Amber

Chapter 19

“So we’re stuck in here?” Willis’ eyes widened. “Man, what an old curmudgeonly son of a… I can’t believe that guy would sentence us to death just to steal a clock.”

Bones stepped back from the edge of the now bridgeless chasm, where he’d been peering down into the rocky void. “It’s more than just the clock. Once he found out where the Amber Room was taken, he figured he’d make sure the secret died with us. He couldn’t take us out in a direct fight — we outnumber him five to one, plus we’re freakin’ SEALs, so he had to trap us.”

Maddock held up a hand. “We should figure a way out of here before we talk about Wagner and the clock. These flashlight batteries will only last so long, and without light it will be considerably harder to find our way out.”

“Impossible, I’d say,” Willis said with a shudder.

“So then let’s get working on it.” Maddock looked around at the team. “Any ideas?”

Bones spoke up first. “Wagner read to me an account in the library about a Russian POW who escaped a Nazi bunker and was found a few miles from Auerswalde, mumbling the word ‘amber’.”

“Then this must be that bunker,” Leopov asserted. “So there is a way out.”

Professor appeared unconvinced. “If it hasn’t been caved-in or eroded or flooded over the years.”

Bones gauged the distance across the chasm and examined his very limited climbing supplies. “There’s no way even one of us can make it across that gap with what we have. If I thought I could make it, I’d go get help and come back, but… ” He directed his flashlight to the cave ceiling many feet above and shook his head. “It’s just not doable, even for me. And especially not for Maddock.”

Dane rolled his eyes at Bones. “Then we’ve got to find another way out.” He pointed back into the two-room chamber. “Maybe there’s a way out of there that we didn’t notice because we weren’t looking for it.” The team turned around and walked back into the larger of the two rooms, where the array of beds and old bones greeted them anew.

Maddock slid a cot to the side from where it had been and examined the cave floor beneath it. “Let’s look underneath everything, see if there’s some kind of trapdoor or something.” The five of them upturned everything that moved but when they were done they had uncovered only the same cave floor as the rest of it.

Maddock exhaled heavily and stood in place, thinking. “We’re missing something. There’s got to be a way out of here.”

“At least we won’t die of thirst in here,” Bones said, cupping his hands beneath a drop of water that fell from the ceiling. Maddock shined his light up and saw a moist area on the ceiling from which the water dripped. He focused on the spot, trying to discern more detail.

“People, shine your lights up here. Check this out. You too, Bones, stop drinking it and look at the source.”

Bones stopped licking his hand and tipped his head back while aiming his light upwards. Willis, Professor and Leopov added their beams to the cave ceiling as well. With the additional illumination, Maddock could see what appeared to be loose dirt or mud caked on the cave ceiling, as well as… ”See those? Are those tree roots?”

A moment of quiet ensued while everyone contemplated this. Professor was the first to break the silence. “I think so! Trees… and dirt!”

Bones recalled aloud how there was water dripping in the tunnel earlier that sloped upwards. Leopov aimed her flashlight at the rest of the ceiling. “The rest of it’s dry. It’s just that one spot.”

Professor made eye contact with Maddock. “I’ll wager that spot must be a hole in the rock that’s been filled in with earth, but when it rains the water seeps through and drips into the cave.”

Maddock agreed, his stormy blue eyes alight with possibilities. “I don’t want to get our hopes up too much, but if we can find a way to get up there and take a look, maybe we can use something to dig around some and see if we can clear a large enough opening to fit a person through.”

Bones looked over at the cave wall. “Too bad it’s right in the center of the ceiling or I might be able to climb up to it. But I’m not Spiderman, I can’t crawl upside-down on the ceiling once I climb the wall.”

Professor’s gaze roved around the room along with his flashlight’s beam. “These cots have metal frames. I think with a little reconstruction we can create a makeshift ladder of some sort.”

No one had any better suggestions, so they set about removing what fabric remained on the cots and then gathering the metal frames in the center of the chamber. All told it was a decent amount of tubular iron bars, and together they were able to stack them in such a way that, with four of them holding them in place, they just might make for a serviceable ladder.

Willis singled out Bones. “You’re tallest. I nominate you to make the climb.”

Bones muttered something unintelligible under his breath but broke off a length of metal pole from one of the unused cots and brought it to the foot of the jury-rigged ladder. He tightened the straps on his backpack and then held the length of tubing in his mouth while putting a foot up on a cross-brace. Next he grabbed onto a couple of bars up higher and pulled himself up until he could step to a higher brace. With the others holding the assemblage of bed pieces in place, it was just stable enough for him to make an ascent.

When he reached the top of the pile of bars, he had to let go with his hands and stand. The rest of the team illuminated the soft spot in the ceiling so that he would have both hands free. Bones then took the bar from his mouth and reached up with it and began to scrape away the mud from the cave ceiling. It fell in wet globs, some of it landing on Bones’ face while still more rained down on those holding the makeshift ladder in position.

“Thanks for the mud bath, man.” Willis quickly swiped wet earth from his left eye.

“Maybe it’ll help your complexion.” Bones continued to scrape away at the ceiling, now encountering a thick web of tree roots to shove aside. He went off balance once while forcing a root back with the bar, but managed to recover enough to grab the uppermost cot bars before falling all the way back down. He got back to it, and after a few minutes, a sucking sound was heard and a thick gob of wet earth dumped from the ceiling.

Utterances of disgust from those below were drowned out by Bones yelling, “Light! I see light!”

The opening was still miniscule, no larger than a few inches, and irregularly shaped, but the glimmer of daylight galvanized him to action. Bones kept going with his makeshift pry bar, balancing precariously on the very top of the rickety cot assemblage. He broke through root knots, gouged pockets of hard-packed earth out of the way, and dodged clumps of wet debris raining down on him as he worked. Finally, he had a view of the sky, dazzlingly bright after so much time underground.

But how to reach it? The opening was just wide enough now for him to fit through, but still about four feet above his outstretched hands. Bones disentangled the thick root he’d been eyeing until it dangled down out of the hole in the ceiling. Then he tossed the pry bar into a corner of the room and readied his climbing rope. Below, the team chattered excitedly about seeing a sliver of sky.

Bones yelled down. “Hold this rig steady, I’m going to make a jump for it.”

They gripped it hard and Bones flexed his knees, and then sprung. His leading hand grasped the dangling tree root, but it was slick with wet mud and his fingers slid along its length. He grunted with the exertion of using every iota of hand and arm strength to clutch onto the end of the root before he slid off. Cries of “Bones!” reverberated up to him from below as he kicked his feet in the air over the top of the cot ladder.

With the hand not grasping the hanging root, Bones unclipped his coil of climbing rope, a small grappling hook already clipped to one end. Knowing his time at the end of the root was very limited, he got the rope ready for action immediately, letting out some slack while gazing up to eyeball his grapple target. He spotted a large cluster of roots with sufficient space between them to allow for a good hold if he could get the hook up there. Then, holding his breath, he swung his grapple arm back and forth a few times to get some momentum going, aware that this was the part that might cause him to lose his grip on the root.

Now! Bones released the rope and watched the grapple hook sail up through the hole in the cave ceiling. The sudden motion of his arm proved too much for his fragile hold on the plant part and he fell through the cave air, watching the hook as he dropped, knowing it was the only thing left to save him from what could be a debilitating, possibly even fatal, fall.

The grapple caught on the root ball Bones had aimed for, and his fall was broken before he would have made the entire trip to the ground. He dangled in space from the rope, waiting for a second to see if the hook would hold. When it did, he began climbing straight up the rope like a kid in gym class.

“C’mon, man, you got this!” Willis cheered.

Bones kept climbing, and the hook kept holding. He increased his speed as he gained confidence, and soon he was latching onto the same root structure the hook had found. Confident that the roots were securely embedded in the ground and that they would bear his full weight, Bones let go of the rope and put both hands on the roots. He pulled himself up until his feet sought and found purchase, then clambered higher until his hand felt actual dirt. He crawled out of the cave onto a foliage-covered mound and rested for a moment on his hands and knees.

“Bones, you okay?” Maddock’s voice spurred him to get up and safely crawl back toward the hole in the cave so that he could talk to them down there.

Bones shook his head a couple of times while exhaling hard. “I don’t know how that Russian guy got up here, but I hope he had an easier time of it than me. I’m outside! Hold on, let me rig something up.” He recovered his grappling hook from the root ball and then proceeded to tie the rope more securely to the lowest firm part of the roots.

“Look out below!” He dropped the free end of the rope in through the cave. Bones knew his fellow SEALs would have little trouble climbing the rope out of the cave, but worried a little about Leopov. He voiced his concern to the group.

“I don’t know what gives you the impression that I am incapable, but I will let my actions speak for me.” And with that Leopov shimmied up the rope, faster than Bones had, and before he knew it the big man was pulling the Russian out of the cave by the hand. She was sweating slightly, but other than that looked none the worse for wear. He looked her in the eyes.

“Nice work.”

She held his gaze for a moment then turned back to the cave opening to drop the rope back down. “Clear!”

Willis came next, followed by Professor, who called down to Maddock after he scrambled up out of the hole. “Make sure we didn’t leave anything down there, would you? We don’t want to have to go back in because Leopov left her purse down there or something like that.”

Willis ducked a playful swat from the Russian, who was smiling as she recovered from her exertion. Maddock made a quick sweep of both chambers and then reappeared below the ceiling aperture. “Nothing left behind that I can see. Here I come… ”

Maddock made the ascent without incident and Bones hauled up his rope. Professor and Willis had already started scouting their new surroundings, and now they reported back. “We’re in the foothills of the mountains. Vegetation is pretty thick but we think we see a footpath that goes up.”

“Let’s get out of here. Keep an eye out for Wagner. He may go on the offensive if he spots us first, since he expected us to die in there.” Maddock made for the path and the team fell into line behind him. They trekked higher into the mountains, searching for a way down that wouldn’t be too noticeable.

Now that they were free from their immediate predicament, thoughts turned once again to their objective. Professor held up the leather journal as they walked. “You think Wagner knows where the golden lake is?”

Bones shrugged. “Hell, even I know where it is. There’s only one lake associated with Nazi gold. Lake Toplitz, Austria, right?”

Leopov nodded in Bones’ direction. “I think you’re right. But do you know how many people have searched that lake? They’ve found munitions, old crates of forged British currency, other random stuff, but no treasure, and certainly not the Amber Room.”

Professor opened the journal. “But seeing as we know which lake we’re looking for, I think we’ve got something none of those searchers had. Hold up a second.” He stopped walking and stepped off the path while he leafed through some pages and then held the book open to a two-page spread. The others gathered around, eyes opening wide in surprise.

“A map.”