Kaiden was awoken by what sounded like a massive bomb. He sat hastily and his head smacked on the top of his pod. “Ow, what the hell?”
“Goooood morning!” Chief yelled merrily. “Good morning, good morning, good morning. It’s time to rise and shine.”
“What the hell is wrong with you? You nearly gave me a heart attack,” he grumbled and rubbed the decidedly tender place on his head.
“You did call me a ‘glorified alarm clock,’” the EI reminded him. “I thought I’d simply get into character.”
The ace activated the switch to open the pod, pushed out, and stretched. “Man, you didn’t hold onto that for long.”
“While I like to catch you unawares, I’m sure you’ll give me enough opportunities in the future.” Chief chuckled. “Now, hurry up and get dressed. Let’s get going, future master.”
His frown turned to a smile. “Yeah, yeah. All right, partner.”
The day has come. Gin was focused on the mainframe monitor as he tracked the progress of his work. The virus was almost complete and tantalizing close to success.
Infuriatingly close.
It merely needed a little more time. Also, Kaiden needed to get his ass in the pod. The killer could almost stab himself over the fact that he’d decided to focus so much on the little bastard. He should have spread his focus and chosen a few different students to keep his options open.
No, that wouldn’t have worked, he reminded himself. That might have made it even slower. Kaiden had been in the Animus pod daily, so this was definitely the right thing to do.
If it wasn’t for the fact that he’d almost been caught.
That infiltrator of Laurie’s had come close to discovering him while he made some reconfigurations. He didn’t even have time to play and simply had to eliminate him before he could alert anyone. Gin was only able to stuff him quickly in a storage unit after he’d used his blackout device to create a safe a path through the relevant cameras and sensors. Usually, he wouldn’t have minded if they found one of his victims. In fact, it was part of his modus operandi according to his file—very visible victims for the shock value—but not this time.
Too much was at stake to be caught now. He seemed to have bought himself breathing space by assuming Raynor’s façade, but this was cutting it close. He would have to leave soon. When his virus exploded, the mainframe would be the first place they checked, even if they didn’t quite know what was happening.
Now, he merely had to wait. Only a little longer, he assured himself and reined in his impatience.
Kaiden finished chewing the piece of waffle in his mouth and moved the eggs nervously around on his plate. He needed to make a note to tell Chiyo to not make being late a new habit. Then again, punctuality wasn’t his strongest trait, either.
“Are you ready to go, partner?” Chief appeared over his shoulder.
He sipped his coffee and shrugged. “I can’t say for sure. I don’t really know what we’ll have to deal with.”
“You got this. Come on, this was your bread and butter at one point,” the EI reminded him.
The ace drank the last of his juice. “Oh, I have the run and gun stuff down. It’s merely anything else they could throw at me.”
“Good morning, Kaiden.” The infiltrator slid onto the bench across from him and set her tray and tablet down. “I trust you are prepared for the finals?”
“Mornin’, Chiyo. I’m as good as can be.” He heard the doubt in his tone and grimaced. “This is probably the most blind I’ve gone in. I don’t suppose you were able to work a little hacker magic and find out what’s going down, did ya?”
“I researched a number of previous tests, as I’ve done for all of them,” she assured him as she unwrapped the plasticware. “But I can’t say I have much to offer. It’s always different for each student. There are some similarities depending on the class, obviously, but for the most part, the map, objectives, enemies, and everything else change out for each student.”
“Well, I guess I’ll have to stick with as good as can be.” He sighed.
“It’s not like you to be so unconfident, Kaiden,” she said nonchalantly as she poured fruit into her oatmeal. “Do you think you’ve finally met your match?”
“Me? Nah, not at all,” he replied defensively. “I got this. It’s what I do, after all. I’m simply admitting that I don’t really know what’s in store. Plus, this will be the first time I’ve run a solo mission in a while. Well, besides all the training in the last week.”
“Aces are the leaders of the soldiers, right?” Chief interjected. “I wonder if they will give you AI partners to lead or something.”
“An astute observation, Chief. Nice to see you again.” The infiltrator waved at him.
“Howdy, Chiyo. You’re looking good this mornin’.”
“Salutations, Kaiden and Chief.” Kaitō appeared on Chiyo’s EI device. “Best of luck during your test.”
“Hey, Kaitō. Thanks.” Chief actually sounded cheerful and earned surprised glances from both Kaiden and Chiyo. “What? I said I’d get better.”
“Maybe I will have to command a squad of artificial teammates, but I wonder if they would be as good as the teammates I’ve had. If I gotta tell them what to do every couple minutes, I’d lose my—” Kaiden stopped himself with a cough and sipped his coffee. “But no big deal. Considering the scenarios I’ve run, I feel confident that I will have no problems in the test.”
“They could draw from a pool of unknown enemies. Perhaps they’ll have traps and pitfalls. It would make sense for them to create the most difficult maps they can, considering this is for the master rank.”
“Well, this ain’t the initiate year anymore. Gotta get to the hard stuff eventually, right?” he asked around his last mouthful of eggs.
“You say that so calmly,” she noted dryly.
“Your tone seems more dubious,” he retorted.
Chiyo brushed it off. “Besides training, did you do anything else to prepare? Have you used your spare Synapse points?”
The ace retrieved his oculars. “I wanted to spread them out on some unused talents. But Chief goaded me into maximizing one that he was interested in and promised that it would be good.”
“What talents did you take?” she asked. He nodded to her tablet. Chiyo looked down as the screen changed to his talent tree and the new talents.
EI Mastery: Further upgrades and unlocks specialty abilities of your EI partner.
Status: 3/3
“More upgrades for Chief?” she asked. “I thought you already finished this talent.”
“That was Next-Gen. This is a sub-talent that was unlocked when I completely developed that talent. Now, I have a few others to fill out, but my hope is that one of them will upgrade his people skills.”
“Pot and kettle, partner,” Chief returned smartly.
She nodded and switched her gaze to the trail of students heading to the Animus Center. “You should head over, Kaiden. I’ve barely started eating and I’ll be here for a while. The tests are being run together with the third-year tests, so it’s first come, first served. If you hurry, you’ll get a good place. They are handing chips out like they did with the Co-op Test.”
Kaiden picked his tray up. “I gotcha. Do you want me to sign you in?”
“You know you can’t do that.”
“Still, I felt I should offer.” He tossed his tray and jogged backward for a few steps. “I’ll see you in a while.” He disappeared quickly into the crowd.
“You know, Chief has become more pleasant,” Kaitō ventured.
“What makes you say that?” Chiyo asked as she spread jam on her toast.
“I believe you would call it a vibe?” The Fox EI sounded thoughtful. “Maybe those upgrades are working.”
As Kaiden flipped the blue chip into the air to signal that he was part of the second group, someone shouted his name.
“Kaiden! Friend Kaiden. Good morning to you.” Genos and Jaxon approached.
> “Good to see you, Genos.” He pocketed the chip and shook the Tsuna’s hand. “You too, Jax.”
“I wanted to wish you well before the test. Kin Jaxon and I will go in with the first group,” Genos explained.
“Do you know if anyone else is in the first round?” he inquired.
“About half of us, with the exception of Julius and our new friends along with Cameron, Raul, and Luke,” Jaxon confirmed.
Kaiden nodded. “Chiyo is still eating and the guy who gave me my chip said I just made it, so I guess she’ll be in the next group.”
“The tests will be completed all in one day, thanks to the expanded wings,” the Tsuna ace mentioned.
“That’s a nice change from last year—one and done.” Kaiden was relieved. The wait was often the worst part.
Jaxon nodded. “Much more efficient, yes.” He tapped Genos’ shoulder. “We should hurry along. Our tests will begin soon, and we need to report to the pods.”
“Best of luck to you.” The ace grinned and gave them a thumbs-up. “You guys will do great. Tell the same to the others if you see them.”
“You could send them a message before the tests start,” Jaxon reminded him,
“Oh, yeah. I guess that’s an option, huh?”
“Will you watch from the observatory?” Genos asked.
Kaiden thought about it but only for a moment. “Sure, Genos, and I’ll cheer for ya.”
“Much obliged, friend. We shall return the favor, as always,” the Tsuna promised.
“I always like playing to a crowd. I’ll head over there now.” He placed a hand across his chest and pointed two fingers into the air. “Good luck you two.”
His friends nodded and returned the salute. “Your form has improved, friend Kaiden,” Genos commented approvingly.
“It’s one of the things I’ve practiced. Go on and head in. I’ll watch y’all go out there and kick ass.”
Genos gave another bow. “Farewell friend, see you soon.”
Kaiden chuckled as his friend walked away. “He’s got this. What about you?” he asked Jaxon.
“I am well prepared. How about yourself?”
“I got this. We’ll all get through it.”
The Tsuna nodded. “I shall hold you to that. We shall see you once we finish. Farewell.”
As Jaxon walked away, Kaiden left the building and sent out a message of encouragement to his friends beginning the tests and another to the others to meet him at the observatory.
“Raynor, are you there?” Laurie asked into the comms. “Aurora, are you getting anything?”
“Nothing, Professor,” Aurora informed him. “For whatever reason, his comm link is down.”
“You can’t even deduce why?” he questioned. “Contact Cyra and tell her to find him and head to the mainframe. We can’t have any problems, especially during the testing week.”
“Understood.”
Laurie sighed and looked at a screen that contained dozens of panels that all displayed the mainframe room. None of them revealed anything at all that might begin to answer his questions.
Chapter Twelve
As Gin watched the tests on the monitor screen, his gaze searched continually for Kaiden, although he knew it was pointless. He would have received a message if the student were among the group
“You can’t avoid this forever, kid,” he muttered—another pointless exercise. It wasn’t like the ace knew what was about to happen, but he needed to vent his frustrations somehow.
He sighed and accepted that this wouldn’t be as fun as he’d thought it would be. Once he was done there, he would return to the world and his usual hunting grounds—as in anywhere but there.
It wouldn’t be long now—both for how long he would have to wait and how much time he had left before someone noticed something was off. His gut feeling leaned toward the premise that time had all but run out.
The door to the mainframe room opened. Speak of the devil.
A woman with long black-and-violet hair entered. “Can I help you?” he asked crisply but took care to add a little politeness to the businesslike tone.
“Doctor Egon?” Cyra asked, confused. “What are you doing here?”
“Looking over the mainframe during the testing period,” he explained with a vague shrug that might suggest anything at all—like he assumed she knew what he meant, which made it less likely that she’d ask more questions than he wanted her to. “I was told one of Laurie’s assistants would handle it, but I wanted to have a look before I headed to my post. When I arrived, no one was here.”
“Yeah, that’s what I’m trying to figure out,” she stated. “You haven’t seen Raynor at all?”
“Not today, no.” Egon folded his arms and assumed a thoughtful expression—not a concerned one because he didn’t want to panic her. Merely a little questioning to fit the occasion. “It seems unlike him to avoid his duties.”
“No kidding. He almost seems to enjoy his busy work. I can usually pawn off the stuff I don’t want to do on him.” She chuckled and placed a finger on her lips. “No telling, all right?”
“Certainly,” he promised. “I’ll keep a watch for now, if you like. You can head back.”
“Thanks, but I’ll take another look around for Ray,” she stated with an undertone of definite irritation.
Gin flinched and his thoughts immediately considered unfolding the blade under his wrist and eliminating her. It wasn’t the safe or sensible option, though. He’d already increased the risk of detection when he’d killed Raynor. It was probably only luck and the use of the mod that had allowed him to kill the infiltrator without discovery—and, of course, the fact that Laurie probably wasn’t on edge. If he was looking for the man now and had sent this woman to search for him, he’d definitely pay a lot more attention if she vanished.
“Maybe contact his residence?” Egon suggested after a short pause during which he collected his wayward thoughts. “Perhaps he felt under the weather and couldn’t make it in today.”
“I guess, but he would have sent a message or warned me if that was the case.” She sounded sure of that but shrugged. “Thanks for stepping up. I’ll put in a good word with the professor—uh, with Laurie.”
“Much obliged.” He nodded and returned his attention to the monitor. “I’ll report back later.”
She nodded and left. The killer refocused on the monitor as a few students finished their tests. “Wrap it up, kiddos,” he whispered. “I need to crash this charade in a hurry if you please.”
“Have you found Raynor yet, Cyra?” Laurie asked over the comm link.
“No, sir, not yet. But you don’t have to worry about the Animus. Egon is in oversight there.”
“Egon?” the professor questioned. “I thought he was supposed to monitor the central console here.”
“He said he stopped by to look in on it before heading there,” she explained. “But that Raynor wasn’t here when he arrived.”
“Even so, I would prefer that he oversee the map uploads. I’ll have to check who’s running it now,” he muttered. “Strange…I didn’t see him on the sensors or the cameras for the mainframe room earlier.”
“Maybe he stepped out to answer the call of nature?” she suggested.
Laurie sighed. “There could be a number of reasons and you had to go with the obtuse one.” She could almost hear him rolling his eyes. “Continue your search for Raynor. I’ll contact his home and send a couple more techs out to look around, but I don’t pick anything up. He hasn’t signed onto the network since he left last night.”
“Don’t worry about it, Professor. He’ll show up. In fact, I’m sure of it. He’d never simply disappear on us, would he?”
“Huh, smart move.” Kaiden leaned back in his chair and folded his arms, and Chiyo chuckled beside him. They were in the observation room from which they watched all their friends currently taking their tests.
A large monitor on the wall in front of them displayed several screens so they we
re able to watch Genos, Jaxon, Flynn, Marlo, Amber, Izzy, and Silas at the same time. The ace used the tablet on the chair to switch between a screen showing Genos’ test and Silas’. “Those two will finish at roughly the same time unless one of them pushes it or the other runs into— Oh, a Zealot droid. That’s a nasty bump.”
“Hey, Cameron said he’s looking for ya,” Chief notified him.
“Send him our coordinates,” he instructed. “But I doubt he’ll make it unless he is right outside. It looks like Jaxon and Amber are almost done, and the others will probably wrap it up within an hour.” Chief disappeared from view.
“Genos has come a long way,” Chiyo noted. “He’s always been an expert at engineering, but in the combat segments, he’s shown that he’s both a tactician as well as a warrior.”
“Well, considering how he handled himself when we sent him off on personal objectives during missions, the dude has the skills to make a fine soldier as much as an engineer. It’s funny to watch him like this and think back to the early days when he was conflicted about following two paths. Look at him now. I guess he learned that you can be as much scholar as a warrior.”
“It is nice to see how far he’s come,” she confirmed and flashed him a teasing look. “Both of you.”
“I wasn’t gonna say it.” He laughed.
“I detect a lie,” Chief jeered in his head and the ace scowled.
“Not out loud. Give me a break,” he said defensively.
Chiyo chuckled and refocused on the screen. “You should head back to the Animus Center soon. Get ready to hand your chip in.”
“I’m the only one going in next, huh?” he asked as he stood and stretched.
“I believe so. I have a chip for the next group and considering that the others are even later than I am, I would imagine they will be in the next group or the one after.” As she finished talking, the door to the room opened.
“Howdy, how are the games?” Mack asked as the remaining members of the group walked in.
Animus Boxed Set 2 (Books 5-8): Revenant, Glitch, Master, Infiltration Page 31
