Well, I said I'd do more tonight, cool! More chapters J

ENJOY!


Chapter 6: Fear

"Are you sure you don't want me to take a bag?" asked Paradox, as they headed for the office of the geological leader in Zion. "They do weigh about 35 kg each."

"I'm fine!" she insisted, despite the growing pain in her back.

"It's your spine," he said annoyingly.

"Fine then," she gave up, trying to hide the relief flowing through he back and shoulders and she gave a bag to him. Morpheus smiled at them, and knocked on the door pointed out by the young engineer, with 'Dr Jonesfield' pinned up.

"Come in," answered a tired sounding voice. He led the three of them in to see a short man with graying hair and a lined face.

"Morpheus, good to see you!" said the short man, dusting his hands off and grasping Morpheus'.

"Good to see you too, doctor."

"Please, call me Indy, everyone does! Now, what have you got for me?"

"We found these in what used to be South Africa," informed Lewar as she tipped the precious diamonds from her heavy bag onto the table.

Indy gasped, and found it hard to speak for several minutes.

"Good God, we could do so much with these!" he shouted in glee at last. "We could… we could almost find the date!"

"I'm sure you have plenty to do," said Paradox, setting down his bag too. "We'll leave you to it." The three of them walked out of his small lab, leaving Indy doing a kind of jig around his table, and shouting out with happiness.

A day after making the delivery, Lewar led her crew back to her ship to meet the new crew member she had found. He was a young man, about 23, but had the look of a person who had been sour about almost everything in life. He was Zion Born, average height, and his light brown hair had a greasy look to it.

"This is Ransom, our new pilot," he introduced them. "This is Mace, Reflex and Paradox."

They nodded to him, but he sneered back. "Only 4 people? No wonder you needed me, a ship shouldn't be so small. My last ship had a crew of 10!"

"What ship was that?" asked Reflex

"The Makar."

Reflex nodded, but Lewar noticed a dark look on his face.

"So let's get this thing you call a ship into the pipes." he said with the sneer still on his face. "I'm sure Zion could find you something to do with that excuse."

"Keep us informed of your progress with the boy," said Morpheus, shaking Lewar's hand.

"We will," she replied. "Good luck with the maps, the Squiddies have been acting oddly around there."

"Keep your eye on humanity," Paradox told Neo, grinning.

"I'll do my job, you just get that kid out in one piece," smiled Neo, who had become good friends with Paradox. "I've seen your exploits inside. You're known as a madman,"

"I could second that," remarked Lewar dryly.

"When will the Neb be back in the pipes?" Mace asked Trinity.

"A couple of days, have to give her quite a bit of body work, I'd say," she answered.

The two crews shook hands, Tank and Reflex had a final drink, and wished each other luck, as they prepared for their departure from Zion.

As they set off, Reflex set the Matrix feed to observe Fear, but it was increasingly difficult, as his abilities in the Matrix grew, and he became more aware of the world surrounding him.

After a long 'discussion', Paradox finally talked his way into going into the Matrix and making the first contact with Fear. He was to go through a new exit, a factory, and find him in one of the usual hacker hideouts on the Internet.

Lewar gave him strict orders to stay in the factory unless something went wrong, she knew she would have to, as Paradox liked to go and pick on the agents, and now wasn't the time.

As she strapped his feet into the jacking chair, she gently squeezed his hand.

"Come back in one piece, ok?" she half asked half commanded.

"I will," he smiled. "Trust me." She hated it when people said that to her, and he knew she did.

"Go infect the other world," she said jokingly, and kissed him on the cheek when she thought no one was looking. He smiled at her, closing his eyes. She pushed the plug into the back of his head and watched as his mind was transferred into the artificial world he was born in.

----------

Paradox hooked the computer up to the power and phone lines, and started his search for Fear, finding him in a chat room disguised as an innocent site discussing sci-fi movies.

(BuLLet) u shoulda seen my hak on my boss

(indya) shit, jakass, its 11

(indya) star trek is starting

Paradox laughed to himself. '11' was a codeword for "someone new, don't talking about hacking" that was used in a small forum he used to be a member of. It seemed to have spread during his absence. These people weren't very good at being sublte, however.

(cassette) hoo r u?

(Ncoded) its ok, call 11 off, i no him

(Paradox) long time no see, dude

(Ncoded) same 2 u

(indya) so what u do @ work?

(BuLLet) got into bosses comp, fucked up the sys files

(Fear) that's shit, you only did that for fun

(BuLLet) shit yeah!

(Fear) you ain't a real hacker, you're a script kiddy

(Fear) find a reason to hack, don't give the rest of us a bad name

Paradox was impressed. He hated those guys who hacked for the fun of it, only to piss others off and cause damage, and it appeared Fear felt the same way. They were going to get along fine.

(BuLLet) shut up, kid

(BuLLet) bet u dont know shit about comps

(Fear) i know enough to kick you out of here without ops

: BuLLet has been banned from #sci-fi010 by Fear for 2 hours :

Paradox opened a private window with Fear to talk about more important matters.

(Paradox) you feel it, don't you?

(Fear) feel what?

(Paradox) you know what

(Paradox) the mistake in this world, stuck in your mind

(Fear) what is it?

(Paradox) it is the Matrix at work

(Fear) whats the Matrix?

: Paradox has logged off at 21:39:45 :

Paradox looked at the screen in regret. He hated leaving the poor kid like that, with cryptic questions and impossible answers, but he had to. It was the only way to get a person safely out without driving them mad.

The cell phone next to him rang, and he clicked it open.

"Nice work, buddy," came Reflex's voice. "You ready to get out of there?"

"Sure, I'll-" Paradox had a familiar feeling of dread. "Shit!" he yelled as he jammed the phone into his pocket and grabbed for the guns he had insisted on loading. A shower of sparks came through the outside window, and the old fashioned phone on the table fell silent through it's first ring as the hard line was cut.

Running to the back door, he heard a strange metallic coded sound coming from outside, the sound of something being loaded. Sensing Agents only at the front of the building, he slammed through the door to find a sparkling red Ducati, his dream bike as a child. Grinning ear to ear, he jumped on and rammed the bike into action. He could hear the sound of crumpled gravel as the agents ran to him, but they were too slow. He sped off, stirring up dirt and dust all over the fine grey suits of the Agents.

BANG! The rubber of one of the tires burst as the gun of an Agent flashed.

"Shit!" he muttered as he tried to regain control of the bike. "Shit, shit, shit!"

He was slowing down, and the Agents were now in an old, sleek black Ford, catching up. Paradox broke through the barrier of a multi-story parking lot, begging the bike to go faster, to get him up to the next floor.

He leapt off his bike and into a beautiful 70s Mustang. Perfect for street racing. Even better for escaping agents.

As the engine roared into life, his hands were already manuvouring the car to the nearest down ramp. The Agents were trying to get to all the exits of the parking lot, but there were too many for them to cover with the small SWAT team they had. Reaching the ground floor, he was almost at the exit barrier when a police car blocked his way. Spinning around, he found only 3 exits to be unblocked, all at the other end of the parking lot.

Moving up the ramps, he found himself on the 4th level of the concrete construction, and he used a trick Turb0 had taught him, making doughnuts and creating so much smoke, the police cars didn't know which way he would head. Racing to the other end of the building, he found the ramps down.

With his heart beating fast, he felt that exit to be blocked too, and Agents were moving in, surrounding him. "Damnit!" he shouted. He knew there was nothing else he could do. He slammed into reverse and backed up the ramp to the 1st floor. Making sure he had the maximum run up, he lined the car up, and shifted into gears as fast as he could, enabling the turbo, and broke through the metal barrier, flying over the Agent's barricade, and landed with a mighty shower of sparks onto the street, scratching the bottom of the car.

He inspected the damage to the front as he sped off into the night, and winced as he saw that most of the bonnet had been bent, all the lights shattered. Turb0 would've never forgiven him. He laughed out loud when he heard the confused shouts from the SWAT team, and the angry yells from the Agents.

He found himself on a deserted stretch of road, ensured that no Agents would appear, and clicked his cell back open.

"Jesus, wherever those bastards came from, it wasn't a normal part of the Matrix," came Reflex's confused voice.

"What do you mean?" Paradox asked urgently.

"I mean that those guys appeared in the code, no idea how. It's like they teleported or something."

"Damn, haven't got time to look into it now, where's the nearest phone?"

"About a mile up the road, the reception of the insurance agency."

"Thanks dude. Oh yeah, and thanks for the bike, saved my arse"

"No problem, and very nice driving, by the way, although she might not agree." Paradox could tell he was stifling laughter over Lewar's reaction to his driving.

"Thanks," he said flatly. "I'll see you there," and he drove off at breakneck speed, with the Speedo hitting 190km/h and the turbo making the engine roar with fury.


*DROOOOOOOOLS* muuuuustaaaaaaaang…….

(im a car freak)

REVIEW!!! PLEASE!! ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!