# 🔥 **PART I — THE GREAT CRIME NOVEL**## ***“BETWEEN SHADOW AND TRUTH”***

# **PROLOGUE — BROKEN NIGHT**

It was raining. Not ordinary rain, but sharp, cold rain, digging into the skin like needles. Police lights flashed in London's Southwark district as a man's body was found on the cobblestones next to the cathedral.

He was about forty years old, wearing an elegant coat, and in his hand…

…a business card. Yellowed, old-fashioned, identical to the one found a hundred years earlier in the Arthur Penbrook case.

**“Don't trust the light.”**

The case is brought to the *Global Crime Bureau (GCB)* — a secret, international unit uniting the world's most distinguished detectives.

The best of the best — each from a different country, each with their own story.

### GCB Team:

* **Evelyn Clarke** – specialist in historical and symbolic crimes (the Penbrook case).

* **René Fournier** – psychological analyst (the Lake Noir case).

* **Vincent Marlowe** – detective in theatrical crimes (the theater case).

* **Laura Moretti** – expert in high-tech disappearances (the Delacroix case).

* **Ingrid Solberg** – specialist in crimes in extreme conditions (the cabin case).

* **Jonathan Reed** – psychological detective (The House on the Precipice).

* **Raffaele Satori** – researcher in literary and intellectual crimes (The Library).

Each of them receives a piece of the puzzle—and this story is bigger than any single case.

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# **CHAPTER 1 — DEAD IN THE BODY, ALIVE IN THE ARCHIVES**

The victim from the prologue turns out to be **Professor Elias Grant**, a renowned historian of symbols and an old friend of Evelyn Clarke.

Three items were found in his apartment:

1. A card covered in the *Lingua Obscura* alphabet (from the Medici Library).

2. An old Aurora train ticket (from your earlier puzzle).

3. A photo of... a house on a cliff in Cornwall.

All these things **should never have connected**.

And yet, someone braided them together like a braid.

---

# **CHAPTER 2 — THE BLACK MAP**

Grant's analysis points to the existence of a secret brotherhood, active from the 15th century to the present day:

### **Brotherhood of the Three Circles**

The symbol?

Three intertwined circles—exactly like the one found in an old hospital in Berlin.

For centuries, the brotherhood engaged in:

* theft from libraries and museums,

* manipulating politicians,

* destroying inconvenient witnesses,

* concealing information and falsifying history.

Every GCB detective has unknowingly fought them before.

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# **CHAPTER 3 — THE BOOK THAT NEVER WAS**

Grant was examining a certain manuscript:

**“Liber Umbrae — The Book of Shadow”**

Considered to be:

* a forgery,

* a legend,

* a myth.

However, a fragment appeared in the notes of Alessandra Venti (Library of Dead Manuscripts).

The book supposedly contains:

* a cipher allowing the manipulation of history,

* a language used not only for writing but also for psychological programming,

* a map to the locations of missing artifacts.

It is this language that connects all the clues.

--

# **CHAPTER 4 - AT THE SEVEN STAR HOTEL**

The team determines that tycoon Adrian Li, who "disappeared" from the hotel, did not die in an accident.

His *disappearance was real*.

And in his digital safe, they found a file:

**"Liber Umbrae - Part 3 (digitization)"**

The Brotherhood of the Three Rings tried to seize the book.

Li fled.

He went into hiding.

He was working against them.

And Grant was his associate.

---

# **CHAPTER 5 - THEATRE TRAP**

Vincent Marlowe discovers that old theater files contained letters to a non-existent person signed as:

**"Master Palladius"**

This is the pseudonym of the Brotherhood's leader.

Clues indicate that they plan to:

* recover all the fragments of *Liber Umbrae*,

* piece them together,

* destroy all evidence of their activities,

* "rewrite world history."

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# **CHAPTER 6 - HOUSE ON THE PRECIPLINE: THE RETURN**

Jonathan Reed returns to the titular house to analyze a photo found at Grant's.

In the basement, he finds:

**a hidden room containing 17th-century documents.**

This is the Brotherhood's archive.

There you'll find:

* false genealogies,

* lists of agents in royal courts,

* maps of hidden libraries,

* faction operating instructions,

* and finally — a **list of 7 names from the 20th century.**

Three of them have already died in your previous puzzles.

Grant was the fourth.

Someone is eliminating those who were close to the truth.

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# **CHAPTER 7 — CULMINATION**

GCB detectives discover that the final fragment of Liber Umbrae is stored in:

**the basement of a hospital in Berlin**,

in a place wherewhere the three-circle symbol was found.

The Brotherhood sets traps, misleading clues, and false guards.

But detectives are better.

They descend into the catacombs and find the ritual chamber.

There waits **Master Palladius**—masked, with the final fragment of the book.

It turns out to be…

**Professor Bellini**—Alessandra Venti's rival.

The same one suspected earlier.

The one who manipulated Enrico into killing Alessandra.

Bellini had been a member of the Brotherhood for decades.

He wanted to unite all of *Liber Umbrae* and become its sole guardian.

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# **CHAPTER 8 — FINALE**

The GCB takes possession of the book.

Bellini is arrested.

But she utters the final sentence:

**"You only gave me the beginning. You don't even know that the book has FOUR parts."**

And dies with a smile.

--

# **EPILOGUE — OPEN DOOR**

In the final scene, Laura Moretti opens Li's safe, which they managed to find alive.

Inside is a file titled:

**"Liber Umbrae — Chapter 4: The Missing Guardians."**

And beneath it is a photo of...

**all the GCB detectives.**

Taken the day before the case began.

Someone was watching them.

Someone knew they would rise.

Someone... was planning their meeting.

The story is just beginning.

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