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The Wall
By Lindsay Brambles
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Introduction:
This story, my very first short piece of fiction, was written back in the summer of 1979. I had spent a couple of years working on a fantasy novel and as I let that sit fallow for a time, I turned my thoughts to writing some short fiction. There was a bit of a boom in the SF field back in those days (largely because of STAR WARS), and I thought I'd try my hand at cranking out something for the market.
The concept for the story came out of reading an article about the Iron Curtain, which back in those days was still an overarching presence in the world. The Cold War was still hot. Germany was still divided. And there was still a Soviet Union, which, in the immortal words of Ronald Reagan, was regarded as an "evil empire." At least by many in the West.
How much of what we believed back then was truth and how much myth remains in question, but the world was certainly a different place compared with what it is now--and we, I suppose, we're quite different people. The enemy, too, is a different breed now, and far more elusive than the monolith of Communism that scared the bejeezus out of so many of us. But in many ways the game played remains the same: it's about the culture of fear, of societies living in a constant state of apprehension, ever awaiting the next strike from an enemy who lacks all moral probity.
Back in the