A colleague of Mister Dynamite

Day 20: Do you know Mister Dynamite? No, that's not my nickname. That is the code name of Bob Urban, a secret agent for the Federal Intelligence Service. He was my childhood idol. I was there for every one of his 300 adventures, published in paperback form through 1992. Death Kisses You Tomorrow was even made into a film in 1967 with Old Shatterhand, err Lex Parker in the lead role - but I just realized that I'm getting off topic...

Imagine, I met a colleague of Mister Dynamit, an agent of the Federal Intelligence Service BND. Honest! No joke! Manfred - I assume that's also an alias - and his wife Hermine - that's really her name because the name was on the bottle of homemade eggnog that she drank with Icke - parked their huge motorhome next to us. The two come from Braunschweig. They have been standing in this public parking lot for many years and know every street in Guardamar. So they took us to the weekly market, which is a little hidden away.

Manfred and his Hermione will soon be 85 years old. He now needs a walking stick (maybe just a camouflage?), she uses a walker. Icke and I wanted to take our time on the approximately two kilometer long path, but we quickly realized that we had to put our feet up in order to keep up. Manfred steamed off like a locomotive. I caught up with him at some point and we started talking. He had told Icke that he was a hunter, but thanks to my many years of experience in this profession, I somehow felt that we were cut from the same cloth. “So you’re a hunter,” I said. “What are you chasing?” He looked at me briefly, and after a short pause he said: “You know what I was chasing.”

I nodded with an approving smile. “Pullach?” I asked. “Many years,” he said. "But not only. I was often deployed abroad.” No more words were needed. Of course, I knew that he wasn't allowed to tell me anything about his work and didn't want to put him in distress with my questions. Top secret. Top secret – that applies to secret agents of our rank until the end of their lives.

As a farewell this morning, we exchanged cell phone numbers with a wink. A sign of trust even among colleagues, no question. But also a sign that he knows: He can count on me, no matter what the cost. When I was back in the motorhome, I downloaded an e-book from Mister Dynamit. I don't want to be unprepared when the call comes.