Her work on the novel has come to a halt, and she decided to call Denis. Sometimes a conversation with him could bring her a new wave of inspiration.
“Denis, hello! How are you? Would you like to visit us? Or should we get together at the Jolly Roger? Long time no see!”
“Oh, Julia! Hey! Yes, long time! Do you know what happened? Olga got sick, I'm with her now!”
“What happened!?”
“She was poisoned by that witch Sylvia, the wife of that Indian Dominic, remember?”
“How did she poison her and why?”
“To get rid of Dominic's child!”
“How horrible! I'll call Olga! No, probably, not now. How is she?”
“She will never, ever have children again! Well, Dominic already has four of them, and this is only from his wife! There, probably, the whole village of his children. He's the chief! You can't refuse such a guy!”
“You can't refuse such a guy indeed! …Poor Olga! So, are you with her now? And Zina?”
“I do not know. I am coming home today.”
“Denis! Come all to visit us. Take Olga with you. She is always alone! I haven't called her for a long time, my bad! Come, we’ll be very happy to see everyone!”
“Julia, did you call to invite us, or did something happen? Is Marley back? Ray disappeared?”
“No-no! Nothing happened. I just wanted to talk. Don't you notice anything odd? Ray has changed … It seems he has hardened somehow. And Scott would never notice. They are happy together. But their joint projects and trips are becoming more… daring. I am scared…”
“Okay, Julie, we will visit you soon. I myself am curious, and Olga should benefit from live interaction and changing places. She's deeply depressed, just like you were, after giving birth to Ray… Oh, I blurted out something bad again! Sorry! Let's better talk in person! I got carried away again! You know me!”
Julia and Denis both laughed and ended the phone conversation.
… Julia continued to sit in front of the laptop in deep thought …
Ray and Scott so quickly rebuilt a new aquaplane – the old one after the UFO attack was no longer recoverable.
Although the new one was not an aquaplane at all… The result exceeded all expectations! It was much better than anything Scott had seen or created before!
Ray was developing a completely new apparatus – it turned out to be something like a transformer, that could turn into an airplane and a submarine! A flying submarine, almost like an alien UFO, or rather a USO (unidentified swimming object)!
Scott was absolutely thrilled!
Ray was overflown with ideas – where did they come from! Although Scott always remembered that Ray's grandfather was an alien, who was quite resourceful and even knew how to control the weather and volcanoes!
Zandolie himself used to build amazing flying machines and even knew how to be invisible.
At first Scott was giving the growing Ray all his knowledge and skills as a sailor, military pilot and mechanic. And now he himself was learning a lot from Ray.
IT specialist Denis also was introducing Ray to a programming crash course, and now the mutant was an ace in electronics.
Julia was carefully observing her husband and son. Pretending to be indifferent, with a bored look, she sometimes was casually dropping general questions and pretending not to listen …
And she herself was secretly taking notes, photographing various new devices and weapons that kept appearing in Scott's workshop – she was collecting material, almost like x-files!
She was also filming her son, which she had never done before – and was carefully studying the time differences in the constantly changing appearance of the mutant.
Ray was even looking more and more like Zandolie. She would need to show everything to Denis, since there was no hope for Scott.
Julia was amazed, how Ray could start the car with a touch of his hand, how he once saved a fisherman by one simple move! It was written about this miracle in the local newspaper.
However, there was no public reaction, people were simply scared. And even more scared was the mother of the mutant, Julia. She herself learned about everything from the newspaper, by reading of the online version.
Julia also did not stop thinking about Golden Zandolie himself. Where did he disappear, did he really die?
That tragic time few years ago Indians saw him near the Steps of the Big Serpent – at the sacred entrance to the cave, leading to the maze of lava tubes. This, according to the beliefs of the Indians, was the kingdom of the dead. The dead were brought here in ancient times and thrown into a poisonous boiling lake in an underground crater …
Where were both, Zandolie and Marley – their bodies were never found!?
Julia seemed to see Marley a couple of times after. She observed an energy clot like ball lightning or a plasmoid – it took the shape of Marley and even spoke to her and touched her…
Were those some kind of audible and sensitive hallucinations? Only she and Ray could see Marley's plasmoid.
Denis explained this by the fact that they had a special connection with Marley – by love.
Good, that Julia was not in love with this horrible blue and puny alien Golden Zandolie! That's who she would never want to see again, especially in the form of the fire ball!
Still, she would love to see some evidence that Golden Zandolie was dead! He couldn’t just burst like a bubble!
Chapter 4
The new quest. To find that UFO and Marley
An old army jeep was rolling on the winding mountain road along the sea. A clear sunny day was pleasing the eye of beholder with splendid colors of the blue water horizon and mountains, covered with green rainforest.
Denis and Olga were in the vehicle. Denis lowered the canvas top of the jeep. And Olga's blonde, almost white hair fluttered freely in the wind.
It's so wonderful life! Olga breathed deeply the smells of a fine tropical day – the salty sea, hot dust, sweet flowers. She wanted to completely surrender to the elements of the warm breeze … How long Olga didn’t go nowhere and didn’t expect anything new… And now she was again in the car with an old friend and going to communicate with other Russians, learn amazing news and open new horizons together…
Olga was surprised that she still had such a strong will for a new life…
She was happy to see Scott's house again. The impregnable high gates silently opened and the jeep drove into the courtyard.
Olga and Denis were immediately greeted by Scott himself with open arms. Julia and Ray, Zina and Alex were already waiting for them in the house. It was Alex who brought Zina, since Denis had her jeep.
All the Russian adventurers were together again! Plus, British hero Scott and the mutant Ray!
Julia jumped out of the house and immediately hugged Olga too. Zina just waved her hand with restraint. Ray smiled from the doorway.
Olga looked at Ray and shuddered. How he has changed in this short time! The golden skin gave more and more blue. The narrowed eyes were hidden behind dark glasses. The sense of danger emanating from the tall mutant was almost touching!
Olga averted her eyes and went with Julia to the terrace. The rest stayed in the kitchen.
Julia looked her over with a sympathy.
“Olga! Please accept my condolences … I am glad, that you survived … that Denis saved you … No, that's sound odd, sorry …”
“Yes, Julia. For a bestselling writer, it didn't come out of you too smoothly! Just include my story in your novels. It will turn out to be a very juicy plot… Well! Better tell