Chapter 2
"Well, he was nothing like what I expected!" Patricia sighed and closed her eyes, trying to change the Matrix to make Country Quilting into Cosmopolitan. "Arrogant, nasty, cold, and totally rude!" When she opened her eyes she realised that she turned it into Playgirl instead. Darting her eyes around to make sure Anne-Marie or Danielle the prude didn't see, she slipped it into her handbag.
"They're not supposed to be nice, Patricia. They're supposed to be efficient." Danielle sat down at her computer and logged Smith's request.
"Well I reckon Mr. Nasty's going to be in for a rude awakening!" Anne- Marie giggled as she emerged with a request from Agent O'Leary in Dublin.
Danielle looked up from her screen. "What do you mean?"
"This came through right before I did his file." Anne-Marie handed a printout to Danielle.
MEMO: From the Mainframe signed Beta-Alpha-Beta-1001010000
TO: All processing officers
Class 1 Urgency
RE: Human Upgrades
All processing officers are required to upload File 0.2014.3 Human
Link along with any documents being sent to requestors. This file is
a patch that will facilitate the necessity of downloading Required
Update Version 3.4 Human Interactions. It has come to our attention
that various Field Operatives have refused to download these Required
Updates and we must thereby necessitate their installation across the
board. Your compliance with this is mandatory.
"So basically you've uploaded a virus into his file that we just sent him?" Danielle raised her eyebrows at her sister.
"Yup. Mainframe orders, sis." Anne-Marie laughed, "Maybe it'll remove the stick from his ass."
Patricia snickered, "Maybe that's all he likes!"
"He wouldn't take your hand, Patti! You might be right!" Anne-Marie started to howl.
"I am sure that Agent Smith was just off put by your approach. You can be terribly forward." Danielle glared at her two sisters. Agent Smith couldn't be gay. Danielle was sure of it. He was just professional and to the point. She admired that. Besides, in a thought that she hoped her sisters wouldn't be privy to, she really hoped he wasn't. He was exceptionally handsome.
"Aw, loosen up, Danni. We heard that little .complement. he paid you on the way out the door." Patricia waggled her long red-tipped finger at her straight-laced sister.
"Probably just that virus you implanted in him taking effect." Danielle turned back to her screen. "I understand why someone like him wouldn't want the human upgrades. It would get in his way."
"Oh, come on! You mean to tell me that if he approached you, you wouldn't jump at the chance?" Anne-Marie flipped off Danielle's screen to get her full attention.
"Agent Smith." Danielle began, trying to compose her thoughts. "He wouldn't approach a woman. And even if he would, he wouldn't approach me. We're below his station. You know this."
"Whatever, Danni. We think you've got a crush on him." Patricia laughed at the blush growing in Danielle's cheeks. "Why else could you be concealing your thoughts from us?" Patti pointed to the com links in each of their ears. Danielle had removed hers and it had been dangling off of her shoulder for the past 45 minutes.
"Because I need to get on with my work and don't need your chatter breaking my concentration!" Danielle flipped her screen back on and tried to get down to business. Anne-Marie flipped it off again and Danielle turned back around, glaring at her fiercely.
"Well, may I advise you to put it back in your ear because we need to be privy to everything you're doing there, sister," Anne-Marie said, less jovially, "Mainframe orders, as you know."
Danielle sighed and reset her earpiece. She turned around again and flipped her screen on. Patricia and Anne-Marie were quiet for once as they resumed their work, except for the occasional Smith joke directed towards Danielle through their comm.
'It's going to be a long afternoon,' Danielle thought to herself.
* * *
The black Lexus silently slid through the city streets. The outdoor noise of pedestrians, traffic and city were completely muted in this fine automobile, giving the three Agents who rode in it a sense of tranquillity. They were on their way to intercept William Thatcher, alias Ibrox, a known hacker who had recently became a resistant target, at his home before Morpheus had a chance to reach him.
"I have been hearing about the sisters who are working in intelligence," Agent Jones said.
"What have you heard?" asked Brown
"Gerald the engineer who works in the basement told me that he spoke to the one called Patricia this morning. She was very beautiful, he said, and 'stacked', whatever that means. But when he found out he was from version 1, she became rude and walked away from him."
"I feel bad for version ones," Brown said. Jones nodded in agreement.
"And what were you doing in the basement that would require a conversation with Gerald, Jones?" Smith asked, regarding his subordinate in the rear- view mirror.
"Well, sir." Jones began, and then paused.
"Yes?" Smith prompted, dragging out the vowels of the word.
"In accordance with the latest updates on human interactions, the Mainframe suggested that we learn to develop relationships."
"So you're developing a relationship with Gerald?" Smith asked, disdainfully.
Jones hesitated and then responded, "Not exactly, sir."
"Then what were you doing there?"
"The Mainframe advised that one of the ways to learn how to relate to people was to first learn how to relate to animals."
Smith was silent. Behind his glasses he rolled his eyes heavenwards.
"What kind of pet do you have, Jones?" Brown asked, interested.
"I have a feline domestics. It's name is Agent Cat. Since we are not allowed homes like other programmes are, I keep it in the basement."
Smith fought the urge to turn around and shoot Jones between the sunglasses. "Why aren't we allowed homes?" Brown asked Smith.
"The Mainframe leaves that decision down to individual agent units. The senior officer decides which is the most appropriate environment for his team to spend their time."
"So you won't let us?" Brown asked, forlorned.
"Because we operate in the centre of one of the busiest Resistant target areas it is not wise to have my team members scattered all over the city cleaning up litter boxes and taking out their garbage when they are needed to clean up more important things."
Smith could hear through his comm. link two simultaneous requests being made for transfers to less active pockets and almost as instantly the denial coming back, screaming bold red letters across all of their brains.
"Now that was stupid, wasn't it?" Smith asked them both. Brown and Jones were silent.
They rode in silence for a few blocks. Brown was the first to speak again. "There are three sisters working in intelligence, aren't there?"
"Three incompetents," Smith mumbled under his breath.
"Why would you say that?" Brown asked.
"I met them."
"What were they like?" Jones asked. He leaned forward, extremely interested.
"Women," Smith said. He signalled to cross a lane of traffic but was cut off by the change of lights. Again he stifled his urge to shoot something.
"What are women like?" said Brown. "I haven't been in contact with many, at least, many non-resistant women."
"Rude, loud, big-haired, lazy, sloppy, gossipy. shall I go on?" Smith edged the car out into traffic.
"Not all women are like that, Smith," Jones said.
At that moment for some reason the image of that other woman appeared in Smith's mind. Not the bimbo, and not the stupid brunette. The blonde with a modicum of intelligence. Danielle, Smith seemed to recall, was her name. The one that he made an ass of himself in front of. He had deleted the files on that experience, not wishing to feel embarrassment if he ever came across her before, or so he thought. Why was he thinking about it now? For some reason the situation started to replay in his mind. He tried issuing commands to make it desist but it was as futile as pressing [CTRL]+[ALT]+[DELETE] on a PC running Windows. He then attempted a self- diagnostic but when the estimated time of completion was over 3 hours, he aborted to do it later. It had been a while since he took the time to defrag himself. The Mainframe recommended that all Agents defrag and run checkself.exe once a week but Smith couldn't be bothered to do it. It smacked him of weakness, which he hated. Only humans were weak.
"Are you going to proceed?" Brown asked him, interrupting his train of thought. He had been sat at the junction for five minutes.
Smith glared out of the corner of his eye at Brown and sent him a little jolt via his earpiece to let him know who was in charge. He barged through traffic aggressively, cutting off oncoming traffic and against the light and proceeded to William Thatcher's apartment.
"Well, he was nothing like what I expected!" Patricia sighed and closed her eyes, trying to change the Matrix to make Country Quilting into Cosmopolitan. "Arrogant, nasty, cold, and totally rude!" When she opened her eyes she realised that she turned it into Playgirl instead. Darting her eyes around to make sure Anne-Marie or Danielle the prude didn't see, she slipped it into her handbag.
"They're not supposed to be nice, Patricia. They're supposed to be efficient." Danielle sat down at her computer and logged Smith's request.
"Well I reckon Mr. Nasty's going to be in for a rude awakening!" Anne- Marie giggled as she emerged with a request from Agent O'Leary in Dublin.
Danielle looked up from her screen. "What do you mean?"
"This came through right before I did his file." Anne-Marie handed a printout to Danielle.
MEMO: From the Mainframe signed Beta-Alpha-Beta-1001010000
TO: All processing officers
Class 1 Urgency
RE: Human Upgrades
All processing officers are required to upload File 0.2014.3 Human
Link along with any documents being sent to requestors. This file is
a patch that will facilitate the necessity of downloading Required
Update Version 3.4 Human Interactions. It has come to our attention
that various Field Operatives have refused to download these Required
Updates and we must thereby necessitate their installation across the
board. Your compliance with this is mandatory.
"So basically you've uploaded a virus into his file that we just sent him?" Danielle raised her eyebrows at her sister.
"Yup. Mainframe orders, sis." Anne-Marie laughed, "Maybe it'll remove the stick from his ass."
Patricia snickered, "Maybe that's all he likes!"
"He wouldn't take your hand, Patti! You might be right!" Anne-Marie started to howl.
"I am sure that Agent Smith was just off put by your approach. You can be terribly forward." Danielle glared at her two sisters. Agent Smith couldn't be gay. Danielle was sure of it. He was just professional and to the point. She admired that. Besides, in a thought that she hoped her sisters wouldn't be privy to, she really hoped he wasn't. He was exceptionally handsome.
"Aw, loosen up, Danni. We heard that little .complement. he paid you on the way out the door." Patricia waggled her long red-tipped finger at her straight-laced sister.
"Probably just that virus you implanted in him taking effect." Danielle turned back to her screen. "I understand why someone like him wouldn't want the human upgrades. It would get in his way."
"Oh, come on! You mean to tell me that if he approached you, you wouldn't jump at the chance?" Anne-Marie flipped off Danielle's screen to get her full attention.
"Agent Smith." Danielle began, trying to compose her thoughts. "He wouldn't approach a woman. And even if he would, he wouldn't approach me. We're below his station. You know this."
"Whatever, Danni. We think you've got a crush on him." Patricia laughed at the blush growing in Danielle's cheeks. "Why else could you be concealing your thoughts from us?" Patti pointed to the com links in each of their ears. Danielle had removed hers and it had been dangling off of her shoulder for the past 45 minutes.
"Because I need to get on with my work and don't need your chatter breaking my concentration!" Danielle flipped her screen back on and tried to get down to business. Anne-Marie flipped it off again and Danielle turned back around, glaring at her fiercely.
"Well, may I advise you to put it back in your ear because we need to be privy to everything you're doing there, sister," Anne-Marie said, less jovially, "Mainframe orders, as you know."
Danielle sighed and reset her earpiece. She turned around again and flipped her screen on. Patricia and Anne-Marie were quiet for once as they resumed their work, except for the occasional Smith joke directed towards Danielle through their comm.
'It's going to be a long afternoon,' Danielle thought to herself.
* * *
The black Lexus silently slid through the city streets. The outdoor noise of pedestrians, traffic and city were completely muted in this fine automobile, giving the three Agents who rode in it a sense of tranquillity. They were on their way to intercept William Thatcher, alias Ibrox, a known hacker who had recently became a resistant target, at his home before Morpheus had a chance to reach him.
"I have been hearing about the sisters who are working in intelligence," Agent Jones said.
"What have you heard?" asked Brown
"Gerald the engineer who works in the basement told me that he spoke to the one called Patricia this morning. She was very beautiful, he said, and 'stacked', whatever that means. But when he found out he was from version 1, she became rude and walked away from him."
"I feel bad for version ones," Brown said. Jones nodded in agreement.
"And what were you doing in the basement that would require a conversation with Gerald, Jones?" Smith asked, regarding his subordinate in the rear- view mirror.
"Well, sir." Jones began, and then paused.
"Yes?" Smith prompted, dragging out the vowels of the word.
"In accordance with the latest updates on human interactions, the Mainframe suggested that we learn to develop relationships."
"So you're developing a relationship with Gerald?" Smith asked, disdainfully.
Jones hesitated and then responded, "Not exactly, sir."
"Then what were you doing there?"
"The Mainframe advised that one of the ways to learn how to relate to people was to first learn how to relate to animals."
Smith was silent. Behind his glasses he rolled his eyes heavenwards.
"What kind of pet do you have, Jones?" Brown asked, interested.
"I have a feline domestics. It's name is Agent Cat. Since we are not allowed homes like other programmes are, I keep it in the basement."
Smith fought the urge to turn around and shoot Jones between the sunglasses. "Why aren't we allowed homes?" Brown asked Smith.
"The Mainframe leaves that decision down to individual agent units. The senior officer decides which is the most appropriate environment for his team to spend their time."
"So you won't let us?" Brown asked, forlorned.
"Because we operate in the centre of one of the busiest Resistant target areas it is not wise to have my team members scattered all over the city cleaning up litter boxes and taking out their garbage when they are needed to clean up more important things."
Smith could hear through his comm. link two simultaneous requests being made for transfers to less active pockets and almost as instantly the denial coming back, screaming bold red letters across all of their brains.
"Now that was stupid, wasn't it?" Smith asked them both. Brown and Jones were silent.
They rode in silence for a few blocks. Brown was the first to speak again. "There are three sisters working in intelligence, aren't there?"
"Three incompetents," Smith mumbled under his breath.
"Why would you say that?" Brown asked.
"I met them."
"What were they like?" Jones asked. He leaned forward, extremely interested.
"Women," Smith said. He signalled to cross a lane of traffic but was cut off by the change of lights. Again he stifled his urge to shoot something.
"What are women like?" said Brown. "I haven't been in contact with many, at least, many non-resistant women."
"Rude, loud, big-haired, lazy, sloppy, gossipy. shall I go on?" Smith edged the car out into traffic.
"Not all women are like that, Smith," Jones said.
At that moment for some reason the image of that other woman appeared in Smith's mind. Not the bimbo, and not the stupid brunette. The blonde with a modicum of intelligence. Danielle, Smith seemed to recall, was her name. The one that he made an ass of himself in front of. He had deleted the files on that experience, not wishing to feel embarrassment if he ever came across her before, or so he thought. Why was he thinking about it now? For some reason the situation started to replay in his mind. He tried issuing commands to make it desist but it was as futile as pressing [CTRL]+[ALT]+[DELETE] on a PC running Windows. He then attempted a self- diagnostic but when the estimated time of completion was over 3 hours, he aborted to do it later. It had been a while since he took the time to defrag himself. The Mainframe recommended that all Agents defrag and run checkself.exe once a week but Smith couldn't be bothered to do it. It smacked him of weakness, which he hated. Only humans were weak.
"Are you going to proceed?" Brown asked him, interrupting his train of thought. He had been sat at the junction for five minutes.
Smith glared out of the corner of his eye at Brown and sent him a little jolt via his earpiece to let him know who was in charge. He barged through traffic aggressively, cutting off oncoming traffic and against the light and proceeded to William Thatcher's apartment.