'What do we know? That's not going to change anything. We have to keep going, Billie. Just keep going and hope something turns up. Unless…' Adam paused.
'Unless I contact them and leave you to go on. Alone.'
He didn't answer, just switched the engine on and backed out of the car space.
'No,' she continued. 'Not now.'
They joined the evening traffic.
'You must promise me…that if anything goes wrong, you'll run for cover.'
'Not if you need help.'
'Especially if I need help. If I worry about you, if we're in real danger, I won't be able to protect either of us. I want your promise.'
'Okay.'
'Don't lie to me, Billie.'
'I said…' she replied tetchily.'…I said I promised.'
'Good.'
He followed the signs out to the airport to the north. It was a simple route, left onto the Einheit Strasse, up to the Platz Einheit, across the vast square and straight up the 97.
But Adam didn't cross the Platz Einheit, turning left instead into Frederich Engels Strasse. He followed it for two blocks, in the inside lane, then suddenly cut across the traffic to the centre, executed a left U-turn and returned to the Platz Einheit. The traffic he had cut into blared behind him for his boorish driving.
'I've seen this in the movies,' she joked.
He didn't answer right away but kept his eyes on the rear-view mirror. The headlights of another car swung across the central reservation and followed him down the Frederich Engels Strasse.
'Bet it doesn't work as well as in real life,' he replied.
She swung round, but only saw the myriad jostling headlights behind them. 'Is somebody following?'
'I think so.'
'They don't let up, do they?'
'Never do.'
'What next, tough guy?'
'Let's tickle them.' As he turned left at the Platz Einheit and north onto Otto Buchwitz Strasse he explained what he wanted her to do.
'One hour thirty,' she said, when he finished.
'One hour thirty. To the minute.'
'Okay. And if you're not there?'
'Give me no more than five minutes. Then get out of here and go to Berlin. Straight to your people.'
'Five minutes isn't long.'
'It's enough.'
'I love you, Adam.'
He reached over with his free hand, wrapped his fingers round hers and squeezed them. She squeezed back.
Twenty five minutes later they saw the high blue concreted wall on the right, the barrier that had kept the secrets of the Red Army from the citizens of Dresden. The traffic slowed to a halt once again. 'Come on,' he said. 'Now.'
He put the handbrake on and waited for her to slip her legs across the centre console, then lifted himself so that she could slide under him. He fell into the passenger seat and heard her squeal.
'Sorry,' he said. You all right?'
'I'm fine.'
A car honked from behind, the traffic was moving again.
'Where's the handbrake?' she shouted.
'Here.' He released it for her from between the seats.
She put the car into gear and edged forward.
'Remember the route. Stay with the traffic,' he reiterated, opening the Falkplan for her and putting it above the glove compartment.
'Damn it, Adam. Stop treating me like a kid.'
He laughed. 'You take care. And no more than five minutes.'
'You take ca…'
It was too late. As the traffic slowed, he had thrust the door open and rolled onto the tarmac between the lines of cars.
'Adam,' she shouted after him, but the door had already been pushed shut. 'Damn you, tough guy,' she whispered to herself. She glanced in the rear view mirror and saw the headlights of the traffic behind her. Which of those lights were following them? She looked into the back. Which was when she realised the brown holdall was gone.
A car honked from behind, the traffic was beginning to move again.
Adam kept low and dodged between the slow moving cars as he ran to the pavement. Once there, he kept close to the wall and walked northwards. There were few pedestrians about and the dimly lit pavement afforded him the cover he needed. He could see the Quattro's tail lights drawing slowly away from him in stop-start jerky movements. He didn't turn his head to identify the car that was tailing it in case he was recognised. He hoped she'd be all right. Then he switched her out of his mind. He needed Marcus. He needed all the strength he had.
Three hundred yards farther on he neared the double steel gates and the Stermabeitalung who guarded it. He hadn't spotted them standing deep in the shadows.
There were two on duty, both in dark brown, ankle length, leather coats. To the outsider they would be mistaken for smartly uniformed security guards rather than the trained storm troopers they were. They leant against the gate, not expecting trouble as they joked amongst themselves.
He kept walking; there was little point in making them suspicious by turning round and retracing his steps. He knew they were watching him, but he ignored them, was just a worker on his way home. As he drew level with the double gates, they swung open. He heard the whine of electric motors. He slowed to look inside the complex as a black BMW 5 Series swept out and joined the traffic jam going north. Before the gates closed again, Adam had seen the gatehouse and guards on the other side, and the tarmac road that led into the woods behind. He continued up the road until he was well clear of the gate and its watchers.
The wall was topped with rolls of barbed wire and jagged glass stuck into the eight foot concrete slabs. Every fifty metres there was a television camera scanning the road. It didn't take a great mind to work out that this was some security conscious area.
He looked down the road and decided on his course of action. It was unusual, but worth a shot. The traffic had started to move more freely now and he walked to the bus shelter at the road side, and waited
It was five minutes before he saw what he wanted.
A single decker yellow-and-black bus was travelling fast in the inside lane, its headlights dipped and no traffic immediately in front of it.
When it was some ten metres away and was obviously not going to stop at the shelter, Adam stepped right into its path. As he did so he frantically waved it into the side.
The driver, travelling at some eighty kilometres per hour, had little alternative but to stand on the brakes and swing the bus hard right. It swerved wildly towards the wall, bounced over the pavement and came to a stop four feet from the concrete wall.
The driver, swearing loudly as his passengers picked themselves up from the floor and out of each other's laps, opened the front door and jumped down to see what had happened to Adam. There was no sign of him. The driver walked round the bus, then checked the road once again. Satisfied that there had been no accident, he cursed loudly to himself and went back inside.
Adam watched him from the top of the bus. He had scoured up the ladder at the back and now lay flat on the roof. He heard the hiss of the door closing and knew the driver was checking his passengers, making sure that there was no damage. After some time, he finally started the engine and crunched into reverse gear.
Adam came up into a kneeling position and waited for the bus to start moving. As soon as it lurched backwards, he stood up, ran the length of the coach as fast as he could and jumped over the wall. The coach stopped sharply as the driver heard the footsteps above him and listened. There was no more sound, so he slowly reversed back into the road as the Stermabeitalung from the gate came up to investigate. But there was nothing to see and they soon returned to their posts as the bus continued on its way.
Adam had landed in the clearing between the tree line and the wall. He rolled as soon as he hit the soft earth and crashed into the base of a tree. The impact winded him and he lay still, breathing deeply. When he was satisfied that he was all right and that no-one had heard him, he picked up the brown bag and moved into the safety of the trees.