London Wild (45 page)

As she spoke, the girl on the couch moved her position so that she could see over the back of it.
Upon seeing him, her face broke into a very happy smile. It was also a very familiar smile. Could it be Kitty? There were streaks down her face where the rain had caused her makeup to run in places, giving her a rather gaudy look. If it was Kitty, then she had clearly tried to make herself look more human. Had the ginger girl taught her that? And what was it with the dark black hair? Kitty was a brunette, true, but she wasn’t that dark. Had she dyed it or was she wearing a wig? And more importantly, who was the ginger girl?

The one
sitting at the bar was also smiling now. By contrast, she didn’t seem to be wearing much in the way of makeup, other than perhaps a little foundation that hadn’t lost its cohesion in the rain. Now that he thought about it, there was something familiar about this girl too. Had she been a student back when he used to teach in the University? There had been a few thousand on the campus, and it was always possible that she hadn’t actually been in one of his classes.

As he was considering
this, the one on the couch got up as quick as she could, almost knocking both the couch and the newspaper over as she did so. Then she ran towards him as fast as her legs would go, almost knocking him down as she reached him. Her arms, held wide apart, wrapped themselves around him tightly, and she placed her head on his chest and actually started to sob.

‘Er
, hello,’ he commented as he stood there, a little dazed. He had been terrified when she had come rushing at him. A dozen thoughts had rushed through his head, including that he should be trying to get away, but somehow his legs had refused to obey.
This is it; this is the end
, he had thought, and then she had hugged him. His initial fear evaporated like rain on a security screen. There was still a chance he was wrong about the girl in his arms, but he was sure she had to be Kitty. He put a comforting arm around her and hoped he was right.

The girl sitting at the bar seemed to roll her eyes a little at the display, but she made no comment. Instead she used the remote to turn off the
newspaper whilst pointedly not looking at the affection the other girl was pouring all over George. 

George held her
, unsure what else to do. A pair of women had broken into his house, and upon discovery one of them (he hoped it was Kitty) had started to snuggle him. At least she hadn’t started to try and kiss him, or worse, help him out of his clothing.  Not that he had any objection to being undressed by a pretty girl, but he’d like to know a little bit about her first. And if it really was Kitty, well, she was a cat and he had no interest in her that way. Fortunately she seemed more than happy just to hold him.

Then the girl by the bar spoke. The way she spoke made it sound as if she was just trying to make conversation. ‘I
have a brother in Sou’nd. He’ll be on the receiving end of that tomorrow. I like to keep up with what’s going on.’

George only half heard her as he tried to disengage himself from the dark
-haired girl, who seemed disinclined to release him. She actually seemed to be sobbing on his chest. ‘Might I ask who you are and why you’ve come here?’

‘I’m sorry,
Professor,’ the girl at the bar said. ‘Please forgive me. I’ve had a lot on my mind lately, what with this imminent attack on Sou’nd, amongst other things. My name is February. We actually met sometime last night when I came to your door and asked you a few questions. I was trying to decide whether or not you could be trusted. I’m still not one hundred percent sure that you can, but I think your heart is in the right place, and that’s a start.’

‘And this is Kitty?’ George commented as he tried to loosen the dark
-haired girl’s grip a little. She let him, but only a little.

Then she leaned back for a moment to look into his eyes
and said, ‘Why, master, I didn’t think you’d recognized me!’ And then she returned to nuzzling him.

‘I wasn’t sure,’ he told her gently. He folded his arms around her and held her gently and comfortingly. He whispered, ‘I thought you were dead. Why didn’t you call?’

It was February who answered, ‘I wouldn’t allow her to call you until I’d checked you out. How did I know I could trust you? How could I be sure that if she called you she wouldn’t tell you things I’d rather you didn’t know? Thing like where I live, for example.’

‘I see,’ said George.

‘After all, Professor,’ she continued, ‘for all I knew you might have gone straight to the authorities with my address. I had to be sure of you.’

‘So,’ George
said, looking straight at her, ‘this might seem like an obvious statement, but I just want to be totally sure before this conversation goes any further. Am I to take it that you are also a cat?’

‘No,
Professor,’ she replied tersely. ‘No, I am not now, nor have I ever been a cat.’ She spat the word like a foul taste. ‘And neither, for your information, is Kitty. We are Herbaht!’

George sudden felt he was on shaky ground
and hurriedly said, ‘I meant no offence.’

February smiled at him reassuringly
. ‘None taken, Professor. I’ve spent a lot of the last few days trying to educate Kitty not to use the word, and she still bandies it around constantly without thinking. Many members of my race would have reacted very badly, while a few even seem to use it themselves. Only a very few, I might add. I think the idea amuses them.’

Kitty turned her head so it was facing towards February, but kept it close to George’s chest. ‘I don’t remember using the word, not once you told me not to. I’ll try to be more careful.’

George let her go, but she held on as if fearing that if she were to release him, she might not see him again. This was a nice problem to have to sort out at two in the morning. Could he trust a wild cat in the house overnight? What if he asked her to go—would she turn nasty and attack? She might not have any powered weapons, but her claws did look quite sharp and quite effective. And what about Kitty? Could he tell the wild cat to leave and yet convince Kitty to stay? Somehow he didn’t think so; either they would both leave or they were both going to stay. He just couldn’t bring himself to tell Kitty that she was going to have to go, especially after he had so wanted to see her again, and especially after Stanley had revealed his plan to resettle both George and Kitty at his home on Mars. Would there be room for a wild cat? How would she eat on Mars? George wouldn’t want anything to do with her if she was going to prey on the local population. It was really too late at night to be thinking about such things.

He didn’t really want to leave this room and allow a wild cat to move about his house unwatched. But he knew he wouldn’t be able to watch her all night
, and she might well get nasty about it if he even tried.

He glanced down at his one-time pet and smiled reassuringly at her. ‘Well, I’m glad to see you
, Kitty, but couldn’t you have called before coming round tonight? Let me know you were on your way?’

‘Same reason, Professor,’ February told him simply
. ‘I think you can be trusted, but members of my race have tried trusting yours in the past, and usually we regret it. Had we called, would your house have been filled with soldiers awaiting our arrival? Let’s face it, Professor; whatever your feelings about Kitty, to you I’m just a wild Herbaht and you’d probably rather see the back of me. It’s very unlikely you’d be willing to trust me any more than I trust you. To put it another way, I feel we need to get to know each other before we can really begin to trust.’

‘I guess that’s true,’ George replied slowly, ‘though if I knew Kitty was coming it’s unlikely I’d have called in the army. But knowing you were with her would most likely have caused complications. Not that there’s anything stopping me from calling the soldiers in now, except
that I wouldn’t want Kitty to get hurt.’

‘Oh that’s sweet,’ Kitty uttered gently.

‘And I do have hostages now, if it came to it,’ February warned him. ‘Three, if the scents in the house are anything to go by. Yours is very strong. You are obviously the owner of this house, but there are two other scents mingling lightly with it, a male and a female. The male scent is similar to yours, but distinct enough for me to tell them apart.’

‘Stanley, my brother
, is on leave from the Moon, and when he returns he’ll be heading to Mars. There are a few more details, but it’s two o’clock in the morning and I’d rather not go into details while I’m so tired.’

‘And the woman?’ February asked quizzically.

‘Stan’s wife, Maureen,’ Kitty offered, still talking softly.

February seemed to accept this. She reached over and poured herself a glass of fruit juice from a convenient bottle. ‘Can I fix you something, Professor?’

‘Er, no thanks,’ George replied cautiously. Part of him was thinking that this wild cat had one hell of a cheek, pouring herself a drink in his house without his say-so. Another part of him was chastising himself for not having offered to make drinks for his guests. She was a wild cat. He owed her nothing, but then she had probably saved Kitty’s life, so perhaps he did owe her that.

February drank a mouthful of the fruit juice she had poured and then made a contorted face. She turned the bottle round to see the label clearly; it was orange juice. From the expression on her face
, George assumed that either the orange juice had to be off (though it had seemed all right earlier that evening when he had had some himself), or perhaps this wild cat just didn’t like oranges.  

‘Slim moves into Sou’nd in force tomorrow,’ February told him
, breaking his line of thought. ‘It was Kitty who pointed out to me that there could be only one reason why a man as intelligent as Slim was supposed to be was advertising this attack a good thirty hours before it was launched. I won’t go too far into details, but the upshot is that Kitty and I have been forced to leave my home and we’re intending to make our way north. So you only need to put up with us for one night.’

‘I wanted to see you before I left,’ Kitty whispered.

‘You’re willing to risk telling me you’re going north, then?’ George said, surprised.

‘The north is a large area,’ February told him
. ‘It includes Scotland, and if it comes to that, it could even include Norway, Sweden, Iceland, and many other places. It’s not like I’ve given you our address. I couldn’t, anyway; I don’t know where we’re going yet.’

‘It’s a long time since anyone of your race was in the north
,’ George commented. ‘In fact, I can’t remember any time in recorded history that your people have moved to the north.’

‘Then it’s time we did,’ February said simply. ‘If they don’t expect to find us in the north, maybe we can live a relatively safe and peaceful life.’

George nodded. ‘Have you ever thought about somewhere off-planet? Somewhere like Mars, perhaps?’

‘We’d never get
past the security gates,’ February commented. ‘Are you inviting us to accompany your brother back to his new work place?’

‘Well
…’ George tried to get his mind around the next few sentences before saying anything. Then finally he said, ‘Stanley came here wanting to take Kitty and myself with him. I intend to go. I know Kitty will be welcome. I’ll admit I’m not sure there is even room for you, and if there is I’m not sure Stanley or his wife would be willing to accept you.’

‘I find it unlikely,’ February commented, ‘but if Kitty wishes to go with you, I’ll not stop her.’

‘I’d like to go with him,’ Kitty sighed. She held George even tighter, her head turned to face February, and continued, ‘but I don’t want to leave you.’

‘Then maybe I can talk to this Stanley and see if he’d be willing to consider taking me along. I intend to leave London anyway, to get away before the war in Sou’nd reaches the borders of the Capital. I don’t know how you intend to get us past the spaceport
’s security gates and sniffer dogs, but at least the Elite Guard won’t be there.’ 

George yawned uncontrollably as he listened. Now that the initial adrenalin
e rush was fading, his tiredness was taking over. ‘It’ll be good having you with us, because you can help keep the others of your race off of our backs.’

‘I won’t betray my people any more than I expect you’d betray yours. However, Kitty is my friend and Kitty is your friend. She is the catalyst that will keep us together, at least for now
,’ February told him. ‘I give you my word that unless you turn on me, I won’t harm any member of your family.’

George yawned again
. ‘I’m sorry,’ he said as soon as he was able, ‘I wasn’t sleeping well before you came, and I think with you in the house it’s unlikely I’m going to be getting any sleep, but my body wants to try.’

February nodded her understanding
. ‘It’s late; it’s nearly half past now. I’m used to being up this late when I’ve been out hunting, but I usually have to recover in the mornings. I think you should probably go back to bed, Professor. You’ll still be alive come the morning, never fear. I won’t hurt you.’

George yawned again. He felt his ears pop as he tried to contain the pressure. ‘Before I go, can I ask you how you got in? I mean
, that’s supposed to be a very secure lock. There were soldiers from the Elite Guard here earlier, and I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t have been able to get past the lock, short of breaking the door down.’