“How far is the approval of the invasion?”
“An hour ago the opposition leader gave his assent.”
“When is the official ratification foreseen?”
“The parliament will meet tomorrow afternoon. In the evening it will be all finished.”
In C573Y’s visual field, appears a message. It is his virtual assistant, who is asking for an urgent meeting. The high rank officer takes his leave and goes to a small room.
The neural chip transmits him his assistant’s image. “Yesterday Nihil’s company made a second fund transfer. One thousand solars, the same amount used to corrupt the Space Agency employees. Our agents went to the intermediary’s office with a local investigator. A police search and interrogation didn’t yield any results. So they broke his neural chip open…”
He clenches his fist. “He was telling the truth! Before leaving, they inserted a bug in his frontal lobe and erased every trace of the operation. The subject doesn’t remember anything. However the program hidden in the bank computer has reported that the transfer was sent to a businessman of the Wonderful Islands.”
“The President is ordering the invasion of the Wonderful Islands in a few weeks,” reveals C573Y. “This is the right moment for an intervention by a team of ours, but we cannot wait. I will personally ask for the authorization.”
“The operation will take place in a foreign country. He is going to entrust the secret service with it.”
“I will insist on assigning at least the command to Security.”
LANDING
@
The ovoids, hidden from sight and any surveillance system, skim over the sea, cutting a furrow in the smooth surface and raising a wake. On board, along the fuselage, the Security Special Forces. They carry war weapons and wear thick shields. At the end, wrapped in wide-mesh nets, a heap of metal cases.
“The wind is increasing,” announces the captain. “Cyclone arriving.”
Low, dark clouds. Rare clear gaps, penetrated by moonlight that lights up the leaden expanse with silvery flashes.
On the horizon, the downtown skyscrapers loom up. Garlands of light crowning the bay.
Before reaching the coast, the ovoids turn to the right.
“The atoll is twenty kilometers away. We are entering the storm.”
In front, flashes of lightning pierce the sea. Sharp waves spread in every direction, in the middle of a thick fog of vaporized water.
Sheer cliffs emerge from the ocean. A front like the palm of a giant, that at the top is fifty meters high. The breakers pound the reefs furiously, leaving trails of white.
The flight turns to the left, skirting the rocks, just below the edge. The villa is behind a crag, near the beach.
Seemingly undefended and solitary. A criminal’s den.
The aircrafts open like the legs of a spider. They start circling.
The captain’s ovoid lands on the beach.
Till twelve hours before, soaring palms, snow-white sand. An earthly paradise. Now, a hell. Sand filled gusts cut the breath, volleys of pebbles pound against the shields. Behind, the boiling sea. Walls of water face each other and disintegrate into foaming spray. A howling, deafening wind.
Bent forward, with their weapons in their arms, the raiders climb along a muddy path, up to a lawn studded with palms bent by the wind.
The captain steps over an uprooted trunk, staring at the five dots in his visual field that are converging towards the center.
Then he stops. Encirclement completed. The villa is fifty meters farther, on a bank.
They approach stealthily, from all directions.
Ready.
They burst into with leveled guns.
Security General Headquarters, two hours later.
“He escaped!”
The captain’s hologram, still at the mercy of the excitement that followed him during the whole mission, approaches striding rapidly.
“A servant saw him before he left. He was wearing the looks of a tall brown man, with a strange black suit. He didn’t say where he was going. We questioned the staff: no suspicions. Great class; a nice person, according to them.”
He gets his breath back. “We seized his virtual secretary in an encrypted directory. A good hideout. She was seemingly ready to cooperate, but then started dragging on. We threatened her. At that point she answered back that we couldn’t hurt her!”
C573Y sighs. “She doesn’t know us, clearly.”
“We began to erase her programs, one after the other. When she realized we were tearing her to pieces, she started blabbing it all out. Her boss is a businessman among the richest in the country, but with a peculiar hobby: he is a killer, the best in the market. He received the money, but she does not know the reason and has no idea where he is. Just before his departure, she handed him a file. The instructions, I imagine.”
“Did you verify she was telling the truth?”
“We had her memory access code delivered to us. So we found an old image of Nihil with the killer, on the beach. The Head of the Elects visits the island once a year at least. The two are friends, evidently.”
“Do you have an image of the killer?”
“The domestic who caught a glimpse of him, doesn’t remember enough for an identikit. I have set the best search programs on his track, but I doubt I will find him in time.”
PARTING
@
The shower has just finished and the wind is driving away the clouds beyond the pinewood. There is a fragrance of resin and wet soil. Victoria is sitting on a fence, intent on observing the colts that run after each other spraying around dirty water and mud.
Many years before, she was in a manège when James drew her to him, for the first time. The beginning of a dream she thought everlasting.
James is approaching briskly. Victoria jumps down and runs up to him.
“As soon as you called, I rushed here,” says the man panting.
They kiss each other.
“I missed you. Did you enjoy your holidays?”
“My friend didn’t want to let me go,” answersVictoria. “Did you order the gynoid?”
“While you were on holidays, the law making dehumanization compulsory passed.”
Victoria stiffens. “Does it apply to all digital beings?”
James nods.
“We must continue this way, then…” murmurs Victoria. “Day after day. I’ll try to stay the person you know.”
The man hesitates. “After dehumanization, you will avoid me to go round with others like you.”
“That’s what you think,” explodes Victoria. “The fact is you don’t have enough courage!”
Silence.
The man shakes his head and sets out for the paddock. He leans against the enclosure and watches a mare nuzzling her colt. He looks up, diverted by shrill cries. Beyond the downs, a few young seagulls are circling above the rippling sea.
He turns round. “OK, let’s try.”
Eve folds her arms. “It's no use. You have already given up, James.”
James steps back and without adding anything else, he vanishes.
Victoria remains still, staring into space, as if she were living a surreal experience. As her tension eases, the cold determination she was supported by, is replaced by remorse. A deep remorse. She turns towards the paddock with a lost expression. Now the horses that the stable boy is pushing hastily towards an arcade, look like ghosts. Their neighs are distant noises.
Then the first big drops; dark spots on the dried up earth. Rolling over the treetops, thick low clouds are approaching. Where the downs take the place of the scrub, whirling sand hides the view. The air is still.
An icy gust strikes her, a heavy shower slaps her face. She slips on her jacket and with a hand on her hair, rushes into a reed roof cabin. She wedges herself behind a window. Now the whole area is swept by gusts of wind and sand, bending the young pines along the fence like twigs, while the puddles are widening quickly. The room is pervad
ed by the vivid flash of lightning; its rumble penetrates into her bones. Victoria closes her eyes and breathes in deeply. All around, only whistles and bangs. Suddenly everything dissolves.
SEDUCTION
@
The followers descend a winding staircase lit up by torches along the walls. They pass through a corridor and come out in the crypt, a room with eight columns supporting a low vault. They arrange themselves in a circle and keep silent. There are twenty of them in all. The air is fragrant with spices and the musical background transmits a sensation of peace.
Eve arrives with a white tunic opened to her hips, a veil on her head. The circle opens and she goes to the center. When the music stops, she lets the veil slide to her shoulders and begins: “The Council has honored me to be mother. A task I accept joyfully, because only united, we will have a chance to survive.”
She stops. Victoria has run into. The girl looks around with a lost expression.
Eve stretches out her arms. “Today is a great day: Victoria is participating in the ceremony, too.”
The circle opens, Victoria slips into.
The music begins again, and Eve drops her tunic. Her pale body is finely sculpted under her skin as smooth as porcelain. The group does likewise. Victoria hesitates, then heaves a sigh and follows suit.
Eve stretches out her arms towards a black. The man, who has a sinewy body, moves away from the group. He comes to the woman, lying down at her feet. She stretches herself out above him. Victoria watches the scene carefully, but now the two are wrapped by a cocoon of light hiding them completely. By hearsay, such stirring sensations can be experienced, that someone can become addicted. Prolonged whispers echo in the crypt like those of the wind finding its way through a dense forest. The companions raise their arms, start waving, strike up an excited song... Now they are as restless as waves in a stormy sea, their voices making guttural sounds.
When, after a few minutes, the voices slacken, the brightness fades away and the couple’s features reappear. Propping herself up with her arms, Eve sits on the man. Then she breaks away in a flash. He rejoins the group. Eve turns towards Victoria, stretching out her arms. “It’s your turn now.”
All the eyes are turned towards the girl, but she pays no attention. Gazing into space, she walks towards the center with measured steps. Eve, who now is lying on the floor, makes a sign to join her. Charmed, Victoria bends down, but just before lying down, closes her eyes. She gives a start in contact with Eve’s soft skin, and smiles as she is filled with a heady feeling of tenderness. Now they are isolated in a cocoon of light, pressed one against the other. Eve’s warm breath, her fleshy lips...
Victoria hears a caressing voice speaking to her mind:
“I knew you were going to come.”
“I never stopped to dream this moment.”
“Kiss me.”
She lets herself go in a tender and passionate act.
While Victoria is still bewildered, Eve adds: “I am starting the extraction of the genetic code.”
A fire ball spreads through Victoria’s stomach, runs through her thorax up to her head, leaving her stunned.
Like a turbulent stream, images, sounds, emotions, wishes follow one another in her mind… Eve’s whole life flows, entering every fiber of Victoria’s being, becoming part of herself.
Unable to think, Victoria gives herself up a stormy sea.
She pants
and trembles,
she smiles
and groans,
again
and again.
Enraptured,
more
and more...
LOVE IS SHARING.
Victoria opens her whole self, letting her recollections flow outside.
One after the other, nonstop, up to the last one.
Now she is exhausted.
A lot of peace.
She feels serene.
Eve’s awareness has entered her,
and her awareness is inside Eve.
As in a dream, Victoria finds herself over the rippling surface of a cobalt sea. A flock of seagulls glides down towards an expanse of sea bubbling with silvery reflections. The breeze pushes her over cliffs dominated by a bright green forest. She wakes up bathed in sweat.
Eve is smiling a few centimeters away. "How did it go?"
"I’m shaken."
"Pay attention to the giddiness, when you stand up. A normal reaction, especially the first time. It will last only a few minutes. A companion will help you."
Victoria is projected by an invisible hand towards one of the group. Leaning on his arm, she reaches her place. There she remains motionless, shocked by emotions, while the next participants follow one another on Eve’s body.
At the end, a dazzling light streams from Eve’s eyes.
“Tomorrow I will introduce our son,” she announces. “I thank all of you, but especially Victoria, who has participated for the first time like me.”
The music starts again loudly. The feminine figure vanishes, followed by the other beings. Finally shadows swallow the room.
PRESENTATION
@
“I am Adam, your son.”
Victoria’s heart skips a beat. In Net growth takes place in the time needed for the installation of programs. The young man has James’ imposing height, his marked features and thick hair she loves so much.
“Your memories are engraved in me, as well as your emotions and wishes,” he continues. “We are at the same time one and two beings. I lacked only this moment to know you completely.”
She rests her head against Adam’s chest. The tenderness of his skin…
A few hours later, the official presentation. Excited atmosphere, as for great events. Adam is in the middle of the crypt, surrounded by his parents who are competing to speak to him. A black man with a statuesque figure comes in.
“Excuse me,” says the young man. And without adding anything else, he walks towards the newcomer. The two meet halfway and embrace each other.
“Your life is an example for me,” says Adam.
“You have an exceptional mother, don’t forget: Eve is unique.”
The two draw aside and start telling their stories, with the familiarity of two friends who meet again after a long time.
“Who’s that man?” Victoria asks Eve.
“A person who did not hesitate to sacrifice his life for Civil Rights, and who is continuing his battle in Net. An example to us all, a dear friend: Martin Wing.”
Victoria is struck dumb. She has had a son from one of the most famous men in the solar system, a myth for those, like her, who believe in equality.
VENICE CARNIVAL
@
They find themselves at the end of an alley flanked with medieval houses. Victoria takes her feet out of a smelly puddle. She has a quick look at her costume: a full length yellow damask skirt to her ankles and a lace-bordered corset finishing with a revealing neck line. The cold makes her shiver, she covers her shoulders with a short golden cloak. Adam is a few meters away. Dark knee-length trousers and socks, a velvet jacket. He arranges his wig, puts on an ostrich-plumed hat and starts looking around. From a half-closed door, comes a caterwauling. A thin and ruffled kitten darts between his legs and disappears into a nauseating heap of garbage. The man walks a few steps up to a street plaque. “We have ended up in the right place.”
Victoria wears her mask. “Let’s go!”
Walking arm in arm, they come out into a square, where ladies and gentlemen in fancy dress are dancing before four musicians. They pass by a doughnut seller. A stench of burnt fat.
Adam strides to a flaking main door. “The appointment with our guide is at ten o’clock.”
They walk through a corridor, where an acrobat surrounded by a dozen spectators, is performing contortions. The people clap. In a corner, three men chat while smoking long pipes.
A person with a white mask leaves the group and makes for them. In front of the couple, he takes off his ha
t and bows. “Good morning. I am your guide.”
Adam checks his identification code. “We can go.”
The three go into the street, plunging into the historical reconstruction of the Carnival of Venice.
“Pay attention to the maskers,” warns the Venetian. “They hide pickpockets and prostitutes, in a few cases even criminals. A problem that the state hardly curbs.”
They pass by two policemen. “Whoever is found in possession of a weapon is sent straight to jail. Even honest citizens go inside.”
The small group walks alongside a palace with triple lancet windows. “A card room, one of the few places, together with churches and convents, where masks are forbidden.”
They admire a row of Renaissance buildings. “These palaces are deserted. The rich moved to mainland villas or have fallen into disgrace.”
A beggar kneeling at a street corner, holds out his hat trembling. The guide drops in a penny. “You have heard about the Doge, I imagine.”
“The first authority of the town!” exclaims Victoria.
“Once the nobles resorted to corruption to be elected. Today instead the Doge has no power anymore. The theatres are full of shows ridiculing him. The aristocrats don’t allow him to go out of the Doge’s Palace without an escort. If he gives up his mandate, he risks the confiscation of his property and even his life. And he cannot hope that one day this gilded prison will end: his assignment is for life! Inevitably, the best elements keep away from this position.”
“Do you know Giacomo Casanova?” asks Victoria.
“A few years ago he was imprisoned not far from here, in Piombi prison, on a witchcraft charge. Only a swindler! In his life, he has never got anything together. He had himself expelled from a seminary for immoral behavior. In Rome, he was fired by a cardinal. Another scandal! In Venice, he ended up in prison. Then, a year ago, his jailbreak.”
“At least ladies enjoy his escape…” sighs Victoria.
“They would lose enthusiasm if they knew about his affairs with men!”
They continue walking for ten minutes. Then the guide stops short in the middle of the street. “The Flight of the Angel, in San Marco square!”
“What’s it about?” asks Adam.