Chapter 132: Sidetracking

~ Takyle glanced desperately from screen to screen in front of her. On the right the two hyenas that had fallen on their first wounded brother were still busy with their dinner, and the two remaining hyenas were working their way around Jaden, looking for an undefended angle. On the left was Andrew, still pinned down by the leopard. Takyle felt she was getting the idea of what the girl had so dryly called "the game", and it terrified her. Still, not playing was an even worse option than interfering, and so she interfered.
"Get away from the bodies," she willed Jaden, and when she saw him start to edge away from the two dead hyenas she turned her attention to Andrew. The wind and birds didn't work; what else could distract the big cat?

*****

Andrew saw the leopard twitch once, and then again. Its tail flicked in annoyance and it lifted one paw, as if something on the ground were irritating it. And then Andrew saw it: ants. Big red ants were climbing over the dirt at the leopard's feet, and they were beginning to bite.

"Oh hell", thought Andrew.

*****

Jaden maneuvered himself around the media station and edged several feet backwards, trying to keep all the live hyenas in his line of sight. He felt a pressure to hurry and do something before the two eating had had their fill.

"Of course, at that point, perhaps they'd just leave," he tried to tell himself.

"Fat chance."

A droplet of sweat stung Jaden's eye and he used a sleeve to quickly swipe his face. One of the hyenas that had followed him dodged around toward his right. Jaden swung his hatchet as he retreated another step, barely missing the animal's head. Its jaws snapped on air, frightening in their power. It advanced again, while the other hyena of the pair began slinking around behind Jaden.

"Crap. Crap, crap, crap," Jaden's mind chanted helpfully as he tried again to cut the second hyena off by backing away. Suddenly Jaden felt his heart leap to his throat as a hare came bursting out of the undergrowth behind him and shot in a zigzag pattern for the nearest cover. It had startled the hyenas as much as it had Jaden, and he was pleased to see that as it ran past them, no more than a tawny blur, both of them jumped back. Jaden grabbed the distraction, leaping forward to deliver a hard blow to the nearest animal, a chop to the nape of the neck. He felt the blade strike bone, and quickly chopped again, this time feeling the blade go deeper, between the vertebra, slicing through flesh and integral nerve. As before, after a strangled, heart wrenching cry, and a short, futile struggle to get away from the pain, the animal fell and at least died quickly, if gruesomely.

Jaden hurriedly stepped away from the bloody corpse and found that the other hyena who had been trying to circle him had backed away, choosing to observe from a short distance. After a moment of contemplating Jaden, it seemed to decide that he wasn’t worth the trouble and wearily moved away to join his two brothers over the carcasses of the fallen. Jaden waited for a moment to be sure that they were fully absorbed, and then edged back over to the media station and snatched up his pack before moving away as quickly as he thought safe.

“Stupid computer.” ~

Chapter 131: Impellere

~ "You say I have to play the game, but I don't know what to do," Takyle reminded the girl in as scathing a tone of voice as she could work up.

"That is for you to discover yourself," said the girl. Takyle opened her mouth to respond but at that moment she saw one of the hyenas that was in Jaden's blindspot to his left begin to rush in.

"Oh! Turn around!" she gasped and to her amazement and relief, Jaden did just in time.

*****

Jaden caught the hyena under the jaw with a hard upwards kick and heard the sickening crunch of bone.

"Him or me, him or me," he reminded himself as the animal gave a cry that sounded disconcertingly similar to a human scream and stumbled back looking dazed, its lower jaw hanging slack and crooked. Long strings of blood and saliva began running from its broken mouth as the hyena shook his head, as if trying to rid himself of the pain. In a vicious display of savagery, three more of the hyenas jumped forward, two of them falling on their wounded brother, mercilessly ripping huge chunks of flesh from its neck and shoulders, while the third went for Jaden. Jaden tried another kick, but the animal shied away just in time to be missed, ducking it's head and charging back in towards his weight bearing ankle.

Like an independent thought, Jaden felt a voice, an instinct telling him to chop straight down with his hatchet, toward his own leg. Mindlessly, in the heat of the moment, Jaden followed the direction, having fought too much to risk ignoring it. With a solid thunk, the think blade was buried in the hyena's neck, severing its spinal cord. Jaden jerked the blade out and a thick gout of blood spurted up as the hyena sank, twitching, to the ground, finally lying still with its bared teeth inches from Jaden's shoe.

*****

Andrew stayed near the ground, hoping against hope that if he remained still enough the big cat would simply grow bored with him and leave. He could feel the ache of muscle exhaustion setting into his back and thighs, but he held. Just when he began to think that his nerves couldn't possibly take another moment of the tension, a sudden. violent gust of wind blew through the grass, startling up a bevy of birds. At the rush and whir of wings overhead, the leopard whipped its huge head around to watch, held by its predator instinct. Andrew grabbed the split second distraction and used it to put his knee under himself to take his weight. Before he could do anything else, the leopard's eyes were back on him, focused with all the intensity of before and then some. The birds had only inflamed its desire for the kill. ~

Chapter 130: Type A

~ Jaden froze in place and reminded himself in Andrew's cool voice not to panic. Emerging from the grass in front of him in a wide arc were half a dozen large spotted hyenas, each easily standing three feet high, stalking forward. One of the burly animals drew up its lips in a silent snarl, baring bone crushing teeth.

"Oh God, oh what the fuck am I going to do now?"

"You're going to remain calm."

"Easy for you to say, you're safe inside my head!"

"Oh shut the hell up, for crying out loud, what the hell is wrong with you, you raging moron?!"

Jaden backed slowly away from the advancing hoard until he bumped into the media station just behind him. He quickly decided that this was as good a place as any to make his stand, and shed himself of his backpack. He briefly considered trying to get on top of the media station, but chose to remain on the ground where at least he knew he could fight effectively, rather than try to scramble up and balance on the steeply slanted screen.

With one hand Jaden unsheathed his dagger, and with the other he pulled his hatchet from it's holder on the side of his pack, flipping and locking it open with two smooth movements.

"Alright dogs, gimme what you got," he muttered under his breath.

"Actually, though the Spotted Hyena does share some characteristics with the canid family, it is really not a relative of the dog."

"Shut the hell up!"

*****

Takyle whipped around to face the girl.

"What the hell is this? What are those things?" she demanded. The girl nodded calmly and coldly.

"Those are hyenas, approximately half a dozen of them. And your other friend, the tall fellow, is facing a leopard."

"Why? Why are you doing this to us?"

"You chose this."

"What?! You know what, nevermind. Put me back, put me back now!" Takyle overruled her fear for just a moment to move toward the girl menacingly. The girl didn't even blinked, let alone back away.

"You cannot. You must control the game."

"What game?!"

"This game. The game with the animals... If you want your friends to live you must control the game. We will play together."

With that the girl turned back toward the images hanging in the void, and with a growing urge to panic, Takyle slowly turned with her. ~

Chapter 129: Succinctly Screwed

~ As Jaden drew nearer to the media station, he slowed to a walk, glancing around himself cautiously. There was nothing to hear over the waving of the tall grass in the wind, but his mind kept telling him that it could not be that easy.

"You're just going to walk right up to the station and that will be the end of the level? You just happened to stumble upon it because you picked exactly the right direction to go on the first pass?"

"What? What do you want from me?" he demanded of himself. "Want me to turn around and go back. I'm being careful, now shut up already."

"Fine. Whatever. But it couldn't be this easy!"

Jaden sighed a bit more noisily than he intended. "I'm insane. I am frigging insane," he muttered.

~~~~~

Takyle stared at the two huge images in front of her. Both of them showed a view from far above. The screen on the right held Jaden, walking across the grass, toward what she couldn't tell. The picture on the left was clearly of Andrew. At first she thought the image was a single shot, he was so still. In front of him, nearly hidden in the grass, Takyle could barely pick out the shadowed form of some kind of big cat.

~~~~~

Despite Jaden's forebodings, he couldn't help feeling a sense of elation as he stood in front of the media station.

"I did it. I found the thing. Now just to find the on switch." He tentatively pressed one of the keys on the board and was pleased to see the screen come to life and words begin to fade forward.

"Look out," he read, immediately glancing around. When he found nothing but the unchanged, rolling grasses, he turned back to the screen. The words had disappeared and were being replaced.

"Watch your back." Jaden turned again, just to be doubly sure no one was sneaking up on him, but the plain persisted in being deserted.

"What the hell?" he asked aloud, expecting the words to change again, but they did not. In a minute the message faded away and the screen darkened. Jaden tapped the keyboard, with no response.

"What the bloody hell..." he asked again, his voice trailing off as he turned around. ~

Chapter 128: Double Jeopardy

~ Andrew crouched low, eyes fixed on the leopard's face, pointedly taking deep, slow breaths and trying to keep his heart from racing. Now that the big cat knew Andrew was aware of its presence, Andrew's experience with nature programs told him that there would be no more stalking. Andrew was suddenly very sympathetic toward the nervous, twitchy little deer that never stand a chance of getting away.

"Once the prey is on to you the only real option is to charge while there is still the chance of capture," Andrew thought, knowing full well that the slightest move on his part would trigger the chase instinct and that would be it.

"Well when you can't run and you can't hide, what possibilities are you left with?"

Andrew tensed his fingers around his dagger.

"I'd prefer not to have to go with that option..."

~~~~~

"Come with me," the little girl said, holding her hand out to Takyle. For a moment Takyle hesitated, then stepped forward and reached out for the pale fingers. As soon as the girl's smooth, cool skin brushed against hers Takyle felt the ground whirl around her dizzyingly. Everything but the child seemed to streak away and she was left standing on a rock, surrounded by starry sky and vast emptiness. Takyle gasped in fear at the sudden, disorienting change and stood frozen in place, too terrified to near the edge of her rock.

"What the hell did you just do?"

"I've taken you out of the game."

"It looks like you've taken me out of the freaking solar system!"

"Are you frightened?" the girl asked calmly.

"Hell yes, I'm frightened! What do you expect when you just go and slap someone on a floating hunk of rock out in the middle of space?"

"You are easily frightened," the girl stated blandly. Takyle gaped at her.

"Look here, Red. I didn't ask to be transported to another dimension. Quit speculating on my fear levels and tell me what the fuck is going on already!" The girl never even blinked at Takyle's escalating rage.

"You must complete a task. You will control the game."

In the blackness in front of Takyle two transparent squares appeared, growing and stretching until they merged to comprise a rectangle the size of a wall. Two pictures began to fade onto the clear slabs and when the images were solid enough to make out, the only sound in the eternal emptiness was Takyle's sharp intake of breath. ~

Chapter 127: On the Veldt

~ Takyle took a surreptitious look around the rolling grassland, but there was no one else in sight. She took a tentative step toward the girl.

"The game within the game? What's that supposed to mean?" Takyle demanded. The girl laughed her starched laugh again.

"It means whatever you want it to mean," she said, shrugging her thin shoulders.

"You're going to have to do better than that. Tell me what you want, and while you're at it, if you know so much, tell me what I want." The girl shook her head.

"If you want answers you must play the game," she insisted. Takyle stopped herself from outright sighing in exasperation, but couldn't keep it out of her voice.

"Fine. What game? Tell me what you want!"

*****

Andrew whirled again to a rustle behind his back, desperately searching for the source of the sound. With his knife clutched in his right hand, he fumbled to get his radio out of his belt with his left. In his haste he managed to drop the walkie talkie once it was free of the pouch and he cursed under his breath as it hit the ground with a soft crack. A quick glance down revealed that the radio had struck a rock at his feet, its back cover jarred open from the impact and the batteries knocked out.

"Shit!" Keeping his eyes up, he stooped down and felt for the batteries and the scattered parts of his radio. He cast his eyes down for a moment to pick up the plastic back cover, and when he looked up again his heart fell to his gut. Staring, unblinking, out through the stalks of grass a pair of orange eyes bore through him.

Andrew made every attempt to keep his breathing in check as around the eyes he made out the spotted and unmistakably feline face.

"Alright... Alright, stay calm. The important thing here is to stay calm. No sudden moves," he thought to himself. He exhaled slowly and shifted his weight to carefully rise to his feet. The big cat's eyes followed the minute change in his body and Andrew stopped.

"Ok, maybe no moves at all." ~

Chapter 126: Interplay

~ Jaden crested a hill and in the distance saw a speck of white. For a moment he stood still, shielding his face with one hand against the glare of the sun, unable to even tell if his eyes were deceiving him, let alone what the object was. He finally decided that there most definitely was something there. Jaden glanced back to the direction he had been traveling, and then again at the object in the distance. He waited in conflict for only a brief second before deciding that he needed to find out what it was.

"After all, you have no real reason for continuing in the direction you were going. You picked it at random!" his mind told him as he started across the plain toward the white speck. As he grew closer the shape resolved itself into a box, and then finally into a media station.

"Yes! I rock," Jaden murmured to himself as he quickened his pace. This had to be what he was supposed to find. Why else would a media station be set out here?

*****

Glancing up from the brambles that she was picking her way through, Takyle caught sight of a flash of red disappearing into a shallow dell. She shook her head as if to clear her vision. She could have sworn in was a young girl. Takyle ran up the hill after her, only slowing near the top in order to peak over into the hollow. There was nothing there, but as she straightened and turned she heard a laugh. She spun to her right just in time to see the same glimpse of loose red cloth and flowing auburn hair disappear for a second time.

"The hell?"

Again Takyle followed, again to find nothing. Just as she turned around to go back to her previous path she heard a voice behind her, small and innocent, yet strangely passive for the words.

"Please help me."

Takyle spun toward the voice to find a girl, 13 or 14 years old from the looks of it, standing only a couple of yards behind her on the declining slope.

"Please help me. If you help me I will show you what you're looking for."

"How do you know what I'm looking for?" asked Takyle. The girl laughed again with the same passive voice.

"I am the game within the game. I know all the secrets." ~

Chapter 125: The Unknown

~ Andrew stood up from re-tying his bootlace, and immediately pulled a pad of paper, a pen, his compass and a stick of gum from his utility belt. After folding the gum into his mouth, he started a crude map on his notepad, sketching in the identifiable characteristics within his sight. Without further ado he aligned his compass to North, marked down his heading on his map, and headed off, singing quietly to himself.

"Joy to the world, all the boys and girls. Joy to the fishes in the deep blue sea, joy to you and me..."

Half an hour later, as Andrew moved to the fourth stage of his grid search, he fell suddenly silent when he heard a twig snap behind him. For a moment he stood frozen, concentrating hard, wishing for Jaden and his near bionic hearing. The only sound that greeted him was the whispering of the prairie grass in the wind. Andrew had dismissed the sound to his imagination and started forward again before it hit him: just the wind? What happened to the cricket song?

He spun around, searching the tall grasses behind him for movement, but all he could see was the waving of the dry stems. For a moment the wind stilled and in the distance he could hear oblivious birds singing. Again he whirled when he thought there was a rustle to his left, but he found nothing there either. He stood with his feet set wide, pulling his dagger with one hand and fishing with the other for his radio. He felt him legs and back tensing as the silence around him seemed to deepen.

~~~~~

With a sigh and a shrug Takyle pocketed her radio and, judging from the position of the sun, struck out in a Southwesterly direction. She walked briskly, pushing her fatigue, her throbbing cuts and bruises, and the deep ache in her limbs to the back her mind, forcing herself to not slow down.

"Why are you so devoted to winning this?" Andrew had asked her two long years ago.

"I want to. I have to."

"You know there's a very good chance we'll lose?"

"If that's the attitude you're going to bring into this I'll find someone else," she had informed him coldly.

"Why am I so devoted to winning this?" Takyle asked herself, trekking up yet another rolling hill.

"Ask yourself that when the race is over," she murmured harshly. ~

Chapter 124: Solitude

~ Jaden blinked and looked around himself. By all appearances he was standing in a rolling meadow... Alone.

"Andy?" he called, as loudly as he dared. When he got no answer he tried again. "Anybody?" Still no one answered. He quickly pulled off his pack and unzipped one of the front pockets, dumping out a couple of nutri-bars in his hurry to get at his radio. Jerking open the zip-lock bag it had been protected in, Jaden flipped the radio on.

"Team 6, this is Jaden, please respond." A moment passed and Jaden repeated his call. There was silence for a second more before the radio crackled.

"Takyle here, where are you and is Andrew with you?" With Takyle's message Jaden was simultaneously hit with relief and fear.

"Andrew isn't here and I don't know where 'here' is. I'm in some sort of grassland or something."

"Me too. Give it a minute, maybe Andrew will key in." Takyle advised calmly.

As if called by prophecy that second the radios buzzed one more time and Andrew's voice came through, tinny and distant sounding.

"Team 6, Andrew here, please respond."

"We're here Andrew," Takyle answered.

"Oh, thank Ishvara," said Andrew.

"Andrew, do you know where you are?" Takyle interrupted.

"No clue."

"Ok, then I'd guess that this is an independent level."

"Is that normal?" asked Jaden.

"Not extraordinarily so," said Takyle. I remember them putting one in six years ago."

"Oh, okay."

"So what, Boss?" asked Andrew. "Explore but maintain radio contact?" Takyle was silent for a short moment.

"Yes, that would probably be best. Be careful."

"Yes Ma'am," Andrew and Jaden both answered.

"Good. Takyle out."

"Ditto," chimed in Andrew, and Jaden's radio went quiet. He tood a deep, calming breath and then tucked the walkie talkie into one of the pouches on the back of his utility belt. Swinging his pack back onto his shoulder, he took another look around. A bush bearing pinkish flowers grew a few yards to the left. Not as good as a tree, but it would do as a landmark.

Jaden snapped one of the branches off and lay it on the ground, pointing in the the direction he intended to go first.

"I'll call it "North"," Jaden murmured to himself as he started off. As he walked, Jaden kept up a running commentary under his breath, partly to cement anything that might be of importance in his memory and partly just to fill the void of no one else to talk to. He found himself tending toward mildly disabling continual curiosity about what his surroundings might signify.

"Those rocks are sort of in an arrow shape. That's encouraging."

"Wind to my back, that's always a good sign."

"The sun's still high so there's probably more than enough time to finish whatever this is before dark."

"A pair of geese flying in the same direction that I'm walking; How could that be anything but a good omen?"

"If a grasshopper jumps out of the way when you're walking... What does that mean?"

"Shut up," his mind ordered.

"Fine, geez! What's your problem?"

"No really. Shut up."

And so Jaden did. ~

Chapter 123: Validation

~ Takyle took a deep breath and glanced around at the men on the floor, her eyes finally resting back on Cmd. Tucker.

"You have no idea what you're doing!" Cmd. Tucker hissed back at her. "This is not your war."

"Exactly," agreed Takyle. "So we have no reason to be helping you decimate these...Caltens. We don't even know why you're fighting, let alone if it's necessary."

"I told you that I'd explain everything later," he said.

"Yeah, conveniently after the deed has been done. No thanks."

Andrew cleared his throat. "Takyle," he said quietly. "We should move, don't you think?"

"Yes." Takyle moved around the commander to the console he'd been working at and yanked the computer chip out of it's port. All around the room screens blanked.

"Hey! You can't just do that," protested the commander.

"Be quiet," Takyle ordered. "And sit still if you don't want to be tied down." She backed away from the chair, studying the computer chip, gun trained on the commander's chest. She glanced at Andrew and Jaden to make sure they were keeping an eye on everyone and then propped the chip against one of the consoles. Without another look around she pointed the handgun at the chip and shot one round at it at point blank range.

As the chip and surrounding components of the of the console exploded into millions of shards of plastic the commander jumped up.

"NO!"

Takyle smoothly turned, arm still extended to point the gun back at Cmd. Tucker.

"Sit down," she ordered coldly. The commander took a tiny step back but refused to sink into the chair. He glared at Takyle.

"Do you have any idea how far that will set us back?" he hissed aggressively. Takyle shrugged.

"A long time I hope. Now move over to that wall, all of you." Takyle flicked the gun barrel toward the far wall. The commander hesitated for only a moment before walking to where Takyle had pointed, joined by the three other men.

"Face the wall, hands behind your heads. And don't stand too close," said Takyle. She glanced over at Jaden and Andrew and nodded toward the door.

"Let's go."

Jaden stepped back and swung the door to the main room open. White light flooded over them and the concrete bunker faded into the brightness. ~

Chapter 122: Disambiguation

~ Jaden stood unmoving, his heart in his throat and his entire attention fixed upon the vague shape of Takyle's arm in his peripheral vision. As if in slow motion he saw her arm begin to withdraw from her pack and in her hand he caught the blue glint of gun steel. Beside him Andrew started to spin away, smoothly pulling his knife as he turned, and Jaden followed. He saw a look of surprise falling over the faces of the officers behind them.

"This has to be quick. This has to be quick or we could be in big trouble."

Jaden and Andrew reached the two men at the door before they were able to finish opening their mouths to shout a warning. Jaden gave a quick chop with his left hand to knock the hand of the officer in front of him away from his weapon and then followed up with another blow to the man's windpipe. The soldier gasped and clutched as his throat, vainly struggling to get a breath. Beside him Andrew already had the other man immobilized with one arm trapped behind his back and a dagger at his throat.

As Jaden and Andrew had moved on the guards, Takyle had crossed the room and spun the commander's chair around to use him as a shield, pressing the barrel of her gun to his temple. By that time the third officer had turned around and reached for his own gun. He looked panicked as he tried to decide how to act.

"Order them to stand down and keep quiet," Takyle hissed at the commander. "Do it now!"

"Do what she says," Cmd. Tucker ordered, his voice breaking slightly from the gruff monotone he had been using. Jaden almost laughed. The man was scared; he wasn't going to offer much, if any resistance.

"Disarm them, Andrew," said Takyle, retaining her hold on Cmd. Tucker. Andrew quickly pulled the guns of the two officers held by Jaden and himself and then gestured at the third officer.

"Hey you, slide your sidearm into the middle of the room and lie down on the floor with your hands behind your head." When all three officers were on the floor Takyle turned Cmd. Tucker to face her.

"Alright then, now I feel like we can talk." ~

Chapter 121: Untenable

~ The slight unrest that the look in Cmd. Tucker's eye had given Jaden was growing more concrete by the second. He caught himself nervously shifting his weight from foot to foot and forced it to stop. Thankfully Andrew was already on the issue.

"Commander, just who are the Caltens?" he asked.

"They are the enemy."

"And what did this...other race is it? What did they do to start this war you're fighting?" At that the commander turned around once again.

"They exist." The commander stared Andrew down, cold fervor marking his features. "For now." Andrew held the man's gaze for a few moments and then lowered his eyes. As soon as the commander turned away Andrew glanced pointedly at Takyle.

"We have to do something," he whispered, keeping his face pointed straight ahead so that the officers behind them couldn't see his mouth moving. Takyle looked around hesitantly.

"Who's to say we're supposed to interfere?"

"This is genocide we're talking about, Takyle! And we made it possible with those codes. I'm going to do something." Andrew glanced over at Jaden.

"I'm in!" Jaden whispered. Takyle nodded.

"Ok, you're right. What can we do?" Andrew took a quick look over his shoulder to place the two other officers. They still stood stoically on either side of the door. Andrew lowered his voice even further.

"We have to get that chip back. I don't know if the commander is armed, but the other three definitely are, so we need to take them out first."

"The two behind us are watching for something to happen," Jaden warned.

"And if we allow too much noise others might come in here. We need to make this fast and quiet."

"I've still got the thing I found in that desk," murmured Takyle without taking her eyes from the screens across the room. "If I can get it out..."

"Ta," said Andrew aloud. "Do you have any more of the pain tabs the medic gave me in your pack? My stomach is getting pretty sore." Takyle had never carried any of Andrew's medicine and it only took a split second for her to catch on.

"Uh, yeah I think so... Let me look." As Takyle slipped her backpack off and began to unzip it Andrew glanced at Jaden and made a quick motion to indicate what he needed to do. Jaden gave one minuscule nod in response. He felt his heart rate begin to increase and his legs tense in anticipation. ~

Chapter 120: Preemptive

~ Just as Jaden placed the chip in Cmd. Tucker's hand the man glanced up to meet his eye and in the back of Jaden's mind a warning started to sound. As the commander inserted the computer chip into an adapter, and then into the console in front of him, Jaden quickly backed up to were Andrew and Takyle were standing, glancing around as subtly as he could. One member of the escort was typing busily at a second console about 12 feet away and the other two stood flanking the door, their eyes fixed on Team 6. Jaden looked to Andrew but he was busy watching the commander. Jaden cleared his throat nervously.

"So uh...what are you guys going to do with that chip, Commander?"

"We're going to win a war, thanks in no small part to your help," Cmd. Tucker answered absently. Jaden glanced back to Andrew to see if perhaps the longshot plan to get Andrew's attention with just his tone of voice had worked. With great relief he saw that it had; Andrew was giving him a quizzical look. Now that Jaden had his friend's attention he realized that he had no idea how to communicate his vague feeling of disquiet without attracting suspicion. He tried doing it with just a significant look and a twitch of his head in the commander's direction, but if anything that only increased the look of confusion in Andrew's eyes.

"Who is this war with?" Jaden asked.

"A group called the Caltens," said the commander.

"What started it?" For the first time since Jaden had given him the chip the commander took his gaze from the screen in front of him to shoot a quick glance back over his shoulder.

"It was a complex political situation, I doubt I could explain it properly."

Jaden watched as a series of maps scrolled across one of the console screens. He swallowed his timidity.

"Well why don't you try." By this time both Andrew and Takyle had their attention on Jaden, and Andrew seemed like he might be working out what Jaden was getting at.

"Look, I don't really have time for this right now. I assure you all of your questions will be answered later," Cmd. Tucker snapped impatiently. Andrew spoke up.

"Yeah, I don't think that will be good enough. I think we have some questions that you should really answer now. What are you going to do with that?"

The commander spun around in his chair to finally face them.

"We're going to use it for a weapon that we've been working on for a very long time now. Millions of our people have died in this war and this strike will put an end to it! Now be quiet so we can finish the job." ~

Chapter 119: Elemental

~ Before either Takyle or Jaden could reply to Andrew the box beeped again and a second panel popped open. After a short pause Andrew reached into the tiny compartment and pulled out a green and silver computer chip, snugly fitted into a clear protective case.

"Maybe we did do the right thing. Wonder what this is for," he said, passing the chip to Jaden.

"There is nothing else in the "instructions" that we were given," stated Takyle, leaning back.

"Well then maybe we're supposed to give this to Cmd. Ready-With-Information, now that we've gotten it out of the box," Jaden suggested.

"Could be." Takyle rose from her seat and crossed the room to open the door. In the war room the activities were still ongoing and it took a moment for Takyle to locate Cmd. Tucker and catch his eye. When she did get his attention he quickly strode over and immediately demanded an update.

"Well? Did you get it open?" Takyle paused a moment before answering.

"Yes...yes we did."

"Good; where is the chip?"

"In here, but may I ask you what it is for?" Takyle inquired. The commander tilted his head impatiently.

"I'll do you one better than that; bring the chip and you can come along and see for yourself." Takyle nodded and gestured for Jaden and Andrew. As they left the side room and followed Cmd. Tucker across the floor of the war room three other officers fell into step behind them, keeping a respectful distance, but very obviously not just coming along for interest's sake. Jaden felt himself stiffen slightly in either nervousness or excitement. He glanced over at Andrew to make sure that he had noticed as well. Andrew met his eye for only the briefest of moments and it was more than enough to let Jaden know that he was aware of their escort.

"Play it cool and see what happens," Jaden thought to himself. "This could be nothing."

On the opposite side of the room the commander led the entire group through yet another door, but this one into a chamber with several large control panels set against three of the walls. Cmd. Tucker sat down in front of one of them and held out his hand without looking at any member of Team 6.

"Give me the chip," he ordered. At Takyle's nod, Jaden stepped forward and placed the tiny piece of plastic and metal in the commander's open hand. ~

Chapter 118: Opperant Conditioning

~ Without another word Cmd. Tucker spun on his heel and marched off toward a door in the far wall. Takyle glanced back at Andrew and Jaden; they both shrugged.

"Let's go," she said, turning and walking quickly to catch up with the commander. At the door he stopped and turned around.

"This job I have for you is of the utmost importance. Do you understand?"

"Sure, why not," said Andrew blandly. The commander shot him a scorching look.

"I'll need to know that you are going to give this your all," he said, this time addressing Takyle directly.

"I'm sure we'll do our best, Cmd. Tucker; why don't you go ahead and tell us what the task is?"

The commander tightened his lips and opened the door, stepping into the small room ahead of Team 6. He waved to a table set in the middle of the bare floor. In the center of the table sat a nondescript black box and a thin file folder.

"There are instructions in that file. Read and follow them." With that the commander turned around and left the room, closing the door behind him.

"You know what I like about that guy?" said Andrew. "He's so succinct. Abbreviated even. You see the point up ahead on the horizon and, bam, he's already there!"

"Alright Andrew, let's get to work," interrupted Takyle. Each of them took a chair around the table and Andrew flipped open the file.

"Ok, at the top it says Department of Cryptology and then under that there's a bunch of gibberish. It must be a code."

"And we have to break it?" guessed Jaden.

"Looks like it."

"Here," said Takyle. "Let me see." Andrew pushed the file across the table to her and she scanned the document quickly. "This could be a simple substitution code, in which case this shouldn't be too difficult. I know for a fact that e, followed by t and then a are the letters used most often in the English alphabet, so let's start by substituting those for whatever letters appears most often here." Takyle pulled out her pen and began tallying letters in the first few sentences of code.

"Ok, it looks like the three letters used most here are g, r, and u, in that order, so I'll sub those out and from that it's pretty obvious that these words are all 'the', 'an', or 'and'." After saying that Takyle fell silent as she quickly figured out the rest of the letters by simple trial and error.

"Alright, it says to press down the first two and the last of the small buttons at the same time to open the front panel of the box." Andrew pulled the box that was in the middle of the table toward him and flipped it over in his hands. On one side he located a row of small black buttons and pressed pushed the three that Takyle had indicated. With a near silent whir a panel above the buttons raised itself exposing a row of colored lights and three more rows of buttons.

"Ok, now what?"

"Now...input the initializing codes?" Takyle looked up. "Was there anything else in this file Andrew?"

"No, just that sheet of paper."

"Well, there has to be something else. Right under that is says 'Warning: Termination will ensue if proper initializing codes are not entered.'"

"Termination of what exactly?" asked Jaden quietly.

"Don't know. Hopefully not us. So let's figure this out." The team fell silent as they thought. Jaden felt his concentration slip, and he allowed his mind to wander, dreamlike, through memories. Suddenly he jerked and sat up straight.

"Hey! That scepter that I found in the dessert sim right before Andy got stabbed had numbers on it!"

"Who has it?" asked Takyle.

"I did have it, but we've switched stuff around since then," offered Andrew, slipping his pack off and looking through his gear. "Yup, still got it! And you're right, there are numbers etched on it." Andrew laid the scepter on the table. "You think that those numbers are the code?"

Jaden leaned over to look into the open panel. "Well, the numbers on the scepter are in three groups of eight, and the box has three rows of buttons inside, so maybe each bunch of numbers corresponds to one line of buttons?"

"Seems like that could be the case, but is that a chance we're willing to take?" asked Takyle. "You know, what with the "warning" and all."

"Well I don't have any better ideas," Andrew said with a shrug.

"Ok...let's do it."

Andrew bent over the box once again. "So, you're thinking that these buttons represent the numbers zero to nine from left to right, Jay, and each of the number strings is entered on its own line?"

"Yeah, I mean, it seems logical doesn't it?"

"Sure, I guess. Ok, so the first line of numbers is 38661942?" ask Andrew, his hand hovering over the buttons. Jaden glanced at the scepter to confirm the digits for Andrew and nodded. Andrew gingerly pressed the first button and the lights began flashing red. He quickly but carefully finished the other seven digits and pulled his hand back. The lights flashed yellow once and then went back to blinking red.

"Is that a good sign you think?" Andrew asked, looking up to get the second string of numbers.

"Maybe," said Takyle. "Keep going."

"75204019," Jaden read off for Andrew. Again the lights blinked yellow once.

"Ok, last one," said Jaden. "65523960."

As soon as the last button on the last line was pressed the blinking lights sped up disconcertingly for about a second and then all turned to solid green. With a final small beep the entire box went dead. For several moments Team 6 sat still, waiting. Finally Andrew spoke up.

"Huh... Well that was anti-climatic. Did we do something wrong?" ~