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The two men lifted a body off the trolley and shifted it to a steel conveyor belt. Romer pushed a button on the wall. The belt moved, a door opened, and the corpse passed into the furnace.
They put the next corpse on the belt.
Carla had seen enough.
She turned and motioned the others back. Frieda bumped into Ilse, who let out an involuntary cry. They all froze.
They heard Romer say: "What was that?"
"A ghost," the other replied.
Romer's voice was shaky. "Don't joke about such things!"
"Are you going to pick up the other end of this stiff, or what?"
"All right, all right."
The three girls hurried back to the morgue. Seeing the remaining bodies, Carla suffered a wave of grief about Ada's Kurt. He had lain here, with an adhesive bandage on his arm, and had been thrown onto the convey
or belt and disposed of like a bag of garbage. But you're not forgotten, Kurt, she thought.
They went out into the corridor. As they turned toward the back door, they heard footsteps and the voice of Frau Schmidt. "What is taking those two men so long?"
They hurried along the corridor and through the door. The moon was out, and the park was brightly lit. Carla could see the shrubbery where they had hidden the bikes, two hundred yards away across the grass.
Frieda came out last, and in her rush she let the door bang.
Carla thought fast. Frau Schmidt was likely to investigate the noise. The three girls might not reach the shrubbery before she opened the door. They had to hide. "This way!" Carla hissed, and she ran around the corner of the building. The others followed.
They flattened themselves against the wall. Carla heard the door open. She held her breath.
There was a long pause. Then Frau Schmidt muttered something unintelligible, and the door banged again.
Carla peeped around the corner. Frau Schmidt had gone.
The three girls ran across the lawn and retrieved their bicycles.
They pushed the bikes along the forest path and emerged onto the road. They switched on their lights, mounted up, and pedaled away. Carla felt euphoric. They had got away with it!
As they approached the town, triumph gave way to more practical considerations. What had they achieved, exactly? What would they do next?
They must tell someone what they had seen. She was not sure who. In any event they had to convince someone. Would they be believed? The more she thought about it, the less sure she was.
When they reached the hostel and dismounted, Ilse said: "Thank goodness that's over. I've never been so scared in all my life."
"It's not over," said Carla.
"What do you mean?"
"It won't be over until we've closed that hospital, and any others like it."
"How can you do that?"
"We need you," Carla said to her. "You're the proof."
"I was afraid you were going to say that."
"Will you come with us, tomorrow, when we go back to Berlin?"
