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Chapter 1
The ghost of Golden Zandolie. The black giant
In the very center of Paris, in the legendary Latin Quarter, two young men were sitting on the roof of a mansard, half-hidden by the illusive cover of a summer city night.
The eldest of them was about thirty-five years old, with a shock of unruly chestnut curls falling chaotically over his face and shoulders. Short and wiry, with a broken nose of a boxer, he was not quite handsome.
The second young man was just beautiful. As if the live statue “David” of Michelangelo, he was distinguished with the classic perfection of his facial features and proportions of his figure. An avant-garde haircut slanted on one side and an earring in the ear added the famous bohemian flair to the young man.
At the moment, the handsome young man looked angry. Huge brown eyes with long eyelashes threw lightning bolts. He even jumped out of his chair and loomed over his older companion.
“Jean-Paul! After all the troubles in the press, dismissal from your job, complete discrediting in the scientific world, do you still dream of returning to this, how to call it,… the Island of Golden Zandolie? And why do you even call it that? There is no such place on the map!”
“Well, listen, my dear Luca! This is my last, my only chance! I've read my own notes a hundred times! Although I don't remember much, I couldn't just make it all up! And my lab assistant, Josie-Anne! These are her test tubes with blue blood!”
“Yes! Poor Josie-Anne! I hope you don’t disturb her anymore! Let her live out her life in peace in her native Brittany! She doesn't talk to you anymore, does she?”
“Unfortunately! We worked together for so many years, so many times we traveled around the world on various anthropological expeditions! She certainly did not forgive me such a shame! Hybrid Forms of Alien Descendants! Nobody believed us, even with real specimens of hybridomorph blue blood!”
“So, what are you hoping to find on this distant island now? Aliens and their hybrids? Not a single self-respecting scientific organization will invest in such an adventure! Everyone is avoiding you like a pariah!… Except me, of course! Darling, I'm always with you, you know, that's why I don't want you to fall into this foolishness again!”
“My dear Luca, I love you too! If not for you… But this is my last chance! I am an anthropologist! Even more! Astro-anthropologist! I want and will study hybrid forms of aliens!”
“I love you more, my Quasimodo!”
Both lovers burst out laughing and, embracing, disappeared into the mansard.
A huge gray cat looked after them with displeasure from behind the shadow of a flowerpot. The cat jumped onto the chair where the unpresentable Jean-Paul, his beloved owner and brother, was just sitting. The chair was still warm.
The cat's name was Captain Nemo. He always accompanied his master on all expeditions. Not like this sugary Luca, who has never been anywhere but his Paris!
Nemo's cat did not like Luca – he was wearing too many smelly perfume and scolding Nemo if he sometimes rummaged in his favorite flowers, which were already too many on the roof. Can't you dig a little in the flowerpots once in a while? And Jean-Paul allowed his beloved cat everything! And he was too kind to that lazy butt Luca!
The next morning Jean-Paul and Luca were busy in the kitchen, having breakfast and sharing their plans for the day.
Jean-Paul was in no hurry. He was fired and suspended from lectures at the Sorbonne, and he could not find work anywhere else. The ill fame of the professor-adventurer quickly scattered in so huge and at the same time so small scientific world.
The anthropologist was now at home all day, engrossed in scientific correspondence and online news. He vainly clung to any thread, sent requests to colleagues, scoured the Internet in search of any strange news and even scandals. But it was all in vain – his friends and colleagues did not know anything, did not remember or simply did not answer him…
Luca worked in a modeling agency. A former art history student, he was now at the height of his fame in the high-fashion fast-paced business, often appearing in photo shoots and video advertisements.
Always smiling and easy-going, today the handsome young man was clearly out of sorts. He brought a thick fashion catalog magazine and tossed it right in front of Jean-Paul's coffee cup.
“Look, my dear, what a freak on the cover! We have a new star! From somewhere in the territories! Brutal beauty with dreadlocks! Well, of course he has a figure – so hot! But what a fierce muzzle!”
Jean-Paul was drinking his coffee, deep in thought. From time to time, he was scanning the news in his laptop, and at first, he simply looked at Luca with his piercing blue eyes, framed by thick eyelashes, just blankly.
“I'm sorry, what?”
“Look at the cover! I should have been there! They changed everything at the last moment for the sake of this black giant!”
Jean-Paul looked down at the magazine that Luca had thrown. However, the impression of the glossy cover was completely unpredictable. Jean-Paul shuddered and jumped up as if electrocuted.
“Jean-Paul! What's the matter!?!”
“It can't be! This is impossible!… This is… Hord!… I remember now! My own records were just random pieces of strange puzzles even I could not comprehend! Now I can connect it all!…Ray! Marley! Hybridomorphs! Hord! Yes! Hord, the black mutant!”
“Do you remember everything? How? Does this black man with dreadlocks look like mutants from the Caribbean? By the way, he is also from somewhere there, from the territories… There are many Rasta men…”
“Luca! HE IS FROM THERE? What's his name?”
“Maximilian seems to be… Max…”
“He is unsociable, barely speaks and avoids people?”
“Well, no! Quite opposite! Pure darling! Even too sweet! You know, such dimples when he smiles! He is catching everything on the go! Indeed, he's good at work, too good! They just kicked me out with my photos, as if there was no contract…”
“Luca, I have to see him!”
“What for!?!”
“I think… this is just a hypothesis… I need to take another look at all of my records… but I'm pretty sure – this is the last mutant of the Island of Golden Zandolie.”
“Jean-Paul, are you really saying that Max is half-human-half-alien?!? OOO! Well then, I don't stand a chance, I need to leave the modeling business! Does he know himself that he is a “man from the star”?”
“That's why I need to meet with him, my dear Luca! This is important for both of us! Our future depends on this man… or whoever
