Jax glanced at the wall again. The crocodile had managed to bite onto the ram’s foot and was fluctuating between pulling it and being pulled by it. With a good kick, the ram got loose and scrambled to its hands and knees. When it had its footing, it charged the croc.
“Here it comes,” Felix said, watching the wall now.
The croc ducked and the ram barely missed gouging it with its horns. It lost its balance and went headlong against the wall of the arena. The ram scrambled, but couldn’t get up.
Jax’s stomach was starting to tingle with dread. Dozens of horrid scenarios of the ram’s head being ripped off were bombarding his mind.
The ram still couldn’t stand, and now Jax could see why: the two horns had lodged into the floor.
In a flash, the crocodile dove and bit down on the ram’s leg again.
“When did this happen?” Hank said to himself. He scowled. “Today?”
The tone of his voice drew everyone’s attention, but Jax could see that Hank still wasn’t paying attention to the arena match.
“Huh? This video is from months ago. You know that,” Felix said.
The crocodile began to twist and then roll, contorting the Ram’s neck.
“No, guys, I was just on a news site: there’s a new video from the arena,” Hank said. He moved to touch the wall screen. “It’s human.” Hank cut off the croc-ram match and navigated to another video.
The group grew sober. Hank stepped back as the video started to play.
A rhythmic Boom! Boom! Boom! came from the stands surrounding the arena. The Animalis were chanting something: “Naya! Sin-ha!” it sounded like to Jax. The two combatants were released from their cages on either side of the circular arena. On one side, the cage folded away to reveal a man. He looked disoriented and disheveled. The brown hair on his head was clumped, and he had an unkempt beard starting to grow. Stains covered his now dysfunctional clothes. Red ringed his irises, indicating that his retina monitors had been removed. And on the opposite side of the arena, a cage folded away to reveal a lion.
Or lioness, Jax decided.
The lioness obviously hadn’t been mistreated like the man had been. She looked groomed and tidy, with dark gray clothes. There was no mane around the top and back of the head, just speckled, golden fur. As she called up to the crowd, her teeth were exposed. They could have been sharp, human teeth, except for the enormous canines. Relaxed, soft-looking hands hung at the end of her muscular arms. The tail was only a foot long, maybe cut short, but now fully healed. Her movements were slow and calculated, seeming like she believed that she was assured of victory.
“I can’t believe this,” Felix said. “They still can’t stop these things? That should be our top priority: taking out this arena.”
Jax nodded in agreement. The few times that the Animalis had put humans into the arena had been outrageous. It was unthinkable that they had gotten away with it before, and that it still hadn’t been stopped.
On the video, the man was scrambling at the wall. He jumped and flung his arms up. But it was useless, as the fifteen-foot high walls were smooth and impossible to scale. He turned and flattened his back against the wall.
The lioness slowed. Her posture lowered, ready to sprint.
The man’s muscles contorted, pulling his face into a horrified gasp. He was too scared to do anything. Too scared to move, too scared to fight back.
“I can’t watch this,” Maven said. The door to the cabin folded open and she stepped out. “Excuse me, Captain,” she said before leaving down the hall.
They all turned to see Captain Hernandez standing in the doorway. Hank leaned away from the wall and unfolded his arms. Jax glanced at the floor and animal cage, before remembering he wasn’t in his barracks about to get an inspection. Felix gave a brief wave.
Hernandez was about to speak, then saw the video playing on the wall. Hank moved to shut it off.
“As you were,” Hernandez said, stopping him. “I’m glad you’re watching this. It’s something that we all need to be reminded of.” He lifted his leg to step into the room. “May I come in?”
“Yes, sir,” Hank said.
Jax moved to give the captain space, but there was nowhere to go. He tried to straighten up even more, but there was nothing he could do to feel more comfortable with the captain so close. Once Hernandez was in, the door folded closed, and the room felt even more tiny and cramped.
“This is the Narasimha mentioned in the documents you retrieved.” The captain nodded to the lioness on the wall. “At least, as far as we can tell.”
Her muscles were a coiled spring, ready to fire at any moment. Against the wall, the man seemed to have regained his composure. He stepped away from the wall, raising his fists. That must have been what the lioness had been waiting for. She burst into a sprint.
“I’ve reconsidered what you suggested earlier, after a conversation with the admiral,” the captain said to Hank.
On the screen, the man’s resolution evaporated. He turned and ran, squeezing his eyes shut. The lioness was almost twice as fast.
“There is precedence, but only for very small units,” the captain said. “So I will be sending several small units to attempt to prevent these Animalis attacks. Hank, you are to be one of those units—you and Jax—along with three other small units from our company. All working independently but under my supervision.”
“Am I in one of those units, sir?” Felix asked.
The captain looked at Felix as if he were just noticing him for the first time. “No.”
“You’re not sending the whole company?” Hank asked. Then, “Why us?”
The captain frowned. On the wall, the lioness had tackled the man. Jax saw a flurry of movement as the man struggled wildly in her grasp. Small retractable claws had extended from her fingertips and were now anchored into his skin.
“You—” the captain said, then stopped. “I’m giving you an opportunity to correct your earlier mistakes. I will not expect you back in my presence without, at the very least, the contents of that plane destroyed.”
Jax felt ready to put up a salute in a heartbeat. It seemed almost too good to be real, the chance to really make a difference in the conflict. Even more, standing together there while packed into the tiny quarters, Jax felt like he was part of a conspiracy—and the plot was to strike at the heart of the enemy.
Hernandez stepped back toward the door, but then stopped as it folded open. “And I need you to look into the possibility that the Animalis are creating new animals. The rest of the details will be in the orders I’m sending out shortly. Since this assignment isn’t strictly adherent to convention, I’ve arranged for a dear friend of mine to transport your unit. Her name is Hurley Grimshaw. She …” He looked down, seeming unsure of himself for a moment, which took Jax by surprise. “She was in the area, and I … Well, she always loved visiting Australia.” He shook his head, looking almost angry with himself. “Ms. Grimshaw is somewhat of an animal expert and has agreed to take a look at these animals you’ve brought on board.”
“Yes, sir,” Hank said.
Before the captain turned down the hall, he held onto the frame of the door. “Make sure that Ms. Grimshaw is kept safe. And, if you could, let her know that if she needs anything, I’m always here for her.”
Jax brought his hand up to his forehead before the captain turned again. Hernandez matched the salute without straightening his posture, and then left. Jax just stood there and blinked. The captain was putting his trust in Jax again, even after he’d gone against orders. He wouldn’t let him down this time, not again. Jax had given himself to the army, and he couldn’t put himself first again. He nodded to himself. There were others to think about.
On the wall, the screaming of the man had died down. The lioness, Narasimha, now stood there in the center of the arena, fawning to the crowd. She finished waving, bent down to the man’s mortified face, opened her powerful jaws, and bit.
Chapter 4
The
Atticus Five
According to Jax’s retina monitor, the lady he was eyeing as likely being Hurley Grimshaw stood five feet, ten inches tall. Jax kept himself from smiling as he gave her a quick once-over: flip-flops, a mass of curly red hair tied in the back, a pound of metal bracelets dangling and twinkling on each wrist, and wearing a light, billowing blouse and shorts. What got him most, though, was that she didn’t look a day over twenty-five.
Jax rechecked the location in his retina monitor. In civilian clothing, he and Hank stood in one of the outdoor terminals of the Buffalo New York Airport, where the Hornet had landed for their rendezvous. Yes, this was where the small private planes sat in between patches of lush greenery that broke up the sidewalks—and Jax again took note of the fifth plane down the row, which was being prepped for takeoff. Yes, this was where Grimshaw was going to be. There was the plane, and there, if Jax had her pegged correctly, was Grimshaw.
She waved.
“That’s Hurley?” Jax asked.
Hank shook his head and put up his hand to return the wave. “Our captain is a mystery. The way he talked about her, I was imagining a grizzled ex-wife he was trying to bring back into his life.”
“Maybe this is his daughter, or a niece,” Jax said. But even as he said it, he recognized that Grimshaw didn’t appear to be from the same genetic line as the captain. Jax didn’t know how old the captain was, but certainly, he was much older than this fair-skinned, radiantly smiling, green-eyed, dimple-cheeked, carefree girl.
“The brief said they had served together, but she separated from the army before being promoted to captain herself,” Hank said, his voice fading to a whisper as Hurley Grimshaw came closer.
“Jesus probably wouldn’t tell you, but apparently you’ve both impressed him,” she said.
Jax again stifled a smile, this time at her Latin American pronunciation of Captain Hernandez’s first name, which to Jax sounded more like, “Hey, Zeus.”
“How old are you two?” She stopped in front of them and extended her hand. The four-o’clock sun scattered amongst the wild curls of her hair, turning the outer layer into a glowing firestorm of color.
“Seventeen, Miss Grimshaw,” Hank said, taking her hand. Her bracelets jingled with the handshake. “Hank Schneps. This is your plane?” He pointed to the pearl-white plane behind her. The design was wide and flat with curves that were graceful and ornamental.
Grimshaw looked up at the plane and nodded. “She spoils us. I might have gone overboard with this one, but sometimes you just need to indulge.”
“It’s an Atticus Five, right? Resplendently sumptuous. I’ve read a lot about them. I’m a big fan. Incredible to see one in person,” Hank said.
“What about you?” Grimshaw asked, turning to Jax. She seemed like she was about to ask about the animal container he was carrying.
Jax started to lift the cage.
“Oh, what happened?” Grimshaw asked him. “Your lip, your ear. I’m certainly not a doctor, but I could at least help you get those bandages on properly.”
She brought her hand up to adjust the bandage on his ear, but Jax recoiled and took a step back. He brought his own hand up to cover the ear.
“It’s nothing,” he said. “Little accident.”
Her act of tenderness made Jax feel strange. When her hand had first reached toward him, he’d felt the warmth of her caring. It made him feel … important to her, like he had always been her friend. But then his doubts had risen: I don’t even know her. Is she going to ask me for a favor? Expect me to care about her? It was a responsibility to allow someone to care for you, and Jax had unconsciously refused that responsibility.
Her outreached hand turned gracefully into a handshake, and her smile never wavered. Jax took her hand, jingling her bracelets with a gentle shake. The rough surface of his hand felt to him like a knife edge against her soft, delicate skin.
“Jax Minette. Thank you for giving us a jump. It sounds like Captain Hernandez really admires you,” Jax said.
She smiled modestly and furrowed her eyebrows for just a moment, making it hard for Jax to gauge her reaction.
“If he only knew …” she said, then her gaze drifted to the trees gently swaying, their autumn leaves shimmering with color.
Jax still couldn’t reconcile the image of Grimshaw the captain had portrayed, and who she actually was. Would the captain have been just as surprised to see this person standing before them?
A chittering sound came from the cage in Jax’s hand, and Grimshaw looked down at it again.
“What beautiful animals!” Grimshaw said, crouching to look at the creatures better. “These are the two Jesus told me about? Hello, friends. What are their names?”
Hank stepped closer and said, “These were rescued from an Animalis militant’s plane. It’s not certain, but I believe they are a new, and demonstrably dangerous, species that the Animalis have created.”
“Of course they’re dangerous,” Grimshaw said. “Who wouldn’t want to protect themselves.” She popped open the cage. “You don’t like that cage, do you?”
Hank shook his head. “I’m telling you—”
But it was too late. Immediately, the white one leaped out. Jax set the cage down and reached for it before it had a chance to bolt, but it was too quick.
Grimshaw shook her wrists, jangling her army of bracelets. The animal stopped and sat up on its hind legs, watching and listening to the sound. After a moment, it went to her, sniffing her knee before batting at the bracelets. Grimshaw kept one hand jingling while she moved her other hand for the animal to smell. Instead of sniffing, the creature lashed out with a defensive bite.
“Watch it!” Hank said. “Are you alright? Did it bite you? We should sedate them. Jax, don’t let the other one get out.”
The little black nose of the second one was poking out of the cage. Jax quickly closed the door.
“I’m fine,” Grimshaw said. “He’s just doing what he’s learned to do: to protect himself. Aren’t you? It’s okay. No one’s going to put you back in that cage.”
She kept her hand in front of the creature. After a small sniff, it started to lick her. “What a sweetheart.” Grimshaw looked up at Jax. “Do they have names?”
“Not that I know of,” Jax said, looking at Hank.
Hank rolled his eyes.
The creature seemed to have warmed up to her considerably, pushing its snout against her fingertips, even using her as a scratching post.
“Well, then, what is your name?” she asked the animal. “You certainly have a lot of spunk. A lot of moxie. Oh, I like that—Moxie. What do you think, Moxie?”
“I don’t think it’s going to stick around,” Jax said, watching the animal losing interest in the physical attention. If it got away, Jax was sure it would be him chasing after it, getting bitten, if he was able to catch up to it at all.
Although … this strange, happy girl did seem to have a way with the animals. She was perplexing, and intoxicating for Jax to be around, like stepping into a field of fragrant wildflowers.
“Shouldn’t be too much to worry about,” she said. “They were almost killed in a plane crash? The real tragedy would be to cage them up and dissect them now. If they want to leave, we won’t stop them.”
The animals were her responsibility now, and Jax didn’t like it. From the red flush in Hank’s cheeks, Jax could tell he really didn’t like it, but if she let them go, it was up to her.
“Not considering the people it might bite,” Hank scoffed. “I don’t want to make you feel rushed, but you’ve had a chance to go over the information the captain sent?”
“Right, the violence is spreading to Australia,” she said, and stroked Moxie’s neck. Her smile was gone. “Then we should start taxiing for the launch.”
Grimshaw sprang up and ran to the entrance of the plane, jingling her bracelets. Moxie stood for a moment, glanced at Jax, then followed after her.
“I just came up with the perfect name for the black one
,” Jax said, following Grimshaw. “Little Hank.”
Hank stopped. “That’s offensive.”
Jax walked backward toward the plane, watching Hank’s expression. Hank looked up at the plane, and a pleased smile breaking across his face. Jax could feel it too: this assignment was important. Somehow they had impressed the captain, and now they were being entrusted with a delicate operation.
Then Hank looked back down and watched Moxie, chasing after Grimshaw. His smile soured and turned into a frown. “Jax, they can’t come. They’ll spoil the Atticus! The smell. They’ll poop on everything.”
Jax took in a deep breath. Even with the bright sun overhead, tilting toward the western horizon, the air felt crisp. Excitement was spreading through him. No time to sit and worry, dread, or overplan—he was doing something to help humanity. Then, though, he remembered the rat plane—and the all too typical dread moved back in. Would Jax choke the next time they ran into Animalis? Let another opportunity slide into the hands of his enemies? Would he let someone die?
“Oh!” Grimshaw stopped with her hand on the door to the jumper. “I need to introduce you to my copilot, Hodge.”
The door to Grimshaw’s jumper swung out. Standing just inside the door was a fox Animalis.
Chapter 5
Fox
The fox’s ears perked up as it looked at the small group.
“Are these them? Boys? Oh, they stink, Hurley. Hi, hello. Where are you from?” it said to Jax. “Idaho?” It sniffed the air. “Oh, a rat! Who was the rat you were with?”
Jax glanced over the fox. Orange fur, small black eyes above a slender snout, two tall triangular ears standing high on top of its head, a patch of white that extended from its chin down into its shirt, and a two-foot-long puff of tail coming out from behind it. The corners of its mouth were pulled up and its lips were slacked.
“The captain arranged this?” Jax asked Hank, waiting at the bottom of the staircase.
Animalis Page 5
