Escaping

by Sebastien Acacia

  “Because I don’t have much knowledge about weapons,” Matilda angrily said.

  “She saw an armed patrol,” Ermessende defended her.

  “And as I told her weapons are forbidden inside the cave, it made her think,” Phoebus added while nonchalantly stroking a big Labrador who seemed quite tired, peacefully lying next to him.

  “Hmm! I see, I’m sorry!” Trancavel answered, embarrassed.

  “We’ve to do something!” Matilda added.

  “I would like to, but what? Phoebus answered curtly. “Our MRU is almost out of fuel, and we don’t even know where Inosanto is hiding.”

  “You were able to catch my signal and to rescue me in a few hours but you can’t locate my mother?”

  “It isn’t that simple, Blanche intervened.

  “It isn’t that simple! It isn’t that simple!” Matilda raged.

  “Calm down, we will find a solut...,” Ermessende started to say before being interrupted by Trancavel.

  “We located you because the beacon your mother preciously kept was linked to the last working satellite on this damn planet. The only one we still control. Do you need more explanation about how and why? Come!”

  Annoyed, he came closer to a worn electronic console which was still working perfectly. Matilda followed him with Phoebus and Blanche. Trancavel activated a screen where an ultra-realistic 3D representation of Earth appeared.

  “See, this is planet Earth.”

  From the tips of his fingers, he started manipulating and rotating it on itself. Then, he zoomed in its surface to get a very close view of a geographical area filled with mountains during the night.

  “This is Montségur,” Trancavel added, pointing at the screen. “And here is the cave where we are. Now, look.”

  He zoomed out to show the entire European-African continent, looking up at almost the two entire hemispheres. At the border of the sacred lands of Asia and South America, the image disappeared, replaced by an opaque black.

  “Our satellite doesn’t allow us to go over this area. Impossible to know what there is in South America or in Eastern Africa. After those borders, we’re completely blind.”

  “We know Inosanto is hiding somewhere in South America, but where? How many militiamen are part of his personal guard? Which installations does he have? Those still remain a complete mystery for us.”

  “Do you mean this isn’t a holographic representation of Earth?” Matilda asked surprised.

  “No, of course, no. What you’re seeing on the screen is the Earth, in real time, right now. You see, in our home, it’s night time. But, there, it’s still day time. If I zoom in, I can see what is happening in real time.”

  Trancavel zoomed in Kalia as much as the satellite allowed it.

  “It’s night time, but we can easily discern the lights of those houses. Everybody must be sleeping at this time.”

  “Oh! The Kang Kong plantation,” Matilda whispered, pointing at the screen.

  Ermessende warmly put her hand in Matilda’s back.

  “Yes, that’s where we found you,” Trancavel added, pointing at a forest edge.

  “So the Church is also monitoring you?” Matilda asked her.

  “No,” Phoebus answered. “We’re the only one to control this satellite. Probably the last one still working. All the other ones had power failure a long time ago or were destroyed during the wars. The last ones have been completely wiped out during the great purge as Inosanto ordered it. It was the most recent geostationary military satellite for strategic observation the French military had. When we retreated her in Niaux, my brother Guiraud, who was a high-ranking general, preventively deactivated all the communication features during several months so it couldn’t be located. Thanks to his wit, we now have this strategic advantage to prepare our actions.”

  “I’ve to admit, I’ve never heard of such a technology,” Matilda mourned.

  “You’ve so many things to learn. We will teach you, don’t worry,” Blanche reassured her.

  “Hmm! So what do we do for my mother and Paul?”

  “It would be interesting to know why Inosanto wanted to capture Esclarmonde alive, despite the fact she was her fiercest opponent at this time,” Trancavel said surprised.

  “Because he needs her,” Phoebus replied straight forward.

  “What do you mean, need her?” Blanche asked.

  “I don’t know, but I don’t like this,” Phoebus answered helpless.

  “This doesn’t answer my question,” Matilda interrupted them. “What will we do? You seemed to worship my mother so much, and, right now, you give up like if you consider her life is worthless.”

  “Sorry to disappoint you, kid,” Phoebus answered, “but we don’t even have any idea where to begin. We don’t have any atomic pile for the MRU any more, and where should we start to look. She could be anywhere on Earth. We don’t even have a single clue which could give us a lead. Believe me, I regret it as much as you do, but there is nothing we can do.”

  Matilda took the container out of her tunic.

  “What about this. Is it a good enough clue so you decide to react?”

  Phoebus slowly came closer to the device the young farmer was showing him. Stunned, he carefully took it and look at it from every angle. He quickly glanced at Trancavel who had no idea what this was about. He also came closer.

  “What, what is this, father?”

  “Where did you get this?” Phoebus asked her, avoiding his son’s question at the same time.

  “The man in the rice field...”

  Blanche immediately interrupted her.

  “So, your father crossed almost half the planet to find your mother and you, so he can deliver the container, we also risked our life to get you out of troubles, and just now you understood she may not be dead, that you tell us your little secret?”

  Matilda wasn’t proud any more. She looked for comfort by getting closer to Ermessende. Despite the events, with her head high, but feeling sorry inside, she took a deep breath and with a shaking voice tried to give a few explanations.

  “I didn’t know you, I didn’t know if I could trust you...”

  “We just saved you on the other side of the planter, and you don’t trust us?” Trancavel raged, just a few inches away from Matilda’s face.

  “Enough!” Phoebus yelled, we’ve more important matters to discuss.”

  He came closer to Matilda.

  “Did Guilhabert say anything about this container?”

  “I would like to see you speaking with a shredded shoulder and your guts spilling out in the rice field!” Matilda vehemently replied before bursting into tear on a chair behind her.

  Ermessende looked at them, strongly disapproving, before reaching to their empathy.

  “Try to take her position!”

  Phoebus, Trancavel and Blanche instantly came around. The way they looked at each other was a reminder they should be tolerant and understanding while Matilda was lamenting.

  “We’ve to find my mother back,” she said between tears. “What’s the purpose of all your expeditions and speeches to overthrow Inosanto and give back to science the place it deserves in the world, if you give up at any sight of difficulty.”

  Trancavel came closer to his father.

  “In your opinion, what kind of substance is in this container?”

  “We will know it very fast,” Phoebus replied while looking for Ermessende.

  “The code,” she let out in a low voice.

  “The code?” Matilda repeated.

  Phoebus took a piece of paper and a pen, then wrote the letters G.U.I.L.H.A.B.E.R.T on it. Then, he linked each letter to a number. G7, U21, I9, L12, H8, A1, B2, E5, R18, T20. After a quick mental calculation, he added in a low voice.

  “One hundred and three. The result is 103.”

  Everybody was sceptically staring at him.

  Without answering, Phoebus grabbed the container on the side of which, there was an electronic lock requiring an alphanu
meric code.

  “Are you sure about what you’re doing?” Trancavel asked him, pretending to stop him from entering the number on the small keypad.

  Without being disrupted, Phoebus ignored the hand lying on his forearms and went on.

  “One hundred and three,” he was repeating again and again to make sure he wouldn’t forget it.

  Matilda came a little closer, just next to Trancavel. Soon, Blanche and Ermessende also joined them, as anxious as the others.

  “Four, the code as four digits. Zero, one, zero, three. Zero, one hundred and three. If I’m wrong everything will get destroyed,” he said febrile.

  Without leaving any time to debate, he pushed on the small validation button of the fourth digit, while his fellows were looking at him, disturbed. The small container opened itself, letting out a slight low hiss and some cold vapours.

  “A short time before the great purge, Guilhabert gave each of us a code that we could easily calculate based on the numerical value of the letters of our respective names. An alternate way to identify each other in case of problems without having to reveal our Cathar names,” Phoebus explained, still staring at the container.

  With his forearm, Trancavel freed some space on the lab working plan for his father to be able to manipulate the device in the best possible conditions. With his two hands, he cautiously removed the two parts of aluminium alloy and lead covering a set of glass vials. He cautiously laid them on the desk. In the first one, a black granular product was slightly moving like a living substance. The second one was containing a dozen white seeds each the size of an ant egg. Phoebus was smiling with sparkling eyes when Matilda interrupted him.

  “What is this? Will this help us fining my mother and Paul?”

  Phoebus’s ignoring face worsened.

  ‘I’ve no idea what this is, kid,” he quietly answered her.

  “Maybe this is the nano-substance you told me about? You know the rumours concerning Inosanto’s immortality?”

  “Maybe, maybe not,” he answered. “Also, I’m afraid we will never discover it.”

  “Why not?” Matilda asked worried.

  “Just simply, because it’s indeed a nano-substance, but we don’t have any equipment of such a nanoscopic accuracy to analyse it,” Ermessende answered spontaneously.

  “How do you know this,” Matilda asked her, intrigued.

  “You’re right, we didn’t get a lot of time for a proper introduction,” Ermessende replied before being interrupted by Phoebus.

  “Ermessende is our university director.”

  Matilda started looking differently and intrigued at her above neighbour. She added more.

  “Nevertheless, if this substance is what we believe, we’ve to do everything we can to identify it and understand its mechanisms. This could be our best opportunity to overthrow Inosanto,” she declared, in particular for Phoebus’ attention.

  “And to find my mother and Paul!” Matilda reminded, a bit annoyed.

  “And to get your family back,” Ermessende added for her young protégé.

  Phoebus didn’t answer anything. Fascinated, absorbed by the substance oddity, he was calmly observing it while manipulating it like an hourglass, turning the vial back and forth, probably hoping to reveal all its secrets.

  “Father?” Trancavel interrupted him.

  “Hmm! Yes?” The old patriarch finally reacted.

  Ermessende added.

  “We must get an STM and an AFM...”

  “Get what?” Matilda interrupted him.

  “The first is a scanning tunnelling microscope and the second one is an atomic force microscope,” Phoebus replied spontaneously.

  “And what about those seeds?” Blanche intervened.

  “I will personally take care of analysing them,” Phoebus immediately retorted to her.

  “If you need...”

  “I take care of it, Ermessende,” he interrupted her again.

  “That’s fine, but where can we find that equipment? All the labs we know have been ransacked,” Trancavel added.

  “In Tokyo,” Ermessende answered.

  “Tokyo? Where is that?” Matilda asked.

  “In Japan,” Blanche answered.

  “In Japan?” Matilda insisted.

  “Far, very far,” Trancavel filled in straight forward.

  “Indeed,” Ermessende added. “Remember, this is the only place on Earth, where the Milicia Christi couldn’t go during the great purge.”

  “And why so?” Matilda asked, as she obviously had no knowledge about the events which happened before she was born.

  Phoebus signalled to Ermessende he wished to answer and she didn’t object.

  “Before Inosanto’s inquisition in the entire world, Japan witnessed a terrible nuclear catastrophe in one plant being dismantled. Tokyo, which was then Japan’s capital city, was evacuated in emergency. Unfortunately, not fast enough. Hundreds thousand people died because of the radioactivity and the whole country was pronounced a contaminated land with formal prohibition to go there.”

  “Inosanto seized the opportunity provided by the accident to one incriminate, one more time, science and human madness. The world public opinion which was already largely following him, didn’t have any problem if he started the great purge he had been speaking about for years during his preaches,” Ermessende filled in.

  “The only good part is the Milicia Christi was never able to venture in Japan, so there may still be some pristine equipment in some labs,” Phoebus added.

  “This is exactly the idea I had in mind,” Ermessende concluded.

  “All right, all this sounds good, but we still have a small problem,” Trancavel stood.

  “We need an atomic pile for the MRU, or we won’t go very far,” Blanche prophesied.

  “Are you reading my mind now?” He laughed about Blanche. “Not to mention some piles for domestic uses for the biometric chips,” he added.

  “What’s the link?” Matilda asked.

  “Do you really think the undertakers provide us some chips without any benefits?” Blanche revealed to her.

  Phoebus was observing the substance he was still manipulating, fascinated. According to his focused face, everybody guessed he was starting to plan a strategy in his mind. What he was thinking as whimsical a few minutes earlier, started to sound possible, and carried on by what Matilda would have defined as religious faith, he decided.

  “Trancavel, Blanche,” he interrupted them, “set up a big military operation to get us some atomic piles and enough weapons to fight all the Milicia Christi in the world. Ermessende, gather all the information we’ve about the labs in Tokyo so we can plan our future expedition.”

  While looking at the vial he was jealously holding in his hand, he then filled in.

  “Guilhabert, my old buddy, you gave your life so we could get this vial, we will honour our Kathar oath and we will fight until the end.”

  Everybody was looking at him, smiling, feeling their impatience to fight in their guts and the Kathar oath in their heart.

  “And me, what do I do?” Matilda stood, breaking the ongoing collective catharsis.

  Phoebus, surprised, let a circumstantial “Uhh!,” escaped.

  “Right,” she laughed, “I won’t just stay here, eating steamed worms in this rat hole when you’re all going to do tourism in the contaminated regions!”

  “Ahh! You don’t lack spirit,” Ermessende answered her, amused from the young woman’s unexpected tirade.

  “I still remind you, we’re speaking about my mother and my fiancé.”

  Ermessende looked at Phoebus, interrogative. Trancavel and Blanche, also amused by Matilda’s self-willed reaction, looked at their elder. Finally, Phoebus signalled Ermessende to answer.

  “My dear,, if you want to come with us, you’ve no other choice, you need to become a Kathar yourself.”

  “Me? A Kathar?” Matilda asked surprised.

  “Exactly, a Kathar!”

  Matilda l
ooked up, toward the sky, in silence.

  What more can I lose? Is this what you want from me? Is this the destiny you’ve chosen for me?

  While everybody was waiting for her answer, as usual, she took a deep breath and answered.

  “Then, let’s do the consolamentum!”

  Everybody laughed strongly. Trancavel slapped Blanche’s back who withstood it without any reaction. Phoebus and Ermessende, a bit more discreet, were still laughing about the incongruous answer of their young host.

  “What?” Matilda stood, as she didn’t understand why everybody laughed.

  Ermessende put herself together and tried to give an explanation.

  “My dear child, it isn’t that simple. First, you’ve to undertake a military and scientific training, then you’ll have to choose your Cathar name and learn by heart the history of the person you will bear the name. At this time only, you’ll be ready to get the consolamentum.”

  “Hmm! Now I understand better your mockeries,” Matilda laughed.

  “So?” Phoebus asked her.

  “So what?”

  “Are you ready to follow the step of your mother and to become a true Kathar? Are you ready to fight against the man you’ve always worshipped?”

  Matilda stared at him directly in the yes with a serious face and simply answered.

  “If this is God’s wish, then it should be.”

  ... There is hope.

  Dubious, Esclarmonde got closer to the double door which was already starting to get slowly opened without any noise. Was this Matilda? Or Paul? Her heart couldn’t bear any more the deep and terrible intuition hammering her, she was going to face a much greater danger. Her blindness was as strong as the stress she had been filled with since she woke up in this improbable heaven. Was she hearing the noise of a stick? It was sounding much like it. The full-opened door was leading to a corridor more than thirteen feet wide. Neither Matilda, nor Paul. Only the noise of the stick hitting the floor. She cautiously got closer. The idea of running away from this unknown and oppressing place crossed her mind for a second. While she was hesitating about stepping closer to the exit, a bent and hooded person, walking with the support of a magnificent stick engraved with biblical persons and many animals, faced her.