Chapter Eight – Checking Out the Stink

Chapter Eight – Checking Out the Stink

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***

After coming back home and telling Lucy about my little adventure with Rac and the mercs, I spent the rest of the day… doing very little of import.

I felt a bit bad about not spending time with the Kittens, so I bullied Nose for a while, put Bargain in a headlock when he tried to sell me a cola from my own fridge, and basically annoyed Junior and Katallina as much as I could without pissing them off too much.

We played games, with Daniel kicking everyone’s ass until I let Myalis join in and the AI found herself incapable of doing anything but playing perfectly. Unleashing an AI on a cart-racing game was just unfair for everyone involved.

Before I knew it, it was deep into the night and the sugar and caffeine was wearing off. I took a languid, wasteful shower, then bought some PJs from Myalis, then I bought a second pair for Lucy when I discovered that when the Protectors decided to make something soft, it was disgustingly soft.

We just cuddled, warm and soft and tangled up together in a way that was comforting and familiar until at some point I drifted off while Lucy was murmuring a story about some puppies she’d seen online.

I awoke when Lucy crawled out of my arms. “Need to pee,” she mumbled sleepily, and I’m sure whatever I said in reply was articulate and sensible before I rolled over and tried to sleep some more.

But I couldn’t sleep, especially not after checking the time on my augs, then checking my messages, then checking on some news. I had a tab open on news from Burlington, and it seemed like things weren’t entirely dire over there yet.

Lucy came back, and I snuggled into her, now fully awake but still just scrolling through news and memes and memes of news. Eventually I had to piss too, so I rolled out of bed and started to take care of my morning… almost-afternoon, ablutions.

“So, we’re checking on the sewers today, right?” I asked.

That was the plan, yes. I’ve done some cursory research, and I think there are two points of interest that you should visit.

“Two?” I asked.

Indeed. First, the City of New Montreal Sewage and Maintenance Headquarters. The main bureau. While they are more of an administrative branch, they do have connections to the entire sewer network.

That seemed perfectly reasonable and logical. “What’s the second?” I asked. I discovered some toothbrushes in the bathroom in a little mug, then shrugged and picked the less-used one to brush my teeth with. Teeth care was not much of a priority at the orphanage. I wondered if my nano treatments had taken care of my cavities.

The second location is the Family’s New Montreal Headquarters. The organisation has become the centre of the local Antithesis-combat infrastructure, at least as far as logistics and administration goes. They have expressed concerns over the water and sewage issues in the city and might be able to assist you.

Right, we both wanted to take care of the same issue, so it made sense to pair up with them and get things done. “Is there a samurai on the case?”

All of the local Vanguard are either working on the city’s defences and clearing the surrounding area of remaining pockets of resistance, or they have been relocated to areas in more dire need of Vanguard support. With the exception of yourself, there are only five unoccupied Vanguard in New Montreal.

Shit, things were a little more dire than I’d expected, then. The unoccupied samurai might not even be active ones. Some of them just… retired or whatever. Laid low and minded their own business.

So it was more or less all on me. “What’s Gomorrah up to?”

Social media feeds suggest she’s assisting in light cleanup duty along the walls.

“That sounds like work,” I said.

She’s testing new firebombs on suspected nest sites from a relatively safe distance.