A Division of Souls - A Novel of the Mendaihu Universe by Jon Chaisson
*
The audiophone on the desk rang, something that had not happened for at least two years. Caren stared at it, letting it ring a few more times, wondering who had gotten a hold of this private and secure interoffice number. Matthew? No…he never used these things anymore, he would have hacked the vidmat instead. I didn’t even know this thing still worked, she mused, punching the speakerphone function on. “Alien Relations Unit, Special Agent Caren Johnson,” she answered.
“Eh...” The caller stumbled, as if not expecting her to answer. “This is emha Caren Johnson?” Caren frowned. The voice sounded familiar, even calm and soothing, much like a soulhealer's. She caught the well-mannered tone of the voice and huffed quietly at the title he’d given her. Humans rarely took a Meraladian title unless it had been earned and especially rare if given by a Mendaihu. She hadn’t come even close to earning it at all.
“Agent Johnson will do,” she said as nicely as she could. “May I ask who's calling?”
“This is Kindeiya Shalei, from DuaLife,” the man said pleasantly.
It’s about time he called, she thought. She tapped the pen in her hand softly on the desk. “I appreciate your call, sir,” she said as confidently and amicably as she could. “I understand you may have a busy schedule, but I have a few —”
“Agent Johnson,” he interrupted. “By any chance, were you related to Agents Aram and Celine Johnson? Didn’t they also have a second daughter…Dennise, I believe?”
The unexpected question hit her squarely in the gut. Goddess, that was blunt! What the hell did that have to do with anything? She very nearly slammed the phone down on him, but instead, as she was trained to do, she let it go. She took a long breath, two of them, and answered in a very quiet, forced tone as a hint to never bring that up again. “They were my parents. Sir.”
“Oh...!” he gasped, suddenly aware of the faux pas. “I do apologize.”
“Accepted, edha Shalei,” she said.
She swore he could hear his courteous smile. “Please, emha, call me Kindeiya. So — down to business, then. I was contacted by Agent Kennedy in the past half hour, asking for information on one of our employees, and said I could pass it along to you.”
“Wonderful. Please, call me Caren.” She weighed how much information to give him, and decided not to put everything on the table just yet. “We're looking into one of your associates, Nehalé Usarai, part of the Re-Gen Therapy department. We have reason to believe he might have information regarding the unsanctioned ritual.”
“It was an Awakening ritual,” he said without preamble. “And an enormous and powerful ritual at that. Something of that intensity is mostly used offworld, on some CNF-sponsored minor planet perhaps. Despite its connotations, however, it’s not a religious ritual — spiritual, yes, but not religious.” He stopped. His pause was almost leisurely. “To answer your question, my dear: I know for a fact that Nehalé Usarai was directly involved.”
Caren opened her mouth, then shut it again. How the hell could she respond to that? She was torn between surprise and distrust. Why would he reveal the truth so openly like that? If he knew Nehalé was involved, he should have reported it to the ARU already — hell, he should have reported it before it ever happened! What was Kindeiya hiding?
She chose to err on the side of caution with this man. “Nehalé is involved, you said?”
“Yes, emha. Still is, to some extent.”
She started reaching for her pager to contact Poe. “How so?”
She could hear the smile on his face. “He was the one who performed the ritual. I must say this, though: Governor Rieflin has it all wrong, it’s not a terrorist act at all. It’s the start of a new consciousness.”
“A new…wait. What?” She covered herself by backtracking to the previous comment. She had to regain control of the conversation, and quickly. “How do you know he performed it?”
“My friend edha Usarai is a very integral part of the Regenerative Genetics Department here at DuaLife,” he said. “He is our Supervising Soulhealer for recuperating patients going through Re-Gen. Fascinating work. He uses his Mendaihu abilities to teach Re-Gen patients how to get in tune with their bodies as well as their spirits…he teaches them how to heal physically as well as spiritually when they have Re-Gen surgery done. He’s got a ninety-nine percent success rate.”
Caren hid a grunt of annoyance. “That’s impressive, but it doesn't tell me anything I need to know, edha. Please answer the question.”
Kindeiya's voice suddenly turned apologetic. “I am truly sorry, emha Caren, but it is actually a very integral part of the explanation behind Nehalé's actions. I have known him both as Meraladian and Mendaihu for many years. And he has always been destined to begin the Great Cleansing.”
Oh, shit. Caren let out a long breath of frustration as a chill ran down her back. We’re going there, aren’t we? Nehalé had considered himself the next prophet with a mission to awaken the One, just like Poe had suggested. She sighed quietly and continued. “Are you sure this is a spiritual cleansing? For all we know, he may just be a renegade Mendaihu willing to cause a bit of expensive anarchy.”
“No, not Nehalé,” he said. “He does nothing without reason. He has only begun the process of Awakening.”
Caren shook her head, annoyed at this constant glorifying. “Okay, okay. Let’s say for the moment we’ve already established that. Now we need the why.”
“The shimshiya, emha Caren, as they called it so long ago. An endgame. The time when the Shenaihu and the Mendaihu band together for peace.”
Peace…? She really wanted to scream now. “We haven’t had an insurgence since the last Embodiment of the One, Kindeiya. I believe we still have that peace.”
“You truly believe that?” he asked.
Caren faltered, despite her convictions. She may have Mendaihu blood within her, but she couldn’t bring herself to follow its spiritual flow. There were just too many unanswered questions, too many indefinites. To be brutally honest with herself, she really didn’t know what to believe at this point. She was too afraid.
“Ah…dear me,” he exhaled. “I believe your silence would answer the question, I’m afraid.”
“Excuse me?”
“I’m sorry, edha Johnson, but I can’t accept that the ARU believes that.”
Don’t say it… she reminded herself. Don’t tell this guy off. Don’t let him get to you…hra khera, hra mehra… “Kindeiya...let me speak truthfully. If, in fact, you believe edha Usarai is some harbinger of doom or the messiah of enlightenment, it's hardly anything the Alien Relations Unit can go on. I hope you can understand, edha…as much as we understand and appreciate the spiritual undercurrent of this event, edha Usarai has broken the law. He may have performed a miracle with the Awakening ritual, and the Ninth Embodiment may already be here…but it was not sanctioned, and in the process he may have endangered the citizens of Bridgetown. That’s not just a handful of people, edha…that’s millions of people. The ARU’s primary objective is to serve and protect those people — Earthers, Gharné, Meraladhza, Shenaihu or Mendaihu, all of them. We cannot get personally involved in spiritual politics. If you can come down to our Branden Hill headquarters and give me a written statement on your knowledge of Nehalé’s involvement, then I have no problem. You do know that if he readily admits guilt, we're talking, easily, life imprisonment on Runeia. He's just lucky he has the Mendaihu to back him up, or it could be worse.”
He hummed introspectively. “Well, emha — ”
Damn it all! “And another thing, Kindeiya. Please know that I'm not Mendaihu. Miss Johnson or just plain Caren, okay?”
He seemed shocked at that admission, and waited a beat before he responded. “My apologies, Caren. When another Mendaihu assumes...”
“Right,” she grumbled. What a prick. “Carrying on…”
Kindeiya let out a very long sigh that Caren
Oh, for the love of... Caren huffed. Poe was right, he was one of those Meraladians... Well, if he wants to pull spiritual politics into it...
“Fine,” she said, adding a nice frost to her words. “You need a Mendaihu? You got one. Two, to be exact. I'll have Agents Akaina and Ashyntoya Shalei from NewCanta Province contact you. They're on board with us in this investigation. I'm sure they'll be more than willing to explain it to us.”
The names took him by surprise, causing yet another change in his tone of voice. She wasn’t sure how, though…lighter? Calmer? “I see,” he said eventually. “That does make things easier, emha — I’m sorry, Miss Johnson.” She couldn't be sure, but that perfect voice seemed to waver. “Have them call me at their leisure. Again, I apologize. My intents are only to assist the ARU and ensure the safety of the citizens of Bridgetown.”
Goddess. She slammed the pen flat on the desk blotter. She was glad he couldn't see her on vidphone, as she had a strong temptation to gesture obscenely at him. “Apology accepted, Kindeiya,” she said as evenly as she could. “I shall have the Mendaihu agents contact you as soon as they possibly can.”
He gave her his courtesies for a few more moments before hanging up. She cursed and exhaled, frustrated with herself. It should not have been that easy to get her that riled up, but he’d pushed all the right buttons in quick succession right from the start by mentioning her parents. Kindeiya Shalei had to have been an expert-level soulhealer…he’d used his own voice as a calming device, and used it so deftly that she hadn’t noticed she’d been diverted until much too late. She was mad at herself now; she’d been trained to deflect aural influence like this by her own parents over a decade ago, so why had he done it so easily? What kind of Mendaihu was he? Unable to sit quietly now, or even concentrate on paperwork, she buzzed Poe. He picked up after three rings, much longer than his usual wait. “Hey,” she said. “What took you so long?”
Poe chuckled. “Fancher is just giving me the usual problems up here. I swear he treats Records like the Schœnsfeld Museum. He just shooed me out into the hallway because my comm went off.”
“Any luck?” she asked.
“I just got here a few minutes ago. I got a weird call from Sheila…she didn’t give too many details, but said Dispatch sent them over to Saint Patrick’s to investigate a possible B and E. That, and Farraway stopped me in the hallway on the way up, asked me if everything was going okay.”
Caren frowned. “He did the same to me.”
“Huh — well, I’m just about to pick the info up now, I’ll be down in a few minutes or so.”
“Well, make it quick. I've got one hell of a story to tell you. I've just had the most blessedly frustrating conversation I've ever had since I teamed up with you.”
Poe paused, letting that good-natured jibe sink in. “Worse than me? That’s new.”
“Yeah, believe it. It was Kindeiya Shalei, Alec. Nehalé's boss. The man is insane, I tell you. Either that, or a Prophet of the One.” With a chuckle, she added, “Probably both. Beautiful voice, though.”
“It's been altered,” he said. “Synthetic vocal cords, when the real ones gave out to cancer. Read about it a few years ago…one of DuaLife’s biggest Re-Gen achievements.”
Somehow that didn’t surprise her. “Listen…try to get here as soon as possible. He's quite certain that Nehalé Usarai not only performed an Awakening Ritual, but he may be a Warrior of the One of All Sacred.”
Poe paused. “A Warrior? How did you get that?”
“Well...he didn't say in so many words. But the nuance was definitely there. Couldn’t stop gushing about how wonderful the guy is. Thinks he’s about to save the world by spiritual unity.”
“We’re talking nuances now? Maybe you are a Mendaihu,” he said. Quickly, sheepishly, he added: “Sorry.”
Shit. Not him too.
Caren tensed, and then let her breath out slowly. “Just get down here when you can, Alec.” She slammed down the phone before he could answer.