Cassius by Stevens, Madison (chromebook ebook reader txt) 📕

at the air. “Nothing that smells like explosives, but there’s something odd about the odor.”

He couldn’t explain it. The scent wasn’t offensive, even to his sensitive hybrid nose. There was a faint acrid chemical whiff to it, but that’s not why it was bothering him.

“It almost smells familiar,” Julius muttered.

CJ nodded. “Yeah. That’s it. That’s what’s bothering me.”

“For all we know, Ouroboros has made improvements on the Horatius anti-scent formula.” Julius shrugged.

“To hide a bomb?”

“No point in bombing an obstacle like that.” Julius shook his head. “Everything I said before also applies. If this was about hurting people, there are plenty of easy ways they could do it without getting caught.”

“We could be wrong.” CJ shrugged. “It might just be some internet thing.”

“Do you believe that?” Julius asked.

CJ shook his head. “No. I can hope, though.”

“We might not have even noticed this if we weren’t checking carefully,” Julius said, running his finger along the device. “Tomorrow, there will be an entire crowd here distracting people. We should open it up and make sure.”

“We don’t even know what it is. What if opening it up alerts somebody?” CJ looked around for the guard.

“Doing nothing isn’t an opt—"

CJ ducked low at the same time as Julius. Heavy footfalls sounded from the direction of the main sportsplex building, and the source was heading their way.

“Sounds like more than one,” CJ whispered. “Why didn’t we see them earlier?”

“Because they didn’t want us to.” Julius nodded. “Damn. They had guys inside this whole time.”

“Did they spot us?” CJ asked. “Did you see anything about the feeds going inside?”

“No, but there might be another camera we missed, or they got lucky.” Julius shrugged.

The hybrids relied on their superior night vision for the recon mission. They didn’t have any stray flashlights that might have been spotted. Most of the course was in near-total darkness, despite the presence of light poles for potential evening competitions and the background glow that accompanied New York.

“Huh.” Julius frowned and inclined his head toward the device. “It’s probably not luck. I might have screwed up when I touched it. I’m not liking the timing of their sudden arrival.”

“We should get out of here,” CJ said. “We can’t beat up security guards. They could be some random guys making some extra money during the event.”

“Anything’s possible.”

CJ motioned for Julius to move forward and stay low. They could take advantage of the thick cables and piles of crates and cases around the back of the obstacle for cover. While they could easily outrun the security guards, huge men running ridiculous speeds would point to hybrid involvement.

The footfalls slowed. CJ was sure now there were only two men. He slowed his breathing and listened.

“It’s one of them,” one of the guards whispered. “I don’t like going after one with only a Taser. I’ve been saying this since the beginning.”

“These aren’t exactly factory-issue Tasers,” the other guard whispered back. “It’ll take down a hybrid easily.”

“And if they’re just some randos or some competitors trying to sneak more hints?”

“We’ll figure that out when we see who it is, but I don’t know it’ll change much. You know what the boss said.”

CJ’s jaw tightened. He looked over at Julius who was frowning.

“We need to get into that building,” Julius whispered. “I don’t think the average race is going to worry about anti-hybrid security.”

“But why was the security station so easy to break into?” CJ asked.

“I don’t know. Maybe they wanted us to. It might have been a trap.”

“They might want us in the sportsplex, too.”

Julius nodded to the approaching shadows of the men. “Let’s try and talk our way out of it. They don’t know we overheard their conversation.”

“You want to do that instead of escaping?”

“We need to know for sure,” Julius replied. “It could be Ouroboros told the race organizers that hybrids might mess with it, but these guys don’t work for them directly.”

CJ grunted. “We can’t kill them. We don’t need the NYPD trying to link a hybrid to a security guard’s murder.”

Julius patted his holster underneath his jacket. “I haven’t even pulled my gun yet.”

CJ nodded. Gunfire, among other things, was loud. They needed less attention, not more.

Julius stood from behind a crate, his arms up, as the guards approached the back of the obstacle. “Hey, you got us.”

CJ matched his fellow hybrid. “We don’t want any trouble. We were just doing some measurements to give us the edge tomorrow.”

“In masks?” a guard asked.

“Like I said, we didn’t want to get in trouble.” CJ shrugged. “We could have gotten disqualified. Damn. Now, we will.”

The two security guards looked normal enough, just men with Tasers in black uniforms. There was something about their eyes that bothered CJ, a cruelty there he didn’t expect from some guy just trying to make a living.

“Oh, come on.” One of the security guards shook his head. “I don’t need to see your faces to know what you are. One big guy might have fooled us, but two? You arrogant hybrids shouldn’t have come here. You think you’re better than us, but our bosses are smarter than all you dogs.”

“We’re not hybrids,” CJ replied. “What would hybrids want with an obstacle race?”

The security guard snickered. “Who cares? If you’re hybrids, we turn you over to our bosses. If you’re not, then we’ll dump your bodies into the Hudson River, and you’ll be another unsolved mystery for the cops to worry about.”

CJ growled. “You’re going to kill us for some trespassing?”

The guard waved his Taser. “Our boss said you dogs might come sniffing around after Hawaii, and here you are.”

“You don’t have to do this,” CJ said. “You can walk away.”

“I think not, mutt. I always thought your kind were overrated.” The guard raised his Taser and pulled the trigger.

CJ was ready for the shot. He ducked behind the empty crate, the darts missing his head. Only a hybrid had those kinds of reflexes.

Julius grabbed a crate and threw it at the other man. The crate smashed into him, downing the guard.

CJ