One Heartbeat

As I searched through the databases for Akah Khera’s address, I kept thinking about how to get back into Aneti’s apartment. She must have something hidden there that would abbreviate my work. While I did meet her there later this evening to go to Lanternlight Park, I need some opportunity that doesn’t burden me with her eyes. None of the options I have make sense. While I could get into the building while she is at work, her actual apartment has a fingerprint scanner. Short of clobbering her over the head or making a cast of her finger, I doubt I could get in, and I don’t want to rely on Likua.

This morning, I intended to question Akah Khera about the woman in the photo. I will do that tomorrow because something more interesting came up … a newspaper headline from the Galasu Beat, one of the popular, cheap applications … and I feel like reproducing the article here:

EQUILIBRIUM NEXUS EXPOSES MURDER PLOT IN MENARKA

A controversial series of arrests made local news channel headlines this morning in Menarka as six men and women were accused of working to plot Representative Tsekar’s death. The actual murder plot, put in action this morning as the woman walked out of the skyrail terminal, failed because, in the words of Equilibrium Nexus‘s founder, Karatau Vepessa-Mainë Meiyenesi, We just got there first.

Representative Tsekar has been criticized in recent years for kowtowing to Shiji imperialism in her legislation decisions. While an advocate of regional language education, she has increased the amount of Tveshi required by school graduates, citing the importance of establishing a common language base in the nation. While Equilibrium Nexus has its own theories about the conspirators, police are still investigating ties to any political movement. Leaders of the Tveshi Cultural Coalition and Cradle have been brought in for questioning.

Equilibrium Nexus drew criticism this morning for disclosing that they relied on dubiously-obtained digital information to make the discovery, while at the same time requesting that its members’ identities remain anonymous for their protection. I don’t think that digital privacy is an issue, says a Menarki member. People can choose whether to utilize new technologies or not. Hopefully, our work will spur individuals to realize that they need to watch what they say and do because everyone can be held accountable. This isn’t the seventeenth century.

Updates will follow the press conference and release of more specific information next week.

I have never heard of Equilibrium Nexus before, and from what others are saying in public, almost no one has. Their entries in the Galasu Knowledge Foundation are sparse. The typical date for the organization’s beginning ranges from 1397 to 1443. A brief mention is made of it in one document fragment from 1479 as a new threat to Tveshi society … … … … organizing, what next? A relaxation of the matesi laws? The only other interesting point I can find states that Equilibrium Nexus proved influential in securing victory over the Occupationists because they had spent sixty years gathering intelligence.

That means two things: Equilibrium Nexus is incredibly helpful and incredibly low-profile. However, if Karatau Meiyenesi founded the organization, some of them must be nuameč, which makes me wonder whether the lost fragments in 1479 referred to that. Any organization that welcomes or retains nuameč—for Karatau Meiyenesi must have been one by then, considering how old he looks and when it was founded—must have a shady component. It cannot be a front for the Karatha.

And … if Karatau Meiyenesi founded the organization … that must mean he is more than three hundred years old … I don’t think that I am mentally prepared to deal with that.