Chapter 5: Chapter 5

“The eye sees only what the mind is prepared to comprehend.”

R. Davies

  

Sam scratched her head; “It has you...” she read out loud once again.  

“What has us?” Rod asked.  

“I’ve no idea.” Olivia said.  

“What does it even mean?” Dan asked.  

“Guys, I think that we should stop wasting our time and get back to work.” Luke waved his hands.  

“Shut it, Luke.” Adam, who was nowhere to be seen by that point, added; “Sam is right, aren’t you curious?”.   

“Yeah, I’m curious, but we can’t do much right now. We need to wait for the boss and the boss will be pissed that we spent our time staring at the screen instead of working.”.  

“But this is the part of the work.” Rod said; “I’m responsible for collecting information on Trinity and this is obviously his work. I need to figure it out.”.  

“Fine, suit yourselves.” Luke said and, in a moment, he was out of the cubicle.  

“Any thoughts?” Rod turned to face Sam and their eyes met.  

“Give me a moment.” she said and pulled out her phone, speed-dialing her dearest accomplice.  

The phone rang.   

This is the second time I’m met with Trinity's work in a span of a few days. If I’m to expect the same to happen as it did the last time, I need this app secured.  

“Hello?” came from the other side of her phone.  

“Hey, Dab! Look, I don’t have much time, but I need a favour.”.  

“Oh, it’s you!” came in a cheery voice; “Sup, sis?”.  

“I don’t know what you’re doing right now, but whatever it is, this is more important.” she said.  

“Sure, shoot.”.  

“I need that stick of yours.”.  

She was met with silence for a while.  

Dab’s voice finally came: “I can’t borrow you that.”.  

She sighed: “If you don’t want to borrow it, you can come around and do this yourself.” she said in a slight annoyance.  

“What’s this about?” he asked.  

“I need to transfer another Trojan.”.  

“Oh, is it like that other one from the other day?” curiosity peaked in his voice.  

“No questions, bro.” she cut him off; “I really need this.”.  

She heard him sigh; “Fine, where are you at?”.  

“Erm.” she made a pause, realising that she had forgotten where she was in her own excitement; “The CAU?”.  

“What?” Dab’s tone of voice turned dark; “You aren’t serious, are you?”.  

Sam was determined to get her brother to help her: “I’m as serious as ever, Dab. I really need this. I wouldn’t have asked if there was another way for me to do this.” she found herself pleading with him since this was way too important for her.  

She was sure that the boss would say to delete it again, so she had no time to waste. It was only a matter of time before he would be back and it could be at any moment.  

A long silence followed, leaving Sam to think if it was a good idea to get her brother included in this mess.  

“Fine. But you owe me, like, big time after this, sis.” he said very seriously.  

“Of course.” Sam said, feeling great relief; “Oh, and bring that laptop, would you?”.  

“OK.” Dab said, but he didn’t sound pleased; “What’s the address?”.  

Soon enough, the whole group found themselves impatiently waiting for Dab’s arrival.  

“Remember,” Sam spoke to the whole group; “whatever happens, my brother wasn’t here, like, ever.” she told everyone, being very serious.  

Last thing she and her brother needed was to get him caught in the spider net of the Code Analysis Unit and have him have to deal with Mr. Smith.  

Sam shuddered at the thought.  

“Sure. The boss doesn’t need to know.” Rod shrugged his shoulders.  

“Is your brother...?” Dan asked.  

“No. Nothing like me.” Sam half lied, knowing what he had meant; “He’s coming to do us all a favour, so just leave him out of whatever it is you guys usually do. He’s not a threat.”.  

Her colleagues nodded in understanding.   

“Hm...” Olivia hummed, breaking the silence, looking like she was lost in deep thought.  

“What?” they all asked.  

“I’ve got an idea.” she said; “The constant theme of us searching for these people is the question of the Matrix and – “  

Loud huff cut her off: “Bah, if the boss heard you…” came from Luke’s cubicle in a somewhat disgusted tone; “It’s child’s play, Olivia, leave it be.”.  

Sam’s eyebrows rose high on her forehead.  

“But, no, for real.” Olivia said; “These people all seem to be connected by the issue of the Matrix and the issue of the Matrix alone. Other than committing cyber-crimes, they have nothing else in common, nothing else that connects them.”.  

“I’m sure it’s an inside joke they all have running, something to throw us off and in the wrong direction. After all, you know what the idea of the Matrix is and it’s idiotic. Wake up, Olivia.” Luke said in a very serious tone.  

“The Matrix?” Sam asked, but Olivia spoke as if she didn’t hear her.  

“All that I’m saying is that, yes, they use the Matrix for whatever reason, being it to throw us off, or something else. Either way, the Matrix has nine letters and the password has the same. All that I’m saying is that we could try it.” she said in self-defense, raising her hands like she was to defend herself from an attacker.  

Sam coughed to draw everyone’s attention and, once that their eyes were on her, she repeated: “The Matrix?”.  

“Oh, it’s an idea that we’re a part of the computer simulation, but, as such, we can’t prove it.” Rod explained.  

Something tugged at the edges of Sam’s lips: ”For real?”.   

At that exact moment, the elevator of their thirteenth floor dinged and drew everyone’s attention towards it. Out walked the Agents Smith, Jones and Brown, accompanied by another young man in a suit with a messy black hair.  

Well, shit. If Dab doesn’t show up ASAP the app will be gone.  

Sam thought as panic twisted her lower abdomen, leaving her surprised by her own reaction.  

The silence fell as all eyes were drawn to the newcomer.  

“That’s Neo.” Rod whispered in her general direction; “Olivia found out his real name yesterday after you’d left. Thomas Anderson.”.  

Sam’s eyes widened slightly and she caught herself staring at him, wondering and pondering. Neo returned her a gaze and uncertainty was written in his eyes. The more that their eyes remained locked, the more Sam started to feel odd. It was similar to what had happened the last time when she thought about Morpheus, but this time it wasn’t as strong; everything around the newcomer went blurry and he appeared like he was walking in slow motion, each step lacking the confidence that one needed when dealing with Mr. Smith. The whispers of her colleagues became distant and sounded like a different language, one unknown to her.   

Sam shook her head to ground herself back into reality. It helped. Next, she found herself glancing in Smith’s direction and the familiar sensation in her lower abdomen caught her by surprise, making her cheeks slightly blush.  

She opened her mouth to speak once the group of the Agents reached her, but none of them showed the slightest inclination that they’ve noticed her or the rest of the guys and they just continued onwards, towards the door that Sam had a specific hatred for.  

The interrogation room.  

As soon as they disappeared behind the door, Sam stood up and said: “Excuse me.” to everyone around her to give her some space, doing her best to make her way towards the same door.  

“Where are you going?” Olivia asked.  

“Oh, I’m just going to go and watch. Aren’t you guys coming along too?” Sam said, feeling confused.  

In her mind, this would be something extremely exciting, especially considering that she would be on the other side of the window, being able to observe how Smith goes around dealing with different people.  

Will it be the same as it was with me? Or perhaps completely different?  

Adam’s voice brought her out of her train of thoughts: “You can’t.” he said and made a pause; “The boss hates to be distracted in any way.”.  

“But - “ Sam started to protest.  

After all, how would she be distracting him when he wouldn’t even see her on the other side of the mirror?  

“No buts.” Adam said sternly; “He’ll give us a rundown at the meeting later today.”.  

“So, we just sit here and wait?” she asked, feeling extremely disappointed.  

“No. We sit here and we work.” came Luke’s voice from a far away cubicle.  

The sudden sound of the elevator door dinging again captured everyone's attention and they all turned their heads in its direction. Dab walked inside, looking around in wonder and amazement.  

“Hey bro! Over here!” Sam waved at him to draw his attention.  

Dab stopped in his tracks for a moment, one of his hands gripping at the laptop bag’s strap while the other hand run through his messy dark brown hair.  

He’s nervous.  

Sam thought and a small smile tugged at the edges of her lips. She knew her brother all too well, so recognising when he was nervous and uncomfortable didn’t take much effort.  

“Get your ass here.” she demanded, taking a moment to notice that he was wearing new jeans and a dress shirt.  

Ha! He dressed up for this! What a guy!  

Sam almost giggled, but managed to push her amusement to the side. There were more important things to deal with right then.  

Dab made his way towards the group, saying a quick “Hello.” before he gave Sam the laptop: “What you’ve ordered.” he said, waiting for her to take it in her arms; “Where's the Trojan?” he asked.  

“Right on there.” Sam said and pointed at her laptop, taking the new laptop in her possession; “It’s open in our app.”.  

Dab nodded and, in a moment, he pulled out his USB stick and connected it to Sam’s laptop, swiftly working on transferring the virus while Sam started up the new laptop.  

“What’s up?” she asked when she noticed that it was taking too long.  

After all, he really just needed to cut it and paste it into whatever he had on his USB stick.  

“It’s... Odd.” Dab said, sounding confused; “Come, take a look.”.  

With that, everyone present appeared behind his back, allowing Sam to stand closest to him.  

Sam squinted her eyes at the screen: “I don’t understand.”.  

“Neither do I.” Dab admitted; “It’s not allowing me to move it.”.  

“It’s like it has a mind of its own.” Rod said more to himself than to the rest of the group, wonder obvious in his voice.  

“I’ll forward myself the email to the new laptop, OK Rod?” Sam asked.  

“Of course.”.  

After a few clicks on Rod’s PC and a few more on the laptop that Dab had brought, everyone was looking at the forwarded email.  

“Nothing.” Sam said, feeling very confused and aghast; “How can one manage to send the virus within the email, but prevent it from being sent when forwarded. Also, who would do something like that? It’s a virus for God’s sake. It makes no sense.” she scratched her head.  

“Then it’s probably not a virus.” Dan said, making everyone stop what they were doing for a short moment.  

Dan just might be right.  

“Let me try something else.” Dab jumped in, pushing her to the side to be able to work in peace.  

He connected Sam’s laptop to the new one the same way it was connected to Rod’s PC; by the cable. Then and only then did he manage to transfer the unknown program to the new laptop.  

“It’s done.” Dab said and quickly stood up; “I’m glad that I was of some help, but I really ought to be on my way.”   

“Sure.” Sam said, offering him a teasing look and a smile.  

After all, she knew that he was in a hurry only because he was afraid of being where he was. She couldn’t blame him, though. The CAU was the nightmare of every hacker out there and, now, her own personal nightmare; the nightmare that she didn’t want for her brother to get stuck in too.  

Perhaps it isn’t as bad as I thought it would be.  

She thought, her memory going back to the last night and to the unexpected crush that she had developed. She had to hide the shy smile that threatened to show itself when she thought of Mr. Smith.  

Sam shook her head and waved back to her brother who was doing his best to leave as fast as possible.  

“So?” asked Olivia.  

“Hm?” Sam managed, being brought out of her thoughts.  

“We ready to try the password?”  

“Oh, sure.” she managed, turning around to take the seat again.  

She brought her fingers above the keyboard and typed in: thematrix  

Error screen appeared: Wrong password. Two attempts remain.  

“Huh, it was worth a shot.” Olivia said and shrugged her shoulders.  

“No, wait. Let me try this again.” Sam said and was quick to type again.  

TheMatrix  

Everyone watched the screen with anticipation. It felt like everyone stopped breathing for a moment.  

The green interface flashed.  

Password accepted.  

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Loading … 0%  

Everything seemed to stop as the whole squad stared at the screen, tension tangible in the cubicle to the point it could be cut with a knife.  

“I hope this won’t screw up my laptop.” Sam said with worry in her voice, biting her lower lip and thinking about the other Trinity's virus that she had stored on it.  

Murmurs of agreement came from the group around her since they all respected the good hardware.  

Loading … 30%  

“Come on.” Rod said impatiently.  

Loading … 60%  

“Argh, this is taking forever!” Dan complained.  

Sam just sat there, staring at the screen, her whole body going tense. She barely noticed that she clenched her fists so hard that her knuckles went white and she realised that she had been holding her breath for far too long.   

Come on!  

Loading … 90%  

Come on!!!  

Loading … Finished  

Her eyes widened as the program started to run; green falling pieces of the code took over the screen. They continued to fall for a moment until they left the blank, black screen behind them, single white line flashing at the left upper corner of the screen.  

“What is this?” Olivia asked.  

“It appears that we can type into it.” Sam said, although it sounded more like a question than a statement.  

She brought her fingers above the keyboard and thought about it for a moment.   

What do I type in?  

With that thought, letters started to appear as if someone was typing from the other side. She almost jumped back, feeling more than startled.  

She read out loud the sentence that has formed: “It has you.”  

She was quick to type down: The Matrix?  

Yes.  

What’s the Matrix?  

It has you. You need to wake up.  

“What the hell?” Sam managed before she continued typing.  

How do I wake up?  

A long pause followed, her and the rest of her colleagues staring at the screen intently. She felt like she was sitting on the thousands of needles and didn’t even notice that she was at the edge of her seat.  

The One.  

Sam felt nothing more but utter confusion.  

The one?  

Nothing came for a while. Sam was just about to type something else when the green falling code appeared again, erasing the conversation that was typed in. As it fell, the whole program started to disintegrate. Within the moments, before anyone managed to react at all, the program was gone.  

“Well...” Rod said after a long pause; “That was...”.  

“Interesting...” Sam finished his sentence for him, scratching her head.  

Everyone looked at each other, confusion visible on their faces.  

“Perhaps the boss was right.” Dan said; “Seems like it’s something made to throw us off.”.  

“Like something that would keep us busy with fantasy world while something very real is happening somewhere else.” Adam added; “Like, they keep us busy with some silly riddles and games while they do what they do best.”.  

“Yeah...” Sam said, although she didn’t quite agree with them.  

She had never heard of the Matrix before, but the concept of being stuck in a computer simulation wasn’t foreign to her. She knew that she and those like her, hackers, often talked about feeling it; a strange feeling of disconnection from the real world or simulation, however you wanted to call it. However, she had heard from professionals what the feeling was – derealization; a feeling that the world around you is unreal. Apparently, this was fairly common and it could happen to anyone, so of course that for hackers it made sense to come up with the idea that the world was a computer stimulated reality.  

Either way, she was going to figure out what The One meant to see what was what. She could only hope that she would actually figure it to get some answers. If not, she would be left with only more questions and she didn’t like the idea.  

“We’ll tell the boss about it during the meeting.” Rod said; “Alright.” he shrugged his shoulders; “Back to work I guess.”.  

Sam grabbed both laptops and was soon sitting at her own desk, pondering about what she had just experienced.  

The Matrix, the Matrix…  

She repeated in her own head, preparing herself to browse about it:  

Search: the matrix meaning  

Results:  

matrix (/meitriks/)  

1. the cultural, social, or political environment in which something develops.

“Oxbridge was the matrix of the ideology”  

2. a mass of fine-grained rock in which gems, crystals, or fossils are embedded.

“Nodules of secondary limestone set in a matrix of porous dolomite”  

Nope.  

Sam stopped and pondered for a moment. She then opened a different browser, something that some would perhaps consider being similar to the dark web before she typed again:  

Search: the matrix meaning  

Results:  

The Matrix, a simulated false reality created by AI to keep humans enslaved.  

Sam stopped again, her mouse levitating just above the link.  

What even is this?  

“What are you doing?” came suddenly from the entrance of her cubicle.   

She jerked her head up: “Luke, you startled me!” she exclaimed, her hand darting to cover her heart; “What’s up?” she managed.  

“I -” he started, a slight shade of pink colouring his cheeks, taking a moment before he continued; “I just wanted to check on you. That back there sounded intense for you guys.”.  

“Oh,” Sam caught herself feeling surprised by the sudden appearance of a colleague that she expected the least to see, and the slight blush didn’t escape her watchful eyes; “it was intense, yes.” she said, deciding to ignore his sudden appearance and just go with the flow; “I’m just looking it up, actually. It’s odd, trying to find some answers.” she said sincerely, although she already knew Luke’s feelings about wasting the time on the question of The Matrix; “Perhaps you could help me out?” she asked either way, curious how he would react.  

“Erm,” Luke said and nervously brushed his fingers through his hair; “The boss really hates the idea of the Matrix.”.  

“But why?”.  

“Because he, just like me, thinks it’s a waste of everyone's time.” he said and stopped, but when he noticed expectance in Sam’s eyes, he continued; “Look, don’t think that I myself never wondered and explored about the Matrix. And, to be honest with you, I never found anything too interesting. Rod explained that it’s a belief that we live in a computer simulated reality, and even if it was true, which I’m not saying it is, there’s nothing we can do about it.”.  

“So, you don’t believe it’s stimulated reality, all of this around us?”.  

“No. And even if I did and if it were true, as I’ve said, there’s nothing we could do about it.” he made a pause; “That’s why the boss hates his employees spending the time researching something that’s either way pointless.”.  

“But, is it pointless if all of these hackers are connected by it?” Sam asked with mischief in her eyes, still wondering and reflecting on the recent chat she had had with Trinity.  

“As we said earlier, it’s probably just their way to keep us off their trail, make us spend our valuable time on something that’s not important or pointless while they hack around and commit cyber crimes, and these lot committed every cyber crime known in the books.”.  

“I see.” Sam said, but decided that she would do some snooping on her own, despite Luke’s words.  

“Anyhow, just wanted to have a chat with you about it before you get into the rabbit hole. The boss would hate it, especially since you’re supposed to be working on our number one priority, catching Morpheus.”.  

“OK.” she made a pause; “Thanks, Luke.” she said.  

“No problem.” he said, his hand darting to mess with his hair one more time, soft blush not leaving his cheeks at all during their whole conversation and, with that, he was out of her cubicle.  

Sam looked after him and, after a moment of getting lost in her thought, she jerked her head and turned to her laptop.  

Despite the whole conversation, she clicked on the link.  

___oOo___  

The big oval and red-ish table made out of full wood filled in the majority of the meeting room. The glass wall overlooked the city and the view was stunning. The front of the meeting room had a whiteboard and there was a projector set in place that showed pictures and information on Neo, or, rather, Thomas A. Anderson. Agent Jones was in the middle of explaining some of the crimes that he had committed, standing there unmoving and in an almost robotic-like state, when Sam’s attention slowly turned towards Agent Smith.  

He sat left of the Jones and opposite of Agent Brown at the front of the room. The rest of the group sat at the bottom of the table and Sam herself sat in a way that allowed her to see Smith just perfectly.  

There was something that Sam saw as almost romantic in the air around him. It was all in her head, of course, but the sunset was visible just behind him, low glow of the orange shimmered through the glass walls and fell onto his shoulders. His posture was straight and perfect as always, his elbows resting on the armrests of his chair and tips of his fingers touched together just ever so lightly. Unlike Agents Jones and Brown, his sunglasses were off and the gaze of his piercing blue eyes was lost somewhere unknown to her.   

What’s going through his mind?  

Sam would give anything to know the answer to that without a second thought.   

There was just something about him that Sam found to be irresistible. Was it his eyes? Maybe his unquestionable authority? Perhaps the way he carried himself and the way he thought deeply about the world just like she did. The conversation that they had back in his car wouldn’t leave her mind and she kept replaying it over and over in her head.   

Soon, nothing but him existed in the room for Sam. She was just dumbly looking at him, not really noticing herself staring at his whole figure. She bit her lower lip slowly, imagining herself falling into his arms clumsily again, feeling his body so close to hers, feeling the shift of his muscles who were sadly hidden away by the fabric of his always perfectly straight and unwrinkled suit.   

Something woke up in her lower abdomen and she bit the inside of her cheek, her gaze not leaving his figure at all. A naughty thought quickly appeared in her mind when Smith shifted in his seat, grabbed his tie and slowly fixed it, leaning back in his seat. Sam’s eyes followed the tensing of his muscles and the thought in her mind suddenly became hot. She caught herself thinking about him taking her and a sudden rush of blood coloured her cheeks pink.   

Almost as if he knew, his gaze returned to the happenings around him and his eyes turned to find hers.   

Not knowing what else to do and feeling as if she was caught, Sam quickly turned her gaze back to the front of the room, pretending to pay attention to Jones’ presentation and information bombarding. All the while she pretended to be interested in Jones’ words, she kept the corner of her eye on Smith and her heart kept beating louder and faster in her chest when she realised that he was not taking her eyes off of her.   

She felt a sudden rush of adrenaline, mostly caused by her inappropriate thoughts, which made her feel hot in her face, making her realise that she was probably blushing hard.   

Oh no!  

That was the last thing that she needed while under the gaze of her strict boss.   

At this point, Sam actually tried to start paying attention, hoping that it would cease her blushing and get her back into the game of pretending that nothing weird or inappropriate was going on in her head. The last thing that she needed was for Smith to somehow figure it out.   

Some things are better to remain a secret.   

Although I wouldn’t mind him taking me...  

Another unwanted thought went through her mind and she clenched her fist under the table, noticing that her whole body went tense. This apparently didn’t escape Smith’s eyes since they quickly scanned her all over, stopping for a moment on her lips.  

Sam’s throat instantly went dry and her heart skipped a beat.  

Fuck!  

“So, why didn’t you arrest him?” a sudden question from Olivia, who was sitting right next to her, finally brought Sam out of her head.  

“Because we want to allow him some time to reconsider our proposition.” Smith said, suddenly joining in the meeting; “After all, he knows that he is not allowed to leave the city and he will be under our constant supervision.”.  

Some of the colleagues around her nodded, others didn’t show much of a reaction.  

“Boss,” Rod started; “We had an odd encounter with Trinity today.” he said and gulped, looking uncertain of himself.  

Smith’s brows rose on his forehead, but he said nothing.  

“I’ve received an application in my email. With the help of Sam and others we managed to open it and we were introduced to some kind of a chat program.”.  

Smith remained silent for a moment: “And?” he asked.  

“And it appeared like Trinity was typing from the other side.” Rod took another gulp, going slightly pale in his face; “He spoke about the Matrix.”.  

Sam quickly turned towards Smith and examined his face closely. Although it seemed to remain expressionless, she caught ever so slight clench of his jaw as well as narrowing of his eyes.  

“Why were we not consulted before you attempted to start the program?”.  

“Cause you were busy with Neo and we tried to get some work done.” Sam spoke up and his eyes found hers, making her cheeks slightly blush once again.  

“We will need to see this program.” he spoke in a firm tone; “What did Trinity, if it was Trinity, say?”.  

“He said that we need to wake up, that the Matrix has us.” Sam said quickly, feeling some defiance in her tone of voice.  

Why, she didn’t know. Perhaps it was because she already knew what Agents thought about the Matrix and she wasn’t ready to let it go herself. It was beyond intriguing for her and she wanted some answers to her never ending questions about the issue.  

To her surprise, a small smirk appeared on Smith's face: “Anything else?”.  

Rod was just about to say something when Sam cut him off: “No.” she said simply, deciding that she wanted to keep the riddle to herself and to the group.   

She could only hope that the group would allow her to do this, and to her slight surprise, they did. Everyone just nodded their heads and murmured something between each other.  

“It’s probably just another way for them to try and threw us off.” Luke said.  

“Of course.” Agent Brown jumped in; “We still need to see the program nevertheless. Where is it?” he asked and he turned his head in Sam’s direction.   

“It was on my laptop,” she said; “but has since disintegrated and disappeared.”.  

“We see.” Smith spoke up and his voice sent a slight electric sensation down her spine; “We will still examine your laptop, programs always leave a trace.” he said.  

Welp, shit.  

Sam thought. She still had that other virus on it, the one that she had lied to have had destroyed a while ago.   

“Miss Marshal.” Smith spoke; “Bring your laptop to my office. Everyone else, back to work.”.  

Sam looked at him and their eyes met shortly before Smith moved his gaze away from her and stood up, once again fixing his tie, his jaw clenching in the process.  

Sam remained sitting down while everyone else started leaving the meeting room, still observing her boss who moved to the glass wall to catch the last sunrays of the sunset.  

Sooner than she realised, everyone but the two of them was out of the room. Smith turned around with the darkness slowly enveloping the sky, making his way towards the exit when he stopped for a moment, his eyes finding hers once again. He stopped in surprise that was, of course, only visible on his face for a very short moment.  

“Miss Marshall?” he asked.  

“Boss, I’ve got something to tell you.”.

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