London Wild (38 page)

‘Slim seems to be on good terms with the army
, as they are also lending him no less than thirty tanks and an equal number of support vehicles with which to aid him in this mission. There will also be a number of soldiers to man these vehicles for him. He is being given another one hundred infantry on top of that and has been given a link to an airbase so he can call in an air strike should his forces get bogged down by enemy fire. They must really think a lot of him in government.’

This stuff was more useful; knowledge of the numbers involved might be vital when preparing a defense. February decided to watch the rest of the clip first in case they revealed something else she could impart.

However, as it continued, it seemed mainly to be a lot of frothing about how good Slim Dorris was and very few actual facts. There were no details about his plan of attack, nothing that February could relay to her brother. She couldn’t help but think it was a silly idea that they should advertise the attack on the newspaper at all. Anyone might be watching. She might be watching.

‘Tune in early tomorrow for live coverage of the attack as it takes place’
was the last thing spoken, but a little bit of text came up at the bottom of the screen.
If you would like to join Slim in his quest to free Sou’nd of the evil cat menace, be at the check-in desk no later than five-thirty a.m. tomorrow.

February let the story end itself
, and the newspaper’s screen returned to the headline page. For a moment she considered several alternatives. The first was to watch the story again in case she had missed something important that she could tell to her brother when she called him. The second was to go straight to the computer and put a call through to her brother and let him know as soon as possible about the danger that was coming his way. The third idea that also occurred was that she should go along to the check-in desk herself tomorrow morning and sign on as a civilian. She might be able to do a lot of damage to the invading force from the inside.

This last idea she rejected out of hand. Slim might not have the same aptitude as the
Elite for recognizing a disguised Herbaht, but he was getting a lot of help from the authorities in this venture. As they were sending soldiers to help in this attack, it made sense that there might be one or two of the Elite Guard there tomorrow too, and they would spot any Herbaht trying to join in an instant.

Another idea did occur to her
: with all the harassment the herd were currently giving her race, it might be a good idea to run. To get away from London, maybe head up north where they had never even seen a Herbaht. The idea appealed to her, but the word
coward
that seemed to accompany it didn’t.

Well, whatever else she did
, she would call her brother first. She decided there wasn’t really a lot she could get from watching the news again.

She got up and walked to her computer, chewing the last mouthful of her sandwich. She had been so occupied
with the story that she hadn’t even remembered eating it.

‘On!’
she said to the computer’s monitor as she reached it. It was a simple tabletop version, designed for easy movement as opposed to the popular wall-embedded type of computer that most homes had. Those who worked with computers and those who played games on them tended to prefer to keep their machines mobile.

The computer screen sprang to life. A number of short, one-line messages flowed across the screen. Advertisements from the company that had made the computer, supposedly there to remind her where she had got
ten it for when she wanted an upgrade. She never bothered to read them, though they were always there and had probably gotten through to her on a subconscious level.

‘Computer, link to my brother Liykl in Sou’nd!’ February then waited while the computer made the connection.

‘Hello?’ a voice said. There was no picture. The recipient wasn’t allowing his face to be transmitted. In Sou’nd there was always a good chance that the machine he was using didn’t even have that facility. There was a very good chance the machine he was using was two hundred or more years old.

‘Liykl?’ February said quietly
. She seemed unsure she had gotten the right number, despite the fact that she had only told the computer his name. ‘It’s me, February.’

‘Febby,’ replied the voice,
sounding a little stressed, ‘good to hear from you. You just caught me on my way out. How are you?’

‘I’m fine
, Liykl,’ she replied. The sound of water pouring away upstairs permeated through the ceiling. Kitty had finished her bath and would probably be down to join her soon. She would probably be looking for some lunch too. February turned her attention back to the screen and said, ‘I had to warn you; Slim Dorris intends to attack Sou’nd tomorrow and, well, I was worried about you.’

‘Yeah, we know. News of the imminent attack started reaching us around midnight last night. Apparently Slim is having the whole thing televised and has put out a call for volunteers to join him. Basically he’s given us plenty of warning that he’s coming. They tried setting up some roadblocks, but we’ve found a way through and most of our people have already left the area and are heading in all directions
, though mainly towards London. We’re hoping that some will intercept the convoy as it makes its way here and stop it in its tracks. It’s thought that if Slim is killed, the rest of his attack will just collapse.’

‘That’s good thinking,’ February agreed
. It was quite a weight off her mind that her people in Sou’nd already knew of the attack and were doing something about it. ‘I take it you’re getting ready to leave Sou’nd then?’

‘I’ll be staying,’ Liykl replied with conviction. ‘Some of us are going to stay inside the boundaries of Sou’nd and defend our land in the same way our people have for centuries. We intend to make them pay for every inch of Sou’nd they destroy.’

‘They’ll destroy the town from a distance,’ February told him; ‘with the weapons they’ll be using they can destroy the town without even crossing the threshold. They could probably do it without leaving their starting positions if there weren’t so many other buildings in the way. You won’t stand a chance.’

‘We’ll be all right,’ Liykl assured her. ‘There are a number of tunnels under Sou’nd. Andreicht thinks they might be a part of the sewer system that ran underneath the town in order to deal with herd waste in ancient times. We can use these to get behind the attackers and take them unaware
s. If they don’t know about the sewers they won’t think to destroy them, and they won’t be expecting us to use them.’

‘That’s a big if,’ February told him
. ‘Chances are they have paid careful attention to all possibilities. I’ve heard of the stuff this man has done; he’s very hard to get one over on.’

‘You’re just
buying into the legend of the man,’ Liykl replied, his disembodied voice sounding perhaps a little too confident. Liykl was nervous and trying to hide it. ‘Telling us he’s coming is hardly the action of a man who’s thought of everything. We even know the size of the force he plans to bring with him. I think he’s overrated.’

‘Nevertheless, I
’ll remind you that of all the members of my family, you are the last one alive. I’d rather keep you that way. It was hard enough when our brothers and sister died, not to mention our parents. How do you think I’ll feel if you join them?’ She had been wondering how to move the conversation around so she could warn him of the numbers coming. From the look of that report, it had been made only an hour or two ago, but that was probably plenty of time for news to reach Sou’nd. Had it been raining yesterday she might have thought they had made the report in advance. Liykl said they had been getting calls warning them since around midnight. They must be updating the story constantly. She wanted to warn him that the numbers he had been given could be wrong, that they could even be a smokescreen, but all she managed to say was, ‘Don’t throw your life away. Leave while you can.’

‘I’ll not walk out on my friends; I’ll not be a coward before the face of the enemy. If the worst should happen then we’ll meet again in the arms of the
Goddess,’ Liykl commented simply. ‘Besides, I have no intention of joining the rest of our family just yet.’

‘I’m glad to hear it,’ February sighed
. ‘You know I’m not very religious.’

‘Yes, I know
.’ Liykl had a laugh in his voice as he continued, ‘I was like that once myself, but I’ve seen enough things since returning to Sou’nd to convince me that there might be something behind it. At the very least I’m not willing to dismiss the possibility out of hand, especially as I might need her help fairly soon.’

‘Just look after yourself and make sure you don’t need her help,’ February insisted. The worry in her voice was very strong
, making her words almost squeak out. ‘If you rely on the Goddess
for help, you might find yourself…’ She couldn’t finish. There was a tear in one of her eyes, a tear she tried to ignore. She was strong; she was a huntress. She hadn’t cried when her father died, she hadn’t cried when her mother died, and she wouldn’t cry now.

‘I’ll be careful,’ Liykl replied
. He must have heard the emotion coming from February because his voice seemed to be as soothing as he could make it.

It was at this moment that Kitty entered the room. She was still a little damp from her bath. Her hair was covered by a bag made out of some sort of plastic that was designed to suck the moisture from her hair. Around the rest of her was a large bath towel, similar to those that had been worn by women who had just taken a bath for centuries. Her feet were bare
, but she had evidently dried them carefully before leaving the bathroom, as she left no moisture-laden footprints on the carpet. ‘What’s the matter?’ she asked. She must have seen that February appeared to be upset. She approached and tried to put a comforting arm across February’s shoulder.

‘Who’s that? Liykl asked
, suddenly very wary.

‘It’s a friend,’ February told him
, resisting the urge to actually cry. She would be strong. ‘One of those the herd domesticated. I took her in. The world is not a safe place for any of us these days. We’re all in this together now.’

‘I’d heard,’ Liykl commented
. ‘Sounds like the herd are really gunning for us these days. You better watch yourself too.’

‘I will,’ February assured him, ‘just make sure you survive.’

‘I’ll survive,’ Liykl replied confidently. ‘I should go, though. Andreicht, my leader, wants us all in the sewers before they redirect a spy satellite. As I said when you called, I was just on my way out the door. I don’t want to let them down.’

‘You should go,’ February agreed regretfully
. ‘Hope to see you soon. And I don’t mean in the arms of the Goddess.’

‘I’ll call round when I return to London,’ he replied
, and then his voice was replaced with the static sound that told her he was no longer receiving.

February turned off the link and turned to face her guest. ‘That was my brother Liykl in Sou’nd. Slim Dorris is planning to attack tomorrow in force. He has the backing of the army and no doubt the government. The defenders of Sou’nd don’t stand a chance. I wanted to warn him to get out before it was too late.’

‘And he’s going to stay,’ commented Kitty, realizing why her friend would be upset.

‘He is
,’ February replied; the regret in her voice at her brother’s decision was still clear. ‘Fortunately they don’t intend to throw their lives away in a vain act of resistance.’

‘Where did you find out about this attack? Surely the intelligence that can be gathered by a large congregation in Sou’nd is more than one cat on her own could.’

February let the word cat go with little more than a scowl. There were more important worries on her mind at the moment. One day she would have to educate Kitty properly as to why the word cat shouldn’t be used to describe them. ‘It was reported on the newspaper. As I think about it now, they must be very confident. The story revealed a lot of details, the starting point, the numbers involved, and so on. The only thing it didn’t mention was the route they intended to take.’

‘It’ll probably go straight,’ Kitty said simply
. ‘If they’re that confident of success it’s unlikely they’ll go by a roundabout route. Anyway, what we have to do now is pack what we can’t do without and leave this house. We’ll have to dump your car too. They’ll find us easily if they match the car to the address.’

February rounded on her guest angrily
and almost shouted, ‘What have you done?’

Kitty shook her head, keeping her voice calm and level. ‘Not what I’ve done, what you’ve done.’

‘What?’ February seemed impatient. ‘Why do you say that? What have I done?’

‘My ex-master is a very wise man. He can read between the lines of these news stories fairly quickly,
and not a lot gets past him.

‘What’s your point?’ February bellowed.

‘Well, you don’t spend your entire life with a man like that and not have some of it rub off on you.’ Kitty continued, ‘Put it another way. If you intended to invade a place, would you want the world to know of your intentions beforehand or would you sneak in and hope to catch the defenders unprepared? The humans aren’t stupid. They must’ve known the cats in Sou’nd would be warned.’