Needle Gun (starring Mitzi)

Background - The Grey Men: As East Germany shudders and cracks, and the Soviet Union ferments with nationalist and populist movements, forces within the United States and British policy apparatus begin to fear that their kind of warfare will no longer hold sway in a new world. To eliminate those who could form the core of a new kind of politics, they promise Stasi backing to a freelancer whose lack of moral compunction has never been cracked by a decade of dirty deeds.

Involving the Heroes: The heroes are visiting the sister of one of them, who's married to a kitchen appliance designer in West Berlin with relatives in the East. Their hosts are excited and anxious about the changes in East Germany.

Sensitive Dependence on Initial Conditions: Several incidents that can be used to suggest the presence of an innovative underground movement in East Germany. The heroes find, by chance, a copy of an East German underground newspaper, or hear of a prose reading at an informal club in East Berlin, or notice an arrest reported with an unusual charge.

The Brandenburg Gate: The heroes are present at the fall of the Berlin Wall. Warm fuzzy feelings abound. Access into East Berlin is unrestricted.

Random Martyr: Without warning, the heroes come upon a dead man in an East Berlin apartment block. His throat has been shredded by some sort of rapid-fire gun. They recognise one of the young activists whose name appeared in reports earlier.

Considerations: The popular demonstrations of the early days begin to fade. Government ministers issue bland statements about reintegration and amnesty. The heroes investigate (or not) and hear of disappearances and bodies floating in the Spree.

The Hounds of Hell: An activist makes hurried plans to travel to New York, to present his ideas to the United Nations. He just happens to be on the same flight as the heroes.

Sweepers: Violence ensues. A shadowy cordon of CIA, MI6 and Stasi operatives is set to prevent any interference with the killing that's about to happen. Men on corners talk into their sleeves. Heroes get shot with silenced pistols, alone in lonely airport corridors. Snipers pick their targets in crowds of oblivious New Yorkers.

Killjoy: A showdown with Mitzi (in short skirt, with needle gun), her grey-suited backer, and a wild-eyed ex-Red-Brigades German. Someone gets shot in the back and dies with a tragic look into the hero's eyes. Someone disappears into the crowd. None of it makes the papers.