FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

"Holy_shit_, Jack," his mom said after he finished telling her as much as he could about their last few jobs, the events leading to their employment at the Justice Foundation, and their side-gig on the reality show with several of their friends and Dale the party animal. "I really wish you could've told us about all this a long time ago."

"Well, I'm sorry, but everything happened so fast, it was all we could do to avoid being shot or ending up in prison for the rest of our lives." Jack sighed and slowed the car down to make a right turn. "Even after all that stuff got sorted out, we got caught up in everything else that just kept chugging along."

He eased up to the traffic light ahead and stopped.

"Besides, if I'd told you all that, you would've worried yourself into a heart attack or a stroke."

His mom sighed. "Probably. But still, we're not thrilled with the way we had to find out."

"I know. I'm sorry, Mom. I'm not sure there's a good way you could've found out about all this." Jack sighed again. The traffic light turned green and he continued on down the street. "But at least now you know, right?"

"Yeah. But now we're gonna be terrified every time we check the feeds from your show and you're late getting home, or when we call you and you don't answer, or--"

"Oh, for fuck's sake, Mom." He shook his head. "I'm not a little kid anymore."

"I understand that, but you'll always be our baby."

Goddamn it. He tried not to gnash his teeth. "The girls and I have survived everything so far. We'll keep on surviving. Just have a little trust in our abilities, eh?"

"Well, I'll try."

"_Thank_you. Okay, we're driving up to the office. Gotta go see what our next gig will be. We're hoping it'll be something a little quieter than the last few."

"I sure hope so."

"Gotta go, Mom. Love you and Dad."

"We love you, too, kiddo. Take car of yourself."

"Will do. Bye, Mom." He tapped the bluetooth receiver, tugged it off his ear, and dropped it into the beverage holder beside the gear shift.

Corona chuckled and reached over to pat his shoulder. "That sounded like a fun conversation."

"I'm just glad it's over." Jack entered the parking lot beside their HQ, rolled into one of the vacant parking spots, and shut the engine down. "Thing is, she'll keep on bringing this up every chance she gets. It's how she's always been. She claims it's part of being a mom, but she knows it drives me nuts and she keeps it up anyway."

He released a half-sigh, half growl, and hopped out of the car. Corona and Taura followed him into the Foundation building and up to the conference room. They found Machiko, Rocky, and Shadow seated around the table and Mickey's face on the big screen hanging on the wall to the left. Machiko smiled and nodded, Rocky waved, Shadow yawned and took a chug from a huge cup of coffee, and Mickey appeared to be distracted by something off-screen.

"Hey, Rocky." Corona took one of the empty seats and turned sideways slightly to get her tail into a comfortable position. Jack and Taura sat in the adjacent seats. "How's the tit?"

Rocky chuckled and tugged the collar of her burgundy T-shirt down enough to expose the bandage on her left breast. "It'll heal. I'm just glad it was a ricochet, and not a direct hit."

"Yeah, I'm glad it wasn't worse than it was. Still, ouch."

"Yeah, no kidding." Rocky shrugged. "But I'll be okay. And Ralphie's ready to come back to work. He'll be showing up for some light-duty stuff this afternoon."

"Glad to hear that." Corona grinned.

"I've missed working with him." Rocky took a breath, let it rush out, and turned all-business for the briefing.

"How's the case progressing?" Taura leaned forward and rested her arms on the table.

"Still going over the data," Mickey muttered. "What I've found so far, though, is fucking creepy. Specifications on the nanotech and cybernetic implants used to revive the corpses and keep them functioning. Information on a formula they have to be given regularly to prevent them from rotting. A list of people who have already been used for the program, and another list of potential 'candidates' based on how high-risk their jobs are. I've even found a list of people they were considering for what they call 'early recruitment.'"

"In other words, people they planned to kill so they could use the bodies for their cyber-zombie experiments." Machiko's lips curled. "Makes me want to do the same to the twisted bastards who came up with the whole project."

"I know the feeling."

"Well, keep at it and let us know what else you find."

Mickey nodded, tapped a button, and vanished from the screen. Machiko swiveled her chair to face the others.

"Hoshi is still babysitting Winslow. Once the Feds pick him up, she'll assist Mickey with the rest of the data. Until then, there's not much we can do, so I figured you three could use a bit of light duty, yourselves." Machiko smiled. "We were asked to do a favor for another law-enforcement unit that's kind of hit a wall in their investigation."

She picked up a tablet, tapped the screen, and the wall monitor blipped up a mugshot of a human. Mid-twenties, greasy brown mullet, handlebar mustache, and four upper-front buck teeth.

Jack snickered. "He looks like the kind of guy who thinks about his sister while trying to masturbate with a banana peel."

Corona burst out laughing and slumped over the table. Shadow choked on her coffee and thumped her mug on the table.

Machiko smirked, shook her head, and took a slow breath. "This is Casey Smith. He's been under surveillance for a fairly long time, and they've been trying to pressure him into turning on the tech smuggling ring he works for. He hasn't budged, though no one's sure if it's because he's loyal or just stupid. We've been asked to speed things up a little."

"Okay." Corona smiled. "What do you need us to do?"

"Keep watch on him and see what he does." Machiko grinned. "But first, I'd like you to scare the shit out of him."

#

Oh, that was nothing but fucked-up. Shakira groaned and rubbed her left hand over her face. Her brain was still foggy, as if she were emerging from a deep sleep. Which was odd because the last thing she remembered was waking up in her hospital bed in the morning.

And then there was that dream. That horrible, unsettling dream...

Of all the goddamned things to dream about...why that_?Not that she minded the occasional sex dream. But why in the hell had _he been the...?

Wait._She forced her eyes open. _Why is my arm numb? Oh, shit, what if it's a heart attack? Which arm is that, again?

She turned her head to the right, blinked until her vision cleared--and almost screamed at the sight of Otto laying beside her, asleep, her right arm under him, his left arm draped across her belly.

What the fuck? No, no, no, no--this can't be happening! I'm still dreaming. Her heart pounded and she gasped. Dream, my ass. This is a full-on nightmare_!_

She tried to slow her breathing.

_Don't panic. Just...just figure a way out of this._Before she could look away from him, she caught a glimpse of something she wished she could unsee.

He's fucking naked. She glanced down at herself and her lungs seized up for a moment. I...I..._I'm_fucking naked!

She clamped her mouth shut on a horrified moan.

Okay...panic. Definitely panic.

She took slow breaths and tried to ease her arm out from under him. If she could get out of bed without waking him up....

He stirred, moaned softly, and snuggled closer to her.

Oh, shit! No!

He slid his arm upward. His palm found her left breast and cupped it.

Her heart didn't pound so much as slam. The sound of it seemed almost deafening to her.

Otto's breathing remained steady and his eyes stayed closed.

Goddamn it! What am I gonna do now? Gnaw my fucking arm off?

The tips of his frill of hair spikes brushed her neck.

Oh, hell! That tickles! Don't laugh!

His head shifted slightly with each breath and the accidental tickling continued. Finally, Shakira barked out a quick laugh.

Otto jolted awake with a startled grunt.

A sudden, cold sensation rushed through Shakira's chest.

Oh, hell. It's all over. I'm going to prison.

Otto propped himself up on his left elbow, blinked, frowned, and took a slow look around the room. "What?"

Go back to sleep. Without pinning my arm down again. Go back to sleep. This was nothing but a dream.

Otto finally noticed her beside him. He gaped at her for a moment and then grinned.

"It's about time I had a dream that was actually pleasant." His brow furrowed suddenly and he glanced around again. "Wait a minute."

"This isn't a dream." Shakira pulled her arm out from under him and scooted away. "Something was--"

"Something was done to us." He glanced around again. "Where the hell are we?"

She scooted farther away, pulled her knees up to her chest, and wrapped her arms around them.

"This looks like a motel room." Otto hopped off the bed, staggered, and leaned on the wall. He shook his head, squinted, and tried to regain his balance. "Shit, I feel like my skull's been stuffed with cotton."

"Me, too." Shakira glanced down at the bed and shuddered.

"I remember taking the elevator to the--no, wait." Otto shook his head again. "I was planning to grab something to eat and spend the night in the waiting room. I got into the elevator and...and there was this guy who got in with me." He rubbed his hands over his face. "I remember he had a long coat on. That's about all. He looked me in the eye and that's when everything went haywire. Next thing I knew, I woke up on a chair in the front lobby, and went up to your room. I couldn't stop. Had no control over myself. Like I was trapped in my own body and someone else was piloting it."

"Same thing happened to me." Memories came flashing back to her, clicking into place, solidifying. "I--I woke up, got dressed, and just stood there, waiting. Kept trying to move, but couldn't. It was like I was just...I dunno, locked down."

"I remember finding you like that, just standing in the middle of your hospital room."

"We walked out together. Kept walking until we arrived here. And then..."

"Yeah." Otto's eyes flicked around as if trying to grasp onto something. He caught a glimpse of his reflection in the small TV mounted on the wall, shook his head, and tried to push his disheveled hair back into place.

"We..." Shakira stared at the sheets and her heart damned near _vibrated_as a new wave of horror washed over her. "Shit! I had sex with an underage kid!"

"Calm down." He darted around the foot of the bed, leaned over, and put his hands on her shoulders. "Take it easy. If we panic, it'll only make things worse."

"I'm gonna end up in prison for this!"

"Shhh. Breathe." He sat on the edge of the bed, kept his hands on her shoulders, and closed his eyes. "Deep breaths. Like this." He inhaled slowly, exhaled slowly, and repeated it.

"Damn!" Shakira forced herself to take a deep breath and let it out in a long sigh.

"Good." Otto kept his eyes closed and smiled. "Just pause. Give yourself a few minutes. Clear your head. After that, we can think of what to do about this."

"Y--yeah. Sure." She breathed again, and then again, and gradually her pulse slowed.

"There." He opened his eyes. "Okay. Look, we can't tell anyone about this. We'll go back home and act like everything's normal. You'll be just fine."

"Someone will find out, sooner or later." She shook her head and waved a hand at the spots on the sheet. "Look, your...uh, 'DNA' is all over the bed! And all over me!" She lurched toward the bathroom. "Oh, Christ, I've got to get into the shower! Got to clean all this off."

"Good idea." Otto whipped the top sheet off and tugged the bottom one loose. "When you're done with that, we'll wash these sheets in the bathtub. It won't be perfect, but right now it's all we've got."

"Yeah. Yeah, good thinking." She stumbled up to the tub and turned the hot-water handle.

The pipes in the wall rattled violently and a soupy brown fluid trickled from the showerhead. Shakira recoiled from it and bumped into Otto.

"Whoa." He reached out to steady her. "Give it a moment. Maybe it just hasn't been used in a long time."

"Yeah. Maybe." She shuddered again and crossed her arms tightly over her chest.

The rattling of the pipes worsened and the brownish fluid stopped flowing. And then nothing at all came out of the showerhead.

"Or not." Shakira turned the handle back to the off position, trudged back to the bed, and plopped down on the edge of the mattress. "Oh, shit. Oh, shit!"

"Take it easy." Otto sat beside her and rubbed her back. "We'll figure something else out."

Another shiver rippled through her, and this time it wasn't fear. Before she realized what was happening, she leaned over and kissed him.

What the hell am I doing_?_She kept the passionate kiss going for a few more seconds before she managed to pull back. She took several gasping breaths and pushed him away.

"What--?"

"Must be whatever that guy did to us. Guess it hasn't completely worn off yet." Otto flicked a lopsided grin at her. "Not that I'm complaining! I've wanted this to happen ever since we met. I just didn't want it to happen like this."

She stared at him. He looked away, sighed, and shrugged.

Her gaze inched lower and lower, until she shook herself out of it and turned away. She waved a hand at his crotch and then held it up to her eye to block it from her view.

"Watch where you point that."

He glanced down and chuckled. "Sorry. Perfectly normal reaction to your beauty, though."

"Eh."

He grabbed one of the wadded-up sheets and placed it on his lap. "There. All clear." He frowned and glanced around the room again. "Hey, where are our clothes?"

Shakira glanced at the floor in front of her and found nothing but a few cigarette butts and some stains she was probably better off not contemplating. She walked over to check the floor at the foot of the bed and then the other side, and came up empty.

Otto checked under the bed. "Nothing."

Shakira groaned and rushed to the tiny closet. She tugged on the handle and the entire door popped off its hinges. She gaped at it, shook her head, and shoved the door into the closet. A quick glance around its interior turned up nothing at all.

"Oh, no. We can't even leave. The bastard stole our clothes!"

Otto dropped back onto the bed and facepalmed. "For fuck's sake!"

"Well. There's only one more thing I can think of." Shakira braced herself and reached for the phone on the nightstand.

"Hold on a minute. We can't tell anyone about this."

"Well, we sure as hell can't just walk home without any clothes on. I'm gonna call Jack and see if he can pick us up. I'm sure we can trust him and the girls to keep quiet." She held the phone in her trembling hand and took a deep breath. "We can slip into the back of his car and stay out of sight."

"Okay. But be sure they bring some clothes for us."

"Oh! Right!" She raked her hand through her hair. "That should've been the first thing on my mind."

"Well, we're both a little distracted."

"No shit. Okay, here we go." She punched in Jack's number, held the phone to her ear, and waited.

#

"Casey Smith?" Jack held his ID up.

"Huh?" The suspect stared at Jack with a dull, slack-jawed expression, as if barely able to comprehend what was in front of him. His mullet, mustache, and four buck teeth didn't make him look any smarter. "Who the hell are you?"

"We're with the Justice Foundation." Jack nodded over his shoulder at Taura, who smiled politely and held up her ID. "We need to ask you a few questions."

His dull eyes opened a little more, taking on the deer-in-the-headlights look. "Uh. Sure. Okay." His gaze turned shifty-eyed, and Jack swore he could hear the gears turning in the guy's head. _Rusty_gears that had all but seized up from a lifetime of disuse, but still.

He's gonna bolt. Jack prepared to shove his right boot through the doorway.

Smith slammed the door. Jack lunged and it hit his foot. Smith turned to run, but Jack threw the door open and bounced it into him. Smith stumbled forward, dashed around the front counter of his used-parts shop, and paused to topple over a shelf packed with circuit boards, memory modules, and other components.

Taura vaulted over the counter and swiped at him. He ducked and she missed him by a fraction of an inch. He ran through the door behind the counter and tried to slam it in her face, but she forced it open with a casual push. The door hit him with enough force to send him staggering to the end of the hallway.

Jack hopped over the shelf and charged after them. He caught up with Taura as she and Smith raced around the corner and down another hallway to a door leading into the alley behind the shop.

"Back door," Taura said into her comlink.

"On it," Corona answered.

Smith yanked the door open and launched himself through it. He turned to the left and ran through the alley.

Corona dropped from a rooftop across the alley and came down in a three-point landing ten feet ahead of him. He let out a terrified shriek and tripped over his own feet, pitched forward, and ate shit just as Taura and Jack caught up to him.

Corona remained in a crouch and waited for Smith to pick himself up. When he looked up at her, she grinned, bearing her sharp, pointed teeth and thumb-length canines. Smith tried to scream, but what came out was more of a really loud sigh.

"Going somewhere?" Corona stood and flexed her huge muscles.

He turned to run to the opposite end of the alley, but found Jack and Taura blocking his path.

Jack pulled a zip-tie from his pocket. "No, he's not."

#

"So, you think we scared him enough?" Corona walked into the nearly empty room, stood in the sunlight coming through the picture window at the front, and stretched.

"I sure hope so," Jack grumbled. He stood beside Taura as she sat at a small table and projected a holographic field from her pocket-size supercomputer. A dozen holographic displays appeared in front of her. "I hope I never have to get anywhere near that skeevy bastard again."

"Me, too," Corona said. "I'm just sorry you actually had to touch him. He smelled like rancid jism and beer farts."

"And now I suddenly feel the need to burn the outer layer of my skin off." Jack shuddered and turned back to the camera feeds in each of the holo-displays.

Corona walked over to the window, leaned against the wall, and gazed down at Smith's shop across the street. She caught a bit of movement through the shop's front window, but couldn't make it out from this distance and angle.

"He sure is agitated." Jack pointed at one of the windows in Taura's holofield, which showed a view of the shop from one of the traffic cameras at the nearby intersection. Corona glanced over her shoulder and caught a glimpse of Smith pacing back and forth and shouting into his phone.

"How long do you think it'll take him to run off in a blind panic?"

Jack shrugged. "I'd be surprised if he lasted the rest of today."

"Hmm. Nah, I don't think he's smart enough to realize how much trouble he's actually in." Corona giggled. "He's, like, six cans short of a sixpack. Seriously, all he's got is that plastic thing with six empty rings."

Jack grinned. "Well, he's definitely getting the fuzzy end of the lollipop when it comes to his position in that little operation, and he doesn't even seem to realize it."

"Yeah." Taura flicked her eyes from one holographic monitor to another. "He peddles the illegal cybernetic components, his boss gets almost all the profit, and he goes down if the operation is compromised, while his boss simply vanishes and resurfaces with a new identity somewhere else."

Jack nodded. "But now that he knows how close we are to nailing everyone above him and that he'll end up in prison with 'em, if he has any synapses to rub together, he'll either flip on 'em or run like hell. And if he runs, it's not like he's hard to keep up with. The guy's no Einstein, and he's no Houdini, either."

"Who?" Corona cocked her head. "I mean, I've heard of Einstein, but not the other guy."

"Legendary escape artist." When Corona kept the same puzzled look on, Jack continued explaining. "Harry Houdini. Became famous over a century ago for escaping locks, chains, straightjackets, and all sorts of other stuff. He was a magician, though, so a lot of what he did was just stunts. If I remember correctly, he did know how to pick locks and stuff like that."

"Hmm." Corona turned to look out the window again. "I never thought about it before, but we should start learning stuff like that. In this kind of work, it's only a matter of time before we end up locked in a room or otherwise trapped. It'd be a good idea to find out how to pick locks and whatnot."

"True." Jack chuckled and his face took on a hint of a blush. "I sure needed a talent like that the time I locked myself out of my apartment, back before we met."

Taura grinned. "Now I want to learn those things, after hearing that."

"It never hurts to try new things, anyway." Corona giggled and rubbed her hands together. "Like learning to drive."

"We can get started on that tomorrow," Jack said. "If we have enough time after work."

"Can't wait." Corona grinned and stared into the window across the street. "Any new activity over there, Taura?"

"Not really. He finished the phone call, and now he's pacing around." Taura pointed at one of the feeds and laughed suddenly. "He just tripped on something."

Corona walked over to look at the image as Smith kicked a footstool across the floor. He slumped against the counter, ran his hands over his face, and stood still for a moment. He turned one way and then another, glanced around frantically, and finally darted through the door behind the counter.

Huh._Corona frowned and leaned closer. _He's bolting already?

Smith reappeared and Corona giggled. He heaved an oversized briefcase onto the counter, opened it, checked the contents, and locked it.

"And he's off," Jack said with a grin.

Smith ducked under the counter, fiddled with something, and popped back up with a stack of cash. He put on a filthy bomber jacket, stuffed the cash into the pockets, and took out his phone. He began poking the screen and Corona glanced at Taura.

"Still got the tap on his phone?"

"Yep." Taura reached over to a set of holographic controls on her right and pulled up a new window. Text and graphics flashed through it and she laughed softly. "He's ordering plane tickets to the Cayman Islands."

"Wow." Corona straightened up, put her hands on her hips, and shook her head slowly. "We're getting too good at this."

Jack grinned at her and tapped his comlink earpiece. "He's getting ready to run."

_[What the hell did you do to scare him that badly?]_Ralphie sent through his comm implant.

"Basically, we showed up. That did it, pretty much." Taura tapped another command into her hard-light control panel. "I'm sending you all the info we have. He's heading for the airport to take a plane to the Caymans."

[Damn, guys, you scared him right off the whole continent!]

"We aim to please." Jack turned to look out the window as Smith ran through the door again, burst through the front door of his shop, and glanced around frantically. "He doesn't have a car, so he's probably gonna flag down a taxi if there are any in the area. Do you want us to follow him or bring him in?"

[Nah, even a dipshit like him will notice your car following him. Rocky and Shadow can track him from the air. We'll see if he leads us to anyone else in the organization on the way to the airport, and pick him up there. You three can go on home if you want. I figure you've had enough of this guy.]

"You figured right." Jack smiled and took a moment to stretch. "Let us know if you need reinforcements, though."

[Sure thing. Take it easy, guys.] Ralphie signed off and Jack took a deep breath and let it rush out.

"Okay, let's pack it in."

His phone rang. He dug it out of his pocket, glanced at the screen, and arched an eyebrow.

"I don't recognize the number." He shrugged and accepted the call. "Hello?"

Corona returned to the sunlight streaming in through the window, closed her eyes, stretched out her wings to catch more of it, and smiled.

"Easy, easy," Jack said, and she turned around and cocked her head. "Calm down. Okay. Yeah. Sure, no problem. Where are you? Oh, okay."

Corona walked back to him and raised a brow ridge.

"It's Shakira," he said, keeping his voice low. "She's really upset. Something really bad has--yeah, Shakira, I'm still here. Okay. Got it. We'll be there soon. Until then, just try to stay calm." He hung up, slipped the phone into his pocket, and aimed a puzzled frown at her and Taura.

"What's wrong?" Taura tapped a button and the holofield faded away. She stood and put her computer back into her pocket.

"Shakira's not in the hospital anymore. She said she and Otto are in a motel room--he had to duck outside and find the address. They need us to stop by the house and pick up some clothes for them. And one of Otto's spare laptops."

"Uh." Corona raised a hand. "Hold on. Pick up some clothes? What happened to the ones they were wearing?"

"She wouldn't tell me anything." Jack headed for the door. "She sounded like she was about to freak out, though, so I didn't pry. We'll find out when we get there."

The girls followed him to the car. After a quick stop at the house to pick up the requested items, Jack hurried out to the address Shakira had given him. He slowed as he approached the gravel parking lot and the ramshackle row of motel rooms at the far end.

Corona flicked her eyes over the long, single-story building, searching for potential threats. After finding no movement, she nodded at Jack and waited for him to park in front of the room Shakira had said they were in. He left the engine running and jumped out. Corona grabbed the plastic bag containing the clothing, Taura picked up the laptop, and both scooted out the back door and left it open.

Jack knocked softly on the door. "It's me and the girls. Are you okay?"

The door opened and Otto whispered, "Come in. Hurry!"

Jack charged through the door with his hand on his gun and stepped aside for Corona and Taura. They stepped through the door and gaped at the sight that greeted them.

Otto grabbed the laptop, sat on the armchair in the corner, and booted it. "This'll just take a minute. The asshole who took our clothes also took my duffel bag, all the gadgets I had in it, and our phones. Fortunately, I can nuke all the hard drives from here, so at least the fucker won't be able to get his hands on anything I don't want him to."

Jack and the girls exchanged puzzled glances. Corrie shrugged and waited for Otto to enter a series of codes, push the enter button, and power down the computer.

"There. Done."

"Ah. Good. Well." Jack raised an eyebrow and scratched his head. "Um, you're both naked."

Otto held his hands up. "We can explain, I swear."