Chapter 4: Revelation
The machines had unfortunately intercepted the transmission. In the excitement of Neo's destruction of the sentinels in the real world, someone had not paid close attention to detail when sending the news back to Zion. The machines now knew. They broadcasted it out across multiple secure channels to inform their peers. The ones most interested in this piece of information were, of course, the agents. They would have a field day without needing the pesky caution that was involved when Neo was in the vicinity.
Smith couldn't be happier about the situation. It was a good half an hour after he heard he news before the smile fell from his face. Anderson had been disabled….but he hadn't been the one to do it. He hadn't been the one to take Anderson's purpose away.
There was one thing that Smith cared about above all—a sense of purpose. He needed a purpose. Anderson had tried to take that away. It had become personal.
Personal vendettas were things unknown to other sentient programs. They had no concept of vengeance. But Smith did. He knew it and felt it as strongly as any human might. In fact, the human body that the copy had taken over was now lying a mere two feet away from Neo, equally as comatose…or perhaps not.
In spite of all obvious signs, Smith still had not noticed that he was experiencing the symptoms of a virus.
*****
Trinity stood beside Neo's bed aboard the Hammer and gazed at him. He looked so innocent. She had always thought him innocent and vulnerable anyway, in the real world. In the Matrix, he was deadly and anything but vulnerable. She had seen him destroy those sentinels on a whim. In the real world. And that scared the hell out of her.
She looked up to read the monitors displaying his vital signs. Everything was normal. It was as though he was merely in a deep sleep that he couldn't wake from.
Morpheus appeared beside her. "How is he?"
"Same as usual," she replied quietly. She reached out and touched Neo's face softly, as though she was afraid that he might break under her touch. "We need to find out what happened to him."
"I believe I have noticed a pattern."
"A pattern?"
"Yes. Have you noticed, Trinity," he began thoughtfully, "that both times Neo has had an 'upgrade' so to speak, he has had an involvement with Smith?"
"Smith?" Trinity echoed.
Morpheus continued. "Yes. And do you recall that when we asked what Smith had tried to do to him in the courtyard, he said it felt like dying? Do you remember that he mentioned that it as though he was back in the hallway with Smith?"
Trinity ran all the past events through her head. Smith had unloaded his pistol magazine into Neo…Neo had died. Neo had come back to life. Then Smith had "died." But Smith came back to life as well. Neo had come back with abilities no one had ever seen before. Smith had returned in a similar manner. Smith had driven his hand straight into Neo's chest with the intent to destroy him, and possibly turn him into another copy…Neo compared the sensation to dying again. Did that mean that he had been 'upgraded' a second time? Had he become so powerful that his abilities somehow, in a seemingly impossible way, carried over into the real world? Is that how he was able to destroy the sentinels?
Morpheus was pondering the same thing. There was only one way to find out. They were going to have to capture Smith.