A small operating room had been set up inside the main tent. In the center was a table full of papers, photographs, and notes, which two of those present there were working on and taking notes. One was a chubby guy, and the other was a short woman who didn’t have her cap on, exposing the havoc that moisture caused in her hair. No one looked clean there.
When Adam and Malin entered, the short woman looked at them as if they were intruders, greeted the District Chief, and went about her business.
Next to a portable power generator that buzzed slowly, there was a modern crystalline console board and four holographic monitors which contrasted with the rest of the things inside the tent. And, although none of the devices had a distinctive logo, Adam watched them, again interested to know if any had been made by Homam Enterprises.
Anderson called one of the two guys who operated the computers: a young man who stood out from the rest for being, in addition to being the youngest among them and looking moderately neat, owner of the only attractive face in Anderson’s team, with hair that was capable of illuminating the darkness thanks to its intense red hue, and large honey-colored eyes.
“He’s my assistant,” Anderson said.
“Biologist Luciano Green,” greeted the young man, somewhat shy, and presented himself to the couple.
Ha! Green? We, the orphans, are everywhere! Adam thought.
“Allow me.” Luciano took their jackets with a kind gesture and laid them on a wooden stick that acted as a clothes rack. “The cold of the early hours of the day was lost on the road,” he added, friendly.
“Luciano, change of plans,” Anderson announced. “Mr. White will go with the lady here, not with me.”
The statement didn’t appear to affect the young man, who merely nodded. He opened an aluminum cabinet, took out the only two protective suits that were there—the only two Malin could see, that was—and passed them on.
She extended hers to see it better. They were simple chemical protective clothing: white jumpsuits, very similar to those used in Biohazard threats or quarantine operations.
“What’s so special about them?” she asked.
“Put them on,” Halstein ordered.
“Is it necessary to do it now?” Malin frowned. “I mean, if we’re gonna have to walk to the rock, wouldn’t it be better to put them on when we’re in front of it?”
“We need to check that the suit systems are working properly,” Halstein replied. “But if you have a problem with that, miss—”
“It’s okay. I have none.”
“Hey, nobody has to walk,” Adam stared, puzzled. “I can fly her to the rock, right?”
“I see that Dr. Gabor did not abound in his explanation of radiations,” Anderson said. “The Kappa radiation of the Ita-Hu has a gravitational weight of nine points. It’s so high that it’s turned the entire perimeter into an area of intensified gravity.”
“And that means...?”
Malin grabbed Adam’s wrist and explained, “It means that if you fly into the perimeter occupied by the rock’s radiation, even you would go down like I did yesterday with the thrusters. We have no choice but to walk.” She took a seat and took off her high-top boots. “Come on, give me those nice rubber boots. I just hope they’re my size.”
“Don’t worry. They won’t be as stylish as yours, but they’ll do.” Luciano Green smiled and glanced at her feet. “I think you and Dr. Anderson fit alike,” he said. “Of course, your feet look more delicate.”
That ephemeral and odd flirtation touched Adam’s ears, and the little charm he had felt for the red-haired biologist upon learning that he was also an orphan went down the toilet; even more so when he saw that Malin had responded to the gesture with a hint of a smile. He pursed his lips, took off his sneakers, and opened up his jumpsuit.
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“Can I wear it without my sweatpants underneath?” he asked but didn’t wait for the answer because it surely would be negative, so he put it on, starting with the legs. “It’s okay. I’ll try not to die out of the heat.” He struggled a little with the sports pants and the suit’s fabric until he fixed them. “And with this, I will be able to move well?”
“It’s for your safety, Mr. White,” Halstein said. The District Chief was standing in the middle of the way, while his subordinates came and went around him.
The insulating suits fit the body with a vertical zipper and an adhesive strap system, and they had a tool belt with small pouches filled with utensils, tiny electric saws, tweezers, and sample containers. Adam went through each one, amazed at how many things he had no idea how to use. For her part, Malin discovered that, on the left side, the suit had a white bracelet with a rectangular screen—off, for the moment—and she couldn’t help comparing it with one of the Auriga bracelets.
Anxious, Anderson got close to Adam and explained to him what to do, illustrating his words with exaggerated motions, just as a picky teacher would with an air-headed student. He lowered his tone of voice when he met Adam’s gaze and raised it each time Adam’s eyes got distracted by the things that were going on around him.
Adam didn’t let his eyes stay still; first, they went from his suit to his gloved hands, then to his partner, then to the biologist who was looking at his partner. They went to Halstein, and finally, they returned to the talkative bird-faced scientist.
“Using your powers carefully,” Anderson was saying, “you’ll have to cause a tiny fracture in the rock, take a sample, and store it in one of the plastic vials on your belt.”
“Assuming my Photia can penetrate the rock’s force field, all right.”
“It will, it will,” Anderson said. “Dr. Gabor’s studies say it will.”
“Lemme tell you, I’ve shattered several T-shirts with my powers,” Adam said and showed his covered hands. “What makes you think I won’t destroy these gloves when I release my discharges?”
Anderson shook his hand to dismiss the issue.
“Mr. White, that fabric is made of a special material that allows the channeling of energy radiation; even large flows like yours.”
Luciano Green helped Adam and Malin put on their transparent masks and then the hood of their suits.
“Those masks have their oxygenation system,” Anderson added.
Adam couldn’t help but associate the faint scent he detected when breathing through the mask with the smell of hospital disinfectant. That smell again! Lately, everything in his life brought back memories of emergency rooms.
Green went to the console board and activated the mini camera that was attached to the front of the hoods, like a third eye. Two of the four monitors showed what Adam and Malin were seeing at that moment, respectively.
“I’ll monitor your movements from here,” Rune Halstein said, and taking one of the plastic chairs in the tent, placed it in front of the console and sat down, in a manner as majestic as if he had done in the comfortable armchair in his office. He crossed his legs and lit one of his cigars. “You’ve got a fortune in those suits. Take good care of them.”
“I see. They’re quite expensive,” Malin commented. “That’s why, coincidentally, there are only two here, no more. If I were a more skeptical gal, I’d say everything’s orchestrated so that Mr. White and I have no choice but to go to the black rock alone and in the most uncomfortable way possible.”
“I remind you it was you who insisted on going with him,” the District Chief said. “If you want to step aside—”
“You know I won’t.”
The cross-glances between Malin and Halstein sparked the air, so much so the workers stopped doing their thing and remained expectant, as if they were afraid those two would come to blows. ‘There are a lot of things here that don’t fit,’ her look said. ‘My word will have to suffice,’ his look replied.
Luciano Green, uncomfortable, interrupted the dispute with the excuse that he had to test the radio transmitters of the masks. He took the microphone from the console and spoke; “Hello, hello,” he said.
After casting one last look at Halstein, Malin focused on what Green was doing.
“I copy you perfectly,” she told him.
Anderson hurried to get the couple out of the tent to avoid delays. Drying the sweat off his face with a handkerchief, he took them away from the camp and led them to a point in the forest where a narrow path, opened by the explorers in the undergrowth, began.
“This is where the area covered by the Ita-Hu radiation begins,” he said. “Follow this path for about fifteen hundred feet and you will reach it.”
The path was rather a macabre tunnel that cut through the grove; a giant mouth waiting open to swallow them, full of lush laurels, ferns raining from the sky, pink trumpet trees, and other wild plants.
“We have taken the precaution of sealing the clearing where the Ita-Hu is with a protective dome,” Anderson pointed out. “Reed is waiting for you there… Reed is our Cyclops. Once you have the sample, please give it to him.”
Forget it, old man, Malin replied in her thoughts. That sample’s my key. No one but me will have it until I’m sure you won’t kick me back to Markabia.
Two agents in gray came up to escort them.
“I thought you would join us, Dr. Anderson,” Malin said, “at least until we reached the entrance to the dome.”
“Since I won’t be able to supervise the task in person, I’ll have to do it through your cameras,” he replied, clearly still upset by the District Chief’s decision to put him out of the operation.
“Well, sir, I hope you enjoy the show.”
“Ready?” Halstein’s rough voice spoke through their hoods’ communicators. “Go ahead.”
Malin took her first steps, and upon realizing Adam was not following her, came back for him and led him by the hand.