Page 275 of Edge of Eternity (The Century 3)

Eric hesitated. "Why do you want it back?"

"You've just told me I have no talent. Of course, if you see a great future for the group--"

"Don't make me laugh." Eric picked up the phone. "Cherry, my love, get the Plum Nellie contract out of the file and give it to young Dave on his way out." He cradled the handset.

Dave picked up the money from the desk. "One of us is a fool, Eric," he said. "I wonder which?"

*

Walli loved London. There was music everywhere: folk clubs, beat clubs, theaters, concert halls, and opera houses. Every night Plum Nellie was not playing he went out to hear music, sometimes with Dave, sometimes alone. Every now and again he went to a classical recital, where he would hear new chords.

The English were strange. When he said he was German, they always started talking about the Second World War. They thought they had won the war, and they got offended if he pointed out that it was actually the Soviets who had defeated the Germans. Sometimes he said he was Polish, just to avoid having the same boring conversation again.

But half the people in London were not English anyway: they were Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Caribbean, Indian, and Chinese. All the drug dealers came from islands: Maltese men sold pep pills, heroin pushers were from Hong Kong, and you could buy marijuana from Jamaicans. Walli liked to go to Caribbean clubs, where they played music with a different beat. He was approached by lots of girls at all these places, but he always told them he was engaged.

One day the phone rang, while Dave was out, and the caller said: "May I speak to Walter Franck?"

Walli almost replied that his grandfather had been dead for more than twenty years. "I am Walli," he said after a hesitation.

The caller switched to German. "This is Enok Andersen calling from West Berlin."

Andersen was the Danish accountant who managed Walli's father's factory. Walli recalled a bald man with glasses and a ballpoint pen in the breast pocket of his jacket. "Is something wrong?"

"All your family are well, but I am the bringer of disappointing news. Karolin and Alice have been refused permission to emigrate."

Walli felt as if he had been punched. He sat down heavily. "Why?" he said. "What reason?"

"The government of East Germany do not give reasons for their decisions. However, a Stasi man visited the house--Hans Hoffmann, whom you know."

"A jackal."

"He told the family that none of them would ever get permission to emigrate or travel to the West."

Walli covered his eyes with his hand. "Never?"

"That's what he said. Your father asked me to convey this to you. I'm very sorry."

"Thank you."

"Is there any message I can give your family? I cross to East Berlin once a week still."

"Say I love them all, please." Walli choked up.

"Very well."

Walli swallowed. "And say that I will see them all again one day. I feel sure of it."

"I'll tell them that. Good-bye."

"Good-bye." Walli hung up, feeling desolate.

After a minute he picked up his guitar and played a minor chord. Music was consoling. It was abstract, just notes and their relationships. There were no spies, no traitors, no policemen, no walls. He sang: "I miss you, Alice . . ."

*

Dave was glad to see his sister again. He met her outside the office of her agency, International Stars. Evie was wearing a purple derby hat. She said: "Home is pretty dull without you."

"Nobody has rows with Dad?" said Dave with a grin.

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