Black Scorpion by Jon Land

Author:Jon Land
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781466832169
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates

SIXTY-THREE

BUNĂ ZIUA, ROMANIA, 1958

The man arrived on the noon train, one of the last passengers to step off into a driving rainstorm. He was tall and lean, casually dressed with a single suitcase and no hat or coat to shield him from the torrents. Had there been anyone about to notice, they would’ve thought the presence of such a man strange here, since it wasn’t a place prone to visitors.

The Socialist Republic of Romania, formed just over a decade earlier, after all, was little more than a Soviet satellite, the country’s resources drained at will by one-sided SovRom agreements and the move to collectivization draining morale along with any hope for a better life. Stalin himself saw the country as no more than a “breadbasket,” his death five years before the man’s arrival ushering in few changes, other than a festering of crime under those bosses with the resources to pay off corrupt local officials who were mere Soviet sycophants.

The past, meanwhile, had proven no friendlier than the present. World War II had ravaged the countryside, stripping the fertile, generous lands of their beauty and innocence. Barely a dent had been made in ridding Romania of the war’s residue and, over the years, a general malaise and grim acceptance had set in that the sorry conditions were there to stay under communism.

That made it unusual to say the least to see any stranger, and a foreigner no less, in a remote Transylvanian town like Bună Ziua. Yet the tall man who climbed off the train that day attracted little attention. His dark, rugged features drew not a second look, except from the poor children hoping to fetch a few coins by carrying his bags. But the man carried his single bag himself, his ratty, tattered clothes indicating he was likely as poor as they were.

The man walked the short distance from the train station to a still privately owned and operated type of establishment unique in Eastern Europe known as a crisma, a combination restaurant and bar that also offered a few rooms for rent. The man bypassed the small, local hotel on an adjoining street in favor of it and entered to the sight of heavy wooden tables spread about a plank floor. A smell like cabbage wafted out from what must’ve been the kitchen and the stranger moved toward a smiling, attractive young woman standing behind a counter.

“I understand you have rooms available for rent.”

“Just one right now, on the fourth floor,” the woman said. She was close to beautiful with flawless skin and a warm smile. “Where are you from?” she asked the man.

“Italy.”

“And what brings you to Transylvania?”

The man looked about the restaurant tables that remained empty, leaving them the only two people present.

“I smell food cooking in your kitchen,” he told the young woman. “I’d like some lunch. What did you say your name was?”

* * *

“Stefania,” he repeated after she told him, taking a seat at one of the tables. “Nice. Your last name…”

“Tepesche.”

“Similar to Vlad Tepes, the monster who terrorized this area back in the fifteenth century.

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