BREATH . OF . LIFE . ~ { ReGenisis Chronicles Book I }

Chapter Six [Part 3/3]: Fingers & Thumbs

                      -Jake Aylesbury -

Three-Thirty AM, breaths held on the other side of an electric fence outside Ides of March Industries main facility. Skinner and Hudson close either side of me, Jennings and Tryst  positioned on the outer shell of our little group. No assists this time, and one unit member short, we were told we took the consequences of this mission on our own heads. We either had to leave with the thug that got away from Miss Andersen's murder scene alive or Kate herself. Both together was the preferable outcome to Trinity Science, just not for me. If we couldn't get either, we might as well allow ourselves to get taken out.

If Rin was successful the stage was set for a convincing rescue. One that would wash Takeichi and King's hands of involvement with Kate, as well as any trace back to them if we were lucky. It also cleaned my hands of mistakenly letting her go back with King without a fight. If not, we were in for a shit storm regardless how this went down inside Ides.

I nodded for us to move forward. I was the only one capable of jumping the barrier, so I had to give the others a push. Giving Hudson a foot up, the same with Skinner. But I had to throw Tryst and Jennings. I used a tree near the perimeter, running two steps up its bark wall and using the momentum and force from kicking off of it to fly over the fence. I hit the ground on my feet, like everyone but Jennings who practically landed face first.

This was a stupid sort of mission three years ago, before Ides was so powerful. Now it was simply suicidal. But I'd learned not to go into a mission expecting to die, it moves the odds in deaths favour. Still, I hadn't yielded to it yet and I had a job to do.

We made our way over to the side entrance, I snapped the neck of the guard there as I reached him. I had no time to play around and could care less about the death count.

I'd taken his key-card and I was going to focus in on the keypad to figure out which combination I was supposed to put in with it. But there were small traces of bloody finger prints left on them. I inhaled and felt my heart judder, it was Rin's blood. Handily, with each digit the trace was less so I could tell which to press first to last.

If I'd had time, I'd have asked myself, as I heard the beep of the code going through, why I was trusting a woman who'd betrayed Trinity Science and whose ex Fiancé happened to be behind the walls I was breaking into. That ex being the worse of two betrayers.

Fortunately, I had no time to consider this and we were inside the halls quickly. Two with rifles pulled, one with a katana. Myself and Hudson, bare handed for now. It wasn't long before we walked into our first group of Ides agents. All humans and not entirely expecting us. I slammed the first into a wall, hearing the crack of his skull.

Hudson had wrapped his arm around another's neck, a loud snap going through my ears, before the sound of that body flopping to the floor. Jennings had the chance to finally use his sword, taking a human head as if it was necessary to decapitate them to ensure they couldn't come back. In Ides, they were probably injected after first death, even if just with a trace of the serums they have.

Tryst got to the last target of the group with well aimed shots to the chest. The loud sound of her rifle going off bouncing off of the walls. I cringed, they'd know we were here now if they hadn't before.

I indicated for Tryst and Skinner to watch our backs and check down any parting corridors as we continued forward. My problem, we were going too slow and every second here counted. So I gave Jennings and Hudson a nod and took off ahead at speed. One thing I didn't lack that other, stronger Nocturnals were not perhaps as blessed with, was speed. I could feel my lungs swelling, filling with a rush of oxygen as I whirred down the halls. I knew what I was looking for. A red light in a dim hallway, from there I just needed my nose.