Covert Talents

by Amy DuBoff

  The rest of the FDG warriors had already dealt with the remaining guards around the door. Ava ran toward one of the guards who was still conscious. She kicked his rifle away from where it had dropped next to him.

  “Who do you work for?” Ava asked the guard, pointing her handgun in his face for good measure.

  “NTech hired us!” The man cowered with one hand in the air while the other gripped his bleeding knee.

  “Yeah, no shit. But who are you?”

  “My name is Anders,” he replied.

  Ava groaned. “No, who do you work for? Nezaran military, merc…” She couldn’t form a direct link in his mind due to the full helmet on her armor, but she sent out a subtle telepathic prompt to facilitate his response.

  Anders swallowed. “My unit was drafted from the Nezaran military. We’ve been stationed in a moon base for three years—get a call out on ops now and then, like today.”

  “Always for NTech?”

  “Recently, yes, but there have been others. I don’t remember the names.”

  His tone indicated he was speaking the truth, so Ava released her hold on him and removed the pistol from his face.

  “Time for a new career,” Ava told him.

  Twelve FDG warriors were working their way through the mercs, applying holding cuffs that would anchor them to the ground, with their hands and feet tethered behind their backs. It would be damn uncomfortable with bullet wounds, but that’s what they got for resisting.

  Ava handed over the guard she’d questioned to her comrade and met up with the rest of her team at the entry door.

  Well, what was left of the entry door. The previous engagement had shattered even the ballistic glass and left scorch marks and holes along the once pristine back wall.

  “That’s convenient.” Ava walked right in.

  ***

  “Shit! What are we going to do?” Jared paced across the observation room, distracting Andrea from her work.

  “Let them come. This is a necessary phase of our plan,” she soothed.

  The newest test subjects were locked in their holding cells, useless to her after the mistake with the nanocytes. Andrea needed her new subject to come looking for her.

  But first she had to lull the FDG into a false sense of security. They’d need a challenge to overcome—a distraction to make them feel victorious so that the next phase could unfold just like she and her collaborators had planned.

  “Release the Stage Two subjects,” Andrea instructed her companion.

  “But they… We’ll be ripped to shreds! And then they’ll be on the loose!”

  “We’ll barricade ourselves in the back lab and then wait for the heroes to arrive. They’ll take care of the rest.” She calmly rose from her seat and strolled toward the sealed room.

  Jared sat in stunned silence.

  “Or stay here. I don’t really care,” Andrea added.

  He hurried after her.

  All they needed was one viable sample. That was the deal with the collaborators. Once Ava was transformed and had a grasp of her abilities, she could be presented as the deliverable that would ensure Andrea’s bright future. All the pieces were almost in place.

  ***

  Colonel Kurtz didn’t like the way things had gone so far. It was one of those hunches he just couldn’t shake—the kind he’d gotten on critical ops his entire career. But this… this was even more intense. He was certain this was one mission for which he shouldn’t be on the sidelines.

  Needing to clear his head, Kurtz excused himself from the communications hub set up outside the landing craft.

  He released a long breath and began pacing toward the far side of the ramp. As he came around the slope, Kurtz spotted Luke Carter staring into the dark in the direction of the NTech lab.

  “Can’t see much from here,” Kurtz said by way of greeting.

  “Yeah, I know.” Luke sighed. “I don’t want to be in there, but I also don’t like being left out here.”

  “You care about her, don’t you? Ava.”

  Luke swallowed. “I’d given up on ever having anything with her a long time ago, but now I’m not sure what the future holds.”

  “Didn’t quite expect that turn when I set her up with you as the local contact for this op,” Kurtz said with a chuckle.

  “Maybe it was inevitable.”

  “Well, if you go down that route, you’ll need to get used to her being in situations like this.”

  “I know. That prospect doesn’t thrill me, but we can’t have career decisions control all aspects of our lives.”

  “FDG is life, for many.”

  “And for Ava?”

  Kurtz shook his head. “Ava will always find a way to have what she wants. If that’s you, you’re a lucky man. And if she decides that your dirt under her fingernails…” The colonel chuckled softly. “In that case, I wouldn’t want to be you.”

  “We’ll see what happens after this is over.”

  “Indeed.”

  They stood in silence for a minute, staring into the dark.

  “We could use you in there,” Kurtz said. “Once we have the access codes from the director, you’d be an asset to help navigate the computer network and retrieve the relevant information. No one on my team is particularly versed in genetics or nanotech, so it’d be difficult to know what’s important.”

  Luke hesitated. “Ava told me to stay here.”

  “Once the all-clear is given, it’ll be perfectly safe.”

  “All right,” Luke agreed after a short pause.

  Kurtz nodded. “I’ll tell you when. Standby to standby.”

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  The NTech lobby was clear, but Ava knew Andrea wouldn’t have only one line of defense. “There have to be other guards,” Ava said over the internal comm system to the warriors inside. “Not that it was an insignificant force out there, but that transport ship can hold way more.”

  “The facility is set up in wings, correct?” Nick asked.

  “Yeah, behind those three doors there,” Ava pointed to the access points around the lobby, “and the hidden D Wing. My guess is the additional guards are camped out in each of those hallways.”

  “Waiting for us to go in?” Samantha speculated.

  “If they’re smart—” Ava cut off when she heard the telltale clink of a concussion grenade hitting the tile floor.

  She dove to the ground, facing toward the exit. A blast rippled through the air, rattling what remained of the windows. The pressure wave caused the inner padded layer of her armor to cinch protectively around her.

  Ava landed hard and skidded across the floor. Her armor filtered out the worst of the grenade’s punch, but her ears were ringing slightly. She looked behind her to see where the weapon had come from and saw that the door to C Wing was ajar.

  “C Wing!” she shouted over the comm. “Anyone hurt?”

  Acknowledgements lit up on her HUD that there were no injuries, and the warriors dispersed around the lobby to find the best line of sight to the enemy.

  Ava pressed her back against a concrete support column and took a quick look at the enemy’s position. She moved her head back behind her cover and then brought up the still image on her HUD. The door to C Wing was now half open, indicating that guards were likely behind the two partially open doors to either side of the passageway. Given the fortress-like construction, the doors were likely rated to withstand the kinetic weapons she had on hand; however, concentrated plasma fire was sure to do the trick.

  While the intent was to limit casualties, force needed to be met with force.

  “Let’s drive them to the back of the hall. It ends in an elevator, so they won’t have far to go,” she told her team.

  She grabbed both concussion grenades from her belt clip and lobbed them through the opening. That ought to get them away from the door.

  A second later, Ava heard a stampede of footsteps as the guards ran further into the corridor, away from the grenades. They exploded just b
eyond the opening.

  “There’s no exit! May as well come out now with your hands up,” she called to the guards while the debris settled. No response. “Well, I offered.”

  With a signal over the comm, the FDG released a barrage of sonic blasts, advancing toward the open corridor.

  To Ava’s consternation, she didn’t hear any guards drop to the floor. “They might have sound-cancelling comms in,” she told her team, switching her gun to kinetic rounds.

  She was about to reposition to get a better look down the corridor when a miniature armored assault mech sped into view from down C Wing. You have got to be kidding me! Without hesitation, Ava whipped her plasma rifle from her back and fired on the mech.

  Her team had done the same, and the gun mounted to the top of the mech became a glowing molten mass. Disarmed, the mech reversed its treads and zoomed back into the corridor at full speed.

  Shouts rang out from the corridor, followed by a crash, an explosion, and the screech of rending metal.

  What the…? Ava peeked from behind the support column. No guards were visible, so she switched her handgun back to the sonic setting and advanced.

  The C Wing entrance was in ruins, with a black scorch mark running its entire length where the molten mech must have rubbed against the surface when it sped past. Two guards writhed on the ground with burns, and moans from others indicated that there were more injured up ahead. Ava removed the comms from the two barely conscious guards near her and knocked them out with a blast from her gun.

  Edwin and Samantha passed her by to scout the hall.

  “Oh, shit!” Edwin exclaimed from up ahead.

  With the two guards disabled, Ava ran to meet him.

  Her eyes widened when she saw a pile of guards to either side of the hall, seemingly torn apart by a frag grenade—and a mech-shaped hole in the elevator doors. “Damn… Did they try to blow the thing up?”

  Samantha shook her head. “Looks like it. Got themselves instead.”

  Ava inspected the two piles of guards, but didn’t see any life signs. “Tough break. Should have come out when I offered.”

  “I’m not sure that could have sucked more.” Edwin let out a long breath then nodded toward the elevator. “Think it’s still operational?”

  “Might be. We should disable it,” Ava suggested.

  With Edwin’s help she pried open the doors, and found that the elevator car wasn’t on their level. She shined a light from her armor downward and saw the mech crumpled four stories down. “That’s not going anywhere.”

  For good measure, she blasted the guidance track in the wall of the elevator shaft with her rifle.

  The plasma blast instantly melted the metal at the back of the shaft, making it impossible for the car to rise if there was anyone still down there. Presumably, there was access to the area through D Wing; they could go searching for survivors that way.

  “Nothing left to worry about here,” Ava announced. “Let’s go for the rest.”

  Upon re-entering the lobby, Ava skirted the front reception desk for cover. She gestured for one of the FDG warriors behind a support column near the front door to blast the doors with a specialized breaching gun he had custom-fitted in his armor. A projectile flew from his armor and spread across the door on impact. When the surface was covered, the substance solidified in an instant, shattering the door.

  Cries of surprise sounded from within the hall as NTech guards backed away from the opening.

  Ava sent out three rapid sonic pulses from her handgun, stunning the guards—who apparently only had in one earpiece for their comms, so they could better listen for the inevitable attackers. The guards dropped to the ground.

  Warriors ran in to clear the fallen enemies from the corridor and secure them.

  While they worked, Ava scanned the corridor for any signs of additional guards, but she saw no heat signatures or electrical signals beyond the environmental norm. “Looks like this one is clear.”

  “We have movement in A Wing,” Edwin announced.

  The doors parted with a hiss, and then a man shouted, “Don’t shoot! We’re coming out.”

  “Surrendering?” Ava asked over her suit’s external comm.

  “Yes!” the NTech guard said, coming into view. “We heard what was going on out here… and we’d rather not get shot in the arms.”

  Ava lowered her weapon slightly while still keeping it trained on them. “Seriously, guys? Where’s your professional integrity?”

  He shrugged. “We’re not getting paid enough for this shit.”

  “I respect your honesty.” Ava waved him forward with her off hand, and he was followed by another six men and five women.

  “What are you going to do with us?” one of the women asked.

  “Lock you up front until we’re finished here, and then there’s a major and a colonel outside who probably want to talk with you,” Samantha replied. She waved the guards toward the exit with her gun.

  They were received by a team who applied the securements around their hands and ankles, and then anchored them to the ground.

  “Yeah, this is way better without a bullet wound,” the first male guard commented.

  “Smart thinking.” Ava gave him a thumbs-up. She switched back to internal comms. “All right, team. Time to move in. We’ll go scope out the situation in D Wing and then send for backup once we know what we’re up against,” Ava instructed the FDG warriors assembled in the lobby. “We’ll go through B Wing, since I know that route best. I’m passing a route now.” She transferred the instructions over the secure connection.

  “Hopefully there aren’t any more of those damn mechs lurking inside,” Samantha mumbled.

  Nick chuckled. “But they make for such good target practice!”

  Ava stowed her rifle and readied her multi-handgun on the sonic blast setting. “Focus, team.” She led the way toward B Wing’s arch.

  Like the rest of the lobby, the arch had sustained damage during the shootout. Sparks flickered as Ava passed through, but it still let out an angry beep accompanied by a red light.

  She smirked behind her helmet’s faceplate. “I think they already knew we were here, armed and dangerous.”

  “Effective system,” Edwin jested.

  Ava swung what remained of the doors wide and propped them open with the nearby debris to facilitate a swift exit, should they need it—or for their backup to run in.

  The white halls were silent and empty. They used the external comms on their suits to call out every dozen meters, in the event a captive was being held somewhere. There were no replies.

  After three minutes, Ava’s team reached the seemingly dead-end corridor that led to the secret D Wing. Opening that door would be slightly more involved than anything around the lobby.

  Samantha evaluated the wall. “I say we just blow it.”

  “I guess we’re already in pretty deep with the property damage. One more hole won’t hurt.” Ava backed her team up.

  She and Edwin fired their plasma rifles, cutting a crude archway clear through the wall. The reinforced material was thirty centimeters thick, and it took several blasts to get through each segment. After seven minutes, it appeared to be cut clean through.

  “Lemme try it.” Edwin approached the wall and gave it a firm kick. Then another.

  The interior piece of the arch dropped backward with a thud and a reverberating clang.

  Ava smiled. “Nice work.”

  Edwin swapped his rifle for his handgun and passed through the archway, followed closely by Ava and the other two members of the team.

  “We’re coming up on the holding area,” Ava said using the internal comms. “I didn’t go through it before, but I saw it on some monitors. Keep your cool.”

  It was hard enough for her to see anyone held against their will, but after Edwin’s reaction in the last facility, she knew the Were members of her team would be especially sensitive to the plight of their brethren.

  “We’ve got th
is,” Edwin replied.

  They had advanced another five meters down the corridor when an inhuman shriek echoed down the hall.

  “What was that?!” Edwin halted.

  Ava grimaced. “If I had to guess, one of the Hochste.” She held her handgun at the ready. “Keep moving forward.”

  The enhanced audio receptors in Ava’s armor detected approaching footsteps—what sounded more like bare feet than boots. Her HUD confirmed the approaching forms a second later. They were moving far more quickly than even a Were should. Two of their heat signatures kept disappearing and reappearing.

  “Is anyone else’s HUD glitching?” Edwin asked.

  “That’s not a glitch… Run!” Ava about-faced and sprinted toward the exit.

  Proximity alerts flashed across her HUD. Before she could react, something swatted her legs out from under her.

  She stumbled to the side, smacking the wall and then falling to her back.

  On top of her was what looked like a Pricolici with luminescent orange eyes. Its wolf-like snout was contorted into a snarl, baring elongated teeth designed to tear flesh from bone. The creature’s arm was raised to swipe its fifteen-centimeter-long claws across Ava’s neck.

  She tried to raise her weapon, but her arm was pinned under the creature’s other arm.

  A sonic blast rippled through the air.

  The Hochste recoiled in pain and retreated down the hall, disappearing for a meter before reappearing.

  What the…? Ava looked around and saw a pack of large wolves, robed in tattered medical gowns, barking and snarling down the corridor. Her team was busy subduing them with sonic blasts. Ava rose to her feet and joined in.

  “You okay, Lieutenant?” Nick asked.

  “Yeah. Thanks to whoever got that thing off me.”

  “You’re welcome,” Edwin replied.

  Twenty-six unconscious wolves lie about the hall. They began transforming back into their human forms.

  “There were two that weren’t like the others,” Samantha commented.

  “I think those must have been the Hochste,” Ava surmised. “I guess the procedure didn’t take like it was supposed to.”