“Understood.”
“Roger.”
“Ship 011? Baron? Do you acknowledge?” The comms remained silent. Wolfson looked hastily at the screens connected to the other ships. 011’s blank eyes stared back at him and he cursed vociferously. “Din jävla, idiot! It was a ruse. He’s on that ship.”
As if in response, the craft banked and hurtled forward to sail over the mountains. “All ships, follow 011,” Wolfson ordered as he turned to pursue the stolen vessel. “Shoot it down.”
Kaiden awoke to the sounds of metal on metal and a whipping wind. He looked at the sky and then at his body. He was still dressed in his armor and jacket and felt the weight of both Sire and Debonair. “Are we still in the Animus? What’s going on, Chief?”
He waited through a few moments of silence.
“Chief?” he finally asked again.
“He doesn’t appear to be with you, Kaiden,” Laurie’s voice answered in his ear.
“Professor?” he inquired, “What’s going on?”
“I’ll give you an abridged version. Gin Sonny attacked you and the Animus using an advanced corruption device. He tried to use it to destroy your mind while you were in the Animus.”
“Gin? Gin is here?” the ace demanded incredulously. “Where? You have to get the others out of here if he’s—”
“It’s already taken care of. Don’t worry about that now. You have to worry about what’s going on with you.”
He stood awkwardly and rolled his shoulders to ease the stiffness while he scowled at the factory in the distance. “I don’t know what’s going on. This isn’t the map I was on. The last thing I remember is Chief saying he’d found a workaround or something. He said he wasn’t sure if it would work, disappeared, and everything changed.”
“Well, it worked, but you’re still in peril, Kaiden. Somehow, Chief was able to move you from one point in the Animus to another, where the virus couldn’t track you. But it’s only a delay until we can get you back,” Laurie explained.
“So I’m still in danger? It felt like my mind was being cooked.”
“In a way, it was. Certainly, I’ll have to examine you once the trouble has passed,” the professor concurred. “But for now, you cannot die. I know that seems obvious but the mission you are in is active. You will soon have to deal with hostiles who attack you and if you die in the engagement, you will truly die, Kaiden.”
“But I’m in the Animus, aren’t I?” he pointed out. “I have no plans to lose or anything, but shouldn’t the rules still apply?”
The other man sighed with very audible regret. “I’ve already given the long explanation to your friends. In short? Yes, you are and no, these are obviously not normal circumstances, are they?”
“Right on both counts, I guess,” the ace muttered. Something whirred past him and he spun instinctively, snatched Debonair from its holster, and fired to down an Observer droid. “Dammit, they’re onto me already.”
“I’m sending you help, but it will take a few more minutes. This is new territory for me and in the field of Animus design.”
“You sound like that should be a triumph,” he noted sarcastically.
“It should be but trust me when I say I wish that it were under different circumstances,” Laurie admitted.
Kaiden followed his instinctual response and jogged toward the factory before he slid to an abrupt halt. It had taken a while to realize that his only objective was to live. He acknowledged that going toward the place that built more killer robots was not the greatest plan. Instead, he turned and hurried off in the other direction.
“Do you know what happened to Chief, Professor?”
“I can’t say, Kaiden. What he accomplished here? Honestly, I didn’t know it was possible.”
“Didn’t you design him?” the ace asked as he ran cautiously into the thick forest. “There has to be a graph or something somewhere that explains what’s going on with him.”
“Chief was designed to grow and evolve, like other EI, but it had fewer limitations. It was connected to you using the EI implant—to your mind—which made it able to think more creatively, more out of the box than a normal EI.”
“More like a human, you mean. Less ones and zeros.”
“In a sense, but it’s still software, and the potential was what I was observing. I still didn’t think something like this was possible—to react like it did especially under the circumstances and getting attacked by a potent virus like that. It might be the only reason you are alive.”
“He.”
“What?”
“Chief is a he. It’s weird that you keep calling him it.”
“You assigned him that,” Laurie pointed out.
“I’ll bring it up when he comes back,” Kaiden retorted but froze when something crashed through the trees behind him. “Where’s that backup?”
“Still on the way. I am trying to load him at a location close to you. While I can get him somewhat close, you’ll have to meet up.”
“I’ll get around to it—and he? You sent one?”
“It was all that was possible given the circumstances. And not to add pressure to you in the middle of a struggle, but he will now suffer the same repercussions as you will.”
“So if he dies…”
“It’s for good,” he finished, his tone grim.
“Who did you send? Dammit, hold on that for a moment.” The ace spun and drew Sire to fire a blast behind him that broke the shield of a pursuing Guardian droid. “I didn’t realize they could move that fast on treads,” he mumbled under his breath, charged another shot, and released it as the enemy responded with two shots of its own. He fell back and the shots went overhead. His blast impacted with the top of the droid a moment later to blow it open and halt the mechanical it in its tracks.
“That can’t be the only one,” he said quietly and tensed at a rustle in the trees. Moving quietly, he retrieved a thermal from his belt, activated it, and lobbed it into the canopy. It exploded and something spiraled downward along with twigs, leaves, and branches. An Assassin droid, he realized, charged a shot, and fired. The mechanical sprang up, twisted its torso ninety degrees to avoid the shot, raised an arm, and flung a spear.
Kaiden moved his head instinctively, and the weapon pierced the tree alongside him. He raised his rifle to fire back but hesitated when he noticed a line at the end of the haft. The droid pulled back and toppled the tree in an effort to smash him under it. The ace cursed and aimed his rifle. The tree erupted under the barrage and scattered debris in a wide radius. He used the spewed wood and leaves as cover to put some distance between himself and his attacker.
The Assassin droid severed the wire with a blade that ejected from its gauntlet and stalked toward him. He charged another shot and fired but his target leapt out of the way, so he added a second shot that hurled it back into the previous large explosion. Simply being caught in the charge of the blast wouldn’t finish it, so he stowed Sire on his back and attacked the mechanical. His plasma blade had heated sufficiently when he vaulted on top of his opponent and dug the heated metal into its head. He gritted his teeth and dragged the weapon down the middle.
Its red eyes powered down and went blank and he heaved a sigh of relief as he scrambled quickly to his feet and drew Sire. He paused when two more droids lumbered toward him. It seemed he was a little slower than usual, but he didn’t have time to worry about that. He drew Debonair but before he could even aim, two shots cracked from behind him, whistled barely over his shoulders, and pierced the chests of the approaching mechanicals. Their aim was true and destroyed the power units. The droids teetered for a moment, then toppled heavily.
Kaiden waited as a man in blue and green medium armor approached. The helmet he wore had a visor specifically designed for marksmen.
“Flynn?” he guessed and grinned at his new ally.
The sniper unlocked his helmet with one hand and removed it casually. The ace’s eyes widened in surprise. “Sasha?”
&
nbsp; “It’s good to see you alive and active Kaiden,” the commander responded cheerfully as he replaced his helmet.
“You’re the one Laurie sent?”
“I volunteered, actually. I came to protect my investment.” He raised his rifle and fired three shots to easily eliminate three flying drones that were half a click away. “And to help a fine soldier in a bind.”
The ace smiled, held Sire close, and offered his hand. “Thanks. I’m glad we can finally fight side by side.”
The commander looked at the hand with a raised eyebrow. “You should keep your hand on your weapon, Kaiden,” he said as he stepped past him and vented his rifle. “For now, at least. When this is over, I’ll gladly accept your thanks.”
Chapter Seventeen
Wolfson continued the headlong race after Gin. Ships 003 and 008 had finally caught up and took turns to fire on the stolen vessel. Due to the high speed of the chase and their attempts to not to cause excessive damage to the environment, they hadn’t accomplished much.
The head officer, though, constantly tried to argue that allowing the killer to escape would be much worse than a potential forest fire.
He took his own shots when he could, but his quarry—or his EI—was quite proficient at flying the craft and avoided the attacks with ease while barely losing momentum. The giant drew closer and closer in his modified ship, but he didn’t feel any elation. He should focus on demolishing the craft. Those barriers and shields of Gin’s might be strong, but an explosion and impact like that would shatter them with ease and, hopefully, his body along with them.
The hopefully part of that was what generated the worry that gnawed at him. It would mean relying on chance. He wanted to be sure this bastard was dead, which meant he would come back with a body—or a head, at least. He was a reasonable man, after all.
Gin’s ship dropped to a much lower level, and before Wolfson could follow, it rocketed up quickly and whipped back to fly over him and draw in behind ship 003. “Shit! He’s gone on the attack,” Wolfson roared. “003, get out of the firing range.”
His warning came too late. Two shots from the enemy ship struck to blow their target’s engines. The cockpit of the stricken craft opened, two seats ejected, and the officers made it out safely. But their leader’s momentary relief was replaced with shock and rage as the attacking ship slowed and lined up on the pods that floated free of the ship.
“He’s going after the pods,” Wolfson warned and yanked his ship around to intercept.
“I’m on it, sir.” Hancock came in from above and fired at the fugitive. Gin was able to spiral away from most of the shots but took two to the hull, while one skimmed the aft engine. The officer danced his craft broadside to ram the enemy vessel. It whirled in a circle, but the pilot used the opportunity to fire through the front of ship 011.
“Hancock!” Wolfson yelled, with no response. The damaged vessel plummeted to crash into the forests below. The giant’s fists tightened as he flew over the massive explosion and he grimaced before he set his features into a hard expression as he turned to pursue the stolen and now compromised ship.
He caught up quickly as the damage was enough to slow it considerably. His aim perfectly centered, he fired, but Gin maneuvered above the shot seconds before it struck and swooped over the head officer’s ship. A dull clunk alerted him to an unwelcome passenger.
“Damn fool!” he growled. The killer had fallen onto his ship. He retrieved his hand cannon, expecting the revenant to drop from the ceiling or barrel through the front of the vessel. Instead, the instruments and screens on his dashboard blackened one by one, and the hum of the engines grew quieter. His adversary was deactivating his flyer.
Wolfson knew he didn’t have the knowledge or speed to quickly circumvent Gin’s actions, but he wouldn’t let this end there. He raced to the cabin and snatched a case from the top shelf, used a length of cord as a makeshift strap, and attached it to his back. Armed with a rifle from the gun cabinet, he approached the door, but it wouldn’t budge. The giant spat and gripped the emergency lever with both hands.
He grunted with effort as he used much of his strength to force it open. The door fell off and he managed to avoid the quick suction of air that followed. The ground was coming up fast, but he pushed the thought aside, ducked out, and raised his rifle. At a quick flash of white, he fired several shots. They were nothing more than warning shots at this point as he couldn’t reach him effectively from his position.
The craft continued to hurtle earthward and was barely above the tallest trees at this point. He removed his hand from the trigger and grasped the rifle by the center, then held onto a railing inside the ship with his free hand. He waited, his eyes squinted at his enemy, and grinned when he wondered who would go first. Finally, the killer bailed from the top of the craft. The giant’s grin broadened into smug confidence that suggested predatory anticipation. For all his gadgets and tricks, the man still couldn’t make himself a backbone.
The uppermost twigs and leaves scraped against the bottom of his ship, and Wolfson hurled himself out and down to the forest below.
“The commander is in, Professor,” one of the robots stated.
“Finally. At least something is going right,” Laurie replied wearily. “For now, that should buy us more time, but we still need to get dear Kaiden out of there.”
“Is there anything I can do?” Chiyo asked. He looked at her in surprise and registered that she was only a few feet away from him.
“I thought I said to stay in the viewing— No, it’s fine. I’m simply not used to having so many people in here,” he confessed. “At this point in time, I’m still trying to figure out how to get Kaiden back to a point where I can do anything. He’s essentially in a weird limbo space within the Animus. I had hoped that bringing him here where I had more control over the Animus systems and a better link that something would come to me. But to be perfectly honest, he might be safer staying there than me fiddling with anything on my end.”
“Professor, are you there?” Cyra asked and appeared in a holoscreen above them.
“I am. Report, Cyra.”
“I’m sorry, Professor, but I’m locked out of the mainframe proper. There’s nothing I can do the normal way.”
“You seem to be leading me somewhere,” he noted dryly. “Out with it, Cyra. Do you have a suggestion?”
“Using the suite, I might be able to go the more direct route, but I’m not sure that I would be able to stay in very long. Something this complex might make me as much a vegetable as Kaiden is.”
“Time and place, infiltrator,” Laurie advised as he considered her idea. “We might have to use that, you’re right, but don’t go in alone. I’ll send a few technicians to you.”
“Do you think those cyber jocks can keep up with me? Even with more people working on it we won’t have a lot of time. I’ll need someone experienced so when we can get in, we can identify the problem and get out as quick as possible.”
“You are certainly correct, but we don’t have many options considering Raynor’s passing. The closest infiltrator in my employ is currently in New York and even using my personal transport, that’s a forty-minute flight and I can’t—”
“I’ll go,” Chiyo offered. “I’m an experienced infiltrator and I will volunteer. There is no need to worry about legal issues.”
“Is that you, Chiyo?” Cyra asked. “That could work, but you have to understand that neither I nor the professor knows what’s going on in there. That aside, we also have no idea whether the suite is able to make it into a landscape like the suites normally would. None of the parameters we worked with previously apply here. We could be going into an abyss.”
“You’re doing this to help Kaiden, right?” she inquired. “My assumption is that you hope that if you can remove the BREW system from there, the Animus can come back online and we can get him out?”
“That is an excellent deduction.” Laurie nodded. “Indeed, that is the hope.”
“I don’t want to simply stand here, then. If I can do something to help, I’ll do it.”
“Professor?” Cyra asked hesitantly.
“You heard her, Cyra. She’ll be on her way.” Laurie fixed Chiyo with a half-amused look. “Hurry along, infiltrator. Help bring our boy Kaiden back to us.”
Chapter Eighteen
“Officers Tola and Jetton, are you there?” Wolfson asked over the comms.
“We’re here, sir. We made it.” Jetton responded. “Do you want us to converge on your position?”
“Do you have any weapons?”
“We have our pistols, sir.”
“Then there’s no need to approach. Even with proper arms, there’s a good chance it would be a one-sided fight. No offense officer, but this isn’t some truant or petty crook.” He popped his case open and extracted his armor.
“We don’t want you to face him alone, sir,” Tola ventured.
“As much as I’m looking for a fight, I’m not enough of an idiot to think this will be easy. So, if you wanna do something for me, listen up.” Wolfson donned his helmet and the comm link immediately connected to the radio. “I’ll go dark after these commands. I’ll send you a message with two contacts who are already on their way. Send them my coordinates and tell them to remain dark until they are within one click of my location. Understood?”
He sent the list to both their inboxes. “Roger. sir. We’re on it. Best of luck.”
“I didn’t get this far only on that,” Wolfson whispered, ended the call, and deactivated the link. He’d barely secured his chest plate and arm guards when something rustled a short distance away. Without hesitation, he straightened and fired his rifle. The blast impacted the trunk of a tree and toppled it, and it landed in a flurry of debris and kicked up a large puff of dust.
Animus Boxed Set 2 (Books 5-8): Revenant, Glitch, Master, Infiltration Page 34
