Variant Evasion: Trilogy (Variant Trilogy Book 2)

by J. Q. Baldwin

  I took comfort knowing Delilah had up grown safe, was now relatively safe despite absconding. This child had not Delilah’s interruption of fate, had missed the chance at life unbroken. A hard shell coated the child’s psyche, thicker than any I’d cracked.

  A talented natural born Variant, unvaried and uncontaminated. Did that mean she’d not been experimented on? Sadly not, my instincts said. I kicked my senses outwards. They ate up the distance.

  The guard for a slight moment, philosophised, would I do this to my niece?

  But his niece was human, not a non-human reject he was paid to relocate.

  The guards considered themselves humans. It was an interesting contradiction but as far as their genomes went... they weren’t, and moreover they all had similar make up. They weren’t clones of each other but clearly they identified as human and not Variants despite being blood related on a large scale to their colleagues though Variant DNA.

  Ah, volunteer experiments – hybrids, my understanding grew.

  In my opinion that made them the rejects. One foot in each species. I wondered if the first product of an advanced hominid with a Denisovan was prejudiced against.

  And we thought we could let time and propaganda breed those traits from us.

  Epigenetics stifled so much.

  PsyHawk1 was currently divided and spread out strategically, with only Ella beside me, nudging me slightly to appraise her of the situation as she kept watch behind us. I hesitated to tell a telekinetic with adverse anger issues the girl around the corner had the exact delineation, albeit female, as those 3D printed organs grown from tissue, but ultimately if I could not trust my right hand I was becoming too cynical.

  What’s Btk Carne, never heard of it? She asked of the visor’s results.

  We’ll soon find out, I predicted.

  Amped up I had little patience for this detour as I made comparisons between this malnutritioned child and Delilah. I counselled patience. To save this child equated to finalising the assignment, cutting the flow of the current GMT sales, which in turn equated to a happy Mate. A mate willing to compromise on her own priorities if I aligned mine with hers. A motivation I came by easily.

  My reaching energies banked against the girl’s defences. Shanti, they whispered back to me.

  Her cheekbones sharpened in recognition and dare I say, a quickly squashed hope. Shanti’s gaol blocked her own efforts at communication but mine carried hers to me.

  Your Mate for mine she said shamelessly. The gaol harnessed a very cunning female for her age with talents both valued and destructive. If she’d been my Mate I’d be proud of her endurance and intelligence.

  My easy praise made her suspicious.

  As it should I told her. The implied threat she directed at Delilah while I was itching to rip and rend was probably not intuitive, but just as she’d chanced an unplanned connection with Delilah whilst unleashed enough during the auction from the augmented reality, she jumped at the chance now.

  I let her see my teeth fall from my upper lip in a smile. She stiffened her loose stillness. Her building trust faltered. Shanti immediately interpreted my response as ‘your survival hinges on my responsibility to my mate, not from any real empathy.’

  I could be, at the very least, honest with the girl. I would rescue her, and use her similarly if necessary but I offered, If he’s here we’ll bring him.

  He’s here. They keep him close. Will kill him when I’m gone.

  You’re not the reject, are you? I came to understand. They controlled the unstable ‘reject’ with a promise of returning her ‘brother’ if she kept her crazy under wraps. Especially for the auction where her keepers feared she’d destroy everything, literally.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Khian is the reject.

  Her reality became transparent. I saw the boy, not more than fourteen stored in a gel that suspended his body and regulated functions for him due to the low percentage of working organs. Biopsies left large legions from defunct organs that refused to regrow.

  I can fix him, she promised, picking up on my initial conclusion for his percentage for survival. Our organs healed. Shanti’s did. His did not. The boy sacrificed himself to hide Shanti’s Variant regenerative abilities from the doctors.

  I left her mental walls high, seeped from her back to myself, where Ella had a tight grip on my bicep. Had I tried to move? I doubted it. I never experienced the emotions of others the way Delilah was plagued. I simply used the inside knowledge to my advantage.

  I communicated with my team.

  “Keota, Cory our exit. Stealth vehicles ready?”

  “Sir,” Keota agreed. Three vehicles were ready and waiting. Ten others of our team swept through the forces in this building like an airborne plague even as I co-ordinated our exit.

  Another three of my team perched upon a triumvirate of points from neighbouring buildings on similar levels to lay cover if the operation destabilised. It was those units I readied to scan their respective buildings for Khian. They needn’t leave their perches.

  “Building four Sir, huge electrical surges,” came through the comms loud and clear.

  “Where?”

  “Level seventeen, Sir.” Merely a minute and the cold storage coffin had been located. It would take more effort to retrieve him but whoever was truly behind the auctions hadn’t the understanding of the force Variants had become, hidden away from the world. We took no down time in our freedom; we’d trained for war.

  Initiate fall out.

  Despite the many guards, despite their sufficient technology, we found it infinitely easy to flounce inside this storage facility. In glitchy clothing that refracted light to project it behind us, we became spectres. My ability to sever the life and manipulate bio-electricity of humans without touch didn’t quite work as efficiently on these particular mercenaries as Humans, but a simple touch did. Variants took immense concentration and physical contact in comparison.

  A tap was all it took for these guards.

  Strip the glove from the guard’s hand as I drop him. Chuck the girl some water with the glove around it, it won’t get through otherwise. I can’t block the electromagnetic field until I access the guards codes and she won’t want to leave yet.

  Of course she’ll want to leave Carne, look at her. We can’t stay long, fissionless grenades are already set and placed. Delilah would not want -

  Do not presume to tell me what Delilah would want. Shanti won’t leave until we guarantee we have her Mate out.

  And you say it so nicely! She ducked to the side and smirked.

  She played like we were the best of friends. I think she did it because she knew how uncomfortable it made me. She grabbed my attention before I made to move off, held me telekinetically for a moment, like a hand to the arm to stall.

  “I see you Carne. I know what you’re planning. This girl is just as important as Delilah.”

  Not to me.

  “You think no one sees the real you Carne. Most don’t. But I know your amicable easy personality disappears with Delilah. But we will save these Variants. That’s our job.”

  Did she also see the feral animal that reached through; possession its prerogative?

  “I’ve always seen past the lie you portray on the chance you may need an alibi or character reference from me. It never bothered me. I’d lie for you anyway. Keota sees the leader that keeps his arse alive. Bessie’s Dick sees the friend he believes you to be. But right now, this child needs saving and her butchered Mate needs saving, so stop pretending to be the gallant fucking leader and be it!”

  I would save them - so I could use them. I was an entity with only one purpose: to fuse Delilah to me by force or circumstance. It mattered none the route I took. The outcome would be the same. Ridding the world of GMT kept her safe, with me.

  “Your going to use them as bait and blackmail that poor girl just like them? With her mate? Have you lost your fucking mind? You’re fucked up fundamentally Otso.”

  So s
he saw the sociopath inside me. Good for her.

  “I’ll be glad not to have to hide it from you then.”

  “Hiding, really?” she mocked. “You did stab a man a day ago with a metal chair leg. In the gut. Like a crazy person. You hide nothing.”

  I held up a pinched forefinger and thumb. “Just a teeny bit overzealous, I thought.”

  She laughed - kind of - and whacked me playfully with Tk.

  Fissionless grenades starting popping around the compound confusing our occupants but timing and animating us. We moved in toward the glowing blue cell. A strong force against the paltry couple of guards in the op shop of organs.

  “Intruders! Intruders, we have a breach! Sound the alarm!” The sadistic water hog called as he stumbled back from the noise of us. Our glitching fell and we stalked into the light. I let my talent burn up from my very essence... but I let it bubble back down. The hybrid didn’t deserve a clean death.

  “Copy, where is the breach. Repeat, where is the breach?” Their comm crackled into the void.

  The two guards tried to rally; they came together and barricaded the front of Shanti’s cell, weapons raised.

  I bathed in Steven’s dawning panic as gripped his bio-light. Held immobile, without physical restraints, terror jockeyed for movement as he eyed me shadowing above him.

  Ella had a heavy foot on the other guard’s chest and it felt like a boulder to him. How she manipulated the mass I’d never quite determine.

  Boss. Company. Keota intoned. I heard him, but had business here.

  I whacked Steven’s chest with downward interlaced fists. The immense force splattered his heart under his weak chest plate.

  Shanti copped a spray of the man’s bloody, involuntary cough.

  “Bathed in blood suits you,” I said to Shanti as I forcibly stole all the access codes from the rapidly decaying electrical impulses in Steven’s brain.

  Distractedly, I amused myself in the guard’s life as I reviewed the current status of all remaining forces and remoulded the feeds to show no breaches in the buildings.

  “Shit, sorry guys, J team entered the ground floor. False alarm, J team, make some noise next time, you know protocol for merchandise delivery!” I whined. Stephen was a simple man; easy to mimic.

  “Fuck Steven, geez you’re a jumpy fuck. Didn’t you learn from that ‘no regerts’ Tattoo?”

  I ended the comm in a feigned huff. If I’d had time I’d have enjoyed seeing the misspelled tattoo.

  “Leave the uniform Ella,” I said since she’d bent to rip the logo from the guard’s shirt. “Once we’ve liquidated all enemy in the building. Keota and Cory will travel with us for the transfer. I’ve got the directives for tonight’s merch; the buyer wont recognise the difference in private military company and the vendor is now receiving altered feeds of us leaving with Shanti as scheduled.”

  “I’m not your bait,” Shanti spat, fresh water escaping out her mouth, unwilling to cease her splurge even as she realised our intentions.

  “I wont leave without him,” she reiterated fiercely, with sinking eyebrows.

  “By force or not, you have no choice. We’re out of time.”

  Ella interrupted. “You’ll get footage Shanti.”

  The girl was unconvinced and wasn’t moving.

  “Unit 6 is right now undocking Khian’s life support. If you waste time, you waste his life,” Ella hissed after she’d verified all I’d told her. If I believed one thing it was that none could be trusted completely. Ella and I shared enough sentiment to warrant a mutual understanding of one another.

  “Save him first!”

  I laughed crudely. “Comply or die girl.” I had so little patience and my goodwill was close to expiring.

  Her expression darkened with her outlook. Realistically Khian had little more than an hour. If she fell into line there would be time.

  “Khian will transport to us?”

  “Behind us, if we move now.”

  My head tilted just enough to offer her voluntary violation.

  “Move,” I ordered both telepathically to my team as well our bait as I dispersed her blue cell with a wave of code.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Shanti stepped out lithe and strong, invigorated by revenge if not body. Her emaciated body resembled an underweight little gymnast and those corded muscles stretched under their trappings as she freely followed.

  Where we stood was a holding stall, a storage facility. Not where her experiment was bred and tested but we’d discovered the path. Onyxeal would find and crush the entrepreneurial miscreants who’d created this callous venture, but first we’d stem the direct flow of product.

  That the vendors even considered selling their product early, aka,as prototypes was telling. The company behind this wasn’t in it for ultimate glory, but simple economy.

  But that didn’t mean they weren’t contract savvy. My visor ran Shanti’s sale contract clauses down a side column as we departed. The clause did not state Shanti was of ‘reject’ stock. The seller required product to expire no more than 72hrs after purchase, device to sever spinal column included. The sale was a limited use of product. Not unconditional ownership of contracted technologies. The vendor was educated enough to know that, despite losing sensitive DNA inherent in the sale, the properties so valuable while alive, expired the moment the subject did. Nano technology could transfer and multiply to embryos but corrupted with death, though blood and tissues lasted a short time after excising.

  The buyer’s pre-determined transfer site was no more than twenty minutes by HV. Shanti was silent but anxious for Khian as we travelled. With every minute that passed his chances diminished, and she’d die without that boy. Their bond would strangle and death would creep like fingers through it. I could relate.

  Ella, Keota & Cory ran diagnostics on the upcoming security. It became clear we headed toward the PMC2 we’d evaluated at the auction. The very one Spartan had managed an invite for.

  Piggy backing a current hacker, Boss. Keota alerted as he worked to infiltrate the site map of our location.

  Someone is hacking our buyer right now, Keota?

  Yup. Good job of it too except astuteness against our own attack ain’t so sharp.

  Silent bidder number two after a freebie huh?

  That’d be my guess too.

  I was surprised the PMC2 even had the funds in the first place. But wasn’t surprised the loser had come after them. Their current security was sloshy and weak. Just as Delilah had speculated, theirs was a company built on desperation. Of a motley bunch of interested parties.

  Heading the company is one, Jobe Sariah.

  Jobe, I squelched a violent urge.

  The transfer location had been picked for its fortress like ability to funnel us toward them through a narrow corridor to an entry receiving area that offered a side room exit with its security beefed up to assumedly abscond with their buy as quickly as possible.

  Instant notification of our arrival to the vendor’s site had been anticipated and as that finalisation fell so did our tail. We blocked any further interference or back feeds to the parent company.

  We were free now, alone with a buyer of children and without worry of alerting the head of a severed limb.

  Transport 6 - Naen, has Khian been revived? Notify as soon as reasonable.

  Reverberations rattled down my team’s link in answer.

  What the fuck was that?

  Boss, Khian’s transport entreated in shock.

  The Boy’s head...

  Yes? I asked with sinking suspicion.

  It’s gone.

  Gone?

  I mean it’s... mushed Sir. There were concentric beeps. Six. I tried to find the origin. I had two beeps to realise they’d inserted it in his brain – surgically. He had no chance. It initiated in sync with the final notification.

  I peered through Naen’s eyes down to what was left of a wasted skinny boy, so far from Shanti’s perceptions I doubted she’d recognise his remai
ns.

  I think he’s been gone a while though Sir. I ran tests en-route to save him just like you ordered but there was a manufactured current emitting from his brain waves. Not an organic one. The boy wasn’t alive, wasn’t quite dead either, but there was no way he was coming back.

  I can’t believe they convinced her he was still there. She’s been in denial. Shanti said he couldn’t heal; they’d taken too much.

  But why lie to the prisoner? He wondered my thought exactly.

  I forwarded the location of my new compound. Naen, head there. Take the boy.

  I feared I knew the answer to Naen’s question. Why deceive an interred child at their mercy?

  To control her.

  To sell her. To receive a fortune for a disaster about to self destruct and take with her the buyer who’d never get the chance to utilise the technology they scraped and scrounged for.

  She was unique in many ways, predictable too. The parent company had never risked selling a live specimen before her. She’d been a con the entire time. A gossamer gift of promise that so easily fell to ash at the first taste.

  I’d have to access every morsel of intel from the man who’d left his scent at my Mate’s apartment before Shanti realised she was a ghost...

  I marched with her before me. Hand on her shoulder I pushed her even as a haze of air comforted her. Whatever her delineation, btk had force. It appeared to include control over gases in the atmosphere. I had to shove her through the barrier as we entered the transaction room. She jarred forward to her knees and fell with such a bony clang, it let me gauge the motivations of Jobe and his military misfits.

  Jobe’s initial reaction was to bounce forward as if to help the child up. He was the picture of a perfect gentleman, young, idealistic and mannered in a crisp black uniform.

  I ruffled through his life like it was written in his planner. A life of appointments and goals.

  Shanti stole back angrily but failed to hide the shiver of disgust. The urge to scratch the malignity, to keep it from spreading to her was so potent I grit my teeth to keep from attacking the pinpricks crawling along my own forearms.