Page 157 of Edge of Eternity (The Century 3)

"Yeah. Hurts like fuck."

"I guess I can trust you. A Stasi undercover agent wouldn't go so far as to wound himself."

Walli did not know whether to be thrilled or terrified. Might he really be able to return to East Berlin--today? It seemed too much to hope for. Yet it also filled him with dread. East Germany still had the death penalty. If he were caught, he would probably be executed by guillotine.

Walli and Danni took the subway across the city. It occurred to Walli that this could be a trap. The Stasi probably had agents in West Berlin, and the owner of the Minnesanger could be one. Would they go to so much trouble to catch Walli? It was a stretch; but, knowing how vengeful Hans Hoffmann was, Walli thought it was possible.

He studied Danni covertly as they rode the underground train. Could he be a Stasi agent? It was hard to imagine. Danni was about twenty-five, and had longish hair combed forward in the latest style. He wore elastic-sided boots with pointed toes. He had a successful club. He was too cool to be a cop.

On the other hand, he was perfectly placed to spy on West Berlin's young anti-Communists. Most of them probably came to his club. He must know just about every student leader in West Berlin. Did the Stasi care about what such young people were doing?

Of course they did. They were obsessed, like medieval priests hunting witches.

Yet Walli could not pass up this opportunity, if it meant he might speak to Karolin just one more time.

He vowed to be alert.

The sun was going down when they came out of the subway in the district called Wedding. They walked south, and Walli quickly realized they were heading for Bernauer Strasse, whe

re Rebecca had escaped.

The street had changed, he saw in the fading daylight. On the south side, in place of the barbed-wire fence, there was now a concrete wall; and the buildings on the Communist side were in the process of being demolished. On the free side, where Walli and Danni were, the street seemed blighted. The ground-floor shops in the apartment buildings looked run-down. Walli guessed that nobody wanted to live so close to the Wall, repellent to the eye and to the heart.

Danni led him to the back of a building and they went in by the rear entrance of a disused shop. It seemed to have been a grocery store, for on the walls were enamel advertisements for canned salmon and cocoa. However, the shop and the rooms around it were full of loose earth, piled high, leaving only a narrow passage through; and Walli began to guess what was going on here.

Danni opened a door and went down a concrete stair lit by an electric bulb. Walli followed. Danni called out a phrase that might have been code: "Submariners coming in!" At the foot of the stairs was a large cellar, undoubtedly used by the grocer for storage. Now there was a hole a yard square in the floor, and a surprisingly professional-looking hoist over it.

They had dug a tunnel.

"How long has this been here?" Walli asked. If his sister had known about it last year she might have escaped this way, and avoided Bernd's crippling injury.

"Too long," said Danni. "We finished it a week ago."

"Oh." That was too late to have been any use to Rebecca.

Danni added: "We only use it in twilight. In daytime we would be too visible, and at night we would have to use flashlights, which might call attention to us. All the same, the risk of discovery increases every time we bring people across."

A young man in jeans came up a ladder out of the hole: presumably one of the student tunnelers. He looked hard at Walli, then said: "Who's this, Danni?"

"I vouch for him, Becker," said Danni. "I've known him since before the Wall went up."

"Why is he here?" Becker was hostile and suspicious.

"To go across."

"He wants to go to the East?"

Walli explained: "I escaped last week, but I need to go back for my girlfriend. I can't cross by a regular checkpoint because I killed a border guard, so I'm wanted for murder."

"You're that guy?" Becker looked at him again. "Yeah, I recognize you from the photograph in the paper." His attitude changed. "You can go, but you haven't got much time." He looked at his watch. "They'll start coming through from the East in ten minutes exactly. There's hardly room to pass someone in the tunnel, and I don't want you to cause a traffic jam and slow down the escapers."

Walli was scared, but he did not want to lose this chance. "I'll go right away," he said, concealing his fear.

"Okay, go."

He shook Danni's hand. "Thanks," he said. "I'll be back for my guitar."

"Good luck with your girl."

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