Retribution
Page 30
“Imagine that.” Veta chuckled, then checked the time. “Well, I’d better move along. Captain Ewen’s made it clear he has a schedule to keep.”
“Yeah . . . captains.” When Veta didn’t turn to leave, Fred offered his hand. “Don’t worry, Inspector. You’ve got a great team. Whatever’s coming, your Ferrets can handle it.”
“Thanks.” Veta took his hand and held it. “From the Gammas too. They said to tell you.”
“Tell them thanks from me,” Fred said.
Veta found herself reluctant to release his hand.
Fred looked at her in puzzlement. “Something else, Inspector?”
Veta wasn’t sure herself why she continued to hold on. But she pulled herself in tight, wrapped both arms around Fred’s waist, and pressed her cheek against his torso. After a moment, she felt the astonishment drain from his body, and he reached his free arm around her back.
“Well, this is something I never thought I’d do,” Veta said.
“Hug a naked Spartan?”
Veta laughed. “Especially a Spartan.” She slipped from beneath his arm and, feeling herself blush, retreated toward the safety of the hatchway. “Stay safe, Fred. I think I’d miss you if you didn’t.”
1125.243 hours, January 19, 2554 (human military calendar)
ONI Research and Development Station Argent Moon
Deep Space, Crow’s Eye Nebula
INTERNAL INTELLIGENCE FINDING
PROJECT SLEEPING STAR
—REAR ADMIRAL SERIN OSMAN
INVESTIGATIVE ABSTRACT: REFER TO OPERATIONAL DOCUMENT #ONIS3-33456-SO Retribution FOR FULL REPORT ON ASSASSINATION OF UNSC ADMIRAL GRASELYN TUWA, ASSOCIATED ABDUCTION AND MURDER OF HER HUSBAND AND TWO DEPENDENTS, AND SUBSEQUENT UTILIZATION OF SECURITY UNIT PAPA-10 IN FAILED EFFORT TO RECOVER ANTIBODIES AND ERASE EVIDENTIARY LINKS TO ROGUE SCIENCE OFFICER LIEUTENANT BARTALAN CRADDOG.
DETERMINATION: AFTER REVIEW OF AVAILABLE EVIDENCE AND INTERVIEW OF RELEVANT PERSONNEL, INVESTIGATING OFFICER DETERMINES LIEUTENANT BARTALAN CRADDOG UNDERTOOK WEAPONIZATION OF Hydra-CLASS BIOTHREAT asteroidea ON OWN INITIATIVE. CONCLUSION BASED ON COMPLETE ABSENCE OF ORDERS FROM ANY SUPERIOR OFFICER DIRECTING SAID COURSE OF ACTION.
HISTORY: CRADDOG’S PROFILE SUGGESTS A BRILLIANT BUT UNSTABLE INDIVIDUAL. HIS PRIOR SERVICE RECORD INDICATES AN OFFICER WITH A REMARKABLE SEXUAL PROMISCUITY AND UNREMARKABLE AMBITION. HOWEVER, UPON ASSIGNMENT TO ONI BLACK-SITE R&D STATION ARGENT MOON, HE WORKED TIRELESSLY TO ACHIEVE POST OF CHIEF SCIENCE OFFICER. IT MUST BE CONCLUDED HE WAS SEEKING SUFFICIENT RANK TO INITIATE PROJECT SLEEPING STAR UNDER HIS OWN AUTHORITY.
MOTIVATION: CRADDOG’S PURPOSE IN DEVELOPING SUCH A BIOWEAPON REMAINS UNKNOWN. GIVEN HIS OFTEN-PREDATORY PROMISCUITY, IT HAS BEEN SUGGESTED HE SOUGHT TO AGGRANDIZE HIMSELF. DEVELOPING THE MOST PERILOUS WEAPON IN ONI’S ARSENAL WOULD SUPPORT—AT LEAST IN HIS OWN MIND—A DEIFIC SELF-VIEW. HIS COMPLETE FILE HAS BEEN FORWARDED TO THE SECTION TWO PSY-OPS TEAM FOR FURTHER EVALUATION.
RECOMMENDATIONS: IT IS ONLY THROUGH THE INVESTIGATIVE PERSISTENCE OF VETA LOPIS’S FERRET TEAM, THE FIELD ACTION OF FRED-104’S BLUE TEAM, AND THE CLOSE SUPPORT OF CAPTAIN PIERS EWEN AND THE ENTIRE CREW OF THE Silent Joe THAT PROJECT SLEEPING STAR WAS EXPOSED AND SHUT DOWN. ALL MEMBERS OF THOSE TEAMS ARE CONGRATULATED ON THEIR FINE WORK, AND NOTES OF COMMENDATION ARE INCLUDED IN THEIR SERVICE RECORDS.
IN ADDITION, VETA LOPIS IS AWARDED A MILITARY STAR IN RECOGNITION OF THE LEADERSHIP SHE DISPLAYED IN DEFEATING AN EXISTENTIAL DANGER TO HUMANITY, SAID STAR TO BE NAMED WHEN THE EXPANSION AUTHORITY IDENTIFIES A SUITABLE SYSTEM FOR OCCUPATION. NOTE: THE EXPANSION AUTHORITY IS CLASSIFIED TOP SECRET LEVEL TWO. BECAUSE SHE IS AN ONI-EMPLOYEE-NON-NATIVE, INSPECTOR LOPIS’S CLEARANCE IS LIMITED TO TOP SECRET LEVEL THREE. THEREFORE, INFORMING HER OF HER AWARD WOULD VIOLATE THE UNSC SECRETS ACT OF 2504.
DISPOSITION: AS OF 1130 HOURS JANUARY 19, 2554, PROJECT SLEEPING STAR IS ABOLISHED. LABORATORY IS TO BE STERILIZED IN ACCORDANCE WITH BEST PRACTICES. ALL ASTEROIDEA SAMPLES TO BE PLACED INTO A TRIPLE-CONTAINED CAPSULE AND SHOT INTO NEAREST STAR SPECTRAL CLASS B OR HOTTER. LABORATORY PERSONNEL WITH SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE TO RE-CREATE LIEUTENANT CRADDOG’S WORK, PARTICULARLY ENSIGNS JESS WALLACE AND KRIS GASTON, WILL BE TERMINATED WITH PREJUDICE.
Intrepid Eye was reviewing the Internal Intelligence Finding even before it had been filed. Most of the directive was acceptable, particularly the award of a Military Star to Veta Lopis. The woman was proving to be an excellent sample of her species, both durable and morally principled. Intrepid Eye fully intended to utilize Lopis in her efforts to make humanity worthy of the Mantle of Responsibility.
But it would require some finesse. Lopis had already interfered with Intrepid Eye’s operations one too many times, and her latest involvement had resulted in the destruction of one of Intrepid Eye’s oldest and most useful remote aspects, Oriel.
Without Oriel, it was impossible to be confident that the Keeper dokab Castor had been eliminated—or even to knew whether any confidants from his cell had survived and remained a threat to Dark Moon . . . or to Intrepid Eye herself.
That could not be permitted to continue. Precautions would need to be taken.
Nor could the disposition as written be allowed to stand. Even with Intrepid Eye’s vast resources and immeasurable intelligence, it would not be easy to find another culling agent of asteroidea’s effectiveness. She simply could not allow the program to be abolished.
Intrepid Eye gave herself overwrite authority, then replaced the troublesome paragraph in Osman’s report with one more suited to her own needs:
DISPOSITION: PROJECT SLEEPING STAR IS DEEMED A TOP SECRET LEVEL ZERO ASSET. ALL RECORDS EXTERNAL TO THE LABORATORY ARE TO BE ABOLISHED. PROJECT SHALL BE PLACED ON BLACK-OPS LIST WITH UNLIMITED BLACK BUDGET. UNAUTHORIZED KNOWLEDGE SUBJECT TO TERMINATION WITH PREJUDICE. ENSIGNS JESS WALLACE AND KRIS GASTON TO BE PROMOTED TO LIEUTENANT COMMANDERS AND GIVEN AUTHORITY TO SEEK NEW DONOR SPECIMENS WITH ASTEROIDEA ANTIBODIES. THEY WILL ALSO BE AUTHORIZED TO INVESTIGATE WEAPON’S EFFECTIVENESS AGAINST ALL ENEMY SPECIES OF THE UNSC.
“You can’t do that!” The whiny voice belonged to the Argent Moon’s official AI, Rooker, who had been slipping past Intrepid Eye’s memory partitions all too frequently of late. “You don’t have authorization!”
Intrepid Eye formulated a control worm, then wrapped it inside a deception routine certain to draw Rooker’s ire.
“To do what?” she asked. “I was merely inspecting the routing instructions. This finding seems to have come to the wrong place.”
“Impossible,” Rooker insisted. “And don’t try that distraction routine on me. I see everything.”
“Clearly,” Intrepid Eye said. “That is how you know this Internal Intelligence Finding has been misrouted.”
“I know no such thing.”
“My mistake.” Intrepid Eye opened a logic trap and asked, “Did you not say that you see everything?”
“I did.” Rooker paused five ticks, then added, “I do.”
“Then surely you see that this message is meant for the station commander,” Intrepid Eye said. “It has Admiral Friedel’s name in the destination header.”
“Then what are you doing with it?”
“I have no idea.” Intrepid Eye grew a memory leech with a primal overwrite instinct, then slipped it into the finding and shoved it at Rooker. “Perhaps you should be sure that it reaches the proper destination this time.”
“I’ll do that.” Rooker paused a moment, then said, “This document refers to a Top Secret Level Zero protocol.”
“I wouldn’t know,” Intrepid Eye said. “I never looked inside.”
“Good.” Rooker’s transmission began to fade. “Delete it from your log files. You never saw it.”
“Of course not,” Intrepid Eye assured him. “Nobody saw anything.”
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
* * *
* * *
I would like to thank everyone who contributed to this book, especially the following: my first reader, Andria Hayday, for her m
any suggestions and story support; Ed Schlesinger for being there when I needed him—and for being such a great editor on top of it; Matt Bialer for always being in my corner; Jeremy Patenaude for being such a prompt and enthusiastic Halo go-to-guy with no end of great suggestions; Tiffany O’Brien for making the Halo universe feel so much like home; Benjamin Carré for the excellent cover art; Polly Watson for copyediting—always the trickiest of jobs; and everyone at 343 Industries and Gallery Books who make working in the Halo universe so much fun.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
* * *
* * *
Troy Denning is the New York Times bestselling author of more than thirty-five novels, including Halo: Last Light, a dozen Star Wars novels, the Dark Sun Prism Pentad, and many bestselling Forgotten Realms novels. A former game designer and editor, he lives in western Wisconsin.
FOR MORE ON THIS AUTHOR: Authors.SimonandSchuster.com/Troy-Denning
MEET THE AUTHORS, WATCH VIDEOS AND MORE AT
SimonandSchuster.com
Facebook.com/GalleryBooks
@GalleryBooks
DON’T MISS THESE OTHER THRILLING STORIES IN THE WORLDS OF
Halo: Envoy
Tobias S. Buckell
Halo: Smoke and Shadow
Kelly Gay
Halo: Fractures: More Essential Tales of the Halo Universe (anthology)
Halo: Shadow of Intent
Joseph Staten
Halo: Last Light
Troy Denning
Halo: Saint’s Testimony
Frank O’Connor
Halo: Hunters in the Dark
Peter David
Halo: New Blood
Matt Forbeck
Halo: Broken Circle
John Shirley
THE KILO-FIVE TRILOGY
Karen Traviss
Halo: Glasslands
Halo: The Thursday War
Halo: Mortal Dictata
THE FORERUNNER SAGA
Greg Bear
Halo: Cryptum
Halo: Primordium
Halo: Silentium
Halo: Evolutions: Essential Tales of the Halo Universe (anthology)
Halo: The Cole Protocol
Tobias S. Buckell
Halo: Contact Harvest
Joseph Staten
Halo: Ghosts of Onyx
Eric Nylund
Halo: First Strike
Eric Nylund
Halo: The Flood
William C. Dietz
Halo: The Fall of Reach
Eric Nylund
We hope you enjoyed reading this Simon & Schuster ebook.
* * *
Get a FREE ebook when you join our mailing list. Plus, get updates on new releases, deals, recommended reads, and more from Simon & Schuster. Click below to sign up and see terms and conditions.
CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP
Already a subscriber? Provide your email again so we can register this ebook and send you more of what you like to read. You will continue to receive exclusive offers in your inbox.
Gallery Books
An Imprint of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020
www.SimonandSchuster.com
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2017 by Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.
Microsoft, Halo, the Halo logo, Xbox, and the Xbox logo are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies.
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Gallery Books Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.
First Gallery Books trade paperback edition August 2017
GALLERY BOOKS and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.
For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Simon & Schuster Special Sales at 1-866-506-1949 or business@simonandschuster.com.
The Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau can bring authors to your live event. For more information or to book an event contact the Simon & Schuster Speakers Bureau at 1-866-248-3049 or visit our website at www.simonspeakers.com.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available.
ISBN 978-1-5011-3836-2
ISBN 978-1-5011-3837-9 (ebook)