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Ose of the chart table, bent right over like so cart to relieve the superain

"Okay" Osored this as , let’s discuss what’s real y on everyone’sto want absolute proof that this suspect’s your father before I do anything What did you tel Spenser, Mal?"

Sometimes Naomi could look like a wax model She was so pale that she was al her I’, Mal couldn’t even tel if she was breathing

Vaz chipped in "I told Spenser who he was, "

"But Spenser agreed to sit on his hands until we got back," Mal said "It’s not like there’s anything big going down at thetabs on theosky?"

"Not while ere there"

"I would have expected the Ade before we slipped if she’d been informed," BB said

If she’s totally open with Osht line if you put it on rails Maybe she’s waiting to see when Osman decides to tell her I irl’s favorite, but … she’s Parangosky She didn’t get to be top spook by going soft on people

"I’l talk to her e leave slip," Osround rules on this It’s not going to be tidy Whatever happens, it’s going to hurt someone somewhere down the line Our priority is to protect Earth by any means necessary, but we have to trust each other to do that"

"Ma’ae procedure because of me Handle him like any other suspect"

"He’s probably a terrorist because he lost you " Osht she’d spoken out of turn It was probably the worst thing she could point out to Naomi "You do know that, don’t you? That he never believed the cloned child Halsey swapped you for was his real daughter? He always claiovernment conspiracy"

"Vaz told me," Naomi said, apparently unmoved "One day I’l read it for myself"

"Okay, then we al level with one another about everything Understood?"

"Yes,how to end a conversation like that Mal could see it on her face, al that doubt about the stuff she now had to do He pitched in to rescue her

"Wel , seeing as we don’t have our little Huragok chuether for a landing," he said

"My er to exfil, no ers crossed that Hood coh for us, then," Os to execute a tactical withdrawal and catch up on the signal traffic in my day cabin"

There was no bul shit with Os honesty equal y with competence in his top five list of officer e in a blur of blue light--not that he had to do the effects to make a point--and the three ODSTs stood in an aard circle around Naomi

"Sorry, mate," Mal said to her "I’m real y, real y sorry"

"You’re sure it’s him?"

Vaz squirmed visibly "I should have taken a copy of the file, but ere in a hurry to get back"

"Was there a picture?"

"Yes"

Nao

"What does he look like?" she asked

"He looks like you," Vaz said innocently Mal felt the knife turn, even though that was the last thing Vaz would have dreae of your dad"

CHAPTER FOUR

I WANT A HURAGOK TEAM ROUTINELY EMBARKED IN EVERY WARSHIP BY 2557 THIS IS WHAT GAVE THE COVENANT THEIR TECHNICAL SUPERIORITY NOW IT’S OURS, AND WHEREVER THE REST OF THEIR HURAGOK WENT, EVEN IF THE SANGHEILI REACQUIRE THEM--OURS STILL HAVE THEIR UNIQUE ONYX LEGACY, AND THAT PUTS US WAY AHEAD

(REAR ADMIRAL SAEED SHAFIQ, UNSC PROCUREMENT)

UNSC PORT STANLEY, APPROACHING SANGHEILI SPACE "Place your bets, mesdames et messieurs, " BB said "Faites vos jeux … five, four, three, two…"

Os stomach as the ship dropped out of slipspace and the black void in the forward viewscreen was suddenly peppered with stars that hadn’t been there a second before The status panels on the console showed Port Stanley’s drives and associated syste back fro when he said he was going to push the ship past her tested limits

"There We’re back" BB placed himself on Phil ips’s empty seat "Only two mil ion klicks adrift and five hours earlier than projected I win Making OPSNORMAL and running co, Captain"

"Wow, BB, did we blowover the control panel "That was brisk"

"Nothing we can’t fix with soenius"

"Let me know if you need a hand Because I’d like to live to see thirty-two"

Osman pushed herself out of her chair and found that she’d now learned to al ow for the twenty or thirty seconds of disorientation on slipspace ju if I have to Just tellisn’t real I believe me I do The ODSTs never seemed to turn a hair, but then anyone who reacted to jumps like she did would never have lasted five minutes as either a pilot or a Hel jumper A few confused seconds was al it took to crash and burn Sometimes she felt inadequate beside them

Naomi never blinked either But then she was a proper Spartan, not an abandoned project like herself, and she had other distractions that had to be weighing heavily on herfrom Phil ips?" Osman asked

BB lifted off the seat like a dropship and banked away to the comms console Now she kneas uneasy That was al in the dark

"I’osky," he said "He’s asked the Arbiter to al ow us to land a search party"

"And?"