The Rise Of The Consortium

"Another Katokanei from Termist has signed the Gene Exchange Contract with SorGene Corps." News was playing on a container projected by Rio's ID. The screen projection method was a cool feature she ever found.

"Yesterday morning, a 20-year-old woman Sheime Akmaine was reported missing from her residence by her family to the local court of Termist. The search team insisted on searching her home to find some evidence and found a note declaring that it was her wish to get a full gene exchange in Zolzeim. It also said that it was being done on her own accord and doesn't wish to be searched ever." The screen continually played the news, but Rio was busy on her work fixing circuit board that was crashed by angry mobs of morning's rally.

Except for a few people, the broadcasting building's ground floor was isolated. To break the monotony, she played the news in the background and continued working. She had no intention of hearing such news. But an accidental glance at the screen froze her on the spot.

"This Gene Exchange Contract is a trap set by Zolzein industries to lure the youths of Katokzeim. Many people like Ms. Akmaine are made false promises to provide some corrective cures in their appearance or personality and instead, their genes are used to create a large team of androids to wage an imaginative war." The person in the news read out.

None of those things seeped into the mind. Her mind was still in the last week, in the cafe where they were all partying, all she could see was her laugh. But Rio's hands were continuously working to put things as soon as possible. Her ID had given many notifications reminding her places she had to go that day.

"Ah. really glad that such news has made its way here." An old sweeper spoke in a low voice cleaning the area near the circuit board where Rio was working.

"Did you never hear such news before?" Rio responded to the old sweeper while joining the disconnected wires. She was surprised to see him suddenly but kept her eyes on her work.

"Almost every day. But never on the screen. What was there except some trash celebrity news?" The sweeper carefully swept the area of broken glass pieces, his head hung low.

Rio understood his reference. She was even more stressed about Kner, expected not to see any of that news anymore.

"Upon digging deep into the matter, there is information that Ms. Akmaine has received 1,00,000 coins for recreation. It is revealed that her family wanted her to get some work and be respectable in society. They expressed their regret to create such pressure on her."

A sudden sadness dawned on Rio that such a pretty friend of her had to face things like that.

"Such an old boring trick those losers." the sweeper blurted through his scrunchy face. "What do they know except throwing money? And such shameless parents. First, make your children go mad after money and then cry after they get lost. Losers! Everyone's a loser." the sweeper swept angrily towards the pile of a mess he collected from the ground.

She was working on the main circuit, replacing its switches and reconnecting some of the wires and securing others. The favorite place of the mob to crash something was maybe the innocent switch box. What did the box do to them? Why there was so much anger? Rio felt frustrated to get repeated vibrations from her ID and the overwhelming feeling from news about her acquaintance. But she suddenly got a thought of her mother. She could not understand why.

Her day probably didn't start well. Meilae was right. She should have saved more energy to go through the day. She started cleaning the alley near the circuit box, her heart hurt upon seeing such a sight of a mess. She felt glad that none of the people from the rally were visible to her, else she would've charged all of them in multiple offenses. She clearly got an announcement from the court not to charge on any of them. She focused on fixing things as soon as possible keeping her emotions down.

"The takeaway of this incident is the permanent change in the person and a very little chance of survival under this process."

Rio felt uneasy to hear such a statement. She couldn't believe in her eyes the picture that showed on the screen was of a close friend of hers who she thought was the prettiest of them. Last week when they got together, Sheime was perfectly cheerful with all her friends. But Rio had no idea that would be the last time to meet her. She now wondered what would change in her. Will she become a monster?

"Even if survived, wouldn't her family accept?" She couldn't control her heart anymore and asked suddenly.

"What do you think? Would anyone want to break the law just for the attachment? This girl is smart. See, she even doesn't want to be called back home." The old sweeper was collecting trash in a container while saying so.

"Who said her to be such a reckless? She was already perfect. If she really needed money, she could've gone to Moritzeim. She would have become a fine actress." Rio agreed on that fact. Indeed Sheime was beautiful enough to become Termist's pride. The fact that she might never see such a sweet friend of hers was just too much.

"Activities like these are peaking nowadays. The chairman of Termist, Mr. Maning has refused to say anything on this matter. While the head of NoZolzein campaign Dr. Conro has requested all citizens to be aware of such life-threatening traps and to report the suspicious activities of any Zolzein to local courts." The newsreader was wrapping up with the last part.

"Someone stop that Maning and that Lonphour. Rest will fall in place." Rio tried hard to remember the latter name. She finished putting back the main switchboard and was cleaning up the area. She had no trouble getting the spare parts as long the owner of the machine has in its store. Fortunately, it wasn't Rio's responsibility to always carry those. She only had to reach the spot with her necessary tools. She then had to go to the cable box where she had only 15 minutes to fix the broken wires and test whether all the floors of the building are connected to the power supply.

"Also everyone is requested to be aware of any advertis.e.m.e.nts that are from the companies under Lonphour Corp. Their secret mission of wiping the Katokein must be avoided at all costs."

"How do you know that name?" She shut down her news player as she moved to the nearest cable box. She had to get things done quickly.

"It's very common here. What do you think those dust are for? If we ever knew we had to deal with it, we would have finished him before the bridge was separated."

She didn't get anything the old man was saying. She wanted to know more of what was going on there, but she had to fix things quickly. The old man went towards the backyard of that floor, muttering something on his way.

She tried to fasten her hands, but somehow her mind was on Sheime. What would she be feeling right now? Happy? Scared? If she's not coming back to Termist, then where she would be staying? What would she do? Does Meilae know about it? They were all good friends. Did she know anything about it?

After spending nearly an hour and a half at the broadcasting center, connecting all the wires and test run to make sure everything ran well, she headed to the printing press center. There were no repairing jobs, rather she had to print a set of shipping labels. That set was addressed to a place in Zolzein. An unknown fear crept in her heart. She tried to decipher what those containers had by reading from the labels. There was nothing suspicious there, except for some cookbooks and magazines. Was every Katokein really lured there? Are they really tortured there? But the hate was real those who signed up like Sheime. So people often ended up living in Zolzeim instead. Did people like living there? It might not be true but Rio felt as if she lost her forever.

Then her ID vibrated once again, reminding her to go to the local hospital to know what needed to be repaired. She remembered that she would have to go to the cafe to meet Meilae. She had a lot of questions to ask. But first of all, she must finish her work. It was noon already, so she hurried up.

There was nothing really to repair but to clean power supply machines. She felt thankful that she wouldn't have to touch the machines in operation theatre. Last time she attempted cleaning, she was quite scared of the sounds those machines made. She sent a request to the worker association to replace her with someone else to do that particular job. Those white dust, which no one except Rio could clean, appeared right in the main machinery. She couldn't understand how those things were gathered there. In some parts, she even saw some stubborn dust that never goes away even after repeated application of the anti-nepgimets spray.

Her arm felt stiff after scrubbing the parts. When dust reduced to a minimum, she put back the cover on the supply machine and left the hospital.

The street that was in mess was cleaned up a bit. She never knew what people benefitted from rallying, but that was not her concern. All she wanted was to get her many questions answered. From Meilae, from Kner, from her mother about what and why such things were happening to her.