Ch. 10 The Amendments
As I mentioned before, for a human, Morpheus was very clever, so I was not at all disappointed when, the following Wednesday, he returned with a list of clauses to be added to the previous weeks agreement. He had gone to the council or whatever in Zion and told them of the conversation we had. Apparently they had several questions and demands. Again, he was waiting for us when we arrived at the designated meeting place, which the Glitch Manager had taken to calling the CAR for short. He was seated on the couch with the same poised manner and slight smile and Niobe was sitting next to him with a clearly disgruntled expression.
I thought it funny that he trusted us to keep our end of the bargain, but did not trust us not to attack him since the same four rebels were stationed in the back of the room, guns in hand, who seemed to serve no real purpose at all. I ignored them. Of course, I did not serve any real purpose at the proceedings either, but I came to add weight and some mild intimidation. Or as much as a twelve-year-old can. The rebels were not familiar with the Glitch Manager and although they had witnessed a sample of her power, they did not truly know what they were up against.
"So," began the Glitch Manager before manifesting a completely different couch, this one beige with orange, blue, and green horizontal stripes. I would never let her decorate for me.
"You have terms. What are they?" She had never been one for pleasantries, even among other programs.
"We have questions first," spoke Niobe.
The Glitch Manager raised an eyebrow.
"Okay. I will do my best to answer in a way you will understand."
Niobe gave her a look of disgust, I presumed for her condescension. I had given her an identical look when she had told me the exact same thing. But Niobe continued anyway.
"First, if you are not going through the channels of the Mainframe, how will we know where to find the ones you unplug?"
"The same way you always have. I will have a message sent to whatever ship is in broadcast range at the time."
The Glitch Manager looked at Morpheus steely.
"Since you are not to be entering the Matrix henceforth, there should only be one."
"If you can get a message out, why can't we get a message in?"
Niobe was trying to find a flaw in the argument.
"I told you, I am a glitch manager. I should nave no contact with the outside world. Period. If I am heard on the line or a call is traced back to me, I will be discovered and we could not continue."
"That doesn't answer my question."
The Glitch Manager gave her a look of distaste and smiled sweetly.
"I will not be making the call personally."
"Then who will?"
"I will," I said flatly.
"You?" Niobe asked incredulously. "Why you?"
Apparently they still thought of me as a child. No matter.
"Because I will administer the trace."
"Trace the refugee or the ship?" Niobe asked coldly.
"It depends how polite you are," I growled.
"Niobe, please," eased Morpheus. Niobe looked betrayed, but remained silent.
"I think the new recruits would be more comfortable with someone else," began Morpheus.
"Oh, but Charlie has invaluable skills, don't you Charlie?" said the Glitch Manager.
I behaved as though that were a rhetorical question.
"No one but agents and their supervisors are able to interface with the Matrix and the outside world simultaneously. No one else has a need for it, though a few have hacked their way through. The point it, trace programs are simple and common and the Mainframe cannot account for all copies. No exile ever has a need to trace specific humans, so the command function and codes do not change. I know five other programs that know those codes and now to run the trace and they're all exiled agents." The Glitch Manager smiled broadly. "So if you want out, your old jailors are the only ones that can help you."
None of the rebels were very happy with this news. The ones behind me were grumbling loudly.
"Okay, we'll take the kid," Niobe said reproachfully. "Second question: can we demand certain people be set free?"
"Oh, of course you can demand it. I may or may not comply. If the people you choose are in my ranks of troublemakers, yes. However, I refuse to simply give you a perfectly good battery."
Niobe seemed taken aback by this and the edges of Morpheus's mouth had twisted from level to downward. We were not giving them much control over the situation.
"But why would you have your eyes on someone who was not already a good candidate?" The Glitch Manager had a point. Almost every human they wanted would be "gifted."
"A few more terms must be settled before we will consider," began Morpheus. "And the first is that we withhold the right to nullify the contract at any time with no penalty to ourselves or those still plugged in."
"Seems fair enough so long as it is mutual."
"Now, you have already told us how you will handle yourself should we break our agreement. How are we to hold you accountable?"
The Glitch Manager stopped to think about this.
"I guess you could send a message to the System Administrators saying what I had done. Oh, you don't have their number? Morpheus, every phone in the Matrix is listening for your voice. Just pick up a phone and they will hear you. Your recently acquired recruits are still safe from this feature, so you will have to use them when you are trying to contact me."
Morpheus nodded to himself as though processing.
"I did not know that, but I am not surprised. Okay, that is acceptable. Another term: the people you free must be of an appropriate age. No children under five; they will not be able to understand. Adults must be under twenty-five; any older and the mind has trouble letting go. A few people in their thirties have been freed, but nearly all of them could not come to accept the truth and suffered severe psychological trauma." He frowned in regret.
"That will limit the people that can be freed, but I will have no trouble keeping the numbers down that way."
"Another question: how are the refugees going to know what is happening to them if we cannot explain it to them ahead of time?" It was Niobe that spoke. "We don't want to go pick them up in the sewers and them insist that they're having a nightmare or in a coma."
"They will receive exit counseling before they are traced."
"You will give them a choice, won't you?"
There it was again. Choice. Those damn humans would feel better about torture if you let them pick the instrument. I was not sure how the Glitch Manager would respond to this. She was used to either having control, or taking control, and yielding it to some feebleminded human did not seem characteristic. But we had already given them so many answers they didn't like. At what point would they refuse?
"Certainly."
What was she playing at? If a human were warping cars with its mind, I did not think she would sit back and let it happen, not when she had an ideal opportunity to be rid of it. Could she be lying?
"I think the most important question is how do we know you are telling us the truth?"
Surprisingly, this did not come from Morpheus or Niobe, but from one of the rebels behind us. The Glitch Manager and I turned around to see who had spoken. It was a girl in her late teens who was barely shoulder height with short blond hair. I was not familiar with her; she must have been from a different sector. She did not seem to be afraid. The Glitch Manager marveled at her gall and answered.
"I guess you can't really know any more than I know you are telling me the truth. I can tell you it is not in my nature to lie and I could remind you that the Oracle sent you to me. She has defended you when no others would, so I would think that in itself would be enough of an omen for you." She said these last few words icily and I could not blame her. I resented this girl for inferring that we had come there to utter falsehoods. But they were human and honesty was rarely held in high regard.
"Perhaps," Morpheus interjected, "we should discuss your…payment. What exactly were you hoping for?"
I was nearly in the dark as he was. For something she was supposedly willing to risk condemnation over, she hadn't said much about it.
"I think I would like a probe, a robotic probe, with simple audio, visual, temperature, pressure, and chemo receptors. I cannot build it myself and I have no else to commission to do so."
Sensing the hesitation from the rebels, she continued. "You may design it yourself, control it, so long as I get a say in where it goes."
"You will not be permitted access to our ships or any other areas we deem sensitive."
The Glitch Manager rolled her eyes.
"I do not care about your ships, I care about the rest of the world. I cannot track it from where I am, so you'll have autonomy over it."
"If not to spy on us, what do you want it for?" asked Niobe ruthlessly.
The Glitch Manager lowered her eyes and glared.
"To be perfectly honest, I am more concerned with what my relatives are doing. They don't tell me much. Just try not to send it into restricted areas or I'm sure they will destroy it."
"And how are we to get you this information if we cannot contact you?"
The Glitch Manager had already thought of this.
"Just send me a package. You know, load a package with the information buried within. I'll give you the code to label it with. That way it will register in the system as a glitch, I will find it, and no one will think anything of the incident."
"When, where, what format?"
"I think once a month would be nice. I won't be particular about dates or times because I understand things can happen. I trust you will make sure that things don't happen often. It doesn't matter where you put it. I have access to the entire Matrix so long as the area isn't under a firewall. For the format, I don't care so long as I can read it. I'll let you know if what you have chosen is unacceptable."
I knew she was trying to be accommodating since she had been so stringent on the rest of the contract. However, her flexibility on this may not have worked to her advantage. It made it easy on the rebels, which made them think they must be stepping right into a trap.
The rebels in the back of the room were shifting again. It was time to end this meeting.
"Well, unless you have anything else to add, I think it is time we were on our way. I apologize, but I am very busy. Do we have a deal?"
Niobe and Morpheus looked at one another and then at the rest of the rebels and finally settled on the two of us.
"I believe we do," he said. "I think we should test this 'package' procedure. I will leave a copy of the final draft of the contract for you and then will return for it three days later. If you have 'signed' it, I will know the process works. Until then." He offered the Glitch Manager his hand.
Most programs that do not daily interact with humans would not have understood. It was a testament to the Glitch Manager's age and experience that she grasped his hand in response. Niobe did not offer her hand and Morpheus only offered me an acknowledging nod.
This time it was Niobe who led the rebels out the room and Morpheus took the rear, not bothering to close the door behind himself.
I looked at the Glitch Manager who appeared quite pleased with herself.
"Congratulations, Charlie, you have just been a part of an historical moment."
"Except that no one's supposed to know about it."
"Oh, they will eventually. And with those results, I will not have to ask for forgiveness because the Mainframe will be too busy praising me. Oh, and maybe they'll cut you a little slack."
I stared blankly at the wall, the sick anticipation returning. I wanted to say something profound to commemorate my commitment to walk on this road to Hell, but I have never been one for words, so I said nothing.