“Wow, Curial, that’s messed up. But it doesn’t make sense. You told me yourself. The guy who killed Markoff is the one who stole the Romanov Dolls. And that’s Victor Koralenko.”
Curial shook his head. “No, that’s just it. The killing took place at Koralenkos but the newspaper never identified the shooter as Koralenko himself.”
“I just think you’re grasping at straws,” said Maurice. “You’re saying that Ardankin would have had to coincidentally been at White Hills the day Boris Markoff was there.”
“No Maurice, you don’t understand. Koralenko is at the party tonight.”
“Right now!” yelled Maurice.
“Yes, right now,” said Curial. “Turns out he and Ardankin are old friends. Koralenko said Ardankin used to work at White Hills when he was a young man.”
“He used to work there?”
“Do another search. Search Valery Ardankin, biography. Try to find some mention of him working for Koralenko.”
“Got it. Okay, translating the page. Da, da, dah. Nothing on this one. Here’s one from a speech he gave a year ago.”
“Hurry Maurice,” said Curial.
“Um, okay, early life, career…well what do you know? Says here that Ardankin started out as an art collector at none other than White Hills, the Koralenko estate.”
“Years, Maurice, what years…”
“Okay, um got it, he worked there from 1968 to 1971. Wait a second Curial, he worked there…”
Dina was walking towards Curial now.
“When Koralenko killed Boris Markov,” said Maurice.
“No Maurice, I don’t think you understand. It wasn’t Koralenko at all. It was Ardankin. Professor Ardankin was the one who killed Boris Markov.”
“Are you crazy?” said Maurice.
“No Maurice, It was Ardankin. I’m sure of it. Valery Ardankin stole the Romanov Dolls,” said Curial.
“You’re serious?”
Curial watched as Dina got closer. “Unfortunately, yes Maurice, I’m serious.”
“And I don’t suppose you have any grand theory of where those dolls might now be?”
Curial thought of Nikolai’s bedroom, the one nobody ever went into. The one with the electronic lock and he looked up at the ceiling. “If I’m right? About forty feet above my head.”
“Dude! Dina is going to completely flip when you tell her.”
She was almost too him now.
“I know, which is exactly why I’m not going to tell her,” said Curial, turning his head so Dina couldn’t see him talking.
“Then what are you going to do?” asked Maurice.
“The only thing I can do,” said Curial. “I have to get rid of her.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight – Or Not To Climb
“You talking to Maurice?” asked Dina as she motioned to Curial’s earpiece.
“Yeah, just got done telling him Koralenko was here. Pretty creepy don’t you think?”
“Definitely creepy. And to think Grandfather knows him.”
“He’s known him for a long time,” said Curial.
Dina hesitated. “It makes me wonder.”
“About?”
“You think there’s any chance my grandfather knows what Koralenko did?”
Curial studied her. Dina’s eyes were dancing, like she was trying to figure something out, but nothing had come to her yet.
“Probably not,” said Curial. “But we don’t have time to think about that now. Maurice thinks that with Koralenko here at the party, it’s probably our best chance to go.”
“But the grand dance isn’t finished yet.”
“Yeah, about that. Maurice and I agree that Koralenko might get suspicious if you and I walk out together. Maurice and I will go to Koralenko’s now, scout the place out and set up, and then you should follow when the grand dance is finished.”
She gave him an odd look. “Really?”
“You know, just to be safe,” Curial said.
“So you’re going to make me dance the rest of the grand dance with a smelly old guy.”
“Dina, I’ve only got one shot at getting those dolls back. You can handle a smelly guy for ten minutes.”
“I suppose,” she said. “I have been hanging out with you for the last few days, right?”
“Well played Dina Ardankin, well played.”
She grinned. “Get out of here blockhead. I’ll meet up with you soon.”
Curial watched Dina walk towards a group speaking with her grandfather then he left the party. He walked out the front gate, took a left, looked behind him to make sure no one was following, then stepped off the sidewalk and lost himself in the trees. A hundred feet later, he came to the corner of the eight-foot wrought iron fence that bordered Ardankin’s estate.
He looked down at Maurice who was dressed from head to toe in black, and sat on the ground with a computer perched on his lap and headphones covering his ears. He lifted one of them up.
“She went for it,” Curial said.
“I heard. You really think this is a good idea not telling her?”
“It would break her heart if she knew the truth about her grandfather.”
“So instead, you’re just going to steal a priceless treasure from underneath her grandfather’s nose and then leave Russia without ever telling her?”
“I really hadn’t thought it out like that.”
“Well, I’m just proud you decided to get over your fear and do the climb.”
Curial froze. “What are you talking about Maurice?”
“Oh, my bad. So you’re going to go back into the party and go up to the third floor room all by yourself?”
Curial kicked the ground. “There’s no way I can get past the security guards without Dina.”
Maurice danced his tongue along his bottom lip, then looked through the wrought iron fence at the Ardankin house. Then he looked back at Curial.
“Then like I said, that leaves only one way right?”
“I have to climb?” said Curial, his voice shaking.
“You have to climb,” said Maurice.
“But I-I…”
Maurice nodded as if he understood, then he unzipped his bag and pulled out black gloves and black slippers. They were shiny, like the kind of material scuba divers might wear. “Listen, my contact gave me these, said they are top of the line. They provide extra stick.”
“Like Spiderman?” asked Curial.
“Not quite,” said Maurice. “You’ve got to do the climbing on your own, but these will help.”
Curial studied the distance from the ground to the third floor of Ardankin’s house. It might as well have been a mountain to him.
“You mind telling me why the climbing thing has you so spooked?” asked Maurice.
“Yeah, I would mind.”
Maurice opened up his arms. “Then maybe we should just hug it out?”
“Don’t touch me,” growled Curial.
Maurice grinned. “I’ve been told my hugs are therapeutic.”
“No chance you know what the word therapeutic means,” said Curial.
“It would be a shame to let a little thing like fear keep you from fulfilling your mother’s dying wishes.”
“Watch it.”
“I’m just saying, a little fear or a priceless treasure?”
Curial put his head down and tried to control his breathing. After what seemed like an eternity, he finally looked up, grabbed the bars of the wrought iron fence and squeezed.
“How do I get past the dog again?”
“Now you’re talking,” said Maurice. “Better suit up.”
Curial shook his head, and took off his tuxedo. Underneath, he had a long black jumpsuit. He finished by putting a black stocking cap on, then made sure the earpiece was still nice and snug. He slid a small black backpack through his arms.
Maurice held out the special dog bone and pointed to the lawn. A large grey German Shepherd lay near the corner of the house where the front yard merged into t
he side yard. The dog’s eyes were open, his tongue out. Maurice flipped on a tiny switch at the base of the bone, then handed it to Curial.
“I’m guessing you got a better arm than me,” said Maurice. “Now remember, if he doesn’t take the bone, then you’ll have to outrun that dog to the house.”
“I can’t outrun a dog.”
Maurice slapped Curial on the back. “Then I guess he better take the bone.”
Among other things, this special bone made a high-frequency sound that had been designed to attract dogs. Curial chucked it over the fence and watched as it landed in the grass about twenty yards away. The dog rose off his belly, barked, and ran to it. He spent a few moments sniffing it before he took his first lick. Then another. Then he sank his teeth in and started going nuts. If Maurice was right, the dog was now licking up the “secret ingredient” and would be getting sleepy soon. Curial checked the time on his phone and watched the dog. He spotted the window he would need to get to, then looked back at the dog again.
In three minutes, the big German Shepherd was sound asleep in the middle of the yard. Curial took a deep breath.
“You got this dude,” Maurice said as he patted him on the back once more.
Curial wasn’t so sure. Not at all. He scanned left and right, then climbed over the wrought iron fence and dropped to the other side. He crouched low, scanned back and forth again and sprinted across the lawn.
When he reached the house, he stood with his back pushed up against the wall and tried to catch his breath—but his heart was beating furiously, and his breaths were quick and shallow. Curial bent down, hands on his knees. He was feeling dizzy. Keep—it—together, he told himself.
When he was calm enough to continue, Curial moved down the east side of the house until he came to the spot he was looking for. He carefully inched his head past the edge of a first floor window and peered in. The party was winding down, with people beginning to leave. He sure hoped Dina was gone by now.
Curial crawled along the house until he made it to the third column of windows. He looked up at the third-floor window and swallowed hard.
From a distance, tall things always looked tall enough. But up close? To Curial, that third story window might as well have been the top of the Eiffel Tower. He started to shake and he pressed his hands against the stone on the side of the house and pressed hard. He turned around and scanned the lawn. The big dog was sleeping and beyond him, the wrought iron fence and the trees and Maurice. Curial could leave. He could leave right now. Get on that plane tomorrow and go back to New York like nothing happened.
He could do that.
His mom would forgive him. She loved him, she was his mom.
That was it, of course. Caroline Diggs was his mom. And she was fearless, all the way to the end.
And she wanted him to do this.
She’d given him more than enough during her life. Time for Curial to start giving back.
He unzipped the backpack and grabbed the sticky slippers and gloves out of his pack and put them on. Then he stuck his foot in a small crevice, took one last breath, and reached his hand up to a stone above.
“It’s now or never Curial,” said Maurice in Curial’s ear.
Curial turned off the transmitter so he could concentrate, made the sign of the cross, and started to climb.
Chapter Twenty-Nine – Breaking In
Maurice’s Spidey slippers and gloves worked well; they provided incredible stickiness that made climbing up the stone wall easier.
But Curial was only a third of the way up, and already he was shaking, his heart thump-thumping in his chest. His breath never slowed even for a moment, and his hands, though artificially sticky at the moment, were shaking so hard it was as if they wanted to pry him from the wall and throw him to the ground.
Curial stopped climbing, and hugged the stone wall tightly.
And that day flooded back to him.
He was at the top of the ferris wheel, alone. The ride was stuck, and the wind was blowing, and his car kept shaking. His mom was on the ground, waving frantically for him, and all he could do was scream, “Thirty-eight! Thirty-eight! Thirty-eight!”
Through the years since then, his mom had tried to help him get over his fear of heights. She’d even had the climbing wall built in the hopes that slowly, together, they could overcome his fear.
And then she got sick.
And as scared as he’d been on top of that ferris wheel, nothing was scarier than her last few weeks, when he knew she was going to die.
Curial squeezed the rocks with his hands and feet and knees; he buried his head against the stone wall. He couldn’t move any farther.
Mom, he thought. I can’t do this.
And then he heard something. Although it came from inside his own head, he was certain of the voice.
Curial, she said. Remember how scared you were when you thought I would die? Well guess what? I did die.
I died and… you’re okay. You moved on. You’re making me proud. You’re on this wall being so brave.
And you know what I want you to do now?
I want you to finish.
She wanted him to finish.
Correction: he wanted to finish.
And they could still climb this wall together.
Curial snapped his head up, reached for a rock, and climbed. His heart still beat fast, his body still shook, but on he climbed, one stone at a time, until at last he reached the third-story window and grabbed the sill tightly with both hands. He’d made it. He slid his finger up to his ear and turned the transmitter back on.
“Why the heck did you turn your transmitter off?” barked Maurice.
“So you couldn’t talk to me, thereby making me fall, and break every bone in my body,” responded Curial.
“I call that mentally weak, Diggs. Whatever. You’ll need a Microburst to take care of the Denoyev switch.”
“You can tell it’s a Denoyev switch from the fence?”
“I’m what you call an optimistic thief,” said Maurice.
Curial wedged his slippers into a crevice in the stone and then pressed up against the window sill while he took out a Microburst. He set it carefully on the windowpane.
“Now release the red button and hope that you and I get to sleep in our comfortable American beds the rest of our lives.”
“What happened to the optimistic thief?” asked Curial.
“I’m also moody.”
Curial released the red button. Three seconds later the window vibrated ever so slightly, and then it was over.
“No presence of an alarm,” said Maurice through the earpiece. “I call that a good thing. Now use the knife like I showed you.”
Curial slid a knife along the edge of the window, lifted, and—click—the window slid up easily. He pushed it all the way up and peeked his head in. The lights on the third floor were low. No sign of anybody around, though he knew that security guard would be perched at the stairs no more than forty feet away.
Taking a deep breath, Curial lifted himself up and over the window ledge, then dropped as softly as he could onto the floor. He carefully closed the window behind him and advanced on the office door and a very familiar looking device.
“Maurice, I’m telling you this looks exactly like the lock in Koralenko’s house.”
“Then maybe lady luck is on our side tonight. You’ll need to take the electronic bypass and fit it over the keypad.”
Just like Maurice instructed, Curial slid the bypass over the keypad. A red wire dangled to the side.
“You see that port on the original keypad?” said Maurice. “It’s a small hole just below the numbers and to the right.”
Curial scanned until he found it. “Got it.”
“Now connect the red wire to the port and let that baby work its magic.”
Curial connected the wire to the port and then backed up. The display on the bypass blinked, and then letters started flipping until the display came to a stop.
&n
bsp; A – D – E – I – L – N
“You seeing this on your end?” Curial asked.
“Yeah,” replied Maurice. “A-D-E-I-L-N. Wait a second. Double check how many number slots are on the original keypad display?”
Curial leaned in. “Five.”
“Then this is going to be harder. The bypass gave us six letters.”
“What does that mean?”
“These are the six letters used with greatest frequency over the last month. If the display calls for only a five letter code, then that can mean only one thing?”
“And I’m guessing it’s not a good thing.”
“It means Ardankin changed his password sometime in the last month. That means we have to figure out which four or five of these letters to use. This is where you come in.”
“Need I remind you that you’re the one sitting behind a computer right now?” said Curial.
“Need I remind you how often you’ve hinted that you’re smarter than me?” said Maurice. “Plus, you know Ardankin. You’re the best one to figure this out.”
Curial looked at the letters again.
A – D – E – I – L – N
One word popped out at him, one word that had something to do with phones. And sometimes in life, the simplest answers were the best. He punched in the code.
D – I – A – L
A red light blinked and a small beep came from the keypad. Then nothing happened.
“Okay, I heard a beep. Was that a good beep?”
“Not exactly. I tried D-I-A-L,” said Curial.
“You didn’t think about running it past me first?”
Curial slapped himself on the forehead. “Dial” was an English word—but Ardankin would use a Russian word. And, as Dina had reminded him repeatedly, Curial was a blockhead who didn’t know any Russian. He swallowed hard and took another look at the letters.
A – D – E – I – L – N
Six letters to make a four- or five-digit Russian code. He looked at the last four letters. Wait a second. He may not know any Russian words, but he did know some Russian names. Famous Russian names. And one very famous Russian name would work.
“How about L-E-N-I-N?” Curial asked.
Teenage Treasure Hunter Page 15