第81页

　　130 HALO:  FIRST  STRIKE
　　There  was  one  last  file  in  the  S-III  folder.
　　As  Dr.  Halsey  tapped  it  open,  Kalmiya  said,  "That  is  only  a  fragment.  It  had  been  erased,  but  I  managed  to  reconstruct  it  from  trace  ionization  in  the  memory  crystal."
　　Dr.  Halsey  examined  its  contents.  There  was  only  CPOMZ  fol?lowed  by  a  512-character  alphanumeric  string.  "This  longer  por?tion  is  a  star  chart  reference,"  she  whispered.
　　"Yes,  Doctor,  but  it's  not  a  destination  to  any  location  in  UNSC-controlled  space."
　　What  the  hell  had  Ackerson  been  up  to?  "No  good  at  all,"  she  murmured  and  ran  her  finger  over  the  first  word  in  the  file:
　　CPOMZ.
　　"I'll  have  to  deal  with  this  later,"  she  said.  She  downloaded  the  files  to  a  nearby  data  pad.  "Let's  see  what  else  the  good  Colonel  was  up  to."  She  opened  the  folder  marked  KING  UNDER
　　THE  MOUNTAIN.
　　There  were  only  three  files.
　　The  first  was  the  original  construction  blueprints  of  this  base;  it  appeared  on  her  desk.  Dr.  Halsey  noted  that  this  holographic  representation  of  the  base  was  much  larger  than  she  had  been  led  to  believe.  While  her  security  clearance  was  the  highest  possible  for  a  civilian,  she  apparently  had  seen  only  a  third  of  the  facility  she  had  worked  in  for  the  last  decade.
　　Dr.  Halsey  tapped  open  the  second  file.  It  was  the  transcripts  of  the  debriefing  at  Camp  Hathcock,  August  12,2552.  That  was  the  inquiry  of  John's  destruction  of  the  city  on  Cote  d'Azur  and  the  alien  artifact  the  Covenant  had  tried  to  procure  there.  Curious.
　　A  third  file  was  an  analysis  of  the  symbols  John  had  captured  from  the  alien  artifact.  According  to  Ackerson's  notes  it,  too,  was  a  partial  star  map.  Dr.  Halsey  returned  to  the  stellar  chart  reference  in  the  Spartans'  files.
　　No  good.  This  location  had  nothing  to  do  with  that  reference.
　　The  stellar  reference  in  the  alien  artifact  was  ...  she  did  the  math  in  her  head—
　　"I'll  be  God  damned,"  she  muttered.
　　She  pulled  up  star  charts  and  NAV  records  for  confirmation,  and  checked  her  math  one  last  time.
　　No  question:  It  was  the  Epsilon  Eridani  system.
　　Here.
　　ERIC  NYLUND 131
　　This  was  more  than  a  curiosity,  now.  Ackerson  had  been  sit?ting  on  a  tremendous  secret—a  very  dangerous  secret.  "Just  his  style  to  play  with  fire  and  get  us  all  burned."
　　Additional  files  detailed  the  procurement  of  digging  equip?ment,  and  a  new  set  of  blueprints  and  geological  surveys.  The  new  maps  looked  like  a  network  of  veins  and  arteries.
　　"What  am  I  looking  at,  Kalmiya?"
　　"According  to  the  coordinates  of  these  secondary  maps,  Doc?tor,  this  facility  was  built  over  an  old  titanium  mine  ...  and  be?fore  that  this  site  was  surveyed  as  an  extinct  volcano.  These  are  designated  as  a  series  of  lava  tubes."
　　"I  wonder  if  they  used  the  natural  passages  to  help  build  the  mines,  and  later  this  facility?"  Dr.  Halsey  removed  her  glasses  and  cleaned  them  as  she  thought  this  through.  "No  ...  if  it  was  as  simple  as  that,  why  would  Ackerson  be  interested?  And  why  then  classify  this  data  as  level  X-ray?  How  does  this  connect  to  the  alien  artifact  on  Cote  d'Azur?"