2. Follow The White Rabbit
Three years later
"Yeah?" Cypher responded.
"Is everything in place?" Trinity asked, dialing him while looking back at her monitor, looking at Thomas Anderson or Neo, as most hackers know him. The person that, according to Morpheus and Enigma, is The One.
"You weren't supposed to relieve me."
"I know, but I felt like taking your shift."
"You like him, don't you?" Cypher suddenly asked. "You like watching him."
Trinity makes small huffs. This again? "Don't be ridiculous."
"We're going to kill him, do you understand that?"
"Morpheus believes he is The One."
"Do you?"
"It doesn't matter what I believe," she stated. And really, it doesn't matter.
"You don't, do you?" Cypher guessed.
She hears a noise. Like... decoding. "Did you hear that?"
"Hear what?"
"Are you sure this line is clean?"
"Yeah, 'course I'm sure."
That's not convincing her enough. "I better go," she said, ending the call, looking at the monitor again. She places some security cameras around the hall, in case there's a sudden ambush from Agents or polices.
And right now, they're already outside her hideout.
Shit, she thought as one policeman kicks the door, pointing their gun at her.
"Freeze! Police. Hands on your head. Do it. Do it now!" One of them ordered, which she complies with.
For now.
▪︎1001▪︎
Outside the city hotel, all police gather in a place to capture a criminal they've been searching for for years. One black sedan with a tinted window glides in through the police cruisers. Three Agents step out of the car.
"Lieutenant…" Agent Smith called.
"Oh shit," Lieutenant mumbled. Here we go again.
"Lieutenant, you were given specific orders."
"Hey, I'm just doing my job. You give me that juris-my-dick-tion crap, you can cram it up your ass."
"The orders were for your protection."
He chuckles. "I think we can handle one little girl."
The Agents don't say a word and simply move into the building. Typical humans. They don't know these people are dangerous, regardless of what they look like. Agent Smith himself knows what 'one little girl' can do when they're 'awake'. He had seen it three years ago and he will make sure nothing like that happen again.
Ever.
"I sent two units," Lieutenant added. "They're bringing her down now."
"No Lieutenant," Agent Smith disagreed, turns his head at him. "Your men are already dead."
▪︎1001▪︎
Trinity hears a cluck of cuffs behind her. She waits for a moment, waiting for the right momentum. As she senses the cuffs going to restrain her hands, in a blink of a moment, she turns around, takes his one hand, chops it along his nose. He screams, but she doesn't waste any time, giving him a hard kick while jumping, sending him a few meters away.
One police with a flashlight aims his gun at her, which she responds by kicking a chair, sending him to the ground. Another police firing his bullets. Again, she dodges by walking into the wall, landing with a swift before running quickly, grabbing his hand, firing the last police, and giving this police a scorpion kick.
She looks around at her surrounding now. Four policemen. All knock out.
"Shit," she cursed, realizing her position might be in more danger, and calls Morpheus while deleting information on her laptop, fearing those Agents knowing her task. Not all sadly, but just the important files. "Morpheus, the line was traced, I don't know how."
"I know, they cut the hard line," Morpheus responded. "There's no time. You're going to have to get to another exit."
"Are there any agents?"
"Yes."
Oh, just wonderful. "Goddammit."
"You have to focus, Trinity," he reminded her. "There's a phone at Wells and Lake. You can make it."
She sighs. "All right."
"Go."
Trinity hangs up and runs around the hall. One Agent and some policemen already block her exit. She quickly turns behind and running as fast as she can, exits onto the fire escape. Her eyes look down, finding one Agent standing outside. She chooses to go upstairs.
As she's on a roof, she continues running as her chasers follow from behind. She jumps into another roof without a problem. She had done this countless times while escaping Agents, so this is new. But those cops? Well, she can imagine how miserably they have done that. Enigma probably would be entertaining how goofy they run. She always does.
She turns left as one Agent fires his gun at her. She didn't consider looking back, solely focusing on escaping only. When realizing she's almost at the edge, she jumps as high as she can, rolling forward, before hiding on a chimney. Trinity peeks behind, finding the Agent already landing.
Now or never, Trinity.
The woman forces herself to run forward, jumps while her body levels into a dive. She crashes into something like glass, falls onto a back stairwell, tumbling, bouncing down before she lands onto a wooden floor, raising her guns on her hands, trembling, waiting if that agent follows her.
But she is only greeted by silence while the lamp slightly moves from the wind outside.
"Get up, Trinity," she whispered to herself. "Just get up. Get up!"
She stands, limps down the rest of the stairs. She exits the building, running inside an alley. At the end of the block, she can see a telephone booth.
She looks around, finding a garbage truck already facing the telephone booth, as if ready to smash it.
The telephone suddenly rings.
She wastes no time running into the booth, never mind her condition already hurt by those chasing. She grabs it, puts the phone beside her ear as the truck moves closer to her...
And she already got out the Matrix before the truck hits her.
▪︎1001▪︎
Agent Smith slowly steps outside the truck, inspects the destroyed booth. Nobody's there.
Two agents, Agent Brown and Agent Jones, walk up behind him.
"She got out," Agent Brown concluded.
"It doesn't matter," Agent Smith stated.
"The informant is real," Agent Jones noted.
"Yes."
"We have the name of their next target."
"The name is Neo," Agent Brown.
"We'll need a search running," Agent Smith said.
"It's already begun," Agent Jones mentioned.
▪︎1001▪︎
Enigma opens her eyes, awake, looking into her small bedroom. Her hands wrap around her small blanket as she quietly takes some deep breaths of her dream before.
She can hear the ship humming from outside. She always finds some solitude from hearing that noise. It's calming her nervousness whenever she's onboard. Especially with Squid come along anytime and anywhere.
It's been three years since she got out of her prison. It was rough, she admitted. She barely can keep the truth without getting startled or panicking around. Trinity and Switch were kind enough for helping her adjust to her new environment as Morpheus and Tank shared this strange, real-world they're living by it.
She touches her temple, thinking of her dream. It's not the first time she wakes up from her dream and is processing what it means. She experiences this for three years. Not always, of course. It always comes randomly at her. Some just snippet, like just a couple of seconds or minutes before she awakens.
Enigma asked this with the Oracle when she met her for the first time.
"You have the sight," she said while pouring some milk on a small glass. "It is a rare gift. One that you never get by simple people."
"Why do I have it?" She wondered, tilting her head as she takes the glass, drinks the milk.
She smiles. "Are you sure you want to know?"
"Isn't that why I'm here? To know what my path is? My purpose?"
She chuckles, which makes Enigma smile. The Oracle reminds her of a sweet granny who loves playing with her grandchildren. "Do you know what that sign behind you means?" She asked, and the blonde girl shook her head as responded. "It means, 'know thyself'." She looks at her curiously. "Do you know yourself enough, dear?"
Enigma looks down. "I remember reading something. A quote by a philosopher. 'Life must be understood backward. But it must be lived forward.'" She sighs sadly. "And that... makes me scared."
Because she doesn't know much about herself. She's just some 5 years old child, barely able to keep with things around her for several weeks after waking up from the real world.
The Oracle patted her head. "Don't be, my dear. I'm sure you will find your path. Your sight might help it."
She offers her a cookie, which she gladly takes.
"My sight," she mumbled. To this day, she still doesn't understand why and how she can have those. But those sight helps some situations for these past three years.
She steps outside her bedroom and moves into the deck, where she sees Morpheus, Tank, and Trinity talk.
"Enigma?" Trinity looks tired and worried. "Can't sleep?"
"A dream," she said, enough to alarm them. All people in Neb know about her sight and know when she's mentioning her dream, it's considered serious enough to be worried. "They know. They located Neo."
"Shit," Tank mumbled.
"How?" Morpheus asked her, looking intense, which Enigma can't blame him for. Finding The One is his goal for his lifetime. If the Agents already know about Neo, someone she and Morpheus are certain to be The One.
"They mentioned an... informant? I think this informant might be the one who contacted the cops. I'm not sure," she confessed.
Trinity folds her hands. "All right. I'll contact him as soon as possible. We need to get him out before they got him. Come on."
The girl follows Trinity.
▪︎1001▪︎
Inside a small apartment, Thomas A. Anderson, a software programmer and hacker, sleep quietly, listening to a song using his headphone as his computer automatically download any pieces of information regarding Morpheus.
Then, out of blue, his computer's monitor suddenly turns black. The screen slowly revealed three words.
Wake up, Neo...
Perhaps by this sudden change of the lighting from the screen, he blinks his eyes before reading the message.
It suddenly shows something else.
"What?" He mumbled, sits up as the screen now reads The Matrix has you... "What the hell?" He blurted, looking around, not sure. He types CTRL and X, trying to get out of this.
The message changes into Follow the white rabbit. "'Follow the white rabbit'," he read, types ESC, which the screen reacts by changing the message into Knock, knock, Neo.
On a cue, his door bangs loudly startled the 37 years old man. "Who is it?" He asked loudly.
"It's Choi."
He looks back at the screen. It's all completely black now. "Yeah," he muttered before getting up, flipping a series of locks, and opening the door, leaving the chain on. Choi, his girlfriend, and several people waiting outside. "You're two hours late."
"I know, it's her fault," Choi reasoned.
"You got the money?"
He gives him the money. "Two grand."
"Hold on," Neo told him, closing the door. He grabs a book called Simulation and Simulacra. A book by a famous philosopher called Baudrillard. He's not particularly interested in philosophy stuff, but somehow, one day, he got interested in that book. Of course, he later drop reading and used that book as a box for keeping some computer disks. A way of earning more money.
He drops the money, takes one disk for Choi, and gives it to him.
"Hallelujah," Choi said. "You're my savior, man. My own personal Jesus Christ."
"You get caught using that…"
"Yeah, I know. This never happened. You don't exist."
"Right," Neo nods, still thinking about what happened.
"Something wrong, man?" Choi asked. "You look a little whiter than usual."
"My computer, it..." he scoffs, shook his head. "You ever have that feeling... where you're not sure if you're awake or still dreaming?"
"Mm, all the time. It's called Mescaline. It's the only way to fly."
Neo sighs. Of course, he won't get the right answer from Choi.
"Hey, it just sounds to me like you need to unplug, man. You know, get some R and R," Choi suggested. "What do you think, DuJour? Should we take him with us?"
DuJour, his girlfriend, looks at Neo curiously. "Definitely."
"No, I can't," he rejected. He's not keen on socializing. "I got work tomorrow."
"Come on, It'll be fun. I promise."
Just as he's about to say no, he looks at DuJour's tattoo on her back shoulder and freezes.
A white rabbit. Just like his monitor said.
"Yeah," he replied. "Sure, I'll go."
▪︎1001▪︎
Neo stands against the wall by himself, looking around the club, uncomfortable. He's not the type who likes to socialize with others and prefers to stay in his room with his computer. The loud music and everyone's dancing around clearly just add his shyness and desire to leave this place.
But part of him just knows he can't do that. Whoever's messing with his computer knows he wants an answer and certainly. And for all he knows, this might be the only chance he can get.
He hears footsteps behind, which makes him turn around. A woman's standing behind there, wearing a black, sleeveless mermaid dress. She has deep blue eyes and stunning black hair. There's something about her that makes Neo unable to keep his thought about her.
"Hello, Neo," she greeted.
"How do you know that name?" He asked. Not many people know his identity as a hacker.
"I know a lot about you."
"Who are you?"
"My name is Trinity."
"Trinity," Neo repeated. That name feels familiar. And it dawns to him why. "The Trinity? The one that cracked the IRS d-base?"
"That was a long time ago," Trinity simply said.
"Jesus," Neo realized something.
"What?"
"I just thought, um... you were a guy."
She couldn't help but smirk at that reaction. If he is already surprised by finding her identity, imagine if he knows about Red Queen. He might never believe an eight years old girl can capable of being a hacker. "Most guys do," she shrugs off.
And then, another realization hit him. "That was you on my computer. How did you do that?"
"Right now," she takes a step forward, "all I can tell you is that you're in danger. I brought you here to warn you."
"Of what?"
"They're watching you, Neo."
"Who is?"
"Please just listen," she told him, getting closer to his ear and whispered. "I know why you're here, Neo. I know what you've been doing. I know why you hardly sleep, why you live alone, and why night after night you sit at your computer. You're looking for him. I know, because I was once looking for the same thing. And when he found me, he told me I wasn't looking for him. I was looking for an answer. It's the question that drives us, Neo. It's the question that brought you here. You know the question just as I did."
Neo tries to hide his nervousness. He never talks much with women, let alone getting closer. "What is the Matrix?"
"The answer is out there, Neo. It's looking for you. And it will find you... if you want it to," she assured him before leaving him by himself, thinking of that question on his mind.
▪︎1001▪︎
Inside a small cafe near Metacortex, Enigma quietly looks at her laptop. On the monitor, she looks into the company's room that she hacks before. Not far from the cafe, Trinity sits on her motorcycle, waiting for the signal.
"How is it?" She asked her via phone.
"Everything's normal," she replied, looking at the screen, putting on her headset so she can hear what Neo and his boss are talking about.
"You have a problem with authority, Mr. Anderson," his boss remarked while Neo had no interest in listening. "You believe that you are special, that somehow the rules do not apply to you. Obviously you are mistaken. This company is one of the top software companies in the world because every single employee understands that they are part of a whole. Thus if an employee has a problem, the company has a problem. The time has come to make a choice, Mr. Anderson. Either you choose to be at your desk on time from this day forward or you choose to find yourself another job. Do I make myself clear?"
Enigma slowly shook her head. Man. He describes what the system of The Matrix is to Neo. And the man himself might have no idea how right he is!
"Yes, Mr. Rhineheart, perfectly clear," Neo understood before leaving his room and getting back to work. After that, nothing weird happens.
"That's my cue," Enigma denoted, taking her laptop, leaving some cash she stole before on her desk. She returns her laptop to Trinity and grabs a soft peak.
Trinity quickly holds her hand. "Be careful," she warned, scared of her safety. She knows Enigma can handle herself better, despite her status as a child. But she remembers her first mission went out and how much hurt she was. After being her primary caregiver for three years, her mother instinct just keep popping in and out with her.
"I will," she convinced Trinity before entering the building.
▪︎1001▪︎
"Mr. Thomas Anderson?"
Neo looks behind and nearly needs to double-check upon the person's voice. She's young, probably between 7-8 years old. She has golden blonde hair that matches the sun itself and blue eyes with gray specks that reminds him a little with... well, with Trinity. She wears a red dress with ribbon and red ballerina shoes.
"Yeah, that's me," he responded, giving her a small smile, despite wondering why a little girl like her is in this building.
"A package for you," she told him, putting a soft peak on his desk while he's signing the wooden pad she carries.
"Are you alone?" He asked curiously.
"No, I come with my mom. She's busy right now. Someone from the express company sends this to you. But he got stuck downstairs so he asked me to send it instead."
"Uh-huh," he responded, not believing her story at all.
"Have a good day," she added before leaving him alone.
▪︎1001▪︎
"How is it?" Trinity asked as they were waiting below. Enigma's sitting in front.
"Safe," the blonde girl replied, looking around, waiting if Neo will come out like Morpheus' plan. "For now."
Both girls watch from the motorcycle's mirror. Their worry emerges as three Agents suddenly stop on a street.
"Oh no," Enigma mumbled as Trinity dialed Morpheus. She's hoping the worse scenario didn't happen.
But, as The Matrix like to make her, the girl watches as Neo gets dragged away by Agents. One agent spots them.
"Shit," Trinity cursed as she drives her motorcycle away while Enigma contacts Tank.
"They've got him."
