Lanzarote

by Michel Houellebecq

  10

  THE SCANDAL BROKE in December, a few days before Christmas. A new paedophile ring had been uncovered in Belgium; this time, members of the Azraelian sect were implicated. Paedophiles, sects and the coming holiday season were all combined in a fanatical media feeding frenzy. France-Soir broke new ground with a front page – no photos – consisting of a litany of names from Aïcha (eleven years old) to William (nine). Superimposed in yellow, across the whole page, was the headline ‘GROOMED FOR SEX’. Détective, anxious to condense the salient facts of the affair into a single sentence, ran the rather bizarre headline: ‘CHILD ORGIES AMONG ALIEN HUNTERS’. The case was heard at the Palais de Justice in Brussels: radio and TV stations, familiar with the location from the Dutroux case, dispatched experienced crews to cover the case on location.

  It soon became apparent that all the Azraelians, whether married or not, had had very free sexual relations, and that orgies which could include up to a hundred people regularly took place at the organisation’s Brussels headquarters. The children of the disciples were not excluded from such scenes; at times they were merely spectators, at others participants. No evidence of violence nor of coercion of the children was found; but it was clearly a case of the corruption of minors. The witness statements were unambiguous: ‘When Daddy’s friends came to stay at the house I would go upstairs and give them blow jobs,’ reported twelve-year-old Aurélie. Nicole, forty-seven, could clearly remember having incestuous sex with her two sons, now twenty-one and twenty-three, for years.

  What struck commentators most was the attitude of the defendants. The paedophile is typically a guilty creature, prostrate and completely defeated. Repulsed by his own actions, he is terrorised by the uncontrollable nature of his impulses. Either he hides behind fierce denials, or he can’t wait to be punished, he wallows in his guilt and his remorse, demands treatment, gratefully agrees to chemical castration. Nothing of the sort was to be found among the Azraelians. Not only did they feel no remorse, they considered themselves to be part of some sort of evolving moral avant-garde and declared that society would be much better off if everyone had the integrity to behave as they did. ‘We have given pleasure to our children. From earliest childhood we have taught them to experience pleasure and to give pleasure to others. We have completely fulfilled our duty as parents.’ This, more or less, was their collective position.

  Rudi was among the defendants. His case was not the most serious, but it was the one which had sparked the scandal. He was accused of molesting an eleven-year-old Moroccan girl named Aïcha. ‘He used to take my clothes off and kiss me all over and he’d go down on me,’ Aïcha told the investigating officers. It was her mother, a former member of the sect, who had lodged the complaint. Well, well, I thought. Rudi never did have much luck with Moroccans. The Muslim community was baying for his blood, especially as he was a former police officer (naturally he had been thrown out of the force as soon as the scandal broke); he had to be assigned a bodyguard. ‘She used to say I was nice, sometimes she was the one who asked me to go down on her …’ he declared to the investigating officers, sobbing all the while.

  On 30 December, Philippe Leboeuf, who was not among the accused, went to Brussels where he held a long-awaited press conference. The journalists who turned up were not disappointed: it was pretty explosive. Azrael gave his wholehearted support – and then some – to the actions of his Belgian disciples. Sex in all its forms was permitted, even encouraged, between members of the sect, regardless of age, gender or family relationships. All of this was pleasing and excellent in the sight of the Anakim. ‘He doesn’t know what he’s letting himself in for – they’ll ban them completely,’ muttered the correspondent from Le Figaro. The prophet seemed to be in fine form, his slightly greying beard glowed in the spotlights. Sensing the general bewilderment, he seized the moment to step up the argument, denouncing Jesus Christ and Mohammed as impostors and on the other hand claiming Moses as a disciple.

  ‘Nevertheless, what you’re suggesting to your disciples is a far cry from the Ten Commandments,’ commented the editor of Le Soir, interrupting for the first time.

  Azrael jumped at the chance to expound his point of view. Moses, he explained, truly had been visited by the extraterrestrials, the Anakim; but he had misunderstood their message; hence the absurdity that was the Decalogue. The centuries which had followed were time wasted. Happily, he, the first true successor, had come to correct Moses’ prophecies.

  ‘This is ridiculous, he’s just winding us up – it’s a publicity stunt,’ muttered the correspondent from Paris-Match.

  Indeed, in the hours following the broadcast, visits to their Internet site soared and requests for information about the sect poured in. Leboeuf was on to a winner – particularly as he, personally, was irreproachable. In fact, for a guru, he had a particularly sedate, conservative family life. In the days that followed, the government, by contrast, appeared incompetent as they tried to field questions demanding whether the sect would be banned. These were criminal charges brought against private individuals; that they were members of a particular religious faith was a fact, but could not, under any circumstances, be the basis for a case against them.

  Preparations for the case resumed. In fact, they progressed quite quickly, since no one contested the incriminating evidence, and the trial began shortly afterwards. Rudi sat in the dock in the Palais de Justice in Brussels flanked by some fifteen other disciples. Each was facing a lengthy prison sentence, but that didn’t seem to affect them unduly. Rudi himself seemed serene, almost happy. In the photos, I noticed that he had started wearing big, square glasses with black frames; it was hardly a judicious choice. With his pot belly, his moustache and his big glasses, he was the one who brought to mind the classic image of the paedophile deviant. Public opinion was bitterly against the defendants and there were demonstrations almost every day in front of the Palais de Justice. There were calls for the reintroduction of the death penalty. One journalist tracked down Aïcha’s father, who had been separated from her mother for several years. He stated that he wanted to see them ‘cut the balls off’ the man who had profaned his daughter’s honour; he was quite willing to do the job himself.

  Philippe Leboeuf appeared at the trial only as a witness. It seemed odd that he appeared at all, since he did not personally know any of the defendants. He had prepared a three-hour speech but the judge interrupted him after ten minutes. He had had the time, however, to announce that the Azraelian Church intended to lay the foundations for a new, sacred eroticism of the kind that had disappeared from the Western world thousands of years earlier. He also announced that, within Azraelian communities, schools for mutual masturbation were to be set up aimed at new members and small children. Masturbation, according to him, should be considered as the foundation stone of a new ‘sensual catechism’. When he had finished giving evidence, Leboeuf walked over to the dock to shake hands with each of the defendants, but he was prevented from doing so by the police.

  Undoubtedly because he looked like a typical paedophile, Rudi was often questioned by the press during the adjournments. He seemed to have become accustomed to it; he answered politely, benignly. Was he aware of the sentence he was facing? Yes, completely aware; but he did not regret anything. He had confidence in his country’s justice system. He felt no remorse. ‘I’ve never done anything but good to those around me …’ he would say.

  The trial dragged on, mostly because of the number of plaintiffs. That year, I signed up for a Nouvelles Frontières tour of Indonesia. I left Paris for Denpasar on 27 January. I wasn’t there when the verdict was returned.

  APPENDIX

  The parish priest of Yaiza, Father Andrés Lorenzo Curbelo, recorded the events of the first few months of those six disastrous years. His account covers the period from 1 September 1730, to 28 December 1731.

  ‘On the first day of September 1730, between nine and ten o’clock at night, the earth suddenly opened near Timanfaya, two miles from Yaiza. An enor
mous mountain emerged from the ground with flames coming from its summit. It continued burning for nineteen days. Some days later, a new abyss developed and an avalanche of lava rushed down over Timanfaya, Rodeo and part of Mancha Blanca. The lava extended over to the northern areas to begin with, running as fast as water, though it soon slowed down and ran like honey. On 7 September, a great rock burst upwards with a thunderous sound and the pressure of the explosion forced the lava going northwards to change direction, flowing then to the northwest and west-north-west. The lava torrent arrived, instantly destroying Maretas and Santa Catalina in the valley. On 11 September, the eruption became stronger. From Santa Catalina lava flowed to Mazo, covering the whole area and heading for the sea. It ran in cataracts for six continuous days, making a terrible noise. Huge numbers of dead fish floated about on the sea or were thrown on the shore. Then everything quietened, and the eruption appeared to have come to an end.

  But on 18 October, three new fissures formed above Santa Catalina. Enormous clouds of smoke escaped, flowing over the whole island, accompanied by volcanic ashes, sand and debris. The clouds condensed and dropped boiling rain on the land. The volcanic activity remained the same for ten whole days with cattle dropping dead, asphyxiated by the vapours. By 30 October, everything had gone strangely quiet. Two days later, however, smoke and ashes reappeared and continued until the 10th of the month. Another flow of lava spewed out causing little damage as the surroundings were already scorched and devastated. A further avalanche started on the 27th, rushing at unbelievable speed towards the sea. It arrived at the shore on 1 December and formed a small island in the water where dead fish were found. On 16 December, the lava, which until then had been rushing towards the sea, changed direction, heading south-west, reaching Chupadero which, by the following day, had turned into a vast fire. This quickly devastated the fertile Vega de Uga, but went no further. New eruptions started on 7 January 1731, with spontaneous fireworks embellishing the sadness and desolation of the south. Powerful eruptions with incandescent lava and blue and red lighting crossed the night sky.

  On 21 January, a gigantic mountain rose and sunk back into its crater on the same day with a terrifying sound, covering the island with stones and ashes. The fiery lava streams descended like rivers towards the sea with the ash, rocks and dense smoke making life impossible. That lava flow ceased on 27 January. But on the third day of February, a new cone threw out more lava towards the sea, which continued for twenty-five consecutive days. On 20 March new cones arose, with more eruptions continuing for eleven days. On 6 April, the same cones erupted again with even more fury. And on the 13th, two more mountains collapsed into their own craters making a frightful sound. By 1 May, the fire seemed to have burned out, only to start up again the following day, with yet another new cone rising and a current of lava threatening Yaiza itself. By 6 May, everything was quiet again and remained so for the rest of the month. However, on 4 June an enormous land rift took place which opened up three new craters and was accompanied by violent tremors and flames which terrified the local people. The eruption once more took place near Timanfaya. Different openings soon joined into one and the river of lava flowed down to the sea. A new cone appeared among the ruins of Maretas, Santa Catalina and Timanfaya. A crater opened on the side of a mountain near Maso spewing out white fumes which had never been seen before. Towards the end of June 1731, all the western beaches and shores were covered with an incredible number of dead fish of all species – some with shapes which islanders had never known before. In the north-west, visible from Yaiza, a great mass of flames and smoke belched forth, accompanied by violent detonations. In October and November, more eruptions took place which worsened the islanders fears.

  On Christmas Day 1731, the whole island shook with tremors, more violent than ever before.’

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  Copyright © Flammarion 2000

  Translated from the French, Lanzarote

  Translation copyright © Frank Wynne

  Michel Houellebecq has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this Work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

  First published in the United Kingdom in 2003 by William Heinemann

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  A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

  ISBN 9780099448365