FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Chapter-14

His world was the red of pain and screams of his internal organs.

Theo groaned. "Cass? What happened?" He tried to move, stretch himself and yelled in pain before curling up. His stomach hurt. "Cass? Wake up buddy."

What had his partner so busy he couldn't answer? He was an AI.

"Come on Cass, at least spare some processor to give me the rundown of the damage I suffered." He remembered the fight now, well, the carnage he'd been the victim of. Definitely not one of his better ideas.

He opened his eyes, well, eye. He was lying on the floor. He could see dried blood near him, another body further away. An overturned table was partially blocking his view of the room's door. Why wasn't Cass answering him?

He looked down, found his right arm and followed it. His stomach clenched, hurting, as he saw his forearm was open, the tools in it spread on the floor. "No." He forced his other arm over himself, ignoring the pain that caused, and felt inside. The bone was empty.

For a long moment he couldn't think. Cass was gone. He'd been taken from him. Then 'why' floated up through the fog. Why had someone, no, Earth bound Independents, taken him? He wouldn't work for them. Cass wasn't a mindless machine that performed its duty for anyone accessing its interface. Cass had his own will; he wouldn't help them.

Theo slowly turned on his back, stretching himself and having to bite back yells of pain. He knew he could be making whatever was wrong with him worse, but he couldn't lie there, waiting. Without Cass he couldn't call for help, so he had to help himself. The pain ebbed, which told him his internal damage wasn't too bad. He had to hope Rodrick had stocked the bathroom the way he was trained to.

He rolled onto his stomach, gritting his teeth and without stopping to let the pain pass he pulled his legs under himself and screamed. He fell back on his side. His legs were broken.

"Crawling it is," he grunted when he could breathe again. But first, he closed his forearm, seeing the metal framework that replaced the bones there, empty of the memory that contained Cass was too much of a reminder of his absence. The lack of his voice was enough for Theo to endure.

He pulled himself along the floor and shoved the table out of the way. Then across the hall to the bathroom. He looked up at the cabinet and groaned. He'd have to pull himself up using the sink to reach it.

If Rodrick hadn't stocked it with Pain killers and a healing unit, he was going to kill him.

He reached up, grabbed the edge of the sink with one hand, then the other and pulled. He didn't bother holding back to scream, using the pain to fuel his motion until his elbows were hooked on it and supporting his weight.

He let his head sink forward, closing his eyes for a moment, only to open them again when he felt himself starting to fall down. He locked his arms in place. He couldn't lose his hold. He didn't think he'd be able to get himself back up there again.

He slipped his claws at the edge of the cabinet's door and forced it open. Fortunately, these weren't designed to keep people out of its content. He sighed in relief when he saw the healer unit on the bottom shelf. Rodrick had followed his training and put it on the easiest shelf to reach. Next to it was a hypo injector which, if he'd followed his training would contain a mix of pain killer and nanites designed to work in conjunction with the healer.

He grabbed the hypo and injected the content in his neck. Immediately relief spread through his body, threatening to make him lose his grip on the sink. He grabbed the unit and lowered himself back to the floor. He stretched and gave himself a few second to enjoy the spreading numbness, then prepared the healing unit.

Fortunately for him, whoever had designed the unit had realized that it was possible the injured wouldn't be able to connect to it and had added controls on its surface. He went through the menu until he reached leg. Which bones were broken? By the bulge in his left thigh he knew the tibia was broken, but what else? He'd deal with that one and handle the rest after. The unit told him to ensure the bone was aligned. Right, this as a basic model, it didn't reposition the bones.

Without Cass to close a door and hold his foot, he had to figure out another way of doing it. He repositioned himself and pushed his foot behind the sink's pedestal. It took some jiggling since he couldn't move the foot, but he managed to get it caught between that and the wall, then pushed himself away.

Even through the painkiller he felt the bulge vanish. Then he attached the unit to his leg and turned it on. The timer on it said it had an hour to go. He lied down, closed his eye. And tried hard not to think about what the Independents might be doing to Cass.

* * * * *

The incessant beeping pulled him out of a dreamless sleep. "Damn it Cass, will you stop that?"

The beeping didn't stop, as he opened his mouth again he realized it came from outside his ear, not inside it, and the memory of the empty bone in his arm hit him. With a curse he shut down the healer. It took him a moment before he could do more. The silence was oppressive.

A small part wanted to give up right there. Lie back, close his eyes and let someone else, anyone else take care of it. He cried. He cried the disappearance of his best friend and partner, and when he was done, he reminded himself he was a trained agent of The Dreamers. He'd been chosen from thousands to receive the training because he showed promise and abilities. He wasn't going to let his people down by just giving up.

He dried his eyes, and found he could open both of them now, his arm fur red with dried blood. He laughed in relief. He hadn't lost an eye. He gave himself a few more seconds to let his emotions settle, then he pushed himself to a sitting position and checked his leg. His left thigh was sore even through the painkiller, but there was no pain anymore. He checked for his tibia and fibula on that side, and no pain there. The femur on his right side was fine, but there was pain below his knee. He through it was the tibia. So another hour, but he wasn't doing that on the bathroom floor. He could hobble to one of the cots.

Better yet he needed to check the apartment. The fact no one had attacked him again was a good sign he was alone, but he needed to know what he had to work with. Without Cass he needed all the resources he could amass.

He started with the bedroom where he'd woken up. The other body was the buffalo he'd shot. The gun was still next to it. When he could to kneel, he'd grab that. At a glance all his tools looked to be on the floor, as was his shirt. He forced himself to bend down and grab it, pulling it free of the dried blood.

How long had he been unconscious? He wondered as he hung it in the closet and then carefully took off his pants. Without Cass to there, they had reverted to plain white. He hung that too and closed the door, then waited for the sound of the cleaning to start. Without Cass he had no way to know. Once he heard the process start, he went back to looking around the room. In a corner of the room he found pages spread, one of which was of him. A shot taken when he was sitting in the flower garden near Patricia's apartment.

He frowned and bent down to pick it up, ignoring the pain. No, the flowers were similar, but it wasn't there; he hadn't been wearing those clothes. This had been taken on Eiffel. How had Earth bound Independents ended up with a picture of him on Eiffel? They didn't even know it existed.

His blood ran cold. They weren't supposed to know about it. No one outside of the Oort Cloud Independents knew about it. He grabbed the other papers. A few other pictures of him, also on Eiffel, but like the park, in generic places. Okay, maybe they didn't know about Eiffel, but still, how had they gotten pictures of him? The rest was texts, but in the Earth Independents' language. He folded them and tried to put them in a pocket, but he wasn't wearing his pants. He rolled them in a tight cylinder and moved to the other bedroom.

The tables were still there, but the equipment on them was gone. He hobbled around them to look if they had left anything behind it, and they had. There was a pile of ashes in one corner, with a mechanical leg in it.

Theo slumped against the wall, and only the pain as he started sliding down caused him to stay up. Rodrick was dead. Those bastards had killed him and burned the organic components of his body. If not for the leg, he wouldn't have known who that had been. Not test could have revealed it.

He cursed. Rodrick had been a good kid. A nice guy, he hadn't deserved dying that way. When he found them, he was going to rip them apart for this. He rested his head against the wall and slowed his breathing. He let his anger flow and ebb down. Stoking it wouldn't help anything. It would make him careless, and he couldn't afford that right now, not without his partner around to help.

He looked around the room, and then picked up Rodrick's leg. It took him a moment to figure out how to open the compartment and it was mostly empty, only one small device left in it. Something to do with communication Theo suspected. Even the drive had been taken out of the bone. Just like his.

The only thing the drive had in common was their AI. He didn't know what was Rodrick's Beta's name, they'd spent their nights together before he'd received it. They were going to do the proper introductions the next time Theo was going to be on Eiffel. If they'd taken his drive before Theo had delivered Casanova, they would have had that in common too.

They killed Rodrick and taken his drive.

Theo frowned.

Why hadn't they killed him? It didn't make any sense to kill one and not the other. Had they done something to him? Added something to his arm that would lead them somewhere? Or to someone? He turned to go to the other bedroom for his tools, but pain shot up his leg as he placed a little weight on it. The painkiller was wearing off. He needed to take care of that first. It wasn't like he could go anywhere in his condition, so for now it didn't matter if there was a tracker on his body.

He hobbled to the living room, and stretched out on a cot. He set the healer over his leg, where the pain was the sharpest, started it and lied back, closing his eyes and immediately falling asleep.

* * * * *

It wasn't the beeping of the healer that woke him. It was the pain in his stomach. The painkiller had completely worn off and he could now feel his internal damage, whatever it was. He stopped the healing of his leg and moved the healer to his stomach. If the painkiller was done, the nanite would become ineffective soon if they weren't busy. He should have started with that instead of his legs.

Once the healer was working again he tried to sleep, but it was a while before the pain was subdued enough for him to doze off.

* * * * *

The beeping sounded and Theo took the healer off his leg. He slept through the repair of the damage to his stomach and whatever else had needed to be fix there. He had no idea how long it had taken. He hadn't thought to check the timer on the healer unit. When he'd started on the leg again, he hadn't been able to sleep anymore, so it had been another thirty minutes of boring waiting. Now, he carefully stood.

The pain was gone, and the discomfort was minimal. He stretched and found he was mostly flexible. His first item on the agenda was to get cleaned up. He went to the bathroom and stood in front of the shower, realizing he had no way to turn it on. He thought about the sink, but he had the same problem. Almost everything was controlled by Implant. He'd have to settle with scrapping as much of the blood out of his fur as he could.

The closet was silent, so the cleaning cycle was done. He forced the door open and checked his shirt and pants, spotless. He set them aside and looked at the rest of the clothing in there. He didn't find another white shirt and pants, so Rodrick had been wearing his polymorphic clothing when he died. The clothing in there were too colorful for him to be comfortable wearing, but he couldn't go out wearing just white. He'd looked like he was out of some old movie, or heading to a porn shoot. Even Derelicts didn't wear full white.

He settled on a green and blue jacket, and Orange and lime green pants. Just what kind of entertainer was Rodrick playing at? Theo couldn't think of one corporation where this set of colors wouldn't be stared at, and this was the tamest mix he could make with the selection.

He didn't get dressed. First, he used the rest of Rodrick's colorful clothing as rags to rub his fur, sending clouds of dried blood flying. When he no longer made any clouds, he put on his white clothes and over that the jacket and colorful pants. Then he searched among his tool for the scanner. Because they had been built by an Independent, and not all of them had implants, it was designed with a small display readout. It didn't give a lot of information since it was made to work in conjunction with other tools, one of which had a better display, or in his case Cass, but he'd trained himself to read it. He passed it over his arm, then his entire body and was relieved to find he didn't have a tracker on his person.

He retrieved the rest of his tools, putting them back in their slots in his arm. He hadn't lost any. He picked up the gun, checked it still had a charge and put it in the waistband of his pants at the back. He had to believe it was a model that couldn't be detected by the random weapon's scans since Earth bound Independents were against all form of invasive technology, with Implants at the top of the list.

He still felt half naked without Cass to watch his back as he headed for the door. He went in the closet, and felt along the wall. security procedure required that any door where people had to go through could be manually open in case of a wide spread power failure. All he had to do was find the access to the release. It was at the bottom corner, it popped open after Theo pressed on it, and inside was a lever. It moved easily and there was a click from the door. When Theo checked, it was open a centimeter. He pushed it the rest of the way easily and exited the apartment.

He headed to the stairs. For the same security reasons, they couldn't require an implant to open, so he shouldered it open and a tired sounding alarm began to ring, Theo raced down the stairs, gaging on the stench, but too focused to care. The outside door was still open and once out he breathed a sigh of relief.

Alright, next thing to do was reach Patricia. He'd need her help in tracking where Cass was. The problem was how to reach her. He could board the transit system easily enough, even without an implant, so many people got on and off that an extra one wouldn't be noticed, and he remembered she lived in the Lumbard building, the problem was he didn't know where that was. Cass had handled the navigating and he couldn't just stop someone on the street and ask where it was. He'd been considered a Derelict and reported. SolGov didn't have much tolerance for them.

Could he pass himself as an Independent who had lost his interface? He didn't think so because of their specialized needs they had to register on entry. He wouldn't be in there and he was back to being thought a Derelict. Maybe he could find the citys' Derelicts and ask them for help? He didn't care what SolGov claimed about how it had been able to keep Mars free of them, those people managed to get everywhere. Even Eiffel had it's Derelict population. If he knew where to find them, he'd definitively ask for their help.

He'd start by getting on the transit and figure out things from there.

The walk to the transit station was uneventful, but he felt nervous the entire way. He was so used to Cass checking the security cameras and letting him know if anyone was approaching, he felt like everyone was watching him now. For the first time since becoming one of Anderson's agents, he felt like the people around him could tell he was an impostor, here to steal from them.

He joined the throng as the transit cart arrived and was careful not to shove anyone as he entered, finding a seat at the further end. He was in. He was in motion. Now what?

He rested his head back and closed his eyes and tried to ignore the others talking among themselves or to someone else via their implants. After a moment he found himself checking their hands, looking for twitching of fingers. Looking for someone coding to his or her partner. He was being an idiot. Even if Anderson had another agent on Mars, the odds of them being here just as he needed them weren't worth thinking about.

He chuckled, wishing he was in a Bondo movie. If he was Bondo, he'd accidentally run into exactly the right person to help him. Usually the movies handled that with some level of subtlety, having previously established that the person had a reason for being where she was, but sometime they just forgot about credibility and could have called the help 'plot device.' He could certainly go for just such plot device right now.

Enough wishful thinking, Theo, he told himself. You have training, use it. He chuckled he couldn't think of one time when someone had covered functioning in an Implant dependent world without his partner. Plenty of courses had gone over how careful he had to be with the drive, maintaining its secret as well and making sure nothing happened to the compartment, but nothing about what to do if it was stolen. Maybe he should have a backup installed, give Cass a place to go if the drive was stolen again. Another thing to deal with in the future. He needed to deal with the present.

He lightly banged his head against the glass. "Come on Theo, think," he whispered to himself because the silence in his head was getting to him. "Lumbard building, there's got to be a way to figure out where it is." But if there was, he couldn't think of it. This was the kind of things he'd depended on Cass for. He hoped he was okay. There was no telling what those Independents were doing to him.

Motion caught his attention from the corner of his eye, a splash of color against drab gray, and he looked toward it, only to realize it was one of those advertising playing on one of the windows. He almost looked away, but then noticed there was a lot of flowers. The image cycled through various flower gardens, he thought, and smiled at the thought of finding one of them and just going there to relax, try to gather his thoughts.

There were no sounds, those would come through the implant. In fact, he wasn't sure why random windows in the carts showed advertisings. Maybe too many people had programs in their implants that let them ignore the advertisings? They figured placing them in the real world ensure more people saw them?

He straightened as he realized, too late, that one of them had been a shot from low next to a flower bed, showing the wave of colors over the ground, and that in the background had been the Lumbard building. There had been text too, directions maybe?

Did they cycle? He hadn't paid attention to them the previous times he'd taken transit. He expected no one paid attention to them either. He changed seat, placing himself closer and tried not to look like he was paying attention to it.

The woman next to him took a look at him and then changed seat herself, leaving him alone. Theo smiled. Maybe these colorful clothes were good for something after all. Advertising for beauty products replaced a food fabricator and a long showing of a shuttle replaced that, and then it was clothing, and sex parlor, then a restaurant. After that Theo had trouble paying attention to them. Maybe they wouldn't so boring with sound, but they were putting him to sleep.

Then colors and he focused. Flowers, the text talked about the park, and not only gave its location, it gave the closest transit stop, with a map on the side showing the whole of the Transit systems. When the one showing the Lumbard building came around he memorized the stop, which, easily enough, was the Lumbard district stop, and tried to figure out the route he had to take. He had to check the name of the next stop as the cart stopped. Another thing he didn't know why they did, but the name was on the back wall of the waiting area, in stylized letters. He was at the Rutherford stop. When the advertising came again he worked out the route, but he needed four cycles until he was sure of it. Cass was so much better than he was at this part of the job.

He finally relaxed. It wouldn't be quick. He couldn't just know which cart headed in that direction, he'd have to go by trial and error, but now he knew he'd be able to make it. It would be tedious work, but that he could do.

* * * * *

Theo had lost count of the number of carts he'd taken by the time he got off at the Lumbard stop, but the sun had set. By street light he made his way to the building, stopping in the darkness once he was close, waiting for someone who was heading for the entrance. When one did, an elderly goat dressed in a light brown dress, he fell in step behind her, and entered alongside, then stepping into the same lift. He couldn't control where the lift went, so now he still had to wait until it stopped at the right floor.

That there was no floor indicator in the lift worked to his advantage, unless the same person returned to it and saw him still there, no one could tell he was going up and down it, checking the plaque on the opposite wall with the floor number, waiting for right floor.

It took half an hour before the doors opened onto floor three hundred and eighteen, and he held it open while a family of possum entered, then he exited. He went to door eight, and made sure no one was around before banging lightly on it. When there was no response after a few minutes, and the hall was still empty he banged again, a little louder.

"Come on Patricia, answer the damned door," he muttered under his breath. It shouldn't matter if she was sleeping. Angelica would have detected the noise, then checked the sensor for who was at the door. She'd either open it herself or wake Patricia.

He heard another door open and started walking along the hall, until the man, a cute alligator, if a little young for him, past him and continued for the lift. When the door to the lift closed, he rushed back to Patricia's door and banged on it again. Still no answer.

He rested his head against the door. She wasn't there. Of all the luck, he'd figured out how to make it here and she'd gone out. Fine, she'd be back at some point. Only he couldn't stay here. He'd attract attention, the authorities would be called, and he'd be treated like a Derelict. He'd have to find somewhere he could wait for her.

He could wait for her in the flower garden. He wouldn't be bothered there, and it would be good to relax among the scents for a while. But how could he let her know he'd be there? He couldn't leave her a message without Cass.

He ran a hand on the door. A solid flat surface, but not welder proof. Another door opened and he walked again, not paying attention to the couple. If he was going to leave the message there, it couldn't be long, so the park was out. He couldn't know if she it even knew it was there. She might not enjoy flower parks as much as he did. It would have to be short, and discreet. He couldn't risk the Independents coming here and realizing he'd left her a message. No, that wasn't a problem, they couldn't read SolScript. Still, it had to be short.

When he came back to the door he'd decided on the message, and had gone through the letter's shape in his head. He'd been surprised at how little attention he paid to them when reading, he just saw the words and knew what it meant. He had the welder in hand before he reached it, and quickly engraved the words 'Lost Cass. Gone Home.' Along the side of the door. Then he walked along the lifts waiting for one to open.

Leaving the building was faster. He got on the lift when someone exited, and it went down to the lobby. He didn't need help exiting because door couldn't lock someone in, and then went to the garden. He might not wait for her there, but he needed to rest, to breath in an illusion of home.

He didn't often miss Eiffel, or his parents. People who couldn't spend extended periods of time on their own didn't do the work he did. But right now, he missed them. For this moment, he felt very much alone.

He closed his eyes, breathed in the scents and imagined his mother and father sitting next to him, enjoying Caduceus' garden three blocks from their houses. He imagined it was Sunday, and they were there like every Sunday. His mom had been the one to get them in the habit. Because of her genetics work, she interacted with Caduceus and had felt they should pay their respect to the AI who kept the genetic database.

As a kid Theo had balked at the idea of sitting still for even fifteen minutes, but his mother had insisted, promising treats afterward, and Theo had learned patience that way. As he'd grown, he'd required less and less bribing, to the point where he'd go to them on his own. There was a garden near the school, and Theo spent many lunch times there.

He opened his eyes, and he was alone again, but he didn't feel alone. He'd regained a little bit of home, and now it was time to get to his apartment. It wouldn't be quick, but at least he knew how to get there. All he had to do was go to the convention center, and by now he could reach it from anywhere in the city, and from there it was a long walk home. Once he got there, that's when the fun would start. He'd have to break into his own apartment.

* * * * *

Again, he'd lost track of how many carts he'd had to take to reach the convention center, and he wasn't familiar enough with Mars's moons to tell the time with their motions. He had trouble staying awake during the walk, and if he hadn't feared being arrested for vagrancy, and being labeled a Derelict, he would have stretched on a bench for a few hours. He did make it, but then he had to wait for someone to come and open the door for him. He found a dark spot along the wall, and leaned against it to wait.

He woke with a start at a loud conversation, and was surprised he was still standing. An antelope of some sort and a lion were talking loudly, clearly drunk and heading for the door. Theo hurried behind them, only to see them walk into the closed door, and burst laughing. For a moment they focused, then exploded in laughter again when the door didn't open.

The lion noticed him. "Hey, Friend. Can you open the door for us? We're too drunk, can't tell it to work. My girlfriend-"

"Wife," The antelope interrupted.

The lion looked at her. "You're my wife?"

She giggled and nodded.

"When did we get married?"

"Two," she said, raising a finger, frowning at it, then opening her whole hand. "Three hours ago."

The lion looked like he'd say something, but then he shrugged. He turned to Theo. "My wife will make it worth your while. She's really good. I mean really good. That's why I married her."

After all the problems Theo had had today, he was happy to finally have something he knew how to deal with. "I'm sorry, but the building has strict policy against opening the door for strangers."

"I'm not a stranger, I live here."

"We live here," she added.

"Yeah, but you just started, I've been here for months." He glared at Theo.

"I'm sorry, but I don't know you. If you can't manage to open the door, how about you leave and come back when you're sober so I can go in?"

"I don't need you to tell me if I can or can't open the door."

The antelope pressed against the lion. "Come on, open it." She put a hand in his pants and stoked him. "The faster you get inside, the faster I get in your pants."

Theo had a hard time not smiling. She was lucky it was so late at night, or that he wasn't a proper SolGov citizen, her behavior would be worth a couple of days in a cell. It did seem to be the kind of motivation he needed because the door opened, and Theo followed them inside.

He joined them in the lift and the lion grinned at him. "I told you I could."

"It was a fluke," Theo said as the door closed. "I'm willing to bet you're going to miss your floor."

"No I won't."

"Really? What floor are you one?"

"Eighty-three."

That was a relief, If they'd been on a lower floor, this wouldn't have worked. "Prove it. Stop the lift at floor seventy-five."

"Easy!" The lion focused and after a moment the doors opened on floor sixty-three. "There."

"Wrong floor." Theo pointed to the plaque.

The antelope stepped out of the lift too read it. Theo held the door so she wouldn't be stuck here. "Yeah," she said. "You're too soft."

The lion focused again and the door tried to close. Theo offered his hand to the antelope and gently pulled her in, then let them close. She draped herself over him. "You're nice. You want to marry me?"

"You already have a husband."

"Yeah, but I can handle two."

Theo smiled. "I'm afraid you won't find me very satisfying."

"Why not?" She groped him. "Feels like you have a big enough package."

Theo was getting hard under the ministration.

"Maybe, but I wouldn't be able to perform for you."

It took her a moment, then understanding registered. She let go of him.

The lion sniffed. "About time. I thought you were going to dump me for him."

"Oh no," she said, licking his muzzle. "I'd never do that. But maybe you should marry him. You'd like what he's packing."

The lion studied Theo's crotch and licked his lips. As he opened his mouth Theo spoke over him.

"So, how about that seventy-fifth floor? Think you can get the doors to open there?" He didn't want to have to deal with advances from the lion. Under normal circumstances he might have agreed, even with a woman participating, but after his day all he wanted to do was crawl into bed and lose consciousness for a few days.

It took the lion two other tries before the doors opened on the right floor. The lion smiled at him with pride as Theo stepped off the lift.

"Consider me convinced," The tiger said before the doors closed.

He shambled to his door and looked at the panel he'd have to undo to unlock the door, then let his head fall against the door. He needed a moment's rest before he attempted it. He hoped no one came by before he was ready.

He wanted to wait longer, much longer, but after a few seconds he convinced himself he couldn't wait any more. Being arrested this close to his bed would just be too much of an insult. He pulled himself away just as the door opened.

For a moment he was looking at a smiling mongoose's face, then said mongoose had his arms around his neck. "You came," He said, and Theo felt tears against his fur.