The Czech Spy Who Stole a Son | The Prodigal Son
6/2/202641 min
After years of preparation, Czech deep-cover spy Václav Jelínek is in London and living as Erwin Van Haarlem. But now, the Dutch mother of the real child whose identity he’s using has found him. And her inquisitiveness could blow his whole mission.
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First 90 secondsAmelia Fox· Host0:00
Audible subscribers can listen to all episodes of The Spy Who ad free right now. Join Audible today by downloading the Audible app. [mysterious music] January 3rd, 1978, South Kensington, London. Vaclav Jelinek plods through freezing fog and pavements slippy with snow slush. The streetlights cast an eerily amber glow, but Jelinek is in no mood to appreciate the scene. He's just finished a long shift waiting tables at the Hilton Hotel. All he wants is a hot bath and his bed. He turns a corner and stops sharply. Ahead is a woman in her mid-50s with short, wavy gray hair and wearing a long cream coat. She hasn't seen him. She seems lost in her own thoughts, but he recognizes her instantly from the photo she sent him. It is Johanna Van Harlem, his supposed biological mother. Jelinek's Czechoslovakian spy masters have discovered that Johanna has been tirelessly searching for her son, Erwin. She gave him up for adoption when he was just three months old. Now she thinks she's found her long lost child. She has no idea Erwin's