The Last Enemy: Part 4 Volume 2 - 2071-2084

By Luca Luchesini

“The last enemy to be destroyed shall be death”, wrote St. Paul in his letters. But what if someone has already managed to defeat it? Thirty-four years have gone by since an ingenious biochemist, named Louis Picard, invented the ultimate anti-aging drug in 1981, that is known as Telomerax. Louis was obliged to form a selected group of technology entrepreneurs, finance mavens, and secret service professionals to help strategically spread knowledge of the drug. The discovery of Telomerax carried obvious dangers with it, eventually leading to the collapse of society and the near-extinction of mankind, in the ruthless war that broke out. Survivors set out to design a new society, specially designed for the half-gods that individuals were becoming. An action-packed and thrilling apocalyptic novel, “The Last Enemy”, brings to light many issues that we face today, from the clash between the power of the state and the right of citizens, to respecting our limits and controlling the human drive to push ourselves beyond those very limits.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Luca Luchesini
• Release date: Nov 20, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370075621

Luca Luchesini

I graduated in Telecom Networks Engineering from Politecnico di Milano in 1994 and have been working in multinational companies ever since. I started self-learning Mimetic theory in 2007 by reading all major works of Rene Girard. In 2011, I published a paper about West and Middle East relationship at the annual Girardian COV&R conference 2011 dedicated to “Order/Disorder in History and Politics”. You can reach me here: [e-mail]

Book preview

The Last Enemy

Part 4 – Volume 2

2071-2084

Luca Luchesini

Edited by Isabel Spinelli

Copyright 2017 by Luca Luchesini

Disclaimer

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, business establishments, events and locations is entirely coincidental.

Part Four

The New Order

Chapter 13

Dorian entered his office after the quick lunch he had in the cafeteria of the Social Welfare Ministry. Before sitting back at his desk, he looked briefly outside the thick, bulletproof windows. A faint sun had replaced the light morning snowfall. There was a chance he could enjoy the pale light for another four hours before sunset, as the days in early February in Stockholm were getting longer.

Since his next meeting would not start for another thirty minutes, he checked emails to pass time. The list in his inbox was unusually long. He quickly skim read through the sender addresses, just to notice that many of those extra emails came from Michael Fahlstrohm, one of his most vocal opponents in Parliament. Then, some frequent correspondents, and…some from his neighbors?

He picked the second email from Michael Fahlstrom, whose subject line read A few things you should know.

The email was a long message that explained in detail how, six months before, Michael had orchestrated the media attack against Dorian, alleging he was being bribed by the Telomerax industry. The interesting part was the richness of information on how he had fed journalists with fake news, and how he had managed to extort information from Dorian’s staff, for example, taking advantage of an affair between one of her assistant and a spy at Michael’s service.

So there was a mole.. Dorian thought, …and maybe this is why Astrid asked to change jobs, she realized she was being used but did not want to confess that to me and to the team. He was thinking about running a more thorough investigation, when he then noticed that new messages kept flowing in.

This time, it was his neighbor, Peter Vieh, who was overflowing his mailbox. He double clicked on the last email, just to be redirected to a secret social media page where Peter had posted a video in which he went to unbelievable lengths to insult him and his family. He had taken pictures of Dorian’s kids on the way to school, threatening to kidnap and kill them, and he had edited a porn movie replacing the model face with the one of Dorian’s wife, Camilla. It was just lurid, and Dorian was shocked. The last serious argument he had had with him dated back to the summer of last year, when the barbecue of Dorian had gone briefly out of control and a lot of smoke had blown into Peter’s backyard. But Dorian thought he had resolved it with the excuses and the new mowing machine he had gifted to the Viehs.

Apparently not, Dorian told himself, The episode has triggered the venting of a lot of resentment he had accumulated against me, for some reason. He made a mental note to talk to the police, after all Camilla and his kids were living just a few yards away from this man.

Dorian was still pondering the best course of action to take, when Helga, her assistant, opened the door of his office. Dorian looked at the clock, expecting her to inform him there were fifteen minutes left until the meeting, then he realized that Helga was struggling to retain tears.

Dorian…if you allow me…I need to go back home, it is quite urgent… Helga’s voice broke The meeting room is ready, and..

Dorian rushed to her, understanding that something wrong was going on.

It’s alright, Helga, just tell me one thing, before you leave, he took her hands into his, making sure he kept a respectful distance. Have you received some unusual email in the last few hours? Is this the reason why you are asking to go home early?

I, um, yes sir, Helga kept sighing, I received it a few minutes ago, it is Ingemar, my boyfriend…he is cheating me….I got video footage from the home of his mistress…right now..

She was trying to finish the sentence when, at the end of the corridor, the door of the office of the public relations slammed open and Stavros Moyssidis, the public relations head, exited screaming, rushing to the parking lot. He was shouting in his Greek mother tongue, which made it difficult to understand the details, yet there was little doubt it was a case like Helga’s.

Dorian picked up his phone, just to get a busy tone. The network was overloaded. He switched to the reserved government line, then saw a message from Camilla pop up in his social app. He dropped the call to open the text.

It was a few lines, Camilla wrote that she had heard what seemed to be gunshots in their neighborhood, and she had not been able to reach Dorian by phone, the network was too congested. She was scared. Dorian read the message with some sense of relief, then typed back a quick answer. Something strange is happening. Stay at home with the kids, do not let anyone in, especially Peter Vieh, our neighbor. I will be back soon. He switched to the office emergency line, after a few seconds the chief of the Ministry security answered.

Olof, Dorian here. What the hell is going on?

I think we are under a massive cyberattack. All the people of my team have received a series of electronic messages full of any sort of evidence, fake or real does not really matter at this point. They all involve betrayals in the circle of their closest relatives, friends and colleagues. I guess you saw something similar.

Indeed, and what is the scale of the attack? Are they targeting just us, or rather the whole government? Dorian asked, while tuning his television to the European news channel.

He did not have to wait for the answer of Olof. The news anchor was commenting scenes of shootings in the streets from all major European cities, which quickly moved to the United States as the new day set in.

Olof? Dorian realized he had ignored his security guard, while he was watching the news. Olof, are you still there?

Yes, Dorian, I am, Olof replied. Though I also received a few emails that deserve, um, my full attention…I think it is better to stay here, and manage that later. However, half of my team is unavailable. Some have left, some have plunged in a state of total apathy. Those who are available, are just like me, they have learned something that is keeping their minds insanely busy. I talked to the head of the city police, they are in a similar situation. Seemingly, the level of tension in society has gone through the roof, and they can barely count on half of their force…

Half of their force… Dorian thought, …all of this while Camilla is next to a resentful, possibly psychopathic neighbor, and I am here, ten miles away, with traffic starting up in no time.

Olof, do me one favor, Dorian asked assertively. Issue the highest emergency alert and have all the remaining people meet in the cafeteria. I will try to address the situation shortly.

Yes sir, however in the meantime we have to get Ulf Thorvaldson out of trouble. Olof answered plainly, politely declining to obey, He is under siege in his office.

Dorian realized immediately that Olof was right. No one could attract resentment and hate more than the head of the Ministry’s human resources department. Dorian got out of his office and rushed down the corridor, toward the office of Ulf. He was still about thirty yards away when he bumped into the crowd, which was pressing on the office door. People were shouting and blaming each other for the missed promotion, or what not. From time to time, they would recite slogans in sync against the director, who was locked away in his office.

Then someone of the crowd realized that Dorian had arrived, and the noise quickly reduced to a low hum. The crowd opened itself, leaving a path to the office door. Dorian felt everyone staring at him, he moved quickly to the office of Ulf, making sure he did not make any eye contact with anyone.

Dorian knocked vigorously on the door, shouting at his HR director. "Ulf, it’s Dorian here, please unlock the door. It’s alright. We need