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Advance (Animus Book 4)

Page 11

by Joshua Anderle


  “So, Kaiden, is that right?” Gin asked. He stepped fully out of the smoke and studied the remaining men. This time, he wore a helmet—white like the rest of his armor, with indented lines and slanted, rectangular visors in front of each eye. The lines also encircled his chest and arms. The helmet had an odd, black triangle design that encompassed the eyes and forehead.

  “I’m happy to see you made it out of that. I have to admit, I felt guilty almost immediately. To take someone out with a grenade like that…well, it’s too impersonal, you know?” Gin rotated his head and stretched it quickly from side to side. The bones snapped as if in warning. “Especially now considering you were nice enough to bring my friend Magellan along.”

  The bounty hunter’s eyes were focused on the killer. Kaiden could almost see the wicked smile under Gin’s helmet.

  The killer raised a hand in greeting. “How have you been, Magellan?”

  In response, Magellan raised his rifle and fired several shots. Light blossomed from Gin’s hand, and the bullets struck it. Kaiden realized it was the same shield that he’d seen Mack and the other vanguards activate.

  “Hard-light shielding,” he explained. “It stops kinetic shots. Nifty, huh?”

  “I’m not as amused with all the knick-knacks you’ve picked up every time we meet.” Magellan reached into his coat, drew his pistol, and squeezed the trigger twice.

  The killer dodged the shots, but they exploded behind him, thrust him away, and covered him in smoke.

  “Ballistic rounds with a poison gas inside. It looks like you’ve picked up some fun things too.”

  Magellan donned a gas mask that covered his entire face while Lazar put one on that covered his mouth. Kaiden checked the seal of his helmet. He would be fine for now.

  “Where did he go?” the merc asked. He aimed his grenade launcher at the poisonous cloud. The bounty hunter lowered the gun with a firm hand.

  “That’s a volatile concoction. I had it specially made to deal with some of his ‘irregularities,’” he explained at a questioning look from Lazar.

  “It’s nice to know you think of me.” Gin cackled. Kaiden whipped around in search of the voice and decided the killer had to be cloaked.

  “Just be careful with your explosives. That poison is flammable,” Magellan stated. He holstered the pistol and held his gun at the ready. “What are you waiting for, Gin? I know you like me to chase you all over the damn galaxy, but this cat-and-mouse shit is done. Come on out. I’ll send my friends away, and you and I can finally settle this.”

  “It’s tempting. Our meetings have been fun but I agree, they’ve grown a little stale.” Gin’s voice sounded like it came from everywhere at once. “I would take you up on that, but the more, the merrier and all that. I still want to finish my talk with Kaiden there.”

  “Oh, great, he’s clingy.” Kaiden chuckled, but his ease vanished when he saw Magellan glare at him. The man’s eyes signaled that he needed to focus and that this wasn’t something to joke about.

  “Even if you did have the others hit the bricks, we wouldn’t be alone. Not now, anyway.”

  “There!” Lazar shouted, and Magellan and Kaiden turned. The killer had somehow climbed the room and stood on a grate fifteen feet in the air in the corner of the room.

  “They come to feed around this time.” Gin looked at the corpses and parts of the shriekers. “And you’ve destroyed their dinner, which means they will have to find a different meal.”

  As Kaiden aimed and eased the trigger down, he heard a loud, breathy hiss. What should have been a quiet, subtle sound now echoed around the dome. He looked up, and his eyes widened.

  Large white, grey, brown, and green scaly beasts slithered on the glass of the dome above, at least forty feet long and perhaps twenty in diameter with a frill around their heads. Large fangs protruded from their mouths.

  Nagas. The mutant snakes descended into the building. They began to cover the ceiling, and one of the abominations leaped through the hole and released a loud hiss as it struck at Kaiden.

  Chapter Thirteen

  The ace’s eyes widened as the great serpent flailed toward him. Its giant fangs, coated in an opaque liquid, were all he could focus on. Something slammed into his ribs and knocked him aside, followed by a reverberating clunk and a large blast.

  “Get it together, kid!” Lazar yelled, as fleshy chunks of the naga splattered his armor and fell to the ground. His eyes were wild with anger and accented with drops of blood from the exploded mutant. “Or else you’ll join the other two.”

  “They’re swarming,” Magellan warned. Kaiden, his leg still not properly healed, staggered to his feet and retrieved his Tempest. At least a half dozen nagas writhed down the walls.

  “Well, this has certainly become a crowded party,” Gin commented drily. Kaiden glanced at the killer who crouched on the catwalk above, his arms to the side and head tilted to observe the snakes. “They’re magnificent creatures, but I’ve had my fill of them the last couple days.” He turned his attention to the trio, who now stood backed up against one another. “I’ll be around, but I’d like to kick back and watch the festivities. I’ll play with the survivors, all right?” Kaiden could envision an elongated, toothy smile under his helmet as he vanished from view.

  “Dammit! He’s gone ghost,” Lazar growled and snapped his focus from Gin’s previous position to the circling beasts. They were either more cautious than the first or simply understood to keep their distance after seeing it blown to bits.

  “He won’t run,” Magellan stated calmly and aimed at one of the nagas. “Not when he has toys to play with.”

  “I stabbed him in the leg and tore through it,” Kaiden muttered. “But he has a new one. Where did he get that? Can he regrow them or something?”

  “No, nothing like that. Biologics aren’t really his thing.”

  “Yeah, he told me.” Kaiden pivoted slightly and took aim at a serpent that tried to slink closer. It coiled quickly to the side and hissed at him. “Is he a cyborg?”

  “Technically, yes,” the bounty hunter confessed. “But not the usual number of parts we typically associate with cyborgs. He still has a normal brain—well, as normal as a psychopath can have, anyway. He’s augmented his left leg, both arms, part of his chest, and might have added more by now. He probably simply swapped them out after you gutted it.”

  “I don’t want to babysit you two,” Lazar interrupted as he slid another grenade into the chamber of his launcher. “We should focus on the immediate threat. This room isn’t big enough to maneuver in with these things circling around like they are. If they get too close, you’ll either be wrapped or bitten. The latter is probably the better option for a quick death.”

  “Then we’ll have to take our leave,” Magellan stated. “Although I assume there are more of these things in the facility, this isn’t the normal amount for a cluster.”

  “Should we double back out the front?” Kaiden asked and fired a few rounds to keep the mutants at a distance.

  “You should. I’m not leaving until I get another shot at Gin.”

  “What? That’s—”

  “Same here.” Lazar agreed. Kaiden and Magellan looked at him with a mixture of shock and curiosity. “He killed my boys, dumbasses though they were.” He sighed and glanced at the corpses of his fallen gang mates. “I already don’t feel right knowing I’ll probably have to leave them here to be food for the mutants or fertilizer, but I don’t want to leave this place without a chance to avenge them. If there is an afterlife, I don’t want to hear them bitchin’ about it for eternity.”

  “It’s honorable and even foolish, perhaps, but I suppose I can’t condemn another person for their pride,” Magellan acknowledged. At another round of loud hissing, they focused on four more nagas that slithered toward the hole in the dome above. “And out come the nagas. For now, let’s focus on getting out of this room. Eventually, no amount of planning or scare tactics will stop them from getting a meal.”

&n
bsp; “Kid, do you still have that map of the place?” Lazar inquired. “Which direction has the most routes? Places we can run through and not get backed into a dead end?”

  “Chief, bring it up,” he ordered, and an isometric view of the map appeared on his HUD. “It’s the door in front of you, Magellan. It leads to a straight path that branches out to eight different paths. One leads back to the entrance too.”

  “Good to know, but we probably don’t want to head directly back into the jungle,” Magellan explained. “We’ve kicked the proverbial hornet’s nest here. We can’t slink through and avoid anything in the area like we did on our way in.”

  “Then how do we get out?”

  “If we get out,” Lazar corrected him. “Perhaps we can get to the roof or to a fire escape or something on the side of the building. We’ll hit the beacon and have the pilot pick us up there. If she whines about it, I’ll pay her from my share.” He glanced at Hodder and Kane’s corpses once more. “I’ll have more to spare now.”

  “Then let us begin,” Magellan ordered and drew his pistol. “We’ll move down the halls and funnel them and eliminate them as they chase us.” He aimed at the door in front of him. “Lazar, remember what I said about this gas being rather potent?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Be sure to step back a little but go ahead and shoot.” Magellan fired an explosive shot, and the pressurized bullet erupted to release the gas around the nagas by the door. Lazar fired the explosive from his launcher. He dove forward and grabbed Kane’s cannon as Kaiden and Magellan stepped back. The blast not only knocked the mutants around it away but also lit the gas to create a bigger explosion and set three of the snakes ablaze. The four above, who had begun their descent, crawled quickly away from the flames and to the other side of the room.

  As the burning creatures hissed and writhed in an effort to extinguish the flames, the three men raced through the fire and the now wide-open doors. They entered the hall and Lazar charged the cannon. The merc fired at the furious nagas. The thin irises of their eyes had sharpened to knife-points, and their frills opened to reveal white webbing with dark lines crossing between them as they bared their fangs with unhinged jaws.

  The energy shot from the cannon caught one directly in its throat. The snake bit down on the blast as if to swallow and it exploded internally. The mutant’s eyes closed for a moment. Kaiden hoped it would collapse or shrivel in a death twitch, but its eyes snapped open again. It raised its head and glared at them. The mouth opened to reveal a substance pooled around the bottom of the jaw. It leaned its head back and spat the contents forward.

  Kaiden grabbed the back of Lazar’s neck and pulled him down. The glob of fluid arced over their heads and landed on the floor. It rolled for a few feet before the film around it gave way and the fluid drained. A large hole appeared as it burned the metal beneath it.

  “Acid,” Lazar stated and pushed himself up. “Or a really potent acidic toxin. Either way, you don’t wanna get hit by it.” He offered a hand to hoist the ace up. “These beasts seem more interested in a kill than a meal now. Thanks, kid.”

  “We can tally the ‘thanks’ and ‘you’re welcomes’ when we get out of here,” the ace responded. Two of the other nagas reared their heads. “Shit!” he cursed as each spat a glob of acid.

  Two shots rang out, and the vile projectiles erupted in the mutants’ faces. Magellan nodded, his expression serious. “Don’t go dyin’ when we just started the plan,” he reprimanded them. “Keep in mind who else is stalking around. He might get bored waiting if we dawdle.”

  “Let him come,” Lazar grunted and switched the cannon out for his grenade launcher. His face stony, he slid in another round. “If he had stuck around, we could have killed him back there with the snakes.” He turned to fire and Kaiden stepped quickly out of the way as he pulled the trigger. The nagas in the back quickly sensed the approaching danger and retreated, but the three that launched their poison were caught in the blast. Kaiden held onto the wall as the explosion erupted and Lazar and Magellan took a step back as the force from the blast rocked the hall. The three nagas had left more guts and scales lining the walls and ceiling.

  “I have one shot left,” Lazar informed them and put the launcher away once again. “I’m gonna save it for when your buddy shows his face again.”

  Kaiden stepped away from the wall and observed the damage left by Lazar’s blast. “Assuming he hasn’t already left the building.”

  “He won’t run, not now,” Magellan said confidently. “He’s found a new plaything.”

  “Do you really think he wants to kill me that badly?” Kaiden asked as he checked his gun. “Was it because of the leg? I’ll buy him a new one.”

  “My guess is that it’s pride,” Lazar muttered. “A hunter doesn’t like it when their prey sneaks away.”

  “I haven’t figured out what makes him tick that way.” Magellan popped the chamber of his pistol open, removed three shells, and loaded it. “If we don’t take him out here and he doesn’t take you out, I suggest you disappear for a while, Kaiden.”

  “I have to head back to school after this,” he replied. “But it’s crawling with former military personnel, security droids, and surrounded by one hell of a barrier. I think I’ll be good.”

  “The hell? You going to a WC private or something?” Lazar questioned.

  Kaiden shook his head. “Nexus Academy.”

  Lazar gave him a bewildered look while Magellan chuckled. “So you’re an Ark kid? What are you doing running backworld gigs like this?”

  “Well, besides making new friends and memories…” Kaiden swung as he heard another threatening hiss. The sharp exhale had almost begun to seem more like a demented screech. “I’m getting a head start on my tuition fees.”

  “I admire the effort, but let’s hope your accumulated earnings don’t end up paying for your funeral.”

  “Do you think there’s a coffin that’ll fit if I get swallowed by a naga?”

  “Probably not, but they’ll cut you out. The cleaning bills will be a bitch, though.”

  Kaiden laughed despite the situation. A little of the anxiety lifted and he began to feel that this was more like an Animus mission than the life and death scenario it was.

  Lazar grabbed Kaiden’s shoulder and dragged him forward. The ace looked at him in surprise before something combusted and sizzled behind him. He glanced back as another of the acidic orbs melted into the walls and dripped onto the floor.

  So much for the moment of mirth.

  “Shake it off and keep moving.” Lazar pushed him away. “I’ve already lost two and don’t care to lose anymore. Plus, you want another shot at that bastard, don’t you?”

  Kaiden nodded. “Right. Move down the hall and turn right at the end. That’ll take us to another open room—a hangar or something—and give us room to maneuver.”

  “Are there ways to get out if things get worse?” Lazar asked. “We eliminated most of the shriekers, but you said there were still some hiding around the place.”

  “Yeah, but without getting Chief back into the systems, I only have the original print to work from,” Kaiden explained. “There shouldn’t be any there, but they may have migrated or—”

  “Look out!” Magellan yelled and spun to fire down the hall at an attacking naga. The shots knocked it from the air, but it landed and raised its head. The liquid gathered around the sides of its mouth. He looked behind the serpent and his eyes widened.

  “Move and talk,” he shouted and turned to dash down the hall. “There’s more of them.”

  “Did we invite the whole damn jungle’s worth of these things in here?” Lazar hollered.

  Kaiden spun and fired down the corridor as two other nagas advanced behind the one that had leapt at them. As the first reared its head back to spit, Magellan fired into the underside of its jaw. The impact knocked its head back, and some of the glob was expelled behind it while the rest drained down the sides of its mouth. One of the mutants t
wisted to avoid the acidic fluid and the acid spiraling behind it. Three other serpents that approached from behind darted away from the toxin quickly, and it landed in the burning room behind them.

  “Did you see their scales?” Magellan asked as he caught up to the other two. “Dark green and bronze and heavier than the first batch.”

  “The big boys,” Lazar muttered. “The ones we killed before must have been babes or only half-grown. These guys will be much harder to deal with.”

  As they turned down the hall, Kaiden fumbled for one of his grenades. “Not if I have…ah hell.” He held up one of his shocks. “They’ve been short-circuited. It must have happened when Gin slammed that device into me. It felt like I was punched by lightning.”

  “Arc piston. I assume he learned how to adjust it.” Magellan slid his rifle onto his back and quickened his pace. “The first few poor bastards he used it on were quite literally fried, so count your blessings, Kaiden.”

  “I’m on a baker’s dozen so far,” he replied. Double doors appeared directly ahead. “There! Chief, get the doors.”

  A green light flashed on the wall panel, and they slid open. Kaiden skidded to a halt, turned, and fired at the pursuing nagas. “Chief, lock it when I get in.”

  “Hurry up, Kaiden. We’re clear,” Lazar shouted. The ace continued to fire and ducked to dodge another venomous shot. He raced back to the doors as a stream of the fluid seeped toward the panel. “Now, Chief.”

  He ran in a second before the doors closed and locked behind him. A static snap indicated that the panel had been melted by the spit. He raised his weapon and expected the doors to open after the panel had been destroyed, but they held for now.

  “I’m not sure how long those doors will hold, but we bought ourselves a little time to get some distance—” Someone tapped him on the shoulder. “What’s… Oh.”

  At least a dozen shriekers stood above them and eyed them curiously, and a couple bared their fangs.

  “Where exactly are the other doors in here, Kaiden?” Magellan asked.

 

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