Chapter 6
Trinity and Morpheus sat across from each other as they steered the Nebuchadnezzar through the old sewer lines of the real world. They were hoping to avoid Sentinels, as their last trip up to broadcast level when they rescued Ibrox from the Agents had seen an increased presence of Sentinels on patrol, presumably a present from the Agents in retribution for sabotaging their objective.
"When do you think it will be safe to go back in to free him?" Trinity asked.
"He is safe with the Oracle for the time being unless we receive a message otherwise."
"What do you think happened to our informant?" Trinity gently steered the Nebuchadnezzar around some scrap metal littering the sewer.
"We can only assume the Agents found her and eliminated her. They spy on their own as much as they do us."
"Who do we have left?" Trinity asked.
"Not very many now. Just the other day we lost an engineer in the European construct who was monitoring Agent scanning patterns. That one agent, Smith, he is like a dog with a bone. They say he was the first Agent, a prototype for all of the others. Some say that the machines realised they made him too intelligent and autonomous and so created the others to be more subservient and less intelligent." Morpheus winced as the Neb scraped a thruster against the side wall.
"Why would they want to do that?"
"Machine arrogance. Even a stupid machine is smarter than a human, so they reason. But a smart machine, like Smith, would be a threat to take over the Matrix itself."
"Why don't they just disassemble him?" Trinity paused to scan for other electromagnetic devices in the vicinity.
"He's too valuable. They keep him busy scanning for informants within the Matrix, monitoring rebel activity, and they find jobs for him to do when he's not chasing rebels. The engineer in Europe's last report was that the Mainframe was updating Agency programmes with advanced human emotions and techniques. One can assume they would use these as a control and diversion to distract their more intelligent programmes like him to keep them from hatching insurrection plans."
The scan came back clear and Trinity proceeded through a junction. "What would happen if someone like Smith were to take over?"
"I don't know, Trinity. I can only assume it would be bad though."
Just then, Cypher poked his head through the door, "Where are we headed, boss?"
"We're headed south, towards the old Mexican gateway. We can only hope the Sentinels aren't patrolling as much there. We'll try to get Ibrox out again once we get there."
"How long do you, ah, think it will take?" Cypher scratched his neck and leaned against the doorway as he scratched his chest through the tattered mesh sweater.
"About three or four days, depending on the traffic we encounter," Trinity said.
"Cypher, why don't you go ahead and start running a diagnostic on our enter and exit patterns. See if there's a way we can randomize it, so the Agents can't find our position when we go in." said Morpheus
"It's already good, though. They're hardly ever are waiting for us on materialization anymore," Cypher protested.
"See if you can make it better. I want the risk reduced to zero."
"Right away, boss." Cypher rolled his eyes at the back of Morpheus's bald head. He stomped back down through the corridors of the Neb.
Trinity and Morpheus looked at each other and shook their heads. Just then a bleep emitted from the intercom to the left of Morpheus.
"Go ahead, Tank," Morpheus said, flipping on the two-way.
"Sir, we've just had a transmission from Zion. The Sentinels are increasing their presence there and all ships have been requested to return to help defend against the increased threat."
Morpheus sighed. Ibrox would have to wait. "Message them back, Tank. We're on our way."
Trinity shook her head and turned the Hovercraft around gently, to take it home.
* * *
The bell rang at the front desk of the intelligence office. Danielle looked at her sister Patricia who had her head down on the counter, asleep. While Danielle was unsure if programmes could get hangovers, Patricia was pretending very effectively that she had one. Anne-Marie was buried up in some rafters somewhere deep in the files. "Get that for us, Danni!" she screamed from out of nowhere.
Danielle put her mental replay of last night on hold and walked through an aisle of files. She stopped when she saw Smith waiting on the other side of the counter. A huge smile, involuntarily spread over her face.
Smith raised his eyebrows and smiled back. "How are you today?" he asked.
"Can't complain," she giggled. She leaned against the counter and looked at him. Using his index finger, he raised her chin up and kissed her gently.
"Who is it?" Anne-Marie shouted as she ran through the files. As she entered the reception she caught sight of Smith and Danielle kissing and stopped abruptly, regretting her actions. She went to back up quickly but the moment was broken. Smith broke the kiss and cleared his throat. Danielle smoothed her jacket and looked guilty.
"Uh, sorry. I'll just, uh, leave you two alone." Anne-Marie stuttered.
"Please do," growled Smith. "This is of a personal matter."
"So I can see," Anne-Marie said, getting a bit bolder. "You know, I am her sister. You could try being a bit more pleasant towards me."
"Anne-Marie," Danielle began, "I'm sure that he"
Smith interrupted her, "I apologize if I was rude. Will you go now?"
"That's marginally better." Anne-Marie looked at Danielle, "Work on his people skills, won't you?"
"My skills with people involve interrogation, manipulation and termination. In those areas I am quite skilled. Would you like a demonstration?" Smith half-smiled at his clever turn of words.
"Uh, no that's alright," Anne-Marie said.
"I do not need to have an advanced grip of the social niceties that you are referring to. Up until now, neither did any machine." Smith glared at Anne-Marie from behind his sunglasses.
"Well now you do. Mainframe orders. Get over it, Mr. Nasty. Read more of the Social file on 'Manners and Politeness'."
Smith turned to Danielle, "Is she necessary to the performance of your job or can I eliminate her?"
Danielle started to laugh and Smith smiled. Anne-Marie missed his version of a joke completely. She walked away shaking her head.
"So," Smith began, "What are you doing this evening?"
"Processing new updates of the files." Danielle smiled at him. "What are you doing?"
"Monitoring resistant activity." He tucked a stray strand of her hair behind her ear and smiled at her. "Are your sisters going to be working late as well?"
"No. Patricia is pretending like she is experiencing a hangover and I imagine will want to go home soon. Anne-Marie has started dating a encryption cracker and I believe they are going to see a film tonight. What are Jones and Brown doing this evening?"
"Jones is taking his stupid cat to some sort of animal socialization course. Brown is seeing a woman named Barbara whom he met last night while they were dancing."
"So you'll be alone upstairs?" she asked. Smith nodded and raised his eyebrows, "And you'll be alone down here?" Danielle grinned. "Yes. Very, very alone."
"Would you like to work together then?" Smith asked. "I can get a computer put in my office for you to do your updates."
"That would be lovely," said Danielle. "We will," she paused and ran her fingers up his tie and snaked them around his neck, pulling him close to her, "work together," she murmured. Their lips met again, and at that moment, Smith was able to identify the word for what he was experiencing: passion.
They looked in each other's eyes for a long moment of time, until Patricia's shrill voice broke the moment. "Danielle!" she bellowed from the depths of the file room, "Get me a glass of" and then the words sounded muffled and strained.
Danielle looked concerned for a moment. "Don't worry," Smith said, smiling "I just melted her mouth. The effect should end within a few minutes unless you wish me to make it permanent."
Danielle started to shake with laughter. Smith smiled, and then turned to leave. "See you later," he said. Danielle winked at him and went to fetch Patricia's water.
* * *
[/f *.* dir] [dir:
Social Nutrition Customs Holidays Cultures]
[open /Social.dir]
[Social.dir]
[*.*dir] [dir:
Events Behaviours Manners Sexuality]
[open sexuality.dir]
[sexuality.dir] [open mating and courtship.doc]
The Mainframe Guide to Mating and Courtship
Compiled by Agency Research Lab 3, North American Matrix Construct:
New York (Team 0.0405932)
Applicable Constructs: North America, South America, European, South
Pacific
Constructs: Asia, Russia, Middle East, Africa, Rest of World should
consult locale-specific guidelines prepared by regional Agency.
Chapter 1: So, you're experiencing an attraction.
Chapter 2: Ascertaining the feelings of the opposite sex
Chapter 3: Appropriate conversational "icebreakers"
Chapter 3a: Worksheet of "icebreakers"
Chapter 4: Plan B: When your "icebreakers" fail
Chapter 5: Plan C: When all else fails, make a fool of yourself.
Chapter 6: Explaining Physical Contact
Chapter 6a: Worksheet of appropriate physical contact vs. non-
appropriate physical contact
Chapter 7: Dating: Good dates vs. Bad Dates and what consists of them.
Chapter 8: How to establish, and gain sexual experience
Chapter 8a: Machine reproduction and the difference between human
reproduction (Important Information: Mandatory Reading)
Chapter 9: Ready to settle down? Marriage.
Chapter 10: The Happily Ever After in the Matrix
Chapter 11: Starting over: Divorce Information
Appendix 1: Romantic music
The Mainframe Guide to Mating and Courtship cross-links to all files
on drive f:/ Full access is needed to all files.
Smith decided that he would skip ahead to Chapter 7. He smiled to himself and opened the file on Good Dates vs. Bad Dates. Skimming ahead through the irrelevant information, he found the section that was most applicable to his situation.
Quiet Nights In.
You have decided to have a quiet night in the privacy of your own
dwelling. The first thing you must ensure is that your dwelling is
tidy and conducive to your significant other's comfort.
Smith analysed the surfaces of the office. The chrome was sparkling, the windows were clean, the janitor had finally managed to remove all of the bloodstains from the last person they had in for questioning. Beyond Smith's large desk and black leather chair, there was only a table in the far corner of the room, and a single, uncomfortable steel interrogation chair sitting against the back wall. Smith created a black leather sofa, another desk with computer terminal and leather chair to match his, a floor rug to match the décor, and a small refrigerator, chrome, from which he could offer her a drink from.
Decide upon appropriate entertainment for the evening. Music, soft
lighting, a movie, a game, or an open fire are all good possibilities.
It is not a good idea to discuss or do work in great lengths, nor is
it to just expect physical contact and not plan for any sort of
diversion to create a jovial mood.
Smith was going to delete the computer but he thought that, since that was what she said she was coming up for, that it might be alright. He tried softening the fluorescent lighting of the large office but when he established that an annoying visual flicker occurred, he created some floor lamps to set at points around the office to provide dimmer, more natural lighting. The idea of an open fire intrigued him. He created a partition through the office and placed a fireplace in the centre, creating a beautiful crackling and roaring fire in it as he did.
Smith then decided to pipe music through the speakers in his office that were normally used to implant subliminal suggestions to interrogates. He consulted Appendix 1 and came up with Bach's Goldberg Variations as an appropriate choice.
It is wise to offer food. Humans assign significance to taking
nourishment, beyond merely providing energy for themselves. In this
spirit, they can find comfort and conversation is increased through
the taking of food together.
Suggestions:
Italian cuisine
French cuisine
Smith had never eaten before. He wasn't sure if she would want to, but in case she did he created a small kitchen off to one side by the refrigerator, and quickly uploaded files on cooking Italian and French cuisines.
If your evening progresses to a stage of sexual contact, make sure you
have somewhere comfortable and conducive to sexual activity.
He figured the sofa would do nicely. He also changed the material of the rug from wool to a softer acrylic, and created a few pillows.
Important: Please read Chapter 8a before any sexual contact takes
place.
Smith skipped ahead to Chapter 8a. Just as he was about to read it, Jones and Brown came in.
"We're going now for the eve" Jones started and then paused. He looked around the room.
"You've been busy," Brown said. "Is Danielle coming up?"
Smith was silent. He acted like he was looking at his terminal screen.
"You're missing something." Jones said.
"What?" Smith asked, irritated and annoyed at the intrusion.
Jones created a large bouquet of hand tied Stargazer lilies, deep crimson roses, purple irises, swan wing tulips, black parrot tulips and magnolias. He placed them on Smith's desk.
"Give those to her. She'll be putty in your hands."
Smith couldn't help but crack a half-smile. "Good idea. Thank you."
Jones and Brown looked at each other, almost astonished. Did Smith just thank them?
"You may go now," Smith said. He created a vase full of water and placed the bouquet in it. "Have a nice evening."
Jones and Brown left, silently closing the door behind them. "I think he's in love," Brown said. Jones nodded and smiled.
"Can you make me a bouquet to take to Barbara?" Brown asked. Jones looked at him. Jones looked at him and created a bouquet of dandelions.
"She'll love them," he said as he handed them to Brown.
Brown looked at the yellow weeds. "Are you sure?"
Jones cracked a half-smile similar to Smith's. "Trust me."
* * *
At 5:45, Smith heard a knock on his office door. She was exactly on time.
He went to the door and opened it. She was there, smiling up at him.
"Danielle," he said, a warm smile appearing on his face. He held the door open for her and once inside, took her in his arms and kissed her, pulling her close into him, the contours of their bodies merging in their embrace, as he had been dreaming of doing all day long. He kissed her forehead, eyes, nose and lips again. Her hands clutched his back as she squeezed him tightly to her.
"I've been thinking of you all day," she whispered, as they broke their kiss but stayed in each other's arms. "You feel so wonderful."
Smith had his eyes closed and was just concentrating on the feel of her in his arms, the object of his fixation. While he still couldn't believe that he was experiencing this human weakness, he no longer was trying to fight against it, but was, indeed, taking it as it came. It gave him pleasure, a feeling that he had very little experience of, in his collected experience of the past six Matrixes.
He broke away from her and held out his arm, welcoming her into his space. "May I offer you a drink?" he asked.
Danielle surveyed the office, "This isn't how it normally is, is it? You've done all of this for me."
"If you wish to proceed with your work this evening I needed to create a computer and desk for you." Smith walked over to where the small refrigerator was standing.
"The fireplace was a nice touch. So are these flowers." Danielle bent down to process their fragrance.
"Those are for you. Please take them with you this evening when you depart."
Danielle smiled at him, "Thank you. They're lovely." She extracted a black parrot tulip and ran her fingers lightly over the feathered petals, feeling their velvety soft texture. She walked over towards the full length windows that made up the exterior wall of the office, and admired the view. He said nothing, but walked to her side and took her free hand, and watched the world go by their window.
Danielle looked over at Smith shyly and smiled. He met her glance and said nothing. Her hand felt so small in his, her fingers so thin and tapered. He wanted to kiss her lips again, but before he could, she spoke.
"Shall we get on with our work then?" she asked.
Smith nodded and they walked over to the desks. She punched her login details into the terminal and replaced her earpiece to gain access to the updates. Smith sat at his desk and loaded up the green code of the Matrix, which was what he was to be monitoring, but also her programming specifications and work progression details. Danielle's lightning-fast typing filled the room.
"You work faster than your sisters," Smith said, observing her progression rates were almost 15% higher than Patricia's and 5% higher than Anne- Marie's.
"I was coded first," she said. "I was a prototype."
"As was I," Smith said. Danielle raised her eyebrows.
"Prototypes are always created to perfection and then evaluated to determine how much function is necessary for subsequent versions," Smith said. "They say that to make all programmes perfect would slow down the Matrix as it would take too much charge to run programmes that operate on 100% efficiency levels," he said, pausing. "Personally I believe that they only make one perfect programme as they need to have someone in charge of a group and then they fill our time up with poorly programmed incompetents to slow us down." Smith pressed a button on the keyboard. "Imagine what the Matrix would be if all programmes were perfect."
Danielle smiled, "That's a very good thought. There would be no resistants. No need for intelligence processors. Or Agents."
"There would always be a need for Agents," Smith smiled, "And intelligence processors."
"I take it you don't think very highly of Brown and Jones," Danielle continued to type rapidly, making changes to a series of files of participants in a protest march that occurred against the current United States Government that afternoon.
"They could be so much more than they are, and it frustrates me that the Mainframe has held them back. They get too preoccupied by human pursuits, even before these upgrades were issued." Smith watched a rebel being chased in Israel by an Agent. He saw the code change and realised the rebel got out. He shook his head, "I'm sure you feel similarly about your sisters."
"My sisters. Yes. Anne-Marie can be particularly insightful at times however Patricia's main objective is one of human pursuits and not her work, which is a constant annoyance for me." Danielle glanced over at Smith and saw him sitting with his eyes closed.
"And they both believe you work too much and do not care about anything else?"
"Yes. Until recently."
"Until what has transpired between you and I?"
"Yes." Danielle began another set of updates regarding terrorism conspirators operating in Europe. As she began typing she was surprised to see that the update had been completed. She opened up her next batch and they were done as well. She looked over at Smith.
"All work and no play makes for a dull existence, as Brown says to me frequently," he smiled.
"Was I taking too long?" she asked. He didn't respond, but stood up and held out his hand to her. She took his hand and he pulled her up into his arms, and they started to dance.
Trinity and Morpheus sat across from each other as they steered the Nebuchadnezzar through the old sewer lines of the real world. They were hoping to avoid Sentinels, as their last trip up to broadcast level when they rescued Ibrox from the Agents had seen an increased presence of Sentinels on patrol, presumably a present from the Agents in retribution for sabotaging their objective.
"When do you think it will be safe to go back in to free him?" Trinity asked.
"He is safe with the Oracle for the time being unless we receive a message otherwise."
"What do you think happened to our informant?" Trinity gently steered the Nebuchadnezzar around some scrap metal littering the sewer.
"We can only assume the Agents found her and eliminated her. They spy on their own as much as they do us."
"Who do we have left?" Trinity asked.
"Not very many now. Just the other day we lost an engineer in the European construct who was monitoring Agent scanning patterns. That one agent, Smith, he is like a dog with a bone. They say he was the first Agent, a prototype for all of the others. Some say that the machines realised they made him too intelligent and autonomous and so created the others to be more subservient and less intelligent." Morpheus winced as the Neb scraped a thruster against the side wall.
"Why would they want to do that?"
"Machine arrogance. Even a stupid machine is smarter than a human, so they reason. But a smart machine, like Smith, would be a threat to take over the Matrix itself."
"Why don't they just disassemble him?" Trinity paused to scan for other electromagnetic devices in the vicinity.
"He's too valuable. They keep him busy scanning for informants within the Matrix, monitoring rebel activity, and they find jobs for him to do when he's not chasing rebels. The engineer in Europe's last report was that the Mainframe was updating Agency programmes with advanced human emotions and techniques. One can assume they would use these as a control and diversion to distract their more intelligent programmes like him to keep them from hatching insurrection plans."
The scan came back clear and Trinity proceeded through a junction. "What would happen if someone like Smith were to take over?"
"I don't know, Trinity. I can only assume it would be bad though."
Just then, Cypher poked his head through the door, "Where are we headed, boss?"
"We're headed south, towards the old Mexican gateway. We can only hope the Sentinels aren't patrolling as much there. We'll try to get Ibrox out again once we get there."
"How long do you, ah, think it will take?" Cypher scratched his neck and leaned against the doorway as he scratched his chest through the tattered mesh sweater.
"About three or four days, depending on the traffic we encounter," Trinity said.
"Cypher, why don't you go ahead and start running a diagnostic on our enter and exit patterns. See if there's a way we can randomize it, so the Agents can't find our position when we go in." said Morpheus
"It's already good, though. They're hardly ever are waiting for us on materialization anymore," Cypher protested.
"See if you can make it better. I want the risk reduced to zero."
"Right away, boss." Cypher rolled his eyes at the back of Morpheus's bald head. He stomped back down through the corridors of the Neb.
Trinity and Morpheus looked at each other and shook their heads. Just then a bleep emitted from the intercom to the left of Morpheus.
"Go ahead, Tank," Morpheus said, flipping on the two-way.
"Sir, we've just had a transmission from Zion. The Sentinels are increasing their presence there and all ships have been requested to return to help defend against the increased threat."
Morpheus sighed. Ibrox would have to wait. "Message them back, Tank. We're on our way."
Trinity shook her head and turned the Hovercraft around gently, to take it home.
* * *
The bell rang at the front desk of the intelligence office. Danielle looked at her sister Patricia who had her head down on the counter, asleep. While Danielle was unsure if programmes could get hangovers, Patricia was pretending very effectively that she had one. Anne-Marie was buried up in some rafters somewhere deep in the files. "Get that for us, Danni!" she screamed from out of nowhere.
Danielle put her mental replay of last night on hold and walked through an aisle of files. She stopped when she saw Smith waiting on the other side of the counter. A huge smile, involuntarily spread over her face.
Smith raised his eyebrows and smiled back. "How are you today?" he asked.
"Can't complain," she giggled. She leaned against the counter and looked at him. Using his index finger, he raised her chin up and kissed her gently.
"Who is it?" Anne-Marie shouted as she ran through the files. As she entered the reception she caught sight of Smith and Danielle kissing and stopped abruptly, regretting her actions. She went to back up quickly but the moment was broken. Smith broke the kiss and cleared his throat. Danielle smoothed her jacket and looked guilty.
"Uh, sorry. I'll just, uh, leave you two alone." Anne-Marie stuttered.
"Please do," growled Smith. "This is of a personal matter."
"So I can see," Anne-Marie said, getting a bit bolder. "You know, I am her sister. You could try being a bit more pleasant towards me."
"Anne-Marie," Danielle began, "I'm sure that he"
Smith interrupted her, "I apologize if I was rude. Will you go now?"
"That's marginally better." Anne-Marie looked at Danielle, "Work on his people skills, won't you?"
"My skills with people involve interrogation, manipulation and termination. In those areas I am quite skilled. Would you like a demonstration?" Smith half-smiled at his clever turn of words.
"Uh, no that's alright," Anne-Marie said.
"I do not need to have an advanced grip of the social niceties that you are referring to. Up until now, neither did any machine." Smith glared at Anne-Marie from behind his sunglasses.
"Well now you do. Mainframe orders. Get over it, Mr. Nasty. Read more of the Social file on 'Manners and Politeness'."
Smith turned to Danielle, "Is she necessary to the performance of your job or can I eliminate her?"
Danielle started to laugh and Smith smiled. Anne-Marie missed his version of a joke completely. She walked away shaking her head.
"So," Smith began, "What are you doing this evening?"
"Processing new updates of the files." Danielle smiled at him. "What are you doing?"
"Monitoring resistant activity." He tucked a stray strand of her hair behind her ear and smiled at her. "Are your sisters going to be working late as well?"
"No. Patricia is pretending like she is experiencing a hangover and I imagine will want to go home soon. Anne-Marie has started dating a encryption cracker and I believe they are going to see a film tonight. What are Jones and Brown doing this evening?"
"Jones is taking his stupid cat to some sort of animal socialization course. Brown is seeing a woman named Barbara whom he met last night while they were dancing."
"So you'll be alone upstairs?" she asked. Smith nodded and raised his eyebrows, "And you'll be alone down here?" Danielle grinned. "Yes. Very, very alone."
"Would you like to work together then?" Smith asked. "I can get a computer put in my office for you to do your updates."
"That would be lovely," said Danielle. "We will," she paused and ran her fingers up his tie and snaked them around his neck, pulling him close to her, "work together," she murmured. Their lips met again, and at that moment, Smith was able to identify the word for what he was experiencing: passion.
They looked in each other's eyes for a long moment of time, until Patricia's shrill voice broke the moment. "Danielle!" she bellowed from the depths of the file room, "Get me a glass of" and then the words sounded muffled and strained.
Danielle looked concerned for a moment. "Don't worry," Smith said, smiling "I just melted her mouth. The effect should end within a few minutes unless you wish me to make it permanent."
Danielle started to shake with laughter. Smith smiled, and then turned to leave. "See you later," he said. Danielle winked at him and went to fetch Patricia's water.
* * *
[/f *.* dir] [dir:
Social Nutrition Customs Holidays Cultures]
[open /Social.dir]
[Social.dir]
[*.*dir] [dir:
Events Behaviours Manners Sexuality]
[open sexuality.dir]
[sexuality.dir] [open mating and courtship.doc]
The Mainframe Guide to Mating and Courtship
Compiled by Agency Research Lab 3, North American Matrix Construct:
New York (Team 0.0405932)
Applicable Constructs: North America, South America, European, South
Pacific
Constructs: Asia, Russia, Middle East, Africa, Rest of World should
consult locale-specific guidelines prepared by regional Agency.
Chapter 1: So, you're experiencing an attraction.
Chapter 2: Ascertaining the feelings of the opposite sex
Chapter 3: Appropriate conversational "icebreakers"
Chapter 3a: Worksheet of "icebreakers"
Chapter 4: Plan B: When your "icebreakers" fail
Chapter 5: Plan C: When all else fails, make a fool of yourself.
Chapter 6: Explaining Physical Contact
Chapter 6a: Worksheet of appropriate physical contact vs. non-
appropriate physical contact
Chapter 7: Dating: Good dates vs. Bad Dates and what consists of them.
Chapter 8: How to establish, and gain sexual experience
Chapter 8a: Machine reproduction and the difference between human
reproduction (Important Information: Mandatory Reading)
Chapter 9: Ready to settle down? Marriage.
Chapter 10: The Happily Ever After in the Matrix
Chapter 11: Starting over: Divorce Information
Appendix 1: Romantic music
The Mainframe Guide to Mating and Courtship cross-links to all files
on drive f:/ Full access is needed to all files.
Smith decided that he would skip ahead to Chapter 7. He smiled to himself and opened the file on Good Dates vs. Bad Dates. Skimming ahead through the irrelevant information, he found the section that was most applicable to his situation.
Quiet Nights In.
You have decided to have a quiet night in the privacy of your own
dwelling. The first thing you must ensure is that your dwelling is
tidy and conducive to your significant other's comfort.
Smith analysed the surfaces of the office. The chrome was sparkling, the windows were clean, the janitor had finally managed to remove all of the bloodstains from the last person they had in for questioning. Beyond Smith's large desk and black leather chair, there was only a table in the far corner of the room, and a single, uncomfortable steel interrogation chair sitting against the back wall. Smith created a black leather sofa, another desk with computer terminal and leather chair to match his, a floor rug to match the décor, and a small refrigerator, chrome, from which he could offer her a drink from.
Decide upon appropriate entertainment for the evening. Music, soft
lighting, a movie, a game, or an open fire are all good possibilities.
It is not a good idea to discuss or do work in great lengths, nor is
it to just expect physical contact and not plan for any sort of
diversion to create a jovial mood.
Smith was going to delete the computer but he thought that, since that was what she said she was coming up for, that it might be alright. He tried softening the fluorescent lighting of the large office but when he established that an annoying visual flicker occurred, he created some floor lamps to set at points around the office to provide dimmer, more natural lighting. The idea of an open fire intrigued him. He created a partition through the office and placed a fireplace in the centre, creating a beautiful crackling and roaring fire in it as he did.
Smith then decided to pipe music through the speakers in his office that were normally used to implant subliminal suggestions to interrogates. He consulted Appendix 1 and came up with Bach's Goldberg Variations as an appropriate choice.
It is wise to offer food. Humans assign significance to taking
nourishment, beyond merely providing energy for themselves. In this
spirit, they can find comfort and conversation is increased through
the taking of food together.
Suggestions:
Italian cuisine
French cuisine
Smith had never eaten before. He wasn't sure if she would want to, but in case she did he created a small kitchen off to one side by the refrigerator, and quickly uploaded files on cooking Italian and French cuisines.
If your evening progresses to a stage of sexual contact, make sure you
have somewhere comfortable and conducive to sexual activity.
He figured the sofa would do nicely. He also changed the material of the rug from wool to a softer acrylic, and created a few pillows.
Important: Please read Chapter 8a before any sexual contact takes
place.
Smith skipped ahead to Chapter 8a. Just as he was about to read it, Jones and Brown came in.
"We're going now for the eve" Jones started and then paused. He looked around the room.
"You've been busy," Brown said. "Is Danielle coming up?"
Smith was silent. He acted like he was looking at his terminal screen.
"You're missing something." Jones said.
"What?" Smith asked, irritated and annoyed at the intrusion.
Jones created a large bouquet of hand tied Stargazer lilies, deep crimson roses, purple irises, swan wing tulips, black parrot tulips and magnolias. He placed them on Smith's desk.
"Give those to her. She'll be putty in your hands."
Smith couldn't help but crack a half-smile. "Good idea. Thank you."
Jones and Brown looked at each other, almost astonished. Did Smith just thank them?
"You may go now," Smith said. He created a vase full of water and placed the bouquet in it. "Have a nice evening."
Jones and Brown left, silently closing the door behind them. "I think he's in love," Brown said. Jones nodded and smiled.
"Can you make me a bouquet to take to Barbara?" Brown asked. Jones looked at him. Jones looked at him and created a bouquet of dandelions.
"She'll love them," he said as he handed them to Brown.
Brown looked at the yellow weeds. "Are you sure?"
Jones cracked a half-smile similar to Smith's. "Trust me."
* * *
At 5:45, Smith heard a knock on his office door. She was exactly on time.
He went to the door and opened it. She was there, smiling up at him.
"Danielle," he said, a warm smile appearing on his face. He held the door open for her and once inside, took her in his arms and kissed her, pulling her close into him, the contours of their bodies merging in their embrace, as he had been dreaming of doing all day long. He kissed her forehead, eyes, nose and lips again. Her hands clutched his back as she squeezed him tightly to her.
"I've been thinking of you all day," she whispered, as they broke their kiss but stayed in each other's arms. "You feel so wonderful."
Smith had his eyes closed and was just concentrating on the feel of her in his arms, the object of his fixation. While he still couldn't believe that he was experiencing this human weakness, he no longer was trying to fight against it, but was, indeed, taking it as it came. It gave him pleasure, a feeling that he had very little experience of, in his collected experience of the past six Matrixes.
He broke away from her and held out his arm, welcoming her into his space. "May I offer you a drink?" he asked.
Danielle surveyed the office, "This isn't how it normally is, is it? You've done all of this for me."
"If you wish to proceed with your work this evening I needed to create a computer and desk for you." Smith walked over to where the small refrigerator was standing.
"The fireplace was a nice touch. So are these flowers." Danielle bent down to process their fragrance.
"Those are for you. Please take them with you this evening when you depart."
Danielle smiled at him, "Thank you. They're lovely." She extracted a black parrot tulip and ran her fingers lightly over the feathered petals, feeling their velvety soft texture. She walked over towards the full length windows that made up the exterior wall of the office, and admired the view. He said nothing, but walked to her side and took her free hand, and watched the world go by their window.
Danielle looked over at Smith shyly and smiled. He met her glance and said nothing. Her hand felt so small in his, her fingers so thin and tapered. He wanted to kiss her lips again, but before he could, she spoke.
"Shall we get on with our work then?" she asked.
Smith nodded and they walked over to the desks. She punched her login details into the terminal and replaced her earpiece to gain access to the updates. Smith sat at his desk and loaded up the green code of the Matrix, which was what he was to be monitoring, but also her programming specifications and work progression details. Danielle's lightning-fast typing filled the room.
"You work faster than your sisters," Smith said, observing her progression rates were almost 15% higher than Patricia's and 5% higher than Anne- Marie's.
"I was coded first," she said. "I was a prototype."
"As was I," Smith said. Danielle raised her eyebrows.
"Prototypes are always created to perfection and then evaluated to determine how much function is necessary for subsequent versions," Smith said. "They say that to make all programmes perfect would slow down the Matrix as it would take too much charge to run programmes that operate on 100% efficiency levels," he said, pausing. "Personally I believe that they only make one perfect programme as they need to have someone in charge of a group and then they fill our time up with poorly programmed incompetents to slow us down." Smith pressed a button on the keyboard. "Imagine what the Matrix would be if all programmes were perfect."
Danielle smiled, "That's a very good thought. There would be no resistants. No need for intelligence processors. Or Agents."
"There would always be a need for Agents," Smith smiled, "And intelligence processors."
"I take it you don't think very highly of Brown and Jones," Danielle continued to type rapidly, making changes to a series of files of participants in a protest march that occurred against the current United States Government that afternoon.
"They could be so much more than they are, and it frustrates me that the Mainframe has held them back. They get too preoccupied by human pursuits, even before these upgrades were issued." Smith watched a rebel being chased in Israel by an Agent. He saw the code change and realised the rebel got out. He shook his head, "I'm sure you feel similarly about your sisters."
"My sisters. Yes. Anne-Marie can be particularly insightful at times however Patricia's main objective is one of human pursuits and not her work, which is a constant annoyance for me." Danielle glanced over at Smith and saw him sitting with his eyes closed.
"And they both believe you work too much and do not care about anything else?"
"Yes. Until recently."
"Until what has transpired between you and I?"
"Yes." Danielle began another set of updates regarding terrorism conspirators operating in Europe. As she began typing she was surprised to see that the update had been completed. She opened up her next batch and they were done as well. She looked over at Smith.
"All work and no play makes for a dull existence, as Brown says to me frequently," he smiled.
"Was I taking too long?" she asked. He didn't respond, but stood up and held out his hand to her. She took his hand and he pulled her up into his arms, and they started to dance.