He was in his element. Tank's eyes scanned the code cycling down the screens, a small piece of a dream world he would never see in person. But the code told him enough, he could practically feel Trinity's frustration through the glass.

The phone rang. "Operator."

"They have him."

She didn't need to elaborate; Trinity knew he was watching the situation closely. What they were attempting was dangerous enough, trying to unplug an adult, especially one that had drawn the Agents' eyes. For anyone else it would be suicide, but they were the best, and he wasn't about to let his team down.

"We'll get him back."

Her wry laugh crackled through the headpiece in answer. She knew as well as he did that the odds were slim. Then again, the fact that the Agents took the man alive was a good sign. There were only two reasons why Agents took prisoners, to either interrogate them, or use them to gather information. At best, the guy would be bugged, at worst…

Trinity finished the thought, "They'll kill him if they know who they have, you know that."

Tank kept his skepticism to himself. It wasn't his job to question his captain's beliefs. It was his job to watch his team's backs, and he knew where this was going.

"I'm going after him."

A cheery voice broke over the comm before he could tell her what a bad idea that was.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you!"

What the hell? Tank scanned the signal for signs of corruption. There was none. It was as clean a hack as he ever made.

"Sorry to interrupt , I know Morpheus generally keeps a tight ship, but I figured I'd nip the little lady's suicidal tendencies in the bud and introduce myself . Kill two birds with one stone, so to speak."

The voice was jocular and unmistakably male as it casually used names that should have had alarms tripping and tracking programs running throughout the Matrix, but there was nothing, not even a whisper. Either this voice was a better hacker than he had even heard of, or… Tank didn't even know. He had never encountered anything like this, and if the machines knew even half of what this guy seemed to know, they were all dead anyway. "Trinity," he barked out. The tone said everything, stall him.

"Who the hell are you?" Trinity demanded.

The voice still had an amused lilt to it, "Your back-up."

That was unexpected, but Trinity never missed a beat, "We don't have back-up."

"You'll find that you do, that would be moi."

Tank finally joined in, "you're not from Zion." He said it like fact, but really, it was the only explanation for his voice being able to reach this channel without Tank's firewall or scans picking up any signs of a hack.

"Nope!" The voice chirped, "And between you and me, what human in Zion would have the balls to go up against Morpheus anyway?"

Commander Lock came to mind, but that was beside the point. He had said "human" as if he wasn't one.

"What are you?"

"Now that is an interesting question! And it has an interesting answer, but unfortunately the answer falls under the category of "need-to-know," and the only thing you need to know is that I'm being well paid by a friendly third party to protect your Boy Wonder." There was a pause, "and I've taken it upon myself to watch your asses too, because I'm bored and, quite frankly, it's fun to screw with people."

Tank didn't know what to say. This was way beyond his position on the command chain, but Trinity seemed to have been struck dumb by either shock or rage. The voice continued before either of them could come up with an appropriate response.

"Anyway, I'll just make this quick before you shut down this line like I know you are oh-so-tempted to do. First, do not go after your Boy Wonder. As of now the Agents have no idea what exactly he is, beyond a person of interest. So, mounting an obviously suicidal operation in some vain attempt at rescue is just asking them to take a closer look. Second, if you won't take my word for it then ask your captain. I'm sure that bastard will stick to his wait-and-see policy in any case. Third, if you ignore my advice, and make my job harder, I will be severely pissed off, and the Agents will be the least of your worries. Fourth, tell Morpheus, 'Harry says hi.' I wish I could see his face when you say that!" The voice cackled in delight for a few seconds before cutting off abruptly, leaving Tank and Trinity alone on the line.

Tank thought Trinity summed up his thoughts very nicely when she broke the silence.

"What…the…hell?"