‘I don’t like it,’ February replied; ‘it goes against everything that I believe. It goes against everything that makes sense. The chances of such complementary evolution are probably greater than the odds of the Goddess actually existing. But it’s not just the complementary evolution. There’s also the fact that of all the planets in the universe, we would come here. I’m not saying I have all the answers; most of my people are happy with the religious point of view and don’t want to look any deeper. And it’s not exactly like I can go to a library and look up the facts.’
‘Perhaps it was a mad scientist or an alternate universe,’ Stanley suggested.
‘Now you’re just being silly,’ February replied. She was sitting up straight on the couch now so that Stanley could join her if he wished to. He stayed where he was at the bar, though.
There was a short pause as she turned her attention back to the newspaper. The convoy was somewhere between Romford and Upminster, having just suffered an attack by a car bomb. There was something surreal about the way it was being reported, perhaps the way any incident seemed to be getting reported after the fact. She couldn’t help feeling that the reporters were trying to cover the attack from too far back on the convoy. Then again, she wouldn’t have their job for all the money in London.
‘Tell me,’ she said after a minute’s contemplation. ‘Why are you willing to talk to me?’
‘I’m sorry?’ Stanley replied, sounding a little confused. ‘Shouldn’t I?’
‘Most herd, upon realizing what species I belonged to, would’ve been out that door and trying to put a call through to the police or the army. Admittedly, I would’ve stopped you before you got there. I was just wondering what was going through your mind,’ she asked him.
‘Well, it’s simple, really,’ he replied as he drained the last of his juice. ‘I can’t believe you’d break in to just nap on the couch. Therefore, you are a guest of my brother as you said you were. I didn’t tell you my name or his name, so the fact that you knew them helped to confirm your story. I too am only a guest, and I feel it is out of place for one guest to question the presence of another. If anyone should do that, then I’ll leave it to my brother. Besides, as I’ve said before, I’m from the moon, and we have no problem with your people on the moon.’
‘Well, there aren’t any of my people on the moon, except perhaps as pets,’ February explained.
‘I know that,’ he replied calmly, ‘but it means that I haven’t got the same sort of mentality as someone who lives under the constant threat that your species represents. I haven’t lived in mortal fear of waking up in the middle of the night and finding someone of your race there. I’ll admit I was scared as soon as I knew what you were. But as soon as it became clear you meant me no harm, I felt no malice towards you.’
February nodded and glanced back at the newspaper with a yawn. It seemed that the convoy had stopped for some reason. There was a transport full of soldiers driving past the reporter. She commented, not looking at him, ‘Well, I suppose that’s fair enough.’
‘Can I ask, if you thought I might react badly to hearing that you were a cat, then why did you tell me?’ Stanley riposted.
‘Herbaht,’ February insisted. ‘Try to get used to it. It might stop me lashing out at you some time.’
‘Sorry,’ Stanley told her. ‘Perhaps in return you can stop referring to us as herd.’
February grinned at that point. ‘I like you. Of all the humans’—she seemed unused to the word—‘that I’ve corrected recently, you are the first one to actually correct me back. I respect that and I’ll try to honor it. It’s only fair, I suppose.’
‘So what’s the answer?’ Stanley asked after another moment’s pause.
‘I’m George’s guest, and you’re his brother. I couldn’t hide what I was from George because of who I was with. Since he knows, there seemed little point in trying to hide it from you. Just so long as you understand that if you try to betray me, I will kill both you and your wife, and probably George for good measure.’
‘And you’re with Kitty, aren’t you?’ he said, ignoring the threat.
‘That’s who I said,’ February replied.
‘Actually, you didn’t name her,’ Stanley pointed out. ‘You merely gave me enough clues that guessing was fairly easy. A cat that…’ He stopped for a moment, then restarted with, ‘Sorry, this is harder than it seems. A Herbaht that George would share a friendship with. Other than Jojo, who is dead, that only really left Kitty. I’m glad Kitty is still alive. I think George had been suffering over what he thought he had done to her. It’ll do him good to see her again.’
February nodded, ‘I’ve heard a lot of Jojo; what was she like?’
‘I didn’t know her that well; I only saw her for about two weeks in every year. I would say she was quite affectionate and friendly,’ Stanley replied. He pointed to the wall where her picture was hanging and said, ‘That’s her.’
February looked at the picture for a minute, but it didn’t really tell her anything. She knew she ought to be making some sort of comment, such as how pretty Jojo had been, but she really didn’t see that. Jojo seemed quite a plain-looking girl, and without a scent to go on there was no real way of determining the sort of character she might have had. In the end she said something else: ‘You know, I’ve only known you for a few short minutes, but there’s something about you I feel I can trust.’
There was silence from the bar for a moment. Then Stanley told her, ‘I don’t know how to reply to that. I like the idea that you might be able to trust me. It makes me feel more able to trust you. If I’m to help you get out of London, then it’s probably best that there is some sort of trust between us.’
‘I trust Kitty,’ February said. ‘I don’t think I’ll ever fully trust a human. But I trust you more in a few minutes of talking than I have any other human I’ve had to deal with, including your brother. I think the moon must be an idyllic place.’
‘Well we won’t be going to the moon. They’ve closed it to normal traffic, including those of us who used to keep the shell of Moonbase intact. But hopefully you’ll find Mars as good. As for my brother, he likes cats…’ Here there was a pregnant pause. ‘Sorry, he likes your race. He had two pets of your race at one time, but he has had to live in the city, where deaths happen every night because of your people and their need for human flesh. He’s probably unsure how to handle you. Besides, I know he turned in soon after we did last night, so you probably woke him up, and that can make things a little stinted between people. I, on the other hand, am willing to help you because you’re here with Kitty. My entire reason for coming here, rather than going straight to Mars, was to get Kitty away from here before she got handed over to the military.’
February looked at him uncertainly. The scent coming from him suggested that he was being serious but was perhaps a little unsure himself. ‘Look, I need to freshen up, use the bathroom, reapply my makeup, that sort of thing.’
‘Sure thing,’ Stanley replied. He stood up and moved towards the door. ‘I’ll tell you what. I’m going to make some breakfast for my wife now. I can knock something up for you too, while I’m at it.’
‘If you wish, that would be nice,’ February replied.
While Stanley was making her breakfast and she was abluting, he would be out of sight. So long as they were both in the house, though, she would be able to smell what he was up to. Any time his scent changed to one of intent to betray, she would know, and she could be down those stairs in a minute to stop anything he might be planning. She hoped he wouldn’t do anything silly, though, if only because Kitty probably wouldn’t be too happy with her if she had to kill him.
Her ablutions didn’t take too long: a quick shower to wash off the old makeup, followed by the placement of a new layer. She needed to change her contact lenses to give the ones she had slept in a chance to clean themselves while she wore the new ones, and there were also a couple of other things she had to take care of while she
was in there.
February didn’t think she had been in there too long when she finally emerged thirty minutes later, but she found Kitty waiting on her outside. Kitty greeted her friend with a wide, happy grin, and they changed places, Kitty entering the bathroom while February started back down the stairs. It seemed that Kitty had already taken most of her makeup off, probably doing so before turning in last night.
She thought of Stanley again and the theories she had told him. She was regretting that now that she had had time to reflect. These were her theories, and in the past she had felt embarrassed even at the idea of imparting them to another. She hadn’t even told her thoughts to others in her own family, and here she was, baring her soul to a herd of all people. She hoped she could trust him. She hoped she could trust all of them. She couldn’t help thinking that he thought she was a lunatic.
The scene that met her when she got downstairs, though, chased the thought from her mind. As he had promised, he had made her breakfast and had kept it warm while she was busy. He had also turned up the newspaper to better hear what was happening to the convoy on its way to Sou’nd.
When she entered the living room, he glanced round at her quickly and said, ‘They’ve just passed through Laindon, if you’re interested. My wife should be down soon. I took her breakfast up while you were busy. I’ll just go and fetch yours for you.’
February watched the passage of the convoy from the doorway of the living room for a few seconds before she decided to move. Nothing much was happening, but the reporter was talking about a small battle that had been fought just before they had reached February’s hometown of Upminster, and from the sound of it he wasn’t just talking about a car bomb but an actual ambush involving laser fire and everything. Part of her wished she had seen it, but then, the convoy appeared to still be in one piece so perhaps it was better that she hadn’t.
Stanley brought her breakfast into the living room for her and placed it on the counter by the bar. A quick check of his scent told her that he wasn’t trying to hide anything. She had feared that he might’ve tried to slip something into the food to knock her out, but then his scent would’ve given him away. She could get used to being waited on like this.
‘I’m just going to check on my wife,’ he said. ‘Enjoy.’
‘I will,’ February replied, offering him a big friendly smile, ‘thank you.’
‘February,’ Maureen was saying, ‘that’s an interesting name; however did you get it?’ Breakfast was over now, and by the clock it was nearly eleven in the morning. Everyone in the household was now sitting in the living room. The newspaper in the corner had been left on so they could all watch the convoy’s progress to Sou’nd, even if the loyalties of those watching might be different. George sat in his usual favorite armchair, the one that doubled for use with the holoviewa. Kitty and February were sitting back at the bar, with Stanley and Maureen on the couch. They had moved the couch a little so they could talk more easily with those at the bar whilst keeping both George and the newspaper in sight. The main subject on their agenda was whether or not they would allow February to travel with the rest of them.
‘My mother had a thing about the month,’ February replied in as gentle a voice as she could. She had recently learned that Maureen had been brought up in the eastern outskirts of the city, and though she had apparently not suffered any Herbaht-related tragedy in her life, she did become very jumpy when she heard that February belonged to that race. ‘It’s not the standard thing where I was conceived in the month; I’m not even sure my mother knew when I was conceived. But she liked the month and so I got named after it. I’m the only one in my family to get named after a month, though I did have a sister called Solstice.’
Maureen seemed to take this calmly. Indeed, she was doing a lot better than she had when she first realized what February really was. Originally she had panicked. She had almost insisted they should call the police and had even gotten into a shouting match with her husband over what was right and what they should do. It was only when Stanley had pointed out that betraying February would also be betraying Kitty and therefore George that she had calmed down. She made no bones about the fact that she didn’t like February or what she was, but she seemed more able to argue coherently than she had earlier. ‘And you want to come with us to Mars?’
‘I want to get out of London before things start to get out of hand in the city.’ February looked a little glum. ‘My thinking is that things can only get worse, and I don’t really want to be around when they do.’
‘Some might say that that sounds a bit on the cowardly side,’ Maureen suggested. She seemed to be watching carefully for any reaction.
‘Perhaps,’ February agreed reluctantly, ‘and perhaps they’d be right. The point is that my race will be out for revenge for what Slim is doing today. They will need time to organize, or the armed forces will just pick them off easily, one at a time. My problem is that the only ones really capable of leading any concerted effort would be the Matriarch and her husband. As I explained to your husband, Stanley, I’m not really very religious. I actually think Kitty might believe in that sort of thing more than I. And I really don’t think I’d be good at taking orders after all the years I’ve spent looking after myself.’
She paused to catch her breath and then said, ‘Then there are all the soldiers that will be called in to deal with the problem. These soldiers might not be trained up to the same standard as the Elite, but they are trained nevertheless. This might be bad of me, but I actually don’t think my race can win. We might have the skills, but we don’t have the numbers.’
‘The whole thing looks like a setup,’ Kitty offered quickly. ‘The heavily advertised attack on Sou’nd could only have one reason that I could see. But because of that the whole situation feels…well, it feels like we’re just following a script written by the government. It’s almost as if they want the cats to attack. After all, it’s easier to hunt down an active enemy than one that is hiding.’
‘What reason?’ George asked. ‘I was wondering about that myself. Why didn’t the authorities stop him placing that advert when they decided to allow his use of soldiers in his strike force? You say you think he had a legitimate reason for doing it?’
‘Kitty believes the intent was to let the Herbaht in London know about the assault so that we’d all get on the links and contact our relatives in Sou’nd and thus reveal where we all live,’ February explained. ‘I think she’s right. And they must’ve known the attack on Sou’nd would create this reaction. Although why they might be willing to sacrifice those living in London to get us, I can’t begin to guess.’
‘Makes sense,’ George replied after a moment. ‘I wish I’d seen through it. Someone seems to have taken it into their heads to exterminate your entire race. Even though I can understand the desire to stop the killing, there has to be an alternative to genocide. I mean, take the pills that were fed to those that were domesticated. Why would all the pets have been placed on the death list too?’
‘And why couldn’t your race just live on the pills?’ This was from Maureen. ‘Why eat humans when there is a decent alternative available?’
‘The pills contain a drug that makes us docile. I don’t mean sleepy, but definitely less prone to exercising our free will. Most of my race would not be willing to even consider a life like that,’ February said; she actually felt she sounded a little defensive. ‘According to our history, we already tried that path once; the result was that most of our race ended up as pets to humans. It felt like a betrayal at the time. It will be a long time before we’d be willing to trust anything similar.’
George then said, ‘Do you know why there seems to be a great discrepancy between the number of wild cats that seemed to be on…’ he stopped as Stanley was waving madly at him, ‘…what’s up?’
‘Herbaht,’ Stanley said. ‘She doesn’t like the word cat.’ He glanced at February and she nodded her agreement at him.
‘Sorry,’ George
replied. ‘Er, where was I? Oh yes. Do you know why there seems to be a discrepancy between the number of wild Herbaht and the number of deaths per month? I understood your race needs to eat human flesh at a rate of one per month, or thereabouts, but the fifteen thousand or so wilder members of your family in the London area killed no more than about five hundred people in the last month.’
‘I have no idea,’ February replied, blinking. ‘I’ve heard those numbers myself, never thought anything of them. Propaganda perhaps, I don’t know.’
‘I don’t think it’s possible to cover up so many deaths without someone noticing.’ George commented.
February shrugged her shoulders. ‘I really don’t know.’
George shook his head. ‘I was just wondering if maybe this requirement of one a month was wrong. It could be less. I’ve heard that if your race goes without human flesh for more than three months they start to suffer as badly as if they haven’t eaten at all for several months, and that after five months without it, they die. But I’ve not actually seen evidence of the claims. There’s nothing about any experiments or anything like that. I often wondered how true it was. I mean, it could just be a rumor that has made its way into folklore, claiming to be fact.’
‘I don’t know what you’re expecting me to say!’ February told him.
‘Yes, of course,’ George said, disappointed. ‘I guess I was hoping, because you were a wild cat, that you might have a few of the answers.’
February shook her head as George spoke the word ‘cat’ again, and she saw Stanley close his eyes with a pained expression on his face. It seemed Stanley had noticed the slip too and it had struck him in the same way as it might one of her own race. Of the two, she did feel herself drawn more to Stanley, though to be honest she’d rather not get stuck with herd at all. She needed them, though. For some reason she felt drawn to Mars; perhaps it was her destiny to visit there.
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