London Wild

by V. E. Shearman

  ‘I’ll be careful,’ agreed Jhosatl, ‘and I’ll leave at the first sign of something wrong.’

  ‘And remember, those places are surrounded with cameras that watch every ward, every corridor, and even the car parks. My suggestion is that you find a doctor and ask him to help, but don’t even consider trying to drag him forcibly back to your car; you’d never make it. Fortunately, I believe in most cases doctors are men of healing. I think you’ll be surprised at how many would be willing to help you even if you were to tell them all the details of your situation. Forget the government’s edict; Hippocrates comes first,’ Sult added.

  ‘You’re letting him go?’ Judith commented, surprised. She got up from the couch and looked as if she might try to stop him herself, but she made no move to.

  ‘He’s going to go anyway; the best I can do is give him some advice,’ Sult replied. He drained his glass.

  ‘Well,’ Judith put in, ‘don’t be surprised if I’ve gone before you get back. I won’t be a party to this anymore. I feel we’ve already done all we can. Suppose you get a doctor. How long will we need his help, assuming we can trust him? How long will we have to stay here in this room while Amba heals? And what about the problem of everyone recognizing us whenever we walk out of the room?’

  Jhosatl moved to the door of the apartment and, removing his coat from a hook, began to put it on. ‘If you’re here when I get back, then good; if not, then so be it. Just leave me enough money to keep the room for another week or so, and I’ll wing it from there.’

  ‘Do you mind if I come too?’ Starlight asked imploringly. ‘I’m beginning to feel I’ve outstayed my welcome with Sult.’

  ‘Not at all,’ Sult repudiated, ‘so long as you don’t try medicine anymore. However, now that our pictures have been plastered all over the newspaper networks, you may well be safer alone.’

  ‘The thing is, now that I know where to go to find Slim, I feel as if I should start making my way towards him. He has to pay for the deaths of Sunshine and Moonbeam. As much as I like being with the three of you—it’s good to belong somewhere—I do think I should cut and run as soon as possible. Every day I wait makes leaving you harder. If you two are leaving Jhosatl anyway, then perhaps now is the best time. If you can drop me off by some form of public transport, then that will be fine.’

  ‘I’m not sure I can condone the murder of Slim Dorris, despite what he’s done to both you and many others lately,’ Judith told her, ‘but it seems my opinions count for very little these days.’

  ‘Don’t be like that, mate,’ Jhosatl replied, ‘I value your opinions. It’s just that I value my wife even more.’

  ‘You should go anyway,’ Sult offered to Starlight. ‘We’ll give you a little bit of money to help. What you then do is up to you. We don’t need to know your plans. That way we won’t be a party to them.’ He turned to Judith, who was looking a little agitated. ‘Don’t worry. If Slim is everything he’s been claimed to be, then she’ll be no threat to him, assuming she can even get to the moon.’

  ‘I’ll give you some things to help you touch up your disguise, mate,’ Jhosatl added. He had spent about an hour in the car shortly after they’d picked her up teaching her enough about disguise to get her into the hotel. After that, she was pretty much self-taught. And yet she seemed meticulous enough when she was in front of a mirror that Jhosatl wasn’t worried at all that she might not be capable of disguising herself properly.

  ‘You should also give her some of your pills,’ Sult suggested.

  According to the clock in the car, it was about a quarter to eleven when Jhosatl dropped her off at the local bus station. From here she could catch a bus to the nearest hover-train station. Also here was a line of public links, should she want to call for a taxi. Public links were built to be vandal-proof, so with any luck at least one of them should be operational. This place was also west enough of London that it didn’t look too strange for someone to be outside waiting for a bus in the middle of the night. Besides, there was a waiting room that served the entire station, so that those who were waiting could congregate in relative safety.

  ‘Are you sure you want to do this, mate?’ Jhosatl asked as she climbed out.

  ‘I have to,’ Starlight replied. ‘Anyhow, as Sult said, it’ll actually be safer for me to go it alone, now that your pictures have been shown all over the country.’

  ‘Yeah,’ Jhosatl commented unhappily, ‘I guess he’s right. It just feels wrong to dump you like this.’

  ‘Get going,’ Starlight insisted. ‘Go find a doctor for your wife. I’ll be all right, and we’re bound to meet again one day, in the arms of the Goddess.’

  Jhosatl nodded. He closed the window and pulled the door tight before driving slowly away. He kept Starlight in view for as long as he could to give her every opportunity to change her mind. But she just vanished into the waiting area with a wave and was gone.

  He hoped she would be all right. When they had rescued her from the Cattery she had had no luggage, and though she might now be better off than she was then because at least she had some money and a disguise, she still didn’t even have so much as a toothbrush to her name. ‘She’ll be all right,’ he chastised himself. ‘If any of us get out of this mess okay, it’ll be her.’

  He drove towards the center of the city, following the road signs as best he could. There had to be a hospital in this city, and it was almost bound to be somewhere close to the center. Eventually he saw signs for the hospital itself, and he soon found himself pulling into the out-patient’s car park.

  He climbed out of the car and walked purposefully towards the emergency admittance doors, the only part of the hospital that was still open to the public at this time of night, and he entered the building.

  There were two guards in uniforms that were similar to those worn in the army but declared them to be hospital security. They were unnerving because each carried a laser rifle slung across his shoulder. However, neither one of them seemed to look at Jhosatl twice when he entered.

  It was a busy place even at this time of night. People sat on rows of chairs that had been placed back to back, with newspaper screens fastened to some of the walls playing random stories to help pass the time and keeping in synch with each other. These were no doubt the friends and families of the emergency cases, the emergencies themselves having been seen the second they had been brought through the door. On one side of this very large room, which also had a number of doors and corridors leading from it, was a large desk, behind which were five nurses whose main job seemed to be getting the friends and families to fill in the paperwork for the injured party.

  ‘Can I help you?’ a nurse asked Jhosatl when he almost bumped into the desk.

  ‘I, er,’ Jhosatl replied, a little startled, ‘I need to see a doctor, mate, preferably one who knows how to treat a busted ribcage.’

  ‘A busted ribcage?’ replied the nurse suspiciously. ‘You don’t look as if you have any broken ribs!’

  ‘No,’ Jhosatl agreed, ‘it’s not for me. I just need some advice. Can I talk to a doctor?’

  ‘Well, we are rather busy at the moment.’ The nurse indicated the almost full room. ‘But if you’d like to take a seat, I’ll see what I can do once it gets a little quieter in here.’

  ‘Thank you,’ Jhosatl told her.

  He took a seat at the edge of the array of chairs, hoping that the nurse didn’t simply forget he was there. He sat directly beneath one of the newspaper screens, as if he hadn’t had enough news with Judith clicking on every story back at the hotel. It was only a relatively small screen, but it was likely big enough if the random story selector decided to paste his picture for all there to see.

  34

  Run

  Starlight sighed, unsure that she was doing the right thing. She waved one last time as Joseph turned the corner and vanished from sight. That was it, and now it was too late to change her mind. It was a cold, moonless night, and the small shelters that marked the stopping
points for the buses stood silent and illuminated like little islands in the darkness. The adverts that adorned their walls were clearly the main focus of the light, rather than the shelter itself. It was true that she was probably better off on her own now. But at least when she was with the others there had been a strong feeling of security and of belonging, and even the presence of the two humans had been of some comfort to her.

  At least she could have waited until morning before coming here and trying to catch a bus. It would be warmer, lighter, and there might have actually been a few buses running. She didn’t know for sure what the time was, but it must be nearly eleven by now if not later, and very few buses, if any, ran once darkness had set in as it did at around five to five-thirty. Even here, relatively distant from the normal cat hunting grounds in London, people feared to venture out at night unless they really needed to.

  For a minute she stood and watched the end of the road, the small bag of makeup she had been given held lightly in her gloved hand. She almost expected Jhosatl to reappear again, but she knew he wouldn’t. After a minute she turned and entered the communal waiting area, letting the glass door swing closed behind her.

  There were two women in the communal area already when Starlight entered. They both turned round to look at her when she walked through the door, but then they went back to their own conversation, ignoring her. They were sitting across from each other at a table, each with a drink in front of them. She wondered why they were here if there were no buses; perhaps they too were cats. Starlight wouldn’t know how to recognize if they were.

  The communal waiting area looked more like a café than a waiting room. It was well lit inside as a deterrent to possible hunting cats, and it was sparsely scattered with tables and chairs. There was a counter where hot food and drinks could be bought to help those waiting to pass the time, but it was currently closed.

  In the corner opposite the door was a selection of beverage and snack vending machines. Starlight used some of the money Sult had given her to buy a small cup of coffee and a ham and cheese sandwich, and then she sat down at one of the nearby tables, resting the bag containing all her makeup accoutrements on the table’s top.

  There was a free standing notice board in the corner next to the vending machines, and Starlight had no doubt that there was a timetable listing what bus went where at what time. But as was the case with many of the domesticated Herbaht, she had never been taught to read and write. Perhaps she could ask an official when one came on duty.

  She yawned to herself. Slim would probably be in bed by now, unless he was on duty, and even when she had been in that cell in the Cattery she had gotten fairly early nights, mainly because there had been nothing else to do. She wasn’t used to being up this late.

  With nothing to do but wait and count the slow progress of the hours, she started to become a little self-conscious. Did she look human enough? Were her contact lenses in properly? She was wearing gloves to hide the fact that her claws had been removed—did they look all right, or were they too unusual and therefore noticeable? Before long her attention was caught by her own reflection in one of the nearby windows, and she began to check her disguise.

  There was something wrong with her left ear; she could see a stripe beneath the makeup in that area. It wasn’t too bad, but she would have to be careful until she got the chance to touch it up. There was likely a public convenience somewhere nearby, somewhere she could fix it, but she hadn’t seen it when entering and there didn’t seem to be any such comfort rooms here.

  The two women who were in the communal area with her had up until then been chatting about various things in the news and in their personal lives, boyfriends, husbands, jobs, things on the holoviewa, things in the newspaper and so on, basically things that held no interest for Starlight. But then their conversation became more interesting to her as it moved to a subject she did know.

  ‘Did you hear about that group of musicians that attacked an army truck?’ the first said as if such things were an everyday event.

  The words sounded a little bit muffled to Starlight. She turned her head so she could hear better, but she daren’t lean across the table or move to a closer chair in case she was caught eavesdropping.

  ‘Yes, terrible,’ replied the second, a slight warble in her voice. She mumbled something else, but Starlight could hardly hear it. She thought she heard the words ‘bring back,’ and ‘death.’

  Feeling self-conscious about listening in, Starlight made a point of taking a bite of her sandwich. She chewed it slowly, not wanting the sound of her own eating to drown out the conversation.

  ‘I heard they were staying nearby!’ the first revealed. She sat back with a knowing nod.

  ‘No!’ exclaimed the second, surprised.

  ‘Yes, their faces have been plastered all over by the newspaper networks, and triple ‘N’ have even aired an interview with a fourth member of the group that wasn’t involved in the attack.’ She leaned in closer. ‘Rumor has it they are staying at…’ She glanced quickly towards Starlight and then leaned in closer still, effectively whispering the location to her friend.

  ‘Really,’ said the second, visibly shocked, ‘but that’s just down the road.’

  ‘I know,’ commented the first, her head nodding like a madwoman.

  ‘So they ought to be in custody soon, then?’ the second woman suggested.

  ‘This very night,’ replied the first happily, ‘unless I miss my guess. Bloody cat lovers, can’t lock them up soon enough.’

  Starlight climbed to her feet. She didn’t like to leave at just that moment, but she didn’t know how long she might have before the police were knocking down the doors of the hotel, and she had to do something. Grabbing her makeup bag as she stood, she headed towards the exit. There were some public links just outside, but that was no good; even if she had made a mental note of the hotel room’s link number, she wouldn’t have known what to dial.

  Almost on cue, as she approached the links, she could hear sirens in the distance. It was true that they could be heading virtually anywhere at this time of night, but it seemed far too much of a coincidence after what she had just heard in the communal area. Besides, she was pretty sure that she had heard several sirens, as of the police heading somewhere in force.

  There were a number of business cards pinned to the backs of the links, and in most cases Starlight didn’t have a clue what services they might be offering. However, there was one card that looked like it might be a taxi service. At least she hoped it was a taxi service. There was a little symbol of a car and then a number; the rest of it could have been in a foreign language for all Starlight could read it. She dialed the number slowly, matching the symbols on the card to the ones on the key pad, and waited for someone to answer.

  ‘Hello,’ a short, irritated voice came on the other end of the line, ‘Stalwart Taxis! Our business hours are from seven in the morning until five in the evening. Can we book a taxi for you for the morning?’

  ‘I need a taxi now,’ Starlight replied urgently. She felt as if she sounded out of breath, and yet she hadn’t been exerting herself much at all.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ the voice replied, ‘due to current events in London we do not operate during the hours of darkness.’

  ‘But,’ Starlight commented, ‘this is an emergency. I need to get home quickly.’

  ‘Our hours of business are between seven in morning and…’ the voice started.

  ‘Oh, forget it!’ Starlight yelled angrily, and she threw the link to the ground, or at least partway, its descent halted by the chain that held it to its station.

  It was clear she wasn’t going to be able to get back to the hotel. She couldn’t even remember what the hotel looked like, let alone how to get there. Perhaps instead she should try to find the hospital. Hospitals were big obvious buildings, and she knew Jhosatl had gone to one in order to find a doctor. How hard could it be for her to find the hospital?

  She began to run, her makeup
bag flailing wildly until she threw it over her shoulder. She didn’t know how long she could run. She didn’t know where the hospital was. But she knew she had to find it. She had to warn Jhosatl. He would be able to call his friends, and they would get out before the police arrived. If only the hospital could be located just around the next corner.

  Two miles, three miles she ran, walking for short periods when her legs started to stiffen, but always she would goad herself back into running. She had to get to that hospital quickly. She couldn’t afford the luxury of walking. Had anyone told her she could run for so long at one go she would probably have laughed at them, but it can sometimes be amazing to discover what the body was capable of in times of stress, and she was feeling desperate to reach Jhosatl before it was too late. It didn’t help when she allowed her mind to wander and she started to think that if someone of her own race saw her running like this, they might easily mistake her for a human trying to get out of the potentially dangerous dark as quickly as they could.

  Then, just after the third mile, she saw a sign that directed her towards the hospital. She ran, and she ran, and she ran.

  The two security guards both looked at her, ready for anything as she burst through the doors leading into the emergency area. They relaxed again after a moment, probably because she wasn’t obviously armed, but kept their eyes on her nevertheless as she walked towards the seats in the middle of the area.

  ‘Can I help you?’ a nurse asked. She had come out from behind the reception desk and intercepted Starlight.

  ‘No, thanks,’ Starlight replied. She was very out of breath with all the running, and found it hard to get the words out between pants. ‘I’m looking for someone.’

  ‘You’re a bit late for visiting…’ the nurse started, but Starlight ignored her and stepped past. Joseph had to be here somewhere. She wanted to call out his name to attract his attention, but she didn’t want to attract anyone else’s attention. She would have to search for him row by row and line by line, and all the time the police were getting closer to the hotel.