The Amber Room by T. Davis Bunn

Author:T. Davis Bunn [Bunn, T. Davis]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: FIC042030, FIC042000, FIC026000, FIC002000
ISBN: 9781441270887
Publisher: Baker Publishing Group
Published: 2015-01-22T05:00:00+00:00

* * *

When they left the cafe, snow flurries opened to reveal frantic scurrying clouds, then closed into curtains swept sideways by the wind. They followed the example of others and huddled up against the nearest building as they walked.

The Semper Gallery, their meeting point, proved to be the last bastion of old Dresden. Beyond it was all garish modernism and broken pavement and traffic. Buildings were glass and concrete and steel and tasteless. The contrast to the Semper palace could not have been starker.

They crossed a wooden bridge over a swan-filled moat, then passed under a multistory arch formed as a gilded crown and colonnaded pedestal. Inside were acres of carefully sculpted gardens, all brown and empty and waiting for spring. Scaffolding covered two thirds of the surrounding ornate palace, over a thousand feet to a side. The sound of construction followed them everywhere.

Katya pointed through the falling white veil to where two leather-coated individuals watched them. “Frau Reining said they would be wearing red scarfs.”

It was only when they were a few paces away that Jeffrey realized the second person was a woman. Her face was all angles and hard lines, her expression stubborn and suspicious.

Her pockmarked companion spoke with a voice roughened by a metal rasp. Katya translated it as, “He wants to know if you are the one.”

“The one what?”

“Let me tell him yes, all right? I don’t feel comfortable with this pair.”

The uneasiness he felt from their gaze hardened into genuine dislike at the thought of Katya’s fear. “Tell them the question is out of a third-rate spy movie, and it’s too cold out here for games.”

Katya hesitated, then spoke in a soft voice. The man stiffened, then turned and stomped off. The woman watched him go, then turned back to Jeffrey with a smirk and spoke a few words.

“I don’t understand,” Katya said.

“What did she say?”

“End of drama.”

“This is ridiculous. Tell her we’re leaving.”

Before Katya could speak the woman held up her hand, pointed to where the pockmarked man reappeared through the colonnaded atrium. With him scuttled a little figure bundled within a shapeless greatcoat. On closer inspection, Jeffrey decided the man looked like the embryo of a giant mole.

When he spoke, the man had the gentle lisp of an ageless Pan. “I hear that you are an honorable businessman, Mr. Sinclair,” the little man said in greeting. The act of translating those few words was enough to give Katya’s voice a colorless tone.

Jeffrey bridled. “No one has said the same about you.”

Katya glanced his way. “How do you know that he can’t speak English?”

“I don’t know, and I don’t care. I don’t even know what we are doing here.” He looked down at her. “Can we please get out of this snow?”

“Don’t you want to know what he’s got to sell?”

“Look at these people, Katya. Tell me how you think they came up with something of value.”

Katya hesitated, then turned back to the trio and spoke in her lilting German. The strange-shaped man replied in sibilant tones.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.