Fire and Ice

Chapter 16 † Kayleigh

I leave Ender and the others with Graff and head towards the library to do my research.

†††

I squint carefully at the screen and tip my head slightly to the left. A few quick minutes of searching through the IF and worldwide databases yielded nothing, so I had to resort to hacking instead. Old NASA files, former MI6, Norwegian Lunar Orbital, nothing. However, I spotted a lead whilst leafing through the former CIA and NSA files and followed it. For hours. My eyes hurt. My head hurts. But I have to know who did this and why they're so untraceable. I glance over the firewall once more in frustration.... Ah. There you are. I've been looking for you. I spot the loophole through the code and pounce instantly lest I miss it again.

Files pop up.

Email after email. Order after order. Sent from...

Colonel Graff?

[][][]

We've been standing around in the simulator room for thirty minutes after Graff told us we'd start. Petra is snoring by her keyboard, Bean and Alai are playing virtual cards, and Dink and Fly are standing around looking annoyed. I scowl at the wall, accidentally catching a pilot's eye. She jumps back slightly, and I drop the grimace in exchange for a small smile. Her shoulders drop, and she turns quickly back to her screens just as the door opens behind me.

I turn to find Colonel Graff and Major Anderson escorting in a bored looking Kayleigh. How does she always seem so indifferent?

'A-ten-hut' a mechanized voice shouts. The entire room drops into silence as they snap to attention while the voice says 'officers on deck' in a more pleasant tone.

"Dismissed," Graff calls, despite not being the most senior officer present, and everyone relaxes.

"Today, you will run a true simulation, with no battle behind it," Anderson states. "Just to get a feel for each other," he says with a wink, earning a snicker from some and a grimace from others. I fell into the latter category. I caught Kayleigh looking at me as I turned around, a faintly amused smirk replacing her normally blank features. I ignored it and sat down, pulling up my screens for simulations.

As I'm about to finish I hear the normally unused chair beside me squeak in protest at finally being used. I turn to find Kayleigh, the dark glasses she normally wears to obscure her eyes gone, pulling up screens to run the simulation as well. It looks as though she will be a pilot, despite sitting up here with me. She turns to me when she finishes.

"Ready when you are," she says, her eyes turning to molten bronze, swirling in the blue screenlight. I gulp gently. There's something about that stare that terrifies me, and I get the feeling that that glare could level armies if she wished it to. I turn back to my screen and pull the simulation up as quickly as humanly possible.

†††

There's no way it could be anyone in the higher levels of the IF... They're too old fashioned and dedicated to the war to consider betrayal or mutiny. I skim the emails signed by 'Colonel Graff'. Every single damn word sounds like it came straight out of the horses mouth. But... the more I read, I notice little ticks. None of Graff's usual indignance when his authority gets called into question. No bite in the words in response to a poorly written email. It has to be an imposter. Graff wouldn't let anyone walk over him like this. I quickly check the time. 0900 hours. Oops. I'm late. I slam the screens into my suit's database and take off toward the simulator rooms.

†

I show up, eventually.

"I hope this isn't too much of an inconvenience to you Admiral," Graff says. I shrug and swing my braid over my shoulder, my glasses showing that scans of emails Graff sent recently and the ones I found encrypted are too different to be sent by the same person.

"I'm afraid the information I found will be more of an inconvenience to you, Colonel, but thirty minutes doesn't seem to terrible of a price to pay," I snort, falling in behind Graff and another man whose name tag reads Anderson before he has time to retort. No way he sent those wuss emails. The doors to the Sim room open to reveal Ender sitting in his chair, looking wistfully into the distance and scaring a pilot, Petra napping, Dink looking generally annoyed, and Bean and Alai becoming gradually more upset with each other over a game of virtual Go Fish.

'A-ten-hut' a mechanized voice yells from somewhere, causing the entire room to fall silent and snap to attention as a much calmer voice says 'Officers on deck.'

"Dismissed," Graff orders. Everyone else relaxes, except Petra, who wakes up and tenses. Ender looks faintly confused and a little upset, judging by the way he's glaring Graff down.

"Today, you will run a true simulation, with no battle behind it," Anderson states. "Just to get a feel for each other," he says with a wink, earning a snicker from some and a grimace from others. I catch Ender grimace as he turns around, beginning to pull up screens for his simulation.

"Go sit somewhere," Graff says gently, as though talking to a child. I scoff internally but comply, choosing a seat next to Ender despite planning to be a pilot in the simulation. My chair squeaks in protest as I sit down, also beginning to pull up screens showing diagnostics of my not-ship, squadron assignments that haven't been assigned, fake controls and a fake view-screen. I click my glasses back so as not to impair my wonderful night vision in the darkened room.

"Ready when you are," I claim turning to look at Ender for orders. I see his Adam's Apple Bob faintly, and several thoughts quickly pass through his eyes before he turns back to his screens.

"Let's begin."