Chapter 5 – Secreta
August 3rd, 2552 - (16:55 Hours - Military Calendar)
Epsilon Eridani System, Reach
Eposz, New Alexandria
Csillagos éj Hotel
:********:
Sará sucked in a deep breath before squeezing herself through the next tight corner in a series of turns through the duct. Exactly how three little boys figured out a means of navigating around the hotel like this was beyond her. She was learning how to classify different animals she saw around her home with her father back when she was their age. Finding her way around a multi-story skyscraper was out of the question. Perhaps that was the difference that gave them these skills, experience and environment.
It was an environment she was ill-suited for thanks to her size. She never considered herself overweight but the task she had taken upon herself was making her wish she'd shed a few pounds. As she wormed her way through the bowels of the Csillagos éj, she discovered that the main ducts that traversed along her floor tended to be wide enough for her to crawl through. However, the ducts regularly branched off to cover the individual rooms which often meant tight turns. Whoever designed the ventilation system obviously never intended for people to crawl through it because each turn required her to suck in air and pull herself through the next choke point.
After squeezing through a troublesome corner, she spotted Noah stealing away down a length of duct. He looked back to check on her. Seeing she was okay, he waved her forward and popped through another tight corner like it was nothing.
Sará crawled in pursuit. Her motions were slower than her guide. Her greater weight made her more cautious. There was no telling where the agents were down below. She couldn't risk drawing their attention to the ceiling or making them curious about checking inside her room. Noah didn't have such concerns and he didn't need to. He was able to maneuver without issue. His small size also made him so stealthy that she had to peer ahead simply to remember he was still there.
His experience was coming in handy while her lack thereof was showing itself in the growing distance between them.
Sará pushed through the next corner and spotted Noah well on his way to what looked like a dead end. Then he did the unexpected. He turned around to face her and pushed his legs backward, out and over an abscess that she couldn't see. He eased his way in and braced his arms against the inside of the vertical shaft.
"Be careful on this one." He whispered.
"Hey, wait-"
Noah shimmied down the shaft and dipped from view. She crawled towards the end of the duct. She had a bit of space to turn herself around and lowered her legs into the shaft. She was shocked to see that the way to the bottom wasn't as perilous as she first thought. It was a two-meter drop leading to another horizontal duct, an exit. Noah was poking his head out of it, waiting for her. She pressed her hands and feet into the walls and slid down. Noah moved out of the way to let her in. Together they meandered through another set of ducts on the floor below the one her room was on. They came to a full stop at a vent to a new room.
"Don't you need a screwdriver?"
"Nope. We keep some of these open if we ever need to get away fast."
Sará marveled at him. They knew their way around so well that they had entire escape routes planned out. She started surmising there was more to him and his non-friends than he was letting on.
He pried the grating loose and swung it open. There was a commotion below.
"Is someone down there?"
Noah ignored her and lowered his legs through the vent before dropping down. She swallowed hard and did the same.
It was a short fall to the floor. She landed in the middle of the room with Noah right in front of her...along with a hotel maid. She was an older woman, flushed with shock at the two of them dropping in on her.
"Noah?" She gasped. "Noah, what're you doing here?"
"Hey, Ms. Turner. Sorry, got to run." Without another word he took Sará by the hand and ran, guiding her past the bewildered maid to the open door. They dashed into the hallway, dodging past passerby, both giggling, Noah for the fun of it, Sará because she was finally free again.
:********:
Erica opened the door to the Csillagos' main security room. Inside was the hive of the hotel's protective, preventative and observational apparatus, a pentagonal room lined from floor to ceiling with screens showing nearly every nook and cranny of the building. It had two floors, both of which were occupied by dozens of console stations and an equal number of security staff manning them. An open atrium connected the two floors at the middle of the room. The whole thing was set within the hotel's even larger central atrium which ran down the building's full height like a spinal cord, exposing the innermost sections of each floor both above and below it like many individual vertebrae.
She preferred to visit the place at noon. Around then, the light from Epsilon Eridani shone straight through the top of the hotel, through the glass ceiling of the room's first floor as well as the glass floor of the second, before reaching the rest of the building. By then it was casting everything else below in rainbow colors including the ground floor dining areas. The astronomy-sensitive result of architectural genius was what gave the hotel so much of its aesthetic appeal. It also gave her the impression that whoever the Board of Directors contracted to build it was a big fan of telescopes. Csillagos éj was very much the same thing with the security room serving as both an inner magnifying lens as well as a functional light prism. Then, on starry nights, the hotel offered a clear view of the heavens above which served as the inspiration for its name.
At the moment the light of evening had cast the room and everyone in it in a passive orange glow. The end-of-shift blues were kicking in. As she descended the steps to the second floor, she took note of the tired and sluggish movements of different personnel at their stations. They gave her slow nods or hails of acknowledgement, knowing their shift was almost over.
Not all of them were exhausted however. There was a growing group of them standing around a projection screen close to the base of the stairs. The worry they exuded was palpable. Reaching the bottom of the stairs, she saw what was making them so anxious. On the screen was one of Waypoint's best reporters, the host of the Evening Show, Daniel Romello. The slick haired yet graying news veteran looked like he was restraining his own worries at some new discovery. Said discovery revealed itself in a scrolling text at the bottom: 'Cygnus under siege, UNSC defenders hard-pressed against Covenant assault on New Jerusalem'.
To the security personnel it was a shocker. To Erica, it was yesterday's news. This time around it paid to have connections in Reach's expeditionary forces. It made her privy to information that the media wouldn't be permitted to tell the public until days and weeks later. However, she would have gladly stayed ignorant if it meant she could have her husband back home, safe and sound. At least then she would know where he was and how he was doing. That would give her a lot more certainty in her life again.
She reached the first floor and navigated down the long aisle of desks and observation stations that ran along the path to the center. On her way, she saw other staff who were split between their work and watching the Waypoint broadcast on their displays. Worry and fear was spreading throughout the room like a plague. She would have to address it eventually. Safety-wise, there were plenty of reasons for her employees to be made aware of the hotel's plans going forward.
She arrived at the room's center, a ring of consoles surrounding the man that served as the Csillagos éj's Director of Security, Martin Corseaga. He was an unshaven individual that in another age could have been marched to the gallows for looking too much like Edward Teach. The thick black beard was a good reason for it as well as the hot vapors wisping past his face from the mug he held. His eyes, deep set, were glancing between several of the two dozen or so displays that encompassed his personal station.
Erica walked up to him. "Coffee in the afternoon, really?"
He looked up at her, took another sip and smiled as he put the mug down next to several empty ones on his desktop. "It is what it is, boss."
"If you're not careful you could end up becoming an insomniac."
"Insomniac? Sorry to tell you this ma'am, but..." he pointed to the bags under his eyes. "That warning's a little late."
She shook her head. "Keep this up and you're going to be an addict."
"Going to be?" Corseaga laughed and returned to typing on his display. "What can I do for you today?"
"I need you to find Noah for me."
He stopped. "Little Noe? Where's he off to this time?"
"That's what I'd like to find out."
"Did you check SN Elementary?"
"Of course. All I found was an afterschool session with no Noah and an open vent in the boy's bathroom."
"Daniel and Tommy?"
She shook her head.
"Ah, he's up there again, okay." He resumed typing. "A little strange that he'd leave his girlfriend behind."
"Excuse me?"
"Yeah, 'Emma' wasn't it? Wasn't she there?"
Erica scowled at him and he shrugged it off.
"You know, sometimes I think I tell you too much."
"I'm just asking is all."
Finishing, he smirked at whatever he'd found and turned the screen around for her to see. She leaned in.
It was a camera feed captioned 'Floor 71 – Kitchen (#4)'. As per its description, it showed a wide view of the kitchen on Floor 71, the same floor where she'd hosted the meeting for Haven Airline's big debut earlier in the year. Amidst the slew of cooks and cleaners she spotted a short figure that she could hardly miss. It was Noah. He was pushing through the aisles of stoves and ovens, past chefs and porters, making a beeline for where Mr. Mitchell was at the heart of the kitchen. He was leading a person by the hand, a woman Erica recognized. She'd seen her before at the elevator; the World Cuisine heiress Alana Simko.
"Looks like Emma's not his favorite anymore." Corseaga remarked. "It might just be me but I think the little tyke's a bit too young for this one."
Erica shot a glare at him. There were a host of questions she needed answered, mainly how her son was casually walking alongside a person whose family had enough capital to buy the hotel several times over.
"Want me to find Tommy and Daniel while I'm at it?"
"No, don't worry about them. I need to catch Noah while he's in one place. Contact me if he-, if they go somewhere else."
"You know, you didn't need to come here. You could've just called in the first place and spared yourself the walk."
"No, I needed to. I wanted to see it with my own eyes."
Corseaga frowned. "Is this about the whole Haven Airlines thing again?"
"Yes, it is."
"I told you, it was a mistake."
"And I'm telling you that I can't tell when you might hold back important information like, oh I don't know, a whole starship parking on the hotel. You might've told me something else today and given Noah plenty of time to be around this-…"
"His date?"
"Just get back to work." Erica growled and walked off for the stairs.
"Will do." Corseaga replied, grabbing his mug and taking another greedy sip of coffee.
:********:
Mr. Mitchell was no fool. He knew Noah well enough to tell when he was lying and when he wasn't. Today, he was definitely telling a lie and that lie was that the young woman he was introducing him to was a good friend of his.
Mitchell had never seen her before and was certain he would have heard of her like he did about Tommy, Daniel and Emma. The hotel was big but close-knit, too closely knit for something like a friend three times the kid's age to slip past everyone's radar.
He gently hefted the steaming pot he was carrying onto a stove and dialed down the heat to a simmer. With the ingredients of the Pasta al Tono finishing their boil for the upcoming dinner, he wiped his hands on his apron, both flesh and prosthetic, then put them to his waist as he rounded on his kitchen's two invaders.
"So, tell me again how you two know each other?"
Noah fidgeted for an answer. Beside him, the young woman looked embarrassed for him.
"She came to my school to start teaching." Noah insisted. "She's really good to. She helped me out and that's how we're friends now."
"Uhuh." Mitchell turned to Sará. "What subject do you teach?"
Sará started shaking her head but Noah stepped in again. "Math. She teaches math. She's good at numbers and stuff."
"So your math teacher here is your friend?"
"Yeah."
"I thought you said you hated math."
"I-...ugh."
"I'm not a teacher." Sará said. "He's lying through his teeth for me and I don't know why."
Mitchell could figure that part out. If Tommy and Daniel weren't with him then there was a good chance they had some minor falling out, like many kids who made friends at that age. Noah must have been trying to compensate for it with a 'new friend'.
"I was walking around and asked him if he could give me a tour of the hotel. He brought us here first and I guess it was to meet you."
"Hmph, makes sense." Mitchell turned around, took a spoon and started stirring the pot of pasta. "Not that it isn't strange. It's just that you'd usually want to ask older, more experienced people for stuff like that, like a staffer."
"I could've if he didn't insist so much."
"You could help us if you want." Noah suggested. "It'd be way better with the three of us."
"No thanks." Mitchell said. "I have work to do. Let me ask this though, does your mother know what you're doing?"
Noah hesitated. So did Sará.
Sighing, Mitchell shook his head at what was sure to be a bad idea. "You go on ahead, Noe. And hey, the next time you decide to run through my kitchen I'll have you on busboy duty again, you got that?"
"Got it." Noah said, his mischievous giggle causing Mitchell to smile. With his back to them, he listened as Noah led her out the kitchen's back exit.
Thinking on it, he realized he was wrong about her being unfamiliar. He had seen the young lady before. He watched her come in with her entourage on a number of nights for dinner. She always looked miserable. Maybe she was. She was a new face for sure. That didn't stop her from having some effect on Noah. She couldn't have known him for that long and still here they were rushing through his kitchen like Hansel and Gretel. She looked like she was having fun and so did Noah. He didn't want to get in the way of that. Though it might cost him another arm later, he was content to let the two go on their way. Yes, Noah was a kid but he could more than handle himself. Besides, in all his days working at the hotel, he'd never seen the kid so happy.
Maybe, just maybe, he'd finally found a real friend, one he didn't play bad pranks with or pretend he didn't have a crush on, one worth keeping.
Maybe.
:********:
Sará followed her guide down a stairwell and out through a door marked '70'. What she figured had to be the 70th floor was actually unlike any other she'd seen so far. There were no walls or individual rooms per say. Instead, there was a continuous and expansive space like the inside of an empty car park but far more fashionable. The whole floor was comprised of a smooth, dark-gray granite. Instead of walls on its perimeter there was an encompassing outer balcony, providing anyone who came close with an overlook on the surrounding city. Through the open balcony, the evening illumination bounded in on the granite material and made everything sparkle like fiery embers.
Sará marveled at the furnishings. There was a plentitude of garnished support pillars that spanned throughout from ground to ceiling. There were ornamental water fountains scattered here and there which connected to one another via glass-channels that ran through the floor like miniature canals. These all converged at a spot around the hotel's central atrium, a spot which would shine the most when the noontime sun passed through the skylight to the rest of the building. The water gathered at a large, decorative pool that had all the feeling of a pond including the vegetation; cob-like cattails, water lilies and a diverse ecosystem of fish swimming underneath.
"This is the best place to see everything from." Noah said. "Come on, let me show you."
Sará had to hold out a hand to shade herself while Noah led her towards the overlook on the western side. Epsilon Eridani was well on its way to the horizon and its fiery eye was threatening to blind hers. She brushed past coffee tables and chairs, dozens of which were occupied by a greater number of couples, guests, businessmen and the most distinguished looking persons she'd ever seen. They were patrons of the floor's café whose equally well-dressed servers and waiters diffused from table to table, tending to the wants and needs of their customers.
She nearly tripped over a potted palm tree, bucked her toe into a fountain and barely avoided crashing into a waitress before they reached the overlook.
The floor's outer balcony was slightly elevated and a dense gathering of tables and customers were set along its circumference. Sará and her guide took a short staircase to the top and made for an open spot along the railings.
The wind picked up speed. Sará's headband barely kept her hair from ruffling the strands in her face. She pushed her stray bangs aside to see better and what she saw was absolutely breathtaking.
She'd known of New Alexandria for years. Growing up on Reach made her aware of the best places on the planet. This city was one of them. The overlook granted her a view that she could never hope to get from the ground and never enjoy from a touring starship. She took in everything the vista had to offer. Because of the sea of low clouds scattered throughout the maze of white skyscrapers, the entirety of the spectacle made her think she'd died and gone to a better place. The living circuitry of traffic beneath those clouds and at the base of those skyscrapers was what gave the city an air of life, purpose, direction. In the distance, the crawling descent of Epsilon Eridani towards the west turned the skies into a rich pastel of oranges, pinks and purples.
After spending so long couped in her room, the sights and sounds and smells almost brought her to tears again. The warm glow and the cool air were refreshing and for a while she forgot her worries. She closed her eyes peacefully and forgot she was out and about when she shouldn't be, that the agents were probably looking for her by now, that her parents were-
Sará opened her eyes again. Suddenly, the beauty of the city was gone. It hadn't changed, she had. She remembered precisely why it was that she was here, why the city itself was soon to change no matter what she did.
The light no longer comforted her but burned her skin. The wind no longer cooled her but stung her eyes as if the city itself was against her, telling her to be on her way so that it could enjoy what days remained to it in peace. It was as if it knew its time was running out.
But it couldn't know that. No one in the city could have known that yet. They certainly acted like they didn't. She watched the people below go about their lives in the same calm and expectant fashion as they might on any other day.
They didn't know what was coming. They couldn't know.
Soon her vision was clouded with tears. She felt heavy. She had the urge to lie down, to shut her eyes and to forget she was ever here. Maybe then she could reopen them and wake up in her bed at Visegrád, get up and tell her parents about the horrible nightmare she'd had.
"Cool, right?"
She remembered her new acquaintance was still standing beside her. He turned to her with a hope-filled readiness to see what she thought. That hopefulness dampened once he saw her reaction. "Hey, what's wrong?"
Sará wiped her face on her sleeve. "I'm fine, I'm fine. It's just that..." She gestured to the view. "This is beautiful, Noah."
He eyed her uncertainly. "Oh, okay. Hey, you're not from Reach, are you?"
She sniffled. "I am. I've never been to Alexandria though."
"Yeah, I can tell since you're crying like that." He grinned. "Too much to take, huh? Well, I'm used to it."
"You've always lived here?"
He nodded. "Yup. I grew up here. It's home. Me and my parents are from Earth but my mom moved us out here to be closer to my dad."
"Ah, so do you miss your home, Earth I mean?"
"Don't you remember, I said I grew up here. I left Earth when I was a baby. I don't even know what it looks like."
Sará hesitated. "You've never really lived anywhere else?"
"Nope."
"...So this is...your only home?"
He crossed his arms and frowned at her. "Are you even listening anymore? I said I grew up here."
The heaviness Sará felt doubled then tripled. Her heart burned in her chest. She wanted to look away from him. The innocence was too much for her, almost painful to witness.
"So where did you grow up?"
What he asked made Sará snap back to him. "What was that?"
"Where'd...you...grow...up?"
She trailed off to her memories of the many homes she'd stayed in throughout her life. The list ended at Visegrád with the Varga family and her own.
"A few places." She said unconvincingly. "I've never really had a chance to call a place home for longer than a few years. That's why I'm going somewhere else soon."
"Hmm, okay. Tell you what, if you want, you could always come back here after you go to your parents."
"Sorry?"
"When you go see your parents?" Noah said, raising a brow. "You can always come back. Then I can give you a real tour. I know some parts of the city pretty good. You'd have to promise not to cry though 'cause that'll look weird. I could show you the fun places, the parks, the game shop-, no, that one's a bit too close to the police station. Wait, you're a girl, you probably want to see the clothes and stuff, right?"
"Wait, what did you say?"
"Clothes and stuff?"
"No, the police station."
He paused. He'd let it slip. She was now catching on to just how out-there the kid that was serving as her tour guide really was.
"Ugh, I have friends there." He said at last.
"Friends?"
"Yup."
"Who are police officers?"
"Yup. Like you, you're my friend, right?"
It was her turn to pause. Calling someone a friend who she'd met on the same day and meaning it was not her norm. Then again, he was a kid. Friendships at his age were probably a lot less complicated.
"Yeah, I'd say so. And you? Are you my friend?"
He nodded intently. "I wouldn't have showed you how to get around the vents if I wasn't."
True enough. He struck her as rather trusting. Thankfully, he'd picked the right person her age to call 'friend'.
"Alright then," she grinned. "I'll take you up on your offer to go to the city, that is if I come back."
"When you come back." He insisted.
She smiled. "Alright then, when I come back."
"That's right, you better, or I'll steal a ship and fly right after you."
The two of them laughed. As Sará calmed down, Noah's joke reminded her of something more uncomfortable, her deal with Dr. Halsey.
"Hey Noah?"
"Call me 'Noe'. All my friends do it."
"Right. Noe?" She swallowed. "About that ship part, maybe you and your mom should-"
Footsteps, surprised gasps and baffled stares cut her off. A growing commotion was coming in their direction. People along the balcony as well as those sitting off in the interior were making their way over. Sará and Noah followed their collective gazes back to the cityscape.
In the skies to the west, against the burning sun, were scores of small dots. These gradually grew closer and became more defined. Seconds after seeing them, Sará made out what they were: a fleet of aircraft.
To her great relief, they were all human.
Close to 100 or more UNSC aircraft, Pelicans and Falcons, swooped in over the city. The traffic on the streets below came to a grinding halt as people stopped to see what was happening.
The fleet dispersed and diffused across the skyline like a flock of birds returning for the spring. Many of them slowed above the plenteous landing pads on the city's skyscrapers and began to descend. Upon landing, scores of Army troopers spilled out of their troop bays onto the buildings themselves, rushing across rooftops with crates, sandbags and weapons. Other transports descended to more open areas of the lower city such as parks and car lots. They released multiple vehicles, Scorpion tanks and Warthogs that promptly assembled themselves into armored convoys or stayed put to let more passengers aboard. A storm of troops flowed out into the streets, establishing positions on corner-side venues, confounding the streams of commuting civilians whose sole concern mere seconds before was getting home from work.
Still more UNSC aircraft were coming. A second wave was sweeping in from the east. They did the same as the first and dropped off both their human and vehicular cargo.
Sará cringed inside. She listened to the sounds of exasperation from the crowd growing at her back. She heard many different questions being raised, the majority pertaining to something for which she already knew the answer.
As she watched the Pelicans and Falcons fly around New Alexandria, her long dormant tear finally ran down her cheek. She registered a hand holding hers. Noah was the culprit, grasping tightly as he stared bewildered at the scene.
She had to tell him. She had to warn him.
The thought didn't reach her mouth before another hand fell on Noah's shoulder. A woman Sará recognized as the hotel's manager came forward from the crowd.
"Noah?"
He shook a bit, startled. "Mom?"
Sará connected the dots, noticed the similarities between them and realized she'd made a huge mistake. The woman she remembered was named 'Mrs. Iris' turned to her.
"Mind telling me what you're doing with my son?"
Sará froze. She didn't have a clue what to say. Neither did Noah.
"Ms. Simko," A voice called from behind.
Sará instantly recognized that one too and it filled her with dread. She rounded on the speaker, one of her 'bodyguards' of whom all three were standing nearby. How they'd deduced her location this fast was beyond her.
The lead agent came up next to her and spoke firmly. "Ma'am, we need you to come back to your room now if it's not an inconvenience."
He wasn't asking her; he was telling her. She could sense the rebuke waiting for her once she was out of the public eye. She had some explaining to do. Rather than turning to them, she turned to Mrs. Iris apologetically.
"I'm so sorry if I made you worry, ma'am. You see, I wanted to explore more of the hotel. I ran into your son on the way and he offered to show me around."
"Is that true, Noah?"
"Yeah." He said, feigning confidence. "I was with Tommy and Daniel again when I saw her. She looked lost so I thought I could help."
Mrs. Iris observed both of them closely. So did the ONI agents. At length, the hotel manager seemed to accept the explanation and relaxed a little.
"Ms. Simko, the next time you want a tour of the building or get lost, please feel free to consult with our staff or with the resources we have available. We'd be happy to assist you."
Sará understood the translation: 'stay away from my son please'. "No problem, ma'am. Again, so sorry."
"Come on, Noah. Let's get you home."
"But-"
"No buts, let's go." Mrs. Iris took him by the hand and led him away.
Sará could do nothing other than watch him leave. She remembered the warning she was trying to give him earlier. She hated herself for not being able to get it across. Even so, would a child his age even understand it? A deep guilt burned in her gut at the thought that the one person she could have told, that she could have saved, wouldn't have comprehended her warning to begin with. A gentle yet firm hand settling on her shoulder reminded her of the consequences of her actions. She would have considered shouting out the truth to the mother and son if it wasn't already plain to see outside. Again, she stopped herself. She couldn't tell if it was because she was afraid of ONI or if she was afraid of telling the boy that he might end up homeless very soon. Maybe both.
As he was leaving, Noah waved back. "Bye, Sará. See you around."
An icy chill surged through her entire being. She had forgotten she told him her real name, not her alias 'Alana'. Worse yet, the strong looks of disapproval on the faces of the agents unsettled her. There would be hell to pay for all this later. She decided she would pay it in whatever cost they demanded. If ONI was going to run her life like it did her parents' then she would show them the difference between them and her. Against the weight of her guilt and fear, she waved back defiantly.
"Bye, Noah. Nice meeting you."
:********:
Erica pretended not to notice the alarming sights outside. She pretended to be calm despite the overwhelming desire to panic. She also pretended not to hear the name her son had just called that stranger, Ms. Alana Simko. That was her name, wasn't it?
Ahead of reaching the elevator, she came to a stop. "Honey, what did you just call her?"
"Who?"
"That lady back there."
"Oh, that's Sará, my new friend."
Erica wanted to test something. "Honey, her first name's Alana."
Noah shook his head. "No, it's not. It's Sará."
"How do you know that?"
"She said so herself."
"And you're sure it's not a nickname?"
He frowned at her. "I'm sure, mom. Sará doesn't sound anything like Alana. You might be thinking about somebody else but she's Sará."
Erica wanted to think better of it. Perhaps it really was a nickname and nothing more. Or perhaps her son had learned more about her than was explained in her background checks. She took one last look at Ms. Simko who was leaving with her bodyguards for an elevator on the opposite end of the floor. Something wasn't right about them. She'd had her suspicions all along but now she had a reason to indulge them.
She took him into the elevator and decided on asking him a few questions once they got home. But the sound of distant fusion drives and rotor blades coming through the closing door made her question just how long she had left to call it that.
Secreta - Secrets
