Chief of Staff Marcum sat behind his desk, drumming his fingers and trying to decide if he would take any direct action against Agent Pike or not. The man was protected at the highest levels, that was for sure, but he knew he could dig up enough dirt on the bastard that Wellington would have no choice but to distance himself. Pike may look at the new President as a benefactor, but Marcum knew him to be a politician above all else. He wouldn’t risk his new position or power to protect someone who technically didn’t even exist.

He’d been sweating bullets on the ride down to the surface and Pike had him half-convinced he was walking into his own execution, but the agent had overplayed his hand and the meeting hadn’t gone nearly as poorly as he would have expected. Oh, there was a lot of bluster and cursing from the President, but it was more on being left out of the loop than anything else. Once Marcum had explained just how sensitive the project was due to the Vruahn connection, Wellington had conceded that he’d probably done the right thing.

What had really surprised him, however, was that the project output Wolfe had sent like it was a dire emergency had been largely blown off. The details were almost entirely technical, including some especially dry portions about beta decay and molecular signatures that the President couldn’t have cared less about. He wanted a brief synopsis and Wolfe, being the honest idiot he was, had stated that the evidence only suggested one possibility but wasn’t conclusive. Marcum had almost been able to see Wellington switch his brain off as soon as he heard that, despite Pike’s near desperate pleading that he take another look at the matter.

In the end, Wellington had ordered Marcum to assemble an independent team from Fleet Science and Research to audit Project Prometheus and review Director Wolfe’s conclusions before dismissing both he and Pike. The agent refused to even look at the Chief of Staff as he stalked away once out of the office. Marcum had been so preoccupied reflecting on his good fortune that he let the man escape without so much as a word. Not only had Pike been diminished in front of his boss, but Wellington had given Marcum an easy out for getting rid of Wolfe. Again.