E icon, exhaling slowly. An older gentleman appeared on the screen, grinning rakishly, a cigar dangling from the corner of his mouth. Xander had always thought the man on screen looked a bit like Harrison Ford and that thought always made him smile. This man, however, could not have been less like either Indiana Jones or Han Solo.

Hope I’m not disturbing anything, Berlin, the man’s voice growled out of the tinny speakers.

Of course not, Professor Jameson. How are you today?

I’m fine. I hate this high-tech crap, though. It doesn’t feel secure. I’d love to go back to the days of the regular old telephone, though those were notoriously easy to tap. I don’t need to see everyone’s face while I talk to them, Professor Jameson grumbled and waved dismissively at Xander.

Well, go on, Professor Jameson grunted. You messaged me about needing my assistance.

Yes, sir, Xander exhaled loudly. To be brief, I found a thumb drive in my father’s safe that contained encrypted files. I was able to decipher most of them except for one file that was encrypted with a much more difficult code. The files that I have deciphered provide some general details about a group my father belonged to that is called merely ‘the Organization.’ Its mission is world domination.

Professor Jameson burst out laughing. Xander, are you kidding me? This sounds like the plot of a James Bond movie.

I wish it was just the plot of a movie, Professor. I’ve been able to verify many of the details of the development of a project my father was working on for the Organization. My father called the project the Berlin Device, Xander shook his head again. "It uses advanced weapons technology built into a satellite and a GPS-like device to program the target you want to obliterate. It looks like the project was nearing completion when my father disappeared. I haven’t been able to find any more