Binding Foxgirls II

by Simon Archer

  “But which direction should we go when we do get down there if we manage it?” Clem asked. “We only have a general idea of where these calls are coming from. Deep down there, close-ish to TelCorp headquarters. But in what direction?”

  “Good question,” I said, biting my lip as I thought this over.

  “Maybe he can tell us,” Semra said, pointing at Beaufort. We all turned to stare at him. He let out a mangled grunting noise, and some drool spilled down onto his hospital gown.

  “He’s brain dead,” I said flatly as if she needed a reminder.

  “Well, I know that, dumbass,” she said. “Doesn’t mean he doesn’t have a soul, even if it is pretty mangled.”

  “I don’t know,” I said, eyeing Beaufort with skepticism. “He’s pretty… I don’t know…”

  “Out of it?” Semra finished for me. “Yeah, he is, but it’s worth a shot, isn’t it? It’s not like you can fuck him up any more than you already have.”

  “That’s… fair,” I admitted. “But I’m still not…”

  “Just do it and get it over with,” Clem scoffed. “Then we can get down there.”

  “Okay,” I relented, reluctant to force myself into Beaufort’s stupid little soul again. As far as I was concerned, it was pretty mangled before I got there, I just finished the job. The guy was a real piece of work. Becoming a vegetable was a real improvement for him, honestly.

  “Should we clear the room?” Clem asked. I nodded.

  “Yeah, might as well,” I said. “Though I can’t imagine there’s much your spirits could interfere with, after all.”

  “Alright, let’s go,” Semra said, rising from her seat. “Leave these two lovebirds to their work.” I groaned.

  “Ew,” I said. She winked at me and exited the room, closely followed by everyone else. Kira lingered behind, however.

  “Are you sure you won’t… you know…?” she said, her eyes locked on Beaufort.

  “He’s too far gone,” I assured her, instinctively knowing what she wanted to know. “He won’t mess with you or anyone else ever again for that matter. Nothing I do to him can fix this. His soul’s already fragmented. There’s no gluing it back together. And even if it were possible, I wouldn’t let it happen.”

  “Oh, okay,” Kira said, looking relieved. “Thanks.”

  “No problem,” I said, giving her a warm smile.

  Then she left, and I was alone with Beaufort.

  “It took us long enough to find you, you piece of shit,” I told him, but he couldn’t hear me. He just stared vacantly off into space, more drool dripping down his chin.

  “Look at me!” I grabbed hold of his face from either side and made him look me in the eye. Well, sort of. It was good enough, at least, or it would have to be, anyway. He wasn’t looking at me, more over my shoulder, since his eyes were slanted in a weird direction. I tried to reposition his head again to fix the problem, but he didn’t take too kindly to that and slapped my hand away.

  “Okay, okay,” I said, holding up my hands as if in surrender. “Whatever. Have it your way, then.” What had I come to? Talking to a walking vegetable as if he were still a human being.

  I grabbed his hands roughly and did my best to look into his eyes. I had to try about five times before it actually looked. As I’d told the others, there wasn’t much there to work with, but I got in after a few attempts.

  His soul was even worse than it had been before, somehow, worn down from lack of use and the general wear and tear of time, which seems to have taken its toll at an accelerated pace, given that he wasn’t in any control of himself.

  I didn’t see much of anything at first. Now, Beaufort was pretty much a shell whose only desires were sleep and food. He didn’t do much of anything else, and he didn’t register anything else at all except the vague idea of where he was and what he was doing at any given moment, usually either eating or sleeping.

  Generally, when I looked in someone’s soul, I didn’t get much as far as specifics about their day-to-day life was concerned. There was too much broader stuff to deal with, like emotions and desires. But since Beaufort’s desires were pretty simple, and he didn’t have much emotion to speak of, I did get a few more things. The image of his room down in the tunnels, the image of the people finding him and taking him there. It seemed like he never really got to leave.

  I latched on to the image of them taking him there, then, since he hadn’t been out since. It took a lot of concentration, but eventually, I realized that whoever took him there got there by taking a left turn down a corridor of some kind. I tried, but I couldn’t get any further than that, and I finally broke away from him.

  I gasped and breathed heavily, closing my eyes for a few moments to recover. That had been the most difficult soul check-in I’d ever performed, which was kind of surprising considering there wasn’t much to go off of with this version of Beaufort. But then again, that might be why it took so much effort in the first place. I had to look harder for something worth finding.

  When I was confident I had a fair portion of my energy back, I rose and crossed over to the door, opening it and waving my friends waiting out in the cylindrical tunnel back through.

  “It’s done,” I said, still a little short of breath.

  “That took a while,” Semra said, arching an eyebrow at me. “Did you find anything?”

  “Eventually, but not much,” I said. “It took a lot of looking, but I figured out we need to go to the right when we leave his room. I saw people walking him in, and they went to their left, which will be our right.”

  “You saw actual images?” Clem asked excitedly. “That’s rare.”

  “Yeah, it is,” I said. “But there wasn’t much else to see, I guess.”

  “So, he’s completely gone?” Kira asked hopefully. “You were right before, and there’s no hope of getting him back?”

  “Not unless there’s some major breakthrough,” I said, “but we’ll throw him in the Void just to be sure.”

  “Isn’t that a little cruel?” Malthe asked. “I mean, he is a vegetable.” We all gave him equally disgusted looks.

  “I mean, it’s true, isn’t it?” he asked defensively.

  “He doesn’t want anything but sleep and food, I saw it myself,” I explained. “And he’ll get plenty of that in the Void.

  “I guess so,” Malthe said, though he didn’t look convinced.

  “Look, he may seem all sweet and innocent now, but he was a fucking terror before,” Kinley said, stepping in. “He took Kira and me away from our home. He held us against our will. He deserves what he gets, as far as I’m concerned.”

  “Well put,” I said, giving her a small smile.

  “So are we going?” Semra asked.

  “We?” I repeated. “There’s no we. You guys stay up here, Clem and I…” But Cindra broke me off, her hands back on her hips again in her characteristic intimidating gesture.

  “You’re kidding, right, Nic?” she asked, pointing down in the direction of the street below. “We agreed right back there that the three of us were coming with you.”

  “We’re not letting you guys go alone,” Kira agreed.

  “Not a chance in the world we’re gonna let you boys fuck this up without us,” Kinley added.

  “Okay, Okay,” I said, holding up my hands in the air to signal that I was giving in. “Fine, you three can come, but that’s it.”

  “Oh really?” Semra asked, turning her piercing gaze on me once more. “I’m the one who pulled this guy out of there, so I’m the one who’s going to go down there with you.”

  “No,” I snapped, and I had a good reason to protest this time. “We need you to stay and guard the entrance. The chasm thing that we blew open.”

  “The other binders can do that,” she scoffed dismissively, waving her hand in the air to push away my concern.

  “Not as well as you,” I said. “You’re one of the best of us. And you’re a board member. And now, you’re in our inner circle, too. They�
��re going to need you down there. We’re going to need you down there. To deal with the conglomerate or whoever else if they come back and to protect our turf.”

  “And you don’t think they can do that without me?” Semra asked. “I didn’t even know about any of this shit until a few minutes ago, and now you’re telling me the other binders can’t function without me knowing?”

  “Not as well,” I said. “And yeah, we kept things from you, but I’m glad you know now. Because you can watch out for everything while we’re down there and still know what the fuck is going on. What if something happens to us? What would happen to TelCorp and Termina then?”

  “Fair point,” Semra relented, sighing slightly. “Fine, I’ll watch your hole in the ground. But you owe me, Joch, you owe me big time for keeping all this shit from me and leaving me out of the action.”

  “Agreed,” I said, nodding to her.

  “So, now, are we going?” Clem asked.

  “Yes,” I said. “Lin and Malthe, stay here and continue working with the tech and med staff and whoever else’s still around. Semra, take care of the other binders like we just talked about. Clem, Cindra, Kira, and Kinley, you’re with me. Just like before, stick close to me and do exactly what I say when I say it. We don’t want a repeat of last night. No collapsing tunnels, okay? And no running away unless it’s absolutely necessary. We need to end this now. I think this is our window of opportunity. After this, we’ll be too crippled to continue, and the secret org will have a chance to regroup and anticipate our next moves.”

  “So, no pressure then?” Clem asked, laughing nervously.

  “Other than that, no,” I said, clapping him on the shoulder. “But it’ll all be over soon, one way or another.”

  “Let’s get it over with, then,” Cindra said, gesturing toward the door, and Clem, Semra, Kira, Kinley, and I all followed her out, leaving Malthe and Lin behind to discuss their next moves in the building. They waved to us as we left, sad expressions in their eyes like they were afraid we wouldn’t be coming back.

  I was afraid we might not be. But one way or another, this secret org was going down even if I had to take them with me.

  Back outside, the remaining TelCorp binders were still clustered around the chasm.

  “Anything new?” I asked attentively. “Anybody show up, any drones or aerial photos or anything?” The nearest guy shook his head.

  “Not that we’re aware of, Mr. Joch,” he said, almost apologetically. “We think the news cams and stuff gave up and flew away when the battle got superheated. I bet some of ‘em show up soon, though.”

  “Hey, so who was that guy?” another binder asked.

  “Nobody,” I said quickly. “It was… it’s hard to explain, honestly. And so is what I’m about to ask of you, but I need you to just go along with it, okay?”

  “Sure, Mr. Joch, anything,” the guy nodded, and his friends did, too. I smiled at them, thinking it didn’t feel like all that long ago that I was just like them.

  “Okay,” I said. “I need you guys to stay here with Semra and watch this room.” I pointed down the chasm. Several of the binders looked at me questioningly.

  “Like I said, it sounds strange,” I continued. “But I promise you it’s necessary. And if we don’t come back within, say, a few hours, head inside and make a new plan. Malthe will have ideas. I can’t talk much openly here, but you can do it.” I said this last part to Semra, who seemed to have realized at long last just how important a job I had given her.

  “You’ll come back, Joch,” she said, and if I didn’t know any better, I might’ve thought her voice was shaking slightly. “Who’ll drive us all crazy if you don’t?”

  “Fair enough,” I said before turning to face the chasm again and looking along the line at Clem and the foxgirls. “We’ll have to do our best then. Let’s go.”

  32

  I put the earpiece Malthe had made for me in my ear and called him. Semra gathered up grenades and other ammo from the surrounding binders to restock our tool belts.

  “Hey, we’re gonna head down there one by one,” I told Malthe as soon as I heard he was on the line before he had a chance to say anything himself. “Is there anything you can do to help us out?”

  “Yeah, I’m on it,” Malthe said, and I could hear him tapping away on his computer keyboard on the other line. “I don’t know how far I’ll be able to go down with you, considering what happened to my connection the last time, but I’ll do my best. I’m also diverting a few of the drones and stuff to help you, one of the big tank things, too.”

  “Are you sure about that?” I asked sharply. “We don’t want to leave the south side vulnerable again. Then we’ll just be right back where we started.”

  “I don’t think that’s much of an issue,” Malthe said. “I mean, the conglomerate’s pretty much done at this point, right? So who could hurt them? Plus, I’m only sending one tank and two drones. There’ll still be a lot left. They’re on their way now.”

  “Okay,” I said, though I was still wary. “But remember, we don’t know what these people are like. What resources they have beyond the conglomerate.”

  “That’s exactly why I’m doing it,” Malthe said. “You’re walking straight into the belly of the beast. I don’t want you unprotected.”

  “I guess that does make sense,” I relented as Semra handed me the end of the rope the binders had crafted for her the first time.

  “Hold on,” she said, and the other binders lined up behind me, including Clem.

  “What’s going on?” I heard one of them ask Clem.

  “Just go with it, like Joch said,” I heard my friend hiss back in annoyance. “Do as you’re told, and maybe we’ll get out of this thing in one piece.”

  “You call this one piece?” the guy asked.

  “Just do as you’re told,” Clem hissed again. “Call it whatever the hell you want.”

  I ignored them. We all held on to the rope, and Semra hopped down, hugging the side of the hole in the ground and clutching the other end of the rope just like she had the last time.

  I dug in my heels and held on as she made her way to the bottom of the pit. She called up to us when she made it there.

  “I’m here,” she yelled. “Everything’s the way we left it. You’re next, Joch.”

  “Good,” I murmured. “Maybe they haven’t noticed yet.”

  “Yeah, news cameras aren’t even here yet,” Clem said. “They’re probably too freaked out they’ll get caught in the crossfire.” I handed my portion of the rope to him and walked over to the edge of the pit where Semra threw up her end of the rope to me.

  I grabbed it and followed her lead, swiftly switching my foothold from the gravel above to the dusty side of the pit. Slowly but surely, I inched my way down, slipping down a foot or two at a time.

  When I finally reached the ground, I surveyed my surroundings. It smelled musty and dusty in there, like the place had barely been touched. I could tell Beaufort had been stewing in there alone for a while, largely uncared for and unwashed. It was a small area, a cell really, just a bed, a small toilet, and a tray containing some dishes. Seeing this, I wondered if Malthe was right that even Beaufort didn’t deserve to live like this. The Void would be better than this. At least, it was clean.

  “You alive down there, Joch?” Clem called down at us.

  “Yeah,” I yelled back up, tossing to rope up to him as Semra had done for me. As I looked up at the small circle of sky above us in the pit, I noticed the distinct shape of one of Malthe’s tanks flying up ahead, closely followed by two drones.

  “Ooh, do we get one of those things, then?” Semra asked, whistling under her breath at it and grinning.

  “Looks like it,” I said. “But it’s only there in case of an emergency.”

  “Aren’t emergencies kind of your MO?” she asked, cocking an eyebrow at me.

  “Fair enough,” I chuckled. “I guess you’re right.”

  “Should I come down?” Clem
called.

  “Yeah, what do you think?” I called back up, rolling my eyes at him.

  “Okay, okay, coming,” Clem said.

  “Reluctant much?” Semra asked me, eyeing him as he appeared at the top of the pit, rope in hand.

  “We had a rough time the first go around down here,” I reminded her.

  Soon, Clem was with us, too. Then the foxgirls followed him down one by one. Once we were all there, the two drones buzzed their way down after us. Kira flinched when one buzzed up next to her ear.

  “They’re programmed not to mess with us,” I reminded her, and she nodded weakly, still eyeing the machine with weariness.

  “What now?” Clem asked, dropping his hands to his sides.

  “God, it stinks down here,” Kinley, the last one of us to make it down, said, pinching her nostrils shut.

  “Why d’you think they just locked him up down here instead of killing him or something?” Clem asked, giving the unmade bed and dirty sheets a skeptical look.

  “Dunno,” I said, shaking my head. “I’ve been trying to work that one out for myself. Maybe they thought they could use him somehow. I don’t know.”

  “That’s a frightening thought,” Kinley grumbled, still pinching her nose.

  “What isn’t?” Semra asked. “So, are we getting on with this thing, or what?”

  “After you,” I said, holding out my arm in the direction of the door to indicate that she should lead the way.

  “I’m sending the drones out in front,” Malthe said in my ear.

  “That’s not exactly subtle,” I told him.

  “Are we going for subtle?” he asked. “I didn’t realize, you know, given the giant chasm you guys blew in the ground.”

  “That’s… fair,” I admitted. “Though I would like to keep us as under the radar as possible.”

  “Understood,” Malthe said. “I’ll do what I can. But if they notice the drones, they would’ve noticed you anyway, even if it would’ve taken them a few seconds longer.”