“Well, it looks and smells like a cave,” Rachel muttered.  “Dark and musty.  I can’t see a damn thing with this light.”

 

“Allow me,” Nick declared, as he withdrew a large object from his pocket.  It resembled a flashlight, but the moment he turned it on, it was obviously much more than an ordinary flashlight.

 

“Whoa,” Rachel exclaimed, “you carry the sun around with you?”  As Nick thrust the light into the cave, it illuminated everything for about twenty feet in every direction.  “You see anything that looks like amber or treasure?”

 

“Nope,” Nick replied, “I see cave.  Lots and lots of cave.  I can tell that it goes down a good ways, but that’s about it really.”  He switched the light off as he heard the sound of approaching footsteps…heavy ones.

 

“Your friends?” Rachel asked, as she knelt before Denise, her hand holding Denise’s chin as she gazed into her eyes.

 

“I don’t think so, those sound like heavy boots, and besides, the last time I saw my friends they weren’t going anywhere.”

 

“You saw them?” Ciara whispered.  “Are they okay?” 

 

She never got a reply, because at that moment, two large men, both wielding pistols, came barging through the doorway.  Behind them, flanked by her bodyguards, was their wheelchair-bound boss.  As they rolled her into the center of the room, Kristian and Billy waved Rachel and Nick away from the open metal door, with their guns pointed straight at them.

 

“So,” Frau Braun cackled, as she looked back and forth between the two strangers, the three bound girls, and the open door with the amber key still in the lock, “looks like we got here in the nick of time.”  She glared up at Rachel, who was edging towards the doorway, and Nick beside her.  “Who are you two?  I don’t like all these surprises.”

 

“Nobody really,” Rachel answered, looking a bit pale – apparently this was a surprise she didn’t like either.  “Just a couple of…adventurers who…got lost…”

 

“Ah.” She looked back at Ciara, Denise, and Kat, lined up against the wall and hogtied.  As she did, Rachel and Nick crept closer to the doorway that Braun and her men had just come through.  “Looks like you three aren’t going anywhere.  I suppose I should-” She turned back just as Rachel and Nick bolted for the doorway and down the corridor.  Nick took off so fast that he dropped his light, which rolled next to Ciara.

 

“Want us to go after them?” Kristian asked his boss.

 

“Don’t bother.  We have had enough time wasted as it is.  The door is open, and soon, I will finally have what I have been looking for almost seventy years!”

 

“Seventy years?” Kat gasped.  “Who are you?”

 

“Well, I suppose it won’t hurt now to tell you.  I am Eva Braun.  I was the wife of the most powerful man on earth…for forty days at least. The Amber Room belonged to him when he died, and so, rightfully, it belongs to me.”

 

“You’re lying,” Denise retorted, “Eva Braun committed suicide in the bunker with Hitler.  I should know, I teach history.”

 

“That’s what I wanted everyone to think, foolish American girl.  The woman they drug out of the bunker with Adolf was my cousin, who happened to look like my twin sister.  I have been living in secret all these years, slowly getting back everything that once belonged to my Adolf, that should all be rightfully mine, and this is the piece de resistance.”

 

“You are really Eva Braun?” Denise still looked skeptical.  “You would have to be 100 years old!”

 

“102.” Eva smiled down at the helplessly bound brunette.  “And you should have said you taught history.  The three of you will be joining your friends soon enough, and going to the slave auction.  You will never see your precious America again.”

 

The three girls gasped in unison.  “The crates,” Kat breathed, “the sleeping gas…”

 

Eva motioned for her bodyguards to roll her towards the door to the cave.  “Now, boys, it’s time to get what we came for.”  She glanced over at Kristian and Billy.  “Put the guns away for now.  Which one of you has a flashlight?”

 

Ciara glanced down, seeing Nick’s light on the dirt floor next to her, and casually lifted her thigh enough to conceal it from view.  She winked at Denise next to her, who noticed the movement; none of the men seemed to, though.

 

Kristian and Billy, as well as the bodyguards Hans and Marten, were digging through their pockets.  Finally, Kristian produced a Maglite. “This is all I have, Fraulein.  You told us to bring guns; you never said anything about lights.”

 

There was a torch on the wall – the only other light in the room.  “Take that torch,” she ordered.  “We’ll leave these three in the dark until we get back.”  Billy yanked the torch off of the wall, and started into the cave, followed by Eva being pushed by her bodyguards, and Kristian bringing up the rear.

 

It wasn’t long at all before the three girls were completely in the dark, unable to see a thing. They could still hear the sounds coming from the cave; the sound of the men’s boots, the creaking of Eva’s wheelchair, and the constant back and forth bickering…

 

“Billy! Are you watching where you’re going?”

 

“Yes and I could do better if you would back off my ass a little! Dammit! The torch just went out! I can’t see a thing!”

 

“Kristian!  Get your light up here!  Billy! Are you even checking the side passages?”

 

“No I am just going straight ahead!  It’s not like we have a map of this damn place!  I really can’t see a goddamn thing! Stop pushing me! Where’s that light?”

 

“I am trying to get up there, there’s no room, we are all pushed together on this rocky platform…”

 

There was a sound like rocks breaking, collapsing, and then screaming and cursing, mostly in German.  The three girls couldn’t see, but they had a pretty good idea of what was happening, and a few seconds later, five separate thudding sounds confirmed it…

 

Then there was silence.  After a minute, Kat whispered, “do you think they’re…dead?”

 

“I don’t know, but I can’t hear any sound at all. Let’s not get our hopes up…”

 

For the next ten minutes, there was nothing. The three bound girls were in total darkness and silence.  Ciara was the first to hear the sound of footsteps, not coming from the cave, but from the other direction.  A few seconds later, they saw a light as well.

 

“Rachel and Nick? The way they flew out of here, I figured we would never see them again…”

 

The footsteps and the light grew nearer, and the first face they saw wasn’t Rachel or Nick, it was Amanda!

 

“Oh my god, are we glad to see you!” Ciara exclaimed.  Amanda walked in, followed by Penelope, Hannah, and Lianne. 

 

“How long have you three been like this?” Penelope asked, as Amanda shone her light around the room.

 

“Too long,” Denise answered.  “Hey, Ciara has a light of some kind under her leg there, get that, it’s really bright.”

 

Ciara rolled a bit, as Penelope reached down and picked up the light.  She flicked the switch, and the whole room was suddenly flooded with light.

 

“Whoa!”  Amanda exclaimed.  “You weren’t kidding, that is bright!”

 

“We saw you, in the crates, in the truck,” Kat breathed, as Hannah started untying the ropes holding her.  “How did you get out?”

 

“That Steve guy, he took the mask off me. Then I cold cocked him,” Hannah grinned.  “He was the only one there, I guess the rest of those men took off?”

 

“They came here,” Denise groaned, as Amanda worked on getting her knots untied.  “Their boss is Eva Braun…THE Eva Braun…and they were going to take all seven of us to a slave auction!”

 

Hannah gasped.  “That’s exactly what Steve said.  I thought he was lying?”

 

Amanda got the last of Denise’s knots loose, just as Lianne was finishing freeing Ciara, and the three girls stood up, trying to loosen their limbs.  “So, they were here, where did they go?”

 

“In there,” Ciara pointed.  “That’s a secret entrance to part of the Unicorn Cave, that’s what the key opened.  But it sounded like they all fell a long way, we haven’t heard a peep from the cave since whatever they were all standing on broke.”

 

“We think they might be…dead,” Kat whispered.

 

“Yeah,” Denise chimed in.  “Maybe this whole Amber Room thing is nothing more than a death trap.  No wonder nobody’s ever found it all these years.”

 

“I am just happy that all of you are safe.” Amanda had tears in her eyes.  “This is all my fault, me and my stupid sleuthing, wanting to find adventure and solve mysteries and everything, I almost got us all sold into slavery or killed…please forgive me!”

 

“There is nothing to forgive, Amanda,” Hannah gushed, as all six came over to hug her.  “We all agreed to do this, and we’re all fine now, so stop beating yourself up ok?”

 

“Okay,” Amanda sobbed.  “I really like all of you so much, I couldn’t bear the thought of anything happening to any of you…we can all just go home I guess.” She stopped crying and smiled.  “I guess we did all right for a bunch of girls!”

 

“You’re giving up NOW?” a voice shouted from the doorway.  The seven Summer Sleuths all turned to see Steve standing there.

 

“You little perv,” Penelope glared at him.  “When I get through with you-”

 

“Hang on, Penelope,” Amanda interrupted. “Yes, I think considering your BOSS was going to auction us off as slaves, and she and your buddies just fell to their apparent deaths in the cave, I think we’ve had enough adventure for one summer.”

 

“But you’re so close.  You still have the map? The one from 1945?”

 

“Yeah,” Ciara replied, “I have half of it, and Denise has the other half, it’s how we found this place, what good is it now?”

 

“Let me see,” Steve asked.  Begrudgingly, Ciara pulled her map half out of her pocket, and handed it to Steve.  He turned it over, smiling. “The instructions are right here, on the back of the map. See?”  He said as he showed it to the girls.

 

“It’s just a bunch of numbers,” Denise muttered with a frown.  “I hate numbers.”  She was looking at her half of the map, where the numbers continued.

 

“Well they aren’t just numbers, you see, they are steps.  If you follow the numbers in order, they will safely get you through the cave until you find the treasure.”

 

“And how do YOU know all this, Pizza boy?” Penelope questioned.

 

Steve turned back to Amanda.  “The old man you’ve been chatting with over the past months?  He’s my grandfather.”

 

“Your grandfather?” Amanda’s eyes widened. Then she thought for a moment.  “So that’s how you knew I was coming this summer, how you knew I would be in Konigsberg…”

 

Steve nodded.  “My grandfather told me all of his stories growing up, I thought they were so amazing.  Then I got older, and realized how much money was in that cave, and I stole his half of the map, and gave it to my friend Billy…I had no idea that he was working with Eva Braun or that she was even still alive.”

 

“He knew, didn’t he?” Amanda asked.  “That’s why he was going to give me the amber.  He knew if he kept it, you were going to steal that too.”

 

“I have done a lot of things I’m not proud of,” Steve mumbled, hanging his head in shame.  “I thought I knew what I was doing, I thought if I just came along for the ride, I’d get my share of the money and everything would be okay, and then I heard what she was planning to do with you girls.”  He turned to look towards Hannah. “I am so, so, terribly sorry.”  He reached into his pocket and withdrew Hannah’s cell phone. “You left this in the truck.”  As she watched, he opened up the back, and pulled out a tiny disc. “The tracker I put in here, this is how we were able to follow you girls here,” and he dropped it on the floor before smashing it with his boot. Then he handed the phone back to Hannah.

 

“So your grandfather knew my great-uncle,” Denise exclaimed, breaking the momentary silence.  “From the end of the war.  He gave my great-uncle the other half of the map.”

 

“He mentioned an American soldier, yes.  So that’s what brought you here.”  He turned to Penelope.  “And you, Black Arrow, when Eva and Kristian found out where the other piece of amber was, they contacted the Agency and they sent you to steal it.”

 

“Wow, everything is all coming together now, it all makes sense,” Amanda stated.  She looked at Steve again, a bit disapprovingly.  “And even after everything that’s happened, you want to go in there and take the treasure, it’s still all about the money-”

 

“No.  I’m not going in there.  I gave you the information about the code so that you, Amanda Jones, could make it through safely and find the Amber Room.  After everything I did, I know I don’t deserve to find it.”

 

“You understand that if we go and find it, we are turning it all over to a museum.  You’re not going to see a dime.”

 

“I know,” he shrugged.  “I’ll stay here in this room until you return.  Take that light with you, I have a small flashlight.  And follow the numbers exactly, they tell you how many passages you go by before you turn.”

 

Amanda looked around at her friends, they were all nodding and smiling.  “I guess…we have come this far right?  It would be a shame not to finish the quest and find it.”

 

“I am with you!” Denise exclaimed.  “I never in my wildest dreams thought I would ever get a chance to do something like this.  Think of the stories I can tell my history classes!”

 

“Why not,” Penelope smiled.  “Lianne?”

 

“Whither thou goes, I shall go too,” Lianne grinned.

 

“Well we aren’t letting Amanda go without us,” Kat said, nudging Hannah, who nodded in agreement.

 

“Then it’s settled,” Ciara added, taking the map back from Steve.  She looked down at the ropes lying on the floor.  “We should take one of these, and all hold onto it, just to make sure we all stay together.”

 

“Good idea Ciara,” Penelope agreed, and the seven Summer Sleuths, led by Amanda Jones, started into the cave.

 

“Okay watch your step,” Amanda called out, as she held the light; Ciara, right behind her, had the map with the numbers.  The others were careful to match their pace.

 

“First turn here,” Ciara tapped Amanda lightly on the shoulder.  As they turned to the left, Ciara continued with the navigation.  “Second passage we turn again.”  They made another left turn.  “Now the fourth.”  When they got to the fourth passage, it went to the right, and Amanda turned that way, the others following it.

 

“We’ve already been in the cave longer than they were,” Kat remarked, as they made a right turn and then the next left.  They passed two more turns before Ciara instructed Amanda to take the next one, a right.

 

“Everyone doing okay back there?” Amanda called back, as they snaked their way through the cave, making two more turns.

 

“All good back here, just following you,” Penelope replied from the rear of the line.

 

“Okay,” Ciara continued, we should be getting close!  Go past the next three, and take the fourth passage.”  As Amanda got to the fourth one, she looked down it, and her eyes widened. She stopped, and the others came to a halt behind her.

 

“It’s glowing…yellow…wow,” she breathed.  “It’s all downhill, so we better go slow,” and she started carefully down the steeply descending passage.  It was at least fifty feet long, but when Amanda reached the bottom, it was worth the wait.  She quietly stepped into the huge antechamber, shining her light all around.

 

The others stepped in behind her, their eyes wide as saucers, taking it all in.  Along every wall was a panel of amber, each one carved with beautiful artwork.  There were other pieces too, paintings and sculptures.  And in the center of the room was a pile of bodies – five of them, along with pieces of a metal wheelchair.  A few bones scattered here and there revealed that at some point, someone else must have met their end in the cave.

 

“We did it,” Amanda finally spoke.  “We found the Amber Room.”

 

“Looks like Eva Braun did too,” Penelope stated, waving her hand towards the five corpses. “Even if it was the last thing she ever saw.” She took the light from Amanda and shone it upwards.  “That must have been a hundred-foot drop, at least.”

 

“Wow, I knew we were walking downhill the whole time, but I had no idea it was so far down,” Amanda concurred. 

 

“So now what?” Lianne asked.  “I mean, these pieces are huge, we can’t just carry them out of here, it’s going to be tough just walking back up those passages as it is!”

 

“We did our job, we found the Amber Room,” Amanda answered.  “Now we get someone here who can safely remove it and return it where it belongs.”

 

“It belongs to the Russians,” Denise stated, “it was a gift to them, hundreds of years ago. Ironically enough, from the king of Prussia – which is now Germany.”

 

“I know someone at the Russian embassy in London,” Penelope interjected.  “I’ll call him, he will know what to do to get the right people involved.”

 

“Well, I don’t know about you, but I’m getting some pictures,” Hannah said, as she took out her smartphone.  “Just in case, I want to have proof that we were here and everything.”

 

The group spent the next few minutes snapping photos, and marveling at everything, before Amanda commented that they had better start making their way back.  The climb up the steep passage from the antechamber was the toughest, but helping each other, they all made it up, and backtracking the directions on the map, they finally made their way out of the cave, exhausted from all of the day’s events.

 

Steve had fallen asleep; as the others headed out, Hannah knelt down next to him, nudging him until he woke up.

 

“We found it,” she said with a smile.

 

“I knew you would,” he smiled back.

 

“I’m really sorry about earlier, about the punch.” She helped him up to his feet. 

 

“It’s okay, I totally deserved it.  I’m just happy everything worked out.”

 

“Eva and the others are dead.  You won’t have to worry about them ever again.” Hannah sighed, as she leaned her weary head against his shoulder.  They headed out that way, finally getting to the outside.  Night was falling, and the others were sitting on the ground, on their phones, telling family and friends what had been going on.

 

“I’m starved,” Steve blurted out.  He turned to Hannah.  “Can I buy you dinner?”

 

“Sure,” Hannah smiled, as she looked around at her friends.  “After the day we’ve had, you can buy us ALL dinner.”  And they headed down the hill, towards the lights of the town of Herzberg, which after the news broke, would never quite be the same again…

 

 

THE END