The Persistence of Memories - A Novel of the Mendaihu Universe (23 page)

Nick frowned at her. “You think he set this
up so he could talk off the record?”

Sheila pursed her lips as the car made its
graceful arc down to the surface street. “That’s a possibility. I
certainly wouldn't put it past him. With a reality seer, you never
know. For all we know, this suspect could be doing nothing other
than having his late morning coffee on the curb, waiting for the
bus. Edha Kindeiya could have gotten a bad vibe from him when he
walked by, bypassed regular security and called us instead. After
all, we
do
cover the spiritual shitstorms, don't we?”

He laughed at her choice of words. “Last I
checked, yes.”

“For all we know, it probably is off the
record.”

“Sure.”

“Why else would he call us? But you know,
what weirds me out is that he called
us,
Nick. You and me by
name. Not Caren or Poe. Not any of the other Agents at the ARU, no
one from the South City branch. Don't you find that a bit odd?”
Slowly her lips pursed together in an angry pout, she snorted out
an impatient breath, and shook her head slowly. A silent treatment
was coming on, fast and furious, so he had to back away. These
angry outbursts weren't typical of her at all. This was on a
spiritual level.

A spiritual
sensing,
he mused.
Sheila’s psionic abilities weren’t Mendaihu-level strength but they
were certainly formidable, and she'd used them to great effect in
their cases over the last few years. She'd found a memory puddle
left in the middle of Nehalé Usarai's apartment, put there
deliberately for someone like her to find. It had said one word,
nuhm’ndah
, but the intent behind it had thrown her for a
spiritual and physical loop.

She was sensing something in this
neighborhood, that was certain. She just didn’t want to admit to it
just yet.

“Your mind is running too fast again,” Sheila
said suddenly. All the anger and tension in her voice had
disappeared.

“Sorry about that,” he said. Had she just
sensed what he was thinking? “I'll try for quieter next time.”

She laughed quietly. “So what's on your
mind?”

He looked at her, testing the waters.
“Promise you won't hit me?”

“No promises,” she smiled, as she managed to
squeeze into the normal flow of traffic on the parkway, moving to
the inner lane. Nulltech Alley was only a mile or so away now.

“Fair enough. I was thinking, since the
Ascension, things have changed. Not just you, but a lot of people.
It occurred to me that perhaps your sensing ability has been pushed
up a notch or so.”

“Oh, that it has,” she confirmed. “No
contesting that.”

He ventured further. “Let's say it has.
During the Questioning afterwards, you described that little trip
you made after the failed Ascension, when Denni took you out into
that elsewhere and showed you some seriously deep stuff. Lighted
galaxies, illuminated spirits. High level Elder shit. Maybe it did
amp up your sensitivity, I don't know, but it certainly isn't the
same as it used to be.” He paused and faced her, studying her
movements. She still seemed calm enough. “Can I ask you a personal
question?”

She glanced at him quickly. “Go for it.”

He took a deep breath. It was now or never.
“You knew to head towards Guyton the other day, didn't you? You
told Team One we responded when you heard Caren paging Cilla, but
we were already more than halfway there already. You sensed
something was up, even though we were a good few miles away. You
were on edge about twenty minutes or so before we got there. Am I
right?”

Sheila glanced at him again, this time a
little longer, until she had to watch the road again, and remained
silent for quite a long time before answering. She began to fidget
a little again, though this time she was making a concerted effort
to keep her anger in check.

Instead, a smile slowly crossed her face.
“Honestly?”

“Yes,” he answered.

“I felt it two hours beforehand.”

Nick stared at her. “Care to explain
that?”

“When we were first getting into the car to
do our rounds.”

“Before we even got to the warehouse?”

“Just before,” she said. “The only reason I
didn't react — the only reason I didn't want to say anything was
because it scared the shit out of me! I could sense this anger,
this black hate, and it freaked me out. Goddess, it was like who or
whatever I was sensing wanted to
kill
, if for no other
reason than pure hatred.”

“Shenaihu?” he offered.

“No,” she said quietly. “Worse.” She let out
a wavering breath. “It was that Saisshalé. The Shenaihu nuhm’ndah
embodiment. I knew who he was, what he was. Is.”

Nick shuddered as separate thoughts suddenly
came together all too clearly in his head. “And you feel it
now.”

She nodded, saying nothing.

“Shit,” he said. She nodded again.

“Welcome to DuaLife Laboratories, edha
Slater, emha Kennedy,” Kindeiya Shalei said cheerfully. “A pleasure
to finally meet you.”

Kindeiya Shalei was a middle-aged man with a
golden voice that went completely against his physical appearance.
The man's voice carried an impeccably clear midrange tone with a
hint of melody to it, never louder than a stage voice. It was a
voice tailored for salesmen, and existed purely as a synthetic
construct, specially made for edha Shalei himself. In the boring
real world however, he was a man in his mid-forties with spindly
limbs, a long graying ponytail, and a slight limp in his walk. He
wore the same kind of light gray lab coat worn by all the other
scientists in the building, though his seemed more unkempt and
threadbare. He stood outside his office door, leaning wide against
the frame, gawky and not entirely sure how to best compose himself.
His smile, however, was the only thing that matched the voice — a
wide mouth and an inviting off center smirk that partially hid
perfectly straight white teeth.

“Please,” he said, gesturing backwards into
his office. “Come in. And Kindeiya is fine. I've never been one for
formal greetings.”

“Thank you for having us,” Nick said, taking
up the rear and closing the office door behind him. He heard the
faint
click
of a security lock. His hunch was proving to be
right on the mark. “We’ve already done a cursory scan around the
premises. My partner and I found no evidence of an unwanted
persons. An official check with security records shows no problems
over the past forty-eight hours. What are we looking at, then?”

Kindeiya flashed that smile at him again, one
of complete understanding. “We're looking for someone about your
age, maybe a few years older...someone with a god complex.”

Sheila didn’t miss a beat. “What kind of god
are we talking about?”

“I'm not sure,” Kindeiya said. “That's why I
called the two of you. I just know he's here. As a reality seer, I
can only tell you what I know. Not that long ago, I began sensing a
kind of anger, the likes of which I've never sensed before. Crazed,
directionless. Destructive energies, and it was like no Shenaihu
sensing I've ever encountered before. I'm not even sure if it was a
Shenaihu. They have a reason for their anger — pitiful though that
reason may be, but it is a valid reason. They wish to retake
command of Gharra from the Mendaihu. I say 'retake' because it's
happened before, plenty of times, in the history of man on this
planet.” He paused to shake his head in disgust. “But this new
anger...this is
far
beyond what I'd expect of the
Shenaihu.”

“And you believe he's still here,” Nick said.
“But you have no idea who he is. Can you sense him now?”

Kindeiya glanced at him as if he’d insulted
him. “Of course I can, but I can't pinpoint him. His spirit
signature is nothing like what I'd expect from anyone at all. His
spirit is a
void
of some kind. I understand that this is
normal for any Shenaihu nuhm’ndah, and I have seen and sensed many
by way of pinpointing that void. This, however, is different. It’s
a void, yes, but it’s also something else — perhaps a cho-nyhndah
of a sort. All I can say is that he's somewhere in the area. At
least within a mile or so from here.”

Nick let all that sink in for a moment.
Kindeiya Shalei was an immensely strong Mendaihu adept, maybe a bit
eccentric and lacking in tact sometimes, but his sensings were
never wrong or misguided. He chose to believe his words. “I'm
afraid there's not a hell of a lot we can go on,” he offered. “We
can't do anything unless the person forces him or herself upon
someone here.”

“Even then...” Sheila added. “If it's only a
spiritual assault, we'd have to contact the CNF, and nobody wants
that. It would be way too much of a pain in the ass to get a
representative down here to lay everything out for
investigation.”

Kindeiya nodded. “I understand. But what
about the hrrah-sehdhyn attacks? The current Shenaihu violence? How
does one go about capturing the suspects then?”

Nick bristled at the question and turned to
Sheila, but she had remained calm. “The church attack went under
Sentinel jurisdiction as soon as I handed it to them,” she
answered. “Any of those spiritual events are covered by the ARU. We
have first refusal if we know the case is out of our league. But I
understand what you mean. The issue is, how do you gather evidence
when there's nothing physical? That's when the Elders come in.”

“Ah yes. The Council Elders,” he
murmured.

Nick didn’t like his answer. It was too
flippant, maybe even a bit condescending. He’d heard a lot about
the man from Caren and Poe, and their words were less than
positive. He was rarely forthcoming in his words, but when he was,
there was absolutely no filter. Everything in this room, even the
conversation, seemed to have some double meaning, some symbolic
meaning to it. He decided to play it out, to see how far he could
take it. He glanced at Sheila and gave her a quick nod.

“I've yet to see the Elders in action,” he
said. “Once a case is out of our hands, it's
out
. We never
see it again. It's rare, but it's happened.”

Kindeiya squared off with him, nodding. “What
about large-scale cases? Certainly there have been some that may
have started small and grew unwieldy. Certainly a case so big which
would eventually involve the Elders.”

“I wouldn't know, Elder Shalei,” Nick said.
“You tell me.”

Kindeiya gave him a slow nod and began to
laugh. “Very perceptive, my friend. Most need to sense Elders to
know they are present. If I recall, you do not have any Mendaihu or
Shenaihu abilities, latent or otherwise?”

“Not that I know of.” He crossed his arms and
leaned back in his chair. “Now, edha Shalei, why
are
we
here?”

Kindeiya took a seat in the chair behind his
desk. “Well, there is truth behind an unwanted man on or near the
premises. I'm convinced one or both of you can sense the subject as
well, now that I’ve brought him to your attention.”

Sheila pursed her lips again and frowned.
“I've been sensing something for the past few days now, edha
Shalei,” she said. “Your unwanted person and my irritation might be
the same thing.” She paused and shifted forward in her seat, to
show she was still confident here in this room, despite her
spiritual discomfort.

“Would you like to try sensing now?”

“I don't see why not.” She closed her eyes
and began to breathe slowly and evenly, sending out her threads of
spirit.

Kindeiya leaned across his desk and studied
her sensing process closely and clinically, and maybe with a bit of
fascination as well, thumbs propped under his chin, his index
fingers tapping against his lips. “If anything,” Kindeiya started,
followed by another hefty pause. He tapped his mouth again. “I’m
inclined to agree with you. Your reading is extremely close to the
—”

“He's here,” Sheila said, interrupting him.
“In this building.”

Kindeiya smiled. “Good,” he said, glancing
sideways at Nick before turning back. “Perhaps you can describe
him?”

Nick leaned back in the chair, looking away
in frustration. He was no longer part of this conversation. His
sensing ability had never manifested itself, and he hadn't bothered
to find it in any way, preferring to do his investigative work the
old-fashioned way. And right now nothing was making sense.

“He's…pashyo, he’s
big
. Just like
Caren described. Tall, muscular. Very angry at the world, but
extremely aloof as well. I sense chaos within him.”

“Do you know where he is?” Kindeiya prodded.
“Is he coming here?”

“He's —” Sheila gasped, her eyes now open
wide. “He's gone!”

“He is?” Kindeiya's face was a mixture of
surprise and disappointment. “He must have just stepped into Light.
He knew we were watching.”

“Feels like it,” Sheila said excitedly.
“Goddess, edha Shalei...I had no idea.”

Kindeiya nodded. “Now you know.”

“Uh...” Nick started.

Sheila looked at him and shook her head. “In
the car, Nick. Later.”

“But —”

“Trust me.” She turned back to Kindeiya,
stood up, and offered her hand. “Thank you, edha Shalei. We'll keep
in touch.”

“Pleasure was mine,” he said in that perfect
voice of his, shaking her hand. Nick was beginning to loathe it.
“Give emha Johnson my best when you see her,” he added.

“I will,” she smiled, said her goodbyes, and
dragged a completely confused Nick out of the office. He chose not
to ask any questions then, knowing that his anger would have only
made things worse. Instead he followed Sheila wordlessly as they
made their way out of the building. He tried to reach out for
anything that would have been out of place, and again cursed
himself for not having any kind of psionic abilities whatsoever. He
was burdened with the mundane cognitive skills of a mere
investigator.