London Wild (42 page)

‘Two pints of lager,’
he said.

The machine silently obeyed and poured them two perfectly measured pints of draught lager
. They didn’t have to refer to it by name, as the machine would only offer the lager produced by the public house’s brewer. When the vessels had been removed from its delivery slot the machine made itself scarce again by disappearing back into the center of the table. When the machine had disappeared, the tabletop was totally smooth, leaving no trace that the machine had even been there.

Fredrick removed his card from the slot on his side of the table and replaced it in his shirt pocket before sipping on his drink. ‘Nothing quite as nice as authentic machine served lager,’ he commented seriously.

They sat in a modern public house. As with most public houses of this era, there was a bar, but it was just for show. Every table was fitted with its own dispensing machine capable of filling any order that the customer might make of it, so long as it was programmed for the item in question.

There were as large a number of tables
as could usefully fit in the place while still allowing room for people to pass between them. There were also large glass windows that were becoming more and more common in public houses because they gave a commanding view of the car park for that public house and hence protected the patrons from possible cat attacks when they went to their cars. Even though it was only early evening, the rest of the public house seemed all but empty. Other than Sult and Fredrick, there were five other sets of customers scattered about the room. A pair of men sat across from each other not too far away. A man and a woman held hands across another table in a far corner. A pair of men and a pair of women occupied a third, though they seemed to be friends rather than on a double date. And near the door a group of between ten and twelve seemed to be having some sort of party celebrating something or other. Sult didn’t really care enough to listen in, though they were making most of the noise in the place. Finally, sitting on her own not too far from the I.R. booths was a woman looking impatiently at the main doors of the public house. It seemed most likely that her date hadn’t yet turned up and, judging from the expression on her face, was probably very late.

  Behind the bar sat a lone member of
the bar staff. He wasn’t there to serve the customers, though; that was what the machines were for. He was there to ensure that the machines continued to work, to keep them supplied, and, when necessary, to update the database of the central computer when new cocktails came out. If he had to he would call for someone to come and fix a machine that had broken down.

Sult drank his lager in large
, thirsty gulps and referred again to how well he had done in the game they had just been playing, saying, ‘Guess I’m out of practice.’

‘It was on hard,’ Fredrick agreed
, smiling. His lager was as of yet untouched in front of him. ‘And I know I’m not out of practice. I would have liked to have done better, but a computer simulation is never the same as real life.’

Sult shrugged. ‘I’m a musician now
; other than the odd game with you in the I.R. booths, the only military experience I get is in
The Game,
and that’s hardly good practice for what we were playing.’

Fredrick nodded his agreement.

‘It brings people together. It brings people from all walks of life and from all over the world playing with each other,’ Sult frothed.

‘And against each other,’ Fredrick replied sardonically. ‘I’ve play
ed it too, remember. Some people seem to take it so seriously, though. Did you hear the news last month about a man in Brighton who killed himself after a character he had raised to the rank of Major was killed in combat? Hanged himself.’

Sult sighed sadly
, unable to think of anything to say.

Fredrick continued
, ‘According to those who knew him on
The Game,
he had apparently been leading a raid on one of the homeworlds of a rival clan when their enemy sprung an ambush. It seems he was destroyed before he even realized they were under attack. His wife said that he was also feeling responsible for the others in his clan that lost their characters because he was in charge of the mission.’

Sult shook his head sadly
. Some people just took these things too much to heart. ‘So how are you doing in
The Game
?’

‘I don’t get a lot of time to play these day
s,’ Fredrick replied resignedly, ‘too much work on my plate with this cat stuff. We could be suffering from the repercussions of this for months or more. We’re hoping to be through the worst soon, though—three more days until the last pet cat can be legally handed in. Then we’ll be mopping up those that still haven’t and likely be dishing out prison sentences for the owners that still resist.’

‘I’d like to know the real reasoning behind it
,’ Sult commented carefully, a little cautious of offending his friend. Fredrick might believe the propaganda for all Sult knew.

‘I would too,’ confessed Fredrick,
sighing. ‘And now we have been warned that the cats know where the Cattery is. Apparently they sent an agent to rescue someone. This agent was captured himself, but it does mean that the security of the whole Cattery is at risk. I think there are plans afoot to move the location of the Cattery to another area.’ He looked around nervously, afraid someone was listening in case he said something he shouldn’t.

‘You probably shouldn’t be telling me this,’ Sult interjected quickly
, noticing how nervous his friend was even talking about it.

‘I probably shouldn’t,’ agreed Fredrick, ‘but the upshot is that we are now awaiting an all
-out attack by the cats, especially after Sou’nd.’ His voice became angry, though he kept the volume of his voice low and measured. ‘What is that idiot Slim thinking? Let’s tell our plans to the whole world! Well, thanks for nothing, Slim!’

Two newcomers
, a man and a woman, walked into the public house through the main door. They looked around and went to join the lone woman sitting at the table near the I.R. booths. It appeared that her date or dates had arrived after all. Sult watched for a moment out of interest what was happening over there while trying to make it look as if he was minding his own business. As a trained Elite Guard, he found that this was easier than he expected.

The woman who had been alone reached into her handbag and pulled out a small plastic bag with an almost white yellowy powder and placed it on the table in front of her. Sult turned his attention back to Fredrick
; he wasn’t interested in drug dealers. At least it didn’t look like that cat-produced drug lambdazine. That was supposedly a pale gray color from the newspaper articles he had seen.

‘Disgusting business,’ Fredrick commented
, appalled. He had seen where Sult had been looking.

‘Indeed,’ agreed Sult
, trying to ignore the activity all together.

‘It’s not my jurisdiction
…Besides, I’m on leave; otherwise I might’ve felt obliged to do something about it,’ Fredrick added.

Sult just nodded
. Even though the three at the table hadn’t made any sign of seeing him watching them, he felt exposed.

‘Those cats have a lot to answer for,’ Fredrick continued
, unabated.

‘It’s not lambdazine,’ Sult commented
, a little surprised that Fredrick might think it was. Fredrick was trained to recognize such things, after all.

‘No,’ Fredrick replied
. He glanced out of the largest of the nearest windows into the very well-lit car park. ‘It’s not lambdazine; the cats have moved on through…This stuff is more addictive and, well…’ he stopped abruptly.

Sult mouthed a silent, ‘O
,’ unsure of what to say.

‘Metazine, I think it’s called,’ Fredrick sighed, ‘metazine or muzine or something beginning with ‘M’
…I think it’s metazine. It’s more powerful, more deadly, and they use a different dye. I believe the raw version of the drug is pure white. The yellowing is some sort of marketing ploy. As a pop star, you probably know more about drugs than I do.’

‘We’re not all junkies,’ Sult replied calmly
. Far from this comment making him angry, as he might have expected it would had it come from almost anyone else, Sult was actually amused by the apparent assumption.

Fredrick seemed to become suddenly serious. Sult felt he was looking directly into his soul as he spoke
. ‘And yet there is something on your mind, something that you’ve been thinking about all evening long, and yet you haven’t been able to bring yourself to ask.’

‘But how did you…?’

‘I’m a trained officer of the Elite Guard,’ was Fredrick’s reply; ‘I’m trained to tell when someone is lying or holding something back. It’s like spotting a disguised cat. I do it almost automatically. I’m surprised you’ve forgotten how if you can’t do it.’

‘It’s more than seven years since I was in the
Guard,’ Sult told him simply. ‘Things that come as second nature are easy to lose when they aren’t used. I can still spot a disguised cat, though, if that’s any consolation.’

Fredrick laughed, ‘
So what’s eating you?’

‘It’s to do with the groups of trainees that are going around grabbing pet cats before they’re due to be handed in. One of these groups came to a concert of ours a few days ago
, and before we even knew about the new government policy they had taken Amba from us. Amba was our feline group member.’

‘Ah
, yes,’ said Fredrick knowledgably. The mention of the name Amba seemed to stir a spark of recognition as he said, ‘one of the two you had in your group, I seem to recall.’

‘Two?’ Sult looked at his friend quizzically.

‘You forget that I went to see you and your group perform soon after you formed. You weren’t too bad, but as well as Amba there was a second cat in the band. The bandleader, I seem to recall, a wild cat. I’d be very surprised if you didn’t know about him.’

‘You knew about Joseph and you didn’t say anything to anyone?’ Sult was surprised, though anyone of the
Elite Guard
watching them perform would most likely have recognized Joseph for what he really was. It was really only a matter of time until someone acted; if anything, they had been lucky that Joseph hadn’t been discovered already.

‘You’re my friend. I’d not do anything that’d cause you to lose your job
, the same way I’d expect you not to ask anything of me that might put my future in the Elite at risk.’ Fredrick smiled at Sult across the table and finished his lager.

Sult looked at the little bit of lager he had left in his glass and fingered the rim
. The resultant friction made no noise, as the rim of the glass was still too damp to produce the whistle that Sult had been hoping for.

‘You were about to ask if there was any
way I could get Amba out for you, weren’t you?’ Fredrick added.

Sult nodded slowly
. ‘She’s Joseph’s wife.’

‘He should be handed in, not she handed back. He’s wild! She must be too
, if they’re married.’ Fredrick seemed quite stern, and Sult realized that this conversation could turn very ugly.

‘They don’t hunt. If they did
, I wouldn’t even have considered asking for help. They live on those pill things that are given to the pets. All they want to do is live in peace, together,’ Sult implored his friend.

‘That’s a very good desire,
and I wish them luck. Shame that one of them is currently in the Cattery, and she isn’t likely to be released.’ The sternness had already gone from Fredrick’s voice, and Sult couldn’t help wondering if he had just imagined it. Fredrick was looking longingly at his empty glass.

‘So you’ll help?’ Sult asked.

‘I didn’t say that,’ Fredrick replied sternly. ‘In fact, I seem to remember saying I definitely wouldn’t be willing to help.’

Sult finished his glass of lager quickly and then summoned the dispensing machine to gain them two more pints. The drinks poured
; the machine vanished back into the table again. With a new pint in hand Sult glanced quickly around at the table with the drug dealer. She was alone again, but the pair that had been buying from her were still in the public house, sitting at a table nearby.

‘Well
, I guess I tried,’ Sult commented. ‘The band will probably break up and Joseph will just have to live with it.’

Fredrick nodded
. ‘Good. You see, it’s a little more complicated than me going to the cell that Amba is housed in and taking her out of the Cattery walls. I can’t just take her for a walk around the forest and then return without her; it’s not as simple as that. Assuming I wouldn’t get funny looks from those on the gates for even suggesting such a thing.’

Sult stared at his new lager helplessly. Well
, he had tried, but he probably had been too optimistic. How was he going to explain to Joseph that he couldn’t get any help in getting her released? And Joseph was probably at home now twiddling his thumbs and relying on Sult to come up trumps in this matter.

‘But the situation is even more complicated than that. You see
, yesterday a rescue attempt was made on one of the cats in the same cell as Amba. The rescue was foiled, but now she and the others in that cell are on some sort of close watch list. There’s even a guard posted outside the cell door twenty-four hours a day now. I couldn’t even get her out of her cell without a direct order from Colonel Norton.’