As they drew closer, the black silhouette of the hill seemed to rise and become more defined, a small mountain range. A square tower sat like a crown on the crest of the eastern peak.
“That’s it — the Great Wall! Tiger Mountain! We must be really, really near the border!”
She hadn’t messed up after all.
“If we’re that close, we better be on the lookout for soldiers,” Simon said. “I’m sure they patrol the border constantly, especially if it’s an easy crossing. We gotta get out of sight.”
In the dark, they crept along the dirt path between paddies. Then, on the raised ground ahead, movement.
Mia grabbed Simon’s arm and pointed. They dove down into the ditch along the field. The soldier, a black figure against the dark sky, walked the short ridge. Back and forth, three times. Then he disappeared from view.
“I’m gonna crawl up there, see where he’s gone,” Simon whispered.
Mia waited while he crept forward. She couldn’t see anything. There was no way to tell if Simon was safe. Time passed. She tried to stay calm. Then the grass rustled nearby and he was beside her again.
“There’s a guard tower up ahead. He walks up and down on the ridge, then goes back to the tower for a while. He’s in there now. The next time he does his rounds, then starts toward the tower, that’s when we’ll move.“
They waited what seemed like hours until the guard returned. Again he walked back and forth on the ridge. Once, twice, three times.
“Okay, now.” They crouched low and crawled along the ditch as silently as they could. When they reached the end of the field, Simon crept up the slope, then pointed to the right. Mia climbed the slope to see the soldier moving away in the distance. Beyond him, the square silhouette of the guard tower rose above the field.
Mia touched Simon’s back and pointed straight ahead. Below them in the blackness was a liquid gleam. Light on water — the river!
They dashed toward a cluster of brush and trees on the ridge above the water. Then Mia almost ran into Simon, who had stopped short. He swore.
Mia stood and stared, not able to believe her eyes. Stretching out in either direction through the tangle of foliage was a tall fence. Strands of barbed wire were strung along an endless line of white concrete posts shaped like Ts. An impenetrable barrier, invisible in the darkness until they were nearly on top of it.
They crept to the fence to examine the heavy wire. A dozen strands stacked up from the ground to higher than Simon’s head, each a handspan apart. You could get an arm through the space between the strands, but not even a small child’s body.
They had made it to the border. The fence was proof. But they were still on the wrong side, with no way to get through.
It couldn’t be.
“It ain’t over …” Simon was ruffling through his pack.
“… till it’s over,” Mia responded automatically, but her voice lacked conviction. Her heart was sinking. It was all her fault; she’s the one who’d made a plan based on a ten-year-old guidebook. Impenetrable barriers were exactly the kind of change that could happen in a decade. They’d need more than a miracle to get through this fence.
“Remember?” Simon’s head came up. In the darkness she could just make out his face. He was actually smiling. He held up the pliers he’d taken from the trunk of the car.
“Wait! What if it’s electric?”
He stopped and let his eyes follow the fence. “Look, there are plants touching it. If it was electrified, there’d be nothing but bare ground.”
Mia held her breath as Simon reached out and touched the pliers to the wire. No zap.
“It’ll take a while, but I’ll be able to twist the wire to make an opening,” he whispered. “But I think it’s actually lucky we ran into the fence. It made me realize we need to wait a few hours.”
“Wait? There may be soldiers coming after us!”
“Yeah, but we need to cross over just before daylight.”
“Why?” Mia forced her voice low, though she wanted to scream at him.
“Because once we get into China, we may need help. And we’re not going to get any in the middle of the night, when everyone’s sleeping. It’s just after ten now; I think we should cross between four and five in the morning.”
“So we’re supposed to wait for six hours?”
“It won’t hurt us to get some rest.” He turned to scan the foliage along the fence. “How about there?” He pointed toward a clump of tall bushes. “That should be enough cover.”
They wriggled behind the bushes and settled as well as they could on the rocky ground among the branches. They could hear the river trickling in the gully below them. Half of that water was in China. To be so close, yet held back …
Mia’s exhausted brain began to run a horror video, on replay: Images of soldiers bursting in on their hiding place. Dragging them away. Being thrown into prison. Being blindfolded and shot.
She didn’t want to die. She wanted to go home.
“Simon?” Mia whispered, when she couldn’t stand it any longer.
“What?”
“Are you asleep?”
“Not anymore.” He must have been awake, if he could razz her.
She couldn’t think of anything to say. There was a long silence.
“You rang?” he prompted.
“I’m glad you’re my brother.”
“You woke me up to say that?” She could hear the tease, even in his whisper. “Me too, Squeak. Now get some rest. Tomorrow we’re getting out of here.”
OCTOBER 11
Simon was nudging her.
“The guard seems to be gone for the night.”
She must have slept a little after all. It was time to go.
It was still as dark as ink. The moon was down and the only light came from the faint stars and the glow in the sky behind Tiger Mountain. In China, where they had electricity at night.
They crawled through the bushes to the fence, finding a spot near one of the concrete posts where foliage provided a bit of cover.
“You keep watch,” Simon said, taking out the pliers.
As he worked, the sky began to lighten in the east. Mia knelt with her back to Simon, shivering in the early morning cold. She wrapped her arms around herself. Soon, soon, they’d be warm, she told herself.
She scanned the area on both sides of the fence for any sign of guards. More and more of Tiger Mountain emerged in the growing light. The slopes were covered in foliage, broken by the snaking line of the Great Wall as it climbed to the peak. So ancient, so majestic. For a moment it took her mind off the discomfort and danger.
“Yes! We’re through!”
Along the base of the post, Simon had bent back the strands of wire, opening a gap big enough to crawl through.
“Simon! You did it!”
“Any sign of anybody?”
Mia took a last look. No movement, no sound. “All clear.”
“You go first; I’ll hold it for you.”
Mia slipped one leg through the narrow gap and placed her foot down, anchoring herself. Then she slid her body through, pressing against the concrete post to avoid catching her clothes on the barbs. Simon handed his pack to her, then crawled through.
He squatted on the ground, bending the wire back so that the hole was still there, but not immediately visible.
“Hope it helps someone else someday,” he said.
The water in front of them was wide and flowing.
“It’s too deep to cross here,” Simon whispered. “Let’s go downstream, see if there’s a place that’s shallower.”
They inched westward, keeping close to the slope of the bank. Mia pointed to a curve of gravel stretched out into the river, nearly touching a sandbar on the opposite shore. The water narrowed to a channel between the spits of land.
They crept down to kneel beside the water, gazing at the black gap between the two spits of land. The channel was perhaps fifteen feet across. Not exactly one step, and too f
ar to jump. The current was flowing swiftly. It looked deep. So close, yet so far.
“Can we make a bridge?”
“We don’t have time,” Simon said. “We’d need to find a huge log — and anyway, we couldn’t lift anything that big.”
“Maybe there’s another way to cross.” Mia stared at the flowing water. Dread was spreading through her gut, making her feel nauseous.
“If there is, we don’t have time to find it. The next guard shift could arrive any moment. I think we’ll have to risk it. I’ll go first and take the end of the rope, then you can hang on. I’ll pull you over.”
“We’re gonna freeze.”
“Yup. I still think it’s our best chance.”
“Won’t we get hypothermia? I’m so cold already!”
“I know. But I can’t think of anything else, can you? I just hope to hell we’re in the right place, that we can get across fast and find a place to warm up.”
Mia raised her eyes to Tiger Mountain, right there, just across what was really only a stream. Just when their goal was within reach, just when she needed it most, all of her courage seemed to have evaporated.
“I don’t think I can do it.”
“I’m scared too, Squeak. But we can do this. We have to.”
She blew out her breath. “Okay,” she said in a small voice, not feeling that it was okay at all.
Simon pulled the rope out of his backpack, uncoiled it, and tied one end around her waist, the other around his. He held his pack over his head and stepped into the blackness. The water covered his feet, his shins, his thighs. He cursed.
He gasped as he slipped in, submerged to his neck, with only his head and his arms holding the pack visible above the water. Mia shivered violently. A moment passed, and Simon was rising out of the water, climbing up the bank on the other side, pulling the rope taut.
“Okay,” he called, just loud enough for her to hear. “C’mon, I’ll pull you over.”
Mia stood. Behind them, a border guard might have already caught sight of them. There were other soldiers searching. There was Colonel Pak. Ahead was a stretch of cold black water. The nausea deepened.
“Squeak, you can do this. Just like you’ve done everything else.” Simon’s voice floated across the chasm between them.
She took a step closer to the water. She slipped out of her backpack shoulder straps and held it overhead, just as Simon had done, to protect her books and phone from the water.
“Just get in. I’ll pull you across.”
She took a shuddering breath, then stepped into the river. The cold, the freezing cold, hit like an electrical shock as the water flooded her shoes. She started, felt her footing give, felt herself falling forward. She threw her arms out to catch herself. Her backpack flew out of her hands, landing with a splash. The black water seized her and swallowed her up.
She felt the tug of the rope around her waist.
“Keep your head up. I’ve got you,” Simon called.
Her body glided through the water, pulled by the rope. Then she felt Simon’s hands under her arms, lifting her. Her feet touched solid ground, but she couldn’t seem to move them, couldn’t stand. Simon picked her up and pulled her out of the water.
He crouched on the ground and she collapsed against him. She turned her eyes back to the river. No sign of her backpack. Everything was gone. Snacks. Water. Phone. Wallet. Dictionary. The guidebook. Her journal. She was naked, a turtle without her shell.
Gradually, she began to feel Simon’s body heat thawing her. She took a deep breath. What came bubbling up from somewhere inside her was … a laugh. She stifled the sound, but the giggles rippled through her. She felt Simon catch them. The two of them crouched there on the border, soaking wet, shaking with cold and silent laughter.
“Nice job, Squeak.” Mia could hear the smile in Simon’s voice.
“We did it!” she finally managed to whisper. “We’re in China!”
“Yeah. Let’s get going.”
She found she could stand then. She managed to trudge after Simon, clothes dripping, feet squelching in waterlogged sneakers. Nothing could stop them now.
They crossed the sandbar to the northern slope of the riverbank, then up to a grassy area dotted with bushes and trees. Once again, there was a fence, but it was made of thinner wire, easily bent.
As Simon worked on the fence, Mia raised her eyes to Tiger Mountain. She grabbed Simon’s shoulder and pointed. Pink light flooded the leafy slopes. They turned to the east where the edge of the sun showed, a brilliant red crescent along the horizon.
Mia passed through the gap Simon created in the fence and turned back to watch him. He stepped through, then paused. They exchanged a look, their eyes lit with the sunrise and the bigness of the moment. Mia couldn’t help grinning. They were over the border, through the barriers, in China!
Suddenly, she didn’t feel cold or hungry or tired. She didn’t mind that she’d lost her backpack and everything in it. Excitement sizzled through her like a warm electric current. She turned to look back at North Korea, across the stream, the fields, the river, beyond to the mountains. They had made it out.
“Okay, I’ve got something for you,” Simon said. “I want you to hide it, just in case.” He had his pack off, one arm reaching into it.
Mia watched, puzzled, as he pulled out a black rectangular device. Why would he want her to hide his music player?
He placed it in her hands.
The phone.
Mia stared at it, then looked sideways at him. How in the world — ?
“But — I saw you throw it —”
“It was my MP3 player. They look so similar, I thought it might fool them.”
Her mouth dropped open. “Simon!” She looked down at her hands again. “So we … we still have them? The photos?!”
He nodded, eyes shining. A smile played at the corners of his mouth.
“You — But —” To Mia’s surprise, what came blazing through was — anger. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I couldn’t, once they’d caught us; they would’ve heard. After that, I thought it was safer if you didn’t know.”
“So you were still thinking for me. Thinking I needed protecting.”
“Squeak, give me a break. I’m your big brother; it kind of comes with the territory. But I’m giving it to you now. Just in case something happens. They’ll search me first.” He reached back into his pack. “And here’s the battery.”
“But —” She was still trying to get her brain around this astonishment. The photos, the images of the prison camps — they still had them. She zipped the phone and the battery into the front pocket of her jacket, patting the nylon to feel them secure against her belly. To think that the images were right there …
“Do they know? That it was your player that you threw?”
“If they fished it out of the water, which they probably managed to do, they know.”
“That was pretty quick thinking on your feet.” She gave him a twisted smile. “You’re a hot ticket.”
He grinned back at her. “C’mon, let’s get to the Wall,” he said as he slipped his arms through the straps of his pack.
They started down the path that led to Tiger Mountain.
Then someone shouted from behind them. Mia whirled. Figures in uniforms were running down the embankment on the North Korean side, barreling toward the river. Soldiers!
“Run!” Simon yelled as he took off. “We’re in China — I don’t think they can do anything!” he called over his shoulder. “But let’s get to the Wall!”
They sprinted along a grassy ridge beside a pond, weaving through a grove of skinny trees. Mia struggled to keep up with Simon. Ahead was a wooden hut. Beyond that, on the far side of a gully, a fortress-like gate with battlements on top guarded the base of the mountain. That must be the entrance to the Wall.
Simon passed the hut and plunged down into the gully, then up a leafy slope, Mia clambering after him. Next to the fortress gate was a
paved area, deserted. No one to help them. Daybreak was too early for tourists. They could still hear the faint shouts of the soldiers, but no one was in sight. Yet.
“I don’t know what they’re gonna do,” Simon said, panting. He circled, scanning the empty road to their left, the borderlands behind them, the mountain to their right.
“The guidebook said —” Mia gasped, “sometimes the Chinese help — to catch people escaping — so the North Koreans might be able to come in!”
There was the sound of an engine, growing closer. Down the road, a jeep appeared in the distance.
“It’s military!” Simon shouted. They wheeled and ran toward the only place they could see that a vehicle couldn’t reach.
The Great Wall.
On the front of the fortress, a huge block of black stone was covered with worn carving in Korean, Chinese characters, and English. Beneath the stone was a door, a museum or gift shop. Closed. No shelter there. They ran along the north side of the fortress to the entrance stairway. Wide stone stairs led up to the top of the Wall. Mia was breathing hard as she pounded up the stairs, a few steps behind Simon.
On top, the broad walkway ran straight for a short section, then rose, a zigzag pathway scaling the mountain, all the way to the top of the cliff high above them. Many, many more stairs. From this point, some of it looked like a straight vertical ascent.
How in the world was she going to run all the way up the side of a mountain?
She caught up with Simon at the first landing, where he’d paused to look. Far below, the jeep pulled into the parking lot and soldiers jumped out. Mia and Simon couldn’t stop to find out if they were Chinese or North Korean. They took off again.
Mia put one foot down, mounted a step, then the other. Simon was always ahead, just out of reach. She longed to catch him, hold on to him, use his momentum to pull herself up. Through the vertical gaps in the side walls, she caught glimpses of the river and fields. The early sun cast long shadows and bathed the countryside in brilliant light. She pushed herself on up the slope.
In the Shadow of the Sun Page 23
