Preston Child - Mystery of the Amber Room

“Sam is gone!” Purdue shouted.

“Can’t be!” Nina shouted back, waiting for Detlef’s response.

“No, he is really gone,” Purdue wheezed after searching the entire house. “I have looked everywhere. I even checked outside. Sam is gone.”

Detlef’s cell phone rang.

“Put it on speaker, champ,” Purdue insisted. With a vindictive leer, Detlef obliged.

“Holtzer,” he answered.

They could hear the phone being passed on to someone while men were talking in the background. Nina was disappointed that she could not finish her little test for the German.

The true message from Milla she had deciphered did not yield just numbers or coordinates. It was far more disturbing. While she was listening to the phone call, she was hiding the paper with the original message in her slender fingers. It read, ‘Teufel ist gekommen’ first, followed by ‘shelter object’ and ‘contact compulsory’. The last part simply said ‘Pripyat, 1955’.

Through the speaker of the phone they heard a familiar voice, confirming their worst fears.

“Nina, ignore what they say! I can survive this!”

“Sam!” she shrieked.

They heard scuffling, as his captors physically disciplined Sam for his audacity. In the background, a man told Sam to say what he had been told.

“The Amber Room is in the Sarcophagus,” Sam stammered, spitting out the blood of the blow he had just received. “You have 48 hours to retrieve it or they kill the German Chancellor. And…and,” he panted “take control of the EU.”

“Who? Sam, who?” Detlef asked quickly.

“It is no mystery who , my friend,” Nina told him outright.

“Who do we deliver it to?” Purdue jumped in. “Where and when?”

“You will receive instructions at a later time,” a man said. “The German knows where to listen for it.”

The call ended abruptly. “Oh my God,” Nina moaned through her hands as she buried her face in her palms. “You were right, Purdue. Milla is behind it all.”

They looked at Detlef.

“You think I am responsible for this?” he defended. “Are you out of your minds?”

“You are the one who has given us all the directions so far, Mr. Holtzer — from Milla’s broadcasts no less. The Black Sun is going to send our instructions through the same channel. Do the fucking math!” Nina shouted, restrained by Purdue not to attack the large German.

“I knew nothing about this! I swear! I was looking for Purdue to get an explanation how my wife died, for Christ's sake! My mission was just to find my wife's killer, not this! And he is standing right there, Liebchen, right there with you. You are covering for him, still, after all this time, and all along you knew he killed Gabi,” Detlef shouted furiously. His face had turned red, and his lips quivered in rage as he drew his Glock on them, opening fire.

Purdue grabbed Nina and pulled her to the floor with him. “To the bathroom, Nina! Go! Go!”

“If you say I told you so I swear I'll kill you!” she yelled at him as he pushed her forward, barely dodging the well-placed slugs.

“I won’t, I promise. Just move! He is right on us!” Purdue pleaded as they slithered over the threshold of the bathroom. Detlef shadow, massive against the corridor wall, swiftly moved closer to them. They slammed the bathroom door shut and locked it just as another shot rang out, chiming against the steel door frame.

“Jesus, he is going to kill us,” Nina wheezed as she checked the medicine cabinet for anything sharp she could use when Detlef would inevitably crash through the door. She found a pair of steel scissors and slipped them into her back pocket.

“Try the window,” Purdue suggested, wiping his brow.

“What is wrong?” she asked. Purdue looked sick again, sweating profusely and clutching at the handle of the bath tub. “Oh God, not again.”

“That voice, Nina. The man on the phone. I think I recognized him. His name is Kemper. When they said the name on your recording, I felt the same way I do now. And when I heard that man's voice on Sam's call, this horrible nausea hit me again,” he confessed through ragged breaths.

“You think these spells are caused by someone's voice?” she asked hurriedly as she pressed her cheek flat on the floor to see under the door.

“I’m not sure, but I think so,” Purdue answered, fighting the overwhelming embrace of oblivion.

“There is someone in front of the door,” she whispered. “Purdue, you have to stay awake. He is at the door. We have to go through the window. Do you think you can manage?”

He shook his head. “I'm too exhausted,” he huffed. “You have to g-get…uh, out…”

Purdue spoke incoherently as he stumbled toward the toilet with outstretched hands.

“I am not leaving you here!” she protested. Purdue vomited until he was too weak to sit up. It was suspiciously quiet in front of the door. Nina guessed that the psychotic German would be patiently waiting for them to exit so he could shoot them. He was still in front of the door, so she opened the taps in the bath to mask their movements. She opened the faucets all the way and then carefully opened the window. Patiently Nina unscrewed the burglar bars with the blade of the scissors, one by one, until she could remove the contraption. It was heavy. Nina groaned as she twisted her torso to put it down, but found Purdue's hands raised to help her. He put the bars down, looking like his old self again. She was absolutely taken aback by these strange spells that made him terribly sick only to release him shortly after.

“Feeling better?” she asked. He nodded with relief, but Nina could see that the constant attacks of fever and vomiting were rapidly dehydrating him. His eyes looked weary, and his face was pallid, but he acted and spoke as he always did. Purdue helped Nina through the window, and she jumped onto the grass outside. His tall body arched awkwardly through the rather narrow opening before he leaped down beside her.

Suddenly, Detlef's shadow fell over them.

When Nina looked up at the giant threat, her heart nearly stopped. Without a thought, she jumped up and stabbed him in the groin with the scissors. Purdue knocked the Glock from his hand and claimed it, but the slide was locked back, indicating an empty magazine. The big man had Nina in his grip, laughing at Purdue's failed attempt to shoot him. Nina pulled the scissors out and stabbed him again. Detlef’s eye burst as she shoved the closed blades into his eye socket.

“Come Nina!” Purdue shouted, discarding the useless weapon. “Before he gets up. He is still moving!”

“Yeah?” she sneered. “I can change that!”

But Purdue pulled her away, and they fled in the direction of town, leaving behind their belongings.

Sam stumbled behind the tyrant with the scrawny frame. From a laceration right below his right eyebrow, blood was trickling down his face and stained his shirt. The thugs were holding him by his arms, dragging him along to the large boat that was bobbing on the Gdynia bay water.

“Mr. Cleave, I expect you to comply with our every command or else your friends will be blamed for the death of the German Chancellor,” his captor informed him.

“You’ve got nothing to pin on them!” Sam contested. “Besides, if they play into your hand we are all going to end up dead anyway. We know how sick the Order's objectives are.”

“And here I thought you knew the extent of the Order's genius and capabilities. How silly of me. Please, don't force me to make an example of your associates to show you how serious we are,” Klaus snapped snidely. He turned to his men. “Get him on board. We have to go.”