[USER_NOT_FOUND]

SYSTEM_BOOTING: LOADING_MEMORY

CASE_FILE: AMARA_NJIDEOFOR

LOCATION: 48_ADMIRALTY_DRIVE, LAGOS

COGNITIVE_STATUS: GLITCHING

ITIVE_STATUS: GLITCHING

She sat at the kitchen table, coffee mug in hand, trying to get ready for the day. She stood in a spot for some minutes, eyes to the wall, not knowing what she had entered the kitchen to ….

                            [MEMORY_BUFFER_OVERFLOW]

         Minutes

Hours

Months

            The tap is running. Why did she turn it on?

The haze in her head had grown thick and persistent and the disconnection with reality had started to feel normal.

A few months ago, she had been okay, she was a media consultant with a very big firm in Lekki, her social calendar was full, she went on picnics with her boyfriend, Dike and their friends, went to work, completed the pile of work on her desk timely and binge watched many Netflix movies. It happened slowly, the occasional forgetfulness- like when she didn’t turn off her tap after pouring water into a cup, forgetting her car keys in the house, not remembering the password to her phone. It happened in drops, like water dripping from a leaking faucet. She even forgot an important doctor appointment and was startled when her phone beeped, reminding her of the appointment. 

SYSTEM NOTIFICATION:

       SATURDAY, APRIL 21, 2100 – DOCTOR’S APPOINTMENT, SATURDAY, APRIL 21, 2100 – DOCTOR’S APPOINTMENT, APRIL 21, 2100, DOCTOR’S APPOINTMENT [REPEAT, ON LOOP]

       Soon the gaps in her memory grew. She forgot dates with Dike, forgot important work meetings and didn’t meet deadlines with tasks. 

‘I don’t know what is happening to me.  O bu gini na emem?’ she confided in Dike when he came to her home after she forgot to return his over ten calls. 

‘Yeah’ he was very concerned. 

The doctor was all smiles at her next appointment. 

Dike drove her. 

First – African folktales, listen carefully for the questions and answers later. 

By the time he finished, 

She couldn’t remember the beginning, 

The middle, 

The ending. 

Then he balanced the Neuro Calabash on her head with its glowing lights, buttons and wires. Her brain appeared in 3D hologram, he reconfigured it with his pen and it adjusted to a fabric loom representing her brain as her memories were woven on it. 

   Memory Lanes being woven

Some threads cut

Some were dark

Some were bright-coloured

Some were frayed

Some were just gone.

Something was wrong. 

NEURAL_SCAN_RESULTS

SUBJECT: AMARA NJIDEOFOR_35F

HIPPOCAMPUS INTEGRITY: 50% DECLINING

MEMORY PATHWAYS: SPLITTING

DIAGNOSIS: EARLY ONSET DEMENTIA

FAMILY_HISTORY_MATCH: MOTHER - DEMENTIA

‘Amara, you have early onset dementia. It was caused by a genetic mutation by the receptors in your brain’ he revealed. 

Amara was stunned, how could she be having memory loss at thirty-five? True, her mother battled dementia for a long time before her death but having it so young was what she couldn’t understand. Dike squeezed her hands tight to assure her that she wasn’t alone. She could feel the tears stinging her eyes as she looked at the birds flying from tree to tree outside. She was scared about forgetting, forgetting the singing of birds, her nnem’s banga soup recipe, the way her tiny lips parted to say ‘o ga adinma’, the password to her phone and apps, the most important people, forgetting the dates she was to go and placing fresh flowers at her parents’ grave at their yearly remembrance.

“But you are really in luck. A new tech company came here this week advertising a novel tech for a neuro implant for patients with Alzheimers’ Disease. It looks promising but since the studies are still ongoing, there is no telling of its future effects or its full capabilities. They are coming this week for health talks. Do I sign you up?’ the doctor hesitated then added, “I should also mention that the main trials were conducted in Nairobi and Kenya but it is still in experimental phase in Europe and America but here…” he trailed off adjusting his glasses. Amara understood what he was trying to say. Africa was always the testing ground; they accepted vaccines before full FDA approval and participated in drug trials with incomplete data; the first to adopt technologies without considering the side effects. But what choice did she have? Forget and disappear, or have a chance at remembrance and live her life to the fullest?

“Sign me up” she told the doctor. 

When she went home, she took a tour around her house. Dike wrote her things she would love to remember on notepads and kept them around the house. 

The following week, the doctor referred her to Neurotech Hospital where the chip was inserted under local anesthesia. It was smooth and painless, a slim, silver crescent was inserted beside her ear, wired lightly into her skull.

WELCOME TO OPTINET

YOUR PERSONAL COGNITIVE ASSISTANT

INITIALIZING…...

NEURAL SCAN COMPLETE

SUBSCRIPTION STATUS: TRIAL (14 DAYS)

OptiNet buzzed in her head and she felt like a well-oiled machine after so many years of wear and tear. 

• Housework reminder
• Dates with Dike
• Doctor’s appointments.

TRIAL_PERIOD_STATUS: 12 DAYS REMAINING

 ‘I am buying us tickets to see Randy, the hip-hop super star, he is coming to Lagos this December.’ Dike bubbled with excitement.

December came as fast the dry harmattan winds that accompanied it. Lagos was different during Christmas, people were kinder, traffic was slower with cars and buses filled with people heading to the villages for Christmas celebrations. OptiNet chirped gentle reminders into Amara’s head, to hydrate, rest and eat. Her memory retention was as sharp as ever, she quoted words verbatim, and recall conversations down to words. Even Dike noticed. 

You are like a flash drive now, only sexier.’

‘I wish I could sieve the bad memories.’

She danced like she had never danced before at the Randy concert, reciting his lyrics, word by word and jumping in the crowd in excitement. The air smelled of fireworks and deodorants. 

SET_LIST

TRACK 1: ARIKE

TRACK 2: BABY_COMMANDO

TRACK 3: [CORRUPTED]

TRACK 4: ROLL _YOUR_WAIST_AGATHA

That night as they returned home, she leaned to relax on the car seat for a moment her brain quipped. 

[GPS_MALFUNCTION; LOCATION_SERVICES_FAILING]

‘Where am I going?’ she asked, startled.

Dike was taken aback and paused from starting his car. 

‘We are going home, Amara,’ he answered.

‘Are you okay?’ he asked, concerned. 

‘Yes,’ she replied.

By January the cracks began to show. It became visible in the office when her manager asked her for details of a project she was working on. OptiNet quipped and she couldn’t believe the words that came out of her mouth. 

‘Roll your waist, Agatha, wine am for Daddy, there is money in the party, if you let me rock you…’ she covered her mouth with her hands but it was too late. 

Her manager looked horrified.

‘What the heck was that, Amara?’ he was furious.

‘I am so sorry Sir, I am having a very slow day.’

He was shocked.

‘I was asking you about, my project coordinator about the advertisement for Canury Oil and Gas and you go reciting Randy’s lewd lyrics.’

‘I am so sorry Sir, it was this concert I went to in December.’

‘Let us do this over again. What level is the project at now, Amara?’

‘Baby Commando, I like it when you rotate your waist, be a good girl and I will spoil you tonight, my charger is active and I want to plug in your socket’ her brain started an awkward music playlist. 

EMPLOYMENT_STATUS: [SUSPENDED]

At home, she removed her wigs, clothes and got into the shower, after she had poured water on her hair to cool it down, she stood in the shower for some minutes forgetting where she kept her towel. 

ANNIE_VIRTUAL_ASSISTANT: Today is your anniversary with Dike, do you need some chocolate and scented candles?

Anniversary? Did she log this? Did she tell Annie? Had Annie always known? 

‘Annie, call Dike.’ 

COMMAND_MISINTERPRETATION: ‘Ordering cookies and chocolate’

CART UPDATED: TWO ITEMS ADDED. 

‘No! call Dike.’

SYSTEM OVERRIDE: ‘Override, Insufficient memory to carry out operation’

She clasped her head with her hands and screamed. 

‘Shut down!’

 Amara floated into the clinic like a ghost, not smiling and not returning the quirky greetings of the android nurses at the reception. 

CLINIC_POSTER: A peaceful mind is the root of a peaceful life. Let us be your peace today. 

She almost pushed the patient walking out of the doctor’s room as she struggled to get inside. She could not waste a second. 

‘Hi, Amara’ Doctor Emeka smiled at her. ‘What brings you today?’

 ‘OptiNet is malfunctioning. She doesn’t recall events and they are all over the place in her head. She was suspended yesterday because she sang lewd lyrics to songs when she was asked important questions. Instead of calling me, it was ordering chocolates and chips,’ Dike explained. 

Doctor Emeka scowled and typed quickly on the big screen that formed his table. 

‘Let me check her settings, we might need to adjust minor override parameters.’

Amara’s heartbeat was loud in her ears. 

‘Can you remove it? I don’t want to lose my mind,’ she pleaded. 

The doctor’s finger stopped her mid-air. ‘Amara, I should have told you earlier but I didn’t want to overwhelm your brain with so much information to process’

‘What do you mean?’ Amara was confused.

Doctor Emeka turned the tablet to face her.

On it, a screen displayed, 

OPTINET COGNITIVE ENHANCEMENT CHIP 

USER PLAN – 14 DAY TRIAL

            TIME REMAINING, ONE DAY, 2 HOURS, 10 MINUTES.

STATUS: [SUBSCRIPTION_REQUIRED]

TRIAL_FEATURES: WILL BE DISABLED

CONSEQUENCE: CATASTROPHIC COGNITIVE FAILURE

“What is this?” Amara asked.

“It is a novel technology so this is a pilot study. The company wanted to test the product in real life settings before rolling it out to the public. You were one of the selected ten patients in Lagos. You were on a 14-day free trial, which has ended so to get the maximum benefits, you have to subscribe’

‘Subscribe?’ she and Dike spoke at the same time. 

‘You mean, ‘this’, she waved over her head. ‘has been temporary?’

‘Yes, it has logged you out of the system, the current features will be disabled unless you opt into full service.’

‘How much?’ Amara asked flatly.

The screen glowed with options, each one more bewildering than the last. 

OptiNet Yanga Yanga: 450,000 naira

-Basic memory retrieval 

-Limited emotional regulation

-Offline functionality only

 [ECONOMY TIER]

OptiNet Prime: 500,000 naira

-Complete neural activation

-24-hour memory scaffolding

-Memory synchronization

[STANDARD TIER]

OptiNet Premium: 1,000,000 naira

-Full cognitive awareness and synchrony

-Advanced predictive modeling

-Multi-timeline memory access

[PREMIUM/HIGH PRIORITY TIER]

Amara exchanged glances with an equally confused Dike.

‘So, if I don’t pay, I will go back to forgetting?’

‘It actually gets worse when withdrawn unless there is a miracle breakthrough. How far are you willing to go to keep your mind?’

Amara’s throat was dry, her tongue felt glued to the roof of her mouth.

‘You sold me a cure. You didn’t tell me at what cost,’ Amara’s eyes were hollow.

‘You signed a document that explained that you would bear the effects of the chip. You also said you would do anything for a cure.’

She turned the screen to her again and Amara saw her bold signature and the highlighted places where she exonerated them from any side effects that came with the drug. 

She turned to Dike.

‘I am in trouble.’

At home, she and Dike sat at the kitchen table, regurgitating everything the doctor said and the best way forward. The interruptions became more frequent, in an hour, she had recited over ten advertisements and motivational quotes. 

The land is green, sow into Optimum Investments for a brighter future’ she reeled out whenever OptiNet was mentioned. 

‘I will tell them to remove the chip,’ she said. 

‘No, I will lose you forever.’

           Her eyes stung with tears.

‘I have some money saved but it will not be enough.’

‘I will raise the rest.’

She looked up at him with grateful eyes.

‘Thank you so much Dike.’

‘I will take more shifts, so I can raise funds.’

He was a medical laboratory assistant in a private clinic and five hundred thousand was his three-month salary, realizing that he decided to take more shifts to supplement the money made her more grateful, she wrapped her arms around him. 

‘Thank you so much.’

How many more shifts did he have to take for her not to lose her mind? 

Within a week, combined with her savings and Dike’s hard work, they were able to come up with the money for the subscription. 

PAYMENT_CONFIRMED: #500,000

OPTINET_PRIME_ACTIVATED

SUBSCRIPTION_PERIOD: 30_DAYS

RENEWAL_REQUIRED: AUTORENEW_ON

Amara’s mind rebooted like an engine. 

Weeks fly by, 

Or was it days? 

Preparing for project, 

‘I hope you have come back to your senses’ her boss said as she presented the project to him.

It was smooth and fluid as she slid over the project like water, breaking down salient points and reaching a climax to what they hoped to achieve.

‘Good, this presentation is very good, your ideas for the company branding is top notch. There are just some loose ends you need to tighten and prepare for the pitch next month. The CEO of Canury Oil and Gas is coming’

‘Can I trust you, Amara?’ he asked her and she jolted.

‘Of course,’ 

What could go wrong?

On the D-day, she tucked her silk white shirt into a plain black skirt and straightened her wig. Her heart was pounding when she sat in her office going through the work over and over again. When the clock struck nine, she floated into the board room where her manager was waiting. She sat down beside him and breathed deeply.

‘Good morning Sir’

‘Good morning Amara’

‘Hope you are ready? This is a big deal and cannot go wrong’

‘Of course, Sir.’

She took another deep breath. The CEO of Canury Oil and Gas breezed in with three other assistants, all looked rich and had a feel of seriousness to them.

They sat beside her manager as she set up her laptop and introduced herself.

‘My name is Amara Njideofor and my presentation details the five-year projection of Canury Oil and how we envision the company in the years to come’

The presentation went on well, she broke it down into details, bringing up target populations, pricing, and buttressing points with bar charts and pie charts. There was a long round of applause after her presentation.

‘How do we go with advertisements, do we use social media, or television, newspapers have been outdated for years now and how do we produce clean energy for use?’ the manager of Canury Oil and Gas asked during the question and answer section.

Amara opened her mouth.

NEURAL_OVERRIDE_DETECTED

ADVERTISEMENT_CACHE_ACTIVATED

ERROR: WRONG_TIME_AND_PLACE

PLAYING NOW: STORED_JINGLE_FILE

‘In the heart of Africa’s energy revolution, Canury Oil and Gas is lighting the path to sustainability. With over 80 years of excellence in offshore innovation, deep earth drilling and Ai assisted refineries, we don’t just extract energy, we engineer tomorrow’

There was a pin drop silence in the board room as they exchanged confused glances. The CEO of Canury Oil cleared his throat.

‘Miss Njideofor, you just recited a proposed radio jingle, you didn’t answer my question or do I repeat it?’

He went on to repeat the question.

‘Canury Oil and Gas, where energy meets legacy’

They turned to each other, more confused than ever.

‘Did she just recite our motto?’ they asked themselves.

Amara’s manager stepped in to salvage the situation, answering all their questions while she went to sink into her seat with shame, the voice sounding very far away from her.

EMPLOYMENT_STATUS: TERMINATION [CONFIRMED]. 

NEURAL_STABILITY: COMPROMISED

SUBSCRIPTION_STATUS: OPTINET_PRIME_EXPIRED

She went home, called Dike and cried herself to sleep in his arms.

The next day, she was back at the doctor’s office. He had the permanent, plastic smile on his face.

‘How are you doing, Amara?’

‘Not good!! Get this thing out of my head now!’ Amara roared as Dike tried to calm her down.

‘Easy’ the doctor urged her to calm down.

  “She was fired after a disastrous presentation’ Dike answered.

‘Let me log into her system’ the doctor clicked away at the screen.

The screen showed; 

USER: AMARA_NJIDEOFOR_35F

OPTINET_PRIME_SUBSCRIPTION_STATUS: [EXPIRED]

REQUIRED_UPGRADE: OPTINET_PREMIUM

COST: #1,000,000

Amara wanted to scream, she wanted her voice to bring down the walls.

‘What the heck?!’ her voice got stuck in her throat.

“Yes, I am sorry’ the smile never for once left his face.

“What?!’ Amara repeated.

“How much is it?” Dike’s voice was cracked. 

“A million naira’ 

“What!’ Amara stood up, exploding with anger.

‘Yes’

‘I cannot afford that!’ 

‘Then you will be reduced to OptiNet Yanga Yanga, very slow memory retrieval and limited access’ 

‘What?!’ Amara kept repeating till Dike held her hands and left the Doctor’s office. While he went outside to get them a cab home, a mysterious man in a black suit who had been sitting quietly in the receptionist office, greeted her.

‘Hi, good afternoon, my name is Nonso, they are not what you think they are. Call me’ he slipped a white note in her hands and briskly walked away while she stared at his retreating back.

At home, she paced restlessly up and down while Dike sat with his head bowed thinking about the next line of action.

After a few hours of silence, he tucked her in bed and left for his night shift. She lay in bed staring at the white ceiling for a while before standing up and walking to her table where she got the white paper that the strange man had scribbled his number on.

‘Before I forget’ she dialed the number.

‘Hello’ she spoke into the receiver when the man picked.

‘Hello, I met you at the Neurotech Hospital yesterday. My name is Amara Njideofor’

‘Yes, I remember, my name is Nonso, a tech bro. I know all about Neurotech and their plan to retrieve information from people while charging them exorbitant fees’

The whole information was too much for Amara to digest. 

‘I am in trouble. I cannot afford the treatment any longer.’

‘That is what they do, my father died of Alzheimers’ Disease some years back, they came like an angel, offering help, we kept paying until we couldn’t pay anymore. They also charged us over ten million naira to remove the chip’

Amara became scared; it was like being trapped in between the devil and the blue sea, it was impossible to go forward and a very bad idea to go backward. She hit her head with her palm; she was stuck in a limbo. 

But she would pay Nonso a visit.

‘To know more, visit me at 38 Emerald Drive Ikeja. I will explain everything to you. I have been working on a way to hack into their system and bring them down’ 

‘Call your address again’ she wrote it down on a piece of paper in case she forgot. 

The next day, she was in the back of a taxi, on her way to 38 Emerald Drive, Ikeja, where Nonso was living. Amara stood before a modest white bungalow tucked behind tall neem trees, barely visible from the main road. The gate slid open soundlessly as she approached, scanning her face and matching it to the biometric imprint Nonso had uploaded after their call. 

The air inside was cool and fragrant from smart botanical filters infused with eucalyptus and lemongrass, put in self-watering terracotta pots. 

                 "Welcome, Amara," a voice said from nowhere. "You are expected."

The living room was sleek:  a holographic bookshelf projecting floating spines of rare African magazines and several Neurotech journals. Every surface doubled as a screen countertop, the dining table, even the window panes flickering with lines of code or news streams from the underground web.

She noticed a soft throbbing in one corner; a data well, where Nonso kept his encrypted backups. A wooden statue stood quietly on a shelf. Nonso appeared in the hallway, behind him, the kitchen lights changed as a robot chef poured in herbal tea from a digital menu into a cup, steam curling into the air.

“This house,” he said, as if reading her thoughts, “is off the grid, solar-powered, AI-moderated, and human-first. They can’t see us here and they won’t hear what we plan next.”

Amara didn’t know what to expect. 

‘Hi, Nonso, what are you planning?’

‘When you came out of the doctor’s office, I saw the sad look on your face and I knew you were part of the test patients for Neurotech. I was one of the engineers who programmed it. At first, it was for a good cause, to give people back the memories they lost. When we put it in the first patient, it worked like magic seeing the effects. But the doctor in charge got greedy, he started making it tiered and the subscription costly that it drove people mad. I warned him to stop but he kicked me out instead. I left and swore to stop them. I am trying to reverse engineer the chip’s core and unlock barriers that make it inaccessible for people from low income’

Amara’s head chirped and was suddenly becoming too heavy, she almost fell.  He caught her and led her to a chair. 

‘It is very risky. If this becomes successful, you get to make OptiNet accessible for everyone. But you will lose your mind forever. Either way you lose your mind if you cannot keep up with the payment. It is a lose lose situation but are you willing to sacrifice yourself for the greater good.’

‘I will think about it but I need to get home first.’

He obliged and put her in a taxi that dropped her in front of her house. She found her door open when she clicked the lock and could not remember leaving it unlocked. She suddenly became on guard, removed one of her shoes and armed herself in case of an intruder. In the kitchen, the kettle was hissing and a cup of coffee was on the table. She took a frying pan and a knife from the counter. Someone had entered her house. The shower was running so she assumed that the person was having a shower. 

She swung, 

Blood!

WAIT THAT’S DIKE!!

“What has come over you?”

Did she attack him?

Or did she remember attacking him?

Or is OptiNet feeding her the wrong info? 

Did he come to her house today or yesterday?

Is he standing there unharmed and confused?

The blood on her hands? Is it his? 

‘What has come over you, Amara?’ he growled in pain, reaching for a cloth to put pressure on the open wound that was bleeding a bit profusely. 

‘I am so sorry’ Amara felt like she was sinking in quick sand. Her eyes stung with tears. She had almost killed her boyfriend because she didn’t remember he had the spare key to her home. She didn’t remember anything. 

‘Let me help….”

But he was gone. 

The trail of blood following him. 

She fell and wept. 

That night, she made up her mind to be a vessel for Nonso’s cause. She called Dike severally but didn’t get any replies. In that moment, she wrote a letter and tucked in the mirror hoping he would see it. 

[THE LETTER DIKE READS/NEVER READS/BURNS/MEMORIZES]

Dear Dike, 

Ndo, I am sorry for leaving. I miss you. I miss the way - 

    [CANNOT RETRIEVE MEMORY]

the cold harmattan mornings

my mother’s spicy soups

your laughter

dancing in the kitchen

O ga adinma, you used to tell me when things were bad. But I don’t know if I will be okay anymore. 

If this reaches you, know that I fought. I hope we can meet without the chips - 

Just us...

wild, young and free. 

Ezigbo nwa, my nne m would have said. You have tried. 

‍

The next morning, she dialed his number for the last time, he didn’t pick. She shut the door to her residence and hailed a taxi. She gave the man the written address and he drove off. 

When Nonso opened the door, he knew. He just ushered her inside.

‘I want to do it’ she said

‘Are you sure? There is no going back’ he asked.

‘Do it’ she urged. ‘I rather lose my mind trying to be free than rent it for the rest of my life’ she was desperate. 

A drawer slid open and he brought out a metallic stick, a neural extractor, and gloves. A drone descended from the ceiling and scanned Amara’s face, projecting a 3D map of her skull and a red ticking dot where the chip rested at the back of her ear. Her Memory Lanes, the threads that formed her memory box were partially frayed, tangled and cutting in some places. He pressed a button on the metallic stick and it lighted. He pressed the stick on the red dot and it beeped. 

‘Your memory is slowly going, it was only a matter of time before you shut down,’ he said and her heart skipped. 

By tapping on the dot, a holographic model of the chip appeared; it was blinking like a star. He placed it on his computer terminal and the place glowed with light. As soon as it came alive, Nonso ran into frenzy detecting the firewalls and bypassing them in the little pocket of time he had before they noticed that someone had hijacked their chip.

“They not only retrieve memories, they sell your core and identity to unscrupulous individuals and companies to use putting you at a risk. You are not their patient, you are their product” he reeled off staring unbelievably at the screen. ‘These people are evil.’

His hands thumped across the keyboard. Her Memory Lanes came alive, she watched her life like a movie; 

Her tenth birthday…blowing out the candle

First kiss… (did it actually happen?) 

Her mother’s throaty laughter (did she always sound like that?) 

All curated like an album, arranged, for sale. 

[BIOMETRIC_BYPASS: SUCCESS]

[ FIREWALL_PENETRATION: SUCCESS]

[CORE_SYSTEM_ACCESS: SUCCESS]

[TIER_RESTRICTION_REMOVAL: SUCCESS]

[MEMORY_BACKUP_LIBERATION: SUCCESS]

SYSTEM_WIDE_MESSAGE:

ALL OPTINET RESTRICTIONS REMOVED. 

MEMORIES RESTORED AND PROTECTED. 

He looked at Amara, her eyes were wide open, her energy drained. He hit another button.

‘Your memories are not for sale; your RAM is yours to write on. Reconstruction….50%” the screen blinked. 

[SYSTEM_ATTEMPTING__TO_RELOAD]

[TIMELINE_SPLITTING]

[MULTIPLE_ENDINGS_DETECTED]

[ENDING_ONE: THE_LIBERATION]

Memory restored,

OptiNet restrictions removed,

Amara Njideofor: LOCATION_UNKNOWN]

Dike: [SEARCHING]

The revolution was successful. 

Neurotech lost access to their chips because he changed it in a way they were not able to retrieve. 

People accessed the Neurotech for free. 

He leaked a part of the Neurotech corruption, blackmail archives, behavioural modification tech, and unethical practices.

 Then he vanished, forever living in the shadows. 

Somewhere, Dike had read Amara’s note and tried her number so many times but as expected, it didn’t go through. 

He saw the news about OptiNet hijack and knew what she had done. She was free, free to live again; in a mainframe somewhere, as a part of a collective consciousness, lost, maybe immortal or both but free still. 

Dike still searches for her; he has not stopped and has still not found her. He hasn’t still given up. 

[ENDING_TWO: THE COST]

The extraction went wrong. 

Nonso’s hands shook when he reached for the chip and something else tore, something very vital. Amara’s eyes turned white before all her memories were accessed. 

She is still alive, trapped in her own body in 38 Emerald Drive, Ikeja. Amara is gone. The revolution happened, OptiNet freed but at the cost of a woman who chose humanity over her wellbeing. 

Her body is there, 

The woman is gone, 

The person deleted, 

What is left, isn’t her, 

Dike read her letter but he will keep on searching forever.

The revolution doesn’t care about martyrs. 

[ENDING_3: THE_GLITCH]

She never left the kitchen. 

All these; OptiNet, Nonso, the liberation; happened in twenty seconds, between when she poured her coffee and why she was there.

Her mind is fragmenting in real-time, as her brain creates elaborate narratives, fiction, like the Doctor, OptiNet, the revolution to fill in the gaps and save her from the realization that her memories are going away. 

She is still standing in the kitchen,

Dike is calling her name,

Her coffee is getting cold. 

And she can’t remember, 

Can’t remember, 

Can’t –

Wait – 

Did she ever get coffee?

Did she ever stand in the kitchen?

Did she ever meet Dike? 

OptiNet was never real,

Dike was never real,

She was never real,

Who is reading this?

Are you sure this story is real?

Will you remember reading this story? 

[FINAL_TIMESTAMP: ALL_OF_THEM_ SIMULTANEOUSLY]

The revolution happened,

The revolution failed,

The revolution is still happening, 

The revolution never happened.

All of these are true, 

None of these are true, 

Memory after all, is not what we rent, 

It is what we are,

It is what we were, 

It is what we …. (loud whirring beep), 

[END_TRANSMISSION_001]

[END_TRANSMISSION_002]

[END_TRANSMISSION_003]

[SYSTEM_SHUTDOWN_IMMINENT]

[HAS THE SYSTEM ALWAYS BEEN RUNNING?]

Somewhere in her kitchen, Amara keeps forgetting and remembering. 

Somewhere Dike is still searching.

Somewhere the chip chirps. 

Somewhere memory costs more than we can pay. 

Somewhere

Somewhere

   Somewhere

[SIGNAL LOST]  

[SIGNAL FOUND]

[SIGNAL NEVER EXISTED]

[YOU ARE THE SIGNAL]

OUR MEMORIES ARE OUR AUTONOMY.

YOU CHOOSE THE ENDING.