I didn't know what had made me say that stuff to him. All I knew was that
I was angry at him and I wanted him to feel the hurt I had been feeling
ever since he had left me alone with her. I sat in my room now, unable to
sleep, thinking over what I had said to him. So you've finally figured it
out. Yes, Roland is my father; or rather he had been my father in the
Matrix. I didn't know whether he knew that yet or not though, I could tell
you that I couldn't care less if he knew or not, but we all know that would
be lying. I can remember him, the way he was just before he left, always
at his computer, one day he had spun his chair around to face me.
"What is the Matrix?" He had asked me.
"A dream." I had replied. I hadn't even known how close to the truth I had come with that answer. At the time I had no idea what he meant, but in my childish mind I had grinned back at him, showing the gap where I had two teeth missing. But he had looked at me strangely and mumbled something that I couldn't quite hear, I had turned back to doing whatever I had been doing and he had gone back to his computer, trying to find the answer to his question. Obviously he did, otherwise he wouldn't be here. There was a knock on the door.
"Go away!" I yelled.
"I'd like to talk to you, Silver." Came Maggie's voice. I don't want to talk to you. I don't want to talk to anyone. I thought. I knew that on a ship this size I couldn't avoid everyone forever.
"Fine then, come in." I said. I heard the wheel turning then the door creaking open and footsteps as she entered.
"Mind if I sit down?" She asked. I shrugged my shoulders.
"Did he send you?" I asked.
"No, I get the feeling if he knew that he wouldn't be very happy about it either." She replied.
"So he told you then?" I asked.
"You could say that." Maggie paused and I waited for her to continue.
"He honestly didn't know who you were. I know you're going to say that white hair isn't all that common, but maybe he just didn't want to think that you were his daughter."
"Yeah and like I keep saying that's the problem, he doesn't want to think of me as his daughter, he'd prefer if I didn't exist. Yes, I know white hair isn't all that common, I had her tell me that I was a freak because of it often enough." My words were bitter.
"Maybe if you talked to him about how you were feeling. Perhaps he feels the same way." Maggie said. I shook my head angrily.
"As soon as he left he forgot about me, it's pointless trying to convince me or him of anything else. Just let it go, Maggie." I told her.
"I can't." She said.
"Why not? Because you and he are together?" I asked.
"How did you know that?" She said. Despite the way I was feeling I smiled.
"Even the blind can see that, Maggie. I'm not really surprised though." I said.
"You're not upset about it?" She asked.
"Am I supposed to be? I can throw a temper tantrum if you want me to." The last part was spoken in jest, anything to stay away from the subject of Roland being my father.
"No, that's alright. We're going to try to get another person out of the Matrix, I think you might do good on this one." She said.
"Okay. It's not like I could've hid in here forever, is it?" I said. She guided me back up to the main core, where Colt had been plugged in for the last number of hours.
"Let's go, AK. Before he gets back." Maggie said.
"Oh, yeah. Not a problem. But if he finds out, which he probably will, it was all your idea, okay?" AK responded.
"Take a seat, ma'am." He said to me. Then he plugged me in and loaded me into the construct first.
"What do you need? Guns, knives we got it." He said.
"You do know that I'm blind in the Matrix, right?" I asked him.
"Yeah, but you might still want to take weapons with you. So what'll it be?"
"USP's two of them, as well as three rounds of ammo for each one. You might want to show me how to use them to." I said.
"There right in front of you. One quick course in handling and firing of USP pistols coming right up." AK said happily.
"Umm...I was..." I trailed off as my brain was assaulted with information.
"Kidding." I finished.
"Oops." Said AK.
"You might as well take them with you anyway." I reached forward and found the pistols, I tucked them into the waistband of my jeans.
"By the way, AK if these clothes look stupid on me next time I see you I'm gonna break your kneecaps." I grinned as I said it, a grin full of teeth. I've had enough people mess me about in my life already.
"Nope, you're dressed all in black. Phone's in the left jacket pocket." He told me.
"Okay then, I guess I'm ready to go." Then I hear this phone ringing.
"Hey, Silver." He hands me something.
"His pen. And I believe that's my cue to leave, see you on the other side." I can hear him pick up the phone and then it banging against the table leg, I pick it up and put it back in the cradle. Then I sit down in the chair previously occupied by Colt, and watch what the new guy is doing, at the moment he's sitting at his computer running a search for someone called 'Ballard'; the captain of the Caduceus. I'm not surprised when all this guy seemed to be getting on Ballard is terrorist activities. I don't know how long I sat there for watching what this guy was doing before he turned his head in the direction of his bedroom door. Just as it burst open and two agents came in; I let my chair drop to the floor with a crash, yanking out my phone as I did so. Just as I was about to dial it rang.
"He has agents in there with him." I said in a rush.
"So do you. And they cut the hard-line, you need to get out of there." AK's voice was calm, which I thought was odd. Strangely though his calmness seemed to wash away my anxiety of being caught be agents.
"Which way?" I asked.
"Down the fire escape. Turn left and keep going, I'll have the exit ready for you." He said. You are efficient. I thought. Soon though I was out on the street, phone pressed to my ear with one hand, pistol in the other, although I wasn't sure how I was going to be able to hit something I couldn't see, even with the training I had received. I started running to the end of the street, with AK telling me when there was a step, or a crack in the footpath etc etc. Until I heard this loud 'klunk' kind of noise and then I'm lying on the ground having lost the gun and the phone, totally disoriented and wondering what the hell just happened to me. I groaned in pain.
"Dumazz!" I muttered to myself. I pulled my hand away from my forehead that was growing a lump. I had obviously run right into something, probably a metal pole judging by the sound I had made when I hit it. Only problem now was I had no phone, and no way of figuring out where I was or how to get anywhere. So I do the only thing I can think of.
"AK!" I shout.
"I dropped the phone." I hope he can hear me and that the phone is still connected to the ship, of course I don't know what he can do about it either.
"AK-" I stop speaking as I feel the cold muzzle of a gun pressed against my temple.
"We finally meet in person, Miss Roberts. I have been looking forward to meeting you." Comes the cold voice of what I know is an agent. Inwardly I curse myself, I shouldn't have shouted like that.
"Wish I could say the feeling was mutual." I say. Then I leap away from him, it doesn't matter that I can't see my surroundings, like a light switch I can turn that on and off as well, I can make things not really be there. Perhaps I should have done that when I was running for the exit. I land and keep on moving, but I still have no idea where I am and I can't hear the agent, something slams me in the side of my head and I go down. I guess I found him.
"So why don't you just kill me and have it over and done with?" I ask. I can hear him laugh. Can programs have a sense of humor?
"It is not your time to be deleted yet, Miss Roberts. You have something we want." He says. He sticks a needle in my arm and injects the contents.
"What...?..." What do you want from me? But for some reason I can't speak out loud, I can't move and he picks me up slinging me over his shoulder like I was a side of beef.
(dE hAmMeR)
"Now left. Look out post box." AK's eyes darted from monitor to monitor.
"Go left, right. There's a po-" AK winced when he realized he was to late with the warning.
"Silver?" He looked over his shoulder at Maggie when he got no answer. Maggie was standing next to her chair.
"What's going on?" She asked him.
"I don't know...Oh shit! An agent has her. Why the hell isn't she running?" He asked of no one in particular.
"Because she can't see anything, she has no choice but to fight him." Maggie replied.
"What the hell?..." AK lifted his hands of the keyboard as Silver's code went all strange.
"What just happened?" He called.
"He just injected her with some kind of paralyzing drug." Maggie glanced over at him.
"We better get the captain up here." AK paused just long enough to cast her a glance that clearly said 'Are you insane' then he shrugged.
"He's gonna find out anyway." AK said, under his breath he muttered 'I'm dead'.
"And she'll be dead if we don't do something." Maggie snapped at him. A few moments later Roland appeared at the top of the ladder, he didn't look too happy when he saw that Silver was plugged into the Matrix. Even less so when he was told what had happened.
"Goddammit!" Roland snapped. He didn't bother wasting his time telling them that they shouldn't have done this. Instead he sat in another of the chairs.
"Get Colt up here now!" He ordered just before AK plugged him in.
(dE mAtRiX)
He appeared next to the same phone that Silver had been supposed to exit through, no more than a few footsteps away he could see her fallen phone and pistol. He picked them up, pocketing both and then heading in the direction he had been told Silver was in. To his surprise he found that it was the same building that he had been brought to a number of days ago. It was probably some sort of agent base.
"Why are we always bailing you out of trouble, Roland?" Someone asked. A car had pulled up beside him; Ajax grinned at him from the passenger seat that Gaze was driving. Ajax reached back and opened the door and Roland climbed in.
"What's going on? AK wasn't very forthcoming." Ajax said. Roland nodded towards the building, as Gaze continued driving slowly past.
"Silver was watching someone that we were going to take out. Agents got her before she could get out." Roland said. Ajax pointed around the corner and Gaze nodded.
"Got it, Cap." She said. As soon as they got around the corner, she pulled over and shut the engine off.
"How many agents?" Ajax asked him.
"I know that it was one agent that took her. But there could be any number in there, we can't seem to read anything that's inside those walls." Roland replied. Ajax sighed then looked at Gaze.
"Got enough in there to take over a small country, Cap." She told him, grinning widely. If there was one thing Gaze truly loved it was causing mayhem and chaos, especially if it involved agents. Roland turned his scowling face on her.
"Don't mess this one up. This isn't a game, Gaze." He snapped. Gaze turned to look at Ajax, who in turn looked back at Roland.
"Is there something you're not telling us?" He asked. A muscle popped in Rolands jaw.
"She was...is my daughter. I left her on her own before, I won't do it again." He said.
"Jesus Christ, Roland! Does Locke know?" Ajax asked.
"Do I look insane to you?" Roland snapped.
"We need to get her out of there!"
"We know that already. What we don't need is to go in there half cocked with no plan of action. That's a sure way of getting ourselves killed." Ajax said calmly.
(iN bIg ScArY bUiLdInG, wItH mEaN aGeNtS)
I lay on the floor where the agent had dumped me. I still couldn't move, but I could hear what they were saying,
"You will tell us what we want to know." Came the cold voice of the same agent. Then they injected me with some other kind of drug and I couldn't hear what they were saying either. How the hell am I supposed to know what it is you want when I can't hear you? I wondered. Then I felt them lift me up by my arms and tie my wrists together, I hung like that for how long I don't know. An agent started tearing at my clothes and it wasn't long before I was naked, then I felt the pain and I knew what it was that they were doing. I wanted to scream, to pull away, but I could do nothing, I just hung there. They stopped after a while, I couldn't tell you if they'd been doing it for hours or days. They didn't let me down though; my arms and shoulders were now burning with a constant pain. I could feel blood on my face and body at least I think it was blood, it could have been tears. I was surprised when I found I could move slightly and only a little without causing to much pain, but I was still tied up. With no sense of time or place I couldn't figure out where I was, and I wondered briefly if I had been abandoned by Roland; my father. It is strange that when in the most painful and loneliest times of our life's we automatically assume that everyone we know and love has forgotten about us. But then I figured he had done the same before and what was to stop him from doing it this time? I felt someone touch my hands, trying to remove the bonds on my wrists. Then my hands were free; I tried moving away from them, but only succeeded in taking a few stumbling steps before my legs gave way under me. Whoever it was that had untied me threw what felt like a coat over me and then pulled one of my arms across their shoulders, I reached out with my other hand to touch their face and try to find out who they were. I didn't recognise them.
"Who...?" I asked. I don't know if they answered my half-mumbled question or not, I still couldn't hear anything. They half dragged, half carried me somewhere, into a car, I felt someone else gently wiping my face, and instinctively I moved away from them, groaning in pain. Then the car stopped, someone pressed something to my ear.
(dE sCrEwDrIvEr AkA dE hAmMeR 97th AnD a HaLf PoV)
And then Silver was back on the Hammer, at first no one knew if she was conscious, but then she moved, a spasmodic jerking and blood ran from her eyes, ears mouth and nose. AK held her down as Maggie gave her the quick once over before declaring her fit to be moved down to the infirmary. That was before Roland returned, and he was definitely not happy with what the three of them had done behind his back, judging by the look on AK's face though he knew he was in deep shit already. Without saying a word to him, Roland stalked off to the infirmary.
hAhAhA, I hAd To MuCh CoFfEe WhIlE tYpInG tHiS uP, sO iF iT mAkEs No SeNsE i DoN't CaRe
"What is the Matrix?" He had asked me.
"A dream." I had replied. I hadn't even known how close to the truth I had come with that answer. At the time I had no idea what he meant, but in my childish mind I had grinned back at him, showing the gap where I had two teeth missing. But he had looked at me strangely and mumbled something that I couldn't quite hear, I had turned back to doing whatever I had been doing and he had gone back to his computer, trying to find the answer to his question. Obviously he did, otherwise he wouldn't be here. There was a knock on the door.
"Go away!" I yelled.
"I'd like to talk to you, Silver." Came Maggie's voice. I don't want to talk to you. I don't want to talk to anyone. I thought. I knew that on a ship this size I couldn't avoid everyone forever.
"Fine then, come in." I said. I heard the wheel turning then the door creaking open and footsteps as she entered.
"Mind if I sit down?" She asked. I shrugged my shoulders.
"Did he send you?" I asked.
"No, I get the feeling if he knew that he wouldn't be very happy about it either." She replied.
"So he told you then?" I asked.
"You could say that." Maggie paused and I waited for her to continue.
"He honestly didn't know who you were. I know you're going to say that white hair isn't all that common, but maybe he just didn't want to think that you were his daughter."
"Yeah and like I keep saying that's the problem, he doesn't want to think of me as his daughter, he'd prefer if I didn't exist. Yes, I know white hair isn't all that common, I had her tell me that I was a freak because of it often enough." My words were bitter.
"Maybe if you talked to him about how you were feeling. Perhaps he feels the same way." Maggie said. I shook my head angrily.
"As soon as he left he forgot about me, it's pointless trying to convince me or him of anything else. Just let it go, Maggie." I told her.
"I can't." She said.
"Why not? Because you and he are together?" I asked.
"How did you know that?" She said. Despite the way I was feeling I smiled.
"Even the blind can see that, Maggie. I'm not really surprised though." I said.
"You're not upset about it?" She asked.
"Am I supposed to be? I can throw a temper tantrum if you want me to." The last part was spoken in jest, anything to stay away from the subject of Roland being my father.
"No, that's alright. We're going to try to get another person out of the Matrix, I think you might do good on this one." She said.
"Okay. It's not like I could've hid in here forever, is it?" I said. She guided me back up to the main core, where Colt had been plugged in for the last number of hours.
"Let's go, AK. Before he gets back." Maggie said.
"Oh, yeah. Not a problem. But if he finds out, which he probably will, it was all your idea, okay?" AK responded.
"Take a seat, ma'am." He said to me. Then he plugged me in and loaded me into the construct first.
"What do you need? Guns, knives we got it." He said.
"You do know that I'm blind in the Matrix, right?" I asked him.
"Yeah, but you might still want to take weapons with you. So what'll it be?"
"USP's two of them, as well as three rounds of ammo for each one. You might want to show me how to use them to." I said.
"There right in front of you. One quick course in handling and firing of USP pistols coming right up." AK said happily.
"Umm...I was..." I trailed off as my brain was assaulted with information.
"Kidding." I finished.
"Oops." Said AK.
"You might as well take them with you anyway." I reached forward and found the pistols, I tucked them into the waistband of my jeans.
"By the way, AK if these clothes look stupid on me next time I see you I'm gonna break your kneecaps." I grinned as I said it, a grin full of teeth. I've had enough people mess me about in my life already.
"Nope, you're dressed all in black. Phone's in the left jacket pocket." He told me.
"Okay then, I guess I'm ready to go." Then I hear this phone ringing.
"Hey, Silver." He hands me something.
"His pen. And I believe that's my cue to leave, see you on the other side." I can hear him pick up the phone and then it banging against the table leg, I pick it up and put it back in the cradle. Then I sit down in the chair previously occupied by Colt, and watch what the new guy is doing, at the moment he's sitting at his computer running a search for someone called 'Ballard'; the captain of the Caduceus. I'm not surprised when all this guy seemed to be getting on Ballard is terrorist activities. I don't know how long I sat there for watching what this guy was doing before he turned his head in the direction of his bedroom door. Just as it burst open and two agents came in; I let my chair drop to the floor with a crash, yanking out my phone as I did so. Just as I was about to dial it rang.
"He has agents in there with him." I said in a rush.
"So do you. And they cut the hard-line, you need to get out of there." AK's voice was calm, which I thought was odd. Strangely though his calmness seemed to wash away my anxiety of being caught be agents.
"Which way?" I asked.
"Down the fire escape. Turn left and keep going, I'll have the exit ready for you." He said. You are efficient. I thought. Soon though I was out on the street, phone pressed to my ear with one hand, pistol in the other, although I wasn't sure how I was going to be able to hit something I couldn't see, even with the training I had received. I started running to the end of the street, with AK telling me when there was a step, or a crack in the footpath etc etc. Until I heard this loud 'klunk' kind of noise and then I'm lying on the ground having lost the gun and the phone, totally disoriented and wondering what the hell just happened to me. I groaned in pain.
"Dumazz!" I muttered to myself. I pulled my hand away from my forehead that was growing a lump. I had obviously run right into something, probably a metal pole judging by the sound I had made when I hit it. Only problem now was I had no phone, and no way of figuring out where I was or how to get anywhere. So I do the only thing I can think of.
"AK!" I shout.
"I dropped the phone." I hope he can hear me and that the phone is still connected to the ship, of course I don't know what he can do about it either.
"AK-" I stop speaking as I feel the cold muzzle of a gun pressed against my temple.
"We finally meet in person, Miss Roberts. I have been looking forward to meeting you." Comes the cold voice of what I know is an agent. Inwardly I curse myself, I shouldn't have shouted like that.
"Wish I could say the feeling was mutual." I say. Then I leap away from him, it doesn't matter that I can't see my surroundings, like a light switch I can turn that on and off as well, I can make things not really be there. Perhaps I should have done that when I was running for the exit. I land and keep on moving, but I still have no idea where I am and I can't hear the agent, something slams me in the side of my head and I go down. I guess I found him.
"So why don't you just kill me and have it over and done with?" I ask. I can hear him laugh. Can programs have a sense of humor?
"It is not your time to be deleted yet, Miss Roberts. You have something we want." He says. He sticks a needle in my arm and injects the contents.
"What...?..." What do you want from me? But for some reason I can't speak out loud, I can't move and he picks me up slinging me over his shoulder like I was a side of beef.
(dE hAmMeR)
"Now left. Look out post box." AK's eyes darted from monitor to monitor.
"Go left, right. There's a po-" AK winced when he realized he was to late with the warning.
"Silver?" He looked over his shoulder at Maggie when he got no answer. Maggie was standing next to her chair.
"What's going on?" She asked him.
"I don't know...Oh shit! An agent has her. Why the hell isn't she running?" He asked of no one in particular.
"Because she can't see anything, she has no choice but to fight him." Maggie replied.
"What the hell?..." AK lifted his hands of the keyboard as Silver's code went all strange.
"What just happened?" He called.
"He just injected her with some kind of paralyzing drug." Maggie glanced over at him.
"We better get the captain up here." AK paused just long enough to cast her a glance that clearly said 'Are you insane' then he shrugged.
"He's gonna find out anyway." AK said, under his breath he muttered 'I'm dead'.
"And she'll be dead if we don't do something." Maggie snapped at him. A few moments later Roland appeared at the top of the ladder, he didn't look too happy when he saw that Silver was plugged into the Matrix. Even less so when he was told what had happened.
"Goddammit!" Roland snapped. He didn't bother wasting his time telling them that they shouldn't have done this. Instead he sat in another of the chairs.
"Get Colt up here now!" He ordered just before AK plugged him in.
(dE mAtRiX)
He appeared next to the same phone that Silver had been supposed to exit through, no more than a few footsteps away he could see her fallen phone and pistol. He picked them up, pocketing both and then heading in the direction he had been told Silver was in. To his surprise he found that it was the same building that he had been brought to a number of days ago. It was probably some sort of agent base.
"Why are we always bailing you out of trouble, Roland?" Someone asked. A car had pulled up beside him; Ajax grinned at him from the passenger seat that Gaze was driving. Ajax reached back and opened the door and Roland climbed in.
"What's going on? AK wasn't very forthcoming." Ajax said. Roland nodded towards the building, as Gaze continued driving slowly past.
"Silver was watching someone that we were going to take out. Agents got her before she could get out." Roland said. Ajax pointed around the corner and Gaze nodded.
"Got it, Cap." She said. As soon as they got around the corner, she pulled over and shut the engine off.
"How many agents?" Ajax asked him.
"I know that it was one agent that took her. But there could be any number in there, we can't seem to read anything that's inside those walls." Roland replied. Ajax sighed then looked at Gaze.
"Got enough in there to take over a small country, Cap." She told him, grinning widely. If there was one thing Gaze truly loved it was causing mayhem and chaos, especially if it involved agents. Roland turned his scowling face on her.
"Don't mess this one up. This isn't a game, Gaze." He snapped. Gaze turned to look at Ajax, who in turn looked back at Roland.
"Is there something you're not telling us?" He asked. A muscle popped in Rolands jaw.
"She was...is my daughter. I left her on her own before, I won't do it again." He said.
"Jesus Christ, Roland! Does Locke know?" Ajax asked.
"Do I look insane to you?" Roland snapped.
"We need to get her out of there!"
"We know that already. What we don't need is to go in there half cocked with no plan of action. That's a sure way of getting ourselves killed." Ajax said calmly.
(iN bIg ScArY bUiLdInG, wItH mEaN aGeNtS)
I lay on the floor where the agent had dumped me. I still couldn't move, but I could hear what they were saying,
"You will tell us what we want to know." Came the cold voice of the same agent. Then they injected me with some other kind of drug and I couldn't hear what they were saying either. How the hell am I supposed to know what it is you want when I can't hear you? I wondered. Then I felt them lift me up by my arms and tie my wrists together, I hung like that for how long I don't know. An agent started tearing at my clothes and it wasn't long before I was naked, then I felt the pain and I knew what it was that they were doing. I wanted to scream, to pull away, but I could do nothing, I just hung there. They stopped after a while, I couldn't tell you if they'd been doing it for hours or days. They didn't let me down though; my arms and shoulders were now burning with a constant pain. I could feel blood on my face and body at least I think it was blood, it could have been tears. I was surprised when I found I could move slightly and only a little without causing to much pain, but I was still tied up. With no sense of time or place I couldn't figure out where I was, and I wondered briefly if I had been abandoned by Roland; my father. It is strange that when in the most painful and loneliest times of our life's we automatically assume that everyone we know and love has forgotten about us. But then I figured he had done the same before and what was to stop him from doing it this time? I felt someone touch my hands, trying to remove the bonds on my wrists. Then my hands were free; I tried moving away from them, but only succeeded in taking a few stumbling steps before my legs gave way under me. Whoever it was that had untied me threw what felt like a coat over me and then pulled one of my arms across their shoulders, I reached out with my other hand to touch their face and try to find out who they were. I didn't recognise them.
"Who...?" I asked. I don't know if they answered my half-mumbled question or not, I still couldn't hear anything. They half dragged, half carried me somewhere, into a car, I felt someone else gently wiping my face, and instinctively I moved away from them, groaning in pain. Then the car stopped, someone pressed something to my ear.
(dE sCrEwDrIvEr AkA dE hAmMeR 97th AnD a HaLf PoV)
And then Silver was back on the Hammer, at first no one knew if she was conscious, but then she moved, a spasmodic jerking and blood ran from her eyes, ears mouth and nose. AK held her down as Maggie gave her the quick once over before declaring her fit to be moved down to the infirmary. That was before Roland returned, and he was definitely not happy with what the three of them had done behind his back, judging by the look on AK's face though he knew he was in deep shit already. Without saying a word to him, Roland stalked off to the infirmary.
hAhAhA, I hAd To MuCh CoFfEe WhIlE tYpInG tHiS uP, sO iF iT mAkEs No SeNsE i DoN't CaRe