The Gargoyle Group

Francis BAUDOUIN

The Gargoyle Group

Editions du Prof

I want to pay tribute to Félicien Deleuze, who was my English teacher at the grammar school of Huy from 1961 to 1963.

He taught us not only the English language but also its literature and immense masterpieces.

Somewhat similar to the professor of " Dead Poets Society", he encouraged his students to reject conformity by advocating for the development of personality and taste of freedom.

Mr. Deleuze used to say that neither of us is perfect, and that human errors are opportunities - not for shame or guilt - but for forgiveness and growth.

My basic skills in English were crucial but they were only the beginning of a continuum of learning throughout my life.

Therefore I decided to write this novel in English with the intention of improving my knowledge of this language while remembering all what my former professor instilled me.

This novel publication is one step further in that direction, but I know I am far yet from bridging the remaining gap.

Thank you Mr. Deleuze Francis Baudouin

Dépôt légal : D/2015/9789/01

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The Gargoyle Group Also by Francis Baudouin Novels La barbarie des érudits Editions Dricot 1994 La barbarie des érudits, Ed Dricot, Liège 1994 (Préface d’Edmond Blattchen) Les despotes éblouis, Ed. Dricot, Liège 1995 (Préface d’Albert Jacquard) 2067, l’inévitable affrontement, Clé, Editions littéraires, Liège 1997 (Préface de Paul Rostenne) Voyage en Hugolie (Sur les traces de Victor Hugo) Ed.Prof. Chaudfontaine 2002 Le Congrès des ufologues, Ed. Prof, Chaudfontaine 2003 (Préface d’Édouard Poty) L’Opération Samovar, préface d’Albert Jacquard, Ed.Prof, Chaudfontaine 2010, 239p.

(C’est la réécriture des Despotes éblouis)

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The Gargoyle Group Essays Promenade en Hugolie, (Sur les traces de Victor Hugo) Ed. Prof, Chaudfontaine 2002 La fin des hommes machines (Préface de Paul Rostenne) Ed. Prof, Chaudfontaine 2003 L’archéologue de Dieu (à l’occasion du cinquantième anniversaire du décès d’Albert Einstein) ; Ed. Prof ; Chaudfontaine 2005 Autobiographies Francisse d’Engisse (autobiographie de l’auteur :année 1945-1969) Ed. Prof ; Chaudfontaine 2006 L’Odysée d’un Col blanc (autobiographie de l’auteur : année 1969-1993) Ed. Prof ; Chaudfontaine 2007 Professeur d’espérances (autobiographie de l’auteur : année 1993-2005) Ed. Prof ; Chaudfontaine 2009 Lectures Sur les traces de Victor Hugo ; Albert Einstein, hier et aujourd’hui ; Charles Darwin, évolution et révolution ; Conan Doyle, Sherlock Holmes et les autres…

Publisher, Editions du Prof. Copyright D / 2003 / 9789/ 01

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The Gargoyle Group To my three grandchildren, Ella, Milo and Robin To the Neanderthal child who joined his place of honour in Engis, his native ground, on the 20th of December 2002.

Author’s note In this work, the characters, places and told events are most of time productions of the author’s imagination. However, any resemblance to actual people, living or dead is not purely coincidental. In other words, everything is plausible, but little reflects reality.

To save embarrassment to people still living, I have taken pains to make sure no one should recognize them.

Even though the above-mentioned people and the narrator are using terms from the scientific field, the reader has a glossary at its disposal at the end of the chronicle.

The author asks his readers to accept the male or female pronouns (he or she) instead of the neutral (it) when he refers to some creatures that do not belong to our species.

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The Gargoyle Group If my reading of facts is correct, it means there are billions of billions of planets that sheltered, are still sheltering or will be sheltering life (...)

This explains the interest of Green Bank's colloque attendees in search of an extraterrestrial intelligence. Meanwhile, it is necessary to be satisfied with the message delivered by life down here, and this message means there must be abundance of life up there.

Photo taken on the 9th of June 1995

Christian de Duve at the recording of the television show Noms de dieux RTBF Liège

Poussière de vie

P.209-210 (Fayard Editions)

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Presentation of the main characters by country Belgium Andreas Hertafouris, an exobiologist and professor at the University of Liege, discoverer of the skeleton named Aristotle.

(Before and after his agression)

Louis Garnier, a geneticist and professor at the University of Liege, organizer of the symposium of Chaudfontaine.

Georges Raskinet, a retired professor, nicknamed Old Prof, Liege University

Professor Edouard Poty, Paleontologist, Liege University

Francis Baudouin, professor of sciences, author of this chronicle and inhabitant of the village where took place the symposium.

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The Gargoyle Group Josette, Baudouin’s wife.

Emile Duchêne, the investigating magistrate in Liege.

Marina Duchêne, a student, the investigating magistrate’s daughter.

Jules Bataille, a police commissioner in Liege.

Auguste Jamin, an inspector detective in Liege.

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The Gargoyle Group

Aristotle, the twelve-fingered skeleton discovered in Engis Village near Liège

Czech Republic Gustav Palach, a paleoanthropologist, professor at Prague University

Germany Professor Von Braun, Munich University Archaeologist of the University of Munich, spethe cave paintings

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cialist in

The Gargoyle Group The United States Ronald Perkin, a professor at Arizona University in Tucson, specialist of the planet Mars, wholesaler in prehistoric bones.

United Kingdom

Stanley Wynn, a professor at Christ Church College of Oxford during the Sixties.

Archibald Wynn, Stanley’s son, an exobiologist and a professor at Christ Church College of Oxford in 2001.

Fenimore Wynn, Archibald’s son, a painter influenced by his father’s theories.

Mr. John Trevenen, nicknamed Sperminator, an eight-fingered creature.

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The Gargoyle Group George Hamilton, Professor at Cavendish Laboratory of Cambridge University. He is a specialist in viral therapy

Tarakan is on the right with his turban on his head. I always ignored his first name, but I know he was successively Stanley Wynn’s former collaborator then Archibald’s one.

Mangalore is on the left. He wore sun glasses and was a professor of bacteriology at Oxford University during the sixties, And the following picture is Tarakan in 2001

Pryce, Sperminator’s human collaborator

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The Gargoyle Group Obesidon, Sperminator’s sulphuric man collaborator.

Spencer , manager of Volcanic Village in Espiritu Santo Island.

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Foreword The story told by Francis Baudouin is at the same time a regional story, a detective story, a "space opera" and a science fiction novel: • regional story, as it uses to places and characters of Liège and its immediate surroundings; • detective story, since it contains victims, murderers and police officers; • space opera because it involves aliens; • science fiction novel mainly because the author gives his story a significant scientific basis that he interprets, adapts, distorts or complete at will by fictitious discoveries without which there would be only science without any fiction!

But where does the scientific field stop and where does pure fiction begin ? And if the border was less marked than it appears and depended, after all, on the time and degree of scientific knowledge of society?

Thus, during the winter 1829-1830, the discovery by Philip Charles Schmerling of two human skulls associated with some extinct animals such as mammoths, cave bears and woolly rhinoceros in a cave in Engis - site where the Greek professor Hertafouris Andreas, one of the heroes of Francis Baudouin, discovered in 2001 the skeleton Aristotle - was far from raising enthusiasm at that time and fell into a polished oblivion.

Statue of Charles Schmerling close to the church of Awirs Village and the brain-pan of the neandertalian child that he acquired in the winter 1829-1830.

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Foreword Indeed, Georges Cuvier had declared in his Discours sur les RĂŠvolutions de la Surface du Globe that "there is no

fossil human bones."

For this great French paleontologist, founder of comparative anatomy and author of remarkable works on fossil animals, the supposed human remains and fossils collected previously had been either mixed with older fossils, or actually belonged to animal species.

He had been able to provide evidence in particular by identifying a fossil giant salamander, the famous Homo diluvii testis (Photograph on the right) described in 1726 by the Swiss Jean Jacob Scheuchzer regarded by this one as a "lamentable witness of the Flood and which had seen God." (Man witness to the flood).

And yet, even in the early nineteenth century, geologists and paleontologists displayed a great open mind and imagination to recognize not only the possibility of human seniority, but also that of human foss ils and human extinct species.

As wrote in 1832 Henry T. De La Beche in his "Manuel gĂŠologique": "If we ever managed to prove satisfactorily the simultaneous existence of man and of the large mammals of extinct species, it would be interesting to determine whether the human remains that were found belong to a lost species, or to a species indistinguishable from that which exists now, as happens for horse bones. " Yet he did not know the discovery of Schmerling!

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Foreword We had to wait the mid-nineteenth century in order to accept the contemporary nature of man with fossil species, and more than a century (1935) to rehabilitate the work of Schmerling with regard to the Neanderthal features of the skull of the child of Engis.

We had to wait yet more (until the 1990s) in order that paleontologists and prehistorians stop treating Neanderthal man as a single European subspecies of Homo sapiens, but as a distinct human species and therefore not reproducible with Homo sapiens!

This revolution, it is one indeed, forced us to admit there is not long compared to human evolution (tens of thousands of years) that consciousness and features, which for us are unique to humans, i.e. to ourselves, were not unique, but could also have existed in the parent species.

Note that science makes progress by accumulating observations, experiences and interpretations, some of which can sometimes be erroneous afterwards. The findings of Schmerling have not completely escaped the frustration, because the skull of the adult from Engis assumed to be the same age as that of the child with whom he had been collected - has proved to be much more younger than the latter: about 4600 years only. His association with the remains of extinct mammals was therefore due to chance, as Cuvier had anticipated.

We see we must dare imagine some assumptions consistent with those commonly accepted in order to advance our knowledge. Aristotle the Neanderthal man discovered in the novel, has twelve fingers to each of his hands and twelve toes to each of his feet. This phenomenon leads Francis Baudouin to insert a few alien genes causing us to switch into the realm of pure imagination.

Let's remember it has been accepted and taught for ages, that the number of fingers in terrestrial vertebrates is originally 5 and is expected to match the number of bone rays which are present in the fins of rhipidistian fishes that gave birth to amphibians 360 million years ago.

The oldest fossils of this group, however, showed that they were sometimes equipped with 6, 7 and even 8 fingers. Finally, it is not extraordinary that Aristotle also could have 12 fingers.

In the vague he maintains between exact science and product of his imagination, Francis Baudouin described - consciously or unconsciously - an enigma whose plot feeds uncertainties raised during the stages of our own physical development but also metaphysics.

This novel is pure fiction, but the reality - at least partly - might exceed it.

Edouard POTY Professor of Paleontology

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Archibald Wynn On the first of July 2001, Archibald Wynn had just arrived in Liege when the temperature exceeded thirty degrees. Standing at the top of the open air theatre, his back turned towards the River Meuse, he was examining the frontage of the Zoological Institute.

He stared at the pediment where Darwin’s head is carved.

A little qualified person in anthropology would have immediately concluded that this visitor was an Englishman.

With his long head, the clear skin, the red hair and the slim size, he whispered: “Hello Charles!�

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Archibald Wynn An observer would have found it difficult to say whether he was nearer to forty or to sixty. He was wearing a parka without sleeves and short trousers cut in the same khaki-coloured cloth like an explorer coming back from a mission and amazed to find himself again in the civilized world.

For three days, there had been streams of visitors arriving along the embankments of the river Meuse. The buses had come from everywhere and had poured the tourists attracted by the anthropological scoop of the new millennium: a Neanderthal man skeleton with twelve fingers to each end and twelve toes to each foot.

Wynn moved towards the imposing bronze statue and admired the two naked and slim young women playing leapfrog. He looked at his watch, crossed the road and climbed the staircase between the statues of two famous biologists, Schwann and Van Beneden. He then pushed the heavy door and entered the hall of the institute.

The reception clerk had just closed her counter and was going to leave the institute. It was seven p.m. She had seen him going towards the Delvaux painting that decorates the wall at the end of the hall. There, the visitors could see half-naked men and women amid animals, plants and volcanoes.

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Archibald Wynn

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Archibald Wynn She had even moved towards him wondering whether he would need a piece of information. He had answered: "Thank you very much; I have only come to admire this painting. I'll take a photo another day" Although this painting is not on the paying route, this man, who seemed to come all straight from a picture book, drew the attention of a retired professor who had been living in the institute for more than forty years and who had been authorized to keep his office located on the first floor. Most of his colleagues and most stu-dents called him Raskinet. He stopped walking, put his hands on his hips and said to the reception clerk: “He is the very image of Livingstone, my word!"

"He's only missing a colonial helmet," she added, hilarious, as she was opening the door of the institute to go out.

Wynn (photo on the right) moved towards her.

"I have to ask you a question: can you tell me where is Aristotle ?"

"Aristotle, you mean the skeleton?"

"Yes, how could it be somebody else?" the Englishman answered. "You have been exposing it for three days to everybody, even on the Internet!"

"Aristotle is in the museum, sir, at the second floor."

"Is he still there?"

"Why wouldn't he be there anymore? The visitors haven't stopped coming to see him since the opening this morning. I couldn't even have enough time to eat."

"Did a strange man pass here?" added the visitor.

"A strange man, you said. What do you mean?"

"I think of a tall man with a hat, glasses and a long coat."

"No! Of course!" she replied.

Anxious to go home as soon as possible, she sent the Englishman to the first floor where Hertafouris's office was.

"Oh! I know him well. He is there luckily" he said, smiling.

When he came out of the lift, some bloodstained footprints guided him towards the Greek's office. Wynn banged several times at the door. Nobody answered. He then tried to enter. The door was locked.

After a moment of thought, he stepped back then he rushed onto the door with his outstretched leg forward, and smashed down the door. Hertafouris was lying on the floor unconscious while blood was pouring out of his carotid artery.

A part of his hair had been removed, and somebody had rummaged in a cupboard. The phone was not hung up again. One had tried without success to force the safe with a blowtorch. A gas bottle, of unknown source in the institute, was still close to it.

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Archibald Wynn

Left, Andreas Hertafouris lies on the ground of his office in a pool of blood.

Below, the safe was forced without success with a blowtorch.

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Archibald Wynn Georges Raskinet (Photo on the right) nicknamed Old Prof, who had just joined his office giving onto the same corridor, came and saw the carnage.

"Maybe the attacker is still in the building," he said to Wynn as he was hurrying to call an ambulance then to contact the curator of the museum.

Immediately, the medical department hurried to stop the blood still seeping out of the wound Professor Hertafouris was then taken along to the university hospital complex.

Shortly after, Commissioner Bataille sent by the Criminal Investigation Department, flanked by two detectives, led the investigation. He was a small hatted man (Photo on the right) who singularly contrasted with his assistants, who were near two meters high. They carried out the usual operations: statements of prints, collecting of blood specimens, measurements and pictures of the soles on the staircase, recovery of objects likely to be touched by the attacker.

The window of the office was open.

It was located above the large amphitheatre which we can see in the following photograph.

They did not break the window that must have been open before the attack. Besides, how could the attacker have jumped without breaking a limb?

Bataille and his inspectors investigated around the building of the Institute as well in order to verify that neither mural trace existed nor any print on the freshly cut grass. Bataille did not neglect any track, like would have made Sherlock Holmes. He enjoyed repeating: "There is nothing more misleading than an obvious fact".

They started then the investigations with the woman, the reception clerk who had been urged not to leave the Institute.

"I found him very strange in his getup and in his questions," she said to Bataille.

"He was looking for a tall man with a hat, glasses and a long coat. Absurd, isn't it in this heatwave."

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Archibald Wynn

Raskinet wanted to take part in the investigation. He was well appreciated for his rage to publish scientific articles in specialized reviews and thought his scientific spirit could help Bataille.

His office was located above the large amphitheatre (Above).

View from the window of the office was open (Below).

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Archibald Wynn "If that doesn’t disturb you," he said cordially to the commissioner, I would be too glad to take a lesson while watching how you carry out.

"Oh! Dear sir," this one replied, "I don’t see any disadvantage there, even if each one of you remains suspect until the proof of the contrary."

"Are we potential suspects?" Raskinet bitterly questioned.

"You have already viewed Columbo on the TV, Professor. You understand what I mean," Bataille answered by standing in the same position as the famous police lieutenant (Photo on the right).

"Err! Err! Yes!" he muttered.

"It is obvious," the curator exclaimed.

"You said suspect!" Archibald Wynn insisted "Oh! Of course, you can question me when you want."

"Professor," Bataille said to Raskinet.

"Tell me which way you would choose to begin this investigation?"

"I'd rather start with the museum on the second floor."

"Why?" "There are two reasons, sir. The first one, Aristotle, the main attraction of the moment, stands there. The second one, I noticed the elevator button leading towards this floor had been removed. It’s a small detail, maybe unimportant, but it struck me."

The four men went to the second floor through the staircase also covered with blood. When they arrived there, they saw that the double door of the museum was closed.

"That's odd!” the curator exclaimed, amazed.

"It's five o’clock," the commissioner pointed out.

"Yes, the visits are finished, but we close later at this time so that our students can fully use the museum."

"Allow me!" said Wynn while moving back.

Bataille nodded in agreement.

Again, the Englishman lost his phlegm, he moved backwards then rushed towards the lock, the leg stretched out forward, perpendicular to his body. The door gave way. A trail of fresh blood led them to the Mammals' room and, at the end of this one, on the right, where the Hominids are exposed; they noticed Aristotle had disappeared.

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Archibald Wynn

"It is unbelievable!" Raskinet howled. "In my time, such a treasure would have been supervised by a garrison!"

"Good heavens!" said the curator.

"My goodness!" Archibald Wynn articulated.

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Archibald Wynn This event took place on the very day of the opening of the Ufologists symposium organized in Chaudfontaine in the utmost secrecy, and on this occasion, Professor Wynn had come to Liege.

So few people in town knew what Ufology means. The majority of inhabitants knew UFO, what means "Unidentified flying objects" in abbreviated form, but the existence of a science studying these objects was unknown.

The organizers had decided to do things in a big way by gathering numerous specialists, not only interested in such objects, but all those who were fascinated by extraterrestrial life.

It was not only a study of machines conveying the creatures coming from other planets, but also and maybe especially a study of living beings able to pilot them.

This is why the confidential invitation entitled “UFO and Aliens Symposium."

Several universities had contributed to the budget of this organization. Among the basic disciplines, Geology is the study of materials of which the earth is made, the structure of those materials, and the processes acting upon them. It includes the study of organisms that have inhabited our planet.

Exobiology is concerned by extraterrestrial life and by processes that conduct its development. Genetics considers the transmission of genes and the appearance of the physical and behavioural characteristics. Paleontology analyzes the forms of life during geological times starting from the fossils. Last but not least, "Teledetection" makes it possible to bear the universe in search of understandable messages.

Exobiology was Professor Wynn’s skill, and he was a talented paleontologist too.

Archibald Wynn was aware his presence in Liege was likely to displease. Some people in the city knew the Englishman and did not appreciate he could know a heap of things. These people were waiting for the favourable moment to do him harm. What kind of harm? He did not know, but had no doubt about their intentions. Why did he not seriously follow Scotland Yard’s advice after he had been accosted in the Natural history museum in London, when he was observing a stegosaurus skeleton from the footbridge overhanging the room.

The meeting with that unpleasant person had taken place a few months ago when Oxford University had given him the job of developing a new dating method of fossils.

"Professor," This visitor had retorted him; "I remind you we want to buy your knowledge!"

First, Wynn quickened his step. As he was descending the slope towards the ground floor, the visitor had then said to him: "Dinosaurs seem to interest you, Pro-fessor. Shouldn’t you take care about the species you have exploited in Volcanic Village and which, nowadays is dying out?"

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Archibald Wynn

That allusion at this village and at this species had frightened Wynn, as if he was announced his own death.

It was not the first time that a scientific had been more attracted by a gold mine than by a re-search promising progress for humanity.

The man, who had approached him, had not hesitated to offer him a well-paid takeover of his knowledge However, Archibald Wynn liked nature and living beings too much to avoid succumbing to economic temptations. His father, Stanley Wynn, had often repeated to him: "Archie! What you know is coveted; others want to know it. Be careful! You should accept the Institute's help and the one from Scotland Yard" In spite of Wynn's stubbornness to refuse them, the curator of Natural history museum, who heard about this threat, had given the description of the attacker.

This one was photographed when he was just leaving the museum and a little later in a bus.

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Archibald Wynn

"It does happen more and more often" he said to Scotland Yard. Although Professor Wynn didn't inform me, I'm aware of it thanks to CCTV of the Institute (Above).

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Archibald Wynn The Yard had immediately tapped Wynn’s private and professional phones. He had been followed for several days by a police officer who had watched his comings and goings.

Archibald left Cromwell Road at around 5 p.m., bought The Daily Telegraph at a kiosk, then entered a pub close to Earl’s Court’s subway station. He drank an amber-coloured beer, generally a Pride of London, then joined his apartment located Hogarth Street, two hundred meters far from the pub.

One day, Wynn had then received an anonymous call requiring of him to go with his file into Westminster Abbey, and to deposit it under the Coronation Chair (Photo on the right).

This depository location seemed quite paradoxical, since hundreds of people passed in front of that chair every day and the guards were watching with the greatest attention. It was even forbidden to photograph.

The blackmailer had fixed a date and an hour. To force his interlocutor to accept, he had even paid on his banking account a sum of ten thousand pounds sterling, approximately fifteen thousand Euros with this sentence on the bank statement that did not allow any doubt about his intentions: "After the delivery of the file, you will receive ten times as much" Archibald Wynn had immediately responded to his offer by writing straight away to his banker to tell him this sum had been unduly paid, and he had insisted on refunding this generous donator.

In spite of the investigation of the bank, this one could not be found. Archibald then paid ten thousand pounds to an unknown charity work "to keep a clear conscience" but the strange announcement of the bulletin of payment "advance on account to the next gypsum delivery" which was found added an enigma to the mysterious file.

Two other phone calls were the subject of a serious investigation. They had taken place the week before Wynn decided to go to Liege. They came from a certain Spencer, who seemed drunk or maybe pretended to be. The first call announced: "Professor, we are out of stock in food reserves for at least fifteen days. A lot of people have deserted the village and even have left the island. You know, when they intend to go out, it is useless to try to change their mind. Several have died" In addition, the second phone call, as enigmatic as the first one, said more yet.

"Professor, the food is not only their target; they also want to visit the world in order to find their ancestors' vestiges. They need to know their own history, to set up their Pantheon, to adore their God. Aristotle, nickname given by Belgians, is their God, why don't you return him to them?"

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Archibald Wynn

Lastly, the most worrying event still was this mini coffin Wynn received with a manuscript threatening him with death if he did not return the skeleton immediately.

.

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Engis, Aristotle and me Let us go into this village located in the Meuse valley between Liege and Huy. Several world-famous skulls were discovered there.

Let us remember a doctor named Schmerling had noticed during a visit at one of his patients that children were playing with bones. He had promised to take care of the family if, in compensation, he would get what the children had discovered.

In 1830, he acquired several human skulls, two of which had stood the test of time, but also resisted to bone dealer’s desire.

The oldest skull from Engis belonged to a Neanderthal child. Another one, the most recent, was that of an adult sapiens, i.e. a modern man. The child and the adult respectively died 35.000 and 4.600 years ago.

Given that Engis is my native village, I like to quote Charles Fraipont’s conclusion: "Schmerling is by far the first to have collected some remainders of a Neanderthal man, the official discovery of this species dating from September 1856."

However, in 2001, another exploration allowed to find out another skeleton which fascinated the paleoanthropologists much more. During a seminar organized by the Walloon Researchers, these discovered a crack giving access to a nearby room where were four modern humans, but also another exceptional skeleton.

What were the distinct features of the fifth man? His skull volume was bigger than ours; his orbits were prominent in comparison to our discrete arches of the eyebrows; his mandible was robust and without chin, while the modern man presented a very marked chin. In short, the doubt was impossible: this unique skeleton was the one of a Neanderthal man.

The oldest skull from Engis belonged to a Neanderthal child. Another one, the most recent, was that of an adult sapiens, i.e. a modern man. The child and the adult respectively died 35.000 and 4.600 years ago.

Charles Schmerling close to the church of Awirs Village and the brain-pan of the neandertalian child that he acquired in the winter 1829-1830.

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Engis, Aristotle an me Given that Engis is my native village, I like to quote Charles Fraipont’s conclusion: "Schmerling is by far the first to have collected remainders of a Neanderthal man, the official discovery dating from September 1856."

However, in 2001, another exploration allowed to find out another skeleton which was fascinating the paleoanthropologists much more. During a seminar organized by the Walloon Researchers they had discovered a crack giving access to a nearby room where four modern human were waiting for them, but also another exceptional skeleton.

What were the distinct features of the fifth man? His skull volume was bigger than ours; his orbits were prominent in comparison to our discrete arches of the eyebrows; his mandible was robust and without chin, even though the modern man presented a very marked chin. In short, the doubt was impossible: this unique skeleton was the one of a Neanderthal man.

The four modern skeletons had struck the specialists because they were in a state of conservation definitely worser than the Neanderthal man. Andreas Hertafouris had been the first to see and touch him, and had at once seen his sixteen fingers and sixteen toes! This is why, as a sign of gratitude for the Greek nationality of the discoverer, this skeleton was named Aristotle. He had joined during a few days Engis skulls at the institute of paleontology, and then had been moved into a reinforced window in the zoological institute. The rector (the name given to the university chief) required the transfer to emphasize him and hope for the summer season a significant tourist inflow.

Near the skeleton, the technical reconstruction of his face could be seen. The experts were able to build the face of the person starting from his skull, as they had with Henry IV 's head after this one had been found again in 1919.

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Engis, Aristotle and me

They had placed reference marks of depth, which take account of the thickness of the skin and muscles of the face. They had then applied special clay at the muscles around the nose, the mouth, the eyes and cheeks. Starting from Aristotle’s skull, they had been able to reconstitute his face, similar to a Neanderthal man, and by using the analogy with muscular and skin knowledge of the Homo sapiens.

The transfer of the skeleton to the Zoological institute was a successful operation indeed: the reception clerk was overworked. Unfortunately, on the day of Aristotle's discovery, I was visiting the Frankfurt’s zoo with students. I still regret not having been there. Getting into a place that had remained intact for thousands of years would have been for me an inexpressible happiness.

Already, in 1954, when some friends of mine and I had visited excavations, cracks, cavities, holes and galleries of the area, we had tried several times to enter in this narrow cave.

Most of the time, we were accompanied by an adult who controlled us and forbade us to run a risk. We never insisted and we were satisfied with the adjacent spacious gallery, in which we were playing at prehistoric men and were drawing some animals on the walls in order to imitate the paintings of Lascaux cave.

I remember, in winter 54, we had enjoyed one moment of freedom, and we had ventured too far in this cave where we had made a fire.

Shortly after, we needed a breath of fresh air and we started coughing.

When I came back home, my mother immediately felt the smell of burning on my clothing and suspected me of smoking. I admitted my escapade. She looked dismayed, and she prohibited me from following those disobedient children.

I went back into the adjacent gallery when a visit was organized by "Le PrĂŠhistosite de Ramioul," a museum relating the prehistoric life in the Meuse valley. Unfortunately, my mother was away. But I am sure if she had been still alive, she would have admitted this visit deserved some risks.

I found there with pleasure the traces of our old drawings, rhinoceros and mammoths to which had been added pierced hearts with arrows and initials of lovers in search of loneliness.

I noted at once the new rooms, released by the researchers, offered a consider-able space. And the quality of works, decorating them, was worthy of Lascaux composi-tions.

It is true that, later, this village in Dordogne had left me a bitter taste. I had even refused to visit Lascaux the second because it was about a facsimile of paintings and engravings of Paleolithic art: there is the passion of the origins or not.

This frustration did not last a long time. A few years later, I visited the true cave at the time of an exceptional trip reserved to the paleontologists I had joined. The most impressive in these paintings, invisible for the tourist taking little interested in observing the least details, is the main character with a forked tongue. We can wonder why he stands there amid the humans. Several specialists tried to date these paintings based on figurative and clothing

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Engis, Aristotle an me elements, but also by analyzing the coloured pigments used. Some of them were dated from the middle Ages, others of the nineteenth century, and even of the twentieth.

To make a long story short, Aristotle and I were for a long time fellow-citizens, and it is a sufficient reason, in my eyes, to express to him in this work all my attachments by supposing he’s got a soul too and can hear me‌

36

The helpful virus.

While Bataille and his inspectors were continuing their investigation close to the broken showcase in the Mammals room, at the same time, with Professor Louis Garnier, a famous geneticist, I was part of the examining board in biochemistry. It took place in a lecturer hall in the campus built in the greenery on the city’s heights.

The last student had just given his talk, and we were about to ask him questions. He had endeavoured to show it could exist on earth some hybrid creatures coming from a fusion of chromosomes between humans and extraterrestrials. He had dared to face the difficulty, and I felt that such a choice had to be respected.

When I looked at Louis, I believed he was dead: his face was fixed as if he were staring at a curious animal.

He leaned a little forward and I saw his face becoming more and more suspicious against this student.

"Where did he hear of what he was telling us?" he asked me.

What could I answer? I did not tell anything. Besides, I felt he was too absorbed with his own thoughts to give him any immediate answer.

"That can come only from Andreas. Did he suddenly go mad?" Louis wondered..

A member of the jury, a retired professor of geology, who had found it difficult to accept the plate tectonics theory at the end of the sixties, and who thought he was a genius because he was a member of the Royal Society of Sciences, asked the student if he really believed what he had told us.

"All what you said seem quite poor to me, sir," he said, sarcastic.

The student amazed me by his capacity to face the questions. He looked convinced of what he advanced considering that he had discovered the bones, shells and other organic structures he was talking about and, which had been submitted to the dating test.

"Sir, all I know can be checked. If Mr. Hertafouris had been here, he would have confirmed everything. He is a competent paleontologist who accepted my thesis."

Louis looked at me and nodded as a sign of approval. The allusion to the absent professor, described as a competent man, had undoubtedly upset the old geologist who was sensitive on these topics and who had felt that he had been personally attacked, as if the student had implied Hertafouris was more qualified than him. This professor had been ulcerated by this student all the more that he had known the Greek for a few years and had never shared his ideas. By contrast, he obviously wanted the student to fail his examination.

"You speak to us about fossils, sir,� he tackled. “Some fossils, according to you, would prove a hybrid existence, apparently not a fecundation, but a somatic hybridization. How can you prove what you are putting forward?"

37

The helpful virus "Sir," the student answered, "I can prove indeed the nucleus of the cells of these creatures came from the fusion of the nucleus of different interstellar species. It is a question of somatic hybridization...

Did you already looked at “The Fly ”, science-fiction horror film in which a scientist begins to transform into a hybrid giant then fly after one of his experiments. This experience went horribly wrong, “Horribly, indeed, when I look at the picture you inserted in your work,” the retired professor sarcastically replied.

“Don’t fear anything, sir, we aren’t at the beginning of the eighteenth century when students from the Wûrzburg University manufactured many false fossils and a stupid professeur, named Beringer, was bulled.

The intellectual trickery doesn’t concern me; I am not ready to accept everything in order to succeed. All what I wrote is the truth. Everything was proved in my report, but I'm not sure you agreed to read it."

"Calm down!" shouted Garnier (Photo on the right) "Don't be rude, sir, watch your language. Such a question doesn't deserve such an answer."

The student replied: "Excuse me sir, I lost my temper, sir, I'm too enthusiastic. However, I make a point of specifying that, thanks to Professor Hertafouris, I can show the evidence of what I put forward" Louis Garnier looked at me with a severe face. The old geologist could not accept these excesses, and he left the examination board before the deliberation, but he did not omit to give the student the grade zero.

"I cannot stay here any longer. And I will check if you have taken my grade into consideration" he insisted, as if he did not trust his colleagues.

We were obviously opposed to these vain talks, but we could not accept such a coarse language from the student. However, we could not lose our sense of proportion and mistake the acolyte for the high priest. In response, Louis gave the maximum grade, i.e. "100".

"How can you! It is madness," exclaimed the president, angry.

"Mr. President, this grade is as respectable as the one coming from our colleague who has just left us. Of course, it is excessive like his own appreciation, indeed."

In such a case, the jury makes a decision to remove the extremes before calculating the average mark. Therefore, the examining board didn't take in consideration either the grade zero or the grade 100.

Louis tried to restore order before calling the following student, but I noticed he was absent-minded.

38

The helpful virus "How do you describe a mutation?" he asked without giving the student enough time to introduce himself, ignoring in this way the fundamental rules governing the oral examination.

"It is the deterioration of a gene, of a DNA segment," retorted the student, surprised by Garnier's eagerness.

"Certainly, is it everything that you know? How is it possible to produce such a mutation?"

"It can be accidental, unproductive and dangerous; but it can also be useful if it causes a positive variation of the physical structure of a living organism. A virus is a small mobile genome like a parasite. Its nucleic acid can oblige the contaminated cell to reproduce, at its expense, and from the new message the virus imposed to it. I think if particular viruses could send peculiar genes towards a cell, they could produce...helpful mutations. A virus is not necessarily harmful.”

"Logical... but it is rare," Louis said, turning pale. “You should have shown us another picture unlike “The Fly” to defend your opinion about the harmful virus.”

I leaned over him: "Something is going wrong? Do you want a chocolate biscuit?"

He shook his head.

"Where did you hear of that?" he then asked the student.

"I read it in a doctorate, sir" the student answered.

"Where is the reference of this work? Where is the bibliography? " "I omitted to note it, sir, it comes from Professor Wynn’s publication. He is a professor in Oxford University. Mr. Hertafouris advised me to read his works” Louis turned towards me and said to me with a low voice, "Andreas and Archibald seemed to like one another. The Greek is keen on exobiology if we refer to what the last two students said to us."

Now, his face had become crimson. I had never seen him in such a state of mind and so nervous.

"You say a virus is not necessarily destroying! What do you mean? A virus is harmful for the infected cell, if I'm not mistaken!"

"Not Necessarily, sir, it takes control of the infected cells, but that doesn't lead necessarily to a catastrophe. The new viral genes dominating the cellular machinery will not inevitably destroy the infected cells. The gene therapy acts in the same way. Ii makes it possible the insertion of fragments of curative genomes in order to cure the disease against which we are fighting."

"Was Professor Hertafouris also the Master of your training course?"

"Yes sir."

"I see...you may go now; we are deliberating," Louis concluded without allowing his colleagues to ask the student another question and without consulting the president of the board, who looked amazed.

His mobile phone rang.

"Excuse me," he said to his colleagues.

He was then informed about Hertafouris's aggression and Aristotle's kidnapping. He announced the terrible news.

Staggered to have lost such a rare paleontological specimen, the board felt literally frozen.

Each one wondered how Aristotle could have been extracted from a bullet-proof cupboard, but nobody seemed to attach importance to the Greek’s health.

The hospital standing close to the chemical institute, Louis asked me to take him to the casualty department. We wrote our mark and requested the other professors for excusing us to leave the board.

39

The helpful virus The time to go through the city and take Andreas to the University hospital; the ambulance arrived as we were just entering the hospital. Hertafouris was transferred onto a stretcher apparently unconscious. His nape was wrapped with a thick bandage. In less than ten minutes, his shirt was soaked with blood.

We stayed there for a long time in the waiting room. He didn't have any family in Belgium.

He was known to have a love affair with a student in zoology, but their relation was not official; it would have been a bit rude to take a touch with her without his authorization.

Louis and the head doctor had already met. This one had promised to inform him as soon as the diagnosis would be made. Around 10 a.m. the doctor passed the terrible news on to us.

"Professor Hertafouris suffers from a deep bite to this nape. The origin is still unknown; the blood and genetic analyses are on the way. We will know more about it tomorrow. It's all what I'm authorized to tell you!" the head doctor concluded, apparently shocked to have seen Hertafouris in such a poor condition.

That day was for me a new departure. The topics tackled by the two students seemed relevant to me, and I felt that there was an inexhaustible source of new knowledge hidden behind all that science. It was time to go into the matter.

"Exobiology and paleontology are two scientific skills close to each other," I murmured.

Moreover, I set about learning this new science, as I had formerly done for paleontology and mineralogy when my grandfather, Oscar Pirlet, and Mr. Arthur Vandebosch, the former president of the Walloon researchers, had encouraged me to know more about that.

It is time to introduce Louis Garnier to you. He is an old acquaintance of ours. Josette and I had known Louis for thirty-five years, since we had frequented the same amphitheatres in Liege University. Then, the life had separated us: I have been working for a long time in industry, Josette devoted herself to everything with regard to the safeguarding of nature and Louis made a decision to teach biology. He became “Professeur Ordinaire� what, in Belgium, means the highest level in the professorial hierarchy.

From time to time, he invites us to a lecture, when this one is not reserved to specialists or when the topic refers to discoveries endangering the public health or the defence of the country. Nevertheless, I was invited to the UFO and Aliens Symposium because Louis felt

40

The helpful virus that the main topics would interest me. My contribution was also obvious since, as a citizen of Chaudfontaine, I didn’t look like an intrusive in that place where the world celebrities were invited to get together.

"Let's summarize what we know about Andreas’s discovery!" he told me a few days ago “You have to know the whole truth. Let’s consider the facts with a scientific approach! I have no data yet. It is a capital mistake to theorize before receiving data.”

I still see him pacing up and down in his office of the zoological institute, like a caged animal.

“Nothing was half-done,” he went on, “First of all, there were in this cave, besides Aristotle, four other modern men skeletons, the sapiens, in a bad state of conservation, except their skull, vertebrae and teeth. Aristotle was complete and in a perfect condition. We had measured the withdrawal of the occipital connection between his skull and his spinal column; and we had compared his facial angle with the one of the other famous skulls. Andreas was convinced he was in the presence of a Neanderthal man. This one had been well protected from the time damages. However…"

"Was there something wrong?" I asked eagerly.

"His methodology, about the morphological aspect, was perfect. We can’t reproach him anything. They had concluded that the modern skeletons were living at the beginning of the Aurignacian period, approximately thirty-five thousand years ago. That's what the dating with Carbon-14 confirmed" "Thirty-five thousand years for these sapiens!" I repeated amazed as if it was the first time that I heard about it.

"And about the Neanderthal man, is it true he was living in our area at the same period as the modern man?"

"It's right. They had to cohabit for at least 10,000 years, between 40,000 BC, when the modern man appeared in our region, and 30,000 BC, when the Neanderthal man disappeared. Imagine today what would be the social result of such a long cohabitation, if the Neanderthal man hadn’t disappeared" Louis exclaimed.

"I imagine that it would be as if the chimpanzee was to share its territory with the gorilla.

The strongest or the most intelligent species would take the top and would make use of the abilities of the other species in order to achieve its own ends" "But, in fact, what relations did exist between the sapiens and the Neanderthal man?" I questioned.

"These relations are not well-known. They avoided competing and sharing the same ecological niches. It was their way to maintain peace."

"Did they procreate?"

"It's unlikely. For ten years, paleontologists have ceased considering the Neanderthal man as a European and as a subspecies of the Homo sapiens. We know today he belongs to a particular human species. Consequently, he couldn't have reproduced with Homo sapiens."

"How could they have met into Engis cave, in such a reduced space? And why?"

"From a strictly paleontological point of view, nothing proves their cohabitation. The sapiens might have brought there the Neanderthal man after his death."

He stopped speaking, lost in his own thoughts.

"What is the issue?" I asked. "You still didn't tell me what was wrong."

A few seconds later, he solemnly said to me, "Sit down and listen to me, I have important things to tell you."

After ten long new seconds, he sent to me the most surprising sentence I ever heard : “Another essential test showed that Aristotle's skeleton was not a human one."

41

The helpful virus "You are joking! Aristotle is not a human!" I exclaimed.

"He is a biological animal whose genes have come from elsewhere."

"Genes coming from elsewhere,” I repeated “Might he be an extraterrestrial?" I asked, being more amazed than terrified.

"Yes and no," Louis moderated. He is a man modified by external viruses. I could prove it by using a few grams of tissues Andreas had provided me. I could analyze his DNA and conclude that Aristotle was not a pure earthman. In spite of the morphological tests which are about to prove he is a Neanderthal man, and although Archibald Wynn, our English partner, strived to confirm it, in spite of the student’s allegations, I am going to give the proof, through my genetic tests, that he is partly made up of non-existent molecules on our planet."

"What do you mean?"

"Put your trust in me, and wait for the opening of the symposium. Within forty-eight hours, I will be announcing the news. What I tell you now needs the highest confidentiality degree. I discovered a fifth nucleotide, which does not exist in human species. Aristotle's DNA makes it possible to codify more amino acids than ours.

In addition, we found much sulphur in his tissues. You understand why Andreas's student exasperated me?"

"And the Nobel Prize, when do you receive it?" I dared say.

"Don't laugh at me. All this is exact. Contrary to the man who is codified by twenty amino acids, I have discovered in Aristotle's tissues more than fifty ones."

"Do you think genetically modified humans could have slipped into eight centimetres crack? Are their bones as solid as ours?"

"It's unthinkable that they could have been softened to slip into such a narrow crack," Louis confirmed.

"Then, how did this hybrid enter this cave, this hybrid? How could this pseudoNeanderthal man have ventured over there? Unless through an unknown exit!"

"Yes, that must be cleared up too. If Aristote managed to enter there, it's not a matter of chance."

"Excuse me if I am laughing at you. Up to now, I never had any doubts about your discoveries, but you are going to surprise a lot at the colloque attendees!"

"As usual, each one of us will start from its own discipline and will pretend to be interested in the others. Molecular biologists from Liege have discovered a particular DNA with five nucleotides. If they have doubts, they are authorized to prove the contrary."

"How did Andreas respond?"

"As soon as he was informed of my genetic discovery, he felt that we had touched something extraordinary. He didn't insist on proving that Aristotle was a Neanderthal man in spite of Wynn's obstinacy to confirm it. He promised me to keep the secret until the colloque took place.

He was then fascinated by this fifth nucleotide and up to now, he is as competent as I am in this realm.

"Aristotle, an extraterrestrial hybrid," I repeated, quite confused.

I then remembered the time when I was playing in Engis when I was still wearing short trousers. The UFO phenomenon had reached its paroxysm.

"When I think we were playing near this place!" I fantasized, surprised that a man of fiftysix years old could be so enthusiastic.

"Yes, at the most one meter separated you from Aristotle," Louis confirmed.

My father had produced this picture along the river Meuse. We cas clearly see four flying saucers going to the right.

42

The helpful virus

And another example with the following work painted by Faufra in 1951 modified by an unknown UFO supporter. It was the time when the belief in the flying saucers was at its height.

It shows a well-known place of Liege, modified by the imagination of the painter and myself.

In the left corner underneath, we can see an extraterrestrial individual observing the city from a window that might have belonged to the Sweden Hotel still existing at that time. in the left corner underneath. Above the individual we can guess somebody hands up through a window on the first floor of the building. This buiding is the current Fortis Bank's building where a holdup is taking place on the second floor and where a man on the third floor is committing a suicide with a cord.

43

The helpful virus On the right of the painting, we can see an imaginary brothel.

44

Wynn completely changed his mind After this long waiting in the hospital, where nobody informed us about our colleague's health, and although it was getting late, Louis asked me for going down to the town. The rector was waiting for him in his office, Vingt-Aoรปt square, accompanied by Archibald Wynn.

"Tell Josette you stay with me. As I know him, after the meeting, he will invite us to the Chinese restaurant."

I need'nt have to convince Josette. She was busy with Ella and agreed at once.

We arrived at Vingt-Aoรปt Square in front of the University entrance where thirty years ear-

lier I had shyly kissed Josette for the first time, in the neck.

While we were going up to the first floor, Louis received an e-mail. I understood that it was coming from Old Teacher, Raskinet, who seemed to have given him an significant piece of information.

"Oh yes! the Dodo," exclaimed Louis, but he had to hang up because the rector 's office door had opened .

"May I introduce Professor Wynn to you, gentlemen. You already met him, I think," the rector said while turning towards Louis Garnier.

"No, my colleague, Andreas Hertafouris, had this honour," Louis answered by holding out his hand to the Englishman.

This one moved his left hand, the right one being gloved. Then, he gave me his regards.

After worrying about the Greek's health, the rector cared about Aristotle.

"He was under close watch. How is it possible?" he asked Garnier.

45

Wynn completely changed his mind "Yes, he was behind a bullet-proof window, but the robber managed to break it with a coast of the Rorqual, which was near. There was blood everywhere. It's obvious that Andreas was wounded there. Then, the robber brought him to his office where he was locked up."

46

Wynn completely changed his mind "I can't imagine a bullet-proof window could be broken with a Rorqual's coast!

"The attacker must be a giant and this coast must resist the shock!" the rector replied, amazed.

"It was apparently the case," Louis confirmed.

"You didn't notice anything else?"

"Yes, sir, the documents that were in a safe in Andreas's office, attesting Aristotle's age, couldn't be found anywhere. However, it's not an issue, they are not essential. The secret files stand in another safe, which can't be open...and...Professor Raskinet however has just announced me through an e-mail before entering your office, that the Dodo had disappeared. You know this bird? We have a plaster copy of the head and the leg."

"In French, it's a dronte," Louis specified." It was still living in the seventeenth century on an island... It has been described as an apprehensive bird, slow and clumsy.

"The Dodo, yes I know it. I never remember the scientific name. I bought a miniature at the time of my last voyage to Mauritius. What happened to this brave Dodo?"

"It was stolen."

"Stolen, you said! "Are you sure?"

"Sure" Garnier confirmed.

"It's undoubtedly a plaster moulding from the original of the Old Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. It's not serious. There are thousand copies in the whole world.

If you are interested in this plaster, I will send you one,� Wynn added.

"Apparently the robber was not satisfied with Aristotle," the rector carried on without paying attention to the Englishman's proposal.

"I can also ensure you that the Dodo was still present here, three days ago," I confirmed. "Each year, at the end of the school year, I organize a pedagogic walk in the museum with some students."

"Do you see some connection between the Dodo and Aristotle?" the rector asked.

"No, sir," Wynn replied.

"That disappearance seems to me quite mysterious." I added, "The most alarming is obviously the bite in Professor Hertafouris's nape. I hope he will manage to get out of this situation and will bring elements to us to accelerate the investigation."

Since Louis Garnier was Aristotle's discoverer, from the genetic point of view, (the "copère" (as the Frenchman Yves Coppens says), he was maybe in danger too.

47

Wynn completely changed his mind The rector showed concern for the situation and he made a decision to place Louis under police supervision at his office, Van Beneden Quay, but also at his private house, Darchis Street.

"Please, excuse us, Professor about our not courteous reception," he then said petulantly to Wynn.

This one had been questioned by the police. He had specified to them he had a premonition when he faced the institute for the first time, just before entering and discovering Hertafouris's body in his office.

As Louis and I hoped, the rector proposed that we should go to the "Dragoon City," a Chinese restaurant from which emanations often came and teased his sense of smell, especially when he felt stressed. And It was the case.

He asked the Englishman to sit down on his right side, Louis in front of him and me in front of Wynn.

The Englishman hastened to specify: "Please, sir, excuse my awkwardness, I find it difficult to handle the sticks. In this moment, I have a small problem," he said by showing his gloved hand. "But it doesn't matter, I will manage to eat" For two hours, we had been talking about the colloque, which was going to open the following day. We had to be as silent as a grave about the happening we had just lived. The difficulty was important because the whole world was aware of Aristotle's existence on the Internet, and it was unthinkable to mention Hertafouris without justifying his absence.

"You know Aristotle, Mr. Garnier," the rector said. "You will be able to answer the questions as well as Professor Hertafouris."

"Yes, sir. The only concern for the colloque members is the simultaneous disappearance of Andreas and Aristotle, i.e.; respectively, the discoverer and the discovery. My lecture will be anecdotal with regard to the Engis discovery. I was not there, as you know. What you ask me is an embarrassing speech."

The rector turned then to me and asked me whether I would take part in the lectures.

I felt that Louis was nervous. He replied on my behalf.

"Francis is our observer; he will record the debates and write the minutes. He is a scientist who likes writing, and he lives in Chaudfontaine. That's why I thought he was the best choice. His role isn't limited in his reporting task. We also want to prevent a few curious or

48

Wynn completely changed his mind simple-minded from making contact with the lecturers. We need a local detective. Francis will not arouse any suspicion if he is seen among the residents. He will listen to the rumours and we shall respond if necessary. Only the guests are aware of the topic of the symposium.

As far as the inhabitants of Chaudfontaine are concerned, they are convinced that the main topic is the Neanderthal man."

"It's normal in the present context given that the whole world has been informed about our polydactyl skeleton!" the rector proudly said.

Wynn oddly looked at him.

Then the rector asked himself: "And what about the danger of dispersion of lectures given the diversity of the disciplines. Do you think the exobiologists can endure what the paleontologists and geneticists will tell them?"

"Yes, sir, there is a partition between skills, of course, but Exobiology and paleontology are two disciplines that should cooperate and supplement each other," Louis answered, "Moreover, Professor Wynn and Andreas Hertafouris were working together on Aristotle and came to an agreement to confirm Aristotle's species," he explained, staring at Archibald.

"Err! Err!" the Englishman hesitated, but Louis went on speaking pretending not to understand what he wanted to express.

"What could the specialists do without taking into account other sciences? Nowadays, who can work without colleagues around? We need Professor Wynn's skills to study Aristotle's morphology and confirm his dating... because Professor Hertafouris was perplexed and his own science caused him a few doubts."

"Err! Err!" Wynn resumed without success: “You speak and speak, and you take no account of time. And now you’ll have to eat your dinner half cold!” the rector said, in undisguised wonder.

Louis’ preoccupation was so vivid with this topic that he didn’t answer the rector and went on speaking.

"And if some scientists should work without broadmindedness, we would make them understand that they'd better go back home," Louis concluded.

"It's true!" the rector approved. "You are right. But, according to you, Professor Garnier, what is the possibility...to know more about this skeleton?"

"The symposium program will be charged enough so that more private lectures might alternate with the most conventional ones."

"Given the confidentiality that is essential, hotel's direction has planned a second smaller nearby room where we will be able to converse far from any listening. We count much on the private talks."

"You always have the last word. However, given that Aristotle is absent, please reproduce the photographs immediately whatever the price. Phone a private laboratory, obviously! Put the posters on large panels. We will also show some of them in the museum, next to the show-case where he was. If you are being asked why you don't present the original, don't fear to answer: "Very strict security precautions have been taken."

"O.K. it'll be done, sir." Louis replied with some warmth.

"And you, Professor Wynn, what will be your contribution to this colloque?" the rector then asked, turning to the Englishman of whom he had noticed on two occasions the intention to speak.

Wynn who had difficulty in handling his sticks with his left hand did not answer the question.

The rector insisted..

"You are a master in this science. Have you planned some surprises?" the rector asked.

49

Wynn completely changed his mind "Some surprises, you are exaggerating, but it's sure that what I have to say is not unimportant. The contract signed between Oxford and Liege, since the discovery of Aristotle's skeleton, appears insufficient to me. It would be necessary to establish a better relationship between our two universities and define a more effective synergy to find the answers to the questions we ask ourselves. it would be possible with the means at our disposal.

He was speaking perfectly French, with some British accents that made him charming.

He usually flattered his interlocutors when he felt it necessary to pull out all the stops and mainly as far as budget is concerned.

The rector forced himself to laugh and looked at Louis Garnier. He looked exasperated each time when somebody alluded to money.

"Did you think of Hammond Company? he said ironical, "You must know that Crichton refers to it in his book and Spielberg does the same in his movies... This company finances university research everywhere in the world, including work of several specialists in knowledge of dinosaurs... Why wouldn't you speak to this company's manager?" ironized the rector.

"Crichton and Spielberg are still... so to speak... are still wet behind the ears in comparison to what I could be if my job was writer or a filmmaker. My lecture during this colloque will be a surprise. Nevertheless with regard to the budget," he added by twisting the knife in the wound of the rector,"I think one million pounds sterling a year in exobiological sciences are not enough for our two universities. We need much more. The politicians of all countries must be aware of the extreme urgency to include in their objectives a colossal budget...Otherwise..."

"Colossal!" the rector repeated.

"If it's impossible, then I don't know what it could occur. Our life on earth is threatened by organizations, which don't have anything similar with the human ones."

"What do you mean?" Louis questioned.

"We are threatened by seeds coming from... outside," Wynn specified, "I'm convinced that Aristotle is the skeleton of a human genetically modified," "Genetically modified!" the rector repeated.

"Yes," approved Wynn." I think creatures far from us are able to intentionally transmit genome fragments coming from other planets. The genome fragments must be protected by a hermetic hull preventing them from being destroyed by the ultraviolet rays, or by other lethal wavelengths. It is not sure, but likely, that Aristotle was a Homo Sapiens who was recently mutated from spores of extraterrestrial origin. The resemblance with a Neanderthal man is purely... how to say? Ah! Yes, purely fortuitous," he specified.

Louis Garnier turned again to me, and I saw his dismayed face.

He repeated: "Seeds coming from outside," these words resounded in him, but also “purely fortuitous resemblance.�

The rector fell silent one moment. He did not understand; at the beginning of the meal, Louis had told us Wynn was convinced Aristotle was a Neanderthal man.

"It's a pity,I wish he were a Neanderthal man" the Englishman went on, "since nobody never discovered so far a so complete Neanderthal skeleton and moreover a polydactyl skeleton ! But he is not ! " Wynn insisted.

"Where is he now?" he pursued, "It is a wonder that might have led the whole world in front of his showcase, as it was the case for several million tourists in front of Mona Lisa."

"Don't twist the knife in the wound, Professor!" the rector said, obviously affected by this loss, but also disturbed by Wynn’s declaration.

"Excuse me," the Englishman replied.

50

Wynn completely changed his mind "Please, could you clarify your thoughts? Why would Aristotle have something to do with threats coming from… outside? Why a skeleton discovered in a cave, twenty kilometers far from here, would it have a connection with extraterrestrials?"

"When I saw the photographs, I was dazed at its remarkable state of conservation. Usually, the soft parts have disappeared; we find skulls, vertebrae and teeth, but coasts and bones… it's uncommon. I initially thought it was a forgery or a hoax" "A forgery, a hoax!" the rector yelled.

"Yes, all the more the dating had proven that he had died a few years ago."

"Recently dead!” Louis exclaimed, obviously disturbed. He was unable to stay still.

He silently said to himself : "I have heard too much. After what the student, while defending his thesis, had said and what Wynn had just announced, there is no more possible doubt: Andreas has not respected his duty to preserve secrecy. That was always out of the question the Englishman could test Aristotle’s DNA and could conclude to his extraterrestrial origin. It was secret."

The surprise planned by the University of Liege was going to get back to Oxford University and this man. Louis had read the last letters sent between Liege and Oxford. Less than one month ago Wynn wrote, “He is a true Neanderthal man who died thirty thousand years ago. The morphological study proves it. I have no misgivings about that. Our dating technique is quite perfect and even the specimens soiled by recent organic compounds don't contradict our analyses with Carbon-14” So, Andreas had pretended to accept Wynn's diagnosis and had even described his English colleague as a "Genius of the dating", even though the Greek was aware of the existence of the fifth nucleotide through Garnier’s works.

What kind of distrust of suspicion and hypocrisy did it exist between these great researchers!

Most of them were expecting a lot of the symposium so that they could assert their own discoveries. And they liked surprising and amazing their audience. The best way to do was to keep their finds secret untill their lecture takes place..

Louis started caressing nervously his chin. Obviously puzzled, he had to convince himself of the scientific evidence he was going to announce to the colloque attendees about his own genetic deductions. He risked of being challenged by a partner in paleontology who suddenly had become a competitor in genetics.

He was going to live a surrealist situation.

As for the recent date of Aristote’s death, Wynn had just announced, Garnier had never heard about it, and he was not at all interested in this realm. Aristotle's DNA survey did not refer to the period when this one was living, He studied his ADN's structure and the origin of his species but not at all the period when this one was living.

When he realized his hands were moist, and that he had a tremor in the hips and biceps, he went to the toilets feeling that he was at the end of his tether. When he joined us again, fifteen minutes later, the rector gave him wings to speak to his English colleague.

Louis stared at Wynn as somebody is challenging his opposant to contradiction.

"Let's see, Professor Wynn, something is worrying me. Why did you come into the institute of zoology at the end of the afternoon?" Garnier asked him.

Wynn did not appear hindered by this question.

"Given the progress of our common research, it seems to me time has come for our two universities to publish a report in Nature Magazine and I intended to share my discoveries with Hertafouris's ones" he replied.

51

Wynn completely changed his mind The rector seemed satisfied with this remark because the notoriety of this specialized magazine represented for the scientists from the whole world the summit of publication.

"And who will sign these articles?" the rector asked.

"Andreas Hertafouris and me," the Englishman answered without the least hesitation.

Undoubtedly disturbed by Louis’s presence, and seeing that he was perplexed and embarrassed, the rector thought it was better to define the terms of this agreement: "Don't forget, Mr. Garnier, he has also his say in this matter. He is also Aristotle’s discoverer, Professor Wynn, he has‌ " Louis bluntly stopped the rector in order to prevent him from telling too much of his discovery.

"Did Andreas not refer to me and did he not allude to my works?" he questioned.

Wynn seemed surprised by this question. Obviously, Hertafouris had never pronounced his name. On which basis could he then certify the extraterrestrial origin of the skeleton?"

Garnier asked himself.

"What does Wynn really know?" He murmured, "And if he were just bluffing pretending in order to know some more?" he thought.

Since the beginning of the meal, Wynn's name has been teasing me. While he was speaking, I was observing his gloved right hand, and I wanted to help him handle his chopsticks. I progressively remembered of a man called Wynn I met forty years ago.

I saw a picture appear in my mind like in the photo paper in a revealing bath after it was exposed to light.

"Wynn and his gloved hand" I silently repeated myself.

A more accurate flash then appeared to me. This time, I managed to associate Wynn's name and the one of a professor in Oxford during the sixties. Archibald couldn't have been the Wynn I met there forty years ago, when we visited the university town with my friends. " What an odd coincidence," I whispered, without asking the question that burned my lips.

"What!" Louis said, thinking that I was speaking to him.

"Nothing," I discretely answered.

I had a dim recollection of my visit of Christ Church College in 1962. Professor Wynn of that time was in the photograph taken in the immense inner courtyard, near the statue of Mercury, and his two assistants, two Indians, had joined us (On the photograph on the right; from left to the right, upright at the second rank: Stanley Wynn, Mangalore, on his left, and Tarakan, the bearded and turbaned man.

52

Wynn completely changed his mind We had visited the cathedral and the cloister.

At the end of the visit we had been received in the beautiful Gothic room where a meal had been served.

Somewhat blinded by the morning sun , I appreciate this moment.

At the top of this page, the Group pictured in the courtyard of Christ Church College At the bottom of this page, The Great Hall during the meal.

On the folowing page, two pictures showing Mercury in the middle of the courtyard.

53

Wynn completely changed his mind

"Stanley Wynn was my father (Picture on the right). He was indeed a professor in Christ Church College. And here is the emblem of Oxford University," Archibald specified by presenting his tie on which it was printed.

54

Wynn completely changed his mind The rector had prepared the tie of the institute of chemistry of the University of Liege and offered it to Wynn, who looked satisfied with this gift.

Our meal finished around one a.m. Before leaving the restaurant, the rector conversed with Louis for a while.

"Don't give him too much hope for a financial contribution. You know that our board has to make a new financial plan on the horizon 2010. The present budget for 2001 shows a deficit of more than 50 million. We are even looking for subsidies to maintain some activities we could sell to private companies, for example, the aquarium."

"How is it possible to imagine such a scenario? It's quite foolish to sell such family jewels!" Louis retorted to the rector, who had never heard a distinguished professor to speak as if he were a trade union representative.

"You are angry with that man, aren't you?" discreetly concluded the rector by alluding to Wynn. There was never a matter of doing such an agreement between Liege and Oxford, I suppose?"

"Yes, sir, I'm very disappointed. It will not be long before knowing the truth. You will be the first informed, of course" promised Garnier.

"And why had Archibald changed his mind during the meal even though Hertafouris had said to Garnier that the Englishman was defending the Neanderthal thesis ?"

"Yes, it's very strange" answered the rector by taking leave of us and moving towards Vingt-Aoรปt square where his driver was waiting for him.

With Archibald, Louis and I walked to the intersection of Soeurs de Hasque Street and Saint-Paul Street. There, a few meters further, I saw a man pacing up and down in SaintPaul Street who seemed waiting for our English guest.

55

Wynn completely changed his mind Together, they walked towards Les Chiroux. Louis Garnier and I have turned right to go and get my car stationed Cathedral Square.

On the way, Louis lost his temper and he freed all the rage he had stored up during the meal.

"Wynn could not have obtained a reliable genetic analysis in addition to the dating, with the specimen he had received. Even if Andreas speaks too much with the students, he would not have given such significant information to a foreigner.

"And what about the pictures for the colloque?" I asked.

"I already contacted a private laboratory when I was in the toilets of the Chinese restaurant. Everything will be ready for Andreas's lecture, which will take place on Thursday."

I wondered where all that was going to lead us. How could the Englishman announce this exceptional discovery without referring to Hertafouris and Louis Garnier and without being called a swindler? Through which arguments and analyses was he going to prove Aristotle's interplanetary hybridism if he didn't hint at the fifth nucleotide discovered by Louis Garnier.

He could not also describe the amino acids with sulphur. If Wynn was incapable of giving the reliable references, the scandal would be inevitable, and he would be expelled from the scientific world.

"No! It's quite impossible," Louis concluded, when we were entering the car. "Andreas did not give to Wynn the elements enabling him to conclude what he had told facing the rector.

Between Andreas and Aristotle, there was like a love affair. The Greek would never have transmitted another sample removed from Aristotle allowing Wynn to result in such conclusions". Supposing that Andreas is not responsible for that situation, who really informed Wynn? Who betrayed my discovery and Liege University to the profit of Oxford? In any way, Archibald will never publish in Nature without my agreement," he concluded.

"Wynn is a liar, full stop".

When I came home, Josette was bottle-feeding Ella.

I remained quiet. Josette did not ask me a question. I was unaware that an outstanding adventure was going to start and make me carry out good and bad deeds, which still surprise me today.

56

Murder at the aquarium On the 2nd of July, at eight p.m., a curious convoy of six Lorries arrived in Chaudfontaine and crossed the stone bridge over the River Vesdre to join the Esplanade.

At the exit of the bridge, on the right, the Palace Hotel was ready to welcome the colloque members. In front of us was located the station. On the right angle, formed by the hotel and the station, was Le Parc, the local cafĂŠ.

On the left was the casino.

57

Murder at the aquarium The hotel was a parallelepiped building made of concrete on three floors. At the ground floor, a green metal pergola including a small dome emphasized the entry.

This structure was well-matched with the ramp leading to the disused platform of the railways station.

The Lorries lined up in front of the hotel behind the Londonian black taxi permanently parked. We wondered if it still was motorized, or if it was playing a purely decorative role.

About twenty safes were transferred from the Lorries into the hotel under the watchful eye of police. The convoy then took the way to Liege. Since then, I was told that these safes had been transited through a merchant bank whose name remained anonymous for obvious reasons of safety. Banks also financially helped the research programs of some colloque attendees. We were informed of all that much later. We only knew that a private company specialized in manufacturing of human genome sequencers had taken part in the financing of this symposium.

58

Murder at the aquarium Why had Chaudfontaine been chosen for this symposium? It is a quiet village, known for its worldwide notoriety, thanks to thermalism, which was revived by a political willingness of innovation with culture and tourism.

In Chaudfontaine, the past and present have met. The village is located in the suburbs of Liege and is noted for its well-known walks, which are suitable to daydream. These walks cut across the valley and follow slopes of the River Vesdre.

After the unification of villages in 1976, Chaudfontaine stretched out along the River Ourthe which had given its name to a French department before 1815. Victor Hugo stopped in the village and should have named it "the violet of thermal cities".

I woke up early to drive my car to the garage. While waiting for it, I paced up and down the streets in the centre of Liege. The weather looked promising as torrid as the day before.

Tennis was the topic of talks: Wimbledon had followed Rolland Garros and two Belgian women, Justine Henin and Kim Clijsters, hit the headlines of the newspapers.

I suddenly remembered that I had forgotten to take an essential picture at the time of my last visit with my students in the Natural history museum. I could have waited, we were on holiday, but my allergy to postpone what I have forgotten to do, was unbearable to me. At this hour, the institute was closed. It was not a difficulty; I could take the picture through the windowpane of the front door.

One hour later, Louis Garnier (wearing his sun glasses) met Josette. He was coming from the hairdressing salon in Charles Magnette Street. She was happy to have got Ella's first pictures. Louis complimented her and added that he was not amazed of this beautiful result, given her maternal ancestry.

As they were walking, he told her about Hertafouris's attack and he was surprised that I hadn't said anything to her when I was back from the Chinese restaurant the previous evening.

He saw Josette worried. “Oh! I shouldn’t tell you about all what happened" he said awfully sorry.

“You seem to have told what had to be told” she replied.

"I'm here for a short time. I must be in Palace Hotel at 11.30 o'clock. Do you want a coffee?" he proposed.

They sat down outside.

"Did you hear about the animal park Le Monde Sauvage in Aywaille?" Josette asked.

"Who doesn't know this place? Yes, I visit it several times each season with my grandchildren."

"You know the sea-lion pool?"

"Yes, of course. I really appreciate the show at each visit" "Last Sunday, a man climbed the wall and attacked Oscar, the big male which weighs more than three hundred kilos. He bit the sea-lion then fled."

"You must be joking?"

"Not at all, I was informed from a reliable source: With Francis, we made the acquaintance of the animal trainer a few months ago. We even took pictures of him when he was feeding the sea- lions. He told us everything.

59

Murder at the aquarium The rector dialled the police phone, but no suspect was found. The attacker must have fled through the woods. As far the sea-lion, be assured that it is well cared for Youssef, Laurence's friend, who works at the Veterinary School, told that they discovered several holes, as if several cylinders of flesh had been taken out from the animal, just like are removed the apple cores."

The hippopotamus also presented strange wounds, one on a cheek and the other on the left side.

Strange people had been seen by tourists. Here, while a chimpanzee was asking us for something, a foreigner was observing us from the shelter of the monkeys.

60

Murder at the aquarium These had initially believed that they were assigned to the care of animals and the maintenance of the park. However, it was not the case. Indeed, not far from there, on the Way of Cross in Banneux, walkers had met a man with a terrifying face. At the time of the mass in the open air, instead of reading the book of prayers, he had taken an English book out of his pocket. The title, The Science of Aliens, really worried the other people in the chapel.

61

Murder at the aquarium As Josette was ending his story, a very fat man came and sat down to the next table and, curiously, when the temperature already exceeded 25°C, he was covered with a long coat doubled with a fur. He wore gloves, a hat and black glasses. His skin was grey, thick and wrinkled, similar to the elephant's one.

Josette stopped speaking. Louis concluded that it was a skin disease. He thought that the colour of the skin and its aspect might be modified, like in the case of the Pellagra, which affects people with low-protein diet. It could have been caused by a prolonged exposure to the sun: the skin turns red and becomes callous. Louis remained discrete and did not approach the odd-looking individual in view to checking his assumptions, but he terribly intended to do it. The most amazing to Josette was this man's size. It must be impossible to him to sit down on any chair because he exceeded what is conceivable in Europe in the field of obesity. After drinking a large bottle of water he greedily swallowed, the man stood up and took Pont D’Avroy Street. Louis waved at his bodyguard who started following him.

"He's your private sleuth?" Josette said smiling.

"Since Francis didn't tell you anything, I announce you that, yesterday in the evening; the rector obliged me to accept the police's watchful eye during the colloque."

"He's your bodyguard! Why does he accept to obey your orders like a puppy to a bone that has been thrown at it ?" She asked him! "This man is paid to keep you and not to follow others!"

"You are right. Nevertheless, you should not dramatize things. The consequences of events that took place yesterday afternoon, Van Beneden Quay, are not known yet. Moreover, the head doctor of the hospital had promised a first diagnosis for today and my mobile phone has not still announced anything."

On these words, Louis took his leave of Josette asking her to calm down: "Don't worry about Francis and me, we are in good hands". And she saw his bodyguard joining him.

On the Esplanade, the rare tourists who were outside the cafés could not know that a colloque of extreme importance was going to start at this place. The esplanade was gradually filling up with cars. Louis Garnier joined the Palace Hotel in an old-fashioned car worthy of Inspector Columbo.

Then after the cars, came a coach, filled with congress attendees. They had spent their first night in the three main hotels of Liege: Mercury, Bedford and Holiday Inn. A woman went out from the coach and went towards the station in order to take a picture. Since this station had inspired a Belgian painter, named Delvaux, the woman's move shouldn't have appeared suspect. However, a police officer prevented her from going too near.

Louis had asked me to go round the esplanade discreetly in order to know the opinion of the residents, likely disturbed by this surge of people. As an inhabitant of Chaudfontaine, I knew that the managers of the local cafés did not see me as a suspect.

"Where are these people coming from?" asked Fulvio, Le Parc's manager (following photograph with Myriam, his wife, and Adamo between them.

I contented myself to answer him that a scientific colloque on the evolution of man was going to begin at the Palace Hotel..

"What kind of evolution?" a customer asked.

He stood near the window looking onto the hotel.

I specified to him that these colloque members were studying how the man had changed for several million years.

62

Murder at the aquarium

"I was always taught that God had created man in his own image," he replied, "I don't see why he would have spent his time by initially creating substitutes of human."

He paused.

"Even though he could have created them all and immediately without needing tests, like it is the case with writers, painters and sculptors before finalizing their work."

Myriam, Fulvio's wife, grinned at me and shook her head to tell me that we faced a special customer.

Satisfied with collected rumours, I covered the thirty meters between Le Parc and the hotel in order to put Louis's mind at ease.

His glance oscillated between his watch and the stone bridge.

"Wynn has not arrived yet," he said by way of hello.

I took advantage of these last moments to go for a walk along the Vesdre River, between the bridge and the Casino. The river was flowing slowly, removing here and there some courageous wild plants which had not chosen the quietude of the parks. I thought that the plants had not borrowed the easiest ways, and that they also had their own destiny.

The flags, hoisted at the top of their mast, were flapping with difficulty. The wooded side on the left of the valley displayed the greenish diversity of its tones.

When I was back into the Hotel, Louis's mobile phone started ringing. It was the reception clerk of the zoological museum; she was completely panicked.

"Hurry up, Professor, at the aquarium, something horrible has happened!" she exclaimed.

She then gave the earphone to somebody else.

"Mr. Garnier, Bataille speaking, I'm the investigation commissioner, come quickly! We need you."

"It's impossible, sir," Louis answered, "In a few minutes, I have to open the famous symposium whose you heard about it, I suppose!"

"All right!" the commissioner answered. Then, he added: "send me a colleague on whom you can rely. Not your bodyguard, of course" "But, tell me what it really happened!"

"I may not tell you anything more through the phone, Professor."

Louis asked me to go towards Van Beneden Quay and warned me that I had to expect to the worst.

63

Murder at the aquarium When I arrived there, I was welcome by the curator and the commissioner. We went down to the aquarium. In the tank of piranhas, water was cloudy and red. The curator and Bataille could only see the trademark of a jacket sticking to the pane. At the buttonhole, a metal badge was shining. It looked like a mask. In his pocket, was a book written by the pope John-Paul II : “Satan et les forces du mal” or in English “Satan and the powers of Evil” I perspired very much, my heart was beating with terror and my mind was reeling. During the last days of June, I had visited this place with my students and had explained to them that the piranhas are carnivorous fishes living in the rivers of South America. Thanks to their powerful jaws and sharpened teeth, they are able to cut out the flesh of their preys. When they are in starvation or excited by the smell of blood, they can quickly reduce a large mammal to the state of a skeleton.

While an Inspector was taking off the corpse from the tank, they caught sight of a tie through the windowpane. It was Wynn's tie he wore the eve in the evening in the Chinese restaurant. It displayed the badge of Oxford University. Commissioner Bataille and the curator were dismayed. My heart was beating so much that I felt the pulsations of my temples. I tried to stop myself panicking.

Wynn was not moved to mortuary of the hospital, but he was put onto an old dissection table of the Anatomy Institute (Following Google picture) located near The Zoological Institute. At least what it remained of his corpse.

This dissection table has not supported a corpse since decades.

"How did they discover him so late? It had just struck ten o'clock when Professor Garnier was contacted!" I said to the Commissioner.

64

Murder at the aquarium

“You needed a few hours before giving us a ring!" I reproached the curator.

"No, sir, I was here at eight o'clock," retorted the curator, "but we must give top priority to the police force.

You see the precautions to be taken he added by showing a police officer with his special suit.

I immediately prevented visitors to come in. Many of them have come from a great distance to see Aristotle. You can well imagine that I did not hesitate to inform them that the museum was closed. And the aquarum too of course.

"Can you tell me why this space is empty?" Bataille asked, showing the tank designed to the stone-fishes.

"No, sir, let's ask the worker. He is cleaning the sharks."

The curator waved to him through the windowpane. The man joined us immediately.

"Why is this tank empty?" Bataille asked.

"Petrus, Petrus, it has disappeared!" the worker exclaimed.

"How is it possible...?" the curator howled "Somebody has stolen it. It was still there yesterday evening. I'm sure," the worker added.

"I see that it's a dangerous fish," Bataille noted after reading the animal description.

"Very dangerous, indeed," the worker answered. "It is venomous and its prickles are powerful and can inject a lethal dose into the man."

65

Murder at the aquarium "Lethal!" Bataille exclaimed.

"Sir, we found him this morning just before the opening," the curator answered.

"It's another disaster, it's a chain of disasters," the worker commented.

"Since the beginning of the month, we have found, in the downtown area, a tarantula in a letter-box, a snake and an iguana in freedom. Either they are the property of a joker, or they belong to people who got rid of them in order to go on holiday. However, Petrus, I don't understand! The firemen should always have the Melbourne serum in case of sting."

"Before questioning your staff," Bataille said, gruffly: "I would like to check if the seals we posed yesterday after the Dodo's disappearance, haven't been unlocked."

Petrus before disappearing

"No problem, sir. Let's go to the museum!" the curator answered.

We went to the second floor with the lift. The missing elevator button had been replaced, but Bataille informed us that the old one had not been found yet.

"My God!" the commissioner yelled as soon as the door of the second floor was open without any resistance.

The seals had disappeared. We visited the rooms and scanned the contents of each showcase.

"The coelacanth!" the curator howled.

"It's a plaster moulding of a rare fish," I explained to the commissioner. "That fish has been living for three hundred and fifty million years in the ocean. Until 1938, this species was considered as extinct. However, it still exists."

"After the Dodo, the coelacanth" noticed Bataille. “Don’t you find all that very strange?

They are two plaster mouldings, aren’t they?"

"Strange, indeed ! It couldn’t be worse. It’s appalling,” the curator replied.

"Yes of course, it’s dramatic for your museum, but I mean that the thief is looking for disappeared animals made of plaster. It’s an interesting collection, but we have to analyse his choice,” Bataille asked facing me. There is some reasons to worry about?

I nodded. But I was disturbed by these recent events: Hertafouris was wounded, Wynn murdered. And what about the nature of information shared by these two men. Today, we noted that both had been the target of a dangerous individual. Maybe, was this one the same?"

Bataille asked me in my turn what I knew about Archibald Wynn.

66

Murder at the aquarium I did not find it convenient that he had to write his report in such an uncomfortable situation. Nevertheless, he insisted on staying in this place to prevent whomever from entering and touching the panes of the fish tanks because beautiful collected fingerprints had to be studied.

My statement took much time. I tried not to omit any detail about our talk on the day before in the evening at the Chinese restaurant. I emphasized Wynn's change of mind about Aristotle's origin and Louis Garnier's suspicion about the Greek. Then, I went back to Chaudfontaine around 4 o'clock p.m. I was famished and in prey with grim thoughts.

67

A Czech who knew too much.

Louis Garnier hoped that the talk expected by the rector between attendees would not take place about Aristotle. With regard to the origin of man, we had to avoid repetition of the traditional debate. There were those who maintained that modern man was born in Africa and had propagated to Europe one hundred thousand years ago and those who certified that the original human cells had simultaneously developed on the various continents.

The first lecturer, Professor Von Braun, from Munich University (photograph on the right) had the word when I was entering the conference room. He claimed to bring a new proof consolidating the expansionist thesis to the detriment of the simultaneous propagation.

He also presented various cave paintings from European caves::

Top, on the left, in the hollow of Pech-Blackbird and Cougnac in France (Ariège Department), we see people pierced with spears, and, above them, UFOs; on the right, are native paintings from Australia (- approximately 5000 years) Bottom on the left, in the cellar of Camonica Valley in Italy (10,000 before J.C.), we see men with a wet suit with various objects; on the right, the fresco of Tassili in Algeria.

Further pictures: The "Los sares" hollow (Spain), the discovery has been made in 1933.

69

A Czech who knew too much 3000 before J.C., three helmeted people, who seem to carry large glasses, are drawn on the walls of an Australian cave

More recently, in Basle in 1566, a collective observation of UFOs

"Professor Hertafouris!" said Von Braun while taking a critical look at the audience "is not present yet! It isn't correct.� I intended to refer to his lecture published recently in a bulletin of the Royal Science Society about the use of transport at prehistoric times. I would like to give credence to his statements. We found in Bavaria a strange machine which had belonged to an extinct civilization, before the Flood. On the carcass made up with a strange alloy, we have seen a message with letters unknown by contemporary historians and archaeologists.

It's a pity for me to be the lonely representative of this profession. Are the paleontologists and the geneticists really able to do something without the archaeologists?�

Some attendees muttered but Von Braun received no approval and no opposition from the audience.

Von Braun then made it clear that he had been working for several months on unindentified flying objects. According to him, a civilization existed with that significant and unsuspected technical development. This civilization would have disappeared at the beginning of the last ice age, between 70.000 and 14.000 before our era. The German concluded his lecture by the following sentence: "My collaborators of Munich University and I will bring some more evidence on this civilization and its own air transport means.

Mankind had to wait for the end of the eighteenth century to know something about the first dinosaurs. The physiological details of these were only known at the beginning of the twentieth century. It will be the same for the prehistoric UFOs hidden in the last sedimentary layers. Our last find will soon be exposed in the museum whose Munich is so proud. I mean the Deutsches Museum" Some attendees could not prevent themselves from smiling, some with discretion, others without restraint.

70

A Czech who knew too much “Nowadays, here are the main Ufo shapes discovered in sedimentary layers," I could hear. He stopped speaking and said : "It is difficult for those who have the floor to speak with this din all around."

The audience fell silent. Von Braun pursued his lecture. a) First the cylindric shapes whose the cigar one: b) Then the spinning top shape, the most frequent one for these latest years

As he was making these assertions he glared at his opponents who seemed bored.

The second lecturer on the program was Professor Wynn. Louis Garnier did not hesitate: he requested the audience to excuse the Oxford's partner, for he had got some problems a few minutes before the opening of the symposium. Therefore, he could not express himself.

It was a general disappointment. The attendees appreciated him and expected to be informed about an exceptional discovery. On the program, near his name, they could read, "Directed Panspermia: what news?"

We needed an answer to our question: "Why did Aliens sow us? Did they want to live on other planets than theirs? Did they feel threatened to preserve at all costs the characteristics of their species by disseminating their genome on the terrestrial living beings?"

The colloque secretary noted down questions in order to prepare work of the various commissions planned for the second week.

71

A Czech who knew too much The third lecturer on the program was Professor Gustav Palach, an exobiologist who came from Prague. His matter of interest was Alien's morphology and, therefore his title was: What Aliens look like? He developed morphological arguments to prove that, in case of hybridization between extraterrestrials and humans, the cerebral volume of the humans would increase.

However, he also described four different features, which he assigned to four different species.

Top: The traditional species "with the atrophied nose". The "thick lips" species.

Bottom: The "single nostril" species with the peninsular nose. The "scar" species.

"To give these species," Palach added, �the place they deserve in the tree of evolution, we, men, must be to them as are the mon-keys and lemurs to us.�

"Can you bring the safe number 34," he asked the two employees of the hotel. One of them brought it to Palach, opened it and took a moulding from it. It was indeed the printing of the inside of a skull. Palach claimed to have made it himself starting from the original.

Louis Garnier turned pale. He nudged me.

"Do you see what it is?" he asked me.

72

A Czech who knew too much "Not really."

"It is a moulding of Aristotle’s endoskull" he noticed, amazed. "There is no doubt about that."

"How do you see that? It's just the print of the inside of a skull."

He looked at me somewhat irritated.

"I have seen it, touched it and measured it several times with Andreas. I remember Aristotle’s vascularization. How could I have any doubt about that?" he said in an angry voice.

"Excuse me," I replied, sorry to have offended him.

I understood straight away that the gigantic pictures he had ordered in urgency by paying the full price were not going to produce the expected effect. What worried Louis the most was how this Czech had been able to obtain such a moulding.

Furious, Louis shouted to him: "Which causal link does it exist between this moulding and the topic of our symposium?"

The Czech did not look annoyed and he cordially replied: "Given that I couldn't bring a living extraterrestrial to you, we present a human, likely mutated by living beings come from elsewhere. If I have brought Vaclav to you, it's because...

Err! With such a human we can imagine what might be... a hybrid."

Louis stood up and asked for a break. The generalized hubbub made him understand that the audience disagreed with his proposal.

Raskinet, who had accompanied Wynn in Hertafouris's office and had seen at the same time the Greek's inanimate body, stood up.

"My honored fellow-members since Professor Garnier has invited us to have a break, he must have good reason. The reception room of this hotel is large and comfortable. The coffee with hot, frothy milk is delicious, and is always served with a traditional Belgian chocolate.

The colloque attendees didn't need persuading. Most of them had understood that the break was due to a deontological issue about the moulding exhibited by Professor Palach.

Louis Garnier took my arm and led me towards the Czech.

"Why don't you show us the original?" Louis asked him; "By common consent with professor Hertafouris, we made a decision to show you a moulding, in complete safety," Palach answered without hesitation.

Garnier then became livid. Why did this foreigner interfere? That became ridiculous. Louis could not avoid the mocking remarks of the colloque attendees. They were going to ask themselves why the organizers were presenting gigantic photos instead of the original skeleton. These photos would appear mediocre compared with the moulding of the inside of the original skull of Palach.

"You said that you moulded it yourself. Does it mean that you took possession of the true skull?" Louis asked with a clear but rather harsh voice.

"Of course, Professor Hertafouris is not the only one to have received an original of this species. Besides, he came in Prague to compare Aristotle with Vaclav. We then made our respective mouldings without worrying about artistic aspects. Only science inspired us. We even made several copies. There's no intellectual fraud."

"We’ll speak again about it later, Professor Palach.The circumstances of such a discovery of rare and well-preserved skeletons must be cleared up."

Exasperated, Louis couldn't control himself and he spilled the beans.

"Before the opening of the symposium, our Aristotle has disappeared. You have to understand, Professor Palach, that I need proofs to admit that your moulding is a copy of your... Vaclav! And if it was not the case..."

"And if it was not the case," the Czech repeated.

73

A Czech who knew too much Louis's face became red and his eyes were flaming.

"I would make a formal complaint against you!"

We could see irony through Palach's eyes. The effort he made to repress a smile underlined it more.

"You mean a complaint about me? And on what grounds, please?"

I pinched Louis's arm to make it quite clear to him that he should calm down because he became unpleasant. It was in vain.

"For theft," he threatened.

Palach fell silent and looked his interlocutor up and down.

After fifteen long seconds, he replied: "Professor Garnier, I didn't steal anything from professor Hertafouris, and he didn't give me anything. You must know that Belgian scientists are not the only ones to have discovered such a skeleton. Moreover," he proudly added, "my skeleton, the original, was shown to our president, Mr. Vaclav Havel. He made a point of honour to welcome it definitively in our national museum in Prague. If you don't believe me, go ahead and verify by yourself."

To avoid making matters worse, Louis Garnier pulled a long face and didn't pronounce a word anymore. The symposium went on.

"Allow me to inform you," Palach said, facing an attentive audience, "about the inside of Vaclav's skull. His brain is made up of a great number of meningeal vessels we never saw in the human line." “It's the same for the cranial capacity," explained the Czech, inexhaustible. "We know that man's brain has increased fourfold in the latest three million years. From four hundred cubic centimeters for the Australopithecus to approximately one thousand and six hundred for the Sapiens and the Neanderthal man. It's true for Vavlav's brain volume as well, but it is more vascularized.�

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A Czech who knew too much “Here is my evidence.”

Inside of the skull of a Neanderthal man .

Inside of the skull of Sapiens Sapiens

Vaclav’s endoskull, according to Professor Palach’s moulding

“It is remarkable that Vaclav's brain had a definitely more developed network than the sapiens' one" Palach concluded, “there is no relationship between the Neanderthal form of Vaclav's skull and the vascularization of his brain. This one is developed much more than the Neanderthal man's brain Louis felt his chin during the following of the talk he did not listen to any longer. I felt panic rising within him. Hertafouris, attacked in his office, Wynn assassinated, Palach, who had exhibited - unless Louis was mistaken - a moulding of the inside of Aristotle's skull. And last but not least, he was claiming to have the original skull from the skeleton named Vaclav.

Louis asked me whether he should not put an end to the symposium.

I answered him that it was impossible because the investigation was in the process and the instructions were clear.

"Indeed," confirmed Bataille "We may nothing disclose about the Greek's aggression and about the theft of the skeleton."

The aggression was still ignored, but the theft was going to be widely known. Indeed, Garnier, whose spontaneity was often playing tricks on him, had just informed Palach during the interruption.

He was nervous and could not stop walking because he was conscious he had done something stupid. He suddenly left the lecture hall. I was informed afterwards that he had

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A Czech who knew too much phoned the rector to tell him what he had told about Vaclav without confessing that he had given the game away to the Czech about Aristotle's disappearance.

Louis was all the more affected since he had not yet received a call from the hospital concerning Andreas's health. He hoped that his colleague could join him quickly to give back to the academic authorities the aura Palach had spoiled. He phoned the emergency ward of the hospital.

"You are professor Garnier," a correspondent asked with some self importance.

He had recognized him with the sound of his voice.

"I am Garnier."

"I'm requested to inform you that there is still no precise answer concerning your colleague, but our service head added he could tell you as soon as possible of what he really suffers".

After seven p. m.; when the congress attendees left the Esplanade in Chaudfontaine, exhausted and thirsty, Louis asked me to take him to "The Park" the pub located just aside the Palace Hotel. where we drank some beers.

"What do you think of...Vaclav?" He asked me, excited.

"The original skull should be analyzed," I answered. "It's the only way to be sure of Palach's allegations. Today, we have new possibilities our teachers did not know. There is no comparison between the precision of our dating means and the ones carried out during the sixties."

"In spite of Palach's allegations, it's not impossible that Vaclac could be a hoax, like the remainders of Piltdown man, imagined by Dawson."

"Piltdown man, I only have a vague recollection of the incident," I confessed.

"Piltdown is this small village of Sussex where Dawson claimed to have found a skull of a particular man. He convinced Woodward, the curator of British Museum, to an-nounce his discovery to the Geological Society in London. The intellectual fraud was dis-covered 40 years later.

The jaw, identified as that of a young orang-utan, had been carefully broken by Dawson near the midline so that the true nature of the chin could only be guessed. The point where the jaw joins the skull was also broken to hide the fact that in life it had chewed in an up and down direction, not in the more rotating direction found in man (the action which produces flat wear on the molar teeth).

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A Czech who knew too much

Charles Dawson (sitting) poses at the Piltdown gravel pit in 1913 alongside Robert Kenwood Jr, left, Arthur Smith Woodward, far right, and 'Chipper' the goose "Nowadays, nobody could believe such an absurdity for a long time," I said surprised, "Palach is too intelligent to make such a trickery."

"Intelligence has nothing to do with that. We know that the most eminent scientists are not sheltered from the forgers. It seems, according to Stephen J. Gould, that Teilhard was implicated in the Piltdown affair. When the Jesuit became famous for a scientific level, he did not speak about that anymore. And his relation with Dawson was a topic quite out of a question.

"Fulvio, can I order? It's my turn," I asked abruptly.

"Duvel and Ciney, at once!" he answered.

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The mysterious member card

The mysterious member card While the symposium was going on, the public prosecutor’s department carried out the investigation. First of all, the small camera found in Wynn’s jacket had been sent to the laboratory and this one had developed the negatives photos related to Delvaux’s mural painting, “The Genesis”. This proved that Archibald Wynn had returned there the day after with the aim to take pictures of the painting.

The reception clerk had explained Bataille, at the time of her questioning, that the Englishman was fond of that painting and found it very …attractive.

The second clue was his card which attested that he was a member of a mysterious association whose name was The Gargoyle Group. And its symbol was a hideous mask. A mask Wynn was wearing at his buttonhole when he was floating in the water of the piranhas' tank.

The third clue was another card found by the forensic scientist in the victim’s anus. It gave the name of an association called S.H.E.E.P. Except the fact that the English word SHEEP (Mouton in French) is the name of an animal whose meat is particularly delicious for Josette and me, it did not suggest us any new track to be explored.

For a week, I had not spent a quarter of a second devoting myself to my family and the numerous hours I had been living far from Ella seemed painful to me. Several times, Josette had asked me to go to the hairdresser. It was really impossible. When I came back home at the end of the afternoon, I was reprimanded for my mop of hair.

My usual hairdresser, André Sente, well-known in the centre of Liege, was very kind to me ; he managed to make an appointment with me in the evening.

While he was doing my hair, I thought of the two cards found on Wynn's corpse. André brought me out of my torpor by engaging the conversation about the heat wave that had been oppressive for a few days. He talked me about an obese that wore a hat and gloves. He was dressed in a long coat and had spent the morning near his hair-dressing salon.

As soon as I was back home, Josette told me her conversation with Louis Garnier at a terrace of Cathedral Square near a very special individual. At once, I made the relationship with the hairdresser’s testimony.

I was surprised by Louis’s indiscretion when Josette informed me about all what he had told her. She did not see the situation in quite the same way: she considered indeed that she was allowed to know everything. She even convinced me to tell her all the events I had been living for two days.

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The mysterious member card I was conscious that we had to cope with an emergency: the murder at the aquarium, the two mysterious cards Bataille had found on Wynn, and Palach’s public declaration about Vaclav. In short, I expected her to declare that I had hugely exaggerated.

"You asked me to tell the truth, I have done it," I replied thoughtfully to her.

She was so upset that she needed to lie down on the sofa. In fact, at the speed of the flash, she had noticed something else: Archibald’s card of the G.G. Group was the same as the one we had kept so far in a photo album since my visit in Oxford in 1962. And there was a signature on the back, Stanley Wynn's signature.

Josette brought me back to this strange member card issued by a mysterious association called The Gargoyle Group and whose badge looked like a gargoyle mask.

Tarakan had asked me to join an association for which, the same day, young Americans had crossed the Atlantic Ocean. At that time, it was rather rare to meet students coming from another continent. A I already said, we had lunched together in the Gothic room. Tarakan, sitting down opposite me, had explained to us that the abbreviation initials GG surrounded a gargoyle chosen among the ones decorating the colleges of the university town.

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The mysterious member card A few minutes later, I looked at the card, and at the photo taken in the inner courtyard of Christ Church College. On the back of the photo, there were Stanley Wynn's signature and two Indian names: Tarakan and Mangalore. Why did I not remember this event earlier?

My souvenir, hidden in the depths of my brain, resurfaced suddenly. I lived in thoughts again this excursion in Oxford and I gave Josette all details about what had really occurred in this college one day in 1962.

Tarakan had asked me to join an association for which, the same day, young Americans had crossed the Atlantic Ocean.

At that time, it was rather rare to meet students coming from another continent. As I already said, we had lunched together in the Gothic room. Tarakan, sitting down opposite me, had explained to us that the abbreviation initials GG surrounded a gargoyle chosen among the ones decorating the colleges of the university town.

According to him, the ugliness of this gargoyle had to pay us attention to the consequences of possible changes due to nuclear radiations and bacteriological war Americans and Russians were preparing.

Mangalore had invited us to attend an alarming course about bacteriological risks and had spoken to us about the spermatic rain. He also talked about the bacteria gun, viral bombs and infectious insects chosen to be released on the target zone. He had given us alarming statistics concerning the damages atomic bombs could cause.

I had taken notes and had put them in my photo album: "In a radius of three kilometres around the place of the explosion, ninety percent of the living beings would be destroyed. In a radius of seven kilometres, fifty percent would be exterminated. And even in this last case, forty percent is seriously burned or injured by the objects moved by the blast" Mangalore had also gone further into the optimal altitude from which a bomb must be released to produce the maximum damage.

I perfectly remembered the photographs he had shown us, especially those of the gigantic insects attacking the men

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The mysterious member card And to make us aware of this danger, he showed us a picture of the large courtyard of the

college, which we had just crossed, when the gigantic ants would be attacking.

He also called upon the illustration of a feature entitled "If the insects were bigger" published by the Strand Magasine in 1910, where we can see the main places of London invaded by giant insects. We had been very impressed.

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The mysterious member card

As for the bombs, they looked like big cigars.

The Vietnam War had not started yet, but we already knew how much quite wide-spread napalm could produce victims. The peaceful applications had also been part of Mangalore’s lecture, like the watering of defoliants for agricultural applications. The stu-dents could become members of The Gargoyle Group in return for one pound a year, what costed 140 Belgian francs.

I had been a member of the Wild World Fund for its creation, one year sooner. Why not to be a militant for that beautiful cause presented by these two Indians? It was a new charity action, I thought.

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The mysterious member card I paid my membership in 62 then I did not renew it the following year.

Until 1969, we did not hear of this society any longer. Why 1969? Simply because on the 19th of July 1969 Josette and I got married and a few days later we received a weird wedding card from the Gargoyle Group. Here it is:

I was surprised to receive some wishes from this association since my membership had expired for seven years. Weird wedding card indeed. Let's recall that during our wedding meal, it was around 5 o'clock p.m., Apollo 11 passed behind the moon and fired its service propulsion engine to enter lunar orbit.

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The mysterious member card Thirty-five hours later, during the night between the 20th and 21st of July, at 3 o'clock 56 minutes, American astronaut Neil Armstrong, 240,000 miles far from Earth, pronounced these words to more than a billion people listening at home: “That’s one small step for man,

one giant leap for mankind.

The Gargoyle Group had taken advantage of this historic event in order to reconnect with me. We thank the organisation without any additional comment when we came back in Belgium but I did not renew my membership any longer. Thirty-nine years after the member card (1962), thirty-two years after the wedding card (1969), Wynn's corpse reminded us of the Gargoyle Group's existence.

"You must tell the police force everything you know!" Josette bitterly said to me. "How is it possible that you didn't understand this earlier? You must ask the prosecutor to question you about this group. Moreover, how can you compare the WWF with The Gargoyle Group? The nice Panda has nothing to do with the Gargoyle whose name makes me nauseous after pronouncing?"

"The panda is the symbol of preservation over all," I answered, " and the dreadful gargoyle is what must be avoided at all costs."

In other words," Josette retorted to me, "this association brings sorrow to its members.

GG (The Gargoyle Group) predicts us a terrible future.

"Minus multiplied by minus equals plus," I answered, "To be positive, you have to remove the negative and this mask symbolizes what is to be removed."

"May I explain to you the symbolisme of Gargoyles? " I asked Josette.

"Yes, go on," she replied, "I see you are dying to do so".

"Well. The gargoyle is the guardian of the sacred place. His ugliness is such that even evil is scared.

Anyone who is tempted by vice and lust cannot enter the sacred and profane. All their wickedness are rejected by gargoyles, guardians of the sanctity of the place.

These famous stone blocks cut in the shape of fantastic animals were intended to remind the faithful they must constantly be wary of the devil.

The gargoyles represented a stone demon chained by man. Their monstrous and repulsive sculptures reminded the heretics (non-Christians, wizards, witches, excommunicated) that divine protection was already on the building. It is also a positive symbol, it is also a watchdog.

The gargoyle is a demon that protects the demons. This is magical thinking that seeks to fight fire with fire.

According to the legend the gargoyles were screaming at the approach of evil."

"All right, all right, thank you teacher, and now you find yourself without a paddle", Josette warns.

Because of my registration to this Gargoyle Group, I found myself, in spite of me, in the foreground of the following story. I never thought I could take such an interest in things that did not concern me. My imagination must have filled the gaps in the most probable way, so that all is true, but not necessarily exact.

By associating, in the same history, some places, events, and real people, I decided to change the names of these ones in order to avoid putting them in an awkward position and to be confronted with possible difficulties.

We had visited the city and had taken some photographs. At that time I should have liked living there. I did not expect that, forty years later, in this town, I had to face dramatic circumstances.

It was late in the evening when my neighbour, Gaston Marette, professor in physics and astronomer rang three times at the door. I opened it.

"Have you heard about mysterious things found near the Devil Bridge?" he asked. Then, he gave me a few more details about an event of which he had heard.

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The mysterious member card A feeling of anxiety overwhelmed Josette and me.

At the end of the afternoon, everywhere in Ninane village, the streets were empty but in-

side the houses people talked about a lonely walker who claimed to have seen an enormous man in a long coat. His hair was turbaned, as if he were an Indian. Some curious people had gone to the site and had discovered there a few long bars whose chemical composition was indefinable.

"They were grey and had an organic texture. It was neither metal nor plastic.

"Odd, very odd" he added, while Josette was changing face.

"If you are going up from the Devil Bridge towards Ninane," Gaston explained, "when you are walking along the little brook, you see where I mean, the walker saw a yellow slimy trail."

"Yellow!" I repeated.

"Wait, I've not finished yet," he went on by stroking his beard. "There were also like organic sheets that were welded. I saw them; they were to form a polygonal structure. They didn't find the whole, but only three contiguous sheets forming two angles of approximately 120°. Therefore, in all logic, the complete structure must be hexahedral, but the missing part could not be found."

These details told by Gaston had a particular savour when we know he is one of the greatest experts on Meccano in the world. It is not rare to see him waking up early in the morning to join the first visitors of second-hand trades.

The enigmatic machine seen in Ninane really fascinated him. He had a passion for discoveries to such an extent that when he received a trumpet when he was a young boy, he disassembled it rather than blowing inside.

To calm down the situation, I thought it was better to change the subject or to seem ironic.

"Is it a UFO?" I asked with a slightly malicious glance at Gaston.

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The mysterious member card "Don't laugh at that!" Josette stopped, very tensed.

"In the brook, to a few meters downwards of the path," Gaston added, "there was a cylindrical coil spring, one meter long and ten centimetres diameter. The walker then went down to seek it, after bringing back the bars and the polyhedral structure. The puzzle was difficult to put together. However, from an artistic point of view, it seemed that it must be symmetrical and harmonious."

"Where can we see such rare objects? I asked the walker," tells Gaston.

The police force has gone to his residence and has described everything it could do. On a side of the structure, the word SHEEP was engraved.

So thrilling had Gaston’s narrative been and his way so impressive to express himself that we were absorbed. Even the professional detectives appeared to be keenly interested in his story.

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The mysterious member card

The attendees appreciated this wine from Chaudfontaine, which had no reason to envy the best French vintages.

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The ultraviolet rays cannot prevent from "Panspermia" The first lecturer of the second day was Professor Hamilton from Cambridge University (First photograph). This university was proud to have produced several Nobel Prizes, among them James Watson and Francis Crick, who discovered DNA (Second photograph) Hamilton had then wondered if the danger of "Panspermia" was real.

He was at first amazed not to see Wynn, his Oxford colleague because two days ago, they were conversing about their works. When I saw Hamilton, I recognized the man who was waiting for Wynn at the junction of Soeurs de Hasque Street and Saint-Paul Street, after the Chinese restaurant.

According to him, Wynn was on the verge of proving the existence of a new extraterrestrial virus.

There was a kind of freemasonry, a kind of brotherhood between famous teachers. Hamilton declared to be Wynn’s comrade. Their relation was not due to the whims of fate; both had a distinguished education and had shared a privilege a few rare congress attendees could boast about. The cement which had joined Hamilton and Wynn was the famous rowing race between Oxford and Cambridge since 1829.

The shared feeling of belonging to famous universities strongly united them. So that when a foreigner dared to attack one of them, he was defended by his English colleague.

In Chaudfontaine, Hamilton delivered an interesting lecture about the origin of life on earth to the satisfaction of the audience.

"As far as I'm concerned," he went on, "I had the opportunity to work closely with Archibald Wynn when our two universities were studying the capacity of Aliens to modify our species in the same way that a gardener is cultivating the ground. On this occasion, we noted that their sperm, their spores or their pollen – I don't know how to say – could present different forms according to the distance separating the male from the female. Allow me the comparison," he added, "the diversity of the forms of sperms depends on the nature of the target. Just like an artilleryman has to choose his shells according to the distance separating him from his target and the nature of this one."

Garnier looked at me while he was polishing his chin, sign of his increasing nervousness.

"Spore, sperm or pollen," Hamilton hesitated, "Dear colleagues, I assume that you will agree that a quarrel about these words would be absurd since we are unaware of the very nature of these species that are sending their DNA fragments to us."

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The ultraviolet rays cannot prevent from "Panspermia" "He really gets on my nerves," Garnier said while leaning over me.

"You know,� the Englishman from Cambridge went on, "that micro-organisms detected by biotelescopes, are able to cross human cellular wall. In that way, they amalgamate their genome with ours. The spermatic weapon chooses that way as well. These micro-organisms are cultivated in our laboratories."

The symposium attendees looked at themselves dismayed after this last sentence.

"The question is to know whether those spores are intentionally or accidentally sent to us by an extraterrestrial force" Hamilton added.

While seeing some faces amazed by his last assertion, he was encouraged to bring further details: "At each time, when the UFO phenomenon comes back, the timeless argument repeats itself: an organism can't resist ultraviolet rays.

This argument designed to reinsure us, does not make any sense today. Our laboratories have studied spores, which had been exposed for a long time to ultraviolet rays. Personally, I'm convinced that a lot of spores, sent by an unknown species, were protected from lethal radiations. Do you want to look at the shape of these spores?" he asked the audience.

"Yes, show us them," Ronald Perkin retorted. Professor at the Arizona University, he was sitting in the first row. His good impression was increased by a reputation gained for utter indifference to danger (Picture on the right).

Hamilton took a slide out of his briefcase and placed it on the overhead projector. The symposium attendees then saw the following drawings appear on the screen:

Land germinal cells A Mouse of the fields B Sparrow C Tortoise D.Esturgeon E Ermit crab F Rajah G Echidna H.Lobster I Corbel J Human "Let's see," Hamilton said by showing the various germinal cells, "their dimension is not proportional to the body of the owner. For example, the cells of the mouse are longer than the human ones. Dimension and form are related to their mode of fertilization. This is why, dear colleagues, we think, in Cambridge, that in case of extraterrestrial spores covering long distances, it's not amazing to note they have the shape of compact grains with a minimum

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The ultraviolet rays cannot prevent from "Panspermia" attack surface. Here is a picture, look at these spores fixed at the stigma carpellaires of the pistil of their females," he explained by presenting the following slide."

(Photograph) "You did say pistil of their females!" Louis Garnier exclaimed.

The audience chuckled.

"Excuse me Professor Hamilton!" Louis interfered, "but I would like to know where you have got these spores. If you compare them with the pollen grains of the terrestrial plants they are as like as two peas in a pod."

"I regret not to be authorized to explain to you, it's a safety measure, you'll understand. Archibald Wynn would have done the same. Nowadays, humanity is in serious danger. Terrorists are negotiating with the devil."

Garnier merely gave a smile, then his face became severe again, and he stroked his chin.

For twenty more minutes, Hamilton went on encouraging the rich nations to equip themselves with bio space telescopes and place them on the surface of the Earth without leaving any blind spot. According to him, each country should provide their universities with a sufficient budget to take concerted action in this vital scheme for humanity.

While Hamilton was reading his paper, Louis’s phone rang. He left the room as fast as possible. He was in touch with the head doctor of the casualty department who had promised him Hertafouris’s medical bulletin. The doctor put him in touch with the molecular biological laboratories.

"Mr. Garnier, I cannot speak to you through the phone, but you must know that our discovery is exceptional. Come and join me in my office. I have also warned the rector, who insists on meeting us. We know that you are at the symposium, but your presence is essential.

Come immediately!"

Garnier went out at top speed after he had reminded the groom to give me the phone number of the laboratory.

"Don't forget," he insisted,"ask him to phone me at 11 p.m. at the latest!"

At the scheduled time, I heard this: "Francis, Andreas's condition couldn't be worse. His face has changed as much in his features of his face as in the texture of his skin. Wrinkles have appeared on his whole body.

As for Wynn, as you thought it, he was already fatally injured before being put into the piranha's tank. He must have been confronted with the same monster as the one who attacked Andreas. Monster indeed since the bites did not correspond to any animal known on earth.

I then detected an abrupt change in Louis's voice. He spoke more slowly and looked worried.

"The bars and the polyhedral structure found in Ninane were organic materials, and were not synthetic polymers as we had first supposed. The laboratory manager is formal, but he cannot tell some more. It's top-secret. Other precise details will come later."

"Congratulations! Gaston, I thought". After Louis's call and Gaston's data, I asked myself if it was time to put an end to the symposium in order to start again elsewhere in a quiet place. It was impossible to hide the truth any longer. The inhabitants of Ninane had already contacted reporters who had gone on the spot. A national newspaper had even interviewed the walker who had his picture taken in front of the trees on which he had seen men with sixteen fingers leaping off a branch to another.

Some scientific reporters had been informed that a symposium about the evolution of man was taking place in Chaudfontaine, and they had gone to the hotel reception. They had

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The ultraviolet rays cannot prevent from "Panspermia" been welcome by two police officers who did not stop repeating, "It's a private meeting and the press is not invited! Thank you for your understanding" During the coffee break, Louis told me that in the fountains of Trafalgar Square, watered by dolphins and sharks, piles of foam had been found out.

According to Scotland Yard, It could not be a farce orchestrated by students in delirium, since police officers and surveillance cameras had nothing noticed.

The Police laboratories had analysed the foam and they had discovered some sulphate compounds that can be found in many personal care products such as shampoos, toothpastes, shaving creams and body cleansers and face. In cleaners, they act as a surface agent. These are compounds soluble in water and are able to lather and emulsify fats.

This foam cloud is actually a surfactant with strong degreasing power that, during frequent use, is able to attack the barrier of sensitive skin.

So, the naked skin is permeable and lets itself easily penetrated by outside elements

And it became very disturbing when the laboratpories found that the amount of sulphates found in the foams far exceeded the usual dose of sanitary products used by humans.

The anxiety reached its climax when it was discovered that sulphates were accompanied by other organic products unknown to date and whose formulas were determined by modern chemical processes.

Hence the conclusion that the sulphates are preparing the ease of penetration of these products inside the body, it was just a short step Scotland Yard did not hesitate to take.

And even more rapidly that they were informed, London hospitals had faced, in their emergency services, to situations never met before. The victims had quickly evolved towards a comatose state during which they had considerably changed from a biological point of view: modification of the colour and texture of their skin, increase of orbital prominence, and a moving of the occipital hole, i.e. the place of the articulation between the skull and the spinal column.

The disease appeared through a physical transfiguration where victims ended getting the look of the Neanderthal man.

It was alarming for Hertafouris's evolution. Was he also going to display the terrible symptoms described by Saint George Hospital's forensic scientist in London? Louis and I expected the worst.

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The ultraviolet rays cannot prevent from "Panspermia" Where might these sulphates come from ? The teams of Scotland Yard were about to follow the pipes bringing water to Trafalgar Square to find the source of these sulphates Elsewhere, people had been bitten at various places of the city, in particular in the crown jewels room at the Tower of London and on the corridor above Tower Bridge.

Photograph of the outside of the crown jewels room with a ÂŤ thick lips Âť species.

Corridor above Tower Bridge

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The ultraviolet rays cannot prevent from "Panspermia" Hexa pictured in the corridor above Tower Bridge. He is looking at HMS Belfast is a museum ship, originally a Royal Navy light cruiser, permanently moored in London on the River Thames.

Strange moving objects covering the bridge and the deck

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The ultraviolet rays cannot prevent from "Panspermia"

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The ultraviolet rays cannot prevent from "Panspermia" The Belfast was not the only ship occupied. At the same time, the Britannia in Leith near

Edinburgh had been invaded by other strange creatures that seemed led by representatives of the human species. This picture was taken in the Queen's room by a security officer.

Let's remember that the British government decided in 1994 to disarm this ship for budgetary reasons. This was done in December 1997 in the military port of Portsmouth. Since then, it has been turned into a museum in the port of Leith near Edinburgh and has become one of the most visited places in Britain.

What did these intruders want? Nobody knows what was their fate.

After attacking Buckingham Palace, it seemed that some forces intended to pirate this ship.

For what purpose?

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Stanley, Archibald, Fenimore, Wynn’s dynasty On the 4th of July, while I was going for a walk around the Esplanade to feel the pulse of inhabitants and tourists, I decided to read the program of the showroom in the station gallery. It scheduled a painting exhibition about humans and humanoids.

Then, the lectures being finished, I went back to Ninane. Josette announced me that I had been invited for the private viewing of the showroom. It was usually the case when the village authorities were organizing an exhibition or an unveiling.

"That also interests me, I go with you," she said to me. "When Laurence has come back from work, she will take care of Ella and I'll be free."

Was there a will to synchronize this exhibition with the ufology symposium? Nobody could answer this question, or did not venture answering.

Most of the village politicians were about to go on holiday and no official meeting had been fixed before the beginning of September. In front of some rare representatives and some inhabitants of the village, the culture alderman started his reception speech. He referred to the comic books and science-fiction writers.

"This exhibit is exceptional on more than one account," he explained. "Not only the painters have come from the United States, but their concern is unique. I think such an exhibition never took place either in Belgium or elsewhere. We are at the beginning of July, and we expect to welcome some eminent visitors who, I was said, will make the trip from Texas and Arkansas towards Belgium."

We were on the first floor of the station gallery, which was formerly used as waiting room for travellers. The mural surface made it possible to expose twenty paintings. The light, reinforced by directional spots, emphasized the beauty and quality of works. One of them filled the public with admiration. It was the tallest. We could see naked men and women bodies with a strange head. Josette stopped in front of one painting and severely eyed me.

"You see what I see?" she said, frightened.

"Yes, it's beautiful," I answered, satisfied.

"Do you see nothing else? Don't you notice anything special?"

I adjusted my glasses and moved near. Between humans and animals and near an erupting volcano, some creatures had a thick graying skin, as wrinkled as a dry plum.

"No, I don't see."

"It's the same skin as the enormous individual who was our next-table neighbour when I had a coffee with Louis."

"Incredible!" I exclaimed “However, this exhibition and this symposium were not scheduled at the same time. They are two different things!"

The art historian, alderman's collaborator, greeted us and asked us our opinion on works.

"Doesn't it remind you anything?", she asked.

"Yes, these men with the wrinkled skin who have been recently seen in the area," I confirmed.

"You know that too! Don't speak about it, it's a taboo topic. I know that the burgomaster and the police force have been under great pressure for a few days, but nobody knows why, except obviously some curious residents like you and me... the local people. Moreover," she said, bewildered, "The alderman and I have a problem to solve with that painting. We received a phone call, I don't know from where, but it was surely an Englishman or an American, I recognized the accent. He offered twenty thousand dollars. I asked questions to know who he was, where he lived, when he would come, but he didn't answer me. He simply an-

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Stanley, Archibald, Fenimore, Wynn's dynasty swered: before the end of your exhibition, I will be there, Madam, with the amount of money." And he added, "In small ten dollar notes." “I replied to him that it was not for sale, and that he had to speak to the exhibitors. He rang off."

"Who are the authors?" I asked, "Do you know their names?"

"Most of them are unknown, but we have the formal assurance that they belong to a respected painting school. Every painting comes from an American museum specialized in the field. The principal painter is called Fenimore Wynn, what confirms his signature," the art historian specified.

I became as white as a paper sheet and Josette was about to faint.

"Wynn!, you said Wynn!" I repeated, surprised.

"Yes. Do you know him?"

"Err! Not really," I retorted, hypocritical.

"Here is Clinton caricatured and plasticized by Wynn," said the art historian.

And Bush, who took up his post at the beginning of the year 2001, was not forgotten.

Josette kept silence, but I felt she wanted to speak me about my first visit in Oxford and all those things that had come to harm our existence.

I resumed the talk about a more general topic, and I tried to avoid mentioning Fenimore.

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Stanley, Archibald, Fenimore, Wynn's dynasty "It wouldn't be surprising to me that these painters would be creationists. Some Americans still refuse the Darwinian Theory."

"Even Reagan prohibited his theory to be taught in the schools of the States where he was a governor before he became president," the art historian added.

Josette felt better.

"Yes, it's true. Don't you see any similarity of this painting to another one near which you and I were waiting for the beginning of our course in the sixties. And you still go there from time to time with your students."

I observed the painting.

"Ah yes! The Delvaux at the zoological institute" "You are right," the art historian nodded, "We find there what is really Delvaux's magic realism. Look at those skeletons in an imaginary landscape. Yes, it's quite Delvaux. I also saw the painting you are talking about" she specified to Josette, it is on the wall at the end of the hall, isn't it?"

"Let's see, sir," a man pronounced, "you are referring to The Genesis."

We saw Raskinet. He was walking with his hands crossed behind him.

"Thank you, sir, I perfectly know this painting. We stop here to admire it at each visit with my students. Are you also interested in art?" I asked him.

"Yes, I am. When humans and humanoids are concerned, I find that interesting. As you know, I have been walking alongside this painting for nearly fifty years. If I didn't see any analogy with this one, I would be blind.

"Allow me, ladies," he said while holding my arm to take me away from Josette and the art historian.

"I take advantage of the occasion to add a piece of news," he added with a low voice while leaning over my ear. Don't you see anything special ? Be discreet, especially for the historian in art."

I retraced my steps and moved towards the painting again. He followed me. I noticed, indeed, two feet with eight fingers each.

"Do you see?" Raskinet insisted.

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Stanley, Archibald, Fenimore, Wynn's dynasty "Yes... a polydactyl man or a woman," I answered with discretion.

He then reminded me: "When an artist thinks of an extraterrestrial creature, he always adds a particular limb to it. If you are a Homo Televisas, you surely know the television serial of the Sixties, that is broadcasted again. The main character is David Vincent, who is looking everywhere for the invaders of our planet. Do you remember these creaturesdisappearing when they are dying? In general, they are perfectly made up, except their auricular, shorter than the human's one�

And without transition, Raskinet added "Do you notice these creepy white animals? They look like bacteriophage virus" "And what about the second painting? with the man from neanderthal full-face and profile.

And this pseudo-man near the tree he seems to belong as much to the vegetal world as to the animal one"

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Stanley, Archibald, Fenimore, Wynn's dynasty I joined Josette and the art historian, and all together we had a drink to friendship.

Fernand Michel, a friend of mine, as historian of Chaudfontaine, didn't need any persuasion to come along to attend a private viewing. He came towards us.

"Hello Francis! Hello Madam! Do you appreciate this kind of painting?" he asked us.

"I like it indeed,� replied Josette, “We had just spoken about it with the alderman and the art Historian. Don't you find that it makes a strange impression?"

"Yes completely, but the other ones are rather dreadful," Fernand answered, "It could be a painting from another planet. A planet where are living viscous creatures with tentacles. It looks like science fiction. Come and see this painting," he said while moving towards the other side of the room.

I followed him up to the kitchen where two women were making toasts.

"Artistically, there is nothing special, but where did they go and fetch these similar creatures!" he asked, amazed.

"Maybe nearer than you think," I replied.

Then we joined Josette and the art historian, who had come again in front of the painting signed by Fenimore Wynn...this painting, which looked like the Delvaux of the zoological institute.

A devoted woman brought a glass of whisky to Fernand and asked me with a smile, "Do you want a glass as well? It's for exceptional visitors. Be discreet," she confided to me.

Josette looked at me with a strange expression, but did not reprimand me. She contented herself with pursing her lips.

"What does this group of dots represent? It looks as if these dots were released by a flying saucer?" Fernand questioned while sipping his whisky.

The question was relevant, but in such circumstances, it really put me in an awkward position.

I've been away for a while in order to urinate on the platform of the disused station

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Stanley, Archibald, Fenimore, Wynn's dynasty "I suppose that they are seeds launched by the occupants of the saucer," I answered Fernand, as soon as I was entering again into the painting gallery.

"A gardener on a large scale," he said ironical. "Maybe the painter refers to the biological war?"

Raskinet, who went and came in the showroom, and heard the end of our talk, hastened to say to us, "It's an interesting piece of information, isn't it? Transmit it to the police."

How did he know that I was Garnier's informer during the Symposium? Had Louis, once more, found it difficult to keep a secret?

Raskinet then asked me, "Do you know some more about the investigation on Herta-fouris and Wynn?"

"No, except that I was questioned by the police force. And you, Professor?"

They asked me a few questions too, but I couldn't help them. I confirmed that I was present at the time of the discovering of Andreas's body. However, I was absent the next day and I did not see what remained of his body after the piranhas' feast."

Before leaving the showroom, Josette led me to a paradoxical series of paintings, each of them capturing the "Coronation Chair" in Westminster Abbey at different times and reflecting changes in its appearance under different lighting conditions.

Why did Fenimore appreciate this chair? I asked myself. It reminded me of Wynn's blackmailer who had demanded that he should go with a mysterious file into Westminster Abbey, and to put it under the Coronation Chair. Might there be any connection between this painter and the blackmailer? It would be particularly short-sighted to think so.

It was a summer evening. The heat wave had disappeared and we started breathing easier. The terraces of the Esplanade were filling up with tourists. Josette and I sat down at a table of The Park for a drink.

"Wynn... Wynn... Stanley, Archibald and now... Fenimore Wynn. It’s a quite cumbersome family!" I exclaimed.

"Don't worry, we will know quickly the truth," Josette said to me in order to calm my anxiety.

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The American experience After Archibald Wynn’s murder, it was likely that the attendees were to put an end to the symposium.

Nevertheless, Louis could persuade them to go on. The attendees, unanimously fewer two votes, made the decision to continue as far as safety would be reinforced.

On Thursday the 5th of July, at the beginning of the afternoon, several armed police officers stood themselves at various places around the Esplanade. One of them was on the roof of the hotel, the gun of his weapon pointed towards the bridge. Another one was on the disused platform of the station along the showroom of paintings. A third armed man was at the top of the highest pyramid.

Louis Garnier read what he had prepared without moving an iota since the last events.

Although the expected exceptional scoop had failed by lack of a skeleton, he made a decision to disclose everything on his own research. He spoke for a long time about the fifth nucleotide he had discovered in Aristotle’s DNA. During his lecture, he never pronounced the Greek's name. Without sharing the least piece of his discovery with the Oxford’s professor, he explained that the owners of this fifth nucleotide could produce proteins starting from unknown amino acids, the majority of which contained sulphur atoms.

When he showed on the screen the molecular structure of the fifth nucleotide, a congress attendee moved near the screen and took a picture. At once, a police officer reprimanded him and confiscated the camera. Obviously, the audience was under control: it was necessary to avoid any leak that could be harmful to the investigation.

Considering that Louis had finished his lecture, even though he had not left the lecturer platform yet, Ronald Perkin stood up.

I had recently met him in the Natural History Museum of London during the inauguration of the new Darwin Centre. It was at the time when Jim Jansen (one of his colleagues: picture) had discovered the ultrasaurus in Colorado.

Perkin said: "Would you be suffering from an excess of modesty not to show us this creature made of these exceptional molecules? If I'm not mistaken, the choice of Liege and its suburbs for this symposium was determined after the discovery of this Aristotle! His name is known all over the world and all you can offer to us is his picture. Professor Palach, our Czech colleague, has shown us more than you. We would like to see the subject of your research."

The audience chuckled again. Louis was in a predicament. He looked at Palach, who turned his head away. He tried then to save time.

"Be patient, Mr. Perkin!" he replied.

The Congress attendees' ears pricked up at the sound of his name.

Louis did not seem flustered.

"Hertafouris will soon come and will satisfy your legitimate curiosity. However, it will not be possible before the day after tomorrow," specified Garnier. "As you noticed on the program, on that day, we will be visiting the Engis cave where Aristotle was found" Perkin went on with his more and more barbed comments.

"Try to understand, sir, after your exceptional lecture, in which you don't leave any doubt about extraterrestrial life, I think I have the right to give my opinion."

By approaching the text, like a short-sighted man does, he started reading with his back turned to the audience, while looking at Louis, who was still at the platform.

According to US Air Force statistics, six percent of the observed UFO phenomena could not be explained. For most of the other cases, it's a matter of planets, stars, planes, birds, balloons, kites, rockets, particular cloudy formations, meteors or satellites.

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As you know I belong to the University of Arizona and I am worling in exobiology specializing planet Mars where I'm sure that life exists somewhere in its crust.

The symposium attendees pricked up their ears.

"Dear colleagues, a research carried out a few years ago will be sooner or later rewarded for the accomplished efforts. Our Arizona University, by directing its concerns and budgets in this field, contributes to make progress in Ufology. Mars will soon give us answers to our questions."

He stopped for a few seconds, then he went on speaking while articulating slowly: "I'm convinced that life on Mars started like life on earth apart from some particular bacteria three billions of years ago thanks to numerous successive natural selections which gave birth to our species and another one whose I am going to speak about."

"You are an imaginative man, give us evidences of what you argue" a symposium attendee muttered.

"You are not heard!" another one shouted, “go up to the platform!"

"No, he has to wait for his turn, he is not authorized to speak now," Raskinet yelled.

Perkin did not cease speaking. He went on facing Louis, his back turned to the audience.

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The American experience I personally have had evidences at first hand. Indeed, And it's not a joke, I already shook the hand of an individual of their species, and I had the impression I was touching a soccer ball. I also noted that his hands were made up of eight fingers, twice as long as ours. Thanks to their second nature, they are able to climb the smooth frontages of buildings and skyscrapers. I saw them in San Diego help the firemen in their missions. They saved inhabitants when a tower caught fire. And on Mars, where the living conditions are particularly hard, they would be a great help" "Ask your question!" Garnier said, "here where I am is the place where a lecturer has to express himself, and there where you are, Professor Perkin, is the place where you are only authorized to ask a question" "Yes, ask your question!" Raskinet repeated.

"Here is my question, dear colleague," said the American to everyone's relief: “Do we have to regard these creatures as hostile beings coming from outside, inferior to us, even though they are able to carry out missions beyond the human possibilities? According to what I was told, they would have been concentrated somewhere on earth for nearly one halfcentury, In some deserted islands near sulphur deposits, they can find sulphur in the form of sulphate like gypsum, or sulphide like pyrite, or natural gas containing hydrogen sulphide.

Without forgetting crude oils, rich in sulphur molecules.”

(The reader can find a few scientific explanations in the glossary: see gypsum) It was then the agitation in the audience. Up to now, we had heard about the expan-sion of man throughout the world before Noah's Ark. We had seen a skull moulding of a supposedly hybrid skeleton. We had been informed about construction of biotelescopes. Hamilton had explained he had been studying some spores resistant to ultraviolet rays. Garnier had discovered a fifth nucleotide inside Aristotle’s cells. However, Perkin was the only attendee who dared to refer to the real existence of extraterrestrial creatures in the flesh.

Louis Garnier joined the audience saying gruffly: "When Professor Perkin agrees to let me speak, I will go on." Then he passed the mike to the American professor.

Perkin did not need a second invitation, he went up immediately to the platform.

"What a rude man!" Louis grumbled while sitting down beside me.

"Why did you accept to hand the mike over to him?"

"I had finished my talk, " Garnier replied, frustrated.and it was his turn to speak. This man is a loutish Texan, like President Bush."

Perkins showed his first photograph he commented.

"All started for me with the testimony of my father. He was in 1944 in an island of the Archipelago of the Vanuatu which was used as a basis for our troops.

He met some specimens of these beings of exception gathered near sulphur layers in a native state, or in the form of sulphates like gypsum, or of sulphides like pyrite; or close to emanations of natural gas containing hydrogen sulphide.

"My father was along the south-west coast in the area of Wusi and Linduri, in the vicinity of the Tabwemasana mount (At the top on the following photograph), which is in fact an inactive volcano and which provides them some elements necessary to their metabolism.

Gypsum is the most significant. It's the basic compound that allows these creatures to breathe in anoxic environment. (See glossary, The fuel of the nascent life) “See at the bottom of this picture, the alluvial cone of this river going down from the mountain. I found there some metalic waste coming from unidentified machines. Some American chemists even think the concerned metallic elements are very rare on Earth.

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Perkin gave a few further explanations: "Yes, gentlemen, I have got enough evidences to be authorised to announce to you that extraterrestrial creatures have found enough organic matter on our planet to satisfy their metabolism.

It's not the most important thing. The paramount question is to know if UFOs are driven by these living beings present on board or, conversely, if they are remotely controlled? We are inclined to favor the second hypothesis; but it does not mean that control takes place from space. We are convinced that pilots are already in those areas rich in sulphur. They surely guide their unidentified objects from there."

Satisfied with the effects he just produced, Perkin didn't stop after such a good start, "Experts of American army always recognized the enormous interest of their technology for our nations. Not only for phenomenal speeds of these machines, but also for the exceptional qualities of their pilots. For them, our climate produces an arctic cold. To survive amid us, they must be warmly dressed. Moreover, they don't stop scattering themselves throughout the world, their vital space being too reduced. From a biological standpoint, Texas and Arkansas are two regions that are perfectly fitting for them. American army is ready to reserve a territory to their species. That could enable them to set up raw material factories for their food. These beings are also able to resist torrid temperatures for years. They do not perspire much; their pulsations do not increase, even after the crossing of a long desert with fifty-five centigrade degrees.

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They fear neither the most venomous snakes nor scorpions, and their longevity can reach several centuries."

"Did they take part in the Gulf war?" Palach questioned.

"No, sir, at that time, we didn't know they existed."

"How long do you know them?"

"Recently,” the American answered, satisfied.

Palach did not appear surprised to receive such a laconic answer, and he kept silent.

Louis Garnier stood up and fixed the American with severity: "You suffer from an excess of modesty, sir. You met individuals of this species, you said.

Then, why didn't you take one of them to us? I had asked the congress attendees to bring a maximum of information! You had all the guarantees of safety and confidentiality."

Perkin answered he only knew some specimens under the monitoring of US Army Corps of Engineers, the American military engineering, and he did not intend to run a risk in proposing them to take them abroad.

“It may interest you to know that I succeeded in shooting one particular specimen who was too dangerous for humans. I could have taken it here in Chaudfontaine. It would have been the only absolute proof of my experiences. However, it would have been too dangerous: I would have risked my life."

And he mysteriously added this remark: "Should somebody know the place where they live, it would be a catastrophe: their skeletons are coveted. They are highly prized on Tucson's market, where dinosaur’s bones and hominid’s ones are worth a fortune."

Professor Palach stood up and asked: "Do you mean hominid or humanoids?”

"Let's see, Professor Palach, you know well that we reserve sometimes “humanoid” for the only human line while other fellow-members consider that the "hominid" family includes Ponginae and humanoids subfamilies. No complications, please," Perkin replied.

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The American experience "Ladies and Gentlemen, I don't know the places where the hybrids enlisted in American forces are coming from, and should I know them, I would maintain silent myself. The whole skeleton may be worth, from three to ten million dollars. Your Aristotle is worth still more, Professor Garnier! And your Vaclav too, Professor Palach! They are two exceptional skeletons. " Perkin did not find it embarrassing to be introduced as a bone trader. I really had the feeling of a brutal, clever competent man who, in business matters, was pitiless.

A bit too talkative, he then added: "Each skeleton is worth as much as an entire tyrannosaur, at least three million dollars each. Do you know that in Utah, underneath the stand of a football stadium, you can find a lot of famous bones whose total value exceeds two billion dollars?

Believe me, Professor Garnier; thanks to details of your gigantic pictures, I can assure you that I never met such an entire extraterrestrial skeleton."

"Professor Perkin," Louis replied," you are neither at Tucson market nor at Sotheby's, and we are not here in order to sell or buy bones. Let's be serious!"

"I'm serious, Professor Garnier. It's not because both of us are conscientious scientists that we must not attach importance to the value of objects. You know that for half a century the majority of great discoveries have come from the private sector. Sotheby's is part of it.

Some precious objects we can find and buy there may have a particular meaning for us and may suddenly activate our interest for them. Why couldn't it be the same with bones? Why couldn't the private sector grow rich starting from the exploitation of what it discovered? That doesn't prevent us from studying these bones, and afterwards we can sell them to get the money they are worth."

The audience applauded and it was the pause time.

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The American experience Now, many things had become obvious and particularly Archibald Wynn's statements in the rector’s office.

It was sure that Hertafouris and Garnier had not been the first ones to know Aristotle's true nature. Wynn knew the existence of these predators belonging to barbarians, always ready to loot some private collections. This is why, I assumed, in the letters he had sent to Hertafouris, Wynn had tried to delay as long as possible the true nature of the skeleton.

It was indeed a truth difficult to say to humanity. At the Chinese restaurant, Wynn had to decide to share the truth that was to be known to the symposium, the presence of Perkin being announced there.

It was the break. The congress attendees moved outside to the hotel terrace where a drink was served. Garnier joined Perkin there and wanted to know some more.

"Come on, dear colleague," he said, "you know individuals who have a skeleton similar to Aristotle, and hands with eight or twelve fingers."

"Yes, that's what I just said."

"When will you bring them to us? You are not very credible, are you? Confidentiality, National security and so on...is it really the reason?"

"Do you think I am a liar?" Perkin exclaimed, surprised that the organizer of the symposium expressed his doubt about what he had publicly expressed.

"Not at all, I beg your pardon; I'm particularly anxious and nervous: Hertafouris's illness, which seems to persist. Excuse me!"

"You are quite forgiven," the American answered.

"Then, why wouldn't we join our forces? We study their skeleton, but we miss a living specimen. It would be interesting for biology and medicine if we could... I suppose that my request doesn't appear mad or improper to you?"

"Why would it be?" the American retorted. "Science is science. You and I, we know that science without conscience is but ruin of the soul. What you ask me is perfectly normal. We only aim at human's interests by analyzing extraterrestrial hybrids' DNA? Where is the issue?"

"I ask you this question because... Do you think it's too early to develop a vaccine?"

"You mean a vaccine that could preserve us from their viruses, why not? If they would become a real threat for humanity, we might need some" While they were talking, they moved towards the station cafĂŠ to stretch their legs, in spite of the intervention of Louis's bodyguard, who was rebuffed when he prohibited them from leaving the terrace of the Palace Hotel.

"Something has always amazed me in Europe, Mr. Garnier," Perkin added, "You can't imagine the importance of the scientists' dishonesty. You seem to believe that, like the monks, they refrain from infringing on their professional ethics. It's an error to think that vice and swindle are absent among them. Why would a scientist be more scrupu-lous, rigorous, and less delinquent than another human?"

"Why, this question?" Louis asked.

"Because of all I have heard since the beginning of the symposium, everything relates to vice and swindle."

"You think of Palach?"

"Not only of him, Mr. Garnier. Professor Hertafouris cheated too? Your university allowed the world to see a skeleton, supposedly to be a Neanderthal man, and you have just said to us that he was a hybrid with a mixture of extraterrestrial and human DNA!" "It was not intentional, Professor Perkin. Hertafouris is a reliable paleontologist. As a geneticist, I discovered his DNA. Hertafouris was still unaware of it until a few days ago... Security's measures obliged us to postpone the disclosure our discovery, but also, I confess, we intended to preserve its exclusiveness."

113

The American experience While they were walking along the Vesdre River, and after turning left near the door of the casino, where the European flags were displayed, Perkin insisted: "Don't you think an animal bone that disappeared sixty-five million years ago, like a confirmed bone of a tyrannosaur, exceeds the value of a Rodin’s sculpture, for in-stance?"

At that time, several gun shots resounded and the panes of the Palace Hotel exploded.

The symposium attendees escaped from the terrace to protect themselves by any possible means. Palach hid behind the old English taxi parked along the hotel frontage.

Garnier and Perkin threw themselves under a vehicle in the hotel car park.

"Where was the shooting from?" Louis exclaimed so that his colleagues could hear him.

Nobody answered.

This event put an end to the symposium on the Esplanade. The attendees did not even wait for the end of the afternoon. Each one went back to his hotel with the hope that, the following day, the lectures could take place.

A prosecutor and two police chiefs came on the spot half an hour later. Amid them, a specialist in ballistics had initially put forth the assumption of a marksman perched on a tree on the south side of the valley or at the top of the water tower of Ninane.

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(View from the water tower of Ninane. My house is the first one on the left of this picture) I must specify here what the pyramids are. There is no relation either with the Pharaohs or with the mummies. They are not an esoteric place, but simply a large building with three polygonal structures whose roofs looked like pyramids. This unfinished building had occupied for fifteen years a ground belonging to local authority. Its construction was definitively stopped after a financial swindle.

Since then, the Pyramids in Chaudfontaine were similar to Saint-Lambert Square in Liege, which had been, for a long time, a financial and organizational reef.

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The American experience It was decided that the Pyramids are sold, but nobody was interested in them, even for five hundred thousand Belgian francs (12500 euros). Several bullets, found out inside the hotel, were engraved with an animal looking like a sheep. Everything led us to the SHEEP, this organization that had signed the murder of Archibald Wynn. Let's remember the walker of Ninane, who had also seen this mysterious label written on the polyhedral structure found near the Devil Bridge. .

A gloved police chief collected the bullets and introduced them into an envelope. A policeman entered into a vehicle and climbed the hill towards Ninane.

The shots had apparently not disturbed the inhabitants of this area.

The local police force was sent to the CafĂŠ Le Parc in order to take Fulvio and Myriam's statement. Among the customers, a kind of giant with a crimson face indicated, with his enormous hand, the water tower.

"It's from up there, above the big bottle!" he showed.

A young man stood at the bar. He was rather slim, dressed in a green jacket. He had a bony and energetic face, animated of a dark passion. The man testified in a tumultuous flood of jerked and virulent words. The local police officer took notes as quickly as he could. That witness declared he had seen at the time of the shots a shiny light going down on Ninane at the top of the hill.

"Perpendicular to the pyramids?" the police officer asked.

"What is it penperdicular?" the young man questioned.

"I mean that if you look at the unfinished building opposite the bridge, there in front of you - the Pyramids, as people from here use to say - and if you draw a straight line upwards, is it in that place you saw the light?"

"Yes, it is," the young man answered.

A regular consumer who lived near Le Parc, a retired postman, added that if the direction specified by the young man was correct, then the light must have fallen near the church of Ninane.

LĂŠon the milkman of the village discovered this strange structure near the church.

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The newspapers of the next day were full of the “Chaudfontaine mystery�. Each of them gave a long account of the affair. The Press mentioned the attack, but without referring to the symposium and without making any link between the word "SHEEP" engraved in the bullets and the polyhedral organic structure discovered close to the Devil Bridge.

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The American experience A newspaper reported the history of an inhabitant of Ninane, who was looking for his Jack Russell, that had escaped from his residence. He had found it near the water tower.

It had been bitten on the face as if two flesh cylinders had been removed from its body."

The puppy had quickly recovered, but had changed so much that its breed was unrecognizable.

In the evening when I met Alain Troisfontaines, my physician, to have my usual checkup, he was surprised that I hadn't heard about that dog even though my home was one hundred meters far from the place of the event.

"It's strange," he told me, "I had just visited a patient in your neighbourhood and, when I was leaving the house, I saw an enormous man dressed with a military greatcoat, while I was wearing a light shirt" I thought at once of the creature the walker had seen in Ninane and about the fat man who had sat down near Josette and Louis, Cathedral Square.

"Then I saw another man in a hurry who was moving towards me," the doctor explained, "he carried in his arms a white puppy with black spots. I shouted to him "What happens?"

He answered me, "Call the police force, a man has just bitten the dog then he fled to the water tower! I felt it odd to hear that a man might have bitten a dog. I phoned the local Police Office, and there, somebody said to me, don't tell that story, we are on a track which must remain secret. Since it isn't a medical secret, I tell you all," the doctor confided to me.

During the same day, a group of recruited young people had to clean the roadway between Ninane and Beaufays. The alderman, responsible for the public utilities, came to encourage them in their task. He told me that several kilos gelatine had been collected.

"It looked like the one of our butchers, so that we thought that a wholesaler had lost a part of his loading," he precised.

Nevertheless, the alderman and I we had quickly established that it must have a link with the gelatinous filaments discovered near the Devil Bridge.

Late in the evening, a croupier left the casino to go to the car park near Hauster Castle, under way of being restored, at one kilometre far from the casino.

The croupier walked along the tennis courts then followed the path on the right bank of the Vesdre River, lighting his way with a torch.

Under the starry sky, he heard the river flowing. Suddenly, a train coming from Cologne frightened him. A water noise on his right hand drew his attention. It came from a small pond from which was emerging an unpleasant odour of putrefying plantations.

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The American experience The croupier stopped one moment and then caught sight of a dark form moving towards him. He pointed his torch in this direction.

Then, it was the black hole and a horrible suffering. Half-unconscious, it took him more than one hour to go back to the Esplanade, where some dumbfounded tourists saw him arrive while he was crawling. Then, he threw himself into the ornamental pond in front of the Casino entrance.

Some walkers, who thought to be dealing with a drunken man, helped the croupier climb out of the pond.

They quickly realized that they had just saved somebody whose face had been horribly bitten and which quickly changed so that it looked like the one of the cave man" The next day, Battle investigated. But he was greeted by a hippo escaped from a circus that had just moved into the Parc des Sources .

Who had released these animals and why? A lover of nature?

The investigation was soon providing some puzzles that were added to the previous ones: the footprints found behind the Casino near the tennis courts left really puzzled criminologists .

Judge for yourself :

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The testimony of a walker in Ninane On the 6th of July in the morning, I didn't attend the symposium at the beginning of the day, in order to ask about the puppy attacked near the water tower. It was also the opportunity to pay a visit to the walker of Ninane and convince him to go and explain to local authorities what he had seen rather than telling his discovery to bloodthirsty reporters.

He accepted. I proposed that, as fast as possible, he should put himself in close contact with Bataille and the prosecutor charged with this affair. This one insisted that the walker should testify on the very same afternoon faced to the symposium audience and he offered Garnier to ask questions that would be surely more pertinent than his.

We knew that most of witnesses from all over the world had explained their abductions by UFO. The same stories always came back, e.i. strange dreams in which appeared humanoids with a slim body, a deformed head and large eyes. We had been told that they had tortured humans and had subjected them to particular medical examinations...The victims had felt nauseous and had suffered from unbearable headaches and amnesia.

Let's remember the Martin Family who disappeared on the 7th December 1958 when they were going to buy a Christmas tree. .

The walker of Ninane sat down in the forefront, his briefcase put down on his knees. The prosecutor and Bataille sat down on the second row. Louis went up to the platform. The congress attendees appreciated his way of putting it because when he could not answer the questions, he didn't try to keep the talk going.

He contradicted the reporters who had given free rein to their imagination in articles relating the event of the Devil Bridge.

Louis Garnier set about the interview, and I was noting down.

"Sir, you are our guest. I will not pronounce your name since you asked us to be discreet.

Can you give us a few more particulars about the morphology of these people?"

"As I told the press, they had a normal head compared to the body. Their hair was black and luxuriant. They were dressed with a large coat. I don't know if it was about men or women, I was too far from them. But their hands, a horrifying sight" he explained while presenting a drawing he had carried out of memory.

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The testimony of a walker in Ninane "O.K., sir, we have read everything in the press. Nevertheless, have you got particular clues to make progress in our inquiry?"

The man kept silent for a long moment and appeared hesitant about telling more. He shrugged his shoulders and seemed embarrassed.

"Yes, sir, I must announce you something ‌ one of them was sucking a stone. This stone, I brought it to you. Here it is," he added while taking it from his briefcase.

Garnier went down from the platform to meet the guest. He took the stone and spoke to a geologist. This one recognized a piece of gypsum, as it could be found in the area, but not at the place where the strange individual was sucking it.

"Here is a hydrated calcium sulphate," he confirmed in a more scientific way.

"Are there sulphate stones on churches?"questioned the prosecutor.

"Of course," the geologist answered, "the acid rains attack the buildings, sir."

And he explained with a profusion of details: "On the picture on the left, you 're dealing with a compact carbonate stone and right to a porous carbonate rock."

"That makes credible the witness who saw them hung upon Saint-Denis church when they were licking the stones of the building," said Inspector Jamin (photograph on the left) to the prosecutor.

1. The black crust 2. The layer of crystalline gypsum (100-200 ppm) (SO indicates the origin of the stone surface area) The presence of these deposits is primarily limited to protected areas of heavy rain ( black areas ) Some effects related to the presence of sulphur compounds ( from industrial pollution and heating ) are directly observed on the facades of buildings that sulphuric men are licking.

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The testimony of a walker in Ninane The geologist showed then a few pictures of different tongues that were observed by his colleagues in Biology mainly upon the thick lips species.

123

The testimony of a walker in Ninane This eight-fingered thick lipped species is sucking an orange juice.

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The testimony of a walker in Ninane And this one tries to look like Einstein.

Jamin went on with his report. “And another English witness noticed a strange creature fixed in the cloisters of Salisbury Cathedral and another one, not far from there, on the site of megaliths in Stonehenge� added the prosecutor.

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The testimony of a walker in Ninane

“Have you noticed something else?” asked Jamin.

"Maybe...There is also…" he hesitated.

"Don't fear anything. You express as much as you want, we are in camera," Garnier specified.

"There were also what I found as soon as they had left the place, i.e; a few organic: bars, and some gelatinous filaments… but also…"

"Tell us!" Louis asked anxiously.

"But also… a foetus" "You are joking!"

"Not, at all, it was a foetus, I brought it to the CHU. Here is the photograph"

"It's a judicious decision. And when did you brought it?"

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The testimony of a walker in Ninane "Yesterday, in the afternoon, just after I found it."

"How old is this foetus?"

"The doctor estimated that it was four months old" There was a great silence in the audience. Louis thanked him and, as the symposium had to go on, he called on the following lecturer.

The Perkin commission, through professor Pankratov’s voice spoke about “the necessity and natural selection": "In the thirties, my compatriot, Konstantin Eduardovitch Tsiolkovsky, believed that a higher breed was going to emerge from the evolution. He thought that this breed could eliminate, in a painless way, the rather unsuited animals. It was indeed a better solution than seeing them enduring the useless sufferings of the evolution and the battle for life. "According to him," Pankratov declared, "this breed would behave like a competent gardener able to permanently weed the lower animal species and banal plantations.”

There were murmurs in the audience.

"The allegations of some scientists," continued the Russian," made us think those Aliens are hostile and quarrelsome. However, nothing really proves it. And nothing ensures us that we can win them to our cause.”

In short, the day came to an end without accurate allegations on the scientific level, but these worried us.

When I went back to home, at the end of the day, I noted with joy that my friend Edmond Blattchen had paid us a visit and had brought a gift for Ella. Josette had already told him everything she knew, and when she saw me, she reproached me my old contact with the Gargoyle Group once more. I made a considerable effort not to speak about the statement of the walker of Ninane or about the foetus.

"If you can contact them in order they are seen on the TV," joked Edmond. "there is no problem. It would be a premiere for our team. Maybe, they would have things to tell. If they belong to the same universe as ours, and if they are monotheists, their God is the same as ours,” he concluded.

"I don't know the way they would write Names of gods,” wondered Josette, "but we can imagine that it could be: Us".

Let's note that "Names of gods" is a TV broadcasting where known persons and less known have the opportunity to express their philosophical and/or religious faith.

I reminded Edmond, the director of this TV programme, the recording of Professor Christian de Duve's interview. On this occasion, he had autographed his last work for me. This book, whose title was Poussière de vie (in English, Dust of life), had reminded me that the prebiotic world had been a macerating in the sulphur.

To-day the circumstances were quite different we were gathered to celebrate Ella's birth.

That's why Edmond asked me amazed: "Why do you think of Professor de Duve?"

Although I have never hidden anything to him since nearly one half-century, I re-mained silent. A few seconds later, I hypocritically answered "This symposium has stuffed my head.

I don't see why Professor de Duve interferes in my thoughts now. I'd better speak about Ella, indeed."

Josette was cradling Ella in her arms, and she allowed me to take her, by showing me how to prop up her head carefully in one hand.

127

In the hills of Chaudfontaine The Burgomaster of Chaudfontaine had chosen the fortification instead of the Palace Hotel.

He had of course received the agreement of the university authorities. This reinforced concrete mass, located at the top of the northern slope of the Vesdre River, two hundred meters higher than the esplanade, did not offer the same comfort, but it was sure that it could discourage the possible attackers. Some artillery soldiers were supervising. They were armed with mortars and grenade throwers to dissuade anyone who would like fighting with the symposium attendees.

Another advantage of the fortification was its facilities allowing to work at the same time on different topics, what perfectly suited the program established for the second week.

Lastly, during the scorching days, the place would remain fresh.

Logistics and all what had been planned to make the attendees secure were to be transferred during the night. The comings and goings of the armoured vans resumed again. They passed under the railway and followed the steep road behind the station.

A meticulous body search of each attendee took place at the opening of the fortification.

On Saturday, the 7th of July, 2001 in the morning. the buildings planned for the commissions were thoroughly inspected, so that nobody could suspect his neighbour at the table.

While a groom come from the hotel was unloading a truck filled with chairs, he found out in one of them a bullet, presumed fired from the water tower of Ninane.

He tried to extract it, but it broke and a yellow powder scattered in the atmosphere. Two hours later, this young man felt faint and was in terrible pain. His skin changed colour and his orbits got thicker..

The sea-lion from Le Monde Sauvage, the puppy of Ninane, the croupier, and now the groom of the Palace Hotel, these events were not enough for the organizers to put an end to the symposium. Two attendees returned to England before giving their lecture. They had always been two overcautious men who never brought significant things to science; their only obvious goal was always to inflate their Curriculum Vitae by attending international meetings and by writing some rare articles in scientific magazines.

This symposium would be added to others in which they had also taken part in a passive way.

Here is the entrance of the old fortification in Chaudfontaine.

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In the hills of Chaudfontaine

A temporary kitchen had been installed in a hut, but the cook had nothing to envy to the best heads.

The smoke had a delightful scent.

Louis Garnier considered it useful to redefine the symposium's goal.

"Dear friends, in order to reach our goals and take up the challenge of a still unknown enemy, we must face it and show that our faith in our science is stronger than their threats.

From my point of view, these events give an unexpected aura to our symposium. Sooner or later, the whole world will be informed that, in Chaudfontaine, university professors didn't lower the flag in front of their attackers. In the following days, we must expect that the most pessimistic articles to be published in the newspapers. They will be the work of misinformed reporters in search of sensationalism. We have the responsibility for correcting all errors, mistakes and lies. Our credibility must be unfailing.

The audience applauded. Louis felt that he was strengthened.

"Allow me to remind you that international Ufology is missing structures cruelly and needs an effective policy," he went on.

"Working without aim doesn't bring anything to anybody. What is essential is to cope with reality and present reliable proofs. Nobody has the right systematically to reject unidentified flying objects as if they were purely imaginary products.

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In the hills of Chaudfontaine It's clear that the future of our science essentially depends on aids and subsidies from the different States. It also depends on our determination to persuade populations of our fully justified research.

I will quote the conclusions from SOBEPS in its official report published after its observations that took place in this area from the end of 1989 until April 1990. They are still very sensible today.

"First, there are those who don't believe that a thing as a UFO could exist. They carried out a lot of observations to atmospheric or astronomical phenomena (…) they deny the concrete testimony and try to ridicule them.

Secondly, there are those who accept the observations of UFOs, but exclude by definition any assumption of their extraterrestrial origin.

Thirdly, there are those who are convinced of UFOs' existence and who don't exclude their extraterrestrial origin (…) they venture on shaky ground since they formulate an assumption without stable scientific base.

And last but not least, those who are convinced of the UFOs' extraterrestrial origin. Unconditional partisans, their belief is more based on belief than reported observations of UFO since (…) 1948. Belong to this category, all those who take religious and mythological data as a starting point" Louis put an end to his talk: "We could have taken here people claiming to have been victims of abductions. They could have told us their odyssey on board a spaceship in which horrible sexual rapes would have taken place. It would have been fiction instead of a scientific approach. Let's carry on our lectures, dear colleagues.

Our protection is optimal. The fortification of Chaudfontaine is as comfortable as the Palace Hotel; it's the price to help humanity to respond to the terrible danger that is threatening us.

The file "Zoology" had been entrusted to the examining magistrate, Emile Duchêne (photograph), who had immediately questioned the main organizers and lecturers of the symposium. Perkin’s statement had really worried him. His allusions to weird creatures equipped with twelve-fingered hands able to climb buildings and skyscraper, seemed to be pure fiction. However, the American professor's notoriety did not enable Duchêne to have a doubt about him "Perkin, a pathological liar, no, it's impossible," he murmured. As he couldn't manage to loop the loop, Duchêne asked Louis Garnier to meet him in his office, on Saint Lambert Square, on Saturday the 7th of July at the beginning of the afternoon.

"Professor, I intend to question you, of course, as a witness. I will not beat about the bush, it's no use. Here is an anonymous letter relating to you. I received it yesterday morning. Try to recognize the writing!"

Louis Garnier read it and examined it from every angle, but couldn't determine the author.

He didn't understand the meaning of the sentence: "that professor knows some more. Ask him questions about Archibald Wynn’s murder."

"I don't recognize the writing, and I don't see what the author of this anonymous letter meant," Louis replied while giving it back to the judge.

"Did you write a statement after the aggression of your British colleague?"

"No, sir, nobody questioned me. I couldn't move; I was in Chaudfontaine when I was informed of his accident, a few minutes before the official opening of the symposium."

"Let's make it now. It will be an article to add to the file."

Duchêne called upon an employee equipped with a personnel computer.

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In the hills of Chaudfontaine "There's one thing I'd like to know in connection with Professor Wynn’s murder: why did he go back to the natural history museum on the next morning after Professor Herta-fouris’s aggression?

Moreover, why did he go before the opening of the museum and the aquarium? Did you think about that?" Duchêne asked.

Garnier became silent and thoughtful for a time. He then tried to give an answer.

"He had maybe forgotten something the day before in Andreas’s office? It's a logical consequence of this highly emotional moment when he discovered the body. My friend, Francis Baudouin, thinks that he wanted to take a picture of Delvaux's painting. His assumption seems to be proved after the development of the negative film that we found in his camera.”

"Francis Baudouin thinks that! Ah yes!" Duchêne said, surprised. "But why did Wynn come so early? I don't find any good reason to explain that. Was Hertafouris often in close contact with Professor Wynn?"

"Lately, they regularly talked. As a person responsible for the management of the institute, I had asked him to reduce his speaking time… his phone expenses on Oxford were particularly important. For a long time, we have asked the staff to make an effort; consequently, we had to set an example.”

"And which was their main topic of talks?"

"Since Andreas discovered the Aristotle skeleton, we have shown it to the whole world on the Internet, Professor Wynn has been selected to bring us elements in order to specify the nature of the skeleton from the morphological point of view and without forgetting his dating.

He is a specialist."

"Isn't Professor Wynn an exobiologist?"

"Yes, full-time."

"Why did your university choose, as a partner, a professor skilled in this field, since the skeleton looked like a Neanderthal man?"

"Wynn appeared as soon as Aristotle was discovered and Hertafouris wanted to team up with him supposedly that his universally known reputation could bring more credit to his discovery. At that time, I hadn't found out the fifth nucleotide yet."

"When Hertafouris’s body was discovered in his office, he was present, wasn't he?"

"Yes, he was with a retired professor who was working in the office next to Andreas' one.

Wynn even smashed in the double-locked door."

"I was told that Archibald Wynn had a premonition before entering the building," Duchêne added." At the end of the evening at the restaurant, did he go out alone or was he with somebody else?"

"When we left the restaurant, Francis Baudouin and I were with him but one hundred meters further somebody was waiting for him. I didn't know who that man was, but I realized during the symposium that he was Professor Hamilton, his colleague from Cambridge."

"Was there somebody else?"

"Nobody else: Francis Baudouin, Archibald Wynn and me."

"Mr. Garnier, let us consider a logical chain of reasoning. I'm convinced that Professor Wynn was seeking something but couldn't find it given that he was murdered. His murderer who wanted him to silence forever must have taken something away. In the course of the evening at the Chinese restaurant didn't he tell anything… surprising?"

"Surprising, yes your honour, he initially informed us that his lecture at the symposium would be important. Then, he declared that Aristotle was the skeleton of a genetically modified human with seeds sent from another planet, even though he had always previously claimed that it was a Neanderthal man. His change of mind staggered me."

"Is that everything you know?"

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In the hills of Chaudfontaine "Since you press me in order I to tell you more," Garnier went on, "Andreas Hertafouris gave me some more particulars. It was on the day before Aristotle's transfer from the Sart Tilman campus to the zoological institute: "His hands, I’d rather keep them in my safe; we will make a moulding, the tourists will not see the true and the false. As much Yves Coppens gives importance to Lucy's knee - since it revealed, thanks to the articulation of the thighbone on its tibia, that the Australopithecus female was a biped - as much Andreas Hertafouris was impressed by Aristotle's hands because of the number and the length of his fingers. Did you open his safe in his office, your honour?"

"Yes. We hoped that Mr. Hertafouris would regain soon consciousness and would give us the keys, but we were impatient and therefore we forced the lock. We also searched the other offices, but we went out with an empty bag.”

"It's a pity" Garnier concluded.

Duchêne put an end to the questioning.

When Louis was on the point of leaving the office, the judge restarted his questioning.

"A last question, Professor" "Yes," Louis replied coldly as he was going out.

"When Hertafouris discovered Aristotle, were you present?"

"No, he was alone" "He had enough time to put down the skeleton next to the other ones and make people believe that he was the discoverer" imagined the judge.

"How dare you say that?" Louis exclaimed while he came back and sat down on the chair that he had just left. "You have fantasized, your honour."

"Could you prove that my assumption is false?"

"And why would he have imagined such a scenario?" Louis asked.

"The scoop, Mr. Garnier, the scoop" Louis kept silent, his glance froze. He thought one moment of Beringer, this teacher made ridiculous by false fossils; and of Woodward, deceived by Dawson about the Piltdown man; and of Gupta, who mystified what he had stolen and that he claimed to have found it in inaccessible places. On what grounds did he think Andreas was on the same boat?

"And what do you think about my genetic analyses?" Louis questioned.

"Did you take yourself the specimens from the skeleton?" Duchêne dared asking him.

"Specimens from the skeleton? No, it was Andreas's role and my assistants’s one. I always had confidence in them. They can testify. I'm tired, your honour, and what you just told me a few seconds ago is disturbing me enormously. Allow me to take my leave" he said without awaiting an answer.

Duchêne didn't stop him.

On the landing, used as waiting room, Louis met two reporters from local newspapers.

"Hello, Professor!" said one of them.

He did not answer and he walked faster.

The examining magistrate had demanded an extreme discretion about what had happened as about the events being likely to occur. However, the reporters started getting impatient and did not seem accepting the censure imposed by the National Safety. They were reduced to complain.

The National Safety in Belgium is equivalent to The Criminal Investigation Department in England and the FBI in the United States.

"Let's see, Gentlemen, the current climate of your items is unacceptable even if it increases the sale of your newspapers," warned Duchêne straightaway.

"Your honour," said the editor of La Meuse,"; our foreign colleagues have worked without any constraints and Belgian reporters must be silent. This evening, all the television news will speak about it. Look at the headline chosen by The Guardian?"

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In the hills of Chaudfontaine DuchĂŞne read, "They are in Belgium."

"And here is Bild Zeitung, said the reporter of La Gazette of Liege. DuchĂŞne read, "Durch ein Mann, einen gebissenenen Hund." Translation:"a dog was bitten by a man".

Indeed, the National Safety had realized that the secret could not be kept more time. In the restaurants and public places, the rotted egg odour had become unbearable. This one had suddenly taken the effect of a hostile and murderous presence that caused panics everywhere. We were told that in a restaurant in the city, a woman had not been able to control her own body gases, and all the guests precipitately left the place.

The horrible stories were legion. For example, a consumer at the Delft Coffee Shop, claimed to have discovered in the house of one of these monsters a kind of "tobacco pot" containing several tufts of pubis hairs from violated women.

A regular customer of Andre Sente, the hairdresser from Soeurs de Hasque Street, had reported that they were necrophilous and raped their victims after killing them. Another customer, in the same salon, had not stopped in so good a way and had told that they used to eat them. Lastly, as if the list of events was not filled enough, some told they were consuming excrement coming from the sewers of the large cities. Killers, necrophilous, necrophagous and coprophagous, better and better... What else?

The famous British newspaper, The Guardian, reported the available data at Scotland Yard to reconstitute Jack the Ripper's features. The face of this serial killer (photograph) was less worrying than those from the strange creatures strolling in our university campus.

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In the hills of Chaudfontaine

Suspicious objects were photographed in the campus of Sart Tilman , one was shaped like a cigar, which I hastened to look while I was accompanied by my little bitch Julie

The next two photos relate to another unidentified flying object in the shape of an egg.

Note that this ovoid broke into two pieces watched by my other little bitch, my shih tsu, Olive. These two pieces are currently under investigation.

135

In the hills of Chaudfontaine

136

In the hills of Chaudfontaine

The newspaper La Meuse published a special edition in which the Investigating Commisioner Bataille and I were near the aquarium of piranhas and near the painting of Delvaux

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In the hills of Chaudfontaine The investigation had nothing cleared up yet. No serious track seemed to emerge either for Wynn or for Hertafouris. The word "SHEEP" kept its secrecy. What about the croupier?

What about the groom? Was there a complicity between the attackers and some congress attendees? Were they invited by one of them? Around ten a.m., Duchêne got in touch with the University Hospital.

"Your honour," the emergency physician said, “ the groom who arrived this night is developing a skin disease similar to Mr. Hertafouris's one."

Then it was my turn to be questioned. Duchêne took each word I was pronouncing in consideration. I would have liked my students doing the same when I was teaching, but it seemed that their motivations to succeed were different as the judge's ones. He wanted to know the truth quickly and accurately.

"It is about an additional investigation," he announced to me straightaway "Have you got something to add to your previous statement when commissioner Bataille questioned you? ... Near the fish tanks, I think? Didn't you forget something?" he asked me while scrutinizing a few sheet of papers.

"Yes, your honour, a story that might appear fantastic to you, but that my wife elucidated yesterday."

Nothing is fantastic, Mr. Baudouin, you must know that reality often exceeds fiction."

"Yes unfortunately!" I answered.

And I told him all about my journey in Oxford in 1962. He was upset.

"And you call that fantastic!" he exclaimed.

My story had opened a way to him, a way that he vainly had been finding out for three days.

"It's obvious, sir, that it's necessary to make this investigation deeper. You must go to England to find there Tarakan and all the members of the Gargoyle Group still alive! It's our only chance to clear up the situation.

Duchêne nervously seized the phone and dialled.

"Commissioner Bataille! You will go with Mr. Baudouin to Oxford while Inspector detective Jamin goes on with his investigation in the hills around Chaudfontaine."

"When?" Bataille asked.

"This evening?"replied Duchêne.

"This evening, but I will not have enough to... " "You will have to sort it out yourself. Prepare your luggage and join me."

Then he rang off while saying, "I assume, Mr. Baudouin that the organizing capacity of your school will enable you to help us in such a fundamental cause? I requisition you in a new Letters Rogatory" "Err! I, your honour, yes, I have finished with the examinations, but... the symposium and I..."

"And you had the role of a scribe, isn't?"

"It's right" "Find somebody else. We have to clear up this track. Nobody, but you, can help us."

Duchêne concludes while requiring of me to leave him. Then, he started writing two investigation plans: one concerning the fortification, designed to Jamin, and the other one for the "Letters Rogatory" on Oxford, for the attention of Bataille and me.

Let's remember that a Letters Rogatory or Letter of Request is a formal request from a court to a foreign court for some type of judicial assistance. The most common remedies sought by Letters Rogatory are service of process and taking of evidence.

As soon as I was back home Josette said to me that she had found unbelievable that I had accepted such a delicate mission without taking time to reflect a while.

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In the hills of Chaudfontaine "You see," she often said to me, "you thought that teaching and research would suit you better than industry, and you realize that you are regarded as a servant there too" Such an unpleasant comment was exasperating me. My wife did not realize that, even in these exceptional circumstances, nothing was similar to what I had lived in the private sector.

I used to tell her in vain that the company’s executives had spent their time in commercial meetings and representations in which they had acted as machines to sign, convince, sell, lunch and dine, machines to negotiate and intrigue. I used to repeat to her that all these human machines articulated by the technostructure, belonged to this narrow sphere, microcosmic, closed on itself, alienating and sclerosing.

Josette never failed to say to me, "You see, it's not better than before". She did not want to be aware of this litany of planning and deadlines, and about the tiresome everyday life that I had known. It was the time when the future was insipid for me because it was made of an endless present without any surprises, except those that did not give me any reason to hope.

I was convinced that man is only himself in his intelligence where he feels at any moment the exact limits and clear directions. He does not live any more under the domination of other men who hide the universe from him. No, when I became a teacher I found again the joy of being myself and the pleasure to give up my previous boring managerial obligations.

"Is this judge conscious that you are risking your life? What is the rector's responsibility in this decision?" she grumbled.

"I have no choice," I answered.

"It's urgent, moreover. How do you want me to pack your case so quickly? He could have waited for tomorrow!"

"I don't have any choice!” I repeated.

"It's urgent, moreover. How do you want me to pack your luggage so quickly? He could have waited for tomorrow!"

"I don't have any other choice!” I repeated.

"You always say the same, I don't have the choice. Of course, you have it! Nobody is authorized to use time of anybody without consulting his family."

"It's an order! I received an order to go there... if not...”

"If not?"

"If not, I will regret all my life not to have accepted, since this investigation can help clear up the situation. Do you understand? A refusal would be regarded as an obstruction to the knowledge of the truth. That’s why I made no difficulties about accompanying Commissioner Bataille.

While preparing my luggage, Josette told me her talk at the end of the morning with a young woman in a street of Ninane. This young woman seemed quite well informed.

"I'd like so much to become a godmother of an endangered animal," she had said to her.

She was a student in biology and knew that we were fighting for the safeguarding of the species. At the time of our recent visit in London Zoo, we met two rhinoceroses, which had broken our heart.

"It's not difficult," Josette had answered her, "I'm Rosie's godmother, the female rhinoceros (Photograph). You have just to choose your animal and pay an annual contribution for its food and maintenance. In exchange, the zoo will give you news of your godchild."

Picture taken in London Zoo during our latest visit.

The young woman then had kindly insisted in order to receive a phone call from me.

139

In the hills of Chaudfontaine "That will encourage her. She looked so young and so motivated. It's to you, she wanted to speak. She wanted to hear you today." precised Josette.

I was in a hurry, and I did not understand why it was so urgent to phone her. All the more that I was regarding this express request as a whim of a girl.

Nevertheless, I phoned her, while thinking that if I had to deal with a chatterbox, it would be still time to stop her and postpone the talk.

"Marina DuchĂŞne, hello, Mr. Baudouin! My father informed me that you could help me" "Hello Miss DuchĂŞne, the examining magistrate's daughter, I presume ?"

"Yes sir."

"How can I help you?"

"First, sir, to tell you the truth about what it really happened in Ninane. When I met your wife near the church. I had come to see if there still were traces of the last... bombing."

"Bombing!" I repeated, quite dazed.

"Yes," the day before yesterday, a friend of mine told me he had seen a light falling onto the village while he was in the Esplanade in Chaudfontaine.

I came immediately and found a gelatinous mass that spread out around the car park next to the presbytery of Ninane, close to the glass containers.

While she was talking, I remembered that It was the day I had heard a client pronounce the imaginary word "penperdilairement" that I never heard before.

Suddenly, I tested a feeling of terror when I thought that Josette might have gone to that place for a stroll with Ella.

"And then, what did you find?" I asked Marina DuchĂŞne.

"Gelatine, I know the music, sir. I put a mask on my face, and I wore gloves and a white coat. I brought a specimen to the Hospital laboratory. Gelatine holds no secret for me. Agar-agar, we use it as a culture medium. The gelatine found out in Ninane, believe me, we will speak again about it."

"What do you mean?"

"It's extraterrestrial's venom," she affirmed.

140

In the hills of Chaudfontaine I was amazed by her answer and, at the same time, I guessed through her remarks some indiscretions from her father.

"Are you sure of what you are putting forward?" I asked her.

"Quite sure!"

"But why did you go back to this place today? I assumed that the public service had cleaned immediately. What did you hope find there?"

"Gelatine is the contents of the bomb. I hoped to find a few pieces of organic structure that a walker in your village had brought back from the Devil Bridge. It's an organic matter surrounding the genetic material."

"But, why do you really contact me? Why do you tell me this story?"

"I am finishing my doctorate in Louvain, and I would like to specialize. I passed my general examination with double honours and I take a particular interest in biology and, above all, in comparative anatomy. Err! She hesitated... My father wants to send me to the States if I can find there a university degree fitting to my main objective.

"What is it?"

"I would like, I don't know if I am authorized to tell you...

"Tell me."

"I would like to be an exobiologist."

"Exobiologist!" I exclaimed. Why not?

Either her father must have been too talkative or, at her age, she was still eavesdropping.

To talk about exobiology at the time of a symposium gathered the most eminent specialists of the world in this realm was not a pure coincidence.

"Does that surprise you?" she asked.

"Why is it so urgent? We might meet us rather than speaking through the phone? Your father would be present" "I beg you, Mr. Baudouin, don't speak to my father about that!"

"You have just told me that he had advised you to phone me!"

"Yes, but he was unaware of my desire to apply myself to exobiology. I promised him to make a doctorate in the States, that's all! If he knew what I am about to choose, he would be furious.

"But, why today?" I repeated." And why did you think of me?"

"If I'm in a hurry, it's because an editor agreed to publish a book starting from my thesis and before that, I need the opinion of skilled people. You belong to them, I think."

"Ah! It's a good thing that an editor could increase the value of your work. What is the title of your work?"

"It's a question: Is Polydactyly a genetic or viral disease?"

"And what is your conclusion?"

"I deduced that the fertility rate of polydactyl creatures is increasing each year because of the seeds coming from elsewhere.The Extraterrestrials always attracted me. I'm persuaded that the UFO wave on Belgium at the beginning of the nineties had significant effects on humans. Already, at that time, I found gelatinous substance like the one from Ninane.�

"You were very young eleven years ago!"

"Yes, I was twelve" It was rare that I was deep in conversation with somebody through the phone, but I thought that, taking into account the events in Chaudfontaine, this young woman must have heard her father speak about the symposium, and I wanted to know some more.

"Why do you believe that these strange phenomena could produce biological effects on humans?" I resumed.

"It's simple, sir... Jean, my young brother, was born in January 1990 with twelve fingers and twelve toes.

141

In the hills of Chaudfontaine "Six fingers to each hand and six toes to each foot," she added. This precision was not innocent, for I felt that she thought of Aristotle who had twelve fingers too but at each hand.

The examining magistrate was the father of a polydactyl boy. This incredible convergence stupefied me. Was it the reason that had led him to be responsible for this investigation?

Moreover, I perfectly understood that a father could forbid his daughter to choose a dangerous scientific skill where she was likely to work on mutagen viruses since her brother had been the victim of them.

"Why do you think a UFO influence could take place on your little brother? I then questioned.

"I explain to you, sir... One month before my brother's birth, my mother's ultrasound test didn't leave the least doubt about the normal constitution of my brother. His five fingers at each hand were perfectly visible.

Two additional fingers appear during the ninth month? It was at the time when our neighbours saw a luminous object coming from north. They told me that they had found gelatine in their garden. Moreover, the SOBEPS report related the event and described the unidentified flying object like a triangular aircraft, made of one piece with three luminous spots on its lower face."

Miss, I don't deny the exactitude of your assertion. As for thinking that, at this time, an unknown phenomenon had caused the development of your brother's sixth finger, it's another problem" "I'm convinced of that, sir," she answered. And I am impatiently waiting for the analyses of gelatine from Ninane. I'm stressed? In short, sir, I would like to devote my life to exobiology, and I should be grateful if you would read my report before the publishing."

"As far as the reading of your report, there's no problem. And about the choices of your future job, I think you have to do what you like, Miss DuchĂŞne. It's the best piece of advice I can give you. Exobiology is, in my opinion, a science with a future. I know that many scientists remain sceptics, but recent discoveries have highlighted the unforeseeable existence of life in quite strange environments."

"I wouldn't like you to lose too much time, tell me, sir."

"O.K., for instance, you can find in underwater caves an ecosystem which works without sunlight. Also, in the underwater pits, a bacterial life can develop at a temperature of 250 centigrade degrees and under a pressure of 265 atmospheres. Exobiology should also reveal us some paradoxical situations. It's a discipline which has an inexhaustible source and which could, independently of the dangers it presents, bring unknown therapies to humanity for improving its own health.

Then, I kept silent and hoped my interlocutor put an end to our talk. If I had expressed all what I really thought, I would have maybe discouraged this young woman, and she might have lost her illusions.

This call ended at 5 p.m. I took Josette's hands and attentively watched them. She wondered what had happened. I went to the upstairs to see Ella, who peacefully was sleeping in her playpen, with her ten fingers perfectly formed.

Six hours later, on Saturday the 7th of July at 9.30 p.m., Commissioner Bataille and I were arriving at Waterloo Station.

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Where is Tarakan?

Judge Duchêne had booked three overnight stays at Grosvenor Hotel, an elegant and roomy hotel, built in the Victorian tradition just beside Victoria Station. It was opposite the terminus of Oxford Tube, this company that makes a shuttle service between London and the university town ten times a day.

I hardly had made myself comfortable in my room when it occurred to me that I had to compare the copies of the three visiting cards. The first one from my album on behalf Stanley Wynn, it was the card he gave me in 1962; the second one was found in Archibald Wynn's pocket when he was floating in the water of the fish tank; and the last one that was placed by the SHEEP Organisation in his anus.

I noticed that the phone number of The Gargoyle Group on Stanley's card was the same as that one printed on Archibald's card. Nothing seemed to have changed since 1962. I wanted to be clear in my own mind about it and dialled from the hotel room.

The Bear speaking. How can I help you?" my interlocutor said.

I sometimes hear English with difficulty, and I understood Beer instead of Bear. I did not find Beer particularly original.

Conscious that he was in contact with a French-speaking person, the barman answered me in correct French, C'est le pub de l'Ours, juste à côté de Christ Church College. Mr. Baudouin.

"How do you know my name?" I asked him.

"Don't fear anything, sir, here in Oxford, we are quite informed. Everything is known."

"Everything!" I exclaimed.

"Yes or almost everything. Why do you contact us?"

"I'd like to meet people who knew Professor Archibald Wynn. You were informed of his death, I suppose?"

"I repeat to you that we know almost everything” "Did you know him?"

"Very well, I worked with him for a long time. Come, sir, you are welcome. You may come on Monday. After 1 p.m. It's better."

Who was this man? How did he recognize me? The investigation was just beginning and I already got anxious. I told Bataille this talk while he was consulting the phone book of Oxford and London.

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Where is Tarakan ?

No Tarakan on the phone book of the university town, but ten were found in London. It was 11 p.m. We didn't want to sleep. Everything outside was calm and quiet. The night was fine, and the stars were twinkling brightly.

Why not to take benefit of this beautiful summer evening to go and meet them? A cab led us to the first address close to Covent Garden market. There was a crowd. Each time I was on this place, I could not prevent from reexamining the scenes of Frenzy, Hitchcock's film, and I observed the frontage of a house with stylized windows, where the strangler was living (Picture on the left).

That Tarakan was the manager of an Indian restaurant and didn't know anybody with the same name as his, either a professor or someone else.

When we arrived in Chelsea, to meet the second Tarakan of the list, next to the Royal Hospital's park, it was nearly 1 a.m., a bit late to pay somebody a visit.

We entered the building where Jerome K Jerome lived (next picture) and after ringing his bell, nobody answered us.

Some curious and talkative neighbours, surprised to meet foreigners so late offered us a beer. We ac-

144

Where is Tarakan ? cepted. They explained that formerly an Indian named Tarakan lived there. Old and without resource, he had left the flat, and one could meet him on Sunday morning on Camden Lock market.

"It's already Sunday," I announced to Bataille, "Shouldn't we go back to the hotel?"

He agreed, and to thank these friendly people, he gave them his visiting card and said: should you come to Liege, here is my address? You will be welcome!"

Had these people discovered a gold mine, greater delight could not have shone upon their faces.

Seven hours later, on Sunday, the 8th of July, we appreciated the super breakfast of Grosvenor Hotel made up of cereals, sausages, haddock and Cheddar, the whole served with coffee. In short, all that was necessary to face courageously the day, which promised to be long and full with surprises.

Three different weathers are possible in London: beautiful, average and bad, but it is necessary to be equipped with an optimistic nature and an acute shade of meaning to distinguish between the last two ones. That Sunday belonged frankly to the first category.

We felt free of worries, as soon as we were outside to go to Camden market, located in North London, along the locks of Regent's Canal.

The markets are a major tourist attraction at weekends, selling goods of all types including fashion, lifestyle, books, food, antiques and more bizarre items.

That market draws many artists and second-hand dealers.

How could I recognize a man I hadn’t seen for nearly forty years anymore?

My only reference mark was the group picture taken in the courtyard of Christ Church College close to the small Mercury with my friends in 1962.

I asked some walkers, but in vain.

The chance made me discover him. A group of people were surrounding a flutist. I suddenly saw a cobra come out from a basket and raise its head until it arrives at the charmer's shoulder. He was a small man with a brown skin, black eyes, well-arched eyebrows, and a black hair. He was an Indian of the North because his skin was clearer than the one of the South. He was dressed with a jacket and a tie, just like I had him known in the past.

His eyes suddenly met mine. He pushed back his cobra into the wicker basket, that he closed again.

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Where is Tarakan ?

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Where is Tarakan ?

Suddenly, I was dismayed and Bataille couldn't get over it.

"I was waiting for you, happy to see you again," the Indian said to me in a correct French while shaking my hand. I seized it in a friendly way. When I shook hers, I very distinctly saw a sixth finger that made me shudder more than the cobra moving in the basket.

Tarakan was around eighty years old. He did not look like his a ge. Why was he waiting for me? Observing my surprise, he was not long to explain himself in giving me details that appeared to me as a blatant lie.

"Indians have a particular notion of time and a memory that is different from the Europeans's one. I knew that you would come because of what happens in Belgium."

"What do you mean?" Bataille exclaimed, turning pale.

"I read the newspapers and I saw you had found a skeleton in a cave. I then consulted my file and noted that an old member named Baudouin had lived in Engis. I also checked that he was living in the village where a special symposium currently takes place... I consulted the photos taken during the meal in the Gothic room of Christ Church College, and I saw you."

"Yes, but I have much changed," I replied, surprised.

"Let's see," interrupted Bataille, "the whole scenario was prepared. You knew that we were arriving. Your photos date back to around forty years? Don't take us for idiots!" replied he angrily to the Indian.

"Not at all. I don’t see you as an idiot" retorted this one without turning a hair. As for the photos, they all are analyzed in the population genetics department. They can be reproduced by giving to the concerned people the degree of aging we want. Here is the result," he said while showing me a picture where two gargoyles from Oxford had been re-placed by my own head. On the left you are forty years old and on the right fifty six.

It was astounding, surrealist. I would have believed myself in a novel or in a fiction movie.

Even better, one might have criticized the writer or the filmmaker for exaggerating and leaving free rein to an abusive imagination without worrying about the essential probability with reality. No, All what Tarakan had told seemed true. My photograph of the sixties had been used and inserted in the machine to get me older.

"And who is managing all that?" I noted.

"Professor Wynn, of course!"

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Where is Tarakan ?

"Archibald Wynn?"

"Himself" "How is it possible?" I anxiously asked him while showing the cobra. "You have to charm a snake in order to survive, even though you are depending on one of the most eminent professors from Oxford!"

"Today, I am too old to come to his aid. I'm retired. Rajiv, my friend, and I are assigned to the "Reptile House" in London Zoo. It's the only way of earning a few pounds a week.

Do not think they dropped me. Since Stanley's death in 1984, Archibald has fed me and given me hospitality in Oxford, but now without my cobras," he said while showing the wicker basket in which seemed to have fallen asleep the snake, "I couldn't afford to pay an accomodation, that income will not be enough anymore, except if... " "Except if," I repeated "Except if his successor would be kind enough to care about me" "Is Professor Wynn's successor also a specialist in exobiology? And is he already appointed?"

"Yes. We know him. However, he doesn't have the same mentality," Tarakan said, his eyes fixed on his wicker basket. “He is rather dominating and, moreover, he is alcoholic and often absent. He's now in Volcanic Village instead of Professor Wynn. His name is Spencer.

He must have sold the sulphuric men to the Americans belonging to an organization called "SHEEP.” "What are the sulphuric men? And what about the SHEEP, as you said!" howled Bataille.

"Yes, the sulphuric men. They are called like this by the biologists I knew. Yes, they consume molecules containing sulphur, which is essential to their metabolism."

"Congratulations for etymology. However, what do you think about this Volcanic Village?"

Bataille asked, apparently eager to receive a quick answer.

"Be patient, Commissioner. Like you, I'm disturbed by all we have just heard for the last ten minutes,” I said. “We must be patient. Go on, Mr. Tarakan, I suppose that you understand that all these news are astounding to us" "I understand… The Volcanic Village belongs to Espiritu Santo Island, located in the Vanuatu archipelago in the Northeast of New Caledonia. This one is made of eighty small islands. Look at this, he said while getting a few maps from the pocket of his jacket. See this multitude of small Y-shaped islands,” "Ed Spiritus Sanctus!" Bataille translated.

"No, Commissioner, Espiritu Santo" I corrected.

“This archipelago has a bad reputation,” Tarakan went on, “The nineteenth century was an era of trading, fighting and killing. The missionaries seemed to have lived a particularly hard time and some of them had frequently ended in the cooking pot. Today, the 20,000 odd inhabitants of the island have much retained of their original custom and culture."

We then invited him to lunch in a pub of the large avenue connecting the market to Euston Station.

Bataille and I took a fish and chips served with beer; Tarakan was satisfied with a sandwich and tea.

"Why Espiritu Santo?” I asked.

"Look at the map, it is relatively small. And it counts at most twenty-five thousand inhabitants on two thousand square miles surface…Let's say five thousand square kilometres” "Like the Liege Province," Bataille specified.

"In fact, the volcanoes of the archipelago explain their presence, look at the red triangles, they represent the active volcanoes" Tarakan went on. "As they need sulphur for their metabolism, they are exploiting gas emanations, rich in hydrogen sulphide. After oxidizing in contact with the air, the released sulphur is stored in high volume stores."

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Where is Tarakan ?

"Then, why did they choose Espiritu Santo and no other island where volcanoes are still active as we can see ?" I asked, by showing the second map.

"Your question is logic" answered Tarakan, "but they also want to move away from hazardous areas. Look at the orange In case of deficiency, a naval shuttle brings back the sulphuric compounds whose they need. The nearest islands such as Aoba, Ambrym, Lopevi islands contain regularly active volcanoes, and sulphuric lakes. If really their need is urgent, they get their supplies from Yasur which is three hundred miles far from Espiritu Santo..

Let's talk about Yasur and Ambrym particularly. Yassur is one of the most active volcanoes in the world, and the most well known volcano of Vanuatu.. It is known for its spectacular persistent activity that consists of regular small to violent explosions from one or several vents.

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Where is Tarakan ?

This volcano has been in almost continuous activity since Captain Cook observed ash eruptions in 1774," he concluded with these four photographs, three of Yasur volcano and one of Ambrym volcano.

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Where is Tarakan ?

Above, another view of Yasur volcano. At the bottom Ambrym volcano "I would not feel comfortable living there," commented Bataille, "besides the beauty of nature , we still see that these islands are lined up along a separation of two tectonic plates!"

"Yes, the Australian, on the left of the yellow line, and the Pacific on the right," I continued,

"where the blue becomes darker, it is the Vanuatu pit, a great depth created by the subduction , namely that the Australian plate is curving down then dives under the Pacific plate, slowly but surely"

151

Where is Tarakan ?

152

Where is Tarakan ?

Aboriginal wear a penis sheath they call Nambas. Women on the other hand wear a skirt made of leaves. The traditional costume is worn only at important ceremonies

We offered Tarakan to come with us to the hotel. The rooms were spacious and we could find there a place for his main working tool: the cobra. He did not need to be persuaded, delighted at the idea of sharing my bedroom with him.

All the more that Bataille and I had the premonition that he had not told us everything he knew. And before going to Oxford, it was important to become acquainted with him and take some more time to get much more from him.

We went back to Grosvenor Hôtel with the Underground. On the way, I had tried not to look at his six-fingered hand. What he had just told us about the polydactyly of these sulphuric men unceasingly came back in my mind. Likewise that Archibald Wynn’s sixth finger, and the recollection of Stanley, his father, who had kept his gloves in 1962 during the meal in the Gothic room of Christ Church College.

Bataille listened to us without a word. That did not mean that he had no opinion. He must be ruminating in his mind all we had heard during the meal.

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Where is Tarakan ?

At this time of the day - it was nearly 2 p.m. - the subway was pleasant. At each station, the traditional "Mind the gap" resounded. And each newcomer distrustfully looked at Tarakan's basket, tightly held between his legs. An eccentric young woman accompanied by two children moved to another seat while giving a suspicious look to the Indian. She must be a faithful customer of the market and had recognized him.

154

When a plane attacked Buckingham Palace There was one exceptional summer evening, as I never saw in London. It was 6 p.m. and we had gone out from the underground in Westminster Station at the very heart of London. On the pedestal of Churchill’s statue, was drawn a terrifying creature.

Our mission was not incompatible with tourism, but we had to limit ourselves.

We went to Saint James’s Park. An orchestra was playing familiar tunes under a bandstand. I thought that Josette would have appreciated them.

The freshness of the lake was reviving us after the hot day.

While parents were resting on the lawns, the children were playing with the squirrels and were feeding them with apple pieces.

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When a plane attacked Buckingham Palace

We were walking three abreast and arrived on Blue Bridge which, across the lake, affords a view of Buckingham Palace framed by trees and fountains. Tarakan was on my left and Bataille on my right. This one lit the unsavoury pipe which was the companion of his deepest meditations. He suddenly stopped and dropped his lighter, as if he had been transformed into a stone statue. No word no gesture.

Tarakan and I wondered what had happened to him. We quickly understood when we followed his glance above Buckingham, that a plane was transmitting a thick yellow-coloured cloud, which superbly contrasted with the blue sky.

"It’s very odd!" Tarakan wondered.

The plane then flew over the park where we were, and where it freed the end of its

strange loading. A powdery rain fell on us and an unpleasant sulphur smell emerged.

Everybody started coughing and most of the people started running everywhere. It was getting darker and suffocating to walk in the Sulphuric air. The fear I felt was not a rational fear, but a panic terror.

Tarakan took Bataille and me to the public toilets. Other people joined us while spitting a strange liquid. The toilets had became more and more rare. It was in any case a shelter where fresh air was quickly missing.

In this tiny room invaded by sulphur dust, I was at the verge of an asthma attack. My bronchial tubes were making a strange whistling sound at each exhalation. I met more and more difficulties in breathing.

Twenty minutes later, we went out. The grass was covered with a yellow veil. A squirrel gasped for breath while it was dragging itself towards a shrub, and some geese in the lake were floating without life. The bandstand was deserted: the musicians had put down their instruments to make their escape easier.

The Mall on Sunday evening, so quiet in July, was filled with vehicles.

"What are you making of this traffic jam?" I asked Tarakan, in order to challenge him a bit, he who seemed to have a monopoly on telling rare and mysterious phenomena.

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When a plane attacked Buckingham Palace

"Sulphur, still sulphur," he answered, "They are on a starvation diet. They are short of Sulphuric compounds. Why did they choose this place?"

"It's maybe an accident," assumed Bataille, anxiously.

"No," Tarakan replied, "They never miss their target."

"Is it an accident?" questioned Bataille while showing his police card to a Bobby.

"No, sir, it's an attack. They have aimed at Buckingham Palace, but they failed. The Royal Air force planes have destroyed the plane," he then announced after contacting the Yard.

"Of whom are you talking about when you say, they?" Tarakan questioned.

"It's the main question" the Bobby answered. It seems that nobody was piloting the aircraft.

I saw at this moment some people join the kiosk again. Did the musicians come and get back their instruments? Two of them were carrying a half-filled jute bag. They took the partitions from the lecterns and then made a paper cone that they filled with the contents of their bag. The other ones were watching them and seemed impatient that the operation came to an end.

"Look at these people there, Mr. Tarakan!" I said, frightened.

We then saw a scene that remained engraved in our memory; they put in turn their prominent tongue under the peak of the paper cone in order to take off the contents of it. We then understood that they were feeding with sulphur that planes had released.

At sight of these strange and terrible creatures, the crowd near the kiosk seemed to me horror-struck.

"They are sulphuric men,� Tarakan affirmed, "Now, they can't hide any longer their own nature. They need a supplier."

"A supplier!" Bataille exclaimed. "Do you mean that these monsters are in collusion with some Englishmen in Great Britain?"

"Of course!" the Indian calmly answered. However they don’t find them everywhere. Let's say... in some particular communities."

"What can we do?" the Commissioner questioned.

"Nothing now, they are too dangerous."

"If they lived in community in England, it would be easy to detect them!" I declared. Moreover, why did they choose these two towns, London and Liege, to frighten mankind? Can you answer this question?

We were then dumbfounded when Tarakan told us, "The phytosociologists can explain to you why some plant communities find themselves in some places and not in other ones. It is also the case of these beings."

"We are not talking about plants, but about humans" I retorted. "According to what you just told us..."

"Animal or plant? Sometimes, I may hesitate" "You may hesitate!"

He then told us about his expedition in remote islands during the fifties with Stanley Wynn. They had seen three strange creatures coming out from a cave. They were bipeds and looked like men with four limbs, but they met difficulties to wear their heavy head and to keep it in the axis of their spine.

They also had a grey skin whose texture made think of the one of an elephant.

"Stanley Wynn and I stared at them in silence, expecting them to speak, but they kept silent."

What had surprised Tarakan was the number of their fingers and toes. The same goes for the unbearable rotted egg odour that they produced."

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When a plane attacked Buckingham Palace

He showed us a few pictures. Let me give you them. This creature wearing a cap has a skin that looks like elephant's one and a dilated nose. These photos were taken by the British secret service. Below from the right bank in front of houses of Parliament.

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When a plane attacked Buckingham Palace

The Indian went on : "Stanley Wynn did not look surprised of this meeting. He was especially annoyed by his collaborator's presence.

Tarakan had just seen what Stanley would have liked to hide from him for a long time.

The Englishman explained to him all he knew about them and asked Tarakan to swear on Buddha not to tell anything to anybody.

"He knew for a long time that they came from a crossbreeding between humans and extraterrestrials," the Indian confessed.

Perkin's lecture was confirmed: they were alive.

"Excuse me, but I still don't see why you hesitated between animals and plants," I asked Tarakan.

"Stanley Wynn was a Utopian. He thought of a village that the richest people on earth could visit and sponsor. He dreamed of a cosmopolitan village where all human races could live quietly together with their family. Archibald Wynn was a humanist, but he was a businessman too. He had a practical mind. He achieved his father's dreams inside Espiritu Santo Island.

Volcanic Village does exist. While I am speaking to you, many houses are still occupied by these hybrid families. Unless I'm mistaken...Spencer and the Americans might have taken their revenge on the ones who had appreciated Archibald.

Among them, I particularly think of humble families. They were living on neighbourly terms... as far as..."

"As far as," Bataille repeated.

"As far as they could obtain all what they need for of their basic metabolism, thanks to solidarity."

"It is normal," the commissioner answered, "It is the case for all species living on this planet. And on the other ones, I suppose?"

"Archibald Wynn couldn't slow down the rich American's appetites" the Indian went on.

"They didn't hesitate to take a significant share of the capital of Volcanic Village to transform its initial spirit into a true zoo. They thought to do better in organizing safaris.

There were many people who came to take pictures of them and even to be seen with them on the clichĂŠ. The vigilance was always required and each time we noted an excess of this kind, we repaid the visitors and urged them to leave the site."

"You must have met some issues," Bataille then deduced, more and more dismayed.

"Yes, serious problems, but our insurance paid and obliged us to accept groups under a high monitoring only. The number of visitors, therefore, was reduced by half. Fortunately, many members from the Gargoyle Group came and largely did offset the loss? Some members, like you, Mr. Baudouin!"

"Like me? Do you laugh at me, sir?" I exclaimed, frightened by noting that my member card of the sixties had registered my name on a file for my whole life. "When I paid my contribution, forty years ago, I aimed at the dangers of nuclear power and the consequences of biological war, as Mangalore had explained to us. I had no connection with this village where lived a lot of extraterrestrial hybrids with five nucleotides," I specified.

"Five nucleotides! Who informed you of this recent discovery?" asked Tarakan amazed.

"I heard about it at the symposium in Chaudfontaine, sir, near Liege. You seem informed about everything, then you should know that the best specialists in the world are currently gathered there in order to share their knowledge. Besides, Archibald Wynn died there" I informed.

"You have understood everything," confessed the Indian.

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When a plane attacked Buckingham Palace

"And this resemblance to plants, do you intend to speak us about it?" Bataille asked, losing patience.

"The Americans who joined us...I should say those who took us over, then decided to reserve some visits for tourist categories in search of particular feelings. For these people, it is an adventure out of the common run. In general, they are in a state of great excitement as soon as they are entering the enclosure reserved to the sulphurmen equipped with twenty four fingers.

Among the sulphuric men, they are called Dodecas, i.e. those who have twenty-four fingers and twenty-four toes because they are treated on a hierarchical basis according to the number of their fingers at each hand. Twenty-four divided by two is equal to twelve, isn't it?"

"I had understood!" Bataille retorted, apparently annoyed by this last remark.

"It was also a luxury for the privileged tourists to frighten themselves by taking a few risks.

For instance, the warning panel Danger! Be cautious to avoid the biological risks, could only increase their pleasure.

The more dangerous were the risks, the better they appreciated their visit.

His face suddenly became severe and the answer that we expected to receive was about to be pronounced. But it would come less easily than what he had entrusted to us so far.

"Not only these sulphuric men feed themselves like humans of what they find in their environment, but they preserved a second metabolism which enables them to transform fuel of the nascent life" "You have understood," confirmed Tarakan. "Their fifth nucleotide confers an exceptional metabolism on them. It doesn't have anything comparable with the human one."

"Human plants!" Bataille summarized while wondering whether he had not become an actor in a science fiction film.

For a while I sat breathless, hardly able to believe my ears.

"Yes," Tarakan went on, "they absorb the fundamental substances which they need by the digestion system, like all humans. That's not enough for them. They must keep the second metabolism in good working order by transforming Sulphuric raw materials, which they find in nature, like gypsum, for instance."

We kept silent until we arrived at Grosvenor Hotel. Bataille and I were exhausted after this long sunny day full of surprises and horrors. Tarakan walked while swinging his basket, which frightened me: "Be cautious! Your cobra!"

"Don't be afraid, it is sleeping" "Was it indisposed with the sulphur spilled in Saint James's park by the aircraft ?"

"Apparently not. I moved it one moment from the basket in order to verify. Everything was normal.

"You took it outside the basket" Bataille roared with laughter.

"Yes, in the toilets in Saint James's while the plane was sprinkling Buckingham. You did not notice?" the Indian asked.

160

Sperminator In front of the overflowing information we had received, it seemed useful to me to give a progress report on the situation. Bataille, Tarakan and I met around 9 p.m. in the dining room of the hotel.

The national newspapers had shown strange people at various places in England. The Daily Mail's headlines reported on its front page : "A threat to the Crown coming from the sky" A unknow plane had flied over The Changing the Guard Ceremony and an UFO had landed in the gardens of Buckingham , but it was unoccupied. Was it to scare the crowd who had come visiting the castle and show the English people they could prove hazardous , including the royal family, if they really wanted.

The Changing The Guard Ceremony

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Sperminator

162

Sperminator Picture taken at the end of a visit in Buckingham Palace

At the exit of visitors who visited Buckingham Palace, the security service saw these strange beings. The groom who maintains the queen's horses would be part of those strange species.

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Sperminator As we can see in the following photographs published by The Daily Telegraph with two evocative titles, "Are the extraterrestrials in London?" and "Is the Last End (in Cornwall) the country of adoption for extraterrestrials?"

ON SUNDAY, JULY 7TH, OVER TWENTY MILITARY, INTELLIGENCE, GOVERNMENT, CORPORATE AND SCIENTIFIC WITNESSES WILL COME FORWARD AT THE NATIONAL PRESS CLUB IN CHAUDFONTAINE (BELGIUM), TO ESTABLISH THE REALITY OF UFOS OR EXTRATERRESTRIAL VEHICLES, EXTRATERRESTRIAL LIFE FORMS, AND RESULTING ADVANCED ENERGY AND PROPULSION.

On the "first and last house of England, a worrying drawing recalled what was drawn the very day on the base of Churchill's statue in London.

The newspaper recalled that, in July 1969, the Americans had put down an significant message on the moon. And next to this one, we can see a new message similar to the first.

The worrying signature of E.T.'s manager made the front page of the tabloid press.

On Sunday, the 7th of July, over twenty military and scientific witnesses will meet in Chaudfontaine (Belgium) to talk about extraterrestrial vehicles, the extraterrestrial life forms and about their propulsion energy.

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Sperminator JULY 1969

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Sperminator And last but not least, The Daily Mail did intend to prove that these "particular" beings were affected by their past and present slaving. In this aim, they presented two exceptional pictures taken in Bristol where special engines which looked like some human spacecrafts.

the threatening sky of Bristol Mysterious, similar to space probes, some machines flew over Bristol city and sent a message referring to former slavery which took place in the city: "You, grandchildren of old supporters of slavery, do free the Volcanic Village in Espiritu Santo"

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I summarized what I had understood, "Human plants, pollinated by spores coming from outside. The species travelled down the ages on our planet and settled in particular ecological niches like the surroundings of volcanoes.

The human technical progress brought them the tools making it possible to manufacture what the terrestrial products didn't supply them anymore. Some individuals then left the island. Today, they are diffusing their genetic information to the humans, as the plants would do it. Is it right?"

"Yes, your summary is perfect" Tarakan concluded" It, nevertheless, misses a significant data: their psychology. They sometimes behave like Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, i.e. they need to escape from their horrible nature. Sometimes, they are prompted by their perverse mental state and by full of hatred instincts without apparent cause; sometimes, they become pleasant and nice, even helpful. It is not surprising that they often think of committing suicide because they become aware of this distressing duality" For dinner, Tarakan was satisfied with a honey toast. Bataille and I chose an appetizing lamb kebab. I dared ask the embarrassing question that obsessed me for a long time: "I would like to be able to explain something before contacting the rector of my faculty... It is... this polydactyly, which seems peculiar to them and to men associated with them.

The Indian who had understood for a long time that we were interested in his sixth finger, looked at me and said: "You are hard-headed." He then explained what follows: "After studying their species, Professor Stanley Wynn wanted to teach them English, and he intended to integrate them in everyday life in Espiritu Santo. When the basic stock of commodities was insufficient (mainly volcanic sulphur and gypsum), he made them manufacture by a factory only built for them. Local labour was satisfied and no pollution emerged since the gas was delivered out of bottles equipped with inhalers, and the solids in bags.

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Sperminator "Some of them, however, left the island," I reminded.

"The utmost secrecy had been maintained," explained Tarakan, "until a little time ago".

The runaways joined Europe and couldn't preserve the serenity they had always shown in Volcanic Village. During a routine operation, a too scrupulous police officer asked one of them to take a breath test in order to check his alcohol level in blood. He obeyed. However, when the police officer understood that he faced a strange creature, and when he smelled the stinking odour they released, he called his colleague for help; that happened not far from here in the countryside between London and Oxford. The Sulphuric man felt threatened and didn't hesitate to empty his Sulphuric pocket on the police officer. That was the horror. The victim died a few minutes later in dreadful convulsions and the colleague come in reinforcement had to follow a psychiatric treatment."

"That piece of information was never given by any newspapers, I don't remember reading any article about that," I pointed out to him.

Tarakan had not cleared up his own polydactyly yet. Bataille, who obviously was irritated, put his foot in it.

"Excuse me, sir, if I'm curious, but that doesn't explain to me why they have got more fingers than humans" "It is the only mystery that Stanley Wynn couldn't elucidate and that Archibald, his son, took in charge, as soon as he had succeeded to him as professor in Oxford... until..."

"Until..." the commissioner repeated.

"Until a Sulphuric man suddenly goes mad and acts in a tyrannical way with regard to the others. He was also a sex maniac. All the females of this species were afraid of him; he took delight in spermatizing them against their will. He is known as Mr. Trevenen but Wynn christened him "Sperminator,” a way of recognizing his sexual power while making fun of him.

Wynn had to withdraw him from Volcanic Village.

While Bataille was burning with impatience, Tarakan went on speaking: "I will now come to your question about the number of fingers. Sperminator had sixteen of them, eight at each hand. He was an Octo and..."

"An Octo! repeated Bataille, surprised.

"Yes, confirmed Tarakan, but his brain is by far more efficient than most of Dodecas's ones."

"Let us sum up the situation," Bataille interrupted while wiping his lips covered with sauce. Don’t be so talkative, sir, and content yourself to tell us only what is essential.

“Very simple,” explained Tarakan, “According to the female he had fertilized, the child had five, six, eight or twelve fingers. We concluded from that survey that the importance of polydactyly for this species was due to the genetic structure of the female alone, as it is the case for frogs, of which one of your compatriots was speaking so well.”

"I don't see," I said..

"Jean Rostand, the biologist!"

"Rostand is a Frenchman," I specified.

"Ah yes! Frenchman or Belgian, it's Schubert and Berschu" he retorted ironical by using a French idiomatic expression that he deformed.

"You mean, Chou vert et vert chou," Bataille rectified.

It was known that some human tribes had established a hierarchy based on a physical characteristic, like the number of rings around the neck of giraffe women. It was also the case of Chinese families encouraging the deformation of women's feet.

In these cases, it was a question of being different from the usual standards in order to appear exceptional or quite simply conventional with a standard. For sulphuric men, the hi-

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Sperminator erarchy had been based on the number of fingers, but for this species it was not about a voluntary deformation, but quite simply about a natural differentiation.

"Did Wynn intend to talk about this topic in Chaudfontaine?" Bataille then questioned.

"It was on the program," answered Tarakan. "Archibald Wynn wanted indeed to make important scientific revelations in this field, but also on all sulphuric men's characteristics and features.”

Tarakan seemed tired, but he needed speaking. He took a tea again and went on inform us; "Contrary to the flowering plants, most of sulphuric men have one sex: they can't selffertilize, they need a partner. Their reproduction is only possible by transferring spores from male sex to the pistil of the female. That's what bees, bumblebees and other insects are doing. There is a deal between pollinating insects and pollinated plants, a kind of natural contract."

"You mean that they have to wait for insects’ help in order to to reproduce!" Bataille translated in his own words. And what about the sex pleasure?" he exclaimed.

"It surely exists," answered Tarakan. "Why is it necessary to have contact? Yes, these Homos Vegetalis, as Stanley Wynn often named him, was able to emit and receive spores for a few months a year. When the male partner couldn’t send or put down his spores on the female sexual organ, or didn’t want to do it, others took care of it.

“These sulphuric men are able to walk. Why did they need an intermediary?" I asked, amazed.

"However, it is the truth and only the truth," the Indian specified, "In the small village where I was living at the end of the sixties, not far from here, we saw come from everywhere a lot of swarms of bees. We protected ourselves by using powerful insecticides. In spite of that, we realized that the number didn't cease increasing. Professor Stanley Wynn, who was still alive, had noticed that most of the bees were equipped with a fourth pair of legs. The inhabitants of my village were genetically modified by this sudden pollination. Their spores are acting as a phytovirus, that parasitizes the cells of their host. These viruses cause considerable metabolic disturbances. Moreover, for a few years, the number of phytopathologies of viral origin has strongly increased. You know everything, gentlemen. An insect bite inoculated me with a spore of a Sulphuric man, and within six months, my second auricular started growing."

"Is it in the small village where you lived that a police officer received vitriol at his face?" asked Bataille "Yes. In my opinion, It must be Sperminator" “Sperminator came in the area!" I exclaimed, surprised.

"Yes, and he is maybe still here. Several - how to say - several pollen bombs exploded lately. The public utilities found out protein fragments and gelatine at several places. Yes, maybe he is still there. After the aggression of the police officer, he was taken to the prison of Dartmoor. The doctors who were in charge of him (or her) were equipped with special combinations and gloves. Their report was sent to Scotland Yard. Top secret, of course, You think well that it was necessary to hide the truth from the population. But, before the lawsuit, he escaped and some claim that he is still strolling in the moor. Like the Hound of Baskervilles. You know?" " Sherlock Holmes has no secrecy for me," answered Bataille. "The prison of Dartmoor is however famous for its rigour and impossibility of escaping from it!"

"Yes," he continued, "and with regard to those who escape, the moor is inhospitable and dangerous. If I remember well in The Hound of Baskervilles, there are moving sands in the mud pit of Grimpen. They do not forgive when somebody takes risks to go there."

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"For humans but not for Sperminator. His eight fingers give him a greater surface of adhesion what reduces the pressure and prevents him from sinking into the mud. Furthermore, in the absence of oxygen, he could select his second metabolic system."

Then, continuing the conversation on his second auricular, Tarakan added: “After his escape, several… how to say… several bombs exploded. Police found remains of proteins as well as gelatine at several places” "Protein fragments and gelatine," I exclaimed.

I shuddered with the idea that the walker of Ninane had brought back in the village this kind of fragment that he had found near the Devil Bridge. I understood that a bomb had exploded not far from my house.

"You mean that they are equipped to sprinkle viruses in the large cities!" the commissioner howled, horrified.

Tarakan went on: "Do you remember Mangalore's lesson about the power of heights, Mr. Baudouin? The bombs to which he referred were not only atomic, but biological. Alas! he died ten years ago in strange circumstances that the police force couldn't make it clear. He was found hung at a gargoyle of a college.

"Sperminator?" I questioned.

"It is possible, but not proved," Tarakan answered.

"The SHEEP?” Bataille asked, blushing.

"Yes, it is the name written on a card found in his mouth.”

"A card in Mangalore's mouth, a card in Wynn’s anus…" the commissioner muttered. By the way, what means SHEEP?" "Supreme Headquarters of Enlisted Extraterrestrial Powers,” Tarakan hammered, "what in French means: Quartier Général des forces extraterrestres enrôlées. It looks like another set of initials” “Yes, the S.H.A.P.E, i.e. Supreme Headquarters of Allied Powers in Europe", I specified.

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Sperminator Scotland Yard had been investigating for a long time and had not found out anything.

This organization was very dangerous and aimed at diabolic objectives. It was a private militia that employed sulphuric men and assured them of their formation. They were then sold to the United States of America in order to be enlisted in the army. They were destined to carry out missions, whose most of which were unrealizable by humans.

All became clear; SHEEP had been deciphered and the main goal of the Letters Rogatory had been achieved. It was still necessary to find the responsibles and elucidate their dark intentions.

"And apart from Sperminator," asked Bataille, "do you know other names?"

"Yes, a few ones" answered Tarakan, "and particularly his henchman, an individual who exceeds four hundred pounds. He is a killer. We called him Obesidon because of his obesity."

Bataille contacted DuchĂŞne, who was satisfied with such a fast progression of the investigation and informed the commissioner that he was about to question an American, named Perkin, of whom he had read the lecture at the symposium.

The financial exploitation of the fossil sites had mobilized, for a long time, paleontologists who were disappointed that the bones could have a price. The international market of fossils existed and, like other markets, obeyed the law of supply and demand. It was like some artistic works. Unhappily, the barbarous behaviour of learned people also existed.

They had destroyed some mountains with dynamite to collect pieces of a skeleton rather than taking time to extract carefully the treasures of our planet.

The auction of the inheritance of humanity was unbearable for me.

"Perkin is fond of bones," Bataille added.

"Which beans," asked Tarakan.

"Bones!" the commissioner repeated while laughing, "Bones, not Beans," he insisted.

"Perkin is ambitious," I pointed out. "He likes money and is apparently ready to go to extremes. Saint Lambert's phalanx, Madame du Barry's loops of hair, coccyx from Catherine, empress of Russia, and last but not least, the head of King Henry the fourth that disappeared during the French Revolution‌ many examples of hair and bone from famous people. More the bones are old and come from known people, the more expensive they are.

Without going away from the hotel, we wanted to feel the pulse of the Londoners by surveying the large waiting room of Victoria Station. The travellers’ flow was animated because of the weekenders.

Small crowds were forming in front of the official publications which had been stuck to the panes of the stores by the Minister of Defence.

"We will know more," said Bataille.

"Let's have a look," suggested Tarakan.

The publications did not chew its words: Personal Message from Ministry of defence 1. The time has come to inflict a terrible blow on the enemy 2. The blow will be struck by the combined land and air forces of N.A.T.O. 3. England and Belgium are particularly concerned.

4. On the Eve of this great adventure, I send my best wishes to every inhabitant of London.

5. To us is given the honour of fighting for freedom.

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Sperminator 6. Let us pray "The Lord" to lead our armies to the victory.

7. We want all Londoners to know that I have complete confidence in the successful outcome of the operations that we are now ready to begin.

8. Good luck to each one of you.

“But, it’s war,” Tarakan exclaimed.

"It looks like it, indeed!" I added.

I stayed motionless in front of this so short, so alarming information, and finally not very explanatory. I did not see what could have justified such a national message. What could a Londoner understand without knowing the events which had taken place in Saint James’s Park?

I then thought, like Tarakan, that the sprinkling of sulphur on Buckingham was a part of an overall plan beyond national preoccupation.

In London, the night subeditor of The Sun made the decision to redo the first page. He took the phone and called the newspaper office.

"Remove all what is on first page. Yes...everything about the raper...He is not the first sixty-years-old man having raped a teenager and he will not be the last. Simply replace it by "England is invaded by mutants".

At the end of the sunday evening, while Bataille was contacting judge Duchêne.

I phoned Louis and announced to him all that we had lived without omitting, of course, details transmitted by Tarakan about the human plants.

Louis had learned through the latest television news that a terrorist attack had targeted Buckingham Palace. However, nothing had been told about the events in Saint-James's Park.

In White Hall, a safety zone had been set up to protect the 10 Downing Street from possible intruders.

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Sperminator I was said that some elders did not hesitate to get some of the Underground stations as it was the case during the Blitz in 1941 like here in Elephant and Castle.

A guard in front of the Downing Street's entrance is observing people, not informed yet about the physiology of the species we had seen in Saint James’ Park.

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The spy cameras show us two worrying individuals near Downing Street. One of them (above) has a single nostril and the other (below) has thick lips.

Today, in Windsor, the rapid deployment force is limited. In front of the castle entrance, we can see an armed man and a bobby (Following picture). They do not seem stressed by the situation. They converse by reminding some old testimonies of previous centuries.

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Sperminator On the evening of 18th August 1783, four witnesses on the terrace of Windsor Castle observed a luminous object in the skies The sighting was recorded the following year in the Philosophical Transac-

tions of the Royal Society.

According to this report, witnesses observed an "oblong cloud moving more or less parallel to the horizon. Under this cloud could be seen a luminous object which soon became spherical, brilliantly lit, which came to a halt; This strange sphere seemed at first to be pale blue in colour but then its luminosity increased and soon it set off again towards the east. Then the object changed direction and moved parallel to the horizon before disappearing to the south-east ; the light it gave out was prodigious; it lit us everything on the ground." The image was captured in this by Thomas Sandby (a founder of the Royal Academy) and his brother Paul, both of whom witnessed the event.

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In Portsmouth, the British Army was already at war. .We joined Grosvenor quite exhausted by this perturbing day. What worried me the more during this night was Tarakan’s cobra. I even dreamed of it sauntering in the hotel.

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I had a dream I got to sleep and was overcome by the most strange dreams. I thought about the researchers who were exploring the most unlivable corners of the Earth. From the iciest ocean floors to the most burning deserts, they were always surprised to discover that life had preceded them anywhere.

Until recently, most of these beings were unicellular organisms: bacteria. But now life is occupying areas where living conditions were a priori impossible. It is in any case what Ronald Perkin just said to us in his lecture somewhat heckled: "Multicellular beings seemingly little distant from humans exist and would be ready to provide assistance in extreme conditions."

This allows to imagine the existence of complex multicellular organisms on other planets hitherto regarded as uninhabitable By the time the symposium was held in Chaudfontaine, attendees had seen and reviewed the beautiful pictures from Mars that the Pathfinder mission had sent to the earth after its landing on July 4, 1997.

Among them, on the following picture, we see the rover Sojourner analyse a rock.

And in the foreground the airbags, and the ramp of Patfinder that Sojourner has taken in order to come down onto the soil of the planet..

Due to the significance of certain proprietary information, a portion of the lectures should have been held in camera. But Perkin couldn't prevent from showing some pictures what meant a lot about his personal knowledge of Mars, while MER Opportunity and Spirit missions were preparing for 2004, three years later.

In my dreams, among these real pictures, two of them were particularly exceptional.

I could see a part of a skull (red arrows) that looked like a human's one or at least like a hominid's one. As for the bone (green arrow), it was certified as a human's one.

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I had a dream

After the possible inhabitants of the Mars planet, my dream pointed me in geological sciences and specially about the rocks that suited the sulfuric men whose Taraken had so long talked during the day.

Although it took another eleven years before the Rover Curiosity took pictured some rocks composed of hydrated calcium sulphate (Next pictures). In my dream, Perkin had already secretly shown the same ones during the symposium of Chaudfontaine, claiming that they were coming from the planet by a special consignment intended for him.

Martian and terrestrial gypsum.

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I had a dream Left Sheepbed the rock on a combination of two images taken by Curiosity in december 2012. To the right a view taken in the Egyptian desert . The Mars veins are 1 to 5 mm wide .

(Doc. NASA / JPL- Caltech / LANL / CNES / IRAP / LPGNantes / CNRS / LGLyon / Planet Earth / Thomas Peter )

Hereafter, Curiosity picture, calcium sulfate vein,Raw image by NASA/JPL/University of Arizona, processed with Adobe Lightroom (white balance, contrast, sharpness)

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I had a dream And as things always seem to go in threes, after the skulls and sulfates, I logically dreamt of the SHEEP, Supreme Headquarters of Enlisted Extraterrestrial Powers, this private militia whose organisation and aims were disturbing and undefined.

I saw Perkin on the Mars planet. He was surrounded by astronauts with a strange face.

They were showing a lakefloor sedimentary deposit not far from where flowing water entered the lake. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS.

Then, I woke up and I did not sleep until dawn any more.

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On the way to Oxford "On Monday, the 9th of July, while the colloque attendees were moving by bus towards Engis, we were travelling with the Oxford Tube which had left Victoria Station at nine a.m.

"In one and a half hours, we'll be there," announced Tarakan.

"Let's go to The Bear in the afternoon since the manager preferred us to go there after 1 p.m.," I suggested Bataille.

Tarakan heard me.

"You mean the pub next to Christ Church College?"

"Yes, the pub decorated with the students' ties. Do you know that the manager was well informed about my presence in London?"

The Indian looked absent again. His eyes were fixed on his wicker basket so that nobody could stumble against it.

"Why didn't you tell me this before? You are going to throw yourself into the lion's jaws.

"Don't go there," he recommended with fear, "Who gave you such an absurd idea?"

"The phone number I dialled Saturday evening was Stanley Wynn's one. He had it given us in 62, at the time of our visit in Oxford. I had kept it in my photo album. The same phone number was written on Archibald's card as well. And I said to myself: since we don't have any index, we do have to start from somewhere. Why should I not have dialled this number?

I fell on a man who introduced himself as the Bear's manager. He stupefied me like you did yesterday morning on Camden's lock market when you said to me, Hello, Mr. Baudouin, I was waiting for you" "Did you ask him why?"

"Of course I did, as I also asked you, but he didn't answer me. He only contented himself to invite me in order to join him today to his pub after 1 p.m."

"Mr. Baudouin, as far as I'm concerned I answered you on Camden'slock," he specified.

"But it's true that the photo produced by the genetics department to help me recognize you was not the only one.

As I held this photo in my pocket, yesterday, it was due to our informers in Belgium. We knew thanks to them that you and the commissioner were on the way in order to meet us."

"Who are your advisors tracking us?" Bataille questioned.

"They are decent people. Don't have any fear. They are impassioned scientists, more attracted by the mysteries of life and world than money. As it is the case for all Gargoyle Group's members, isn't Mr. Baudouin?"

"But, but," I hesitated.

"The man you got through yesterday has another view. I don't rely on him," confessed Tarakan.

"Is this man member of your Group?" Bataille questioned.

"No, sir, but no Group, no association, no party, and no religion can pride itself to be virgin. Everywhere, you'll find disreputable members.

With regard to this man, named Pryce, he had a problem with the pay phone little time ago. According to our informers, it seems that Stanley Wynn’s old phone number was inopportunely allotted to him.

For nearly four years, phone calls have reached him coming from former members of the Group, like you yesterday from your hotel room. Instead of an-nouncing the error to the Control, Pryce pretended to be an official speaker and tried to know some more. Today, we assume that he knows enough to get us into trouble" Tarakan concluded.

"You assume!" Bataille repeated, surprised, “And you never lodged a complaint against them?"

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On the way to Oxford "No. Wynn Family is peaceful and independent. They never made confidence in justice and police force to solve their problems. And your correspondent in The Bear, Mr. Baudouin, often saw Archibald in the street. One day, while Professor Wynn was watching at the dinosaurs, from the footbridge of the Natural History Museum, in Cromwell Road, Pryce followed him and shouted: "Mr. Wynn, I remind you that we want to buy your knowledge. He is dependent on a factious wing. In my opinion, he is working for SHEEP's American members.

That's why I told you not to throw yourself in the lion's jaws.”

"We should not give up going there," Bataille said, "And I want to be clear in my own mind. Let’s go to The Bear" "So much the worse for you," the Indian insisted, "I tried to talk you out of going there, now you are warned."

He then wanted to show us that we must rely on him: "I will go with you there. That will be useful for you, I'm sure. First, we are going to seek the file of Gargoyle Group's members.

You will have a copy of it and you will bring it to your prosecutor. These members are all honest people, like you were in the sixties. They were always determined to defend a good cause but they are currently endangered. Like you, they put in danger when they signed their gargoyle group membership card” I thought of my family, Ella and Olive, and everything they risked. The bus was ten miles far from Oxford.

I asked Bataille to lend me his mobile phone in order to contact Josette. She answered me at once, but seemed confused. I asked myself if I did not hear the noise of an engine.

"You phone while you driving," I pointed out to her. "Pay attention, It’s dangerous."

She answered me that everything was fine. There was no reason to be worried.

"Are you in Oxford?" she asked.

"I will be soon there, why?”

"To know where you are. How touchy you can be sometimes!”

"Be careful! If you are walking with Olive or Ella, avoid the Esplanade and Hauster Park.

If you see gelatine, avoid it. Strange events take place in Chaudfontaine."

"Don't worry, I will take no risks."

"Is your wife through?" Tarakan asked, inquisitive.

"Yes. She is anxious."

"It's odd, it seems to me that she is not far from us. She is surely in England."

"No, she's in Liege," I replied, irritated.

"In Liege? No, it's impossible; the sound waves that I am collecting now prove to me that she is in England."

I found this remark really misplaced. Tarakan was getting on my nerves. Whether his cobra was wriggling in the basket, or he never missed an opportunity to be mysterious.

Bataille looked at me and winked at me, making me understand that I had to forget such remarks.

Then he put his foot in it.

"Tell me, sir, something is still worrying me since we have met you on Camden Lock market; you always seem to know things before everyone. First of all, you were waiting for us there with your cobra, although we had no appointment. Second, you claim now that Mrs. Baudouin is in England… how is it possible?"

"I am sure, Commissioner, that my infirmity is responsible for my ability to foresee," he said while showing his sixth finger. "I often noticed that a polydactyl creature is more sensitive, more intuitive than other people."

This answer did not satisfy Bataille, but he fell silent.

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On the way to Oxford As we were arriving in Oxford, at the same time, the bus with the bold colloque attendees was entering into Engis Village.

Louis had hesitated to change the program. In spite of the circumstances, he had made up his mind to take his hosts to that cave where Andreas Hertafouris had discovered Aristotle.

As he was not able to show Aristotle, as the the discoverer was absent too, he thought that the discovery place could attenuate frustrations. Followed by his bodyguard, he took the head of the group. The congress attendees discovered there very beautiful rock paintings as interesting as the ones in Lascaux. In Engis Village, they looked like a comic strip.

The message was clear: strange machines had come down from the sky. The visitors could see indescribable beings moving under the blue sky. They were half animal half plant.

These drawings had nothing to do with the grotesque style in Florence and Rome. This strip had only one goal: to send a message to the future generations.

The visitors could appreciate the artistic ditch between this species and the modern man.

It seemed like unthinkable that the Neanderthal men with their brute strength could have achieved such an artistical work of art.

A few meters further, the visitors could see some polydactyl creatures with a forked tongue. They were sending projectiles towards a sphere which might have been The Earth.

What kind of projectiles? Nobody could answer, but these were coming out from their bodies through an unknown opening. Was it the mouth, or the sex, or the nostrils? The drawing remained vague and mysterious.

POLYDACTYL CREATURES WITH A FORKED TONGUE WHO ARE SPITTING OF THE PROJECTILES TOWARDS A SPHERE, WHICH COULD BE THE EARTH. WE CAN GUESS AN UFO

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On the way to Oxford Von Braun had remembered at the time of his first lecture that since antiquity symbols, marks and signs of extraterrestrial visits on earth were numerous. And the frescoes he had presented to us were similar to the drawings in Engis. In Sumerian basreliefs, we also found testimonies of the existence of particular machines.

Since Louis’s talk about the fifth nucleotide and since Perkin’s lecture, who had claimed to have shaken a hybrid's hand, these paintings had taken a new meaning. It was not a legend any longer, but episodes of their history.

"See this detail," explained Pankratov while showing the costumes of the characters, "Everything is corresponding to the historical data in our possession. UFOs began their observation of Earth two centuries ago. Allow me to recall you that some were seen in the sky of London in 1742."

"Don't listen to him, dear Professor Garnier," interfered Hamilton while discreetly leaning over Louis's shoulder. For my own part, I think these drawings were carried out in the middle Ages. According to some historians, we have been under monitoring since prehistoric times."

Louis did not answer, but thought that genetics was a more precise science than paleontology and history of art. Aristotle's genome better accounted for the skeleton's origins than the morphology of his body. And better than the dating of his bones as well.

Suddenly, a female voice was heard. A beautiful young and dynamic person whom Renoir might have chosen as a model, called Louis. She did not belong to the group of visitors, but she had followed it: "Professor Garnier! I'd like to speak to Mr. Garnier," she insisted."

"I am Louis Garnier,” he answered, surprised to have been tracked through the wood.

She introduced herself: "My name is Anne Jacquemin, and I'm a reporter."

"That's the last straw," Perkin said to Palach, "a female reporter amid us."

"To whom do I have the honour of speaking?" Louis asked.

"Professor, I would like to write an article about the cave where Aristotle was discovered.

The whole world can admire the skeleton on the Internet, but the cave was never shown and never described elsewhere than in the scientific press. Would you mind allowing me to take some photos?"

"Err!" Louis made, "And who gave you the right to come in? You know that this cave is visible only with an appointment, just like in Lascaux. Moreover, it must be preserved from human pollution. To visit this cave, you need a special permission,” he affirmed while he was scratching the top of his skull and smoothing his chin.

He asked the representatives of Researchers of Wallonia if such an exceptional authorization could be consented.

"Considering the situation in which we are, it would be a great comfort to me to receive your agreement," Louis said to them, "An article about this cave would be issued at the right time and would enhance our image all over the world. What do you think about it?"

"Yes, Professor, no problem," the researchers agreed.

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On the way to Oxford "Thank you, gentlemen," Anne answered, jubilant.

From time to time, she held his open notebook upon her knee and jotted down figures and words in the light of her mobile phone.

She started taking a lot of pictures, among which there were the rock paintings, but the visitors as well.

"I don't want to be pictured," Perkin said aloud.

"No picture of me too. incase of disobedience, I would be obliged to lodge a complaint," added Palach.

"Very well, gentlemen," I promise you to avoid you, she answered them. And she went on writing her report.

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The living gargoyles of Oxford The Oxford Tube dropped us at the beginning of High Street, with its colleges and stores of all kinds.

My thunderbolt for Oxford took place at the time of my first visit. It was for me the opportunity to discover a true stone miracle, a profusion of architectural styles harmoniously associated. Already at that time, I admired the gargoyles and frontages.

In summer, at the end of the day, when the sun lies down and lights up the carved lace of pinnacles, domes, bell-towers, towers and gargoyles, it is the moment to take advantage of the serenity and charm of the city. I really enjoyed it The purpose of our excursion in 1999 with Josette was to know better the collections of the Natural history museum, in particular Dean Buckland's famous collection of fossils, known all over the world. This time, it was different because the atmosphere was electric.

Bataille, who was starving, had noted an address for the lunch; a Thai restaurant in High Street in one of the most beautiful houses of Oxford and dating from the seventeenth century.

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The living gargoyles of Oxford Its frontage looked onto the entry of the market hall which opened on the northern side pavement.

"A very British restaurant, it is not badly either," I suggested.

"It is precisely in an English restaurant that we are going now," Tarakan answered.

I will introduce to you a friend of mine; he will give you a few tips.

"O.K. for the English restaurant," I nodded, smiling.

Bataille looked satisfied too. It was 11 a.m.

Tarakan wanted to show us the heart of the town. He led us through a tortuous route crossing the heart of the university. He explained to us why an informed guide, as he was, was different from the usual Oxford citizen generally unable to inform a foreigner on the road to follow when it was a question of going through the university.

We walked along All Souls College, Radcliff Camera and Sheldonian Theatre.

In front of the theatre a demonstration was taking place about the excessive use of animals in biological research. Everything depended on what you call "animal", of course...

If these protesters had been aware at that time of beings that were threatening us, they would have been more nuanced in their demands.

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We borrowed a part of Broad Street, and then we turned left in Turl Street in order to join High Street again and particularly The Mitre, a very British restaurant.

It was almost twelve o'clock, and no client was sitting yet. We were welcome by a young turbanned Indian. We were amazed for, in a true British restaurant, it was rather rare.

"Hello Tarak, welcome to the Belgian gentlemen," he politely said while he bowed before us.

"Hello Rajiv!" Tarakan replied.

I concluded that this man had been informed of our visit. I wondered how it was possible: Tarakan did not have a mobile phone and had not left us since the departure of London.

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The living gargoyles of Oxford Maybe did he make contact with his advisors in Belgium from the reception of the hotel ? In our bedroom in London, he had neither received nor given a phone call.

"Tomorrow, it's your turn at the reptile house," Tarakan reminded his compatriot. It is right, isn't it? You are there on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays until the end of July?"

"It is our agreement," Rajiv confirmed by leading the cobra to the outside the restaurant..

I was at last far from this horrible animal, that made me startle me each time it was producing its unbearable friction at the bottom of the wicker basket.

Rajiv came back in the entry and waved his hand at Tarakan while making us understand that it was better that the commissioner and I had to wait in the restaurant.

At that moment, I wanted to be clear in my own mind and asked Bataille where and how Tarakan might have informed the young Indian of our arrival.

"The manager of The Bear and Tarakan knew your name and now this young Indian knew that we are Belgians. We have been tailed from Brussels. Already in the Eurostar, I suppose."

I dialled Louis’s phone number, anxious to know the state of mind of the colloque attendees in Engis Village's cave.

"His mobile phone is off. They are surely at the restaurant. My intestines are rumbling as well," I pointed out while feeling my stomach."

"Without eating, we will not make a good job," Bataille answered, satisfied."

Twenty minutes later, which appeared an eternity to us, Tarakan came back with Rajiv.

He was carrying a small suitcase and pulled a CD-Rom and two small boxes from it."

"Here is the file of the members of the Gargoyle group in question," Tarakan announced, showing the CD. "Rajiv will keep it, It's more careful. He will give it to you this evening in London when we have joined him.

“And here are the boxes in order to protect you," he added while giving me one of them and the other to Bataille.

Rajiv recommended: "Gentlemen, keep this box preciously. It will be useful for you. " "What does it contain?" I asked, shuddering with the idea that another small unpleasant beast could be inside.

"Don’t fear anything," Rajiv answered me. "It's only a defensive weapon in case of an attack."

I cannot bear the riddles and I said, quite panicked: "You mean an attack coming from the sulphuric men," "Yes, if they would attack you, open this box and you will see how quick they will surrender." Tarakan added.

"Don't be afraid. There are only mushrooms and worms. That is without danger for you.

For them, it's alarming, as if we were confronted with the plague.

"May I open?" I asked

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The living gargoyles of Oxford "Of course, it is only a phial under pressure, all you have to do is to break it and to aim at their mouth or their sex. It is necessary that they ingest the contents, in one way or another.

The infection is immediate. A few hours later, they die.”

"O K, but how can they fear such a banal phial since they don't know its contents?"

"Sir, as soon as this box is opened, the words Fungus and Nematodes (for the worms) will be on sight. Imagine I breaking in front of you a bottle on which the word Plague is written, what would you do? They know that mushrooms are at the origin of most of the phytopathologies and are responsible for destruction of plants. As for the cylindrical worms, called Nematodes, they are parasites for men as well, and cause quickly a lot of damage in the bodies of plants. For this time of the year, sulphuric men are in their vegetal phase, and we have the suitable weapons to fight them."

His arguments won me over. I put the small box into my pocket. Bataille had time to tell me: "If something goes wrong, I have got in my pocket a more effective weapon than these ground worms. Do you know the revolver?”

It was clear that he thought that our afternoon’s work might be serious.

To resort to extreme measures, it was really too early, I thought. And I forced myself to smile hoping that in any way we would need neither the gun nor the phial under pressure.

"Let's eat," said Bataille, apparently hypoglycaemic.

The meal was admirably served but we did not find delicate and subtle savours as it would have been the case in the Thaï restaurant.

There were still a few hundred meters to go to The Bear. It was more than an inviting pub.

As soon as we entered, we saw the wall covered with old ties belonging to the former students of the university. Tarakan immediately went towards the showcase of the fifties and showed me his own tie.

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The living gargoyles of Oxford Tarakan approached the window of the fifties where he showed us the tie of his nephew Macalister who had finished his studies on August 22, 1969. This tie did not contain a badge like Archibald Wynn’s one that he wore in the Chinese restaurant and in the aquarium. It was made of a Scottish texture.

What surpised me was the sign on the door: "Ladies by front door", as if the ladies going to the toilets could not cross this door, the ladies toilets being only accessible by outside.

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I ordered a Guinness, Bataille did the same. Tarakan asked a tea.

The bar manager looked very nice.

He spoke to me: "Are you the Belgian who phoned me yesterday from London?" he asked.

"Yes, I'm. How do you know my name and my nationality?"

He contented himself with smiling and introduced himself while shaking my hand:"My name is Pryce.�

Then he took the phone and dialled a number. When he was through, he said: "You may come, the Belgians are here" Five minutes later, a tall man entered. He was dressed with a long coat and wore a large hat.

Tarakan shuddered, but didn't pronounce a word. I immediately thought of a Sulphuric man. Pryce, the pub manager asked us to leave the room while passing the door of the toilets prohibited to ladies He took us into a room which appeared to be richly furnished. It was his private house, an unexpected place both living room and dining room. The parquet floor had been carefully waxed. There was, on the wall, a photograph of Pryce holding in hand a weird mask which looked like the one of my member card of the Gargoyle Group.

The new visitor took his hat off, lowered his collar and discovered a horrible face.

"May I introduce to you Mr. Trevenen," said Pryce.

"Sperminator!" Tarakan exclaimed, frightened.

"Yes, I'm the creature,� he answered.

Let us suppose temporarily that this creature is a male and that it deserves the male personal pronoun.

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The living gargoyles of Oxford "He is," said I surprised, then I stopped speaking.

And now I was looking at the weirdest and horrible thing I ever met in my life. He was a monster. and faced us in the full light. The skin of his face strangely looked like elephant's one. He wore a large sweater and very broad trousers, which couldn't hide a cumbersome mass supposed to be his testicles.

Bataille did not pronounce a word but he remembered what the reception clerk answered him when he questioned her after Hertafouris's agression. "He was looking for a tall man with a hat, glasses and a long coat." she had said.

Tarakan got to the heart of the matter. "Stanley Wynn sacrificed his life for him and individuals of his species. And to thank him, this creature betrayed him," he claimed while showing Sperminator with his index finger.

"Be quiet, old man, you have always hidden us the realities of this world. Your master and you always exhibited me like an animal in a zoo. However, other humans have used our skills and have freed us from starvation."

His English was fluent and correct and his accent perfect. He had taken great pains to adopt the speech as it is spoken in England.

"Why do you hate us so much?" Tarakan asked him.

"We aim at the balance of terror, such as you have done for more than forty years between your two great terrestrial powers. It is the only way that enables us to live with dignity."

“What does it mean?” the Indian retorted.

"It means that we have chosen the policy of the permanent threat in order to reach our own aims. Either you give us what we ask you or you will die."

"Who is your new master to let you express yourself like that?" Tarakan asked.

"You will know him quickly," Sperminator replied, while nastily looking him up and down.

We need the file. It contains all about our species. If Stanley and Archibald were here, they would tell you that you’d better give it to us rather than leave it in a place where it is useless to everybody," he replied.

"I wish they were here" Tarakan repeated. "You know where they are now. Stanley died a few years ago and Archibald followed him a few days ago.”

Sperminator made a pause and shivered. In spite of its efforts to repress his obvious pain, we noted that he had been affected by this information. He remained silent for a few seconds, as if he were powerless to find his words.

"It is a pity," murmured he.

The only thing that could give him a status close to human one, was the development of his larynx enabling him to articulate each word clearly.

As for me, I was speechless with surprise and I thought that I had become a fool to be inside this house. What was my business here? I asked myself even though it was too late to withdraw me from that dangerous position. If I wouldn't have feared to appear coward, Sperminator saw my stupor.

"Pryce," he said to the Bear manager,"while you welcome our other visitor, I can manage alone."

Pryce left the room and joined the pub.

While trying to dissimulate my fear, I began talking to Sperminator.

"Don't believe all what your new leader tells you, what he says is not original at all. Humans know that new leaders whose you are speaking about are growing rich by persuading their collaborators that they are going to act differently from the old ones. Most of the time these collaborators notice that they were promised the earth but it was just hot air."

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The living gargoyles of Oxford "You, the Belgian, be silent! You also belong to some people who helped dominate us. You are a Gargoyle Group's member," aren't you?"

I found his verbal assault quite astounding, to put it mildly.

"Yes, Mr. Trevenen, I took a member card, but it was for a good cause, to protect humanity from itself so that the men don't destroy themselves with the weapons they had created."

"Humans claim that they act according to the safeguard and continuity of their species. However, they are only hypocrites destroying a half of themselves because of the excesses of the other half. They are the champions of their own natural selection," as Darwin said. In our species, solidarity is not an empty word. Our happiness does not depend on our social rise. It doesn't make us happy for climbing the rungs of a ladder in order to find, at the top, nothing very different from what existed at the bottom.

Contrary to you, we worry about generations that follow us. You, humans, are polluting your planet without thinking of the consequences for your descendants. Why? For the simple reason that you will not be alive any longer when these generations exist.

You are egoistic and you see no farther than the end of your own sad life. Every individual of our species is proud to live by ensuring the continuity of all. Our existence is prolonged beyond the time spent in the cosmos "The cosmos!" I exclaimed.

"Yes, since our parents and us we belong to cosmos and not only, like you, to a single planet," he discoursed.

"Congratulations, Mr. Trevenen," I ironically added. "You made us a pathetic speech."

Sperminator maliciously looked at me.

The horror took a new dimension when he took his glove off and tightened a glass with his tentacular eight fingers . Eight long fingers with a wrinkled grey skin.

"I note that after a lot of good intentions, you keep us captive. What do you expect us to do, Mister the Philosopher?" I dared say.

"The file, Mr. Baudouin, and you will be free."

"What is your aim?" Tarakan questioned, realizing the danger of communicating such data.

"You imagine that if we knew where it is," added Bataille "after what you have told us, we shouldn't give it to you, but only to Scotland Yard."

Sperminator deodorised himself and opened a window in order to get some fresh air.

Obviously, the commissioner's remark had completely disturbed him.

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The living gargoyles of Oxford "Our new leader promised us a future where each one would be able to speak freely and to climb levels of society. He promised us to get a job in the most powerful international companies. All is ready except the file." " What you just said and this photo on the wall," concluded Bataille, make me think of your significant commitment in the social hierarchy, contrary to what you asserted a few minutes ago .

On the wall, indeed, was a photograph of Sperminator sitting on the Coronation Chair in Westminster Abbey.

It was the third time since the beginning of the investigation that the "Coronation Chair" was mentioned : first, the place where the file was to be deposited, claimed by Archibald's blackmailer, the second time on a painting during the exhibition in Chaudfontaine. And third we could see Sperminator sitting on that chair.

I asked myself why this royal behavior on this photograph, but without any response.

Everyone kept silent when we saw Sperminator's neck that was shivering.

"Why do you need the file?" Tarakan asked when he saw Sperminator's Sulphuric pocket fill up .

"We don't want only the file but also the skeleton that Belgians are showing on the Internet," he retorted while he was stretching out his dreadful tentacular fingers in the direction of the television screen.

"You mean Aristotle." Bataille specified.

"This name doesn't mean anything for us. It's a stupid name invented by your biologists and repeated by your reporters."

"Aristotle disappeared and you surely know where he is," Bataille went on.

The creature gathered his brows and opened his mouth, as if he intended to bite. This time, I saw the end of his bony and forked tongue.

I couldn't prevent myself from musing upon paintings, in this Engis cave where creatures with a forked tongue can be seen, and upon individuals sucking sulphur in Saint James's Park.

These particular tongues also explained the bites of the sea lion in Le Monde Sauvage and of the dog in Ninane.

"I thought that you could have more collaborated with us," Sperminator retorted. "Since none of you want make an effort, I will then give the green light to the SHEEP troops for starting the spermatic war."

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The living gargoyles of Oxford Tarakan suddenly lost his temper, even though I believed that he was unable to do that.

"And how this war could it be useful to you?" he asked, "Should we become polydactyl with a lonely nostril, a lot of wrinkles on a grey skin, and at the place of our testicles, let inflate pollinic bags, impossible to be hidden under a long coat, what do you expect ?

Your file, you had better forget it," he roared out of him.

"How could you obtain a place in this world without the agreement of the majority of humans?" he concluded.

A stinking odour was spreading in the room. I saw Sperminator's neck palpitate, and I understood that this monster, obviously excited by Tarakan's words, was prepared to empty his Sulphuric pocket onto one of us.

Disconcerted and frightened, and in order to distract him from his criminal intention, I asked him, "Do you mean that SHEEP forces are going to attack Liege by using your spores? It's horrible! Why?" "You must give the skeleton back to us; it is our ancestor," the monster articulated, "You know how much we attach importance to deceased people and particularly to that one."

"Do you mean that the SHEEP forces are going to attack Liege by using your spores? It's horrible! Why?" "You must give the skeleton back to us; it is our ancestor," the monster articulated, "You know how much we attach importance to deceased people and particularly to that one."

It was obvious that these polydactyl species intended to find their own biological and social sources. Recently, we had learned that American scientists and Indian tribes had claimed the property of a old ancestor of nine thousand years. He was known under the name of the Kennewick man and had been found in 1996 by two students who were walking along the Colombia River, close to the city with the same name in the south of the State of Washington.

In the United States since 1990, the "NAGPRA" law - the decree for the protection of the tombs and repatriation worked to restore to Indians all evidences, objects and bones having a bond with their history. Should we legislate to give the sulphuric men the same rights as ours?

It appeared that some American citizens had understood the need for recognizing them and to accept their past, their religion, their arts, their culture and all that had founded their society. The SHEEP knew that to make sure of their help in special operations, they had to be attentive to all what had built their civilisation.

"Yes, we have this skeleton that you so much appreciate," I bluffed. This is your supreme relic, somehow . You want to make a sort of crusade to recover your ancestor , like some Christians formerly had wanted to save the tomb of Christ.

Sperminator stood up and moved towards the fridge. He opened it, unscrewed the stopper of a bottle, and drank straight the black liquid it contained A Sulphuric odour emerged in

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The living gargoyles of Oxford the room. He then seized an aerosol and sent inside his throat a few puffs, what revealed at the same time his horrible tongue.

"It's not everything" I added, persuaded that this creature must have his limits and therefore, would need to negotiate. I wanted Sperminator understand that he had something to lose "What else?" the creature asked.

I thought about Perkin’s lecture at the symposium. I assumed that in his venal negotiations, he had made contact with the leaders of sulphuric men. That gave me a new impetus.

"Your new leader that I don't know at all, of whom you seem to wait for a great help, must know that Aristotle's body is worth several million dollars at Tucson's market. Professor Ronald Perkin, a bone dealer informed us. Each week, dinosaurs’ bones dating back to one hundred million years are sold on this market. The new rush towards bones has started. As soon as your new guide is in possession of the skeleton of your rare ancestor, he will get rid of it, and he will sell it. Only one thing interests him: money."

Sperminator started shouting.. He seemed to express at the same time anger and disappointment.

I felt I had hit the bull's eye and that he got more and more dubitative about his own beliefs. It was not the moment to stop now when I was doing so well. What was his limit for analysing facts without spitting his acid on us? As he had thrown away to Wynn, I was sure, before putting him under the water with the piranhas.

Tarakan returned to the attack.

"Since you are sensitive to the past of your species, you must be also watchful to all that could affect your culture."

Sperminator remained silent "Don't you know that, at this present time, the symposium attendees are on an official visit in a cave where a comic tells how your own species fertilized the humans? These drawings are marvellous. They are your own history, and at the same time your Old Will, somehow your Bible."

Sperminator had become calm again. He fixed an object in the room, which had not drawn the attention of anybody yet. It was a statuette whose forms might be human ones.

But by examining it more attentively, it was an idol, which resembled them. sulphuric men like humans belonged, without any doubt, to a species needing a belief and a history. The living beings, without a known past, are seeking one. Their ancestors' bones, their works, their traces are as important as the relics in our churches. This species also needs some places where it could meditate and some objects allowing it to focus its meditation.

Was Sperminator unaware of the existence of the Engis cave? Surely and Tarakan's last arguments had obviously disturbed him. He must have been also affected with the allusion to Tucson's market. I felt that we had put the doubt in his spirit.

Bataille leaned towards me and said: "Now we know some more."

Pryce came back quickly into the room, all smiles, and spoke aloud so that we could all hear him.

"A woman is waiting outside. She would like to speak to Mr. Baudouin," he declared, grinning mischievously.

A woman who wanted to speak to me, was it a new strategy to try to intimidate me?

I stood up and wanted to leave the room, but Pryce stopped me.

"To leave the room is impossible, sir! Either the woman comes here or I tell her that you are not here."

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The living gargoyles of Oxford Sperminator articulated some words with a low voice. Pryce left the room and Sperminator sat down in the armchair. I had suddenly understood that the worst was preparing. Although panic made my blood boil, I tried to appear as calm as possible.

"I notice we are prisoners!" I said, hoping that the seated customers in the pub could hear me.

"You will be freed as soon as you have given us the file." insisted Sperminator.

He seemed jubilant after the announcement of the visit of this woman.

Then, like the picador gives the deathblow to the injured bull, he brought my irritation at its height.

"Sir, the woman who is waiting for you is your wife. We wish not her harm, but you must know that she is our hostage until we obtain what we want."

It was a nightmare scenario. The sweat was streaming along my face, and I felt sick.

Why had Josette taken those risks? She knew that my mission was not safe. How did she know where I was? However, during our travel this morning between London and Oxford she was still in Liege? It's what she told me through the phone. In the London-Oxford bus, it seems that Tarakan's intuition about Josette's proximity was quite correct.

"I'm waiting for your decision," Sperminator insisted.

"You will wait for a long time," retorted Bataille.

“Do you want to die tragically like Mangalore? The Oxford gargoyles are ready to receive the cord at which you will be hanged," the monster then threatened.

"I always have known that you were Mangalore's murderer," Tarakan replied. “Among the gargoyles and grotesques, you have the choice.” the sulphuric man joked.

Pryce's ballet of comings and goings did not cease. He made it quite clear that, if I intended to flee the pub, somebody in Belgium would not hesitate to shoot down my two daughters. Furthermore, he named "Ella" what made me shake with fear again.

A few minutes later, Pryce asked me to go with him. We left the pub and he led me through Saint Albate's street, a narrow street that gives access to High Street.

We arrived in front of the main entry of the college, "Tom Tower" which leads to the large court of Christ Church College that remained engraved forever in my memory.

"Enter the courtyard and, at the bottom, enter the cathedral and then in the cloister.

There, she is waiting for you," Pryce explained. Don't try to go out, all exits are watched over."

Why didn't he come with me?

A Custodian wearing a bowler hat and equipped with a mobile phone made me understand that I had taken a forbidden entry.

After I had shown him the group photo taken in 1962 when my friends and I had posed for posterity close to the small mercury, in the middle of this large quadrangle, he looked at me and pointed out to me that I had much changed" "Yes I did," I answered.

He even proposed me to take a picture at the very place where I stood thirty-nine years ago. It was not the moment.

"Are you a Belgian, sir?"

"Yes, I'm" “For an hour, we have been looking for you" "Oh! Why didn't you tell me first?" I howled. He did not suspect the dramatic events that happened there. He preceded me and led me into the dark cathedral enclosed in the College.

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The living gargoyles of Oxford On the opposite side of the court we can see Mercury and on the right the Cathedral I remember seeing the woodwork recalling the victims of the war 14-18 and the triple motto: " Fear God , Love the brotherhood , Honor the King ", but I did not really feel like making tourism. The door to the cloister was open. I went through it and saw Josette

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Always remaining polite in any circumstances, she said to the Custodian : "Thank you very much, sir."

I realized that this nice gentleman had sent an emissary to the pub in order to seek me out, because a Belgian lady, wanted to see me.

"You are here!" I howled with delight.

"Yes. I wanted, I wanted, to know‌ She had to stop and take again her breath. She then put her hand on her heart, opened a little more her mouth and waited for a moment to get oxygen before going on.

"I wanted to know what it really had happened" She was trembling. I even thought that she was going to collapse. She started crying. I held her in my arms.

She had tried to articulate the best she could the word "Bear", that the Custodian had initially understood "Beer". The message was clear as soon as she said: "But where were you this morning when I phoned you?� I asked her "On the Eurostar, on the way to Lille. It occurred to me that I could spend one day in London Zoo to see Rosie. Then I felt I had to go immediately to Oxford because you were running a risk."

"We are in a real mess," I noticed in a low voice, asking myself how we were going to leave this situation.

"But how did you think of coming to this pub?"

"I have looked for your member card of the sixties in your album. I remind you that we have been married for thirty years, and that you have always seized the opportunity to show your card to our friends.�

I interrupted her.

"If anything goes wrong, you follow the cloister and you will find the exit. I will make sure to prevent anybody from following you. I have got what it's necessary to defend us!" I said to

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The living gargoyles of Oxford reassure her. Take the Oxford Tube to London and go the zoo near near the statue of Guy, the gorilla," I specified.

"O.K.," she answered, terribly anxious.

She had hardly finished what she had to say when Pryce emerged of the cathedral. He entered into the cloister, followed by a creature wearing sunglasses.

"Now, you have to choose between your wife and the file!" he threatened me “Either you give us the file, or you give us your wife”

I pushed Josette behind me. She had understood that the individual escorting the Englishman belonged to the same species as the creature of the café, Cathedral Square in Liege, when she had had a coffee with Louis Garnier.

I did not hesitate a moment to speak to the Sulphuric man.

"This woman is my wife. Don't touch her!"

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The living gargoyles of Oxford He did not pronounce any sound, but made me understand by oscillating his horrible supernumerary fingers that he expected me to give him something.

"You give either the file or your wife," Pryce translated.

You see that I haven't got it," I retorted.

"Tell us where it is" Josette was desperate. For two days, the events had moved faster. Moreover, the puzzle that she had reconstructed, starting from snatches of talk and disparate information, had revealed a horrible image. She had understood that she was dealing with an individual of the species responsible for the bites of the sea lion and of the dog in Ninane. It must be an individual of this species, which had infected Professor Hertafouris and killed Professor Wynn.

Then, this creature started undressing, and I immediately noticed that it was a female.

She had breasts and a sex of a woman.

Why was she naked under her coat? Her sex's labia were widely open. A clearer organ slowly appeared and went out from what I had difficulty to call her vagina. It looked like an enormous pistil ready to collect spores.

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It was horrific. I understood that this female had not only a pistil , but spores too, because underneath, two enormous inflated pockets seemed about to burst. She was hermaphrodite.

Suddenly, I then saw the return of the pistil into the vagina, and I understood that she intended to release her spores towards us without taking any self-fertilization risk.

Behind me, Josette had not moved a muscle. She seemed to me on the verge of fainting.

The female looked at me and Pryce did not seem on his guard any longer with me, as if nothing could have reversed the roles between attackers and attacked.

I thought that it was time to show the box that the young Indian, Rajiv, had given me at The Mitre. I approached the female monster, I was two meters far from her. My only hope was the small box that I held in my pocket. According to our forecasts, I had to show the phial while ejecting its contents onto her.

All that without any hesitation and murmur.

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The living gargoyles of Oxford When I saw her bestial grin, something in my mind boosted my ego. Like a flash, I showed her the small box and opened it. The phial appeared what surprised the monster. In her agitation, she forgot to be cautious and her pistil reappeared outside of her.

Without hesitating, I directed the phial towards her female organ and freed the contents.

The monster read with fright what was written inside the lid: "Fungus-nematodes", I expected her to defend herself by spitting her acid, but she could not do it because her pocket was empty.

All Tarakan's predictions proved to be up to it, except one: they could self-fertilize. The parasitic mushrooms and worms had produced the expected effect, The gas jet seemed to have quickly reached her pollen tube then the ovaries.

This naked hermaphrodite creature was condemned. She started bawling and fled through the cathedral, from where she had come.

I was horrified and my only will was to run away with Josette. Pryce had seen everything but all had happened so quickly that he could not have done anything. I found myself in front of a man with whom I shared the same nature, the same assets and weaknesses and I felt an immense sense of relief. That did not mean that I was happy.

It was the first time in my life that I had to fight physically. In my eyes, Pryce had become an animal that I had to neutralize as well.

Josette stood a few meters far behind me.

"Get the hell out!" I howled to Josette when the human rushed at me.

With a hoarse voice, altered by the stress of the events, I added "Near Guy, The gorilla

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The living gargoyles of Oxford

I cannot really describe my gestures and attitudes, or the ferocity I showed. I know that I managed to defeat this man, who remained unconscious on the soil of the cloister while I was running away. I had acted like a savage, without appreciating the intensity of my knocks, my only objective being the extermination of my opponent.

Currently, Josette must be completely defeated, and must be on the way towards the bus stop in High Street close to Queen's College, where we usually take the Oxford Tube to London.

I went out the cloister through the exit giving on the Christ Church meadows.

On the way to join Josette, I thought I had been going a bit far with Pryce. What would be his future after I had gone? I supposed that a tourist or the custodian were going to discover him and call for help.

For a few minutes, out of breath, I sat on the pavement in High Street asking myself what I should do. My first impulse was, of course, to call for assistance; but I could not since there was every chance to be accused either of violence or maybe of murder.

I convinced myself that it was useless to go back to The Bear to throw myself into the lion's jaws where Tarakan and Bataille must still be. I thought that I was a coward.

I then realized of the sympathy that I felt for my two companions in misfortune. I hoped with all my heart they could have fled. However, before informing the English police force, I was still hesitating. At the same time, I thought that I could never see me again through a mirror if I did not go to these men's rescue.

I then imagined the worst that the female of the cloister had gone back to The Bear and had told everything. Maybe was Pryce suffering from only a shock and he had already joined the pub. I did not know the itinerary I had to take.

Conscious that the future of Tarakan and Bataille could depend on me, I decided to go to The Mitre, where Rajiv might still be working. The door was closed. I rang the bell, but no-

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The living gargoyles of Oxford body opened to me. I paced up and down in the street and in Queen's College court while thinking about what I was going to make.

I went back towards the restaurant door and rang three times again. It was in vain.

At the time of leaving, while I was tying my laces, I saw a sheet of paper on the pavement. I picked it up and unfolded it carefully. Then I smoothed it out upon my knee. I then methodically examined the paper sheet all over in the peculiar introspective fashion that was characteristic of Sherlock Holmes. I read this, "I am where you know. Be cautious".

I understood that his colleague, who had taken his turn in London at the Reptile House in London Zoo, had addressed this message to Tarakan, and I remembered that, when he had given us the protective boxes, Tarakan had told us we had to meet us in London.

Rajiv must have left the university town and must be on the way to the capital. Maybe he was in the same bus as Josette had taken.

However, that did not answer my concern. Where were Tarakan and Bataille?

I was shared between my desire to go to London and to carry on with the investigation in Oxford. I choose the first solution.

I bought the Oxford Mail at the newspaper stand near The Mitre.

On my return to London, I tried to put order in my ideas. A thought unceasingly badgered me: what kind of relationship could it exist between Pryce and Tarakan?

Both of them knew that I was in England, and that my intention was to meet them: Pryce had already told me through the phone when I had called The Bear from The Grosvenor Hotel and Tarakan confirmed it to me on Camden Lock market.

Was it the truth what Tarakan had told me? And what about the mysterious Belgian advisor? Didn't he play a double game by contacting Tarakan, the honest man, and at the same time, Pryce, the villain? Who had announced our visit to them?

On the Oxfoird Mail, a headline caught my eye: "Sexual assaults in cloisters of Oxford colleges." Apparently, the cloisters of Oxford were conducive to attacks. The last one had taken place the eve in Magdalen College, another college known for its impressive cloister and its strange gargoyles.

The rapist (a male, I assumed) was first described as an exhibitionist showing his sex to bystanders and then in a scarier way as if he had issued a jet from his sex. I had lived the same event an hour earlier with a female of their species..

One of the victims had been hospitalized.

It must be Sperminator. So it was their habit to frequent a cloister. Why had they then taken Josette into a cloister (Christ Church cloister) then me afterwards? I asked myself: They could have attacked us at The Bear?

In the latest testimony of the walker in Ninane before our mission order to England, they talked a lot about gypsum found on churches and some monasteries. But it really seemed unproductive, most of cloisters being regularly cleaned and leaving no sign of chemical alterations of great interest for those sulphurmen.

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The living gargoyles of Oxford

It crossed my mind that a cloister is the place that suited the best to contemplation and in which the soul withdraws into itself, and where it hides after separating from the crowd of carnal thoughts, and where it can reflect on the only heavenly properties.

The cloisters are havens of peace in which religious can gather, meditate and commune with nature. They walk about and sometimes they even can do grow flowers . These cloisters are "small paradises on Earth."

And if the choice of the cloisters by the sulphurmen simply fell within the same approach as that of our religious ? I wondered. But why then precisely choose this place for their abuses ?

All this seemed very complex.

In London, Tarakan might tell us more.

211

The prehistoric meal Meanwhile, after the visit of the cave, the colloque attendees had gone to The Ramioul Préhistosite where a special meal had been prepared to them. Anne Jacquemin was happy to have been authorized to carry out her report.

"Why wouldn't we combine business with pleasure?" Garnier had declared. "These foods are extraordinary. The art of cooking was always a vector of cultural enrichment, and discovery of the other."

The Ramioul Préhistosite had contacted several cooks, but the most refined ones had refused for economic reasons. The more the menu contained products consumed by our ancestors, more difficult were the raw materials to obtain. And, consequently, more expensive.

The advent of agriculture ten thousand years ago and especially the very recent industrial revolution had modified our food. Therefore we generated the worst diseases and we couldn't afford the food anymore that our distant ancestors found in the nature. The present situation made us regret this terrestrial paradise.

However, let us put things into perspective because this paradise, in spite of its quality to solve many issues of public health by the reduction in cancers and cardiovascular diseases, was a paradise where bacteria and viruses could propagate merrily without anybody could fight against them.

It was the opportunity for the colloque attendees to remember that the bones of our distant ancestors testified to their healthy food: the teeth did not show caries, and no sign of gout was observed. Nothing evoked a modern disease like the osteoporosis or food deficiency like the rickets. All had changed around minus 20.000 years before our era, when men had started domesticating the plants, and around minus 9000 years when the modern food had come.

A teacher from "L'Ecole d'Hôtellerie de Liège" displayed the menu.

Cocktail snack Set of locusts, crickets and caterpillars Hazel, nuts and sweet chestnuts Entries Soup with dandelion and nettles Larvae of roasted wasps.

Main dishes Savarin from bison with onions, garlic, tomatoes and mushrooms, Roasted lizards with the aromatics Salad of chicory Pourpier with the flowers of violets and sheets of spruce.

Dessert Rose and wild hawthorn, elderberry soup.

The user-friendliness between the colloque attendees had never been so good. Raskinet spoke to Palach, "Tell me, dear colleague, you introduced your Vaclav to us, and your topic was: What do Extraterrestrials look like? You developed morphological arguments in order to prove that in case of hybridization between extraterrestrial and humans, the cerebral vascularization of humans would increase. In spite of your significant results, we all have understood that your

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The prehistoric meal Vaclav was a hybrid like Aristotle since professor Garnier talked about the fifth nucleotide.

However, you didn't tell us from where he is coming. How did you get him?"

The Czech who adored the Bordeaux wine, but seemed to have it difficult to assimilate it, replied: "We are taking part in a Ufologist colloque, aren't we? We understand one another. Why should I take the risk to alert the National Safety?” I perfectly remember my remarks. I spoke about human specimen likely to be hybridized by beings that come from elsewhere" Perkin, our colleague, was more accurate. He did not beat about the bush when he talked of their interventions in San Diego and when he referred to their commercial value on Tucson’s market. He even added that he had shaken their hands. I hope spies don't tap our phone, the Czech went on.

And I hope the colloque attendees, once they leave this audience, will show respect for confidentiality of lectures. It was the first confidentiality condition of this symposium, wasn't it?"

Palach smiled and finally answered Raskinet’s questions about where Vaclav is coming from?. How did you get him?

"Vaclav comes from a place which must remain nameless. I'm sorry, sir."

On the other side of the table, Garnier and Perkin were discussing in a warm atmosphere with which the effects of wine were in connection.

"Professor, did you appreciate our visit in this cave? I felt that you were disappointed not to have seen Aristotle this morning."

"This cave is a wonder. It’s a pity that such a place is not accessible by tourists. You could make money and your turnover would be appreciable.”

He then made Garnier an offer: "You would have appreciated to see a specimen of the creatures to which I referred. I invite you in Tucson when you want. I am convinced that I will be able to introduce some of them to you. As for their flesh, if you want a sample, for your DNA analysis, there is nothing impossible.

When Perkin went back to the Bedford Hotel, (photograph) at around 6.p.m., he was informed at the reception that his collaborator had passed and had brought a package. He took it and put down his glasses on the counter while saying, "Can you replace my glasses, I broke them this morning. Without them, I can't do anything, I'm short-sighted."

"Well, sir, we will do the necessary. It's too late to find an optician. Tomorrow morning, we will find an alternative solution, just the time to repair your glasses.”

He then quickened his pace to reach his room so much the heat was unbearable, and when he was there he felt the wellbeing of loneliness refreshed by air-conditioning.. He opened the parcel and found a skull, or more exactly the top of a skull, packed in the Cellophane. He immediately recognized the form of the Neanderthal man with its great orbits.

A small message accompanied the skull:

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The living gargoyles of Oxford "It is the child from Engis. It belongs to the Schmerling collection."

Perkin thought: “I should say, it belonged,” he then muttered.

The parcel had been signed, "Your faithful collaborator."

"Well done!" he exclaimed. That is worth at least ten thousand dollars on Tucson market.

That deserves a whisky."

He had a drink and lit up a cigarette. Then, he sat down close to the window in order to contemplate the Meuse where barges and pleasure boats were travelling upriver. Fifteen minutes later, he got undressed and filled the bathtub with water.

He switched the television on, and let the door of the bathroom open. Then, he approached the bathtub and took a bath sponge. A cry of horror resounded in the hotel.

His painful bloody hand was covered with small holes. They looked like microscopic bites or stings. Perkin had seized Petrus, the stone-fish that had disap-peared from the aquarium.

The unfortunate remained seated on the edge of the bathtub. Then, hopeless, he leapt towards the balcony while agitating his arms to attract the attention of people who were walking along Saint-Léonard Embankment. However, nobody seemed to be concerned with this boisterous tourist. A few minutes later, he collapsed.

Apparently, it was a special day where God had decided to punish the ones who had no respect for his Creation.

Indeed, other events were going to take place in the same afternoon. It was Palach’s turn as well. He wanted to benefit from the freshness of the edges of the Meuse River. After putting down his briefcase into his room at Holiday Inn, he had a beer from the fridge and drank it in one gulp. He needed to reduce his stress because he felt uneasy since Raskinet's insistence to know Valclav's origin had made him nervous. He decided to walk around the park where the children were playing.

The Czech relaxed along the river by watching the reflect on water of the buildings of the other bank. .

He suddenly saw somebody swimming in his direction. He asked himself how the swimmer could join the dry land because there were neither a staircase nor a ladder at this place.

The more this swimmer approached him, the more Palach could distinguish his features.

The swimmer presented a horrible grin, which deformed his face. He stopped swimming and stayed motionless a few seconds. His right hand suddenly disappeared in order to withdraw from water a fish that he started eating greedily.

Palach had seen his tentacled fingers. The swimmer had hardly swallowed the fish than he rushed towards him, who remained petrified when he saw the swimmer leaving the river to climb the bank.

Then it was the drama. The Czech saw the throat of this creature inflate and palpitate.

Then, an acid jet ensued.

Horribly injured, Palach fell into the Meuse River. His body was fished out in the evening near the footbridge. His face looked like a heap of shapeless flesh.

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The prehistoric meal

The SHEEP claimed its responsibility for this murder and sent a statue in order to decorate the park a few hundreds meters far from Palach's agression place.

THE SHEEP, SYMBOL OF SUPREME HEADQUARTERS OF ENLISTED EXTRATERRESTRIAL POWERS », I.E. IN FRENCH : « LE QUARTIER GÉNÉRAL DES PUISSANCES EXTRATERRESTRES ENRÔLÉES »

216

London Zoo meeting Josette and I have always appreciated visiting zoos. Although the zoos in Berlin, Frankfurt, Antwerp, Vincennes and Barcelona are splendid and reveal each one their own personality, we prefer London Zoo whose emotional dimension delights us each time we go there.

In London Zoo, more than elsewhere, we can really feel this permanent fight to preserve the natural world. Thanks to the support of its members and visitors, it managed to create a world network opposed to the environmental delinquencies.

The animals always had their small history. Obaysch, the hippopotamus, arrived in 1850, allowed to double the number of visitors that year since it was the first of that species to being visible in Europe since the Roman time. Jumbo, the elephant had lived there for seventeen years, he was then sold in 1882 to Phineas Barnum for his circus.

It was then Winnie's turn, an American black bear which entered the zoo in 1914 thanks to a Canadian lieutenant at the time of his departure for the war. More recently, Goldie, the gilded eagle escaped in 1965, that fascinated the whole England for fifteen days being even the subject of a standing ovation in the House of Commons. Five thousand people even caused a traffic jam around Regent's Park while it was flying from a tree to a tree before being captured and returned to the zoo.

Let us not forget Guy, the gorilla whose popularity exceeded that one of the others and its statue was erected in London Zoo. It is deceased there of a heart attack after the extraction of a tooth in 1978.

Smaller was Belinda, the spider, which died in 1993 when it was 22 years old. It is claimed that Belinda’s many televised shows could help people become closer to this species and helped them overcome their fear. Moreover, of course, last but not least, Rosie, the African female rhinoceros, Josette's goddaughter, and her companion, Jos. I went out at Baker Street Station, and then I crossed Regent's Park. In other circumstances, the walk is charming. We could find there people appreciating the significance of grass and flowers. Each time, when Josette and I were walking in this park, we met squirrels which came to lunch of an apple in our hand.

After buying my zoo ticket, I moved towards Guy's statue. Josette had not arrived yet. It was 5 p.m. and I really was worried while watching each visitor go past. This alternation of hopes to recognize her, and of disappointment to have confused with someone else put me under stress.

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London Zoo meeting

From the park bench, where I was waiting for her, I saw Rajiv go past with a suitcase.

I realized at this moment that I was twenty meters far from the Reptile House where he was going.

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London Zoo meeting

I decided to follow him, what did not prevent me from looking at the place where Josette had to join me.

The London Reptile House offers its visitors a circular route made of terrariums on the left and on the right, among which we can see the world’s most amazing beasts.

London Zoo presents some exceptional snakes, lizards, and crocodiles.

When I arrived, Rajiv was penetrating his hand into the mambas’ vivarium to drop there some dead mice. I recognized the ring he wore in the morning. In the following enclosure, a cobra was rubbing up against the windowpane while making the children shudder. I left the building and looked at the bench close to Guy's statue. Josette had not arrived yet. I entered the Reptile House again.

Suddenly, an unpleasant smell of putrefaction freezed me. I saw go past an enormous creature, a real ball of flesh. The smell made me think of a stinking badly washed human.

But this individual produced emanations of hydrogen sulphide definitely more stinking than the usual farts.

It reminded me the beginning of the fifties, when my grandfather and I were walking near a chemical factory in Engis.

According to Tarakan's explanations, I deducted that it must be one of these creatures.

The stinking individual held an turbanned old man’s arm. This man was Tarakan.

I had to make an effort not to obey my first impulse that invited me to pounce on this prey.

I understood that the fat man was Obesidon, Sperminator's henchman.

I followed them. They were in phase with Rajiv's move whose hand went from a vivarium to another. They had arrived just in front of rattlesnakes, and I positioned myself behind them.

You tell everything or you die! Obesidon yelled.

"I shan't tell you nothing," Tarakan retorted.

Everything was clear.

It was the moment to act. I retraced my steps and banged on the door giving access to the private corridor where Rajiv was. He opened and recognized me at once.

"Enter!" I heard. Then, "What happens! Did Tarakan join you?"

219

London Zoo meeting "Tarakan is not far from us, Rajiv, go back to the Rattlesnakes’ vivarium, he is just there in front of the windowpane," I specified while my heart was pounding.

Rajiv looked through a slit and recognized his colleague in a bad position.

Obesidon! he exclaimed. He does not fear anything, neither the bite nor the poison of our residents. Except, perhaps this," he added while withdrawing from his suitcase what seemed never to have left him: a large circular box like the one used for the culture of bacteria and viruses.

"Look!" he said by showing me the lid.

I read "Flu".

"It is indeed the virus of flu. Obesidon does not have any immunizing protection against it.

It's worse than mushrooms and nematodes."

"They were efficient and they helped me in this afternoon, thank you!� I said , relieved.

Rajiv opened the Rattlesnakes cage.

It scared me as much as during the night when I had shared the same room in Grosvenor Hotel in London where his cobra had ambled in his wicker basket. However, here there was no vision of the animal, no noise. My main concern was that, in this case, no physical protection existed between the rattlesnakes and me.

Rajiv realized that.I was frightened.

"These small beasts are not my friends," I said with a grinning smile..

"Once a week, we feed them with rodents. Nevertheless, don't fear anything, they never climb towards my hand and the trap doors are at the top of the enclosure and out of their reach. Moreover, only one keeper has died with snakebite for more than one hundred sixty years."

"Maybe the second one will die today," I joked.

Rajiv waited to see what was going to happen next. Obesidon had just taken a hammer that he held with his right gloved hand and was on the point of breaking the window-pane.

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London Zoo meeting Without an hesitation, the Indian brought forward the circular box and stretched his arm out to make it visible from the corridor of the visitors. The snakes raised their head and one of them started shaking the end of its tail. I heard it and I began shivering.

"Don't fear anything," Rajiv reassured me.

What was to happen really took place. Obesidon freed Tarakan and ran out of the Reptile House with the hammer that he replaced in the pocket of his overcoat.

I intended to follow him as soon as Rajiv had closed the trap door again.

Tarakan did not bat an eyelid.

"You don't follow him!" I howled. "Warn the zoo police force. Do something!"

Rajiv looked at Tarakan. This one turned to me and said: "Mr. Baudouin, you have had, it seems to me, enough evidence since this morning that we are at humans' side and not ready to help that species. However, it's impossible for us to bring another action against Obesidon. Their Sulphuric pocket is proportional to their volume. Obesidon's one is enormous. If we follow him, he will spray us with acid. We can show him a virus, or throw him mushrooms in order to make him run away, but we can’t fight with him!

"But then, what can we do?" I asked, seeing that this escape did not prevent him from making any harm to other people. He was going to begin again elsewhere.

"Nothing at all except to kill him with a weapon. Commissioner Bataille who was my companion in misfortune in The Bear when you joined your wife at Christ Church College knows it perfectly. Your compatriot, beside himself, took a little revolver from his pocket and he opened fire twice on Sperminator.

Almost instantaneously, this one spit at him the content of his sulphuric pocket, but he failed Bataille. Let's say rather that the commissioner dodged the jet. Sperminator is at death’s door somewhere in Oxford because he has lost much blood.

"And, why isn't Bataille with you?" I asked.

"He's at Scotland Yard where he met the Metropolitan Police Commissioner. He has many things to tell him. All the more he didn't lose his head when Sperminator was fleeing, he took a specimen of his blood. I'm sure that the Yard will deal actively with this problem."

"And for you personally, what really happened after I left you?"

"I didn't wait a minute more. While Bataille was going to the police station, I went towards the first stop of the Oxford Tube.

I thought the road would never end. When I arrived at this bus stop, I felt that I was losing consciousness, Obesidon intercepted me. He threatened me to throw his vitriol to me if I didn't give him the famous file. He started to agitate his Sulphuric pocket that I saw inflating.

The other people who were waiting for the bus ran away. He then brought me towards a very close car where he did not cease questioning me. I wanted to save time, and I replied to him that the file was in London Zoo, and it was the truth. You know that I never lie," he affirmed with pride.�

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London Zoo meeting I was happy my two companions were safe, I suggested Tarakan and Rajiv we should go to the zoo restaurant.

Then, I went out from the Reptile House and started pacing up and down near the statue of Guy. Then around the cages reserved for the chimpanzees and gorillas. Josette was keeping me waiting.

I borrowed the alley leading to Littlewatch Centre, the centre for first aid and lost children.

It is located opposite the rhinoceros enclosure.

I leaned against the wall and saw with relief that Rosie and Jos were in good health. The male was sleeping while the female was eating grass and foliage. With their massive body, short legs, grey and thick skin, Jos and Rosie belong to the species that have impressed me the most since my youth. It was already the case when my parents and I had visited the Antwerp zoo. It was still true with Josette and my children. At each meeting with this animal, I could not prevent me from pointing out these moments of great tenderness that began again with Jos and Rosie.

"Rosie!" I called.

It turned its head towards me, and approached as close as it could. I leaned over it to stroke its muzzle and its horn. Visibly satisfied, it trumpeted by way of a hello.

"Where is your godmother?" I asked without worrying about some surprised tourists who were watching me.

"Behind you," I heard. I turned around and saw Josette. She fell into my arms, tears streamed down her face. Obviously, she was suffering.

"What happens?" I stupidly said to her.

It was, indeed, the most stupid question that I ever asked her. She often reminded me that, at the time of his sharpest contractions, when Cecile, our youngest daughter, was on the point of being born, I had asked her, "What happens?" However, in spite of her reproaches, each time she surprised me, I could not prevent me from expressing my feelings with this stupid question. I saw that she had bags under her eyes.

"Since this afternoon," she explained, "I have scared. I have never been so frightened in my life. How did you escape?"

"I was so mad in rage that I would have never imagined being able to do what I did.

Maybe I have killed Pryce. I was out of me. Come!" I said to her while passing my arm around her neck. Don't fear anything, it is time to eat. Are you hungry?"

"I'm starving; I have not eaten anymore since eight o'clock this morning. I greedily swallowed a sandwich in the Eurostar and nothing else! However, I must first…

"Yes, go on, I listen to you."

"I must first introduce to you an old acquaintance" "Ah!" I said, surprised.

"It's just a figure of speech; let's rather say somebody who phoned you. Look," she specified showing a young woman who was leaving the "Centre of first aid and the lost children".

A slender fair girl with generous curves approached me. I saw she had brown eyes and her too short sweater discovered her navel encrusted with a jewel. She seemed exhausted.

"Mr. Baudouin," she timidly articulated.

"Yes, Miss. To whom have I the honour of speaking? " "Marina Duchêne" (photograph at another moment) "Ah yes! You here?"

"Your wife allowed me…"

222

London Zoo meeting "Yes," Josette interrupted, "I invited her to come with me. I did not think we might have landed ourselves in the soup. His father agreed."

"That's the last straw," I muttered.

"And you, Miss, how have you been living this day? Were you in Oxford as well?"

"No, sir, your wife didn't want me to take some risks. I have spent the whole day here."

"So much the better with you, then, you haven't gone through a living hell," I concluded.

"You're quite mistaken, she met another issue," Josette said and she made a sign to Marina so that she tells her adventure.

"As soon as I arrived at London Zoo, I bought a plan and followed the suggested circuit.

As you know London Zoo, you will immediately understand. This morning, when I borrowed the tunnel under the road to go and see the small mammals and invertebrates, a man accosted me and talked to me in French, "Be careful, Miss DuchĂŞne, your father plays with fire. His investigation will turn badly if he does not understand he is on the wrong track." I was frightened and started running away. At this time, there were few tourists. The man did not insist and took another path.

"What did he look like?" I questioned.

"He was a very fat man. He wore black glasses, gloves and an overcoat, that's all I have seen, I was so frightened!"

"Nothing else? Really! Remember, Miss!"

"He stank. I thought that I was going to vomit" "Obesidon, he was already here this morning!" I exclaimed.

I took them to the zoo restaurant (Building on the left, photograph below) and introduced Tarakan and Rajiv to them. They were waiting for us and had not eaten anything since the Mitre.

It was 6. p.m. We took a noodle dish, tabbouleh, and some roast chicken legs, ie all that remained.

The fear and discomfort in which I had been living vanished entirely.

It was also the opportunity to set the record straight and to reorient us towards what it was useful to tell and make. We were conscious of having shared an exceptional event.

It was necessary now that the whole world to know our adventure in order to draw the conclusions and to consider the solutions.

Marina was too busy to speak; she nibbled some chicken legs greedily. From the place where I sat, I could see her profile framed by her falling hair. As soon as Josette had presented her to me, but also through the phone before our departure to England, I had suspected in her a feeling of frustration, as if she had been obliged to adopt an attitude irrelevant to her nature. She did not look false, but rather sophisticated.

"You were hungry?" Josette asked her.

"Yes, all the more that I have to eat for two."

"Here is at last a piece of good news," I remarked positively.

Josette’s glance appeared so severe to me that I wondered if I had made a mistake once more.

"Some good news," Mr. Baudouin, maybe yes, maybe no, the young woman explained, obviously disturbed. I'm waiting for analyses. I fear for the child, I caught a virus.

"A virus!" I repeated, quite dismayed.

223

London Zoo meeting "Yes, sir, no contagious virus," she added, "but a virus which could harm the development of the baby. I caught it when I was walking in Ninane, in the car park close to the church where I met your wife. As I said to you through the phone, I am fascinated by exobiology and always on the lookout for what can happen in the sky. That day, a friend of mine, who was sitting at the Station terrace, sent me a text message informing me that there were violent flashes on Ninane.

(The two following photographs show Josette stroking her goddaughter Rosie and a sight of the restaurant of the zoo.)

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London Zoo meeting

Tarakan, who had not pronounced the slightest word since he had met Marina, spoke to her, "If I can comfort you, Miss, I think that if you really had caught the virus, it would have already produced effects on you. They would be visible. The foetus is never alone to be attacked. Within forty-eight hours, the first physiological effects appear on the mother."

"Are you sure, sir?"

"It would take too much time to explain to you now. Mr. Baudouin can confirm what I say," added Tarakan.

"Yes Marina, Mr. Tarakan is right," I confirmed, while smiling as a sign of encouragement.

She looked relieved and sighed with contentment. Josette shook her hand.

At this moment, two police officers entered the restaurant.

One of them (Photo on the left) stood in front of the door so that nobody could leave and the second spoke to the guests in French, "Are there Belgians amid you?"

I waved my hand at him. The police officer sat down at our table.

"Sir, an accident has just taken place in front of the zoo’s entry. The bus was just leaving its stop when an enormous individual was going out the zoo. The driver couldn't avoid him. We called an intensive care ambulance and, when it arrived, it was too late. We don't know why, but my colleague, who is now at the entry of the restaurant, had to make a super-human effort when he examined closely the victim. He stank. My colleague found this in his pocket," he said while giving me a paperboard.

225

London Zoo meeting I saw a series of names near which I could read their nationality and a date. The first name of the list was "Baudouin...Belgian...Ninth of July."

"Sir, the creature, which was run over, is not a human, but a disgusting organism," the police officer announced. "And we know all that since the beginning of the month, he has been terrorizing Belgian and English populations. Each day, people died under dreadful conditions. It was your turn today. You had a narrow escape."

"How did you think to come and join me here?" I asked him.

"We received a member of Belgian police in our office in Oxford. He explained to us your adventure, a man named Batman."

"Bataille, you mean" I rectified.

"Yes, Bataille," he laughed.

"And we concluded that you were the next target. It was confirmed on the paperboad. The leader of this big pork is nobody else than "Sperminator” who has made humanity tremble for some time.

Your commissioner wounded him with a bullet. He fled and went to Christ Church College.

Fifty police officers encircled him in the large courtyard. We had been following him for a few days and we had taken the usual precautions, gloves, masks… etc. Sperminator had just freed his acid and had missed Batman…"

"Bataille," I pointed out again.

"Yes, Bataille, as you say. When we captured him, he needed three hours more to reconstitute his sulphuric stock. We then thought that any danger had disappeared, but when he removed his coat, the horror appeared. We saw a long sex ended by two enormous inflated pockets that prevented him from running? From his urethra - we have to call a spade a spade - we saw him ejaculate a yellowish jet, while he was rushing to the staircase leading to the Gothic room.

I was unaware that science-fiction and fantastic stories could meet reality as much, since at this moment I knew nothing yet about several scenes of the first two films of Harry Potter that had been carried out in this college and on this staircase in particular.

“We could catch him up and immobilize him with a fishing net," continued the police officer.. "He is still alive in a laboratory of the college, where Professor Wynn taught before. The biological analyses are taking place now. You can well imagine that we must take the opportunity to know everything about their species," "How was Sperminator's blood, sir?" Marina questioned, "Did you see it?"

"Yes, Miss. I come from Oxford, the blood was gushing out of him. It was red like ours, but definitely more viscous."

"Like sap?"

"Not as viscous as sap, but why do you think of the sap? the police officer asked.

226

London Zoo meeting "I rather thought of honey, a liquid and red honey, of course."

All the glances had turned to Marina. Josette seemed the most surprised. Later on, she will explain that a young woman, who gradually had shown her true face and delivered her secrets, had really stupefied and manipulated her. At the beginning of the journey in Liege, she was only the possible godmother of Jos, the male rhinoceros. At the restaurant of the zoo, she had become the principal pawn of the chessboard on which we all had been playing.

Marina gave a few explanations, "I think of the sap because, for human plants, it seems to me more suitable," she answered.

"Human plants!" the police officer repeated while laughing nervously.

Bataille and I were looking at ourselves, how could she know all that?

"It's an intuition," she answered when she saw us terribly haggard.

"And what else?" the police officer questioned.

"All I know in this field, I learned it in 1989 when my little brother was infected by their virus. This shock gave me my entire reason for living. I specialized."

She drank half a can of Diet Coke in one gulp.

Josette and I had attentively listened without stopping her. I saw Tarakan take a box of the pocket of his jacket, a box identical to the Mushrooms and worms box that Rajiv had given me in the morning.

"Do you know this?" he asked Marina while he was opening the box.

She saw the inscription at once, Fungus-nematodes.

"Yes," she answered the Indian.

"What is it?" he questioned.

"Mushrooms and worms to attack their tissues" "You really think, Miss, that it is the best way?"

"No, sir, the influenza, it is better."

"That's the reason why I did not extract this box from my pocket when Obesidon threatened me in the Reptile House circuit," he added.

Tarakan looked at her with pride, as if he were satisfied with her answers. I was amazed, unable to articulate the slightest word. Marina knew everything.

"Madam, gentlemen," she went on, "when I asked Mrs. Baudouin to go with her to London, I didn't think of living such an adventure. I wanted to become the godmother of an animal in danger of disappearance, but I confess that I was aiming at another objective. During the trip, when she phoned her husband since the Eurostar, I understood that it would be more complicated than expected."

She straightened the collar of his light jacket and a noise was heard on the restaurant floor.

Tarakan saw that she had lost a small object and picked it up. It was the mask of the Gargoyle Group. Marina did not seem at all distressed, as if sooner or later she was going to confess something to us.

"Now, you know everything," she concluded, "there are no more reasons to be silent, Mr. Tarakan?"

227

London Zoo meeting She called on him as a witness. They had met. "Yes, I belong to the Gargoyle Group?" she clarified, "To be more precise in my choice of a word, I should say: the New Gargoyle Group" Josette looked at her up and down. She noticed that the mask had not much changed, but it was as dreadful as the one of my photo album.

Tarakan explained to us what he hesitated to do before.

"Here is our Belgian interlocutor, Mr. Baudouin. You now understand why we knew that you were arriving in England and many other things about you. Your photo aged with a simulation software was only one beginning."

"Why was all this monitoring organized about us?" I questioned. "And you, Marina, who gave you this order to spy us?"

"Nobody. It sometimes happens to me from time to time to visit my father's office when he is at the Court. Then, between members of the same association, we can help each other. I then warned Mr. Tarakan of your arrival."

"And you?" I asked Bataille, while turning me towards him, "What did you know about this machination?"

"Nothing, of course, it is the first time that an examining magistrate's daughter takes part in Letters Rogatory, requested by her own father without the agreement of the commissioner responsible for the investigation," he answered, outraged.

"What about you?" I asked Tarakan.

"As Miss Marina has just told you, she kindly warned me that two gentlemen coming from Belgium were in search of me. And besides, she put my mind at ease by adding that they would do me no wrong" Josette and I looked at ourselves with wide open eyes.

"And Pryce, how did he know we were arriving?" I questioned.

"I swear you that neither Miss DuchĂŞne nor I had any contact with this unsavory individual," Tarakan confirmed, "He is an enemy of the group."

"Who, then, contacted him?"

"I'm unaware of that" "I don't know either," certified Marina.

228

Espiritu Santo Island.

The inhabitants of this island are in majority from French-speaking people. Politically, a name to be retained: Stevens. He was a head of the movement Nagrimael protestor against the colonial authorities.

Stevens unilaterally proclaimed independence in 1957. With the approach of the independence of the Vanuatu (to which belonged Espiritu Santo) in November 1980, Stevens carried out a new attempt at secession compared to the remainder of the archipelago and he declared himself Prime Minister.

But the Franco-British armies forces could quickly restore the order. Stevens was condemned to 15 years of prison. He will be freed in 1991 and will die in 1994.

Stevens claimed that his father was Scottish and that his mother came from the Tonga islands. He is said to have had 23 wives and to have procreated four dozen children. What the history does not tell, it is that Stevens had some not very advisable assistants who carried out the dirty works of the Nagrimael party. One of them, named Spencer (Photograph), was very ambitious and he became the manager of Volcanic Village located at the foot of the Tabwemasana volcano. You could see the malice in his eyes What Tarakan had omitted to explain us, when we arrived on the London market, was however useful to understand what really occured in this particular place.

In 2001, during our odyssey in Oxford, on the other side of the planet in Espiritu Santo, some monstrous animals were preparing a feast.

"Come, sir, the feast is starting!" announced a servant to his leader, a Lord Spencer, who was drinking like a fish. You could see the malice in his eyes.

The little communities gathered and developed almost tacitly a customary law. They fell under the guidance of that kind of man both country doctor and priest. .

"I come straight away," he answered as he was filling up his glass.

"The Americans are here. Do I have to ask them to wait?"

"No, I come straight away, Lord Spencer repeated. In this island of New Guinea, the sulphuric men’s clans had gradually diversified like humans formely had done, socially and individually. Except Spencer, the representatives of human species did not attend this feast because this ceremony was culturally unacceptable for them. The unpredictability of these emotionally disturbed creatures had made some humans flee. They had left the island.

Spencer was not easy to describe. There was something odd in his appearance, something of unpleasant and odious. He must be affected of some interior monstrosity of which the effects were not long in appearing. Of very bad mood, he started scraping his mosquito bites. It had just rained and the sun was shining. The place looked like a hot, wet, suffocating glasshouse.

According to the hierarchical respect of sulphuric men, situated at the bottom of the social ladder, the pentadactyl ones – i.e. all those who appeared normal to us because they had ten fingers – were used to work in the most unmentionable tasks. And they were determined to help their hierarchy under any conditions. For instance, some devoted pentas did not hesitate to pounce onto the ground in order to absorb the impact of the fall when a leader stumbled or slipped.. That refusal of oneself beyond all that is possible to imagine, could go until death if a danger had threatened a member of a higher clan.

229

Espiritu Santo Island In a green setting made of coconuts, orange, banana and mango trees, where one had the feeling that all was growing with a savage violence, Lord Spencer introduced himself, "I'm the new manager of this village, and I was elected by your leaders in order to maintain your customs. This is why I am here in front of you to celebrate the well known Atonement Day. All those who have maltreated you for decades are going to be punished. Those who contributed to your slavery, including the members of supposedly protective associations of your species, will be punished as well. We particularly go through the Gargoyle Group with a fine-tooth comb.

We need an invaluable file that its members hold. At this moment, as I am speaking to you, your brothers are in Europe with a view to finding it and bringing it back to you. It is for you a question of life and death, for in addition to people who maintain your slavery, you can find in this file everything about your own species.

Each detail is interesting, it's your own encyclopaedia. It contains not only your history, but also your medicine, your religion and all the techniques at your disposal to propagate your spores effectively. It's a right and a duty to get this file."

A few hundreds of these creatures gave Spencer an ovation. However, the clamour of the crowd, which accompanied their applause, looked more like some wild cats' howling when they are waiting for a meal, rather than human cries of satisfaction..

It may produce a shock for humans to see these hideous species, naked, with their horrible face. In addition, they were sitting on their coccyx, with genitals inflated by the spores, hindering them to move easily. And it was another horrifying scene to see other creatures showing their long and hideous pistil, who were waiting to be pollinated.

"Our Grand Master, John Trevenen, is in this moment in the United Kingdom," Spencer went on. "He is accompanied by our opulent Octo. Soon, they will come back with a cargo full of humans, and you will decide on their fate.

Among them, you’ll see those who dared catch our two oldest specimens of our spe-cies on behalf of science; the most valuable of them had taken part in the compiling of our encyclopedia. Now, they are dead of starvation because of shortage of care and food. They knew all about our species. We have lost everything about our past, our sci-ences, our religions, our techniques.

A trader in old bones has already died in his bathroom and some dishonest purchasers were punished as they deserved. A Czech was vitriolized and a Belgian, of Greek origin, is currently mutating. We will find our ancestors' skeletons and will repatriate them."

New shouts encouraged Spencer to carry on with more details.

"The trader in bones is a professor of Arizona University. His name is Perkin. He claimed to be a paleontologist and negotiated previously Sue's skull, the most complete tyrannosaur's head ever discovered in the world, and sold by Sotheby's in New York for an amount of 8,4 million dollars."

Some bestial howls took place.

"Your skeletons are the most valued and are worth a fortune," claimed Spencer."

Perkin intended to feed the Tucson's market with your skeletons as if you were some rare beasts, only for money and glory."

There were screams. They lasted enough to give Spencer time to serve himself another glass of Whisky.

He then climbed a five steps ladder, that led him on a stage from where he could dominate the crowd.

230

Espiritu Santo Island At the foreground four sulphuric men were waiting something. Amid them, there were three pentadactyls and a hexadactyl. Then, higher, on a second platform, less spacious than the first one, a metallic plate had been put down on four columns, cut in a volcanic stone. A large hood surmounted the whole.

Under the plate, there were dead wood and two amphoras filled with yellow and ochre liquids. They contained the sauces.

This second platform was decorated with wild plants whose the most imposing one, named Rafflesia, presented gigantic flowers.

They are well-known to be the largest flowers in the world: Their diameter can reach one meter and their weight from five to seven kilos.

They are well-known to be the largest flowers in the world: Their diameter can reach one meter and their weight from five to seven kilos.

In this island, everything seemed to be excessive. A tree named Banian, a similar species of fig tree that can grow into giant trees, can cover several hectares and have up to 350 large trunks and 3 000 small.

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We might also meet some tribes from Central Africa

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Espiritu Santo Island

It is also true for insects of which some are nearly one meter long, and for the starfishes that were not an exception.

234

Espiritu Santo Island Towards the right-hand side of Spencer, was sitting an octodactyl. Let us say that he was a colonel, if it is useful to establish a military analogy between their hierarchy and the human's one. It was a good translator for the deaf people skilled in hexadecimal coding.

He started articulating his sixteen fingers, each one indicated on or off. Let us say that for an expert, a finger was equivalent to one bit in computer sciences. The Dodecas, sitting down in the forefront, were equipped with twenty-four fingers enabling them to emit more signs and nuances than the Hexas and Octos.

Lord Spencer painfully stood up.

"We meet today to pass sentence about the spies who, against all the rules of the village, had a part in deportation of one hundred of your brothers outside the island. These ones are today in Europe, and I know that some religious communities in Belgium and elsewhere accepted them with pleasure.

These particularly appreciate the fugitives anxious to be converted to Christianity. The individuals who betrayed your own species," he then said while showing four creatures whose heart was in their boots, " will be soon roasted on this furnace."

Everything looked indeed like an enormous barbecue.

Then, turning to the fourth condemned, "On behalf of our master Dodeca, on behalf on the leader of the SHEEP organization who saved you from slavery of Wynn and from the other members of The Gargoyle Group, I have the honour to start the ceremony.

He named this horrific event a ceremony, and yet It looked like a sacrifice, like some human tribes had done during the twentieth century and were ready to do again.

"You," he shouted while he was showing a penta: "what would you like to tell us before being used as food for the great feast?"

The appointed creature, who was deaf, stood up and started speaking with his own language, less clear than the octos' one. He regretted having supplied some compatriots to representatives of human species "I was wrong. I accept the verdict of my leaders," one could translate, "and I publicly admit that it is time for me to go and join my ancestors where they are."

The other sulphuric men emitted an indefinable clamour. In fact, they laughed and made fun of the condemned. Another one asked a favour of the "Respectable Dodecas". A favour which was always accepted, but had always to be requested: he wanted his skeleton to remain intact after his death. When the skeleton would arrive on the planet where his brothers were waiting for him, his flesh would regenerate and a new life would be reserved to him.

Spencer sat down. He could see about twenty pentas covered with rich ornaments take a bottle containing a blackish liquid and swallow a few sips. Then, these ones carried out a succession of various movements which turned out to be a wild dance. Their body movements became more and more prompt and violent and their feet started hitting the ground.

They aimed to be in a daze.

The show was awful more especially as these beings like some humans could suffer from elephantiasis.

Half an hour later, the Dodeca climbed the staircase leading to the first platform. Then, he faced the crowd and shouted, "Wa-oo!"

It was a total silence. The Dodeca came near wood shavings and ignited them.

Before continuing, a supplementary explanation is essential. Indeed, a few years ago, took place in London the International Congress on interreligious dialogue. On this occasion, some students from the Vanuatu Islands had been sent to London by leaders of SHEEP Organisation.

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Espiritu Santo Island These leaders used the false pretext of removing language and cultural barriers which deprived these students from the interreligious dialogue.

The real reason of their mission was sophisticated espionage activities focussing on political and military information.

They stayed a few months in London. Nevertheless, the religious topics were not forgotten, these socalled students were particularly attentive to the resurection of bodies and the best way to reach eternity.

They interested in religious warfare in England in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries between catholics and protestants without forgetting of course the punishments whose some specific tortures. They learned that the human body at death was very significant during the middle ages. The human occidental civilisations at this period and even later shared the same religious approach as the inhabitants of Volvanic Village.

In Europe as well, it was considered that, at the Last Judgement, the soul would be reunited again with the physical remains and it would rise from the dead. This approach of death was shared by the sulphuric men and was connected with their physiology. Let's not forget they were as much a plant as an animal. Did they see, through the skeleton, the winter branches from which, at the good season, was going to develop a new life? Was it the way whose Sulphuric creatures imagined their reincarnation, their resurrection?

And what about the humans in this realm? They have the same approach of death. It's the reason why, at the end of their life, when they had to be punished by kings and dictators, and consequently deprived of an eternal salvation, they were first drawn to the scaffold, then hanged and eventually their bodies were hacked into four pieces, each of them being sent to a different town. Therefore, the dispersion of limbs throughout the country was tantamount to being denied a chance of salvation in the afterlife.

The so-called students visited the Tower of London not only to see how possibly stealing the jewels of the Crown but also in order to know the means used by humans of the Middle Ages to punish the traitors and religious opponents. In their Encyclopedia, which is the fruit of several years of compilation and collective development of the memory of their species, you can find what follows:

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The most terrible punishment of the Middle Ages was being Hung, Drawn and Quartered. This barbaric form of execution was reserved for the most hated prisoners who had usually been convicted of treason.

The condemned are taken from the prison to the place of execution upon an hurdle or sled, where they are hanged till they be half dead, and then taken down, and quartered alive.

Samuel Pepys wrote an eyewitness account of the execution as mentionned on a wall of this pub. located near the Tower of London.

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Espiritu Santo Island After this explanatory interlude, let's go back into the course of our chronicle when took place that horrible feast in Vanuatu Island.

The cannibalism could interest only the pentas because to eat some corpses could allow them to acquire the qualities of this one. How could hexas, octos or dodecas have appreciated inferior meat that would have, according to them, socially and intellectually decreased their nature?

In order to keep the skeleton intact, it was also a must that cooking be fast because the meat had to remain blue in order not to deteriorate the skeleton designed to be used for the reproduction of a new existence.

What happened next was more and more horrible. The four pentas were brought onto the grill.

They started howling atrociously while their flesh was crackling gently. After thirty long seconds, the cook master, an hexa, sprinkled them with sauces that he alternatively took from each of the two amphoras.

But horror reached its paroxysm when two condemned pentas whose collaboration with european scientists had been considered as excessive, had to face to enormous invertebrates. These were invited to eat the two condemned still alive.

This torture had been inspired by the torment of the rat, a technique existing since the Chinese dynasties: the intervention of an animal was the height of refinement.

239

Espiritu Santo Island Lord Spencer attended this spectacle, as if he was used to it. When the cries and howls stopped, he announced the most imminent date of "Repair" concerning the white people, a way to keep alive the atmosphere.

"First of all, Tarakan, Stanley Wynn’s former assistant and then a couple of Belgians. The man has been registered in 1962. When we think those people claimed to contribute to the defence of humanity while paying their contribution to the Gargoyle Group! They risk being disappointed."

"How were they captured?" the main Dodeca asked.

"It's our opulent octo. He shares his time between Liege and London. The Belgian couple will soon arrive."

"The couple will soon arrive" repeated the hexa cook while he was sprinkling with curry the body of the last penta whose belly had been half-opened like sausages ready to be roasted.

The meal, which followed, was nauseating to observe. After that Dodecas, octos and hexas had joined their enclosure, without touching this impure meat, the pentas started consuming their fellow creatures while conforming to the fundamental rule which was to preserve the skeleton.

During this hideous feast, a Sulphuric man who was ravenously hungry ate the flesh by forming meat cylinders with help of his thick and penetrating tongue.

An old penta cut into a head. He seemed to particularly appreciate the nose and the cheeks. He then plunged his tongue in an eye, then in the other. At last, he could reach and sucked the brain with an obvious happiness.

Then Spencer spoke to the crowd again,

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Espiritu Santo Island "Our production means have reached the maximum of their capacity. We must again take care to plan our births. The island will not be able to support a population higher than two thousand individuals of your species. Your Sulphuric rejections are difficult to recycle. Each year, the strongest individuals among you are sent to the United States where, in a SHEEP training camp, they carry out missions for humans. However, this migration is not enough to stabilize your population, which doesn't cease increasing."

The glances of the potential victims were impressed of an indescribable panic.

241

Espiritu Santo Island The crowd was listening to him in a contemplative way, "Don't forget that the Dodecas promulgated a law specifying that each birth increasing the maximum population beyond 2000 people, was to be compensated by an execution. As the number of births has exceeded the number of natural deaths for two years, we will soon reach the fateful number. If the deportation towards the United States is not enough, we will be constrained to carry out the elimination of the least valids people who will be chosen amid the pentas.

Spencer tottered and felt obliged to sit down to carry on.

"At the time of the annual assembly which will be held in winter, we will put duty before everything."

Contrary to all expectations, the main Dodeca started articulating his twenty-four fin-gers.

He declared; "Let's allow our phages to make their choice between the valiant individuals, the cowards and the sloths. As you know, the valiants are at the origin of our species since they brought us the good viruses in order to produce mutations of humans and give them the qualities we need. The phages are our friends now; we live in perfect symbiosis with them. They know what they must choose and reject. Let's give them the responsibility of choosing the future victims. They will take part to our next "Repair" and will roast with the humans coming from Europe."

"Our phages," he had pronounced. Why had these virus been taken in consideration in his speech? Readers of this chronicle will perhaps remember those little white creepy animals which dotted the Fenimore's painting at the gallery of Chaufontaine station. Was there a connection with what had just told the main Dodeca ?

The feast day ended with a procession towards the ossuary. The sulphuric men lined up hierarchically, and the Dodeca chief then opened the procession with Spencer. The dark legion of the motionless skeletons seemed in waiting of an order, a call, from the trumpets of the resurrection.

242

The pilgrimage of Chèvremont Tuesday, on the tenth of July in the morning, was our return day. However, we had not to complain about the results of our letters rogatory. Everything had finished positively: Josette and Marina were in good health. We had got the famous file, Sperminator had been captured; Obesidon had passed away and we knew a lot of things about these sulphuric men.

As for Bataille who had joined us after one half-day at Scotland Yard, he was happy too since he had learned a lot from his English colleagues on the way of managing an investigation. Tarakan accompanied us with Rajiv's agreement to work in the Reptile House for ten days instead of him, i.e. during the annual holidays to which the old Indian had been allowed to get.

Our nerves had suffered, it was now necessary to find our serenity again.

The tenth of July was a particular day, it was Josette's birthday, 56 years old.

Josette and Marina had decided to attend the changing of the guard at Buckingham and then to go to Hyde Park.

Josette has taken advantage of this walk to buy two tickets, the spectacle of The Proms being already announced.

I found this initiative very dangerous, but these two ladies felt in safety because they were accompanied by an enormous bulldog that the head waiter had lent to them.

Josette found it was a big change compared with Olive, our Shih-tsu.

Marina took the two following pictures.

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The Pilgrimage of Chèvremont

Marina, who was more worried about the quality of Winston's photograph, did not realize that a sulphuric man with thick lips had suddenly appeared. He was obese like Obesidon had been.

It is after the development of the film that the details frightened the two women. The death of Sperminator's henchman did not seem to be the end of our difficulties.

While the Eurostar was going at top speed to Lille, after the exit of the Tunnel under the Channel, I asked myself whether I was dreaming or not. All had happened so quickly and the recent events had been so strange that I had it difficult to re-establish the reality. Josette had fallen asleep and I feared that she had been traumatized.

As soon as I opened my letterbox, I found there an official convocation from Judge Duchêne, who summoned me to his office as soon as possible for further investigations.

I went there in the very afternoon.

"Mr. Baudouin" he said to me, "I received a letter from the Police force in Chaudfontaine, and a community of religious sulphuric men wants to go up to Chèvremont on Wednesday."

"A pilgrimage of extraterrestrial hybrids, it's incredible, but it's true!" I thought to my-self.

"Why not?" Duchêne went on, "since they claimed to be our intersideral brothers. God exists for them too. Why wouldn't they feel the need to have been created like his own image and resemblance? Why wouldn't they borrow our religious rites since they want to ensure their terrestriality and their eternal life?"

"Oh! Your honour! Terrestriality, this word sounds oddly."

"I asked you to come here because I want to warn you. Four hundred meters far from the basilica, as the crow flies, is the fortification of Chaudfontaine, where the symposium is going on. You will attend tomorrow’s lectures, I suppose."

"Of course, your honour, after the events that Mr. Tarakan and I have lived, we will inform our colleagues on these human plants. Will they believe what we report? It is so much confusing and amazing! However, what do you expect me to do? What means an additional examination?"

"I simply want to warn you that if any troubles take place at the fort, the symposium being not finished yet, you would be pro-tected," he retorted.

"Troubles? Why would there be troubles? They want to pray to God, nothing else."

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The Pilgrimage of Chèvremont "Mr. Baudouin, I believe that you don't understand the situation exactly. That surprises me since you lived dangerous events in England. You had a narrow escape according to my daughter’s declarations and Commissioner's ones whom I met at the end of the morning.

We know now that this species, half plant and half human, with its complex metabolism is ready for the very worst things, including the infection of the inhabitants of Liege and its suburbs. If these strange people would behave during this procession in an aggressive way, the mortars of the 12th Regiment positioned at the fort would be obliged to resort to strong-arm tactics."

"Your honour, do you know that monks are living next to the basilica. In addition, a few meters far from there, a small restaurant accommodates pilgrims. In any way, in this season, I can affirm you that the square in front of the basilica is not visible from the fort. A curtain of trees prevent us from seeing . We can hardly see the high of the entry door into the basilic.

The soldiers who have the role of protecting the congress attendees will see nothing."

"It's their job. They are topographers able to hit invisible targets”, he said.

"Excuse me, why do you feel concerned by this problem as examining magistrate, given that it is the army which is likely to intervene?"

"Mr. Baudouin, I hold an inquiry on several files. Must I recall you to mind that Professor Hertafouris is still in a coma, and that Archibald Wynn was assassinated and that a croupier and a groom were mutated? Without mentioning the sea lion and the dog. Now, I'm on the track of the killers, and you can imagine that the prosecutor and I will take the opportunity to know some more by questioning the leaders of this procession.. I'm directly interested in tomorrow's events."

"I hope the soldiers to be defensive rather than aggressive?"

"They will get a quite acceptable reception. The soldiers will be there as a preventive measure. There will be a representative of the Home Secretary. He will grant them hospitality as political refugees and will supply special food ensuring them what they need. Provided that they act as repentants and that they show their opposition to the SHEEP organization.

Here is the strategy. Given the positive state of mind of this dissidence, it must be a success."

The phone rang.

"Excuse me" he said to me "It's Commissioner Bataille. May I ask you to wait a moment in the corridor?"

I left the office and sat down on a wooden bench, which had a smell of wax.

"Your honour, did you call me?" Bastille asked.

"Yes, my daughter has told me a lot of things since her return from England. I took her statement as a witness. However, you should have many things to say to me as well. As soon as I have finished with Mr. Baudouin, I will make you a sign."

"No problem, your honour."

"Tell me, Commissioner Bataille… Err! In confidence of course, it's out of question of speaking about that topic to Mr. Baudouin… Tomorrow a procession of a new type will take place and a significant delegation of the accused species will be present to venerate the Virgin. You imagine that it will be necessary to take them by surprise. They already have reserved special cells in Lantin's prison."

"Don't count on me to apprehend these people, your honour, they are too dangerous and what could I tell them in order to begin my investigation? There is no apparent reason" "They want to venerate their God. We know that they are deeply convinced of His existence. Their religion prohibits any violence to them in a holy place."

"It is out of question, your honour"

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The Pilgrimage of Chèvremont "Well, as you will. It's a pity for you… it was the occasion to put an end to a special mission where, I was told, you had been brilliant. I even received a phone call from an English colleague who wanted to congratulate you."

"But," Bataille worried, "since you know that these people are going to climb the hill through the Way of the Cross, why don't you warmly welcome them at the bottom of the way?"

"The Christians, Commissioner, the Christians! Some of them want to be baptized in the basilica. They will be welcome by the bishop, it's out of question to see guns" Duchêne put the phone down and then asked me to come back in his office. I sat down on the chair again that I had just left.

"In fact, Mr. Baudouin, if I asked you to come here, it was not only to inform you about the procession, but indeed for an additional investigation. I must initially tell you the truth on a matter that has been worrying me for a long time," he declared. "At the beginning of my investigation, I was sure that you were partly responsible for Aristotle's disappearance" "It's foolish! How could you think of that possibility?"

"You are going to understand. However, give me enough time to say everything to you. In my place, you would have also doubted about that. It was not a confused impression. Many signs confirmed my suspicion.

"I listen to you," I retorted, dismayed.

"About fifteen fingerprints were identified on the window of the piranhas' tank. Amid them, there are surely people who do not have anything to do with the assassination. However, let me tell you, Mr. Baudouin, that our laboratory, which always cleared up the most difficult enigmas, brought a series of alarming answers about you.

"Alarming!" I laughed.

"Yes, sir, your fingerprints were discovered at the same time on the fragments of the armoured window protecting Aristotle's skeleton, and on the window of the piranhas' tank from where Archibald Wynn was fished out. Finally, if we had needed an additional proof, we would have found another one on the window of the stone-fish's tank; you see the fish which killed Professor Perkin. Admit that in front of such a series of evidences, it was difficult to doubt your culpability."

"It's normal, your honour. Two days before, to put an end to the school year, I made, with my students, an evaluation in the museum and aquarium. They had to answer questions and the winner received a small gift. Sometimes, I touch the pane with my fingers when I show them the fishes. The stonefish is particularly difficult to see among the rocks.."

"Yes, I know. However, other things could charge you."

"Other things could charge me,' I said, more and more dismayed.

"Yes, a witness told me, two hours before the discovery of Professor Wynn’s body, that you were walking with a black puppy along the river near the institute. It was 7 o'clock a.m. A Shih-Tsu," he specified. "You were ascending the stairs to the main entrance of the institute and then you looked inside with binoculars. Confess that it’s odd!"

"Nothing is more normal, your honour. The institute was closed at that time. I had just driven my car for maintenance. Then, after, as Olive and I, we were going back towards Chaudfontaine, I remembered having forgotten one answer in order to correct the evaluation of our last visit. It was in connection with the painting of Delvaux, which is at the bottom of the hall. I didn't know how many men and women it contained. A stupid question maybe but it was for me the way to know if they were attentive to my questions. I thus scrutinized the painting from the front door. Why do you find that exceptional?"

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The Pilgrimage of Chèvremont "It's not exceptional," Duchêne retorted," but a few days ago, this answer would not have exonerated you. On the contrary, it would have made you guilty. You must know that Professor Wynn was very interested in this painting.

As soon as he arrived in Liege, approximately 40 hours before his assassination, he immediately joined the institute, and he looked at this painting meticulously for a long time. He even intended to take photos the day after. The reception clerk confirmed us in our investigation. A retired teacher confirmed too. You know him, I believe, a Mr. Trevenen.

"Yes, I know" "Your interest in this painting to such an extent that you needed looking at it with binoculars two hours before Wynn’s assassination, you must understand that you are a possible suspect. Isn't it logical?"

"Your honour, today, there is no more mystery: Wynn was keen on art, like his son, Fenimore, who is exposing at this time in Chaudfontaine station gallery" "I know."

Duchêne kept silent a long moment during which he referred to the statements that the Criminal Investigation Department had transmitted to him.

"For the moment, don't worry, you are above of all suspicion."

"Thank you," I said relieved and surprised to have been only one moment in his collimator. "However, your honour, did you perceive only once that I lost my means, and that I was irritated? Isn't it for you a sign which makes it possible to recognize innocence?"

"You're quite mistaken; on the contrary, the innocents always show themselves nervous because they have only the truth to help them. When these innocents appear potential culprits, they take fright. However, when the suspect takes time to imagine a beautiful story well tied up and is impregnated with it to such a degree, then he can’t make the difference between dream and reality. That suspect, who knows he is guilty, is persuaded he’ll positively manage to get out the situation. Consequently, he does not express any sign of nervousness.

As soon as I was back in Ninane, I explained to Tarakan and Josette what the judge had just announced me concerning the pilgrimage of sulphuric men. They were severely shaken.

"It must be the band which fled Espiritu Santo more than one year ago. Nobody knew where it was. I'm sure, they are good people. They didn't want to collaborate with Spencer on the SHEEP Organization's plans. They are wanted by the new leaders of the village to undergo the consequences of the Great Repair, in other words, to be used as food on this occasion.

"You frighten me. Every day, you announce something news about them. Why don't you tell us all at once?" I asked, annoyed.

"The English authorities have got now the Oxford file; you can well imagine that they will know everything about their species. Any government in the world would pay a lot of money to learn the contents of this file,” he specified.

“The authorities are excellent at amassing a lot of facts although they do not always use them to advantage,” Bataille argued.

“It’s a pity, for they would surely know everything about their basic practices, and moreover, I am afraid that they would find out inside the file a list on which you and I are mentioned as food for their next feast," added Tarakan.

"It's dreadful! Do not tell my wife your feeling about that."

I got in touch with Louis Garnier, who was satisfied with Duchêne’s comments, but horrified by Tarakan's remarks.

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The Pilgrimage of Chèvremont "It will be peaceful, but I understand that the judge wants to inform us of a possible danger. It is normal. And it's also normal for the army to be watchful. The police force similarly act for human gatherings. A fortiori for them," he concluded.

"This pilgrimage needs your investigation as well, It's part of your observation mission throughout the colloque. Then, after that, you will be able to write a novel," joked Garnier.

I agreed.

The following day, Wednesday July 11, I went to seek Tarakan, who lived in a small hotel in Augustins Street that had been reserved for him within the scope of the Letters Rogatory.

"Did you sleep well?" I asked him.

"Like a cobra," he answered, making me shudder.

On our arrival in the small restaurant, Au Bon Accueil, the dining room was filled with faithful Christians who had come to attend this exceptional event. They enjoyed terrestrial foods while waiting for the Mass which was going to take place at 3 p.m. They turned round towards Tarakan, as if they had never seen an Indian.

The fricassee with bacon was part of his dietary restrictions. Undoubtedly, it was a pity that a religion could prohibit such a succulent meal. However, there were also some delicious tarts. I felt that Tarakan could not resist. We sat down close to the window from where we could see the whole square.

"How can I help you?" Brigitte, the waitress said.

"As usual, and you, what do you appreciate?" I asked Tarakan.

"A piece of rice tart, it’s the speciality from Liege, I was told" "Fried potatoes with mayonnaise, one Duvel a tea and a rice tart," I ordered.

"Very well," Brigitte said.

In this dining room, there was a particular atmosphere. I found there the usual conviviality between customers who frequented this place. Louis, who had lent a mobile phone to me, so that I could contact him at the first warning, was in the fort, three hun-dred meters far from us as the crow flies. The commissions were expected to dictate their conclusions around 9 p.m. Then, a meal in Colonster castle had been planned in order to put a pleasant end to the colloque.

The table, next to ours, near the window, was busy by a couple deep in conversation..

"Come and finish your coffee. They are arriving" the man warned.

"From where?" the woman asked.

"From the Way of the Cross, of course"

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The Pilgrimage of Chèvremont I wanted to be clear in my own mind, "Excuse me, Madam, I'm waiting for somebody, is there a pilgrimage today?"

"Of course, sir! They are coming from far-off islands.

"Far-off islands!" I repeated while pretending to be surprised.

"You don't know? Some foreigners from far-off islands who want to pay homage to the black Virgin. The bishop is inside the church. It is an event as significant as when Christopher Columbus brought back a few Indians into the Barcelona cathedral in order to christen them there. It seems that a minister's representative will welcome them."

Tarakan looked at me with wide eyes and said,"They are announced" I went to the toilets to contact the fort discreetly. Louis took off the hook and I informed him about what the woman had just told me.

"Phone me as soon as they are arriving, we will start the camera."

"Which camera?" I asked.

"The camera fixed on the cornice of the cathedral, and that overlooks the square, dammit!

You don't think all the same that the soldiers will guess from here what occurs without a vision!" he exclaimed, a bit stressed.

The officer posted at the fort adjusted his binoculars in direction of the basilica

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The Pilgrimage of Chèvremont He saw open the front door of the basilic, and saw four odd men, three wearing a hat and one with a cap. They were carrying a long box having the dimensions of a coffin. Followed by the bishop, they stopped on the highest step. Then, they started going down the stairs towards the square, and disappeared behind the screen of trees.

From the window of the restaurant, I saw them go towards the Way of Cross, which joins Vaux-sous-Chèvremont village located in the valley. The crowd deviated from them to let them pass.

They were followed by a traditional european procession where four men were carrying the Virgin.

Two hundred meters far from the square, the strange procession arrived at the height of the Chapel of relics built in 1688 by English Jesuits expelled by the Protestant persecution. It has a reputation for being miraculous, since it was miraculously protected from a flying bomb that fell a few meters far from it without causing any damage. This chapel was dedicated to Our Lady, built in 1688 by English Jesuits expelled from their homeland during the Protestant persecution.

By papal brief of Pius XII , Our Lady of Chèvremont is declared Patroness of Walloon Sport , March 27, 1953 Usually, this chapel contains relics from different sport realms. On the picture, we see balls, flags,shirts,cups, etc..

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The Pilgrimage of Chèvremont

251

The Pilgrimage of Chèvremont While they were singing, the pilgrims greeted the coffin with cheers, then they put it down on the threshold of the Chapel.

Then, these pilgrims climbed the last steep path separating the Chapel from the Basilica square in order to meet religious and public authorities, in accordance with what we were told......

"They seem to be Jews," pointed a police officer to his colleague when he saw them arrive.

On the Basilica Square, the pilgrims placed themselves in concentric circles. They seemed to prepare something worthy of a primitive tribe as if a sacrifice was scheduled.

A wild song reached the inside of the restaurant. We couldn't see what happened, contrary to the officer at the fort who saw a mysterious object whose forms and sharp colours were beyond all understanding.

"You understand what happens?" I asked Tarakan

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The Pilgrimage of Chèvremont "Yes," he retorted, "they are singing in praise of God so that He watch over them. That song, I heard it every day in Espiritu Santo. The leader of the group is a good man. He fomented the escape plan that allowed them to leave the island."

Tarakan preferred not to be seen.

"The oldest among them could recognize me and badly interpret my presence. I don't want to let them think they are supervised, they hate to be watched."

The couple installed next to our table decided to leave the restaurant to see more closely.

The artillery officer, hidden in his van near the fort , did not cease watching the scene on a screen. His view overhanging the crowd, allowed him to distinguish what Tarakan and I couldn't see yet, a mysterious object, which resembled a large spider with thin paws.

I smelled then an unpleasant odour like the one from the poorly ventilated laboratories in which I had lived at the time of the old chemical institute Roosevelt Quay in Liege.

"Come and join me!" the officer howled through his mobile phone to his colleague, a physician, who was part of the audience inside the fort.

This one joined him in the van in front of the screen. The two men observed the spectacle that we tried to watch through the window...

The articulated object moved. The physician did not pronounce the slightest word for at least one minute, the time to become aware of what he saw appear. He scrutinized the object. It was a polyhedral form surmounted by an apparently contractile sheath. Moreover, below this sheath, a few paws were moving the whole.

"A gigantic bacteriophage," the physician muttered.

"What are you talking about?" the officer said.

"This thing has exactly the form of the virus whose name is bacteriophage.

It is able to infect a bacterium and to destroy it. I often examined some through the microscope, but here it is a gigantic virus reproduced on the scale of ten million! Oh yes, ten million at least! It is quite incredible!"

"Explain to me, I am ready to faint" the officer said.

A bacteriophage is a virus able to parasitize bacteria. You can find it everywhere. It transmits its own genome to its victims.".

"Do you mean that this form is a living being and that the sulphuric men made sure the continuity of their life by actions of those gigantic viruses? Why?" the officer asked, struck to consternation.

They might have thought that such a pilgrimage was a question of a joke. However, this scene worthy of the famous science fiction movie was held under their eyes without the filmmaker.

253

The Pilgrimage of Chèvremont "Impossible, impossible!" the physician repeated to convince himself that he dealt with a simulation.

The thing moved a few meters towards the basilica.

"Red alert! Red alert! Red alert! For fuck's sake!" the officer howled through his megaphone while rushing out of the van.

"Red alert!" the sergeant repeated to the soldiers positioned around the fort.

Two men rushed inside and asked the attendees to go out. It is difficult to express here the panic of these men and women who had agreed to keep up with their lectures under the conditions that one knows. That courageous act had been underlined the very morning by Louis Garnier during the resumption of the symposium. That act was now on the point to involve them in the most appalling nightmare.

"Flee! Flee!" the sergeant cried out to the members of the various commissions. He did not have to repeat. The attendees left at top speed like rabbits tracked by a new enemy of whom they were unaware of everything.

Professor Pankratov seemed to take leave of his senses so much he was shouting. After descending the hill, petrified with fear, he met other eminent professors on the Esplanade.

Courageously, the artillery officer and the physician, side by side, faced the adversity.

Sulphuric men, on the Basilic square, made off as if they had just received a military order from their chief. One then saw the sulphuric men rush towards the Way of Cross and go down to the valley It is only after this deployment that Tarakan and I have seen the thing distinctly. It was a true horror for the consumers of the restaurant who did not hesitate to break the panoramic glass giving towards the cemetary of Vaux-sous-Chevremont. Then, they ran down the hill through fields by kicking the fences on their way.

The soldiers ĂŠquipped with grenade launchers left the abbey and rushed towards the Way of the Cross, chasing the sulphuric men, while the bishop and his retinue closed the doors of the basilica.

Tarakan and I, we joined the Bon Accueil's landlady and her staff in the scullery.

"Go beyond the Chapel and there give them the order to fire!" ordered the officer to the grenade launchers.

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The Pilgrimage of Chèvremont While passing close to the entry of the Chapel, the officer saw that the sulphuric men had put down the coffin down there. As it was not sealed, the officer removed the lid and saw a strange skeleton with twenty four fingers and the same number of toes.

Louis Garnier had arrived in the café Le Parc, the café whose Fulvio and Myriam were the managers. He lay down on a sofa to recover his breath.

Then he contacted me; "Now, all is consumed," he remarked me, panting. Everything has failed. This symposium ends in a disaster. We wasted our time and our money."

"Not really. Wait for the following, "I articulated, not knowing what to say else.

He rang off.

The artillery had concentrated its most sophisticated weapons on the Esplanade, what tranquillized tourists and residents.

However, many of them did not know why they were there.

"A weapon exhibition" said a tourist to his wife while crossing the bridge on the Vesdre River. A few days ago, we saw old cars."

Without worrying about the soldiers around, the man pointed out calmly, "They also have ammunition!"

The woman added, "In order what to do? Could you tell me?"

"Maybe are they doing military exercices?" the man added without any transition.

However, the sound of guns continued intermittently. The man then remarked:”This detonation comes from Western City, they are presenting their show” "Come and sit down at the terrace of the Café de la Gare. From there we are going to observe what happens here" Even the helicopter that dropped some armed soldiers onto the roof of the Casino did not frighten them. One doesn’t suffer from what one is unaware of.

During this time, sulphuric men who had first escaped was ahead of their pursuers. They had heard their brothers howling when the artillery officer had given the order to send the grenades, but they had not looked back. When they arrived in the valley, at the bottom of the Way of the Cross, other soldiers were waiting for them.

Those ones started spitting out their projectiles on the runaways in a cacophony of highpitched whistles and strident cries..

Some sulphuric men reached Foguenne square, in the centre of Vaux-sous-Chèvremont where they were shot down. Others who had taken another way were welcome by a special committee in Hauster Park.

Then the slaughter took place all over in the village, some citizens having chosen to lay down their own law.

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256

The Pilgrimage of Chèvremont They have been slaughtered!" said a taximan to Fulvio. They howled as pigs whose throat is being cut.

Tarakan and I had joined the room next to the basilica where monks got informed about the situation. Some had decided to bring back the skeleton that pilgrims had put down at the Chapel..

"Aristotle! Aristotle!" I exclaimed when I saw the skeleton on the table.

I immediately phoned Louis Garnier, who was still at Le Parc.

"Good news, at last, how happy I am!"

"You are alone?" I asked.

"No, we are here more than twenty attendees and many other customers. The manager of Le Parc and his wife are charming people. We are waiting in the room next to the bar."

During this time, at the fort, the artillery officer and the physician had not changes their position. They had heard explosions and shots, but their camera had not been able to seize any image after the Chapel.

The motionless phage sat enthroned in the middle of the square. It was alone. This horror exceeded the imagination to such a point that the soldiers had taken it for an articulated religious object. If this gigantic phage had the same properties as the virus, then it might have a central conduit through which pass in transit the viral content stored in its head.

The phage could inject it inside its victims by clinging onto them with his long threadlike paws. It was the most probable and terrifying scenario.

"What are you waiting for?" the physician asked the artillery officer.

"I'd like it could move. For half an hour it has not moved and has played with our nerves.

Be ready to fire!" he announced to his men."

He hesitated. Must he give the order to fire, and if the projectile should miss its target, the shells would likely damage the basilica or would fall down in the fields. With bad luck, they could reach a densely populated area in Vaux-sous-Chèvremont.

The artillery officer and the physician left the van. Lastly, the thing took off and gained altitude. It immobilized around two hundred meters high. It stayed in this position a very little time since it had seen the reception committee, which was observing it from the fort.

"Fire! Fire!" the officer shouted.

The guns began shooting, and three shells did not go past far from the target. The thing then took up his new position vertically above the fort and started sprinkling the building with yellow filaments similar to those that had been discovered in Ninane close to the Devil Bridge and in the car park close to the presbytery.

"The firing angle is insufficient! The target is just above us. You cannot catch it," the physician said.

They could then see this organic monster going down slowly while deploying his gossamer-like paws as if the spirit that was directing this being did not have anything to fear.

The more it approached, the more the physician and artillery officer could distinguish the details.

"Prepare the grenade launchers!" ordered this one, soaked by the yellow rain.

257

The Pilgrimage of Chèvremont This time, the sergeant did not say anything.

"Do you hear? Transmit my order" he insisted.

No answer. The officer left his binoculars and turned his head towards the non come officer who remained silent. The man did not move anymore as if he were paralyzed. The physician rushed to him and saw streaks appear on his skin. The thing had swivelled on its axis and presented the other faces of the organic polyhedron. On one of them, they could read the word SHEEP. "SHEEP, do you see? SHEEP is written on the cabin," howled the officer.

"This is not a cabin, " the physician said, dismayed. It is a capsid, i.e. a proteinic tissue containing a virus. Furthermore, below, there is no spring-loaded mechanism, but a contractile sheath surrounding the central conduit of the tail. It makes it possible the injection of genetic material inside its prey. And what looks like bars," he added, frightened, "is a set of fibers designed to cling on to their victim."

He was finishing his diagnosis when he saw the officer in his turn solidified like the non come.officer. As he was the only graded that remained, he thought that it would be dangerous to give an order to launch grenades, in fear of them falling down on launchers themselves, positioned underneath the phage.

This one quickly approached, marked a downtime, and then fell on the physician and gripped his body with its fibers. The physician screamed out but it was too late: the phage immobilized the body and inoculated him its DNA segment.

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259

The invasion of Liège During the following three days, the local papers had described "Le massacre de Chèvremont."

Tarakan and I, we experienced a feeling of faintness. Some emigrants and sulphuric men had been naĂŻve enough to believe in the human's gratitude for the return of Aristotle's skeleton. Through their courage and good will, they had hoped entering the catholic community by the christening, but the fate decreed otherwise.

The regional newspapers had published two special pages for the event. About the lived reality, there was nothing to read except an illustrated report of places. No witness had proposed his help in order to tell the truth. The journalists had given free rein to their imagination.

Tarakan was more affected than I was.

"They were nice and pleasant men, it's a pity," he whispered. "The presence of their gigantic phages was an error. Their action doesn't consist in attacking humans but only in supplying the pilgrims with essential food necessary to their metabolism. If you read the Oxford file, you will understand what I mean," he underlined.

261

The Invasion of Liège The escape of these pilgrims of a new type by leaving their gigantic phage in the middle of the basilica square had been interpreted like an aggressive tactic, as if they had used this gigantic virus in order to carry out some criminal missions. This way to proceed looked like a terrorist attack like laying a bomb down somewhere with the aim to reach the greatest number of victims.

Two sulphuric men had been imprisoned in a special cell. They informed the press that they had seen the camera. Their sixth sense – that Tarakan claimed to be in connection with their suction organ, like the tongue for the snakes – gave them the pre-monition of a hostile presence. That explained their escape.

"Sir, Garnier speaking," Louis said to the rector, "we have recovered Aristotle. Splendid!

Isn't it?"

"Aristotle! Splendid, indeed!"

"The sappers put him in a safe place."

"Have they got the whole?"

"In the same state as when he was stolen. The hands are missing, Hertafouris had informed me that he kept them in his safe, One had tried without success to force the safe with a blowtorch. And in spite of the search, the Criminal Investigation Department did not found anything.

"Thank you, sir, I give the instructions to keep the skeleton safe as soon as possible," the rector promised. "Let's hope that the hands will soon join the body!"

For three days, Bataille, Tarakan, Josette, Marina and I, helped of Rajiv's testimony, have written everything we knew in order to complete the report of the Letters Rogatory. Time was short if we wanted to make use of it with the view of resisting to the invader.

On Sunday, the 15th of July, around six a.m. in Cointe area, close to the basilica, a motorcyclist was on the way to his workplace.

He wondered whether he was awake when he met an individual equipped with a military greatcoat. His long fingers encircled an object.

As it would not be the first time that he would be late to his workstation, this man went back to the place where he had seen the weird individual. This one had disappeared.

His glance was then attracted by the Memorial of Cointe. This tower is 75 meter high and is built on a large esplanade on which are the monuments of the nations that fought during the First World War. His motor bike started waving and the worker nearly lost his balance. Indeed, the individual was climbing the southern side of the tower with the same agility as a lizard climbing a tree trunk. Except that, this tower was not fitted with asperities making it possible to cling to it.

The worker hastened to go and seek his camera to his home, but when he came back, the man-lizard was already at the top. While trembling, he adjusted the zoom and took numerous pictures thinking that he would surely obtain one of good quality.

He had even pushed his wife out of bed, and she had come with him, dressed with a bath-robe.

"It must be Greenpeace," she assumed, "They like climbing and displaying their flag above the buildings."

"Don't tell stupidities, Germaine, Greenpeace's activists only climb over buildings posing problems, like a chimney, a nuclear thermal power station, but not a concrete building, which does not release any pollution! Besides, Greenpeace association do not dress its staff as if it was the carnival day or the Halloween day. In addition, it would be ridiculous to climb a monument commemorating the allies of 14-18!"

"What is it then?" the woman muttered.

262

The Invasion of Liège The worker phoned the factory and requested his chief to allow him a day off.

This couple was not the only one to have detected this strange man. Many Inhabitants of Liege, who had this monument in their field of vision, saw something moving at its top.

Among them was judge Duchêne. From his apartment, Rome Quay, he adjusted his binoculars and saw an individual at the top of the Memorial who was waving his arms, as if he made a sign to somebody.

A flying object then stopped ten meters above the tower. It was transporting a bulky load.

The pilot, by a meticulous operation, let descend a kind of cylindrical tank perforated on all sides and which fitted exactly into the concreted mass as if it had been manufactured to be fastened there.

Duchêne could not stop himself imagining the worst.

"What is that?" He murmured.

At the same moment, Bataille who was dressing in his apartment, Boulevard de la Sauvenière, opposite the Mercure hotel, heard the noise of an engine. From his window, he saw a man, hung on a rope, who was descending from a helicopter at the top of the square tower of Saint Martin church.

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The Invasion of Liège

"Terrible, indeed!" confirmed Bataille.

"I'm afraid that a large-scale operation is taking place in this moment. If you could see what happens above the Interallies Memorial!"

"I can imagine, sir, I see the same above Saint Martin's tower. Did you see that kind of big washing machine that they are putting ?"

"A washing machine, you say!" exclaimed Duchêne.

After the earthquake of 1983, the commissioner had attended the removal of the statue of the saint in danger of falling down.

Bataille understood that something else had happened there when he saw come a flying object ballasted by a drum with holes as if it were a drum of a washing machine.

The square base, which was supporting the whole, had first been posed on the narrow passage reserved to the visitors. It allowed the drum to surmount the cross and the cockshaped weather vane, the summit of the building.

Bataille remained dismayed.

At the same moment, Duchêne thought it was time to contact Bataille being unaware that he had just lived in another place of what we can call an invasion.

"Commissioner, it happens something terrible," he exclaimed

"Yes, something looking like" Bataille confirmed after looking at it again.

"Excuse me a moment," the judge went on, "I have a call on the other line.

Hello! Duchêne speaking," he announced while giving Bataille the possibility to listen to his correspondent.

"Mr. Duchêne, here the Minister for Justice. Come and join me into the Provincial Palace. You will find there the Fortress Commander of Liege. Come with the Members of the Letters Rogatory in Oxford" "What do you expect us?” the judge asked the Minister.

"I have no time enough to answer your question, the General will explain to you," he replied while putting the phone down..

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The Invasion of Liège

"Did you hear? Commissioner," Duchêne insisted "They need us and you, particularly" "Did you hear? Commissioner," Duchêne insisted "They need us and you, particularly" "Yes, all right, your honour, it… it… and the famous file," Bataille stammered.

"You will need it, indeed," confirmed the judge, " Quick, let's go there without delay" “Moreover,” he interrupted the talk because an apocalyptic scenario appeared to him. He remembered my first statement, which had been the point of departure to the Letters Rogatory after that Josette had asked me to tell the police force what had happened at the time of my first visit to Oxford in 1962. Duchêne had especially been struck with amazement when I had informed him about Mangalore's hanging at a gargoyle. This teacher had given us a course about the bacteriological warfare. He had insisted on the modern methods of dispersion of chemical and biological agents on a target zone. Among them, there were insects and destructive bacteria.

"Ah! yes. Baudouin spoke to me about that," he muttered while walking from his residence to his garage.

Rue du Vieux Mayeur, he saw a vehicle of the civil Protection which was broadcasting a message, "Go home and look on the television!"

On the screen, everyone could see other unidentified flying objects over the city. They were installing other cylindrical drums on the roof of the Lycée de Waha, on Kennedy Tower and Simenon Tower. Each time, the observers noticed that the drums were per-fectly fitted to the structures for which they had been manufactured. It was really an ambitious operation with a high degree of accuracy. At 7.30 a.m., all the city’s summits were occupied.

A mystery however remained, the content of these drums.

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The Invasion of Liège DANS CE CENTRE DE CRISE DE L’ETAT-MAJOR DE LA PROVINCE DE LIÈGE, LES SOUS-OFFICIERS OPÉRATIONNELS, L’ADJUDANT CHEF FRANCIS BERTRAND ET L’ADJUDANT MAJOR YVES SIMON REPORTENT SUR LA CARTE CHAQUE RENSEIGNEMENT

L’ADJUDANT FABIAN LEFOUR ENCODE LES DONNÉES QUE LUI TRANSMET L’ADJUDANT CHEF FRANCIS BERTRAND

Duchêne and Bataille arrived at the Provincial Palace when the General, sitting in a chair of the Regional Council, was phoning the Minister for Defence: "General," said this one," we face a warlike attack of a new kind, but we also face a civil phenomenon ever met to date. We do not have time to establish an international strategy, and even national, it is necessary to strike where the enemy is.

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The Invasion of Liège My colleague, the Home Secretary, and the civil authorities, are organizing them-selves to face with the most urgent issues. Liege’s Provincial Government has started the third phase to meet a situation of collective urgency: hospitalization of victims and free flow of roads are its priorities."

"The maximum climate of safety was launched. The BRAVO plan is on the way. All the barracks are in the state of alert and a safety perimeter is established in this moment around each one of them. All the soldiers must be helmeted and carry their bulletproof jacket. The other provinces were also alerted. In the short term,” the Minister for Defence went on, “you will receive at any moment the members of Letters Rogatory that the Minister of Justice decided to send me. Welcome them; they will be useful in such circumstances."

"Two people are already in front of me," the general answered."I will collect useful news.

I'm at your disposal, sir!"

Then he put the phone down.

"General, I'm Judge Duchêne, may I introduce to you Commissioner Bataille. Allow me to call Professor Baudouin, his wife and Mr. Tarakan," he said straightaway.

"Who are they?" asked the General.

"A Belgian professor who recently came back from Oxford, his wife and an Indian."

"An Indian!" the General exclaimed.

"Yes, an Indian who perfectly knows the enemy. The Letters Rogatory in which they took part with commissioner Bataille will be useful for you. Here are the report and an exceptional file," he said while putting down a notebook and a CD-Rom on the desk.

"Call them immediately for help," the general shouted, "they must join us as soon as possible; it's also the case for you, gentlemen" " General, our whole team is at your disposal," Duchêne answered.

On Sunday the 15th of July, in Ninane, we got up early to go to La Batte market. Laurence and Youssef had left us the day before. They were in Mons in order to introduce Ella to Josette's parents, for they had only seen her grand grand-daughter on a photograph.

While Josette was preparing coffee, I took Olive for a walk. Tarakan came with us. The day was sunny like the preceding ones. The colloque having stopped its work for three days, everybody hoped to enjoy peace and quiet. Nobody could have predicted what was happening ten kilometers far from us.

The area of the water tower in Ninane offers the walkers a pretty sight of a part of Liege.

From there, we suddenly saw the blue sky filled with coppery reflections of light. They were moving towards the east.

Without a hesitation, Tarakan explained what we were seeing."Mangalore's guns at Sheep's disposal!" he explained. "It's incredible!"

When we got back home, we heard the communal police force encourage with a megaphone the citizens to lower the shutters and switch on the television or the radio. "They are coming!" bawled a policeman, hammering door-to-door.

We complied immediately with that recommendation. A special broadcasting was going to begin. The clock of the living room rang, it was eight o'clock. The phone also rang out.

Josette picked it up.

"Mrs. Baudouin? Is your husband there?"

"To whom do I have the honour of speaking?"

"Here, the Fortress Commander of Liege, would you mind asking him to come?"

"Hello! Francis Baudouin speaking"

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The Invasion of Liège "Join us at the Provincial Palace with your wife. Don't hesitate to enter the inner courtyard with your car! An officer will be waiting for you at the entrance and will raise the gate.

Come immediately. We need you and your Indian companion to give us advice."

"Yes, General, we’ll be there soon" After drinking greedily a cup of coffee, I took the steering wheel. Tarakan sat down behind, Josette, on my right was clasping Olive to her breast.

The official report of our mission in Oxford and the invaluable file, represented the essential information to fight this dangerous species. In the file so much coveted by Sperminator, we had found out the process of making these terrible ma-chines. The whole calculations, the frequency of revolutions of drums, the force and power of ejection of their mutagenic compounds had been recorded. Nevertheless, there was no information in connection with the pilots.

Since the pilgrimage of Chèvremont, the horror had taken a new dimension since we knew that the gigantic phages were living in symbiosis - or in mutualism - with sulphuric men. Tarakan had warned us: "Their contribution consists in supplying the pilgrims with essential materials necessary for their metabolism" Maybe could they also supply the drums' contents necessary for disseminating the viruses, and take directly part in the battle as it was the case with the defence of the fortification in Chaudfontaine? .

We hardly were arrived in the great bend along the river near Hauster Park, when we saw a squadron of flying objects whose SHEEP's helicopters, which were transporting Mangalore's drums. The squadron passed over us and I saw with horror that one of the drums had been put at the top of Ninane's water tower.

No doubt, it was the most appropriate summit of the village in order to sprinkle the valley.

Josette started crying. I switched on the radio and noted that the programs had been stopped, but we could unceasingly hear this hammering message: "Inhabitant of Liege, no panic, stay at home, our minister for Defence and Home Secretary are actively occupied to put an end to the intrigues of a few evil individuals who threaten us."

Apparently, this message did not receive the impact the authorities might have expected.

In Chênée, near the bridge, it was the rush. Chaos was too weak a word to describe what we could see. People were coming from the great stores and pushed caddies nervously.

"What are they doing there on Sunday?" Josette asked.

"They are looting," I simply answered.

And, at the same time, we saw gangs of youths destroy some shops.

When we passed along Boulevard de l'Automobile, two men were stealing cars from a showroom.

As we were coming out the tunnel under the diversion of the Meuse, I saw a military detachment requisitioning the Holiday Inn car park and placing there a modern large gun fitted with an automatic target detector. The streets were crowded and full of traffic.

This congestion was nervous: the horns started sounding everywhere and cars were moving with warning lights or headlights on full beam.

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The drivers did not comply with the Highway Code anymore. Apparently, the population was now leaving the city. Liege was in state of siege and its inhabitants were seeking a shelter where they would be safe and sound.

Boulevard de la Sauvenière, we saw the cylindrical drum above Saint Martin church.

When we reached Saint-Lambert square, the traffic jam was heavy. The Inhabitants of Liege, by reflex rather than reason, were fleeing through the old road to Brussels. Furthermore, the diversion of the traffic unable to use the left bank of the Meuse River – Due to the La Batte market – considerably complicated everything.

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The Invasion of Liège The population was completely panic-stricken. Some people had left their car and were fleeing everywhere and nowhere..

"Let's stop here and let's walk, it's panic," Josette cried out.

"And what about your car?" Tarakan asked.

"It will stay here" Olive started trembling like a leaf, and he sent piercing cries. It was her way of saying to us, "I'm frightened" "We covered the last two hundred meters of the square separating us from the entry of the Province Palace. It was horrible; people were shouting everywhere, others were weeping. Two young naked people, stretched out at full length on hot flagstones, on the site of the old cathedral, made love. Farther, towards the Perron, two men were fighting with a butcher's knife. It was then the flood of the police forces, ambulances and firemen.

As soon as we were inside the Palace, in the Regional Council Room where the headquarters had been installed, we were made most welcome with opened arms, Olive included. . At this moment, I wondered what would be the reaction if I had chosen such a scenario in one of my novels. I suppose I might have heard something like this:"It's not credible, Francis, the army would never investigate with the help of a couple and a dog in order to define its own strategy" However, it was the case. When we entered, the general was in touch through teleconference with a high-level American officer. That is what appeared to me according to the panoply of decorations he wore. He stopped and welcomed us: "Madam, Mr. Baudouin, and you, sir" he added while bowing to Tarakan. “Judge Duchêne and Commissioner Bataille are here. Come and join them. And please, be concise, summarize within a few minutes the Oxford file" I tackled the major points, as quickly as I could.

The star-studded American general then intervened on the screen, and from the Pentagon he yelled :"I have perfectly understood. Spray them with what is harmful to plants, i.e insects, nematodes and all what can destroy weeds in our garden."

"They are plants," Tarakan pointed out, but they are animals first. They need the influenza virus, the main cause of their extermination.

"You want me to begin a biological war or chemical," the Belgian General replied to his colleague. "Do you measure the damage on the population? Some old and fragile people will die. It will be a hecatomb" I looked at the American General's unpleasant face, which made me more and more think of Bush's one.

"Ridicule does not kill, otherwise President Bush would have already died", I thought by remembering the following board pictured in a pub in Saint Yves in Yorkshire.

"It is a too important risk," the Belgian General retorted. "Did you think of consequences for man? What are you making of that, Major?" he then asked the medical officer who was sitting at the bottom of the room and who had not been introduced to us yet.

"General, my deontology and my ethics prohibit me from undertaking anything, you know it. I am not here to explain to you how setting off a flu epidemic... Such a decision must come from The Defence and the Safety of the State. General, first of all, I am a physician, nevertheless…"

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"Nevertheless," the General repeated, wrathful, "Nevertheless, I will give you my opinion…"

"I'm so glad, Major… I am waiting" "If we don't do anything," the Major explained, "according to what Professor Baudouin has just summarized to us, it will be the panspermia; their machines already installed are going to infect us. I understand what happened in Chèvremont after the attack of the SHEEP forces, when the artillery officer became unrecognizable. If we don't react quickly, their genes will amalgamate with ours and a lot of people will be the victim of ge-netic mutations." " Major, we don't have enough time to wait for a solution from somebody else, we have to decide immediately," retorted the General by losing his temper." You heard the suggestions from these people (he said while pointing his index towards us) and from the specialists in the Pentagon. What must we do?"

"If I were not a physician… I would… " "Yes, I know, you already told me. Be quiet, Doctor, You will not be implied in my decision. I simply ask your opinion."

The physician then explained, "It's out of a question to attack sulphuric men directly in order to explode their drums, the mutagenic load they contain could sprinkle the inhabitants of the town within a radius difficult to estimate. We must first neutralize them with the flu virus, according to Mr.Tarakan's proposal," he specified while greeting the Indian. "We will then remove the drums one after the other. The epidemic will not be fatal to humans. Of course, we have to carry out surgical strikes to send viruses where the enemy is, and not elsewhere."

Bataille looked at me.

"There is maybe another solution," I then proposed, "We must find the place of their operation base, where they decide to send helicopters with their washing machines, and where their food reserves are."

"Do you have the slightest idea of that place?" asked the General.

"No, but I think to have like an intuition," I dared say.

Josette looked at me fixedly,

271

The Invasion of Liège "It's a pity that your intuition didn't exist in 1962 when you became a Gargoyle Group's member,.we would not have known so many problems," she muttered.

"Which intuition?” asked the General.

"Given their metabolism and the fact that they need a high bodily temperature, they might live near a steelworks or a blast furnace. In this valley, Chertal on the north, and Ougrée, on the south, are good places for them," I answered.

"In this case, you imagine that the workmen would have quickly noted their presence. The assignment of a working station to such people, with the odour they release and their horrible feature, is quite unthinkable. Your intuition seems groundless, my friend," Bataille retorted.

After a long silence, I ventured myself to propose another idea: "Their food must be where they can find Sulphuric compounds."

"And where is there sulphur in the Meuse valley?" the General asked.

"There are factories in the Meuse valley,in Engis, for example," I answered without any conviction.

The General seemed perplexed.

"We are mislaid," he said. "What you say is only one assumption. O.K. I make a choice.

Let's attack the city’s summits first, there where they are concentrated there. I choose influenza," decided the General, "Between a viral war with the influenza virus, a biological war with nematodes and insects and a chemical war with herbicides, the first solution is hardly worth better than the two other ones. Considering the situation we're in, it won't make much difference.

"Thank you for your suggestions," the Belgian General said to his colleague of the Pentagon. "Thank you, Madam and gentlemen," he said to us afterwards, "I leave you alone for a moment while I'm contacting the minister. May I serve you croissants and coffee?"

He asked us to go into the contiguous room.

Ten minutes later, the Minister for Defence gave his opinion: “General, taking into account the necessary viral density it is likely that we’ll be soon out of stock. Moreover, in any case, I do not want to be ridiculous in front of the whole world and be responsible for a viral or bacteriological war. I don't want to be compared with Saddam Hussein or a terrorist. But," he hesitated, "the officers, whose mission is to advise me, have just suggested me… the quick-lime. I know, it is also a chemical attack, but the powder of our shells, too. Nowadays, everything depends on chemicals," he explained, obviously stressed. "You informed me about their metabolism which is shared between animals and plants, what do you think about lime? It should kill them."

A few minutes later, after consulting his professional circle in Brussels, the minister then conceded: "O.K. for quicklime, but warn immediately the provincial authorities of the possible consequences. I immediately contact the governor and the District police chief, who are a few meters far from me, to prepare us to consequences of this decision."

The Coordination and Crisis Centre and the Integrated Headquarters answered that they were ready to cover such an operation.

"Colonel, we must take action now" the General said to the field officer, squadron leader responsible for spreading quicklime. "Give your orders and sprinkle on them. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth; since they want to infect us, let us exterminate them all!"

"General, I'm at your disposal. We will sprinkle them until the last one!" the colonel angrily answered while he was leaving his Commandment screen in order to join us.

The General had militarily obeyed the minister, but he needed a logical explanation too.

Why did these strange creatures attack Liege? Why this town?

272

The Invasion of Liège This question deserved an urgent answer, and this one could inform us about the best way to retort. As much, the ambition of the popes had started the crusades to extend at the same time their spiritual influence and their temporal power, as much this punitive raid of sulphuric men against the Inhabitants of Liege was due to the spearhead of the policy of some human armies, in which had enrolled these Special Forces. In this surprise attack of Liege, the hybrids were at the SHEEP's service like, formerly, the Christians, by waving the cross, were in the service of God. However, it was also undoubtedly a symbolic operation more than a conquest operation; the crusaders had obtained nothing from their participation in the crusades, which only ended in an expensive adventure.

Some historians, specialists of the middle Age, explain that the purpose was to find a zone of territorial expansion and an outlet for the ambitions of lords avid for exploits, for richness and adventures. By continuing the analogy, why did the sulphuric men choose Liege?

Were they looking for a new vital space? Surely not: there were best places for supplying them the basic essential food necessary for their survival.

To know our opinion on this matter, the General had joined us, accompanied by the army medical officer. He greedily and nervously drank a cup of coffee. While chewing a croissant that he quickly swallowed, he listened to Tarakan's explanation: "Because the population of Liege has defiled their ancestor, sir. Imagine that Abraham's body was transferred from Hebron to New York. What would it happen? Aristotle is the oldest known hybrid. He is at the same time their ancestor and their God," "It's your interpretation," the General concluded.

"It's logical," I explained, "It is an opinion shared between several colloque attendees in Chaudfontaine. We shouldn't omit the metaphysical side."

"Your analyses seem exact," the General concluded. "Does it mean that if we should give them back Aristotle’s skeleton, they would go back to their wild life, where they come from?

What do you think about that, Mr. Baudouin?"

"I'm not sure that the return of the skeleton would be enough to make them go away.

Moreover, American strategists of that organization called SHEEP are still advising them.

We must fight the SHEEP like against any other military power."

"The SHEEP, what is this?" the General asked.

I was surprised, he did not know.

"SHEEP is the acronym of Supreme Headquarters of Enlisted Extraterrestrial Powers," I articulated. "It's a special section of the American army, which enlists these monsters in impossible missions for the humans. It's about a private militia too."

Annoyed, the general looked at the medical officer, who, in the absence of the colonel, became his new lightning conductor.

"In French, Quartier général des forces extraterrestres enrôlées" translated this one "Thank you, I understand English. However, will you explain to me - I know that you are a doctor before being a soldier - how is it possible that a general could obtain such a piece of information from a civilian? We ought to reform the army of this country like the gendarmerie and the police force were reformed a few years ago!" he howled.

The major became red, but did not answer.

"Thank you for your assistance. I hope not to have violated your Hippocratic Oath," the General ironically added while taking his leave of him.

"I'm at your service," the major replied before going back into the large Commandment room.

"I'm at your service; I'm at your service! He makes me shit!" the General crudely grumbled. He then added without any transition:

273

The Invasion of Liège "Lady and gentlemen, I need your lighting for the continuation. I suppose that you have given up the idea to go for a walk on La Batte market. It's too dangerous. Would you mind helping us?"

"Yes, of course" Josette answered while she was stroking Olive, which was sleeping and had chosen my shoe as support.

"Then, could you seek in the file from Oxford - their encyclopedia - if the contents of their protein capsid, this yellow gelatine found in Ninane and Chèvremont, can infect us whether it's not injected inside the victim?" And changing suddenly the topic of the talk, he added “If your puppy needs a guide or medical care, inform me," he proposed while joining the large office, where twenty civilians and soldiers were actively working.

Several phages swarms were flying over the city. People were walking anxiously, their eyes, most of the time, turned towards the heaven.

"What is that?" a woman asked while stumbling on the steps around The Virgin of the sculptor Delcour.

Look at there, above the cathedral," she insisted.

"They are birds or flies," a man answered. "What else might it be?"

They observed the swarm whirling around them.

A group of tourists just going out of the cathedral, stopped and one of them made a zoom of the swarm.

"Very strange," he thought, "It seems to be…"

"It seems to be?" repeated a neighbour as a question.

"See these enormous insects, these large cockchafers…They're weird!"

"They are UFOs," joked an old man who was passing. "They come back into vogue."

No one would have believed in this day that England and Belgium were being watched by hybrid beings and their phages, these being at the same time their food suppliers and DNA distributers..

Suddenly, the worm exploded. They could see one hundred small clouds, and each one of them took a different direction."

The whole squadron had been followed by observers of the army and by national meteorology. They had quickly understood that these thousands of unidentified flying objects answered an overall movement orchestrated by a mysterious force.

Several hundred giant phages, smaller than the ones seen during the pilgrimage in Chèvremont, moved towards the Fragnée Bridge, then followed the Meuse in the direction of Huy. The swarm passed close to the Blast furnaces in Ougrée and near the Sclessin stadium.

When the phages squadron arrived above the Seraing Bridge, people were panic-stricken on Kuborn square and the armoured vehicles stationed in the courtyard of Cockerill Castle went into battle.

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The Invasion of Liège On the screen of headquarters, we could see the strange squadron passing over the FlÊmalle Bridge followed by a squadron which had just left Bierset airport.

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The Invasion of Liège We then understood that their goal was Engis Village. Indeed, when they arrived near the UNERG power station, they took the shape of a crescent whose concavity was directed towards Engis Bridge.

My friend, Valère Bovy (Photograph on the right), vicepresident of S.O.S Pays Mosan - a pressure group defending Engis Village's environment - received a phone call, "Valère, after chickens, here are the insects!" exclaimed Arlette, another hard-working member. As the treasurer of that association, she referred to the last fight against the installation of an industrial production of chickens and the harmful effects that it could involve.

"Insects!" said Valère, surprised.

"My husband has just come back at home. He initially believed to see hundreds of birds above the bridge. Then, he saw them plunge on the gypsum stock of the factory Knauf. It looked like a bomb, but he quickly realized that there were no birds, but only insects, enormous insects. The gypsum scattered everywhere and formed a cloud."

Valère immediately went to Vicky's home, the mayor. So much the worse for Jenny, his wife,"we will do the shopping later, she will agree," he thought.

It was not a swarm of insects that Arlette's husband had seen, but well a lot of gigantic phages whose role was to supply basic products to the sulphuric men.

The 17th HATk Battalion based in Bierset went go into action. Three helicopters went towards Engis village located at ten kilometers from the airport. When they arrived above the Meuse River, they were brought to a standstill at approximately one hundred meters high.

And they positioned their machine guns in the direction of the right bank, the least populated area.

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The Invasion of Liège A few snapshots of events: a partial mobilization and deployment of the Armed Forces in defence of the Province. First photograph: a cloud of phages is arriving above the centre of Engis. Second photograph: in the space where I was playing when i was a little boy, stands an armoured vehicle while a helicopter is ready to land. Third photograph : a cloud of phages is passing along the quay. Fourth photograph : the same cloud of phages is passing under the bridge and moves towards the gypsum stocks of Knauf company; fifth photograph: secret meeting between phages before carrying on with their road; sixth photograph the gypsum stocks.

1

2

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3

4

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5

6

The gypsum is formed by Knauf from a by-product of the production of phosphoric acid by Prayon, a company located on the left bank of the River Meuse.

Ca3(PO4)2 (s) + 3 H2SO4 (aq) + 6 H2O → 3 CaSO4·2 H2O (s) + 2 H3PO4 (aq).

280

The Invasion of Liège When they had loaded enough gypsum, the phages took off from this white mountain and went back to Liege by following the river, as if they had been programmed to follow this waterway.

The machine guns entered in action, and they caused absolute carnage. The phages were pulverized. Before dying, they emitted a strange sound, which made think of insects and arachnids when they are crushed. The pieces of protein capsids and their dangerous gelatinous contents scattered onto the banks and into the water.

From the FlĂŠmalle Bridge, people could see the protein fragments floating on the river.

On these, sometimes appeared the word SHEEP. These fragments reminded on a large scale the testimony of the walker of Ninane when he passed near the Devil Bridge hardly fifteen days ago.

The helicopters were helped by planes that sprayed their deadly powder on those giant virus.

I already heard about the memory of some places. We could also evoke their own destiny. Engis is a meaningful example. It is not only the village where the first Neanderthal man was discovered before the one from Neanderthal village; it is not only the place where Aristotle was discovered, but it is also, unfortunately, the village which became famous when it was the victim of the first chemical disaster of the human history. Professor Firket had remembered us this historical event at the end of the year 2000, at the time of the commemoration of the seventieth anniversary of this disaster.

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The Invasion of Liège The Municipal authorities had invited me to this celebration because my greatgrandmother was part of the victims. It was indeed an industrial accident which had taken place on December 4, 1930.

It was not due to the presence of extraterrestrial creatures, although this assumption was considered at the time, but rather to a chemical combination between sulphur dioxide and metal particles in the air.

This composition might have started with a Sulphuric rain that caused the death of sixtyfour people and more than one hundred during the following years.

The phages were exterminated, but we had to expect other ones to come back for a further transportation. To announce to the inhabitants of Engis that their village could become a place of provisioning for underfed extraterrestrial hybrids, might have spread panic. Therefore, the communal authorities urgently met to take stock of the situation. The army and civil protection were not long in cleaning the streets covered with protein residues and gelatinous filaments.

I could not get rid of musing over Von Braun's lecture during the symposium. If the events had not reached a so dramatic level, I am sure that he would have laughed at the incredulity of his colleagues: "You see, I was right,� he would have said, "The UFOs, today, are these gigantic phages, and the pilots are these sulphuric men and the SHEEP forces."

Perkin also had showed a shrewd suspicion that UFOs were operating from the Earth and not from outside our planet.

The General went back into the room where we were studying the Oxford file.

"Hurrah!" he exclaimed, "hundreds of phages were exterminated in Engis."

I looked up at him, surprised.

He asked us then; "Did you find an answer to my question? Is their virus infectious if it is not inoculated? Until we are told at what page we can find an answer to my question we are powerless" he then added.

"I have an answer, General," Josette answered while stroking Olive that she had put down on the table. An encyclopaedist of their species wrote this: "Thanks to our domesticated phages, vehicles of our interstellar genome, we are able at the same time to supply us with basic energetic and sulphuric materials and reproduce our species. The re-production is only possible after inoculation of their DNA on humans. Without inoculation, there are two forms of infection, the benign one and the virulent one. The first one produces an effect on humans similar to a bad cold. The virulent one paralyses the humans. However, this one is very rare" "Phew!" the General exclaimed, relieved, "I hope the military engineering and civil protection, which are working in Engis Village, don't risk anything. What you announce to me is heart-warming, and I'm sure, will comfort Madame la Commissaire de District, especially when we remember what happened yesterday in Chèvremont, where an officer and an artillery man were sprinkled and paralized. I suppose that it was the virulent effect.

"Lady and gentlemen," it is 3 p.m. here are some sandwiches, biscuits and coffee," a sergeant announced to us while bringing us an enormous tray. And here is some food for your puppy," he said while giving to Josette a bone made of buffalo.

Olive took hold of the bone as if it was in starvation.

"And what about Mons, where our children are now, what happens there, General" Josette then asked.

"Nothing special to the best of our knowledge, it seems that they only aimed at our province, Madam; this is why I asked myself: why Liege?" he nervously answered "Excuse me," Josette contented herself with these two words.

282

The Invasion of Liège "A last question, sir," the General said to Tarakan. "What is the energy used for the working of these washing machines?"

"Nuclear energy produced by sophisticated and miniaturized reactors and some solar cells built by the SHEEP organization. The angular velocity of rotation of these drums exceeds six thousand radians per minute."

"Since ten years, I have not studied physics any more, sir," confessed the General.

"One thousand rotations per minute, or if you want approximately seventeen rotations per second," Tarakan converted, "That's why they take a long time to position the drum on its basis in order to fasten and balance it perfectly. Otherwise, they would have already started sowing us with their DNA..

"Lady, gentlemen, good appetite, I leave you," the general said, and he went into the large room with the sergeant. Before closing the door, he added: "Do you have any objection to stay here as long as the situation is dangerous?"

All in a chorus, we answered: "no."

From a few hundred meters far from the Provincial Palace, some courageous inhabitants were still going shopping on La Batte market,while the fruit-and-vegetable salesmen were already removing their stall and were loading their van. Some sulphuric men were starved and in search of food. The police force and inspectors of national Safety were watching. A chase started under the Arches Bridge where an individual of their species had not hesitated to take two octopuses.

Nobody dared to intercede. According to the opinion of a Kevin and his wife, a Alison, the robber looked special. They explained to the police officer: "He had a weird nose, as if he had only one nostril" There were laughs in the audience.

Some researches in the adjacent streets, where flourished the brothels, were useless.

Around 3.30 p.m. after the departure of the last traders, several abandoned cats were discovered in a dustbin. The police first thought that it was due to an unscrupulous merchant who did not want to nourish unsold animals any longer. It was a short-lasting assumption because Inspector Jamin concluded that sulphuric men had eaten these cats..

"See these characteristic holes made of their bites," showed Judge DuchĂŞne. "They are the same as the ones discovered on the dog of Ninane and the sealion in the animal park".

At the end of the afternoon, a corpse was floating in the Meuse River near the FragnĂŠe Bridge. Nobody knew where it had fallen in the water, but the first surprised was the fireman who pulled the drowned out of the water. When he took hold of the corpse's hand, he saw that he held a thing with eight fingers and he let it go.

When the firemen commander understood that he was facing an exceptional being, he phoned the hospital morgue and the corpse joined the foetus found out in Ninane.

It does not matter the words used by the medical examiner to express his olfactory horror, but we can imagine that they were exceptional. It is interesting to consider again here the report he then wrote: "Like humans, their lungs have a pyramidal form which adapts to the shape of the thorax. Their larynx, which is located above the trachea, is part of their air routes and allows the exchanges of air between outside and their lungs" He also explained, "Like us, food and saliva cannot borrow the trachea during swallowing, the base of their tongue resting downwards and the back on the epiglottis until closing the entry of the larynx" Their language, in particular, was the subject of a meticulous description: "It consists of a hard tissue able to cut and tear solid food. It ends in the shape of a fork, able to extract two flesh cylinders. It also can help discern the odours of the atmosphere, like lizards and

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The Invasion of Liège snakes are doing, but that must be proved yet (…) Their salivary glands don't contain venom (…) a pocket of sulphurous gel is under the larynx at the beginning of the trachea " As for the eyes, we could wonder if they had not been generated through same genes as dinosaur's ones.

"

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When Hertafouris woke up Ninane Village also was under specific control by the armoured forces.

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When Hertafouris woke up

This photo was taken on the very day of Hertafouris's awakening near the Culturel Centre of Beaufays, another area in Chaudfontaine.

These two beings could walk in peace without running the risk of scaring any citizens, who were hiding in their home.

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When Hertafouris woke up

While the SHEEP forces were positioned themselves on the city’s high places, Hertafouris regained consciousness at the hospital. As soon as he could leave his bed, he felt something compressing his brain.

He sat down on the edge of the bed, with the psychiatrist beside him.

For a few minutes, he had to hold his head in his hands, his elbows on his knees.

"What day is it today?� he asked.

"It's Sunday. We are on the 15th of July, sir," answered the psychiatrist. After several minutes, he made a request, "Could you call my barrister, and ask him to bring to me my professional testament. He will understand what I mean."

"Your testament, " wondered the psychiatrist, worried.

"That's my way to give a name to a significant letter that I wrote two months ago."

Two hours later, he met his lawyer.

This one, distressed by the changes undergone by his client did not insist. He left the hospital room and rushed to the toilets. It was then Inspector Jamin's turn. He had insisted on meeting him.

"Is this so urgent?" had asked Andreas to the psychiatrist.

"I think so. He will explain to you, sir."

Jamin had hardly entered the room that he stopped dead. He had seen the numerous genetic damages caused to the Greek.

"I will not be long, Professor, but your statement is especially significant for explaining the last events we have lived."

"Which events?" answered the Greek.

"They concern weird individuals which are roaming in the city. You must have met some," the Psychiatrist asked..

"Yes, indeed!" Andreas confirmed. "An incredible being came into my office on the first floor of the institute. He seemed to be a mixture of man and elephant, man by the general shape of the body and elephant by his grey colour, and his thick and wrinkled skin. I was so surprised that I was about to faint . "I want you to accompany me," he said. And I answered him while trembling: "who are you?" "It does not matter, follow me" he retorted while taking my arm with his hand whose fingers were twenty centimetres long. His grip dislocated my shoulder. He then led me to the second floor in front of the showcase where Aristotle stood.

After taking out a coast from the rorqual, that he used as if it was a hammer, he started smashing the pane with an incredible force. He then seized the skeleton. I took advantage of this short time to flee. He recaptured me and bit me in the nape of the neck. My blood was pouring out of me. I still smell his stinking breath. On the way between the museum and my office, while holding me with a hand and Aristotle with the other one, he managed to break another showcase with a blow of the head and took away the moulding of the dodo which he held in his mouth‌ Arrived in my office, he started forcing the safe. I wanted to flee through the window which gives on the interior courtyard at the back of the institute, I opened it but I was too high and I risked killing me. Then i felt that my forces were leaving me gradually. I remember nothing else" Andreas was breathing with difficulty: his nose had only one nostril.

"Allow me a last question," the inspector dared say," in the scientific realm."

"I listen to you," the Greek muttered.

"I was said that you were an expert and a meticulous person. You discovered a cave in Engis, and its occupants, didn't you?"

"Yes"

287

When Hertafouris woke up "I read several times the whole file, Professor, and I informed myself about the dating techniques you used like the ones of your English partner, Professor Wynn. To conclude that the skeleton belonged to a Neanderthal man was an error, wasn't it?"

"An error? What kind of error?" Hertafouris asked, apparently surprised.

"How could Aristotle enter into this cave? And why did he stretch out near the modern men?" asked Jamin "I try to understand. The experts say that the Neanderthal man was living in Europe a long time ago, before the two species become contemporary" "Yes" "Some specialists claim that the two species lived in their own environment as well" "Yes" "Why then this Neanderthal man, named Aristotle, and the modern man, would they have chosen to live or to die together in this cave?"

"I have no idea!" the Greek nervously exclaimed, "Aristotle was maybe in search of females! In Europe, some scientists proved that there were crossbreeding between Neanderthal man and modern humans. I know that this issue is not unanimously approved by the scientific community," he specified, "Some have even claimed that the Neanderthal man is another species and consequently, could not reproduce with the modern man."

"And he would have been able to pass through a crack that was only eight centimeters wide?� Jamin went on.

After a long silence, during which the psychiatrist held his hand, Hertafouris, hopeless, answered: "Aristotle was not a Neanderthal, we did not make this error. Indeed, Professor Garnier's tests had proved that Aristotle's DNA did not belong to an Earthman."

"Why then did you accept to present worldwide a false Neanderthal man, even though you perfectly knew that he did not belong to this species?"

"I will only speak in the presence of my barrister," Andreas answered, exhausted.

The psychiatrist waved at Jamin to make him understand that he had to comply with the expected limits of time.

Hertafouris staggered and the psychiatrist helped him to stretch out on the bed while this one was pronouncing this sentence: "Send this inspector away, please."

Jamin understood and did not insist any longer. He sat down on a chair in the corridor where he wrote the statement. Half an hour later, he went back into the room and made him read.

Andreas felt difficulties of concentrating all his attention on the text, but he succeeded in reading the whole. When he had finished, the psychiatrist said to him, "Your glove, sir, take it off please, you have to sign."

When Hertafouris had taken off his glove, he then saw his first mutations, turned his head away and started weeping.

After he had recovered his composure, he agreed to sign, but he had a great difficulty because of length of his six fingers.

"My second thumb hurts me!" he announced, horrified "I told you, Professor, not to lose heart," insisted the psychiatrist, "you are convalescing" "Are the visits in my room forbidden?"

"Until further instructions, only the police force is authorized to meet you. A police officer is on guard in front of your door. During your walks in the corridors, you will be accompanied, and we will choose the allotted slots when there are few people in the corridors "We will take care of your safety. Be quiet, this prohibition will be short-lasting. We received the official evidence from the laboratory that you are not contagious. It is already a strong point."

288

When Hertafouris woke up

"Contagious!"

"Yes, as you have seen, the bite of your attacker caused you… some problems."

"I would like to meet my colleague, Louis Garnier. Can I see him?"

"Yes, as soon as the doctor's certificate is in our possession."

"Did the newspapers speak about me?" Hertafouris asked, worried..

"No, sir, no allusion was made concerning you, but if you want it, you can read the last week’s newspapers. Another piece of news will interest you."

When the doctor and Inspector Jamin left the room, Andreas sat down on the edge of the bed, but this time on the opposite side where he had been questioned. The psychiatrist heard him fall from the bed and ran immediately to him. Andreas was trembling from head to foot.

"My God!" the psychiatrist exclaimed, "they didn't remove the mirror, I had, however, insisted on removing the mirror away."

Hertafouris remained silent for a few minutes, as if he were powerless to find the words.

When he regained consciousness, his voice was hoarse, "I have inherited their genome!"

(Hertafouris before and after mutation: no resemblance) A humming noise was heard when the psychiatrist opened the window to air the room. A large fishing net prevented from reaching the balcony.

"What is this noise?” Andreas asked while shivering.

"Don't fear anything. It is coming from Liege. The air traffic controllers permanently were flying over the city."

The inhabitants of Ninane had been warned that a large scale operation was going to be launched on their village, and all citizens had been strongly forbidden to leave their house.

During this unusual operation, a helicopter pilot of the 18th HATk battalion had seen like an army of ants in a career near the water tower.

The commander sent a plane equipped with a quicklime tank to destroy the sulphuric men and their phages.

"Release the goods!" he yelled.

The white powder covered these creatures and plantations decorating this beautiful area.

The degradations caused to the houses were considerable. This technique was known of the waste processing companies. They used lime for the washing of gases and purification of the liquid and solid effluents. It was the first time since the last World War that such a chemical weapon was used, except perhaps in Vietnam.

289

When Hertafouris woke up The helicopter then flew over the water tower. The pilot saw two sulphuric men positioned next to the Mangalore drum that had been fastened there.

"Ready for the next sprinkling?" the helicopter pilot asked.

Ten seconds later, the order was given, "Total destruction, go!"

The mortal cloud was enveloping the water tower. The sulphuric men clung onto the circular wall with their sucking hands. Then, they went down at the highest possible speed.

They had hardly touched the ground when they collapsed, racked with pain. .

"Accomplished mission" the General heard from the commandment room of the Province.

He felt an immense relief.

"They are dying!" the pilot jubilantly said. The military engineering is dismantling the machine; then, we go back to the base.

"Congratulations! Now, go to the Interallies Memorial, it's their first conquest. And their drum seems ready to spread its genomic rain. The FragnĂŠe area and the Meuse River valley up to Tilleur Village will be affected.. It's an area with a high population density. Focus your attention on it."

At the beginning of the evening, Louis Garnier went to the hospital to meet Andreas. The psychiatrist welcomed him and explained to him Hertafouris’s illness in a waiting room.

"You will be shaken up, Professor. His physical appearance is horrible."

"Yes, I know. I met Inspector Jamin and he told me everything."

"I would like you to limit yourself to the essentials. He quickly gets tired and he is down in the dumps. I'm not sure he will accept to speak. He endeavours to be unaware of the images of his attacker."

"I will try to be quick, and I will do my best not to bother him, but I must ask him the essential question which is worrying us, the rector and me."

"Which question?"

"If it's true that he gave Aristotle's DNA to Professor Archibald Wynn, and if he provided Palach with a moulding of the inside of Aristotle's skull, like the one he showed us."

"Do you think it's really essential?"

"Of course, it is" "Then, go ahead."

Louis entered the room, as soon as he had given his identity card to the police officer on duty. The psychiatrist stayed next to this one in the corridor. Hertafouris, his back turned to the entry door, was looking towards the outside. He turned his head towards the left, then the rest of his body, and when he faced Garnier, he gripped the bed to support him-self

Hertafouris, his back turned to the entry door, was looking towards the outside. He turned his head towards the left, then the rest of his body, and when he faced Garnier, he gripped the bed to support himself.

Louis then saw a horrible man, mortified because he was observed by a colleague as if he was a curious animal.

"Louis," he articulated with a hoarse voice.

Wrinkled like an old man, almost bald, he vainly tried to dissimulate his hands.

"May I have a seat?" Louis asked while repressing his emotion.

"Why not, everything is damned" "No, don't tell that, I can help you, but it is necessary you to tell me the truth."

Andreas marked a pause, the time to recover his thought. The truth, what was the truth?

"Because you realize what happened, I suppose?" Louis insisted.

290

When Hertafouris woke up

"Don't waste your time. I know what I have done and you too, you know it" "You have things to tell me? Why did you require meeting me?" Garnier asked.

"I thought that I was ready to make contact again with mankind, but it's not time yet."

“When will you be ready?"

"Soon… soon… soon," he howled while falling on his bed.

The psychiatrist and the police officer entered the room. Louis did not insist and left the room, more in pain of what he had seen than disappointed at what he had not been informed.

When Louis went down towards the Ourthe River valley, he met no vehicle before Angleur. After the panic of this day, people were hidden at home. He was living a nightmare and soon, undoubtedly, he was going to awake and hear somebody say to him, "Mr. Garnier, all is well, it's time to wake up" "It was 9 p.m. when he decided to join his office of the institute of Zoology, Van Beneden Quay. Why? Nobody knows. An irrepressible force, it is all.

He was surprised when he found the front door opened, he felt a dreadful fright when he imagined that Wynn’s murderer and Hertafouris’s attacker might have come back or that they might be waiting for him. Then, he thought that he should have waited before separating from his bodyguard.

He lit the large hall, and he walked obliquely towards the staircase which leads to the first floor. As he was posing his foot on the first step, he heard somebody go down. Louis went to hide behind the counter where the reception clerk usually was sitting down.

"It seemed to me that I had switched off. Are you satisfied?" said a man whose voice seemed familiar to Garnier.

"I'm overjoyed," another man answered with a strong British accent. "You can't imagine how much I'm happy! With the hands, I will succeed. They will be satisfied and will give up their other requirements, I'm sure."

While keeping a cautious silence, Louis raised his head estimating that the two people had turned their back on him. He saw them move towards the exit door and recognized Raskinet, the old Prof. The other man, he had never seen. He was carrying a a cardboard box. Louis thought immediately that it must contain Aristotle's hands.

How had this old dinosaur done to get them back?" Louis asked himself.

And why now did he give them to an unknown, while the Criminal Investigation Department was searching for them?

"Do you want to look at Delvaux's painting once more before leaving?" Raskinet proposed, "Yes, please," answered the other.

They then moved towards the bottom of the hall. Louis left his hiding-place without noise and, with small steps, approached them to hear their talk. He heard activate the shutter of a camera and saw the reflected light of the flash.

"I must confess, Professor," expressed the unknown, "that when I saw for the first time Aristotle's painting exposed in the station gallery of Chaudfontaine, I said to myself, "It is a real masterpiece! And from that moment on, I didn't cease wanting to come here to admire the original that inspired him."

"The painting of Chaudfontaine was painted by Aristotle? A painting whose author is a skeleton" Raskinet concluded, surprised, "what do you mean?"

"No, the painter was not a skeleton. It was painted by Aristotle himself when he was alive, of course" "Alive! sir, you frighten me."

291

When Hertafouris woke up "It would take too a long time to explain to you, now. Come tomorrow at Holiday Inn, room 623. We’ll have breakfast together, I will give you all details about it, and the outstanding amount for the hands, one hundred thousand Euros, as agreed. I shall show you the painting that you admired in the Chaudfontaine Station gallery. It is a wonder; it is hidden away in the wardrobe of my hotel room since the expo is finished.

Err! Tomorrow. Yes, no problem…errs! At what time?

"Tomorrow at seven o'clock, if you don’t mind?

"I'm delighted, sir. But at my age, it is necessary to put an end to frights and shocks."

When they faced the Delvaux's painting, Garnier heard: "Surrealist, indeed, it is the case, like Delvaux was" "Tell me," Raskinet went on, "if Aristotle is the author of the painting of the station gallery in Chaudfontaine, why did you sign it? It's you, Fenimore Wynn, who signed it, didn't you?"

Louis Garnier repressed his cough when he heard that.

"Yes," the Englishman answered, "because you well imagine that at the time of its composition and after, if somebody had asked to speak to the author of that painting and had been in front of a Sulphuric man, it would have been dreadful. Aristotle painted here during a weekend sheltered from all glances. Hertafouris took care of him and observed the entry of the institute in order to avoid any meeting with someone. The easel was posed at this place.

Yes, I bought this painting and signed to prevent it from being caught by the bastards of the SHEEP. You would have done the same instead of me, I suppose."

Fenimore confirmed that Aristotle was recently deceased; the carbon dating tests carried out in Liege, and invalidated by Oxford, were trustworthy.

"I can't get over it!" Raskinet replied. "Hertafouris behaved as a crook! He made fun of us from the start and his discovery in Engis Village’s cave was only a vast trickery!"

Fenimore did not pay attention to Raskinet’s remarks.

"Yes, you're right. Aristotle liked the themes about genesis. Each human, each exotic animal, the volcano at the bottom, the sea, the trees, everything in this painting has a significance for the Homo Vegetalis he was. This painting expresses their need for political alliance to mankind and our planet. Aristotle added some details in his painting: one additional finger at each hand, but nothing ugly. We don't see either a forked tongue or a lonely nostril.

Fenimore Wynn then made a deduction, and Louis Garnier was forced to repress another nervous cough by putting this time a handkerchief on his mouth: "I'm convinced, sir, that there is a link between my father's violent death in this institute and this painting," he affirmed "Do you believe that?"

"I'm sure. If my father came back here the next morning after Professor Hertafouris’s aggression, it's because I had asked him to get picture from all details. As he couldn't do it, I have come today."

"Are you sure that he was prevented from doing it" Raskinet asked.

"Sure. On the film found in his jacket, there were only three successful pictures. Judge Duchêne showed them to me when he questioned me. The other photos were not interesting; we can see the ceiling, the walls here and there, the marble on which our feet are posed."

"Are posed," Raskinet repeated, suspended on the Englishman's lips.

"These pictures were taken when his attacker tried to throw him off balance. And the last pictures of the film," Fenimore went on, " leave us in a state of uncertainty. I recognized the auricular of a Sulphuric man; it is characterized by the missing fingernail."

"But why would a Sulphuric man have attacked your father, while he was photographing the Delvaux's Genesis?"

292

When Hertafouris woke up

"Aristotle's painting and this Delvaux's original are of a considerable importance in their eyes. Imagine a painting from Abraham describing God's Creation.!"

"Abraham, Raskinet repeated, "What do you mean? Aristotle was only a polydactyltyl creature. Why is he so important? I met in my live as a biologist a lot of morphologies, the number of fingers does matter, but not worth of being qualified of God whatever the species."

Fenimore argued, "he is an exceptional Sulphuric man. You must know that he is the oldest known ancestor of their species, and he is regarded as a prophet. Not only, he collaborated in the writing of their encyclopedia.

293

When Hertafouris woke up But he also painted all the episodes of their history before this one. An episode was missing: the Genesis. This is why he came here to be inspired by this painting," he explained.

"Do you mean that this army of sulphuric men came here in Liege to make us an impossible life in order to recover the skeleton of their older ancestor and his last painting?"

"It's the truth, sir, the skeleton first, and then the painting. And I suspect them of intending to tear off this original from the wall. The aggression with regard to my father proves my suspicion.”

"But," Raskinet went on; "I suppose they will not dismantle this wall and rebuild it in their island? This original is painted on the coating. It is immovable" "All is possible, sir. As I said to you, I want at first to meet the Sulphuric man who gave the sheep forces an order to attack Liege. He's a Dodeca. He should be satisfied with these hands and leave us in peace. Did you look at the TV this afternoon?"

"Err! No… I'm too busy with my new publication. Why?" "It's a pity, you could have seen The Great Dodeca at the top of a large tower… how do you call it…the first one they have occupied ?"

"The Interallies Memorial," precised Raskinet.

"Now, it's getting dark, but we have a star-studded sky. That should be enough to see them. With modern cameras, they manage to film everywhere at any time," Fenimore specified. "Can you lead me to him?"

"Impossible, sir. Even though I am an elderly man, I don't intend to die today. It's too dangerous. We have to move away from this tower. " Louis then heard the two men approaching him. He had just time to join his hiding-place again behind the counter. Then, the lighting died out. Louis didn't move. He heard that the key was wriggling in the lock, and consequently, they couldn't close the door. The two men came back into the hall.

"Hell and damnation! It is not the key for this lock," Raskinet complained.

"You use the key of your safe," Fenimore pointed out.

"The key of my safe. Ah, yes! For God's sake! I was mistaken. I must not forget to give it back to the clerk of the court. All was put under sequestration while waiting for the end of the inquest. He was not authorized to lend it to me. But, you know… the friends of my friends are my friends and to have social connections with some state employees in the criminal justice system is useful..."

"Why didn't they find the hands when they examined closely the offices after Hertafouris's agression?" the Englishman asked. "Your safe was rummaged as well" "Err! Not at all. They should have done, but I had taken some precautions," Raskinet mysteriously answered.

At last, he managed to close the door with another key. Fifteen minutes later, Louis Garnier ventured to leave his refuge and joined his office on the first floor.

294

The beginning of the end or the end of the beginning ?

Thanks to the television, the Inhabitants of Liege didn't feel alone. Fifty meters, as the crow flies, far from the top of the Interallies Memorial, an adventurous reporter dared to install his camera above the dome of the Cointe basilica.

The inhabitants of Liege could see in real time the Sulphuric man positioned near his frightening machine, and they waited for the Belgian army in order to free this tower from the occupying forces Eighteen hours had passed since the worker of Ferblatil had seen a Sulphuric man climbing the building, and the drum had not been put in action yet.

295

The beginning of the end or the end of the beginning

For dinner, we were served a pizza and wine. Tarakan had not eaten anything. Olive had been entitled to a canin meal that Josette had inspected before serving. Duchêne and Bataille had chosen a sauerkraut.

It was almost midnight. We were all nervously exhausted. “Full paunch, broken company,” the examining magistrate and the commissioner joined their apartment. Bataille who was living three hundred meters far from the Provincial Palace took risks to cover this short distance on foot. To go back to Rome Quay, Duchêne had preferred walking as well. Two soldiers, armed with a machine-gun, had escorted him.

"General, allow me to leave you. We would like to go back to Chaudfontaine," I asked.

"Of course, go! Thank you for your help. Sergeant, take Mr. and Mrs. Baudouin to their home. And take a special vehicle in case of a possible disincarcerating. I’m sure you'll meet obstacles on your way."

"I'm at your service, General, but it will not be easy to obtain one today," the sergeant answered. "We will take a police van, in order to more easily bypass obstacles" he added.

"It is the van that carries out the shuttle service between here and the prison," I specified.

The sergeant took the steering-wheel. A man armed with a machine-gun sat down at his side. We sat down behind them.

Josette got in touch with her parents to get news about our children and Ella. Every-thing was fine. They could prolong their stay.

Our car and the escort vehicle went out to Hors-Château Street (Look at the map). There they took the prohibited direction towards Saint Leonard. Up to that point, everything happened without any difficulty. I should say: scarcely any problem, for we had to ride on the sidewalks several times to avoid obstacles.

After crossing the Meuse River over Maghin Bridge, we then borrowed the diversion’s embankments. The sergeant cautiously drove and his conveyor redoubled his attention while pointing his machine-gun towards the outside.

Between Longdoz Bridge and Huy Bridge, it was necessary to call upon the first serious intervention. The pilot of the escort vehicle made sure that the cars blocking the road were empty. He then crushed them and moved them away.

We went on without mishap until Chênée Bridge. A helicopter passed over us at a very low altitude, followed by a second one. They were apparently moving towards CHU hospital.

Suddenly, the sergeant stopped the van and asked us to join him inside the cabin to listen to the radio, which was diffusing at the same time a talk between a Sulphuric man, perched on the monument, and the reporter positioned at the top of the basilica.

They used megaphones.

"Yes, we will leave the city, as soon as we have obtained our ancestor's mortal remains, as well as the paintings," the hybrid specified.

"How can we be sure you’ll keep your promise?" the reporter questioned, "You know that the danger also comes from your phages. Where are they at this moment? Are they numerous? Are they going to attack us?"

"I don't know, it is not my problem. Each one has its own job. I received the order to position myself on this tower and to start the machine, as soon as it is required."

It was a vain discussion to which the reporter put an end when he gave his microphone to a man who had joined him at the summit of the dome."

"I can help you," this one proposed, "I know where Aristotle's hands are."

"His hands" exclaimed the Sulphuric, “you removed his hands from the rest of the body!"

"I am not personally responsible for the separation of hands from his body," the newcomer said, "But I can assure you that they are intact and will be soon attached to the body again."

"I recognize you," the Sulphuric man retorted, "You are Professor Wynn’s son."

296

The beginning of the end or the end of the beginning

"Yes, I'm, but I only wish you health and fortune, like my father and my grandfather wished. Why do you prefer the SHEEP forces and its soldiers, why?"

"Thanks to them, we have become a nation and have increased our standing. They don't regard us any more as animals in a zoo," retorted the Dodeca.

DuchĂŞne had joined his apartment, Rome Quay, and was looking at the TV. Powerful headlights similar to those of anti-aircraft artillery suddenly lighted the memorial.

Dazzled by the light, the Sulphuric man ordered the reporter to switch off, if not, he promised that the DNA load would be freed. His threat was imminent: one saw the eight fingers of his hand palpating a small apparatus which might be the starter of the drum.

Fenimore went on: "I'm waiting for your answer. Here are the missing hands from who you know," he said by presenting them over the parapet surrounding the top of the dome.

One could see then the Dodeca directing his binoculars in his direction.

After a few seconds, he exclaimed: "You can go up, the lift is on the ground floor and the door is open. But, be cautious, we are armed and our phages are hidden around us" The reporter and Fenimore looked at the Dodeca one moment, and decided to join him with the camera. The viewers were living the events online, as if they were themselves involved in an exceptional adventure.

On the radio, the emission stopped while the three men were going down the stair-case inside the dome of the basilica. They then crossed the esplanade separating the basilica from the memorial, and finally they entered into the lift.

Josette, Tarakan and I left the piloting cabin and entered again into the back of the police van. And we were taken to Ninane after the filtering controls. When we arrived near the church, the clock rang once announcing to us that we already were on Monday the 16th of July at 1 a.m.

All the houses were enlightened: people did not sleep. The village had been sprinkled with quicklime, so that civil protection workers were cleaning streets and houses. Our area had been particularly devastated since it had received particular attention in order to kill some invaders perched at the top of the water tower and remove the drum that threatened the valley.

The soldiers dropped us off in front of our house and immediately restarted.

297

The beginning of the end or the end of the beginning

"Be careful," Tarakan advised, "take care not to let your dog sniff, there is lime everywhere."

We hurried. I threw myself on the television set and switched it on while the reporter, the camera operator and Fenimore were arriving at the top of the memorial. We could see the details of the whole face of the Sulphuric man.

"He is as awful as Sperminator" I exclaimed "And the hermaphrodite in the cloister," Josette added.

"He's a Dodeca of the SHEEP, an old Sulphuric man from Espiritu Santo, " specified Tarakn, "In my time, he was a peaceful guide in Volcanic Village" Tarakan commented.

I laughed.

"You shouldn’t laugh at that. It is too serious," Josette objected.

I thought of the movie King Kong, a tower and a monster. The analogy with the movie made me think of aircrafts and machine gunners. Why not helicopters?The 17th and 18th HATk battalions were waiting only an order to take off from Bierset. I hardly had imagined that scenario when the camera moved towards the starry sky. We could see a squadron of phages. One of them stopped a moment over the monument then vertically went down with his tail fibers wide open while articulating his avid contractile sheath ready to inject its genetic material inside its prey.

The camera operator howled and the emission stopped. The well-informed viewers understood what had happened.

Meanwhile, Louis Garnier, severely shaken by the talk he had heard in the hall of the institute, was taking stock of the situation. Given that Raskinet had referred to the key of his safe, lent by a clerk of the court, and that Fenimore had promised him hundred thousand Euros, it was logical to conclude that the hands were coming from this safe. At that moment, Louis jumped with fright when he heard the fax start up.

He then read the following text,

Dear Louis, Since your visit, hardly four hours ago, I have only thought to die. When I look at myself in the mirror, it is unbearable to me. I never claimed to be a literary man. In any case, my incapacity to be concentrated, and my disability due to the morphology of my fingers, are enough elements to know that I’ll never write any more like before. Therefore, I send you this letter that was written at my request, in the first person by my barrister. He has joined my professional testament written when when I felt that I was in peril of my life (at least two months ago).

This morning, I asked him to bring this letter urgently to me. He accepted, in spite of his insistence to keep this information for my possible trial in justice.

Professional testament from Andreas Hertafouris, written on the 2nd of May 2001.

Sender: Hertafouris.

"Everything started during my trip to The States; In Tucson University, I met Ronald Perkin, who proposed to take two males to Europe: Aristotle and his brother. He told me that sooner or later I would get back their skeletons, which were worth a fortune.

These two beings, I was always next to them to such an extent that I befriended them in spite of the distance that biologically separated us, and in spite of their unbearable odour and morphology.

However, I regarded them as my own brothers. They complained about their torturer, a Spencer. Therefore, I paid them the trip to Europe to free them. I provided them food, care and protection. All was paid, partly on the budget of my service and partly with my own financial possibilities.

298

The beginning of the end or the end of the beginning During nearly six months, I obtained, thanks to an engineer living in Engis Village, a supply of gypsum. At the beginning, they seemed fully satisfied. Aristotle and his brother then lost their appetite, I don't know why. Their sulphuric deficiency quickly weakened them and I was told that their last days were horrible.

The two brothers didn’t die in Belgium. They had fled. I did not see them anymore for months. Then, one morning, I received a letter from a Czech, named Palach, who announced to me their death in a train accident not far from Prague, approximately two years ago. Palach was, like me, a paleontologist interested in exobiology. He had found my address in their luggage. He suggested me I should become the owner of a body, him taking the second one, with the common scientific aim to take advantage of the situation. I have taken a body and Palach, the other one.

When a body was transferred to me from Prague to Liege, I wondered what I was going to do with it. I put it for a while in a deserted place about which I will keep silent. Then, I deposited it in Engis Village’s cave. I was practically the only one to know that place. Each time I went there - several times a year, - I noted with the help of a few gadgets that nobody had come into the cave since my last visit. Even in case of intrusion in the cave, it would not have been easy to find the place where I had put down the skeleton.

At the time of a visit with my students, I noted that the exploitation of the quarries was penetrating more and more deeply in the rock, and I thought that at the speed of their dynamiting, the cave would be soon completely destroyed, or it would be cleaned, protected and the skeleton would be found out. The main entrance through which I had brought Aristotle into the cave had already disappeared.

In order not to lose the skeleton while pretending to find it out, I initially told that I had discovered a cave whose access was impossible for a man. Upon my request, the Researchers of Wallonia widened the entrance with their usual dexterity and care. So, I was the first to touch Aristotle in front of dumbfounded witnesses who, fortunately, at that time, didn't understand my stratagem.

Some colleagues came from all over the world to see Aristotle, but also to admire the rock paintings that I had ordered forgers of that art.

From that discovery on, which dates back to approximately one year, I made Archibald Wynn's acquaintance thanks to some articles he had published in the United Kingdom. Having understood that I was surely in possession of a deceased sulphuric man, he then approached me by the academic way and proposed to me some work contract between Oxford and Liege. His aim was not to say the truth on Aristotle's nature, but on the contrary, to occult it and to support the Neanderthal thesis.

I understood lately his aim. A white lie is better than an unbearable truth for humanity.

To force me to respect dumbness, conscious that I had made a trickery by having placed Aristotle in the cave, he frightened me when he told that Americans responsible for a private militia, whose initials were SHEEP, would not hesitate to kill me if they were informed that I was in possession of such a skeleton.

In short, it was necessary to introduce Aristotle as a human. I was caught in my own trap.

Our two universities - following our respective influence - accepted this contract and endorsed by agreement the conclusions and the dating certifying that Aristotle was a Neanderthal man.

A scientific reality became a lie organized by Wynn and me. A contemporary interstellar hybrid has been officially regarded as a disappeared species since 30.000 years.

Wynn was happy to have suppressed the evidence of an extraterrestrial existence. He also had succeeded in getting Palach to be silent, but I'm unaware of how he succeeded in doing this. A few months later, you wanted to analyze Aristotle's DNA. I tried to delay you in your mission as long as possible. You made me take a sample from the skeleton. I did not 299

The beginning of the end or the end of the beginning cheat, but I hoped with all my heart you were going to fail in your attempt. However, you found the fifth nucleotide.

Then, I have said to myself: the truth will be known, and it is bad for Wynn and me. The danger had become real; I felt entering the visual field of the SHEEP's collimator.

In spite of that, to date, I preserve the secrecy of your discovery while waiting for the symposium. During this one, you will announce Aristotle's true origin and will announce my lie to the world. Archibald Wynn is not aware of your discovery. You know the continuation.

Signed Andreas Hertafouris Dismayed by this fax, Louis Garnier decided immediately to send a copy to me.

I read it twice and it opened my eyes about questions I had asked myself for fifteen days, and about which I had found a beginning of answer.

I remembered the student endeavouring to prove

that it could exist on earth some hybrid creatures coming from a fusion of chromosomes between humans and extraterrestrials. Garnier suspected Hertafouris of having divulged a scientific secret.

Moreover, when Hertafouris woke up, he ignored that Archibald Wynn had made up his mind and had decided not to hide Aristotle's true origin any longer, maybe estimating that his Greek colleague would not leave the hospital alive.

Wynn’s confession at the time of the meal at the Chinese restaurant had sown doubt in our mind. The rector had been shocked too.

It made no sense to suspect Andreas of betrayal with regard to Garnier and Liege University. Indeed, the Englishman had been living with the sulphuric men for a long time in Espiritu Santo. And, according to Andreas's fax, this one had even been the first one to ask Wynn to keep the secret.

It was also quite absurd to think Andreas had provided Aristotle's head to Palach with the aim of making a moulding of it. Indeed, Palach was also owner of a Sulphuric man’s skeleton.

Lastly, there were similarities between the attacked and assassinated scientists, all had confessed in front of witnesses that they knew the existence of extraterrestrials or hybrids.

Let’s remember these confessions: first of all, Wynn’s one at the Chinese restaurant where he alluded to a hybrid.

Then, Palach's confession while the prehistoric meal was taking place. There, after he had drunk too much wine, he had entrusted the possibility of hybridation to Raskinet.

Do not forget Perkin’s confession when this one explained their metabolism to the colloque's attendees and affirmed that he had not hesitated to shake their hands.

Finally, Andreas’s confession through his professional testament, that he had just faxed, but a written confession that could not have caused any harm to anybody given that everything was already over when it was read.

"I didn’t confide my secret to anybody, except Wynn, of course," he had said.

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"The Ufology symposium had been the trigger to confessions and these had probably been the cause of this series of murders. Chronologically: Hertafouris’s mutagen viral aggression, then the horrible murders of Wynn, Palach and Perkin.

We wondered where these vengeful actions could stop.

The talk between Fenimore and Raskinet, that Louis had heard, had particularly shocked him. As he was close to Raskinet's office, he decided to enter there. While forcing the lock, he surprised himself of his audacity.

It was just at that time that I contacted him on his mobile phone, "Garnier speaking" "Good evening, Louis" "You don't sleep either?" he asked.

"After receiving your fax with Hertafouris's professional testament, I wonder how and when I’ll be able to close the eye." I re-plied.

"I am happy to hear you after contacting you several times. I heard a talk between Raskinet and..." He paused."Wait a moment; a noise is coming from the corridor...Who is there?" He yelled.

After a short silence, Garnier went on: "Nothing! I would have sworn that somebody... Don't put the phone down, I go out to see into the corridor."

Then, some horrible screams resounded. I shuddered. The long silence that followed was even more alarming. I understood that something serious had occurred. I called the police force. All the lines were busy. I redialled Louis’s number, still busy.

In my house in Chaudfontaine, Tarakan and Josette called me from the ground floor; on the CNN network, they could see the streets of London crowded and full of abandoned cars.

Most of them had been damaged by the military engineering, which endeavoured to keep the main roads usable by evacuating the cars without any precaution.

More than two thousand fatalities within two days were confirmed. Prime Minister offered his condolences and said it was a very sad day for Britain, he urged people to remain calm.

Then Josette zapped on the independent channel of the courageous reporter who had made a sccop by conversing with the Dodeca from the Cointe basilica. Now, we could see, with the great satisfaction of all, that the Memorial was quite enlightened again. A commando had invested the tower and had been able to take off the threatening drum. The Dodeca had fled with Aristotle's hands; while the cameraman was mutating after the inoculation of phage's DNA. The reporter and Fenimore had been transported to the hospital.

"Congratulations!" Tarakan said, "They prevented them from starting up the drum."

I redialled the number of Louis’s mobile phone once more.

“Bataille speaking," I heard.

"Ah! It is you," I exclaimed.

"To whom have I the honour?" he asked.

"Francis Baudouin, Commissioner, Bataille, what are you doing there?"

"And you, why do you contact Professor Garnier so late?” he questioned. "Really, we often meet. It's happy I know you and that all is now cleared up concerning you," he specified, "If not…"

"If not," I repeated.

"If not, you must understand, Mr. Baudouin, that your presence where everything goes wrong is an exploit of which you have the speciality."

"Where all goes wrong!" I repeated, surprised "Yes, sir," Professor Garnier is in front of me… I should rather say his corpse" "His corpse!" I howled so loud that Josette heard me and shivered.

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"Yes, sir, I received an anonymous call asking me to go to the zoological institute. The correspondent specified: in Raskinet's office, the office of the old teacher, you see of whom I am speaking about" "Of course," I replied.

"And he insisted by adding: the one who was with you at the time of the investigation of Professor Hertafouris’s aggression. I came as quickly as I could, and I found Mr. Garnier in this office. Professor Garnier was assassinated, the temple pierced with a brush of painter on which was written: SHEEP." "That's dreadful. Why a painter’s brush?" I asked Bataille. "Who is the painter, who could have done that?"

"It is the question not to ask. It's too obvious. It is about a stratagem to divert the investigators' attention," he explained. "It can't be Fenimore Wynn of whom everyone think about.

Garnier was killed while Fenimore was speaking to the Sulphuric man at the top of the memorial. If the murderer wanted to cover his tracks by charging his misdeed to Fenimore, he made a mistake."

"Who might be the murderer?"

"I don't know. Do you have any idea?"

"It's maybe a jealous or an envious? Professor Garnier had as many friends as enemies."

"In this realm of jealousy and desire, what is the most obvious name crossing your mind?

Bataille questioned. "Who could have liked overshadowing Garnier?"

"I don't know. Do you have any idea?"

"It's maybe a jealous or an envious? Professor Garnier had as many friends as enemies."

"In this realm of jealousy and desire, what is the most obvious name crossing your mind?

Bataille questioned. "Who could have liked overshadowing Garnier?"

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"Oh! It's a very old story, Commissioner, Yes; Raskinet and Garnier were often in bad terms since this one reduced Raskinet's research budget. his research budget. And especially…"

"And especially…" Bataille repeated.

"No, I'd rather not speak to you about ..." I paused. "This has nothing to do with… " "Tell me, Mr. Baudouin!"

"A few years ago, this old teacher got caught red-handed when he was stealing in a foreign museum where he tried to carry away some rare fossils. At that time, in order of precedence, he was to be promoted and was to become Ordinary Professor before Louis Garnier, but he was never appointed. Gupta did the same.

"Who's Gupta?"

"A professor from the Punjab University," he has been vomited within the scientific community, even if his victims had preferred to protect him not to seem ridiculous. He built his paleontological notoriety on thefts in the museums. His intellectual frauds were described in the scientific review, Nature."

Josette urgently called me and I took my leave of Bataille in order to follow the events on the television. The Minister for Defence and the Home secretary, side by side, were speaking to the population.

Here is what the Minister for Defence said,

"The species that attacked Liege this morning have just capitulated. Most of them escaped with a cargo aircraft chartered by us. We don't know exactly where they are going, but we can try to take a guess, thanks to information of courageous inhabitants of Liege, who joined us and helped us to put an end to the threat from these monsters.

We prevented the situation from getting worse and all nations of the world can breathe again. Especially the inhabitants of London, which were attacked this morning in the borough of Westminster, and particularly Scotland Yard, which has held for a few days an individual named Sperminator.

The Yard avoided the monster to do something irreparable. Indeed, they found out in an Oxford pub the detailed plans of biological attacks on London.

The boomerang effect is going to start as well. Indeed, when we make use of villains for our own needs, one should not be amazed to become their victims. For instance, the United States’ government, which protected a private faction of their army - with an aim of achieving special missions - felt that it would be better to put an end to this kind of collaboration.

From today, the SHEEP Organization must be banished.

A general order will be given to fight them. With my colleague, he said while turning to the Home Secretary, we know henceforth what are our major goals. Ladies and Gentlemen, don't be afraid, we take care of your safety" The last zapping on CNN sent us an enigmatic sentence : "Dear inhabitants of the United States, what Europe has just lived today, you will live the same situation tomorrow. We consider that today's events are not the beginning of the end, but the end of the beginning" On the following day, in Holiday Inn Hotel, at seven a.m., as the first holidaymakers were going to breakfast, Raskinet knocked at the door of room 623.

"After what we saw yesterday on the TV, Fenimore must be in the morgue," he thought.

"And Aristotle's hands are now the property of the SHEEP." Raskinet behaved as if it were his own hotel room. Using his bunch of keys, he put one of them into the lock. However, the door did not open.

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"I have a pass key in the car," he muttered while going to the lift. "After the hands, we need the painting which is in Fenimore’s wardrobe. And after the painting, I will deal with the Oxford file. We need it as well. The SHEEP will triumph over the Gargoyle Group’s stupid members."

When the door of the lift opened on the ground floor, Raskinet faced Bataille and two inspectors.

"You have got something to tell us, haven't you, sir?" the commissioner hammered Raskinet remained fixed without saying a word. Then, after a few seconds, he said with a mocking smile: "We could arrange to meet us soon, Commissioner."

In the following days, in Raskinet's residence, was discovered a diary with Pryce's phone number. How could a serious and competent man like Raskinet make such misdeeds? How could he have accepted an effective role in the SHEEP private militia? That remains a mystery.

Since these exceptional circumstances, Josette and I have appreciated the chance to belong to humanity. This is why, on the first possible opportunity to celebrate a stage of our evolution, we do not hesitate to do so.

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The last time, it was on the 20th of November 2001 in Engis, when the burgomaster, Vicky Albert, had repatriated from the Bedford Hotel the Neanderthal child after the murder of Perkin. On this occasion, Professor Poty (the writer of the foreword) had been invited and had congratulated the children for their beautiful exhibition.

Since then, the institute of Paleontology of Liege University became for me an inexhaustible place of paleontological knowledges that I particularly appreciate when I am stroking the skull of the Engis neanderthal child.

It is also a pleasure to visit the zoological institute with my students. When I pass close to the piranha's tank, near one of the stone-fish or near the new mouldings of the coelacanth and the dodo, I feel this indefinable fear, which reminds me this infernal fortnight. However, each time, I also think, so far, that human nature and justice of men have triumphed over the dishonest and greedy men.

Persuaded that truth is stranger than fiction, Bataille and I appreciate drinking a glass of beer at Le Parc CafĂŠ where we remember our extraordinary adventures.

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Commissioner Bataille and I are posing in front of the aquarium of the piranhas after restoration.

We can see Bush and Chirac posing for this photo taken in the Oval Office at the White House with a skull similar to Aristote’s one. In this photo, the presidents seemed express their victory over the forces of the SHEEP, but in fact they are grateful to the new species with which Homo sapiens will have henceforth to cohabit. What led Chirac to say: "Neanderthal men and our species have lived together during 10.000 years, why wouldn't we peacefully approach this new era by sharing it with our hybrid contemporaries?

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Below, Bush, Blair and a representative of a hybrid species.

the two following pictures, they have come to negotiate an everlasting gypsum supply on the condition to receive in compensation some bacteriophages with therapeutic qualities. Do you remember the favourable virus.

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Below, The British Prime Minister Tony Blair and the King Albert II of Belgium receive representatives of the extraterrestrial species.

As we can note it, the small gifts are not forgotten to maintain the friendship.

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Aristotle's skeleton was repatriated in Engis's cemetery where he was offered a vault thanks to a subcription that was led by enthusiasts in ufology and paleontology. Indeed in spite of the discoveryof the deception, Aristotle is an indisputable mutant from extraterrestrial origin.

Marina put down a plaque signed by the New Gargoyle Group.

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Postface by George Hamilton George Hamilton, often evoked in my chronicle, and who is one of the survivors of this symposium of Chaudfontaine, wrote this postface. I highly thank him.

"The chronicle that you have just read is the historical truth of these infernal days that we lived in July 2001.

The author was obliged however to proceed to reconstitutions of texts and photographs starting from often laconic information. When I attended the colloque of Chaudfontaine about the topic "UFO and Aliens Symposium", I did not suspect a moment that Aristote’s skeleton could have come from a mutation of a human being by DNA sent from elsewhere, outside our planet..

This skeletoin had been presented to us on Internet like a perfectly preserved polydactyl Neanderthal man, and this scarcity appeared really worthy to be studied in depth.

I worked already on the transcription of the genetic code and his consequences on the production of proteins. I knew that Louis Garnier and Andreas Hertafouris, my colleagues of Liège, and Archibald Wynn, my colleague of Oxford, were working in the same realm. But I was unaware that a fifth nucleotide had been discovered by Garnier in Aristote's DNA..

The geneticists then understood how much these new data could enable us to reorientate basically our research. This information was published in the magazine Science, one month after Garnier’s death. They allowed us, with my team of Cambridge, to elucidate the mechanisms of transcription of the ADN of these mutants. And it is a pity that a Nobel Prize could not be allotted on a purely posthumous basis, because without any doubt I would have shared it with Louis Garnier.

Fancis Baudouin and I have survived after this symposium of Chaudfontaine where we lost colleagues and friends.

Wynn, Hertafouris and Palach, three exobiologists swindlers, Perkin, the merchant of bone, were victims of the killers of the SHEEP, this international organization that had interest so that the colloque attendees could not reveal their find.

In Vanuatu island, "Volcanic Village" is still active, but it is managed by an altruistic international consortium where the forces of the good have replaced the satanic forces whose the pope Jean-Paul II spoke to us. Today, our hybrid brothers of intersidereal origin are not coveted any more by mercantiles and gangsters, like Spencer who was devoured by some famished pentadactyl.

The effectiveness of the phages does not only lead to negative conclusions, and some beneficial changes have also appeared. Hybrids and phages can become our best allies as well, because they are ready to kill the lethal bacteria and virus acting on humans and plants.

Since 2001, I have been proving the effectiveness of the phagotherapy. And with respect for Louis Garnier’s find, I decided that the financial assistance of my Nobel Prize would be devoted to the study of the giant phages in order to use these in therapeutic assistance.

Commercially, I was followed by US companies which took steps in order to make approve the use of the giant phages as antibacterial and antiviral agents

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Postface by George Hamilton

Above: First world in the realm; these phages (a giant in the foreground) can kill 90% of the bacterial and viral stocks resistant to all the treatments, and even to the vancomycine, the antibiotic of the last chance. The University of Cambridge has much invested for these three latest years in biotelescopes, able to detect the extraterrestrial viruses which are sent to us.

Thanks to the symposium of Ufologists from Chaudfontaine.

Aristotle DNA Researches Researches on Aristotle's DNA by a team from Oxford University and University of Liège, have shed light on the genetic origins of Aristotle and have suggested how and why this species found itself isolated on some islands of the archipelago of Vanuatu.

Recently, researchers from Ancient Biomolecules Centre, Oxford's Department of Zoology, and the Natural History Museum in London have been able to retrieve tiny fragments of DNA from some extraterrestrial hybrids.

Professor Garnier’s discovery was approved

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Postface by the author of this chronicle

I am simply the author of a book, a work of fiction, and have done nothing else than exercise the universal right to the freedom of thought and expression guaranteed in Articles 9 and 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, ratified by all Council of Europe member states.

Let me end this fiction by definitively tightening some bolts that make the building of this story somewhat shaky.

Sometimes the author mentions some details that have their purpose in the immediate behavior of an actor of a novel, but the theme of the whole does not care about it .

Among these details, one of them is close to my heart, because, in 1961, I saw a man cut the back of the Coronation Chair in Westminster Abbey to try to engrave his name..

That's why I found a place in my fiction novel to remind this event. I never knew his reel name, but let's suppose that he was called Trevenen, whose nickname was Sperminator.

You can read Trevenen on one of the following pictures.

What about the Coronation Chair

In this novel, one thing that might remain a mystery to the reader is Fenimore Wynn's attraction for the "Coronation Chair" at Westminster Abbey.

Let's remember Fenimore Wynn paintings in Chaudfontaine, each of them showing the "Coronation Chair" at different times and reflecting changes in its appearance under different lighting conditions.

Why did Fenimore appreciate this chair? I asked myself. It reminded me of Archibald Wynn's blackmailer who had demanded him to go with the mysterious file into Westminster

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Postface by the author of this chronicle Abbey, and to put it under the Coronation Chair. Might there be any connection between this painter and the blackmailer? It would be particularly short-sighted to think so.

Tarakan ended this puzzle. As soon as he had returned to Oxford, he sent me the following two photos that he had commented.

Fenimore Wynn appreciated Aristotle, but hated Trevenen although he had pity on him, his ancestors having been slaves brought to Bristol from unknown lands by the English slave system in the eighteenth century.

Indeed, reports in the media from serious sources, between 1697 and 1807, 2108 known ships left Bristol to make the trip to Africa and onwards across the Atlantic with slaves. An average of twenty slaving voyages set sail a year. Over 3.4 million slaves were brought into slavery by these ships, representing one-fifth of the British slave trade during this time.

First picture As you kinow, King Edward's Chair,The Coronation Chair, is the throne on which the British monarch sits for the coronation. It was commissioned in 1296 by King Edward I to contain the coronation stone of Scotland — known as the Stone of Scone — which he had captured from the Scots who had kept it at Scone Abbey.

In 1996, 700 years after it was taken by Edward I, England agreed to return the Stone of Scone to Scotland. The stone was brought to Edinburgh and installed at Edinburgh Castle.

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Postface by the author of this chronicle Second picture According to me, said Tarakan, Trevenen's name was carved in the eighteenth century.

Today, the appearance of the Coronation Chair is of aged and bare wood, and during its history many early tourists, pilgrims, and choir boys in the Abbey appear to have carved their initials and other graffiti onto the chair in the 18th and 19th century.

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Glossary We have to distinguish the words included in the traditional dictionaries and those which are neologisms invented by the author.

The third chapter of the glossary is relating to the fuel of the nascent life and consequently, to the metabolism of the sulphuric men 1. Existing words Australopithecus. Hominidae discovered in South Africa and who was able to cut the stone or to make fire.

Bacterium (pl. Bacteria). Generally unicellular being replicating by scissiparity.

Bacteriophage (from 'bacteria' and Greek φάγειν phagein "to eat") is any one of a number of viruses that infect bacteria. The term is commonly used in its shortened form, phage. Typically, the bacteriophages consist of an outer protein hull enclosing genetic material. Bacteriophages are much smaller than the bacteria they destroy.

Phages are estimated to be the most widely distributed and diverse entities in the biosphere.[1] Phages are ubiquitous and can be found in all reservoirs populated by bacterial hosts, such as soil or the intestines of animals.

Bit. Basic unit of storage capacity of information which can take only two distinct values, noted 0 and 1 in binary base.

By-product. A by-product is a secondary product derived from a manufacturing process or chemical reaction. It is not the primary product or service being produced.

Byte. Group of eight bits. A byte generally corresponds to a character.

Capsid. Proteinic shield which surrounds the genetic material of a virus.

Carbon-14. Isotope which contains two neutrons more than Carbon-12. The dating by carbon-14 allows the study of man's history and his environment. The dating precision is acceptable for objects whose age is varying between - 5000 to - 50.000 years from now on.

Cell. Fundamental component of any living being.

DNA or Deoxyribonucleic acid. Organic macromolecule contained in the core of our cells and carrying our hereditary features.

Endoskull. Inside face of the skull.

Exobiology. Science studying the possibilities of existence of the life in the universe.

Fossil. The remains of an animal or plant found in stratified rocks. most fossils belong to extinct species, but many of the later ones belong to species still living.

Gene. Part of a chromosome, which orders the transmission of a given hereditary feature (like the colour of the eyes).

Genome. The whole genes of a living being.

Gene therapy. Therapeutic method, which aims at treating some infections by intervening on the genome of the cells.

Geology. Geology is the study of the Earth, the materials of which it is made, the structure of those materials, and the processes acting upon them. It includes the study of organisms that have inhabited our planet. An significant part of geology is the study of how Earth’s materials, structures, processes and organisms have changed over time.

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Glossary Gypsum. Sedimentary rock formed with hydrated calcium sulphate (stone with plaster).

Hominidae (anglicized Hominids, also known as great apes form a taxonomic family, including four extant genera: humans, chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans.[1] Homo sapiens sapiens. The modern man. We are appeared towards - 100.000 years in Africa and in the Middle East. Homo is the kind, sapiens the species, sapiens the subspecies. Homo sapiens sapiens then spread in the whole world and arrived in Europe approximately 40.000 years ago. He cohabited with the Neanderthal man during a few thousand years. Today, the sapiens sapiens is always present. Recently, the sapiens sapiens is not regarded any more as a subspecies compared to the Neanderthal man, but is a quite distinct species.

Kingdom: Phylum: Class: Order: Family: Genus: Species:

Animalia Chordata Mammalia Primates Hominidae Homo H. sapiens sapiens

Homo sapiens Neanderthalensis: It was necessary to wait until in the years 1990, so that paleontologists and prehistorians cease regarding the Neanderthal Man as a simple European subspecies of Homo sapiens, but like humanity distinct from the modern man, and consequently non reproducible with him. Known in Europe for approximately one hundred and ten thousand years, this species disappeared approximately thirty thousand years ago.

The child from Engis described by Schmerling belongs to that species.

Kingdom:

Animalia

Phylum:

Chordata

Class:

Mammalia

Order:

Primates

Family:

Hominidae

Genus:

Homo

Species:

H. sapiens Neanderthalensis

Isotope. Element whose the atomic number is the same as that one of the periodic table, but with a number of additional neutrons.

Metabolism. From Greek: μεταβολή metabolē, "change"), Metabolism is the set of lifesustaining chemical transformations within the cells of living organisms. These enzyme-catalyzed

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Glossary reactions allow organisms to grow and reproduce, maintain their structures, and respond to their environments.

Mutation. In biology, mutations are changes to the nucleotide sequence of the genetic material of an organism. Mutations can be caused by copying errors in the genetic mate-rial during cell division, by exposure to ultraviolet or ionizing radiation, chemical mutagens, or viruses Mutualism. Relation between two living beings from different species. These ones can help each other, but they also can live without the other.

Nucleotides are molecules that comprise the structural units of RNA and DNA. Chemical structure made up of the one of the four bases forming the alphabet of the ge-netic code (Adénine, Thymine, Guanine, Cytosine).

The semi-extraterrestrial and semi-human hybrids have a fifth nucleotide, which con-fers a richer alphabet to them and enables them to codify more amino acids and, conse-quently, to manufacture more diversified proteins.

The Upper Paleolithic (or Upper Paleolithic) is the third and last subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age as it is understood in Europe, Africa and Asia. Very broadly it dates to between 40,000 and 10,000 years ago, roughly coinciding with the appearance of "high" culture (behavioral modernity) and before the advent of agriculture. The terms "Late Stone Age" and "Upper Paleolithic" refer to the same periods. For historical reasons, Panspermia (Greek. πάς/πάν (pas/pan, all) and σπέρμα (sperma, seed)) is the hypothesis that "seeds" of life exist already all over the Universe, that life on Earth may have originated through these "seeds,» and that they may deliver or have delivered life to other habitable bodies. The related but distinct idea of exogenesis (Gk. εξω (exo, out-side) and γενεσις (genesis, origin)) is a more limited hypothesis that proposes life on Earth was transferred from elsewhere in the Universe but makes no prediction about how widespread it is.

Because the term "panspermia" is more well-known, it tends to be used in reference to what should strictly speaking be called exogenesis.

Phytosociologist. Sociologist who studies vegetable associations.

Phytovirus. Virus specialized to live as a parasite on vegetable cells.

Pistil. Female organ of flowering plants including the ovary, the style and the stigma.

Polydactyl. Malformation characterized by the presence of supernumerary fingers.

Pollination. It is the process that transfers pollen grains, which contain the male gam-etes (sperm) to where the female gamete(s) are contained within the carpel;[1] in gymno-sperms the pollen is directly applied to the ovule itself. The receptive part of the carpel is called a stigma in the flowers Process by which pollen is transported to the stigmas of the pistil of the same flower species.

Ponginae. Family of anthropoid monkeys including the chimpanzee, the orang-outang and the gorilla Primate. It belongs to the order of mammals, with prehensile hands, flat nails, having a complete dentition, a very developed brain: lemurs, monkeys and man.

Proteins. They are organic compounds made of amino acids arranged in a linear chain and joined together by peptide bonds between the carboxyl and amino groups of adjacent amino acid residues. The sequence of amino acids in a protein is defined by the sequence of a gene, which is encoded in the genetic code.[1] Proteinic. What relates to proteins, which is composed of proteins.

Pyrite. The mineral pyrite, or iron pyrite, is an iron sulfide with the formula FeS2. This mineral's metallic luster and pale-to-normal, brass-yellow hue have earned it the nickname fool's gold due to its resemblance to gold. Pyrite is the most common of the sulfide minerals.

Natural Iron sulphide.

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Glossary Researchers of Wallonia. ASBL founded in 1907 in Seraing whose objective is encouraging the citizen to make his way towards archaeological, paleontological, speleological and mineralogical research.

Sequencer. Equipment allowing to establish the succession of the nitrogenized bases of the DNA or the amino acids of a protein.

Somatic hybridization. Consist in amalgamating the cores of cells of different species.

Species. In biology, a species is one of the basic units of biological classification and a taxonomic rank. A species is often defined as a group of organisms capable of interbreeding and producing fertile offspring. While in many cases, this definition is adequate, more precise or differing measures are often used, such as based on similarity of DNA or morphology. Presence of specific locally adapted traits may further subdivide species into subspecies.

Spore. In biology, a spore is a reproductive structure that is adapted for dispersal and surviving for extended periods of time in unfavorable conditions. Spores form part of the life cycles of many plants, algae, fungi and some protozoans. A chief difference between spores and seeds as dispersal units is that spores have been very little stored food re-sources compared with seeds.

Stigma. Top of the pistil which receives pollen.

Subspecies. From a biological point of view, what has morphological characters allowing to distinguish it from the other populations of the species, but likely to reproduce with them.

Sulphuric hydrogen. Acid composed with hydrogen and sulphur.

Symbiosis. Durable association between two living beings whose advantages are reciprocal.

Ufology. It is a neologism coined to describe the collective efforts of those who study unidentified flying object reports and associated evidence. While Ufology does not represent an academic research program, UFOs have been subject to various investigations over the years, varying widely in scope and scientific rigor. Governments or independent academics in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, France, Belgium, Sweden, Brazil, Mexico, Spain, and the Soviet Union are known to have investigated UFO reports at various times. No national government has ever officially and publicly asserted that UFOs represent any form of alien intelligence. However, several governments have displayed interest in UFO phenomena. Perhaps the best-known study was Project Blue Book, previously Project Sign and Project Grudge, conducted by the United States Air Force from 1947 until 1969. Other notable investigations include the Robertson Panel (1953), the Brookings Report (1960), the Condon Committee (1966–1968), the Project Twinkle investigation into green fireballs (1948–1951), the Sturrock Panel (1998), and the French GEIPAN (1977-) and COMETA (1996–1999) study groups.

Virus. Micro-organism which can reproduce only by injecting its genetic material into the cell that it parasitizes.

WWF. The World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF) is an international non-governmental organization for the conservation, research and restoration of the environment, formerly named the World Wildlife Fund, which remains its official name in the United States and Canada. It is the world's largest independent conservation organization with over 5 million supporters worldwide, working in more than 90 countries, supporting around 1300 [4] conservation and environmental projects around the world. It is a charity, with approximately 9% of its funding coming from voluntary donations by private individuals and businesses.[World Wildlife Fund: Independent ASBL created in 1961 whose raison d'être is to stop the environmental pollution and to build a future where human beings could live in harmony with nature by preserving, in particular, the biological degradation of the sphere.

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Glossary

1. Neologisms of the author for the science fiction needs Biotelescope. Telescope specialized in detection of organic compounds far from Earth.

Homo Vegetalis. It indicates a hybrid species characterized by a half-animal half-plant metabolism.

Phage. See Bacteriophage in Glossary chapter one.

Pollinator. Organism transporting pollen on the stigmas of the pistil of the same flower species.

Pollinated: organism receiving the spores coming from pollinator.

Spermatic rain: Viral rain due to the extraterrestrials.

To Spermatize. To spread extraterrestrial viruses able to modify the genetic structure of humans.

2. The fuel of the nascent life.

As Professor de Duve wrote in "Poussière de vie" Ed. Fayard, 1996 on pages 93 and 94: "In the current living organisms, sulphur comes primarily from the sulphate ion (…) completely oxidized which one finds just as it is in a certain number of components (…) However, many biological functions of sulphur require that the sulphate is reduced in hydrogen sulphide (…) and incorporated into organic molecules (…) It is also mainly in the form of hydrogen sulphide that sulphur existed in the prebiotic world (…) My principal assumption is that, somewhere in the prebiotic world, the environmental conditions favoured (…) the hidden track which carried out from the first products of prebiotic chemis-try to the world of RNA and proteins."

It is on this theoretical basis I explain - in this science-fiction novel - the second metabolism of sulphuric men connected with that one of the higher plants or that one of sulphuric bacteria.

Photosynthesis of Plants 6 CO2 + 6 H2O + incoming energy

C6H12O6 + 6 O2

The sulfuric environment Photosymthèsis 6 CO2 + 12 H2S + incoming energy

C6H12O6 + 6 H2O + 12 S

The respiration of plants and animals C6H12O6 + 6 O2

6 CO2 + 6 H2O + outgoing energy

Breathing in anoxic environment The sulfuric men also have a sulfuric metabolism (similar to the sulphate-reducing bacteria ) wherein sulphates replace oxygen for cell respiration During this metabolism, the sulphates are reduced to sulphides whose hydrogen sulfide .

C6H12O6

+ 3 CaSO4-

3 CO2

+ 3 CaCO3 + 3 H2S + 3 H2O + outgoing energy

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Acknowledgements My gratitude to Edward POTY , Professor of Paleontology at the University of Liege who prefaced the novel. Thanks to him, I experienced the rare pleasure to behold and touch the original skull of the Neandertal child who lived - around 30,000 years ago - in the village where I was born .

Thank you to Vicky Albert, the Mayor of Engis, anxious to enhance the anthropological heritage of the village, whom I met him shortly after those terrible events at a party held by school children in order to pay tribute to the Neandertal child returning to home.

Thank you to Mrs. Armande Clerinx , District Commissioner of the Province of Liège who, by her precious advice, helped me better imagine what would be a collective emergency situation and how might the concerned people behave in such exceptional circumstances.

Thank you to Colonel François Hendrickx, engineer, and to Warrant Officer Jean-Marie LEVO for their critical reading on Army and Police organisations during events as serious as those described in this chronicle.

Thank you to all other readers who had a part , according their own competence and sensitivity in the completion of this story: Josette , my wife, Lucienne Targé, my cousin, regent in Geography and Sciences; Jean de Cointe, writer; Jacques Lecocq, engineer and countryman of Chaudfontaine; ntryman Philippe Paye, employee of the Province; Inigo Bea Salazar, Graduated in business communication who was one of my best students.

And last but not least, I did not know in 2003 when I wrote this chronicle that I was going to meet Jean Joye, in 2013, i.e. fifty years after I rubbed shoulders with him on the benches at the Grammar School in Huy. This new face to face is all the more surprising that Jean lived for a long time in Vanuatu (In tempore non suspecto, there where I decided to set Volcanic Village) and he provided me with some pretty pictures of this strange place that I inserted in my book. So, in some realms of the novel, the truth became as strange as fiction. Thank you very much, Jean.

Despite help from all the relevant contributors, there might still be errors in my text. They are attributable to myself. Moreover, the fact that the aforementioned persons gave me their support in their particular field , do not mean they approve one or other of the theories developed in this chronicle, that remains primarily a science-fiction novel.

Thank you Francis Baudouin

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