Silos of Man

Chapter 25 - Progenesis

Tom took us down a new, more isolated road where there was an actual coffee shop. Clever. We parked out front and she looked over at the envelopes with anticipation. I pulled the first one out and talked her through what I had already read. She just nodded slowly while absorbing the words on the sheets in the pictures "There's so much hatred in these pages, Tom. The people who wrote this wanted to eliminate half of the population based on one of their chromosomes. This is clearly hate-based material, and should be reported. Right?" "Well, yes, but it wasn't based on chromosomes actually, it was based on the behaviour of so many with that chromosome, but this goes way beyond a reflection of hate towards a group of people, Dan. These sheets were sent to you. The understandably frustrated sentiments reflected in these pictures must be somehow connected to you or your work, given how someone went out of their way to bring you this envelope. I'm getting nervous that what we're looking at here may be the progenesis of a plan." "A plan for what, Tom?" Tom silently sits there looking down at the last photo, just blinking and nodding occasionally. After about 25 seconds I prompt, "Tom? A plan for what, Tom?"

"Dany, there has always been a perpetual, festering rumour which regularly gets dismissed and re-emerges in cycles, and has done so throughout my whole career, that suggests someone in the Sisterhood was actually responsible for introducing YCDV-28 into the population." What the fuck!? "What?!" is what thankfully came out of my mouth. This person is still Ryann's loving parent after all, and therefore deserves my respect. "You have no idea how this envelope got to you?" "No. I just found it under my front door. This one too." I pull the other, thicker and heavier envelope out of my bag. As I hand it over, I see both fear and calculation in Tom's eyes.

We gently pull out the contents, and produce a very old, thin notebook. There are several loose sheets tucked into the back cover, creased and worn with time. On the torn faded blue front cover are written the initials AD. Tom gingerly opens the front cover to find a hand-written introduction to the note book, under the written date January 6, 2021. 'These notes will reflect my personal experiences with, and views on my journey within the Sisterhood, established and incorporated on the 30th day of January, 1990 as a not-for-profit charity to help educate girls in the third world. It did a lot of that, but it also did more. I will use these notes to sort through its history, and to internally and covertly track our progress in order to assess our impact. I only learned a few months ago that I was more recruited than adopted from Afghanistan, 17 years ago. I don't think she meant to do it, she just didn't know any better. It was her way of loving me. To save me from a life of servitude and suffering, and then raise me to uphold the values that will propel humanity forward. I'm part of that humanity and she wants a world like that for me. But as I reflect now, I didn't really have a choice in my path. It was set for me by a mother whose goal for humanity didn't so much as outweigh her goals for me, but rather they included her goals for me. Goals that are indisputably as elusive as they are ideological, but she creates a gravity-well of belief around her ideas, that pulls everyone into a state of believing that with their contribution these ideal goals can be attained. I've exists my whole life in that gravity well, and I want nothing more than to propagate her vision. I always knew that she and her brilliance was the foundation of my success, but now I'm struggling with the fact that my advancements have been covertly supported in a deeper way. I thought the life I built upon my mother's foundation, was fully self-realized, but unbeknownst to me, I'm a member of The Sisterhood, which has been laying my path before me the entire way. I knew about The Sisterhood and how they bring schools and teachers and education to girls all over the underdeveloped world where education of females is abysmal, because my mother has worked with them for as long as I can remember. But then she told me about The Sisterhood's internal, fundamental core goal of a violence free world and that she was one of the founders. It wasn't really surprising to learn of this objective and their mandate, or that she was a part of founding it, as it's fully congruent with everything she's working toward. What did surprise me though, is to know that Dr. Terence is actually a part of this Sisterhood, although I don't think it should have. I've always felt watched-over by Dr. Terence, but learning today that my path was cleared for me by this Sisterhood, leaves me in flux. At the same time as I'm feeling manipulated and a little patronized, I'm also feeling grateful and connected to an amorphous guardian. I'll work through my personal struggles on this later. Now I have work to do.' Tom and I shoot each other a confused look and then she carefully turns the page.