Chapter Eleven - Smiling Faces

“Corporate culture generally differs from company to company. If you’re a job-hopper, you might suddenly discover that what was acceptable on one jobsite is no longer so on another. This can be confusing, or even distressing to discover.

Nonetheless, there are some things that are universal, such as how to treat a higher-up, or how to handle HR!”

--Job-Hopping and You! Article, 2046

***

I moved with a slight sense of urgency. Back out of the maintenance place, up the elevator, and straight to my waiting bike.

I shot out of the side of the building, then up and into the sky, letting the autopilot do much of the work while I thought about the situation.

Shit was fucked in a big way, and this was only the sewers. If something as relatively important as the waste and water systems were in this bad a shape, then how badly off was all the rest? Was the city’s electrical grid about to go down? It’s internet and mesh connections? Would public transport just... shit the bed?

Actually, the last had done that from the moment it was built, but I could always count on it getting worse, somehow.

The Family’s HQ was relatively close by. They’d stationed themselves closer to the newer downtown area, somewhere more or less between the NMSM Headquarters and my place, and when the Family installed themselves, they did so at the top of one of the bigger skyscrapers.

There was a particular and not very specific distinction between a skyscraper and a mega-building. Skyscrapers were tall, thin buildings, sometimes fancied up with spiralling architecture and lots of glass. They were showpieces as well as living and working spaces.

My new home was in a skyscraper.

A mega-building was a fuck-huge block of concrete and despair. They were so fat and large that from afar they didn’t look all that tall. It wasn’t until you compared them to the skyscrapers next to them that you realized that they were about the same height.

The highways and skylanes passed through the mega-buildings, because going around would add an hour to anyone’s commute. That was less about the distance and more about shitty traffic, but whatever.

I zipped by a couple of big blocky buildings, then back up towards the top of a skyscraper whose entire upper floor section was narrowed to a shiny point, like the end of a fat teardrop. The side of the swooping section was opened to the elements, revealing several floors of parking space for hovercars.

Nice hovercars, I noted as I came in for a landing. There wasn’t a mom van or old beater in sight. The cheapest car in the lot was a German import and it was only a couple of years old at most. The rest were all luxury sedans, mini-limos, and Italian supercars.

I parked my bike by the side of an elevator entrance and then swung my leg over the side of it. By the time I was standing a man was walking out of the elevator at a bit of a rush and moving towards me.

“Stray Cat,” he said with a bobbing nod of his head. “Welcome to the Family New Montreal Headquarters. I’m Eric, I was assigned as your guide.” Eric the guide paused and quickly tugged his jacket on straighter then adjusted his tie before giving me a winning smile.

“Hey,” I said. “Is this normal?” I gestured between the two of us.

“Of course,” he said. “The Family exists to assist samurai, and so we’re always ready to expect the arrival of one or the other. Is there anything in particular we can help you with?”

I raised a finger at him in a ‘one second’ gesture. “Myalis, did you tell them that I’d be coming?” I asked. Because Eric here was out and ready to greet me in under a minute, and unless he was waiting in the elevator the entire time, that was just suspicious.

I did notice that you were tracked on the way over. The headquarters has a number of radar installations around the roof that keep tabs on incoming and outgoing traffic. Your bike was flagged from a distance.

So, this could be innocent. And I didn’t really have a reason to be suspicious right out of the gate. Except I was anyway. “Alright, thanks, Eric,” I said. “Maybe you can help me.”

This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

“Of course. What do you need assistance with?”

“The sewers,” I said.

Eric blinked, but he pretty much instantly started to follow me as I headed towards the elevator. “The sewers? Um, one moment... ah, there are a few outstanding reports about waste water management issues?”

I glanced his way and noticed that his eyes had a particular glimmer to them. Was he connected to some local Family network? Actually, scratch that, it would have been weird for him not to be. We got into the elevator, and I noticed that I’d gotten several pings to my augs since I landed on the roof.

I idly checked them out. An invitation to the local wifi network, a link to some page with local rules, a few feel-good ads about the Family. Surprisingly, no pop-ups and redirection ads or any outright scummy shit.

“So, the sewer system for the city’s fucked,” I said.

“Do you want the Family to intercede with the local authorities about it?” Eric asked.

“No, I did that already. They’re fucked too, and those responsible fucked off. Might have emptied their accounts for them, though, so they probably won’t go as far as they’d wish. What we need right now is manpower, and a lot of people who know what they’re doing. If we get on top of things, then maybe we can stop things from getting significantly worse. Hell, maybe we can turn things around and start actually fixing things.”

“And just to be clear,” Eric said. “This is a priority for you, Stray Cat?”

“I’m on vacation,” I explained.

He nodded, as if that made perfect sense.

I was getting this feeling from Eric, as if I could tell him that the moon was made of cheese and he would have nodded and agreed without an ounce of hesitation.

The elevator door opened again, and I realized that we were on another floor. I hadn’t even felt it moving. Eric stepped out, and then paused, waiting for me by the threshold with a smile that showed off how much he’d spent on dental. “I’m sure we can help you,” he said.

“Right,” I said. I was more than a little doubtful about that, but I decided to keep my opinion to myself.

The elevator opened to a lobby area, with comfortable leather seats to one side and a faux fireplace against the other wall with a big screen TV above it. It was properly fancy, and something about it set me on edge.

“Please, sit down,” Eric said, obsequiousness turned to the max. “Do you want anything to drink? We have water, all the sodas, any sort of liquor or alcohol?”

“No,” I said.

“Are you certain? There might be a small wait,” Eric replied. He had his hands together and bowed a bit as he spoke.

“A wait?” I asked.

“Until the people who will address your issue have time to gather,” he replied.

“Right,” I said. I looked around the room, then back at Eric, who stood there, just smiling. Weird fucker. This place was giving me more and more bad vibes. I started walking off deeper into the building. Eric followed, his footsteps echoing out ahead of me.

“Myalis,” I muttered. “I’ve got a bad feeling.”

Interesting. I can’t see anything wrong at the moment. Then again, there is suspiciously little to find in terms of electronic signatures. There are entire floors of this building that don’t have cameras and where phones and cybernetic augmentations are shut down.

Extra creepy. What was this place, a blacksite in the middle of the city? “I... don’t think I give a shit,” I said. “Are they reacting to me being here?” I asked.

Yes. I can see a few executives preparing for a meeting with you.

I sighed. This was growing increasingly frustrating. I didn’t want a meeting, I wanted to tell some idiots what needed doing so that they could jump and do it.

“Miss Stray Cat,” Eric said. “If you would follow me, the meeting room is this way?”

I bit my tongue. For now, it was probably worth it to just play along. The Family struck me as somewhat corpo, so it made sense that they’d do things their own way. But if they tried to string me along and waste my time, then I’d have to see about expediting things.

Also, I just really enjoyed a good excuse to make some CEO shit themselves. They were infringing on my vacation time, after all.

***