The Roman Gambit Pt. 02

The war that followed, between the Cherusci and the Marcomanni, took up both of the ruler's time. It continued until Marbod was driven into exile, never to return to Marcomanni lands. Meanwhile the treasure sat in its hiding place, undiscovered for over 1,900 years.

*****

It didn't take long to make Mr. Kuriakinov's life an open book. He had a number of files password protected. Passwords are like putting a neon sign on the stuff that reads, "Sensitive material under here!" So, I headed for those files first. I opened his e-mail. My cracking program took less than a minute to brute force it open.

There had been some interesting messages between him and my friend in Paris, regarding how he was supposed to handle any interaction with me. That included some rather unflattering comments about my personality. There were also some steamy exchanges with a woman in Belorussia who was the old boy's mistress. I read those with interest. I marveled at the salacious things a seventy-two-year-old man could think of.

The file that stood out was the folder labeled, "POKLAD", or "Treasure." It took much longer to crack that password. Inside were a number of documents containing details. They provided the location and the history of how the treasure got there in the first place. The documents themselves were in German. They were written with the usual Teutonic efficiency and eye for detail and were all marked with the familiar SS. The insignia said "Ahnenerbe."

German is not my strongest language, but I could generally understand what the reports said, and I knew right away that we had worked our way to the mother-load. But I still wanted to see it with my own eyes. So, I turned to Mel and said, "We're going up to the Erzgebirge Mountains my little friend."

*****

Dieter Schmidt was cold. The freezing fall weather wasn't typical for southern Germany and being inside a cave didn't help. The Weinbergholen, as the cave complex was called, was located in southern Bavaria, near the Danube. The caves themselves were situated in a valley near the town of Mauern. It consisted of five caverns, two of which were joined by a subterranean passageway.

Professor Schmidt occupied the Chair of Archaeology at the University of Tubingen and he had journeyed the 175 miles south from that city to investigate the caves. He was interested in the Weinbergholen because there was plenty of evidence that Paleolithic people had lived and hunted there during the last ice age. Herr Schmidt had already dug through several layers going back to the Neanderthals. He was particularly interested in a layer of ochre on the back wall of the fifth cave.

Cave five was the only cave that did not have an external opening. It was located behind cave four and it was joined to that cave by a natural passageway. It looked as if a subterranean river had flowed through the rock to form four and five. The back wall of cave five was dirt rather than rock. That had led Professor Schmidt to dig at the back of cave five. He hoped to find evidence of a riverbed if there had indeed been water flowing through those caves.

He dug back a short distance with his trowel and found alluvial stones, which seemed to confirm that significant water had come from the direction behind cave five. The whole area had been under an ice sheet during the last glacial period and the caves themselves were probably a result of the run-off as the ice melted.

He excavated a little bit further and stumbled on the most extraordinary thing. He had made a small tunnel perhaps three feet back into the passageway when a human finger bone emerged. That set off a frenzy of unscientific digging. A skeletal hand and arm bone appeared. He thought to himself, "Perhaps I will find an intact Paleolithic skeleton. The ochre on the front of the wall certainly indicates that somebody might be buried here?"

Professor Schmidt heard a voice behind him say with indignation "What are you doing Herr Schmidt??!!" Schmidt was kicking dirt behind himself, like a burrowing mole. His efforts were also burying the boots of a tall "Aryan" man who had come up behind him.

Dieter Schmidt was firmly opposed to the Nazis. Unfortunately, by 1938 they had the entire Country in their grip. So, he had been replaced as a supervisor of the dig by Assien Bohmers. Bohmers was a Dutch archaeologist and Nazi fanatic. In fact, to prove his devotion to the "Aryan" cause, he had attached a picture of his blond, blue-eyed self to his application to join Himmler's "Ahnenerbe."

The Ahnenerbe was an exclusive Nazi research institute. Its name meant "something inherited from the forefathers." Himmler's charge to the Ahnenerbe was to document evidence of the accomplishments and deeds of the Nazi's Germanic ancestors "using exact scientific methods." What that really meant was that the Ahnenerbe was dedicated to manufacturing custom-made evidence to support Hitler's ideas about race.

The Nazis believed that a "Master Race" of tall, blond forebearers lived in a mythical utopian civilization prior to the advent of the "untermensch." Of course, only Germans were descended from those people. The problem was that such a race was like the fabled unicorn. There was absolutely no evidence that it ever existed. Heinrich Himmler's solution was to sponsor the "right" kind of German scholarship, the kind that could give him the proof he wanted. Hence, Himmler created the SS Ahnenerbe and Assien Bohmers was a perfect example of the overly-ambitious and not particularly bright young academic Himmler had in mind.

Instead of the coveralls of the archaeologist, which were necessary for people who spent their life digging in the dirt, Bohmers wore classic Nazi regalia, brown shirt, jodhpurs and shiny jackboots. Schmidt's enthusiastic shoveling had dulled the shine of those boots. The Professor put down his shovel and said, "I am uncovering a Paleolithic skeleton." Bohmers walked past knelt down and could clearly see the metallic pieces of a sword belt on the skeleton. He said, "This is not Paleolithic. It is iron age at least."

Schmidt checked Bohmers' observation and said. "My God, this is a Germanic warrior. We must dig further. Perhaps there will be others" and went back to his enthusiastic digging. Schmidt had not burrowed for more than another half hour when he broke through into a dark open space. He thought to himself, "Aha, another cave; just as I presumed."

There was no sign of additional bodies. But Bohmers' interest was piqued. He ordered his work gang to clear out the dirt and shore up the passage. It was pitch dark in the space behind. But it was clear that this was a significant space. When the workers were finished, Bohmers told all of them to wait outside. He wanted sole credit for whatever was found. His first steps came across six more skeletons. They were lying in a pile, as if they had been carefully placed there. The seventh was apparently attempting to crawl out when the passage collapsed on him. All of the skeletons had the trappings of Germanic warriors, swords, axes; and in several instances, what looked like Roman armor.

Bohmers shone his light around and something glinted back at him. He walked closer to the gleam, his jackboots echoing off the smooth stone floor. What he saw made him gasp. Piled neatly along a wall were fifteen large chests of clearly Roman construction. All of them were labeled with the SPQR of Rome. One was open and a fantastic array of gold cups, plates and piles of coins lay inside. Bohmers feverishly opened each chest and each held a treasure trove of beautiful things. Bohmers was a fanatical Nazi, not a treasure hunter. And so, he knew where his duty lay. He reported the find to Reichsfuhrer Himmler. Meanwhile, he told his brown shirted SS bully boys to make certain that nobody entered the cave but him.

Himmler might have been an ugly little gnome. But he was a man of action. Based on the description he knew that he had to snatch the hoard before his fellow Reichsfuhrers found out about it. Himmler was just as dedicated to feathering his own nest as that pig Goering, or the oily little weasel Von Ribbentrop. He knew he would need a fortune to settle all the old scores with each of his associates, including Hitler. That is, after the Nazis won the war.

Within a week a convoy of heavy trucks arrived at the Weinbergholen site. A band of SS thugs carried mysterious objects out of the new sixth cave. Then the trucks headed in the direction of Bohemia and the Erzgebirge Mountains. There was a deep and secure mine there, that served as a mass storage facility for the artwork "donated" by the Jews in the captive territories. It was controlled by the SS and it would be the resting place for the Varus treasure.

*****

We drove the Peugeot back to Prague Vaclav Havel and rented a Land Rover Defender. If we were going into the mountains, we needed a sturdy beast and there is no tougher ATV than a Defender. Those mountains have always formed the natural boundary between Saxon Germany and the Bohemian Czech Republic. Our destination was a relatively short distance away. But it was into the Erzgebirge Mountains. That was a rough drive, especially from Litvinov up to Deutschkatharinenberg. We renewed our hotel reservations, since we didn't want anybody to suspect we'd moved north. Then we stopped by Hudy and dropped four-thousand dollars on two complete sets of camping gear which we loaded into the spacious back of the Defender.

We set drove an hour from Prague to Litvinov. The final drive up to Deutschkatharinenberg took almost another hour. Dracula would have loved the place. It's downright sinister. The mountains are called the "Ore Mountains" because they have been a source of metal since the dawn of the iron-age. They also contained precious metals such as silver. The Fortuna mine had produced high grade silver for centuries. The extent of all of the remote passages and their perfect dry condition was the reason why the fabled "Monument Men" found a vast fortune of old masters stored there. Eisenhower even visited the place. But most of the mine has never been explored. In particular, one room at the lowest level. Its location was a secret that only Vasily Kuriakinov knew.

*****

Vasily Kuriakinov was tough. You had to be hard to survive three years of all-out war on the Eastern Front. He had been a young, illiterate peasant lad when he was conscripted into the 7th Guards, prior to Stalingrad. He and his fellows were not even given rifles. They were told to follow the first wave and pick one up from somebody who had already been killed.

That first winter of fighting was the harshest and most devastating experience any human could endure, as the limitless Russian tide slowly overcame the German aggressors. From Stalingrad Vasily had fought his way back across the Russian steppes in a T-34, first as gunner and then tank commander. He and his boys had fought through holocausts like the battle of Kursk all the way into Hungary and Slovakia. They were stopped one night in 1945, right at the German border in Western Bohemia.

The mountain passes would be the most convenient way for Grigori Zhukov to deliver the planned thrust to the Elba River. There the Russians would link with George Patton's Americans and cut Germany in two. But first they had to convince the Germans to get out of their way. Vasily's T-34 was the very last tank in a line of 46 tanks making their way north through the Mountains. The progress had stopped as the lead squadrons dealt with a small group of German Panthers who were trying to bar their way.

Vasily could hear the firing in the distance but that was as much a part of his day as bird songs. He was sitting on the turret of his T-34 with his legs dangling into the hatch eating beets out of a can when a bullet zipped by uncomfortably close. The shot had come from the direction of a nearby mining facility. The sheer impudence of somebody taking a shot at him pissed him off. He knew the tank column would be parked for a while. So Vasily grabbed his PPS-43 and told his gunner to follow him.

The two Soviets progressed up to the actual mine-head. Vasily and his companion were taking occasional fire from the entrance. So, they circled in opposite directions and came in from the side and behind the shooter. He was a single soldier with a sniper rifle. The Walther-Gewehr is deadly accurate but the kid was maybe sixteen. The SS was clearly running out of men. Still, this was war so Vasily shot him. Then he heard footsteps pounding off into the distance. Vasily's blood was up and so he took off in pursuit. He told the gunner to make sure that he wasn't disturbed. Vasily was planning to do something very unpleasant to the person who had shot at him.

The mine was lit by naked bulbs as Vasily chased the other guy down the passageway to the ancient ladder; the one that workers took to climb down into the bowels of the facility. There was a modern elevator now. It took people downward. But Vasily's quarry was using that. Still,

Vasily was determined. He had to be, to pursue his quarry down an 800-foot series of ladders. He became angrier as he climbed. He hated the SS and the fact that one of them had taken a shot at him required a blood price.

So, he had his PPS ready when he got to the bottom of the mine. A Luger shot came from the direction of a gallery. Vasily dodged back and forth infantry style as he ran up the passageway. There was another shot and then the closing of a door. Vasily was on the run now. He lowered his shoulder and burst through the door firing. The German was in front of him. The man caught the full effect of a three second PPS burst. He was an Oberst Standartenfuhrer. Vasily took the time to wonder what the equivalent of a Soviet full Colonel was doing all by himself in a Bohemian mine. Then he looked around.

The place was immense, probably a former cavern rather than part of the mine. It was encased in concrete and well-lit by electric bulbs on the ceiling. It contained an amazing number of carefully preserved paintings, some tapestries and fifteen big ancient chests. As his anger died, Vasily walked over to a chest and opened it, curious. Inside was a gleaming treasure. He opened the others. Each was filled with loot beyond counting.

Vasily wasn't stupid. He knew that he had discovered a stashed Nazi hoard and the SS Colonel was probably the man in charge. He wondered where the other SS had gone. There should have been at least a brigade guarding a cache this precious. Then it dawned on him that three hours earlier the column had broken through a fairly serious defensive line at this point. The two people he dispatched must have been all that were left.

Given the state of the German army it was understandable that they could only spare a small number of SS guards now. But his sole knowledge of this place left Vasily with a decision to make. Should he tell anybody else, or blow the tunnel and come back after the war? The incredible wealth spread in front of him made the choice easy. So, before Vasily returned to his tank he wedged two big American pineapple grenades in the wall of the mine, pulled the pins and walked away. The explosion sealed the passage to the treasure room.

Vasily was now the only person who knew what lay behind the dirt that looked like a simple mine collapse. Bu, there was too much political turmoil in the Eastern satellite countries after the war. So, Vasily had to grow old keeping his secret. He eventually told his story to his son on his deathbed. Family's always first and his son would be able to recover it.

The End of Part Two

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Well, the scene setting is over and it's time for the real action to begin. I hope you've enjoyed it this far and I will finish the story with the next post.