Amanita: Poison Shot

Chapter 19: Agape's Gift

Special?

Agape rose an eyebrow at me. Her beautiful blue eyes were glued to mine as if she was trying to decipher my thoughts.

"Will you stay with me to find out whether I am worthy of your trust and help, after what I've done and knowing what crimes I'm going to order in the future?"

"Have I really got a choice?" My voice had an odd ring to it, like badly-contained hysteria. "I don't think I can kill anybody, not even if you force me to. I don't think I can be of any help."

"I won't command you to murder anyone if you don't think you can. And I won't order anybody to kill you if you don't want to have anything to do with us. But I know you'll prefer to stay and help us in any way you can. I can see the weight of ethics and the wish for a brighter tomorrow in you. And... if you're patient enough, I might even share the story behind these scars on my face." She chuckled. "It would be fair, right? Since I know your personal story..."

"I could offer you my help as a mechanic. But I can mend stuff apart from vehicles."

"What about becoming a spy too?"

I must've looked unconvinced because she immediately added:

"I can repay you with a special treat."

"What treat?"

"Vengeance. For your brother's death. Many people owe me favours, but none know who I truly am. I can gain access to the President. It's gonna cost me, but I can do it. Would you like the President's head?"

"WHAT?!"

"This could be my gift to you in exchange for your loyalty and services. If you change your mind as regards murder, you may pull the trigger yourself. I can arrange it. Or I can have him killed in, let's say, in a couple of weeks. What do you say?"

Was the President's life in my hands if I became a spy for her? For real? I couldn't believe it. Nah, it couldn't be this easy. If so, why did my brother have to die? Something smelt fishy.

"You don't have to give me an answer right now, Daphne. Think about it."

"When do you want my answer?" I asked timidly.

"I don't know." She sighed, and then she smiled devilishly. "How much longer do you want this son of a bitch to live?"

I was completely disarmed. She was making me lust after the idea of killing the man myself. But I couldn't allow her to change me like that.

Then, she laughed with no malice and said:

"Come and visit me to tell me anything. You're welcome here."

She was smiling at me as if we had known each other all our lives. She was charismatic, but she still made me feel weird. Less afraid, but weird.

"Agape, how did you manage to get it all started?" I asked her with curiosity. "I mean, your nanochip would've given your thoughts away. How did you organise a terrorist group from scratch?"

"Because I wasn't the first. It's a long story," she said with dreamy eyes, but my eyes were begging her to go on. "I've never met her in the flesh – the person who allowed me to hack my chip. My parents had been euthanised according to the Compulsory Euthanasia Act, and I had inherited this old building that now is Amanita. It needed an update, and one day, when I was tidying up this basement, I found a tablet with a letter in it and an old device similar to a stun gun. It was an early version of the current parrots, as I started calling them. The letter in the tablet included some basic instructions which enabled me to hack my chip, never mentioning that that was the purpose. The letter denoted hatred against the clones. And I had had a nasty experience with them, so..."