Halfkinds Volume 1: Contact (10 page)

“I like to work with my own
tools.”

“Work with your own tools, eh?  What
movie did you get that line from?”

I look into my bag and pick up my
Tang 534A.  The pistol is one of my favorite weapons.  It has a long battery
life and is speedy and accurate.  It’s also equipped with a silence mode that
suppresses noise at the cost of lower firepower.  I glance at it to make sure
it hadn’t been damaged during the delivery and set it aside.

I then take out a longer, heavier
gun.  It’s a Tang 700 series energy rifle, also known as a Spitfire.  Its
nickname derives from its plasma shots, hot enough to burn through several
metals, but its energy cost is higher.  I probably can only get one hundred
rounds or so until I need to recharge.  I saw the images of the rhino and croc
halfkind, Alex and Curtis.  I have a feeling my Tang 534A won’t cut it, so I
may have to rely on the Spitfire instead

Those are the only two weapons I
need, though I’ll be sure to pick up some pulse, mini, and sound grenades from
Agent Leons before we leave.

I observe the others' gear.  I’m
familiar with dog and wolf weaponry, since I worked with Apollo on a several
missions, but I’m not aware of what Borton, Erawan, and Colbo might have in
their arsenal.

Colbo pulls out a large gun from
his bag.  It looks like my Spitfire, but twice the size.  Gorilla weapons are
similar to human weapons in that they are carried by arms and require opposable
thumbs to operate, but they are usually bigger than what humans use.  I doubt
that a gorilla would want to be seen with a ridiculously small gun on them and
a trigger that their fingers can barely squeeze.

The leading gorilla weapons
manufacturer is Silverback Industries, and their arms are known to have quite
the punch.  Gorilla’s themselves tend to favor heavy weaponry as opposed to
pistols.  They have a reputation for hitting hard and hitting fast.  I can’t
even recall the last time I’ve seen a gorilla with a pistol or light firearm.

“I trust that you guys have
grenades and pulse bombs,” Colbo says to Agent Leons.

“Sure do, but they are Tang
models.  Hope you don’t mind using human weapons,” he says.

“That’s fine, a bomb is a bomb.  I
should be able to use it like you humans.”

Erawan uses his trunk to pull out
a large, metal stick.  At first I’m not sure what it is, but after looking at
it, I know.  Designed by Shivato Tech, the elephants call it a firing stick. 
Basically, it’s a large stick where one end fires an energy shot, while the
other end is held by the elephant’s trunk.  A trigger is in the form of a panel
on the stick and when an elephant wraps his trunk and applies pressure, the
shot is fired.  It can also be used as a melee weapon.

Borton rummages through his bag
and pulls out a harness looking apparatus.  It looks like it is supposed to fit
on his back.  From it protrudes two energy pistols.  Pigs don’t have an independent
weapons manufacturer.  They rather negotiate and haggle for weapons instead of
using their resources to make their own, so they have their weapon designs
contracted out by other species.  This looks to be the work of a human
developer, since it’s a bunch of human weapons stitched together for a pig to
use.  Attached to the triggers of the energy pistols are wires that lead to a
helmet looking contraption.

My curiosity gets the better of
me.  “So how does it work?”

“What, my weapon?” Borton say.  “Well,
basically I put this harness on my back and this helmet on top of my head.  The
strings that connect the harness and helmet go near my mouth, and when I’m
ready to shoot, I bite down on the string which is attached to this small
controller.  The buttons on the controller retract the cords, which pull the
triggers on the pistols you see on the harness and, boom, weapon is fired.  I
know it seems primitive by human standards, but it’s effective.”

I then look at what Apollo and
Fenrir have.  Canine weapons, regardless of wolf or dog, are produced by the
Beo Group.  The only thing they need is a helmet, which is for both protection,
storage of devices, and weapons.  Their trigger is voice activated.  Once the
command is spoken, shots of various type, electric, plasma, ballistic, come out
of their helmet.  For stealth shots that don’t require a vocal command, a
sensor is aimed at their tails.  If they move it in a certain manner, left,
right, whatever depending on how it’s programmed, directives are interpreted.

I’ve seen Apollo use it before,
and the firepower that comes out of those helmet cannons is pretty impressive.

Fenrir has something else,
though.  It’s a small box that looks like it should be attached to his front
leg.  I’ve never seen it before.

“Is that some kind of
communication device?” I ask him.

“No, it’s a marble shooter,” he
says.  “Marble shooters fire out small balls of energy in a forward direction. 
It rolls across the floor, like its namesake, and after a ten second window, it
explodes.  The blast radius is the same as a small grenade.  However, they are
required to roll on a flat surface.  Any uneven ground makes it unpredictable
and inaccurate.  I have it just in case.  They’re best used as an element of
surprise.”

“All right everyone, you have
everything you need?”  Agent Leons asks.

“It looks like that’s the case,” I
say.

“Good, then let’s go to the war
room.  You’ll need to figure out your plans.”

We put our gear back into our bags
and follow Agent Leons into another large conference room.  It’s called the war
room, but it looks exactly like all the other rooms we’ve been in.  Colbo and I
take a seat, but the rest stand since there appears to be no chairs that would
fit their body type.

“Commander Trevor will take the
lead from here,” he says.

The team’s attention turns to me
and I walk to the front of the room to address them.

“After our debriefing, we know
there are ten halfkinds remaining.  You’ve gone through their profiles, I
assume?”  I ask the team.  They all nod.  “Good.  We know that Maya Lawton’s
corpse had been there for about a week, thus, I think they vacated 1523 Chakming Drive immediately after she had died.  It seems they didn’t even take time to
bury her properly, which meant they were in quite a rush to leave their home.”

“Judging from the evidence that
we’ve obtained, they had lived there their whole life.  Why would they be so
quick to leave?” Apollo asks.

“Perhaps they knew someone would
be coming,” Borton interjects.  “Maya was on a daily plan for her energy bill
since her credit was so bad.  That means she had to pay every day or else a
collector would be coming.  The Las Vegas County Energy Department has always
been very punctual about bill collections, and for someone who already had late
incidents before, they wouldn’t hesitate to have someone stop by.”

“It seems that they want to keep a
low profile.  But why?” Apollo persists.

“Because they think we are
hostile,” Colbo interrupts.  “Think about it, when that frog half-man, Leonard
Lawton, saw Detective Marsden, what was his first instinct?  To attack him.  He
didn’t ask any questions, didn’t give any terms of peace, he went straight for
a weapon.  Judging from what I’ve read on Maya’s profile along with the actions
of Leonard, these things fear us.”

“Do you blame them?” Fenrir asks. 
“You all realize that our mission is to track down and kill these creatures,
right?  Maya Lawton raised her children with the right mindset, that they will
be feared and attacked.  Her upbringing made them understand their place in the
world.”

There is an awkward silence in the
room after Fenrir’s comments.  The reality of our mission sinks in.  We are
given our orders, but we are not the good guys.  We are the predators, hunting
a prey that didn’t ask to be hunted.

“As long as I get paid, that’s all
I care about,” Borton says.

“Of course,” Fenrir responds. 
“That’s all you pigs care about.”

“Excuse me?” Borton says
defensively.

“Calm down both of you,” I say
sternly.  “We’re here to discuss our plan, not argue with each other.”

Borton and Fenrir stop their
squabbling, but give each other dirty looks.  Apollo interjects to ease the
tension.  “My original question wasn’t answered, though.  Why do you think they
left so abruptly?”

“I thought my statements answered
that question, but I guess I have to spell it out for the less intellectually
inclined,” Fenrir says.  “They’re afraid of making contact with the world. 
They’re motivated by fear, avoiding any creature that comes their way,
especially ones that ask questions.  They’ll do anything to keep their secrecy,
even if it means leaving their dead mother to rot in the house they grew up
in.”

“Sounds cold,” Apollo says.

“Survival is their only mission. 
Sympathies are trivial,” Fenrir says casually.

“Okay, so we know they’re on the
run,” I say.  “They’ve been out there for a week.  How do you think they are on
supplies?”

“From the reports at Maya’s crime
scene, it seems that they took things with them.  Not personal items, but the
house was scarce of any items that are necessary for their survival,” Agent
Leons says.

“Food, water, clothing?” I ask. 
He nods.  “How much do you think they took?”

“A lot,” he responds.  “It’s hard
to determine, but there was barely anything in the house, in terms of that
stuff.”

“What about their insta-item?”
Apollo asks.

“Negative, that was still there,”
Agent Leons responds.  “Maya had one linked to her accounts and it was a
special security model.  It had a bio scanner on it, so it would only work if
she activated it.  The thing is useless without her.  They wouldn’t be able to
order any supplies with it, nor receive any goods unless she was physically
alive to get it for them.  Seems that she wanted to be the sole provider.”

“That’s good news for us,” Colbo
says.  “That means they’ll be running out of supplies eventually.”

“You’re correct,” I say to Colbo. 
“You all know how the insta-item process works right?  The items that you can
order through the intsa-item are stored in supply depots.  Various delivery
companies have many scattered about small towns, like Primm.  That’s where all
your food and goods are held.  When you make an order through the insta-item,
it’s automatically processed in a supply depot.  So, say you want to order a
bag of rice.  The supply depot gets the order and sends it through their
teleporters to the coordinates sent via the insta-order.  Once it’s sent from
their side, it only takes a couple of moments until it pops in your
insta-item.  Ingredients for your day’s dinner are ready.”

“So,” Borton asks.  “You think
that once their stash runs out, they’ll head to a supply depot to get what they
need?”

“Yes,” I respond.  “I assume they
don’t have an insta-item with them, so they’ll need to go directly to the
source to get their goods.  I think our first task should be to stakeout all
the depots in Primm.  They’ll be bound to try and get supplies sooner or later,
and we should be there to intercept them when they do.  Apollo, do you have
your compcube with you?”

“Yes,” he says.

“Do a quick search on all the
supply depots in Primm.”

He takes out his cube.  The user
interface appears in front of him, a floating hologram.  He uses his paws to
navigate the menus and search my query.  Within a few seconds he has an answer.

“Looks like there are six
different ones in Primm,” he says.

Great.  There are six of us, and I
can’t risk sending one animal to each supply depot.  We have the weapons to
take them on, but if we spread the team thin and it becomes a "one on
ten" situation, whoever that one is will be screwed.  Yet, I need to make
sure all of the supply depots are monitored.

“Leons,” I say.  “Is it possible
to bring in reinforcements?”

“Yes, but it’ll take at least a
few days tops to get all the necessary permissions.  It was already hard enough
for the Human Council to maneuver through the bureaucracy to get this team
assembled.”

“Damnit.  We can’t risk sending
one team member to each depot, but we need to have them all covered.  How about
drones?”

“Again, more paperwork.”

“Shit!” I say to myself in a frustrated
tone.

“They don’t have an insta-item
right?  That’s probably the only thing they need, that and credits,” Fenrir
says to the group.  “We should cross reference Apollo’s results with depots
that carry insta-items.”

Once again Fenrir impresses me. 
His logic makes sense.  “Apollo, do it.”

Apollo quickly enters the query
into the compcube.  “Looks like there are three depots that carry insta-items. 
Primm-Phillips, Primm-Austen, and Primm-Burke.”

“That’s where we should start
looking then,” I say.  “We can split into teams of two and each pairing can do
recon there.  We’ll want to stay low and only spring into action when we
encounter the targets.  Does anyone object to this plan?”

No one raises a hand.  However,
Fenrir speaks.  “Remember, when we’re on stakeout, we want to stay
inconspicuous.  The halfkinds won’t be expecting us to act so soon, so the
element of surprise is key here.  It could take a day, or five, to stakeout the
area, but they’ll come eventually.  They’ll have to.”

“I want to focus on these three
depots only,” I say.  “I can work on the paperwork to get the drones out, but
the earliest we can get them here will be in a week.  We can’t wait that long,
so for now we’ll have to make do with what we have.”

“When do you want to start?”
Borton asks.

“Tonight,” I say
authoritatively.   “We don’t have a moment to waste.  Apollo, has there been
any reported break-ins to any of the depots?

“Give me a second, I can check.” 
Apollo scans the information presented to him on his compcube.  “Nothing in the
past few days.  No stolen items, no missing inventory.  If anything came up, it
would have been reported and I can’t find anything.”