RELIGIONS AND MEN

Stephan is surprised to see Sarah and Jeremy arrive together. He questions his sister with an inquisitive look as she comes to stand next to him by the round table.

"Where did you sleep last night?" He ends up asking his sister as she remains stern and silent.

"We didn't sleep," Sarah replies. "We don't ask you questions about last night, do we?" she adds immediately in an annoyed tone, glaring at her twin brother.

Stephan stares immediately at Jeremy who gazes straight ahead of him. The behaviour of Stephan doesn't surprise his teammate anymore. Stephan and Sarah are of the weirdest pair of siblings, and he has to stand in between the two with as little disturbance as possible to their fighting routine.

Suddenly, Mr. Vaughen enters the room and stops in front of the round table where the three agents are standing. He greets them with a dry and cold "Good morning", staring at them silently for awhile. The three young people immediately respond in unison, standing at attention. At the same moment, Sarah's and Stephan's eyes light up as if the siblings were driven by a new energy: fear. Jeremy remains standing, his gaze and his thoughts hidden behind his smoked glasses. Mr Vaughen turns on the giant flat screen behind him to tap on the keyboard incorporated into the table. He orders the three agents to sit down with a simple hand gesture before turning back to the screen.

The Assembly of the Almighty comes from a religious movement born in India in the 1960s. Their ideology was exported around the world after The Great Catastrophes which consumed more than half of the planet's natural resources and engulfed a good part of the habitable surfaces in the second quarter of the 21st century. The Assembly of each continent is led by a woman who claims to be the direct representative of God on Earth while awaiting the complete destruction of the latter. Their members follow a strict lifestyle and discipline intended to bring them to a state closest to that of purity.

To counter the Treaty on Global Secularism, the Assembly of the Almighty, like many other cults and religions, started practising underground in secluded places, whose location is only known by their members. The latter are few in number and for the most part wealthy and influential. The practice of worship has become an illegal luxury that only a tiny portion of the population can afford. At the Assembly of the Almighty, faith is passed down from parents to children like an inheritance. Few members have joined the Assembly without having recourse to the affiliation of a close relative. No believer is going to preach the holy word to anyone anymore. Not only because this act would be punishable by a fine and sometimes imprisonment, but also because no one with the protection and privileges of a powerful organisation wants to risk losing it by sharing it. They and their descendants alone are supposed to be among God's chosen lucky few. In exchange to a substantial entrance fee, this conviction will open the door to paradise for them.

RELIGIONS AND JUSTICE

Justice knows that religions go and will always go hand in hand with power and money; the same money that still makes the world go round today. Justice also knows perfectly well that human sins have a better chance of surviving when they are prohibited. The goal of justice isn't so much to exterminate religions or prevent conflicts of interest as to ensure that people believe in one and the same value: the power of matter.

Many wonder what could be the interest of religious organisations in a world like today's: an ugly land, squandered of its beauty and its wealth, a tiny portion of the population already possessing it all or about to inherit almost all that remains including an ever-smarter science that will certainly be able to get them out of here before anyone else. After the failure of the exile of the first colonies which went completely unnoticed by the world population, no government wants to risk sending another outer space expedition. Every day brings new hope that maybe one day the Earth will come back to life. To stay or to flee is no longer the question, the real question now is: how to stay?

"Are you wondering how you're going to be able to enter the Assembly of the Almighty?" Mr. Vaughen asks, a small smirk on his serious face. His eyes stared intently respectively at all three agents sitting in front of him while gazing at him silent and curious.

By the time the first colonies left to settle on Mars, the Great Catastrophes followed by the war of the rich countries, and the imprisonment of their young population by artificial intelligence, rich countries had already taken a toll. It wasn't until the late sixties that the very first colony left. Those were mainly families of wealthy multinationals, celebrities, politicians and other figures who were physically fit and could afford the great exile to space. Most of them came from North America, Europe, and Asia. Their departure as well as the Great Catastrophes profoundly changed the demography of the planet.

"Anne and Karl Smith, does that ring the bell to you?" Mr. Vaughen asks, addressing Jeremy.

GENEALOGY

An intrusive and very extravagant aunt, a cousin whom he met on very rare occasions at family celebrations as a child. Then, when he was a teenager, he heard that his aunt had remarried the wealthy owner of a pharmaceutical company and they had left planet Earth with the first colony to Mars. He remembers the bitterness in his mother's voice talking about it sometimes. She had always been in competition with her older sister ever since they were little girls; she had lost. There would be no more thrilling game in her life anymore: her sister had finally won: she had gone up there in the stars with a prince charming who could pay for a long trip for her and for the son who wasn't even his.

When the colonies noticed the first warning signs of deterioration of the planet, some didn't wait for the recommendations of scientists to send their families back to planet Earth discreetly. What a shock it must have been for them when they returned. The planet and its inhabitants had nothing to do with those they had left behind. The economic social privileges that had once placed them on a pedestal were significantly diminished in a world like this one.

***

"I've always thought you'd be a key element to the success of our organisation. A very good investment," Mr. Vaughen says, staring at Jeremy who remains silent and still.

Sarah and Stephan are now staring at Jeremy with great interest. Mr. Vaughen turns off the screen behind him before moving towards the three young people. He continues in a sinister tone, addressing Sarah:

"When the time is right, tell your mother that you're going on a very long mission abroad. Your brother will give her news from you."