Nanu's Story - Trouble and Implications
Nanu
"Nanu, wake up!" Key bangs loudly on the door, the metal booms.
Her head still hurts, but she rolls out of bed and turns the wheel to admit the medic.
"Have you seen Neo? Do you know where he is?"
"Why?"
"Biosa needs him for backup, do you know where he is?" Biosa is the captain who was targeting Wraith . . .
"Did you check his room?"
"Not there."
"I'll get him," and barefoot, Nanu makes for the armoury.
***
She opens the door, slips in without a sound. Cold aches up through her feet.
Neo and Trinity are curled up, asleep, sharing the one blanket. Oblivious to the panic upstairs their faces are peaceful.
Nanu really doesn't want to wake them up, but she knows she has to. She goes back to the door and opens it, them slams it shut with an echoing clang.
"Damn, what was that?" Trinity begins to wake up.
"Neo," Nanu calls, walking around a rack of tools like she only just came in.
"Jesus, Neo, wake up," Trinity urges. As Nanu comes around the corner Neo is standing up, rubbing his eyes.
"Neo, they need you on Deck, Biosa called for backup."
He swears in acknowledgment and runs for the armoury door. Trin wraps the blanket around her shoulders and studies Nanu.
"You knew we were down here. You knew last night Neo was here."
"Neo has been sleeping here since before I came."
"Even I didn't know where he slept."
"You two weren't speaking, how could you have known?"
"True," then she turns and leaves for the Main Deck.
Neo
"Biosa and two of her crew are trapped in the hotel. SWAT men are coming in form the ground floor and they have the basement covered."
In the alley outside, Neo sketches out a plan.
"Gavin, I want you in the drain, if anyone gets out that way call Tank then show them to the exit. Key and Tod, the same goes for you but stake out the front door and loading dock. Trin and me will go in from the top. Keep in touch."
Silently they separate, each checking their phones and weapons. Neo and Trinity move like shadows to the dim loading dock at the back of the hotel. Close to the wall, Neo wraps an arm around her waist.
"There is no spoon," she smiles, and then Neo takes off and they fly up to the roof.
Gavin
He cringes as he slides open the manhole cover. It stinks down there.
He drops in with a splash, reaches up and replaces the cover. Turning right, he sloshes through ankle deep water, moving for the hotel drain entrance. If by some chance Biosa or her crew make it through the basement, they'll come through here.
But he's not going to enjoy waiting in this stink.
Nanu
They're all jacked in. all of them but Nanu.
She paces back and forth behind Tank, quietly freaking out.
"Nanu, stop that, you're making me dizzy."
"Aren't you even remotely worried?"
"Sure I am, but hey, look who's in there," he gestures to chair 3, Neo's chair. "He's superman for crying out loud, they'll be fine. Now go do the washing up or something."
"Chauvinist."
He laughs, and Nanu makes for the galley, still worried.
Neo
There's no one left alive on the roof but Neo and Trinity. All the cops are dead.
"Do you see any agents?"
"Not for the moment."
They make their way down the fire escape, leaving the roof behind them empty and still, the chopper sitting waiting like a mechanical dragonfly.
***
Gunfire rattles up and down the stairwell, the thundering of footsteps echoes off the walls. The inhuman faces of the SWAT men's helmets reflect the flashing light from a failing fluoro tube as they follow the woman and two men up, level after level.
Above them, Neo swings himself over the rail, drops two floors and catches the rail again with one hand. He leaps in front of the men, moving faster than they can follow, faster than should be possible.
Trinity
"Biosa!" she yells down into the darkness, "come on, you have to get to the roof!"
"Trinity, we're coming," a curse and a stumbling sound. Trinity starts downstairs as Biosa calls; "Pirate's been hurt!"
Shots echo below them as Trinity reaches Biosa. Pirate is limping on a wounded leg; he just caught a bullet in his thigh. Radar is trying to help him up the stairs. She lends a shoulder for support and the four of them hurry on.
"There's a chopper up there that the cops left, Bios, can you fly a B212?"
"Sure."
"The exit is only a few blocks away. If you land on the MMI building it's a five-minute run, a subway, State and Balboa."
"I - " Pirate's voice is a gasp, "I dunno if I can run - "
"You'll go with Neo, he'll take you straight there."
"Okay."
Neo
The last man collapses on the landing like a rag doll, a kick to his head rendering him unconscious. Neo is gone before he even hits the ground, running up the stairs.
Code swims in his eyes; Trin has made it to the roof, she is waiting with Pirate, Biosa is waiting to take off.
Trinity
He comes up over the edge of the fire escape, yells to her;
"Go with Bios, I'll see you at the exit."
She wants to argue but follows his order. In here he has power and she has to trust in that. The last Trin sees is Neo bending over Pirate, then lifting him easily and swooping off the roof.
Then he is out of sight.
She pulls out her cell phone, calls Tod. She manages to yell 'Exit' over the roar of the chopper, and she knows he'll call Key and Gavin and tell them the same. It's the drill. She leans back and watches the City go by, wondering if this run will make the front page of the paper. She can almost see the headline; Dozens Killed in Violent Terrorist Attack . . .
Neo
He lands outside the subway, letting Pirate down gently. The boy stands on his good leg and leans on Neo, hopping as he is helped down the stairs.
"Damn, damn, damn, damn, damn . . . " he keeps up a steady stream of profanities under his breath.
"Almost there Pirate, hang on."
They reach the bottom and Pirate collapses under the pay phone. Neo walks the length of the platform, checking out a pile of cardboard boxes in the far corner. No hobos.
He goes back to Pirate. The code shows torn muscles and flesh where the bullet ripped through, and, quietly, Neo alters the code. Just as he can think, 'Bullets, stop' and they do, he can think, 'Wound, heal' and it does. What he wants to happen happens.
A moment later, Pirate looks up with a surprised expression.
"Did you - ?"
Neo's face is his answer.
"Thank you."
"Your ship is the Solomon, right?"
"Yeah. Our operator is Cadel, Caddie."
"I know him," Neo pulls out his mobile, punches a speed dial.
-Operator-
"Caddie, it's Neo."
-Neo?-
"Pirate needs out, make the call on this number," Neo reads him the number of the pay phone. "Biosa and Radar are on their way, they'll call you."
-Okay, I guess we'll see you again at Home-
"See you then Caddie." And he clicks the phone shut.
A minute silence, maybe less.
Ringgg. Neo takes the receiver and gives it to Pirate on the ground.
"Thanks sir," then mercury shines through his veins and the illusion dissolves. Neo cradles the receiver.
Footsteps. Biosa, Radar and Trinity come quickly down the stairs as the payphone begins to ring again. Bios motions Radar forward; "That's for you."
When he's gone she turns to Neo. "Thanks for your help."
"What went wrong?" asks Trin.
"I'm not sure, we were just checking out Wraith, we were going to contact her tonight, but we got traced or something."
"Or maybe a coppertop tipped off the police," Trinity folds her arms. "The AI don't run a constant surveillance on hard lines, most of the time a jack-in won't be noticed."
Ringgg.
"That's for you," Neo steps aside with a gesture.
"See you guys back at Home. Later," and with that, Biosa is gone.
"Now the waiting game," Trinity hangs up the dangling phone.
"Do you think it was a copper?" he asks, leaning against the wall. But she's looking at the sign above the stairs; Balboa Street.
"This is the same subway where . . . "
"Yes. And you never did tell me what the Oracle told you."
"It doesn't matter any more."
"I'd still like to know."
She begins pacing. She does that when she's thinking.
"At that time, you didn't believe you were the One. Neither did I, to an extent; I wasn't sure."
"I wasn't either."
"But the Oracle told me, basically, that the man I," she hesitates on the word, "the man I loved would be the One. I wasn't sure of anything at that point, but even though I wasn't certain you were the One, I think I loved you."
"Are you sure now?"
She stops, turns to him. Her smile goes beyond words, all the more precious for being so rare.
Footsteps. Tod, Key and Gavin, smelling bad.
The pay phone rings.
"Did you call Tank?" Trinity asks them, business again.
"Yeah," Key nods.
"Gavin," Neo motions him forward. "You're going first; you stink."
Nanu
She is on Deck as they come out one by one, unscathed. Achi moves around, easing out plugs and shifting gears on chairs. Nanu helps, trying to be useful.
Neo sits up, looks around. The crew are all there, perched on jack-in chairs or standing near him.
"Meeting in the galley, right after breakfast."
His words confirm a fear in Nanu's mind. Something is wrong, and Neo doesn't know why.
That's bad.
***
They all sit crowded around the table, bumping elbows, except Tank, on watch. Nanu is tacked on the end, almost not fitting on the bench. The empty bowls have been cleared, and Neo spreads his hands on the table. Trinity, at his side, watches him.
"As you know," he begins, "something went wrong today. The Solomon's crew was on a normal run; a routine check on their target. But on their way out there was a problem."
"They were trapped," Trinity looks around the table. "We don't know how. It may have been a tip off from a coppertop who saw something suspicious, or it could have been the AI."
"Why would the AI notice a normal run?" Key frowns.
"We don't know." Neo adds an explanation for Nanu's benefit. "Most of the time the AI don't notice a jack-in unless coppertops get killed, there's just too much for them to monitor. We've been caught before but only because we were turned in by another Jack."
"Are you saying there's a traitor in Biosa's crew?" Achi folds her arms, and Nanu can see her thinking.
"I'm not saying anything for certain, but yes that could be the case."
"Do you have any idea who it could be?" Gavin looks worried. "If it was a Jack who turned them in?"
"We have to talk to Biosa again," says Trin. "She knows her crew."
Nanu sees Neo's hands tense momentarily at the 'we'.
"Achi," he stands. "When you're ready, call the Solomon and arrange a meeting for tomorrow, 0700, at the Lafayette. Biosa, alone, and three of us." Neo looks at each of his crew in turn, his gaze lingering briefly on Nanu.
"Any questions?"
Silence.
"Which three?" Tod asks.
"Trinity, me, and Nanu."
***
Wait for the next chapter, The Second Jump.