Bear Any Burden - Chapter 13 Excerpt

A minute or two later, however, the traffic slowed to a crawl. "This is unusual," said Karol. “Maybe there's been an accident.” Anna didn't respond. But her stomach was knotting up. She was certain she knew what was happening. A hundred meters further on, they came across a roadblock set up by an armored personnel carrier with police and armed soldiers directing traffic into a single file. A police officer with a mega horn was shouting, "Keep to the right, keep to the right," forcing all the vehicles into a single lane as they eased their way past the roadblock. There were cones in the middle of the road to ensure that they stayed in lane, and they crawled on towards the border. Within a couple of minutes, they were brought to a total stop by another armored personnel carrier with armed guards standing either side of the road, and police directing vehicles in batches of ten to pull over to the border plaza and park diagonally. Instructions were being shouted, "Pul l over and park for inspection."

"Christ," Karol exclaimed. "What the hell's going on here! It's nothing to do with you lot, is it?" he looked at Anna quizzically.

"You just make sure you keep to your end of the bargain," Anna said coldly. Suddenly, Karol felt something pushing into the side of his jacket. He looked down at the pistol in Anna's hand.

"Holy shit, who are you?" he said, fearful and wide-eyed.

"Now, Karol," Anna said calmly, "There's nothing for you to worry about. Just follow the plan, and you won't get hurt, and you will be 80,000 Szlotys richer." Karol did not look nearly as confident as he'd been a few minutes earlier. When their turn came, they took up their position in a diagonal parking space. Karol lowered the window as a border guard came towards them.

"What the hell is going on, Hans?" he said, clearly familiar with the guard.

"Ah, there's a big flap on at the moment," Hans responded. "We're going to have to work double shift," he complained. “Nobody's been allowed to go. They're looking for a husband and wife traveling under Austrian passports," he continued. "I think they're Polish or Hungarian or something. Anyway, apparently, all the border crossings have been sealed, and every vehicle’s got to be inspected." With that, Hans suddenly noticed Anna. "Hello, Karol," he said, clearly impressed with this beautiful woman. "Who do we have here?"

"This is my little Fraulein from Vienna," Karol responded, calmer now. "She's been with me the last few days in Katowice," he said. "I've been fixing her up with some work."

"Really?" replied Hans. "What does she do?" giving a toothy smile.

"Oh, she was a well known singer with a jazz band in Vienna, but she ran into some problems."

Anna was impressed. Karol was going along with the plan, and doing very well.

"Really?"

"Yeah, she snorted a little too much coke," re plied Karol, “and got busted. Hasn’t been able to find any work since, although she's clean right now. So she's been performing for me," he said lewdly. “Isn't that so, Vera?" he said, leaning in towards her and stroking her hair and face.

Anna smiled and blew Karol a little kiss.

“It's all right for some," said Hans, looking at this beautiful blonde's smiling face.

"Hey, Hans, I've got some good news for you," Karol said.

"What’s that, then?"

"Vera’s got a sister in Vienna, Claudia. She looks like Vera," he went on, "but even sexier."

“You’re kidding,” responded Hans.

"Nope, and she wants to come to Poland with me. So maybe I'll bring her back next time, Hans, and we can have a night out together again."

This wouldn't be the first time that Karol had arranged some young, fresh meat for the border guards to smooth the way for his smuggling.

" She's got tits like large ripe melons,” Karol went on enthusiastically. "You'd love her."

"I love the taste of melon," responded Hans with a laugh. "When are you coming back?"

"Tuesday," replied Karol.

"What time?"

"About six. Is that any good for you?" Karol went on.

"Yeah, I get off at five on Tuesday. So I'll hang around, and we'll have a good time. We’ll go into Znojmo."

"All right, that's a date," Karol said.

"Okay," Hans said, getting more serious. "Now, let's see your passports.” Karol handed them over. He took two seconds to look at Karol's passport and then looked at the Austrian passport. "This is a bit of a mess," he said out loud.

"I know," responded Karol. "She dropped coffee on it.” Hans leafed through the contents. "Wow, this girl's been around," he said.

"I told you, she's was a well-known singer."

"What was the name of the jazz band?" Hans asked suddenly.

Karol hesitated. "Um, Tremblekids, I think," he said.

"Oh," replied Hans disinterestedly. "She came into Czechoslovakia with you on Tuesday?" noting the border stamp in the passport.

"Yup," responded Karol. "That's right."

Hans then studied the photograph inside the passport. "This doesn't look much like her," he said aloud.

"I know," said Karol. "That's when she was strung out."

"Christ, that dope can certainly make you look old," responded Hans.

"Well, she looks good now that she's off it, doesn't she?" replied Karol.

Throughout this conversation, Anna sat and smiled, occasionally holding Karol by the arm and cuddling up to him a bit, not really understanding the conversation, which was in Czech. Both Alex and Keller could hear the exchange going on and knew that the truck was being delayed for some reason. Alex felt himself starting to get cold and clammy again as he thought they might be di scovered.

"Okay," said Hans, handing back the passports. "I've got to check the back."

"Fine," said Karol, opening the door and jumping down from the cab. "Be my guest, but don't pee in the pots," he said with a laugh. He brought down the tailgate and ran up the shutter. He climbed into the rear interior of the truck and hauled Hans up behind him. Hans looked around and started to kick a few of the crates. "Sorry, Karol, I know it's a pisser, but I'm going to have to inspect."

"Not a problem," said Karol nonchalantly.

Alex could hear this and, even though he couldn't understand Czech, he just knew that the crates were going to have to be opened. "Open up this one," Hans said to Karol - kicking the one that Alex was in. He jumped with the thud of the boot hitting the crate not more than three inches from his face.

"Okay," said Karol, getting his hammer and chisel and starting to bang at the crate right next to Alex’s ear. "Th is one's a real bastard," he said to Hans after a moment. “It's bunged real tight.” How about that one?" He pointed to the crate lying next to Alex.

"Yeah, okay that'll do," replied Hans. Karol started pounding away at the crate, prying the top open for Hans to look inside. He moved a bit of the straw to look at the shell of the two baths sitting in the crate and then said, "Okay, Karol," who then battened down the crate again. Hans was satisfied. They climbed down from the truck. Karol pulled the shutter down and banged up the tailgate just as an officer came walking along. "Anything?" he queried Hans.

"No, Sir, not yet."

"Okay," said the officer walking onto the next van being inspected.

"Right," said Hans, handing over a white card to Karol with a figure 8 stenciled in black on it. "Put this in your windscreen. The border guard will wave you through, and hand it over to the Austrians down the road when you go through their i mmigration.”

“Thanks,” responded Karol.

With that, Karol got back into his cab, and Hans signaled for him to reverse back onto the plaza.

They gave each other a wave, and Hans shouted, "Looking forward to Tuesday," as the truck moved off towards the border crossing.

Anna put her gun back into her purse as they were waved through the border crossing and moved slowly towards the Austrian officials.

(Excerpt from the novel Bear Any Burden and reprinted with permission of the author, Ellis M. Goodman).

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Ellis M. Goodman is a Chicago based businessman who came to the U.S. in 1982 from London England. He is the author of CORONA: THE INSIDE STORY OF AMERICA'S #1 IMPORTED BEER, and has recently completed his Cold War Espionage Thriller Novel – BEAR ANY BURDEN. To learn more about Ellis M. Goodman an d BEAR ANY BURDEN, visit Bear Any Burden.