Chapter 73: Learning New Tricks
‘That is about the best account I can give of our history and the lies that you have been told your whole life,’ said Lily.
Demarcus was sitting with his head bowed down. He was disturbed by what he was told, but he knew everything she said was consistent with what he had observed with recent events. They remained seated in silence for a few moments.
Demarcus looked up at Lily. ‘Why me? Why now?’ he asked her.
‘I have been complicit in maintaining this lie my whole life,’ replied Lily. ‘I wanted it to work. I wanted my own species to be protected, and I also wanted the Sapiens to have the best life possible.’
‘Keeping us like slaves is hardly the best life possible,’ said Demarcus.
‘I tried my best to treat you like children rather than slaves,’ said Lily. ‘The Sapiods were never shown the same kindness.’
‘You still haven’t answered my questions,’ said Demarcus with a little more anger in his voice.
‘I choose you because you are at the heart of all the recent developments,’ said Lily. ‘Your brother with the Inquisitives, your father finding the killed Sapes, and you with the train crash and the adventure in the wastelands.’
‘I choose now because of the errors of my ways,’ said Lily. ‘I had both good intentions and ambition. When they didn’t come into conflict, I didn’t have a problem. In recent months, that has not been the case. I worked with Pardi Carvaress for personal reasons. I wanted to keep hold of the power I had. I also loved my nieces. I tricked myself into feeling something for someone who is little more than a monster.’
Lily paused. She closed her eyes for a moment. A few moments later, she looked back over to Demarcus. ‘I’m truly sorry for my actions,’ she said. ‘I want to make amends, but I also fear I’ll make things worse.’
‘Toxic dust from the wastelands did not contaminate the water and turn the Water Sapes crazy,’ said Demarcus.
‘No,’ said Lily as she shook her head.
‘What actually happened?’ asked Demarcus.
‘I’m not sure, but I bet it has something to do with Pardi,’ said Lily. ‘He stands to profit from the solution he has developed to keep the water clean.’
‘Profit, is that his only motivation?’ asked Demarcus.
‘I wish it was,’ replied Lily. ‘Pardi hates Sapiens. He believes they are inferior and undeserving of anything. He believes that the Linap have become the slaves of the Sapiens.’
‘He sounds mad,’ said Demarcus.
‘He has made his arguments logical in his own mind,’ said Lily.
‘So what are Pardi’s other intentions?’ asked Demarcus.
‘He is most likely attempting to sterilise all Sapiens so as to wipe them out in a generation,’ replied Lily.
‘The Linap need Sapiens. They are weak,’ said Demarcus angrily. ‘They cannot survive without us. Isn’t that what you just explained to me?’
‘That was the rationale for creating the Sapiens,’ said Lily. ‘It has changed now. Pardi has found a way to breed new Linap that are no longer weak and sickly.’
‘He wants to replace Sapiens with Linap,’ said Demarcus.
‘Most likely,’ said Lily. ‘This does not have to be the case. You can help stop him.’
‘How can I, nobody listens to me?’ said Demarcus.
‘Use your gifts. Use what I am teaching you,’ said Lily.
‘I need more than that. If I could shapeshift like you, maybe I could do something,’ said Demarcus.
‘I fear training would take too long. Your region’s water will be one of the first to be treated,’ said Lily.
‘I want the technology implant you have. Then, I will practice using the techniques you have taught me,’ said Demarcus.
‘Fine,’ said Lily as she slightly smiled. ‘I will get hold of one tomorrow. I’ll implant it into you myself.’
‘Thank you,’ said Demarcus.
‘You should get some sleep now,’ said Lily. ‘Tomorrow will be another busy day.’
Demarcus did not sleep for long. He wanted to practice shapeshifting.
Lily awoke a few hours after Demarcus. She went out to get another implant. She had a friend in the Industrial Zone who had several spares. She was only gone for about an hour. She brought back some bagels with her.
Demarcus was in her lounge. He was briefly shapeshifting backward and forward between Lily and her two forms.
‘Hey, you must be hungry. You haven’t eaten today,’ said Lily as she shook the bag of bagels.
‘Too busy practicing,’ replied Demarcus as he made himself a slightly brighter shade of green.
‘You will do better on a full stomach,’ said Lily.
‘Hmm, they do smell nice,’ said Demarcus as he licked his lips.
‘Try making one of these disappear,’ said Lily.
Demarcus shoved a bagel in his mouth. He gobbled it down as quickly as possible.
‘Not quite what I meant,’ said Lily as she grinned.
Lily became invisible. She grabbed the bagel. It turned invisible as well. She remained invisible for a few minutes and then became visible again.
‘Nice trick,’ said Demarcus. ‘Care to teach me?’
‘You already know this trick,’ replied Lily. ‘Your clothes become invisible with you. It is the same with food. Imagine if you were invisible, but we could see the food inside you.’
‘That would be messed up,’ said Demarcus.
‘I need to warn you,’ said Lily. ‘Only wear clothes made from natural fibres.’
‘So it doesn’t work on everything,’ said Demarcus.
‘I’m afraid not,’ said Lily, grinning slightly.
‘Well, that’s good to know,’ said Demarcus.
They finished eating the bagels.
‘Now it’s time for your first technology implant,’ said Lily.
Demarcus made himself comfortable on Lily’s sofa as Lily went to get her chip-implanting equipment. Demarcus pulled off his sock to reveal his right foot.
‘Just to warn you, this is going to hurt a little,’ said Lily as she lined up her implant-punching machine on Demarcus’ foot.
She hit a button. The implant was thrust into Demarcus’ skin. He yelped in pain.
‘Ouch, that hurt more than a little,’ said Demarcus.
‘You’ll be fine,’ said Lily. ‘Oh, I forgot to mention the implant can be used to track you.’
‘Are you serious?’ said Demarcus angrily.
‘Yes, but I disabled it before I implanted it in you,’ chuckled Lily.
‘Thanks,’ said Demarcus.
‘Take this as a lesson,’ said Lily. ‘Most forms of technology can be used to track you, and anything implanted always has tracking capability.’
‘Nice to know,’ said Demarcus.
‘You need to remain alert at all times,’ said Lily in a slightly sterner voice. ‘The smallest mistake could get you killed or worse.’
Demarcus grinned confidently at Lily.
‘I have something else for you,’ said Lily. She pulled out a phone. ‘This phone contains a wide variety of tokens. You will be able to use it to get anywhere you need to be.’
Demarcus looked at it. The opening page had the name ‘Bertie’ on it.
‘Who’s Bertie?’ queried Demarcus.
‘It’s your new name when you need to buy anything,’ said Lily.
‘That’s awesome. Thank you,’ said Demarcus.
‘If you are going to be back in Adoy by tomorrow morning, you will need to book a ticket on tonight’s train,’ said Lily.
Demarcus went to the Sapien Loop webpage and bought a ticket.
‘I still have a few more hours,’ said Demarcus. ‘I might as well try shapeshifting.’
‘Go for it,’ said Lily. ‘Instead of trying to shapeshift into me, try shapeshifting into your brother.’
‘Okay, sure,’ said Demarcus.
After about an hour of trying, he finally shapeshifted into Darius.
Lily applauded him. ‘Once you can do one, the rest will be much easier to do,’ said Lily.
Demarcus continued practicing until he needed to leave to catch the train.
‘Looks like I need to go,’ said Demarcus to Lily.
‘Don’t worry, you’ll do fine,’ said Lily as she gently touched the side of Demarcus' face. ‘Go out and change the world.’
Demarcus smiled at her. ‘You’re still the G.O.A.T.; that’ll never change.’
Lily looked Demarcus in the eyes and gently smiled back.
Demarcus exited Lily’s apartment and headed to the train station. He boarded a train to Adoy with no problems at all. His ‘Bertie’ identity was working.
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