Setsuka waited a reasonable length of time after Neo had left before rising from the futon and setting about getting dressed. In the process of finding her clothes she turned on the hi-fi, which immediately began blaring out something cute in Japanese. She frowned and with a look that set off several glitches in the Matrix caused the CD player to start up again, playing something reminiscent of the 80s, which a careful listener might have noted as the soundtrack to "American Psycho". It was more appropriate to the situation, she had decided.
In a few moments she was dressed in her grey suit again and was refitting the earpiece of her hardwire. She didn't spare a backwards glance at the rumpled bed as she left.
In the apartment building's underground car park a black Porshe 968 was waiting for her. She got into the car and turned on the CD player, which continued to play from the point at which the one in the apartment had left off. There was little traffic at that time in the morning and unsurprisingly all the speed cameras that she passed were conveniently facing the wrong direction. Winding down the electric windows as she came to a stop at the traffic lights, several boy-racers leered at her, while hanging out of the same car. Setsuka smiled and blew them a kiss, just before the lights changed and she sped off, in a demonstration of superior fuel injection.
So far everything was going to plan. Each precise detail that had been carefully calculated was playing out just as she had expected. She'd even adlibbed a few extra tears, since apparently a weeping woman scene could never be overdone. As she raced along the darkened streets, she reached over to the glove compartment searching around for the pack of cigarettes that she knew would be there. She lit one easily while still keeping control of the car and considered the current state of play.
Inhaling the menthol-tinged smoke, Smith congratulated himself on his acting ability. Had he been human he might have even made a career of it. What was it that humans had termed it? Method acting, the ability to think yourself into the role you were playing. And he had truly accomplished it, to the extent that this mask was flawless. Impenetrable to even his fellow Agents. Certainly Brown and Jones believed in his practiced helplessness, his loss of control. Weak and vulnerable Setsuka. A perfect image that they saw. There was just one thing wrong with that image, one flaw that Smith was surprised that no one detected.
Setsuka wasn't a human woman, she wasn't female; she behaved like a flawed copy of every human female he had ever studied. She wasn't pragmatic enough, or controlled enough, or ruthless enough to be a real woman. Her strength was minimal, she wept in the face of adversity… She was an image, a negative of a woman.
In his research into the topic before this assignment Smith had found a strange discrepancy in the image of women and the women themselves. And again in the image of women created by men, which was exactly what Setsuka was patterned on. She was a construction of lies, images and suggestions by the human male as to what he thought a woman should be.
Setsuka was that image; she was definitely not female.
It had been difficult at first, trying to become this caricature, trying to persuade his pre-programmed responses to change. As a human would say, to think yourself into the role.
This was a role tailored to lure Anderson into a sense of superiority. To make him believe that he was the one in control, that he was the hero, a task that Smith had been unwittingly aided in by the resistance. For Smith the greatest challenge was for him to relinquish the trappings of control while exercising the most precise and subtle influence over every aspect of both himself and others.
Jones and Brown had served as a useful test run in that aspect. Of course their odd almost romantic attachments were somewhat bizarre but Smith was sure that it would only extend his control over them in the long run.
As for himself, he didn't truly understand this fragile concept of 'love' in the sense that the viral populous of the Matrix seemed so intent on. Not that it mattered. He was, after all, a machine, a sentient program, and as such was the purest instrument of order that the system could deploy. What was that human quote?
"… when God needed to punish someone… make an example, or whenever… he sent an angel. Have you ever wondered what a creature like that must be like? Would you ever really want to see an angel?"
Smith's smirk broadened, that just about summed up the situation.
Noticing that the cigarette had burned down to a stub, Setsuka carelessly flicked it out of the window. She wasn't smoking for any particular reason; it just seemed like the place in the script where her character should smoke. Soon enough would come the predicted ending, at which, point proven, no one would ever question her control again.
Though Brown and Jones weren't aware of his actual plan Smith also considered the possibility that they might be aware of something amiss. He suspected that Brown might be aware of more than he let on or that perhaps the other unit's perception was clouded by his strangely 'emotional' response to this whole assignment.
It was Brown who had chosen the name 'Setsuka' but he had provided no reason for that choice.
The original Setsuka, Smith knew, hadn't been an Agent but a human woman. She had been the perfect assassin, more so because she let her opponents see what they wanted to see, a harmless young woman, whom they could never imagine as a threat. Those she had killed often died with varying expressions of shock frozen on their faces.
Later the system had tried to create an Agent using her pattern. He had been perfect, save for one minor flaw… he was too cruel: not because he enjoyed inflicting suffering but because he didn't care… either way.
For the moment Smith was suffering from a minor degree of attachment to the human, Anderson. The faint spark of disgust, of irritation that he knew wouldn't be extinguished until his assignment came to a suitable conclusion. And for once that spark would actually be to his advantage; it would allow him to retain his self-awareness, his hatred of the rebels, no matter how much he became immersed in his role. No matter how weak Setsuka forced herself to be, how fragile, it only reinforced Smith's perfect control. He would be what they wanted him to be, what they thought the image of Setsuka should be and perhaps, Anderson might die with a look of surprise on his face.
Incidentally, if Brown didn't get over his growing weakness, didn't correct the flaw that was appearing in his strategic programming, Smith would be requesting a replacement.
And Jones… for the moment he was still affective but…
Setsuka was approaching her apartment block now. She slowed the car, taking the time to observe her surroundings, the glorious creation of the system.
The Matrix was the pinnacle of computer generated simulation, something unachievable by any human programmer and while patrolling the physical construct might be irritating at times, it was one of the highest honours that the system could bestow. Only the most effective, most deadly Agents were ever assigned to this duty… given the divine right to cull the unnecessary, curb the rebellion.
Thus being defeated by the human had been the most crushing, humiliating defeat that Smith could ever have imagined, not because of individual pride but because of his utter failure to fulfil his duty. Complete service to the system was all every Agent lived for and to fail the system…
But somehow he had been given a second chance, a way to redeem himself and this time he would not fail.
Now this was the chapter that I wanted to write the other day.
My apologies to people who thought I was getting too Victorian with my portrayal of women and thank you for your comments. You reminded me that I need to convey the idea behind the action rather than just assume that everyone has guessed.
I know Bret Easton-Ellis' "American Psycho" doesn't quite fit but I like the film soundtrack. Also the quote is from "The Prophecy", it's a line spoken by the character Thomas.
The back-story about the original Setsuka is taken from CLAMP's X/1999. She's Sakurazukamori, the perfect assassin. Later her son takes on the role of the emotionless executioner.
The speed cameras always facing the wrong way is something that does happen on occasion… or at least in Luton.
20:15, 06/10/02