Prologue
This is not just your manual, this is the key, the lock and the door to the future.
- MM City, A Greater's Manual
*
"It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. It was the year 2057.
I've always wondered why it had to be 2057, though. There's nothing special about it - not even a leap year.
But maybe the fact that it was ordinary, is what made it extraordinary. Maybe the world just overlooked the year and thus, wasn't prepared for the drama that was to come.
You know 'Megawatt Minds', right? Basically a research centre-city for the 'Greaters', I mean... scientifically inclined.
It was at the heart of the country and almost literally the heart of the country. Every little thing in the world came from this mega lab, from MM City.
Back then, Detective Inspector Carla Stamp was very young. Only around 21 years old. After some kind of misunderstanding with the superiors who ran MM, Carla was denied entry. They just couldn't seem to be able to grasp the fact that being normal is actually what is in fact, quite rare and superior.
And so she ended up with what was considered the 'second best' job. She ended up joining the world renown police force of Fealzn.
On the 20th of January, the case file of Adrian Ilks reached Carla. For a while, being the rebellious person she was, Carla chose to ignore it. But on a Saturday, when the country's President himself, along with a small crew of the Greaters visited her, she knew it was something of greater importance than she'd imagined."
Tatchwhite paused her expressive narration. Her grandchildren were looking at her with wide eyes, awaiting her next words.
Only they never came.
She got up from her armchair and started to walk towards her little kitchen.
Her daughter sat in the living room of the cottage, with an actual book in her hand. Next to her, on the prim, elegant oak table sat a small cup of coffee.
Tatchwhite smiled to herself. And simultaneously, the kids started whining for more.
Impatience really is hard to eradicate, she thought.
And as she tried to pour herself a glass of 'wine', that was made with precisely a drop of the actual alcohol and a lot of water, her mind wandered to the deepest realms of her memory.
Alcohol... caffeine... drugs...
*
