Soul Heist - The Missing Mentor

Chapter 14 - Trunk Nebular

Tammy was lying on the sofa, legs over the armrest; Indira sat in a lotus position, hunched over her iPad; and Danian had retreated onto the floor, his back against the wall. He jumped up when Naoto walked in, pushing over the half dozen or so empty espresso cups that Tammy had kept ordering, one at a time but with a cheeky smile. The waiter had happily bounced back and forth. Danian was confident he was handsomely paid, too.

"What did your uncle ask you to do?" Danian asked.

"It's complicated," Naoto said. "Not finished yet. But I wanted to check on you guys. Have you found anything useful?"

Tammy started with a summary of the piles of material she'd worked through. The majority of it related to Ganesha, the Hindu god they'd first come across in Bali in Kenzo's study. Some sources suggested a possible alien background of the reported sightings of Ganesha several thousand years ago. Today, groups on Facebook exchanged views on reported encounters with Ganesha in different places around India that seemed to have started to occur only recently. There were tens of thousands of Twitter messages tagged with #ganeshaishere or #elephantgod. Theories abounded about a correlation with so-called radio bursts.

"What is that?" Danian interrupted.

"Ultra-short radio pulses hitting earth from space with unbelievably high amounts of energy," Naoto filled in.

Then Tammy continued that scientists had pinpointed the source to a concentration of interstellar gas and dust about 2,400 light-years away from earth. "That region of space is called, quite fittingly, the Elephant's Trunk Nebular."

Danian dug for another of the spicy chicken wings, the latest of Tammy's exploits from her frequent exchanges with the handsome waiter.

Now was Indira's part. She'd puzzled together Kenzo's notes that suggested he'd been in the process of unravelling a massive corporate whitewashing scandal. The fossil-fuel sector, some of the biggest tech companies and a dozen corrupt governments had evidently conspired in creating a devious scheme to push back against emission cuts and expensive carbon-capturing systems.

"Maybe that's what got Kenzo in trouble?" Danian wondered. Everyone was downbeat and looked at him as if his research part might be able to provide them with a remedy.

Danian got up from the floor and focused on Indira. "I think Kenzo's in Nepal." He showed his friends a screenshot of what appeared to be a deepfake featuring the elephant-headed god Ganesha posing in front of a Buddhist temple. The caption read Guess where I am for a chance to win #ganeshaishere. Kenzo had annotated it with Tengboche. Nepal. Investigate.

Indira jumped up. "Kenzo took me there last year," she exclaimed. "We did some charity work. No wonder he'd recognised the temple."

"Interesting," Naoto said, chin resting on his fist. "But not conclusive."

"I've found flight tickets to Kathmandu, too." Danian grinned confidently. "The return ticket was for Friday last week."

For a brief moment, Danian thought Indira would kiss him, or hug him or show any kind of physical affection. Instead, she turned towards the door.

"Well, that's conclusive enough for me. I'll go."

This time it was Danian who jumped up. "We're in this together!"

Indira hesitated and turned around. "Look, I do appreciate what you've done. But the Himalayas aren't a place you just rock up."

"Why not?" Danian felt like a little boy being lectured by his parent.

"The altitude can make you sick," Indira said. "And an expedition might take weeks."

Danian demonstrably crossed his arms in front of his chest. "We've all jumped through a loop with no idea what to expect." I want to meet Kenzo as much as you do, he thought to himself but dismissed it as an argument since it wouldn't likely hold true. How could his curiosity to learn about life match up against Indira's desire to rescue her beloved mentor?

But Danian desired Indira, too. And seeing her walk out of his life left a ravaging fireball in his belly—a million times worse than those spicy chicken wings.

Tammy came to his rescue. "I'm not bailing out either, Indira," she said sternly. Now she and Danian looked at Naoto.

He shrugged and said, "I guess if it's dangerous, that's just one more reason not to go alone?"

Indira glanced at her friends and finally gave in. She looked relieved and embraced them one by one. Danian beamed when his turn came.

Then the door opened, and Nathan popped in. "Are we doing a group huggee?" He stormed forward to join.

Naoto filled him in on the latest developments.

"But you know what you promised my dad?" Nathan reminded his cousin.

Naoto nodded and explained that his job here wasn't done yet.

Danian had become very fond of Naoto since their chance encounter in Bali only a few days ago. But right now, he secretly hoped the favour Naoto's uncle had asked for would take a couple of days to give him some time alone with Indira. Well, Indira and Tammy. Not quite ideal. Then he realised how Tammy's dark brown eyes scrutinised him.

To everyone's surprise, she suddenly announced that she'd stay with Naoto to pick up some of his trade which might come in handy for her intelligence work.

"Really?" Danian could have hugged her.

"And I'd love to check out the high rollers," Tammy said. "Get some skin in the game." She was batting her eyelashes as an indication that she probably meant it rather literally.

It was almost 3 am. Everyone was dead tired and happily accepted when Nathan promised them four premium deluxe rooms on the house.

After a sumptuous breakfast, Naoto bade farewell to his friends and nipped back to work the next morning. Nathan's driver dropped Indira, Danian and Tammy off at the temple where they'd first looped into Macau. He confirmed he would be waiting for Tammy, who just wanted to see her friends off. Nathan had declared that Naoto and Tammy could jet off to Bali on his family's plane as soon as Nathan had finished his assignment. He'd dismissed concerns about the temporary travel ban in and out of China by assuring that it was merely a question of money which luckily was in almost abundant supply.

The three friends walked up the stairs, guided by two lion statues, and passed under the archway into the temple. They quickly found the shrine with the door hidden behind the altar and sneaked into the secret prayer room. Tammy handed Indira the singing bowl Uncle Bayu had given her in Tanah Lot. It was supposed to activate the loop back to Bali.

Indira sat down, legs crossed, and started her meditation practice. After a while, she began to play the singing bowl the way Uncle Budi had shown her. It took over an hour for the first flimsy signs of the loop to appear on the walls. Tammy had joined Indira in the meditation, and with nothing else to do, even Danian sat down on the stone floor, awkwardly crossing his legs. He closed his eyes.

Unsure what to do, he tried hard to sit still, but his mind tormented him with the most ridiculous thoughts. Consciously not thinking seemed to be impossible. For lack of anything possibly more soothing, he visualised the sea around Tanah Lot, a beautiful surf that beckoned him to grab his board. Danian relaxed and suddenly experienced a tingly feeling that started in his hands, crawled up his arms, spread through his whole body, down into his feet, and up to his neck. When it had reached the back of his head, he suddenly visualised a bright light entering his skull. Taken by surprise, Danian abruptly opened his eyes.

Neon lights were flashing up around them, lighting up the small room with the unique geometrical loop pattern. Danian stared down into the white light glistening in front of him. Out of nowhere, the contours of a man appeared.

***