Once Upon a Pet Show (A Redpoint One Romance) (19 page)

He nodded at Ms. Mishley as she pushed a small
cart with one of her animals inside the cage on the top and two
boxes of supplies on the bottom shelf. Ms. Mishley smiled back, her
demeanor friendly. Thankfully, she moved past Vallory's enclosure
without noticing anything.

Please, let the cat stay hidden until the show
officials showed up. Let it stay hidden even when Vallory went in
to get it. The fewer people who saw, the better.

How did the thing get inside anyway? The
enclosures were solid, designed to keep curious animals safely
inside, and equally curious children and people on the outside. The
only leads inside were for a water drip system, if needed, and ones
for the environmental control outlets. They should be too small for
a cat to get through.

Two dark blue suits appeared in the crowd.
Then another, this time one of security. The security officer might
have worried him for Vallory's sake, but if trouble started, they
would need them for a different reason.

His bot gave a worrying chirp, one he silently
agreed with. This could go wrong in so many ways.

The small group stopped in front of Vallory's
enclosure with a cart similar to the one Ms. Mishley used to
transport her pets, complete with an empty white animal crate on
top.

Vallory rubbed her hands against her thighs.
"Thank you for coming so quickly."

Mr. Darwin Beel, the head of the Exotic Pet
Show committee, stepped around Vallory to look into the enclosure.
"Where is it?"

"Back left corner. Currently under the grass
with the new daubpup baby."

"Is the baby in danger?" he asked.

"Not so far. They are playing with each other,
and Penny, the mother, is watching closely." Vallory bit a bottom
side of her lower lip. "But, cats are predators. I don't want it to
get any ideas. That baby is valuable. I cannot express how valuable
it is."

"No doubt, considering we've never seen pets
such as these here before. I'm sure we would have seen other
breeders here with them, considering how popular they are with the
crowds." Damien felt good about the compliment for Vallory's sake.
Mr. Beel turned his head towards her, his face stern. "Any idea how
it got inside?"

"No idea, sir, and I'm just as concerned about
it as you," Vallory said with no hesitation.

"I hope it wasn't done deliberately in hopes
the cat would do enough damage to your group to end any possibility
of winning a prize," Damien said.

Vallory looked at him in surprise. He hoped
she wouldn't tell Mr. Beel she had no intention of winning prizes.
She'd kept the secret so far. Right now she needed to continue to
keep it.

Mr. Beel nodded thoughtfully as he turned to
Damien. "Good point. There have been incidences at other
shows."

Good, he'd laid a point of doubt.

"Can we remove it now?" Vallory asked. "I'm
very nervous about it remaining inside."

A sentiment Damien agreed with. Preferably
before the wrong people noticed them taking up the entire front of
Vallory's enclosure.

Mr. Beel turned towards the short woman with a
styled short bob hairstyle waiting by the cart. "Alcina, any
success in contacting the owner?"

"Not yet. Their contact number goes straight
to a message system," Alcina answered. "I'll keep
trying."

"No matter what, it needs to be me who goes
inside," Vallory said. "The daubpups will protest if anyone else
does. I can divert them to the other side of the enclosure with a
ball while I try for the cat."

"If the cat allows a stranger to pick them
up," Alcina said, one eyebrow raised. "It may not."

Vallory's lips thinned. "If not, then I will
use the cage to start transporting my daubpups to a different
enclosure, and then wait for the owner to come and retrieve his
cat. Do you have an empty enclosure available if
needed?"

"We will find one for you if necessary," Mr.
Beel said.

Alcina lifted the carrying crate off the top
of the cart and handed it over. "Let us know if you need our
help."

A whistle came from the ground. A metal hand
at the top of a multi-jointed arm held up a colorful ball. Vallory
took it, smiling down at Damien's bot. "Thank you for getting it.
Most helpful."

Damien's attention jerked towards the aisle
between the enclosures and his bot. Sometime in the last few
seconds it had anticipated what Vallory would need and went to her
stored supplies in the back to get it? And he hadn't
noticed?

Yes, his bot liked her. No doubt at all now.
If his bot liked her, then the station would like her. No worries
of a Zane-like incident here.

Why did she have to live a nomadic
life?

Mr. Beel stared into the enclosure, his
expression thoughtful. "Odd that only one of them is inside.
Alcina, didn't the entire group disappear? Seven of them, I
believe?"

"Yes, seven."

Damien gave Vallory a nod of support as she
paused by the door. With a firm expression, she opened the door.
With one foot, she pushed the two waiting daubpups back and slipped
inside, the cage bumping against the door as she pulled it
through.

She tossed the ball towards the front right
side of the cage. Every daubpup in the enclosure abandoned what
they were doing and scurried towards it in a loud cacophony of
noise.

"Problem with a pet?" Mr. Pyman asked. With a
harsh ringing tone, he nearly shouted, "Is that a cat in your cage?
What are you doing with one of the glowing cats?"

That got the attention of everyone in the
vicinity. Worse yet, the other exhibitors.

Mr. Pyman stalked up to the enclosure, jabbing
a knobby finger in Vallory's direction. "I knew it. She's the
thief! Why didn't anyone listen to me?"

People from all directions now converged on
the enclosure. Some curious, some angry.

Damien rushed past Mr. Beel. He pushed Vallory
the remaining distance inside the enclosure and closed the door. To
his bot he ordered, "Lock it."

"What is the meaning of this, Damien?" Mr.
Beel demanded as his bot obeyed the command.

But, his attention wasn't on him. It was on
the descending mob of people. "She's no longer safe out
here."

CHAPTER
THIRTEEN

VALLORY STUMBLED INTO the enclosure, struggling
to re-balance herself without stepping on the playing daubpups
under foot.

The sound from outside ceased. All that
remained were the excited noises from the daubpups as each tried to
grab the ball. Two tackled it and rolled over the top. The ball
popped out from under and bounced against her feet before the
daubpups could chase it back down.

Solid on both her feet, Vallory whirled
towards the door to scold whoever pushed her. What if she'd
accidentally hurt one of the daubpups? Damien's bot extended an arm
to the handle of the door. What was it doing?

She didn't like the click the door latch made.
She knew that sound. Had heard it when she locked the daubpups
inside each night.

Locked in? Why?

Damien wasn't hard to find. He stood in front
of the door, feet planted directly under his shoulders, his muscles
under his shirt tense. Tense about what? Why did he push her in and
have his bot lock her in?

Then she noticed the gathering crowd. Led by
Mr. Pyman.

Drat. The grumpy old man noticed. Probably
shouting at the top of his lungs that she was the thief. In front
of the audience. No wonder Damien locked her inside. Right now it
was the safest place to be.

Clementine rolled into her feet. She scrambled
to her feet and launched herself after the ball, landing right on
top of Neon. Both disappeared in multi-colored coats of fur. Most
times the ball's colors couldn't be seen.

Time to do what she came inside to do. Move
the cat into the cage and safely away from the baby. She set down
the cage with the front door open and approached the back of the
enclosure where shallow sleeping pits in the straw and grass dotted
the floor.

The tail of the baby appeared from among the
dried grass as she knelt down. She gently pushed aside the grass.
The baby perked up, popping fully into view. Penny yipped from the
top of a branch.

"Relax. I'm getting her. Or him." Vallory
gently picked up the baby from around the middle. The baby went
limp, wrapping its tail partly around her wrist. With her other
hand, she stroked the baby-soft fur on its back. "You have a fine
baby, Penny. We really do need to name it, though. Prudence? Polly.
Adrienne?"

She tried several other names as she lifted
the baby to the same limb Penny lounged on. No response from the
baby with any she tried. "Fine. We'll find a name for you soon
enough. Stay up there with your mom."

Penny and the baby rubbed noses as Vallory
turned back to the grass. The cat wasn't hard to find. From above,
she spotted the dark fur under the grass. Who knew cats liked to
burrow?

"Time to come out, lovely. Your owner is
waiting for you." Vallory moved more of the grass out of the way,
continuing to croon to it, hoping it was well-acclimatized to
humans handling it. Not all of the animals at the show
were.

A cat ear poked up, then an inquisitive eye.
The rest of the head soon followed. It gave a soft mew, and then
nosed down to push through the grass. The tail popped up, sticking
almost straight up out of the layer of grass.

"Sorry, but time to go home." And time for her
to have an uneventful day. How long had it been since she'd had
one? Well over a year.

With both hands, she reached down through the
grass. She brought up both cat and a wad of grass and straw. The
daubpup's bedding slid off its back. The cat meowed louder,
wriggling in her grasp to get free.

"No, sorry, time to go. Frumpmuffin, get out
of the cage!"

She hugged the cat to her chest, gently
stroking its short fur, and glared at the daubpup now sitting
contentedly inside the entrance of the cage. Probably thinking it
was a new toy. The cat started purring, the thrumming transferring
to her chest. Well, at least it was relaxed. She let go with one
hand and reached into the cage to push Frumpmuffin out.

Frumpmuffin bounded out. The cat tried to turn
in Vallory's grasp and follow, but she turned it and popped it into
the cage before it could react.

The door clicked shut and plaintive meowing
started from inside the cage. Vallory looked inside to check on it.
Sitting on its haunches, looking out the cage door, it was clearly
not in distress. No frantic moving around at all.

Frumpmuffin came to her side to look at the
cat, before turning its head to yip up at Vallory. Who know what
her daubpup was trying to say, but it had the tone of telling her
something serious. One of the others in the group came to do the
same thing. Look at the cat, then yip up at her.

"Anyone want to own up to bringing the cat in
here?" Vallory asked to the gathering group. Not that she expected
any of them to say. Wow, this was going to be hard to explain. She
could just hear Mr. Pyman complaining that with her creatures able
to walk through walls that no animal in the place was
safe.

Or that she'd trained them to walk through
walls to drag out other people's pets? Oh lord, why did she have to
think of that? For a pet-napper, it would be the perfect way to
steal one in front of everyone else. Possible, too, considering
she'd seen daubpups drag fruits and tree limbs back to the group
that were three times or more their size or weight.

"This isn't good, guys," Vallory whispered,
her heart sinking ever more at the train of her thoughts. At least
the crowd outside the door had diminished. No more Mr. Pyman, or
much of anyone else. Frumpmuffin nosed against her hand and she
automatically scratched behind the ears.

Oh, that was the reason why. Multiple security
uniforms, with a new type represented. Dark blue with white
trimming, a uniform she'd seen worn by Station Police.