Ex Officio (#3 EX TRILOGY)

Chapter 22

The chaos in the streets of Ghana was not a pleasant sight. It was both heart-breaking and torturous to behold as both strangers and relatives alike were at each other's throats, many people killed and none having any awareness or control over their actions. This was by far Ex Officio's worst approach to reducing the population of Ghana to make colonizing them easier. The sun began to rear its head over the horizon as the new day began to dawn. The worst reality waiting to hit people, if the mind control was lifted perchance by daybreak, would be the sight of the aftermath of the bloodbath being the first thing the sun would shine on.

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At the Jubilee House, Ender groaned and slipped off the chair of the President, falling to her knees and clinging to the headpiece of the Dictator Neural Machine. Poku noticed dark lines appearing under her eyes and feared his bounty would elude him if Ender failed to complete the vision of Ex Officio.

"You are losing energy," Poku stated after critical observation. "Let me take you to the Ex Vivo HQ so that you can recharge. I am sure Felix will be waiting for you there."

Ender attempted to contact Felix, but his line was dead. She tried hacking into any of the networks leading back to the company's super computers but found the links missing. They were totally removed from the grid. The extra strain that connection attempt put on her mind caused her to groan and cower in pain.

"Felix is gone!" she gasped as tears poured out of her eyes. "He's gone. What do I do?"

Poku was confused and disappointed at the same time. Right before him was evidence that he was likely to lose his money for betraying his own people, his lover, Akoma and the entire nation. That compromise had to go rewarded, otherwise he would do anything to jump ahead of the game.

"Why are you asking me?" he asked angrily. "You just sealed a deal with a UK investor worth $700 billion and you think I am just going to stand here and watch you concede defeat? My friend, get your butt up and finish what you started! I did not compel my girlfriend under my mind control to release that video transmission to give away our location, kill her or my gang for nothing! I must get my bounty and I must get it now!" Poku heard his phone ringing and hurriedly answered it without checking who it was. "Who is it?" he asked impatiently.

Instantly, his mind went blank and he dropped the phone on the floor. He realized he was walking to the window without thinking. He stood by the window for a few seconds, and then he walked back to the wall near the door and held his breath, waiting to dash forward. Poku shook his head and felt his will slipping through his fingers. He looked up and realized Ender was gazing at him, and before he could say a word, he found himself running towards the window without restraint. As soon as he lunged at it and crashed into the glass, his awareness returned to him and he instantly knew Ender had simply compelled him through the phone call to commit suicide, but it was too late to use it for anything good, because he was falling several floors from the President's office head first.

"Ender! Damn – ", he shouted before crashing into the stone pavement in a broken heap and a pool of blood. In one split moment, his share of Ghana, $700 million and the promise of immortality by sharing his consciousness from one synthetic body to the next was all lost, and all his betrayals were for nothing.

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Meanwhile, in Scenario's framework, Ender's avatar began to glitch in response to the falling energy levels her real user was experiencing in the real world. She groaned and staggered towards Akoma as she lay at the foot of the stairs bleeding profusely. Ender crouched over her and gasped.

"I don't care how bad things have turned out – to be," Ender whispered. "You will die for nothing. If I destroy your avatar here, I will take over Scenario and imprison you in it forever. Your body will die without your mind, and Ex Officio will still live."