Escape...Beyond the Lindens

By John G. Jung

Imagine a country in which one in six of the population is either an official member of the hated secret police or are hapless informers forced to spy on their friends and families. To escape from their repressed society, some sought any means possible to do so. Some were successful but most were not. And if found, all those involved in the escape attempt were sent to a feared secret prison where they were interrogated and possibly tortured, mentally and physically. These types of stories did happen and not too long ago. This fictionalized account follows several families and individuals who risked their lives in these escape attempts in the months leading to the historic moment that the Berlin Wall fell on November 9, 1989.
Ari and Liesel Gold from Hanover in West Germany in 1989 visited their family in East Germany following their recent wedding. On their return, Liesel’s cousin was hidden under the back seat of their car in a lead-lined box. When he was caught, Theo, Ari and Liesel were not only charged with the escape attempt but they were also charged as spies when secret documents were found. Consequently, they were sent to a secret prison operated by the hated secret police, the Ministry of State Security, or Stasi.
Around the same time, a bus filled with students from England, including American Graham Fletcher and his Canadian wife, Cassie, were on a university workshop trip visiting with other students and professors from Humbolt University and the Technical University in East Berlin. But their story took a turn when the Professor from Manchester and his proteges attempt to help a genius-level family member of his to escape from East Berlin.
The months before the historic moment on November 9, 1989, when the Berlin Wall was opened to tens of thousands fleeing to the West, saw a society filled with anxiety and repression, but also hope for a better future. “Escape...Beyond the Lindens” offers a view into that period from a fictionalized perspective of those seeking to escape.

• Language: English
• Publisher: John G. Jung
• Release date: Jan 1, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215276693

John G. Jung

John G. Jung is an award winning registered professional urban planner, urban designer, professor and economic developer. He originated the “Intelligent Community” concept in the early 1990's and continues to serve as the Intelligent Community Forum's leading visionary, co-founder and Chairman. He has headed up key portfolios and initiatives in global cities such as Toronto, Calgary, New York, Hong Kong, London and Waterloo. Author and global keynote speaker at such events as Rio’s TedTalks, Mobile World in Barcelona, APEC in Beijing, Ottawa Writer's Festival and Global Forum conferences in Europe, he has led global business missions, workshops, design charrettes and is active teaching, consulting and participating in city-building initiatives. John is co-author of “From Connectivity to Community”; “Brain Gain”; “Seizing Our Destiny’; and “Broadband Economics” available at: https://www.intelligentcommunity.org/books and chapter author of several other books on cities and urbanism; and over 100 published articles and blogs on technical topics related to cities, climate change, artificial intelligence, human centric design, etc. EDEN 2084 is John's first work of fiction.

Book preview

Chapter 1

Helmstedt-Marienborn Border Crossing

April 7, 1989

Twenty meters out, the back seat of the car groaned.

We’re twenty meters out, shouted the driver. He looked over at his wife, shivering with fright in the passenger seat next to him. She was a small, 26-year-old blonde-haired waif of a girl. Her eyes were bright blue, shifting left and right, looking all around her under her designer sunglasses. Liesel looked younger than her age. Her youthful colored clothes were unmistakably from the West. She wore a modern pink mulberry silk blouse that she purchased in Hanover. She purchased her white woolen skirt from Paris when she and Ari went on their honeymoon. Her hair was pulled back into a tight bun. Liesel was his translator in Hanover when they first met, and they fell in love.

The driver, Ari Gold, a 35-year-old dark-haired and medium-built American from Denver worked as a chemical lab technician and Assistant Professor at Hanover Universität. He was well dressed in a crisp white shirt and black pants. Nervous, he sat up straight in his seat behind the wheel of the car. His thick, black-framed glasses made him look studious. People would have instantly believed him if he said he was a professor. They would have believed her if Liesel said she was his student. But she was his wife and had the papers to prove it. The groan from beneath the back seat was from Liesel’s cousin.

Days earlier Ari and Liesel drove from Hanover to Berlin in Liesel’s gray four-door 1980 Audi 100 crossing over at Grenzübergangsstelle Marienborn. Within a month of their wedding, Liesel convinced Ari to travel to Berlin to help her with a project that she had in mind.

What project do you have in mind? asked Ari back in their Hanover apartment soon after returning from their honeymoon.

Liesel teased back without being specific. Oh, just wait, you’ll see. It will be fun.

We’re visiting my family in East Berlin, Liesel told the border official when they crossed the border a few days earlier. My uncle is on his deathbed. This may be my last chance to see him, she told him as he stared past Ari through the opened window on the driver’s side of the car.

Liesel traveled over this border crossing several times before. Her family moved to Hanover when there was a chance to do this in the 1950s before she was born. But her uncle and aunt, Peter and Annalise Bressel decided to stay behind because of her aunt’s elderly parents. They spoke about leaving when suddenly barbed wire was extended across 30 miles through the heart of Berlin on August 12, 1961. They were trapped on the wrong side.

Over the years, Liesel traveled with her parents to visit her uncle and aunt and their son, Theo Bressel. Another son, Otto Bressel, Theo’s twin, broke away from his family to join the East German government eight years earlier in 1981 when his father and mother protested the East German government over its June 1981 General Elections. Five hundred deputies were elected to the Volkskammer, all of them being candidates of the National Front. This infuriated Peter, Annalise, and many others; enough to protest for the first time in their lives. Consequently, they were arrested for their participation in the protest. Otto hated them for being arrested while Theo saw them as heroes.

After being released from a brief prison stay, Peter and Annalise came home to find that Otto had a protest of his own and joined the East German government as a recruit for the border patrols. Theo remained in school but was singled out for his strength in researching cognitive reasoning. The East German government had a program that needed researchers. Theo fit that bill. Soon, Peter and Annalise were empty nesters. They did not see Otto or Theo for several years. When Theo was allowed to return to his home, working out of a research facility in East Berlin, his mother vowed to extricate him from the clutches of the East German government. Theo eagerly agreed to the scheme. He had always envied the lifestyle in the West. His work for the East German government only reinforced his desire for a life in West Germany.

Theo and Liesel were the same age and were close, despite the barrier of the Berlin Wall between them. At 26 years old, Theo developed into a handsome and muscular young man belying his thin appearance beneath his dark loose clothes. Liesel knew that Theo was always jealous of her life in the West. He wanted desperately to leave East Germany.

Theo worked in a research facility developing special devices for the East German Government. He was initially told that they would be for medical use, but soon he realized he was developing devices that the Stasi, short for the Ministry for State Security for the East German government, would use in deceptions and interrogations. Some of the devices were designed to confuse people, gaslighting individuals to eventually drive them to go insane. Others adapted his innovations for use in physical torture techniques.

Ari waited in line behind a bus bearing British license plates. He could not see past it to see what was happening in front of him. It seemed like a busy day at the border crossing. It appeared like many cars and buses were heading toward Hanover on the A2. Maybe they’d move things along because they were busy, he thought. Suddenly the bus veered to the right into a special bus zone. Ari could now see the entire border crossing in front of him. Grenzübergangsstelle Marienborn is a massive sterile-looking facility with individual lanes leading to wide interview spaces between light gray sheet-metal-clad buildings where border officers could interview the drivers and their passengers. Once in the inspection area, the cars were thoroughly investigated by guards leading German Sheperd dogs to sniff around each vehicle. Other guards armed with mirrors looked under each of the vehicles. Always present were ominous, gun-toting young guards within view of the passengers in their cars.

As Ari approached the official Marienborn border crossing zone, the car suddenly lurched over a raised speedbump. Theo, squeezed into a converted box lined with lead, hit his head and shoulders on the lead interior when the car hit the speedbump. Until that moment everything in the car had been quiet.

Ruhig! shouted Liesel turning to look at the back seat of the car. She pulled out a small red vial of perfume from her purse and generously patted some drops onto her neck and hands, smearing some of it onto the handles of her purse. The car reeked of her strong-smelling cheap Interstore perfume. She heard that it could help to distract the search dogs at the border. She returned the perfume to her purse and threw it onto the back seat of the car where Ari had placed two small brown travel bags and covered them with their jackets. Beneath was Theo in the converted box that Liesel built in her garage in Hanover with the help of friends, months before she met Ari. Liesel showed the car and hidden compartment to Ari a week after their wedding and explained her dream. Ari was incredulous and initially resisted. But as Liesel persisted, she wore Ari down. He agreed to think about it. Eventually, she got Ari to try the box out. Liesel could easily fit into the box, but Ari found it to be extremely tight when he tested it back in Hanover. Liesel said that Theo was smaller than Ari, so he would fit. Air holes were strategically placed where the head would fit next to the back of the seats. There were no air holes in the base and lower sides of the box to avoid detection by the border dogs trained to sniff out potential escape attempts.

When Theo finally slid into it, he reminded Liesel that he suffered from claustrophobia. She said that he never mentioned it before. Besides, Theo came up with the idea in the first place. She was thinking about that as they drove along the highway from Berlin. They knew that the box under the seat would be tight, but Theo was anxious to pursue it.

Theo was desperate to leave East Germany. He once told Liesel that he’d rather die than continue to stay in East Berlin. I won’t be caught. I will run to escape no matter what.

Ruhig! demanded Liesel once again raising her voice in the direction of the box under the back seat. She hoped that Theo could hear her shout to keep him quiet. She would not speak up again.

We’re twenty meters out, shouted Ari. He pulled the visor above him down to secure their passports and the entry documents that they obtained just 24 hours earlier. As the car approached the border crossing, there were several vehicles ahead of him. Ari and Liesel watched the standard border crossing procedure that they knew they would undergo.

The border officials surrounded one of the cars ahead of theirs. They were dressed in khaki green woolen uniforms topped with a military-style cap with a striking green band around it. Ari thought for a moment that they reminded him of the Gestapo or SS that he had seen in the movies. Two officials used a pole with mirrors extended onto rollers that they swung under each car. Another officer held onto a German Sheperd as the dog vigorously sniffed around the cars. A senior-looking official carrying a clipboard moved between cars to randomly ask cars in the line some questions and to open their trunks. It looked like an efficient process. Nothing out of the ordinary thought Ari. It was what they experienced coming through a few days earlier. He looked at Liesel. Ari reached out to hold Liesel’s hand and smiled. She returned her smile with an anxious look.

It will be fine, remarked Ari. He put his index finger to his lips signaling to remain quiet in case they had listening devices. Liesel anticipated these and other devices when she lined the box in lead.

After sitting quietly for three minutes in the line, Ari and Liesel heard a rustling from beneath the back seat. It sounded like Theo began to sneeze and cough involuntarily. It was muffled but noticeable. Liesel turned to hit the back seat with her hand. She didn’t say anything, but her effort stopped the noise from emanating from beneath the seat. Ari didn’t move to attract any attention.

The sun was high in the cloudless Spring sky. The car was beginning to get hot. Liesel’s perfume was strong but not unusual. Many women smelled of the same scent of the cheap perfume available in the Intershops in East Berlin where she had purchased it earlier in the day with West German Marks. Liesel sat nervously tapping her foot up and down. Her white skirt bounced as she tapped. She straightened her pink silk blouse, steadied herself, stopped her tapping, and became motionless as Ari, sitting quietly in his crisp, ironed white shirt, slowly swept his black hair out of his eyes. Time passed extremely slowly as they watched the cars being examined before them. One car was left in front of theirs. Ari was beginning to sweat as their car heated up under the sun. He wished that he had repaired the air conditioner, but he didn’t think it would be wise to invest a substantial sum into Liesel’s old car. Now he wished he did. He dabbed a handkerchief across his face and returned it slowly to his lap to avoid notice by the officials as they began to approach their gray Audi, pointing at the spot where they wanted the car to be inspected. Ari put the car into gear and slowly depressed the gas pedal, moving forward.

An officer approached Ari’s side of the car, indicating to lower the driver’s side window. Ari complied and lowered the window, smiling at the officer. The officer glared back and shouted to open the trunk. Ari pulled a tab positioned in the side panel of his door, instantly releasing the trunk’s latch, and exposing two large suitcases in the trunk. The officer reached out his hand, implying his non-verbal demand for documents. Ari passed out their two passports. The officer briefly flicked through Ari’s American passport and tucked it under the clip of his clipboard. He then turned to Liesel’s West German passport.

Sie sind verheiratet? asked the officer. Liesel’s passport had been updated to Ari’s last name after they were married. The passport seemed to be brand new, drawing some suspicion.

Sorry, I don’t speak German, responded Ari. Turning to Liesel for translation, she was about to speak when the officer spoke.

Mr. Gold, said the officer in a heavy German accent but clearly in English, are you married?

Yes, sir, replied Ari. Last month. This is our first trip together. He passed out the marriage papers to the officer. The officer looked briefly at the documents and returned them to Ari.

Frau Gold, asked the officer, wo wohnen sie?

Hanover, she replied instantly. Her nervousness disappeared as she responded.

The officer could easily smell the perfume emanating from within the car. Many German women, especially from East Berlin wore the cheap perfume smell that was easily obtained where other scents were rare. Most commodities in East Berlin were difficult to get, but this cheap perfume was easily obtained at the Intershops.

The scent you are wearing is very familiar, said the officer directing his comment in German to Liesel. My wife wears it herself. Very East German. Liesel nodded her head in agreement. Ari didn’t move. But you say you live in Hanover. You have access to much better offerings. I am curious. Why wear this scent?

My aunt in East Berlin gave it to me this morning as we were leaving, responded Liesel in German. It was a gift.

You have family in East Berlin? asked the officer.

Yes, responded Liesel.

You were visiting? asked the officer.

Yes, responded Liesel again, becoming more confident in her exchange with the officer.

What was the purpose of your visit, Mr. Gold? asked the officer switching to English.

I went to meet my new wife’s family for the first time, replied Ari.

And my uncle was sick, offered Liesel in German. We had a special pass to stay for several days since we thought he might pass away.

I am sorry to hear that, responded the officer, attaching Liesel’s passport under Ari’s on his clipboard. As he spoke, two officers rolled the mirrors below the car. I hope he is feeling better.

Much better, responded Liesel. Thank you for asking...

Anything to declare? interjected the officer abruptly while making a note on his clipboard.

Ari turned quickly to look at Liesel and they both responded by shaking their heads. Nothing, said Ari looking back at the officer.

Open your glove box, asked the officer out of the blue.

Liesel responded quickly and opened the glove box. Other than papers there was nothing in the box. She ruffled through it pulling out some of the papers and maps and holding them up so that the officer could easily see them.

The German Shepard sniffed around the car but didn’t seem interested. The smell of the perfume must have been overpowering. One of the officers with the mirrors looked into the trunk and moved the suitcases around. Satisfied, he nodded to the officer with the clipboard.

Alles gut, muttered the officer with the rolling mirrors.

As he was lowering the trunk lid a nearly imperceptible dull sound could be heard coming from within the trunk. The officer with the mirror raised the trunk lid and looked and listened in the trunk again. There wasn’t a sound. He called the officer with the German Shepard dog over to take another pass around the car.

Ari heard the slight but noticeable noise from beneath the back seat. The hairs raised on the back of his neck. He didn’t move, but he was sweating excessively. Liesel heard it too but tried to replicate the sound by shutting the glove compartment and shifting in her seat. It was a pointless gesture since it sounded quite different.

Mr. Gold, said the officer with the clipboard. You are very hot, no?

Yes, the sun on the car is very hot today, responded Ari. He raised his handkerchief to his face. As he wiped the sweat from his brow, he chuckled. We should have had the air conditioner fixed.

The officer with the mirror leaned into the trunk to try to hear the sound again. The dog barked. The dog’s reaction was enough to alert the officers around the car, attracting several additional border officials.

Mr. Gold, said the officer with the clipboard calmly, Please drive your car over to where my colleagues will point you to.

Ari stiffened but complied with the border officer’s instructions. He put the car into gear and slowly turned it in the direction of the officers with their semi-automatic weapons, pointing to a garage ahead of him. He pulled into the garage, directing his tires over the slots of a hoist. The officers with the guns surrounded the vehicle. One of the officers pointed to Ari and Liesel to leave the car. As Liesel reached over to get her purse, she was abruptly told in German to leave everything in the car. Ari and Liesel were surrounded by guards as they walked toward a door with the words Verboten written in bold on the opaque glass. When they entered, a female officer took Liesel into a room near the entrance.

Ari, cried Liesel, anxious about what was happening. The female officer grabbed her arm and closed the door abruptly.

Ari shouted after the door slammed shut, It’ll be all right.

As Ari shuffled down the dark hallway, he could see the senior officer with the clipboard waiting for him. He held the two passports in his right hand, waving them slightly as Ari approached.

Mr. Gold. You can wait in this room while we inspect your car more closely, said the officer pointing to a small brightly lit room with two benches separated by a table that dominated the space. Ari slid onto the bench and sat folding his hands. He continued to sweat and pulled out his handkerchief, wiping his face as the door slammed and locked. He looked around the brightly lit room. A camera pointed directly at him. Two speakers and the lights in the room were the only other things evident on the beige-colored walls. The room smelled of old sweat and fear.

Liesel was locked into a similar room, but much larger. She and the female officer sat in the room facing each other. They conversed in German.

How long will we be in here? asked Liesel.

Depends, replied the female officer.

I’m asking because I left my purse in the car, said Liesel. I’m concerned. I left my money in there.

No one will steal your money, responded the female officer, sounding as if she was insulted by Liesel’s assertion that East German border guards were thieves.

Why are they inspecting the car? asked Liesel. They already saw that we are just tourists with our personal possessions in the trunk.

I don’t know, responded the female officer. She put the white plastic earphone to her walkie-talkie up to her ear to listen. Something was happening. The room was soundproof. Liesel could not hear the commotion that was happening outside, but she could tell that the female officer was listening to her walkie-talkie more intently.

Outside, the garage door had been pulled down enclosing the space where the car had been raised onto a hoist. The car was surrounded by several officers holding their semi-automatic weapons in place, awaiting something to happen.

Two officers were examining the undercarriage of the car. Another officer was inside the car actively feeling around the top and sides of the back seat. It was suspicious that the back seat was rigid, missing its springs. He used a knife to cut the cloth and violently pulled back the seat cover exposing the box. It immediately alerted all the officers and guards in the garage. The senior officer with the clipboard entered the garage and instructed them to open the box.

Sofort! instructed the senior officer. He stood erect in his gray-green uniform, smirking as he called out his instructions. He lived for these moments.

The officer inside the car felt the edges of the box and knocked on the top. There was no response. He called out to have a crowbar brought to him. Within a few minutes, he wedged the crowbar between the seat and the top of the box. Once the wooden lid was removed, it exposed a black metal box made of thin sheets of lead. The lid was easy to remove exposing Theo, who covered his face with his hands. The lights from within the brightly lit garage impacted his eyes. Theo knew what was happening from the noise and voices that he could hear. He knew that he was caught. But he had already resolved not to be arrested. He would rather die than be arrested, he told himself. He didn’t move, despite his nose running. He was about to sneeze again.

The officers pulled him out of the box and began to lower him down the hoist. At that moment Theo sneezed in the direction of the officer’s faces. The officers let go of him to allow him to control his sneezing. Theo fell down the hoist and after hitting the floor, he convulsed as he sneezed and coughed. But amid this coughing and sneezing fit, he found his feet and spurted toward an open door next to the garage holding the Audi. The border guards pointing their weapons rushed to follow Theo. However, two officers preceding the guards collided in the doorway. The buckles on their uniforms jammed their exit through the open door long enough for Theo to run toward the cars in line to be examined. Theo, still coughing, ran erratically between the cars. The occupants in the cars looked in shock as they saw Theo dart between their vehicles. His coughing began to shift to a burst of eerily high-pitched laughter. Inspecting officers from several of the lines began to join in the chase.

The female officer guarding Liesel continued to listen intently to her earbud. She listened to the yelling officers and the high-pitched laughter in the distance, punctuated by cursing and threats. Liesel could see that her guard was listening to something unusual. Her facial expressions were telling.

Was ist Los? asked Liesel, realizing that something had occurred that could impact her.

Nichts, replied the female officer, putting her fingers up to the earbud to listen more closely. Liesel watched the expressions on her face to try to understand what was happening. After someone yelled Halt! a sharp-sounding bang could be heard over her earbud, the female officer’s face contorted, and she closed her eyes. She raised her hand to her eyes and held them to hide her facial expressions from Liesel as she heard two more shots being fired.

Was ist Los? repeated Liesel, in a louder tone, anxious by what she was seeing on the female officer’s face.

The female officer remained seated with her hand over her eyes. She did not respond to Liesel’s questions. Suddenly Liesel jumped out of her seat and ran to the door. She opened it and slipped out before the female officer could control her. Liesel ran franticly out into the hallway leading to an area where a busload of English-speaking students were being interviewed in front of their opened suitcases. She bumped into several of them, shouting in English to get out of the way. They watched in astonishment at what was unfolding in front of them. Liesel headed out of a door that exited onto the paved tarmac where the buses unloaded. A heavyset Spanish bus driver was unloading the suitcases from under his bus. The suitcases halted her escape long enough for the border crossing guards to notice what was going on. Surprised, the driver raised his two arms and muttered excitedly in Spanish, No me molestes. Déjame en paz.

Off in the distance, between slits in metal screens meant to obscure the bus passenger’s view of the cars being examined, Liesel spied the commotion around a black car. Officers surrounded the car looking down the front of it. As soon as some of the officers saw Liesel burst out of the doorway, several of them turned to rush after her. Liesel’s brief interaction with the Spanish bus driver caused her to hesitate in front of the suitcases. That was enough to give the female officer time to recapture her. Acting aggressively, the female officer pulled Liesel screaming and cursing back into the building and back into the interrogation room. The students standing next to their opened suitcases were aghast at the events taking place in front of them. The female officer pushed Liesel onto a bench, handcuffing her to a metal ring connected to the table. To mussel Liesel’s curses, the officer tied a handkerchief around her mouth. The room was quiet once more.

Ari was in a soundproof room and could not hear or see anything that was occurring merely meters away. The door had a small window that looked out onto the back of the head of an officer standing guard. The beige walls had nothing to look at. Instead, he focused on his hands. Time seemed to lag. He looked at his watch. His LED watch said 1115 hours. The last time he looked it said 1113 hours. The soundproof nature of the room only heightened the smell of old sweat and body odor. Ari imagined the prior occupant and wondered what happened to him or her. He looked around beside and behind him. The room was clean except for the floorboard immediately below his bench. It was smeared gray and red. There at the edge of the wall, he could see for the first time what looked like coagulated blood. The hairs on the back of his neck rose as fear overcame him. He looked at his watch. It said that it was 1117 hours. He began to wonder what was happening. Was Liesel all right? Have they found Theo? His imagination went wild. He began to nervously rub his hands. He looked at his watch again. Time seemed to stand still as his imagination raced wild around him. His watch said that it was now only 1119 hours.

The door opened and the officer carrying the clipboard instructed the guards to take Ari to another room. Ari was abruptly pulled by two guards from the bench and aggressively escorted to another room at the end of the hall. Ari suspected that something had happened. They probably found Theo, he thought, and his mind raced for excuses and things to say. While he was being pulled along aggressively, he blubbered…asking what was wrong. There was no response from the guards. He was dragged past an opened door and abruptly forced to sit on a single metal chair in a larger room than he previously sat in. The door slammed and bright lights came on.

Mr. Gold, said the officer with the clipboard in his heavy German accent. His sentences were complete and entirely understandable. My name is Commander Hans Shultz. We are going to have a more intimate talk, you, and I.

Ari watched the Commander circle him as he sat nervously on the metal chair. By now he figured that Theo was found. His mind raced to think about what happened to him and his wife, Liesel. I’m an American, he stuttered.

Yes, Mr. Gold, I can see that. I have your passport right here, said the Commander calmly. What I would like to know is why you tried to take that boy in a lead box across the border?

Ari was unsure if he should answer. By remaining quiet he thought he wouldn’t implicate himself. On the other hand, he was caught red-handed. Maybe by being honest with the Commander, he thought, they might be more lenient with him. He’s my wife’s cousin.

The Commander continued to walk around Ari as he sat in the middle of the room. He was quiet for several minutes as he paced in front of Ari. Did you know him?

Ari watched the Commander look at some papers on his clipboard. I just met him for the first time this morning.

Did you know that he was an asset of the East German government? asked the Commander flicking through his papers.

Ari was unsure what the Commander meant by this. He looked at the Commander and shrugged. The Commander wrote a note on his clipboard. Ari began to shiver. The room was exceptionally cool.

The Commander continued to make notes on his clipboard as he spoke. Were you going to get a price for him from your university?

Ari was incredulous. My what?

You are a professor and researcher at the Universität in Hanover, are you not? remarked the Commander harshly, We have ways of finding out what we need.

I am. But that had nothing to do with Theo, responded Ari. He is just my wife’s cousin, that’s all I know.

Yes, chuckled the Commander. That is probably right. You perhaps did not know this. But both your wife and her cousin did.

What are you saying? asked Ari.

The Commander returned to pacing again in front of Ari, waving his passport. You just married a month ago. Didn’t you find it strange that your new wife asked you to risk your life for her cousin as soon as you became married? How long did you know her?

We met when I arrived in Hanover to work at the Universität…four months ago. She was my translator, responded Ari.

A short time to get to know someone, don’t you think? chuckled the Commander.

We fell in love, replied Ari angrily.

I am sure you did, commented the Commander. I bet that she pursued you. Not the other way around.

What are you trying to say, Herr Commander? asked Ari looking up defiantly at the Commander.

The Commander looked at Ari shaking his head. Mr. Gold, I have seen this over and over again. Many tricks. You are an American and they think that nothing can go wrong with an American husband. But they are wrong. You and your wife will feel the weight of the East German judicial system and languish in our jails. We caught you red-handed trying to help an East German asset escape.

Ari cupped his hands and lowered his face into the palms of his hands and cried.

Liesel was unaware that the box under the back seat of the car had been found but she thought about what she saw when she was out on the tarmac. Could it have been about Theo?

Chapter 2

Cell at Hohenschönhausen Prison

Located about eight kilometers from Alexander Platz in the northeast part of East Berlin in the Hohenschönhausen borough lies a secret structure that does not exist on any maps. Operated by the East German Ministry of State, Hohenschönhausen Prison is surrounded by a large, restricted area, bordered by military housing. It can accommodate 200 prisoners in primarily single cells. In addition, the prison also contains a hospital for up to 28 beds, operating rooms, and an infirmary.

After several hours, Ari was taken by a sealed van to another location about an hour’s drive away from the Marienborn border crossing. He was the only person in the back of the sealed van. The officers in the van only spoke German and pointed the way with their hands and the ends of their semi-automatic weapons. Ari’s hands were bound in transit. Once he arrived in the new facility, he was instructed to strip his clothes. He was led to a chair where a barber Carelessly cut his hair. After his hair was cut to a short stubble, he was taken to a room where he was subjected to a miserable cold shower. When he returned to the room where he stripped his clothes, they were replaced by standard gray and white striped prison wear.

In handcuffs, Ari was led down a wide beige-colored hallway passing thick gray metal doors leading to individual cells. Along the way, a series of red and green traffic lights managed their passage through the maze of hallways. At one intersection, the red light halted their movement. The German-speaking officer grabbed Ari and made him face the wall as another prisoner was whisked past him. Ari could not see who the prisoner was. Afterward, the traffic light turned green. The officer turned Ari back into position and led him down to his cell.

Upon entering the single-person cell, his handcuffs were removed and pushed onto the bed. The room was only as wide as Ari’s outstretched arms and the length of two beds. It had a small toilet and single faucet sink near the door and glass block windows that Ari assumed would let in some daylight and help him to know what the time was during the day. A round peephole was positioned in the door for the prison guards to monitor the prisoners whenever they liked by sliding the metal cover out of the way. A square indent in the door folded outward into the corridor. The guards could open it to become a flat surface for the trays of food that would normally be delivered three times per day. The bed itself was made from a metal frame bolted to the wall with a thin mattress, a woolen cover, and a small pillow. Above Ari in the middle of the room was a single lightbulb that was on both day and night. It was held aloft by a flimsy wire from the ceiling. There was nothing else in the room. No hooks or anything that a prisoner could use to escape or commit suicide by hanging themselves. And, like the hallway, the room was painted a boring institutional beige. It was sparkling clean as if there had never been any sign of a previous prisoner in the cell. It smelled of disinfectant. No cockroach or fly could have lived through the thorough cleaning. The smell alone would keep any rodents from visiting. Ari plugged his nose to try to keep the burning smell out of his nostrils. However, it burned his eyes until he got used to it.

The room was also remarkably quiet. However, that soon changed. Ari noticed strange things about the room. The glass block window that was to have been for daylight seemed to be controlled light. It wasn’t daylight at all. At night, the light was kept on all night. Unless Ari covered himself with his blanket, he couldn’t get a very good sleep. In addition, music could be heard from time to time. In the evening when prisoners were supposed to sleep, loud music could be piped in to keep prisoners awake. Alternatively, random bouts of loud rock and roll music were piped into the cells. They could happen at any time of day or night, jarring the senses, but also heightening the prisoner’s awareness that it could happen anytime.

Ari noticed other little distractions. Sometimes the toilet flushed with a loud sucking sound that left the bowl empty. The water dripped from the faucet. The guards often knocked on the doors in the middle of the night as they passed by the doors. There was no reason for it, thought Ari. They just knocked. Ari realized that there was nothing to do. He couldn’t open the door if he tried. At other times, the guards looked in and instructed Ari to lie flat on his back with his two arms over the covers. When Ari was found curled up facing the wall, he was reprimanded. And after the second warning, the guards came into his room and took away his woolen cover and pillow. And sometimes a meal would arrive without cutlery or the wrong one. A fork for the soup and a spoon for cutting meat. These irritations seemed to have been done on purpose.

After two days of intensive interviews by various officers speaking broken English, Ari noticed a familiar shape being led into the cell next to his as he returned from his interrogations. But he wasn’t sure. He tapped on the wall to try to get his neighbor’s attention. There was no response. That night as he sat on the toilet, he heard distant-sounding loud music traveling up the drainpipe in the sink. After the loud music dissipated, he returned to the pipe and tapped gently on it. After several minutes and many taps on the pipe, Ari thought he heard a response. He wished he learned morse code but failing that he tapped out something that sounded like a recognizable riff of music on the pipes. Ari tapped the beginning of the 1977 introduction to Queen’s, We Will Rock You.

Dat, dat, dat…dat, dat, dat…

After a few seconds, he heard the same tapping in response. They were in communication! After repeating successive riffs from music, Ari heard a similar tapping coming from the bathroom toilet. It was more of a thump than a tap. In the distance, he could hear flushing sounds. He responded with his own flushing sounds. After different variations of taps, thuds, and flushes, he thought he heard a word pass through the toilet pipe after a simultaneous flush of the toilet. Ari and his neighbor experimented with different ways to communicate. It was only when they returned to the simultaneous flush and said a word that each of them could finally hear each other. After further flushes, they took their metal cup and emptied the water from the toilet into the sink. Remarkably, after emptying as much water as they could from the toilets, the pipes seemed to merge at a point allowing them to speak with one another.

Hello, shouted Ari into his toilet.

Hello, returned the voice in a German accent. The echo created a distant-sounding voice. It was barely recognizable. It sounded almost mechanical and coming from within a cave.

This is amazing, said Ari aloud. Can you hear me?

Yes, returned the voice from the cell next door.

I am Ari, said Ari excitedly. There was no response. He could hear through the toilet pipe that the loud noise started up again in the other cell. Soon his cell began to play loud rock and roll music. The lights from the glass block wall became strobe lights. Ari returned to his bed and covered his face with his blanket. He put his fingers into his ears and closed his eyes, trying to fall asleep.

The next morning after the guard came to retrieve the breakfast platter, Ari returned to tapping on the sink pipes. There was no response. He tried several times a day, but there wasn’t a response. After many hours of trying, Ari gave up. He was hoping that he might catch a glimpse of his neighbor between interrogations, but he never saw anyone again in the hallway when the guard took away the tray. After many more hours, Ari tried again. He tapped the recognizable rock anthem on the pipes. This time he got a response. Again, he flushed the toilet and soon they were repeating the process of simultaneous flushes. Within minutes, Ari was draining the toilet water into the sink with his metal cup.

Hello! shouted Ari into the empty toilet bowl. There was no response. He repeated it several times when he thought he heard a voice on the other side of the toilet pipe.

Ari? asked the voice emanating from the toilet pipe.

Yes, hello! shouted Ari in great excitement once again. You remembered my name, Ari laughed loudly.

Yes, it is Ari, right? asked the voice with a German accent, almost in disbelief.

Yes, I am Ari, laughed Ari.

Ari Gold? asked the voice.

Ari was shocked by the response. He remembered that he had only said his first name before the loud music took over the last time they spoke to each other. Ari couldn’t speak. He was in shock that the voice on the other side of the toilet pipe knew his name. Was he dreaming this, he asked himself. He pinched his arm. Yes, this wasn’t a dream. He could feel the pinch.

How do you know my name? replied Ari.

Yes, I know your name, Ari, responded the voice. After a brief pause, the voice returned. It’s Theo.

Chapter 3

Twins

Theo? asked Ari, surprised by Theo’s voice coming through the toilet pipe. He had so many questions to ask. Is this really Theo? Are you all right? Do you know where Liesel is? But he asked instead: How did you know about the toilet pipe?

Ari, said the voice through the toilet pipe, yes, this is Theo.

Theo, I am glad to hear from you, said Ari.

I learned about the toilet pipe in the last cell I was in when I first arrived, remarked Theo.

Ari couldn’t recognize Theo’s voice. He had only met him once before he entered the lead-lined box in the car. Are you all right?

Yes, I am now, said Theo. I was shot three times by officers when I tried to run from the car. One grazed my left arm. Another grazed my upper left shoulder. But the worst one lodged in my left leg near my kneecap. I walk with a slight limp now. I was in the hospital for the first few days recovering from my wounds. When I arrived here, the prison was full. So, I was in a cell with another prisoner. He taught me about the toilet pipe. Yesterday they transferred me to this single cell. I heard your tapping and thought it was my neighbor who taught me about the toilet communication system in my old cell, but it turned out to be you.

Do you know where Liesel is? asked Ari.

No, responded Theo. Would she even be here at this prison?

What’s the difference? asked Ari. Is this a different prison than where Liesel might have been taken?

I don’t know, remarked Theo. I know there are different prisons. I am not sure which this one is. I think it’s a secret prison. Maybe Hohenschönhausen thought Theo. He had heard about it from overhearing visiting Stasi officers at his research lab.

Have you been interrogated yet? asked Ari.

Yes, and I am sure you have been too, said Theo. I am familiar with their techniques. I will teach you what to look for and how to avoid the pitfalls.

I did not know that you were an asset to the East German government, noted Ari.

Is that what they called me? laughed Theo. And that is what they told you I was?

What does it mean? asked Ari.

It probably means that they think you are a spy, chuckled Theo. I am so sorry.

Are you? asked Ari.

Theo thought for a moment. His pause worried Ari. I worked at a research facility working on special devices and programs. I thought I was working on medical devices and procedures, but it turns out it was for facilities such as this.

I don’t understand, said Ari.

As Theo was about to respond, a guard opened the door and took him away.