Chapter 15

[Reality Check - Monday Feb. 9 2010, 1400 hours, Macross Hospital] 

The darkness slowly faded into light. Thallin's head hurt, a deep throbbing pain that would not let him be. Slowly, he opened his eyes. 

He was lying on a bed, somewhere relatively quiet, somewhere with cream paint for the walls and a light cyan for the ceiling. He sniffed the air tentatively, the smells triggering his memory, chemical symbols and structures floating in his mind's eye. A hospital then. As slowly as he had opened his eyes, Thallin turned his head slightly to his right. Sitting on a chair, his back rigid, was a fully-uniformed member of the Military Intelligence Bureau. As Thallin focused upon him, the man got to his feet and approached the bed. 

"Lieutenant Braywater? Are you in possession of your conscious faculties at this point in time?" There was some note of worry in the man's voice, as if the answer meant a lot to him. 

"...Yes..." His mouth was dry, the words difficult to form. The MIB man seem to realise this as he filled a nearby glass from a water jug and presented it to Thallin, raising the back of the bed to bring him to a semi-seated position. 

"My name is Yannis Meier. I am from the Military Intelligence Bureau. There are a few questions we would like answered, if we may." 

Even through Thallin's mental torpor, it was obvious that the request was simply formality - the questions would be asked regardless of the answer. Thallin simply nodded his head and took a sip of water, his throat feeling raw as the liquid passed over it. 

"Lieutenant," continued Meier, "do you recognise this person?" He handed over a picture to Thallin who took it and examined it. It was a picture of Izabelle. Something did not look right, however, something that caused Thallin to look a little longer at the picture. <April 2008? Then this must be Christina.>"I know who this represents." 

Meier took the picture back. "Christina Leeds is one of our agents, Lieutenant. We lost track of her after we spent considerable time and man-power establishing her cover as a Valkyrie pilot. We believed her to be lost in the middle of the battle over Macross with the aliens." He took a couple of steps towards the door and opened it, calling to someone outside Thallin's field of vision. "Sergeant Demh, would you come in please?" A young woman walked in, wearing technician coveralls, and saluted Meier. "Sergeant Demh" continued he continued, "is one of our field agents with the Valkyrie Corp. One of our most successful one. She was assigned to Black Squadron after an unusual amount of requisitions were placed and approved for this squadron. These requisitions bore your name, Lieutenant Braywater." 

"I..." 

"We then proceeded to dig a little further into the records of the squadron and found that a large amount of personnel had been reassigned - in some cases even promoted - to fill the ranks of Black Squadron. Again, your name figures prominently on these transactions." 

"But..." 

"Not only that, but someone tampered with both your service file and that of the squadron leader, Lieutenant Kay Landers. We can't prove anything yet, but I'm willing to bet my money you had something to do with it." 

"If..." 

"And to top it all of, I then learn that... Sergeant, maybe you should tell this to the Lieutenant in your own words?" 

Sergeant Demh stepped forward, and assumed a position next to Meier, eyes focused onto nowhere in particular. "I was assigned to the NightHawks to verify the legality of certain personnel and equipment movements. As from my first hour there, one thing became extremely clear - the leader of Beta wing was not only not present in the barracks, but also was not expected to make an appearance at all. Verification of records showed the person in question to be one Lieutenant Izabelle Fate, assigned on special duty to one Lieutenant Thallin Braywater - whose supply requests I had originally been sent to investigate. Further verification showed that Lieutenant Fate bore an uncanny resemblance to one of our agents, presumed missing since the attack on Macross Island." 

Meier interrupted. "Let's skip the details, Sergeant. Bring the Lieutenant up to date on what happened a few days ago." 

"Yes, Sir. I was on my way to hangar duty yesterday when I spotted the figure of Lieutenant Fate following one of the Nighthawk's pilots. Said pilot was engaged in a semi-romantic interlude with a young woman I identified as Vanessa Leeds, Christina Leeds' older sister. I decided to forgo showing up for duty and instead follow the trio. Lieutenant Fate was taking great precautions as not to be seen by Vanessa Leeds or the pilot. At one of the stops, I managed to get close enough to hear a conversation between Leeds and the pilot which confirmed my suspicions: Christina Leeds and Izabelle Fate were the same person." 

Meier walked back to the chair he had originally been seated in and brought it back next to the bed. "Is that all, Sergeant?" 

"No, Sir. During my surveillance I noticed that Lieutenant Kay Landers was following Lieutenant Fate." 

Meier sat back and glared at Thallin. "Well, well. They say good things come in three. Lieutenant Fate, Lieutenant Braywater and Lieutenant Landers. Three Lieutenants, none of whom seem to be acting in a very military fashion. What happened afterwards Sergeant?" 

"Sir. I waited until such a time as I was able to apprehend Lieutenant Fate and brought her in for questioning. She admitted that she was in fact Agent Christina Leeds. She would not answer anything further either on the subject of her disappearance, nor on the subject of her relation with any of the other suspects. Not only did she not answer our questions, she requested that her inventory be replenished and that a new identity card be issued to her." 

A long silence followed. Thallin realised that he was expected to speak at this point. "What did you do to her?" 

"We let her go." Meier answered. "We gave her a regulation gun, a field kit and a new ID card. Not only that, but we cleaned up the mess you left behind in the computer. And your friend 'Alt-D' will find that a virus has invaded his system and destroyed any information he might have about this operation. We're letting the lot of you go, Lieutenant Braywater." 

Thallin's jaw did the metaphorical drop. He could not realise what he had just been told with the endless litany of regulation-breaking and semi-criminal actions he had just heard. "You... You are letting us go? You're not going to press charges?" 

"No, Lieutenant, we're not. We've heard about you and your little 'vitamin deficiency' as you put it. You might come in very handy one of these days if we decide to use you." He got up and gathered a few papers he had been reading into his leather case. "We are now the only people on this ship in possession of the evidence you have just heard. Christina Leeds is once again simply a UOF agent under cover as a Valkyrie pilot, and you are nothing more than a scientist working on a new breed of Veritechs. But you and I know better, Braywater, and if ever have need of your services I am sure that you, fine and upstanding citizen that you are, will be more than eager to help us out." Meier paused at the door before leaving behind Demh. "Good day, Lieutenant. And have a nice recuperation period." 

The screen beeped at Thallin. Still in a daze over the preceding events, unsure of what to make of them, he turned the screen on the stand beside the bed towards himself and pressed the 'accept' button. 

A shadow resolved itself on the screen into the shape of a young adolescent male sporting a five-day growth. "Thallin? 'Alt-D' here. We have a problem." 

<It never rains but it pours.> "I have just been made aware of it." Thallin replies. 

The youth relaxed. "Oh, good. Now what do you want me to do about him?" 

"About who?" asked a perplexed Thallin. 

"About this David Marshall who keeps on wanting to know about Izabelle and you." 

Alarm bells rang in Thallin's mind. <OK, this could be the start of a drought-breaker here.> "'Alt-D', I don't know what you're talking about. I was just told that your entire computer network was to be wiped clean of any information pertaining to me and my friend. What the Hell does this Marshall have to do with it?" 

"The virus I'm aware of. We got caught with our pants down but we managed to contain it to two nodes and stop its propagation. We're currently sanitising the infected nodes. As for Marshall, he turned up at one of our contact points and wanted some information about you and Izabelle. Told us he was from Military Security, or something like that. Wanted us to roam around the networks and see what we could turn up." 

<Then again, I see a ray of sunshine struggling to make itself seen.> Repressing a laugh, Thallin replied. "He wants you to dig out info about Izabelle and myself? Then by all means, do so. It would be interesting to see what he thinks of Christina Leeds' identity." Thallin was about to cut communication when a thought occurred to him. "'Alt-D', could you wipe all information you have about Izabelle and myself? I mean everything - online, backups, hardcopies, the whole shebang." 

A whistle came from the other end. "Lobotomising our info system? That's gonna cost you plenty." 

"How much?" 

"An evening with Miss Izabelle Fate." came the starry-eyed answer. 

Thallin looked at the youth for a moment. "Yes, I can see why you'd ask for that." 

'Alt-D' looked shocked. "You wound me. I'm a sofphreak - it's her mind I'm interested in, Thallin. Her mind." The connection was terminated. 

<So far, I'm batting two out of two problems. Can we go for three?> Thallin noticed the mini-recorder on his bedside table and gently took it in his hand. With a moment's hesitation, he pressed the 'play' button 

"'...ust had to ask. So, tell me, what did you have on that gurney... A dead body?'" 

<Strike Three. Yerout!> "Oh boy." 

Forward to Chapter 16.
Back to Chapter 14. 

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