I own nothing associated with the books of Dan Brown. Please don't sue me for this piss-poor rip-off.

Prologue

Professor Sheridan Grizzlthwaite ached all over but he had to keep running. The ghostly glow of the full moon provided the only light as he frantically stumbled his way through the woods in the dead of night. Somewhere behind him, the murderer followed closely, the carving knife in his black leather-gloved hand ready to strike.

Even as he huffed and puffed and wheezed, Grizzlthwaite knew he wouldn't be able to outrun his pursuer for long. A life in the lab had left little time for exercise, and the portly scientist felt his body giving up on him as the adrenalin rush coursing through him began to subside.

He could hear him now, the black-clad murderer with the knife, ghosting his way effortlessly through the thick vegetation. Suddenly Grizzlthwaite glimpsed a flash of sharpened steel as the man pounced, falling on top of him with his evil eyes the only visible feature behind his black ski-mask.

"No!" he gasped, "please don't kill me! I have money."

"Moohahaha," replied the murderer evilly. "I have no interest in material gain."

"Why? Are you a communist?"

"Don't be so literal. You know too much and that is why you must die!"

"Isn't that a little clichéd?"

"Silence! I will not suffer your insubordination any longer! It is time for you to die, but before I do, I will reveal my face to you as I do with all my victims!"

The murderer lifted his mask, and Professor Grizzlthwaite was horrified to see a familiar face staring back at him.

"My god!" he gasped. "It's you!"

"Yes," said the murderer. "You have seen me, but now you will not again!" and with that the knife plunged down.

You have seen me but now you will not again? thought the murderer. I really need to come up with a better catchphrase than that.

As swift as the wind, the murderer was gone again.