Marino went outside at 1 a.m. He needed to make sure he had enough time. He could be delayed – a guard stopping for a cigarette or reacting to a stray animal – and he couldn’t take that chance. But he couldn’t go too early, either. It increased the risk of a guard finding the breach in the border. As he left his apartment, he was trembling, having paced the floor for over an hour, mentally rehearsing what was about to occur, worried not so much for himself but for the seven souls who entrusted their lives to him.
He exited the apartment building and entered the alley next to the brick factory. He crept through the shadows until reaching the rear. Peeking around the corner, he saw the stone wall from the cemetery twenty feet in front of him. It ended at the wrought iron fence that split th
