London Wild (103 page)

‘Somehow I’m doubtful,’ Kitty said.

‘So am I,’ February responded, ‘but I’m not sure we have a lot of choice.’

‘Come on
, then,’ Betti insisted, and without waiting to make sure they were following, she backed out of the cell and headed towards the main doors out of the cell block and into the rest of the ship.

‘Did you bring any weapons?’ February asked as they stepped around the remains of the dead body of the guard Betti had evidently had to kill to get in to see them.

Kitty hesitated before following the others. Again she seemed to be dwelling too much on those who were already dead.

‘Only this thing,’ Betti replied, ‘and it’s pretty useless against anyone with a power-shield.
’

‘You didn’t bring weapons for us?’ February was a little suspicious.

‘They’re programmed for a certain individual. They don’t want them falling into the wrong hands, so they don’t let you have one unless it’s coded to you first,’ Betti replied, ‘and since I’m not a warrior they were very suspicious as to why I wanted it in the first place. There would have been no way I could have gotten hold of a decent weapon.’

‘I couldn’t kill anyone anyway
,’ Kitty commented.

They continued along a few more corridors. Most of these were familiar to February and Kitty
, as they had been brought this way when they were first locked up. They passed the room in which February’s foot had been fixed, and it was here that she glanced around suddenly behind her.

‘I thought I smelt something,’ she said.

‘It’s natural,’ Kitty replied, ‘you’re scared we’re going to get caught. I keep seeing shadows.’

‘Perhaps
you’re right,’ February replied.

A little further on and they were approaching the part of the ship that contained the living quarters when Kitty spoke.

‘I think I’ve worked out the missing part of the puzzle,’ she said suddenly.

‘Oh
?’ replied February, only half listening.

‘We’re bait!’ Kitty told her.

‘Bait?’ February repeated.

Betti gave Kitty a worried look
. ‘Bait for me, you mean?’

‘I’m afraid so
,’ Kitty responded. ‘It’s the only reason I can think of why they wouldn’t have killed us the instant we were brought in. They knew they had some of your religion on board and wanted to flush you out.’

February glanced quickly behind her again
. ‘That would explain the scents that seem to be following us. The ones you put down to paranoia earlier.’

Kitty glanced back the way February was looking.

‘What can we do?’ Betti actually sounded calm, despite the situation, although that might’ve been a side effect of the translation box she was using.

‘There’s not much we can do
,’ Kitty said, her voice almost a whisper. She didn’t want anyone else to overhear. ‘You’re already compromised, and I expect they’ll find your friend easily with a quick search. You’ll have to come through the gate with us.’

They continued
, a little subdued, to the room in question, and Betti opened the door.

‘Where’s your friend?’ February asked as they entered a room that was clearly empty. There was a frame against one of the walls
, and it was clearly showing a different room, presumably somewhere on Earth.

‘My friend is a warrior,’ Betti confided. ‘Warriors are allowed to go down to the planet
, and someone had to go and set up the receiving gate. He’ll be on Earth waiting for you.’

February looked again at the room beyond the gate. It looked as empty as this room had been before they had entered it.

Betti turned her translator off for a moment and then shouted something at the frame. It sounded like she was calling to her friend.

There was no reply.

‘Ok, go through,’ Betti commented; she sounded more than a little urgent at this point.

The merest moment later
, the door exploded into several fragments of molten metal. Kitty and February were thrown to the floor.

‘Go,’ shouted Betti,
‘I’ll hold them off.’ Then as an afterthought she added, ‘If you see the Goddesses, tell them some of us are still loyal!’ She aimed her pen weapon at the opening where the door had been.

February didn’t wait for a further invitation; she scrambled to her feet and ran to the frame, not even looking to see if Kitty was with her.

She clambered into the room beyond and looked round to take her bearings quickly. She appeared to be in a living room of a house. Though the house could be anywhere, she assumed it was somewhere in London. The room was devoid of any furniture other than the frame itself that was still attached to the wall. Nor was there anyone else in the room with her.

Then Kitty entered the room right behind her, glancing nervously over her shoulder as she all but tripped over bottom of the frame. She turned almost immediately and shouted, ‘
Come on, Betti!’

Hansiobetti backed slowly away from the door of the room, her pen pointed directly at it. Slowly she backed out of the frame into the room behind them. Then she quickly hit one of the buttons at the top of the frame.
The image of the room on the ship went a little fuzzy and then opaque before vanishing altogether.

‘We don’t have long,
’ Betti commented. ‘They have ways to detect where the receiving gate is.’

‘We should search the house,’ February commented
. ‘Kitty and I need to disguise ourselves before we risk trying to mingle with herd.’ She looked Betti up and down and said, ‘I have no idea how we’re going to disguise you.’

‘Wasn’t there supposed to be another here?’ Kitty asked.

‘Yes, there was,’ Betti replied; again she turned off her translator and called out.

Again there was no reply
, but shortly afterwards there were footsteps coming down the stairs and then another Eschiff entered the room. He spoke without the aid of a translator. ‘The place is clear; I was just checking out the bedroom whilst waiting for you.’ He yawned.

‘I see,’ Betti replied, a smirk on her face
. Then to February and Kitty she said, ‘This is my husband, Hanshuffont. I guess it’s my fault he got involved in the movement, but he’s been one of our most capable operatives.’

‘So I see,’ February commented. ‘Can you make yourself look human like him?’

‘Only through surgery,’ Betti responded.

‘Unlikely she’ll get that now,’ Hanshuffont added.

‘Did you happen to notice anything Kitty and I could disguise ourselves with upstairs?’ February asked.

‘I didn’t,’ Hanshuffont replied, ‘but it shouldn’t be too difficult to find something. This is the center of London
, and virtually everything is closed or deserted.’

‘I’m going to need to hunt soon too,’ February commented.

Kitty seemed quite alarmed as February spoke.

February looked a little apologetic as she said, ‘It’s been nearly ten days since my last kill
, and most of that I had to give away. I did have some pills, ones made by my people, but they’re still on Mars along with the herd pills Kitty had left over. If we don’t eat herd soon, we may start to suffer.’

‘Count me out,’ Kitty commented tersely.

Hanshufffont nodded. ‘February, isn’t it?’

‘Er, yes,’ February replied.

‘Are you immortal, February?’

February seemed more than a little bit puzzled at the question
. ‘Immortal?’

‘Like the Matriarch and Patriarch. Are you immortal?’

‘Er, no,’ February answered, ‘at least I don’t think so. I’m not really sure they are either.’

‘Then you don’t need to eat human meat
,’ Hanshuffont assured her.

‘Wha…?’ February seemed more than a little disturbed.

‘The immortals need to kill the meat for a chemical in the brain of their victims that keeps them immortal. It acts as a booster for whatever made them immortal in the first place. Unless you are immortal, you have no need of that chemical,’ Hanshuffont stated.

‘But the pills,’ February said.

‘The pills are placebos. Those who made them just put every known chemical of the human body into one small container in the hope that they had included the right one. When they tried them, the pill seemed to work because their guinea pig had no special need for any chemical in the first place.’

‘You don’t have to take our word for it,’ Betti commented
. ‘Try going without for a while longer and see if you truly do suffer any ill effects. If necessary, we’ll go hunting for you.’

‘I
f the immortals need meat to stay immortal,’ Kitty commented, ‘then presumably your race knows this from….’

‘Our people were once fed on by the immortals, by the Gods and Goddesses that I mentioned earlier,’ Betti replied.

‘Then why would you want to invite that back into your lives?’ Kitty seemed more than a little skeptical, and the subject seemed to be bothering her somewhat.

‘Because of what happened when the Gods and Goddesses no longer ruled our world,’ Hanshuffont replied, ‘considering the millennia of slaughter that was to follow. The few that volunteered to surrender their lives to the continued immortality of the Gods was a small price to pay.’

‘The time of the Gods was a Golden Age,’ Betti added.

‘But not everyone agrees with us,’ Hanshuffont added.

‘Indeed,’ Betti offered, ‘we are currently in the minority, and if our leaders have it their way, then they’ll wipe the last vestiges of your race out before anyone else gets the chance to make a choice.’

It wasn’t so much that February didn’t trust her new Eschiff friends as that she preferred to trust her own eyes that she decided to check out the upstairs of the house herself. Besides, just because they there was no makeup in the house didn’t mean that she couldn’t find something of use.

Kitty found her in one of the bedrooms going through some old boxes. She had evidently left the two Eschiff
downstairs because she had no hesitation in saying, ‘Something’s wrong. Our escape was far too easy.’

‘You think we can’t trust our new friends?’ February commented
. She wasn’t too surprised. She was more surprised that neither of their new friends was keeping an eye on them.

‘I think we definitely shouldn’t introduce them to the Matriarch
, and quite frankly, if we get the chance, we should probably try to lose them.’

‘I don’t know how we would have done that anyway,’ February replied,
putting the last of the boxes down, ‘but I think you’re right.’ She paused and sighed before saying, ‘And to think, after all we went through to get to Mars, we ended up back on Earth anyway.’

‘I guess I won’t see my master again
,’ Kitty agreed.

‘And that rubbish they were spouting about us not needing to hunt humans
,’ February added, all but ignoring Kitty’s comment.

‘Well,’ Kitty hesitated
before continuing, ‘that could be true.’

February almost laughed at the naivety of her friend
. ‘Wishful thinking.’

‘It won’t hurt to test,’ Kitty said. ‘Let me see how long I can go without.’

February felt doubtful. ‘If you’re sure you want to try?’

‘Rather that than the alternative,’ Kitty told her.

‘Okay,’ February agreed, still unsure, ‘but I’ll be watching you carefully. And if I feel you’re suffering, then I won’t expect any argument. You will eat what I give you to eat.’

‘Agreed,’ Kitty commented, though even the mere idea seemed to be turning her face a little green.

The next comment was shouted up the stairs. It was Hansiobetti. ‘We need to hurry; they’ll be here at any minute.’

‘I, er, I guess we’d better go then,’ Kitty commented.

‘I guess so,’ February agreed.

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V.E. Shearman


        
The Duke’s Son


        
The Princess’ Brother (Part 2 of the Wings of Floroth)


        
The King’s Knight (Part 3 of the Wings of Floroth)