Dengler - Fremde Wasser (2018)

Former BKA fugitive-tracking officer and current private investigator Georg Dengler is hired by Dr. Larson, a consultant to water utilities operating around the world, to track down Greek lobbyist Kolidis, who has been missing since his sailboat exploded off Athens, as has his son Jannis. Dengler accepts the lucrative job and enlists hacker queen Olga Illiescu to help him; she has been a great help to him several times in the past. He promises her a short vacation in Greece if she accompanies him. Once there, Dengler gets a Greek investigator to show him Kolidis’s apartment, hoping to find leads for his research. According to the police report, the explosion on the boat was an accident, a claim Dengler tries to disprove. Dengler and Illiescu fly back to Berlin, where Dengler contacts Bundestag member Andreas Schülkopf, who had been in touch with Kolidis. Schülkopf and his family are threatened at night by two masked men demanding all the documents relating to his contact with Kolidis. After the attack, Schülkopf is arrested when a large quantity of drugs is found in his possession. When Dengler visits him in pretrial detention, Schülkopf asks for his help. In his defense, he says that the drugs were planted on him. Dengler is to prove this and, if possible, expose the entire operation run by lobbyists for water privatization in Greece. To do so, he is supposed to retrieve copies of documents from Schülkopf’s parliamentary office, which proves to be no easy task. Dengler still has a BKA ID, but his actions are noticed and he has to face his former boss, Müller. Once again, he strikes a deal with him so that his impersonation of an official will have no further consequences. Müller does not trust Dengler, however, and has him kept under surveillance as a precaution. This is how he learns that Dengler plans to travel back to Athens. Meanwhile, Illiescu has managed to intercept recent emails from Kolidis’s son, proving that he is alive. Dengler picks up his trail and finds Kolidis’s hideout, but does not notice that he is being followed both by Malakov, Müller’s fugitive-tracking officer, and by a mysterious man known at the BKA as “the Doctor.” In a fight, “the Doctor” kills BKA officer Malakov. Dengler manages to speak with Kolidis and learns that Dr. Larson is behind everything. Illiescu’s research confirms this. Larson herself had ordered the attack on the Greek; when it failed to achieve the desired result, she hired Dengler. She wanted to use him to find Kolidis and have “the Doctor” finish the job. While Dengler is asking Kolidis to come with him to Berlin and testify against Larson, a bullet hits him. Dengler reacts immediately and manages to take out “the Doctor,” but Kolidis cannot be saved. Bringing Larson down without a key witness requires a trick. In consultation with Müller, Dengler plans to pass off a decoy as Kolidis and draw Larson out. The plan works, and Larson walks into the trap. She gives herself away and is arrested by a tactical unit. In the end, Schülkopf is also cleared and can return to his family.