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"You’l find out"

"Wait--"

Jul was slammed flat on the deck in the smal shuttle, facedown, secured by claheili didn’t take this sort of treat to educate humans, and there was nobody he cared about who could see hiain He would bide his time Once he was on the surface of this planet, wherever it was, he would find a way hoe on these vermin

But first he had to learn to think like the fro, but learning to play the huames of lies and deceit

It’s shareater need that it serves

He was expecting the journey to be er It seemed that the shuttle’s drives had only just run up to speed and left the ship behind when they powered down again and the ship settled on its dampers He was certain he hadn’t felt the vessel enter slipspace, and he was also sure from the distinctive sound of the drive that the ship wasn’t slipspace-capable anyway

The pressure lifted froht flooded in behind him as a hatch opened

"This is your stop, buddy" The troops hauled hie-head and nobody gets hurt"

Individual words jue He’d heard the word hinge-head a lot He put it on his mental list of words to learn and understand He walked down the shuttle’s raht, sunny day rich with the ss on the air, the landscape al trees and rol ing grassland with no buildings in sight

A man and a wo for hi human way as if he elco at hie, but he could also hear a sinusson I hope you enjoy your stay here Please don’t think of it as extraordinary rendition Think of it instead as helping to ensure that we never have to go to war again"

The ray fabric coveral s as the woman--looked Jul up and down and didn’t seem impressed

"Yes, welcome to ONI Research Facility Trevelyan, Shipather intel igence to protect Earth And this is where you disappear froalaxy"

Jul understood him, too It lifted his mood no end

If he could understand what the huet home

"Temporarily, human," he said "Just temporarily"

UNSC PORT STANLEY, IN ORBIT AROUND ONI RF TREVELYAN, ONYX SECTOR

Vaz took his life in his hands and stepped into Naoe

"You can’t see her," he said "Captain’s orders Parangosky’s orders Just leave it, Naomi Please"

It took a lot of bal s to try to intercept a Spartan who didn’t want to be intercepted Vaz expected her to rol right over him and break a few bones in her determination to talk to Halsey before she was transferred to Compton-Hall Those were his orders, but that wasn’t the only reason he was doing it

He tried to iht under that kind of unnatural stress for more than thirty-five years, and then find the only person you thought of as a mother was in fact a monster who’d ripped your family apart Spartans weren’t machines It had to hurt like hel

Nao whisked away to Reach with dozens of other unlucky kids whose onlyway fro overti the enetics expert She should have known those cloned kids would stand a high risk of dying What kind of a bitch would do that to another hu their real child?

"Vaz, I need to talk to her," Naoet another chance I just want to knohy she kept al that froe, boots planted firet past hi he could do about it He had a pretty good idea why Halsey hadn’t bothered to explain to her adoring trainees exactly what she’d done, but it would only s worse if he said so

"She didn’t want to hurt you," Vaz lied

"Nice try, but I want to hear it from her"

Now he could hear the staoing to let theht actual y be kinder than letting theuy in front was a lieutenant, which s doubly aard: Frederic Even that offended Vaz--that Halsey had given them just first naht to their surnae, and they had ancestors, and they came from somewhere

"Corporal, we just want to talk to Dr Halsey," Frederic said What was Vaz supposed to cal hirown man, let alone an officer? "I don’t see what harm it can do"

"Admiral’s orders, sir," Vaz said "Please don’t ht be the next head of ONI and I value my nuts"

Frederic looked uneasy "I’l osky, then"