The Balkan Escape (Short Story): A Cassiopeia Vitt Adventure

by Steve Berry

  The Balkan Escape (Short Story): A Cassiopeia Vitt Adventure

  Steve Berry

  Steve Berry's first ever eBook exclusive short story finds an adventurer in a strange and forbidding land, in search of a long lost treasure, and very much in harm's way. As a favor to enigmatic billionaire Henrik Thorvaldsen, Cassiopeia Vitt treks into Bulgaria's Rila mountains in search of a buried stash of exceedingly rare artifacts from a bygone civilization: the ancient tomb of a Thracian king. But when her presence is discovered by a shadowy group of Russians secretly mining the area, she needs a way out. "Who to trust" becomes the question, and her life depends on choosing the right option. Includes a sneak-preview of the new Cotton Malone thriller " The Emperor's Tomb."

  The Balkan Escape is a work of fiction. Names, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  A Ballantine Books E-book Original

  Copyright © 2010 by Steve Berry

  Excerpt from The Emperor’s Tomb copyright © 2010 by Steve Berry

  All Rights Reserved.

  5 YEARS AGO

  Cassiopeia Vitt wasn’t sure if they would kill her now or later. But they would kill her, that much was certain.

  Or at least they’d try.

  Which meant she needed to do something, but her options were limited. Her hands were bound behind her back with nylon twine, her feet chained to the rock wall that encased her like a dark cocoon. She was deep in the Rila mountains, more than two hundred kilometers south of Bulgaria’s capital, Sofia, alone. Worse, no one knew her location, and the deep cirques, sharp peaks, and glacial moraines surrounding her were among the remotest in the Balkans.

  She’d arrived yesterday, finding the camp at the base of a forested slope.

  A low methodic hum rising from one of the tents, and two black cables snaking a path into the mountain, signaled a generator. She was just about to follow their trail and enter the cave when a man appeared in the entrance. He was short, thick through the shoulders, with tanned features and a thin mustache. He wore sooty blue coveralls with butterfly stains in both armpits. Surprise flooded his face when he spotted his visitor, but it quickly vanished.

  He said something to her in Bulgarian. Slavic languages were not her strong point, so she tried English. “I was in the village and learned of your camp. I thought I would have a look.”

  He carried a pick and shovel, which he set aside. “Afraid there is not much but archaeologists digging for bones.”

  The English was clean and crisp, only a hint of a Russian accent.

  “That’s fascinating,” she said, but she thought about how the person in town, who’d pointed her this way, had said the men identified themselves as rock hounds.

  “It is cold and dirty in there, and not many bones.” He squatted down and rested his legs. “Feels better out here in fresh air.”

  He slipped a pack of cigarettes from a pocket and offered her a smoke. She declined, and he lit one for himself with a disposable lighter. The man said his name was Petar Varga.

  “How long have you been here?” she asked.

  “Too long. I think this is bad idea. Dry cave, yes?” He enjoyed his cigarette.

  “A university sponsoring the dig?”

  He stood. “More than one. But this is small project. Exploratory. Just seeing what earth will yield.”

  “I have always been fascinated by archaeology,” she said. “Think I could see the dig site?”

  He cocked his head and frowned. “Pretty tight space in there.”

  She flashed a smile. “I’m not afraid.”

  He flicked his cigarette to the ground. “Why not? Come, I show you around.”

  “Get up,” she was told.

  They’d come for her.

  Two men with guns.

  She was unchained and led back into the same tunnel that Varga had shown her yesterday. Narrow at first, but fifteen meters into the mountain it opened to nearly two meters wide. Weak bulbs periodically dissolved the darkness, revealing sharp walls, the floor a mixture of sand and gravel. Offshoot tunnels opened into more black chasms. Their level changed twice and rose steadily. The air hung thick and fetid, like a basement flooded after a storm.

  Ahead, the passage ended in the same rectangular chamber she’d seen yesterday, about twenty meters long with a low ceiling of jagged rock cast in a bluish tint by steaming halogens. At the far end was what appeared to be an altar—a rectangular slab of blackened stone supported by round pillars, the structure elevated by a platform hewn from the floor’s rock.

  Behind the altar were faint wall frescoes.

  A hunting scene in which a boar was attacked by a horse-mounted hunter and a naked man wielding a double ax. She knew the double ax represented royal power, while the naked man signified Zalmoxix, the Thracian solar god. The artwork had triggered Varga’s mistake yesterday when he incorrectly identified them as Roman. Her mistake had come when she hadn’t made a speedy retreat.

  A new man waited for her near the altar.

  He was tall, broad-shouldered, with a narrow waist and matching hips. A tiny nose with a slight bump protruded from his round face, and strands of black hair brushed the tips of his ears. He wore jeans and a long-sleeved shirt.

  “I am Lev Sokolov,” he said to her, his English infused with an even thicker Russian flavor. “I have been told to question you.”

  “By who?”

  “Russians. They control here.”

  “The last time I looked, Bulgaria was an independent nation.”

  He shrugged. “Maybe so. But the Russians control here.”

  “What’s so special about this place?”

  “Why are you here?”

  She couldn’t say that Henrik Thorvaldsen had asked her to check out the locale. Her Danish friend, fascinated by anything lost and twenty times wealthier than she could ever hope to be, had stumbled onto the possible location of an undiscovered Thracian tomb.

  Which was rare.

  The Thracians were a warlike, nomadic people who’d settled the central Balkans nearly 5000 years ago. They were first mentioned in the Iliad as allies of the Trojans against the Greeks, and Herodotus cynically noted that they sell their children and let their wives commerce with whatever men they please. Two and half millennia ago they dominated the mountains of northern Greece and what would later become southern Bulgaria. Eventually conquered by Alexander the Great, then reconquered by the Romans, they were finally assimilated by Slavs in the 6th century. They developed no written language and left no trace of their existence, save for tombs littered with fabulous gold and silver treasures. Most had been found farther north, in central Bulgaria, in what had been dubbed the Valley of the Thracian Kings. But Thorvaldsen had happened on to the location of a more obscure site, to the south. A place that had once been a vital part of ancient Thrace, whose residents had named the mountains Rila—meaning “well watered.” He’d hoped that the site might prove virgin. Unfortunately, others had found it first.

  And they weren’t after treasure.

  “I’m on holiday and have never seen this part of Bulgaria,” she said to Sokolov.

  “Ms. Vitt, you are important. You own multibillion-dollar corporation, inherited from your father. You own grand estate in southern France. Woman like yourself, a person of great means, does not take holiday in these mountains.”

  They’d confiscated her passport yesterday after taking her captive, and clearly somebody had been busy.

  “What do you plan to do?” she asked. “Hold me for ransom?”

  “I simply ask, why are you here?�
��

  She caught something in Sokolov’s eyes, a gentle request that she answer honestly. She wondered if the two other men, who stood on the far side of the chamber, understood the conversation. Their actions did not indicate that they were even listening.

  “This is a Thracian tomb,” she said, opting for the truth.

  “I wondered who built it,” Sokolov said. “How old is it?”

  “Probably third to fifth century BCE.”

  “We find this by accident. A demolition in another tunnel opened shaft to here.”

  It was bare. No artifacts. “Was it empty?”

  He nodded. “This is exactly as chamber appeared when we entered five days ago.”

  At least it existed. Thorvaldsen would be thrilled.

  Of course, in order to tell him she’d need to escape.

  But her hunch was proving correct. She’d thought about it all night while chained to the wall. Bulgaria was rich in manganese, coal, copper, lead, zinc, and gold. These men could be geologists. But if they were simply a survey crew, why take her captive? Why the guns?

  Only one explanation made sense.

  Another ore came from these mountains, one the former Soviet Union had openly exploited.

  “How big a uranium deposit have you found?” she asked.

  Sokolov’s eyes betrayed the fact that she’d guessed correctly. “Enough to know you won’t see daylight again.”

  Sokolov’s threat carried no menace. It was more informational, one that made clear she was in trouble, but not necessarily from him. He motioned to one of the other armed men and barked out some Russian. The man found a knife and cut the nylon bindings that held her arms behind her back.

  She rubbed away the soreness. “I appreciate that. They were tight.”

  “These men are not to be fooled,” he said. “They have a job and will do it. I need to know why you here.”

  She wondered if Sokolov’s task was to make her feel comfortable, vulnerable, to gain her trust. There was something about him she was drawn to, not the usual arrogance Russians seemed to project. More reserved. Likeable. She told herself to be careful and not say more than she should.

  To buy time, she studied the vault.

  Thracian kings and nobility were buried in underground temples called heroons. Usually either multichambered and rectangular or singular and circular with a domed roof, they served as places for ritual ceremonies to honor the deceased with funeral gifts. Until the early 20th century the entire culture had been practically unknown, and when Thorvaldsen offered her the chance, she’d been excited about the prospect of visiting one of their forgotten sanctuaries.

  But this tomb had obviously been looted. There was nothing here to find.

  And it was time for her to leave.

  She counted three tunnels leading out. One was the path back outside. Two more led deeper into the mountain. Mentally, she ticked off the distance between herself and the nearest exit. About fifteen paces. Straight line. Nothing in the way.

  She admired the frescoes again and marveled at the obvious lack of Greek influence. Thracians had enjoyed a rich culture, and, if not for their disunity, they could well have developed into a lasting civilization. Unfortunately, when they were Hellenized, the beards, tattoos, cloaks, boots, and hats that had distinguished them disappeared from both their lives and their art. The images here were from a time before that influence, showing them as they originally had been, not blue-eyed and red-haired as one observer incorrectly described, but dark-haired with features more common to Europeans.

  “Will you tell me why you here?” Sokolov asked again.

  “Please tell us,” a new voice said. “I want to know answer to that question.”

  Petar Varga entered the chamber.

  Today he was dressed in more stylish clothes, his dirty work overalls gone. He approached the spot where she and Sokolov stood, each step crunching loose gravel beneath his soles, his swagger that of a man in charge.

  “You can stick it up your ass,” she said.

  Varga’s arm swept up and the back of his hand smacked the side of her face. The blow jarred her, but she regained her balance and was about to pounce when Varga produced a pistol.

  “You’re tough with a gun,” she said. “How are you in a fight?”

  He laughed. “Not so good. I like advantage of you not knowing what I do.”

  She rubbed her cheek and her stinging jaw. He’d regret doing that. Just one opportunity, that’s all she’d need.

  “I hope last night show you we are not to be ignored,” Varga said. “Why you here?”

  She decided to play him, since it really didn’t matter what she said. “I came to find you.”

  Varga’s face twisted. “For who?”

  She turned away and stepped close to the altar where some fist-sized rocks lay scattered. The chamber was large for a Thracian tomb. Some research done a few days ago had revealed that, usually, the rectangular-type vaults consisted of three separate rooms, each rich in ornamentation with columns, friezes, and caryatids. This one, though, displayed only frescoes.

  Which was odd.

  She wondered if the other two exits led to more chambers or tunnels. Impossible to know for sure. Power cables snaked a path into the darkness of each. Unfortunately, she could not make it to the exit that she knew led to fresh air, because two armed men guarded it, one on each side.

  She lifted one of the stones and tested its weight.

  Plenty heavy.

  “What do you do?” Varga said. “Throw rock at me?”

  She stole one last look around and grabbed her bearings. “That would be stupid. But—”

  She whirled the rock at the light bar.

  It slammed into the center of the panel, the bulbs erupting in a frenzy of blue-white sparks. The chamber plunged into blackness and she ducked behind the altar. Using the faint light from bulbs beyond the three exits as beacons, she shifted her position, rushing the fifteen paces across the blackness toward the opening. She had no idea where it led, but anything was better than here.

  The men were screaming Russian at one another.

  She kept on course and hoped she did not slam into any of her captors or rock.

  She found the tunnel and plunged forward.

  Two shots rang out from behind.

  Far more darkness loomed here than light, the bulbs fewer and farther apart. She slowed her pace. Her boots caught on loose gravel, and she kept one arm extended, groping the air ahead.

  She came to a place where the tunnel drew to the right. A light appeared behind her as she angled around. Flashlights were headed her way. She kept moving, one arm out front, the other tracing the tunnel wall.

  One moment she was walking on firm earth, the next she was falling.

  Her stomach folded up into her throat.

  For a few seconds she was weightless.

  Then she slammed into hard ground and consciousness slipped away.

  She opened her eyes, but a cascade of water forced her lids shut. The cold liquid rushed over her with the force of a waterfall. She pushed herself up from a rocky floor, swiping wet eyes with her sleeve. Darkness surrounded her save for a hole in the ceiling ten meters above. Her vision was blurry but slowly revealed Varga and Sokolov, each holding a flashlight, staring down at her through the opening.

  “I thought water might help,” Varga called down.

  Her legs were sore, and the small of her back ached, but nothing seemed broken. Her hair and clothes were soaked and a chill began to work its way toward her skin.

  “Good you find hole,” Varga said. “Save me trouble of dumping you here. Let it not be said that I not a fair man.” He tossed down his flashlight, which she caught. “At least you won’t be in dark. As long as batteries work.”

  Then Varga disappeared, apparently walking off.

  Only Sokolov’s face remained.

  “Go left,” he whispered.

  Then he, too, vanished.

  The light from
above receded and darkness overtook her.

  She switched on the flashlight and walked to the right, specifically ignoring Sokolov’s instruction.

  The walls were bone-dry, and the path ahead angled. Turning the corner, she spotted something on the floor, a red glow rhythmically pulsating, like a tiny searchlight. As she stepped close, her light revealed a digital timer attached to a thick bundle of pink material.

  Numbers were clicking down.

  Recognition was instant.

  A bomb.

  The timer at 15 seconds.

  14. 13. 12.

  She raced in the opposite direction, leaping forward just as the plastique exploded.

  The impact shook the mountain and sent rock crumbling in an avalanche that quickly consumed the tunnel behind her. As the ceiling collapsed she scrambled to her feet and bolted away, the opening Varga and Sokolov had filled a few moments ago gone.

  She dashed to another corner.

  The tunnel walls behind her were imploding, rock pounding rock, dust rising in a dense storm, the air rapidly being replaced by a suffocating pall. She stared ahead and saw the tunnel end ten meters away. Even worse, another red glow pulsated at the base of a stone barricade. She ran forward and the light revealed another digital timer attached to another bundle of explosive, this clock at thirty seconds.

  Go left?

  Sokolov’s idea of help?

  The first explosion had annihilated the tunnel behind her, blocking any escape in that direction, and a bomb lay at her feet, less than twenty seconds from exploding.

  She trotted back to the corner and shone the light. The first tunnel was cannibalizing itself. A loud crack split the air as a chunk the size of a Mercedes slammed down and disintegrated into boulders.

  She shielded her eyes, then peered through a veil of dust.

  Her mind was keeping count. Probably less than ten seconds. She whipped the beam to the left, then right, and spotted a smile forming in the remaining wall that was quickly expanding into a yawn.

  She made a decision and leaped.

  Another blast pulsated the mountain.

  Behind her, the entire tunnel vanished but the crush of rock onto rock became muffled by a barrier of rubble, sealing off the hole that had existed only moments before.