A Division of Souls - A Novel of the Mendaihu Universe (20 page)

She frowned. “Isn’t that Rice and Billiel’s
beat?”

“Rice and Billiel are busy at Ormand and
West Krieger assisting the Fraserville ARU in breaking up a riot,”
they responded. “Inspector Farraway requests you give the church a
once-over as you're in the vicinity.”

“A riot in Fraserville?” she blurted.
Fraserville was the quietest and most rural district in the city.
Hardly anything happened there. “Damn. Don't see
that
often.”

“We're getting reports it's minor,” Dispatch
said. “BMPD's handling most of it.”

Nick frowned at her and motioned at the two
of them, mouthing a
why us?
She waved him off, confirming
the request. She signed off and turned to see Nick shaking his
head.

“Out with it, Slater,” she said.

“Don’t worry about it. Just annoyed, is
all.”

Sheila stood her ground. “That ain’t it,
Nick. What’s
really
bothering you? Was it the fact that I
damn near fainted because of a memory puddle? Because if it is, you
have absolutely nothing to worry about.”

“No…” he said. “It has nothing to do with
that. It’s…well, I’m just getting a bad feeling.”

She frowned at him, and began to nudge him
towards the door again. “The church?” she said. “Could be a simple
B-and-E…it’s a church in the McCleever District, so you can’t
always take the spirit signatures too seriously.”

“This early in the afternoon?” he said, and
checked his watch as they left. “No…they’d still have an open door
right now. Most of the churches around here do. But a disturbance
at the church and a riot in Fraserville? Maybe it’s just me, but
this just doesn’t feel right.”

“I feel that way all the damned time,” she
said as she closed the door, pulled out the security sealant glue
and made a quick spray of the outline of the door. She tested the
door by turning the knob and pushing against it; the glue had
sealed it shut, refusing to budge. Pocketing the spray can, she
followed him down the hall.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Caren

Relax.
Caren took a third deep breath. A fourth.
Relax, girl. Hra khera…hra mehra…

Poe squeezed her hand. “Caren…are you all
right?”

She was far from all right. Her heart was
beating hard in her chest, and the spinning in her head hadn’t
completely gone away. The mantra did little to calm her this time,
other than helping her regain some sense of command of her nervous
system. She had managed to cap the surge of adrenalin coursing
through her body and she was no longer shaking, but her brain was
still stuck in overdrive. The unanswered questions swirled around
her head, one leading to another with no end in sight —

—
is this all really happening...please
don't let this be the Mendaihu fucking with my head...why do I know
what I'm hearing and feeling to be true…I can't prove any of
it...what is it...is it...have I really awakened...damn you Nehalé
for doing this to me...oh goddess don’t let Denni get
involved…involved…who else? who is involved...what the hell is
Nehalé trying to do...why are the Shenaihu choosing now to
attack...no, it’s retaliation...no it can’t…wait, wait, calm down
girl...why the Shenaihu at all...and how is Kindeiya
involved…Kindeiya, why is he so damn elusive...who else is
involved...who else —

—
Why am I believing
all this? Why do I understand all of this
now
?

Is Reverend Miriam —

A final stray thought
crossed her mind:
Miriam. What does
Matthew know about me and my family?

“Caren?”

She turned and caught his
eyes.
What does Alec know about
me?

“Vidmat on,” she called out, past Poe's
still-kneeling form. “Emergency link to Kennedy-Slater, McCleever
Central Sector. Secure.”

Seconds later a fisheye image filled the
screen of Sheila sitting behind a steering wheel, shot by the
minicam fitted into the visor above her. She was scanning the area
outside the car, completely avoiding eye contact with the visor cam
above the driver's seat. Her chin rested in her hand, elbow perched
on the window, and her eyebrows arched lazily. She looked
magnificently bored. “You got Kennedy,” she muttered.

“Sheila,” she said. “It's Caren. Anything to
report?”

She grunted in response. Her eyes swept the
opposite sidewalk, and then glanced over to the passenger side
before repeating again. She arched a brow and glanced up at the
camera. “Nothing at all. Nick's across the street from the church
right now. I'm at the corner, full view of the place.”

Caren frowned. “No disturbances?”

“Not that I can see. After a drive-by and a
stop, we haven’t seen a damn thing. It’s quiet around here.”

Could this just be a false alarm? She
glanced quickly at Poe. She could only wonder what he was thinking
right now…this was his neighborhood, and they were probably a
half-mile away from his apartment building. He knew a lot of his
neighbors personally, knew a lot of the visitors as well. Though he
didn’t know Reverend Miriam, he certainly knew of him. Matthew’s
words echoed in her head again…this time it made sense. The priest
was obviously an Elder and complicit in Nehalé’s actions and
whereabouts. She was surprised Poe hadn’t figured that out
earlier.

“Dispatch didn’t tell you want was going
on?” she asked.

“Multiple calls from locals saying they saw
and sensed a disturbance and a possible breaking and entering,”
Sheila responded, choosing her words carefully. She did another
visual sweep before turning back to the camera. “You wouldn’t know
it from out here, though. I don’t think anyone even notices an
undercover squad car is parked in a tow away zone, to tell you the
truth. Just a few locals walking by, a few cars…that’s it.”

“Can you do a sensory sweep?” she asked. Poe
looked at her in surprise but she waved him off.

Sheila frowned deeply at the camera. “You’re
serious,” she said.

“Just humor me,” Caren said. “I just want to
make sure of something.”

She bit her lip, looking
away. “You
are
serious,” she said after a moment. She hadn’t liked the
suggestion, but she understood why it was brought up. “I’ll need to
pop outside to do that, my mojo isn’t strong right now. Here, let
me switch to the outside camera and give you control.” Her hand
reached off screen to the dashboard controls. The vidmat image
flickered and adjusted for the light difference, and focused on an
open stretch of Ormand Street. It was just like any other midday
scene, with a fair amount of both pedestrian and vehicle traffic.
Caren stepped up to the vidmat and began sliding a finger across
the bottom of it. The camera responded by panning off to the left
until she could see the front of the church, and tapped again to
zoom in. A second later she heard an audible click and the sound of
ambient street noise as Sheila turned on her wireless mic. “Bear
with me,” she said. “I’m still a bit off from visiting edha
Usarai’s place. I’ll tell you about that later.”

Moments later Sheila
stepped into view, walking across the front courtyard and stopping
near the first set of pillars. She leaned against one of them,
facing away from the church, and closed her eyes. She dropped her
hands to her side, holding them just above the pillar’s surface as
she centered herself again. Finally after a few moments, she let
her fingertips graze the pillar, and she twitched and gasped in
response. “Oh…!” she said, laughing quietly, her face red.
“Wow…hell of a lot of Mendaihu energy going on here. Let me try
that again.” This time she slapped both hands flat against the
pillar, taking the full brunt of the reading all at once. She
twitched again and let out a grunt, but this time rode the wave.
“Yeah, okay…” she said, nodding distractedly. “Okay…yeah, it’s damn
strong here, I can see why you asked. There’s…wow, there’s
at
least
a
hundred Mendaihu inside right now.”

Caren zoomed the camera out slightly until
the church’s front doors were centered, leaving Sheila off to the
side. Nick had returned and was leaning up against another pillar
at the opposite side of the courtyard. He had tapped his own
wireless mic on but said nothing. He had so far kept his cool,
which was a blessing.

“Any signs of distress?” Caren asked.

“I can’t tell,” she said. “If there are,
they’re hiding it damned well.” She exhaled and looked across the
way at Nick; she’d sensed his arrival. “Hey,” she said. “You see
anything?”

“Did a circuit on the grounds,” he said.
“Not a thing.”

Sheila grunted. “That’s what I thought. They
put up a barrier.”

Caren frowned. Why would a congregation
consciously put up a protective barrier to keep out…? She was about
to ask, when Poe’s cellphone went off, startling them both. He
picked it up without a word and gestured toward the office door.
She nodded, and turned back to the vidmat. “What do you have?” she
asked.

“It sounds like…praying,” she said. “The
barrier’s at the front doors.” She started to say more, but stopped
in sudden realization of something. She quickly turned to Nick.
“Hey,” she said. “Make another circuit.”

Nick gave her a wilting look. “Should I be
looking for anything?”

“Listening,” she said. “Just do it, and keep
the wireless on. I want to hear what you’re hearing. And get as
close as you can this time, against the building if you can.” He
wasn’t sure what she had in mind, but he nodded and stepped out of
frame again. She waited until he was around the corner before
turning back to face the camera. She tapped on her wireless,
opening up a private audio channel. “You still there, Caren?”

“Still on.”

“Something’s going down,”
she said as quietly as she could. “I can’t sense
what
, but it’s not going
to be good.” She leaned out past the edge of the pillar, glancing
at the church again. “I didn’t say anything to Nick…but I’m not
just sensing Mendaihu, Caren. There’s Shenaihu in there as well.
And you know how well they mix in this kind of
situation.”

“Wait…say that again?” she heard from the
hallway. She glanced at the door in concern, but she didn’t hear
anything further from Poe. Refusing to be distracted, she turned
back to the vidmat.

“That confirms what I thought,” Caren said.
“As soon as Nick returns, I want you guys to fall back. Keep watch,
but no action unless you deem it necessary.”

Sheila wanted to say something, but thought
better of it and nodded. She tapped the wireless again to close the
private session and asked Nick for an update. He took his time
responding, but had nothing new to offer. He was still skirting the
edge of the church grounds and hadn’t heard or seen anything out of
the ordinary. Frustrated, she nodded and told him to meet her back
out front.

He stepped back into camera view at the
opposite pillar moments later. “Dead quiet. I can hear a prayer
service going on, but not much else. I —”

His words were cut off by
the sound of a crackling
snap
of the air that sent the both of them scurrying
flat up against their pillars, hands on their holsters. It was the
sound of displaced air that came with the appearance of someone
stepping out of Light, and it was a sound that made many ARU agents
nervous. The camera automatically shifted focus, showing a mass of
black-suited men and women appearing in front of the church
doors.

“Shit,” Sheila muttered under her breath.
“Caren, how many?”

Caren shivered and tried to find her voice.
“I…f-forty or so, I think.”

Sheila cursed again. “Shenaihu,” she said as
quietly as she could. “No question.” She glanced over at Nick and
flashed a “four-zero” hand sign, and he gave a short nod in
response, the color draining from his face. They had to fall back
now, but they couldn’t risk being seen. “What do we do?”

“Hold,” she said unevenly. “Just…be
ready.”

Sheila grimaced at the camera, but she
understood. They were no match for these Shenaihu…their only choice
was to stay out of harm’s way as long as they could.

Out of the forty Shenaihu standing in front
of the church, one man in a dark grey suit walked up the steps and
stopped at the closed front doors. He reached out and brushed his
hand against the wood in very much the same manner Sheila had just
moments earlier. She tapped furiously at the screen to try to get a
clearer shot of the man’s face, but he was not turning around. Damn
it, did he know that he was on a live feed? His shape, the cut of
his shoulders was familiar, as if she’d seen him just recently,
over the past month or so…who was he?

“Goddess…!” she heard from the other side of
the door. “Are…are you sure?”

She shivered…she could feel Poe’s agitation.
Again, she forced herself not to focus on that at the moment.
Instead she pulled back on the camera, back to the original view
from the patrol car. She immediately noticed how empty the street
was…no traffic, no pedestrians, nothing except for those forty
Shenaihu and her two officers. With a quick tap on the vidmat, she
activated all the other external cameras on the car. The closest
car was at least three blocks away, and it was presently pulling
onto a side street. Even the local storefronts were empty, sidewalk
bins pulled in and doors closed…the locals must have sensed
something was about to happen and closed up shop. Belatedly she
realized that Nick had been the one to make a circuit around the
area, not Sheila…he had no sensory abilities at all, and wouldn’t
have felt anything. Had Sheila done the rounds and not been
distracted by the church, she might have noticed it as well.