Pet Noir

by Pati Nagle

  I hopped up on the seat and glanced significantly at the empty milk saucer. Devin took the hint and pulled a chunk off his burger for me, setting it on the plate. I dug in.

  “So, hear anything interesting?” he asked softly.

  I nodded, chewing. The cheese was sticking to my teeth.

  “Well, what?”

  I gazed slowly around, then gave Devin a flat stare, indicating the growing crowd of people in the bar. He looked disgusted but didn’t press me any more.

  We both gobbled down his burger, then he waved to get Candy’s attention. She came over with a tray of dirty dishes on her shoulder, looking harassed.

  “You’re busy,” Devin said. “Just put the bill on my tab, OK?”

  “Yeah, OK.”

  “What time should I come by for the game?”

  She shot a glance toward the bar. “I gotta go. I’ll flash you a message.”

  “OK, bye. Thanks,” Devin called after her.

  He pulled out a handful of credit chits from his pocket, fished through them and picked out enough for a generous tip, dropping them on the table. He was frowning slightly. He glanced at me.

  “Flowers, maybe?” I suggested in a whisper.

  The frown deepened. “Come on, let’s go.”

  ~

  Back in Devin’s apartment, I gave him the scoop on the Stratoma guys. He agreed that setting up a transport to the Fringe might be a good idea.

  “Why can’t you just look in the containers?” I asked, sniffing around the floor under the cupboards in Devin’s kitchenette. Some interesting smells there, worth following up.

  Devin leaned back on his unmade bed and shoved a pillow behind his head. “We could, and we could make a bust, but it would only get us these three guys. We want to kill the pipeline, which means we have to catch whoever’s originating these shipments from Stratoma.”

  “Oh. Well, then the transport sting won’t help.”

  “It might. If we can find out where the enhancers are ending up?”

  “End-users. Small fry. You want the big bosses, you go direct to Stratoma.”

  “Yeah. Trouble is, that’s out of our jurisdiction. Stratoma’s based at Jupiter.”

  “Time to call Interstellar Police?”

  Devin chuckled. “You watch a lot of feeds?”

  I looked up from inspecting Devin’s mini-fridge. “Everyone keeps asking me that.”

  “Interstel doesn’t give a rat’s ass about our problems. We’re too far out, too small. They’re understaffed, they can’t even handle everything that goes on in the Solar system.”

  “Oh.”

  “We’re on our own. If we want to kill this enhancer run, it’s up to us.”

  “Oh. Gee. Well, sorry I couldn’t be more help.”

  “The transport sting is a good idea. We can talk it over with Chief Wright.”

  “Is there some kibble in that bag? I’m still hungry.”

  He got up and went to the kitchenette counter where he’d dumped the carryall of my stuff. “Yeah, there’s some kibble. You thirsty, too? Want some water?”

  “Yes, please.”

  I purred and stropped against his legs. It usually got me an extra handful of kibble from Jill, but Devin just frowned down at me as he ran water at the sink.

  “Here.” He set two dishes down on the floor, my water bowl and my food dish.

  My own food dish. The special red one with “Leon” on it in spectrum-glitz letters. I frowned at it, suddenly not hungry for the kibble.

  “When can I go home?” I asked.

  Devin shrugged. “Search me. Better ask the chief.”

  “Can we go talk to him now?”

  “He’s off duty by now. Have to wait until morning.”

  Things felt very wrong. I started pacing, roaming the walls of Devin’s one-room apartment. I paused at the door, sniffed underneath it, scratched at it. Intellectually I knew that getting it open wouldn’t solve anything, but my instincts told me I was trapped and I couldn’t help myself.

  “Hey, what’s the matter?” Devin asked.

  “I want to go home.”

  His face took on a troubled expression. “Sorry, buddy. Afraid I can’t help you there.”

  I paced some more. It felt good to be moving around, even if it didn’t make me any happier.

  “Listen, you want to watch the feeds?” Devin asked. “We can find a good movie. I’ll make popcorn.”

  I went under his bed. There was an old sweatshirt under there and some socks. Ordinarily I would have enjoyed checking out the smells, but I wasn’t in the mood.

  I heard him rummaging in the bag of stuff Jill had sent. A second later one of my toys appeared on the floor at the edge of the bed, a wand with a tuft of feathers on the end. One of my favorites. He wiggled it for a while, but I declined to play.

  “Leon? You OK?”

  I didn’t answer. I figured it was perfectly obvious that I was not, in fact, OK. I went back to the farthest, darkest corner and curled up with my back against the wall.

  “Ma,” I called softly. “Ma.”

  3. The Cold Truth

  I woke up when Devin’s alarm went off. I was on my feet in an instant, hair on end, totally confused. Overhead I could hear Devin grumbling and fumbling around, then the alarm shut off. By then I remembered where I was.

  Gamma Station. Rats and sleazy Molly’s and enhancer smugglers. Hell, pretty much.

  Devin snored, back asleep. This, I decided, was not acceptable. It was morning, so we could talk to the chief now, and I wanted to go home.

  I came out from under the bed, hopped up on it, and climbed onto Devin’s stomach. Unfortunately I didn’t weigh much, being little more than a kitten physically. He kept snoring.

  “Devin. Wake up.”

  Snore.

  I moved onto his chest, extended a paw toward his nose, and very carefully drew a delicate line down the side of it with one claw. He jumped and opened his eyes, sort of, momentarily.

  “Wha?”

  “It’s morning. We need to go see the chief.”

  “Ungh.”

  “Please get up, Devin. This is very important to me.”

  He opened one eye. It glared at me blearily.

  “Talgingcat. Canblevit. Why me?”

  “I beg your pardon?”

  He let out a heavy sigh and began to move. I stepped off his chest and waited while he sat up, rubbed his eyes, and sighed again.

  “OK. Go see the chief.”

  “Good. Thank you.”

  I hopped down from the bed and went over to the door, but it became apparent that Devin wasn’t going to open it right away. He dragged himself out of bed and stumbled to the kitchenette, where he zapped a cup of coffee and stood drinking it, blinking.

  I deduced that he wasn’t a morning person. I sat down by the door and groomed while I waited for him to pull himself together.

  He had slept in his underwear. The one-all lay crumpled in a corner. Instead of putting it on he extracted a rumpled pair of pants from another pile of clothes and took a blue clingshirt out of the closet, which he pulled over his head and left on the loosest setting.

  Frankly, he looked like a slob. I didn’t say anything. I figured the chief already knew about Devin’s shortcomings, and was willing to overlook them.

  “OK,” he said. “Let’s go.”

  “I appreciate this, Devin.”

  “No problem.”

  We walked down the curving corridor outside his apartment and took the lift to the rotunda. Devin stopped at Zip Fix for a breakfast sandwich. The smells were good, but I was focused on getting off Gamma Station, so I didn’t bother trying to yowl my way into some breakfast. I was more anxious than hungry at that point.

  Still, when he tore off a chunk of ham and a bit of bread for me, I ate it. I didn’t want to be rude.

  Station Security Headquarters, tucked in the back of the rotunda’s outermost inner ring, looked a lot more impressive now that I’d seen some of th
e humbler parts of the station. I trotted in at Devin’s heels, past the front desk where the duty guy glanced up and gave Devin a nod.

  The guy looked like a perfectly normal human except that his skin was a pale aqua color, and his blond hair was tinged slightly green. Fashion choice or different species? I wasn’t sure.

  It didn’t matter anyway. In a few hours I hoped to be back home again.

  We went to the chief’s office and Devin thumbed the doorpad to request access. I could hear the chief talking inside. After a minute, the door slid open. Chief Wright waved us in, still talking to someone on holo, the screen shield turned so we couldn’t see who.

  Devin slouched over to a chair in front of the chief’s desk and flopped into it. I hopped onto his knee, then onto the desk from there.

  The chief looked sleek and dapper in a slate blue clingsuit, set on medium. His hair was perfectly groomed. The contrast between him and Devin, who hadn’t done anything to his hair since rolling out of bed, was striking.

  The chief signed off on his conversation and pushed the screen shield aside. He looked from Devin to me.

  “Good morning. Any new developments?”

  “Well, sort of,” said Devin.

  The chief tapped his keyboard and the door slid shut and locked itself. “Go ahead.”

  Devin looked at me. I looked at the chief.

  “I’d like to go home, now,” I said.

  A slight frown creased the chief’s brow. “Home?”

  “Back to Astara. It’s been fun and all, but I don’t see that I can help you much.”

  The frown deepened, and the chief shot a glance at Devin, who shrugged. Turning back to me, he folded his hands in front of him on the desk.

  “Why don’t you tell me how yesterday went?”

  So I told him about the warehouse, adding a strong suggestion that something should be done about the rats. I told him what I’d heard the Stratoma guys saying in the warehouse and at Molly’s, and about my idea for setting up a sting with a transport ship. The chief listened very attentively, nodding now and then.

  “But from what Devin says, the real problem is at Stratoma’s home base at Jupiter and we don’t have any jurisdiction there. So really, you’re never going to kill this enhancer ring. All you can do is bust the runners who come through here. The middlemen. You’ll never get the head of the beast.”

  The chief nodded slightly, frowning in thought. He was gazing off at nothing, but after a second he looked at me.

  “That’s not bad, Leon. Not bad at all. You’re doing very well.”

  “Thanks, but you know, I’d really rather get home now. Don’t see how I can be much more help, really.”

  The chief glanced at Devin and licked his lips. “Devin, could you get us both some coffee? Thanks.”

  Devin gave him a quizzical look, then slouched out of the room. The door slid shut behind him. The chief looked at me, sat up a little straighter, and cleared his throat.

  “Leon, I’m afraid I have some unpleasant news for you. Astara isn’t your home anymore.”

  I frowned, as much as a cat can frown. We don’t have the eyebrows, but we can do the flattened ears thing.

  “What do you mean?” I demanded. I had an uneasy feeling in my gut.

  “Gamma Station Security commissioned you,” the chief said gently. You know you’re engineered?”

  “Yeah, yeah. What does that have to do with it?”

  “Well, we paid for your engineering. You’re under contract to us because of that. Did Jill not mention that at all?”

  A vague memory of a conversation with Jill flickered through the back of my mind. She had said something about a contract, but I hadn’t paid close attention. I’d been busy killing a wad of paper at the time.

  “She might have mentioned it,” I said cautiously. “Maybe you’d better fill me in on the details.”

  “Sure, Leon. I have a copy of the contract here if you want to look over the terms. I’d be happy to answer any questions you might have.”

  He brought up the contract on his com screen and moved it so I could read it. There was a lot of jargon, but I was able to figure out that I was contracted to work for Gamma Station Security until the cost of my engineering had been fully depreciated. In other words, for five years.

  That’s a hell of a long time in cat years.

  I looked at the chief. “You know, the terms of this contract seem kind of unfair. Especially considering I wasn’t consulted. I think I might have a case if I took it to the Galactic Labor Board.”

  The chief sighed. “You can try, Leon, but the precedents for indenture of engineered beings are pretty well established. I looked into that, actually, before we signed the contract.”

  I felt a yowl of misery welling up inside, but I stifled it. Didn’t want the chief to think I was a crybaby. Instead I stared at the contract on his screen, trying to think of a way I could get out of it.

  “I just miss my family,” I said.

  “Um, we could call them if you like. Want to say hi to Jill?”

  Jill. She had sent me here, with that bag full of feather toys and chewy snacks and my special food dish. She had known all along I wasn’t coming back. She could have told me.

  “Not now I guess,” I said. Feeling restless, I began to pace back and forth on the desk.

  “Listen, Leon, I know it must be hard getting used to a new place and new people, leaving home for the first time and all. But you know, Gamma’s a pretty decent place to live.”

  I didn’t say anything. I was angry, and I just had to pace it out so I wouldn’t destroy anything. I thought about Jill’s favorite pink sweater, the one she wouldn’t let me near because she didn’t want it to get snagged. Thought about ripping it to shreds.

  Thought about Ma and the sibs. That made me sad, and the anger all drained away. I was lonely, tired of being surrounded by strangers. I stopped pacing, then hopped down onto the chief’s lap.

  I couldn’t help it. Not only had I just learned I could never go home, but I had spent the night alone for the first time in my life when I was used to sleeping in a pile with my family. I needed some contact, even if it was just the chief.

  “Uh,” he said. “Um, I’m sorry you’re feeling down.”

  I leaned against his chest, rubbing my face on his clingsuit. He shifted, then gave me a hesitant pat on the head.

  “It’s OK, Leon. It’s OK.”

  I heard the door slide open and looked up in time to see Devin wipe a startled expression off his face, replacing it with neutral slouch. The chief quit petting me and shifted in his chair again. I took the hint and climbed back onto the desk.

  “Here’s your coffee,” Devin said. “Hope you like it black.”

  “Thanks,” said the chief, accepting a lidded beverage cup from Devin. He took a sip, grimaced, and set it down on his desk. “You want anything, Leon? Some milk or something?”

  “No, thanks.” I sat down and began grooming my tail.

  “OK. Well then, about the Stratoma guys. I want you to run backgrounds on them, Devin. Maybe it’ll turn up something we can use. I’m going to go ahead and set up the transport sting. That should be ready later today.”

  “What about Nu-Delta’s regular run?” Devin asked. “They have other cargo to take to the Fringe. Won’t we be delaying all that?”

  “We’ll use the sting ship to shuttle the rest of their stuff to a pickup point. They’ll be able to complete their normal deliveries, they just won’t stop here for them.”

  The chief paused and looked at me. I had finished with my tail and was staring at my contract, still glowing on his screen. He cleared his throat.

  “Um, Leon, I think you should go on the sting transport. Devin’s cover in the warehouse makes it too suspicious for him to go, but you can stay out of sight and keep an ear to the deck for any bits of information the Stratoma goons may drop. Think you can handle that?”

  “Don’t have much choice, do I?” I said.

&nb
sp; He looked at me with narrowed eyes. I knew I was pushing my luck, antagonizing the boss, but I was in a foul mood.

  “You’ll have some time before the transport is ready,” he said slowly. “Maybe a little R&R would do you good.”

  The chief looked at Devin, who shrugged. Something passed between them that I couldn’t interpret. Human stuff. I couldn’t care less, at the moment.

  “Let me make a few calls, then I’ll show you around the rotunda a little more,” the chief said to me. “How about that?”

  I shrugged. I’d go along with whatever he said until I could figure a way out of the contract. There had to be a way.

  “Devin, why don’t you and Leon go and, um, work on those background checks? I’ll come to your office in about half an hour.”

  “OK,” Devin said.

  He went to the door and was halfway out before he looked back at me. I jumped off the desk, hitting the floor as hard as I could to emphasize my dissatisfaction. Didn’t make much noise, but, oh well.

  I stalked out after Devin, my semi-extended claws clicking on the floor. It was the best I could do to express my disdain for Gamma Security and the human race in general.

  Devin led me down the hall to an office about half the size of the chief’s. Three desks were crammed into it. Devin sat down at one and took a long slurp out of his coffee cup before putting it down and firing up the com unit.

  “What do you need three desks for?” I said. I hadn’t meant to talk to him, but I was curious.

  “I don’t. I share this office with two other agents.”

  “Where are they?”

  “Sheila works swing shift, and Ralph works graveyard. That way we each get the office to ourself, mostly.”

  “Then what do you need three desks for?”

  Devin shot me an impatient look. “So we can each keep our own stuff here, OK?”

  “OK, no need to get cranky! Sheesh.”

  “Sorry, Leon. This is a little earlier than I usually get up.”

  He took another long pull from the coffee cup. I went over to an empty chair at one of the other desks and hopped onto it, then up onto the desk. Walked across an untidy stack of papers to Devin’s desk and sat down to watch him scanning data about Stratoma.