Catgirls Can Do It! (Build-A-Catgirl Book 2)

by Simon Archer

  “Hello,” I heard his voice on the other end of the line.

  “Samuel, hello,” I started. I didn’t have time for pleasantries. “This is Clark Watkins. You gave my CG, Kennedi, a glass-blowing lesson at the event last week.”

  “Oh, yes. Hi Clark,” he replied.

  “I don’t mean to be rude, but we have an emergency on our hands. Do you have any nine-inch pieces of nano-glass? We need at least six of them,” I blurted out. Samuel didn’t ask a single question.

  “I’ll check. Hold on,” he said, and I heard him put the phone down. It felt like an eternity before he picked it back up again.

  “Clark?” he made sure I was on the line.

  “Yes,” I said.

  “I have the glass. Some of them are a little longer than nine inches, though,” he told me. I covered the mouthpiece of the phone and whispered to Kennedi.

  “Is longer okay, or do they have to be exact?” I asked her.

  “Longer is fine,” she shot back. I uncovered the phone.

  “Samuel, longer is fine. Where are you?” I grabbed a pen and paper off Leah’s desk.

  “My apartment is right above the old soda shoppe in midtown,” Samuel told me.

  “I will have someone there to pick it up, asap,” I said. “Thank you, Samuel. I’ll be in touch.” I hung up the phone and turned to Kennedi.

  “How far away is he?” She looked even more worried.

  “About ten minutes each way,” I told her, reaching in my pocket for my keys. Macy, who had been standing near Rosie, stepped forward.

  “Hold on, Clark. Charlie is already out. He is on his way here. Let’s find out where he is exactly.” Macy picked up the phone, dialed, and hit the speaker button.

  “Hello,” Charlie answered.

  “Charlie, it’s Macy and Clark. Where are you?”

  “Passing Elm right now. Why?” Charlie answered.

  “We need you to turn around and pick up some nano-glass from Samuel. He lives above the old soda shoppe. Kennedi needs it for Krysta,” Macy spat out.

  “I’ll be there in fifteen minutes with the glass,” Charlie said, and then hung up. His tone was completely even and calm.

  “Good thinking, Macy,” I told her as she stepped back over to Rosie. Leah walked into the room with a basin of water, an armful of towels, a hairbrush, and a change of clothes for Rosie. A silence fell over the room. There wasn’t anything else we could do for Krysta until Charlie got there with the nano-glass. Without saying a word, Kennedi got up, went to Leah and Macy, and the three of them went to work cleaning Rosie up. I walked to Krysta and knelt down beside her.

  “We aren’t going to let you shut down,” I whispered to her.

  Exactly twelve quiet minutes passed before we all heard the door to the apartment burst open. Before I could get up to see who it was, Charlie was at the office doorway, carrying a small, elongated box.

  “Kennedi!” I almost shouted at her. Kennedi jumped up and ran to the door. She snatched the box out of Charlie’s hands and ran around the couch to where Krysta was lying. She set the box on the floor beside her and gently opened it. Inside were the six wires she needed.

  If I had felt like short periods of time stretched into eternity before, they were nothing like the next three minutes. Charlie didn’t say a word. He and I stayed in the doorway to be out of the way. Kennedi had unsheathed one of her claws and started working in Krysta’s back. Macy joined her at the edge of the couch. When it was time to splice the new wires, Macy gently picked them up, one-by-one, and handed them to Kennedi. I’d never seen Kennedi work so fast. Then, suddenly, she was done. She looked up at me with anxiety in her eyes.

  “How do we wake her up?” My gut felt heavy.

  “She’ll have to spark herself awake,” Kennedi said softly. “I’ve closed her spinal column as much as possible, but she won’t be able to heal until her processes fire up again. I can only hope her pain receptors don’t initiate right away.”

  “What if she can’t spark?” I didn’t want to ask, but I was sure everyone in the room wanted the answer.

  “After a period of time, her core processor will shut down permanently,” Kennedi started. “I’m hoping that the energy Rosie put into her will be enough. We’ll know soon.”

  “Can I help?” a weak, mild voice said. All of our heads snapped around to find the sound. Rosie was propped up on one elbow, gazing at Kennedi. Leah, who was sitting on the floor in front of her, jumped. She’d been watching Krysta so intently that she hadn’t heard Rosie move on the couch behind her. We all just stared at Rosie. Then Kennedi looked at me and back to Rosie.

  “Yes,” Kennedi said, to most of our surprise.

  “Kennedi,” Leah started to caution her, but when she saw the steely glint in Kennedi’s eyes, she chose not to finish her objection.

  Rosie started to push herself up on her arms further, in an attempt to get up, but she was having trouble. A few strides across the room and I was at her side. I lifted her to her feet and held on to her while she walked unsteadily over to Krysta. Macy stood up, and Rosie kneeled in her place, and I sat on the floor behind her.

  She looked so different from when we’d brought her through the front door. Leah had washed and dressed her while she was passed out, and while she still looked frail and weak, she didn’t look damaged. Rosie put one of her hands on Krysta’s sacrum, and the other on the back of her neck, just above her nano-cord port. You could have heard a pin drop in that office while we all watched her. For several minutes, nothing happened. Then I saw that Rosie was starting to wobble. I started to reach for her to help steady her, but Kennedi grabbed my arms.

  “You can’t touch her,” she whispered.

  “Why the hell not?” I was sure Rosie was going to collapse again at any minute.

  “She is sending an electrical current into Krysta’s nano-cord. If you touch her, you’ll redirect the current,” Kennedi explained. I put my arms down and nodded. Then I stood up. I couldn’t take sitting still and waiting any longer, so I started to pace, never taking my eyes off Krysta.

  “Look!” Macy suddenly whispered loudly. She pointed to the top part of the incision on Krysta’s neck. It was slowly closing. The bones were adhering back together, and the muscle tissue, and skin, were healing over the bone. A quiet excitement spread through the room.

  I looked at Rosie. She was watching the healing take place, and for the first time, she started to smile just a little. When all the bones in Krysta’s back had fused back together, Kennedi waited just long enough for the skin to close over them before looking over at Rosie.

  “We should turn her over,” she said softly.

  Rosie nodded in agreement. She took her hands off Krysta and started to scoot back so that Macy could help Kennedi. I saw Rosie’s head roll back as she tried to move and darted forward to catch her as she collapsed once more. I picked her up, and took her back to the couch she was on earlier, and gently laid her down while Kennedi and Macy turned Krysta over. I sat on the edge of the couch, next to Rosie. Leah had joined Charlie in the doorway. Macy and Kennedi held perfectly still, watching Krysta. It felt like everyone in the room was holding their breath. Then it happened. Krysta blinked.

  It took another fifteen minutes for all of Krysta’s programs to reboot and start functioning properly. The last to reconfigure was her speech abilities.

  When she was finally able to talk, she sat up and said, “Hi.”

  The word sounded so ridiculous after the day we’d all had working to save her, that everyone in the room started laughing. Leah started crying along with her laughter. The girls took turns hugging Krysta and looking her over.

  “Krysta,” Kennedi said to her. “I need you to know that moving around too much is not something you can do right now. You have spliced wires in your nano-cord.” Krysta took a second to process what that meant, then nodded her head to acknowledge Kennedi. Something occurred to me just then.

  “Krysta, you cannot update,” I told her
.

  “Why not?” She wasn’t questioning my order, but as a CG, she needed a logical reason to pause updates. It was a feature that Omnicorp installed to make sure their CGs would continually give them a pathway into their systems. Now that her nano-wires had been replaced, she still had her modification programming, but she no longer had the communications block that was accomplished by cracking one of her nano-wires.

  “You may cause an incorrect energy redirection if you update,” Kennedi interjected.

  “I will not update for seventy-two hours, in that case,” Krysta responded. She looked down at her hands for a moment and then back at Kennedi. “I felt an energy flow into my hands when I was unable to communicate with you. It was what kept my core processor from attempting to reboot. What was it?”

  Kennedi, Leah, and Macy were kneeling in front of Krysta. All three of them slowly moved to the side so that Krysta could see the couch where Rosie was lying, still unconscious.

  “This is Rosie,” I told Krysta, motioning to the still cat girl beside me. “She is able to redirect electrical energy somehow, and she redirected all of hers into you.”

  Krysta gazed at Rosie with gratitude in her eyes. “Is she ok?” Krysta started to get up, but Kennedi gently put a hand on her leg to remind her that she wasn’t to move.

  “She seems to be able to recharge herself,” I said. “She’ll most likely wake up here in just a while.”

  “Where did she come from?” Krysta sounded confused.

  “She lifted you out from behind a dumpster when we were looking for you,” I told her. “We don’t know anything other than that.” Something in what I’d said made Krysta’s eyes widen.

  “The dumpster!” she said. “The people who attacked me at the store!” None of us had asked her about that yet, for fear of her getting too excited.

  “You have to stay calm, Krysta,” Kennedi reminded her. Krysta looked at her.

  “But you know him!” Krysta almost shouted. My blood ran cold while I waited for her to tell us who ‘he’ was. “He asked me to call him Jag. He said that is what everyone calls him.”

  “Krysta, we don’t know a Jag,” I said calmly. I glanced up at Charlie. He had a file in his hand that he waved at me.

  “But you met him at Leah’s community event,” Krysta blurted out. She was starting to sound frustrated.

  “We met a lot of people at that event,” Kennedi told her quietly. “We visited every booth that was there.”

  “Oh, he wasn’t in a booth,” Krysta looked at me. “It was the man you were so worried about me talking to, Clark.” I thought back to the event. I remembered quizzing Krysta about the man who spoke with her on his way out of the tent.

  “Holy fuck!” I yelled. I looked at Charlie. “That was Trevor.” It took a moment for Charlie to process what I’d told him. He started shaking his head.

  “There’s no way Abe would bring someone like the person who did all this, around,” he said, almost to himself.

  “What wouldn’t Abe do?” said a voice behind Charlie. It was Theo. He was standing in the hallway with Ellie and Bev. Ellie pushed her way through and ran to Krysta’s side.

  Charlie put a hand on Theo’s shoulder and said, “Krysta just told us that Trevor is the one who attacked her. He’s going by the name Jag.”

  “That guy never sat right with me,” Theo spat out.

  “Me either,” I agreed. “But I don’t think Abe knows anything about him doubling as this Jag guy.” My anger for what had happened to Krysta was suddenly compounded by the knowledge that Trevor had been near the people I loved. He had attended the house-raising AFTER Krysta had been taken. I was shaking with rage when I looked at Krysta.

  “Do you know where he took you?” I tried to steady my voice.

  “I’m sorry, I don’t,” Krysta looked down at the floor.

  “It’s okay, don’t apologize,” I told her. “We are just happy you are back with us.” I forced a smile for Krysta’s sake. Then I felt a hand on my arm and turned to look.

  Rosie had propped herself up once again.

  “I don’t know who it was who dumped Krysta in the alley,” she started. “But I do know what she was driving.” I was about to ask her for details when Bev pushed her way into the room.

  “Let me guess,” she said with fury in her voice. “The person who dropped her in the alley was a purple-haired cat girl?” We all stared at Bev, then looked to Rosie for confirmation.

  “Yes, it was,” Rosie said.

  “How the hell did you know that?” I asked Bev.

  “I saw Trevor with one at the event,” she started. “I didn’t know who he was but recognized him at the house-raising. Now that I think about it, I saw him move to the corner of the stage seating area. I thought it was because those were the chairs that were empty, but it is more likely because he could hear your table better. You were set up right next to where he, and his cat girl, moved to. I saw them get in some sort of disagreement, and then he went to the tent. I lost track of him after that.”

  “Okay, okay, everyone,” Ellie’s stern voice raised up. “Look, we all want to discern what happened. Hell, I’m feeling a little murderous myself right now. However, we have two girls here who don’t need the stress and drama of us figuring out whodunnit and why. We’ll have time to do that after we know both of them are safe, functioning as well as possible, and we are all rested.” Ellie stood up.

  “But, Ellie…” Krysta started to protest.

  “No, Krysta,” Ellie said sternly. “The lot of us are trying to put all the pieces together in this room, right now, after a day like today… it will not be productive.” Ellie turned to Leah. “Can Krysta and I stay here tonight? I don’t think she should be moved back to the house yet.”

  “Of course. The spare room is yours,” Leah agreed.

  Krysta straightened herself up. “I’m not staying, or going, anywhere without Rosie,” she said commandingly.

  We all looked at Rosie, who immediately put her head down and looked at the floor. Leah was quick to respond.

  “Of course, Rosie can stay.” Leah walked over, knelt down, and took both of Rosie’s hands in her own. “We’d love for you to stay with us. You’ll be safe here. Will you stay?”

  Rosie glanced between Leah and Krysta. “Yes,” she said in that tiny whisper of hers.

  “Alright then,” Ellie chimed in again. “Everyone needs to disperse. I’m going to take Krysta and Rosie to the guest room. I’ll set them up so they can heal and recharge. We can all convene tomorrow to get more details and decide what the hell to do about Trevor.”

  I was used to Ellie being directive, but this was a new level for her. Under her commanding exterior, however, I could see the concern in her eyes when she looked at Krysta.

  “Clark,” Charlie said as we started filing out of Leah’s office. “I have to show you something. Can you stay for a drink?”

  “Absolutely,” I told him. A drink after a day like that sounded better than good. I turned to Theo as he walked Bev back into the living room, toward the door. “Do you want to stay for a drink? Charlie has something to show me.” Theo patted me on the back without breaking stride.

  “I’m going to get Bev home,” he answered. “We’ll have breakfast in the morning to go over things.”

  “You’ve got it,” I told him. “Good night, Bev,” I hollered past Theo. She turned her head and smiled at me. Her eyes were still red from the worried tears she’d shed for Krysta.

  “Good night, Clark.” A moment later, she and Theo were gone. I looked behind me and saw the girls helping Krysta, and Rosie, to the guest room. Rosie was holding Krysta’s hand again. I don’t know how Rosie ended up where she did, nor what happened for her to be in such bad condition, but regardless of her experiences, she had an undeniably selfless heart.

  “Come on, Clark,” Charlie said, patting me on the shoulder.

  I shook my head to bring my focus back. Charlie and I walked to his living room and headed for
a set of leather loungers that faced the floor-to-ceiling windows that overlooked the city of Elko. He stopped at his bar to pour two glasses of whiskey and then joined me. We sat down, and both of us took a deep breath. Charlie handed me the file he’d been holding onto since he’d arrived at the apartment.

  I took it from him and flipped open the cover. It was a legal case file, including court transcripts, from the Omnicorp vs. Alan Graves and Henry Blackwell case.

  “What am I looking for in here?” I flipped through a few pages.

  “It has the details about this Jag guy,” Charlie said. “He is an undercover enforcer-type for Omnicorp. Apparently, the law has been trying to get their hands on him for a while in an attempt to both take him down and add a stain to Omnicorp’s official record.

  “What would he be doing here, though?” I couldn’t wrap my head around how kidnapping and trying to ruin Krysta would help Jag’s Omnicorp quest.

  “No doubt they set him on your trail after you revealed Omni’s less-than-legal practices with data mining, and the Platform,” Charlie started. “What do you have going on now that Omni would be particularly interested in stopping?”

  “Currently, just the modifications,” I said. “Trevor popped up before our meeting with Isamu Sato about the nano-glass contract.” I thought for a moment longer. “Other than Omni wanting us to shut down so they can go back to selling more cat girls, I don’t see the connection.” Charlie remained silent while I flipped through more of the file. Something caught my eye, and I took a moment to read one of the pages. I looked up at Charlie.

  “What do you see?” He leaned forward in his chair.

  “I see Belavi, VGS, and UsForThem, listed in this file,” I said slowly. “In one of the interviews Alan did, he talked about all three entities being tied together with the intent of disrupting Omnicorp’s monopoly on the cat girl industry.”

  “Who was present for that interview? I didn’t see that,” Charlie commented.

  “The interview was given to a reporter by the name of L. Callis.” Charlie and I looked up at each other.