“They almost did too,” Chiyo reminded them and glanced at Otto and Flynn. “I need to thank both of you for defending me.”
“I’m glad it worked out,” Otto replied and rubbed his chest ruefully. “Although I could have done without the beating. That Izzy girl has a temper.”
“I wish I could have gotten both of them,” Flynn grumbled and shifted his helmet slightly so he could eye Marlo. “As the big guy mentioned, I had an explosive problem.”
“Speaking of which, was Jaxon’s gun jamming problem your doing?” Kaiden asked Chiyo.
“It’s a simple solution for energy-based weaponry—a quick-command allows me to convince the tech that allows the weapon to concentrate the energy to believe there is a malfunction which will make it overheat,” she explained.
“An old staple for any hacker in the field,” Otto added. “It only works for a few seconds and you can’t use it on more than a few guns at a time, but damn if it isn’t helpful.”
“I can certainly agree with that.” The ace nodded. “I guess it’s been a while since you and I fought side by side. You usually have your own things to do or get nice and cozy in the security or central station. I forget how handy you are in the field.”
“It was certainly more exhilarating for me than I expected,” she admitted. “I suppose I’ll have to attempt to be more directly involved on occasion. I guess I have become too comfortable as the support.”
“You’ll probably get your chance this time around too,” he assured her and she eyed him warily. “I think I might have something to work on.”
“Do you have a plan now, friend Kaiden?” Genos asked. He closed his screen and his machine gun was replaced by a mid-sized cannon. Marlo gave his silent approval with a clap to the Tsuna’s shoulder as he walked up to the ace.
“Well, yes, but you might wanna hear it before you get too excited—especially because you guys will do all the heavy lifting,” Kaiden stated.
“Just because you won the last match doesn’t mean you get to kick your feet up this time around, mate.” Flynn chortled.
“If worse comes to worst, I might be, but not during the match,” he said, cryptically. “I thought about how the last mission went down—assuming I was correct about Jaxon’s plan—and it wasn’t bad. But I think we gave it to him harder than he had planned during the attack, considering he lost four guys to our one.”
Flynn elbowed Marlo and did damage to himself against the heavy’s armor. He scowled and rubbed his arm. “We still managed to bring it around for the most part.” His tone sounded a little pained.
“He’s a good leader and a better tactician than I am, at least when it comes to plans that don’t focus on myself,” Kaiden stated honestly.
“That’s normally how it goes, yes.” Amber chuckled.
“The thing is, do you really think Cameron, Raul, Izzy, or anyone else on their side could have done something like that?” he asked, his expression challenging. “Not to make assumptions—okay, with Cameron I might—and all of them might be good soldiers, medics, whatever. But still, I doubt they could string us along like that and nearly even up the score through all that pressure.”
“It is one of the big boons of working with a proper ace,” Otto commented.
Kaiden looked at the infiltrator, about to retort but changed his mind. “I’ll ignore the subtext there. What I’m getting at is that no matter how good you might be individually, everyone can be overwhelmed. It takes skill and clarity to win something like this. We all have one of those, but for those who made it to the point where the power was cut off, we barely held onto the clarity.”
“Darkness does do well to even things up,” Flynn agreed.
“But we all had our objectives and we followed through and kept communication active. My guess is that they would be a little more frayed in that situation.”
“So we should simply rip them off and do the same thing?” Marlo questioned.
“If you can find the power and cut it, it couldn’t hurt—unless you aren’t prepared for that, in which case, rework your loadout while you still can. But what I’m actually getting at is we need to go with the old strategy of cutting the head off the snake. And I will be a little presumptuous this time and actually say that it’s Jaxon in this case.”
“So you’re saying we should focus on eliminating him?” Flynn asked. “That’s a tall order. Sure, if he’s on his own, you might be able to mano-a-mano with him like you did, but even you almost slipped up before Chiyo stepped in.”
“I’m aware of that, thanks, Flynn,” he said and rolled his eyes. “And yeah, trying to take him out while he has a full team might be more than we can accomplish while trying to keep our own numbers up. So I have a plan to try to take him out one way, and if that doesn’t work…” The ace looked at his team and brushed his hand over his thermals. “The captain goes down with the ship and all that, right?”
Chapter Eleven
The attackers watched their transport take off and fade into the distance. Kaiden and Flynn walked to the edge of the building they had landed on and studied their target in the distance. “It really stands out, doesn’t it?” the ace mused, his expression pensive as he studied the modernist building in the distance, aglow with yellow and white lights.
“Man, if I had known it basically glowed like a big ‘attack here’ sign, I might have cut the power myself.” The marksman chuckled, drew his rifle, and looked through the scope. “I don’t see anything in the windows on this side. The buildings between block the lower levels, though.”
“I doubt they would simply loiter in plain view. That’s asking for a shot to the head,” Kaiden pointed out.
“We should head over there. It’s only two klicks away,” Chiyo suggested and the team members nodded agreement.
“Everyone has their orders. Indre and Genos are with me.” He looked at Flynn. “When you finish your little job, let me know and I’ll send a ping so we can meet.”
“I’ll be done soon. Be ready to breach when I contact you, but I doubt it’ll buy us very much time.” Flynn noted, stepped onto the edge of the roof, and leapt off.
“Have a little more confidence, Aussie,” the ace snarked over the comms before the marksman went dark. “Is everyone else ready?”
They nodded. Genos and Indre stepped beside Kaiden while Marlo, Amber, Otto, and Chiyo each took turns to jump. Chiyo paused and looked at Kaiden. “Are you sure about this?”
“You’ll do great,” he promised and placed a hand on her shoulder. “Besides, plan b will only happen if Flynn fucks up. Although in a tight situation like this and not knowing the variables, that’s more of a possibility than I might think, I suppose.” He shrugged and drew his rifle. “Ah well, I’m always willing to put some skin in the game if need be.”
“Admirable, but in the future, you should work on plans that aren’t so needlessly sacrificial,” she stated plainly.
“Hey, you should tell that to the big guy who’s waiting for you down there in case you’d forgotten,” he retorted and pointed down.
Chiyo nodded silently and stepped off the edge. He watched them jog away before he turned to his teammates. “All right, it’s our turn. Let’s get into position before Flynn throws a fit from boredom.”
The trio circled the building to a smaller one adjacent to it, broke in, and climbed the stairs to the roof. Kaiden barreled through the locked roof door and burst it open, a bemused grin plastered on his face when he saw Indre flinch slightly. “Not really an agent move?” he asked.
“Sometimes, but we’re usually running away from something if we do something that loud,” she answered.
“I recommend growing accustomed to such volumes, particularly if you will join us on more missions,” Genos suggested helpfully.
“So you’re not really a stealth team?” she asked.
“Oh, we use stealth and subterfuge often enough and even finished a mission without being detected so…well, we have a few notches there,�
� he bragged as he opened his network list.
“A few notches out of how many attempts?” she asked and glanced at Genos who looked away—not to avoid her gaze but to take a moment to think and put the large numbers together.
“Can your grapple make it that far?” Kaiden asked and gestured toward the target building.
“Huh? Oh, sure. This is close enough.” Indre paused beside Kaiden and fiddled with the pack on her back. A device dropped from within and into her hand. She raised it and clicked a button, and a large bubble formed above her to lift her off her feet.
“Uh, that’s not a grapple,” Kaiden protested and narrowed his eyes at the odd device.
“I never said it was a grapple. I merely said I have a device that can traverse between rooftops,” she clarified and began to float away. “I’ll be right back. Let me know when I can start—”
“Hold that thought.” The ace held a finger up. “Flynn just pinged me. It seems he finally disable the scramblers on the other side, so you are a go.”
Indre nodded and drifted to the other rooftop. Her teammates waited while she placed a device on the skylight and the glass shook for a moment before it dissolved into a puddle, “I do have to admit, she has some cool toys,” Kaiden acknowledged and shook his head as he turned his attention to the bubble-like device. “Others seem a bit goofy, though.”
“I’ll have to consider expanding my gadget options.” Genos sounded thoughtful. “I prefer to choose those that allow me to manipulate machinery I might run into, but other more practical or specialized equipment could also open opportunities I hadn’t considered.” He looked speculatively at his teammate. “Perhaps we could add a few more notches, eventually, with such options?”
“It could always be worth it to change things up, but are you saying you don’t like the way we do things?” he inquired.
“It would be a…welcome change to occasionally have a quiet mission,” the Tsuna admitted.
“Guys, I’m in. I’m sending the Zeppelin your way,” Indre informed them over the comms. The floating device drifted toward them.
“That thing is called a Zeppelin? Man, they’ve really scaled down in the couple of hundred years since they were relevant.” He snickered. When it arrived, he offered it to Genos who took hold of the grip without any apparent caution. He landed easily on the building and sent it back.
As Kaiden reached for the Zeppelin, he received another ping from Flynn and turned on his personal link. “Are you in?” he asked as he took hold and allowed his unusual transport to carry him across the gap.
“Yeah, I’m in the stairwell. Where are you?” the marksman asked.
Kaiden landed and handed the device to Indre who pressed and held a button. The Zeppelin powered down and the bubble on top deflated. He dropped through the skylight into the empty hallway below. “Top floor. We just got in, so let me check in with Chiyo and see if—”
“Kaiden, are you there?” the infiltrator interjected.
“Oh, good timing. I was about to call ya.” He drew Debonair and scanned the hallway before he motioned for Genos and Indre to follow him into the building. “What’s happening on your end?”
“We’re on the ground floor near the lobby, and there’s no sign of the other team,” she informed him. “I found a help terminal and downloaded a map from it.”
“Send it our way,” he ordered as he edged carefully to a corner and peered around it.
“I can do one better. Let me contact Indre.” Kaiden looked back at the girl and gestured to his head. Indre shook hers worriedly, which confused him until he realized he was pointing to his head with his pistol. He gestured with his free hand to reassure her and used it to tap his helmet to signal to her to turn her comm link on.
She nodded and activated it on her HUD. “Hello?”
“Indre, this is Chiyo. Do you happen to have a signal oscillator on you?”
Indre held up her arm to her face and the console on her gauntlet turned on. “I do not, but I think I know what you’re after. Give me a minute.” She tapped a few keys. “I sent out a signal. Can you or Otto—”
“He sees it. Kaiden, you should see some new dots on the map screen,” Chiyo informed him.
“I still need the map, Chi,” he stated flatly.
“Here, take a look.” A map popped up on his visor with red dots on two different floors.
“Are these the defending team?”
“Yep. We were able to track them using their personal tracking signals. They shouldn’t have left them on.” She laughed
“Technically, we did too,” Kaiden pointed out.
“They don’t have a technician on their team,” she countered. “Although they seem aware of that disadvantage. My guess is some of them are defending the security station while the others are either waiting for us or are defending the floor the objective is on.”
“Which one is Jax?” he asked. The dots weren’t marked with who was who, only a series of numbers.
“I’m working on it,” Otto said. “It should be up… I have a few of them cracked and it shouldn’t take me much longer to get the rest.”
Among the few was Jaxon. Kaiden holstered his pistol and drew his rifle. “We have our target. Flynn, do you have him too?”
“Yeah, I see him. Twelfth floor,” the marksman confirmed. “I’ll definitely get there before you do, so I’ll scope it out while you get your ass over here.”
“I appreciate it. We’re on our way.” The ace signed off and looked at his two teammates. “Fingers crossed guys, and if things go south, do your best, all right?”
“Of course,” Genos promised, while Indre nodded.
“When we have some free time, drinks are on me,” he vowed as he pressed his rifle to his chest. “Now, let’s get our mark, shall we?”
Chapter Twelve
Flynn snuck along the edges of the top of the room, snaked between the rafters and bars that supported the lights, and peered at the group below. Luke, Mack, Raul, and Silas patrolled the area. Well, maybe patrolled was a little too formal. This was more like loitered.
If it wasn’t for the fact that they seemed to wander aimlessly around, he would have sworn it was a potential trap. It was logical to assume it was, but he honestly didn’t see how. He scrutinized the surroundings but couldn’t identify anything of note. This seemed to be a storage area of some kind.
In terms of their objectives, it honestly made no sense at all. The invaders had targeted the serum, exactly like the other team had, but it certainly wasn’t in this room. It also didn’t seem like an obvious place to set up a blockade or a particularly defensive position. For one thing, it was out of the way and you didn’t have to move through it to get to the next floor, but maybe there was a way to get to the objective’s location through there?
He readied his rifle and searched for Jaxon, then took a moment to adjust the map in his HUD to an isometric view of the room. The Tsuna’s dot was close to Luke’s but when he looked and still couldn’t locate him, he frowned. Was the map bugged? He was about to retreat when he caught a hasty glimpse of the black-and-blue armor. Moving stealthily, he eased along the railing and into a different position where he was hidden by a large machine.
“Kaiden, I have eyes on Jaxon,” Flynn murmured in a low tone and flinched when Raul looked up. Thankfully, he hadn’t looked for him but merely stared absentmindedly into space. What the hell was going on? Did they really think they had this in the bag or something?
“Good. We’re almost there, coming in on the ceiling,” Kaiden informed him.
He lowered his rifle. “I’m already up here. Where are you coming in from?”
“The vents, what do you think?” The ace chuckled. “We thought that was a better option than going in the front door, why? How did you get in there?”
“There’s an office door on the thirteenth floor that opens onto these railways over the room below,” he explained.
“Well, shit, that sounds more convenient.” Kaid
en grunted with what might have been exasperation and Flynn now picked up the discomfort in his voice. “What are they doing?”
“Honestly? I have no bloody idea,” he muttered and took another look through his scope. “They are all just standing around. I thought for a moment they were waiting for us, but this seems to be a weird place to do it. Unless there is another way into the lab through here or something, we would have no reason to come here if we weren’t explicitly gunning for Jaxon.”
“He might have counted on that and chose a location where they have a lot of room to maneuver,” the ace hypothesized. “I don’t blame him. Fighting in that cramped lab was a pain in the ass.”
“Let’s get this done before I get too paranoid,” Flynn muttered and aimed carefully. “I have the shot. Tell me when.”
Something rattled in the background and Kaiden mumbled, “I’m about to drop down, but it’s a straight drop. I don’t think we can all do it silently, so go ahead and fire. We’ll enter and begin to fight amongst the confusion.”
“Got it. Preparing to fire,” he said as he eased the bottom of the gun against the railing to steady it and leaned over, his aim centered on Jaxon’s helmet. “Firing.”
In the second before he pulled the trigger, silver flared in his scope. The shot fired, but it was blocked by Luke and his personal shield.
“Shit!” Flynn cursed and lurched back to get out of range. The walkway beneath him shook and he was thrown onto the floor as a bright blue light surrounded him—Mack’s energy, he realized. The walkway collapsed and some fell on top of him.
Kaiden dropped from the grate followed by Genos and Indre. He fired a charged shot at Jaxon, who kicked a table in front of him. The blast impacted that and erupted but the Tsuna ace retreated unharmed.
Genos fired his cannon and a stream of energy collided with Luke’s shield. Mack charged at him and Indre, who tossed a mine a few paces in front of him. It activated and released arcs of electricity, but the vanguard’s shields were almost at full power and he barreled through it without difficulty. The agent flung herself to the side to avoid him. Genos was able to erode Luke’s shield, but he had to dodge Mack’s attacks before he could focus on the titan.
Animus Boxed Set 2 (Books 5-8): Revenant, Glitch, Master, Infiltration Page 51
