Antakarana. Quest in Reality

***

A few minutes later, the plane is landing. Then everything happens extremely quickly. The glossy lady takes my suitcase, assuring that she will return my things safe and sound at the end of the Game. I am allowed to take with me only identity documents and one item that will remind me of home. I choose a notebook in a luxurious leather cover and my favorite pen – the presents from my father for the twenty-fifth birthday. I’m used to carry them with me and periodically make notes, if suddenly, in the middle of a working day, I am flashed by some kind of guess about the quest task, over which I had been puzzling untill midnight. Sometimes I just like to write down my thoughts in a notebook.

One of the ninja accompanying us approaches and without a single word puts a device similar to a large medical syringe without a needle to the right side of my neck, closer to my forearm. Zhang Kiang explains:

«A coordinator will be placed in your shoulder, no reason to be alarmed.»

«A gamer with a built-in GPS, what a great idea,» I joke grimly.

«You can put it this way, too,» my companion responds indifferently.

Her presence gives me more and more discomfort. The woman gets on my nerves, frightens, pisses me off with her detachment and facial expressions devoid of all emotions.

Our plane lands safely. I am so lost in thoughts about this strange day and how differently I imagined it, that I forget to be scared. When we finally stop, Zhang Kiang turns to me:

«Well, all formalities have been met. In less than an hour, the plane with all participants will head to the Location. On board you will be offered a warm lunch, drinks and additional instructions.» After a short pause she adds:

«Miss Larina, you look extremely sloppy. Let me fix your hair.»

My first impulse is to jump up, push her away and, perhaps, even be rude. But Zhang Kiang is quicker: she deftly removes the elastic that secures my ponytail, straightens the long dark hair, and then pulls it back into a bun. At this moment, the Glossy Lady bends down to my ear and whispers softly, almost with her lips alone. And yet I clearly catch her words:

«Don’t trust anyone. Follow the instructions carefully. This is your only chance.»

Then she walks away abruptly. The pumped up ninjas turn their turtle heads in our direction.

«Thank you.» I try to hide my surprise.

Zhang Kiang only nods indifferently in response.

***

I get off the plane and instead of the airport I see a primitive two-story building. Surely, the same uncomplicated equipment is inside. But I am not allowed to find it out. A few hundred meters away, a small snow-white plane with the Antakarana emblem on its wings is prepared. It sparkles brightly in the sun, dazzling with its splendor. A white limousine with a familiar three-dimensional symbol is already waiting nearby, ready to take me aboard the aircraft.

Feeling uncomfortable before, now I am seized by a real panic. What did Zhang Kiang want to say with her words: «Don’t trust anyone. Follow the instructions carefully. This is your only chance.» A chance for what? Get one million dollar prize? What if this is not a game at all, but just a trap? What if now I fall into the hands of cruel pirates or slave traders?! I was naive in my belief having caught the luck of my life and that is why so easily hooked! Can I break free, scream, call the police? But can they kidnap people just like that, in daylight? What if they are all at one and it will only make it worse? While preparing for the game, I saw documents confirming the existence of the corporation. As if you can’t fake them in Photoshop! Everyone knows where I am. A chill runs down my spine: no one, absolutely no one, including me, knows where we are going in a few minutes. My trail is getting lost here at an unknown private airport in Lhasa. Panicked, I turn to the Glossy Lady.

«Good luck, Lavina! I will be rooting for you.»

I catch in her eyes the second emotion of the day. And I definitely don’t like her. This emotion is condolence.

***

My Game name. The Glossy Lady named me Lavina. Does this mean that the Game has begun? Lavina is practically my second name, identical to the name Victoria. This is the nickname my classmates gave me back in high school. Conceived as an abbreviation for the full Larina Victoria Nikolaevna, it was intended to become offensive. However, the comparison with the natural phenomenon flattered me, and soon my close friends, then fellow students, and then colleagues began to call me like that. From time to time my parents turn to me like this when they want to emphasize my restlessness and spontaneity. This is the nickname I use on forums and social networks. No wonder I chose it to participate in the Quest.

Barely breathing at the same time from fear and anticipation, I get out of the limousine. Two Chinese women meet me at the gangway. (Frankly, the ubiquitous white color begins to depress). They show the way affably. With my heart beating loudly, I enter the plane.

Against the expectations, neither pirates with machine guns in black masks nor a pack of ninjas in white suits attack me. Instead, my eyes see a cozy, bright business class salon. The path is illuminated with blue lights, as are the individual information boards over the heads of the passengers. Huge leather chairs are arranged in two rows, one chair in each.

In the first seat, I see an elderly man in his 60s who reading a newspaper through the glasses pushed to the tip of his nose. Gray strands show through his hair. The man is dressed in jeans and a green sweater with a lapel.

To his right sits a pretty neighbor. Actually not just pretty but a very awesome girl. To be honest, she’s a cliche of jokes: not particularly smart, but dazzlingly beautiful blonde. Long legs in trousers and stiletto heels, smooth blonde hair falling over fragile shoulders, refined features. We meet eyes. Of course: huge soulful blue eyes, framed by long black eyelashes. The top button of the mint-colored blouse is unbuttoned so that you can see the graceful neck.

«Hello! My name is Lavina.»

I hear some greetings in return. An elderly man stands up and holds out his hand to me:

«I am Planck. Well, then, we’ll play together.»

He smiles friendly, and this is the first warm smile all day. I feel calmer because Planck certainly doesn’t look like an air pirate. And for ninja tricks, his bones are probably too old. In general, this elderly man immediately makes a pleasant impression on me.

I move through the cabin looking for a free seat. I walk by a middle-aged woman with a bright appearance. Judging by the sharp features and fiery gaze of her brown, almost black eyes, she could be Spanish or Italian. The southerner smiles broadly with a dazzling white-toothed smile, waves her hand and nods in my direction. Her hot temperament complements her expressive appearance, so I straight away feel sympathy for her.

To the left of the woman, just behind Planck, I notice a young man. He sits with his head bowed over a glossy magazine taken from the pocket of an airplane seat. Hearing my voice, the guy looks up and nods casually, and then immediately returns to reading. I am struck by his pumped-up arms. From under the t-shirt bursting at the seams, muscles and those notorious cubes on his stomach bulge out.

«Apparently, he is an athlete,» I say to myself.

In the third row, I immediately recognize Alex. He looks extremely like the guy on the photo and is also handsome, only slightly taller, judging by the fact that his knees bump into the front seat.

«Hello, Lavina,» he addresses me in Russian without any prefaces.

Several people turn their heads in our direction.

«As you can see, the place next to me is free. I will fly with a compatriot and a game partner! Even if it was only once and ended in a shameful loss.»

«Hi Alex, glad to meet you personally. In that game, we were both not on top.» «Have you already had the pleasure of meeting our promiscuous team?»

«Yes, and it’s a big relief. At one point, I already thought to be dealing with an organized crime group for slavetrade.»

Alex throws his head back and gives out a sincere guttural laugh. Nice dimples form on his cheeks. But for some reason it makes me angry.

«What’s so funny about that?» I snarl.

«What made you think so?»

«Well, yes,» I begin hesitantly, «these strange escorts and the Glossy Lady…»

«Glossy Lady?»

«I called her that for her appearance: too flawless and unreadable.»

Alex laughs again, head thrown back.

«I can imagine that you felt not at ease. By the way, a casual style of clothing and no hairstyle at all suit you. But you have to work On your face: you absolutely do not know how to hide emotions!»

I ignore his remark.

«A very sinister reception. Then there were those supercharged Chinese ninjas and secrecy… Didn’t it alert you?»

«Lavina, someone here is not eager to study boring documents, huh? Have you read the constituent documents, instructions and the contract?»

«Of course I did!» I interrupt him impatiently. «Well, the main points.»

In response, Alex instructively reads a whole lecture on the paragraph about the strict confidentiality of the project. That information about the game is known to a narrow circle of people. By accepting the invitation, we automatically agree to keep secret the places of the Location, the conditions of the game, as well as information about the founders of the Corporation and the organizers of the games.

«Although,» he looks at me, as if at a hopeless person, «with your attentiveness, you can hardly tell about it even under torture.»

Alex has a lot of fun and shines with sly eyes. We’ve known each other for no more than ten minutes, and I’m ready to strangle him. Of course he’s right. By my nature, I am always too lazy to study documents, to read the details, not to mention trying to understand the meanings of incomprehensible words. I am angry that this insolent fellow figured out my disadvantage so easily.

«Paragraph 127 of the monotonous narrative mentions that all participants will be taken to the collection point separately, with a personal escort and security. No wonder we were greeted without bread and salt. Or in this case, without tea and dried grasshoppers.»

I turn away to the window. It’s supremely stupid to be offended, but for some unknown reason, I’m upset. Third major disappointment of the day. Instead of a charming young man with whom it would be nice to spend time at the Game and, possibly, flirt, I get a cocky self-confident twerp who believes to read me like an open book.

«Lavina, I am very glad that it was you who passed the competition,» suddenly he changes his intonation.

I turn to him abruptly with open surprise on my face.

«You are so… funny with your comments on forums and in dialogues with quest heroes. I thought straight away that this girl would’t be boring. And then you enter the cabin with disheveled hair, a large spot on a T-shirt, and with burning eyes, you initiate me into the theory of the capture by slavers. In which you obviously sincerely believed at that moment and still got on the plane. Lavina, you’re just awesome!»

Alex bursts into guttural laughter again and winks at me friendly.

Funny? Does he consider this as a compliment?! The urge to be rude to him becomes unbearable. My eyes sparkle with indignation.

«You don’t know how to hide emotions, Lavina. Lightning from your eyes speaks quite expressively about the desire to kill me. We will definitely make friends.»

«I’d rather be best friend with that blonde in the first row than with you!» I think angrily to myself…»

«A casual image suits you, really. And, most importantly, it gives food for thought to the blonde in the front row: how could you have come to this? And if the blonde starts to think, then it makes her a little brunette.»

Unexpectedly, I giggle stupidly. Damn it, you can’t be angry with him for long!

At this moment, a thin middle-aged man enters the plane. Round glasses slanted a little on his crooked nose. The rare hair is carefully combed back, evidently in a desperate and failed attempt to hide the bald spot. Despite his somewhat awkward appearance, in a strange way, he instantly disposes to himself. Perhaps the point is in the often blinking kind gray eyes. Stopping at the entrance to the salon, the man smiles uncertainly, slightly hunched over his thin shoulders, shifts from foot to foot, and finally speaks English with a pronounced Spanish accent:

«Um, hello. My name is Jorge… that is, Joleo. Yes, Joleo is my play name.»

Planck immediately jumps up from his seat and heartly shakes hands with the newcomer, greeting him exactly like me, as, I suppose, each participant.

Alex leans over and whispers:

This plane is just a bunch of characters. Here is our absent-minded botanist.

«What character are you?» I whisper sarcastically back.

«Isn’t it obvious? Strong, smart, kind and generous Robin Hood. I’ll take a million dollars from the rich people and give it to the poor ones!» he smiles so contagiously that I can hardly contain myself not to burst out laughing.

«And, in my opinion, you are an ambitious, self-confident fellow!»

«Maybe. But then the slavers will hardly be able to get a high price for me in the market.»

Joleo walks down the aisle and apologizes every two steps. At some point, he stumbles and almost falls to the floor.

«I’m so clumsy,» he repents in my direction, «I’m sorry.»

For some reason, I feel sorry for this little fragile person. I’m surprised how he got into the Game with his natural shyness. Will other gamers «eat» him? Again, my bad habit of thinking about others. There can only be one winner in this game, and I should at least try to become one.

«It’s okay, let me help,» I jump up.

«No, no, do not worry, I can handle it.» He mumbles something and moves into the tail of the plane.

At this point, the pilot is addressing the passengers in English with such a terrible accent that I have to make effort to understand him:

«Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Li Cheng and I am the first pilot of our aircraft. The last passenger has just boarded, so we’re ready to take off. Please make yourself comfortable in your seats. The flight attendants will help you and give you instructions. We’re taking off in twenty minutes. The flight will last about 11 hours.»

***

The plane taxies onto the runway and accelerates.

«Are you kidding!» I hear Alex’s voice and see his smile stretched from ear to ear, «just don’t say you’re afraid to fly!»

«I’m not afraid of anything, by the way, I have two parachute jumps behind my shoulders.» It’s annoyingly, how easily Alex saw my fears.

He smiles mysteriously, generously showing dimples on his cheeks. Pawky dark eyes shine with pleasure.

«You’re a unique person, Lavina. A kind who will fiercely fight in a bloody battle, and then weep over the body of a dead kitten. Don’t worry, statistics…»

«I know what the statistics says,» I interrupt impatiently. «Air transport is the safest one. There is one plane crash for every one million flights.»

«Nonsense! I mean something else,» he smiles ominously, «the plane falls very quickly, and there is no chance of survival… We have a long flight ahead of us, and the worst thing that can happen on the way is that I will get bored. So relax and tell me something about yourself, the extraordinary girl named after a force of nature. I don’t know anything about you except that you jump with a parachute, are afraid to fly, almost became a victim of slave traders and cry over the dead kittens. Oh yeah, and you’re just awful in the „Searching for Object“ genre! I wouldn’t be surprised if you have a hard time finding your socks in the morning.»

Alex hints at our online game together. But he’s right again, this quest subgenre is not my strongest point. We’ve known each other personally for only a few minutes, and he again manages to drive me mad:

«And you declare it to me, master of negotiations! Yes, we lost only because you managed to quarrel with all the characters in almost every game dialogue!»

«Uh, and I was afraid that we would not reach an understanding,» Alex pretendedly wipes with his hand. «Where are you from? What motivated you to join this strange company?»

«You first.»

«It’s not a secret. I was born and raised in Moscow. Alex is short for Alexander. I have a law degree and worked in various small offices. At the age of 30, I am fond of online quests, engaged in mountaineering, basketball and I dream of opening a private legal agency to provide my services for both Russian and foreign companies. This is what I will spend my winnings for.»

«What about „giving money to the poor“, Robin the Hood?» I ask sarcastically.

«You have no idea how many people need free legal advice,» he suddenly becomes serious, «the poor are more likely to find themselves in difficult situations, become victims of unscrupulous realtors, traders, relatives, criminals, remain without a roof over their heads and lose all their modest savings… At the same time, they cannot even afford to receive qualified assistance.»

I feel ashamed, so I change the topic and tell about myself:

«My name is Victoria, I’m from Samara. I teach English courses at a language school and occasionally work as a translator. I love adventure and look for them in every possible way. That’s why I am here, aboard a plane flying in an unknown direction. I’m 25, and instead of thinking about family and kids, I sit for hours at the computer, pondering on another puzzle.»

«And what will you spend your winnings on?»

«I don’t think it will come to that,» I wave it off. «For me, the Game of the Century is a way to break out of routine and become part of something great and one of a kind.»

Alex stares at me intently, as if trying to see through, and suddenly hits me on the spot with his phase:

«You clearly underestimate yourself.»

I raise my eyebrows in surprise, not knowing how to respond to such a statement.

«You have one important, I’d even say, a unique quality that will make you special in this game.»

«Yes, and which one?» I strain like a string, expecting another joke.

«A very kind heart.»

I have no time to think about his words, as the plane suddenly gets into a zone of turbulence, and it starts to shake severely. With the mind I understand that this is not dangerous at all, nevertheless, I can’t help being nervous: I grip the armrests of the leather seat with my hands and even forget to breathe out of excitement. After a minute, everything calms down, and I feel ashamed of my fear.

I’m already planning a response to another stinging joke from Alex, when the plane seems to fall into an air hole. It takes my breath away for a second. But outside the window the sun is shining brightly, the sky is blinding with its blue – it can only be so blue here, at an altitude of 10,000 meters. Fluffy clouds float beneath us so peacefully that I manage to pull myself together and calm down. And the moment I completely relax, the plane shakes with renewed vigor.

I have never experienced such intense turbulence before. The plane literally jumps in the air, then drops down for a few fractions of a second, then shakes from side to side. Horror binds me, so I can’t breathe or even just move. Instead, I have an iron grip on the seat and cannot formulate a single clear thought in my head. Shouts are heard in the cabin. Excited exclamations come through my own veil of fear. Someone is trying to call the flight attendant. Suddenly, everything ends as spontaneously as it began.

All I want now is to see Alex’s good-natured, mocking smile and make sure everything is in order. But when I turn in his direction, instead of the expected smile, I see a worried, even pale face.

«Alex, I’m really afraid to fly,» I babble.

«Be quiet! Something is wrong! Can you hear the engine running unevenly?»

«Stop that!» I am angry and expect that now he will laugh, rejoice at how well he played me out.

«Please,» I mentally ask him, «tell me it’s not true! I won’t even take offense.»

But looking out the window, I shudder from what I saw. Thick black smoke is pouring from the left wing. There can be no doubt that a serious problem occurred during the violent shaking. And as if in confirmation of my thought, the plane slowly lands on the left wing, holds for some time, as it seems to me, in one place, and then begins to plummet downward.

Fuzzily, I hear screams in different languages, panic in the cabin, Alex’s instructions:

«Fasten all the belts! Don’t move!»

Someone is crying, another one is praying hard. The blood rushes to my head, so I no longer know where the top and bottom are. The eardrums seem to be about to burst from sudden pressure. Seat belts bite painfully into the shoulders. I want to scream, but I can’t open my mouth. I register the impact of some objects flying around the cabin and the deafening roar of a falling plane.

The entire cabin is clouded with thick acrid smoke and filled with the smell of burning. The oxygen mask hung in front of my face, and somewhere deep in my subconscious, the flight attendants’ briefing before the start pops up. With shaking hands, I pull the mask over the face and try to take my first breath, but the lungs sewn with the threads of fear refuse to obey. I close my eyes tightly.

The thoughts get confused in my head.

«Is that all? The end? Is all this happening to me in reality? Is the biggest fear of my life, my nightmares coming true? "I think in some daze. I used to be sure that «pictures of the whole life’s journey» in the face of death is a myth. But now scenes from the past are really flickering before my closed eyes: people, events, experiences. Clearly, distinctly, in some specific moments of life and, most surprisingly, in the reverse order.

Meeting Alex. The Glossy Lady. I board a plane at Sheremetyevo airport. I open the letter with a trembling hand, stamped Antakarana Corporation. I press the «Fill» button of the questionnaire opened on the monitor to participate in the Game of the Century. I study English irregular verbs with first-graders, translate negotiations on the delivery of a new tomograph to the city hospital. Euphoria during the second parachute jump. Horror before the first one. Graduation party at the institute, generously flavored with laughter and tears. Disappointment due to the failed ascent of Elbrus. Painful parting with Andrey. I jump for joy in front of the list of applicants on the wall of the university. First kiss with Kirill at the school prom. – Pictures in my head speed up. – Tears because of the first bad score in math. Mom fries pancakes on Sunday morning, and I burned my finger. First day at the new school. Hike to the Ural Mountains. Grandma’s village, where the goose nibbles me and chases me for some time. Mom leads me by the hand on my first school day. A funeral on a rainy day. Mom and Dad, embracing, cry bitterly in the kitchen. Mom, pale as a sheet, talking on the phone. I play dolls with my older sister. I try to crawl to my sister, but she runs away from me all the time and… Nothing more.

The pictures suddenly cease to come to mind. Chaos and panic reign in the plane. I open my eyes and look out the window. The earth is approaching with unimaginable speed – the two-story airport building is already clearly visible, to which we are rapidly rushing. A couple more seconds – and only a smoking heap of wreckage will remain.

«Goodbye, Mom and Dad, I love you,» I whisper squeezed.

The wing touches the ground, I close my eyes tightly and… nothing happens.