Chapter Fifty-Four - A Lil Chit-C(h)at

  "We can step out to talk," Alyssa said. "Or at least, go somewhere less loud."

  That was a fair point. I had that gasmask on, which did some work muffling my hearing, but the area was still quite loud. Rushing water breaking against concrete walls wasn't exactly a subtle kind of sound.

  "Yeah, okay," Sharp said. "So, out, or somewhere else?"

  Jenny lowered her gun, then stuffed it into a thigh holster strapped onto the outside of her pants. "Come on, follow me. There's a room up over here."

  She turned, and soon Sharp was following. I didn't fail to notice that Alyssa was keeping to Sharp's side. The ideal spot to keep an eye on Sharp while tailing Jenny. They seemed to be at least mildly prepared for the excursion. Both girls had flat-backed flashlights clipped to their belts, and Jenny was wearing a hardhat with a small light at the front, though it was currently off.

  No masks, however. I imagined that was something they were regretting. For that matter, other than their big old water boots, they were wearing normal clothes, not the kind of PPE that I would have suggested for an excursion down here.

  "It's there," Jenny said as she pointed ahead.

  The catwalk split in four directions, but the one Jenny was pointing down soon had the catwalk end at a sturdy metal door. We walked over to it, and I squinted to read the sign printed on the front of it. Maintenance 150A.

  Jenny tried the handle, then cursed when all it did was jiggle. "Fucking typical," she swore. Then she reached for her gun.

  "Wait!" Sharp said. "I might be able to unlock it, maybe."

  Jenny eyed her, then the door, before shrugging and stepping back with a sweeping gesture.

  Sharp nodded, then fell onto one knee before it. "Let's see," she muttered as she reached into a pocket and tugged out a small set of lockpicks. Quality ones, with several picks held within a small sleeve. She fiddled with them, and I quickly realized that she was showing them to me one at a time.

  I rolled my eyes, but smacked her shoulder when she reached the right kind. Just a simple rake. There was no way a random maintenance door had actual good locks on it.

  Sharp still took a whole minute to pick the lock, and it only came apart when she grew a little frustrated and wiggled the rake about. Still, it worked, and she was able to twist the handle and open the door a crack.

  "Nice work, short-stuff," Jenny said.

  Sharp blinked. "Are you like, a head shorter than me?"

  Jenny's eyes narrowed. "Don't poke me while I'm down," she said.

  "But you're always down, because you're sho--ow ow ow!" Sharp hissed as Jenny started to jab her in the stomach with the end of a finger. "Okay, okay, fine!"

  Jenny shook her head, then slipped past Sharp to enter the maintenance room. It wasn't a very impressive space. The room was surprisingly large and deep. There were a few pallets with large sacs of something on them, next to a hand-pushed forklift, and further in was a large electrical panel that took up most of one wall, with lots of flickering lights. Dusty boxes were stacked in one corner, and there was a staircase leading up and away as well.

  Jenny glanced around and eventually found a light switch. A flick later, and some neon tubes hummed to life above, illuminating the pale-turquoise walls and linoleum floor up so that we could see better.

  Sharp stepped in, followed by Alyssa who shut the door behind her.

  "Oh, thank fuck," Jenny said. It was considerably quieter in this room, and I imagined that the smell was likely better too.

  Sharp tugged her mask off her face, gave the air a sniff, then peeled it off completely a moment later. "Ah, this is gonna leave a mark on my nose," she complained.

  "What are you doing here?" Alyssa asked.

  So much for small talk, then. Sharp shifted from foot to foot and glanced between the two girls. Jenny found a spot to lean against the wall and Alyssa simply stood with her arms crossed nearby. "So, it's a short story."

  "A short story?" Jenny asked. "Isn't it usually a long one?"

  "I mean, maybe, but this one really is short," Sharp replied. "I've been taking gigs on the side to make a bit of money. One of them was to check out something in the sewers. I wasn't even going to enter them today. I'm not dressed for it. But I did wanna see where the entrance was? Anyway, I was looking around when I saw you two step in, so I went around and followed you in. That's... all of it."

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  "That's a conveniently short story," Alyssa said. "And it's conveniently unverifiable."

  "Huh? No it isn't," Sharp said. She reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone. A moment later she had the details of her gig pulled up and turned it to show Alyssa.

  The girl frowned at the screen. "You could have made that up."

  "When?" Sharp asked.

  "That's... a fair point," Jenny said. "We were barely here for twenty minutes before you followed us in. Unless you knew we'd be here beforehand?"

  "No? It really was a coincidence," Sharp said. "Well, seeing you was. The following was more... curiosity, I guess."

  "Do you often follow strange women into the sewers?" Alyssa asked.

  "It's never come up before, but so far it's working out for me!" Sharp replied with a guileless smile. "So, what are you doing down here anyway?"

  Alyssa sniffed. "That's for us to know."

  "But I'm curious!" Sharp said. "Plus, I finished work today, so I might just follow you around and find out."

  "Did you miss the part where I threatened you?" Jenny asked.

  "Huh? No, of course not. But you wouldn't actually shoot me, right?"

  Jenny's eyes narrowed. "You're not so keen on the whole self-preservation thing, huh?" she asked. "Look, we're down here on a gig too. It's probably sensitive."

  "Does it have anything to do with Megabuilding 371?" Sharp asked. Both girls tensed, which was as good as an admission of guilt. "Cool! So we're on the same job then!"

  "You're being paid to break into the megabuilding?" Jenny asked.

  "Oh... I guess we're not on the same job then," Sharp replied. "Nah, my gig is to find the entrance into it from the sewers. That's all. Yours sounds a lot more dangerous."

  Jenny and Alyssa glanced at each other, and there was more unspoken communication between the two for a while. Then Jenny sighed. "Might as well," she muttered. "There's a pretty big bounty out at the moment for something in that building. It's basically impossible to get to it from the outside, so we figured if you can't come in from above or from the side..."

  "That leaves below," Sharp said. "And I guess teleportation."

  Alyssa snorted. "Spoken like someone who doesn't know the complications and risks of something like that," she said.

  Sharp shrugged. "Okay. I guess that this gig of yours is a big deal?"

  "It's something," Jenny said. "You heard of it?"

  "No? Well, only for the part I have. I guess you're not the only ones who decided to try going under if someone is willing to put out a gig for the same thing," Sharp said.

  Jenny was the one to cross her arms now. "Well, we can't let you do that," she said.

  "You can't? Are you... going to kill me for it, because that feels kind of extreme. Also, I wasn't even going to start today. Are you going to lock me up until the gig's over on your end, then?"

  Alyssa eyed Sharp for a while, then sighed. "She's got a point, Jen," she said. "We can't exactly stop her. Not without doing something drastic."

  "I also accept bribes!" Sharp added.

  "We're not paying you to do nothing," Jenny snapped. "And... fuck, yeah, can't exactly shoot you either. I figure you're not exactly an enemy."

  Sharp's grin was as big as it was stupid. "I'm happy that we're not enemies then!" she said. "So! Want to work together? We're both looking for the same thing, and I'm pretty good at finding stuff sometimes."

  "Are you?" Jenny asked.

  "I found you, didn't I? And I wasn't even looking!"

  Jenny groaned, and I almost joined her. This was... maybe not the worst idea Sharp had ever had, but it was certainly not one of her smartest. Still, better to move around as a group than solo, especially if this gig proved to be more complicated than we'd first realized.

  "Fine then," Alyssa said. "We'll allow you to follow us. But we're in charge. You're just the help."

  "Sure!' Sharp said. "So... where do I send the invoice?"

  ***

  https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/107125/board-conquest