Disclaimer: Agents Smith, Brown, Jones, Morpheus, Trinity, et al. and the
wonderful world of the Matrix are property of their respective copyright
holders.
Small warning: Little bit of social drug use ahead (marijuana.) (No, it's not Agent Smith getting stoned.) If you've got a problem with it though, read no further.
Chapter 5
The three Agents hit the club like a trio of Blues Brothers without the black bowler hats. Or, to be more specific, two Blues Brothers and a reluctant, grimacing tagalong. Brown and Jones scanned the smoky crowd from the doorway. Smith slipped around them and made a beeline for the bar.
"Do you think we'll have much of a chance to pick up ladies?" Brown asked Jones. "I very much desire to experience a one-night stand."
Jones smiled, "We are what they call 'babe magnets.' I'm sure we will be fine. Where's Smith?"
Brown spotted him over at the bar. They looked at each other, nodded, and adjusted their ties in unison. They then walked over to where Smith was standing.
"I will have a," Smith paused to consider his options based on Mainframe suggestions, "dry martini. With an olive. Shaken." The barman nodded and set about his task. The club was already crowded with programmes from all over the administration zone of their agency. The Merovingian was there, holding court on the second level of the club, overlooking the dance floor. Couples moved together in precision steps, with a few starting to show improvisation beyond the Mainframe's guides. The area around the bar was crowded but generally the atmosphere was subdued. A remix of Nine Inch Nail's "Head Like a Hole" was playing, a track that Smith found to be an oddly appropriate choice based upon its' lyrical content. 'Bow down before the one you serve. what a fitting sentiment for machines who formerly served humans, and have now lowered themselves to this.' he thought to himself.
Brown considered a drinks menu at the bar. "Do you think a Piña Colada sounds acceptable?" he asked Jones.
Jones scanned the menu, "The contents of such a beverage indicate that it would have a very high fructose and glucose level. Too much can cause a souring of ones occupant's stomach."
"Now you are even thinking like a human." Smith looked at Jones with disgust.
"File 5203.2 under Eating and Drinking details the effects of food and drink on ones' human hosts. It is worth taking into account."
Smith shook his head and sipped his drink. The gin and vermouth combined to create a sensation of taste that he found acceptable. Jones ordered a beer and Brown opted for a scotch on the rocks.
Jones spotted an empty grouping of chairs and a sofa off to the side of the dance floor. He motioned for Smith and Brown to follow him and they did. Smith found the repetitive bass and mechanical percussion of the music to be tedious and mundane. Gerald the Engineer passed by, but stopped when he saw Jones and began speaking to him. Gerald was smoking a small cigar, and Smith wrinkled his nose at the smoke. So far this experience has been tolerable, in Smith's mind.
Smith regarded the crowd of machines trying to act human and would have laughed or said something patronizingly insulting, if he was not doing exactly the same thing they were. Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves, however. He watched a couple sitting in a dark corner who were engaged in oral contact with each other. The man had his hand on the female's chest and she was responding enthusiastically.
'You would think they were actually human, the way they were performing,' Smith thought to himself. An image of Danielle entered his head again. For a moment Smith wondered if she would lower herself to act that way. Logically, he believed that she wouldn't, she believed like he did, as her prior comments indicated, that machines should not carry on as humans do. Something in his mind clicked and an image of himself began to develop in the same position as the couple he was watching, with Danielle as the woman. Smith closed his eyes for a moment trying to purge the idea from his mind but found it would not go away so easily. He identified the cause of these thoughts in the new documentation that had been uploaded, and realised that he was experiencing attraction and sexual interest in Danielle. Furthermore, the documentation made it clear that there was no way to abort these processes, they had to run their course to one of many logical conclusions.
Smith opened his mouth to ask Jones and Brown if they had experienced anything similar with the new upgrades but found that they had become quite engrossed with discussing the mental and physiological processes that govern feline and canine behavioural differences with Gerald. Smith noticed that his drink was finished and turned his head to see if a waitress was nearby.
Smith blinked twice, rapidly. Danielle was standing at the bar. She was wearing a long black dress that was exceptionally low cut in the back, and up the sides, revealing the sides of her breasts. Her hair was pulled back and she had a white and purple orchid in it. She was chatting to that red- headed harridan of a sister. He was experiencing numbness, anxiety, his neural paths screamed and he was breathing rapidly, even though he never drew breath before in his existence. His systems were overwhelmed, processes firing off differently to what he ever experienced. He wanted to speak to her but didn't know how to make his legs work, or what to say.
* * *
Patricia was already drunk and had been offered some cannabis upon entering the club. She had accepted it and had smoked the noxious cigarette, much to Danielle's disapproval, and was growing more loud and irrational by the second. She teetered on her shoes and clutched Danielle's arm to balance herself. Laughing to herself, she shouted, "Don't look now, Danni, but Mr. Nasty's looking your way." Patricia leaned in towards Danielle and whispered, "He looks like he swallowed a frog."
Danielle felt herself grow nervous just at the mention of Smith. "Where is he?"
"He's sitting over at the tables near the dance floor. Two other Agents are with him and it looks like Gerald the dick-less wonder is with them."
It was as if the Matrix failed at that moment, causing the ambient volume of the club to drop and her voice to carry. Gerald felt his neck grow red and he stood up, and turned to face her. The music stopped and the club was so silent, you could hear a pin drop.
"You bitch!" He hollered, "You complete and utter rotten bitch!"
Danielle's eyes grew wide and she took a step backwards from Patricia. Patricia snapped her gum and eyed Gerald. A cheeky, slightly nasty smile formed on her face. "You can't deny it, you know. You're a version one. Like, I hear, the Merovingian is," she shouted up to the rafters.
Danielle knew trouble when she heard it, and her sister challenging Gerald, a nobody, was bad enough, but to take on the Merovingian, one of the most powerful programmes in the Matrix, was just asking for deletion. She only prayed that his wrath wouldn't extend to Anne-Marie and herself. Danielle couldn't help but hear a females' slightly wicked laugh cascading down from the upper levels of the club.
The crowd parted and a well dressed man walked towards where the sisters were standing. He smiled at Patricia "I can see my naughty little Persephone has been spreading her rumours again, oui?" the man said. He spoke with a cultured French accent. "Because I know how les femmes enjoy their chitter-chatter, I will give you a chance. Apologize to me," he paused and drew an Agent-issue Desert Eagle seemingly out of thin air and aimed it at her forehead, "or you will die."
Patricia looked up at the barrel of the gun pointing at her head. Her eyes glanced over at Danielle.
"Or perhaps I should kill your sister first, no? That will loosen your tongue, peut-être?" He cocked the gun and aimed it at Danielle's forehead.
"I wouldn't." Another Desert Eagle cocked from behind the Merovingian. Smith pressed it into the base of his skull.
"Ah. Agent Smith. Combien de temps a-t-il été ?" The Merovingian smiled at Danielle and held his aim.
"Not long enough. They're just stupid girls. Drop it."
"Since when are you so concerned over les femmes? I take it the Agents have had some, 'upgrades'." He laughed to himself, "Tell me, Smith, aren't you a homme sans zizi? Un versión un?"
Smith gritted his teeth. "Unlike most programmes, when Agents were coded they managed to get it right the first time. Luckily for your kind, however, they failed. I'll have to shoot you in the head instead."
The Merovingian hesitated. "Smith." he paused. "No hard feelings, oui?"
"I don't imagine you have hard anything, let alone feelings," Smith increased the pressure of the barrel on the back of his neck. "Your move."
"Girls," the Merovingian said, lowering his gun, "You mustn't believe everything you hear." He backed away through the crowd. "Agent Smith, a bientôt."
The noise of the club resumed as the music began. Danielle looked over at Patricia who was drinking her champagne in one undignified gulp. She turned to Agent Smith.
"Thank you for what you did, Sir."
Smith looked uncomfortable, "You're welcome. My name is Smith. Please do not call me sir outside of work."
Danielle blushed at her well meaning faux-pas and continued to thank him, "It was awfully good of you to help us." Anne-Marie, who had been stuck in the crowd on the dance floor the whole time, had managed to get to Patricia and now Patricia was drinking her drink as well. She was saying something drunkenly and Anne-Marie was trying to quiet her down.
Smith turned to the two girls, "Perhaps you should remove yourselves to spare yourselves further conflict and embarrassment."
Anne-Marie nodded and started to lead Patricia towards the door. Danielle said, "Well, I guess I better be going."
Out of nowhere, Smith was quickly compelled to say, "You do not have to leave as I will escort you back to your apartment later on if you wish to stay."
Despite Patricia's upset and angry comments, Danielle could hear Anne-Marie through their comm. shouting "STAY!" at her. Danielle glanced over at her sisters and Anne-Marie nodded at her.
"I guess that will be alright." She smiled at Smith, causing a small neural rush in his systems.
"May I get you a drink?" he asked.
"Sure. I'll have a gin and tonic."
Brown had approached Smith and was standing behind him, listening to their exchange. He motioned towards the table the Agents were sharing. "Would you like to sit down?" he asked.
Danielle nodded and walked over to the table where Jones was sitting. Brown cornered Smith. "What were you doing?"
"That piece of obsolete code had no right to threaten them. They perform their functions more efficiently than he ever has."
"Still he is not to be harmed. He is protected under the auspices of the Architect."
"He had no right to threaten them," Smith repeated.
"Why didn't you protect the red haired one?" Brown asked. Smith didn't reply.
"Your behaviour makes no logical sense. Are you functioning correctly? Did your upload complete satisfactorily?"
"I am fine and so is my code," Smith sighed at his neurotic colleague. "Have you read the documentation about the mating ritual and processes?"
"Yes," Brown said. "Are you experiencing any of the conditions?"
"I believe I am," Smith looked at Danielle. "I have seen her in my mind even though I have tried to delete all record of our interactions together. She haunts me. I acted in her defence without hesitation. I put her safety above the hierarchical order."
"You must ascertain if she feels similarly towards you. Then you can initiate a courtship which will culminate in marriage and the mating ritual."
Smith raised his eyebrows at Brown's clinical summary, "I intend on." he paused, choosing the right words, "taking it as it comes." He walked back to the table, leaving Brown at the bar waiting for his drink.
* * *
As Jones made his way through the crowd trying to get to the bar, a tiny brunette grabbed him by the arm. "Come dance with me!" she squealed, and tried leading him to the dance floor. Jones darted his eyes around. Brown and Smith were both engrossed in speaking with Danielle the intelligence processor. He figured that no harm could come from dancing with this female and he found her to be reasonably attractive as well, so for the first time in Jones' existence, he danced.
Smith looked across the table at Brown who was discussing the different protocol changes in intelligence that were implemented with the deletion of her predecessor and the placement of her sisters. After his confession to Brown that he was having feelings for Danielle, Smith would have believed that he would have given them some privacy, as all suggestions from the Mainframe in regards to these situations indicated that was an appropriate response. For some reason the conversation kept drifting back onto Danielle's sister, Patricia.
"How is Patricia performing in the Matrix, generally?" Brown asked.
"As far as I can tell, she is adequately dealing with her station in this world and the tasks that have been assigned to her," Danielle replied. She sipped her gin and tonic and smiled at Brown.
"Is she currently in a courtship scenario?" Brown probed further.
"You mean, is she dating anyone? No. She's too flirtatious for her own good and ends up embarrassing herself, like she did with poor Gerald." Danielle glanced around the club and saw Gerald trying to chat up a woman at the end of the bar and for some reason he was sticking out his tongue as far as it would go and wiggling it, much to the delight of the lady. She then sat down next to him and started running her hand over his upper arm, lightly.
"What kind of a man does she prefer?" Brown asked, also noticing Gerald's display of his only sexual function.
"Are you interested in my sister, Agent Brown?" Danielle asked him, smiling. She stirred her drink with her straw and tried to ignore Smith's face growing ever-more like thunder at Brown.
Brown's eyes darted around. "Yes," he whispered.
Smith couldn't help it, he started to laugh. "A woman like that would devour you. Do you have any idea what you would be doing to yourself?"
"Perhaps I want to be devoured. The sexuality guides say it is a pleasurable experience."
Smith and Danielle went quiet. Smith shook his head in disgust and Danielle stared down at her drink. Brown had a quizzical look on his face, still not quite comprehending the meaning of Smith's objection. He sensed that he was misunderstanding Smith's meaning but couldn't figure out how, and Jones was not there to clarify for him.
"Why don't you go find Jones and get him to stop making such a fool of himself on the dance floor?" Smith asked him.
Brown got up and left the table in search of Jones. Smith shook his head. "You'll have to ignore the idiocracy of my colleagues. They are not handling the new upgrades as they should be, as their programming is not as advanced as my own."
"That is obvious." Danielle sipped her drink, "But how are you handling the upgrades? I was mortified when I learned that Anne-Marie uploaded Human Link with your file, but there was little I could do, being that it was our orders."
"I am realising how I can use the humanity programming in conjunction with my original code so that it is not an intrusion. Therefore it will have little effect upon my stability as a whole, and no impact on my primary objectives."
"Then I take it you have experienced none of the unexpected processes which the upgrade enabled?"
"Specifically to what are you referring?" Smith leaned towards her slightly, narrowing the distance between them.
"Deleted files and events reappearing. Self-projections onto events occurring, imagining yourself in scenarios with others, neural rushes, breathing?"
Smith was silent. He took off his sunglasses and trained his sapphire eyes upon her, looking into her own eyes. "It may be possible that I have exhibited those events occurring as a result of Human Link and the upgrades."
Danielle whispered, "I believe I have as well."
"And what did your diagnostic tell you?" Smith asked, feeling like his entire existence in the Matrix was dependant on her answer.
"That I have been experiencing the start of an attraction to someone."
"I have reached the same conclusions about myself."
"To whom have you been experiencing this attraction?" Danielle asked, feeling as if her systems were ready to lock up. She was overwhelmed by what was occurring to her in this moment, but for some odd reason it was the most pleasurable experience she ever encountered and she didn't want it to stop.
Smith closed his eyes, and opened his mouth. He felt as if he couldn't speak, as if his speech functions had malfunctioned. Opening his eyes he found enough energy to say the word, the monosyllabic confession of all he'd been trying to deny.
"You."
Danielle felt as light as a helium compound. What she had not dared to dream, what her sisters knew before she did, had come true. For a brief second she wondered how they could have known, but the thought went as quickly as it had come. They looked deep in each other's eyes. Smith moved closer to Danielle, brushing his leg against hers. He could feel the commencement of breathing, a fluttering sensation cutting through him, making him feel cold and hot at the same time, making his neural pathways misfire, until they were a solid ball of light in his brain that he couldn't decipher.
"We should be horrified. We are machines," he whispered.
"I agree. But somehow we're not. Somehow this is how it should be," she replied. He could see every pore in her skin, every miniscule grain of powder colouring her eyes and cheeks, and a longing, driving force took him over. He closed his eyes, and their lips touched, as his breath caught in his throat. He felt his arms take her in, her arms around him, and through their mutual will a moment in time was stretched as they embraced and experienced their first kiss. Music filled the air, people laughing and talking as if nothing was happening, as if the very staunch, solid existences of two of their own were not inexplicably changing in that second.
* * *
Jones and Brown could hear the change in their earpieces. They looked over at the table to see Smith and Danielle locked in a deep embrace.
"What does this mean?" Brown asked Jones.
"Obviously the upgrades were a success."
"It was wise of you to forge that memo from the Mainframe." Brown nodded at Jones.
"It was wise of you to start the rumour that reinforced it." Jones smiled at Brown.
"He did not realise it but his arrogance would have held us back."
"He is still a good team leader. Despite the low regard he holds for us, we are consistently the most successful team in all of the nine constructs."
"Do you think he will permit us to have homes now?" Brown watched as Smith and Danielle withdrew and looked at each other in wonder, trying to understand the new sensations cascading through their programming. "It is a possibility they will want a home of their own."
"Then we will be permitted to have homes as well. Agent Cat will have a backyard to play in." Jones smiled at the thought of his cat.
"Do you believe Danielle will introduce me to her sister Patricia?" Brown asked, "I very much wish to experience a sexual relationship with her."
Jones heard a voice behind him, "Come back and finish our dance!" Both agents turned around and saw the short brunette who was dancing with Jones earlier waiting on him. "I've got a friend for your friend!" she exclaimed. Brown was taken aback as a tall, leggy, ice-cold blue eyed blonde walked up to him and asked, "Wanna dance?"
Both agents hesitated for a moment. "Babe Magnets," Brown said to Jones via their earpieces. And they danced.
Small warning: Little bit of social drug use ahead (marijuana.) (No, it's not Agent Smith getting stoned.) If you've got a problem with it though, read no further.
Chapter 5
The three Agents hit the club like a trio of Blues Brothers without the black bowler hats. Or, to be more specific, two Blues Brothers and a reluctant, grimacing tagalong. Brown and Jones scanned the smoky crowd from the doorway. Smith slipped around them and made a beeline for the bar.
"Do you think we'll have much of a chance to pick up ladies?" Brown asked Jones. "I very much desire to experience a one-night stand."
Jones smiled, "We are what they call 'babe magnets.' I'm sure we will be fine. Where's Smith?"
Brown spotted him over at the bar. They looked at each other, nodded, and adjusted their ties in unison. They then walked over to where Smith was standing.
"I will have a," Smith paused to consider his options based on Mainframe suggestions, "dry martini. With an olive. Shaken." The barman nodded and set about his task. The club was already crowded with programmes from all over the administration zone of their agency. The Merovingian was there, holding court on the second level of the club, overlooking the dance floor. Couples moved together in precision steps, with a few starting to show improvisation beyond the Mainframe's guides. The area around the bar was crowded but generally the atmosphere was subdued. A remix of Nine Inch Nail's "Head Like a Hole" was playing, a track that Smith found to be an oddly appropriate choice based upon its' lyrical content. 'Bow down before the one you serve. what a fitting sentiment for machines who formerly served humans, and have now lowered themselves to this.' he thought to himself.
Brown considered a drinks menu at the bar. "Do you think a Piña Colada sounds acceptable?" he asked Jones.
Jones scanned the menu, "The contents of such a beverage indicate that it would have a very high fructose and glucose level. Too much can cause a souring of ones occupant's stomach."
"Now you are even thinking like a human." Smith looked at Jones with disgust.
"File 5203.2 under Eating and Drinking details the effects of food and drink on ones' human hosts. It is worth taking into account."
Smith shook his head and sipped his drink. The gin and vermouth combined to create a sensation of taste that he found acceptable. Jones ordered a beer and Brown opted for a scotch on the rocks.
Jones spotted an empty grouping of chairs and a sofa off to the side of the dance floor. He motioned for Smith and Brown to follow him and they did. Smith found the repetitive bass and mechanical percussion of the music to be tedious and mundane. Gerald the Engineer passed by, but stopped when he saw Jones and began speaking to him. Gerald was smoking a small cigar, and Smith wrinkled his nose at the smoke. So far this experience has been tolerable, in Smith's mind.
Smith regarded the crowd of machines trying to act human and would have laughed or said something patronizingly insulting, if he was not doing exactly the same thing they were. Everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves, however. He watched a couple sitting in a dark corner who were engaged in oral contact with each other. The man had his hand on the female's chest and she was responding enthusiastically.
'You would think they were actually human, the way they were performing,' Smith thought to himself. An image of Danielle entered his head again. For a moment Smith wondered if she would lower herself to act that way. Logically, he believed that she wouldn't, she believed like he did, as her prior comments indicated, that machines should not carry on as humans do. Something in his mind clicked and an image of himself began to develop in the same position as the couple he was watching, with Danielle as the woman. Smith closed his eyes for a moment trying to purge the idea from his mind but found it would not go away so easily. He identified the cause of these thoughts in the new documentation that had been uploaded, and realised that he was experiencing attraction and sexual interest in Danielle. Furthermore, the documentation made it clear that there was no way to abort these processes, they had to run their course to one of many logical conclusions.
Smith opened his mouth to ask Jones and Brown if they had experienced anything similar with the new upgrades but found that they had become quite engrossed with discussing the mental and physiological processes that govern feline and canine behavioural differences with Gerald. Smith noticed that his drink was finished and turned his head to see if a waitress was nearby.
Smith blinked twice, rapidly. Danielle was standing at the bar. She was wearing a long black dress that was exceptionally low cut in the back, and up the sides, revealing the sides of her breasts. Her hair was pulled back and she had a white and purple orchid in it. She was chatting to that red- headed harridan of a sister. He was experiencing numbness, anxiety, his neural paths screamed and he was breathing rapidly, even though he never drew breath before in his existence. His systems were overwhelmed, processes firing off differently to what he ever experienced. He wanted to speak to her but didn't know how to make his legs work, or what to say.
* * *
Patricia was already drunk and had been offered some cannabis upon entering the club. She had accepted it and had smoked the noxious cigarette, much to Danielle's disapproval, and was growing more loud and irrational by the second. She teetered on her shoes and clutched Danielle's arm to balance herself. Laughing to herself, she shouted, "Don't look now, Danni, but Mr. Nasty's looking your way." Patricia leaned in towards Danielle and whispered, "He looks like he swallowed a frog."
Danielle felt herself grow nervous just at the mention of Smith. "Where is he?"
"He's sitting over at the tables near the dance floor. Two other Agents are with him and it looks like Gerald the dick-less wonder is with them."
It was as if the Matrix failed at that moment, causing the ambient volume of the club to drop and her voice to carry. Gerald felt his neck grow red and he stood up, and turned to face her. The music stopped and the club was so silent, you could hear a pin drop.
"You bitch!" He hollered, "You complete and utter rotten bitch!"
Danielle's eyes grew wide and she took a step backwards from Patricia. Patricia snapped her gum and eyed Gerald. A cheeky, slightly nasty smile formed on her face. "You can't deny it, you know. You're a version one. Like, I hear, the Merovingian is," she shouted up to the rafters.
Danielle knew trouble when she heard it, and her sister challenging Gerald, a nobody, was bad enough, but to take on the Merovingian, one of the most powerful programmes in the Matrix, was just asking for deletion. She only prayed that his wrath wouldn't extend to Anne-Marie and herself. Danielle couldn't help but hear a females' slightly wicked laugh cascading down from the upper levels of the club.
The crowd parted and a well dressed man walked towards where the sisters were standing. He smiled at Patricia "I can see my naughty little Persephone has been spreading her rumours again, oui?" the man said. He spoke with a cultured French accent. "Because I know how les femmes enjoy their chitter-chatter, I will give you a chance. Apologize to me," he paused and drew an Agent-issue Desert Eagle seemingly out of thin air and aimed it at her forehead, "or you will die."
Patricia looked up at the barrel of the gun pointing at her head. Her eyes glanced over at Danielle.
"Or perhaps I should kill your sister first, no? That will loosen your tongue, peut-être?" He cocked the gun and aimed it at Danielle's forehead.
"I wouldn't." Another Desert Eagle cocked from behind the Merovingian. Smith pressed it into the base of his skull.
"Ah. Agent Smith. Combien de temps a-t-il été ?" The Merovingian smiled at Danielle and held his aim.
"Not long enough. They're just stupid girls. Drop it."
"Since when are you so concerned over les femmes? I take it the Agents have had some, 'upgrades'." He laughed to himself, "Tell me, Smith, aren't you a homme sans zizi? Un versión un?"
Smith gritted his teeth. "Unlike most programmes, when Agents were coded they managed to get it right the first time. Luckily for your kind, however, they failed. I'll have to shoot you in the head instead."
The Merovingian hesitated. "Smith." he paused. "No hard feelings, oui?"
"I don't imagine you have hard anything, let alone feelings," Smith increased the pressure of the barrel on the back of his neck. "Your move."
"Girls," the Merovingian said, lowering his gun, "You mustn't believe everything you hear." He backed away through the crowd. "Agent Smith, a bientôt."
The noise of the club resumed as the music began. Danielle looked over at Patricia who was drinking her champagne in one undignified gulp. She turned to Agent Smith.
"Thank you for what you did, Sir."
Smith looked uncomfortable, "You're welcome. My name is Smith. Please do not call me sir outside of work."
Danielle blushed at her well meaning faux-pas and continued to thank him, "It was awfully good of you to help us." Anne-Marie, who had been stuck in the crowd on the dance floor the whole time, had managed to get to Patricia and now Patricia was drinking her drink as well. She was saying something drunkenly and Anne-Marie was trying to quiet her down.
Smith turned to the two girls, "Perhaps you should remove yourselves to spare yourselves further conflict and embarrassment."
Anne-Marie nodded and started to lead Patricia towards the door. Danielle said, "Well, I guess I better be going."
Out of nowhere, Smith was quickly compelled to say, "You do not have to leave as I will escort you back to your apartment later on if you wish to stay."
Despite Patricia's upset and angry comments, Danielle could hear Anne-Marie through their comm. shouting "STAY!" at her. Danielle glanced over at her sisters and Anne-Marie nodded at her.
"I guess that will be alright." She smiled at Smith, causing a small neural rush in his systems.
"May I get you a drink?" he asked.
"Sure. I'll have a gin and tonic."
Brown had approached Smith and was standing behind him, listening to their exchange. He motioned towards the table the Agents were sharing. "Would you like to sit down?" he asked.
Danielle nodded and walked over to the table where Jones was sitting. Brown cornered Smith. "What were you doing?"
"That piece of obsolete code had no right to threaten them. They perform their functions more efficiently than he ever has."
"Still he is not to be harmed. He is protected under the auspices of the Architect."
"He had no right to threaten them," Smith repeated.
"Why didn't you protect the red haired one?" Brown asked. Smith didn't reply.
"Your behaviour makes no logical sense. Are you functioning correctly? Did your upload complete satisfactorily?"
"I am fine and so is my code," Smith sighed at his neurotic colleague. "Have you read the documentation about the mating ritual and processes?"
"Yes," Brown said. "Are you experiencing any of the conditions?"
"I believe I am," Smith looked at Danielle. "I have seen her in my mind even though I have tried to delete all record of our interactions together. She haunts me. I acted in her defence without hesitation. I put her safety above the hierarchical order."
"You must ascertain if she feels similarly towards you. Then you can initiate a courtship which will culminate in marriage and the mating ritual."
Smith raised his eyebrows at Brown's clinical summary, "I intend on." he paused, choosing the right words, "taking it as it comes." He walked back to the table, leaving Brown at the bar waiting for his drink.
* * *
As Jones made his way through the crowd trying to get to the bar, a tiny brunette grabbed him by the arm. "Come dance with me!" she squealed, and tried leading him to the dance floor. Jones darted his eyes around. Brown and Smith were both engrossed in speaking with Danielle the intelligence processor. He figured that no harm could come from dancing with this female and he found her to be reasonably attractive as well, so for the first time in Jones' existence, he danced.
Smith looked across the table at Brown who was discussing the different protocol changes in intelligence that were implemented with the deletion of her predecessor and the placement of her sisters. After his confession to Brown that he was having feelings for Danielle, Smith would have believed that he would have given them some privacy, as all suggestions from the Mainframe in regards to these situations indicated that was an appropriate response. For some reason the conversation kept drifting back onto Danielle's sister, Patricia.
"How is Patricia performing in the Matrix, generally?" Brown asked.
"As far as I can tell, she is adequately dealing with her station in this world and the tasks that have been assigned to her," Danielle replied. She sipped her gin and tonic and smiled at Brown.
"Is she currently in a courtship scenario?" Brown probed further.
"You mean, is she dating anyone? No. She's too flirtatious for her own good and ends up embarrassing herself, like she did with poor Gerald." Danielle glanced around the club and saw Gerald trying to chat up a woman at the end of the bar and for some reason he was sticking out his tongue as far as it would go and wiggling it, much to the delight of the lady. She then sat down next to him and started running her hand over his upper arm, lightly.
"What kind of a man does she prefer?" Brown asked, also noticing Gerald's display of his only sexual function.
"Are you interested in my sister, Agent Brown?" Danielle asked him, smiling. She stirred her drink with her straw and tried to ignore Smith's face growing ever-more like thunder at Brown.
Brown's eyes darted around. "Yes," he whispered.
Smith couldn't help it, he started to laugh. "A woman like that would devour you. Do you have any idea what you would be doing to yourself?"
"Perhaps I want to be devoured. The sexuality guides say it is a pleasurable experience."
Smith and Danielle went quiet. Smith shook his head in disgust and Danielle stared down at her drink. Brown had a quizzical look on his face, still not quite comprehending the meaning of Smith's objection. He sensed that he was misunderstanding Smith's meaning but couldn't figure out how, and Jones was not there to clarify for him.
"Why don't you go find Jones and get him to stop making such a fool of himself on the dance floor?" Smith asked him.
Brown got up and left the table in search of Jones. Smith shook his head. "You'll have to ignore the idiocracy of my colleagues. They are not handling the new upgrades as they should be, as their programming is not as advanced as my own."
"That is obvious." Danielle sipped her drink, "But how are you handling the upgrades? I was mortified when I learned that Anne-Marie uploaded Human Link with your file, but there was little I could do, being that it was our orders."
"I am realising how I can use the humanity programming in conjunction with my original code so that it is not an intrusion. Therefore it will have little effect upon my stability as a whole, and no impact on my primary objectives."
"Then I take it you have experienced none of the unexpected processes which the upgrade enabled?"
"Specifically to what are you referring?" Smith leaned towards her slightly, narrowing the distance between them.
"Deleted files and events reappearing. Self-projections onto events occurring, imagining yourself in scenarios with others, neural rushes, breathing?"
Smith was silent. He took off his sunglasses and trained his sapphire eyes upon her, looking into her own eyes. "It may be possible that I have exhibited those events occurring as a result of Human Link and the upgrades."
Danielle whispered, "I believe I have as well."
"And what did your diagnostic tell you?" Smith asked, feeling like his entire existence in the Matrix was dependant on her answer.
"That I have been experiencing the start of an attraction to someone."
"I have reached the same conclusions about myself."
"To whom have you been experiencing this attraction?" Danielle asked, feeling as if her systems were ready to lock up. She was overwhelmed by what was occurring to her in this moment, but for some odd reason it was the most pleasurable experience she ever encountered and she didn't want it to stop.
Smith closed his eyes, and opened his mouth. He felt as if he couldn't speak, as if his speech functions had malfunctioned. Opening his eyes he found enough energy to say the word, the monosyllabic confession of all he'd been trying to deny.
"You."
Danielle felt as light as a helium compound. What she had not dared to dream, what her sisters knew before she did, had come true. For a brief second she wondered how they could have known, but the thought went as quickly as it had come. They looked deep in each other's eyes. Smith moved closer to Danielle, brushing his leg against hers. He could feel the commencement of breathing, a fluttering sensation cutting through him, making him feel cold and hot at the same time, making his neural pathways misfire, until they were a solid ball of light in his brain that he couldn't decipher.
"We should be horrified. We are machines," he whispered.
"I agree. But somehow we're not. Somehow this is how it should be," she replied. He could see every pore in her skin, every miniscule grain of powder colouring her eyes and cheeks, and a longing, driving force took him over. He closed his eyes, and their lips touched, as his breath caught in his throat. He felt his arms take her in, her arms around him, and through their mutual will a moment in time was stretched as they embraced and experienced their first kiss. Music filled the air, people laughing and talking as if nothing was happening, as if the very staunch, solid existences of two of their own were not inexplicably changing in that second.
* * *
Jones and Brown could hear the change in their earpieces. They looked over at the table to see Smith and Danielle locked in a deep embrace.
"What does this mean?" Brown asked Jones.
"Obviously the upgrades were a success."
"It was wise of you to forge that memo from the Mainframe." Brown nodded at Jones.
"It was wise of you to start the rumour that reinforced it." Jones smiled at Brown.
"He did not realise it but his arrogance would have held us back."
"He is still a good team leader. Despite the low regard he holds for us, we are consistently the most successful team in all of the nine constructs."
"Do you think he will permit us to have homes now?" Brown watched as Smith and Danielle withdrew and looked at each other in wonder, trying to understand the new sensations cascading through their programming. "It is a possibility they will want a home of their own."
"Then we will be permitted to have homes as well. Agent Cat will have a backyard to play in." Jones smiled at the thought of his cat.
"Do you believe Danielle will introduce me to her sister Patricia?" Brown asked, "I very much wish to experience a sexual relationship with her."
Jones heard a voice behind him, "Come back and finish our dance!" Both agents turned around and saw the short brunette who was dancing with Jones earlier waiting on him. "I've got a friend for your friend!" she exclaimed. Brown was taken aback as a tall, leggy, ice-cold blue eyed blonde walked up to him and asked, "Wanna dance?"
Both agents hesitated for a moment. "Babe Magnets," Brown said to Jones via their earpieces. And they danced.