It was drizzling yet again. Solace walked through the raindrops, not bothering to put on anything that would keep her from getting wet. As much as she looked forward to these daily talks with Smith, sometimes the weather really did not cooperate. Today she had wanted to take him on a much longer walk around the park, and maybe go feed the ducks again. Although ... she blushed. Skinny dipping, or as close as she had come to it yesterday, was definitely out of the question. Too risky at this juncture, too dangerous. She'd have to think of something else. This was really starting to be fun, though.
She still had to come up with more activities for them to do. Walking in the park was fun, but it was also starting to become boring. They'd gone through most of the areas she knew, and she was starting to run out of new things for them to see or new topics of discussion. The tradition of walking through the park needed something to spice it up. She'd have to think of something.
Solace was busy thinking on that topic when the first young man walked up. "Hey there, chica... you got the time?"
Something in his tone of voice alarmed her, would have alarmed her even if she'd still been plugged in. Worse, right now she had to play it as a copper top, since she was in her copper top clothes. "Yeah, it's..." she started to look at her watch, heart sinking with dismay. This wasn't going to be good.
She was unsurprised when someone grabbed her from behind and whipped her around, grinning toothily. The number of thugs who surrounded her, though, was disheartening.
"C'mon, chica. It's gonna be a party."
Crap.
"No thanks, guys, look. It's raining, I don't think anyone's really in the mood, why don't we just..."
"Aw, c'mon. I'm in the mood."
A couple of the gangers started tugging at her skirt, flicking up ends of it. She pushed the fabric down. "Stop it."
"Make us."
She stared at them. She weighed her options, wondering if she dared break her cover even in front of these gang bangers. She watched the matrix reflect itself in their eyes, realizing just as one of them grabbed her and spun her around that this situation could get much, much worse. If she broke cover and the fight lasted long enough (which it might, oh it very well might) the Agents would be alerted to her presence. Agents who were nowhere near as benign as Smith.
To keep the sanctity of the experiment... and maybe even to preserve her own life... she would have to be subject to their torture.
Hell.
"C'mon, chica..." the young man said as strong hands grabbed her arms and twisted them up behind her back. "You know you want it."
She kicked the man in the groin, as hard as she humanly could. He folded over, and somehow she managed to flip herself up and over the two who were holding her without looking too unreal. Unfortunately, she also managed to land flat on her butt.
"Dammit... hold her!"
She scrambled to her feet, kicking out in every direction she could, and she actually managed to run for a few feet before someone large and heavy tackled her from behind. Her skin scraped off against the pavement as she fell.
"Uh-uh.. you're not going anywhere..."
She started to scream.
It didn't help.
It went on... she didn't know how long. It couldn't have been more than fifteen minutes, but those few minutes were enough. They had her on the ground, and they were tugging at her spandex bike shorts. She closed her eyes, screamed, kicked, and tried not to think about what was going to happen. She tried not to break her cover, use the skills the Matrix had given her, and bring the Agents down on her head.
But the Agents came anyway.
At least one of them did. She heard the shouts before she could even see him, and it was a couple seconds before they made sense in her mind.
"All of you, lie down on the ground with your hands behind your head."
Smith.
He was, she realized as she lay there and felt the pebbles and dirt pressing into her cheek, doing a damn good imitation of a human agent of some law enforcement order. She listened, not daring to move.
"Federal Agent... Freeze!" she heard the words just before she heard the gunshot. Behind her something fell down, something large and heavy. There weren't any sounds of movement after the body hit the ground. She wondered where the bullet had gone. "The next one gets it in the head. Now get off her... slowly... and keep your hands where I can see them at all times."
She hadn't heard that level of venom in his voice since she'd heard the salvaged recordings from the Neb.
"Man, you can't just be coming in here and..."
Bang.
The bodies on top of her moved a lot quicker after the second shot. As with the first, she didn't hear any movement behind her. Slowly, very slowly, she stood up and pulled her clothing back on and around her, drawing herself to her feet with all the dignity she possessed.
"Are you hurt?" He didn't look at her as he asked, didn't address her by name. Smart, she supposed.
"I'm okay." She took a deep breath, steadied her voice. "I'm okay." When she finally managed to look up at him he was grabbing at her arm, putting her behind him. The gun was at arm's length pointed directly at one of the bandana-wrapped heads. Two bodies were on the ground, too still for life. Everyone was staring at Smith as though he held the key to all the answers. Which, she had to grant, he did.
His earpiece was also in his ear.
But not, it seemed, to communicate to the agents. The police were there within seconds, and took at face value Agent Smith's assertion that he was a member of the FBI who happened to stumble upon the attempted rape of one Solace, last name unknown. Yes, they were acquainted beyond today, it was their custom to meet in the park and have lunch, share coffee, play chess, or talk. He had become concerned when she did not appear around the usual time and started to walk through the park, wondering if she had perhaps been held up somewhere. No, he didn't know why the gang members would accost her. No, he hadn't had any foreknowledge, he just happened to be in the right place at the right time. They took her statement, allowed her to assert that she hadn't been raped (although it had been a near thing), didn't run a rape kit on her, and allowed her to leave the station.
Smith was leaning on the car outside, arms folded across his chest. His earpiece was down again, but his sunglasses were on.
"Come on... I'll take you home."
Home. She actually froze for a second, trying to remember if she had arranged to have a home once she'd realized this experiment would be ongoing. Her eyes widened, and he took the expression for fear.
"You're safe now..." he said, frowning. "Nothing is going to happen to you."
"Yeah..." she shook her head. Of course, she'd arranged the apartment with Tank, why had she forgotten that? She'd had to field all kinds of potentially embarrassing questions. She should have remembered. "I know... it's just..." The shiver was unfeigned.
Smith reached an arm out to her and pulled her in close to him as she approached, his hand on her shoulder. "Come on..." he said, more gently this time. Evolution at its best.
She got into the car.
"... where do you live?" he asked after they sat there for a long moment. They both had realized that she hadn't told him, and Solace grinned wryly.
"Apartment building at the corner of Wood and 25th. Ironically, it's not too far."
He nodded, started the car, and drove out. The verisimilitude of the Agent program evidently extended to their driving skills. Smith drove on in silence, and Solace drew her knees up to her chest over the course of the next ten minutes. She looked out the window at the passing buildings, wondering a little at the unreality of it all. Her senses told her it was real; the knowledge locked in her head told her otherwise. Strange, how things like that worked. And strange how all the falsehood in the world couldn't erase the baser impulses of street scum.
"Are you sure you're all right?" Smith asked, glancing over at her longer than should have been humanly possible for the way he was driving. She let it go.
"No. But for the purposes of the police questioning, yes, I was. I figured I'd wait till I got home to collapse into tears."
"Ah."
They reached the apartment building, into whose parking lot Solace directed Smith with almost automatic short words. She barely nodded to the doorman and had to fumble with her keys to open the door.
"You are most definitely not all right."
"I just said that in the car... didn't I just say that?" she leaned against the wall after locking the door behind them, closing her eyes "Oh god... I feel like I'm going to be sick."
"Breathe..." she felt warm hands on his shoulder, lifted her own hands up to cover them. "Breathe."
"Breathing. Got it."
Minutes ticked by. "Here..." she finally managed to open her eyes (he had taken off his sunglasses at some point) and walk a straight line through the den. "Might as well sit down."
They sat. Solace propped herself up against a corner and curled up further. Smith extended his legs, appearing to be more at ease than he should have been for his first time in her apartment. She looked him up and down, trying to be at least a little bit subtle about it. He watched her with more abstract concern than emotion.
"Solace..." he murmured.
"Yeah?"
"Your posture suggests that you are still afraid. Why?"
"... I don't know."
He reached out and put only the fingertips of one hand on her arm. "There's nothing to be afraid of, here."
Deep breath. Control. Breathing. "I know."
"Then why are you trembling?"
She stretched her legs out. Their feet met, touched. It felt odd, and she tried to ignore it. "I don't know."
Long silence. "Solace..."
"Yeah?"
Deep breath. He seemed to be considering something. She didn't know what; she hadn't been paying attention. She had been in a state of shock for the last half hour, the Matrix almost entirely driven from her mind. Smith's nonhuman status as an Agent seemed trivial now. The unreality of the world around them seemed irrelevant.
"Solace..."
Her train of thought had derailed again. Not good. "Yeah?"
Deep sigh. "Come here."
He stretched out his arms and pulled her in close. The absolute impossibility of the action broke through the shock, and she blinked for a second. "I thought you didn't like cute and cuddly."
"I don't." His arms tightened around her. He was warm, had breath, had a heartbeat. The computers were certainly thorough. She closed her eyes. "But you seem to need some sort of comfort right now."
"Oh..."
He was right, though how a computer program recognized the need for... oh hell. Stop thinking about it. "Just re..." he stopped short of saying 'relax,' probably feeling her tense up as he started to say the words. The same words the gang bangers had said. "Sleep, Solace. You are safe now."
"Not..." she yawned "A bad idea."
Why was she relaxing so much in the presence... in the impossible embrace... of an Agent? She didn't understand, and in the face of the events of the day it didn't matter.
"Sleep, Solace." His fingertips stroked her hair. The luxurious, soft hair that she had been so proud of when she had been alive... plugged in... whatever. Her eyes were starting to droop closed. She did feel safe. She felt protected. "I will watch over you." Almost inaudible, as though even he didn't want to know what he had just said.
"Mm-hmm... I'll just rest here... for a minute."
"Of course."
She slept.
She still had to come up with more activities for them to do. Walking in the park was fun, but it was also starting to become boring. They'd gone through most of the areas she knew, and she was starting to run out of new things for them to see or new topics of discussion. The tradition of walking through the park needed something to spice it up. She'd have to think of something.
Solace was busy thinking on that topic when the first young man walked up. "Hey there, chica... you got the time?"
Something in his tone of voice alarmed her, would have alarmed her even if she'd still been plugged in. Worse, right now she had to play it as a copper top, since she was in her copper top clothes. "Yeah, it's..." she started to look at her watch, heart sinking with dismay. This wasn't going to be good.
She was unsurprised when someone grabbed her from behind and whipped her around, grinning toothily. The number of thugs who surrounded her, though, was disheartening.
"C'mon, chica. It's gonna be a party."
Crap.
"No thanks, guys, look. It's raining, I don't think anyone's really in the mood, why don't we just..."
"Aw, c'mon. I'm in the mood."
A couple of the gangers started tugging at her skirt, flicking up ends of it. She pushed the fabric down. "Stop it."
"Make us."
She stared at them. She weighed her options, wondering if she dared break her cover even in front of these gang bangers. She watched the matrix reflect itself in their eyes, realizing just as one of them grabbed her and spun her around that this situation could get much, much worse. If she broke cover and the fight lasted long enough (which it might, oh it very well might) the Agents would be alerted to her presence. Agents who were nowhere near as benign as Smith.
To keep the sanctity of the experiment... and maybe even to preserve her own life... she would have to be subject to their torture.
Hell.
"C'mon, chica..." the young man said as strong hands grabbed her arms and twisted them up behind her back. "You know you want it."
She kicked the man in the groin, as hard as she humanly could. He folded over, and somehow she managed to flip herself up and over the two who were holding her without looking too unreal. Unfortunately, she also managed to land flat on her butt.
"Dammit... hold her!"
She scrambled to her feet, kicking out in every direction she could, and she actually managed to run for a few feet before someone large and heavy tackled her from behind. Her skin scraped off against the pavement as she fell.
"Uh-uh.. you're not going anywhere..."
She started to scream.
It didn't help.
It went on... she didn't know how long. It couldn't have been more than fifteen minutes, but those few minutes were enough. They had her on the ground, and they were tugging at her spandex bike shorts. She closed her eyes, screamed, kicked, and tried not to think about what was going to happen. She tried not to break her cover, use the skills the Matrix had given her, and bring the Agents down on her head.
But the Agents came anyway.
At least one of them did. She heard the shouts before she could even see him, and it was a couple seconds before they made sense in her mind.
"All of you, lie down on the ground with your hands behind your head."
Smith.
He was, she realized as she lay there and felt the pebbles and dirt pressing into her cheek, doing a damn good imitation of a human agent of some law enforcement order. She listened, not daring to move.
"Federal Agent... Freeze!" she heard the words just before she heard the gunshot. Behind her something fell down, something large and heavy. There weren't any sounds of movement after the body hit the ground. She wondered where the bullet had gone. "The next one gets it in the head. Now get off her... slowly... and keep your hands where I can see them at all times."
She hadn't heard that level of venom in his voice since she'd heard the salvaged recordings from the Neb.
"Man, you can't just be coming in here and..."
Bang.
The bodies on top of her moved a lot quicker after the second shot. As with the first, she didn't hear any movement behind her. Slowly, very slowly, she stood up and pulled her clothing back on and around her, drawing herself to her feet with all the dignity she possessed.
"Are you hurt?" He didn't look at her as he asked, didn't address her by name. Smart, she supposed.
"I'm okay." She took a deep breath, steadied her voice. "I'm okay." When she finally managed to look up at him he was grabbing at her arm, putting her behind him. The gun was at arm's length pointed directly at one of the bandana-wrapped heads. Two bodies were on the ground, too still for life. Everyone was staring at Smith as though he held the key to all the answers. Which, she had to grant, he did.
His earpiece was also in his ear.
But not, it seemed, to communicate to the agents. The police were there within seconds, and took at face value Agent Smith's assertion that he was a member of the FBI who happened to stumble upon the attempted rape of one Solace, last name unknown. Yes, they were acquainted beyond today, it was their custom to meet in the park and have lunch, share coffee, play chess, or talk. He had become concerned when she did not appear around the usual time and started to walk through the park, wondering if she had perhaps been held up somewhere. No, he didn't know why the gang members would accost her. No, he hadn't had any foreknowledge, he just happened to be in the right place at the right time. They took her statement, allowed her to assert that she hadn't been raped (although it had been a near thing), didn't run a rape kit on her, and allowed her to leave the station.
Smith was leaning on the car outside, arms folded across his chest. His earpiece was down again, but his sunglasses were on.
"Come on... I'll take you home."
Home. She actually froze for a second, trying to remember if she had arranged to have a home once she'd realized this experiment would be ongoing. Her eyes widened, and he took the expression for fear.
"You're safe now..." he said, frowning. "Nothing is going to happen to you."
"Yeah..." she shook her head. Of course, she'd arranged the apartment with Tank, why had she forgotten that? She'd had to field all kinds of potentially embarrassing questions. She should have remembered. "I know... it's just..." The shiver was unfeigned.
Smith reached an arm out to her and pulled her in close to him as she approached, his hand on her shoulder. "Come on..." he said, more gently this time. Evolution at its best.
She got into the car.
"... where do you live?" he asked after they sat there for a long moment. They both had realized that she hadn't told him, and Solace grinned wryly.
"Apartment building at the corner of Wood and 25th. Ironically, it's not too far."
He nodded, started the car, and drove out. The verisimilitude of the Agent program evidently extended to their driving skills. Smith drove on in silence, and Solace drew her knees up to her chest over the course of the next ten minutes. She looked out the window at the passing buildings, wondering a little at the unreality of it all. Her senses told her it was real; the knowledge locked in her head told her otherwise. Strange, how things like that worked. And strange how all the falsehood in the world couldn't erase the baser impulses of street scum.
"Are you sure you're all right?" Smith asked, glancing over at her longer than should have been humanly possible for the way he was driving. She let it go.
"No. But for the purposes of the police questioning, yes, I was. I figured I'd wait till I got home to collapse into tears."
"Ah."
They reached the apartment building, into whose parking lot Solace directed Smith with almost automatic short words. She barely nodded to the doorman and had to fumble with her keys to open the door.
"You are most definitely not all right."
"I just said that in the car... didn't I just say that?" she leaned against the wall after locking the door behind them, closing her eyes "Oh god... I feel like I'm going to be sick."
"Breathe..." she felt warm hands on his shoulder, lifted her own hands up to cover them. "Breathe."
"Breathing. Got it."
Minutes ticked by. "Here..." she finally managed to open her eyes (he had taken off his sunglasses at some point) and walk a straight line through the den. "Might as well sit down."
They sat. Solace propped herself up against a corner and curled up further. Smith extended his legs, appearing to be more at ease than he should have been for his first time in her apartment. She looked him up and down, trying to be at least a little bit subtle about it. He watched her with more abstract concern than emotion.
"Solace..." he murmured.
"Yeah?"
"Your posture suggests that you are still afraid. Why?"
"... I don't know."
He reached out and put only the fingertips of one hand on her arm. "There's nothing to be afraid of, here."
Deep breath. Control. Breathing. "I know."
"Then why are you trembling?"
She stretched her legs out. Their feet met, touched. It felt odd, and she tried to ignore it. "I don't know."
Long silence. "Solace..."
"Yeah?"
Deep breath. He seemed to be considering something. She didn't know what; she hadn't been paying attention. She had been in a state of shock for the last half hour, the Matrix almost entirely driven from her mind. Smith's nonhuman status as an Agent seemed trivial now. The unreality of the world around them seemed irrelevant.
"Solace..."
Her train of thought had derailed again. Not good. "Yeah?"
Deep sigh. "Come here."
He stretched out his arms and pulled her in close. The absolute impossibility of the action broke through the shock, and she blinked for a second. "I thought you didn't like cute and cuddly."
"I don't." His arms tightened around her. He was warm, had breath, had a heartbeat. The computers were certainly thorough. She closed her eyes. "But you seem to need some sort of comfort right now."
"Oh..."
He was right, though how a computer program recognized the need for... oh hell. Stop thinking about it. "Just re..." he stopped short of saying 'relax,' probably feeling her tense up as he started to say the words. The same words the gang bangers had said. "Sleep, Solace. You are safe now."
"Not..." she yawned "A bad idea."
Why was she relaxing so much in the presence... in the impossible embrace... of an Agent? She didn't understand, and in the face of the events of the day it didn't matter.
"Sleep, Solace." His fingertips stroked her hair. The luxurious, soft hair that she had been so proud of when she had been alive... plugged in... whatever. Her eyes were starting to droop closed. She did feel safe. She felt protected. "I will watch over you." Almost inaudible, as though even he didn't want to know what he had just said.
"Mm-hmm... I'll just rest here... for a minute."
"Of course."
She slept.