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Jean-Pierre turned toward the stalactites, but the hermit was not there. The Frenchman took a few steps and saw that behind the stalactites there was a low passage into another hall of the cave. He went inside and began to peer into the darkness. A few torches were burning, mounted on the walls, but they did not illuminate the cave completely. He saw the light reflect off something on the floor. After a few seconds, when his eyes became accustomed, the outline of the hermit, who was sitting with his back to the shore of the underground lake, became visible. The distant sound of water reached Jean-Pierre. He looked more closely and wanted to call out to Bhrigu, but he felt the fatigue building up again. He could no longer resist: he sat down on the ground, put his back against the wall and switched off.
Part 2 – Chapter 25
Bernard Bajolet tapped his phone once more, wondering how to start the conversation. The number was already typed on the screen, but he hesitated to start the call. He pressed the button, and the call went through.
“Mademoiselle, good afternoon, my name is Bernard Bajolet, we work together with your husband,” he began.
“Yes, yes, monsieur Bonjour,” came Audrey’s voice.
“I don’t want to worry you, but I have information that the plane Jean-Pierre was on has disappeared from the radar.”
Audrey was silent. She stood at a loss in the middle of the kitchen, and her heart sank with fright and bitterness. Monsieur Bajolet was also silent for a while.
“I understand,” he began. “Please, Audrey, keep my number, I will let you know all the news. They haven’t found the plane, which means,” he hesitated, “that there is hope.”
The last words sounded unnatural and rude. He tried to correct himself, but stopped and decided not to continue to make her feel better, but to tell her the facts.
“The plane disappeared about two hours ago over the mountains in Nepal. The weather there is very bad right now, but a hiking rescue team has been sent there. They need time to get there.”
Bernard Bajolet was walking in a small circle the whole time he was talking, but suddenly he froze and, nodding, said:
“As soon as there is news, I will call you.”
“Okay,” the young woman said in a suppressed voice.
Audrey put the phone away and looked at the screen. It was counting down the time of the call. The seconds kept running: 43, 44. Suddenly, the numbers froze – Bernard Bajolet hung up.
Audrey looked around the kitchen. She looked at the refrigerator, at the table. There was no way her thoughts could break the dam of shock. “I have to call Madame Julie.” She picked up the phone and began searching for the number of Jean-Pierre’s mother, but there was no way she could do it. The letters began to blur, and her breathing became labored. She felt herself being pinned to the floor. She closed her eyes and held her breath, shaking her head from side to side. Then she gathered her strength and went to the room, opened her computer, and went to a news site. “Flight 274 Paris-Tokyo has gone off the radar. Circumstances are being clarified,” read Audrey.
Her instinct and habit triggered from the awareness of the threat, the fear, and the pain. She grabbed her phone and dialed Jean-Pierre’s number – ‘out of range’.
Audrey put the phone away. Picked it up again, put it away again. She got up and sat down several times. Tried to say something, to think about what to do. She walked a few laps around the room, closed the curtains, and lay down on the couch. Tears came to her eyes, but she held them back, trying to cope. Her breathing became short and her chin shook.
“No!” she burst out.
Part 2 – Chapter 26
Jean-Pierre’s consciousness returned to his body. He felt light and refreshed when he heard familiar voices nearby. He opened his eyes and saw Debby floating in the water. The torches on the walls dimly illuminated a huge hall, most of which occupied the visible part of the underground lake. The water seemed a rich blue, and Jean-Pierre didn’t immediately realize he was awake. He got up and sat back, trying to see what was going on.
The huge hall of the cave went into darkness, hiding the calm subterranean lake. Only at the entrance to the cave was a small patch of land that disappeared into the blue water at an incline. The walls of the cave were slightly moist, the air fresh and warm. The opposite end of the lake was not visible because of the darkness and the huge stalactites and stalagmites that hung from the high vault of the cave and stuck out of the water like islands.
Debby and Yulia were swimming in the water. Debby was laughing, and Yulia was swimming beside her, holding her hands. On the shore stood Dr Capri and David. They were talking to Debby:
“Try to bend your leg at the knee,” Dr Capri said loudly.
Jean-Pierre perked up, the drowsiness abruptly gone, and he rose to his feet.
“What’s going on?” he shouted.
The doctor threw a disgruntled look at him, and David came closer and with a smile spread his hands to the sides as a sign of surprise:
“We have no idea ourselves,” he laughed. “Debby had a fever this morning. She moaned and Bhrigu suggested that we should put her in the water. After a few minutes, she came to. And look. It’s been half an hour, and she’s already swimming. I woke you up, but you slept tight.”
David led Jean-Pierre to the water’s edge. They looked in disbelief at the cheerful girls who were swimming in the water a few feet away. Debby waved to Jean-Pierre.
“Hello!” she shouted cheerfully. “Hello, my hero!”
“How are you feeling?” Jean-Pierre asked softly.
Debby looked at the smiling Yulia and said:
“I don’t know yet. Weak. But it seems to be fine.”
Jean-Pierre smiled absently and said to Dr Capri:
“That’s… That’s impossible! She had a fracture, I looked at her leg.”
The doctor shook his head and thoughtfully said:
“I know. I’m sure it was a fracture. Now we’re going to take her out of the water and try to see what’s going on. I don’t know what to say for now.”
Jean-Pierre squatted down, took water from the lake in his hands, and washed his face. He looked at the door-stretcher, which lay on the bank of the lake. Next to him, David walked knee-deep into the lake to help the girls get out.
The water was very pleasant: cool and soft.
“Debby,” said Jean-Pierre, “how is your leg?”
Debby swam closer to the shore and took hold of Yulia’s arm and put her feet on the bottom.
She looked into the clear water and let go of Yulia.
“I can stand,” Debby said, looking at the audience on the bank. “I feel a burning in my leg, where the wound was.”
“Does it hurt?” Dr Capri asked.
“No-no,” Debby said, smiling. “It’s… It’s like,” she chose her words, “the buzzing of bees.”
Jean-Pierre looked at the doctor and David.
“That’s it!” shaking the head, Jean-Pierre said. “Come back.”
He beckoned Debby with his hand. And she walked slowly toward him, expecting that now, under the growing weight of her body, the pain would return. David took a few steps to help her out. Yulia walked behind and wrung her t-shirt right off her body.
David helped Debby ashore and went to help Yulia. The bottom was pretty slippery.
Everyone surrounded Debby and looked at her in silence, waiting. She wrung out her shirt and twisted her hair. Jean-Pierre leaned closer to her leg to take a look. The leg was fine. Debby’s wet clothes fit her body smoothly, and there was nothing in place of yesterday’s bump on her hip. Debby was shivering from the chill and felt embarrassed that everyone was looking at her.
David picked up a towel and some of his t-shirts that were lying by the stretcher and gave them to Debby and Yulia to dry their hair and wipe off.
“Hi,” Debby decided to start, “my name is Debby Glandfield. I live in Stamford. Teach history at school,” she realized that she hadn’t succeeded, and after waiting for a while, she continued. “This is Jean-Pierre, he’s a very serious man,” she smiled.
There was another pause.
“I’m David,” said the waist-wet young man, nodding in encouragement. “I guess I’m the only one here willingly.”
Jean-Pierre looked at him with incomprehension, and then glared at him.
“I’m on vacation here,” as if apologizing, David said. “And this is Yulia, she is from Russia.”
Yulia smiled at David and nodded, picking up the phrase.
“I’m from Russia, I work in Roscosmos,” she smiled warmly at Debby and then caught two heavy looks on her face.
Dr Capri looked at her a little disappointed, and Jean-Pierre almost opened his mouth in amazement.
“Really?!” Jean-Pierre got turned on. “Roscosmos?! Tell me what’s going on here!” he looked at the doctor and seemed ready to attack him.
Dr Capri calmly looked into the Frenchman’s eyes and turned to Debby.
“My name is Dr Capri, you may call me Tulu-Manchi,” he held out his hand to Debby and shook it. “You’re feeling better now, there’s no doubt about it. And perhaps we should get to what’s going on here.”
He turned to Jean-Pierre, thought for a moment, choosing where to begin, and told him everything that had happened to him and Yulia in the last few days. He began with Kathmandu, how they had detected some incomprehensible signal, how they had figured out what the message was. He told how they had gone on a search with the military. How the meeting with David took place. The Englishman added to the doctor’s story how his cell phone went crazy and stunned him. Then Tulu-Manchi shared how they had all seen the plane crash together and how its tail section surprisingly slowly fell to the ground and the main hull disappeared in the sky. Dr Capri ended how they rushed with the military to the fallen wreckage, realizing that there might be people there.
“It all happened,” the doctor looked at Debby, “and we met you.”
“Yes,” Yulia said. “The signal we found at the observatory, David’s phone, the helicopter crash, and your plane crash,” looking at Debby, Yulia said. “It’s all the same thing. It’s all connected to a signal whose source is somewhere around here.”
David sat on the floor and shook his head, unable to understand how the signal made him come here. He thought of Yulia and the doctor trying to find the source of the anomaly, Debby and Jean-Pierre had not come here of their own free will, but he had come himself. He came here on purpose, and he didn’t understand why it was so important to him.
“Wow!” David said. “So this signal broke your helicopter, Jean-Pierre and Debby’s plane, and called me on my cell phone?” David raised his eyebrows.
“Yes,” a voice came from behind. “Better you are now. Leg will not pain.”
Debby looked through the people at the figure behind them. Bhrigu stepped closer and bowed to everyone.
“Who are you?” Debby asked in amazement.
“Your friend Bhrigu. I live here. You were very sick this morning. The lake to help you. The lake to help anyone who wants.”
He looked around at everyone with a smile.
“Ear,” looked at David, and said Bhrigu. “Fear,” he looked at Yulia. “Powerless,” he smiled at Jean-Pierre. “Your leg,” he said to Debby. “Not understanding,” Bhrigu said quietly to the doctor.
The doctor rounded his eyes and was about to say something, but Jean-Pierre beat him to it. He grabbed the hermit by the robe with a sharp movement and pulled him closer.
“You are saying that it was you who arranged all this madness.”
The hermit closed his eyes and smiled. Dr Capri rushed over to Jean-Pierre.
“Are you crazy, let him go!” shouted the doctor.
“But he…” Jean-Pierre didn’t have time to finish.
“He just wanted to say…” the doctor didn’t finish his sentence either, David interrupted him.
“But how does he know about my ear?”
Debby slowly walked over to the old man and looked at Jean-Pierre. He let go of the hermit. Everyone froze.
“Thank you, Bhrigu, for helping me. Tell me, how did the lake heal my leg?”
Bhrigu bowed again, first to Jean-Pierre and then to Debby.
“How?” he wondered. “I can show you,” he held his right hand up, as if holding an apple in it. “Strong need if exists, lake slake it,” he made a movement as if putting an object with his left hand into his right hand.
David stepped closer to the hermit and asked quietly:
“Are you talking about wish fulfillment?” he was breathing heavily with excitement.
Bhrigu smiled and looked at David with a smile, the way fathers look at their sons.
“Hey, damn you all! What’s going on here? What wishes, what lakes, what signals from Voyagers?” shaking his head, Jean-Pierre said loudly. “Have you all lost your minds? We need to get out of here immediately and look for heli.”
Jean-Pierre walked briskly toward the exit, David was still staring at Bhrigu expectantly.
“Jean-Pierre!” Debby shouted in his wake. But he didn’t answer.
Everyone looked at Bhrigu. And he smiled calmly and looked back at everyone.
Jean-Pierre entered the other hall of the cave and clenched his fists with tension and incomprehension.
“That’s it, I’ve had enough,” he said quietly to himself in French, “we have to get out of here. What are they up to?!”
He stared at the smoldering fire, exhaled loudly, and began to move toward the bundle of wood lying near the wall. He wanted to see what the weather conditions were now, and if they could find the remains of an airplane fuselage or maybe a military helicopter, but…
“What?” Jean-Pierre whispered, and his eyes darted around.
Part 2 – Chapter 27
“How’s that?” looking around, Jean-Pierre whispered near the blank wall of the cave. “Where is the exit?”
He looked around, but found no other passage than the one that led to the hall with the lake. He took a step back from the wall, then walked toward it again and began to move parallel to the wall by touch. He touched it with his hand to make sure of what he saw. The space was quite dim. He took a few more steps and went back to the logs. He picked up some dry twigs and threw them into the fire in the center of the hall. The fire quickly grew brighter. All the walls became clearly visible. Jean-Pierre looked them over carefully once more. The confusion was quickly replaced by anger. He walked in a circle, tapping his hand on the wall. When he reached the makeshift shelves, he kicked them off. The solid monolithic rock was all over the place.
“How could it be?” mimicking a grimace of incomprehension, Jean-Pierre thought.
“How could it be?” he said quietly, remembering the circumstances of last night.
“How could it be?” he shouted, rushing toward the lake.
