Siegfried had told me that Agape had planned the mosquito-scattering operation for next Wednesday night. I dreamt of it later that night – and a blood-chilling, dark smile from Agape as she supervised the operation from her office.

I woke up with a cold sweat that Tuesday morning. At six o'clock, as always, my red alarm clock rang with its annoying, metallic bell.

That morning was more unbearable than ever, especially since I hadn't been able to sleep much, about three hours only. I had a massive headache. Although I had had a little sleep, I disguised it better than ever because I didn't want my dad to suspect anything.

The additional check-ups had begun.

That week it was the turn of a lot of people I knew, both in my neighbourhood and elsewhere in Thalis. That very morning during breakfast, the postman came by. My father and I were being notified by certified mail that our turn would be the following week, on Wednesday.

It would be a stressful couple of weeks for everyone, but especially for Agape, because not only would she have to create the mosquitoes I had suggested, but also she would need to supervise the whole check-up process, and that meant restoring first the normal activity of quite a few nanochips and re-hacking them once the check-up was over asap.

I had all day to myself since I had convinced Dr Bentnose that I was ill. I used that time to mend the kitchen appliances that Daniel had meant to repair for our neighbours, testing them, and bringing them to their owners. I cried over a stupid toaster just because I remembered that Daniel had burned the tip of his right thumb with one of those a couple of years ago.

In the afternoon, I took advantage of the fact that my father was still working at the chocolate factory to go see Siegfried. I wondered whether I'd find him right after hockey practice and meditate with him before nightfall. I needed some good-earned sleep.

Amanita was closed and no one answered. I tried knocking on the front door of the rebels' home. No one came to open it for me, I tried the lock but it turned out the door was open. I entered with some reluctance, looking everywhere.

"Hello? Anybody there? It's me, Daphne," I said loudly.

"Oh, hello!" Gabi greeted me while going down the stairs in a hurry.

He had just taken a shower. I could tell by the fresh-looking energy in him and his moist, dark hair.

"I was about to open the door. Nice of you to come by!" he went on joyfully and with a welcoming smile. "Are you looking for Sigi?" he asked with naughty eyes all of a sudden. That made me blush slightly.

"Well, yes, but it's not what you think."

He chuckled. "Oh, please. Let me indulge in my highly realistic imagination for once," he replied nonchalantly, and all of a sudden his eyes widened at the realisation of something key, apparently. "Daphne, would you mind waiting here for a sec? Got something for you. Well, it's not really for you... directly. Just gimme a sec. Back asap."

Talking fast like that when he was thrilled like a child seemed to be natural in him. He didn't even wait for me to reply. He was already climbing the stairs in a hurry.

Barely a few seconds later, he was down on the ground floor in front of me with a closed envelope in his hands. He was handing it to me with a warm smile on his face.

"This is my way of returning the favour I owe you. For repairing my alarm clock. I thought of something you might need, and here it is!"

"Ow, you don't need to give me anything. I hope it's not money. I consider you a friend. I hate taking money from friends, you know."

"You honour me, Daphne, when you say I'm your friend. But no, it's not money. It's something a lot more valuable. Don't open it. Sigi has to. Give it to him when you're alone, the two of you. Tell him to open it in front of you."

That was weird. I eyed him with suspicion.

"What is this, Gabi? Why don't you give it to him yourself?"

His smile became a provocative smirk.

"As I said, this is a gift from me to you."

"I don't understand."

"Oh, don't worry. You will." His smirk became wider, and his eyes lit up.

"You look like a child doing mischief, Gabi."

"Maybe I am." He chuckled but wasted no more time. "Come, let's go find Sigi. He should be upstairs."

We went upstairs, chatting while I put the envelope in one of the back pockets of my jeans, and that's when I heard angry voices. It seemed as if there was a heated argument taking place. The living room's door was ajar, as much as Gabi's mouth was when he put a hand on my right shoulder to stop me from coming into the room.

His silent yet stern attitude took my breath away. The more I looked at him, the less I recognised him. We stood there, in a shadowy hall, accidentally overhearing the words from the tense conversation taking place in the living room.

"I don't know what Sigi saw in her," Taro said in a disdainful tone of voice.

"First she helped him. And then, she saw him hiding in the trash can. That's what," Sven replied half angrily. "She recognised him."

"No, that's not it, and you know why," Taro answered as if he was offended. "We saw how he felt on Agape's screens."

"It was a fleeting moment. You're obsessed with it, dude," Cian insisted wearily. "Leave it alone, will you? No matter how much you complain about it, it's done now."

"I have got every right to complain about it! I'm sick of it!" Taro exclaimed, losing his temper. "Before she came along, Sigi was doing an outstanding job. A star rookie like we've never seen before! Fuck, guys! We are few in number. We can't afford to have him distracted by a girl!"

Gabi caught my attention when he said in a weak whisper:

"Let's go, Daphne. You shouldn't be here."

But the argument was getting more heated by the second.

"I agree with Taro," Sven replied then.

"All of us agree with him, Cian," Momo added with a voice loaded with resentment. "Well, almost all of us."

"Now, don't look at me as if I was a traitor!" Ray intervened with a defensive attitude. "Look, this is no issue at all, to be honest. She's got a hacked nanochip, like the rest of us. She's been of great help even though she's not like us. That should convince you that she's here to stay, for the better or worse. And if you think Sigi is distracted, you go and tell him that to his face – not behind his back like you're doing right now."

So, Siegfried was not present. I was wondering where he was.

"When he comes back from getting a shower, I will. You don't have to worry about that," Taro replied angrily.

"Daphne," Gabi urged me in a worried whisper, "let's go."

"No," I replied also whispering, "I need to know what's going on here."

I was getting tense as the seconds were passing by.

"Ray, you once agreed with me. How come now you think differently?" Taro asked him.

"She's valuable. That's all."

"She fixed your beloved washing machine," Nemesis replied in a sly remark. "That's the only reason why you like her, arsehole. Maybe I should bribe you to do my bidding, seeing that it works so well on you."

"That's enough!" Cian exclaimed, tired and angry. "You're always fretting over this issue like spoiled kids. What do you get out of thinking like that? Now she's part of the group. Agape wants it so. Besides, she's cooperating, willingly. You've already seen what she can do. There's nothing to discuss."

"Yes, yes, the mosquitoes," Taro replied as if he was tired. "It looks as if Agape and Daphne have got some sort of connection between them. She seems closer to Agape than any of us has ever been. I don't like it."

"You might not like it, but it's gonna save all our asses, Taro," Cian replied with assertiveness.

"You're too loyal to Agape, Cian. That could be a problem," Sven said, still upset. "Maybe we should do something about it."

"How dare you say such a thing?!" Cian exclaimed.

"Agape's focusing too much attention on Daphne," Sven replied. "She's distracting Agape from the main goal. She could even poison her with her stupid ideals. She doesn't want to murder anybody; we all know that."

"What if this foolish girl messes up with the main operation because it goes against her ethics?" Taro added with frustration. "This is not what I signed up for, Cian. None of us. Clones must be brought down, with violence. If Agape starts making concessions on Daphne's account, we shall not succeed. All we're saying is that we should be ready to take the power away from Agape if –and only if– she goes soft on account of that stupid teenage girl. On whose side will you stand when the moment comes, Cian?"

A moment of awkward silence ensued.

"Daphne," Gabi whispered kindly to me then, grabbing my right shoulder. "Believe me. It's not worth it. We should go."

"How long's this been going on? They're planning to get Agape, your leader, out of the way!" I whispered-shouted with incredulity. "They should be ready to die for her, not take the power from her!"

"Don't you dare to ask me that," Cian replied like a sergeant. "I'm Agape's second in command. You will take back everything you've said, and you shall never again question Agape's leadership! Is that clear?! What you're afraid of shall never happen. She's not going soft on account of our latest recruit. Your suspicions are ill-founded. Now, stop worrying and swear your undivided loyalty to her."

"Cian, I..."

"I said, swear your undivided loyalty to her!" Cian yelled with ire.

"Okay, fine! I swear my undivided loyalty to her!" Taro insisted as if he was fed up with the subject. "But mark my words: if something goes wrong from now on, I shall blame Daphne. We've got it all under control, and you know that. Our main operation is almost ripe. We cannot fail. So, if anything doesn't go as planned, it's because someone who's got inside information has been messing with us."

"Our main operation shall unfold as expected. You don't have to worry about that," Cian replied sternly. "And I shall talk with Sigi if you think he's getting too distracted. I don't agree he is, though. He's been running at the highest performance for the last couple of weeks. I was expecting him to slow his rhythm down at some point. Otherwise, he'll get wasted out of exhaustion."

That comment left me wondering what Siegfried had been doing that caused so much stress on him.

"I've got an idea that might sit well with everybody," Vera said all of a sudden. "Why don't we convince Agape to give Daphne some unimportant job far from us, in a different neighbourhood or city, even? She'd get out of our way."

I heard a tired sigh escaping from Cian's lips while I saw Ray's tense arms crossed over his chest. He was also shaking his head in disapproval.

"Good idea," Taro replied, satisfied.

"That way she'd be far from Sigi. She wouldn't distract him," Momo added slyly.

"My thoughts precisely," Sven answered to that.

"You can't let it go, can you?" Cian insisted.

"We should vote," Nemesis said then.

"Gabi's not here. Nor Sigi," Ray replied with a defiant smirk. "I hope you're not suggesting that their opinions don't matter."

"What I'm saying is that we should vote," Nemesis answered defiantly as well. "Sure, let's do so when Sigi comes back from the shower."

"Where's Gabi?" Ray asked.

"Who cares about Gabi?" Taro asked with a conceited attitude. "He's always flirting, making jokes, and playing that stupid acoustic guitar to impress Agape! We can't trust his judgement! Women are sacred to him. He won't vote to take our main operation and our success into account. He'll only vote against sending Daphne away just because she's a girl!"

"You're right," Sven agreed. "If he wasn't such an outstanding pyrotechnics expert, I'd give him an earful."

I looked back at Gabi to check on his reaction. Boy, he was pissed!

In contrast, I felt disconnected. No matter how much I was contributing to their cause, they didn't care. They saw me as useless, or worse, as a nuisance. I'd never earn their trust.

They would soon require Agape to keep me as far away as possible. Surely, she trusted them more than she trusted me, a poor girl who didn't even think like her in ideological terms.

"Do you guys think keeping her away will be enough?" Momo asked using a dark voice.

"What do you mean?" Vera asked.

"I mean, Sigi might look for her anyway," Momo explained, green with envy. "They won't stop seeing each other just because she works far away from Amanita and our home. He might get the bike and go see her."

"So, what are we supposed to do then?!" Taro exclaimed.

"We have to get rid of her," Momo concluded in a lower and more ominous tone of voice. "There's no other way."

"Are you out of your mind?!" Ray exclaimed with ire.

Cian's voice rang loudly after Ray's, but I couldn't make out the words.

I felt overwhelmed by panic as if my mind was being forced into a meat grinder. I started to tremble, feeling a cold sweat running all over my spine, and I even started to get dizzy. My entire field of vision got distorted. The floor and the walls were kind of bulgy as if I were wearing thick glasses. I began to hyperventilate and feel a strange, uncomfortable pressure inside the left part of my chest. I put my right hand softly on it. My heart felt like getting wrung. I just wanted to flee from there and never come back.

Without even realising it, I was already going down the stairs in a hurry. I was heading to the front door as if my life depended on it – and to be honest, it did. They wanted me dead. Although I could feel my legs and feet far away from me, as if they weren't mine, thankfully they still obeyed me.

An echo resonated from the first floor into my ears then:

"Just GO!" Gabi's distant voice said with urgency. "I'll deal with them. Just go get her. Hurry!"

A couple of feet thundered down the stairs while I was already opening the front door and fleeing into the street, towards my dear Frankie, waiting for me in the parking lot. I was walking fast. The sea breeze and the orangey afternoon light hit me hard and only enhanced my perturbed senses, making me feel worse. Their hurtful words kept banging inside my head. I felt like throwing up.

And then, I heard him:

"Daphne! Wait!"

It was Siegfried's voice, worried and panting. A few strides toward me, and he grabbed my right arm to pull me into a tight embrace.

His voice was also distant, as Gabi's had been, as if he was speaking to me from the bottom of a well. He smelt good, though. I could tell he had just showered. There was something exquisitely comforting about being so close to fresh, clean clothes and a clean body.

The waves of the sea. The soft breeze on my skin and my hair. The passing cars. The people chatting and walking on the promenade. Kids playing on the beach down below. Siegfried's voice. He was telling me something, but I couldn't make out the words. His voice was only a frantically worried echo getting lost in a huge cavern of cacophonous everyday sounds.

I wanted to tell him that, but I couldn't find my mouth. Somehow, I couldn't give it the command to move. It didn't want to obey me.

"They... they are arseholes, Daphne," he went on talking softly to me while he still hugged me as if I'd slip away. "Don't believe anything they've said."

"They want me dead," I managed to reply in a faint whisper. Good. I was regaining control.

"Agape will do something about this soon enough. Don't worry."

"I don't know. I-I... I just can't..."

My hesitation took him aback.

"Daphne, nothing bad will happen to you. I swear."

When he realised that time was slipping away and that I wasn't answering, he grabbed me by both my shoulders and made me look straight at him.

"Gabi's told me what they've said. It's despicable. I swear I won't let them hurt you, ever. Do you hear me?" he insisted in panic. "When Gabi's said I might never see you again on account of those idiots, I... I thought..."

He couldn't find the right words to say then.

"Are you coming tonight to meditate with me?" he eventually asked, trying hard to be calm.

"Y-yes, sure."

"Okay. Meet me in the woods. Don't park your bike in our parking lot, though. I don't want them to see you, just in case."

"All right."

Hello, my buttercups!

Aren't most of the rebels dumb-asses or what? What do you think? Will they get what they want, or will Agape regain control of the group?

Stay tuned to know more! 😊

XOXO

MS