ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Leaving Mr. Vaughen's office, Jeremy follows Nina to gently take her arm, his mouth wide open as though gasping for air; He can't express what the expression on his face tells her in a few seconds. Jeremy is over two metre tall while Nina is barely 1m60cm (5 feet 3 inches). So, the young man bends over to take the woman in his arms, hugging her very tightly before letting himself cry like the little boy who still resides inside him. Nina gently pats Jeremy's back, whispering softly "it's going to be fine" as if to calm the little boy. More than his mother, his human dignity has been taken away from him.

Stephan watches the scene, calm and silent, his face impassive. He knows well the pain of his teammate for having felt this way every day since the death of his father. No matter how the parent is taken away from the child by death, the pain remains the same: bitter, heart-breaking, endless. In the circumstances that seem to separate the two young men as two completely different species, they have at least that in common, as well as their affection for Sarah.

***

"How can I do this again?" Jeremy asks the young man in uniform standing in front of him with his arms crossed.

Stephan, Nina, Borys, and Kofi hang onto the lips of the young man, who still doesn't say a word.

"You see ... There's one thing that many people still don't understand about artificial intelligence, even after so many years; AI is just a tool, conscious and intelligent, yes, but a tool above all," the young man begins passionately, scanning his audience with his gaze.

"Take a pen for example," he continues, doing large hand gestures. "You can use it to write on your screen, or to poke out the eye of someone who's attacking you," he turns around as if to think before continuing:

"You said it happened when the other agent fell to the ground convulsing; you then turned to the artificial intelligence in front of you and asked yourself: Hey, what happened here? Your brain transmitted this question to your device which translated this same question to the artificial intelligence, which probably answered it just as frankly. Realising that your life was in danger, you ran away with your device, or rather the other way around," he says, laughing.

As he sees that his audience still remains silent and perplexed, he adds more seriously:

"You control your device by thought, the same way you turn it on and off. As simple as that. Have you ever tried?"

Jeremy nods dumbly as he remembers the night of Sarah's show. A few hours before going to the Xi Huangs, he had practised switching on and off his device for the first time since the operation. He had never tried before that. Why would anyone want to return to darkness after receiving the blessings of light?

"Excellent!" Nina exclaims after a long silence, clapping her hands as if to wake up everyone, who is still standing, puzzled, and speechless.

"Practice Jeremy, all you need is practice," Nina says to Jeremy who looks at her confused.

"On what could he practise?" She asks immediately, turning to the expert.

"He's spoiled for choice, all systems in the country, including ours, are run by artificial intelligence," the young man replies proudly with a broad smile.

Kofi and Borys cast a wary eye towards one another as if to tell each other: We still haven't learnt anything, have we?! When will men finally learn to remember their lessons from the past?

"This young man isn't going to practise on the systems of the country, or even on Libra Justice's," Borys begins firmly.

The old man hasn't spoken a word since entering the buildings of the organisation. Since the very moment he stepped inside the premises, he has inspected with his curious gaze all that he was allowed to see at Libra Justice. The detail of the interior décor, the choice of colours, the pragmatism of the uniform of their agents, the way they walk, the way they communicate with people, and how they communicate with each other; everything seems to have been designed to create a detailed, rigorous and flawless conformity; Beneath the diversity of these young faces, identical attitudes, opinions and preferences are imposed. All those who don't fit in or who diverge even slightly from this rigorous conformity are doomed to slow extermination by subtle exclusion where Mankind becomes invisible to men.

The old man knows subtle exclusion well; invisibility. In his youth, he was so afraid of it that he himself chose to live a lie more than half of his life to avoid it; the story of his life told by people who didn't know him and had no desire to do so. The shame of revealing his own story tied his throat and knotted his stomach until finally, his position in society allowed him to speak up, be heard including by those who, like him, had decision-making power.

"Our goal is to infiltrate the protection system of the Assembly of Almighty," the MP continues calmly after a short silence. "So, let him practise on this system since it's the only one, we're interested in. After all, artificial intelligence knows how to communicate effectively remotely, am I correct?" He adds, turning to the expert for confirmation.

"Right," the expert simply replies, crossing his arms over his chest looking indifferent and thoughtful.

***

Jeremy gazes at his reflection on the screen in front of him. He also sees the reflection of Borys, Kofi and Nina standing behind him, their gaze filled with anguish. He can feel the impatience of Stephan sitting next to him too.

"It's hard for me to concentrate with everyone around, staring at me like I'm some fairground animal," he suddenly exclaims, getting up from his seat, irritated.

"He's right," Nina starts, embarrassed. "Maybe we should go to another corner of the room and let them both work."

"Thank you," Jeremy says softly as the three adults silently move away to settle in chairs further.

Instead of turning around to sit down again, Jeremy remains standing motionless, he hears Stephan fidgeting in his seat behind him. Jeremy lowers his head to stare at his feet without seeing them, he hears his own heart beating in his chest, he feels his chest moving with each inhale and exhale. He starts to breathe in his belly as in the first days of his life; the single point which once linked him to life; it is at the centre of this universe that he has always hidden all his emotions. In one thought, Jeremy switches off his device.

At this moment, he feels anxious and he is afraid of failure like in his childhood. He knows what he wants, but what he wants seem unattainable. What he wants to achieve is behind many closed doors. It is so dark he can barely make out the door handles. Asking permission; he doesn't get it. They don't want him on the other side of the doors. His own world belongs to the shadows, and it is in the shadows that they want him to remain; they're convinced they don't need him on their side of the doors. Kicking or hitting these doors won't work either; he knows it well for having already tried many times. Their seemingly hard material is actually as soft and fluffy as foam. These doors can neither break nor dissolve.

So, like in his childhood, Jeremy decides that he must dissolve. He must become as hard in appearance while being as soft and fluffy as the matter which obstructs his way. Suddenly, he isn't like Jeremy anymore, and Jeremy isn't like him anymore. He no longer distinguishes the boundary between himself, matter, the obstacles and what he wants to attain. Together they form a new whole; He is unrecognisable. In fact, he is still present, but he no longer exists; he has completely vanished.

Stephan jumps, startled when he sees footages from the cameras of the Assembly of the Almighty appear on his screens. As discreetly as possible, he moves closer to look for his sister. Soon, Nina, Borys, and Kofi join him passing discreetly near Jeremy. The young man remains still, head down, breathing deeply. Suddenly, a map of the Assembly appears with two flashing dots like signals. Stephan rushes to record the images on the screens.

A laboratory; researchers in facemasks busying themselves; A woman in her forties perhaps, seems absorbed by what another woman in a white scrub is telling her; her eyes are as red as blood; on a mattress on the floor, Gaëlle is sleeping peacefully; a long corridor; an empty lift; a metallic door; Unconscious, but alive, Sarah is suspended in the air, her arms outstretched and her bloody hands nailed to a wooden plank. Her completely naked body reveals large, deep wounds caused by a sharp or rough object. Her legs joined on one side, supported by her feet also nailed together.

Nina lets out a sharp cry. She nervously covers her mouth with her hands as Borys gently takes her in his arms. Within a split second, Nina's gaze is no longer that of a mother distressed by the sight of her daughter on a cross; Nina's eyes light up with a blazing fire; she is a she-wolf that must protect her pack, but to be able to do that, she must remain smart, agile, and patient, come what may.

All of a sudden, the metallic door opens in front of Sarah as well as the laboratory door and all the doors of the Assembly of the Almighty. The faces of the members of the assembly are puzzled and worried. A second later, all the doors automatically close again as Jeremy lifts his head up to turn to Nina, Borys, Kofi, and Stephan who are staring at him mouth dropping. Jeremy is still worried about Sarah and Gaëlle, but he is no longer afraid of not being able to go through the other side of the doors where they are. He knows now that there have never been any doors.