A Division of Souls - A Novel of the Mendaihu Universe (5 page)

“Jack,” he said, with all the pleasantry he
could muster at that moment, which honestly wasn’t much. “I admit I
wasn't expecting you here so soon.”

Jack nodded with a smile equally lacking in
emotion, and offered no explanation for his arrival. “This little
event took the CNF quite by surprise, Governor.”

Anton nodded slowly. “Took us
all
by
surprise, Jack. No doubt about that.”

“I intend to find out who is behind it,
sir,” he said in a quiet but forceful voice. That was Jack; no
pretense. “I've set up here on the thirty-ninth floor. When you
have the chance, I would like to discuss the situation and what
your plans, if any, may be.”

Anton hid his annoyance.
If any?
“I’ll do so as soon as I can,” he said. “In fact, I’ll be holding a
special session of the Provincial Governor’s Council later on
today, either late morning or early afternoon, depending on when
this all calms down and when the others get in or sign on. It’ll be
in the same place we usually meet, in the Andiri Room. You’ll be
there?”

Jack frowned as he nodded. “Yes…yes, I’ll be
there, sir. Thank you.”

Anton glanced down the hall momentarily. Now
was a good time to escape. “Listen — I’m going to be hiding in my
office for the next few hours to get some work done. Give me a call
some time later this morning, and we’ll go over everything we have
so far, get this all straightened out. Sound good to you?”

Jack nodded. “It’s a plan, sir. I’m listed
on the vidcam directory if you need me.”

Hours later, Anton stood at the window and
watched the dawn trace the long shadow of the Mirades Tower across
Bridgetown. The buildings and complexes below him stood
majestically and silently, bathed in the crimson-yellow of an
autumnal sunrise, waiting for the new day to begin. An orange BMPD
helicopter buzzed the Tower in front of him at a close but
respectable distance, following its usual path of morning rounds.
It acknowledged the Tower aviation control beacon with the
repetitive single click of its undercarriage light, a sign of no
emergency.

No emergency,
Anton thought
skeptically. He craned his neck and looked up as far as he could
into the blue, cloudless sky. The crimson fog, whatever it had
been, had dissipated as the night wore on and now there was no sign
it had ever been there in the first place. He’d barely seen it
himself, unable to see much of anything between the dark evening
sky and the beacons of light shooting off the Tower’s antenna
array. Perhaps a slight discoloration of the air, which he’d at
first attributed to his imagination and lack of sleep. It had only
lasted for about two and a half hours, and by four in the morning
it had completely vanished.

Believing the threat to be over for the time
being, he’d holed himself up in his private office and caught a
half hour’s rest on his couch. It wasn’t much, no more than a
catnap, but it was enough for him to rest his eyes and calm his
nerves. He’d scheduled a meeting of his provincial council to
commence as soon as all members had arrived or at least had logged
in, and by five that morning they’d gathered in the Andiri Room on
the eighty-first floor. About half of the members and guests, Jack
Priestley included, had arrived in house, the others joining via
vidmat. He hadn’t planned on making any progress with this initial
meeting; this was more about intelligence gathering and getting
everyone on the same page. A lot of disparate rumors had been
shuffled back and forth throughout the evening, and he needed to
weed out all the false leads as early as possible before he could
make any further decisions.

He’d been informed early on that the ritual
was performed by a Mendaihu working alone, and there were a number
of names already floating around as possible suspects. Finding the
man was the job of the Alien Relations Unit at this point. What he
wanted to know was how the hells this man had gotten up there in
the first place. Like everyone else, he knew that performing an
awakening ritual was an extremely sensitive endeavor. It had to be
contained within a finite space and controlled at all times. To
recklessly awaken an untold number of people without even
performing a closure at the end was not only dangerous but
potentially lethal to those affected. The man was damn lucky that
he was able to complete the ritual and keep it from getting out of
hand.

And now Anton had to deal with the
aftershock.

Mendaihu,
he thought with a shudder,
as he turned away from the window and back to his desk. Why did the
ritual have to be performed by a damned Mendaihu? Not that he would
have liked it to be a Shenaihu instead, but still…to show such
recklessness and irresponsibility, especially given the timing!
This was a dangerous time to be provoking imbalance between the
Mendaihu and the Shenaihu…it had been a quarter century since the
last uprising, and this man’s actions could have dire consequences.
The last time there had been an uprising between the two spiritual
factions, there had been bloodshed. He’d been just a junior senator
at the time, those twenty-five years ago, and just the same, he did
not want to relive those memories. As long as it was possible, he
would keep this from becoming an all-out spiritual war. He would
rather outlaw these spiritual differences altogether, impossible as
that was.

Mendaihu
.
The One of All Sacred
help us all.

He stepped back out of the small conference
room, finding it no less comforting than his office, and into his
front offices. His secretary Mina had completely ignored him as she
had been trained unless it was a pressing matter or he sought her
attention. She was a jacker, just like most of the upper
governmental office clerks, working better without the idle
chitchat of their employers. Jackers juiced nanotech into their
nervous system by way of a neural implant to connect with the
virtual world, able to swim the ether while conversing with the
real world at the same time. Mina, however, had never been much of
a conversationalist to begin with. She had an immense library of
knowledge in her head…but just preferred not to talk. She was quite
possibly the most unassuming person he had ever employed. It made
him wonder who she
really
was, behind that introvert façade.
He knew she was Gharné, an Earthworlder human, she lived alone near
Branden Hill Park, dedicated to her job…and that was about it. But
who was she? Was she truly the quiet, lifeless person he’d hired?
Was she Mendaihu or Shenaihu? And belatedly, he thought: could she
have been affected last night by the ritual?

The distractions helped clear his head
somewhat. He stopped at Mina’s desk and asked if she had any
updates since the meeting’s end. She was surprisingly forthcoming.
“Nandahya Mirades sent you a packet with the latest information she
could gather,” she said. “She’s also given you a list of anyone who
may have been involved with the ritual. General Phillips needs to
know if and/or when his troops may be needed for security purposes.
Jack Priestley is, of course, requesting follow-up every thirty
minutes. Your speechwriters have finished the latest draft, which
I’ve uploaded to your workspace. That’s just in the last hour,
sir.”

He groaned at the news and rubbed at his
temples. “Damned if I know the answers,” he said, more to himself
than to his secretary. He bristled, having been reminded about that
speech…he’d have to break the news to the province, whether or not
he had all the information. “How long before the news
conference?”

“Approximately forty-five minutes, sir,” his
secretary said. “Additionally, I’ve been informed that the
speechwriting team is finalizing the schedule for State of the
Province speech. I’ve taken the liberty of uploading the latest
State speech to your tablet as well, in case you need to edit.”

“Thank you, Mina.” He was glad that his
request for pushing the State Speech out a few days had been
accepted…everyone had agreed there clearly was not enough proven
information to present to the public. For now, he felt confident
about this news conference. All he needed to do was let Bridgetown
know that it was under control. Tired but satisfied, he retreated
to his office.

He’d only just taken a few steps when his
assistant cleared her throat. “Sir...” Mina said, her voice
cracking slightly. “I’ve just gotten a ping from Tower
Central.”

He paused, frowning at her. “Central?” he
said unevenly. “I just spoke with them. What do they need now?”

“Shirai would like a moment of your time,”
she said quietly, avoiding eye contact. “She's…eh, she’s already
waiting in your office.”

Shirai...? What did the Tower AI want with
him? She rarely came over to his part of the building, only
entering the government offices when requested. She considered
herself an integral part of the business world, especially for the
major firms with home offices here in the Tower, but she was only
an observer when it came to politics. For her to show up in his
office this morning, unasked, meant there was more…
much
more
to this ritual, than anyone had expected.

“Uh...thank you, Mina,” he said with all the
calm he could muster. “That will be all.” He slipped through his
inner office door and locked it behind him, something he rarely
did. He noticed a slight tremor in his hands as he approached his
desk, and balled them into fists. As promised, he found his
hardback vidmat placed dead center on his desk with the speech
document open. He was too nervous to pick it up right now, and
moved it aside. He delayed the moment by scanning the rest of his
office for anything out of place, or a visual presence of the AI,
physical or otherwise.

“Shirai?” he said into the air, his voice
pitifully small.

“I am Shirai, sir,” she said, her voice
unexpectedly centralized to the area right in front of him. “Thank
you for taking the time to talk, Governor.”

He cleared his throat and started again. “I
wasn't sure if you were still here. I don't think I've ever had the
pleasure of meeting you.”

“I am Shirai,” she repeated, and slipped
into the brief preprogrammed introduction she shared with all her
interactive users; her voice was mature and conversational.
“Artificial intelligence unit and protocol security system for the
Mirades Tower. Reimos Mirades of EdenTree’s Biotech Division
created me twenty-five years ago. My original programming
assignment was to monitor server overflow, but I have expanded my
knowledge and reach to include net security and intelligence
trafficking. I am often called for economic and political
mediation.

“I have limited emulated conscience to
maintain impartiality.”

Anton exhaled, unaware he’d held his breath.
Genuinely impressed, he lowered himself into his chair and looked
up into the air to pinpoint the voice's origin. “I assume you have
a holo identity on this side of the Tower?”

“Of course.”

Shirai blinked into existence in front of
him, casually leaning over the back of a guest chair. She appeared
to be in her early twenties, slightly younger than he’d expected.
She had long, shoulder-length black hair that responded correctly
to any head movement she made, and wore business casual, a sky blue
button-down blouse with a black skirt and leggings. He noticed
belatedly that she was wearing a necklace with a small pendant
shaped like two intersecting circles.

“I...I'm impressed,” he stuttered. “By the
level of detail, I mean. Forgive me for staring.”

Shirai's smile glittered. “I find it a
compliment, sir. Not many care to see me in my true holo form.”

He nodded uncertainly. “You're...”

“Young?” she laughed it off. “It was my
father’s choice. Now…shall we have a chat?”

Anton nodded amicably. “Of course. What is
it you'd like to discuss?”

Angelic, Shirai swept around the chair and
sat. He couldn't be sure, but he could have sworn that the seat
cushion gave in slightly to the nonexistent weight. He relaxed in
his own chair, leaning to one side and propping his chin up with a
fist.

“Governor,” she started, her voice dropped
low. “I took the time to read over the speech before you came in.
Crimson-Null Foundation guidelines state I am fully authorized to
do so.”

Anton nodded. “I expect no less. Are there
any points I may have missed?”

Shirai looked straight at him with raised
eyebrows. “Sir...” she stumbled, as much as an artificially
intelligent holo could in reaction to emotional confusion, and
frowned. “Sir, I feel I should inform you that what you are about
to say to the press, the city and the rest of the province, is
sorely lacking in credibility.”

The room went cold as he stared at her.
“Would you like to elaborate?”

Shirai waved to calm him down. “Don't get me
wrong, sir. Factually, it is true and correct. I've checked and
referenced everything thoroughly. It's the motivation that bothers
me, sir. There are glaring omissions. They do not diminish the
speech in any way, but I'm at a loss as to why they are not
included at all. Clearly this has echoes of another uprising
between the Mendaihu and the Shenaihu, yet that has been neatly
avoided. I am hoping the Foundation has not decided to gloss this
over.”

He slowly and nervously sat up in his chair.
“Shirai, I —”

She eyed him, bemused. “No need to respond,
sir. I gather from your reaction that my deduction is correct. But
surely they remember what happened twenty-five years ago. An event
like this could surely trigger another event.”

Anton did his best to cover up both his
shock and embarrassment as he scrambled for an answer. “Oh,
that
we remember well, Shirai. But it's the enlightened
citizens who remember it most; they were the most affected. Not the
other eighty per cent of the population.”