Chapter 7: The Black Market and the Inquisitives
Two years had passed since Darius fell from the wall. He had recovered very well. He was even well enough to compete in some sports events. He still had blurred vision in his left eye, and his face and arm were scarred permanently.
Darius had now graduated from school. He did not pursue any further education. His injuries hindered him from following his dream of being a sports star. Instead, he worked a few hours a week in the boutique clothing store in the Commercial Zone. He managed to earn a few boutique clothing tokens that he would use to buy nice clothes for his family.
Darius spent more time with a group of activists known as the Inquisitives. He met them just over two years ago. Since Inquisitives’ members did not work typical jobs or follow Sapien traditions, they were frowned on by most other Sapiens. Beyond this, there was very little known about them by anyone who was an outsider to the group.
The leader and founder of the Inquisitives was a Sapien named Victor. Victor was suspicious of all authority figures. He did not believe in the ‘rights’ and ‘privileges’ system of rewarding work. He strongly opposed the token system as well.
In opposition, Victor attempted to establish a rudimentary alternative economy that used the old physical tokens from generations ago. The members of Inquisitives exchanged these tokens for performing favours for each other. Such favours included fixing each other’s appliances, organising events and parties, and cooking each other’s meals. They would also like to gamble these tokens in games of cards. It was very limited to what they could do within their system, as almost all economic activity was controlled and managed electronically.
Their economic system was considered illegal, but it did not attract much attention as the group was small and their activities appeared harmless. Victor desired to increase the number of Inquisitive members. He wanted it to be treated like a club rather than a taboo that was tolerated by authorities. He also desired official legalisation for his alternative economy, which he believed could operate alongside the existing economy.
None of the region’s representatives nor anyone from the House of Divine Knowledge took Victor seriously. They did not like how he opposed most of the Government’s policies nor his challenges to ideology presented by theologists and philosophers.
Some considered Victor to be a conspiracy theorist or dissenter who posed a possible threat. Some of them desired action to be taken against him and were dissatisfied with the leniency shown towards him and the Inquisitives by the Commander of the Enforcers.
Victor and the Inquisitives fortunes appeared to be changing. A few months earlier, a charismatic young Sapien named Orcille joined the group. Orcille moved to Adoy a few weeks after Darius’ incident at the wall. He worked for the Carvaress Company as a scientist in the Industrial Zone. He was an expert in developing rapid-growth fertilizer for plants. He was considered one of the more talented scientists to graduate from Zound University, located in the Tarrus Region.
Orcille shared many of the same views as Victor. Initially, Victor was hesitant to welcome Orcille. He was relatively new to the region and worked for a company that promoted ideology that Victor strongly opposed. Therefore, Victor made an effort to find out more about Orcille before welcoming him with open arms.
Orcille was a top student at Zound University, but he was also an activist. He openly criticised the House of Divine Knowledge. He even organised a protest about the curriculum of one of the classes. Orcille was talented enough to become a junior scientist in the Capital Region. However, his behaviour was considered unacceptable for the largest region. Instead, he was forced to accept a much less prominent job in the small region of Adoy.
Victor felt confident that Orcille would fit in well with his group, and the two became close very quickly. Within a very short time, Orcille became the second-most authoritative figure of the Inquisitives.
The Inquisitives did not have a formal place for their meetings and their activities. They mostly rotated between the homes of the more senior members. This was because all buildings in Adoy had designated purposes. Most of them were occupied, but there were a few new empty buildings. These were closely monitored with surveillance cameras. There were no abandoned buildings; if a building no longer had a purpose, it was demolished, repurposed, or replaced. The region was too small for space to be wasted.
With the arrival of Orcille, the Inquisitives gained access to an underground section of the Industrial Zone Train Station. This was used for raising cargo up to the train level as well as temporary storage for cargo that was going to be transferred out the next day. Orcille had access to this area, as he needed to collect components for his research as well as transfer fertilizer samples he had developed to experts in other regions.
This section could only be used when the trains were not running and when most Sapiens had left the Industrial Zone for the day. Orcille knew how to move around the Industrial Zone to avoid detection from cameras. He also had spare lab coats the Inquisitives could wear to avoid attention.
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