Naren abruptly got up. He slowly put his hand in the water.
Then he turned and said, "Anjani, can you try to read the electromagnetic markings or the thermal temperature? The water seems hotter than normal to me."
"That's the problem." Anjani said with a hopeless look, "The instruments have been reading the radiation ever since we got on water. It had been getting stronger and stronger, but as soon as we got in a 2-meter radius, the instruments just turned off."
"Just turned off?" Karan said, "How can they just turn off? They're independent instruments, only a strong- a very, very strong radiation or signal, or device jammer could do that."
The others nodded with agreement. Gargi started, "Maybe we should-"
"Wait, not here." Pratap warned, signaling her regarding Nivedhan's curious eyes and ears.
"I think we should get back." Ishar said, looking at the sun dipping in the horizon.
It cast a golden gleam over the dark, secret waters, like it wanted to tell him about something- to warn him about something. He wasn't stupid.
There was something big going on here.
It was like piecing together a puzzle, only now, how many more pieces were remaining? There was something here, something hidden in plain sight, overlooked by unruly assumptions.