the Amber Room

amber was lost in the war. Most of the old masters were killed.'

Loring nodded. 'Some survived, thanks to Koch. Goring intended to create a room identical to the original and instructed Koch to jail the craftsmen for safekeeping. Father was able to locate many before the war ended. After, he offered them a good life for themselves and whatever remained of their family. Most accepted his offer and lived here in seclusion, rebuilding this masterpiece slowly, piece by piece. Several of their descendants still live here and maintain this room.'

'Is that not risky?' Fellner asked.

'Not at all. These men and their families are loyal. Life in the old Czechoslovakia was difficult. Very brutal. To a man, they were grateful for the generosity the Lorings showed them. All we ever asked was their best work and secrecy. It took nearly ten years to complete what you see here. Thankfully, the Soviets insisted on training their artists as realists, so the restorers were competent.'

Fellner waved his hands at the walls. 'Still, this must have cost a fortune to complete.'

Loring nodded. 'Father purchased the amber needed for replacement pieces on the open market, which was expensive, even in the 1950s. He also employed some modern techniques while rebuilding. The new panels are not oak. Instead, pieces of pine, ash, and oak were fused together. Separate pieces allow for expansion, and a moisture barrier was added between the amber and the wood. The Amber Room is not only fully restored, it will also last.'

Suzanne stood quiet near the doors and carefully watched Fellner. The old German was openly stunned. She marveled at what it took to astonish a man like Franz Fellner, a billionaire with an art collection to rival any museum in the world. But she understood his shock, recalling how she felt the first time Loring showed her.

Fellner pointed. 'Where do the two other sets of doors lead?'

'This room is actually in the center of my private gallery. We walled the sides and placed the doors and windows exactly as in the original. Instead of rooms in the Catherine Palace, these doors flow to other private collection areas.'

'How long has the room been here?' Fellner asked.

'Fifty years.'

'Amazing you have been able to conceal it,' Monika said. 'The Soviets are difficult to deceive.'

'Father fostered good relations with both the Soviets and the Germans during the war. Czechoslovakia provided a convenient route for the Nazis to funnel currency and gold to Switzerland. Our family aided many such transfers. The Soviets, after the war, enjoyed the same courtesy. The price of that favor was the freedom to do as we pleased.'

Fellner grinned. 'I can imagine. The Soviets could ill afford you to inform the Americans or the British about what was transpiring.'

'There is an old Russian saying, 'But for the bad, it would not be good.' It refers to the ironic tendency of how Russian art seems to spring from turmoil. But it likewise explains how this was made possible.'

Suzanne watched Fellner and Monika approach the chest-high cases lining two of the amber walls. Inside were an assortment of objects. A seventeenth-century chessboard with pieces, an eighteenth-century samovar and flask, a woman's toilet case, a sand glass, spoons, medallions, and ornate boxes. All of amber, crafted, as Loring explained, by either Konigsberg or Gda nsk artisans.

'The pieces are lovely,' Monika said.

'Like the kunstkammer of Peter the Great's time, I keep my amber objects in my room of curiosity. Most were collected by Suzanne or her father. Not for public display. War loot.'

The old man turned toward Suzanne and smiled. He then looked back toward their guests.

'Shall we retire to my study, where we can sit and talk a bit more?'

FIFTY-ONE

Suzanne took a seat beyond Monika, Fellner, and Loring. She preferred to watch from the side, allowing her boss this moment of triumph. A steward had just withdrawn after serving coffee, brandy, and cake.

'I always wondered about Josef's loyalties,' Fellner said. 'He survived the war remarkably well.'

'Father hated the Nazis,' Loring said. 'His foundries and factories were placed at their disposal, but it was an easy matter to forge weak metal, or produce bullets that rusted, or guns that did not like the cold. It was a dangerous game--Nazis were fanatical about quality, but his relationship with Koch helped. Rarely was he questioned about anything. He knew the Germans would lose the war, and he foretold the Soviet takeover of Eastern Europe, so he worked covertly with Soviet intelligence throughout.'

'I never realized,' Fellner said.

Loring nodded. 'He was a Bohemian patriot. He simply operated in his own way. After the war, the Soviets were grateful. They needed him, too, so he was left alone. I was able to continue that relationship. This family has worked closely with every Czechoslovakian regime since 1945. Father was right about the Soviets. And so, I might add, was Hitler.'

'What do you mean?' Monika asked.

Loring brought the fingers of both hands together in his lap. 'Hitler always believed the Americans and British would join him in a war against Stalin. The Soviets were Germany's real enemy, and he believed Churchill and Roosevelt felt the same way. That's why he hid so much money and art. He intended to retrieve it all, once the Allies joined him in a new alliance to defeat the USSR. A madman for sure, but history has proved a lot of Hitler's vision correct. When Berlin was blockaded by the Soviets in 1948, America, England, and Germany immediately joined against the Soviets.'

'Stalin scared everybody,' Fellner said. 'Moreso than Hitler. He murdered sixty million to Hitler's ten. When he died in 1953, we all felt safer.'

After a moment Loring said, 'I assume Christian reported the skeletons found in the cavern at Stod?'

Fellner nodded.

'They worked the site, foreigners hired in Egypt. There was a huge shaft then, only the outer entrance dynamited shut. Father found it, cleared the opening, and removed the crumbled panels. He then sealed the chamber with the bodies inside.'

'Josef killed them?'

'Personally. While they slept.'

'And you've been killing people ever since,' Monika said.

Loring faced her. 'Our Acquisitors assured that the secret remained safe. I do have to say, the ferocity and determination with which people have searched surprised us. Many became obsessed with finding the amber panels. Periodically, we would leak false leads, rumors to keep searchers moving in a different direction. You might recall an article in Rabochaya Tribuna from a few years back. They reported Soviet military intelligence had located the panels in a mine near an old tank base in East Germany, about two hundred fifty kilometers southeast of Berlin.'

'I have that article,' Fellner said.

'All false. Suzanne arranged a leak to the appropriate people. Our hope was that most people would use common sense and give up the search.'

Fellner shook his head. 'Too valuable. Too intriguing. The lure is almost intoxicating.'

'I understand completely. Many times I venture into the room to simply sit and stare. The amber is almost therapeutic.'

'And priceless,' Monika said.

'True, my dear. I read something once about war loot--artifacts made of precious stones and metals--the writer postulated that they would never have survived the war intact, the sum of their individual parts being far greater than the whole. One commentator, I believe in the London Times, wrote that the fate of the Amber Room could be gauged similarly. He concluded only objects like books and paintings, whose total configuration, as opposed to the actual raw material used in their composition, would survive a war.'

'Did you help with that postulation?' Fellner asked.

Loring lifted his coffee from the side table and smiled. 'The writer conceived that on his own. But we did make sure the article received wide circulation.'