Seeking Freedom

a sci-fi erotic fiction based in the world of Cyberpunk 2030

by Sharpfang '2007

The prairies reached to the horizon. My hooves were beating the ground in constant rhythm, the feeling of near-weightlessness was stunning. Using four legs for running, for fast gallop, the asynchronous movement, it took some getting used to, but I loved every moment of it. I ran up the nearby hill and saw my herd below, grazing peacefully. I raised my head high and whinnied loudly, happily, feeling the wind caressing my mane, carrying my tail. I breathed the cool, clean air, gazed at the sky.

Replies to my whinny came from the herd. They were at first far and quiet, but their volume was rising. They were becoming unpleasant, regular beeps. The illusion fell apart.

I opened my eyes and silenced the alarm clock in the wall console. My sense of smell woke up, bringing the tepid smell of the sleeping cube hotel. Another day. The ceiling a meter above my head, not enough room to spread my arms, dim light of a fluorescent tube lighting the dirty white plastic walls, plastic fibre bed sheets, a locker for personal belongings and the console with a screen - TV, network, phone, billing and so on. Some obscenities scratched on the wall. I pulled the photo of a pretty white arabian mare from behind the console frame - the winner of the greatest annual equine breeders competition, property of an arabian sheik. Subject of my job two years ago, convoy, guarding the precious cargo and preventing her DNA signature theft - not a single hair, not a single live cell of her organism was to be acquired by anybody. I put the photo in my wallet, checked it for a tiny plastic bag with some white hairs and a four-terabyte minichip. I had managed to smuggle her DNA signature. Worth quite a bit, but not for sale. For my personal use. I grinned at the memory of leaving my own personal DNA signature inside her during the eight hours of transatlantic flight too. I removed a credit chip from the wallet, inserted it into the slot in the console, selected "shower" and "check out". Five minutes and fifteen dollars later I was eating synthetic spaghetti and drinking murderously strong coffee in a bar downstairs, making calculations on a napkin.

I was rich. I would be able to live in a good apartment in a hotel, or buy myself a decent house in the suburbs. I could eat real, high-quality food instead of this - I prodded the pasta with a fork, it was a single solid block hardly melting in watery sauce. I recalled the memory of taste of sweet grass, better than the best lunch at Royal. I was rich, but still not rich enough. Not rich enough to be able to eat grass, to run free and never worry about money. One big heist or two rather serious jobs and I would afford it. But it's easy to die on a serious job. On the other hand, maybe the doc may need my services? Maybe he knows a fixer willing to buy a clean, reputable identity with a nearly-complete body to match for a decent price? Maybe the price was lower? Or maybe it was much higher? It was time to find the right people and make the arrangements soon.

But now a day of work awaited. A small job. With a small risk of turning into a serious job. I visited the weaponsmith workshop two blocks downstreet. Old, dirty, smelling with oil and gunpowder, but Frank was a master of his art.

"Hello, Kaino. The usual service, plus?"

"Plus a flash grenade, plus a red-stripe clip and eight armor-piercings, Frank. Wait, make that twelve and load two clips the usual way."

"Got something you might like. Unarmed hoppers. The guy ripped the detonator wires too short while disarming them. Won't do any harm but whoever knows hoppers will shit his pants seeing one jumping at him. Oh, and without the charge, perfectly legal. New go for 200 a piece, my price for you: 10." Frank was loading two clips for my pistol, every second bullet armor-piercing, remainder illegal hollow point, "red stripe cartridge".

"I'll take one."

"One? This is a bargain that will never happen again! Get five!"

"Two. Can you wire one with a flash charge?"

"If I could wire it with a flash charge, I'd wire it with explosives and sell them for 150."

"But can you just place a flash charge inside? With a nine-second grenade timer."

"Can be done."

Ten minutes later I had cybergoggles battery and pistol Smart battery replaced, pistol cleaned and oiled, and a supply of lethal ammo and non-lethal throwables in my pockets. I could do the cleaning myself, but done by Frank it guaranteed the weapon would work flawlessly. I got on the train to the docks. Workers on the way to work, dirty and sweaty, swearing and talking loudly, it was their world at this time of day. Locked in the steel coffin of the windowless train car for half a hour I was trying to recall a different eight hours in a steel coffin. I closed my eyes and began daydreaming...

...They locked the door behind us and sealed it with adhesive tape. The inside was pressurized and the access ramp outside was sprayed with a strongly corrosive alkaline to remove any traces of her DNA. Two thirds of the container were the stall for the horse. Straw on the floor, automatic feeder and water dispenser, a locker with veterinary and other supplies. One fourth was life support devices - air filters removing carbon dioxide and providing oxygen, water filters, demoisturized food supply and feces reprocessor. The container could hold a precious live cargo during a monthly trip to Moon or allow for recovery from the bottom of the ocean in case of a plane crash. The remainder was a small room at the end of the container - with a narrow cot and a TV set to pass time, and a really tiny bathroom - shower, sink and toilet in one. There were no windows of any kind or methods to communicate with the outside.

She was nervous and scared. She examined the walls, the door behind her, the straw and hay on the floor. She walked up to me and began smelling me. The container shuddered and she froze in fear. I gently touched her head and held my hand to her fur. She did not get that award in the show for nothing. She was beautiful and she was perfect, absolutely the most perfect being in the world. She walked closer and breathed my breath. I touched her chin gently. Then rapidly she turned away and swished her tail, its tip lashing my back. My eyes locked on her back, on her sex, and that was the first time I realized how incredibly erotic horses are.

I could feel gentle vibrations of the floor as the plane was heading to the landing strip. I lay on the cot and watched her through open door. She nibbled some hay. I peered at my watch. The heart rate monitor was pulsing rapidly, but it wasn't my pulse. It was a signal - a friendly netrunner was breaking into the system, to disable the security cameras in the container and exchange the recording with a simulation of normal activity. But it wasn't the end of it. We were working for a triple pay. First, the standard escort fee. Then the salary from the guy who wanted the DNA signature stolen. And in the end, the sheik, whom we had informed of the offer. He was quite thankful and ordered a special plan, which would make his mare's bloodline safe. Originally, the DNA was to be smuggled in form of the mare's hairs implanted into skin on my head, using tools from material I could chew, swallow and digest. Instead, I got implanted with several hairs from some other of the sheik's mares, very precious too, but not nearly as valuable as this one. So we were to perform almost all of the theft just like intended, except ending it with giving a fake material instead. I was to swallow the tools without performing the transplant.

The moment the heart rate monitor went off and the cameras went dead, I stood up and walked up to her, embracing her head. She stood there, resting her head on my neck. I felt the vibrations rising, the floor tilted a bit, the plane took off. I scritched her mane gently. For many years I had adored horses, but never before I thought of them in an erotic way, and I was never that close to one. And I felt I desired her.

And then she turned her back to me, raised her tail, moved it to a side and "winked", her labia opening, exposing the pink inside invitingly for a brief moment. And then she stood like that.

I checked the watch once more. Activity LEDs in both cameras in the corners were dark. I stood up and apprehensively walked up to her. I touched her sex with my hand gently. She winked again, her pink inside touching my fingers. I slipped one finger in and rubbed gently. She pushed against my hand a little, driving my fingers deeper. I found her clitoris with my thumb and began squeezing it gently. She froze motionlessly, enjoying the caress. I kept rubbing the slippery globe, and she was squirming from leg to leg, turning her rump, pushing against my hand. She crouched a little, pushing stronger. I unzipped my trousers and took my raging hard-on out. Normally I would have to stand on something, but her arousal made her squat low enough for me. I stood right behind her and pushed lightly, spreading her labia with my hands, guiding my penis carefully up her channel. The way her body froze in delight was stunning. She rocked her hips lightly, rubbing me inside her, and only then I began suspecting why she was the sheik's favorite. There was a definite purpose in her motion, she was enjoying it and she knew what to do well. I began rocking my hips and felt her muscles on me, tightening her grip on a push, releasing on retreat. I sped up, pushing harder, feeling my arousal rising, my release coming. I slowed down, feeling the top near. By then I was sure she was trained to it, but could she enjoy it? Feel the orgasm? I felt I owed her that much.

But as my rocking slowed down, I felt her squirming, pushing, squeezing me inside and my inactivity was useless, the caress she was giving brought me to the top. I came violently, my body shaking, I felt my cum unloaded into her, my rapid spurts not subsiding for a long while under the caress never ending.

Only then cold terror gripped me. What if they find out? What would they do to me? It was more than just having sex with a horse. It was more than sex with the most expensive horse in the world. It was sex with the sheik's favorite lover, almost his wife. I felt cold steel on my neck... or at least my balls.

There will be stains of my semen on her back! I knelt down and began licking her. She began responding with rapid winking, pushing against my face a little. She rocked her back a little, swaying from side to side, grunting quietly. I could feel her tension rising. I felt taste of my own semen, sharp against the soft, mild flavor of her flesh. Rare winks pushing more of my semen out were getting more frequent. And then in her tension I sensed her climax coming, her sex open wide, a short squirt of urine right at my chest, then a rapid sequence of winks. I felt the sharp, acidic, bitter scent of her urine.

And again terror gripped me, how the hell will I mask that scent? My clothes were soaked with it. Sure the cleansing bath, burning the clothes, no trace will be left five minutes after I leave the container, but will there be people by the container to see and feel it?

I calmed myself down and began analyzing my options. They were so few. Finally I came to a conclusion that if I'm to die, I want to die happy. I removed my clothes, tossed them on the cot and walked up to the mare, rubbing her rump till she lowered it to my level. And I made love to her, oblivious to everything. I learned the basic signs of her body and paced myself to match her, allowing us to come together. She felt I was giving, not demanding, and she sunk back to enjoy the sensation while I took the initiative, tickled her clitoris, pushed at angle that was yielding the strongest reaction, scratched her back lightly. I was rewarded with incredible play of her muscles when she came, giving me wonderful, strong orgasm. I spent several minutes "cleaning her up" again. And she was ready for more again, and I gave her the last of my strength.

I used the tiny bathroom attached to the end of the room with the cot, washing myself a bit. I took my clothes on and came back to my lover, then I spent next two hours or so just caressing her, non-sexually. Finally I recalled some duties. I removed the tool set from the seams in my clothes and prepared to chew it. It would require quite a bit of jaw work to get soft enough to be swallowable. Then a thought struck me. Now if they catch me, it makes little difference. And if they don't, I'll have something from her for myself. Over the next hour I transplanted thirty of the mare's hairs into a location on my head which was different than arranged. Nobody will find them, nobody will know. The 'decontamination shower' after the flight won't remove them. The customer will still get the fakes, but I will have... something from her.

I broke the tools into smaller pieces, chewed them till the material from hard plastic turned into jelly, then swallowed the pieces, helping myself with a cup of water... then I checked the time, and finding it's only a hour left till the landing, gave the mare the hottest good-bye I could.

The camera went live five minutes after I finished. When I was departing the container, I was heartbroken, knowing I won't meet her again, ever. Nobody asked any questions, nobody noticed anything, and I was too deep in thoughts about losing her to ever appear nervous, to raise any suspicions. Chemical shower removed all the evidence, my clothes were destroyed, my stomach and intensines scanned for capsules and filled with a liquid that was to dissolve whatever stomach acids wouldn't. I was paid in full by both customers and soon after I had the hairs extracted, their DNA signature recorded and it lay there, in my wallet, recorded on the chip, a set of data sufficient to build her clone, create her offspring, give any subset of her characteristics to mostly any animal - or human.

I could now afford recreating her clone from the signature for myself. But that wouldn't be her, it would be her clone. And swapping the real her for her clone would be too much of a heist even for me.

But from that day on, the dreams started. Dreams of being a horse. And I decided... since I could never be her mate, I would be her son.

The train stopped and most of the passengers got out. The smell of sweat was replaced with oil, dead fish and salt. The two other guys from my team were waiting nearby, by an electric car.

"Yo, Kaino, ready to rock?" the big black guy greeted me.

"No shit, Boris. This was supposed to be a small job"

"With a small chance of becoming a big job. And know what, man? The small chance became a certainty! Five thousands a head, ten guys, employer sent some extra supply." Boris pointed to the back seat. Three machine guns, kevlar body armors, a propelled grenade launcher.

"Ten against the three of us?"

"So what? We'd done it against worse odds."

"We'll run out of luck some day. Maybe today."

"You can't retreat now anyway. We've got the contract, and Terra Foods doesn't like breaching their contracts." said Ibrahim, a big, bald Russian, the last of our trio. "Get in the car and shell up."

"Yeah, the food industry company with more illegal operations than Arasaka."

I got in and began taking the kevlar on. Boris drove to the storehouse.

* * *

We were approaching the alleged location of ambush. Ibrahim in the cabin with the truck driver, me in the trailer, with the cargo, a lot of crates marked as farming machinery parts, but no illegal chemicals inside, just sawdust instead - the employer didn't want to risk the precious cargo in case we'd fail. He got a tip that this shipment was to be ambushed and he sent us to cut the ambushing party a few men shorter. If we die in the process, all the better, nobody to pay to.

Boris was driving the electric car behind us. And he went down first, a missile from a grenade launcher tore the car apart. Then I heard a helicopter descending. I heard gunfire from the cabin. Then three thumps of feet landing on the trailer roof. A fountain of sparks shot from the roof as a saw began cutting it. I shot at the blade, point blank. The armor-piercing bullet got stuck in it, blocking it. I was already running to the back door to the trailer when microcharges blew them away and two guys dove in. Powered Armour, they play it seriously. I pushed the gun barrel to the plastic eye zone of the face plate of the first guy, and shot. The hollow-point missile opened at the thin layer of plastic, the head inside of the helmet exploded a red blur on the face plate. I used the recoil and push to fall back, while the corpse flew outside. I shot at the other guy, armor-piercing in the chest. But this was a powered armor against a pistol, and the machine gun he held in his hands against my light kevlar vest. One more shot, at his gun. I missed. I blessed anti-glare in my goggles, the door blown off and sudden surge of light didn't blind me while they had to spend a moment getting used to the darkness inside the truck. I saw him raising the gun to his shoulder, aiming at me. Like in trance, I zoomed the goggles at the barrel of his gun, zoom 40x until it was filling most of my field of view. The aiming frame marked the darkness inside. The reticle of Smart just briefly swept through the frame, but I felt my hand jerk in recoil and the barrel move a little. Then his gun exploded.

I switched zoom off and saw him staring at remains of his gun. The armor took all the blow, he was still unscathed. He threw the remains of the gun away and walked slowly towards me. I struggled to my feet and ran deeper into the truck, for the rifle. I picked it up and began shooting three-bullet series. It had little effect on him, barely slowing him down. His movement was suspiciously slow. I could recognize the pattern: recharging Sandevistan, the bioneural accelerator allowing to operate at superhuman speed for a moment, but requiring a recharge, dulling your senses. In a moment he will rush at me and it will be the end.

I aimed at his head and pulled the trigger deep for constant fire. I held the rifle firmly against the recoil and watched webs of cracks where the bullets hit. Then a big crack in the face plate appeared and a bullet hit inside. A narrow splash of blood gushed out. The body fell backwards...

...revealing the helicopter with a gunner aiming at me, flying close behind the truck.

I dropped the rifle and grabbed the grenade launcher from the crate next to me. I knew my chances: about zero, but still I prepared to shoot, or more likely, to die trying. But there was no gunfire sweeping me off my legs. Instead, the helicopter rapidly moved away. I realized what saved me - the background behind me - the crates. They'd pierce them. They still think it's the real cargo. I walked up a bit closer to the exit. And then another guy in powered armor swung in from the roof. He plunged forward, at me. I recognized booster-enhanced senses, I knew of cyborgizations inside him - likely anti-glare in the eyes, pain processor and so on. Without much thinking I swung the grenade launcher like a baton, its end connecting with his chin, throwing him back. In a smooth turn I landed its end on my shoulder in position ready to fire. I pulled the Smart targeting zone over the opponent and suddenly the launcher fired. This goddamned device had Smart too. I curled myself into a ball and covered my head as the explosion wave threw me back at the crates...

The noise in my ears was subsiding. I heard and felt the truck screeching to a halt. I stumbled to my feet in darkness. The goggles were damaged, but they saved my eyes, not the first time too. I removed them and threw them away. The back of the truck was missing. Most of the crates were broken. The rifle on the floor was bent at straight angle in the middle. The launcher barrel was deeply dented. The Smart module of my pistol was damaged, but the rest of the gun seemed to be in working order. I heard the helicopter landing nearby. I checked my pockets. One flash grenade and a hopper. I planted the hopper under some sawdust by the wall and sat in the far corner by the crates, gun in hands.

I heard short gunfire exchange between the car cabin and the helicopter, then heard it landing nearby. I began playing dead. Soon two men entered. Long, loose kevlar coats, black glasses, stylish, not practical. But they carried guns too. A third one called from the cabin, two shots sounded. "I've made sure!" he shouted.

One of the guys approached closer, aiming at my head. The hopper jumped at him with a loud beep. He turned at it and shot. I shot too. I kept shooting at the two until I ran out of ammo.

"Paul? Morad?" sounded from the cabin. I picked up the gun of one of them, jumped off the end of the trailer and rolled under it. I waited between the big wheels. I heard steps, saw legs walking along the truck. They stopped by the back. They stood really close. I shot one. I shot the other. As he fell I kept shooting.

* * *

"Ten men, six in direct battle, four in fire exchange between a car and your friend in the cabin. But since he's dead, all the credit goes to you. Fifty thousand dollars."

"Plus the standard rate, three hundred."

"Oh, no. The cargo was damaged."

"The cargo of sawdust."

"Nevertheless, it didn't arrive in mint condition. We could charge you with truck damage too. It's our good will we don't."

"So be it the fifty thousand."

"We also have an offer. A very good offer. A high-security area of the corporation. High pay, real work rarely, but when work happens, it's serious. You're definitely qualified. Ten thousands a month. And I'm not taking 'no' for an answer."

"No."

"I think we didn't understand each other well. You're being offered a job people would kill to get. You'll never find a better offer. If you need time to rethink it, you can have a week. But the corporation dislikes people who say 'no'."

"A week?"

"Yes. A week."

I sighed and nodded. I went towards the train station.

I still heard the voice of the lawyer in the distance "The guy could wallow in cash and he rides a train. And he asked for three hundred standard rate." "Some people...", his driver answered.

While waiting for the train, I got a call. A lawyer, who was taking care of business of our trio. We had an arrangement, whoever dies, the others inherit his property. So I'd get whatever Ibrahim and Boris had. So much for our trio. I swallowed bitterly. I had to sign the documents in person.

But first, I visited Frank, got new goggles, new smart for the gun, damages repaired, some standard, legal ammo. It costed nearly a thousand, but I knew it was well worth it. I paid with money I took from wallets of the dead guys too.

Boris was a happy-go-lucky man. I got his gun, his notebook where he was writing down numbers of girls, his collection of expensive shirts and a few pieces of furniture from his rented flat. Ibrahim was more serious. He had a good collection of hunting rifles and eighty thousand in his account, plus a small apartment in the near suburbs, worth some thirty thousands. I called a friend fixer to cash it all. I remembered the face of the lawyer, the despise, disgust, as I was selling mementos of my friends for petty cash in front of him. I signed the papers, pulled the napkin out of my pocket and wrote the new sum on it. One hundred seventy thousand dollars more. I breached the magical barrier of three million. I could afford it now. I might afford it now.

* * *

"The Nail" - a bar for the "middle class" of Night City. Night City's finest. Boosters, bikers, drunkards, hookers, pimps, fixers, netrunners out of luck and solos feeling lucky, everyone from the area between Battle Zone and Corporate District was to be found here. The bar had a good reputation among the businessmen of the underworld - hardly anybody would shot you just for fun of having a stranger shot, while killing a business partner who sold you fake drugs or failed to pay his debts once too many was definitely tolerable. No burts involving all the visitors, just all the freedom for business, including clean assassinations, without the law enforcement disturbing. I used to visit this place with the team, looking for jobs before we got some reputation.

Nolly was easy to recognize. Pointed feline ears, cheetah fur, feline muzzle. The local persona of the world of exotics. Standing squeezed between two big guys, possibly rockers at the bar, he was waiting for a drink, his back to me, long feline tail waving slowly. I walked up to him and knocked his shoulder lightly. he raised his hand, pointer finger with a claw extended. "Wait. I'll get myself a drink and we can find a table to talk, okay?"

I waited patiently, he took his drink - something fluorescent blue, with a lemon and umbrella, and colorful ice cubes. Not the kind most of customers order.

"Will be hard to find a table at this time of night." he said.

"Got one reserved, in the other room."

We passed by the rave scene, briefly crossing the active silencing barrier zone and entering the dancing floor filled with deafening music and dancing people. The other side of the scene was more quiet and slightly less crowded. Stairs led up to a small balcony overlooking the big chamber of the bar, with the scene in the middle and a similar balcony on the other end. Only one table was occupied by three guys laughing loudly - the four other tables were free, but there were "reserved" signs shining on surfaces of them all. I took one nearest to the wall and waved my license over the sign. It went off with a ding. Nolly took the chair opposite, his back to the middle of the room.

"So? I guess you have a certain business for me", he stated.

"That's pretty obvious."

"It's discrete and I'm to keep whatever you say to myself"

"Preferably."

"You're going to pay me half ahead and the other half when it's done, right?"

"right."

"How much?"

"600. It's not all that big of a business."

"500 is my standard rate for staying quiet so it's better to be a really small one."

"And how much for talking?"

"Depends. Whether I've been paid to stay quiet or not. The five hundred is kinda insurance. Against a bribe of half a million."

"And uninsured info?"

"That depends on what you want to know."

"Into the fandom. Exotics."

"You could have this for free from any furr on 2L"

"Into the REAL fandom."

"No. 600 is definitely not enough. For as deep as I can get you'd have to pay some sixty thousands. For deeper, I can contact you with people for twice that much, no warranty if they agree though."

"Just to the right shores. I'll get further by myself."

"Then six hundred is still not enough. I'll do it for two thousands."

"Barter exchanges and odd jobs?"

"None."

"But if I slowly draw my gun now, aim at the guy with the crossbow outside the third floor window on the opposite side of the room and pull the trigger, will that be a reason for a discount?."

"Why do you believe he's after me?"

"Huntsman crossbow."

"Okay." he licked his lips. "fourteen hundred dollars of a discount."

"Not much for this kind of service."

"Look, I won't tell you much with a bolt sticking off my chest."

"Fine. I'm aiming for the legs then."

"Fine with me." I saw his tail twitching nervously.

I pulled my cybergoggles from my neck to my eyes and switched Smart on. Zoom, Smart, aiming cross. The guy was in front of a 3rd floor window, outside, on the roof of the balcony part on the opposite side. I locked the Smart on the knee of the attacker, removed the gun from the holster and lay it on the table. I raised the barrel a bit, with my hands on the table, and watched the aiming cross wandering up the opposite wall. It shook a bit, loosely aimed at the window, but the moment Smart detected match between aim and target, it fired the gun. Recoil pushed it off my hand and threw it spinning on the floor, but the bullet went straight for the knee. Goggles zoomed "bullet view" on the broken glass and torn knee. The guy collapsed forward, breaking the glass and falling two floors down, head first, breaking a table below.

"Sorry, I can't make him not to fall forward." I said, while removing the goggles and picking my gun off the floor.

"No biggie. Let's consider it you paid the first half and some now. But before we start, you'll have to spend some more money."

"Why?"

"Unmodded are not welcome. You need mods. Even something basic. Ears. A tail. Eyes."

"I'd like to stay clean. My further aim... discretion, remember? It's to meet one of your best docs. Full body mod."

"Total anthro? Digitgrade feet and so on?"

"Total feral. Four legs, no hands. No voice. Body cloned around the brain, from supplied material.

"Awwww..." I saw his eyes gleam. "Yes. When I couldn't afford, it, I was getting what I could. Teeth, eyes, ears, skin. Different stuff from ripperdocs and street traders. Now I might afford it but my DNA is tainted. This body is crap. I kinda envy you... By the way, do you realize it's pretty expensive? If you're bargaining about two thousands, it may be out of your league."

"I'm not worried about the money. But the mods - this sounds like a kind of stalemate. If I want to get to the right people, I need mods. If I get mods, meeting the right people is useless. So?"

"Whiskers, teeth. Maybe claws. They won't mess you up too much. It's more of a surgery than a DNA implant."

"I want to be a horse. No hooves instead of hands or horse teeth for now please."

"A horse you say? Oh well, you could get a cute mane, these are quite fashionable currently. But... well... A horse you say..."

He stood up from his chair and walked up to the balcony barrier. He pulled out his phone and peered into the crowd of dancing people. He talked for a moment, I could hear the thunders of the music coming from the phone and soon a girl left the crowd. A zebra girl. A zebra mohawk sticking high above a blizzard of her long black and white hair which hung loose along her back and shoulders, a human but striped, fur-covered face, hooved, striped legs bending backwards. Jeans shorts and a T-shirt. Soon I heard hooves on the stairs and she joined us. Nolly waved her to a free place by our table. I could now see some of her white stripes were painted lightning-blue or fiery-red. She had two sets of ears too - one human pair, and one equine. She sat awkwardly on the chair, I noticed her tail wagging quickly under the table. I also noticed the equine shape of her back, very erotic too.

"Angie, this is... what's your name, sir?"

"Kaino. Pleased to meet you, Angie. Want a drink?"

"Just mineral water please. Non-sparkling."

"Old habits never die?" Nolly chuckled.

"I get drunk too easily. And then I do stupid things."

I picked mineral water order and a refill of my drink on the table console.

"Angie, Kaino would like to..." he threw a glance towards the broken window where two employees of the bar were already pasting a sheet of plastic "...enter the fandom. He's interested in the equines."

"I hope you're not thinking what I'm thinking you're thinking." she said, looking at him suspiciously.

"Oh, not at all. I just thought you'd be a better guide on the equine side than I am."

"And what's in it for me?"

"six hundred for a starter. And he's good with a gun."

"And he's interested in equines?"

"Not in killing equines."

"Yeah, I hope so."

"I assure you, Angie, that I'm definitely not of the predatory kind." I said.

I couldn't help to notice how nervously Angie was watching Nolly.

"Old habits never die, eh, Angie?" Nolly stood up from the table. "You owe my six hundred to her, Kaino. See ya." - he went to the stairs and soon vanished in the crowd. I noticed how Angie visibly relaxed.

"Was that you who shot that... guy in the window?"

"Just in the knee."

"Be my bodyguard in exchange for... guidance. Fine?"

"Absolutely."

"Oh, and hands off. For your own good. I kick really hard.

I raised my palms "Full respect for the lady."

The waiter arrived with a glass of water and my drink. He winked to me. Angie sighed.

"Everyone thinks I'm a whore, because of my legs."

"Oh, you have beautiful legs."

"Yeah. Sexy. Everyone says I have sexy legs now."

"But you do!"

"A matter of perception. Nobody would have said that ten years ago, believe me."

She drank from her glass for a longer while.

"Angie, I... okay, just slap my face but don't run off if I move too far. Your back drives me nuts."

"Is that what it's to you? In the equines? Tell me, what's in them for you and I'll show you the right way."

The serious tone surprised me. My first impression was a happy-go-lucky silly bitch. Goddamned sexy but rather stupid. This time she didn't sound like that though.

"I..." I thought how to say it, but she just continued.

"If you're looking for a striped butt for rent, I can show you the place. Not very expensive too. If you're into pony-play and domination, there is one club. You wanted a guide, I can be your guide but nothing more."

"No. Please, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to. Please, let's start over. Let's forget I said anything about your back. It's... something completely different."

"Okay, I'm listening."

"I... I dream. Of being a horse. Running through plains. Being with the herd. My hooves beating the ground, the wind in my mane, the sky, the grass, the horizon... and the others. Friends. Nothing to worry about, no fear, no uncertainty. I wish this above all else. I want to be a horse."

Angie looked at me for a while, her chin rested on her hands.

"Poor fool. You poor fool living in a dream that can never be true."

Her calm, confident voice filled me with panic. "Why? I know it's possible. I know there are people who do it. Who transfer their brains. Who..."

"Oh, yes, poor fools like you.", she interrupted. "You think there will be just the grass and the sky and the others like you. I'll tell you how it will be. It will be a restless sleep at nights. It will be a flight from every noise, a predator under every bush. There will be humans who want to hunt you down for their pleasure. There will be rain and frost. There will be shortage of grass, there will be thirst and insects. There will be the agony of colic, there will be rocks hurting your hooves. And if you keep your human brain, there will be endless boredom inbetween." Her voice was harsh, like a parent scolding a kid for some really stupid idea. "So you like my ass? Oh, you can forget it. You won't be the alpha stallion. You won't be allowed to mate. You won't be allowed to love. You will have your place in the herd, and even there you'll be constantly challenged. And day after day you'll be wishing you never made that decision, but your tainted DNA won't be reversible back to human. There will be no return."

I was nearly in tears, understanding how right she could be. But I was still hoping. "No! It can't be like this! There must be happy moments! There must be time of happiness in that life!"

Her voice was cold, filled with grief but calm, tears choked by cool logic. "Not enough to justify that choice. There are so few, so rare moments when it is just it, the grass, the sky." her gaze wandered up, she fell silent for a while. "Oh, yes. There are happy moments. But then the horror is back, and you're ready to sacrifice all the happy moments to escape it."

My shock, the anger were overwhelming... I knew how likely she was right, but I still couldn't force myself to believe. "How do you know? You can't know! You'd have to know someone who went there, and returned!" I almost shouted.

"I do."

"Oh, really? I'd like to meet them.", I muttered with anger.

She drank up and smirked. "First, the pay. Come."

* * *

She was silent all the way. We walked three blocks. I kept watch with the goggles, but it was her who spotted a sniper. It wasn't one of the hunters though - the group with minds set on exterminating the furries, driven by sheer malice and hunting thrill. It was a professional hired gun hunting for some corporate big fish in the skyscraper a kilometer away. I wouldn't even know he was there. He didn't care about us and we didn't disturb him either.

"I live here." she said, standing in front of the entrance to an old, red brick 15-store building. "Come in. But don't imagine anything. I just need protection."

We took the stairs. She lived on fourth floor, but she said she hates the elevator. She unlocked the door to her flat and invited me inside. The first thing that struck me was a big sniper rifle placed by the window at the end of the corridor. And bullet holes in the wall by the door and bullet holes in the organic glass of the window, sealed with pieces of duct tape.

"Yeah, your work. He usually comes around 11. I'm tired of crawling to the bathroom. And if I put bricks in the window, he'll try some other way, so I prefer to keep him trying to snipe me. He sucks at the rifle, but so do I. But I'm tired of the game."

"Don't the hunters have a life?"

"They say the same about us."

"So you want me to shot him?"

"Yeah. Probably the roof of the house will be a better spot than this window. Here's the key." she handed me a key from the key hanger in the corridor. "We have half a hour before he comes, if you want something to drink, no alcohol, or to eat, vegetarian, just tell me. Make yourself at home. " she pointed at the living room.

"A drink is fine."

Angie went to the kitchen.

I examined the rifle for a while. I took it to her living room and sat on a big sofa.

The room was all furry. Literally - the floor and walls covered with plush and fuzzy carpet, the sofa with long fluffy fur, a big fuzzy mattress by the wall. Only the media center wasn't fuzzy, just with a big furry plushie zebra on top of it. A plush-covered wardrobe and a fuzzy bookcase filled with old HDVDs and media chips stood in the corners by the media center. There was no window.

"Angie, I'll need a bit of flat surface for small parts. No fur. I need to adjust the gun and the small parts will get lost and stain the floor."

"Come to the kitchen then!" - she shouted.

Somewhat nervously I skipped across the corridor to the kitchen opposite. It was a normal, small, old-fashioned kitchen with a multi-function kitchen module, a sink, a refrigerator and two chairs on two sides of the kitchen table by the window. There was a bullet hole above the sink and two in the window.

"I see one hole in the wall, but two in the window."

"The other one is here." she pointed below her shoulder. Bastards from the police still said it's not serious enough to start investigation. They are all furry-haters.

"Yay for the Police." I began taking the rifle apart. I also removed several pieces of my pistol and removed the Smart module.

"Without Smart like without a hand. I'm going to install it in the rifle, recallibrate it and then we'll rock."

I took the machine oil and the multitool from my belt and began drilling a mounting for the electronics and extra bolt release system. I installed the magnetic trigger, then the electronics, then the camera instead of the telescopic sight. I connected all the parts together. The rifle was a russian SVD built long before Smart was known - no attachment slots and sockets, everything had to be done from scratch, mounted on the outside. Not a pretty effect, but should do the trick. I re-checked the construction, loaded the clip and opened the window. I picked a piece of a blind wall of a building opposite for adjusting the camera. I needed to loosen the camera mounting screws twice before the shot got into autocallibration range, when the aiming cross is automatically moved to where the last bullet hit. I gave three more shots for testing the gun accuracy, then smiled widely. "A woman has killed more than 300 men with a gun like this."

"Some of my friends died from a gun like this. I don't like weapons."

"Okay. Where does he shoot from?"

"Usually that block" - she pointed at one two streets away. "It's a hourly rate hotel, he rents a random room on middle floors each time."

"Knock me your number and I'm off to the roof." I drew my phone and touched it to hers so the automatic visit card exchange system kicked in.

"Wait, I'll give you a blanket." She stood up and went to her bedroom. I heard a distant shot and a noise of bullet hitting the wall. "Whoops! Early today. Catch. Stay to the left wall of the corridor."

I grabbed the blanket and jumped across the corridor. Another shot and sound of broken glass upstairs.

"Neighbors will be PISSED!"

I dashed to the door and jumped to the staircase. I took the elevator for the top floor, from the sounds it was making I didn't wonder why Angie hated it.

Surprise-surprise, the roof hatch was locked, the roof was unoccupied and generally only remains of minor activity of the Gliders gang were present - unlike elsewhere, where roofs were a common camping ground for homeless or gangs, AV landings, watch houses and so on.

I placed the blanket by the edge of the roof and lay on it, preparing the position and scanning the windows for a sniper. I cursed quietly. It didn't take long to spot them. There were two, on different floors, in different parts of the building.

I called Angie.

"Can you provoke him to shoot? I can't see which one is this."

"What do you mean which one?"

"There are two."

"Can't you shot both?"

"One of them is innocent. Likely."

"Unlikely. You'll save some poor fellow's life."

"You got a point. See ya. No, wait. Do provoke him. Wave something in the corridor or something."

"Why?"

"I... look, I really want to feel I'm killing that bastard. If there are two, I won't know which one I'm killing."

"You enjoy doing this, don't you?"

"I hate killing people, but I love to kill bastards."

"Okay. I'll wave my dress in the corridor. Okay, waving it."

I saw a flash from one of the nozzles.

"Shit fucking asshole made a hole in the dress! It's ruined! It costed nearly eighty bucks!"

"Here goes revenge for your dress."

Smart has that one disadvantage. You can't keep the target in the reticle for as long as you want, gloating with power over his life. You aim, he gets killed, although slow guiding of the reticle into the aiming frame is somewhat rewarding. Good gun. The guy fell over, hanging from the window frame.

"Here. You can take the telescopic sight from the table and see him. Seventh floor, fourth window from the left."

I aimed at the second guy, just in case. I saw him scanning the edge of the building, where I was. Without much thinking I pulled the reticle into the wide whole-body target frame. The shot hit his arm. I saw him on the floor, reduced the target frame to his head and aimed again. He fell. Maybe he didn't mean a danger for Angie, and certainly I didn't want him dead, but when one sniper sees another about to spot him, that's what is to be done.

"Oh my god you did it! Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!"

I shook the dust off the blanket and rolled it. I climbed down the ladder and took the elevator down. Before I could enter her door, it swung open and I had her hugging me tightly.

"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" She stopped, catching breath. "Oh, I'm safe at last. Seems you paid your part in full."

"He's not the only who's after you. I'm still in your service."

"Well, he was the only who tried in last three months.", she shrugged.

"I'm happy to oblige. Call me if you need me. And keep this rifle, it's pretty good for its age. I'll see you tomorrow about our business."

"You can keep it. And forget about the money. I..." she looked at me with some sadness "I'm sorry. I'll keep my part of the deal."

We stood in silence for a moment. Finally I asked the question that was really nagging me.

"Angie, tell me one thing, please. You seemed like you didn't care about these people dying. Not the least bit. But you seemed to care about me. Why?"

She looked into my eyes deeply, sighed quietly.

"Look, when you're a prey for so long, you're losing some sensitivity. You're happy when the roles turn. I do care, but sometimes... less than I'd want to. Sometimes I'm ashamed of myself."

"How long have you been the prey?"

"Longer than you think."

We stood in front of her door for a while in silence.

"Will you come?", she asked

"No, just call me when you need me."

"No, please, come in. Not because of the business."

I walked in after her and closed the door. I put the rifle in the corner, turned to her and she was embracing and kissing me. She broke the embrace, stepped back and pulled her shirt off, exposing her fur-covered belly and firm, pretty breasts. I dropped my jacket on the floor, took the shirt off. We embraced again, this time without kissing, just a firm, close hug. I felt the smooth fur of her breasts against my chest.

"Come", she whispered and went to her furry room. I pulled the boots off my feet and followed her. The soft furry decor was pleasant in touch. She took her shorts off, only pink panties left, while I was removing my clothes. I watched her walking, her back incredibly sexy, as she was presenting herself to me, swinging her tail teasingly. And as she bent over to take her panties off, she winked her black labia the equine way, spreading them, exposing the clitoris and the pink inside.

"Oh, I didn't know you could do that!", I smiled. I dropped last of my clothes, walked up to her, knelt behind her, holding her hips and pushed my face against her rump. She rested her hands against the wall, bending down, exposing her sex to my tongue. I felt another wink and sucked gently at her inside, licking it. Her scent filled my nose, the scent of a horse. She snorted in entirely equine way. I found her clitoris with my tongue tip.

Only then I noticed, it wasn't just winking. Most furry women preferred the easy way, bone structure mods in the legs, but anything from thighs up just fur-covered but entirely human. Angie from waist down had entirely equine anatomy, and this was such an incredible turn-on for me...

I heard her gasping louder. I stood up, gripped her hips firmly and thrusted hard, without hesitating. She was so moist, smooth, slippery, quite loose, accepting me with desire, pushing against me, hungry for my thrusts. I was pushing hard against her beautiful rump, oh, the looks of her ass was driving me crazy. And that slippery wetness, covered with a thick layer of her love juices, letting me in without a trace of resistance, just the gentle touch. She reached between her legs to her clitoris, rubbing it. I reached for her breast with one hand, rubbed her nipple. She raised her head, hissing loudly, the striped mane on her back turning into waves. "Yes, yesss! More!"

I squeezed and rubbed her nipple more, and suddenly I felt her vagina tighten in a rapid squeeze of a wink, smelled a sharp scent, felt hot liquid flowing down my balls and legs. Then a rapid series of winks squeezing me. She collapsed forward on the soft floor, laying on her belly, gasping hard. I lay gently on her, trying to get in, but she rolled to her side.

"Give me a moment. Please. Five minutes.

I looked at my erection sadly. She gave it an appraising look, grinned and took it in her hand. It was thickly covered with her slippery love juice, and she began massaging it gently, smiling to me. She rolled me on my back and straddled my knees. She leaned forward, pushing my penis between her breasts and moving her chest along it. She giggled.

"What?"

"You're the first unmodded man I've ever had sex with. I almost forgot how a natural human penis looks like." She bent her neck a little and licked my tip.

"How long are you with the fandom?"

"Not all that long. Six or seven years."

"And before that? Virginity?"

"Umm... Let's leave this for later." she crawled up and sat on my cock, pushing it to my belly. "These legs aren't really made for kneeling. You go on top."

I rolled with her, then entered her. She was dripping wet, awaiting me just the same as before. I took a slow pace and bent down to kiss her lips. We kept kissing for a while, then I knelt between her legs, pulling her back up, pushing slowly, gently, and caressing her nipples again.

"Shoo! Leave them alone now!"

"Why? You seemed to like it before!"

"I like it... too much! You want to come this time, leave the nipples for later. Or you'll make me cum again and you'll have to wait again."

"Why won't you let me stay in?"

"I get very tender inside for a while."

"Quite unlike other women."

"I'm quite..." she gasped as I grabbed her breasts and began squeezing them gently "...unlike... other women."

I bent forward and took her nipple in my mouth, fully aware what I was doing, and began tickling it with the tip of my tongue. I felt her hands between her legs, on her clitoris. And then her body arched, I felt the known squeeze, wetness, scent, series of spasms. I retreated from her without even being asked. She closed her eyes and was gasping quietly in delight.

I rubbed my tip against her anus a little.

"No, please. I don't like it. At all."

"Okay, just asking. May I rub like this?" I began gently rubbing my cock along her slit and groin.

"Yes, just don't touch the clit."

"And the breasts?" I reached for the breasts. I played with them for a moment, watching her absent gaze with a grin. She closed her eyes, bit her lip, her face expressing highest concentration. Suddenly her body arched.

"In! Me! Now!" she gasped. I pushed into the moistness.

"Yesssss!" she slipped her hand between us and rubbed her clitoris. I felt a wave of spasms, different from the previous ones, weaker, but it lasted, as I was pushing gently in. "Yesss, don't stop, keep it going keep it going!" she was moaning and writhing in a long orgasm. I began rubbing the tips of her nipples with my thumbs, she quickly patted her clitoris and suddenly her body arched in a spasm stronger than any before, she shouted loudly, and I felt the squeeze again, weak, but filled with rapid throbs. Then the following spasms came, and they were throwing her body like a rag doll. She fell exhausted. I pulled out and lay beside her, as she was staring at the ceiling helplessly, sobbing quietly.

I was gently caressing her breasts, not touching her nipples. My cock was slowly getting softer, despite holding its full charge inside.

"So... that's how it's like. Thank you." she looked at me, her eyes full of tears.

"Oh, I loved it too."

"No, you don't understand. I..."

"Hush. Rest."

She rolled on her side, embraced me and cried into my chest. I gently kissed her head, stroked her hair. A moment later her breath became more regular and calm, she was asleep. I freed myself from her embrace cautiously, then went to the corridor, picking up my clothes. I stood in front of the exit door, looked at the sniper rifle in the corner and thought of my options.

I can go to the bathroom and jerk off.

I can take my clothes on and go. I may take the rifle or not.

Or...

I picked up the blanket I had discarded in the corridor and went back to the living room. I dropped the clothes on the floor, lay by Angie and covered us both with the blanket. I lay on my side, embraced her gently, closed my eyes and soon was asleep.

* * *

My first thought as I was waking up was "it's not a cube!" but no handcuffs, no ropes, no heavy bruises and a pleasant smell of food - so far so good. I opened my eyes and recalled the previous day. Sounds of frying in a frying pan were coming from the kitchen. I was still naked, under the blanket. I stood up and wrapped it around my waist. Yawning a little I went to the kitchen. Angie was there, frying something in a big wok over strong fire, wearing only a short apron, exposing her sexy rump.

"Hello!" she smiled to me. "Vegetables, Cantoneese style. Sorry, still no meat. Hope you don't mind?"

"Only if I also get to taste some Zebra!" I laughed and embraced her from behind, nipping her equine ear. She giggled and stomped her hoof loudly, inch away from my toes.

"Hey, watch out with these hooves!"

"Don't you worry about your my hooves. I step only on these toes on which I want to!"

I chuckled and sat down in the chair by the table. She turned the fire off and put the vegetables in two plates. She handed one to me, sat down on the opposite side of the table with the other.

"Chopsticks or a fork?" - she reached to a drawer in the table.

"Chopsticks please."

She handed me a pair of single-use chopsticks, natural bamboo, took herself another and we began eating, peeking at each other and smiling a bit.

"You start" I said when I was sure we want to tell each other something, but hesitating.

"I'm enjoying the memories of yesterday. It was... absolutely great. You were the best lover I ever had."

"Were? I really hoped for more."

"Oh, me too.", she said as if she didn't believe it could happen, then changed the subject. "Tell me what happy things were you thinking about." Most apparently something worried her, but neither of us wanted to spoil the moment.

"That person who had returned. I mean, I thought it was impossible. The DNA is a total mess afterwards, the change is non-reversible. I can't wait to meet them. It sounds fascinating."

She shook her head and sighed. "So we won't avoid it. I'm really afraid of that moment. Of your reaction when you learn about it."

"Look, I already reconsidered the option I might have been wrong. How much worse can it be?"

"I don't know. I'm afraid. You'll hate me and you'll have all the reasons to."

"Oh, no, definitely not. Why would I hate you?"

"How do you feel about zoophilia?"

"It's okay."

"even if you were doing it?"

"I did it. That was how the dreams started."

"Group sex?"

"Fine with me. I prefer one on one though."

"Necro... no, that's wrong. It's not necrophilia. It's more like... umm, VR play with AI modelled after a person long gone."

"Never tried VR plays and AI isn't really my cup of tea, but... oh, if I knew that person alive, that would be a show-stopper. Otherwise, I think it's... tolerable. Why?"

"Because that's what happens when we make love. Can you tolerate me when I am all of them combined?"

I shuddered a little, she saw it and saddened. I walked up to her, stood behind her chair, gently embraced her from behind.

"Yes, I can. Because if I couldn't, I'd hate myself more than I hated anybody in my life. I couldn't hate you."

"I lied to you. There's no person who would go there and come back. It's true that it's impossible. It's a one-way door."

I embraced her tighter. "But you knew..." I whispered.

"Because I was there."

"Tell me."

"I didn't come back. I didn't go there. I was born there and I came here. Kaino, I'm a zebra. A simple zebra who got a half-human body."

"But... your mind, your... intelligence..."

"Yes. Human intelligence, human knowledge, a life of a human. A human, who wished to be a zebra. And a zebra who wished to be a human. And they met halfway, becoming one, getting benefits of both. Two brains connected into one in a body being a mix of the originals. They call us 'blends', it's an experimental technique giving you the knowledge, reflexes, skills, instincts of both species."

"sounds like a wonderful idea."

"If we really shared the body equally, it would be. But she's gone. It's only me, a nameless zebra from the african savanna living as a parasite of Angelina Salford, a citizen of America, deceased six years ago... not dead, not gone, just exactly, de-ceased... her self-awareness ceased to be, my self-awareness took over the body. I got the memories, the intelligence, and all that came with them. Her identity, her property. And her sense of conscience."

Angie's cheeks were moist with tears.

"Did you have a choice? Could you live with her, sharing the body?"

"No, blending leaves no choice. The outcome is entirely random, me or her, fifty-fifty. But my choice was to refuse. To stay in the wild. But we've both wanted it. No, there was no battle. Each of us was fully aware that the brain would awake after the process of blending with either of us gone forever. And she didn't hate the idea of her ceasing to be, giving her life to me. She accepted it serenely. I was terrified of void, but I was more afraid to go back, to the wild... And I was the lucky one", she finished sourly.

"The way I see it, her choice was to let you live in a comfortable stable with a nice pasture instead."

"She owed me nothing."

"She'd find a different zebra. With the same random outcome some other zebra would end up with her life. Your decision changed nothing, just that it was you. It was her who killed herself and her life is a well-deserved price for the risk you took. Are you at least happy with it? Night City is no paradise."

"If you lived a week in the savanna, you'd think otherwise. There are so few things that I miss."

"Are there any more like you?"

"A few. Two of the ones whose animal part took over are my friends. The ones where the human won seem to be afraid of us. Like we wanted some revenge. Like it was worse than a lion killing my foal."

"I'm so sorry to hear that."

"Don't. It's a part of the natural order of things. Back then it was a despair of loss. Now I understand things better. Maybe it's better for the foal not to have lived the life of a wild zebra?"

"Dear lord, Angie."

"Look, if you need contacts, the docs, the references, you can have them. But now you know what you're getting into. Don't. A dream is just that, a happy dream. It's not reality, and the reality won't ever be like the dream. I don't want you to make this mistake."

I kissed her cheek gently, rubbed her zebra ear with my finger.

"It seems... Once I heard it from the proverbial horse's mouth, my original idea definitely requires rethinking. So don't worry. I won't do anything stupid. Thank you, and..."

She turned to me and kissed my mouth. I felt some sad desperation in it and I could easily guess its source. She was thinking she'd never meet me again. I picked her up gently and carried her to the living room, lay her on the soft sofa. I removed her apron and kissed her belly, her breasts, her lips. I dropped the blanket off my loins, lay on top of her and she reached with her hand for my maleness, driving me inside. She locked her legs around my back and pushed against me, pulling me hungrily inside. She hugged me tightly with her arms and held close. I returned her embrace, held her tightly, letting her stress, her worries dissolve. I rubbed the inside of her equine ear with my finger, and she gave out a long gasp. I began rubbing both her ears with my hands and she began breathing rapidly, her whole body trembling. "No! wait!" she tried to hiss through her teeth, but it was too late, I felt spasms of her orgasm, her nails dug into my back, her legs pushed me hard inside.

I retreated, rubbed my tip against her labia a little, kissed her mouth.

"Look what have you done. You'll never come this way. I'm not used to lovers who... do this kind of things."

"Zebra stallions in the savanna?"

"Selfish furrs who don't care about woman's pleasure."

"I'm gonna come when I'm not able to drive you to orgasm otherwise. Ears, nipples, what more erogenous zones do you have?"

"Anything not common to both species is extra sensitive"

"Hooves." I turned to her legs and began massaging them gently, scratching the hard underside of her hooves.

"No, silly, that..." she giggled "Ouch, my hooves are ticklish!"

I rubbed the crowns of fur around the hooves, the last hairs before the hard tissue, and recognized her body stiffening. She moaned loudly, kicked in the air. "Watch out! I can't control it!" she gasped out and I straddled her legs, bent down and gave the area lightest lick. She tried to curl her legs, struggled, but I held her by force, giving her legs gentlest licks while she was giving out moans and gasps. Her body was thrown in rapid spasms, then suddenly relaxed, with a muffled moan of release. I turned around and saw fingers of both her hands in her pussy, she was gasping a little with her mouth open. It took her a while to relax.

"You bastard, I couldn't come! Didn't I tell you I can't come without something inside me? And it... My god, I felt orgasm with my legs!"

"You didn't tell me."

"From now on I want you inside."

"Yes. Tail. Turn over."

"What? No way, that's silly! You can't drive me to orgasm through...ummmm... okay, maybe you can."

I knelt, lifting her a little over my knees and thighs, belly down. Her wonderful warmth around my maleness again, and that cute butt right in front of me. I held her tail up and stroked its length, the hair at the tip was all tiny braids, with silvery gems holding them together. I put the tip of the tail in my mouth and licked the very end.

"Stop that, it takes ages to... ummm, screw that." she sunk in to enjoy the pleasure when I began scratching the joint between her tail and body. She was quietly purring with pleasure and I enjoyed slow rocking of my hips in her, and her relaxed expression, the striped back in front of me, and the view of her pussy... It was nice, and we both enjoyed it immensely, but it was not driving either us closer to top. I thought I'd give up and was about to start rubbing her clit, when I found an erogenous point on her tail, around the middle of its underside. And it was arousing like the hell to see her labia twitch and open in pleasure. The orgasm was calm and quiet, she gave out just a small gasp. I didn't pull out, but I stopped moving inside her. I kissed her back and whispered "mane?"

"No, mane scritching lulls me to sleep. Tested and true."

"If you had horns, I'd get you to cum through them."

"But it seems you ran out of unusual erogenous zones on my body and it's my turn at last."

"Oh, no. It's just my turn to get back to more usual zones. And to seek more."

"Come on, I owe you something!"

"Yes, another orgasm!" I laughed and lay on her back, biting a mouthful of her mane and skin on her neck, and rocking my hips violently, fucking her hard, laying flat on her. She threw a quite long litany of curses at me, but she finished it with "harder, more." And I was getting close to top, feeling it nearing, when she came and whined to release her.

She cast me a hurt look, but with a shade of mischevious grin.

"Damn you, man, can't you come before me once?"

"I nearly did the last time."

"Look. I don't like giving blowjobs. I really don't. But if that's the only way to make you cum, I swear, I will."

"For now, sit on my lap." I sat upright on the sofa, my erection sticking encouragingly. She straddled my legs, her back to me and cautiously drove herself onto my rod, sitting down. "What devious plan now?" she asked. I embraced her from behind and my palms landed on her breasts. I was kissing her neck and caressing her nipples. She sat motionlessly and muttered "I'm not gonna cum. You said you'd cum when you can't make me to. I'm..." and I put my hand on her clitoris, rubbing it in circular motion, while the other hand caressed her breasts.

"cheater", she muttered, then she gasped, cupped her breasts, and I felt it again, weak, barely perceptible, but her tormented face expression said it all.

"Fine, have it your way, I'm parched, I need a glass of water."

She stood up and went to the kitchen. I grinned and followed her. She poured herself a glass from the tap, drank up, poured another. I stood behind her.

"There are people watching your cute ass from the building opposite. And how I embrace you... and put it inside..." I lifted her tail, pushed her to bend over the sink a little, while caressing her breasts, very slowly took her from behind.

"They likely have a camera... with a zoom... they will post pictures of us on the net..." I was feeling her body melting like butter under my hands. A splash of her cum dropped on the floor, her sex flailed on my cock. She sobbed a little.

"How many more fetishes I didn't know about will you find in me?"

"Do you want me to pee onto that beautiful ass of yours?"

"No, please, leave me just that bit of dignity" she sobbed a bit, but I could see her body shudder in arousal.

"Or put whipped cream on the black stripes, chocolate sauce on the white ones and lick it clean?"

"You!"

"Or tickle your mane till you're asleep and then keep fucking you till you come in your sleep?"

The expression of shame on her face was priceless.

"Oh well, right now I could even stick it in your pooper and despite the fact you hate it so much, you'd come in matter of minutes..."

"You..." I saw tears in her eyes.

"But now I'm going to kiss your beautiful mouth and then rub these cute zebra ears of yours again, till we come together"

She embraced me and kissed with passion, I held her close, put my tip in, then began rubbing the border of one of her ears.

Her fatigue from so many orgasms, her feeling that it was about to end, forgiveness for the psychical abuse I used on her and shame of newly discovered fetishes, the built up arousal, the sense of inevitablity, the shadow of her sad heritage, this all made her so incredibly beautiful, her face full of pain, so wonderful, so pure. Tears in her eyes spoke the truth of her feelings. She bit her lip, closed her eyes, as my hand was circling her ear. I felt a tear in my own eye, she was so beautiful, so fragile...

And in a tantric experience, we both came. She just gasped a little through half-open mouth, her eyes closed. I barely felt my muscles loosen, then act their way distantly, their pumping action without my will, while warmth began filling my body, spreading to tips of my limbs, making my skin hot, washing away all the fatigue. And I saw the beautiful reaction of her body too, fatigue washed away, her muscles tensing under her skin, not painfully but in dynamic strength filling her, life flowing back into exhausted limbs. She opened her eyes, and whispered a quiet "Thank you".

We embraced once more.

She sighed deeply and looked into my eyes. "So our business is concluded. You got the right answers to your questions, I got my hunter problem solved. Will I ever see you again?"

So this is when I'm supposed to say "maybe some day" and we'd live with memories of that moment to the end of our days, thinking "it was better that way. It could only be worse if we stayed together."

But instead I said "How about a dinner at 6PM at Royal Garden?"

She stared at me.

"You're kidding, right? Tell me, you... you're not kidding?"

"Absolutely!"

She burst in laughter and hugged me. Still laughing, she managed to cough out "You planned it since the beginning?"

"Since around midnight."

"Why didn't you tell? I was so worried, so sad."

"The last time is always the best, but not always the last."

"So you..." she still kept laughing.

"Yes, I did it to make the sex better."

"Oh my god, I was so worried. It was such a beautiful, romantic moment. And you... I... I..." she still laughed.

"I love you too, Angie."

She kissed me passionately. "So, until 6PM? Still, I'll miss you."

"Did I say you won't see me before then?"

She giggled. "Let's have a shower together." She pulled me to the corridor, towards the bathroom.

Something knocked on the window. I saw a bloom of red appearing on the middle of Angie's back and she fell.

The instincts kicked in. I jumped over her body to the living room, rolling towards my jacket, bit my back tooth hard, snapping the surface and releasing the drug, punched the chest pocket of the jacket breaking the Trauma Team card. I ran back to the corridor dragged Angie towards the living room. Sudden pain in my chest subsided tracelessly, a spray of my blood spread over Angie and the corridor, I saw a hole the size of my fist in the left side of my chest. I left Angie in the living room, struggled for goggles in the pile of my clothes, took them on, feeling taste of blood in my mouth, odd pattern of breath, air bypassing the throat entirely, flowing through a hole in my chest. I ran along the corridor for the rifle by the door, covered it with my back, felt a hit and stinging below my ribs, another spray of blood thickly painted the door red. With a swift move I grabbed the rifle and aimed it at the window, zoomed in on the building of the hotel, shifted my position just slightly, as a bullet whizzed past my ear, continued zooming, scanning, found the window. I aimed at his chest. He ducked. I got his head blown off.

One more thing left to do. I stumbled to the living room and pulled the broken Trauma Team card from the pocket of the jacket, dropped it on top of Angie's body. Then the world turned black, and I fell, sinking head first.

* * *

"Sir?"

I'm alive, I thought. So far so good. Then terror struck. If I'm alive...

I managed to open my eyes.

"Sir, we got you stabilized, responsibility and coverage of one of employees. Your companion is safe too, thanks to insurance you have passed to her."

I heard the roar of the emergency AV, trembling of the walls. I was on my way to the hospital. A man in a suit and a tie was talking to me. He had a badge of a Trauma Team lawyer.

"Blink two times to agree not to sue us for taking your wallet."

I blinked twice. Not only because one blink would mean a long flight down through the back door.

"Blink twice to agree for full-value coverage of your rehabilitation using funds found in there."

I had little choice. I blinked twice.

"Would you like to extend health care service for your companion from said funds too? Otherwise she'll get only the basic insurance coverage. Blink twice for yes."

I did.

A black guy in the green Trauma Team surgeon suit bent over me. I recognized him. Johnny. He had saved my life twice before.

"And you owe me some, Kaino."

I blinked twice.

* * *

I woke up to a kiss. It was Angie. She had her arm in a sling and bandage around her chest, but she was in far better condition than me. Oh well, I took two bullets, one of them ripping most of my internal organs to pieces.

"Look, I... I know you were saving for... you know. And now with the hospital bill you won't be able to."

I couldn't speak, vocal chords paralyzed by a drug, replacement lung needed rest, but I found a chording keyboard under my palm, bless you, Johnny, and began typing. The text was appearing on a screen by my bed..

I DIDNT WAN

"Look, I lived off savings. I'll pay for us both, then get a job."

I erased what was on the screen.

NO WAY

Only now she noticed the writing as I glanced at it.

"The bill is... around eighty thousands! And most of it because of me, because of my non-standard body!"

LOVE YOU

"Look, is there anything I can do for you? Anything, ever?"

BE HERE

"I'll... I'll talk to them to give me a bed next to yours."

I grinned. Angie gave me another kiss and left, almost crashing with Johnny in the doorway.

"Hey, man. What's up?"

HI SAVIOR

"She has hot ass."

U BET

"I, err... Look, I don't have this kind of money, and there was not enough in the wallet. And the... um, guys... start pushing."

I opened the banking page and logged in.

"Holy Shit! Three..."

I tapped the bank transfer window and entered 100,000.

TIP 4 U

"I knew I made no mistake!"

I moved the hand away from the keyboard allowing him to enter the target account number.

"Are you sure? I mean, it's a rip-off."

WORTH LAST PENNY

"For her? I can get her bed next to yours, but no sex in at least 5 days. She can give you a blowjob in 4."

DO IT. AND CHIP

"It's safe, I removed it before anyone got near. Will you tell me some day what's on that mysterious chip of yours?"

SOME DAY

* * *

Angie was in tears. Her apartment has been vandalised. Death threats and obscenities painted on the walls. Furniture broken, burned, soiled. All the movable property stolen. For four days she was living in a hotel, hiding, terrorized by fear. Only today I got out of the hospital and still needed another two days for full recovery.

We were sitting in a small restaurant and talking about the plans.

"Let's move to a different city", she pleaded.

"Running. That's what you've been doing all your previous life, didn't you?"

"Yes. It always worked."

"But there were always more lions waiting at the new location."

"Such is life."

"Such is the zebra way. I was born a human. My way is killing the lions."

"You're alone. You don't even know who they are."

"Have a look at this." I handed her a sheet of paper with Terra Foods logo on top.

"You're offered a job."

"Look at the benefits. Special family protection."

"So, I'd be safe. And you'd hunt the lions..."

"No, Angie. I'm so sorry I dragged you into this... Look, you'd be a hostage. And I'd be at the lions' mercy."

"But... but that's a respectable company?!"

"Yeah, sure. I did a few jobs for them. It's not an offer, it's an ultimatum. And shooting us was a warning."

She held my hands and looked into my eyes.

"No matter what, we're both in it, and we're staying together, right?"

"Yes. Doing what we're good at. You're not good with guns."

"So what should I do?"

"You're good with people. I'll need a really good netrunner, a backup for a stealth mission, and a fixer with connections in the food industry. Tell them the pay is good."

"I know one, a black jaguar, he's very good at stealth, hates killing though."

"Ok."

"And a really good netrunner. Expensive though."

"Fine."

"There will be a problem with a fixer."

"Ask around. Information trade, this kind of stuff."

"It's going to be dangerous."

"I did this kind of stuff dozens of times." Boris and Ibrahim did too, but now they are dead, I thought.

"And likely cost a lot."

"It should be a good, rich fixer. Able to pay an eight-figure sum for an information worth it."

* * *

We were watching the monitor, sitting by Ping's body. Ping, plugged into the net through his cyberdeck and neural interface, talked to us from the screen. Bodily Ping was a Chinese, and ironically, 'Ping' was his real name given at birth. On screen he was a sly red fox. One of few unmodded of the 'deep fandom', "never bother with mods of flesh when you can mod your mind" he'd say. But in fact he was saving up for a full body mod, anthro fox.

"Here's something you'll like to see. Watch this and I'll dive for more."

A security camera footage appeared. Two men. I recognized one as the lawyer of Terra Foods who used to process my payments.

"I'm afraid we pushed too hard", he said.

"He won't bend?"

"He wants to fight back."

"I want him dead ASAP."

"And the, ummm, woman?"

"At your leisure. Dead, that is."

"Security?"

"He'll take two-three more days assembling his team and so on. If you don't have his head on a plate by tomorrow evening, increase the security level. If you don't have his head on a plate by the end of the week, I'll have your head on a plate. Is that clear?"

"Absolutely"

The men went out of focus. A minute later Ping showed up.

"Got some code keys and general recon. Anything deeper would be a full-scale intrusion."

"You sure this movie is not a trap?"

"If you lay down and wait till the end of the week..."

"Until then they would have moved all the illegal stuff where I won't find it."

"Tonight?"

"Tonight."

"Three hundred thousand?"

"And the percentage."

"Not counting on it. You'll get caught."

"And you?"

"I can always outfox them."

* * *

I didn't trust, didn't like Ping. My only warranty with him was that I was ready to pay more than them. But I got to like Blacky at once. Grown in the combat zone, as a kid he stole a briefcase of cash. And he spent it all at once on the full body mod, with extras. The following ten years of avoiding the revenge of the owner of the money taught him the ways of using his body well. He wasn't saving money, he was spending it on a bigcat sanctuary, donating all he'd earn. His approach was different too. He didn't want any money up front, and didn't like me buying all the new equipment for him. He asked for a hefty percentage on success though, and requested to have it paid in full to the sanctuary in case he didn't make it.

And he was good! I watched amazed how he dashed along the roof, crawling down a wire attached to the wall to disable a camera, then jump sideways off sheer vertical wall surface, landing next to another cam, disabling it, knocking a guard unconscious and pulling him up the sheer wall to the roof. Sure he didn't like killing, like Angie said, but there were more than twenty unconscious bodies visible from my side of the square, hidden in shadows.

The store house was a big, two floors high square building near the joint of two motorways, detached from any other industrial locations. The front was a square filled with dozens of cargo containers stacked three levels up, a cargo ramp and security gate. The back was offices and employee quarters. Two watchtowers in the corners, electrified fence, several active (until recently) patrols, twenty cameras all around the complex. All this around a harmless pesticide storehouse. The funny part was that it really was only a harmless pesticide storehouse.

"A patrol! Three men, just got out of the building, heading to eastern fence." sounded Angie from the earphones. She was hidden on watch by the opposite corner.

"See them. A patrol, three guards, approaching along eastern fence. Still far" I said into the microphone.

"Can you take them out?"

"With tranquilizer, not yet. And not all three. Drop a puffy. I'll disable the cam behind them."

He ran along the roof deeper.

"Ping, prepare to switch cam 4C to dummy mode."

"Ready."

I loaded an EMP bullet, aimed the sniper gun at the camera, shot. The quiet electric zap sound would be lost in the noises of the city. Blacky dropped the sleep gas grenade, noiseless, colorless, scent-free.

"Mask! Mask! Mask!" I almost shouted as I saw him dashing down the wall towards the three bodies. He stopped and pulled the gas mask over his face. He had talent, but totally no experience with new technology. He dragged the three bodies one by one under a ramp by the wall.

"Got your last B series cam code. I can switch it off. I heard Ping."

"Do it. Angie, how's your side?"

"Sound and safe."

"Blacky, I'm moving to point 2"

"Fine" he muttered, back on the roof.

I ran to the motorbike. The quiet electric engine brought me to the opposite corner of the building in matter of two minutes. I crawled up the last meters to Angie, kissed her and lay beside her.

"Heh, that was easy!" she smiled, pointing at the nearby watch tower "I did like you said, zoom, aiming zone at the forehead, then I began aiming the gun and it shot by itself."

"You'll have to cover us from now on"

"Rainbow tables empty and still no access to C7, requesting manual override" said Ping.

"Got it." Blacky crawled down to the last undisabled camera and switched it off.

"Place the remote puffy in the AC intake pipe."

He ran towards the middle of the roof.

"There's a trapdoor hatch here!"

"Don't touch!" this time Ping was nervous. "So that was this alone maximum emergency alarm trigger. We'd have three Arasaka AVs on the roof in four minutes.

"Cool. I'll trigger this on exit."

"Fine. Now use the second floor office window. I'm gliding in."

I pressed the paraglider unroll button and it ejected from the backpack, stretched by static field. A shot run and I was in air, above the electric fence and inside the complex. I pressed roll and the static field collapsed the parachute back to size of a brick and pulled it into my backpack. I ran up to the door to the guards quarters, pistol in hand. I opened, revealing a small room with lockers, four guards playing scrabble around a table, a coffee automat. Four shots of taser/tranquilizer bullets to their heads and they fell down.

The door swung open. "What the..." and the officer fell unconscious. I stepped over his body and entered his room.

"Short plug for ya, Ping" I said, unplugging the keyboard from the security console and plugging a remote access device instead, then sat in front of the monitors, watching Ping and Blacky working together.

"The door is locked." I heard Blacky.

"Thanks for the plug, got the inside." said Ping. "Your door's unlocked, Blacky. Hold on a moment... Yeah. Last door. Take out the employee in the room opposite first."

"So who's in the storage area?", I asked

"A dozen people or so. Four guards, including two upstairs. Wait for Blacky to finish up to assist you. I could enable a turret, but you wanted no victims."

"Yes, leave it off."

"Blacky, door to the left, now!"

"Yeah. And?"

"Wait. Somebody is walking up the corridor. They will pass by you in 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1..." I heard a muffled sound of a body falling above my head.

"Cool. Now run to the room opposite to the office. Right corner, by the... forget that, he's mine. Poof. Done. Go to the office and and plug me in."

"You didn't kill him?"

"Nothing a good medic can't fix. But he'll never get online again."

"Somebody arrived. He stopped by the gate.", Angie whispered.

"Take him out, Angie!"

"He's still in the car!"

"He'll walk up to the guard house. He'll stop in front of the door. The tranquilizer bullets are slower than normal, so make sure he stops. Reticle on the upper half of the door. Target area on the head, pick "lock to shape". Wait till he stops, then move the reticle just enough to get him."

"I can't... I... okay, got it locked on his head. And here goes nothing... Yes! Got him!"

"And now we'd all be incredibly grateful if you could drag him behind the booth and park the car by the road."

"Errr, drag... okay. Should I leave the gun?"

"Yes."

"Okay." her last word was broken by Blacky. "Ping, the keyboard is built into the console. I see no socket."

"Crouch. Do you see sockets matching the plug?"

"Yes. Which one?"

"Any."

"And?"

"Remember the short branch of a corridor? The one ending with the door?"

"Yes."

"Draw the gun and go there."

"Main hall?"

"Thirteen men. Four guards, one directly in front of you, just behind the door, one to the left, on the gallery around the room. Kaino, you got one in the far corner ahead of you and one right in the middle, amongst the workers."

"I'll throw a puffy to the middle. Mask, Blacky."

"Ready. What after the guards?"

"We pick out all the workers. Ping, keep the turret ready in case something unexpected happens."

"I'll open all the truck doors to distract them."

"Only after the first shots. And close them to keep the gas in."

"Ready?"

"Angie?"

"Done. Going back to my position."

"Ready."

"3 2 1 Go!"

I opened the door and shot at the guard in the corner, then tossed the grenade with the other hand. Blacky missed the second of his targets, but I got him. Then we began hunting down the workers.

Ten minutes later we put the last unconscious man on a stack in the guard room.

"Will you tell me why we carried them out?", Blacky asked.

"I'm gonna blow up their supply of C4DT". I don't want the explosions to get them."

"Oh, no. You don't. That will kill thousands. The wind blows towards the city."

"Billions. Of fungi and insects. No human or animal will be harmed."

"But it was forbidden! Because it's too poisonous!"

"It was forbidden because it was too competitive. I had replaced the expertise documents with fakes myself."

"You what?"

"It's the best pesticide there is. Totally harmless to humans and animals. You can drink it and it will make you more healthy, sanitizing your stomach. Except Terra Foods got it forbidden to drive the manufacturer to bankruptcy, then bought them out, then reopened the production for their own needs. They failed to re-legalize it though, so they use it in secret."

"So if it's harmless, why release it then?"

"People don't know it is. There will be panic" I said, placing the first charge on a barrel.

"They will legalize it?"

"I don't think so. But Terra Foods will have a lot of explaining to do."

"And the money is in..."

"In whatever Ping steals now. This is just a diversion. They will be too busy explaining the pesticide to bother with the theft."

"Ah, I like it. Give me some of those."

I handed him one bag of explosives. "Here. Use it in the containers outside. Remember, only C4DT. There may be others, leave them alone!"

"There are people by the containers."

"We'll carry them away when you're finished."

He dashed outside. I slowly finished up and took out a canister of spray paint. I began drawing cute animals and pro-ecological slogans on the walls, a mark of "Children of Gaia", an ecoterrorist group who'd more than gladly take the blame. Then I joined Blacky in carrying the bodies away. Finally I used a long-range fluorescent spray gun to draw a big logo of Children of Gaia on the side wall of the building facing the motorway.

"Ping, how's your work?"

"Look, can we renegotiate? I mean, the percentage..."

"Open all the doors. I want good draft. We'll talk about this later."

"God, I didn't know Terra Foods was such a scum."

"They all are."

"No, believe me, they aren't. Not this bad."

"Going out now. Oh, and we still have no buyer for the info."

"I think I know the right person."

"Trustworthy?"

"Absolutely."

"Can he afford it?"

"Ummm... I don't know. I hope so."

"Yeah."

"We're going to your hideout now. Don't try to run."

He laughed. "Look, after what I've seen, I really, really don't want you on my bad side. But seriously, can we renegotiate?"

"Yes. At your place."

* * *

Why wasn't I surprised to find the fixer to be a tiger? Full anthro, wearing a black silk kimono and black glasses. His name was Khan. He definitely got Angie nervous. He had a skill chip carrier built into his arm, but none of the slots were used for skill chips. All of them shone with golden credit chips, each worth 500,000. Kind of metaphor, "not blood is flowing in my veins, but cash."

He poured a handful of golden credit chips over the desk.

"Is that enough?"

I quickly counted, forty chips.

"Yes, as for cash"

"It's worth more."

"Yes, but the rest is in the condition"

"Don't hoard it, use it. I got this one. It will be on open market in two hours. By the way, Arasaka will be here in fifteen minutes. Better move out. May I suggest the last sewer manhole down the street?"

"Your hideout?"

"My club. Welcome to the Deepest Fandom."

* * *

There were more non-morphs here than in any Deep Fandom bar. There was an atmosphere of a relaxed mutual respect, friendship. And luxury. I recognized a few celebrity faces. Most of the furrs wore just loose silk gowns, different colors but the same make, with round ornamental symbols. Only after a while I realized the same symbol was on the manhole we had used to get in here. The place was quite big, despite the homely atmosphere, thanks to splitting it into many smaller sections. The series of rooms held at least five hundred people, with room for twice as many. Some of them seemed to have made it their workplace, communication devices spread on the tables, nameplates with business names inviting to do business, sometimes pieces of art or other items on display for sale. There were also small shops located in alcoves in the wall, providing basic necessities, fashionable clothes, quality weapons and so on. After a while we arrived at what looked like a bar, and unlike the shops which existed 'beside' the place, the bar was definitely a part of it. An elder badger in golden-framed glasses and a clean apron was wiping a glass with a piece of cloth, in a manner most obvious to signify he was The Bartender. There were a few furrs by the bar.

"Nelena?" Angie ran up to an anthro impala antelope sitting on one of the high bar stools. Nelena wore a jeans blouse with many pockets, revealing more than hiding, and a blue miniskirt pulled up by her tail, no panties.

"Angie? You here? Wow, they finally got you in! Gosh, welcome to the Last Manhole. How long are you with the Deepest Fandom?"

"Ummm, like, five minutes?" Angie smiled and introduced me to her friend. "Nelena, Kaino, my boyfriend. Kaino, Nelena, we've grown on the same savanna. You already know Ping and Blacky."

"Pleased to meet you. Hi Blacky, Ping. Now you can guess why I never came to any of the parties pulled off by Nolly?"

"Yup."

"Heard of that last stunt by Children of Gaia? Tons of poisonous fumes are rolling over the city! There may be thousands dead! Luckily The Manhole has its own life support system."

"That's terrible!" Angie couldn't help grinning, looking at me.

"Angie, you know something. Tell me. It's about that gas?"

"Is there a calm place to, um, talk? Oh, and I'm starving."

We stood by the bar and ordered food from the barman. It was pretty obvious we would have to talk to him soon, but for now we're allowed to just get on with our business. I paid, watching Blacky's shock with a grin. The bill was about nine and a half hundred for our food and drinks, and I rounded it up to a thousand. Nelena led us to what looked like a hotel part - a series of corridors with rows of doors, there were red lights by the several of the first, but she entered one with a green light. It was a comfortable room with two big sofas and armchairs by a big glass table, a really enormous bed along one of the walls, a high-quality media center and generally all the luxury you could get. Another door led to a luxurious bathroom in whites and soft blues.

"You can live in these rooms for free, but it's in good taste to order food at the bar. It pays for maintenance of this place." Nelena explained as we took places around the table. Angie rested her head on my chest. I stroked the edge of her ear and she squirmed. "Stop this!" she said, grinning. Blacky sat by Nelena and scritched her neck a little. She smiled to him encouragingly.

I looked at the others, hesitating.

"Nelena is my friend. We can talk openly by her", said Angie.

"Ooookay." I put all the credit chips on the table. "We got twenty million. Blacky gets twenty-five percent, that is five million." I counted out ten chips. Blacky picked them and put them in a neat stack in front of him. He tried to act calm, but his tail was betraying him.

"Ping gets five percent, that is one million, plus three hundred thousand fixed rate on top of that. Let's round up to five hundred thousand." I pushed three chips towards him.

"Look, man... Please! A half more and I can afford the operation!"

"Here." I pushed five more chips towards him.

"Oh my god! Look, do you still need me? I'll run to make my arrangements!"

"You're free. But don't move out, Arasaka is likely still out after you."

"Yeah, I know!", Ping pulled his cyberdeck out of his sash, plugged the credit chips into chip slots, pulled his armchair away to a corner, plugged the deck into a socket in the wall, lay relaxed in the armchair and plugged himself in, drifting out.

"Nelena, I owe you much more than that, for the hours in the cage, for the days in the stall." Angie handed one of the chips to the antelope.

"Look, I don't need money from you."

"Take it as a token of friendship, not as money."

"Then it's okay." she smiled and put it in a small pocket on her chest. She pulled a tiny grey rock out of it and handed it to Angie.

"A rock from the savanna. It was stuck in my front hoof. The one discarded. Take it."

"Oh, god, Nelena, I don't know what to say."

"Just take it."

"You really miss the savanna, don't you?" I asked.

"Oh, I wouldn't go back. Not even for all the treasures of the world... But yes, I miss it."

A bell rang by the door.

"It's food." Nelena stood up to take it from the robocart, while I swept the rest of the chips to my wallet. I smirked at the photo of the mare in the wallet. "My ex", I thought.

The food was delicious. I didn't admit to meat in my pierogi, but the girls observed Blacky eating his big steak with real terror.

"Look, I know you're a species native to South America, so we're not normally scared, but could you eat this less... carnivorously, please?" Angie asked him.

"Uh, uh... sorry. Okay, I'll just take Ping's food. He won't eat it, it seems." Blacky produced a plastic bag and stuffed the steak in it, then put it back in his pocket. "For my cat", he explained and went back to eating. The girls calmed down but still observed him cautiously. I had to admit it, he could eat even rice carnivorously. We ate in silence. I finished first, but only because Blacky went back to eating whatever came with his steak after he swept Ping's plates clean. I lay back, relaxed, switched the TV on.

"...repeat, there is no need for panic. The gas is entirely harmless. The investigation revealed falsification of reports that led to ban of the pesticide. Various sources are giving us anonymous tips about other illegal activities of Terra Foods."

Fires, panic on the streets. A helicopter footage of the storehouse, with the containers outside on fire. A close-up on a pesticide barrel.

"We're asking the police chief about that event. What can you tell us?"

"The terrorists who attacked the storehouse will be captured and persecuted to full extent of law"

"I heard there were no victims?"

"Property damage, causing panic, trespassing. They will be caught!"

"And what about employees of Terra Foods and their alleged criminal activities?"

"No comment."

"Does that mean they will go unpunished? That they are above the law?"

"No comment."

I grinned to Angie. "You just saw the man shooting his foot." She smiled to me. "Serves him right."

"And now let's see vultures ripping the carcass to pieces." I switched the TV to stock quotes and picked the food industry sector. Terra Foods forty points down. Others slightly up.

"So, the gas was really harmless?" Nelena asked.

"One hundred percent safe."

Nelena smiled to Blacky, he grinned to her and said the one word.

"Yiff?"

And the next minute we were rolling on the bed, ripping our clothes off each other. Nel and Blacky doing 69, me taking Angie hard from behind. It was like a race, to release the built up stress, to get us able to enjoy ourselves fully without the nagging need. I was driving hard, rough, fast strokes. I felt it coming fast. Then I took Angie's breast in my hand and rubbed her nipple, in gentle, circular motion. And we came together, a crude, fast orgasm, just a release. Then Blacky came, spurts of his semen hungrily licked off by Nelena. He too, was working hard, but without much success.

"Angie, shall we help them?"

"I'll take her front, you take her back."

Blacky first found me helping him licking Nelena's pussy, but soon I moved on, feeling my erection returning. I crawled up along her back, then I entered her gently, she was much tighter than Angie. I reached around her to her breasts and found Angie's hands there.

"You said if I had horns you could drive me to orgasm through them? Try her."

So I did, gently scratching them with my nails, kissing the long neck in front of my mouth. Blacky stood up and lay behind Angie, embracing her from behind, scratching her mane. I saw her face over Nel's shoulder, dreamy bliss. The movement of Blacky's loins meant he found his way in, taking nearly asleep Angie in long, slow strokes. I ruffled Nel's belly and she gasped quietly. "So there I've got you." I thought and used both hands on her smooth belly fur, brushing it with all fingers. I sped up inside her a little too. She caught breath like a fish out of water, three times, then her body arched. And it stayed that way, while I wouldn't stop. I could see the signs of her lasting orgasm, nostrils flaring a little, lips twitching. I kept it going at a slow, regular pace while I could, but I knew it wouldn't be long. Tears sparkled in her eyes. Suddenly she noisily breathed in, out, in again, and was frozen in orgasm again. I knew Angie had many fetishes. Likely, so did Nelena. But I had just one special, strong fetish, a fetish for female orgasm, and her reaction was driving me mad. My moves got harder, faster. Nel breathed heavily twice again, I saw a droplet of blood in the corner of her mouth. The feeling reached the top and exploded in me, and I felt a wave after wave pouring into her.

Her eyes got dim, her head lay flat. She lay motionlessly, spent. Then a rapid breath, struggle for air, reaching out with hands, stretching her legs, and she began gasping hard.

The commotion woke Angie up, and the sudden confusion, feeling a male inside, seeing me there, Nelena struggling for air, I just saw how suddenly her face changes, twisted in orgasm of a new kink. I heard Blacky's snarl, the sudden contractions of Angie's pussy bringing him over the top.

Nelena struggled to her feet, reached for a glass of water, drank, spilling half of it, rested her both hands on the table, there was a long dark stain of her cum on her legs. She raised her head and walked a bit unsteadily, stumbled again, walked up to the wall, rested her back against its surface. Her breath was slowly returning. She spat blood on the floor.

"Man, you've nearly got me killed. I heard my own heart coming to stop. Look, I like..." she gasped for a moment more "okay, I'm better. Look, I like a good orgasm, and this one was absolutely stunning, but I don't want to die because of one. Keep it lower next time, will you?"

"Absolutely. I'm sorry."

She opened a wardrobe built into the wall and took a silk dressing gown out of it, wrapping herself in it.

"I'm gonna see a doctor, I think I bit through my tongue. Have fun. And, Angie?"

"Yes?"

"You lucky bastard."

And Nelena was gone.

Blacky lay on his back and began purring. Angie snuggled up closer to me and kissed my mouth. I reached for a blanket rolled by the end of the bed and unrolled it, covering myself and the two, somehow trusting this place and these people.

* * *

I woke up last again. Nelena and Angie were arguing with Blacky trying to talk him into buying something less "carnivorous". He grumpily said he'd rather eat alone instead, took his clothes on, and went to the bar.

Angie noticed I'm awake and sat by me, giving me a kiss. "Hi, love. Here's your registration card." she smiled to me and handed a plastic card to me. "Not much. Name, sex, species, photo, fingerprint. I filled in most for you."

"A horse?"

"Didn't you want to be one?"

"Umm, well, I did. But you have talked me out of this."

"Not out of your dreams though."

"Let me check how it sounds. Yes, I am a horse. I don't see any problem. I have embraced my animal soul long ago and I'm happy together with my girlfriend (who is a cute b/w zebra)."

"Oh my god Fursecution!" Nelena burst out with laughter.

"Bad, bad bad! You learned this by heart?!" Angie pushed me on the bed, laughing too.

"Just up to that point."

"Look, finish up the registration. The manhole is just an emergency entrance/exit, plus a traditional one, for the newcomers. The normal access is through the last weapon scan in the underground station. Just place your thumb tightly on the door handle and an extra exit will open. If you want to carry a gun into the underground, this is a good way too."

I picked up the card, caught the marked corner with my thumb and snapped it. A flash recorded the fingerprint, then the corner snapped back.

"How about those who have no thumbs?"

"There's a nose print reader in the weapon scan."

"Where's Ping?"

"In the vat already."

"Damn. There's a lot of work to do. We're not safe yet."

"The Terra Foods is no more. Bankruptcy filed this morning. All top executives against the wall."

"There are some names not on the list of top executives who will be after us too."

"And?"

"We'll need to hand-pick them, one by one."

Someone knocked on the door. As usually, Nel was first to open. I just wrapped myself in the sheets. It was Khan. He entered with pace matching his looks and sat in the armchair. He turned to me.

"Look. Nobody is going to say I ripped off my friends. The data was worth more than I thought. Terra Foods, stock value of eighteen billion dollars, wiped out of the face of the world. That's worth much more than measly twenty millions. I'm not allowed to disclose the amount I got for that stuff, but I'm going to give you another one hundred million, just to be on the fair side."

"Look, that's really generous, but..."

"Don't try to refuse."

"We're in need of a favor."

He nodded.

"Terra Foods is gone. The people are not. They will seek revenge. And I'm not quite fond of the idea of picking them one by one."

"Provide me with a list of names and consider it done. Don't refuse the money though. If you don't want them, give them to a charity of your choice. Or to the research fund."

Khan tossed a small black sash of cloth on the table. It gave out the sound of a bag of gold falling.

"Okay then. How can I find you?"

"Say my name three times, and I will come."

"Gosh, man, you've got style."

He gave out a bass chuckle and ruffled Angie's mane on his way out.

"What's the research fund?" I asked Nelena.

"Anthro engineering research. Real avian and reptile morphs. Deep entanglement of DNA. Circumventing mass conservation in shapeshifters. There are still dozens of problems unsolved. And a few already in prototype phase, like basic shapeshifters, single-level DNA entanglement, taurs. And us, the blends. It's partially funded off the cliniques profits, but always in need of more money."

"And Khan controls everything?"

Nelena laughed. "Nooo, he's just a higher operative. Few know who he responds to, but there are some above him. One known name is Marcel McKelly, the owner of 2L. I know one more, but I shouldn't, and so shouldn't you. A politician." She stood up and tied the silk belt on her robe. "Let's see how Blacky is doing, socialize some. You don't need clothes, just the dressing gown. Makes spontanical orgies easier. And we'll give the robots time to clean up."

I held the sash of chips. Despite the weight and feel of plastic, it was making noise as if it was full of coins. "I didn't plan that. What can we do with it?"

"Leave it in the bank. Ted holds it. The badger, barman."

"Seriously?"

"Yep. The best bank in town."

I nodded. I took a robe on, but I took my wallet with the remaining cash and the DNA data chip with me.

Blacky was talking with Ted, while Ted was listening with interest. He was talking about some earlier stunt he did. Remains of a bloody battle against a big steak lay scattered on a plate in front of him. We took three free stools by the bar.

"Hi. I was telling Ted how I got on top of Buma Tower."

"Yes, amazing story." the badger pressed his glasses deeper." He turned to me. "So you say you're a horse, but you don't act like one. Horses run in face of danger. You should rethink your fursona. It shouldn't be a decision made lightly."

"I already did, and the conclusion is that I don't know. I wanted to be free. I thought being a horse is being free."

"And you've met a feral-born, who taught you you were wrong. A surprisingly common series of events"

"And what happens then?"

"Most run away as soon as they learn, then buy themselves a reasonable life from the savings. You took a different route. That broken card... that was damn noble of you."

"How do you know?"

"We keep an eye on the feral-born. They naturally belong to the deepest fandom, but they need to learn some human ways first. It took Angie longer than the others"

"She could have been killed."

"And I couldn't do the least thing about it. That's the part I really hate about this job. But you came to me about a business, didn't you?"

"Yes." I put the bag of chips on the table. Ted held it in hand, tossed up, listening to the sound of coins.

"Goddamned show-off, this Khan." he said, placing the bag somewhere under the counter.

"Split it in four, Ping, Blacky, Angie and me."

"Umm, what's that?", Blacky asked.

"Twenty five million dollars to mister Blacky." Ted muttered, while writing with a golden-tipped fountain pen on a new page in his worn, stained notebook.

"How do you know it was one hundred million?" I asked. "You didn't count it?"

"You see a golden chip, you know it's half a million, you see a ringing bag, you know it's a hundred." he said, without stopping writing. "Besides, I gave it to Khan ten minutes ago. There." he put a full stop after signing the page "Blacky". "Blacky, if I could advise you, don't give all of it to the sanctuary at once. They will go shopping-frenzy and will spend it all in a month. Give them some three hundred thousand a month and the remainder of the interest will still keep up with the inflation. Plus a little extra for your living too."

"Can you handle this kind of order?"

"Of course, why shouldn't I?"

"The sanctuary's account number is..."

"I know their account number by heart, my boy. Three hundred thousand a month it is, then?"

"Yes."

He opened the notebook, the page was full of notes, some of them in red ink, most of them crossed out. "Three hundred thousand dollars to be paid monthly from mister Blacky's account until cancelled or the funds are exhausted. Which should never happen. Unless you start withdrawing, gambling or something, of course."

"What's the interest?", I asked.

"The interest is that it suffices for all I mentioned, everything is on the house in the Last Manhole, and you can ask for reasonable pocket money whenever you want. You can stay as long as you desire, no charges. And the percentage goes to fund research, furrs in need and so on. Now please excuse me, I have other customers to attend to." he finished scribbling entries for me, Ping and Angie, closed the notebook and hurried to a she-wolf waiting by the other end of the bar.

"I forgot to order food" I sighed.

"That's what the console is for" Nel grinned, picking a position on the display built into the bar. "There's half a thousand furrs here. You can't have Ted to serve food to all of them"

"Tell me, that research fund. What can we get from it?"

"You're one of the first in line in the technology to which you redirect your funds. And you can take part in prototype program, operations of value often exceeding your investment by far, but without warranty given to regular customers."

"Angie, Nelena... would you return, if you could switch back and forth between anthro and feral?"

"No!" they shouted in unison.

"But maybe...", Angie began.

"Not savanna...", Nelena said.

"You first."

"Not to Africa. All the lions and crocodiles and cheetahs, and hyenas, no, thanks. Maybe a fifteen minutes with an armed bodyguard to watch over us. To feel the old ground under hooves, you know."

"Yes. But if it was to be a nice ranch, Texas maybe, or Florida..."

"Not Florida. They have alligators there"

"Okay, not Florida. Well, a nice big place."

"The grass, the sky, the wind in your mane...", I hinted, with a grin.

"Umm, yes. And then a warm bubble bath and a soft bed. And some good, spicy chineese food for lunch. Grass as a food is overrated."

* * *

The prairies reached the horizon, huge squares of different shades of green marked former borders between fields of different crops of Terra Foods plantations, now all grass and a private property of a small group of furrs.

My hooves were beating the ground in constant rhythm, the feeling of near-weightlessness was stunning. Using four legs was surprisingly easy, likely thanks to the training in my dreams. I ran up the nearby hill and saw my herd below, grazing peacefully. I raised my head high and whinnied loudly, happily, feeling the wind caressing my mane, carrying my tail. I breathed the cool, clean air, gazed at the sky.

Replies to my whinny came from the herd. They were not only equine. There was my zebra, there was the antelope, there were some more that weren't horses too. The zebra separated from the herd and ran to me.

"Oh my god, you look... I'm lacking words."

"Goddamned show-off, as Ted would put it?"

"My legs are all soft when I'm looking at you."

"So better make them harder now, 'cause they are going to carry my weight in a moment!"

I put my neck on Angie's mane, nipped her back a little. She turned her back to me.

"And you said ten years ago nobody would say your ass is sexy?"

I nipped her back, just above her tail. She swung it to a side, squirted some, winked at me rapidly. I stuffed my mouth under her tail and sucked on the taste... the senses of a horse were much different, things looked differently, tasted differently. And her sex tasted like the most delicious nectar, I could spend hours just licking her there, stimulating her to give me more. My tongue was quite long and could reach quite deep into her, seeking more of the taste, more sources of her delicious juices.

She stomped her hoof impatiently. A light push with my front hooves and my chest was on her back, I was nibbling her neck gently, feeling her opening with my tip. I pushed very lightly and felt her opening for me, warmth surrounding the flat head, her softness. She squirted again, the scent of her urine triggered an instinct reaction, I pushed with all my strength, deep to the hilt, feeling her cervix matching my urethra, fitting perfectly, a solid seal. I couldn't control it anymore, the total coverage, her rapid contraction, this all pushed me so far over the edge, into such a deep orgasm I was totally beyond my senses, beyond control, I found my teeth holding Angie's neck hard, my loins tightly pushing against her back, I heard her loud squeal, I could feel waves of pleasure flowing along my penis, it was her coming, squeezing me inside, her cervix opening and pulling at my urethra, lumpy blocks of thick semen flowing fast, teasing me from inside, sudden overpowering bliss, as I landed on her back, rested my head on her shoulder, felt the suddenly soft cock sliding out, a waterfall of our cum mixed flowing out. I slipped off her back, lay on the grass and rolled on my back. Her nose hung over my muzzle, she licked it gently.

"You never roll on your back after the mares."

"Because sex with you is absolutely the best, the most wonderful. I feel so blissful, so relaxed... free. Yes, I'm free."

She lay by me, placing her neck on my head.

"You know, you could have ordered a clone for them."

"And risk you'd go visit him when I'm away?"

"I don't complain when you mate with them"

"You're not as possessive as me."

"You'd be surprised. I wish them all the worst when I watch you with them."

"The ranch won't support itself. We spent almost all on the operations and the land. When some others join in, paying their sign-up fee, I will be just for you."

"And for Nel, and for Tina, and for Bell, and for all the females on the ranch.", she grumbled.

"But I'm their alpha stallion. And you're the alpha mare."

"Doesn't make me any less jealous. But at least they are my herd. But you've got to end with that breeding business. You're whoring yourself for cash."

"Eight grand a trick. Either this or the gun. I'm not good at anything else."

"We NEED someone to sign up. Or cut on the costs. The ammo for security drones alone..."

"Fifteen hunters dead."

"Okay, okay. I mean, I love this place. It's wonderful, it's safe. But I want you for myself!"

"Soon you will, dear. Really soon. Look, I hear a truck. Gotta get to work."

by Sharpfang Sun Dec 31 18:18:09 CET 2006