“I believe the gun has no power at all”

Malala Yousafzai

Jacob Trials entered the Ministry building for the last time. Nobody tried to stop him.

You couldn’t have told that just a short time ago this place had been the scene of a bloody slaughter. The small office that served as the entrance was back to how it had been, a new, equally impassive woman sitting at her desk, typing away as if she had always and would always work there. She didn’t bat an eyelid as Trials walked past, though he would have bet good money he was being watched by hidden eyes.

The elevator descended without event, its steady, unchanging hum matching the cold resolution on Trials’ face, shafts of light sliding upwards to give glimpses of eyes of steel.

No-one remained below except Matthews.

“I sent everybody away,” explained Matthews from where he sat, the same lounge in which Trials’ friends had stayed a lifetime ago. “The game’s up, anyway.”

Matthews sighed loudly. He had his feet up across the table, his always crisp outfit crumpled and loose.

“You really fucked me, you know that, Trials? I can’t plug all the leaks.”

All his usual florid vocabulary and ostentatious words seemed to have deserted the man, leaving him a bitter, callous reflection of the person Trials once thought he knew.

“My goddam son. He was never meant to get to you, the little bastard. I thought you were a lock. But a few days with him, and I can’t predict a single thing you’ll do anymore.”

“You think Matterson is the reason I’m here?” asked Trials, calmly. Matthews had nowhere to run, it was all over. He might as well hear the man out.

“I don’t know why you’re here, but I know that you shouldn’t be. You think with your fists, Trials, always have. That’s why it was so easy to mould you into who I needed you to be. You were willing to be moulded, even if you weren’t conscious of the fact. Why didn’t you kill those men?”

The change of topic didn’t faze Trials.

“I didn’t need to. It’s all so ridiculous. You can’t control the world through violence, you can only retard it. It’s like trying to steer a cart by beating the horses: you’ll just end up with even less control.”

Matthews tossed his head back and laughed loudly at the answer.

“My god, he really got to you, didn’t he? You’d never have thought like this before. Fascinating.”

“I was the bet?” asked Trials.

“Something like that. Me and my son, we never had a… typical relationship. I wanted him to be the best. Not just good, not just successful, but the very top of the pile. And he worked for it, he really did. But we never agreed as to what being the best means. He has no interest in money, in fortune, in power. He loves control. Not limited control over the many, but absolute control over the few.”

“So you… fell out?”

Matthews laughed again.

“Yeah, I guess you could call it that. I beat him half to death when I realised what he had truly taken from all my teachings. Should have finished the job.”

“But he’s not controlling me,” said Trials.

“No, that’s right. He’s not. It’s enough for him that he untethered you from me. His target is the Ministry, you see. Not because he opposes it, but because he opposes me. And now you’ve finished his work.”

“He must have been at it for some time.”

“I guess so. I should have spotted it. The whole ‘assuming he was in jail’ thing kind of took my mind off it, but he was working at us even then. The first guy you ever killed, you remember? Well, that was one of his. Didn’t figure that out until now.”

Trials felt the memory prick him, a small sliver of pain.

“So he’s trying to make the serum too? Then I’ll have to go after him again once I’m done here,” he said.

“He does need to be stopped, yes. I wanted the serum for our purposes, to limit extremism and guide the world on the path it needs to take, but if he manages to make it…”

Matthews snapped out of his reverie.

“But you are mistaken, Trials,” said Matthews as he got to his feet, kicking the couch on which he sat and sending it crashing into the wall with barely a hint of effort, “if you think you are the one who is going to be doing anything after this.”