Chapter Forty-Nine – I Spy with my Meaty Eye

Chapter Forty-Nine – I Spy with my Meaty Eye

“Space is a commodity that few people recognize until they’re stuffed into a room the size of a closet and told that this is their home.”

–Jim Moom, Warden of CNW Indebted Credit Repayment Facility, #147, 2036

***

I got back into the elevator, rode past Gomorrah’s floor, then stopped at the level above. That was where See-Three and I were supposed to be meeting.

Of course, she wasn’t there yet. I’d know if she was, because I was in the nearest parking garage all of a minute ago, and I didn’t see her showing up.

So, I was going to be unfashionably early, but that was alright. I kind of wanted an idea of the lay of the floor first. “Lemme know when See-Three arrives,” I said.

Can do.

With that set up, I started to look around the floor. It was actually pretty large, once I looked past all the shit in the way. Unlike the floor below, where Franny and Delilah had ripped down all of the walls and made space for things, this one was still largely occupied by stuff.

Notably, there were old offices here.

The floor being as big as it was meant that there was room for several firms in here. There was a law firm, an accounting place, some online retailer’s physical location, then a few rent-a-day offices. The sorts of places with okay-enough internet (with free spyware, probably), little cubicles, free coffee of the undrinkable kind, and some second hand furniture.

They were places that someone could rent by the day, or have the company that hired them for remote work rent for a day. Probably for way too much too.

The place had a small lobby space at the front, with seats and a desk with bullet-proof glass for a secretary, and then the offices were behind that, in a series of cubicles, some of which were still standing.

That… might not be the worst spot for that clinic, actually. It had a space for people to wait in at the front, and as I explored the back, turning on lights as I went, I discovered a couple of generic meeting rooms, probably also rentable, and a corner office at the very back with a view.

A shitty one, delivered through two narrow windows, but still, a view. And that back room had plugs and lights and an office chair that was missing one of those rollers at the bottom.

It was better than nothing, I figured.

See-Three has arrived along with two companions.

“Good timing,” I said. “Is she on this floor yet?”

She’s moving towards the elevator.

I nodded along, then started that way myself. I timed it just right, the door to the elevator opening and See-Three and her pals slipping out just as I was coming down the corridor. “Hey!” I called out.

See-Three’s eyes scanned the area, then landed on me. I figured she might actually be seeing more than I could with those eyes of hers.

Actually, that made me think… “Myalis, remind me to upgrade my still-meaty eye.”

I’ll do that. Repeatedly.

“Stray Cat,” See-Three said. She reached out a hand and we shook. “So, this is where you live?”

“Here? Nah, the floor above. It was a museum before we took it over and turned it into our place. I might show you around one day.” After whipping the kittens into cleaning the place. “Anyway, the rest of this building’s being spruced up a little too. Bit by bit. The floor below belongs to Gomorrah now.”

“The flamethrower nun?” one of See-three’s friends said. It was one of the guys from the other night. I couldn’t remember his name, and was too lazy to look it up.

“That’s her,” I said. “She’s turning it into a private house-slash-armoury-slash-church thing. With a large garage. She likes muscle cars. Almost as much as she likes fire and sexy nuns called Franny.”