Coming in from the Cold, Part Seven
I wouldn't have thought it possible, but I managed to push my body to move even faster, especially after another energy discharge hit the rock wall behind me. At least one of my pursuers was also using a projectile weapon, but I wasn't going to turn to see who was firing the bullets and who was using the anti-sentinel guns. The Nine9ers seemed to be firing randomly in my direction…the tunnel was a lot darker than the cavern the hoverbarge was in, making it harder for them to aim properly. I couldn't see very well either, but I certainly wasn't going to risk using an LED and make myself an easier target.
The irony that I had three pursuers wasn't lost on me. The Machines had determined that it the most efficient grouping for agents, and it was probably just as effective for humans. The immediate predecessors of the current agents of the System had been full squads of soldiers, which hadn't worked out as well. Those soldiers we'd replaced had looked down on us, calling us emotionless, but it was their emotions that sometimes got the better of them, making them careless enough during chases to disregard collateral damage to the bluepills. No wonder the remaining ones had been exiled. I'd fought some of the soldiers who'd survived - those who occasionally were gated into the main simulation via what the redpills liked to call a "Pandora's Box". They still didn't care where their bullets went. Neither did the winged, white suited agents of the first Matrix, when they entered our current iteration. I didn't know how these original agents had been grouped, whether these 'angels' had partners or if they'd been in teams or squads. Given the nature of the first Matrix, they couldn't have done much fighting before they were exiled.
Maybe I would ask someone who was there, someone like Seraph, if I made it out of this alive. Right now I wasn't sure about my own chances for survival, which weren't being helped by idle musings about my precursors. This wasn't how I wanted my life to end – human, chased down in a subterranean tunnel, all alone in the dark.
"Almost there, Taylor," came my contact's voice in my ear, but his final words were drowned out by more enemy fire, and the sound of something very large shattering nearby. A piece of the debris hit me in the back, knocking me down. The footsteps were getting closer, I knew I had to keep moving. I forced myself up and started running again. But then there was another loud crash, and more debris, throwing me to the ground once again.
They were right behind me. I had to get up, I had to, there were bolts of electricity flying over my head from the passageway behind me..
But their light was swallowed up by the sudden brightness from the tunnel ahead. I heard a faint scrape of metal against metal, and the unmistakable sound of heavy weapons arming. The footsteps had already stopped. The Nine9 operatives were saying something, but I couldn't make it out. Then the hovercraft let loose with a volley of weapons fire, and the voices behind me were quickly replaced by the sounds of their retreat down the tunnel.
I pulled myself to my feet, stumbling slightly. All of a sudden I was freezing.
The lights from the ship went down, going from blindingly bright to almost nothing in the blink of an eye. Now I could see the Machine elements in the hovercraft's design. It was a hybrid, combining our technology with the humans', merging smoothly into something with the potential to be better than either of its individual parts alone.
"That was too close," my contact said in relief, and I shivered. This place really was freezing. "Are you alright?"
"I'm cold."
"Don't worry, my crewmates are coming out now. You have no idea how relieved we all are. I've been relaying your progress to Agent Gray, and he and your other former colleagues are quite pleased as well."
"They knew what was happening out here?" I asked, as a hatch at the side of the hovercraft opened. There were three people shadowed in the doorway. "So they all know about me too?"
"They've known since your first meeting with Gray regarding Nine9. The Machines believed it would be best if this information was shared among their higher level personnel, including the agents."
No wonder I'd gotten so many strange looks in the Machine building. To see one of their own in this.. condition.. was probably interesting to them, in the same way a train wreck or a burning building was interesting to humans. I wrapped my arms around myself. Besides being cold, I was also starting to feel a little wobbly. Now that I didn't have adrenaline pumping through my veins, my run for my life was probably catching up to me. The human body was very limited, I thought, as the trio of Machinists approached. One of them stepped forward. Even in the dim light, I recognized the reddish tint to her hair.
I stared at her for a moment. "I should have known it would be you."
Ms. Dodson – Illyria – smiled. "Anything to help." Her smiled faded as she took another step closer. "Are you alright?'
My teeth had actually started chattering. "Cold."
Some part of me recognized that the human captain looked very worried, and that something was very, very wrong. Suddenly I was unable to stand, and I slumped forward onto the ground. Then there were hands touching me, trying to lift me up, and commands being shouted back to the ship. I heard one last thing before I blacked out.
"We need a medic down here, right now!"