Ex Officio (#3 EX TRILOGY)

Chapter 14

Dufie was shocked and could not think straight. Her worry was not the fact that the avatar behind her was not who she thought he was, but the fact that she had been deceived to reveal very vital information she was not supposed to share.

"How did you do that?" Dufie asked. "You tricked me! That was not part of the deal."

"So was attempting to disable me in order to protect your boyfriend," came Akoma's voice, and slowly, Poku's avatar reverted back to Akoma to reveal her true form. She glared at Dufie in silence and shook her head. "You're really wicked, you know that? Just like your boyfriend."

Dufie frowned. "How can you say such a thing?"

"Because I can, and I will not change my mind about it. Do you know how it feels to be in love with someone only to find out it was rather an empty doll made up of ones and zeros? Felix told me there was a human side to him. I thought it was his body organs - or a mind and a soul - not knowing it was just a shared human consciousness controlling it. So all the times we talked, or shared an affectionate moment - it was Poku sitting elsewhere whispering lies into my head that he cared about me and was protecting me from harm? Ah! How screwed up can I be!" Akoma's hands balled into trembling fists as she spoke.

Dufie looked up and realized the framework was beginning to fall apart. The waterfall changed course and flow upwards while the pool bubbled rapidly. The flora withered quickly and very large flaming boulders started to fall from the sky. "Akoma, stop!" she pleaded.

Akoma's eyes burst into flames, and so did her fists. "No," she muttered.

Dufie looked up and called out, "Pee, Kay! Log us out now!"

Akoma lunged at her and fired stream of flames at her, but unfortunately, the log out process had already been initiated and everything halted in the framework. Akoma watched as both of them were sucked out of the framework in bursts of light from above, and in less than a minute, both of them were back to the surface and safely in their chambers in the real world.

Akoma slowly climbed off the platform and walked quickly to her room without a word. Dufie sat up and stared after her in silence. Pee and Kay exchanged looks and wondered what had gone wrong in the framework. Just before they could open their mouths to ask Dufie about it, she put up a hand to silence them and walked to her perch to open Scenario's log. After a series of key combinations, Pee and Kay watched as a dialogue box appeared asking for a permanent delete of files. She hit the 'yes' button and the delete process started to run. When Pee attempted to ask about that too, Dufie shot an intimidating look at him and he hesitated. Dufie walked away from them and locked herself up in her room.

She trembled all over as she grabbed the edge of her bed tightly and tapped her foot impatiently, pondering over everything that had gone wrong inside Scenario and what tension that could bring between Poku and her. There had been this brief moment when she thought Akoma would not make it in Scenario's test programme, only to see with her own eyes the lady's smartness and powerful demonstration of willpower and deceit to get Dufie sharing classified information. There were two things that could happen after that day: Akoma could lash out on Poku and probably bring dissension among the Realers, or Dufie would simply get rid of her in order to let the dreadful secrets now revealed to die with her. Dufie knew Akoma was going to despise her forever and would probably attempt killing her first, as she had demonstrated clearly with her mind in Scenario.

Dufie got startled by the turn of the doorknob and attempted to reach for a handgun under her pillow, but she stopped when she saw Poku. Unfortunately, she could not hide her terror when their gazes met.

Poku cocked his head and seemed to be reading her thoughts as he stood in the doorway staring at her. "What's the problem?" he asked. "I heard doors banging shut. I got curious." He folded his arms across his chest and raised an eyebrow.