by Maggy Diak
11.
Reliving all the information I had found in Otrin’s writings, I hoped to find tangible traces or leads to him. In vain. There were none. At least, I did not see them. All I had were presumptions and unanswered questions. Was he kidnapped or not and if he was, by whom? And what was the purpose? To silence him or to get out of him some information? About what? About all the Jerusalems? Does somebody desperately want to know into which city the sacred content was moved? According to Peter, the sacred content had to leave Palestine because of the hatred and constant fight with Israel.
In the same way as hundreds of years ago, the holy Family, Mary with Jesus and Joseph, had to run. Who on earth would be interested in the new holy city? Who on earth would believe such nonsense? Religious people probably. And those who are filling their pockets with the money of churchgoers. For example, as soon as somebody announces he has seen Virgin Mary somewhere, crowds of people rush there, and the travel agencies lick their chops knowing they'll be benefited by people's stupidity. It's impossible to even imagine the benefits and wealth a holy city would bring to its discoverer.
The next thing Peter was talking about were trinities. Leading trinities as a continuation of Abraham, Lot, and Sarah. To me, all this was nonsense, but it might have not been to those who were named as members of such trinities. One of them or all of them might feel hurt, insulted. They might have decided to revenge. Maybe even to kill Peter.
As for Bush jr., he, in fact, didn't have a reason to feel insulted. Having been described as the Abraham of today, he was given better characteristics than he, in my opinion, deserved. Only the best is allowed to communicate with God. That's what I think. If Peter saw Bush as the best, that was no offence! However, Bush might not be glad to be connected to Laden. Peter tried to prove that relationship between the two was similar to the relationship between Abraham and Lot, ignoring that Abraham and Lot were relatives, which Bush and Laden were not. Nevertheless, they were in a friendly relationship at the beginning, just like Abraham and Lot. And just like Abraham and Lot they later encountered disagreements that led to their separation. In the case of Bush and Laden, the disagreements even caused hatred.
Well, according to my information, this similarity, a sort of friendship at first and some disagreements later that led to the separation of the two, might be true. Of course, it would be possible that Bush did not like being reminded of the first part, of a close friendship and would try to silence Peter. That was one possibility I shouldn’t neglect.
What about Blair, I asked myself. Could he feel offended? No, I didn't think so. Lot was not a bad person, so being his adequate is no offence. And according to his character and his deeds it was obvious that he, Blair, was not a direct adequate of Laden but of Lot.
The only one, who might not like being an adequate of another person, might be the Queen. She might not like hints that she behaved towards the Princess Diana in the same way as Sarah did towards Hagar. That she did not like Diana. That Diana suffered because of her. However, Peter merely told or hinted what he had heard from the media. He didn't make it up. On the other hand, he stated that it might not even be true.
In my opinion, none of them had any reason whatsoever to make an attempt on Peter's life. Yet I was smart enough to be aware that different people see things differently. Others might find the same things, which I find harmless, harmful. Besides, if somebody decides to pick holes in what you say or do, he will pick them, no matter what. J.E. will find them, of that I was sure. He already did. Besides, God knows how many other J.E.s were after Peter. J.E.s who believed that Peter was a terrorist and that the names he used in his lectures were nothing but secret codes. Bush, mentioned in Peter's lectures, was to J.E. not a person but a bush under which Peter's suitcase was buried. A suitcase full of explosives. I'd like to know how J.E. deciphered other names. Despite taking him for a crazy guy, I could not completely ignore his assumptions. Until I found proofs to confirm the opposite, until I knew more, they would have to stay one of the possibilities.
Therefore, I resumed my research. Resumed reading. I didn’t read two sentences when the phone interrupted me. It was the receptionist. He told me that the Head of the Sorbonne, Mr. Pearson, was on the line, saying that he urgently wanted to speak to me.
“J.E. visited me,” said Mr. Pearson somewhat breathlessly. “Do you want to know what's on his mind?”
“Of course I do!”
He asked me to come to his office because he did not want to discuss this over the phone. This time, I did not invite Kate with me.
I did not even tell her I was going out. I just did not want to burden her with my thoughts. No, no, the truth is, I did not want to see her anymore!
“Do you know that he was digging around the cathedral of Notre Dame?”
Mr. Pearson asked me after we shook hands and sat into the armchairs. “He's gotten it into his head that your man had buried his suitcase with explosives under a bush!”
“I know,”I said with a smile. “I was there when he was on his knees under that bush.”
I told him the whole story.
“He searched my house,” added Mr. Pearson.
“Searched your house?” I stared at him disbelievingly.
“Why?”
“He was looking for the Foreigner.”
I couldn’t believe my ears! “In your house?”
Mr. Pearson nodded. “He did not openly accuse me of hiding him, of course, he tried to wrap his opinion into a kind of worry for me and my family. He warned me that terrorists might enter the house and make it their base without the knowledge of the owner and that in such a case the owner and his family were in great danger. Before terrorists left the house they, as a rule, killed the whole family.”
“What a considerate man,” I mocked.
He burst into a short, amused laugh. “He is, isn’t he?”
“What worries me,” I said, “is that somebody gave that fool the search warrant. This means that there is somebody out there, there might be even a group of people, who obviously believe him.”
“You are right,” sighed Mr. Pearson. “That worries me, too. But at the same time I have to admit that I understand them as well. We are living in the time of an increasing threat of terrorism in the world, so authorities have to be cautious. You have probably heard about political unrest in our country. About vandalism, the protests. Especially in the neighborhood of Paris.”
“Of course I have. You were in all news.”
“There you are! French authorities are very cautious about foreigners and they take each warning very seriously.”
“Well, be responsible for security of a country is certainly not an easy job,” I admitted. “However, security policy is too often abused by those who don’t care whether foreigners endanger their country or not. They just hate all foreigners and want them to return to their own country, not asking if it is safe or not. Whether their own country is capable of giving them means for survival or will it let them die of hunger and illnesses.”
“You are right, “nodded Mr. Pearson.” Nevertheless, I understand people’s fear of foreigners, let us say migrants and refugees. They are scared that after the jobs, houses, flats, places in kindergartens and schools have been given to the foreigners, there won’t be left enough for them.”
“Well, with a proper explanation, reassurance from the government, people would understand that they have nothing to fear and the abusers wouldn’t be so successful in igniting hatred in them,” I said. “This unnecessary hatred often causes violent reaction in immigrants, the police react even more violently and the foundation for terrorism is laid. On both sides.”
“Which makes people like J.E. heroes, “said Mr. Pearson with bitter smile. “They think they have been called to put things in order on their own.”
“And make things even worse,” I concluded.
Have you read the taped lectures I gave you last time?” asked Mr. Pearson after a moment’s silence.
“A lot o
f it. Not all.”
He shoved a sheet of paper across the table. “So you’ve come across those names?”
I read: Karsag, Ur, Worms, Eboracum or York, New York, Jerusalem, New Jerusalem.
“Of course I have,” I said. “And what do they mean?”
“Those are the names for Jerusalem.”
Mr. Pearson laughed. “That's what you think! To J.E., they are codes for places that are going to be attacked. New York has already been, now it's other cities turn to suffer and in the end the whole Earth. Namely, J.E. managed to decipher the Foreigner's sentence: And destroyed will be all the cities on the Earth and the land will be made completely barren. According to J.E., the Foreigner is a terrorist who will blow up the Earth!”
“As I remember this is Otrin's prediction of the destruction of the World which will happen in about 350.000 years,” I answered. “Exactly! I tried to explain this to J.E. In vain, of course. He kept saying that the Foreigner was the leader of the world terrorist net and believe me or not, he is convinced that I am a part of it.”
“No, kidding,” I exclaimed. However, as I like to be direct, I asked an, so to say, impolite question. “Excuse me, but is there any reason for him to believe that?”
“Well, I was the one who invited Mr. Otrin to the Sorbonne. Besides, I'm married to a non-French. A big reason enough.”
“Is J.E. not a foreigner himself? Is he not a Belgian by birth?”
“Of course he is. Yet, instead of feeling inferior he feels superior. In his opinion, Belgium has the leading role among the countries that represent Europe. Old, real Europe. They are Belgium, France and Great Britain, as you probably know. The union of good old Europe.”
“What about the other members of the European Union?”
“They are not in Europe, according to him, and have no right to be included. They are manure, giving off their stink all over Europe.
That fool is strutting around as proud as a peacock because Brussels, his native country, is the seat of the European Union. And he never forgets to mention that he has traced his family roots back to the twelfth century and that it has never ever come to mixing their blood with foreigners. They are, to the last drop, pure Belgians.”
“Another Hitler!” I exclaimed angrily. “As for the pure blood, well, it's obvious that something is terribly wrong with him, isn’t it? It must be the pure blood. As far as I remember from history, most of the members from the purest families were insane. Am I right?”
A wry smile played on his face. “But he's not aware of that. On the contrary. He says that he would shoot, without the slightest hesitation, anybody in his family who would dare mix his blood, their family blood, their pure Belgian blood with foreigners. I tell you, Tibor, that man is a devil and that's the reason why I called you. To warn you. To tell you that it is of the highest importance, especially for Mr. Otrin, that you take the case into your hands and find Mr. Otrin before J.E. does. I tell you, if he goes on with this case not only Otrin will end on a guillotine but half of the French citizens as well.”
“So, who is the terrorist now?” I exclaimed and then added thoughtfully: “I know. The problem is, you know, that he has so many advantages over me … Nevertheless, I'll do my best. At this moment, I must admit that no trace that I managed to find leads anywhere. I'm fumbling around in the dark.”
“I am still convinced that one of the governments had Otrin arrested,” he said.
I doubtfully shook my head. “My friend, a member of our Department of State, got in contact with CIA, FBI and Scotland Yard, but they all denied having anything to do with Otrin. Nevertheless, they admitted they had been informed about his lectures. “I threw a quick look at Mr. Pearson. “It seems you have a 'spy' on the Sorbonne.”
He laughed. “Not only on the Sorbonne, my dear friend! We have them everywhere! And so do you! Don't be naïve. However, as I am no criminal, I take them as my safety.”
“J.E. can hardly be taken as your body guard,” I joined him in laughter.
“There are always exceptions,” he added and got up. “But let's forget J.E. for a minute. I have influential friends on high positions too and I'll try to learn more about this case. What interests me at this moment most is your opinion about the new European Queen mentioned in Otrin’s lectures.”
“You mean Elisabeth? The Queen of England?”
“No, the new queen! The queen to come!”
“A new Queen? I don’t remember reading about her.”
“Then read now,” he said, handing me his copy of Otrin's lectures. I left mine in the hotel. He went to the door. “I have some things to do. I'll be right back. “