Eyes of the Oracle (part three)

(warning: some religious references and opinions)

Lisa hammered hard at the door.

"Let me out! I don't want to be part of this sick plan!"

She was horrified. Just hours ago she was stricken with the thought of suicide, now her suicidal tendencies were being used to bring about mass destruction! The man had locked up the door of the waiting room despite her protests.

"Please try to understand, Lisa," he said through the glass window. "We are making a small sacrifice in view of changing the world for the better."

"Small sacrifice?! It's my life we're talking about here! How am I supposed to live on knowing that I helped to destroy the world?!"

The man chuckled.

"I thought you wanted to end your life just now, why are you so keen on living all of a sudden? Don't worry, what we are intending to do is remove your brain and give it to Kin so he can extract the relevant information and store it. You won't live to see the end of the world."

Lisa was frightened. 'It must be a dream...'she thought. 'These mad men, they can't be real, it must be a dream!'

"We are definitely not a dream," said the man, once again as if reading her mind. "We are servants of the great Kin, his almighty compassion is what we want to bestow onto the world. As a matter of fact, all we need is one more. After we have obtained your brain, we can finally bring change to this world!"

Lisa was taken aback by hissing sounds emitting from the wall. It was sleeping gas! She hammered even harder at the window, as the man stared at her intently. She slammed her fists with all her might, but each slam just made her feel even more tired, even more sleepy. She fell to the floor, struggling to stay awake.

"Bang!" A huge explosion shook the whole room. Gunshots sounded over the screams coming from outside. Lisa was by now very druggish, and did not even jump in fright when a stray bullet hit the man who held her hostage in the head, his horrified face pressed against the window in morbid agony as he collapsed on the floor. The last thing she remembered was the door being kicked open and armed gunmen rushing in.

Lisa awoke in a simple bed in a room lit only by the evening sun which shone through a frosted window. The room was virtually empty, being surrounded by four bleak walls. The only company she had was a young teenager. He looked very sluggish, wearing torn clothes and slumped on a wooden chair, asleep and snoring. She looked around the room, and confirmed that there was absolutely no door. How did they get in here? Through the window?

The teenager stirred suddenly and woke up with a grunt. Lisa nearly fainted when he opened his eyes. Transparent with sparks, just like Kin! She thought she had the good fortune to be rescued from Kin's clutches, but here she was with another of his kind. As a matter of fact, she remembered the man told her there was only two in the world, could she be so 'lucky'?

"I see you're awake," said the teenager. "No need to be afraid, I'm not a crazy malfunction like Kin. I am the leader of the team who opposes him, you may call me Ike."

Ike clapped his hands, and in an instant, the room disappeared! Lisa found that the bed was in an underground basement, and all around were old furniture and other kinds of junk. Needless to say, it was another sealed dimension. She had been into two that day, not something anyone would get to do everyday.

"Come with me," said Ike, and left for the door without even waiting for her reply. Lisa didn't bother, she quickly got out of bed and ran after him.

The basement was under a huge mansion, one that probably even the prince of England would envy and land his helicopter in. All around were exquisite furniture and elaborate sculptures. There were many paintings as well. To Lisa's amusement, all the paintings were of Ike. He was obviously some sort of egomaniac.

Ike walked pretty normally, but on close examination one would notice that his feet were spread unusually wide apart like a duck. Despite that he walked unusually fast. As they walked through hallway after hallway, Lisa had to struggle to keep up with him. Finally, they stopped outside a huge door, which Ike opened. In it was a gigantic room, full of books and study tables, and on the wall was a gigantic christian cross. Being a Christian, Lisa placed her palms together and bowed to it.

"A devout Christian would never think of suicide," said Ike bluntly. "Are you like the people who go to my church and park all their cars on the driveway, causing insurmountable inconvenience to other road users?"

Lisa looked at Ike angrily, then hung her head in shame. He was right, she wasn't as devout as she thought she was. Ike went over to the cross and studied it closely. Did she create some kind of disturbance to the holy cross? It would be a great sin if she did.

"Ha... as I expected. A failed Christian praying to a cross won't affect it. After all, it's just made of wood, a plain old symbol so people won't just pray to thin air. Devoution comes from the heart, and if you are truly empowered with the love of God, church won't even be necessary."

Lisa didn't know what to say. Ike definitely wasn't like Kin, but he gave her a more uneasy feeling than Kin did. As a matter of fact, for the rest of the time, Ike did the most talking.

"I bet you are wondering what is really going on," he said, motioning her to the nearest study table. "What is the oracle project? What is the nature of our eyes? And who am I really? I bet these are all questions running through your mind. Normally, I would prefer to keep this away from outsiders, especially a failed Christian like you, but since you've seen so much already, I may as well come clean."

Lisa was by now getting offended. 'Stop calling me a failed Christian, you egomaniac!'

"As the man whom I personally shot in the head and am pretty proud of it said, his name is Mu by the way, Kin and I are both products of the Oracle project. Back in 2007, after the problem of E8 was solved, Damien Lee initiated the project to create superhumans like us. Damien Lee worked for DSO, and according to him he hoped that such a human could aid Singapore's defence. How? Well...that's up to you to imagine. Truth is he wanted to be famous, like any madcrack scientist who didn't get enough love. Even DSO wanted to get rid of him. At first, no one believed it could work, so it seemed like very good basis to sack the guy. But it worked, and Kin and I were created. All was good at first, but when we were 10 years old, there was a problem. Kin and I fought over ice cream..."

Ike began to chuckle to himself. Lisa also began to think of a suitable escape plan.

"Come to think of it now it was really funny, but back then it wasn't. Kin began a big lecture on how the suffering and pain in this world were caused by greedy people like me, and that I should repent. You see, Kin and I are both designed based on E8, but Kin had a slight error. Explaining in mathematical terms, there was a missing integer in his matrix, but then again, you can never explain these things in words. Don't get me wrong, I know how the E8 group works and all, but getting me to explain it to you in English is like teaching science in Arabic. You don't know Arabic right?"

For the first time that day, Lisa actually thought something was funny.

"Anyway, that missing integer was crucial. Both of us could see reality, both of us saw how troubled the world and all its people were, but the way in which we accepted it was totally different. Kin wanted to do something about it, and I said let God decide what's best. Kin didn't trust God, he even blamed him for all the world's troubles. He wanted to BE God so he could help change the world. The ice cream fight was what blew it. He told me that my stubborness was causing myself harm, and he wanted to kill me in compassion! No thank you! I could do with a little less compassion. So we fought, and I ran away. Yes, I ran away, he was really strong. Afterwards, I've been hiding in this sealed dimension. Trust me, he knows where I am, but knowing him, he's probably letting me repent in meditation. I mean, even to others, he mentions that there's another one of his kind, but he never says it was his brother. I've been hiding here, secretly building my army, ready to fight him again one day. The day has finally come."

Lisa felt more uneasy as Ike spoke. How did he manage to gather an army? And a sealed dimension? This mansion was in one? Then again, she had never seen such an exquisite mansion in Singapore.

"The army consists of members from SOC, SAF, and MRF to some extent," said Ike. Lisa was pretty sure there was something about her that made her so readable. "Yeah, we have MRF troopers too. The gas that put you to sleep? For some reason Kin has lots of it. I mean, you're not the first person he targeted you know."

Lisa definitely knew. She was supposed to be the last.

"But if you knew where Kin was all along, why did you only wait for him to catch me before striking?" she asked.

"Believe me, Kin's dimension is elusive even to himself. The reality is not a stable manifestation and is only viewable even with our eyes at certain times. It took me lots of pain before I finally found it, and just in time too. If Kin had collected your brain and implanted its E8 patterns into his collection, the world would definitely come to an end. You see, Kin believes he is doing something good for the world. But if you destroy it and kill everyone, or at least almost everyone, how is anyone ever going to learn? I mean you can't learn anything if you're dead. I do agree with him that disasters and all do give us good learning experiences, but only if we survive. Even if the world was supposed to face catastrophes, that would be God's decision, not his. Really, I don't know how I'm going to drive this into that thick skull of his."

"Oh, is that so?"

Lisa found the voice ghastly familiar. Even Ike was shocked. Standing right behind them was Kin, arms folded, giving Ike a very disdained look.

To be continued...