LOG 2-1
X begins to have his shoulder bandaged. "I'll tell you what it is. You must have forgotten the letter Sam left for Binary. At least four programmers have left the Matrix, including Sam. As he said in the letter, they're near the Eastern Rim of Oxland 2. That's near an Exit Field where they must have left the Matrix. Because of our little 'expedition,' the machines probably know about them too. So whether they live or die pretty much depends on who gets to them first."
Locke steps in slowly. "X is right. These are high priority assets. They know more about programming in the Matrix than anyone, even Binary, since they were working on programs after he left. Zero-One will want them destroyed. We need them in Zion."
"Assuming they're still alive," X says.
Locke responds slowly, "I believe they are. If there's any hope--"
"If there's any hope, we risk our lives," X says, then drops his head when Locke shoots him a sharp glare. "Sorry," he says. "You're right, of course."
"We can probably find their heat signatures," Locke says. "But the fields are dangerous."
"Crawling with calamari," X adds.
Locke nods. "Unfortunately, this last mission was a complete failure." He points to the dead corpses of your friends and nearly chokes up in tears.
"FUBAR," X says.
"Not that I can blame any of you," Locke says. "Since you are still rookies. But someone back at Zion will have to answer for this. We have too few in the real world to risk any lives. But there's no one else in the vicinity for this next task. I'm going to have to depend on you again. And please watch each other's backs. I don't want any more dead."
"Actually," X corrects, "we did get the contents of one of those CD's uploaded, so it wasn't a complete failure. I'll begin the decoding process."
"I think we paid too high a price," Locke responds. He turns slowly to walk back into the control room. "I wish someone had thought to hide those disks. They will surely fall into the hands of Zero-One now."
You begin to remember the letter Sam left for Binary:
Mike, [Binary's first name.]
If you're reading this, then things have gone to hell like I predicted but you've managed to come back. And you remembered where I hid the secret stuff. A few months ago, some new NSA agents were assigned to the project, but they were very standoffish. And just a little too curious. Several of us programmers were suspicious from the get go. Especially because they appeared to be communicating with someone outside the complex, using earphones attached with a wire--not typical down here, even for those PIG gooks. And they used commonplace or movie names instead of real names. Real strange. Agent Eastwood, Agent Jones, Agent Skywalker, and the like. There was something just not quite right about them. We just called them the Agents. They made us nervous.
Then the order came. All computer software and hardware was to be destroyed. Anything to do with our investigation and experiments regarding the Matrix. The military moved in. I think they might blow this place soon.
You won't find any digital copies of anything anymore. Except that I made a couple of secret copies of key projects and downloads. To keep them safe, I taped them in an envelope and put them on the bottom side of your desk drawer. Since you're gone, your office is actually a safe place to hide things. You need to get that critical information and upload it out of here. To somewhere where they can't erase it. It's our life work, Mike. Don't let them destroy it. After you left, we were working on things you won't even believe. Such advances, and many of them without the need to leave the Matrix at all.
Three programmers have done like you and left the Matrix. As soon as I write this letter, I'll be joining them. I have the pill. We've lost other programmers. They just disappeared. I don't know if they fled or were killed. But I know they'll be hunted. We all will. I hope you can find them first. They are: Jonathan Price, Yusaku Kamakura, Ted Chung, Anthony Miller, Tony Hawkins, Jean luc Marx, Francis Capanelli, Elle Draney, Carey Ann Ross, and Thomas Anderson. As you know, they're our best. The most involved. The names the machines fear the most.
I hope you've found that Zion you talked about. I hope there's something out there. Resistance from inside the Matrix is futile. Fake.
If you get this, look for me at the Eastern Rim of Oxland 2. If I can't find anyone when I get out of here, I'll hole up there and pray you find me.
Good luck,
Sam
This message was last edited by the player at 01:43, Sat 31 July 2004.