Endless Advance: Age of Expansion - A Kurtherian Gambit Series (Uprise Saga Book 2)

by Amy DuBoff

  She chuckled to herself. Wow, I’m a terrible patient.

  Ava was willing to give herself some leeway, though, considering that Doctor Dwyer’s tests had all come back inconclusive. She wouldn’t know the extent of her modifications until Luke had a chance to complete his analysis of the new nanocytes. That could take days.

  The thought of waiting in limbo that long upset Ava all over again, so she closed her eyes with the hope that sleep would pass the time.

  She was just beginning to doze off when a knock sounded on the window.

  Ava cracked one eye open. “Colonel Kurtz?”

  “Good, you’re awake. It’s time we chat.” He kept his gaze fixed on her as he passed through the containment tunnel into the room.

  When the door hissed open, Ava tilted her head questioningly. “Sir, I thought you’d be in bed by now. It’s late.”

  “Just wanted to check on you.” Kurtz stopped at the foot of her bed. “Since it’s just the two of us, no need for all the formality.”

  Maybe Doctor Dwyer is on to something. This doesn’t sound like the colonel at all. “I appreciate you stopping by.” Not really, but Ava figured that’s what people in her circumstances should say.

  “When I sent you on that mission, I didn’t expect events to unfold this way.”

  “Well, a lot of things didn’t go according to plan.”

  “I have to say, though, when it doesn’t work out like you envision, that’s when you learn a lot about yourself as a leader. I’ve learned more about myself in the last few days than I ever knew I could.”

  Ava grunted. “Aside from what happened to me, things didn’t go that badly. We still took down the lab and got the woman behind it all.”

  Kurtz frowned. “Yes, though that was quite unfortunate she met such an untimely end. I would not have expected Luke to jump in like that.”

  “Caught me by surprise, too. Not that it changed things. Andrea still gave me that shot.”

  “Speaking of which,” Kurtz walked slowly along the side of the bed, “have you experienced any other transformations?”

  “Nope, just relaxing here.”

  “Perhaps you should try? There’s no way to master new skills without practice.”

  “Yeah, I don’t think that’s really advisable in this case.”

  Kurtz stopped midway along the bed near her knees. “Have you ever talked to your team about what it’s like being a shifter?”

  “Not really, no. Why?”

  “Hmm, that’s surprising.”

  Ava shrugged as much as she could in the restraints. “They haven’t asked me about being a telepath, either. We are the way we are.”

  “Well, speaking from my own experience,” the colonel continued, “there’s a moment when you first transform where it’s so new and scary that you’re not sure you ever want to do it again. Except, that act of transformation is a fundamental part of your identity. You need to push through the fear to come into your full self.”

  “Except I didn’t choose to be a Were—let alone a Hochste. This isn’t some grand cultural heritage for me to embrace. What happened to me is the product of illegal nanocyte experimentation, end of story.”

  “Many advancements are an accident, like my transition to being a Pricoloci after a routine Pod Doc procedure on board the War Axe. It took the Vampire Valerie to subdue me, but I learned how to control it. History shows that those who seize opportunity hold the power.”

  Ava studied Kurtz. She took a slow breath, trying to seem like she was considering his words. “Maybe it is a good thing, but it’s going to take time for me to adjust to the idea. I hope you’ll be patient with me.”

  Kurtz looked like he was going to say something else, his face contorting around his eyes and lips. After five seconds, he nodded. “Of course. Sleep well.” He stiffly exited the room.

  What the hell is going on with him? Ava sunk into her pillows. And what does he want from me?

  * * *

  Something was most definitely off. Widmore watched Kurtz storm out from the infirmary after his brief chat with Ava. The man I’ve served under for the past decade wouldn’t stop by just to check in on someone, no matter their condition. He’s always been strictly business. Unless…

  Widmore would never get answers watching from a distance. He walked through the darkened infirmary to the quarantine area at the back. Ava’s eyes were closed, but she was restless on the bed.

  “Ava?” he asked softly through the comm at the window.

  Her eyes flew open. “Who— Oh, Major. What are you…?”

  “I saw Kurtz was here. May we speak?”

  “Yes, please!” She sat up in the bed as much as she could.

  Widmore went through the tunnel and approached her bed. “How are you feeling?”

  “Fine, sir. No other random transformations.”

  “And what did Kurtz want?”

  Ava bit her lower lip. “It’s strange. Multiple times today, he’s talked about me embracing this change. He wants me to learn to control it.”

  “What you told me before is looking more likely,” Widmore admitted.

  Ava looked him in the eyes. “If he’s listening to this…”

  Widmore submitted to her telepathic link. “Clearly we’re on the same page here.”

  “Do you have a plan?”

  Widmore shook his head. “Not yet, but I’m working on it.”

  “Do you think he’s reporting to the same boss as Andrea was? If they were working together, it would explain how she got away.”

  “A connection is likely. But what that connection is, I’m not sure yet.”

  Ava frowned. “I really don’t know what to do about these modifications.”

  Widmore wasn’t sure if the statement was genuine or if it was for the good of Kurtz potentially listening in on their conversation. “The decision is yours, Ava, assuming they are able to come up with a countermeasure. If you want to keep it, we’ll adapt. If you want to go back to the way things were, no one will question it.”

  “You know what it’s like being the comparatively frail human among Were-warriors. I’d be lying if I denied there being some appeal to being physically powerful like them.”

  “Brute strength isn’t the only kind of power.”

  She shrugged. “I know. But I am out in the field. It’d come in handy.”

  “You’re actually considering this?”

  “Something Kurtz just told me rang true. Any change is scary, but I don’t know what I can do or how this will affect me unless I give it a try.”

  Widmore nodded. “As long as you’re under my command, I’ll support whatever decision you make. We can seal off one of the sparring rooms and you can test out your new form, if you’d like.”

  Ava cracked a smile. “Thank you, sir.”

  CHAPTER SIX

  The NTech lab looked untouched since Luke had last seen it two days before, with the exception of the Nezaran landing craft no longer occupying the employee parking lot. The FDG landing pod set down at the end of the lot closest to the lab.

  “It’s so weird. I feel like I was just here,” Edwin jested.

  “Yeah, yeah, I know.” Luke hopped out of the landing pod and stretched.

  It’d been a long day of travel on the Raven and it felt great to be on solid land again. Only three days and I was already missing being planetside. Not a great start for his new FDG career in space.

  The warriors opened up the back of the pod to prep it for their mission. Though the craft wasn’t a cargo vessel, the equipment Luke was after should fit in the rear cargo area that was typically reserved for mission-specific tech and armaments. They’d left most of their gear on the Raven, since they didn’t expect to encounter any resistance in the lab now that it had been cleared. Each team member wore standard body armor and carried a multi-handgun, but with any luck, even those wouldn’t come into play.

  Wearing armor felt strange to Luke after spending his whole career in either busi
ness clothes or a lab coat. He had no interest in being in the middle of combat, but he’d certainly rather spend time in awkward attire than have a gaping hole through his chest.

  “You don’t think anyone from NTech has come back here, do you?” Luke asked the group.

  “No signs I can see from here,” Edwin replied. “If you’re wondering about why we’re wearing armor, it’s because we never go anywhere unprotected. We’d be in powered armor if we thought we were going to face opposition.”

  “I do have to say, it’s much nicer here on Coraxa when I’m not being shot at,” Samantha said with a grin.

  Nick rolled his eyes. “You’re not kidding anyone, Sam. You love a good firefight.”

  She placed a hand on her hip. “A good firefight, yes, which is one I’ve already won. If the enemy is still shooting, or hasn’t even started yet, there’s nothing good about that!”

  Edwin rolled a hovercart out of the pod. “I think most people would say they’re in it for the win.”

  “Except maybe the Nezarans,” Nick replied. “Or it seems that way since they never do.”

  Luke frowned at the man. “Let’s just focus on the mission.”

  The Were warrior straightened. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to touch a nerve.”

  “Look, I know Alucia is in the Federation now and Nezar is on the outside, but Coraxa has equal ties to both worlds. I went to grad school on Nezar. I have nothing against the people themselves,” Luke explained.

  Samantha patted Nick on his shoulder. “In other words, we should all try to get along and be civil. Come on.”

  The four of them traversed the path from the parking area to the ruined entryway of the lab. Plastic sheeting was affixed to the building frame to seal the openings where windows had been before the firefight. Stone fragments and glass shards littered the walkway and flowerbeds around the entrance.

  “Glad I wasn’t in the middle of this,” Luke murmured.

  Edwin shrugged. “It wasn’t as bad as it seems from this aftermath.”

  “Still, I’m looking forward to getting back to our roots with covert entry,” Samantha said.

  “With you there!” Nick agreed. “Darting through the shadows, hacking into computer networks.”

  She smiled. “That’s the life.”

  When they reached the plastic sheeting, Edwin produced a utility knife from a belt pouch and sliced a slit down and along the bottom edge to create a diagonal flap. He slipped through the opening with the hover cart and activated a light mounted to the front of his tactical vest.

  “Yeah, doesn’t look like anyone’s been in here,” he announced. “Come on in.”

  The rest of the team followed him.

  Nick crouched to the ground at the entrance and set a small electronic device on the floor.

  “What’s that?” Luke asked.

  “Sensor,” the warrior replied. “If anyone comes inside, we’ll get an alert.”

  “That’s rather handy.” Luke led the way toward A Wing on the right side of the lobby.

  The A Wing security arch had fared better than the one to B Wing, but with the power disconnected from the building, it was just lifeless ornamentation.

  Luke clicked on the light on his chest as they approached the double-doors leading into the wing, which were still propped open from the prior infiltration.

  The stark white corridor was creepy in the dark stillness. Luke listened for anything moving in the shadows, but the place was empty. He tried to shake the feeling that they were being watched—well aware of how many security cameras had been watching him every day at work before—but he knew that was silly.

  They reached the lab where Luke had conducted the bulk of his research before the FDG raid. With a pang in his chest, he saw the family pictures still on his coworkers’ desks.

  “When do you think people will be allowed to gather their things?” Luke asked.

  “Tough call,” Samantha replied with a shrug. “The FDG has been talking with NTech about what went on here, but I don’t know the details. I imagine whenever they reach an accord, NTech will get the facility back, and it’ll be up to them who they let in, if anyone.”

  “So much of Tribeca was counting on this lab as part of the local economy.” Luke shook his head. “Shame it had to be mothballed.”

  “It could still re-open,” Nick pointed out. “Like you said, there were plenty of people like you who were doing good work. If the FDG determines that NTech isn’t corrupted at its core, then they can get right back to what they were doing—the good parts.”

  “Yeah, I guess.” Luke set aside the thoughts about his former coworkers and started to make a mental inventory of the items they needed to retrieve. “It’ll be a tight fit on that cart, but I think we can grab everything in one trip.”

  “Good, because I can’t say I’m fond of this place.” Samantha poked at the arm of a task light on the island in the center of the room.

  “All right, we need to grab this bioconverter,” Luke said as he walked across the room with a freestanding piece of equipment a meter and a half tall and a meter wide and deep. “It’s heavy.”

  Edwin leaned against the device and it barely rocked up on its back edge. “Yeah, no shit.”

  “We’ll get it together.” Nick placed one hand on the front and back on one side with Edwin on the other.

  With a grunt, the two men scooted the device forward a centimeter.

  “Okay, so it’s not exactly mobile,” Edwin wheezed.

  “Sorry. I can help,” Luke offered.

  “No, no, we’ve got it.” Nick’s eyes flashed to yellow as he and Edwin muscled the equipment forward again, then tipped it on its back edge to get the front over the lip of the hovercart. “1… 2… 3!”

  They heaved it up, the cart dipping momentarily while the hover controls adjusted to the weight change. The two warriors slid the bioconverter to the back of the cart to make room for more.

  “Good job. What else?” Samantha asked.

  “You’re not going to like this, either.” Luke directed the three Weres through the lab, grabbing two more oversized items and a number of smaller tools he figured would be easier to take rather than procuring elsewhere. Frankly, he didn’t care if NTech ever got the equipment back, even if it was legally their property.

  When the hovercart was loaded down, Luke made a final circuit of the room to make sure they had everything he’d need.

  His gaze rested on his office. “Mind if I grab one more thing?”

  “If it’s small and you can carry it yourself, go for it,” Edwin said.

  Luke jogged over to his desk. Placed on the corner was the statue he’d received as a graduation gift from his parents. The metal planet sat atop a pedestal. While it had no commercial value, the gift had come at a time when Luke wasn’t sure where life would lead him, and his parents had said the whole universe was there for the taking. He’d attached those words to the planet sitting there on the pedestal and had vowed to find himself the life he’d dreamed about. Even though that life was now in space, he’d still have this planet to remind him of home.

  “That it?” Edwin asked.

  “Yep, ready to go.” Luke nodded.

  “Okay, let’s—” Nick cut off. “Well, that just figures.”

  “What?” questioned Samantha.

  Nick consulted a screen mounted to the underside of his wrist. “We have company.”

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Luke swore under his breath. The last thing they needed were trespassers giving them a hard time while the FDG team tried to leave the lab with a cart full of irreplaceable equipment. “Who’s here?”

  Nick reviewed the details on his wrist read-out. “Looks like signatures for two individuals. Vibrations registering on the sensor I left by the front door.”

  “Not an army, at least,” Samantha muttered.

  “No, but that doesn’t mean they can’t hurt us,” Edwin replied, readying his handgun. “Let’s move the cart closer to the e
ntry and find a secure location to leave it. We can scope out who it is out there.”

  Samantha nodded, and then drew her handgun, set to the sonic stun setting. She led the way down the hall with Nick while Edwin pushed the hovercart.

  When they neared the door to the lobby, they turned off the lights on their armor.

  “Let me get the cart,” Luke suggested. “I haven’t practiced much with guns.”

  Edwin nodded and stepped aside for Luke to take over. The Were drew his weapon and shimmied around the cart to join his teammates.

  “Any guesses on who they might be?” Samantha whispered.

  “Could be anyone from NTech officials to curious locals,” Nick replied. “NTech is more likely, but I really hope it’s the latter.”

  They ran their hands along the wall for guidance in the near-blackness. Half a dozen meters from the exit, they directed Luke to park the cart.

  Samantha, Nick, and Edwin crept forward down the hall. They gestured for Luke to stay back, but he was curious to see who’d come to the lab. He followed them forward with his handgun at the ready, hoping he wouldn’t have to use it.

  Edwin passed by the others and pressed his back against the side wall. “All right, I can make out two figures,” he whispered to the team. “Doesn’t look like they have on armor—or, at least not powered armor.”

  “We can take on two, if we have to,” Samantha whispered.

  “They’re just standing in the middle of the lobby talking,” Edwin relayed. “I can’t hear them from here.”

  “Can you listen in using the sensor?” Luke asked.

  Samantha shook her head. “We could in our powered armor, but we don’t have the right comm setup here.”

  “They’re still talking,” Edwin reported.

  Nick looked back over his shoulder to Luke and Samantha. “Do we wait it out or announce ourselves?”

  “This place is under an FDG-instituted lockdown, so we have every right to be here. I say we step forward but leave the cart for now,” Samantha replied.

  “Sounds good to me.” Nick stood up. “Wait here in the corridor until we give the all clear, Luke.”