xJAYMANx > Sub-Matrix
Sub-Matrix
* 4 *
But in that instant, when my weapon should've fired, the blinding white light returned. (-- Did I kill her? --)
"No," the clear female voice returned amidst the whiteness. "You didn't kill her."
"What happened?" I thought I shouted. "Why did you bring me back?"
"You never left," the deeper male voice said. "We introduced a simulation -- based on your most recent transformation experience -- to verify our conclusions. But you never left the Analysis Construct."
"And?" I asked. "What did you find?"
There was a noticeable hesitation, even with these voices, these programs.
"Well?" I persisted in growing fear.
The deeper voice answered. "I'm sorry. Our analysis reveals that you have been infected with a viral program."
(-- A virus? --)
"I'm afraid so," he said, reading my thought.
"But the simulation-- My pain-- The pain was gone!"
"Yes, the pain was gone but you weren't cured. Our simulation captured only the few moments surrounding your transformation. And while we can contain, freeze, and extract the viral program for those few moments in the Analysis Construct, we haven't yet been able to do so in an environment as immense, continuously running, and dynamically complex as the Matrix."
"But how? Why?"
"That has yet to be determined," he said. "While some of us believe that the rebels created and introduced this virus, I do not. It is beyond their capacity and means to do so. In any case, your program must be purged."
