Chapter Twelve - The Taste of Boot


    Chapter Twelve - The Taste of Boot


    Unlike any aesthetic of the past, transhumanism is a permanent one. You might outgrown your goth phase, you might decide one day that you dont want to only wear pastels anymore, and maybe work will force you into an officecore look, but replacing your arms with tentacles is a far, far more permanent statement of aesthetic value, far more so than even something as semi-permanent as a tattoo.


    --Excerpt from Vagrants Future Fashion Blog


    ***


    I hated this very much.


    The moment Eric the bootlicker led me into the room, I knew Id hate it, but I still respected the Family.Finnd new chapters at novelhall.com


    The organisation had been helpful in the past. Theyd bankrolled PMCs to help, they had their own troops, and they were in contact with a multitude of samurai. A few of the samurai that Id consider friends, or at least acquaintances were part of the group. Longbow, Deus Ex, a few others.


    So I didnt want to ruin the Familys day by throwing a fit. They did good work.


    But leading me into a boardroom, with one of those massive all-wood tables surrounded by expensive office chairs and with screens on the walls rotating through promotional crap? That was really, really pushing it.


    The room was filled with half a dozen people wearing properly nice suits and nicer smiles. They asked me to sit down, buttered me up with compliments, and asked me if I wanted anything to drink.


    When I cut through and started talking about my problem of the day, the sewers, they were all terribly attentive. I got a panoply of hu-huhs and go ons that rankled. It was like getting constantly splashed in the face with lukewarm water. Annoying, but not something thatd kill me. It just felt like I was wasting my time in a big way.


    So, I said. Can you help me?


    The yes-men and yes-women looked at each other, still smiling their empty smiles, then the next one whose turn it was to talk nodded. Of course. The Family exists to help the samurai. If you deem this issue to be of vital importance in safeguarding humanity, then well do everything we can to ensure that things get done in a timely manner.


    Right, I said. That''s what I wanted to hear. Which was why it bothered me so damned much. So whats the plan here?


    Well, first, we should have some people check out the situation below, Yes Woman One said.


    And then reconvene with their findings. Its only reasonable to know what kind of work needs to be done before we set out, Yes Man Four said.


    Being a samurai changed that a little, but not nearly as much as I might have thought before becoming one. It just gave me more tools to be the one doing the messing, it didnt change the basic equation.


    Can you keep an eye on them? I asked.


    Certainly. Though some members of the organisation have already reached out to several plumbing companies within the region, it seems as if theyre attempting to hire independent gig-workers as well.


    So, they were getting to work, and without all the jerking around I was expecting. Okay... okay, cool, I said.


    Maybe I wouldnt have to throw a fit after all. That was nice.


    As I left the building, I couldn''t help but feel a slight sense of disappointment. The meeting was professional, and their answers were technically correct, but there was something off. Maybe it was the dissonance between their fancy office and the grimy, failing infrastructure I had just seen. Or maybe it was the overly polite, corporate way they danced around the issues.


    I paused outside of the building. The exit wasnt so far from the edge, and on a whim I walked over to it. Eric didnt follow. I imagined that he was sane enough not to want to stand on the very edge of a very long fall, not when there was little protecting us from the wind.


    Looking down, I could see all of New Montreal, or maybe just this one half of it on this side of the building. I was tall enough here that few buildings pushed higher.


    The city being this massive from up high put things into a weird perspective. The individual problems of the people below were minuscule, but at the same time, this was a massive place, and anything that I didnt fix like the sewers would hurt millions.


    Maybe that was it? The upper-echelon of the Family were detached from the rest of the city, living so high above it all. They didnt see the grime and shit.


    That was my world, though. They were in their clean suits, surrounded by glass and steel, talking about problems like they were numbers on a screen, while I was the one who would have to go down there, get my hands dirty, and deal with the issues at hand.


    "Time to get back to the grind," I muttered to myself, looking one last time over the cityscape. My vacation was on hold until this got sorted out. I was eager to get back to work on my mech, eager to spend time with Lucy, but not so much that Id just let things fall to the side and let the world go to shit for so many.


    You still have an appointment with the Mayor tomorrow afternoon.


    Ill be there. He needs to answer for why this wasnt taken care of already, I said. In fact, I think I can trace a lot of the blame here back to his office.


    Let me look things over. The local government does have oversight over this sort of thing. Infrastructure maintenance is one of their primary duties.


    You do that, I said. Im looking forward to my chat tomorrow. Bet theres a whole lot to learn. And a lot to answer for.


    ***