Niobe is back in Zion.
It took a lot of hard work over these past weeks from our operatives, and from operatives working for the Merovingian, who decided to help us for reasons of his own. His man, the Effectuator, while sometimes maddeningly irritating, nevertheless was able to track down the construct in which Anome had imprisoned Niobe, after operatives aided him by tracking down network junctions, and clearing Anome's people out of the way.
On Friday, with the final network trace made, and Niobe's location pinned down, we stormed Bishop Imports--the site of Anome's treachery, and her disappearance--to pull her back into our simulation. Anome's men had sealed off the upper floors, requiring teams of operatives to free specific hardlines from his control in Bathary Row and Chelsea, so that the Effectuator could gain the necessary network access to disable these blockades. Still, with teams working simultaneously in Bathary, Chelsea, and Ueno, we were able to overcome Anome's forces, and finally, near the top of Bishop Imports, pull Niobe out of her prison.
She was desperately weak from her wounds and long imprisonment, and even her body in Zion had suffered due to its extended period of inactivity. But with the help of those around her, she somehow found the strength to stand, get to the rooftop, and jack out once the doctors had cleared her.
She hasn't said much since she's been back. She's still weak, but resting, and getting stronger day by day. I think this ordeal has worked some changes on her--for better or for worse, I don't know. People who say "what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger" have never been in a war. But if anyone can come back stronger than ever after something like this, it's Niobe.
The doctors aren't sure what lasting effect, if any, the cheat code she drank will have on her. They say it kept her alive, but it didn't prevent her from jacking out, as it has Anome's lieutenants. It didn't give her any obvious powers, either. There's a theory going around, I think started by Machine operatives, that the cheat codes mutated after Anome got his hands on them, or that he changed them himself, somehow.
I don't know about any of that. I do know that with the captain back, Anome's days are numbered. If I know Niobe, she's going to want a little payback for what he did to her, and what he's done to the Matrix.
I've spoken to some operatives who wished they'd been able to participate in the Ueno operation. I tell them not to worry; there's going to be more than enough action for everyone before this is over.
