In Anthracite, Professor Bachelard, also known as Mani, is a survivor of the mass suicide that took place at Caleb’s home in 1994. Thomas Durand plays Bachelard.
The special forces that raided Caleb’s home in 1994 filmed the operation. The footage from the raid reveals that a child was present at the house.
The kid, named Mani, survived the mass suicide and was adopted by a foster family. The family tried, but they failed to handle Mani’s behavior, which is influenced by Caleb.
Mani was brought back to the cops. It turns out that Mani’s parents didn’t die in the mass suicide. On the contrary, there is no information on where Mani came from.
Ida puts her sleuths to work and finds out that Vassili Derevko, a fanatic, dragged his wife and son, Mani, to a shamanic community in Siberia.
One day, he decided the group wasn’t radical enough and disappeared with his son, without informing his wife.
The wife doesn’t know where they went, but the sleuths do. Derevko and his son went to France to join Caleb’s cult, the Écrins.
Ida, Jaro, and Gio deduce that Derevko, the 13th disciple of Caleb, may have been killing people in Lévionna until his body is discovered.
When it comes to Mani, he spent a few years at home but ran away when he was 15. He lived on the street, had mental health issues, and froze to death in 2006.
Enter Professor Bachelard
While investigating Denis Monnier, Ida and Gio come across a studio where Denis, who was attached to Mani, may have kept Mani.
Gio and Ida are kidnapped, and the former slightly remembers being rescued by some doctors, with one of them resembling Mani.
Gio later concludes that there is a possibility that Denis helped Mani fake his death; Mani is still alive and working at Arcacia.
Gio’s claims turn out to be true when she confronts Professor Bachelard, who admits that he is indeed Mani.
Bachelard claims that he doesn’t want to be associated with his father ever again. Bachelard returned to Lévionna to study the mines.
Caleb used to claim that there is something powerful in the mine, and Bachelard proved that scientifically with the discovery of Levia Borrelis, a microbe whose protein contains anti-inflammatory properties.
It is nearly 1200 times stronger than traditional corticosteroids. Arcacia is currently working on synthesizing Levia Borrelis and creating the first medication based on this research.
However, there are some drawbacks to this microbe, and Arcacia is doing its best to hide them. Arcacia is also trying to reproduce the bacteria outside its ecosystem.
The people of Lévionna are protesting against Arcacia, blaming them for problems with pregnancies.
Bachelard becomes the victim of people’s rage as one of the villagers breaks into Arcacia and shoots Bachelard down when Bachelard is about to blow up the mine, resulting in Bachelard’s death.
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