19
The next three hours seemed like three days. No call came. No one came to their hotel. No one drove out of the professor’s villa. Nothing.
“What if he’s not home?” “Sleeping?”
“Or they didn’t give him the letter?”
Many questions, no answers. Both were nervous.
“All right, let’s think. If it’s not Link, then whoever it is would clearly have called the police by now. The letter can be interpreted in various ways, even as a threat.”
“That means Link either hasn’t read it yet, or he doesn’t know how to react.”
“Or maybe they took us for pranksters?”
Take a look at us, we’re obviously not street riffraff. We’re too old to be simply monkeying around.”
“Let’s see again: if it’s not Link, anyone who got the note would call either the police or us. Or they would get one of the staff to call, just to be on the safe side.”
“True.”
“Then if there’s no call, it is Link after all.”
“I hope so. Yes, it’s definitely Link! We saw Yoshi.” “And how long can we wait for him to react?”
“Let’s wait until morning. We were there around lunchtime, let’s suppose he got all the morning papers and the next viewing, including our letter, and won’t be until tomorrow morning.”
“What if he doesn't read his mail at all, just emails?”
“Well, we said quite clearly that the letter was for the villa's owner.”
“All right, we’ll wait until morning, but what do we do then if he doesn’t call?”
“Look, I don't have a clue!”
“As you wish,” Bikie shrugged.
“All right, we’ll wait until morning, but what do we do then if he doesn’t call?”
“Well, tomorrow is a new day, you know.” “If you say so.”
Suddenly the phone rang which made Isaac and Bikie almost jump out of their skin. Isaac waited a few seconds to pull himself together and answered the call.
“Hello?”
“Good evening. I’ve been handed a very strange letter from you and, to be honest, I don’t understand a thing.” The voice had a slight nasal twang, as if the nose was squeezed shut by something.
“A-ah, yes, I sent you a letter.”
“Perhaps you’ll explain what it means?” “It means that we want to meet you.”
“Me? What for? I think it must be some kind of mistake.” “No, Mr. Link, it isn’t a mistake.” Isaac was confident again now. “We put in a lot of work to find you, and we did. There’s no point in playing games with us. You’re dealing with a couple of pretty smart guys here. Believe me, it would be best for us to meet and discuss everything. I recognized your voice, I’ve listened to your lecture on YouTube, so there’s no doubt. Either you meet with us or I post my conclusions about your whereabouts on popular forums, you decide. If I’m wrong, then sorry. The police will come and you can try to prove that you’re not Professor Link after all.”
“According to my calculations, you should have done that a couple of hours ago. But you haven’t.”
“But…”
“Of course, if the meeting really is so important to you, I don’t think you’re ready to flush the results of your work down the pan because of an hour or two’s delay.”
“True, but it doesn’t mean I’m not prepared to flush them down the pan at all. I quite definitely am. If the result is negative, it can be discarded.”
“All right,” said the voice, losing its nasal twang. “Let’s not waste time on words. What do you want?”
“I told you, I want to meet.” ‘I’m afraid that’s not possible.” “Why not, I wonder?”
“You’re probably in Sardinia now?” “And aren’t you?”
“Not any longer. I’m in Capri. Or maybe in Corsica.” “Won’t you get tired of running? We found you, so we can find you again. But not just for ourselves any longer, for everyone. How did you sneak out of the villa, by the way?”
“Now that, young man, is none of your business. So let’s manage this by phone somehow. By the way, it’s your fault I had to leave Sardinia.”
“Professor, the questions I want to discuss are not for telephone.”
“You mean you want to discuss something illegal with me?”
“That depends how you look at it. I’d prefer to describe the situation as fighting an epidemic.”
“You’ve probably got the wrong man. I’m not a specialist in that area.”
“Well, I think there is one epidemic where it’s impossible to find another specialist of your level.”
“Ah, I think I’m beginning to understand what you’re driving at, young man.”
“Professor, think about it. There are plenty of clues to your presence left at the villa. Fingerprints, hair and all sorts of things. You’re a very visible individual. And so is your Japanese girlfriend. How far away will you sail? Where to, Japan?”
“That’s enough,” said Professor. “We can meet. My driver will pick you up at the hotel tomorrow morning and bring you to me.”
“Straight to Capri?” “Straight to me.”
After the conversation Isaac did not feel exactly overjoyed. Finding Link should have been a cause for celebration, but the conversation did not go well.
Bikie nervously ran through every idea that might enter the professor’s head.
“What if he decides to get rid of us? Poison us? Or hand us over to the police?”
He hastily threw together a program that would send a pile of information to all his friends at a certain moment. Or not send it, if it received the command to cancel. He thought that would keep Link under control.
In the morning Isaac purchased an absorbent gel used in cases of food poisoning in a chemist’s shop. He ate half a tube of the jellyfish-like goo himself and stuffed Bikie with it too.
“It ought to neutralize a dose of poison or a sleeping draught,” he explained. “I’m more concerned about soporifics.”
Bikie laughed and said that in any case he wouldn’t accept any cups of tea or coffee from the professor’s hands and Isaac shouldn’t either. In addition, after inspecting the contents of his bag, he took a knife out of it and stuck in it in his belt. Now armed, he calmed down a bit.
“He won’t try to kill us. What’s the point? He realizes we can put out information about him. He doesn’t know how many of us there are. I didn’t need to swallow that gel of yours. If we found him, it means we’re not idiots, so we would take precautions. And you pressed him