Chapter 6

Talon was stripped to the waist and tied to a chair all beaten, bruised and bloody as Agent Lewis stared out into the city through her dark sunglasses. It shimmered in the bright sunlight.

"How you ever stood and stared at it, Talon? Marveled at its beauty. Its genius. Billions of people just living out their lives... oblivious."

Talon sat in silence, saying nothing as Agent Spencer sucked serum from a glass container into a hypodermic needle. He was shivering and sweating at the same time as electrodes were taped to his head and chest monitoring his life signs. Agent Lewis still stood at the window as she continued her speech.

"Did you know that the first matrix was designed to be a perfect human world? Where no one suffered, where everyone would be happy. It was a disaster. No one would accept the program. Entire crops were lost."

Agent Spencer shoved the needle into Talon's shoulder making him wince in pain as she plunged down, injecting the substance into his system.

"Some believed that we lacked the programming language to describe your perfect world. But I believe that, as a species, human beings define their reality through suffering and misery."

Agent Spencer studied the screen as Talon's life signs reacted violently to the injection.

"The perfect world was a dream that your primitive cerebrum kept trying to wake up from. Which is why the matrix was redesigned to this: the peak of your civilization."

She turned from the window and walked slowly towards Talon as she continued to speak. Her black pant suit hugging her womanly curves and her shirt open just enough to expose a modest cleavage. She sat down directly in front of him.

"Evolution Talon. Evolution."

She smelled soft and feminine. She took off her glasses revealing her unnaturally glowing amber eyes. Her soft womanly hand lifted his chin as she continued to speak.

"Like the dinosaur. Look out that window. You had your time."

Talon stared hard at her, trying to not let on that the pain was racking his mind and body.

"The future of your world Talon. The future is our time."

She looked over to Agent Spencer.

"Double the dosage." She ordered.

Agent Hansen entered the room.

"We could have a problem."

Back on the bridge Phoenix looked at Talon. He laid there all calm and serene but his vitals told a different story.

"What are they doing?" He asked.

"They're trying to hack his mind." Mystere said.

"How?"

"They inject virus-like serums to attack the nervous system. It's like cracking a computer. All it takes is time."

"How much time?" He asked.

"Depends on the mind really. It will crack his alpha pattern and he will become a zombie. When that happens, he will tell them everything they need to know."

"Shit we can't let that happen." Phoenix said.

"Well we may not have a choice but to unplug him. If he gives the codes, we're fucked." Mystere said.

Back in the building Talon was fighting to keep his mind together. The three women stood over him.

"Never send a man to do a woman's job." Agent Lewis scoffed.

"They are dead. In either case —" Agent Hansen said.

"We have no choice but to deploy the sentinels. We must do so immediately." Lewis ordered.

Mystere looked at Talon's lifeless body, she knew what she had to do. She had to pull the plug.

"Good Talon. You were a friend and a brother to us."

Phoenix could not believe what he was hearing.

"That's it? We're just going to let him die just like that?" He was angry.

"We have no choice." She told him.

She put her hands around the coil that connect him to the matrix. It was then fate rushed at Phoenix like an oncoming train.

"Wait." He said.

"Phoenix, this has to be done."

"No, it doesn't. It can't be just coincidence." He said shaking his head.

"What the fuck are you talking about?"

"We can save him Mystere. The Oracle, she told me this would happen. She told me ..."

He paused and took a deep breath.

"She told me that I would have to make a choice."

"What choice?"

He leaped into the chair.

"What the hell are you doing? It's suicide!"

"I'm going after Talon."

"You can't. You'll be killed."

"I have no choice! Plug me in."

She saw the look in his face. He was going back into the matrix even if he jacked himself in without her help.

"Talon sacrificed himself for me so I could get out. He believes that I am something I'm not."

"What."

"I'm not The One re-born. I can't be. I'm just some guy. Right now Talon is the only one that matters."

"This is crazy Phoenix!"

"I know."

With reluctance she plugged him into the construct where he was now dressed all in black.

"I'm going to need weapons."

Out of nowhere a whole military arsenal slid right in front of him.

Back inside the matrix, Agent Lewis was still interrogating Talon as she sat casually in front of him. Talon was hunched over and twitching

"I'd like to share a revelation that I've had during my time here. It came to me when I tried to classify your species. I've realized that you're not actually mammals."

His life signs continued their chaotic patterns as she continued to speak.

"Every mammal on this planet develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment. But you humans do not. You move to an area and you multiply and multiply until every natural resource is consume and the only way you can survive is to spread to another area."

She leaned forward giving him a view of her cleavage.

"There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is? A virus."

She gave a very wicked grin as she continued speaking.

"Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. You are a plague and we are... the cure."

Phoenix was now inside the matrix and on his way inside the building where Talon was being held.