The man laughed nervously, conscious of the trained killer’s hands still on his shoulders. “What do you have in mind?”
“I’m sure I’ll think of something by that time—probably something graphic, though.” He patted Jensen’s shoulders and moved away toward the elevator. The other man breathed a sigh of relief that he tried his best to conceal. “I’ll be heading out.” Dario pressed the button and the doors opened soundlessly. He walked in and turned to face the group. “That looks like a good show. I want a good seat. I’ll be back for the next meeting.”
“Understood,” Juro acknowledged.
“Wait, you’re going to the Ramses building?” Nolan asked. “Will you participate?” Juro wanted to throttle the general. Why try to stop the killer if that was what he wanted to do?
“Only as a spectator. These EX-10 are potential recruits, after all. I should be there to present them with the opportunity if they succeed.” He smiled but there was nothing warm or reassuring about it. “Or I might have to do other things if they fail. You never know.”
“What about Mr. Rayne?” Juro asked. “How often should we update him?”
“I’m sure he’ll call you if he gets curious.” Dario stared at the three men as he waited for the doors to close. “You should all calm down. He doesn’t bite… Well, maybe if you piss him off, but that’ll be worse than a bite.” He raised a hand and waved his fingers as the doors were about to shut. “Toodles!”
Chapter Eighteen
Kaiden surfaced with a gasp, wiped his visor as best he could, and looked around him. The last droplets from the ship’s impact pattered into the water as the tail end of the vessel sank. Some recovery or dive team would make a killing off that.
“Hey, Kaiden, are you dead?” Cameron asked over the comms.
He held his hand to the side of his helmet. “Yeah. These comms have great range to reach the afterlife. By the way, hell is real, so you might wanna start making life changes.”
“Ha-ha. Where are you?”
Chief activated his night vision as he scrutinized his surroundings. “I see you. I’m several hundred yards from your position.”
“Hurry up and get over here. Rok said he found the jet activation and it should have enough juice to make it to the coast.”
“I hope my stabilizer mods don’t crap out. Otherwise, I’m basically wearing my own coffin,” he muttered.
“Maybe you should have thought about that before your little show,” Chief snarked. “Although I gotta say, it’s a pity you don’t have a camera. That would have been a cool shot to put on the network of you riding that ship.”
“It’s probably best we keep this under the table for a while,” he pointed out and contacted Cameron again as he began to swim. “How are the others? And you, I guess.”
“Everyone seems all right—a little rocked from the drop, obviously, except for Silas who I think had Marlo fall on top of him. He might actually be dead.” Cameron chuckled. “Oh, no, he’s still kicking. That would have been a bad way to go for him but hilarious for us. As for me, I hope I’m put on Jaxon’s team considering your lack of moral support.”
“So you’d rather have a pat on the back than me saving your ass? I’ll make a note of that,” Kaiden threatened cheerfully. “Also, what’s this about teams? I thought we would go in as a group.”
“Something Jax is rattling on about right now. Get in here and we can figure it out,” Cameron said and signed off.
“So, do you wanna make a bet?” Chief asked.
“About what?”
“Is the hard part over, or has it only begun?”
“It would be rather boring if the most climactic thing was the commute here,” he responded dryly and quickened his pace to swim closer to the floating cabin. “Don’t tell the others this, considering my reputation as not the best at speeches or fuzzy feelings, but I’m worried I might have signed them up for something too big for them.”
“Are you serious?” The EI sounded aghast. “Get your head out of your ass. Think of the things you’ve accomplished as a group.”
“You mean in the Animus?”
“You’ve done a handful of gigs and think you’re suddenly better?” he chided. “Just because it was the Animus doesn’t mean it makes them fake accomplishments. You’ve taken on hordes of mercs and droids, taken over pirate vessels—hell, you and some of those guys in there took on a Sauren and beat him. And double hell, you fought a mechanical Kraken.”
Kaiden laughed. “Yeah, I guess I had the leftover jitters. It’s time to shake that off,” he vowed. “You know, I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but I almost forgot about the Kraken. That was still the weirdest mission I think I’ve ever done.”
The ace dropped into the Cabin, helped down by Luke and Mack. “All right, what did I miss?” he asked and shook in an effort to dry himself even a little.
“Your Tsuna buddy has a plan,” Rok informed him from where he worked the controls. “The crash caused something of a malfunction and I had to reset. I’ll get this hunk of junk moving in a moment.”
“All right, what are you thinking, Jaxon?” Kaiden asked as he drew Sire to inspect it.
“It is speculation, currently. We will have to wait and see what the situation is once we reach the plaza,” he began and adjusted his infuser. “But as Rok told us, there are two possible entrances. I believe we should split into two teams and attack both. That will force the enemy within to separate to deal with both groups.”
“The front is protected by bots and the mercs, and the back way was locked tight, wasn’t it?” Kaiden frowned in thought as he opened the vent on the rifle to drain any water from it. “I would think we would need all of us to successfully break into one of them.”
“You have to remember, it ain’t only us going in there,” Flynn added. “There’s whoever is left of the Fire Riders and Skyway Kings, along with whatever jobbers they could recruit while we were coming in.”
“As long as they weren’t blown out of the sky like our unfortunate buddies back there,” Luke pointed out.
“Yeah. Apparently, that ship has given them some grief,” Rok said without turning from the console. “I had a message about that, by the way.”
“Great timing on their part,” Kaiden replied sarcastically.
“All we know right now is we need to reach the barricade they set up in the plaza. Rok will lead the way since they want us to use a path that won’t be seen by the public,” Cameron explained.
“Uh, you guys fell from the sky. The other ship—or others, rather, as I assume there were a number of ships—were blown up in the sky, and I literally rode a ship into the ocean,” he pointed out. “I think being discreet is out the door at this point.”
“I’m not sure it would have been an option for very long anyway, but orders are orders for now if you still want your cut of Ramses’ war chest,” Rok replied. “Now get a hold of something. We’re heading in.”
“All right.” He grasped one of the railings above him. “Just say wh—shit!” he cried and tumbled as the jets activated and the cabin hopped along the water toward the coast.
The group made their way up the hill. Kaiden, Raul, Cameron, and a few of the others rolled their shoulders or stretched their legs to loosen the stiffness. “It’s not the most dignified entry, skipping into battle like that,” Raul muttered.
“We’ll make it up by taking these guys out with style,” Kaiden vowed and looked at Rok. “How much farther?”
“Can’t you hear the shots?” he asked. The sounds of battle were unmistakable—shots, laser fire, the explosions of droids, and pained cries all reminded them that they would join in soon. The ace motioned for their guide to continue and Rok raced up the hill to a line of trees. He halted and used one as cover to peer around it. “This is my stop. I was supposed to bring you here, but I’m not actually fighting myself.”
“That’s fine by me, but do you wanna take a chance that they didn’t send one or more of
them out here to potentially flank the barricade?” the ace asked.
A shout in the distance preempted a reply. Kaiden peered over Rok to where two men took positions with launchers. One was able to fire a blast, but the other took a shot through the head and his partner soon followed. The blast made impact but didn’t seem to damage the building.
“I think they have more than enough to occupy them,” Rok reasoned dryly.
“Well then, thanks for bringing us in,” he said and clapped him on the shoulder.
“Eliminate these clowns, and you’ll have my thanks and your creds,” the man added belligerently. The ace nodded and motioned for the group to follow. They surged onto the plaza, having to step over bodies and droid parts along the way. A couple of Guardian droids noticed them from a distance and swung to fire. Kaiden and Jaxon each took aim and obliterated them before the mechanicals could actually shoot.
“Get down—snipers!” one of the gang members shouted. Kaiden and Jaxon flung themselves into a slide. Looking a few floors above him, Kaiden could barely make out the muzzles of rifles a few windows apart, aimed directly at the duo.
A purple field surrounded them as the marksmen fired and the bullets pounded ineffectually against the bright barrier. “Nice job!” the ace shouted at the vanguard.
“Get to the barricade,” Mack stated and gestured with his head. “I wanna keep my energy up for the push.”
“On it.” They had drawn the attention of more Guardian droids and these now fired at the shield. The group sprinted behind the safety of the barrier as Mack pushed forward slowly, charging the shield. He formed the dome into a wall and launched it forward. It hammered into a group of droids and he clapped with satisfaction.
A shot struck home in his helmet to burst his personal shield and dent it. The vanguard stumbled and slapped a hand to the area affected by the shot. “Cheeky mother fu—” At another shot, he held up a small shield which burst from the impact and caused him to step back once more.
Kaiden, Jaxon, Silas, and Cameron all took positions and fired to cover their teammate so he could join them behind the barricade. The group was forced back when another wave of droids emerged from the entrance.
The ace ducked and immediately noticed a pair of unfamiliar boots. He looked up at a woman with short red hair dressed in red armor with no helmet and only a lit-up visor over her eyes.
“Are you the group Rok told us about?” she demanded.
“Shouldn’t he have sent you a message?”
She opened her mouth to speak before a beep distracted her and she held her hand up as she read the message on her visor. “Dumbass,” she muttered and frowned and shook her head, then returned her attention to Kaiden who now stood and beckoned his group to join him. “I’m Zena, one of the captains of Fire Riders West.”
“Captain, we’re out of exp—hurk!” A man’s shout from the other side of the plaza terminated abruptly when his chest literally burst from a sniper shot.
Zena shook her head, sighed, and opened her arms in a sweeping gesture. “Welcome to Ramses Technologies, powering the future,” she said in a mock tour-guide type tone.
Kaiden studied the bodies littering the plaza. “Is the future powered by souls?”
“It’s powered by whatever these guys are so damned interested in, potentially. We haven’t actually identified what that is yet,” she stated and folded her arms in disapproval. “What I wanna know is if you guys can help us get in there so we can take these bastards out.”
The ace looked at his team, all ready and armed, and Jaxon stepped beside him. “Believe it or not, we’ve been trained for this particular type of occasion.” He vented Sire to emphasize the statement.
Chapter Nineteen
“So, are you feelin’ better yet, Laurie?” Wolfson asked, a slight slur to his voice.
Laurie looked lazily at the head officer. “Perhaps not better, but I will say I’m having trouble…remembering my problems clearly.”
The large man laughed. “That means we are on the right path, at least.” He took another generous swig.
“More information has been discovered concerning Ramses Technologies,” the reporter on the monitor stated, although the newsfeed had become mostly background noise for the pair. “Just moments ago, several ships seemed to have been blown out of the sky and two crashed into the Pacific. Several witnesses claim they saw a figure holding onto the top of one ship before falling away, but that cannot currently be confirmed with footage.”
Wolfson nodded to the screen. “What do you think is going on over there?”
Laurie shrugged. “Ramses is a company focusing on robotics and defensive technologies. A few of the weapons our R&D department constructed are based on their designs. My guess is a scavenger team has decided they wanted a big haul and thought they would be a good starting point.” He chuckled but with disbelief rather than humor. “It might have been better to go for a tac-sec facility. At least they will simply shoot you.”
“A lot of weird robots on the inside ready to fry an intruder’s insides?” his companion guessed.
“I’m sure they have some, but they have other security measures. Many of those west coast companies contract to gangs for added defense. It keeps the city a little cleaner and they are generally cheaper when you need the numbers. They, of course, probably have no qualms about sending a message to anyone who’s dumb enough to go after their employers. Considering it’s basically an open secret, most gangs see an attack on one of their contractors as an insult to them personally.”
“It seems like they tried to keep it quiet before but I don’t think they’ll be able to keep that up,” Wolfson commented between generous sips.
“Indeed, I’m rather surprised they haven’t dropped a barrier at this point to keep the riff-raff out of the—”
“This just in. A barrier has started to form around the Ramses building,” the reporter stated with breathless haste.
“Finally, they begin proper protocol.” Laurie chuckled and waved his glass for Wolfson to fill it. “I guess they won’t have to worry about the intruders making a quick getaway.”
“What if that wasn’t the reason they finally turned the barrier on?” the other man asked as he poured the remaining liquid in the bottle into the glass.
“I mentioned that erecting a barrier in situations like this is standard, right?” Laurie took his glass and turned back to the screen. “What else could they be trying to do?”
“Dammit, now we’re stuck in here.” Zena cursed, waved her arms, and motioned for her men to fall back. “Get to defensive positions and dig in.”
“It works for us. We hadn’t planned to leave until we had some bodies. We get bonuses,” Cameron stated with more than a hint of cockiness.
She spun to face the group. “If you can accomplish that, props to you, but for now, it’ll be rather hard to accomplish that when we can’t even get inside because of—” Another sniper shot made them all flinch instinctively. This one was apparently not aimed at the group or the gang members. Instead, it struck a robot in the perfect place to make it overload and cause a huge eruption about forty yards away. Kaiden scowled as a couple of bodies dropped.
“Dammit!” Zena cursed and slammed her fist into her palm in frustration
“We’ll have to deal with that little issue before we calculate the fees,” Kaiden decided. He folded his arms and looked over his shoulder. “Flynn, do you think you can take them?”
The marksman peered over the barricade and attempted to get a good look at the enemy snipers’ positions. He tapped the chin of his helmet as he considered the odds. “The best choice at this point would be to flush them out or make them run off. That way, we can at least close in.”
“And make some room for Jaxon and his team.” Kaiden looked at the Tsuna ace. “I’m obviously assuming you still want to go with your plan?”
“I still think it best, but I would like to know the situation with the rear entrance,” Jaxon replied.
“It’s about fifty different ways of fucked right now,” a boisterous voice called. The team turned to see a man in medium blue armor stride toward them. He struggled to remove his helmet that was now shattered on the top with pieces of the visor missing.
“And this is?” Kaiden asked and gestured to Zena.
“This is Desmond, one of the captains of the Skyway Kings, the other gang on Ramses payroll,” she explained. “He and a group went to check on the situation at the other entrance. I guess you didn’t have much luck?”
“It’s still sealed, all right, but not because we don’t have the equipment to get in,” Desmond clarified as he finally managed to pry his helmet off.
“I would have thought that as contractors for the company, you guys would have codes or access keys that would make entry no problem,” Indre reasoned.
“It’s under emergency lockdown. We do have codes for clearance, but they’ve already changed the keys—fast work too. Something like that should take at least a few hours and the first of our teams arrived within minutes of the alarm going off,” the gang captain revealed and shook his head in irritation.
“You have the cutters and jaws over there, don’t you?” Zena asked.
“Yeah, but those things take time to set up, and right now, me and my girls and guys are under siege by bots. We can’t get a breather to make the time to get them going.” He huffed and scowled at his damaged helmet.
Zena shook her head. “How many bots do they have? I thought we had attracted the most attention and kept the bots away from you.”
“Ramses does have a large robotics division with a warehouse onsite. My guess is that they have an extensive inventory,” Indre stated thoughtfully.
Kaiden looked at her in surprise. “You simply know this?”
Animus Boxed Set 2 (Books 5-8): Revenant, Glitch, Master, Infiltration Page 56
