The Crown of the Romanovs

Krasnoyarsk

Krasnoyarsk

"Is that city where the mathematical genius who is going to reveal the secret of the Treasury's whereabouts lives?" Joked von Eichenberg.

“No, Dieter. That is Krasnodar.” Jack replied seriously. “Where we are going now is Krasnoyarsk, one of the Trans-Siberian stations, located in the heart of the Siberian steppe.

Krasnoyarsk is indeed one of the main stations of the Trans-Siberian Railway, located on the banks of the Yenisei River, and is the third largest city in population in Siberia. Home to Russia's main aluminum smelter and one of the largest hydroelectric dams in the country and in the world, the city made significant investments in the Soviet era. At the fall of the ex-USSR, the companies fell into the hands of criminals and oligarchs and many of them were declared bankrupt, so that unemployment increased dramatically and the city experienced a series of convulsions and strikes.

The Russian novelist Anton Chekhov declared it in his time the most beautiful city in Siberia, due to the natural landscapes of its surroundings. For this reason, the members of the Diadem project descended from the train with the purpose of spending a day in the city and the countryside, in a diversion action that assimilated them to ordinary tourists and intended to remove suspicions about their activities, since there were no records that linked Krasnoyarsk with the real purpose of their stay.

When they got off the train, Suzuki and Demidov detected certain characters at the station who, due to their attitude, identified them as suspected FSB informants, so they decided to keep their guard up. During the day they visited the two cathedrals called one of the Annunciation and the other of the Holy Trinity, as well as a stylized museum copying a temple from Ancient Egypt. At this point, the alleged informants lost interest in them and stopped following the visitors. On the outskirts of the city they saw the bridge by which the Trans-Siberian Railway crosses the Yenisei River.

In the afternoon they went to a shopping center called Optima, where they bought warm clothes and food for the rest of the trip. At the exit of the center, Taro Suzuki said that he had detected a Buddhist temple in the city and announced that he would attend a time of reflection while the others stayed in a modest hotel to spend the night and wait for the next train in the morning.

The temple that Suzuki entered was actually used by people belonging to many denominations and minority religious creeds in that part of Siberia and at the time was occupied by about fifteen people, scattered in the vast empty internal space. The professor stood in the lotus position for a time after which he sat in one of the long benches located at the back of the temple. After looking in all directions and making sure that he was not looked at by the other attendees, each of them immersed in his own meditations, he passed his hand under the bench and when he felt a large object, he extracted it and immediately placed it in his own backpack. After a reasonable time Suzuki left the place of worship and went to the hotel. There he asked about the rest of the group and it was reported that in his absence a room had assigned to him together with Jack Berglund so he went towards it.

Knocking lightly on the door it opened and Jack led him through. Boris Demidov was also in the room.

"Well, did you get it?" Berglund inquired.

In response Suzuki opened his backpack and displayed the contents.

The members of the Diadem project went to lunch and dinner in the dining car of the train; although they moved as a group in anticipation of possible attacks, one of the six remained on a rotating basis in the bedrooms. The group occupied three adjoining cabins and the member who was on duty in one of them had his phone connected to two others located in strategic but semi-hidden places in the other cabins so that the device could pick up sounds inside them. For this, the cell phones had a “baby call” application installed.

 That night Taro Suzuki had been on duty in the cabin he shared with Jack Berglund. He had two monitoring cell phones, one linked to another device in Irina and Igor Fiodorov's cabin, and the other to that of Dieter von Eichenberg and Boris Demidov. Although he had had a double coffee to prevent the rattle of the train from making him sleepy, he could not fight with drowsiness and decided to stand still not to fall asleep completely.

Suddenly strange noises began to come from the cell phone connected to the cabin of the Fiodorov cousins. At first the professor dismissed its importance but then he heard a characteristic metallic clink, followed by muffled sounds. He could not ignore the signal so he opened his backpack and discarding some firearms he took from it an extendable tonfa, equipped with the tip of a lead ball and a retractable cane with a handle of the type used by certain policemen. Stealthily he left his own cabin and at the time of doing so he placed a message asking for urgent help to his colleagues who were in the dining car. He crossed the hall and as he approached the Fiodorov's cabin he noticed that the door was unlocked. He kicked it open and inside the narrow cabin it was visible. A man dressed in thick furs reacted to his presence by releasing the flashlight in one hand and searching his clothes for something he later extracted and Taro identified as a pistol. The Japanese expert in martial arts with and without weapons applied a blow with the extendable tonfa fully hit the face of the intruder, that was instantly covered in blood. Faced with the momentary stunner of the man, Taro took the rigid police baton by the tip and with the L shaped handle skillfully hooked the attacker's hand and with a jerk he released the pistol that flew over one of the bunks. Reacting vigorously, the attacker took a sharp dagger from his waist and attacked Suzuki with it. Hand-to-hand combat in such a confined space was extremely difficult and dangerous and the Japanese managed to jump backwards, leaving him in the hallway. The attacker, realizing that he could not defeat an expert adversary in personal combat, only tried to escape from the cabin by ramming Suzuki on his way, but the attacked moved to the side while simultaneously striking a terrible stick on the head of the aggressor, after which the Japanese fell backwards in the hallway. When he got up, he ran after the attacker, but when he reached the end of the car, he found an open train door that led outside. He leaned out and in the reigning darkness saw a body rolling down the side of the tracks.

At that moment Jack Berglund and Boris Demidov appeared and further back came the remaining members of the group. Suzuki silently pointed to the Fiodorovs' cabin.

Once inside Jack and Suzuki's cabin, the first one proceeded to investigate what had happened. Demidov watched them from the door.

“I see that the weapons you brought did their job. Why didn't you use a gun?

“In a close combat in such a small place I trust more in these weapons and my skill.”

"Could you see the aggressor?" Boris asked.

“Partially, because there was little light. He was a huge and very strong man with Asian features.”

“How did he escape?”

“For some reason the side door of the car was open and the individual rolled down the side of the tracks.

“Alive or dead?”

“I do not know. If he is alive he will have been disfigured. You must have seen that there was blood in Irina's cabin.”

“How is it that in a running train the doors of a wagon are open?”  Boris asked wisely. “It is at odds with minimum safety standards.”

“I do not know.”

“It is evident that the one who entered the cabin had the escape prepared, alone or with accomplices. The open door must be part of that machination. ”Jack stated. “Let's go to Irina's cabin to see how she is.”

 The woman was obviously upset by the scare and was sitting on the only part of a bunk that was free; all the rest of the cabin was covered by the suitcases of both occupants and their contents were scattered on the beds and on the floor.

"I preferred not to touch anything until you came so as not to remove any clue of what you might be looking for." Igor stated.

Jack snapped photos of every corner of the cabin.

“ All this material must be analyzed later with calmness, both by us and by forensic specialists in New York.”

“Are you going to tell what happened to our colleagues there?”

“Of course. I'm going to ask Lakshmi for FBI technicians to examine these photos.”

At that moment there was a knock on the cabin door and Dieter Eichenberg appeared.

“I think it would be opportune to meet to analyze what happened and plan how to continue. If we return to the dining car at this time, we will find it deserted and we can talk calmly.”

“Good idea. I stay in the cabins to monitor.” Igor added. “Although I don't think that anything else will happen today.”

They occupied two adjoining tables and ordered coffee from the kitchen staff to give the meeting an air of calm; Irina was still upset.

"Are you missing some of your luggage?" Jack inquired.

“Absolutely nothing, I could only confirm that everything was scrambled and tampered with. In any case they would not have found anything confidential because I carry that stuff on me.”

"What about you?" Jack asked Igor.

“Neither, and I can say the same as Irina.”

“Do you think the motive was the robbery?”

"I think not," the woman replied without hesitation. "Although of course I did not bring any jewelry to this trip, inside what they rummaged there were valuable objects that could have been taken as they found them."

“I even had some money, euros and dollars that are much demanded here.” Added Igor.

“ So we must assume that the purpose of the raid has been related to our project. I will let William Richardson know that when I call him early tomorrow so the Bluthund steering committee can decide what to do. We have to consider the possibility that the secret nature of the Diadem Project has been violated.”