London Wild (86 page)

‘So, are the cats getting more brazen in the targets they are picking?’ asked the interviewer.

‘Well, Russell,’ the guest replied, his voice confirming that this was someone different than the previous speaker. ‘The cats usually pick their targets carefully. If they attacked this checkpoint, then they had a good reason to do so. Maybe they had something heavy they wanted to move to the north, and with all the routes blocked, they would have to make their own path.’

‘But the road was littered with cars,’ the interviewer commented
. ‘Surely they still wouldn’t be able to get anything really big through.’

‘It could be something simple, such as the Matriarch and her entourage wanting a clear path to the north
,’ the guest replied in a matter-of-fact tone.

‘Oh, I see,’ the interviewer offered.

‘Or it could have been intended as a punitive strike, to remind us that they are still a force to be reckoned with,’ the guest suggested in much the same tone.

The interviewer started to ask another question, but both Judith
’s and Jhosatl’s attention was dragged from the screen by a loud ruckus coming from the bedroom. Another argument had broken out between Sult and Starlight, and as seemed normal, Sult’s was the only voice to be heard.

At first Jhosatl looked around
, hopeful that maybe it was his wife making the noise and that she was finally showing some sign of recovery. But it didn’t take long for him to realize what was actually happening, and he sank back into the couch with a sigh.

‘You’re useless
; you’re utterly useless!’ It was only too clearly Sult’s voice.

‘Go,’ Judith commented
, watching Jhosatl’s face, suddenly so full of hope, return to its previous expression of helplessness. ‘Go and find out what’s going on. This is a decent excuse to pay your wife a visit at the same time.’

He didn’t need any more encouragement than that. Quickly he got up and made his way behind the couch towards the bedroom door. Before he opened it
, though, it was opened from the other side and Sult stepped into the casual room with Starlight just behind him.

Sult didn’t seem to notice Jhosatl at first, instead ranting at the woman behind him. ‘I thought you said you had medical training, yet in the two days I’ve known you I don’t think you’ve gotten anything right except with luck. When we brought Amba into this hotel in the first place
, I told you to be very careful about how we moved her. If I hadn’t been there with you, I think she’d probably already be dead.’

‘I’m sorry,’ Starlight replied
, her voice little louder than a squeak.

Sult stomped over to the kitchen and began to pour himself a glass of water from the cooler that the hotel had so thoughtfully supplied. ‘I’ll bet you never had anything to do with the great Slim Dorris. It was all just a story you made up. You saw an opportunity and you took it.’

Jhosatl looked longingly through the open door into the bedroom at the prone figure of his wife. He so wanted to see her, to check she was all right, but somehow he felt he daren’t move.

‘No,’ Starlight insisted
. She almost seemed afraid to raise her voice. ‘I was Slim’s pet, that much was true. I spent most of my life as his pet. I had two siblings, both of whom were killed on their first day in the Cattery.
I intend to make it my life’s work to find out where Slim is now and then kill him for what he did to us. I used to have the address of his London apartment on a business card, but that was confiscated from me when I first arrived in the Cattery. I-I think I could still find the place, though.’

‘Slim is on the moon,’ Judith put in absently. ‘It’s on the news somewhere, on one of the networks. I’ll see if I can find the story for you if you like. He’s been summoned to the moon to act as bodyguard to the Prime Minister
, who is apparently engaged in some high level talks up there with various foreign powers.’

‘Never mind that,’ Sult interjected stubbornly. ‘Okay, so say, just say you were his pet before you ended up in the Cattery
. How much did he really teach you about medicine?’

‘Well
, nothing,’ admitted Starlight, ‘but I thought I might be able to help anyway.’

‘Nothing,’ Sult repeated
, his voice calming a little. ‘I was beginning to guess so. Why the hell did you lie to us?’

‘I would have done anything to get out of that truck. And I’m pretty sure you would have too. So I lied a little. If I hadn’t
, I would’ve been left in the middle of a forest with the others. I’d have nowhere to go, and I’d look very feline to anyone who I might happen to walk past. I wouldn’t have stood a chance alone, and I knew it.’

‘If you’ve hurt Amba
…’ Jhosatl told her firmly and accusingly.

‘She hasn’t hurt her,’ Sult replied a little more calmly, like a doctor explaining the situation to the next of kin. ‘She came close a couple of times, but Amba lives. Unfortunately I’ve done all I can
, and I’m afraid it’s been precious little. The ribs alone I could fix given time, but the rest is beyond my ability, especially with the tools at hand. If only we hadn’t had to move her from the truck in the first place, I might have been able to do more. I think it was that that pierced her lung and maybe even caused the splinters. But I don’t have the equipment or the experience, and I’m not a miracle worker.’ He slowed right down. ‘I’m sorry. I’ve done all I can and I will continue to do what I can for her, but I expect her to be dead before the end of the week.’

Jhosatl refused to listen at first. Then his legs went wobbly and refused to support him. He slumped against the wall next to the bedroom door.
Mostly to himself he commented, ‘There’s nothing you can do for her? Nothing at all, mate?’

‘I’ve done all I can
,’ Sult repeated once again, but Jhosatl shook off the words, refusing to accept them, and entered the bedroom.

Amba was lying on the bed exactly as she had been the last time he had been here. She was plugged into two makeshift drips, one feeding her water and the other removing her waste material. There were some nearly dead flowers in a vase on a small table next to her head. She had a gentle smile on her face, but her eyes were closed and there was no sign that she was even aware of his presence.

‘I love you,’ he told her pitifully, ‘and I’ll do all I can to save you.’

There was no movement from Amba, no sign that she had even heard him. If it wasn’t for the rhythmic movement of her stomach as she breathed, he might have been forgiven for thinking that she already resided in the arms of the Goddess. 

‘I will do all I can,’ he vowed to her.

He stepped out of the bedroom
. Somehow a single tear had escaped from his left eye, and he wiped it away. It was good to have these three people as friends. But more than anything in the world, he wanted his wife back, and if that meant he would lose his friends, then so be it.

Sult was standing in the kitchen. He was drinking a glass of water and trying to calm himself down. He had stopped shouting at Starlight for now anyway.

Starlight seemed unsure where she should be after recent events. She looked very nervous and was standing just behind the couch in a position that suggested that her legs were a little wobbly and that she needed support. Occasionally she would look at the newspaper screen, but the rest of the time she was looking at Sult, perhaps hoping for forgiveness or another chance.

Judith still sat on the couch. The story on the newspaper had changed again. This time they had a virtually empty studio with one person
sitting on a tall chair in the center, and he was answering questions fired at him from a disembodied voice offstage. It took Jhosatl a moment to recognize the man in the chair. No wonder the room had suddenly gotten so quiet. It was Colin.

‘No, I don’t know why they didn’t let me in on their little plan. I could make a good guess
, though. I would have told them not to do it. Amba was a good member of our band, but she was still a cat, and the law is the law,’ he was saying.

‘Do you have any idea where they might currently be in hiding?’ an interviewer was asking. ‘Any clue they might have left? Something one of them might have said the last time you saw them?’

‘I’m afraid not. The last time I saw them was at a concert a week ago. It was the same night that Amba was collected. I haven’t heard from any of them for over a week. The only time I realized that something was going on was when I called round to Sult’s place and found he had gone. When I tried to check with Judith, she too was missing. I didn’t have Joseph’s number.’

The interviewer put in, ‘Police have since searched the apartments and houses of the three and have made some quite startling discoveries, but no sign of the musicians themselves. And just before they committed this crime
, it seems that they stripped all the money out of their various accounts, a combined sum of more than three quarters of a million which they collected as cash.’

As the program continued
, the images of Sult, Judith, and Jhosatl in his human disguise appeared in the top left-hand corner with a number to call should anyone spot them.

‘That’s just great,’ Sult muttered angrily. He poured himself a second glass of water. ‘Well
, I guess I shouldn’t be surprised after everything else that’s been going on lately.’

‘
How do they know it was us?’ Judith commented, concerned.

‘We must have left some clues behind, mate,’ Jhosatl explained, ‘enough for them to put two and two together.’

‘We have to run then,’ Judith stated. ‘We have to go overseas. We have to find a country somewhere that has no extradition treaty.’

‘The moon,’ suggested Starlight hopefully.

‘Amba is in no condition to travel overseas,’ Jhosatl snapped, ‘or to the moon.’

‘Look
, I’m sorry, Joseph,’ Sult replied almost patronizingly, ‘but as I told you, Amba won’t survive to the end of the week anyway.’ He sighed. ‘We should cut our losses and go.’

Jhosatl shook his head emphatically. ‘You said so yourself; you don’t have the equipment or the experience. But I’m sure I could find someone who does. There’s bound to be a hospital in the town somewhere. All I have to do is find the right doctor and bring him back.’

‘And add kidnapping to our ever-growing list of crimes?’ Sult replied.

Jhosatl sighed
. ‘I’m sorry, but Amba means the world to me. If I was willing to give up just like that, then I probably wouldn’t have bothered to try and rescue her in the first place. She
is
my world. You might be a good friend, but without her I am nothing. Don’t you see I have to at least try?’

Sult nodded slowly but reluctantly
. ‘Very well, but be very careful. Hospitals, even at this distance from the center of London, are well guarded. It’s not normal for any Elite Guard to be on duty at one, but it’s always possible that someone else might see through your disguise, especially as your current face has just been broadcast all over the newspaper screen for the whole world to see.’

‘I’ll be careful,’ agreed Jhosatl, ‘and I’ll leave at the first sign of something wrong.’

‘And remember, those places are surrounded with cameras that watch every ward, every corridor, and even the car parks. My suggestion is that you find a doctor and ask him to help, but don’t even consider trying to drag him forcibly back to your car; you’d never make it. Fortunately, I believe in most cases doctors are men of healing. I think you’ll be surprised at how many would be willing to help you even if you were to tell them all the details of your situation. Forget the government’s edict; Hippocrates comes first,’ Sult added.

‘You’re letting him go?’ Judith commented
, surprised. She got up from the couch and looked as if she might try to stop him herself, but she made no move to.

‘He’s going to go anyway
; the best I can do is give him some advice,’ Sult replied. He drained his glass.

‘Well,’ Judith put in, ‘don’t be surprised if I’ve gone before you get back. I won’t be a party to this anymore. I feel we’ve already done all we can. Suppose you get a doctor
. How long will we need his help, assuming we can trust him? How long will we have to stay here in this room while Amba heals? And what about the problem of everyone recognizing us whenever we walk out of the room?’

Jhosatl moved to the door of the apartment and
, removing his coat from a hook, began to put it on. ‘If you’re here when I get back, then good; if not, then so be it. Just leave me enough money to keep the room for another week or so, and I’ll wing it from there.’

‘Do you mind if I come to
o?’ Starlight asked imploringly. ‘I’m beginning to feel I’ve outstayed my welcome with Sult.’

‘Not at all,’ Sult repudiated, ‘so long as you don’t try medicine anymore. However, now that our pictures have been plastered all over the newspaper networks
, you may well be safer alone.’

‘The thing is, now that I know where to go to find Slim, I feel as if I should start making my way towards him. He has to pay for the deaths of Sunshine and Moonbeam. As much as I like being with the three of you
—it’s good to belong somewhere—I do think I should cut and run as soon as possible. Every day I wait makes leaving you harder. If you two are leaving Jhosatl anyway, then perhaps now is the best time. If you can drop me off by some form of public transport, then that will be fine.’