The first bullet missed its target, but the trajectory of the 9mm-jacketed missile - from the end of the silenced SIG Sauer P228 pistol, past the nose of the seated curator and across the vault of the Grand Gallery of the Grand Bibliotheque, Brussels, through three separate oaken shelves, each time coring out a worm-hole of priceless vellum, until it found its final resting place in the spine of an ancient folio of The Epic of Gilgamesh - alerted Monsieur Gordon Sanitaire to the danger he now faced.