Amber by David Wood

while Leopov answered. “I would certainly recognize a Russian Imperial Eagle when I see one—“
    “Russian Imperial Eagle!” Bones enthused.
    Leopov shook her head. “...but the Russian Eagle is two-headed, while this one only has a single head.”
    Maddock waved his light over the center of the eagle. “It has an ‘R’ carved on it, too. Is that for Russia?”
    Leopov shook her head even faster. “Why don’t both of you shut up and I will explain.” Maddock and Bones looked at each other and shrugged. Leopov continued.
    “This is not the Russian Imperial Eagle, which has two heads, one looking left and the other, right.” All of them gazed at the eagle on the wall again.
    “Okay, I’m no expert,” Bones offered, “but this here eagle only has one head. So I concur.”
    Leopov rolled her eyes and went on. “It is in fact the Prussian Eagle, from the Prussian Coat of Arms, and, as you may know, a perfect match for the eagle found in the amber chamber itself.”
    They studied the emblematic bird some more, until Maddock asked, “So what’s the ‘R’ stand for?”
    “Run for your life?” Bones said half-jokingly, looking around the subterranean space. No one laughed.
    “Are you quite through clowning around?” She looked at Maddock and then her gaze lingered on Bones, who nodded. “I can stop now.”
    Leopov shined her light on the center of the eagle. “It’s not just an ‘R’ you’re looking at, but actually a stylized ‘F’ and ‘R’, superimposed over one another. Look, do you see?”
    Upon closer inspection, Maddock and Bones agreed that the letter carved into the center of the eagle’s chest was indeed actually two letters. Maddock rephrased his original question.
    “Okay, so what’s R.F. stand for? Russian Federation?”
    Leopov gave an exasperated sigh. “It’s F. R. It stands for Fredericus Rex. You may know him better as Frederick the Great. He was king of Prussia in the mid-1700s, when the amber chamber was commissioned.”
    The eyebrows of Maddock and Bones rose toward the tunnel ceiling. Still, they had both reached their tolerance for Leopov’s lecturing. Bones stepped toward the eagle, which was carved into a stone disc set into the rock wall. Bones pushed on the wall to one side of the eagle.
    “Maybe it’s actually a door. Why would someone put the Prussian emblem here for nothing?” Despite his best efforts, the wall did not budge nor give any other indication that there was anything special about it.
    “Wait a minute...” Maddock looked around the small space. “That carving couldn’t be the one from the actual Amber Room, could it?”
    Leopov shook her head yet again. “Impossible. This tunnel is much too small to contain even the disassembled panels.” She stepped over to the eagle and knelt before it. “And this,” she said, reaching out a hand to brush off some of the caked-on dirt from the eagle’s surface, “is not amber or gold. It’s just ordinary old iron, and set into stone, neither of which were used in the amber chamber.”
    To emphasize this she rapped her knuckle on the eagle’s chest and turned away as she rose.
    They heard a sharp click as the eagle slid sideways within the stone disc. Leopov froze in place but Maddock’s eyes, wide as saucers, compelled her to turn back around.
    “Oh my God.”

Chapter 12
     
    Königsberg Castle
     
    “Nobody move.” Maddock froze in place as he stared at a recessed panel exposed when the eagle slid aside in the stone disc. He and Bones both shined their torches on it while Leopov swept hers in the opposite direction to see if anything had been triggered there. After a minute, when nothing had happened that they could tell, Maddock and Leopov advanced slowly on the dial while Bones hung back to keep watch over the wider area.
    The recessed panel contained three small dials, one on top and two on bottom, each numbered 0-9 like a combination lock. After a few seconds Maddock pulled back and explained