I felt hot under the collar with embarrassment. My apprehensiveness towards that plan was crystal clear, though.

"WHAT?!" If only Agape knew the truth, that Eros might already be nurturing those sweet feelings for me. Should I tell her about me becoming the model for Oyster's ad and Eros' involvement in the issue?

"Seduce him," she went on. "You're not allowed to hack his nanochip. If he wants to develop a vaccine, he's on his own. You cannot help him. But he'll be safe, don't worry. He won't defy Apollo again. He's not suicidal."

Her casualness felt both logical and condescending at the same time. I frowned while I sensed a wave of disillusionment break on me. She didn't believe in him and what he could achieve with his skills and determination.

"Just make him fall in love with you," she added in a zealous tone of voice, "make him trust you so deeply that you gain access to Apollo's faculty lab and office. I want the top-secret info you said Eros' read. Those reports that chilled his blood. And samples. Do what it takes, but get me some samples of those palaeoviruses, too."

My mission concerning Eros had metamorphosed drastically from its initial stages. Since his father, the former Secretary of State, was dead, Agape had obviously switched my target to Apollo. Eros was simply a means to an end – and I didn't like to treat people like that.

"Why would you want samples?"

"To analyse them. Well, not me, naturally," she admitted. "I'm not an expert in biology or medicine. Taro is."

"Taro?" I asked in amazement.

"Yes. You shall bring the samples to him," she explained with pride. "He's a biology freak. Self-taught, obviously... like you. Traditional humans cannot go to college. That's only for clones, but you know that. He might be an amateur, but he trusts himself and his skills. And so do I. He's elated by the news, you see."

Why didn't I like the sound of that? Besides, engaging with Taro so closely felt like a gruelling task.

"Why is he elated? Those viruses are lethal, very dangerous," I pointed out.

"He knows the risks." Her confidence in him emanated from her whole self, especially from her charming smile. "Anyway, haven't you noticed his tats? For a Maori, tats are spiritually vital. They tell who they are, their history, their wars, the events that have marked them. He's got his family's murders tattooed on every inch of his back – and he's getting a new one as we speak. About his next mission... with you."

"Really?"

"It shall be the corona of those viruses, posing as a rising sun -or a setting sun- over the Neon Sea, symbolising our rise – and their demise."

I couldn't stop myself from picturing it in my mind: a malevolent viral cell posing as the sun, with its corona as sunrays. Deadly beautiful.

"When I've told him earlier today that he'd get his hands on those palaeoviruses, he was thrilled by the prospect. I've told him you'd bring them to him in due time, that he needs to collab with you. He's agreed to be more civil towards you. It all depends on your success in this mission. I've managed to make him stop considering you dead wood."

So, his opinion of me was that I was useless, but he was willing to make an exception for as long as I brought him what he craved. Great.

"What's his role when I bring him the viruses?" I asked, full of hope that I might just make a new friend out of an enemy. "Will he develop a vaccine in Eros' place? God, I hope so!"

"Well, no, that isn't his role at all." Her voice was suddenly acerbic as if she thought I was being stupid.

That left me frozen on the spot.

"Isn't it obvious, Daphne? I've already told you about his tattoo, and what it shall mean."

I didn't quite follow her, but I feared it was something nasty.

"I want a bioweapon."

Insane should've been Agape's middle name. She didn't care that people might suffer, she was being openly and unregretfully callous. A bioweapon in her power? Calamitous consequences would ensue for sure.

"Now, don't look at me like that," she said as she stood up from her stool.

She took a couple of steps toward me, and when she did so, she got her feet and legs illuminated by the reddish artificial light from the tiles underneath her feet. The fluorescent red tones of light cascading on herself from below made her look like a demon casually walking in an artificial rain of fire.

"You know who I am and how I run my group of rebels," she elaborated, making emphasis on the fact that I should already know. "Taro shall work on reproducing the viral cells you shall procure him with, while I work on the new version of our mosquitoes: this time they shall infect clones and collaborators under my command."

I was appalled, but I guessed she was right: I should've seen it coming from her.

I was petrified when I realised that I was already standing at a crossroads in my life. I didn't want Agape to be in possession of a bioweapon. She would hurt far too many innocent people with it alongside those who might have deserved punishment.

It was time. Time to decide whether I was willing to stand my ground, or subdue to her questionable ethics by doing as told and never questioning anything she might ever tell me to do.

Would I regret looking at the rear-view mirror at some point? Only time would tell.

"I don't consent to any of this," I replied at the drop of a hat. "You are going to hurt innocent people with it. I won't bring you the palaeoviruses if that's what you want to do with them!"

"What did you expect, Daphne?!" she roared back at me, showing me who was the one wearing the trousers in Amanita. "How can you be so naïve and thick?!"

Her sudden rashness and yelling startled me. Besides that, I hated those two adjectives to describe me.

Why did people like Agape tag me so irresponsibly as such when all I wanted was peace and a non-violent approach to conflicts? I understood what was at stake, the difficulties, and the dangers on the way, but I wasn't comfortable with murder and such reasoning and procedures in the name of justice. I wasn't willing to hand over some community's sense of security and their very lives –although most of them had been evil to us– to guarantee my security, that of the people who were like me, and our potential, future prevalence.

Those who had done nothing wrong should be free from punishment and death. Like Mrs Nevermore. Like Eros.

Insulting me as naïve and thick would have usually driven me mad, but it wasn't the time to lose it, though. I focused on keeping my shirt on. That issue wasn't just about me as an individual, it was about the fate of many innocent people like Eros and his mother.

"There has to be another way, Agape!" I complained, feeling the highest level of uneasiness that I had ever felt in my entire life. "You're obsessed with the past – and that way you're tainting the future. Your lust for power is clouding your judgement. Justifying violence like that it's...! Your plans won't account for true justice at all!"

"Clones are monsters, Daphne!" she bellowed as if she thought I was the insane one. "And you're too young to know better! They need to be exterminated!"

"I might be young, but I know enough. I have felt the pain of being tagged as guilty when I've done nothing wrong. Way too many times, for too many years. You're not the only one who's suffered under clone rule! And not all clones are monsters! You can't justify murder and violence using inductive inference. Yes, I know what that is. Making generalisations and extracting partial conclusions which you think are the truth."

My elaborate comeback had put her in neutral gear for a couple of seconds. Maybe an intellectual battle wasn't something she had expected.

"But, with it, I can predict what shall happen, Daphne." She was livid, yet rationally engaged in our argument. She seemed to be amused by our back and forth. "Clones are a bunch of needy kids and adults who aren't willing to be responsible for the environment, society, and not even their own bodies. I can predict that more clones in dire need of transplants shall murder us, traditional humans, if I don't put a stop to their way of life."

She made a brief pause, only to come and stand right in front of me. Since she was taller than me, she felt imposing. And that's when she was obviously thinking that she was putting the last nail in my coffin by stating with a dreadful voice:

"So, what's it gonna be? Them or us, Daphne? Tell me who deserves to live and who deserves to die. Enlighten me, you fool!"

She left me breathless for a second, but her cantankerous mood didn't sentence my will to certain death.

"Nobody can." It was clear that my relationship with Agape had reached an inflexion point. We could not go back from that. "This isn't for you to decide. Or me."

She clenched her teeth violently. She seemed to be holding some harsh comment down her throat. The expression on her face turned into dismay.

To be honest, I thought that she was doing a great job at leading the rebels. She had great leadership skills. She was supposed to be holding the steering wheel and riding all of us, but at that moment it actually looked like she could not turn on the autopilot when dealing with me. With the others, it might have worked – but not with me. At least, not anymore.

"THIS IS MY WAR, Daphne," she bawled at me. Her voice boomed in Amanita like thunder. "It's my life. It's my raison d'être. If you stand in my way, I won't stop for you. There's too much at stake!"

I silently admitted that that was sadly true. Every bit of it. It was her war. She wouldn't stop for me. And there was a freaking lot at stake, too.

"If you infect more and more clones with these palaeoviruses, more transplants shall be made. Don't you see that?" I tried to reason with her as if I was pleading for my life. "That means that more traditional humans shall die in the near future! Why should they die because of you and your lust for power?!"

"It's a necessary sacrifice." Her voice felt icier then.

"Are you mad?!" I protested as if I was standing precariously right about to fall from a cliff as if I felt that she was right behind me, willing to give me one last but ruthless push.

She was towering over me by then. Her mirror-like glasses slid a bit down the bridge of her nose until she could glare at me from over the upper part of the rim of her glasses. Her eyes were figuratively on fire as much as the rest of our bodies were with those reddish artificial lights of Amanita's new dancefloor.

"What do you think Apollo's been doing all these years, huh?!" she yelled at me. Then, she chortled. "Ignoring the palaeoviruses isn't one of them, to be sure! He's been using them against his devout clones, against us, traditional humans too! They're just a tool to keep the conflict going because it benefits him! It lets him stay in power. It lets him stay in control. To keep all of us afraid of the world, to keep us dependent on him and his system."

"Have you got proof of what you say?"

"He was the most notorious scientist of the century, Daphne! A genius like him, someone who's been able to remain in power for so many years, doesn't stay put if it doesn't benefit him. He's had an ace up his sleeve all these years, something fishy. I had been wondering what that could be for years, Daphne! And then, you come and spill the beans about something that fits perfectly in Valentina's letter, her account of pre-war and war times. Her truth is the truth. I had always thought Apollo's true source of power was something political, some lost tech even – but it turns out it's got everything to do with these palaeoviruses!"

"How can you be so sure about this?" I asked, feeling a chill strike down my spine.

"Because if I were in this impious god's shoes, I'd do exactly the same thing," she admitted, sounding like the devil herself.

And that was when I realised that Agape had been wrong ever since she had met me. Not just wrong about ethics and justice.

Wrong about me.

She had told me that I was a reflection of her younger self, but I wasn't – she was a reflection of Apollo, the deranged scientist that became a God circa forty years prior. My blood chilled. I didn't want her to change me. I didn't want to lose myself.

I decided to tell her that regardless of burning any potential bridge between us. I needed to man up. No, let's make it Kono's way: I needed to woman up, which was harder.

"I'm not accepting your ethos. You're Apollo's mirror. When I look at you, I see him." My voice was firm, yet I still feared her reaction.

"You think you're brave by standing your ground like this, don't you?" She wasn't one bit impressed by what I had said. "Either that or you think you're funny. Guess what? You're none.

"We shall simplify things from now on. Your loyalty isn't up for discussion, I'm afraid. You're mine now."

Her possessiveness dehumanised me. It made me feel like a toy in her hands.

"Do exactly as I tell you and shut the fuck up, is that understood?!" she threateningly hollered in a military attitude. "Your next mission is to fulfil Eros' expectations when it comes to love. You shall seduce him and lie your way into his heart. Do what it takes. Anything – including sex. Your current defiance has earned you this treatment, so don't even try to complain! You'll get all the info I need from Apollo's lab and bring Taro really good samples of those palaeoviruses, are we clear?!"

I swallowed hard; and right after that, I heard a familiar voice far behind me.

"What the fuck is going on here?!" Sigi asked with bewilderment, standing by the main double doors of Amanita's entrance with a baffled expression on his face.

I turned my face to stare at him. I could tell by the cold and baffled expression on his face that he had heard Agape's last contribution to our sour argument – and that wasn't good.

His eyes were begging me to reject that mission no matter what, just as he had begged me a few days before. However, I felt in no position to do so.

Hello, my dear sugar cubes!

So, do you like Agape's real reason behind her plans for Daphne as regards Eros? She's despicable. What is Daphne going to do? And Sigi?

Stay tuned to know more!

XOXO

MS