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Having heard her, the Governor reappeared, carefully leaning against his leather seat. His eyes went to the gun in Eden’s hand, but seeing that she wasn’t pointing at him, he probably felt confident. He smirked, glaring at her while the medical bot was still working on his shoulder. In fact, there was already pretty much nothing left of that injury.
“You’ve accomplished nothing by coming here, child,” he said. “Even if you kill me, it will all be for nothing. You can’t stop those fights with my death. You’ll only lead your precious Suburbs to be destroyed for good. You think the Core’s citizens are innocent? They aren’t. They voted for this. They approved every single project we sent them! This isn’t just my doing, Eden. It is human nature speaking. When we told them we could increase life expectancy, they wanted it. When we told them we could drop criminality in their streets to zero percent, they voted. Oh, and of course, they all voted for me, every time, for the last fifty years! They put their future in me. If you kill me now, you’ll only be a terrorist girl from the Suburbs who took the life of their leader. Someone else will be chosen to replace me, and everything will go on, just as before. Minus the Suburbs, of course. Retaliation would be the right way.”
“You blindside them, don’t you?”
Despite her tears, Eden’s voice was unexpectedly clear. She wiped her nose and cheeks, but her hazel eyes stayed on the Governor, with unresolved anger in them.
“You don’t tell them the cost. If you told your citizens how many lives you sacrificed, would they still vote for you? Would they really vote if they heard their own children are killed in the womb?”
The Governor’s expression gradually fell. She had touched a sensitive chord. He let out an annoyed groan and glanced at the medical bot that was trying to heal him.
“They did not need to know,” he said. “They only needed to know the results, not everything we had to pay for it. Does that make any difference? They want immortality. They want safety, wealth, and peace of mind.”
“You’re choosing the truths that suit you,” Eden muttered. “...If you only show one portion of the truth, you’re making that choice for them. This isn’t democracy. Your citizens are no better than puppets.”
“They are happy puppets! Look outside, Eden. Your Suburbs are the ones who came and wrecked that heaven we had put in place! Look at the destruction! The deaths they are causing!”
Eden didn’t need to glance outside. The blood on her hands, clothes, and face was enough already. There wasn’t a single Core civilian’s blood spilled outside, she was sure of that. It was nothing but the Core’s doing, the Governor’s system parodying the truth to suit their needs.
“You’re lying,” she muttered. “All the time. You won’t even show them the truth!”
Suddenly, the glass windows around them changed. Pan was now displaying two versions of what was going on outside of the tower; from one window to the other, things were only slightly different. Eden immediately recognized the tweaked version that the Core was displaying, where the people of the Suburbs were seemingly murdering their citizens, while on the other side was the truth: the robots killing the fighting members of the Zodiac and the ones behind them. She didn’t even flinch; she had already seen the chaos in those streets. She vaguely recognized Tanya and Michael, both hiding behind what looked like tanks, screaming orders to their people and holding on, just a few streets away from the tower. In the fake version, there were some of the Core’s citizens’ houses on fire, while in real life, most were unscathed. Of course. The people from the Suburbs had no reason to attack them when they could barely defend themselves.
“...You’re nothing but a liar,” she muttered.
She turned to the Governor again. Her eyes weren’t crying anymore, but expressing a deep sadness either way.
“You lie,” she said. “You lie to the people, to your citizens so you can push the weight of your own choices on them. You only let them see the Suburbs you see, and you build walls so they have no idea of the nightmare it is outside. You call it a paradise? It’s a fucking cage you got them all in!”
“You think your dear Suburbs are any better?” scoffed the Governor. “Look at them! Thieves, murderers, rapists! All of them are committing crimes on a daily basis without blinking! You think your precious Zodiac are decent leaders? They are nothing but gangsters! We knew what kind of scum would breed when we left the Mafia to reign over, but we didn’t care! The vermin preying on the vermin! We figured you’d eventually all murder each other!”
“Look outside,” retorted Eden. “You don’t have the slightest idea of who those people really are. Do you think it’s only fear that keeps us moving, behind those criminals? No. It’s the will to survive. I didn’t become a hacker to commit crimes, I did it to survive. Every single day, every hour, hundreds of people in the Suburbs only have one thing in mind. They want to stay alive, they want to be safe. It’s true. We kill, we steal. But we don’t do it for pleasure! We do it to survive! Even children have no choice but to steal when they are starving, and everyone in the Suburbs is starving!”
“Human nature is ugly,” hissed the Governor. “If we don’t provide for them, our citizens will end up just the same. Hence, we need to keep a portion of the population fed plenty, comfortable, and thriving, and leave the others to naturally disappear.”
“...Naturally disappear? It’s mass murder!” shouted Eden. “There are thousands of innocent people dying for the comfort of a few hundred! How can you claim you’re saving the population when old farts like you literally plan to live forever? There’s no way there will be resources to keep us immortal, so you just chose to reduce the number of births so you can keep on living! It’s just disgusting!”
“You children don’t know anything! Your generation will perdure until Mother Earth is ready to have us again! And then–”
“And then what? You’ll keep selecting who lives and who dies? Who can be born? You’ll keep nurturing insensitive people with no idea what it’s like to be hungry just for a day? …Those people outside, your precious Core citizens, are just blind and deaf to the cries coming from beyond the wall. But the truth is, you just don’t have the guts to actually give them their free will back. They are more your prisoners than the Suburbs are. They vote for a despot because they have no idea they are voting for the death of thousands of others, and their own children!”
“That’s right!” shouted the Governor, jumping on his feet. “And everything works better this way! Humans are incapable of making choices for the greater good unless directed by a higher power! I am the one that governs them all, I am the one who makes the right choices for their sake! It takes men like me to save humankind from its own madness! To save our future! And all our citizens only need to see the results, and thank me for it! Yes, your precious Suburbs are expendable, and they will disappear rightfully so! What happened today will only be their downfall!”
“And once they’re gone, who is going to fill your next Suburb, Governor?” scoffed Eden. “You can’t expect that the garden you’ve cultivated all this time won’t ever create rotten apples. There will always be criminals. Misfits. People who just don’t belong to that so-called perfect paradise! It can’t work. There will always be someone who steps out of the lines. Always. As long as humans are left with their own willpower...”
A vicious smile appeared on the Governor’s lips. He chuckled, but this time, he didn’t look young or charming anymore. Eden could see past what he looked like. Inside, he was nothing but an old man, trapped in his own visions, entirely insensitive to the pain of others. He could still feel pain, but he wouldn’t even blink at the massacre going on outside. It didn’t bother him a single bit. It was as he said. He saw the humans that didn’t belong in his vision as vermin, disposable. And he would dispose of everyone that hindered his plans.
“That’s exactly my point,” he chuckled. “We can always sort the bad apples, Eden. …Isn’t it ironic? Your father named you this, but the child grew to be the vicious, devilish snake that wanted to push ignorant Adam and Eve to take a bite of the forbidden fruit. But I am the god of this world, Eden, and as long as I want it, humans will never get to see the truth. Their only truth will be the one I show them, and just like this, I will be the maker and savior of our future. I will keep on living, just to save humanity, just to show them, in a century or two, what we have accomplished together. I will live to see it; I will be adored as the savior, as the one who guided them through the dark ages of this planet. And one day, when I am sure my vision will go on forever, I will peacefully die, adored and mourned by all.”
“...Damn, you were right, Eden,” chuckled a voice. “He really is one hell of a crazy piece of shit!”
The Governor’s face whitened. He looked up, and the screens around them changed. One by one, several windows opened, showing the faces of the current Edge. Dozens of hackers, men and women, appeared, with their headphones on and their eyes riveted on screens. Soon, their faces covered all of the windows around them, and Eden glanced around, a bit relieved to see so many familiar faces. She couldn’t even tell who was who, but she had recognized Greed’s voice coming from her right. On the left, a window appeared, with Nebty’s face at the very center.
“You rotten bastard,” she hissed.
The Governor was completely surprised by the Edge appearing around him. He kept turning around, staring at all the windows that were opening and gradually covering the fake visions of Chicago. After a while, he chuckled, turning to Nebty’s face.
“Ah! The rats are coming out of their hideouts!”
