Chapter 39.
“So, this is what you used me for.” Gabriela was dumbfounded as she slowly turned around and took in the open building. Men and women were arming themselves. “You made it so Taurus was blind, so that you could move operatives into the city.”
“Yes.” Soma answered solemnly.
“What did they pay you Soma? How much did your soul cost?”
“We didn’t pay him anything.” Angela interrupted.
“You can hear him?” Gabriela asked. She was surprised that Soma would make himself known to anyone more than he had too.
“This whole time.” Angela explained. “We have been working together to make sure you were kept safe.”
“Why?” Gabriela demanded.
“I can’t explain-“
“Enough of this bullshit. I want answers. Why would you help me? I’m gen perfect. I thought your organization hates people like me.”
Angela blinked, and took a step back, it seemed as if she was genuinely offended. “Hate? No, you are one of God’s children, just like the rest of us. It’s how you were born. That’s what we hate.”
The corporations are playing God, deciding who is born and who isn’t. It’s Bioloxys we hate, not you or anyone else.”
“Bioloxys is the reason the human race hasn't gone extinct.”
“Is that what you think, Gabriela? That Bioloxys is the savior of humankind?”
“No, human innovation is humankind’s savior.”
“Innovation?” Angela shook her head sadly. “Bioloxys holds the key to human survival in a monopoly, they keep an iron grip over who can and cannot have children. They choose who will get to feel the joys of motherhood. That is not innovation, Gabriela. That is tyranny. And if you think that is innovation then the retro phage was also innovation.”
“For fuck’s sake.” Gabriela laughed. “That all the Son’s have is half baked conspiracy theories. You think that the phage was man made, that we did this to ourselves?”
“No, I don’t think mankind did this to themselves.” Angela roared. Gabriela shrank away from the looming woman.
“I have given everything I have to the corporations.” Angela continued. “I killed for them, in war after war, until it took my body. They didn’t care, they simply built me a new one and told me to kill some more. I have seen what corporations like Bioloxys are capable of. I have done their bidding and I have seen the rot that is the core of their hearts. I don’t think mankind did this to themselves, I know they did.”
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“What does all of this have to do with me?”
The rage in Angela’s eyes faded. She took a deep breath before she continued. “Our lives are a cage, Gabriela. Some see it as an iron cage, cold and bleak. Others see it as a gilded one, soft and comfortable, beautiful even. But a cage is still cage.”
What if I told you that none of your choices were your own? That your freewill was an illusion?”
“I’d say what I already know. You, and everyone else here is fucking crazy.”
“Gabriela,” Angela said softly. “Your life was decided for you before you were even conceived. Your education, your pregnancy, and the death of your daughter was all planned out before you even drew your first breath.”
A tear slipped down Gabriela’s face. “That’s not true.”
“But it is. Your potential for free will is unacceptable, it doesn’t fit in the matrix of the system. You are a cancer as far as it is concerned. At first just a benign tumor, but you have metastasized, and you have proven to be dangerous. It won’t allow you to live.”
“If what you are saying is true, then why are you here? Why hasn't ‘It’ killed you all? Do you not have free will?” Gabriela demanded. The ideas that Angela was spouting were absurd, bordering on insane. Her choices were hers and hers alone.
“Strife has to exist. Fear motivates people.” Angela said coolly. “We fight a war we know we can’t win, because the system has already decided the winner.”
“What is it, what is the system?”
“It’s not my place to explain it, Gabriela, but I promise that Enigma will explain everything to you when you meet.”
“Enigma?”
“Our benefactor, Gabriela.” Soma answered her.
“Who or what is Enigma?”
“We don’t know. All we know is that Enigma is an insider. Nothing they have told us has turned out to be wrong. Nothing.” Angela stressed. “And they have told us that you are special, that no matter what, you must make it to them.”
“Are they coming here?” Soma asked.
“No.” Something changed in Angela’s face. A shower of sadness. Gabriela expected that if the woman could, she would shed tears. “Things have changed my friend. Our position is compromised. Cy-Tech is preparing to attack soon. I know it's unfair to ask you this, Soma, but you need to get Gabriela to the dam.”
“If Cy-Tech is going to attack then why are you all standing here?” Gabriela demanded. “Why aren’t you all running?!” She shouted.
“Because.” Angela said. “Enigma is never wrong, if we run now the system will know that there is a leak. We cannot compromise Enigma.”
“If you stay here, you will die.” Gabriela stressed.
“That’s what a soldier does, Gabriela. We die for our cause. Be it a country or an ideal. In the end we all know that our lives may be what’s asked of us.”
“So, you are just going to sit here and wait?”
“No. We are going to fight.” Angela explained as she walked over to a crate, opened it, and pulled out a gun that would be too massive for a normal person to wield. “The System knows we are here, but it doesn’t know how armed we are, or what we are willing to do to stop it.”
“There are net breakers here.” Soma interrupted.
“We need more time, Soma. Can you deal with them?” Angela pleaded.
“Yes.” Soma answered.
Gabriela knew he was gone then. She could feel that her guardian angel was no longer at her side. “What am I supposed to do?” She asked past the tears that were falling down her face. “I can’t to this alone.”
“There is no better mancer than Soma, he will be back. But, you need to run, with or without him.” Angela handed Gabriela a carbine. “You will have to kill, or they will kill you. You need to survive.”
“I wish that we had more time together, Gabriela. I truly do.” Angela reached out and brushed a tear away from Gabriela’s face. “You are a truly remarkable woman.”