Budapest, Hungary

"How is it that Dominik Martinus got hold of the Jewels?" Sully suddenly asked. "Before Roger went mad, he seemed to be certain the Jewels were safely hidden at the Abbey."

After crashing the night before and getting a decent sleep they left their motel in Suchedniów just as the sun was rising and began the long drive to Budapest. At Nate's insistence they changed to a new rental car just before the Poland-Slovakia border in a town called Dolny Kubin and then again just after the Slovakia-Hungary border at Śahy.

Now they were driving on Route 11 towards Budapest.

"Roger must have slipped up, told someone about them or let it slip he had something valuable." Nate replied. "Martinus finds out, and he wasn't exactly a saint. He sold out his entire Abbey to the Mongols just so he could get away with the Jewels so I wouldn't put stealing above him."

Sully grunted, "Charming fellow."

They had driven all day and night was just settling in when they reached downtown Budapest, the streetlights playing off its many architectural styles. They passed classic and renaissance buildings, Turkish baths, and gothic churches. It was a beautiful city built on the Danube, Europe's second longest river.

They decided it was too late to visit the Red Hedgehog House and after being in the car all day, Nate desperately wanted to stretch his legs. They found a small motel nearby and checked in, paying cash and using fake names. The car was parked on a poorly lit side street and they took a walk around the town. First they walked the Angelo Rotta along the Danube glimpsing the Hungarian Parliament building brilliantly lit up in the clear night sky. They then moved away from the Danube, passing St Anne's Church, a two-towered gothic church built in the 1700s and turned up Csalogány u. stopping at a local restaurant specialising in Hungarian cuisine.

Once they were seated, Nate ordered the Goulash while Sully ordered the chicken paprikash.

"See anyone following?" Nate asked as they waited for their food.

"Nah, I thought there might have been one to two times but they seemed legit," Sully replied. "Besides, we swapped cars, used fake names and cash. If anyone was following us in Poland, we would surely have lost them by now."

Nate nodded but he wasn't convinced. The events from the night before still played on his mind, and despite the news saying nothing, he was convinced the mercenaries were cops. And if they were cops, they would have to have been bought off, and whoever can do that must be well funded.

Which meant, in his experience, a lot of trouble. Well-funded people don't give up easily. They can pay handsomely for information, a couple of hundred US would be all that was needed to get information from customs, the car rental people, or motel concierges, as well as having their own contacts all over the world. He hadn't seen anyone following them on their drive down or during their walk around Budapest but that could mean they had better tracking methods this time.

Whatever the case may be, Nate wasn't going to let his guard down, not until this business with the Crown Jewels was finished.

Their food arrived, the goulash was beef stew sautéed in tomato and onions in a paprika-spiced broth and it was delicious. Sully devoured his chicken paprikash and they paid and left, continuing up the Csalogány u. to Mammut Shopping Mall before circling back towards their motel. On the way they passed the Vienna Gate, a stone archway that, in medieval times, connected Buda castle to the highway to Vienna. Next to it was a plaque which read:

IN MEMORIAM - HEROUM CHRISTI - ANORUM PRO URBE - BUDA MORTUORUM - ANNO MDCLXXXVI

"What does that mean?" Sully asked.

Nate re-read the script, "In...memory...Christian...heroes...died...Buda- Ah, it says 'In memory of the Christian heroes who died for the town of Buda in 1686'"

Alongside it was a brass statue of an angel on a limestone pedestal, right leg forward, wings flared behind and holding up a patriarchal cross. There was an inscription on the right and left side of the pedestal.

The right side read:

BUDA REGIA + EX SERVITVTE - IN LIBERTATEM - RESTITVTA - AD MDCLXXXVI

""The royal castle of Buda, delivered from slavery into liberty in the year of our Lord 1686'," Nate translated before Sully could ask.

The left side was written in Hungarian which Nate didn't understand.

"1686 must have been an important year around here, huh?" Sully remarked as they moved away.

"Yeah it was the year the Holy League won Budapest, or Buda as it was known back then, back from the Ottoman Empire. The city was lost to the Turks in the 16th century, 1541 I think, so Pope Innocent XI got the super friends together to fight the Ottomans - Ottomens? - either way, they won it back in 1686."

"Geez, is there ever a time when this continent wasn't at war?"

Nate chuckle, "They were pretty volatile times. But if not for them we probably wouldn't be in the business we are. Wars happen, treasures get lost. Fast forward a few centuries and here we are to rediscover them."

"It's a beautiful system" Sully said with a grin.

They continued their walk, passing the Church of St. Mary Magdalene, a tower church that served as a Christian Church and then a Mosque during the Ottoman reign and the Military Museum which captured Hungarian military history from current day all the way back to the Magyar conquest in the 9th and 10th centuries.

Satisfied no one was following them and with Sully gloating about the fact, they decided to head back to the motel to plan for the next day.