Kahli listened intently as the F.I.N.G.E.R. agent explained the few secret things that their organization had uncovered about the anomaly that she really knew without a doubt was a perforation between the lands of living and dead. Of course, Kahli had heard all of this before when she'd viewed the scenario thanks to use of her skill, but she did an excellent job of pretending like she was hearing it for the first time. Kahli wondered if that had something to do with her [Tale Teller] [skill].
And then, Kahli had another idea. Of course, this idea was a little late for the current timeline, but she wondered if she could test it out next time she experienced a [checkpoint]. The idea was concerning the fact that Kahli retained memory of different timelines when she chose a timeline, and indeed, even viewing one timeline seemed to impact the results of another. After all, hadn't there been timelines where she had made specific choices because of events she'd witnessed in other timelines?
Didn't that mean that her own experience and interpretation of the timelines had a palpable effect on how the timeline developed? And if that was the case, did it mean that when Kahli chose a scenario, if she'd already witnessed that scenario, which of course she always did, then shouldn't her knowledge of the timeline not only inform her of what might be happening but indeed allow her to consciously exercise changes to that very timeline? That is to say, Kahli had a hunch that just knowledge of a timeline could irrevocably alter it - and that was probably already baked in to her [skill] - but Kahli also wondered whether she could consciously use this mechanism of timelines to craft a fourth timeline, an altered timeline based on what all she'd witnessed. It was definitely something to ruminate on and consider for next [checkpoint], however, the agent was finally starting to tell her the final, third thing about the anomaly that Kahl had chosen this timeline in order to glean. She was all ears.
"And finally, they found that the anomaly smells really bad."
Kahli did a double take. Did the agent really just say that the third piece of secret intel was that the anomaly (perforation) smelled bad? How was that relevant? How was that secret? And why had the agent gotten her hopes up only to reveal such a disappointing and downright stupid third thing? The two other things the agent had told her had been so valuable - how was the fact that, apparently, the perforation smelled bad on the same tier as knowing that it was manually created and intentionally targeted areas of the land of the dead with super powerful and super maleable enemies? The whole thing just seemed patently ridiculous. Still, Kahli didn't know what else the agent had to say. So, againt the overwhelming stength of her feeling, Kahli remained silent and watied eagerly for the agent to tell her something - anything - that amounted to useful information related to the fact that the anomaly, which was surely a perforation, smelled bad.
"It smells bad?" Kahli said to the agent incredulously.
"Yes, its odor is really wretched, they say it smells like three day old rotten eggs," replied the agent. "Now, of course, you know what that means, right?"
Kahli had no idea what meaning could be gleaned from the fact that, apparently, the perforation smelled of rotten eggs.
"I can see from that expression you're making and how cracked the plaster on your face is that no, you have no idea what that means. Well, I'm happy to explain. See, perforations - if we are assuming that the anomaly is indeed a perforation - come in different magnitudes. And, funny enough, these magnitudes can be measured by their odor. Now, something to be clear of immediately is that the magnitude of a perforation grows in proportion to how badly it smells. And, well, I'll put it this way - this anomaly, or perforation if we do want to consider it one, registers as over 180 nosmetrics!"
Nosmetrics were a unit of measurement devised by a tauman centuries before to quantify the smelliness of things. Usually, things that were wretchedly smelly, so much so that even if a smell was considered good the smelliness of it would've instead made it too smelly, went a little above 100 nosmetrics. Hitting 180 nosmetrics meant that, really, these perforations smelled so bad that people near them were at risk for experiencing anosmia - either temporary or, indeed, permanent if their smell exposure levels lasted long enough. Sure, it was a grim piece of information to learn, but it didn't really change Kahli's perception of the perforations like the other tidbits had, so she found herself still quite disappointed.
"Alright, well, that's all I had to tell you. Do with this priveleged information what you will, I have other stuff to talk through with Agent 42," said the agent seriously. Then, they walked over to Agent 42's severed head and started talking to it as if Agent 42 was alive and not a beheaded cadaver.
Suddenly, Kahli wondered if she was having a stroke! Then, with a sigh of relief, she saw that Unit 5a23 had instead just overdone some of the toast in his toaster attachment. Clearly, he was still learning the ropes of this new addition to his body.
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"Wow, your [skill] is impressive, Kahli," replied Unit 5a23. "You've really done a number on that agent's psyche. I'd be embarassed if I were him."
"Well, hopefully he'll never figure out what's going on, so he won't have to feel embarassed," said Kahli dismissively.
"You think he'll just go on thinking that man isn't dead?" said Unit 5a23 incredulously. "You do realize that, eventually, his tauman body is going to start to rot and decay, and indeed to smell quite foul."
There it was - another mention of foul smells. For a second, Kahli wondered if there was a connection to be made there.
"And with that, well, what is going to happen when you aren't around to lie your face off to them, Kahli? Are they going to suddenly think that Agent 42 has miraculously died of natural causes? Or are their minds going to jump to the strange, young woman who told them that he had a venereal disease that makes his head seem like it's popped off?"
Kahli smiled a wide, nervous grin. "Oh, you heard that?"
"My robotic sound receptables are impeccably tuned," said Unit 5a23. "And what's more, Kahli, I want you to succeed. I really do. You virtually saved my life. Had it not been for you, I could've potentially become scrap metal instead of becoming once again a brilliant mechanical man, and now with this excellent bread toasting attachment. Indeed, I feel I owe it to you to be the hindsight and perspective that you need in order to successfully navigate the sticky situation you're in."
"What are you getting at?"
"I'm saying that, if you don't convince everyone here the Agent 42 is either dead or leaving or somehow going to disappear, you're going to soon enough find this entire agency siccing themselves on you like flies on a dead fish. And I don't want that for you, Kahli. So, plesea - think things through, and take the appropriate action."
Kahli looked at Agent 42's severed head, and the agent happily chatting it up. This was going to get messy.
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Kahli parked Agent 42's busted-looking pod outside his home unit and hopped out with his severed head. It was a small, gray cube in a row of other small, gray cubes. It made her wonder what it was like for agents of F.I.N.G.E.R. to all live in this sad little homes. Then again, the more she looked at it, the more she realized that, while it was completely and utterly devoid of all character, it was several magnitudes nicer than her apartment in Gifflenberg - even if it was in the strange, permadark landscape of the F.I.N.G.E.R. facility. Kahli wondered at that moment if they were underground. Yes, they had to be - or something akin to that. There was not a sight of a sky, and yet it did not seem to be night. How dreadful and depressing, despite the fact that Agent 42's gray house had a nice little front porch with a jagged-looking swing rocking to and fro in the otherwise tepid air.
She looked at Unit 5a23 and Sahdi, both of whom were still sitting in Agent 42's pod. "Alright, you two. Bring Agent 42's body. It's time to shake things up."
They did as they were told, solemnly and with more than a little disgust. At first, Kahli had the impulse to knock on the door before remembering that this was Agent 42's home. Then, she pulled out his keyfob which immediately unlocked the door with a couple of mechanized snaps.
"Oh, honey, it's great to see you!" said Agent 42's apparent wife. She was beautiful, and tall - much taller than Agent 42 - but it only seemed to add to her beauty, at least from Kahli's perspective. She was presently mixing something in a silver bowl. "I was just about to make peanut butter cookies, your favorite. I didn't know you'd be home so soon!"
Kahli, for a moment, thought she caught a hint of nervousness in Agent 42's wife's voice. Then again, Agent 42 had burst into his home with a severed head and accompanied by strangers, so she gave her the benefit of the doubt.
"Um, ma'am," Kahli cleared her throat, "Agent 42 had myself and my companions join him today because he's, well, he's too cowardly to tell you this himself. But, he's decided that he's going to give up all worldly things, including romantic relationships and being an agent of F.I.N.G.E.R., in order to join the Order of the Endless Silence." The Order of the Endless Silence was a semireligious group of people that lived in the far mountain regions of Northwest Zadalfa. They never spoke, and seldom moved.
"WHAT?!" said Agent 42's wife immediately. "But, Agent 42, how could you do this to me?!" She started bawling. Then, after tears were shed, her expression changed. "I bet this is all a lie! I bet you met another woman!"
"Believe me, this is no lie," Kahli lied. "And Agent 42 has already taken his vow of silence for the rest of his life, as required by the Order, so he won't say anything to you."
"Well, maybe he won't, but I've got something to say to him!!" said Agent 42's wife. Without missing a beat, she walked over to a cabinet and whipped it open. Out stepped a short, stocky tauman in a sparkly unitard.
"Hello, Agent 42," said the short tauman in a deep, booming voice. "Yes, as you may have guessed, it is I, agent 69. Your wife and I have been fooling around for a bit now. Not physically, mind you, but emotionally. You see, Agent 42, she has not felt emotionally supported by you over the past year. You've been too focused on anomalies and the like, and not as focused on your relationship. And so, I sensed an opportunity, and I have been talking to her about her feelings whenver I can. It's like a drug to me. And now that you are leaving, well, now I will start talking about my feelings about that with her. Don't be surprised when she might find some of her feelings include me in her life and exclude you, is what I am saying."
Kahli gasped on behalf of Agent 42.
"And if you have a problem with that, well," Agent 69 cleared his throat and pulled out a small, handheld laser gun. He pointed it at Agent 42's severed head. "Let's just say that it might not take any conscious effort for you to keep your vow of silence to the Order, is all."
Kahli was flabbergasted. This was the last thing she expected.
"Well? What do you have to say for yourself, Agent 42? Speak now, or get blasted into dust," said Agent 69. And indeed, he started powering up his laser, with obvious intent to kill.