The Persistence of Memories - A Novel of the Mendaihu Universe (13 page)

“I doubt they’re even a thing anymore,” he
answered with conviction. “Unless the Shenaihu appropriated them,
there's no way they could pull off what we saw. They were lethal
when I knew them but the Spec Force corps put an end to them about
two years ago. Besides, these new attacks are not their forte.”

“Who would it be, then?” she asked. “Stealing
a gang tag seems kind of pathetic.”

Nick cracked a smile at that. “The nuhm'ndah
are definitely not the type to leave clues like that. No, this is a
different group entirely.”

“But there is a connection,” she said,
gesturing at the vidmat folders. “Did you find something?”

“Beginnings,” he said. “I pulled out the old
Spiral files I'd worked on myself and look for any
similarities.”

“And?”

He shrugged. “Not much. Except this...” He
flipped open the top folder open and pushed it her way.

She caught her breath, startled by the image
of Gordan Milainikos standing at the corner of Guyton West and
Sandison. There was no mistaking the man; it was the documentation
beneath the picture that revealed the location. He seemed to be
waiting for someone or something, a stance of impatience in his
body language. “When was this taken?” she asked. “And why is it
here?”

“It was taken two days before the Awakening
ritual. Edha Milainikos was a witness to gang activity at a house
run by Spiral when I was on the case back then. That gang has been
on the watch list ever since, so anything remotely related gets
added. He popped up about three weeks before the Awakening, making
some odd moves around the city, but we didn’t think much of it.
Until now, of course.”

Caren frowned. “He knew something, probably
still does. What hospital is he checked into?”

“Branden Hill People's General,” Nick said.
“He's healing physically…but spiritually, we’re not sure what the
hell happened to him. Or no one’s saying.”

The extra security didn't make her feel any
better. He was Mendaihu, and a strong one at that, based on the
deflection defenses he’d thrown up when Saisshalé blasted him. He’d
been injured badly, but he’d remained alive…at least until they’d
moved to the alleyway.

“The security,” Caren said. “Do we have any
Mendaihu on that team?”

Nick frowned. “Already tried confirming that,
but no one would say.”

Caren rose from her seat. “Nick, send me a
copy of these files. Farraway’s got some explaining to do.”

“He’s not on roster.”

“He’s hiding,” she barked. “The bastard’s
hiding, and he’s only pissing me off!” She dashed out of the
library and headed for the side stairwell, cursing all the way. It
had already been twenty-four hours since the attack on West Guyton.
She had no idea how quickly it would take for Gordan Milainikos to
heal. For stronger Mendaihu, it took a matter of days and a lot of
will power. For others, it took slower than a normal human. She
didn't want to take the chance of someone eliminating the man.

She blasted straight past the man’s front
desk clerk and burst into the inner office, ready to ream him out.
Farraway stopped her cold with a cautious hand and an icy
stare.

“Calm yourself, Johnson,” he said. “I'm
already on it. One of the sensitives on site picked up on what was
left of his signature and requested extra security as soon as he
was admitted. He hasn't regained consciousness yet, and we want to
question him as soon as he does. And budget be damned, I'm
requesting more trained Mendaihu and Shenaihu agents be put into
our unit. We can't let more incidents like this become
commonplace.”

Farraway offered her a chair, which she took
grudgingly. “Since the Awakening, we've been trying to find more
sehndayen-ne,” he continued. “The city's desperately short of
teachers and practitioners, and it’s falling on us to fill that
gap, whether we want to or not. We’ve received offers for help from
other provinces, but it’s only a matter of time before they’d have
to return. The One of All Sacred certainly did a number on
everyone, expanding an awakening like that.”

“Why isn't Governor Rieflin recruiting?” she
asked.

“He's deliberately taking a non-secular view
for the time being,” he said, shaking his head. It was a lame
excuse and they both knew it. “He’s too busy trying to keep his
council from doing anything stupid. His Spec Force Guards are still
down at the Waterfront, and the BMPD are busy enough just keeping
the peace, but his round table is a mess. That leaves us, Caren.
It's what we do: Alien Relations. It's what we're
supposed
to do.”

Caren had been about to say something, but
changed her mind. The BMPD rumors were right, the ARU
had
become a joke. Her job had gone from cultural peacekeeping to
playing house sitter to petty grievances the BMPD should have taken
care of. Denni certainly had raised the stakes, doing what she did.
Which meant everyone here needed a hell of a lot more training.

“So...” she prodded.

“So just this afternoon, I’ve confirmed the
Branden Hill chapter of Elders will begin taking on new
milédayen-ne
within the next few weeks. I've enlisted your
teams one and two as part of the first wave of agents. I’m leaving
it up to you as to whether you want to be ranked as a full-fledged
Mendaihu agent…but we’ll be providing you everything you need to
get to that point.”

A chill of excitement ran through her veins.
She would take that next step, no doubt. She would follow in her
parents’ footsteps, as she’d chosen so long ago. Taking this offer
would not make her any more of a Mendaihu than she already was in
spirit and blood, but it would make it permanent and official. She
would do it because it was who she truly was. She would do it for
the city she loved. And she would do it for Denni.

“Sa’im taftika, sir,” she said, and bowed
towards him.

Caren returned to the office after returning
briefly to the library to retrieve the file copies and datacrystals
from Nick. Poe had given up on looking for Farraway and had gone
down the street for lunch, and had returned no less irritated. “Hey
there,” she said, dropping Nick’s packet on her desk. “Wondered
where you’d gone off to.”

He gestured at the folders, frowning.
“Anything I should know about?”

“Long story, I’ll tell you in a moment.” She
took a moment to gather herself; he was in another cho-nyhndah mood
again, so she had to tread lightly. He was getting better, but it
was slow going. “First things first, some very interesting news:
the Brendan Hill chapter of Elders are taking new milédayen-ne, and
Farraway put the four of us on top of the list.”

“Oh, he's
here
?” he said, heavy with
sarcasm.

“He is now,” she said, and explained his
absence.

“Interesting,” he said. “I was wondering when
he was going to bring that up. Mendaihu
and
Shenaihu
training, I take it?”

Caren nodded. “Full escalated course, paid
through the Unit.”

Poe frowned. “Not going to be intensive, is
it?”

“Better than nothing, but I have no idea how
it’s going to work, schedule-wise.”

He hummed, the corner of his mouth curling
back in a frown. “And the folders?”

“Nick’s been busy,” she said. “Possible
tangential link between yesterday and gang activity four years ago
when he was on the South City PD.”

“You mean the tags, right? I saw them too,
didn’t even think about them until recently.”

“I requested copies of his research just in
case we need them.” She fanned the folders out in front of her, and
felt an incredible urge to hide them away and forget about them.
“I'm hoping we don't. Also, Farraway's putting extra detail on
yesterday's victim, just in case he's as strong a Mendaihu as Nick
thinks he is.”

Poe nodded, thinking that over. “An
interesting turn of events,” he said.

Caren tilted her head at him. “Why do you say
that?”

“Well, I'm just wondering if yesterday was
just a one-off, or if there are more related attacks that aren't
crossing our desk...say, if the PD or the Spec Force is covering
them.”

“Goddess, Alec!” she snapped. “We've got
enough crap to deal with! We don't need more!”

“Okay, okay...” he continued, waving his hand
in the air. “Forget that. But still, we should find out if any
other branches are reporting the same thing. Tags as well.”

“I get where you’re coming from…but I don’t
see the point of it. Most of the ARU officers may have ascended to
some degree, but they're far from adept. We can't have them
depending on the ESD every time they have a suspicion. Hell, we
should have seen them ourselves without it!”

“Caren, I’m not talking about —”

“We can't depend on the ESD all the time,
Poe.”

“I know that!”

“We shouldn't have to depend on it at
all.”

“
Karinna...
” he said between clenched
teeth.

Caren stopped cold and stared at him.

He’d never called her by
that
name,
ever.

Only then did she realize that she’d been
reacting
exactly
in the way she shouldn’t have, reacting
with pointless surface frustration. Her face burned with
embarrassment.
Hra khera, hra mehra...hra khera, hra
mehra...
she whispered, calming herself down. “Nyhnd’aladh,”
she said quietly. But he had backed away, turning back to the
paperwork that had been sitting on his own desk. “Poe?”

He turned slowly, regarding her distantly.
“It's okay,” he said, forcing a smile. “Guess I had that
coming.”

Shame washed over her. That wasn't fair! Now
she felt guilty for an emotional reaction that he normally acted
upon. She forced the shame away and focused on the folders in front
of her. She didn't want this day to get any worse, and she'd be
damned if it was going to end up like this, with neither of them
talking. Frustrated, she distracted herself with the folders and
started sorting through them.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Perception

Denni stood at the center of a wide and
sloping field on a high plateau, looking through a gap in the tree
line to the west, watching the sun as it sank below the far
horizon. She’d wanted to arrive earlier in the day, but instead
they’d landed just after the last meal of the afternoon at the
Gathering Table. It would be another four hours before another
feast would be ready, and there would not be many others to meet
there. She wasn’t worried, though. They had all the time they
needed.

“I recognize that shape,” Amna said, breaking
the silence. She had moved some yards away, studying the shapes of
clan sigils placed in small clearings across the field. She was
pointing at the shape of a five-pronged Möbius strip of
wheat-colored grass at her feet. It was the clan sigil of
Ehramanis, her family. “My parents have something like that hung up
on our wall at home.”

“Welcome to the Landing Field,” Denni said,
joining her. “Do you know where you are?”

Amna looked up and smiled. “Trisanda,” she
said quietly. There was no sense of awe or wonder emanating from
her, just simple reverence. Denni admired Amna's respect for
whatever earth she stood on. She simply drank her surroundings in,
finding its beauty and treating it as a living, breathing
spirit.

“Only a few of us can come here by
Lightwalking at this time,” she said. “With some practice and a lot
of patience, you'll be able to as well. We all will.”

Amna nodded, and glanced at her. “Things
change when you come here,” she said. “You look different.”

Denni wore a simple and comfortable tunic and
sandals. She found less restrictive clothes to be more her style
here, both for comfort and mobility. In the small handful of times
she'd visited Trisanda, she observed that her outward appearance
meant little here. Amna must have understood that, for her own
clothes had now begun to morph into a white blouse and a dusty
brown calf-length skirt. She watched her own metamorphosis with
much amusement.

Denni held out her hand. “Come on. There's
someone I'd like you to meet.”

“Peace, Love and Light to you, eichi Amna
Ehramanis,” emha Eprysia Kaalen said, bowing to her. “I am
Ampryss.”

A little gasp escaped Amna's mouth. Her eyes
went wide for a moment, but she refused to let her jaw go slack.
Instead she quickly bit her bottom lip, let it go a second later,
and showed her the widest smile Denni had ever seen her give. She
stared at this beauty of a woman, resplendent in a heavy black robe
draped around her shoulders, a mass of fiery red hair framing a
thin face and hanging down almost to her breasts. Amna's reaction
had been nearly the same as Denni's, her vision of Ampryss being
completely different from her perceived image.

“I am honored, Ampryss,” she smiled. Her
words betrayed a slight tremor in her voice. “Honored to meet you.
Peace, Love and Light to
you
.”

Ampryss guided them to the narrower end of
the table, where most discussions took place. Denni glanced around
quickly, curious to see who else who might be here. There were
about twenty or so other Mendaihu and Shenaihu, all deep in their
own conversation. They’d regarded her without much fanfare,
apparently acknowledging her presence with minimal response, or not
knowing who she was at all. She could not tell the difference.

Fesh piann,
she reminded herself with
a grin.

Dolan Usara arrived soon after, offering the
three of them goblets of a sweet wine. Denni thanked him and
offered him a seat. He stopped in place, about to turn back to his
duties, and turned to face her. He gave her the oddest expression,
starting with complete surprise and ending with excited
appreciation. Denni smiled at his humble gesture of thanks, but
glanced quickly at Ampryss. Had she spoken out of turn? The two
times she'd come to the Table, Dolan was a quiet and friendly man
who enjoyed company, but never participated in discussions. Ampryss
did not react negatively to his presence; rather, she reached out
and squeezed his hand as a sign of acceptance. He nodded quietly,
flashing a brief smile at her.