Sleeping into the wee hours of the morning, when the night was at its deepest and all was silent, Shaun, who had senses beyond the ordinary, awoke suddenly.
He slowly sat up and looked at the row of tiny figures in front of his bed.
"Heinzel, is that you guys?" Shaun didn't tense up and opened his mouth to ask.
One of the tiny figures took two steps forward, letting the moonlight shine on him: "Hallo Shaun, wie geht es dir! Oh je, nur ihr Agenten lebt in Räumen, in denen wir willkommen sind. Moderne Menschen leben in Räumen, in denen es überall Elektronik gibt! Wir Heinzel hassen Elektronik!"
In the moonlight Shaun saw a short elf wearing a tall pointy fedora, about sixty centimetres tall and with a thick beard.
"Hello Toren, hello again. Is it possible to speak English? Even though I have a strong command of the language, I don't quite understand your Cologne dialect." Shaun smiled.
"Ah, can't get enough of you gringos. I was just saying that we're only welcome in your agent's room, modern rooms are full of electronics! We Dwarf Elves hate electronics! We've been electrocuted more than once while cleaning our rooms, and those cameras are even more annoying than that tailor's wife!" Toren the Dwarf Elf grumbled in exasperation.
Shaun laughed, "So now the Cologne people can't enjoy your sneaky cleaning."
Toren the Dwarf Elf grunted in exasperation, "Well, enough of that. What's the matter with you leaving a marker in front of the hotel to summon us?" It seemed like an angry grunt was Torren's normal state.
Shaun said: "Did anything strange happen in Cologne a week or so ago?"
Torren grunted under his breath and said: "There was a really scary guy that showed up in Cologne, I wouldn't want to get in trouble with that guy if it was me."
Shaun asked, "What did that guy look like? Where is he now?"
Torun grunted under his breath and said, "In short, he's scary looking, covered with an ominous aura, his face is always shrouded in shadows and can't be seen clearly, anyway, we don't dare to get close to him. He disappeared after he killed a man, I don't know where, not in Cologne anyway. I hope he never returns to Cologne."
Shaun, already knowing that the man killed was a Vatican investigator, thought for a moment and asked, "What was the man killed doing before he died?"
"While excavating that ruin in the city centre, the crew found something about the fifth century, something to do with religious figures. The man who was killed was here to identify the stuff." Toren said still grumbling under his breath.
Shaun listened and thought to himself:``The exact details seem to be unknown until we meet the church people tomorrow."
After thinking about it, he asked again: "Do you guys know about Dark Spirit Agents?"
Torren grunted: "No idea, never heard of it. Sounds like scary stuff too."
"Seems like a rather secretive existence. Ask Lola tomorrow." Shaun thought to himself.
Then Shaun took a large piece of something wrapped in greaseproof paper and tied very tightly with string from his suitcase and handed it to Toren: "A gift for you, a whole Parma ham."
The ham was so big that it stood up almost as tall as Toren, who took it with the other dwarf elf and didn't change the tone of his exasperated grunt to say, "Well, fantastic! You're the best agent, Shaun!"
Shaun smiles and says, "You are the best Dwarf Elves. As soon as that horrible person reappears, please let me know first."
"Okay!" With that said, the Dwarf Elves carried the ham with a grunt towards the corner of the room and just disappeared around the corner.
Shaun, on the other hand, went back to the quilt and continued to sleep.
When he woke up the next day it was already after eight in the morning, and Shaun saw that outside the window was a sky covered in gloom.
"This is what the weather should be like in Germany in May, it's nerve-wracking, it can be sunny in the morning and then rain heavily in the afternoon." Shaun belaboured as he dressed and washed up.
Afterwards Shaun came to the dining room where there was only a middle-aged couple eating breakfast, listening to the talk was Russian.
Shaun nodded and smiled at the couple in greeting before taking his dinner plate and fetching a couple of small Nuremberg sausages and scrambled eggs, a croissant, a couple of slices of smoked salmon, and a yoghurt and apple.
"Growing up my mum taught me to eat a good breakfast and a small dinner. I always ate what my mum told me for breakfast, but I never ate less for dinner!" Shaun took to social media while eating breakfast to tell his mum and dad back home that he was even in the regiment and wouldn't be coming home for a while.
Dad just replied "Got it. Be safe." Mum, on the other hand, turned to the same old story after two sentences: "If you meet a suitable girl, you should get along well with her!"
As someone who had died once, Shaun only felt that his mum's nagging was incredibly precious. He replied to his mum while finishing the food he fetched, then hit a cup of coffee and sipped it slowly, thinking about how to arrange it later.
At that moment a young man from the front desk of the hotel came into the restaurant with an envelope and walked over to Shaun's table, smiled and said, "Excuse me Mr Shaun, a gentleman asked me to give you this letter."
Shaun took the letter and nodded his head, "Okay, thanks!"
The young man turned to leave. Shaun looked at the envelope and saw that all it said was "To Shaun" and the mouth of the envelope wasn't sealed, so it obviously wasn't a secret message. Shaun took out the letter paper and opened it, thinking to himself: "This guy, I was going to find you, but you contacted me first." Looking at the time, more than nine in the morning, there is still time. Shaun decided to meet another old acquaintance before going to meet Lola.
Before leaving the hotel, a light rain began to fall from the sky, the most typical weather in Germany during this season. Shaun casually grabbed one of the umbrellas that the hotel had prepared for its guests from the entrance of the hotel and stepped out into the rain.
The location of the hotel wasn't very far to Shaun's destination, it was only a fifteen minute walk.
Shaun walked along Gereon Street near the hotel towards the train terminus, this street usually has very few pedestrians, and it was even colder in the rain.
Walking in the drizzle with his umbrella, Shaun passed a number of historic buildings along the street. In front of some buildings, there were one or more brass tiles set on the ground, with some words engraved on them. Shaun knew that each brass brick had a name engraved on it, followed by the statement that on such and such a date, this person who had originally lived in the building had been murdered.
Each yellow brass brick represented a Jew who had been murdered during **'s reign. Most of them died in concentration camps scattered across Europe. Shaun had taken groups to visit some of these camps, and the sense of despair while standing in the gas chambers still managed to hit the depths of the soul.
Walked not long, Shaun came to the Eigelstein Street located near the Cologne train station, this street is a Turkish settlement, most of the shops on the street are opened by Turks, there are the most authentic Turkish restaurants, selling the freshest beef and mutton butcher, and there are also a variety of small and large gold and silver jewellery shops.
Shaun walked with his umbrella to the door of a small, nondescript gold shop, collected his umbrella and pushed through the door, casually placing it in the collection bucket next to the door.
"Good day." A dark-haired, black-bearded Turk greeted from behind a counter with an assortment of gold jewellery.
"Good day. I would like to see Izzy, my name is Shaun." Shaun said.
"He is waiting for you, just go through this door and head inside." The Turk behind the counter said and pointed to a small door next to the counter.
Shaun nodded his thanks and walked through the small door, behind the door was a long narrow aisle, at the end of the aisle was a very spacious space where a few Muslims old men were chatting as they smoked hookahs, the air was thick with smoke and filled with the sweet smell of incense added to the hookahs.
"May Allah bless you all." Shaun said in Arabic.
"May Allah bless you." Several of the old men replied. Then a few of the old men got up and left, leaving behind an old man in a white robe.
"Izzy, hello old friend." Shaun said switching back to German.
"Shaun, my friend." The old man, Izzy, stood up and hugged Shaun.
"I just arrived last night and you found me this morning, not bad for the Imam ." Shaun said with a smile as he sat down. Shaun reckons the taxi driver who gave him a lift last night gave the information.
"Information is all that matters my friend, information!" The old man, who had a thick beard on his jaw, smiled a little smugly.
"Well, what can I do for you, my old friend?" Shaun asked.
"Yes. When I heard it was you coming, I knew we could help each other out again like we used to." Izzy smiled a little slyly.
"Oh? How?" Shaun smiled and looked at Izzy.
"The Catholic Church has friends of mine too, and I probably know what you came to Cologne for. I have some information here that I think you'll be able to use." Izzy said, handing Shaun a hookah as he spoke.
Shaun took the hookah and took a few puffs and asked, "What can I do for you?"
Izzy praised, "Talking to you is a relief. I do have one thing that I need your help with. Recently, a drug trafficking gang has appeared in Cologne, mainly composed of Albanian gypsies, and it is very strong. As you know, I don't allow drugs in my jurisdiction, so I sent someone to negotiate with them, and the person I sent disappeared, and a few bullet holes were punched in the wall of my residence as a warning."
Speaking of this, anger appeared on Izzy's originally calm face: "I went to the police, but the police couldn't find any clues that would lead to their conviction, you know how efficient the German police are, and they must have an informant in the police as well. My informant in the police department told me that behind these Albanians is a transnational gang, very powerful, the Cologne police department alone can't touch them."
Shaun looked calmly into Izzy's eyes: "You know my rules."
Izzy met Shaun's gaze and said: "There is no personal factor involved in this matter. More important than the insults I've suffered and a missing friend is the fact that drugs cannot be allowed to contaminate the youth of Cologne on any scale." With that said he clapped his hands and two young men entered the room escorting a man with his hands bound and a black cloth over his head.
Izzy said, "I made some preparations ahead of time last night and captured one of their men. You can ask what you want to know from him. Also, I'll give you what you need right now." After saying that Izzy handed Shaun a neatly folded piece of paper.
Shaun took the paper and knew that this was Izzy giving himself the clues he wanted first in order to gain his trust.
Shaun looked at his watch, ten thirty, still early for his meeting with Lola.
He stood up and went to the man with the black cloth covering his head and raised his hand to remove the hood. Underneath the hood was a fierce face that squinted at the sudden light, then began to curse incoherently: "You're all going to die! The grey wolf will kill you all!"
Shaun asked, "Oh? Who's the grey wolf?"
The Albanian threw up his face with a fierce expression, "We are the Grey Wolves! Grey Wolf is our boss!" Shaun nodded and asked again, "Who supplies you?"
The Albanian replied: "Our boss is from the Bogonov family, the purest goods as much as you want, you guys just wait for death!"
Shaun nodded and said, "I'll ask you some questions below that you might not like to answer, so let's get to know each other before we do."
Saying this, he signalled the young Turkish man to close the door and window, then took the Albanian's left hand and broke the five fingers of his left hand one by one, starting with the pinky.
Amidst the Albanian's screams, Shaun shrugged his shoulders towards the dumbfounded Izzy and the others and said helplessly, "Can't help it, I'm bloodsick."
～～～～～ split line ～～～～～
European Gods and Monsters:
Heinzel Heinzel:Also known as Dwarf Elf and Small House God. It is a kind of elf in the local legend of Cologne. The legend originated from a fairy tale written by the German writer August Kopisch in 1836. Legend has it that when the Cologne people were lazy and fell asleep, the Dwarf Elves helped them to do all the housework. One day a lazy tailor's wife spilled peas on the floor in order to see the Dwarf Elves, and when night fell, there was a sound of the elves falling on the stairs, and she ran out to see that the Dwarf Elves had all but disappeared. From that time on, Cologne's little house god never appeared again, and people could never be lazy again.
Cologne still has a famous fountain statue based on this story: the Heinzelmännchen, not far from the cathedral.
In the setting of this book, Dwarf Elves are elves with an entity, as opposed to nature spirits, which have no entity. Dwarf Elves have the ability to be invisible.