“Fire,” I say. “Flames rising. It’s hot!”
Lana leans over me. “What fire? Where are you? What else do you see?”
My hallucination may have taken me to the crashing helicopter as it caught fire, or further back to the burning royal palace. We’ll see from what I tell them.
Please, don’t let it be anything specific related to Mount Evor!
“Talk to us!” Jean-Claude calls out, his voice shaking with impatience. “What else do you see?”
In the video, my head lolls. “I can’t see much… It’s too hot… I’m too hot!” I begin to thrash. “Take off my clothes! They’re on fire! Take them off!”
Yvonne pulls off the blankets. On Jean-Claude’s command, the four of them lift me off the bed and remove the sling and the T-shirt. They hesitate at the kilt.
“Everything!” I roar in the recording. “Take off everything!”
My eyes are wide open now, and my gaze distant, transfixed.
The men untie and remove my kilt. Completely naked but for the bandages on my legs and arms, I finally calm down.
The women stare at my midriff.
“Oh, my!” Lana shoots a delighted glance at the others. “I’m keeping him, whether he can help us find the talisman or not.”
To my surprise, her husband smiles with approval.
Lana turns to Yvonne and swats her hand playfully. “You, secretive thing! Have you seen him like this before?” She glances at Jean-Claude. “You sure have, given how clean and fresh smelling you keep him!”
Yvonne puts a hand on her hip. “Have you heard of Stockholm syndrome?”
“Vaguely,” Lana replies.
Her husband explains as Yvonne nods, “It’s a coping mechanism in which a hostage develops a bond with his captors.”
“That’s what we’re working on,” Yvonne says.
Lana gives her an exaggerated wink. “A bond, huh? Of what nature?”
“Jean-Claude and I believe in carrots over sticks, that’s all,” Yvonne deflects.
“He’s a tough cookie, so sticks would be counterproductive, anyway,” Jean-Claude adds, impatience lacing his voice. “We want him towantto help us. Depriving him of basic human dignity wasn’t going to achieve that.”
He’s facing away from me, but I can see Yvonne’s profile. She looks amused.
The scene amuses me too, more than it ought to. I open my mouth to crack a joke, but Stella appears so absorbed by the sight of me naked that it occurs to me she might’ve missed the entire bizarre exchange.
On the screen, Jean-Claude glares at his friends. “You fools! Can any of you stay focused on what we’re doing here? On what matters above all? Are you trying to ruin this ceremony, like you ruined the last one?”
Lana and Bertrand hang their heads.
“Guide him!” Jean-Claude orders Yvonne.
She intones something unintelligible. The circle tightens around me. Yvonne’s chanting intensifies. The atmosphere in the room becomes charged. A sense of anticipation tenses everybody’s faces. That is, everybody’s except mine. My expression is as peaceful as it can be, now that my “burning” clothes have been removed.
I wish I could recall the hallucinations I was having there!
Yvonne’s chanting fades away.
“Feel our energy flowing through you!” she calls. “Let it carry you in the dreamscape! Let it reveal to you the secrets that we seek to unveil.”
