Mite Xu
Surumiru ran into the machine shop of the ministry of urban development, soaking wet. "It's no use!" He shouted. "We've redirected the flow from districts one through four, seven, and nine, but the third stage pump house is completely flooded. We tried to clear the control room and flush into the retaining tank, but the second stage pump house has failed. This rain came at the worst possible time; the entire treatment system is going to be septic within the hour!”
Workers on the floor immediately began to panic, mechanics and foremen shouting at each other in terror.
“We'll have to isolate the treatment system. Seal the bulkheads!”
“No, first we need to inform the people that the water is unsafe, before an epidemic spreads.”
“Seal the gutters! Fill them with sandbags and redirect the water through the streets!”
“No, fill out a petition to the Circle to have the weather broken with sorcery!”
A booming sound filled the room, and all discussion stopped. On the second floor of the machine shop, Mite Xu's office door had flown open. Surumiru gasped, “The bear!”
The amalgam stepped out onto the catwalk, his wild eyes surveying the room like a hunter overlooking a herd of gazelle. He had an immense mane of thick black hair, merging with a bushy beard with streaks of gray. Tall and thick as an oak tree, his bare forearms were covered in black hair as thick as boar bristles. As he stepped out in his thick leather overalls, he reached up beside the door for his tool: a wrench four feet long with a shaft that was as thick as a strong man's calf.
He paused at the edge of the catwalk and bellowed, “Hysteria is for bureaucrats and new fathers, not the august ministry of public works! Direct all of your efforts to repairing the second stage pump house. Go!”
Surumiru, from the open door, shouted up, “But we'll never be able to bring the third stage online in time; it'll take hours to empty the control room...”
“I will go to the third stage.” He leaped down to the workroom floor and swung the wrench up onto his shoulder. “I'll be damned if I let a little water ruin three months of our work without a fight! Mite Xu is not afraid of taking a swim.”
