Dengler - Brennende Kälte (2019)

While private investigator and former BKA fugitive-tracking officer Georg Dengler looks forward to his son Jakob’s wedding in Stuttgart, his friend, hacker Olga Illiescu, finds herself in serious trouble in Berlin. Her friend, journalist Anne Müller, had sent her information on the darknet about secret plans for microwave weapons, lists of Bundeswehr officers’ names, and photos of tortured men, and was shot dead shortly afterward. The two killers had caused a veritable bloodbath in the internet café, shooting everyone who had witnessed what happened. They had also noticed the data transfer. Before Illiescu finds out, the two killers are already on their way to her. She manages to escape from her apartment just in time. She calls Dengler and asks him for help. He immediately gets on his motorcycle and hurries to Berlin. When the two of them examine Anne’s data, they discover that the files have been compromised and that the Bundeswehr now knows their whereabouts. They narrowly escape a grenade fired at them by a Bundeswehr helicopter. However, Illiescu cannot save her laptop, and therefore cannot save Anne’s files either. The secret documents came from a Bundeswehr officer who, as a whistleblower, is in mortal danger just like Illiescu. Online reports of a car accident involving the officer give Dengler hope that he survived the attack and still has the original files. When they try to contact him through his wife, their cover is blown. A shootout with BND agents follows, and the police become involved. The BND agents withdraw, while Dengler and Illiescu are arrested and explain the connections to the police. Given the brutal murders at the internet café, lead investigator Finn Kommareck has no trouble believing Dengler’s story. She knows he is a capable private investigator from an earlier encounter, when he was investigating the pharmaceutical industry. Dengler now works with the police to save the officer, but they arrive too late. They find him hanged in his hideout. On the instructions of the prosecutor’s office, no further investigation is to be conducted. Dengler and Illiescu refuse to accept this and contact the company that developed the microwave weapon. They witness the company’s head, Katharina Petry, being poisoned. Dengler then tries to put enough pressure on Petry’s closest associate to make him bring the whole scandal to light. In view of what happened to his boss, he eventually does so. This leads to personnel consequences at the Bundeswehr and the BND.