The sewer grate was a heavy, rusted circle of iron, a manhole cover to a very literal, and deeply unpleasant, hell.
It took the combined strength of Leo and his two silent, stone-faced escorts to pry it open.
They emerged into a dark, narrow alley, the rain a sudden, violent, and surprisingly welcome shock after the stagnant, foul air of the tunnels below.
"Okay, so, just for the record," Leo's voice whispered over their private, short-range comms, his tone a high-pitched, frantic buzz that was almost lost in the howl of the wind. "I would like to state that I am officially retiring from the sewer-crawling portion of my career."
"It's not for me."
"I'm more of a 'stay indoors and complain about the Wi-Fi' kind of revolutionary."
"I think I'll be putting that on my resume."
The two climbers didn't say a word.
They were already moving, their dark forms melting into the deeper shadows at the base of the Cross Corp tower.
