Steve Berry - The Romanov Prophecy

Or, at least, until yesterday it seemed that way.

Pashenko held his vodka glass close to his aged face. "I am familiar with Baklanov. His only problem may be his wife. She's Orthodox with a touch of royal blood. But, of course, not a member of any ruling house. Yet how could she be? There are so few left. Surely the Vladimirovichi will claim this a disqualification, but in my opinion the commission will be forced to ignore that requirement. I fear no one can meet it. And certainly none of the surviving descendants can claim permission of the tsar to marry, since there has been no tsar for decades."

Lord had already come to that conclusion himself.

"I don't think the Russian people will care about marriage," Pashenko went on. "It's what the new tsar and tsarina do after that will count far more. These surviving Romanovs can be petty. They have a history of infighting. That cannot be tolerated, especially publicly at the commission."

Recalling again Lenin's note and Alexandra's message, he decided to see what Pashenko knew. "Have you given any more thought to what I showed you yesterday in the archives?"

The older man grinned. "I understand your worry. What if there is a direct descendant from Nicholas II still alive? That would negate every claim from every Romanov, save that one. Surely, Mr. Lord, you cannot believe anyone survived the massacre at Yekaterinburg?"

"I don't know what to believe. But, no, if the accounts of the massacre are accurate, no one survived. Still, Lenin seemed to doubt the reports. I mean, there's no way Yurovsky was going to tell Moscow he was two bodies short."

"I agree. Though there is now indisputable evidence that was precisely the case. The bones of Alexie and Anastasia are gone."

Lord recalled 1979, when a retired geologist, Alexander Audonin, and a Russian filmmaker, Geli Ryabov, found where Yurovsky and his henchmen had buried the murdered Imperial family. They spent months talking with relatives of guards and members of the Ural Soviet, and scouring suppressed papers and books, one of which was a handwritten account by Yurovsky himself, given to them by the chief executioner's eldest son, which filled in many gaps and detailed precisely where the bodies had been hidden. But the Soviet political climate had made all those who'd possessed the account fearful of revealing its existence, let alone searching for the bodies. It was not until 1991, after the communist fall, that Audonin and Ryabov followed the clues and exhumed the bones, which were positively identified through DNA analysis. Pashenko was correct. Only nine skeletons came from the ground. And though there had been a thorough search of the grave site, the remains of Nicholas II's two youngest children were never found.

"They could simply be buried at another spot," Pashenko noted.

"But what did Lenin mean when he said that the reports on what happened in Yekaterinburg weren't entirely accurate?"

"Hard to say. Lenin was a complex man. There's no doubt he alone ordered the entire family shot. Records clearly demonstrate the orders came from Moscow and were personally approved by Lenin. The last thing he wanted was the White Army to liberate the tsar. The Whites weren't royalists, but the act could have been a rallying point that would have spelled the end of the revolution."

"What do you think he meant when he wrote, The information concerning Felix Yussoupov corroborates the apparently false reports from Yekaterinburg?"

"Now that is interesting. I've thought about that, along with Alexandra's account of what Rasputin told her. That is new information, Mr. Lord. I consider myself quite schooled in tsarist history, but I have never read anything connecting Yussoupov and the royal family after 1918."

He refilled his vodka glass. "Yussoupov murdered Rasputin. Many say that act hastened the monarchy's downfall. Both Nicholas and Alexandra hated Yussoupov for what he did."

"Which adds to the mystery. Why would the royal family have anything to do with him?"

"If I recall, most of the grand dukes and duchesses applauded the decision to kill the starets."

"Quite true. And that was, perhaps, Rasputin's greatest damage. He divided the Romanov family. It was Nicholas and Alexandra versus everyone else."

"Rasputin was such an enigma," Lord said. "A Siberian peasant who could directly influence the Tsar of All Russia. A charlatan with imperial power."

"Many would debate that he was a charlatan. A large number of his prophecies came true. He said the tsarevich would not die of hemophilia, and he didn't. He foretold that the Empress Alexandra would see his birthplace in Siberia, and she did-on the way to Tobolsk as a prisoner. He also said that if a member of the royal family killed him, the tsar's family would not survive two years. Yussoupov married a royal niece, murdered the starets in December 1916, and the Romanov family was slaughtered nineteen months later. Not bad for a charlatan."

Lord was not impressed by holy men with a supposed conduit to God. His father had claimed to be one. Thousands had flocked to revivals to hear him shout the word and heal the sick. Of course, all that was forgotten hours later when one of the choir women arrived at his room. He'd read a lot about Rasputin and how he had seduced women the same way.

He flushed the thoughts of his father away and said, "It's never been proven that any of Rasputin's predictions were memorialized while he was alive. Most came later from his daughter, who seemed to believe it was her life's destiny to vindicate her father's image. I've read her book."

"That may be true, until today."

"What do you mean?"

"Alexandra's note talks about the royal family dying within two years. The sheet was dated in her own hand, October 28, 1916. That was two months before Rasputin was murdered. Apparently, he told her something. A prophecy, she said. And she memorialized it. So you have a historically important document in your possession, Mr. Lord."

He'd not considered the full implications of his discovery, but the professor was right.

"Do you intend to go to St. Petersburg?" Pashenko asked.

"I didn't before. But I think I will now."

"A good decision. Your credentials can gain you access to parts of the archives none of us have been able to see. Maybe there will be more to find, especially since now you know what to look for."

"That's the whole problem, Professor. I really don't know what I'm looking for."

The academician seemed unconcerned. "Not to worry. I have a feeling you will do just fine."

ST. PETERSBURG .THURSDAY, OCTOBER 14 12:30 PM

Lord settled into the archive, located on the fourth floor of a post-revolutionary building that faced busy Nevsky Prospekt. He'd managed to book two seats on a nine AM Aeroflot shuttle from Moscow. The flight, though smooth, was nerve-racking, budget cuts and a lack of trained personnel taking their toll on the Russian national airline. But he was in a hurry and didn't have time to drive or take the train for the eight-hundred-mile round trip.

Ilya Zivon had been waiting in the Volkhov's lobby at seven AM as promised, ready for another day of escorting. The Russian had been surprised when Lord told him to drive to the airport and had wanted to call Taylor Hayes for instructions. But Lord informed him that Hayes was out of town and had left no telephone number. Unfortunately, the return flight for the afternoon was full, so he'd reserved two tickets on the overnight train from St. Petersburg back to Moscow.

Whereas Moscow projected an air of reality, with dirty streets and unimaginative structures, St. Petersburg was a fairy-tale city of baroque palaces, cathedrals, and canals. While the rest of the nation slept under a dull gray sameness, here pink granite and yellow and green stucco facades thrilled the eyes. He recalled how the Russian novelist Nikolai Gogol had described the city: Everything in it breathed falsehood. Then and now the city seemed busy with itself, its great architects all Italian, the layout reflecting a distinctive European air. It had served as the capital until the communists took over in 1917, and there was serious discussion of moving the center of power back once the new tsar was coronated.