Scene 3

And then there was this unique spice culled from the scales on the scalp of the Antarctic Emperor Penguin – a discovery attributed to a note penned in the dairy of the coffee trader and passionate Antarctica explorer Aristide Lautremois. Before Maille had embarked on his Antarctica journey, he had waited back in Ushuaia for a parcel from Marie, in which he had found a new mobile telephone with GPS along with a tiny packet of «Aristo», as the new spice was named.
«A gift from Odette», Marie had written on the packet, «it's much too pungent for me, but Odette eats it with relish.»
Had Marie sprinkled some of this «Aristo» in her famous belly-button in order to allure Odette with it?

The yellowish powder smelled of sulphur and tickled the nostrils a bit. But then again it held a whiff of white truffles, then replaced by a smell that Maille believed only a gigantic, over-ripe and almost rotten garlic could give out. It also reminded him of the overwhelming perfume worn by the henchman of Dr Hing, something that was no more than a distant clang now. So must it have reeked between Mata Hari's teeth, he thought suddenly, without being able to explain just why.

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