by Tom Jones
Jim nodded as he looked at the fox, “Alright, that sounds good enough. I’ll make sure to keep an extra parachute in there in case you decide to take one like you did back at Facility Eleven.” Arcades smiled when he realized that Jim was referring to when he infiltrated another one of the Omega Foundation’s secret facilities. Jason spoke up after the fox and the human finished speaking, “So that’s a crew of three. What about Bobby? Have you asked him yet, Kurt?” Arcades shook his head, “I have not asked him yet. That’s what I plan on doing next. It might be a little difficult to convince him especially after what happened recently, but he would definitely be a great help if he agrees.” Jim spoke next, “Then I suppose you should go and ask him. Where is he anyways?” Arcades did not have an answer, but Jason conveyed his answer instead, “I think the bloke’s downstairs.” Arcades acknowledged the wolf, “I’ll go down there and look for him.” Jason and Jim watched the fox as he proceeded to the ladder that would take him to the lower level of Sealand.
“Eagle, this is Alpha 1, we have a confirmed visual on the facility. Some anthros are currently in view, and that truck has already picked up the next wave of anthros. Can you tell us how many anthros are outside of Facility Five? Over.” After a few moments of silence, the MQ-18C operator spoke through the radio, “Alpha-Omega be advised, thermal imaging is showing about fifty figures currently outside of the facility. A few do not have tails, so we believe those are likely CDI. Over.” Alpha 1 replied, “Acknowledged. We’ll remain undetected, and we’ll tag the next truck that arrives. Out.” Once Alpha 1 finished speaking with Eagle, he turned to face the other members of the squad. The human operator spoke to his men, “Split up. Omega, you guys go and take one anthro. We need to see what they know. Maybe CDI let them know where they’re supposed to be going. Alpha will go and tag the next truck. Let’s move.”
Omega 1 nodded, and he began moving away from Alpha’s fireteam with the remaining three operatives who consisted of fireteam Omega. Alpha 2 looked through a pair of thermal binoculars as he attempted to locate another truck that was on approach, “Not sure how long it will be until the next truck gets here.” Alpha 1 flipped up his PSQ-36 NVGs as he disabled them, “Shouldn’t be too long. They already seem to have the next wave already lined up out here.” Alpha 1 turned to Alpha 3, “Make sure nobody is behind us. I dunno if CDI has any snipers set up.” Alpha 3 kept his NVGs in front of his eyes as he turned around to view the remaining surroundings. Alpha 1 removed a small device from his kit. The device was a flat disc with a red button on the top. The reverse side of the disc consisted of a thin layer of tape covering the adhesive of the GPS device. Alpha 2 noticed that Alpha 1 was inspecting the device, “Make sure you plant that thing somewhere you don’t think CDI will look. Won’t be too good if they find that.” Alpha 1 pocketed the device and spoke with confidence, “I know what I’m doing.”
Arcades finished descending the ladder, and he decided that he would put a few things away in the room he was staying in before talking to Bocchino. As the fox opened the door to his room, he noticed that the Italian-American cat was already there. Bocchino was holding Arcades’ bag which contained all of his restraints. The cat turned to face the fox, “Didn’t expect to see you back here so soon, Kurt.” Arcades began slowly walking forwards, “Bobby, are you looking through my stuff?” Bocchino put the bag down and shrugged, “I guess I could lie to you, but that’s something foxes are supposed to do. Yes, I am looking through your stuff.” The fox was confused, “May I ask why?” Bocchino began to speak, “I guess curiosity would be one of the factors. I am a cat after all… Another reason being we’re here in the middle of the damned ocean with some crazy Anglo-Saxon who thinks he runs his own country. He’s about as crazy as you. Did you ever think about that?” Arcades waited after Bocchino paused since he was waiting for the cat to continue. Bocchino took a deep breath and started speaking again just as Arcades predicted, “I don’t want to stay in this place. I came down here to check and see what you brought, and I don’t suppose that you have the intention of staying here either.” Arcades replied to the cat when he finished speaking, “I do not wish to remain here. We still have to find out what Omega has been keeping secret.” The cat continued, “Where are you thinking about going? Eh?” Arcades replied, “Democratic Republic of Congo, remember? Jim gave us the lead. We should be able to find out what Omega has there. Jim says that Omega has a contact over there who had purchased a couple of anthros recently.”
The cat was becoming apathetic, “Whatever. Probably better than being here.” Bocchino looked back down at the rather heavy bag he had picked up and hoisted it up again, “I want to know what is with you and these things.” Arcades was confused as to why Bocchino diverted the conversation away from the original topic, “What? What do you mean?” The cat unzipped the bag, and he pulled out a random pair of restraints. Arcades recognized them as his Safariland Speedcuffs. The cat continued speaking as he inspected the metallic restraints partially covered by polymer, “These things. Why do you like them so damn much? You have so many of these fucking things. I can’t fucking understand it.” Arcades’ breathing began to become slightly less relaxed, and the fox couldn’t figure out what to say. After silence from Arcades, Bocchino looked up at the fox, “You don’t even know, do you?” The fox was still silent; he was still unable to figure out something to say. Bocchino sat the bag on the floor again, but he was still holding the pair of rigid handcuffs. The cat looked at the restraints, and he then looked back at Arcades. Bocchino spoke, “Come here.” Arcades slowly began to approach the cat, but the fox’s reluctance was very visible to Bocchino. When the fox was close enough, Bocchino grabbed Arcades’ wrist and pulled it forwards. The cat spoke as he applied the restraints to the fox, “Then I guess we’ll have to figure that out here.” Arcades did not resist Bocchino, but he remained silent as he waited for the cat to finish. Once Bocchino had Arcades locked in the restraints, he took a step back from the fox, “So, how does that feel for ya? Eh?” Arcades looked down at his restrained wrists in front of him, and he attempted to separate his hands in vain only to be immediately stopped by the rigid handcuffs. Arcades tried to control his breathing again before he spoke, “I feel like I’m even less threatening than I normally appear.” The cat sarcastically chuckled as he nodded, “Hah, ya think?”
After Bocchino finished, he continued watching the fox who was only still looking at his restrained wrists. The cat realized that he was not satisfied with what Arcades said, “No, that doesn’t answer my question. What are you feeling?” The fox frowned as he continued to study his hands, “I mean -- I really don’t know what to tell you.” The cat was becoming moderately frustrated and slightly impatient, “Then tell me something at least, dammit!” Arcades was still frowning, and his voice was beginning to break up, “Bobby… Please…” Given that Arcades was still unable to produce a satisfactory response for Bocchino, the cat walked back up to his captive, and he grabbed the plastic cover that protected the restraints’ metal connector. The cat used a decent amount of force to force the fox to his knees, and he repeated his question, “Tell me what you are feeling! Fuck! Damn it all to hell!”
“We should be able to snatch up one of them when the guard walks off again. They don’t seem to keep too much of a close look at all of ‘em. They’ve got too many to look at all at once,” Omega 2 said as he studied the seemingly random pattern that the closest CDI guard was moving in. Omega 4 asked the fireteam a question, “Which one of those anthros do you want to take?” Omega 3 looked at the anthros that were standing around waiting to board the next CDI truck. The human operative pointed towards a female gray wolf, “How about that one? She’s got an orange trimmed collar, so she probably hasn’t been at Facility Five for too long. The ones with the green and yellow collars seem to be guarded a bit more heavily, so CDI probably figured out what the collar color codes mean. I bet they figured it out from their behavior.” Omega 1 turned his attention to the anthro Omega 3 was poin
ting out, “She looks scared shitless, and she looks like she would be fairly easy to grab compared to the other anthros that they’ve got.” Omega 1 considered taking the anthro for a moment, but he reached his decision after a brief moment of thought, “Yeah, let’s go for her. As soon as that truck gets here and they start to move, we move in and grab her. Alpha will tag the truck.”
Omega 2 asked a question to his fireteam leader before proceeding, “Alright how is this gonna play out?” Omega 1 replied, “It’s simple. Alpha makes their move and tags the truck, and we snatch her up as the group proceeds to the truck. We make sure CDI can’t hear her scream, and we get her to the helicopter for exfil.” Omega 2 then asked, “So who is going to grab her, and who is going to silence her?” Omega 3 volunteered himself, “I’ll silence her. You go and grab her.” Omega 2 took a deep breath, but he decided to agree with the quickly thought plan, “If you say so…” Omega 1 spoke up, “4 and I can cover you two. If CDI is about to raise an alarm, then we’ll do something about it. You guys shouldn’t have any problems though. She’s already a pretty decent distance away from the nearest CDI guard.” As the fireteam discussed their plan, they heard an incoming radio transmission, “Attention Alpha-Omega, this is Eagle. We have spotted a truck on its way to gather the next wave of anthros. If you are planning to do something, you better do it soon. Out.” Omega 1 looked to the other three members of the fireteam, “You guys hear that? The truck’s almost here. We’ll make our move as soon as they all start moving. That’ll provide us with enough cover.” Omega 1 contacted the Alpha fireteam, “Alpha 1, this is Omega 1. We are going to grab one of the anthros that CDI is planning to load on the next truck. Are you going to attempt to plant the GPS device? Over.”
It wasn’t long before Alpha 1 replied, “Affirmative, Omega 1. We are planning to plant the device on the incoming truck. Grab your anthro, and we’ll call for exfil. Let’s be quick, and we’ll get it done. Out.” Omega 1 could now see the headlights from the truck, “Yup. There it is. Stay low for a moment. We’ll wait for it to stop, and we’ll make our move when the anthros all start moving towards it.” The sand-colored CDI truck arrived at its destination, and it began to perform a three-point turn to position the bed of the truck facing the anthros waiting to finally get out of Facility Five. Omega 2 and Omega 3 began to slowly stand up as the truck almost finished performing its maneuver. As the two operatives were preparing to make their move on the wolf, the other two members of fireteam Omega were aiming their XMP-1s at the nearest guard just in case the group was detected.
The transport truck finally came to a stop, and the guard turned to face the group of anthros. Right when the guard turned away, Omega 1 spotted Alpha 3 quickly jogging down the hill in order to plant the device. Alpha 3 ran up to the truck while trying to avoid detection from both the guards as well as the driver of the truck itself. The operator successfully approached the left-hand side of the truck, and he quickly peeled off the adhesive protector before planting the device right between the bed and the wheel well. Since the bed of the truck was covered, the occupants would not notice Alpha 3 planting the tracking device. Alpha 3 pressed the button on the device to activate it, and he realized that he had completed his half of the mission. The operative quickly proceeded back up the small hill before the CDI guard turned around. Omega 1 spoke, “The guard should turn back around. When he does, you two go and grab her.” Omega 1 heard the CDI guard announce to the anthros, “Alright, come on now. Get in the truck. Move it!” The group of anthros began to proceed towards the tan KamAZ-6350 truck that CDI used. The CDI guard turned around to open the rear bed of the truck, and the two operatives knew that it was now their time to strike. Omega 2 and Omega 3 quietly made their way behind the group of anthros before Omega 3 grabbed the wolf’s mouth while Omega 2 pinned her arms behind her back. The two operatives began walking backwards as they were still holding on to the gray anthro wolf whom they had just captured. The wolf started to fight back, but she was simply not strong enough to take on two men. When the wolf realized this, she unwillingly accepted that she was going back to the Foundation yet again.
Bocchino stared down at the fox kneeling before him. The cat wasn’t sure what he wanted to do next, but he really did not want to take his anger directly out on Arcades. The cat turned back around to face Arcades’ bag of restraints, and he began to dig through the bag’s contents. The cat began pulling out several uncommon restraints, “You have all this shit I ain’t even seen before.” At one point, Bocchino pulled out multiple models of thumbcuffs that the fox owned, “Like these things. I don’t even know what the fuck these things are supposed to fuking do.” The cat dumped the metallic restraints on the floor, and he looked back at Arcades, who was silently looking at Bocchino. “Stand up, now will you?” Bocchino commanded Arcades. The fox slowly got to his feet, and he looked back down at the polymer covering which the Safariland handcuffs had to allow for superior handling of a subject. The cat looked down at the many restraints which he removed from Arcades’ tactical bag. Bocchino grabbed the pair of Peerless shackles from off of the floor, and he examined them. After some examination, the cat realized that the restraints were meant to be applied to ankles. Bocchino looked back up at Arcades and said, “Come here.” The fox slowly began to step forth in order to stand in front of Bocchino again. Bocchino bent down, and he began by applying the shackles to Arcades’ bare ankles. For the second time, the cat neglected to double-lock the restraints which he had placed the fox in since he was not familiar with the feature.
Arcades watched as Bocchino stood back up after shackling him, and the fox still noticed that he was taller than the cat by a good few inches. Bocchino then spoke again, “Step away from me.” Arcades complied, and he took a few steps backwards from where he was standing. The fox was genuinely frightened since he did not know what Bocchino was planning to do with him. Arcades also knew that he had no way of freeing himself because he did not have his keyring on his person, and he also did not know what Bocchino would do if he tried to retrieve one of his keys from his bag. To make matters worse for the fox, neither of his restraints were currently double-locked, so he knew that struggling would only make things worse since the restraints could tighten and cause pain. Arcades had no choice but to listen to what Bocchino told him to do, and this thought filled the fox with even more fear. At this point, Arcades was hoping that the cat would not physically harm him, but he was not even sure what Bocchino was actually thinking about.
The cat looked at the fox’s restrained hands that were still in front of his torso, and he then looked down at the chain connecting the shackles locked around his ankles. Bocchino looked back at Arcades’ face before he spoke again, “I want you to place your hands behind your back.” The cat believed that he was giving Arcades an impossible task to accomplish, but he did not know that Arcades’ had performed this exact task many times before in his current state of being restrained in the way he was. The cat watched with surprise as Arcades bent down and stepped over the rigid handcuffs before he brought his hands past his waist. Arcades then pulled his tail out of the way as he brought his restrained hands up to his back. “I didn’t think you’d actually be able to do that,” Bocchino said after the fox had completely finished the task. Arcades asked the cat a question, “Why did you tell me to do it then?” Bocchino felt a bit of anger inside of himself which became all the more stronger, “Shut your fucking mouth you stupid motherfucking bitch!” Arcades had no idea why Bocchino was so angry, but he did not want to say anything else given his current predicament. Bocchino returned back to Arcades’ bag, “I thought I saw something….” The cat did not finish his thought as he began to dig through the bag yet again. After a moment of searching, Bocchino retrieved the item he had seen earlier. Arcades had a feeling that he knew what Bocchino would be looking for, and he was not surprised to see what the cat brought out of the bag. Arcades looked at a familiar fox muzzle that dangled from Bocchino’s hand. Bocchino walked up to the fox,
and he placed the muzzle over Arcades mouth in order to silence him. The cat then moved behind his captive, and he figured out how to strap the device to Arcades’ face.
“I don’t want to hear your fucking sorry ass. That’s for damn sure,” Bocchino remarked as he silenced Arcades. The cat returned back in front of his captive after he finished restraining him, “Wanna know how I managed to convince CDI to drag your bitchass out of the fire?” Arcades could not respond to the rhetorical question even if he wanted to. After a quick moment of silence, Bocchino continued, “Well, I damn sure didn’t give them a long talking to until they were like, ‘Oh, we’ll go and help some black and white fox that’s a whole continent away.’ That’s not what fucking happened!” The cat watched as his captive frowned through the muzzle, “Yeah, you wanna know what actually fucking happened?” Again, Arcades could not respond to the rhetorical question, “I had to give them my fucking money. All because you wanted to play the hero and go there all by yourself. If it wasn’t for me, then you would have been fucked. And believe me when I say fucked.”
Arcades looked down at the floor, and he frowned again. The cat continued, “You’re fucking retarded beyond all imagination if you thought for even a single second that I was somehow able to convince them with words. Nah, that ain’t what fucking happened. Money is the only way you can convince those fuckers.” Bocchino noticed that Arcades was looking at the ground instead of him, “Hey asshole! Hey shit for brains! Listen to me… ” Bocchino grabbed Arcades’ muzzled face, and he forced the fox to look directly at him, “Your fucking sorry ass is the only damn reason why we’re all out here! All because of you and your fucking stupid decisions! And to top all that shit off, CDI is keeping all of those anthros to themselves. We don’t even get to see what happens to them!”