Halfkinds Volume 1: Contact (8 page)

“This is the team,” Agent Leons
says to the younger man.  “All six of you were picked by your respective
councils and governments to undergo this mission, approved by the United
Species Alliance.  Consider yourself lucky, for you are the elite not only of
your kind, but of most animals out there today.  You’ve all probably seen me in
your briefings, but you haven’t met this man.  His name is Simon Trevor, he’ll
be heading this mission.  He’s a specialist in obtaining illegal contraband and
weapons.  Simon, meet your team.”

“Hi, I’m looking forward to
working with all of you,” he then turns to the dog.  “Good to see you Apollo. 
When was the last time we caught up?”

“A month ago?” the dog replies.

“That long?  Well, drinks will be
on me after we’re done with this.”

“Oh, so you two know each other?”
Agent Leons asks.

“Yes, Simon and I worked together
hunting down some illegal drug runners a few years ago.  We’ve been keeping in
contact since,” the dog replies.

“I would consider Apollo one of my
combat buddies.”

“That’s good!” Agent Leons says
enthusiastically, but I can sense his bullshit a mile away.  “Always nice to
have friends on the same team.  Makes cooperation a lot easier.”

The dog is sucking up to the
human.  Typical.

“Well,” Agent Leons says, “since
you spoke first, how about you introduce yourself first.  We’ll all go around
in a circle and give our helloes.”

“No problem,” the dog says.  “I’m
Apollo Bradley.  Like Simon, I’m a specialist in tracking and finding illegal
contraband.  I’m thirty four years old and I’ve been with the Dog Alliance for
about seven years.”

“Apollo here is shy,” Simon says,
“he’s a rising star over there.”

I’m surprised at how young the dog
is.  For a task like this, I would imagine that his superiors would have sent
someone much older, maybe in their fifties.  Most every intelligent species’
lifespans have been greatly bolstered since we became aware.

The gorilla speaks next.  “Colbo
Zuma.  I’m a heavy arms specialist and I’ve served a few tours in the Gorilla
Lion Conflict.  I’ve also done some secret operative work for the Gorilla
Government.  Classified, naturally.”

“Of course,” Agent Leons says.

“Erawan Bornoa, member of the
Royal Elephant Service.” 

That is why the United Species
Alliance chose this elephant.  The Royal Elephant Service is the elephant’s
secret service group, protecting the leaders of their government.  He’s
probably the highest decorated member of this team.

That is all Erawan decides to say,
and that is all he needs to say.

“I’m Borton Freely,” the pig
says.  “I’m also a tracker, like Apollo, but I specialize in the tracking of
currency.  I usually handle covert operations involving money laundering.”

Borton seems like a questionable
choice on this team.  He can find things, like me, Apollo, and Simon, but his
specialization is currency?  C’mon.  He probably got assigned to this mission
because of politics.

It is my turn to speak.  “I’m
Fenrir Snow, member of the Wolf’s Den Task Force.  Like some of the others, I’m
a tracker, but I specifically hunt wanted criminals.  As you know, the Task
Force has a reputation for finding the toughest escapees and threats to our
society of wolves.  I can’t go into the details of my missions, though, they’re
classified.”

I shoot Colbo a wink.  He responds
with a smug smile.  Asshole.

“Great, now that we got all our
introductions out of the way, we can start with the mission,” Agent Leons
says.  “You’ve been briefed.  We suspect that the halfkinds are already on the
move, but still in Primm, so we’ll have to come up with our own strategy to
hunt and find them.  Your orders are to kill.  We’ll gather in the war room so you
can get your gear and work on your plan of attack.  Follow me.”

I am uncomfortable with being a
hitman for these humans, but if the Brotherhood deems this mission is worthy,
then I will do it for them.  When the hour comes and I stand face to face with
a halfkind, I will be ready to pull the trigger.  The only thing I will think
is that I served my wolves well and nothing more.

November 16, 3040
4:35 PM

“Do you understand the plan?” I
ask Lombardi.

“Yes,” he responds with a lack of
confidence.

It’s right before sundown, and all
of us are gathered around to make sure he knows what to do and where to go.  We
had gone over it for the last hour, testing him on every detail of his
mission.  We only have one shot to get the things that we need.

Luckily for us, Primm is a rundown
city and its supply depots don’t exactly have the most state of the art
security.  Candy was able to use her compcube, a small device that opens up a
holographic interface, to do some research on the kind of defense mechanisms
Lombardi might expect during his task.  She was surprised, as were the rest of
us, to learn that the Primm-Phillips supply depot only had a full building
sensor installed and nothing else.  No security drones, no indoor alarm trips,
nothing.  They didn’t have the funds to invest in all the bells and whistles.

Not like they had to.  Judging
from the Primm-Phillips catalog, the only things that were stored there were
food, clothing, and some other essential survival items.  It wasn’t where they
stored all the good, pricy objects.  Most importantly, though, there was an
insta-item there.

Still, if Lombardi messes up and
sets off something, you can be sure the next day the drones will be warding the
depot floors in droves.  He needs to be quick, and silent, as if nothing was
there in the first place.

I don’t have much confidence in
Lombardi.  I would have preferred Ace to handle this task, as I know he is
quick and his skills in stealth greatly outmatch Lombardi’s.  However, Ace does
not know the outside world too well and he isn’t the smartest sibling. 
Lombardi tells me he knows this area better than anyone else due to all the
sneaking around he’s done.  The family seems to trust his claim on this, so I
have no choice but to trust it.

To say the least, I am skeptical
of Lombardi.  Having grown up with him I know his abilities and personality, like
I know the abilities of all my brothers and sisters.  Each one of my siblings
has something to offer.  Alex and Curtis are both huge, providing the strength
that my smaller brothers and sisters don’t have.  Oscar is a leader, I guess. 
Ace is quick and light footed, that’s why we always send him on scouting
missions.  Candy is book smart, able to pick up things fast and is a technical
genius.

The twins are pragmatic,
especially Iris.  She can see things in others that most of us can’t.  She
knows how to look into future events and has a sense for what’s coming up. 
Both of them are also the glue to this family.  Their intuition to others’
thoughts and emotions help calm my siblings down in times of stress.  They also
can talk sense into the most irrational of family members.  They are well liked
by Oscar and I.  Oscar respects their thoughtfulness and compassion, I respect
them for the ways they can handle my brothers and sisters.  Those kinds of
things are invaluable.

Each of us have certain talents,
well at least most of us.  I wouldn’t say Maddie is the most useful sister I
have.  She’s part cow, and like all cows, she’s only good at eating and
following.  No wonder humans used to devour them by the millions.  Fortunately
for Maddie, Oscar constantly defends her.  Leaders always have a devout
follower.  Maddie would be his.

Supposedly, Oscar is a strong
leader, but he has too much compassion.  He feels sorry for our weaker brothers
and sisters, which explains why he takes Maddie under his wing.  I am the
opposite.  While Oscar dreams of a world where everyone gets along, I see the
world for what it is, a place for survival.  And for creatures like us, we have
to fight for it.  I am more realistic than he is.  He values weakness, I value
those who can help contribute to our chances.  That’s why I’m better at what I
do.

That has always been the key
difference between us.  For years, I led the rallying charge against mother and
her plans to keep us in Primm.  The others looked at me to tell her that we
didn’t want to be cooped up forever, that we were not prisoners in her house. 
I spoke for them because they could not speak for themselves.  Oscar, on the
other hand, would always try to negotiate and make peace between mother and
me.  He wanted all of us to be together because we were family.  I love my
family as much as he does, but I love them enough to fight for them.

As Oscar has his follower Maddie,
I have mine, the ones that I know I can depend on.  Ace’s loyalty has never
been questioned.  I know, and the others know, that he looks up to me, that he
idolizes me.  And Alex has always been my bodyguard.  His size is intimidating;
his demeanor is frightening to the others.  He’s a bit of a punk, but in a good
way.

I am unsure about where the others
lie in their allegiance, but considering our situation, they need a leader who
can lead them into battle, not one who is looking for peace.  Oscar cannot
provide this to them, only I can.

We live in a world where we are
the ones who will be hunted, Leonard’s death proved that.  The only chance we
have is if we use the abilities given to us to take our lives back.  If you
have nothing to offer, then you are nothing to me.  Stragglers don’t have much
use, family or not.

From what I observe, Lombardi has
nothing to offer.  He is part bird and the one thing he should be able to do,
he can’t.  I look at him and I see wings, or at least arms that look like
wings.  But they’re not hollow and their span is not great enough.  Lombardi
can’t fly.  What use is a bird when its wings have been clipped at birth?

He has too much human in him and
those traits stand out to me.  He isn’t graceful like a cat or strong like a
rhino.  He is uncoordinated and weak like a human.  He’s slow like a human,
he’s fragile like a human.

He’s not even as bright as a
human.  Lombardi claims to be smart.  I do not consider being familiar with an
area a form of intelligence.  He simply knows a few things that we might not
because we haven’t been sneaking around like him.  The others consider him to
be smarter than Ace, but that’s not something to brag about.

The only thing Lombardi has going
for him is that he’s eager.  He wants to prove himself worthy to me and the
family wants me to give Lombardi his chance.  He knows I’m not fond of him
because of his inherent uselessness, but the family believes in him.  If I
didn’t have the family swaying me, Lombardi wouldn’t even be an option.  Now is
not the time for charity.  I’d rather have the people who I know can do their
part do their part.

But I must go with the voices of
my siblings.  I can’t risk alienating myself too much.

“So let’s review what your plan
is,” I say to Lombardi as the others watch me question him.  “After you leave
this building, where do you go?”

“Let’s see, um, the depot is only
a mile away from here,” he says.  “If I run, I should get there in six to eight
minutes.  I exit through the west of this building and travel south on Junket Street for half a mile, until I get to Tangerine Road.  I am not to take any streets
other than Junket.  It’s the least traveled, making it the safest for me to go
on.”

“Good so far.  Once you get to Tangerine Road, where do you go?”

“Straight.  It leads to the
Primm-Phillips supply depot, which should be empty.  Business hours have ended
more than three hours ago.  Security should be scarce, too.  No drones, no
guards, nothing.  It should be easy for me to walk around unnoticed as long as
I disable their surveillance sensors.”

“And what are surveillance
sensors?”  It’s an easy question to answer, but I want to make sure he knows
everything.

“They are laser scanners attached
to the walls.  They emit tracking beams that scan the area and create
holographic recordings of the depot overnight.  In short, if they’re on,
they’ll be able to make a hologram of any intruders that walk the premises
unauthorized.”

“Good,”  I am actually surprised
at how thorough his answer is.  “How do you intend to disable their security?”

“Underground.  According to the
information Candy was able to obtain on the infospace, there’s a sensor along
the perimeter.  However, their master command box is hidden deep underground
and I can access it there.  Before the supply depot, there should be a grating
hidden on the floor.  The Primm-Phillips supply depot was constructed on top of
older land, so there’s a series of tunnels underground that was built there
long before.  They were called sewers.  I can go into them and reach the master
command box.  Once I’m in, all I have to do is program the surveillance
routines off.”

“And how will you do that?” I ask.

“With this,” Lombardi says.  He
takes out a piece of paper and shows it to the group.  “This is a list of
detailed instructions on how to disable their routines.  Candy has made it easy
to follow and I’ve gone over with her what to do.  Thanks, Candy.”

“No problem,” she says.  “Sorry
it’s on paper and not on a data cube or tablet, I didn’t have the resources. 
Remember that there is a time limit.  If you don’t do it fast enough, you’ll
get shut out and the alarms will sound.  But don’t worry, my instructions will
work, I’ve spent all day researching and hacking.  It actually wasn’t that hard
to learn how to deprogram a Tang Corporation Phalanx Security System Model 3,
the thing is practically a piece of junk.  Better secured places are on Model
9.”

“Don’t worry, Candy,” I say. 
“None of us doubt your skills.”

She looks at me and smiles at the
compliment given to her.  Sometimes it amazes me how smart she is.