Amber

Chapter 17

Maddock checked to make sure the SUV was locked as the four SEALs, Leopov and Wagner stood in the parking lot at the entrance to the extensive wilderness area. A pair of backpackers at the trailhead were the only other persons in sight. They had just returned from the forest and appeared sweaty and tired. Maddock’s group of six was outfitted similarly as backpackers in order to blend in; each of them carried a small daypack with outdoor gear.

They huddled together at the trailhead once the returning hikers had moved off to their car. Maddock eyed Wagner. “Real quick, let’s refresh everybody’s minds with this landmark we’re looking for.”

Wagner nodded. “As you may know, this forest was the site of a fierce and prolonged ground battle during the latter part of 1944 between German and U.S. forces. There’s a section of tank track that liquefied into the ground after an armored vehicle of some sort was bombed there.”

Maddock stabbed a finger into a folded map. “We’ve got probably a two-hour hike ahead of us to get the vicinity of that landmark, so let’s get going.”

The group moved along the trail and into the depths of the forest.

Maddock felt a tap on his shoulder and looked up to see Wagner pointing to his right. “Landmark should be within a hundred meters or so this way.”

Maddock nodded and pointed into a thick copse of trees. “This way, people.”

Leopov put her hands on her hips while she squinted into the dense vegetation. “There’s no trail that way.”

Willis smiled as he set off into the stand of lush growth. “That’s right, doll. You’ll be going where no man’s gone before, which is more than—“

“All right!” Maddock cut him off. He was glad to see Bones slide his way off the beaten path first, creating an opening for the others to follow. The going was very slow for the first fifty yards or so but then the ground opened up a bit until they reached a small meadow, still treed but not as densely. They could see far enough to establish that they were in a valley nestled between surrounding hills.

“This way!” Wagner waved an arm as he moved at a cautious jog through trees spaced a few feet apart. Maddock followed him close behind, eyes darting to his map and back up to the landscape in front of him. “Think I see it.” He pointed off to their left, where something protruded from the earth atop a small mound. The team congregated there and examined what looked like part of an old railroad track.

Wagner slowly nodded and rubbed his chin as he inspected the find. “Looks like a World War Two era tank track to me.” He knelt and ran a hand across a rusted metal spur.

“Me too,” Bones said.

Willis scowled at him. “Bonebrake, you wouldn’t know a World War Two era anything if it bit you in the-”

“What are we looking for?” Maddock asked Wagner. “What does the landmark reference?”

“I’m looking for two trees about three meters apart, should be within visual range of this location.”

All of them looked around, taking in the many trees within sight. Some were evergreens while others were deciduous, meaning they shed their leaves in the fall. Professor pointed toward the end of the meadow. “See those two there — the pines?”

It was agreed that they could be the stated distance apart and so the group crossed the meadow, Leopov slapping bugs away as she went. As they neared the two trees, Wagner began making affirmative grunts while increasing his pace.

“Definitely about three meters apart,” Professor confirmed.

The ground sloped gently upwards beginning with the two trees, and not far away stood a rocky assemblage set into the small rise. Willis eyed Professor. “Look familiar?”

“It does look like it could be the same type of entrance we saw at the bunker we visited earlier,” he confirmed for the group. They all set off up to the rocks.

“Metal frame!” Wagner beamed. “This is our bunker.”

Maddock took a minute to survey the meadow and even the surrounding hills for any signs that they were being observed, but he detected none. Then, after palming a flashlight in preparation, he led the way into the bunker.

“Reminds me of a swamp in here.” Maddock switched on his light and played the beam around the bunker walls. He heard the squishy footfalls of the rest of the team walking up behind him over the waterlogged soil.

“Man, it feels like I might fall through this crap up to my neck at any second.” Willis extracted a muddy boot from the muck. Maddock pressed forward, sometimes using craggy sections of the bunker wall to shift some of the weight off his feet. Eventually they worked their way back through the tunnel-like chamber until they came to a bulbous cavity with five passageways running across the back wall.

“Door number one is out.” Maddock indicated the pile of rubble that seemed to have been poured out of it. Wagner moved closer to it.

“Those are skeletal remains.” He pointed in turn at a couple of bones. “Looks like a human femur, here and that might be a humerus.”

“Nothing funny about it,” Bones said. “But I hope one of these tunnels goes somewhere because I feel like I’m about to sink into some quicksand here.” The others agreed and they proceeded with their evaluation of the other four passages. After assessing them without entering, they could see that the second one featured an elaborate web of passageways within it that branched out in multiple directions, while the other three appeared to be simple dead-ends, or perhaps single-passage tunnels that wound out of sight after several meters.

Maddock shone his light into the second passage, the one next to the collapsed one. “This one looks like it offers the most possibilities of leading somewhere, but also appears like it could be unstable.”

Willis looked uneasily into the branching passageway. “Maybe we should split up? Bones, you take this one, I’ll take the one on the far end… ”

Maddock replied before they could start arguing. “I don’t think we should risk splitting up at this point. We’ve got minimal equipment with us and not all of us are SEALs.” Wagner nodded his agreement but Leopov narrowed her eyes at Maddock.

“Once again, Maddock, I guess I shall have to convince you that I’m more than capable of holding my own.”

Rather than let himself get flustered, Maddock stared into the tunnel, its various passages branching off first to the left, then, right — many of them. He counted one, two three, four, five, six… before losing sight of them in the darkness.

Bones chucked a stone far back into the tunnel, where they heard it echo in the darkened distance. “Guys, I think it’s hopeless. There’s only six of us. We need to come back with some ground penetrating radar or something.” Willis grunted his agreement.

But Maddock was still fixated on the pebble and its course of travel, lost in thought. Then he was struck by an idea, something from the briefing materials gelling in his mind as he gazed into the labyrinth. He turned back to Leopov.

“Five, six, five?”

Understanding dawned on her face. “The candles — again?”

Professor stepped forward. “Why not? Anybody have any better ideas for how to explore that cave system back there?” He eyed the multi-tunneled chamber dubiously, and no one said they did.

Wagner waved a hand into the tunnel system. “5-6-5—I get it, the number of candles in the Amber Room, okay. But how are we applying that to this labyrinth?”

Maddock spoke faster now, apparently excited at the prospect of having a possible method for exploration. “We walk in there, take the fifth passage we come to, whichever way it leads, then after that—“

“We take the sixth… ” Leopov filled in.

“Then the fifth,” Professor finished.

Wagner beamed. “And hopefully that one leads to the proverbial pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.”

Bones shrugged. “Or an actual pot of gold would be good. Gold and amber.”

They ventured into the passageway, the ceiling of which was just high enough in most places to allow them to walk without stooping. In some spots it was wide enough to permit two of them to walk side by side, but in others only single file would do. The ground became more stable the farther in they trekked, and by the time they counted five passageways, the first two on the right side of the tunnel, the third on the left, and the fourth and fifth branching from the right — the dirt ground was nearly hard as rock.

“Number five, here we go.” Maddock shined his light into the twisty little passage, which quickly wound out of sight. Before stepping into it he checked for evidence of footprints but didn’t see any. He led the way along the underground footpath, counting the offshoot passageways aloud as he passed. Numbers four and five happened to be exactly across from one another, but fortunately the next branching passage stood alone.

“Number six,” Maddock presented, extending an arm to indicate their new direction of travel. If anything, this tunnel was even narrower and with a lower ceiling than the last, with the entire group forced to walk single file at a shuffling stoop. Bones noted with unease that water dripped from the ceiling in this part of the bunker system. Again they counted passageways. When they arrived at the fifth one, they halted and examined the new artery.

Maddock bounced his light along the walls. “Doesn’t look much different than the one we’re in now, but I think it slopes a little bit upward.” The team set off yet again, no longer planning on counting passages, although they didn’t come across any.

“Looks like this is a one-way street,” Wagner observed.

Maddock called back from his place at the front of the line. “Right, but there’s a bridge up ahead. Hold up.”

He paused at one end of a rickety wooden rope bridge over a deep, rocky chasm. Piles of Bones and skulls gleamed in Maddock’s light at its bottom.

“That old thing gonna hold up?” Bones looked skeptical as his beam roved across the precarious-looking structure.

In answer, Maddock gripped Bones’ arm and stepped onto the first slat of the bridge. “Hold me up if this goes, would you?” He stood there for a few seconds, even bouncing up and down a few times to test the integrity of the span. It held, and then Maddock advanced a step, two steps. He let go of Bones and made his way across.

The others crossed one at a time, which gave Maddock time to check out what was on the other side of the bridge while he waited. A dead end. Although roomy, the space in which he found himself was nothing more than a large, naturally formed cul-de-sac, with no exits leading anywhere that he could see other than the bridge. He began to play his light around the walls, floor and ceiling of the cave. By the time the others had made it across, he was standing in front of the only object in the cavern, illuminating it by holding his light over it.

“Well, if it isn’t our old friend, the Prussian Eagle!” Professor added his own light to the object while Wagner stepped closer.

“Does this one look the same as the one you found in the castle?”

Maddock nodded. “The eagle is the same size and looks like it’s the same material, and it is also set into the wall.”

“But these are different.” Leopov pointed to a series of figures inscribed into the rock wall beneath the eagle.

Maddock indicated the eagle and turned to Wagner. “On the first one, these inscriptions weren’t there. The eagle was actually a dial… ” He reached out and tried to rotate the metal disc but found it did not budge. He stepped back and shined his light onto the dial and the inscriptions below it, arranged in three columns.

It didn’t take long for Wagner to say, “Roman numerals.”

Maddock’s face brightened as he reached out to the wall. “Ah, so not ‘V’, but five… ” He pressed into the carved number and it depressed into the wall with a clicking sound. “…six… ” he said as he pushed on the ‘VI.”

“Five,” Leopov said, as Maddock pressed the ‘V’ button again. As with the last eagle, for a moment nothing happened, but then they heard a series of clicks and a section of the cave wall swung open.