The Amber Secret

by David Leadbeater

  “There,” he said. “You will feel my vengeance.”

  Bodie gave up trying to figure out why Dudyk had saved Lucie; he was only glad that he had. They had been positioned in front of the first crate, facing the entrance, with the entire Amber Room at their back.

  “Find her,” Gurka said to Nina when she’d finished with their bonds. “She can’t have gone far.”

  To Bodie, he said, “I always knew we were better than you. This is more than you deserve.”

  Bodie said nothing as he watched Vash start placing charges inside the chamber that, assumedly, would run all the way to the cave’s front entrance. R24’s hope was to bring most of it down and escape as the CIA and whoever was left out there searched through what remained. The charges weren’t especially complex—mere slabs of plastic explosive with detonators attached, joined by sets of wires—but would easily do the job.

  As R24 worked and hunted for Lucie, Bodie held an arm up to his face, blotting some of the blood that still seeped from his wound, and started working on an escape plan. He was distracted by Cassidy kicking Dudyk.

  “Hey, hey! What the hell did you do with Lucie?”

  “She is alive,” the man said, struggling to speak through pain. “Faked the stabbing. Told her to . . . to collapse. And hide. To . . . hide.”

  Bodie was thankful for that. He heard Cassidy ask why, but when Dudyk didn’t answer, he turned his attention to Nina as she returned to Gurka at the front.

  “Wherever she is, she’s dug in deep,” the woman said. “I can’t see her.”

  “We have no time,” Gurka said. “She will die down here anyway. We have to go.” He started to walk away and then stopped, casting a glance over all the flashlights that still illuminated the cavern. “Die in darkness or in light?” he mused, staring mostly at Bodie. “It pleases me more to let you see each other die. That would be better.”

  He waited as Nina came back to them and looped a thick rope through their arms, joining them all together, before tying it off around one of the reinforcing bars at the top of a crate. It was the final nail in their coffins, Bodie thought. Tied as they were, they couldn’t hope to climb the crates or untie their bonds. Gurka and Nina made a sudden departure, gloating no longer, staying focused and concentrating on the next part of their plan.

  Dudyk groaned.

  Bodie glanced at him. “If someone can place their boot on his stomach, it might help slow the bleeding.”

  “I am done for,” Dudyk said. “Save . . . save her.”

  Caruso tried to hide the tears from Bodie as the thief swiveled his head, checking on everyone. “I am truly sorry, Dante,” he said. “We failed your family.”

  They were never going to be spared. Caruso knows that. But sometimes, knowledge cripples hope. And hope is what truly gets us past every hurdle.

  “It was an act, you know,” Caruso said. “Sometimes. My forgetfulness.”

  “Duh.” Cassidy spoke up, twisting her hands so hard against her zip ties that she ripped her skin. “I knew that.”

  “You did?” Bodie asked. “And never shared.”

  “Thought you knew, boss.” She managed a smile.

  Bodie shook his head. Even facing death, Cassidy was seeking to lighten their burden. But he knew Caruso’s sickness was far from an act—it was clear only the proximity of his lifelong passion made him fully lucid.

  “Before we die,” he said to Caruso, “please explain how you first found those clues. Who left them? A German soldier from the train? An undercover agent from the Second World War? Or someone else?”

  Caruso sighed. “It is nothing so dramatic. But I’m surprised you don’t know? Even now.”

  “Don’t be an ass.” Heidi’s wrists were bleeding too as she fought the bonds.

  The group shifted and twisted as they talked, but the ties were holding. Bodie managed to clamp the rope attaching them to the crate under his armpit and pull, but the bonds didn’t budge. A sense of fate and finality settled within him.

  “I left the clues,” Caruso said. “In reverse. I created that long, wide-ranging route on the way home to help safeguard me and the Amber Room. In case”—he shook his head—“anything bad happened.”

  “You left the clues?” Jemma had positioned herself so that she could tear at Gunn’s ties. “Presumably, then, you could have led us right here?”

  “Yes. But my route created conflict. Opportunity. You just weren’t good enough to escape R24.”

  “Thanks,” Cassidy said dryly, staring at the ground. “I blame myself for that, mostly.”

  “No,” Bodie told her. “It’s nothing to do with you. Gurka told me that they were similar to us. They’d just gone down a darker path. I understand that. They’re our equals.”

  “I helped along the way.” Caruso shrugged. “When you appeared to need me to.”

  “But something still doesn’t add up,” Bodie said and saw Pantera nod at the same time. “If not by following clues, how did you find the bloody Amber Room in the first place? Surely not by chance?”

  Caruso’s voice took on a sad note. “I truly wish I’d never found it. Now, I have lost everything. My poor family.” He hung his head before continuing: “I spent days and days rummaging in the basement of Königsberg Castle, through every box in those cellars. In the end, I found more than the single pane of glass that I showed you. There were really three. The second showed this valley, and the third showed the location of the cave.”

  Bodie digested that. “And these panes were in situ at the castle between 1945 and 1968, when they blew the castle up?”

  “Yes and no. The three panes were placed in separate walls of the castle. I know that because the boxes were marked. They were not together. I rummaged through countless boxes before connecting all three.”

  Bodie could have gone on, but precious minutes were ticking by. His wrists were scraped raw, dripping blood, as were everyone else’s. They couldn’t move, couldn’t take cover.

  “Wait,” Dudyk moaned then, interrupting them. “Wait, I can help you.”

  But a shriek suddenly rang around the cave. Bodie whipped his head toward the noise and saw Lucie running from a far corner. His heart leapt. The blonde girl ran across the floor.

  Her eyes were focused in the middle of the group. “No, oh no. What did you do, Dudyk?”

  She stepped across Bodie and fell to her knees beside Dudyk. Gently, she reached down and cradled his head in her arms.

  “Thank you,” she said. “For saving my life.”

  Dudyk’s reply was audible to all. “You told me to stop fighting for others and fight for myself. Well, I chose to fight for you instead.”

  She hugged him hard, making him groan. Tears fell down her face. “Shit, don’t die. You can’t die. Just hang on.”

  “Hey, Luce.” Cassidy’s voice interrupted in a way only she could. “Sorry to intrude, but if you don’t start cutting us free, we’re all dead.”

  Lucie whirled around, still not leaving Dudyk’s side.

  “Just think,” Cassidy said with determination. “What would Cross do?”

  Lucie started tugging at Cassidy’s ties, making the redhead grimace in pain. Lucie wrenched even harder, lost in her distress, in desperation, in panic.

  “Caruso,” Dudyk muttered. “At least I can tell you where . . . where your family is.” He dissolved into a racking cough as he gave them an address before going absolutely silent.

  Lucie whirled around. “No! Oh, dammit—”

  Dudyk’s head lolled to the side. The hand he’d been using to close the gunshot wound fell away. Lucie put a hand gently to his cheek. “Poor guy,” she said. “From birth, some people never stand a chance in life. He was one of them.”

  Bodie shuffled. “I’m really sorry, Luce, but just go grab one of those bloody knives. Now!”

  Lucie cried out in despair and started to move. But then, as if to drive home the fact that they were about to die, a shout traveled down the cavern’s passageways from the f
ront of the cave.

  Belenko’s voice.

  “Charges ready! Take cover. They’re set for ninety seconds!”

  Lucie rose instantly to her feet, body rigid. “I can’t save you in ninety seconds! I can’t cut you all free.” And she ran from them, eyes streaming, face red, deserting Dudyk and Bodie and the entire team.

  Bodie met the disbelieving eyes of all his friends.

  Caruso voiced everyone’s thoughts: “It’s over now.”

  CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

  Even in the midst of hopelessness, faced with death, Bodie did not give up.

  Due to the cave’s acoustics, they could hear the raised voices of the members of R24. It seemed they had gathered close to the crashed plane, taking cover behind some rocks there, close to the entrance. They could see the lower valley floor outside but still couldn’t raise their mercenaries on the radio. The mountains were clear; it was the valley that worried them. The choppers were idling away down there, surrounded by heavily armed men as several of their number used radios.

  Still, R24 had no idea they were the CIA. Bodie hoped the Bratva had survived but had no way of knowing. His life was currently measured in seconds.

  And to their credit, not a single person tied with him sat there and accepted it.

  “The knives,” Jemma said first. “When we grabbed the knives earlier, some fell to the floor.”

  It took a huge joint effort, but the bound group quickly rolled themselves around the first crate and nearer the cave wall. The rope that entwined them and secured them to the crate pulled taut. The person closest to the wall—Pantera—lay down and stretched as far out as he could, reaching for the hilt of a sharp blade.

  No matter how hard he strained, how much skin he took off his own and others’ wrists, his questing fingers stayed a good six inches short. The seconds ticked down. They rolled again, trying to reach a pile of treasure that contained at least one cutlass and a pitted bayonet. This time it was Gunn reaching, cursing, but still coming up short.

  They were strung out all around the crates. Bodie, counting down in his head, knew that half a minute had already passed. Their next attempt was to reach the explosives—maybe they could defuse enough of the row to save the cavern they were inside.

  But that goal was even further out of their reach. Cassidy was closest and grasped again and again until those behind her groaned in agony at the constricting bonds.

  The seconds counted down.

  Twenty-five, twenty-four . . .

  Lucie left them all behind, her friends, her fears, her expectations, and her best future. It had been a quick, horrible calculation. Yes, she could have cut some of them free, and they could have cut others free. But ninety seconds was not long enough to liberate everyone and escape the cave. Of course there were options, but Lucie didn’t have time to go through them.

  So she ran, leaving her friends behind and Dudyk, who had saved her life. She ran across the cave to the first exit, reaching the tunnel in seconds. She didn’t slow. She entered the next cavern, the large interior one where the airplane’s skeleton lay. Now, she stopped just inside the entrance and reached down for something.

  A piece of plastic explosive.

  It wasn’t rocket science, and she hadn’t expected it to be. She pulled the tiny silver detonator out of the plastic, thus making it and all the deadly packages behind her—leading back to the Amber Room chamber—safe.

  At least, unless the larger blast reached them.

  She scooped up the plastic explosive and ran to the next one, repeated her actions, and moved again. She stayed low and quiet, collecting the explosives and counting the seconds down in her head.

  Sixty-five . . . sixty-four . . .

  The trail of plastic explosives ended as she approached the plane, but she noticed that the wires connecting them snaked all the way to the entrance. R24 must have rigged a smaller explosion either at the front or just inside the cave entrance to further confuse matters. Lucie assumed they had a route and a plan worked out for when the chaos began.

  She carried four packets of explosives in her hands.

  She could hear her enemies speaking, talking of the choppers in the valley and ridiculing the “useless” mercs who had died at their orders. She heard Nina laugh and Gurka curse Dudyk’s name. Her fingers were clenched tightly around the explosives.

  Shit, calm the fuck down.

  Forty-four . . . forty-three . . .

  The seconds slipped away with frightening rapidity. She had risky work to do. She approached the rear of the plane, using its sizable bulk to hide her approach. The cockpit reared above, its disturbing skeletal pilot staring down with those large round eye sockets. Nina was talking now, voicing aloud her wish she could see “Guy Bodie and his band of clowns” meet their ends. Lucie crept forward on tiptoe, stepping lightly. The plastic explosives felt warm against her side.

  Not far now.

  She hesitated for a second, wondering just who the hell was taking this risk. Lucie Boom? Starched historian? No, not her. This was a different Lucie, a new Lucie, who risked everything for her friends and had seen a wicked sworn enemy give his life for hers.

  Mixed emotions rose. She fought them off. Halfway down the length of the plane, she spotted an explosive placed across to her right. She followed the wires with her eyes and saw it led outside, where other charges would be set.

  To the far left or right of the entrance? To give R24 just enough time to escape?

  Sounds reasonable.

  But they wouldn’t be expecting this.

  Twenty-four . . . twenty-three . . .

  Lucie clasped the explosives tighter and inched away from any cover afforded by the plane.

  In the final twenty seconds Bodie cast aside mounting regrets. If only he’d created more than one opportunity to escape. If only they’d made more of the one they’d had. If only . . .

  He let it go.

  And looked first at Cassidy and then at Jemma and Gunn. Disbelief was written on all their faces. Cassidy never stopped fighting, twisting her ties, using the slick blood that coated her wrists to gain better purchase for her cut and scored fingers. Next were Pantera and Yasmine, the first his oldest friend, the second his newest and someone he hadn’t really had a chance to get to know yet. His plan had been to help her fight the infamous Lucien—but that was gone now.

  He nodded to Caruso and felt a twist in his soul, seeing eyes that clearly showed the anguish the Italian felt for his family.

  And finally, he turned to Heidi, who was seated next to him.

  Fourteen . . . thirteen . . . twelve . . .

  “Looks like we get to quit the CIA after all.”

  “That’s right. Make our deaths about you and your family.”

  “It’s about you too,” Bodie said. “Family is a sense of belonging, and it feels like you belong.”

  “I wish . . .” Heidi placed her blood-soaked hands atop his own. “I wish we’d had a goddamn chance, Guy Bodie.”

  “Me too.” He held her eyes until the very last moment. “If we had more time, I would say to hell with all the CIA shit and ask you out on a date, Heidi Moneymaker.”

  Her eyes brightened, but then a terrible rumbling began, and the explosion overcame them.

  Lucie felt exposed as she crabbed sideways away from the plane into the middle of the cavern. The seconds ticked away in her head. This was going to be close. She felt a moment of surprise and selfless confidence when she realized she hadn’t factored enough time into her plan to allow for her own escape.

  Fourteen . . . thirteen . . . twelve . . .

  She placed the plastic explosives on the floor and reconnected the detonators. One blast would now set them all off. She crouched and started pushing them toward the front of the plane, closer to the rocks where R24 was hiding.

  Nina’s voice rang out, tinged with malice. “Shall I order Caruso’s family killed?”

  “Yeah, but let’s get out of here first.”

  Lucie
clenched her fists and dragged the charges a little closer.

  “Hey! It’s the blonde. Stop her.” Nina’s voice again.

  Six . . . five . . .

  “Nina, stop!”

  Nina halted beside a rock, Vash at her side. Lucie dropped the charges, showed empty hands, and then bolted for the only refuge she could see.

  The crashed plane.

  “Hey!”

  She ran headlong. Numbers flashed behind her eyes. Three . . . two . . .

  At full speed, she jumped and made it through the open rear door, rolling clear across the aisle to the other side of the plane.

  The explosion, now five times the force it should have been and more localized, was enormous. Lucie’s eardrums were pounded with a hammerblow as the deep blast shook the mountain. A wave of fire swept the chamber, escaping through the entrance as well as funneling along the inner passageways. Lucie was curled into a ball, head between her arms, but heard the skin of the plane disintegrating and felt the whole heavy structure shift. A wave of heat scorched her back, but she was out of reach of the flames. She screamed as her jacket, shirt, and then back were scorched. The material burst into flames. Lucie rolled onto her back to quench them, intense pain bringing her to the brink of passing out. The mountain was rumbling, loose rocks and rivers of shale tumbling from above. Her ears rang. The explosion passed her, sweeping the cavern floor, obliterating the rocks behind which R24 had made its hiding place, and shot outside, swelling as it left the cave, mushrooming upward into the daylight.

  As the noise diminished, nothing moved in the cave.

  CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

  Bodie flung himself low when the explosives detonated, stubborn to the end, desperately looking for a way to survive. The whole mountain shook. The floor vibrated with enough force to dislodge some flashlights and dozens of boxes from the ledges around the chamber. The crates storing the Amber Room rattled. Dust and rocks fell from above, mostly fragments, but a boulder the size of a chair crashed down only three feet to Cassidy’s left. More rumbling and shaking, and one of the crates split apart, sending amber panels spilling out. Bodie had split seconds to prepare for the explosives Gurka had placed close by to detonate.