Fred Van Oystaeyen 
Irritation of the Eye in Darkness 

Imagine an island with the scientific knowledge we have today but technology not being shared with the general population, in fact science is replaced by pseudo-science and mysticism for the public. There is a religion without God led by a female pope and her bishops who mimicked her makeup what resulted in the mask-sect, officials painting artistic masterpieces on their faces. The administration of everything was taken over by the main computer Argus after the destructive civil war between red and blue, now all inhabitants have a guaranteed minimal income and entertainment provided freely by Argus, as well as food pills with extras caring for good digestion. Sex is ill-advised and euphory pills provide a great replacement, newborn babies, normally created by in vitro insemination, are taken immediately from the mother and raised in Argus nurseries by sociologists and psychiatrist, education is in standard schools following strict programs. The system is deeply established in the capital City but in the second largest city, Sodom there is some anarchistic system competing with the computer. In the semi-desert called the Delta (of the river Stiks) a community of cave-dwellers is surviving in very poor conditions, the area above the salt desert is supposed to be contaminated after the civil war by the use of mini neutron-bombs and chemical warfare. Now a blind street singer is hired in an Argus hunting team to find and kill a terrorist in the Delta…