Chernobyl Murders
Chapter One
Present Day
Kiev, Ukraine
Kiev is unusually warm for May as a noon crowd thickens with workers on their
lunch break. Some carry lunches wrapped in newspaper as they weave in and out of
tourists studying brochures and shoppers carrying parcels. The workers move quickly
downhill on Khreshchatik Boulevard like rivulets of water eager to reach the cool river
bottom of the ancient valley. They flood onto European Square like conquering Mongol
hordes, taking tourists and shoppers with them into the park, where food vendors wait in
the shade of chestnut trees. Ignoring pedestrian underpasses, the crowd tightens a
tourniquet on the flow of traffic. A person monitoring a spy satellite might conclude
something in the city has resulted in panic, but it is simply hunger.
Queues at food vendors extend into the hot sun on the square. Slavs with
frowning broad faces lean sideways to study the length of queues. These workers from
downtown hotels, museums, and shops wear faded cotton coveralls and dresses of
nonprofessionals. Although tuli ... read full excerpt from Chernobyl Murders ebook
