Corridor One

by Rafael H. Derchansky

  ***

  On his way to the hotel, Igor stopped the car near what looked like a convenience store. It took him a good five minutes to explain to the salesperson behind the cash register that he was looking for a school math notebook. Finally, he left the store holding two notebooks that were normally used by first-grade students in the local school. For Igor’s intentions, they were a perfect fit. He parked the car and stayed in his room, waiting for Dina’s radio transmissions. All this time, he was drawing charts in the notebook, then tearing the pages out, throwing them into the garbage bin and drawing again.

 

  “We should see the ‘Devil's Bridge’ soon. In ten to fifteen minutes from where we are now,” Dina said, looking at the print.

  “Yes, you are right, I can hear it.”

  “What do you mean by, ‘You can hear it’?”

  Victor stopped and gave Dina the sign to do the same. Both froze. It took a little while, but Dina heard a hissing sound coming from somewhere a long ways away from where they halted.

  “It sounds like the hiss of a snake.”

  “Don't worry, there are no snakes here, only bats, but they are sometimes nastier than snakes,” reassured Victor. “I’m joking. Generally bats are not aggressive by nature. If you don't attack them, they won't attack you. Most of the bats will avoid people. Please don’t pick one up and try to pet it. They are wild animals and will act wildly. I think that because the ‘Devil's Bridge’ catacomb room is one of those that has ventilation, it's also more suitable for bats than the others. We will try to get through it fast, provided we won't have any distractions on our way. Let us pass through it first, then we will try to contact Igor.”

  Dina turned off her light. Victor walked, turning his head to the left, lighting the wall. This way Dina could see his silhouette better, and following him was easy. Victor looked for the name plaque, but there was a small hole in the wall instead. He looked down and found the nameplate lying on the floor, broken into a few pieces.

  “Somebody was here before us, or maybe it wasn't assembled right. Please be careful not to step on it. Also the winter temperatures may be a big contributor to the smashed nameplate. When we are out, I will report to the municipality and hope they will fix it one day. Too bad that it is broken into so many pieces, otherwise I would have taken it back with me.”

  Dina was looking at Victor, surprised. His care and concern about the broken plaque impressed her deeply. This big man acted like a sensitive teenager who had just found an injured puppy. Driven mostly by curiosity, they slowly stepped into the room. The ‘Devil's Bridge’ room was small. Starting about a meter above the floor, all of the walls were covered with hundreds and hundreds of bats. As was their nature, the majority of the bats were hanging upside down. A large number of bats were flying somewhere high up, close to the ceiling. Victor and Dina could hear them, but Victor hesitated in lifting his head, careful not to provoke an unnecessary incident.

  “Let’s get out.” He motioned to Dina. “There is no reason for us to be here.”

  They moved back into the tunnel. Victor asked Dina to take a couple of steps forward before activating her radio.

  “You never know what kind of impact the radio may have on the bats. They may decide to rush out, so it is better not to stand near the entrance,” he explained.

  “Igor, Igor, can you hear me?”

  “Yes, Dina, I can hear you crystal clear,” replied Igor after a few moments of crackling noise.

  “We are near the 'Devil's Bridge'.”

  “Any luck at Captain Dom?”

  “Not really; we'll see what we can find in the 'Gallery'.”

  “Dina, how are you doing?”

  “I’m good, Victor is good too. We are going to continue now. Talk to you soon.”

  “Wait Dina, wait. Can you hear me?” Igor raised his voice.

  “Yes, I’m with you, Igor.”

  “Good, I did some drawings and calculations. I think that the coordinates that your brother gave you are not really coordinates.”

  “What do you mean, they are not coordinates? So our entire trip is based on a wrong assumption?” Dina sounded devastated.

  “Cheer up. The news is not bad, actually. They are not coordinates. They are measurements for a tool, for a template.”

  “What tool? What do you mean ‘template’?”

  “I don’t want to make it a long story, we are going to drain the battery. Can I talk to Victor, please?”

  “He can hear you,” said Dina, but obeyed and passed the radio to Victor.

  “Yes, I’m listening.”

  “The numbers are measurements for a template, this is why they apply to all the rooms. I think Roman was helping somebody do routine and repetitive work that required the same measurements in every room. I used the same kind of templates when I, as a teenager, worked in a gallery and needed to hang paintings at the same height and distance from the corner. Look for an item on the wall inside or outside the room. Can you hear me?”

  “Yes, we can hear you. Thank you.” Victor switched the radio off.

  “I know what he is talking about. Please give me the numbers.”

  Dina retrieved the page from the back pocket of her pants and gave it to Victor.

  “Look, I’m not sure where to start, but in principal it should look like this.” Victor kneeled and started to draw on the floor with his finger. “If this is our starting point, we begin by extending a straight line of forty centimeters to the left, then a line of one hundred fifty centimeters going up, then, let's assume, twenty centimeters to the left again and ten centimeters down.” At the end of the last ten-centimeter line Victor drew a circle.

  “If I take wooden strips with those exact lengths and connect them together in this way, I'll have a tool, or as Igor called it, a template that allows you to drill a hole through this circle in exactly the same spot on a wall in every room. So let’s say you have two rooms and you want to drill a hole in the exact distance from one corner of the room in both rooms. You can place this tool in the corner of each room and this will guide you to where to drill the hole at exactly the same distance from the corner in both rooms. The trouble is, we need to find the exact spot where to place this tool in each of the rooms.”

  “Or, as Igor said, outside of the room,” Dina reminded him.

  “You are right, the wall outside of the room is also a possibility. Actually, I think that the wall outside the room is a very good possibility.” Suddenly Victor stood up quickly, grinning from ear to ear.

  “Do you know what I mean by outside of the room?” he asked Dina.

  “I think I do, do you mean the nameplates? Looks like the plaques are mounted at the same place on a wall in each room. I think that the template was used to mount the name plaques on the same height and at the same distance from the wooden frame. I think Roman was helping somebody do it, and he memorized the measurements when they built the template.”

  “You are absolutely right. What is the name of the next room, so that we can prove our theory?”

  Dina took the page out.

  “The next one is in the ‘Gallery.’ We are very close to it. Should we go?”

  “Yes, you can turn your light back on and follow me.” He turned around and started walking slowly.

  Igor was lying, fully dressed, in his bed. He was very happy with himself and with his discovery. Memories of his teenage days, plus the fact that he could pass his message to Dina and Victor, made him feel very accomplished. He checked his watch. It was almost six hours since Dina and Victor had entered the catacombs. The window was already displaying darkness outside of his room and Igor had not decided yet whether he would have his dinner at the hotel bar or eat Katherine's sandwich that Victor left for him. He closed his eyes for a moment, enjoying the silence of the room. The knock on the door startled him and woke him up. Igor looked at his watch. Almost one hour had passed since his last check. He realized that he had fallen asleep. Somebody kno
cked on his door again. Igor looked at the radio standing on the table. Hope I did not miss any transmissions, ran through his head. He got up into a sitting position and after a couple of seconds, walked barefoot to the door.

  “I’m coming, I’m coming,” he repeated, turning the key and swinging the door open. Igor looked at the shaved head of the stranger standing in front of him. Igor's eyes recognized the familiar face, but the strange attire and the lack of the usual glasses made him feel uncertain and surprised.

  “Can I came in, please?” asked Gregory, staring directly back at Igor.

  After Igor heard the familiar voice, he briskly shook his head a few times and finally felt totally awake.

  “Yes, of course. What are you doing here? Where are your hair and glasses?” Igor moved aside from the door, allowing Gregory, who was rolling a small briefcase behind him, to come in.

  “I will explain everything to you in a minute. Can I use your washroom?” Gregory looked around the room, searching for the washroom. “Where is Dina?” he asked.

  “She is down in the catacombs.”

  “Is she there with her brother?”

  “Yes, she is there with Victor. Not exactly her brother, but he is a good fellow; nothing to worry about,” added Igor.

  “If you talk to her on the radio, please don’t mention to her that I’m here. I will explain this to you later,” said Gregory when his eyes met with the radio transmitter standing on the table.

  “Okay. The washroom is there.” Igor pointed.

  “Do you have anything to eat? I’m starving.” Gregory made a hurried inquiry on his way to the washroom.

  Yes I do, thought Igor. I should have finished Katherine's sandwich before your arrival. He smiled.

  “We'll find something,” shouted Igor in the direction of the closed bathroom door.

  Five minutes later, both Gregory and Igor were sitting at the table and sharing Katherine's sandwich. Gregory was giving Igor a detailed account of his strange encounter with the limo driver and what followed. Igor was listening to Gregory’s story in disbelief. He remembered too well Dina’s reaction when she saw Victor again in Derchany, and so he was now concerned about her response when she hears Gregory’s story.

  “I think Tamara did not succeed in booking a room for me.” He suddenly interrupted his story.

  “She wasn't terribly successful in booking the train tickets for me either. Taking the train from Central City was not a pleasant experience at all. In truth, I had a terrible three days in a second-class train car where the passengers’ seats are arranged pretty much like in a movie theatre, into rows of three. The rows are separated by low partitions, and, each row has a folding chair that is to be used when the train is overbooked. I traveled three days with more than forty people in one car. There are only a few things that these people do during the trip: they drink, eat and sing their songs day and night, often accompanied by a guitar.”

  Gregory finished his half of the sandwich very quickly and was now looking at Igor’s half with the look of a hungry lion in his eyes.

  “Take it.” Igor gave him his unfinished half.

  “I’m going downstairs to see if they have a room for you. I’ll bring some food and beer from the bar.”

  He took the radio transmitter and left the room.

  Ten minutes later, Igor entered the room holding a plastic bag with two beers and two additional sandwiches he had picked up at the bar.

  “Why am I not surprised?” Igor muttered under his breath when he saw Gregory lying peacefully asleep in his bed. He turned off the lights and, keeping the radio transmitter close, silently exited the room and went down to the reception desk to pick up the keys from Dina’s room.