“My point, Loman, is why promote an unknown colonel and give him the leadership of the biggest army ever when you already have the best of the best? Maybe because it is an exceptionally long campaign, it needs a young leadership. Konu is only in his 40s. Or maybe, and there is a small chance this hypothesis is true but it is worth considering, every move in his life was well-planned so he would end up in the most powerful position ever. Maybe he was the product of a well-planned, long, personal campaign by a very bright and thoughtful mind.
“This is just an idea that keeps running around in my head lately. That’s why you need to supply a very detailed report of his behavior by your psychologists before this machine starts, as the reality is that Konu will supervise the most ambitious and important event in human history. Twenty-five billion human beings will be totally controlled by seven humans, or let’s say now, seven deities.
“So, he needs more research than the two and a half pages in your report, doesn’t he?”
Chapter 11
The Supernova
“The Deliverer changes the poor souls’ dark perception of the world, to peace and content.”
~ Jazir
H e told me that I must trust him, and then gave me the most bizarre orders I ever got in my career. He told me to execute those orders even if he was killed, persecuted, or relieved from his functions. And even if the new commandments would call me back and cancel the mission, even if the Amian Empire gets destroyed by our enemies, even if the universe ends, he insisted I must complete my task. I said, “I trust you, and I will execute them perfectly.”
I was nine when I met Konu the first time in the court of the Sunshine Orphanage. I was crying quietly in the same hiding place I went every time it happened to me. Ashamed, perplexed, and vulnerable, I preferred to blame myself. By doing that, I could come up with some logic to the situation to keep my sanity. I still remember a yellow ball hitting my feet and a short, chubby boy yelling at me with a strange accent “Yo! Can you throw it back?” I stood up and threw it at him. After a short moment, he threw it back and yelled the same thing, but this time with a smile. I threw it back again, and we started tossing the ball back and forth, then we started playing together every day.
I suspected he knew what was going on every time that son-of--bitch Formi, the court’s guardian, called me to his office. He was blackmailing me to let him do everything he wanted to me, or he would reveal to everybody what was going on in there. Of course, a nine-year-old orphan would believe that, and in a very desperate, tired, suicidal mindset, would agree to do what he asked, hopelessly thinking that this time would be the last time, just like he promised.
I know Konu better than anyone. That 10-year-old boy is still there with his yellow ball under a million layers of disguise and makeup to deceive his enemies – or maybe to deceive everyone. That day, when he told me that he would finish with Formi, he was dead serious. His true character was revealed when he didn't blink, and the tone of his voice changed. He told me that I would not have to worry anymore and that no one would ever know about this. That day was and still the best day of my life.
A 10-year-old boy would usually change or forget what he said the day after. It's just natural for a boy to change his mind or neglect a promise. That night, I was praying to every saint and God, begging them to help Konu keep his promise. The next day, I saw him in the cantina, and in my eternal insecurity, I'm remembered I was going to ask him to go play ball after breakfast, checking desperately to see if he was going to keep his promise. But Konu came straight to me the second he saw me and said, “I've got a plan. Eat fast. We must do this today.”
Out on the court, he explained to me that he only needed me to lure Formi to the old boiler room, then he would do everything else by himself. He didn't say how or what he will do. He told me not to worry and that everything would be alright. I was shaking, and in a moment of weakness and cowardliness, I told him to cancel it all and forgot about it. He reassured me that this thing would be done today, and from tomorrow on, that guy would not bother me anymore.
It wasn’t difficult to get Formi to follow me to the boiler room. From there, just as Konu asked, I lured him to the small dark corner behind the machinery. I still remember that dark place had no windows. It had a door so small that only one person could pass through by lowering his head a little. I was so afraid! I was scared to death, and when I passed through the door, Formi was behind me, laughing out loud. That stopped as soon as he put his head down to pass through the door. He noticed too late that he just stuck his head into a noose made from a dark, metallic cable.
Konu had been hiding
