I managed to climb down the wall by holding to a water pipe that went down from Eros' bathroom into the sewage entrance, not far from his mother's beloved hibiscus in his botanical garden.

Needless to say, I fled from the Sappho's Residence back garden as if a tornado was coming after me. Nobody was coming after me, though. I guess they were in a maximum alert situation, which made me not a priority. I exited through the back door of the garden, and run back to Replica Ltd. because I still needed to show up for my afternoon shift.

The information I had obtained was so crucial and disheartening that I would've sworn that the spiders were burning in my jeans' pockets. Maybe it was just my conscience telling me to stop being afraid of everything and everyone around me, and do something worthwhile already. That was the reason why I decided to become the greatest drama queen in the whole wide world.

I was about to go into the building, and I rubbed my eyes a little, just to make the skin around my eyes and the whites a bit pinkish. Then, I went in.

"Oh, dear..." I whispered as I entered the waiting room where Miss Radica was at that moment, pretending to be speaking only to myself as if I was feeling ill. I coughed a bad cough, and then another one, also faking being embarrassed about being caught coughing so badly. "Sorry, I'm so sorry, Miss Radica..."

More awful, fake coughs came out of my mouth while I kept walking into the waiting room, making eye contact with her, as if I was spreading the chances of infection all over the place. Miss Radica's eyes nearly came out of their sockets in a sudden realisation that I was a potential source of infection to her dear clients, and that was why she stood up immediately and spoke harshly thus:

"Lock yourself in the bathroom right away, you moron! You could get our customers ill! Stay in there, and don't come out. You don't deserve this, but I'll send Dr Bentnose right away to check on you."

Perfect. That's what I wanted: some privacy with a clone doctor that I could lie to about how ill I was feeling. I rubbed my eyes some more, just in case.

Only ten seconds later, Dr Bentnose was opening the restroom door with a surgical mask over his nose and mouth.

"Now, what have we got here?" he gently asked me, not daring to come closer to me though. "Miss Radica says you're not feeling well, that you might infect our clients. Is that true?"

"I'm afraid so, Dr Bentnose. I'm sorry to be such a bother, but I do feel ill."

I coughed some more as if I couldn't help it.

"Yes, you're pale, and this bad cough... Oh, dear Apollo!" he exclaimed.

I guess I was still pale from the bad news I had unveiled only a few minutes ago.

"There's this friend of mine who's been recently ill. I guess he must've passed it onto me."

"Yeah, yeah..." he swiftly replied as if he was uninterested.

Clones hated it when you told them personal stuff. I was counting on that to make him think I was a burden, and that the best course of action was to sign a medical certificate for me and send me home.

"Have you got a runny nose? A fever? Any other symptoms?" he asked me as he took out a notepad.

"Yes, I've got a runny nose, and I do feel hot. And I've also got a headache."

"Look, we don't need to keep this for long. I'll sign you a medical certificate, and Miss Radica shall send it to the boss. You're done for the day. Go home and rest. You should take a couple of days off."

"Thank y-" I tried to thank him with fake politeness, but I couldn't finish.

"Yeah, welcome," he swiftly replied, already exiting the restroom.

The bus route had been discontinued. The digital information panel at my bus stop was frozen.

That was when I overheard a couple of passers-by complaining about the recent attacks that early afternoon. Apparently, they were the reason why all transportation services had been discontinued. They had been forced to walk to their workplaces, and they were late. Therefore, I would have to get to Amanita on foot, too.

I couldn't control my feet properly. I felt too hyped up. The next thing I knew, I was running all the way to the nightclub.

I rang the doorbell thrice with shaky hands. A probably short amount of time later -that felt like an eternity to me-, Momo opened the door a couple of inches.

"Who's there?" she asked in a foul mood.

"Momo, it's me, Daphne. It's an emergency!" I exclaimed whispering with urgency.

"Oh, fuck. We're in the middle of something important, you know," she complained, disgusted to see me. "What do you want now?" she asked with disdain.

"Let me in. I said it's an emergency!" I insisted.

"Now's not the time for your mind-numbingly stupid problems, cosmetic surgery princess."

"I've got confidential information from the Secretary of State's home office that's gonna change everything!"

"You're too loud! Gee, girl!" she complained, frowning at me. "You're outside, in the street! Someone can hear what you're saying! Do you want to get us all killed? Are you dumb or what?"

"It's you who's not letting me in!" I said in an accusatory mode.

"You're not cut out for this job, you know," she said then with a mischievous look. "Look at you: you're pale and trembling. It's obvious that you can't handle the pressure. You're a scared, little cat. Why don't you just leave us alone and go back home?"

"Can't you just drop this stupid act of yours for a second, Momo?! I've got vital stuff to show Agape! Let me in already!" I said in a bad mood, tired of having to deal with her.

She stopped holding the door, and I made my way in by force. My right shoulder even collided with hers as I came in.

She scoffed as if she had every right to laugh at me. I was halfway down the stairs towards Agape's office in the basement when I heard an angry, loud bang from the main door. Momo was pissed off at me, but I was pissed off at her too.

I decided to stop caring about what she might think of me. It wasn't the right time.

The door of Agape's office was open wide. Everyone was gathered there. They were in a meeting. I stepped in and froze because everybody was stunned at seeing me there. So, I guessed I hadn't been invited, even though it was obvious they were discussing something of vital importance as regards the 'Operation Poison Shot'.

Agape's face was displaying both amazement and inconvenience. Gabi seemed to be feeling uncomfortable, he was biting his lower lip. Ray was thunderstruck. The rest was showing disapproval – but for Siegfried, whose pose became tense and whose eyes started to tremble in the admission of fear that I might feel hurt or angry. K8 and Cian weren't there, though. I wondered why.

I wasn't feeling hurt or angry. I felt like a little, unimportant outcast. I mean, I already knew Agape didn't consider me vital for that organisation. Would it make sense that they had invited me over to that meeting? Probably not. Besides, I had to work during the daytime, unlike them.

"Hello..." I softly whispered at everybody, staring back at all of them.

Right then, Momo came back into Agape's office and resumed her position right beside her best friends, Vera and Nemesis.

"She shouldn't be here," Taro said with spite.

"And why not?" Gabi asked casually.

"She doesn't belong with us," Sven replied with venom in his voice, and then he coldly commanded me thus: "Wait upstairs."

"Agape, there's an emergency," I went on, not losing a single second more and ignoring Sven's command. "I'm bringing some spiders with crucial information. You have to take a look at it. Right now."

"I can take a look at it later, Daphne," she answered calmly. "You don't have to worry. We just need some more minutes to discuss some..."

"It can't wait, Agape! I'm serious!" I exclaimed in panic. "What I've just found out is going to change everything! I've seen what you've done a few minutes ago – the eight of you. What I've got here is far even worse!" I added, with the four spiders lying on my hands, ready to be picked and scanned. "It might make everything you've worked for useless!"

That called Agape's attention and extended a hand to me to get my spiders.

When she was already plugging the four spiders into her computer tower, she asked me with curiosity thus:

"How come you've seen what the eight of them have done?"

"At that moment I was hacking into the Secretary of State's home computer," I replied.

"Wow!" Gabi exclaimed. "You're already bringing spiders?! So soon? Amazing! You're the best rookie we've ever had!"

Wow. Better than Siegfried? Gabi earned a stern look from the rest of the members of the group but for Agape, Ray, and Siegfried. He decided to shut up.

"I've been lucky. Anyway... an alarm's gone off, notifying an emergency," I went on, filling the uncomfortable silence with my shaky voice. "Some video files were attached, containing the nanochip recordings of eight murderers in action – whom I assume are the whole lot of you all dressed in black. I've seen three female and five male assassins. Exactly the ones here."

Having said that, I couldn't help staring at Siegfried. He was staring back at me as if he regretted that I had seen him perform such an evil deed.

"Agape," Nemesis said then with a serious, deadly voice, "she should wait upstairs. She's not fit to know the details of the main mission. We're having an important meeting right now. She can wait."

"And who are you to decide this, Nemesis?" Agape replied with pride while she gave a command to the spiders to download all their content on the hard drive. Then, she turned around to harshly go on: "Let me remind you that I'm your leader. If I want to take a look at the spiders she's brought me, I shall do so. Right now. And yes, she can stay here. She hadn't been invited because I thought she was at work. She's got a different routine than you guys. So, don't defy my authority ever again – and this goes for the whole lot of you. Understood?"

No one dared to say anything after that. I saw both Gabi and Ray smiling softly at me from the corner of my right eye. It was heart-warming.

"Daphne, I believe you," she told me with a rather motherly attitude. "If you say it's an emergency, I shall make this a priority."

"I was at work, but I had to meet Eros during lunch break," I explained. "He's left me alone for some minutes, which I've put to good use. I'm sorry I couldn't find where they keep traditional human corpses, as you requested. But I've found something way worse instead."

Agape frowned at me, and then she turned to the screen to rummage in the copy-pasted files.

"Daphne," Siegfried whispered to me with an unquenchable desire to know, "what is it? What can be worse than us committing murder?"

"These spiders are loaded with information! About the benefit?" Agape exclaimed and asked with satisfaction. "You've found confidential stuff about the event. That's gonna be useful."

"Skip it," I urged her, ignoring Siegfried's request for information. "Leave it for later. You need to take a look at the draft that the Secretary of State has been preparing about a law that both he and the President need to get passed in Parliament soon."

"Okay, lemme see... New robots are being developed in secret!" Agape exclaimed in awe. "Daphne! This is a tech breakthrough! Amazing! And... they've got 3D printers which can..."

Her voice froze mid-sentence, like the joy on her face.

"Which can what?" Momo asked, bored.

Agape went on reading, saying aloud the hard truth.

"They can print organic matter. They have been designed to print viable human organs," Agape went on as if she had become a block of ice. "Highly efficient ones, according to the tests performed on them. And they are ready to massively produce these next-gen cyborgs, which can act almost like human beings, as well. They will also become the cheapest and most ruthless army ever created. 

"The efficiency reports aren't optimistic, though. They've experienced some bugs. Since the Ethical Use of Cloning Resources Act forbids the cloning of individual organs -stating that cloning processes should only be devoted to the creation of human life from birth and that traditional humans are forced to donate their organs in case of need-, they might've thought of this new tech company as a solution to meet the transplant demand in the long run."

"Wait," Gabi said losing all mirth in his voice, "does that mean that...?"

"Clones will be able to meet the organ-transplant demand at will, starting soon, no matter how high it is," she went on, skimming through the draft. "They shall also be able to produce blood. They will still devote cloning resources to giving birth, as they consider it ethical for it to be exclusively like that. They might just need to pass this draft and make it a formal act so that there are no legal problems. Besides that, the cyborgs will soon be replacing the current police forces, and they will soon also replace us... doing our jobs: the low-pay and least-desirable ones we've been forced to do for decades. Clones won't need us, traditional humans, anymore."

"We're screwed," Siegfried said frowning and getting tense like never before.

"Holy shit!" Gabi exclaimed with wide eyes.

"The draft concludes that the Parliament needs to vote over our imminent genocide," Agape added with sadness and anger.

"Oh, God, please no!" Vera exclaimed, appalled.

The dreadful news had left everybody aghast. The tense atmosphere that ensued my unwanted presence in the room had vanished, and it was replaced by a different kind of tension – an ominous one that none of them had expected.

"I didn't see this one coming," Agape said then, filling the uncomfortable silence with her sad, stern voice. "Well, I had always fantasised over the idea that the clones would someday get bored of having us around, and that sooner or later they would find an excuse to get rid of us, but... not like this. Not so drastically. Not with such a carefree ace up their sleeve. Not this soon. I'm... I'm appalled."

"But, wait a minute!" Ray exclaimed as if he had cracked a mystery. "Then, why are they making us go through these additional check-ups over the course of the next couple of weeks?! If they have been planning to get rid of all of us anyway, then why bother?!"

"My thoughts precisely," Agape replied frowning. "Their hegemony would be complete and indisputable. I don't get it – unless..."

"Unless what?" Ray asked.

"Unless they don't trust these new cyborgs completely. For now," Agape answered, trying to sherlock the issue. "This is just a draft, you know. The tech developer team's reports on the cyborgs have notified serious bugs, and potential workarounds and fixes. They're still working on them. This means they're not ready yet, which also means we might still have got some time."

"I hope so," Ray added, and then he sighed.

"It's either this or..." Agape went on, "they're just a bunch of sadists who want to get us first, torture us for their amusement and to ruthlessly crush any chance at the hope that traditional humans might have, and then kill us all."

"What should we do now, Agape?" I asked her with fear in my voice, hoping she could get all traditional humans out of that mess.

"You were right, Daphne," Agape replied decisively. "This is an emergency – one I am not ready for. None of us is. Maybe the mere fact that we've come out of the shadows by bombing the BioBank and the GSNS has made clones truly panic, so much so that they're willing to try anything. I mean, they're rushing into the organ-printing and cyborg-mass-production just now because it might be the cushiest alternative available to them – but it's obvious that they're not ready yet. Dealing with partially-faulty cyborgs is a risk they might be willing to take instead of being forced to deal with a rebel terrorist group."

"It makes sense to me," Taro said then, still pissed.

"If they are indeed rushing into this plan," she added, "we might still have some days to do something about it. Let me check the developers' reports."

She dug into the folders and found some video files labelled as military practice tests. She opened the most recent one.

A video window popped up, displaying those next-gen cyborgs complying with military orders and completing training exercises which included classic one-on-one fighting, shooting practice, maiming of dummies as some sort of torture exercise, and the like.

"Oh, my Lord..." Nemesis whispered with wide eyes.

"This is the most recent video file," Agape said then seriously, "but there are some which date over six years ago. They've been planning this for some time now. There's no mention whatsoever of mind-related processes, like developing a conscience or being able to make decisions. Part of them is still human, though. I hate to admit it, but they are better engineered than K8 but for this latter aspect."

I was in awe at their apparent perfection while watching the video on the screen.

"Look at the precision of their movements," Agape said. "Look at their speed. Look at their lack of emotional response. I focused on making a sentient, artificial being. They made killing machines."

"They are perfect athletes and soldiers. They're better in combat than any of us," Sven whispered, swallowing hard, while Agape pressed pause on the video. "Even better than you, Siegfried. No offence."

"None was taken," Siegfried replied sternly, clenching his fists. "We have to neutralise this threat before they release them into Thalis' streets."

"Indeed," Agape agreed.

"Wait a minute," I said, focusing on a cyborg on the screen, frowning. "Can you zoom in, Agape?"

"On what?" she asked.

"On that female cyborg in the left side of the background," I replied.

She zoomed in the freeze-frame of the video. I got paler and paler.

"Oh, my..." I whispered as I started to lose touch with the floor beneath my feet, feeling a tsunami-like wave of nausea and disgust.

"What is it?" Siegfried asked me with worry.

"That's my... my mother."

Hello, my dear sugar cubes!

So, how will they handle this new threat? Will the rebels be able to stop it? Or will they be forced to fight against these androids? What happened to Daphne's mother?

Stay tuned to know more! 😊

XOXO

MS