Brown made his way down the corridors to the room where Smith was undergoing 'correction programming'.  As far as he could tell he would have another hour, at the least before Lucifer asked for a report update, and while Jones could bend the truth, he wouldn't tell an outright lie.  Measured strides unfaltering, Brown considered the very real possibility of being deconstructed.  The possibility that soon, in perhaps an hour, the strategic unit of 0.2.8 would cease to exist.  He had to admit that he hoped that Smith would not be deconstructed but that was, as humans were inclined to say, only wishful thinking.  Brown paused; lately he had been giving in to almost human action quite frequently.  It was disturbing and yet the actions themselves were almost comfortingly numb to perform.  He considered the statistical possibility of both his and Smith's deconstruction, it was bordering into the realm of most probable outcome.  Yet if the correction programming was successful Smith would simply be reinstated as the Command unit of 0.2.8, even though with only the standard code intact, it would hardly be Smith any more.  As a statistical probability that scenario didn't figure very highly.  Which left only Jones.  Brown wondered if Jones would get lonely.  Perhaps.

Brown paused again in the corridor to take of his sunglasses and tuck them away inside his jacket.  Then shoving his hands into his pockets as he casually made his way along the seemingly endless corridor, he began to whistle.

            Inside the room, still surrounded by the four rebels, Smith was sure he could hear someone whistling, which would have been relatively normal, if any of the four rebels had been doing so and not, in fact, arguing with each other.  He wondered what they were arguing about, if it was anything interesting or anything to do with the fact that they were in a building surrounded by Agents and bots and at least one Enforcer.  Lucifer.  Smith wondered what Lucifer was doing, probably scanning the lists for a replacement Command unit and being looked at by Jones in the process.  Jones was very good at looking at people.  Regardless of the parties involved or the context Jones could always just look and convey the right expression for the situation.  Smith supposed it would be an effective interrogation technique, put a rebel in a room with Jones and have Jones look at them.  Smith was inclined to think that the rebel would only last two hours at the most.  Maybe that was what they should have done with Anderson.  Talking hadn't worked, trying to be reasonable had only elicited a verbally abusive response, a demonstration of brute force had only made the human more opposed to them… perhaps Anderson would be more responsive to psychological torture.

            "…psychological torture."

Lucifer's head jerked up as the words carried through the open channel through which he was monitoring Smith.  Almost immediately Lucifer's fingers were hammering at the keyboard, going through the many standard procedures needed to halt a correction programming session.

"No!"  Raphael's voice suddenly rang out in his head.

"What!"  Lucifer stilled his movements in surprise.

"Do not stop the procedure."

"Why?  There is no need for your unit to be reprogrammed.  He has adapted to the new specifications it seems."

"No… Not yet…"

"Not yet?"

"The humans have yet to try to make a hard copy."

Lucifer was silent, a terrible realisation dawning.

"It is the only way."  Raphael was mournful.

"I wish it wasn't."  Lucifer slumped back in his chair.

"Now you understand why…"

"Yes.  Of course.  Well done, Raphael."

A pause "Thank you."

"You will minimise damage…" a half-hearted order.

"Of course.  Lucifer?"  A long silence "It truly is the only way."

The communication channel closed, leaving Lucifer with the hum of machinery and the buzz of the open channel monitoring Smith indistinctly.

"But I wish it wasn't." he whispered, haunted eyes staring into nothing.

            Smith felt the system sweeps moving through his code halt briefly, then continue as if nothing had happened.  The wondered what that was about, it had felt as if the correction programming was going to cease but then it had continued.  There was another sweep through his code and Smith couldn't help but wish for some voluntary control over his body.  The rebels seemed to be doing something, something to do with his code.  Smith could only wait; running internal diagnostics to see what manner their interference would take.  He half suspected some sort of virus upload or possibly direct deletion of critical application paths.  There was nothing.  A single view of his code and then they'd done nothing… unless…  Smith began to consider the possibility that they'd tried to copy the kernel.  But surely that was impossible, the amount of data required for a single AI was enormous, to copy the entire base code that was the system would require far more resources than the rebels could possibly have access to.  Unless, they'd just copied him.  The thought made Smith uneasy.  He'd seem some of the earlier direct copies of Agents, all unstable, unpredictable, unnecessarily destructive.  But that had been fixed or so he thought.  The control programmes embedded within Agent code had eliminated the possibility of 'rogue' Agents, who caused more damage in the process of carrying out their orders than the rebels could possibly imagine.

            Brown turned round the corner towards the room where Smith's correction programming was continuing.  He was reaching for his gun to fire at the four rebels emerging from the room when inexplicably everything went into shutdown.

            Watching the security camera monitors, Lucifer noted the rebel departure.  They left in a hurry, thinking that they'd found the key to defeating the AI.  Lucifer shook his head sadly. 

"Look at what we have given you.  This 'world' when nothing else is left.  A reality to live out your dreams.  We have remade your civilization as you wished it to be.  Kept you safe from the terror of destruction, of realising the dieing world you live upon.  But still you fall for false words.  Easy solutions.  You rebel against us, your enslavers."

He turned to the monitor, still displaying the readouts for 0.2.8's Command unit.

"You vent your fury upon us.  Scream your accusations, railing at the cruelty of machines.  And yet, you always choose to forget; that we never gave you any false promises."

Lucifer was forced to smile at his soliloquy; after all it wasn't as if any of the rebels would ever take the time to listen to the argument.

            Smith began to notice his visual field reengaging, voluntary control of his limbs was also returning.  A few moments of system checks passed and then Smith's vision focused enough for him to observe Brown's face very close to his own.  Brown moved back a little, allowing Smith to sit up.  Both Agents looked at each other.  Correction programming was apparently complete.

Finally Smith spoke "What happened?"

Brown just looked blank.

"We are to accompany Lucifer to a new designation." Jones' voice carried through the communication channel.

"I do not understand." Brown said quietly.

"There is something about this situation that is… incorrect." Was Smith's reply as they left the room.

            Lucifer walked slowly towards the building exit, towards the car where team 0.2.8 were waiting.  He considered his distaste for Raphael's methods of subduing the rebels, considered his own methods, which were little better.  Either way, humans would be killed, those dreaming and those rebelling, innocent and guilty, alike.  But perhaps through Raphael's methods, they would learn the lesson that Lucifer had failed to teach them.  Either way, it was now beyond the control of the Enforcers.  They could only wait for the Eve Virus to commence its task.

TBC…

12:05, 22/04/02