Chapter Forty-Six - Getting Down To Your Business

Chapter Forty-Six - Getting Down To Your Business

Chapter Forty-Six - Getting Down To Your Business

"Why do cats push things off of high places?

I don't know, you'll have to ask a cat."Discover new chapters at novelhall.com

--Miss Kitty K. @, Dog whisperer, 2031

***

I noped out of the meeting about twenty minutes after it started.

Honestly, I'm impressed you made it that long.

"Me too," I muttered exhaustedly. It felt like I'd spent hours in there. I knew it was only twenty minutes though, because there was a wall clock that tick-tick-ticked menacingly in the corner, and I was practically counting the seconds go by. That had lasted until I remembered that I was a samurai and I wasn't no one's bitch. I could up and leave, and that's exactly what I'd done.

"Stray Cat?" Piper asked as I started through the corridors. She ran after me, an impressive feat with the heels she was wearing. Then again, it looked like she might have cybernetic ankles.

"Yo," I said, then I paused. "Are you single?"

Piper blinked. "Yes?" she said before her cheeks started to redden. "Are you, uh, asking me out?"

"Huh? No, I have a girlfriend, sorry. Just asking to make sure," I said.

"Make sure of what? Uh, if you don't mind me asking."

I shrugged. "Look, sometimes I run into wayward and lost souls... very gay ones. It's good to keep a running tally of potential people for them to meet, you know?"

"I... don't think I do."

"Huh, well, whatever. Anyway, I'm heading out. I'll be seeing to the sewers right away and in person. Honestly, I don't know how corpo-types do it. I'd rather wade in shit than sit in on a meeting like that for another hour."

"I... see," Piper said. I think I'd set her off balance there. "That's fine. Let us know if you notice any issues that the Family needs to address."

"Yup," I said before I started walking off.

Right, it was time to check out the sewers themselves. Though I wasn't entirely sure how. The system spanned, literally, the entire city, and I had no idea where to start. I wasn't going to just dive into the first manhole I found.

My brain hiccuped as I reprocessed that last bit.

I shook it off and rephrased what I was about to ask Myalis. "I need to hover around and make it clear that there's a Samurai looking into things," I said. "It'll keep people honest."

"Really? Wow, small world."

"Pardon?"

"Nevermind," I said. "So, Button-up, how's things? Is shit starting to flow downstream at last, or are things still messed up in a bad way?"

"Ah, I think things are better? It's a lot busier," he said. "We're hiring and on-boarding people as quickly as we can. There's basically no training. Everyone already here was promoted, then promoted again, which is nice, but it doesn't change how much work there is to do."

"That's a shame," I said. "But the work is getting done?"

He nodded quickly. "We're working non-stop. I haven't been home in two days. I think some of us won't be seeing our families again until this whole thing is done, but it's... it's a lot?"

"Huh," I said. When I set off to make people fix the city's problems for me, I'd never considered that there would actually be consequences for normal folk.

Actually, I was generally pretty bad at thinking about consequences. "I'm... actually sorry to hear that," I said. "I'd be pretty pissed if I couldn't see my family for that long. Or if I couldn't go back home. You must be very pent up."

"Huh?"

"Yeah. But hey, you're doing good work. Are things coming along?" We'd reached the command room by then, and I was met at the entrance by... that guy who was the head of maintenance. He was wearing a tag, fortunately. Ethan Brown.

"They're moving," Brown said. "Not as quick as I'd like, but much faster than I'd hoped." He nodded to me. "I don't know what kind of fire you lit under the asses of the Family and their sort, but they've been hustling to get work done. I think almost every plumber in the city has work now, and plenty of others too."

"That's good," I said. "It'll keep people busy on top of fixing things." It was probably good for the economy or something too. I gave myself a pat on the back for that one.

"It's costing the city billions," Brown said. "But it was going to cost the city that much anyway. It would be a lot less if things weren't so under maintained to begin with, but there's not much we can do about that now."

I followed him into the command room and then paused to take in the big sewer map on the far wall.

There was still red. Lots of red, and now some of it was flashing purple, which seemed somehow more urgent. But, at the same time, there was a lot more orange than there had been, and the number of pins showing where workers were located had increased exponentially.

"Looks like you guys are actually getting shit done," I said.

Brown grunted. "We're trying, ma'am, and I hope that it'll count for something in the end."

"I think it will," I said. My entire life, I'd been left to fend for me and mine because no one was trying much of anything to help. On the rare occasion when someone would try... well, it counted for a lot, even if it didn't amount to much. "Is there anything you need me to look at? People you need me to threaten for things to get done faster?"

"You want to threaten people?" Button-up asked.

"Want to? Yes, actually. And also, it's a great way to actually get things done, I've discovered."

***