Chapter Twelve – Doorframe

Chapter Twelve – Doorframe

“The internet has existed in one form or another since the 1980s. Even before that, though that far back it’s practically unrecognizable to what people now think of as the internet.

Now, the Mesh is a world of advertising, pornography, and vice. Truly an improvement.”

–Extract from “A History of the Mesh.” 2048

***

Myalis parked our little taxi right in the middle of the driveway of the hotel and opened the door with a whoosh of expelled air. I stepped out and stretched a bit while glancing around.

I’d left the last place in a bit of a hurry, only pausing long enough to make sure the scavengers had left all the shit that wasn’t theirs behind. It would probably make the few people on that one floor happy.

The only other thing I did was placing a digital warning at the door to Katallina McCarthy’s little apartment. She shared a one-room apartment with her mother apparently, a mother that Myalis was able to confirm as dead.

Anyone stopping by her place would get a pre-recorded message politely asking them to contact me, and then a pre-recorded threat that if they fucked with the place, I’d be contacting them.

Making threats was turning out to be a whole lot of fun. It was kind of cathartic. At the same time I was a tiny bit worried I might become an asshole… more of an asshole.

I walked past a group of valets by the door, only acknowledging them with a wave before I was in the hotel.

The moment I stepped in, about six different people from all over the lobby perked up and turned my way. Had it been only the one I might not have so much as noticed, but out of the fifty-odd people going about their business, six was just too many.

“Myalis, trouble.”

I felt the guns on my back shifting. Not deploying just yet, but certainly getting ready to.

I started towards the elevators, taking a circuitous route around part of the building where I’d pass some partial cover behind glass-walled terrariums with some no-doubt exotic weeds within.

The first of them cornered me just past that. His opening salvo came in the form of a bright, startlingly fake smile. “Hello miss! I’m a representative of Nimbletainment Inc, and I think I have just the deal for you!”

It took half a second for that to register. “Are you suicidal?” I asked, dumbfounded.

His smile never so much as twitched. “I’m a retail salesman ma’am, the answer to that question is a resounding yes. And I hope that your answer will be a yes too, but to an entirely different question! Did you know that Nimbletainment has a sponsorship program, exclusively for Samurai?”

“Uh, no.” I said. “I’m leaving now, and… get help? Elsewhere. Please?”

I circled around him, then jogged a bit to make it to the elevator. I think a few of them had the clever idea of joining me in a small, enclosed space for an indeterminate amount of time, because they started jogging too.

One of the elevator doors opened, and a business woman started to step out. “Myalis, door!” I said before I ducked down and scooped the lady off her feet instead of either shoving her back in or tossing her out of the way.

She squeaked, and wiggled in my arms while the door clicked shut behind me.

“Sorry,” I said as I set her back down onto her heels. “Didn’t mean to pick you up like that.”

She smacked me with her purse. “I, I ought to sue you!” she said.

Then she took a good look at me and the colour drained from her face.

“You’re not a Samurai, right?”

“I am; a real sorry Samurai who’d rather you didn’t sue her,” I said.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

She huffed, then straightened her outfit out. “Why were you in such a hurry?”

I shrugged. “Very aggressive, possibly mentally unhealthy salesmen?”

Her eyes closed and she let out a sigh. “That’s fair. You’re making me late to an appointment, you know?”

“Aw, well, shit,” I said. The doors opened again, and I recognized the floor the kittens were staying on. “Sorry again,” I said as I slipped out and jogged past two new valet-guards.

“What a bitch,” I heard the woman mutter a moment before she poked at the button to close the doors.

I sighed and slowed to a walk before stopping before the door to the penthouse. I knocked, just in case, then tried the handle.