Chapter One
The Shadow moved close to hear the words exchanged by the delightfully contented Western couple leaning against one of the lion statues marking the ‘Pest’ side entrance to the Chain Bridge in Budapest, the capital of Hungary. The medieval city’s bright yellow lights were beginning to sprinkle on the crowds of strolling tourists leisurely occupying the pavement suspended over the Danube River. On the riverbank, a lively collection of young lovers, shirtless men and curious visitors were drinking beer and dangling their legs over the water. But to The Shadow, only the one couple stood out. He had watched them from the moment they left the restored iron gates in front of their five-star hotel, and dodged the circling traffic to stand on the bridge. He had followed them, without attracting any attention, to the city’s world famous magnetic attraction.
“We are being illuminated in every direction,” Karlie Laker was saying, as she pointed across the river to the city’s monarchist ‘Buda’ side and admired the lights brightening up the buildings on Castle Hill. Turning to face Shane Taylor as the lions’ faces began to darken and fade from her view, she continued, “I am utterly swept away by the depth of the beauty of this city. I feel like I am in some sort of magical setting, like we are caught up in a medieval fairytale. Budapest is really marvelous, wondrous.”
Shane laughed and reached for her. They were both striking in appearance, tall, expertly groomed, wearing perfectly-cut European fashions on fit bodies outlined by smooth curves and muscular grooves where both suited their gender. Karlie caught her handsome and mysterious global law enforcement boyfriend’s brown eyes twinkling in the fading daylight. “You’re losing it, my girlfriend,” he joked as he bent to kiss her. “The lights are only ramping up your instinctive feelings…you’re actually getting turned on by me.”
“Very funny.” Karlie kissed him back then turned and leaned over the green iron railings to look down into the rapidly moving river currents. Europe’s second longest river had the world’s most inclusive reach as its bounty flowed through ten countries from its origin in Germany’s Black Forest to its reed-choked end in the Danube Delta on the Black Sea. As importantly, its role in history, trade and empire had few equals. Karlie, as a diplomat who travelled frequently to the great capitals of the world, had developed a genuine reverence for the unique cultural tributes built from wood, stone and cement that nation states placed on display for a grateful world. But many of those states would not exist, but for the natural boundaries created by millennia of earthly movements literally shaping people into specific sections of the continent which would go on to define who they were as human beings on earth.
Budapest was no exception. Located at the center of Europe, the city had retained many of its historical structures, which deliberately enwrapped a visitor into a subdued sense of passed times. Even though the fall of Communism at the beginning of the 1990s almost instantly transformed the vibrant Hungarian people into dynamic, fashionable industrialists, the city stayed as it had always been, locked forever in an essential past. “I’m serious, this city is like…God, I don’t know…unforgettable I guess.”
“Okay I’ll concede your sentiment,” Shane agreed as he too leaned over the railing to stare at the lights of the Parliament buildings. His back was to the bustling crowds around them, as he focused his gaze on Karlie standing beside him. “I give you…” He stopped and quickly turned his head away from her. Karlie smiled and waited for him to finish his sentence. “Oh my God…”
“Shane?” Karlie stepped forward to reach for him as his arm dropped and fell from around her waist. His face turned pale, and after a second she saw the reason for his sudden transformation. Karlie began to scream. “Shane!”
Her eyes viewed blood coming through Shane’s fingers as he clutched at his stomach and collapsed at her feet. “Stabbed,” he whispered as his head slipped through her shaking hands and onto the pavement.
Karlie screamed again, “Help! Police!”
Through the tourists and the local crowds, the Shadow ran off through the night as Shane lay bleeding on a bridge that had soaked up an uncountable number of souls for nearly two centuries.
“Shane, listen to me, don’t leave me,” Karlie begged as she held his head in her lap and her hand over his wound. A summoned police officer materialized at her side. “Help is coming,” she pleaded over the honking horns and restless whispers from strangers who stopped in shock to look at Shane’s body. “Don’t leave me.”
Shane blinked, attempting to force his eyes open. “I love you,” he whispered before passing out.
