“For now, follow the chain of command, continue on your missions, and if any of you are religious … pray that when the delegations meet here on New Sierra in the coming months this can be quickly resolved. I shouldn’t have to say this but I will: This brief is classified at the highest level. Pitt out.”

“What in the fuck?” Barrett blurted. “I know there was a bit of chaos after the war and the loss of Haven, but dissolving the Confederacy? This is lunacy!”

“Calm yourself, Commander,” Celesta said. “You need to read between the lines. This has been in the works since the Asianic Union and Warsaw Alliance broke off and closed their borders, though I will admit to some surprise that they made the announcement this early. It was supposed to be accompanying the restructuring agreement between the enclaves. Someone at CENTCOM must have found out that wasn’t supposed to and forced Admiral Pitt to release that cryptic order.”

“How could you possibly know all of that, ma’am?” Barrett asked before his eyes widened in realization. “Never mind … Pike let you know, didn’t he?”

“Agent Pike of the Confederate Intelligence Section did not send me an unauthorized transmission of the classified internal, behind the scenes political wrangling at work, Commander,” Celesta said primly. “However, senior aide to the Honorable Augustus Wellington, a Mr. Aston Lynch, did happen to mention it to me at the reception on the planet before we departed.”

“Those are the same person,” Barrett rolled his eyes.

“He claims otherwise,” Celesta shrugged. “I don’t pretend to understand it but he’s quite adamant that he is not Aston Lynch when he is Pike.”

Pike, the only name he’d ever given, was an operative in the Confederate Intelligence Section (CIS). He wasn’t just an operative but a full-blown agent and had been instrumental in assisting Jackson Wolfe during the Phage War by feeding him critical intel on some of the internal wrangling happening on the Confederate capital world. One of his disguises was a man named Aston Lynch, aide to the powerful Chairman of Fleet Operations, Senator Augustus Wellington. He’d originally been placed on Wellington’s staff by the Director of the CIS to dig up some dirt to be used as leverage if needed, but the senator was no fool and he’d somehow figured out who Pike was.

Rather than lodge a protest or make a scene, he somehow managed to get Pike permanently assigned to him. Celesta never got the details on that, but she suspected Wellington threatened to expose the fact that the Director was infiltrating the staffs of elected officials with his own operatives and offered to keep quiet in exchange for Pike. Since then the slippery agent worked to make sure there wasn’t anything that happened within the Confederacy that Wellington didn’t know about.