NOTICE: I do not own the following characters: Agent Smith, Agents Jones and Brown, Neo, or the location Zion. HOWEVER: I do own the characters Persis, Calyx, Priest, Aei, Seefa, Sol, Titus, Neso, Echo, Syenes, Syllis and the ships Antigone and Apollo.
6. Temporary Revenge.
Unfamiliar faces. Then, one she vaguely recognised. His name formed on her previously motionless lips.
"Captain Sol".
"Yes".
He looked concerned. He sat down in the chair next to the bunk where she lay, clasping his hands together.
"How do you feel?"
"Corrupted".
"What do you mean?"
Persis sighed. This was not the time to discuss the recent changes in her. Sol recognised her unwillingness to elaborate her comment, and sat back in the chair.
"She's gone isn't she".
Despite himself he marvelled at the calmness with which she admitted to the loss. She had lost a ship, her entire crew was dead and yet the cool look of resignation in her face (for he couldn't read her eyes in the dim light) was remarkable.
"Yes, I'm afraid it's true. The Antigone was attacked by sentinels, we assume while
you were plugged in to the Matrix. Despite the imminent threat to all your lives, no-one disconnected you to allow the ship to defend herself. Your crew waited for you, Persis. That's the kind of loyalty that only a true and respected captain could win from her crew."
Persis closed her eyes. Oh, Calyx, she thought. Why didn't you just disconnect me when Smith appeared, you could have been on your way back to Zion by now, you talked so much about how you missed home. Seefa too-so young, so painfully young. And Priest, Aei, the others. All gone, all sentinel fodder now.
"You're on the Apollo. We had to bring you and the cord connecting you to your computer onboard, along with the computer. We duplicated the transmission
because your broadcast was so weak. Then we established your location and set up an exit, hoping you'd take it. You've been onboard now for some days".
Persis shifted on the slim bed, lying on her side, her head raised up on one arm.
"The broadcast-something happened to the signal-the sentinels-"
He paused, allowing her to work it out herself. The silence between them grew, with only the metal interjections of the ship rattling at intervals.
"-the sentinels damaged the connection, but not completely".
"Yes".
"You have to send me back".
Sol was surprised to say the least. "Captain Persis, you've only been out for a few hours, another entrance so soon could do you harm-and the agents-"
"There's only one way to find out, isn't there?"
"I strongly encourage you to stay here for a while longer-the area is riddled with agents".
"How many?"
"Three".
Persis smiled knowingly. There was a time to sit and mourn her ship and her crew, and there was a time to do their memory justice by enacting some small personal revenge on the sentient programmes. This was the time. She muttered her crew's names under her breath. This is for you, she thought, for your loyalty and your courage.
"Captain, this has fast become a personal matter for me".
"Captain, I understand how you must feel-"
"How?"
Sol was stumped for an answer. His silence admitted it.
"You still have your crew, Captain, your crew are still alive, you still have everything that you worked and fought for after being unplugged. I have nothing left. You cannot begin to comprehend how I feel."
Grudgingly, Sol accepted that Persis was right. He could not begin to understand the depth of such a personal loss.
She noticed his look of anxiety. She placed her hand on top of his. Sol looked up a the small gesture.
"I need to do this for the Antigone, for my crew. I need to have some sort of purpose now. I'll be fine. You have my word on that. Now let me back in".
Persis lay back in the chair and relaxed. The co-pilot, whose name was Titus (that much she had gathered from the crew) picked up the clamp with its metal needle. The familiar whir of the computers was like balm on Persis' heated mind.
"Good luck in there, Captain Persis".
She glanced toward his honest face.
"Thank you, Titus".
* * * * * * *
The street zoomed up to meet her, just as it had done when she had dived from the skyscraper. The memory seemed like something from a distant dream. Persis looked around. No agents yet. She walked purposefully down the street, passing people going about their non-existent lives. So many minds still to be unplugged. As long as they were ready. She had been ready. She had taken the red pill without a second thought, knowing the enormity of what she was doing. At times she thought she had understood the Matrix before she had been unplugged. But that was long ago.
She halted on the corner of the street. And waited.
Sol looked at the screens on the Apollo. He saw Persis' lone figure standing,
unmoving in the street, determination radiating from her rooted stance.
"Any agents yet?"
"Fast approaching, sir".
Persis looked to her left. An agent appeared from behind a street stall. Another, she noticed with dark satisfaction, came out from a building across the street. Finally, the third she had been waiting for emerged some feet in front of her.
"Glad you could make it".
Persis darted into the alleyway next to her, the agents in hot pursuit. It ended in a deserted courtyard, fire escapes climbing the farthest wall, scaffolding breaching the one opposite. The agents ran into the courtyard, looking around for her.
The courtyard was deserted.
Not a whisper echoed in the stillness. The agents lowered their guns simultaneously, an unholy triad, pressing their ear pieces closer as if to hear more information.
Persis came out of nowhere like a malignant ghost.
Or to be truthful, she had balanced, using her hands, on a pole of scaffolding that was clamped to opposite sides of the wall, far above the agents' heads, her legs pointing straight upwards. Then, swinging on the pole with the grace and ease of a gymnast, she had launched herself into the air.
She emerged as if from nowhere, launching a spin kick as she descended. The agents drew their guns up simultaneously and fired repeatedly.
Persis flipped forwards, then twisted her body so that she spun sideways, anti-clockwise, then clockwise. The bullets sped past her and hit the back wall of the courtyard. Persis landed silently and gracefully on the ground, on the tips of her toes. Then she relaxed, her heels lowering. She stood for a moment and then adopted a fighting stance as all three agents approached to attack.
"Sir, does she know what she's doing?"
Sol looked at the screens. "I hope so".
Persis watched them surround her. Using the first agent as a spring board, she launched herself at the other two, throwing her legs over her head and kicking them
both square in the chest. While they staggered back, she turned quickly and executed a set combination of kicks at the first agent. High kick into his jaw, a side kick into
his side, and lifting momentarily into mid-air, rotated her body and landed a third spin kick into his face. As he fell back from the force of the blows, she drew out her gun and pushing him down onto the floor, fired point blank, the gun pressed to his temple. She rolled off him as the crackles of green lightning enveloped him and ran to the remaining agents. Persis revelled in her enhanced speed. Sprinting to them, she seemed to run on the air before passing over their heads and, dodging their fire, appeared behind them and grasping their necks, threw them backwards over her shoulders, her face tightened into a grimace. Back flipping, she landed inbetween them, and as they rose up again, drew out her second gun, and dropping on one knee,
dispatched two bullets into both their heads, the green crackles of lighting reflecting off the shiny texture of her coat.
Sol's jaw dropped slightly.
"Goddamn-that was something else", Titus exploded.
"Is there an exit nearby?" Sol asked.
"Yep".
"Give her a call".
"Yes sir".
Ring.
Persis flipped out her phone.
"Yes".
"We've got an exit for you-its on the third floor apartment-you can reach it by the fire escape".
"Thanks".
Persis looked up at the black rails of stairs and sighed. She was avenged, the Antigone and her crew were avenged. She had been a shock to the system, literally, and had surprised the agents as well as herself. She hoped her abilities would develop. She was avenged. For the moment. The agents would be back.
She took one last look at the courtyard. Then she jumped. Three floors high in a matter of seconds. Landing on the bannister of the fire escape, she wound her way around the steps and, kicking a window in, levered herself into the apartment.
The phone was ringing.
Persis walked across the room with the broken shards of glass sprinkling the carpet and halted.
Next to the phone lay a pair of sunglasses. Gold tinted. Visor-like. Hers.
She hadn't notice that she wasn't wearing any this time. Persis looked around the apartment. it was silent. Then she noticed the front door was open. She ran to it and leaned out into the corridor. The lift at the end gave a pinging sound as it travelled down the floors.
Smith.
Persis re-entered the apartment.
She put the sunglasses on and picked the phone up.
* * * * * * *