"I don't have—"
The small Russian held up his hand so fast that the old man flinched as he thought he was about to be struck. Then he watched as the man's eyes once more went to his friend, who remained standing over Serta. He nodded and once more removed the cell phone and then looked at the withered face of the old man.
"If he has to open that receiver, Mr. Serta, your grandson will have a brief moment of pain and then his head will be removed. Now, as I will state the question, your answer should already be formed in your mind. We know you have one half of the Twins of Peter the Great. Where is it? You became paranoid in your old age and requested an insurance quote on a diamond of rather amazing proportions, one pound eight ounces to be exact. That information was forwarded to our offices. So, we have dispensed with the details and now the question has been asked." The small man slowly removed a large caliber automatic from his coat and then reached into his pocket and removed a short stubby cylinder and started screwing the silencer onto the pistol.
Valery Serta lowered his head and then with a stronger than normal voice, started talking.
"Since 1919, my family has not had to use the diamond for anything other than collateral. It fed my father's ambition without losing the stone. Yes, over the years I knew that men such as you may track the Twin to my family, so I wanted insurance against that eventuality."
"After today, you will have no such worry. Now, answer the question."
"Floor safe in the shower stall — combination is 18-34-17."
"You have done well. You have followed our instructions, and thus you have saved the life of your grandson — a very noble thing. A thing that people with your family history did not have an abundance of in the early days of the Soviet Union." The small man stood and then placed the silencer up to Serta's temple.
"May I ask a question?" the taller and much more muscular man asked as he replaced the cell phone into his jacket.
"Yes, of course," came the polite answer from his partner.
"Mr. Serta, you wouldn't possibly know the whereabouts of a certain diary belonging to a former associate of your father's, would you?"
"How silly of me, I should have thought to ask myself."
Serta looked up and knew beyond any doubt that these men must be searching for the other missing Twin. Singly, the diamonds were worth a billion dollars on the open market, but placed together as a set, the Twins of Peter the Great would be priceless. He knew he would answer their question, as it would be the only triumph he would have in the few remaining minutes of his life.
"The other Twin was lost with many men, many good men according to my father, somewhere in the Canadian wilderness almost a hundred years ago." Serta said his piece and then closed his eyes.
"Ah, no more knowledge than we had before. But, there was no harm in asking. Now, there is a rumor of a diary with the description of where the diamond was lost. Do you have information on this missing journal?"
"I have never heard of such a thing. If there was a journal, it would have disappeared with the officer it belonged to."
"Ah, you see, you think you have lied well enough to deter us from the truth, but in reality you have told us everything. Whoever said it was an officer who wrote in a journal? I see your father was very observant those many years ago. He knew the officer commanding their small expedition wrote in a journal. Now, did your father happen to take that item when he betrayed his officer and stole the diamond?"
"I know of no journal."
"Ah, I see," the small ponytailed man said, and then nodded at the large one.
He turned and made his way to the bathroom. He looked around and then shook his head. It was the first time that he had ever heard of anyone building a safe in a shower stall. He stepped up to the rounded, clear-glass enclosure, pulled open the door by the gold-plated handle, and looked at the Tuscan tile. He could see no flaws or anything that would indicate a door. He knelt down and felt around the tile edges, still not discerning any area that might reveal a secret hiding place.
The Russian was just getting ready to stand when he saw what he was looking for. Most would have missed it, but the big man had the instincts of a cat. He reached out and allowed his fingers to play over the drain cover. On the outside it looked like a normal trap, but he had noticed there was no caulking around its edges. His fingers played over the stainless-steel surface, and then he pushed down, and then tried to turn it to the left. The cover didn't move. Then he tried to the right, still applying downward pressure, and smiled when the drain cover popped free of the tile.
"Now, this is ingenious," he said under his breath in Russian. The drain cover was actually the dial for the combination safe that was still buried in the tiled shower stall. He turned the facing of the cover and entered the correct numbers that had been covered up by the drain rim. The lights automatically dimmed in the bathroom and the Russian stood. His eyes widened when three floodlights embedded in the ceiling of the bathroom illuminated as the flooring, not in the shower itself, but in the center of the bathroom, behind him, started rising. The floodlights caught the first glimmer of the egg-shaped stone. Then, as the small enclosure rose, the lights struck Peter the Great's most prized possession — one of the Twins. The diamond had been cut in five thousand different places around the circumference of the egg. The effect was such that when the stone was illuminated, blue, pink, and green shafts of light speckled the white walls of the ornate bathroom.
The large Russian was stunned. With all the treasure they had gathered over the years, this was the most amazing sight he had ever beheld. Not standing on ceremony, he reached out and touched the large diamond egg. It was cold to the touch, and he smiled, wondering how something with such fire inside could be so cool. He grasped the egg and removed it from its glass cradle. He went back to the shower, turned the combination lock, and then depressed the drain cover. The cradle for the Twin slowly started its return to obscurity. The lighting from above dimmed and the regular bathroom light came back on.
"Well, are we that much richer, my friend?" the small man asked, his eyes never leaving the old man beside him.
The large man stepped out of the bathroom, and held up the one half of the Twins to show his partner. "Yes, we are, and always will be, two of the richest men in the world."
The old man buried his face in his hands and sobbed. The diamond had been in his family since it was taken by his father in a forest long ago. Now it was in the hands of men who would either sell it on the black market or cut it to pieces.
"Come now, you could never have thought to hold such a magnificent treasure as this without unscrupulous men coming after it, did you? Besides, old man, what we are really after makes this small diamond very insignificant. We are after much more than riches; we are after the future."
The old man looked up, not understanding. Then he realized he wasn't meant to as the small man stood and pulled the trigger.
* * *
As the two men started downstairs, the rain outside had started to dwindle to a heavy mist.
"Now that we have the one Twin, the other will be more of a challenge to find without the pages of the journal."
"If the cursed thing even exists; remember the KGB from the old days were expert liars, just as we were," the smaller man said as he buttoned his overcoat. "Our newest ally says he'll take care of that end of things. All we needed to do was seal this end of the trail so no one can figure out where this diamond was originally taken from. Now it's up to our new partner."
"I have to admit, he seems very resourceful."
"By the way," the small one asked as they closed the door and entered the private hallway, "did our man at the airport forward the video disc of our arrival to our friend?"
"Yes, I have done as he has instructed, but why would he want video of us coming into the U.S.?"
"I did not ask; he will inform us when we get in the air. I'm sure he has an excellent reason for it."
Again, the two Russians smiled. The
ir day had turned out to be full of sunshine, despite the storm that had passed through Seattle that morning.
EVENT GROUP COMPLEX
NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE, NEVADA
The head of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, Senator Lyle P. Casals, knew the feeling of claustrophobia was all in his head. Although it was a fact that he found himself three thousand, two hundred feet underneath the sands of Nellis Air Force Base, he tried desperately to get that little fact to stop entering his mind as he walked alongside the Director of an agency of the federal government he had known nothing about twelve hours ago.
The director of Department 5656, known to the president of the United States and a few others as the Event Group, smiled as the senator from South Dakota wiped his brow with a handkerchief. Niles Compton could not figure out if the man was frightened about the treasures and archaeological finds he had just been shown, or fear that the entire cave system was about to fall on his head. Compton suspected the latter since the bespectacled man kept glancing up at the steel netting that held some of the rock strata in place.
The senator swallowed and then looked up at Director Compton. Niles removed his own glasses and smiled at the Ways and Means representative.
"Astounding is all I can say, Mr. Director. To think that all of this" — the small man gestured around the massive and curving hallways that held no less than one hundred of the largest steel vaults in the complex—"has been kept secret for over a hundred years is completely amazing to me."
Niles nodded his head and looked around and smiled when his eyes locked on Virginia Pollock, his deputy director. The short and balding Compton felt even smaller standing next to Virginia, who was well over six feet tall. Her hair was loose today, and her green eyes expressive as they always were when she was dealing with politicos. Niles was ashamed he used his assistant's looks to assist in swaying support from either the numbers cruncher that now stood before them or even the president. Virginia knew this fact, but to her credit, she never said a thing or complained one bit.
"Some of our artifacts would cause a great uproar in the world if we released to the public the fact that we had them."
"Yes, I understand that. Imagine having the flying saucer from Roswell in our possession. I always thought it was just a story." The senator lowered his head and swiped at his sweating brow once again.
"You are literally the first American outside of the president to view the vault chambers at this complex, Senator Casals. However, since the damage we sustained last month was so extensive, we couldn't hide the cost from the House. So here we are, you've seen the damage and I hope you understand our reasons for being enough that we can get an appropriation for repairs." Virginia smiled and batted her eyes twice, not blatantly, but she did make sure the senator saw the movement.
"And your advice to the presidents, past and present, has assisted in making policy with foreign governments? I mean, from historical records and finds?"
"Yes, sir. That's our charter as laid down by President Woodrow Wilson. We will assist in guiding our country through the minefield of policy making. Mistakes by us and other nations occur on a repeated level that, by the numbers, is unbelievable. We make the same mistakes over and over again. Even now, we are in the process of recovering an artifact from Chinese territory that will hopefully pave the way for better relations with the heir to power in North Korea. If recovered, we believe it will open inroads to that nation that have never been constructed before."
"How can an artifact do that, as a 'for instance,' that is?"
"Well, Senator, I don't know how well you know your world history, but in Korea in 300 BCE, what was known as the early Common Era, the three largest kingdoms of that nation, Goguryeo, Silla, and Baekje, conquered all the people and land as far as the Chinese border. These three kingdoms came to dominate the peninsula and much of Manchuria. The three kingdoms competed with each other both economically and militarily. The city states of Goguryeo and Baekje were more powerful for much of the era, especially Goguryeo, which defeated massive Chinese invasions. Silla's power gradually extended across Korea and it eventually established the first unified state to cover most of the Korean peninsula by 676, while former Goguryeo general Dae Jo Yeong founded Balhae as the successor to Goguryeo. This was the first truly powerful nation that would lead to the Korea we know today."
"I'm not following, Mr. Compton," Senator Casals said, looking from Niles to Virginia.
Virginia took the senator by the arm and looped hers through his own and walked him alongside one of the larger vaults as two security men followed. Niles looked at his watch and rolled his eyes.
"You see, this General Dae Jo Yeong is to his people what George Washington is to the American people. When the general was only forty-two years old, he was assassinated by the emperor of China, and his body whisked away as a preventative move to keep the general from becoming a martyr. The move failed and he became a symbol for his fledgling nation anyway." Virginia stopped and looked down into the senator's eyes, becoming serious. "His body was never returned by the Chinese."
"I don't follow how this has anything to do with your very secret department, Ms. Pollock."
"Could you imagine the trust that would be garnered by whoever assisted in returning the Korean George Washington to his homeland? I think that would go a long way in assuring a new regime in Korea that we can be trusted, in their estimation of us, not to blow their asses to hell if and when we decide to do it."
"Ah, I see. But do you have the general in your possession?" the senator asked.
"As a matter of fact, we have our security teams there right now negotiating for just that, Senator. We should be hearing from them at anytime," Niles finished for Virginia.
"Which leads nicely to my next inquiry, Director Compton?"
"And that is?"
"Your security department." Senator Casals pulled several sheets of paper from his breast pocket and opened them. "You'll have to excuse me; I took these notes from several personnel files before I left your office. Now, security, oh yes." He looked up at Compton, who was perplexed as to why his security department was being brought into a budget request. "Colonel Jack Collins. I have read his 201 file, and I must say, for someone as experienced as Colonel Collins, to have him standing guard at what amounts to a historical repository is a trite wasteful in my humble opinion, maybe even a bit of overkill. I would think that with all that's going on in the world, the colonel's skills could be better utilized in another arena."
"Colonel Collins is useful in ways that can never be divulged to you, Senator. I'm sure if you had brought this up to the president, he would have informed you that the colonel's record and his achievements are out of bounds."
"Just curious as to why you would need someone with his obvious qualifications in what is really a think tank?" Casals said as he looked from Niles and then at Virginia.
"Jack has done more for the stability of this nation than anyone in either houses, or the other branches of service. I dare say even more than the president," Virginia said, taking offense to the standards the senator thought their group should stand by. "The colonel is capable of getting out of any trouble. He thinks faster on the run than any man I have ever known. If he gets in trouble, he gets out of it. He doesn't fall into traps, Senator; he sees trouble coming and avoids it, which is how he keeps our field teams alive. He is the best at what he does."
The senator removed his glasses and saw that Virginia was beyond passionate about this Colonel Collins.
"So, he basically walks on water and is a survivor of some renown, a man who never finds himself in trouble?"
"That very man and his team are in China at this moment recovering the artifact we just spoke of, Senator. And yes, he and his men are the best at what they do. They always succeed," Niles said proudly.
SHANGHAI, CHINA
The small Chinese man in the white silk suit with the radiant blue shirt and tie, slapped the bound man before him again. With his hand
s tied behind him in the high-backed chair, there wasn't anything Colonel Jack Collins could do to defend himself. He felt the effeminate hand scrape across his two-day growth of beard but managed to keep his anger in check. Usually he would just wait it out, knowing his second in command would be along to pull his ass out of the fire. But this time he thought there may be a problem with that scenario.
The small, well-dressed Chinese took two steps to his left and then used his backhand to slap the large man sitting to Jack's right across the face. Commander Carl Everett was bound just as snugly as Collins, and couldn't do anything other than hiss his anger through clenched teeth.
"You know, I'm going to slap you into unconsciousness when I get loose," Everett said as he glared at the small man before him.
"You fool, as arrogant as most Americans. You will not be leaving this house. You will tell me where the urn is and just who it is you work for."
Jack smiled as the small man took his place in front of him once again.
"Why is it you think I'm his boss? You've slapped me five or six times more than him. He just might be the one in charge, not me."
The Chinese army officer smiled and then slapped Jack again. "Your friend is too angry to be in charge of anything as important as stealing a national treasure from my government, so that leaves you." The man held his hand out and one of his goons slid a file into it. He smiled again at Jack, and then at Carl, as he opened the file folder.
"Colonel Jack Collins, it says you are an elite special forces operative. I have no listing for current assignment." He turned his attention to Everett. "Captain Carl C. Everett, United States navy, a former SEAL, his current duty station also unknown. I believe you are nothing more than thieves, ordered by your government to embarrass the People's Republic of China. This is why you will not leave here alive, gentlemen. So please, make your death quick and painless, and give us the location of the urn in which the ashes of General Dae Jo Yeong are stored."
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