Chris Kuzneski - The Hunters

‘There’s a reason I prefer cities,’ Sarah said.

‘Asphalt, right?’ McNutt said.

‘Nope, stores,’ she said as she struggled with her footing. ‘I could’ve stopped and bought the right damn hiking shoes.’

‘Point taken,’ McNutt said. ‘That’s reason number eleven in my onging list of ass-kicks I’m gonna give Papi when we get back.’ He frowned. ‘Hey, you did cut him out of the ear-loop, didn’t you, chief?’

Cobb nodded.

‘Good,’ McNutt said as his grip tightened on the duffel bag full of weapons. ‘I want it to be a surprise. After he gives me my money.’

As they continued their hike, the ground crunched like dry corn flakes. The underbrush was merciless and at least a foot deep. It hungrily snagged at their feet as they pressed forward.

‘There hasn’t been a wildfire here in at least a half-century,’ Cobb observed.

‘Is that significant?’ Jasmine asked, after translating for Borovsky.

‘The two major causes of big fires are lightning and cigarettes,’ Cobb said. ‘I’ve seen a couple of old, charred tree trunks here and there, meaning the region does get big storms. But I get the sense that this area is protected like a sanctuary.’

‘Meaning?’ McNutt asked.

‘We might not see it, but there is security.’

Borovsky laughed when Jasmine had finished translating.

‘Yes, there is,’ Borovsky assured them.

McNutt paused in mid-stride. He glanced around nervously. ‘What kind of security? Landmines? Bear traps? Dwarves?’

The group ignored him.

‘The trees have always provided layers of concealment, offered food in the form of wildlife, and prevented erosion with their strong roots,’ Borovsky said. ‘When the train was built, it would have been difficult and counter-productive for the builders to cut the trees down. So the people who anchored the tracks went off in many directions, creating paths wherever they could. The effect is an impression of a train to nowhere.’

‘Like one of those sightseeing railroads in parks and on mountains,’ Garcia contributed.

Jasmine translated for Borovsky.

‘Exactly so,’ the colonel said. ‘Complete with bear and deer in the woods to make the occasional appearance.’

‘Bears! I knew it,’ McNutt said. ‘Ask them if they can shoot cannons.’

Jasmine rolled her eyes. She wouldn’t be translating that .

‘There was a side benefit to the multiplicity of paths,’ Jasmine continued for Borovsky. ‘Anyone following the train would be paying attention to the tracks — not to the sentries in the trees, who would be waiting with pistols or a noose.’

Garcia looked up anxiously.

‘If you can see them,’ the Russian said, ‘then they’ve failed.’

‘Right,’ Sarah said. ‘And those guys wouldn’t be smoking up there. The lit butts would give them away.’

‘Bad for your health in more ways than one,’ McNutt laughed.

They continued walking toward what seemed to be another grove of trees. Borovsky told them to wait before he went into a bordering thicket, stepping around a batch of trees whose branches seemed weighted down as though bearing heavy snows. The limbs formed a wall through which nothing was visible. It took Borovsky nearly a minute of ducking and maneuvering to make his way to the other side. Suddenly, there was a whoosh , and the branches snapped back as if the curtain had never existed.

From the team’s perspective, there didn’t appear to be anything ahead — not even the Russian colonel. There was only a solid, sunless black that seemed to go on forever.

Decebal flashed them his gap-toothed smile and followed, stepping into the entrance and vanishing as if a carnival magician had made him disappear. The Americans looked at each other with raised eyebrows and appreciative grins, then followed Anna into the darkness.

‘Some kind of spring release?’ McNutt asked, looking around in vain for a pedal or switch.

‘A prayer lock,’ Sarah said. ‘Four large branches on the bottom were twined together. That causes the smaller limbs and twigs to come together like hands folded in prayer. Cut the cord and the limbs snap back. The beauty of it is that it doesn’t cause the trees themselves to bend and give the site away, and it doesn’t cause any part of the adjoining trees to knit permanently.’

‘And it’s easy to reset,’ McNutt said admiringly, glancing behind to make sure that one of those ‘sentries’ wasn’t doing just that to keep them all inside.

They collected in a dark gray grotto. Sarah instantly produced a powerful, pen-sized flashlight, which she shined around them in a quick arc. Rock walls swelled up to a dome like a natural amphitheater. They stood on a stone pathway that was made of flat but unevenly edged slate obviously hacked from the walls. They could still see the scars, though some kind of crystalline film had collected over them.

‘No stalactities,’ Sarah said. ‘That’s a good sign.’

‘How so?’ Jasmine wondered.

‘There’s not enough water to drag down major mineral deposits. That means this is a very, very dry cave.’

Jasmine nodded in understanding. ‘And a dry cave is a great place to store a treasure.’

‘I didn’t know you had a geology degree,’ McNutt said.

‘I don’t,’ Sarah explained, ‘but I’ve been spelunking many times. It’s a good way to keep in shape.’

‘Over here,’ Anna said in Russian. Sarah pointed her powerful penlight in the direction Jasmine indicated, illuminating Decebal. He was standing beside what looked like two large cauldrons on their sides with three iron bowling balls between them — all attached by wires.

‘Electric generators,’ Cobb recognized.

‘Have to be at least sixty years old,’ McNutt estimated.

As they watched, the Romanian leader churned a crank on the front of the sideways pot farthest to their left, as if he were trying to start an old Model-T car. On the fourth turn, the engine caught and coughed to life. The group looked around as recessed lamps lining the middle of the rock ceiling began to flicker.

They found themselves in a breathtaking cavern of reddish granite and greenish coral, with cobblestones off to their far left and right. And stretched out deep into the cave, seemingly part of the walls, were eight blue and gold train cars and a small engine. On the side of each car was the Romanov seal: a double-headed eagle with a golden scepter in one claw and a cross-bearing orb in the other, while on its chest a red escutcheon depicted St George on his horse about to slay the dragon.

On the back of the last car was the most imposing mark of all: the coat of arms of the Russian Empire. It contained the helmet of Alexander Nevsky, fifteen shields representing the Russian Empire territories, the archangels Gabriel and Michael, and the Order of St Andrew — all residing on an oak and laurel wreath amid a golden ermine mantle, crowned by a golden cap, and liberally decorated by black, double-headed eagles. They flew around the inscription, which Jasmine translated as: ‘God is with us.’

‘He sure as shit is,’ McNutt said with a laugh. He wanted to say more — hell, he wanted to sing, and dance, and drink, and punch someone in the face for no reason at all — but Cobb had warned them about celebrating in front of Borovsky or any of the villagers, especially on a day when so many of them had died. He felt that would be in bad taste.

But they took a moment to celebrate internally.

The discovery of the train led to visions of their own personal paradises, made possible by the millions they were that much closer to collecting. They all understood that finding the train was only the first step. They knew they still had to get the treasure past Borovsky and the villagers before they could deliver it to Papineau. But that didn’t stop Sarah from imagining a well-funded climb of Mt Everest. Or Garcia from thinking about building a supercomputer that would make Microsoft jealous. McNutt’s fantasy was simple: he wanted to buy his own tank. Then he wanted to drive it across America, only stopping for beer and whores. Unlike the others, Jasmine tried to focus on the historic value of the discovery, but her mind slowly drifted to owning her own museum.