Page 50 of Edge of Eternity (The Century 3)

If only it were true.

Hans said: "Of course, it was never intended that I should marry you. A flirtation, just enough to get me into the house, was all that we planned."

"My proposal of marriage must have presented you with a problem."

"Our project was going so well. The information I was getting was crucial. Each person I saw at your house led us to more Social Democrats. If I declined your proposal the tap would have been turned off."

"How brave you were," Rebecca said. "You must be proud."

He stared at her. For a moment she could not read him. Something was going on in his mind, and she did not know what it was. It crossed her mind that he might want to touch her or kiss her. The thought made her flesh creep. Then he shook his head as if to clear it. "We're not here to talk about the marriage," he said with irritation.

"Why are we here?"

"You caused an incident at the employment exchange."

"An incident? I asked the man standing in front of me in the line how long he had been unemployed. The woman behind the counter stood up and yelled at me. 'There is no unemployment in Communist countries!' she screeched. I looked at the queue in front of me and behind, and I laughed. That's an incident?"

"You laughed hysterically and refused to stop, and you were ejected from the building."

"It's true that I couldn't stop laughing. What she said was so absurd."

"It was not absurd!" Hans fumbled a cigarette from a packet of f6. Like all bullies, he became nervous when someone stood up to him. "She was right," he said. "No one is out of work in East Germany. Communism has solved the problem of unemployment."

"Don't, please," said Rebecca. "You'll make me laugh again, and then I'll have to be ejected from this building as well."

"Sarcasm will do you no good."

She looked at a framed photograph on the wall showing Hans shaking hands with Walter Ulbricht, the East German leader. Ulbricht had a bald dome, and he cultivated a Vandyke beard and mustache: the resemblance to Lenin was faintly comic. Rebecca asked: "What did Ulbricht say to you?"

"He congratulated me on my promotion to captain."

"Also part of your reward for cruelly misleading your wife. So, tell me, if I'm not unemployed, what am I?"

"You are under investigation as a social parasite."

"That's outrageous! I have worked continuously since graduating. Eight years without a day of sick leave. I've been promoted and given extra responsibilities, including the supervision of new teachers. And then one day I discovered my husband was a Stasi spy, and soon afterward I was fired. Since then I have been to six job interviews. Each time, the school was desperate for me to start as soon as possible. And yet--for no reason they could give me--each time they wrote afterward telling me they were not able to offer me the post. Do you know why?"

"No one wants you."

"Everyone wants me. I am a good teacher."

"You are ideologically unreliable. You would be a bad influence on impressionable youngsters."

"I have a glowing reference from my last employer."

"From Bernd Held, you mean. He, too, is under investigation for ideological unreliability."

Rebecca felt a chill of dread deep in her chest. She tried to keep her face expressionless. How terrible it would be if kind, capable Bernd were to get into trouble on her account. I must warn him, she thought.

She failed to hide her feelings from Hans. "That's rocked you, hasn't it?" he said. "I always had my suspicions about him. You were fond of him."

"He wanted to have an affair with me," Rebecca said. "But I was unwilling to deceive you. Just fancy that."

"I would have found you out."

"Instead of which, I found you out."

"I was doing my duty."

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