The Island of Golden Zandolie 4. The Blue Blood

By Lilia Cadette

After incredible adventures in the Caribbean with aliens, mutants and reptilians, our heroes return home – to Paris, London, the various cities of Russia. But the call of the "blue blood" brings them back together again. Who is the real alien? This is the fourth book of "The Island of Golden Zandolie" series. 
All illustrations done by the author. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Strelbytskyy Multimedia Publishing
• Release date: Dec 10, 2021
• ISBN: 9780880030106

Book preview

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 he is!

Luca nodded and threw himself into Jean-Paul's arms. Both were crying. Is it finally time for answers to all questions, after long, painful months of Jean-Paul's isolation, shame, doubts about everything!?

Will Luca save the good name of the French scientist for Jean-Paul, and will he himself and his career in the modeling business be saved as well?

Reputation – it could be built by years of hard work and be destroyed overnight! By a revealing article in the business press… or by a single photograph in a glossy magazine…

Chapter 2

Jolly Roger vs. Big Eyes’ Dragon

A distant, mountainous island lost in the Atlantic has become a second home for a former Dutch baker named Roger… and a real pirate den.

This place was nicknamed the Island of Golden Zandolie among various adventurers, rogues, smugglers and other random rabble. And this place was the last in the Caribbean, where real Indians still lived from time immemorial.

Some years ago, the long string of tragic events started with a sudden appearance on the island and then death of the alien Golden Zandolie and his brethren.

Then, for a very short time, the Island was ruled by his children, giant and sterile mutants, who scared away the entire local (human) population – everyone except the Indians and pirates.

And now on the Island there has come a time of anarchy, without any government, electricity, transport or communications. At one end of the islet was Jolly Roger Cove – home to the modern pirates of the Caribbean, and at the other end was an Indian reservation led by its chief, Dominic.

People, who left the island in horror and haste, did not even want to remember their past life in this deceptive tropical paradise.

It seemed as if the whole world had forgotten about the very existence of an entire state, albeit a small one. No one was in a hurry to help, although the territory of the Island of Golden Zandolie could now easily be called a zone of humanitarian crisis.

It played into the hands of Roger and his pirate friends. A tropical island with many secret bays and outlawed was an excellent transshipment point for all gifts of the sea.

What about the Indians? What was it like for them, who grew up on many modern benefits of civilization (light, communications, the Internet), to be completely cut off from the outside world?

Even before that, the Indians were avoiding any contacts with the rest of the island's population. They were living very simply and separately, on the most inaccessible coast. They even had to fish, lowering the boats along the ropes from the high rocky shore.

And now the Indians could freely settle all over the Island. However, for some reason they were in no hurry to do this…

There was one more power on the Island – the Big Eyes’ Dragon, that is, aliens. UFOs continued to fly everywhere, often emerging unexpectedly right from the depths of the sea.

It seemed that the Island of Golden Zandolie was a heavenly place full of pristine beauty and tranquility, where there was enough room for everyone, be it pirates, Indians or even aliens…

Roger, the ever-cheerful Dutchman of about sixty-five, short and bald, with round glasses on a red nose, was sitting on the seashore on the terrace of the garden of his Jolly Roger tourist complex with an uncorked bottle of beer and pondering.

Things were going well as never before! From a simple, humble keeper of pirate booty and restaurateur, Roger has become the chief pirate, the brain center of all operations in the region. His authority has grown just fabulously! Pirates and smugglers of all stripes sought advice and conflict resolution, trusting him with their goods and their secrets.

However, Roger has never been so lonely! Many of his friends – Scott, Julia, Denis, Zina and others – had left the island.

His beloved nephew Jean-Paul had gone as well.

It was painful to remember about Jean Paul… That time Roger got simply scared. He knew about the Paris scandal. He knew that his nephew had lost his memory and could not clearly explain his findings and discoveries of hybrid life on the Island. But Roger did not come to his aid. After all, then his BUSINESS would suffer! The pirates would never forgive him for that. The island did not need any glory, except for bad one!

When Jean-Paul was visiting his uncle on the Island, Roger was reluctant to share with him any information about local aliens and mutants. First, he himself has never seen a single UFO. Secondly, he had a premonition that it would all end badly! It was easier not to notice anything…

Eventually Jean-Paul stopped calling him. Roger was left all alone with his pirates…

Woof!…Oh yeah! Not quite alone! Next to Roger sat his devoted German Shepherd Dushka! Which, for sure, also missed all the friends and nephew of the old red-nosed Dutchman Roger…

Suddenly a dusty SUV appeared in the parking lot of the complex. Who could it be and where did he get the gasoline? But yes, a handful of castaway marauders could still remain somewhere on the island.

Roger reached for a gun in a drawer under the bar. Oh, troubled times, there were only bandits everywhere!

But no, this was Dominic, the former Indian consul and the current chief of all Indians! He probably imagined himself the owner of the Island – how important he has become, how fat!

Hello, Dominic, Big Hog!

And hello to you too, Roger, Red Nose!

Pour you a glass of fire-water?

No, I came on business! I want to remind you and warn you… The Big Eyes’ Dragon is our patron from time immemorial! The aliens are on our side! Now the great moment has finally arrived – the whole Island is ours again!

Not quite yours! I'm here!

Till I allow you to! There are thousands of us and plus aliens!

Roger calmly pulled out his gun and placed it on the table in front of him, still sipping his beer. There was an uneasy silence. Dominic's olive eyes threw lightning, even his long braid of black wavy hair trembled at the end from the hot wave of anger that swept the Indian chief from head to toe.

Dominic knew he has to say something in return. He was infuriated by the calm look of Roger, the sneer in his malicious look over his round glasses. The Dutchman was a short old man, and the Indian was completely square, as if hewn out of stone by a man of about forty! Dominic could probably have destroyed Roger on the spot, despite his gun and his dog!

At this very moment, the shepherd dog Dushka growled warningly, as if reading the thoughts of the chief.

Okay, Roger, here we are! Live, as long as you don’t bother us. But it would be better if you closed your business and drove back to your Europe!

Dominic turned around, got into the car and drove away quickly, kicking up clouds of dust.

What kind of people?! Not so long ago, the late mutant Ray, the leader of the rebels, was shouting my Island! and sending lightning with a glance. And now this chief of the Redskins!

How Roger lacks normal human communication, with Jean-Paul, with Scott, with others… Oh…

Roger threw out his empty beer bottle and poured himself some rum. He loved Absolut, but now it was difficult to get, like any other fuel…

He pulled out a satellite phone from the safe and looked around. There was no connection on the island for a long time. This device was secretly sold to him by one of the hastily leaving telecoms specialists – the company's emergency phone in case of hurricanes.

Thank goodness, Roger managed to keep the phone secret from the pirates and sometimes charge it on the sly at night. This was his last link with the outside world.

At first, he decided that he didn’t need anyone, that he was a god and a king on the island… The pirates praised him and trusted him the lion's share of the loot – how not to go slightly mad after all… Especially, when not much left of your brain after years of drinking…

That what Roger was pondering about, when he finally decided to call his nephew… How shameful!… Maybe, really, give up everything and go home to Holland? How much does he need, the old man?

Roger dialed a familiar Parisian number, smiled, and immediately switched from English to French in conversation.

"Jean-Paul! Salut! Ça va?"

Uncle! Where are you calling from! Doesn’t matter! How on time! I recalled everything! All our adventures on the island, all our amazing discoveries! Mutants, aliens, all!! And most importantly, tomorrow I will meet with a real, live hybridomorph, that is, a mutant, right here in Paris! O! Uncle! Forgive me, I've been terrible lately! I was thinking only about my lost discoveries and ruined reputation!

It is wonderful that everything is working out for you, my boy! But wait! You said you met a real mutant in Paris? How did you find him? As far as I remember, all the mutants are now under water, by the reptilians!

"No, uncle, I have not met the mutant yet, but I will meet tomorrow, I am sure that he is real!… Wait a minute! You said, all mutants are now under water, by the reptilians! Do you know something? Wait! You knew?! You knew something and hid it from me?!"

Jean-Paul!

I was asking you questions! I was trying to remember! You assured me that you do not know anything that could help me… Why!?!?!

Because! Every time it comes to aliens and mutants, the world is ending! Finally, our business has blossomed like never before! Finally, peace and quiet! I fled from noisy Europe to retire in a tropical paradise! Dominic showed up today and declared war on me! What an impudent man! You see, the Big Eyes’ Dragon is on their side! Like these wild Indians are strongly needed by advanced reptilians, who are equally dexterous in flying and swimming in their UFOs!

Uncle, what are you talking about!!?!

"So, you did not recall everything, it turns out! My dear boy! Okay, listen! Perhaps this is important for you… I am guilty before you, I confess… We have a whole underwater city of reptilians here. All the mutants, who were of already dying species, fled there!

So, mutants, perhaps, are still alive, underwater? And there are aliens?

"Not aliens, but reptilians – the real earthlings!"

Where did you get all this?

All of you were discussing all of this right here, with me, when you were going to have dinner at the big table, and more than once!

"Uncle! Wait! Real earthlings! I am hearing this for the first time! Or have I really not recalled everything!? I must return to the Island! And you will really help me this time! After all, last time I had a vacation by you for almost a month and did not know anything about aliens and mutants! Then I found out everything quite by accident, just before leaving for Paris! You knew everything! And remained silent!"

Jean-Paul! Enough! I personally have not seen anything extraordinary on the Island! And I didn't want to feed you, a real scientist, with tales! But if this is important to you, then come. I will tell you all the legends, gossip, rumors, beliefs that I have heard over all years of my life here! About flying witches soucouyant, about people turning into birds and lizards, about black magic, dragons, a Great Serpent, a golden boiling lake under the ground and other nonsense!

There is gold on the island!?

Yes! Yes! And mutants have been mining gold for a long time – first for the alien Golden Zandolie, then for the Russian businessman from London, and now, probably, for the reptilians, if they’re still alive!!!

Uncle, sorry, but are you drunk?

Drunk! But not mad as yet! If you want the whole truth, so come on, fly in! Just remember. The Island of Golden Zandolie will eat you up. The Serpent and the Dragon guard their secrets well! It's better not to ask questions here!

Sorry, uncle, we'd better talk at another time! I was glad to hear your voice. Hope to see you soon! Say hi to my beloved dog Dushka!

Sheepdog immediately barked, apparently hearing her nickname. Roger looked reproachfully at Dushka, gulped down the bottle of rum and went to bed.

How tired he had become, of everything!

The most remote and calm island in the world turned out to be the cosmodrome of all possible UFOs and the homeland of a variety of mutants with superpowers and even reptilians – the real earthlings!

Chapter 3

Zina the hybridomorph and a random snapshot of an alien

Zina was walking in the forest and picking strawberries for a long time. The day was just magical, sunny and breezy. It was very quiet in the forest, only the birds rarely exchanged short trills, sometimes the sound of a woodpecker or a slight rustle of foliage was heard.

Predators such as foxes and wolves were sometimes found here. There was talk about bears, but Zina did not believe the rumors and was never afraid to wander through the forest alone. Zina was very tall and strong, and she did not go out into the forest without a gun. From the back, she could easily be mistaken for a hunter due to her large size, simple coarse clothing such as jeans and a windbreaker, and heavy shotgun in a case. But Zina would never have thought about shooting animals. In a deep forest, people were much more dangerous.

Today Zina took only a basket for strawberries. The shotgun would have interfered with the picking of the berries. The jam will turn out to be bliss! Zina loved this time very much, when small bright red berries seemed to be playing hide and seek! They seem to be nowhere to be found, but just look under the leaf, and there is a whole clearing of berries!

But not only Zina loved strawberries. A huge old bear was also enjoying life very close to her, savoring sweet and aromatic berries. Probably, the heady pacification of a sunny day in a dense forest dulled the instincts of both – Zina and the bear suddenly collided nose to nose!

Well, not really, of course! They noticed each other, coming out simultaneously from opposite sides into a small, sunlit clearing. Perhaps Zina was walking against the wind, and the clubfoot giant did not catch her smell in time. The bear immediately got up on its hind legs and growled deafeningly.

This was the first meeting with a bear in the forest in Zina's entire life. The shotgun, as luck would have it, was not there. Only one basket full of strawberries! What a pity! Still, she could never have killed the forest giant!

Suddenly, a scene from the recent past flashed in Zina's mind. A huge mutant Ray was towering in front of her, flashing blue lightning. His dreadlocks were stirring like snakes from the electrical discharges of the enraged giant. Ray was so angry that he even levitated slightly above the ground! He looked straight into Zina's eyes, sending his deadly blue rays to her. And suddenly she just returned his own charge with