Chapter 18

Why, Sam wondered, could she find out so little about CaliaCorp? The whole operation was so closely guarded, as if any real information had been erased from the internet. It was all so stupidly mysterious. She couldn’t hack into a system or anything like it, but did have keen research skills and it was rare for anything to be so mind-bogglingly confusing to understand. As far as she could tell, the only real information about CaliaCorp came from CaliaCorp, but even that seemed inconsistent. She could find four separate dates for the founding of the company, some over a century apart. If one was to be believed Calia herself could be almost two hundred years old. Another made it seem as though she started in the business world just a few years before, and her dominance arrived quickly.

But none of it made sense. The whole company credited itself with cleaning the air, the rivers, the sea. Of fighting to save the climate, endangered animals, ecosystems, countries. How could that be done in less than a decade? How if it had taken two hundred years had no one stood up against the company? And who, really, was Calia?

Sam felt defeated by it all. She wished Trish were there, just to have someone to talk to, to express her sadness and fury and desperation too. A little too, to see Trish in her skirt and her boots and just enjoy her. Enjoy that one perfect thing in her life, even if she couldn’t touch it, even if it felt forever out of her grasp. Was she in love with Trish? Or did she just want comfort. Theo made her feel safe too. So strong. She smiled, thinking about him. He had a temper, but he always kept her safe. Always reminded her that he would protect her. That promise was one she felt happy to hold tight to.

Ben. She needed to find Ben. That was what she was looking for really. For him. For their friend. Everyone else seemed to be lost in some personal crusade but Sam just wanted to keep her little group of friends together. Every time they fought, every time things changed for the worse, she imagined everyone just drifting away from one another. Being swallowed up by the uncaring world of the Circuit, or by the corporate monster living above them, ready and willing to subsume all in its path to the progress touted by their company website. Progress to save humanity and secure the future. Were people that easily taken in? Was comfort so much more important than freedom?

The usual sources were useless, Sam decided, and dove into the discussion sites that she often disregarded. Too full of weirdos and cranks and lunatics. Or bots with an agenda. Just nothing good, nothing that could be trusted. Not that CaliaCorp could be trusted but some of their sites were good, had good information. Just not when you needed to know about them, or about Calia. Only for, well, everything else. Need to know how to peel potatoes faster or who broke the spaceflight speed record, easy. Want to know anything about the most famous woman on the planet? Nothing.

It made no sense, and yet total sense. It seemed clear, abundantly clear that Calia simply did not want to be known. Wanted to be some aloof figurehead and enslave mankind from the shadows. It seemed to be working. Behind that slick corporate exterior, Sam knew something was going on. Something horrible.

The discussion sites were, as she expected, full of strange ideas and thoughts. Mostly utterly insane ones. Nothing to do with CaliaCorp, just odd ideas about what clouds were made of and underground civilisations and aliens. Clearly, some people had gone directly off the deep end. Anything about CaliaCorp tended to be positive, overwhelmingly so. Saying they made life better, safer, happier. Lots of messages between people as if reinforcing the others belief in the need to surrender to the company. Co-dependent brainwashing. It felt awful to read, for Sam, knowing something like this was likely why Ben had vanished. Getting lost in cyberspace and losing grip on reality. He had grown distant, isolated. She knew he was always in danger of being a shut-in and she knew he spent too much time online. It seemed to have taken its toll and now, now he was gone. Sam felt no closer to finding him than ever.

Digging deeper into the darker areas of the web yielded little, save for a few conspiracy theories about Calia that seemed to build on the idea of her being some all-powerful thing. One positioned her as a vampire, with mind control powers. Another as an angel, come to save us all. Preposterous.

Hidden deep among the dross was something though, that caught Sam’s eye. Corp Exiles, a place for people who left CaliaCorp. Which, Sam thought, was strange, because she had never heard of anyone leaving. Ever. She clicked inside and found a very small group of people chatting about random things, life, music, the past, movies. But there were some messages, nothing recent, that Sam found hidden away when she searched. The reasons they left. The doubts, the fear, the sudden realisation something had gone terribly wrong. Hope, at last. And yet, it seemed only three people were having those conversations, and one was on another continent. Another had no location at all and the last.

The last lived in the Circuit.

Sam began to type, furiously, frantically, her fingers hammering on the keys as if possessed. She needed to talk to this person and had to know what they knew. They were in the belly of the beast and escaped, living to tell the tale. Hopefully tell the tale. Details on the site were sparse. Little more than a few comments that gave the hint that they became aware of something negative happening to them, but nothing concrete, nothing that really told Sam what happened at CaliaCorp. It was loose, lacking detail, lacking anything she could believe in. So she was compelled to find the rest, to uncover the truth and know if Ben could be saved. If he could be brought back from there and be himself. Maybe the claws of corporate life hadn’t truly sunk in yet. She just needed that sliver of hope, that light, that pinprick that told her something worthwhile lay on the other side. This person could give that to her.

Hi, I need your help, please. My friend started working at ccorp and won’t answer our calls. I don’t know whats going on and i want to get him out of ther. Please please please help me I just need to know he’s ok and safe and maybe how to get him to leave, can you hlp? In circuit, can meet.

Sam waited. She didn’t know when the person was even online. But people were connected constantly, so maybe they’d be quick. Maybe they’d see her desperate plea and rescue her. The computer screen’s glow lit up Sam’s face. She adjusted her glasses and pushed a stand of hair back over her ear and typed another line.

Please, please help.

Silence. No thumping or grunting or groaning from below, just the low hum of electronics. Sam almost wished she could hear those sexual sounds. Being alone like this felt horrible, alone wondering what could be happening to Ben, or if Trish was ok or if Theo was in trouble, or what Marc was doing. Why were they all apart, at a time like this. She knew, of course, everyone had their plans, but it didn’t stave off that gnawing loneliness. That feeling of being adrift in a sea of doubt and fear with no idea where land could be found. No one steering things, no one guiding. Just Sam, alone, waiting and hoping.

She missed Ben. He wasn’t even that good a friend, but he made her laugh. He acted awkward and a little bit cute and at one time, a long time ago, she thought about asking him out. The group treated them like the dorky ones anyway, why not just embrace that together. But she never did. Never felt right. Ben wasn’t what she wanted anyway. Her thoughts returned to Trish. Strong and confident. Trish could guide her to land. Theo too. Both of them, maybe. Together.

Sam became lost in a fantasy, tied to her bed as Theo and Trish teased her mercilessly. Taking turns to run their hands over her body, to spank and scratch her and make her say ‘thank you’ each time. That was what she wanted. Someone who could take control, who could give her that moment of blissful empty submission, where all that mattered was being a docile slave for her Mistress or Master or both. For Trish’s flat stomach or Theo’s bugling biceps. It didn’t matter as she pictured herself suddenly on her knees watching them both above her, Trish stroking her hand across Theo’s cheek as Sam kissed her boots. It wasn’t that she wanted them both, in fact the thought had never crossed her mind before, but she wanted their power, their control, their dominance. She wanted to submit to it, to embrace it, so they could replace all her worries and fears with lust and want and need and desperate aching desire. She needed it, needed to feel the power of someone as she simply gave in to it and allowed herself to be used.

And then Trish started doing just that, pushing Sam’s face into her pussy, under her skirt, while Theo guided her hand to his cock and she began to stroke it. Eyes closed, just being of service, being a toy for them. A pet, a puppet, a slave. Their slave. Safe in their control.

It felt so right that Sam barely noticed the sound of a message notification.

You’re local?

Sam felt elated. Finally, some answers. Some hope. The fantasy faded and she became focused again, she had a mission.

Yes, can you help me?

She waited again, holding her breath, stomach pulled taut.

Probably not.

A sharp exhale. Sam’s shoulders sank. Hope dashed, so fast.

Please, just wnt to talk

Again, she waited, hoping for something other than a dismissive response.

What u wanna know?

Finally, something, a glimmer of a sliver of a hint of light at the end of a long, dark tunnel. Maybe there was a chance to save Ben, to bring him back. Back to the Circuit. Before Sam replied again, she thought about that. Back to the Circuit District. To poverty. To a single-room apartment in a warehouse. To cracked old buildings and no hope, no opportunity. Was she doing the right thing? Maybe Ben was just better off away from them, away from all of the decay that surrounded her. The sex sounds started up again. Anguished howls this time, and the rhythmic crack of a whip. How could she bring Ben back to all of that, all that disappointment and longing for better only to never see anything but worse.

And then she remembered why it mattered. The root cause. CaliaCorp made it that way. CaliaCorp pushed everything else out until there was only them. CaliaCorp brainwashed people to do what they wanted. To give up on their lives. To abandon their friends and family. To give themselves to the machine and never look back. Minds gone, given over to a corporation and for what? A luxury apartment. If that was all they had to offer, why bother? Ben would be better with his friends, loved, happy. Even if that meant being broke.

Need to get my friend out of ccorp. How?

The reply came quickly this time.

Not easy. Need to talk offline. My place. When free?

Today? Now? ASAP

She waited a moment, and a reply appeared. An address close by. Another message.

Come.

She didn’t hesitate. She didn’t even reply to confirm. Sam grabbed a jacket and rushed out the door.