Doctor Who: The Evangelion Error (Book Two)

E11 Part 5: Blood Red Summer

Misato's Apartment
Several days prior

"I don't know who they are, exactly." Kaji studied the cup of tea in his hands. How strange it felt, he thought, to casually speak these words he'd spent so long keeping secret, not even writing them down for fear of discovery. Katsuragi being here to listen to him just added to the surrealness of the moment. "Half of the time, people talk about them as if they're a secret intelligence unit. The other half, like they're some sort of cult. Either way, they seem to have most of the world's governments at their beck and call. Not to mention, they've been heavily involved in NERV from the start."

"SEELE," the Doctor observed. "German for 'soul.' And NERV meaning... well... 'nerve.'"

"Yeah. They seem to be fond of that theme."

Misato tilted her head. "So why haven't I heard anything about this before?"

"They're top secret. Extremely hush-hush. And not afraid to make people disappear for the sake of that secrecy." Kaji coughed. "They seem to mostly deal with the public through front organizations. Other than NERV, their main face appears to be the Human Instrumentality Committee."

Shinji raised his hand. "Uh... Committee?"

"The special UN executive board that oversees NERV." Misato rubbed her eyes. "Humanity's war council for dealing with the threat of the Angels. In short, our bosses."

"What sort of name is that, anyway?" The Doctor wrinkled his nose. "Human Instrumentality. S'like they're out to make people into tubas or contrabassoons or something."

Misato turned to Kaji. "How did you come to know about all of this?"

"My job. Or jobs, as the case may be." Kaji shrugged. "I'm more or less an errand boy for NERV. Mostly courier stuff -- delivering classified documents and materials from place to place. I keep my ears open, and sneak a look at the packages I'm assigned when I can get away with it.

"Other than that... the Ministry of the Interior's run by this pack of ultranationalist cranks. They're mostly useless, but through them, I've gotten access to certain resources. Nothing official. Just a handful of people in various countries concerned about the direction things are going."

"Ah." The Doctor's eyes lit up. "The Resistance, eh?"

Kaji smirked. "Heh. Nothing so well-organized. They're more like a loose network of contacts. Every now and again, they give me something useful, but aside from that..."

"Like what?" Misato asked.

"Rumors, mostly. Lots of talk about scrolls and prophecies. Ancient knowledge kept secret. A Human Instrumentality Project. Classified experiments in artificial evolution." Kaji finally remembered to take a sip from his tea. It'd gone cold by then, of course. "They say that all sorts of organizations have links to SEELE -- NERV, the Marduk Institute, the Adamist Church, the World Health Organization, the administration of the International Territories..."

The Doctor frowned and glanced at Misato. "International Territories?"

"After Second Impact, a number of governments in Africa and the Middle East collapsed," Misato said. "The UN moved in troops, ostensibly to restore order. Those areas have been under international military rule ever since."

"Which brings up one of my friends' favorite theories." Kaji looked at Misato. "Word is that SEELE was heavily involved with the Katsuragi Expedition. There are some that think theydeliberately engineered Second Impact. Supposedly, that's the point where their supporters really managed to take power worldwide."