Amber

Chapter 13

“Professor!” Bones yelled, looking upward to see if anyone else was about to come flying over the edge. He still heard a commotion up there but no one answered. Maddock ran to the body that now lay motionless at what used to be the foot of the stairs. Relief flooded through him as he failed to recognize the person who had landed here.

“It’s not Professor or Willis!”

“Who is it?” Bones refused to take his eyes off the space above in case there was more trouble on the way, but Leopov knelt by the fallen man’s side. Maddock placed two fingers over the victim’s carotid artery, left them there for about twenty seconds, and then shook his head.

“He didn’t make it.”

They examined the deceased man more closely. Caucasian, tall, medium build. Leopov rifled through his pockets and turned up only a folding knife and some chewing gum — no ID, no guns.

Maddock tried the radio again and received no audible response. Suddenly they heard shuffling from above and a long cord of some sort dropped into the room. Bones looked up and saw Willis’ smiling face peering down at him.

“You guys okay? Sorry to drop that trash on you, but we had no choice.”

“Where’s Professor?” Maddock called up.

“He’s okay. Doing a perimeter check now to make sure this guy doesn’t have any buddies hanging around. We know he had at least one other guy with him but he ran off.” Willis’ voice echoed throughout the chamber.

Bones, meanwhile, had moved beneath the dropped cord, which dangled within six feet of the floor. “You call this a rope? What is this crap?”

“Sorry,” Willis shouted down. “We didn’t have any real rope so I found a few extension cords and tied them together. At least they’re the heavy-duty outdoor ones.” Bones assessed the makeshift climbing gear skeptically.

Willis sensed his apprehension. “Don’t worry, it’s good to go up here, tied nice and neat. All you gotta do is use it to get your big ole butt back up here.”

“Easier said than done,” Bones muttered as he examined the nearby wall for climbing hand- and footholds.

“Can you get up there with that, Bones?” Maddock looked like he doubted it. Leopov appeared downright worried.

“That’s how we’re supposed to get out of here?”

Bones smiled. “Have no fear. I’ll climb out first and rig something a little sturdier with the one real rope I do have.”

“Please do.” She looked down at the dead man. “Before his friends come looking for him.”

Bones climbed part of the way up the still-standing portion of the stairs. He jumped and was able to grab onto the extension cord, swinging in the air, turning, while he secured his grip around the orange wire. When he stopped spinning he reached out a foot and wedged a toe into a crack in the wall where the mortar had fallen out.

He took the one rope he had and fashioned a jury-rigged harness by tying it to the extension cord such that it made a loop of several feet a person could sit in. He tested it out himself, figuring that if it would support his weight, Maddock and Leopov could take turns without problems. He sat on the rope while putting both hands on the vertical extension cord. Planting both feet against the wall, he was able to ascend by “walking” up while pulling on the cord until he reached the section of the stairway that was still intact. He hung from it with both hands while still harnessed to ensure it would hold his weight, then pulled himself up until he was sitting on the lowest step, his legs dangling into open space. From there he turned around, stood, and walked up the stairs until he let Willis’ outstretched hand pull him up onto the floor of Dom Sovietov.

“Germans!”

“Probably a bunch of David Hasselhoff fans,” Bones muttered.

Before Willis could reply, Professor came running up to them from around the corner. “Bones! You guys okay? Where’s Maddock and Zara?”

“We’re all okay but now we have to haul them up out of there. I just wanted to make sure I could do this. Be right back.”

Bones went back to the edge of the stairs and got back into his makeshift rope harness. He descended into the tunnel once again and this time carried up Leopov in his lap.

She gave him a look while she wrapped her arms around him as he climbed. “Don’t pretend you’re not enjoying this.”

“Oh I’m not. That’s a carabiner in my pocket.”

A couple of minutes later he deposited her safely on the remaining stairs. She walked up to Professor and Willis while Bones dropped the rig down to Maddock. “I know how you always want to take lead, so here’s your chance, bro.”

“Your Sherpa service is only for foxy Russian agents, is that it?”

“She’s only foxy until you listen to her talk.” Bones ignored the gesture Leopov directed his way.

They heard a grating sound from below and then Maddock appeared directly beneath the dropped climbing rig.

“What’s that noise?” Professor asked.

“It’s the wall sliding back into place. I reset the combination and it worked. I’ll explain when I get up there, but Bones and Zara know what I’m talking about.”

“Good work,” Leopov said. “Cover our tracks.”

Maddock quickly made his way up and then all five of them convened at the top of the stairs. “So what happened up here?”

Professor pointed down into the tunnel. “Willis was scouting up ahead while that guy ran up out of the basement and attacked me. He ended up on the wrong side of things, as you can see. But he tried to stab me. With this.”

He held up a German WWII SA dagger. The knife was old, with a silver German eagle inlaid into a chipped wooden handle, the blade featuring a prominent engraving reading, “Alles fur Deutschland.”

“What’s that mean?” Bones looked at Professor, much to Willis’ irritation.

“All for Germany.”

“All for killing Pete Chapman is more like it.”

Professor gave a nervous laugh. “Right.”

Maddock pointed out toward the exit in the distance. “How about all for getting out of here and letting Command know we found evidence that the Amber Room wasn’t destroyed in Königsberg Castle?”