Codename: Freedom - Book 5 - Chapter 4

Porting into our sim withing a sim, Victoria was waiting. She wrapped her arms around me the moment she saw me. She had a new favorite place to pinch me under my shirt on the side of the ribs.

The moment I felt her hand, I let it happen, but not without running my fingers over her hair down her back.

She melted, purring like a kitten.

“How was work today?” I asked.

She snorted as she leaned into me. “My company rebelled under my leadership. I will have to implement harsh disciplinary actions soon.”

“Oh? That sounds like fun.”

Chuckling, she pulled back, looking me in the eye. “You did so well. They did. It was exactly what we needed, Lucius.”

“I ought to disobey you more often if this is the kind of reception I’m going to get.”

She rolled her eyes. “Do you think Spy Master Liam would approve?”

I narrowed my eyes. “I’m sure he does.”

Raising a brow, she pursed her lips. “What’s with the tone?”

“I understand how important it is for us to distance ourselves publicly, but making you look bad and undermining your authority is not the way I’d like to go about it.”

When she ran her fingernails lightly up and down my back, it was my turn to melt. I exaggeratedly draped myself over her.

“Big lug,” she muttered. “I appreciate you not wanting your boss to look bad. In the overall scheme of things, it’ll work out. We know the story Liam wants to tell, and both of our reputations should improve, not take a hit. We’re just in the middle of the opening act. Give it time.”

“You do make this cute, constipated face when you get angry.”

As if on cue, her nostrils flared, eyes narrowed, and her bottom lip got on pouty with it. “Constipated? Really?”

I reached forward and gave her lip a downward flick.

She pulled back. The look intensified.

I just nodded.

When she began to object, I scooped her up into a princess carry.

She squealed.

“Play now. Work later,” I demanded.

***

“Report,” Peter said from the head of the table. He had his brown curly hair in a Caesar cut. His shoulders were drawn back as he practiced good posture. It was just one of a thousand small disciplines he practiced as he strived to keep his life in order. There were too many things to accomplish. Responsibilities that couldn’t be left to chance.

A blond woman in a nondescript ballistic appeared holographically above the table with her hands folded behind her back and standing at ease.

He noticed as Lax uncomfortably shifted in his seat. The man was plane looking. More so than even Peter was. He looked the part of a military tech specialist. He had a decent physique but undoubtedly would’ve preferred working with computers instead of people.

Peter knew the man before all this. He was the Ekseliksi version of a scientific researcher. A master of tech even if he balked at the balked at the idea of the AI appearing before them. She was indeed semi-blasphemous, but he hadn’t fully made up his mind on her yet.

He could admit to himself that one of the reasons he was more willing to accept her was because of how exceptional she was at things like processing the data she was about to report on.

“The East Asian Collision has undoubtedly been seeking data on Victoria and Lucius, but it seems to be a part of a general data collection operation. It is the same for United Europe, Russia, and South America, but the Republic of Egypt, the preeminent power in the region, is actively looking for information on Victoria and her secret fiancé. Their intent is impossible to say for certain, but the current regime has taken political prisoners before even if they outwardly treat them like royalty.”

Peter leaned his arms against the table, weaving his fingers between each other. “So they seek him to control her?”

“That would be my assumption, yes,” Destiny confirmed.

“Thank you. Continue, please.”

Lax shifted uncomfortably in his seat.

It was unsurprising really. He ignored the man, glancing over at Liam to see how he was handling his new position.

As he suspected, the man was in analysis mode. Despite the threats, it had taken every little effort to convince the man to help them in earnest. Why? Despite all the man’s faults. He was a good father.

Destiny followed up by listing the known and not so well-known hacker organizations that were seeking information on Victoria as well.

“I have set up a series of false leads that should take anyone manually checking them years to comb through them all,” she said. “Our team of AI will continue creating such false leads, flooding the meta with so much contradictory information its almost impossible for anyone to discern the truth.”

“Well done.”

When the girl’s face lit up, she looked like she was about to say or do something. Her eyes flickered to Lax. She limited herself to a nod before porting out.”

The Ekseliksi researcher let out a pent-up breath.

Drumming his fingers on the table, Peter pondered out loud. “Should we send a decoy fiancé to Egypt to take some pressure off Victoria and Lucius, or do you think it would have the opposite effect?”

 “The opposite,” Liam insisted. “It would bring them to the forefront even more than they already are. Governments have more means for information gathering than these hacker groups do. Even the government sanctioned ones. I’m concerned about Egypt’s roll in this. How many cubes do they have?”

As he asked it, his own headset retrieved the information. “Half a million… That’s almost as many as the rest of Africa combined if you don’t count Ethiopia. Should we have Destiny resist their efforts in a more direct manner? She’s certainly capable.”

“It,” Lax censured. “It is certainly capable, but an AI is just and AI. I’m still most concerned with individuals getting physical access to hardware they shouldn’t. We learned our lesson with Dr. Konig the hard way.”

“Both of your concerns are valid,” Peter said as he leaned back in his seat. “It’s the attack you don’t see coming that’s the deadliest. I’ll have Destiny continue looking for creative ways to exploit our systems, while also disrupting those that try. She has a few AI I’ve given her Administrator access to she can train herself.”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

He gave the researcher a pointed look. “It has already found more exploits in the last three months than my whole team of AI found in the year combined. I understand you don’t like the idea of her, but don’t let that stop you from making use of the best tool that we have.”

“Understood. I can’t help but to ask myself, what if she was a Jinhwa-cyborg? Yes, it would be a potent tool, but no less blasphemous.”

“Then its good that you have me as your commanding officer. You can always blame me later.”

Lowering his head, Lax rubbed at his brow. “Yeah, there’s always that.” The man smirked.

***

Psionic energy flowed through my body as I sat Indian style. My hands were resting on my lap. There were natural currents it travelled in when you rested. One’s physical movement and psionic manipulation changed this flow. It happened naturally. It wasn’t something one had to micromanage for it to happen efficiently and effectively. However, there was potential in manipulating the flow. Even though there were a limited number of psionic abilities, while inside your body, you could manipulate your energy in what might be an infinite number of patterns.

Victoria spoke as he had his attention turned inward. She didn’t touch him during her lessons because I’d admitted it was just too much of a distraction. “You’ll start to naturally change your energy flow as you practice combining different psionic abilities. For most, this remains an unconscious effort, but it doesn’t have to. Observe it. As you recognize patterns, you’ll be able to more quickly implement them when practicing new combinations.

“This is one of the main distinctives between the Vasileia and the rest of the Ekseliksi. They don’t just use psionics. They feel it. It’s like the mind-muscle connection of a great athlete, except the level of flexibility you have is almost limitless. That allows creativity.”

I sent a surge of energy through my main jumping foot without releasing any energy. Feeling the rebound, I let the wave of it run threw me, only directing it to my arm. If I made use of this rebounding effect, I could push energy into my arm at a rapid rate for far less effort. Using the path of tendons, muscle, or bone all had different flows when I limited the energy to them individually.

Victoria interrupted my train of thought, seemingly guessing what I’d been thinking. “Understanding why something happens can lead to future innovation, but sometimes the experiential reality is enough. If you have an idea, try it. Even if it doesn’t fit into the model of what should work in your head, that doesn’t mean you’ve discovered every hidden variable that might lead you to even greater success.”

I limited the wave of energy to the skeletal system of my arm. Unlike when I let it flow through my entire arm, it didn’t funnel the energy from larger to smaller muscles, creating pressure and slowing my energy. This was one of the primary reasons I hadn’t been able to speed up my Dragon Slayer combination. Why there wasn’t the same pressure build up and slowing down of energy flow when it reached my humerus bone that started at my shoulder, I didn’t know. Logically, it should have but just didn’t.

As the wave of energy reached my fist, hardened weapon bolstering energy covered my knuckles. A layer of push propelled the hardened energy from them only for a layer of shielding to solidify over them an instant later. I didn’t hammer the hardened energy home since I wasn’t throwing a punch, but the discovery had completely revolutionized the amount of damage I could do in a short time. If I faced the Manticore King today, there was no doubt in my mind I could defeat it.

Of course, I didn’t have to just imagine such things. I’d already faced it in the old bandit simulation gifted to me by Achilles. Destiny had made sure to make it was accurate. Beating the monster took time, but my record was currently set at four minutes. Progressing to a 356 Psionic Power rating greatly upped my damage output.

That wasn’t the own problem I was dealing with. I now had a weapon that could threaten a rank D psionic user even if it wasn’t nearly as potent as the “Real” Major Jeff Wright or many of the other high rank E or new rank D participants. That would come. There was something else that was perhaps an even greater dilemma. Let’s face it, having a killer move only put me on par with the best psionic users. What I needed was something that not even the Ekseliksi could compete with. Something that could allow me to transcend ranks and ultimately make Victoria mine in public as well as secret.

I requested Destiny to bring up the quarterly event right before I crossed the finish line. When I moved from hovering against the wall to the ceiling, I had her pause the scene. “I think I know how to make myself stay against the ceiling a bit longer, maybe indefinitely once my power output grows, but was it even possible for me to dodge all the bolts that they threw at me?”

“Was it possible?” Victoria replied, giving me a confused look. “Since when is Major Lucius Edwards asking if he can and not how?”

“Very funny. But from one secret concubinus to his alien lover princess, is it possible?”

“You are not a concubine.”

“Concubinus is a male concubine,” I replied. “Destiny corrected me so I don’t see why you should get a pass.”

She was glaring at me. “I don’t like it when you joke about this, Lucius.”

I glared back.

She stuck out her tongue but answered. “It’s not a question as to whether you could dodge everything, but if you could’ve put yourself in a better position to make it more difficult for them. As you fell, you could’ve wind walked from side to side, launched yourself in a surprise direction, among other things.”

I nodded. “That’s what I thought.”

Our time together that night drew to a close. When she had gone, I began pacing. I hadn’t been completely honest with her. As always, it wasn’t just our current opponents I was worried about, but our nearly invincible future ones. There would never be a time when I was as powerful as they were. Even if I had an ability that could harm them, what did it matter if they could kill me before I ever got a chance to use it?

I’d spent countless hours considering what psionic ability or combination of abilities would offer the most potential. The problem with most of them was the same. Whether it was shielding, bolt casting, weapon enhancing, or just body strengthening, someone at a higher rank would have a superior version. Even if he could overcharge an ability, it would at the most be equal to theirs.

There was only one ability with the potential he was looking for. He just happened to have the best instructor. Push, or Othisi, had allowed him to create a movement technique the humans didn’t have. Even most Ekseliksi couldn’t compete with Aeneus Raptis. It didn’t just take rank D psionics to earn the title of Krato. The vast majority of Ekseliksi that reached the rank D would never have the honor. Yet Aeneus had done so with a very limited number of abilities unlocked. He was a specialist. With Othisi alone he had reached a level of combat proficiency that few others would.

Was it possible for him to reach beyond what Victoria had suggested? Instead of just bettering his odds of dodging more bolts, could he so master his movement ability that he became untouchable?

There were legends of dogfighters from past wars that were said to have such skill that they were able to consistently outfly the enemy, shooting down those flying superior aircraft. After the successful travesty that was his recent event win, he had a long way to go.

“I’ve never seen such a miserable level of brooding,” Destiny chimed, forcing me out of my thoughts.

“Hey, Dronehead. What’s up?” I said while still sorting my thoughts.

“It’s ready.”

“What is?”

“The training sim I designed for you, duh. I call it, Destiny’s Ultimate Psionic Betterment System that uses Fun as a Motivator Instead of Pain and Simulated Death.”

He couldn’t help but grin. “Of course, you do.”

“Well, come on. You obviously want to try ceiling walking while trying to dodge psionic bolts and I have something even better.”

“Better?”

“Who do you think I am, numbskull?”

Climbing to his feet, he brushed off his thighs before clapping. “Well, let’s give it a shot.”

“That’s the spirit.”

The miniature version of a blond headed lady soldier grinned before snapping her fingers. The world around me dissolved as I was assaulted with a tidal wave of pink.