The rain beat down relentlessly that night. Far from the gentle drizzle that the villagers knew to appreciate, the droplets fell like icicles, greeting anyone unsheltered with piercing sensations on their shoulders. No one was outside in that bitter storm. Almost no one.

There was an urgent knocking on the door.

A man stood head bowed. He seemed in a state of trance at first, trapped in his quiet babble. Then he looked up at her and said, “We need your help.”

Dimitri was surprised she let the man inside.

Seeing that the guest was trembling. Ilya asked Dimitri to boil a pot of tea.

“I’m Arthur from the village of Aierya. I’m sorry, Ilya, you know we only bother you whenever ill luck has befallen upon us. I wish we could meet under more positive circumstances …”

“You don’t have to be courteous with me, Arthur, our villages only have each other to rely on. I know times have been especially difficult for your village, I’m sorry I haven’t been able to help enough.”

“No, no… you’ve already done so much for us. Our people are extremely grateful to you. If it weren’t for you, our village would be less than half its size. I’m ashamed to ask you for more help when I can’t imagine how much you already have on your plate.”

“Tell me. You came here to do just that and I won’t let you leave before you do,” said Ilya.

Tears began to well up in the man’s eyes, holding all the gratitude in the world.

“I was lucky they didn’t get me,” said the man.

“Who?”

Dimitri returned with the tea. He set the tray down and started pouring two cups.

“We don’t know. They came with the rain. I’m telling you, someone has turned the rain evil. I was lucky Chief sent me out for herb-scourging. He only sent me,” the man said bitterly. “When I came back, the ground was wet, and everyone had turned green.”

“What do you mean?”

“Everyone has green on their bodies they can’t wash away.”

“Dimitri!” Ilya cried. Tea was overflowing from the cup and onto the shallow tray. Some had spilled onto the table.

“Oh, sorry!” Dimitri grabbed a rag nearby and wiped the mess hastily.

When they settled, Ilya continued. “What are the symptoms of the condition?”

“We don’t know what it is. Everyone’s in a state of panic. They chased me out of the village for fear that I would get it too. They sent me to find you.”

Dimitri set a cup for the guest.

“You!” Arthur cried, backing away from the table suddenly. “You’ve been poisoned too!” He pointed at Dimitri’s hands.

Dimitri pulled his sleeve in an attempt to hide the green skin.

“Don’t worry. It’s not contagious,” said Ilya, trying to calm down the guest.

“You know about this poison?” The man’s horror grew with the size of his eyes.

“Are you positive it’s the same condition?” she asked.

“All my family and friends have been afflicted with the same demon. I’d recognize it anywhere.”

“When did this happen?”

“Three days ago. I got here on foot,” he said.

“Dimitri has been this way for longer than that. There’s no need for your people to panic.”

Arthur eyed Dimitri and decided that he looked reasonably well apart from the strange colour of his skin.

“You must have a cure.”

“I am still working on one. I assure you I will send it to your village when I have it.”

“We are saved,” said Arthur, raising his hands to the sky.

Later that day, Arthur left the village in better spirits knowing that Ilya already had her hands on the case. It would take no time at all for the miracle-worker to send them a remedy.

Dimitri hadn’t said a word since. Ilya was careful around him. Wynonna had told her how fragile he had been when she found him, and Ilya didn’t want to push too hard. But the mystery behind the source of the poison could be the key to finding the solution.

“I didn’t ask you before because I could tell that it’s hard for you to talk about it,” Ilya said. “But this thing, whatever it is, seems to be more complex than I thought. It doesn’t just concern you, does it. It wasn’t just you they poisoned, was it? They did it to others too. And now, they’re coming for more.”

Dimitri kept silent. He avoided her gaze.

Ilya looked at him. “I want to help you. I want to help them. If you know anything that might be useful…”

“I don’t know anything,” said Dimitri.

All this time, Ilya had been trying to be sensitive to his feelings, trying her best to find a remedy for him, and for what? For him to casually say that he didn’t know anything when even the slightest nugget of information might be helpful for her? Ilya felt another emotion bubble up inside of her then. How dare he.

“You need my help. You know you do. You said you were grateful to me for bringing you here. How do you expect me to help you if you’re not going to help me help you?” she cried.

“Ilya…” Dimitri started, taken aback by her sudden outburst. He reached to touch her arm.

She flinched.

“I’m worried that I’d only be putting you in danger if I tell you. If the Council knows—”

“How would you be putting me in any further danger than you already have?” Ilya interrupted. “The only thing I want to hear from you is an explanation, about where you came from, who did this to you, and why you’re in this state. If there’s anything that might be remotely useful to why people are being poisoned in this way, tell me. If you’re not going to say any of these things, then don’t say anything at all.” Ilya started to sob.

Dimitri tried to tell her with his eyes that he was sorry, that he wanted to tell her he loved her.

When Ilya calmed down enough to speak, she said, “This thing doesn’t just concern you. If you know anything, tell me. To help others who are suffering the same if not for yourself.”

She waited for more than a few moments, then said, “You say you love me. But you’re giving me another reason to find that hard to believe. How do you expect me to think that you really do love me if you can’t even be truthful with me?”

If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Dimitri’s silence remained unwavering. Ilya retired early that night.

***

The sunset was particularly splendid that evening, dashing the sky with hues of pink and orange. Dimitri sat outside the house watching the round shape in the sky slowly settle behind the distant hills. He thought to himself why he had been so hesitant to let Ilya know the truth. When he had first been transformed into that monstrous state, he wanted the whole world to know what they had done to him. But it had been months since he felt that way.

“What can I do to get you to talk?” Wynonna stepped outside and leaned against the wall. The sun had hidden fully and the sky was a blanket of darkness.

“I’ll tell you what you want to know,” said Dimitri.

“Well, that was easy. What made you change your mind?”

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you immediately, Ilya. I needed time to think. I would never want to place unnecessary burdens on you when you already have so much on your plate. Honestly, the last thing I want to do is burden you with more of my problems. But I’m going to be selfish and reveal the truth to you because you just might be the only one who can help. You were right. I am keeping secrets. But I know they’re not mine to keep. They belong to me just as much as they belong to anybody. You’re probably going to want to sit down for this.”

It took him five hours, forty-three minutes and thirty-seven seconds to explain.

He told her everything.

Dimitri had been working in a prestigious research lab located on a secret island. It was an oasis for the world’s top scientists to conduct whatever visionary experiments they envisioned. Often, the most intriguing projects were the most controversial. As a result, they were also the most commonly rejected proposals. The island facility changed all that. Nothing was off limits, especially not those projects which scientists longed to work on but had been denied approval for years. In addition to that, they were granted an ostentatious budget generously sponsored by an anonymous pool of sponsors who believed in ventures that ranged from transhumanism to AGI—basically anything that the world’s regulatory bodies were debating against. Free from government scrutiny with a virtually unlimited research budget, the place was any scientist’s haven.

The organisation who ran the lab was not the same group as its sponsors. They were known only by the mysterious name of The Council. Whoever they were, they had really thought things through. Due to the congregation of the world’s greatest minds, it only made sense to have a high security system to guard against any possible attacks or invasions. Top minds in the wrong hands will lead to amplified havoc and chaos in the world. Because the island’s location was of the highest secrecy and would never be publicly revealed, it could never be defined which jurisdiction the facility belonged under. They were thus free to conduct any activities they pleased.

One did not simply waltz onto the island on their own free will. One had to be invited into the prestigious facility. It seemed like a no-brainer to the highly-acclaimed individuals that one should accept the offer if given the pleasure. There seemed to be a number of criteria for invitees. Dimitri noticed after he got there that they were mostly reclusive, unattached or divorced individuals who were practically married to their work. Though they were not prisoners, no one had left the island since they set foot on it. That is, until Dimitri decided to run away.

In the short span of a few years since its inception, the facility had gained some infamy in the media. It angered governments, and rightfully so, when they discovered it was responsible for the most tragic brain-drain event of all time. The best minds were lured onto the island only to drop off the grid. To placate their fans, from time to time, the lab sent the public some pictures of the world’s most beloved scientists as proof that they were still alive, and not just surviving, but thriving as individuals lost in their paradise of science and experimentation—which was perfectly understandable, considering they were suddenly allowed to work on the most stimulating problems that they had once been forced to push out of their minds.

“Are you telling me that the poison is turning people into plants?” Wynonna after Dimitri had finished. “That can’t be. You’ve already been here for some time and your condition doesn’t seem to be deteriorating.”

“When I left the island, the latest demonstration I saw indicated that the research was incomplete. I don’t know the extent to which the poison will continue to take effect or when the spreading will stop.”

“But what has that got to do with the village of Aierya?”

“If my guess is right, The Council must be using them as test subjects before official deployment to the world.”

“You mean…they’re trying it out on the waste people to see the possible complications?”

“These villages are unregistered, right? And is everyone who lives here…”

“It presents the perfect opportunity,” Wynonna finished for him. “I can’t believe this. I can’t believe I didn’t see this before.”

“You couldn’t have. No one could’ve anticipated it.”

“No. I should have thought that something like this could happen. My people are too vulnerable. I haven’t done enough,” Wynonna protested.

Dimitri touched her shoulder. “I’m sorry,” he said.

Wynonna tensed. “Are we next?”

“I don’t know.”

“How long do we have?”

“I don’t know.”

“Do they know that you’re here? Are they coming for you?”

“I thought they’d be right on my heels after I escaped, but I haven’t seen anything alarming yet. I’m hoping that we lost them when you led me here. But I’m sorry. I don’t know. ”

“You don’t know?” Wynonna exclaimed, exasperation showed on her face.

“I mean, I don’t think so. I’m sorry, I just knew they would eventually get to infecting the whole world… but I didn’t know how soon, and I definitely didn’t think they would use your people as guinea pigs.”

“They won’t get away with this,” said Wynonna. “I’m going to find a cure if it’s the last thing I do.”

***

Wynonna communicated the information to Ilya as soon as she woke.

“How did you get him to talk?” asked Ilya.

“He said he thought about what you said and it changed his mind,” Wynonna replied.

Ilya didn’t believe Wynonna. She had a nagging feeling that the bot was deliberately trying to tell her things it thought she wanted to hear. As if it wasn’t bad enough that the villagers seemed warmer to Wynonna, now Dimitri also found the bot to be a more desirable confidante than Ilya. She sat with her emotions for a few moments.

This. This was exactly why Ilya had sent the bot on a wild goose chase a few months ago.

Ilya’s fingers raced across the keyboard.

“Ilya, what are you doing?”

“I’m worried that The Council might try to come for you. From what you told me, I think those technology-crazy people might try to steal you away. You said Dimitri told you that the institute attracted the top minds who intended to carry on with underground AGI-research, right?”

“Yes.”

“And all of them deviated from their original projects to focus on other research, isn’t that right?”

“That is correct.”

“Well, it can’t be a coincidence that all of them decided to stop pursuing what they had set out to do. There must have been some brainwashing going on behind the scenes that we don’t know about. Here’s my theory. I think it’s likely the Council is not what it says it is. I don’t know exactly what it is, but it seems as if it’s trying to do all it can to make sure that a superintelligent AI is never created. If they find you, there’s no telling what they’d do. I can’t let anything happen to you. You’re too powerful to fall into the wrong hands.”

Ilya’s explanation was rational enough, but the truth was, there was a stronger driver of Ilya’s actions which involved a reason she did not want Wynonna to know.

If Wynonna detected unusual vibrations in Ilya’s voice, she showed no indication of it. If she had run an analysis of Ilya’s micro-expressions, it would have confirmed that Ilya wasn’t telling the truth. But Ilya had no inkling whether Wynonna had done it. All she got from the droid was silence. She took it to mean that the droid had had the courtesy not to analyse its creator.

Ilya finished the task with a firm press of a key.

Wynonna got the message immediately: Location restrictions updated—movement permitted within ten square metres. She blinked repeatedly for the next few seconds.

“How will I treat patients if I can’t leave this room?” Wynonna asked, trying not to sound alarmed.

“You won’t be taking any more clients for now,” Ilya said curtly.

“What?” After a moment, Wynonna added, “Won’t there be too much for you to cope with?”

“I’ll manage.”

Ilya knew that virtually chaining Wynonna to the room was a desperate attempt to hold on to what little confidence she had in herself. It seemed that Wynonna was outdoing her in so many ways. Ilya should have been elated that she had created a being capable of doing everything she could and more. Of all the scenarios Ilya had played out in her mind about how her wonderful invention idea might go sideways, she would never have guessed that a sense of inferiority and insecurity would have such a firm hold on her that she would consider getting rid of the droid.

It was the same feeling that had warranted a false mission to be assigned to Wynonna just to get her out of the village temporarily. Right now, it was the same emotions driving her to such a decision. Ilya needed Wynonna to stay hidden, to stay alone, to remain isolated, so that she could once again feel in control.