Disclaimer: If you recognize it, it's not mine.

Chapter 5

There was only a sliver of light showing through the crack of the door, and the metal door itself was so heavy that when closed, even partially, it tended to block out all sound. Still, lying there in bed pretending to be asleep, she could hear her parents talking, discussing something very seriously, intimately, quietly, as though they did not want little ears to hear.

Her father had returned that night after she fell asleep. She woke as soon as he entered, recognizing the loud creak of the front door, followed by the softer one of her own as her mother quickly left her room and pulled it shut. Trinity had not left her daughter's bedside after tucking her in, not even after she fell asleep. She only moved from her protective perch once she heard Neo enter.

"Hey," he said quietly upon seeing her. "She sleeping?"

"Yeah," she said looking back to make sure Nysa's door was still open a crack, just in case.

"Something wrong?" he asked, picking up on the tension in the air. Trinity nodded towards the table and the bits of parchment that covered it. He moved closer to examine the cutout symbols. "What is this?"

"Just look. Look closely."

He studied it for a moment then looked back up at Trinity. "But what is it?" he asked slowly, voice brimming with concern.

"I found it by the door. All the pieces were in a box, all jumbled up. Nysa's the one who made sense out of it. Didn't take her long either."

"She's seen this?"

"I don't think it bothered her. I don't think she's worried about it or anything." The couple sat down at the table together, both pairs of eyes glued to the odd code that clearly belonged on a computer screen.

"You don't know where it came from? Who left it?"

"No."

"When?"

"Tonight. This evening. We came home from Link's and found it." She paused for a minute and studied Neo's expression. He was confused, worried, just as she had been. "What do you think it means?"

He sighed heavily and leaned back in the chair. "It's just a picture," he said, trying harder to convince himself than her.

"It could be… maybe some sort of threat?"

"No. I don't think so." He moved suddenly and cleared the table of the puzzling pieces, sweeping them into the box they came in. "It's probably just somebody's offering, their idea of art. Or a joke."

Trinity took a moment to consider his explanation. It was possible. She too had thought, at first, that it was probably nothing. But other things were happening too, things that when all seen together sounded off alarms in her head.

"Did you hear about the Salome?" She had hoped to approach this particular subject with a bit more tact, but it seemed too urgent now to ease into.

"The Salome? What about it?"

"We lost transmission. Yesterday." The Salome was one of the newest ships, state of the art, designed to rescue numerous souls at once. It could effectively contact and pluck half a dozen people from the Matrix at a time. It was large too, housing a crew of nearly twenty. It was intended to stay outside of the city for months at a time while other ships designed to do so would come out to supply fuel and make any necessary repairs.

Neo was supposed to be on that ship. The council had asked him to head up the rescue missions, train and advise the new resistance workers. He was supposed to stay only for the first three or four months, just long enough to get everything set up and ensure that the new recruits were able to do their jobs properly. He was set to leave six months ago, but one of the engineers found a problem in the manifold and the maiden voyage was postponed. By the time it was repaired and ready to go last month Neo had already begun training men aboard the Nebuchadnezzar and was no longer available.

"No one said anything."

"You were in the opposite direction. They sent the Logos to search for them, but no word yet."

"It's probably a mechanical flaw. They put that thing together so damn fast… it could have been falling apart but all they cared about was getting it out there."

"They want to increase our number of rescues. It's the one thing both the Council and Lock agree on; get as many people out as fast as you can."

"It's not that simple."

"I know that." She shuffled her feet uncomfortably under the table before continuing. "Kid said he heard some people in the temple talking." Neo looked up at her, urging her with his eyes to go on, just say it. "He said they were talking about sabotaging the increased rescue movement."

"Sabotaging?"

"You know the reasons." She rose from the table and began to pace. "Hell, both sides have their reasons. The machines may decide to break the accord, so we need to get as many people out now as we can. Makes sense. Of course if we work overtime to convince people to leave the Matrix and pull out too many too fast, it'll deplete the system's energy. More agents will be reinserted to keep us from rescuing. Violence. Death."

"Who did he hear talking?"

"I don't know. He didn't know."

"Most of the people who are against the project are hackers like us. But no one who's part of a ship would plot against a crew."

"It's a new crew, no one any of us have ever worked with."

"That's not the point Trinity!"

"Keep your voice down," she hissed as she pulled the door to Nysa's room shut.

"You're saying you think that something happened to the Salome, something was done to it, and it's crew?"

"Maybe. It's possible. Neo, there are people who will do anything to keep the peace."

"Including starting a war? Between us, between humans? We spent too much time fighting the machines, together."

"Camaraderie only goes so far. Maybe we spent so much time fighting that now we don't know what else to do."

"It's crazy."

"It is. But it's also true. Things have gotten worse over the last five years, you have to admit that."

"I admit it. There's still that lunatic fringe."

"They're not just the fringe anymore, Neo. And not all of them are lunatics. Things are changing here, maybe you've been gone too much lately to see that, but it's happening."

He had been gone a lot over the last year, called out on many more missions than she had. They needed him because of his ability to manipulate the Matrix. In the first couple of years following the armistice neither Trinity nor Neo were often called upon. With peace at home and relative peace in the Matrix, anyone was able to perform the rescue missions. But lately there had been more agent activity. Hackers were being deceived by odd changes in the mainframe. Codes were being corrupted. Agents began to follow potential marks again in an attempt to keep them in the system. Many feared things would only get worse. The reaction of the Council was to increase rescues, build the Salome, send the other ships in the fleet on additional runs often lasting longer. While Neo went out on the Neb, Trinity stayed back and observed what was happening at home.

"There've been meetings almost weekly, protests, organized tactics, Neo. A revolt is expected."

He snorted as though it were too ridiculous to believe. "A revolt?"

"A new resistance is forming and where we stand now we are right in the middle of it."

"Trinity…"

"We're doing the Council's dirty work."

"Listen to yourself. We're doing our jobs, what we've done all along, saving lives."

"At the expense of others. Now is not the time to piss of the machines. The peace is still too new, we shouldn't take advantage."

"I agree, but…" The squeak of a door kept him from going on.

"Daddy?" Nysa stood just inside the lighted corridor, hair a tangled mess, rubbing her sleep stained eyes. She had been awake throughout the entire conversation of course, waiting for her father to come in and kiss her goodnight. But he didn't come, and her door had been shut all the way, leaving no light, a thing which frightened her enough alone.

"Hey baby," he said, reaching down to collect her in his arms. She let him and comfortably curled up in his lap.

"What are you doing up?" Trinity asked, eager to continue the private, adult conversation they had been having. Nysa simply shrugged, yawned, and snuggled closer to Neo.

"I missed you," she said to her father sleepily.

"I missed you too, baby." He looked up at Trinity who seemed to fuming and pulled his daughter closer, lifted her up, and headed towards her room. "Come on, back to bed," he said moving through the door, turning his back on his lover.

"Daddy, are you leaving again?" Nysa asked as Neo tucked her in.

"Not right now. Not for awhile." He pulled the sheets up all the way to her chin, just as she liked them. "Hey, don't you have a birthday coming up?"

She smiled broadly. "Next week!" she squealed.

"Next week? Really, that soon? Well, you had better get some rest then. Don't want to be all tired and droopy eyed on your big day, right?"

"Right," she said brightly and closed her eyes, pretending to be asleep already.

Neo smiled and brushed away the loose hair from her forehead before leaning over to kiss her crown. "Night baby, sleep well."

"Night daddy," she whispered as he closed the door, being sure to leave it slightly ajar.

The main room was empty, Trinity was already in bed, waiting. He came in and changed, turned out the light, and lied down next to her. She was silent, angry. He tried to move closer to her, but she shifted and turned the other way. Defeated, he did the same, giving her room in hopes that it would help her calm down by morning so they could discuss things rationally.

"Neo?" Her voice pierced the dark. "If we end up in the middle of this fight, Nysa's going to be there right along with us. I won't put my daughter in danger, Neo. I won't."