Sasha chuckled. “An apt description. I suppose.” He rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “I understand your plan. Do you have anything else to add?”
Kaiden nodded and took a deep breath. “There was one new development a couple of hours ago. You see, one of my friends worked out what’s going on. I’m sure a couple of others have their suspicions but this one was surprisingly pushy. His name is Genos.”
“The Tsuna engineer. I know him.” Sasha set his glass down. “I assume he wants to join you?”
“That’s right. You see, I thought since technically, I wasn’t the one who asked—”
“He can come,” the commander stated flatly.
“Just like that?” He blinked in surprise. “Well, this was an easier conversation than I expected.”
“Perhaps, but that’s because of the situation,” the other man explained and leaned closer. “I’ll leave it to your discretion. You know his capabilities better than I do. At the same time, I know what tends to happen when you turn someone away who is dead set on helping others. They find a way and it can end poorly for them, unfortunately. If anything happens to him, it will be on you as not only his friend but as an ace.”
He nodded and thought it over. Genos had more than proven himself as a fighter, so he would be all right. There were hard times, but he always pulled through. If he wanted to help, he couldn’t turn him away simply because he feared for his safety, and the same with Chiyo. It seemed something of a dick move to ask a group of strangers to risk their lives and not trained soldiers. Being a leader was stressful.
“You know, there is one contact you haven’t considered, Kaiden,” Sasha noted.
The ace looked sharply at him. “Really? Who’s that?”
His companion looked thoughtfully at his monitor. “Well, he’s the reason you have the freedom you do now, and he also has his own score to settle with the organization. He made a promise to help if you ever needed it as well,” he hinted, and Kaiden’s eyes widened when a face came to mind. Before he could say the name, Sasha continued. “I’ll look into it and get back to you. And I should let you know that if all goes well, I’ll be at your side when you storm the castle.”
Instinctively, his gaze drifted to the wall where the commander’s rifle hung in a frame near a bookcase. The man knew how to shoot. He’d seen that in the Animus. It had probably been a while since he took it out of that case in the real world, though. “Thanks, Commander.”
“You’re not alone in this. Remember that, Jericho. And don’t forget what you are, either.”
“I won’t,” he promised and focused on a certificate on the desk—the man’s graduation certificate from Nexus bearing their shared class. “I’m an ace and I’ll hold myself to that.”
Chapter Seven
“You think the weather will be this nice when we actually attack?” Chiyo asked, her gaze on the twilight skies above.
“To be honest, I wonder if the enemy forces will be this neglectful,” Kaiden admitted. He perched near the edge of the hillside and peered at the tall fortress below. “I’ve simply stared at them quite openly for nearly ten minutes now and not really tried to be incognito at all. You’d think someone would have noticed us by now.”
“They haven’t because I changed the map rules to only be in spectator mode,” Cyra, Chiyo’s new friend and Laurie’s current addition to their little group, explained. She stopped beside him and gestured at the building. “We’re only here to observe, right?”
Kaiden stared at her for a moment, his expression confused before he sighed and pried his helmet off. “I’ve been here for three years and didn’t even realize that was an option.”
“Really? Akello demonstrated that during your first Animus test, didn’t she?” Chiyo asked.
“Technically, my first time was with Laurie. But I guess I remember that.” He placed his helmet to the side and braced himself with his hand as he moved from his crouched position to sit and let his legs dangle over the edge. “I guess it never clicked or I thought it was an advisor option or something.”
“To be fair, we don’t use it much when we’re together,” Genos interjected and swept his gaze over the forest. “We engineers use it on occasion when training on new machines or systems. It enables us to get up close and observe before actively trying to dismantle or repair it, so it’s quite handy.”
“You should keep in mind that this is still only a theoretical layout,” Cyra stated, pointed to the building, and traced it in the air with her finger. “The outside is probably fairly accurate. We actually found a few pictures of it, but all interior pictures were from bad angles. They were clearly taken in a hurry and most weren’t even labeled yet so we don’t know if they were of the same building or multiple ones.”
“I don’t think it matters that much,” Kaiden admitted. “That factory we destroyed was nice and everything but the way it was built…well, it seemed standard.”
“It certainly wasn’t made for human comfort,” Chief agreed as he appeared on Kaiden’s shoulder and turned to look at Cyra. “Did y’all find anything in those files about a human side of the operation?”
“No indexes or membership ledgers or anything like that. But the assassin left notes that she was in contact with or saw at least a few dozen people during her tenure with Kaiden’s attacker, Dario,” she responded. “He didn’t happen to mention anything himself, did he?” she asked her companions. “Let something slip, perhaps?”
“Most of it was prattle.” Chiyo answered first as she stepped up to them with Genos beside her. “He seemed more interested in gloating or making cheeky remarks.” She looked at Kaiden. “But he made some rather cryptic remarks to Kaiden before he got away.”
“I have a feeling I should get used to that.” He sighed. “Granted, he was an enemy, so it makes more sense. As for what he said, it wasn’t much, but he did seem to indicate that the AO was real. Still, I guess with the drive, that’s somewhat moot.”
Cyra frowned and turned to Chiyo. “Has your father been in touch? Has anything else happened to his company since?”
“Nothing they’ve been able to find, but they are all on high-alert now, which is probably why they haven’t been so bold lately.”
A stream of bots poured from the entrance of the building and caught their attention. “This is the first time I’ll do real fieldwork in over three years.” Cyra chuckled, her gaze locked on the mechanical legion as it continued to march out. “Do you really think this is possible? I don’t wanna sound nervous, but…” She shrugged.
“It would probably be more worrisome if you weren’t,” the other infiltrator assured her and earned an appreciative smile.
“To be honest,” Kaiden began and his companions turned to look at him. Chief’s bright avatar illuminated his face as the sky darkened quickly above. “I suppose it all comes down to the reinforcements I can get us. We all have our parts to play to prepare, but by my count, we have the four of us, Wolfson, Sasha, and maybe an old friend of mine. As much as I would like to be an optimist here, I don’t think a party of seven will do much good—at least with the current plan of destroying the place and living to tell about it.”
“I should add that I am all about that plan,” Cyra said with a thumbs-up.
“I am partial to it myself,” Genos agreed.
“Then I guess I gotta rally the troops.” He stood with a small smile at the others. “That’s my gig right now.”
“Do you have a place to start?” Chiyo asked. “Maybe Julio?”
“I’ll talk to him tomorrow after my workshops,” he confirmed. “But I had him set up an appointment with someone else. The good news is I think he may go for it, crazy as the situation may be.”
“And the bad?” Genos asked.
“Well, all he can do is help me get my foot in the door,” he explained as he opened a screen in front of him. “As far as the people I’m looking into are concerned, I would say that the chances of them joining the fight range from good to
eh. I honestly hope that I won’t have to actually go and talk to one of them.”
“Who are you trying to recruit?” Cyra asked.
“First off will be the Fire Riders.” He continued to scroll through the screen. “They have several divisions along the west coast and probably have the most reason to want to take a little revenge on the AO, even if they don’t really know what’s going on.”
“And the others?” Chiyo asked as Genos stepped curiously closer to Kaiden.
“The Skyway Kings. I only worked with them once during the Ramses incident, but they seem to have some rapport with the Riders. I hope they’ll pitch in, even if it’s only in return for helping them back then. But that may be a bust as it wasn’t exactly for free.”
“You’ve filled in quite an amount of your soldier tree, friend Kaiden,” Genos noted, impressed as he looked the tree on the screen and noted the blocks of white indicating a filled talent.
“Yeah. I have a couple of points left but nothing worthwhile I can use them on at the moment.” He sighed and switched to the general tree. “Strategic Mind needs three to progress. I’m only halfway through with it.”
“I keep telling you that should have been one of your priority talents,” Chief teased.
“You realize I’ve poured nearly sixty points into you alone, right?” Kaiden retorted.
“Ya can’t say it wasn’t well spent can, ya?”
“So only those two gangs?” Cyra asked. “Fair enough, I guess gang knowledge isn’t my forte, but I don’t think they would make for massive armies.”
“Massive isn’t really want we want,” Genos countered. “It’ll be risky raiding this place without the military or police force getting suspicious. A smaller group of a few hundred would work better.”
“That’s small?” The ace looked disappointed. “I actually thought more on the massive side—maybe a few hundred guys muscled to the gills would be a sufficient force and damn intimidating. I guess I need to rethink my idea of massive.”
The Tsuna tapped his infuser. “To be fair, most Tsuna battles are known for having thousands of combatants at once.”
“That must be a sight.” Kaiden smirked at the thought, then looked at Cyra. “To answer your question, those are the two I feel good about. The third, not so much.”
“And who are they?” Chiyo asked.
“The Azure Halos,” he responded with a frown.
“The Halos?” She grimaced. “When did you run into them?”
“On the first big mission I did after my run-in with Gin. I’m not sure how well that will go. I don’t think they will hate me because I did technically save them from a killer robot. But they lost so many people that the boys I electrocuted may technically be the bosses now.”
“You do seem to have an odd way to meet new people,” Cyra commented jokingly after an uncomfortable silence.
“I stole one of their jet-bikes too,” he admitted.
“Okay, then. Let’s put them on the ‘probably not’ list.” She sighed and stared at the ground for a moment before looking up. “I know you want to confront these guys and after everything the professor told me, I want to be there as well. I was worried you might go in half-cocked but I’m a little more at ease knowing you have a plan going in.”
“Trust me, she wouldn’t let me otherwise,” Kaiden said and nodded at Chiyo, who merely played it off with an innocent smile. “And I guess I’m simply not that brash anymore. Victory doesn’t mean much unless you can enjoy it. If anything, I’m worried about the aftermath.”
“You are kicking the metaphorical hive,” Genos agreed.
“But the way I see it is that they are doing something anyway—something that seems to involve us or the Academy as a whole. If we succeed, we can potentially find something conclusive we can show the world and hobble them at the same time. Kill two birds and all that.”
“That sounds logical.” Genos propped his chin in his hand and stared off in thought. “I don’t seem to know as much about this organization as you do, but they are scheming to go against humanity, right?”
“The way they see it, according to the professor, is that they are scheming for humanity,” Cyra explained. “An arbiter is someone whose power and authority is considered absolute—a kind of guiding hand of authority. They think they are doing whatever they do for the benefit of humanity. Or, at least, that was the old rumor when people talked about them.”
“Most shadowy collectives of bastards like to think that way.” Kaiden sighed. “You see it all the time in terrorist organizations and the like—the can’t fix an omelet without breaking a few eggs metaphor. Why do the eggs always have to be genocide or something like that?”
“Many villains see themselves as the heroes in their own story, tragically,” Chiyo added, her expression one of distaste.
“The problem is that it isn’t only their own story they are writing.” Kaiden huffed. “I don’t know if it’s only world domination they are going for, but they are trying to control things and they have targeted the Academy, at the very least. And for at least another year, that’s quite personal.” He offered an outstretched hand to his team. “We won’t let them have that, will we?”
The three looked down and Genos nodded quickly and placed his hand on Kaiden’s. Chiyo and Cyra smiled at each other and added theirs as well.
“This is a little cheesy, but I’m ready to do whatever I can,” Cyra promised.
“And we’ll all do the same,” the ace promised. “And it’s a good thing too because we have tons of prep to do.”
Chapter Eight
Jiro sat under one of the massive oak trees in the forest. He tapped his fingers impatiently as he waited for the others to arrive and grew steadily more concerned. The leader’s message had been clear to meet at this time and now, it was almost five minutes past. He expected such slovenly actions from Jensen, but Xiulan and Nolan should at least be professional.
“Hello there.” A familiar voice spoke into the silence. Jiro’s eyes widened when Dario walked casually down the forest path, smiling secretively—which was disconcerting, at the best of times. But more worrisome was the fact that he wore his gauntlets.
“Dear Council Leader.”
What was he doing there? Was he the one who had actually sent the message? Was this some sort of coup and were the others in trouble?
Honestly, he was more afraid for himself. The man always had a dangerous edge to him and being alone with him while he had his device—an instrument of death he had used to kill hundreds, if not thousands, of people—left him more than a little agitated. He’d rather not be alone with him without his guards. Still, he hoped it wouldn’t come to that. The assassin couldn’t be there for him, right? He had been loyal and taken care of all operations given to him. There could be no reason why Merrick wanted him gone, could there?
The grass rustled and sticks snapped behind him. He turned quickly and when Merrick walked into view from behind a group of trees, he didn’t feel as safe as he had hoped. The coldness in the organization leader’s eyes was chilling, although fortunately, they didn’t seem to be looking at him but at Dario.
“Do you really want to do this now, Dario?” Merrick asked and the other man stopped in his tracks and raised his head. His smile widened slightly but his hands remained in his pockets.
“You haven’t kept me busy enough,” he stated. “Plus, how many times do we have a chance to dance with an audience watching?”
Jiro fell back and stammered, “Wait—excuse me?”
Merrick stopped and turned slowly to finally notice the councilman where he sat, confused, under the tree. “Ah, Jiro, what are you doing here?”
“I-I-I got a m-message, sir!” he stammered and his gaze flicked warily from one to the other.
“That was from me,” Dario admitted. “I wanted to gather more but realized you probably wouldn’t appreciate getting everyone involved.”
The leader gazed at Juro for a little longer before
his gaze returned to the other man. “Was this really necessary at all? You shouldn’t interrupt others’ important work, Dario.”
“I thought about sending another message and calling it off. But our dear councilman seemed so tense at the meeting,” the assassin responded. He inclined his head toward Jiro and leaned back a little as if to study him. “I felt he could use a good show to relieve his stress and that he might learn something.”
“Why me? I do recon and subterfuge and focus on companies. I’m not inclined to combat!” Jiro hissed his outrage before he managed to catch his next words and stood abruptly. “I appreciate the thought, Dario, but I feel it is inappropriate for me to be here. I shall leave you and sir Rayne to handle your own—”
“Don’t get all weak in the knees because someone is looking at you with bloodlust in their eyes,” Merrick stated and caught the councilman off guard. “I am sorry that my friend has disturbed you. But you should take note. After all, with the way things are proceeding, you may not have a choice when the invasion starts.”
Jiro was silent. Not have a choice? What was he insinuating? At a rustle behind Dario, both Merrick and his assistant looked in that direction with confusion. The assassin finally drew his hands out of his pockets and the gauntlets began to line up. Jiro noticed that both men were on edge and realized that neither knew who was approaching. Sweat beaded on his brow despite his sudden chill and he slid a shaking hand under his coat to retrieve his pistol.
“Man, these woods are dense,” a large man bellowed as he shoved several branches out of his way. Jiro didn’t know him, but Dario lowered his arms and sighed, unperturbed by the new invaders.
“Lycan, was it?” the assassin asked as he strolled over to the man, who scratched the side of his head vigorously to dislodge some of the leaves from his hair. “What are you doing here? I don’t think I’ve ever seen one of you without the others.”
“We are a rather close group, sir.” A tanned man with an easy smile walked into view from behind his larger friend. “Sorry to bother you.”
Raid (Animus Book 9) Page 4