Part 2: The Resistance
Chapter 18: An Unholy Alliance
A few weeks earlier. The frozen Linap had gathered in a room in the laboratory. They had been told the procedure to restore their memories was now available to all of them.
‘I know I’m going to remember my greatness,’ said Hermon as he thrust his fist in the air.
‘I have a feeling you might be a little disappointed,’ chuckled Yvonne.
‘Sounds like a feeling you’re used to, little sister,’ replied Hermon as he smugly put his hands behind his head.
‘I’m sad L1 refused this treatment,’ said Gilling as she looked at Yvonne. ‘With her legs, she needs this procedure the most.’
‘She’s completely paranoid,’ replied Yvonne.
‘What do we know about her?’ remarked Hermon. ‘She’s not family. She’s not Alset. She’s very strange. I’ll feel safer knowing more about her than she knows about me.’
‘Who’s the paranoid one now?’ chuckled Wendell.
Meanwhile at the hotel, Lily was meeting Louis for lunch in her penthouse suite. Lily had just returned from the warehouse. She had been designing her new chariot with Henders. Tiberius and Miro welcomed Louis into the fold because of his poor relationship with Eugene and the previous leadership team. Lily considered building a relationship with him an advantage to her.
‘Wow, this penthouse prison cell is superb,’ remarked Louis as he pulled up a chair to the table Lily was sitting at. ‘Eugene is such a nutter.’
‘Stop it!’ chuckled Lily. ‘Eugene is the sweetest Head Enforcer I’ve ever met.’
‘Well, by Head Enforcer standards he’s a great guy,’ replied Louis as he tilted his head to the left while shrugging his shoulders.
‘That’s the standard we must hold him to,’ smiled Lily as she nodded.
‘I suppose that’s fair,’ replied Louis.
‘Now, lift up your cloche,’ said Lily. ‘Let’s see what the kitchen has cooked us up today.’
They lifted up the cloches covering their plates at the same time.
‘Yes!’ said Louis as he placed the cloche next to his plate. ‘I had a feeling we were getting mango sticky rice today.’
‘Now you know why I don’t want to leave this place,’ remarked Lily. ‘Best food in the region.’
‘Even better than what Julie can cook up,’ interrupted the Hat Lady as she rolled up to the table in her wheelchair.
‘She is more of a dessert specialist,’ sighed Lily. ‘The hotel chefs make the finest main courses in Sapey. Anyway, you shouldn’t just wander… I mean roll into my home.’
‘Sorry, I thought it was a prison,’ replied the Hat Lady.
‘Did Eugene arrest you for suspiciously large wheels?’ chuckled Louis.
‘I skipped my memory restoration procedure,’ replied the Hat Lady. ‘I expect this could become an offence pretty soon.’
‘Don’t be silly,’ chuckled Lily. ‘Your health is your concern only.’
‘Wonderful,’ replied the Hat Lady in a smug tone. ‘Just a pity you’re not running the place.’
‘Is that so?’ chuckled Lily.
‘Oh yeah,’ chuckled the Hat Lady in a sarcastic tone. ‘Colin and Julie have a tight grip on all the important strings.’
‘Never underestimate the hypnotic power of cakes,’ said Louis as he began tucking into his meal.
‘Stumbled on a few nuggets,’ said Lily in a slightly annoyed tone. ‘You don’t really know anything.’
‘I know once they replace Tiberius with Duffo, your days will be numbered,’ chuckled the Hat Lady.
‘What!’ replied Lily, sounding shocked.
‘Who’s Tiberius?’ asked Louis as he continued eating his food.
‘We should talk in private,’ said Lily in a stern tone.
‘No, I like Louis,’ said the Hat Lady. ‘I feel I can speak freely and be myself.’
‘I appreciate the support,’ said Louis, smiling happily. ‘Not everyone is so friendly.’
‘I know he’s genuine,’ said the Hat Lady. ‘He doesn’t have the Jennifer chip in his brain.’
‘Okay, so you know the game,’ said Lily, sounding even more annoyed. ‘What do you want?’
‘I’d like to be able to walk again without having to worry about any other invasive procedures,’ said the Hat Lady.
‘And?’ asked Lily.
‘I’d rather the head honcho were a narcissist than a psychopath, sociopath, sadist, or Machiavellian,’ replied the Hat Lady. ‘You’re on my favourite side of the dark tetrad.’
‘I didn’t catch any of that,’ said Louis calmly as he placed his spoon down on his empty plate.
‘She’s trying to be clever,’ said Lily smugly as she turned towards Louis. ‘She thinks that’ll make me think she’s useful.’
‘I have a better way of doing that,’ said the Hat Lady as she grabbed Louis’ arm. She shapeshifted him into a small, fluffy Sape.
‘Onk, onk, onk…,’ grunted Louis.
‘What kind of sorcery is this?’ said Lily as she leapt to her feet.
‘It is a rare and mostly suppressed evolutionary trait of the unadulterated Linap,’ said the Hat Lady. ‘You won’t be able to learn it. You’re just a Sapien with a very active Bramley gene.’
The Hat Lady released Louis’ front leg, and he shapeshifted back into himself.
‘I see you can be very useful,’ said Lily as she cautiously sat back down.
‘I’m going to be upfront with you,’ said Louis sternly as he looked at the Hat Lady. ‘That made me feel very uncomfortable. I think that might count as a violation of my rights.’
‘I’m so sorry,’ said the Hat Lady to Louis. ‘I wanted to make a point. I’ll be more respectful in future.’
‘Sure, you have a few tricks,’ said Lily as she rolled her eyes. ‘That does not give me a reason to trust you over my fellow Sapiens.’
The Hat Lady pulled a confused expression for a few seconds and began to giggle.
‘Okay, what now?’ asked Lily.
‘Do you think Colin and Julie are Sapiens like you?’ asked the Hat Lady.
‘It’s sort of a secret,’ said Lily. ‘We’ve protected each other for years.’
‘They’re Linap,’ replied the Hat Lady. ‘They’ve really played you for a fool. I’m shocked.’
‘No!’ said Lily angrily. ‘We were protecting each other’s secret.’
‘That’s true,’ chuckled the Hat Lady. ‘They protected your identity as a Sapien, and you protected their identity as hybrid Linap-Sentray, who have been trying to control Sapey for a thousand years.’
‘Is this some sort of wild conspiracy theory you just thought up?’ asked Lily, sounding shocked.
‘You would think so,’ replied the Hat Lady. ‘A funny thing really. I was in your swimming pool exercising my sad disabled body when Colin and Julie showed up. I became invisible and so did my wheelchair. The two of them decided they would blurt out literally everything.’
‘That’s really convenient,’ said Lily, shaking her head.
‘You know the first part of what I said was true,’ said the Hat Lady. ‘Why would I risk being caught in a lie on the second part?’
Lily frowned and stared at the Hat Lady. ‘Okay, I believe you,’ she sighed.
‘Let’s form an alliance,’ suggested the Hat Lady. ‘Our combined skills and positions could turn the tables.’
‘I’m in,’ said Louis abruptly. ‘I’ve suffered so much at the hands of the Linap, and the Sentray took my family. They will not rule over me.’
‘Okay,’ said Lily in a cautious tone. ‘Let’s do this.’
‘May we begin with my legs?’ asked the Hat Lady. ‘The wheelchair is slowing me down.’
‘What about your memories?’ asked Lily.
‘They seem to be coming back by themselves,’ replied the Hat Lady.
‘No problem,’ said Lily. ‘We’ll meet under the temple tonight.’
‘Of course,’ said the Hat Lady. ‘That’s your private place.’
Lily nodded and smiled.
‘I’ll come for you,’ said the Hat Lady as she looked at Louis. ‘We can be invisible together.’
‘That sounds fun,’ replied Louis.
‘You must remain in Tiberius’ good graces at all costs,’ said the Hat Lady to Louis. ‘We’re playing a dangerous game.’
Louis smiled at the Hat Lady, and then he gritted teeth as he thought about the trouble he might have just landed himself in.
That night, the three of them met under the temple. Lily had the seaweed treatment with her.
‘I assume you know what to do,’ said Lily as she handed the vial of the seaweed treatment and a syringe to the Hat Lady.
‘I think I’ve had some experience with this sort of thing,’ said the Hat Lady as she filled the syringe.
‘I hope it works,’ said Lily as she watched the Hat Lady jab herself in the legs. ‘It was initially used as a fertility drug.’
‘It worked wonders for the Downs resident,’ said the Hat Lady. ‘Some of them were knocking on death’s door.’
‘This place feels like the other side of death’s door,’ remarked Louis as he looked around the dark, dank, and drab room.
‘Nope, it’s that door over there,’ chuckled Lily.
Louis shuddered.
‘Were the other Alset family members at the laboratory?’ asked the Hat Lady.
‘Yes, but they were already undergoing the other treatments,’ replied Lily as she gritted her teeth together.
‘Which involves them becoming chipped!’ said the Hat Lady angrily.
‘I’m sorry, I couldn’t do anything about that,’ replied Lily.
‘Great!’ sighed the Hat Lady. ‘The puppet show now has a full cast.’
‘Don’t forget my influence on Jennifer,’ said Lily, sounding offended. ‘I can do little things to tug their strings.’
‘Risk getting caught by Julie and Colin,’ replied the Hat Lady. ‘We’re not that desperate yet. The Alset family and Benny are my friends. The less string-pulling the better.’
‘So you have no plan at all,’ scoffed Lily.
‘My plan is to observe how the different pieces are moving,’ said the Hat Lady. ‘We find the weak links and the blind spots.’
‘Fine!’ replied Lily. ‘We’ll meet again after the funeral.’
The Hat Lady grabbed Louis’ hand, and they both became invisible.
Late at night after the funeral, Lily, the Hat Lady, and Louis met under the temple. The Hat Lady released Louis’ hand.
‘Surprised!’ said the Hat Lady to Louis as she twirled around.
‘Yeah, I am,’ said Louis with a cheeky smile on his face. ‘You’re even shorter standing up.’
The Hat Lady grabbed Louis’ hand again. This time she shrunk him to twice his height.
‘Oh please stop!’ shrieked Louis. ‘This is a violation of my dignity.’
The Hat Lady poked her tongue out and released his hand. Louis immediately returned to his normal height.
Lily emerged from a dark corner of the room.
‘Having fun, I see,’ remarked Lily.
‘Not as much fun as you,’ chuckled the Hat Lady. ‘Riding in a Sape-pulled chariot is pure narcissism.’
‘You looked spectacular,’ added Louis. ‘Definitely the highlight of the event.’
‘That was my friend’s funeral,’ snapped the Hat Lady as she grabbed Louis’ hand again. This time she made his nose grow to three times its length.
‘I think we might have found our weak links and blind spots,’ said Lily.
‘A lot of balls were set in motion today,’ said the Hat Lady.
‘Can I assume you managed to spy on all the day’s events?’ said Lily.
‘Of course,’ replied the Hat Lady. ‘Even at the hotel.’
Louis pulled his hand free from the Hat Lady, but his nose remained long.
‘Ahh!’ gasped Louis. ‘You ruined my face.’
‘Stop teasing him,’ said Lily firmly.
Louis’ nose returned to its normal length when the Hat Lady moved her foot, which was touching the heel of his foot.
‘Tiberius is going to act against Julie, Colin, and me,’ said Lily in a serious tone.
‘I imagine you must be quite afraid,’ replied the Hat Lady.
‘Not really,’ chuckled Lily. ‘It is clear he’s being baited by Colin and Julie. Jennifer is tracking his every move and every thought. He doesn’t have a chance.’
‘You have such faith in Jennifer,’ chuckled the Hat Lady.
‘It’s not faith,’ replied Lily in an annoyed tone. ‘She follows what she’s programmed to do.’
‘Am I right in saying self-awareness is part of that programming?’ asked the Hat Lady as she dramatically scratched her chin.
‘Yes, it is, but she’s limited by her protocols,’ said Lily firmly. ‘If I can gain full and exclusive access and authority over her protocols, we can turn the tide.’
‘Do you think you can pull that off?’ asked the Hat Lady.
‘It won’t be easy,’ said Lily. ‘We’d have to find a way to cut both Julie and Colin out. We need them to turn on each other. The environment is becoming increasingly volatile, so it is possible.’
‘Don’t forget Orcilla and her new friends,’ added the Hat Lady.
‘Orcilla is a headache for all involved,’ replied Lily. ‘Our goals will probably align for now, which is a good thing.’
Two days later, the three of them met under the temple again. The Hat Lady had witnessed Colin’s and Julie’s display of power over Tiberius.
‘Just like I said,’ boasted Lily. ‘Tiberius made his move and he failed.’
‘So you think he’ll just roll over on his back and be a good boy,’ remarked the Hat Lady in a sarcastic tone.
‘He’s been defeated, and he knows it,’ replied Lily proudly.
‘Is that good or bad?’ asked Louis, sounding confused.
‘If it’s true, it would only be good for Lily’s enormous ego,’ said the Hat Lady. ‘We need Tiberius to remain at odds with Colin and Julie. This will most certainly be the case because Tiberius is relentlessly in his pursuit for power.’
‘I see no way forward for him,’ replied Lily. ‘He has Jennifer in his brain, and you claimed yourself that Colin and Julie are basically invincible.’
‘He’ll keep trying, and we want him too,’ said the Hat Lady forcefully. ‘This tension will keep them focused and create opportunities for us to drive a wedge between Colin and Julie. Isn’t that your plan?’
‘If he’s that foolish, they’ll just move on to Duffo,’ said Lily. ‘If that fails, it’ll be another puppet. If there isn’t one. They’ll revert back to elections, and the residents can choose their puppet.’
‘All of this creates opportunities to drive a wedge between Julie and Colin,’ said the Hat Lady, sounding exhausted.
After the first executive council meeting, the three of them met again under the temple.
‘Looks like you’ve had it rough,’ chuckled Lily as she looked over at the Hat Lady.
‘Wrong!’ replied the Hat Lady as she shapeshifted away her bruises and into new clothes. ‘I’m feeling great.’
‘Good for you,’ sighed Lily.
‘You were wrong about Emperor Tiberius,’ said the Hat Lady. ‘He has turned the tables in his favour.’
‘More importantly, he might have created the divide we wanted,’ said Lily, smiling. ‘Julie is not happy.’
‘Sometimes we just need to wait for things to fall into place before we act,’ said the Hat Lady while grinning slightly.
‘I think a certain someone took some initiative,’ said Louis as he nodded and smiled.
‘Great job in becoming the Tiberius propaganda guru,’ said the Hat Lady, patting Louis on the back.
‘Aren’t you afraid the imperial guards will see you now that they’re wearing those helmets?’ asked Lily.
‘Those silly toys can’t pick me up,’ chuckled the Hat Lady. ‘My shapeshifting is on a whole different level.’
‘I think they’re broken,’ said Louis.
‘Yeah, that too,’ chuckled the Hat Lady as she nudged Louis.
‘What happened to Demadrian?’ asked Lily. ‘Is he…’
‘He’s yet another problem for them to worry about,’ replied the Hat Lady in a more serious tone. ‘More problems lead to more tension, which leads to greater division, which gives you a better chance of taking over Jennifer.’
Sapien Loop: Worlds Collide
Sapien Loop: Worlds Collide is the final book in the Sapien Loop trilogy. It continues directly after the events of the second book. The world above and the world below merge into one world. The conflicts in the underground world are brought to the surface. The new ruling elite attempt to crush any resistance from above and below in an attempt to create a new global empire.
Currently, three books from the series have been published on Amazon; see the links below:
All individual chapters can be found on my 