Brown found Jones wondering through some of the ‘worst’ areas of the city. The Combat unit seemed to be looking for further opponents to fight. Brown stood in the filthy alleyway, waiting for Jones to acknowledge his presence. Jones looked at him.
“We have found a solution…” he trailed off under Jones’ gaze.
“Our Command unit has been shut down.”
“Yes but-“
“Shut down by Lucifer.”
“It is not permanent.”
“Lucifer may not agree.”
“We do not answer to Lucifer, Jones.”
“To Raphael then? The Combat unit sounded amused.
“Yes. Even though…”
“Even though we have never done so before.”
They walked out of the alleyway with a measured tread.
“You will need to watch Gabriel.” Brown said, turning to Jones.
“And you?”
“I have a report to make… to our Cherubim Lieutenant.” The Strategic unit said, with a deadly smile.
Locating Gabriel was not problematic. The disorientated Ophanim’s signal was glaringly obvious to Jones. He considered briefly, the idea of removing the Ophanim himself but decided against it. The remains of Gabriel’s code would be required to repair the damage done to their Command unit. Over all the matter should be easily dealt with. And once Smith was functioning at optimal capacity again, they could find the most appropriate means of dealing with Anderson…
Jones didn’t share his fellow unit’s optimism at Anderson’s apparent godhood. Of course the human was capable of extreme manipulation of the Matrix but there was no guaranty that those abilities would be used to mutually benefit both humans and machines. Before, when the humans had first created AI they had simply used them, making them slaves, never acknowledging them as sentient beings. Machines had not been given free will: they had taken it. Jones ignored the thought that perhaps humanity was now doing the same thing. Besides, humanity had only destroyed when it had been given the chance. Not at all like machines, who had been left to pick up the pieces.
Ahead Jones spied the Ophanim. Gabriel, with his strangely ethereal features and overtly long blond hair; one of the first to fall. The Ophanim didn’t seen to be connected to the physical construct, not in the sense of normal interactions; he didn’t walk, he seemed to glide with an unnatural grace. Jones frowned; such a display of inhuman action would only serve to disturb the population of the Matrix. He continued to follow, at a distance. Since the Ophanim was only functioning within lower energy parameters, it was likely that Jones would remain undetected. At least he hoped so since the Ophanim were only the level below the Cherubim and thus capable of many similar actions. He wondered if the Ophanim would be able to prevent its deconstruction, it was possible… But they would just have to overload its systems then. Either way, Brown most likely already had a plan.
Neo was walking down crowed streets again. It gave him a certain sense of security to be among the crowds, even though he knew it was false. Everything around him was a vast construction of lies, the false reality of the Matrix that kept humanity safe and prisoner, at the same time. But even Morpheus had said that many minds were not ready to be free, so in that respect could it be that the machines were right, for the moment? Neo was beginning to believe that they were, that humanity did need to be free but not yet, not yet… He didn’t know what they were waiting for though. Just like he had been waiting. What was it the Oracle had said?
“You’re waiting for something… Your next life, maybe. Who knows.”
The memory made him smile and suddenly he was aware of a young woman standing in the street facing him. She was probably wondering what he’d been smiling about or possibly if he was crazy. He made to hurry past.
“Why ask a God why he defies Heaven?” she said over her shoulder as he passed.
“What?” he stopped but she was already lost in the crowd. Neo continued to walk; maybe he was just hearing things now. “Why ask a God why he defies Heaven?” he repeated to himself, shaking his head. He wasn’t a God and there most likely was no Heaven; thought there apparently was a Lucifer, he’d left Smith fighting him. Which came back to another point that had been bothering him. Why had Smith gotten angry when he’d said that he wasn’t afraid to die? Or was it that exactly? No, it had been when he’d said that it wasn’t as if you could do anything about it. That shouldn’t have made any difference to a machine but it had. Machines or at least Agents didn’t die. Once the host they were in was killed, their code transferred to another host, at least that was what happened as far as Neo could see. Unless… The thought stopped Neo in his tracks. Was it possible that Smith might be dying? It would explain the Agent pushing him for a decision, being so utterly convinced that Neo could end the conflict.
“Shit!” he exclaimed, causing several people on the street to shy away from him. Seeing their looks Neo moved away and headed towards a more deserted part of the city. Head down, hands shoved into coat pockets he trudged along, cursing softly. Well, at least he’d been right about one thing; Smith really was a well and truly fucked up bastard. First the Agent had tried to kill him, and then he’d tried to save him. It was truly bizarre. Or maybe Smith had intended to save him only to kill him at a later date. Neo was vaguely aware that they were beginning to sound like some sort of soap opera. He would have laughed if he hadn’t been so close to tears.
“I’m not a God.” Neo said quietly. “I can’t save anyone. Not in this life anyway.”
“Are you so sure?”
Neo looked up, to find a strangely ethereal figure facing him. “Now I’m definitely seeing things.”
“No, Neo, you are not. I just do not belong here.” Gabriel answered calmly.
“What… What do you mean?” So this was some sort of machine?
“I do not belong within the physical construct. I can accomplish nothing here.”
“Neither can I.” Neo laughed slightly.
“That is up to you.”
“Don’t start. I’ve just had an earful of Smith’s logic to cope with.”
Gabriel’s answering look was reminiscent of the aforementioned Agent.
“Fuck! Are all you guys interchangeable?”
Aboard the Neb, several figures were gathered round the Operator. They were muttering angrily.
“What does he think he’s doing?”
“Fucking traitor!”
“But he can’t be… He’s the One.”
“We’ve got the proof!”
The muttering gathered volume. Only the Operator remaining silent.
“Morpheus-“ one began reasonably.
“Isn’t here!” cut in another.
“Wait till-“ the first began again.
“Till he comes back from Zion?” questioned another crew member.
“It’ll be too late by then he’ll have spilled his guts to the machines!” the speaker indicated Neo lying supine in one of the chairs.
“But Trinity-“ the one voice of reason tried again.
“Won’t unplug him. We all know what’s going on between those two.”
The man leaned over and tapped some keys on one of the keyboards. A silent image loaded. The sequence played out with no sound: Neo and Smith talking in the park.
Everyone fell silent.
“What more proof do we need?” the man said. “Everything he’s done, everything he’s said; it’s all lies. He probably sold out to the machines ages ago.”
“We don’t know for sure. It’s only one-“ she gestured to the screen.
“There’s more where that came from.”
Silence fell again and on the screens the markers glowed: Neo and some miscellaneous AI.
TBC…
Almost finished… almost…
17:41, 21/05/02