It had apparently been a while since the entire crew had been loaded into the Matrix, so it took a few minutes to set everything up. I went in first and had to change my look slightly, so I wouldn't stand out too much. The blond hair would let me get picked out from a crowd, so I changed it back to black.

I also put normal clothing on over my superhero suit to hide it. Dark jeans, a nice button up shirt, a waist length leather jacket, and shiny shoes. I was alone in the Construct for quite a while as everyone else was loaded in. That was when I realized I went in right away and everyone else was in limbo until the rest were added and they appeared together as a group, with none of them realizing any actual time had passed.

The looks they gave me ranged from surprised to shocked, so I laughed and pulled open my shirt to show off my hero costume underneath. “I'm going undercover as my old self.”

Mouse laughed and then coughed to cover it up.

“Why couldn't you do that all the time?” Trinity whispered.

“Subtle.” Apoc said with a smile, because everyone saw how interested Trinity was and how disinterested Switch was.

I buttoned my shirt back up. “The Matrix can't tell me who I am, Trinity. As soon as I was free of it, I no longer had to force myself to fit in.”

Morpheus nodded and opened his cell phone. “Tank, load us in.”

The all white Construct faded away as I appeared inside the room with the two leather wingback chairs and there was a telephone on the small table between them that wasn't there before. I stood there and watched as each crew member slowly formed from code and coalesced into a solid projection. When everyone appeared, Morpheus walked forward and picked up the ringing phone.

“We're in.” Morpheus said and hung up. “Neo, we'll split up downstairs. Meet us at the intersection of Wabash and Lake, near the Heart of the City hotel. Tank has installed a patch on the old exit and we can use it as an escape if anything goes wrong.”

I nodded and glanced at Trinity to see her surprise. “I shouldn't be long and I'll call if anything happens that I haven't already planned for.”

We all went downstairs, left Mouse in the lobby with several crates of weapons and things, and he pulled out a girly magazine and started flipping through the pages. Morpheus led us out through the back door and Apoc went out first. The car they used, the 1965 Lincoln Continental with the suicide doors, was there waiting for us.

“Switch, stand guard. Cypher, keep an eye on the perimeter and let Switch and Mouse know if anything shows up.” Morpheus ordered and they both nodded. “Trinity, you're with me.”

Apoc jogged down the stairs and climbed into the driver's seat. Morpheus walked down behind him and both he and Trinity climbed into the passenger side and shut the doors.

“You better start running your ass off if you want to get your shit done before Morpheus reaches the right intersection, Neo.” Cypher said with a smirk.

“Run?” I asked and took out my cell phone and hit the autodial.

“Operator.” Tank responded.

“Tank, load up the H2 file from my queue in the same coordinates the Lincoln was in.” I said.

“Are you sure it's going work? I've never seen anything like it before.” Tank said.

I had to chuckle at that qualifier. “Technically, you haven't seen anything loaded into the Matrix before.”

Tank laughed. “Good point. Here it comes.”

Switch and Cypher stared as a bright yellow Hummer Ver.2 formed from code in front of us.

“Really, Tank?” I asked and he laughed.

“I couldn't resist. Have fun staying incognito.” Tank said and hung up without fixing it.

I put my cell phone in my pocket and walked down the stairs.

“What is that thing?” Switch asked, her voice full of need.

“It's called a Hummer.” I said and she bit her lip, the name alone making her mind play through several scenarios with both Apoc and myself. “It's one of a kind.” I said, just so she wouldn't ask me for one. “Bye.”

Switch and Cypher watched as I climbed in, started it up, and drove away. I had my favorite noodle place to stop first to grab some food as a bribe and an apology, then I had to go to my apartment building to talk to my landlady. I had been gone for almost three weeks by this point and I had some explaining to do.

Surprisingly, my ride only gained some attention, mostly because of the garishly bright yellow. A few curious looks were because some of the people tried to figure out what brand of car it was. That was fine, since that wasn't enough to cause a large commotion to bring a certain sentient program to my location.

I parked a few spaces down from the noddle place and walked up the street and went inside. A pretty Asian woman was behind the counter and she gave me a polite and quite fake smile.

“What can I get for you today, sir?” She asked with a high pitched voice.

“I want two orders of the lunch special ramen, extra noodles for both.” I said.

“Extra noodles... are you Mister Anderson?” She suddenly asked.

I smiled widely. “Yes, I am. How did you know?”

“My boss has been ranting about sales being down this month because of you.” She answered.

I laughed at my absence causing something I haven't even considered. “I'm sorry about that. I got called away for a special project and only just got back.” I said and looked up at the menu. “Let me make it up to you. Add two orders of the Moo Shu Pork, the beef strip platter, and the egg roll and rice family meal.”

The Asian woman gave me a stern look for a moment, then shook her head. “Now he'll complain you gave him too much work.” She rang up my purchases and gave me another stern look. “Cash or credit?”

This was the moment I had been waiting for. It was a part of my plan and I took out my wallet and pulled out a credit card. One that had my name on it and it had never been used before. The woman smiled and held out the scanning device for me and I swiped the card.

The purchase went through and she thanked me with a real smile on her face, said it would be about 20 minutes, then she went into the kitchen to deliver the huge order to the cooks.

My cell phone rank and I took it out of my pocket and answered. “Tom, here. Hit me.”

“Neo! Are you loco!” Tank shouted. “You just pinged the goddamn mainframe!”

“Then it really did set off a trace program like I thought it would?” I asked.

“Yes! Your name was flagged immediately and a ripple went through the code like...” Tank's words cut off as a wave of something flowed over me. The other people in the restaurant froze as the reset code enacted the changes.

“Tank?” I asked and there was no answer. I glanced at the phone and saw the wireless code was scrambled. “Neat.” I said and crushed it, since it was useless anyway. I leaned over the counter to look into the back and saw the cooks were frozen, too. I walked over to a table in clear view of the street and sat down to wait.

About five minutes later, a Fed sedan pulled up with two police cars. Surprisingly, all three agents stepped out of the car and a group of police joined them. They walked over to the door and a police officer opened it to let Agent Smith walk in first.

“Welcome back, Mr. Anderson.” Agent Smith greeted me as the police spread out to surround me and the three agents stood in a pyramid formation, ready to draw on me.

I gave him a real smile and the agents looked surprised. “It's nice to see you again too, Agent Smith.” I said and glanced at the police officers. “You really didn't need so much backup for this, though. I did intentionally notify you I was back.” I said and held up the previously unused credit card. “It was the safest and quickest way and it only took you five minutes to get here. That's a great response time.”

The cops looked pleased and nodded, as did Agent Smith. The other two agents kept their faces blank.

“Your plan to let me infiltrate Morpheus' organization worked even better than either of us expected.” I said and his eyebrows raised. “Goading them by arresting me and then letting me go with a clean record, that they also checked, planting a tracker they could easily find to gain their trust, then giving them a reason to remove me from my restraints and stopping you from having easy access to me. It all came together into a perfect plan.”

Smith took a step forward and sat down across from me.

“As soon as I knew they were bringing me back here, I had to contact you and let you know how well things are progressing.” I said and he nodded. “Like I just told you, it's working out much better than we thought. I'm not only a part of the resistance like you wanted, I actually managed to be assigned to his crew.”

Smith smiled and looked pleased, too. The other two agents frowned slightly.

“I'm going to keep working from the inside and I'm going to find out as much information as I can. I've already discovered there are multiple cells out there, each of them with their own missions and means of entering here, to cause havoc to the system while also staying out of your reach.”

All three agents nodded. It had been a growing problem for a while.

“I've only just managed to join, so I don't have any names or locations yet. They guard that stuff even tighter than the Fed building downtown.” I told them and they frowned, which is exactly what I wanted them to do. “But, I've heard whispers about something important. Something called...” I leaned in and all three of them did as well. “...anomalies.”

All three agents stiffened and I could feel their glare from behind their sunglasses.

“I don't know much of anything about it. Not even what they could be.” I whispered and only Smith nodded. “I just wanted to tell you I'm working on it from my end and I'll do my best to ensure that the trust you've placed in me isn't wasted.”

“You will contact us as soon as you discover anything pertaining to that.” Smith said, his voice hard.

“Yes, sir. As soon as I get a name or a location, you'll be the first I'll contact.” I said and held up the credit card. “I'll only use it for that, so I won't abuse it.”

Smith nodded and slowly stood. He made a hand signal and the officers and the other two agents turned around and walked out of the restaurant. “Mr. Anderson, if you are lying to me...”

“I'm going to do everything I can to ensure the stability of the Matrix, Agent Smith.” I said and stood as I put the credit card back into my wallet. “Anything that threatens it, is a danger to all life, both human and machine.”

His eyebrows went up again.

“Imagine not having to do shit like this anymore to stop people from screwing up all the herd work that went into creating it.” I said and motioned around at the frozen people. “I know it's your job to clean up the messes, so why wouldn't I want to give you a break from the constant pressure that you have to deal with? Even if it's only for a little while, a brief reprieve is worth it, isn't it?”

“Yes, Mr. Anderson.” Smith said and turned to walk away. “It is.”

He was barely out the door when another wave passed over me and the flow of time resumed as if nothing had interrupted it.

“Here is your order, sir.” The woman behind the counter said and there was multiple bags on the counter for me to take. Apparently, the agents rewarded me with not having to wait another half an hour for the food.

I smiled warmly at her as I walked over to the counter and picked them up. “Thank you.”

“Have a good day.” She said and went to the cash register and sat on a little stool behind it.

I left the restaurant and walked down the street. I was happy my vehicle was still there after the change the agents did and then the small reset. I loaded the packages of food in the back cargo area and then climbed into the driver's side. I had a landlady to woo with food and hopefully she wouldn't stay angry and throw me and my stuff out.

I parked in the spot I never used before, even if it came with the apartment. I grabbed the two orders of ramen and Moo Shu Pork from the back and went inside the building. I steeled myself for the encounter and knocked on the landlady's door.

The door opened almost immediately and the older lady looked confused for a moment, then she glared at me. “You.”

“Before you start yelling at me, I brought you a bribe of extra noodles and Moo Shu Pork.” I said and lifted the large take-out bag.

The glare went from me to the bag, back to my face, and back to the bag. “You have five minutes to convince me to not kick you out.”

“Thanks for the chance, Janice.” I said and handed her the bag. “It's still boiling hot, since I rushed right here with it.”

She kept the glare and stepped aside. I hopped inside her apartment and she briefly looked amused before she closed the door and gave me another searching look. She seemed to appreciate my new clothes and my new hairstyle.

“Silverware's in the drawer by the sink.” Janice said and carried the large bag over to the kitchen table.

I went to the indicated drawer and grabbed two spoons and two forks, then joined her at the table as she tore the bag open and pulled out the four containers. She opened one of the pork ones and let out a hungry sound. Her stomach rumbled a second later and she glared at me, as I caused it.

“It's my favorite place to eat, as you very well know.” I said and plucked two napkins from the small holder in the middle of the table and put a spoon and fork on it and set it beside her. I grabbed another napkin and set my spoon and fork on it, then sat down with an eager look on my face.

Janice snorted at my expression and handed the open one to me and sat down with the other one. We ate in silence for several minutes, switching between the spoon and the fork, and her demeanor changed from hostile to resigned.

“I was called away unexpectedly to work on a government project...” I started to say and she sighed. “What?”

“You're leaving again?” Janice asked.

“Kind of? I don't know what my schedule is going to be like going forward, since it took me this long to be accepted onto the crew I was trying out for.” I explained and she nodded. “I don't want to lose the apartment, though. The location is great and I'll be making more money...”

“Your rent's going up 300 dollars.” Janice said with a teasing smile.

I couldn't help but laugh. “I figured you'd say something like that.”

“You almost missed paying this month, too.” Janice said.

“I know, which was why I brought the bribe.” I said and nodded at the two plastic bowls of ramen with extra noodles crammed to the top. “You start in on that while I head up to my apartment. I have to grab a few things and then I'll be out for a few days, maybe a week. It all depends.”

Janice nodded and opened the top and took in a sniff. “I've missed having this every weekend.”

“Me, too.” I said and stood. “I really did.”

Janice looked up at my face and saw I meant a lot more than just the food. Her face flushed red and she waved at her door. “Go and hurry back. It'll be the best temperature for you to guzzle it by the time you get back.”

I nodded and walked to her door, opened it, and stepped out. She looked sad and I closed the door and ran up the stairs to the first floor, apartment 101, and unlocked the two locks and entered. The place was exactly as I left it, which was funny, because I thought the agents would have ransacked it for everything they could find.

I grabbed my Simulacra and Simulation book, emptied the disks into my hand and put them into my jacket pocket, and put the book back on the shelf. I had a digital copy of all my books in the filing cabinet on disk and raided that next, then went into the bathroom and dug out the two plastic bags from inside the toilet tank.

I dried them off with a towel and shoved the bag of disks into the same jacket pocket and opened the money bag. I counted out 18,000 dollars and separated it into 12 installments, which was my normal rent of 1,200 a month with the new 300 dollars per month added to it. I closed the bag and put it under my jacket behind my back to hide it and zipped my jacket to keep the bag secure.

I picked up the separated money and went back to my apartment door. I thought about grabbing my clothes, then shrugged. I would worry about cleaning the place up later when I came back. It would work well as a meeting place, even if the agents knew about it. With how I had worked it, all they would do was observe and hopefully wouldn't blow my 'cover'.

I held in my chuckle at that thought and locked the locks again and went back downstairs. I knocked on the landlady's door and then stepped in. Her eyes went right to my hand and the huge stack of money there.

“You can't be serious!” Janice almost screeched.

“I said I was serious about not losing the apartment.” I said and walked over to the kitchen table. She stared at the money, her gaze almost lighting it on fire, and I counted out 1,500 dollars, then again and again, and ended with the twelfth payment and 18,000 dollars on the table. “I want to prepay for a year.”

Janice's mouth opened and closed several times, only no sound came out.

“I really am sorry that my life has taken me away from here.” I said and pushed the money towards her. “I hope this makes up for that and I will try and visit as much as possible.”

Janice reached for the pile of money with shaky hands and she pet it for a moment and then picked it up and hugged it as she sniffed it. She let out a satisfied sound and slumped back on her chair.

“I'll give you a ride to the bank to deposit it if you want.” I offered.

Janice shook her head and stayed silent.

I let out a soft laugh at her wanting to keep snuggling it and I picked up the ramen serving. It really was the perfect temperature and I opened it up and guzzled the tasty broth, then chewed for several minutes as I ate the mass of noodles.

Janice got up and went to her kitchen cabinet and pulled out a large binder. She used a pen and marked off 101 as bought for the year, marked the dates, and drew a little heart by it. She gave me a look that said she really appreciated giving her so much money in one go, instead of only paying month to month like the lease stated.

I put the empty container down and used the napkin to wipe off my mouth, then walked over to her. Janice gave me a very expectant look and I didn't disappoint her. I bent down and gave her a soft and tender kiss, right on the lips.

“Thank you for forgiving me.” I whispered and she blushed. “I need to go.”

Janice nodded and kept hugging the money.

I left a very happy an slightly horny older woman in her apartment and climbed into the Hummer. My tasks were done a lot sooner than I expected and I drove towards Wabash and Lake with a smile on my face.