The Disillusionist

Today was the day, 17th of December, 2119, leaving day.  Samuel Morgan had been waiting for this day for five years and he found himself, much to his surprise, feeling very happy at the thought of finally going home.
    The time was about ten to nine in the morning, the ship to take Sam back to Earth was due to arrive at precisely 9am.  All his possessions had been packed, everything had been cleaned, as soon as he steps on that ship it’ll be as if Samuel Morgan was never here, just a memory stored away as a small file in the mind of a supercomputer.
    Now Sam was in the atrium saying his goodbyes to Hypnos while awaiting his ship.
    “Have a pleasant trip Sam,” Hypnos said in the warmest voice he could manage.
    “Thank you Hypnos,” Sam said.  “Thanks for everything.”
    “So did you ever finish your book?” Hypnos inquired.  “You never told me.”
    Sam began to smile as he said, “I left a copy for you to read in your hard drive.  Just promise that you‘ll contact me after you’re finished and tell me what you thought of it.”
    “Thank you Sam,” Hypnos said.  “Now that you’ve finished it, will you tell me what it’s about?”
    “You have the book now, just read it for yourself,” Sam said.  “When you’re done why don’t you tell me what you think it’s about and when you do, you’ll be right.”
    “I think I’ve found it in the station’s database,” Hypnos announced.  “Is it the file called ‘Evil Conical Tombs’?”
    “Yes that’s it,” Sam said.  “It was partially inspired by this place, but don’t worry, I didn’t mention anything compromising.”
“I really enjoyed meeting you Samuel,” Hypnos said with what looked like a tear in his eye, but was probably just some static.  “I will miss you.”
    “I’ll miss you too Hypnos,” Sam said.  “Don’t forget to stay in touch with me.”
    “I will,” Hypnos said.  “Perhaps we could have another game of chess in the future.”
    “I would like that,” Sam chuckled.
    “You should get going Sam,” Hypnos said.  “I have already granted clearance for the ship to dock.”
    “They’re here already?” Sam said.  “They must be early, is it Angelica?”
    “The clearance code used was one for a vessel called the ‘Lost Seraph’,” Hypnos said.  “My records indicate that this is the ship of a ‘Lieutenant Michael Harper’.”
    “Oh,” Sam said, the note of disappointment evident in his voice.  “I guess I’ll be going now, goodbye Hypnos.”
    “Goodbye Samuel,” Hypnos said.  “And goodbye to you too Philip.”  He was addressing the cat that rested sleepily by Sam’s shoe, Philip did not stir.
    Sam gathered up his bags and his cat and made his way to the lower half of the atrium, the antechamber for the docking bay.  He stood a couple of meters away from the doors, put down his bags but still held on to Philip and waited patiently.
    Sam looked down at Philip, who had been woken up by this recent commotion; Philip returned Sam’s stare.  Whenever Sam looked at him all he ever saw was the little kitten he had bought from a pet shop in London, but now he could truly see how much Philip had changed over the years, Philip probably thought the same about Sam.
    The orange warning lights by the doors began to flash, signalling they were about to open.  The heavy doors slid out of the way to reveal the ship that would take Sam home.
    Sam looked up at it, it was the same shape as Angelica’s, just coloured differently.  This ship was a sparkling white, with the name and other parts painted in a piecing electric blue.
    Sam thought to himself that he had been naïve to expect Angelica to come back after five years, she probably had other duties she needed to perform.  He was just happy to have any ship, it didn’t matter which one or who was flying it, he had been away form his home planet for too long and needed to go back.
    As he looked up at the cockpit he could see no one behind the window, Sam thought that they were probably on their way out.  He wondered what kind of person Phelps had found to replace him, he hadn’t thought about it until now; he had been too excited about leaving.  Perhaps he should have asked Hypnos, but it was too late now.
    The side door opened and a woman’s face appeared, she had quite long dark blond hair and was rather pretty.  However, there was something wrong about the way she was looking at him, for some reason her eyes were closed.
    As more of the woman was revealed, Sam saw why her eyes were closed, there was red hole in the side of her head where a bullet had entered.  She was dead.
    The woman moved further out the door, supported by an arm holding onto her back.  Her feet weren’t even touching the floor now; she was being suspended high above the ground.
    Sam could only stare at this deceased person being used as a sort of grotesque marionette when the arm holding onto her let go.  She came crashing to the metal ground with a sickening crunch, as some bones were most likely broken.
    The person that replaced her at the doorway was a man in an Olympus uniform and a pistol in his free hand.  His gaze shot from the woman he had just dropped right to Sam, this sent a chill up his back and caused him to be frozen to the spot, not knowing what to do.  
The armed man quickly climbed down the ladder and jumped off, landing next to the broken woman.  He pointed his gun at Sam and slowly came forwards until he was in the antechamber.
    “Drop the cat,” he said as if he regarded the animal as a form of weapon.
    Sam did what he was told and placed Philip on the ground, the cat quickly sped off into the other part of the atrium and hid behind a wall.  Sam thought about how maybe that’s what he should have done as soon as he sensed something was not right.  Perhaps Philip was smarter than he was.
    “Are you my pilot?” Sam asked with a worried half-smile as put up his hands.
    “Well, that’s the official reason I’m here,” the man said.  “But I’m afraid I won’t be taking you home.”
    “Are you going to kill me?” Sam asked.
    “Not if you do exactly what I say,” he said.  “I would prefer doing this without killing anyone so if you co-operate, you’ll be left alive by the time I leave here.”
    “What happened to her then?” Sam nodded at the crumpled mess that was once a human being.
    “You try tolerating her for a sixteen hour flight,” he said.  “She was the most annoying person I had ever met.  I just couldn’t take it by the end.  I’m sorry if I scared you with her, but that was meant to be the point, I wanted you to see what I am capable of if I am displeased.”
    “Are you Michael Harper then?” Sam asked.
    “That’s the name I used to get a job with Olympus,” he said.  “Another name that people know me by is ‘Mantis’.”
    “What?” Sam said incredulously.  “I’m not going to believe that, everyone knows that Mantis died in the London riots over a year ago, it was all over the news.”
    “Lies,” he said.  “They wanted everyone to think that the problem had been dealt with.  Although, I suppose it was the time when there was no going back.  Maybe you could say that, in a way, I did die that night.”
    “So what are you, an immortal like the Followers suggest?” Sam said.
    “That’s a strange word, don’t you think?” he said.  “Immortality is so relative, it means different things to different people.  Some people think they can achieve immortality by creating something memorable and living on forever in people’s minds.  I don’t, words have great power and so I treat them all very seriously.  Immortality is a word that I take literally and I always thought that it was a difficult quality to prove.  You can disprove that someone is immortal by killing them, but there is no way I can think of to prove it.”
    “Do you think you are?” Sam said.
    “No,” he said.  “I’m not insane, I don’t have any delusions of living forever, I’m just smart and that can be an acceptable substitution.  I don’t mind chatting with you, I have the time, it’ll be ages before I’m expected back but I did come here for a reason and I would really like to get to it, so could you go into that room?”
    He gestured into the atrium where Philip had run off into, Sam complied and began to walk slowly into it, Mantis followed.  
    “What do you want from me?” Sam asked.
    “From you, nothing,” Mantis said.  “This station has something that belongs to me and I need to retrieve it, I don’t need your help in doing this but I promised a friend that I wouldn’t kill you, he’s the only reason you’re alive.”
    As they made their way into this room Hypnos appeared all of a sudden on the main screen.
    “Sam, what’s going on here…?” Hypnos said before he was cut short by a bullet passing through the monitor.  The sound of Mantis firing his gun so close to him made Sam jump.
    “Why did you that?” Sam asked.
    “He startled me,” Mantis said.  “I assume that was Hypnos then, he looked creepy.  It’s nice to finally meet you Hypnos!” he said to the room in general.
    “This is so weird,” Sam said.  “I’ve seen so many news stories on you, the way they talk about you they make you sound as if you’re a monster.  It feels strange to look you in the face.”
    “I’ve seen those news stories, I found them highly entertaining,” Mantis said.  “Don’t worry Sam, I’m no ghost or demon like the media would like you to believe, I’m something much worse.”
    “Oh?” Sam said.
    “I’m a human,” Mantis said.  “Now get into the lift.”
    Once again Sam complied with Mantis’ wishes and entered the lift, Mantis followed.
    Now that the lift door was closed Sam and Mantis were in quite close quarters.  Sam began to think to himself that if this was a cool action film he would be able to knock the gun out of his hand and into his own, he felt that he shouldn’t.  Sam had never held a gun before and probably wouldn’t even know how to use one.
    Once again Hypnos’ face appeared, only this time he wasn’t greeted with a bullet.
    “Sam?” he said.  “What is happening…?” Hypnos was cut short again when Mantis removed a flash drive from his pocket and placed into a slot next to the colourful floor buttons, Sam had always wondered what that space was for.
    “Access codes accepted,” Hypnos said, his face had become very blank, even for him.  “Please state password.”
    “Endymion,” Mantis stated.
    “Password accepted,” Hypnos said as his face transformed from a pale blue to an electronic green.  “Emergency mode activated, please choose your desired floor.”
    “Thank you Hypnos,” Mantis said mockingly.
    “What have you done to him?” Sam demanded.
    “I’ve removed his free will,” Mantis said.  “It’s a security failsafe, in case something goes wrong up here.”
    “Hypnos?” Sam tried to get him to respond.
    “You’re wasting your time, what are you expecting?” Mantis said.  “He’s just a stupid machine.”
    Mantis pressed the one button that Sam had never pressed, the green one, they were going down to the catacombs.
    “Do you know what the password means?” Mantis said.  “Endymion?”
    “No,” Sam said.
    “Olympus loves their ancient Greek mythology,” Mantis said.  “Endymion was a shepherd and astronomer who was sentenced by Zeus to sleep for the rest of eternity.  It was the job of Hypnos to keep and care for him in his home, the cave where the Sun never shines.  The God of Sleep took pity on this man and granted him the ability to sleep with his eyes open so that he could spend the rest of eternity gazing up at his love, Selune.  This was what the Greeks called the Moon.”
    “That’s a nice story,” Sam said.
    “It is, isn’t it?” Mantis said.  “I found out that story soon after I read what the password was, I wonder how Hypnos has been caring for the rest of his flock.”
    The lift stopped and the door swung open, with the gap halting in the middle of its usual rotation, at a position ninety degrees clockwise from the entrances to all the other levels.  Mantis’ gaze didn’t shift from the floor; he didn’t need to look.  Sam, however, he did look.  And what he saw was unbelievable.
    The catacombs were larger than Sam had ever imagined, so vast did they expand that Sam couldn’t see where they ended.  From the lift to the left hand side was a wall with a viewing window that was covered, which led to docking bay beta.  To the right, the inmates were piled in every conceivable manner, they packed them close together on the walls in shelves and giant cylindrical columns had been constructed between the walls that were covered in prisoners.
    Sam looked up at the roof, huge lights blinded him and he was forced to look away.  He looked below him, there was no floor.  The catacombs just continued even further that way than to the right of him.  The prisoners were indeed kept inside opaque plastic shells and one looked the same as another from where Sam was standing.
    Ahead of the only two conscious humans in the entire facility was a small platform, suspended out there over nothing, attached to the wall on the left.
    “Out,” Mantis commanded, indicating for Sam to step out into the catacombs.
    “What?” Sam said.  “There’s no place to step out onto.”
    “There’s no gravity in this room,” Mantis said.  “Celestia is only powered by its solar plates so they need to save as much energy as they can.  No one’s supposed to ever be in this room so they didn’t provide any expensive artificial gravity.”  Sam gave him a suspicious look so Mantis said, “If I wanted to kill you I would’ve done it by now.”
    Sam couldn’t believe what he was about to do, he closed his eyes and took a leap of faith into the void.  He didn’t fall, as he left the lift he felt gravity’s pull leave him and he just floated out there for a few moments, a few feet from the lift.
    “Thanks for testing that for me,” Mantis said.  “I’d only heard that there was no gravity in the catacombs and I needed someone to make sure for me.”
    Sam didn’t even care, he was enjoying himself too much, he had never experienced being weightless before and he loved swimming in air.  Mantis followed after him, he crawled along the wall until he got to the platform.  There was a computer console there that he had begun to use as he half-floated, half-stood on the outcrop by hooking one foot under a bar that had been built into the base of the platform for such a purpose.
    “What are you doing?” Sam asked.
    “I’m recovering what was taken from me,” Mantis said.
    “You’re going to take someone from here?” Sam said.
    “My brother,” Mantis said.
    Mantis finished typing on the computer and a giant robotic arm above the platform moved on aerial rails over to one of the columns, picked off a convict pod and brought it over until it hung on the right side of the platform, inches away from Mantis.
    Sam floated over to him and looked at the pod, it said it belonged to a ‘Seymour Garrett’ and under criminal record it only said, ‘Terrorist Activity’.
    Mantis pressed something on the pod and the face plate slid away, now only the transparent inner layer of the pod could be seen.  Immersed in a translucent green liquid was what appeared to be a human, not much of his face could be seen, an oxygen mask covered the nose and mouth and cotton pads were placed over the eyes and taped in place.
    “Hello Seymour,” Mantis said as tears of joy began to form around his eyes.  When his body created the teardrops to express his happiness, they floated away without the hindrance of gravity, these tiny perfect spheres of moisture glittering in the radiant light.  Mantis then began to produce increasingly manic laughter to accompany his tears.
    “Who are you?” Sam demanded.  “I mean really.”
    “I suppose it won’t do any harm telling you,” Mantis said, not looking away from his brother.  “Once Olympus figures out what I have done, it won’t take them long to find out everything about me.  My name is David Garrett, me and my brother were born in Seattle, that’s why it was so easy for me to infiltrate the Olympus Corporation.  I wasn’t even born in Europe so a new identity wasn’t difficult to fake with a little help from my friends.  I’ve worked for five years just for this moment.”
    “Why five years?” Sam said.
    “That was when he got arrested,” Mantis said.  “I was told that he was to be taken to a detention facility, I guess they didn’t lie about that part.  When I asked the next day if I could visit him, they told me that he had died trying to escape.”
    “Did you believe them?” Sam said.
    “At the beginning, yes,” Mantis said with a sheepish smile.  “They told me he was dead, so I came to the heavens to bring him back.”
    “What was his crime?” Sam said.  “It’s pretty vague on the pod.”
    “Being too trusting,” Mantis said.  “Even though he was my older brother, I was always looking out for him.  He was too good for this world.  He was nothing like me.  He was always into this political activism stuff, he wanted to make the world a better place for humans.  I never really got how a few people holding banners and shouting could change anything but it was important to him.  Seymour ran off to Europe when he joined this new group, I can’t even remember what they were called.  He was unlucky; he wasn’t aware how extreme they were when he started to follow them, how violent they were, how many innocents they killed with their bombs.  It wasn’t his fault, he doesn’t deserve to be here, he was sold out by his enemies and his friends.”
    “How so?” Sam said.
    “The rest of the organisation used him as a figurehead even though he definitely wasn’t the one in charge,” Mantis continued.  “They took advantage of him, they did so many things, saying that it was all his plans so the real leaders wouldn’t take the fall if the police found them.  The government and the media used him as well, painted him up to be this scary terrorist so they could say that they caught him.  He shouldn’t be here, spending eternity with all this evil.”
    Sam looked round, he couldn’t see a monitor for Hypnos to use to project his image, he figured that people really weren’t supposed to ever be down here.
    “Are you sure that your brother really wasn’t what they said he was?” Sam said.
    “I know him!” Mantis shouted at Sam, turning away from his brother and then immediately back to him.  “That wasn’t him on the news, this is him right here.”
    “I don’t understand,” Sam said.  “What was with all that ‘Mantis’ stuff, you said you didn’t get political activism.”
    “I needed a distraction,” Mantis said.  “Quite elaborate I know, but it was the best I could think of.  Years ago, soon after I decided to get my brother back, I started circulating all this political literature and set up an organisation of my own with some help from a few of my old criminal contacts.”
    “The Followers of Mantis?” Sam said.
    “They called themselves that, I didn’t name them,” Mantis said.  “I just directed them to where I wanted.  I needed them to give Olympus a reason to evacuate its headquarters.”
    “Why?” Sam said.
    “In order to get the access codes so I could come down here,” Mantis said.  “They’re kept in the Olympus Archives and nowhere else.  By this point, I had already obtained information from a source regarding what it would take to empty Olympus tower.  I needed to get rid of the guards and I didn’t want to have to kill anyone.”
    “What are you talking about?” Sam said.  “You just killed that woman who is currently decomposing away upstairs.”
    “That couldn’t be helped,” Mantis said.  “Believe me, if you had to spend any amount of prolonged time alone with her you would be thanking me.”
    “What was her name?” Sam said.
    “Amy something,” Mantis said.
    “What about the hundreds of people who died in the riots?” Sam said.
    “Fine then,” he said.  “I started out not wanting to kill anyone myself but I kind of blew it with that girl upstairs.”
    “I would say so,” Sam said.
    “Now that I think about it I can see others that I’ve killed,” Mantis said.  “OK, I admit it.  I’m no Vash the Stampede or Kenshin the Wanderer.  I don’t have that level of commitment to pacifism.”
    Sam didn’t get those two references but he decided not to question the man with the gun regarding them.
    “I would prefer not to kill others but my enemies keep leaving me little choice,” Mantis continued.  “They continue to get in my way and I shouldn’t be held responsible for their errors.  Their lives will always come second after my mission.  It was a tragedy how many people died in that night but I love my brother more than them.”
    “It’s that simple, is it?” Sam said.
    “To me it is,” Mantis said.  “And to him.”  He gestured at his brother.
    “So you didn’t believe any of the it?” Sam said.
    “Any of what?” Mantis said.
    “Any of the ideas that you put inside all those people’s heads,” Sam said.  “They were prepared to fight and die for those beliefs.”
    “Oh,” Mantis said.  “I guess not.  I actually think that the companies do a great job, sure some of the larger ones occasionally goes to far with something like this.”  He looked at the room all around him.  “But where would we be without them, they provide us with cheap reliable consumer goods.  We depend on them, they could get away with a lot more yet they choose not to.”
    “Wow,” Sam said.  “I never thought that I would hear the revolutionary leader Mantis ever saying that.”
    “Stop calling me that,” Mantis said.  “I just needed a dramatic name to get publicity.  I’ve told you my name, use it, call me Dave.”
    “I can’t believe you went to all that trouble just to get the access codes,” Sam said.  “Couldn’t you have just gotten a job as one of the guards at the Archives?”
    “What would be the point in that?” Dave said.  “Those who guard the top floor are never left alone, they’re always together.  I wouldn’t have had a chance to get what I needed.  I needed the place completely vacant.”
    “How did you get the job of flying up here?” Sam asked.
    “A lot of luck combined with some foresight,” Dave said.  “I was informed of a group known as the oneiroi.  These are a trio of Olympus Security Force personnel hand picked to guard the secret of Celestia by whatever means necessary.  I saw that, at the very least, I would need to be a member of this group if I ever had any hope of going to Celestia.  They each have code names.  There is the leader, Morpheus and then there were the subordinates, Phantasos and Phobetor.  I set my sights on Phobetor.  I spent a few years working for Olympus until I reached a point where I felt the highest probability for my selection into the group had arrived.  This was about eighteen months ago, when I assassinated my predecessor in a way that made everyone, including the police, assume it was suicide.  Now that I had created an opening, I requested the position and with a little persuasion and a few personal references, I was chosen as his replacement.  Then, when the time came around for the shift change on board Celestia, I made sure I didn’t let the opportunity go to waste.  Captain Ash would’ve done it but she’s away on some secret mission in North Africa.  They needed a last minute replacement and so they came to us, the second most trusted people when it came to Celestia.  I said I’d do it.  It wasn’t very difficult beating the competition since a 32 hour long trip to the Moon and back isn’t very inviting.  I was prepared to wait for however long necessary within the oneiroi until I got a chance to fly to Celestia, I thought it might take a few shift changes until the opportunity arrived, but it seems fate really wanted me to come as soon as possible.”
“You do know that there are other ships that come to Celestia, right?” Sam said.  “You didn’t have to wait for five years, you could’ve just joined one of those crews.”
    “You mean working at Lethe?” Dave said.  “Also pointless.  There’s no way to remove prisoners using that method.  I needed an authorised flight to docking bay alpha so I wasn’t blown away by Hypnos’ defence turrets.  This was the only option I had, so I took a membership among the oneiroi by force.”
    Sam was really proud of himself, here he was chatting away with someone who he had just seen killing a person not that long ago and he didn’t feel scared or nervous or anything.  He knew that he shouldn’t really take pride in that, but he did.
    “Were you even at the riots?” Sam asked.
    “Oh no,” Dave said.  “They looked incredibly dangerous on the TV.  I was fast asleep at home when they happened, I needed my rest, I had to take care of something important the next day.”
    “This is amazing,” Sam said.  “You’ve been working undercover for Olympus for five years, they’ve been afraid of someone who was working for them all this time.  You came up with an incredibly determined and patient plan.”
    “It wasn’t all me,” Dave said.  “I had help from a man who knew a lot about what I was dealing with.”
    “Who?” Sam said.
    “The same person who convinced me not to kill you so you’d do well to honour his wish for anonymity,” Dave said.  “Just forget I mentioned him, he’s not around anymore anyway.”
    “Don’t you feel guilty about misleading all those kids?” Sam said.
    “They weren’t that young,” Dave protested.  “Most were in their twenties, they were adults and capable of making their own decisions.  If they were stupid enough to buy into everything I said then maybe the world is better off without them.”
    “That’s a nice way to talk about your followers,” Sam said.
    “Don’t call them that,” Dave said.  “They were pawns, nothing more, I needed them to get here.”
    “Why have you told me all this?” Sam said.
    “I don’t really know,” Dave said.  “I’ve got a lot of time to spare before Olympus catches on, I’m supposed to be returning with you in another sixteen hours so I think I’ve got quite a head start, don’t you think.  I know that this won’t matter, I’m not telling you anything that Olympus won’t be able to find out by themselves and confession just feels so…cleansing.”
    “You’re not worried that I will tell them everything that you’ve told me?” Sam said.
    “I’ve spent a lot of time working for Olympus and I’ve learned quite a bit about how they operate,” Dave said.  “They won’t ask you, they’re too arrogant for that, they like to think that they don’t need any help and can handle everything themselves.  Anyway, they won’t need to because we’re being recorded right now.”
    “What?” Sam said.
    “They have cameras to cover every square inch of this place,” Dave said.  “Celestia is their most valuable installation, they have extensive precautions in place.”
    Sam looked around and said, “I don’t think you’re right.  There isn’t a monitor for Hypnos in here.”
    “Those monitors are just so Hypnos can talk to people,” Dave said.  “There will be some sort of sensor in place in the most sensitive part of the station.”
    “So they’re listening to us right now?” Sam said.
    “No,” Dave said.  “They don’t have someone back on Earth monitoring every second of the day.  Hypnos is supposed to alert them if anything is amiss so they can check it out for themselves and since Hypnos has already been stripped of his mind, I don’t see that happening anytime soon.  They will only check this footage when I fail to meet at the rendezvous and by then I’ll be long gone.  Speaking of which, I really should be on my way.  It’s been fun chatting with you but you’re cutting into my escape time.”
    David Garrett, or Michael Harper, or Mantis, or even Phobetor of the oneiroi, maybe all four.  Nevertheless this person began to disconnect his brother from the harness and took him over to the lift.  The process of transferring him from the zero gravity environment to the lift was awkward, the sudden pull of gravity as he crossed the threshold disorientated the man slightly but he recovered quickly and soon him and his brother were ‘standing’ side by side in the lift.  It looked very strange to Sam, there was a man standing up under his own power and another man unconscious and locked within a case, propped up against the side.
    “So you’re really taking him then?” Sam said, still floating in the catacombs.  “I can’t believe you think you can just walk out with him and everything’s going to be fine.  You’re insane.”
    “Maybe just a little,” Dave conceded.  “I prefer to think of myself as ‘Slightly Unhinged’.  That’s what my brother once called me.  He used to say that it’s good for you to be a bit crazy, it makes you consider possibilities that others wouldn’t.  You just have to make sure you don’t step too far into it.  Like most things in the Universe, it’s all a matter of balance.”
    “What are you going to do about your brother?” Sam said.  “I don’t think anyone has ever waken someone up who has been sentenced, do you even know how to do it?”
    “I’ve found a doctor who said he could do it,” Dave said.  “Apparently his muscles might be slightly atrophied but they shouldn’t be too much, that green fluid is a wonderful preserver.”
    “Don’t you find all this a little strange?” Sam said.  “Putting so much effort into preserving them even though they plan to just let them die, this entire facility has always seemed insane to me.”
    “That’s because it is,” Dave said.  “The entire world is insane.  Anything mankind even touches seems to be infected.  Why should this place be immune?  The only way to get by is to truly appreciate how funny it all is.  I think you’ll soon come to realise that I was the most normal person you’d ever met.”
    Sam smirked, psychopath or not he actually kind of liked David Garrett.
    “I don’t know why I’m smiling,” Sam said.  “I’m still mad at you.”
    “Oh, why’s that?” Dave said.
    “If you’re Mantis, then you’re responsible for the riots,” Sam said.  “I live in London, you wrecked my home town.”
    “You don’t know what you’re saying,” Dave said.  “That was over a year ago, you should see it now, it’s not just repaired, it’s been improved.”
    “You want to hear a crazy thought I just had?” Sam said.
    “Sure,” Dave said.
    “I was just thinking that I have no idea who the good guy is,” Sam asked.  “Do you?”
    “I don’t think I’m completely sure either,” Dave said.  “But I do know that it’s probably neither of us.”  Dave looked at his brother’s face and put his hand on the pod, then he said, “Maybe it’s him.”
    “Goodbye Dave,” Sam said.  “I don’t know why I’m saying this but good luck with your brother.”
    “Thank you Sam,” Dave said.  “You’ll understand if we take the lift up without you?  It’s just we can’t have you contacting Earth.  Can we Sy?” he addressed the pod with that last sentence.  Sam couldn’t tell whether he was expecting a reply or not.
    “You do realise that they’ll never stop hunting both you and your brother?” Sam pointed out.  “You know about Celestia, that’s Olympus’ most closely guarded secret.  You’ll be branded as international criminals and you’ll have to run for the rest of your lives, in all honesty, do you consider this worth it?”
    “Do you have any brothers?” Dave asked.
    “Yes,” Sam said.
    “Then it saddens me that you even had to ask that question,” Dave said.
    Sam didn’t say anything, he just thought of his two brothers; he hadn’t done that in a long time.
    “Anyway, I find it sweet that you care that much about us but if I were you, I’d be more worried about myself,” Dave said.
    “Why’s that?” Sam queried.
    “You know about Celestia too?” Dave said.  “How do you think I found out about this place?  A former technician talked, you’re probably in just as much danger as I am, if not more, at least I’ll be on Earth when they come for me.  There are a lot more hiding places down there than on this space station.”
    “What are you saying?” Sam said.  “I signed a contract, Olympus knows that I would never say anything.”
    “I signed a contract too and look at me,” Dave said.  “I hate the fact that I’m the one who has to tell you this, but not even blind eyes and deaf ears will save you now.”
    With that remark burned into Sam’s mind, David Garrett pressed the yellow button and the lift began it’s ascension.  When Sam could no longer see it, the industrial blinding lights above turned off leaving Sam alone in the dark.
    Strictly speaking, Sam wasn’t really alone.  As he floated there in this dark chasm at the sump of Celestia, Samuel Morgan had the comforting knowledge that he was in the company of the dregs of humanity.