"You're right. This is unsettling."

I had called a meeting with Hale in order to let him know what I had seen with Carolina.

"I've been with him for everything he's done," Hale continued, perplexed. "I've made it clear that I want to see how things are run."

"Well, now we know he's been completing tasks behind your back," I replied.

I needed to speak to someone about this observation. Someone who wasn't intimidated by Carolina's aggression—someone who'd be frank about her.

I knew exactly who that was.

After that brief meeting, I headed back toward my bedroom, but, instead of going to the Florida room, I stopped at the first bedroom in the hallway.

"Hey, Bama?" I called, raising my hand to knock at the door.

I didn't even need to knock—the door opened. Utah strode out of her room, a cocky grin spread across his face as he finished putting on some parts of his armor.

"Oh, hey, Eleven," he said as he saw me. "You here to see Bama?"

I raised an eyebrow. "Yeah…"

"Well, she's in quite a good mood," he grinned, stretching and walking down the hallway. "Night!"

I peered into the room to see Bama's hair all messed up as she clasped on her bra and threw a tank top over it. She heard me at the door and turned around.

"Oh, hey, Eleven!" she said.

"I—uh—" I stuttered, my face reddening a little. "Did I interrupt something?

Bama chuckled. "No, we had just finished up. He comes over every once in a while. He just can't get enough of me." She winked. "So, what's up? Did you come to talk about our fabulous bar night?"

I laughed in spite of myself. "You call that 'fabulous'?"

"You don't?" she asked. "Come on, it was fun. Admit it."

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, getting hit on by drunk men, pissing Carolina off even more than I thought was possible, and carrying Maine all the way to his room were so enjoyable."

She laughed. "Hmm, I didn't hear about this. What happened?"

I sat down at her desk. "Wyoming was so drunk he found me and started dancing with me. It was only when I got nailed by a group of drunkards and fell on my wrist that he left me alone."

"Don't worry about Wyoming," she responded lazily. "He's the biggest ladies' man I've ever met in my life. Not a bad lay, though. Just brush him off and he'll lose interest. Move on to the next girl that catches his eye."

I smirked. "Hmm. I'll keep that in mind. Well, anyway, after that, I met up with Wash and we just kind of talked for a while. When York came over just to offer Wash a drink, Carolina saw and got even pissier than she'd been before."

"You should have pretended to hang all over Wash," Bama said, shrugging. "That would have dispelled any suspicions."

"Right," I said. "Because I need one more thing to be less professional about."

She chuckled. "So Carolina was pretty upset about your talking to York?"

"That's an understatement." I paused, rolling carefully to the next topic. "She even brought it up when I saw her just now over at the high security levels."

Bama glanced sharply at me. "High security? What was she doing over there?"

I leaned back in her desk chair. "That was something I was hoping you could tell me. I saw her coming out of the Director's office, of all places. You know anything about that?"

Bama frowned. "No. I don't know what it's about at all."

"It was a private meeting too," I continued. "She was the only Freelancer there."

"I have no idea what's going on, but my guess is that she's trying to get on his good side. I wouldn't be surprised if she's playing teacher's pet."

"Is that so?" I asked.

She nodded. "I mean, look at us. Close to fifty soldiers all pitted against each other every day. With eyes watching our every move. We know the Director likes some of us more than others… Carolina's bound to be a kiss-ass."

After a few more comments, we said our good nights and I went back to my own room, collapsing on the bed.

I hadn't gotten anywhere. All this information was just leading me in circles. The other Freelancers were obviously not in on Carolina's special meeting. I had a feeling that the only soldier she might tell was York, but I knew I wouldn't be able to talk to him by himself. Carolina Freelancer would intervene, and York would definitely stay loyal to her.

The Freelancers would be no help in this situation. I had to think of something else.

I grew increasingly suspicious of Carolina after that night. She seemed to be in an unusually good mood. During training, her skills had never been better as she showed off.

I tried to catch the Director and Carolina again, but, at the end of each day, when I'd turn in my reports, I couldn't hear her characteristic voice through the doors like I had before. Perhaps I was being paranoid, but, if they were still having private meetings, it seemed like they made sure not to have them during the times that I delivered my paperwork. I tried to vary the times I delivered the papers, but I couldn't diverge from my normal timing too much. The Director had told me to give him the work immediately after training, and deviating from that would either raise his suspicions or cause his temper to flare. I couldn't afford to cross any lines with him.

My work was getting intense. I had no time to formulate a good plan regarding Carolina. The Director kept asking for more detailed reports by the day, so I remained swamped in paperwork. One thing was odd, though. He never commented on these reports. He simply asked for more. More information. How high the Freelancers jumped, how fast their punches were thrown, their exact statistics when it came to fighting. I was growing worried. I had a terrible feeling that, thanks to my reports, his system would soon be set up to rank the soldiers in order.

I was secretly dreading that day. They would all find out the reason that I was brought here—not for the UNSC's classified data collection, but to help rank them. However, what could I do? If I stopped, the Director would have me dismissed from the job and the mission would fail.

That was not an option.