The light changed as the four walked into the office complex. No one questioned the, used to seeing people in black walking around. Most were more curious about the sickly looking girl, who was surely no more than 12 or so. She walked slowly, feet dragging, the woman in black smiled, taking the girl's hand as they approached the steel elevator, the colour contrasting to the blue glass all around them. A woman stepped out, catching a glimpse of the girl she stopped.
"Don't worry sweetheart, you'll get better soon, I had the same thing a few weeks ago and it only lasts a day or two." She smiled at Trinity. "If you need anything for her just ask, ok?" Trinity returned the smile, the girl waving as they stepped into the elevator, the doors closing on the sounds of the stranger's heels clicking on the cold tiled floor.
"That was weird." Harregale said, quickly becoming healthy again. They ran through necessary details and three floors later a woman with black hair dressed from neck to toe in leather as dark as her hair walked towards the only piece of furniture in the room, the desk o f the receptionist. Two men followed a pace behind, one with his arms by his sides, the other with his behind his back. The girl was out of sight. The woman with blonde hair smiled, fake and snakelike.
"You go right through, you're expected." No one smiled, walking past her in silence. After they left one glass walled room and entered the next the woman picked up her phone,
"Three. Her and two men." There was a pause. "Ok." She put the receiver back on the hook and ignored the shattering glass from the next room.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~~*~*
The vase fell with a crash. Morpheus indicated to the double doors that opened away from them, Neo running down on wall, Trinity the other, their images on the blue glass tinted and appearing cold. The girl made straight for the door, sprinting to one of the four desks in the massive room that opened from the doors. A man in a cream suit was standing, incased in glass at the other end of the room. It was atleast 300 metres from the doorway. The girl was about to make a dash to the next desk when she heard the laughter of the woman she wanted to scratch blind. The woman had dark hair, almost black, and similar eyes. Walking with a definite purpose she spoke.
"Welcome to my offices." Her French accent made the room echo with her laughter and mockery, Harregale grasped the gun in her sweaty palm, wanting to use it but knowing she had to wait. "I see you recognize the boy, he learns so fast and is so, malleable." The laughter came again and the three standing just beyond the doorway studied the boy carefully, making no change in appearance. Harregale wanted to peek out from behind her shelter but knew that it would ruin all they had worked to achieve that day already. The boy was no more than 10, his blonde hair newly cut, the waves falling softly at his ears. He walked by the woman's side, steel grey eyes unblinking as they approached the crew of the Neb.. She was dressed as a businessman's wife, her dress complementing her complexion and her figure, the boy dressed in a suit, making him appear to be a miniature of the woman's husband.
"You were expecting us." Morpheus said, his voice cool in the lighted room. Everywhere was glass, the roof, the walls and the floor. She laughed.
"Yes, I was wondering how much longer you would wait before freeing these two. The man you can have I suppose, my husband won't miss him. He's too busy with some human to bother about such things as you. I rather like the boy though," she purred, running a hand through his hair. "He will do whatever it takes to achieve his goal." Trinity pulled out her gun, pointing it at the woman for a second before shooting the glass around the man at the end of the room. He staggered out of his enclosure, slowly making his way on unsteady feet towards the only exit. The woman strutted towards them she smiled, sliding close to Neo, completely ignoring the death glare Trinity was giving her. Harregale fidgeted under her desk, she hated being the one left out of the know.
"You want him? Too bad." She whispered sultrily in his ear. Given a small signal from her hand, the boy pulled a small pistol out of his pocket, watching the stumbling man carefully, his sharp eyes those of a killer. The woman was blocking the doorway. "Such a pity you have no one to save him." She cooed.
"Such a pity your secretary can't count." Retorted the voice of the girl, appearing from under her desk. For once it was a good thing she was invisible. "You think I'm going to let you shoot this guy? You are stupid." A smile touched the girl's lips even as those who knew her saw the pain flash in her eyes. It was her brother who had the gun poised to kill the man. "I won't let you do it kiddo, you'll have to think of something else."
"She's going to take me back home, Anna, she said that since I did such a good job getting rid of the others and wounding the woman, she'll take us both home. But you have to come now." His voice was honest, he believed everything he said. The witch smiled. The words 'you killed them' formed on the girl's lips and her sibling nodded coldly.
"You see, he is such a charming young man. Now," she said to the boy, "shoot the man and I'll take you home." He raised the gun, firing at the man's head. As if in slow motion the girl pushed off the ground, arm outstretched to catch the bullet in her hand. It lodged itself in her palm and she screamed. Within moments the boy's gun was empty, but not a single shot had hit the man, Harregale moving fast enough to collect them all in her limbs. She landed with a scream, blood covering most of her body, tears streaming down her face. No one moved, the woman shocked and angry, heavy footsteps echoed in the building, two men stood side by side, indistinguishable. They looked down at her, eyes hidden behind sunglasses, white skin catching the light.
"Give me a gun," she said through her pain, reaching up slightly, fingers level with an ankle, "My horse is screaming, give me a gun." The quote was from an old movie, the main character haunted by her past and the colour red. They liked the film, dropping a gun just within her reach. She smiled, raising it to her temple, the voices of the men and woman blurred in her head, the expressionless faces of the crew behind her. She smiled again, apologizing to her brother. Her finger tightened on the trigger and for a moment all was still. Then the boy collapsed, a bullet lodged in his forehead from the gun his sister held in her trembling and bloody hand. The room emptied, the woman grabbing the man in the cream suit by the tie and leading him away before the pooling blood could touch his shoes.
"Such a waste." She sneered as she passed, tempted to kick the interfering child and make her suffer more, she was sure the red liquid would stain the blue glass. The hurried footsteps of the other three pounded like sledgehammers in the girls skull.
"I'm so sorry, I just couldn't let him hurt you." She mumbled to Trinity as the woman bent over her, scooping the limb body into her arms, smearing blood on her leather clothes. Trinity said reassuring nothings, unable to understand exactly what the girl had meant. Morpheus smashed one of the walls, glass shards falling to the street below.
"Link, we need an exit and we need one now." Neo said, trying to take the bundle from his love, who shook her head, face flat. They leapt through the gap, landing with ease on the nearest rooftop, running hard for the security phone on the wall of the stairwell.
"Is she going to make it?" Trinity asked, supporting the weight of their charge as someone pressed the phone to her ear.
"She's going to have to." Was the only reply she got, Neo insisting that Trinity went out next, Morpheus and himself preparing to load a medical program into the construct to fully asses the damage both to the residual self image and to the real body of the girl. A fearful apprehension hung over the crew. The damage proved to be superficial, nothing that time and rest wouldn't heal, along with some regeneration of tissues similar to the process used when a person is first unplugged. The worrying part was that she didn't open her eyes, didn't answer when they spoke to her and no one could get through the darkness they could feel over her.