PROJECT SPARTA

CHAPTER 44

THE COMPOUND

2011

"Well done, Xander." Hardy's tone carried a nonchalance that initially disarmed him. "Put down the gun. We need to have a talk..."

"Why don't I just shoot you right now, you sick bastard?" Xander's grip tightened on the gun, his aim narrowed on the colonel.

"You aren't going to shoot me," Hardy said, calm and composed as he lit a cigarette.

"I will." Xander nodded, trying to process everything that was happening.

"No, you won't. You want the truth. You want to know just what the hell is going on, right?" Xander didn't answer, but Hardy seemed to accept his silence as a yes. "You have just completed your training. I told you on day one that we know how smart you are and that we would make it challenging for you. There of course was the daily training in tactical warfare, stealth, intelligence, and military history, which is important, but your mission to set up surveillance on Fiona was unique to you and served a very specific purpose."

Xander began to tremble, lowering the gun as reality came back to him slowly.

"So you just played games with us? You manipulated us?" Fiona's voice trembled.

"This wasn't a game, it was a test. Call it your final exam. And you passed with flying colors, Xander." A smile came over Hardy's face.

"You can't use us like this," Xander said defiantly.

"What do you think a life in covert affairs is?" Hardy laughed and took a drag from his cigarette. "We have been watching you the whole time. We have been analyzing your every action and emotion to ensure you are properly trained for life as a covert operative. Project Sparta is different from the CIA or FBI because we are designed to be exempt from bureaucratic oversight. So what does that mean?"

"It means you can get away with anything when you are designing a training program," Xander replied through gritted teeth.

"Yes, in part." Hardy shrugged. "But it means you have to be able to self-govern. You have to know what is right and what is wrong and be able to act accordingly of your own volition. You must be able to act in accordance with justice. And you have."

The word justice hung in the air, a word he studied in Plato's Republic, that he had discussed with Hardy and called upon when deciding to rescue Fiona.

"What do you mean I have?" Xander asked.

"We created a scenario of injustice. Not only are you trapped in a subterranean dome, but you are subjected to puzzles with no answers. You spied on her and she spied on you, for no reason other than we told you to. Then, when the cat was out of the bag, we decided to set the stage for her 'murder.'" Hardy gestured quotation marks at the last word.

"I hacked your computer. I saw your email." Xander spoke with bravado.

"I know! I watched from right here." Hardy pointed at the bank of surveillance screens. "And by the way, that wasn't my office, that is." He pointed his thumb over his shoulder and puffed on his cigarette. Xander looked and saw a mess of clutter at a desk. Hardy leaned forward to deliver the punch line. "We staged it all, Xander. Why do you think the door to the hallway was unlocked? And why do you think the office was the only open door down that hallway? Why do you think that note happened to be lying on the desk? If I put a letter on the desk that said, We are going to kill Fiona, you would have seen through it. You had to discover it yourself in my inbox. Why would we kill Fiona? She's a great operative!"

Xander's face dropped, but Hardy continued.

"Why do you think we added the line about C-4? To get you thinking that we murdered Ezra—which we didn't by the way... We bred your contempt for us."