Episode 201 – Interlude From The Fools
The Councilor's mind had been set. The current situation called for action. His orders called for this. The Director had made himself clear. Find the threat. Hire the appropriate agent. Kill the threat. This recent reappearance on the grid had stirred up a lot of trouble for Operation Freelancer, the remnants of it anyway.
What was once Operation Freelancer had been shamed at the end of the Great War. Someone had let it slip as to the true nature of the program's AI trials. After Washington's AI failure, reports of torture and brainwashing had been created and a safety cautious UNSC decommissioned all operatives using the experimental Freelancer AIs. That was a sad day for the Councilor. He was removed from his position and cast aside with a dishonorable discharge.
Three months later, the Director returned. He reestablished the Freelancer program as the newly formed Recovery Program. The UNSC allowed him to rehire the remaining Freelancer agents who were still willing to join. The Councilor was one of them. He was eternally grateful for the Director's help in the matter. His rank was restored, his position returned, and his past infractions expunged from his record. It was as if Project Freelancer had been wiped from the pages of history.
Now the Councilor sat at his metal desk in the bowels of Recovery HQ. This is where he filed his paperwork and monitored the beacons of the fallen SPARTANS in the field. The project may be over, but the Freelancers are still very much alive. The Director had left a few details about Project Freelancer off the books, like the fact that the suits of all the active Freelancers still held Recovery chips.
A Recovery beacon was going off at the moment. The Councilor hated these moments. He analyzed the signal and attained the coordinates of the fallen agent. The next step was to send the coordinates to the Receiver. The Receiver was the only female agent in the Recovery program, and she worked the switchboard receiving all the com calls from the Recovery agents. It was her job to send the coordinates to the Recovery agents.
"We got another one." The Councilor said to the Receiver through the phone. His voice was filled with reluctance.
"Who is it?" she asked back.
"One of ours; a Freelancer."
"Shit. He's not gonna like this. What's the status of the suit? Does it still have it's augmentation?"
"No. It's been taken along with the AI."
"He really isn't going to like this. It's the same M.O. as the last six agents."
"It's him. The Freelancer Hunter."
"You know that's just a rumor the Director disproved weeks ago."
"That was when there were only two victims. Now there's six. Send the coordinates. Put him on it.'
"This isn't a good idea…contacting Recovery agent." The Councilor thought the same as the Receiver. Wash isn't going to like this.