The Amber Secret

by David Leadbeater

  “No,” Gurka whispered in horror. “Do you mean someone found the entrance later or that this was put in place by the Nazis?”

  “Someone did find it.” Bodie pointed behind a sprawling, bristly tree that hid a small separate entrance to the far left of the rock face. Small boulders lay on the ground all around it.

  Nina stared. Caruso looked over their shoulders. “That might’ve been me.”

  Gurka whirled. “Was it? Was it?”

  “No. Maybe. I don’t think so.”

  “Fuck.”

  Quickly, Gurka shepherded everyone together. Bodie tried to reason with him. “You seriously don’t think it would stay undiscovered for seven decades, do you, mate? The fitted rocks are a great disguise but not foolproof. Once you get up close, it’s pretty obvious.”

  “I am not your mate. Now, move.”

  “Did you use this entrance?” Vash asked the Italian.

  Bodie didn’t have to hear to know the Italian muttered something noncommittal.

  Slowly, the entire team worked their way inside the mountain through the small entrance. Tension ran high. Guns were held ready. Bodie dared not think about what they might find inside.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

  R24 members clicked their flashlights on as soon as they were inside. Bodie followed Nina, stooping under rocks and trying to avoid the questing branches of the prickly tree. Thick debris covered the ground, which he waded through. Slowly, the entire team entered the cave.

  “Do you see it?” Caruso asked somewhat comically.

  Gurka snarled at him. Everyone except Dudyk swept their flashlights around the cave, illuminating the interior. Bodie saw the scene through flashes of deep gloom, clouds of disturbed dust, and waving lights, but it was clear this cave did not run deep. It stood about fifty feet in length and one hundred high.

  And it was empty.

  A mushroom cloud of disturbed dust billowed up sluggishly, following the curve of the roof and swirling high above. Beams of light swooped left and right, crisscrossing and then shining on the floor. Gurka and his colleagues probed the cave as if they couldn’t believe their eyes.

  Caruso sat despondently down on a rock.

  Nina turned on him. “This is all you’ve got? What did you do—find that small chunk of amber in here, then run back home bleating about finding one of the greatest treasures in history? Did you think your friends would love you? Respect you? And then it all backfired—”

  “When we came along,” Vash said. “You’ve been stringing us along all this time for fear of what we’d do to your wife and child.”

  Bodie was studying Caruso the whole time. Usually, when close to relics, the man’s synapses started firing, and he became someone new. A changed man. But not now. Bodie’s team was still in position, close enough to grapple each member of R24. Caruso looked entirely miserable. So miserable, in fact, that Bodie took another hard look at the cave.

  “Where might you have found it?” he asked, his voice echoing. “The piece you think you buried?”

  If Caruso had offered one more shrug, one more confused expression, Bodie was sure Gurka would have shot him. But the Italian seemed to possess a sixth sense. Deflecting Gurka’s anger, he rose and walked deeper into the cave.

  “Back here,” he said.

  Was it Caruso’s way of giving Bodie and his team the option to act or wait? Did Caruso really know where he was going?

  Bodie saw then that the rear wall of the cave was constructed in the same way as the outside, only this was a far superior job. Barely any cracks could be made out. It had been fabricated with large, square blocks that had been fitted together and then daubed with a mixture of cave dust and mortar. It looked authentic, like the back wall of a cave.

  “Hey,” Bodie said. “This wall is false as well.” He saw no other choice but to point it out. Maybe something beyond this wall would give them their opportunity.

  Gurka swore and stalked across. Nina ran up and made to slap Caruso around the head. Bodie caught her arm. The gentle tap of a gun barrel at the nape of his neck warned him to let go.

  “You can’t coerce him,” Bodie tried to explain. “Especially not with violence. The memories are fleeting and brief. Please.”

  Gurka waved him back as he studied the rear wall. “Blow it,” he said. “I’m tired of all this. Tired of waiting. Blow it up.”

  Caruso’s eyes bulged. His arms started to flap, his face contorted, and his mouth fell open. Bodie grabbed him, dragging him away.

  “Leave it,” he whispered. “All we need is a good chance, and we can end this.”

  “But . . . the room.”

  “What about your wife? Your daughter?”

  Caruso nodded quickly. “You are right. I want to see them again with all my heart. All these years searching for treasure, and it was right there all along. At home.”

  “Don’t worry. Despite their crass methods, these relic hunters know what they’re doing. They have experience, if not scruples. I’m sure they’ll use less powerful explosives.”

  He found out five minutes later. As they took shelter at the front of the cave, Vash shouted the all clear, and Belenko pushed a button. A low rumble was heard, and then the crashing and tumbling of heavy rock. Bodie ducked under the thick unfurling cloud that rolled their way.

  They waited until the hazy air had dissipated and then stood up, flashlights trained on the cave’s rear wall. To start with, they couldn’t penetrate the lingering screen of dust, but then Bodie saw a wide passage stretching back into the mountain. Gurka was there a moment later, playing his light around the ragged walls.

  “This is more like it. Come on.”

  Bodie fell in line behind Yasmine and traversed the narrow section. Soon, he heard Gurka let out an exclamation of shock. A few seconds later the passage opened into a large chamber, vaulted a hundred feet above and several hundred feet wide. It was probably twice as long.

  But that wasn’t what had made Gurka shout.

  It was the old, ruined German aircraft that lay ahead down the center of the chamber. The main wings had been torn off, but the body appeared largely intact, though smashed, dented, and ripped in many places.

  Bodie shook his head. “Am I really seeing this, or is it exhaustion?”

  “I see it,” Pantera said. “How the hell . . . ?”

  Everybody stopped when they saw the plane and fanned out, so now Lucie was relatively close by. She shifted uneasily.

  “Even I can’t explain this,” she said.

  Gurka started moving carefully, bypassing the rear wings, which, judging by the ragged pieces of steel that remained, had also been torn half off. The rudder and vertical stabilizer remained intact, attached to the rear. Gurka continued to the rearmost window and peered inside.

  Using his sleeve, he rubbed the window, which was only partially cracked.

  “It is a Junkers aircraft,” Caruso said quietly. “The name is there.” He pointed at a dirty serial number running down the rear left flank. “And registration number. It is from 1945.” He let that sink in. “When it disappeared.”

  “Shit!” Gurka suddenly exclaimed.

  They approached as he wiped the glass vigorously once more.

  “What is it?” Nina asked.

  “Skeletons,” the scar-faced man said. “Six I can see, and probably more. I see old German uniforms.”

  “I remember this,” Caruso said. “I researched it on the day I returned. The registration is logged as ‘missing.’ Its last flight was early 1945. I am sure this is where it ended up.”

  “Who was on board?” Heidi asked.

  “That’s the interesting part. About a dozen men—all of them part of the upper German echelons. Eight topflight leaders disappeared around that time. Of course, they might have been killed in battle, lost, or dead a hundred different ways, but they could also have been on board that plane.”

  “Flying here, you mean?” Gurka turned. “To view the Amber Room?”

 
Caruso flinched at the man’s voice but nodded. “That was my thought.”

  “It makes sense,” Nina said. “First the Nazis remove the treasure, transport it here, and then the hierarchy wanted to view it.”

  “All traces of the plane have been removed from outside this cave,” Gurka said reflectively. “But how did it get inside?”

  Caruso then gave Gurka the same look he’d been subjected to the entire trip. “Are you joking? It crashed, of course.”

  Bodie fought hard not to smile. “Probably crashed on landing,” he said quickly to deflect Gurka’s sudden annoyance. “The valley’s wide and flat enough to be able to land a plane and then taxi here. They overshot, killing everyone on board. Or else—they overshot, crashed into the cave, and were then shot by their fellow assholes.”

  Cassidy eyed the plane as they moved to the front. “There are lots of bullet holes,” she said. “In the main body of the plane, at least. You can’t tell with the windows.”

  “Maybe it was shot down, then?” Gunn suggested.

  Gurka barked orders at Vash and Belenko, speaking in Russian for the first time Bodie could remember. Both men dragged over a large rock that they could use to reach the plane’s door, climbed up onto the body of the aircraft, and then started work with a crowbar. With one heave they wrenched the door open. Both men fell off the rock and onto the hard floor as metal screeched and tore. A moment later they were inside.

  Gurka ordered those outside to the front of the plane. When he got there, Bodie saw a skeleton in one of the front seats, the long-dead pilot. His bare skull was lying forward, pressed against the cockpit glass.

  Gurka studied what lay beyond the plane. “Caruso?”

  The Italian stared as if entering a strange room for the first time. Bodie felt for his dilemma. In the glow of three flashlights, it now appeared that the rear of the cave had four different exits.

  “It’s definitely one of those,” Caruso said.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

  Lucie was kept separate by Dudyk, apart from the pack. They were farther away from the plane, but she could still see Vash and Belenko inside as they walked carefully along the aisle.

  “What are they looking for?” she asked.

  Dudyk shrugged. They had struck up an emotionless way of conversing since she’d revealed her deepest fears to the Russian. “Anything,” he said. “And then they will return to guard the entrance.”

  She’d even been the recipient of two more smiles from him. Though neither had been particularly warm.

  They walked very slowly, keeping their distance from the others. Bodie and Cassidy were approaching one of the new tunnels, guarded by Gurka. It looked like due to lack of manpower, they were checking one new cavern at a time.

  Even Lucie, with her inexperience in captive situations, knew this was exactly what Bodie wanted.

  “I’m surprised Gurka sent all his men to die,” Lucie said.

  Dudyk replied with a soldier’s view. “It has weakened us.”

  “That’s not really what I meant.”

  “Yes, yes, you are sentimental with all lives. You tried to save your uncle, only to see him die anyway. I have never had a choice. None of us have.”

  “A man like you could surely choose what you want to be.”

  “A man like me?” Dudyk shook his head. “Look at you. So naive. So wrapped up in your self-absorbed fears. You think I grew up with a home? You say everyone close to you died. I grew up with nobody close to me. Alone. A street rat. To end the nightly abuse, I joined a gang. The gang protected you, fed you, housed you, but in return you worked for them, doing everything they asked. I killed before I turned thirteen. I tore families apart to keep my place. It was the gang or the army.”

  Lucie had never heard so many words falling from his mouth. Was this his response to how she’d laid her heart bare? “I—”

  “You think you know the world because you are a historian? You know nothing of life, death, and struggle. At least these others—these relic hunters—understand where I have been and what I have done. They know because they have been there too. You? You are an infant.”

  Lucie saw no malice in him right then, just a need to vent, to insult somebody. She didn’t mind that it was her. Instead, she stopped so that he would look at her. She wanted to say, I do know death, but she kept it to herself.

  Instead she said: “And your worst fear?”

  “I face it every night,” he said.

  “Nightmares?”

  “Sleep. Because in sleep I see the face of every innocent I have ever hurt.”

  His biggest fear was sleep? No wonder he was so out of sorts and quick to anger. “Redemption doesn’t come through more brutality,” she said. “I may be an infant, but even I know that.”

  Dudyk glared and then must have seen something in her eyes. A slight smile crossed his face. “You mock your captor? Is that wise?”

  Before she knew what she was doing, Lucie reached out a hand and laid it on his wrist. The gesture was light and heartfelt. “I see good in you,” she said. “I see it struggling to get out but failing.”

  “And what do you suggest?” For a shocking moment Dudyk covered her hand with his own.

  “Fight,” she said. “Fight for yourself this time, not for them.”

  Then Vash and Belenko jumped down from the plane, empty handed, and shouted that they would start guarding the entrance.

  Dudyk turned and walked away without another word.

  Heidi watched Bodie take the left-hand passage. Gurka pushed Cassidy after him and then followed closely, a handgun aimed at their spines. Only Nina remained to watch the rest of them, but the R24 female had pulled away to create a large void of space, enabling her to see everyone and maintain her threat.

  If they rushed her, they could take her down, but some would die. Heidi studied the three remaining tunnels. Two clearly led to a single high cavern—she could see its shape in the light of the flashlights—while the other traveled farther into the mountain.

  Soon, Bodie returned, looking despondent. Gurka waved his gun around. “Empty,” he said. “Keep your flashlights.” Then he turned to Heidi. “You, let’s try the next passage.” He took another flashlight from his pack and threw it to her.

  She set off, flashlight held steady. The rear wall of the cave was wet, dotted here and there by clinging moss. She entered an archway carefully, checking for pitfalls along the ground and anomalies in the walls—anything from a dissecting passage to lurking predators. The passage was short, and the next cavern opened quickly around her. She saw an empty hollow with a small stream running down one side. The stream bubbled up from underground and disappeared through the far wall.

  Gurka prodded her in the back with the gun. “Move.”

  “It’s empty.”

  A sigh. “Fucking Caruso. I’m looking forward to flaying that man alive.”

  She retraced her steps, more worried than ever. She knew he could do it. She thought about her daughter and the office back in DC. She thought about her husband. They’d split, essentially, because she had a voice within her—a voice that compelled her to help people.

  Look how she’d ended up. Was it all worth it?

  They returned to the main cave then, just as Belenko came running up to Nina. “Three helicopters are approaching,” he said. “High in the skies.”

  Gurka cursed. “That makes everything harder,” he said. “Can you see who it is?”

  “There are no markings.”

  “Return to the entrance and keep me informed.”

  But Heidi knew. The CIA were here at last. Even the appearance of the choppers changed Gurka’s plans. He now had to include them. The CIA wouldn’t be able to get a fix on their position, but it was now her hope that they would see the Bratva and the mercs fighting.

  Even so, she had to draw their attention.

  And then Gurka let out an irate shout. “Where the hell is Caruso?”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

&
nbsp; “I remember!” Caruso cried.

  Bodie whipped his head around as the Italian suddenly vanished into the final tunnel. Without thinking, he raced after the man, Cassidy at his side. Everyone broke into a run, ignoring Gurka’s shouts and Nina, who, at the back of the group, could barely be heard.

  Bodie reached the tunnel seconds after Caruso and saw him running ahead. “Wait!”

  The Italian grinned back at him. “Are you kidding? You’ll die of meraviglia . . . of wonder . . . when you see this.”

  It was the lucid comment of a man driven by his passion. A moment of clarity, inspired by the nearness of the Amber Room.

  Bodie sprinted behind Caruso, heedless of hazards. Despite his apprehension, he was at heart a treasure hunter—and this might be the greatest treasure of them all. The feeling in his heart was more than fear—it was passion, hope, and a rising sense of anticipation.

  He figured Caruso would encounter any pitfalls first. The tunnel closed in, its roof brushing the top of his head, its sides reaching for his elbows. Caruso, ahead, seemed to bounce from wall to wall. Bodie chanced a glance back, saw the odd sight of a multitude of faces and flashlights bobbing behind him, and grunted as his right shoulder hit a nasty outcropping.

  Finally, the tunnel ended in a vast cave. The walls were tiered from floor to ceiling—deep, wide ledges dug into the rock one above another.

  Bodie slowed, jogging a few feet into the cave so that he wouldn’t get trampled from behind. He found it hard to take in the sights that were suddenly presented to his gaze.

  The chamber resounded with gasps of wonder.

  Caruso had fallen to his knees. Bodie walked to his side and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Well done, Dante, well done, mate. You’ve done your family proud.”

  Gurka and his companions brought their flashlights to bear.

  Wooden crates had been placed down the center of the cave, splitting it in half. Some had their lids askew, while others were as tightly closed as the day they’d been dragged there. The many ledges that lined the walls were overflowing with dusty treasures. Bodie saw strongboxes with cracked lids, full of coins. He saw piles of banknotes. He saw several framed paintings, covered loosely by frayed sheets that had once protected them but had decayed with time. Even now, the gilt frames flashed. It was all too much to take in. He was aware of figures moving past him: Yasmine approaching the right-hand series of ledges, Pantera stooping to rattle a handful of coins through his fingers, Gurka roughly pushing Heidi aside. Not a single ledge that lined the room was empty, and they rose over a dozen tiers high and ran around every wall. There were statues of brass and bronze and gold. Candelabras and chandeliers, drooping and cracked. Magnums of champagne sat amid thick debris on the ground.