The Walls Have Eyes

Location: The labyrinth New York, New York
Date: 03/05/2017
Figaro and Shortie arrive at an air vent in the upper part of the sewer, the vent shares an access duct with the older parts of the labyrinth. Squeezing through the cover, they begin their journey through the air ducts to the newer part of the labyrinth. As they make their way to the meeting room mentioned by Yuuko, they can hear the clicking of metal against the floor of the labyrinth outside of the vents. Outside they can see an old man in a exo-Skelton moving towards the same conference room as them. Shortie skittered nervously behind his partner trying to keep up with Figaro leading the way to their eavesdropping spot. He may be the smallest with the biggest ears, but he wasn't the fastest. The long trek up the vents and the distance gap between the two cousins surely was making Shortie discouraged of the whole operation. "Geez Figgy, wait up!" Shortie cried out to his cousin as they were moving quickly through the vent. Surely he thought that Figaro was burning a trail behind him, as he caught a whiff of smoke. "Where's the fire?" Figaro rolls his beady eyes and suddenly stops to give Shortie some time to catch up to him. The vent that gave them the runway now leads downward towards the conference room.
As Figaro gave his cousin a moment to catch his breath, he advises about the layout of the conference room. "Ok, I know this room pretty good. This room is a minefield. Totally laid out with surveillance equipment by the humans, so going in there is like you're looking to get yourself whacked. But don't worry, cousin. Boss and Snaps made a workaround. Down this vent, we don't go through the air duct. There's an opening just between the air duct and the wall. We go in through the hole in the wall and scamper our way up again. It's a bit of a slope, but it's doable. I tested it out myself and it worked out just fine. Stay with me Shortie, and it'll all work out, got it?" Shortie nodded with his long whiskers and both rats geronimoed down the vent in their near finale of their journey through the vents. As they near the grates of the covering which opens the duct to the inside of the conference room, they pause to the left, not thinking to exit through the duct. "Through here now," Figaro guided his cousin as he leads through the hole in the wall and proceeds up the sloped nailed down wooden framework between the insulation and drywall. Halfway through the long slope upward, Shortie began to feel the burn in his paws. He never ran so fast with the fastest Luminatti of the Il Luminatti. "How much farther is it? Geez, Figgy!" "Shaddap and run, we're almost there!" Shortie thought that his paws were going to spontaneously combust as they hurried up the slope of two by fours. At the crest of the makeshift hill, the two rat cousins stopped, and there was another opening to the right of them, leading into the wall, in the middle of the conference room.
Figaro explained the next step. "Through here." They scurried through the hole and two makeshift perches were made ready for them. Figaro took one spot and Shortie on the opposite side. In front of them were closures leading to a window of some sort. On the other side, it was an elegant painting of mice. Figaro pointed the small lever with his paw and pulled on it, and carefully cut out pieces of the canvas pulls away from the painting behind the wall. Figaro and Shortie replaced the heads of two mice with their own. "Hey, hey, I'm liking this already!" whispered Shortie as he marveled over the plain inconspicuous view of the entire conference room. Figaro chuckled in response. "All the Boss's idea, cousin. Told ya I got this covered. Now all we gotta do is wait."
The conference room door opened as the old man in the exoskeleton strolled in, locking the door behind him before setting a small black box on the desk and pressing a blue button on its side. As he sat down at the desk, sighing to himself as the hydraulics on the exoskeleton hissed, he began entering a code into the side of the desk. The lights in the conference room went out and 5 overhead projectors clicked on, projecting 5 identical blue holograms in each of the chairs surrounding the table. “Is the connection secure Mr. Disney?” the hologram opposite the old man said in a voice that was clearly masked. “As secure as anything in this place is. If you were truly concerned about security, you would have come to the park, away from this pit of vipers.” “Not all of us have the luxury of shutting ourselves off from the world Walter, many of us have appearances to keep up. Now what is the status of the project?” said another hologram to the old man’s left. “You will be pleased to know that your patience, money and faith in my vision have paid off. Dr. West has succeeded in creating the needed pathogen. Our tests in London have shown that under the proper circumstances we can gather enough receptive individuals in one area to open and stabilize a bridge. ”
“In theory” shot back the hologram on the right, your tests in London also drew the attention of both Temple Hall and The Council, we have counted 3 new agents who are investigating your tests, Kate Sawyer an agent of the Templar, Wapasha Clark a member of the councils division of military operations, Skye Thornwise one of Kirsten Geary people, and Trent Hammond an agent of the dragon. On top of these 3 the Von Richter family has yet again taken an interest in our affairs and for some unfathomable reason so has the Council’s archival services. This is all in an addition to the incident with the Templars cats and butler. You are far from a discreet man Mr. Disney.” “Let them investigate all they want, we are finished with the hard work.  Despite all that has happened the pathogen is complete and as we speak the outbreak is being prepared, then we need only gather the receptive to the right spot at the right time and then I will have the eye of Hyades.”
“You will have a stable bridge,” replied the hologram on the right, “retrieving the eye of Hyades from the king in yellow is another task entirely, one I don’t think you are up to Walter.” “I’m more then capable of dealing with Hastur, I have both the necessary fire power and man power, provided that you keep your end of the bargain.” The hologram at the head of the table answered, “We will get your votes, Mr. Disney.” “Truly? Because the last time I checked you were busy with other “projects”, either scrounging for votes at Salon de l'Agriculture, or courting that vile creature in DC.” “Those activities are crucial to the next phase of the plan, Mr. Disney. We cannot hope to sway the rest of the committee without power, and we cannot get that power without appearing to appeal to the population at large.” The old man scowled at the response, “Without the support of the committee, I will not have the army I need to hold the inhabitants of Carcossa at bay, if I cant hold back the inhabitants I cannot reach Hastur, if I cannot reach Hastur I cannot get the eye, and without the eye we cannot control the infected and this little coup of ours is FUCKED!” the old man yelled as he pounded a metal fist on the desk.
The holograms were silent for a bit as they contemplated his words, “You will have your 200 votes Mr. Disney, we are currently at 167; we need only sway a few more to our side.” “We have a fixed time frame, the stars are right for the bridge at the moment, if we wait till the summer solstice we will lose our chance, time is of the essence in this endeavor.” “We will have your army before then Mr. Disney, provided you can keep our involvement secret” the hologram at the head of the table snapped back, “Additionally, please make sure that Dr. West keeps her…pet in line. The last thing we need is a repeat of the Snow Berry fiasco.” The old man sighed again has he pulled himself out of the chair, “I believe the beast is hibernating at the moment, something about how winter spirits drive it from higher dimensional space. Regardless, we will not need to worry about it till the 21st at the earliest. And with that I shall bid you Aude, when next we speak, I should have everything I need to open the bridge.” The holograms disappeared as the light came back on. The old man turned off the black box and put it back in his coat pocket.
Figaro and Shortie pulled away from the holes of the canvas and Figaro pressed the lever with his paw to put back the original pieces of the painting into its rightful places. As they scurried back down on the wooden platforms and up through the vents where they came from, distancing themselves from the insertion point, away from being seen or heard from the human on the other side of the conference room. There, they discussed what they have seen and heard from the communications.  "So this human is trying to get an army together to get some kind of Eye of Hyades. But before he does that, he's gotta get a bunch of people infected with this pathogen to open the bridge. Without the bridge, he can't get what he wants. What the actual hell does this Eye of Hyades do if he does get it?" Shortie saide as they made their back to the sewers. "Beats me, Shortie. Whatever this thing does, it can't be good. And Browni Jenkin, that other piece of garbage is in hiding somewhere in hibernation. At least he's incapacitated for now, but what's gonna happen if he wakes up? What's he gonna do? That's my million dollar question." said Figaro. Shortie replied "Dunno, Figgy. Dunno. Won't be surprised if Boss sends us to whack him in his sleep before that happens. Hope it does too. You dunno what that fucking whackjob is capable of. Look at what he did to that big Russian cat at Disneyland. Yeah that same cat that kicked our butts on our own turf. Browni fucking tore him to shreds, fucking nearly whacked him while we watched from the sidelines. I'm surprised that cat is still fucking breathing to this day. When the cats in London hear about this, that cat is gonna be looking for payback. Guarantee it!"
Making their way back through the tunnels Figaro replied "It looks like we don't have a lot of fucking time to figure this out either. Neither does that idiot over there in the room. He only has a certain time frame to do this thing, and spring is just around the fucking corner. It will get warmer outside, and the ground will start to thaw out. All the other animals will come out of the same slumber as Browni, and mating season will open again. And if this pathogen breaks through? Geez, Shortie, the world is gonna be fucked! There's gonna be nothing left to mate with if this thing flies!" Shortie replied "Not to mention this beast in DC, this human talked about. D.C. is not that far away from New York." "Didn't George have a bunch of tapes that had a bunch of sound files that came from the ocean? Wonder if that has anything to do with it? Or if the sounds are this fucking thing that they are trying to control" said Figaro. "Yeah but those tapes were used for ransom for one of their own. Remember?" Shortie replied. Figaro replied "Yeah, yeah, whatever. Can't go to the Boss now and see what he thinks of all this. We got a job to do. Come on, let's get up to the surface and find our contact. She's waiting for us on topside."

As the two rats make their way top side, they turned down an ally only to be greeted by a big black wolf with a back in his mouth. The wolf drops the bag before them containing several large Rice Krispy Bricks, topped with peanut butter and chocolate. The wolf then turned back down the ally and seemed to disappear back into the shadows. Shortie and Figaro scratched their ears being baffled at the possibility of why the wolf hasn't dropped the goodies and eaten the rats instead. Relieved of the rather gruesome alternative conclusion, they raced to check out the drop off and sniffed each bar. "Yup, this must be the payment. Payment in full," said Figaro as he picked up the pack with his chops and both rats scurried off into the sewers to deliver the payment to Jimmy the Don.
Scurrying through the open sewer hole, Shortie and Figaro raced to the Den of the Don. A large abandoned area of the sewers, unknown to the humans, not even the Illuminati agents who travel through on foot to the Labyrinth. They scamper with the pack of their payment in Figaro's jaws. Running through the twists and turns, through holes, and the nooks and crannies burrowed by the rats themselves. The Luminatti Family planned the routes way before they were banned from the Illuminati HQ proper for sanitary reasons, so the head honchos put it. With their wits and resourcefulness, they do manage to sneak back into HQ undetected most of the time. To grab some tasty morsels of leftover food while eavesdropping on the juicy gossip and intel spoken by the human agents in blue. The two rats hung a sharp right and through the hole and there they were at the Den of Jimmy the Don himself. Furnished with only a broken down desk and piles of wrappers from food in the corners that were scavenged. Jimmy stood on top of his makeshift podium with his two chief lieutenants, Big Paulie and Lil' Paulie, overseeing the activities of his dozens and dozens of package rats and underlings under his order. Jimmy glances with his beady eyes of his two agents who had just returned from the job in HQ. He chittered his teeth and motioned with his forepaw for Shortie and Figaro to come forward. The two rats stepped with the pack and laid it before him. "Is that the payment? Bring it over here," Jimmy asked. Jimmy opened the pack and fished out the Rice Krispie bars from the pack and laid them out one by one on the podium. He gave each bar a good sniff. The sweet scent of chocolate and peanut butter tantalized his taste buds. He chittered with his teeth again in glee. "Payment in full. Dig in boys." The rats inside the den didn't waste any time devouring the sweet, chewy goodness of the Rice Krispie bars. Every rat ate in silence, enjoying the meal before further conducting any business for the evening. At least not until every morsel of the bars were gone. As they had finished, all rats resumed their business and Jimmy the Don motioned to Shortie and Figaro to his private chambers inside one of the open desk drawers. Even though that the two rats had done their job well and that the payment was received, there is still the matter of the rodent version of Q&A. It is time for the debriefing.
"Ok give it to me," demanded Jimmy to his two agents and Shortie and Figaro, each taking turns, began to explain what they had seen and heard from the conference in the Labyrinth. First starting with the news of the human Dr. West has successfully created a pathogen. An artifact called the Eye of Hyades. News of the location of the vile creature. The raising of an army to hold down the fort while they get to the Eye. Then finally the mention of Browni Jenkin who is currently in hibernation mode somewhere out there. Jimmy listened attentively to what his cousins found out, and clenched his paws analyzing the situation. "That damn Browni's still breathing?" Jimmy squeaked. "Dammit, what's it gonna take to put this piece of garbage down for good? That fucking idiot has caused enough trouble for us! Templar cats rolled in and kicked our butts on our own turf cuzza him! While he's out there, sleeping in Gaia knows where and we're out here still cleaning up his mess! And this fucking creature? I betcha anything it's the same thing from those tapes that the cats got. And now the humans are wanting in on this monster? This ain't good. Nah nah this ain't good! If that monster gets loose, it'll be curtains for everyone, everything! Humans! Us! The cats! The dogs! All cuzza Browni I fucking tell ya. Oh how I want that filthy rat dead right now! I just wanna see... I just wanna see him wake up dead!" Jimmy paced inside the desk frothing at the chops ranting every curse word about Browni Jenkin, with Shortie and Figaro nervously looking on in silence. Jimmy brings down his composure with a deep growl and calms down. "How long do we fucking have? Til Browni wakes up, huh? Huh?" "A matter of weeks, Boss," Shortie sheepishly replied. "Then three months after for the monster." Jimmy laid his head low and pondered. A matter of weeks is a very short time. Even three months could either be a very short time or a long time. Jimmy assessed who did he want dead more; Browni or that whatever thing that's in the ocean, just waiting to unleash hell. Regardless of the order, Jimmy wants them both eliminated and fast. Jimmy and the two agents concluded their Q&A and headed to the top of the podium where Jimmy is about to hammer out some orders. "Everybody's gotta know this! Ok? The cats! The dogs! Everybody! They all gotta know what the fuck is gonna happen and we don't have a lot of time to get the word out! So I'm gonna say this." Jimmy glanced over at Snaps who waiting below. "Snaps! Get your butt over to London and contact the cats. Look for a silver and black striped cat named Ziggy! Tell him I wanna get together for a meeting. Shortie, you're heading to Seoul. Find a Jack Russell terrier named Jac. Tell him I wanna have meeting with both him and Ziggy. Date and time to be said later."
The rats scurry off to prepare for their next job, as Jimmy relaxes himself upon his podium. Big Paulie interrupts. "Boss, meeting with them on neutral turf meaning there won't be any Fusang Fridays." "For now we all got ninety nine problems, Big Paulie! And Browni and this monster are gonna be two more bigger fucking problems if we don't do something about them fast!" Jimmy replied as he laid back, his tummy satisfied from all the Rice Krispie bars that he ate, but in his mind there is very much to be worried about in the weeks to come. Spring will bloom its last season on Earth.
-end of file-