Amanita: Poison Shot

Chapter 111: Small And Insignificant Like A Coin

That Saturday morning, the sun was shining brightly, almost as if promising me that there would be better days than the last few ones. Its beautiful, strong rays entered my bedroom through a small window. I had left it open, just to feel the cold sea breeze of the morning and to listen to the bewitching music of the waves breaking on the rocks down below.

I had woken up earlier than anybody else. K8 and Agape were nowhere to be seen. I decided to spend some time reading the books on Martin Luther King and Gandhi that Old Sue had lent me. Luckily, it wasn't a workday, so I could read as much as I pleased while lying on my bed.

I was sailing in a sea of wisdom. Gandhi's and Martin Luther King's ideas were uncharted territory for me, so to speak. Traditional humans like me never got a grasp of any kind of knowledge besides a basic command of calculus and English during our school days. Yes, we had physical education, a subject on clone laws, a twisted version of history, and religion (which consisted in talking about how great Apollo was, basically).

As far as religion was concerned, I had been told the bare basics about the life of Jesus by my parents at home, but that was it. All churches worldwide had been converted into shops or offices. I felt lucky that the clone police had never come for us due to our religious beliefs.

My father had been convinced it was because the belief in other, older gods than Apollo couldn't be totally eradicated despite the initial, periodic rounds of public beatings of people who were Muslim, Christian, Hindu, and many many other religions. Many of us kept faith to ourselves, in the intimacy of our homes, and kept it short just in case the clones at the GSNS got pissed off at us for praying for too long.

It all made sense then while reading the books that Old Sue had lent me. Clones needed us to know as little as possible about these great minds: Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jesus, and God knew how many more. We had been kept in the dark.

Of course, resorting to violence like Agape was preaching was much easier! She had never had a chance to read about other ideas or other approaches. Repeating past mistakes was inevitable.

Would she have become a different kind of leader if she had? I realised she might not. She had read Valentina's letter. She had gotten exposed to my grandmother's ethos, but she was the leader of a terrorist group nonetheless. And that was why Old Sue hated her guts so much.

The endless chain of hatred had hooks in every person I knew. It had ensured its procreation everywhere I looked.

I sighed with sadness and left the books on the nightstand.

I got up, and instead of preparing some breakfast at Amanita's bar, I decided to enter Agape's office and examine both the technowolf and Valentina's exosuit.

Agape wasn't there. The technowolf was lying on a large table right in front of me. It had already been looked into. On my left, Agape's computers were on, but their screens only showed a screen protector. A labyrinth with multicoloured walls. On my right, the exosuit was standing close to the nearest wall, close to some shelves with boxes.

I opened a small window to let some fresh air in, and sat down at the desk, staring at the currently-not-so-deadly technowolf. I wondered whether Nemesis would be alright.

"I thought I'd find you here," Agape told me with a warm smile while crossing the threshold of her office and leaving her mirror glasses on her computer desk.

"I'm sorry, Agape. I didn't mean to pry," I said. I hoped she wasn't mad at me for entering her office without her consent. "I'd love to get a look at both the technowolf and the exosuit if you don't mind."

"Sure, no problem. I was with K8 and Kono. We were showing them around and introducing them to the rest of the group," Agape replied without an ounce of anger or distrust. She was surprisingly cheerful that morning. "The technowolf is in pretty bad shape, but I think I can fix it and make it work for us," she added cheerfully while coming closer to me. "But I know you will disagree, of course."