London Wild (57 page)

‘Okay,’ George replied
. It was apparent they didn’t really have a lot of choice. ‘I guess you’d better unpack everything you brought with you and we’ll try to find room for it. We might have to leave a few things behind. What else needs doing?’

‘Well,’ February said, ‘
we’ll need passports to get onto Mars. I have one—all my race tend to get them in case we have to leave suddenly—and I’ve no doubt Maureen and Stanley have theirs, since they live there. What about you, George?’

‘I have one,’ George commented
; ‘that’s no problem.’

‘That only leaves Kitty,
’ February said then. ‘I’ll take her out after I’ve brought everything in from the car and find her one. I can dump the car while we’re out and get a taxi back.’

‘Kitty has one,’ George said
. ‘She went on holiday with me earlier this year.’

‘That’s true
.’ Kitty faced February as she spoke. ‘It’s not a great picture of me, but it’s a real passport.’

‘But it’d be a standard pet passport
, though, wouldn’t it? Complete with her picture in pet rags and her skin covered in stripes!’ February suggested, ‘I don’t think we’d get very far on that.’

‘Oh, yes,’ George offered
, crestfallen, ‘it is.’

‘I’ll get her a more human
-looking one; at least, if I can find the right source I will. So much happens in the city, especially among the members of my race, that saying something and actually managing to do it are two totally different things. Still, we’ll sort something out if I don’t find a forger.’ February chose this moment to consider the bottles of fruit juice on display at the bar, and a moment later she was pouring herself a glass of orange juice, finishing off the bottle.

‘And you’d trust us alone while you’re doing this?’ Maureen seemed more than a little surprised.

‘The only one I feel worried about now is you,’ February commented. ‘There is no deceit in either your husband’s or his brother’s scent. It’s true that that could change as soon as I leave, but I’ll be taking Kitty with me. I need her if I’m going to be getting a passport for her. Betray me, and you betray her.’

Maureen turned to her husband and chastised him
, ‘Life was a lot simpler before we came to visit your brother.’

Stanley nodded meekly to his wife.

‘Well,’ February said, getting up, ‘we should make a start. I’ll go get the stuff in from my car. Kitty, you should go upstairs and get a disguise on. We have to go in a short while. I’ll leave you three to decide what you intend to do today.’

‘Well,’ George replied quietly, ‘I’m expecting a food delivery sometime today. I was stocking up for the week because of my brother’s visit. I might try and see if I can leave the sale of the house in the hands of an agent. And I’ll need to contact a storage facility for my things.’

‘If you call them today, I doubt they’ll be here until tomorrow at the very earliest. We might miss our early start.’ February seemed a little disappointed.

‘I’m not going to sell the house fully furnished if I can help it
,’ George replied, keeping his voice at a fairly low volume. ‘Stanley only arrived yesterday and outside of business hours, so I couldn’t call before today. I’m sorry if you had your heart set on leaving tomorrow morning, but it’ll have to be later in the day, maybe even the following day.’

‘And we will make a move that day
, regardless,’ Maureen insisted.

‘Oh
?’ February sat down again for a moment. ‘Why’s that?’

‘That day is the last day in which owners can hand over their pets without penalty. If they don’t have
Kitty by then they’ll probably send someone to look for her. I’d rather we weren’t here when they come,’ George told her.

‘Good thought,’ February answered
. ‘Having no such pet of my own, I hadn’t realized when the grace period would be over. Ok, if we can fix everything today, we can leave tomorrow. Otherwise we leave the day after, regardless of what might still need to be done.’

‘Agreed,’ said George. ‘Well, I guess we’d better get on with it.’ Then, without further ado, he rose from his chair and headed out of the room
, followed shortly afterward by both February and Kitty. February went out to her car to bring in the few things she had brought with her, while Kitty headed up the stairs to apply some makeup and to disguise herself.

February wished she’d thought of putting her stuff into storage. Chances were it’d all be confiscated
, though, when the soldiers came looking for her. They might even be there waiting for her when the time came to collect her stuff. It was a nice idea, but it was too dangerous. All she had left was what she had brought with her in the car, and soon even the car would have to be dumped.

As she finished unloading the car, putting the contents in Kitty’s room for convenience, she headed back into the living room
to the newspaper to catch up with where the convoy had gotten to. She was alone in the room now and grateful for it. The sound of laser fire and the sight of smoke from the camera’s vantage point on the tank were unmistakable. The convoy had been ambushed, and by the sound of it they were suffering heavy casualties. The unit the feed was coming from was hurtling through the streets of Benfleet at what seemed a very dangerous speed. She wished the unit was closer to the action so she could see exactly what was happening there.

She clapped her hands together in delight at the thought of her people destroying the convoy. But then she decided that she couldn’t risk the chance that one of the humans in the household might catch a glimpse of this and seek some sort of retribution, especially Maureen. There was no doubt they would find out in time, but she hoped it would have a lesser effect if they didn’t actually see it happen. She turned the newspaper off and then sat back on the stall, sipping the glass of orange juice she had poured for herself earlier
, and waited for Kitty to finish applying her makeup.

Two hours later they were walking down the paved ramp towards the holotheater that housed the headquarters of February’s region. The theater seemed as busy as it ever was; there were large queues in front of the main doors as people waited to get in for a matinee showing of some holomovie that had only been released a day or two ago.

On this occasion
, as they headed around the side of the building to the small service door that actually led into the regional headquarters, they were followed by a group of herd that had just come out of the holomovie and happened to be heading that way themselves. February led Kitty past the door towards a small overflow car park just beyond. She watched the group climb into their vehicle and waited for them to leave the area under the semblance of trying to look as if she was lost and trying to find her bearings.

Once the herd’s vehicle was no longer in sight she led Kitty back to the door and gave it a knock. Stepping back
, she then smiled at the small area in the door where she knew a camera was hidden. She had the unmistakable feeling that she was being watched, but she put that down to simple paranoia caused by the current climate: the assault on Sou’nd, the arresting of all domesticated Herbaht, and the assumption that a raid on the regional headquarters themselves couldn’t be too far off.

‘Maureen doesn’t like you,’ Kitty commented as they waited.

‘I noticed,’ February replied simply. ‘We’ll have to keep an eye on that one. I might have to leave sooner than expected, and you might have to come with me.’

They seemed to be taking an inordinate amount of time to open the door today
. February waved at the little camera and continued to wait. If she had to wait much longer, someone else might head down the alleyway beside the holotheater and they might have to move again.

Then the door opened and they entered. They closed the door behind them and then heard the door at the other end of the corridor click as if that too had been unlocked.

‘No escort?’ Kitty commented. She seemed to be as nervous as she had been last time.

‘No,’ agreed February. That minor fact was worrying in
and of itself.

They entered the security room at the end of the corridor only to find it empty. The partition wall was still there, but the door that separated the security room from the converted theater had been left open.

February braced herself for the worst when they entered the large meeting hall. It was nearly empty.

By a pair of tables that had been erected near the stage sat Stenhas, busy playing with a pack of cards. A heap of papers had been dumped on the end of the same table. February didn’t recognize the game he was playing, but it was clearly some form of solitaire. The main doors that led out into the rest of the holotheater were still locked and barred, but now they only had one guard watching them. Other than that
, there were two others in the room. One was watching a small newspaper monitor, following the now well under way battle of Sou’nd. The other seemed to have just called in on her way somewhere, a convenient place to stop and have lunch.

‘Febby, it’s good to see you again. Twice in one week? You spoil me
,’ Stenhas called. He put the cards down so he could beckon her and Kitty over with his one good hand. ‘Come on over.’

February hated being called Febby
, and as usual it almost made her wince. Fortunately it seemed only her brother and Stenhas liked to contract her name like that, but this was at least the third time one of them had done so with Kitty present, and February was getting a nasty feeling that Kitty might soon get into the habit. She walked over to the table where Stenhas sat and made herself comfortable in a nearby vacant chair. Kitty did likewise, and she eyed the cards with a wanton sparkle in her eye.

‘The place is very empty today
,’ February commented softly. She eyed the papers on the desk, worrying that they might contain information that they wouldn’t want the herd to get hold of, but she relaxed when she saw they were only related to the normal workings of the holotheater.

‘Most of our people are at home. They want to see our people give this upstart Slim a good kicking for his trouble. Unfortunately that doesn’t seem to be happening
; except for a few snipers, he’s met virtually no resistance since he arrived in Sou’nd. Still, we hit him hard on the way, thanks to you. I don’t think he can win the propaganda war anymore. Then, of course, there were your warnings. I’ve told people that until this current crisis is over they should only come here if it’s vital. When this is all over you’re going to be some kind of hero.’

‘Me
, a hero?’ February was more than a little shocked, and one look at Kitty showed that she was thinking the same thing. ‘What does any of this have to do with me?’

‘That bomb you brought in the other day. I passed on the information and the bomb to others
, and I think they were able to copy the device. We don’t have the sort of resources required to mass-produce a thing like that, but I think they made a dozen or so. They were used recently by the forces led by the Patriarch against the convoy.’

‘The
Patriarch got involved?’ If she was surprised before, she was astonished now. ‘I must’ve missed that bit.’

‘We hit them hard thanks to you
,’ Stenhas repeated. ‘We aren’t sure they’re powerful enough to disable a tank, and they only had a limited supply. We can’t stop them from destroying Sou’nd.’

February nodded. She looked at Kitty
, who seemed to be paying attention but at the same time trying her best not to. Poor Kitty. All this talk of death and destruction, and she, not that long ago, had been forced to live among the herd. It must have been a terrible strain on her conscience to hear two Herbaht talk so happily about the damage done to the convoy. February decided to change the subject. ‘So all your services and security seems to have vanished,’ February complained.

‘Afraid so,’ Stenhas said indifferently
. ‘There's only Huttugh and me still here to guard the place. I don’t know how I’d manage without Huttugh; he stands over there at that door and watches it like a hawk. When anyone wants to enter, it’s he who goes to the security room to release the doors. He’s a marvel.’

‘How does he know if someone’s waiting to come in?’ Kitty asked; she seemed more into the conversation now
that the subject had moved away from death.

‘Oh,’ Stenhas commented with a laugh in his voice, ‘he has a small monitor with him that’s linked directly to the main one in the computer room. We set that up last year as a backup system
in case anything did happen. Though if the soldiers do decide to attack now, there aren’t many of us to defend the place.’

‘Can’t be helped,’ February said
. ‘At least most of our people will be safe. I want you to be safe too. I think you should spend more time at home, or at least in the office, away from this room.’

Stenhas shook his head
and told her, ‘I can’t escape. They can find out easily that I’m the owner of this holotheater. They’d want to know why I allowed a Herbaht regional headquarters to be set up here. As soon as they questioned me, they’d know. You see, I’ve already been through the scene several times in my head. Far better, I think, to go down with the ship.’