‘We can’t give away all our secrets,’ the first Guardsman told him. ‘Suffice it to say that as well trained as you are by whatever you cats do, you don’t make a very convincing Elite Guard.’
‘And,’ added the second, obviously gloating, ‘your makeup really isn’t up to par.’
Myajes couldn’t believe it. He had checked the makeup more than a dozen times on his way here and they had still seen through it. It was the best disguise he’d ever worn; it was perfect in every detail, and yet they had seen through it. To the guardsman he simply said, ‘You’re worse than a sniffer dog.’
13
Sult
It was just after four in the afternoon as Jhosatl waited in his car for Judith to arrive. He had wanted to get round to Sult’s apartment sometime in the early evening rather than the afternoon, but Judith had insisted that walking around back streets was going to be dangerous enough as it was. If they waited until dark, then anyone who saw them might get suspicious.
Jhosatl breathed a sigh of relief when he saw Judith approaching the car alone. It was true that she was a good friend and had apparently known Jhosatl’s true species for quite a while, but she was still a human. He realized he thought of her as human and not herd; she wasn’t a potential meal. However, just because he felt strongly about their friendship didn’t mean that she did, and he had feared she might have had a few unexpected guests waiting for him—soldiers ready to take him into custody or shoot him down on the spot. He didn’t really think Judith would do that to him. Had he even thought it to be slightly likely, he wouldn’t have been here now. Except perhaps that he was willing to risk everything for even the smallest of chances to save his wife. Nevertheless he had been nervous that he might be wrong about Judith and was glad when she proved to be true.
‘He knows we’re on our way,’ Judith said as she climbed into the passenger seat beside him. Well, if she was going to be brave enough to be in the same car as a potentially dangerous wild Herbaht, then he wasn’t going to think any more on the possibility that she might betray him. ‘I gave him a call to warn him to expect us, but I didn’t say why. I don’t really trust the links, and anyway, I thought you might want to tell him about certain things yourself.’
Jhosatl didn’t like the idea. According to Judith, Sult had once been an Elite Guard, and that took a certain type of mentality—the type of mentality that didn’t go well with helping his kind. However, he needed Sult’s help if he would give it; he needed Sult’s connections. He owed it to Sult to clear the air by telling him what he really was first.
For different reasons, the journey to Sult’s apartment block was both too long and too short. It was too long because his wife was in danger and every passing second might spell her death. It was too short because he wasn’t sure he could trust Sult and feared what he would have to tell him. As it was, he let Judith lead the way into the apartment block’s communal lobby. He had been thinking that Judith was the very epitome of bravery until he saw how she seemed to be reacting in the lobby.
Judith was looking around herself constantly. She was taking in everything as if the pictures on the walls were alive or maybe the potted plants in the corners were hiding figures she couldn’t see. She seemed to be suddenly filled with nerves as she called the elevator.
Jhosatl could tell by the scents wafting in on the air conditioning that there were only the two of them there, yet Judith was acting as if she felt that they were being watched. Perhaps it was guilt. Assisting a Herbaht was a criminal offense, and though the sentence wouldn’t be as harsh for her as it would for him, it would still mean jail time. Anyone seeing them gathering together tonight couldn’t possibly know what they were meeting for, but when you feel guilty you feel as if everyone seems to know what you’re up to.
Judith did seem a little relieved to be out of the lobby, but she still seemed to be worried at being alone in the elevator with Jhosatl. Had he wanted to, he could have killed her easily yesterday, or he might have taken her elsewhere in the car to kill her at his leisure. She had to know he was safe to be with. Under the circumstances, the best thing he felt he could do was give her as much space as he could in the cramped elevator and smile at her warmly. Fortunately they wouldn’t be in the elevator all that long; this was a Supralift elevator.
When they arrived at Sult’s door, Judith gave it a quick rap with her knuckles. Then they waited. There was a mini-camera hidden somewhere in the framework of the door. This was common for most homes these days, when anyone calling might turn out to be a Herbaht in disguise. If people didn’t recognize you they probably wouldn’t bother with you at all. They might, if you were lucky, be willing to talk to you via an intercom. Those who had once made a living by selling from door to door had found their job that much harder as a result, though it hadn’t stopped them trying.
The door opened quicker than Jhosatl had expected, and Sult let them in. Well, he had been expecting them, and he must’ve known they wouldn’t be too late, for the same reason Judith hadn’t wanted to wait until after nightfall. Jhosatl was just glad that they hadn’t been left standing out in the corridor longer than necessary, giving the local residents something to gossip about.
The hallway in which they now stood led quickly through a number of other doors. There was just one area of plain wall which Sult had decorated with a picture of himself and the members of his old unit. They were all wearing the uniforms of the Elite Guard, the purple uniforms that were worn only by those actually guarding the Cattery. The picture itself seemed to have been taken against the backdrop of a wooden building. Although every suggestion was that it had been taken in the Cattery, the picture had been carefully taken in a secluded area where none of the Cattery’s secrets might be revealed. The fact that there was a building that looked as if it might be made of wood was all you got. There were four doors leading off of the hallway into a living room, kitchen, bedroom, and bathroom. All the doors except the one to the living room had been closed, probably in preparation for this visit. As an ex-military man, Sult was quite tidy, and he took his privacy seriously.
‘Move through to the living room,’ Sult suggested amicably, pointing to the only open door. ‘Then you can tell me what all this is about, as if I couldn’t guess.’
Judith went straight through to the living room. Jhosatl, however, wanted to look at the picture for a minute or two, perhaps trying to come to term with the fact that Sult had been an Elite Guard. He had known already, of course—Judith had told him last night—and as Jhosatl was beginning to realize, Judith had that sort of mind you just couldn’t hide things from. And then there had always been the rumors, though actually seeing it for himself felt like he was learning it for the first time.
‘Joseph?’ Sult queried.
‘Sorry, mate,’ Jhosatl replied, following Judith into the living room.
Sult’s living room wasn’t a lot different than Jhosatl’s own. Pride of place in the room seemed to be taken by the newspaper rather than the holoviewa, but the holoviewa looked like it might have been the latest model. There was a large couch that could seat three positioned in front of the newspaper, and a pair of armchairs resting against one of the walls also faced the newspaper. At least one of these would need to be moved if Sult wanted to use the holoviewa. Behind the couch, just inside the room and filling up nearly all the space between the couch and the far wall was a large table suitable to seat six at dinner. This was currently home to a large three-dimensional computer holomonitor, complete with a voice box resting on top of it, so that Sult could give it verbal commands. The computer itself was nowhere to be seen and might have been anywhere in the house. A large mirror seemed to occupy the wall behind the newspaper. However, Jhosatl noticed that although it reflected the room, it didn’t seem to reflect the people in the room.
Judith tried to admire herself in the mirror as soon as she entered the room and was surprised at the lack of a reflection. She touched the mirror and even turned it, trying to work out what
was wrong. When she looked back, she saw that Sult was enjoying every second of her confusion.
‘It’s like a painting,’ he told her. ‘A holographic representation of the room it’s in. If you turn it, then it will move as you might expect a mirror to move, but anything not in the room when it was created is missing from it. If you look carefully you’ll see that my computer monitor also doesn’t seem to have a reflection.’
‘Clever,’ Judith grunted her agreement. ‘I can’t see it’s of much use, though.’
Sult laughed. ‘You’ve just demonstrated its use. Please, please, sit down. Tell me what this visit is about.’
Judith took a seat on the couch next to where Jhosatl was already sitting.
Sult took a seat on one of the armchairs and seemed to relax back into it. It started to vibrate gently, massaging his back muscles.
By contrast, Jhosatl sat forward as if he just wasn’t able to relax enough to sit back. There was one thought going through his mind: Sult used to be of the Elite Guard. Nevertheless, he would have to tell Sult the truth about himself because Judith expected it, and he needed Judith’s help. He needed both of them to help. ‘Look, mate. Before we start, there’s something you ought to know about me.’ He glanced at Judith for support, and she gave him an approving nod.
‘You mean the small detail you omitted when I joined the group, the fact that you’re a cat?’ Sult asked as if stating that fresh paint was wet.
Jhosatl was in shock for a minute. He glanced accusingly at Judith, but she just shrugged her shoulders and shook her head. ‘Does everyone know?’
‘I used to be a member of the Elite Guard,’ Sult explained. ‘We’re trained almost constantly how to recognize cats through even the most convincing of disguises. They tested us all the time on pictures of humans mixed with those of disguised cats. If you don’t get all ten right in the final test you have to take all the training again, all of it. Most drop out because they can’t get the hang of it and can’t take the thought of doing everything again because of it.’ Sult shook his head at remembering. ‘It’s the hardest mental part of becoming an Elite Guard. And with having to excel physically as well, maybe one in a thousand applicants gets through.’
That was a shock for Jhosatl, and from the look on her face, it was for Judith as well. Sult had known ever since he had joined the band that Jhosatl was Herbaht. ‘And despite this, you joined the group anyway?’
‘You seemed genuine,’ Sult said simply. He rested his arms on the arms of the chair and leaned back even further. The back of the chair seemed to move back to allow this, and a footrest at the base of the chair suddenly popped up. ‘Besides, I was pretty sure I could handle you if you should prove false. I was that one in a thousand that got through.’
‘We need your help,’ Judith added to the conversation. ‘Amba is a prisoner in the Cattery and you know where it is. Are you willing to help us?’
‘What are you suggesting?’ Sult asked suddenly, the footrest vanishing again as he sat back up. He now rested both arms on the one armrest as he leaned forward toward Judith. ‘Are you suggesting a raid to get her back?’
Judith shook her head profusely while Jhosatl had started to nod.
Mainly to Jhosatl, though perhaps partly to Judith, he said, ‘I might possibly be a match for one, maybe even two, but I warn you, I wasn’t the best. As for you two, you’d be cut to pieces before we got within fifty yards of the Cattery.’
‘They’re good,’ Judith agreed, turning her attention full to Jhosatl. ‘That was why I stopped you last night. They’d have slaughtered you, even just one of them, and even drunk.’
Jhosatl shrugged that comment off and said, ‘But Amba, I must get Amba back. I can’t live without her.’
Sult shook his head sadly. ‘I doubt there’s very much that can be done. Try to live your life without her; perhaps someone else will come along.’
‘But…’ Jhosatl said weakly.
‘Look,’ Sult said, ‘everyone dies sooner or later. Married couples are always split like that in the end. You just have to cope. Everyone does.’
‘There’s nothing you can do?’ Jhosatl pleaded. ‘Come on, mate. I need her; she is my life.’
Sult shook his head. ‘There’s only one thing I can think of, and the chance of anything coming of it is very, very small. Tomorrow I am planning to go out for a drink with an old friend of mine. He still works at the Cattery. I can ask him to keep his eye on Amba for you and do what he can to keep her alive, and if we get the chance perhaps we can buy her back. It is a very small chance, mind you. Even if she’s still alive, the possibility that my friend can get her out, or indeed that he’ll even be willing to help, is very small.’
‘Almost infinitesimal,’ Judith agreed.
‘That’s a lot of ifs, mate,’ Jhosatl said. He looked Sult in the eye, his face filled with worry, ‘but I’ll take whatever I can get. But couldn’t you contact him tonight? Tomorrow might be too late.’ He turned to look at the fake mirror and, though he knew what it was, seemed surprised at the lack of his reflection.
‘I’ll see him tomorrow because he’s off duty then. He’s working tonight and won’t be able to get away; otherwise I would have suggested that myself. You just have to hope that Amba will still be alive tomorrow. But even if he will agree to help, I’m not sure there’s a lot he can do for her.’
Another delay, thought Jhosatl to himself. Well, at least Sult was willing to help, but what good would that do if all this delaying cost him his wife? There was nothing else he could do, though, except hope and pray.
‘If the Elite Guard can spot a cat in disguise at three hundred paces,’ Judith asked suddenly, ‘then why didn’t they take Joseph with them when they took Amba? Come to think of it, why didn’t they recognize him last night in the pub?’
‘Well,’ Sult relaxed back into the chair again, ‘as I said, only one in a thousand actually gets through the training, and identifying cats in disguise is what trips most up and…’
‘They were wearing the uniforms of trainees,’ Jhosatl suggested.
‘Exactly,’ Sult replied calmly.
‘And the Elite Guard, mate. Can they be bought?’ Jhosatl licked his lips at the thought.
‘You can buy some of them, especially if you know them and are asking a favor,’ Sult commented without a moment’s thought. ‘It’s unlikely any of them would react well if they were approached by a cat wanting to release all the inmates, even if they were offered all the wealth of the nation. But a friend, asking for the release of a friend as a favor, backed up with a little cash for his trouble…well, that’s slightly different.’
‘One is all I want,’ Jhosatl agreed, ‘but you can’t promise even that.’
‘I promise nothing,’ Sult stated, ‘but we can hope. I’d like to see Amba back with us well too. Admittedly, though, if everything goes according to plan and we do get Amba back from the Cattery, then we’ll probably have to go into hiding.’
‘Do you think we should contact Colin? Let him know what we’re doing and ask for his help?’ Judith asked suddenly.
Sult looked at her for a moment as if collecting his thoughts. ‘Let’s just say that Joseph is lucky to find two friends amongst humanity. Let’s not try to push that luck too far.’
‘In other words, mate…no.’ Jhosatl said.
‘Exactly,’ Sult added. ‘I don’t think anything bad of Colin; he’s a good man. But let’s not risk what we don’t need to risk. It only takes one loose tongue to scupper us.’ He rose from his chair, seemingly making it more of an effort than it should have been. ‘Now unless there is anything else we need to talk about first, can I offer either of you a drink?’
14
Callers
Since the early evening of two nights previous, George Lomax had spent nearly all his time watching the headlines on the newspaper as they were gradually updated. Even now he was stretched out on the couch in his sitting room, his feet resting on a cushion at the far end. He h
ad the lights dimmed and gentle, relaxing music playing through the hidden speakers in the ceiling.
He checked the list every other minute in case he had missed something. The more news he read the more certain he was that a war was on the way, a war between the cats and the humans. He found it hard to believe anyone couldn’t see it coming, especially the cats themselves. They were probably making all sorts of preparations for it, short of striking first. Why the government would want to force this war he couldn’t say; perhaps the man in charge was finally fed up with the cats’ eating habits. Perhaps a better question might be why hadn’t war broken out long ago between the two races?
However, it wasn’t for news of war that George watched the newspapers. He was looking for something about his pet Kitty, expecting to see that she had been caught or perhaps had died in a gun battle trying to defend herself. Not that he could see her using a gun even if her life did depend on it. He waited, both expecting to see it and hoping he wouldn’t, yet also knowing he wouldn’t because the capture or killing of a domesticated cat was hardly the stuff news was made of. Nevertheless, he was there nearly every minute, breaking only to eat, sleep, or use the bathroom. He was like a man obsessed.
Sleep? Well, if you could call it that. He had had less than two hours last night and less than that the night before, the night Kitty had left. He felt guilty over the whole thing, and that was as much the problem as anything. Two nights ago when he had told Kitty she should leave, he had panicked. Had he waited until yesterday or even today before letting her go, she might have been better prepared for the world. As it was, he had sent her off with no more than her pet rags, a hooded coat and some pills. Anyone she met would have recognized her instantly because of her stripes, and that would be it for her.
There was always the possibility that somehow, somewhere, she was still alive, but George didn’t think so. ‘Remember to call every day,’ he had told her, and she was the type of girl who would have done just that if she had been able to. After two days, however, he hadn’t heard a word from her. All he could assume was that she was either dead or in the Cattery. Dead was more likely; had she been taken to the Cattery, they would have questioned her and then come to get him for letting her free in the first place. No, she had to be dead.
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