Untouchable: Chapter 19: Disconnected
Sean worked with Amy on his part of the marketing campaign for the exposé she hoped to do. After clearing it all with his boss he thought, "that'll get Xander's attention, he'll finally have to talk to me." Then he realized he'd need to get a new phone for that to happen. Not pressed to get anything else done, he thought he'd stop at his cell providers store on the way back to the office.When he went into the store he was greeted and directed to the Savant desk. A red fox with a dyed tail said, "Welcome to Carrot's Savant Desk I'm Tanner. Wait I recognize you. You're Sean, Xander's friend, right, From the news today... Any way Paul told me that you have a cat allergy, kind of a dumb report? Tough break dude, how can I help you?" "Yeah, that was annoying... So, I'm here cause my phone broke yesterday," Sean said, it was odd to interact with this friend of Paul's. "Why is it weird to meet Paul's friends if Xander is dating..." Sean thought while he pictured Xander with Paul, then Xander telling him to do things to Paul. His blood drained as he remembered his nightmare fantasy."Ah that must have been annoying, so... well, Xander seems nice. He'll treat Paul well, won't he? Paul's had a rough time in the dating world and all that," Tanner said and shifted from paw to paw."I assume so, but I've never dated Xander myself," Sean said, "well we were best friends.""Why did I say were?" Sean thought."Ah good, well I'll need the phone and your address to get this all started for you or your user ID," Tanner said."Shepherds-Catwolf, you need me to sign in?" Sean asked then set the phone on the counter."Yeah right here on the tablet, would be great," Tanner said.Sean wondered if Xander was still using Catwolfs-Shepherd."Ok, so how did the phone break?" Tanner asked."I dropped it," Sean said while he only half listened."Well from your account I can see you're no longer under the warranty, and you aren't set for a reup for a few months," Tanner said, "but we have a few options.""Ok I hope they don't suck," Sean said."You can buy a new phone, a refurbished one, or get this one refurbished," Tanner said.Sean drummed the counter, "I have an alternative phone from work how long would the refurbishment take? It is the cheapest option I assume?""About a day or two, if you give me your current number I can call you when it's done, I can even set it up for delivery and you can pick it up at my place... or, Uhm, I can drop it off at yours if you need after hours pickup or delivery," Tanner said arms wrapped across his chest while he scratched his opposite elbow."Yeah I like that, how much will it be?" Sean asked confused at why Tanner seemed embarrassed."One hundred and forty nine dollars," Tanner said, then in a rush of words, "but I can put you on the
friends and family discount, that would bring it down to $119 and some change.""You sure that's the cheapest?" Sean asked half as a joke."Yeah sadly it is, the screen and the display come as a single unit, plus the issue could be the display and it's connection points, but that all gets fixed in the refurb," Tanner said and avoided eye contact."Well I guess that will work, you need that new number right?" Sean asked then got out the flip phone to pull up his current number. "maybe next time Xander, Paul and you all get a beer I could tag along or something?" Tanner asked."Well, Paul and I don't really get drinks much," Sean said, 'as in never,' he thought, then said, "but sure sounds fun."Tanner's tail swished from side to side.After he had everything completed at the store it was well past his lunch. He went to a cafe down the street from city hall. While there he called Samantha and waited for his Panini.Samantha answered on the second ring, "Hello Dr Miller speaking.""Hey Sam, its Sean, my phone broke so I'm at this number for a few days," Sean said."Oh, well speak of the devil, I just left you a voice message," Samantha said, "I still haven't forgiven you for interfering with my research, but Dr Hanson's started running your samples, the second I got here.""So am I a candidate?" Sean asked, his phone beeped low battery."I said running not ran, Sean, the computer takes a bit," Samantha said.Sean's food arrived then he asked, "why were you expecting my call?""Because your you, and I was just telling my coworker you'd call before the end of the day," she said.He started to eat, then with a maw full he asked, "what do you think my chances of being able to metabolize it are?" "If your going to eat in my ear text me next time, just don't call," she said, "you should be able too but why take something that we can see from labs and tissue samples have no effect on you, will know in a few days if your body would respond with a change in antibody production in the tissue sample.""K, I'm excited about it," Sean said and slurped at his ice tea."That sounds so gross, have you talked to Xander yet?" She asked."No but..." he took a gulp, "my phone broke and I haven't seen him today. I needed to go see that reporter, you remember the one from the night of the hospital, she ended up doing a story on me," Sean said."Ok, I can't handle your eating noises, call when you're done and you should forward your voicemail to this phone," Samantha said then she ended the call.Sean spent the rest of his meal figuring out how to get his voicemail and texts forwarded, the phone buzzed when he finally succeeded. Sadly text forwarding still wasn't an option, he ignored the voicemail's since it was probably the one from Samantha anyway. He read
his email and noticed he had a calendar invite from Xander. He was already late for it. He ran to the cashier to pay and charged off to his office.When he reached the office he checked the location, Xander had schedule it in a fifth floor meeting room. He took the elevator when he reach the fifth he tracked down the meeting room. Xander wasn't there it was full of furs from another department. He panted at the door and croaked out, "Do you know where the black collie that was in here went?"There was the clammer of plumbing working to hard and a thud sound. "What was that!" the head of the meeting asked."Don't know, where did the Collie go?" Sean asked."He left," the head said."Thanks," Sean said, then a septic smell filled the floor.When Sean reached the elevator and main stair well it dripped with toilet backwash."Shit," Sean yelped and ran for the back stair well. He hoped to out pace the septic sludge before gravity and the buildings slight tilt pulled it to and down the remaining stairs.His horrible elevator was great practice for this very situation, he took the stairs three at a time recklessly. As he neared the second floor the ooze started flowing slowly from that level onto the stairs. Soon it would block the entire landing, Sean decided to try and leap it while he still ran. He cried, "Parkour." And lept for it, making it only two thirds over the seeping puddle with a splash of Seattles shame all over his slacks.His shoes squished the rest of the way to the lobby where he found most of the building was emptying out faster than the toilets.He looked around for Xander, then spotted Jessi."Hey Jessi, have you seen Xander?" He yelled over the commotion.The mayor's agitation was clear while he spoke with the facilities manager, "what do you mean the system reached an equilibrium"What was that Sean?" She said."Where's Xander?" Sean asked again."The system flushed all at once when we switched it on, rather than staggering like it should have," the facilities manager said."I think he went home, he said he needed information on channel 5 but it wasn't available," she said."Thanks Jessi, I'll e-mail him," Sean said."I didn't approve the system knowing this could happen," the mayor yelled.Someone jostled him as he half listened to the mayor and typed an e-mail to Xander."When we installed it I told you we needed to know if we were septic, sewer, or a septic system that then flushes to the sewer," the facilities manager said."That assessment would have pushed the project over budget," the mayor said."Well we obviously have some kind of septic tank system, the pressure must have equalized between the flushing and the tank and everything went up the drains," the manager said."Who
puts a septic tank system in a large office complex, in the middle of a damned city," the mayor asked."Why do furs go on reality tv shows?" The manager said."I was being serious you jerk," the mayor said."I wasn't... however, I would like to know the answer," the manager said.Before Sean could hit send on the message, his phone died. Sean's vision tunneled and everything he heard muted, when he remembered the charger was in his desk on the third floor.