Chapter Forty-Five – Realtoring

Chapter Forty-Five – Realtoring

“The housing market was turning into an increasingly dangerous bubble in North America in the end of the 2010s.

As it turns out, all that was needed to pop that was an alien invasion.”

–Anonymous on the price of homes, 2022

***

I stayed by Lucy as we made our way down the side of the building and towards the museum’s entrance. I idly noticed bullet holes here and there, and stains on the ground where antithesis had bled out.

Signs left over from my fight here a few days ago?

I supposed that the carrion antithesis had grabbed most of the bodies at some point, or a cleaning crew had come around already.

I was a little worried that a stray gust would pick Lucy and fling her off the side. Which was silly, of course, but it didn’t stop me from placing myself between her and the drop. If I was blown off the edge, I had options, she didn’t, and she was still new to the whole, walking-without-crutches thing.

We did make it to the bottom safely, though Lucy paused to catch her breath.

“You okay?” I asked.

“I need to do more cardio. And maybe eat a little bit less,” Lucy said.

“I can certainly think of a few ways to get your heart beating,” I said.

She snorted. “Not out here.”

“Hah! No, it’s a bit chilly for that.”

We found someone waiting for us at the front of the museum, a woman, maybe in her mid-thirties, and wearing a nice corporate-style long coat and shades. She had a suitcase by her side, and was staring off into the sky in the way someone looking at their media feeds did while bored.

“Hey!” I called out.

The woman snapped out of it, looked to us, then put on a smile that I immediately pinged as fake. “Hello,” she said. “You’re right on time.”

“Cool,” I said. “I’m Cat, this is Lucy.”

“I’m Jessica Washington, from Washington, Smith and Associates. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

She extended her hand, and I hesitated just a moment before shaking with my cybernetic arm. “Yeah,” I said. “So, we were kinda interested in the place. You intend to give us a tour or something?”

“Of course,” Jessica was all smiles. “At Washington and Smith, we prize our clients above all else, but we’re also very discerning about who we take on as a client, and to whom we will sell their property. We only want the best for the city, of course.”

My eyes were practically glazing over at all the corporate talk. “Uh-huh,” I said. “Point being?”

“Well, miss… Cat, your credit score isn’t quite able to meet the demands of purchasing a floor in a building such as this one. You can imagine our concern for our client’s well-being.”

“You, uh, do know that I’m a samurai, right?” I asked. “I thought that bit was, like, really obvious.”

“I’m aware, yes,” Jessica said. “But your status as one of humanity’s protectors doesn’t ensure that you will be capable of meeting payment requirements, and the potential losses of time and money for our client need to be accounted for when viewing any potential contracts and agreements.”

My eyes narrowed.

Then Lucy jumped in. “What she’s trying to say, I think, is that even if you’re a totally cool samurai, you’re still a newbie one, and they’re not sure you can make all the big payments for a place like this. It is a lot of money. So she’s trying to ease you into paying even more so that they don’t need to worry.”

“A guarantee, or a larger sum paid for the lot, would do a lot to reassure my clients,” Jessica said.

“That sounds like bullshit,” I said.

Lucy shook her head. “No no, it’s cause you’re thinking about it wrong. This lady here isn’t working for us, she’s working for her clients. The polite act’s just an act.”

Jessica’s smile broke off, and she sighed. “That’s essentially correct. My clients heard that the person interested in purchasing the building was a samurai, and they insisted that we bring up the price as a consequence of that.”

I pinched the bridge of my nose. “That makes sense, I guess,” I said. Of course people would get greedy. It just made sense. “What’s the price now?”

“Three hundred and fifty million credits.”

“That’s… it was at two-hundred ninety-eight million credits last night. That’s one hell of a jump,” I said.