NAAN (The Rabanians Book 1) (38 page)

Two days later I stood by my window looking outside when Daio walked into the room.

“How are you?” he asked.

“Excellent,” I replied.

He walked over to me. “You don't look so good.”

“I’m fine,” I said and shrugged my shoulders.

The noise coming from the front of the house had brought me to the window. The chants of the people gathered in front of the gate attracted Daio's attention. 

“They are mad,” he said quietly.

“They have good reason to be,” I said.

“I am not so sure,” he said few seconds later. 

He put his hand on my shoulder. “You know I am not blaming you for anything. I know I’ve said it before, but maybe not enough.”

“Yes, I know.”

“This is no one's faults,” he continued. “We did everything we could. We should not have counted on such a miracle solution.”

“It was bad from the beginning,” I said. “There was not even one step that went well.”

“I didn't mean to say it went smoothly. I know how hard it was for you.”

He moved away from the window and said, “I am considering resigning from my position here.”

I looked at him sharply and he continued, “I have been in this position for three years and I haven’t been able to really improve things at all.”

“You brought a lot of hope.”

“Hope is a good thing, but it's only an entry ticket. The failure of the medicine was like a hypnotic sign that caused all the local people to lose faith in us at once. What's happening now outside is only the beginning. This will get much worse.”

“Did you tell the Doctor what you are thinking?”

“Not yet.”

“He is not going to like it. I think he is counting on you.”

“Yes, I know.”

“So what are your plans?”

“I haven't thought about it yet. If they don't object I will be happy to stay here. Just not in any official position.”

“You don't have any official position now,” I said. Daio rushed to the window as the noise outside grew louder.

The protesters were carrying shrouds, stained black. They glowed in the dark like a coiling snake. A few people were now climbing on the gate and the cloth was spread along it. From our angle we both could read what was written on it.

The gods are angry at Naan.  Foreigners leave Naan.

There was noise at the entrance to the house. Moah and one of his helpers ran outside and approached the gate with fast little steps. He rebuked the people and his helper opened the gate. The people didn't leave. As it opened the protesters started to yell and push.

I rushed to the door.

“Don't go out there,” said Daio and bypassed me.

He pulled out his telephone as he ran down the stairs. I went back to the window. Moah was looking towards the house. His eyes were raised to the windows on the second floor. I thought he was looking to see if we were watching what was happening.

Seconds later Daio burst outside and ran towards the gate. The people rushed away from him as if he was about to infect them with the plague with his bare hands. Then I saw a spark flare in the back and something flickered through the air towards Daio. It shattered on the ground next to him and erupted into a fireball. Daio skipped over it and ran out of the flames. I rushed down the stairs and ran towards him. The fire was almost out already and Daio stood there numbly gazing at the darkness.

“Are you okay?” I called.

“I am fine,” he said breathing heavy. “I think they're gone.”

We stood in the darkness. In the light of the dying flames around us I could see that his pants were scorched.

“We better go in,” I said.

He took a deep breath. “I cannot believe this is actually happening.”

“They don't know the truth,” I said. “They don't know how much effort we put into saving them.”

“That's not the point,” he said as we turned and walked towards the house. Dug and Su-thor were already at the door, beside Moah and his helper.

“This is completely against their character,” continued Daio. “If you’d been here longer you would know what I mean. The people here are the most passive people I ever known. This violence simply isn’t in their nature. They never initiated anything.”

He stopped and looked back as if he wanted to make sure the things he’d just seen had really happened. “This is not typical.”

“You think someone is influencing them?”

He nodded. I suddenly thought of the Doctor. He could do something like this, but that was absurd. Then I thought of Oziri-Dos. He could do it as well, it was perfectly within his nature and I knew he had people here.

“Everything will be okay,” said Daio as we approached the house. Moah’s face was completely pale.

“Don't take it so hard,” continued Daio, laying a hand on his shoulder.

Moah looked at him. “Who were those people?”

“Angry people,” I said and Moah shook his head. I could not tell if it was in response to my cynical remark or his own worry.

“My prophecy is coming true,” said Dug.

“So maybe I should leave,” I said and caught Su-thor’s worried look.

“Stop it both of you,” said Daio. “This is not the time for pointless bickering.”

The sound of a car noise approaching the gate interrupted us. Its lights blinded us for a second when it stopped at the gate. When they went off we could see Musan, chief of police, getting out of the car accompanied by two armed policemen. The two policemen flanked their chief. He spoke to them and they walked off into the darkness around the house. Musan came towards us with confidence. His face had a few deep wrinkles and his narrow mouth gave him a serious look.

“Good evening,” he said.

“They are gone,” said Daio.

“Yes, we just saw them running in the streets. There is a riot at the main junction, in front of the police station and the House of Commons. I haven't seen anything like this since I have been in office. The city is burning.”

“Why?” wondered Daio.

“I guess they are venting the anger that’s been building for the last month, sir. Things are now under control and my feeling is that everything will calm down in few days.”

“Vent their anger? Anger at what?” I wondered. “The plague strikes every year.”

“Yes,” said Musan and looked away from me. “My guess is that, now they have someone to blame.”

Daio nodded. “Thank you for your help.”

“I will send a few policemen here to make sure no one else approaches the house,” said Musan. He bowed to us and walked to his car. The other policemen came back from the darkness and the car disappeared.

We walked into the house with a heavy feeling.

“Maybe we should all leave this place,” said Daio looking around the living room.

“What do you mean?” asked Dug.

“Maybe we should move to someplace less exposed. Less central.”

“The city is so small, only few streets. Where could we go?”

“To the forest,” said Daio.

Dug shook his head in disagreement. I left the conversation and went up the stairs. I knew it would be hard for him to leave the comforts of the house. I thought of my shack in the mountains. I knew that if I did leave I would go there. Then I remembered Su-thor. She had followed me up the stairs.

“What do you think?” I asked when she caught up to me on the second floor.

“About what?”

“About leaving this house.”

She shrugged her shoulders. “If this is what we need to do, then that is what we'll do.”

“I think it would be safer,” I said thinking of my obligation to her father.

“I think we still need to give it some time. The Naanites may surprise us.”

The gases are coming from underground cavities. They are not toxic in small doses. They enter the water in the pool and evaporate into the atmosphere.  They break apart and go through a complex chemical process. The deadly molecules are one of the byproducts. These molecules enter the respiratory system, somehow attach to the lungs, and are responsible for inflammation that kills people. This is the epidemic. 

To avoid the inflammation process requires reengineering of the molecular coupling sites.

This was what I remembered from the paragraph Shor had given me on Mampas, and it was on my mind when I went into bed. I remembered that my escape from Shor was not clean. They were onto me as soon as I left Shor. In light of this fact and of our failure I wondered how reliable this paragraph was. If Shor knew about the damn killer molecules why hadn't it offered a cure? Why didn't it produce the formula of the counter-molecule that could fight it?

Yet, the paragraph sounded reasonable. The gases
were
coming from underground cavities, and they
did
evaporate from the surface of the water. It made perfect sense that they would go through some kind of transformation in the atmosphere. It also made sense that some new molecules would be formed and that it was likely some of them would be deadly. If Shor knew all that, why not offer a cure?

On the other hand, if Shor were as good as I thought it was, and the Seragonians had closed this loophole, then clearly this paragraph was a trap. I wouldn't expect it to be less than logical and fatal.

But I could not make that assumption. As deadly as the first test was, I couldn't assume the whole thing was a trap. Not yet. I went back to thinking about the paragraph. I decided that there was nothing in it that devalued the other option, that the plague was genetic. I hoped that the Doctor and his team were working on this as diligently as he claimed. Not that the Doctor would ever agree to do anything now. 

The gases are coming from underground cavities. They are not toxic in small doses. They enter the water in the pool and evaporate into the atmosphere.  They break apart and go through a complex chemical process. The deadly molecules are one of the byproducts. These molecules enter the respiratory system, somehow attach to the lungs, and are responsible for inflammation that kills people. This is the epidemic. 

To avoid the inflammation process requires reengineering of the molecular coupling sites.
 

I woke up several times during the night with these thoughts. I hated such nights. When I was in my shack on the hill I’d always slept until dawn in spite of my rough bed.

I imagined the gas going up into the sky, breaking down, mixing, turning into something deadly and then sinking back down. The molecular formula as I remembered it from Kashir’s screen came to mind.  I imagined the molecule landing on some kid’s head. Su-Thor said that maybe because of it weight it would concentrate at the bottom. And then when I almost fall asleep a thought jumped into my mind. I opened my eyes wide and thought about it for a second. A chill went through my body. Was it possible?  Was it possible we had misunderstood the paragraph? I thought about it again and began to doubt that I was remembering it correctly. Maybe I’d switched some words around, maybe I’d inserted some words that weren't there and now I was misunderstanding things. Sometimes changing one or two words is enough to change the meaning of an entire sentence.

I didn't get much sleep that night and the next morning I went to the University. The black stain on the road in front of the gate reminded me of what had happened there last night. I wondered if I was taking a risk walking alone, early in the morning, through the streets. It didn’t matter. I had to talk to Kashir. I had to make sure I remembered the paragraph correctly. I walked towards the houses at the edge of town, and then followed them all the way to the university. 

A few people were at the entrance level. They looked at me, but didn't say anything. I went up to the second floor and walked down the hall to Kashir’s office. The door was locked. I wandered along the corridors, returning the stares of the people I passed.

“Sosi,” I heard his voice from behind me.

“Kashir,” I said as I turned towards him.

“This is the second time we’ve met like this,” he said.