Chapter 11 - Harendotes
I opened my eyes and looked around. It looked as though I was in the right place; I was heading for a chateau, and currently I was surrounded by stone walls with a large deep-coloured tapestry hanging behind me. But more than anything else I knew I was in the right place because I could sense Hannah nearby. The hole was filled.
Hannah? Is that you?
Shit! Sarah! Where did you come from? Not bothering to explain, I opened up my mind and let her explore my memory for herself. She found the memories of how I had got there and what I had done. Oh Sarah…Morpheus is gonna /kill/ you…
Yeh I know, but I didn't have any choice. Anyway, how the hell do I get to you? I don't know my way around this place.
Neither do I. It's fine, it's not that hard to navigate, and anyway as long as we can still sense each other in this programme or whatever the hell it is we can just do it like that. Oh by the way, check out what your wearing. I think I've been programmed with my own clothes but I have no idea how that happened…there is something definitely weird about this programme, I didn't know they could change stuff like that or how it knew what to give me. I thought you uploaded your clothes in the Construct and that was it, but apparently not.
I looked down and started. Me too! Creepy. I peered into her mind and found the memory where she had looked in the mirror in the chateau bedroom and couldn't decide whether to groan or laugh. Han…they've given us the same clothes…
Oh you're joking, we haven't worn the same thing since we were, like, 7!
Suddenly her mind changed direction and I was hit by a wave of her fear. Oh god, Sarah, you gotta help, there are these 2 guys and they've been chasing me for bloody ages, I can't fight them on my own!
Okay, okay, calm down, just hide as soon as you can, I'll come and find you. We can take them on together, it'll be fine. After all, we know kung fu.
We giggled internally together and Hannah followed my instructions. Once she had stopped moving and I knew she was safely hidden away, I began to follow my senses in order to find her. I knew she was about 3 floors below me and there seemed to be a good network of stairs and corridors to get me there, and I ran for a good while without being stopped or even meeting anybody. I only had a few hundred yards to go and was getting ready to see her climbing out of the chest where she was hiding. I should have known it wouldn't be that easy.
OoOoO
The Merovingian looked up from his book, disturbed by the sound of fast-moving feet in the corridor outside his office. Sighing, he slowly raised himself from the leather chair behind his desk and wearily made his way over to the door. Opening it and leaning out to see who was coming, he had to restrain himself from jumping. That wasn't supposed to happen.
OoOoO
Just as I was approaching the room Hannah was in, a door opened a few metres ahead of me and a man poked his head out. I froze and for a few moments we just stared at each other. I could feel my heart trying to pound its way out my chest as the adrenaline started to kick in – I was realising that I had absolutely no idea what to do. Finally he stepped out of the doorway and looked me up and down, then smiled as if he recognised me.
I took a step backwards, starting to feel threatened even though he was smiling at me.
"Ah, I see you 'ave woken up at last," he said, with a think French accent.
I hesitated before speaking. "Who are you?" I was already guessing, but needed to make sure.
He took another few steps forward and unclasped his hands in a friendly gesture. "Je suis le Merovingian." He held out his hand. "Enchanté."
So this is the famous Merovingian. Time to get down to business. I made a point of not accepting his hand. Instead I crossed my arms over my chest and looked at him from under my brow.
"What the hell are you trying to do with my twin?"
He paused for a moment, looking slightly confused. "She is not 'ere yet. But if you want to see 'er, she will be coming soon, I assure you."
Hang on…she is here…what?
He suddenly noticed my dreads and reached out to touch them; I stepped back defensively.
"But what 'ave you done to your 'air?" It was then that I realised what was happening.
He thinks I'm Hannah! OK how can I use this to my advantage? Um…let's see…I wonder if he'll tell me what he's up to?
"So, er, why am I here exactly?" I ventured.
He chuckled and put his hand on my shoulder, gesturing with his other as if to lead me into his office. I stayed stubbornly where I was, having decided to take no shit right from the start.
"Just answer the question." He sketched a nearly-nervous smile and said,
"I think this takes a little bit of explanation. Please, sit down."
Before I could respond, my heart jerked as I was struck with panic from Hannah.
Couilles, Sarah, they're in here! They're in the room! I swear they're gonna find me in a minute, you gotta come now!
Okay, I'm coming. Don't worry!
Without even bothering to explain, I set off at a sprint down the corridor, managing to shout "Nice to meet you!" over my shoulder. It was a lie, but I felt I ought to say something.
OoOoO
Morpheus sighed deeply and massaged his temples.
"When did you see her last?"
Link thought for a moment. "Would've been about 3am, when I came off my watch."
"And you're sure she didn't tell you, or give you the impression, that she was planning to go and look for Artemis?"
"No, sir, she said she was gonna wait for you to search."
"Well she was intending to do something. She's left everything perfect." He examined again the operator's headset that had been left neatly on its hook, and muttered under his breath, "I should have seen this coming."
"With respect, sir, maybe we should start searching in the Matrix rather than looking for clues in the ship," said Link nervously, not sure whether he was irritating Morpheus. He was relieved to hear Morpheus say,
"You're right, Link. Trinity, watch her vitals for me."
Trinity obediently moved over to Sarah's chair and adjusted the screen to her eye-level.
"Alright, go ahead."
But just as Morpheus was preparing to start the search, a message appeared on one of the lower communication screens. He opened it.
'No need to waste time searching. Apollo is with Artemis in the king's castle. I need you to bring them both back very soon. I'm running out of time, and don't forget why you need to bring them to me.
Harendotes'
"Those guys again," said Link, leaning in to get a closer look.
"Claiming they know where the twins are as well as Neo," added Morpheus. He gave a slight shake of the head. "It's impossible."
There was a long silence. Trinity stood awkwardly looking between the two of them, wondering what to do. Finally Link sat down.
"What are you gonna do, sir?"
Morpheus continued to stare at the screen, his brow knitted, thinking hard.
Trinity came back over, not knowing what it was that had come up on the screen. She read the message for herself and asked,
"What do they mean by the 'king's castle'?" She exhaled sharply in frustration and threw herself down into the third chair, next to Morpheus. "You'd think if they were so keen for us to find them they'd stop talking in riddles!"
"Working it out isn't the problem. I know exactly where they're talking about. The problem is going there." He rose and held the headset out to Link, who looked up at him in confusion as he slowly accepted it.
"Sir, you're not-"
"Just do it, Link."
"Morpheus, no. We've already lost 3 crewmembers to this, we can't lose our captain!"
"You won't."
"We don't even know where you're going!"
"To the Merovingian's chateau. Link, I need you to stay alert. First sign of trouble, and I'll need an exit. I just need to know if the twins are really there or not."
Seeing Trinity's bewildered expression, he added, "I'll explain later, Trinity. Just get the plug."
