The Amber Secret

by David Leadbeater

  Bodie followed his gaze and saw several narrow tracks in the dirt.

  “Total darkness,” Caruso said, “down there.”

  “A cellar,” Bodie said.

  “A crypt.” Caruso shivered. “I don’t want to go down there again.”

  By now, a few mercs, Vash, and Gurka were watching. Yasmine waved at them. “Break out the flashlights and the spider spray. Looks like we’re heading underground.” She stooped and started tracing the tracks.

  Within five minutes they had the trapdoor up and were staring at a wooden staircase that led into the ground. Gurka illuminated the space with a powerful flashlight, then unsurprisingly sent Bodie down first. Soon, Heidi, Pantera, Caruso, and Yasmine were following him, along with Gurka, Nina, Vash, and six mercs. It was interesting to Bodie that they left Cassidy up top—no doubt seeing her as the biggest threat.

  Bodie climbed down the rickety stairs, testing every step. Once, the wood cracked but didn’t break. A good thing, since he ended up descending thirty feet into what could only be described as an underground cave. The air was dank and musty. Cobwebs hung from the ceiling and hindered further progress. Slowly, as the others crowded down behind, he swept the flashlight around.

  “See that?” he whispered to Heidi, waving the flashlight at the rocky walls. “Alcoves. And I do believe that’s a coffin right there.”

  His words were eaten up by the oppressive cave. He felt like a trespasser, seeing many alcoves cut into the walls of the cave. From some of them empty eye sockets glared back: long-buried skulls. Bones were piled on the floor, some scattered. Even as he watched, a rib cage shifted as something slithered through a heap of old bones.

  “Did you . . . did you disturb the dead?” Yasmine asked Caruso.

  “No. They were already like this. Somebody ransacked this crypt, I think, a long time ago.”

  “Then the dead will not be happy.”

  “You!” Gurka shouted into the uncomfortable stillness much too loudly. “You, Caruso! What did you find down here?”

  “I’m standing right next to you.”

  “Yes, just answer me.”

  Bodie understood Gurka’s anxiety. It was the atmosphere down here, the presence of old death and crawling things, the air full of bone decay and barely heard whisperings. Nobody wanted to move through the curtains of cobwebs that barred their way. Nobody wanted to touch them.

  Then Nina remembered herself. “Get on with it, for fuck’s sake.”

  Caruso pointed ahead. “It’s through there.”

  Bodie shook his head. “It bloody well would be.”

  They started forward, swiping at the hanging webs and pulling them apart, then trying to remove the sticky substance from their hands. Twice, Bodie felt something land on the top of his head and then scurry away. Once, something hit his shoulder hard enough to make a slapping sound, and he caught his breath. Through the webs they went, taking several minutes, until the far end of the cave grew near.

  Bodie stopped, seeing an altar not unlike the one upstairs. “What next?”

  “It is on the altar,” Caruso whispered. “These crypts around us, these coffins, they were cleared out by the Nazis. Do you know what lies down here now?”

  Bodie couldn’t suppress a shiver. “What?”

  “The dead slaves of Poland and Czechoslovakia. They shoved them in here, herding them in while they were still alive, and left them.”

  “I thought you didn’t know what happened?” Yasmine said.

  “I remember when I am around my relics.”

  “But why would the Nazis do that?”

  “Because they were fucking Nazis. They thought they were superior, untouchable. They thought they ruled the world. That every idea that occurred to them, no matter how trivial or horrific, was part of some master plan.”

  “How do you know this?” Gurka asked.

  “There.” Caruso pointed at the altar. “It’s all there.”

  Bodie saw a leather-bound book lying on top of the altar. Carefully, he swiped the last cobweb aside, noting footsteps in the dirt that could only belong to Caruso on his previous visit, and reached out.

  Nina slapped his hand aside. “I’ll take that.”

  Bodie swiped dust and cobweb scraps off his hair and shoulders straight into her face. “Then take it. I don’t know why the hell we’re here.”

  “Yes, you do. Same reason as the mercs.” Gurka appeared behind a spluttering Nina. “To do the grunt work while we stay unnoticed. To die first, if need be. What does it say?”

  The last sentence was directed at Nina, who was busy aiming a murderous look at Bodie. She recovered quickly and pulled Caruso to her side.

  “Tell us,” she said. “Tell us what you found.”

  Caruso’s face suddenly shut down. “It’s . . . it’s the book. I don’t know.”

  Nina shook him hard. “Do not play games with me. Think of your family.”

  Caruso squeezed his eyes shut. Bodie stepped up. “Hey, hey, it’s your pathetic aggression that’s affecting his mind. Can’t you bloody see that?”

  Nina swung on him. “Pathetic aggression? Is that what it is?”

  Bodie held out a calming hand, imagining Nina would call out some nasty reprisal on Caruso or even Lucie. “Psychological issues,” he said, “won’t be solved by threat. Give the man some space.”

  “Move.” Gurka interceded. “Let’s get out of this place. We’ll read the book somewhere . . .” He looked around, shivering. “Healthier.”

  Caruso was first out of the crypt, bolting for the stairs.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  Nina placed the leather-bound book on the church’s main altar. Bodie breathed deeply. The air up here in the nave was far sweeter than below. He’d finished brushing himself off almost a minute ago but still felt his skin crawl at the memory of the unseen things that scurried and crept down there.

  Carefully, Nina opened the book. Gurka stood to her left, Vash to her right. Bodie made a move to look over her shoulder and was pleased that nobody tried to stop him. Cassidy, he saw, had walked to the windows to check on Lucie.

  “It is not so old, this book,” Nina said. “I am guessing that the Germans made it.”

  Bodie wished Lucie were inside. Their historian was well versed in the Amber Room but, so far, hadn’t been allowed much involvement in their search for the treasure.

  “Or an undercover agent,” Jemma said. “Working for the Russians, maybe, to keep track of the Amber Room.”

  “Leaving a trail, a bread crumb at every waypoint. Every stop?” Gurka nodded at her. “That actually makes sense.”

  Bodie said nothing. Perhaps R24 wasn’t as omniscient as its members thought, if they were surprised that Jemma would come up with a good idea. But Bodie knew that Jemma’s mind was the sharpest of them all.

  Nina picked up the book and blew several layers of dust from its edges. Motes spun, catching the sunlight that speared through the narrow windows. As the woman continued leafing through the book, Bodie saw exquisite hand-drawn pictures of Königsberg Castle, of the Tatra Mountains, of valleys and lakes and much more. Dates and even times were written at the bottom of each page.

  “A picture diary?” he suggested. “Look, every day he draws something different. This is a record of the trip from Königsberg to . . .” He paused.

  “That is the Amber Room,” Jemma said as Nina stopped halfway through the book.

  The black-and-white drawing showed the room in situ. The words “Berlin City Palace” were inscribed underneath; Bodie assumed that was the setting for the picture. Several intricately crafted panels made up the walls of a large room, reaching all the way to the ceiling. Bodie picked out many of the complex art forms even in the pencil drawing.

  “It tells us nothing,” Nina said dismissively and turned the page.

  A minute later she paused again, at a page that had been divided by a thick pencil line. The top drawing was a depiction of the church they stood inside. The bottom drawing
portrayed an overview of a train track, significant because of a specific series of bends. Bodie thought the whole sketch looked slightly different to the rest of the book.

  It was the final page.

  Nina slammed it down on top of the altar, displacing clouds of dust. “What is this? Caruso, what did you find here?”

  Furiously, she stalked over, grabbed the Italian by the collar, and forced his head toward the floor. “Answer me. Answer me, or I will smash your head on the ground until something falls out.”

  Caruso was talking frantically. “It is in the book. I know it is in—”

  “We keep your family alive for cooperation. You will be straight with us, or I will have them beaten.”

  Caruso fell to his knees, hands covering his ears, eyes scrunched up. Bodie grabbed Nina’s shoulder and pulled her away. Instantly, three rifles were leveled at his face. Yasmine moved behind two of them. Nina spun and kneed Bodie straight in the groin.

  Cassidy jumped in between them, holding out her hand. “Stop.”

  Bodie had folded. Pantera took up a combat stance, ready in case there was violence. Heidi was close to Gurka. Jemma was near the book. Bodie struggled through the pain.

  Nina took out her radio and thumbed the mic button. “Hurt the blonde,” she hissed, staring defiantly into Cassidy’s eyes. “Make her scream.”

  “Wait!” Jemma cried out then. “Please wait; I know what we’re looking for.”

  Nina strode right by Bodie without a second look. “Show me.”

  “Not until you belay that order.”

  Nina cursed but thumbed the radio again. “Hold off,” she said. “For now.”

  “It’s the train tracks,” Jemma said. “They’re unique. They must be. It’s where this man”—she prodded the book—“hid the next clue.”

  Bodie rose gingerly, holding his groin. The pain was subsiding. His team was still in place, but the mercs were rattled, on edge. Any escape attempt at this point was going to prove costly. He nodded at Cassidy, surprised that the redhead had jumped in between Nina and him with nothing more than a raised hand. It wasn’t a good sign. He needed the old Cass back.

  “You’re saying that the owner of this book knew the route?” Gurka was saying. “Knew they would stop at the tracks? Why wouldn’t he just draw the Room’s final destination?”

  “Well, we can’t ask him,” Jemma said with a hint of exasperation. “There could be any number of reasons. Maybe he was an officer, privy to most of the route. Maybe the chosen few kept the destination to themselves, or maybe they just searched out the right place. Maybe he overheard chatter. I mean, they followed a train track, yes? Perhaps they were following it until something came up.”

  “The best hiding places, like the best plot twists,” Pantera said, “are always the impromptu ones. Those not planned.”

  “Can you find these curves?” Gurka asked Jemma.

  “Give me Google Earth and Lucie. The tracks will be abandoned, sure, but they’ll still be there.”

  Bodie was pleased that Jemma had asked for Lucie’s assistance. Anything to get the historian away from Dudyk.

  “Google Earth may not be enough,” Gunn said fretfully. “You might need satellite photos, or GPR, even.”

  Gurka eyed them both. “Ground-penetrating radar?”

  “Yeah,” Heidi said. “But don’t get ahead of yourself, kid. All we need to do is find the train tracks anywhere along their route, then follow the natural path they would take around or through these mountains. This set of curves”—she pointed at the book—“can’t be too far away.”

  “Why?”

  “Mostly because Caruso here found it on foot, I’m guessing. And because the Tatras aren’t comparatively large.”

  Bodie knelt beside Caruso. “Do you remember anything, Dante?”

  “My family,” the Italian cried. “Please don’t hurt my family anymore.”

  Bodie rose quickly and sent a vicious look at Nina. “Now he’s no bloody use at all. Well done, you fucking psycho.”

  “Hey.” Cassidy spoke from her position near the door. “Sun’s getting low. So unless you’re planning on tackling the Tatras in the dark, I’d say we need to make camp.”

  Gurka stared at the window as if he’d forgotten the time. “It would be better to stay for the night,” he said. “Use our computers to find the route and start out at first light.”

  With that, the mercs began ushering Bodie and his friends out of the church and into a chill early evening. The village was silent all around them, the encroaching foliage rustling gently. Darkness was already starting to press between buildings and shroud the pathways. Beyond, the undulating hills were in shadow, and the mountains were black shapes against a gray sky.

  Mists were rolling across the hills, seeping in from every direction, starting to blanket the landscape.

  “Not good,” one of the mercs whispered. “I do not like the look of that.”

  “One of the villagers told me the mists brought the night terrors,” another muttered. “Maybe we should go back inside the church.”

  Guns were prepped and raised. In the church, Bodie had heard several safety buttons switched on. Now he heard them flicked back off again.

  “There are more than enough houses,” Gurka pointed out. “Choose one. But I want a two-hour shift change and four men with me.”

  The relic hunters, Gurka, Nina, Vash, and Belenko found the largest sturdy-looking abode, followed by four mercenaries. Bodie saw everything as an opportunity to escape, but this looked very promising. He checked around for Lucie, but the descending dark hid all but the closest of faces.

  “We’ll need our historian,” he said. “Amber Room information could be vital at this point.”

  “Let me think on that,” Gurka said. “First, I want Miss Blunt to prove her findings. Or your historian pays the price.”

  Bodie was getting sick of all the threats, but he held his tongue as the entire group entered a single-room dwelling through a rickety wooden door. A low table and chairs stood at the far end, along with some locally made cupboards and shelves. Two camp beds covered by several woolen sheets sat to the right. Only two chairs were in evidence, also handcrafted, which both Nina and Gurka fell into.

  Vash sat on the floor, rummaging through his pack. “Here.” He handed Jemma an eight-inch Fire tablet and pressed the button to switch it on. “It’s tethered to my cell phone, so you should be able to use it as a modem even out here. Try it.”

  Jemma knew that, short of stumbling over them, the best way to find abandoned train tracks was by using aerial view. She took her time locating the correct area and then started to zoom in. Bodie walked over to Cassidy, Heidi, and Yasmine, who were standing by a low window.

  “Plans?” He knew they wouldn’t have much time to talk alone.

  “Overpower them; take Nina and Gurka hostage in exchange for Lucie and Caruso’s family,” Yasmine answered.

  “That’s a good idea. Risky, though. R24 don’t strike me as the bargaining kind.”

  “They’d call our bluff,” Heidi said. “But also, if we escape and take Caruso with us, they’re not gonna hurt his family. They need him.”

  Bodie nodded. “Yeah, I figured that one out already. We can deflect any blame by dragging him away. Well . . . there’s no time like the present.”

  Heidi and Cassidy nodded. Bodie turned to catch Pantera’s eye. The older thief had been watching, expecting something. Bodie gave him a “be ready” signal, something from the old days when they’d worked together that he knew Pantera would remember.

  Bodie readied himself.

  Then, through the open door, came a noise that made all the hairs on his arms stand up and sent a deep chill through his bones.

  Somewhere out there, around the village, something very large started to howl.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Bodie’s initial instinct was the same as everyone else’s—to check the nearest window. Night had fallen fully, and the lack of light
was menacing. There were no stars or even a sliver of moon visible. Bodie had rarely seen such utter darkness.

  Another howl split the night. Gurka thumbed a radio and asked the watchmen for a report.

  “Can’t see a thing, boss. Nothing threatening, at least.”

  Gurka swore. “I think it’s wise to—”

  A scream cut him off. A high-pitched cry of terror that gave everyone in the room, friend or foe, the same sudden jolt. Gurka thumbed the radio once more but heard only static. There was a second scream and then two quieter shouts, both full of pain. The howling began in earnest then, several throats crying out for blood.

  Then a second voice came on the radio.

  “Holy fuck, help me. I’m coming in fast. Look out for me. Oh, shit, they’re fucking terri—”

  Gurka winced as the sound of grunting and yelling filled the airwaves, along with something else: a feral snarl, a snorting bark. Bodie closed his eyes briefly as he heard the mercenary whimpering, begging for mercy, and then nothing.

  No sound at all.

  And then crunching, ripping, tearing.

  Bodie saw that the house door was wide open, darkness pressing inside.

  “Close that fucking door!” he cried. “Whatever that is—we don’t want it getting in here.”

  “The villagers warned us,” Gunn said. “Monsters.”

  Nobody challenged him. Two mercs moved to close the door. Pantera leapt over to assist them. Caruso had pressed himself against the far wall, eyes wide.

  “What are they?” Cassidy asked him. “Do you remember?”

  “Teeth,” the Italian whimpered. “Claws. Eyes of fire. You don’t walk these mountains at night.”

  More howls sent them back to the windows. Bodie found himself alongside Cassidy. “Seems we’re fighting more than just other people this time,” he said quietly.

  The redhead took a deep breath. “Yeah, nature and the environment too.”

  They squinted into the darkness, knowing it would be practically impossible to see anything creeping around outside but compelled to try nevertheless.

  Pantera motioned at the merc nearest the door. “You forgot to lock it.”