The Value of Experience (and Military Tech)

“Really? You’re going to point that thing at me yourself? In broad daylight? I gotta admit, I didn’t think you had the guts.”

Hosokawa smirks. “As far as the public is aware, I’m just a desperate father confronting his only son’s kidnapper. If it comes to that, I’ll testify that I never intended to actually shoot you, but my finger slipped because I was nervous. There are only a few judges on the bench who wouldn’t afford me some extra sympathy in deference to my status, and as for the rest, they’re easy enough to bribe.”

“Yeah, yeah. If you were gonna kill me, you’d have taken the shot already. So what’s this about?”

His smirk fades, replaced by a scowl. “I want the prototype, of course. Hand it over.”

“Relax, you’ll get it, assuming you let us walk away. I don’t have it on me, and your kid’s my insurance, so why don’t you go home and wait for my ransom letter? I promise, you’ll get the prototype and the kid; I’ll get the money and my freedom. Sounds like a fair trade to me.”

With an exasperated sigh, he lowers the crystal. “When? Where?”

“I hear there’s a big Hosokawa board meeting in a couple days. I know you wouldn’t want to cause a scene there, so it seems like the perfect place for a trade.”

“Hmm, an interesting idea, but I think I’d rather just capture and beat the location of the prototype out of you. Take him alive. Don’t harm my son.”

All around us, the air shimmers as xyronin weaning power suits drop their stealth fields. Some of them are former allies and other familiar faces; others I’ve never met before. More than a few look like kids wet behind the ears, out to prove themselves by taking down the country’s number one.

Doesn’t really matter who they are. If they’re against me, they’re an enemy. Past friendships mean nothing in this business, and the more experienced ones know that. The kids are about to learn a painful lesson.

You might think it would be better for them to stay hidden. If I can’t see them coming, it makes their job easier, after all. But there are a few reasons why they might choose to show themselves.

First and foremost, they probably couldn’t coordinate well in stealth mode. It takes a lot of practice to work together when you can’t see each other, and this hastily assembled team clearly hadn’t trained together. They would have needed to rely on sonar, but with so many sonar transmitter in close proximity, the images would be chaotic.

Second, they could be trying to intimidate me. If I can’t see them, I don’t know how badly they outnumber me. Considering that my power suit is military issue, and theirs are all civilian tech—not to mention my reputation—this is the most likely explanation.

Still, I’m not one to get cocky. Since they can’t touch the kid, I back up a step toward him, activating my own sonar to give me a heads-up if any of them try to rush us from behind. They’re just as cautious, closing in on us slowly.

One of the novices is one of the first to break from the group and run at me. He’s fast—faster than he has any right to be in a civilian suit—but he hasn’t thought his charge through, and he tries to wrap his arms around my abdomen like he’s going to suplex me. I put a quick stop to that with an elbow to the mouth. Blood and teeth fall to the ground as he staggers backward.

Most power suit wearers won’t risk an attack to the head like that. Misjudge your strength just a bit, and you could end up snapping a neck. Xyronining is a job that already exists in a legal gray area. Everyone working in security, from police all the way down to xyronin, knows that the courts will give you leeway when it comes to charges of minor assault, but no one wants to face a murder charge that will put them firmly on the wrong side of the law. By smashing in the upstart’s face, I’m sending a message that I’m confident in my skills and that I’m willing to send them packing with a dental bill that costs more than Hosokawa’s paying them.

By the way they stop in their tracks, it’s clear the message got through to the veterans, but it must have convinced three of the novices that their best chance was to rush me in unison. Surely, they must be thinking, I can’t take all of them down at once.

If that’s the case, they’re in for a rude awakening. Once again, they run faster than they have any right to in a civilian suit, but I’m still able to step toward one of them, pull him into an arm lock, and literally smash him into one of the others as if he’s a riot shield. I can’t hold on to him for too long, though, or one of the veterans will grab me while my hands are occupied, so I push him forward and kick him into the third novice.

All three go down, but things are starting to get a little crowded at my feet, so I grab the Hosokawa kid and jump high into the air, over the ring of xyronin. A couple of them jump up to try to grab us out of the air, but I kick one of them into the other.

As we land, a beam of energy whizzes past my ear. The last novice standing has a stun crystal in his hand, and the veteran next to him grabs his arm and forces him to lower the weapon. “Are you crazy?” the veteran says. “You’re gonna get arrested for violating the sword and gun law if you use that thing so openly. Besides, the client will be pissed if you hit his son.”

If I had the time to spare, I’d be cursing myself out for not factoring in how unpredictable novices can be, but I’m already running away as fast as I can with the kid under one arm. Thankfully, he doesn’t struggle or anything. Unburdened, I could probably outrun all of them, but for now, my plan is to turn and fight as soon as the fastest among them gets close. Better to fight a series of one-on-one battles than risk getting surrounded again.

The first to catch up is a woman I only know by her codename, Blue Wind. Rumored to be the illegitimate daughter of one of the Empire’s most fearsome generals, she has a reputation for skillfully taking down her opponents in close-quarters combat. Normally, I’d hesitate to hit a woman, but she might be the most dangerous of the entire group.

Dropping the kid unceremoniously on the sidewalk, I deliver a back kick right at her head. She opts to block it with her forearm, and the Xyrite veins in our suits collide. Normally, an exchange like this goes in my favor, with my crystal breaking through my opponent’s, but they bounce off each other, reverberating with the force of the blow. Hurts almost as much as when I tried to kick Chiyo’s robotic shell.

Her suit shouldn’t be that tough the novices shouldn’t have been able to move so quickly, and the others have almost caught up already. Something’s wrong. Hosokawa must have given them new suits for this mission. As a government contractor, he’d have access to military-grade tech.

If that’s the case, they’re probably not used to their suits. They don’t know their limits, and they’ve never experienced the strain military tech can put on their bodies if they’re not disciplined enough.

Acting on this theory, I keep kicking at the same side, forcing Blue Wind to block over and over with the same arm. Her Xyrite might be able to take the blows indefinitely, but her muscles can’t. After a few more kicks, she steps back, cradling her arm to her chest. That’s when I deliver a kick to her side that sends her into the air toward the oncoming xyronin.

The two in front catch her, and the others continue running toward me, but I have a plan now. Grabbing the kid once again, I jump up and kick off the side of a nearby high-rise, pushing myself higher toward a neighboring building. I repeat the process, wall-jumping from one high-rise to the next until I reach the roof.

Some try to follow me, but their movements are too clumsy, and they keep losing height before they get the hang of it. The others file into the buildings and desperately smash the buttons for the elevator, but by the time any of them arrive on the rooftop, I’m long gone, having crossed over to another building and taken the stairs down to the street, where my cloaked motorcycle is waiting. We speed away, safe from Hosokawa’s clutches.

For now.