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But it made me even more of one And now I finally kno it feels to lose a child
"To atone," Halsey said at last She could hear how hol ow and pathetic it sounded, a spoilt brat’s excuse for kil ing a pet "I didn’t know those clones would die"
"You’re the world’s foreenetics Why didn’t you know?"
"Because it’s not that siht her fist down on the table with a thundering crack that no ninety-year-old should have had the strength to e
Halsey flinched She felt the table shudder Parangosky leaned right over her, nose to nose, and Halsey now understood why grown enuinely believed cloning would produce a healthy child identical to the one you’d abducted, then why the hel didn’t you use the clones for the Spartan program instead?"
Halsey had never asked herself that question She realized she’dunder
"Answer me, Doctor You wil damn wel answer me"
"It’s no more or less moral than--"
"You knew I refuse to believe you didn’t If you didn’t, then you were incompetent And that’s one excuse you can never use"
Halsey had no answer, but there orse things than being incompetent She hadn’t felt that way before "And you knew I’d done it, eventual y, so spare e"
"Think of it as late onset retribution," Parangosky rasped Halsey had never known her to raise her voice "We’re not dependent on your skil s now, so I don’t have to stoer I’ve had my use of you I think you used those clone replacements to comfort yourself, not the families Oh, don’t blame me, I made new children for the…"
Halsey could feel her breath struggling in her throat She wasn’t going to take this It wasn’t like that at al
She went to stand up but Parangosky pushed her down again by the shoulder "No, damn it, you’l sit and listen for once in your life"
"Don’t you dare unload al this on me" Halsey had lost control of the situation, but then she realized she’d never had any in the first place That was the raal to moralize?"
"Those families had to watch their child die"
"They didn’t lie awake every night wondering if their child had been raped orheld captive by soosky’s voice was just a hiss "Some of those parents are stil alive"
"No" Halsey shook her head "You can’t possibly know that I kept the only set of records And those are a pile of ash along with everything else on Reach"
"I’m the head of ONI, for God’s sake I’ve had copies of al your records for many years, because you’re not quite as sosky paused "And you’d be surprised what survived on Reach Your journal, for exaosky could have said or done, reading that journal upset Halsey e at a parent for violating her privacy, and yet she’d alritten it with that subconscious eye on posterity
"Then I don’t iine there were that many surprises for you," she said stiffly
"You’re quite a coain without a trace of the afterburn of anger Halsey couldn’t tel if it was a careful act or just the way the woman handled her rare displays of e over it, but I hardly needed therahts "The more people who see that, the more it coosky walked back to her side of the table and sat down "State secrets are to protect society They should conceal inforths, code words They shouldn’t be used to cover up our most bestial acts or save us from embarrassment I’ve drafted a state it to the UEG’s defense co to die sooner rather than later, and I wil not take this to the grave with e that could do to restarting the Spartan prograram--not like the Spartan-Twos, anyway Or the Spartan-Threes, if I can help it We’re back to using consenting adults now, like we did in Project Orion"
"Now?"
"Yes, another project you were never told about The fourth-phase Spartans And you knohy nobody told you? Because you sabotage as much as you create, Catherine You’re not a tea to spend whatever tiain I have work for you, work that doesn’t involvepeople, and you’l report to someone else and do as you’re told Because if you don’t, I can do whatever the hel I ith you, and nobody wil lift a finger to help you How does that sound?"
Parangosky put her pens back in her purse with slow care She hadn’t written anything after alAnd she hadn’t asked Halsey a single question, not real y, because she already knew al the answers Detectives always said that was the best kind of interrogation
But it left Halsey with a lot of unanswered questions The one that was troubling herone
"Who else has seen my journal?"
"At least two of your Spartans," Parangosky said, heading for the door "I’ the survivors the opportunity to look at their family records if they wish But I admit I’m not sure how to square the require old wounds for the surviving parents whose children real y are dead now"
Parangosky slung the strap of her purse over her shoulder and opened the door As it swung back, Halsey caught sight of an ar outside
She was happy to accept a life sentence--daave her one chance to talk to her reize, perhaps even try to explain
"Ad shut "What’s going to happen to the to do with theain, and Parangosky stood in the entrance
"That depends on what they want to do," she said "We’l probably offer the Spartan-Threes and integrating theraosky She real y kne to drop the ful payload on soht want to keep this I hope you feel it’s appropriate"
Parangosky reached into the folder tucked under her arraph, and held it out to Halsey
"I thought you’d like to see the osky stared into her face with evident satisfaction It was a picture of a plaque with its neat inscription "Ackerson has one too Gal ing as it must be for you, he died a hero Welcome to your afterlife, Dr Halsey"
Halsey studied the photograph as the door closed again It took her a few seconds to work out what she was looking at, but then she understood It was a plaque on a osky had said, and it was her epitaph
Under her careful y engraved name, service number, date of birth, and a summary of her career, the inscription read: "Dr Halsey was on Reach at the tih no body was recovered, she is presu and not at al poetic
She wondered how much they’d found to say about John-117
UNSC PORT STANLEY, VENEZIA SECTOR: MARCH 2553
Mike Spenser hadn’t caled for assistance on Venezia, but then he wasn’t the kind of man to send out casual invites for no reason, either Os to slipspace