Chapter Two: Betrayal
The world swam back into focus. Ghost felt a throbbing pain in his head. His eyes stared up at a high ceiling made from old stone. Ghost reached out and climbed to his feet. He turned around and spotted a door. He ran to it, grabbing the knob and trying to force it open. The door refused to budge.
Their was suddenly a whirring sound and the Twins stepped through the wall.
"No one leaves," One said.
"Without his permission," Two finished.
The Twins grabbed Ghost by his arms and dragged him back down. The door to the makeshift cell swung open, and in walked the Merovingian.
"Greetings, Ghost. Glad you could join us."
"The pleasure's all yours."
"Come now, Ghost, is that a way to greet an old friend?"
"The number you have dialed has been disconnected. Please hang up and try again. The following tones are for the hearing impaired."
Myst waved the words away with her hand, only wanting to continue. A blaring ringing tone shot through her head, feeling like a multiple kicking against her wounded brow. Myst grabbed the phone and slammed it back down onto the receiver. She got to her feet.
Myst saw the blood on her clothes had dried and her wound had clotted. She glanced at the clock hanging on the wall.
I've been out for thirty minutes? Impossible!
She walked to another room and grabbed some aspirin from the emergency medical kit. She downed the pills with a glass of water and washed. She walked back to the armory, selected two handguns and a shotgun, and left the safehouse.
Beeping woke Lynx too. But it was a different sort of beeping. She wearily glanced around her, taking in the machinery and other surroundings. She was in a hospital.
A man near the door was sleeping in a wooden chair. Lynx called out to him. He woke up, took in Lynx, and yelled outside, "She's awake."
Two men rushed in. One was a doctor, and he began checking Lynx's vitals. When he was done, he looked up.
"She'll be fine." He turned to Lynx. "You're very lucky. The injuries you've sustained would've killed most people." The doctor left the room.
The second man was tall, and he wore a suit and glasses.
"Well, Miss Hawkins, it seems one of our wayward children has returned home. Welcome back," he said. Lynx looked back blankly. The man laughed and left the room.
It all came back to Lynx in a rush.
Wailing lights. Bright. Keep them away. Laughter. Screams. Laughter. A man. That man. A room. This room. Pain. It hurts. Men. Rebels. Neo. Source! MATRIX!
She screamed. The man near the door looked at her and backed out. Lynx looked to her left, spotting a card on her bed. It read:
"Secure Facility for the Criminally Insane."
"That's an interesting tale," Fallen Angel said tactfully. Phoenix was silent, brooding. After a few minutes of silence, he spoke, his voice filling the car.
"How far are we from the nearest hard line?"
"Miles yet," Fallen Angel answered back.
"Good. You still haven't told me your story."
Fallen Angel sighed and began his tale of the day he remembered as "The Fall."
It was one of those perfect days. The sky was blue, the breeze was perfect, and the sun was bright.
They had come to ruin that day for the humans.
Angel, Tsunami, and Raven stopped near the corner of the building. Angel kept a lookout with Tsunami while Raven placed a charge on the corner of the building. The three had started away at a brisk walk when the dreaded shifting sound came from their left. They broke cover, scattering in all three directions.
Raven took off down the alley. Angel ran left, pushing a businessman talking on a cell phone into a woman carrying a child. The man shouted "Hey!" after him, but Angel could care less. Tsunami dashed right, ducking around a woman with a stroller.
From across the street the Agent drew his gun. People screamed and ran for cover. The Agent popped off a shot at Tsunami, but his aim was bad and he hit a bystander. Angel drew his gun and fired at the Agent three times. The Agent dodged every shot.
Raven appeared from a side street and fired twice more. The Agent dodged left and fired his own gun, the shot catching Raven and throwing him back into the very building they'd come to destroy.
"Raven!" Tsunami screamed.
The rebel weakly lifted his weapon and emptied the clip at the Agent. He hit nothing but air. The Agent took his time, aiming precisely. There was a loud bang, and Raven slumped to the floor.
Tsunami backed away, firing pointlessly. She turned, dropped her weapon, and ran. The Agent chased after her, shoving a man out of his way and into a building. Angel ran over to Raven.
"Raven?" he asked tentatively. Raven groaned. He reached into his pocket and withdrew the detonator, pressing it into Angel's hand.
"Go," he whispered, and died.
Angel got up and ran after where the Agent had disappeared. He fired his weapon until it was empty, and then dropped it. He ran towards the Agent and jumped, landing a flying kick on his back. The Agent stumbled forward. Tsunami dashed past the program, grabbing a ladder hanging from the fire escape of a building and pulled herself up it, disappearing into the building.
The Agent whirled on Angel and threw him to the mouth of the alley. Picking himself up, Angel ran out into the crowd. The whirring of sirens heralded the arrival of the police. Men poured from squad cars, pointing their guns at Angel.
"Freeze!"
The Agent came out of the alley. The policemen shifted their views for a second, and Angel took off. He flew through the street and into an apartment building.
Tsunami appeared on the other side of the street. She shot two policemen and disappeared.
Angel reached the roof. He opened the door and looked into the barrel of the Agent's pistol. He saw Tsunami vanish into the target building.
He pressed the trigger.
The building exploded. The Agent turned, and Angel threw him to the ground, running across the roof. He jumped across a gap between to buildings, climbed down the stairs, answered the phone, and vanished from the Matrix.
"You can not keep him here, my love," argued Persephone.
"I must," the Merovingian said. "It is essential to the plan."
"I agree with Persephone," Vlad said. "Keeping that dangerous rebel here is a mistake."
"We must protest your lack of faith," the Twins said. "We can handle the rebel."
"You heard them. They can handle it. And surely, Vlad, your forces are enough to contain any damage and repel any attackers," the Merovingian finalized.
"Of course they are, but my motto is anything that can go wrong, will."
"Fine, but remember, my love, I will be on hand to clean it up after it blows up in your face again," said Persephone, ending the conversation.
The door swung back open. The Merovingian left the meeting room walking at a rapid pace, the Twins struggling to keep up. Persephone walked from the room at a slower, more dignified pace. Last of all left Vlad, his pale face twisted into an expression of extreme thought.
Vlad walked right through a hanging tapestry and up a flight of stairs. He had entered the area of the dwelling that the Merovingian referred to as the "lair." Here lived the lesser Exiles, the Merovingian's minions. Vlad walked between to men fighting over a scrap of meat, snapping their long teeth at each other and yelling, almost barking.
He swept aside another tapestry and entered the Cave. He walked across the bridge leading over the hot springs where his minions bathed. Crossing into his own room, he summoned his lieutenant, Fang, to his side with a thought. The eager, freshly-bitten vampire, a former rebel named "Tyger," appeared instantly inside the room, stepping out of the shadows in the corner.
"Yes, master?" he hissed in question.
Vlad waved him over to a map of the Chateau. "Let us plan our defense for the Chateau. I have a feeling we will need to use it soon."
Myst reached the computer café just as it was closing. The owner opened the doors again at the sight of her gun and was glad to give Myst hours of free computer time.
"And an ice coffee," Myst told her. "Make it fast."
Myst logged on under the Logos account and quickly took remote control of the ship.
access remote camera
password?
sparksisdaman
sector?
core
The camera view popped up on Myst's screen. She jumped in shock as the camera showed Sparks, his throat cut, blood all over the monitors. She swore, loud. The owner looked at her in fear and hurried over with the coffee.
Shit, shit, shit, thought Myst. Her analytical mind took over, numbing the pain. Quickly, she typed:
run hardline.exe
dial?
Myst quickly searched the database for the nearest hard line.
0011005663245
dialing…
Myst stood up and ran out the door, leaving her ice coffee.
Lynx broke her chains off the bed, stood up, and hit the guard to the side. The man flew into the wall and collapsed forward. Lynx kicked her door open. All activity in the hallway halted. Three Agents turned around and stared at Lynx.
"Shit," she said mildly. One of the Agents snorted in laughter. The other two raised their guns.
Lynx ran.
Myst ran through the closed shopping center silently. She could faintly hear a phone ringing. She ducked under the half-closed gate of an electronics store and ran down the aisle. She vaulted over the desk and grabbed the ringing handset. She pressed it to her ear and disappeared from the store. The handset fell to the floor, an unexplained surprise for the shopkeeper who would open the store the next morning.
Lynx leapt over a counter, kicking the attendant to the side. The three Agents chased after her, firing their guns. The bullets whizzed past Lynx's head, hitting the wall and ceiling around her. She turned left, dashing through a pair of automatic doors. One of the Agents came from around the corner, lifting his gun up and tracking her path.
He fired. Time seemed to slow. The bullet streaked towards Lynx. She saw the path but was unable to stop. She barreled into the shot.
Time returned to its normal flow. Lynx staggered backwards and fell to the floor. The Agent ran and kicked her, sending her flying into the parking lot. A car screeched as it hit the brakes to avoid her. Lynx got to her hands and knees. She heard a scream, gunfire, and the thud of a body hitting the floor. She fearfully looked up…
Fallen Angel hit the brakes and the van screeched to a stop in front of a bank. They could here the phone ringing inside. Phoenix kicked the window, shattering the glass. Fallen Angel followed him into the bank.
They tracked the location of the phone to a secretary's desk in the back. Fallen Angel lifted the receiver to his ear and vanished. Phoenix replaced the phone and waited for the ring, then followed Fallen Angel from the Matrix.
…and saw the palm in front of her. She grabbed it, and Trinity pulled Lynx to her feet. Lynx looked around. Morpheus had taken on two Agents, firing his two MPXs in their direction, filling the air with lead. Pandora had hacked herself a sword, and as Lynx watched, she sliced one of the Agents into bits. Trinity shoved Lynx back towards the hospital.
"Go!" she ordered. "Find the hard line!"
Lynx ran back into the hospital, glancing back to see Trinity push Pandora after her. Morpheus backed up slowly, firing as he went. Trinity also had her gun out, and was shooting with great accuracy. One of the Agents, dodging Morpheus's shots, got hit in the leg by Trinity and went down. The final Agent broke cover and ran at the two, diving and corkscrewing through the air. The fighters dropped their guns and ran.
Lynx got into the hospital and ran to the front desk. She slammed the attendant into the ground as he reached to answer the phone. She picked it up herself and vanished from the Matrix.
Pandora replaced the phone and waited. It rang. She reached for it. An Agent rounded the corner, pistol drawn. Pandora picked up the phone. The Agent fired. She pressed it to her ear.
The bullet hit her in the head. Pandora fell. Trinity ran into the hall, spotted the Agent, and turned around. "Go back!" she yelled to her captain, but the other two Agents were approaching from that direction.
They were trapped.
Voyd watched the screen. "Come on," he said anxiously. "Run!"
Myst opened her eyes onboard the Logos. She reached back and pulled the spike from her head, letting out a breath as she did so. She got up from the chair and looked around. Niobe was still slumbering in her chair, and past her…
Ghost! Niobe said he was dead!
Myst ran to the monitor and wiped the blood off. She quickly found Niobe inside the Agent. She was sitting in a comfortable chair, sipping tea, and chatting with a man Myst recognized only too well.
Drake!
Myst found Ghost. He lay unconscious inside a room, chained to the wall. Niobe had lied. She was a traitor.
Myst walked away from the monitor. She traveled to the galley, picked up a knife, and walked back to the Core. She walked to Niobe's chair and raised the weapon above her comatose form.
Myst dropped the knife. It clattered on the floor.
"I can't do it," she sobbed to herself.
Trinity jumped into the air and kicked off a wall, shooting back at the Agent and knocking him over. Morpheus dove for the phone and hung it up. It rang instantly.
"Go!" Trinity yelled. Morpheus picked up the receiver and vanished. Trinity flipped over the counter, drawing her backup pistol, and hung the phone back up. She fired at the Agents, and they dove for cover. Then she gratefully lifted the receiver.
Morpheus stared at the floor.
"I don't understand. The war should be over."
Neo nodded his agreement. "All I know is that unless we do something within twenty-four hours, it will be."
"But what about the Prophecy?" Trinity asked.
"The Prophecy was a lie. It was all just another system of control."
"What now?" asked Lynx.
"I don't know," Neo said.
They all stood in silence for a moment. Then Voyd spoke up.
"There is one thing we could do."
Morpheus looked at him expectantly. Voyd continued.
"Before he died, Rabbit developed a program specifically designed to kill Agents and other programs of the system. If we could tie it into the Source, or the Mainframe, or some other - "
Morpheus nodded. "Call the Logos. Let's do it."