Chapter Seventeen
The Basement
An hour later, recovered enough to try the first store again, I get more cash from where it’s hidden in my luggage, then walk the blocks to the dispensary. The temperature has been steadily dropping, and I’m hoping the cold will have driven off any folks prone to loitering.
Sure enough, there is a little more street traffic when I get there, but no one is standing idle or hovercrafting around. This time, I go right into a spacious lobby, which is empty. Further in, a woman with a soft voice and a headset greets me and the three women who enter behind me. There are no dark wood enclosures here. Light floods in through the storefront glass, and the walls are white, tossing the light around. The woman, dressed all in black like a restaurant hostess, checks ou
