Chapter Fourteen – Mayoral Image

Chapter Fourteen – Mayoral Image

“Protesting as a form of protest–that is to say, the gathering of large crowds rallying for change–is dangerous to the economy, to the health of the individuals, and to the health of a government.

That is why taking immediate, violent action against the protestors is often recommended. It puts a complete stop to the protesting action early with a minimal loss of potential revenues and a heavy reduction in the amount of property damage suffered, all for the cost of a few lives.”

–Copcore Promotion Material, 2029

***

I woke up an hour shy of noon the next day, and the first thing I did, while still half covered on the bed with a softly breathing Lucy next to me, was check my messages.

There were lots. Most of them I dismissed while skimming through. The Mayor’s office had sent me a reminder about our meeting in… about forty minutes. The Family sent a long form with requisitions and updates on the whole sewage situation.

I rubbed at my fleshy eye as I read over a kindly worded message from Peter Silverbloom about that prosthetics clinic. “Right. Forgot about that,” I muttered. “Myalis, can we set up a meeting with him tomorrow?”

Certainly. And good morning, Catherine. I was contemplating waking you up soon. You still have time to shower and dress for your meeting with the mayor.

Did I want to shower and dress for a meeting with the mayor? No, no I did not.

But I had to. Not only did I not want to come off as the sort of person that couldn’t be held to her word, I also… wait, actually that was really the only reason. Well, that and I’d just end up having to put off the meeting.

Besides, the mayor had some explaining to do. The buck was supposed to stop at his corrupt office, not at my doorstep.

I slithered out from under Lucy, giving her head a peck when she grumbled sleepily, then I trudged over to the showers and stood under scalding hot water for a while. The building had some sort of water recuperation and filtration thing going on, separate from the rest of the city’s water grid. This was a luxury few people would be able to afford soon if I didn’t get moving.

With time ticking onwards, I rooted around the bedroom for something to wear, then decided to head out fully kitted. That meant a clean undersuit, good samurai boots and a long coat, all with enough stealth tech to make me a nightmare to corner. The helmet came on last.

“Make another note,” I said. “We need to go clothes shopping at some point.”

I couldn’t just wear samurai stuff all the time. I needed threads for more casual stuff. Lucy was having fun printing T-shirts, but I sure as shit wasn’t going to wear a shirt that said ‘Wired Wrong’ or ‘My Girlfriend Has Vibrating Fingers’ on it.

The shirt with ‘I Know Where Cat’s Reset Button Is’ on it was just too lewd to be seen in public. Although… it might embarrass the mayor.

Oh well, next time. I was already dressed and I had twenty minutes to get to the meeting which was nearly halfway across the city from here.

I snuck out the front of our place, noting that some of the Kittens were already up and some hadn’t gone to sleep yet. I waved them goodbye before heading out.

It was, of course, raining, so I slipped on my helmet (which I’d definitely need to drive around anyway) then walked over to my bike which I’d parked near the mech. Myalis was kind enough to punch in the location data before I’d even started the bike up, so it knew where I was going before I even took off.

The flight was what I’d expect from a flight across New Montreal. Long and tedious, even if I was cutting across traffic and zipping through no-fly zones the entire time.

The Mayor’s office was in the city council building, which I noticed had a bit of a crowd forming at the front. Dozens of people, some with cheap signs, others with holographic projectors sending out banner messages over their head. Then there was the police and the news, all crowding closer to the front.

Had news gotten out about the sewage? It was rare to see crowds gathering like this. Protesting was super illegal, and the cops weren’t shy about opening up on a crowd. Then again, the city was in a deep shithole at the moment, and the cops lining up behind the fence looked a little… anaemic from up in the air. No big groups of fully armoured SWAT troopers, no combat androids, just a few dozen guys in light riot gear.

They’d get seriously fucked if the crowd turned on them.

I hesitated. I could park nearby, somewhere discrete and out of the way, then slip into the building nice and subtle-like. Hell, I could park on the roof and kick my way in, then just walk over to the mayor and say hi.

But those people were there protesting because no one was doing anything. At least, that’s what I figured most protests were about.

So I swept down and revved the engine on my bike before lowering it down right onto the steps by the front of the city hall building. Dust kicked up around me as I swept off the bike. The crowd was shouting, the cops were confused, but no one seemed willing to stop me. So I left the bike there, still on so that it wouldn’t just tip off the side and roll down the steps.

I felt a little under armed at the moment as I looked over the crowd. All I had was my Trenchmaker.

I really had to get into the habit of carrying a bit more with me.

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A few calls of ‘Stray Cat!’ proved that at least a few people in the crowd knew who I was. Hopefully that’d be enough to let them know that something was being done.

I walked up the rest of the steps and checked the time. I was right on the dot as I crossed through the entrance. There were some more cops inside, hands on their short-barreled auto-shotguns, but none of them moved to do anything as I crossed the lobby to the receptionist. “Meeting with the mayor,” I said.

The young lady behind the counter, an actual human instead of a droid, jumped and nodded. “Yes ma’am, we were expecting you. The Mayor said he’d meet you here.”

“Alright,” I said.