The agent fell, fell through a world of light and sound and flickering numbers. Garbled voices formed a Babel-like chorus on every side. Serpents of Matrix code rushed towards him, hurtling past to vanish into the electronic maelstrom that stretched away to eternity on every side. He was in the phone network.
Just a short while before, it would have been impossible to hunt a Zionist rogue once they had entered a phone line to escape the Matrix - their Matrix avatars would have dematerialised instantly, making pursuit impossible. But now there were freezer programs built into every virtual phone, creating a tangible time interval between dematerialization and entry into the real world. Enough time for an agent to catch up.
The agent could see his quarry, a point of blue light darting among the streams of code. The last Zionist from the hideout, fleeing to the safety of the real world, unable to best his computerised assailant.
Synthetic emotion filled the agent's electronic brain. Contempt. The human was a coward; a weakling, as all humans were. Worthless flesh scrabbling like vermin in a world that belonged to machines.
The agent sped up, corkscrewing past a lengthy international call (represented by a mile-long chain of matrix code, squawking incomprehensibly in an unknown language). He streamlined his form - no longer was he even remotely humanoid, but rather a glowing green bullet shape sinking into the layers of code.
His prey must have seen him, because the blue dot sped up too, zigzagging wildly in a vain attempt to shake off his pursuer. Pathetic, the agent thought in amusement, how can you escape a computer program while still inside the computer?
Closer and closer. The blue dot grew larger, spinning madly in its panicked rush to escape. A cloud of blue code symbols, designed to distract and goad the agent, rose up from it. The agent brushed them aside like flies, not wavering from his course.
Closer.
So close. The blue dot no longer a dot but a shining humanoid, scrabbling at the thin air as the agent's bullet-form approached. Silent screams emanating from a non-existent mouth.
Contact.
The agent struck the humanoid in an explosion of blue code and crackling green lightning. Unseen amid the whirling ocean of noise and light, both forms plummeted down into darkness.
The agent swiftly shape shifted, reverting to his humanoid shape. The prey had been caught, now he could neutralize it. He ordered the matrix to change around him, forming an arena of execution.
The hideout he had been infiltrating, he decided, would be appropriate. It appeared around him and his quarry.
The screaming Zionist hit the cold bricks hard, whimpering in pain at the impact. He collapsed to the floor, shivering uncontrollably.
The agent strode over to his quarry, a cold smile forming on his face. The man gave a small choking sound, trying to scramble away into a corner. The agent raised a hand, and the walls of the room swiftly contracted, pushing the man back towards him.
"Michael Lehmann, a.k.a. Vyrus, elite hacker and systems operative of the hovercraft Divinity," the agent said calmly, looking down at the terrified Zionist. "Accused of subverting the human subjects of the Deus Ex Machina. Which, I am afraid, Mr. Lehmann, is a capital crime."
"P-pl-please, oh Jesus, please, no," the man whimpered, almost gagging with terror. "Jesus Christ, no, no,"
"Sentence to be carried out immediately." The agent produced a handgun, dangling it casually over the Zionist. He flicked off the safety.
"Jesus, no!"
"You should have known you cannot escape us, Mr. Lehmann. We are everywhere." The agent's finger tightened on the trigger.
Then suddenly, the terrified expression on Michael Lehmann's face changed. A fatalistic grin spread across his features.
The agent's calm features changed too - a look of confusion. Smiling? Why? The man was about to be terminated!
Too late he noticed the silver remote detonator clasped between the man's fingers. Too late he remembered the Deus Ex Machina's warnings of traps such as this - Zionists luring agents into a closed arena and detonating e-viruses. Too late he realized that, by stepping so close to the Zionist, he had put himself in the blast radius.
The Zionist hideout had been part of it all, he knew now. Those men had sacrificed themselves to lure him - an elite agent, vital to Matrix security - into this position. The one thing no machine could emulate, mankind's fighting spirit, their willingness to go to any lengths for victory - even suicide.
He squeezed the trigger. But the freezer program slowed down Matrix-linked weapons too. The bullet took a full second to leave the chamber.
"Fuck you, machine," Lehmann said triumphantly, pushing down on the detonator.
In the eternal maelstrom of the Matrix, always shifting and changing, entire worlds whipping by in storms of code, no-one noticed the bright flare of the e-virus bomb, nor the lingering electronic scream of fury and frustration.