“Hold it, hold it, hold it.” Sabine pulled up short. “We’ve got to think this through. We’ll only get one chance to do it right.”
Well, they always looked around before they left the ruins of the bombed-out apartment on Bergstrasse. Just to be sure. And that afternoon, she couldn’t see any Vopos, but that really didn’t mean anything.
“Right.” Willi nodded. “So I’m thinking the only way we’re going to convince my father is if both my mama and yours tell him they want to go.”
“Maybe.” Sabine tried to think through all the angles. “But I wonder if we should find a few more people and help them escape. After all that work Anton and Albricht did in the tunnel. We hardly did anything, compared.”
“Yeah, but what are we supposed to do, march around the street with a sign: ‘Freedom Tunnel: Open for Everybody’?”
“I just feel guilty, keeping it to ourselves.”
She peeked out at the sidewalk once more, wondering. And even after changing into the clean set of clothes she’d stashed in the Volkswagen, she hoped she didn’t actually look as if she’d just crawled out of a hole. Oh, well. Their first stop: St. Ludwig’s.
“You did what?” Erich swiftly faked a smile and gave Sabine a hug when a dozen people in the hospital cafeteria turned to look.
“I said — ,” she started to explain.
“Little sisters,” he said with his broad smile, but Sabine could almost see the steam coming out of his ears as he cut her off. “Always full of surprises.”
He steered her to a quiet place in the hallway where he faced her and Willi. He looked like a parent who had caught the kids with their hands in the cookie jar.
“Tell me you’re joking,” he hissed, this time not so loud.
“It’s done, Erich.” Sabine crossed her arms and held her ground. She decided they had nothing to apologize for, no matter how mad her big brother sounded. “We finished it.”
Erich’s mouth hung open as he shook his head. “Do you have any idea how dangerous that was? You could have been buried alive! And who would have known?”
“Ja, Erich,” Willi said. “You should have seen it. Sa — ”
Sabine jabbed him in the side. They didn’t need to tell that story just now.
“It’s done, and we finished it, and that’s all there is to it,” she told her brother. “There’s a little opening by the church.”
Of course she didn’t mention exactly how close to the church or to the wall, because Erich didn’t give her a chance.
“An opening, already?” He rubbed his chin with worry. “That’s not how we planned to do it. We were going to wait until — ”
“We know, we know. It just, well, sort of happened that way.”
No use telling the whole story about the cavein. He already looked like he could have a heart attack any minute.
“Ja, but didn’t you think someone could step right through it? Then we’d have Stasi swarming all over this side of the wall until they found the entrance. Did you even think of that? They’re already breathing down our necks. One of the older nursing supervisors here watches everything I do. I think she helped get everybody arrested.”
“Yes, we thought of it, Erich, and I don’t need you to scold me. We just came for help.”
Erich paced a little circle around them, but he didn’t answer right away.
“And we wanted to ask you if we should tell anybody else in the fellowship,” added Willi.
“Nein.” Erich scratched his head and settled down a little bit. “I haven’t talked to any of them since the Stasi swept through here. It’s way too dangerous.”
“So, what are you saying?” Sabine parked her hands on her hips. “That Willi and I did all that digging for nothing? Look at my hands! You want us to forget everything, because it’s ‘too dangerous’?”
That wasn’t what they’d come to hear.
“Dangerous, yes. Forget everything, no.”
“Excuse me?” Willi whispered out the side of his mouth, but Erich ignored him as he went on.
“Maybe you and Mutti should take this chance to escape. I think she’ll leave now that Oma is . . . gone. She hates what this place is doing to you.”
“Uh, you might want to look down the hall.” Willi tried once more. “Is that the nurse you were talking about?”
The older woman had already started walking briskly toward them, clipboard in hand.
“You there!” the woman called as she approached. “A word with you, bitte.”
“Go now,” Erich commanded. “I’ll take care of this.”
“But — ” Sabine objected.
“Go.” He lowered his voice even more and checked his watch. “I’ll meet you at home in an hour. Not a word to Onkel Heinz or Tante Gertrud. And be careful who sees you.”
“What do you think she wanted?” Willi asked as he checked over his shoulder for the tenth time in the past block. Sabine didn’t want to think about it. But she had a pretty good idea.
“You heard him. Everyone’s being watched.”
“Ja, but why didn’t they arrest him, like everybody else?”
“I’ll tell you why they didn’t.” She sighed. “My onkel. I think he’s trying to use Erich to find the tunnel, so he can get all the credit. Maybe a pat on the back from Comrade Ulbricht.”
“From the Goatee? How do you know that?”
“I don’t, for sure. But I can’t think of any other reason.”
If she’d guessed right, though, the screws would tighten fast. They would have to make their move even sooner. So she kept up her pace for home. Bismarck loped along behind them as if he knew to stay close by. But she paused when they came to Willi’s corner.
“You’re coming,” she told him, without looking up. “Nine o’clock at the Beetle. So we don’t need to say good-bye. Okay?”
“Okay. But listen: you know my father might not . . . well, you know what I mean. So I want you to have something, just in case.”
“Willi, I don’t think — ”
He disappeared into his apartment building before she could answer. In a couple of minutes, he returned with his telescope.
“Here.” He held it out to her. “It’s yours.”
She wasn’t sure how she would carry it. But what was she going to do, say no?
“Well, um, okay. Maybe just a loan. I’ll borrow it until — ”
Until what? They both knew that Willi might not come to the tunnel later. But Sabine wasn’t ready to give up — not yet. She turned away, so Willi couldn’t see her get blubbery, and hurried home. They didn’t have much time.