The Nuremberg Puzzle

by Laurence O'Bryan

  “Xena,” the woman screamed. “You will not find it!” She coughed and leaned back.

  Isabel took a step towards the woman. “Oh my God, what have you done?” She turned to Xena. Her voice was shaking. She tried to make it sound firm. “We have to call an ambulance.”

  The muzzle of Xena’s gun was pointing at Isabel. She closed the door behind them, slid a two-inch thick iron bolt into the stone of the wall to lock it.

  “We will,” said Xena. “When I have what I came here for.”

  “What they hell are you talking about?” said Isabel.

  “There is something in that hole. And you’ve arrived right on time to help me get it out.”

  “What the hell could be worth all these lives?” shouted Isabel, waving at the bodies. She looked at Sean, moved her head sideways a millimetre, indicating for him to go around the room, so Xena couldn’t keep them both covered.

  Sean moved slowly away from Isabel.

  “Go and look in the hole, Sean,” said Xena. “And don’t try anything stupid, or your wife will be dead. You know I will do it.” She raised her gun, sighted along the barrel at Isabel.

  “See the channels cut in the stone beneath your feet?” Her voice was firm, commanding.

  Isabel looked down. Thin grooves, in a pattern like the rays of the sun, headed towards the end of the room, to the hole Sean was now walking towards. Now he was looking into it.

  “Rush the witch,” hissed the injured woman beside Isabel. She looked up at Isabel and smiled. It would have looked like a pleasant smile, but there was blood on the woman’s teeth and lips.

  “Have a good look, Sean. You are curious about what happened to your friends, aren’t you?” Xena’s tone softened. “Vanessa has always been unhappy with people interfering, but there is nothing she can do about it any more.”

  Sean bent forward, peered into the hole.

  “Remember, I can put a neat little hole in your wife’s skull any moment I want to.”

  Xena’s gun, a small black pistol, had H&K embossed in black on its side. She took a step towards Isabel. She was ten feet from her now.

  “My aim is very good.”

  Isabel stared at her. Her mouth was dry, her neck and face muscles tightening with the thought of what would happen if Xena pulled the trigger.

  Xena had a half-smile on her face. She stepped back. “And don’t listen to anything that Nazi bitch tells you. She wouldn’t care if you all died in agony. All she wants to do is destroy what’s down here.”

  Sean went down into the opening in the floor. Only his head was visible.

  “This is weird,” he said.

  Xena went towards him.

  There would be a moment to rush her, but Isabel would have to time it right. She followed them, looked into the hole.

  A landslide of rock stretched away below for thirty feet, down to a larger room – this one with the same structure, and the same circular pattern carved on the floor, the same grooves like rays leading to a ten-foot-wide red circle at its centre, but this time they were deeper, as if they had some practical use, that they weren’t just a decoration. Sean was scrambling down the rocks. He reached the bottom, turned, gave Isabel a nod.

  “Go down. Join him,” said Xena. She was still pointing the gun at Isabel.

  “What the hell’s down there?” Isabel didn’t move. Here tone was defiant. Maybe if she argued with Xena, Sean might have a chance to get away down there.

  She blinked. The light above their heads came from fluorescent tubes in the ceiling. They looked like something out of the mid-20th century. Xena walked towards a set of light switches near a door at the far end of the room. She turned most of the lights off, leaving only one set on above the hole. Much of the upper room was in shadow now.

  Xena walked to the injured woman. She looked up at Xena, a sneer on her face. Xena closed the gap between them, pulled her arm back, slammed the butt of her gun into the side of Vanessa Sheer’s head. The noise of cracking bone was loud, sickening. Vanessa grunted. Her head slumped forward. Blood oozed from her forehead.

  “That will keep her quiet.” Xena turned to Isabel. “I don’t need you,” she said, pointing her gun at Isabel again. “It might be good for your husband to see your blood flow down those channels.”

  Isabel’s hands became fists. She could imagine the fiery agony of a bullet wound. “Okay,” she shouted. She followed Sean. It was like going down a stone avalanche. As she went down the rest of the room below came into view.

  Its walls were a circle of rough gray stone. There were smooth pillars of black rock all around the room. The pillars had wolf’s heads carved into them. Some were snarling. Others had something clenched between their teeth.

  She joined Sean near a large red circle in the floor at the centre of the room. It looked like the lens of a giant unblinking eye. There was a darker red circle at its centre, with something carved into it.

  “The wolves on those pillars show the faces of Fenrir. It’s foretold in German mythology that he will kill Odin at the end of time,” said Sean.

  “What the hell is Fenrir doing down here?” said Isabel. She looked back the way she’d come. Shadows were moving around the walls. Xena was joining them. She had a torch in her hand.

  “Fenrir had to be tied up by the old gods.” Sean walked towards a pillar. Isabel walked to one on the far side of the room.

  “Maybe this is where they tied him up. They say that if he ever breaks free it will be the end of the world.”

  A thunderous banging noise came from the room above.

  As the echoes faded Xena waved the gun at Sean. “Come here to the eye, Sean. Move.”

  Isabel stepped towards her. “What the hell’s so important down here that you’ll kill us all for it?”

  Xena stared, wide-eyed at her. Her skin was glistening in the torchlight. Her cheekbones prominent.

  “You will find out soon enough.”

  “What the hell is this about?” Isabel’s reply was almost a scream.

  Sean was walking slowly towards Xena. As he got closer Xena turned fast. “Stop,” she shouted. She swung the gun up to point at Isabel’s face. Isabel stood still. Another bang sounded from the room above. This time dust came from the ceiling.

  Xena was standing close to her now, only a few feet away.

  “If you try anything I will make her suffer. You have one chance, Sean. Do what I say, if you want to protect your lovely wife.”

  Sean was behind Isabel now. She could shoot them both dead with a few twitches of her trigger finger.

  “Move, Sean!” shouted Xena. “Get the stone from the centre of the eye.”

  “What the hell?” screamed Isabel, turning to look at Xena.

  “He will do what I say.” Xena shouted, sighted along the barrel from Sean to Isabel, moving the gun fluidly, as if she was well used to using it.

  “Stop it. I’ll do it,” said Sean.

  He looked at Isabel, shook his head, as if telling her not to try anything. “Don’t worry.” He smiled. Then he stood at the edge of the circle, placed one foot onto it. “It’s as solid as a rock.”

  Isabel went towards him, her breath catching in her throat, as he walked slowly, spreading his legs and his weight, as he went across the red disk.

  “What the hell is this place?” she said, in a low hissing tone, turning to face Xena.

  “It’s the place General Patton was looking for when he dug up half this city in the summer of forty-five,” said Xena.

  Sean was moving slowly, steadily. It seemed as if there was nothing to be concerned about. He bent down as he neared the centre of the slightly-arched red circle. “What was he looking for, the Holy Grail?” said Sean.

  “No,” said Xena.

  Sean was looking down. He was frowning.

  “My God,” said Sean. He looked puzzled, as he peered down at the disk. “There’s something beneath us.”

  Another echoing boom sounded from the room up above. Then it came again
. Dust drifted in the air around them. Someone was trying to break into the room up above.

  Isabel shivered. “This place feels cursed,” she said, looking at the walls around them.

  “This place is cursed,” said Xena. She was at the edge of the disk, opposite Isabel. She put a foot on it, as if she was considering walking to where Sean was.

  “Don’t!” said Sean. “This doesn’t feel stable!” He sounded alarmed.

  “What do you see?” said Xena. She put her foot onto the disk.

  “Stop!” said Isabel.

  She wanted Sean to come back, to get off this stupid disk. There was something strange about this whole place. She held her hand out towards him, swallowed hard. Something was rising inside her throat, tightening it.

  “Don’t worry,” said Sean, again.

  “What do you see?” shouted Xena. She slid her foot forward.

  “There’s a metal tube in the hole in the centre.”

  “Get it,” said Xena.

  Sean reached down, touched the disk. “It’s stuck. Find something sharp to help me dig it out.” He swung around to face them.

  Xena reached down her leg, extracted a black six-inch blade from a sheath on her thigh. She slid it across the disk towards Sean. He reached towards the knife. As he did, Isabel heard a faint rumble.

  “Come back,” said Isabel. “This is too dangerous. We don’t know what’s under this.” She glared at Xena.

  Xena was staring at the centre of the disk, her attention focused on Sean’s hand.

  He raised the knife that Xena had slid to him, held it in the air, then looked over at Isabel. “There’s a strange noise coming from beneath this,” he said. He shook his head from side to side, trying to tell her something.

  Fear pressed into Isabel’s stomach like a slab of cold stone. She reached towards him, her fingers outstretched.

  “Get it,” shouted Xena.

  Sean stabbed the knife down at the centre point of the disk. A faint cracking sound could be heard.

  48

  Henry Mowlam watched as the two burly, bullet-proof-jacketed officers wielded their red battering rams against the door. Their combined effort was having little effect. The door was barely marked.

  The Kriminalkommissar of the Nuremberg police, Kurt Dienelt, shrugged. “We will use the Semtex, ja?”

  “You have the new C17B, I hope,” said Henry.

  “Ja C17B and C18,” replied Kurt.

  Henry nodded. A limited explosive field was what was needed. They didn’t want to kill everyone in there. But whatever the Nuremberg police had brought with them had to be used fast. Tunnels, he’d found out, dating back to medieval times, connected most of the old parts of Nuremberg. Some led to the nearby Pegnitz River.

  The tracking data from the phone he had given Isabel had led them here. He had also managed to speed up a search for Sean’s last known mobile location, which had been lost in some endless German request and approval loop. The matching location data had enabled him to persuade this German detective that an immediate armed search was necessary.

  The discovery of blood soaked bodies in the room further back had confirmed that Henry Mowlam wasn’t an intelligence officer, masquerading as a conspiracy nut.

  An officer with a bulky utility belt and a triangular red patch on each arm, whispered something in the Kommissar’s ear.

  “Come. We must go back thirty feet,” said Kurt, in a tone that left no doubt who he thought was in charge of the operation.

  Henry nodded. This was not the time for arguments. They walked fast back along the corridor. Security cooperation between the Federal Republic of Germany and the United Kingdom, had been a delicate matter for the last few years, but things had improved recently, due to hard work on both sides.

  Henry had been given permission to come to Nuremberg by the most senior person in Her Majesty’s Foreign Office he had ever dealt with. The permission had come with a warning not to cause trouble. Fortunately, that gave him a wide brief.

  He stood, his back to the wall, out of sight of the door they were trying to get through. Further along the wall, behind them, were ten heavily-armed officers that the Kommissar had rounded up, all members of the Spezialoperationen Unit.

  “We are ready, ja?” said Kurt. He nudged Henry.

  Henry nodded, closed his eyes and opened his mouth to limit any shockwave damage to his teeth.

  The explosive wave was larger than he had anticipated. It passed through him, making his body feel like jelly, shaking the earth like water. His eardrums reverberating as he watched the Spezialoperationen Unit members run forward into the cloud of dust further up the corridor, their helmet lights illuminating the dust, turning it yellow.

  Each of them had large black thermal vision goggles below dull black helmets. If there was anyone alive beyond the door they would find them quickly.

  49

  A snarling, grinding filled the room. Her vision danced. Everything in front of her shifted, as if the ground was buckling. For one mad moment Isabel thought Fenrir was rising from the depths.

  “Isabel,” Sean screamed. She moved forward, though every instinct was telling her to step back.

  A whoosh sounded. Air was being sucked from the room. Dust whirled. The grinding stopped, echoing into the walls. Her mouth opened. In place of the red disk where Sean had stood, a hole gaped. She peered into it. Perhaps twenty feet below, dark reddish water thundered. She got down on her knees, touched the smooth edge of the hole, her hand shaking.

  “Sean!” she screamed, fear descending like a heavy shroud around her.

  “Sean,” she screamed again.

  Hands dragged her back by the ankles and calves. She clawed for the edge, but could not hold it. She twisted. Two burly men in black police uniforms held her.

  “Bitte,” said one. She struggled violently to break free.

  Henry Mowlam stepped forwards.

  Isabel shouted at him. “Henry! Sean’s down there – you have to get ladders, ropes…”

  Henry stepped past her, peered into the hole. “I’m sorry, Mrs Ryan. We’ll have to wait for an underwater rescue team.”

  Her body shook. She went from side to side, trying to break free. She struck out. The black gloved hands didn’t release her. Red dust filled the air. She coughed. She was watching her life slip away in slow motion as she was pulled back from the hole.

  “Sean,” she screamed. She pushed forward, struggling. The men holding her went with her, their grip on her arms and shoulders, tight, but moving along her arms, as she twisted away from them.

  Anxiety gripped her tight, as she knelt near what had been the red disk. The gaping circular hole looked like the entrance to a large well. A circle of brick side walls was visible. Below, the water was running fast, like the skin of a snake passing. The red disk had been a lid over an entrance to an underground river. Isabel leaned forward to try to see Sean.

  She couldn’t.

  “Sean.” Her voice echoed down towards the water. Tears slipped from her eyes. Her chin quivered.

  The fast moving current was taking the water out of sight, constantly. Then something slid across the surface of the water and a tail appeared, just for a moment. It thrashed and disappeared. She screamed.

  “No!” Another tail appeared. And another. They were all heading for the same spot in the river. The hair on her back rose.

  “No!” Her scream echoed. Terror gripped her, a vice squeezing every muscle in her body.

  She heard a shout in German. They wanted her to move away from the hole.

  “Isabel, is Sean definitely down there?” said Henry Mowlam.

  She nodded her head. There was only one thing for it. She had to dive in after him. To hell with what was down there. There wasn’t much time left. He must have been knocked out. He could be just there.

  She had to dive in.

  She bent to take her shoes off, struggling against the men holding her. She fumbled at her laces, fear and shock making her fing
ers seem pudgy and powerless.

  The hands holding her gripped tighter. She looked up. Two burly German policemen with black helmets were shaking their heads.

  “Let me go!” she shouted.

  She yanked violently at the men, twisting and turning in their grasp. Her desperation almost succeeded. Then Henry was holding her shoulders too. She had no hope against three of them.

  “Henry, you have to let me go down there. Please. He might be alive. Please!” Her face was contorted. A wave of panic rose up through her and sent her chin trembling, tears rushing from her eyes.

  “I’m sorry, Mrs Ryan. You cannot go down there. It’s far too dangerous. I wouldn’t even let a trained diver into that.” Henry held her shoulders tight, turned her forcefully to him.

  “Was there anyone else here?”

  Isabel nodded.

  He looked towards the hole. “Maybe there’s a way out down there. We might find him.”

  He was being optimistic. She looked away. Tears were falling down her face. Memories of all she’d been through with Sean filled her mind. The day they’d met in Istanbul. The day they got married. Their son waiting for them. What would she tell Alek?

  She bent over. Her chest shook as more tears came. They weren’t just for herself. She tried to slide gently from the hands holding her.

  Another face was in front of her. It was a German policeman’s. He had blue eyes, brown hair and an honest open expression.

  “Do not go near that hole. This underground river runs away from the Peignitz. There are catfish down there. They are dangerous. Come, you must leave now. Come.”

  Isabel managed one last look. What she saw made her stomach twist.

  There was something moving on the stone wall of the hole. Giant gray slugs. The wall was covered in them. They’d been invisible because of their colour. She bent forward, vomited.

  The hands that were holding her released her for half a second. Then there was a voice calling her.

  “Isabel.” She fell forward. She didn’t care where she fell. One thought filled her mind, as the world turned to darkness.