Tenzin signaled his pentad to cover him and took a few cautious steps forward. “Jane,” Tenzin asked, “Did you catch any video of whatever that was?”
“Yes, and I’m analyzing it now,” Jane replied. The images replayed slowly on Tenzin’s HUD a couple of times as Jane did her best to identify the rapidly moving figure. “I only caught 1.3 seconds of video, but based on approximate size and height it was likely a man. It appears he was wearing a burnoose, so it was likely a citizen of Arkjut.”
Whoever it was, Tenzin was certain he would know more about what was going on here. “Can you…”
“I’m already extrapolating his route,” Jane interrupted. “You’re so predictable, Tenzin,” she added when he frowned.
“Not now, Jane,” Tenzin said, continuing to frown. “This is serious.”
Jane sighed. “You’re never any fun on a mission.”
Tenzin caught himself before he started arguing with her. It was true, after all. The responsibility of leading the squad weighed heavily on his mind. Not only did he have to coordinate the actions of the whole squad, the knowledge that they depended on his leadership for their safety was a constant source of stress for Tenzin. As much as he’d like to joke with Jane and the rest of the men, Tenzin just didn’t have time for fun.
Tenzin shook himself from his reverie as Jane began plotting the probably course the unknown man took. The quantum processors in her matrix allowed her to easily calculate the probabilities of trillions of different routes. Tenzin watched as Jane plotted dozens of routes on his HUD, quickly paring them down until only the most likely path remained.
“It looks like he was heading for the com tower, but from a different direction,” Tenzin said. “If we hurry, maybe we can catch up to him.”
Tenzin pushed the new course to his lieutenants’ HUDs. He could have sent it to all the soldiers directly, but he preferred to leave the managing of each pentad to its lieutenant. Not only did it decrease his workload significantly to only have to personally lead the four men in pentad Alpha, but Tenzin realized that Viktor, Jorge and Cowboy knew their men better than he did, making them much more effective.
It was a testament to Tenzin’s trust in his lieutenants that it only took moments for the entire squad to receive the course change. Tenzin nodded in satisfaction and began walking again. Behind him, Tenzin could hear some of the men talking in hushed tones. He was about to shush them, but Jane amplified the sound, allowing him to hear the discussion and catching his interest.
“What’s with the Captain and his suit’s AI?” Marcus was saying. “He talks to it like it was a person.”
Tenzin smiled. Marcus had just been assigned to the Keleres a few months back, making him the greenest soldier in the squad. Tenzin had put him into pentad Alpha with the rest of the newest soldiers, that way he could keep an eye on him and hopefully keep him alive for long enough to graduate to one of the other pentads.
“The Boss,” Viktor said in his deep bass voice, “He has a, how do you say, a prototype AI. She is much more advanced than the baby programs we soldatiki have, which gives him more ability to notice things and plan.”
“Why don’t we all get one then?” Marcus asked. “From what I’ve heard, he’s had his for nearly two years now.”
Jane must have hacked the internal suit sensors of the squad, because the shadowed faces of the speakers popped up on Tenzin’s HUD as they spoke.
“Well, son,” Cowboy said, “Most of us don’t want some bossy woman yapping at us all the time!”
“Besides,” added Jorge, “I already get enough of that from my señora!”
Tenzin picked up some muffled laughter at that. The swarthy man was the squad’s medic as well as one of Tenzin’s lieutenants, and felt it was his duty to make the men laugh since, as he would always say, “Laughter is the best medicine, no?”
Viktor smiled but did not laugh. Whenever Jorge joked, he seemed to think he had to be extra serious to compensate. “HQ has their own reasons for what they do. AIs like Jane probably cost too much to trust to any but squad leaders.”
“But we’re the Keleres!” Marcus said emphatically, loud enough that Tenzin could actually hear it without amplification.
“Da, what of it?” Viktor asked.
“Everyone in boot camp said we were the best of the best,” Marcus said, struggling to keep his voice low. “So why don’t we get better gear?”