Mei Ling said goodbye to Snake, probably for the last time. Sat at her computer, she cut the communication with Snake's codec and opened the registry. There it was, the whole transcript of the mission. There, written, were each and every single conversation Snake had manteined. Having a look, she recognized some of the things she had said.
Mei Ling inserted an optical disk and procceeded to copy the registry. Once the computer started working, she was able to let her mind free. Everything had a surreal look for her, as if it wasn't really happening. She had joined this exercise to experience reality; a hours before she was sick of it, but now she had lost its sense.
The computer made a noise. Mei Ling extracted the optical disk, introduced another and began the proccess again.
She looked at the disk she had in the hand. That seemed to be her way of escape, the key that would ensure her future. Hopefully.
She was making two copies, one for the Colonel and another for herself. She would have wanted to give one to everyone in this operation, make as many copies as disks she had, but Naomi was arrested and being interrogated, or something worse, Nastasha was at L.A. and Master Miller just wasn't Master Miller.
The computer beeped again. She hid the two disks in her jacket, and started closing the opend programs.
"Excuse me", said a voice behind her.
Mei Ling froze. She turned around to face Jim Houseman. His mind seemed to be a hundred miles away from the submarine, as f he was continuing his routine.
"Yes, sir?", said her, trying to sound as cold as ice.
"You are Mei Ling, the annalist and technological advicer of this mission, aren't you?"
Being in a submarine crowded with soldiers, Mei Ling would have to say the truth as long as possible, to keep Houseman's attention away from her. This way she could lie if she needed to.
"Yes, sir"
"Okay", said Houseman, as if he couldn't have figured who Mei Ling was himself, being herhe only Asian-looking woman in the mission. "If my information is correct, you should have the registry of all the calls made today. Have you done anything with this information?"
Mei Ling paled. I they found out her operations, the Colonel would be in their hands and, ot yet, she too. "No, sir", she answered.
"I will check it myself if you don't mind". Houseman stood at her right, waiing for her to leave.
She stood up slowly, only because she was afraid of fainting. To keep her mind focused and conscious, she checked the computer's status mentally. She knew for certain that the traces she had left had only been erased in part; probably a half was still in the memory accusing her.
She tried frantically to build up arguments that could save her. Like a computer, her mind found, checked and evaluated hundreds of different answers, but nothing seemed to fit that situation. Even after studying Applyed Sciences, working with a computer screen as a shelter wasn't enough preparation for military issues.
She observed Houseman's movements at the computer. He was searching evidence in the first level of the memory. Only a kid would leave traces at that secutiry level.
For Mei Ling's amazement, he didn't try to go deeper. Looking at Houseman's little pauses, trying to decide which way was the correct, led her to the conclussion that Jim Houseman wasn't a computer scientist. For the eyes of Mei Ling, who knew how a calculator worked at the age of 8, the traces were so obvious she could have written "Mei Ling was here" on the screen for the same effect. But Houseman didn't seem to find anything wrong.
"It looks all right", he said, handing over her seat. "Now, please procceed to erase the whole registry".
"Yes, sir", said Mei Ling less colder than before.
But Houseman didn't move. "When I ask you to erase the whole registry, I mean that I don't want a single trace of our existence in that hard drive. Understood? I will look, if you don't mind".
Mei Ling remembered some techniques to make the registry un-erasable, or making it seem erased and then reappear again in a couple of days, or even deleting it here and send it to her own computer at the same time, but with a quick thought she got rid of those thoughts. Houseman may be incompetent with computers, but he would notice if she tried to cheat him in his face.
So, feeling the weight of the disks in her jacket heavier, she procceeded. She saw her conversations vanish, the worries of Snake leave room for new information, all the vital information of the nanomachines dissappear...
It was done. If she was the only one keeping record of everything, the Shadow Moses incident had never happenned.
Houseman left without saying a word, and Mei Ling breathed again. Now that everything was finished, now that The Legend would die in a nuclear disposal facility, now that dozens of lives had ended, she only had to leave.
She waited patiently; if there was something Chinese in her that was patience. Her eyes, trained to detect a mistake in an endless log with a glance, sooned recognized something floating in the air: insecurity. A soldier's face, Houseman's behavior... all looked worried. And that may be good for Mei Ling and Campbell.
The insecurity atmosphere increased. She catched a brief vision of Houseman, walking fast and furious.
"Don't look far neglecting what you have near", had said Eurypides. It looked like someone more powerful than the Defense Secretary was giving the orders now.
Feeling that she had to be brave for once in her life, Mei Ling dared to walk towards the place where Campbell was suppossed to be. She found him outside. The soldiers keeping an eye on him seemed to be too worried now.
Mei Ling hurried towards the Colonel. None of the soldiers said anything. She smiled at the Colonel. He smiled back. He looked incredibly tired, and older, but he was unharmed.
"Colonel", she whispered quickly, introducing one of the optical disks in Campbell's jacket. "Here's everything. It's our life assurance"
"Miss!", shouted one of the soldiers, taking her arm. "You can't be here".
She step back, looking at the Colonel. He had slightly nodded, understanding what she meant, but now his face was blank. He just smiled slightly at Mei Ling before she left.
She returned to her place, breathing heavily. She had done it. The Colonel and her were safe now. As safe as they could be, at least.
Mei Ling started calculating again. Having experienced real life, now she wanted to come back to the University. This was going to be her thesis, the closest anyone had been to check the functioning of their inventions. She would come back home, spin a web of information with the registry that would protect her, become doctor... maybe she was going to be able to do all of that after all.