I pry the manhole off with a crowbar I found in a nearby alley and I’m down the ladder before anyone else has walked by. That’s good. Should try to stay out of sight, concealed. C’mon Jack, you can do this. The sewer smells like a dead body that’s been liquefying in the heat for two weeks, but I start walking in the direction of the Cybercorp offices anyway. Goddamn, do I hate sewers.

I walk what I estimate to be about three blocks, the smell about to kill me the entire way there, and then I look around for some sort of exit that would bring me into a sub-basement of the CyberCorp headquarters. A drainage pipe of some sort would work . . . although it would also be utterly disgusting. Best not to think about that.

A few more feet ahead, I find what I’m looking for. This is odd. It appears as though there used to be some sort of high-tech metal grate covering the drainage pipe, but it’s completely destroyed. Pieces of it lie strewn about in the sewers. On closer inspection, it looks like some pieces were cut out and the rest was dismantled. Someone else has been using this sewer. I may not be alone down here. Every drip sounds like a cannon.

I walk a ways into the drainage pipe, crouching as I go, and after a little while it gains an incline. Good. I’m actually getting somewhere. A few hundred feet more, and there’s an odd light spilling into the pipe from the ceiling. I slow down to stay quiet, and I hear the muffled sound of voices. Naturally, at the same time, I have an almost insuppressible need to cough. I can almost feel the blood building up in my lungs. Goddamn it. How does the virus spread so fast? If I let out a sound now, though, I’ll be discovered for sure. Sounds like a pretty damn important conversation though. Have to choose fast or I’ll lose both options.

Try to stay quiet and listen to the conversation

Don’t risk it, sneak past