He found one of the decent ones, lit up, and took a long, slow drag. The battle was over, and he had finished off the last of the mutants a few minutes before with his bare hands. He gazed at his metal arm, now coated in blood. Maybe bare wasn’t the right word.
Lazar wondered how long it had taken. He was probably stuck there for a few more hours. He knew Magellan would return. Guys like that were the honorable sort, and it almost made him wish he had fallen in with that crowd earlier. But he still had a chance to make the boys back home into something like that.
A scraping sound like a boot sliding over dirt and gravel caught his attention. The merc inhaled deeply. Assuming he got back home, he reminded himself.
He scooped a glob of blood from the shrieker’s corpse below him, stood, and looked around. The sun had set, but light still seeped through. A couple of minutes passed before he saw it—a slight haze, barely there, revealed in the low light of the sun arcing off the wall on the floor above.
He removed the cigarette from his mouth and spat on the floor before he heaved the blood at the figure. The blood impacted something well away from the wall and pillars.
“I thought so.” He grunted and rolled his cigarette in his fingers. “Magellan usually only meets his bad guys once, but I’ve known plenty of bastards like you. You guys like to come back to see your handiwork.”
The blood moved forward and dropped off the second floor. A small cloud of dust was kicked up as someone landed. Lazar placed the cigarette back in his mouth and folded his arms. The air shimmered before a figure in white appeared.
Gin reached up and removed his helmet to reveal a wide, cocky grin. “Well, you are much keener than you let on,” he said approvingly and tilted his head as his smile faded to a rather unnerving blank look. “It’s a great pity you aren’t as wise.”
Chapter Twenty
Lazar eyed Gin cautiously. This was the first time he had seen him get… Mad wasn’t right. Anything but annoyingly coy or whimsical. “Are you pissed that Magellan left or something?”
“Oh, extremely,” the killer muttered. “But also that my little plan failed.”
“Did you not notice it didn’t exactly work the first time either?” Lazar growled through another long drag. The cigarette burned down to the end and he let the smoke trail out as he finished. “Did you think the second time would be the charm or something?”
“It makes me realize how pointless my stay here was.” The killer sighed. “At least from a practical standpoint, I got to meet a couple of interesting people.” His smile returned, though only as a small smirk along the lines of his mouth. “Although considering I’ve only killed two people in the last few hours, I feel I might have lost my touch or grown sluggish. Tell me, how’s Kaiden doing?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t talked to anyone since Magellan left. They are too far away to reach on comms at this point.” Lazar’s metal hand closed and opened a few times. “You should worry less about that, Gin. You still have me to deal with.”
His adversary cocked an eyebrow. “I should keep a tally of people’s last words. Or at least the clichés.”
Lazar spat out the butt of his cigarette “Do you have a God complex too? You’re as beaten and ragged as any of us were. You can play demon as much as you like, but you feel it. I’m made of tougher stuff than the poor bastards you typically get off on killin’.”
“Which makes you slow,” Gin pointed out. His hand snaked to the hilt of his blade and flipped a switch on its holster “Thick-skulled as well if I should take a guess. You seem to be out of weapons, gangbanger. For someone so sure I would return, you haven’t prepared that well, have you?”
The merc smiled. “I may be out of ammo, but I held back a little.” He retrieved two thermals from behind his back. “That blood I threw on you wasn’t only to mark you but to make sure it wasn’t another of those annoying holograms.” He hit the activation buttons on the explosives and rolled his arm back. “You won’t escape this time.”
He threw the two grenades at Gin. As he moved to dodge, Lazar kicked his foot to knock his machine gun into the air. He grabbed it in one arm and fired the remaining rounds at the killer. A few knocked him back enough to keep him in place. The explosions surged forward in a hot wave of force and Lazar staggered back. He leaned down and steadied himself with a hand on the ground as the blasts engulfed the room. The entire structure trembled and debris crashed from the wall and floor above.
The shakes wore off, and he smiled proudly as he stood and looked at the smoke. “I guess I should have said almost out of ammo.” He chuckled. “Magellan made this sound like it would be hard, but explosions have a way of making damn sure things end the way they are supposed to.”
“With the target alive and well?”
Lazar narrowed his eyes and snarled. The dust and smoke cleared and Gin stood lazily amongst the debris, surrounded by a purple field “I’m not sure if you noticed, but my cloaking device was perfectly functional. Maybe you depended on my barriers to recharge slower? They do, but your deduction skills aren’t as great as you seem to believe they are.”
The merc tossed his now empty gun away. “Whatever. It’ll be more fun like this. Besides, did you think it was such a smart idea to create a large hard-light barrier after a quick charge?”
The barrier dimmed before it evaporated. Gin looked around for a moment. “So you hoped it would kill me, but if not, it would drain my barrier’s energy.”
“It’s always smart to keep up with your tech’s maintenance,” Lazar growled and took a few steps forward. “Without the power those vanguard shields supply, you don’t look like you have the strength to do anything more than hit me with a few pansy slaps.”
The killer drew his plasma cutter blade slowly out of its holster. “It’s not my fists you should be worried about,” he warned and tapped the weapon on his shoulder armor. His smile was now narrower, sharper, and more disturbed. “Whatever. It’ll be more fun like this.”
Lazar roared as he charged and swung his large metal fist in an arc to smash his adversary’s skull. Gin leaned back to avoid the blow, and the fist struck the ground and smashed a rock nearby. The killer flipped the blade in his hand, pointed it at the man’s neck, and stabbed at him. The merc blocked with his other hand and the blade cut into the side of his palm, but he caught his opponent’s hand. He tightened his grip, turned, and threw Gin into a pillar which broke in two and thrust him to the ground. The floor above finally gave way as the middle section slid and crumbled into itself. Lazar walked out of its path and noticed a piece of long, twisted metal spiked into the floor. He seized it and held it like a lance as he ran at the other man.
Gin regained his feet and, as Lazar thrust the spike forward, he parried the attack and sliced at the metal to cut through it easily. The merc flipped it and held the other end in the air like a sword. He dodged two swipes from the killer and lunged at him with the back of his gauntlet. His adversary leaned back, and as the fist sailed over him, he placed his hands on the ground and flipped backward. Lazar howled, sprang forward, and attempted to chop him with the improvised weapon. Gin spun in place and when the attack failed, countered with his own. Lazar leaned away but felt a searing pain in his cheek.
His teeth clenched in anger, he shoved his boot into Gin’s chest and knocked him back. He grabbed the metal in the center and threw it like a spear, but his opponent used his bionic arm to snatch it out of the air. With a smile, he closed his fist around it and snapped it in two and dropped the pieces to the floor. Lazar charged again and threw punches which the killer side-stepped before he grabbed the merc’s artificial arm. Lazar pressed forward with all his strength, but Gin didn’t budge. Instead, he leaned in with a cocky smile. “Yours is bigger, I’ll admit.” He snickered. “But quality over quantity and all that.”
“You may have the latest model,” Lazar snarled. “But I have something you don’t.”
“Rust?” his adversary questioned mockingly.
“Novelty,” Lazar muttered and with his free hand, spun the dial under his thumb as far as it would go. The top opened, and a large jet of flames blew into the killer’s face.
Gin cursed and stumbled back. His shades slid off his face as he tried to guard it with his free hand and his grip released. The merc grimaced at the indentions of the other man’s claw in the side of his gauntlet. The flame stopped, completely tapped.
“Did I burn your pretty face, Gin?” he taunted. “Hold still and I’ll make all that pain go away.”
The killer straightened, his hand still pressed against the side of his face. He rubbed it for a moment before his hand lowered and he turned to look at Lazar, whose eyes widened in shock. His face was slightly seared, but his eyes were black and small circular dots glowed white where his irises should be. They widened slightly before they shrank once more like the shutter of a camera. The killer sighed when he saw that his shades had been trampled. “I was quite fond of that pair.”
“You’re much more of an aug than you let on.” Lazar held up his fist. “I guess I’ll hear some static with the screams.”
“It’s only a few incidentals,” Gin replied with a shrug. “You grow accustomed. Once you start, you can’t stop.” He pointed to his eyes “Although these were actually the first. But don’t worry, I’m not some unfeeling cyborg.”
“Yeah, right.” Lazar dashed forward with his arm raised to strike. “Only a murderer.”
Gin smirked and his bionic arm sparked with light as he raised it. When the merc closed in, he rammed it forward into his chest. Lazar’s air expelled painfully and he was thrown across the room. He skidded a good distance and finally came to a halt in a pile of dirt and tile.
“I find the anger of the hypocrite to be one of the most humorous things in the galaxy,” the killer mused as he slammed his metal foot down onto the large man’s chest when he tried to stand. “Come now, a big guy like you in a big bad gang, I’m sure at least a few people had their lives cut short because of your actions? But I guess that doesn’t matter to you. They weren’t your buddies, were they?”
“Sure I have,” Lazar admitted and spat a glob of blood from his mouth. “But they weren’t human. That’s a status you can lose if you fuck up enough.”
Gin expression quickly changed from curious to amused. “It’s not exactly a knight’s code but I see the value in it.” He straddled the merc. “It’s close to mine, although yours has more wiggle room—unlike you at the moment.”
Lazar stared coldly at him before he clamped his arm around Gin’s leg. The killer tried to shake it off, but the man held firm and attempted to crush the bone. The killer muttered in irritation. A blade projected from the tip and the foot spun unnaturally to slice into the large man’s arm. He roared and let go but managed to roll away from his assailant when the man slammed his foot into the ground to retract the blade.
“I am also quite fond of novelty,” Gin stated. “I would have thought that was obvious, but whatever.”
Lazar stood and inspected his arm. The blade had dug nearly halfway into his gauntlet. He tried to move his hand. The pinky and ring fingers jarred and moved slowly, but the rest seemed all right. He took a few steps forward, but pain thudded in his chest and his breathing was ragged. He couldn’t keep the fight up much longer.
Gin folded his arms and observed the struggling gang leader. “Do you feel a little tired? Wanna take a big boy nap?”
“Shut the hell up,” Lazar snapped. “I will kill you. That will be the last thing I do.”
“That’s what your life has come down to?” the killer asked glumly and raised his hands nonchalantly. “You didn’t have many big dreams during your childhood, did you?
Lazar braced himself. “I bet that smart mouth of yours got you slapped around plenty during yours.”
“Actually, mine was quite idyllic,” Gin admitted. “I could have used a pony, maybe, but I can’t complain too much.”
The merc scowled and spat up another batch of blood. The sun had given way fully and the blood shimmered in the moonlight that seeped into the room. “So you’re merely crazy then.”
Gin shrugged and his smile remained in place. “I couldn’t quite say. Isn’t the main problem of a crazy person that they don’t know they are crazy?”
“That only makes you an idiot.” Lazar lifted his metal arm. “I don’t have time for idiots. We’re going to end this now.”
The killer spun his blade idly in his hand. “I said I don’t keep a record of what people say during the last moments of their lives, but I can safely say that the last of that there…” He stopped twirling the knife and pointed it at Lazar. “Almost all the time, that is true. But it doesn’t end well for the one who isn’t me.”
Lazar closed his fist, and his two end digits took a moment to fall into place. “Are you done gloating?”
“I could go on.” Gin leaned forward and prepared to strike. “But you’re right. This has been fun, but I didn’t lie about having places to be. My honesty is a virtue that I take pride in. Do you have any actual last words? I’ll make a note of them.”
The gang leader didn’t respond and simply stared at him. The killer lowered his head for a moment and when he looked up, the blank expression had returned. With the exception of the blood drops and the creak of the building, it was silent around them. Gin pressed a button on the hilt of his knife and the blade glowed with heat. Lazar tapped his fingers on his arm. He looked at his adversary, closed his eyes, and drew a deep breath as he slid a compartment in his wrist open and turned a dial.
He roared as he charged at the killer. His adversary’s expression didn’t change, and he didn’t move as the merc barreled toward him. As Lazar closed in, Gin struck. His heated blade lashed out and quickly ripped into the merc’s chest. He made three strikes, two on his chest and one across the throat. Blood sprayed, congealed in globs from the heat of the blade, and plopped onto the ground and Gin’s face and arm. Lazar grabbed the killer’s arm, but it was too late. He collapsed and gurgled and hissed from his wounds as his life fluid pooled around him. Somehow, he had hold of his opponent’s arm, although the grip was weak.
Gin stared at him for a moment, deactivated his blade, and slid it into its holster. “If this was your dream, you should have learned what every kid does eventually,” he muttered as Lazar gasped weak, pointless breaths and blood continued to pour from his wounds. “Don’t dream so big.”
He turned to leave but was held fast by the merc’s grasp. He turned back with an annoyed look and shook his arm in an attempt to free himself, but the grip seemed to tighten. The killer twisted and turned his arm and used his free hand to try to pry the fingers off his wrist. A small light caught his eye. He turned the man’s arm quickly. A panel glowed on the gauntlet’s wrist and counted down from nine seconds.
Gin was confused for a moment before it dawned on him. He felt angry for a moment before it gave way to a chuckle when he looked at Lazar to see a bloody but wide and cocky smile.
“You really were more clever than you let on,” the killer said appreciatively. The timer reached zero, and the gauntlet burst apart and engulfed them both in an explosion.
Magellan watched the vitals on the tracker screen, his only window to Lazar’s condition. There was no image, but Lazar’s heart rate had leveled before it spiked rapidly for some time. It had then evened out again and spiked once more, and now, it was dangerously low.
“Dammit, Lazar, this is why I wanted your promise,” Magellan snapped as he slammed a fist down onto the bench. They were almost at the port. His ship was nearby and was significantly faster than this heap. If he headed back as soon as possible, he could be back in—
Lazar’s vitals disappeared, and the word deceased appeared over his profile. The bounty hunter hung his head and slammed his fist again, albeit much more weakly, on the bench.
“You couldn’t do that one damn thing, could you?”
Chapter Twenty-One
His vision
was a swirl of darkness and bright lights. He felt ill and sore, and a jagged pain seared his chest. The lights dominated his view, and the darkness crept away. Kaiden’s eyes fluttered open. He took a moment to breathe deeply and tried to sit up but was hampered by a dull pain in his arms and a sharper one in his chest. He laid back on the bed, rolled his head from side to side to work out the stiffness, and looked around.
He was in an enclosed room with a sliding door at the far end, pale gray walls, and white floor tiles. Beige curtains were drawn closed on either side of his simple cot. A machine with an orb on top stood nearby—a biomonitor, he realized; a machine to monitor his physical wellbeing and administer vials of serum and drugs as needed. Obviously, he was in a hospital of some sort, but it seemed rather bare compared to the ones he was used to.
Steps behind the left curtain indicated that someone approached, and he turned his head to see who it was. The curtain was drawn back, and Magellan stared at him. His expression was grim, but a flicker of relief washed over him when he saw movement in Kaiden’s eyes.
“Welcome back to the world of the living,” he said and pulled a chair to the bedside. “How are you feeling? Are you all right?”
The ace tried to speak, but his throat was dry and itchy. He motioned with an arm for a glass of water. Magellan pulled a flask from his coat, undid the top, and handed it to him. Kaiden eyed him questioningly as he took it. “Although I imagine you’d like a shot of something strong after that. It’s only water,” he promised.
He nodded stiffly, then pressed his palm to his neck and rolled it for a moment before he took a swig from the flask. Cool water rushed down his throat a little too quickly. He coughed and the pain in his chest flared with each exhale.
Animus Boxed Set 1 (Books 1-4): Initiate, Co-Op, Death Match, Advance Page 108