[This one-shot longish short story has some graphic violent scenes. If this upsets you, please don't read it. It has both sci-fi and fantasy elements in a contemporary setting. The sex scenes are heterosexual.]
Infiltration
By: Faustian Fables
1. NeuraNest Technologies Corporate Office - Second Floor Suite
I was 'working' my job at the front security desk. My eyes focused on the porn star's huge rack bounced across the small screen on my knee. A bomb blew up behind me. Light flashes reflected against my monitor, a loud boom sounded, followed by things crashing and people screaming hysterically.
I didn't get paid to watch porn and so I got up and waded through the cloud of dust trying to figure out what was going on. Fires burned and the sprinklers activated dousing the flames. I saw now a huge pool of blood where the coders used to work and all around it severed legs and arms. Only half of Paul was there with the intestines spilling and he had the strangest look on his face.
I followed a woman's cries and found Gloria with her leg trapped under a pile of debris. I approached her, tried to pull her out and then something above creaked loudly. The hair on the back of neck prickled before a loud crash followed by an intense sharp pain on the top my head.
2. San Jose City Hall
It was cold that morning.
"Now I'm going to turn it over to Inspector Swan with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service," said the mayor.
A serious looking woman stood behind the microphone. There was something about her short blond hair, crisp formal uniform, thin yet curvy figure, world weary appearance, and unapologetic grimace. Her subversive masculinity performed by her feminized body. An intoxicating mixture of beauty and aesthetic fascism. It wasn't hard at all. Me imagining her dressed in leather holding a riding crop.
The crowd of reporters yelled over each other in an incomprehensible din.
Inspector Swan pointed at a journalist in the front with her hand shaped like a gun.
"Do you have a suspect?" the reporter asked.
Inspector Swan shook her head. "No individual suspect, but there is a group that has claimed responsibility," she explained. "The Animal Liberation Front."
Swan shot another journalist with her finger.
"Why is the ALF targeting NeuraNest, aren't they an... AI startup?" the newswoman asked.
Inspector Swan frowned before releasing a small sigh. "We've not identified a motive at this time," she admitted. "NeuraNest never experimented on animals. They're a small Silicon Valley firm. We're still investigating and hope to develop a more robust motive and identify those responsible for the attack."
3. NeuraNest Technologies Corporate Office - Second Floor Suite - Cozy Security Room
It surprised me when she showed up unannounced. The light blue polo shirt had three buttons and none were fastened. With every movement she made, my eyes glued to them.
"Show me it, I want to see," she demanded. "All of it."
The screen flickered and the office floor down the hall from my desk came into view. Quickly I clicked the mouse. "There," I said and pointed at a large package sitting on the desk. My moist hand gripped the mouse, reduced the playback speed, and set the scene in motion. Moments passed and then a fireball formed where the package was and grew until you could see bedlam and flying severed blood soaked limbs.
Inspector Swan's left hand gripped and squeezed my left shoulder as she leaned over my right. Her ample exposed chest hung right next to my head and I couldn't help but stare, softly smile, and lean towards her. Her perfume smelled of cinnamon but not quite. It had a sharp bite. God, if she asked me right now to munch on me, I'd let her feast on whatever she wanted.
"Hey, uhh," I asked before hesitating. My jaw set, chest puffed out, and eyes stared into her own as my moist hands gripped against each other. "Could we get drinks after this? Y'know, it's hard. Watching this again after what happened. A few beverages could... calm my nerves a bit. I'm sure you have some good stories to share as well. Being a postal inspector."
"Are you asking me out?" she asked, blinked, and tilted her head.
"I'm friends with Sean Svensson," I responded without answering. "He gave me a bunch of NeuraNest stock when I was hired. If this company becomes the next big break through. I'll be a millionaire several times over."
She laughed, looked down, and then returned my stare. "Sounds tempting, but my focus is on the investigation," she refused.
4. My Apartment
The rubber tip squeaked as I pulled it off the top of the tequila bottle and poured liquor into the short glass. My mind remembered when I joked to friends that since my divorce, my new love interest was a Misty Quelia. When I still had friends... I gulped from the glass and it burned on the way down my throat. It's been years. Since I last fucked a woman.
I stood blurry eyed and stumbled. Fuck... The bed beckoned but... the mail. I never checked it.
Outside the apartment I approached the lock-box when I began to fall and to avoid it I slammed by body against the nearby wall. It hurt but I didn't tumble. The key scraped against the lock before a click and the face swung open. My hand reached inside and retrieved an envelope. The paper tore and I produced the sheet inside.
Written in cut out magazine letters, it said,
S v e n s s o n. P C. B r a z i l, B a h i a.
5. NeuraNest Technologies Corporate Office - Second Floor Suite - Sean Svensson's Office
I right clicked the file named Bahia and a video played. Whoever filmed this was in a crowded filthy laboratory. Cockroaches crawled on the ground in a large damp room filled with cages imprisoning loud screeching juvenile chimpanzees.
Two men in bloodstained lab coats spoke Portuguese as they unlocked one of the cages and each grabbed a young chimp and dragged him out on to the dirty concrete floor. The ape child trembled, shrieked, and slammed his eyelids shut. Leveraging his muscular arms, he attempted to break free from the men only for one of them to strike him hard on his skull with a closed fist. One of the men lifted the hairy youth on to a gurney before tightly restraining him against the hard blood stained human-sized white mattress.
The other man wielded some tool. There was a high pitched revving sound followed by a continuous, intense grinding as it began to move. A hand-held chainsaw. Without first killing the child ape, administering anesthesia, or rendering him unconscious, the man began to saw off his skull. The chimp screamed in extreme pain and terror and my stomach quaked as I struggled not to vomit all over the CEO's desk. My shaking hand quickly skipped to further in the video.
The young chimp sat on the edge of the gurney still alive but with the top half of his skull removed. His brain was exposed. Most strange was his demeanor. No longer screaming, wincing in pain, or even nervous or concerned. He was connected to various computers and IVs.
One of the men in a blood soaked lab coat stared at the chimp with a notepad. In Portuguese, he appeared to speak something to the ape child.
The young chimp turned to him, tilted his head, stared into his eyes, and began speaking Portuguese. My body shook, torso flew back against the desk chair, jaw dropped, and hair prickled. "Holy fuck," I muttered before quickly clicking the X button closing the video file. My head swiveled as my eyes scoured over the empty office. My heart raced and I felt goosebumps all over my body.
6. Covert Meeting Place
Am I really going to blindfold myself and meet with terrorists? Murderers who killed people I used to speak to on a daily basis. This was the most dangerous thing I've ever done. I could just stick with the current plan. But what if I find out what was really going on in Brazil and expose it to the world? I'd be a hero. Or, alternatively... I infiltrate the ALF. Hand them to her on a silver platter... My mouth salivated as I imagined her and I in a bedroom. Celebrating our successful investigation.
My lips pressed together in a slight grimace, nose wrinkled, eyes blinked, and I swallowed. After hesitating, I tied the blindfold around my head and everything went dark.
7. Unknown Location
As the blindfold peeled off my face, I noticed feminine hands with each long fingernail painted a different vibrant color. My eyes adjusted and I saw before me, a beautiful young woman in her early twenties wearing tortoise shell glasses, with curly dark long hair, a loose fitting shirt, and large breasts which hung in front of me in view as she was standing and bent over my seated body. From the thick erect nipples straining against the thin material of her shirt, she wasn't wearing a bra. "You did the right thing," she complimented, placed her soft hand against the side of my face, and stroked it gently.