The Persistence of Memories - A Novel of the Mendaihu Universe (10 page)

She stepped away from the edge of the roof
and pulled out her comm. She also pulled out another cigarette as
she dialed the number for the Data Research Library on Pendergast
Boulevard. She lit up while asking for the Mendaihu Archives desk.
It was time to put her own plans into motion.

The clerk answered after the second hail.
“Mendaihu Archives, Jenn Underwood speaking.”

“Hey there, Jenn,” she said. “This is
Christine Gorecki.”

Jenn out a quick squeal of surprise and joy.
“Chris! Pashyo…long time no hear! How are you?”

Christine warmed to the young woman’s voice.
They’d known each other for years, back when both their families
lived in Fraserville District. Jenn was about ten years younger
than her, but they’d connected quickly as sisters and friends. She
remembered Jenn as a funny and intelligent girl, a bit on the
precocious side, but also one of the kindest people she'd had the
pleasure to know. It was especially heartwarming that Jenn still
regarded her fondly, even after Christine’s six month
disconnect.

She filled her in and then got down to
business. “I need a favor. I've got a project with an extremely
important client and I've got to do some major rush research in the
next few days. What's the possibility of me getting some
uninterrupted time in the Mendaihu Archives?”

Jenn let out a slow breath, presumably
looking over schedules. “That’s a good question. Quite a few ARU
agents booking time lately. I might be able to squeeze you in, if
you don't mind being shuffled around every few hours or so.”

“Not a problem,” she smiled. She’d expected
to haggle for time, but this was perfect. “I mostly need it for
scanning and retrieval. I’m doing most of the heavy work here.”

“You need time today?”

“Just an hour or two, perhaps early evening.
I've got a few other things to close up first.”

“Seven to ten sound good?”

“Perfect.” She began to pace across the roof
again, excited at her stroke of luck. “I'll be there. Thanks, Jenn.
Good to hear from you again.”

“Same. Don’t be a stranger next time, eichi,
I miss you!” They terminated the call, and Christine found herself
now full of unexpected energy and nowhere to let it out. She was
too keyed up to do any spiritwork. Instead she turned the comm back
on and called Poe. It took him four and a half rings to answer,
when it usually took two. Very unlike him.

“Hey Poe, it's Christine,” she said. “I'm not
interrupting anything, am I?”

“Christine! Hi!” he exclaimed. “Didn't expect
to hear from you so soon!” She heard Caren hollering out a greeting
in the far background, and responded with a jovial hello in
return.

“Listen, Alec…are you busy later this
afternoon?”

“Something's up?” he asked.

“Perhaps,” she said. “Doing a personal
project, and I could use your help.”

“Anything you need,” he said. “You want to
meet here at the office?”

She cringed. She didn’t want to go back there
just yet. “How about Yoshi's? Bring Caren too.”

There was a long, uncomfortable silence at
Poe's end of the line. She hadn’t needed to explain for him to
understand what the call was about. She hated to drop this on
either of them, but if she wanted this project to get off the
ground, she'd need access to whatever information Poe could
provide.

“You're going all out, aren't you?” he
said.

“Only way to go,” she responded.

Poe hummed in response. “All right,” he said.
“Five o'clock dinner at Yoshi's. Caren can't make it, though. She
needs to take care of Denni.”

Christine respected that, and said so. They
talked for a few minutes longer, and Christine hung up feeling
quite relieved that her plans were going so well. She stopped her
pacing and headed back downstairs to her apartment to change,
already knowing exactly what she was going to ask him.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Kinléshi

Poe slid back in his chair, relishing a rare
moment of peace in this office. He wasn’t quite sure if he wanted
to make use of it and catch up on work, or take advantage of this
calm by doing absolutely nothing. As much as he would love to do
the latter, he got bored too easily. The least he could do was make
good on his promise to help Christine by getting his own
information together to share.

Her continued participation surprised him.
She must have had a deep personal interest in Denni’s Embodiment.
In any other situation, she would have avoided anything remotely
tied to the ARU. She’d never told him why she left the Unit, and he
never asked. All he knew was that one of her last cases had become
deeply personal to the point that she could no longer be impartial.
She hadn’t quit outright but took an open-ended leave of absence,
willing to assist the Unit on a freelance level, and only under her
terms. But she never set foot in the Branden Hill office again.

Poe’s comm beeped loudly and unexpectedly,
shaking him out of his thoughts. He stared at the thing sitting on
his desk, wondering who it might be. Caren was across the room on
the couch, flipping through a long document on her vidmat. Kai and
Ashan were busy doing rounds at the warehouse, and Sheila and Nick
were sitting in on a training program downstairs. Farraway would
have just come in person. He picked it up on the third hail.

“Agent Poe,” he said.

“Hey, Alec,” the voice on the other end said,
a very quiet and unassuming male voice he hadn't heard in at least
three years. His heart immediately sank.

“Hey,” he answered back, more of a distracted
grunt than a response.

“It's your brother, Alec,” he said. “It’s
David. Listen, I know we haven’t talked in a few years…” He trailed
off, mumbling in embarrassment.

Poe cursed under his breath. Now was not the
time for family to be calling. Unless one or both of his parents
died, he really didn't want to be talking to any of them right now.
He loved them, of course, but the last thing he wanted to do was
get them involved in Denni’s Awakening. He could only think of the
worst: Dad had died, or Mom had suffered a second heart attack and
was now at New Boston City General.

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see
Caren looking at him with concern. He shook his head and mouthed
the word 'family.' She nodded and rolled up her vidmat without a
word. She left the office quietly, closing and locking the door
behind her. “Yeah, I know,” Poe started again, trying for a
slightly friendlier tone in his voice. “I’m an idiot, you know
that. Seriously, it’s been way too long. How's New Boston treating
the family? Gina and the kids okay?”

“Same as always...” David said, his voice
equally forced into cordiality. “Gina's fine, she says hello. Kids
are fine. How’s my little bro in the big city?”

Poe smirked. Regardless of how they felt
about each other, they were all talkers. He could always count on a
conversation whenever they called, mundane or not. His brother and
his parents were all part of the academic crowd, and this was their
own way of disconnecting from the frustrations of life. “You know
how the ARU is. Too much work and too little sleep. So what's going
on? I know you didn't call me because your birthday's at the end of
the month.”

“Yeah,” David laughed. “I'll be an old fart
at thirty-seven. Two kids, job security and a mortgage. Go figure,
man. I called the old homestead before I called here, so don't be
surprised if you find a hang-up on your vidmat. You know, I'm
surprised you still live in that place.”

“It's still home to me,” he said, an honest
smile crossing his face. “So, as you were saying? Are Mom and Dad
okay?”

David took a long and uneasy breath. “Yeah.
Nothing's wrong, if that's what you're worried about. Mom and Dad
are fine. They're up in Revere Sector right now, at the beach for
the day. Listen — they want to see you again, kid. It's been too
long.”

Poe’s heart sank a little. He knew this would
come up eventually. He’d meant to drive up there and see them again
many a time, but something always distracted him. All kinds of
excuses, from a busy workload to family arguments to just being too
damned stubborn…all the stupid things had been his reasons for not
doing so. The years between them had always been good, but he just
couldn’t quite face the
real
reason — they were not his
blood relatives. He loved them dearly…but he had always felt that
distance. He knew it wasn’t their fault at all, and he would never
blame them for it. And now that he’d been awakened as a
cho-nyhndah…

So why did his parents want to see him at
this point in time?

“They've been following your work
religiously, you know,” David said, a hint of pride in his voice.
“They save every blip of newsfeed that comes along that mentions
you or the Branden Hill ARU. Every time you're in the news — even
if it's just a police log, they have it. Don't get me wrong, kid,
I'm not jealous. But they care about you more than they know how to
show it. Sometimes a little too much so.”

Poe frowned. “What's that supposed to
mean?”

“This...Mendaihu thing,” he said.

“What 'Mendaihu thing', David? You make it
sound like a contagion.”

“Don’t be an idiot!” he laughed nervously.
“I'm talking about your work with it. I don't know how to say it,
what it's called! That thing you're working on with Caren!”

“Well...less said the better, for everyone's
safety. But whatever's being leaked out, I can assure you it's been
going ten times as hard, twenty times as weird, and a hundred times
more stressful.”

“Ha! You make being a college professor sound
like a cakewalk.”

“Trust me, it is. Mom and Dad are worried,
aren't they? They heard about the, uh...” he paused. Time to start
treading lightly. “The lightshow, as Caren and I call it? The
rituals down here?”

“Yeah, those,” David said. “You know Mom. As
much as she hated Bridgetown, she knew that you'd make it big
someday. And I hear that the much-revered One of All Sacred is
allegedly back roaming the streets?”

Poe shuddered. “Well...according to sources,
you could say that.”

“I hear it's a young girl this time.”

“So did I.”

“You're being evasive, kid. You know who it
is.”

“Let it alone, David.”

“Oh, come on.”

“I said
let it alone.
”
Shit!
Shit-shit-shit!
He balled his free hand into a fist. This was
definitely
not
the time nor the place to go into a
cho-nyhndah-fueled fit of anger! They didn't know who he was
spiritually...and he didn't want to damage his relationship with
his family any further. He took a deep breath and let it go.
“Sorry, Dave,” he mumbled. “Stress talking.”

“No, I'm sorry,” his brother said. “I
shouldn't push something like that. I may not fully believe in
it...but I should at least respect it, right?”

“Yeah,” Poe said. “You're right. Don't worry
about it.”

“Listen. Mom and Dad
really
want to
see you. In fact...”

“Here we go…” Poe groaned.

“...in fact, they set it up with your boss
yesterday. You got the next few days off. You can go whenever.”

Poe blinked, stared at the phone, and burst
out laughing. He shook his head in exasperation. “That balding,
short bastard son of a D'haff Sshalé!” he cried. “I'm going to kill
that man. He never told me. Let me check my mail...”

“He didn't?” David said, laughing. “I talked
to him this morning myself to make sure it was all okay. He said he
already talked to you.”

“The day is still young,” Poe said, wiping
tears of amusement from his eyes. “I don't care if he's my boss,
I'm going to rip him a new one.” He tapped at his keyboard until
the monitor came to life. Making a quick check of his e-mail
account, he saw a 'priority' from Farraway himself, posted just a
half an hour ago. “Yup, there it is. I'm
definitely
going to
displace that guy.”

“Ha! That I'd like to see,” David said. “Hey,
so it's cool? We'd really appreciate it, but we're not going to
twist your arm on it.”

“I'm there,” Poe said. “How's this — I'll set
up a time to hop the land shuttle, call you with the details. I’ll
need one last day to wrap a few things up, so I can head out that
afternoon. I should be there some time before midnight.”

“Midnight!” David said. “You're talking New
Boston here, kid! We’re usually fast asleep by then!”

“You've gone soft, Dave,” he shot back.
“Mister 'I pull all-nighters' when you were going to Spender? We
can still make it to a few bars before we head home.”

“Okay, twist my arm. Be at South Station just
before midnight or you're walking all the way to Newton Sector by
yourself.”

“Feh — I can do the entirety of McCleever in
a day. South Station it is, bro. See you there. Give Mom and Dad my
love.”

“You got it, kid.”

“So what was that all about?” Caren asked
when she walked back into the office twenty minutes later, noting
his lighter mood. “You seem rather happy that he called.”

Poe shrugged. For him, this had been one of
the better calls he'd had with his brother, but the reasons behind
it felt a bit shady. “Well, could go either way. Apparently
Farraway let me take a few days off to go visit them.”

Caren paused, debating how to approach that
bit of news. “Is everything alright?”

“Oh, they're fine,” he said. “Everyone’s
fine.”

“When are you going?”

“Tomorrow night.”

“After end of shift? Bit late, don't you
think?”

“Yeah,” he said, and looked away. He hoped
Caren was winding up asking him all these questions...the trip was
in his mind, but he had other things to think about right now. He
shortened the conversation by filling her in on his travel plans.
Caren agreed she could manage the office alone until he returned.
“As much as I'm thrilled that I'm getting a few days off with the
family, I would like to have a word with Farraway.”