The rest of that Friday morning went as uneventfully as it could have been expected, until our receipt and invoicing software crashed sometime around midday, before lunch break.

"Not now, bloody laptop!" Kono yelled in frustration. She even smashed a hand on the counter. "I hate you!"

"What's the matter, Kono?" I asked while coming closer to her.

"The screen is glitching a lot. It doesn't stop. The program's frozen. I can't print the receipt for an urgent home delivery."

I took a look at the screen. It looked like a malware was hosting a wild bachelor party on the hard drive, hiring a Trojan as a stripper and a ransomware as a DJ.

"Try Layla's tablet instead," I suggested. "Or some other laptop."

"I've already tried other laptops. None work. And Layla's in a meeting with an important provider." Her frustration echoed in my heart.

"Let's call the IT crowd straight away," I suggested sweetly. "What's the name and number of the IT company?"

A few minutes later, a young woman with pitch-black hair and huge sunglasses entered Oyster and introduced herself as the IT expert who would save the day.

"Gotta love that pixie cut," Kono whispered to me while eyeing her up and down when she was already focused on fixing the glitch on the laptop on the shop's counter. "Ow, those ash-blue baggy clothes are mean on her curves. Shame."

Kono was softly biting her lower lip. I chuckled.

"Well, maybe you could use that as an ice-breaker," I whispered back to her. "Give her some fashion tips, you know."

I hadn't spared a glance her way, to be honest. But right at that moment, I was just staring at the IT technician, and something about her irked me.

If I had been a meaner person, I would have sworn that IT woman looked a bit like Momo. Her age, her height, the way her lips moved, those hands (with that trendy manicure style). All those were too similar. She was wearing too much makeup, as well, like Momo.

Those sunglasses. We were inside the shop. Yes, it had glass walls, and the midday sun was shooting its powerful rays at us, true, but... why wouldn't she take them off once inside?

Was my mind playing tricks on me?

I felt divided. Part of me claimed there was no reason to doubt a person I had just met. But a different part of me reminded me of the attempt on my life, using it as a reason to suspect absolutely anyone around me. Was I becoming paranoid like my grandmother? I didn't want that.

Besides, I was sure that at that moment Momo was still imprisoned in a cell down the basement of the rebels' home.

"Would you mind giving us some minutes alone, Daphne?" Kono asked me, whispering with naughtiness. "Go ahead. Go to the canteen and save me some fried grasshoppers, will you?" She winked at me.

All my hunger was gone. I hated Oyster's canteen food, to be honest.

The second I turned around to follow Nausicaa and the other girls, I checked my phone. It turns out that I had one text from Agape and another one from Valentina's exosuit, both almost an hour old. Damn, I had been too busy that morning! The latter went on like that:

What? 14,609 days late for her next rehab session? That was... like forty years in days. What was that about? Had Valentina got hurt while working in the lab?

While Agape's said:

A cold sweat ran through me.

Instinctively, I turned my face back to Kono and the IT technician with a pale complexion and honest doubts drowning my common sense.

Agape's rebels knew how to go unnoticed in clone-ruled environments, Sigi had told me once. They had spent years murdering clones and disguising those murders so that they could pass as suicides or natural deaths. They were pros at blending in.

Besides that, it had been an IT expert, the mole, the one who attempted to murder me.

Could that technician be Momo wearing a black-haired, pixie-cut wig, a pair of sunglasses, and baggy clothes?

One thing I was sure of: I wouldn't leave Kono alone with her in the shop while the rest was in the canteen. I decided to stay despite it being dangerous.

Would Momo try to hurt Kono to get on my nerves? I frowned at the idea as I walked back to them, by the counter.

If I was wrong, Kono would tell me I was an idiot for being a third wheel. But if I was right, I'd save Kono the trouble of falling in love with an arsehole – and even save her from a life-threatening danger.

I would leave the exosuit's mysterious message for later. Saving Kono was my priority.

"Would you mind me staying? I've got some questions for the technician," I whispered seriously at Kono, but loud enough so the IT woman could hear me. I didn't lose a single second. "Is it possible to block out an unwanted user from our corporate system although she's part of the team?"

"That's a weird request. Why would you want to do that?" Her voice was lower than Momo's as if it was somehow fake. I knew that wasn't enough proof, though.

"Let's just say that she's been cheating. Lying. To everybody," I said emphasising those words, speaking slowly, to make her feel guilty.

Truth is, I was referring to Mirela. They were far too similar, Momo and her. I went on:

"She's been bossy lately. She thinks she owns this place – us, even. She checked out the passwords spreadsheet file and changed them all without consent or telling anybody about it during her day off. She's also been messing with the invoicing system to get paid some extra money, cheating on the company's books and deleting any trace."

I kept scanning the technician's face for any reaction, and then I added with slyness:

"I hate it when someone who should be your co-worker goes behind your back like that. It isn't fair, don't you think so?" I waited for her to take the bait.

If she didn't reveal herself to be Momo, it wouldn't even matter. That conversation would appear on Agape's screens at that precise moment. Agape would know every single thought crossing her mind at that moment.

"Could you teach us a way to back our request to ban her from the system with a digital trace or something we can present as proof to our boss?" I asked with a cheeky attitude.

"And maybe get her fired?" Kono added with the same attitude.

"Is this co-worker a clone?" she asked, visibly uncomfortable.

We, two traditional humans, were plotting against a clone at work. That would get us in trouble with the authorities. I needed to lay all my cards on the table in a smart move.

"She is, but fairness is fairness. Clone or not, Mrs Nevermore, our boss and a clone, would be mad at us if she knew we have fallen silent every time this co-worker has acted like that. We've tried to tell her to stop, but she's stubborn... and greedy. Either that or betraying people turns her on for some reason. Nevertheless, Mrs Nevermore needs to know. We need proof and ban this clone who's unworthy of Mrs Nevermore's trust from accessing Oyster's system. She needs to pay, don't you agree?"

"Only if your accusations are true." The technician was cold and defiant. I couldn't engage her in the conversation the way I wanted.

"She's telling the truth," Kono said then with seriousness and confidence as if she had discarded the idea of flirting with the technician for a moment.

"I'm sorry, but I can't do this," the technician eventually said after a sigh. "You've hired me to get your system back on track, not to back-stab someone you hate."

I bit my lower lip. I had an idea.

"How much?" I asked whispering seriously.

"How much... what? I hope you're not trying to bribe me. I'm a clone," she replied with more defiance. Okay, maybe I was wrong about her being Momo.

"A clone who might be interested in making Thalis a safer place, don't you think so? Safer from clones who betray other clones and steal their hard-earned money. Like Mrs Nevermore. She is powerful. If she knew you're helping us to protect her beloved fashion atelier, then... let's say she could be very generous.

"Mrs Nevermore's company's safety is also our safety. I like my job. So does Kono here. If this co-worker keeps draining the company and making our lives hell, then we sure won't have this job for long.

"Either that, or we could pay you – or some other technician – to do this little task for us."

She put her elbows on the counter, leaned on it towards me, bit her lower lip, and sighed with frustration. Then, she chuckled and smiled at me. She was taking the bait, I hoped.

"I have never heard a traditional human speak like that. You sound pretty convincing."

"Am I?" I asked whispering. "I could show you where to look when the system is back on track. Look for the company's books and our co-worker's intrusions into the system. Let me make you some notes," I added, getting closer to her on the other side of the counter to get some paper and a pen.

I scribbled some notes on Mirela's alleged contributions to projects we knew she had no rights over, and to which she had just added her name, just like Kono had told me Mirela usually did.

"Check the project on Miss Nina Oleander's wedding dress," I told her while I wrote the key names down. "Mirela wasn't responsible for that project. Another clone designer was, Desirée. She had taken the previous day off, allegedly. However, the project design files had been modified by her the previous day.

"How do we know that? Because Desirée had spent some minutes crying in the restrooms about it. Mirela had overwritten her original design without her consent. Later, Mirela called Desirée on the phone, telling her off about how embarrassing and juvenile her design was, that it was bad for the company's image, that she had felt forced to work on it, adding a few tweaks that would save the company's reputation.

"Desirée, like the rest of the designers, was far too afraid to talk back at her because Mirela is too powerful in this company, being friends with Mrs Nevermore and all that. The project got signed off by Mirela herself, blocking new edits and ensuring that all data supported her version of events, also enabling her to earn more money. She also told Mrs Nevermore that Desirée had sought her help, which is a lie.

"I would like you to get me some sort of activity log from the system with the right timing, a call log, and the content of the conversations on those phone lines, something to prove Mirela is lying and a control freak. Everything gets digitalised these days. If the GSNS can have access to it thanks to our nanochips, why not Mrs Nevermore? It's in her best interests to know the truth!"

"I don't know..." the technician said, hesitating.

"It's not only this project," Kono said then in a complaining attitude. "There are many others, hundreds and hundreds. There is a pattern here. She undermines a colleague, modifies the project just a bit, signs the project off, gives Mrs Nevermore a polite excuse. Don't you find it suspicious that she's got access to everything that gets designed here, and getting all these extras on her base salary? You should be able to check it in the system. It's a superhuman workload. It's not possible to do that."

"You're onto something for real, I see." The technician took off her sunglasses, sighed, and massaged the bridge of her nose.

She had dark grey irises. Momo had green eyes. Nevertheless, they still looked strikingly alike, as if they were sisters or cousins.

"It could be done, I guess. We could... talk about it over lunch and solve this thorny issue this afternoon. Would you like that?" she asked.

"Sure. Let us invite you to lunch in our canteen, mmmhh... What's your name?" Kono asked with a mischievous smile.

"Priscilla Malone and you two are?"

Oyster's canteen was a busy hive at that moment. We were the last three girls in the cue. When it was our turn to choose a menu, I thanked every God in existence for the fact that the fried grasshoppers had run out.

After a series of blasphemies uttered by Kono's mouth, we ordered three dishes of fried rice with shrimp and veggies and sat at one of those long tables with the rest of the girls. Priscilla and Kono got a couple of fizzy drinks, while I preferred a bottle of water.

Priscilla wasn't a talkative girl. She ate at a slow pace while eyeing me from the corner of her eyes every now and then. Her seriousness and silence felt weird after having convinced her to join our crusade against Mirela, especially after saying we could talk more about the issue.

We had little time to eat lunch. I got distracted for a few minutes while talking to Nausicaa. Kono was the one to talk to Priscilla, trying to engage her in conversation. She was hitting on her again, or so I thought.

Amidst the chaos of lunch in a busy canteen full of girls talking, laughing, and coming and going to the restroom, I lost sight of my bottle of water. Maybe some other girl had taken it by mistake. I wasn't thirsty anyway.

"I'm done with lunch," Priscilla said all of a sudden. So was I. Our colleagues were already going back to work. "I can't wait to start. Expect it to be done in less than an hour. I've got an idea."

Her smile was mischievous.

Priscilla's lips never dropped an aura of naughtiness while she worked. She stood behind the counter while running her magic fingers on the laptop's keyboard.

Something was off. We had barely talked during lunch. I had expected her to have questions about Mirela or the company's system. But she had just eaten and deflected Kono's comments.

My eyes kept searching for her while I was busy with clients in the shop. More than once, we had locked our gazes. She wasn't put off by my inquisitive eyes. A defiant smirk was her only answer.

"Damn, she's hot," Kono whispered into my right ear when she had a moment to spare. "Curt, but hot. All this staring... You're not thinking about switching teams, are you?"

"No, of course not!" I complained in a whisper while both our clients were trying some dresses on.

"Good. You've already got three guys hot for you. Your love life is busy enough as it is, honeysuckle."

"Wow. Pull the breaks, Kono!" I exclaimed with a frown. "I only like one of them as a boyfriend: Sigi. And my love life isn't busy. It's a nightmare sponsored by Apollo."

"Apollo will eventually get mad at you if you keep this act of defiance," she added with worry.

"I know." I sighed.

"You don't love him, but he's madly in love with you. What will you do about it?"

"I haven't got the foggiest idea."

"You should. And soon."

I sighed again.

"Eros isn't a menace to him," she went on. "He's nice and compliant to everything Apollo commands. He's safe. But Sigi..."

She let out a chuckle.

"I don't know him much, but bearing in mind what I saw on TV last Wednesday... He could get seriously hurt, Daphne. It's your decision. I don't want to sound mean, but I think that, if you really love him, you should break up with him," she added sadly.

"Are you suggesting I become Apollo's lover?!" I exclaimed whispering with wide eyes.

"No, I'm just saying that you need to protect Sigi from Apollo's wrath. He's 'gotten rid' of some of his interns for less personal reasons."

I got pale. Sigi could be dead at any moment. It would be my fault.

"Hey, girls!" Priscilla called us. "It's done. Come over here. Let me show you."

She worked fast! It had only taken her twenty minutes or so. Kono and I got closer to the counter, by her side.

"Here you go," she said handing me a USB device. "System back on track. No glitches. No nothing. And all the proof you need in this USB. Outside the system, just in case Mirela might succeed at getting access to the system again. Show this to your boss, and the rest is up to you."

"Nice, me likey," Kono replied with a smirk.

"As regards the system, I've given your boss' user some extra functionalities, like the ability to block a user, totally or partially. I've set Mirela's user in a partially blocked state using your boss' credentials right now, just to be on the safe side. But tell her it's her call, whether or not to keep it so."

"What does a partial block entail?" I asked.

"It means that Mirela is only able to work on projects that have been initially assigned to her by the boss, but that's it. All accounting data and each and every step of the designing process need to be verified by Mrs Nevermore as well."

"Cool. It feels like Mrs Nevermore will be watching over every minute of Mirela's everyday work."

"Exactly. Proceeding with the project shall be impossible for her unless your boss gives her a digital thumbs-up. Otherwise, the tailors, the shop assistants, the delivery company you have subcontracted, nobody shall get notified of a pending task from her projects... and the client would never get their purchase."

"Excellent!" Kono exclaimed. "I want to see Mirela's face when she's told this."

"If that's too much work for your boss, she can authorise another user to perform this task. I see you've got a store manager, someone called Layla? She could supervise Mirela's job too in Mrs Nevermore's shoes."

"That is even better!"

"Aside from that, Mirela won't be able to modify any password or access the passwords' spreadsheet file. She will need to ask your manager or Mrs Nevermore to do it for her."

"FUCK, I just orgasmed!" Kono exclaimed.

"If she finds a workaround and keeps misbehaving, a total block can be put on her user. That means no access to anything, of course. As if she's been fired."

"How much is this gonna cost us, by the way?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Tell Oyster's accountant to give the email I've just sent her her full attention. There's my invoice with my account number in it. I expect a payment in the next 48 hours. Thank you."

She hadn't even finished talking and she was already leaving. I stood there while she gave us her back and walked towards the glass double doors.

They swooshed open when the motion sensors got activated, and a gush of wind combed her hair backwards. The sudden, rash movement of hair in the air was truly mesmerising, but I caught a glimpse of ginger right at the baseline of the hair on her nape.

"Oh, fuck me," I whispered to myself with huge, wide eyes. Priscilla?! My arse. That was Momo!

"What?" Kono asked.

I was staring at 'Priscilla''s back as she was crossing the threshold, pondering what to do, and I suddenly panicked. I couldn't let her leave just yet! A thousand questions flooded my brain.

The sunlight hit her hard when she was already out. Then, I noticed that one of those huge pockets of her baggy trousers had a suspicious, bottle-looking, heavy object in it.

No, it couldn't be. She couldn't have mistaken it for her drink. She had had a tin of a popular fizzy drink, not water. But why? Why had she taken it?

"Wait!" I exclaimed, leaving a dumbfounded Kono behind me.

I rushed out of the shop.

"It's you," I said, breathing hard in and out. My heart was killing me. So many pedestrians, so many witnesses. Damn, I was nervous as hell. "Why have you done this?"

"Excuse me?" she asked as if she didn't get it, turning around to face me.

"Stop fooling around, Momo. I know it's you," I whispered with determination. I didn't want any passers-by listening to our conversation, but I had little choice in the matter. "Let's take this inside, just the two of us."

"What? You're... mistaken. I'm Prisc-"

"Don't treat me like an idiot. Your hair is ginger," I went on with a frown, still whispering. "You're wearing a wig. I've seen it moving while you were going out. You've got ginger hair beneath. And you're wearing baggy clothes to hide your figure and contacts on your irises. And a ton of make-up."

"What if I am?" she said whispering with a cunning smile. She chuckled. "I was looking for a chance to make amends, and that's how you repay me? By being mean to me? I thought you'd appreciate me saving your arse at work!"

I was stunned for a moment. Did she really mean it?

"A bit convenient that the second Agape sets you free," I whispered with an inquisitive attitude, "you come straight here, precisely when we're in trouble. A trouble you can fix, by the way. How did you know I needed help?"

"I've got my ways." Her broad smile was a bad omen then. "I've got far more experience than you do. I wouldn't be alive if I hadn't got what it takes to survive in this world."

Passers-by came and went past us, thankfully not paying attention to our conversation.

"You're not helping yourself with this answer," I replied in a sad whisper.

"Why is that? Stop acting like you've got power over me. I'm not locked in that cell anymore." Her defiance was out of place, as usual.

"One: I'm not treating you like I've got power over you. Never have, never will. I just unmasked you," I said as casually as I could. "And two: Agape's listening in. She has re-hacked your nanochip into the alternative network, like Taro's and Sven's."

Momo's smile turned upside-down in a second.

"She has been listening in from the very start," I added, "and she's looking for an IT expert among the three of you who might have a death wish. You now fit in that description."

Her face turned paler. She swallowed and her irises shivered.

"Why did you try to kill me?" I asked nervously and hopelessly. "I know you did it. Those little burn marks on your left arm. They look like toxic-water splashes. It was you, right? Do you really hate me that much?"

"You're rushing into things, hon," she replied daringly once more as if she had everything under control. "Maybe Taro and Sven have been naughty too."

"That's for Agape to witness and decide, not me," I replied seriously. "Right now, I am the one facing you, not them. And I want answers, Momo. Why and how did you do all this?"

She might have not wanted to reply to me, but the mere question would have triggered the answers both Agape and I were seeking. They would get recorded in Agape's alternative network. If Momo was the mole, she was done for.

"You are not the centre of the universe, Daphne!" she exclaimed, losing it. She didn't have it all under control. "Get that in your stupid brain! Everything was better before you came into my life!"

"I have never harmed you. If you're jealous about..."

"About Sigi?! He can get stuffed!" she spoke as if she was barking at me by then.

The clones walking near us stopped and stared at us.

"About getting the spotlight?!" she went on yelling. "Sure, I'm jealous of you! I'd love to be a monster's granddaughter!" she added with sarcasm.

"Momo... keep your voice down," I begged her with worry.

"Like I care! Fuck all of you!" she yelled, losing it for good.

All of a sudden, she took out her parrot from a baggy pocket of her trousers. She hacked her nanochip again, out of Agape's reach.

"Momo! What are you doing?! The passers-by can see you!" I exclaimed whispering.

Then, she went on with a deviant smirk on her face:

"I've already got what I wanted. That means that I will never see you again."

In the blink of an eye, she pushed me back harshly, and I fell backwards to the ground. Kono rushed to me to help me get up, holding me by both my arms.

"Daphne! Are you alright?!" she asked me with concern.

I tried to get a glimpse of Momo as she was running away from me between the legs of some worried passers-by around me. I saw her fleeing the scene, and turning around the corner.

She was gone, but I was still in shock.

She said that she would never see me again, that she already had what she wanted, but she hadn't specified what or why both were connected.

"Daphne!" Cian exclaimed while making his way through the small crowd gathered around me. "I'm here. Are you alright?" he asked in distress, panting as if his lungs were about to explode.

"Yeah, I am. What are you doing here, Cian?" I asked with bewilderment as both Kono and I stood up.

Oh, no. Had something happened?!

"What's wrong?" I feared to ask him.

"You, Daphne." The worried expression on his face triggered all my inner alarms. "Can... can we talk in private?"

"Agape's set Momo, Taro, and Sven free right after re-hacking their nanochips without them knowing," Cian explained whispering.

We were in the restroom. It was just the two of us. We had locked the door, as well.

"Agape and I have been supervising the three nanochips at the same time," he went on, "but a few minutes after doing so, it was obvious who the mole was."

"Momo."

"Yes. She's been given instructions. Involving you. When we've realised that you were in danger... fuck. That was why Agape's told me to come to Oyster asap to keep you safe from her. I've taken my bike, but it has broken down on my way here. I've had to leave it behind and run to you like a madman."

"But... what about the security clearance placed on every damn corner of this street?! You're not allowed to enter this security-privileged area!"

"I've been jumping rooftops until I've found some fire escape stairs that have led me here."

"What?! Oh my..." I exclaimed. He had just blown up my mind. "I'll fix your bike and get it upgraded with anything you fancy for this!"

He giggled and sighed. But he went on talking seriously because the issue at hand was too.

"As I was saying, Momo was checking her phone shortly after being released. She's gotten an email with specific instructions to hack into Oyster's system and cause a glitch, and then, to impersonate a technician to fix it."

"Who's ordered such a thing to her?"

"We don't know, but we've got an idea of who it might be. It was an unknown sender, and she hasn't spared a thought about it. She's good at hiding thoughts. She's dived into the task like a predator chases a prey.

"But she also needed to get her hands on anything which contained your DNA, Daphne. That was the dangerous part for you. When we've read what the sender wanted from you, we've panicked. The sender wanted skin tissue, nails, hair, saliva, anything – including blood. Has Momo harmed you?" he asked with worry.

"No! She's... she's taken my bottle of water! But why?!"

"Agape and I suspect it's for Apollo. He's the only one who could be interested in getting your DNA." Damn, he was right! "But it doesn't make sense. Sigi and you said that he wanted you because you're 'already ripe for the taking'. A despicable way to phrase it, but it's catchy. It stuck with me."

"It's my fault. I've caused this," I admitted, leaning on the faucet with both hands on the white marble and facing the mirror.

"What?" he asked with a frown.

"Earlier this morning. I-I've denied him again. I've been firmer while talking to him. I've kept rejecting his gifts. He's lost his patience with me. He's mad at me. He's got my DNA. He doesn't need me anymore. He's gonna get me killed, isn't he?"

"Don't rush into things. We still need to..."

I didn't let him finish. "Momo's told me she would never see me again. She was smirking. She's always hated my guts. She hates Sigi. She hates how Agape values me despite our differences. She hates what the group has become. She had tried to drown me yesterday, and now we know that she might be working for Apollo. She's stolen a DNA sample from me. She knows that I hate him, that I've kept refusing him, that I'm making him mad. All these ingredients can be used for the same recipe.

"The conclusion is obvious: she sought an alliance with Apollo. She offered herself as a mole. She knows that he's going to get rid of me because it also suits him now. Different motivation, but same aim."

I swallowed. My whole body felt cold and started shivering due to panic.

"I'm dead."

Hello, my sugar cubes!

Sorry for the long chapter, but 'Priscilla' is quite naughty. :P Did you see this alliance, Momo and Apollo, coming?

Stay tuned to know more!

XOXO

MS