by M. A. Owens
She nodded, still playing with her bracelet. Far less eye contact than usual. Too much playing with jewelry. She’s nervous. I guess that’s normal, but her body language doesn’t match her confident words.
“Not just that, but he wanted to abandon his empire, something he built against all odds, and go legit. Can you believe that, here in Adria? Without the power to trample those around you, you’re just asking to be trampled yourself. What would that mean for me, and my future? A lifetime of everyone Daddy wronged going after me to get to him, and him not having the power to stop them anymore? Dogs and cats in this city don’t just forgive and forget, Trigger. You know that’s true as much as anyone.”
“So, it was him who wanted to turn legit, and you who wanted to maintain the status quo. But he was still at the top of his game. Still too hard to trick. Too smart for everyone who came after him, you included. You needed help.”
She smiled, and it almost looked genuine. “I must’ve been the luckiest of all cats. Still am, but we’ll get to that. An ace detective fell right into my trap, and all I had to do was bat these pretty green eyes at him and he never questioned a thing.”
“It wasn’t your green eyes, Sugarplum…”
She stopped smiling and wavered for a moment, playing with her bracelet again. She’d rehearsed this speech, and I just nudged her off script.
“I’d have never done it without you and your oh-so-clever partner. What was his name? Rico? No… Rick.”
I clenched my paw into a fist. “Rick’s out of the game. Leave him alone. He’s no threat to you anymore.”
She tilted her head. “Do you think I’m stupid enough to believe that? He’s the only one in the whole city who is a bigger threat than you… well, and maybe that alley cat standing beside you. Like you, they’re slow learners. They can’t seem to understand when they’ve lost, and that makes them dangerous. No, Rico’s been dealt with already. I’m not having that sword hanging over my head.”
“So help me, if Saint sent Saul after him—” I growled.
“Oh, cool off Trigger. Killing him would draw too much attention. I tipped off the police, and he’s been sent to the deepest prison along with, you guessed it, Daddy! Pending a trial, of course, that he probably won’t live long enough to see. I thought Daddy must be getting bored down there, so why not send him a gift? What better gift than his old arch-nemesis? Unless you’d like to make a deal.”
“So, Saint’s offering me one last deal, huh?”
She took off her bracelet, spinning it in her paw. “Correct. Saint just used his power as Adria District representative to revoke your license as a private investigator. What you’re doing here is all sorts of illegal, and you’re going after a sitting representative. Turn yourself in, and we’ll stop going after your friends. You can be reunited with your friend Rick. Consider this final offer. Please…” Something in her eyes shifted. Looked genuine. Desperate.
Just then, I heard a ping on the floor, and saw the bracelet come rolling toward me, stopping at my foot and falling flat. I reached down and picked it up, and held it back out toward her, when I noticed something, just barely, in the morning sun that came in just right through the floor to ceiling windows that lined one side of the room.
An inscription?
Inside the bracelet, there were three sentences. I’m so sorry. I can’t get out. We must stop Saul.
Oh, Sugarplum…
Kerdy’s voice startled me.
“Enough big talk, and deals, and empty promises! Come out, Saul. I know you’re here!” she shouted.
For a moment, no one moved, and the room fell silent. I used that opportunity to slide the bracelet into my pocket. Then, the door behind Sugarplum opened, and out walked Saul. There was no mistaking it. The cat stood out like a sore claw, just like Kerdy did. He wasn’t a giant, but much bigger than the average cat. His fur was a clean, but unkempt, dull gray. He wore a brown duster jacket, even in all this heat, and wore a black eye patch across his right eye. Blind in one eye. Likely the only thing we had in common.
“At last, the coward finally shows himself,” Kerdy said, taking a step forward.
Sugarplum raised a paw. “I asked you not to get involved unless I needed you, Saul. Please go back and wait for me to finish. They’re not a threat to me.”
Kerdy shook her head, taking another step forward. “Oh, that’s not how this works, pretty kitty. Saul will leave with me, whether I have to go through these guards, or whether I need to goad him by hurting you. He’s coming, and he’s coming dead, or alive. That’s the only choice he has in the matter.”
Saul spoke for the first time, in a slow, deep and scratchy voice matching his appearance.
“You hate me that much, Kerdy? Why? For doing what you and the others are too afraid to?”
“You know the rules. We can’t interfere. They have to make their own mistakes and grow on their own terms. We can’t force them.”
“But it was our people they treated like their punching bags, their personal garbage. The dogs here have never paid for that crime. You feel so strongly about law and justice, but only when it suits you. We all know the stories. We trusted the dogs here to welcome our people to a new, safer life, and what did they get? They traded one nightmare for another. This city only existed because we protected it. Every cat should have had their eternal gratitude, not their contempt.”
“Times have changed,” I said. “We’re getting along better now. It’s working. Mr. B was right. Taking this path is going to set us back generations and have us hating each other again.”
Saul nodded, pacing behind Sugarplum. “I believe you… but does a murderer go free because he later regrets it? No, punishment cannot be escaped, and I am here to deliver that punishment on behalf of the only one in this city who has the vision and guts to ask it of me. It’s a miracle that Beagle survived, but you won’t be so lucky.”
Saul quickly drew his weapon from under his coat. So much for talking our way out of here.
A shot rang out, not nearly as loud as I expected, and sent splinters flying from impacting the floor in front of me. Sugarplum had grabbed his gun and was hanging from it.
“You said you wouldn’t kill him!” she said.
He kicked her, and she fell against the wall. “I’m changing the plan. I’m sure Saint won’t mind.”
Kerdy ran by the two guards closest to her, knocking them out in one blinding punch each as she passed, standing in front of Saul before he could react. He pointed the gun at her, but she moved in close to him, ducking out of the radius, the blast shattering the window behind her. He tried to grab her with his other paw, but she grabbed his wrist first, stepping into an elbow to his throat. He staggered backward, catching himself on the wall and sucking in a desperate gasp for air.
She took another step toward him, drawing one of her blades. But this time he aimed the gun at me. There was nothing to stop him, as the guards stood around looking just as stunned as I was, too afraid to take a step in any direction for fear of getting caught in an unintentional blast. No time to dodge. Nothing for cover. It was the end of the line for me. Instinctively, I held up my arms. Kerdy had him, at least. Aiming that gun at me, he’d have no way to defend against her. At the very least, my last case would be a success. Saul killed or captured. Case closed.
Just as it looked like he was about to pull the trigger, Kerdy turned her attention to me, kicking the enormous desk Sugarplum had been sitting at when we walked in, sending pieces flying from the kick, and the deck scraping to a halt between Saul and I. In the same moment, Saul’s trick was revealed. He’d already turned the gun, the moment her kick landed, toward her. She was too fast for him to make the full motion to take a kill shot, but he was willing to settle for less. The blast took off her leg as she threw the knife into his shoulder. He cried out and fell back into the wall, gripping the handle of the blade.
“Get them!” he shouted. The remaining four guards emerged from their stupor and rushed us. Not go
od. Even though I hadn’t seen a drop of blood, Kerdy wouldn’t survive a wound like that, and I couldn’t take on four bodyguards plus Saul in order to get us out of here. But I was certainly going to try.
I pulled out my shock stick, and ran toward the one closest to me, but before I could get to him I saw Kerdy leap toward me, her paw buried in the sack still slung over her shoulder. She landed in front of me, wrapping one arm around me tightly.
“Hold on!” she screamed. I heard another blast, and my body was suddenly pulled like it was the projectile, straight out the shattered window. Kerdy was gripping me tightly with her arm and dug her claws deep into my back, and I gripped her even tighter. She let go of something that looked similar to Saul’s gun, with a rope running from it all the way to the scaffolding that was hanging outside the window of the floor we were on.
Now we were freefalling, as she reached quickly into her sack and pulled out another one, firing it toward the building next to it, causing us to swing in a wide arc which ended with us flying through the window of the first floor, spilling into the lobby to a symphony of screams and gasps. We slid through several tables and chairs before finally sliding to a stop on the other side of the room.
I’d almost blacked out from the fall, and everything in me ached like I’d landed straight down. Blood was oozing from countless wounds caused by the pieces of glass we’d rolled through, but we were alive.
I groaned, and it took me a moment to regain the ability to speak.
“You did it, you crazy cat. I don’t know what it is, or how you did it, but we lived.”
I looked around and found all the onlookers still too stunned to speak or approach us. Kerdy didn’t answer.
“Hey, Kerdy. We need to get moving. Right now.”
Still no answer. I crawled over to her and nudged her. She didn’t stir.
“Oh no. Kerdy!”
15
I grabbed her by the shirt, shook her, and she groaned. Still alive, at least! I looked closely at her leg for the first time. It was some kind of machine, artificial leg. Beyond anything I’d ever seen, but not exactly surprising, given everything I’d learned over the past few days.
She opened her eyes and grabbed my arm. “What are you doing? Leave me and get out of here!”
I looked to the door near where we landed, and for a moment I considered doing just that. I was really going to feel it in the morning, but for now I could move fine. Kerdy was missing a leg and looked a lot more beat up than me. She’d never make it out of here on her own.
I wobbled to my feet, took a deep breath, and struggled for a moment trying to pick her up.
“What? No, you fool!” she shouted. “Run. They’ll catch you carrying me around on your shoulder.”
I ignored everything she said, balancing her on my shoulder, and running back through the broken glass and into the streets. Then the realization hit me harder than the fall.
Any time I got into trouble in Adria, I always had three friends to count on. Rick, who would drop anything to help, and always knew what should happen next. Now he was arrested and there was no way for me to get to him. Sugarplum, who had connections everywhere and resources to spare. She’d gotten herself into something deep, and now that she wanted out, she was no better than a prisoner herself. Then there was Buddy, head of Adria’s police force, now demoted to desk duty. Even Kerdy couldn’t help me now, in the shape she was in. I was truly on my own this time. I had to think of a plan, but there wasn’t time for plans. All I could do was run.
So that’s what I did, weaving through every random alley and side street I could find with no destination in mind, for what must’ve been half an hour. I didn’t stop when I was confident I’d lost them. I stopped when my legs finally gave out, in a dark alley like any other. Kerdy and I leaned against opposite ends of the wall, and sat silent, reflecting on what had happened.
I could tell she was angry, and I understood why. I just got in her way. I’d never seen anyone fight like her, except for maybe Saul… and Lady, come to think of it.
“Bad time, I know, but seeing as how we’re not going anywhere for a while, I gotta ask a question. Why do you fight like Lady?”
She scowled at me, and for a moment I thought that look alone might singe the fur right off my face, but she looked away and sat quietly for another moment.
“I don’t fight like her, Trigger,” she said.
“I don’t know. Looked pretty similar to me, except I think you’re even better. I didn’t think that was possible.”
“She fights like me. I trained her… and Saul, and many others. You really don’t miss anything, do you?”
“Speaking of which...” I pulled the bracelet from my pocket.
“So, she dropped it on purpose. What does it mean?” she asked.
“The meaning is pretty clear, at least,” I said, tossing the bracelet to her.
She caught it, and it didn’t take her long to find the inscription. She studied it for a moment, then sighed. “One day, Trigger, you’re going to find out the hard way that you can’t save everyone. Maybe you should put those who got themselves into their own messes at the bottom of your list.”
“You think I don’t know that? Just because I can’t save everyone doesn’t mean I shouldn’t try.”
Kerdy nodded but didn’t answer.
“Wait, you’re here to save Saul, aren’t you?”
Again, no answer. A few more minutes passed in silence before Kerdy finally spoke again.
“I have a replacement machine leg here in the city, but I’ll need a safe place to attach it. Thankfully, the mounting system is undamaged, so it should only take a few minutes. Ideally, we’d have someone to retrieve it for us.”
“Yeah, well, good luck with that. All my friends are unavailable at the moment.”
Kerdy opened her mouth to speak, but the sound of distant voices stopped her. She put her paw in front of her lips to shush me, pointing to the end of the alley. She reached into her bag and pulled out a knife, sliding it over to me, nodding toward it. Not my favorite weapon, but if it’s either them or me…
“Somebody said they came through here earlier,” one voice said.
“Keep looking. Saint says he doesn’t want loose ends with these two,” said a second voice.
I crawled over behind a small trash can, but there was nowhere for Kerdy to hide. Maybe she could work as bait and I could get behind them. Not sure we had any other option. We couldn’t fight in the open, and we couldn’t run. I peered through the tiny gap between the trash can and the wall, and waited.
Two cats stepped into the alley.
“Well well…” the white one said, clapping his paws together. “Look who we have here. The little monster they warned us about doesn’t look so dangerous anymore.”
The gray one laughed. “I didn’t think she looked that dangerous in the first place, but Saint warned us not to give her any chances, so how about we follow orders?”
The white cat shrugged. “What? Can’t even gloat a little anymore? Fine, grab her and let’s go. We’ll take care of her somewhere less… open air.”
The gray one nodded, and took a step toward Kerdy, to which she responded with a loud, guttural hiss. He froze instinctively.
“Umm… how about you come get her?” he said, keeping his eyes locked on Kerdy.
“Oh, come on. Look at her. She’s half-dead and missing a leg. Just get her and let’s go,” said the white cat.
“You didn’t bring enough soldiers, house cat…” Kerdy said, licking her lips. “Do what he said and come get me. I can’t wait for you to get within reach.”
He took another step forward, and she growled. It was such a deep and resonant growl that even I felt afraid. I’d never heard a cat from the city make a sound like that before.
“Okay, I’m not doing this by myself. Let’s both do it, alright?”
There wasn’t an answer, and when I looked further down the alley to see why, I saw the white cat being dro
pped to the ground by a much larger figure who had just choked him out. The gray cat was too scared to take his eyes off Kerdy to even notice, and Kerdy’s growl had masked any noises he might’ve made. She must’ve seen what was happening before I did.
Another large figure stepped around them and made his way toward the gray cat. This time, I could see him clearly. It was Brutus!
He tapped on the gray cat’s shoulder, and when he turned, expecting to see his friend, he got a knuckle sandwich so hard it almost made me feel sorry for him. He crumbled into a neat pile on the ground without even knowing what hit him. Probably wouldn’t remember who his parents were when he woke up.
The other dog dragged the white cat against the wall, and stepped toward us, and into better light.
“Brutus, Buddy, am I ever glad to see you two,” I said, stepping out from behind the trash can.
“Ah, I knew it!” Buddy said to Brutus. “I told you if we followed those cats long enough, they’d lead us straight to Trigger.”
“You tried to tell me. You’re the former detective, of course. Suppose I should’ve listened,” Brutus said, grinning from ear to ear.
“Wait, former?” I asked, looking to Buddy.
Buddy held up his paw, reached down to drag one of the cats, then grabbed the other cat and disappeared out of the alley a moment before returning.
“Sorry, didn’t want them maybe waking up and listening in. Yeah, I turned in my badge and baton yesterday as politely as I could manage. Officially retired. Playing the long game is for dogs like Patches and Petey, with a lot more patience than me. I don’t have the stomach for it,” he said, spitting on the ground.
“Either way, I’m glad you’re here,” I said. “But we better get out of here. Got a place we can regroup for a day or two?”
Brutus nodded. “You can use my old gym as your base for whatever you need here. Anything you need, and I’ll get it for you, but I must be careful. Saint’s new police stooges will watch everyone carefully. If they see me bring a lot of supplies into an old building, they’re going to go in.”
