The smell of burnt flesh and pine sap was thick in the air. Flames still danced on the broken branches, casting strange, dancing shadows against the forest floor.
Kael leaned against a tree, trying to get his breathing back to normal. The adrenaline was fading, leaving a bone-deep exhaustion in its wake. Every muscle ached.
Gryphon's team returned, moving cautiously through the devastated area. Gryphon led the way, his face taut as he stared at the black crater.
"God Almighty, Spectre," he muttered, his voice full of awe. "You actually did it."
Kael didn't answer. He just nodded, too tired to speak.
Wraith and Rook were supporting Viper. She was still unconscious, but some color had returned to her face.
"How is she?" Kael asked.
"The clotting agent worked. The wound is stabilized, but she needs surgery," Gryphon replied. "We have to get her out of here."
Jotun walked over to Kael, and the giant silently offered him a canteen. Kael took it and drank deeply. Water had never tasted so good.
"You saved our lives," Jotun said, his deep voice a simple but heavy acknowledgment.
Kael looked around. The initial doubt in the other team members' eyes had been replaced by something else. Respect. A respect bought with blood and fire. For the first time since joining Operation Hummingbird, he didn't feel like an outsider. He was part of the pack.
"Nest to Gryphon. What is your status?" Anya's voice came through, with a rare hint of worry she couldn't completely hide.
"We're still alive, Oracle. Most of us," Gryphon reported. "Viper is seriously injured. We've neutralized a high-level B.O.W. Repeat, target is neutralized."
A short pause on the line.
"Understood, Gryphon. I'm diverting a drone for evac support. New rendezvous, point Zulu, two klicks southwest of your current position. It's a river. Should be easier for extraction."
"Roger, Oracle. We're on the move." Gryphon turned to the team. "You heard her. Drink up, reload. We're leaving in two minutes."
They had survived. They were getting out. A wave of relief washed over the team.
But in their world, relief never lasted long.
As Kael was slapping a fresh magazine into his Kestrel, Anya's voice came through again, more urgent this time.
"Hold. Gryphon, stand by."
The team froze, the relief vanishing like smoke.
"What is it, Oracle?" Gryphon asked.
"The tracker signal. From the Chimaera case. Something's wrong."
On Gryphon's wrist-mounted tablet, a map of the area appeared. A large red dot blinked in the center of the complex, the location of the main case.
"I'm running diagnostics," Anya said. "The main tracker is fine. It's still in the primary building where we saw Hunnigan. But... I'm detecting a secondary signal."
Another red dot, much smaller and blinking faintly, appeared on the map. It wasn't in the same location as the main signal. It was in a different building, an old warehouse on the northern edge of the complex.
"A secondary signal?" Kael walked over, looking at the map. "What do you mean?"
"The tracker I gave you wasn't a single unit, Spectre," Anya explained. "It was a cluster of one primary and twelve micro-transmitters, in case the merchandise was split up. One of those micro-transmitters has been separated from the main cluster."
"Maybe it just fell off during transport," Rook suggested.
"No," Kael murmured, his eyes fixed on the small red dot. "No way. That case was too secure. Nothing could have just 'fallen off'."
He remembered the moment in the auction room. The mechanical beetles. The one that got loose.
The Chimaera that had attacked Yamamoto's bodyguard...
"Oracle," Kael said, his voice low. "Scan the area around that stray signal. Look for a bio-signature."
A tense pause as Anya processed the request.
"My God..." she whispered. "There is a faint bio-signature. Very weak, but it's there. Coinciding with the location of the stray signal."
The realization dawned on the whole team.
The Chimaera that attacked the guard hadn't died. It had latched onto him. And somehow, that guard, or just his body, had been moved to that warehouse.
And one of those killer bugs was still alive. Hiding somewhere in the complex.
"Forget it," Gryphon said decisively. "It's outside the mission parameters. Our job is to monitor Hunnigan and the main prize. We have to get Viper out."
He was right. It was the logical decision, the decision of a responsible commander.
But Kael didn't feel logical. He felt an inexplicable pull. A stray, unsupervised Chimaera... it was a ticking time bomb. And it could be the key to understanding more about how they worked.
He remembered the lifeless eyes of those who had died at the hands of similar B.O.W.s. He remembered his team in the mud.
He couldn't just leave a threat like that unaccounted for.
"Let's move," Gryphon ordered, turning towards rendezvous Zulu.
The team started to move out, a long line of tired but determined ghosts.
But Kael didn't follow.
He stood his ground, his eyes still glued to the small red dot on the map. A monster left behind. An unanswered question.
"Spectre, what are you doing? Let's go!" Gryphon called back.
Kael looked up, meeting his team leader's gaze. "You get Viper out," he said, his voice even. "I have something I need to do."
"Don't be a fool, Kael!" Gryphon roared, using his real name for the first time. "That's an order! We pull out as a team!"
"This isn't the BSAA," Kael shot back, his voice cold. "I don't take orders anymore. I finish the mission."
He shut off his comms, severing his link to the team and to Oracle.
"Spectre! Spectre, what are you doing?! Re-engage communications immediately! That is an order!" Anya's furious voice was the last thing he heard from Gryphon's tablet before he vanished from their system.
Gryphon stood frozen, torn between going after Kael and his responsibility to the rest of his team.
Kael didn't look back.
He turned, Kestrel in hand, and melted back into the jungle's darkness. But this time, he wasn't heading for safety.
He was heading for the complex. For the abandoned warehouse.
Alone.
To face a monster he knew nothing about. To find an answer that would probably get him killed.
The lone wolf was hunting on his own once more.
(To be continued...)