by Simon Archer
“Oh god,” Kira sobbed, and I squeezed her hand even tighter. Clem stared straight forward into the back of Gunnar’s seat, and Malthe hugged himself tightly up front, no doubt worried about Avil.
“Is anyone hurt? Has anyone been taken yet?” I asked.
“No, I don’t think so,” Kinley said, and I breathed yet another sigh of relief, probably the millionth I’d made that day alone. “Though we’re just in Cindra’s family’s place, we don’t know about anywhere else. But if our drones are holding up here, they probably are there, too. But they won’t be for much longer, I’m afraid. We need backup, Nic, and we need it now.”
“It’s coming. We’re coming,” I assured her. “We’re getting there as fast as we can, I promise. And we’ve got the rest of our drones.”
“You’re coming right now?” she asked to confirm. “How long?”
“Oh, I don’t know. How long should we be, Gunnar?” I asked, looking over at the driver. He looked in his mirror and back at me.
“Should be about an hour, Mr. Joch,” he said regretfully.
“An hour?” Malthe repeated, almost yelling, and I could see his eyes bugging out in the mirror. “That’s not fast enough! We need to get there faster!”
“The drones will get there faster,” I reminded him quickly. Gunnar and the other air car drivers were under enough pressure already without Malthe adding to it.
“Sorry, Mr. Leitz, this is the fastest we can get there with all these air cars out here right now,” Gunnar said glumly. “I’m doin’ the best I can.”
“Of course you are, Gunnar, we’re just worried about our friends and family,” I told him, giving him a small smile. He returned the gesture.
“Oh, I know you are, Mr. Joch,” he said, not unkindly. “Aren’t we all?”
“We’ll be there soon,” I assured Kinley, “and the drones will be there faster. It’ll be okay, we sent all of them, right, Malthe? Even the ones that were originally assigned to protect TelCorp, not the south side?”
“Yeah, I sent them all,” he said, and I could hear the panic in his voice. Great, now everyone around me was losing it.
“Okay, listen up, crew,” I said, trying to sound as hardy and hopeful as I could manage. “There’s no time to freak out or get all upset. Trust me, I get it, I’m feeling all those things, too, but we’re better than this, folks. We can figure this all out. We’re going to go down there, defend the south side, and reclaim our place as the top binding corp in the city. Then we’re gonna deal with the bigger problem behind this all. We’ve got intel and plan for that now, too.”
I cast a wary glance at Gunnar as I censored myself when talking about the tunnel people. He arched an eyebrow at me but didn’t ask for any clarification. He was a good guy, Gunnar.
“Okay…” Kinley said, her voice trailing off as if she didn’t quite believe me. “Whatever you say, Nic. Just get here as fast as you can, okay?”
“We will,” I assured her, and she clicked away. We sat in silence for a few more moments.
“You do have a plan, right, Nic?” Kira asked me.
“Yes, I have a plan,” I told her. “Don’t worry about that.”
“Okay.” She bit her lip as if she was going to cry again, so I kept holding her hand.
There was a reprieve for a couple of miles when it came to the smoke in the sky. But as we progressed through the south side, it came back, and the closer we got to the docks, the thicker it became, indicating that there really was a battle afoot between the drones.
“Damn,” Clem said when it was hard to even see a few feet out the windows for all the smoke. “This is worse than I thought it would be.”
“Hopefully, it only looks bad,” I said quietly, trying not to focus on it.
“Yeah, maybe our drones just blasted all of theirs, and it’s over now,” Malthe said hopefully, though he kept hugging himself as if he didn’t actually believe that.
We were quiet after that until we got to the gravel road around where Cindra’s family’s place was. We could still barely see for all the smoke. It was… pretty much a whole different world from when we’d left there just that morning.
“Well, guys, I think this is as far as I can go,” Gunnar said, and I squinted to see the air cars in front of us swooping down to let our employees out on the gravel path.
“Sure thing, man.” I leaned forward and clapped him on the shoulder. “Thanks for coming this far. We really appreciate it.”
“No problem,” he said, but we all knew it wasn’t that simple. “Let me know when you need a lift out.”
“We will,” I promised him. “But I think we’ll be down here for a while at least.” He looked relieved at this news, and I shot him and the rest of the air car drivers a giant sum for their troubles.
Once we were out of the air car, lining the gravel path with a large swathe of employees, and turned and gave orders to the others.
“Malthe, get the tech people set up in Cindra’s family’s place… or, I guess you live there now, too. Anyway, just do it,” I ordered. “Do whatever you need to do to help with all this.”
“Done,” Malthe said. “But what about the drones?” He jerked his chin in the direction of the houses in front of us. I squinted into the distance. I could hear the distant sound of laser fire going off.
“It sounds to me like it’s on the other side of the houses,” I said.
“I did order our drones to engage that way if they could and direct the battle in that direction while still protecting this flank,” Malthe said. “Maybe it worked.”
“Let’s hope it did,” I said. “But either way, the whole group will be safer in there than out here in the middle of everything. The tech and administrative people aren’t going to do us any good in battle.
“That’s true.” Malthe gulped before seemingly resolving to get the group inside, whatever it took. “I can tell the drones what we’re doing, try to keep us safe while we get in there.”
“There’s enough space in the house for everyone, right?” I asked.
“To work, maybe, but it’ll be cramped,” Malthe said. “Cramped with the binders included, I mean, but I’m assuming you have other plans for them.”
“Oh, I definitely do,” I said.
“Anyway, yeah, we can work in there, but there won’t be room for everyone to sleep there,” Malthe said. “And it’ll definitely be a burden on the family.”
“Well, they’ll have to bear it if they want us to get them out of this mess,” I said.
“I think they’ll see it that way, too,” Malthe agreed.
“Okay, go,” I said, nodding to him. “Good luck.”
He nodded back, and then I turned to Kira.
“You go with him and take the administrative folks,” I said. “Do what you can to communicate with the other foxgirl families with Lin, Kinley, and Cindra. Help them convince them to help us. We need them now more than ever, and they need us.”
“Okay,” Kira said, nodding and leaning in to give me a big hug. I squeezed her tightly and then let her go to do her job.
The group assembled and then disappeared into the smoke. I heard more shooting, but no screaming, and then I heard a door open, so I assumed they got in alright.
I looked over at Clem and then down the remaining employees in a line.
“Looks like it’s just us binders now,” I remarked.
“It’s game time then?” he asked, nodding in the direction of the laser blast noises.
“Yeah, it’s game time.”
We walked over to join the other binders, including the board members who used to be binders.
“What’s going on, Joch?” Semra asked, her arms crossed over her chest. “What’re we gonna do?”
“Well, I’m assuming that since everything that went down at TelCorp headquarters was just a distraction so they could do this,” I explained, “there are binders from the conglomerate lurking around here somewhere.”
“And we need to find them,” Semra finished fo
r me, a sly smile spreading across her face. “Excellent.”
“I’m glad you think so,” I chuckled. “But it’s going to be hard to find them in this mess.” I spread my arms to indicate the heavy smoke around us. As if on cue, Clem began to cough, and then, as if it was infectious, several others began to cough as well.
“It’s a shame we don’t have gas masks or something,” I said, shaking my head, “but we’re going to have to make do.”
“It’s alright, Mr. Joch, we’re young and healthy,” a nearby young man who I only vaguely recognized said. “It’s what we’re hired for. Sort of.”
“Yeah, I guess you’re right,” I said, giving a little laugh without much humor.
“Are we trying to get any intel out of these binders?” Semra asked. “Or should we just take ‘em out?”
“First priority is to do everything you can to protect the foxgirls and the south side,” I said. “But if you can get intel, go for it. But only if you have the time and wherewithal to do so without jeopardizing anyone or any of our goals.”
“So shoot to kill, basically, and if we don’t kill, then see if we can get anything out of ‘em,” another man said.
Now that I wasn’t a binder anymore, I realized that I didn’t even know half of these people’s names. We’d fired most of the binders I knew because they were loyal to Elias and then hired new ones. Since I wasn’t out in the field much nowadays, I never really got to know them.
I nodded to the speaker. “Exactly. I’m not gonna lie to you guys. This could be tough. We could have some fatalities, but if we get through this, we’ll be stronger than ever and better positioned to win this thing and get our city back. Now, are you with me?”
Several of them looked around at each other, but none of them wavered in their resolve.
“We’re with you,” the same man who had spoken last assured me. He was older and more distinguished than the others. I seemed to remember him coming to us from a smaller company, not one of the big corps.
“Okay, thanks for all you’re doing here,” I said before I began gesturing to the various binders under my command. “You, you, you and you, go down that way. You eight, that way. This group, down there. Semra, go with them, you’re in charge. Fizz, go with the first group, Clem, the second. The rest of you, you’re with me. Understood?” Everyone nodded, though they looked nervous.
“How will we see them?” the nervous young man asked. “Couldn’t they just come at us out of nowhere?”
“You’ll have to be even more aware of your surroundings than usual,” I said. “Shouldn’t be hard, considering the training you all have. But I’m not gonna lie to you, this will be dangerous, and it will be difficult, and some of you may get hurt, or worse.”
More nervous and uncomfortable looks were exchanged, but no one fled, so that was something, at least.
“Okay, guys, anything else?” I asked them.
“When do we meet back up?” Semra asked.
“When it seems like you’re done, or you just can’t press on any longer, or you’re injured, head into the house,” I instructed, pointing straight ahead where I knew Cindra’s family’s place was. “But that’s the last resort, you understand?
“Got it,” Fizz said, nodding and gulping audibly.
“You guys will be great,” I assured them. “You’re the best there is. No competition. These guys? These guys are just cheap knock-offs. Wannabes. They’ve got nothing on you, period.”
“Some of them used to work for TelCorp, right?” another young man asked nervously. “Before you took over?”
“No, nothing like that,” I said, shaking my head. “Anyone who was with TelCorp before and knew what was going on got put in the Void. They can’t hurt you now.”
“What if they broke them out of the Void?” another man asked.
“Uh, I don’t see that happening,” I said. “We help run the Void, at least for now, and it’s our security systems keeping that place afloat. There’ve been no break-ins. Now hop to it, men. Let’s go!”
I clapped my hands together, and the crowd of binders dispersed to where I had told them to go. To their credit, none of them so much as hesitated, not for a second. They got the hell out of there as soon as I told them to. I was left with a small group of them, made up of myself, two of the wary young men, one with brown hair and one with blonde, the older distinguished guy, and three more men who hadn’t spoken yet.
“I’d ask you your names, but I won’t remember them right now,” I said apologetically. “Let’s go over this way and see what we can find.”
I pointed to my front left, toward where some of the laser fire sounds were coming from.
“The drones won’t shoot at us, right?” one of the young men, the one with brown hair, asked. “They’re programmed not to mess with us?”
“I mean, ours are,” I said. “I can’t speak for theirs, but I assume they’ll be shooting at us. You’ve got great training, though, you’ll be fine. Just stick by me, all in a huddle. They’ve got less of a chance against us if we stay in a group. If they attack one of us, they attack all of us. Let’s keep it that way.”
My men acquiesced and joined me in a circle, with the young men inside. That was probably for the best. They’d be the first to crack, right out of training as they were and all.
“Up here,” I hissed. “Stay in a group, walk forward, follow my lead. Keep me in the front at all times. Got it?”
“Got it,” one of them, I couldn’t tell which one, called back from behind me.
We kept going on and on through the fog and smoke, following the sound of the laser fire in front of us. Eventually, the crunch of the gravel beneath my feet was replaced by the soft patter of grass, making it even easier for us to escape detection.
We didn’t run into anyone for a while. Cindra’s family’s property was vast, I’d made sure enough of that, and so had Malthe, given everything they’d been through lately, and so the hope was that our own drones would keep any would-be trespassers at the edge of the enormous yard.
“Maybe there aren’t any--.” one of the young men in the middle, his voice unmistakable for its youth and anxiety, began to ask, but as tended to happen in these situations, he spoke way too soon.
I saw them coming out of the corner of my eye a split second before they were upon us, long enough for me to pull out my holo knife, threw up my arms to protect myself, and warn the others about the impending attack.
“Watch out!” I screamed. “Binders!”
Their coats, much like the men Clem and I had chased in the alleyway in front of TelCorp headquarters, were unmistakable, a dull green against the bright green grass beneath our feet, and in contrast to the smoke. Our own coats blended in better, I realized. They hadn’t thought that through. Just another way that we were better prepared.
Even so, they had found us first. There were about seven of them, and they came at us from our front left, three of them lunging for me at once.
I fought them off, fending off their attacks with my arms and with my holo knife, dodging them left and right. I didn’t have any grenades left after the previous night’s events, not that it would have mattered much. I didn’t have any time to reach for anything in my tool belt amidst all of the attacks.
I heard one of the men behind me scream in pain, but I didn’t have time to look back to see who it was or what had happened, let alone to help. I had four of them on me now.
I held one of them back by the neck with my right hand as I stabbed another in the abdomen with my holo knife with my left hand. The second binder fell to the ground, dead. I was forced to release the first to retrieve my holo knife from the dead binder’s stomach, and the other one staggered back into a tree, clutching his neck and gagging.
But before I had a chance to check on my employees behind me, the other two binders lunged at me again, closely followed by the one who I’d choked. The one at the front crashed into me and nearly pushed me to the ground, but I managed to jump
up and roll over him, kicking him in the spine with both of my feet and pushing him to the ground, where I slit his throat with my holo knife.
The other two were punching and slicing at me with their own holo knives now, the blades green instead of TelCorp’s customary red. Green was a new color, as far as I knew. Each binding corp had its own, but it seemed the conglomerate had picked a new one instead of coalescing around the traditions of just one of the corps that came together to form it.
I combated each blow with my own holo knife and my forearms, which were plated under my jacket for extra protection. One of them managed to land a blow on my cheek, but it only stung, and I recovered quickly.
I focused on the one on my right since he was still slowed down by the choking I’d given him earlier. I fended off the one on my left with my holo knife as I reached down to retrieve one of the fallen binders’ weapons. The green blade, about the size of my forearm, buzzed to life, and that surprised the binder. I took advantage of that and barreled it into his chest, having to let go of the weapon as he fell. But he was dead now, and I still had my own holo knife, leaving me with only one opponent left.
He fought hard, I’ll give him that. He came in at me with a barrage of attacks, punching and kicking and slicing with all his might, each attack coming in short succession after the last. I wasn’t sure quite what to do, honestly. I kept up with him, but couldn’t seem to defeat him. We seemed doomed to be locked in the same quick battle of gymnastics until we both dropped from exhaustion, probably at the same time as one another.
But then I saw it. The tree that the guy I’d choked had backed into. If I could press this guy backward until he ran up against the tree as well, he’d be stopped in his tracks, and I just might be able to do him in with one final blow.
So one step at a time, slowly but surely, I pressed him back toward the tree. He barely noticed we were moving at first, distracted by the battle, but even when he did, he didn’t seem to make much of it, or to notice that we were headed straight for a giant tree trunk. He was too caught up in the flow of the battle.
And so I pressed and pressed until I thought my arms might fall off from exhaustion. Sweat dripped down my brow, each breath coming in more painful than the last because of all the smoke, but it didn’t matter. I was the one leading the battle, and there came the point when my opponent couldn’t take any more steps back.