Amber

Chapter 30

“That door won’t hold more than a few minutes at best. I patched it up where Willis broke it but… ” Bones’ eyes were open wide.

“Let’s get to work.” Maddock looked around the Amber Room. The place was spectacular, opulent beyond belief, and even in the light of only their flashlights, stunning in its radiance. He took out his camera and snapped off a hasty series of shots while continuing the discussion.

“First of all, are the dimensions right?”

Leopov nodded. “They are.”

Professor concurred. “I’d say this is it.” He walked up to one of the walls and looked at it closely. “It’s semi-translucent amber — you can see the impurities preserved in it — against a backing of gold leaf.”

Bones took in the whole room at a glance. “Pretty gaudy. Looks like it should be in a resort at Las Vegas.”

Leopov walked up to the wall next to Professor. She touched it and some of the aged, dry amber crumbled away. She jumped back, alarmed. “Don’t breathe the dust! It might be dangerous.”

Professor backed away too. “Right, the biological agent trapped inside.”

“I can’t confirm that, but better safe than—“

They heard the door to the tile room being pummeled. Maddock walked faster around the chamber. He scrutinized each mosaic as he passed until he found the one he was looking for.

“People. Right here.” The team ran to meet him beneath a mosaic depicting the Prussian Eagle. Maddock continued. “’The light shows the eagle’s curse.’ That’s what it said in the journal.”

They all stared at the raptor, which was mounted about head high in front of them.

Angry shouts emanated from the doorway, but the door remained closed.

“The stuff crumbles… ” Leopov said, looking around at the walls. “…that could be the curse. It crumbles to dust and releases a preserved pathogen that causes a horrible death.”

“That does sound like a curse,” Willis admitted.

But Maddock was still entranced by the mounted eagle. “Leopov, what if it’s only the eagle that’s dangerous? That seems to be what the journal indicates.”

She had no immediate reply but Professor walked up to the wall and shined his light on the eagle. “Look, you can see all the little bits of biological crap stuck in this stuff.”

Maddock produced a small blade and approached the mounted symbol. With great care, he pried it free, with Bones and Willis ready to catch it as soon as it came loose. Maddock pulled it from the wall and held it up, turning it over for inspection.

“It doesn’t look any different from the rest of the amber that makes up the walls.”

“But what if it is different?” Professor worried.

Bones was listening to the ruckus outside the door. “What do you say we let the men in lab coats figure that out? But let me see that thing for a second.”

Maddock handed him the eagle. Bones looked it over. “Maybe we should just send somebody topside to call the cavalry and secure the room until they arrive.”

Willis seemed to like the idea. “Yeah, maybe the hostiles will kill each other off while we kick back in here and chill.”

Leopov looked away from the door to face the group. “I’m sorry, but there won’t be any cavalry.”

They all looked at her. Maddock asked her what she meant.

“My mission is to assess the Amber Room threat and, if I think it’s dangerous, to blow the place.” She unslung her backpack and held it up.

Maddock looked at her like she was crazy. “But there’s no evidence of a threat. You can’t just blow it up.” He waved an arm at the sparkling magnificence surrounding them. “It’s the eighth wonder of the world. Bones is right. We should turn it over to the scientists and let them assess it.”

Leopov pointed to the leather book in Professor’s hands. “The journal is all the assessment I need. And the sick soldiers. The curse lies with the eagle. I’m not taking any chances. In fact, all of us might already be infected right now.”

Professor looked up from the journal to glare at Leopov. “What in the hell are you saying? Are you planning on blowing us all up, too, just to be safe?”

Bones, still examining the eagle, added his two cents before she could reply. “Hey hot chick. Before you do anything too final, you might want to take a look at this.”

She looked over at him but her eyes were devoid of any expression, as though she had already made up her mind. “What is it?”

Bones looked down at the bird of prey. “The eagle’s curse.”

He held the eagle waist high, shining his light down through it. Where the illumination struck the floor, writing appeared, writing that was not in English.

Leopov cocked her head to one side as she stared at the characters, her interest now piqued beyond her ability to pretend otherwise. “That’s not German or Russian.”

Professor thumped the leather book. “It’s Latin.” He moved closer to the projection to get a better view.

Maddock looked over his shoulder. “What does it say?”

“A curse on Catherine the Perverse. Your iniquities shall be visited upon the third and fourth generations. Cursed be the house of Romanov. Something like that, anyway.”

Leopov sighed and sank to her knees, apparently shocked. “It was a curse,” she whispered. “But a curse intended only for Catherine the Great.” She shook her head as the realization took hold and she lapsed into silence.

Maddock continued the speculation. “The German officer said the light showed him the truth. He must have shone a light through the eagle just like Bones did, and saw the curse. But his knowledge of Latin may have been limited, and he may have been under great duress in time of battle. Whatever the case, in a rush to judgment he connected the curse to the soldiers who were getting sick, associating the two things incorrectly. Which, fortunately for us, means that there is no pathogen contained within the amber.”

“But why leave a curse at all?” Bones asked. “Catherine the Great was, you know… great.”

Leopov shook her head. “Depends on your point of view. She was Prussian by birth, so a lot of people distrusted her right off the bat. She put down several uprisings, which made plenty of enemies. And then there were the rumors about her sexual appetites, which you alluded to earlier with such good humor.” She blushed and professor coughed before adding, “She also was unpopular with Catholics who felt marginalized.”

“Okay,” Maddock said, pacing in a tight circle around the eagle and its projected curse. “I think I can take a guess at what might have happened here.” They looked at him expectantly and he went on. “The Amber Room underwent major renovations while it was with Peter — and therefore Catherine-the Great, in the 1700s. So it’s not much of a stretch to assume that one of the artisans who worked on it wasn’t a fan.”

Bones cracked a smile. “And he thought it would be laugh to carve a big old screw you into the back of the Prussian eagle. That’s actually a pretty good one.”

“Maybe the curse worked, after all,” Professor said. “I mean, we know what happened with the subsequent generations of Romanovs.” He scratched his head. “Of course, I think it was five generations.”

Leopov cradled her head in her hands. “I can’t believe I was about to blow up one of the greatest treasures in the history of the world over a disgruntled worker’s curse.” She shook her head. “I’m so-”

A loud crashing sound came as the door to the adjoining room exploded open under the force of a battering ram and armed men poured through, shouting and aiming automatic rifles. One of them yelled in accented English, suggesting they’d somehow been monitoring the intruders.

“Everyone come out with your hands above your head.”

The Russians had arrived.