The sound of his breath was particularly jarring in the quiet corridor, carrying a strong sense of hostility.
Carlo stopped, glanced at Patch's hunched back, and took a bite of his pie. "Alright, alright, stop acting like this every time you see me. It's not like I haven't fed you before."
Patch remained unmoved, its tail held upright, and it exhaled again.
Isaac looked at Patch, then at Carlo, making sure the hostility was clearly directed at Carlo: "Boss, it doesn't seem to like you. You, uh, did you do something to it?"
"I don't have any weird quirks, what could I possibly do to it?" Carlo stuffed the rest of the pie into his mouth and chewed. "At most, I'd use it to wipe my hands, or ruffle its fur when it's been groomed."
Isaac thought to himself, "Well, he deserves it. If it were me, I would have done the same."
After finishing the pie, Carlo clapped his hands, noticing the grease stains still on them, and then looked at Patch: "Come on, Patch, let me groom you."
Patch's tail snapped open even wider, and he twisted his body, trying to escape between Hakimi's legs. His movements were so agile that they were far beyond what ordinary people could catch, making it difficult for Hakimi to dodge him.
But Carlo was faster; he bent down, reached out, and scooped it up from the ground.
Patch unfortunately fell into the clutches of evil. Carlo held it up with one hand, and it let out a series of dissatisfied cries, kicking its four paws a few times. But Carlo had already used a gentle, soothing motion to wipe the oil off his hands.
"Boss, are you sure everything's okay?"
"What could be wrong? I wiped my hands, its fur was stroked, and it even smelled nice."
"What I mean is, won't Patch get dirty like this? All the oil will get on its fur."
"It's bound to get dirty eventually, and I'm not responsible for Patch's hygiene anyway. Parker will bathe it."
"Is Patch the son of Chief Patrick?"
"Isn't it obvious? Patch and Parker, they sound like they're very close."
Isaac smirked as he watched Patch being held in Carlo's hand. Although Patch was still panting, it didn't seem to be reaching out to scratch or bite. " Patch is quite gentle," he said. "Even after all this fuss, it hasn't really made a move."
"That's hard to say." Carlo released his grip, and Patch leaped a few steps the moment it landed, hissed at him again, and ran off with its tail held high. "If you hold it like that, you'll get a few scratches."
"Then why doesn't it catch you?"
"Because it knows I'll retaliate. It breathes at me to express its displeasure, but it won't attack me for such a small thing. If it really pisses me off, I'll tie all its fur into knots."
Isaac was speechless. It seemed that Patch, like everyone else in the Joint Investigation Bureau, held Carlo in a kind of, well, awe.
"Also, about the clothing store, I just mentioned it to someone in the cafeteria," Carlo said. "An agent will be sent this afternoon to question them and go through the filing process. You'll go with that person, and pick up your clothes on the way."
"Should I go directly with that agent?"
"Do I really have to go there myself again? I have other things to do this afternoon."
Under normal circumstances, Isaac would guess that other things were preparations for tomorrow's operation, but as for Carlo, Isaac felt there was no need to overthink it; who knew what that guy was planning to do that afternoon.
Isaac agreed. Carlo took a couple of steps toward the office and added, "By the way, go to the cafeteria now. You should be able to see the agent who's in charge of this afternoon's case, Andrew Grayson. He's a big, bearded man; he should be easy to recognize, since he has the thickest beard in the entire Joint Investigation Bureau. You can go and say hello to him."
Isaac walked towards the cafeteria. The peak dining hours had passed, and only a few tables were occupied. His gaze swept across the area and quickly locked onto the person Carlo had described.
A tall man with a large beard covering half his face was eating a plate of stewed potatoes and meat.
Isaac thought for a moment, then went to the window to get his food. Carrying the tray, he walked over and said, "Excuse me, sir, may I sit here?"
Grayson glanced up at him, gestured with his chin toward the chair opposite him, then looked down again to continue eating the food on his plate.
Isaac sat down opposite him, picked up his spoon, and was wondering how to "greet" him when Grayson swallowed the food in his mouth and said, "Are you one of the new recruits under Schuster's tutelage?"
This was the first time Isaac had heard Carlo address him as "Section Chief": "Yes, my name is Isaac Lessing."
Grayson glanced at Isaac a few times. "Andrew Grayson, Section Two, Level 1 Agent. Schuster mentioned you to me, saying you'd be going on a mission with me this afternoon."
Isaac thought to himself that Carlo had already taken care of things, and he didn't need to explain further, "I'll be troubling you this afternoon."
Grayson didn't say anything more, quickly finishing the last few potatoes on his plate. "Meet me at the Joint Investigation Bureau entrance at 2 PM."
After he finished speaking, he picked up his plate, stood up, nodded slightly to Isaac, turned and left. Isaac watched him leave, feeling that Grayson's pace seemed a little fast.
He mentally reviewed Grayson's image: not talkative, efficient, and seemingly a pragmatic person who shouldn't be difficult to work with.
After lunch, Isaac returned to the Section Nine office, where Carlo was flipping through a booklet with his legs crossed. "Did you see Grayson?"
"I saw him." Isaac sat down in his seat. "He seemed like a serious person, not very talkative. He gave me the time and place and then left."
"Tsk tsk, don't be fooled by appearances. Grayson looks like a big, quiet guy, which might make you think he's an unapproachable tough guy. But actually..." Carlo closed the booklet and tossed it onto the table, "He's just shy."
"... ah?"
"When you suddenly struck up a conversation with him, he was probably incredibly nervous."
Isaac was somewhat surprised. Grayson, who usually spoke little and gave off a calm and capable impression, was actually shy?
"Is there anything I should be careful about? For example, not being too casual in my speech, or..."
"Just be normal," Carlo waved his hand. "The difference between shyness and aloofness is that the former will try to respond positively, even though they often fail, while the latter will internally think you're crazy. Grayson is the former; just speak normally, and he won't find you offensive, he'll just feel like he didn't respond well."
Isaac understood. "I understand."
A few minutes before 2 p. m., Isaac walked out of the Joint Investigation Bureau building and saw Grayson already waiting at the door.
Grayson had changed into casual clothes and was smoking a pipe. When he saw Isaac come out, Grayson took the pipe away from his mouth, shook off the ash, and stuffed it into his pocket.
"Let's go," Grayson said briefly, walking towards the street, with Isaac following behind.
Grayson didn't say much along the way, but thanks to Carlo's earlier suggestion, Isaac observed carefully and noticed that Grayson seemed to want to say something but hesitated at each intersection.
... It seems she's genuinely shy and hesitant to speak up.