Binding Foxgirls II

by Simon Archer

No, Semra certainly wasn’t stupid. Many things, yes, but not stupid.

  “I don’t know.” I sighed and shrugged. “If there is, we haven’t found it yet. That’s why I need to go down there in person, where he can’t hang up on me, though I suppose he could still slam the door in my face if he really wanted to.” Well, that was all sort of true, I supposed, from a certain point of view.

  “Maybe they were just playing us the whole time,” Eni muttered. “I knew it was too good to be true, remaking the whole government in a matter of weeks.”

  “But wouldn’t we have figured it out by then?” Semra asked. “Unless hacker boy’s not as good as we think he is.”

  She gave Malthe a pointed look. He averted his eyes from hers and shrugged.

  “I don’t know, maybe I’m not,” he said, staring down at the table. I didn’t bother correcting him. It wouldn’t help us any. Let them believe it was Malthe’s fault for now if it kept the attention off the rest of it.

  “What about after, then?” Semra asked, turning back to me. “When you get back from Parliament, I mean.”

  I bit my lip and thought this over.

  “I think we need to stay on defense, at least for now,” I said at long last, deciding as I said it. “They’re going to hate us no matter what, but if we just keep them from exploiting people without trying to take them down at their own headquarters or whatever, we’ll have more of a case to make when all is said and done that we didn’t do anything wrong.”

  “I agree,” Kira said. “We don’t want to risk alienating even more people by being aggressive when we don’t need to be.”

  “I’m pretty sure we’ve alienated everyone anyway,” Semra argued.

  “That’s true of people in the financial district, sure,” I reasoned, “but you said it yourself, Semra, everyday people don’t want any of this to be happening. And if we just cause more destruction, they’ll blame us for it. We don’t want or need that right now.”

  “Fair enough,” Semra admitted. “So, what do we do?”

  “While I’m gone, gather as much intel as you can on this new corp,” I instructed. “And keep tabs on their movements, see if and when they’re going to the south side. Then, when I get back, we can respond accordingly.”

  “When we attack them, try to stop them, they’ll attack us right back,” Fizz warned. “And we’re in the heart of the north side. We could be vulnerable.”

  “We’re definitely vulnerable,” I agreed. “We were talking about that right before you arrived. We’ll do everything to protect our turf, but we’ll still have the south side, even if we do lose this building temporarily. Our efforts down there will serve us well now.”

  “Alright then…” Fizz said, his voice trailing off, concern etched across his face. Fizz was a binder, just like me, Clem, and Semra. Losing TelCorp would be… difficult for us to stomach. This was our home away from home, so we have to do everything we could to prevent that from happening.

  “What’s the long game?” Semra asked, interrupting my thoughts.

  “The long game?” I repeated airily, not really registering what she had said.

  “Right, the long game,” she repeated. “Do we just keep pushing back against the new binding conglomerate forever? What happens when law enforcement gets involved?”

  “I don’t wanna end up in the Void,” Fizz muttered glumly.

  “Look, if you guys don’t wanna be here, you don’t have to be,” Clem said harshly. “If you care more about saving your own skins than sticking to the principles we were supposed to stand for, you’re free to leave whenever you want.”

  “That’s right, you are free to leave,” I reiterated. “No one will judge you for it. We weren’t expecting something like this to happen.” I gave Clem a pointed look, telling him to shut his mouth with my eyes. If any of these people weren’t loyal, it was best to just let them walk away instead of scaring them into submission. That would just blow up in our faces when we least expected it.

  Then I looked around at every person sitting around the table. A few of them looked around nervously, but the rest just stared right back at me.

  “I mean it,” I reiterated. “If you’re not in this for the long haul, get out now, before we’ve committed any ‘crimes’ under these new laws. Otherwise, you’re stuck with us. And don’t even think about going behind our backs and acting as an informant. We’ll know. Mark my words, you can’t hide something like that from us.”

  Semra snorted. “I’m not an informant.”

  “You’re asking us to risk everything by joining you,” Fizz reminded me.

  “I recognize that,” I said slowly, trying to keep my voice measured, “which is why I’m giving you this out. If you’re not with us, you’re free to leave. I’m certain the new conglomerate would welcome you with open arms, even meet your salary here, though I doubt they could exceed it. No one will stop you or judge you if you leave now.”

  I surveyed the table again. The wandering eyes and nervous fidgets seemed to have settled a bit as if everyone had made a decision. Still, I waited several minutes to give them more time to make sure they weren’t going to change their minds.

  “Good,” I said at long last, smiling to each of them in turn. “Don’t hesitate to come to me with any future concerns you may have, but from here on out, you can consider yourselves implicated in what we’re about to do. As for the long game, Semra, well, we’ll just have to see how the next few hours go. The long game, of course, is to take back control and change the laws back to the way they were, at the very least. As to how we go about doing that… well, as I said, only time will tell.”

  “So, basically, you don’t have a plan,” Fizz said flatly.

  “We don’t have a plan yet,” I corrected him. “Not for the long game, as Semra put it. We have a plan for today, and even tomorrow, but things are moving very rapidly, and we’re going to have to be able to respond accordingly. Rest assured, I’m confident we’ll be able to move past all this. If we could change so much in three months, I’m sure we can deal with this.”

  “If we could change so much in three months, maybe all that shows is that Termina’s unstable,” Eni suggested. “And it’ll just keep changing, whether we want it to or not.”

  “Okay, okay, okay.” I held up my hands to call for silence. “This isn’t helpful. We need to act like we can get it together and fix this. Otherwise, we’re definitely going to fail. You, you, you, and you, go down to the south side with Clem and Lin. Cindra, join them for good measure. The rest of you stay here with Kinley, Kira, and Malthe while I head down to the Parliament. Okay? Okay. Cool. Get going. And eat this damn food.”

  I clapped my hands to signal that the meeting was over, and everyone should disperse. Several of the board members crowded around the table and piled plates high with food before going off on their assignments. Clem, Lin, and Cindra gave me a knowing look before following them out, leaving me alone with Malthe, Kinley, and Kira.

  “I’m still working on it, boss,” Malthe informed me when the four of us were alone, anticipating my next question. “I can’t find a damn thing about the guy, other than a few pics here and there. He’s nowhere, might as well not exist, and doesn’t have a name to speak of.”

  “Okay, well, that says something, at least,” I said, nodding grimly. “These people have put one of their own in charge of the new conglomerate. They haven’t done that before, that we’re aware of. That means they’re worried and scared, coming out into the open.”

  “Good,” Kinley said darkly. “Bring ‘em out. All the better to squash ‘em then.”

  “My thinking exactly,” I said, grinning at her.

  “I’ll keep looking, boss,” Malthe assured me, “but I don’t think I’m gonna find anything.”

  “You’ve found something already,” I assured him. “Okay, guys, let’s go. I need to call the chief and get down to Parliament.”

  Kinley and Malthe got up to leave, but Kira lingered behind.

&n
bsp; “You doing okay, Nic?” she asked when we were alone. “You sure you don’t want me to come with you?” She reached out and touched my forearm. I shook my head, though my skin tingled at her touch.

  “No, thanks,” I said. “I need you here, keeping an eye on things. You’re my eyes and ears.”

  “Okay,” she said, though she still sounded weary. “I understand. Just be careful, okay, Nic?” She looked up into my eyes, her own wide and glistening in the overhead light. I stared back down at her and couldn’t help but feel as if I could very easily get lost in there.

  “Aren’t I always?” I asked, shooting her a sly grin, but instead of returning the expression, she turned away from me.

  “Oh, Nic, why can’t you just be serious?” she asked, shaking her head.

  “Okay, okay,” I said, reaching down and catching her hand in mine. “I am. I’m serious. I’ll be careful, I promise. I’m not going anywhere.”

  “Good,” she said, turning back to me to my relief and meeting my eyes again. “‘Cause we’d all be lost without you.”

  “You’d be more than lost,” I said, giving her a small smile. If anything happened to me, the foxgirls would be goners. That was the bad thing about bindings. Tying one soul to another had consequences, and not all of them were good ones.

  “Well, I’ll be waiting for you when you get back,” she said, leaning in closer to me.

  “You’d better be,” I murmured, and our lips pressed together, hers soft and firm against mine. I wrapped my arms around her waist, and she wrapped hers around my chest, pulling me closer to her. I pressed my forehead against hers, my heart pounding in my ears. I was glad I wasn’t through all this alone.

  “The board room would be a new one, wouldn’t it?” she whispered, her breath brushing against my skin, making my heart pound even harder.

  “It would,” I agreed. With that, I picked her up and swung her around so that she was sitting on top of the table. I leaned down and pulled her pants and underwear down around her waist and then knelt down on the ground in front of her.

  I loosened her up with my fingers first, running my thumb up and down her cervix and then pressing my forefingers inside her. She gave a sharp intake of breath and cried out something indiscernible, maybe my name.

  Then I pressed my lips and tongue against her, keeping my fingers inside her, moving them in and out with a steady rhythm. She cried out again, louder this time, but the room was more than soundproof. We wouldn’t be disturbed.

  She groaned and came not long after that, her body convulsing with pleasure on the tabletop. I wrapped my arms around her and pulled her small form in close to me as she quaked against my chest. I could feel her pleasure in our bond, and it made me feel good, too.

  She kissed me again toward the end of her orgasm, and I kissed her back. I could tell she was still scared, but being close to me made her feel better. It made me feel better, too. I couldn’t imagine anywhere else I’d rather be or anyone I’d rather be with.

  Once she was fully recovered, she reached down and pulled my own pants down, running her fingers up and down my dick, which stiffened immediately at her touch. I groaned as she worked her way up and down my shaft, and she hopped back down off the table and pushed me up against it before crouching down on the floor herself.

  She pressed her own lips against me before subsuming me entirely inside her mouth. I groaned and leaned back against the table, staring up at the ceiling as she did her work on me.

  It didn’t take long for me to get so hard that I was about to blow my load inside her, but I wasn’t ready yet. I gently pushed her back and forced myself to wait a few minutes longer, agonizing as the wait was.

  I propped her back up on the table and then pushed her down against it this time so that she was lying across it. I climbed up after her and straddled her, and then moved my length inside of her, slowly at first and then faster and faster.

  She groaned again, and then I released myself inside her, filling her up. She bit down on my shoulder and cried out at the same time, sending a sharp pain through my body. But I didn’t mind. Far from it. It felt amazing, and our bond felt even more amazing, pulsing and convulsing with pleasure right along with our bodies.

  We lay there holding each other for a few moments before she spoke.

  “People will be wondering where we are,” she murmured, her breath hotter now against my skin. Or maybe my skin was hotter. I couldn’t be sure.

  “And I don’t want to miss them in Parliament before they leave,” I whispered back, but I didn’t move. I didn’t want to let her go. I wanted to be there with her too badly.

  But eventually, I forced myself up and pulled my disheveled clothing back into place. Kira did the same.

  We slid back down off the table and crossed back over to the door.

  “Wait,” she said, grabbing my hand again before I could open it. She pressed her lips against mine one last time, and I responded, savoring the kiss.

  “I’ll be fine,” I assured her when I reluctantly broke away. “I’ll be in my office calling the chief, and then I’ll be back in a couple of hours, max.”

  “A couple of hours?” she asked, her eyes wide with concern.

  “Max,” I repeated, smiling at her. “I’ve got a lot of people to talk to.”

  “Don’t you always,” she sighed.

  “Keep everyone on their toes while I’m gone,” I said, grinning at her as I disappeared into the cylindrical hallway outside, straightening my tousled hair and preparing myself mentally for the task ahead.

  I owed it to everyone to get as much info as I could before leading them into a binding civil war.

  17

  Once I was back in my office, I shut the door tight behind me and called the police chief.

  “Mr. Joch, good, I’ve been meaning to call you today,” he said cheerily when he answered the phone.

  “Have you now?” I asked, narrowing my eyes. “Why’s that exactly?”

  “Well, I just wanted to make sure you’re not… thinking of trying anything,” he explained.

  “Trying anything?” I repeated. “Could you be more vague, chief?”

  “I think you know exactly what I mean, Mr. Joch,” he said coolly. “The law’s the law, even if it’s been changed recently. Don’t go around trying any funny business, you hear?”

  “I put you in your position,” I growled.

  “And you told me to be independent,” he said back, repeating the same canned line as all of the Parliament members.

  “Independent my ass,” I said. “Someone’s behind this, and you know that as well as I do. But I’d like to expand on this threat that you’re lobbing my way. What exactly are you prepared to do should I, uh… try anything, as you so eloquently put it?”

  “I have no idea what you’re talking about, Mr. Joch,” the chief said, and for the first time, I heard a glimmer of concern, a wavering of some kind, in his voice. “As for what law enforcement is prepared to do, we’re prepared to enforce the law, of course. And should you choose to infringe on another corp’s ability to do business independently, you will be stopped and prosecuted to the full extent of the law.”

  “A law that might not even exist yet, the way things are going,” I snapped back. “Does that seem like justice to you, chief? Does it really? Where was all this enforcing the law last night when our fine city was being wrecked by rioters?”

  “Those people were understandably celebrating a great new era for our city,” the chief said, his nervousness growing by the second. “We believe that leniency is the best tactic in this particular situation.”

  “We?” I repeated. “And who are we exactly, in this scenario, chief?”

  “Why, my departments, of course,” he said, giving a nervous chuckle. “All the city’s law enforcement officials, that is. We believe the best course of action is a compassionate one, given the circumstances.”

  “Compassion?” I asked, incredulous, my voice rising and my anger showing now
. “Compassion? Where’s the compassion for the south side? The foxgirls? My company? Me, who put you in your position, goddammit. You’re really going to talk to me about compassion, you driveling little puppet? My entire business is compassion! I deal with people’s souls! Speaking of which, what the hell happened to yours? I seem to remember you having one.”

  The chief was silent for a few beats at this.

  “Mr. Joch, I understand that recent events have come as a great shock to you,” he said at long last, doing his best to keep his voice flat and unemotional, but largely failing in that endeavor. “It’s come as a pretty big shock to us all, to be honest. I understand that, and I sympathize. But I urge you to please remember who you are, who I am, what the laws are now, and what this means for our relationship. The time is long gone when the likes of you could control the likes of me.”

  “Bullshit,” I spat, spraying the phone receiver in the process. “You’ve just changed masters, that’s all. The game’s still the same. You’re not any more independent than the Parliament is.”

  “That’s a very heavy accusation, Mr. Joch,” the chief hissed, almost in a whisper, as if he was afraid someone would hear.

  “You’re damn straight it is!” I intentionally raised my voice in response to him lowering his. “At the very least, you’re taking orders from this new conglomerate, but we both know there’s far more to it than that, don’t we? So how about we throw out all the pretense and just leverage with each other, shall we?”

  “I was under the impression that we were already level, Mr. Joch,” the chief answered, giving another nervous laugh, louder and shakier this time.

  “I said, throw out the pretense, goddammit!” I shouted, standing up from my desk chair and banging my fist down on the desktop for emphasis. “Does this sound like leveling to you? Does it?”

  “I… I should really go, Mr. Joch,” the chief stammered. “Lots of work to do today, changes to take into account, calls to make…”

  “Don’t you run away from me,” I yelled, practically screaming into the receiver now.