Chili with Chocolate E-Book

Heinz Ludwig

• Herausgeber: novum publishing
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 144

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2026

Beschreibung

Hannah, a beautiful and intelligent girl from Brno in the Czech Republic, realized early on that as the daughter of a "capitalist," she had no opportunities in this country. She knew that she would never be able to realize her dream of becoming a doctor. Nevertheless, she wanted to make the best of it. As an attractive young woman with a command of English, she landed one of the coveted jobs as a hostess at the annual World Motorcycle Racing Championships in Brno. Of course, she had plenty of contact with the foreign riders. And many of them had their eye on the pretty Hannah. But she wasn't the only one watching Hannah... The Czech secret service quickly had her in their sights – as the perfect agent. Hannah had little choice. Or did she?

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Dedication

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Imprint

Dedication

To my children

Chapter 1

Farewell

It was early in the morning, around 5:30 a.m., and still quite chilly for early April, so Hannah was freezing—was it the morning cold in the Moravian capital of Brno, or was it more the excitement that today she would be able to leave for Vienna with her first and only visa she had ever received? It was mainly the excitement that made Hannah's blood run cold, causing her to tremble all over.

Finally, today she had her big chance to leave the country with all its communist and inhuman repression, with its destruction of all diversity and initiative, with the hopelessness of all creative people, her "homeland" Czechoslovakia, and no longer be monitored daily by the Czech secret service, as had been the case for the past two years.

Apart from her, the only other people at the bus stop were a middle-aged man, who was probably allowed to travel to Vienna on a business trip approved by the Communist Party, and two border police officers, who would certainly take the bus to the border to relieve their colleagues from night duty.

Hannah had an uneasy feeling about these two border police officers, who would certainly check her on the bus before it was allowed to cross the border. Would the two of them search her thoroughly or let her leave quickly? The visa in her passport was correct, had been entered by a very high authority, and was stamped, but the two border guards could still ask unpleasant questions.

She was shivering all over, yet small beads of sweat formed on her forehead because of all the thoughts that kept running through her head.

While she was still deep in thought, she saw a man in a long poplin coat ordering something at the tobacco shop, about 20 meters from the bus stop. She watched him and suddenly realized that it was her father, who was already up at this early hour to treat himself to "a hearty breakfast," as he always used to say, before going to his office at the state insurance company, where he had to start work at 7 a.m. sharp.

"Oh dear, what am I going to do if he turns around and sees me?" she thought to herself, and before she could find an answer, exactly what she had feared happened: Her father turned around, a cup of coffee in one hand and a sausage sandwich in the other, and saw her. He recognized her immediately and stared at her incessantly, his head bent forward and his mouth wide open, standing completely motionless, rooted to the spot. In his shock, he dropped his sausage sandwich onto the street, while his other hand, holding the cup of hot coffee, trembled so violently that at least half of the coffee spilled over the rim of the cup and also landed on the street.

"Hannicko... what are you doing?" came the trembling voice from her father's mouth, his words more whispered than spoken, yet Hannah understood every single word.

"Dad, I'm going to Vienna. Please don't make a scene. I'll explain everything as soon as I get there. I'll call you and tell you what I'm planning to do, but not here and now!" She turned her head toward the two border guards, and her father immediately understood that they couldn't discuss this loudly.

"You're going to Vienna and you'll never come back," her father said quietly to her, after he had come within two steps of her, and Hannah replied with only a slight nod of her head, without saying a word.

Tears welled up in her father's eyes. He let the coffee spill out of the cup, which he was just able to hold onto by the handle, so that it wouldn't hit the street and shatter, drawing the attention of the two border guards to him and Hannah. He immediately held the empty cup again with his two hands, which were now shaking violently, albeit with the bottom of the cup facing upwards.

He understood immediately what would happen in the next few minutes, and he understood his daughter, that she had to go this way, for he had noticed very well over the past years that she was constantly being shadowed by the Czech secret service and had had to report to the commandant's office at least once a month for a good two years in order not to be imprisoned.

Flashback

Hannah realized very early on that, as the daughter of a former "capitalist," she had no chance of advancement in this communist regime, that she could not graduate from high school, and certainly could not study what she had always wanted to study since she was seven years old, namely medicine. Instead, she attended middle school until she was 16, where she obtained her so-called 'intermediate school leaving certificate' and then began technical training at a large state-owned dairy.

Her parents supported her as best they could after losing everything they owned by the end of World War II – shares in her paternal grandfather's metalworks and their own horse stud farm, where her father had been breaking in wild Arabian stallions for many years before selling the horses to extremely wealthy customers.

So, from the age of 10, Hannah received training in ice dancing and, at 14, was also able to take separate English lessons, which her parents paid for specially after English was not offered at her school because Russian was the first and only foreign language on the curriculum.

Hannah had a well-formed body from her regular training, as well as beautiful long, dark blond hair, blue-green eyes, a mouth with full, cherry-red lips, and legs so beautiful and long that they took every man's breath away.

So it was no coincidence that companies manufacturing and marketing nylon stockings soon became aware of her and, at the age of just 16, she became a highly sought-after model for Triumph brand stockings and tights, which also earned her a good extra income.

At the World Motorcycle Racing Championships in Brno, which have been held annually since 1965, she soon became a very welcome hostess, as her good English skills enabled her to accompany and entertain the foreign motorcycle racers in particular.

Giacomo Agostini was just one of the many racers who had his eye on her and would have liked to take her back to his native Italy. Hannah resisted his almost daily advances and finally said to Giacomo, "You know, Giacomo, you're such a handsome man and so desirable to so many women—how is this supposed to work for us? Soon you'll be off with all the other women and leave me sitting here in Milan, and I don't want that." Giacomo replied, "Yes, you're probably right, Hannah, you're absolutely right, seeing as you can already foresee all this so clearly at your young age. You're a very clever and very mature girl!" And with a sad voice, , he continued: "Let's at least stay friends. I'll be back in the next few years to defend my world championship title."

The Czech secret service was, of course, closely monitoring the "international activity" at the race track in Brno and soon became aware of Hannah.

Hannah's 'profile' was a perfect fit: she was beautiful, slim, and had a very athletic figure, and she could already speak English very well – all criteria for deploying her as an agent, first domestically and then, if she performed well, also in Western countries!

It didn't take long before two secret service agents approached Hannah a short distance from the race track, addressed her by her surname (which they had found out in the meantime), surrounded her, and promptly arrested her with the explanation, "You have contacts in the West, which is forbidden."

At the secret service station in downtown Brno, she was initially thrown into a cell without further explanation and left there for several hours.

Towards evening—Hannah was already very thirsty after the long wait—a senior intelligence officer accompanied by a guard came to her cell and announced: "Miss Cernova, we have been observing you for a long time and you had contact with Western racers several times during the International Motorcycle Racing Days without our permission. This is a criminal offense, and you now have a choice: either you work for us in the future , or you go to prison for several years!"

Hannah immediately understood what this meant for her. She didn't want either option, so she had to buy some time to find a way out of this situation!

So, after a while, she explained to the officer: "Major, I will think about it carefully. Please let me talk to my parents about it and then I will get back to you – you have my passport, so you can be sure that I will come back."

This answer convinced the intelligence officer, and he let Hannah go with the words:

"I'll see you back here the day after tomorrow at the latest, otherwise I'll have you picked up and locked up. Do you understand me, Miss Cernova?!"

Hannah nodded silently and left her cell and the large, gray secret service building as quickly as she could, running home and stopping at a tobacco shop on the way to buy a lemonade to quench her thirst.

Her pulse had surely risen to 170 beats per minute and cold sweat ran down her back, making her summer dress stick to her. After calming down with small sips from the lemonade bottle, she continued on her way home. It had gotten dark in the meantime, in the middle of June 1964, but it was still pleasantly warm around her, so she deliberately took her time getting home. Should she tell her parents about all this, or would it be better not to? These were the questions that preoccupied her most now!

She didn't tell her parents about her experiences with the secret service because she didn't want to burden them any further, as they were already so preoccupied with themselves: her mother couldn't cope at all with the loss of her former prosperity, in which she had regularly celebrated at least once a week with a large party for friends, her husband's business partners, but also for needy fellow citizens. From then on, she had to work as a simple laborer in a wood parquet factory and eventually started drinking. Her father glossed over the whole situation by becoming a cunning con artist, damaging the communist state, which he despised "to the core," wherever he could.

In her desperate attempts to find a way out of this situation, Hannah suddenly had the idea of visiting a psychiatrist who was a close friend of her family and asking him to issue her with a 'certificate for the care of her mother' so that she could no longer be used as an agent.

No sooner said than done: the next morning, she went to Dr. Petr Prochaska and rang the doorbell of his office at around 9 a.m. The door opened with a short buzz, Hannah entered the office, gave her name to Dr. Prochaska's secretary, who greeted her very kindly and asked her to take a seat in the waiting room for a moment, "as the doctor was still treating a patient."

Hannah was happy to wait for a while in the bright and friendly waiting room, where, fortunately, there were also international magazines on display, which she immediately studied with great interest, especially the English-language ones, as they offered her a "little window" into the Western world, through which she could now see, at least for a brief moment, without government restrictions, and which was otherwise completely denied to her in Brno and the surrounding area.

"Hannicko, what a pleasure to see you! How are you? I hope you're well, or are you troubled? ... Come, let's go to my office, I'm sure you have a lot to tell me," said Dr. Prochaska, putting his arm around her shoulders after she quickly put the magazine back on a small table when he entered so she could go to meet him and greet him.

Dr. Prochaska's office was also bright and friendly, with modern art hanging on the walls that Hannah had never seen before but found extremely appealing. Dr. Prochaska pushed back the chair in front of his desk and politely offered Hannah a seat, then went to the other side of the table to sit down himself. "Can I offer you something to drink? Coffee or lemonade?"

"I'd love some coffee, Dr. Prochaska, with milk and sugar, please."

"Now tell me, Hannicko, what happened that brought you to me?"

"I need your help, Doctor—you know, my mother drinks, and increasingly so, so that it's becoming more and more common for her to be unable to go to work, with the result that she'll soon lose her job and we'll have one less income."

"I see—and what can I do about it?"

"You could write me a note saying that I have to take care of my mom around the clock because she's an alcoholic, and if I don't look after her, she'll keep drinking and lose her job. That way, I wouldn't have to work as an agent for the secret service. He's after me and has already given me the choice of either working for him or going to prison for several years because I had contact with Western racers during the International Motorcycle Racing Days."

"Wow," Dr. Prochaska exclaimed spontaneously, "that's quite a 'hot topic.' I think you're right, that's how we have to proceed. It would be a great help to you and your mother. I'll write something up and have the certificate sent directly to you."

"Thank you, Doctor!"

"What else is going on in your life? What do you do and what does your father do?"

"I'm currently doing technical training at the state dairy, and my father works for an insurance company, assessing and settling claims. He studied architecture, so he knows a lot about buildings and such. It's a good income for us, and we couldn't survive without it."

"I see—and you caught the attention of the Czech KGB?"

"Yes, because I was officially employed as a hostess during the International Race Days, but I looked after the foreign athletes as well as the domestic ones, since I can speak English quite well."

"That's only logical, that fucking KGB. Now they want to use that against you... but we'll show them... they can't treat you like that!"

After these words from Dr. Prochaska, Hannah stood up, shook the doctor's hand, and thanked him again warmly. She also mentioned that he should visit her at home again, as her father would be very happy to see him. Dr. Prochaska returned her handshake and said, "Of course, Hannicko, and give my best regards to your parents. I'll be in touch."

He accompanied Hannah to the door, their eyes met briefly once more, and they said goodbye to each other – in the French manner, as was customary in "better circles" before the war.

The next evening, the doorbell rang in her third-floor apartment.

Hannah went to the apartment door and pressed the button to open the front door. Their current three-room apartment no longer had an intercom system like the one they used to have in their Art Nouveau villa.

Through the small peephole in the door, she watched as the light from the elevator slowly reached her floor, the elevator door slid open, and a gentleman entered the stairwell. Only th , the light in the stairwell came on via a motion detector, and Hannah recognized Dr. Prochaska in the cone of light.

"My goodness, Dr. Prochaska... what a surprise—you're coming to visit us. My parents will be very happy," Hannah gushed excitedly, immediately opening the apartment door and running toward Dr. Prochaska, shaking his hand and asking him to come in.

She called out to her parents, who immediately came running into the small hallway after clearly hearing Dr. Prochaska's name from Hannah's mouth.

"Petr, what a pleasure to see you. Take off your coat and come into our living room," said Hannah's father.

"Fanny, it's wonderful to see you again after so long – and you too, Anna," said Dr. Prochaska, warmly embracing both Hannah's father and mother and kissing them on both cheeks.

Hannah helped Dr. Prochaska out of his coat, hung it up in the cloakroom, and accompanied the family friend, together with her parents, into the small but very comfortably furnished living room.

The dining table was immediately set, the lady of the house brought out whatever was in the refrigerator, the master of the house offered beer and wine, and Hannah set the table with plates, cutlery, glasses, and napkins.

All three hosts were extremely cheerful about this surprise visit and showed their guest, , how much they enjoyed the visit, the deeper reason for which they, except for Hannah, did not yet know.

They drank and ate, chatted, joked, and reminisced about times gone by when they used to meet at lavish parties—none of which was possible anymore.