Chapter 516: The Pipe Whisperer
(Cleaners Quarters, Rooftop. 5:07 AM)
Leo returned to the top of the janitorial quarters building, his boots landing softly against the cold concrete rooftop as he adjusted his breathing and peeled away the weight of the last four hours from his expression.
Yet before he could even let out a sigh, a familiar voice cut through the early morning haze.
"You’re bloody slow, Cuz. I’ve been waiting for you for fifteen minutes now. Almost made me wonder if I should come back or whether you’d messed up," Veyr said, his voice low but teasing, as he stood there in full janitor gear with arms folded, the faintest smirk tugging at the corner of his lips.
Leo couldn’t help but chuckle, relief creeping in at the sight of his cousin alive and composed, as that probably meant that his mission went well.
*Nod*
He gave Veyr a brief nod before slipping out of his assassin robes and into the janitor clothes he’d stashed behind the water tank earlier, the fabric still carrying the faint scent of detergent and rusted pipes, a sharp contrast to the stench of blood that currently clung to his skin.
"Want a smoke?" he offered, pulling a cigarette from the inner lining of his coat pocket and tossing it Veyr’s way.
Veyr caught it reflexively but frowned, waving the stick slightly in disapproval. "No... I don’t like the smell."
Leo shrugged as he lit his own, the tip flaring orange in the low light, casting a brief glow over his face as he took a slow drag and exhaled to the side, watching the smoke drift over the edge of the rooftop.
"Well, you have to smell like it," he muttered, his tone dry, "otherwise someone might wonder what you were doing on the terrace at five in the morning. Better to smell like a stressed janitor than risk questions we can’t afford to answer."
With visible reluctance, Veyr lifted the cigarette to his lips and lit it up before inhaling, only to cough instantly, loud and pathetic, like someone who’d never smoked in his life.
*WHEEZE*
*COUGH*
Leo arched an eyebrow and tried not to laugh.
"Yeah... that’s what I thought, Mister ’I’ve been here fifteen minutes before you.’ Still a lot that life hasn’t taught you, huh?" He clapped back before taking another puff, only to barely manage suppressing a coughing spree of his own.
’Jeez. That was close... nearly blew my cool act. I don’t know how Charles does this every day,’ Leo thought, his throat already burning, as he forced himself to finish the cigarette just for the sake of appearances.
Once done, he crushed the stub beneath his foot, checking his watch as he gave one last glance across the still-sleeping base.
The time was 5:15 AM, which meant the janitorial staff would be waking up in another fifteen minutes, with their official duties beginning at 6:00 sharp.
Everything had lined up perfectly, and from here onwards the plan ahead was real simple.
He and Veyr would descend with the supervisor as part of the drainage inspection crew and solve the drainage issue by 7:30, or at least claim to have it fixed, before slipping away and transforming into Lieutenants Larry and Aaron, who would be expected to report for the 8:00 AM officer’s morning inspection round without raising any suspicion.
Ideally, they had to do a good job in the tight 1.5 hour window to solve the drainage issue, but even if they did not, they could just claim that it was unclogged, and the officer in-charge would probably not figure out if that was the case or not until a few hours later, by which point they would be officially off the planet.
—----------
At 6:00 AM sharp, Barry the supervisor began leading Leo and Veyr down the underground maintenance tunnels toward the section of the drainage network that had been giving the staff the most grief, his footsteps echoing against the moss-slicked concrete as the dim light from his handheld torch barely illuminated the rusted pipes running along the narrow path.
"We assume that the clog is about 20 meters wide. It sounds pretty jammed up here—" he said, tapping a steel bar experimentally against the side of the pipe.
*Ting*
*Ting*
The sound echoed clearly, sharp and metallic, until they walked a few meters further and he struck again.
*Tang*
*Tang*
A duller, thicker tone rang out this time, as Barry gave a grim nod.
"We’ve tried every conventional method to unclog it, but nothing works. The pressure’s just not—"
"Shushhh," Veyr said, suddenly lifting one finger and crouching beside the pipe with an intensity that made Barry stop mid-sentence.
He placed both palms gently over the rusted surface, rubbing slow circles across the grime-coated metal as if caressing a lover after a long time apart, and then tilted his head to the side, pressing his ear flat against the pipe like a man trying to hear the ocean inside a seashell.
Barry blinked twice. "W-what’s he doing?"
Leo turned and gave the supervisor a pointed glare. "Did he not tell you to shut up? The pipe whisperer is working his magic. Just wait and see."
Veyr remained motionless for a long moment, breathing deeply, as he tapped once with his knuckle, then again, before finally lifting his head.
"There’s a cavity up ahead, roughly seventeen meters from here. It’s holding sludge because of a thick crust of hardened sediment along the inner curvature," he said with the solemn tone of a man describing divine revelation.
Barry stared in disbelief.
"And how... how do you know that?" he asked, as Veyr looked disappointedly down towards the floor.
"It’s a sad story to explain how I got my powers.... I’m sure you don’t want to waste your time hearing about how an orphan raised on the streets learned about listening to pipes for entertainment growing up.
So let’s just cut to the part where we solve your problem and be on our way." Veyr replied, as Barry turned teary eyed at his words.
"So your great powers.... They came with such a tragic past...." He muttered, barely holding back tears, as both Leo and Veyr gave him a shoulder pat, before brushing past as they got to work.
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