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.It was hard to breathe; the hot airseemed to be permeated with humidity.He undressed, leaving only his helmet with the light, and went backto the landslide.Everything that he pulled out of the rubble he dragged over to the side and piled up into aneat wall.A gap was slowly forming, but he was suffocating.He had to sit down on a wet rock and catchhis breath.The water was up to his knees now.He stared in horror at its dirty surface, with dust andfragments of coal floating in it.Then he got up and went back to the pile.He worked methodically andcalmly.He thought that the pile wasn't so big and that he would be able to get out into the main shaft.Thathad probably collapsed, too, but that wasn't so bad.The important thing was that there would be air there,and the water wouldn't be rising so fast.He hoped to sit it out in one of the bends in the shaft.He would beable to wait even a whole day until help came.He glanced up from time to time at the cracked ceiling that looked like a gutted shark's belly.The crackgaped at him.He worked carefully, afraid of disturbing the death that hung over him.Once in a while hewould touch the jagged edges of the opening tenderly and softly, as if it were a woman's face.Histrembling fingers barely touched the damp glistening layers of coal.He wanted to test the security of theceiling, but he was afraid of another cave-in.WORLD SOUL81 He had made his way several yards into the rubble when water rushed in from above.Its force knockedhim down, and he fell flat on his back.He looked up and waited for the ceiling to collapse.But it held.Several rocks were dislodged by the water, and one hit him in the face.It struck liis nose and temple, andhe lost consciousness.The cave-in, the black walls, the burbling water, the yellow lamplight dissolved in thedark----Sergei opened the door wide.Hesitating at the threshold, he spoke:"Erik, I couldn't take a sample.Ill be damned if I know why, but I couldn't."No one answered.There was chaos in the room.All the furniture was piled up against one wall, includingErik's supports.Karmin lay under the window, spread-eagled.Sergei bent over him.There were largebeads of sweat on the doctor's face and his open eyes stared unseeing beyond Sergei."Artem! Doctor!" Sergei called.Karmin said nothing."Erik? What happened?" Erik lay in his litter staring at a spot on the ceiling.His face contorted and hescreamed.A grimace of pain crossed his face.Sergei saw a dark stripe travel across his forehead.It wasblue, then purple, and then, tearing in a few spots, it bled red.Erik moaned and looked at Sergei.His pupilswere enormously dilated.Karmin sat up under the window.Sergei turned and saw that his face was cut inthe same way as Erik's."What happened here?"Karmin crossed the room and checked Erik's pulse."What happened?" He repeated Sergei's question, examining his own blistered hand."I am convinced of thepresence of space visitors on our planet.A powerful intelligence has come to us, and it can do what itwants with us.""I disagree," Erik whispered, barely able to move his lips.Chapter 5"I don't want to let you go/' said Ermolov, setting aside Kara-bichev's request."I have good reasons.Weneed you here.The government is undertaking extraordinary measures to discover the causes of EMO.Anentire army of scientists has been mobilized to deal with the problem/'"With no results as yet/7 Karabichev noted."The problem is too complex.We are unarmed.That damned radiation cannot be recorded by any knownapparatus.""Except man.""Yes.But nevertheless, we shouldn't lose confidence.We'll find the source of the radiation.And for thatwe need specialistslike you."82WORLD SOUL 83"I can't," Karabichev said softly, staring fixedly at nothing."And besides, why is it necessary to work righthere? The phenomenon can be studied at any point of the globe.During my trip, 111 be able to " " to do nothing," Ermolov interrupted."Secondly, what is there in that letter, anyway? It's lunatic raving.Nothing concrete.""We're all raving nowadays.""You don't even know where to look for her.You can't tell anything from the postmark
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