Five years earlier.
As usual, it was a warm day in Sydney. Maddie sat in the park, picking nervously at her nails as she waited for Parangosky. She told herself that pushing at the cuticles was good for their health, but the truth was that the young woman was a mess. Freshly 17, and with eyes that looked thirty years older than her skin, Madeleine Harper was a far cry from the girl who had slain a Zealot just over half a year ago.
Her body was heavier, the peaks and troughs of muscle rippled subtly about the surface of her skin. Her hair was less elaborate, her clothes more functional.
"So…" the young girl beside her said, her eyes mirroring her own. "Do you like school?" She asked, awkwardly.
Katya Volkovskaya had followed Maddie home again, tagging along like a broken tailpipe.
"It's fine." Maddie replied, biting at a loose piece of skin around her pinkie fingernail.
"You are popular" She added, "even though you're quiet"
Maddie shrugged. "People follow strength" she said, her mind wandering back to Drake, Ellen, and Naomi. When Katya didn't reply, Maddie glanced back at the girl. Her eyes were sad and distant, filled with a familiar and dark longing to be elsewhere. Maddie bit her lip. Like all kids of her generation, Katya had grown up at the mercy of the war. According to the rumours, she'd seen as much of the darker side of this war as Maddie herself had.
That doesn't mean anything.
How could it? Afterall, Katya wasn't a special case. Maddie sighed and wondered if she was special. The rumours about her seemed to become larger with each day but the way ONI had dealt with the whole affair suggested that she was nothing particularly out of the ordinary.
The thought rattled around in her head for a bit as the pair sat in silence. Only the sounds of the park and the distant horns and sirens of traffic could be called company as her ego tried to recontextualise her experience as being particularly noteworthy.
Shots of herself standing over the Elite filled her head alongside the horrors of that cell she'd been caged inside. Then, there was the cell aboard Parangosky's ship, where she'd recounted the whole thing to a Spook who she'd never seen since. All of it felt dramatic. It was consequential. It had to be.
Maddie closed her eyes but her fingers tapped anxiously on the hem of her top. The vault was the only thing she could truly hold on to. ONI and Parangosky were obsessed with it and they would not let Maddie forget it. Still, the connection in her head to the ancient forerunners remained as dormant now as it had since she'd last spoken with it.
It ate away at her like a parasite. It was an inseparable part of her identity and one that her mentorship with ONIs uppermost echelon relied on. Maddie could almost hear the interviewers scornful and patronising questions in her head. Each time she had no reply, she felt the goodwill she'd earned slowly being nibbled and eaten away by the soulless eyes of some section three goon.
"Well," Katya said, blinking her trance away, "I think I should get going. I have PT drills in the morning and I don't think I've fully recovered from the weekend"
There'd been some kind of party. Maddie had been invited, of course but she hadn't gone. Too much work, too many things more important than friends blowing off steam. She'd come close to caving in and going but it would have put her diet plan back several weeks if she suddenly added a small towns worth of alcohol to her diet.
"Yeah, I heard it was a good one." Maddie replied, leaning forward. "Like half the grade went."
"More would have turned up if you were there" She offered. "Look, it's my birthday soon and I was gonna throw a party, I would really appreciate it if you came."
"Why me?"
"Because I think you need to remember that there's life beyond ONI."
Maddie shrugged, "it's not a life I care about anymore."
"Maybe you should." She said, the words biting at Maddie like a razor's edge. "Work can give life meaning but… just… think about it, okay? I'll send you the details. It's a while until the date so you have plenty of time to factor it into your training"
Maddie nodded but didn't say anything as Katya gathered her things to leave. She watched her all the way until she crossed the street opposite the park and disappeared around the corner.
She was tense. Maddie had felt uneasy for weeks and something just seemed to push at the back of her mind. A ticking sensation and a cycle of thoughts that seemed to push constantly against her mind's eye. Maddie didn't watch the parents and businesspeople in the park, she scanned for threats. Since she survived Skopje, the young woman's perspective had greatly changed.
"You see more than ever, Miss Harper" said a voice from beside her. "And yet, the threat eludes you"
"Sorry, Admiral Parangosky" She replied, dipping her head, "I'm still not very good at this."
"You are talented my dear, but talent will only get you noticed at ONI. It is skills that are honed, which make you great. Did you think that Drake became who he is without the training and practice that you are now undergoing?"
"No, Ma'am."
"Good. I know you can be more than him, Madeleine. It is a case of your will versus adversity."
Maddie pouted, "didn't I show that on Skopje?"
"Potential, my dear. You showed potential. Survival is easy, it comes naturally to some regardless of the situation they are placed in. Your true mettle is tested now. As you turn talent and potential into skill you will be forced to maintain the discipline that is required by ONI to succeed at its highest levels. Do you think I am looking for a survivor or a more evolved mind?"
"Is that a trick question?" Maddie asked, sheepishly.
"My dear," Parangosky smiled, "if I wanted a mindless slave who can survive a battle, I would simply acquire one of Catherine Halsey's drones."
"How can I ever be better than a SPARTAN?" Maddie asked, gazing up at Parangosky, who grinned with amusement.
"SPARTANs are inferior by design my dear. The best of them are socially stunted; they think outside of the box on the battlefield, yes, but they lack the incisive edge that you will have. A SPARTAN can be stealthy but they can't be subtle. A SPARTAN can inspire but they cannot lead. They are a solution devised by a woman who lacks any sort of empathy. You will have empathy, you will have subtlety, you will be underestimated but you will be a part of the true wheel of war. The most important flaw the covenant have is that they believe themselves to be Gods-in-waiting, Madeleine. That makes them as vulnerable as any religious human being. At ONI, it's our job to understand our own people so that we might better understand theirs. Anything could tip the war in our favour, the covenant is fragile, as you well know."
Maddie sat and considered this. It seemed illogical but there was merit to Parangosky's words. She'd seen how fallible and fragile the covenant alliance was from first-hand experience. The brutes were new and malleable, a wild card. The grunts lived under an iron fist and the Elites were nervous and jealous and insecure regarding their role in the covenant.
"I guess it's just a long way from where I am to what it is that you think I can be, Ma'am."
"Listen to me and you'll be fine. Don't make connections that will compromise your mission someday. Keep your family at arm's length: it's for their own good. You know what ONI is, Madeleine, it is a black pit of my own design but it is good to those who are loyal to its mission."
"Katya is still desperate for that connection" Maddie offered, "it's hard to be a dick when she's so nice."
Margaret chuckled, "it's a simple test, my dear. Ms Volkovskaya is plagued by demons much like your own; she should be a warning to you, not a friend. Don't be trapped by your past, be independent, be self-reliant. That's what I expect from you."
"You have a lot of faith in me…"
"Should I not?"
"Well, I haven't been able to find the next piece of the puzzle, all the people you send to pick my brain get frustrated. A-and Katya wants me to come to her party, I was thinking about going"
Margaret shrugged, "matters regarding the forerunners are always frustrating. I wouldn't take it personally. As for the party, that's up to you. Are you going for Katya or to blow off steam?"
Maddie took a deep breath, a part of her yearned for the connection that Katya apparently craved but she decided to tell Parangosky what she thought she wanted to hear.
"Blow off steam"
Parangosky looked unconvinced, even as she smiled at the young girl. Her eyes flickered mischievously and Maddie felt uncomfortable as the old woman judged her.
"Be young while you can, Madeleine. There's time enough to be old when this war is won."
It was bait, Maddie knew. It was bait that she'd take as well. It had been a long time since she'd had any fun.
The decision was made. She would go.
"The Little Spooks don't know it yet but their friendship is doomed. As compatible as they are, it must be stated both unequivocally and plainly that while they spur each other onto greatness via their forthcoming rivalry, they cannot be allowed to work together for an excessive period of time. While I wholeheartedly believe Madeleine has fully capitulated her will to ONI, her mind having been moulded by Drake and yourself since the age of sixteen, Katya represents a completely different paradigm. Madeleine's psych profile has always highlighted her as 'malleable'. Initially, this was a result of her middle child syndrome, which always put her in a state of competition. Now, you might wonder how such a natural leader can be tempered into whatever mould we cast and it's easy. I refer you back to that most ancient wisdom: Madeleine cannot see the forest for the trees when it comes to competition. If we place her in an environment where she can thrive on competition, a parasitic obedience will set in because she will be too busy playing our games to question the referee.
The problem has always been a secondary influence. In this case, it could be Katya. For her part, Katya Volkovskaya is a wild card. Her problems are far more… tangible. She craves above all else, a real set of human connections and when she inevitably begins to form them, she must be removed from Madeleine's sphere of confidants. Left unchecked, Katya will break down Madeleine's focus on our machinations and bring out that empathy and pig-headedness that all those damned Harper's possess. Harper's mission is too important to leave unchecked and with an operative at the helm who is unsympathetic to ONI.
We must tread carefully and avoid any rash eliminations. At the very least, we must stay our hand until we know exactly what it is that she has stumbled into.
You asked me: what should we do about those two?
We do what we've always done, Margaret, we force them to comply or we cut them loose." - Serin Osman to Margeret Parangosky, 2548.
