Rashel was able to find The Emerald City, even though the location was hidden from the database and protected by firewalls

made by the best Resistance operators. He found some sort of back way through. Some simple trick that reversed the program

and threw the location at his feet. I would have simply hacked through, or die trying.

Sparks informed me about it when I stepped out of the mess hall, and without waiting for Niobe or Ghost, I promptly strapped

myself to the chair and made Sparks teleport me to the Emerald City. Goddamn if I was going to get there after Rashel. Bob

the barman gave me a salute as I walked in.

"No poems today?" he asked.

I shook my head and allowed a half smile onto my face.

"No, no poems," I said and took the grenadine spiked drink from him. It was a joke really. Bob knew I was unplugged. His real

name wasn't Bob either, but some jackshit Greek/Latin/Roman alias that was as hard to pronounce as it was to spell. Most

people simply called him Bob.

"Your booth has been empty since the day you left."

I gave a rueful smile.

"Glad to know it's missed me."

I slid into the booth and sipped my drink, watching the black garb of the Resistance fighters blacken even more against the

eerie green glow of Emerald. I stared at them. How much clearer they were? How much smaller? When I was there before I

thought everyone was at least 6 ft 5. I was a mere 5 ft 4. Now my RSI was 5ft 7, and I was taller than most resistance girls

my age. Tempus fugit. Time flies. Or did time exist in the Matrix? Maybe it was just a loop. It was simple. I knew how to do

it. That would explain the past lives, the afterlives, the deja vus.

A tall gangly teen came in from the entrance. Medium shoulders, blue eyes, medium length black locks, skin pale as glacier

milk. For a moment, my heart stopped, I was seeing Trinity, Rafaela. Then I stopped. Neither Trinity or Rafaela had a scar

over their left eye. And Trinity's eyes were ice blue, while Rafaela had midnight blue. Neither of them had this clear,

robin's egg shade. No, I shook myself. Rashel. This was Rashel.

The kid wandered through the Emerald, clearly lost. He didn't seem to see me, blatantly staring at him in a corner booth over

my grenadine and coke. I snorted. Damned coppertop. The first thing we'd have to teach him was observation. He'd need that to

pick out Agents in a crowd.

I waited until he passed my booth.

"Hello Rashel." My IRS voice was smoother, silkier, unlike the gauzy quietness in my real world voice.

He stopped, turned.

"What the."

"I've been waiting for you," a pause, "please, sit." He did, but he couldn't stop staring at me. I couldn't blame the poor

guy. I'd deliberately asked Sparks to give me the outfit, black tube top, slut shorts. In addition I'd added eyeliner that

brought out my eyes like an Abyssian cat's, and my nails were painted with black the same shade as my eyes. Black suited me,

it clung to me and covered the scars on my back from amateur trips to the Matrix. Black also went with my eye bags. One would

mistake them for make up, not the dead flesh it was.

"How did you know my name?"

I cocked an eyebrow.

"What? William Watson the 3rd?"

He visibly flushed.

"It's cute you know." I raised my drink, though I didn't take my eyes off him.

"Who are you?"

A swallow of grenadine and coke.

"I told you, I'm God."

He snorted.

"God's not a girl."

Chauvinist bastard. Still, I couldn't lay a finger on him, not until the training sims.

"Maybe he is, maybe he isn't. In any case, my name's Nausicaa."

He smiled.

"Nausicaa? You like anime?"

I ignored his question.

"Why are you here, Rashel?"

"Huh?"

"You heard the question."

"You told me to follow the Yellow Brick Road."

"So?"

"So I came."

"My god," I tipped my head back and laughed, "you come here just because some cyber punk bitch told you to? What if it was

all a ploy? Huh? What if you came, and there would be the cops waiting for you."

I winced inside. Damn, I was getting too close to home.

He squirmed. He wasn't a guy who liked to be told he was so obviously dumb.

"I had a feeling.the Matrix."

"What is the Matrix?"

"Yeah, yeah, that's it. What is the Matrix?"

"The Matrix has you, Rashel. The Matrix has had you from the day you were born."

"You said that. No need to elaborate."

"I can't say more than it is safe. If you really want to know, you'll have to come with me."

I would have wanted to say more, but I was getting impatient, as well as anxious. Had we been here too long? When would the

agents pick us up?

He hesitated, looked over his shoulder.

"Is this some kind of joke?"

"If you'll come with me, you'll find out whether it is or not."

"That's not very comforting."

"I am a very serious girl, Rashel. I don't ever joke."

Rafaela had told me not to use girl so much. I was growing, she had said. I was becoming a woman. Only Rafaela believed I

could. When she died, there was no one who believed, who told me I was growing. Girls needed mothers to help them become a

woman. I had no mother.

He seemed only mildly satisfied. The fact that he had stayed was because I was looking hot, not because he believed me. But I

didn't care. No one believed in me. I didn't expect anyone to.

"Anyway," I got up, leaving my empty glass on the table, "you either come, or you don't. Just remember. We may never see each

other again." And you may never get your link to the Matrix.

I was halfway to the entrance when I heard footsteps behind me.

"Wait. I'll come."

I continued walking as if I hadn't heard him.

"Hey Kaesa," he caught my arm. I stiffened, and quickly twisted my arm out of the way.

"A, its Nausicaa. B, do not touch me, ever again, or I'll have you castrated or in the very least severely maimed."

He blushed again.

"Sorry, somehow got into my head you were Kaesa," he paused, "but I'll come." I turned, beckoned him to the entrance.

"Then come with me."

I had Sparks download me a coat at the bar entrance. I ripped it off the peg and put it on, glad to feel the reassuring

smoothness of a gun barrel hidden in the inside. I hadn't gone into the bar unarmed either. I had knives in my boots, my ass

and the small of my back. Still, it felt better to have a gun. My security object I guess, like a woman's purse or a man's

watch.

Bella was waiting for us at the curb, leaning against the black limo. Even in the dark, Bella wore shades, square shades like

an Agent's. I shivered.

"So this is the coppertop?"

I nodded.

"The what?"

I shrugged, motioned to Rashel.

"Get in."

In the car, Bella held a gun to Rashel's head, while I prodded him for bugs. I was scared. Debugging always wrought an

unpleasant twist in my stomach. I was remembering my own. Rashel was bug free, thank God.

We reached the old warehouse in record time. Niobe took Rashel up for her speech, while I followed Ghost, Bella and Lock to

the back room for Rashel's unplugging preparation.

"So what's going to come alive this time?" asked Lock.

"The wall."

"The wall?" I asked as I peeled off a piece of blistering paint. Jesus, that was the ultimate cliché.

"We didn't have time to think of anything else."

I rolled my eyes.

"It's not poh-eh-tick enough for her," snickered Bella. I gave her a long, hard stare, before crumbling the digital paint

into ash in my hands. Hate her, love her, or not care and let the insults roll off me like water. I chose the latter.

"Anyway," said Lock, breaking the silence and seating himself at the computer, "let's get online." Ghost and Bella went to

their respective positions, and I busied myself with Rashel's electrodes and vital monitors. Once I had done all I thought I

could, I stood and waited, my heart pounding and myself getting uptight again.

"Niobe's taking a long time," I whispered, my voice almost like my real world quietness, tapping my nails against my

cheekbone.

"Aw, Nausea's scared." Bella pulled puppy eyes, "maybe we should gwive pwoor widdle Nausea a widdle break?"

Ghost shot her a look.

"Niobe always takes that much time with new recruits," he said, "don't worry."

We waited a few more minutes, before Niobe strode in, followed by Rashel.

"Lock, are we online?"

It sounded too much like my own unplugging. She might have said Apoc.

"Almost." I shook by head. Lock, Lock, not Apoc. I was on the Logos now, not the Nebechunezzar.

Niobe motioned for Rashel to sit in the chair. He did, and I began strapping the electrodes onto him.

"Can I go back?"

I stuck an electrode on his chest, felt him shivering.

"I thought Niobe told you that."

"I know, but I wanted to ask you."

He was asking me? Who'd the fuck want to ask me? Didn't he ever consider the possibility that I'd give him the wrong answer,

just to see him pop in the real world? Didn't he know that lying was second nature to me? From all the time I'd spent hiding

from Bella, hiding from my feelings. Soldiers weren't saints.

"Guess not." I shrugged. It was becoming a habit. Someday death would come to my door and I'd shrug off my life. Habit. Just

habit.

"That's not very comforting."

"I never meant to be." I stuck the last electrode on him and I took my place behind the vitals console.

I watched as the wall smoothed over, trying not to sneer at the cliché. Instead, I tried to remember my own unplugging.

Morpheus at the console, Trinity monitoring my vitals. Perhaps we had stood here, in the same room. Perhaps not, all

unplugging rooms were the same. Switch and Apoc, even Cypher. I missed them, missed them all. Then the white paint surged,

Rashel's screams turned into blow up digital gratings. Alice tumbling down the Rabbit Hole. Dorothy spinning in the tornado.

Toto in the trap door. Kansas gone.