He fell silent briefly, trying to gather his strength to speak again while fighting the excruciating pain coursing through his body. Then he continued in a feeble tone, "I don't care what you do to me. I will return to you again and haunt your dreams."
Sairi's patience was wearing thin. He had obtained nothing from this man, and it seemed he would never talk.
He contemplated what to do with him, which method would be best to kill him. But before he could act, the masked man reached into his pocket, pulled out a pistol, and aimed it at his own head. He pulled the trigger, and the sound of the bullet piercing his skull echoed through the air as he collapsed, dead.
Sairi stood astonished, unable to comprehend what had just happened.
Why did he kill himself? Was his mission more important than his life?
He felt a strange excitement from the incident and began considering his next move. He now had a corpse from which he'd gained no information except through espionage, and he needed to continue his journey without knowing where to go.
Where could he escape from all this? As he pondered, his thoughts were interrupted by a beeping sound coming from the masked man's watch. He scanned the body with his eyes to locate the sound, tracing it to the watch, and heard a voice emerge, "You seem busy now, so I'll leave you this recorded message. I'm currently monitoring the third sample. I'll send you the coordinates so you don't encounter him. Exercise caution."
The watch screen illuminated, projecting a three-dimensional map of the city with a point marking the location of the third sample, which fortunately wasn't far from him. Sairi now knew his destination. He removed the watch from the wrist of the lifeless body lying before him, covered in wounds, and also took the strange cloak, revealing the face clearly—a man in his thirties, bald, with European features.
Sairi donned the cloak to avoid recognition and prevent suspicion from other Enix members who might glimpse him. Examining the black robe, he noticed two red lines running vertically on the right and left sides. In the center of the chest was an embossed golden planet, and on the back were four more embossed planets he couldn't identify. He put on the robe without paying much attention to these strange emblems and pulled up the hood until his face was completely hidden.
He pressed a button on the light sword's hilt, extinguishing the blade, then attached it to his waist. He took the corpse and hid it in one of the houses, then continued on his way, studying the three-dimensional map, particularly the moving point near him—the third sample. He found the city's name displayed above the map: New Atlantis!
Among the trees stood someone watching Sairi, someone who had witnessed everything without being detected.
***
After donning the official attire of this strange organization called the Enix, which he had claimed as spoils from its killed member, Sairi continued toward the point marked on the three-dimensional map, feeling he was now one step ahead of the Enix.
His current plan was to reach the sample they had mentioned. He would ask him to join forces, explain what had happened, and together they would capture the Enix member watching him until they force him to reveal everything. Since this was the third sample, it meant there were more, and he decided he would try to find them too. With their help, everyone might understand what was happening here and find a way out of this predicament.
Sairi pulled up his hood until his face disappeared within it and set off toward his destination as the sun set on the horizon, casting its red rays upon the trees and grass, tinting them with a purple hue.
After a period of walking, Sairi began to run, examining the surroundings and trying to sense anyone in the area by feeling the energy of their bodies.
He had deceived everyone by claiming his ability was moving objects with his mind, but his power was actually an immense energy flow emanating from his body that he could use for many things, such as telekinesis, sensing people around him, and numerous other functions.
After a long journey, Sairi approached his destination closely. Only a few meters remained, so he proceeded cautiously after leaving the main road and entering the city, penetrating deep within. He saw demolished buildings, ruins, and wreckage pervading the place, with smoke and scattered bones everywhere, and some buildings blackened by fires. Bewildered by what he was seeing, he wondered what had happened here? Did something dangerous cause everyone to flee? Perhaps his companions escaped to another location. He don't know, but he must complete his mission first."
After a few minutes, he finally sensed his target and looked at the map to find that he had come very close with little distance remaining between them. He turned right cautiously onto a side road and walked as the sun set and the moon took its place, announcing the arrival of night. Suddenly during his walk, he heard a loud explosion from somewhere distant, echoing throughout the city.
He turned around and looked toward the source to find flames shooting upward followed by plumes of smoke. Sairi sensed another person in the vicinity and looked behind him again, feeling someone atop one of the leaning, damaged buildings.
Sairi looked up in that direction and saw that the person was holding some weapon aimed at him, recognizing this from the glint of the weapon's scope lens amid the darkness when moonlight fell upon it. Suddenly the weapon disappeared and the person lowered his body, concealing his presence.
Sairi realized it was one of the Enix watching him, so he took advantage of the opportunity to hide and ran quickly toward the building until he was against it, then circled around until he found a way up. He glimpsed the person who was watching him disappearing into the darkness at the top of the building.
Sairi felt his way forward, then ascended very slowly toward the observer to catch him by surprise. He climbed over the debris, crossing obstacles one after another, taking precautions with every step; one mistake would reveal his presence.
He found a desk in his path with dense rubble of small stones on top. He stood on the desk slowly, trying not to disturb the rubble, when suddenly his foot slipped due to the dust, colliding with the small rocks, sending them to the ground and creating a loud commotion. The enemy located his position, and Sairi expected there was no escape now from direct confrontation.
He ran toward him and glimpsed the enemy aiming at him with a sniper rifle.
Sairi raised his hand forward, gathered energy in his palm, and released it the moment he heard the shot fired, using a propulsive force against another propulsive force to change the direction of the first force, making it deflect or rebound using the law of elastic collision. For every action, there is a reaction. The shot veered off course, and Sairi continued his rush toward the enemy, gracefully overcoming obstacles, jumping over some debris, and crossing others with acrobatic movements.
Sairi saw the enemy aiming at him again but lacked sufficient time to repeat his previous maneuver.
Relying on luck, he kept rushing forward, then swerved left, feeling it was the right moment to avoid the incoming shot. Indeed, just as he veered off course, he heard the shot echo through the area, but it passed beside him. Feeling reassured, he decided to hurry and catch the enemy before the next shot could finish him. He sprinted as fast as he could through the pitch darkness, barely seeing the figure before him, until he came very close to the enemy, who in turn drew a pistol and fired toward him nervously.
Sairi gathered energy in his palm again and pushed it forward in successive bursts to deflect the bullets one after another while maneuvering with agility, until he felt he might be hit. A thought flashed in his mind, and he pushed energy charges toward a medium-sized rock in front of him. The rock flew toward the enemy, knocking him to the ground.
Sairi drew his light katana, then jumped at him to intimidate him into surrendering, but the enemy rolled to the right and quickly sprang to his feet, assuming a defensive stance. Sairi kept waving his sword, which slightly illuminated the dark place, revealing the face of the strange person standing before him. Sairi noticed he was bulky and broad-shouldered, resembling one of those muscular wrestlers. Sairi continued waving his sword relentlessly until something happened that he did not expect.
***
Ares walked among soldiers who moved with strict regularity and steadiness. He said to himself,
"What better than the army to control humans and make them puppets moving in perfect harmony as desired without complaint, objection, or questioning what they do? They simply march with their minds completely washed, but there is no difference between them and me in anything. I am exactly like them, except at least I can distinguish between right and wrong even if I do the wrong thing—they have not managed to wash my mind and make me lose my consciousness until I become like a puppet."
He continued his walk amid the trees, contemplating the stunning nature, hearing birds singing to each other above the trees. The wind played with tree branches, causing them to intertwine and their leaves to tremble.
Some animals ran here and there, seeking their daily sustenance, while the sun slipped between the intertwined branches above to illuminate the forest and spread warmth throughout the place.
After a long period of walking, Ares finally emerged from the forest to find a small camp before him extending across a vast green plain, surrounded by some barbed wire fences. The camp consisted of numerous green tents standing proudly beside each other in a longitudinal formation across two adjacent rows.
Inside, soldiers moved back and forth, hurrying from one place to another. He also saw some aerial receivers and some computers inside the encampments. At the camp gate stood two soldiers in silence and stillness; when they saw the Captain coming with the soldiers, they stood straight, offering a military salute toward him. The Captain returned the salute, and the two soldiers opened the gate to let him, the soldiers, and Ares into the camp. The two soldiers cast doubtful and questioning glances at Ares, who looked at them in turn, then quickly averted his gaze.
Thus the Captain proceeded, greeting everyone he saw, while Ares felt like a king walking among his courtiers because of the royal treatment he was receiving. He observed the surroundings, remembering his painful past in a similar camp, and wondered if his past was the reason for his present. Was it the reason he was chosen to use this strange power and become part of what was happening here? Although the picture was blurry now, the Captain would surely tell him everything, as he seemed to revere him in some way and thought he had come to help. It was irony of fate, as they say, for this was not what Ares had originally come to Egypt for, but he would go along with them so as not to be exposed. He felt grateful that he had taken some clothes from one of the empty stores on the way and wore them; had they seen him in those hospital clothes, he didn't know what would have happened.
Ares's wandering thoughts were interrupted by the Captain's firm voice, pointing for him to enter the tent before which he stood. Ares nodded his head and immediately entered the tent.
There he found some soldiers sitting at computers, sometimes muttering in Arabic, and pressing some buttons here and there. In the center of the tent stood a person who appeared to be of high rank, looking at a three-dimensional map on the table in front of him along with some other officers, pointing to some red areas on the map. They appeared deeply engrossed in something of paramount importance.
The Captain greeted those in the tent, then approached the high-ranking person and whispered in his ear, then directed his gaze toward Ares. The high-ranking person also looked at him, and his features, which had been characterized by seriousness, began to change. After a few seconds of whispering, the Captain stepped away and headed toward Ares, then spoke to him in his strange accent, saying,
"Please, Mr. Ares, I want to introduce you to the General."
Ares acquiesced and walked with him until he stood directly before the General. The General spoke, emotion overwhelming his voice, "Welcome among us. We've been waiting for your arrival." Ares returned the greeting, then fell silent. The best course of action in this situation was silence until he could discern what was happening around him.
The General said, attempting to shake the spider's web, "You know why you're here, of course?"
Ares said to himself, "No, I don't know. Well, my cover will be discovered—I must act immediately." He replied confidently with a meaningful tone, "Of course, and I want you to explain the latest developments."
The General paused briefly, making Ares feel his cover had been blown, but then the General smiled, "Of course I'll tell you. I apologize... but I feel I've seen you somewhere before."
Ares responded, improvising, "Certainly, perhaps during one of the visits or something similar."
The General laughed, patting his shoulder: "Yes, perhaps I saw you at one of them. Now I'll explain the latest developments." He gestured for Ares to look at the three-dimensional map, pointing to one of the red areas, "The robots have taken over this region as well."
The words struck Ares like lightning. He couldn't believe what he heard at first, thinking to himself with apprehension and fear, "Robots? Is he joking with me? How did robots take control of Egypt? Does this explain the disappearance of humans from the city and the destruction surrounding many buildings and facilities?"
The General continued with a sorrowful tone, "Since the robot revolution against humans five years ago, specifically in the year 2150."
Ares was even more shocked by what he heard, trying to conceal the suspicion in his expression, "We're in the year 2055 now. What in God's name is happening here? He've been asleep in that cursed tower for five years! This explains the long beard and hair, and the injection he received in the tower to be able to move his body, but he never expected five years had passed! What happened to him during that time? How did he end up here?"
Ares focused on the General as he delivered his lecture, which fortunately helped him understand several things. The General continued in a gloomy tone, "We continue all our efforts to destroy these damned machines, but these things evolve at a terrifying speed. They use strange weapons against us that we don't know where they acquired. We began to retreat as many victims fell to this brutal occupation. But that's not all that happened—they began using strange vessels that hover in the sky, turning everything beneath them to ash with a single strike, until they eliminated most of our forces. We started hiding in the forests, sending spies to discover their secrets. We don't understand how these sardine cans rebelled against us; their artificial intelligence hadn't yet reached the stage enabling them to achieve full consciousness. If we were to classify robots from five years ago, it would have the same intelligence and awareness as a fifteen-year-old child. I don't believe a child of that age could rebel against their parents and create such advanced things."
The General fell silent for a moment to gather his thoughts, then continued with anger radiating from his eyes, "Thus they began to spread like a plague, rebelling throughout New Cairo as a starting point, then expanding to occupy most of Egypt. They even seized control of factories specialized in manufacturing robots to create more of themselves. But truthfully, they've amazed us. They've created things far more massive and impressive than we could imagine. Not only that, but they've developed their own language and publicly declared their state to the entire world on television. They announced that humans would be expelled from the country, and anyone who attempted to resist would be killed. Of course, some countries tried to help, but their forces were completely annihilated just for attempting to approach Egypt. I've heard that numerous countries have experienced what happened to us and have been completely erased from existence, making the world anxiously anticipate this destructive power as it grows and flourishes before their eyes while they can do nothing.
No one can enter Egypt anymore, as most of its territories have been occupied by them. This forced everyone to flee to Atlantis City located in western Egypt, which is surrounded by a magnetic shield preventing any aircraft from entering its airspace. Anyone who approaches crashes into the shield and falls like a fly. Even if someone succeeded in entering, their chance of survival is nonexistent in the face of the strange weapons possessed by the robots. So our last resistance remains here in Atlantis, which stayed safe and received refugees from all over the world of all colors, shapes, and nationalities—until this cursed day came."
He paused briefly, took a deep breath, then continued his explanation, "During the implementation of a government plan to repel the robot aggression and expand our territory to twice the current size of Atlantis to increase human territory and achieve our first victory against them, somehow—no one knows how—the robots managed to enter New Atlantis when the expansion plan was executed. They destroyed New Atlantis, killed millions of humans, and decimated half of the Egyptian army. Afterward, somehow most of the robots were destroyed. We don't understand how this happened, but some soldiers mentioned strange soldiers who came from the sky. Of course, no one believed them. The robots haven't been able to take control of New Atlantis yet, but they're trying, and sooner or later they'll take it. They've destroyed some of the areas you see before you in red, but they still have much more to go. If not for the intervention of these soldiers we know nothing about, we would have perished... but perhaps these soldiers came from other countries to help, as we haven't been able to communicate with other countries for five years."
He stopped, cleared his throat slightly, then added with a caustic voice, "Initially, none of the countries paid much attention to the machine revolution. It was something strange, of course, and stranger still was this peculiar fog that appeared everywhere, causing the robots to breach the Three Laws that prevented them from killing or harming humans. When this fog dissipated, nothing remained but destruction."
"Humans continued to talk about them for several years, about the massacres happening in Egypt. They expected us to defeat them, and that was what should have happened. We had indeed restrained them and eliminated many of them, until they suddenly spread like a plague, emerging from every direction, killing anyone who stood in their path. They made no distinction between children, women, and the elderly. The revolution began, as I said before, from New Cairo, then spread everywhere. New Atlantis remained fortified for a long time. After five years of attacks and occupation, after they declared their state in 2052 and controlled all of Egypt, they moved to Sinai and seized most of it. Our city became the only one still standing until now. That's why they began pursuing it by force. We withstood them for some time, until what happened happened—half our soldiers perished, and citizens fled to a shelter westward, waiting for the chance to escape Egypt permanently. We remained as Egypt's final internal resistance and the only hope. But we never expected a spy from the European Union to be able to enter and cross the shield. How did you do this? And what happened to the European Union—did it remain steadfast or did it fall too? And what happened to the rest of the Islamic Union countries?"
Ares tensed at the unexpected question, tried to conceal his expression, and thought of a quick lie: "I crossed from underground—the shield doesn't surround the country from below. They sent me alone to make the mission easier, to inquire about what's happening from the inside and gather information from you that might help us destroy these damned machines, then leak it outside. As for the Union, it's still fine but frequently subjected to machine attacks. Many wars have been waged to restrain them, which is why we can't provide assistance to you now. The same applies to the Islamic Union—it's also under fierce attack from these machines. Many countries have fallen, but others still stand."
The General seemed convinced by his answer and praised him, "How brave you are, my friend. You did all this to rescue us. We will never forget your kindness despite the hostilities between us... I hope the European and Islamic Unions survive these accursed machines... We made a terrible mistake using these machines—we should have relied on humans in our lives."
Ares smiled, feeling suspicious about what was happening, sensing he was in some kind of setup. What rescue was he talking about? This was never his mission when he went to Egypt. He didn't come to help them, but to steal information from them. He also felt the General was naive—did he really think the European Union would come to help them out of humanitarian concern? They would only help because this matter threatened their national security, and the robots' evolution and revolution might eventually reach them.
Ares said with a calm smile, "Yes, I've endured many hardships, but thank God, I finally reached you. Now tell me what you've discovered about these robots."
The General sighed with relief, then exhaled, saying, "We've discovered only one thing that might seem somewhat insane, but nothing happening isn't surrounded by madness. We believe there's a force from space supporting these robots."