Animalis (23 page)

Hank started to sort the information into a timeline in his mind, but stopped at the Animalis religious building. Was he making a joke? “And you’re staying with the bear?” he asked, coaxing the punch line.

“No, not with the bear. Oh, Hank, it’s good to hear your voice again.” Jax started to undo the buckles on the harness around his strange leg.

“After being alone with nothing but Animalis for two months, I’d hope so,” Hank said. He checked the time—down to ten reliable minutes.

Jax pulled the attachment off and lifted the severed tip for Hank to see. His leg stopped almost halfway down his shin. Hank started to shake his head back and forth, still not wanting to accept the story Jax had told him.

“No, Jax. I’m so sorry. The bear—you really lost your leg. In the arena,” Hank said. He could see the red around the rim of his eyes, too. “Your eyes—they took your retina monitor, too.”

Jax went through the story with him, vividly describing the amount of blood and the stench in the cage. He told Hank he was staying with Grimshaw and Hodge, and gave him the location of the herbal air shop.

“You’re with Grimshaw?” Hank asked. How could Hank have missed the signs of her lying? She had sent a video message earlier that day, and she was saying something about a … She and Hodge had been … No, that’s right, she had told him, nearly a week ago, that her updates would be more infrequent. Hank had assumed she was giving up the search. He knew he should have kept track of her in secret, to make sure she wasn’t taken to the arena as well.

Hank pushed the guilt away. Of course she wouldn’t have been taken by the Animalis, and he would never have hoped she would be …

“Good. That’s good,” he continued. “I’ll let the captain know you’re back.”

Jax had gone through the arena, held prisoner by the Animalis.
He has to be tortured inside
, Hank thought.

“We’ll get even,” Hank said. “We’ll make the Animalis pay, end the arena forever.”

After a short delay, Jax nodded and said, “Alright.”

But Hank knew that Jax didn’t believe him. He didn’t understand what Hank meant. “With the Ivanovich Machine,” Hank said.

Now Jax looked even more confused.
He doesn’t have to know yet
, Hank cautioned himself, and his time investigating the pyramid was running out. With the last five minutes, he would have to escape the lab and the building. He didn’t regret taking the call, but it had been very unfortunate timing.

“You’re alive!” he reiterated. “I’ve been busy, Jax. The pyramid, I’ve almost got it. I think so. It’ll be in our hands soon.”

Jax nodded. “Good. They haven’t used it to kill everybody yet.”

“No. Can you stay there? With Grimshaw? I’m not sure when I can come get you,” Hank asked.

“Yeah, I think so.”

“Good. Check your messages a couple times a day.” Then he realized how distant he had sounded, trying to keep his nerves under control. “I’m glad you’re alright. We are going to end up being heroes, Jax. I can’t do this without you.”

Jax said good-bye and ended the call. It would be good to have Jax with him again.
He made it out of the arena alive.
The information was finally sinking in.
Incredible.

——

Jax walked quietly back through the curtain and down the hall back to his room. The hard plastic floor and the colorless walls didn’t seem as far from his normal life as they had before. Without contact from Hank, the building could have been light years away, on an alien planet.

But now he was back on Earth. He was in the army, under Hank’s command, and they were waiting for their chance to take back something that Hank believed was a terrible weapon. But there had been something so strange about the conversation. Hank had been disconnected, on edge from something.

Jax remembered the painful indifference from a dream about Hank while he was in the prison cell at the arena. Were they drifting apart?

His original question had been answered: Jax would stay put. People needed him; Hank needed him, and maybe the Animalis needed him. He wouldn’t give up trying to help.

Chapter 19

Gold Teeth

A week later, Hank still hadn’t come for Jax, but the last message had left him feeling uneasy:

I think I’ve got it. I think I’ve figured out how the pyramid works. Expect a message from me within three days. ~Hank.

It wasn’t much to go off, but the promise of returning to the fight in just three more days made Jax anxious again. He hadn’t told Hank yet about the details of the arena, or that he was struggling just to fulfill his commitment to the military. Jax’s leg continued to ache and the skin seemed to be getting thicker. Most of the time he could get around with the prosthetic, but it would never be the same.

In the meantime, the Thewy saints got another lead. A young mongoose Animalis that was a rising sensation as a lightweight boxer was in danger. The gym he trained at had discovered his mate was pregnant. The Animalis at ACTS expected some kind of public disgracing, something that would show that even popular Animalis had to follow the rule not to perpetuate their species.

This time, Jax was eager to get involved. He could go with Grimshaw on the mission, and it had something to do with fighting. Not just fighting, but
boxing
, the sport Jax had fallen in love with in high school.

“Two thousand UCs? That’s a good down payment, but for what he’s done, he’s worth way more to me if he fights,” the man with three gold teeth was saying. “His last fight tonight is going to be unforgettable anyways. There’s no way I can let him go.”

Jax stood beside Grimshaw, talking to the owner of the gym. Jax gestured to the boxing ring behind the man. “Is this where the matches are?”

The man smiled, revealing a fourth gold tooth. “Yes. This is where it happens. The crowds fill this entire room and it transforms. It comes to life.” His thin chest rose with pride. The man was short and tightly built. His arms were covered in animating tattoos and his blond hair was braided tightly to his scalp.

Jax looked around. The ground was worn colorless, and sections of plastic were beginning to roll back to reveal the deep blue foundation. Around the perimeter of the large warehouse, Jax saw sparring robots, weights, ropes, and a dozen humans and Animalis in little clusters. There was a sharp
slap-slap!
from padded fists striking at one of the robots.

“Four thousand, then,” Grimshaw said.

Jax snapped his attention back to the conversation. He tried to match her bluff: “He’s obviously not worth that much, but you can consider part of it as a donation for your gym.”

“Ha!” The man turned and spat on the floor. “We bring in twice that much, every fight.” He folded his arms and looked Grimshaw up and down.

Jax glanced at Grimshaw. She had tried to dress down for the meeting, coming alone with Jax to barter for one of the Mr. Gold Teeth’s fighting Animalis, but the way she stood, spoke, and moved still revealed her classiness. Gold Teeth wasn’t even paying attention to Jax anymore, which meant he knew who was really making the decisions between the two of them.

Jax elbowed Grimshaw in the side and pulled his head toward the door. “Let’s go.”

She frowned, but when Jax started walking away, she stepped in beside him. As they walked farther away from the gym owner, they heard him whine, then mutter “Bah.” But he didn’t give a counteroffer.

When they were a few yards away, Grimshaw whispered, “We can’t walk away, Jax. They’re going to take everything away from Rikki tonight—his children, and any possibility for future children.”

“He’s just trying to suck money out of you, Grimshaw. There’s no way this place gets eight thousand UCs a fight.”

“Well, he makes enough that he’s not desperate for the money,” she said.

Jax thought about it, slowing his walk. “It’s not the money he’s interested in,” he said. “He loves the fight. It’s everything to him. Even if you give him eight thousand, he’s going to ask for more. This is a mongoose Animalis that we’re rescuing, right? Mr. Gold-Fang back there has got to be upset that he can’t use him anymore. He must be a fantastic boxer.”

“Maybe, but he’s going to be an even better father when his mate’s litter is born,” she said. “Hmm. He only cares for the fight?” Within the next step, she slowed to a stop.

“That’s it!” she said and turned around to walk back to the gold-toothed man.

“What’s it?” Jax asked, struggling to catch up.

Ahead of them, the fourth golden tooth appeared on the man’s face as his mouth widened into a grin. He unlaced his arms off his chest and stroked the braids that ran along the top of his head.

“Two thousand, and you get me to fight in his place tonight,” Grimshaw said as they approached.

The man scowled. “No, eight thousand.” He looked at Jax. “Why, who is she?” He looked back at Grimshaw. “Who wants to see you fight?”

Grimshaw launched her fist at the man’s face. Jax didn’t have a moment to react, and the man was even more caught off guard. His eyes went wide before her knuckles drove his head backward from the solid impact. He staggered backward.

“Wha—” he said. When he looked at her again, his eyes were alight with passion.

Her hand relaxed and went back to her side like nothing had happened. “I think people will want to see me fight.”

Gold Teeth brought his hand up to his face, still looking over Grimshaw like she was a winning lottery ticket. “Two thousand?” he asked.

Jax held still, as surprised as the man had been, but not as thrilled. She should have volunteered
him
to fight. But the man wouldn’t have reacted the same way if Jax had punched him just now. If this was a bluff on Grimshaw’s part, he didn’t know how they were going to get out of it.

“What weight class are you?” the man asked.

“Featherweight,” Jax said, before she had a chance to look to him for help. If she was going to fight, it had to look like she knew everything about boxing.

Grimshaw looked back at the man.

“We don’t do featherweight here. You’re either lightweight or bantamweight.” The man looked up and down her body again. “How much do you weight?”

She looked at Jax. He swallowed. He had guessed at her weight, aiming low to make sure that her opponent wouldn’t be too heavy for her.

“One twenty-five,” Jax said.

Grimshaw frowned with an offended look. “One thirty-four,” she said.

“You’re too heavy for bantamweight. You get bumped up into lightweight. It’s a deal.” The fourth golden tooth slowly emerged again. “Oh … and you’ll be fighting me.”

——

Later, while Grimshaw and Jax rode back to ACTS in an automated taxi, Jax couldn’t hold it in any longer: “Why did you do that? You don’t need to fight this guy, Hurley!”

“You said it yourself,” she said. “He wouldn’t accept more money. He wanted a memorable fight.”

She had been quiet since the deal was made. Her knees were pulled up under her arms while she watched buildings pass outside the taxi’s window.

“Can you really box?” he asked.

“Did you see the way he looked at me?”

Jax tried to pull up the visual memory. The moment after she punched him had left an impression on Jax; there was that look of intensity. He knew the look disturbed him, but he didn’t know why.

“I nearly broke my hand when I hit him,” she said. “I don’t know anything about boxing.” Her tone was somber.

As he watched her, Jax sat back in his seat. Ice cut through his heart. Something had happened to her. Her spirit and her zest for life was gone, like an animal that was resigned to die in its cage.

“Let’s call the deal off,” Jax said.

She continued to watch out the window and didn’t respond.

Jax joined in watched buildings pass by and let his mind rest. There were no solid ideas, only restless worry. They passed a sushi restaurant that had a giant octopus with long, suction-cupped tentacles on its sign. The next building was a print shop, glowing neon orange—Hank’s favorite color.

Jax sat up. “Maybe you don’t have to fight,” he said. Then he commanded the automated computer, “Taxi, turn around. We need to stop at that print shop back there.”

“I want to fight him, Jax,” Grimshaw said.

Jax hesitated. He knew she was strong. She was strong enough to carry him through the city. But she didn’t know boxing. If she went into the ring, she was going to be beaten, and probably knocked unconscious.

“I know a way that we can fight him together,” he said.

“How?” she asked, a spark of her former self coming through again.

“Do you have sixteen hundred UCs?”

Chapter 20

Fighting for Control

Jax ascended the stairs to the boxing ring, but it wasn’t his body moving. He looked around at the crowd of people that had filled the warehouse, marveling that the gym owner was right: it was completely packed.

He tilted his head to watch the live wall screens that would display the action of the fight to the back of the crowd. The person in the ring was Grimshaw. She had worn a vivacious outfit to help ensure that it was a lively show. He looked down and saw thickly padded gloves at the end of her lean arms.

The newly printed strips of fabric that controlled her movements were placed over her entire body and blended in perfectly with her skin. Each sticky black diode was latched onto her skin, sending the signals from Jax into her muscles as powerful electric impulses.

Jax was actually reclined in a chair—back in the herbal air shop at ACTS. His body was sedated, so that the commands from his brain were only being broadcast from the diode latched to the back of his head to the suit controlling Grimshaw. When he commanded his knee to lift up, the signals were picked up by sensors, and Grimshaw’s knee rose up. His own body lay perfectly still on the chair.

“Everything seems to be working alright,” Grimshaw whispered. Her voice came in clear above the constant buzz from the crowd.

Jax had no way to respond to her comment except to nod his head in agreement, which forced Grimshaw to nod her head.

She still had free control of her face and voice, since the diodes stopped at the base of her skull. Otherwise, Jax could control everything, as long as he was careful not to let his concentration lapse, which would mean that Grimshaw herself would be back in control. She could also wrest control from him if she focused on doing so.

“Tonight’s fight,” a booming voice said throughout the warehouse, “has an unexpected twist.” The chatter from the crowd fell as the lights faded. Spotlights filled the ring. “Our mongoose, Rikkitikki, seems to have a human admirer. She stands before you now, promising an even better show than what you were expecting.”

Jax raised Grimshaw’s hands over her head to draw cheers from the crowd, but they remained silent.

The voice droned on, “Behold, the reigning lightweight champion of Ireland …” while Jax stressed about the fight. The last thing he wanted was to let Grimshaw be knocked out, especially while he was controlling her body. He would be responsible for every hit she took. Her body—her safety—was in Jax’s hands.

“The reigning champion of Ireland?” Grimshaw muttered. “Just because I’m redheaded?”

Jax shrugged her shoulders.

Across from them, the man with four golden teeth, now glowing through a clear, plastic mouth-guard, slid between the ropes into the boxing ring. He looked a pale white with his shirt off. His muscles were small, but dense. Jax guessed that he really was in the lightweight class. He was thin and wiry.

The announcer went through a condensed version of the rules. “Don’t hit below the belt. Strike with the front of the glove only. No kidneys, rabbits, or hits to the spine. Knockout is a count to ten, and there will only be four rounds of two minutes each.”

A referee emerged through the ropes and walked to the center of the ring. Jax felt Grimshaw’s body start moving to the center. He had lost concentration and she was in control. It felt like she was walking his body toward the ref.

Jax carefully synced his movements with hers again, not wanting to topple her with two incompatible commands pushing parts of her body in different directions. He had to feel her arms moving, and begin moving his in the exact rhythm, until the two became one. He had to feel the muscles in her stomach, hips, and legs, while they constantly rebalanced to keep her standing. As he took control, her thighs first pulled his thighs forward, then his pushed hers back. He slowed her to a stop at the middle of the ring.

Gold Teeth met the two in the middle, facing Grimshaw with a dominating stare. His eyes slowly moved over her body.

Jax could feel the reaction in her body. Her stomach tensed and her breathing became restricted.

Jax clenched her fist. He wanted to punch the man so bad.

The ref whistled, a bell rang, and the fight began.

“Oosh!” Gold Teeth shot forward, punching a quick jab at Grimshaw’s head.

Jax hopped backward, keeping distance between them. Jax suddenly felt struck with fear: How could he force himself to put Grimshaw in danger? Every blow that he delivered, she was sure to get hit in return.

Gold Teeth leaped forward again, pumping his fists out with hisses of breath: “Oosh, oosh!”

Jax backed away, letting the swings hit harmlessly against her boxing gloves. But he could feel her pushing his legs forward, stepping him toward the fighter.

Boom-boom. Two jabs connected with Grimshaw’s gloves and forearms.

Jax could feel her body tense from the impacts. He couldn’t feel the pain of it, but he could imagine it. All he could think about was that each strike he let through was his fault.

“Eess, eess!” Jax pumped Grimshaw’s fists forward, forcing out two strained hisses from her mouth.

Gold Teeth blocked and Jax hopped her body out of range.

“I can take a hit, Jax!” Grimshaw said between breaths. “Go after this guy.”

She started to push her body toward the fight again.

Gold Teeth was coming at her for more. Jax blocked another blow and hopped to the right, jabbing twice.

“Eess, eess!”

Her arms were knocked to the side with a quick block, exposing her face and chest to attack.

“Oosh!”

Grimshaw’s head snapped backward. Jax could feel her muscles go limp for a moment. She was off balance and disoriented from the hit.
Stop it!
he wanted to shout at her.
Let me do the fighting!
Jax forced her arms back in front of her face and stepped back.

The punches kept coming. “Oo-oosh! Oo-oosh! Oosh, oosh!”

Jax had to step back. The jabs shook her arms, slamming her own gloves into her face over and over. Her body was tense. He had to fight past her urge to turn away from the punches and curl up.

Jas had no panic-stricken, adrenaline-fueled response happening in his mind. He was separate and safe from the fight. He could see what was happening in real time, and respond with a clear and calculated attack.

Jax dug Grimshaw’s right leg into the springy surface of the ring and shot her fist through the oncoming punches. The jab connected with Gold Teeth’s nose, sending his head backward with a streak of blood arching up through the air. Glowing particles of dust swirled in little tornado patterns where her glove had plowed through the air.

Gold Teeth staggered backward with a confused look at Grimshaw. His most recent punch trailed out uselessly in front of him. The crowd was taken by surprise. The only sound coming from the warehouse seemed to be the powerful beat of Grimshaw’s heart.

From the neck diode, Jax could feel Grimshaw pulling muscles that connected around to the front of her jaw. She had to be smiling.

Gold Teeth wiped the blood leaking from his nose. When his glove came away from his face, his eyes were on fire. Jax could feel Grimshaw’s body retreat away from the man’s lurid face again.

“That’s more like it,” he said.

The bell rang, signaling the end of the first round.

The two fighters retreated to their own corners. Grimshaw sat on a stool where one of the ACTS members waited to massage her muscles and force-feed her water.

Around them, the crowd hummed with anticipation for the next round.

Gold Teeth’s eyes didn’t stray from Grimshaw.

“Jax, I don’t care what he does to me. I want to beat this creep,” Grimshaw whispered.

Jax slowly nodded her head.

The ref called the two fighters back to begin the second round. It would be two more minutes before the next break. Two minutes to block his punches and keep her safe.

The bell rang and Gold Teeth came at her swiftly.

Before Jax knew it, Grimshaw was pushing herself toward the oncoming fists. A fist swung at her from the side, and he ducked to the right. Another fist was coming at her from the other side. Jax knocked it away and pushed forward to get inside the attacks.

Jax could hear the man’s hot breath now. Gold Teeth was holding her before pushing her out to where he could swing at her again. Then there was a sound of wet sandpaper sliding on her skin, and every one of Grimshaw’s muscles locked up. Jax lost control. He tried to move her away, but her body wasn’t responding.

He licked her?
Jax was dumbfounded. How could he let that happen to her?
Never again.
He could never let that happen again.

Gold Teeth pushed her away and immediately Jax hooked him in the side of the face. The man’s hooks and jabs came at her again. This time, Jax was the one to drive Grimshaw’s body into the fray.

Jax knocked a punch away and hooked him in the side of the head again.

Another punch knocked Grimshaw’s glove back into her face. Jax fainted left and jabbed again. “Eess!”

Pop-pow! Grimshaw was thrown backward with two powerful counterpunches.

The second bell rang after another minute of fierce punches.

When Grimshaw sat down on the stool, she gasped. “His breath. I can still smell his breath on me, Jax.”

He could feel her chest constricting. Her whole body moved with the force of her breath. The movements triggered emotions inside Jax. He could feel her sense of powerlessness. He felt like he was nothing. He could feel defiance in her movements. She was trying to demand their opponent acknowledge her, but another emotion was telling him not to resist.

All Jax could do was bring her gloved hands up to cover her face with.

After a moment, she pushed her head up out of the gloves and said, “I’m okay. You’re doing great, Jax. Most of the time, I can’t tell what’s going on. But I love when my arms shoot out and I hit him in the face.”

The third round began, and Jax dove into the fight.

Jax didn’t hold back. He stayed close and jabbed and threw hooks over and over again. Grimshaw took more hits, but she landed more hits, too.

Her breathing was strained. He could feel her muscles tingling from exertion.

Halfway through the round, Jax got too close. Grimshaw’s head ducked under a wide hook and came face-to-face with the man’s eyes.

She pulled control away from Jax, and this time took a step away from him. Her foot caught on the mat, and their body tumbled to the ground. In a flash, Gold Teeth was on top of her. Her muscles locked up, and Jax was powerless to pull her out of it.

“What are you going to do now?” his chilling voice said in the confined space.

“You can do it,”
Jax called to her in his mind.
“Fight it. You have to stop him. Don’t let him control you.”

He could feel the two battling emotions inside her. Part of her was willing to give up her free will in the hopes that he would stop demanding control over her. The rest of her was screaming to be recognized as an equal.

“You’re stronger than him … and he knows it,”
Jax whispered in his mind. It was the last feeble way for him to communicate with her.
“He thinks he can make you care about him, but you’re in complete control.”

“Did you want me to—” Gold Teeth began saying, but he wasn’t able to finish.

Jax felt a surge flow through her body and her fist shot up into his jaw. His teeth cracked together, and his head snapped back from the force of it.

His eyes lost their focus as his body went limp and fell to the mat beside her.

Jax had seen that look before. There was no consciousness in those eyes.

KO.

Knocked. Out.

Gold Teeth was out of body and out of mind somewhere: in a dream land that could seem to last longer than a full night’s sleep. In reality, he would only be unconscious for a few seconds, but when his consciousness returned, he would have to figure out where he was and why one of his golden teeth was lying on the mat next to him.

Most people, Jax knew, couldn’t catch up with reality within ten seconds of losing consciousness.

The crowd held their breath to listen to the ref count.

“One!”

But Grimshaw apparently hadn’t seen the look as Gold Teeth had crumpled to the ground beside her. She was already scrambling to throw another punch into his face.

“Two!”

As his eyes began to open, her glove smacked him down into the floor again. His head bounced and he scrambled to his feet to get away from the attack.

The referee stepped in and stopped her from hitting him again.

The bell rang, signaling the end of third round. Gold Teeth looked around in confusion until one of his team members ushered him to the stool in the corner.

“Did you see that?” Grimshaw asked when she got back to her stool. “He doesn’t have that look anymore.”

Jax wished he could have been there. He wanted to be yelling, “YES!” and throwing her up on his shoulder.