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Maybe she’d bought into the Forerunners’ perfect technical genius a little too much They seemed to accept that their systems needed multiple fail-safes, and if these cylinders were bio-sentries, then maybe doors that wouldn’t open were a bio-security mechanism as wel

"Let’s see," Fred said, and lifted his hel patiently moved across to hover in front of him He huffed on it but it held its position Halsey wished she’d checked the display underneath its base "Gold star, Chief"

Olivia turned back to the wal and pressed the sy Fred reached into his belt and pul ed out a ration bar It had been a long time since any of them had eaten He unsealed it and stared at it as if he was steeling hiry cobra in his mouth

Halsey hoped he didn’t cal the rations what some of the other Spartans did If he said that word, the association would be unbreakable and she’d never be able to sto the

Fred bit a chunk off the end, rewrapped the remainder, and chewed slowly

"Vile," he said "One day, I’ back to UNSC Procurened these, and force-feed them to him"

"What if it’s a woman?" Kel y asked

"I’m very equality-minded Her as wel "

Halsey took co upbeat even if their internal reality was very different Fred clipped his helmet to his belt and walked up to the walThe cylinder stuck with hiet in his way

"Would we hear her if she was ha on the other side?" he asked He looked at Mendez as if for a nod of approval, then glanced at Halsey It struck her as an atteuments "Linda, take Mark and Ash and do another check around the peried to pass through this barrier, Halsey reasoned, then she could fol ow too It was just awhatever Lucy had done, and those options had to be fairly li every block of the wal between head and waist height and then walking straight at it in case there was a proxietting very far The cylinder fol owed her around patiently like an attentive PA waiting on her instructions

"What’s the matter?" Fred asked Halsey turned around to see who he was talking to "Getting bored?"

The cylinder that had been hovering around Fred had drifted off and was now e to the entrance Halsey looked to check if Mendez was stil being pursued by his cylinder--he was--and wondered what had proest proble Lucy than they had been an hour ago Sometimes Jacob Keyes spoke to her very clearly, like a conscience

You’re really only interested in solving puzzles, Catherine That’s the only reason you ask

She’d expected to hear that voice more often now that Jacob was dead, but she accepted that her ability to forget about people when she no longer needed them wasn’t an ad a proper roith hi their brief relationship, and there had been few harsh words even afterward, but once, just once, he’d told her that her apparent concern for people was just fascination when they didn’t behave as she expected or wanted theht then that she orried about Lucy, as in no shape to be fighting a war Soulf bethat she wanted to believe and what actual y drove her She looked now, and admitted to herself that the need to unlock al the Forerunner htly more than the need to locate Lucy

Does itas she ends up safe? Does my motive matter?

Yes, it did The only way she’d justified what she’d done in the Spartan progra a few hundred lives for bil ions Motive was her sole defense

"Godda to hi in his rass before I have to s another mouthful of this crud"

Halsey turned Mendez was struggling with one of his ration bars He held out half of it to her without a word, but she shook her head and walked back to the entrance to study the syether the sequences that she could recognize from the lexicon on her laptop Her sto her like a bodyguard A few runt and say "’Bye," as she spotted movement in her peripheral vision One of the cylinders drifted past her and went outside She was too engrossed in trying to find sy door at the end of the passage to paysharp and painful stabbed her in her right thigh She yelped

It was , but it da to find one of the long-tailed beetles that Olivia had plucked fro what looked like a needle from the folds of her skirt

Kel y, Fred, and Mendez carab for the cylinder but it darted away It didn’t get very far; a shot rang out and it shattered into a dozen pieces that went bouncing across the flagstones Halsey looked up to see Linda standing outside the entrance with her rifle stil raised

"Better safe than sorry," she said, and started col ecting the fragments "What did it do to you, Doctor?"

Halsey rol ed up the hee A blob of blood wel ed froh It suddenly struck her how thinly white and blue-veined her skin looked these days

So I’ old How the hell did that ever happen toto be interesting finding out"

SANCTUARY OF THE ABIDING TRUTH, ONTOM, SANGHELIOS

The Servants of the Abiding Truth were at best uided and at worst certifiably insane, but Jul had to admire their creativity