Amber (7 page)

Kaliningrad

Maddock drove down
Lenin Avenue in a rented SUV, Professor riding shotgun with Bones and Willis in the back seat. He navigated a lot of roundabouts and curving intersections as opposed to the right angle street patterns prevalent in the U.S. Lots of German vehicles like VWs were mixed in with Russian and other European makes.

“Where are we going, again?” Bones gazed with a bored-looking expression out the window at an urban park-like environment with squat, concrete buildings separated by grassy, tree-lined spaces.

Professor answered while Maddock negotiated a busy merge. “The old Königsberg Castle site by way of the Dom Sovietov
 
building, but first we have to meet up with Zara Leopov at King’s Gate.”

Bones whipped his head away from the window. “I think I understood ‘castle’. And Leopov. What’s the rest of it?”

Professor sighed and turned around to project back to Bones. “It goes like this. Near the end of the second World War, in 1945, the Amber Room was here in Kaliningrad, although back then, under German occupation, it was called Königsberg, in what was East Prussia. Still with me, Bones?”

“I’m still with your mom.”

Professor shook his head and went on. “The Amber Room was openly displayed in the town’s castle—Königsberg Castle—until Hitler himself ordered all stolen art and stuff like that moved out of Königsberg before the advancing Russian army got there and had the chance to take it back.”

“Gotta protect that fine art while you’re taking over the world, ain’t that right?” Willis’ face was grim as he made the remark.

“He was well on the way to falling by this time,” Professor continued. “Königsberg was heavily shelled and bombed by the Russians. Soon afterward the Germans fled and thereafter the city remained under Soviet control.”

“So we’re going to search the castle?” Bones looked puzzled. “Seems kind of obvious, doesn’t it? I mean, I’m sure everyone’s already looked all through it by now, right? All these years...Same as the wreck, really, but at least that’s hard to get to. Anybody and their dog can walk through a building.”

Professor responded as Maddock wrangled the SUV through another turn while glancing in the rearview mirror. “The castle is just collapsed ruins now; the standing ruins were taken down by a demolition team in 1968. The only part left today that might be able to be explored is the subterranean tunnel system beneath it. Archaeology teams still occasionally do excavations there in the hopes of finding treasures including the Amber Room. That’s where most of the expectations for finding anything on that site lie.”

Bones was still not convinced. “But it’s not like anybody can just go walking into the ruins anymore, right?”

“We’re not just anybody, Bones. We’re special warfare operators on a government sanctioned mission. But you’re right. There are alternate entrances and a lot of secrets in general surrounding the castle. That’s where our local contact comes into play.”

“Zara? She could come into play with me anytime, no doubt about it. Doesn’t make her any less annoying, though. And what’s this other place we’re meeting her at?”

“King’s Gate. It’s one of the six old German guard houses from the 1800s that fortified the city. Today it’s a tourist attraction.”

“What does it have to do with the Amber Room, though?”

“Nothing, I don’t think. It’s just a well-known place to meet at so we can find her.”

“And here it is.” Maddock’s voice brought them back to their current objective. Leopov. He slowed the vehicle as they pulled up in front of a brick building with a central tower featuring a trio of statues mounted on the facade. Bones pointed to them.

“Who are those guys?”

Professor answered. “Prussian kings.”

Willis looked not up at the statues but on the ground level. “You guys see her?”

“She’s hard to miss,” Bones began. “She’s super freakin’—“

“Hold it.” Maddock’s voice had that icy tone to it that the team knew well enough to know they better shut up and listen.

“What’s up?” This from Professor.

Maddock stared into the driver side door mirror while he responded. “I took an extra loop a while back there so that we weren’t taking such a direct course to our rendezvous point, but now I see the same black Citroen that I saw before I made the extra loop.”

Professor wrinkled his brow as he tracked the vehicle in the rear view. “Coincidence?”

“There she is!” Bones announced before Maddock could answer. Three of the four heads in the SUV turned while Maddock kept his gaze riveted to the mirror. A woman dressed in an overcoat, scarf, pants and a jacket walked around the corner and strolled down the sidewalk in front of the King’s Gate. Willis gave a catcall whistle that couldn’t be heard outside of the SUV.

“
Damn
. Look at
that
!” Then Willis shook his head and seemed to clear his mind. “I don’t see our contact, though. Where is she?” He glanced up and down the sidewalk. Bones chuckled.

“What ‘choo talkin’ about, Willis! That’s her! That’s Leopov.”

“Hey, Bonehead, I told you to stop sayin’ that. It’s low-hanging fruit, man. You gotta be better than that.” But the fire was gone from his reply as he watched Zara sashay down the street. “You’re serious—that’s really her?”

Bones already had the door open. “Be right back. Slide your big butt over and make some room.” Bones took a couple of steps toward Leopov.

“Well hello again, beautiful!” A brunette, Leopov had a vaguely Slavic look with high cheekbones and shoulder length hair with a mild wave to it.

She turned and stared at him for a moment over lowered sunglasses, then walked briskly past him. “Hurry, get in.” The words blew into Bones’ ears on a perfume scented wind, and she got into the SUV. Bones looked around very briefly but didn’t see anything that was cause for concern. Two old men stood conversing about a quarter of a block away, a few people walked the sidewalk further on past the King’s Gate. He got into the SUV and pulled the door shut, squeezing Zara in between himself and Willis in the back seat.

“Pleased to make your acquaintance again, Zara. I’m sure you remember my esteemed colleague, Dane Maddock.” He extended a long arm toward Maddock behind the wheel.

“Hi Zara. Up front with me is my associate, Pete Chapman, and the other guy back there is Willis Sander. By the way, you wouldn’t happen to know who’s in the black Citroen that just parked on the opposite side about half a block back, would you?”

“I came alone.”

“That doesn’t answer the question.”

“Somebody’s a cranky boy. What’s the matter, do you miss your American fast food already?”

Professor looked back at Willis and exchanged looks. Maddock ignored the jab. “Dom Sovetov, right?”

“Correct. Are you certain you have a tail?”

“Think so. I pulled an extra loop back there and the car is still on me.”

“I know a quick enough route to Dom Sov that will be so circuitous that coincidence will not be possible. Let’s go. Pull out suddenly, without warning.”

Bones and Willis snickered in the back.

Maddock waited for a few cars to pass by and then squeezed into an opening so that he would have vehicles behind him as well as in front.

“Go ahead and merge into the left lane, when you can. Do not do so recklessly.”

“So what exactly is this Dom Sov place?” Bones wanted to know.

Leopov answered him as soon as she was satisfied with Maddock’s lane change. “In English it can be translated to House of Soviets.”

Professor craned his neck around to ask her a question. “It was meant to be an administration building, right, but now abandoned?”

Leopov nodded. “Correct. Construction was abandoned in the 1980s when the ground beneath it was deemed to be structurally unsafe to build on due to the soil shifting in the underground layers beneath the castle.” She gave Maddock a driving instruction and then Bones turned to her.

“Let me get this straight...There’s now an abandoned building on top of the castle ruins?”

“That is right.”

“And we’re going there now?”

“Right again. If your esteemed colleague can lose the tail you’ve unfortunately seemed to have acquired.”

“Who do you think those guys are?” Willis started to turn around but Leopov put a hand on his shoulder.

“Don’t look back. Just act normal. They could be KGB agents sent to keep tabs on you.”

“Why would the KGB care about the Amber Room?”

Kate narrowed her eyes at Willis. “The same reason you care about it, I suspect. Your government told you to find it.”

“What’s your involvement, Zara?” Maddock’s question was as direct as his acceleration through the yellow light that threatened to keep them hung up at an intersection with the Citroen only four vehicles back. He shot across and then slowed to normal speed, all of the cars behind him now stopped at the light.

“Simple. I was sent by the Russian government to assist the U.S. Special Forces team in locating and recovering the amber chamber or pieces thereof. There! Pull over there!”

Maddock looked over to the right at a crowded curb with a line of double-parked vehicles. “Why?”

“Taxi. Hurry. We can transfer before they catch us if we are fast. I assume this rental is under an assumed identity?”

Bones opened the rear door. “It’s under Willis’ mom’s name. No problem, I can explain it to her.”

Maddock looked at Leopov and rolled his eyes while Willis followed the Russian agent out of the SUV. “You better get your ass in that taxi before I catch up to you, Bones.”

“Let me do the talking.” Leopov ran around the front of the cab, a mini-van, and took the front passenger seat. Even before all four SEALs were inside with the doors closed, she said to the driver, an aging Russian man, “Dom Sovietov.”  She then pressed a bill into his hand and said something in Russian that Maddock couldn’t understand but inferred from how the cabbie immediately merged out into traffic that she had asked him to step on it.

All of them remained silent as they were driven at a good clip through the busy streets of Kaliningrad. Though not spies by trade, with the possible exception of Leopov, Maddock suspected, even a bunch of SEALs knew better than to discuss anything tactical or to divulge anything personal about themselves in front of strangers while in the field. Maddock’s eyes narrowed every time he caught a glimpse of a black car in the cab’s rearview, but by the time the cabbie slowed in front of a boxy, concrete tower, he had not sighted the Citroen again.

“Dom Sovietov,” the driver announced, putting the cab into park. The SEALs exited quickly while Leopov gave the driver more cash and thanked him politely. Bones opened her door for her and she got out. As the cab slipped back into traffic, they eyed their destination. Bones was the first to give voice to his observations.

“Looks like a giant freakin’ robot, doesn’t it?”

The others nodded and murmured agreement. Indeed, a pair of protruding block structures gave the appearance of eyes, the whole building appearing like a robot’s head emerging from the Earth.

“The locals call it ‘the monster’ because it’s so ugly. It sits atop what used to be the castle moat, which has long since been filled in.” Leopov pointed to the west. “The actual castle sat over there, but it is rumored that a network of underground tunnels connects the Dom Sovietov to the castle.”

“And there’s nobody in there?” Bones found it hard to believe that such a large building still standing so close to the center of a city could be unoccupied.

Leopov shook her head. “It is abandoned. Come on. We need to get to the basement.”

She led the way across a lawn toward the building as the SEALs trailed behind her. Maddock took a last look back at the street to watch for their tail, and then they took off at a jog for the facade.

Dom Sovietov

The five of
them stood at the base of the building and gazed skyward. From this close it became apparent that it was actually constructed of two towers connected some floors up by a bridge between them. Maddock speculated that the whole thing was about twenty stories high.

“Twenty-one,” Leopov corrected. “It was supposed to be more, but construction halted when the ground became unstable, like I said, and then for good with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. Since then it’s been abandoned.”

A posted sign in red Russian lettering warned against trespassing. Maddock appraised the entrance, which was nothing more than an open doorway that used to house double glass doors. Beyond it lay a bare concrete floor littered with construction debris. Graffiti covered part of the outside wall and was also visible inside.

“Willis and Professor: how about you two keep watch outside—keep an eye out for the black Citroen in particular but notify us if anyone approaches.”

He pulled a walkie-talkie from the pocket of his jacket and handed it to Professor. “Bones and I will go inside with Zara and see if we can find anything interesting. I’ll let you know if we need you to join us. In case we lose radio contact if we do make it down to the tunnel system, or if you don’t hear from us at all for more than a half an hour... Maddock checked his dive watch. “...feel free to come in after us.”

Willis grinned. “Come on, man. You three are gonna come waltzing out of this place in about an hour with a bunch of amber panels like looters in a riot. Then our Russian tour guide here can show us some real sites, like maybe some vodka bars, am I right, girl?”

Zara glared at him. “Call me ‘girl’ again and the only site you’ll be seeing is the local hospital.”

Willis raised his eyebrows and reared his head back while Bones and Professor both said “Oh!” at the same time.

“I like her,” Professor said. “I like her a lot.”

Maddock decided to get on with things before morale was irreversibly destroyed amongst his team. “Let’s go. “ He walked through the doorway into the vacant building.

“You’ve been inside here before?” he asked Leopov as she entered and then Bones behind her.

“In a manner of speaking.”

“What’s that mean?” They traversed the floor of what had been intended to be an expansive lobby of some sort, crunching over broken glass as they went.

“This is my first time inside, but I’ve had the opportunity to study the blueprints. I’m quite familiar with the place in my head. Go through that doorway there and then take a right.”

“Did your blueprints include the basement areas or only the modern building?” Maddock pressed.

“Both, although the subterranean levels are not as well documented. Some of the tunnels were destroyed deliberately, while others may have survived but had their layout changed.”

“Whoa, somebody forgot to finish the stairs.” Bones called out from out of sight around the doorway Leopov had indicated. They caught up with him and Maddock looked down a concrete stairwell that had crumbled in the middle, leaving a gaping space of perhaps ten feet, below which was a long drop to a pile of loose concrete.

Maddock turned to Leopov. “This the only way to the basement?”  She nodded.

“That I know of.”

Bones removed a small backpack and took from it a coil of rope and a grappling hook. He gripped the metal railing still fixed to the wall and tested its integrity, yanking on it hard. Satisfied it would temporarily hold their weight one at a time, he snagged the hook around the rail where one of the support struts was bolted into the concrete wall.

“I take it you’re going first.” Zara looked at Bones, who grinned at her in return.

“I thought it was ladies first, but in this case I’ll make an exception.” He gripped the rope in his hands and planted his feet against the wall. Then he slowly leaned back while still on the last step before the yawning chasm.

Bones jumped out and let himself swing to the other side, bouncing off the wall once with both feet when he was halfway across. When he landed on the stairs on the other side of the gap he tossed the rope over to Zara. She went next, then Dane. When all three stood on the other side of the gap, they continued down the interrupted stairs.

At the bottom they found only a small, storm cellar-like space featuring only set of metal double doors on the far wall with a surprisingly modern alarm system. A black wire ran from a contraption on the upper portion of the door’s frame to a box with a blinking red light. Besides the electronics there was also an old fashioned chain wrapped several times through and around the two metal door handles, fixed in place with a stout, keyed padlock. A sign on the door featured only Russian lettering.

“What’s it say?” Maddock asked Leopov.

“Danger. Hazardous area off limits. No trespassing.”

Maddock stared at the blinking LED. “Who do you think the alarm notifies?”

Leopov shrugged. “Probably the police.”

“You sure it’s real?”

Bones answered him as he traced the wiring with his gaze. “It’s real.”

Leopov shot him an appraising stare. “How do you know?”

“Chalk it up to youthful exuberance.”

Maddock nodded. “Best to leave it at that.” And then, “Even without the alarm there’s still this chain to get past.”

Bones knelt on the floor and rummaged through his pack. He produced a Swiss Army knife, unfolded one of its tools, and went to work on the plastic box on top of the door. He disconnected one wire, stripped it and spliced it to another. The blinking red light changed to a steady green. “Alarm’s deactivated. Now for the chain...”

Bones dug back into his bag of tricks and produced a lock pick. He made short work of the old padlock and the chain came off. Maddock spoke into his radio while Bones pushed the doors open.

“We’re heading down under.”

Professor’s reply was immediate. “On your way down, copy that. No action up top so far, over.”

The room behind the doors was dark. All three of the explorers flicked on flashlights and saw that they were in a utility room of sorts, a few workbenches here and there stacked with familiar tools, routine cleaning items like brooms and mops lying on the floor, folding chairs and tables leaning against one wall.

“I don’t see any amber in here.” Bones shone his light on the ceiling, an ordinary plaster affair without so much as a working light fixture.

Maddock frowned as he looked around. “It seems odd they’d have security measures for a room like this, but we don’t know what was in here before this stuff.”

Bones picked up some kind of power saw. “I don’t know. Some of this stuff has got to be worth something. Like this rug, here.” He shone his light on a dusty oriental rug. “My mom used to collect these, and this one looks like it could...” He slid the rug aside with a foot while he was talking but then broke off mid-sentence as he caught an outline of something beneath.

“What’s wrong?” Leopov moved toward Bones and the object of interest that had been covered by the rug.

“Check it out.”  Bones illuminated a square, approximately two feet on a side, set into the floor.

Maddock knelt down next to it for a closer look. “Trapdoor?”

Bones pointed to a handle that lay flat into the wood. He flipped it up with some effort, as though this hadn’t been done in some time, and then pulled. With a puff of dust, the wooden square was raised from the floor. Maddock and Leopov shined their beams down into the opening while Bones carried the door out of the way and set it on the floor.

“Nice work, Bones.” Maddock waved a hand to blow some of the dust out of the way.

“What’s down there?” Bones walked back over to the trapdoor.

“Looks like a dirt floor tunnel, short drop.” Maddock knelt and placed his hands on the edge of the open trapdoor. Then he lowered himself into the space below until his arms were fully extended and let himself drop the rest of the way to the dirt. He landed on his feet with a thud, then quickly produced his flashlight and turned it on. He aimed its beam first one direction, then the other.

“It’s a tunnel, dead ends right behind me here, goes back some distance the other way. Come on down.” Leopov descended next, and then Bones. Maddock played his light on the walls and noted that they were built from the same smooth cement of the modern building above. Leopov confirmed that they were still in part of the House of Soviets.

“The castle ruins are not directly beneath the Dom Sovietov, but lie some distance away. This tunnel seems to be leading in the right direction, if my orientation serves me.”

“What’s your orientation, Zara?” Bones shot her an infectious grin that she ignored.

They walked along, ducking in places where the ceiling dipped, but the walls remained a fixed width apart.

“This doesn’t go to the mailroom, does it?” Bones looked up at the ceiling and around at the walls before fixing his gaze once again in front of him.

“We have to go down one more flight of stairs to find out.” The tunnel sloped downward as Dane reached the end of the passageway. Rickety wooden stairs led below at a steep angle.

Bones walked over to the end of the tunnel and peered down. “Looks intact, at least.”

The drop was surprisingly high. “Gotta be three stories at least, maybe four,” Maddock observed.

“Leopov tapped Bones on the shoulder. “You first.”

“I went first down the last one. Your turn. Plus, you weigh a whole heckuva lot less than me, so if those stairs will hold up for any of us it’ll be you.”

Illuminating the stairs, they could see another dirt floor below into a narrow chamber of some sort. The walls surrounding the staircase were comprised of natural rock, not cement. Leopov pointed this out and said they were leaving the modern building behind and entering what was left of the castle ruins.

“Here goes...” Leopov tested the first stair by placing one of her feet on it and pressing hard. It creaked, but held her weight. She descended quickly, never hesitating on a single step long enough for it to bear her full weight. Maddock followed, tip-toeing his way down rapidly, and then Bones went.

When he was about halfway down, the right-side rail separated from the wall and several steps broke away. Bones stumbled and dropped, managing to grasp the next remaining step about ten feet below him. He dangled in mid-air, glancing down.

“Bones!” He heard Maddock and Leopov calling up to him as they shielded themselves from falling debris. Seeing that it was only about a ten-foot drop, the SEAL let go and allowed himself to hit the floor, where he rolled and came up on two feet.

“Mind the gap on the way back up.” Bones dusted off his pants without looking up, but Maddock and Leopov wore big frowns as they eyed the damaged stairs.

Maddock pointed. “Nice going, Bonebrake. That little gap’s about fifteen or twenty missing steps. No way we’re getting back up.”

Bones surveyed the damage. “Sorry, guys. I’ve been meaning to start that diet...”

Maddock picked up the walkie-talkie from his belt. “Let me see if we can make radio contact with Professor and Willis before we go any deeper inside.” He hailed them on the preset channel. About a minute went by during which Bones mentioned his grappling hook rope was not long enough to reach the top of the stairs, and then the radio erupted with static. It was Professor’s voice, but it was all but impossible to make out the words.

“Try moving around.” Bones pointed to another part of the room. Maddock walked and the reception improved slightly. “...around front...”

“Professor. Can you hear me now?”

Bones muttered in the background.

“Affirmative. Repeat sitrep.”

“The big man busted the stairs and we’re going to need some help getting out of here. Ropes if you can find enough. Ladders won’t be high enough. Thirty feet.”

“Copy. Will rustle something up and meet you down there.”

The radio blared static once more but Maddock turned it off. The message was through for now. He turned to the others.

“Let’s see if we can check the rest of this place out without obliterating it, shall we?”

The only way to proceed was directly in front of them, where a narrow passageway continued ahead for some distance before bending out of sight. Maddock led the way, with Leopov in the middle and Bones bringing up the rear. The ceiling, floor and walls were irregularly shaped and carved entirely out of natural rock.

“This is definitely not part of the modern building,” Leopov observed. Up ahead, Maddock disappeared around the curve. Leopov and Bones heard his voice call back before they could see him.

“Dead end here.”

They found him in a tight cul-de-sac, playing his light around the walls. There was nowhere to go from here; the ceiling was low and solid. Suddenly Maddock’s light caught on an object protruding about waist high from the left-side wall.

“Found something.”

All three of them directed their lights to the protuberance, which was caked in dirt and dust but still discernible. “Well, well, well.” Bones turned to Leopov. “Look familiar, Zara?”