Danus Mei and the seventh seal E-Book

Volker Unglaub

• Herausgeber: Books on Demand
• Kategorie: Krimi
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 132

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

An old man travels by train with his young companion to a chess tournament in Monte Carlo. A strange passenger with the same destination remains a mystery to the long-bearded old man for a long time. But in his decidedly uniform daily routine, the old man draws enough strength to disenchant his antipode. A fight to the death is looming.

Leseprobe

He had grown old and never really wanted to return to the tournament arena, but the looming material hardship brought him to the decision. Investing its investments in photovoltaics for domestic companies had thwarted the government's idiotic policy. The Chinese now took advantage of the dumb mistakes of the German >Politzwerge< and made themselves the market leader. As a late consequence of his view of the world, the old man had met alleged climate activists who had already dragged him along to every demo. He was sitting on his terrace, it was a pleasant summer day and the wind was blowing gently through his long beard. On the table, next to a glass of red wine, was his work area. It was a chessboard with Staunton pieces. For fifty years, he had spent many hours every day analyzing various positions with this set, when he did not have to play another tournament somewhere in the world. At that time, he lived partly on prize money, sponsorship and simultaneous performances. When his father died, he had left his only son a small inheritance, which he had now invested in climate-friendly investments. The old man held his glass of red wine in his hand and thought about sensible investments, because after all, he did not want to lose all his money. Lost in thought, he was about to make a knight move for White on the chessboard, when the phone rang in the house. Clumsily, the old man rose from his chair and sipped into the living room. On the phone was Angela, who wanted to pick him up at 3 p.m.. He wanted to use the little time he still had for a move sequence in the Spanish game to check, because during the phone call, the knight move was back in his mind,

which could have been a reinforcement for the white game structure. He took the board with the figures into the living room and paid meticulous attention to ensuring that the figure position did not shift during his walk. After the chess game had found its place in the middle of the living room table, the old man sat down in the nearby armchair and immersed himself back to the position on the chessboard. Time passed very fast when analyzing and so it was furthermore, it is not surprising that the ringing of the front door disturbed the old man in his thoughts. Reluctantly, he broke away from his analysis, went to the front door and opened it. Angela was standing on the doormat with her boyfriend. "Hi Danus, are you done?" Angela asked. "Uh, wait a minute, come soon, go to the car." He turned around and walked back to the living room table. A last look at the position did not get him any further in the evaluation of the game. For today, he would put the problem on the chessboard and no longer solve it.

Grumpily, he put on his cap and left the house. Angela's boyfriend, Antonius Block, was at the steering wheel and the young woman had taken the passenger seat. The old man sat behind Angela in the back seat so that he could keep a better eye on the speedometer. As a passenger, he had already suffered quite chaotic rides. To his reassurance, the young man drove very carefully. "Tell me about the tournament," the old man asked. "It's possible for you in the master class, if you are looking for prize money, to occupy the first five places," this was Angela's target. "Do you remember Bobby," Angela's boyfriend wanted to know from her. "Of course, I was just too shy to invite him for a drink after the last <Sit-in>, but you were as shy too.” "Yes, unfortunately. Maybe he would have come along and we would have analyzed your games with him." The old man was again thinking about his Spanish game, with the knight move as an innovation. In his mind's eye, the figures scurried across the black and white fields and he might have been able to come to a final evaluation, if the journey had not already ended. There was the main train station. Angela kissed her boyfriend and said goodbye with the words, "See you soon, Anton and don't forget to water the plants." The old man had already gotten out and walked slowly to the main station entrance. Shortly before, Angela had caught up with the old man, although she was carrying a heavy bag with her. "Our train leaves in 20 minutes on platform 8, do you need anything else?" "No," said the old man, "I have my pocket chess in my jacket." They now ran on platform 8, as the train was already there, Angela had reserved a compartment. After they got into the wagon to Turin, Angela rummaged in her pocket and pulled out two tickets, as the conductor was about to walk past them." "Oh, please, can you show me our compartment?" The conductor nodded amiably and walked with them through the coach. "Please, here's your compartment!" The conductor walked on, whether he heard the >thank you< from Angela remained hidden from her. They sat down at the window and after a while, the train wheels started moving. As they left the station, the train accelerated its journey. Angela looked out of the window, while the old man had his pocket chess on his lap and alternated with the white and black pieces. "I'd better keep your baggage check in my wallet, not that you lose it otherwise." Angela said, without taking her eyes off the window. The old man was so absorbed in his position that he no longer noticed his surroundings. He did not answer. The wheels of the train rattled noisily and incessantly over the tracks and Angela now leaned back and closed her eyes. From the corridor, she heard cheerful young male voices and laughter. In her mind's eye, she went through all the points of this journey again, then fell into a slight slumber.

"Tickets please," someone shouted in her dream and she woke up. In front of her stood the nice conductor, who wanted to validate her ticket. She rummaged hastily in her left trouser pocket and brought out her ticket and that of the old man. The conductor snapped his hole punch into the tickets. "In Turin, you have 20 minutes to stay there; they have to change to the train with through wagon to Nice, on which track the train will enter, you can ask there." "Thank you," Angela replied. The conductor turned around and closed the door behind him as he left the compartment. Angela heard him open the door of the neighboring compartment, she now looked over at the old man, who was still engrossed in his chess position, but did not seem to have made any progress. "Do we still want to eat something in the dining wagon on German soil?" she asked the old man, who now lifted his head a little and looked at Angela in surprise and murmured into his long beard, "no, I don't have time for such a thing now." Angela got up and made her way alone to the dining wagon. The old man seemed somehow relieved now, his features relaxed as he put his chess game aside and pulled a small notebook out of his inner jacket pocket. With a pencil, that had already passed its best days like its owner, he diligently noted the sequence of his analyzed chess moves in the booklet. Satisfied, he leaned back in his seat and now even had the time to take a look out of the window. What he saw did not impress him in any way, mountains had never been his thing and out there he saw many in the background. It reappeared in his mind's eye the jump in move 13. He closed his eyes and a smile played around his lips. He had finally solved the problem with the knight. Now he was ready for the tournament and he quickly fell asleep.

After a while, Angela came back with three young men, the ones who had previously caused the laughter in the hallway. Angela stopped with them in front of their compartment door, because she wanted to keep everything disturbing away from her senior companion. Through the voices, however, the old man woke up and thus became a listener. The young men had the same terminus, namely Monte Carlo, but they were not chess players, they wanted to go to the casino to play backgammon and poker. It didn't take long, then Angela pulled open the compartment door and said, "Well, did you get any further in your position? In the dining wagon, I met young people from northern Germany. They want to >blow up< the casino in Monte Carlo." The old man nodded kindly and looked out the window. He could see nothing but darkness, for night had already fallen. The train was slowing down when Angela opened the window. She stuck her head out so that a stream of air pleasantly fanned her long hair and for a few moments, the summer heat in her compartment was no longer noticeable to her. The train was approaching its terminus, it was now driving more and more slowly into Munich Central Station and was called out over loudspeakers. On track four, the train came to a halt. Most of the passengers got off, the old man only now realized that the night lighting on the ceiling of their compartment must have been on for a long time. It was now just before midnight. For the next four hours, it did not go on. Angela pulled out a thermos from her pocket. She filled a cup of wild cherry tea and handed the drink to the old man. "Yes, the tea is alright now. But then we try to sleep a little." Carefully, the old man tasted the still hot tea and then placed the cup on the windowsill. Angela took the empty cup, screwed it onto the thermos and put it back in her bag. After that, they stopped speaking and tried to sleep in their seats as best they could. Shortly before four o'clock, she woke up a rude jerk. The through coaches were uncoupled and a small diesel locomotive pulled the trailers out of the station onto a shunting track. Here, the through coaches were reunited with others to form a train and pushed back into the main station. The shunting locomotive had fulfilled its task. An Italian express train locomotive entered the station and was coupled to the train. In 25 minutes was the scheduled departure. Angela took advantage of this time and brought fresh croissants and the Süddeutsche Zeitung with her. When the train started moving, they had just finished breakfast. Angela read aloud in the newspaper about the forest fires in Australia, where over a billion animals had died as a result of the fire. "Soon, so many people will die," the old man replied gloomily and then analyzed another position on his pocket chess. Around 9 o'clock, there was noticeable life in the through coaches. The young North Germans hurried into the corridor towards the dining wagon, of course, they had a lot to tell each other again. The old man turned his shoulder even more towards the aisle, as if he wanted to protect his chess game from unnecessary noise. On the board was a Sicilian game, in his old days, he had changed his black repertoire. The Russian defense had always given him a secure balance, but he felt that his lifetime was becoming increasingly scarce and therefore more precious. With Sicilian, he was able to bring about the crisis of position more quickly. The risk of loss also increased. His many years of experience, however, gave him the feeling that he would recognize the enemy's threats in good time and take appropriate countermeasures. They were already on Italian soil. In the corridor, you heard loud voices. It wasn't long before her compartment door was opened, "buongiorno, la Signorina e Signor." "Good afternoon," Angela replied. It was the conductor.

1"I biglietti per favore" Angela handed him the tickets, he nodded friendly and went to the next compartment. The old man had folded his board on the narrow window shelf and put it down. He now snuggled into his seat and closed his eyes. Since he slept very badly last night, tiredness has caught up with him now.

He thought of the beautiful days he had already experienced in Monte Carlo, when the American aircraft carrier Saratoga (CV-60) fired a salute for the princess on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the USA's declaration of independence. It was the 4th of July, he was young and undefeated in the top group at this chess tournament. The venue was located in the marina and allowed a fantastic view beyond this to the sea. There, the aircraft carrier anchored at a respectable distance from the harbor entrance. Thousands of Saratoga sailors in white uniforms flooded the city center of Monaco and participated for a few hours in the elegant and luxurious posturing of this city. With these thoughts, the old man had fallen asleep. "Hello, wake up," he knew this voice, but it did not fit his dream at all. When he woke up, Angela had already gotten up. "It's just before twelve, we'd better go into the dining wagon before the kitchen closes." The old man got up and they left their compartment. In the hallway, Angela turned around again and said, "I'd better take the bag with me, you never know!" The old man looked into the compartment with the young card players, there were now four of them, and by the announcements they shouted to each other, he understood that they were playing bridge.

Also a nice game, he thought, when Angela was already standing next to him with a bag and they continued their walk into the dining wagon. When they got there, we saw at first glance that there was no room left. So they waited outside, but after a few minutes, a table became free on the left side. Angela hurried through the door and sat down in the empty seat in the direction of travel. The old man came in and was about to sit opposite her at the table, when the waiter stormed up with two menus, handed them to the two without saying a word and cleared the table. "Cosa vorresti da bere," he asked casually. Angela wanted a Coke, the old man preferred a mineral water. After studying the menu, they both chose Spahetti Napoli. When the waiter with the drinks was back on the spot, they placed their orders. The food tasted very good for both of them, especially since both were fond of Italian cuisine. After paying and expressing satisfaction with a proper tip, the unlikely couple went back to their compartment. When Angela opened the door to the compartment, she got a terrible fright. Right next to the door, an eerie-looking passenger had made himself comfortable. He laughed cunningly, jumped on 2"permettimi di presentarmi, mi chiamo Mors, dottore Atan S. Mors." Angela smiled a little embarrassed. "Pleasant, my name is," she paused, she had already heard the passenger's name somewhere... right, he was on the list of participants in the chess tournament, which her old companion was supposed to contest. 3