In the end Neo was able to acquire a car and a recommendation for a Chinese restaurant. The change of clothes was the easy part.
Driving past all the oblivious souls going about their business he was struck by the eerie normality of the whole situation. It would be so easy to pretend that this was just a regular day: that he was Thomas A Anderson, Programmer for a respectable software company on his way to pick up his date for the evening. And wasn't that the truth in a way?
As far as Setsuka was concerned that was the truth.
The thought was sobering. As far as she was concerned this was reality, all that there was. Just like all the people out there. They never dreamed that anything else existed, never feared the machines…
Luckily there was no further time for contemplation because he had arrived at Setsuka's apartment block and she was already waiting outside.
The drive to the restaurant was punctuated by polite conversation and shy smiles. Despite his earlier self-assurance there was something about being here, with Setsuka that threw him pleasantly off balance. Regardless of the apparent predictability of her actions, Neo was sure that there was something else beneath the surface, something that made her dangerously alluring.
Once at the restaurant again it was a simple task to bend the fabric of the Matrix, so that they already had a reservation. Setsuka shivered suddenly. Neo put an arm round her, enquiring if she was alright with a look.
"Déjà vu, that's all." She said with a self-depreciating smile.
"Yeah?" He wasn't worried. It was more than likely that he had been the cause of it.
They turned their attention to the waiter who was now leading them to their table.
"You think of everything." Setsuka murmured, flicking a quick glance up at Neo, referring to their reservation.
Neo grinned, "Well, you know, plan for every eventuality…"
The conversation over dinner was light and more inclined to innuendo and banter than any serious topic, until strangely the question of state control arose. Neo couldn't remember how the conversation had arrived at that point but he was intrigued by Setsuka's insistence that state controls applied to society for it's own good were not such a bad thing.
"But don't you worry that the state might have too much power?" he asked.
"No." She turned her attention to the piece of squid that she held between two chopsticks.
"No?"
"No. Because power has nothing to do with it."
Neo questioned her with a glance.
"It's only a matter of power when one becomes ambitious for reasons pertaining to self. State control isn't to do with self; it's to do with society. It's the control that protects all the individuals within that society, upholds their rights…"
"By controlling them?"
She sighed, "Alright, I'll put it another way… In "Leviathan" by Thomas Hobbes he explains that people give up the 'state of nature' where they can do what ever they want, and everyone else can do what ever they want too, for rules and laws: an establishment of Order that will protect them. Isn't that better than people fighting each other over arbitrary things?"
"Yes…" Neo answered warily "But what about the people who hold the power, the ones who make those laws?"
"What about them?"
"What if they become corrupt and self serving? What if they forget that they are meant to protect society?"
She lifted her head, looking him directly in the eyes, "They won't."
Neo looked at her curiously.
"That is… we have to believe they won't." she said quickly, smiling sheepishly. "Or maybe I'm just being too idealistic." She continued, smile becoming wistful.
He smiled back, reaching out to squeeze her hand across the table. "Maybe idealism is a good way to go."
They ate in silence for a little while after, until Setsuka spoke again, "So would you call yourself an idealist, Neo?" a hint of teasing in her voice.
"Yeah, I'd say so. I believe in free will, being able to make your own decisions…"
"You're Pro-Choice, then?" she was grinning cheekily.
"That too." He grinned back.
"But seriously, would you really want to live in the 'state of nature'? I'm curious."
"I guess. If it was an all or nothing situation, where the choice was total freedom or total control, I'd go for the freedom every time."
Red pill or blue pill, Neo added mentally. Red every time.
Red pill or blue pill, Setsuka wondered. There was no red pill.
Each caught in their own reflections neither noticed the other's distraction until a waiter approached to refill the teapot. Both smiled at each other, putting aside all other thoughts for the moment.
The conversation drifted away from such serious topics again. Neo kept to light hearted answers. Setsuka steered away from controversial topics.
"So, what is it that you do exactly?" she asked, with that small smile of hers.
"Not much… well, I used to be a programmer for CorTechs but I'm kind of free-lance now."
"Oh.
"And you?"
"It's pretty boring… Government stuff. Dealing with irregularities in the system, that sort of thing."
"Oh."
Finally, when the waiter brought the bill there was a small disagreement, when Setsuka insisted on paying her half. She'd already slipped her credit card out of her handbag when Neo managed to win the dispute. He caught part of the name on her card as she put it back into her bag, her initial 'A'.
'A' as in the indefinite article, as if she were some generic Agent.
Neo wondered; that made her an Angela or an Anna or an Andrea or something. Not that any of those names truly fitted her, she was… Setsuka.
Later they stood on one of the paths by the river, watching the lights from the other side reflecting on the water. Neo had an arm around Setsuka and she leaned against him.
"Do you really think that society needs to be controlled?" he asked without looking at her.
She lifted her head from his shoulder "Are you still thinking about that?"
He didn't reply.
"It means a lot to you, doesn't it, free will?" her voice was hushed.
"Yeah, it's perhaps the most important part of being human."
"Even if that free will is abused? After all, look at all the destruction that is caused by human choice."
"Still…" his gaze held hers.
"Look at what has become of the world…"
"Yes… But we have to be able to learn from our mistakes."
"But what if it is already too late?" she barely whispered turning her face away.
For a moment he said nothing and a frown creased his brow. But Setsuka didn't notice; she wasn't looking.
"We just have to hope that it isn't too late." Neo said, tilting her chin up so that their eyes locked. Setsuka's startled gaze met his utterly calm expression.
"Neo…"
And then he leaned forward and kissed her. Her eyes fluttered closed as she yielded to his touch.
Neo held her tightly as they kissed, feeling all resistance leave her body. While it lasted everything else fell away, all rebel concerns, the problem of the existence of the Matrix, everything. And he could have just been the mundane Thomas A Anderson… for all that it mattered.
OK, I know in "Leviathan" Thomas Hobbes is actually talking about the absolute monarch rather than the state but other than that the theory applies.
Setsuka also subscribes to the Trustee model of government, it would seem.
Incidentally, she doesn't have to consider the Realist tradition of political thought directly because the machines should be incorruptible.
The company that Neo used to work for is quoted from the 1997 script by the Wachowskis.
As for the pills: for the Agents there is no red pill and to risk sounding like Anne Rice's Lestat, it's a choice they never have.
23:52, 04/06/02