Chapter VIII

Her heart was still pounding and the fear refused to back down from where it was fixed at the top of her throat. If I had been 2 seconds later, that truck… No, she wouldn't think about the possibilities. She was here and that was what mattered. She felt immediately better, though, when she saw Morpheus' comforting figure come around to face her after removing the data spike. "Unfortunately, you have to go back in, you know that." She knew all too well. But this trip, despite its inherent risks, would be worth it. There was nothing unfamiliar about this experience.

She mentally prepared herself, even though she must have already gone over it a hundred times. Emotionally, she was battling with anticipation and nervousness. Her stomach fluttered as she closed her eyes in an attempt to calm the buzz of her mind. Inhaling deeply then exhaling softly as she opened her eyes to meet Tank's, she nodded and bit her lower lip. He knew what that meant.

She was standing in a familiar room that had at one time been a small bookstore. With a piercing note, the phone, whose service had long ago been disconnected by the phone company, rang from its perch on a nearby shelf. She answered on the second ring with a simple, "I'm in." The line was broken immediately after the man on the other line replied with a wish for good luck.

As soon as she stepped outside the abandoned building that had served as her entrance, she could hear the faint sounds of heavy metal music that escaped from the dark building that was her destination. She could feel the slight tingling even from a block away as the very asphalt of the street was throbbing with the pulse of the music. She quickly scanned her attire of black leather pants, boots, and a form fitting strapless top of the same material. Satisfied with her outfit, she strode definitively down the street, toward the club. She stepped carefully and purposefully so as to distract herself from her overwhelming nerves. You have to focus Trinity. She heard her mentor's words echoing in her mind.

As much as she thought it could, nothing could've prepared her for actually seeing him. He was right in front of her, standing awkwardly against a wall that at the time wasn't being overrun by overly energetic people grinding to the music intermingled with a hazy a smoke. He looked so out of place and she was overwhelmed with a need to comfort him. Swallowing hard, she methodically dodged groups of people, oblivious to her presence, to steadily come closer to him.

She had hoped to play to his intrigue and it seemed to her that she had produced the desired affect as she seemingly melted from the shadowy dark into the light that shone from overhead. His discomfort with his current situation was very blatant and it seemed to Trinity that he was starting to wonder what the hell he was doing in this place and why he'd ever fallen for a trick that came right out of a Lewis Carroll novel.

"Hello Neo." An unintentional smile had begun to edge on her lips so she forced them to remain neutral.

At the sound of her voice he looked up as though he'd been caught doing something wrong. Realizing how he must have appeared, he immediately slumped into a reserved and indifferent position against the wall.

"How do you know that name?" He acted calm but she could tell he was a bit intimidated while he was starting to piece things together in his mind.

"I know a lot about you." The smirk was getting harder to contain.

"Who are you?" He did not need to ask who she was. He only needed her name.

"My name is Trinity." But didn't he already know that?

"Trinity… The Trinity? That cracked the IRS D-Base?" He couldn't hide his awe…That name… where have I felt that feeling before? His mind was desperately grappling for something just out of reach.

"That was a long time ago." She was a bit annoyed at how typical it was that her Matrix life still haunted her.

"Jesus…" Memories flooded his brain and a film descended over his vision. What the hell is going on? He couldn't believe he was actually face to face with her.

"What?" Does he know? She couldn't be sure.

"I thought…" I thought fate was a bunch of bull. C'mon, think man, think. "…You were a guy." Well he always had thought that Trinity was, but he knew full well that she wasn't.

"Most guys do." Do I look like a guy? Though she knew that was harsh, she just thought he knew. Or hoped.

"That was you on my computer? How did you do that?" Jesus, she's in my dreams and my computer. What a woman.

"Right now, all I can tell you is that you are in danger. I brought you hear to warn you."

"Of what?"

"They're watching you, Neo."

"Who is?" He was beginning to think Choi was right about that Mescaline thing. I sure don't feel normal right now.

"Please, just listen..." Up until now, she had kept an aloof distance: just close enough to talk to him without shouting over the penetrating music. She closed the gap now until she was so close she could inhale his scent and it was driving her mad. Her lips just barely grazed his ear as she spoke in a soothing tone. "I know why you're here Neo. I know what you've been doing. I know why you hardly sleep, why you live alone, and why night after night you sit at your computer."

He tensed momentarily but then relaxed as she continued talking. "You're looking for him. I know because I was once looking for the same thing. And when he found me he told me I wasn't really looking for him. I was looking for an answer. It's the question that drives us." She exhaled the words more than said them. "You know the question, just as I did."

"What is the Matrix?" He could barely breath.

"It is out there, Neo. It is looking for you and it will find you… If you want it to." Drawing back a few inches, she looked him square in his eyes. They could've melted steel. She savored one last breath of his scent before turning to leave. Something told her she had left quite an impression on him.

Lost in thought, she narrowly avoided walking into a large group of oblivious people that had gathered on the sidewalk. Feeling a bit sheepish, she continued back toward the bookstore a bit more aware. Flipping open her cell phone, she dialed the ship.

"Hey, hey how'd it go in there?" Tank asked playfully. She couldn't help but smile at his remark, even though she'd come to expect it.

"Quite well, actually." She intoned back.

"Oh, I bet you were hoping for a exit weren't you?" He laughed heartily. It was so easy to jostle her.

"Well, yes. But just remember who's the ranking officer here." She warned him. It was always nice to be able to use that to her advantage. Not that she minded the teasing so much, though.

"Ahhh but what can you do to me if I don't let you back?" Chuckling, he decided that was enough harassing. "Alright, bookstore on eighth street right?"

"Yeah." The phone clicked as she slid it closed while she headed toward her exit. She could not, for a second, take her mind away from her encounter with Neo, but Tank's joking had relaxed her a bit. She took a deep breath, and for just a bit forgot to make the distinction between what was real and what was just an illusion of air. She allowed the memory of his scent to overcome her until the sharp ring that signaled her exit resonated through her thoughts. Morpheus was there to unplug her in the real world. She now inhaled air, cold as it was, that was real. Her captain led her to the computer where they watched him returning home from the club.

"Do you think he's ready?"

"That's your call."

"I know. But I'm asking you."

"Yes. Only his age worries me, but he's been searching a long time." She said honestly, trying not to allow her feelings to get in the way of her rationale. "I know that he feels it."

"Yes, yes he does. I feel it too. I feel that he is the One."

"There have been so many others though…" She knew as soon as she spoke that it was not her place to question him. It was also not her place to question her own inner knowledge.

"I know… But I pushed those others. I believed that I could make them something they weren't. It seemed to me that since it was foretold, that I could somehow ordain the One. Now I realize how wrong I was. The One is not to be made or even found by me, but to be found by himself, in himself. All I do is present him with the tools to do so. That is why this time is different."

"How are you going to reach him? The Agents are looking."

"I don't know. I am afraid if we don't act soon, though, that it will be too late."

"Yes." Too late? The thought was mind-boggling. It had never seriously occurred to her that they might not be able to get him out…