"What the fu-?!" I heard Gabi exclaim as if he couldn't believe it.

"Yes. They will become immortal. This brand-new system will become the greatest healthcare breakthrough in the history of humankind!" Agape exclaimed as if she had already been defeated. "Bodies will be disposable. Their personalities will be stored in the GSNS' database and never be lost. They will get new bodies, and their consciousness will get transferred via USB – ad eternum. They will never die."

She was right. Those documents I had copied from the home PC of the Secretary of State stated as much in superb detail.

"So, is this game over for us, for good?" Momo asked, losing hope. I felt the same mood taking over all our fellow team members.

"It might be," Agape replied with sadness. "And for the lower-class clones too. All this seems to be pretty expensive."

For a split second, I got reminded of Miss Radica, who would constantly brag about spending most of her life's savings on breaking her legs and lengthening them to be taller. She was a lower-class clone. Those new procedures would surely be a lot more expensive than what she had paid for her new legs, which meant she would soon die after all traditional humans would be gone. She would not be able to afford to survive. I almost felt pity for her. She had loved and endorsed a system that would soon kill her.

"Everything I've fought for, everything I've sacrificed... all for nothing," Agape concluded with a sad sigh. Then, she grunted and slammed her hands on her desk. "Even today's mission! It's all worthless! I do hope they're not ready for imminent launch. It's our only chance."

When she had said that, I felt insignificant, so small and breakable when I realised that powerful forces were at play and that I had no say in the matter. The rich would be richer, the poor would be poorer – but that would be for clones only since traditional humans like us would soon be out of the equation. I grew afraid of being caught in the middle of some serious shit storm and having no place to hide. I could not handle feeling that useless and fragile.

"How can we know that this whole thing isn't just bullshit?" Nemesis asked with distrust and defiance. "Are they rushing into this, as you said a few minutes ago? What if they're wrong and their plan backfires because they were too antsy about releasing it, or something? Don't give up on us so soon, Agape!"

I could feel the others rebels' imperious need to do something. A bit of hope started to glow in my soul.

"You don't give up so easily, do you Nemesis?" Agape replied with a satisfied smirk on her lips. "Will you fight -all of you- although clones have got more than one ace up their sleeves? Like immortality?"

All of them said yes with conviction – I was the last to do so, but with more fear than anything else.

"Agape," Momo said taking a step in her direction with an imposing pose, "I request permission to act accordingly. We need to do something drastic before this draft reaches Parliament, and before this company can take any further actions. They must be stopped – at any price. I volunteer for an assassination mission on the lives of the Secretary of State, the President, and any other related parties, like the IT developers and the medical team in charge of the androids. Tonight."

Many of the present rebels agreed.

"Denied," Agape replied sternly.

"But...!" Momo tried to complain.

"You're getting ahead of yourselves. It's too risky," Agape simply replied.

"No, it's not!" Momo insisted with pride and defiance. "We've got personal info about all of them, their routines and schedules, their contacts, also the predisposition and motivation to kill them, the right materials. It's time. We can't wait! Otherwise,..."

"And have you got any plan at all, Momo?" Agape asked with defiance while crossing both her arms over her chest.

"Well, it's pretty straightforward, isn't it?" Momo replied, absolutely sure of herself. "I will do what needs to be done, no flourishing. Go, trap, kill, flee. That's the plan."

"This is no plan at all. That's improvising," Agape answered with authority in her voice. "I said no – and that's final."

"That's not improvising at all!" Momo complained further. "We know where each of them is going to be every minute of every day. We cannot fail!"

"Yes, you can," Agape replied with her eyes ablaze with anger towards Momo's constant defiance. She wanted to prove who was the boss. "We never know for sure -100% sure, that is- where they're going to be. There's always some room for whims or accidents. And then, what would you do? You know better than anyone that the one who comes up with plans it's me. And it usually takes me weeks or months to schedule something big – because what you want to do tonight is something big. Don't be delusional, Momo. It's too risky."

Their argument was making the rest of us extremely uncomfortable.

"But...!"

"No buts!" Agape exclaimed yelling in ire then. "Your proposal has been denied. Now shut up. Stop defying my authority. We're not rushing into a mad plan that the clones might even expect. We need to be clever and stealthy about this. I need some time to think about what to do," she added in a much calmer yet still harsh tone of voice.

"Agape," Siegfried asked her using a soft, velvety voice. I loved that kind of voice. "When does the Secretary of State plan to bring this draft to Parliament?"

"He hasn't put a date on it. It must be soon, I guess. The sense of urgency suggests it is so. I would estimate some days – a week from now tops."

"Don't give up, Agape," he went on with strength and courage in his voice. His eyes were completely focused on her, glowing with a level of trust that seemed to know no bounds. "You can do this. You're a genius. I'm sure you can think of something amazing to get us out of trouble. You've always done so. We'll do the right thing, what you believe will be the right thing."

The silence that ensued was tense but full of hope; however, I could feel that most of the rebels around me were still a bit hesitant.

"Momo, don't take it personally," Siegfried went on calmly as he looked at her. "Agape's right. We need to be extremely careful," he added gently, and then he addressed all of us with a comfortable degree of authority: "Don't you trust Agape? She's always been here for us. She's given us a home, a job, and a purpose in life. If it wasn't for her, most of us would be dead by now. I trust her judgement. Whatever she says, goes. I entrust my life to her. What about you guys?"

Siegfried's words had been admirable. He could put the rebels at ease. Each and every one of them silently nodded with a kind smile to him. His kinds words of support rang true, springing from his heart and personal experience. Agape was staring at him as if she was silently thanking him and feeling proud of him. I was in awe, too.

Momo's face was the darkest one, though. Despite Siegfried's inspiring words, she seemed to be trying to veil her anger and distrust towards Agape's leadership skills and brains.

"Agape, wait a second," I said all of a sudden, feeling as if the words were leaving my mouth without granting them any permission to do so. "I've got an idea. Could you change the ticks' design?"

"Yes, I could, but... what are you suggesting exactly?" she asked raising an eyebrow with curiosity at me.

"Imagine that you could make them strong and independent enough so that they could travel long distances, specifically targeting androids exclusively," I explained with hope in my voice. "When they would find one, they could infect it with a virus or something. And by biting each and every one of them, we could get rid of them – or at least make them malfunction for some time. You could even make them infect or attack each other.

"We could trick the developers and the medical team into believing they're still too imperfect to be allowed outside, to be marketed as the solution that clones need. Make these new ticks able to fly, like mosquitoes, for instance. And allow them to live long enough to infect more than one target, not like the current ticks, which overheat and merge with the target's system when they're done.

"You could even target their 3D printers as well so that they malfunction too. We only need to locate where they're keeping them, release these new mosquitoes of yours in a stealth mission, and we're done. It would buy us the time we need to carry out more operations, the ones you might've got planned so far – like the benefit, right? Could it work?"

"Wow!" Gabi exclaimed with a nice smile on his face. I had infected him with my enthusiasm. "Mini Agape's come up with a solution!"

The look on Agape's face was full of awe and admiration. It was priceless.

"Daphne, right now I don't know whether I could do that – but I swear to God that I'm gonna try and give my best! This idea is great! It would mean minimal exposure for us – and a great danger to them."

"Unless the clones get their hands on one of your new mosquitoes, that is," Momo commented with contempt. "What if they copy our tech and use it against us, Agape?"

"I will make them extra stealthy. Don't worry," Agape replied as if she was discarding her concern, even though Momo had a point. "The only problem now is that we don't know where the androids and the 3D printers are being hidden. These files state nothing more. The videos only suggest some kind of underground facility," she added while checking all the available files.

She even came across a video file in which a couple of androids were making bread dough.

"Were there more files about this subject matter in the Secretary of State's PC?" Agape asked then after a heartfelt sigh.

"I could go back and check," I replied as if I'd run back to Eros to beg him to let me in.

"Too risky now, after our murders today," Agape replied in a hurry.

"We could use the accounting file to get to their suppliers, to check on them and spy on their lorries," Taro said then with a stern voice. He seemed on board with the plan, but his eyes still displayed arrogance and distrust toward me. "We could spy on them. See where they go."

"I like that, but it could take weeks. We haven't got that much time," Agape admitted. "But instead of that, we could search for the androids and the 3D printers, targeting them with the mosquitoes in different phases. We could simply set the mosquitoes free downtown, and let them find them. I think it might be the place with higher chances. If they're not hiding in that neighbourhood, we'll get the mosquitoes back, and search in another one."

"I like this plan," Ray said with a collected kind of enthusiasm. He even winked an eye at me when he whispered with joy to me: "Arigato, smart rookie."

"It could take us several days if we don't get the neighbourhood right!" Momo complained.

"That's why we will be starting with the one with higher chances of success: downtown," Agape replied. "Think of this: one night, maximum damage, minimal exposure. These mosquitoes could mean making checkmate on the clone government. We could use them to infiltrate the GSNS even! I would be able to control their software remotely, from this very room!"

"That is, if you manage to create and test them in very little time," Vera added feeling some distrust towards the plan, probably only because her best friend Momo was being sceptical about it.

Momo was staring at Vera with defiance, analysing each and every one of her words, as if she was checking on her. The idea that she was some sort of boss over both Vera and Nemesis crossed my mind.

"I will make it happen, guys," Agape added with confidence. "Don't worry. This plan will buy us the time we need and create more havoc than I had planned. It's perfect!"

I was starting to doubt whether Agape's praise of the plan I had come up with was beneficial to me, since Momo's hard and hateful staring had fallen on me with such brutality that I shivered, and I feared the worst.

Traditional humans would survive, but I wouldn't. My plan was pleasing Agape, while hers had been brutally rejected. As if she didn't hate my guts already!

"Daphne," Agape said then with conviction and joy, getting my attention. I turned my face to hers in a split second, ignoring Momo's deadly glare for a moment. "I will work on these mosquitoes from this very moment on! I will break my back or fail. I swear! I'm so hyped! Fuck, Daphne! I'm so lucky to have you! You and Siegfried have made my day and given me the strength that I needed to go on fighting. Thank you."

Hello, my sugar cubes!

So, will Agape be able to create these new mosquitoes? Will Momo want some kind of revenge? Will the rest of the rebels who hate Daphne's guts trust her a bit more after her recent contribution?

Stay tuned to know more! 😊

XOXO

MS