Chapter Forty-Nine - I Spy with my Meaty Eye

"Space is a commodity that few people recognize until they're stuffed into a room the size of a closet and told that this is their home."

--Jim Moom, Warden of CNW Indebted Credit Repayment Facility, #147, 2036

***

I got back into the elevator, rode past Gomorrah's floor, then stopped at the level above. That was where See-Three and I were supposed to be meeting.

Of course, she wasn't there yet. I'd know if she was, because I was in the nearest parking garage all of a minute ago, and I didn't see her showing up.

So, I was going to be unfashionably early, but that was alright. I kind of wanted an idea of the lay of the floor first. "Lemme know when See-Three arrives," I said.

Can do.

With that set up, I started to look around the floor. It was actually pretty large, once I looked past all the shit in the way. Unlike the floor below, where Franny and Delilah had ripped down all of the walls and made space for things, this one was still largely occupied by stuff.

Notably, there were old offices here.

The floor being as big as it was meant that there was room for several firms in here. There was a law firm, an accounting place, some online retailer's physical location, then a few rent-a-day offices. The sorts of places with okay-enough internet (with free spyware, probably), little cubicles, free coffee of the undrinkable kind, and some second hand furniture.

They were places that someone could rent by the day, or have the company that hired them for remote work rent for a day. Probably for way too much too.

The place had a small lobby space at the front, with seats and a desk with bullet-proof glass for a secretary, and then the offices were behind that, in a series of cubicles, some of which were still standing.

That... might not be the worst spot for that clinic, actually. It had a space for people to wait in at the front, and as I explored the back, turning on lights as I went, I discovered a couple of generic meeting rooms, probably also rentable, and a corner office at the very back with a view.

A shitty one, delivered through two narrow windows, but still, a view. And that back room had plugs and lights and an office chair that was missing one of those rollers at the bottom.

It was better than nothing, I figured.

See-Three has arrived along with two companions.

"Good timing," I said. "Is she on this floor yet?"

She's moving towards the elevator.

I nodded along, then started that way myself. I timed it just right, the door to the elevator opening and See-Three and her pals slipping out just as I was coming down the corridor. "Hey!" I called out.

See-Three's eyes scanned the area, then landed on me. I figured she might actually be seeing more than I could with those eyes of hers.

Actually, that made me think... "Myalis, remind me to upgrade my still-meaty eye."

I'll do that. Repeatedly.

"Stray Cat," See-Three said. She reached out a hand and we shook. "So, this is where you live?"

"Here? Nah, the floor above. It was a museum before we took it over and turned it into our place. I might show you around one day." After whipping the kittens into cleaning the place. "Anyway, the rest of this building's being spruced up a little too. Bit by bit. The floor below belongs to Gomorrah now."

"The flamethrower nun?" one of See-three's friends said. It was one of the guys from the other night. I couldn't remember his name, and was too lazy to look it up.

"That's her," I said. "She's turning it into a private house-slash-armoury-slash-church thing. With a large garage. She likes muscle cars. Almost as much as she likes fire and sexy nuns called Franny."

"Specifically called Franny?" See-Three asked, clearly confused.

I nodded. "Yup. If you know any Frannys that are religious, you tell them to keep an eye open."

"Uh... will do," she said a little awkwardly. I just grinned, then gestured in deeper. "Is this the place for the clinic?"

"It will be," I said. "We're going to need to put up some cordons or something, and I might have to buy a couple more cat drones and maybe something big and scary to act as security. But yeah, the clinic should be right over here."

The rent-a-day offices were a corridor and a turn away from the elevator, past a couple of emptied out spaces. "There's a lot of unused space here," See-Three said.

That wasn't wrong. And it was probably worth commenting on because of the sheer value of space, especially in a city as packed as New Montreal. Right now, with everyone from the suburbs being pulled in, there was probably a huge lack of living spaces in the city. And here I was sitting on an entire floor of a large building which was completely empty.

"It'll be used," I said. "My girlfriend, Lucy... you'll meet her eventually too, runs this organisation of volunteer mercs and like, rescue personnel called the Kittens. We'll probably be moving their HQ into one of these offices. Might move the big material printer from upstairs here too. I'm probably going to buy a second soon, and that'll mean more storage space."

"Ah, so all of this will fill up soon?" See-Three asked.

"Hmm, maybe not all of it. Two of the offices that are here, at least." Which would mean taking up about a third of the space that was available, give or take? There was still a lot of empty room. "The rest... we'll probably wall up, then reopen them as we need them. I'm sure we'll find some use for everything here. If this floor starts getting enough traffic, we might want to look into getting a place set up for a coffee shop or something, maybe some space for janitorial stuff."

The coffee shop was a fresh idea, but not one I'd dismiss so easily. Maybe I could use it as a way to get the kittens upstairs to work. They'd finally earn their keep, and it could serve as a way for them to earn some change.

I didn't have illusions about housing them forever. One day they'd want to move on, and having both work experience and credits on hand would help a lot with that.

Lucy would... probably just find more orphans to fill the void.

"This is it," I said with a gesture at the place. It was better to move on before my thoughts spiralled and I eventually decided that we all needed therapy or something.

See-Three eyed the office front. The corridor lights were down, but I suspected that all of us here had enough cyberware to see in the low-light. At least the lights within were on, and they painted the lobby as... well, a sterile, very inoffensive lobby, minus a few chairs and potted plants.

"It's larger than the space we had before," she said.

"There's a lobby to get people to sit down and shut up in, then offices at the back," I said as I opened the door and let everyone in. Then I moved ahead, feeling a bit like a realtor as I showed the space off. "There's a heavy door between the lobby and the back. Not sure how tough it actually is, but it's something."

"I see," See-three said.

"And then we have the cubicle farm," I said as I gestured grandly. "It's... not much to look at, but it's better than nothing. We can toss all of this shit out, or shove it into the printing machine to break it down. Then we'll have plenty of room."

"Can we renovate this?" See-Three asked.

"It's basically my building, so... consider yourself permitted. I'd lend you the construction or repair drone to help, but it's a bit busy. Still, I think we can get something temporary set up quickly enough."

See-Three nodded quickly. "It's a lot of space. We'll use it well."

"There's the back here too," I said as I led them in deeper. "There are two meeting rooms. Honestly, it might be worthwhile to turn at least one into something else? Like a place for patients or something?"

"A convalescence room," See-Three suggested. "Post-op, a lot of people need a few hours, sometimes a day or two, on their back. Especially for more complex operations. Most places will shove you in a taxi and you have to hope you can make it to your bed."

"Mhm. There's a small break room, a changing room, and some bathrooms. Honestly, I think you might want to look into hiring a full-time nurse or something while you're at it."

See-Three took a deep breath. "Yes. I think we might have to do just that. This is... growing to be bigger than I expected."

"Ah, it's not so bad, is it? Look! Free corner office. With a view!"

***