Amber (17 page)

“That door won’t
hold more than a few minutes at best. I patched it up where Willis broke it but...” Bones’ eyes were open wide.

“Let’s get to work.” Maddock looked around the Amber Room. The place was spectacular, opulent beyond belief, and even in the light of only their flashlights, stunning in its radiance. He took out his camera and snapped off a hasty series of shots while continuing the discussion.

“First of all, are the dimensions right?”

Leopov nodded. “They are.”

Professor concurred. “I’d say this is it.” He walked up to one of the walls and looked at it closely. “It’s semi-translucent amber—you can see the impurities preserved in it—against a backing of gold leaf.”

Bones took in the whole room at a glance. “Pretty gaudy. Looks like it should be in a resort at Las Vegas.”

Leopov walked up to the wall next to Professor. She touched it and some of the aged, dry amber crumbled away. She jumped back, alarmed. “Don’t breathe the dust! It might be dangerous.”

Professor backed away too. “Right, the biological agent trapped inside.”

“I can’t confirm that, but better safe than—“

They heard the door to the tile room being pummeled. Maddock walked faster around the chamber. He scrutinized each mosaic as he passed until he found the one he was looking for.

“People. Right here.” The team ran to meet him beneath a mosaic depicting the Prussian Eagle. Maddock continued. “’The light shows the eagle’s curse.’ That’s what it said in the journal.”

They all stared at the raptor, which was mounted about head high in front of them.

Angry shouts emanated from the doorway, but the door remained closed.

“The stuff crumbles...” Leopov said, looking around at the walls. “...that could be the curse. It crumbles to dust and releases a preserved pathogen that causes a horrible death.”

“That does sound like a curse,” Willis admitted.

But Maddock was still entranced by the mounted eagle. “Leopov, what if it’s only the eagle that’s dangerous? That seems to be what the journal indicates.”

She had no immediate reply but Professor walked up to the wall and shined his light on the eagle. “Look, you can see all the little bits of biological crap stuck in this stuff.”

Maddock produced a small blade and approached the mounted symbol. With great care, he pried it free, with Bones and Willis ready to catch it as soon as it came loose. Maddock pulled it from the wall and held it up, turning it over for inspection.

“It doesn’t look any different from the rest of the amber that makes up the walls.”

“But what if it is different?” Professor worried.

Bones was listening to the ruckus outside the door. “What do you say we let the men in lab coats figure that out? But let me see that thing for a second.”

Maddock handed him the eagle. Bones looked it over. “Maybe we should just send somebody topside to call the cavalry and secure the room until they arrive.”

Willis seemed to like the idea. “Yeah, maybe the hostiles will kill each other off while we kick back in here and chill.”

Leopov looked away from the door to face the group. “I’m sorry, but there won’t be any cavalry.”

They all looked at her. Maddock asked her what she meant.

“My mission is to assess the Amber Room threat and, if I think it’s dangerous, to blow the place.” She unslung her backpack and held it up.

Maddock looked at her like she was crazy. “But there’s no evidence of a threat. You can’t just blow it up.” He waved an arm at the sparkling magnificence surrounding them. “It’s the eighth wonder of the world. Bones is right. We should turn it over to the scientists and let them assess it.”

Leopov pointed to the leather book in Professor’s hands. “The journal is all the assessment I need. And the sick soldiers. The curse lies with the eagle. I’m not taking any chances. In fact, all of us might already be infected right now.”

Professor looked up from the journal to glare at Leopov. “What in the hell are you saying? Are you planning on blowing us all up, too, just to be safe?”

Bones, still examining the eagle, added his two cents before she could reply. “Hey hot chick. Before you do anything too final, you might want to take a look at this.”

She looked over at him but her eyes were devoid of any expression, as though she had already made up her mind. “What is it?”

Bones looked down at the bird of prey. “The eagle’s curse.”

He held the eagle waist high, shining his light down through it. Where the illumination struck the floor, writing appeared, writing that was not in English.

Leopov cocked her head to one side as she stared at the characters, her interest now piqued beyond her ability to pretend otherwise. “That’s not German or Russian.”

Professor thumped the leather book. “It’s Latin.” He moved closer to the projection to get a better view.

Maddock looked over his shoulder. “What does it say?”

“
A curse on Catherine the Perverse. Your iniquities shall be visited upon the third and fourth generations. Cursed be the house of Romanov.
Something like that, anyway.”

Leopov sighed and sank to her knees, apparently shocked. “It
was
a curse,” she whispered. “But a curse intended only for Catherine the Great.” She shook her head as the realization took hold and she lapsed into silence.

Maddock continued the speculation. “The German officer said the light showed him the truth. He must have shone a light through the eagle just like Bones did, and saw the curse. But his knowledge of Latin may have been limited, and he may have been under great duress in time of battle. Whatever the case, in a rush to judgment he connected the curse to the soldiers who were getting sick, associating the two things incorrectly. Which, fortunately for us, means that there is no pathogen contained within the amber.”

“But why leave a curse at all?” Bones asked.  “Catherine the Great was, you know...great.”

Leopov shook her head. “Depends on your point of view. She was Prussian by birth, so a lot of people distrusted her right off the bat. She put down several uprisings, which made plenty of enemies. And then there were the rumors about her sexual appetites, which you alluded to earlier with such good humor.” She blushed and professor coughed before adding, “She also was unpopular with Catholics who felt marginalized.”

“Okay,” Maddock said, pacing in a tight circle around the eagle and its projected curse. “I think I can take a guess at what might have happened here.” They looked at him expectantly and he went on. “The Amber Room underwent major renovations while it was with Peter—and therefore Catherine--the Great, in the 1700s. So it’s not much of a stretch to assume that one of the artisans who worked on it wasn’t a fan.”

Bones cracked a smile. “And he thought it would be laugh to carve a big old
screw you
into the back of the Prussian eagle. That’s actually a pretty good one.”

“Maybe the curse worked, after all,” Professor said. “I mean, we know what happened with the subsequent generations of Romanovs.” He scratched his head. “Of course, I think it was five generations.”

Leopov cradled her head in her hands. “I can’t believe I was about to blow up one of the greatest treasures in the history of the world over a disgruntled worker’s curse.” She shook her head. “I’m so--”

A loud crashing sound came as the door to the adjoining room exploded open under the force of a battering ram and armed men poured through, shouting and aiming automatic rifles. One of them yelled in accented English, suggesting they’d somehow been monitoring the intruders.

“Everyone come out with your hands above your head.”

The Russians had arrived.

Maddock and Bones
exchanged glances. “Do we fight?” Bones asked, reaching for his pack. Maddock shook his head.

“Too many of them,” Professor said. “I see at least ten flashlights out there.”

Willis shrugged, looking around the glowing room. “I say let them have this crumbling glitterbox. I don’t think we need to die over something that’s not a national security threat.”

Maddock shook his head. “They won’t let us live to tell about it. They just want us to go down without a fight.”

The Russian called to them again. “Come out now or we throw in grenades.”

Maddock shouted back. “We both know you aren’t going to blast the Amber Room.” His voice brimmed with false confidence but he could feel the situation slipping out of control and knew they had very little time to act before they would no longer be able to. In an instant he assessed the situation and made a plan.

“Last chance,” the Russian bellowed.

Maddock responded at full voice. “All right! We’re coming out!” He turned to the others and hastily outlined his plan. When everyone was on board, he stood, placed his hands on his head, and made for the archway that led to the smaller tiled room. The rest of them fanned out as they emerged from the amber entranceway until they stood side by side, staring into the bank of flashlights trained on them. Maddock was hyper-conscious of the first row of tiles only a step in front of them.

“Very good,” the now-familiar voice said. “We are going to disarm you. Do not resist.”

Maddock wasn’t sure if the aggressors were familiar with the tile trap, or for that matter, if the tile “trap” was even real. What if they had jumped across on the 5-6-5 tiles for nothing? What if it was all in their heads and, had they fallen, no booby-trap awaited? The thought was alarming but all he could do now was hope that they had been right, that their caution had been warranted. The countdown in his head reached two and Maddock cried, “Now!”

As instructed, everyone jumped onto the tile floor at once.

The Russians froze for a moment, and then, just as they prepared to attack, their world erupted in smoke and fire. Many were thrown off their feet by a powerful initial blast, but it was what happened next that truly terrified everyone present.

A massive chunk of stone fell from the ceiling and impacted the floor, severing the legs of one fallen Russian while squarely landing on three more, ending their lives in an instant.

Through the haze of dust, smoke, raining shrapnel, cries of misery and shouted attempts at communication by both sides, Maddock singled out one objective, a singular goal that he saw as their only hope to make it out of the cauldron of destruction unscathed. He reached out and grabbed Bones by an arm slick with blood. He felt rather than saw him turn to look and Maddock gestured in the direction he thought offered a chance. Without waiting for a response he grabbed the nearest operator to his left, Willis, and showed him the way also.

The entire center of the tiled room was on fire, and a rain of debris continued to assault them from above, and from the sides as well, it seemed. It was too chaotic to figure out. But even so, the spit of weapons fire still came from the door, and Maddock knew that to try to funnel out that way was akin to being slaughtered in a gauntlet. He had no idea how many Germans and Russians remained, but at least a few of them did, and they would be out for blood, shooting at anything that came from this direction.

There was no way out through the Amber Room itself; it had probably been set up that way on purpose, to limit the number of access points it to a single, boobytrapped corridor. They had survived the initial catastrophe because they had known to get back off the tiles as soon as they triggered the explosives. And perhaps a little bit of luck. Because of that, they now had a single option that didn’t involve running headlong through a raging fire and surviving attackers.

Up.

Maddock hated to possibly give away their intention, but he had to shine his flashlight up toward the ceiling to pick out their best route. Fortunately the heavy smoke likely made it impossible for the men on the other side of the room to notice. In fact, Maddock could barely see up there himself, but he caught sight of a ledge, high up into the ceiling—or the gap where the ceiling used to be--that looked like it might lead somewhere. As far as he could tell, even with the missing chunk of ceiling they were still contained indoors, but it was hard to be sure with the smoke limiting his vision.

He led the team across the half of the room nearest to the amber chamber until they reached the left wall as they faced the door that led to the outer corridor. The walls of this room were natural rock and therefore irregular. Maddock wanted to be up off the ground before the smoke cleared and they would be easy targets for the Russians and Germans. He had confidence in himself and his fellow SEALs, and from what he’d seen of Leopov’s abilities, he thought she would be able to do it although couldn’t be certain. But it was the only choice they had. He would try to keep an eye on her if he could.

And for other reasons, too, he couldn’t help but thinking. But if she had in fact had some part in leading these military men here, she showed no signs of wanting to interact with them now. Her face was etched with genuine fear as she eyed the wall they ran toward.

They reached it as Professor grunted in pain and gripped his right arm. “I’m hit!” Maddock shone his beam on Professor’s arm but it was only a shallow flesh wound.

“You can still climb!” Maddock urged. “Up the wall, go now!”

Bones led the way, free climbing the available foot-and-handholds, demonstrating for the others how to proceed. They scaled the irregular face until they reached a narrow ledge about fifteen feet above the floor. Looking straight up, Bones could see that the ceiling was still intact, but that there was a massive hole in the center where the booby-trap piece fell out. But how to get there?

Below him, Professor, Willis and Leopov were on the wall making the trip up to the ledge, but where was Maddock? Then a swirl of smoke cleared and Bones saw him out toward the middle of the floor grappling with two Russians, both in military uniform. He watched as Maddock slammed their heads together, removed a sword from a sheath on one, and used it to dispatch a third man running at him. Then he looked into the haze, saw no one else coming and ran to the wall. The lowest footholds were now unoccupied and he started to ascend.

“Where to, Bones?” Professor scrambled up onto the ledge, the others not far below him.

Bones readied his rope and grappling hook. “This isn’t going to be easy, but I think I see a way up there.” He nodded up to the gaping hole in the middle of the ceiling. Then he took a second rope from Professor’s pack and spliced it to the first.

“Where are you going to hook it?” Professor gazed up into the opening but couldn’t make anything out in all of the billowing haze.

Bones coiled his double length rope and prepared to swing the grapple. “Into the great beyond and hope for the best. If there’s nothing up there, we’ve got nowhere to go anyway, right?”

The sentiment was so grim that Professor had no reply and instead turned to help the others up onto the ledge. Maddock was now about halfway to the ledge. Shouts still came from the direction of the door, and they could see bodies sprawled on the floor in that direction.

Bones wound up his arm, letting the rope gather momentum. After a few swings he let go of the hook, sending it soaring into the smoky aperture. He tensed, expecting to feel resistance when the grapple came into contact with...something...he wasn’t sure what, maybe the rock wall, a tree if the hole went through to the outside...he had no idea. But no contact came and he felt the rope go slack in his hands as the hook began coming back down.

He had resigned himself to the fact that he would have to take another swing at it, when the rope went still. He was braced for the weight of the hook pulling the rope downward but he never felt that force. The grapple had hung up somewhere up in the hole. Bones adjusted the rope and tugged on it, testing for resistance. It held fast.

Down on the floor he watched a soldier, sweeping an automatic rifle out in front of him, burst out of a roiling smoke ball and search for them on the floor. So far he was oblivious to what transpired above his head, but Bones knew that could only last for so long. It now or it was never.

He turned to Professor. “You’re next after me. Show the others the way as they make the ledge. Here goes...” He flexed his knees and leaped from the ledge, clutching the hooked rope with two hands. He swung through the air while sliding his way up the rope, passing through hot smoke as he went.

When he reached the opening, much of the smoke was funneling through it and he lost visibility. He could only see for about two feet in front of him, but that was enough to make out the inside wall of the booby-trap opening from where the chunk of ceiling fell. It was ragged and full of potential handholds. Bones didn’t think he had the time to climb up and see where it went. The team members were sitting ducks down there on that ledge. If he could hang on here, then he had to relinquish the rope so that the others could join him.

They’d simply have to hope that this opening led somewhere.

Bones solidified his hold on the wall and, once he was certain he could climb unaided, he tossed the rope down in the direction of the ledge. He couldn’t see that far with all the smoke so he had to hope that Professor was keeping a sharp eye out. He watched the rope play out and was pleased to see the slack disappear from it and someone, probably Professor, pulled it taut.

Bones began to climb while Professor readied himself and the others for the same ascent. Once he grabbed a handhold and a loose chunk of rock fell away, causing him to lose his balance but he quickly found another hold and latched on. He doubted anyone would notice a small rock hitting the floor with all of the mayhem transpiring down there. Bones climbed on, looking up but still unable to discern where, if anywhere, this excavated portion of ceiling would lead. His mind wandered as he settled into another hand- and foothold combination.
What if the ceiling chunk that dropped was designed to be contained beneath the true ceiling which was higher up?
Then he would have gone through a lot of trouble, and the rest of the team, too, only to be met with a dead end.

But he would cross that bridge if and when he came to it. For now, he did what he was good at, which was to climb. Up he went, pausing only to make certain of his grip on the sheared-off wall. He held his flashlight in his teeth, wishing he’d had the foresight to bring a headlamp with him. No matter—he was a SEAL and would make do with what he had. As he passed a large crack in the wall his light picked up a gleam of white and he stopped to look in more detail. A human skull. Embedded deep in the rock. Nearby he spotted more bones. He kept on with his ascent and soon he heard a voice calling up to him.

“You up there?”

Maddock!

For whatever reason he’d gotten the rope and come up next after Bones.

“Yeah! Still not sure where it goes but it’s climbable so far. Even you won’t have any problem.”

“Be right with you.” Maddock tossed the rope back to the ledge, where someone grabbed it, and he began climbing into the ceiling. In another minute he heard the rasping of shoes impacting with the wall and seeking purchase. Professor had arrived.

The rope was sent back twice more, first for Leopov. Maddock reflected, when he heard her announce that she was on the wall and sending the rope back to Willis, that perhaps she was not in collusion with the Russians. If she was, wouldn’t she make it a point to be the last one out? It would be easy enough to do, unless Willis had insisted on ladies first, but given his rapport with her, Maddock doubted that very much. The thoughts kept his mind off of how long it would take for the Russians and Germans below to figure out where they’d gone, and his arms and legs moved methodically and regularly as he free climbed his way up the face.

And then, while in a kind of trance born of repetitive physicality, Bones’ voice carried down to him from...somewhere...Maddock looked up for the first time in a little while.

Light.

He saw light!

And it was golden. His first thought was that somehow they had routed around back into the Amber Room. But how? Impossible. They’d gone straight up.

“...outside!” Bones’ words were hard to make out, but the last one was unmistakable.

He’d made it out. There was a way out of here! Maddock had to curb his enthusiasm; it would be all too easy to let the surge of adrenaline that accompanied the news spur him to climb faster than was prudent. He forced himself to continue to carefully choose his holds, as Bones must have done, and in short order he was reaching out to grab the big man’s hand. Maddock called down to the others before being hauled out of the pit by Bones. He wanted to make sure they knew that there was a way out.

And then he saw the golden light all around them. Not the Amber Room.

A sunset.

He and Bones surveyed their surroundings in the fading, amber light while the others completed their ascents. They had emerged atop a high, forested hill, one with a view of the lake that was partially obscured by trees. The only human sounds they heard came from down below, through the opening into the amber chamber.