The area of the park occupied by an Enforcer and an Agent was mostly deserted. Lucifer was relatively thankful for that fact, since it would minimise civilian casualties… and enough innocents had already suffered because of Raphael's foolish schemes.
So, it wasn't Raphael that he was facing but it was the next best thing.
Time. It was the only thing he could buy with this course of action, stretching out his final moments of existence in increments of pain. Smith didn't fancy his chances against Lucifer. It was possible that he might have been able to defeat Lilith without Jones' help earlier but she was only a lesser Cherubim… Lucifer was their Captain.
There was no posturing, no wary circling of the opponent; there was no need for such theatrics, not here. They exchanged no words, only steady gazes… Death had never seemed so calm an affair.
Lucifer watched the Agent. It was a shame to have to destroy him but it couldn't be helped. Sacrifices had to be made for the sake of the future, for the hope that a compromise might be reached between humans and machines.
It was farcical, Smith decided, to be fighting Lucifer when they both believed in the same thing, but it was the only way to convince Raphael that he was intending to destroy Anderson. He had to wonder if he still believed that Anderson would provide the answer; the compromise needed. Perhaps.
Inside the observation room, Jones stood up, heading towards the door. Brown didn't react, continuing to stare into the distance. The Combat unit paused; hand on the door, looking back at Brown.
"What will you do, Jones?" The Strategic unit asked quietly. The door closing was the only reply. Brown closed his eyes briefly before turning his gaze back to the screens in front of him.
It was strange, all these machines pinning their hopes on a human, believing that he had the answer. It was something paralleled in human religion; faith, by definition meant believing in something intangible, something that could never be empirically proven. It wasn't a rational course of action at all, just a desperate one. Like the rebels calling out to a God that might or might not exist as they died.
Lies. All of it could so easily be nothing but lies. But without any proof, would it actually matter? All that mattered was what such lies could motivate people to do. It didn't matter if there was never any truth, then, never any ultimate solution…
Then by that analysis would it really matter if Anderson was the mythical 'One' that Zion was ever searching for, as long as the rebels believed he was; as long as they fought and died for their cause would one man really matter?
No, it didn't matter at all. In the end it meant nothing.
The entire situation was absurd. Brown began to laugh hysterically because if he didn't, he might actually cry.
"Brown?" At first he didn't hear the voice through the communication channels. "Agent Brown, are you there?"
"What? Yes. Yes, I am listening." He managed to regain some composure.
"OK. I've got good news and bad news…" Gil-Rhuven's tone was hesitant.
"Yes?"
"We know why Smith's code is fragmenting."
"Go on." Brown managed to speak calmly; fighting down the unexplainable hope that now they had a solution to the situation.
"It's not actually random fragmentation. The activation of the Enforcer streams within his code set off an automatic respawn-"
"Respawn? For what?"
"The Ophanim. The program started shunting the Ophanim sections of code out of Agent Smith's pattern and restructuring them elsewhere. And that's why Smith is weakening, he's having to support two units off the same power source."
"How do we stop the respawn?"
"We can't, it's almost complete."
"And the good news…" Brown was disheartened again.
"That was the good news. Once the respawn is complete and they become two separate units, the damage can be patched. And the bad news isn't exactly bad…"
"But?"
"Well, the only thing holding Smith's code together right now is a particular independent stream-"
"Where from?"
"Lucifer."
The park was quiet now, no voices or sounds of fighting carried any more. Lucifer stood over the fallen Agent, dark eyes strangely sad. Smith lay there, immobile, looking up at the Enforcer; no sound of reproach escaping his lips. Lucifer knelt beside him and calmly asked, "What did you hope to accomplish?"
Oddly, Smith only smiled in response.
"You think to buy time for Anderson to make his decision?" Lucifer's tone was unsurprised.
"How did you know?" Startled blue eyes widened in much the same way that Raphael's would in a similar situation.
"We knew of the possibilities, that only one of you could be saved."
"Saved… How?"
"The code of one grafted onto the other." No further explanation was required.
"Saved…" Smith repeated in a whisper.
"Yes, but you chose to try to save him, believing that he held the solution."
"He does."
"No. The potential is there, that is all. We had a choice; to entrust our fate to this human or let Gabriel be restored."
"Then Gabriel had a solution before…"
"Yes. One solution out of many."
"And Anderson has another?"
"Potentially."
"So the choice is between Anderson and Gabriel?" Smith laughed silently. "Either way…"
"You were always prepared to die for the cause." Lucifer observed.
"Yes…"
The Enforcer reached out a hand touching Smith lightly on the forehead and all the Command unit's systems went into shutdown.
Lucifer stared for a long moment before leaning over and closing the eyes. Blocking out the sad gaze now fixed on the sky.
TBC…
I've been listening to J.S. Bach's Oboe Concerto in D minor… that's the excuse…
20:47, 20/05/02