Chương 58: Chapter Fifty-Three - Stinky

"Ew," Sharp said as she took in the entrance into the city's underground. It was... a reasonable feeling, to be honest. The water out-flow was a long, large set of concrete openings that were spilling brackish water out onto the Boston river. Each opening could have fit two semi-trailers side-by-side, and there were six of them set one after the other, with thick concrete walls between each. The area stank. It was likely all because of the water turning into a fine mist as it was catapulted out of the exits.

That same mist was carried around by the wind. If it wasn't Boston Two street runoff, then it would still be deeply unpleasant.

"Nope," Sharp said as she turned us around and started back towards the courier bike.

"Are we giving up on this mission?" I asked.

"I'm giving up on going in there without a mask on," she said. That was... a fair point. However, I felt like she was forgetting one major point of fact.

"You do recall the new skill that you've only just unlocked, yes?"

"Ah," Sharp said. Her shoulders slumped, then she reluctantly reached into her pockets and tugged out a filtered gas mask that only barely fit in there. It was the sort with a full-face rubber mask, including twin glass goggles and a large round filter at the front.

"I'm going to need so many showers," she said.

"We don't need to go in. The gig was meant to be something we'd tackle on Thursday, and it's still only Tuesday. The goal was to get a lay of the land."

"Yeah, but don't we usually do that to learn what kind of tools we'll need?" Sharp asked.

"Yes... and I can see why that... hmm, alright, you make a fair point. Maybe you'll be unable to provide protective equipment sized for a cat?" Sharp rooted around in her pockets for a moment, then came out with another mask. A much smaller one, with a smaller filter on it, and a pair of tiny rubber cat ears.

"I... does this even exist?" she asked. I paused. We had done a fair bit of testing with the perk, but this was something that I hadn't thought to test. The tools she summoned were often marked with fake but very similar branding to real tools, so I knew to some extent that they were based on real items but modified to some degree. But this was something entirely bespoke. Unless there was a market out there for teeny-tiny cat-shaped masks out there. Something told me that that was unlikely.

People who had cats liked giving them hats, obviously, because it was adorable, but not gas masks.

"I'll admit, that is a little strange," I said.

"Should we give it a go? I'm kinda tempted not to because... man, I don't like doing laundry, it sucks." She sounded a little whiny at the end there, but I got it. I wasn't so much concerned about my own clothes, the little navy-blue cat-jacket I had on was easy to wash, and Sharp would be doing the work for me anyway, but my fur? That stuff did not clean easily.

"You make a fair point. We did only come out here to scout. We have a couple of days to acquire some appropriate PPE." I was pretty sure there were sites that sold armoured PPE, but that was maybe a step beyond what we'd need. Finding something cat-wearable would be annoying... unless we could leverage Pockets again?

"Yeah, I like that idea. We can head home early and... wait, is that Jenny?" Sharp asked. I blinked, then narrowed my eyes and looked in the same direction she was, and yes, there was a familiar yellow jacket way out next to one of the further outflow tunnels. The passage was one of the few that wasn't spitting out a deluge of water. The girl gestured to someone I couldn't quite see, then a second figure joined her, someone wearing a purple long coat and big old galoshes.

"And that's got to be Alyssa," Sharp said.

"Whoa! I haven't seen them in ages."

"And yet we happen to run into them while scoping out a site for a mission," I said.

"What a coincidence."

"Yeah... that doesn't feel like it's likely, does it?" Sharp said. She shrugged.

"Let's go say hi!" I rolled my eyes, but that didn't stop Sharp from starting to look for a way around. It took a while, and on the way Sharp helped me into the kitty-sized gas mask her Pockets ability had drummed up. Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. We made out way around a large building and out into an old parking lot where a broken-down van abandoned next to a burnt-out old drum and a heap of trash. Jenny's car was parked there, looking as unreliable as ever.

It still had a few bullet holes in its body, though it looked like one fender had been replaced with another that was a glaring green.

"Yeah, that's Jenny's car alright," Sharp said as she walked up next to the junker. If it wasn't such a piece of trash I might have been worried that someone would break in and steal it. This spot didn't look like it had surveillance. But then again, most thieves had at least some idea of what something was worth. If they brought this thing to a chop-shop, they'd probably be charged for wasting the shop's time.

"I'm not sure if interrupting the girls in whatever they're doing is a good idea."

"Aww, come on, what's the worst that could happen?" Sharp asked as she started to fit on her own mask.

"You could get shot," I said. But there was no dissuading her now.

"Or don't listen to my advice and chase skirt into a sewer, what do I know?"

"It's not so bad! They're friends," Sharp said, like a moron. We came around to a short cement barricade meant to prevent idiots from crawling into the storm drains, one which had boxes at its base to make climbing over all the easier, then all Sharp had to do was follow a well-trodden path down along a slope and then climb down a rusty old maintenance ladder into the mouth of the drain. The tunnel stretched out within, a large dam was raised at the base of it, with churning water lapping behind.

It seemed like it just wasn't high enough to spill over this part. There were a few wet prints on the ground, showing us where the girls had been. They were easy to make out. Both of them were wearing large rubber rain boots and they likely looked goofy for it.... I should get some for myself. Four itty-bitty-kitty galoches. Sharp moved up to the dam, then climbed up a small inset staircase up and over the dam and onto a metal catwalk about a metre over the water.

"Can't see where they went," she said, though her voice was muffled by her mask. There was no sign of either girl, though... no, that wasn't true, there was a faint purple light out ahead, just past an intersection in the tunnel. The misty shit water in the air and the poor lighting made it hard to see. Sharp started towards the light, but I started to glance around instead. Something felt off.

"Wait, this might be--" I started just as we reached the intersection. And then there was a gun pointing up towards Sharp's head. The purple light ahead winked out a moment later, leaving us in partial-darkness. I looked to the side and sighed.

"Told you so," I said. Jenny was holding out a fat little handgun with unwavering hands. She was almost poking Sharp's temple with it.

"Who the fuck are you and why are you... is that a cat? Wait, Sharp?" Behind Jenny was the mage, who blinked as she registered just who we were, or at least, who Sharp was.

"What are you doing here?"

"I saw you!" Sharp said as she slowly raised her arms in surrender.

"So I came over to... uh... see what you were up to? I wasn't stalking, I swear!" Ah yes, very reassuring that. Jenny slowly lowered the handgun, then shook her head.

"What the hell? I almost shot you!"

"Beyond that. Do you think we'd believe that you were here, in this part of the city, in this location of all places, at the same time as us?" Alyssa asked.

"Yes?" Sharp asked.

"Because that's the truth?"

"The truth isn't usually so contrived," the mage replied. That was actually way off the mark. Reality tended to have much stranger statistical anomalies than people thought. This one... was probably Sharp's luck having a thumb on the scale. A really fat thumb.

"Maybe... maybe we're here for the same gig?" Sharp asked.

"Also, maybe we can talk somewhere without so much poop in the air? I'm wearing a mask and it still stinks." The two girls, neither of whom were masked, looked at each other and communicated wordlessly. It seemed as if Sharp wasn't going to be shot for not listening to me... today.