Today is the day of reckoning. Today they will find the secret that had been hidden by one of the Tsars from future rulers of Russia to read.
Count Sokolow held the keys in his hand in readiness to open the door that had been locked for 300 years.
As they went deeper and deeper underground beneath the Gatchina Palace, Tsar Nicholas II wondered what this was all about. He had been summoned to arrive with his Tsarina on this day, a day that was nominated by the Tsar in the 17th century. But why this date? Why him?
Holding their lit candles, they reached the dungeon, and the count slid the key into a grilled door of the cell and turned it. The sound of the click and the grinding opening of the gate echoed throughout the empty dungeon. Everybody became tense in anticipation of what they were about to find. Upon entering they faced a single chest on a table in the centre of the cell, now the count held the second key that would reveal the secret they all wanted to know.
Opening the chest, the count allowed the Tsar to step forward and look into the chest. The Tsar withdrew a parchment and said. ‘Is this all there is?’
Stepping closer to the chest the Count also looked inside and answered. ‘Yes, Your Majesty.’
Placing the parchment on the table the Tsar carefully unrolled it and silently read the contents.
With a grim face he stood there for some time contemplating what to do.
To their surprise, he picked up the parchment by one of the corners, picked up his candle and lit it. Surprised, they all watched in stunned silence the flames take hold as the parchment dropped onto the stone floor and turn into ashes.
Stepping onto the ashes he said. ‘This one secret I will keep to myself.’
The Tsar was not worried about his demise in the coming short years, for his heart ached thinking what would happen to his beloved country, his people in the 21st century.