by Rabia Rahou
“Stay here. You are injured. I really mean it!” I went back to that checkpoint and realized that they hadn’t received reinforcements yet. I rained bullets down on them in a frontal attack. I killed four and injured two. One was in agony when Konu showed up to finish him off. That policeman was laughing horrifically when he saw him. I don’t blame him as Konu did look like a demon. The policeman’s brain exploded by a single bullet from Konu’s 9 mm. That explosion did cut his laughter short.
I looked at Konu and checked his arm; it wasn’t bleeding. The bullet had slipped between two muscles. That’s a one-in-a-million chance, almost impossible.
The last checkpoint was a few kilometers before the Arc, on high alert, and reinforced by an armored vehicle. There was a platoon of AI soldiers standing in a V formation. I began the battle from the roof of an abandoned building with a couple of explosive rockets served up by my mini-launcher. I did underestimate that toy as it burned the armored vehicle with its soldiers alive. Heavy fire from the AI platoon forced me to stay hidden, but Konu went in a frontal attack. With a high-speed machine gun vibrating on his cheek, he slowly walked forward shooting fire like hell. The AI soldiers turned back toward him, shooting back fire that did hit everything else except him. He was hidden perfectly in an optical illusion between the light poles, the cars, and the street bins that changed the bullets trajectory slightly. His angles blended perfectly with the landscape like a chameleon. That gave me the diversion to relaunch a side attack.
I shouted, “Konu!” and he threw himself under a van while I launched an electric rocket that stormed everything in a big flash like the Sun had just come up. The AI soldiers were completely disoriented, stumbling all over each other. Konu went back and exploded their heads one by one. When I went down, I realized that the last AI soldier did hide itself behind a car. I was shocked as I had never seen one exhibiting a living being’s behavior. I felt pity for him; he seemed to be scared. I approached him, and I felt sorry for him as he was hiding his face with his hands like a kid. I lowered my gun and raised my hands, showing him that he has nothing to be afraid of. Then suddenly, he took his pistol and pointed it right in my head, pulled the trigger, and the echo of a shot filled the sky, sending all the robot’s parts flying away with it. “Marry him next time!” said an angry Konu, shouting at me like crazy. “What was that? Did you feel sorry for him? What's wrong with you?”
I saw Konu finishing off the injured ones, mostly innocent policemen and a couple of soldiers who didn’t ask to be part of this chaos. But just like in war, no mercy, no pity, and no rules apply. Everything is mixed in total mayhem, unleashed by criminals in a total moment of hatred. After mutilating everyone, Konu asked me to grab the decapitated AI soldier that almost killed me and to pour gasoline on it. He insisted. I got some from the car, poured it on him, and set it on fire. When it was melting, it did sound like a horrific, broken record. Konu, with his burned body and devilish face that mirrored the fire shining off his enemies' fresh blood, sat next to him, crossed his legs, and howled like a wolf. It was a terrifying scene.
I pity every painter, poet, philosopher, priest, ecologist, and every nature enthusiast who thinks that nature is beautiful, fragile, and needs to be saved, like a good woman from its abusers. I understand now that nature is not a “she,” it’s a “he,” and he is monstrous, predatorial, and hateful. That higher being is not waiting to be rescued. In fact, we had better start thinking about how to save ourselves from it.
Just like he predicted, the library was guarded by a full platoon of a 100-strong Special Forces, another AI platoon formed with the brand new, six-legged machines – hexapods –capable of walking upside down and shooting from every nook and cranny with full artillery and every imaginable accessory. Even the dogs were invited to the meeting. He also said to go through “the obvious way.” That’s why we avoided all that circus to enter the Arc from the main gate. That entrance was guarded as usual, no reinforcements. And the cherry on the top was that they opened the door for us. One of the guards went down, saw me, saluted me and addressed me as, “Sir.” Then looked straight at Konu handcuffed behind me, and blurted out, “Sir, you got him! This is incredible!”
“Shut up, and open the gate, now!” I ordered.
“Yes, Sir” he saluted again and ordered his drunk friend to open the gates for my taxi cab, no more questions asked. They even didn’t know that I was a fugitive. It felt like the state is in a total collapse. I heard Konu chuckling behind me, “I told you…”
We went back to the library through the Arc yard, took the steps down to the clubhouse, and rang the door as normal. I’m still in shock that his plan is working, or let’s say his “no-plan.” After a moment, an AI butler opened the door and greeted us with his sophisticated accent. I blew its mind away with my .45 caliber causing fireworks and sparks everywhere in the corridor from his flaming pieces. Two other butlers received the same treatment, more smoke and fireworks like it was Amian’s Independence Day.
Finally, Konu kicked open the door of the meeting room. His bloody face emerged from the smoke like a horror film. We just stood there, and everyone was in total shock. Konu started laughing at their new dress code. They looked hilarious with their long gold dresses. Then he stopped and asked me to kill everyone except Wonfuse. That, I did with all my heart.
First, I shot two unarmed security guards when they were running heroically in from the corridor trying to save the life of their beloved masters. Then, I shot the owner of the Amianspetroliums Conglomerate in the face. The head of the Aminansbanks Conglomerate received hollow-point bullets in the head when he was lying on the floor praying for his god that didn’t show up that night.
The head of DM was begging Konu on his knees before I went back and dragged him by his hair to execute him. He died of a heart attack, but that didn’t stop me from shooting many holes in his body. A fat guy that I didn’t know received the same treatment. Surprisingly, he didn’t want to die. He ended up on the floor trying to catch his breath with the blood spitting up from his mouth like a fountain. I left him in agony.
I killed the head of the richest family in the world, “the Georgios,” with my gun by hitting him in the face for quite some time, as I decided that all his money wouldn’t buy him one of my bullets.
Then I heard, “Dismar!” It was Konu trying to catch his breath as he had just fainted. He’d done enough already for a guy who came out of a coma the same day. I sat him down on a chair and gave him a glass of water covered with blood. He asked to bring him the First Citizen. In a rage, I took all the clothes off of Wonfuse and hit him many times. He made me angry when he started a small resistance in the form of a toddler’s whine. Then he started crying quietly and miserably. He didn’t seem to me like he is any sort of god. I put him in a chair facing Konu.
“How do you feel, Dismar?” Konu asked me when I was catching my breath. I said loudly, “Alive!”
“Wonfuse, sorry for this situation. We really didn’t want things to escalate, but it is what it is.” Konu spoke to him respectfully even though Wonfuse was naked, covered with shit and blood, and wining like a coward in the execution line. Then, he continued, “The Supernova will hit many sensitive targets if I don’t give it the orders to stop. That will halt the machine from working for a quite long time. It will also hit all the secret nuclear shelters, which will spread radiation in a 100-km-square area around the targets. Oh, and I should mention that nothing can prevent that, as ONC’s space shield is not programmed to detect our own weapons, and it is impossible now to reprogram it. I already executed the Second Citizen, and a guy like you has no clue how to manage that war machine. Knowing that, and in these circumstances, I could kill you right now, but that would only more complicate our situation. So, what do you think, Wonfuse?” Wonfuse kept crying very quietly.
Konu then said, “Alright, I presume you agree to collaborate to avoid a doomsday. And speaking about that, the other empires will launch all their nuclear arsenals on us in
two weeks, if not less. So the best thing we can do now is to bring back everything to the way it was before. Wouldn’t that be better?”
Finally, Wonfuse started talking, “I agree. It was Kadar’s idea from the start. He manipulated me.”
“No, Wonfuse, it was your idea from the start. Becoming God is your ultimate desire. After trying it out on your own child, you did realize that it can't be a living being, because the fetus is a one-way creation. You can't go back to recompile and retest. No, it must be a machine. And that’s how you became besties with the Second Citizen. He had all the army connections, the logistics, and most importantly, the will to do that. So he built the machine, and you provided the code, which by the way, you will reveal its source right now.”
“You found only half of the truth. Do you want to know your future, Konu?” he asked in a creepy way before Konu asked me to hit him again.
“Coward! You are a coward, Konu. You are afraid of your faith!”
“First, tell me yours, God.”
“My future is disgusting. When it was revealed, I couldn’t believe it. I still don’t believe it. I AM IGNORING IT. I couldn’t see this scene, all the predictions that includes you are in error or it generates infinite possibilities. We don’t have enough data about you.”
Konu was relieved, and me too. Then Wonfuse lost his shit, literally and figuratively. “And you know why we don’t have data about you? Because you are a nobody, an error, a mistake. Your mother abandoned you because you disgusted her…” and then the gun again broke his nose.
“The code, now!”
“You have to kill me for that.”
“Or torture you right here for the rest of the night.” Konu handed me the bayonet, and I grabbed Wonfuse’s thumb, then he screamed.
“Konu! You must choose between the code or stopping the doomsday because I can’t do both”
“Why is that?”
“Kadar will not step down if I will not order him, and if I reveal the code’s source, then I will have to kill myself. I can’t do both.”
Konu scrutinized him then said, “That is the best poker face I ever seen. Cut a finger off!”
I did that, and I thought it would be easy with the bayonet. However, it turns out that it’s ridiculously hard when it comes to the bones. I didn’t have the training for that as I’m a soldier, not a butcher. Konu asked me to stop as Wonfuse wasn’t bluffing. He was dead serious about protecting the code that nothing will make him reveal the original source, including torture.
“Sorry about that. Wonfuse. I had to make sure that you weren’t bluffing. You can stitch that finger up easily, no worries. Okay, I guess, for now, we’ll have to wait a while longer to learn the source of the code. Call Kadar and tell him to step down. I will be at the office tomorrow morning to clean up your mess.
“Call him now!” I screamed.
Chapter 19
Seizing Power Is Easy. Keeping it Is Hard.
“I’m not your son as no lion has ever been related to a crow.”
~ Oris
F uvo!” screamed Oris when he kicked the doors of the meeting room. I responded, “Your Highness, please take care of your health and temper.”
“My health, Fuvo? You really worry about my health? By the way, did you worry about the health of Tonias, too?” Oris said meanly.
I replied quietly, “Your highness, I worry only about your health and the health of the royal family…”
“Good, because Tonias has no health anymore. Right now, he is hanging in his cell!” he screamed at me. I didn’t know how to respond. Troubled, I just started hemming and hawing. He never had spoken to me like that before.
“Did any of you get any intelligence on Konu?” The room went silent, and all the oligarchs and the royal family members went quiet. He then looked at me again and said quietly, “Who is Konu?” Then he screamed again, “Does anyone here know who he really is?”
I replied nervously, “My services sent you a complimentary report yesterday, your Highness, about him.”
He started clapping in a humiliating way. “Waw! What a report! It blew my mind! Now that I remember…, everything is crystal clear. Although I think a few details were missing – like where he is from, how old he really is, his family, or his real name, and so on… Basically, we know nothing about the guy who is our Enemy Number One, right?” Then, he screamed, “Who is Konu?”
After just a few awkward seconds, he finally sat down on his throne, tired and stressed. He seemed that he wasn’t Oris the playful anymore. Suddenly his mother, the queen, said, “Your Highness, why are you so obsessed with this Konu? We don’t know his past because he probably has no past to tell. Unworthy people usually have no known past.”
“Mother, mother, mother…, this person, woke up from a coma as a fugitive, escaped his execution, then went back and took complete control of the entire empire – single-handedly, the same day!”
Suddenly, an oligarch close to the queen, said grotesquely, “He got lucky.”
Oris ordered the guards to arrest him, screaming, “You are lucky I didn’t cut your filthy tongue out in front of everyone, throw him out!” He sat down again on his throne. The atmosphere was getting toxic as now everyone fears for their life, including me.
Looking extremely confused, he murmured, “The Second Citizen was the most powerful person in the world. Yes, I’m saying it now more powerful than anyone past or present. He created the entire defense strategy of the Amians and paired that with the best weapons. He didn’t design phones and headsets. He designed real satellite constellations, submarines, and spaceships. He was smart, determined, and self-disciplined. As a military man, he excelled. Some reports say that even the machine was his design. That said, Konu didn’t blink when he executed him like he was a nobody.”
Echoes of his murmurings went into the heads of everyone. He was right. I reacted, “Your Highness, I suggest that we keep our preventive strikes as planned. No one will take the risk to keep the promises of that meeting. Banume can keep them if he wants, but we can’t take the chance on the uncertainties. Right now, the Amians are trying to buy some extra time, as the machine is taking three days of calculations to see the future. We know that in a couple of weeks, they will probably update the algorithm, and then it could turn into a real-time oracle, watching the future from the present. Therefore, we must strike now, your Highness. We have seven days to prepare and launch everything, and God will save us as we are doing this for all humankind, your Highness…”
“You see, Fuvo, that is also a problem that no one addressed, a machine that sees the future from the present. I don't care about their capabilities to contain us. I’m worried about the fact that the present will not be a present anymore. The time distortions are happening now. Many atomic clocks are desynchronized.”
I didn’t know what to say, as I have a limited knowledge of physics. He took a moment, looking slowly at everyone, and then said, “Leave us alone.”
As everybody leaving, he looked me straight in the eyes, and he said very loudly, “ You too, Fuvo!” That shattered me into pieces as everyone was there watching me leaving for the first time, leaving him with the royal family, to be totally excluded as anyone else. He threw me out like I was nobody to him, a total disgrace in front of everyone. I’ll never forgive him for this.
After that, I went back to my affairs, trying to swallow my pride, trying to give him excuses for my humiliation. I cried silently for a moment as I thought he may hate me, or worse, he may not even respect me now. Maybe I’m not worth his respect. I’m completely broken after what he did. It touched me deeply as I was always by his side. I gave him everything I know, and yet, I was treated like a worthless consultant. Instead of coordinating the attacks, he keeps asking for more information on this guy and the present future, the physics, and other useless information at this decisive time.
I wanted him to take me as an example, to be proud and impressed by me, not by this Konu, a worthless orphan withou
t any past worth telling. After a while, I began to hate Oris, hating my own prodigy. I didn’t sleep, waiting for a messenger from him to apologize or even to ask for advice as he used to do at nighttime. But no, that didn’t happen. Instead of that, I got a message in the early morning from the oligarchs, asking for a meeting to consult with me on a very important matter. That’s odd, as they’ve never done that before. My curiosity was aroused, and I couldn’t wait to meet them.
In the morning they sent me a driver, as the meeting was held outside the capital – very strange, I started panicking as I had suspicions about the protocol. I thought that I may be in danger. I just needed to calm down, as maybe they simply invited me to their clubhouse for consultations, and they only needed my opinion.
We had a meeting about Oris. They expressed their concerns as they now doubted his ability to lead the attacks, and this situation must be addressed as soon as possible. They made a patriotic proposal as they said, Oris and his family must hide for some time in a safe place and delegate the coordination of the attacks to me. This seemed to them to be the only way for the empire to survive this existential challenge. I thought I was dreaming. Is this a coup? Or is this just a test from Oris to verify my loyalty? I didn’t say anything. I left when they finished; I walked away perplexed.
Two nights without sleeping, I’m confused… I took all the sleeping pills prescribed for the week. I woke up the night after with déjà vu – still no messages from Oris, but a message from the oligarchs. Again, this time asking me to step up as Oris is confined with his family and in a complete delirium. They need an insider to take over as soon as possible to coordinate the attacks. It’s urgent. I asked for another meeting that night.
From the, door one shouted, “He doesn’t deserve you!” Another said, “He disrespected you.” I felt their compassion – such a relief. They came to me as if I was their savior, tapping my shoulders. I felt that they really respected me, and that touched me deeply. I asked their side to prove their loyalty to the empire, a big sign, as the task requested is massive. Then I left. I was thinking that finally, they knew what I was worth. They know how wise I am, not like Oris, a delusional emperor that can’t lead us anymore. My hate for him is complete, as after all that I taught him, he disrespected me in front of everybody. I can lead this empire better than him. Even the oligarchs can see that. They discerned how intelligent and wise I am. I am ready to fulfill my destiny, be an emperor, a real one, not a joke like Oris and his family. I will be the Great Emperor Fuvo, The Wise…
