He was walking in the dusty alley without paying attention to the fragments of glass crumbling under his feet. His goal was to reach home, which was located beyond the houses riddled in the Civil War. The unusual home, which he moved into three years ago, was located on the fourth floor of a multi-story car park. He has been satisfied with this property, which he acquired after the civil war by making a large payment to the local mafia. The multi-story buildings, which had been abandoned because they were badly damaged, were put back into use through containers, enclosed truck crates, and wooden huts placed inside them. The main advantage provided by these settlements was that the local mafia protected them. It could even be said that a new neighborhood culture had flourished among the different-sized safes lined up side by side. However, all this did not concern Yunus much. Not only because he lived in a terrible time, but because he could not get rid of the anxieties that trapped his heart, he could have ended his life immediately if he had the opportunity. But there was a significant obstacle to him implementing this act, which seemed to him the gospel of salvation. Yunus was a person who fulfilled his responsibilities at every stage of his life and had to look after his mother, who was suffering from the scourge of Alzheimer's at the time. Before the civil war, he was an academic at Cahit Arf University, working on algorithms' nature. After the Great Collapse, he started dealing with the account book of a shop selling second-hand items. Because of the responsibilities he had, he was trying to look at things from the good side. He continued to deal with numbers after the Great Collapse to continue to calm his mind in the safe world of mathematics.
He entered the parking lot, greeting armed mobsters at the door. As he walked to the staircase, he heard the annoying scream of a neighborhood resident who was completely free from the feeling of shame. He climbed the steps one by one and went to the floor where his house was located, alert at any time for a possible attack.
The wide corridor, lined with containers on either side, was secluded. He took careful steps on the dusty floor, reaching the point where his house was located. His heart rate accelerated when he saw that the door he had locked to prevent his mother from disappearing was open. He felt his mother was not in her seat when he walked in, but he couldn't be sure because the tiny curtain of the cracked window facing out was closed. He turned on the flashlight of his pocket computer and moved the light all over the container. A page was left on her mother's bed that looked like it had been torn from her school notebook. He took the page and put it on top of the coffee table, opened the curtain, and started reading the note.
Dear Son,
I probably won't be here while you read these lines. You know exactly what direction my disease is developing, and no one can get rid of it. I could be a burden to you for years if we left the course of events in the natural flow. And it's not my first illness, as you know. Everything was better because the Civil War didn't start at the time of my previous illness. I think my illness was instrumental in you not being able to marry during those years. Thank God we overcome that disease with your support, but this time I got this disease called Alzheimer's. Yeah, I'm your mother, and you feel indebted to me for giving birth and raising you. But there must also be a limit to the child's support for the mother. The responsibility I have placed on you is increasing every day. When I found out about the spare body clinic in Pera Canton, I sent them a message through an acquaintance. They came in a few days ago, examined me, and decided that my body was fine. Already, the terminally ill aspire to the body of people of all ages. We signed a contract with them to use my body as a backup. You can find the amount they paid in return in our stash. It's not that big a sum, and I think the important thing is that you don't have to look after me anymore. I'm glad to think you can finally live your life freely. By the way, my body will continue to live in another person. Recently, you know, I even had difficulty swallowing what I ate; when the brain is changed, all these problems will disappear. Maybe you're mad at me for making such an important decision without consulting you. I had to do it like this because I knew you'd be fiercely opposed. I hope you forgive me for this. I want you to know that I was very peaceful to go to the death of my own free will.
Goodbye, Yunus, my son, who has never upset me, take care of yourself.
He read again what his mother had written, hoping that he had misunderstood. At that moment, his eyes blackened, so he hit the edge of the bed. It was as if the world he was in had suddenly become surreal. He sat for a while, listening to the hum in his head. And then, as if inspired, he pulled out his pocket computer and looked at the data published by the chip on his mother's right arm. He was filled with hope when he saw his mother's pulse beating normally. He opened the lid of the stash under the floor, examined it with his hand, and pulled out what he found there. He put the gold plate, which was paid for by his mother's body, in his pocket and left the house.
The data released by the chip on her arm indicated that his mother was in the canton of Pera. This canton was a place where the rich lived, and as far as Yunus knew, they did not cause trouble in entering those who paid the necessary fee. However, it was impossible to go to Pera by road because the canton in between did not give a pass. He jumped on his electric bike and first went to the aircraft terminal eight kilometers away. He made a large payment to the attendant at the entrance and boarded a quadcopter of eight people waiting to go to the canton of Pera. His biggest fear at the time was to come across one of the hoses, which were often issued warnings about them. Fortunately, it didn't happen, and the quadcopter took off just in time.
After a fifteen-minute journey, they landed at the air vehicles terminal in Central Pera. He paid his entrance fee at the terminal exit, checking data from his mother's chip several times while waiting for his criminal record to be checked. He drove an electric rickshaw from the terminal, telling the driver he was going to the Rebirth Clinic. The rickshaw driver was startled when he heard the clinic's name and said that the devil was being served in that building.
The seven-story building, where spare body operations were performed, was located in the center of a large garden surrounded by high walls. Because the garden's iron door was closed, Yunus knocked on the window of the guardhouse. The guard, who was sleeping inside, opened his bloody eyes, got up from his chair, and looked out of the hut window.
"I need to get inside immediately," Yunus said, pointing at the door.
"There are no visitors reported to me," the guard said.
"I need to visit my mother urgently. It is vital."
"Did you make an appointment?"
"Yeah, didn't they pass it to the door?"
From the guard's stance, it was clear that he was an ex-convict with the spine-cuff. He knew Yunus was lying, but he called his boss's assistant to make sure. After a brief dialogue, the guard handed the phone to Yunus.
"Who is calling?" asked the voice across the line.
"I am Yunus Yilmaz. My mother was brought here for an illegal operation. I need to see her immediately."
"Your mother has been paid, and the operation is complete."
"I know she's alive."
"Can you wait a minute?"
As Yunus waited for the news from the other end of the phone with increasing anxiety, an alarm bell rang on his mobile computer. There was a huge X sign on the app screen, which monitors her mother's health status, and underneath it read: 'We are so sorry for your loss.' That's when the phone hung upon him. "You will pay for this," Yunus said, clenching his teeth in anger, and sat on the edge of the sidewalk because he had difficulty standing. He felt many different emotions at the same time as tears flowed from his eyes and cheeks. He watched for a while with empty eyes under the influence of these emotions, consisting of a mixture of anger, hatred, and self-pity. When he felt the strength in his legs that could carry him again, he got up and started walking towards the aircraft terminal like a living dead.
On the night of his mother's death, Yunus could no sleep; he restlessly turned around in his bed, sat on the couch, and looked at the opposite wall with empty eyes. If he could be more resourceful, his mother wouldn't think she was a burden and wouldn't feel compelled to do that crazy job. Even in the period before the civil war, he always lived in his cocoon, making his mother's illnesses a cover for his inertia. A friend from the university had told him that he could arrange an academic position in Austria during the civil war. When he realized that Yunus had not made any attempts, he called again. He didn't even bother to investigate this opportunity, let alone accept the offer.
The next morning, he began to think about how he could take revenge on those who tricked his mother into stealing his body. Body transfer operations were prohibited, but no institution addressed this issue, which concerned multiple cantons. The canton of Ligos, where Yunus lived, was governed by a board of local mafia fathers, tribal chieftains, and several large merchants. It was clear that they would ignore this lawlessness because of the trade relations.
It was obvious that children who loaded pieces of ground concrete into their plastic trucks enjoyed their games. As Yunus passed by the children, he thought he had missed many things in his life. He checked the lock on the door at the end of the street. When he saw it was open, he went in and started going up the stairs. The door in front of him on the pitch he reached was locked. He knocked on the door and told the gunman who greeted him, "Sorry to come without an appointment. I want to meet Soner Bey," he said.
The gunman glanced at Yunus from head to toe and said, "Wait here."
The mafia chief of the neighborhood left a positive impression during his interview to buy the container. In the office room with stylish furnishings, "how can I help you?" he asked.
Yunus gladly realized that he was not afraid in the face of this authority figure. "I was working on algorithms before the Civil War," he said, with the comfort of a man who had given up his life. "I have ideas about suicide drones and vortex guns," he added.
Soner may not have been a psychopath like other chefs in a similar position. Still, he was more ambitious than all of them. We owed his position, which he had acquired before he was even thirty, to open-mindedness, cunning, and daring. "Vortex guns are beyond us. What can you do about suicide drones?"
"I can stop it in the air and send it where it came from."
"I hear the spare body guys have taken your mother. I've never known mine, but it's hard, I suppose. Although I share your pain, I don't understand what you want from me."
"They tricked a confused old woman and didn't give me a chance to fix the situation."
"So you want revenge. Are we going to raid the most powerful Canton in the region and punish a millionaire?"
"I can prove what I'm going to do with drones."
"Actually, you're lucky. I had a search for a cybersecurity expert. Can you get into the Canton's data oasis?"
"It's easier than drones. After all, we're in the local network. What about computers?"
"No problem, we can build a good system."
The next day, Yunus began working on Soner's office's floor with a boy whose mustache had just appeared. Ercan, like Soner, was dark and had olive-black eyes. As far as computers were concerned, he was in an authoritarian mood, not expected from a teenager of that age. They spent two days undergoing tests. They had to spend another three days trying to fix the deficiencies they identified in the tests.
Sitting in Soner's office Room, Yunus was examining the cognitive trinkets on the table. At first glance, he understood that one of the trinkets represented the president of the canton of Ligos. After careful examination, he concluded that the other two were the heads of the surrounding cantons. The heads of these twenty-centimeter-high trinkets were large compared to their torso. Sometimes they opened their mouths and said words such as 'we will liberalize trade,' 'I am a security expert,' 'I will build the great Istanbul' with their thin voices.
As Soner watched trinkets, Soner dived through the door and sat in his seat in an energetic air.
"What did you do, brother? Is the system ready?" Soner asked.
"Yes, in a few days, we will start extracting information from the data oasis."
"Do you recognize the men in these trinkets?"
"I think a few of them are presidents of the cantons."
"All these men you see are my opponents. Among them are many ignorant, stupid men. Unfortunately, the weakest managers are ours. They're up to their necks in corruption, ugliness. After I get the Canton presidency, my first job will be to reunite Istanbul. You see, I keep my competitors close to me."
Soner described his plans in a manner befitting an enthusiastic child, both surprised and flattered Yunus. "Things would have been easier without storms and tornadoes," he said.
"Only a united Istanbul can fund the climate protection umbrella. Gentlemen in management can't find time to deal with such projects because they are busy filling their pockets."
Soner had no trouble rising to the presidency, as the information they leaked from the Canton's data oasis was the kind that would expose the dirty laundry of the Canton's president and other chefs. It was enough to promise the former president not to touch his assets to achieve his presidential goal. Other chiefs also supported Soner's presidency in exchange for his secrets not being revealed.
After obtaining the canton's presidency, Soner shelved the former president's cognitive trinket and forced the neighboring canton, which an out-of-tune psychopath ruled, to accept the leadership of him. The share of taking full control of suicide drones was large in this dominance he established. Yunus, meanwhile, thought less of his mother because he devoted all his time awake to work. By the way, although he had severe flu, he didn't care much about it. It was as if his potential had been revealed that had been hidden for years. He felt that Soner's growing influence brought him closer to the revenge he had dreamed of.
After a whole season since his mother's death, Soner summoned Yunus to the Government House of the canton of Ligos. Yunus thus set foot for the first time in the building where the Canton's administrative bodies were located. Soner greeted Yunus warmly in the spacious office room. The first thing that caught Yunus's eye was that the cognitive trinket belonging to Pera Canyon's president was standing at a separate point from the others.
"I'm sorry, that was important," Soner said after a lengthy phone call on a matter that did not interest Yunus.
" Estagfurullah," Yunus said, hesitating to defect in respect. After the fire of revenge had incinerated inside him, his docile personality was resurfaced.
"When I was little, children were not allowed to access the internet before the age of seven. Parents were anxious that children's perception of reality was impaired. We even had a virtual reality ceremony. At the ceremony, where I was thought to have stepped into virtual reality for the first time, it was clear that I had already broken the ban. I mean, I've never believed in artificial boundaries. Pera creates such absurd obstacles in front of us in the trade that sometimes I feel like I'm going crazy. They became arrogant because they considered themselves untouchable."
"What kind of duty will I have?" Yunus asked.
"Kidnapping one of the businessmen who funded Pera and bringing him here would be an appropriate message. For example, the boss of the Rebirth Clinic. In this way, I will fulfill my promise to you."
As time passed, Yunus's anger subsided, and the feeling of revenge that gave his heart strength began to seem like a primitive feeling to him. Even if he could meet his mother in Pera that day, he probably wouldn't be able to turn her away from her decision. Although he never wanted to go to Pera, he replied to Soner, "I am ready to do whatever it takes."
Yunus's role in the operation of the Rebirth Clinic was actually an observer. The operation team, made up of former soldiers and police officers, included four women and five men, including Yunus. Their goal was to quickly finish the job by catching the clinic's security guards off guard not to cause unnecessary noise. A team waiting in one of the neighboring cantons for such operations entered Pera without any difficulties. As the Canton between Pera and Ligos had been taken under control over the past time, Yunus set off from land this time. Since the person whose brain was transferred to his mother's body died during the operation, Yunus actually wanted to close the Pera issue. Despite his preference in this direction, he did not refuse the mission due to his debt of heart to Soner. Although, when his relations with Soner were reviewed, it was unclear who owed whom. People like Yunus always felt like they owed someone.
The Rebirth Clinic's operation plan seemed flawless on paper, as it contained additional measures to be implemented when things went wrong. Unfortunately, the plan did not include measures to protect the team members if the guards were informed of the raid in advance. A mole who had infiltrated the Ligos administration leaked the plan's details to Pera, and they prepared a surprise for the task force.
Before the team had even reached the clinic's outer wall, Pera militia's vortex guns were activated. These weapons were so effective that they crumpled cars in their range like paper pieces, tearing down buildings' facades. Therefore, most of the members of the team lost their lives during the first shots. Due to his cautious personality, Yunus, which followed the team from behind, could run away from the scene. Other surviving team members sent suicide drones deployed in the immediate vicinity over Pera militias as they retreated. Meanwhile, the Reserve Body Clinic began to be caught in cannon fire, surprising the team members. As the clinic building collapsed like a multi-story wedding cake, Yunus guessed that those who carried out cannon fire were Pera militiamen bought by Ligos. As a matter of fact, minutes later, he saw a large contingent of purchased militiamen on the quadcopter heading towards the border. Despite the losses, this operation revealed both the desired message to Pera and the person suspected of being the mole. The fact that the artillery units were prepared for the attack indicated that all this was planned. Soner did not hesitate to risk his life once he had made enough use of Yunus's services.
Yunus went to the railway station in the neutral zone on the cantons' coast the next day. The Ligos administration was aware of this voluntary exile, but they did not feel the need to intervene. He had the pain of being betrayed in his heart as he took the high-speed train heading west. After a comfortable journey, he arrived in Thessaloniki, and during this voluntary exile, the ghosts of the past never left. His life in senseless pain would end a few months later with an unexpected heart attack.
Image Source: https://unsplash.com/
