Chapter Fifteen: Secret Files, Secret Allies
November 15, 2552 0930 hours
Mitchell Residence
North America
Nicole had asked the Spartans to come to her home; she had something she wanted them to see. Making sure Skeeter was outside for the duration of their visit, she led the Spartans through her home to a computer terminal, an unusually sophisticated one for a civilian home. Entering voice codes and passwords, she was able to access Laura's private database.
"No AI?" Will asked.
"Lorienna disappeared a few days ago, for reasons unknown. I don't think she was erased, but she's not online at the moment. I can't see that Laura would hinder herself like that; Lorienna is one of her most valuable assets. Something's wrong; Lorienna doesn't disappear without a reason."
The files displayed on the screen were numerous, and had unusual names: Angerthas Cirth, Silver Pond, Blade's Blood, and others just as strange. Nicole opened one titled Shrieking Eagles; the terminal displayed a large amount of runic text and four pictures in a curious grouping: a wolf, a bald eagle, and a horse were grouped in a triangle around a picture of Laura, the same picture they had seen in Dr. Gedeon's photo album. Nicole entered a series of commands on the keyboard.
"I'm decoding the file. This is her personal journal, and there's some things here I think you should see."
Within minutes the text shifted from runes to plain English. The first two paragraphs were plain four-line verses, which stood out from the rest:
Shrieking eagles, here I lie
Lost and alone beneath the sky,
Endlessly pursued by fears
Haunting me throughout the years.
Shrieking eagles, here I lie,
Looking deathlike to your eye.
Though I cry out, no one hears,
Only you can see my tears.
"She wrote those verses herself," Nicole murmured. "It's only half of the whole thing." Taking a breath, she recited:
Shrieking eagles, hear my voice,
I no longer have a choice.
No one else has ever cared.
My fate at last has been declared.
Shrieking eagles, here I stand,
Alone at last upon this land.
Alone at last, as from the first,
None now shall know my lifelong thirst.
The first journal entry was dated May 14, 2523:
Since this will no doubt be my only private record of my life, I begin this recording at the ripe old age of twelve. My name is Laura Elizabeth Morisson, and I am a soldier in the United Nations Space Command. When I was four years old I was conscripted into a special project, designed specifically to create a series of super-soldiers. The SPARTAN-II Project started with me, and for many years I thought I was the only one. I trained almost nonstop in order to become the ultimate killing machine, and only left Camp Hayes to visit family every other week; my trainers and instructors wouldn't allow more visits. Just recently, my mother and I were visiting the planet Reach, and it was there I found out the truth, parts of it at any rate. I saw others like me, at least seventy of them, boys and girls, all deadly like me. As soon as we returned to Earth, I hacked into ONI's database and began to pull out the truth: I was nothing more than the test case for the SPARTAN project. ONI used me as little more than a human guinea pig! I'm going to find out everything I can, and will continue to do so and keep one step ahead of ONI: they're not going to deceive me again!
Nicole scrolled past several pages' worth of writings until she came to one entry in particular. The date was the same day Laura had bested Fred in close combat.
'It's official, ladies and germs: Ackerson wants to kill me off. He sent "his" Spartans after me during my workout to take me out. Thank goodness the guy didn't know jujitsu, or I'd have been in trouble. It was that close. And Ackerson was standing there watching the whole thing, waiting for the Spartan to kill me, the bastard!'
Nicole scrolled down even further, stopping at a fairly recent entry dated shortly after capturing a Covenant freighter:
'Matt's been home for a couple of days recuperating. I took his family up to see him, knowing it was illegal but the right thing to do. ONI was waiting for me, with blackmail I can't get out of: if I don't cooperate, they'll hurt everyone I care about. I can't let that happen, and I hate the thought of caving in to Ackerson, but I have no choice. The only way out is death, but that would be the worst course of action. Stuck in another Catch-22, I have no one to turn to, nowhere to run, and I can't fight back. Even though I know better than to just give up, somehow I can't help but feel all is lost. It seems like the endgame, the final stroke of midnight.'
Here, for the first time, the Spartans learned that Laura could feel despair. Nicole turned and looked at them, something in her eyes that suggested a similar despair, and a dark fear.
"This happened about a week ago. Lorienna hacked into ONI's database at my request and found Ackerson's files on the matter. He's trying to get her to burn out and kill herself. If he's not exposed, I don't know what might happen. In a few more days he might succeed. The pressure to obey orders conflicting with her trying to do the right thing is killing her. Her family and I can't help her, and I don't know what to do."
"And you think we do?" Fred asked, his tone less acerbic than on previous occasions, indicating that even he was disgusted by this information.
"I thought you might be able to find a solution. Maybe, since you're Spartans, you can get through to the officers and tell them what's going on. I know you don't question orders, but some orders need to be disobeyed because they're wrong. If Ackerson's given you orders regarding Laura, then they need to be discarded: all he wants is a dead Blade. He forgets that she's still human, and that there are people who will ask questions if something happens to her: one of them is even a prominent colonel."
"Why do you care so much about her?" John asked, his curiosity mounting. "Why does a civilian go out of her way for a Spartan?"
Nicole fixed him with a dark look. "I care because Laura is the only real friend I have. She saved my life when I almost died of shame in high school. I had cancer, and the chemo stopped it, but it left me bald. The kids at my high school bullied me relentlessly, and I was close to suicide when Laura came along. She told me how to fight the bullies with words, and more. She actually shaved her head to give the bullies a new target, and gave me all her beautiful long hair to make a wig for myself. And when we graduated and I found out the truth, she tried to keep me from danger, and has ever since. Laura is the truest friend anyone could ask for, and a much better friend than anyone deserves. To see her helpless in ONI's hands is disgusting to me and to her family. If there was anything we could do to help her now, rest assured we would!"
"I just wondered. You see, most people wouldn't go out of their way to help anyone the way you're trying to help Blade."
"Her name is Laura." Nicole's eyes flashed angrily. "You still haven't figured out that ONI and the rest of the Marines use her codename as an insult?"
"Miss Mitchell, we're not exactly Marines or ONI, we just don't know that much about your friend. And she's not exactly willing to let us get to know her," Linda reasoned with the woman. Nicole sighed, reigning in her temper; she was just so worried about Laura that she'd snapped at the Spartans without meaning to.
"No, she wouldn't be, all because of ONI. You see why now, why she hates them so much, and why she hates and distrusts you. It's not you as people, it's you as ONI operatives. She's afraid of the orders you may have been given."
"Orders?" Will asked.
"Orders. Ackerson wants her dead, and she's afraid he'll order you to kill her on her next mission." Nicole smiled grimly at their confusion. "We have no secrets, Laura and I, since I know when to keep my mouth shut. Although," her eyes sparkled mischievously, "there are times when it's best to tell others and enlist their assistance, if you know they can be trusted."
November 16, 2552 1024 hours
Blade's Bunkhouse
UNSC Reserve Base Camp Hayes
Laura was sitting in the 'living room' of her bunkhouse, working on her plan for capturing a Covenant cruiser, when she heard a knocking on her door. Who could that be? If it's ONI… she banished the fear from her mind and moved to the door. Thankful for the chain-bolt she'd put in for safety's sake, she opened the door a crack to see General West standing outside.
"Laura, we need to talk."
"Laura Morisson is dead, sir." Her dark eyes dropped down to the floor. "I'm Blade now, I have to be."
"No you aren't, and you know it," West replied. "I order you to open this door."
Visibly wilting, Laura shut the door long enough to undo the chain, and opened the door enough to let him in. West noticed the strict military adherence in the once-comfortable bunkhouse. ONI must have hammered it home, he thought sadly, shaking his head at the bare walls and strict furnishings. The report the Spartans had brought, as well as the files Nicole Mitchell had sent him (though how a civilian had gotten her hands on classified data was beyond him), had spurred him into action; now that he'd seen it for himself, West was determined to put a stop to ONI's sadistic blackmail.
"You know, I think I liked your last decorating scheme better, Laura."
"I don't have a choice, sir. ONI wasn't about to let that slide," she said with more than a hint of bitterness.
"Yes, I can see." West forced himself to sit on one of the rigid chairs. "What exactly did they tell you, Laura?"
"You don't want to know, sir. Trust me."
"Laura, when the Spartans are coming to me with concerns about your 'mental state,' as they put it, something's not right."
"The Spartans? What would they care? They've got no reason to be concerned." For that matter, they have no reason to be worried. So why are they?
"They obviously cared enough to tell me something was wrong. Maybe they're just worried about the upcoming mission, maybe they're genuinely concerned about a fellow Spartan. I don't really know, and frankly, I don't really care what their motivation is at this point. What I do care about is what's happening to the best soldier on this base. Now, would you care to tell me voluntarily, or do I have to order you to speak with a psychiatrist?" As if I'd even consider doing that, West scowled. Maybe it'll help her tell me what's going on, as long as she doesn't call my bluff. He hoped the empty threat sounded convincing enough.
Laura saw he wasn't about to go away, so she broke down and told him everything.
November 16, 2552 1024 hours
Blade's Bunkhouse
UNSC Reserve Base Camp Hayes
Two days later, she received a note from the general:
'I've had a few words with a few ONI officers a little higher up than Ackerson. They've had a few words with him, and are going back to the status quo. Just be careful, Lieutenant—Ackerson's not too happy at the moment.'
Laura smiled lightly when she saw the reference to her 'unofficial' rank; West had been the one to issue the recommendation for her promotion, and had been very upset when it was ignored. As a result, he referred to her as Lieutenant Morisson in private files and the occasional letter. Still smiling, she put the letter down and got in touch with her family for the first time in weeks.
Cortana never enjoyed being kept in the dark; as a highly sophisticated hacker, she tried to know whatever she could. Challenges amused her, and in this case there was a most scintillating puzzle to be solved: Blade's mission records. One in particular caught her eye, if only because of the amount of counter-intrusion codes. She pinged the file, looking for a way in. A conversation with Lorienna some time ago came to mind. If you're faced with a lot of counter-codes, it's not always a good idea to take them head on: too many traces get left behind that way. Rather, try looking for a more subtle way in: back doors they forgot to encrypt, weaker barriers, holes in the barriers where codes cancel each other out. Lately, I've seen more cancellations than anything else, which makes me wonder about their carelessness: why after all these years? Are they just being careless, or are they so paranoid that they're overencrypting? Cortana had no answers, but the conversation pointed her in a new direction: rather than break in through the front, find a back door; if there's no back door, find a window. Pinging the barriers, she noticed an anomaly: a minute hole in the counter-intrusion software. She sent a signal through, and slipped into the file. It was a mission record, all right, one where Ackerson had purposely set her up to fail.
Laura had nearly accomplished her mission, and was in the process of loading the captured base plans onto a small data pad, when she heard faint movements. Her head moved rapidly back and forth, trying to locate the noise. For a Spartan, she was unusually nervous; there was a large amount of reconnaissance data missing for this mission, and she had no idea what kind of resistance to potentially expect. A clicking noise behind her made her whirl in surprise, until she saw the rifle barrel aimed at her head.
"Well, well, is this ONI's best?" a sneering voice drawled behind her captors. "I expected better."
"Just try shooting me, punk, and I'll show you exactly what I'm capable of," Laura hissed, mentally running through all possibilities. She hadn't made a lot of noise with her entry or exit, any bodies she'd had to make she'd hidden, so all that was left was that they'd been waiting for her.
"Perhaps. So you are Blade. Quite disappointing, really. I expected someone like the famous Blue Team to arrive."
"Oh really?" Laura drawled, checking her surroundings for other potential threats. She moved quickly, taking out one guard, using his rifle to nail the others, and grabbing the Rebel officer by the back of the neck.
"Now, you're going to do exactly as I say, or I'll blow your brains out the back of your skull. Clear?"
"Do I have much of a choice?" the officer gulped in fear; this wasn't at all what he'd expected.
"Good, because you're going to be my ticket out of here. We're going to walk out to the landing field, and you're going to tell your men to stand down, and we're going to go for a little drive through space. Now move." She retrieved her data pad and they headed towards the airfield.
The next day, Laura was called in to discuss her mission. While she had not retrieved the file ONI had requested (which she found out afterwards was because Ackerson had purposely given her the wrong objective), she had made up for it by abducting a key Rebel officer. She was given both a pat on the back and a warning against future mistakes, and allowed to leave. It was only afterwards, as she noted in the mission report, that she remembered how the Rebel officer had all but said he'd been waiting for her. How could he have known?
Cortana finished viewing the file and shook her holographic head. Ackerson clearly had set her up for failure, by allowing her name to be leaked to the rebels. Checking her files one more time, she confirmed that this was the only time Blade had failed a mission. She must have taken that really hard, Cortana thought. She managed to confirm that when she viewed a video surveillance tape of the firing range, recorded immediately after that particular mission: Blade was peppering a target as though her life depended on it. This was no ordinary target, however; this particular target had a picture of Ackerson taped to the top, and it was this Blade was shooting at so furiously, always aiming at the head. By the time she was done, the target was pretty much a mass of bullet holes.
Hmm, shooting Ackerson in effigy, she thought. Nice touch.