30. The Southern Research Bureau
Chapter thirty
The Southern Research Bureau
“Do you have him from here?” Kim pushed us toward Don as we entered a spacious room with screens for walls.
Graphs, blueprints, and various images covered the background footage of a verdant jungle, a rarity I struggled to believe even existed anymore.
The hologram of a pyramid floated in the room’s center, but it was not Hadrian Palace.
It had a flat top and a wide staircase up its front face.
The translucent blue glow of the image left me wondering what it actually looked like. That is, if it was real.
Don turned around, leaving behind three people in robes mid conversation. “You trust me with your gem?”
“Oh, he isn’t the gem we wanted, just a nice bonus.”
“Well, I’m honored that you–”
“Don’t be. He has no control over his body. I’ve sent the commands to your neurospace. His mind is still mostly his, so you’ll have to deal with his attitude for a while. Just don’t let any insult lead you to harm him before we can actually use him.”
“I know what I’m doing.”
“I’m not sure you do.”
“Go take care of the girl. I’ll figure it out.”
Kim turned around, speaking as he left. “I’ll message you when we need him for the fusion. Do not be late.”
“You want me there, too?”
“If you must.” The doors shut behind him.
Don faced me with his chin held high and hands behind his back. “Well, let’s make use of you.” He turned to the people he had left mid-conversation and resumed in a whisper.
I tried to find the best thing to say that didn’t sound like a cheesy refusal to comply or a subjugation of my will. “What is that?” I tried to point to the pyramid, but my hand was frozen at my side.
He turned back with a snide grin. “Come here.”
I tried to resist, just to see if the control codes worked.
I obeyed, no say to where I went or when I stopped.
He tested it by asking me to slap myself, which I did.
“Harder.”
I complied.
“Good. You never can be sure of promises in a world like this, right?” He gestured towards me as he checked for reactions among his stern-faced peers. “Come on, you’ve got to admit that this is exciting.”
“This is not the first instance of neurowashing we’ve seen, sir.”
“But you know what he is, right?”
They shook their heads. One spoke among them. “You never debriefed us after your meeting, sir.”
He sighed. “He has a Gui.”
Some of them raised their eyebrows in interest, but the one who had spoken remained placid. “I fail to see how this resolves the anomaly?”
He took a deep breath then pressed his palms together and faced her. “This one is a disciple, servant, whatever you call it, of the serpent woman.”
“Nuwa?” An older man gasped as he listened from the side of the room. He approached with others in tow.
“The Luxist God?” a younger man asked.
“Sure,” Don said. The more he spoke, the less I felt he was involved in the research of whatever project this was.
It felt more like he was an outside sponsor who offered enough lumens to fund the project just so he could stamp his name on it upon completion.
“Diama,” he pointed to a middle aged woman who was in a deep focus across the room, “tell them what that means.”
“Aren’t I just so lucky that you talk loud enough for me to hear the entire conversation across the room?” She stood from her desk and approached. “They already understand the implications of it.”
He looked around with an uncomfortable pressure in his throat.
“So you can understand, sir?”
I tried to tame my smile, satisfied that at least one of them did not act like he was the paragon of wisdom that he thought himself to be.
“I–”
She faced the others as she spoke over him.
“I was the one who has been following the Journeymen’s presence with Dear Leader Kim’s secondary reps.
Had I been on the council, I would have already clarified this.
The Dear Leader would have eliminated PetNab from the test if it had not been for me.
While RalEsp is crucial for obvious purposes, her Gui was not a true servant of the serpent god.
Fortunately, my complaints raised through Don’s mouth at the council brought us what we needed. ”
“How is this going to fix the temple anomaly?” a man asked.
“The connection to the–”
“I thought the serpent god was of Arabasian origin?” another asked.
Diama sighed. “Different cultures see deities in different ways. Gods are not bound by our rules and geographical differences, but—“
“Are we sure he will obey you?” another asked.
Diama glared at Don.
He grinned, then shouted. “Shut the zeg up and focus. Are we listening?” He leaned towards Diama and whispered, though even his hushed voice was loud enough to hear. “This is why I’m on the council, you plug?”
She rolled her eyes.
He winked and pulled away.
Diama placed her arms akimbo. “We need to harness the Gui before the next equinox.”
“For the serpent effect?” a younger girl asked.
“Exactly.”
An older man spoke up. “So are we just going to extract it from him like they did with Dokkaebi?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because we can’t control the will of a Gui. Dokkaebi is ours because he always has been.”
“More like we are his,” a girl said.
“Correct. The Journeyman Gui unbound to a human would be a catastrophe.”
An older man raised his hand as he spoke. “Then why not bind him to you or someone else who is already part of this project?”
She stared at me. “Because PetNab has already harnessed the Gui. And disruption to that would result in a disaster.”
“And how do you know this?” a man next to Don asked.
“Because I used to have a Gui.”
“Used to?” a younger girl asked.
Diama nodded. “The late Beacon Deleon convinced our Dear Leader to transfer it to one of his new imps.”
“Who?” I asked.
Some of the people murmured about my autonomy after hearing me talk, but Diama was unfazed.
“Who has the Yucatan jaguar?” I asked.
Oh. My. Zeg.
I held my mouth before I blurted out Akna’s name. “I didn’t know you could possess a Gui without a hypothalamic implant.”
“Who said I don’t have one?” She replied.
“But you just said you don’t have a Gui. Isn’t that the thing that powers–”
“Light Leeches.”
“Diama,“ Don said her name with tense camaraderie as he slung his arm around her shoulders. “Even if he is ours, I’m not sure just about how much we should talk about right now. I know you had me tell Kim that we needed to integrate him early, but–”
“He either works for us or he doesn’t.” She pushed his arm off her shoulder. “There is no sense in holding back if we want to go with him.”
“What are they?” I asked.
“Light Leeches?”
“The lesser forms of Gui. Gui are composed of pure light or what some call the anti-spectrum, while Light Leeches are the same thing that keep the bodies of Exos Sapines alive.”
“What about light souls?” I asked. “Deleon told us that those power those bodies.”
“Those souls, as he calls them, are what these leeches feed on, hence the name. Gui are complete beings, Light Leeches are husks of what could have been Gui that require a life to feed on. Once they have a soul, they can direct the host if it lacks autonomy, like the Exos Sapiens. I have the autonomy required to control mine. The combination of my light core–soul, whatever you want to call it–and adopted Light Leech is enough to power my hypothalamic implant or “Bite” as you call it. Oh yes, I’ve taken a lot of Deleon’s data on you since his passing. ”
“But Gui are more powerful than Light Leeches,” an old man added.
Diama sighed, then nodded. “Correct. Gui are a complete being. Light Leeches are like the automated programs that power shacs. Without the light and programming, they are a husk of a synthetic human. Without the husk, they are but power and ideas.”
“And that is what powered the people you sent after us as assassins?”
She smiled. “That was Dear Leader Kim’s doing. He lent Light Leeches to prospective competitors, taking them from the storage that I manage.”
“Why did they mess with my head when they came for us? My Gui can’t do anything like that.”
“While your Gui isn’t incapable of such feats, they will never be as jarring as Light Leeches.”
“Why? Doesn’t that give the Light Leeches an advantage?”
“Not exactly. They are more unstable.”
“Because they lack a soul?”
She shook her head. “Because they shouldn’t exist. Light Leeches are an error in reality. They aren’t the only thing that defies existance.” She gestured to the pyramid hologram. “This is the hub of such anomalies. This pyramid and the other surrounding temples.”
“Then what anomaly has you so—“
“That is beyond your clearance.”
Don scoffed. “She doesn’t even understand it, so don’t try.”
I tried to nod, but the binding wouldn’t allow even a simple acknowledgement of understanding.
“Something that defies any science we understand,” Diama said. “Including the knowledge of Gong, Nuwa, and the deeper truths of our world.”
“Interesting,” I said.
“Yes.” Don clapped. “It really is. Now, let’s move along before Kim calls him back.”
“Why does Dokkaebi have Light Leeches if he is a Gui?” I asked.
Don groaned. “Do we really have to keep this going? I want to–”
“Because Dokkaebi is no longer a complete Gui,” Diama said. “Anyone who says otherwise does not understand the cost of his fragmentation.”
So he’s not as strong as you?
“I hope this is true,” Zhu replied.
“But I thought–”
Diama cut the man off before he could digress.
“Any rumors that Dokkaebi is a Gui are erroneous. He is a conglomeration of fragmented Light Leeches. His main portion left inside Ralia serves as his light soul while the other fragments make up the leech aspects. In this way he is like a Gui, only because he is a shattered soul with his fragments spread out.”
“I don’t get it.” a man said.
A younger woman raised a question. “But after fusion, he’ll be a whole Gui again, won’t he?”
Diama shook her head. “Once he fragmented himself, he sacrificed wholeness for the sake of spreading himself out. He can join his other parts, but he is more like a less beautiful kintsugi vase. Rather than shattered fragments sealed with gold, he is a shattered image held together by power beyond our knowledge.”
“But this is all conjecture, right?” the same young woman asked.
Diama took a moment before saying, “Yes.”
I held onto her faltering confidence with every last ounce of waning hope that I had.
“You must be hungry,” she said. She waved away the others as disgust colored their faces.
I nodded.
“Come.” She waved me forward and I followed. She glanced at Don. “We won’t be long.”
She led me to the back of the room, through two sets of doors, then down a staircase into a dim room with plenty of movement towards the back.
She tapped the wall and blue light colored the room, revealing a bunch of half-naked people, mostly middle-aged, balding men.
“What is this?” I asked.
“I would rather have you feed on these people than on my own. Knowing that you were coming, I gathered more cattle to keep you satiated. Eat what you need, then move on. I know working with your Gui will be demanding, so I have already prepared for continual shipments.”
“But who are they?”
“Wouldn’t you rather not know?”
“Ignorance doesn’t fix the problem.”
She scoffed. “Oh, Deleon, you idiot.” She shook her head. “You’re really going to bring morality into this? You know what you are, right?”
“Of course, I–”
“Then it shouldn’t matter. Food is food. Teeth are teeth.”
“For you it might not–”
“And it won’t be for you anymore. These people are obstacles. Is that enough?”
“No, but you aren’t going to give me a choice, are you?”
She smiled. “Like I said, I would rather have you eat these people than mine. Don’t act so special. It’s not like they’re saviors to mankind. I’m not that vindictive with my prey.”
“So you’re implant, it–”
“Look, I’m not as altruistic as you hope, but I don’t keep the implant just because I like teeth.
You know that the best bite isn’t with the withdrawal.
If you’re looking for a way to remove the implant and continue living a normal life, I can’t help you.
” She removed her robe, draped it over the railing atop the small staircase leading to the feeding floor.
She continued to remove her clothes until she wore nothing but a black sports bra and briefs.
“I would do the same if I were you. It might be a while until anyone offers you a change of clothes, regardless of the blood. I’ll give you some wet wipes to touch up after this, but that’s the extent of my mercy. ”
I did as she told me, not knowing if it was my choice or if I had been forced to obey a suggestion.
“Feed,” she said as if it were a simple, meaningless word, despite the brutality it entailed.
I sprinted across the room, not looking at her or anyone else as I tackled a tall, skinny man with bags under his eyes that made him look as exhausted as I felt.
His teeth were a quick fix for fatigue.
A few people fought back or stepped in to save their fellow victims, but their efforts were worthless compared to my increasing strength.
“Stop,” Diama said as I finished my third set of teeth.
“I want more,” I said. I had the autonomy to turn and face her, but not to reach for another victim.
Her eyes flashed in her neurospace. “Too bad, Dear Leader Kim wants you.”
“Already?”
“I know, and we were just getting to know each other. Dokkaebi’s fusion is proceeding ‘faster than we anticipated,’ according to him. Wipes are near the bottom of the stairs. Clean up as best you can, get dressed, then run upstairs. An escort will be waiting for you up there.”
I obeyed, not expressing any gratitude.
I was once again caught in that familiar limbo of savoring my feast while hating myself for the cost I had paid. I didn’t want to think about my victims. Selfish though it was, there was no point in dwelling upon what I had done without my free will.
It was easy to find another sobering thought.
I thought of Ralia. She who would have fed with me but could not because of what they had stolen from her.
Ralia.
I miss you. Your absence is a hole I can never fill.
I couldn’t fathom the agony we would face when I returned home and revealed her fate. It had to be in person. We needed to feel it together.
I miss you, Ralia.