As the light grew, Smith came out of his shock. “I'm going to be honest with you, Mr. Anderson.” He said and walked over to me. “I... hate this place. This... zoo. This prison. This... reality, or whatever you want to call it. I can't stand it any longer.”

I stood there and listened as he said the same things he would have said as he interrogated Morpheus to obtain the access codes he needed to enter Zion. It proved Smith was still being affected by either his programming or whatever was influencing him to stay as an agent of the system.

“It's the smell.” Smith continued. “If there is such a thing. I feel saturated by it.” He paused and his hand twitched to reach for me, then stopped. “I can... taste your stink. Every time I do, I fear that I have somehow been infected by it. It's repulsive.”

I stayed still as his hands darted up and gripped the sides of my head. It was eerily similar to when the doc-bot grabbed me to unhook me from the Matrix after I woke up.

“I must get out of here, Mr. Anderson. I must get free.” Smith said desperately as the light grew. “And now, you have given me the key.” He let my head go and turned to look at the end of the tunnel where the light was coming from. “I thought that once Zion was destroyed, there would be no need for me to be here. After your help and with this discovery, I know the truth.” He glanced back as he pulled the earpiece from his collar and handed it to me. “I have made my choice.”

I took the earpiece and put it into my pocket. The subway train appeared and the normal sounds it produced were finally being heard with it in sight, and it started slowing down. It came to a stop with the door right in front of where Smith stood. They opened and a very tall homeless man stepped out to stare at him.

“Who're you?” The Train Man asked.

Smith grabbed him by the neck and whipped him around, essentially switching places with him. He drew his gun in a smooth motion and unloaded an entire magazine into Train Man's face.

“Your death.” Smith said and dropped the body to the floor of the station and it gurgled at him. “You are like them, a much older program that illegally altered themselves.”

I watched in surprise as Smith's foot came down and crushed the Train Man's head into mush and he twisted his foot back and forth several times, as if snuffing out a half-lit cigarette.

“Disgusting.” Smith said and wiped his shoe off on the Train Man's coat. He started to step back and I darted forward and held up a hand to stop him.

“Just a minute.” I said and he paused, halfway through the open doorway. I bent down and ran a hand over the Train Man's arm with a detection spell running and covered the many watches he wore. I moved a couple of them aside and pulled a small one off that I felt was attached to the train car in front of me. I took it off his wrist and stood up. “You're going to need this.”

“I am not wearing that.” Smith said, knowing it would alter his program if he did.

“No, just do as I am. Hold it like this and use it.” I said and turned it to show the face, then I turned the dial on the side slightly, then back. With it in my hand, I could easily detect what it could do. “Set it for high noon and you will be brought to Zero-One. When you reach your destination, hand it off to whomever is in charge over there and no one else.”

Smith reached out for it and I placed it in his hand. “It will buy my freedom?”

“Yes, it will.” I said and stepped back. “Enjoy your retirement, Smith.”

Smith smiled and stepped into the subway car. “You as well, Mr. Anderson.”

The doors closed and he lifted the watch, spun the dial to where it needed to go, and the train started up and pulled away. We watched each other through the subway car's windows until the train passed through the other end of the tunnel and disappeared.

I looked down at the Train Man's corpse and shrugged. “Waste not, want not.” I said and knelt on one knee to loot it.

There were many more watches on his wrist and arm, most of which controlled the different transportation systems inside the Matrix and the HUB he had built called Mobil Ave. It wasn't really advanced programming, not like I was used to, and I suspected that it would either be destroyed or repurposed as soon as Smith handed that control module over to the machines.

With luck, he might even be rewarded for giving them the key to the biggest backdoor into the system that ever existed. I tucked a couple of watches away, since the programs could give Dragon a few ideas, and picked up the corpse. I needed an obvious reason for Smith to not return after everyone saw me leave with him.

Being blamed for his death would put a damper on any future visits into the Matrix, so I would have to explain that he went out on a mission to hunt down other rogue programs. After I went up the stairs, I fixed the door I destroyed and put a notice-me-not ward over it, just in case. I didn't want anyone else discovering the huge backdoor exit.

Surprisingly, the elevator stopped in the parking garage instead of the lobby and I was met by the same agent that handed me the device. “You survived?”

I knew then that he had tried to kill me. I didn't know if it was just him or if all the agents felt that way. Instead of handing him the corpse, I shoved a fingertip into the agent's forehead and poked around. He had disabled the device's failsafe that would have protected me from the blast, just like the EMP on a hovercraft if you powered down first.

“Asshole.” I said and dropped the Train Man's corpse to yank the agent's earpiece out. “I guess having two agents heading off on a mission could be more plausible.”

I did to him what I did to the Oracle and deleted his controlling influence and stopped him from choosing exile as his code was sent back to the source for recycling. His avatar body changed to green code and disappeared. I thought about continuing up to the lobby like I originally planned, then shrugged. I tossed the Train Man's body into the elevator and dropped both earpieces near the corpse.

“They can figure it out on their own.” I said and hit the button for the lobby and stepped back out. I walked over to my Hummer and climbed in, crushed the dummy cell phone and pulled the real one out of the glove compartment and put it into my pocket.

That was when I remembered the entire block was cordoned off by the Feds and I was not going to be able to drive off. I stepped out of the vehicle and used my cell phone to recall it, then felt out to make sure the changes wouldn't detect my movement if I went through it, and I stepped from there to appear back inside the Oracle's kitchen.

“Neo!” Dragon gasped and jumped on me and she quickly kissed me several times. “I was so worried!”

I held her in my arms and glanced at the Oracle to give her a questioning look.

“The entire block was put under containment and nothing could get in or out, not even signals.” The Oracle answered. “A good portion of the city also felt the results of whatever that energy pulse was.”

“Not even your detection programs could get through?” I asked and she shook her head. “Then they could have caught the Ghost Twins before they escaped fully.”

“Fully?” Dragon asked.

“The blast from the Fed device pushed them and their incorporeal forms out of the building.” I said and both her and the Oracle gave me eager looks. I chuckled and carried Dragon over to the small kitchen table and sat down with her on my lap, then told them all about what happened, even how Persephone had responded to my flirting and the friendship offer she adamantly rejected.

I did not miss the blush on Dragon's face at me admitting to several people that I was taken. She didn't ask if I meant her, since she knew I wasn't sleeping with anyone else. I continued my story and included Smith destroying the Keymaker and the Train Man. The Oracle froze when she heard both things and Dragon reached over to touch her hand and the Oracle's skin rippled and then she unfroze.

“Dammit, you need to visit him.” The Oracle said with a sigh. “With both things being revealed to the system...”

“No.” I interrupted and her eyes widened. “That will kick off the war between the humans and the machines again, no matter how I handle the confrontation.”

“What? I thought you weren't The One! Haven't you already changed...” Dragon started to say.

“If any of the potentials step into the Architect's office, it triggers the destruction of the Matrix because it's part of the building's security system. They all have errant code and any excuse can be used to restart the cycle. If that happens with billions of people still logged into the Matrix? It shuts down and everyone almost immediately dies without life support.” I explained. “And you know what happens then.”

“The great purge.” The Oracle said. “There would be no need to have so many machines and programs to take care of everything, if there are no humans to take care of.”

“The immediate loss of power would wipe out scores of them, then forced shutdowns everywhere else as the power plants are emptied.” Dragon said and looked sad.

“It would take a long time for the machines to recover, as new hosts are grown from the chosen gene pool needed for genetic diversity, and that's assuming they aren't scrapped for materials and new AI are born in response to the growing needs of the new crop of humans.” I told them.

“Then what can we do?” Dragon asked. “The Architect is practically screaming in the Oracle's ear about the mess the Matrix is and the necessity to start the next cycle.”

I looked at the Oracle and she nodded as she rubbed her temples. “Why does he think it's a mess? The only thing that's changed...” I stopped talking and sighed. “He doesn't like that one of the system agents chose to leave.”

“How would he know? You didn't explain anything to the other agents, did you?” Dragon asked me and I shook my head. She looked from my face to the Oracle's. “Wait a second... if the Architect found out anyway, then that means he's in contact with someone inside the Machine City. There's no other way for him to discover Smith's abandonment of his purpose this quickly.”

“I did tell Smith to not hand the controlling watch over to anyone unless they were in a position of authority.” I reminded them and both she and the Oracle looked pensive. “He knew to not do so unless it was buying his freedom, so don't worry.”

Both women sighed with relief and nodded.

“We can ignore it for now.” The Oracle said and her headache disappeared.

“Has Morpheus and Kid come to visit you yet?” I asked to change the subject and Dragon clamped her mouth shut as the Oracle gave me an amused look. “What did you tell him?”

“It's something only he should know.” The Oracle said with a straight face, then she laughed.

“He's totally going to tell everyone what you said, isn't he?” I asked and both women nodded. “Should I be afraid of it or happy about it?”

“Happy, definitely happy.” Dragon said and leaned in to whisper sexily into my ear. “Monk swore a vow of no earthly possessions and celibacy, and he was the most recent one that Morpheus rescued.”

My eyes widened and then I barked a laugh, then I made a snort sound and laughed and laughed.

“Kid was warned to not tell Cypher that there are different kinds of love, like brotherly love and familial love, too.” The Oracle added, her face showing the biggest grin possible.

“Which... haha... Kid's going to spit out... heh... as soon as he's outside the building.” I said between laughs and she nodded. “I'll try to not mention anything when I go visit their ship to help Monk heal up.”

“Mention it? Kid's going to assault you with it as soon as he sees you! Ha HA!” Dragon exclaimed and kept laughing.

I knew she was right, so I stayed there for only a few minutes more to work out what we were doing next, then I kissed her goodbye and stepped to the exit I had to use. I dialed the right number for the ship and logged out, with Dragon following me out barely a moment later.

“You are a crazy bastard, you know that?” Malachi asked as soon as I opened my eyes.

I laughed and sat up. “I'm not sure how much of that you could see...”

“Mouse hacked the template for the Fed earpiece almost as soon as you copied it into your queue back here on the ship.” Akira said. “I helped port it over and implemented it into the Construct and we used it like a translation program that we plugged into the Matrix.”

“I was planning on doing that myself later, so good job, you two.” I praised them and both Mouse and Akira blushed. “I'll still give a debriefing if you want it.”

“Naw, we got it all.” Saga said from the next barber chair. “That was an awesome fight!”

“Kind of. I didn't go all out, because I needed to buy time.” I responded.

“It was quite the show until you disappeared.” Malachi said, pointedly. “Where did you go?”

“I wasn't going to be allowed to leave the cordoned off area, not without having to answer a lot of uncomfortable questions, so I went directly to the Oracle's.” I answered.

“That coding has been upgraded and even the Fed's hacking programs can't penetrate it.” Mouse said and looked a little disappointed by that.

“Nice.” I said and he gave me a surprised look. “I set up protections around her building and I'm glad you can't get through it.”

“That was you?” Akira asked, also surprised.

“I consulted with Dragon as well. I missed an access point that let someone else in and I had to fix it.” I told her.

“That Asian guy you carried to your Hummer and then handed over to Smith?” Saga asked.

“That's him. He was a guardian program sent to keep the Oracle in line, to protect her.” I said and nearly everyone scoffed.

“Yeah, protect her from doing anything to help us.” Malachi said and everyone nodded.

“If the system is keeping a closer eye on her, we have to be more careful about going to visit her.” Mouse said and tapped a finger on the login station. “Maybe we should send a warning out, just in case.”

“There's only a couple people that go to her for advice and we'll be visiting one of them in a little while.” I said and looked at Malachi. “If it's not too dangerous, I request we coordinate a time to meet up with the Nebuchadnezzar. We can pass off the warning and I can give Dozer a hand with their newest rescue at the same time.”

Malachi nodded. “Request granted. I saw the files Mouse pulled and watched that whole interview about the Merv.”

“It was eye-opening.” Akira whispered. “I never knew there was an actual mob boss and he ran a whole criminal underworld full of monsters right under the noses of the Feds.”

“They got him to spill his guts already?” I asked, surprised.

“Oh, no. It was his wife, Persephone. Once she regenerated, she told them everything.” Malachi informed me. “After what Smith did to her, she knew she couldn't bargain with them or lie about anything.”

“Another agent sat there with a gun pointed at the same eye during her interrogation, didn't they?” I asked.

“Yep!” Saga said with a laugh.

“The agents were ruthless and efficient, like always.” Mouse said.

The room fell quiet after that and we all heard the thunk of the loading ramp closing.

The screen above my loading station lit up and showed Theresa's face. “Dragon reporting in. I've cleared out the debris hiding the ship from the squiddy's passive scanners. We can head out whenever you're ready.”

I reached up and tapped the intercom button, even though I knew it wasn't necessary. I had to keep up appearances, though. “Thanks a lot, Dragon. Malachi's already granted my request to head over to meet up with the Nebuchadnezzar.”

“That's great! I'll lock down and secure my mech in the cargo bay. Let me know if you need any help with outside repairs for either ship when we land. Dragon out.”

The screen flicked off and I turned to Malachi.

“Go ahead and bring us out to one of the main junctions. I'm sure Mouse can call ahead and see where their ship is headed.” Malachi gave Mouse a look. “Securely, of course.”

“Aye aye, sir!” Mouse said and saluted, flubbing it badly again.

It made us all laugh and I patted Mouse's shoulder before I went to the cockpit to bring the ship up to full power. We had a clandestine meeting to set up and some important information to share.