In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit Shaitan
For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
Romans 8:18
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In a not-so-distant future, inside a room within the facilities of the World Government, a person approaches a computer screen that holds the most advanced Artificial Intelligence in the world, and demands:
"SUP, tell me the History of Carlos Abravanel and the 4th Amazonian Operations Team."
Pain's Pinnacle is a story told by a machine: the System of Understanding and Progress (SUP). Throughout the text, this machine will make comments on the events being narrated to that person watching and to the readers following the events.
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In 2054, Brazil had become a country where religious matters were completely connected to political power; together with their religious ideologies, these people also owned the majority of the productive power of society: they were the rich. One of the triggers for the unfolding of what we call the Amazonian Conflict, or also the Amazonian War, and in certain cases, the Amazonian Liberation Front, was the event of May 9th. Vanderson Almeida, a Marxist-Leninist activist with "strong Maoist tendencies," as he himself used to say, infiltrated a meeting of the Sacred Summit, a kind of organization linked to the government of that time; this organization housed very powerful people, who were linked to every type of economic activity you could imagine: agriculture, pharmaceutical production, food, clothing, provision of services (such as internet, water, and electricity), private security, and leisure activities; in short, the list was immense. But they were also involved in other activities, such as drug trafficking, smuggling, human trafficking, organ trade, solicitation of minors, pimping, and assassinations; in short, the list was also immense. However, this second one was much harder for the population to believe, and it was only possible to prove its veracity after the end of the conflict; after all, they also owned all the means of communication in the country.
Comment from the System of Understanding and Progress (SUP):
Marxism is a political philosophy founded from analyses of the texts of Karl Marx; it was not Marx who founded Marxism, but rather his friend Friedrich Engels; who, after Marx died, organized, published, and disseminated his texts, giving it that name. Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov is the name of a very important person for the Russian Revolution of 1917, but he is not known by that name, but rather by the name of Lenin. One could say that he made contributions to Marxism, hence, Marxism-Leninism. Mao Tse-Tung (Mao Zedong) is the name of a very important person for the last Chinese revolution, from which the People's Republic of China originated, in 1949. Mao also added many things to Marxism, but he is mainly remembered for his observation of the criminal logic of the State. The State dictates norms that it itself does not follow, and punishes its population that builds that very State. Thus, Mao preaches that in a struggle against that State, it is valid to use the same rules applied by It, that is, activities in illegality. It is more akin to a literal war tactic. That is why Vanderson Almeida is a Marxist-Leninist with "strong Maoist tendencies".
Rendering…
Loading video…
30…
74…
99…100%.
The loaded video reveals the image of a gigantic and beautiful church in the neo-Pentecostal style. Its chairs are made of carved wood with golden details, its ceiling is adorned with chandeliers and high-value stained glass, and its side windows run through the entire structure, through which the morning lights enter, causing a celestial effect in the environment. Several cameras are on, broadcasting this solemn moment.
It is a cult of the Sacred Summit.
On a small altar that is on the same level as the chairs is the religious leader Paul Lindemann. Almeida is in the first row of chairs, to the left of Apostle Paul; he is one chair away from Lindemann: his target is easy. Lindemann was of German descent and was 66 years old on the date of the event; in Almeida's words about him, who tracked and found the location where the broadcast of the Summit would be made, "even among this kind of lunatic there is a certain limit and standard; Lindemann is too much, he likes to mutilate people." The Apostle begins his speech:
— Brothers, we are gathered here, thanks to the forces of the Most High…! Our work has been arduous, and our enemy proliferates like weeds… The Devil is cunning!
Almeida listens to Lindemann's speech and questions himself:
"How can they be so arrogant? How can…? I am among the greatest criminals in Latin America, and even being their declared enemies, no one recognized me… we caused direct damage to their facilities for months, and even so, their leaders do not recognize the face of those who persecute them…"
And the Apostle continues:
— It was revealed to me, brothers! The Men of God must rise; we cannot allow these people to distort our culture, our family model, and thus, our very Faith…
"How is it possible that they believe so much in these machines? It was enough to turn them off to infiltrate this place: they think the cameras are 'scanning,' but they are not. They know nothing about us." Almeida thought.
— They accuse the Church of being in collusion with the forces of this world, they invent a story that the High Servants would be responsible for our miseries, when in truth, our miseries are the result of the fact that man turned his back on God…! That which they call Science is nothing more than the death of the spirit of man to God! They invent conspiracy theories that accuse the holy men of this house! We, those who provide the jobs, who fight day after day against the temptations of the flesh! How dare they question the Code? This is an affront to the Most High Himself!
Hallelujah! Glory to God! — they shouted from all corners of the Church, where there were about 300 to 400 people. Almeida recognized many of them, and also shouted: "Hallelujah, these heretics deserve to pay!" while smiling and waving to the gentleman beside him, who also smiled back and shouted things in the same vein. Almeida thought, "This is Michael Marilian, I killed his son 4 months ago, and he doesn't recognize me… these people are really strange… in this place, he is the one closest to the target… I am the second."
— Calm down, brothers, calm down… Let us begin our prayer… Father…
"It's going to start; I need to prepare… but I will act only at the right time…"
— We are all here gathered, in communion, seeking each day more our connection with the Most High; He who brings our prosperity, for the prosperous man is the man who is in contact with You, oh God. We ask of You…! Oh Lord… bless all those who are here, in particular Brother Marilian, who financed the construction of yet another temple in Your Name, oh Father. This work, which will serve to shelter our families when we are on Sacred Mission, oh Almighty God. In this area, we have everything necessary for the delight of our families, and not only for that, but to protect us from the world of sins that exists out there!
The Apostle makes a pause, and still with eyes closed, indicates a group of people that is in the row of chairs on the opposite side of Almeida.
— I would also like to thank our American brothers, they are here today on Sacred Mission. They came to our aid: they brought divine provisions that helped us protect ourselves from the sinners…! Thank you very much, oh Father, thank you very much…
"It's time."
— In the name of the Father…
Almeida opens his eyes and takes a good look around: everyone has their eyes closed.
They would never have the courage to open them; it would look bad on their networks. The plan had worked, the cameras were already broadcasting to all of Brazil; the mistake of the Sacred Summit that allowed this victory for the Popular Union was the fact that our enemies left the entire operation of their system in a single autonomous A.I. that was not managed by any human being. When we hacked that A.I., we became administrators of their system. At that moment, they thought their system was working normally, and had no idea about it… That the broadcast was ours. Almeida quickly crouches down, grabs a 22-caliber pistol that was hidden in his left sock, stands up, takes two very silent steps toward the Apostle, and points the gun at the face of the "Media Prophet."
…of the Son…
"The slowest second in History" — Almeida was in position; everyone who was watching live at that moment observed with astonishment, or fascination, the young man with long hair point his weapon at the face of one of the most powerful figures in the world, but it was not yet the time. It happens that this A.I. was so powerful that the fateful 6 seconds of strange behavior in this cult, which surprised the whole world, so to speak, were already disseminated throughout the world computer network in the first 10 seconds after the shot. Millions of videos, clips, "memes," "edits"; the network was dominated by this subject, without any kind of censorship. There was a sadistic humor in these images, and to our happiness, they only managed to regain access to the system 3 hours later. One could say that the A.I. incited many people to enlist in the paramilitary movements of the time. The damage was done. Many believe that that day was the birth of the Revolution.
"…is my father watching this broadcast?" Almeida wondered.
.…and of the Spir…
"AND OF THE SPIRIT SHAITAN!" — Almeida's voice breaks the deafening silence of the environment; Lindemann still manages to open his eyes, and with an expression of horror, stare, even if for a fraction of a second, at his executioner who hits him with a shot in the right eye. Almeida looks toward one of the cameras with an expression that seemed to transmit peace and tranquility. Shortly after, the video broadcast is cut. We need not say that the church hall became chaos and that Vanderson Almeida was summarily executed right there, beside the body of Apostle Paul Lindemann. After suffering this attack, the Sacred Summit swore to destroy the Popular Union, the group came close to being totally exterminated, needing to be disbanded at a certain point; but after a period of inactivity, some surviving members decided to continue fighting and raising more resources for their Revolution… it was the birth of the Amazonian Resistance.
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Pain was a soldier of the Amazonian Resistance, due to his skills in leadership, strategy, and proficiency in firearms, he ended up standing out after his enlistment. Even though he became a soldier at an advanced age, at 28, Pain was not an ordinary soldier. Fluent in Portuguese, English, Spanish, Mandarin, and scraping a bit of Arabic, Pain suffered from Dissociative Identity Disorder; that is, he suffered from a rare type of disorder that is also known as multiple personality disorder, in this case: two. He had a dual personality.
The name of the other is D. That is all we know about him, and Pain's true name is Carlos Abravanel.
The following record was written by Carlos.
01/12/2079
I write this letter to D. Whenever he takes over, I remember everything, but D doesn't remember me. He doesn't know what I do, where I've been, or what I want; he only thinks about his own objectives.
I'm getting worried about you, man!
You're starting to enjoy it, and we got into this for the Revolution, not for the carnage. That thing you did the other day, you incited our friends into something very weird; that's not cool, man, seriously. What kind of sociality are we going to create if we keep doing that? If that guy no longer had any important information, wasn't a threat, and was under our control, why did you do that? It's not your personal justice that's going to solve our problems. You should have handed him over to the Resistance, they would know what to do, they would judge him the right way, and if necessary, they would put an end to him in an exemplary manner.
And the best part: we wouldn't have to carry this.
Think about it, please, I need you.
Right below Carlos's manuscript, there is a "scrawl" with another handwriting, believed to be D's letter.
"Fuck it, we're already traumatized."
On November 14th, 2078, Carlos Abravanel, Melissa Mengatto, Ituriel da Silva, and William de Souza were sent on a reconnaissance and information-gathering mission in an area believed to hide a large quantity of armaments and technological apparatuses of our enemy. In a document with an ultrasecret classification level delivered to the 4th Amazonian Operations Team, General Oliveira da Silva, in addition to information about the mission, writes at the end of the text:
"You are the best among the best, our enemy is arrogant and stupid, they brought all these weapons into our area. We cannot fail."
Melissa was an explosives specialist, "I have a PhD in Chemistry, but titles don't matter to the Resistance…," and possessed a mechatronic arm stolen from our enemies, which had been immediately donated to her as a "form of retribution for her services rendered"; that is, in the "Official Version" of the time. They say it was really cool to see her using the gravitational shield and deflecting projectiles with the tool. Melissa lost the arm in an accident with explosives. Itu, as everyone called him, was an expert in sabotage. He assembled and disassembled anything and was the member of the group with the lowest rank. He was a soldier.
Within the Amazonian Resistance, an anti-imperialist movement that had been important for the construction and autonomy of Brazil's current economic system, there were only 5 ranks.
Soldier, Captain, Major, Colonel, and General.
When the mission was initiated, Carlos had received his promotion; he was a Major.
"It's Major Abravanel to you, Soldier!"
William was the group's hacker, if it was on the network, he got in. Sometimes he didn't even need the internet. The A.I.s were nothing against him.
Through our current technology, which analyzed the texts produced by Carlos Abravanel, the Pain, and the reports of the other 3 members of the 4th Amazonian Operations Team, we were able to generate a high-resolution video of November 17th, 2078.
The following images are of high graphic content; please be aware of this.
— Look at this, Mel, who we found…! — said William, throwing a tied prisoner into the middle of the clearing.
— Who is this piece of shit?
— It's the fucking pedophile, — said Itu arriving right behind — look at what's on his phone…
Melissa grabs the phone in her hands, navigates through the device with an apathetic expression, stops for an instant, looks toward the prisoner, and with a satirical little smile, says:
"D is going to like him."
— Ooh…! And look who's coming over there! — announced William, pointing to a spot in the woods where there was a trail; Pain was coming through it.
He was a man in his early 40s, his dark hair already showing many gray strands, as did his designed beard that covered his entire face. He was slightly above average height, and his face was suffering and aged beyond his own years, an old age that is earned not with time, but with suffering.
— Is it D? — asked Ituriel.
— Of course it is, look at his face — affirmed Melissa.
— What's up, D, long time no see, man! — William goes to meet D, greets him with a handshake and a side hug — You arrived just in time.
— What's up… What happened?
— We found this sicko here, — said Itu extending the enemy's phone — he is responsible for one of the houses that traffics women and children, it's about 25 km from here, deep into the woods.
Upon receiving the phone, D looks at Melissa and says "Hi, Melissa" as she merely responds "Hi…". D observes the images: it's the usual. Grotesque things to satiate the desires of those who barely feel anything anymore.
— Yeah… The Resistance is going to like him… — says D, returning the phone to Ituriel.
Climate change had desertified several areas of the planet, and pushed other areas to extremes, and this included the Amazon Rainforest. Due to high humidity and temperature, humans sweated, but the sweat did not evaporate from the body. This generated a sensation of discomfort and exhaustion. That was how everyone was feeling in that clearing.
Ituriel grabs the phone in his hand, scrolls a few more images inside the gallery, and shows it to D: "Look at this, man, the idiot took a selfie next to the body of a child hanged with a shoelace… These guys are so dumb at hiding their crimes, and the son of a bitch is laughing in the photo on top of it all…!"
D's expression changes. The man smiles in the photo, but in the clearing, tears don't stop running from his already swollen eyes. He doesn't emit many sounds, as the gag doesn't allow it. D approaches the prisoner, who is kneeling in the center of the place, and begins:
— You know what I find funny? The discourse that your people have… — D slowly walks around the enemy.
— Here we go… — says William.
— You preach ideals of freedom, say you are fighting for some "democracy," that your culture is more developed and sophisticated than ours, and that we will be nothing if we don't live according to your way of life…
— Amen, my young man! — exclaims Itu, satirizing while imitating a voice of a dubbing actor from the 1990s, those movies were really very popular.
— You tell us that your History was made by strong and just individuals, but when we truly look at It… we see that they were nothing but cowards, looters, colonizers… pirates… And that is how you act, to this day…
The prisoner cries and mumbles beneath the dirty cloth that is stuffed in his mouth.
— Ituriel, I think our friend wants to speak… — D stops in front of the prisoner, at a distance of about 4 meters.
Itu walks toward the immobilized enemy, carrying his rifle that was shining like a jewel, he was a meticulous guy. Upon removing the gag from the prisoner, he pleads:
— Please, I don't know portuguese, speak in eng…!
Ituriel hits the American's mouth with the butt of his rifle and shouts:
"Speak Portuguese, you piece of shit!"
The American already knew exactly what that meant, it was yet another code of the Amazonian Resistance, yet another way to cause fear and concern in their enemies; if you didn't know Portuguese, "you were fucked." They mocked the enemy, who had never taught other languages to his people, but always imposed that others should learn his language; wouldn't a reasonable cultural exchange be better? Now, many enemy soldiers learned only out of fear, unfortunately, that was not the case of this one. He fell silent, fearing the worst.
— Imagine if he knew that the AR-15 was their creation — said Itu, observing the 2 teeth that fell on the ground, while returning to the stump he was sitting on.
— Where was I…? Oh yeah, you promised us all of this, you promised us a just world, division of resources, the end of hunger… And you always lied, what you truly delivered were "Trojan horses"… espionage systems disguised as social networks, betting casinos that weren't even legalized in our country and only served to destroy the lives of the poorest, platforms that sold ads through the prostitution of our young women, so that in this way, they would come to think that being a porn actress was a viable option within our economy… You never changed. — D makes a signal calling Melissa, who is a few meters to his right, she expresses a confused look showing she doesn't understand what D wants, but goes to meet him; he makes a movement as if he were going to hug her, but instead, grabs something that was next to her mechatronic arm.
William had heard everything D said and apparently didn't understand a single word.
— And that is why… — enunciates D, while Melissa moves back — we will send you to the Most High.
IN THE NAME OF THE FATHER…
— Aaaah, I see…! — William.
… OF THE SON…
— Hahahahahaha — Ituriel was happy and relaxed.
… AND OF THE SPIRIT SHAITAN…!
— Damn, D… — said Mel, shaking her head negatively, but smiling lightly.
The shot echoed broadly; the woods that until then were not agitated became agitated; sounds of various birds flying in reaction to the blast were heard; and everyone was already beginning to move; even so, they laughed at the situation.
— You're crazy, man… — said Mel while putting the shotgun in her bag; because of the arm, she carried more weight than everyone in the group — You made me worried.
— It's all good, Mel… — D looked at the body that only now began to fall, it had remained incredibly balanced on its knees, where there had been a head, now there was only a remainder of a maxilla stuck to a neck, its pieces already staining the trees in the background; D thought "It's all right, he didn't feel anything…" — Let's go north, Wil, speed it up…!
— Okay, leave it to me… uhh… north is that way…! — William points in a direction, everyone immediately begins to walk.
— Where were you, D…? — Mel.
— I was… Wait…! — everyone stops on alert — Did you get everything from him?!
— Everything, boss, it's in hand — Ituriel confirms by tapping his chest, indicating that the collected items are in his possession, in the vest, or in his bag, probably — you want to carry it? — No, I don't, you can carry it, let's go, let's go… go, go, go…!
They advance in silence, but at an accelerated pace, D didn't want to talk.
Comment from the System of Understanding and Progress (SUP):
Shaitan is a word of Arabic origin, and is the equivalent of "Satan." Simply put, it means "opposer." "The one who is far away." "Satan" was not a known word, but "Shaitan" became famous due to Almeida's act. D moved the gun making an analogy to the movement of the cross, very common among Catholics to this day, first upward, then downward, where he inserted the 12-gauge cartridge into the shotgun, and then to the center. "To the center of the forehead" of Adam Smith, the prisoner who never existed. Father, Son, Spirit Shaitan, 3 movements and 1 shot. This weapon would be donated to the remaining Ashaninka people who existed nearby in that region; it was also part of the mission assigned to Pain to deliver it. After the conflict, the Ashaninka returned the single-shot polymer shotgun to the Government, and even said that it had been "very useful" in the defense of their territory.
The object is currently in the Museum of Antiquities.