by Simon Archer
“Of course you do,” Kinley grinned, shaking her head.
4
The driver pulled up in an alley behind my building to pick us up.
“Hey there, Mr. Joch,” he said, concern etched across his gruff exterior. “I was sorry to hear about what happened in Parliament this morning.”
“Thanks, Gunnar,” I said. “I’m sorry, too. Are things pretty crazy out here today?”
“You’ve got no idea,” he said, shaking his head. “The whole north side’s gone nuts, especially up by Parliament. There’s no telling when it’ll die down.”
“What’re you seeing?” I asked as I climbed in the middle seat between Kinley and Malthe. “Is it just reporters everywhere, or are other people panicking, too?”
“I don’t know about panicking,” the driver said as we shot up into the sky, high and away from the other traffic. “Maybe some people are, and my buddy who’s on the south side today said they’re definitely losing it down there, but up here on the north side, people seem excited more than anything.”
Well, that made me want to throw up.
“Really? How can you tell?” I asked.
“Well, a lot of people are out at the clubs for starters,” he noted, “and the brawlers are having a field day.”
“Already? It’s noon,” I said incredulously. There were always some people up on the north side that partied and gambled all day, but most of them came out at night.
“What can I say, they’re excited,” Gunnar said.
We were up high above the city then, and when I looked out the window, I could only see the tops of the buildings down below, along with the specs that I assumed were other air cars zooming around below us. The sky was still a faint blue color like it had been early that morning, an eerie mismatch from the way I was feeling.
“Any word on the streets about how this all came together?” Kinley leaned forward and put her hand on the back of the driver’s seat. “Anything we might not know of.”
“Not that I can think of.” Gunnar shook his head. “But I can keep some feelers out for you guys, see if anything comes up. Seems like this came as a shock to just about everybody.”
“Yeah, no kidding,” Cindra said from where she said on Kinley’s other side, pressed up against the window. She crossed her arms and slumped her shoulders. I could tell through our bond that she felt even worse, given what Gunnar had told us about the north side’s reaction.
“We’ll figure it out,” I said, more to reassure myself than anyone else. “We’ll get to the bottom of it.”
“You’ll wanna try to figure it out pretty quick, Mr. Joch,” Gunnar said. “Word on the street is that the other binding corps are already packing their schedules with foxgirl bindings.”
I grimaced. “I’m sure they are.” That was a whole other problem. We had to find a way to enforce the old laws, even though they were outdated now.
“What are we gonna do?” Kira asked, turning around in the front seat to look back at me and echoing my own thoughts. “We have to stop them, right?”
“We will,” I said, setting my mouth in a thin, determined line.
“I mean, we are the most powerful entity on Termina still, right?” Kinley asked. “We can just make people do what we want.”
“Yeah, sure, but we also made law enforcement larger and more independent,” I pointed out, “and they’ll be enforcing what Parliament wants, not what we want anymore. Not to mention the other binding corps will no doubt band together against us. Not that they’re all that powerful, especially since their business has been down, but it is still a factor.”
“I guess that’s true,” Kira said, slumping back against her chair and turning to face the front window.
Kinley slammed her fist against the seat. “I just feel like we need to do something,”
“I know, and we will,” I said. “It’ll take some time for the other binding corps to get their businesses up and running again. In the meantime, we’ll keep doing what we’re doing and try to make a plan.”
The foxgirls all nodded, though not enthusiastically. Malthe was so absorbed in his research on the secret society, on Beaufort, on the Parliament members, and whatever else he was looking at that he didn’t seem to realize that we were even talking at all.
“I wish you luck, Mr. Joch,” the driver said. “I only speak for myself, of course, but things have been a lot more peaceful around here lately, and I’m making a lot more credits transporting people to and from the south side because of your revitalization projects. I’d hate to see things go back to the way they were. For the past few weeks, I’ve even felt comfortable letting my kids go out alone sometimes. But not after this.”
“Why do you say that?” I asked, confused. “Are your kids foxgirls?”
“Nah,” he said, waving away the suggestion. “But even so, when those bad bindings’re goin’ on, the whole city’s got a different feel to it. Sleazier, more secret-like. The criminals used to run this city, except maybe around where you live, Mr. Joch. Now it’ll just go back to that, just worse this time ‘cause the law won’t even have to pretend to put a stop to it all.”
“I never knew so many people felt that way,” I said, leaning back against my own seat and thinking this over. “Thanks for telling me. Other people feel this way, too?”
“Oh yeah,” Gunnar said, almost laughing at the suggestion that they didn’t. “Most people don’t care about any of this binding stuff. They just wanna be able to walk down the street without a gun or a knife, and for a while, it’s been like that. I already told my wife not to let the kids out of the apartment today.”
“I’m sorry to hear that,” I told him. “It really sucks that so many people have been affected by this. I promise we’ll do everything we can to rectify the situation at TelCorp.”
“Oh, I’m sure you will, Mr. Joch,” Gunnar said. “Just let me know if I can help you get anywhere else.” I nodded and looked out the window again.
We were passing over most of the north side nightclubs by then, and they looked like tiny little models from how high we were in the sky. Usually, this space up high between air traffic and the service drones that brought people their take out food and grocery and apparel orders was off-limits for air cars. But given the situation, we had to remain undetected, which would be more difficult were we to travel alongside the rest of the traffic flow, many of whom were probably affiliated with the media. And I’d pay Gunnar well for his troubles.
Up above us, the drones soared. And sure enough, there were more of them than usual. The little light gray spikes filled up the sky, obscuring some of the clouds and the light blue parts. There weren’t nearly as many as there had been when everyone thought Cindra, Kira, and Kinley were deranged and murmurous out on the streets due to the old TelCorp’s propaganda, but there were more than I’d seen any other time. As many people as there were outside celebrating the new laws, there were even more folks keeping inside and afraid, just like the driver’s family.
“It’s all happening again,” Cindra murmured, following my gaze up to the sky.
“Except we have the upper hand this time,” I assured her. “We have control of TelCorp.”
It took a while to get to the south side, as usual. One of TelCorp’s investment projects was to get the city’s high-speed rail system up and running down there, but that would take time. Plus, the last place we should’ve been right then was on public transportation, where just anyone could walk up to us.
Even so, it didn’t take as much time as usual since we weren’t running into any traffic. And no one seemed to be paying attention to the fact that we were traveling where we weren’t supposed to be. Like I’d expected, law enforcement had to have other things to worry about that day. What with every little thing about their job description changing and all.
“You told your folks we’re coming?” I asked Cindra when we passed over the suburbs where so many TelCorp foxgirl binding clients used to live and in the direction
of the former slums down by the water.
She nodded faintly. “Clem and Lin are already there with them. They’re all dying to know what’s going on,” she said, casting her eyes about nervously.
“Them and everyone else in the city,” Kinley said grimly. “Including us.”
“Just stick to the plan, everyone,” I reminded them, not wanting to give too many details in front of Gunnar. Not that I suspected him of anything, but I figured I could never be too careful.
Soon, Gunnar pulled the air car down near the old slums.
“Thanks, man,” I said, sending him what he was owed and then some on my E-pad.
“Anytime, Mr. Joch,” he said, clearly pleased as always with what he’d made. “Let me know when you need a lift back, even if it’s the middle of the night.
“Will do, I think we’ll be here for a while,” I said, following Malthe out of the air car and onto the pavement.
When we were all outside, Gunnar waved and lifted back up into the sky in pursuit of his next customer.
“Find anything?” I asked, turning to Malthe before we went inside. I didn’t want to discuss Malthe’s research in front of anyone else.
“Not a thing, Nic, I’m sorry,” he said, shaking his head. His nose was still buried in his various tech: an E-pad, his watch, and a clunky laptop, but he finally threw them all in a tattered dark leather bag at his side and engaged with us directly.
“That’s okay.” I sighed, trying not to appear too disappointed. “It’s not like I expected much.”
“Still, it would’ve been nice to figure something out,” Kira said. “There’s really nothing?”
“There’s so much nothing that it’s conspicuous, actually,” Malthe said. “Literally none of the members of Parliament have been in contact with each other at all since last night. Not for anything.”
“That’s unusual?” I asked.
“Oh yeah,” Malthe said, chuckling a bit under his breath for emphasis. “These people work together, and up until last night, they were basically messaging each other nonstop. And then this morning, nothing. Not a peep. Not even a hello, or how’re you doing. It’s complete and total radio silence like they don’t know each other at all.”
“That’s… strange,” Cindra said, shifting on her feet and placing her hands on her hips at an awkward angle. “I’m not sure what to make of that.”
“What we make of it is that there’s something else going on,” I said, more determined than ever that this secret organization was behind our new troubles. “Either these people have some way of communicating with one another digitally that we don’t know about, or they’ve been told they can’t communicate with each other at all.”
“Or someone scared them so much that they don’t dare try it,” Kinley suggested. “Which is almost worse.”
“Yeah, that’s definitely worse,” I agreed. “That means they’re really spooked.”
Kinley clenched her fists. “We need to find these people.”
I turned back to Malthe, “What about Beaufort? Anything?”
“No.” He shook his head glumly and slumped his shoulders. “Not a thing. I’ve even checked with all the hospitals in the city’s records and John Does, and any bodies or anything that have shown up on the docks. None of them fit, not at all. And there weren’t that many hits, to begin with. He’s just vanished.”
“But vanished, where?” I asked, more thinking aloud than actually asking my friends a question. “Where could he be, or could he have been taken, that isn’t on the grid at all?”
“The Void?” Kira suggested. “That used to be pretty well hidden.”
“Good point,” I said, furrowing my brows together. “TelCorp didn’t run it, so maybe this unknown group did.”
Malthe perked up a bit. “That might make more sense. I mean, it is on a remote island off the coast.”
“Could the organization be off the coast like that?” Kira asked.
“But where?” I retorted. “We didn’t know about the Void or the island it’s on, but it did show up when we sent a drone out there. We scoured the whole coast and then some for more, but we didn’t find anything.
“Maybe they found a way to obscure that, too,” Kinley shrugged.
“Maybe,” I relented, “but I doubt it. If these people ran the Void before, wouldn’t they have made that undetectable, too, if they had that ability?”
“Yeah, I’m with Nic,” Malthe said. “I don’t think there’s a way to prevent a drone or anything like that from picking up that the landmass exists when it’s actually nearby. That would be very hard, maybe even impossible, to do.”
“So where are they then?” Cindra threw up her arms in exasperation. “I don’t know what to make of it. Where else could they be? They can’t be on Termina. Otherwise, we would’ve found them by now.”
“Maybe they’re in another country,” Kira suggested. “I mean, Termina itself is an island, just a bigger one. Maybe they’re on the mainland somehow.”
“That wouldn’t make much sense either, would it?” Malthe asked. “None of Termina’s signals or anything reach the mainland. As far as we know, everything’s shit there anyway, and these people seem to know a lot about what goes on here. How would they be able to do that if they weren’t here in the city?”
“Yeah, that’s true,” I said, biting my lower lip in frustration.
“So if they can’t be in the city, they can’t be on another island nearby, and they can’t be on the mainland, what options exactly does that leave us with?” Cindra asked, clearly annoyed now that everyone’s ideas had been struck down.
“Well, it has to be one of the three,” I said. “There isn’t anywhere else. So…”
“So we have to put one of the options back on the table,” Kinley finished. “But which one?”
We all looked around at each other helplessly. No one answered. Finally, Cindra kicked the ground in frustration.
“Dammit,” she said. “This isn’t getting us anywhere. How can we find these people if we have no idea where to start looking?”
I stared down at the ground where she had kicked, my mouth hanging slightly ajar. “That’s it. Why didn’t I see it before? That has to be it.”
“What’re you talking about, Nic?” Cindra asked, waving a hand in front of my face to get my attention.
“There.” I pointed down at the ground beneath our feet. “They’re not on Termina, but they’re in Termina. That’s why we can’t find them.”
“Huh?” Cindra asked again, still confused. I raised my head and looked around at my friends, only to find that they were all looking at me blankly like Cindra.
“Don’t you see?” I asked them. “The old tunnels for the underground trains that used to run through the whole island. That’s it!”
“What tunnels?” Malthe asked, blinking at me several times in confusion.
“Wait, you guys don’t know?” I asked. “You didn’t learn about all this shit in school?”
“We didn’t go to school,” Kinley scoffed. “Foxgirls didn’t get to do shit like that.”
“Yeah, and those of us here on the south side who did didn’t exactly get a great education,” Malthe admitted. “After grammar school, I just gave up and taught myself everything.”
“Oh, I didn’t know that,” I said, a little ashamed that I still kept learning new ways in which the south side was treated differently than the north side that I had no idea about. “We should make that a priority once this all blows over. There’s definitely money to be made in education, after all.”
Malthe smiled at me. “Sounds like a plan, boss, but what were you saying about these tunnels?”
“There are all kinds of tunnels and terminals and stuff beneath the surface.” I kicked the ground myself for emphasis, causing some dust from the gravel road to billow up around my legs. “They were just abandoned when the trains got replaced by air cars and other advanced transports.”
“But why did they get replac
ed?” Malthe asked. “That sounds a lot simpler than having to deal with air traffic getting bogged down all the time.”
“I really don’t know,” I said, pondering this. “Now that I think about it, they didn’t actually explain why other than that air traffic was better.” I cast my eyes skyward at the crowds of air cars fighting for the right of way. “But you’re right. I don’t really see how it’s better. It takes forever to get anywhere in the city now.”
“I’d certainly rather take a train,” Malthe said. “I mean, that’s why we’re upping the high-speed rail developments, right?”
“Exactly,” I said, “but back on topic. All these tunnels deep beneath the city are just sitting empty. No one goes down there anymore, and I guess a lot of people don’t know about them based on your response. Those that did probably forgot all about it just like I did until you kicked the ground, Cindra. It’d be the perfect place to hide if you wanted to be in the city but avoid detection?”
“Yeah, I guess so,” Cindra said, looking more interested than annoyed now. “Would that work, Malthe? Would they still be able to access our stuff and know what’s going on above the surface from down there?”
“I don’t know,” Malthe said thoughtfully. “They would have to use some kind of router or something to amplify the signal, but I’d be able to pick up on that. So technically, they could get a signal down there, but not without giving out themselves away.”
“Oh,” I said, a little disappointed. But then I remembered something else. “Wait, Beaufort lived up here.”
“Huh?” Kira asked, and everyone looked at me blankly again.
“Beaufort, he lived up here on the surface. In an apartment building just a few blocks from mine, remember?” I explained.
“Oh, I remember,” Kira said darkly. She’d been a prisoner there for nearly two whole days, after all, and she’d been there when I fought Beaufort to free her.