Harp Strings.
Trinity
All hands on deck. Tank and Achi are setting them up, checking buckles and adjusting chairs. She looks over at Neo, he's watching Nanu with an odd expression. She knows that look in his eyes, it's like in the Matrix, when he dips out of focus and scans through the world no one else can see, his mind analytical, and grappling with understanding. She wonders why he's studying Nanu like that.
Tank comes up, touching Neo's shoulder. With a blink, he refocuses.
"The infirmary ready?"
"Everything is."
Trinity looks to Nanu. Once again, Gavin is staying behind, and he is by her side. She squeezes his hand and whispers something. Without the slightest hesitation, he kisses a blessing on her forehead and slides the jack into her head. As her eyes close he replaces her limp hand on the grip, then retreats to the bridge.
She puts her head back as Tank approaches, and as the static floods her senses Trinity wonders if Neo can read her apprehension in the construct.
Pirate
Night. City lights makes the main streets glow but the alleys are full of shadows.
Some of which are alive.
They walk quickly and quietly, Nanu and Trinity and Pirate. Neo is waiting back at the Lafayette.
They have been lucky with this target. Wolf has been nothing but eager, and yet no Agents have ever been seen tracking him. Pirate can't help but think that the AI have been biding their time, waiting for the greater prize.
Nanu
It smells like rain. The air is heavy with the waiting for thunder.
Emerging into the light of the main street, Nanu scans the crowds. Music thuds from night clubs, cars growl and the people buzz.
A crack, electricity arcs through the sky. It is as if the AI realise what they will soon lose, and they can do nothing but flail in code to protest.
Trinity and Pirate wait back in the alley while she walks into the crowd. Where is he?
She scans, listening and wanting him to come to her.
Wolf.
"Lurker?" pushing himself away from the wall outside an adult book shop, the boy takes a step forward.
"Hey there, Wolf."
He looks her over, taking in her stance. All fawn, grey and black, she's clad to blend in with concrete and stone. People walk past, swerving around them, some glancing at her shaded eyes before looking quickly away.
Nanu smiles, letting her hands curl as the world thrums around her. This is power.
"Follow me."
And he does, without hesitation or question.
Rain begins to fall.
***
The two of them pause outside the double doors. Wolf takes a deep breath. He's only just as tall as Nanu.
"You got any famous last words?" she asks.
"No."
"Just as well."
She opens the door for him.
Lighting crashes through the dim room as Neo turns from the window. Wolf grinds to a halt, eyes widening behind his thick glasses.
Nanu places a reassuring hand on his shoulder for a moment, before retreating from the room.
***
Waiting is never easy. She's is resisting the urge to pace.
"Nanu," Trinity keeps her voice low. "Quit fidgeting."
"There's nothing more you can do – " she cuts Pirate off with a sharp gesture.
"It's not just Wolf. Everything in this bloody place is off centre."
Trinity and Pirate look equally blank.
"It just doesn't feel exactly right," she elaborates.
"Is there anything exactly wrong?" Trinity gets up from behind her monitor.
"I don't know," Nanu finally gives in to the pacing, pulling at the hems of her sleeves absently. "There's something just out of reach I'm missing. It's not serious but it's wrong."
"This won't take long," Trinity soothes, flicking on equipment. "We're leaving as soon as he's out."
The door opens, and Neo sweeps through. Wolf almost sneaks after him in the shadow of his coat.
"Are we online Pirate?" Neo asks as he silently hands him a cell phone.
"We're all set."
The boy's eyes are darting everywhere at once, trying to take all this in. Nanu takes a deep breath, then walks to his side.
"Come take a seat."
"What is all this?" he asks, hands trembling a little as she helps him into the chair.
"You're about to wake up."
"Wake up?"
"It's alright. You'll be okay."
It's all the same; the chair, the trodes, the gadgets, the dials, all the paraphernalia which Nanu now understands, albeit in a rather sketchy way. The phone dials the powerplant, establishing a link to the stream of information being fed to the coppertops. Pirate, at his computer, is searching for the signature code of the red pill Wolf took. When he finds it, he will also find the carrier signal between Wolf and the Matrix source. Then the signal can be broken.
Wolf, in his butchered dentist's chair, is pale.
Back on the ship, Tank will be looking for Wolf's location in the 'plant. The pill will be disrupting his carrier signal, and so will be distorting his connection to the Matrix. Soon his pod, his physical connection to the 'plant, will detect the change, and will send for a drone to remove the faulty battery.
So Tank has to get them out and get to Wolf before he drowns.
A gasp makes her turn around. The boy is staring at the carpet near his feet. She frowns as Neo looks over to her.
"The signal distortion is making him hallucinate."
She nods in understanding, glancing at Trinity's screen where the signals are beginning to waver. As they suddenly swerve sharply away from the norm, Pirate swears in triumph.
"Gotcha!"
Neo hits the speed dial on the cell, "Tank, set up the exit now."
Wolf is struggling, face contorted as he strains against bonds that aren't there. Nanu dares to listen
COLD!
and has to catch at the table for balance. Wolf is beginning to feel signals from his body as the information feed from the Matrix falters.
Trinity hits at keys, her eyes glued to her screen. With a final punch of 'return', she exhales. Nanu looks across the room. Wolf is gone.
Behind the door Neo and Wolf entered through, a phone begins to call for their attention. Neo waves them over to it. "Come on, let's get the hell out of there."
One by one, their illusions dissolve. Pirate, Trinity, then it is Nanu's turn.
She lifts the receiver to her ear, waiting for the connection from her carrier signal to the ship's core to resolve itself. But then, as lies begin to be replaced by truths, she sees something.
A world of lost souls. Like an alternate universe that was spawned by the choices made in this one. Harp strings and feathers and burgundy, a place beyond.
In a bewildering flash of realisation and memory, she sees three people stationed around the room. A boy in a suit lounges against the wall near her, a woman all in white stands at the mantelpiece, and a man with long curly hair is by the bricked up window.
"Mouse," Nanu whispers. The boy is right beside her, he looks up with a start.
"Who are you?"
The woman turns, "Another ghost then."
. . . static . . .
She opens her eyes and they're gone.
"Come on," Achi helps her up. The ship is rumbling, rocking from one side to another as they race for the 'plant. And Wolf.
Nanu feels her stomach lurch. All the horrible wrongness of the evening runs together in a tangled mess, and it constricts her throat. She doesn't throw up, but she does collapse.
***
Pirate and Gavin stand either side of the boy, working quietly. The air is tense, but they both pretend it isn't, passing tools and needles from one to the other like they're the best of friends. There is work to be done, and they cannot afford to have enmity getting in the way.
Nanu hovers in the doorway, fighting a throbbing headache. Metal stings cool under her hands, and she leans her cheek against the steel. She tries to focus on the body within the incubator walls.
Pirate looks up and notices her. After a second, Gavin turns around and smiles softly. But she can tell that the motion is painful for him.
"Can I see Wolf?"
They take a few steps away from the table. She stands straight, takes a breath, then crosses the room.
Wolf is small and frail, bones jutting at sharp angles under his skin. He was never very strong in the Matrix, but at least there had been his hair, soft and faintly curling. Now he's so strangely pale and thin, he hardly seems human.
She places a hand on the edge of the incubator, and listens.
there is a room, scruffy and safe, a little dusty but so undeniably home. The tumble of clothes across the floor, the books piled up on his shelf, all these things are unnoticed by Wolf, for they are permanent fixtures in his life, as regular as the sun's rising . . .
Nanu takes a step back as an onslaught of sorrow and loss swamp over her. A loss of innocence. This child has been torn unknowingly from all that he ever knew, and he was given no warning, no warning.
A brush of contact –
"He'll be okay," Pirate knows what she's crying for. "It was his decision in the end."
She breathes in almost desperately. The tang of sterility slices through the haze, and she forces a smile. "I know."
Left out, Gavin turns away from them, rummaging for something in the cupboard. She wants to say something to him, for him, but Tank knocks on the door and scatters her thoughts again.
"Neo wants to talk to you."
***
Neo is on the bridge, sitting in the right hand seat. BC is cuddled into his lap, she seems to follow him everywhere.
Nanu takes the left hand chair, trying not to give in and cradle her aching head in her hands. "You wanted to see me sir?"
"Yes." He seems distracted, his gaze fixed beyond the window rather than at her. BC turns her head.
. . . Raven . . .
Nanu grips the arm rests. The little girl reads her blatant confusion, and answers in a blurred montage.
. . . feathers, cloud, blue sky sunshine harp strings and velvet . . .
"This is about the other day isn't it?" Nanu asks Neo aloud. "When the squiddies came."
He takes a deep breath, resolving to understand her.
"What happened to you up there?"
"I flew. And I saw Raven, the first one. He was Juno's father, and she was Morph's captain. Juno's who I used to be."
She sees the instinctive scepticism at unproven history flare in his eyes, but presses on as she sees it fade.
"When I saw Raven, it was a memory. Like when that crowd came in the street, Raven was something in my mind the AI used against me. I got dizzy, and everything he kept telling me made me want to just give in and sleep. Become assimilated."
His mouth twists, "Resistance is futile."
She smiles back, just as grim. BC stares solemnly out the window.
"Before I came back, I saw something. Like a world apart from the Matrix, and apart from the real. It's like, choices that weren't made, and every possibility made from the AI hacking their own system. When they change something, we see déjà vu, but this world is like a permanent glitch."
"A world apart?" he frowns.
"A Ghost world. There are people there."
A long silence. Neo breathes slowly, trying to move his next question beyond his mouth.
"Who?"
"Mouse." Other names occur to her, "Apoc and Switch."
He looks down and away. BC leans closer against him, a mortal guardian angel. At length Neo raises his eyes again.
"Could you reach this world again?"
"I think so. When we were in the Lafayette, scouting for a withdrawal point, I got a glimpse of it. That might be where the barrier is weakest."
"Alright then. Tomorrow we'll go in, and see if you can find it."
Her brow furrows, "Why?"
"Like I said the other day, you are important to the AI. It's very possible that they feared you would discover a breach like this."
She begins to shake her head but he cuts her off.
"Like it or not Nanu, you are more powerful than you consider yourself to be. Tomorrow you and I go in, and you'll find this world again. This might just win us the war."
BC closes her eyes.
***