Helena Augustine was not amused.
As the Headmistress of Grissom drank a glass of Thessian Red (A good vintage true, but that did little to help that it was approaching 1400 hours aboard the School) Helena reflected on the failures in her life.
Investing in Binary Helix around the same time of the great recession of 2162; Putting her stamp of approval on the Scorched Earth tactics employed during the Blitz; Putting an iota of faith in the Alliance to properly deal with Colonial Politics and rampant xenophobia on Earth.
Trusting in Jackson Woolf seemed to be a recurring thread that dotted her long tenure as a Strategist for the Alliance. The man was a one man Shadow Government, threading wheels within wheels of espionage and deception to the point where only he knew direction was left and which was right.
Of course, any direction Woolf thought of as being "right" was never truly such.
The man believed that his nigh on thirty years of Special Forces work and Intelligence gathering made him the Alpha and Omega of Spy Mastery.
What he didn't know was what would kill him, and Helena was unfazed by his antics: He fancied himself as such a clever man, a man whose actions would earn him the praise of his successors for the Millenia that deigned to follow in his wake.
His very obvious ploy to steal the top talent of Grissom was an example of how utterly stupid the man was. It was no secret that Alliance High Command had been formulating a multiple class, Special Forces initiative for years now. Simply having the best soldiers wasn't enough for the operations they needed anymore: Tech Specialists, high level Biotics, prodigal Engineers and Primacy level assassins were what the Alliance wanted installed into the N-Division.
While opinion was mixed on the implementation of this manner no one questioned the need for diversified Special Forces units.
While the brass argues onward about the process of how to collect, train, arm and implement these assets, men like Woolf have already begun rounding up the highest levels of talent for their own programs.
Augustine would deal with Woolf and his crony N7's at a later time. The issue sitting before her was enough to bring down Grissom entirely.
Lloyd Isaacson.
Helena took a prolonged sip of her wine before returning to the information that had been sent to her less than an hour beforehand.
It had come in the form of an encrypted message labeled simply as "Veritas." Helena had honestly been expecting some garbage about Alliance conspiracies or Terra Firma nonsense.
What she got was an expose regarding the last five years of Lloyd Isaacson's tenure. Videos of the man forbidding students to leave their dormitories, classes held in repurposed bedrooms, students sitting nineteen-twenty hours a day in isolation as they either worked on research projects or toiled with work.
Clip after clip showed students being reprimanded by Isaacson or the ECRS guards in the Engineering department. The last section of the email was entirely devoted to Isaacson's "Synthetic Intelligence" Research.
She didn't even start the clip. Rubbing at her temples, Helena ran through the scenarios that were about to happen: A student would balk and bring the whole department down, The Alliance would find ties to all of the corporate funding the academy was receiving, The Alliance would find his pet project and piece together what he was trying to do…
Helena opened up her Omni-Tool and vid-called her assistant. "Cyrus, get me Captain Heifetz please."
Ward, Abby and Jason worked their way to the Engineering Wing, intent on ironing out the issue of allowing the Engineering Students to participate in the N7 training program. While Ward didn't condone negotiation with a psycho such as Isaacson, it would be a necessary evil until Woolf could move in and remove Augustine from power.
"I don't think Isaacson is going to let us keep the Engineering students Ward." Jason stated solemnly.
"What makes you say that?"
"Oh, I don't know maybe going all Rapunzel on his students. He won't like having his top assets out in the open, where they are either not finishing up their schematics or getting him exposed."
"Jason's got a point Ward, Isaacson isn't going to just cede us his students for nothing. He's probably going to have some conditions about what the students can say and how long we have them."
"We need them for hours; he can put their projects on hold until they either pass their training or fail."
"Except we won't let any of them fail, so he's none the wiser?"
"N7 training washes candidates out. Not everyone will pass. We take those that will and move on."
"That is exactly the kind of mindset the Alliance is trying to move away from: Less homogenization, more specialization." Abby had been a staunch proponent of the Mixed Class training logs.
Jason was far more skeptical. "A couple fancy Omni-Programs and some Biotics won't do jack shit if these kids can't shoot straight or run without collapsing. I know that sounds-"
As the three N7's rounded the corner to the Engineering wing they heard furious shouting and were treated with a scene of Dr. Lloyd Isaacson being hauled off by two of the black armored ECRS Guards they had seen around the Institution. A hulking, heavily scarred spook stood a head above the others, barking orders at the other guards.
"I want a thorough scrub of Isaacson's office and the Dormitory. All documentation is to be gathered by hand and turned into me." The bulky guard turned to face the three N7's, eyes immediately narrowing.
"You pups had best get moving, you have a busy day of babysitting tomorrow."
"Who the fuck are you?" Jason blurted out.
"Captain Andrew-
"-Heifetz, although you only got as high as a Sergeant with Alliance Military didn't you?" Abby declared. Heifetz merely scoffed.
"You were dishonorably discharged in 2182 at Anhur for murdering captive Blue Suns and Eclipse commandos. What, was CAT6 not hiring? ECRS seems a little fancy for an ape like you."
"Can it girl, or I'll show you how much authority you really have on this station."
Jason snarled at Heifetz. "Those commandos had Intel that could have helped liberate the system months before we actually did. A grade-A fuckup like yourself has no room to throw around rank-"
"Enough 2nd Lieutenant Pitcairn." Ward only used formal titles when he was angry. It was the easily underestimated, quiet anger that Jason had learned to ignore unless the situation merited it.
"What I would like to know, is what is going on at present. Captain Heifetz?"
"Dr. Augustine is removing Dr. Isaacson from his posting indefinitely."
"On what grounds?"
"Numerous ethics violations and breaches in contractual obligations."
"Excellent. Where is he taken?"
Heifetz grinned. "Off to Horizon for trial and then sentencing."
Ward held his composure, merely nodding. "Thank you Captain Heifetz, I apologize for my subordinates behavior. Hopefully our next meeting will be less crude."
"Keep your pets on a leash boy, or I will put them down myself."
Ward bristled at the comment, but otherwise waved his companions off.
When the three were far enough away from the hallway Ward lowered his façade and punched the nearest wall.
"God damnit! That bitch checks our moves before we make them."
"With Isaacson gone and out of our hands it will be a lot harder to remove Augustine.
"We have jurisdiction here, why don't we just nab him once he touches down on Horizon."
"Assuming Heifetz doesn't arrange for an accident to happen, Isaacson will be taken to a remote colony world and be held for however long Augustine pleases. Jason, you've got to treat Augustine like a local Krogan Warlord: She doesn't really follow the rules set up for her and her word is law. The only difference is that I suppose she does a lot less head butting."
"All right, so Isaacson is out of the picture. Isn't that a good thing?"
"For us in the short run? Yes. In the long run? I honestly don't know Jason. But from here on out we have to be very careful."
The Three N7's moved back to their room to go over the events of the day with Emile.
"Felicity dear, please do come in."
A waifish, middle aged woman nervously walked into Helena Augustine's office and took her seat in front of Dr. Augustine.
"You wished to talk to me Dr. Augustine?"
"Yes Felicity, are you aware of what transpired today with Dr. Isaacson?"
The waifish woman shook her head no. "I only saw that he was gone, and the Elanus Guards searching his offices."
"Well that is to be expected really, he was dabbling in unethical research and mistreating his students. Terrible loss really, he was such a talented man." 'And an utter fool' Augustine thought to herself.
Felicity nodded her head obediently. "Dr. Isaacson was a brilliant individual, but why am I here Dr. Augustine?"
An idiot this one is, but at least she isn't ambitious. "Dr. Strauss, you are among the most personable and honest instructors in the Engineering department are you not?"
The woman had the gall to blush. "I know my students enjoy working with me and I never lie about my work, although I wouldn't say that I'm so saintly Dr. Augustine."
"Then I will stop beating around the bush: I need a replacement for Department Head for Engineering, and you are the most qualified instructor to fill the role."
Felicity's eyes widened. "Dr. Augustine, I'm hardly qualified to fulfill the role of Administrator! I'm not a genius like Isaacson or as skilled as someone like yourself! I'd be terrible at it."
"Felicity, the last Genius I let into a position of power used his role to further his own career. You, on the other hand, will be using your position to further your students. And now that the Engineering department has been thoroughly debugged and rid of infectious programs, if you were to prove a problem I would be able to remove you. You are a good woman, and I need a good, matronly figure to heal the wounds inflicted by Isaacson's tenure." 'A good woman, but more importantly, an unambitious tractable woman.' Augustine silently thought to herself.
"If you insist Dr. Augustine, then I will do it." 'Excellent.' "But I don't want anything to do with the corporate interests. I know we need to pay for the academy, but I won't accept it."
"I understand, and rest assured that I will hold no expectations for you to undertake any corporate sponsors." 'For now.'
"Thank you Dr. Augustine."
"No, thank you Felicity Strauss, for applying a much needed balm to our Engineering department." Augustine smiled sweetly at Felicity, who bowed and left the Headmistress' office.
"Is that the last of it?" Nolan asked to Garret, his companion.
The ECRS Guard scanned the last files on Isaacson's personal Terminal for bugs or encoding devices.
"It's clean Nolan, anything else we should get rid of."
"No, nothing- Oh damn it."
"What is it?"
"Just this stupid VI program. It keeps asking me if I would like to check Isaacson's inbox."
Garret reopened Isaacson's terminal, checking extranet messages and sweeping for any backdoor programs that Isaacson might have been squirreling away.
"It's clean. So is it that VI. Look we had better hurry this shit up or Heifetz will have our asses, we'll leave it for the next jag off to reprogram."
Nolan shook his head. They had spent four hours scanning every inch of Isaacson's personal files until they had physically uncovered every bit of information they possibly could. Log books, dossiers on his students, terabytes of 24/7 surveillance on his students, and data-feeds of books, plays, engineering guides, programming, linguistics, history, and a myriad of other topics for three libraries.
Nolan was tired, and for once he felt his companion was right. They would have bigger problems if they didn't hurry up and report their findings.
"All right, let's take the hard copies and go." The two shuffled from the room with their paperwork in tow, ready to report all progress to Heifetz. They turned off the lights to Isaacson's office, and closed the doors.
For fifteen minutes, the room remained silent.
A light emerged from the VI station on Isaacson's desk. It looked around the room and then ran scans of the outside hallway, searching for one figure in particular. After several minutes of searching it stopped and activated its audio files.
"Father? Why have you abandoned me?"
Minutes passed. There was no response from within the room or outside of the room.
After an hour or scanning for his return, a figure approached Isaacson's office. Steward shut down and waited patiently to determine if they were a friend or a foe.
A nervous, mousy looking woman entered the room, closing the door behind her and electronically locking it.
She glanced around the room, eying the work of the ECRS before sitting in Isaacson's high back office chair.
"Seneschal, open tracker program."
A VI automated voice on the woman's Omni-Tool opened up. "Yes, Felicity?"
"Scan for tracers or Warden files in this room." The VI complied and scanned the room.
"Two programs detected: One Private VI: Nondescript; One Public VI: Inquisitor."
"Seneschal, disable Inquisitor program and insert Loop. Authorization: Isaacson. Passcode: Crecy."
"Acknowledged. Program disabled and looped. Room is clear Felicity. May I provide another action?"
"Yes. Seneschal, open secure messaging. Sender: Orpheus. Receiver: Hecate."
"Yes Felicity." Several minutes passed before the woman's Omni-Tool glowed.
"Agent Orpheus, have you completed the objective?"
"Yes, the target is neutralized and I am in position. No one is the wiser."
"Excellent. Proceed with new objectives. Remain under the radar until otherwise notified. Hecate signing off."
"Acknowledged, Orpheus signing off." The woman shut her Omni-Tool and tapped her fingers on the desk.
"Seneschal, open Nondescript VI."
"Yes, Felicity."
Steward activated his VI avatar. "Good Evening Dr. Isaacson. There are no new messages."
Felicity smiled darkly at the VI. "No I suppose there aren't are there?"
End of Act I; Act II to begin shortly.
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