Special Compartmentalized Information

Intel isn't a normal world. The Intelligence community is filled with a broad range of people, from field agents and their handlers to technicians and analysts, diplomats, managers, politicians, instructors, bodyguards, the works. It ran the gamut. The only thing they had in common was that none of them had the whole picture.

Intel assets kept secrets. Even from each other. It was referred to as Compartmentalization. Assets had a view into their little part of the Big Picture, but were often blind to even the existence of other parts. It was all about secrets. Learning them. Keeping them. Trading them.

I'd lived in that world for many years, my designation changing depending on my assignment and role. Special Asset: Tactical. Special Asset: Technical. Special Asset: Regional. Different titles for different roles. Each seeing the Big Picture through the window of a different compartment. Different levels of detail covering more or less area of a much larger whole. Each allowed to see more or less of the picture.

As a Regional asset, the 'permission' was somewhat broader than it had been before. Everything in Intel was on a Need to Know basis and now I had a much greater need to know.

It didn't mean I necessarily wanted to know.

I'd known of Major Siamendes, out of the Special Investigations Unit, for some time. She'd been involved in some investigations that came out our way and had done the courtesy of paying Colonel Silvermane a call aboard the Sun Tzu. She appeared to be a skilled and dedicated officer, and even reasonably likable for someone from Justice.

Justice, like the Media, had had a long and mixed relationship with the Intel community. Justice was all about revealing Truth in order to enforce the law. Intel was also about finding Truth. Except Intel's interest in Truth was using it to advantage, whilst keeping it secret and making sure other people didn't find their special truths.

Facts really. Truth being a subjective thing and all.

Unfortunately, Justice often took a back seat to political expediency, or Intelligence Security, as the situation dictated. It was all about what the Powers That Be felt were most important. And, for most of them, that was keeping their secrets secret.

Our worlds had never really collided, until now.

While I'd heard of Ardra before, most of it was associated with Al Raqis, orbiting Zhu Que somewhere. Since most of my immediate concerns involved things happening here around Kalidaza, I hadn't payed a lot of attention to what was going on in the space around Red Phoenix. I wasn't entirely sure who, or even what Ardra was. AI? Cyborg? Something else?

That was until Tillery came by to talk. He'd been working with Major Siamendes in his role with the Cortex News Service. He'd come to me because somehow Lily had gotten wrapped up in all this. Something about downloading Ardra's database, which implied "she" was more machine than organic. Duh liou mahng. Why am I not surprised?

I trusted Tillery. He was a friend first and a reporter second. Which made it all that much harder to not tell him how this was going to have to involve me. But if Pepper's investigation was circling towards Lily, it meant I would have to get involved. Being Lily's adoptive mother made it a moral requirement. Being an Intel officer made it . . . complicated.

Tillery's other news I would address later.

My initial approach would have to be minimal impact, with the associated minimal risk. Gather information through Intel channels and let Tag know there was a potential situation I might need to take care of. It would set up the option of having the investigation diverted at higher pay grades than mine.

I wanted to avoid having to say anything directly to the Major. The less she knew about my position in Intel the better. For all our sakes. If I was lucky, she would come and talk to me as Lily's mother, which would give me another avenue to gently ask her to leave my family out of it. A powerful family name had its own weight that I could possibly leverage just enough to keep yet another branch of the Alliance Government taking an interest in my little sister.

For now, there was a lot of data I needed to gather. And quickly. If Ardra was somehow tied back into the Machines I sure as hell needed to know about it, even if she wasn't a direct threat to Lily. I would talk to Pepper when the time came. Or maybe not. But either way, it seemed my little girl had gotten into another sort of mess.

Problems unforeseen
A Mother's work, unending
Too many secrets