by Robin Craig
The creature moved fluidly back to stand in front of Miriam then stood regarding her silently. Without warning, Miriam lashed out with her foot in a strong high kick, aiming for its head. But the thing was preternaturally fast, and the head was gone by the time her foot reached the space it had occupied. Before she could even regain her balance, the creature had repaid her effort with its own kick to her solar plexus. Through teary eyes, Miriam could just look up at it. It stood there, exactly where and how it had before. Nothing had changed except Miriam could no longer breathe. Slowly the pain subsided and she just as slowly straightened up.
“Fiery little bitch, aren’t you?” it said when Miriam could stop gasping. “Well I hope you’ve had your fun and you learned something valuable from it. Learning from our mistakes is an important part of growing up, you know. Now,” she said, flicking her tail for emphasis, “you seem surprisingly unsurprised to see me. You’re either even thicker than you look or you were expecting me. So question one, girlie: were you looking for me?”
Miriam just nodded dumbly.
“Good girl. An honest answer. Maybe you’re not as stupid as I thought. Question two: how did you know I was here?”
“Someone reported a panther to Animal Control. We thought it seemed suspicious.”
It stared at her. “Come now, there must be more to it than that. Cops don’t go round investigating panther sightings. Be very careful how you answer. I might know some things you don’t know I know. Lie to me and you might start losing bits of you.” She twirled her dagger for emphasis.
“You were caught for a few seconds on a security camera near the site of a burglary. We knew something queer was going on but didn’t know what. Someone who saw you in the dark could have mistaken you for a panther.”
It drummed its fingers on its thigh and sighed. “You know, getting answers out of you is like pulling teeth. Which can be arranged, if you don’t get more cooperative. Do you expect me to believe you just happened to see some video and then just happened to link it to some random Animal Control report?”
“I have been working with an AI, trying to train it up for correlating evidence. After the video, I set it to watch for anything odd that might be linked. That’s how we found out about the panther sighting. The description sounded like you.”
It hissed, but it was hard to tell if that signified surprise, anger or understanding. It regarded her some more. “Interesting. Well, that finishes the questions part of our program. But I seem to recall I had a decision to make. Now, what was it? Hmmm... Oh yes: do you live, or die?” The predatory look returned.
“You...” Miriam started hoarsely, but had to stop and breathe. “You aren’t going to kill us.”
“You’re either an optimist or a fool, girl. If there’s any difference in this world. You seem awfully sure given your current position, which Sun Tzu would describe as ‘untenable’. Would you like another demonstration?”
“You’ve had plenty of chances to kill us already but you haven’t. You’re a thief not a murderer.”
“I learned long ago not to make life-changing decisions before I have time to think about them. Unless I have to, and handling you two didn’t reach ‘have to’ status.” She smiled nastily. “Maybe I’m getting bored with this whole thief thing and it’s time to graduate to more serious excitement.” She made a show of considering it. “Oh, I agree, killing a couple of cops is a big career move. Maybe I’m not ready for it. Or maybe I am. In any case, don’t fool yourself that me giving myself time to think it through means anything good for you. But we have a bit of time before your friends might come looking for you, so we can get to know each other a bit, eh? What’s your name?”
“Miriam.”
The creature waited. “Well, hello Miriam, and since you ask so nicely, you can call me Katlyn.”
She regarded Miriam some more, looking her up and down. Miriam wasn’t sure if her smile was less cynical or just more predatory. “My, you are a pretty young thing though, aren’t you?” She stepped right up to Miriam, so their bodies barely touched. “You know, I’ve never had a woman,” she purred. “I can do things with my tail you wouldn’t believe.” She emphasized the claim by running her tail lightly up Miriam’s body then stroking her chin with it where she had stroked her dagger minutes before. “Maybe we could have some fun. Maybe your boyfriend over there would like to watch. And maybe then I could do him, and you could watch. What do you reckon, pretty one? Are you up for a little party?”
Miriam’s eyes grew large and dark, and beneath her shock she was surprised to see the creature apparently sniffing gently. “A pity. I smell fear but no lust, so I’ll take that as a no. But if that’s not the way your hormones rock, how about taking a more intellectual angle on today’s entertainment? You might think I’m just a common thief. Well perhaps not ‘common’, but a thief nonetheless. So you might be surprised at how eclectic my education has been. I find psychology fascinating, don’t you? So here’s a moral dilemma for you, little girl. For reasons I find entirely mystifying you don’t want my body for its own luscious sake. But what if it’s the price I put on your life? For reasons not so mysterious this body, which happens to be twice as sensitive as yours – and I mean everywhere, if you know what I mean – limits my pool of sexual partners terribly. Really. I just can’t get a date. So you might do me a favor, and I might let you live. So what do you say?”
Miriam just stared at her, unable to speak.
“Cat got your tongue, girl?” she snapped. “Are you seriously telling me you’d die to protect your dubious virtue? I can smell you’re not a virgin, you know. Maybe I’d be doing the gene pool a favor by removing you from it before you manage to breed.” She sighed. “You disappoint me, Miriam. Maybe we can play a more interesting game. Well, more interesting for me, which is what matters. Maybe I should wake your boyfriend up and let you compete for your lives. The one who makes me happiest gets to watch the other one die. It’ll be an even contest, I think. He’s not as pretty as you, but he has some handy accessories you lack. What do you think?”
Miriam studied her, afraid to answer. What was going on? This creature seemed alternately reasonable, evil or insane. Or perhaps she was just playing a vicious game. There was nothing clever she could think of, no stratagem to apply, when she had no idea what this thing actually was and what it really wanted. For all she knew it was just looking for an excuse and any answer she gave would be the end of her. All she did know was that she felt more and more like a mouse being played with by a particularly angry cat. She decided the only thing she could do was be herself and hope that was enough.
As if to underline those thoughts, the predatory look returned and the creature put its dagger to the base of Miriam’s throat and applied pressure. This time Miriam could feel the sharp point puncturing her skin, a drop of blood oozing down her chest. Her insides turned to liquid fear. Katlyn twisted the knife, ever so slightly, grinning at her.
“Wait!” gasped Miriam. “Wait. There is a reason you shouldn’t kill me.”
“Oh? And what might that be?”
“It would be wrong. I’ve done nothing to you. I don’t deserve to die.”
Katlyn laughed, but withdrew her knife. It was a strange laugh, a delighted tinkling of bells, nothing at all like the cynical grunts and smirks of her earlier humor; nothing at all like Miriam expected.
“Justice?” The bells tinkled again. “What planet are you from, sweetie? Here on planet Earth, the innocent die all the time, for no particular reason known to God, man or monstrosity. Innocence isn’t going to protect you.”
Miriam lifted her chin and looked into her eyes. She said softly, “There is nothing more important than justice. How else can people live?”
Katlyn stared at her. “Do you really believe that, pretty one?”
“Yes,” she said simply.
Then her head swung first one way then the other, as Katlyn stepped forward and slapped her with her tail, hard, and snarled, “Oh really,
Little Miss Justice? Then look at me. What am I?” She slapped her again, to emphasize her point.
Miriam gasped for breath. That tail, soft and gentle in some roles, could be hard as a fist. She looked up at her from hooded eyes. “You are... a woman.” Slap! Slap! “Do you take me for a fool?! WHAT AM I?”
“You are a geneh, a genetically engineered human,” she whispered.
The thing glared at her, panting lightly, as if the answer angered her yet was still enough to stem her rage. For now. Then she bared her teeth in something nobody could mistake for a smile.
“So tell me, Miss Sweet Justice, who wants to live but not enough to pay for it, what would you do to me if our roles were reversed, if it was me tied to that pole under your power?”
“You are a criminal. I would have to arrest you, take you into custody,” she replied softly, flinching for the blows to come, not knowing what else to say but the simple truth. She had decided to just be herself, so she might as well see it through to the end, which was looking closer by the minute. The creature knew it, anyway. A lie, like most lies, would serve no purpose: and in this case was likely to get her killed sooner than admitting an obvious truth.
But no blows came. Just a quiet, “And what would happen to me then? What do your laws say to do to one such as me?”
“The human purity laws say... the law says... you would die.”
“So. I am to spare you, for you are an innocent little idiot, while you would kill me, innocent or not, for no reason but what I am, a thing I never chose to be! And you expect justice to save you? What justice is there for me, and why should I care about your laws, your justice?” She spat. “You wish me dead, for what I am. You fear me, you hate me, like all the rest! Admit it! Confess it, and I might spare you some pain.”
Miriam lowered her head and shook it slowly from side to side. “If you had not broken the law, I would not know or care that you exist. I never sought to kill you.” She lifted her head to look Katlyn directly in the eyes. “I don’t hate you,” she added softly.
Those golden eyes regarded her again. “So, I threaten to rape you, to kill you, but you don’t hate me? What, you forgive me? You know, some people think I have anger issues – can you believe that? But maybe you’ve seen nothing yet, girl. Maybe I should work my anger issues out on a suitable target.” She flexed her fingers like claws and spat on the ground again.
Miriam breathed, trying to quell her growing panic. Her only point of hope was that Katlyn had not yet killed her, and for all that Miriam felt she had been run over by a truck, had not even hurt her beyond some cuts and bruises.
“I understand your anger and it is not for me to forgive you or condemn you. It doesn’t matter to me what you are genetically: for what it’s worth, I think you are right to hate those laws. But that does not make the life you have chosen right. Even more, it doesn’t make taking our lives right.”
“I can’t work out whether I should kill you for being a scheming bitch, or kill you for being an innocent moron,” she snarled. “But spot the common factor, larval detective. And hey, it’s been fun, but guess what? You’ve run out of time, dear. I’ve got things to do, people to see. I can’t stand around here all day chatting.”
She paused briefly, regarding Miriam coldly.
“Since you won’t entertain me, I’ll have to entertain myself. But so many choices, maybe I’ll let you decide. Let’s see. I could strangle you,” she said, wrapping her tail tightly around Miriam’s throat so she could barely breathe. “A slow, unpleasant and undignified end. Or a quick dagger into the heart” – Miriam felt a pinprick between her ribs – “it’ll hurt a bit at first, but then you won’t feel a thing. Or maybe you’ll piss me off some more and it’ll be a knife in the guts” – a jab to the stomach, and Miriam knew she had been cut – “a much more drawn out end to the short but ultimately tragic story of little Miriam, the girl who couldn’t. Then there are those guns you two carelessly left lying around. A bullet in the head? Or a slow line of bullets up your leg and belly, ending in your heart? Bang. Bang. Bang. Oh dear. So many choices, what shall a girl do?” And she gave Miriam another of her predatory looks.
Miriam looked up at her hopelessly. She thought of how hopefully she had faced her life and her career, of all the mornings she would have liked to see, the things she had not done. All to end now so pointlessly, with no power to defend herself, no words she could find to reach through this creature’s rage to any mercy that might still live behind those merciless golden eyes. She could feel tears form in her own eyes, but she would neither hide them nor acknowledge them. “Please...” she whispered.
“Shut your eyes, sweetie, it will be better that way,” Katlyn said, surprisingly gently. Miriam obeyed, waiting for whatever blows Katlyn would deliver to end her life. But when seconds or a lifetime had gone by and still she breathed, she opened them again.
Katlyn was gone.
Chapter 13 – Fire
Miriam let out a long ragged breath and bent over panting, struggling not to throw up. Jesus. She was glad to be alive, though not so sure why. She panted softly a while longer, until she felt more able to think. Adrenalin was all very good for fight or flight, but not when you were chained to a pole unable to do either.
She wanted to get out of here. If they didn’t report back in a while someone would come looking for them, but who knew how long that would take? And Jack might need medical attention sooner rather than later. But a bit of struggle showed her that she wasn’t getting out of this without somebody’s help.
As she looked around for inspiration, the sight of smoke drifting from the far side of the warehouse hit her senses simultaneously with the smell of it, and she knew they were both in serious danger. Katlyn must have set the place on fire. Oh Lucifer.
“Jack! Jack!” she screamed, but he did not move. Oh Christ, she thought, what if that crazy thing killed him when she left? What if she hadn’t run off to let her live, but to give her an especially panicked and painful death; to watch her burn to death chained to a pole like Joan of Arc. Christ! “JACK!” she screamed again.
“Oh, God...” he groaned, slowly lifting his head. “What the hell happened?”
“Are you OK?”
“If you ignore the splitting headache and the aching ribs, sure. How about you? And I think I asked a question first. Oh yes. What the hell just happened?”
“Not now! She’s set fire to the place! I’m tied with my arms behind me: at least you’re the other way round! Can you free yourself?”
Jack tried a few experimental pulls and looked up. “Well, my arms are pretty loose and let’s see, I think I can... yes... I should be able to get high enough on this pole to get my arms over. You keep talking while I try.”
“I’m OK, just roughed up a bit. You got ambushed by that cat thing: she kicked you into the wall. Then us two girls spent a nice half hour chatting over a cup of tea, talking politics and discussing the many ways she would enjoy killing me. Then just as she had me convinced I was about to die an unspecified but painful death – she vanished.”
“Vanished?”
“Well, she suggested I close my eyes, the better to surprise me with my means of demise. But she didn’t kill me. She just ran away.”
“It must have been your fierce expression. But at least we can be thankful she doesn’t have the powers of invisibility or teleportation.”
After a minute or so of grunting and cursing through thickening smoke, Jack managed to shimmy far enough up the pole to lift his arms over the top. He dropped to the ground with a groan. He went searching, came back with some keys, undid his cuffs and released Miriam. She fell gratefully into his arms.
“Whew”, he said, as the heat spreading from Katlyn’s former nest finally triggered the fire system and they began to get drenched. “Let’s get out of here in case that crazy cat comes back. I just hope she left us our car.”
~~~
Jack and Miriam walked into the squad room. Heads turned. “You
two look like hell,” someone observed helpfully.
“I just got out of hell,” said Miriam. They went to debrief. Forensic investigators had already been dispatched to the scene when they called in but nobody was hopeful. Some DNA would be handy but the place was too dirty. It would mean nothing.
“Well this ups the ante, doesn’t it?” said Ramos. “At least she didn’t kill you two: I’m understaffed enough already. We’d better get the doctor to look at you both.”
The doctor was thorough and competent. He gave Miriam permission to return to work but said Jack would have to stay under observation. He had a couple of cracked ribs and concussions were never to be treated lightly.
Miriam and Ramos discussed the case by Jack’s bedside.
“Do you think we should escalate this to GenInt Enforcement?” Miriam asked.
“No... not yet, I don’t think. Do you think you could see Dr Tagarin again? He might have something more useful to say now that you have more than an enhanced video to talk about. I’m reluctant to involve GenInt unless we have to: they’re too much of a wild card. We’ll see what Tagarin says, if anything, before we decide whether we have enough reason to bring them into it.”
“I can second that,” added Jack. “I’ve dealt with those guys before. They aren’t pretty.”
“Do you want me to wait until Jack’s better, or do you think I can go alone?”
Ramos thought. “Normally I like my people in pairs, not that it helped much today. But I don’t think there’s any danger seeing Dr Tagarin on your own. It seems unlikely he’d be in league with a crazy burglar and even if he is, they’re not going to do anything stupid when we know you’re there. We need to move fast here, people. And from your earlier report he likes you as much as he can like any cop. Give it a go. The worst that can happen is he’ll refuse to talk to you. Then we can talk again about escalating to GenInt. Now go.”
