After receiving detailed directions to the Gautama sector we returned to the car. It was a slightly drastic measure, but we’d been able to fix the guy’s attitude problem. It’s never too late in life to learn a valuable lesson. We drove around the loop and drove away from the CDC headquarters building. Making it back through the beautiful park, we got on the highway toward the outskirts. Since we didn’t have an auto-navi, we had to watch the highway signs and make sure we didn’t miss our exit, which was a pain. Yuri was looking up, pulling back her black hair.
That’s when it happened.
A voice was broadcast out of the communicator.
The incoming-call signal didn’t even go on. Suddenly there was a voice.
“This is the mayor. Kei, Yuri, can you hear me?”
The static was awful, and he sounded wound up, but this was definitely the mayor’s voice. Surprised, I turned sharply and the car swerved.
“You’re gonna kill us!” Yuri shouted angrily. This was no time to start filing complaints.
“Mayor, this is Kei. What’s wrong?” I answered. There was no image on the video screen.
“Oh, am I getting through?”
The mayor’s voice sounded relieved.
“Mayor, where are you hailing us from? The connection is pretty bad, so just give us the basics,” I told him.
“I am on my way to the Gautama sector,” he replied. “There’s been an accident at Mine #4. I hear it’s pretty bad.”
Mine #4! Accident!
So that’s what was going on in Gautama. It was a problem at a mine. We’d gotten the directions from the guy at the headquarters building, but we should have asked for this info, too.
“I’m in a plane, so I’ll be there momentarily. Please, come as soon as you can. It’s possible this has something to do with the case.”
“We’re already on our way!”
I gave him the short version of our visit to the CDC headquarters building. When he heard how the lobby was left in ruins, it suddenly got quiet on the mayor’s end.
“But it will take us some time to get there,” I said. “We’re in a slow six-wheeler and there is no auto-navi. I guarantee we are going to get lost once we exit the highway.”
“No need to worry,” said the mayor. “You can use the communicator as an auto-navi. It’s set up so you can get directions directly from satellite. Turn to channel 18 and input code 28291. If you do that the screen will give you a bird’s-eye view of the area. You can check by voice where you are.”
“Cool! Why didn’t you tell us about this before?”
“Sorry. I forgot,” the mayor apologized.
Yuri quickly switched the communicator to navigation mode.
“All right, I’ll see you when you get there. Maybe, that… can make it… I think.”
“Maybe?”
“…is …at …won’t…”
The static interference worsened.
“Mayor, wait!”
“…”
Nothing got through. Turning the volume up didn’t help, it was nothing but noise.
“It’s no use,” I said, giving up.
“Let’s just hurry up and get there,” said Yuri. She was a hundred percent right. The map was set, all I had to do was hit the gas and the car would take us to the Gautama sector.
I pushed the pedal in as far as it would go.
However—
This was Chakra.
Nothing is ever easy or direct.
We never would have imagined the obstacles that got in our way.
The Gautama sector was an incredible place. The mayor came in by plane, Jeff got there using his special helicopter, and no doubt the owner had some kind of jet to get there. My burning desire to get there was starting to wane.
The road was a road in name only. The three-meter-wide expanse was lined with vertical cliffs on either side.
We bounced our way down the path. The car was set to automatic drive so we didn’t have a chance to try and stop it. We stared ahead blankly without saying a word. From the time we got off the highway, I knew something wasn’t quite right. The road was unusually rough, and it got increasingly narrow.
All of a sudden we were climbing a slope which got more and more steep. The grass and trees disappeared and we bounced around over the bumpy mountain road. Looking down, the cliff was just under us. And it wasn’t just some ten or twenty meter little drop-off. There was nothing for hundreds of meters straight down.
Along this road our car was plugging along at just over 100 kilometers an hour.
In a panic, I went to turn off the auto-drive and reached out to hit the button on the dashboard, but my finger stopped just in front of the switch.
Of course, if I were to put it into manual, would I be able to navigate this road?
The answer was no.
What I ended up doing was setting the acceleration to about 30 kilometers slower.
We left the rest up to the car.
We crawled our way along the mountain road.
Yuri and I made a point of not looking outside. We put our seats back and passed the time staring at each other. I was actually kind of sleepy, exerting all that energy earlier had wiped me out.
We were only going up one mountain, but it was taking more time than we had to waste.
We reached the summit of the ridge.
The car stopped there. I was scared to look, but we would have to see what the conditions outside the car were. Yuri and I cautiously peeked up, stretching our necks to the window.
The cliff was no longer there.
Or at least we couldn’t see it if it was. We weren’t on the road, but had stopped in the center of a wide and open space. Looking out the left side of the car, it appeared that the cliff might still be off the edge of the open area, but on the right was a rocky mountain. At the base of that mountain of rock was a hole, a tunnel, leading in.
Just by looking at it, it didn’t look like a particularly sturdy tunnel. Over the entrance an engraved plaque with the number “1” on it had been mounted.
This was Mine #1.
So, we really had arrived at the mines.
Basically, we had made it to the Gautama sector. That’s why the car stopped where it did.
But, according to the mayor, the incident had happened at Mine #4.
This was not where we wanted to be. We weren’t there yet. Next we would have to descend along the edge of that dreaded cliff.
Just thinking about it gave me goose bumps.
I wanted to set the speed at five kilometers per hour. Unfortunately at that rate it would take us five days to get there.
“What are we gonna do?”
I looked at Yuri.
“Yeah, what are we gonna do?”
Yuri looked beat, too. “I wonder if #4 is that way…”
I turned my head to look where she meant. Beyond Mine #1.
And then at the same time.
Her face shone a bright white light.
“Aa!” I screamed.
But it wasn’t Yuri’s face emitting the light, but a reflection from outside the car window.
There was a flash from the other side of the mountain.
The flash came in the shape of a gigantic circular ring.
It was bright white, and it spun as it swelled and only faded as it reached the blue sky.
Ouch, that’s bright! I was not able to look straight at it.
And then it disappeared.
It all happened over the space of a moment.
The flash was there, then a moment later was gone, and the blue sky returned.
“That, right now…” said Yuri, turning to me. “What was that, that just happened?”
What are you doing asking me?
Do you think I have any idea what the hell just happened?