“For me? Why?” Kaiden asked, but the thought left him as his HUD fizzed and blurred, and pain crept into his mind. “God, not now.”
“What the hell’s going on with my readout?” Cameron yelled and shook his head.
“Chief?” Kaiden asked as he held a hand to his helmet in a futile attempt to stop the pain.
“Something is…screwing with me. My connection to the console is breaking up…” Chief informed him, his voice mixed with static.
“That would be the device I’m here for. It’s a disruption device. Basically, it’s a large EMP emitter once fully activated,” the man explained. He held a hand under his chin, his gun tilted to the side. “Even when not fully powered, it emits small waves unless covered by that special shield there. It shouldn’t last long, but long enough.” He brandished his guns quickly, and Kaiden and Cameron readied to return fire.
“Guys, above you,” Chief shouted.
They instinctually jumped to their respective sides as something fell from above. A woman in armor drove two blades into the floor. She flipped away when Kaiden tried to kick her. Cameron fired his scorpion wire to wind around her leg, but before he could pull it taut, she used her knife to sever it.
“It looks like you weren’t able to undo my work all that much,” the man noted, as he checked the console. He looked at the assassin. “Let’s finish them, then we’ll grab the device and go.”
“What about the others?” she asked.
He shrugged. “You were the only one I ever really cared about.”
“Agreed, Bastion,” she all but purred and drew a rifle.
“Move,” Kaiden ordered as both mercs began to fire. He frowned, his field clouded by his malfunctioning HUD. “Chief, can you clear this up?”
“I’m having a little trouble myself,” Chief exclaimed.
“My head is pounding too. I don’t get it. I was fine all day.” He rolled behind a large metal machine, but it wasn’t the safe cover he had hoped for as the assassin’s shots melted through and barely missed his ribs. The ace spun out and returned fire, but the woman dodged easily. Cameron was pinned down by the man’s assault. The merc’s pistols must have been heavily modded as they fired extremely fast and obliterated everything in their path.
The ace winced as his headache worsened and he fumbled for a static grenade. “Don’t do it,” Chief warned.
“Why not?”
“If that thing erupts too close, it might mess with that shield or the console controlling that thing and who knows what would happen? It might make the situation worse.”
“Dammit.” He swore and released the grenade as he darted across the room to find a position from where he could fire without danger of hitting the device.
Cameron kicked a table that slid toward his attacker but the man simply vaulted onto it, flipped over, and continued to fire. The bounty hunter finally made some shots, but they were met by a shield around the merc. “Of course,” he muttered and broke into a zigzag run to avoid the blasts.
“Kaiden, this guy has a barrier. We need to find something to break it or turn it off,” he informed him over the comms. His evasive maneuver afforded him a brief glimpse of his partner’s predicament. “Not going too well for you either?”
“It could be better.” He winced, his voice faint over the link. “Chief says to not hit the device. Something that sensitive could be trouble if we damage it.”
“They don’t seem so concerned about that.” Cameron dropped and slid beneath a stack of boxes that were blown apart by Bastion’s shots.
“I can’t contact the others. Even you’re almost all static,” Kaiden replied.
The bounty hunter grunted as he leapt onto a crane and used it to reach a walkway above. “We need to retreat and find a better position. Otherwise, this is merely a shooting gallery for them.”
“Like hell. You heard him. If they have the chance, they can grab that thing and run,” the ace countered.
“If we can’t shoot them, what do you wanna do? I can’t even hit mine. My gun doesn’t have the power to punch through in only a few shots.”
“But mine might, and you’re better trained to fight quick targets,” Kaiden pointed out. “Let’s play this like we had originally planned. I still have dibs, after all.”
The idea clicked and Cameron chuckled. “All right, go and do your thing.” He aimed over the railing and released a volley of shots at the assassin. The sudden ambush caught her off-guard and her barrier vanished as she returned fire. She tried to activate her stealth generator, but one of the shots clipped it and, in a quick blast of smoke and electricity, it was rendered useless.
The ace charged a shot and used the distraction provided by his teammate to scramble over a table and take aim at Bastion. The man was still focused on Cameron’s assault on the assassin, but instinct made him glance up. He turned to fire and managed one shot before Kaiden slid down and fired. The merc’s shot careened uselessly, while his opponent’s blazed a sure course to its target. Bastion curled his arms defensively when the blast struck his shield. It shattered with enough power to set his coat ablaze and topple him to land hard and he beat at the flames.
But before Kaiden could make another shot, his mind was wracked with another surge of pain. His HUD filled completely with jumbled numbers and letters and colors flashed to increase the disorientation. “Chief, turn the HUD off.”
“I…ne…t…canc…” Chief’s garbled reply indicated that the disruption was building too severely.
“Kaiden! Get up. He’s coming back to—shit!” Cameron’s walkway fell from under him, its supports destroyed by some well-placed shots from the assassin. He plummeted and flailed unsuccessfully to grasp his rifle as it spun barely beyond his reach. The breath punched from his lungs as he landed with a hard thud, but he pushed himself up quickly and drew his pistol. The woman’s rifle shot destroyed the handgun, melted the armor on his glove, and scalded his hand as well.
The ace looked up. Bastion stood above him and aimed with deliberate intent. No words were exchanged, merely a barrel in his face and a finger about to pull the trigger. He grimaced and his mind searched beyond the pain for something—resignation, perhaps, but that somehow seemed too final. The expected end never came, however. The merc was assaulted by a fusillade of lasers and bullets and Cameron’s assassin would have lost her head to the swing of a hammer if she hadn’t managed a hasty leap to avoid it.
Jaxon and the rest of the team stormed the room and the Tsuna raced over to help him up while Silas hauled Cameron to his feet.
“That pyramid thing—get the shield back to full power,” Kaiden ordered.
“Indre!” Jaxon shouted.
She nodded and ran to the console. “Give me a minute.”
“Cavalry’s here, huh?” Bastion muttered. He scrambled to his feet, blood dripping from his chest and arms, and the assassin made it to his side. “You need to get out of here.”
“You plan to take them on your own?” she asked.
“I doubt it’ll end that nobly,” he muttered and placed a drive into her hand. “Besides, it leaves you to deal with our benefactors. That’s a bargaining chip.”
She paused and glanced at the drive before she nodded. “I’ll get you out.”
“I’ll hope for the best but expect the worst. Go!” he ordered. She nodded and raced away. Jaxon fired after her and Kaiden made an attempt to, but his headache had worn him down. She vaulted to a shelf and from there, to a walkway above. The Tsuna’s shots narrowly missed her each time, and she made her way effortlessly into a vent above.
Jaxon looked at the vent for a moment before he returned his attention to Kaiden. “Are you all right?”
“Having a hell of a migraine would have been a bad way to go,” he replied and finally managed to stand. “Thanks.”
“I have it,” Indre declared. The shield powered up and the difference was almost instantaneous. Kaiden’s HUD cleared and Chief appeared once again.
“T
hat thing can go straight to hell,” he grumbled.
“What should we do about him?” Jaxon asked and aimed at Bastion, who continued to bleed out but remained standing.
“Don’t mind me. I’ll just be on my way,” he stated, although he was barely able to remain upright much less walk.
“You’re done,” Kaiden stated. “Don’t be an idiot. I don’t mind pulling this trigger.”
He almost did when Bastion tried to raise one of his pistols, but his hand trembled and fell. The shield was in place and they were far enough away from the device now. He lowered his rifle and Jaxon looked curiously at him. With a small shrug, he took the shock grenade he’d wanted to use earlier and activated it, then dropped it at Bastion’s feet.
The EX-10 member looked at it, then at Kaiden with contempt in his eyes. It detonated and he cried out in pain before he fell to his knees and from there, into an ungainly sprawl.
“One got away,” the Tsuna noted.
“We took care of nine of them and secured the device they were after, so it’s still a win.” Kaiden sighed and sat on the floor to rest. “I doubt she’ll come back to try to finish this on her own. Once we report back to Zena, the cops are sure to come and clean up. We did our job.”
“I deactivated the lockdown,” Indre advised them.
He replied with a thumbs-up before he pried his helmet off and looked at Jaxon with a weary smile. “How was your first taste of merc work?”
The Tsuna holstered his machine gun, removed his helmet, and tucked it under his arm, “I’ll certainly admit it was interesting.”
“But you prefer the Animus?”
“The Animus will always be a simulation of the real thing to prepare for events like this. I will say that it is nice to see the results of my training in action.” He looked at Kaiden and gave him the Tsuna two-finger salute. “It was an honor to work with you.”
“So can I call you for the next one?”
He dropped the salute and turned. “Perhaps, but that should be something you can handle, right?”
Kaiden laughed. “Yeah, but I’ll make sure to let you know if I get a good one that requires your special touch.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Sasha walked into Laurie’s office, where both faculty members watched the monitor in front of them intently. “I’m here. You made it sound urgent.”
“Sasha,” the professor exclaimed and twisted on the couch to face his visitor. “Kaiden is at the Ramses Tech building. I think he might have gone with some of the other students. Wolfson checked the active students on campus, and some of his group haven’t checked in after leaving earlier. The Ramses building is under attack by some group, and he’s in the thick of it.”
The commander removed his oculars, folded them, and slid them into his pocket as he eyed the professor warily and appeared plainly befuddled. “And? What do you want me to do, exactly?”
Laurie paused, surprised by his nonchalance. “You’re not surprised? Worried?”
He shook his head and noted the empty glass with droplets of vodka still within. “He’s done merc gigs since last year if you recall, so it shouldn’t surprise you either.” He circled to the other side of the couch and studied Wolfson, who watched the news intently. “Are you as concerned about your apprentice?”
“I’m not worrying about it like Laurie is, no,” the large man stated and took a generous swig from the bottle. “I know he can handle himself. But I’ll admit I was caught off-guard to see him on the news. I’m not sure what’s going on right now as we haven’t had an update since we first saw him.”
The screen changed from the constantly repeating footage back to the head anchorman, “Breaking news.”
“They really like saying that, don’t they?” Laurie muttered and slumped in his seat.
“The situation at the Ramses headquarters has been resolved. The barrier has gone down and the infiltrators are being escorted out by San Diego officers and the off-site security employed by Ramses. We go to Tod Howard who is speaking with one of the leaders of the group. Tod?”
“Thanks, Nola,” a man with neatly groomed brown hair and a winning smile stated. “I’m here with Zena, a leader of the Fire…um, off-site security team who helped contain the situation.” He held the mic to her face. “Can you introduce yourself and tell us what happened?”
“You already have the details,” she said flatly and obviously wanted this to be over. “We were called in and dealt with the situation, but I should note that we had a lot of help. In fact, the infiltrators were taken out mostly by some other off-site assistance.”
“I understand there were some unfortunate casualties on both sides,” Tod hinted.
Zena nodded and folded her arms. “Yes. We were forced to eliminate two of the hostiles, and we lost many good men and women, but they sacrificed themselves to stop these terrorists, and they will be—”
Wolfson turned the volume down and looked at his two companions. He leaned back and smiled. “So, does that mean Kaiden and his group were the ones to take down most of the baddies?” the giant asked.
“Are they all right? She said there were casualties.” Laurie fretted and tugged nervously at his sleeves.
“They are fine. If there was an emergency situation or they were killed, their EIs would have sent a message back to the Academy,” Sasha said and opened a holoscreen. “I see no such messages, and their signals are tracking normally. In fact, they seem to be heading back by ship considering how fast they are moving.”
“Wonderful,” the professor said with a sigh of relief.
“They are masters now, Laurie, and can handle something like this. Otherwise, why are they here?” The commander turned to leave the room but fixed his colleague with a firm look. “And you should know, it’s because of your work that they have grown so much.”
Laurie allowed the statement to sink in before a truly happy smile settled on his face as he flipped his hair back. “Of course, that’s the best way to use my genius, after all. To help the future greats.” Sasha nodded and began to leave, and he added quickly, “Including you, once.”
The other man stopped at that and nodded quickly. “Yes indeed. It even gave me a new course.” He turned to stare into the professor’s eyes. “Now, remember that feeling as you work. From now on, what you can accomplish will help you move away from your failures.”
Xiulan entered the meeting area yawning and stretching her arms and almost immediately, she could sense the despondency in the room. Nolan hung his head, Jensen had turned away from the screen and now tapped his fingers wearily on the table, and Juro sat stoically beside him, his eyes closed in thought.
“What’s wrong with all of you?” she asked and approached quickly to look at the screen that displayed the marks that indicated they were tracking someone. “What’s this? Are these the EX-10 members?” She frowned and looked more closely. “Two dead and seven incapacitated? You started the mission and it failed already?” She stared at Nolan and sucked in a breath through her teeth. “Some great team you commissioned. That’s credits we will not get back.”
“I am fully aware of the situation, Xiulan. And I shoulder the blame. I should have done more to prepare for eventualities,” the general said, his voice low with a hint of real remorse.
“You will be fully compensated, either financially or with political assistance,” Juro interjected.
Xiulan folded her arms and her gaze darted from one man to the other. “That’s all well and good, but what will the other members think? What about the leader?”
“Trust me. He knows what happened,” Jensen muttered.
“I certainly do.” The group all turned as Merrick walked down the eastern hall toward them. Xiulan—the only one unaware of his presence before now—almost jumped at the sight.
“Mr. Rayne, I didn’t know you had arrived.” She turned to a grunt who was noticeably eavesdropping. “Why wasn’t I informed?” she snapped.
“Probably because you wer
e asleep,” Jensen remarked. “He only came in a couple of hours ago.”
“It is a pity this didn’t bear fruit. Having the prototype would have sped things along,” Merrick stated. He walked to the head of the table and turned to look at the summary onscreen.
“You seem to be taking this quite well, sir,” Juro noted.
He nodded, looked back, and offered a surprisingly reassuring smile. “I knew there was no guarantee we could secure the device, but the specs were saved on the drive they used to hack into the console—something we can still make use of if Dario can retrieve it.”
“Is that why he left almost as soon as he arrived?” Jensen asked.
“Most likely, but I can’t say I always know what goes through his head at times,” Merrick replied. “Besides, we won’t be able to take our target if we rely purely on tech. The Gin incident proved as much. They are quite resourceful, even when hamstrung like that.”
“Was this some sort of test, sir?” Nolan questioned.
The leader chuckled softly and the other members of the organization exchanged glances, not sure if they should be relieved or worried. He finally turned to face them fully. “No, I don’t think I need to test your resolve or allegiance at this point. You wouldn’t be here otherwise. But do learn from it, at the very least the fact that for all our power and influence, nothing is a certain victory. Which is why we must always plan for any eventuality and adjust our strategies to improve our chances, even if we hold ourselves back in the name of keeping ourselves mostly secret for now.”
“You sound a little like you’re back at your old job there…sir,” Jensen said and added the honorific quickly to try to mask the casual nature of his statement.
Juro stepped in. “You mentioned the target. So it’s been finalized that this is Nexus, then?”
Merrick nodded. “My old Academy has its place in our goals. Even with the other academy we are setting up, there are troves of tech and resources we need from the original Ark Academy. And if we restart the ascension project, we need the point of origin to start with.” He looked at the council, his expression stern. “But before that, we need to secure more power, both politically and otherwise. Which brings me to the next part of our agenda.”
Animus Boxed Set 2 (Books 5-8): Revenant, Glitch, Master, Infiltration Page 61
