Chapter Thirty-eight: SOUL

'Maj. Jaime Ulnas'

A signboard on a glass door read Maj. Ulnas's name. He was the instructor for the apprentices.

Aarav was standing outside the door as he was summoned to his office. He was trying to think if he messed up somehow. Being called to the superior's office only meant trouble.

"Come in", a heavy voice soon came out.

Aarav came in and saluted the officer.

"Take a seat."

"Yes, Sir."

"Aarav Adhiraj, you are too young, otherwise I would have directly hired you."

"….Thank you, Sir."

"I heard about your abilities. You have good investigative skills. But your talent will be wasted here."

"…" He didn't know what to say to that.

"I have a proposal for you. Join the SOUL. Of course, you will still be an apprentice. But you can become an officer soon. SOUL doesn't have any age, race or gender criteria. Only talent matters. So what do you say?"

It was good news for him. SOUL gave many benefits to its employee. Most important was he would be able to leave this planet. He was more than eager to join. He quickly agreed.

Very soon all the procedures were handled, and he was transferred to the SOUL agency.

"The dream I dreamed became a reality for my friend. Haha, it hurts", Jeremy was too drunk. Aarav, Kiara, Alize and Jeremy had gone to a pub to celebrate Aarav's success.

They ignored Jeremy's drunken tantrums and continued to talk to themselves.

"This is such good news. You guys have even moved to East zone, "Alize said.

"It just happened," Aarav replied.

"I also heard you guys sold some world-class weapons. And here I thought we were friends,"

"..."

"..."

Aarav and Kiara had not mentioned about the weapons they had sold. They made quite a sum with it. They were not involved in the auction process, or anything crazy happened because of the appearance of those weapons. They just wanted to enjoy the benefits silently. But when there is a fire, smoke tends to rise.

"Weapons... Hiccup... What weapons?"

"Jeremy, my friend. You too did not know anything. I talking about the weapons that your father was trying so bad to get it in the auction. How much did he bet ten thousand gold coins?"

"...Cough, it wasn't me. They were Kiara's. I did not have any stakes on it," Aarav replied while raising his hands.

"Wow! Are you throwing me under the bus? And here I thought we were friends." Kiara replied in a melodramatic way.

"Don't listen to her. She was the one who suggested selling them," Aarav still insisted on putting Kiara under the bus as that was the truth.

"Still, how did you find out?"

"Well, Prof. Rigaro is a very reputed person, but he still cannot come up with so many good quality weapons. Kaira worked for him, so I guessed it could be you guys. I wasn't sure till now."

"... You should be a private detective. Don't waste your life away in the embassy," said Kiara. "And we should have a discussion on 'how not to be a pig teammate'."

Aarav was trying to look away.

"Do you still have some. I can give you a good price,"

"We do have some_"

"No, we don't,"

Kiara and Aarav replied together.

Kiara was only taking her little revenge while Aarav was trying to hide his few favourite weapons. They were the best ones. He cannot give them away.

"Is it yes or no?"

"Let me brush up my memories," Kiara eyed Aarav who was begging with his eyes. She was having fun teasing him.

"There were..."

"Kiara, those things were junk. Don't sell useless stuff to friends," Aarav intervened while pleading Kiara with his eyes.

"You_ You owe me a spar. Let's fight right now. Let's see who is stronger."

"What happened to him?" Alize asked worriedly.

"Nothing big. He wanted a match but I declined."

"Ah. He must have wanted to join the SOUL. That reminds me he was the top cadet in the academy. But he was defeated in the selection. And now a cub bested him. He must be bummed."

"Did that happen? I had no idea."

"He will be fine. He still works for the city guard. If it had been someone else, they would not have joined anything much lower. He must have aimed for a recommendation from senior officers. But you got that."

"He is already good. He will make it soon."

"I know that bastard. Just, you wait. I will come and join the SOUL soon. I will even become your commanding officer."

"Yes Sir,"

"You should be wary of that Ulnas. He is dangerous," said Alize

"You mean Maj. Ulnas."

"Yes. Him. There's a rumour about him,"

Jeremy gulped his drink and he continued," He was in SOUL agency before. He was sent over this planet with his partner on a case about a year ago. But then his partner went missing. This wasn't the first time. His previous partners have also gone missing. Nobody knows what happened to them."

"…"

"He was then suspended from his position. And now he is in the city guard."

They had also arrived this planet about a year ago. So he got intrigued by it.

"What case was he working on?"

"That was the case of mysterious ancient aircraft found on the coast of Sanka."

"Cough", Kiara choked on the chips she was eating.

They very well knew what case it was. That was their very own aeroplane. How did it become ancient? Just because it ran of fuel. It might be the Earth's latest model.

Alize soon chimed in," I have also heard about it. Some magnetic interference was felt on that day. We thought it was some terrorist attack."

"Same here. I thought that too. I was waiting to join the patrol team but SOUL sent Ulnas and his partner. And the rest is a mystery. There were many dead bodies found on the site. Some footsteps led inside the jungle, meaning some people survived the crash. But, it was very clear they would die in the wild from the toxicity or wild animals. Anyway, that area belonged to Sanka healers. They must have taken appropriate measures."

Aarav thought about the time back then. They had lived for an entire week on the coast before leaving the crash site. They had not encountered any officers. They met the natives when a lot of time had already passed. Should he be glad that nobody bothered with the case? And SOUL was too late to take action. Does that mean it was a tardy agency? Well, whatever. Consider yourself lucky. When they were busy juggling responsibilities you made out of it.

The late reaction could be because of the political structure of the planet. There was no kingdom, no statehood or any such thing. They had autonomous control over their city or town. What happens outside that area was not their responsibility. The jungle was not under any jurisdiction. The jungles were like the high seas. They shared the area but they were not responsible for it.

"I like the political situation over here."

After coming back home, Kiara cheerfully said. The welfare system was more than good. The local government was keener on the living condition of its people. There were some flaws, but there were more good outcomes. If the result was good, the means do not matter. Does it?

Kiara had heard the election speech for the upcoming mayor elections in the city centre. All the candidates were good. Among them was Alize's father. He was just as handsome as Alize. He was about 500 years old. Because of the longer lifespan of elves, he would live for another 500 or more years. She liked his election manifesto. He talked about a lot of reforms. More on women empowerment. There were not many job opportunities for women. Women's literacy rate was higher than men in Caito. It was same throughout the planet. But they could only work for either educational institutes or research field. Most places did not welcome women. Few went out of norms, like the Granny's food truck they usually eat at. But this no. was on the lower side.

Alize's father, Alanzo Elios talked about these reforms. Naturally, most conservative people sneered on him. But who knows who would win.

"Everything is good except for voting rights. There is none for the temporary citizens when they constitute half the population."

"Yeah. That's true. But there are a lot of facilities they get. They don't get treated like third rate citizens."

"Oh. That reminds me. SOUL provides permanent citizenship to any place you want. If I become a full-fledged agent, we can just go Elysium."

"Talking big, are you. I have already checked about it. It states that only superhuman and immortals are allowed on the planet. For normal humans to gain access, they have to get special recognition. Either you are a superstar or a hero who saved a world."

Kiara broke the daydream of Aarav. They soon started talking about superstars. Although, they did not have access to television or even a radio. They do get a chance to see it in the city centre or hear music in a tavern. They heard plenty of songs that had the same melody as ones on Earth. They kept comparing songs most of the time. This way they kept the memories of Earth intact. It was impossible to forget as they will get to smell a familiar fragrant or a familiar tone most of the time. There was a planet that was similar to India. The language spoken was Hindi, people had similar names from India. Even the way they dressed was Indian. It was too much similar. It was too far away from Taiba planet, much far from Elysium planet as well.