– They gave this to you — those who know.
– Which ones?
– Well, the ones who know everything.
– Okay... and?
– Well, they gave it to you, so it’s meant for you.
– All right.
And he speaks so cautiously — unlike regular people, he’s afraid to say even one unnecessary word of his own. He only hints, guides, but he’s not allowed to name anything: not me, not them. And even when I ask him:
– What is this for?
– For you.
– What am I supposed to do with it?
– What do you see?
– Well, nothing — you all know everything, help me out, figure it out.
– I can’t, it’s for your mind. I can only guide you, but you have to solve it.
– I didn’t sleep all night, I was trying to figure it out, I don’t understand. This abbreviation, or rather this phrase, this list of five surnames — we found some warped version of Pi on the internet. But we don’t know this place.
– All right, the place — what do you think it is?
– Some place.
– Right — a portal.
– Oh, a portal. What portal?
He’s even surprised at that:
– What, you don’t know what a portal is? You don’t know that there are a whole bunch of portals and power places in Petersburg?
– What? What power places and portals in Petersburg? What?
And he seemed genuinely surprised that I didn’t know. But how would I know? I was born into an ordinary family, with no interest in conspiracies — and me neither, really. Sure, I loved films like “Indiana Jones.” But for example,