Chapter 24
1962
The cart trundled and occasionally rocked along the dirt track, its load of manure at times clinging to it precariously. Edvard halted just before the bend beyond which lay the first checkpoint. He pretended to be adjusting something as he spoke. "Keep perfectly quiet, we are nearly at the guard post."
Mounting back into the 'driving' seat alongside his wife, Pavla, he shook the reins and the journey continued. Beneath the stinking mound lay three men in a wooden box, each wearing a filthy old coat, smeared in dung.
At the barbed wire decorated barrier, they were stopped by a stern-looking border patrol Officer who demanded their papers. Edvard nodded to the soldiers manning the barriers as he handed them over and called, "Danek, Konstantin. How are you both keeping?"
"I'm ok but Danek's piles are playing him up again," Konstantin replied.
Danek rounded on him, "I told you that in confidence. Don't be telling everyone."
Pavla dismounted from the cart claiming she had to stretch her legs as a soldier walked around it with a large dog on a leash. The Officer disappeared into the nearby little hut to check the papers.
"Petr, how are you?" she asked the soldier as she bent over and petted his dog. "And how is my little Sverma, today? Yes. Yes, mama has a little something for you." She delved into her skirts and produced a titbit for the animal. "This is a new one, isn't it?" she said, nodding towards the Officer in the hut.
Petr pulled a face. "Yes and he's a bit of a pain in the arse. Insists there's two on the gate at all times."
Pavla smiled. "Well, maybe he'll loosen up when he gets to know us all a bit better."
Edvard was sharing a joke with Danek and Konstantin when the Officer returned with a curt, "Alright, they're not on the list. Let them pass."
They continued on their way until out of sight when Edvard slapped the reins and increased their speed. Another kilometre, then they stopped and unloaded their contraband. Edvard took them into the edge of the wood.
"I can't spend too long on this. They know pretty much how long it takes us to get from one checkpoint to the other. Go straight through the woods, in about five hundred metres there's a small stream, cross it and keep going until you reach the old wood burners' clearing. There's not much of a hut there now but it's somewhere you can rest up until dark. Then, head out in a straight line from the back of the hut until you get to the second stream. Turn left and walk along it for two hundred metres, count it out, turn right and through the woods to the far edge. You should be able to see the silhouette of a guard tower in the distance to your left. They won't be able to see you. If you can't see the outline of a guard tower to your right then you're in the correct place, the blindspot. Get down in the undergrowth and wait. Around ten o'clock a patrol should go by on foot." He handed one of them a small torch. "When the patrol's gone, go to the fence and give three flashes. The filter is green. You should get one red flash back in answer. Stay where you are, they will come for you. I have to go now, good luck." They wished him the same.
It was further than it had sounded but they managed to find the remains of the hut and settled down to while away the hours. One on watch, two sleeping.
The sun broke through the tree tops; its luminosity like celestial searchlights subtly twisting and turning, fading then being reborn. The forest canopy let it enter but wouldn't let it leave, saving its heat to subdue the already exhausted visitors, a distant woodpecker's occasional rhythmic tapping the only sound.
Havel woke with a start. He could hear dogs barking. "Don! Vistula! Wake up!" he shook them vigorously.
"What! What's happening?" Don was up and on his knees, he could hear people shouting, dogs almost howling with excitement.
"They're onto us. They'll be here any minute." He stuffed something into Havel's trouser pocket. "Don't lose it, it's important. If you have to, swallow it. The pair of you, out the back and run. Do what we were told. Leave your coats here. I can use them as a distraction for the dogs. Go!" They both hesitated. "Don't argue! Go! Now!" he told them forcefully.
As they disappeared from the clearing, Don dragged one coat across the open ground and left it in the undergrowth. Scurrying in the opposite direction, he zigzagged through the trees, threw the second coat away in similar fashion and stripped off his own, running at right angles to his original path before dumping it. Another 20 metres, he turned and roughly doubled back then set off in a completely different direction. He knew he couldn't evade them; he was just trying to slow them down, buy the others some time. The dogs and the shouts were getting closer.
Shots splintered wood off the trees. They'd seen him. In the dying light, he kept running, left then right, pine needles and old cones occasionally danced on the floor momentarily as more rounds impacted.
Havel briefly looked at the small coin Don had shoved in his pocket, ten haleru, barely 18 millimetres in diameter. He instinctively knew it would somehow split in two to reveal its intelligence treasure. He wasn't interested in solving that puzzle and he wasn't looking forward to trying to swallow it either, especially without water. Then they ran. They could hear the commotion behind them, their pursuers were obviously running around the wood burners clearing then seemed to head off in another direction. They heard the shots and more shouting and still they ran.
Vistula took a tumble into a hidden shallow ditch. Although he was up again quickly he was limping and it was obvious he was in great pain.
"Havel. Take this." He held out the torch.
"I don't want it. You can lean on me."
"Don't be a bloody fool, Robert. You know there's only you who has any chance of making it now. I have to give you that chance. Take the bloody torch and get going!" Vistula threw it at him then pulled a semi- automatic from his waistband, checked the magazine and racked a round into the chamber.
"Don't do it, Volker." Havel pleaded with him.
Vistula smiled. "We came a long way, Robert. We've had an interesting journey and I thank you, truly, but for me, it ends here." He waved him away and limped off in the opposite direction. Havel briefly watched him then turned and ran.
At the stream, it seemed as if the dogs' incessant noise was getting closer but then shots rang out, loud calls and commands, dogs baying and then the sounds began drifting further away. By the time he'd reached the edge of the wood, the uproar of pursuit was in the distance. He lay in a drainage ditch of some sort catching his breath, darkness all around him. He went to check his watch and found he'd lost it. Then he heard voices. He could dimly make them out, coming from his left. When they were almost directly in front of him one of them broke away and walked towards him. Another was speaking on a radio replying to the almost tinny voice from the far end of a network.
Coin from his pocket, he summoned as much saliva as time and circumstances allowed and put it in his mouth.
The soldier stood immediately above him whilst Havel buried his head and hands in the undergrowth and concentrated on swallowing. A stream of warm urine cascaded over him. He did nothing. He heard shouting from the others, the guttural voice of a command, the urine stopped, a zip zipped and the figure above him disappeared. The soldier hadn't been able to see him, in the dark that's all he'd been, more darkness. He raised his head above the edge of the ditch and could just see the rear of the patrol as it broke into a trot in the direction of a renewed disturbance.
He crawled forward and when he reached the fence he took out the torch.
****
Don lay on his back, blood dribbling out of his mouth from where the soldier had struck him with his pistol. He looked up as a figure came into his view.
The man smiled down at him. "Good evening, Mister Creech-Kellar. We meet at last. It was a brave attempt but for nothing. We have Vistula in our custody now also, I think."
He looked at the man behind him who nodded. He continued, "Soon, we will find Havel also. You have given me no end of trouble, up and down, back and forth then you cross the Czech border to shake me off but you see it is not that easy. I'm made of sterner stuff, Tristan. May I call you Tristan? I feel I know you so well already. My name is Radler but you may call me Harald. Come," he bent down with his hand offered, "Let's get that nasty bite to your leg seen to. I must apologise for my colleagues but sometimes it's difficult to control an excited dog." He grimaced as Don rose to his feet. "Perhaps, we could also let you have a little shower. It would be nice for everyone, I think.”