“Yes, yes even after you die…”
“And his girlfriend, yes of course. How is she? Stacy, is it...”
“No, I am not seeing anyone. You know I don’t have time…”
“Your friend’s daughter Christina? I already met her, remember? There was nothing there...”
“Hey, Mom, I gotta go. Someone else is calling. It’s important. Love you too. Bye.” Chris quickly hung up with his mom to attend the other call that was coming in.
“Hello, Chris here.” It was Alejandro.
“You were what...”
“Oh, Jesus Christ! Is this your encrypted phone? And now you are in Delhi...”
“How many policemen were there...”
“Just the three? Do you remember their faces…”
“Yes, we can extract your memory of their faces. Once we identify the faces, I will talk to Dr. Faraday and the network in India about finding the guys and getting their memories taken care of…”
“Yes, I know it has to be soon. We don’t want more policemen involved. Then it will get too complicated…”
“You are arriving in San Francisco tomorrow...”
“Right, right. This Nirmala lady, is she one of us...”
“Dear God! And you haven’t told her anything about the Hekameses? About your abilities...”
“I see. But you are sure she still trusts you? After the stunt you pulled? Good job tampering with the level crossing by the way! My compliments...”
“No, I can’t interfere with electrical signals at such long distances, yet. But I am working on it. Getting better at it, I think. Need some training from you…”
“Yes, I will talk to her right now and let you know. I don’t think hosting you would be a problem. Professor Faraday would probably volunteer her own home, but the problem is this friend of yours. She might be a risk to the secrecy of our cause unless we tell her, and she jumps on board. But it’s a tricky issue. Not my call to decide. We need to consult Wanda and Wolfgang…”
“Okay, give me half an hour. I will call you back before your flight. Oh, yes, before you go. What about Dr. Nirmala’s family? She has to tell them something convincing. Urgent research abroad maybe…”
“Yeah, you’re right. We don’t want them filing a missing person report with the authorities.”
* * *
Later that evening, Wanda Faraday was in her beautiful library amongst her favourite possessions, her extensive collection of tomes and manuscripts and research work of all shapes and varieties. Wanda’s appetite for knowledge was so far reaching and diverse that no library in the world seemed large enough to contain the fodder for all her literary interests and academic quests. However, her little nook far from the prying eyes of the world, built bit by bit by her own skillful endeavours, certainly contained some rare gems. Some hitherto unstudied works, unsullied by political tampering and dissection. Amongst these treasures was one of the greatest treasures of all, the original papyrus of Faiyum. Very few knew of it’s existence and even fewer of its whereabout.
When the manuscript was first discovered, it was confiscated by the Egyptian Government for further investigation and eventual preservation in a museum. But such a document was much coveted and far too dangerous to be left in callous hands. Used inappropriately it had the ability to end all humanity. Thankfully there were Hekameses in Egypt that were found and recruited, and through their heroic efforts, the original manuscript was recovered, and a decoy implanted in the Egyptian Government’s repository.
Tonight, Wanda was sitting at her beautiful, hand-carved, antique oak writing desk, inspecting the delicate, ancient document for the umpteenth time, trying but once again failing to make sense of some parts of it, in particular, one of the most important parts, when the phone rang.
“Wanda, it is I, Wolfgang.”
“Good evening.”
“To you also, Madam. The arrangement has been made to recover Alejandro’s memory when he reaches you.”
“Excellent. So, Chris is coming?”
“No, not this time. Albert needs him, but your Post Doc., Jason Li, knows what to do. He was working on this project in the summer when he was here with Albert.”
“That should suffice. We don’t need a Hekameses simply for this extraction. So, I agree that it is prudent to keep Chris for more important work.”
“Glad you agree. That lady, Nirvana, you have thought about her?”
“The name, I think, is ‘Nirmala’ Wolfgang,” said Wanda with a chuckle. “Yes, I have thought about her. I believe it would be most wise to tell her about us. She already knows far too much, and there is no point in keeping her in further darkness. However, one must be subtle. I will attend to this matter myself when she comes to stay with me tomorrow. I will keep you apprised. But for now, you can leave this with me.”
“Thank you. I appreciate it and I am confident that this matter is best left in your able hands.”
“You flatter me, Müller.”
“Not at all. I speak the truth. One more thing, madam, what about ze girl? What happened with Alejandro worries me. It does not look like just politics. I fear something more sinister. They are getting stronger. We need our girl and we need her soon.”
“Zoya is her name,” Wanda corrected.
“Yes, you are correct. So, what about dis Zoya? She is not convinced, ya?”
“Not yet, I am afraid. We cannot rush these things. I fear you are correct in thinking that the incident with Alejandro is not mere politics. They may have infiltrated some local Governments and law enforcement. Until we know the extent of this infiltration, we are at a disadvantage. This worries me. But that does not mean we can make haste with Zoya. Without her sincere and voluntary cooperation, we will achieve naught. I will speak to her soon, but I cannot say just when.”
“Understood. Whatever you feel best. I must take leave tonight. Good evening.”
“To you as well.”
CHAPTER twelve
It was two weeks to Thanksgiving and the fall colours were spreading like wildfire in the trees of Palo Alto. The splendid scarlets, shimmering golds and fiery oranges seemed to have caught on to the branches of every oak, maple and aspen in sight. The wine orchards were changing colour one after the other and the little rolling hills were alight with resplendent hues, just like the ocean is at dawn when the sun’s virgin rays glitter and sparkle from it’s vast bosom.
Zoya was looking forward to going home for the break. Her mother was planning a huge feast, especially now that Nancy was coming over. There would be turkey and stuffing and fried chicken and baked potatoes and yams, bowls of sweet corn with butter and pumpkin pie for dessert and Zoya’s favourite strawberry cheesecake. Zoya’s mouth began to water at the thought. Her midterms had gone well and her professors were more than impressed. Tomorrow was the last lecture for her Neuroscience 204 course before the break and Dr. Faraday was presenting a guest lecture.
That batty old witch, Zoya thought somewhat fondly, remembering her odd visit with her. She had neither seen nor heard anything further from Dr. Faraday since that visit to her house at the beginning of term. But the things she had learned that afternoon kept haunting her memories ever since.
It was getting late and Nancy wasn’t back at the dorm yet. She was probably staying over with Jake again.
In the morning, Nancy had not returned; not unusual for the times she stayed over with Jake. She usually went straight to classes from Jake’s place and was back in the evening. Today, Zoya was playing tennis with her at five.
“Maybe I should ask her if she was able to take Jake to a therapist and if he’s been better lately,” Zoya wondered out loud while brushing her hair in the morning.
Nah, she thought in hindsight, realizing that it would be a sensitive topic to broach.
Zoya had a morning lecture and then lunch at her favourite Architecture cafeteria and after that, her Neuroscience class. Secretly, she was looking forward to hearing what the ‘batty old witch’ ha
d to say. She sure was an interesting character.
Dr. Faraday’s lecture turned out to be more intriguing than Zoya had anticipated. She dived into her favourite topic of the hippocampal neurones, which Zoya figured must be her research focus given the amount of time she had spent talking about it when they had last met. This course was typically for sophomores but Zoya’s superb track-record in High School Biology and a brief phone call from her neurologist father had worked well together in getting her the okay to sign-up.
At the end of the lecture, Zoya’s mind was teeming with questions. Dr. Faraday had touched on subtle topics such as telepathy and the paranormal and man’s perpetual attempt to explain these phenomena with science. A lot of hands were raised in question from some believers and other staunch disbelievers, of them Zoya’s being the most frequent to rise. Dr. Faraday, however, was very patient with all the questions and not at all surprised by the overwhelming curiosity of her audience. After all, it was a controversial subject and it seemed that she was used to receiving constant feedback and criticism from both sides of the aisle. At the end of the class, Zoya’s mind was still buzzing with questions. Dr. Faraday hadn’t left the room and was busy gathering her notes and handouts. Zoya braced herself and decided to walk up to her for a quick chat.
“Good afternoon, Professor. Your lecture was very thought provoking,” she said timidly as the slight hint of a smile flicked across her lips.
Wanda lowered her glasses to her nose and peered over them in Zoya’s direction and flashed her a wicked grin.
“Was it now?” she replied.
“Indeed ma’am. I did have a few more questions though. Do you have a couple of minutes now, or should I come back later?”
“My dear, I would be happy to answer your questions.” Wanda said after a brief pause and rearranged her glasses. “But much prefer to do so in my office, if you would follow me there.”
“Right now?”
“If you would like, yes.”
“I would definitely like that.”
“Follow me then. If I may ask, would you be so kind as to help me carry these remaining lecture notes?”
“Of course,” Zoya replied, quickly gathering the paperwork in question from the teacher’s desk and picking them up.
Dr. Faraday then made for the door and Zoya followed.
She walks quite nimbly for a woman her age, Zoya thought. Although her actual age was anybody’s guess, given that she couldn’t possibly be two hundred, as it had initially appeared. But she was certainly ancient-looking enough to pass for over seventy, at the very least.
“So, as I was saying—” Zoya began, hastily catching up with her.
“Unh,” Wanda quickly interrupted. “No questions till we get to my office. Understood?”
“Understood,” replied Zoya with hesitation.
She followed Wanda reluctantly through the many winding halls and passageways of campus, and from one building to another, over the grass and paved pathways, between the hedges and plants and flowering magnolia bushes, until they arrived at Wanda Faraday’s office. Wanda’s secretary Linda had left early for the day, Zoya learned. One of her graduate students, Julie, was manning the desk and replying to Wanda’s e-mails.
The news around the campus was that, e-mail was a technology Wanda had never really wrapped her head around. If it weren’t for Linda reading her all her e-mails three times daily and printing out the most important ones, all of Wanda’s meetings would have empty seats with her name on it. Her lectures would be no-shows and academic conferences would go unrepresented.
“Julie, sign this lovely lady in if you would please,” Wanda instructed, indicating Zoya.
“Of course,” replied Julie and turning promptly to Zoya, continued, “Your name?”
“Zoya Carter,” came the reply.
“Thank you. Please sign this register with the details of your appointment. Don’t forget to write your year and program in the last box. And finally, I will need any electronic devices you are carrying. You can leave them with me and collect them on your way out.”
“Yes, no problem. I have a phone. Here you go,” replied Zoya, handing her phone to Julie and got back to the sign-up sheet.
In five minutes, Zoya was ready to go in to Dr. Faraday’s private chamber. The professor of course, had already gone inside and was waiting for Zoya to join her soon.
Entering the familiar office, Zoya walked cautiously up to Dr. Faraday’s large desk at the centre of the room and stood across from her.
“Please have a seat,” Wanda gestured politely.
“Thank you, ma’am. Your lecture today was very unique, I have to say,”
“I’m glad you enjoyed it,” replied Wanda with an affectionate smile. “And you asked a lot of questions; an encouraging trait in a young pupil such as yourself. I believe you had some more?”
“Yes!” Zoya laughed. “Yes, I do have some more questions. You said in your lecture today, I mean you kind of alluded to this really extraordinary concept that our sense organs could in theory be made…how to put it…redundant? Yes, that’s the word, redundant. Our sense organs could be made redundant if we simply figured out a way to apply the appropriate sensory signals directly to the brain. We could then see, hear, touch and smell without having eyes or ears or nose or skin. How would that even be possible?”
“Great question. The complete answer however would be an entire course on its own and we do not have the luxury of time to go into all of it today, but I will try the best I can to give you a layman’s overview. Think about it like this; say you are looking at this pen,” she said, picking up a navy-blue pen from her desk and holding it upright. “How do you actually see it?”
“Well, the light enters through my pupils and strikes the retina where there are rod and cone—”
“In a layman’s terms, if you would please,” Wanda interrupted.
“Oh, okay. Well then, my eyes capture the image and send a signal to my brain via the optic nerve and the brain then tells me what I am seeing.”
“Correct. So, you see my point?”
“Umm, not exactly, no…”
“Alright. Then tell me what the function of the eye is, to interpret the image or merely to capture it?”
“To capture it of course.”
“Yes. The eye is just like a camera. It cannot tell you what you are seeing. It merely records the image which is then converted to an electrical signal and transmitted via the optic nerve to your brain. Now suppose we were to skip the eye stage altogether and mimic the signal the optic nerve would send to your brain in response to an object, this pen for instance, and send that signal directly to the brain. What would happen then?”
“Oh! I see. I never thought about it like that before. If we could send the signal directly to the brain, then we would not need any eyes! Wow!”
“Wow, indeed!”
“But how would we recreate the signals and that too for every single object? It’d be impossible, no?”
“Difficult, indeed but impossible, perhaps not. In fact, we are getting a lot closer to it than you might expect with our current research efforts. Additionally, people like us and by us, I mean like you and me in particular, the ‘Hekameses’ that we spoke about when we last met, we have the ability to speed up this research in a unique way. Which reminds me of a question that I had for you in turn…”
“I think I know what you might ask,” Zoya murmured.
“And what is that, child?”
“About what you told me last time, isn’t it? About joining your secret organization?”
“Well, have you given it any further thought at all? We need the likes of you amongst us more so than you may think.”
“To be honest, I have. In fact, sometimes, our meeting is all I can think of and my head is heavy with all kinds of questions for which I have no answers. The meeting and…”
“And?”
“Well…the bombing at the airport,” Zoya murmured.
&nb
sp; “Understandable. You may be able find these answers from one of us if you were to join. We are your kindred, whether or not you realize it.”
“But no! Every time I think about this, in the end…” she trailed off.
“Yes? In the end, what?” Wanda encouraged.
“In the end, I don’t want to get involved. Whatever it is you’re fighting, it is not my fight. It doesn’t affect me personally and in all likelihood it never will.”
“Oh, but here is where you are mistaken. It will affect us all, all and sundry. It’s only a matter of time. In fact, it has already affected you, hasn’t it? You just said it yourself. The bombing. The world does not know yet the power of the darkness that looms above it and we fear that it will be too late when it does, unless we, the Hekameses, who are born to a divine gift, can prevent it in some way.”
“I am not sure I buy in to your theory of doom and gloom in that way. Sure, there is war and destruction around the world in many places. There is terrorism and now this Aifra, but it was always like that. There will always be war somewhere, destruction somewhere and terror and much more, but that does not mean I have to personally fight in any of these. We have law enforcement and the military and the Navy Seals and the like for that kind of stuff. And this ‘divine gift’ you talk about. I don’t believe that either. All men are created equal, and I don’t feel that I was born with any special gifts or anything like you describe. Again, I am sorry, but I am not a good fit for this.”
Oh, but you are and the best fit there is. Zoya picked up Wanda’s thought. Aloud, Wanda said something very different:
“That is quite alright. Any time you change your mind, I would love to hear about it. Is there anything else you would like to ask me today, my dear?”
“No, I don’t think so.”
“Alright then. Have a splendid afternoon. Do not forget to collect your telephone from Julie before you leave.”
“Sure thing,” said Zoya with a smile while she got up and took her leave.
When she left Dr. Faraday’s office that day, it was nearly four. She had about an hour to change and head to the tennis court. She decided to go back to the dorm to drop off her books and laptop and change into her tennis clothes before heading to meet Nancy.
The Coming of Kalki Page 6