Sisters of pain
75
Marissa blinked. “Wow. So this Selena Eryx…stole my body? That’s so…creepy. I feel like I’ve been violated. How am I supposed to feel comfortable in my own skin again knowing that someone else has spent the last few months using it without my permission? It’s just so wrong. All the while I was stuck, feeling everything, and I…” She stopped, and wiped away tears that were forming in her eyes.
“I know,” said Pierre, as reassuringly as he could, “but you’re back now. Circe was using Selena as a puppet in order to take control of Haiti, but she didn’t count on the Saints of Infinity! Now you can stop the Cloudbuster program and reverse the damage that she’s done!”
Marissa frowned, and shook her head. “Wait, wait…what? Circe…I remember, I was on her island with Anney, and-“
“Wait a minute, Anney? Pirate Anney?”
Marissa shrugged. “Yeah, sure. Why are you looking like that?”
“It’s just she never mentioned that you were with her…and neither did Pebble. Ah well, I guess it doesn’t matter now. But anyway, Selena-in your body-became Prime Minister, which means, I guess, that you are now effectively Prime Minister.”
“But…but I don’t want to be Prime Minister. I’m an archaeologist, not a politician.”
Pierre grinned. “All you have to do is resign, but first you must take down the Cloudbuster program. Order its destruction, then you can quit.”
Marissa took a sip of her hot chocolate and arched her brow. “You mentioned this before. What is this Cloudbuster thing?”
“Essentially, from what I gather, the Haitian government has been using technology to deliberately alter the weather by removing some kind of energy from the atmosphere, in order to prevent hurricane and tropical storm damage.”
“So that’s why there are never any clouds. But what’s so bad about preventing hurricanes? Seems pretty reasonable to me,” said Marissa.
“The problem is that this energy is necessary to experience the full range of human emotions, and also gives us an inquisitiveness and desire for knowledge. Removing it, therefore, has also been a tool for social control, and since Selena Eryx took over, the Cloudbusters have been sucking up more energy than ever thanks to Circe. It is her desire that eventually Cloudbusters will be placed all over the world, which will be devastating for humanity. So all you have to is order the scheme scrapped, and have the Cloudbusters destroyed. Then, people will be able to feel again.”
Marissa nodded vaguely, looking troubled. “Feel again, right…”
“So you’ll do it?” Pierre said, hopefully. Marissa looked up at him, and her shoulder sagged.
“I suppose I have no choice.”
“Excellent!”
***
Half an hour later, Pierre and Marissa arrived at the National Palace, the official residence of the Prime Minister of Haiti, Marissa still in her wheelchair. They were admitted, and just past the gate they were greeted by a rather surprised looking aide, a young man with light skin and neatly combed dark hair, wearing a smart business suit.
“Prime Minister, Eleazar, you’re…here! I thought you were on your way to Antarctica? What happened to you?”
Marissa smiled, and glanced up at Pierre. “Change of plans.”
“We decided we didn’t need to go after all,” said Pierre.
The young man nodded slowly, and stared at the wheelchair. “So…”
“So I’m, erm, the Prime Minister, and I am here to give you orders! My first order is that you don’t ask questions!”
“Right, right, of course, Miss Prime Minister.”
“My second order is you take me to…the place it is that I make all my decisions, the…er, decision room.”
The young man narrowed his eyes. “You mean your office?”
“Yes, my office! And I thought I told you not to ask any questions!”
“Um, okay.”
The aide guided them into the palace, through pristine corridors with walls lined with portraits of former great Haitians, until they reached the office. It was a large room, with bay windows overlooking a courtyard. There was a desk of fine mahogany covered in various files and print outs, as well as a computer, and Marissa was parked behind it.
The aide made as if to leave, but halfway he turned. “Oh, by the way, Anton isn’t here at the moment. He didn’t say where he was going, but said you’d know and that it wouldn’t be a problem.”
Marissa smiled blankly, “Anton. Sure.”
The aide left, and as soon as he was out of sight Pierre went to the computer and turned it on. “Right,” he said, looking at the screen, “I just need to find out who’s overseeing the Cloudbusters, and then we can contact them and get those machines shut down. Hopefully it won’t be too much of a hassle, but you never know when it comes to bureaucracy, there’ll probably be-”
“Maybe it would be better if we didn’t,” Marissa said quietly, her eyes down. Pierre turned and looked at her, and screwed up his face.
“What are you talking about?”
She kept her eyes firmly on the floor, and said, “I mean, maybe it wouldn’t be such a bad thing to take away everyone’s feelings, all their pain and misery and suffering.”
Pierre laughed, and waved dismissively. “Don’t be silly. Just order the scheme ended, and-“
“No!” she said, and then, more softly, “No. I won’t do it. I…I can’t, I just can’t.”
Pierre looked at her, his face full of confusion. “Marissa, I don’t understand. Circe’s a villain! She an evil sorceress wants to enslave the world! You can help stop that! Don’t be so silly.”
“STOP calling me silly.” There was a sudden ferocity in her voice, and her eyes were dark, her brow rigid. “You have no idea what I’ve been through. That place, the void…I could feel everything, Pierre, everything humanity felt, and it was so bad, so horrific I can barely comprehend it! There was so little joy compared to the suffering and despair, it was unrelenting! I thought I was in hell. I was in hell, and it was a hell created entirely by human misery!”
“Sure, I mean, there’s pain and torment, but joy and love are so much richer and, and…come on, Marissa! There must be other ways to make the world a better place than completely annihilating feeling?”
Marissa shook her head sadly, and looked into his eyes. “I truly don’t think there is. I think…I think Circe’s right. The Cloudbusters stay.”
Pierre let out a heavy breath, and shook his head in disbelief. “Marissa, I have the number of Yannick Lefevre here, chief engineer in charge of the program. One call to him and the entire network will be shut down, permanently. Only you have the power to order it.” He handed her the telephone receiver. “It’s up to you.”
She stared at his hand for a while. She eventually reached out and took the receiver, and