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Chapter Ten: Retirement Planning

North skirted the edges of the canyon base of Valhalla, quietly avoiding the soldiers that remained here after the recent incident. He had to dive out of the way of a suit of light blue armor falling from a boulder above him, and he heard the blue armored simulation trooper above him speak over his radio, "I'm going to have to call you back."

North vacated the area in the blue's line of sight just in time as he turned to clamber after the vacant armor. North continued heading toward the blue base and wished he could stop and enjoy the scenery – magnificent waterfall, beach front property – a guy could retire here. Instead, he had spent the last hour stopping only to avoid being spotted – or run over – by the soldiers currently careening in a wild chase around the landscape. He was trying to get close enough to Wash or the "ghost" Church to learn their plan. He knew from what Tex had long ago told him and from what Sister had told him of Blood Gulch that this must be the Alpha A.I., hidden away with false memories by the Director. The problem was that he and Wash wouldn't hold still long enough for North to hear their conversation.

He paused for a moment to watch Wash destroy a Hornet single-handed and grinned. Wash always had been a little bit of a show off. North then made his way toward the colorful simulation troopers as they regrouped, and he wished he had Tex's invisibility enhancement.

"Alright, I need suggestions," Wash was saying. "The Freelancer Command Facility is an underground complex of secure bunkers and fortified chambers. Let's put our heads together and see if we can figure out a way to get in there."

"I have an idea."

"And 'let's not do it' is not an acceptable plan."

Normally North would have smiled at the man they had always known as the rookie taking on the responsibility of leading his own team, despite the dubious ability of said team. In this case however, he was trying to figure out why Washington needed to break into Freelancer Command if he was still working for them. North hoped that this was a sign that Wash was on their side after all, and that he and York would be able to reunite with their friend at last.

"We have to get in there," Wash was saying.

"Why?" asked the maroon one – Simmons, if North remembered correctly from what Sister had told him.

"Cause we need to unlock the Alpha." Wash said.

"The what?"

"It's the main A.I. from Project Freelancer," Church said. "You know all the A.I's we've been dealing with? It's where they were all copied from originally."

"You can't copy an A.I.," Simmons said. North knew he was right – they had taken classes on their A.I. companions, after all. Wash knew this as well – there was no way Wash didn't realize that Church was an A.I. In fact, since Wash had met all the A.I. there was no way he didn't know that Church was the Alpha.

"You'll understand everything soon enough," Wash said cryptically. He was playing this really close to the chest. While the Reds argued over whether or not they would accompany Wash, North wondered how long the man had been planning this, and what exactly he was trying to accomplish. After what the program had done to Wash, North suspected revenge was what the gray freelancer had in mind. If that was the case, North had to know what Wash was planning for the A.I. before he could reveal himself to his friend. Saving them was still York and North's main goal. Wash might have the opposite in mind after what he had gone through with Epsilon. The last few years had clearly changed the attitude of the formerly compassionate and quirky man they had known to something darker.

Some of Wash's old charm was intact though. North forced himself not to laugh as Wash demoted Sister's brother to Minor Junior Private Grif, Negative First Class, and reminded himself to let Sister in on that little piece of comedy when he next spoke to her. He felt guilty that she couldn't be with them now and see her sibling.

"We still need to figure out how we're getting in there," Wash said, and North focused again on trying to learn what the plan was.

"Mr. Washington?" said the blue one, who had been quiet this entire time. "I have an idea."

"I really shouldn't even bother asking, should I?" Washington looked Church.

"I don't know. Caboose – an idea? I think he's bluffing."

"No, it's a really good idea!" Caboose insisted. "We drive there."

"Yeah, he was bluffing."

"We're going to Freelancer City, right? The place where Freelancers are from. And this is a Freelancer car! If they think we are Freelancers because we are in their car, they will just let us right in!" Caboose explained proudly.

"But you don't look like Freelancers. Or Recovery Agents." Wash protested.

"They can't see inside a tank," Caboose said smugly. North was beginning to suspect Caboose was much smarter than the others seemed to think. As the group began arguing over who would ride where, North slipped away, back towards where he was to report to York and Sven.

Washington thought he saw movement out of the corner of his eye and turned in time to see a flash of dark purple disappear behind a rock.

"North? That's not possible. North is dead," Wash frowned in confusion. He expected the Meta to follow them. Hell, that was his plan, thought he wasn't telling these idiots just yet. He could even have believed York was following him, since he was almost positive the man was still alive after the mysterious healing unit incident, but North?

"I am positive that North is dead...isn't he? There's no way he could have...unless..." Maybe people were right. Maybe he was insane.

"No. No, I'm totally, completely sane. I keep telling everyone – telling myself. I'm just seeing things. The light is playing tricks. I'm just seeing what I want to see," because Wash definitely didn't want to be alone in the insane task he had given himself. He looked over at Church and wondered how the A.I. would take the news when Wash revealed the truth to him. Thinking about what had been done to Alpha, about the false memories he had, the denial, and about the pain the truth would cause him... "Even I have to admit that it seems better to believe in ghosts than face the reality of what's about to happen."

Sven had landed the pelican a little way back from the edge of the waterfall so that the noise of the water would block out any sounds the vehicle made and keep them concealed. Wash's team had left by the time North got back to the top, but that didn't matter. A pelican was faster than a tank any day.

"Hey guys, I'm back."

"Son of a bitch!" York toppled off the rock where he had been perched, and almost landed in the river. "Don't sneak up on me like that, man."

"Hey, I'm the reconnaissance guy. I'm supposed to be sneaky."

"Well?" Sven asked, stony faced as usual.

"This is gonna be a tough one to pull off...They're going to Command," North said.

"What? Why?" York asked.

"Wash told them he's going to try and steal the Alpha A.I." North replied.

"But the Alpha is – " Sven started.

"I know. I think he's trying to bring down Freelancer," North explained.

"By himself? Is he insane?" Sven questioned.

"Well, some people have said so," York supplied. He looked back at North, "So, he's been playing them, biding his time as a recovery agent?"

"Yep, it seems likely he's been planning his revenge for awhile now. I'd wager that he's known what was going on since Epsilon unraveled in his head."

"The Meta will go after him," York's forehead creased with concern.

"Wash is a smart kid. He'll expect that at this point. He may even be planning for it. He may have had the same idea we had about getting all those A.I. out of Maine's head. If anyone tried to save Maine, it would be him," North said. Sven was frowning, deep in thought.

"How exactly do you think Agent Washington is going to exact his revenge...or help Agent Maine for that matter? I have it on good authority that the Director is very rarely in residence at Freelancer Headquarters. If Washington wants to reveal to the UNSC what the Director has done, he would just take Alpha directly to them, not risk losing him in an onslaught on the Freelancer base.

"After an experience such as this man has suffered...I know he was your friend and you wish him to be on our side, but I cannot trust his judgment. And considering he may be trying to revive what is left of his old friend's mind, he may be trying to destroy the A.I. I cannot allow that to happen. I know that C.T. would want us to recover them. They could give us an extraordinary amount of data."

"Sven, Delta and Theta aren't just computer programs full of data to harvest. We won't let them be used like that ever again!" North said angrily.

"I will not betray C.T.'s confidence in me, North. I have a mission to complete here too. But I understand that you have come to see your own A.I. as friends; I will not let anyone harm them while I am able, just as you have taken care of Kaikaina this year when I was fulfilling other duties. Will you trust me that much – as I have come to trust you?" Sven waited for the man to answer.

North and York exchanged a glance. What Sven said hit home. He had no reason to trust them when they met, and he left them in a box canyon in the middle of nowhere with the girl he loved for months at a time. If they were honest, Sven could have killed them that first day in Blood Gulch and C.T. would have believed him if he had said they tried to turn on him. Sven was a good man, and a good soldier. He was someone they could trust.

Wash, on the other hand, was operating in the aftermath of a mental breakdown caused by a fragment of a computer program which they wanted to save, and he had witnessed the apparent death or betrayal of every person he was close to in a relatively short amount of time. He had every reason to be unstable. If they were lucky they might be able to rescue Wash, but they couldn't trust him.

North sighed and looked back to Sven. "It's gonna be hard to get into the facility, considering that we're dead fugitives and all."

"We will manage. Load up; we need to beat them there." Sven headed for the pilot seat of the pelican. York rolled his eyes behind the man as he and North boarded the ship.

"We'll manage? How, with psychic paper?"

"I can talk my way in anywhere," Sven said casually.

"You're just a regular Renaissance man, aren't you?" came York's sarcastic reply.

"Hey, I may have taught Sister to shoot straight, but that street goes both ways. When it comes to acting, I learned from the best."

"Sister taught you to lie – I mean act?" York asked, incredulous.

"Always the tone of surprise," came North's voice. "Again, she fooled her own brother with that military cover story, remember? I thought you would just have accepted how freakishly good at that she is by now. I think its a natural ability of little sisters. South always did they same thing, although as we got older she ended up punching people first and sweet-talking later more often."

"Yeah, Sister is gonna be pissed she missed out on this," Sven said.

"I wish I could have told her brother that she's all right at least," North sighed.

"Hey, in a perfect world all this will work out nicely and we'll get Delta, Theta, and Wash back, and we'll be with Sister tomorrow, her brother and friends in tow, with a heroic tale of rescue and adventure. Then we could retire." York said cheerily.

"Yeah, in a perfect world." Not even North could be that optimistic.