Текст книги "The Last Gambit"
Автор книги: (IP of the USSR) Internal Predictor of the USSR
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Recollections of the past let sometimes find a definite answer to the posed question, but this time I felt that I wasn’t supposed to answer. Moreover, I was sure, that Holmes was ready to develop a theme of “Arabian terrorists” involvement in the events of September 11.
I find it difficult to say something about that, my dear friend. Don’t forget, that I’m just a modest observer of needless chess literary trash.
Well, I’m ready to help you, Watson, – Holmes admitted the game. – The first point is motive of the crime. For the first look, it seems undisputable, that “Arabian terrorists” have it, but it’s only for the first and the most superficial look. Americans have enough of hostiles all over the world: their embassies already long ago have turned to tiny military bases almost in every country of the world. The official reason sounds like that: “The USA is disliked for their defence of human rights, ideals of democracy and individual liberty”, and is such absurd as any other American propaganda. Thus, “everybody can offend Americans” in theory, it doesn’t matter – whether it would be Philippine or Macedonian, and there’s no reason to set apart some religious or ethnic group in this case. On the contrary, if there’s someone who can feel thankful to USA, it will only be representatives of Islamic extremist movements, for example – Abraham Lincoln’s Brigade, Liberation Army of Kosovo, Afghan talibs or Chechen rebels. And fairy stories about Bin Ladin declaring war to all Americans and distorting their own 175-year-ago slogan: “Good American – is dead American” are good enough only for powdering brains of the most intellectually degenerated strata of population. By the way, about half a year ago three UN representatives were arraigned for sending threatening faxes to American embassies on behalf of above-mentioned Bin Ladin. Obviously, it was at a profit to somebody to create and maintain this image of him as some malicious genius-resembling professor Moriarty, for having an opportunity to ascribe his or her own dirty affairs to him.
Point two concerns the technical possibility to commit the crime. And that we should turn down at once, when dealing with such brilliantly organized malice as attack on Pentagon in Washington and World Trading Centre in New York.
Why? –I asked mostly for holding up the conversation, than trying to controvert.
Oh, it’s very simple, my friend: because it is completely impossible to manage the operation of such large scale from some tent or cave in Afghanistan, as impudent newsmen and obtuse TV-men are trying to assure us, and all the more having on the tail half of planet’s intelligence. Compare the events in USA with terrorist attacks of Palestinian fanatics in Israel during the latest Intifada – the most they could do in this unequal struggle with aggressor was to blow up the knapsacks, full of screws, on their backs or to drive the bus right into the crowd of people waiting at the bus-station. But this concerns the problem of “lack of behaviour alternative” for actual criminals, which some analysts-criminalists don’t notice at all and others overemphasize, as I’ve said earlier.
Yes, all this is simply terrible, dear Holmes, and I have to agree with you completely. The difference in the quality of organization is too obvious.
So, we have only point three left: absence of moral barriers and fear of punishment. When it is a question of suggested “kamikaze” attacks, mentioning about fear seems to be irrelevant. And by the way, journalists borrowed this word from Japanese language, but not from Arabian, and it unintentionally addresses our memory to the events, which took place sixty years ago in Pearl Harbor. Nevertheless, President Bush in his earliest public speeches on Tuesday and Wednesday called these attacks “cowardly acts” and I’d like you, Watson, to remember these words clearly, for we will return to them a little bit later.
To speak about moral barriers, – by the moment, in the whole World History it was the Administration of the United States who has been demonstrating systematically their absolute absence. It is sufficient to remember the barbarian “carpet” bombings of German cities during World War II, aimed only against civilian population and taken hundreds of thousands of innocent lives, or atomic bombs, thrown down to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which also were not military objects, or testing of chemical kinds of weapon in Vietnam and incinerating the whole villages together with all their inhabitants with napalm there, or using the prohibited kinds of weapon containing depleted uranium in Iraq and Yugoslavia, and so on. To charge some mythical “Islamic terrorists” of contempt to human lives in this case means shifting the blame where it doesn’t belong. I read Koran and came to the conclusion that Islam based on Koran is one of the most peace-loving and humane teachings. And all the same, the History shows that in every time and almost in every national society acts the same international power, which carry on its dirty affairs standing under someone else’s banners, hiding under someone else’s slogans. Thus the historically real Islam is not insured from this power penetrating into the guidance of rather well meaning public movements with a purpose to distort them in its own interests.
But the illiterate newsboys and Western governments brought up by them are not able to distinguish Islam based on Koran from Islam-the-result-of-history, as well as they are entirely unaware of the difference between the real teaching of Christ and actual Christianity.
I know I can trust you, Holmes. I’m ready to agree that the official version of the events, which recently took place, developing by mass media, doesn’t stand up to any criticism, but who is to blame in that case? Don’t you reject the very fact of the attack?
At this moment Holmes made one of those theatrical pauses which he loved as much as his genius great-grandfather, and, like looking forward to the effect of his words, answered quietly, but clearly:
I do.
I must confess that if my friend’s goal was to embarrass me with unexpectedness and obvious absurdity of his declaration and throw me off the thoughtless speculation on prototype and, by doing that, to make me think by myself, he was entirely successful.
But you must be kidding, Holmes? – I could find nothing better to say. The expression of my face apparently attested such great confusion, that my companion hurried to help me.
Don’t worry, Watson, I didn’t go mad and don’t try to play a trick on you. I understand that it’s not easy for you to follow my thought because of lack of information at your hand and absence of the habit to systematize and analyse it.
I beg your pardon, Holmes, but we saw it all with our own eyes... The airplanes, passengers-hostages, blasts, fires, collapsing of buildings, piles, thousands of victims... What can be more real than this?
Well, Godzilla[12], for example, or tyrannosaurus Rex! – Contagiously laughed Holmes, letting out thick puff of smoke and coughing.
It is a hoax of yours, I think!
No, no, old fellow, I’m speaking rather seriously.
Well, but what reasons do you have to make such conclusion?
There they are, – said Holmes and pointed to the desk with pile of newspapers on it, which I didn’t notice yesterday evening.
I could never suggest such turn in our conversation.
But you have just sworn at all those newsmen, and, to my mind, you were absolutely right!
Ah, my good fellow, you belong to that charming type of people whose honesty borders on the simplicity which sometimes is worse than robbery, and whose trusting nature and openness of character often look like shallowness and stupidity. I tell this not intending to offend you, on the contrary, accept it as a compliment. Your antipodes – they are the scourge of our time: impertinent, superficial, unscrupulous, whose pedantic talkative briskness is often mistaken for erudition and fine intellect. But excuse me; I’ve digressed from our theme. So, Watson, let you see, that my words aren’t controversial anyway. The point is that you, like the most part of contemporary educated Americans and Europeans, have long ago reconciled to mass media venality as to inevitable evil; you don’t even suspect that those mass media can have some other functions besides systematic duping of our unhappy compatriots.
But, I beg your pardon, Holmes, what another functions can they have?
For example, informative. Yes, yes, Watson, don’t you be surprised, mass media can be useful for distributing an aim, meaning – administratively significant, information, whether you see it paradoxical or not!
Nice paradox!
But not anyone can extract and absorb it on the background of “interference” – noise for the crowd – but only those whom this information is addressed to, and those who know exactly what and where to seek.
Don’t you mean enciphered messages among classified ads?
And them too. Anyway, don’t think that they should be necessarily enciphered. It is enough to use some key words or numbers for attracting addressee’s attention and to entwine the pattern of standard recognizable images to the text. The rest can be compensated by play on words, some allegories – in other words, by consecutive constructing of all those things in the articles, which are called an underlying theme among cinema and theatre directors or the second sense (or implication) by some art critics, i.e. meaning that can’t be absorbed from the first shallow look. I can assure you, Watson, that when you have a skill of creating and reading the implication of some texts, the effect can be tremendous.
I can tell you, Holmes, I understand you as little as before.
Well, I’ll try to explain myself. Haven’t you paid enough attention to the leapfrog game with the number 11 in the context of events we are trying to entangle?
Of course, I have! There were so much told about it lately; and indeed it seems rather strange: the attack took place on the 11th day of the 9th month; this was the 254th day in a year; the sum of 2+5+4 is 11 too; and exactly 111 days remain to the end of the year; the first ram of the northern tower of WTC (World Trade Centre) was made by the hijacked passenger airliner, flight 11 of American Airlines. On its board that time there were 92 persons, i.e. again 9+2=11, including 2 pilots, 9 crewmembers and 81 passengers. At last, the New York Trading Centre buildings themselves, huge 111-stored towers, represent the largest in the world number 11, with the altitude of 411m.
Brilliantly, Watson! Add to this that in the second airplane, belonging to the company United Airlines, ramming the southern tower, there were 56 passengers, which again gives us 5+6=11. From papers and television it is also known that unhappy victims of those monstrous crimes of September 11 were trying to reach the emergency line by their mobile phones, and surprisingly its telephone number is 911 – the same combination of number with the same sum – 11. Doesn’t it put you on your guard, Watson?
Surely, all these coincidences are extremely strange, and they gave me a very strong, I even can say, mystical impression. The feeling is like that – either it is an inscrutable Providence of Lord, or the tricks of someone’s mind unexampled in its devilish perversity, some criminal genius not having any analogues in History, who dared to challenge Providence itself, he who excels even above-mentioned professor Moriarty in his haughty arrogance!
Well, Watson, old chap, you went a little bit too far in appreciating him; classics of criminal genre shouldn’t be offended! Of course, all these cabbalistic stuff have a captivating effect on many people (that’s what they’re done for), but there’s nothing especially sophisticated in them – usual arithmetic mischief.
Fine mischief – so many people perished! – I couldn’t help saying, – but who, to your opinion, Holmes, can hide behind these horrible crimes?
We’ll return to the real quantity of victims, and now, Watson, I’d like you to pay your attention to the opinion of my old Oxford friend Shlomo bin Ami, who was the Minister of Domestic Security not so long ago, very clever and rather well-versed person. So, in one of his recent interviews he said, that organization of acts of terrorism in USA is so impressive that it is of no doubt Terrorist International who stands behind this all.
Perhaps, he meant a group of extremist Muslim organizations. What’s special here, dear Holmes, doesn’t everyone speak of it now?
I have no doubts that not you alone understood him this way. But meanwhile he should be well informed about complete absence of reliable sources of finances and any coordination even between a few pro-Palestinian groups, such as Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad or NFOP, which operate on very limited territory. And any suggestions of their contacts with Sendero Luminoso or Aum Senrike seem to absolute nonsense.
Besides, it’ll be useful to remember that Koran doesn’t give any ready-to-be-used global sociologic doctrine, like that which is constantly declared in Western civilization at least during two latest centuries: from Kipling’s “white man’s mission” to “all world is a chess board” by Zbignev Brzezinski. And by the way for almost 150 years a very good organized and abundantly fed international net of terrorist organizations representing hundreds of countries works on our planet, and the name of International constantly belongs to it.
I beg your pardon, Holmes; don’t you mean Trotskyites? But it’s simply ridiculous! Trotsky has died 60 years ago. Marxism is almost forgotten! –I exclaimed unintentionally, and regretted about the sharpness of my declaration at once. In answer my friend arched his bushy eyebrows in hardly noticeable astonishment and gazed at me.
Do you really think so, Watson?
I felt rather awkward. I knew Sherlock Holmes good enough for not suspecting him of superficiality and shallowness, but too absurd seemed this version of his – some anonymous groups of crazy Marxists, living on the ideas hopelessly old-fashioned even before the moment of their birth, are involved in the crime of our century! But nevertheless, I hurried up to smooth out my indiscretion.
I’m sorry, my dear friend, but things that you say are so extraordinary... I beg you, continue your thought.
I didn’t get offended at all, Watson. I can understand your amazement very well, and assure you: what you will hear now will stun you still more.
I promise not to interrupt you any more.
You must know, Watson, that Communistic International I was founded in our city with direct participation of Karl Marx in 1864. Theoretically the aim of its foundation was to coordinate the subversive terrorist activity all over Europe, but taking into account Karl’s contentious and ambitious character and lack of any organizer’s talent, the effectiveness of those Carbonari work wasn’t great. Very soon his personal conflict with Bakunin, who openly despised that petty bearded bourgeois, schemer and descendant of rabbis, lead to the split of organization and because the most part of it was not on the Marx’s side, he decided to disband it for good.
After the death of “the leader of world proletariat” his faithful comrade in arms, Friedrich Engels, has founded Comintern II in 1889, which consisted only of Marxist groups, though hiding under social-democratic facades. And those conspirators mostly went in for petty terrorism, domestic internecine quarrelling, sectarian squabbles and fights for party cash which was enlarged, as you can guess, Watson, not on the expense of worker’s pence, centimes, pfennings and kopecks, and not for the donations for widows and orphans. Because of internal contradictions and partly thanks to my great-grandfather International II has almost finally split up by the beginning of World War I, and hardly it could leave more strong trace in a History than its predecessor, if it was not for the tiny Russian party RSDRP (Social-Democratic Working Party of Russia), or more exactly, its most urgent flank headed by capacious and creative Marxist, Ulyanov, who got into History under the name of Lenin. I won’t bore you describing the backstage underlying basis of all tragic events in Russia and the rest part of the world at the beginning of the 20th century, Watson; I’ll only tell you, that Trotskyites came to rule under the banners of bolshevism, popular among Russian workers, and created International III anew, which was disbanded by the personal directions of the real Bolshevik, Stalin, after Teheran conference in 1943.
It seemed that the world bourgeoisie would have felt rejoice, having got rid of “the phantom of communism”[13] which Marx let wander Europe, but it was not to be. The campaign against yahoo-cosmopolites without kith or kin begun in the Soviet Union by Stalin made their Northern American patrons to re-create Communistic International, which this time got a name of Socialistic, for not waking associations with horrors of “communistic” revolution and bolshevism’s power in the minds of common people. It happened in 1951 in London; I ask you to remember this date, Watson. It was International IV that was to stop spreading the ideas of Bolshevism-Stalinism over Europe, the ideas which common people in European countries can’t set apart from Marxism-Trotskyism.
Excuse me, Holmes, but I can’t catch it quite well: don’t you want to say, that International IV was founded in 1951 by the governments of capitalist countries led by USA?
Yes, you understood me correctly, Watson. Those, who are looking forward to the world dominance during four latest thousands of years, needed to fill out the ideological vacuum in Europe, which appeared after ruining of Hitler’s national-socialism, for keeping the political control on the masses and saving the illusion of pluralistic pattern of governing. Notice, that this new-born organization wasn’t fictitious: such remarkable parties-lodges of European political arena as English Labourites, French Socialists, German Social-Democrats, and since 1974 – PSOE, Spanish working socialists, were its members. By the way, the social-terrorist party of Salvador Allende, smashed by General Pinochet during the putsch, was either. Strange coincidence – the putsch by Pinochet began that very date – September 11, 1973. I can add that Pinochet’s arrest in England, the trial after it – this all is peculiar revenge to bourgeois democrats from Marxists-Trotskyites, whose positions in the world became firmly established recently. The consequence of the latest International is seen also by its considerable information net spreading all over the world. It is headed by one of the leading American editions The New York Times, with which such papers as “Le Monde”, “The Washington Post”, “El Pais”, “La Repubblica” and many others, it’s hard to count them all, are unite. The leading TV companies of the world belong to this global information net too. The headquarters of the organization is located still in London, as 137 years ago. The sum of numbers is again 11, as you can see.
But why do we know nothing about it then? I can’t remember any publications of any Congresses of so mighty organization in the press. And it must have celebrated its 50th anniversary, mustn’t it!
But it has done so, old fellow Watson: in plain view of the whole world, with fire-works, crackers, and plenty of smoke! And furthermore, doing so, it gave the funeral repast in memory of fallen Chilean comrades (don’t forget that the buildings of WTC were constructed in 1972 and 1973!); also it earned quite a lot, organizing the banquet, and also got much political dividends for their open and concealed supporters. Isn’t it enough for you?
Don’t you want to say, Holmes, that it was Tony Blair ... who exploded those towers of WTC?
Don’t bring my words to absurd, Watson, but believe me – our own Prime minister is closer to that criminal show than any Bin Ladin.
It is a very severe statement, Holmes, and I hope you have more weighty proofs of its thoroughness than yet cited deductions?
Of course, my friend, naturally... and not a few...
Holmes rose and, having approached to an old mahogany desk, took a batch of papers from the upper shelf. While he was slowly leafing through them, they seemed to me to be printed copies of some letters and newspaper articles. At last he’s found what he needed and, approaching to me, he gave me several sheets of paper:” Here, look at that, Watson, at least.” I thanked him and started reading with interest. The first was the copy of the article written by someone named John Kifner from “The New York Times”, and it was titled as flowery and ineptly as Yankee always do: “American Flight 11: A Plane Left Boston and Skimmed Over River and Mountain in a Deadly Detour”. Probably, it was in the author’s purposes that a reader, getting tired of reading a title, will have no desire to penetrate further into his rubbish.
Notice the date, Watson, – advised Holmes.
September 13, 2001, – I read, – And why? You may know that I’m not a superstitious person, my dear Holmes.
You’re not, but you mustn’t forget, that numbers have special, magical importance for those gentlemen, and the number 13 is the most favourable for them. Have you never encountered any people of this kind?
Frankly speaking, no… never… but, wait, I’ve just remembered! I knew one guy, who always cried that number 13 was lucky for him. But you hardly know him.
You see, Watson, it isn’t as simple. Don’t forget, that this paper is a propaganda flagship of International IV. Read attentively.
I started reading. The article was not large, but exceptionally incoherent. There was a feeling, that the author was trying to say something to his reader, but either he was lacking of expressional means, or he tried to say something that he hadn’t right to say for some reasons, and that’s why some extracts seemed to have no sense at all. If it weren’t for Holmes’s persistence, I would never pay much attention to this article. There was adduced the statistics on the flight AA11, which I’ve already learnt from other sources: two pilots, nine flight attendants and 81 passengers – may be, too many stewardesses, but the plane wasn’t little also – Boeing-767. The following passage seemed to me rather strange:
“A seemingly everyday mixture: a television producer, some businessmen, a retired ballet dancer, an actress and photographer, a young man who made a success in the new technology economy”.
Frankly speaking, the contingent of passengers cited in the article – a producer, a ballet dancer, an actress, photographer and a successful expert in “new technology” – in spite of author’s conviction, didn’t seemed to me so typical for a regular flight: to my mind, TV-producers prefer to fly on their own planes. But, from the other side, it is a question of the flight Boston – Los-Angeles, – and God only knows, who is used to take it there.
Further Mr. Kifner for some reason or other considered it necessary to time thoroughly the whole way of the plane from the moment of its takeoff until, so to say, its “arrival to the destination”, with lots and lots of numerical statistics – as if he was talking about the race of Tour de France but not about tragic death of thousands of people. Quite unusual also looked the instrument of the crime – by author’s version – knives and box cutters hidden among shaving things – what could box cutters be, I had no suggestions. The main source of information for Mr. Kifner’s writings turned out to be “The Christian Science Monitor” paper that somehow knew all the details of malicious crime better than anyone else. The following paragraph referring to this paper attracted my attention; there it was explained what the devilish guile used the hijackers to persuade the pilots to hand them over the steering of the “live torpedo”:
“Don’t do anything foolish; you won’t be hurt”, the newspaper reported that the hijackers said, quoting air controllers: “We have more planes. We have other planes”.
If I were the pilot of one of those planes, terrorist’s mentioning of some “more planes” wouldn’t have calmed me down but rather made me become alert and think twice before let the group of maniacs to steer the plane. But if this phrase turned out to be heard “accidentally” by the air controllers and immediately broadcasted all over the world, it would be quite logical to suggest that the meaning attached to it by the “forth power” was addressed not to the pilots dead by that time but to someone else. But whom it was addressed to? There was no answer in the article.
I went on reading. The author apparently wasn’t satisfied by achieved dramatic effect and decided to develop the passengers theme. The actress and photographer turned out to be the same person – 53 years old widow of Anthony Perkins, an actor famous by his role in Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psychosis”. Indeed, inscrutable are the God’s ways! That’s one more example how Fortune can play with man, if not to suggest that someone was born particularly to help it and “make the fairy-tale truth”. And bad is this fairy-tale. David Angell, producer of the television comedy “Frasier”, with his wife Linn; retired ballet-dancer named Sonya Puopolo; businessmen, experts in software and hardware – Daniel Levin and Robert Hayes: piling up of surnames, numbers, and incomprehensible associations. At last the scribbler decided to bang the door and made two most obvious blunders: firstly, he mistakenly indicated the altitude of plane’s location before clashing the building of WTC – 900 f., while the attack took place higher than 90th floor of 411-stored building, that means not under the level of 1100 feet; and then he failed to indicate correctly the time of the first “ram” – 8.48 instead of 8.45.
Well, what can you say, Watson? – I heard slightly coarse voice of my friend.
Much is strange about it, many inexact and obviously mistaken facts, the style is disgusting; I’d fired out such journalist.
Don’t hurry making conclusions, old friend, the article was written by one of the most respectable and professional reporters of the flagship of international journalism, and was copied, with all its obvious mistakes, by many periodicals with million circulations all over the world. Something might escape your notice.
That could happen, Holmes, it was rather hard for me to penetrate into this rubbish.
Now, please, read this, Watson. It is from the same issue of “The New York Times” of September 13. And one more article by the same author, William Glaberson, published the day before.
I followed humbly my friend’s advice. I can’t say that Mr. Glaberson made an impression of more talented writer on me, than his colleague, Mr. Kifner. The same torn, incoherent rendering the facts, formal style, no consistency in argumentation again. Nevertheless, I tried to be attentive to the maximum, for not to lose something important. And I seemed to be successful this time. Having finished reading, I looked at Holmes in silence – and he caught the change of my mood at once.
I see, Watson, you’re almost ready to agree with me, while I even didn’t reveal any information from the documents I have at my hand. I could show you plenty of curious materials from English, French, Italian, Spanish, German and Russian newspapers. I have friends in every country of the world, and they like to let me know everything about the latest events. Apparently, I have my reputation first of all due to my great relative.
Let me ask you, Holmes, when and how did you manage to get to the truth in this affair?
I can confess, Watson, that at the beginning I was full of doubts, like you’re now: it was clear, that behind the action of such large scale there stand some extraordinarily mighty organizations, possessing power, money, armed with all new technologies, but what organizations exactly it were – that was the question. The first doubts arose within me yet on Tuesday while watching the broadcast from Manhattan: have you noticed the showy manoeuvre made by the pilot of the second airliner Boeing-767, flight UA175, before starting the ram of the southern tower? The U-turn like that meant the highest qualification of ace, unattainable for terrorists, even having taken a couple of lessons on the trainer for steering such kind of planes. It’s clear, that an amateur-neophyte isn’t able to make such manoeuvre, and in addition, with the speed of more than 500 km/h, to strike the building 60 m wide in its exact centre, while the wingspan of the plane is a little more than 47m. It’s understandable for any driver who tries to get into narrow gates at high speed for the first time in his life. But really that’s not the point, Watson. It was made with the aesthetic perfection of choreography, yes, yes, that’s what it was – the aesthetic perfection of choreography! The hand of experienced script-writer, operator and director was felt – the hand of people who knew beforehand, that scenes shot by them would then be shown million times before the audience of milliards viewers! And then – all those Hollywood-like repeats from all points and for every taste, almost at once, with panorama views, with dramatic effects – like that with anonymous witness, scared, jumping back from the explosion, but always not in slowed reproduction and not too close, for not letting to make out some inconvenient details. Strange also seemed the fact, that the very moment of the first ram happened to be shot, but that’s not the point. Also I was slightly puzzled by absence of rescue helicopters: for WTC buildings stood for an hour or so before collapsing, and during this time it was really possible to carry the operation of rescuing those poor ones on upper floors. Apparently, it was necessary to someone that as less direct witnesses of events inside the buildings as possible would survive.
Gradually, first information about the number of victims began to appear; but not at once, because for some unclear reasons it was classified at the beginning (and it was in the country which lays claim to be a champion in democracy and freedom of speech!), as well as the lists of passengers in hijacked planes, which was entirely ridiculous. References to heightened delicacy of American mass media towards the tragedy of unparalleled scale for USA can hardly deceive anyone. Everyone knows how much Yankee like to relish every dirt, meanness, pettiness, murder, suffering and blood. Whoever but Americans themselves invented “TV-wars” in live broadcastings by CNN with super-contemporary kinds of weapon, different purposeful and “intelligent” torpedo and bomb strikes? And what’s interesting, Watson: in both buildings of WTC there were 50 thousands of working people, not including tourists; according to the words of witnesses, only few people managed to leave them after the blows and before collapse. By the first, preliminary calculations, the number of victims might be close to dozens of thousands, but what appeared in the end? As my great-grandfather used to say, it’s very hard to catch a dark cat in a dark room, especially, if it’s not there!
