Page 162 of Edge of Eternity (The Century 3)

"So would I. But we have no choice."

She looked away from him, at the rows of pews and the assiduous cleaner, and at a plaque on the wall saying I AM THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE. It was not helpful, Walli thought, but Karolin made up her mind. "Then let's go," she said, and she stood up.

They left the church. Walli headed north. Karolin was subdued, and he tried to cheer her up. "The Bobbsey Twins are having an adventure," he said. She smiled briefly.

Walli considered whether they might be under surveillance. He was pretty sure no one had seen him leave his parents' house this morning: he had gone out the back way and no one had followed him. But did Karolin have a tail? Perhaps there had been another man waiting outside her college for her to emerge, someone expert at making himself inconspicuous.

Walli started to look behind him every minute or so to check whether there might be one person always in view. He did not see anyone suspicious, but he succeeded in spooking Karolin. "What are you doing?" she said fearfully.

"Checking for a tail."

"You mean the man in the cap?"

"Maybe. Let's catch a bus." They were passing a stop, and Walli pulled Karolin to the end of the queue.

"Why?"

"To see if anyone gets on and off with us."

Unfortunately it was rush hour, and millions of Berliners were catching buses and trains home. By the time a bus came, there were several people in line behind Walli and Karolin. As they boarded he looked hard at each of them. There was a woman in a raincoat, a pretty girl, a man in blue overalls, a man in a suit with a trilby hat, and two teenagers.

They rode the bus three stops east, then got off. The woman in the raincoat and the man in overalls got off behind them. Walli headed west, going back the way they had come, figuring that anyone who followed them on such an illogical route must be suspicious.

But no one did.

"I'm pretty sure we're not being tailed," he said to Karolin.

"I'm so scared," she said.

The sun was going down. They needed to hurry. They turned north, heading for Wedding. Walli checked behind him again. He saw a middle-aged man in the brown canvas coat of a warehouseman, but no one he had noticed earlier. "I think we're all right," he said.

"I'm not going to see my family again, am I?" Karolin said.

"Not for a while," Walli replied. "Unless they escape, too."

"My father would never leave. He loves his buses."

"They have buses in the West."

"You don't know him."

Walli did know him, and Karolin was right. Her father was as different as could be from the clever, strong-willed Werner. Karolin's father had no political or religious ideas and cared nothing for freedom of speech. If he lived in a democracy he probably would not bother to vote. He liked his work and his family and his pub. His favorite food was bread. Communism gave him everything he needed. He would never escape to the West.

It was twilight when Walli and Karolin reached Strelitzer Strasse.

Karolin became increasingly jumpy as they walked along the street toward where it dead-ended at the Wall.

Ahead Walli noticed a young couple with a child. He wondered if they, too, were escaping. Yes, they were: they opened the door to the yard and disappeared.

Walli and Karolin reached the place, and Walli said: "We go in here."

Karolin said: "I want my mother with me when I have the baby."

"We're almost there!" Walli said. "Through this door there's a yard with a hatch. We go down the shaft and along the tunnel to freedom!"

"I'm not scared of escaping," she said. "I'm scared of giving birth."

"You'll be fine," Walli said desperately. "They have great hospitals in the West. You'll be surrounded by doctors and nurses."

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