Chapter 77: A New Twist

One week. It'd been one full week since Senator Grwtln and his family moved into the house. The three days of training before that had been bad enough, but once the Senator was actually in the manor, everything became worse. Servants were now given little freedom to be anywhere but their assigned locations and the basement that made up the servant quarters.

Lusac stared up at the blank ceiling as he lay on his bed, trying to ignore the shouts from the two Kremel brothers as they debated the latest hyperball predictions. As much as he liked sports, those two were borderline obsessed, and after a long day serving food to the most pretentious people he'd ever seen, the argument threatened to push him over the edge of sanity.

"But unless the Genists can completely rework their defense in time for their game in two days, it won't matter," Frpl cried, and Lus sat up, barely avoiding hitting his head against the ceiling.

"I'm going to take a walk," he said as he swung off his bunk and dropped to the floor.

Swali-Shie was off with some of his cleaner friends. Not long after Lus ran into the cleaner on the second floor, he'd asked Swali about her, but the Nemarian couldn't even give him a name. He did learn at least that there was a Human who matched her description amongst the janitorial staff, but that meant little in his investigation.

A pointless investigation. It didn't matter who she was. All that mattered was that he managed to avoid her during his excursions to search the mansion. Vlqtrn had a much easier time since his job naturally sent him around many parts of the manor, but so far, neither had had any luck in finding the piece.

Lus was still contemplating which [Skill] to buy to assist them, but out of the options, none struck him as something would assist in locating the artifact. Maybe [Night Sight], but they kept cameras in all the hallways, so even if the lights were off he'd still be caught. In fact, the only reason he got the chance to go around now is because of a "mixup" at the laundromat that landed him a janitor uniform.

He couldn't let his roommates see it, though, so Lus had to keep it well hidden for when he needed to do his little excursions. Out in the hallway, he navigated through the maze of bedroom doors until he came to an unused corner, safe from any cameras, that contained a cheap, fake plant. Glancing around to be sure no one was watching, Lus then pulled up the plastic greenery and fake dirt to reveal a cubby hole where the uniform waited.

In another few minutes he was changed into the cleaning outfit and had his old clothes safely stowed away until he would need them. It was always a bit risky to go into the manor in the stolen garb, but the cleaners were allowed to wear bandanas over their faces to protect from dust and the fumes of the chemicals they used, and when he added a hat to it, his identity was perfectly obscured.

Most of the janitorial staff worked alone anyway from what Lus could see, though the higher ones were accompanied by golems. Lusac was actually surprised that someone with as much wealth as Senator Grwtln didn't use solely golems for cleaning given that they provided a lot more privacy, but Fresa had explained that most politicians chose people over golems as part of their anti-golem movement. Corporates were the ones who pushed for golems to be used for everything, but the Federalists instead believed that living people should have most of the jobs. 

Lus had never been well versed in those kinds of minor political debates that accompanied the civil war. All he really ever knew about it is that the Corporates claimed the government was corrupt and trying to control the people, and the Feds claimed that the corporations cared only about money. The way Lus saw it, neither side cared about anyone outside of the heavily populated systems near the core anyway, so he didn't see a reason to care about them.

In the end, it didn't make much difference to Lus why golems didn't do all the cleaning. All that mattered was that having so many cleaners on the staff meant he could explore the manor with some amount of ease. The hardest part of these excursions was tracking down cleaning supplies to sell the story.

Dusting his clothes off one more time to be sure there were no strange bits hanging on them, Lus started back through the hallways, carrying himself with purpose as he went towards the stairs leading up into the main manor. He passed plenty of other employees getting off their shifts, but there was no one he knew in the mix, keeping his secret safe.

Back on the main floor, Lus was greeted by the usual hallway, though all the curtains had been drawn, making it feel more cramped than before. The sun had long since dipped behind the horizon, and all the window coverings were closed promptly at sunset.

Thanks to some casual conversation with Swali-Shie, Lus knew where a few of the cleaning closets were on this floor. He walked onwards, certain in his path and knowing that as long as he looked confident, he was a lot less likely to be questioned, even this late at night. The cleaner shifts ran every hour of the day for a house this large. Offices and living areas couldn't be cleaned while the family and staff might have need of them, after all. It was not the place of the servants to dare disrupt their superiors.

When he reached the closet, he silently cursed. A light was on. Someone else was already there. While the cleaning staff was the largest of any hired groups, they still knew each other well. Lus's cover would be blown if he bumped into another worker.

He stepped around the corner, leaned against the wall, and settled in to wait for the other to leave. Only a few minutes later, the door opened and closed and heavy footsteps faded off.

Standing up straight, he returned to the door only to come face to face with the one person he'd been hoping to avoid in all this.

The woman from before.

She stared at him, and for a split second, Lus saw the same confusion in her eyes that he must have had on his own.

"What happened in the kitchen? Couldn't hack it as a chef?" she asked coldly, slapping his hand away from the door handle.

"I don't know what you're talking about. You must have me confused with someone else," Lusac replied, attempting to mask his voice. Did she really recognize him that easily through the disguise.

"That disguise might work on the dingbats they hired for security, but it doesn't fly with me," she said sourly. "I suppose this means you are a thief. I'll have to inform security." She said it like she actually did regret this turn of events.

"You do that, I'll rat you out too. I know that you weren't allowed up on the second floor that day anymore than I was," Lusac threatened. His eyes went to the security camera in the corner of the hall. It wouldn't be able to pick up this whispered conversation, right?

That caught the woman off guard. She straightened. "Why would they believe you? You're the thief afterall."

"But if I accuse you, they'll fire us both, and neither of us will get what we came here for." Lusac lowered his voice, still thinking about all the security systems.

The woman's face twitched into a frown. "I don't like playing games with silly boys."

"You're welcome to leave at any point," he said.

"And what if we have the same target? I get paid upon delivery," she replied.

"I highly doubt we're here for the same thing." He sighed. "I'm after an artifact, something old and unimportant to most people."

"Except a Senator and your employer?"

"I doubt even the Senator recognizes the value of it," Lus said.

"Well, I can safely say our tasks won't interfere with each other, assuming you manage to stop making such a mess everywhere you go," the woman stated.

"And what is your task?"

"That's classified, darling. Sorry."

Lus growled. Curse that 1 [Common Sense]. Why couldn't he ever think things through properly? "Well how do I know you're not after the same exact thing and just looking to use me as a tool to find it?"

She smiled. "I know what my target is, but unfortunately it's a moving target. The problem is getting a clean shot at it."

Clean shot…? Lus didn't dare ask further clarifying questions, but he had a pretty strong inclination that she wasn't a thief after all. Just an assassin. Which felt worse. A lot worse.

Then again, Senator Grwtln was just another rich Federalist who profited off of war, a war that destroyed Lus's home and tore him from his family. What did he care if someone offed him? The guy probably deserved it… But still, the idea of assassinating someone just didn't sit right with him. He only shot at people when they were shooting at him first. Anything else just felt dirty.

"I believe we have an understanding then," the woman said, recalling his attention from his spiral of worries.

"Right. I'm Lus by the way," he said stupidly.

Another grin lit up her face as he realized he'd managed to commit yet another blunder.

"Ahem. I mean, that's my cover name, you know."

The woman shook her head. "This must be your first time in the field. I feel bad for your handler."

Lus glared at her. He did just fine on plenty of missions before now. This mission was just a little more clandestine than he was used to.

"I'm Shelbs, but I tell you this only to keep you from looking like a complete idiot, got it? If I catch word of you ever using that name except with me, they won't find your body for years."

Lusac nodded, unwilling to admit just how terrifying he found Shelbs.

She laughed and opened the door. "Let's get some equipment before someone starts to suspect us of slacking off, yeah?"

He followed into the closet and selected a basket of cleaning supplies that was light and easy to carry.

"Good luck, Lus. Try not to get yourself arrested, okay? I'll miss these little encounters," Shelbs said as she tugged out her own basket, one that was more ladened than his.

"You too, Shelbs. I hope you get that shot, just maybe not until after I get my piece. Nothing personal," he said.

She waved at him as she left the closet behind. Lus waited a full minute before exiting himself, giving proper time between them.

Yet again he was disappointed that his [Quest] remained incomplete. How many more secrets could there be to learn? It felt like knowing about the upcoming assassination should cover that, but no. There was still at least one more secret waiting to be discovered.

As glum as the thought was, he had to accept that he might not complete this [Quest], and instead he put his focus on completing the mission that couldn't wait.

The encounter with Shelbs had eaten into the precious few minutes he had to explore the mansion, but Lusac decided to risk being gone a little longer to finish off his reconnaissance of the last wing of the first floor.

It was slow going, trying to pretend to be cleaning while also scouting every shelf and display for something so plain and simple as the artifact piece. After nearly an hour and half, his search came up empty, yet again. With a new sense of worry, Lus returned to the cleaning closet to drop off his stuff.

If he didn't find the piece before Shelbs made her move, this would all be for nothing. If Senator Grwtln died, only the Watcher knew where something like that would end up. His time was ticking away fast, and they hadn't even come to the hardest part of the mission.

Doing his best to silence his concerns, Lus returned to the employee quarters and his hiding spot to change back into his regular clothes. When he got back to the room, he found that all three of his roommates were already asleep, sparing him the awkward conversation of explaining where he'd been all night.

As Lusac crawled into his bed, he made a mental count of all the people with fake identities among the Senator's staff. Vlqtrn, Shelbs, Fresa-Ersht, and himself. That was four already. How many more could there be, and more importantly, who was going to be discovered first?