Animus Complete Series Omnibus, page 217
Wolfson sighed and leaned against the desk. “We have supporters on the inside, mostly old contacts of mine or Sasha’s who have found themselves nice positions in the WC, as well as a few delegates who have investigated suspicious happenings in the council on their own.”
Chiyo tilted her head. “If anything illicit was happening in the council, wouldn’t you have been notified? It sounds like this would have been a smoother process.”
“Suspicious happenings, Master Kana, not illicit,” the commander clarified. “Although one will eventually bleed into the other once no answers are found.”
“What kind of suspicious?” Kaiden enquired. “Anything like what happened in the Animus?”
“From what we have been told, for the last couple of years, files have gone missing or odd discrepancies have occurred in scheduling and the like,” Laurie explained.
“Things that would make even the most apathetic guard take notice,” Wolfson continued and shook his head. “Not that there are any in the WC.”
“They have looked into these issues internally but have come up with nothing to say that it wasn’t anything more than a bad readout or some other small issue that could be attributed to faulty procedure. Although this created enough concern that a task force was created to comb through the system and all hard drives in search of the ‘internal issue,’ it only brought up more questions.”
“The data you brought in that we sent out got the task force all riled up, as they found some of the missing files along with others that were obviously copied from their stores,” the security head stated and threw his hands up in irritation. “That should have made any of the remaining missing pieces click together and it did for some. The council, however, doesn’t like to think that anything on the scale of an all-out attack could be successful without them already knowing about it. They’ve spent too long with their only real problems being politics and the occasional terrorist group causing chaos before being eradicated or forced back into hiding by the military.”
The former sergeant huffed and glared at the band on his wrist. “Instead of thanking us for giving them a lead and destroying a potential enemy stronghold, they took us to task for attacking it at all and went on about the loss of life and the damage to the environment from the explosion. I expected all that, personally, but the fact that they act like there’s nothing to be concerned about from what we found and that we are the real problems still stirs my blood.”
Kaiden gritted his teeth and looked away. “I know it’s the stereotype that politicians look out more for their personal interests than the problems right in front of them, but if this is really the furthest we’ve progressed because of their incompetence, we’re either screwed or they’ve already been taken over by the AO.”
“That is a possibility,” Sasha replied and Chiyo and Kaiden turned to him with wide eyes. “You didn’t already believe that could be the reason?” he questioned. “Our investigation started under the assumption that WC members were a part of the AO. If that is still true, they could have already grown their web for years—far longer than we’ve searched for them.”
“Before you have a heart attack,” Laurie interjected and walked around the desk and over to Kaiden. “Those connections I told you about have already started their own investigations. In fact, a few have told me they have identified facilities similar to the original one you found in Germany.”
“The underground base?” the ace asked.
The professor nodded. “These are smaller facilities, but if an official team or taskforce actually finds one themselves, that would force any doubters to take the situation seriously.”
“Indeed,” Sasha nodded. “That’s the plan. Several teams are being prepared to raid these under direct orders of affiliates and delegates. Once the bases are shut down, they will make an announcement to the council who will have to announce it to the public.”
“Meaning the organization will no longer be able to simply hide anymore. Everyone will be looking for them,” Chiyo suggested.
“They’ll still be a threat,” Wolfson added. “But with the full force of the WC ranged against them, they won’t be able to put up a fight for too long.”
Kaiden smiled. “I guess I shouldn’t be too happy until we hear the results of the raids, but I have to admit I’m disappointed that I won’t be there to see those shady bastards finally toppled.”
“It was you who brought them to light in the first place, Kaiden,” Sasha stated. “Remember that.”
“And if you work hard enough, you might graduate in time to find yourself a team and see if you can get in on the action,” Wolfson suggested and stroked his beard thoughtfully. “Although that would require you to join the military, which is still a good choice.”
The ace held his hand up to stop him. “I have my own plans, although I’m sure there’ll be fallout after the organization is crushed. Maybe I can get some gigs and closure that way.”
“How long until the attacks on the facilities?” Chiyo asked.
Laurie sighed. “There have been some delays, unfortunately. They should actually have happened this week but the general in command has shipped troops out to dozens of different locations. It apparently has something to do with potential terrorist cells being discovered.”
“Those in charge of the raids have had to tighten and focus their efforts, but they should begin their missions within the next few weeks,” Sasha confirmed.
“A few weeks, huh?” Kaiden muttered and looked at Chief. “At least the noose is tightening, right?”
“I guess so,” the EI responded. “If the truth be told, the waiting might be the hardest part.”
Merrick watched and listened in on the conversation in Laurie’s office via the tiny bug placed by one of the board members they’d subverted. At the end of it, he had to give the Nexus staff credit. With only a handful of them, they had managed to cause such large problems for him that a significant amount of course correction had been necessary during the last year.
Although in the end, it simply required a change of plans and had put the Academy on the top of his priority list. It had always been there, but he had hoped to acquire Nexus through subterfuge and guile. It would mean fewer lives lost that way. Now? He would take it by force and he would once again be the head of the Academy, although for very different reasons.
“Sir?” A screen appeared on his left and he glanced at Jiro and Karimi as they came into focus. “The cells are in position. Once the invasion begins, we’ll keep the military forces occupied here in Asia.”
“Understood. We shall hopefully have the council building under our control in only a few days.” Merrick’s focus returned to the screen that displayed Laurie’s office. “And from there, we can prepare for the real threat.”
Chapter Seven
The sun had barely begun to peek out above the hills and manmade structures that surrounded Nexus island. The light glinted faintly off the lake water and the artificial lighting had slowly begun to dim. Groups of students wandered the plaza, old friends meeting up or newbies trying to still find the paths that led to their workshops.
Cameron yawned and stretched, and his arms almost knocked against Kaiden and Flynn as the trio walked out of the cafeteria with plastic mugs of coffee. They made their way over to the rest of their group and passed out the various orders of coffee and juices before they once again proceeded to the Animus Center.
“She’s ready for us, right?” the bounty hunter asked between what was basically chugs of caffeine. “Akello, I mean. We won’t have to loiter around the entrance to the AC, will we?”
“She’s there,” Chiyo confirmed. “She’s on my network and I’ve already sent a message that we’re on the way.”
“Do you have her position? She only gave me her commlink code,” Kaiden muttered.
“You two seem to have a…strained relationship,” Jaxon said and unlocked the mouthpiece of his infuser to sip the juice Flynn had gotten for him.
“What? Naw, she digs me,” the ace protested.
“In spurts, certainly.” Chiyo giggled and stowed her tablet in the messenger bag across her chest. “She said the doors are unlocked and she’ll meet us in hall 001.”
“Good, no stairs,” Marlo noted and rolled his shoulders. “I have to remember to stretch before we get into the pods.”
“I stretched almost as soon as I got out of bed,” Amber stated. “I had to get the blood going, especially this early.”
“Might I ask what training we will participate in?” Genos asked. “Or will it be a war game?”
“I’m up for some elimination,” Cameron suggested. “Free for all or teams. We could make teams of four or go in pairs.”
“I would suspect that is up to the head monitor,” Jaxon reminded them. “Although if we do have a vote, I would like a team competition.”
“We are christening the Animus for the beginning of the year,” Kaiden said. “I think it would be proper that we start with some elims.”
“Proper?” Amber asked and looked at him with a grin. “Is Flynn rubbing off on you after all this time?”
“Aussie, not British,” Flynn reminded her and took a sip before he elbowed her. “And what are you poking fun at me for? You’re Aussie too but with no accent.”
“I moved around too much for it to stick, really,” she admitted.
“If we do teams, how will we decide on who goes into which one?” Marlo asked.
Kaiden looked around. “I guess we can either divide into our normal teams and have Cam and Jax flip a coin, or we can have one of our EIs randomize it.”
“I’ll make sure your team is ‘interesting,’” Chief promised, although the hint of mischievous implication in it was not well hidden. Given that all his options were his friends and all of them well experienced by now, he wasn’t sure how the EI would mess with him, but he also knew Chief was crafty.
“If we do the latter, I won’t volunteer Chief,” he announced and the EI’s eye shrunk and his avatar turned red as a few members of the group chuckled.
“Well, now I want to see how that would turn out.” Flynn chuckled as they reached the entrance to the AC. Most of them tossed their disposable cups into the trash before they went in. The building was illuminated only by glow strips and a few lights above.
“It doesn’t look like it’s completely online yet,” Amber said before they all heard a large hum and the main lights came on. “Oh, well, never mind then.”
“Hall 001 is open,” Marlo called and smiled as he looked inside. “And someone’s already here.”
The group entered and looked at Akello, who waited at the main console. She turned and waved them over with a warm greeting. “Morning, guys. Are you ready to be the first students in the Animus for the year?”
“You bet!” Kaiden nodded and glanced at the pods closest to the console as they activated and the doors slid open. “What do you have for us?”
“I thought I’d leave that up to you guys,” she replied and brought up the mode and map options. “Everything is ready and we even have some new maps. What are you looking for?”
The group looked at each other and most nodded as they had already agreed to their preference on their way in. “We’ll go with team elimination,” Jaxon stated. “As for the map, perhaps we should try one of the new ones?”
“It sounds like fun!” Amber agreed. “What are the teams?”
“Honestly, I simply want to get started already,” Kaiden admitted. “Let’s go with Flynn’s group and mine. We’ll take Jax as our fourth member.”
“Pulling rank there?” the marksman questioned sarcastically and motioned Cameron over, and the four of them went to the pods on the left side of the console.
“If he whines too much, we can swap after the first match,” the ace retorted and glanced at Akello. “Speaking of which, is the best of five all right?”
She nodded as she scanned the map list. “Sure, but let’s try to make good time on this, okay? I have loadout training with the first group of initiates in a few hours.”
“It’ll be fine, Akello,” Flynn promised as he entered his pod and grinned at Kaiden as the door closed. “It won’t take us too long to kick their asses.”
The ace rolled his eyes as the door to his pod began to close. “You’ll come out of that pod sobbing,” he promised and darkness enveloped him momentarily before the pod lights activated. He leaned back and closed his eyes. He had become so used to the sensation of connecting to the Animus and it seemed incredible to think this would be his last year using it.
Wolfson stood at the edges of the docks and let the early light of the sun warm him. He received a call on his comm. “Talk to me,” he ordered.
“Sir, we seem to have odd readings from two of the relays in the hills,” one of his officers responded. “Some of the cameras seem to be malfunctioning too.”
“Also in the hills?” he asked as he turned to look in the direction of the town across the bridge. “That’s the police’s jurisdiction. We’re only notified if it’s our students causing problems.”
“They are requesting help with maintenance, sir,” the officer explained. “They said they had their techs look at them but they can’t find anything. Their best guess is that it might be something with the software.”
“That’s Laurie’s boys.” Wolfson grunted, took his tablet out, and looked at his messages. There was nothing from the professor, which was odd. Laurie always took pride in his designs, no matter how insignificant. If something was wrong with any of them, he would be the first to know and send a message out, even if it was only a few words, that he would handle it.
“I can’t make it over myself,” he stated, put the tablet away, and hurried to the R&D building. “But I’ll let Laurie know. If he hasn’t received a message about it already, something must be wrong with the connection. He would get an alarm if something was corrupted.”
“Understood, sir. I’ll let them know,” the officer stated and signed off. As Wolfson made his way to Laurie, he glanced at the sky. His brow furrowed when he noticed, far off into the distance, something strange about the clouds—or, rather, one massive cloud that stretched across the horizon. Perhaps he was still shaking sleep off, but an ominous feeling settled over him.
Unconsciously, he began to pick up the pace.
Chapter Eight
“Team elimination, best of five rounds. Map: District 99.”
The artificial voice rattled off the details as Kaiden fell through a neon-lit tube. The lights gradually fell away until he could see through the clear lining. Below him sprawled an empty city of modern design with neon lights and swirling colors gliding through the air. It made a damn pretty sight, he had to admit. He looked to his left to locate the other members of his team. Genos, Chiyo, and Jaxon fell through tubes like his, all now dressed in their loadout gear. He looked across the map at four specks in the distance—Flynn’s team—and he could swear he could make out Cameron flipping him off in the distance. It would be fun to get him back.
The speed of his fall began to slow as the artificial gravity kicked in. He drew Sire as the tip of his left foot made contact with the landing pad below. When his teammates alighted, they also drew their weapons and huddled together.
“Hey, Jax.” Kaiden beckoned and shouldered his rifle. “I’ll lead this round and you take the next?”
The Tsuna ace nodded. “Very well. Orders?”
“Teams of two,” he stated and held two fingers up for emphasis. “You and Genos. I’m with Chi. They might stay in a group but both Flynn and Cameron like the whole lone wolf approach. We might catch them alone.”
“In that case, Amber will definitely stick with Marlo,” Chiyo pointed out. “A battle-medic and heavy is a dangerous combination.”
“Only as long as her gadgets are working,” Genos suggested and held out a nano grenade. “It’s a simple enough fix.”
“She’ll have some kind of purge, though. And even if we take her out, Marlo will be a handful. If there’s anyone more gleefully destructive than me it’s a demolitionist,” Kaiden reasoned. “Keep a lookout and Chief?”
“Do you have something for me?” the EI asked and materialized in the air.
The ace gave him a thumbs-up. “Take a look around but be careful, though. I’m sure Cameron has a drone looking for us.”
“On it.” The EI nodded and floated upward. The holographic ambient lights actually allowed the orb to blend in with the sky and hide a little better. Kaiden watched him fly off, then checked the top left of his HUD to confirm that their vision was still connected. He nodded to Jaxon and Genos who returned the gesture before both leapt off the pad, down to the ground, and hurried away to the left side of the map.
Kaiden watched them go for a moment, then noticed a door on the other side. “Do you wanna take a stroll or—” Before he could finish, he looked back and Chiyo dove off the pad herself, flipped in the air, and landed several stories below.
She straightened and looked at him. “Are you coming?” she asked over the comms. He simply smiled under his mask before he stepped casually off the edge and fell to the ground beside her.
“So, who are you looking to bring into your company?” Chiyo asked as Kaiden peered around a corner. His gaze darted from his visor to Chief’s viewing feed.
“Company?” he asked, momentarily distracted. “Oh, the merc company?”
“Right. You said you had some people in mind,” she prodded.
He gestured for her to move closer as they crept through the alley. “I do but don’t know if it’s even possible to get them, really. All but one of them are contracted.”
She tilted her head. “And the one who isn’t is…”
The ace glanced over his shoulder for a moment. “You,” he stated and returned his focus to the way ahead when they left the alley. They stood in the middle of a brightly lit street where glowing signs advertised fake restaurants and hotels above them.
