His fingers clenched around the glass of Coke until they turned white as Rio tightened his grip. "You don't speak in riddles with me. If you know what happened to me two years ago, then tell me what do you want from me?" Anger laced his chilly voice.
Unfazed by his outburst, Oceane hummed along with the live band on the stage. Only after the music ceased, Oceane tilted her head towards him. "I don't speak in riddles. I have been clear from the start. I am here to help if you want to find out what really happened two years ago."
"I know what I saw," Rio breathed out his frustration. "I don't need help."
"Don't you want to find out more?" Oceane took a swig of her wine glass. "Like how much more the government is hiding from us?"
Letting out a dry chuckle, Rio shook his head. "I guess I am hardly making a living for myself. With the business that I am doing, it's hard enough to avoid getting caught. I don't want any more trouble."
Oceane nodded absentmindedly, and Rio wondered if she had heard whatever he had said.
"Forging fake IDs," Oceane stuck out her thumb, "making fake passes to cross the country," followed by her forefinger, "siphoning money from one individual to another using phantom cards," her middle finger, "then... helping your friend steal from the bank." Her intent gaze found his guilty eyes as she listed the last one. "Are these really what you want?"
A searing wave of frustration and resentment swelled in his chest, fueled by the implication that his choices were morally questionable. Rio hated how easily Oceane manipulated his emotions with the knowledge about his past in her pocket.
"What I want?" hissed Rio through his gritted teeth, his eyes scanning around the patrons at the neighboring tables, "I no longer know what I want in this world."
His gaze settled on a table occupied by a mid-aged couple just in front of the stage. They meticulously observed the food and red wine on their table, paying no attention to the live band.
"That table," Rio pointed to the couple, "I can bet with you that they are Synthetiks. They do not need food to sustain. But what are they doing here? They are here to register the tastes, smells, and the visual effects of the food here."
Oceane shrugged and nodded, raising her eyebrow in amusement and questioning.
"I mean, the world is sick. Eating and drinking are supposed to be done by living things. Those AIs are supposed to aid us in our lives. What has the world become? The AIs are in the bar to savor our food, but the humans are left in forgotten corners to starve to death. So, I don't know what do I want from a world like this!" Rio found both his fists were on the table after he finished letting out his anger.
"Yes, you are right," Oceane barely acknowledged without emotions in her voice.
Swallowing the hard lump in his throat, Rio downed his glass of Coke to calm the turmoil in his mind.
It had been so long since he last felt such intense emotions about this world. He was once like any SynthHumans out there, cherishing the life they were given, doing whatever the government tasked them to do with their intelligence combined with the AI's, and living a comfortable life while leaving the rest of the world behind.
An accident led his life to the current state.
The day he confined himself in the basement leapt into his mind. His trembling fingers held onto the cold and hard Pastolium on his right face, with desperation and determination from his runaway, Rio tore the metal off his face. The sensation, a cruel ballet of agony, danced through every nerve and sinew, leaving behind a symphony of torment.
Ignoring the tearing pain, Rio continued to tear the rest of the Pastolium from his body, saving only the piece on his left chest. He needed some Pastolium to survive in this world.
Isa was the reason he was still in this world; he did not end his own life after seeing his scarred reflection one week after separating the Pastolium from his body.
Isa's voice sounded loud and clear in the background of live music.
"We need to save the world."
"I don't care if it is the AIs behind the government or the humans controlling the AIs; I am going to take control of this world again. Mark my words."
"It's so ridiculous that our jobs in this world are divided based on the metal component in our bodies. Why are all the scientists, engineers, and education jobs taken up by the Synthetiks? Why are SynthHumans only allowed to be lawyers, doctors, judges, and law enforcement? Then the humans are left with jobs like chefs, painters, writers, thieves?"
It didn't matter, even after Rio explained that certain jobs were specified based on how much human emotions and behaviors were needed. Synthetiks were well-suited for jobs that required only technical skills. Lawyers and doctors would need AI's capability to sustain all the skills and knowledge, with the human part executing the tasks. The unfortunate part fell to humans to take up the rest of the job.
"Even so, don't you think that we need to change the world?" Oceane's voice pulled him out of his reverie.
Rio lifted his gaze to meet her eyes. The intensity in her eyes burned with resolute purpose.
Rio gestured for the same waiter to order another glass of Coke. "Just leave me out of whatever you are doing. Will you excuse me, as I need some space for myself, especially now that I have just lost my friend."
Oceane tapped her fingers on the table while mulling over his words.
The waiter returned with another glass of Coke.
Just when Rio thought Oceane would leave him alone, she closed the distance between them. Her fingers found their way to his hair and grazed the scar on his face, and a sudden rush surged through him; his heart began to race.
"If you truly don't care, why would you leave the scar on your face? To make it as faint as possible is just one click away," Oceane then moved her fingers to his Analytron Device in his pocket and gave a quick tap.
Turning his head away from the touch that sent a flurry of sensations through his body, Rio shook his head. "It's just something to remind me never to go back to my old life."
"Is that so?"
Rio remained silent. That was a partial truth.
The live band on the stage started playing some melancholy music, as if they could sense what Oceane was about to say next.
"I have lost someone I loved. My brother," Oceane's voice sounded distant as she revealed this; her eyes landed on her glass. "That was when I decided to expose the government through the club. That was the least I could do for him."
Each note of the melancholy music seemed to carry an unspoken weight of emotions.
"..."
"The aim is to seize control of the world back from the humans behind the AIs," Oceane said.
This piqued Rio's interest, and he cocked his head towards her, "Humans behind the AIs?"
A slow nod from Oceane. "Yes, we believe it's not the AIs controlling the world, but the brains behind them. It's not a coincidence that every country in this world agreed to compartmentalize their country into three main provinces for their residences. This is to limit the interactions between different species."
Rio let out a contemplative look. It was not something he had not thought about before, but he chose to believe that it was the Synthetiks that turned the tables and seized control from their hosts.
"Why do you think the government only chooses the three percent of the highest intelligence among the humans to be transformed into SynthHumans? Not because they need the brains. The Synthetiks could do the jobs easily. They want to make sure those intelligent people would not have a mind of their own, those who are capable of fighting them to overthrow their throne." It was almost as if Oceane's voice carried a hypnotizing note that cast Rio's mind back to see the world today before his eyes.
The humans left rotting in Slateville. The intelligent ones were transformed into SynthHumans and worked in AHC—the place they worshiped since the day they were born. The Synthetiks were almost in the innermost circle, controlling every move of this country.
"You suspect there are people behind the Synthetiks controlling how the world is running?" asked Rio, his voice tinged with intrigue.
"No, we don't suspect. We have names. We know this as a fact," Oceane said.
Rio furrowed his brow and became lost in his own contemplation. On the day he had the accident in AHC, he sensed something was amiss about the world. The government was still hunting him, but they couldn't announce it on a large scale, as a SynthHuman escaping from AHC carried its own repercussions.
"Who are you people then? What makes you think you are capable of fighting the brains behind all this?" asked Rio, his arms crossed before his chest.
Rio wasn't sure if Oceane moved her fingers when a black card with golden words on it appeared in front of him: W Club.
Taking the card from Oceane, Rio flipped to the back and found it was as blank as charcoal. "W Club?"
"The first price that President Mr. W agrees to pay for your recruitment is your legitimate residential status in this country. You no longer need your fake SynthiCode; we will provide you with a new one. With that, you no longer need to limit your movements within the country," said Oceane.
Rio raised an eyebrow at the proposal. With his talents, he could create a fake ID to move within Slateville, where only the lowest-tech SynthWatch patrolled to detect suspicious activities. However, Mr. W, as mentioned by Oceane, possessed the power to make this happen at a national level.
Not a bad deal, Rio pondered.
"The W Club has access to restricted files that the government is trying to hide—things beyond science that the government does not want its people to discover. We want to investigate and expose them," Oceane signaled the waitress to bring her another glass of wine.
"Like?"
"Paranormal activities. Ghosts. Spirits. Aliens. Time-traveling."
The list of things Oceane mentioned was exactly what the government had denied the existence of.
"What good does it do to investigate and expose them?"
Oceane locked her beautiful gaze on him. "To raise awareness among humans that the world they live in is just an oasis. To stop people from dreaming of becoming SynthHumans. To gather human intelligence to overthrow this government."
"You believe just by doing this, you can achieve what you've said?" Rio leaned back, letting out a quizzical expression.
"This is only a fraction of what we do," Oceane said. "Mr. W has a bigger plan. We have identified your potential and would like you to join us in this."
Rio would hate to deny whatever Oceane had said and promised; it had shaken him a little. A legitimate ID to walk under the sunlight without the fear of being spotted by the authorities. The club's aim to overthrow the government was an extension of what Isa had been trying to do before he was caught, and probably killed now.
Just as Rio was still pondering his options, Oceane retrieved her SynthiCode from her purse and signaled Rio to take out his Analytron Device. Rio did as instructed.
A file had been transferred to his AD as soon as he inserted her SynthiCode.
"Do you believe in time-traveling?" asked Oceane, her eyes looking into the distance.
Time travel, especially to the past, is deemed impossible due to causality concerns, challenges posed by Einstein's Theory of Relativity, the immense energy and matter requirements, and the absence of empirical evidence supporting such phenomena. This was exactly what the government said about time-traveling.
Rio chose not to answer.
"Talk to this guy," Oceane said, "and this may change your mind about joining us." With the last sentence, Oceane grabbed her newly arrived wine and strolled back to her table with the most elegant movements, her intent gaze glued to the stage as if their earlier conversations had never taken place.
Rio closed his eyes, allowing the holographic images he had received from Oceane to materialize.
W-files - The missing flights in the year 2030. The most significant flight disappearances in history. All flights operated by SkyVista Airways that flew over the coordinates 12°31'58.4"S 79°17'01.5"E on the 9th of every month in the year 2030 vanished from radar once they reached that location.
A survivor was found...