by Simon Archer
“So they all just played us? And gave no indication, even digitally?” Clem asked, arching a skeptical eyebrow at me. “I may not be in your inner circle, Nic, but I’m not fucking stupid.” He was more hurt than angry now, though there was still that edge in his tone.
I didn’t respond. There was nothing to say. He was right. He wasn’t stupid. There was no point trying to convince him this was something more benign than what it was. So I figured it was best to just not say anything at all.
“I hope one day soon you’ll realize you’ve got more people on your side than you think,” Clem said after he realized I wasn’t going to engage any further, and with a huff, he fell back to walk alongside Lin and Kira. Malthe came up to me then, his nose still in his pad.
“I’ve sent out the messages, boss,” he said. “I invited Kira and Kinley’s families to come over, but they’re too scared to leave their places, not that I blame ‘em. Basically, the whole docks are on self-imposed lockdown.”
“Well, you might as well make that official,” I sighed.
“Already done,” he said. “Sent out an alert telling everyone to stay inside and let us know if they need anything, and we’ll have it delivered automatically.”
“Awesome, thanks, man,” I said, giving him a weak smile.
“You okay, boss?” he asked me, his thin brows furrowed together in concern.
“Yeah, I’m fine,” I said flatly, shaking my head. “I just hate lying to Clem and Lin, but especially Clem. They’ve both been good to us. I could do a soul gaze to check them out… but then they’d really know we were up to something. And I don’t want to have to throw them in the Void if it turns out they aren’t trustworthy after all. Doing that would tip off everyone, including the media, that we have a bigger plan.”
“Yeah, me too,” Malthe said, looking down at the ground, and the two of us walked on in silence for a few moments.
“Did you message the board?” I asked after a while.
“Oh, yeah, that too,” he said. “They’re all asking questions, wondering why we haven’t reached out to them yet. Why we haven’t had a meeting.”
“Yeah, I’ll bet,” I said.
“They all want to be doing something,” Malthe explained. “They’re getting antsy just sitting around and waiting.”
“Well, tell them to man the security systems down here, then,” I said.
“We have people for that already,” he said.
“Well, then tell them to just deal with it,” I said, dropping my hands to my sides in annoyance. “We’ll have a meeting tomorrow.”
“Right, got it,” Malthe said. “Sorry.”
“It’s fine,” I said, shaking my head and waving away the apology. “I get it. They’re nervous.”
“They all want to be contacting the Parliament members,” he explained.
“No,” I said sharply. “Tell them not to do that. That we’re already on it.”
“I did,” he said. “I’ll reiterate.” I nodded.
Soon, we were approaching a particularly large house toward the other end of the gravel road, where the air car driver had dropped us off. I looked up at it. It was tall and had pillars out front, as well as security cameras everywhere. The house itself was made of marble, and there was bright green grass out front, being watered by automatic sprinklers. I could smell the hint of chlorine from a pool outback.
“Man, how d'you get so lucky to end up in this place?” Clem asked Malthe, coming up behind us and clapping him on the shoulder.
“I am well paid,” Malthe grinned.
“And living rent-free in a house I built,” Clem added, and Malthe smiled sheepishly.
“Alright, let’s get this over with,” Cindra said grimly. “I just know they’re gonna be freaking the fuck out.”
6
Together, we walked up the tall marble steps to the off-white front door, and I couldn’t help but think back to the first time I’d come down here with Clem and a couple of other TelCorp binders on orders from Elias. One of those binders ended up dead, and the other fired in the transition at TelCorp.
Back then, the stairs were made of rotted wood and appeared to be caving in, and I’d been afraid we’d fall through just for walking on them. A lot had changed in a short amount of time. That made me feel like no matter what happened in Parliament, we had done some good after all.
Cindra sighed heavily and knocked on the door. I knew she was dreading facing her family after what happened in Parliament.
Almost immediately, the door swung open, as if they’d been hovering nearby waiting for us. They probably had, actually.
Cindra’s father, a thin man around the age of forty-five with a sunken face and short brown hair named Henri, was standing there waiting for us. Behind him was his wife, Cindra’s mother, Paola, who was equally thin and stricken. Over by the couch were her sisters, Avil and Hil.
Avil was a few years older than Cindra and wore a closely cropped camo tank top. It was odd seeing her without a cigarette dangling between her fingers. Her face was hard and thin, but pretty, too. She had a gruff persona but didn’t have the same appearance of being worn down by life as her parents did.
Hil, on the other hand, couldn’t be more than twelve. She was short, scrawny, and seemed sweet and quiet at first glance. But I knew full well that she had a bite to her that betrayed appearances. A literal bite, actually. She’d attacked and bitten a TelCorp binder who’d gone to check on the family after Cindra escaped from her kidnapper’s creepy little house in the suburbs. I knew that had been pretty bad for the foxgirls’ case, feeding into the notion that the whole lot of them were just a bunch of vicious savages, but I couldn’t help but chuckle at the thought of this kid overcoming a full-blown, trained TelCorp binder. That took some spunk.
“Hey,” Cindra said, looking down at the freshly tiled floor and avoiding her family’s gaze.
“What happened?” Paola asked, a hint of desperation in her voice. She and Henri weren’t old by any stretch of the imagination, but they had lines etched in their faces that were well beyond their years. It saddened me to see them like this. Over the past few months, the whole family had begun to open up and enjoy life more. Now it seemed like that was all wiped away. It was a damn shame.
“We don’t know,” Cindra said, shaking her head and continuing to avoid looking at her family members. “We’re still working on figuring that out.”
“And you couldn’t figure it out?” Henri asked, staring straight at Malthe, who seemed to shrink under the older man’s gaze.
I had to cover up a laugh as a cough. Malthe didn’t strike me as one to make a great impression, especially on parents, and it didn’t seem like he’d done much to rectify the situation over the years.
“Uh, like she said, we’re working on it,” Malthe echoed, his voice small. But to his credit, he looked straight at Henri.
“You can hack into anything that exists, right?” Henri asked, a hint of sarcasm in his voice. “Well? If that’s the case, shouldn’t you have figured it all out by now? Or was this all just a big hoax after all?” Henri turned his vicious gaze on me now, and I suddenly understood exactly how Malthe was feeling. It was blistering. But I stared him right in the eye as I responded.
“Malthe can hack into anything,” I said, keeping my own voice as measured and calm as I could manage. “And he’s damn good at what he does. But what we’ve found doesn’t answer our questions. Not yet, anyway. I assure you we’re working on it, and that we’ll get to the bottom of it all. And I assure you it’s not a hoax either. We won’t rest until we get this all figured out.” Henri stared straight back at me, and I could feel the rest of the family’s eyes on me as well.
“Why should we believe you?” Paola asked, just as blistering as her husband, if not more so because she was a foxgirl like her daughters, which lent an unmistakable growl to her tone. “What have you done to show us that you’re just not another one of those creeps who just happens to be able to cover it
all up better? That you’re not playing us for your own ends.”
“With all due respect, mom, he’s done a damn lot,” Cindra jumped in angrily before I could answer. “He’s built this house, and the others like it, he’s saved my fucking life, not to mention near everyone else’s, and he’s rebuilt the entire city to make things better for us.”
“Has he? Has he, really?” Paola asked, placing her hands on her hips in an eerily similar manner to how Cindra often did so herself. “Or has he just made us think that so he can get closer to us. To you.” She gave her daughter a piercing gaze, but Cindra shot one right back. It was almost like two mirror images of each other facing off in real-time, except one was younger and hotter, of course.
“He has,” Cindra said, still angry, her mouth set in a thin, fierce line. “And it’s about time you started believing in him. You saw those documents. These people murdered his father. Lin’s too. How can you not trust them, knowing that?”
That seemed to do it. Paola sighed and looked away from her daughter, giving up the fight.
“I suppose that’s true,” she sighed, lowering her arms to her sides. “It’s just so hard…”
“Especially now,” Henri finished for her, staring at the holovision in the corner of the room.
“I understand,” I said tentatively, not wanting to anger them further. “I know it must be really difficult to trust me, being from TelCorp, especially after what happened this morning. But I promise you, we’re working hard to get to the bottom of it. We didn’t know this would happen. We didn’t want this to happen, far from it, in fact. And we’re going to do everything in our power to prevent it from happening.”
“It already happened,” Avil growled from the corner, her arm protectively wrapped around Hil’s shoulders. With her other arm, she gestured wildly at the holovision.
“The vote happened, not the actual implementation of it,” I pointed out carefully.
“They certainly seem to think it’s been implemented,” Avil said, even angrier now. She pointed at the images on the holovision, and I realized that it was the celebration on the north side that the air car driver had been talking about earlier. There were all kinds of people, and binders I recognized from other corps, running around, hollering, drinking, and pumping their fists in the air.
“Yeah, yeah, they do,” I said, swallowing hard. “But they’re not here on the south side, are they? That’s what counts. This is TelCorp territory now. And we won’t let them get to you.”
“TelCorp territory,” Paola scoffed. “How’s that any better? You can just legally make all kinds of money off of us now.”
“But we won’t,” I said gently. “That’s not why we did all this.” I spread out my arms, indicating the majestic house we’d built for them and the other foxgirl families.
And it was majestic. This was just the ground floor living room, which in and of itself was vast and welcoming, with art and furniture the family had chosen themselves hanging on the walls and spread about the room. There were bright colors everywhere, and the house itself was clean and sturdy, built and kept up by machines so that the family members themselves didn’t have to waste time and energy on the upkeep.
There were several more rooms downstairs, I knew, including an enormous kitchen. Then there was a vast, fenced-in backyard with a pool and a view of the water. We’d planted tall trees, and I knew Paola had asked for a garden. And then there was the upstairs which stretched four floors and even had an elevator. It was almost better than my apartment. Almost.
“Oh? Then why did you?” Paola asked, clearly not impressed. “Other than to butter us up for this so we wouldn’t riot, I mean.” She placed her hands on her hips again.
“To be frank, if we were to riot, it wouldn’t really do much,” Cindra challenged. “If they wanted to keep using us, TelCorp would just crush us like they did before. We’ve got nothing compared to their strength. They don’t need to butter us up or anything like that.” Paola bit her lip, considering this.
“That’s… fair, I suppose, though crude,” Paola admitted, and Henri nodded curtly to show he took the point, as well.
“Look, what other option do we have?” Avil asked, letting out a long sigh and slumping her shoulders in defeat. “They’re right. We don’t have any other options. TelCorp has the power here. And if they say they want to help us, I guess we have no choice but to believe them. It might even be true.” She glanced at Malthe and smiled weakly. They were an odd pair, but I figured it worked.
“It is true,” Malthe said warmly, still looking at Avil. “It’s a hundred percent true. I promise you all, TelCorp’s for real this time. There’s no going back, not while Nic’s still in charge, anyway.”
“And I’m not planning on going anywhere,” I assured them.
Henri grunted in response to Malthe, but his face softened a bit.
“Alright, well, let’s try to take our minds off of it,” Cindra said. “We heard your news, sis, why didn’t you tell me?” She punched Avil hard in the shoulder, but it was all in good fun. They liked to rough each other up a bit for shits and giggles. Avil rubbed her shoulder and grinned.
“We wanted it to be a surprise,” she said.
“Well, color me surprised,” Cindra said, grinning back at her.
“Is Malthe still gonna be here forever? Even after this morning?” Hil asked, looking up at her sisters, hopefully.
“That’s right, little girl, I’m here to stay,” Malthe said, walked around and standing between her and Avil, a wide smile etched across his face.
“Even with everything going on?” Hil asked, looking back at the holovision nervously.
“Especially now,” Malthe said, his expression and tone suddenly serious.
Cindra walked over to the holovision, picked up the remote, and turned it off with an exaggerated motion.
“That’s enough of that,” she huffed, giving the device a menacing look.
“Here, here,” I said. “We can worry about that shit later.”
“Absolutely,” Cindra agreed.
“Let’s party,” Malthe grinned, raising his eyebrows.
“Okay, well, everything’s set up out back,” Paola said. “Do you really think it’s safe outside?”
“This is the safest place in the city,” I assured her. “In the world, probably. We’ve got all of TelCorp focusing on keeping you guys safe.”
“But it’s probably best to stay on your own property for a while,” Clem added.
“Hence the warning,” Malthe said, raising his E-pad to indicate that he had sent instructions out to the whole community.
“Yeah, the north side’s going a bit wild at the moment,” Kira said, her brows furrowed together in thought. “I expect the same will happen in the suburbs soon.”
“Although, there are some good people there now,” Malthe pointed out.
“True, but there’s still more than their fair share of sleazeballs over there,” Cindra said, grimacing. The client who had taken her lived down there, and he really had been a walking slimeball. I didn’t regret killing him, not for a second.
“Alright, let’s drop the subject,” Kira reminded everyone. “Think happy thoughts.”
“Oh, I am,” Kinley said as we walked outside, making a beeline for the beers set out on the deck table.
The backyard was even more amazing than the house itself. I hadn’t been out there since it’d been completed, so it was nice to see the final product. The pool was vast and shaped like an ‘L,’ and the fresh smell and look of the water was inviting. I’d have to give it a go, preferably not alone.
To the left of the pool was the aforementioned deck table and a patio covered in little round stone tables sporting sun umbrellas. The tile around the pool was blue like the water. To the right and beyond the pool was a vast yard for yard games, or for kids or pets to play in. Further back there was a cluster of trees, and then beyond that a fence and a distant view of the sea.
“Nice,” Clem
said, nodding approvingly at the scene. “It’s even better than I imagined it.”
“Good work,” I said, clapping him on the shoulder. “You did good down here. You should be proud.”
“Oh, I’m just ready to get to work on the next project,” he said, but the hint of a smile crept onto his face.
“Do you guys like your new home?” Lin asked Cindra’s family.
“What?” Henri asked, a vacant expression on his face as if he hadn’t been paying attention. “Oh yes, of course, it’s very nice.”
“It’s awesome,” Hil said, beaming from ear to ear.
“We’re glad to hear it,” I said, giving her a warm smile.
“Yes,” Henri murmured. “We never even dreamed that we would get to live in a place like this…” His voice trailed off as he surveyed the area, and then turned back to look at the house itself, which stretched high in the sky.
He and the rest of Cindra’s family still seemed sad and out of place, and I couldn’t exactly blame them for thinking that this could all be a bribe of some kind. I resolved to get them to trust us as much as possible and enjoy themselves.
“What about a game?” I asked, clapping my hands together to get everyone’s attention. “Are there any?”
“We have bocce ball,” Hil offered.
“Cool, what’s that?” I asked. Most people in the city didn’t often get to enjoy yards like this, unless they moved to the one suburb on the south side, or visited someone there. Most were stuck in apartments, even luxury ones like mine because the population was so dense.
“It’s a game where you throw these little balls and try to get them closer to another ball than the other teams,” Hil explained brightly. “The game came with the house.” This little girl certainly had a brighter disposition than her attack on that binder would suggest.
“Cool,” I said. “I’ll try. Anyone else?” The rest of the group vaguely nodded as they grabbed drinks and plates of food.
“Awesome, we have to be in teams ‘cause there’s so many of us,” Hil said brightly, skipping over to one of the tables and pulling what I presumed to be a box containing the game out from underneath it.