The following was intercepted from the Hovercraft you wished to have placed under surveillance. Most of their transmissions were just chit chat but I thought you'd like to see this.
I finally got to meet him- the one I'd been telling you about. He used to be a big deal before The Truce fell through. But he went missing without so much as a word six months ago. About a week ago, this guy- Austrian- turns up again acting as if he'd never left. Weird, huh? Even more weird is that when he learns I've been asking around after him, he contacts me through some third-person intermediaries to have dinner at this joint downtown. Some French place. Not "Le Vrai" or else I'd have been a bit apprehensive about going.
Anyway... I go in, we meet up, order our food and make small talk. Out of nowhere, he looks me dead in the eyes and says, "You're not like the others."
This kind of catches me by surprise because I have no idea what he's talking about. So I ask him, "What others?"
Austrian's all apologetic and confused himself now. "Forgive me. Your manner just took me by surprise." He goes on to explain, "So many of the newly Awakened are very... head strong. They act as if the simple revelation that their prior lives were lies in some sense now somehow makes them above all others- including those who have been Awakened for a very long, long time. They remember nothing of The Assassin, Invalesco or any of those times when the Organizations came together in cooperation against a common foe because they were never there to see any of it. Yet they claim to be experts on it and to have a greater insight into the workings of The Matrix over those who were there- over those who saw and knew what the right thing was to do then and what the right thing to do now is."
That bit to the conversation stuck out to me. It got me to thinking- you know, he's right. I was never there to see what happened. But it's a bit strange how you see so many people recently Awakened talking smack to guys and girls who have been here since not long after Neo's sacrifice.
Then we got to talking about why he left and where he went. For someone with a reputation for being a diplomat, he was pretty gruff.
"Where have you been these past months?" I asked him.
"Somewhere away from here." Wow. Master of the obvious, huh?
Next, I tried: "Why did you go?"
This got him talking a bit more. "I left because I was sick of picking up after everyone else. I was sick of preaching peace and just getting ignored by anyone but a core following. When you're surrounded by so much suffering all around, how can one continue to maim, kill and inflict even more suffering? It just leaves us descending into an etiological chain. Cause and effect. You kill my brother, I kill your sister. I kill your sister, you try to kill my mother but shoot some innocent bystander instead. Then his or her family kills you and... it just goes on and on forever. So I got arrogant. I got angry. I tried to impose my idea of heaven-on-earth upon everyone else but it didn't work. So I decided to create my own heaven-on-earth and resided there until the racquet you people have been causing disturbed me in even my place of recluse. So now I'm back to save a few lives before someone decides to come after me."
It's an interesting answer for a variety of reasons but that's not why I'm passing this on to you. I remember hearing some of my connections in the Bathary Boys saying that Austrian has something in his possession called "The Katana" and that he consulted with Cerulean before he left on how to hide it outside the code of The Matrix but also outside any Construct that could be easily accessed by an Exile or Program. I decided to ask him about it.
He was hesitant but admitted, "I wasn't entirely honest with you when I said that I came back solely for the purpose of saving lives. I have to get rid of something once and for all. Just some excess baggage. But getting rid of it will save even more lives than I could by intervening in this war of yours in my own little way. I just need to take care of a few things and then it's on to Yuki."
If this wasn't just smokescreen for something else, I'd suggest you keep an eye on the entrances to the Yuki Construct and on Austrian in the next few weeks. He's up to something, that much is certain.