A/N: Meant to mention in the last chapter, but it slipped my mind: Elizabeth's character, physical appearance, weapons and combat style are based heavily on Elizabeth Comstock from BioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea, but the characters are not meant to be the same; I picked the name at random and decided to run with it.


3 – High and Low

Elizabeth slipped on her heels and pulled a small tube of lipstick out of her purse. Looking carefully in the full-length mirror on the wall of the modest staff bedroom she had been given, she applied the lipstick carefully, keeping tightly to the contours of her lips. Putting the tube down on the bedside table, she took a step back and surveyed herself. She had perfected this particular look when she was director of public relations, and it had come in handy on more than one occasion — it was very useful for manipulating people by creating an air of icy detachment and superiority. She was using it today against the station manager, who she knew would not be completely willing to help her; in terms of corporate hierarchy, she was not his direct superior (he reported to the VP of Internal Management), so she couldn't technically give him orders, but she was still his superior.

There was no doubt, mused Elizabeth as she strode into the tram that would take her to the corporate offices in the central terminal, that she was taking a risk with this. Blake didn't agree with her position, and if he got wind of what she was planning to do he'd be livid. She knew, though, that this was a problem that needed to be eliminated, not confronted. Nobody could blame her for acting in the best interests of the company — after all, that was her job.


Maya looked anxiously at Gaige as the engineer studied her notes. It was fascinating, she thought, seeing such a different aspect of Gaige's personality — in situations like this, she could be quite pensive and analytical, a very stark contrast to her usual personality.

"So… what do you think?" prompted Maya after a minute or so.

"Well…" Gaige hesitated.

"Not possible," Maya inferred.

"I didn't say that."

"So it is possible?"

"I didn't say that either. Look," sighed Gaige, putting her notebook down and looking up at Maya, "I've done a bit of work with Hyperion's technology before, so I'm familiar with the way their stuff works. Getting in is no problem; I've done it before and I can do it again."

"So —"

"The issue is that I don't know exactly what I'm looking for. Whenever I've snooped around in the Hyperion network before, it's always been for one of two reasons — either I'm looking for something very specific that I can track down quickly, or it's just cause I'm bored. And every time I've gotten in there, I've had a window of a few minutes tops before they've tracked me down and kicked me out."

"I see. So it's possible, then, that you won't be able to track it down?"

"I'll definitely try my best, but I can't guarantee it without knowing more about exactly what it is we're looking for. Is there any specific piece of information about this woman that would help you more than anything else?"

"Details about her departure from Hyperion," replied Maya immediately. "All I know at the moment is that she was good at getting on Jack's nerves."

"I'll get on it once I do some maintenance on the engines, and let you know."

"Thanks, Gaige," smiled Maya, getting up to leave.

"Any time; I still owe you for that debacle with Holloway's assassin."

"Well, I think this'll pretty much square us up. And Gaige, please…" Maya pursed her lips slightly, "…not a word to anyone about this, other than me and Zer0."

Gaige grinned and tapped the side of her nose with her pen, forgetting that the cap was still off and leaving a small blue mark on her face. "Don't worry about that."


"You know full well I can't do that."

"I think you can," replied Elizabeth sharply, shooting the station manager an icy look. "As I've already told you, eliminating these people is in the best interests of the company."

The station manager drummed his fingers on his desk nervously. He was very much caught between a rock and a hard place — if he ignored the vice president, she was more than capable of making his life very unpleasant indeed, and if he did as she asked, he'd face the fury of the Crimson Raiders.

"The agreement —"

"I don't give a damn about the agreement, Jasper. The Pandoran rebels are little more than a minor annoyance, and besides, two of the people I want are affiliated with them."

"Two of them?"

"Yes, two of them. The psycho, and the Dahl madwoman. Besides, a few well-placed mortars would deal with them if the need arose."

The intercom buzzed, much to Jasper's relief. He touched a button on his phone.

"Yes, Tony?"

"Mr Atkinson," came the voice of his PA, "urgent call from IT."

"He's a little busy right now," said Elizabeth, with obvious irritation in her voice.

"I'm well aware of that, Ms McHale, but I'm told this can't wait."

"Put them through on line one, please, Tony."

He reached for the receiver, but Elizabeth restrained his hand and calmly pressed the speakerphone button.

Jasper swallowed, then composed himself.

"Yes, Jenny?"

"Jasper," came the voice of the station's head of IT, "we've just experienced another network security breach from Pandora."

"That's hardly news."

"Yes, yes, I know, but listen. In the past, whoever it is hacking us from Pandora downloaded a blueprint or something similar before the breach was secured. This time, they were targeting employee records, and specifically… well, specifically the records of the Delta Team."

Jasper's mouth tightened at this. "Did they get anything?"

"A copy of an archived timesheet. Nothing of consequence."

"Jenny, with the Delta Team, everything is of consequence. Move all the Delta records to an isolated storage location. I want them completely quarantined from the network. Is that clear?"

"That seems like an overreaction. What could they possibly —"

"Just do it."

"Yes, Mr Atkinson."

The phone clicked, and the line disconnected. Jasper picked up the receiver and put it back down again to hang up.

"What is the Delta Team?"

"Highly classified, that's what."

"I'm clearance level five, Atkinson."

"I don't give a shit about your clearance level, McHale," snapped Jasper. "You're the External Affairs VP, and it's none of your business. Only five people in the company are authorised to know details about the Delta Team, and you're not one of them."

"I see."

"And as for the psychos —"

In one smooth motion, Elizabeth stood up and pushed Jasper firmly in the shoulder blades. Caught off-guard, he tried and failed to catch himself, and fell backwards heavily. Elizabeth strode around the desk and planted one foot firmly on his chest, deliberately digging the heel in slightly. She leaned down, slipped a small flip knife from her pocket and flicked it open under his chin, so the blade just grazed him. She smirked as he winced.

"Yes? What about the psychos, Jasper?" she asked sweetly.

Jasper's eyes flicked down to the point of the knife touching his chin. "The Helios staff would be delighted to assist you with your work."

"Excellent," she said, putting the knife away and removing her heel from his chest. "I knew you'd see my side. Perhaps we could start with some more detailed background information?"

Jasper pulled himself to his feet hastily. "Of course, ma'am. The IT staff will be able to provide you with the information."

"Wonderful. I shall drop in tomorrow once I've worked out the best way to approach this."

"Yes ma'am."

Jasper watched with a frown as Elizabeth left. He touched his chin, and examined the small amount of blood on his fingers with annoyance. He rummaged in his drawer for a plaster, then picked up the phone and dialled quickly.

"IT, Jenny speaking."

"Jenny? Jasper. Listen, Elizabeth McHale is on her way over; she's looking for information on the psychos."

"What's she want with them?"

"You don't want to know. Give her the intelligence reports — she's high enough clearance to see them — but redact any references to the Delta Team, and don't give her any information about them."

"Understood."

"Thank you."


Jeffrey Blake was scrutinising the latest inner-band sales figures, carefully underlining and annotating, when the phone rang. He pressed the speakerphone button without looking up.

"Blake speaking."

"Mr Blake," said the receptionist, "the Helios station manager is on the ECHO line. He says it's urgent."

"Put him through."

The line clicked, then connected again.

"Yes, Mr Atkinson."

"Mr Blake, I'm sorry to trouble you, but —"

"You met with Elizabeth, I presume."

"Yes, just a minute ago. It wasn't the most pleasant meeting."

"I can't imagine it would have been. Well, did she talk you around to her way of thinking?"

"No sir, but she did physically threaten me."

For the first time, Blake looked up from his work. "Oh? To what extent?"

"She almost impaled me with her shoe before pulling a knife on me."

"Hmm. So, naturally, you obeyed your self-preservation instinct and agreed to help her."

"Yes, sir."

"Quite understandable. Has she said what she plans to do yet?"

"No, she's getting some background information. She said she'd come tomorrow to talk about her plans."

"Very well. In case you hadn't yet surmised as much, allow me to make something clear: Ms McHale is acting against my wishes and those of the board. Nevertheless, I do not think it is wise to simply fire her; I fear she would work to undermine our agreement with the Crimson Raiders, and I do not want to quarrel with them unnecessarily."

"With respect, sir, what she's doing now is not going to undermine the agreement as much as it's going to burn a hole through it."

"I realise that, but if my hunch about what she'll do first is correct, it may actually be beneficial in the long run. Listen carefully; this is what I'd like you to do…"


Maya read the printout carefully, frowning.

"I know it isn't exactly what you were looking for," said Gaige, slightly apologetically, "but it was the first thing I managed to track down. There's a load of information in there about this…" she glanced over Maya's shoulder at the paper, "Delta Team, but that was all I could get for now. I'm gonna give it a few hours before I try again, otherwise it'll draw too much attention. But now I know where the data is, I should be able to get more next time."

"Nice work," replied Maya. "So how did you come across this?"

"The timesheet archive was one of the first things I found, and that was the most recent one with her name in it, so I assume that was the last time she was working. The date should give you some idea of when she left Hyperion."

The timesheet didn't seem out of the ordinary, Maya noted; 'Samuels, Heather' appeared near the bottom with a number slightly lower than those around it. It was dated several months ago — a few weeks before she had arrived on the planet.

"Thanks, Gaige," said Maya with a smile. "So what exactly is this 'Delta Team'?"

"I don't know," replied Gaige. "But Samuels worked in it, so I'm guessing it's to do with slag research."

"True, but this is a pretty small team. Jack had a lot more people working on slag research."

"Yeah, but they weren't all researchers. There were loads of non-science personnel working at the Preserve. We know that cause we killed a lot of them," added Gaige matter-of-factly. "Does that make us bad people?"

"That's a grey area," said Maya with a slight grin. "So, listen, what else do you think you can track down? This is useful — we know more or less when she left Hyperion — but it isn't really enough to go on."

"Well," said Gaige, "the records are pretty comprehensive, so when I'm next in I'll be looking for a record of departure or something like that. This timesheet was linked to her employee record, so I know where it is now."

"Awesome," replied Maya. She paused, gnawing at her bottom lip slightly, before continuing. "Listen, Gaige…"

"Mmm?"

"How far would you go if Zer0 was in trouble?"

Gaige looked up from her ECHO device, frowning; she clearly hadn't been expecting that question, noted Maya.

"To hell and back," replied Gaige after a moment, "because I know he'd do the same for me. You'd clearly do that for Krieg; you're risking Hyperion's ire in the hopes of finding something that can help him."

"I suppose so, yeah. That was what I was going to ask — do you think I'm doing the right thing? Because I feel like I'm going around in circles here. What if I can't do anything to help him after all?"

"Then at least you've tried," said Gaige. "It's better to have tried and failed than… uh… something like that. Or maybe something about missing 100 percent of the shots you don't take? I hate that saying, it's mathematically inaccurate. Zero divided by zero isn't one, it's —"

Maya grinned despite herself.