Inside the big house was more elaborate than Hunter would have imagined. Candles lit the place, hundreds of them. Incense filled the air. It was darker within than it should have been, as well. They walked together toward the end of the one big room. Here was a platform of sorts, made of immense pillows at least ten feet high. There was a crowd of several dozen people sitting around it. Legs crossed, eyes closed, they were all in a meditative trance, or at least pretending to be. At the top of the pile of pillows was a little man, dark-skinned with a very long gray and black beard. He, too, was sitting cross-legged, eyes closed, several pots of incense burning around him.
Annie looked up at Hunter, and for the first time since meeting her, she showed a bit of uncertainty by way of a shrug. Cute, but different.
"Excuse me…" she called up to the strange little guy in a sweet whisper. "Sir?"
The man didn't move.
"Sir… do you have a moment?"
Still, nothing.
Annie shrugged again, and then to Hunter's astonish-ment, she crawled up the mountain of pillows and pulled on the man's very long beard.
"Hey!" she yelled. "Wake up, man!"
Startled, the little guy finally opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was this beautiful creature, not a few inches from his face, grinning ear to ear at him.
It was as if he'd woken from a beautiful dream.
"Ahhhh," he said in a very high-pitched voice. "An angel has come for me…"
Then he saw Hunter, and this deflated him a bit.
"More visitors?" he squeaked.
This brought most of his audience out of their trances. Suddenly all eyes in the place were on Hunter.
Annie explained to the guru how she and Hunter happened to get here, about the musicians and the limos and the ride up to the mountain. Then she looked back down at Hunter. "Ask him quick!" she said.
Hunter took two giant steps forward. Just as in the other places he'd been, he didn't bother to identify himself. He simply asked the question: "Do you know a man called the Mad Russian?"
The bearded man thought a moment, then let out another "Ahhhhh… yes! Such a valuable person. A true spirit in this world."
Hunter felt a glimmer of hope.
"Is he here?" Annie asked him. "Have you seen him lately?"
But then the tiny man shook his head and said, "No… in fact, I have never really set eyes on him."
Hunter was immediately bummed out again.
"Do you know where he is?" he asked the guru. "Is he on this… world?" Hunter hesitated using that term. But the little guy got his meaning.
He shook his head again, his beard rolling from side to side.
"From what I know, he is not," he said, in a high-pitched, singsong voice. "And has not been for many, many years. To tell you the truth, there are days, dark days, I agree, when I'm not even sure he exists. Is he a real person or not? How do we really know? Perhaps, as many have claimed, he is just an idea, something your hands cannot grasp, but only that your mind can hold on to."
"But I'm sure he exists," Hunter insisted, pulling out his yellow ticket and holding it up so the guru could see the faded photo on the back. "I know people who know him."
The little guy just smiled. "Then I can only tell you that your search does not end here. In fact, I think, it is just beginning."
The congregation all began nodding and bowing, as if the swami had just laid out one of the secrets of the universe for them. The little guy waved his hand, and the congregation dispersed, wandering in twos and threes back outside.
Annie slid down off the pillows. For once she was not smiling. She took Hunter's hands and squeezed them gently.
"I'm sorry, man," she said. "I thought if anyone would know, it would be this guy."
They turned to leave, when suddenly they heard the little man call them back. He indicated Hunter should climb the pillows, which the pilot did, but with awkwardness and great difficulty. Finally reaching the top, the guru motioned him closer. Hunter went right down to ear level. The guru started whispering to him, his voice suddenly much lower than before, his spiritual demeanor gone.
"Try the second next moon over," he told Hunter directly, sounding more like a wise guy bartender than a swami. "My boys have told me the Russian used to hang out there a lot."
Hunter was mystified. "Why didn't you tell me that before?"
The guy just shrugged, reached behind him, and came out with a huge cigar. He lit it and spat a few loose fibers of tobacco from his lips.
"I didn't want to bring it up in front of my fans," he said with a wink. "Can't ruin a sweet thing like this, you know?"
Hunter nodded in agreement, even though he wasn't sure what the guru was talking about.
"OK, then," he said. "Second moon over from here. Thanks."
"One more thing," the little guy said, grabbing him by the sleeve. "You ain't the first mook who's been asking for him lately."
Hunter was very surprised by this. "Really? Who else?"
The little guy blew a few smoke rings, then flicked his ashes all over his silk pillows. "I don't know exactly," he said. "A couple of real freaks…"
"You mean, like the long hair kids down at the concert?" Hunter asked.
"No," the little guru replied. "I mean real freaks. Tough guys. In funny uniforms. Scary dudes, in a way. I didn't tell them what I told you, though. I didn't tell them nothin' because I didn't like the way they looked. And they were a little lacking in the respect department…"
He blew a few more smoke rings and flicked his ashes again.
"What do you want to find the Russian for, anyway?" he asked Hunter directly.
Hunter thought a moment, then started crawling down the hill of pillows.
"I'm here to make him an offer," he said over his shoulder. "One he can't refuse."
Hunter and Annie returned to the concert site via a ride on the back of a truck leaving the ashram.
Night was beginning to fall. Music was still being played. The crowd was more mellow now, after all the excitement earlier in the day. Play time was over though. Hunter thought it best to get back to New York City and figure out his next move from there. He wanted to start the flight before the daylight was completely gone.
Luckily, the field was clear enough for him to get the Jenny off the ground. Rushing down the improvised airstrip, he pushed the old biplane into the air and quickly gained altitude. He swung back toward the concert site to give Annie one last look at the happening below. She was disappointed that they were leaving, disappointed that she had not helped him find the Mad Russian. Even bummed out though, she looked pretty.
Hunter flew low over the crowd one more time, intent on making a long, slow turn back east, toward NYC. But then suddenly, something inside him started buzzing. His whole body began vibrating. What was this? Similar to his built-in radar, this sensation came to him when he knew something was wrong. But what could it be? The airplane was flying fine. Annie was strapped in and OK.
Was it something below?
He banked around again, flying even lower over the crowd. The people below reacted with cheers, but Hunter's highly advanced vision spotted two unusual characters in the crowd. And these two were just about the only ones not looking up at the airplane. Instead, they were roughly pushing their way through the knot of concertgoers.
The pair were wearing strange outfits, but not in the same style as most of the kids below. These were uniforms. Black, with red trim.
Solar Guards…
Hunter freaked out. He landed back in the field as quickly as he could, scattering some concertgoers and mystifying Annie.
These two must have been the pair the swami had told him about, he thought. Jumping from the cockpit, he ran back down to the concert area as fast as he could. Annie was behind, yelling at him to slow up, but he couldn't. He arrived on the edge of the crowd and scanned it in the growing dusk, looking for the two Solar Guards.