A Division of Souls - A Novel of the Mendaihu Universe (51 page)

“It’ll work,” she said. “I have faith it
will.”

Again, Nehalé left words hanging. His lack
of faith worried her. She only hoped his faith in himself was as
strong as he displayed it.

“I suggest we return to the warehouse
first,” Amna said. “We need to calm everyone down before we can do
anything else.”

“Let’s go then,” she said aloud.
“Nehalé?”

He bowed slightly towards her. “Yes, Dearest
One?”

“Thanks for bringing me up here,” she said,
touching his arm. “I had to see what was going on from the outside
before I could act. I would have come to this conclusion
eventually…but not as quickly.”

“I am but a Warrior, emha,” he said.

She grinned at his stubborn subservience.
“And a great one you are,” she said, and took his hand. “Let’s
go.”

*

Governor Rieflin stood at the tinted
floor-to-ceiling windows that lined the northern wall of the
governor’s quarters, silently debating how to proceed. The
billowing storm cloud circled around them and effectively cut them
off from the rest of the world below. The view of the sea of clouds
and little else bordered on the surreal, and Anton felt extremely
uncomfortable by it. He stared outside, contemplating the storm,
but found little in the way of answers.

He had watched it for a good part of the
afternoon, especially since the disappearance of Councilor Mancka
Udéma, and began to wonder about the inevitable political backlash
he would be receiving soon. He hated to think that way, but as a
provincial governor, there was no getting past the vultures. He’d
be hearing from the corporations again soon enough. He chose to
ignore them for now, his main focus remaining on the situation at
Moulding Warehouse. His eyes and ears were the police and ARU
forces lining the perimeter, and he trusted them.

Nandahya Mirades stood beside him, her arms
crossed. “There’s no threat to the Tower, Anton. There’s little
more we can do right now other than watch. That storm out there
seems to be hovering over the warehouse, by the looks of it.”

The swift change of subject temporarily took
him by surprise. “You’re saying it stopped there?”

“Stopped,” she echoed. They both stared at
the storm’s eye in silence for a long moment. “Stopped,” she
repeated.

“Storm clouds don’t just
stop
,” he
said. “Unless you can explain to me what this anomaly is, I’m
afraid I can’t do a damn thing except stare at it. Any ideas,
Nandahya?”

She shrugged. “A few, but none that make
sense. I’m thinking there might be some…” she trailed off, thoughts
suddenly lost somewhere. She dropped her arms heavily and returned
to the couch on the other side of the room. Her mouth slowly
dropped into a frown, and her eyelids grew heavy. Belatedly Anton
realized she was trying to sense someone down below, so he left her
alone. He debated calling Shirai, but chose against it. There was
little she could have done anyway other than analyze the situation.
It would have to wait until…until when? He felt lost, having no way
to gauge his own emotions and thoughts against what was going on
down there. Unlike the events of the last few days, no one was
coming to harm, and everyone around him had assumed that nothing
dangerous would happen that he’d have to answer for.

He was clearly out of his league, and it
bothered the hell out of him.

“Rain,” Nandahya suddenly said, her voice
louder than expected, and he twitched in surprise. “It’s not
raining down there.”

Anton frowned. “Excuse me?”

She shook herself out of her daze and faced
him. “It’s not raining down there. With clouds
that
thick,
you’d expect some form of precipitation. I’m sensing from others
down there right now that the front lobby’s cool and dry. Not your
normal cloud cover, Anton.”

Anton shivered. “I’ve already read the
meteorologists’ reports. They just think it’s a late summer storm.
I’m feeling otherwise.”

Nandahya studied him as he said that.
“How?”

“How what?”

“How are you feeling that? How do you know
it’s not a summer storm?”

He shrugged as he glanced at the windows
again. “I don’t know…just a hunch, I guess. And storms normally
don’t stall like that, even if they’re slow moving. Why do you
ask?”

“Because I think I know what’s happening.
But before I say anything else, let me ask you a question.”

Anton cocked an eyebrow. “What does this
have to do with anything?”

“It could mean everything
,
” Nandahya
said. “Please, sir.”

He nodded and took a seat in the opposite
couch, facing her. They both sat on the opposite ends of their
couches, she near the main exit and he near his desk. It was an odd
arrangement for them, sitting at such an angle to each other, as if
they’d subconsciously tried to get as far away from each other as
possible. He had no reason to do so, it just happened by
coincidence.

“I’m sorry, sir, if I’m making you
uncomfortable…” she began. “I’m just trying to understand things,
just as you are. Unfortunately, there are no ways to go about
asking this without causing some kind of unease, so forgive me if
I’m blunt.”

“Blunt I’m used to. Ask away,” he said
kindly, though his pained expression betrayed his voice.

“Governor…I’d like to know if you’ve been
awakened.”

Awakened!
He came close to breaking
out in laughter, only to stop himself just in time. Goddess, maybe
he was too exhausted to think straight. What a thing to ask! He was
frequently mistaken for having Meraladian blood in him due to his
height and body shape, but being a part of the Awakening?
Definitely not. He’d been spared, just like everyone else who’d
been inside the Tower that night. He tried to give her the most
honest and calm answer he could muster. “As far as I know,
Nandahya, I haven’t,” he said with a brief, uncertain smile.
“Although I can’t say I would have noticed any difference if I
had.”

“You’d know,” she assured him.

“That would be a ‘no,’ then. All I’ve felt
is stress, annoyance, and a nagging urge to get some blessed sleep
sometime this week. I can’t say I’ve felt anything different.
Nothing out of the ordinary.”

Nandahya blushed. “I do apologize, Governor,
for being so straightforward…”

“No need for titles here,” he said, waving a
hand at her. “There’s no need to apologize. I’m just curious,
however, as to why you asked.”

She shifted in her seat, still clearly
embarrassed. “The Awakening ritual affected quite a lot of people
in this city,” she said. “More than anyone’s expected. I needed to
know.”

“I understand,” he said. “And as I said, I
don’t think I have. However…that does make our jobs more
complicated, doesn’t it? We’re in charge of taking
care
of
these people. If they all happen to have a religious epiphany,
great…but we still have to make sure the zealots don’t start with
the witch hunts.”

Nandahya frowned at him. “Witch hunts?
Honestly, Anton…”

“I can’t rule them out,” he persisted. “As
improbable as that may be. Meraladians have been around for two
hundred years, with very little antialien uprising against them,
other than the radicals here and there. We Gharné lucked out in
that respect. You have no idea how many of us thought your race had
ulterior motives at first.”

Nandahya’s face had turned pale. “Sir…”

“Please, let me finish,” he interrupted.
“Like I said, you’ve been around for two hundred years. Now us
Gharné? We’ve had our own religion and spirituality for millennia,
and we’ve had all levels of it, from peaceful to downright
apocalyptic. Now forgive me if I’m way out of line here, but the
last time we had a major uprising of a religious or spiritual
nature was a quarter century ago…and we all know how that ended.
I’m sure that nearly everyone who’s awakened the last few days have
been changed for the better…but I can’t ignore the possibility that
it could happen again. I’m not about to evacuate the entire damn
Sprawl any time soon, however. I absolutely refuse to take that
course of action unless it’s necessary.”

Out of the corner of his eye he saw a flash
of lightning outside. It was followed by the sound of a low rumble
of thunder a few seconds later. Perhaps the storm was finally
breaking…? In the dimming light of the office, he couldn’t tell if
her reaction to those words was well-hidden shock or just plain
surprise. He pushed himself back off the couch and headed to his
desk, hiding the amusement on his face.

“Don’t get me wrong, Nandahya,” he
continued. “I don’t plan to outlaw these…these divisions, for lack
of a better term. I don’t plan on stifling anyone’s freedoms. But I
won’t turn away when the violence starts, either. I caught a lucky
break when that ARU agent called the Sentinel team to St.
Patrick’s, making my own non-police security agency look good in
the process. I’m sorry if that sounds crass, but I don’t mean it to
be. But when the Sentinels got involved, I was forced in myself.
You know how the media charade goes, don’t you?”

“All too well,” she said distractedly. She’d
begun staring off into that nonspace again.

“So I’m forced to keep an eye on everyone,”
he continued, seating himself behind his desk. “Or else it looks
like I don’t care, or that I’m ignorant. So many centuries of
mass-produced media, and you’d think that the political mudslinging
would have died out ages ago. Again, I’m sorry if that sounds crass
because I’m trying to keep my job here, not my marketability. At
any rate…the Sentinels are raring to go just in case anything
happens.”

“Nothing good will come out of military
intervention in spiritual matters such as this,” she said. “I hope
you know that.”

“Of course I do,” he said. “And I hope you
know that military invention in spiritual matters can save many
lives as well. Purely as a peacekeeping mission, of course.”

“Don’t start, Anton,” she countered, facing
him with a devilish grin. “You know how these kinds of arguments
end up.”

He very nearly answered that with a
wisecrack but decided not to. “I’ve got the BMPD near the
warehouse,” he said. “They’re stationed four blocks away, ready to
move in if anything happens. I’ve done the same with the BMFD and
emergency services. No one moves unless they hear from me. I’ve
also got the Sentinel troop from North End close by, just in case.
Again, no moves without my say-so.”

Nandahya huffed at him. “This is a peaceful
congregation. Admittedly it’s an illegal one, because no permit was
sought…but what makes you think anything will happen?”

“What makes you think nothing will?” he
asked.

Her silence answered that question for her.
He may not have had any experience in this kind of situation, but
he certainly wasn’t going to go into it without being prepared. He
pushed himself out of a slouch, woke up the desk vidmat, and waited
to make his next move.

“That’s why you’re here, Nandahya,” he said,
facing her. “You’re the first representative for the Mendaihu in
Bridgetown. Second in Command in the Provincial Governor’s Council.
Normally I’d contact Mancka on this sort of thing, but as she’s
still missing, I have to go higher up and talk to you. Now, we can
argue spirituality until we’re blue in the face, or we can act. I’m
about to establish contact with all my divisions down there, and I
would like you to be a part of this. There’s another vidmat on this
desk if you so wish to use it.”

She stared at him in utter surprise. His
words must have sounded like an ultimatum that she was nowhere near
ready to face, but he had to be adamant. After a moment she
accepted, took the chair facing him, and signed herself into the
network. She watched in silence as he tapped in security codes and
talked his way through at least twelve people before getting the
officers he wanted.

“This is just protocol I have to follow,” he
explained during a lull in the setup. “Any questions before we go
live?”

“None that I can think of,” she said. “Am I
cleared for all of this, though? Codes and all?”

He nodded as he arranged all the connections
in a grid pattern. “Don’t worry about it,” he said and laughed
quietly to himself. “As much as it pains me to say this, I set up
access for everyone on the Council a few days ago. Yes, even
Philips and Priestley. I just haven’t had the time or the chance to
feed the upgrade into your ‘mats and get you logged in.”

Nandahya frowned, but didn’t say anything
right away. She must think he was crazy, giving everyone access
like that! Especially Priestley...if Crimson-Null gave him the
word, his power would trump everyone else’s, including his. He had
thought about this ahead of time, of course. He had his own plans
for his old friend from Hallera.

He glanced down at all the miniature blue
screens, then back up at Nandahya. “Are you ready?”

She nodded. “I trust you,” she said.

He glanced at her for a second, debating the
intent of those words, but chose not to dwell on it. He reached
over to the vidmat switchboard and brought all the screens to
life.

But instead of seeing dozens of faces,
nothing happened. No, not entirely…one screen came to life
immediately and unexpectedly, in the top right corner. He tapped to
enlarge it, and to his surprise saw the face of a civilian he
hadn’t contacted at all. The young man sat in what looked like a
bedroom, though instead of furniture, an ungodly amount of techware
cluttering the wall space. He was sitting in a workstation
cage.

“Ah!” the man said with an altogether too
pleasant smile. “Governor Anton. So glad to finally meet you,
sir.”

“What the — this is a restricted channel!”
he barked in surprise. “Disconnect now or you
will
be traced
and arrested!”