Advance (Animus Book 4)

by Joshua Anderle

  “Don’t let it get you,” Chief shouted. Kaiden wanted to snark at what was an obvious order, but the wolf barreled down too quickly. He flipped the switch back rapidly to the force shot and aimed to his left. As he fired, he jumped, and the force knocked him away as the mutant snapped at the air where he’d stood a second before. He had to manage his shots carefully, he realized, or the gun would overheat soon and he couldn’t risk venting with this thing on the offensive.

  He landed hard and slid back. The wolf bucked and twisted and found its feet with a deafening howl. If he shot directly, it would simply juke the shots. Instead, he should aim for the ground in its path once it charged. Perhaps that could knock it back or down to give him a better shot. The beast growled and hurtled forward once again. Kaiden toggled the switch and fired only a few feet ahead.

  The wolf attempted to evade and almost succeeded, but the force of the blast pushed it farther and bowled Kaiden over. He landed with a thud and ignored the jarring pain in his chest from the impact. He flipped as the wolf clambered to its feet—a good opportunity. He fired and a warning signal lit up on the back of the rifle to warn that it had begun to overheat. The shot blazed toward the alpha. The Likan turned at the last second and tried to twist aside, but the blast connected and struck the beast’s back.

  “Yes!” he shouted as the alpha was driven back. It didn’t disintegrate but fur smoldered and its flesh charred. It howled in anger and pain as it skidded along the cave floor. He glanced back to check for reinforcements, but nothing appeared.

  Kaiden vented the rifle. “What is this thing made of?” he wondered aloud as he drew Debonair and approached the mutant wolf slowly. The blast seemed to have shattered most of its left leg, which would significantly hinder its ability and speed.

  Or so he thought.

  The Likan’s eyes shot open and it used its good legs to launch itself at him. The ace fired and a shot penetrated its eye, but it remained determined. He threw himself aside, but the mutant snatched his leg. The armor cracked and the teeth ground into his leg, barely short of biting through it.

  Despite the threat of losing a limb, Kaiden remained calm. He wouldn’t lose, not again and not to a beast. He dropped his rifle, placed Debonair along the gumline of the wolf’s mouth, and fired. The Likan yelped and released him. He snatched his rifle, slammed the vent shut, and took a cue from the wolf to use his good leg to thrust forward. Without hesitation, he pressed the barrel to its stomach and fired.

  The ace was instantly coated in blood and the alpha’s final howl faded into a quiet growl as it slumped over. It raised a claw to swipe feebly at him, but the gesture was futile and short-lived.

  Kaiden swayed on his feet. The wound on his leg was deep, but he could support himself. “Activating wraps,” Chief said as the bandages snaked down his leg. “Congrats, partner. You took him out.”

  “Yeah, I did.” He let that sink in for a moment, rested his rifle against his shoulder, and rolled his free hand around in a dismissive gesture. “That wasn’t such a chore.”

  “You know it.”

  Loud clapping startled him, and he turned to see a bright light at the entrance of the cavern. He held up a hand to block the glare and dimmed his visor. “Wolfson? Is that you?”

  “Indeed, boy! Look at you. You took that thing down all by your lonesome. How do you feel now?” the giant bellowed. He turned the light on the shoulders of his armor off, and moved toward his student.

  “I could use a drink and a meal. I’m suddenly famished,” Kaiden admitted and rested a hand on his stomach. “What do you think?”

  “I think it’s a fine catch,” Wolfson said and turned his attention to the alpha. “It’s a big one too. You’ll probably get a bonus for this one.” He knelt and opened the wolf’s jaw. “Ah, yeah, see the curvature of the fangs? That will slice through steel.” He looked at Kaiden’s leg and the crushed armor. “By God, boy. I just gave you that.”

  “I guess I was lucky it only got me with its back teeth. Otherwise, I would have a sliced leg instead of crushed armor.” The ace sighed with relief. “So do we gotta carry this thing back?”

  “Nah, we take the head. It’s not like you can eat mutant meat—at least, you aren’t supposed to,” Wolfson said as he drew a large knife.

  “Wait. The head? I thought it was usually pelts or something.” Kaiden thought back and cursed. “Man, either way, I vaporized a few of the Likan at the entrance to the cave. Those aren’t worth jack now, are they?”

  “Don’t worry yourself about the small fry.” The instructor focused on his gory task. “We’ll grab the ones we can and turn them in. You deserve a feast, and I happen to know a great steakhouse in Hamilton.”

  “I’ll take you up on that.” He took a few steps on his leg and winced. “Do you have some rejuv back on the ship?”

  “I’ll patch you up, but you gotta get yourself back there. I ain’t carrying your ass,” Wolfson stated as he slid the blade back into its sheath and lifted the alpha’s head. He walked to Kaiden and placed an arm around his shoulder. “Do you feel that fire again. Kaiden?”

  He draped an arm around the giant’s back to steady himself as he limped along. “Yeah, burning bright.” He nodded as they left the cavern and turned toward the exit. “Like I said, I had to knock off a bit of dust.”

  Wolfson laughed. The boy had done well, very well. Taking down an alpha like that was no easy feat. He felt that he didn’t have to worry that Kaiden would be lost.

  He even felt good enough that he wouldn’t tell him that he took care of the dominus Likan below which was probably twice the size of the alpha. He might bring it up when he graduated, though.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chiyo sat at a table in the library with multiple tablets, holoscreens, scrolls, and even a few very old books strewn about. She hated moments like this when she felt she was looking for something too vague to condense and create a proper path to follow. She shifted her focus from screen to screen. Each held various snippets of information and topics on several different people, places, and events. She issued commands to a holoscreen and attempted to look for anything in the Academy’s files and database—tracers, fraudulent checks, and suspicious or odd activity. Once again, she found nothing.

  The infiltrator leaned back. A few of the screens turned off and darkened the area around her. She clasped her hands together, folded them in, and took some time to breathe and focus herself.

  “Pardon me, madame,” Kaitō interjected. “I’ve done as you asked, but I could find nothing in the student profiles or identification center. There seems to have been no one looking through those areas besides academy students, faculty, or the family members of certain students.”

  “Still nothing.” She sighed. “I suppose it was too much to hope that I could stumble upon something obvious like a virus or spy in the systems.”

  “Forgive me, but might I ask why we are looking at this once more?” Kaitō asked. “I feel the need to remind you that this is rather unscrupulous and against Academy protocol. I know we’ve done this before, but that was for an end goal. Doing this for rather tangential reasons is a huge risk, especially as you exhaust yourself which could lead to mistakes.”

  “I know, Kaitō,” Chiyo said and straightened. “I’m doing this for personal reasons. I haven’t explained myself simply because I don’t yet know what I’ll do once I find what I’m looking for. But…” She looked out the window in the direction of the soldier’s dorm. “I don’t want to sit back and do nothing.”

  “Do nothing? Is this a mission or a personal request?” the EI asked.

  Chiyo shook her head. “Never mind, Kaitō. Please scan through the net pages on the World Council and anything you might find on the gray net about the Revenant List. I want more information.”

  “It is rather late, madame.”

  “I know. This is my last order for the night. Once you’re done, I’ll turn in. Until then, I’ll keep going.”

  “As you
wish, madame.” The wire-frame fox bowed his head. “I shall finish my orders as quickly as possible.” With that, he disappeared from her lenses.

  Chiyo swiped one of the holoscreens and read an article that was translated from Portuguese about a ‘horror in the jungle’ and how three bodies were found in an Axiom dome lab in the Amazon along with various eaten remains. It said that most of the bodies were attacked and eaten by the mutants in the area, but two of them had wounds inflicted by blades and spikes. One was partially destroyed in a blast. The police had nothing to report, but they were contacting different hunter guilds and gig ports to find out more information.

  “Will you return to space soon?” Sasha asked the man on his screen.

  “No, not for a while,” he responded and shook his head. “Not as long as he’s still running loose. They didn’t find his body. The obvious conclusion is that he’s still kicking. I’ll return to the jungle to comb for clues, but I doubt he’s still there.”

  “There are constant dangers in the world,” Sasha muttered and folded his hands on his desk. “But it is always shrouded in happenstance. I do admit that it is more unnerving when you know the specifics. What exactly is out there looking for you?”

  “I’ll try to minimize that,” the man assured him. “I owe it to a lot of people.”

  “A noble sentiment, but don’t let that blind you. I’ve seen that turn to rage and single-mindedness a number of times, and that only creates a different problem.”

  “Are you really worried I’ll lose it at this point?” He chuckled darkly. “Come on, Commander. By now, I’m rather hardened.”

  “No doubt, Magellan, but I have read the story of Moby Dick. There are some parallels and I can tell you that the story doesn’t end well for the obsessed hunter.”

  “I promise I’ll keep my wits about me.” His face showed sign of concern, “How’s Kaiden?”

  “He was rather despondent for a few days. I worried about his mental health more than his physical,” Sasha admitted. “But it seems Wolfson has taken precautions to ensure he doesn’t fall into a funk.”

  “That’s good,” the bounty hunter said with obvious relief. “It’s nice to see he has good people looking after him. He seemed a prickly sort, but he’s a good man.”

  “A great soldier as well.” Sasha unlatched his hands and tapped a finger on his desk. “I’m glad I sent you along. I’m also glad you were able to get me that information about the Arbiter Organization.”

  “It wasn’t much. For a while there, I wondered if you had me going on a snipe hunt,” Magellan confessed. “I’m not even sure if that has anything to do with the organization proper, but the files weren’t marked to the WC or Nexus and it talked a fair amount about the professor’s inventions, particularly Kaiden’s EI and its device. It didn’t seem like something that was really common knowledge.”

  “It’s not. Even most of the staff don’t know much about it. I think most simply believe it’s a new EI mod,” Sasha explained. “Right now, it has no purpose outside the Academy’s regimen. I can’t see a reason they have such an interest in it. But considering everything that has happened, they targeted Kaiden by proxy. A mission where he was on the far side of the world seemed like a potential time to strike.” Sasha huffed as he scratched his head. “I’ll admit, I was also worried that I was simply paranoid. It is something of a relief that my fears didn’t manifest into mad ramblings, but I never could have guessed that they would be so severe.”

  “Do you think there’s a link between the two?” Magellan questioned. “I would think, if anything, that they potentially set the gig up and expected him to die during the fighting.”

  “I don’t think that would have been a smart plan. Unless they were waiting to scoop his corpse up, there would have been a good chance one of the mutants would have simply eaten him,” Sasha countered. “My guess is that, like myself, they don’t tend to rely on coincidence that much.”

  “Gin said he was there to meet someone. I wanted to believe it was merely a bluff. How could anyone get hold of him? Why would they even if they could?” Magellan growled. “While he’s still alive and here on Earth, Kaiden shouldn’t take any gigs that are too far away from the Academy.”

  “We’ll keep an eye on him, and I made sure his agent wouldn’t give him anything too extreme, but I won’t barricade him. It would possibly cause a commotion among the student body if there were rumors that a member of the Revenant List could be stalking the grounds. Plus, I doubt Kaiden would stand for it once he gets his mind back together.”

  The bounty hunter frowned. The commander’s explanation did not sit well. “I guess I follow but still don’t like it. There’s only one notable survivor who crossed Gin, a military man who lost an arm to him. My guess is that Gin hasn’t returned because he’s now stationed on a military vessel and has a Gatling gun for an arm. But he doesn’t like leaving witnesses.”

  “We already have Kaiden’s account and his EI’s recordings. I’m sure he is aware of that. And considering that Kaiden has tests coming up and a fair amount of work to make up for, he will be here for at least several weeks before he’ll have the time to attempt another excursion.” Sasha removed his oculars and folded his hands once again. “You have no need to worry, Magellan. We’ll protect him as much as we can.”

  “Good to know,” he acknowledged but grew quiet and avoided the other man’s gaze.

  “Is something wrong?” Sasha asked.

  “Yeah, it was something Gin said before I left.” He glanced at the commander. “He said he used to go to Nexus. Do you know if that’s true?”

  Sasha’ lips pursed and his eyelids lowered in anger. “It is.” He nodded, and Magellan’s eyes widened in shock. “He attended the Academy for three years before he simply vanished. When I began my tenure here, he was in the master class.” He scowled. “But he didn’t use the name Gin Sonny at the time.”

  “I’m telling you that I won’t take any more of your gigs,” Julio fumed over the line at the man dressed in a dark business suit and with combed-back brown hair. “The first one you sent me nearly got my guy killed!”

  “Yes, we have learned about the unfortunate incident,” he replied in calm, collected voice. “We do apologize and are always sure to create a proper list of the known dangers and identify the threat level properly. I assure you we had no idea that such a madman would be on the grounds. From the news reports, he wasn’t even on Earth when we created the listing.”

  “Dios, you suits always gotta go to the charts and stats when things blow up in your face,” the bartender and gig agent chided. “It doesn’t change my mind. No amount of creds will get you back on my list.”

  “I understand. Thank you for at least having the decency to call and tell me directly instead of simply delisting the company.”

  “Pah, I only did that so I could give you a piece of my mind. I hope you feel at least a little terrible as you sleep on your king-size bed made of ivory and sweatshop tears,” he spat before ending the call.

  “What an annoying little gnat,” he muttered and spun his chair slowly to face his desk. “But he played his part well enough.”

  “I like him.” His visitor grinned. “He has pizzazz. I might pay him a visit sometime.”

  “You don’t seem to have much discretion with your targets, do you?”

  The man’s smile widened, and he placed his two artificial hands on the desk. “I don’t usually have to—whatever catches my fancy and all that. But don’t worry, I’ll save it for my free time, Mr. Zubaz.”

  “Zubanz, Mr. Sonny,” he corrected. He pressed a button on his desk and a glass bottle of whiskey appeared from a compartment below. “But thank you for trying. I guess that your time alone has weakened your interpersonal skills slightly.”

  “Honestly? It was never my strong suit to begin with.” The chairman offered Gin one of the glasses. He took it in his new arm and tilted it so that Zubanz could pour the liquor. “I must say, I was impressed tha
t you were able to get hold of me. When that handsome face of yours popped on the screen at that lab I was ransacking, I thought you were gonna be another one of those proud military guys hacking in to tell me I was surrounded and that there was no escape or something.”

  “You were quite difficult to contact. But that was to be expected. If it were easy, we would have pursued another potential agent,” he explained as he poured his own glass. “For what we wish for you to accomplish, it would be better if you worked alone and couldn’t be traced, and you fit both criteria well—along with your other talents.”

  “I have many.” The killer held the glass up in a toast. “I’ve always said that if you do something you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.”

  “A nice philosophy. I can’t say I enjoy all facets of my profession.” He looked at the liquid in his glass before taking a small sip. “But you find ways to cope.”

  “So, about the job.” Gin crossed his legs and leaned back in the chair. “You said you wanted that thing in the kid's noggin, right?”

  “I suppose I should have laid that out before you came to Earth. But in the circumstances, I hope you’ll forgive me for being vague.”

  “I’ve already forgiven you for trying to make me do your dirty work before getting paid,” Gin admitted. He sipped slowly and smiled with satisfaction. “I was pissed, at first, once I realized what was going on, but you know, I can’t stay mad at a face like yours. Plus, the creds and toys you’ve promised me are rather enticing. Assuming that’s still viable.”