Special?

Agape rose an eyebrow at me. Her beautiful blue eyes were glued to mine as if she was trying to decipher my thoughts.

"Will you stay with me to find out whether I am worthy of your trust and help, after what I've done and knowing what crimes I'm going to order in the future?"

"Have I really got a choice?" My voice had an odd ring to it, like badly-contained hysteria. "I don't think I can kill anybody, not even if you force me to. I don't think I can be of any help."

"I won't command you to murder anyone if you don't think you can. And I won't order anybody to kill you if you don't want to have anything to do with us. But I know you'll prefer to stay and help us in any way you can. I can see the weight of ethics and the wish for a brighter tomorrow in you. And... if you're patient enough, I might even share the story behind these scars on my face." She chuckled. "It would be fair, right? Since I know your personal story..."

"I could offer you my help as a mechanic. But I can mend stuff apart from vehicles."

"What about becoming a spy too?"

I must've looked unconvinced because she immediately added:

"I can repay you with a special treat."

"What treat?"

"Vengeance. For your brother's death. Many people owe me favours, but none know who I truly am. I can gain access to the President. It's gonna cost me, but I can do it. Would you like the President's head?"

"WHAT?!"

"This could be my gift to you in exchange for your loyalty and services. If you change your mind as regards murder, you may pull the trigger yourself. I can arrange it. Or I can have him killed in, let's say, in a couple of weeks. What do you say?"

Was the President's life in my hands if I became a spy for her? For real? I couldn't believe it. Nah, it couldn't be this easy. If so, why did my brother have to die? Something smelt fishy.

"You don't have to give me an answer right now, Daphne. Think about it."

"When do you want my answer?" I asked timidly.

"I don't know." She sighed, and then she smiled devilishly. "How much longer do you want this son of a bitch to live?"

I was completely disarmed. She was making me lust after the idea of killing the man myself. But I couldn't allow her to change me like that.

Then, she laughed with no malice and said:

"Come and visit me to tell me anything. You're welcome here."

She was smiling at me as if we had known each other all our lives. She was charismatic, but she still made me feel weird. Less afraid, but weird.

"Agape, how did you manage to get it all started?" I asked her with curiosity. "I mean, your nanochip would've given your thoughts away. How did you organise a terrorist group from scratch?"

"Because I wasn't the first. It's a long story," she said with dreamy eyes, but my eyes were begging her to go on. "I've never met her in the flesh – the person who allowed me to hack my chip. My parents had been euthanised according to the Compulsory Euthanasia Act, and I had inherited this old building that now is Amanita. It needed an update, and one day, when I was tidying up this basement, I found a tablet with a letter in it and an old device similar to a stun gun. It was an early version of the current parrots, as I started calling them. The letter in the tablet included some basic instructions which enabled me to hack my chip, never mentioning that that was the purpose. The letter denoted hatred against the clones. And I had had a nasty experience with them, so..."

She was finding it hard to go on. She chuckled and went on as seriously as before:

"It was a safely-written text that didn't call the authorities' attention. The author wanted to dethrone Apollo as much as I do. The only problem was that the person responsible for this gadget was nowhere to be found. All I had was a name, but it led me nowhere. She was the first, not me. But it was weird that I couldn't find her or any other clues of her existence. She must've known my parents since the tablet and the parrot were both here, in a building of their property. But there were no records of her, nothing. After hacking my chip, the tablet unlocked an encrypted document, telling her personal story and indicating there was a control room of which she was the admin. From there, she ensured everything worked fine and that I was safe, out of clone mental supervision."

"But how? I thought your office was the control room, and that you're the admin. Where is it if it isn't here?"

"That's the problem. I've got no idea where that place is," she admitted.

"What?!" My eyes went wide due to amazement.

"The document ends with a riddle I can't solve. The prize is obtaining the secret location of the control room, to meet her in person."

"What's this riddle?"

"Something about a queen, time, and a wake-up call. Have you got any interest in coding and password hacking?"

"No, I'm sorry."

She sighed.

"Something must've happened to her. The letter mentioned she was missing. Another person finished writing it, but nobody ever came to look for me or help me out. That's why I developed my version of the control room here. I overruled any external control. I had expected some virtual resistance, proving that there was someone out there... but nothing. It almost seems as if she's dead. Maybe they found her and killed her. Who knows."

"It's probable."

"I found the tablet back in 2129, when I was twenty-three years old. She must be dead," she concluded with sadness.

It was obvious that the failure to locate that woman was something that had made her feel frustrated over the years.

"My alternative network is an improved version. A 2.0 version. The former one simply notified the person's death to the GSNS so that you were free at last, but mine doesn't. It simply notifies nothing worthwhile at all, only irrelevant thoughts and actions of a boring, monotonous, fake life, as you already know, and grants that complete freedom that I need to make the clone reign of terror end for good. That was when I started recruiting people.

"So, I was the first in some ways. Anyway..." She sighed then, and she put on a nice smile. "Enough sad stories. You should make amends with Sigi, don't you think so?"

Then, she put on her mirror-like glasses again with a charismatic gesture. She started swinging with her office chair as if she was playing with it.

"Do you like them?" she said pointing at her glasses. "Made of the same type of mirror from the BioSolutions centre. That way I can cover up these nasty burns around my eyes."

She sighed deeply.

"Poor Sigi! I would let it go if I were you. The reason you had a row yesterday, I mean, whatever it is. He's too proud, that's all. He's usually grumpy when he doesn't get what he wants, but it'll pass. It always does."

She smiled wickedly, and then, she stretched her arms over her head while I said:

"So, he's told you everything about our argument?"

"Not everything, unfortunately," she replied with fake frustration. She looked quite amused by the current subject of conversation. "He came back here making a long face, completely crushed, and when I asked him what was wrong, he sort of dodged it. He was quite affected by what you had told him."

Next, she slowly lowered her glasses over her nose until she could look at me from over their frame, and then she said as if she was luring me into a trap:

"I've never seen him like this. Girl, I don't know what you told him, but... fuck! The dejected look on his face was priceless."

She whistled with admiration. She smiled broadly after that.

"I'm even tempted to have a look at what happened through either of your chips!" she added with curiosity. "I'm dying to know, but I won't do it. I promised I wouldn't spy on my assets. But, damn, girl. It looks like you're tougher than me, Daphne."

I let out a hysterical chuckle. I wouldn't believe that, not in a thousand years.

"I mean it. None of his opponents on the hockey court has ever managed to tame an enforcer like him."

"He's an enforcer?" I asked, thunderstruck.

"The best Dawn has ever had."

Fuck.

I had messed up big time. I had pissed off a terrorist and bouncer who was also a great enforcer. But how?! I was sure that he would hate my guts until the end of time – and that he would make me pay for it.

His glaring eyes popped out of nowhere in my head. His thick eyebrows. His dark honey-coloured hair. His strong jaw. His thick neck. His amazing biceps.

I feared him. But I feared the power my hormones had over my brain a lot more. I was blushing too much for my liking.

"Anyway," she added after a heartfelt sigh, "he was so downcast and angry at himself that he even got his hair cut." She shook her head in mild disapproval.

"Wait, what?!"

"What a pity, right? He was so handsome with that long hair of his!" She bit her lower lip and smirked at me. "Daphne, your blushing is a window to your thoughts, honey. Sigi gets the attention of many girls. But if I ever catch you lusting after a colleague, kissing him, or having sex with him..."

Oh, dear Lord! No!

"I'm gonna kill you." Her index finger was aiming at me as a warning. "Figuratively. But am I clear?"

Hello, sugar cubes!

So, Daphne passed Agape's test, but her problems aren't over. Will she become a spy? Will Daphne accept Agape's gift, getting the President murdered?

Stay tuned to know more! 😊

XOXO

MS