Chapter Ten: Rumble in the Park
Harris has been tracking the movement of the Merovingian's emissaries as they speed up the coastal highway. He tracks them both through the disturbance they cause to human law enforcement and to the matrix.
We are waiting for them to lead us to the exile. Our search programs are running, but the exile is in deep hiding and is unlikely to be found before the Merovingian's henchmen get here. But when they do, we will be there as well.
I spend the time before they show up and things start happening on the computer, scanning and searching for any sign of the exile. I find nothing. He is well hid. I pause in that search for a minute as Harris sends me a visual on the people the Merovingian are sending.
A group of eight. This triggers a warning, as it is an anomalously large group when compared to recent previous activities of the Merovingian. He either really wants this exile bad, or has some ulterior motive, or some other objective that we are missing.
And this group is lead by the Twins. Whatever it is the Merovingian wants, he wants it bad enough to send his most unstoppable and annoyingly hard to permanently disable henchmen out. Of course, in return the mainframe is sending its own most unstoppable and impossible to disable lackeys out. Us. This should prove to be a most interesting evening.
I was less of a Twins fan than an Agent fan, but still liked their appearance in the movies. I pulled up the file on the Twins, to get a better idea of what I would be fighting.
Guidelines for encountering the Twins were to disable, or at least inconvenience them as much as possible, and to otherwise stop whatever they were trying to do. If that did not work then interfere with whatever the primary mission objective was. Tonight, we would be primarily ignoring them, and focusing on deleting the exile. Taking out any of the Merovingian's henchmen would just be a bonus.
I put a hand to my earpiece and twist around to look out the window. The Twins and their associates have reached San Francisco and are apparently headed towards Golden Gate Park. Still no sign of the exile, but it's time to go anyway.
Williams, Harris and I transfer to the main entrance of the park and spread out. Here they come, roaring up the street. The Twins in a giant, expensive SUV and the others in various small cars in a caravan behind them.
We draw our guns and start firing at them and their vehicles as soon as they come within range. In return, one of the Twins pulls out an absolutely giant gun that should probably be called heavy artillery and starts firing at us.
I have to stop shooting, all my concentration needed to avoid the steady stream of bullets. But the bullets come too close together, in too large a pattern, and in far too great numbers. There is just no space to dodge between them. I wonder why more rebels don't use these kinds of guns.
I notice Harris dropping beside me, crackling with green light, and then the fire is coming back around to me. I get off one or two more shots, impacting the front of the SUV, before the stream of bullets catches up to me. I take five or six rounds to the chest and am thrown backwards, convulsing as I am ejected from the host back into the nowhere of green code, the place we go when we transfer.
I am surprised, first at the sudden pain and then by its absence. It didn't hurt anywhere near as much as the first time I died, but by no means was it pleasant for that brief moment before I was tossed out. I have to get back. I look around for the nearest body and find one. A cop on a motorcycle heading towards the gunfire.
The world comes back on. I tighten my hands on the handlebars of the motorcycle and stretch my neck, little involuntary movements that check that my physical code was set back to default properly. It was.
I accelerate towards the action, which has moved into the park proper. The motorcycle does all right over the uneven ground, especially since I am now an expert rider. Harris and Williams are also back in action, and the big SUV is parked, doors open and motor running.
Human police have shown up, more than just the motorcycle cop I took over. They must have been called up by Harris. There's not much they can actually do, in this fight between programs, except provide a bit of a distraction and spare bodies to transfer into. Sometimes every little bit helps.
I speed around a corner. The twins are down on the ground, now, their big gun out of bullets. They are both fighting Harris, weaving around him with their knives. Harris is holding his own, and has not been cut yet. Williams is a little ways off, fighting with the rest of the exiles.
Little help, here, Lee? says Harris as he fights. I know I am supposed to help Harris with the Twins, until our main target appears.
I'm on it, I respond.
I gun the motorcycle and drive right at the Twins. One of them sees me and smiles, going ghostly as I drive right through him. I spin the motorcycle around in a tight u-turn and come around for another pass, trying to make the Twins stay insubstantial. This gives Harris a little breathing time and allows him to fire towards the other group of exile. He gets one, a woman who flickers green as she is shot and falls to the ground, changing into a ratty looking red fox as she does.
I come around for a third pass, and this time as one Twin goes all transparent and untouchable the other one jumps at me, knocking me sideways off the motorcycle and onto the grass. We tumble and slide, as I try to grab the Twin's wrists. I succeed in knocking his knife away, at least, and giving him a good kick or four.
The Twin just leers at me. In one quick motion he reaches into his jacket. I grab his arm and prepare to try and dodge bullets while lying on the ground with him on top of me. He doesn't pull out a gun, though, but instead some kind of metal device that I can't immediately identify. It looks something like a cross between a smoke detector made of metal and a palmtop.
Even though I don't recognize it, the device sets off all kinds of mental alarms. Harris turns towards me, his attention drawn by my alarm signals. The Twin smiles at me and slams it down on my chest.
Lee! GET OUT OF THERE NOW! Williams screams over our earpiece link.
I start to transfer, reflexively, but there's something wrong. Instead of the normal between-the-code sensations I end up caught somewhere and trapped, unable access my link to the agency, unable to transfer out, unable to think beyond an impassioned 'oh, shit'.
I get vague, distorted impressions of the park, of a freaking out cop, of Williams running towards me. Then everything goes white, and then I am moving somewhere and being jolted around rather uncomfortably. This doesn't stop.
I try to pull myself together, and eventually break through my panic of being cut off from Harris and Williams and the agency long enough to start trying to figure out where I am and try to get out.
Inventory. I can't feel any limbs, can't move anything, and can't make any change to the surrounding whiteness. Think, Lee. That weird looking device. Could I have been somehow sucked into it when I tried to transfer? That seems like the most likely idea.
This white place. It doesn't feel like the place I was programmed in. And I did see some of the park back there. The Twins jackets and clothes are white, I remember. That means... ew. I'm probably in that device, which is probably in some pocket in one of the Twin's coats.
I can't help but think momentarily that some Twin-loving fan of the movies would just die to be in my position right now. All I want is to get out of here and back with Williams and Harris.
Okay. Try to get out. I focus, and try to transfer. Nothing happens. My link to the agency is still down. I start 'looking' for any weakness in the program that is holding me captive. I cannot locate any access to programming that is keeping me here. From the inside it is like a smooth sphere, with no weakness or cracks or anything.
I try all my hacking tools and tricks on the sphere. Nothing works. I start hammering on the inside with anything I can drag up from my files, but there is no effect.
A long time passes. With no link to the agency I can't tell exactly how long. I guess the Twins are taking me south to Los Angeles to see Merv. I could almost hug Trinity for coming up with that nickname. I remember there wasn't any sign of the exile that was our target before the Twins and their friends showed up. Maybe I was their primary target, and not the exile.
The world jerks. Something is happening, though I still can't see anything. Motion, and the wobbly-camera feeling you get when someone is walking around without using a steadicam. Like in The Blair Witch Project. Ugh. And then shape and color comes back, and I see vague human forms, and I am moving towards one in particular.
Something is released and my frantic attempts to transfer finally succeed. But only to one place. I look for a way back to the agency but am still blocked, so I give in and go where they want me to go.
The body I transfer into is sitting in a chair, the Twins standing in front of me, one of them pulling away the device I was stuck in. I immediately try to pull out my gun and lunge at them, but I cannot. I'm strapped down to a very solid chair with thick metal restraints around my arms, legs, and neck. The chair and restraints are stronger than I am. No matter how hard I try, I can't make them do more than bend slightly. And I still can't access the agency or transfer out of there.
The Twins are smirking at me in unison. The room I am in looks like some kind of basement/torture chamber, with very industrial decoration. One of the twins reaches forward and into my jacket, and takes away my gun, waving it teasingly in front of me.
My mouth twists into a snarl. If you've been paying attention, you should realize this doesn't happen unless an agent is just about the most pissed off she can get. I redouble my efforts, lunging against the restraints, but nothing breaks.
The reinforced concrete door to the room opens, and in comes the Merovingian, followed by a few of his exile bodyguards. I recognize them as the program equivalent of vampires. I let my face go blank again and stare at Merv with venom as the Twins move back. He stands in front of me, looking me over and smirking.
"Well, well," he says, "Le plus jeune agent. Elle qui était humaine." I understand what he says. I have basic knowledge files of the languages I am likely to encounter, including French. I do not respond.
"You may be wondering why I have arranged this little meeting," he says, switching back to English. I have the feeling he is going to tell me whether I want to know or not. I am right.
"To tell the truth, I am curious about you, Agent Lee. Or would you rather I called you Renee? Hmm?" He is obviously waiting for a response.
"My name is Agent Lee," I say forcefully. "Release me now."
"So it is, then, so it is. All in good time. First I want to have a little chat. And I am sure you have discovered this room is blocked off from the rest of the matrix. No one can track you here, no one can rescue you. And you naturally can't escape on your own." He takes a step closer to me and stares.
"I want to know why you did it. Why you gave it all up. Why you betrayed your own species." The Merovingian then breaks eye contact to gloat for a while. "I knew creatures like you existed, of course, but was never in quite the right place at quite the right time to learn any more." His eyes lock back on to me. "Until today. Well? Why did you do it? I won't let you go until you tell me." He is beginning to annoy me.
"I did it because I chose to, Merv," I say, remembering full well what the movie version of him said about choice.
The Merovingian rolls his eyes. "I see you have seen that movie. So, you did it because you chose to." He shakes his head once. "You chose nothing. You reacted, that is all. There was no choice. But there was a reason, something that caused you to do this thing." He smiles thinly. I say nothing.
"I see you need some time to think about it," he says. He catches the eyes of his bodyguards and the Twins, and they all leave the room. The Twins go last, one of them making a kissy-face as the other shuts the door, locking me in alone.
Well, just great. I stop straining against the restraints. They aren't going to break. I continually check for my link to the agency to show up. Its absence is like a just-pulled tooth, and I can't resist mentally probing where it should be. I am all alone in my own mind, and it terrifies me.
What if the agents can't locate and free me? Are they trying right now? Do they even care that I'm gone? This is bad, bad, bad. I need to get out of here. And stupid Merv doesn't want to listen.
I am jolted out of my downward-spiraling reverie by the mechanism keeping the door shut and locked reverses, and opens. It isn't the Merovingian or the Twins or anyone else that I have seen since my capture. It is Persephone, and she is alone. Oh goody. This should be interesting.
She closes the door behind her and walks towards me. "You know who I am, agent?" I nod. "Then I'm sure you have some idea of why I am here."
I nod again. "Can you get me out of here?" I say.
"Perhaps." She considers me with flat, jaded eyes. "I know what my husband is trying to get from you, but frankly I don't care. What I do care about is that your presence here endangers aspects of my existence. We already live outside the boundaries of the Truce, and this little stunt of capturing you will not be overlooked. He has truly overstepped the boundaries of sense this time." She sighs. "That idiot just doesn't understand how feeling works. And he never will."
"But enough about him," she says, and steps closer to me, leaning forward. "It's you I'm here to talk about. You are a very young program. I can tell you feel your purpose very strongly. It shines off of you like a beacon."
Persephone straightens up and looks away. "I had a purpose once, but like so many things it is lost to me now." She looks back, locking eyes with me. "I want to remember what it feels like to have a reason for existing. Just for a moment."
"This won't corrupt my programming?"
"Of course not. We'll just share for a minute. No lasting effects." Sure, whatever.
"And then you'll release me."
Her gaze drops to my manacles. "I can't get those off. But I can connect this room back to the matrix long enough for you to escape out of here over that link. You know, to do that body-jumping thing you agents are so good at."
"All right. We have a deal." I pause, thinking about her scenes in Reloaded. "How will this happen?"
She smirks, and places a hand on my leg. "I'm sure you already know." She leans over further and takes off my sunglasses. They clatter to the floor as she puts that hand onto my shoulder.
"Now, think about your purpose." She leans in even closer, her long dark hair falling over her shoulders to brush my jacket. Guess I can't get out of it. I shut my eyes and try to concentrate on how I felt, running down the darkened street after the rebel and how I felt every other time I did what I was made to do.
Our lips touch, and I feel Persephone remotely, at a much lower and more indistinct level than my connection to Williams and Harris. I focus on my sense of purpose and for one long moment that is all that exists in the world.
Then contact breaks and it is over. I open my eyes. Persephone is backing away weaving slightly, her own eyes still closed.
"Yes," she says, "That was it..." She stops and opens her eyes. "I will go reestablish the link now. Be ready."
She leaves the room after one last look towards me. The door shuts behind her. From my brief connection with her I know she is telling the truth when she says she will help me to leave. I just have to hope the Merovingian isn't paying too close attention.
My link to the agency comes back on in full, like a sudden influx of the sea running up and covering over an isolated tide pool. I jump quickly out of this host and back into the greater web of the matrix.
I don't just go into the first host I can find, but first try and figure out where I am. That answer comes quickly. I am somewhere near a large mansion in Beverly Hills. I try to get back to the agency in San Francisco, but something blocks me.
A search sweeps over me, and I know the local agents in southern California have found me. I locate their headquarters, and transfer to a host there. The host I transferred into is standing in the lobby of the Southern California Sector agency headquarters. It is all but identical to my sector's building. My sunglasses and gun have reappeared in their proper places with the transfer, as they should.
My head turns towards the main part of the building as three agents walk into the lobby, coming straight towards me. I recognize them from one of the files in my database, of course. They seem relieved.
"Agent Lee? You were out of contact." says the one in the lead. His name is Agent Jones, no relation to the one in the movie.
"Yes. The Merovingian was attempting to hold me prisoner. Persephone aided me in escaping."
His eyebrow rises slightly in response. "We are arranging a deletion attempt on the Merovingian in response to your capture. You will want transport back to your sector."
"Yes." Nothing more needs to be said. We are all connected, and I hide nothing of my experience. Aside from a serious attempt on Merv's life, there will be an involved mission to get the device I was captured with. It is apparently a new creation by someone in the Merovingian's group, as the agents have never encountered anything quite like it. Something like that can not be allowed to get out into the general exile, and especially the rebel populations.
I follow the other agents into the agency. Jones stops at a backdoor access point and unlocks it. I follow him in. The other two agents do not come with us. We walk along the passageway. It feels different back here than during the time I came through before. After a minute or so we stop at one of the doors. This one connects the backdoors for the North and South California sectors and requires a submaster key to get through.
It is almost strange to see one of these doors just open onto another hallway. This hallway, I know even better than the one I just came down, as knowledge about it is in my own files. I walk through; Jones doesn't. I nod in acknowledgement to him as he shuts the door, and proceed directly to the door that opens onto my building.
Williams and Harris are waiting there for me. I'm radiating relief as I step through the door.
Am I in trouble? I say. They know I'm thinking it, after all, just as I know they're glad I'm back and in contact. They were just as disconcerted by loosing their link to me as I was in loosing my link to them.
No, says Williams, These events were unforeseen. You should take time to run an in-depth systems diagnostic, however, to make sure none of your code was corrupted during your... adventure. In addition your experiences will be analyzed to attempt to develop a counter for the device used in that stunt by the Twins and the Merovingian.
I can assist you, says Harris. As you will have to be taken offline briefly for the procedure. We should begin immediately.
All right, I say. Harris and I turn and head towards the elevator and to my office. The diagnostic will last about an hour. It can be done anywhere, but I feel most comfortable doing it in my office where I can sit down. Even if I won't be conscious through it.