by P. W. Child
“What? What is it?” she asked. They all returned his gaze, unperturbed by his panic-stricken judgment. Purdue's mouth remained open in disbelief as he turned to Nina with one piece in his hand. “This is weapons-grade Plutonium. They are sending us to turn the Amber Room into a nuclear bomb!”
They did not refute his statement, nor did they look intimidated. Nina was speechless.
“Is that true?” she asked. Elena looked down, and Natasha nodded proudly.
“It cannot explode while you handle it, Nina,” Natasha explained calmly. “Just make it look like part of the art and seal Marko’s glass over the panels. Then give it to Kemper.”
“Plutonium ignites by contact with moist air or water,” Purdue gulped, thinking about all the properties of the element. “If the covering were to chip or to be exposed there could be dire consequences.”
“So don’t fuck up,” Natasha growled in amusement. “Now come, you have less than two hours to produce the find to our guests.”
***
Just over twenty minutes later Purdue and Nina were being lowered into a concealed stone well, overgrown by decades of radioactive grass and shrubs. The masonry had crumbled just like the former Iron Curtain, evidence of a bygone time of superior technology and innovation abandoned and left to the decay of the Chernobyl aftermath.
“You are well away from the Shelter Object,” Elena reminded Nina. “But breathe through your nose. Yuri and his cousin will wait here for you to hoist the relic out.”
“How do we get it to the entrance of the well? Each panel weighs more than your car!” Purdue declared.
“There is rail system,” Misha called down into the dark pit. “Tracks run to the chamber of the Amber Room where my grandfather and my uncle moved the pieces to the hiding place. You can just lower them with the ropes onto the mine car and roll them here where Yuri will bring them up.”
Nina gave them thumbs up after checking her walkie-talkie for the frequency Misha had given her to communicate with any of them, should she have questions while beneath the dreaded Chernobyl Power Plant.
“Right! Let’s get this done, Nina,” Purdue impelled.
They ventured into the dank blackness with flash lights mounted to their helmets. A black mass in the dark proved to be the mine car Misha had spoken of, and they lifted Marko's sheets onto it with the tools, pushing the car as they walked.
“A bit uncooperative,” Purdue remarked. “But I would be too had I been rusting in the dark for over twenty years.”
Their light beams weakened only a few meters ahead of them, overcome by the thick darkness. A myriad of minute particles floated through the air and danced in front of the rays in the silent oblivion of the underground channel.
“What if we come back, and they have closed the well?” Nina said suddenly.
“We’ll find a way out. We have been through worse than this before,” he reassured.
“It is so eerily quiet,” she persisted with her gloomy mood. “Once there was water down here. I wonder how many people have drowned in this well or perished from radiation while seeking refuge down here.”
“Nina,” was all he said to shake her from her folly.
“Sorry,” Nina whispered. “I am fucking scared.”
“That is unlike you,” Purdue said in the dense atmosphere that denied his voice any echo. “You only fear contamination or the after-effects of radiation poisoning that lead to a slow death. This is why you find this place terrifying.”
Nina stared at him in the misty illumination of her light. “Thank you, David.”
A few steps onward his face changed. He was looking at something to the right of her, but Nina was adamant not to know what it was. When Purdue stopped all kinds of scary scenarios gripped Nina.
“Look,” he smiled, taking her arm to face her toward the magnificent treasure that was hidden under years of dust and debris. “It is every bit as glorious as when the King of Prussia owned it.”
As soon as Nina shone her light on the yellow slabs, the gold and amber married to become exquisite mirrors of lost beauty from centuries past. Intricate carvings adorned the frames and slivers of mirror detailed the clarity of the amber.
“To think that an evil god slumbers right in here,” she whispered.
“A speck of what appears to be inclusions, Nina, look,” Purdue pointed out. “A specimen so small that it was almost invisible came under the scrutiny of Purdue's glasses, magnifying it.
“Good God, aren’t you a positively grotesque little bastard,” he said. “It looks like a crab or a tick, but its head has a humanoid face.”
“Oh, Jesus, that sound hideous,’ Nina shivered at the thought.
“Come see,” Purdue invited, bracing himself for her reaction. He placed the left magnifying glass of his spectacles over another dirty spot in the otherwise pristine gilded amber. Nina bent to bring her eye to it.
“What in the name of Jupiter's Gonads is that thing?” she gasped in horror with puzzlement on her face. “I swear I will shoot myself if that creepy thing nestles into my brain. Oh my God, can you imagine if Sam knew what his Kalihasa looked like?”
“Speaking of Sam, I think we should get a move on hotwiring this treasure for the Nazis to enjoy. What say you?” Purdue pressed.
“Aye.”
When they had finished painstakingly reinforcing the giant slabs with the metal and carefully sealed it in behind the sheeting as directed, Purdue and Nina wheeled the panels to the bottom of the well mouth, one by one.
“Look, see? They are all gone. Nobody up there,” she lamented.
“At least they did not cover the entrance,” he smiled. “We cannot very well expect them to be up there all day, can we?”
“I suppose not,” she sighed. “I’m just glad we got it up to the well. Believe me, I have had enough of that bloody catacomb.”
From a distance, they could hear a loud engine noise. Vehicles slowly crawling along a nearby road approached the area of the well. Yuri and his cousin started pulling the slabs up. Even with convenient ship cargo netting, it was still a time-consuming endeavor. With the two Russians and four locals helping Purdue get the netting over each of the slabs he hoped it was made for securing a lift of over 400kg a pop.
“Unbelievable,” Nina murmured. She was standing at a safe distance, deeper into the tunnel. Her claustrophobia was crawling in on her, but she did not want to get in the way. While the men were shouting suggestions and count-outs, her two-way radio received a transmission.
“Nina, come in. Over,” Elena said through the low crackle Nina had come to grow used to.
“This is Nina receiving. Over,” she responded.
“Nina, we will be gone when the Amber Room has been lifted out, okay?” Elena warned. “I need you not to worry or think we just ran away, but we have to leave before they get to Duga-3.”
“No!” Nina shouted. “Why?”
“It will be a bloodbath if we meet on the same soil. You know that.” Misha responded to her. “Now don’t worry. We will be in touch. Be careful and Godspeed.”
Nina felt her heart sink. “Please don’t leave.” Never had she heard a lonelier phrase in her life.
“Over and out.”
She heard the clapping sound of Purdue dusting off his clothing and swinging his palms along his pants to wipe the dirt off. He looked around for Nina and when his eyes found her he gave her a warm, satisfied smile.
“Accomplished, Dr. Gould!” he cheered.
Suddenly the sound of gunshots thundered above them, sending Purdue diving into the dark. Nina screamed for his safety, but he crawled further into the opposite side of the tunnel, leaving her relieved that he was okay.
“Yuri and his helpers have been executed!” they heard Kemper say outside the well.
“Where is Sam?” Nina screamed up at the light falling like supernal hell onto the floor of the tunnel.
“Mr. Cleave had a bit too much to drink… but... thank you kindly for your coopera
tion, David! Oh, and Dr. Gould, please accept my sincerest condolences on what will be your last agonizing moments on this earth. Cheerio!”
“Fuck you very much!” Nina screamed. “I’ll see you soon, yeh bastard! Soon!”
As she unleashed her verbal fury on the smiling German, his men began to slide the thick concrete slab over the mouth of the well, gradually darkening the tunnel. Nina could hear Klaus Kemper calmly recite a sequence of numbers in a low tone of voice, much as he had sounded during radio broadcasts.
As the shadow gradually eclipsed, she looked over to Purdue and to her horror his frozen eyes looked up at Kemper in apparent thrall. With the last of the dying light, Nina saw Purdue's face contort in a lustful and evil sneer, staring right at her.
Chapter 33
Once Kemper had his bedeviled treasure, he ordered his men to head for Kazakhstan. They were returning to the Black Sun compound with the first true prospect of world domination, their plan almost fully completed.
“Are all six in the water?” he asked his workmen.
“Yes, sir.”
“That is ancient amber resin. It is brittle enough, so if it crumbles the specimens trapped inside will get out and then we will be in a lot of trouble. They must be contained under water until we reach the compound, gentlemen!” Kemper shouted before he retired to his luxury vehicle.
“Why the water, Commander?” one of his men asked.
“Because they hate water. In there, they cannot exert any influence, and they detest it, making it a perfect prison for them to be contained in without any concerns,” he explained. With that, he got in the car, and the two vehicles pulled away slowly to leave Chernobyl even more barren than she had already been before.
Sam was still drugged by the powder that had left a white residue at the bottom of his empty whiskey glass. Kemper paid him no mind. In his new exciting position as owner of not only a former Wonder of the World but also on the threshold of ruling the new world to come, he hardly noticed the journalist anymore. Nina's screams still echoed in his thoughts as sweet music for his rotten heart.
It seemed that using Purdue as bait had paid off after all. For a while, Kemper had not been sure if the brainwashing techniques had succeeded, but when Purdue had successfully utilized the communications devices Kemper had left for him to find, he knew that Cleave and Gould would soon be netted. The betrayal of not releasing Cleave to Nina after all her drudgery was positively delectable to Kemper. Now he had tied up loose ends no other Black Sun commander had ever been able to.
Dave Purdue, the traitorous Renatus, was now left to rot under the godforsaken soil of cursed Chernobyl, soon killing the annoying little bitch that had always inspired Purdue to wreck the Order. And Sam Cleave…
Kemper looked at Cleave. He was bound for a bit of water himself. And as soon as Kemper had conditioned him he would play a valuable role as the ideal media representative for the Order's public relations. After all, how could the world fault anything presented by a Pulitzer Award winning investigative journalist that single-handedly exposed arms rings and toppled crime syndicates? With Sam as his media puppet, Kemper could announce whatever he wished to the world while nurturing his own Kalihasa to wield mass control over entire continents. And when that little god's power ran out, he would have several others safely shelved to replace it.
Things were looking up for Kemper and his Order. Finally, the obstacles from the Scotland were eradicated and his path cleared to make the necessary changes that Himmler failed at. In all this Kemper could not help but wonder how things were going for the sexy little historian and her former lover.
***
Nina could hear her heart beating, and it was not a difficult feat by the way it was thundering in her body while her sense of hearing was in overdrive for even the slightest noise. Purdue was quiet, and she had no idea where he could be, but she moved as quickly as she could in the opposite direction, keeping her light off so he couldn't see her. He was doing the same thing.
‘Oh sweet Jesus, where is he?’ she thought, crouching near where the Amber Room had been. Her mouth was parched, and she ached for relief, but now was not the time to pursue comfort or sustenance. A few feet away she heard a few small rocks scrunch, and it made her gasp loudly. ‘Shit!’ Nina considered talking him down, but by the look of his glazed-over eyes, she doubted that anything she said would get through. ‘He is coming my way. I can hear the sounds are closer every time!’
They had been underground in the vicinity of Reaktor-4 for over three hours already, and she was beginning to feel the effects. She was starting to feel nauseous, while a migraine practically crippled her ability to concentrate. But danger was coming in many shapes and forms for the historian lately. Now she had become a target for a brainwashed mind, programmed by an even sicker mind to kill her. To be murdered by her own friend would be so much worse than running from a deranged stranger or a mercenary on a mission. It was Dave! Dave Purdue, her long-time friend and ex-lover.
Without warning her body convulsed and she fell to her knees on the cold hard ground, throwing up. It grew more violent with every convulsion until she started to cry. There was no way for Nina to do it quietly and she was convinced Purdue would easily track her by the din she caused. She was sweating profusely, and the flash light strap around her head turned into an annoying itch, so she jerked it from her hair. In a spell of panic, she pointed the light downward a few inches from the ground and switched it on. The beam spread over the small radius on the ground, and she took stock of her surroundings.
Purdue was nowhere to be found. Suddenly a large steel rod came hurling towards her face from the darkness ahead. It struck her on the shoulder, evoking a yelp of agony from her. “Purdue! Stop! Jesus Christ! Are you going to kill me because of that Nazi prick? Wake the fuck up!”
Nina killed her light, panting like an exhausted hunting hound. Crouched forward on her knees she tried to ignore the throbbing migraine that was splitting her skull while she held down another pressing bout of regurgitation. Purdue's footsteps moved towards her in the dark, indifferent to her quiet sobbing. Nina's numb fingers fiddled with her strapped two-way radio.
‘Leave it here. Switch it on for noise and then run in another direction,’ she suggested to herself, but her other inner voice was not for it. ‘Idiot, you cannot abandon your last chance for outside communication. Get something you can use as a weapon, over where the debris was.'
The latter was a more feasible idea. She grabbed a handful of stones and waited for a sign of his location. The dark was a solid robe wrapped around her, but what made her frantic was the dust that burned her nose when she breathed. Deep in the darkness, she heard something stir. Nina launched the handful of stones out ahead of her to throw him off before she darted to her left, running straight into a protruding rock that hit her like a truck. With a suppressed gasp, she fell limply to the floor.
As her state of consciousness jeopardized her life, she felt a boost of energy and crawled along the floor on her knees and elbows. Like a bad flu, the radiation started to plague her body. Her skin was crawling, her head was as heavy as lead. Her forehead hurt from the collision while she was struggling to regain her equilibrium.
“Hey Nina,” he whispered a few inches from her shivering frame, shocking her heart into a leap of terror. Purdue’s bright light momentarily blinded her as he flicked it on in her face. “I found you.”
***
30 Hours Later - Shalkar, Kazakhstan
Sam was livid, but he dared not stir up trouble before his escape plan was secure. When he had awoken to find himself still in the clutches of Kemper and the Order, the transport vehicle ahead of them had been creeping steadily along a miserable, desolate stretch of road. By then, they had already progressed past Saratov and had crossed the border into Kazakhstan. It was too late for him to get out. They had traveled almost a day from where Nina and Purdue were, making it impossible for him to simply jump out and run back to Chernobyl or Pripyat.
“No thanks,” Sam snapped. “I have had my quota of drugs this week.”
“Oh, come on now!” Kemper replied evenly. “You are like a whining teenager throwing a tantrum. And I thought PMS was a women's issue. I had to drug you or else you would have run off with your friends and gotten killed. You should be grateful that you are alive.” He held out a wrapped sandwich bought at a shop in one of the towns they had passed.
“Did you kill them?” Sam asked.
“Sir, we have to fill up the truck at Shalkar soon,” the chauffer announced.
“That’s fine, Dirk. How long?” he asked the driver.
“Ten minutes until we get there,” he informed Kemper.
“Alright.” He looked at Sam, and a mean smile jumped onto his face. “You should have been there!” Kemper laughed in glee. “Oh, I know you were there, but I mean you should have seen it!”
Sam grew intensely upset with every word the German bastard spat out. Every muscle in Kemper’s face fueled Sam's hatred, and every hand gesture pushed the journalist to a point of unadulterated wrath. ‘Wait. Just wait a bit longer.’
“Your Nina is now rotting beneath the highly radioactive Reaktor-4 ground zero.” Kemper imparted with no small measure of enjoyment. “Her sexy little ass is blistered and decomposing as we speak. Who knows what kind of things Purdue has done to her! But even if they survived each other, the starvation and radiation sickness will have ended them.”
‘Wait! Don’t. Not yet.’
Sam knew that Kemper could shield his thoughts from Sam's influence and that attempting to get a hold of him would not only waste his energy but be futile altogether. They pulled into Shalkar, a small town adjacent to a lake in the middle of a flat desert landscape. A petrol station on the side of the main road accommodated the vehicles.
