Opus Veda

"Get up! Let's go!" Kasia rattled the bunk bed, "Revolution Szymanska is on the move!"

Eva rubbed her eyes, irritated and unused to enthusiasm so early.

"Mama… I'll school from home today..."

"No school. I told them you're sick."

Eva snapped to attention, clambering out of bed and over to the table. A chocolate rice cracker waited. She held it up and considered it.

"You even upgraded breakfast… It's like the Savoy in 'ere, what you up to?"

"Eat and get washed!" Kasia hurried about, "where we're going we need the full day, especially since we stop at Regent Zoo first."

"You're shitting me!" Eva launched into the air, "Oh my god fuck breakfast! And washing! Let's go!"

"Absolutely not! I won't have my daughter walking about a place like that looking like Oliver Twist."

"They're zoo animals mama, they hardly read Shakespeare..."

"The zoo animals aren't the ones selling tickets on the door, and I don't wanna have you taken into custody. Eat and wash!"

Eva raced to get ready, declaring which animals she followed online and which she had to see in person. Kasia did similar, updating friends and putting them to their greatest function: distracting her from a reality that, as of yesterday, involved her stabbing someone. Since Luca had paid her double, she could escape twice as hard.

The Bakerloo Line took them to their first destination. Eva struggled to contain herself, caged in an ancient carriage amongst stern commuters, but it was rare to be this far from home. She loaded her junior tube app and stamped Regent's Park Station as they arrived. Her map, with its cluster of visited stations around Brixton, had a new location sticking further out. For having visited 5 stations, the app awarded her with a badge.

The park itself baffled them. Its vast sweeping lawns gave them such vertigo they ran for a willow tree, where they swung on armfuls of branches. Air traffic serrated a spotless sky, its dry heat forgiving enough for the girls to leave the tree's shade and bask in the open. Desire paths led visitors to myriad features: fountains, sculptures and arboreta, and virtual plazas - digital paradises encoded into the ground for anyone with the right device to enter.

A colourful swarm of drones jostled above the biggest crowd. Higher up, a hulking defence drone floated, watching warily. Police stomped out from the crowd's epicentre covering a duo of brooding detectives. Recognising possible content, Kasia and Eva joined the excited citizens and checked their phones to see what happened.

They had missed revolution activists, yelling into megaphones about the incoming war, but to the crowd's disappointment they had left peacefully. Now the drones descended to mingle. One hovered by Eva and bonked her shoulder. It's casing said 'Al Jazeera', so she curtsied and thanked it in crude Arabic. It did a somersault in appreciation and hovered away.

A thousand ads passed their eyes. They reacted to many – liking the funny, unliking the cringeworthy, adding witty comments to the opportune.

And when the sun was hidden, and all sound snuffed out by roaring jets, the girls raced forward with their phones filming. Chinese UAV's split the air, serpentine dragons snarling on their hulls and missiles drooping under their wings. The formation blasted over Kensington Palace, shattering windows and sending inhabitants dashing for cover. The revolution were being warned: they were not the only reds in London.

Kasia and Eva shared, reacted, and carried on. They downed a Pepsi - a rare treat - and entered the zoo with a buzzing high.

Several animal kingdoms awaited. The most popular had microchip implants, and Eva started with the tigers, who lolloped and minced around adoring children.

Next, the gorillas, who spoke with gestures and collected the hats and glasses of obliging visitors. The nearest handler, a local influencer who star struck Eva, translated. She introduced them to Zuzu, who told Eva 'Zuzu need Hug'. Eva did so as quickly as possible. He grinned and signed 'Zuzu chase girl'. She ran and hid behind a tire swing, giggling manically. They climbed the tire and took a selfie. Eva's camera recognised her face, and covered it with her avatar.

Kasia sheepishly asked the translator about Mofonga, who she had met when she herself was a child. The matriarch climbed over to greet her. Kasia revealed the photo from that day, making Mofonga roll over amused and point to her babies. She had children herself now. Kasia signalled to her own daughter, causing the gorilla to engulf her in a crushing embrace. Mofonga then motioned for a photo, making a swiping gesture until she found a good filter.

Their time slot ended. They photographed the information plaque on the enclosure's cage to read later and carried on to the elephants. Nobody had yet risked microchipping this near-extinct species; the girls at least encouraged them to lift their trunks by raising their arms.

They breezed past less impressive animals and reached Panda Commandery - a gift to the republic from the Emperor himself. The father, Sunzi, was the most followed animal in England. He was even an officer of the Chinese battalion in London, affectionately named the 'General who Pacifies Bamboo'.

Sunzi saw Eva staring at him and offered her the shoot he was chewing. She welled with tears. A Han ensign in neat military fatigues gave Eva a red ribbon of attendance, and explained the Panda's significance in well-rehearsed, sing-song English. She was permitted to hold a cub, and when it padded her face she finally cried freely. The ensign bowed his head politely and told an apologetic Kasia he saw it every day.

The zoo experience ended. Green Park was the next stop. Eva stamped her app and waited eagerly to see what was next.

"Ta-da!" Kasia opened her arms to the sky, "consider it an early birthday present."

Eva, who was gripping her ribbon and bamboo shoot for luck, craned upwards and stumbled into Kasia's legs. Kasia laughed until she looked up and did the same.

They were outside Mayfair Bazaar, a skyscraper of wonders built over the old park. The Ritz survived, embedded in the tower's facade like a beauty spot; behind were streets many struggled to enter even when they could afford it; in front, a plaza of mosaics, travelled by caliphate officials in white thawbs.

China claimed power with occupying armies and fiddled infrastructure. The Arab states ruled with commerce, and bought armies when they needed one; a late-21st century Carthage. Their premises reflected this. Mayfair Bazaar needed neither soldiers nor welcoming attendants. All was governed by a million microscopic cameras. Kasia's sixth sense detected their digital pulse as she stepped inside the skyscraper, making her tense. The cameras noted her doing so and logged it.

Her seventh sense - that higher class people were about to rip her off - was incoming.

The atrium overloaded their sense with a panorama fifty floors up and twenty down. Each was an identical ring circling a central airway from which all floors could be seen. In this middle chasm, holographic creatures of myth danced around crystalline panes of water, which fell so perfectly as to appear motionless. Some visitors tried to touch the closest waterfalls to snag the iconic photo. That some failed, plummeting into the shallow lake below, earned the Bazaar much attention online.

Each floor housed shops and eateries, bars and clubs, experiences and curiosities, for anything the public could imagine and more. Adverts spun a prismatic chaos of data designed to leave visitors lost for choice, unable to see it all in one trip. The top floor was exclusively a mosque, with architecture to match, and accessible only to the faithful. Below it, a museum to the Caliphate offered the next best thing.

Above all, crowning the central chasm, hung the Arabian embassy, a glistening chandelier from which the waterfalls were summoned. It was the culmination of everything below it, spectacle and statement for every infidel in sight, and most of all their peers in the East. The Chinese could trample Buckingham Palace all they liked. They could never wear success like an Arab.

It intimidated Kasia. Still, yesterday's stabbing netted her the biggest bonus of her life, and it needed laundering. She took a standing table at a kebab house and read the menu on her phone.

"You haven't had real lamb before have you?"

"No…" Eva eyed her screen doubtfully, "will I like it?"

"It's like normal lamb but kinda… saltier and richer," she saw Eva brace, "I'll get chips as well."

"Okay but don't tell anyone we ate it! I don't want my friends findin' out."

"I promise! So where do you wanna go first?" Kasia punched the order in. Eva swiped in vain at the 3d Bazaar on her phone.

"I don't even know where to start! Hopelessness never felt so amazin'."

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"There are manta rays downstairs, why don't we start at the bottom and work our way up?"

"Story of my life..." Eva peered out of the kebab house veranda and whipped back inside, "you sure about all this? It's a lot for an early birthday."

"Your actual Birthday might be less exciting. You know I have work that day."

"It's fine. I'll party on my own till you're back. Look: I pinned the places I wanna visit," she held up the map, "you can put some pins in as well, if you want."

They ate what was ultimately a vegan kebab and set off. The toilets were their first adventure. Kasia denied Eva the chance to photograph the cavernous interior, but did pocket some of the luxury soaps.

The aquarium was shut, revealing only at the door that the mantas had died. Eva scanned the entrance to buy a unique manta ray skin for her online social hub. There it would remain in her inventory, until she had enough in-game currency for a level 5 aquarium.

They continued to a game store, where she bought more skins and loot crates. After the crates let her down, popping open with common quality items, she bought another ten. When one awarded a rare cosmetic she bought five more for fortune's sake, and when they offered too little, she bought one more for luck. She chatted with a hologram of her avatar, who engaged with simple dialogue. Eva wanted to show her the bamboo she'd been given by Sunzi, but realised she had lost it.

"Ah now this is worth a go. Something from my childhood! Come on let's stick it to those Zionists!"

Kasia dragged Eva into a hive of Call of Duty consoles and found a two player pod. They plugged their phones in and spread their limbs. Their avatars projected over their bodies as the hatch closed them in. Military bulletins popped up: a menu of conflicts to choose from.

Eva clicked her heel and saluted her mother.

"Permission to play Call of Duty: Ukrainian Invasion instead! Kapitan!"

"Ah come on! You've done Ukraine to death!"

"Yea but then we can play as Putin!"

"You unlocked Putin at home!"

"But this is Mayfair! They'll have a version of him in one of them white robes or somethin'!"

Kasia dragged the Ukrainian bulletin out of Eva's reach, forcing her to give up. The logo for Call of Duty: Palestine Reclaimed materialised with bold fanfare. The players were invited to join the coalition against the Israeli Defence Force.

"Katarzyna Szymanska. Eva Szymanska. Welcome to the front." the Hamasi Warlord, Palestine's eventual first Satrap, loaded before their eyes. His face, more realistic than in real life, betrayed the signs of a deepfake.

"Eva Szymanska ready for action Effendi!"

"Hey ya khara, I've got an Israeli mate at work who can't stand you. You okay with that?"

"That is good to hear Eva! Katarzyna, I am afraid I do not know to what you are referring."

"Mama be serious!" Eva swatted Kasia's avatar, making it pixelate.

"Sorry Evie... Effendi…"

"Gentlemen! Select your hero type and we go!"

They scrolled through a thousand franchises and their many heroes. Eva agonised over Harley Quinn and Scheherazade, then ditched both for a rebellious but kind Jedi Kasia was too old to recognise. Kasia chose the female Dr Doom from the myriad Marvel universes.

"A fine choice, brave players," the warlord loaded his rifle and addressed the legions around them.

"Countrymen! Here the Zionist Entity make their final stand! For 120 years they suffocate us! Now we swear to all who come before us that, as the day will break, our nation will rise! From river to sea!"

Electronic cheers thundered. The game capsule rumbled. The warlord turned to face his final foe.

"Together with me! Allahu Akbar!"

A tide of soldiers and franchise characters rushed into the battlefield. Explosions ripped through the lines around where human players could go. Eva chose to follow Batman, scaling a roof and diving into a platoon of soldiers led by fictional villains. She ignited her lightsaber with a cheer and hacked them apart, then deflected laserfire from the skeletal terminator attacking Kasia.

"Mama watch out! You keep gettin' shot!"

"Yea yea I'm trying…" Kasia hit her own team with a force blast, levitated upwards instead of shielding, and took a missile to the face. She swore and picked on a weaker enemy, forcing them in the air and snapping them in half.

"You see that?"

"Yea great!" Eva tried to heal an injured Batman, but got impatient and distracted, "follow that Wukong lad!"

Sun Wukong somersaulted into a bunker, whirling his magical staff about him. In subtitled mandarin he ordered them to disable its electronics, so their rockets could hit the city ahead.

They attacked, clearing out easier enemies first. An invisible foe locked onto Eva with a triad of red points. She deflected the ensuing plasma blasts, as Kasia crippled the translucent monster firing them. It laughed and began to self-destruct, forcing them back. They ran through the explosion, jumped up to the bunker's roof, and found the antennae they had to disable. It was guarded by grizzled US Marines, and one hovering villain - Superman, glaring with red eyes and holding aloft Wukong's severed head.

Bullets flew. Eva inched forward with her lightsaber raised as Kasia searched about.

"There must be kryptonite somewhere, right? You get the objective and I'll hold him off!"

She hit Superman with energy and flew around his back. With a stoic grunt he beamed her down with his eyes, but the distraction paid off. Eva cut the antennae, completing the level's main objective and setting enemy troops to flight. But Superman zoomed up to her, punching through her lightsaber and knocking her off the building. He floated down and prepared to finish her.

Kasia rose in flight behind him, wielding a jade spear of kryptonite. He turned around and beamed through her chest, killing her instantly, but it gave Eva the chance. She force-pulled the spear into her hands and skewered him.

The level was complete. A cutscene transitioned. Rockets flew overhead and landed on distant Jerusalem, bathing it in a firestorm. The warlord congratulated Kasia and Eva and invited them to purchase level 2, but Kasia ended the session. They left the capsule and adjusted to the real world, ears ringing and eyes bleary. Eva's phone pinged with a bronze Call of Duty medal for her efforts. As Kasia died she received nothing, getting instead a sympathetic pat on the arm from Eva.

They continued browsing, trying perfumes and tasting treats, meeting AI smarter than themselves. One of the Jinn took a shine to Kasia and chased her, taunting her by name and offering to guess her three wishes, which she learned were discounts for brands she had recently liked. Eva spent ten minutes watching a calico rabbit in a pet shop, and another ten staring at her mother with moist eyes. Kasia had to decline. With overwhelming heartache, Eva parted from what she believed to be her soul-mate.

Their last stop was the renowned Hadayiq Babil department store. Verdant foliage poured through a ziggurat's marble arches, mimicking the actual hanging gardens, rebuilt and set like an emerald in the caliphate's sandy heartland. A smiling attendant with powdery golden skin greeted the girls. Her colleagues watched on politely.

Kasia became guarded.

"Look Mama!" Eva held a scaled Hazara dress against herself, excited and expectant. The attendant lingered across the aisle.

"Evie honey," Kasia shrunk behind Polish, "I don't think this is a shop to pick things up and touch."

Eva had already darted on, foraging through another rack. The attendant checked the dress she had touched. Kasia paled.

"Evie! Please. Don't touch anything unless you definitely want to buy it, alright? I'll get you one thing as a gift."

"Hi!"

She spun round. The attendant waved. Her perfume smelt threatening.

"Can we help you?"

"Uh… No thank you. We're just browsing."

"Okay! I see! Just so you are aware, we do normally expect customers to make a purchase in Hadayiq Babil."

The hacking sound of fluent Arabic startled Kasia. To her horror, Eva flapped the attendant away.

"We will we will! Mama's gonna buy me one thing for my birthday! It's so amazin' in 'ere I can't decide!"

The woman bent over and tilted her head. Kasia froze. In places like this she knew to hide her accent, dialling up her Polish inflection. Eva's cockney rang out like the Veda's siren. A dozen shoppers continued browsing, but their ears were up. Kasia could tell.

"I hope you find something nice for your birthday habibi," the woman winked at Eva's tracksuits, "we don't normally allow sportswear in here. Why don't you try our chinos yes?"

"Oh I'm so sorry, I only have these or my jeans and it's too hot for denim. Well, I could have worn my school skirt, I know those Muslim fellas all chase after that on the sly ain't it?" Eva made a wise and cautionary smirk, making the attendant burst into laughter.

"You sweet thing! That's so hilarious! I wish it wasn't true as well…. But, only tracksuits and jeans!? You should get a proper pair! How about navy chinos? They are timeless and go with many things. Come here..." she led Eva to a veranda racked with plain trousers.

A proper pair. Kasia thanked her as she left. Eyes burned the back of her head. Eva noticed her mother's mood and went quiet, picking the cheapest, least daring navy chinos. Kasia took them straight to a cashier, who folded them into a bag embossed with vine leaves.

He gave her the price as if issuing a challenge; she responded with hard cash, issuing her own. The unfazed cashier held each note against the light, and Kasia suddenly started fretting. She hadn't thought to check if the notes, earned via illicit revolutionary hands, were counterfeit.

The cashier tapped the notes against the till.

"Can we see your ID?"

"Why... would you need to see that?"

"Merely a precaution. People don't normally pay with cash at Hadayiq Babil."

That same harsh accent, striking Kasia with jabs and crosses. She could feel the queue behind her growing, and so reluctantly handed her phone over.

The original attendant slipped behind the till, checking Kasia's social profile - her most intimate possession - with the cashier. And Kasia recognised the moment they found her video with Captain Varma. Surely they now understood where the money was from.

Before she could speak, they handed her phone back.

"Thank you for shopping with us, and have a lovely day!"

The attendant escorted them out and wished Eva a happy birthday. Kasia took Eva to the other side of the atrium and checked back. Through the waterfalls she saw the attendant laughing with her colleague, heard the cackle over the hubbub of all the crowds around them.

"Can we go home now?" Eva looked defeated. Kasia felt the same.

"Yes… let's get out of here."

"Was the salesclerk insulting us?"

"I think they were worried we would steal something, because…"

"Because we don't look like we belong here."

Kasia hesitated, then nodded. Eva searched for words on the mosaic floor.

"Are you embarrassed of me?"

Kasia gasped under her breath. She dropped down to squat at Eva's level.

"You have never embarrassed me. Moja Evie... the only thing I'm embarrassed of is how shit this world is for you."

"Okay but… if I can find a way to fix up I will. Maybe there are online tutorials for actin' middle class," she held the bag in her hands like a football, lifting it up to Kasia with a vulnerable smile, "at least I have the trousers for it."

And at last Kasia's anxiety died, replaced by something vicious. She had not fought for the revolution, rescued children, stabbed Nazis, to be insulted by retail assistants who, besides the overblown logo on their uniform, were no higher up than she.

Someone's head needed to roll, or she'd hate herself for backing down. The cashier, sulky and serious, wasn't the one. The smiling bronze bitch, cackling and grinning, had to get it.

"Let's go."

She paid extra for a female gig-driver to collect Eva, and asked Imany pick her up at Kendi.

Then she went back inside.