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THE SUNSET
* 12C *
The third phase of their mission was the recovery of the teens' real-world bodies...
Commanding the auto-pilot from his operator station, Hitchhiker sent the hovercraft 'Nosferatu' hurtling through the known underground tunnel network towards the approximate location of Aaron's unplugged body.
Then a sudden buzz echoed over his headset.
"Operator," Hitchhiker answered.
"Hitch!" Threads urged. "I need the exit!"
"Just a sec!"
On his main screens, Hitchhiker could see Threads with his cellphone to his ear, standing within a five-foot radius of the tepee-enclosed exit fire. He needed Threads to unplug from the Matrix, climb down to the lowest level of the hovercraft, and operate the body-scoop to pluck Aaron's body from the cold dirty waters of the real world.
Immediately, the operator sent the exit signal. Then leaping to Threads' chair, he pressed the on-screen 'Exit' button, and unplugged the head-spike connector from the back of Threads' head.
"Thanks," Threads uttered, quickly regaining his normal breathing and bearing in the real world.
The operator smiled, "Welcome back."
"We'll see... I'll get to the scoop!"
Scrambling to his operator station, Hitchhiker noticed an odd change in the exit-fire display... a bad change...
The exit-fire reinforcement was getting weaker!
But the operator couldn't worry about that right now... He needed to find Aaron before he drowned to death... He needed to find Aaron right now!
And there he was!
At the foundations of the enormous monolithic power-pod towers, deep within the tunnel network, Aaron's body shot out of a waste-ejection chute, and crashed into the chilly ancient waters below. Its thermal sensors swiftly locating his body heat, the 'Nosferatu' zoomed into range, and maneuvered into the optimum hovering position above him.
In moments, Threads released the body-scoop and pulled Aaron into the hovercraft.
"Gotcha," Hitchhiker whispered.
Now all they needed to do was to find Miriam.
Expecting the lead Agent to leap through the five-hundred-foot-wide wall of black-smoking flames, Million prepared herself for another flamethrowing burst.
Waiting on her dirt bike only fifty feet away from the center of the fiery wall, she regripped the discharge trigger in her raised left hand, and readied the bike with her revving right hand.
Suddenly, over the height of the blazing wall, the Agent exploded through the billowing black clouds, his descending figure trailing black smoke and wielding a semi-automatic pistol.
He opened fire! Brack! Brack! Brack!
Instantly reacting to the crackling flashes of gunfire, yet in seeming slow motion, Million sprung sideways off her dirt bike, aimed her flamethrower hose, and unleashed a shorter stream of spiralling fire in a semi-tucked sideways spin, thudding lightly in a face-forward feetfirst crouch.
Aimed cleverly at the terminating end of his smoke-trailing trajectory, the spiralling stream fell moments after his vulnerable landing, caught his legs, and brought the Agent down to his blackened knees.
"Gotcha," Million whispered.
But she never underestimated an Agent.
Instead of departing yet another useful but inconsequential plugged-in body, Agent Greene decided he was too close to his target to start over now. If his horse couldn't leap through the fiery wall, then he would have to leap through it himself.
But he wouldn't leap through it without the proper greeting.
Noting the high likelihood of a rebel waiting on the other side, the Agent opened his jacket, and from his left shoulder-holster, withdrew his pistol... the perfect greeting.
Then taking a few steps back, Greene suddenly laughed.
"You fuckin' rebels and your fuckin' human games."
With renewed irritation bordering on hatred, the Agent charged the blazing wall, sprung over the bright-orange flames, and descended through the rising black clouds. Through the darkness and cloudiness, he spotted the rebel shadow against the firelit landscape.
And he fired his weapon! Brack! Brack! Brack!
With acrobatic agility, the rebel not only anticipated and avoided his bullets, but retaliated with another stream of intense flames towards his position. This time, the stream caught the Agent right after his landing, across his legs... the searing intensity bringing him down to his scorched knees.
"Uhhh! UUUGGGHHH!" he groaned in pain and disgust.
Agent Greene was determined not to give up... not to give up this body... not to start over... not now... so close to his target.
And he struggled to get up. "AAAGGGHHH!"
But when he finally glanced up, he reacted too late to the blinding headlight speeding towards him, and the unseen automatic pistols that were aimed at his head.
Brat-tat-tat-tat-tat! Brat-tat-tat-tat-tat!
Focussed on the second pill-disrupted signal trace left by Threads, the captain shook his head in the weakening firelight, "I still have nothing."
"Dammit!" Unicorn glanced over at the far recliner, "She's hyperventilating!"
Beside the captain, Miriam began to shudder in accelerated respiration.
"Hold on!" the captain concentrated, the signal trace on his monitor and the cellphone in his hand. "That's it! I found her! Hitch, prepare to send the exit signal on my command!"
"Captain!" Unicorn called, "She's going into cardiac arrest!"
"Locked!" the captain confirmed. "Now, Hitch, now!"
Instantly, the small orange-and-yellow flames flickered blue, and Miriam vanished from her stark recliner chair.
Immediately after transmitting the second exit signal to the second sibling, Hitchhiker commanded the hovercraft towards the approximate location of Miriam's unplugged body.
'With any luck, she should be in the same area...' he hoped to himself.
Despite the fact that Aaron and Miriam were brother and sister, in the same location, in the same world, in the same tenth-century virtuality of the Matrix... it was entirely possible that their unplugged bodies could be located at separate power-pod towers... hundreds of miles apart!
'Where is she?'
Then the sudden buzz echoed over his headset.
"Operator," Hitchhiker answered.
"Hitch," the captain spoke. "Call Million. We're ready to exit."
On one of his main screens, the junior operator could see the captain and the senior operator, standing within a five-foot radius of the exit fire.
"Calling her now," Hitchhiker reported.
"Yes, Hitch!" replied the urgent feminine voice over the buzz of her bike.
"We're ready. It's time to come home."
"Just a couple more minutes and a couple more bogeys!... Thanks, Hitch!" And Million quickly hung up.
On his main screens of bright-green code, the junior operator followed the scarlet-haired maroon-clad commander and her bullet-dodging flight, weaving and leaping, from her two black-suited black-tied pursuers -- Agents!
"Captain," Hitchhiker relayed into his headset, "Million's flying in with a couple of bogeys on her tail!"
"Understood... Unicorn will exit first."
"Just a sec!"
Suddenly, the exit-fire display triggered a repeating -- Beep-beep-beep! Beep-beep-beep! -- triple-beep alarm to match its repeating red-screen flash. Hitchhiker glanced in horror...
The exit-fire reinforcement was gone!
Without the kids and their strange connection to nearby fire, not only did the exit-fire signal snap back to its original faint and fragile levels, the instant loss in strength was forcing it to destabilize...
He needed to stabilize the fire right now!
And he needed to find Miriam right now!
"Hitch!" the captain demanded, "What's wrong with the fire?"
"Just a sec! I'm working on it!"
Tracking ten things at once, including Million's return, Miriam's recovery, and the exit-fire's signal strength, the junior operator was finally granted with some good luck...
There she was!
Incredibly, the 'Nosferatu' travelled a relatively short distance through the tunnel network, before its thermal sensors triggered it to circle back to the foundations of the SAME enormous power-pod towers... the SAME towers where Aaron was recovered.
Like Aaron, Miriam shot out of a similar waste chute, and crashed into the chilly waters below.
And in moments, Threads released the body-scoop and pulled Miriam into the hovercraft.
"Dammit," Hitchhiker sighed.
Now all he needed to do was to stabilize the fire.
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