NOVGO.NET Chapter 83: The Fourth Seat
Chapter 83: The Fourth Seat
"Breach!"
Fin’s shoulder slammed against the rusted metal door, tearing the deadbolts from the crumbling masonry with a shower of red dust.
Inside the cavernous locomotive annex, the stink of burned wiring and sulfur was thick enough to choke a draft horse.
"Contacts on the locomotive turntable, Fin... three guard hounds moving in formation!"
"Ruby, take the center rail!"
"Shield is up, come and get it, you scrap heaps!"
The lead hound leapt across the rusted iron turntable, its obsidian claws throwing orange sparks against the rail ties.
’With my agility sitting at one hundred and twenty-eight, its trajectory was telegraphed the moment its hind paws left the steel.’
[ Stamina: 100/100 ]
[ Mana: 40/40 ]
"Apex Gaze!"
[ Class Skill: Apex Gaze Triggered ]
[ Mana Cost: 10/40 → Current Mana: 30/40 ]
[ Target: Prototype Guard Hound Alpha ]
[ Psychic Disruption: 3 Seconds Interruption ]
The lead beast’s jaws snapped shut on empty air as its balance disintegrated mid-flight, sending it tumbling onto the greasy wooden ties.
"Ruby, spear through the thoracic plate!"
"Driving it home!"
Ruby’s bronze short spear punched through the hound’s dorsal casing with a concussive metallic crunch, crushing the internal mana core into inert dust.
"Second hound flanking left, Nila!"
"I have the actuator seams!"
Nila glided across the concrete inspection pit, her rapier piercing the hound’s lateral knee joint before driving up through its jaw into the brain case.
The third hound wheeled toward Fin, its twin tails whipping with serrated blades.
Fin stepped inside the sweeping arc of the blades, driving the reverse spike of his hatchet straight between its glowing red optic sensors.
The skull plate shattered like brittle slate, and the massive mechanical beast went limp across the turntable tracks.
[ Combat Log: 3 Prototype Guard Hounds Neutralized ]
[ EXP: +2,300,000 ]
[ Total EXP: 11,500,000 / 250,000,000 ]
The experience settled into his core like cold lead, solid and heavy.
"All three hounds are down, Fin!"
"Lower weapons... right now, both of you."
Ruby grounded her spear tip against the dirt, while Nila slotted her rapier into its scabbard with an audible click.
In the center of the turntable pit sat the reinforced steel containment van, its rear door vibrating under the rhythmic hiss of an emergency gas injector.
"Maya, override the containment door latch from the mobile link!"
"Bypassing the solenoid lock now, Fin... three seconds."
A loud pneumatic pop echoed through the cavernous shed as the heavy van doors swung outward into the gloom.
Inside the steel box, crouched in the far corner against the ribbed aluminum wall, was a woman.
Her dark feline ears were pinned flat against her tangled black hair, and her amber eyes flared with fierce, defensive terror in the sodium glare.
Around her throat clamped a heavy steel collar, glowing with a bright crimson warning light that pulsed once every two seconds.
"Intake document on the floorboard, Ruby... check the record."
Ruby knelt slowly at the edge of the van floor, picking up the laminated plastic clipboard without making sudden gestures.
"Subject designated Batch Five, feminine feline strain... confirmed age twenty-three."
"She is an adult, Nila... clear the medical team to stand by the ramp."
Fin took one slow, deliberate step toward the open van threshold, keeping his empty hands at his sides.
"Can you hear me?"
Her chest heaved with shallow, ragged breaths as her claws dug into the metal floorboards.
"I am not a handler, and we are not from the Genesis syndicate."
"The... collar..."
Her voice was raw, scraped hollow by smoke and dry thirst.
"The timer has four minutes left before the gas vents."
"May I come closer to cut the latch?"
Her amber eyes flicked from Fin’s open palms to the heavy bolt cutters strapped to his utility belt.
"Don’t... don’t touch my neck."
"I won’t touch your skin, I promise."
"Just the hinge?"
"Strictly the ceramic hinge on the outer clamp."
A faint, trembling nod was her only answer.
"Ruby, hand me the ceramic insulated shears."
"Here, kid, easy on the contact points."
Fin moved forward on the balls of his feet, kneeling six inches away from her shivering knees.
"This is going to make a loud snap, but the blades won’t touch your skin."
"I have heard louder things than shears."
"Fair enough, hold still for two seconds."
She squeezed her eyes shut, her knuckles white against the metal grating.
The heavy ceramic jaws of the shears bit into the collar’s secondary locking hinge.
With a sharp, resounding crack, the pressurized alloy band split open, falling harmlessly into Fin’s waiting palm.
A long, ragged gasp tore from her throat as the crimson light flickered out, the burning suppression field finally releasing its grip on her core.
"It is off... you are completely free."
She reached up with shaking fingers, touching the bruised, raw ring of skin around her throat where the metal had burned her flesh.
"Water?"
Nila stepped forward, extending an unsealed canteen of fresh spring water and a clean towel.
"Drink slowly, small sips."
She took the canteen with two trembling hands, drinking three measured swallows before resting the tin against her chest.
"What is your name?"
Her gaze shifted between the three of them, lingering on Ruby’s broad, calm face and Nila’s relaxed posture.
"They... they called me Specimen Nine."
"That was a number written by slavers," Ruby said softly. "You get to choose your own name now."
She looked down at the severed collar lying in the grease, her jaw setting with quiet, stubborn defiance.
"Nim."
"Nim?"
"Nim," she repeated, her voice stronger, clearer. "My mother called me Nim before the cages."
"It is a good name," Fin said, rising slowly to his feet and offering her a clean blanket from the medical kit. "Can you walk to the transport van, Nim?"
"I can walk."
"Do you want assistance, or would you prefer space?"
"Space... please."
"Take all the room you need."
She wrapped the grey blanket tightly around her shoulders, stepping down from the containment bed onto the concrete floor of the annex.
Her balance was unsteady, her legs trembling from three days of confinement, but her head remained high.
The Iron Dog medical team moved in with warm broth and a portable thermal heater, setting up a folding cot beside the ambulance.
"We have safe quarters back in District Four, Nim... hot food, dry beds, and clean water."
"What do you want from me?"
"Nothing," Fin said plainly. "No oaths, no service contracts, and no debts."
"Everyone in this city wants something."
"We wanted the hounds dead and the cages open... that work is already finished."
"You fought three war constructs to open a box for a stranger."
"We fought three war constructs because nobody belongs in an iron crate with a gas valve."
Ruby smiled faintly, resting a hand on her hip.
"We have a kitchen table with four chairs back at apartment 4B, Nim."
"Four chairs?"
"There were three of us, plus Fin’s little sister Jolly... which leaves one empty seat at the table."
"You can take the fourth seat as long as you need to heal," Fin told her. "What you do after that is entirely up to you."
"No guards outside my bedroom door?"
"No guards, no locks on your side of the hallway."
"And if I want to leave tomorrow morning?"
"Then I will walk you to the tram terminal and buy you a passenger ticket anywhere the tracks run."
Nim looked out through the shattered annex doors toward the evening lights beginning to flicker along the harbor breakwater.
"I would like... to sit in a chair that isn’t bolted to an iron floor."
"Then let’s get you home."
The armored ambulance carried them back through the rain-slicked avenues of District Four, pulling up to the curb outside their tenement.
Upstairs, the warm smell of chicken stew and boiled potatoes greeted them as the apartment door unlocked.
Jolly stood by the counter with a ladle in her hand, freezing as her eyes found the tall, blanket-wrapped figure standing in the entryway.
"Fin?"
"We brought a guest for dinner, Jolly."
"Is that... Nim?"
"Yes, little sister, this is Nim."
Nim hesitated by the door mat, her ears twitching cautiously at the warmth and the light.
"You can take your boots off here," Jolly said softly, pulling out the sturdy chair at the fourth corner of the table. "I set an extra plate just in case."
Nim stepped forward onto the dry floorboards, her shoulders finally dropping their defensive posture.
"Thank you... Jolly."
"You’re welcome, Nim... sit down, the soup is fresh."
"What kind of broth is this?"
"Chicken and root vegetables with cracked pepper, Sefu wanted to add dried chilis but I hid the spice jar."
"Good choice, spicy soup after three days of starvation would set her stomach on fire."
"I... I haven’t tasted pepper in six months," Nim whispered, lifting the ceramic spoon with cautious wonder.
"Take your time, there is plenty in the pot."
"Who was that tall woman with the short hair who broke the door?"
"That was Ruby, our frontline vanguard... she carries a shield that stops charging trucks."
"And the one with the slender rapier?"
"Nila, an old comrade who can thread a needle in the middle of a storm."
"And you?"
"My name is Fin."
"The handlers were terrified of you, Fin... I heard them shouting through the metal walls before the alarm went off."
"What did they say?"
"They said Platform Tartarus went dark in less than thirty minutes, and that some monster hunter was hunting them down the coast."
"I am not a monster hunter, Nim, I am just a guy trying to keep my family alive."
"You killed three military prototypes in four seconds."
"Because they were standing between you and the door."
"Are they... are they going to send more?"
"They can try," Ruby said, leaning back in her chair with her arms crossed over her leather vest. "We have forty Iron Dogs guarding the harbor and a direct line to the municipal court."
"Besides, former Councilman Malan is running for his life right now," Nila added, pouring tea into four cups. "His private accounts are frozen and his shipping manifests are plastered all over the news."
"They had a laboratory in the basement beneath my cell," Nim said quietly, looking down at the steam rising from her bowl. "They kept talking about something called Batch Five... and an SS gate out in the ocean."
"We know about the SS gate, Nim."
"They said when the gate breaches, the leviathans will make landfall on the south docks... and that Genesis would release the specimens to sow chaos in the streets."
"Two fronts," Ruby muttered, her eyes narrowing in the dim kitchen light. "They want the city tearing itself apart from the inside while the monsters hit the sea wall."
"That explains why they stockpiled constructs in District Six," Fin said, his voice hard and level. "They weren’t just running an illegal bio-mill, they were preparing an invasion staging post."
"We will be ready for them," Jolly declared, setting a warm biscuit on Nim’s saucer with a fierce little nod. "Fin always finds a way, you’ll see."
Nim looked at the small girl, then down at the golden biscuit, a faint, genuine warmth finally softening the tension in her golden eyes.
"I think... I would like to believe that."