Puzzle People (9781613280126) Read Online Free PDF

She loved to make jokes at the GDR’s expense, and he remembered several of them—but he wouldn’t dare repeat them.
    East German leader Walter Ulbricht and the head of the secret police, Erich Mielke, are talking about their hobbies.
    Ulbricht: I collect all the jokes about me that are in circulation.
    Mielke: Then we have almost the same hobby. I collect the people who bring the jokes into circulation.
    Stefan kept Katarina’s most damning statements out of his regular reports as an informer. If he hadn’t, she would have landed in prison long ago.
    “Katarina had help from her West German cousin,” Wolf said. “Can you think of anyone in the Eastern zone who might have assisted her in this escape?”
    Stefan knew what he was driving at. Wolf thought he had assisted her. He saw the suspicion in the man’s eyes. Stefan had to give him some names, so he tossed out the names of a few of Katarina’s closest friends. Knowing Katarina, however, she probably acted alone. She was gregarious and beautiful, so she had more than her share of friends. But she had even more secrets than friends, and she probably concealed her escape plans from everyone.
    A few times, when she had said something particularly reckless about the GDR, Stefan considered breaking up with her, thinking it might be safer to distance himself from her. But she was fun to be around, and he couldn’t resist her striking good looks and the stares she attracted when they were together. Some people thought he had Audrey Hepburn on his arm. Besides, Wolf encouraged the relationship, thinking that Stefan could use her as a way to penetrate the circle of student dissenters at Humboldt University.
    “You know, we ensured that you got into the law program,” said Wolf. “You didn’t have the academic performance to qualify on your own power.”
    “I’m grateful for that.”
    “Don’t be.” Wolf dismissed Stefan’s gratitude with the flick of his hand. “You are not in the program any longer.”
    Stefan nearly toppled from the stool as it lurched forward on its uneven legs. Law school was his dream. He loved the law. He loved the structure of it, the certainty.
    “I’ll do better,” he said, pleading.
    Wolf leaned back in his chair, still staring at Stefan. Stefan looked away but found himself eye to eye with Erich Mielke in the photograph. So he turned back to Wolf, then moved his eyes to the floor. At least there weren’t any eyes staring back at him from the tile.
    “Don’t worry, we still plan to use you,” said Wolf, finally breaking the silence. “Perhaps if you improve your performance—perhaps then you can still study law.”
    “Thank you, Herr Wolf. What must I do?”
    “Students at Free University are helping our students escape. We know that for a fact. But we need to know the how, when, and where.”
    Stefan nodded uneasily.
    “We also need to know the who.”

    Peter’s father, Herr Hermann, scared Elsa. He always had. But especially today.
    “Did you say anything that would have caused Peter to flee the Republic?” Herr Hermann asked calmly, tapping off the ash from his cigarette.
    Coughing in the fog of smoke that filled her small apartment, Elsa shrank back in the couch. “No. Nothing was wrong between us.” She didn’t mention the small tiff as Peter was boarding the train. Or the big blowup when she told him she had posted subversive leaflets.
    “I cannot believe that my son would do such a thing, unless he was driven to it.”
    Herr Hermann rose from the chair and walked to the window. He lit up another cigarette—his fourth since arriving. He was in his fifties, a handsome man—impeccably groomed, cleanshaven, with every hair on his head neatly combed in place. He made the trip from his home in Zwickau to Berlin as soon as possible after Stasi agents had appeared at his door asking questions about Peter. He exhaled a cloud of unfiltered smoke and stared out the window.
    “Do you know what it’s like to have the