Chapter 2: Morpheus
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The 00bers (what a stupid name) took me into their car and drove for a long way, took me inside a building and into some sort of an interrogation room. One of them offered me a seat in a disgustingly polite way and then sat down himself in front of me. I couldn’t help wondering what the hell was up with those shades everyone was wearing.
The 00ber took out a folder labeled “Thomas A. Anderson”, opened it and put it on the table. Whether he was looking at the papers he browsed through or at me I couldn’t tell.
“Hello Mr. Anderson. My name is Smith. As you can probably tell, we know a lot about you already. You live two lives. In one, you’re just some average Joe who pays taxes, has a job and all that stuff. In the other, you’re an absolute madman who’s in deep love with his computer, goes by the hacker alias Neo and has a problem with obeying the laws we have about computer usage.”
I somehow felt like I was being swallowed by the depths of my chair.
“Look, I’m going to be honest with you,” said the 00ber, Smith. “You’ve been contacting a man called Morpheus. He’s a terrorist, probably the most dangerous man alive, and we were hoping that you’d be cooperative and help us get him to justice.”
“Great deal,” I said. “But I’ll make you an offer that you can’t refuse.”
He raised his eyebrows.
“I’ll give you the finger…”
I did so and was about to continue when Smith interrupted with soft laughter.
“You don’t know how ridiculous you look right now to me, Mr. Anderson. You think you’re being cool, but all I see right now is a poor guy who needs help because he thinks he’s someone he’s not.”
“What are you talking about? I just want the phone call I have all rights to…”
“Why do you want a phone call?” Smith said as some really foul-smelling tape appeared out of nowhere gluing my lips together. “You can’t even speak.”
The two other 00bers approached with some kind of a berry. They ripped the tape off and as soon as I opened my mouth to shout, they shoved the berry in and forced me to swallow it. It was the worst tasting thing I’ve ever tried; like it was rotten or something.
Then I woke up, and realized this had all been a dream. I stroke the sweat from my forehead. What a terrible nightmare. Then my heart took a leap and I looked at my desk – only to see that my computer was still ruined. Too bad that part wasn’t a dream too.
I stood up, and the phone started ringing. I stopped dead. Morpheus? Trinity? Someone else? I slowly picked it up.
“I must be brief. This line is watched,” came Morpheus’ voice.
“The 00bers…”
“I know all about that,” said Morpheus. “If they knew all I know, you’d probably be dead.”
“Huh?” I asked.
“They haven’t realized how important you are.”
“What the hell?”
“You’re the One, Neo.”
“The One? Who’s the Two?” I asked sarcastically. Morpheus ignored the comment.
“Do you still want to meet me?”
“Er…”
“Great. Go to the Adams street bridge.”
The built-in curiosity could easily overcome the fear of maybe getting involved in something I didn’t want to know of.
When I was on the bridge, there was a car already waiting for me. I saw Trinity in the car, and then a man and a woman I didn’t know.
“Get in,” Trinity said, her face free from expression. I got into the car and was greeted by a gun held by the woman.
“What’s that supposed to be?” I breathed.
“It’s for our protection,” Trinity answered.
“Protection? We need protection?”
“From you.”
“What the…”
“Here,” she said and handed me a paper bag. “Puke in this.”
“Huh?” I asked, more confused than I had ever been.
The woman with the gun sighed.
“Look. It can be our way,” she pushed the gun forward until it touched my forehead, “or…”
“OK, your way, as long as you don’t hurt me,” I squeaked before she finished the sentence, my voice unusually high-pitched. Trinity smiled.
“We won’t. Just puke in that bag.”
“Why?” I asked, still confused.
“We think the 00bers had you Berried.”
“Couldn’t you just have asked?” I snapped. “No need to point a gun at me! They did force me to eat a rotten, foul-tasting berry, yeah, you could have found out much sooner if you had just bothered to ask!”
“Puke in the bag,” Trinity just ordered.
“How am I supposed to puke just like that?” I protested.
“Puke or you’ll get to eat a bullet,” said the woman and the gun clicked.
“Wait,” said Trinity. She glowed purple and suddenly I felt this incredible feeling of disgust. I immediately grabbed the bag and puked everything I’ve eaten in my life into it, or so it seemed.
“Let’s get rid of that,” Trinity said as she took the bag and threw it out of the window. I thought I heard it land on the front window of one of the passing cars.
We drove to some hotel-thing and Trinity took me to room 1313. I was already feeling that I shouldn’t have come here.
“Be honest, he knows a lot,” said Trinity as she pushed me forward into the room.
Inside, a tall man was standing in front of the window, looking out. He freaked me out for some unknown reason.
“You’re here at last,” he said in a voice that made me almost expect him to add Mr. Anderson after it.
“Yeah…” I muttered, not really knowing what to say.
“Welcome. You can probably already guess that I’m Morpheus.”
“It’s an honour,” I said, daring to be a bit louder.
“The honour is mine, Neo. Sit down.”
Trinity left; she apparently had nothing more to do here. I slowly sat down, not taking my eyes off Morpheus. He also sat down and sighed.
“So, you must feel like you’ve tumbled down a rabbit hole, I suppose?”
“Rabbit hole?” I questioned.
“Alice in Wonderland…”
“Yeah, of course,” I said. “But I don’t get it – I’m not in Wonderland, I’m just involved in something freaky.”
“You are expecting to wake up,” Morpheus stated.
“Huh?”
“That’s why you accept this whole thing – you think it must be a dream.”
“Er…”
“Why are you here, Neo? Can you tell me that?”
“Because I decided to meet you,” I said. Finally he asked something I could answer with full confidence. “Most hackers would die to meet you – almost…”
“Ahh…” said Morpheus and smiled. “But then we get to the point: Are you sure it was because you decided to meet me? Are you sure you are in control of your life? Or is it the Type Chart that controls you?”
“What is that Type Chart thingy you go on and on about?” I asked furiously.
“The Type Chart is everything. This,” he picked up a bottle of beer from the table, “is the Type Chart. The table I picked it up from is the Type Chart. You are the Type Chart, your friends are the Type Chart, your beloved computer was the Type Chart…”
“Are you trying to tell me that I’m some freaking “Type Chart”?” I asked him, getting convinced that he was utterly mad. Probably a terrorist too. Or whatever.
“The you that you know yourself is the Type Chart. The you that you have no idea about is a part of the Type Chart.”
I said nothing; I didn’t get one word of what he was saying, anyway.
“But unfortunately, no one can be told what the Type Chart is. You have to see it for yourself.”
He held out his hands. In one there was a blue pill, and in the other there was a red one.
“Take the red pill, and I’ll show you what the Type Chart is.”
I was in doubt. After all Morpheus had tried to make me commit suicide before.
“What will happen if I take the blue pill?” I asked.
“Funny you asked. Normally it would kill you, but since you’re the One…”
Without words, I grabbed the red pill and shoved it into my mouth. It tasted like cardboard. I just stood there and looked at Morpheus for a few minutes; he didn’t move or say anything at all. Then I started feeling dizzy, my eyes went out of focus, I lost my balance and fell to the floor. The last thing I heard was “Take him and prepare the operation”.