Animus Boxed Set 2 (Books 5-8): Revenant, Glitch, Master, Infiltration
Page 80
“Well. It looks like they finally made their way here.” Dario sounded smug as he spun his chair away from the holoscreen. “Please feel free to have fun while you work.”
“We—I underestimated them before.” Yvette snorted and drew her blade. “I’ll kill them quickly and be done with this.”
“That is also a viable strategy,” he conceded and picked a box up from the table. “But remember that this is a production facility. We have some bots and a few ghouls ready to go, but there isn’t exactly much backup should you need it.”
She opened the visor on her helm and glared at him. “You will keep the leader occupied, correct?”
“The plan is still the same,” he assured her. “My guess is that Kaiden will run around with one or two of his friends, so the rest are yours. And should you eliminate them quickly, you might make it back in time to deal the killing blow. That would be a pleasant day for you, wouldn’t it?”
The woman turned away and her visor snapped closed before she leapt up to the walkway above and to their left. “She’s quite excited, in her own way,” he noted as he strolled slowly toward the door. “I do hope she lives. I quite like her.”
Once the elevator reached the bottom, a group of Havoc droids activated and fired at the doors to shred it with laser fire. As soon as they stopped and approached the wreck, two drones soared overhead and dropped thermals at their feet, which erupted quickly and destroyed the preliminary guards. The top of the elevator opened, and Indre and Flynn dropped out. He aimed immediately, ready to fire at any remaining droids, but was greeted by an empty chamber bathed in red light.
“Well. That’s not much of a welcome,” he quipped and lowered his weapon.
“This place could be mostly automated,” Indre guessed as her drones returned to her. “It’s hard to spill secrets if there aren’t that many people who know the secret.”
“If there are any, there’ll be even less soon.” Kaiden dropped from above with the others. “It should be fine, though. Their secrets will be safe with us.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Two dots moved left and four down the main hall. Yvette tucked the radar away and continued her pursuit, moving quickly, her footsteps silenced by the mods in her suit. She took out a small drone and directed it to fly off to pursue her quarry. While she had her orders and her targets, she wanted so badly to destroy Kaiden. The hatred she felt for him was one she couldn’t really explain. All of them were responsible for their failure on the last mission. Of her teammates, two were dead and the others in jail.
Now, she worked as an underling for a man who treated her with supreme indifference. She was merely a tool for him, but she was used to that role. What angered her was that she couldn’t do anything about it. He could kill her with a snap of his fingers, and she hated that she couldn’t find the rage to even attempt to retaliate.
But what use would an attack be if she couldn’t make a scratch before she died?
Perhaps in this situation, Kaiden could be a boon. If he was able to eliminate Dario, she could not only free herself but use his tools to find Bastion. Once he was free, they could raise a new force together and annihilate these fanatics she had been trapped with for months.
Her drone found the targets. Two of them were definitely Tsuna as they had infusers. One was the agent, judging by the gadgets on her, and the last was clearly a marksman. That meant that Kaiden and Gendo’s daughter were the ones who had separated from the group. She checked her map and confirmed that Dario was already moving to intercept them.
They could have this job done in ten minutes. She would not bide her time any longer. Dario would die or make good on his promise. Her patience was at its end.
“Do you have a destination or are we still winging it?” Kaiden asked as he brought his foot down hard on the head of a downed Soldier droid.
“We have a number of possible targets,” Chiyo informed him and turned to check behind them. “The Genesis device is pinging a multitude of terminals, servers, nodes, and whatever you can dream of. This place seems to be run autonomously, which is unbelievable in a facility this vast.”
“No kidding. There doesn’t seem to be more than a couple of floors, but it’s damn spacious.” He peered at the ceiling more than fifty feet above him, illuminated in red light. “Do you think it was designed to be ominous?”
“The structure is built to be fortified against a potential cave in. Whoever designed it was quite thorough—and also coerced, if I had to guess.” She glanced quickly at the device. “Kaiden, something just activated.”
“Where?”
“Ahead—about thirty yards.” She motioned down the long hall. “That door on the right.”
He vented his rifle. “Do you think it’s another batch of droids?”
“Perhaps, but this reading appears to be something more than only a power unit. It looks to be a mainframe.”
“Well, I guess we’ll start there.” The duo made their way cautiously to the room and stood on either side of the doors. Chiyo nodded to him and sent Kaitō into the panel to gain access. As soon as the entrance opened, Kaiden twisted around the doorframe. The room was in darkness and Chief activated the night vision in his helm so he could check the area. “It looks like there’s some kind of checkered pattern on the walls and there are a few terminals around.” he lowered his gun as they entered. “I guess you can take a look at those and see if you can get anything from them because other than that, it’s empty.”
The doors behind them shut and locked as soon as they entered, and he whipped around. “I thought Kaitō had control?”
“I do,” the EI insisted. “A command of higher authority must have come from an attached device or console.”
The lines on the wall began to light up. Chiyo readied her sub-machine gun as the room changed and white constructs formed around them. One blocked their exit.
“What the hell are these?” the ace asked.
“Hard light constructs,” she informed him. “In short, holograms you can physically interact with but which can only take simple shapes. Usually, skins are—”
The constructs completed their formation before they began to glow. The room exploded in white light. Kaiden’s helmet hastily deactivated the night vision. When the two opened their eyes, they stood in an alley and dark skies drizzled rain on them.
He held a hand up. The rain struck his palm but disappeared on impact. “Weird. Do you see this shit, Chi?”
Her attention was focused away from him and on a glowing blue neon sign behind them that emblazoned a kanji message. 未来.
“Mirai,” she whispered. “That’s the kanji for Mirai.”
The ace surveyed their surroundings quickly. Someone was playing with them. At a flicker of movement down another path in the alley, he immediately aimed, ready to fire. A figure walked out clad in black medium armor, a set he recognized. “It’s those ghouls again,” he muttered and charged a blast. He located two above and another approaching from the left.
He prepared to fire, but Chiyo held a hand up. “Wait a moment,” she said and raised the Genesis device. The golems above took aim, while the one Kaiden had in his sights raised its hand. A plasma blade activated from its gauntlet and the edges glowed red.
“Chi,” he warned, redirected his rifle to cover the two above, and drew Debonair to aim at the one approaching them.
She pressed a button on the device and it beeped rapidly, then fell silent. The golems stiffened before the one in the alley collapsed. Those perched on the roof toppled soundlessly and landed with two consecutive thumps. The final adversary followed suit a second later.
Kaiden released the trigger slowly and his charged blast faded. “What did you do?”
“I learned that the signal I was able to get from the neurotech device helped to transmit commands to other receptor devices near it,” she explained and grimaced at her potential assailant. “I assumed it was to direct these things and simply blocked it using a different wave.”
The ace vaulted onto the top of a stack of crates, launched himself up, and grasped the edge of the roof on one of the buildings. He hauled himself up and scanned the area before his scrutiny settled on a man dressed in a dapper silver coat, white leggings, and a wide-brimmed silver hat. He couldn’t make out his face from this distance, but he could see the wide, eerie smile as he returned the scrutiny.
“It’s a pleasure to finally meet you in person, Kaiden,” he announced with a bow and peered over to the ground. “And to you as well, mio caro. My name is Dario.”
Kaiden aimed Sire at their new adversary. “Are you one of the guys after the Mirai Zaibatsu?”
“I was—still am, I suppose.” The man straightened. “Right now, I am tasked with dealing with the intruders who are a threat to Earth’s safety.”
“Earth’s safety?” he asked while he charged a shot.
“Well, that’s what my boss and most of the others think. I see their point but to be honest, I’m only here for my own pursuits,” he admitted casually, folded his arms, and clasped both elbows. The man wore some kind of gauntlet on both hands. “I’m no humanitarian, really, although I like humans—or, at least, only certain ones. The rest bore me, for the most part. My boss is a good example. He’s a splendid man. A real passion burns in him.” He moved one hand to his lips. “And Gin Sonny, of course.” He moved his hand from his lips in a dramatic gesture and made a kissing noise. “Magnifico! A pity he didn’t live long enough for us to meet.”
“You liked that crazy bastard?” he mocked. “Oh, well, there’s no use trying to get information out of an insane person.”
Dario smiled and his gauntlets flared with light.
“Kaiden, wait!” Chief shouted.
The ace released the trigger, his blast on a sure course toward Dario. It detonated only a few yards from the barrel, caught in a net of amber light and the eruption extinguished the light. His eyes widened as he was engulfed in the explosion and only dimly heard Chiyo call out to him.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
“Is anything there, Indre?” Flynn called into the room.
“Only some random processing data. This one is another bust.” She sighed.
“More are coming,” Genos warned at the clank of droids approaching in the distance.
“We still have a little entertainment, then.” The marksman chortled and readied his rifle. “There I was, all hyped up, but so far, this makes the arena feel like—”
“Flynn, look out!” Indre shouted and shoved him out of the way as drone oh-two swooped in and was cut in half in midair as a figure landed and rolled back. Drone oh-one prepared to fire, but a smaller mechanical collided with it and burrowed through before it targeted Genos. The mechanical was shot in flight by Jaxon and parts scattered around them.
Flynn and Indre stood and aimed at the assailant. The woman was dressed in a sleek black suit with a white line that traced from the top of the shoulders to the bottom of the legs. Her helmet was curved with a large visor on the front that slid away to reveal dark eyes glaring at them. “That would have been a quick kill, Agent. You robbed your friend of that.”
Indre glared at her. Jaxon walked up and noticed the blade. “You’re the assassin from Rasmus.”
“The EX-10?” Flynn growled. “I thought we were done with those bastards.”
Their adversary held her blade up and it began to glow blue.
“Friends, the droids,” Genos shouted.
“Indre, help Genos deal with them, but be wary. Flynn, take her down,” the ace ordered.
“With pleasure.” The marksman fired three shots, but the assassin dodged them easily and closed in. Jaxon moved into her path and fired his machine gun. She spun aside and lunged forward to sink her blade into his ribs. The Tsuna drew his heavy pistol and blind-fired to his left. His opponent raised a hand to activate a small shield that blocked the blasts as she jumped back. Flynn took aim, but the barrier vanished, and she aimed at the sniper. A bolt fired from her gauntlet and struck across his rifle and into his shoulder. He hissed in pain but yanked it out as Jaxon forced the woman back with another volley from his machine gun.
“Are you all right?” he asked, his attention firmly on the assassin.
“It didn’t get too deep. That’s what the armor is for.” He gritted his teeth as he examined the bolt. “It’s barbed, though. That could have been really bad.”
“Can you still—”
“Fight? Of course, mate.” He checked his rifle and cursed. “Hell, she severed the vents. It’s too dangerous to fire using the energy core.” He cracked the weapon open. “Give me a minute to switch out to kinetic—look out!”
The assassin disappeared—or rather her hologram did. When had he lost sight of her? Jaxon looked up as she plummeted toward him, her blade ready to pierce his eye. Her momentum was stopped when Geno’s claw caught her in the air. The mechanist swung his cannon up and fired a blast, but she swung her arms, caught him by both sides of his helmet, and hurled him to the floor. She produced a blade from her other arm and plunged it into his chest.
Jaxon’s eyes widened. “Genos!”
Kaiden’s hearing was dulled but he heard gunfire. He forced himself up and stared in confusion as pieces of his helmet fell onto the fake ground. “What the hell happened?”
“An explosion. I was able to divert all the armor’s energy into the shields, but they still didn’t hold up,” Chief explained. “Get yourself together, partner, Chiyo is alone right now and this guy is fighting with nanos.”
“Nanos? What was that light?” He used the wall to prop himself up.
“The energy the nanos contain. He linked it together like a net to catch your shot and blow it up in your face. The nanos added to it. I should have seen it sooner, but they had no power until he activated them.”
He dragged in a breath and took stock. His jacket was in tatters and his armor was now mostly compromised. Debonair was still functional and his grenades seemed all right, luckily. They would have finished the job, without a doubt. “Do you see Sire?”
“Behind you, but it doesn’t look like it’ll be any help now.”
“I needed to get an upgrade anyway. Wolfson will be pissed, though.” He drew Debonair. “Where is he?”
“Still up top. Chiyo’s chasing him around. She’s prepping something but she can’t focus on it right now.”
“Then I’ll buy her time. Maybe we should activate the Battle Suite.”
“No can do, partner. You don’t wanna go near those nanos with that—it’s like giving them an open door.”
The ace didn’t understand that but now wasn’t the time for explanations. Instead, he merely grimaced and forced himself to sprint but stopped when he noticed the motionless golems. He swiped both rifles from them and made his way to the roof.
“I must compliment you, Chiyo. You are quite nimble for someone of your class.” Dario used some nanos to form a blaster and fired several shots at the infiltrator, who danced around them and fired in response. He moved his hand and scattered the nanos before he formed them into three spears that he launched toward her.
She jumped from the roof to the ground and was able to dodge two of them before she threw herself back to avoid the third. The spear barely scratched the surface of her visor before it drove into the ground. For a brief moment, the checkered pattern of the room’s floor showed through before it was replaced by cracked rock once again. After a slow, deep breath, she pushed to her feet and checked the Genesis device. She still needed to calibrate it, but she couldn’t find the time while he continued his assault.
“Tell me, Chiyo, did I get the atmosphere right?” Dario asked. He stood on the edge of the building and looked down at her. “I wanted to make it at least somewhat pleasant, but I�
�m working with an aesthetic I’m not really familiar with.”
She reached casually behind her to activate the Genesis device. If he wanted to talk, she would use the time for set up. “Is this supposed to distract me?” she asked and triggered Kaitō to begin the process in the device. “You obviously based this on Tokyo, and I saw the sign with my father’s company logo on it.”
He looked around. “I paid a visit to a business district before leaving. That was the image I had in my head when I booted this holoroom up.”
“You were in Tokyo?” she gasped and aimed her weapon at him. “Did you do anything to my father?”
“What? Of course not, dolcezza,” he stated, his hand over his heart. “I actually didn’t even have the chance to meet him before I had to rush over here to meet you. But I have to say I’m much happier with you, honestly. You’re making this enjoyable.”
“Madame, explosives!” Chiyo whirled and narrowed her eyes at several small orbs that hurtled toward her. She snatched a small spike from her belt and thrust it into the ground to release a forcefield and the orbs erupted on impact. The field shrank but held with each successive blast. Who was this man? Someone who used nanos like this should use a device that was easy to hack into—an automated device that would enable her to take control of the nanos. But when she tried to hack into it, she saw that not only were his gauntlets well secured, but he only used pre-made designs and manual controls. He shouldn’t be able to create and direct this many nanos at a time and definitely not so efficiently.
She flung herself out of the protective field before it broke and raced into another alley, torn between two conflicting priorities. While she had to get back up to the roof, she also needed to check on Kaiden. She hoped that she had diverted their assailant’s attention away from him, but with how he was able to use his machines, he could have sought him out while she was focused on the battle.