Chapter 14

“Trish, you can’t do that,” Marc said, “they’ll just arrest you.”

Marc, Sam, Trish, and Theo were sitting in the living room of the apartment Sam and Theo shared. The usual soundtrack of people grunting and groaning, and beds creaking, drifted up from below.

“It’s a protest, I can do that. Plus, if they do something to me it’ll be all over social media.”

“Will it?” Sam said, “or will all the corporate brainwashed drones just ignore you. I mean, what are you trying to achieve?”

“I’m going to make them see what’s happening. If they know they’re being brainwashed maybe they’ll wake up.”

“I have another plan,” said Marc.

Trish gritted her teeth. Sam looked at her and frowned. Theo focused on Marc.

“Go on then,” Theo said.

“I’m gonna hack ‘em. I can crack their system, maybe find Ben, maybe find out what they’re planning next, even get a virus in there.”

“You can’t actually do that, Marc, their security is going to be top of the range,” said Trish.

“Oh, come on, you think these big companies are that smart? People hack into stuff all the time.”

“Not you, Marc,” said Sam, “you’ve never done anything that complicated.”

Marc scowled and leaned back in his seat. Theo moved restlessly in his, he kept cracking his knuckles, alternating between that and rubbing his thighs. Finally, he sat forward, slapping his hands onto his knees.

“I’ve got a plan too.”

“Yeah, what’s your bright idea,” Trish groaned.

“They’re about to start construction down the road, right? I’m gonna get into their site and see what kind of stuff I can find.”

“What stuff? Dude, what do you even mean by that?” Marc said.

“Like, plans, documents, I don’t know, I’m not a construction… guy. But there’s gotta be something there, right? They definitely didn’t do anything legal to build there, no one who lives there would want to leave the city.”

Sam nodded. Trish tilted her head to the side and shrugged. Marc shook his head and rolled his eyes.

“At worst I can smash some of the equipment, slow them down,” said Theo.

“Good luck in jail buddy,” Marc said with a withering tone.

“Hey, fuck you asshole. Go hack yourself a better idea.”

“That’s what I’m going to do you moron.”

“Guys, stop,” said Sam.

She hated conflict. The group tended to agree on little, but never fought about it. Her hands were shaking and it took resolve not to leave the room and go hide in bed. One friend was already missing, seeing the rest bicker and fight was the last thing she needed.

“What are we trying to do?” she asked.

“Bring down CaliaCorp,” said Trish.

“Yeah,” agreed Marc.

Theo nodded.

“Aren’t we trying to find Ben?” Sam said.

Trish winced. Theo looked at his shoes. Marc clasped his fingers over his nose.

“So, shouldn’t we be waiting for that woman?” asked Sam.

“No,” snapped Theo.

Everyone looked at him with surprise. He sounded angry.

“Why not?” Trish asked.

“Because we don’t even know her, so um, we should do something ourselves. Right?”

“He’s right,” said Marc.

Theo nodded.

“I can’t sit and wait, Sam,” said Trish. “I have to do something. Anything. If that’s just causing a problem for CaliaCorp, so be it. Maybe if I piss them off enough, they’ll drag me in there, and then I can go look for Ben.”

“It’s not much of a plan, Trish,” said Sam.

“What do you want Sam? You want me to have an answer to how we find him? How we drag him out of a giant company? Maybe, just maybe, we can figure out where he’s living and find him there. Get me at a computer, inside the building, and I can find that information.”

“And I can search their servers for it,” said Marc, “if I can get inside.”

“He might be moving to the new places they’re building. You never know Sam, maybe there’s something there. What else can we do?”

“We could talk to them?” Sam replied.

“That didn’t go great before,” Trish said.

“But that was the receptionist, and Theo got pretty crazy. What if I could talk to someone high up, what if I could even talk to Calia?”

“Sam, no one has ever seen her,” said Marc.

“She must be, hang on,” Theo started counting on his fingers, then stopped abruptly, “old.”

“So? She might be reasonable. You heard that woman we met, the world is better in some ways, right? Maybe she’s not a bad person. Companies are evil… but people aren’t.”

Trish put her hand on Sam’s leg. Sam felt butterflies swirling in her stomach at the touch.

“Sam, I love you, you’re the sweetest thing, but that psycho bitch isn’t going to talk to you. If she even exists, and if she does, can you even find her?”

Sam could barely focus on Trish’s words. The touch, the word love, it was overwhelming. It took her a moment to collect herself and reply.

“I’ll do some research, dig into the history of, well, all of this. Of CaliaCorp. Find out who she is, and then maybe I can find her, or whoever runs the place.”

Silence fell over the room. Trish removed her hand from Sam’s leg. Sam lifted her leg a little, as if to try steal another second of that touch, then let it rest. In the quiet, the sounds of sex seemed amplified from the floor below. Thumping, over and over in a furious rhythm, with the occasional grunt from a deep voice. Whoever they were with was not having a good time. The sounds grew in volume and culminated in a primal groan and then muffled voices and footsteps. Then silence. Theo gripped the business card in his pocket and felt his cock twitch. Marc stared at the TV remote, looking for a distraction. Sam stared at Trish’s hand. Trish stood up.

“So, we’ve all got a plan, right?”

She felt a surge of energy. Her eyes were sunken, she was wired, running on adrenaline. Shifting on her feet, the floorboard creaked beneath her boots.

“Yeah, yeah we do,” said Marc.

“Ok,” Theo said, “yeah, I’ve got a plan.”

“So, let’s do all of it. We can all do something different and maybe something works.”

Sam stood and faced Trish. Sam stood a few inches shorter, and Trish’s boots made the difference even larger. Looking up at Trish’s eyes, Sam wore the appearance of a lost puppy.

“I’ll stay here, ok? Do my research. If I find anything, I’ll tell one of you and you can maybe go? And that way if Ben comes back, I’ll be here.”

Trish nodded.

“Let’s fuck ‘em up,” said Theo.