A Hunter's Blood: The Crimson Contracts

Sensus evaluated her brother’s new attributes. Being dead stagnated their progression. They finally had acquired them.

Zannon could transfer the weight of mass into kinetic energy. Elreich had ability to mimic anything electronic with parts of his body, making infiltration incredibly easy. Kaynehl could become covertly transparent in a casted shadow. Yherdas could do consolidated phasing through solid objects with the aid of a liquid source. Chelys could fold space for short distances. He could jump the fold, straighten out space, and be kilometers away in an instant.

Sensus knew how invincible they were, and began to wonder if Drakx had ran for his life. After all of the barbaric taunting they obviously sent him, he could not be found. She was getting frustrated. That life he was running for was hers to do with as she wished. He had to give it back. They were more than prepared to release that life back to her. They just had to find it again.

Sensus had to re-evaluate her structured plan to acquire her desired result. He didn’t want to respond to his murder. She had to find him, and administer it.

“We have to change our approach,” she began as they sat in their tactical room. “We are too superior to allow him to evade us like this.”

Zannon spoke, “We must find him directly. He obviously does not care about the murder, and carnage we have caused. He is more of a heartless fucker than we thought.”

“Heartless, but smart enough to survive,” Elreich chimed in.

“Zannon is correct,” Sensus started again. “We have been impotent in our goal. We are the most intelligent beings in these systems, and we have not been exercising our main attribute. We will find him. We just have to dumb down our thinking to be copacetic with his actions.”

The rest nodded as they silently agreed with their eyes.

“We do not know the woman,” she began again. “Elreich could not access her on any visual identification programs.”

“Impossible...” Kaynehl interrupted her. “Visu-I.D. records everyone in the worlds. El is in error with his search!”

“Stop acting like a human, Kaynehl,” Sensus scolded him. “We haven’t the capacity to error. Don’t feed your rage by doubting your brother. Face it, she is a ghost.”

Kaynehl pursed his lips tightly to hold back a verbal explosion, slowly exhaling looking down.

Sensus continued by ignoring her brother’s forced stupidity. “She is the X-factor. This opens an incredible amount of variables. I have narrowed it down to three possibilities. She is trained well in surreptitious acts, and she has hidden our atrocities from him. She is a human that has tapped psychic abilities, or she was made as well as we are by someone else. It is also a possibility she is all three.”

Zannon spoke up. “What do you mean ‘made as well as us’? We obliterated anyone who had any access to our project. No human can mimic Father’s intellect--impossible.”

“When possibility shows no logical result...” Sensus began.

“...The impossible must be the alternate alternative,” Chelys concluded, somberly.

Zannon became instantly angrier at humans for impersonating his great father. “What is your plan of action then?”

“We have to assume Drakx still will want to do his job when he finds out what we have done. He is not a coward. He went after you first,” she said, and nodded to Zannon. “We don’t have any history. In order to do his job, he must investigate. With his limited thought process, he will start at our original capture areas.”

“Wait a minute,” Kaynehl looked back up to her. “You just said that bitch was his X-factor that rivaled our intellect. His mind isn’t limited with her around.”

Sensus looked down, and shook her head. “You’re doing that human thing again,” she said as she looked back at him. “He’s a man. An arrogant, stubborn man at that. He won’t listen to a woman he just met. Especially one who kept secrets from him. Remember, dumb down yourself.”

“Hell, you just called me a human. That’s not dumb enough for you?!” Kaynehl quipped stinging back.

“Do you want to find him, or win your personal pissing contest of wits with me? I do believe the prior should be more important,” she said with a sense of shortness with him. “As I was saying, we will go to our original capture areas, and wait.”

“He will come for me first,” Zannon said.

“If the X-factor wasn’t a component of my hypothesis, I would agree,” Sensus explained. “Now that she is an active player, she might have enough power to evade his … ‘man’ aspect and make him listen to a hint of logic. We must be ready to disrupt him with immediacy.”

“Oh. I will disrupt him, by pulling his spine from his body,” Zannon said with avenging anger from his brother’s death. “He’s coming to me first, and when he does, I apologize for not leaving all of you a piece.”

“Everyone feels the same way, Zannon,” Sensus acknowledged agreement. “Everyone will be ready to not share his demise.”

***

“I can’t find anything in any of these files to tip me on any location!” Drakx yelled in frustration.

“They have no history. Traditional investigation is not relevant in this scenario,” Kimi said, trying to calm him.

“Then how do I find them?!” Drakx turned from his desk to her with the question.

“Remember, they are also looking for you. As suicidal as it sounds, that is your advantage,” she said.

“My advantage?! I barely survived the first time I encountered them. All of them! I’m bright enough to know I’m not smart enough to outwit one of them in a coma, let alone ALL of them!” he snapped back at her.

Kimi remained calm. She knew his anger wasn’t directed at her. “You will not face ALL of them. Their arrogance will split them up to find you. You will have to re-capture them singularly. They believe they can destroy you individually.”

“With all of that mystic shit Sensus can do, they will probably be correct,” Drakx said with inevitable doom in his voice.

“Yes, they are... enhanced, however, you have an incongruous advantage.” she assured him.

“What incongruous advantage?” he asked.

“Me,” Kimi said with a small hint of pride in her voice. “I am as intelligent as any of them. I have the advantage of anonymity. They cannot, and will not find me in any Recog-I.D. data bases anywhere. They do not know me, so...” she said slightly cocky,” ...let this chess game begin.”

“They know everything! They must know you!” Drakx wasn’t ready to believe otherwise.

“Knowledge is based on uncovering facts. Since I have none, they cannot know me,” she explained.

“They can guess dammit. We humans call it going with your gut,” again, still unconvinced.

“They have not developed that instinct yet. According to my calculations of my development, and their age over my own, I will not have developed it by an equivalent age of theirs at this moment either.”

“Please, Kimi. I’m tired, and you’re trying to blow my head up with ‘super brain techno babble’. Just say it in ‘dumb ass hunter speak’,” he pleaded with her.

“They do not have a ‘gut’ yet. They will not know me through intuition. Ergo, your incongruous advantage,” she slowed it down for him.

Drakx had given up trying to match wits with her. This time, perfection was edging out experience. She knew how to find them with minimal damage to his body. He had to listen. To him, it would’ve been stupid not to.

“How do I find them?” he finally surrendered.

“Let them find you,” she revealed.

“Oh, I get it. You want to see me die horribly once more. Trust me, this one will be slower, and viler than the last ones. You might want to bring snacks,” he said with disbelief of her answer.

“I am not trying to set you up to come to save you again,” she replied. “It is too exhausting. Just listen. They will likely return to their original apprehension areas. They will be alone--your advantage. You will get first strike, and they will automatically be defensive. Hit them hard, and fast enough first, their defense will be ineffectual. A second assault should not be necessary. Yes, they will know you are coming, just not where or when.”

Drakx thought of this scenario. It did make sense. It also felt very dangerous. It was better than showing up, and dying angry.

“Where are you in this calculated strike?” he asked, then thought. “If you’re on an equal plane with them, they will deduct exactly the same hypothesis, stalemate. I’m dead again.”

“Yes, we are all on the same level, but my anonymity introduces chaos. All the knowledge in these worlds cannot control chaos. Your incongruous advantage, which will be in your ear via this transmitter. I will direct you from a remote location,” she said, trying to assure him.

Drakx looked at the transmitter Kimi placed in his hand. He wanted to believe everything would work. Listening to the demand in his mind that, by now, felt like molten needles constantly sticking him in the eyes, made his decision easier.

“Alright, Kimi,” he sighed. “Let’s do it. They won’t know what pungent odor they stepped into, when we’re done, and I know just who to rain this ‘shit-storm’ on first.”

“You are not going after Zannon first,” she warned. “That will be their expectation. He will be more than ready.”

Drakx paused with confusion. “I was with you, all until now. Zannon is the most powerful DNAccident. I must hit him first. One, it sends them a message, two, I’m getting the worst out of the way first.”

“He will be your last,” Kimi pleaded. “Please, capture Elreich first. He is the least likely. Listen, I will keep you alive for the rest.”

Drakx’ motto began to chime louder in his mind than the demand. “Experience trumps perfection.”

“Look, I trust, and believe you are trying to keep me alive, but I’m going to have to override your suggestion of your last instruction. Either Zannon will kill me first, or he won’t. I must roll the dice on this one. If I kill one of his brothers first, I will pour gasoline on a raging inferno. I must extinguish it before it gets too big to control. Now, I’ll follow your suggestion, but I must do it my way.”

Kimi knew the tone, and manner of his speech. His mind would not be changed. She knew how suicidal this action was. She knew he knew. It made no difference to him. This was one of those times she hated knowing everything.

“I know super transports cannot pull you from this stupid idea. All I have to say is be careful.” She gave in.

“Just be in my ear, director,” he said, tapping his temple. “Now, let’s go get some Zannon ass!”