***
“Would be nice to call Tamara and see what is going on in our office. I hope that a war hasn’t erupted between her and Gregory,” said Dina, stepping out of the lobby of the hotel and into the brisk chill of the early morning.
“I will check whether we can call from the hotel. I tried calling our office twice before you came, but both times could not get past the local phone company operator. The moment they hear that I need to call an international number, they disconnect. Hope we will have better luck today,” said Igor, crossing the road, moving in the direction of an empty children’s playground located near a small shopping center. When they came closer, two cats stopped playing in the playground sand box and began to run towards them.
“Poor creatures, we should have brought some food with us.”
“Don’t worry, they are not hungry. I am sure there are plenty of mice in the fields around. They only want to play.” Igor picked up a small stone from the ground and threw it at the running cats, missing them.
“Don’t do that. Please.”
“I won't if you promise me not to touch them. Leave them alone. Here the homeless animals are a big health problem.” Igor shushed several times toward the cats; they stopped for a second, looked at him and then ran in the opposite direction.
The playground had a small bench where Dina and Igor sat down.
“We need to talk again about our friend Victor,” said Dina. “I don’t know what to say. He is helping us a lot. He has his reasons. He told you that he knows about our real purpose for this visit. If he is not with us, he is against us. Then why go through all the hassle? If he wants his share of the diamonds, we should negotiate all of the conditions before we descend into the catacombs,” continued Dina.
“I don’t know what his motives are and what is going on in his head. I think we should confront him. In less than an hour we’ll have an excellent opportunity to do so. What do you think?” asked Igor.
“I would like to see his reaction if we inform him that we are abandoning our expedition and going back home.”
“Not a bad idea. First, let him tell us whatever he intended to tell us and let him mark the blueprint and then you’ll tell him about your new decision. Interesting. But you know, for some reason, I still have the feeling of trust towards him. Yes, don’t know how and why, but I trust him.” Igor looked at Dina with a surprised look on his face.
“Yes, somehow I agree with you on that.” Dina smiled back at Igor. She stood up and walked to a swing. For the next while, swinging with her eyes closed, she felt like she was back in her childhood, in the village, with the boundless joy and happiness that she used to feel as a young girl.
“We should go.” Igor pulled her out of her paradise.
“This fresh air and the smell of the fields are fascinating to me.”
“I can see that.”
Soon they were back to the hotel entrance, where Victor’s van was already parked. They found him inside the hotel’s lobby, sitting on a small chair and reading the local newspaper.
“There you are, good morning to you both, let’s go. I am hungry; hope you are too. I only had a cup of coffee this morning and I also left a couple cups for you.” Victor held the door and then followed them to his car.
The ride to Victor’s home took about half an hour. They went north, passing various neighborhoods in the city and then an industrial area.
“I bought the land north near the river ten years ago,” explained Victor. “I wanted to have access by land and by water. We have a nice sandy beach on one side and a great green forest on the other. My housekeeper, Katherine, picks wild berries and mushrooms directly from our backyard. Several times I had uninvited visitors come from the forest and I decided to get two guard dogs. Please don’t be afraid. They are chained now, but usually they run free. They are specially trained and usually don’t see a lot of people. I don’t have many visitors or guests.”
Their jumps on the frequent road potholes suddenly stopped and were replaced with a smooth ride on a straight-as-a-ruler cemented road.
“Are we on an airport runway?” asked Dina.
“No, of course not.” Victor smiled. ”We are about five kilometers from my home. I found that in our harsh winter conditions, cement is a much better solution than asphalt.”
“And you built this road?” Dina asked again.
“Not me, I only paid for it. It is a public road. It's too bad I don't have that many neighbors around who could enjoy it.”
Dina looked at Igor, who half lifted his hand, palms up as if saying, I don’t know what to say, don’t ask me.
The car turned left. In the distance there stood a structure that looked like a two-storey log house with a wooden fence all around it. It was standing alone and it looked like an army of pine trees were attacking it from its left and right. Sitting in the back seat of the car looking through the car’s windshield, Igor noticed a satellite dish on the roof of the building. The road ended at a big metal gate. The two-meter fence and the gate kept the house from curious viewers. Dina looked around. She could not find any parking space anywhere. The silence was broken by a loud barking sound.
“Those are my two guards, Zeus and Nikita. Please don’t worry, but don’t approach them if I am not around.”
The car stopped. Victor reached for a gate opener remote attached to the sun blocker, pushed the button, and the gates slowly started rolling to the left, revealing a circular, stone paved driveway. The van passed through the opening, turned left and stopped between two parked cars. The massive wooden log walls, the large tinted windows, the wide porch supported by three steps with wrought iron railings, the main entrance with the dark oak double doors with curved panels. Everything projected opulence and sturdiness.
“Welcome to my home.” Victor exited the car and approached one of the barking dogs.
“Which one is Nikita?” asked Dina. “I like that name.”
“This one,” Victor pointed to a big black Doberman with a powerful chest and a bullet shaped head. “He is the smartest one, but Zeus is the youngest, and he always requires my attention. Am I right?” Victor came closer to a German Sheppard whose belligerent barking was gradually replaced with a relaxing whining. Zeus was showing his happiness by jumping and waving his tail energetically. Victor ordered him to sit, and he immediately obeyed and sat quietly, waiting for his master. Looking around him, Igor noticed another satellite dish, standing on the ground and much larger than the one on the roof.
“We should go inside,” Victor invited them. He stopped patting the dog, climbed the steps to the porch and opened the door. Dina and Igor followed while apprehensively looking at the dogs.
The house foyer walls were covered in floor-to-ceiling mirrors. There were doors hidden behind them that were closets, where Victor and the visitors left their coats. The floor was a light limestone, which was replaced by dark red hardwood farther in the rooms. The foyer was lit by a large antique bronze fixture, which had been specially modified to replace the original wax candles by candle-like bulbs.
“Dina, we are working in the wrong field?” joked Igor.
“Yes, I know. I’m not sure I could teach literature, but history I think I could.”
“Teaching will pay your hydro bill for this house, so you better stay where you are. Rumors are that you are not so bad at what you are doing now.” Igor winked.
Victor led them in.
“So, this is the small house and this is the kitchen where you were planning to sleep if we would accept your invitation to stay with you?” smiled Dina.
“Exactly,” replied Victor, walking into the living room. ”Usually a log house looks big from the outside. You could leave the logs uncovered on the inside also, but I chose to cover them with insulation and drywall so that it looks less exotic inside. The second floor has two bedrooms and a small computer room. On the main floor, where we are now, I have the living room that is also my dining room, and it is connected
to the kitchen.” Victor motioned toward the white kitchen with two big windows. A woman in her fifties, wearing a light blue apron, stood near the oven.
“Please meet my dedicated housekeeper, Katherine. She is here three to four times a week, helping me keep this place clean and shiny. She is an excellent cook and a great friend of mine, Zeus and Nikita. And this is Dina and Igor, our breakfast buddies.”
“Hi, Katherine, nice to meet you. I can’t imagine how much work you need to do to keep this place clean and neat. I myself hate to clean my apartment.”
“Not too much really,” replied Katherine. “In the beginning, it wasn’t so easy to teach Victor to keep the place tidy, but he is getting better at it. He knows that if I find a big mess, I’ll invite his students from the school to pay him a visit. And hence his reputation is in my hands.” Katherine smiled. Dina felt the sweetness and good energy projected from this short and plump local woman.
“Oh, yes. I forgot to mention. There is another small room on this floor, the library. I have a satellite phone connection. I can imagine that you’ve tried to call your office or your loved ones. And I guess that you have not been very successful. There, in the library.” He pointed to the door across the living room. “If you dial nine and then eighty one and your country code, you won’t have any trouble with the connection.” He looked at his watch. “But I think it is better if we eat first, then you can make your calls. It’s the middle of the night over there now.”
“I set up the kitchen table.” Katherine pointed to the circular table near the window with a white tablecloth. “Everybody, please sit down. This is my specialty.” Katherine put freshly baked buns in the center of the table. They smelled and looked so good that Dina immediately took one without waiting and tore off a big piece from it.
“Mmmm, this is delicious, you should try.”
“I have more buns for you. You could eat them all day long.” Katherine was visibly pleased as she brought out the eggs to the table.
“Are you joining us?” asked Victor.
“No, I need to get to the store before they close for lunch. You enjoy your breakfast. Victor, a fresh pot of coffee will be ready in five minutes, I hope you can manage. Feel free, cups are here.” She pointed to the coffee machine on the counter. “I hope you like your coffee with milk. We don’t have any cream. We are on a diet.” She smiled and lightly tapped on her hips.
During breakfast, Victor was bombarded with an array of questions, which came mostly from Igor. He wanted to know all about the process of building log structures, starting with the wood selection and ending with the sewer installation. Here and there Dina joined their conversation, mostly when they discussed questions of interior design. Victor served coffee. More fresh buns with jam followed. Dina asked if she could use the washroom. Victor pointed to the door across the living room, the one to the left of the library. Dina was gone. The men continued their discussion about roof structures and house heating furnaces.
On her way back to the kitchen Dina stopped near a set of three paintings hanging on the living room wall. Two of the paintings portrayed landscapes and one was of a stormy sea. The wooden frames of the paintings showed evidence of age and were in need of some restoration. The small bronze tablets in the center of the low frames had the names of the painters; Isaac Levitan on the two landscapes and Ivan Aivazovsky on the one depicting the sea. Dina took one step back. She looked carefully at each of the paintings. Then she moved closely to the stormy sea, looked at the painter's brush strokes. Her eyes were looking for defects. She instinctively tried to smell the painting. Then she stood back again, evaluating all three paintings, and walked into the kitchen.
“Do you collect Russian art?” she asked Victor.
“I wouldn’t call it collecting Russian art. I came across a nice set of five paintings. My old friend is a great collector. He introduced me to the dealer who was selling some of them. I chose what I liked. And I have admired them ever since then, especially Levitan’s landscapes.”
“They are exceptional copies. I like them a lot.”
“I hope you are wrong.” Victor smiled.” They were authenticated as genuine.”
Igor looked at his watch. “At home now it’s early morning. Dina, do you want to call the office first? I will call my son later.”
“Oh, yes, I totally forgot. I should dial nine and then eighty one, right?”
“Yes, you are right. Let me know if you need my help.”
Dina crossed the living room again and entered the library. The room was small and cozy. Shelves with books covered every empty space on the walls. A coffee table with a phone stood near the window. Two paintings of a size smaller than those in the living room hung from both sides of the window. Dina looked at them in astonishment. “You must be kidding me,” she said to herself. She was very familiar with these two paintings painted by Levitan and Aivazovsky. A single dark blue leather couch stood near the coffee table. Dina lowered herself down, her eyes still glued to the paintings. Finally she looked at the phone and noticed a white binder lying nearby. It had a large blue label on the cover with printed letters: MirexGlobe Authentication Report. You bastard, you are such a bastard. If I knew then, that I’m doing this work for you, I would charge you triple.
Dina dialed nine, waited for the tone, dialed eightyone, waited for the tone again and then dialed MirexGlobe’s number.
“MirexGlobe offices, how can I make your day better?” The sound of Tamara’s voice brought a smile to Dina’s face.
“Hi, I miss you. How are you doing?”
“Dina, is that you? What a surprise! I tried to call your hotel several times, all in vain of course. How are you doing? How is Igor?”
“We are good, any news? How are you and Gregory surviving? Hope no war is going on.”
“No, we are in absolute harmony, especially now, when he is awa…” Tamara stopped.
“What did you say? I couldn’t hear you. What is happening with Gregory?” asked Dina.
“He is fine, awaiting a call from a client. You know the presentation that he’s done, for voice parsing. We are very happy with the results. He will call you later.”
“Good to hear that both of you have reconciled.”
“Yes, we are like two peace doves now.” Tamara paused.
At that moment Dina thought that she heard a chuckle on the other side of the line, but Tamara continued to give her a detailed report.
Dina listened carefully.
“So, there we are.” Tamara paused for a moment. “You will need to tell me when you are planning to come back. I have a list of clients who want to talk with you in person. The list is growing rapidly. Also, I watered your plants, and am happy to report that they are all alive and I did not hear any complaints from them,” finished Tamara.
“Good job. Can you please, do me a favor? Can you please check in your calendar whether you already archived the contract that we had about two or two-and-half years ago, the one for an authentication of two Russian paintings? I am sure that you would remember it. Remember when I had to fly to Russia and we had a huge problem with the visa?”
“Yes, I remember. Of course. Give me just one minute please, I will go through my files.” Dina could hear Tamara opening her file cabinets.
“There it is. The contract was for the authentication of two Russian paintings, the colour spectrum analysis and for a curator's expertise. It was a good contract.”
“Who was the client?” quietly asked Dina.
“The client? One moment please. The client was anonymous, the money was transferred to our account with no issues; the paintings were delivered to the Central Gallery and we were given unlimited access to them. Everything as usual, nothing strange. We delivered our report on time and the customer was happy with it. Why are you asking?”
“Are you sure that you cannot find the name of the dealer or the name of the client anywhere on the file?”
“Dina, most of our authentication contr
acts do not have real names. Even if I find a ‘Kuku-lulu‘ name written somewhere in the file, it does not mean that it is a real one, but it doesn’t really matter anyway since I see absolutely no names in this file. Why do you need the name?”
“Tamara, I am standing in front of those two paintings. I have our authentication report in my hands.”
“Dina, where are you?”
“Igor and I are having breakfast with Victor, at his place.”
“Who the hell is Victor?”
“Oh, I forgot to tell you. Victor is Yellow Raincoat.”
“Kabuk-ka-bull! Jesus, Maria, Krishna, Moses, somebody please help me! You and Igor are having breakfast with Yellow Raincoat at his place? Really? Am I right?”
“Yes, you are.”
“And two Russian paintings that we were contracted to authenticate are on the wall in front of you?”
“Exactly right.”
“And you are holding the MirexGlobe Authentication report in your hands?”
“Right again.”
“Somebody, I need help, I need an ambulance. And his name is Victor?”
“Yes.”
“Do you understand that you are in danger?! You need to run. Your life is at risk!” gasped Tamara.
“Tamara, please calm down for a moment, listen to me. He is my brother’s friend. He is helping us. He is a nice guy. I think I really like him.”
“Are you sure? Did he hit on you? I can hear it in your voice. He hit on you. Be strong.”
“Stop it. I’m going back to finish my coffee. One last question: how much did we charge for this contract?”
“Oh my God, he did hit on you. Altogether, with the retainer we got forty thousand two hundred and thirty five dollars. It was a nice contract. I remember that you took us all out for dinner after we were done.”
“Good, Tamara. I need to go. We still have a lot of work to do. I will try to let you know about our travel schedule ahead of time. I think we will be out of Derchany in three or maybe four days. Send my regards to Gregory; don’t fight with him.”
“I think I know now why Gregory…” Tamara stopped in the middle of her sentence.
“Why Gregory what?” asked Dina.
“Nothing. Why Gregory does not like my poems.”
“Everybody likes your poems, I need to go. Bye.” Dina hung up, picked up the MirexGlobe report and left the library. It took a while for Tamara to hang up. Her eyes were glued to one point on the floor, the receiver still pressed to her ear while she mumbled to herself, “Victor, Yellow Raincoat, Victor, Yellow Raincoat, Victor, Yellow Raincoat.” She finally placed the receiver back. I should trust Dina, she is with Igor and Gregory will also be there soon. Dina sounded sort of happy. Perhaps this Victor is not a bad guy after all.
When Dina stepped back into the kitchen, she found Victor drawing some kind of a chart on a piece of white paper.
“You see, we call it a smoke shelf and it is right here.” He pointed to his chart. “It is the area behind the damper. It is flat or almost flat.”
“May I interrupt your conversation?” asked Dina, lowering herself into the chair beside the table. “May I ask you what our report is doing in your house?” She lay down the MirexGlobe Authentication report on the table.
“Where is it supposed to be?” Victor smiled unapologetically. “I ordered it, you delivered it, I paid for it. I think that it’s common sense that it will be where it belongs, near the paintings it authenticates.”
Dina and Igor looked at each other, utterly confused.
“Before I put down the final payment for the paintings I had to be sure that these were originals. Your company did a great job. With this report, I can sell them today and get double the price that I paid.”
“You never stop surprising me, Victor.”
“I hope that you mean it in the good sense only. Your coffee is cold. Should I make a fresh cup for you?”
“Yes, please.”
“Igor, are you going to phone your son? Feel free. Remember, nine, eighty-one and your number.”
Igor left the kitchen; Victor poured coffee into a new cup and handed it to Dina. Suddenly they were both quiet.
“These paintings cost you a fortune. And this house too. You are a rich man.” Dina broke the silence, looking directly at Victor.
“I’m not a poor man. I can’t complain. Maybe I could be considered a rich man by the local standards. In the past I made a couple of good investments. To have more money was never a big motivation for me. The real excitement is to have enough time to spend enjoying it. Even when I invest money to make money, I don't enjoy the process of it. I think I am wasting my time, my life. My motto is ‘Always enjoy the process’ and money, for me, is the power that can create that process. What do you think about my philosophy?” Victor chuckled.
“I’m trying to understand the roots of it. Is it something you learned while train hopping or while being a local history teacher? Something is telling me that there is a missing link or two here. If I'd known your philosophy before, I would've charged you more, much more, for our report.” Dina smiled.
“Name the price. I have another three Russian paintings in my living room.” Victor was unabashed.
Igor came into the kitchen, interrupting their conversation.
“Good timing, thank you, Victor. My son was injured. He is okay now. It’s good that I called. A small injury, but he needed a good chiropractor and my friend is one of the finest in the city. I called in time. He’ll get the best treatment. Thank you again.”
“What happened?” asked Dina.
“I have no idea; you know army secrecy. What he told me is that he is okay now. He is recovering, on his feet. A small back injury it was, that’s all.”
“Good to hear that it was nothing serious. Please feel free to use the satellite phone anytime you need. Should we start looking at the blueprint now?” asked Victor. “We better go to the living room. There is more room there.”
He led Dina and Igor to the living room table. Igor opened the blueprint that he’d brought with him and tried to identify the main entry to the catacomb on it.
“Great,” began Victor. “This is an old print but not many changes were done since it was printed. Let’s start with a few small but important details. The catacomb’s main entry is there.” He pointed to the left side of the print. “And the exit is there. You can’t use this exit anymore; it is blocked and cemented. Originally the catacombs had two generators, one inside and one outside. The external one, we visited yesterday. The internal generator is not operational anymore. Twice a year the local fire department checks the generators, but they remove the battery from the internal generator. Here,” Victor pointed to the print again, “is the metal gate that was installed after Catacombs Park stopped accepting visitors. It is a sliding gate operated by a motor and a set of chains. You need the external generator to keep it opened.”
“Can the gate be closed or opened manually?” asked Igor.
“No, you need the generator to open or close it. I took my students there on excursions many times, showing them the main entrance to the catacombs. I tried to open the gate manually. I could not move it myself or even with the help of my students. It has a set of chains and big weights on one side. Without a working motor it will close and lock the gate, and when that happens, you need to have a working motor to unlock and slide it open. This is why the municipality was giving you a special permit to turn on the external generator. This morning I picked up a pack of six canisters with diesel. They are in the van.”
“And what about the battery?”
“What about the battery?” Dina asked.
“The battery was there yesterday, and I hope it won’t be stolen by the time we need it. This is why I am removing the red wooden sticks from the swamp. It won’t be too easy for the bad guys to get to the generator.”
“Please, sit down,” said Victor to the standing Dina and Igor, and pointed to the dining table chairs.
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“Before we go any further with the print and the plans, I would like to share something with you. I know the purpose of your expedition,” continued Victor. “You are looking for Dina’s family diamonds. I guess that Roman hid them in the catacombs. I would like to ask you to trust me when I say that I am not interested in any share of what you are going to find there. I don’t know how to convince you that these are my honest intentions. I only want to help you get in and out of the catacombs.”
“Did Roman ever mention the diamonds?” asked Dina.
“No, he did not.”
“Peculiar, that is very peculiar. So, should we pretend that you came up with the idea about my family’s diamonds on your own until you are ready to tell us the truth?”
“Something like that.”
“I understand that we needed your help to get the fuel for the generator and to pass the swamp, and I thank you for that. How else can you help us now, or in other words, why do we need your help now?” Dina and Igor looked at Victor questioningly.
“You can’t go down together, one of you needs to stay above ground,” Victor solemnly replied. “Should something happen to you there inside the catacombs, even I won’t be able to help. I don’t have the access permit that allows me to go down as a visitor, but I can join you as a guide. I can assure you that the municipality and the local authorities will be interested in your lives less than the lives of the flies in the swamp. If you get close to the metal gate, you may attract the attention of the locals who will try to help you, but if something happens inside the catacombs, you are on your own.”
“What exactly are you proposing?” asked Dina.
“Igor and I will go down. You will stay above the ground. If something happens to us, you can get the help that we need, or you can go down yourself, if needed. The idea is that someone with a permit stays above the ground.”
“This is out of the question,” protested Dina.
“Dina, what Victor is saying makes sense. We need somebody with a permit to stay above ground. The only thing I don’t understand is how you will justify the fact that you went down with us?” asked Igor.
“Remember the municipal guide that you sent home? Instead of him, you hired me, since I’m much better qualified for the job. I have been teaching about Derchany’s history and Derchany's Catacombs for more than ten years. What do you think?”
“I think it may work. What are your thoughts, Dina?” asked Igor.
Dina was looking at Victor.
I feel like a fool. He knew about the diamonds all along, from the beginning. He lured us here to Derchany. The moment he gave me the diamond he knew that we would be coming here for the rest. Why should I trust him?
Dina stood up and began walking towards the kitchen. “We should leave now.”
“One second, please. You are giving me too much credit.” Victor also stood up, blocking the living room door leading to the kitchen with his body.
“Hold on and please think for a second. Please. If I was after your diamonds I would wait for you to exit the catacombs and would rob you right there. You would have no chance to even mention the robbery to the local police without admitting that you were after the diamonds and that you were not doing any university research. Think, please, think and trust me, please.”
“Dina, I agree. That was exactly what I was thinking. He could rob us anytime,” said Igor.
Dina looked at him and went back to her chair.
“I’m going with you, and Igor will stay above the ground. This is my ultimatum,” Dina said.
“I guess there is not much use in arguing with you,” Igor surrendered.
“I suggest that we go back to the blueprints.” Victor sat down, and with the pencil, pointed to the top part of the print.
“Our entrance to the underground passage that leads to the catacombs is from the side door near the generator that we visited yesterday. After we enter through that door we need to turn right and after ten meters we will reach the metal gate, which is the entrance to the catacombs. The control panel for the gates is located there on the wall.” He moved his pencil, tracing the dotted line. “I have no idea where you would like to start your search.” Victor looked at Dina. She reached into her pocket and took out a folded piece of paper. “Here,” she unfolded it and put it in the center of the blueprint, “are the names of the catacomb rooms that Roman gave me.”
The last line on the list was crossed out with a fat black line, making it unreadable.
Victor took the piece paper and read it:
“Captain Dom, Lucy's kitchen, Devil Bridge, Open Space, Gallery, King's Table, Desert, Church, Horse Stable, Golden Circle.” He counted the rooms. “Ten, exactly ten rooms. How did he know the names of the rooms?”
“From this flyer.” Igor produced a copy of an advertisement leaflet for the Derchany Catacombs Park.
“Oh yes, I have seen this flyer before. You got a copy of it, good. The blueprint does not have the names of the catacomb rooms. But we can safely assume that the chart on the flyer and Roman’s list of the rooms will match the blueprint.”
Victor started counting the rooms on the blueprint. “Exactly ten. Great, now we can try to trace our steps. Again, we will start here.” The pencil went back to the starting point. “We will start at the metal gates, which we will open using the control panel. We will turn right at the gates and walk ten meters in the catacomb’s tunnel. At that point we should be able to find the stairs that should take us downward. We will now be somewhere six or seven meters underground. This tunnel,” Victor’s hand with the pencil moved on a straight line, “is sloped and at the end of it we will be around eight meters underground. ‘Captain Dom’ is the first room; it is a small one. The entry is here. The exit is through a door on the opposite side of the room. I think there are only three rooms that have two doors. You enter and exit all other rooms through the same opening.” Victor started to count the rooms on the blueprint again.
“Is this our copy of the blueprint?” asked Dina.
“Yes, it is,” replied Victor.
“We should write the names of the rooms on it.”
“Good idea.” Victor started to pencil in the names of the rooms. Then he followed the dotted line going from one room to another. “You see, there are other lines on the blueprint, but I have no idea what they are. We should be careful not to follow them if we don’t want to get lost.”
“It could be another hidden passage or hydro lines. Just guessing,” said Igor.
For the next two hours, they continued their tour of the catacombs on the blueprint.
Dina held the copy of Roman’s list and frequently scanned the blueprint. She followed Victor on the blueprint’s dotted line, learning the size of the rooms and their relative position to each other. At the end, the dotted line made almost a perfect circle. The ‘Golden Circle’ room was very close to ‘Captain Dom,’ but on a different level, which, according to the blueprint, was about ten meters lower than the starting point of ‘Captain Dom’.
“If you continue straight, passing ‘Golden Circle’, you will have stairs on the left that used to bring the visitors back up. This was the exit from Catacombs Park, but now it is blocked and cemented. There on a small platform you will find the internal generator.”
“So, at the end of our journey we are about twenty meters underground?” asked Igor.
“Yes, you are,” replied Victor.
“Then how are we going to communicate with the person that has been left above the ground?”
“Two rooms have ventilation shafts.” Victor pointed to the blueprint. “‘Devil Bridge’ and ‘Desert,’ but I don’t think that we’ll have any communication problems until we reach ‘Gallery’. After that, we have limited options. We have to be in either ‘Devil Bridge’ or ‘Desert’ to get a signal out.
“Keep in mind that inside the catacombs we cannot use fire because of the gas accumulations underground, and we cannot be loud. Otherwise, we
risk a collapse of the tunnel. I am sure that today these rooms are a home for many spiders, rats and bats.” Victor looked at Dina. “I have all of the protective gear that we may need, but for the record, when we are there we may have a couple of unpleasant surprises.”
Dina ignored Victor’s last comments, which were clearly directed at her.
“Are we finished going through the blueprint?” she asked.
“I think we are. What do you think, Igor, do we need to go through them a few times more?”
“I think we should take one more walk through it tomorrow.”
“Good idea,” agreed Victor.
“Igor, are we ready with all the required equipment?”
“I think so. Victor, will you be able to get us good radio transmitters?”
“No problem.“
“So, tomorrow morning we will have our final walkthrough and we will go down in the afternoon?” asked Dina.
“Weather permitting. No heavy rain for the next couple of days in the forecast, but you never know what Mother Nature has in store.”
The doorbell rang.
“Katherine is back.” Victor went to open the door.
Katherine was standing at the door holding at least half a dozen plastic bags full with groceries in her hands. Victor helped her carry them into the kitchen.
“Are your friends staying for lunch?” she asked him.
“They may,” he replied.
“We appreciate the invitation, but no, we are not. Thank you very much.” Dina entered the kitchen, followed by Igor.
“We would like to eat out, right Igor?”
“I would go back to the place where we had our dinner yesterday.”
“Glad you liked it. I personally love the place. By the way, I think that today they will have a completely different menu. They change it frequently, based on the daily catches. But I will drive you there only if today the lunch is on me. Dina will promise not to jump at the end of our meal and will allow me to pay for it.”
Dina’s answer came after a short pause. “Good, today it is your turn to pay for the meal. I will pay for the drinks.”
“Agreed, but please be ready for an unhappy waitress when you ask to split the bill. In our restaurants it’s not common to split a bill. Different country, different behaviour.” Victor smiled.
Everybody thanked Katherine for a lovely breakfast. She insisted that Dina and Igor come back for dinner or lunch and promised to surprise their taste buds with more mouth-watering local cuisine. Victor, for his part, promised to bring them back. On the way back to the city, Igor and Victor mostly discussed the rules of radio contacts. The group decided to carry with them provisions for a maximum of two days should an emergency occur. By the time they reached the restaurant, the sky had begun to darken.
At the restaurant, they were warmly welcomed by the servers and were seated at the same table as yesterday. Dina was pleasantly surprised when the waitress greeted and addressed them by their names. Victor was right. Today the menu had more fish than meat. Victor tried his best to explain the taste and texture of the strange and unfamiliar fish that had been caught that day. They decided to order appetizers and four main courses, to share. Victor asked Igor about his past as a detective, and for the next few hours Igor’s work stories remained the center of conversation. When they finished the dessert, Dina looked at her watch. It was a quarter to six.
“Sorry, but I have some work to do. It was a great meal, thank you, Victor. We should go back to our hotel now. What time will we meet tomorrow?”
“I can be ready by ten,” answered Victor.
“Me too,” agreed Igor.
“Then ten in the hotel lobby,” summed up Dina.
The first drops of a light rain began to fall as they left the restaurant. Victor looked at the sky. “No rain in the forecast for tomorrow. It is supposed to be a nice day.”
After they parted from Victor and his van disappeared behind the street corner, Dina asked Igor for the Catacombs Park blueprint.
Igor clearly sensed that Dina was worried, and tried to restore her confidence. Igor thought it was a wise decision to have somebody above ground and proposed to switch places with her if that would make her feel better. She declined. They agreed to meet at eight in the morning.
Dina took a quick shower, moved the chairs and the table to one corner of the room, clearing as much space as possible, and placed the blueprint on the floor beside the bed. Then she stretched over it, with her head dangling down, looking at the blueprint.
Tomorrow might be her first real use of Kerzhak Navigation. Never before had she used blueprints or maps. The biggest challenge was to memorize the blueprint and to convert it into a three-dimensional image while doing the navigation. All of the exercises that she had done before had been done either in an exercise room or in her apartment, with physical objects to memorize. This was different. This was a real life situation, with real walls, sloping floors and real obstacles. She did not understand why she was so intensely studying the blueprint that lay on the floor, but her gut feeling was telling her to learn, remember, practice. It may help you there, down, deep inside the catacombs.
Dina did not know where to start. She decided to break the blueprint into small sections for her practice and study them one after another. With her finger, she traced the dotted line, beginning with the marked entrance. It was good that Victor had marked the approximate distance between the catacomb rooms. Dina began to move toward the first room, ‘Captain Dom’. She counted three steps for each marked meter: one, two, three, four… twenty-five, twenty-six. Then turn left. She stopped and then she started again from the top: one, two, three four… twenty-six, turn. Good, now to ‘Lucy’s Kitchen.’ Dina paused. Not good, I need to repeat it without looking at the print. One, two…twenty-six… now I’ve passed the ‘Captain Dom’ room, now moving five more meters and on the left is ‘Lucy’s Kitchen’. One, two, three…
Dina continued visualizing and walking through the first segment of the blueprint in her mind several times. Twice with her eyes closed, and once with opened eyes, followed by closed and opened again. Dina looked at her watch. An hour had passed. She decided to practice this section one last time. She stood up from the bed, closed her eyes, spread her feet much wider than her shoulders, crouched into a half-sitting position, left hand parallel to the floor and clenched into a fist. Her right hand was behind her back. Dina moved her head slowly from one side to another. She repeated this movement five minutes, then the movement of her head stopped as she reached the level of concentration and relaxation that she would need for entering the catacombs. I am entering the catacombs now, Dina commanded herself. Dark, dark, very dark, nothing else. Suddenly a white dot from far away began moving towards her. Waves of bright light were visible around this dot. It came closer and closer. Dina could see the floor first, then the walls. One step at a time, Peter’s familiar voice entered her mind unexpectedly. Then it all became clear. The white dot disappeared and she could clearly see the narrow passage leading to ‘Captain Dom’. Yes, she could move now, step by step. Do not look at the walls. Move straight, directly into the room. Good, you are there. Now turn back and get out of the catacombs. Slowly, don’t rush. See if you can do it. After a few steps, Dina was out to the familiar view near the generator. Dina opened her eyes. Her back was slightly aching. Not bad. A few minutes’ break and back to the next section. Dina slowly straightened her back and stretched her arms up, reaching for the ceiling.
Dina decided on the next section for her to memorize. If I don’t have any problems, I can go directly to the Gallery, the next one marked with a star. I’ll cross the ‘Devil Bridge’ where, according to Victor, there is one a ventilation shaft and good radio communication. Then I’ll cross an ‘Open Space’ and shall be in the ‘Gallery’.
The next time, crouching into a half-sitting position and reaching the level of concentration and relaxation that was needed for the exercise came easier. Her brain const
ructed the pictures of the inside of the catacombs faster and clearer. Two hours later Dina could go back and forth from one side to another without any difficulty. She noticed that when she was in the final stage of relaxation, the pain in her back disappeared and it was replaced by a wave of warmth that was moving upwards from the lower part of her spine. She also felt some light pulsation in her head. She was physically inside the catacombs now, she could clearly hear the echo from water drops that were falling not far from her, and smell the stuffy and damp air with a slight odor of rotten wood and mold. The experience of being completely transported into a different place was new and exciting to her. I need to read more of Peter’s notes and try to learn to control these feelings. Dina made a mental observation. She was now very tired and decided to call it a day.
The next morning at eight o’clock, dressed in the special outfit that Igor had got her, a refreshed Dina was sitting at the bar waiting for Igor. He was already ten minutes late when he appeared, carrying a large black backpack.
“Sorry, I’m late. I tried to call your room, but you had left already. How are you doing?”
“Great, waiting for my coffee. What is in your backpack? It looks heavy,” asked Dina.
“I’m taking some gear in case I need to go down and help you.”
“I need you to be a hundred and ten percent sure that this arrangement with you staying above ground and Victor and me going down, is okay,” said Dina.
“I’m not worried about this arrangement. What I worry about now is how long it will take you to find the hidden diamonds. Yesterday, I saw that you blacked out the code. Did you memorize it?”
“Yes, 10T150P20T10N. You are right, I was worried too. If it takes too much time to find them, we are in trouble since your license to be in the catacombs is time sensitive.”
“What I was thinking,” continued Igor, “is if you can’t find it quickly in the first room... By the way, what is the name of the first room?”
“Captain Dom,” offered Dina.
“Yes, in ‘Captain Dom’, only spend half an hour there before you go to the next room.”
“Gallery.”
“Yes, keep in mind that Roman had only one code for all four rooms. I think if you succeed in one room, you will succeed in the rest because the first find will help you understand the code and then you can apply it in the other rooms.”
“Makes sense.”
“Dina, are you sure that you want to go down there? Are you sure that you don’t want me to go with Victor and you will stay here as our backup?”
“Yes, I’m sure. You wait for us near the generator and everything will be just fine.”
After their breakfast, they were back in Dina’s room, where they reviewed the blueprint several more times. They also tried to pay attention to all of the other lines, not only the dotted ones. It was still a mystery what they represented. Were these other passages between the rooms hydro or water lines? No explanation was given anywhere on the blueprints.
“We will trust Victor one more time,” Dina smiled.
“We have no choice,” agreed Igor. He looked outside through the room’s window. “The day is looking good. No clouds on the horizon for now.”
Twenty minutes later, they were sitting in the van being driven by Victor, who had picked them up from the hotel at ten sharp.
Victor was in a good mood. He was laughing and making jokes about the way they looked in their army uniforms. He said that he hoped their van wouldn’t be stopped by the local police, so that they would not be required to explain the purpose of their camouflage outfits. In any case he suggested that they all stick to the story that they were going to hunt rabbits, to hide the fact that they were going to the catacombs.
Victor parked the van in the same place as before, beside the grey building of the Derchany Catacomb Park.
“Any last minute questions?”
Dina retrieved the folded blueprints from her back pocket and placed it in the center of the van’s back seat.
“Are you going to visit all ten rooms?” asked Victor.
“No, we don’t need to,” answered Dina. “We will be visiting ‘Captain Dom,’ ‘Gallery,’ ‘King’s Table’ and ‘Church’.”
“Good.” Victor was looking at the blueprints. “I hope that we can be out in less than twelve hours, but in any case I have gear for staying there overnight. Dina, you will need to help me carry some of it. If we stay inside overnight, I prefer that we stop in ‘Gallery’ or close to it. This way we will have good radio signal coverage.”
Victor got out two radio transmitters from the car’s glove compartment. He turned them both on.
“Igor, the radio signal is already calibrated. Please don’t touch this dial, and if it is moved by mistake, bring it back to this red point.”
Igor took one portable radio and pushed the ‘talk’ button.
“It is working, I tested it this morning. I’m leaving the charger in the car, in case you need to charge yours. I have a spare battery with me. Please always carry the catacomb entry permit with you. I left the third radio transmitter at home with Katherine. In case you need to go down to help us, ask her to come here and watch the generator. She has a car and I trust her. It will not be a good picture if all three of us are locked down there behind the metal gate.”
After that, everyone concentrated on the blueprints, going over the dotted line one last time.
“I think we are ready,” Dina finally said.
Victor went to the back of the van. He opened the doors and took out one hunting rifle and a box of bullets and gave them to Igor. Next came out the three green harnesses. He took one and showed Dina and Igor how to wear it.
“What colour do you prefer?” Victor smiled, pointing to the mountain climbing helmets. Two of them were red and one was blue. “The blue one,” replied Dina. Victor tried the red helmet, adjusted something inside and tried again. Dina and Igor did the same.
“Now let’s go and fuel the generator. Dina, you stay here for now.” Victor gave Dina the second rifle. “It is loaded, so don’t shoot yourself, please.”
“It won’t take long. If you get into trouble, shoot twice into the air.”
He took two canisters with diesel from the van and gave them to Igor, then took the two red wooden sticks and two other canisters and began walking towards the fence.
“We’ll be back soon,” said Igor to Dina. “You had better close the rear doors.” He smiled and pointed with his head towards the van doors. Then he began following Victor.
Dina sat in the car, leaving the windows rolled down, listening carefully to the noises around her. Twenty minutes later she could hear a cracking clatter in the distance, and then the same sound again. It sounded like an old man coughing, followed by a sweet monotonic humming that she was waiting for, indicating that the generator was working. Dina thought that she saw a small stream of white smoke rising to the sky from the bushes on the opposite side of the swamp. For a while she continued looking into that direction, but she saw nothing after that, and so she decided that it was her imagination.
Soon Igor and Victor appeared from around the fence carrying the empty canisters.
“You can hear it.” Victor seemed alarmed. “Not too good. It may draw attention.”
“I can try to put the exhaust pipe in a barrel with water,” replied Igor, and without any warning or approval from his friends, turned around and walked quickly back to the generator.
“Be careful crossing the swamp,” Dina shouted to his back.
Victor walked to the back of the van and took out two green military backpacks.
“Can I be of any help?” asked Dina.
“Yes, please. Can you lift this one and see whether it’s too heavy for you to carry?”
She lifted the bag that Victor gave her, put one strap on her shoulders and took a couple of steps around Victor.
“Not bad, you can add more,” said Dina.
“We don’t need more
. Let me show you how to operate the flashlight on the helmet.”
Dina put her blue helmet on her head and stood face to face with Victor. He took the battery set and attached it to the harness and an electrical cable to Dina’s blue helmet.
The humming noise of the generator stopped.
“He is a great guy, your friend Igor, and very smart too.”
He took Dina’s right hand and put it on top of her helmet.
“There, you can feel the button, push it down. Good, the lights are on now. To turn it off you need to push here.” He moved Dina’s hand to the back of the helmet. “It is a new method, the on and off buttons are in two different places. Now, if you want, you can practice,” Victor said with a smiling face
Dina sat in the van and turned the helmet light on and off, looking at it in the rear view mirror, making sure it was turned on. She heard Igor return.
“Yes, it is much better now. The sound is barely audible.”
“Katherine made some sandwiches for us. I suggest that we take a bite and start moving.” Victor put out three plastic boxes on the back seat of the van. Nobody objected.
“Please wait until we pass the gate. Then there is no reason for your staying here since we don’t want to attract any attention from the locals. Occasionally we will try to make contact, but if the radio goes silent, don't worry, wait until we reach the next ventilation shaft. Keep in mind that we have no idea how fast we will be moving forward,” Victor advised Igor.
Underground Walk
The ceremony of saying goodbyes was very short. Dina hugged Igor while he wished them luck. As they walked to the fence, Igor turned on his radio, took the rifle and collapsed into the driver’s seat of the van.
“Can I have the radio please?” said Dina when she and Victor rounded the corner and started walking towards the pine trees.
Victor stopped and turned around.
“Why not?” He released the radio from his harness side strap and gave it to her.
“I would like to be in charge of our communication. I hope you agree?”
“As you wish,” smiled Victor. “It seems that you like to add some weight to your load, for stability purposes, I gather. Please don’t touch this dial.” He pointed with his finger. “Push here when you want to make the transmission.”
When they approached the pine trees, Victor stood for a couple of seconds, hesitating.
“I don’t know what to do with the red sticks. If I remove them and Igor needs to go down, or if he needs to get to the generator, he may have some serious trouble crossing the swamp. If I don’t remove them, then somebody else can get across it.”
“I would worry about Igor first, let's ask him.” Dina took the radio and pushed the talk button.
“Igor, this is Dina. Should we remove the red sticks?”
“I’ll do it myself. Happy crossing,” replied the handheld radio.
“We can cross now.” Dina attached the radio to her harness. Victor moved aside to let Dina go first. His politeness was not without reason, when crossing the swamp Dina lost her balance several times as she was pulled sideways under the weight of her heavy backpack, and Victor, crossing behind her, helped her regain her balance at the last moment. Crossing the swamp took time. When they finally got to the other side, Dina removed her backpack and laid it on the ground under the bushes.
“Do you have water?” she asked Victor. “And thank you for helping me cross.”
“You are welcome.” Victor took out two small water bottles from his bag.
“Do you want me to make your backpack lighter? I can put some of the stuff into mine.”
“No, I can manage, thank you. I need to try and tighten the straps on it so it sways less on my back.”
Victor helped Dina and they slowly proceeded down the slope to the platform where the generator was peacefully emitting a soft sound, proving that it was alive and well.
“Time to turn our flashlights on.” Victor raised his arm above his head, checking that the light from his flashlight reflected on it. “Yours is on. Follow me.” He walked parallel to the generator's cables, stopped for a second in front of the old brown, red and somewhat yellow metal door, and looked at Dina.
“I’ll go first. Let’s keep a distance of two or two and a half meters between us. I won't be able to see you, so please, once in a while, let me know that you are still there. Any problem, even a small one, and we will need to stop. No need to be a hero. You will have the blueprint, so please direct me to any turns that we need to make ahead of time. I will make sure that we have a clean pass without any obstacles. If I say ‘Stop’, you stop immediately and ask why we stopped later. We will try this way of walking. Are you ready?” asked Victor.
“Yes, I am. Actually I have one question. What are we going to do if we need the washroom?” Dina smiled.
“I don’t have a good answer to your question now. We'll see when we are inside the catacombs. But we have only two rolls of toilet paper and they are in your backpack, so use them wisely.”
The metal door opened with a loud squeaking sound. Victor entered the dark opening, signaled for Dina to follow, and pointed his flashlight at the wall in front of him. Dina came in and tried to close the door behind her. The door would not close completely. Victor turned around to help her and it finally closed, blocking the light that was coming from the tiny slot between the door and its frame. Dina tried to adjust to the new surroundings and to look around as much as her flashlight would allow. They were standing in a hallway. The floor was covered with dust so thick that at first Dina thought that they were standing on grey-coloured sand. Victor looked at his boots.
“I have two respiratory masks, but we should try to make our moves without lifting too many dust clouds. Otherwise we’ll suffocate ourselves here.” He took one step forward, lifting his foot higher and carefully putting it back on the dusty floor. His head moved slowly, projecting a beam of light from his flashlight onto the wall.
“We should go in this direction.” He pointed to the right and began walking slowly forward. Dina paused and then followed him. The hallway curved to the left. From behind, Dina could see the floor and the walls lit by Victor's flashlight. After they turned, the metal entrance gate that was operated by the generator became visible.
“I hope we can open it.” Victor's light searched for the gate switch on the wall. “Here it is.” He pointed with his finger to a green metal box covered with dust and spider webs.
“Dina, please turn around.” Victor reached into Dina’s backpack, took something out and closed it. When Dina tuned back she saw Victor holding two pairs of gloves.
“Hope the size fits. From now on when you touch any metal or electrical cable or something that looks like it could be connected to electricity, please wear the gloves. They will protect you from getting electrocuted.” He gave one pair to Dina and put on the second pair.
The cover of the green box opened with no problems. Inside, Victor saw two switches. Victor flipped the left switch first but nothing happened. He flipped it back to the 'off' position and back to 'on' again: nothing at all. Then he pushed the right switch up to 'on,' which produced a humming and knocking noise from somewhere behind the gate. The gate began rolling to the right. Based on the moaning noise that it was generating, it was obvious that it had not been opened for a very long time and that it required a good oiling.
“I think that the left switch is for the floor or ceiling lights. I read somewhere that the floor had lights. I will leave them on, it couldn’t hurt.” The gate continued to move, widening the entrance to the catacombs. Dina and Victor walked past the gate. Victor moved his head to the right. The light illuminated a chain winding around a moving metal drum from the dark. Then the hum of the engine stopped. Somewhere ahead of them in the deep darkness, the echoes from the knocks of the chain were slowly fading away, overpowered by total silence. Victor turned towards the downward cylindrical tunnel, which replaced the square hallway.
“We passed the gate, can you hear me?” He heard Dina reporting the status to Igor.
“Roger,” replied Igor.
“Victor, wait a sec, let me put the blueprints in order.” Dina removed the blueprints from her pocket. Earlier in the hotel she had folded it in a way that would be easy for her to use. She unfolded half of it.
“We should go straight down. Our first stop is the ‘Captain Dom’ room. It should be on the left side.”
Victor started walking slowly. The tunnel sloped downward sharper than he had anticipated.
“Move slowly, walk close to the wall. I think, in the past, the walls had railings. A dusty floor can be as slippery as an ice rink.” Both of them had to slow down their pace. As he moved, Victor touched the wall with his outstretched left hand. Dina copied him. After ten meters, the angle of the slope of the floor changed, the trekking became easier, and they did not need the support of the wall anymore. After a few meters, the floor evened out completely. Victor stopped.
“Did you notice the change in the air? We are four or five meters beneath the ground now. The air is cooler.”
Dina looked at the blueprints.
“What I noticed is that we have not reached the room yet, which means that our calculations of the distances are probably totally wrong.”
Victor did not reply. He motioned to Dina to follow him and continued walking. The floor of the tunnel had less dust than the hallway. It seemed that the grey walls were patched with what looked like wet spots, but Dina was not sure whether this was an illusion of light or if water was really trickling inside the tunnel. Dina was surprised when Victor said, “It is normal for walls in underground tunnels to have wet spots.” It was like he was reading her mind.
“As long as the tunnel floor is dry, we have nothing to worry about,” he continued, walking slowly.
“We should be very close to the room by now.” Dina glanced again at the blueprint.
“When you are right, you are right.” Victor pointed to the dark square on the left side of the wall, no more than six meters from where they stood now. As they approached it, the dark square turned into a wood-framed opening to the catacomb room.
“Welcome to ‘Captain Dom',” Victor pompously declared.
“How do we know that this is ‘Captain Dom’?” asked Dina, approaching the entrance.
“We will see now if I am wrong.” Victor approached the wall. With his gloves on, he began to remove the dirt from the wall near the top left corner of the frame. The frame was constructed from solid wood painted in green. The paint had disappeared from most parts of the frame but remained unchanged in the corners. Victor continued wiping the wall, moving down from the corner of the frame.
“What are you looking for?” asked Dina.
“I read somewhere that each room had a stone plaque on the wall with the name of the room on it. I hope they were not removed.”
“Found it!” Victor raised his voice in excitement. Dina directed her light to Victor's hand. The brown corner of the name plaque was already visible. The rest was still covered with dust or dirt. Victor slowly continued his cleaning. The plaque was mounted flat within the wall, making it hard to detect. Victor removed his backpack from his shoulders and lowered it down onto the floor.
“I forgot that I have a soft metal brush. If I continue this way, I will ruin my gloves.” Dina was looking at the plaque, trying to read what was written there. Victor’s fast movements with the brush produced a large dust cloud. Dina stepped back, covering her nose and mouth with her hand. A moment later, Victor also took a step back. Both light beams were now directed at the plaque. The black letters that were engraved into the dark brown stone were fairly visible now.
“Captain Dom,” read Dina. “We are in the right place.”
“We are at ‘Captain Dom’,” followed her radio report to Igor.
“Roger.”
Victor’s brush went back into his backpack.
“Let's see what's inside.” Victor removed his backpack and took a few steps toward the entrance of the room.
“Are you leaving your backpack here?” asked Dina.
“Only for a second. You should see this,” said Victor, standing in the middle of the entrance to the catacomb room.
“I will if you move one step aside or forward. What I can see now is a nicely framed picture of your back.”
Only now did Victor realize that his shoulders and his body size fit the entrance frame exactly, completely obstructing Dina’s view.
“Sorry.” Victor moved forward and to the right. Dina moved forward.
“Oh my God.”
What Dina saw was a room filled with mostly furniture: metal tables, chairs, cabinets, also boxes and other office paraphernalia. There was almost no free space that would allow them to pass through the junk. The items were not organized, nor were they placed in any logical order or structure. The objects were piled up one on top of the other, reminding Dina of a big scrapyard.
“It looks like they moved all of the furniture from the catacomb's main building into here. It makes sense since the tunnel is a safer place than any building above the ground, and this room is located at the beginning of the catacombs which makes it the closest to the entrance.”
“So, Victor, what are we doing next?”
“Do you have any clue where in the room Roman could've hidden the diamonds?” asked Victor.
Dina hesitated for a second, then pulled a piece of paper out of her pocket and gave it to Victor.
“40T150P20T10N. What does it mean?” asked Victor.
“We think that it is a location code. Roman gave it to me. Forty centimeters left or right, one hundred and fifty centimeters up, twenty again left or right – we don’t know if it is left or right – and ten centimeters down.”
“Interesting and complicated. Are we saying that they could be anywhere in this room, or do you maybe have any idea where to start?” asked Victor.
“I have no idea where to start, but I presume that we should not search the floors or the ceilings,” said Dina, remembering the decoding of the coordinates and the fact that they pointed to up and down directions.
“I see, supposedly the interpretation of the coordinates is correct, and so we assume that the 'up' and 'down' can only be on a wall. Makes sense. Good start.”
“Now we have two challenges. One is to find the diamonds and the second is to find the exit door. This room is the one that we need to cross to get out to the other catacomb rooms, but I cannot see any other door from where I'm standing now.”
“Good point. I suggest that we try to find the other door first, and then start our treasure hunt.”
Victor asked Dina to stay outside of the room, lighting the tunnel with her flashlight while he put his gloves back and began bringing out furniture, one item at a time, arranging it along the tunnel walls. When he came out the next time, carrying a metal chair, Dina asked him whether he needed any help.
“Please keep lighting the tunnel. This way I won't stumble over any items near the wall,” was his reply. Half an hour had passed when he asked Dina to come back into the room. During this time Victor had managed to clean the space beside one wall. Dina noticed that he took only the light things out to the tunnel, freeing the space between the items, and then had moved the heavy items off the wall to the center clearing a passage around the perimeter of the room that allowed them to move along the wall. Now Dina could see the corner of the room, which was around six meters away from the entrance. She moved to the end of the wall and, with her light beam, tried to probe the adjacent wall.
“I can see it. I can see the exit door.” Dina was excited now.
“If you wish, you can help me now. I will start from the opposite side. You will go toward the exit. Remove the light items only, leave the work of moving the heavy ones to me.” Victor went to his side.
Dina started to search for lighter items. It was not difficult to find them, but it was difficult to un
tangle them from the rest of the junk. Slowly, she found a way to do it, and so the first item went out into the tunnel. Victor came to her wall several times, moving the rest of the items away from it. He did not waste any time, and on his way back to his working place always took one or two light items with him, helping Dina move faster.
After two hours of work, Dina and Victor stood smiling, face to face, near the catacomb’s exit door.
“I forgot to tell you to remove your gloves when you touch your face. Now you look like a real miner. Let's go outside, you need to wash it off, we don't want you to get your eyes infected.”
They went out into the tunnel. As far as the light beam could reach, along the tunnel walls stood the furniture and other items that they had removed from the room.
“I’m not putting these back,” smiled Victor.
“Me neither.” Dina agreeably nodded, smiling back at Victor. She removed her gloves and washed her face using the water from the bottle that Victor held to help her.
“Where should we start?” asked Victor.
“Roman decided to use the catacombs as the best place to hide the diamonds. I remember clearly that he left the train in the morning and was back in the late afternoon. He had access to the catacomb rooms. Doesn't it look kind of strange to you that a twelve-year-old boy could go freely through most of the catacomb rooms? What do you think?” asked Dina.
“Maybe it looks strange to you, but I don’t think it is. In those days the catacombs were under construction and many people, not necessarily workers, loitered around here. They didn't have any strict safety rules back then. Nor now, for that matter. He also could’ve volunteered or he could've been hired to do some unskilled job. In the past I interviewed a number of locals who were his age then and who had been inside the catacombs many times. Those days, there was big shortage of working hands.”
“Good, so, let us assume that the question of how he got inside has been answered. We know that the diamonds are somewhere in the walls.”
Victor left Dina and entered the ‘Captain Dom’ catacomb room again. He circled the perimeter several times, looking up and down the walls, searching for clues. Dina sat in silence on one of the chairs that they had moved to the tunnel and waited patiently. Victor came out at last.
“How many more rooms have the treasure?” he asked.
“Three more, four in total.”
“And we have only one set of coordinates for all four of them?”
“Yes, we do.”
“We need to get to the second marked room; then, maybe we will have something similar to compare it to.” Victor lifted his backpack and left the tunnel. Dina followed. They moved along the walls toward the exit.
“The next room is called ‘Lucy’s Kitchen’. Do you have any idea where these names are coming from?”
“There are a number of theories, but none of them have been proven yet. I believe that the names were chosen or approved by the municipality, but there were rumors that the rooms were named by the companies or people that donated to this project. Why do you ask?”
“No reason, only my curiosity.” Dina smiled. “Trying to learn something from the teacher.”
The tunnel from the ‘Captain Dom’ room was sloped down again. The wet spots on the walls became bigger and Dina noticed that now they were present almost every few meters. This time, walking through the tunnel was much easier. The floors had less dust and Dina felt some relief and confidence. And again it seemed as if Victor read her mind:
“The deeper we go down, the more dangerous it becomes. Make sure that you use the walls for support. Even though I know that you are looking at the blueprint all the time, please remember to also look down at the floor. We are not going to miss the room, I promise you. The floor will become pretty wet soon. I can see the underground water that dribbles through the walls. I hope we are not going to have to swim from one catacomb room to another by the end of our adventure.”
Taking Victor's warnings seriously, Dina started to pay more attention to the floor and the walls. The tunnel continued in a straight line for another couple of meters and then turned sharply left. It didn't take long for Victor’s flashlight to uncover the opening to the next room.
“Ahead of us, on the right side, is ‘Lucy's Kitchen,’” announced Dina.
They stopped in front of the room. They found the name plaque fairly quickly and Victor busied himself with brushing the dust from it. The name plaque was of the same colour and form as the one at ‘Captain Dom’. Dina entered the catacomb room, going around the walls with her flashlight turned on. A large but short brown stone was protruding from one of the walls, filling up almost half of the room's floor. The shape of the stone was almost a perfect cube, with two big round holes on its flat top surface.
“This is why they called it ‘Lucy’s Kitchen.’ Look Victor, the stone looks like a big stove in a kitchen. Should we do some inspection in this room?”
“I don’t think so, we need to preserve our limited supply of flashlight batteries and we really need to concentrate on getting to the next room.”
“Yes, I guess you are right. For a second I was taken with the beauty of the stone. You are absolutely right, we need to keep moving.”
They both left the room, and as before, moved in the same formation: Victor ahead, followed by Dina.
A fifteen-second walk later and the opening of another room came into their view, only this time the opening was on the left side.
“I don’t have this room on my chart,” said Dina in surprise.
Victor moved closer to the room, inspecting the wooden frame and looking for the nameplate.
“No nameplate, and actually, there is no room there. This is another tunnel connecting to the one we are in. Do you have anything on your blueprints that shows this connection?” asked Victor.
Dina looked closely at the blueprints and after only a couple of seconds replied, “Do you remember that we were talking about the other lines that were not dotted and we thought that they were hydro or some other kind of cables? I think that we were wrong. I think that there is an additional system of tunnels that runs underground here and those lines mark these other tunnels. I hope that by choosing to follow the dotted line we did not make a serious mistake.” Dina looked directly at Victor, blinding him with her helmet's flashlight. Victor brought up his left hand, trying to protect his eyes.
“Dina, please, you are going to leave me blind!”
Dina recognized her mistake and tilted her head a little.
“We are not wrong. The dotted lines were the only alternative that went through all of the catacomb rooms. The other lines do not connect the rooms from start to finish.”
“Then there are more tunnels than that one. We need to be careful. Some of the lines have dead ends.”
Victor looked at the blueprints that Dina held.
“It seems that the dotted lines mark the main tunnel. I can see that there will be more tunnels that will cross the main one. We need to be careful not to lose our dotted route. Do you want me to take over the navigation?”
“No, I’m okay. I'll be fine.”
They slowly continued their journey forward. In the next fifteen meters Dina counted four more tunnels connected to the main one. All of the tunnels were connected to the main tunnel with wood-framed openings that looked like the room entrances, but had no nameplates.