City of Decay: The Cleaner | MxM

Chapter 12: An Annoying Apprentice

"The Duke of all people, hm?", I mumble under my breath and shoot a glance at Thomas who, upon arriving at the station with the rookie in tow, gave me the files of today's crime scene.

"Didn't know this city has a duke," I hear Andrew chime in, lazily flipping through his staple of pages. He is expecting me to read everything and just advise him during the job. I don't really care enough to correct him in his assumption. He'll learn the hard way.

"He's not a Duke," Thomas starts to explain, "his last name is Duke. But he is a very special fellow and adamant to be addressed as Duke. Like a Duke, not Mr. Duke."

"What if I don't?" Stupid question.

"You'll see," I answer absent-mindedly while still going through the file. "He hasn't learned a thing since our last job, it seems." I look up at Thomas and he shakes his head, almost as if to apologize on the Duke's behalf.

I know I said I'd rather run than take on another dangerous job, such as highly dangerous and carnivorous plants or animal enclosures – but I can't, can I now? There's this pride I feel yet again. I can't possibly pass on a job when I take the rookie with me.

With any other rookie maybe, but not with this one. I'd hear about it till the end of my days. And I pretty much don't want to hear anything from Andrew in general.

He doesn't seem to be too happy with my answer, but at least he knows better than to keep me from reading through the file. After all, he still expects me to autopilot him. Rookies are a weird thing at jobs like these. We know how hard our work is and how extremely exhausting every single crime scene can be.

We're aware of the toll it could take on us mentally and physically, so most of the cleaners are a little too soft when it comes to rookies. But some take no shit from rookies, it's the only people Andrew has yet to work with. I guess it's my turn because I probably won't go too hard on him compared to the others that are left. I'm the one step he has to make before he gets confronted with the really ugly side of this job.

I hand the file back to Thomas and grab my trusty suitcase, "Let's go. This will be yet another awful long job." With that I turn on my heels and so does Thomas, the rookie just follows.

We don't get far though, then Andrew voices up.

"So you have worked at the Duke's before?"

"Yes," I answer, but I don't really want to elaborate. Knowing the rookie, he'll ask what he's interested in, and I am proven right.

"What was the previous job?"

"Cleaning up a crime scene."

"Helpful as always..." he pouts yet again, and I can tell he is as annoyed as I am.

"You do have the file, reading up on it might help to answer your question."

"What's the point, you have it all memorized, haven't you? It's kind of useless if we both focus on planning. One should do the planning, the other the hard work."

"Mhm..." Right. Planning is probably harder than just cleaning, but I bite my tongue and change the topic.

"Say," Now it's my turn to ask, "What have you worked with so far?"

"Do you ever listen when I tell everyone about my work day?"

"No."

"That... was unexpected." I hear his boasted but hurt ego drip from his words – we're officially off to a good start.

Did I just shut him up? I guess someone so full of themselves doesn't expect others to just not care. And since I know how much he blows his experiences out of proportion when re-telling them, I don't care to listen. The little information I could gather from it is more work than it's worth.