The Number 8

by Joel Arcanjo

  Another pause, longer this time.

  “That’s fantastic news, thank you. Please, feel free to call me any time. Myself and the company are only too happy to assist in the rest of your investigation. Thanks again.”

  She hung up and slowly raised her head to the crowd that had now formed around her.

  “So, we’re going on.”

  Chapter 21

  It was clear that the crowd were elated, but out of respect for Viktor and James, they kept this hidden. There was some general chatter and some very understated low-fives but that was it. Asmir and Dante looked at each other and shared a smile. It meant that the next step of their plan could be put into action. Observe and question.

  Everyone finished their meals and hastily retreated to their rooms to pack. They were set to leave in just one hour which if anything was too much time for Dante.

  Within fifteen minutes he was packed and sat on his bed waiting for Asmir who was taking decidedly longer.

  “I think I brought too much stuff,” Asmir said looking down at his suitcase, defeated.

  “You think? You’re the only one on the whole trip that brought two large suitcases. They don’t even allow that for the average person.”

  “Ah, but as you know, mate, I’m not the average person.” He winked. “There’s rarely a problem that money can’t fix. Money is the root of all good.”

  “I think that you’ve got that phrase horribly wrong, Az.”

  “Yeah, well, even with two suitcases I’m having issues. You got any space in yours?” Asmir asked scratching his head.

  “Not at all. Just, pack neater.”

  Asmir opened his second suitcase. “Not possible.”

  He was right. Dante knew that Asmir had borderline OCD when it came to neatness but this was a whole new level. His clothes were neatly folded, sorted into color order and vacuum sealed. For someone who relished chaos in most elements of their life, this was almost absurd.

  “Your vacuum packer takes up a huge amount of space. All the space you’re saving by using it is completely useless if you take it with you.”

  “Nah, I need it to repack every day.”

  Dante raised his eyebrows and pursed his lips. “You, my friend, are a real head case.”

  Asmir ignored this completely and kept on rearranging his suitcase. This continued for nearly thirty minutes but eventually he succeeded in closing it completely. After Asmir checked the room for the tenth time to ensure they had not left anything behind, they left the room and headed down to the waiting bus. This was easy for Dante who only had one suitcase but for Asmir, it was decidedly trickier. He stopped at the top of the stairs. Dante, who was already at the bottom, could see Asmir’s wheels turning. Then as if he hadn’t thought at all, he grabbed both suitcases and began the descent. This failed almost instantly. Asmir tripped and nearly fell the rest of the way down, only saved by his quick reflexes. He grabbed the rail and in doing so let one suitcase go. It tumbled down three or four steps and came to a stop at a strange angle. Asmir, wide-eyed and breathing hard, shot a look at Dante. Dante knew what it meant.

  “You should’ve just asked me for help,” Dante said rushing to his aid.

  “You know me,” Asmir panted, “pride and all that.”

  Dante grabbed the suitcase that had fallen and shuttled it down the stairs. Asmir followed suit. Even with the drama, they were still early. But the driver was there to greet them.

  “Ready to go?” he asked.

  “Yep,” Asmir puffed.

  “For sure,” Dante agreed.

  Ben grabbed the third suitcase while Asmir and Dante tossed on their own. They got on and headed to their seats. Energized, they began discussing the next stop. From Waitomo they were headed to Rotorua, a place with a great deal of Maori history and an abundance of natural geysers. On the way they were going to stop for lunch at a place called the Long Black Cafe and then carry on to an activities cente where the bus could take part in Luging and something that neither of them had ever heard of before, zorbing. Apparently it was something to do with getting inside a giant inflated ball and being launched down a hill. It sounded fun but if they had to choose between skydiving or zorbing, it would be an easy decision. But only Dante had to save money in such ways, Asmir could do whatever he wanted and he probably would. Dante would skip that. But it was an activity cente so there was sure to be other things to do.

  As the bus filled to capacity, people began to join their talk. They wanted to know what Dante knew about the next few locations. He obliged and with every bit of information he divulged the excitement built. The chatter had reached a fever pitch when Mel intervened.

  “Right, we’re off. But first, you all have to get into your seats and strap in.”

  With a reluctant groan the passengers left Dante’s corner and returned to their seats. There was the familiar metallic clink of the belt buckles and then they were off. They pulled away from the hostel leaving the events at Waitomo behind. For now at least.

  The itinerary showed that they were meant to stop for lunch at a place called Long Black Cafe but because of the late start it seemed they had decided to skip that. Instead they carried on to a beautiful place just a mile away called The Ruakuri Reserve. Most got out and explored. Asmir shot out to find some good vantage spots to take photos while Dante hung back and observed the unique scenery. He went into a trance-like state while he took in the sights and sounds of the reserve. The air was crisp and smelt sweet as it had rained earlier that morning. A soft, silent breeze passed over him as he stared at the dense woodland around him. Just a hundred meters up was a bridge covered in moss where Asmir was perched shooting all different angles. He had no desire to walk around. His senses were thanking him for sitting completely still at this moment until he felt a light tap on his shoulder.

  “Hey, you just gonna sit there?” Annie asked. He only really noticed now that like her friend Becki she spoke in a low husky tone that oozed confidence. In singing terms she might have been a low mezzo-soprano, maybe a contralto.

  “I’m thinking about it, yeah.”

  “Don’t you want to follow Asmir up to the bridge?” She smiled and pointed up towards Asmir who was bent over in a bizarre position photographing what looked like a small bird. They both laughed as they watched.

  “No, I’m still aching a bit from black water rafting if you want to know the truth.” He wasn’t but it was easier than explaining what he was really doing.

  “Yeah, so bad what happened to that guy. You were first through weren’t you?”

  “Shh, that subject is sort of taboo at the moment,” he said, half-joking.

  “I see that. But it must have been weird, seeing him there in the water like that not moving,” she continued, undeterred.

  “Err, it was. It all happened so fast I didn’t have time to take it in.” He had been thrown a little by her directness.

  “I know if it was me I would’ve freaked out.”

  “Somehow I doubt that. You don’t seem that type. Plus, there’s not time for freaking out. There’s no time for anything really. I have a theory that when things like that happen our bodies just kind of,” he paused, “react on instinct. You know fight or flight. It’s all chemical, you know. The brain processes…” He paused again. “I’m so sorry, I’m boring you.”

  “Not at all actually, that stuff fascinates me. Please, carry on,” she said sliding down onto the rock next to his.

  “Sure you don’t want to walk around this reserve? It’s probably a lot more interesting than me.”

  “Ahh,” she swatted at the air, “once you’ve seen one scenic reserve, you’ve seen ’em all,” she said, attempting an American accent.

  They laughed and talked about a whole range of subjects ranging from the deeply intellectual to the highly controversial and back to the mundane. But by the end of it he still hadn’t found out anything about her. He knew her views on the philosophical outpourings of Socrates but he didn’t even know her last
name. He had never had a conversation like that with anyone. It was so wide-ranging that at some point he was pretty sure that he was discussing his cat as a piece of modern art. Then again, he had never had such a challenging conversation in his entire life.

  “We should probably get back to the bus. I think we are the last two.”

  Annie was right. They had been talking so long that they hadn’t realized everyone had walked right past them and back onto the bus. They jumped up and walked the short distance back.

  Back at the bus they could see a frantic-looking Mel pacing by the bus’ steps. She was fidgeting nervously with her clipboard.

  “There you two are. We were about to send out a search party. Come on, we need to go.”

  They both nodded and climbed the stairs without saying a word. As Dante shuffled back to his seat he made sure to keep his head down to avoid the glares he was getting from the other passengers. Only Asmir was smiling and he knew why.

  “Nothing happened,” Dante whispered as he planted his hand on the seat and swiveled himself in.

  “I didn’t say anything,” Asmir replied, raising his hands to indicate innocence.

  “Yes you did. Your face says everything.”

  “That’s your interpretation.”

  They both sat in silence for a few seconds. Then Asmir couldn’t keep his cool any more.

  “All right, spill,” he said turning his whole body to Dante.

  “No, really, nothing happened!” Dante repeated.

  “Nothing?”

  “Well we talked… It was weird actually.”

  “Why?”

  “We talked for over half an hour and I still have no idea who she is. Well…she is amazing but I don’t know anything personal about her at all.”

  “So what did you talk about?”

  “Everything except her life really. But there was one thing…”

  “What is it?”

  Dante looked up at him. “Az, she kept asking about what I saw in the cave.”

  Chapter 22

  “Wooooow, hold up. She asked you if you saw anything in there?”

  “Well, not directly but she made a point of asking that in different ways. She’s a clever girl, she managed to figure out ways to avoid making it obvious but she doesn’t know that we’re on high alert at the moment.”

  “This is huge,” Asmir said throwing his hands to his head. “Do you really think she could be involved?”

  “I mean, not directly. It’s impossible. She was in our group in that cave, remember?”

  “Ahh yeah. But what if it’s not just one person? What if she is trying to find out information for a second person? The killer. What if…”

  “Enough, Az, too many what ifs! You know what this is?”

  “What?”

  “This is just me being paranoid. We’re looking for answers in all the wrong places. I should just take that conversation as two people getting to know each other and not anything more.”

  “Correction, one person getting to know the other without reciprocation.”

  “Right,” Dante agreed. “Forget what I said, let’s just have some fun.”

  Asmir slapped him hard on the back. “That’s exactly what I’ve been saying!”

  With that their conversation returned to the activities and Rotorua. They were on the road for the next hour. Annie was a few seats up and kept glancing back at him. Even if she was involved, Dante enjoyed this kind of attention.

  They got to the activities center and a loud cheer went up as people saw the giant zorbing balls. Dante joined in. He was reconsidering his decision not to do it. But then he saw something that was much more interesting. High in the air there was what looked like a giant swing for three people. It seemed that they slid into what looked like a three-person sleeping bag and were slowly raised to an intimidating height, then, without warning they were dropped. It was a four-second free fall before the cable caught and swung them in an arc. He knew all of this because he saw three people who had bravely taken it on. He didn’t care what it cost, he wanted to do it.

  “Did you see…” Asmir gulped.

  “Yes and we’re doing it.”

  “Hell yeah we are.” They high-fived to seal the deal.

  Ten minutes later they were strapped into their bizarre three-man cocoon and were being slowly hoisted upwards.

  “I almost instantly regret this decision,” said Annie who had decided to be the third member of their unhappy little altitude slumber party.

  “Just don’t look down,” Asmir spluttered.

  “Kind of hard since we’re basically facing the ground,” she replied.

  “Yeah mate, I think the whole idea is to keep staring downwards. There isn’t really anywhere else to look,” Dante added.

  “I disagree,” Asmir said.

  Dante and Annie both turned their heads as far as they could physically go to see what he was talking about. Asmir had insisted on going in the center with Dante on the left and Annie right. Both of them sighed deeply when they saw what he meant. He had his eyes tightly shut.

  “Not really any point doing this if you’re not going to look,” Annie argued.

  “I’m pretty sure my body is going to feel the full effects of the ride. I don’t need the couple of seconds where I’m convinced we’re about to hit the ground.”

  “We won’t hit the ground,” Dante chimed in.

  “Tell that to your body in a few seconds. Fight or flight, baby.” Asmir opened one eye just so he could wink at Dante. He was right though because seconds later they were dropped and Dante had no control. As they fell, his whole body was telling him to pull out his arms and shield his face from the inevitable crash that was about to happen. He forced himself to keep his eyes open against all his instincts. His stomach had lurched so suddenly that for a split second he was convinced it was gone. That it had just evacuated his body in a bid to avoid the next few seconds. He was wrong of course because ten feet from the ground the cable caught and began to swing them all in a wide arc upwards.

  The rush of air made it difficult to hear but he knew both Asmir and Annie were screaming. More accurately, Asmir was squealing like a ten-year-old girl who had just seen one of those Twilight kids in the flesh. They rode the arc well and at the top there was a brief moment of normalcy where he could hear and see clearly and even his stomach was behaving. But that weightlessness lasted less than a second and they was careering back down. After a couple more of these arcs, they slowed and were lowered back to earth. Blustered, deaf but beaming with joy.

  They had completed it and it was an awesome feeling. They all went for high-fives but quickly realized that their arms were strapped down by their sides. Probably for the very reaction Dante had had as they were falling. But as their bodies were lowered onto solid ground they cheered. Dante hadn’t even screamed. That was not a choice he had made though, he just hadn’t found the air in his lungs to go through with it.

  “That was awesome!” Asmir shouted, his eyes now wide open.

  “Really?” Annie smiled. “Because it sounded like you were being strangled up there.”

  “Yeah,” Dante joined in, “I have never heard a man scream that high. I’m impressed. We just found your first talent.”

  “You’re both bastards. But I forgive you because that ride was insane.”

  They were unstrapped and got to their feet. Dante’s legs were a bit shaky but he tried not to show that to the others. A large group of the passengers were watching them from the sidelines. It seemed no one else had the guts or the money to take this swing on. Surprisingly, only a few people had gone zorbing. Asmir joined them quickly after telling Dante that he would meet him for food after.

  He and Annie walked and talked again for another few minutes. This time he was consciously trying to ask her more personal questions but it seemed that she was an expert at getting round them. Then, when he thought he was breaking through, Becki appeared and took Annie away to go look at some of the anim
als. Dante would’ve gone if they had asked but he was content to buy a drink and go and watch the zorbing with the rest of the bus.

  A giant inflatable ball tumbling down a grassy hill at top speed sounded like fun, but it also looked pretty nuts. Especially those who had decided to have water in theirs. Activities like these and the giant swing he had just been on worked on the premise of fear and adrenaline production. People loved to be scared in a controlled and safe manner. But when the fear was of something real, it was a very different story. Such a fine line. But people had been jumping over those lines for years. People were always looking for the next “Most Dangerous Activity.” The more dangerous, the more people paid. Paying money to someone whose goal is to scare you half to death had always seemed a crazy notion to Dante. But then again, he had just paid to do that swing.

  It was Asmir’s turn and he had chosen the water to be thrown inside with him in the giant ball as Dante knew he would. The light at the top went from red to green and the instructor stepped out and pushed Asmir off. At first the ball struggled to go, but slowly it picked up speed slithering and sliding its own path down the hill. Inside Asmir was being thrown around but he didn’t seem to mind one bit. The ball picked up speed in the middle of the course and flew over a small bump in the track. At one point Asmir was entirely on his back floundering like a turtle who couldn’t right himself. The see-through ball came to an abrupt stop as it hit the padded section of wall at the bottom. A cheer went up and Asmir climbed out of the ball head first against instruction. He was breathing heavily but had a content look on his face. He saw Dante and hobbled over to him trying to say something.

  “I swallowed half the water in there. It’s so cold.”

  “Looked fun though,” Dante conceded.

  “It was, man. Sure you don’t want a try? It’s on me.”

  “Nah, mate. We have work to do.”

  “I’m pretty sure that there isn’t.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong. We have lunch with the girls and we are going to find out exactly what they know.”