They moved at a crouch along one of the ditches, their boots soaking wet, but their feet, although uncomfortable, were dry. Keifer’s insistence that they wore a pair of thick socks, then a thin layer of waterproof plastic sheeting, followed by a second pair of thinner socks was paying off. Although in the long-term their feet would suffer badly, for now it was the best option. They came to a ditch that crossed in front of them, and he led them south before turning west again where they came to yet another junction.
He suddenly pulled her down next to him. He put his finger on her mouth. “Shush.” He cocked his ears and listened; then strained to see through the darkness for any sign of movement. Nothing; it was a false alarm. They crept forward, Keifer keeping the pace slow the nearer they got to the death strip. They stopped again and Keifer checked his luminous watch. Two twenty. He was pleased with the progress they were making. He wanted them to get to the first of the fences by three, the time when most individuals would be at their lowest ebb. Having been up for most of the night, sleep would be slowly dragging at the guards’ eyelids, and the temptation to close them for a few moments would be alluring, with the probability that sleep would overcome them completely. Or they would find somewhere to hide from their NCOs or officers and take a breather from the constant boredom of patrolling the seemingly never-ending border.
“Are you ready?” Keifer whispered to Adali.
She didn’t verbally respond, but he sensed her head nodding in reply.
He put his mouth up against her ear. “We need to move really slowly now. The signal fence can’t be far away.”
She nodded again, and he helped her up. He felt his heart suddenly beat faster, panic welling up inside him, doubts flooding his mind, but he quickly quashed them. He had planned it meticulously, spending night after night in the Sperrzone, scrutinising every aspect of the border and its defences, making sketches of the main features of the daunting barrier ahead of them; a huge risk had he been caught with them in his possession. But, as a result of being able to study them in the relative safety of his home, he had a good perspective on what lay ahead of them both.
He tugged gently on Adali’s arm and, after another twenty minutes making their way in the dark, they came to the edge of the final ditch. Once they left the safety of the channel, they would be extremely exposed: the ground fairly flat and free of undergrowth and shrubbery.
“You wait here, OK?”
“What happens now?” she whispered back.
“I’m going to move up to the signal fence, scout around and then come back for you.”
“Don’t be long. I’m really, really frightened.”
“I won’t, Addi.” He put his arm around her shoulder and squeezed her gently. Letting go of her, he hoisted his rucksack higher up onto his shoulders and headed across the open ground, crouching as low as he possibly could. It wasn’t long before he could see the dim shape of the fence ahead, the dark line of the mesh and the darker, evenly spaced, thicker vertical posts that held it up. He moved right up to it then lay down on the ground. He looked to his left and right. It was quiet apart from the occasional sound drifting across from the activity at the border crossing. The tower was on the other side of the fence, about a hundred and fifty metres off to the right. The one to the left was even further away. They wouldn’t be able to see him though, unless they used the powerful one-thousand-watt searchlight that was available to the guards on the tower.
He examined the fence. He had been this close to it before, but on his own, on one of his reconnaissance trips. Two-metre high concrete posts supported a mesh fence with half a dozen barbed wire strands, attached to insulators, running along the top. Two pieces of angle iron, at a forty-five degree angle, held them up and out, making it impossible to climb over without catching them. A further two lengths of wire ran along the mesh. All the wires were linked to an alarm system. If he caught, moved or tried to cut the wires, an alarm would be activated warning the border guards that the fence had been breached.
Keifer heaved his ghillie up, shrugged the bag off his shoulders, took out the wire-cutters from one of the pouches and started to cut the mesh just above the kickboard that ran along the bottom. He moved quickly; the clock was ticking. He stopped after every minute or so to listen and look about him. He knew the risk was great: a guard, or even one of the dogs, hearing the snip of the cutters. Keifer had selected a spot in between two of the dog runs which were fortunately a hundred metres apart. A westerly wind would help to keep his scent away from the dogs. He had two pairs of wire-cutters, and had made sure they were powerful and very sharp. Wrapping a cloth around the blade each time, he made a cut, hoping it would deaden some of the sound. Snip, snip, snip, snip. Pause, look and listen. Snip, snip, snip, snip. Pause.
Once he had finished, the fence was cut along the bottom and along two vertical strips, just under a metre high and about two-thirds of a metre wide. When pulled up, the bend at the bottom was just below the first of the sensor wires. He took a quick look around then headed back to where Adali would be lying low. He was sure she would be worried.
Eventually he found the ditch and heard Adali’s trembling voice call out to him. “Is that you, Keifer?”
He smiled at the naivety of the question. Had it not been him, she would now be a prisoner.
“Yes. Come on, we need to go.”
Gripping her wrist, he helped her up and, keeping a hold of her hand, led her towards the signal fence. He soon found the place where he had prepared it. Gesturing for Adali to lie down, he proceeded to ease the section of wire upwards, pulling it towards him first so it bowed, as he had practised at home, then pulling up over the alarmed wire. Taking the thin strips of wire from between his teeth, he wrapped them around the recently cut edge, securing it to the main fence. He was ready.
Adali lay on her back and shuffled through the gap, Keifer placing one of his hands on her feet to give her some purchase, watching the alarmed wire at all times. Once she was through, he did the same. The wire was pulled back down and secured at the bottom and the sides with the twists of thin wire. Not perfect, but it was better than leaving a gaping hole. There was no time to waste. They were now in the Schutzstreifen, the heavily guarded protective strip, nearly a thousand metres wide. He rifled through his rucksack and took hold of a sealed plastic bag and pulled it out, half opening it to check on its contents: heavily drugged pieces of lean meat. He had ground up over four dozen of his mother’s sleeping pills and secreted the powder into sections of the steak. They walked slowly across the strip, not wanting any sudden movement to be noticed by a sleepy guard. Keifer steered them at an angle, heading for the dog run he thought would be somewhere to his right. He just hoped they could get close enough to throw the baited feast before the dog smelled or heard the two of them approach.
The darker shadow of the dog run slowly became apparent, the worn track where the dog had run up and down day after day standing out from the grassed area either side. Keifer could see the larger shape of the kennel; perhaps the dog was asleep in there. They crept closer, Keifer constantly scanning the area, looking for patrolling vehicles or guards, the searchlight from the tower, or the sound of shouts or sirens. Arriving at the kennel, there was no sight nor sound of the dog. Keifer was puzzled. Maybe luck was on their side. The collar, attached to a length of thin chain, which in turn was linked to the cable that ran the full length of the one-hundred-metre run, was lying on the ground next to the dog’s home. He had a moment of panic. Perhaps the dog had been let loose and was running wild. He removed the meat from the packaging and tossed it into the kennel, just in case it returned. Checking his watch, three ten, he tugged at Adali’s arm and they moved to the next barrier that awaited them. Arriving at the kolonenweg, two parallel lines of small, perforated blocks of concrete embedded into the earth, ensuring the patrol road was accessible all year round, they quickly crossed it. Looking about him, Keifer could see a faint glow of light to the north, where he saw the activity at the border earlier in the morning. Almost immediately the other side of the road was the control strip, a line of bare earth that ran in between the patrol road and the first of the main fences. It was raked regularly, ensuring anyone crossing it would leave a trail of footprints, clearly visible for the guards to see as they patrolled past.