The Blood Line

by Ben Yallop

  The day after the body was found a small article appeared in an Adelaide paper about the grisly find. The next day, whilst announcing that the Somerton Man's fingerprints were not on any database the police also released a photograph of the dead man to the media.

  This triggered something quite extraordinary for over the next five years the police collected testimony from people who claimed to know the Somerton Man. Over that five years the police had hundreds and hundreds of witnesses assert that they knew his identity. Literally hundreds of people came. They all knew him, knew him without a doubt. So, why did the police not make public the man's identity? Every one of the 250 names they received was different. It was as though the man had cloned himself and every one of his clones had gone off to live different lives.

  One of the first witnesses to come forward was a man who claimed to have had a drink with the man a few weeks before. The Somerton Man had given his name as 'Solomonson'. A month later the body was identified as a wood cutter named Robert Walsh by several people. However, this was soon proved incorrect when the absence of a defining scar was noted, leading to much confusion from those identifying the body. Others identified the body as a missing friend, a missing stablehand, a steamship worker and a Swedish man. 28 people from the Australian state of Victoria said they knew him. He was identified as a seaman named Tommy Reade but this was soon disproved, just like all the other identities suggested.

  So far so strange.

  Around six weeks after the discovery of the body a brown suitcase was discovered in the cloakroom of Adelaide train station. In the suitcase, along with items of clothing, was a reel of orange thread not normally available in Australia. It was an exact match to some thread sewn into the pocket of the dead man's trousers. The clothes in the suitcase had all had their labels removed apart from some which showed the name T. Keane. A worldwide search revealed that no-one named T. Keane had been reported as missing. But what about the orange thread sewn into his pocket?

  When unpicked it was found that the dead man had a hidden pocket within his trousers. Inside this tiny pocket was a tiny piece of rolled up paper. On that piece of paper were printed the words 'Tamam Shud' in a distinctive font. When translated it was found that the words were taken from the last page of an unusual book called The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. The words meant 'finished'. The police released this clue into the public domain and a man came forward to reveal that he had found a very rare first edition copy of the 1859 version of the book in the back of his car, parked near where the body had been found. The central theme of The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam is that one should live life to the full and have no regrets when it ended. This seemed to be relevant. When checked it was found that the words Tamam Shud had indeed been cut from the back of this book.

  Where the words were torn out there was a series of letters written in faint pencil. At first it was thought that this might be something written in a foreign language but subsequently it was realised to be a code.

  W R G O A B A B D

  W T B I M P A N E T P

  M L I A B O A I A Q C

  I T T M T S A M S T G A B

  A small x appears above the 'O' in the third line. To this day the code has never been translated despite analysis by professionals and amateur experts from all over the world.

  Also found in the book was a telephone number. This was traced to a woman who had owned a copy of the book but had given it to a man named Alfred Boxall. The woman was asked if she could identify a plaster cast of the body. She agreed to take a look and assured the police that she did not know the man but it was noted by the police that on seeing the cast she had been completely taken aback and had nearly fainted. It was as if she had seen a ghost.

  The police naturally thought they had found their man. But then they found evidence that Boxall was still alive and well with a complete and undamaged version of the book.

  Over the years repeated attempts have been made to crack the case. Progress has been hampered because some of the evidence has been destroyed or gone missing. At some unknown point the book itself disappeared. To this day the case is still 'open'. One of the greatest parts of the mystery has been the lack of any clue as to what the man died of.”

  Entry 5

  I found out about something called the Allende meteorite. A strange coincidence. The Allende meteorite is the largest of its kind ever found on Earth and is sometimes described as the best-studied. It fell to Earth as a fireball in the very early morning of 8th February 1969 in Pueblito de Allende in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. The original stone was about the size of a car and probably weighed as much as five tonnes but it smashed to bits as it hit the atmosphere. Relatively small rocks like that almost always break apart before they hit the ground. Hundreds of pieces were collected from the surrounding desert over an area about 50 kilometres long. Funny that Allende’s name should be associated with a rock hitting the Earth. Perhaps this was a practice shot. Maybe he isn’t powerful enough to pull down a big enough meteorite all by himself. We’d best hope that he never finds anyone else as powerful as himself or together they might have the strength to pull down something large enough to make it through the atmosphere.

  Extracts from the diary of Adam Hain relevant to the events of The Circle Line

  Entry 3

  On the assumption that you, Sam, will read this I must tell you what I know about the origin of your name. Of course, through meeting you in our adventures I became aware of the name Sam Hain and so when I was struggling to fit myself into normal society here, the surname Hain came naturally to me. It was the only one I knew! I tried a couple of first names but when I came across the story of Adam and Eve I felt that Adam would suit me well, being a man with no ancestors. I find that Adam Hain is an anagram of I am Hadan. When did I have that idea? I am not sure. But the genius of the name Sam Hain delights me even now and I enjoy the circularity of it all. Samhain means literally summer's end, which can be taken to mean the end of the period of light and the beginning of the period of darkness, the dark half of the year. The Oxford English Dictionary tells us that it is a festival celebrated by the ancient Celts, marking the beginning of winter and of the New Year according to their calendar.

  According to Celtic lore, Samhain was a time when the boundaries between the world of the living and the world of the dead become thinner, allowing spirits and other supernatural entities to pass between the worlds to socialize with humans. Does that sound familiar? You may know this day as Halloween, the very day that we met.

  I have also uncovered some reference to a festival called Sânziene. I mention it here because it is another time, at the summer solstice, when the barrier between worlds is said to thin, just as with Samhain. Strange things and magics are said to happen on Sânziene night and men are told not to walk alone. If there is a thinning of the barrier between worlds at certain times then that is good advice!

  Entry 8

  I came across more evidence of the Riven's incursion today. My time at the library leads me to countless myths, stories and events which cannot be explained by the people here. The past is littered with it all. If only I could find some sort of pattern, or a reference that would allow me to find my way home. But perhaps I have been here too long already. As much as I miss my old friend Weewalk my place is here, with Sam. I must keep him safe, and give him a happy childhood, before that which will come to pass begins. One day I will tell him all this, if it does not drive me mad first. I will record my findings in this journal in the hope that it will, some day, be of use to him...

  Entry 15

  I read today of a disappearance at a site called Stonehenge. Men cannot fathom how the stones came to be here. They cannot see the lines. Apparently, a group of people disappeared from the site during a strange storm. How many of these unexplained events and urban myths are true?

  Entry 17

  Telekinesis. A rudimentary form of presence. Some men can apparently do limited things such as bend spoons. They must be abso
rbing energy from lines without realising just as Weewalk suggested. It must be that you, Sam, will absorb some of that same energy whilst in this house. Strange but I do not feel that I am. It must be that some do and some don’t.

  Entry 19

  Men call it hysterical strength. It is the moment when presence is awakened. The most frequent stories I can find are about people lifting cars into the air, following accidents, to rescue those trapped underneath. The flow of a body chemical called adrenaline seems to flood these people causing them to be able to do things which are superhuman. In 1982 a woman called Angela Cavallo lifted the full weight of a car high enough and long enough that others could drag her son out from beneath it. Sometimes it can manifest itself in another way – the beserker. When this happens rage combines with the presence and the man goes mad and cannot be subdued. The strength of the truly mad man with presence is something to fear.

  Entry 23

  There is a fascination with supposed mythical and undiscovered creatures. Men even have a name for the study of it – cryptozoology. There have been famous sightings of 'Bigfoot' as they call him and his cousins the 'Yeti'. Men have found footprints that seem impossibly large. It seems Squatch is leading them a merry dance and if I ever see him again I will tell him of the intrigue he has caused. If I thought I could track him myself I might be able to find one of the lines he uses but I fear I would never manage it. There is a well-known if not widely believed film of Bigfoot taken in 1967.

  Entry 31

  Egyptians. Aztecs. Mayans. Where did these people find the advances that made their civilisations great? Who were the gods that the Egyptians so revered? Someone from a future Mu? It seems likely. There was an ancient group of peoples in the country of Peru, the Inca. They created stone buildings with an ability that men have not been able to replicate, fitting stones together with absolute precision so that massive temples were built with no mortar to seal the gaps between blocks. Presence must be involved in the setting of those stones.

  Entry 35

  Aha, success today. I found the origin of the ship, the USS Cyclops. It was referenced in a history book. Sometime after 4 March 1918 it sailed into the area men know as the Bermuda Triangle and vanished without trace. 306 passengers and crew vanished with it. Those poor men must have thought they had steered into hell when they smashed through that dark cavern into a nest of wendigo. Interestingly, the sister ships of the Cyclops, the Proteus and the Nereus vanished in the North Atlantic during the Second World War.

  There are plenty of newspaper headlines about the USS Cyclops.

  “More Ships Hunt For Missing Cyclops”, New York Times, 16 April 1918

  “Fate Of Ship Baffles”, Washington Post, 16 April 1918.

  The same book tells of another disappearance. In 1915, during the First World War, 250 soldiers and 19 officers vanished from a battlefield in a place called Dardanelles. They were seen to enter a stand of trees when a strange cloud descended upon them. Shortly after the cloud lifted into the sky and the men were never seen again. I wonder which of the Riven caused that horror.

  Entry 42

  The rolling rocks of Death Valley are the subject of some mystery. Despite scientific analysis men have yet to discover how such enormous stones seem to move independently across the flat plain called 'Racetrack Playa'. Apparently two geologists called Jim McAllister and Allen Agnew were mapping the rock in the area in 1948 when they came across the tracks. The best theory I found relates to the forming of ice under the rocks which are then driven forward by strong winds! Vallalar would be amused to know that his training ground has caused such fascination!

  Entry 46

  The stories of werewolves are well known. Garoul, as we know them, have appeared again and again in human history. Interestingly, the folklore seems to point towards werewolves as men who can either change their shape at will, or to whom it happens involuntarily during the full moon. It’s right that the garoul have always been more active during that phase of the moon but they cannot change back into men. Of course, there is a theory in Mu that they were men once but have, over generations, morphed into something beastlike.

  Less well known are animals such as the Sitecah, Nandi and Ropen although I did find some references. It seems that a group of Sitecah giants were wiped out by Native Americans. Mummified skeletons were found in a cave in 1911. There is a theory that their name refers to their diet. Of course, it is a Murian word. As for Nandi, again there seems to be some blurring over the name. They are here called Nandi Bears and are thought to take their name from the Nandi people of Western Kenya. Information is even more scant about the Ropen which are said to be mythical flying beasts which perhaps live in Papua New Guinea.

  Funnily enough, as I was searching for these ‘mythical’ creatures I found a reference to our friend Hödekin. It seems he has quite the following in Germany!

  Entry 48

  I decided to look at some children's books today and what a surprise. There are endless examples here contained within what men amusingly call fairy stories. I found a dozen books about mermaids and, looking further, it seems that legends of such beings date back almost as long as man has known of the sea. Men seem to think there are two sorts of 'mermaid'. The beautiful benevolent woman and the dangerous menacing siren who lures men to their deaths. This is an interesting development. So far as I am aware the Nommo have always been peaceable. J?ran's wife was certainly both pretty and kind. Perhaps in my own future they will be the subject of some change which will lead them to hunt men. I discovered in one book that a tribe in an African country called Mali have spent more time with the Nommo than any other. It is claimed that, before a man called Galileo theorised that the planets revolve around the sun and that Saturn had rings, the Dogon tribe had gathered this information from the Nommo who apparently arrived in some kind of aircraft which created fire and thunder.

  Entry 55

  Vallalar, the old rogue. I have discovered a story about him. He is described as a saint who on 30th January 1874, after lecturing on the ‘nature of the powers that lie beyond us and move us’ disappeared forever from a locked room. I bet that impressed the audience! He must have had the entrance to a line within his chambers. Clever!

  Entry 57

  I think I have found the location of a line. There is so much to learn about this world that I feel it impossible to find a path through all the information, but I think I have found a line. I thought it existed in Mu, but it is here. The Island of the Pelicans (Isla de los Alcatraces in Spanish) off the coast of modern day San Francisco was long feared and believed to be cursed by the native Indians who lived in the area before white men arrived. They said that the island was the haunt of evil spirits and contained a portal to another dimension. The island is now known as Alcatraz and is the site of a notorious prison. I think this is a place that Weewalk and I visited in the past. It seems that the cell 14D might hold the line. A prisoner was apparently murdered within the locked cell by a figure with glowing red eyes. Jak perhaps? I will do more research on him.

  Entry 64

  Hmmm, Jak has been making a nuisance of himself it seems. He was spotted in Victorian England and had already fashioned himself the nickname of ‘Spring-heeled Jack’. He was seen frequently in 1837 and occasionally in subsequent years all over England. But the trail goes cold in about 1904. Much is made of the great leaps he could make, his clawed hands and glowing red eyes. It was often said that he looked like the devil. I wonder how far back in time Jak has visited. Is he the devil himself? Here a quote

  ‘This here is Satan, we might say the devil, but that ain't right, and gennelfolks don't like such words. He is now commonly called 'Spring-heeled Jack’

  What to make of that? Either way there is a great amount of material written about him, much of it in well-respected newspapers. The Times was one paper which reported one of his early attacks on a woman named Jane Alsop. The headline on 2 March 1838 was “The Late Outrage At Old Ford”. This may be as close as
men have come to one of the Riven.

  Entry 67

  There was a story in the news today about a number of strange sinkholes appearing across the planet. They are almost perfectly spherical and the ground opens up without warning. This sounds like someone is carelessly opening lines underground. The newspaper said that a large one had appeared in China. I wonder whether it was near the entrance to Shambala. It seems that men in ancient Tibet came across a line and were able to enter it. Their ancient texts describe a 'hidden kingdom' which led to the legend of a lost valley called Shangri-La. It seems they even travelled as far as somewhere they called the Palace of Kalapa and very ancient illustrations show that they saw aircraft. The ancient Tibetans predicted that in time the inhabitants of Shambala would gain great powers such as telepathy and the ability to travel great distances at great speed. Is this presence or did they simply move forward in time to find miraculous technological innovations which men today find ordinary. One important thing to note is the date I found. The Tibetan texts predict the world will end in the year 2425.

  Entry 72

  The Great Fire of London. September 1666. I know with certainty how that came about. Indeed, I feel I must accept some responsibility for leading Ferus to that bakery on Pudding Lane. There is a great deal written about the event (including by a man called Samuel Pepys, I wonder whether this wasn't my Sam peeping?) but interestingly, not often reported, is that the men of the time believed the fire to be a great conspiracy by some foreign power. There were rumours and reports of suspicious men throwing ‘fireballs’ into homes.