This is the English version of my actually German story "Die Jagd". I was asked to translate that one and here it is. So please write me a review and wait for the next to chapters coming :)

Part I

Chapter 1

I enter the great cathedral and the first thing I notice ist he darkness. Automatically, I take down my sunglasses and put them away into the pocket of my jacket. Only then I feel the coldness, no, it isn't cold but cool. Cooler than outside where there're over forty degrees centigrade. I'm sweating in my dark blue jacket but I have to wear it. I look around.

On my left side I see a big and decorated altar with Latin inscriptions which I don't understand. Everything is golden and I recognize three coat of arms with three knifes and a lion. Another animal with a glorious mane is holding the shield, his eyes closed. I have no time to further look at them, I have to go on. But this building is just so impressive, far more huge than you could guess by a look from outside. I look at the paintings beneath the arc, three persons on a cloud, perhaps Jesus? In the middle another but framed image of a woman, Maria or Maria Magdalena?

Again the golden shimmering inscriptions on the black cliff, I look straight forward. I don't see the ceiling, it must be incredible high. I'm blinded by the light which is entering through the tiny, high window. It's filling the whole church with light so that artificial light isn't necessary. The columns are thick and remind me on the trees in the tropical rain forest. Everything is beautifully decorated but neither baroque nor romantic era. I don't know much about it but when I look up, I recognize the typical cross-shaped vaults of Gothic style.

I see a colored window between two columns on my left, but I only recognize colors, not the image itself. There are some wooden buildings a few meters away, it's silent here, I only listen to the chorus, but I notice that these voices come from the loudspeaker on the walls. Nobody has yet set it on mute. Somehow this feels mystical. I look at the sign, directly in front of me: "Durante las Celebraciones no se permiten visitas turísticas." I guarantee that there won't be any services today. Slowly, I go left, see a long, not lightened corridor. I walk very slowly, but still fast enough, although I can't cope with all the impression I'm gathering.

Left to me, banks and an altar. Walls without windows are decorated, everything golden and blue and beautiful. I see Jesus at the cross. Behind bars and locked. Right to me a high wall, some kind of interior room perhaps. There's a wooden door, but no tourists can go there. A small arc, reminding me on England, no idea why. Everything really restored carefully, les Drôlements.

How long did they work on them? I don't know and I don't have time to think about it. I have something more important to do. Something, that hasn't been waiting for a hundred of years and can't wait another hundred. Tempus fugit. Another door, the same decoration of stone is repeating itself and forms a kind of symmetry. More columns. The stone floor has got a carpet of wood and I see where the priest has held his services decades ago. The decoration of the roof remind me on Romantic style.

Wow, these columns are really thick, not circles but smaller columns are around it. I see high windows and more light coming in. Left to me another chapel, bars of iron. A red carpet, two chairs, a bank and these black boards, this time without golden inscriptions, an altar with a white blanket. Really old, I think.

But I just can't stop looking around. It's so impressing, such a shame that I'm here because of a sad reason. I don't see anybody but I know that they're here. I see a wooden staircase, the corridor above me. The few windows are enlightening the room really brightly. […]

I walk around the corner and suddenly it gets cold. I feel it on my back. Here it's far darker, I notice bright lights at the end of the corridor. I see the only people n here, concentrating on a thing on the floor, my steps get faster, I don't have any time left to regard the building. But I'm perfectly train and notice the complete environment. I arrive and they look up.

"What happened?" I ask and they let me look at it. First, I only see dark blue. But when my eyes got used to the bare light, I recognize the uniform of a marine. He's wearing his typical hat and I knee down. Automatically I put on my light blue plastic gloves, take the hat and give it Tony to bag it. I'm shortly blinded by McGee's camera, he's doing photos. I sense the glance of my boss but I concentrate on my work.

The dead marine is Admiral Connan, the officer whose life we had to protect. To sum it up shortly, Admiral Connan had received a few anonym life threatening letters three weeks ago. We couldn't solve the case and didn't find anybody who'd make such threats become true. We had to protect him until he flew to a training in Salamanca, West-Spain, close to Portugal. It was reassured that he was safe here.

Now we see, how we can trust internal police. We were informed and within nine hours we flew from Washington to the tiny airport of Salamanca. In two different cars we were brought to the city where I was ordered to interrogate the Admiral's friends in the hotel.

Now I see the blonde, nearly grey hair of the tan Admiral, whose skin is unnaturally pale now. I have to think about Tony's comparison to actor Aaron Eckhart, Harvey Dent in Batman The Dark Knight and have to admit that he could be right.

"Cause of death?" Gibbs asks drily and Ducky knees down again.

"No external violence…his body is cold and here you see rigor mortis. So he's at least dead for six hours." He turned the body and added: "Here you can notice livores." He opens the unform and shows red-violet parts of the skin where the blood has gathered.

"Time of death?" the boss asked impatiently. I still stare at the man we had to protect.

"That's hard to say due to the cold environment he was found in but I think as we were called nine hours ago when he was found by the night guard, I assume he's been dead for ten or eleven hours now", Ducky answered.

"Cause of death?", Gibbs hated to repeat himself.

"Like I said, Jethro, no obvious marks of violence", he explained and touched the cold skin of the pale body. "But an intoxication might be possible. It can only be proved in the lab." I nod and help McGee to shoot photos.

While doing so, I notice a kind of cornice, I touch it, why ever, I don't know but suddenly I feel a piece of paper and it turns out to be a calling card. I turn it and am surprised. "What's that?" Gibbs asked curiously.

"Small, red east" I read. This doesn't make any sense. Tony gives me a plastic bag and I put the white piece of paper into it.

"A riddle?" Ducky asks. "If so, a very difficult riddle", Tony mutters and makes another photo of the place where I've found the evidence.

"Perhaps this might be a clue" Palmer says and we follow his pointing finger. In a tiny chapel there's a red light, a naked light bulb, no idea, what it means. Gibbs slowly walks there and we follow him.

"The altar" McGee says. "The altars were all pointing to East" he adds and Gibbs nods. He opens the bars and enters the chapel. "Look around, every detail could be important for our murderer," he says and we don't answer but search.

I see a statue of Maria and her son and don't notice how long we sought, until Tony suddenly shouts: "I have found something!" I walk over and see a white piece of paper in his hands. "Four reverential agents you shall be" he reads and looks at us.

Nobody has any idea what this could mean. "Come on, search!" Gibbs hisses and we decide to look around in the whole church. But this cathedral is huge and I have no idea what this assassin wants. A bloody scavenger hunt?

What's the goal we have to expect? I walk around a second corridor and back. The light is bright again here and this hint reminds me on the movie "Eleven couples you shall be, FC Venus. I admit, I've never watched this movie but Tony did and told me every tiny detail about it. But if, what does it have to do with this here?

I go on and notice my steps growing. Nothing's here and I enter the middle of the church. Reverential. I look at the wooden banks. No, the murderer must know Tony really well. What does a reverent person do? He knees. Indiana Jones, I remember. So I knee and wonder what this should mean. I stare straight in front of me. Suddenly, I notice four figures at the wall.

I shout for the others and seconds later we're searching the third piece of paper. It's very silent while Gibbs reads. He passes it and Tony reads out loud: "Scissor cuts paper, paper covers fountain, fountains drowns body, body replaces corpse." " Shouldn't it mean: Body becomes corpse?" I asked surprised. Gibbs nods. "I've seen a plastic statue of Jesus' corpse when I came here" he says and we're following him to another chapel.

The church is huge but now I'm started even more by what I see. "There was a plastic figure!" McGee says.

"He's here" Gibbs mutters.

"He was here" Tony mentions and earns a slap on his head.

"Somebody must have exchanged the corpse with the figure while we were occupied with our Admiral" McGee explains.

"Get Ducky" the boss orders Tony. He nods and goes away. We look at the body and already hear the steps of the pathologist. Mr. Palmer stayed with Connan. "Oh dear" Ducky says and looks at the body of the night guard.

"Tell me something" Gibbs says after a while.

"It's easy. Here you stand and you're the murderer" Ducky puts Tony into position. "Tony, you take a knife and stab it into my ear", Ducky instructs and shows the wound on the body. "The victim hits the floor, the murder catches him and puts him here. That was about ten minutes ago. I think the knife is the murder weapon because here you can see the cut…" He takes a metal stick and measures the depth of the wound. "The blade is twelve centimeters long. The brain was damages and important nerves were destroyed. A blood clot in the head creates a blood stasis and this leads to death within minutes."

We're silently nodding. "Perhaps this may be interesting" he adds and gives us a new paper. "Where the streets are dividing" I read.

"That's outside" I say and suddenly remember. "When you go from here to the hotel, there is a long street dividing first and then coming together again. One street is crowded with souvenir shops and cafés and the other one is completely dead."

"Okay. You and Tony, you search the streets and we're occupied here" Gibbs declares and without any other word, Tony and I are leaving the cathedral.