Good heavens, no. Sex is only passable if practiced, otherwise it is at least as boring a topic as Thomas Aquinas's De substantiis separatis. You were talking about kids and their oracular function. So? So nothing. Obviously they know nothing, they will parrot our instructions; after all, no worse than many adults. On this I disagree with my colleague, who is pleased with such antics and considers them his personal triumph: I instead believe that the time has come to eliminate those idiots and to replace them with intelligent life forms. You just said you're trying to save them. I was lying, as usual. You know, I'm thinking about betting on dolphins, but it's causing me some problems their lack of fingers. Then all those whistles and clicks, ultrasounds up to two hundred kilohertz, not to mention that some of them express themselves in strict Scottish and I don't understand a thing. This is not your place to deal with, Azazel. No? Forgive me, Mika-el, but your lord and master has long been absent from human history: so yes, it's up to me, or at least I claim the right to deal with it. Nobody can stop me. How do you think you can do it? I'm reflecting on the most appropriate means, but I think I'll opt for a banal contagion. The procedure is disarmingly simple, I'll explain it to you in two words: first you spread the terror of an epidemic with a well-thought-out virus, basically a new religion. In what sense is it a new religion? The virus I have in mind contains all the characteristics of a secular and earthly god: invisible, ubiquitous, equanimous, infallible, immanent, ineffable, inexplicable by science. To defeat it they will adopt liturgical practices that will soon become a social rite, eliminating rationality and free will: wearing masks, compulsively washing their hands, greeting each other with their elbow, keeping their distance. At that point you have already made them idiots and that's it: you promise eternal salvation, the vaccine, and the poor fools will get everything injected, without realizing what they are doing. We've had the control of pharmaceutical companies for some time, as you know, so things will go smoothly. It's curious, but some humans can't wait to exterminate other humans, more or less two thirds of humanity, I think: they wrote it somewhere, I can't remember where now. In reality they are right, it's time to get rid of those imbeciles, but my perverse sense of humor suggests me to include among the exterminated also the exterminators. You don't want to eliminate evil, but life. You have always hated life. Life is overrated, my dear, just as a phenomenon in itself. It doesn't work with me: I don't get involved in your delusional logic, brother. Delusional! And what would you tell me if I revealed the rest to you too? You are very far from imagining the monstrous sublimity of our masterpiece, my dear. What could be worse? They will go so far as to abandon their old people in hospitals and so-called retirement homes. The hospitals will accept money to claim, mostly falsely, that they have died from the virus. Their children and grandchildren will allow that, due to the simple suspicion of contagion, without the slightest certainty, mind you, they are left to die alone, without the comfort of their loved ones, and then stuffed, naked, into a black sack and burned as if they were garbage. They will also be denied the right to a funeral and a dignified burial. I don't believe it, they won't be able to do this to those who generated them, raised them and protected them with love. And yet it will be like this. "Then exterminate them, brother!!!" They are monsters. "Annihilate them!!!" You have my support. Hey, calm down, little brother, what's wrong with you? It's not like you to talk like this. So you make me lose my permanent center of gravity. Why all this horror? Because it was necessary to test them: they will fail miserably, proving the Creator's mistake and finally proving me right across the board. You're lying again. Who is like God? Think as you like: time will show which of us is right. Enough, I don't want to listen to you anymore: your words are poison. Then go away, I won't hold you back: why do you stay here talking to me? Because I delude myself that you can go back to being what you were. What I am is exactly what I was, what I will be and what I have always been from the beginning of the times. Yet I loved you, Morning Light. A declaration of love like that on the spot? You shock me. If you want to get engaged to me, at least leave me the time to think about it. You know I've always had a soft spot for you too, but you've always been so serious and buttoned up, little brother, even though you just admitted you love me. You know what I mean, right? Perfectly. So what? So, to return to the case that is close to your heart, I want to help you without going too far, in name of our ancient enmity. Let's start from what seems to me to be the most urgent problem for you: the pregnant female. You took the wrong approach. A few repetitions from our Lilith would benefit you in many ways: I could have provide personally, but we know that the male component prevails in you. Get to the point. The rich industrialist could have worked if the materialism of that woman, what's her name... Antonia. Dear God, what a shitty name! Anyway, it could have worked if her materialism carried her towards the possession of earthly things, but the seduction of the senses prevails in her. Therefore you need to look a little like me. I cannot. We are not as dissimilar as you think. We are: profoundly and radically. Angels always go in pairs, Mikael: haven't you ever wondered why? Only God knows himself in himself, because he is complete. Undoubtedly, but you are not God. My point of comparison is not you. No? And who is the other element of the couple? Who is your partner, Mika-el? This is not the right way. There are no other ways: the alternative is to leave the woman to me. We don't even talk about it. Actually you're right, I don't know what to do with her. I propose an exchange: your brother in exchange for the female. My brother can't be touched. I have to save them both. Then you just have to follow my advice, like it or not. There will be no need to look like me in all respects, a few small adjustments will be enough. Follow the clues. What clues? Good luck, Mikael. I can't hold back any longer: can't you hear the sound of the Shofar? It doesn't seem like the sound of the Shofar to me: this seems more like a trill, a ring, a buzzer. Yes, I must admit that it lacks the arcane depth, majesty and power of the sacred instrument. Electronic junk: I advised against the purchase. And then what I hear is neither tekiàh, nor shevarìm, nor teruàh: it is a continuous sound. Annoying, isn't it? Only you can make it stop. Goodbye, Mika-el. What clues, Helèl? Eli Eli, lema sabachthani? I woke up bathed in sweat.