“Those Adonis cannons have considerable punch,” Gin conceded and tapped a finger on the shield around his face. “But my shields are like the wall of Troy.” His smile wavered slightly. “Well, that’s a bad example, but you don’t have a horse so I think—”
“Get out of the way,” Wolfson yelled at the crowd. Sasha drew a pistol and primed it while the students sprinted or leapt out of firing range. “Fire! Take him out.”
Their target formed a wall of energy to prevent the blasts from reaching him, and the shield grew brighter and brighter. “He’s overcharging it,” the commander warned. “Cease your fire. It’ll explode.”
The purple-hued barrier now glowed white. One of the guard’s shots struck home and the energy erupted to release a wave of energy that hurled all the officers, students, and Gin back several feet. The intruder, however, simply flipped easily, landed on his feet, and used the opportunity to run.
Wolfson, who had the benefit of his enormous weight to anchor him, slid back a few steps but recovered quicker than the others. “After him!” he bellowed, and he and the commander led the pursuit.
Kaiden’s friends gathered around his pod together with several advisors and Head Monitor Zhang. It was the only one unopened.
“Can we force it?” Luke asked.
“No, that would only create more problems,” Zhang stated crisply as he studied the screen. “It looks like some kind of virus has infected it, but something like that shouldn’t be able to disable or affect the system. We have safeguards and EIs set up to deal with any hacking attempt or network attack.”
Chiyo looked over the head monitor’s shoulder and her eyes widened. “It’s changing—mutating.”
“Mutating?” Akello asked. “A computer virus?”
The infiltrator moved closer to the screen and scrutinized the settings and coding. “It’s reacting to the Animus code, which is why the system can’t force it out or destroy it. What that means is that it’s already found a way to defend itself against anything the EIs do to try to counter it, or it moves to a different stage that’s unaffected by their attempts.”
“How do you deal with something like that?” Otto asked. “What can do that?”
“An experimental device stolen a few weeks ago.” A voice answered from behind them, and the group turned as Professor Laurie walked toward them with a cylinder in his hand. “This was the BREW device, created as the cyber equivalent of a doomsday weapon. It gets its name from the fact that it can attach to almost any system and wire itself into it, then create a virus to the user’s specifications that infects the system. It’s almost foolproof.” He dropped it on the floor and walked past the group to the monitor. “Even against everything we have.”
“Can we use it to deduce what kind of virus it is and make a countermeasure?” Zhang asked.
“No. Once it is used, all the internal systems shut down and it installs its own OS into the system it infects.”
“Then should we shut the mainframe down?”
“If we want to kill Kaiden, that’s an option.” Laurie sighed. “Even then, it wouldn’t expunge it, merely keep it there until we turn it back on. Given that it’s in the mainframe, it could simply move itself to a different system if we do that. We would have to shut down everything on the island.”
“What about off the island?” Akello asked.
“I’ve already turned off any devices that would allow it to upload to a device in the city or around the globe. Fortunately, it doesn’t move that quickly, but there’s still far too much it could do here.”
“What about Kaiden?” Genos asked. “Will he be all right? What happened to him?”
“The BREW device was meant to destroy the Animus system, but it also created a virus to attack him personally,” Laurie explained. He shrugged, his face flushed with real anger. “By Gin Sonny.”
The entire group stared in shock and some gasped. “He’s here?” Julius asked and looked furtively around them. “Where?”
“Sasha, Wolfson, and his officers are tracking him right now,” the professor explained. “There’s no need to worry. They are not only the best we have, but many of them are the best to have come from the military. They will find him.”
“But what about Kaiden?” Chiyo pressed. She glanced at the pod and returned her attention to the screen above that currently displayed nothing but darkness. “Is it too late?”
Laurie sighed. “Honestly, I’m not sure that I can… Wait, what’s this?” He scrolled through the screens and his eyes widened as he activated his comm link. “Prep my theater,” he commanded someone on the other end before he turned to the head monitor. “Zhang, open the pod.”
“But, Professor, if we do that—”
“He’s not hooked up to the pod anymore,” Laurie stated. “At least not his mind. He’s in the Animus itself.”
Chapter Fifteen
“I…I can’t feel my…everything,” Kaiden muttered and slumped awkwardly. “Are we still in the Animus?”
“Not for much longer, but we won’t be going back,” Chief said, exasperated. “I’m not sure how this will end, partner.”
“Well, shit…” he whispered. His mind had gone from crippling pain to what felt like it had cooked in his head and would spill out from his ears at any moment. “I can’t even die with any dignity, only curled up like a drugged-out fetus.”
“I’m trying to find out what’s going on. It’s not only the Animus in general. Something’s targeted us specifically. Our link… Wait, what’s this?” The EI narrowed his eye before it widened rapidly. “Kaiden, I think I found a temporary fix.”
“Some sort of workaround in the Animus?” he asked, and a little hope seeped into his voice.
“We aren’t in the Animus.”
The ace blinked. “My mind might be giving out, but I remember getting in the pod.”
“You did—we did—but this isn’t the Animus,” Chief stated firmly. “I can’t really explain right now, but this’ll give you more time. I’m not sure if it’ll save you, though, but I gotta do something.”
“Wait—what?” He placed his hand flat on the ground and tried to push himself up. “Where are you going? What are you doing?”
“I’ll tell you on the other side… Or never, depending on whether or not this rips me apart.”
“Rips you apart? Chief, don’t do anything stupid,” he demanded while he continued his attempt to right himself.
“Considering the situation, everything seems more desperate than stupid right now,” the EI countered and looked directly into Kaiden’s eyes in the visor. “Best of luck to you, partner.”
His avatar swirled on the screen and Kaiden’s vision blurred as the world around him darkened. “Chief?” he ventured into the silence, but the EI vanished and the blackness changed to a bright white.
Wolfson kicked in the warehouse entry door as Gin raced down the middle lane. The giant raised his weapon and fired, but the shot rocketed through the killer and exploded a group of boxes a few yards ahead of him.
“Another damn hologram,” the head officer cursed. He pounded a fist into a pillar beside him. “Sasha, I’ve lost him. Have you had any luck?”
“Negative, but it doesn’t surprise me. This little disappearing act has allowed him to roam free this long,” Sasha answered. “Any reports from your men?”
“None so far, but I still have all their vitals on screen, so at least they’re breathing.”
“My guess is he’s in hiding. He’s probably using a stealth generator or mod of some kind to hide from radar and scans.”
“I won’t give up. I’ll get this bastard today,” Wolfson promised. “Coming into our Academy and killing one of our own—he’ll pay for that.”
“Not to mention whatever he did to the Animus and to Kaiden.”
“Kaiden?” Wolfson asked. “What happened to Kaiden?”
“We don’t know yet, but whatever virus he put into the system not only shut the Animus down but seemed
to target Kaiden specifically.”
“What?” the angry man yelled. “He came back only to finish Kaiden off? What kind of crazy fool is he?”
“A dangerous one, but as I said, we aren’t sure what exactly he did. Keep your focus on catching him and—a moment, Wolfson.” The commander exited the link.
Wolfson adjusted his grip on his cannon and continued deeper into the warehouse. There were innumerable places to hide, but if their quarry had chosen to skulk in there, the previous blast had definitely tipped him off to the fact that he wasn’t alone.
“Sir, are you there?” an officer asked over the comms.
“Did you find him?” he asked and peered cautiously around a corner.
“Not yet, sir, but I ran into a tech who told me there was a disturbance in the Academy’s barrier—a small hole, apparently.”
“A hole? Shit! He’s making a run for it.” Wolfson swore, and his mind immediately responded with a plan. “Get some flyers in the sky. I’ll get to mine. We will not let him escape.”
“Wolfson, I’m back,” Sasha advised him curtly. “Kaiden is being moved to Laurie’s personal theater and I need to go there to see what’s going on. Do you have anything to report?”
“One of my men said there’s been a breach in the Academy barrier—a small hole. Gin probably used it to slip away.”
“In the barrier? That’s supposed to be impenetrable without access to the main terminal.”
“And the Animus was supposed to be too, and he found a way around that,” Wolfson retorted. “Go and see to the boy. Me and my men will take care of this bastard.”
“I’ll make sure to send some of the submersible recovery droids. They aren’t equipped for combat, but they can locate him if he’s trying to stay underwater,” Sasha responded. “Good luck and stay safe.”
“You make sure Kaiden gets back alive,” the giant ordered as he raced from the warehouse to his personal flyer pad. “And when he wakes up—if he wakes up—you promise me you’ll tell him what’s going on.”
“I will.”
Kaiden was loaded onto the examination table by two technicians. Laurie activated the medical droids and linked Kaiden’s EI implant to his console.
“I’m sorry, students, but you can’t come in here,” one of the techs announced and tried to force the group back. “You shouldn’t have even made it this far. The professor needs to work.”
“No one will tell us what’s wrong with Kaiden,” Flynn argued, his stance rigid and unyielding. “That BREW thingy only affected the Animus, right? Kaiden’s out, so why is he still unconscious?”
“Let them in, Gerald,” the professor ordered.
“Sir?”
“It’s fine, as long as they stay in the viewing area.” He spared them a brief glance. “I understand their concern. I am worried as well.”
The tech looked both a little confused and offended for a moment before he nodded and allowed them past and motioned to the viewing area. Chiyo and the others walked into the room and pressed close against the window to make sure they each had a good view. A tube snaked down from above and placed a breathing mask over Kaiden’s mouth.
“Kaitō, can you tell me what’s going on?” the infiltrator asked.
“It’s purely a guess, but it seems the professor is using the bots and devices to stabilize Kaiden’s physical condition,” the EI informed her.
“He said Kaiden was attacked in the Animus, but that his mind wasn’t there anymore. What could he mean?”
“I couldn’t say, madame. Even with all the knowledge and sources I can find, this is most unusual.”
Genos pounded on the glass while he held a button down beside him. “Professor, I know you are busy trying to help friend Kaiden, but we wish to know if there is any way we can help.” His question was broadcast over the intercoms in the exam room.
Laurie looked up and pressed a button on his console. “Not at the moment, no, and before any of you try to say you have medical or technological knowledge that might prove helpful, please refrain from doing so. Keep in mind that our staff—both medical and technological—are some of the top minds in the world and even in other worlds. This isn’t that simple a matter.”
Chiyo sidled up beside Genos who held the button down as she spoke into a microphone. “You said that his mind itself was in the Animus. What do you mean?”
After a pause, the professor sighed. “I’m not completely sure myself. It would appear his EI was able to sync Kaiden’s mind into another aspect of the Animus using a previously activated map. The conscious separation when a student goes into the Animus using one of the pods should be monitored by the pod itself. In this case, however, it’s monitored by the Animus system. That should, quite frankly, tear him apart mentally. It’s like putting a biological mind into a super-computer.”
“Then is he—” She really didn’t want to finish the statement.
“I wouldn’t do all this merely to have a pretty corpse,” Laurie stated caustically. “Like I said, he’s alive, even if by unknown means. I don’t know how his EI managed this and it shouldn’t even be possible for it to do something like this. Even my own wouldn’t be able to.” He stroked his chin as if in thought. “It might be because of their unique link. In Gin’s single-minded desire to destroy Kaiden, he might have chosen the only target who could survive an attack like this. In fact—” He leaned down and tapped on the keyboard at his console to open a pod on the other side of the room. “I have an idea, and one of you might be able to help.”
“We’ll do anything we can,” Jaxon answered without hesitation. “How can we be of service?”
“I said that Kaiden is currently in another map. It’s roundabout, but I might be able to establish a link to that map and send someone there to help him.”
“Help him? Like pull him out?” Amber asked.
“Not quite, but certainly help him live,” the professor explained. “He is currently in a coma, at least in appearance, but the reality is that he’s simply not here mentally. The best way I can put this is that the simulation is ‘grounding’ him mentally. But should he die in there, he will, subconsciously, perceive it as actual death and he will be brain dead. There will be no way to come back from that.”
“But if he thinks he’s in the Animus, wouldn’t he believe that he would restart and be booted out?” Jaxon asked.
“And go where?” Laurie inquired. “Where he is right now isn’t particularly stable as it is. The system might try to bring him back, but that could crash his little bubble and the system as a whole, which would lead to the same outcome. Kaiden is capable, but with the stress he’s under and the fact that the map seems to be a simulation of some sort of droid factory, he may be overwhelmed.” He studied the ace’s body thoughtfully. “Which is somewhat fortunate, actually. If he was on a solo map, we wouldn’t have this option at all.”
“That’s the last map we did as a team,” Chiyo realized.
“Do you think Chief thought this could happen? That’s why he loaded this map instead of one of the training ones Kaiden’s used?” Silas wondered.
“Who knows. Right now, we need to get in there and help him,” Cameron demanded and pushed his way toward the exit of the viewing area.
“I appreciate the enthusiasm, but two things need to be said first.” Laurie cut the excited chatter off. “One, only a single person can go in, as I said. We don’t want to have any more trouble with the simulation and right now, it’s purely theory until I can open a link.” He shrugged. “Although it looks possible, considering that I’m working with what’s left of the system, but any more than one would still be too much strain.”
“What’s the other thing?” Izzy asked.
“You would be in the same predicament as Kaiden,” Laurie stated quietly. “If I could simply open a link and pull him out, I would already have done that. This is one possible and temporary interim measure until we fix this, and if you die…” He let the words simmer with the very soberin
g implication.
This didn’t stop any of them. “I’ll go!” Flynn offered and stepped forward.
“It should be the best one here. I’ll get in there.” Cameron placed a hand against the marksman’s chest to stop him.
“In that case, shouldn’t it be Jaxon?” Marlo asked. “But if we need to protect Kaiden, it should be one of us heavies.”
“He’s right.” Mack pounded his fists together. “This ain’t a normal mission. We can’t complete the objectives and bounce. It’ll be for as long as the professor needs, and we heavies specialize in that.”
“It won’t be any of you,” Laurie announced when he finally had a moment of silence in which to speak. The group looked at him in confusion.
“But you said—” Flynn began before the professor held a hand up and pointed to the side of the room.
The students’ eyes widened as Sasha walked past and over to the pod.
Chapter Sixteen
Wolfson started his ship, his expression grim as the engines hummed and the lights in the cabin turned on. “Who’s in the air?” he asked over the comms.
“This is Officer Hancock, aboard ship 008.”
“Officer Baron, ship 011.”
“Officers Sandra Tola and Ron Jetton in ship 003.”
“That’ll do for now. Wilson, lead the scouting party here at the Academy. I’ll send for more ships shortly, but I want this place turned upside down in case this was a ruse,” the head officer ordered. “And make sure that all the carriers and vehicles are shut down.”
“Acknowledged.”
“I’m taking off.” He pulled up and his ship was in the air in seconds. “All ships, activate your radars and scanners. Link them to the recovery droids in the water and keep a close watch. Even with a head start, the closest land he can swim to is far enough away that he couldn’t have made it there yet, even with all his fancy gadgets. Ship 003, check the southern coastlines. 003 and 008, check the east and west. I’ll take north to see if he’s trying to wait us out.”
Animus Boxed Set 2 (Books 5-8): Revenant, Glitch, Master, Infiltration Page 33