10 - Taking the Flak

Nathan ended the call on his phone (which now had an excellent signal), and looked at The Orb. “Well, that went mostly as planned.”

“I assume that your disappearance was more pressing than the matter of your team?” The Orb said.

“You could say that,” Nathan replied. In fact, Christina had screamed at him and he had heard Gail sobbing in the background. Once passed through to Mr. Priest, who wanted confirmation that he was in no immediate danger - both for his own nerves it seemed, as well as to pass on to Nathan’s father - he had spoken to the police. They had asked him a lot of questions designed to try and locate him. He’d followed The Orb’s script and told them that his battery was running low, but he could see light and would head towards it. Then he had hung up before he had to do any explaining; like why he had wandered off (blame the bat!), and how he had gotten a phone signal underground at all (blame Apple)? 

“When you leave my Cavern you will come out near an old mine exit,” The Orb said. “It is close enough to the surface that it will not be beyond the realms of possibility that you got a signal.”

“Won’t I end up back in the passage leading to the lake?” Nathan realized the answer as he said it. “Oh wait, I guess that…what do you call the electric swimming pool I passed through to get here?”

“I believe ‘conduit’ is the closest word in the English language, although in Slovenian there is a word…”

Nathan interrupted hastily. “Conduit it is. I presume the conduit isn’t only connected to the lake passage, and I’ll pop out in the one you mentioned.”

“Correct. The conduit connects my Cavern to six transition points in the Caves’ system.”

“Great. But what about after I get home?”

“As soon as you agreed to take the responsibility, I began tunneling operations to your house.”

“Wait.” Nathan was confused. “You’re going to make a tunnel all the way from here to Copenhagen? Wouldn’t it be easier to use a conduit?”

The Orb backed away and moved around the table. “The conduit functions well over short distances, but larger ones create unacceptable risks.”

“Unacceptable, as in terminal?” 

“Yes, at least to your species. Instead you will use a transportation device to travel along the tunnel. Now, I fear you must depart before the police escalate your disappearance to a full-scale search and rescue operation. By the time you get home, the tunnel to your house will be complete. In the meantime, I suggest you think about your team. My advice is to wait until you have ridden in the transportation device. Once you are satisfied with its function, you can invite potential team members to accompany you. Remember, if they decline I can alter their memories so that they have no recollection of ever being here.”

“Understood.” Nathan checked his watch. He’d been gone for about three hours, and wondered if he was prepared to answer questions, not least of which was why the hell he would go chasing a bat down a cave system? “Ok, let’s get this show on the road.” He walked back to the entrance, with The Orb accompanying him. He got the impression that it was dawdling, so as to not appear to be rushing him.

When they reached the entrance, Nathan reached out and gently put his hand on The Orb. Its surface glowed cyan where he touched the metal skin (or whatever it was? File under: future conversation). He felt a warmth infuse him, radiating inwards to his bones. “So I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Yes. I am sorry that you will now have to face some…music, is that the right word?”

Nathan laughed. “It is, although I’m not sure what I’ll get will be very musical. I expect there’ll be some punishment, but hopefully it’ll be a case of ‘no harm, no foul’. I can use my school-play acting skills and ham it up, say how frightened I was.”

“Until tomorrow then.” Without waiting it backed away, rose rapidly then disappeared into the dark recesses above.

Nathan stood in front of the shimmering haze. This time he was prepared and stepped forward without hesitation. Emerging on the other side, he saw that he was in a different passage. This one was not lit electrically. Instead a dim light came from the direction opposite where he had stepped out. He turned around. The shimmer was gone. He turned back and headed towards the light, being careful to avoid tripping on the uneven floor. After a few hundred meters the light got stronger, and Nathan saw a bright eye looking at him with glowing intensity. Beams of direct sunlight slanted through the air, and dust motes kicked up by his steps made patterns in the rays.

Nathan’s phone emitted a beep so loud that it sounded like it was shouting at him. Then it lost its s**t. He fished it out of his pocket. He had seventy-seven missed calls, fifty-nine voice mails, and over a hundred text messages. This was not going to be pretty.

Nathan stumbled as he stepped out of the passageway and into daylight. He whirled his arms to regain his balance. Failing to defeat gravity, he pitched forwards and himself staring at two pairs of boots. He looked up at two surprised policemen.

“Er du ok?” a sergeant asked, reaching his hand down.

Nathan did his best ‘youth pining for Oscar’ impression, and gasped in faltering Danish that he was, indeed, ok. He saw the policemen exchange a look, which he interpreted as ‘stupid boy’. But that was ok. If they thought he was stupid then the ruse was working. Nathan tried to squeeze a few tears out, but found that it was harder than it looked. He ceded his Oscar to a more classically trained recipient.

The policemen took him to their car and drove him back to the Caves’ main entrance, where an angry (but visibly relieved) Mr. Priest stood amongst a group of other police officers. There was no sign of the bus, or the other students. Doubtless they’d been sent back to the dormitories. He was not going to be popular for forcing the excursion to be cut short, but as he had the world’s future to worry about he was sure he would cope admirably.

Questions were asked, and Nathan supplied the answers he and The Orb had agreed upon. It all held up, as he knew it would. At the moment of his discovery by the police, The Orb had discharged the battery on his phone so that it was now as dead as the proverbial parrot. In fact, The Orb had re-polarized the battery and it could now hold a charge for over six months. The police drove Nathan and Mr. Priest back to the camp site, and by the time they arrived everyone was eating dinner. 

Nathan tried to walk nonchalantly into the dining room. The clatter of cutlery on plates and general chit chat ceased the moment he walked through the door. Nathan felt like a gunslinger who’d walked into a saloon, and caused the good ‘ole ragtime to come to a halt mid-stomp as the patrons all turned to look at him. He saw Christina waving frantically at him from a table in the far corner. Gail was sat opposite her. The table’s position indicated that they had selected it so that he was either: a) forced to do a walk of shame through the entire hall, b) ensconced away from prying ears so that they could interrogate him, or c) both. Nathan looked straight ahead as he picked a path between the tables, but his ears could not block out two thirds of the room. He caught a few choice words in English, Danish, and one language he didn’t know but got the message nevertheless. 

He reached Christina and Gail’s table without being assaulted by any foodstuffs (something he had expected to happen at least once), and collapsed into a chair. Christina had already finished a large plate of lasagne, whilst Gail was daintily working on a corner of the Italian carb-fest. 

“Are you hungry?” Gail gestured to an empty plate which she had obviously taken for him.

Nathan realized he was starving. “Yes, famished.”

Gail cut her lasagne in half, and tipped a portion onto the spare plate. There was so much oil in the lasagne, that it slipped off like it had been greased. Gail pushed the plate over to him, and his friends stayed silent as he wolfed it down. When he’d finished, he sat back and belched appreciatively. That drew more looks from students on tables close to theirs. Nathan ignored them and patted his stomach.

“Ok,” Christina said, “spill the beans. What the hell were you doing heading off like that?”

Nathan wiped sauce from the sides of his mouth. “I saw one of Gail’s bats and followed it”

Gail looked surprised, but Christina knew him too well. “Bull crap!” she said. “You were off doing something. I know you, you wouldn’t sneak off just because some flying mouse fluttered its eyelashes at you.” 

Christina gave Gail a look which Nathan was sure meant something like ‘don’t let him put this on you.’ He moved his head in towards them, and they did likewise in conspiratorial fashion. “Alright there’s more to it than that. I can’t talk about it now. When we get back home, come over to my place and I’ll tell you everything ok?”

Christina punched him in the arm, eliciting a yelp of pain. “C’mon, you can do better than that. Throw us a bone.”

Nathan thought about what he could say. He wanted them on his team, no he needed them on his team. They were his closest friends, and he knew he could trust them with whatever lay ahead. How to hook them without giving too much away? He needed to peak their interest enough to keep them going until they got back to Copenhagen. Then he could invite them round, explain it all, and top the cake with the cherry of a tunnel ride to meet The Orb.

“I met someone,” Nathan said.

“I don’t understand,” Gail choked on a sip of water she’d just taken. 

Christina said, “What, like a pervert?”

“No!” Nathan shouted, then continued in a quieter voice. “No, nothing like that. It was someone important, someone you need to meet as well.”

“I don’t understand,” Gail was still trying to recover from inhaling water. 

“I know.” Nathan grabbed their hands and held them tight, looking at them in turn. “I can’t explain it here, but when we get back home I can tell you everything. Please, trust me ok?”

“Alright,” grumbled Christina. “But if you ever pull a stunt like that again I’ll personally…”

“Stop it Christina.” Gail slammed her palm on the table. 

This was the first time Nathan had ever heard Gail talk Christina down. Presumably it was just as rare an event to Christina, whose mouth was wide open. Nathan let go of Christina’s hand, and gently pushed her jaw up until her teeth clicked. “If it’s any consolation,” he said to her, “I know how you feel.” 

He could tell by Christina’s expression that she didn’t understand. But that was ok. All would soon be revealed.