Rain fell lightly over the crowded streets, causing some chaos. Everyone was scurrying under umbrellas and raincoats, trying to avoid getting wet. But she didn't care, the cool rain felt nice on her skin as she walked towards the front doors of the building. A man opened them for her as she entered the well lit lobby. She stood there for a few minutes, looking around at the interior of the building and its occupants.

"Miss, would you come with me, please?" Asked a guard who had, it seemed, appeared out of nowhere.

"Sure, why not." She said, accompanying the man into an elevator.

He pressed the button for the top floor and the lift shot up. It was faster than she had expected and she had to brace herself against one of the highly polished walls. The doors slid open on the twenty-third floor, revealing three men dressed in black suits and sunglasses.

The man in the middle turned to her and spoke in a drawling voice. "You're late, Ms. Carson," he said.

"Whereas you're lucky I even came," She replied with a note of sarcasm in her voice.

"Please, come in, make yourself... comfortable," He said, gesturing to one of the cold metal chairs set up around a small, rectangular table.

She sat down on one side and looked to her host, who had taken the seat opposite her. "Thank you for your hospitality, Mr.," she began, but then realized that she didn't even know the man's name.

"Smith," he finished for her. "Agent Smith."

"So," she said sarcastically. "What are you? CIA?"

He removed his sunglasses and placed them on the table with a small clink. One of the other men approached them and opened a briefcase, taking out a plain manila folder. He handed it to Smith who opened it and flipped through each page, reading them all carefully.

"You have quite the interesting history, Ms. Carson...European boarding school, mansion, loving parents, more money than anyone could ever ask for...And yet you still were not satisfied..." said Smith, still reading what she now realized was her file.

She cleared her throat and spoke up. "Excuse me, but this meeting is supposed to be about my currently dismal and bleak future, not my wonderfully exciting past full of babysitters and nannies."

He placed the file on the table and glared at her. "And that, Ms. Carson, is exactly the point I was coming to. I am well aware that you have been living two lives. One as Alexandra Carson, the daughter of a top ranking and well respected military official, and the other as a low-life computer hacker. It is time, Ms. Carson, for you to decide which of these lives will become a part of your past and which one will be your future."

She looked at Smith and knew instantly that this man was not to be trusted. Her bright green eyes darted around the room, looking for an escape. She looked behind her, where one more agent was standing. To his left, directly behind her, was a door.

"Is there a problem?" He asked her in a plain voice, similar to Smith's.

"Yeah, I don't like you standing there. It's making me uncomfortable." She told him.

Smith signaled to the man and he took a new position on the other side of the room. As soon as he was in a place, she launched out of the chair and darted towards the door. A gun was fired and seconds later she felt it pierce her arm. She let out a cry of pain, but kept running down the long corridor that lay behind the door. At the end of the corridor she turned right and opened another door, revealing a set of concrete stairs. She ran up them and slammed open the door to the roof.

The rain was pouring down on the city now, and visibility was low. She ran to the edge of the building and stopped, looking down nearly 250 feet to the alley below. She backed up and began running again , full speed, towards the ledge and leaped off, landing hard on the next building and somersaulting into a crouched position, cradling her injured arm.

She grunted and took off once more, swinging down to a fire escape. She took it all the way down and into the alleyway, hearing voices and footsteps closing in behind her. A bullet flew past her head as she ran, but she paid it no attention, as it hadn't hit her. Suddenly, she found herself back on the main road once more, now devoid of the pedestrians and cars of earlier. It happened, while she was looking for a way to go, that a black Mercedes hydroplaned infront of her and skidded onto the sidewalk.

The door swung open and a young man in all black and sunglasses opened the door.

"Alex! Get in!" He yelled to her.

She wasn't sure whether or not she should trust him, but more bullets came whizzing towards her so she leaped in, slamming the bulletproof door behind her.

"Thanks," she said, pushing a strand of wet, dark red hair behind her ear and wrapping her arm in her jacket. "But who are you?"

She kept her eyes on him the whole time, half expecting him to turn into an agent at any moment, but he merely kept driving.

"Don't worry, I'm protecting you. Morpheus' orders." He said, still looking at the road.

Alex scoffed and looked at the road. "Some job you've done so far. I had three of those CIA guys chasing me and I have a bullet hole in my arm."

"It's not my fault you met with them willingly. No man -or woman, for that matter- has ever successfully gone against an Agent. They've gotten some of our best people." He told her, sounding quite upset. "I should know. They got both of my parents and my sister."

She looked down at her arm and then over at him. "Oh," she said softly. "I'm sorry. Look, if it makes you feel any better, I'm an orphan, too. They were kidnapped in murdered in another country when I was a baby. My adoptive dad told me that. He could've been lying, for all I know, but he's a General, I don't think he would."

"Your parents were good people, from what I hear. I never actually met them, but Morpheus was good friends with them. I'm sure he'll tell you more about them when we meet with him." He said.

"So," she said, changing the subject. "When will I meet Morpheus?"

"Soon," he answered, still keeping his eyes on the road. "And then we need to get your arm looked at."

Alex looked down at her arm, removing the jacket for a moment and surveyed the damage. The bullet had gone through and through, narrowly missing the bone. She knew enough about injuries to know this one was bad, but probably could've been a lot worse. She winced in pain as she wrapped the now blood-soaked denim jacket around it again.

The driver laughed lightly. Alex looked at him in curiosity and saw that he was now looking slightly at her.

"What's so funny? I've been shot!" she exclaimed angrily.

He shrugged. "Hurts, though, doesn't it? You'll have to get used to that. And those cheery blokes that chased you. I have a feeling that you'll be seeing a lot more of them than you'd like."

She raised an eyebrow and matched gazes with him. Wow, his eyes are amazing!, she thought, staring into his crystal blue eyes. "Why? are you one of them or something?" She asked casually, trying not to let her amazement show.

He left that question unanswered as they pulled up in front of a derelict old hotel and he parked the car. "C'mon, time to meet Morpheus," he told Alex, opening her door.

"Such a gentleman, too," she laughed, stepping out of the bullet marked car.