The Helsinki Pact (15 page)

“It looks a bit over three
metres. I’ll go first to check there’s no problems down there. Push
the rucksacks through after I’m down and I’ll catch them. You come
next Kai, copy what I do and then we’ll catch Ulrike when she
drops. Ulrike, shine the light down below me.”

As Kai returned with the
rucksacks Bernhard turned his back to the hole, pushed his legs
through and wriggled till he was hanging down, his hands gripping
the row of bricks. Glancing down he judged his landing spot and
dropped, falling lightly on bending knees. Kai pushed the three
rucksacks through and followed, landing safely. Grinning at each
other they high-fived and turned to help Ulrike. Dropping the torch
into Bernhard’s hands she turned and wriggled through feet first,
dangling awkwardly half through the hole, resting on one elbow, her
other hand scrabbling for the row of bricks. Her legs suddenly
waved wildly.

“Oh God! I’m stuck! Something’s
caught! I can’t move. Oh God! Help me.”

The legs waved wildly again but
fell closer so that Kai could now just touch them with stretched
arms and guide them. Ulrike was clinging on with both hands to the
row of bricks when one suddenly gave way and with a rip of cloth
from her shirt she fell awkwardly sending Kai staggering away from
her as he broke her fall. She lay there, winded and they heard a
sharp intake of breath as Kai got to his feet. She saw him wince as
he stood.

“What's wrong?”

“Ankle. Twisted I think, I hope,
rather than broken. Hurts like hell though.” He winced again as he
put weight on left foot. “C’mon guys, let’s move. It’s nearly half
past ten. They could have found Schwinehexe by now and be after us
any minute.”

They were nearly opposite the far
end of a platform and behind them they could hear the rumbling of a
train, the wheels singing on the rails and the lights approaching
from round the bend, lighting up the brickwork of the tunnel. They
moved into an alcove and watched as the train ran slowly through
the gloom of the closed station, watching the faces of the
strangers sitting there incuriously, minding their own business.
Kai noticed a couple peering out at the eerie beauty, relic of an
earlier era.

“Ghost train! WhooooHoooo!” sang
Kai.

“Ghost station!” replied
Bernhard. “And we’re the ghost travellers.” He was grinning
widely.

They edged closer to the rails as
the last two last carriages were moving past. Searching desperately
for a handhold, somewhere to grasp and cling to, they quickly
realized how impossible to it would be to jump on. Seconds later
the train vanished, its tail light tracking the tunnel and
disappearing in the distance. The faint sound faded away. The
station returned to absolute darkness, absolute silence.

“Did you see where the train was
headed?” Ulrike asked.

“Yeah, Leinestraße” said
Bernhard. “That’s the direction we need to go, I think. I wonder
how often it runs, every fifteen minutes at this time, I guess,
though maybe even less frequently Sunday evening.”

“We’ve got to time it well.”
Kai’s voice was tense. “There are three main stations on this side.
We’ll run to the first and wait there for the next train to pass.
Then we’ll start running again immediately. We can’t wait in case
the woman wakes up and talks. Let’s go.”

They set off in a row, Kai
limping in front and Bernhard at the rear. Almost immediately there
was the rattle and whine of another train. Kai flashed the torch
beam along the tunnel walls, trying desperately to find somewhere
to take refuge but there was nothing, no openings in the blank
tunnel walls. The growl of steel on steel grew louder and they
could feel the ground shaking. Kai finally saw a narrow niche,
space only for one. Grabbing Ulrike’s hand he pushed her to the
gap.

“Get in there and squeeze as far
back as you can. Keep your head in or you’ll lose it.” he
shouted.

Turning he saw Bernhard lying on
the ground between the rails. He quickly followed, praying that all
those films he’d seen had got it right and that he’d avoid the live
rail. The tunnel filled with thunder, the sound now was almost over
them, the train moving at speed, the roar drumming off the walls,
amplified by and echoing across the empty galleries. They held
their breaths, waiting for the impact. The sound climaxed in a
tumbling, screaming clatter and rushed into the distance. Kai
didn’t dare lift his head but lay where he was immersed in the
silence until it was broken by Ulrike’s shrill, manic laughter.
Bernhard went to her, shook her and finally she calmed down,
sobbing slightly in relief.

“It was going the other way." Her
voice squeaked. "It wasn’t in this tunnel. It was the other one.”
She began laughing again, hysterically, then suddenly became
quiet.

The set off again, loping along,
running in short bursts, Bernhard now leading. Kai’s limping got
worse and he began falling behind. They finally reached
Jannowitzbrücke station and hauled themselves up on to the
platform. As they sat down, Bernhard checked his watch.

"Listen guys. It's nearly a
quarter to so it's taken us twelve, thirteen minutes to get here.
OK, that includes the stop we had to make but these first two
stations are close and so that's slower than we need to
be."

They sat on the station platform,
catching their breaths, Kai resting his now aching
ankle.

The next train arrived six
minutes later. This time they saw it appear, its white front light
illuminating the station, turning darkness into daylight for a
moment. Ulrike began to jump about on the platform waving her arms
and shining the torch wildly but no one in the carriages reacted.
She slumped back on the platform as the train disappeared and as
Bernhard got up from checking as well as he could how low the train
ran on the tracks.

“Looks like there’s just about
enough space under it but it’ll be very, very tight. Misjudge it,
and ... " He shrugged and pulled a face. "Let’s go. There’s two
more stops. And there’s no certainty they’ll always be running
every eighteen minutes. They might be more frequent for the late
evening crowds.”

As they ran, Kai limping, it was
clear they were slowing. Kai and Ulrike were finding it hard to
match Bernhard’s pace and he slowed down every so often to let them
catch up. Both were panting and Kai was finding putting any weight
on his ankle excruciating.

“We're running for our lives
now.” Bernhard said. “We’ve taken fourteen minutes to here and the
train could come any second. Put all your energy into this last
bit. We’ll rest when we get there.”

He set Kai and Ulrike running
ahead, urging them on from behind, mixing encouragement with
warning of the grave dangers they faced. Their pace increased
although Kai could do little more than lurch along, putting his
left foot down only for brief instants, virtually having to hop
along for periods. It seemed a long three minutes before they
rounded the bend and saw the Heinrich Heinestraße station just
ahead. Bernhard leapt on to the platform and pulled up Kai and
Ulrike who lay down on the floor, cheeks pressed on the concrete,
exhausted. A couple of minutes later trains approached from both
directions and they were bathed in lights and colours from each
side, the effect beautiful but cruel in the reminder of
risk.

In the silence after the trains
had passed their breathing sounded unnaturally loud. Kai thought he
heard distant footsteps but said nothing.

As they rested, waiting for
another train to come and go, Kai started probing his ankle,
shaking his head as he did so. He had studied the map a number of
times, and knew the worst bit was still to come. And it was too
risky waiting for the subway to shut down. If Frau Schwinewitz had
been found and was conscious they’d already be after them. And with
fugitives the policy was simple - no escape, shoot to
kill.

“Look guys … There’s no way you
can make this next stop with me limping and holding you back. You
two go ahead and I’ll wait here until this circus shuts down and I
can move safely. I’m pretty sure this subway line had a couple of
minor stops that got closed down even before the wall came up and I
think one might be just along here. Let's meet tomorrow morning at
the Moritzplatz station for a coffee. 10.30?” He tried to laugh but
didn't quite manage it.

“Let’s not get dramatic here.
We're not leaving you.” Bernhard said, although he realised that
what Kai proposed made objective sense. “We’ve made it so far, and
we’re going to make it the whole way. All of us. I
promise.”

They had to get moving before
anyone started on their tracks. If they still hadn’t reached the
station after twenty minutes, they would try to hide in an alcove.
Not on the tracks, though, he thought. There might be space but the
risk of touching the live rail was too high.

At the distant and now familiar
rumble he prodded Kai with his foot. "Up, up, up!" he said "We're
off!"

Another train marked
'Leinestraße' trundled through the station and as soon as it had
passed they set off. Bernhard was now carrying everyone’s bags,
Ulrike's on his back and the others crooked one on each elbow, and
was running ahead, illuminating erratically the sides of the
gallery to see how often there were crannies where they could
shelter if trains came, but finding only minor openings, mostly too
small to squeeze into.

As the minutes went by Bernhard
worked at keeping up everyone’s spirits. There was nothing but this
never-ending tunnel. Eighteen minutes had now gone by but there was
no sign of the Moritzplatz station. Nor was there any hiding place.
Kai’s breathing was becoming laboured and he kept cursing and
groaning quietly. Nineteen minutes. Bernhard was getting frantic,
looking for places to shelter. Twenty minutes. He saw a tiny alcove
ahead and pushed Ulrike into it while he and Kai went on.
Twenty-one minutes. They were at the end of a straight stretch, a
couple of hundred metres or more in length, when they heard the
singing and rumbling of the train and in a moment it came round the
far corner.

Waving madly, Bernhard jumping up
and down and Kai lurching and flashing the torch, they tried to
attract attention, ready to press themselves against the tunnel
walls or lie in between the rails in what would probably be a vain
hope if the train didn’t stop in time. There was no hiss of
emergency brakes and as far as they could judge no change in speed.
In another ten or twelve seconds at most the train would be on
them.

As he drove the train
automatically Franz Holderling was leafing through the pages of a
girlie magazine he’d brought, admiring the female curves and the
provocative poses on display, occasionally dragging his eyes away
to glance briefly at the track rushing into the beam of the
headlight. They would be approaching Moritzplatz station in about a
minute, he reckoned, so there was still time before he needed to
slow. He returned to the more important matter of staring at
ZsaZsa’s improbable cleavage and dreaming that he was gazing into
her eyes while running a finger down the gulley. He turned his
wrist and sensed the feel of a warm, soft weight on the palm of his
hand. He looked up dreamily.

Suddenly there was a sharp crack,
merging with an explosive bang, and the front light on the train
shattered, leaving the tunnel in a darkness all the more complete
in contrast to its earlier brilliant illumination. For a moment the
train hurtled on then Holderling instinctively jerked his foot from
the drive pedal and released the dead man’s handle, bringing a
sound of hissing brakes and the squeal of locked wheels on steel
rails. As the train slid and then came to a shuddering stop he
grabbed the emergency torch and pushed open the door in one
movement. He dropped to the tracks, staggering back and sinking to
his knees as the the powerful beam of the torch picked out the
scene immediately in front of him.

“Oh God! Oh my God!
Jesus!!”

Chapter 12

Monday September 18
1989

ON the Monday Thomas arrived for
his first briefing with Bettina, scheduled for 9.00 sharp. It was
now just after twenty past. He sauntered upstairs and ambled down
the corridors towards the door the guard had indicated. Every so
often he would stop and spend time looking at the pictures on the
wall, almost persuading himself that they were of interest to him.
When he finally arrived at the small office Bettina was standing at
the far side of the room staring out of the window, her body rigid
with contained anger. She swung round to confront him.

“Just what are you trying to
prove, Thomas? You’re thirty minutes late.” Her voice was
hard.

“Oh, am I late? I’m so sorry.” He
sat down without being invited, crossed his legs and examined his
nails with care, one hand after the other. “It took me some time to
find this place. I couldn’t go around asking just anyone on the
street now, could I?" He glanced around the office. "Pretty tacky
building too, isn’t it, no style, no style whatever – you’d think
the Stasi could afford something better, wouldn’t you? I mean, the
BND building in Frankfurt has real class. Have you seen it?
Wonderful architecture. Excellent decorative style."

Although he had no idea what the
necessarily discreet BND building was like he guessed Bettina had
no idea either.