“We were as well, at one point,” Victoria reminded him.
“We were on lease, one that we’ve paid off,” he countered.
“And now, at least one of you wants to crawl back into those oh so tempting claws.” Laurie deadpanned and glanced at Vincent again. “Is it a sense of masochism or do they simply call you the right pet name to have you kowtow to them?”
Vincent glared at the professor. “You should be mindful of your tone.”
Laurie scoffed. “I don’t see how this will affect me in the slightest. Will you actually attempt to fire the man who designed and maintains the Animus? Even if you had the guts to do so, I’m only under contract while I retain my position here. Once I’m out, I’m sure one of the other five Ark Academies would be quite giddy at the prospect of acquiring my skills.”
“That isn’t a concern, Professor,” Olivia Aoba, the final board member present, stated. Her auburn hair had been straightened, and small, hazel eyes looked down at him with ill-concealed impatience. The lenses of her optics brightened and appeared more translucent. “This isn’t a matter of your standing. We simply wanted to inform you of an offer that the council—”
“Knew the answer to. Which is why, instead of asking me directly, they informed you and hoped you could use your combined influence to sway me.” Laurie ran a hand through his long cream-colored tresses and took a moment to sigh and adjust his gloves. “This whole conversation makes me quite irate and is rather unbecoming, to be honest.”
“Your sense of decorum is certainly still intact, at least,” Vincent muttered. “If rather delayed.”
Laurie grunted disdainfully. “It’s been at least ten weeks since I’ve been able to see a therapist thanks to all the busywork you gave me at the end of last year and the Animus updates you simply had to have at the start of this year.” He straightened his coat and stood with his hands clasped behind his back. “I’ve made do by relaxing to some delightful ambiance curated by Aurora along with a bottle of Acqua Armonia, both of which are calling to me. So, if I’ve answered your question well enough, I would like to get back to my domain. I’ll be in touch with you with my report in three months.”
He turned to leave, but his shoulders slumped and jaw clenched as Vincent called, “Wait a moment.”
“Well, one of us is certainly acting spiteful,” he grumbled and scowled over his shoulder. “What now?”
“I want to satisfy my curiosity by calling a board vote on the subject of Laurie giving the council access to his designs and technology,” he explained. The professor raised an eyebrow and folded his arms.
“The chancellor isn’t here, and you are missing your fifth member.” Laurie looked at the empty screens. “It’s not exactly official, is it?”
“That’s why I said this was for my personal benefit,” Vincent clarified. “I doubt the council will stop asking simply because the good professor is…disagreeable. I think we should see where we all stand in this regard considering the potential benefits a strengthened partnership with the council will bring us.”
“More specifically, that of you being able to get your lips closer to their ass,” Laurie muttered. “Well, you know my opinion, and I know yours, Vincent. What about the rest?”
Victoria was the first to speak. “Even considering that this is only a hypothetical hearing, I would still have to side with Vincent on this discussion. We have wanted to change the curriculum in this Academy and allow more applicants in. While we have seen a steady rise, we are still limited by resources and functions. A stronger partnership with the council would be a great benefit to us.”
Laurie rolled his eyes. “How about the two of you?”
“I am against it,” Olivia stated. “Considering your links to the council and previous mention of the desire to work closely with them, Vincent, you have an obvious bias. That said, I understand the hope you two have and the potential of what such a partnership could mean for the Academy. However, we have no guarantee that this would play out in our favor in any way. They simply made a request to see the professor’s archives and to have more access to the Academy’s database. It isn’t inconceivable that they would merely get what they want and bid us a quick farewell.”
“Agreed.” Oswald nodded. “Even if this worked out for the best, the council isn’t known for leaving the corporations and divisions under their wings autonomous. Our grand plans and hopes for the future shouldn’t come at the cost of all we have built so far.”
Laurie watched in amusement as Vincent’s lips puckered and his eyes closed tightly but briefly in anger. He sighed, opened his eyes, and shook his head. “Then it’s a stalemate, it seems.”
“At least without the input of the chancellor or— Well, hello, Sasha.” Laurie greeted the commander as he walked into the room and stood at the end of the walkway. Sasha nodded and approached. The professor moved to allow him to pass and stand on the central panel.
“I must admit, I’m surprised this meeting is still in progress.” Sasha nodded acknowledgment to the other four board members. “When I read the report of the council’s request, I assumed that this meeting would be quite brief and that Laurie would simply say no before he left in a huff.”
“I did and tried,” the professor confessed, irritation evident in his voice. “But they seemed to believe there was some sort of wiggle room there.”
“We’re covering all the potential bases, Alexander,” Vincent huffed. “It’s an interesting idea to have the World Council as a possible benefactor. I wanted to be sure you understood that. I’m certain that there would be plenty in it for you as well.”
“I assure you, I’m fine,” Laurie retorted. “Being able to go about my business without the high and mighty second-guessing everything I do is its own reward. For all my complaining about the pointless jobs you give me, I’ll admit they are simple enough to complete and thus afford me more time to work on my own personal projects.”
Sasha looked at the professor for a moment and rotated his hand to indicate that he would wrap things up. Laurie nodded and turned to leave. “As the professor previously stated, his contract with the Academy allows him a number of privileges, one of which is that he is allowed his privacy.” No one questioned how the commander knew the gist of their conversation. Whether present or not, he had a knack of learning what he needed to know, and they had long since given up trying to work out how.
“If you wish to allow the council access to the academy’s databases,” he continued, “I’ll allow that up to level three. That will provide some of the schematics and files on Laurie’s work with the Animus and Nexus EI chips and devices which should sate their rather sudden curiosity. But unless the chancellor gives his blessing, it’s a moot point.” Sasha fixed the board members with a hard look. Oswald and Olivia nodded, and both seemed pleased with the solution. Victoria nodded but her eyes betrayed slight dissatisfaction, while Vincent merely sighed and agreed.
“Unless there was something else you wanted to discuss while we’re all gathered here, I would say that this meeting is adjourned.” There was silence for a moment, indicating that the board members agreed that they were finished for the day. “Very well. Hominum ultra.”
They signed out with the same tag and the holoscreens disappeared. Sasha turned and walked down the path and through the doors of Laurie’s conference room. The professor leaned against the wall, waiting for him.
“Good timing, Sasha. My patience had worn thin.” Laurie sighed. “Oswald and Olivia try their best, but they seem stuck in the same officiate mindset most of the career-chasers have. Fortunately, they walk a different path than Vincent, although Victoria seems unfortunately swayed to his side.”
“Vice-Chancellor Molyneux has relatives who work within the world government. She was raised in that environment, so it makes sense that she would hold a more favorable view of them than others,” Sasha reasoned and leaned against the opposite wall to Laurie. “As for Director Princeton… Well, he only took the posit
ion here as a means to make his way to the government proper. Now that he’s been here for more than a decade, I’d imagine he’s rather impatient.”
“Speaking of which, I listened to your final words. Saying the council has a ‘rather sudden interest’ in my work is how I would put it myself. It makes me wonder if they have a true burgeoning interest in the applications of my work outside a defense context or if there’s simply an interested party who wants a more intimate look at some of my personal projects.”
“Do you think this could be linked to the Arbiter Organization?” Sasha asked. “You’ve been rather quiet on that front.”
“So have you,” Laurie pointed out, “Whatever happened to that ‘friend’ of yours who was supposed to investigate them.”
“I’ve kept in touch with him, although he doesn’t usually come to Earth that often. However, most of his findings had little merit,” Sasha admitted. “There was little to be discovered beyond what we had already deduced, but he was able to find some odd transmissions.”
“Honestly, I wondered if I made them a bigger boogeyman in my mind than they actually are. Between their pretentious messages and occasional sabotage that seemed to be more for personal amusement or theory, they seem more along the lines of a Skull and Keys sort of secret society than a Machiavellian one.”
“Has something changed your mind?” Sasha asked. “A sudden audit request couldn’t have been all there was to make you suspicious, could it?”
“It’s suspicious, but no. I’d rather not waste the time if this was nothing more than our paranoia,” Laurie admitted. “I had two of my best infiltrators, Xavier and Mako, do some digging over the break.”
“Digging into what? Have you been going into the council systems, Laurie?” Sasha asked. His voice got deeper and quieted. “That’s dangerous and reckless, even for you. If you’re caught, that will cause a huge scandal.”
“Technically it’s not me, although I was the one to give the command, so I suppose that makes me the ringleader or accomplice?” Laurie pondered and acted oblivious to Sasha’s warning tone. “Don’t worry about that. I wouldn’t do anything to besmirch the name of our dear Academy, at least not publicly. My people are very good at what they do, as I’m sure you are aware.”
“Even if you don’t get caught and made an example of, no one is important enough to not be disappeared,” Sasha warned.
Laurie smiled, leaned forward, and patted the commander on the shoulder. “It’s nice to see that you do worry about me sometimes. But don’t fret, dear Commander. I can take care of myself, and during the times I can’t, I have more than enough robots and gadgets to make up for those pesky human deficiencies.” He began to walk down the hall. “But if you are curious as to what I found, join me in my office. I can feel a headache coming on and must attend to it at once with some liquid stress relief.”
“That, and the disruption commands you put on the cameras are about to shut off?” the commander asked.
“That too, but it’s a lower priority,” the professor admitted. “Come along. I think you’ll find that our new friends are a rather interesting bunch of crazies.”
Chapter Eight
Barrier Weaving: Increases knowledge of barrier manipulation and skills to achieve more use out of active barrier energy.
Rank: 2/4
“I might as well. It’ll cost me all my points, though,” Mack muttered. “Hey, Kaiden, do you think I should upgrade my barrier weaving?”
“What is that?” the ace asked as he skimmed through his own talent screen. “Do you use your barriers in home economics or something?”
Mack placed a heavy elbow on the table and rested his head on his clenched fist. “No, dumbass. It means I’ll have more abilities and styles to use when my barrier is up.”
“Then hell yeah, that sounds like it would be a vanguard’s bread and butter.” Kaiden turned his attention to his own screen and flipped quickly through the different trees. “Although shouldn’t you learn stuff like that in your workshops?”
“We mostly focus on the best ways to use our barriers, conservation, and which forms to use and switch to for various situations. We’ll probably get into more advanced stuff this year, but most vanguards don’t exactly have a suit of armor and a high-level projector while growing up, you know? We gotta get the basics down first.”
“I follow, but if you think you’ll learn more stuff this year, maybe wait it out. It’ll be more useful when you boost it after learning more.”
Mack tapped a finger against his helmet. “I’ve got two ranks out of four and three points to spare. Ah, you’re right. I’ll see if I can’t put it into something else. Do you have any suggestions?”
“Armor-smithing? That sounds useful for your class, and it’s in the Soldier tree,” Kaiden advised.
Mack switched to the Soldier tab and studied it. “I could go that way—maybe put a point in that and a point in grappling and heavy arms.”
“You don’t have any points in heavy arms? It seems like a no-brainer for a heavy, no pun intended.”
“I’ve made do with my hand cannon and barriers. We’re the most defensive heavy compared to the Titans and Demolitionists. I didn’t see a reason to focus on weapons training during the first year, but considering the new tests they will throw at us, it might be safer to broaden my horizons.”
“I’d say it’s a safe bet but considering your stunt back at the terminal and watching you fight during the Death Match, Squad Test, whatever, you seem able to crush heads just fine.” Kaiden chortled.
“I grew up with three older brothers, and all of us trained in wrestling and boxing and picked up a few ranks in kick ass the natural way over the years,” Mack explained and finished with a chuckle. “What are you going for?”
“I think I might put a point into the pilot talent,” the ace replied. “Maybe it’s time to get accustomed to flying on my own. I’ve usually had someone else on my team who could do it, but like you, I have to plan for whatever is gonna happen next. And actually being able to fly when we get caught in another situation like that will be important.”
“Have I not done a good job?” Chief asked as his eye furrowed in the HUD.
“You’re not even the one flying. You merely activated the auto-pilot,” Kaiden retorted.
“I got us out of the hangar,” Chief countered. “Granted, it could have been smoother, but I was also taking care of business with those mercs at the same time.”
“I ain’t dogging ya.” Kaiden tried to quiet the EI. “But what if the ship didn’t have an auto-pilot? Or it required a pilot to physically activate it in some way? We would have been up a creek. I’m a plenty good shooter, I think anyone would agree.” He looked at Mack who waved his hand from side to side in a “so-so” manner. Kaiden opened his visor, glared at him, and raised a middle finger. The vanguard laughed. “Anyone who isn’t trying to be a smartass would agree,” he amended. “But I’m diversifying. We talked about this the other day when I spent most of my points.”
“I still can’t believe you put points into cooking,” Chief muttered. “Do you think of yourself as more of a baker or grill master?”
“I already told you I did that because of the gig. If I already had points in cooking, I could have sneaked into the kitchen to poison that guy instead of having to wait almost four hours in the alley for him to leave the damn place.”
“You did a gig over break?” Mack asked and sounded impressed. “That much of a go-getter, huh?”
Kaiden smiled under his mask. “I did three, actually. Nothing too big but I got some good credits from them. The one I’m talking about is the one that actually left me with this scar.” He removed his mask to reveal the scar along his eye and traced it carefully with his pointer finger. “I wish it was a cooler story, but the gig was a simple shakedown. One mob guy owed another some money and I played collector. I roughed up his two bodyguards while he was eating. I’d been told to leave all the parties alive, but they didn’
t have the same orders. One of them got me with a knife, but that was my own stupid fault. I was suckered into a bad situation with not a lot of room to maneuver. Still, I incapacitated them and waited for the target to come out so I could ‘remind’ him about a debt he owed. It turned out all right in the end. He paid on the spot and even tried to appeal to me by giving me something extra. It took my kind of ‘diplomacy’ to get that out of him, but it worked.”
“That actually sounds more like enforcer work than something an ace would do,” Mack commented.
“I’m starting out with a small list of clients while I build a rep. Fortunately, one of my contacts has been able to get me some good gigs, so I already have five to six-digit cred listings and jobs.”
“Is your aim to stock up and be ready for when you get contracted?” Mack asked. “It’s not a bad plan—it keeps your debt low, and you command higher prices and reputation so you access the good positions when you graduate.”
“My aim is something a little different, to be honest,” Kaiden admitted.
The vanguard tilted his head. “Like what?”
Before he could answer, Lancia spoke over the comm link. “Hey, guys, could you come to the cockpit?”
“On our way,” Kaiden answered. He stood and curled a finger at Mack. “Let’s go, jolly blue.”
They entered the cockpit where Lancia sat in the co-pilot’s chair. “What’s up?”
“It looks like we’re almost there,” she said. “Or at least that there’s something on the horizon.”
“Considering this is deep space, I hope it’s friendly.” Kaiden took the pilot’s seat. “That is…big.”
In the distance, a massive dark ship floated directly ahead. It was almost hidden in the blackness of space but for the illumination of large lights along its hull.
Animus Boxed Set 1 (Books 1-4): Initiate, Co-Op, Death Match, Advance Page 98
