28
Bastet slid through the evening streets, taking care to keep her tail and ears covered. She didn't care if she frightened coppertops, but she did care that she would attract agent attention. She did run into a little boy, but he didn't see her, so intent was he on the battle occurring down the backstreet. However, she could smell Seraph's scent, and that encouraged her to pick up the pace a bit.
"Sekhmet?"
Oh, shit… "Yes?" she asked, not turning, trying to wake up the main program. "Why are you away from the apartment? Is something wrong?"
"No, I… was restless." Her main program was resisting. Damn it, Sekhmet, if he catches us we're dead! The Mero will kill us, and you know it, so play along! "You should not be out alone..." He trailed off.
Sekhmet turned and smiled at him. "Well, I can't exactly take Marcus…."
"Alright. You should head home. There are agents in the area."
She nodded. "All right, Seraph." She turned to continue to the apartment. I'm sorry, she thought sadly.
***
Rafe made it back to the Merovingian's with no incident other than some nutty fangirl latching onto him and squealing that he looked exactly like some character in some show he'd never heard of. It took him almost thirty minutes to pry her off.
Once he was at the Merovingian's, he went on a search for Hippocrates, the Alchemist, after making sure Molly was all right with Cain and Abel.
He was in his office... which wasn't inside the chateau. When Rafe found that out, he muttered a curse and went on a hunt for the key he'd need to get to the office. He eventually found it in the vicinity under his bed and at last entered the Alchemist's domain.
It was a small office in a small town in the matrix, which featured Hippocrates's practice, in which he was known as Dr. LeRoy.
Rafe announced his present with a blunt, "So what is it you do here? Heal the coppertops, or perform 'plastic surgery'?" "I heal here. Most of the plastic surgery is saved for the Merovingian's men." He replied flatly.
"I need to talk to you."
"What about?" The Alchemist replied.
Rafe hesitated a moment. "Molly."
"The girl. She's still with you?"
"There is no way in hell I'd ever her send her back to that foster family."
"And you're worried about the possibilities of an Agent."
Rafe gave him an odd look. "Have you been talking to the Oracle?"
"I assumed this was why you were talking to me... the Oracle?"
Rafe was not good at covering his tracks, so he ignored them. "Never mind. Is there anything you can do to keep an agent from overwriting her?"
"There is something I can do..." He opened a drawer and pulled out a small box, rummaging through it. A portrait of him with a little girl and a woman about "his age" fell over as Hippocrates rummaged.
Rafe picked it up and looked at it for a moment.
"Here's a... do you make it habit to look through other people's things?" Hippocrates asked, holding a syringe.
"Sorry, it fell over," Rafe answered, setting it down carefully.
He handed the angel the syringe. "This will scramble her code enough to make it null against agents... however, she won't be able to leave the matrix in any way shape or form while this is in her."
Rafe looked at it. "Red pill or blue pill," he said softly. "Are there any other side effects?"
"She'll need a check-up every month... there's a chance that her code could scramble some internal organs, but if its found soon enough, it can be corrected. Also... she'll be invisible completely to agents now."
"Invisible as in they can't overwrite her, or they can't see her?"
"Both."
"Interesting," he mused. "But other programs will be able to?"
"Yes, I believe so."
"Thanks. I owe you."
"You seem to do that quite a bit... how's the human faring?"
"Molly? Or Archangel?"
"Archangel."
"Well, he's conscious… seems like he's got some back pain and wing cramps, but that's only expected. And he refuses to speak in any language but Japanese right now. I think he's sulking."
"What of his wings? any abnormality?"
Rafe's eyebrow twitched. "Not to my knowledge. I can't see any, and I doubt he'd tell me if he was having problems… although, the blood on the parts closest to his back won't come out, and its still crimson."
"Alright...good to know he's still alive, at least."
"I think the Frenchman's using him for bait, so he'll be alive for a bit longer."
"Understandable...he is the Frenchman."
Rafe nodded. "Let me know if there's something I can do to repay you… I need to go drag Molly away from Cain and Abel before they ask to teach her the finer points of sword fighting or something. Assault rifles, honestly… She's too little, the recoil'd throw her down and break her shoulder!"
***
"Ah think th' only question is, do we wait for Merv's call, or go now?" Poni said, staring at the ceiling in the planning room/dining room. Red shrugged. "Do we even know if Merv's holdin' him as bait f'r us, or f'r those two runaway programs?"
"I haven't seen any sign of them taking any action...and from what that vampire did, they would have got him if they could have." Salvo replied.
"So he's bait for them," Red answered himself. Schwarz and Cyclone had been called back to the Echo two days earlier, and he missed having someone to bounce ideas off of. He looked at Pyre.
Pyre was silent and brooding.
He sighed and looked back to his captain and operator. "I'm sorry. I shoulda handled my own damn business."
"It's too late to be havin' bloody regrets!" Poni snapped.
"Ya think I don' know that?" Red shot back angrily.
"Then why don't ya get over it for one second!"
Red crossed his arms over his chest, looking as if he wanted to break something in half, preferably the Merovingian.
"The Merovingian's going to make us trade the two programs for Angel...why don't we trick him into believing that's what we're going to do?" Pyre said suddenly. Red looked at her. "Sounds like a plan… but there is one thing, though."
"What?"
"He's French. He can smell a double-cross a mile away."
"But.' Poni began. "They can't detect a flaw in their own plan."
Red considered this and grinned. "Point in your favour."
"We just need to find an' exploit it." The Scotswoman replied.
"Right. Now, I'll be th' first t' say I ain't exactly the brains of this op, so, anyone have any ideas of where a flaw might be?"
"Let's wait until he tells us where he wants to make the trade." Pyre suggested.
Poni nodded, as did Red. "He may only wan' one o' us, though," he said. Poni smirked. "Then that's all we give 'im." Red had seen that smirk before.
Not much scared the Irishman, but Poni's smirks were at the top of the list.
"Let's give Mr. Frenchman everything he requests.." She continued to smirk, looking at Salvo's screen. "And then some."