The Romanov Ransom

87

Sorry we’re late,” Tatiana said once they had Rolfe cuffed. “Viktor and I had trouble locating your tent. We took out a couple of Leopold’s men down the hill. We figured he and Rolfe wouldn’t be too far. Unfortunately, they’d taken a completely different route.”

“We ran into a couple more at the helipad,” Sam said.

“Apologies,” Viktor said. “We must have missed those two.”

Tatiana glanced down at Rolfe, who was writhing in pain, a look of satisfaction on her face. “This is one time I’ll be happy to testify in court.”

Rolfe was turned over to the Argentine authorities after he had been taken to the hospital because of his broken arm and the burns on his face. Several days later, Tatiana was able to get an expert to verify and link the Operation Werewolf papers found on the airplane to Ludwig Strassmair. As a result, the Argentine government offered to assist the Russian government in the recovery of the downed Avro Lancastrian and whatever else might be found on it.

With a break in the weather, and after assessing the danger of any further avalanches, the teams flew out to start a full search of the plane and surrounding area. One group was assigned to forensics, to determine the cause of the Avro plane crash and to recover the victims. The other team, composed of local experts, accompanied by Tatiana, Viktor, the Fargos, Dietrich, and Nando, started the search for any historical evidence, beginning with the suitcase in which Remi had found the Operation Werewolf papers.

Once the remaining seats were removed, they were able to retrieve the suitcase, hoping to find further evidence of the plot to use the Romanov Ransom. “Remi, you found it,” Dietrich said. “You do the honors.”

Remi glanced at Sam, who nodded at her, and she picked up the suitcase, carrying it out into the light, placing it on a table. She lifted the lid, finding a brown folder containing a number of yellowed sheets of paper, which she handed to Dietrich. “More from Operation Werewolf, I’d say.”

Their attention turned to the cloth covering whatever else was in the case. Remi carefully lifted one corner, along with the soft wool just beneath, revealing a green egg that looked to be carved from jade and decorated with gold and diamonds.

“An Easter egg?” Dietrich said.

“Empire Nephrite Egg,” Tatiana replied, her voice filled with awe. “Fabergé.”

Remi stepped aside, looking at Tatiana. “You should do the honors.”

Tatiana hesitated, almost afraid to touch the cloth covering the second egg. Finally, she reached out, lifting it, the sun striking the gold vertical lines and diamonds set around the white-enameled egg. She turned it about, feeling the weight of it in her hands. “This is the Alexander the Third Commemorative Egg.”

She replaced it in the case, then ran her fingers across the third, a platinum hen-shaped egg speckled with diamonds, sitting in a gold basket. “And the Sapphire Hen.” She picked it up, examined it for a few moments, the sunlight striking the deep blue sapphire in the hen’s beak as she gently returned it to its bed of wool. “Three out of the last four that were unaccounted for. What an incredible find.”

“Which one’s still missing?” Remi asked.

“The Royal Danish,” Tatiana said. “It contains the miniature portraits of Maria Feodorovna’s parents. Each of these are nearly priceless. One Fabergé egg recently sold for over thirty-two million dollars.”

Dietrich whistled.

Tatiana closed the lid of the suitcase. “That’s quite a recovery fee the four of you will get.”

“The Fargos, you mean,” Dietrich said. “I was just here to find Klaus.”

“You and Nando deserve it as much as we do,” Sam replied. Dietrich looked at him in confusion. “You didn’t think we were keeping all of it? You were right there with us.”

“I–I don’t know what to say…”

Remi smiled at him. “You don’t need to say anything,” she replied as Viktor called to them from behind the plane.

The four walked beneath the now cleared wing, toward the back of the plane, where Viktor, Nando, and the other workers were busy excavating the area where it was believed the tail might be located. It turned out the plane had actually touched down higher on the ridge, the tail breaking off at that location before the main fuselage came to rest in the pass. One of the workers had uncovered a piece of the tail.

With nothing else to find in the plane, the Fargos spent the next several days expanding their search where the tail piece had been found. About four days in, Viktor held up a chunk of wood with a metal brace attached to it. “Luggage?” Viktor asked.

Sam examined the scrolling on the metal, thinking it looked more like a decorative embellishment from the early 1900s. “Or a wooden chest.” He called Remi and Dietrich over to help excavate the snow and ice. Hours later, when they were about to give up for the day, Sam kicked at a piece of rock embedded in the glacier. It skittered a few inches away, landing next to something that looked like a spot of blood in the snow. It wasn’t until he bent down, brushing at the snow with his gloved finger, that he realized it was, in fact, a large blood-red ruby pendant hanging from a platinum and diamond necklace.

He carefully extricated it from the glacier, then held it up in the sunlight, the diamonds sparkling like ice crystals.

Nando stared in awe. “What is it?” he asked.

“Part of the Romanov Ransom.”