by Jack Truxton
Nyala gave that Cheshire cat grin as she lightly tapped Nin in the arm. “Now that is something I would pay to see. I was worried about you at the start, Nin, but I like how you think.”
“Okay, stop that,” I said with a chuckle. “No, Patrick here isn’t going to commit suicide.” I looked back at him. “He’s not the type, I don’t think, and besides, we have a lot to discuss, like—”
That seemed to snap Brenton back to reality. “So that was your game, Jacob? Prey upon my gratitude to force me to betray Katsukami? Well, you’ll find—”
I shook my head. “Wow. Do you think I’d act just like you? Just like Romine? Blackmail you and manipulate you? No.” Crossing my arms across my chest, I felt the twinge of pain from the gouges in my flesh. “I’m not going to ask you to betray Katsukami, or even tell me anything about your illegal Kat Katcher operations. I’m even going to let you go back to them … well, in about twelve hours from now. All I’m going to ask is that you take them a message.”
He eyed me curiously, especially as all three Kats were grinning like, well, cats with cream. Then Brenton’s gaze wandered back over to his briefcase and the empty documents compartment that made up the last third of it. His face fell as a low, guttural sigh escaped his lips.
“You won’t because you don’t need to ask me anything,” he said softly. “You already know it all, don’t you?”
Nyala tapped her tablet and spun it around so that he could see, a map of the Tenderloin district with one building highlighted plainly visible. “Well, once Nin disabled the genelock on the case, all of those documents and data chips just spilled out, and as you must know, we Business Kats are trained extensively in data collation and management.” She let out a happy mew. “It was easy as pie to put together your entire operation from that, most importantly where your Katchers are collecting their prey to prepare them for reprocessing.”
“Oh,” I said, tapping my temple a few times. “I forgot to mention that you’ve been conked out for a few hours now, Patrick.” I snapped my fingers as if to say ‘oh, drat.’ “But that’s okay. You have maybe ten hours to go on the therapy to go so we might have to leave you for a bit. By your own records, the last drop-off for the day will be in a half-hour, and then the Kats get shipped out two hours after that.”
Nin glanced at the inside of her wrist, her skinsuit producing a digital clock in the polychromatic pigments. “Speaking of that, Jake, if we wish to intercept them, we must finish up here.”
“And she’s prompt too,” Nyala purred as she turned her tablet back around and tapped at her screen, signaling for Candy to get the boys and girls together. “We can keep her, can’t we, Jake?”
I snorted and shook my head. “I don’t think we even have a choice on that.”
Brenton had taken all of this in a sort of stunned silence. It was pretty obvious that the guy knew he was beaten ten ways to Sunday. Rubbing his face a few times, he looked over at me. “I take it that interrupting the therapy now would have some decidedly terrible side effects, Jacob?”
“It’s a miracle this therapy is working at all with how badly your genetic code was fucked over,” I began, shaking my head sadly. “If you stop now, while the protein chains are still being reinforced with fresh material, your DNA will turn to goop. You’ll die for sure.” I sighed a bit. “It’s the best we could do. It’s just a lucky coincidence it keeps you tied up here, well, more like it saves us from actually tying you up. We can’t let you alert Katsukami before we’ve got the Kats and are long gone.”
“And if I undergo more genemods?” he asked, his voice surprisingly emotionless and sober.
Annie answered that one. “Your body just can’t take it. You’ll die just as surely as you would if you stopped treatment now. You, well, you poisoned yourself, all because you wanted more power.” She snapped her fingers and looked at Nyala. “Is that our Krusader Kay Sez lesson for today?”
“I think so, Annie,” Nyala answered with a wink. “The search for power for power’s sake is poisonous.”
Brenton let out a faint sigh. “My career will be ruined when I go back, but at the same time, I will have my life, what’s left of it, and enough leverage to ensure I have a generous pension package.” He looked down at his ravaged body as it slowly mended for a moment before looking back at me. “I know when I’ve been truly and thoroughly outmaneuvered, Jacob. I swear I’ll do no more harm while I am here, and I’ll relay your message to the executive council, in whatever form you wish for me to deliver it. After that …” He shrugged weakly. “I will never darken your collective doors ever again. I think Aruba is nice this time of year.”
“It’s a sunny twenty-seven degrees Celsius, with nothing but clear skies for weeks,” Nyala dutifully reported. “Perfect for a retired old man.”
Sticking my hands in my pockets, I nodded thoughtfully. “I can live with those terms just fine, Patrick. As for my message, it’s pretty simple.” I smiled as I glanced sidelong at my Kats. “Let them know I’m going into the Wonder Kat business myself. A bit of a charity, you could call it. Instead of playing loan shark like Romine, I’ll be a combination revolutionary and social worker. Free their Kats, clean out Katsukami’s programming, and find them homes with the people that really need their help.”
“It’s a more equitable situation that will not only provide work for the Kats,” Nyala pointed out, “and if we take a fair fee for helping out, we’ll produce more than enough revenue to continue operations while undercutting Katsukami’s monopoly on the market.”
“Plus, people will get to know us for what we really are,” Annie chimed in as she clasped her hands to her heart. “Sweet, lovable, real people that deserve dignity and respect!”
Nin took a step forward, put a hand on my shoulder, and squeezed warmly. “We shall be loved and cared for, which is far more than Katsukami ever offered us.”
“Oh,” I added as I raised a finger, “I almost forgot. Let Katsukami know that this cure, the thing that takes off the Kat’s limiters is cheap and easy for me to produce. Which means if they decide to say send more Kats like Nin after me, all they’ll be doing is giving me more allies for my cause. And I hope they are smart enough not to try some kind of crazy open warfare thing. The company gets away with all it does because it’s not an open threat to the government. The moment Katsukami breaks out a group of thugs with machine guns, the government and every rival corp will be down their throats before you know it.”
Brenton snorted. “So, you and them can continue to scuffle in the dark, trying to kill each other with fists and claws like civilized human beings? But you are also correct in that regard. Katsukami will be forced to deal with you subtly, as dealing with you publicly will only strengthen your cause.”
“Exactly,” I said with a nod. “And if for some reason that’s not enough to keep them from doing something dumb, inform the executive council that I had safeguards in place that if I die, the complete genetic code for every commercial Wonder Kat model will be leaked not only on the internet, but to Katsukami’s top three competitors.” I grinned at my ace in the hole. “So, Patrick, what’s it going to be?”
He mulled it all over for a long moment, and I knew he would recount it word for word to his masters. “I still think you are a naïve fool, Jacob, as much as I still think it must be a form of insanity to see these biodroids as anything other than very desirable tools, but …” He let out a long hiss of a sigh. “If anyone is capable of making this insanity into reality, it is you.”
“Oh, Patrick.” I flashed him a confident smile. “When you’re sunning yourself in Aruba, keep an eye on the news. You haven’t seen anything yet.”
26
I adjusted the strap on my Doughnut Emperor delivery box, the heating element meant to keep its usual payload toasty warm doing a good job at making me a bit sweaty under the crimson-and-gold faux chef duds of my new uniform. The stupid thing worked on a chemical reaction, and since I nabbed it already hot, I couldn’t turn the th
ing off. Tugging at the collar of the shirt to relieve some heat, I cleared my throat and walked up to the front door of a decrepit office building in the heart of the Tenderloin district. With my chef hat straight, I wrapped my knuckles on the door to the rhythm of the Wonder Kats theme song.
A moment later, the iris of the pinhole camera on the door opened up and focused on me, a speaker crackling to life. “Who the fuck are you?”
“Oh, hey,” I said, blanching a bit at the open aggression. “Got a delivery from Doughnut Emperor, home of the Emperor’s Decadence. If we don’t tyrannize your breakfast to your satisfaction and crush all hunger beneath our jackbooted heel, you get your money back,” I droned, holding the delivery box up for emphasis.
There was a long pause before the gruff voice snarled back, “Ain’t nobody here order no fucking doughnuts, so beat it, pal.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake!” My entire body deflated as I let out the most put-upon sigh I could muster. “Those asshole kids must have called in a prank order again. Now I’ve got to trudge all the way back to the restaurant with this thousand-degree heater turning me into a puddle.” About to turn after my bitch session, I stopped, considered the situation for a moment, then turned back to the camera. “Look, man, I know you didn’t order this, but it’s already paid for, stupid kids forget we have their dad’s account on file, and I don’t want to lug this back. So, like, do you want it?”
I put on my best smile. “I mean, who doesn’t want some free Emperor’s Decadence? And I’ve got a half-dozen Crown Krullers in here too.”
For a moment, I thought maybe I had found the first sapient creature who could resist the sugary power of the Tyrant of Breakfast, but before I gave up, the speaker crackled to life again. “Well, okay, buddy. Gotta admit, I love me a good kruller. Just hold on a sec.”
I pumped my fist triumphantly, glad to be rid of my burden. There was a series of clicks and buzzes, the sound of a heavy bolt sliding from the door, and it opened up. Looking through the door was a hard-faced man, dressed in an ill-fitting suit … but I could see the collar of a Katsukami security jumpsuit showing under his shirt.
“So, hand over the grub,” he grunted at me.
“Sure thing, pal,” I said with a smile, slipping my burden off my shoulder … right before I abruptly spun, moving too fast for him to follow as I smashed the brick-filled delivery box right into his stupid face.
His head snapped hard to one side, teeth, blood, and spittle flying before he fell hard to the floor, thoroughly unconscious. I dropped the box on top of his back, glancing at the open communication window in my smartglasses.
“Door’s open, folks,” I whispered, the mic on the glasses picking up even my faintest speech and amplifying it for the others. “Tatyana, Richard, bring the truck around to the docks. Ny, Nin, if you’ve got the alarms down, start a sweep from the top floor down. Annie and I will go in through the front.” Glancing sidelong as I tore off the uniform over my spidersilk suit, I caught Annie bouncing out of the alley, frying pan on her shoulder and Brenton’s smartmonocle perched jauntily over her right eye. “We’ll meet in the middle, then get everyone out through the back docks.”
The roar of the bakery delivery truck we had borrowed echoed behind Tatyana’s voice. “You got it, boss. Think we’ve got enough room for everybody.”
“And the security systems are shut down, but the remaining guards will be alerted,” Nin reported. “Be careful, Jake.”
“I’m surprised you haven’t noticed yet, Nin,” Nyala chimed in, “but Jake is always careful, and he always manages to come out on top. Either way, we’re going in.”
“Good luck, ladies. See you soon.” I turned to Annie and gestured into the front door like a proper gentleman. “After you, my dear.”
She giggled, her tail swishing. “Thank you, Jake!” She skipped up the steps and slipped in the door, with me right behind. “Hey, you know what I was thinking?”
“Uh, is it pertinent to the fact we’re sneaking into a secret Katsukami holding area for caught Kats?” I slipped a taser out of my jacket pocket, a little present I found on Brenton after his little rampage. “Because if it isn’t, later might be best.”
“Oh, it’s totally relevant,” Annie replied. Past the door, which was loaded with more locks and security devices than you could shake a stick at, the front hall looked a heck of a lot cleaner and more modern than the outside. “I think you should get us all skinsuits like Nin. I mean, like, we’re not ninja, I know, but her suit is sooo cool.” She spun in place as we moved across the hall toward the first block of offices, back walking as I tried to keep an eye on things in the actual hallway. “Plus, it would totally make my chest look even better.” She did a little hop that made her breasts do a very distracting but very pleasing bounce.
“How is that relevant at all?” I argued, just as a Katsukami guard waltzed out of the office right behind her.
“Karl? Where the hell are you …?” The guard’s voice trailed off as he went for his own taser.
He didn’t even get it out of the holster. Annie twisted with feline agility, giving me a clear shot as she unlimbered her cast iron weapon of choice. Twin darts spiraled out of my taser, striking him in the center of mass, and as he started to do the Lightning Dance, Annie finished her twirl, mercifully relieving him of consciousness with a love tap from her pan.
As if we hadn’t just had a scuffle, Annie rolled right along with our little discussion. “It’s relevant because it does camouflage stuff and turns all kind of colors and has cameras and a clock in it. It’s like a Red Ryder BB Gun of sexy ninja awesomeness, so they’d be really useful for this sort of stuff.”
I slid past her as I reloaded the taser’s cartridge. “I guess I see your point, even if it really isn’t important right now.” I spun through the open door where I had heard another two guards drawing their weapons. I decided to stay low, throwing off their aim. The two guards fired off tasers which slammed harmlessly into the wall over my head. Firing off my own, I aimed for the only vital spot at eye level, nailing one guard right in the dick.
Hopefully, he had an insulated cup.
The other guy visibly winced at the sight of his partner's discomfort, and that distraction bit him in the ass as Annie bounded past me, swatting the taser out of the guard’s hands and pointing the pan right at his face. “So, can we get some, Jake?” she called back at me, the guard she was threatening merely raising his hands in silent surrender.
“You know those are multi-million-dollar military-grade suits, right?” I countered as I pushed the guard to his knees, pocketing my taser as I zip-cuffed him using his own cuffs. “I mean, I really want to see you and Ny in those. You don’t know how much I want that, but—”
Annie bumped her butt right into my crotch, shimmying a bit as she skipped back out into the hall. “Oh, Jake, I think I do know exactly how much you want that!”
“But!” I called as I raced after her. “But we can’t exactly afford that, even if we could actually buy them.” I thought for a moment as we broke through another guard post like gangbusters. “Though I’ll try. Hey, you never know, we might be able to requisition some from Katsukami. And by requisition, I mean steal.”
“Milk and cream!” Annie exclaimed, hugging me around the neck after we left another three guards either unconscious or cuffed in our wake. “Thank you, Jake! That’d be the best! I’m going to make mine pink, of course! Maybe I can get a skirt added to it like Nin’s scarf!”
Rolling my eyes, I couldn’t help but laugh … but that laugh didn’t last long, because that’s about when we burst into the center of the office building, where Brenton’s information said the holding pens would be.
It reminded me of that lonely hallway in Reprogramming, back at the start of all of this, but done a dozen times over. The entire middle of this floor was cleared out and reorganized into those grim, Death Row-style cells, the ceiling knocked out clear to the second floor to allow for more cells, a catwalk wrapping
around the entire facility. The metal prison doors, the concrete floor replete with regular drains, and the grim atmosphere were all identical.
My hands clenched into fists as I stared at it, all humor gone. Annie came up next to me and touched me gently on the arm. “It’s okay, Jake, because we’re here, right? We’re going to stop it.”
I turned to her, my hands unclenching as I ran a finger along her cheek. “Yeah, that’s exactly what we’re going to do.” I gestured down one row of cells. “Start opening up this side. Nin says we have no security, so all the locks should be down too. I’ll start on this side.” I thumbed down the row opposite of hers. “And speaking of Ny and Nin …”
As if on cue, one of the upstairs access doors banged open, a security guard letting out a cry of alarm that echoed from the upper floor as he flew out through it, hitting the catwalk railing roughly before slumping to the grating. Nyala followed a moment later, dusting off her jacket and smoothing out a wrinkle on the sleeve, Nin sprinting into view right behind her, bow at the ready.
“Oh, Jake, Annie!” the business Kat called down at us, waving a hand as her cinnamon-colored tail swished. “Punctual as always! Shall we start up here?”
“Go for it, guys!” I called up to them with a smile, opening a channel to Tatyana and Richard. “Transport should be here in a minute, right, guys?”
“We’re pulling up to the dock now,” Tatyana reported brusquely. “Had to deal with some very surprised security guys first, but they’re napping now.”
“Good job,” I replied with a smile. “The freedom train is about to start receiving passengers.”
With that, I walked up to the first cell and opened it, the rest of my Kats spreading out to do the same. As Nin had told us they would before we left, it swung open easily after she had disabled the locks, and inside, the cell was perhaps even more dreary than the ones in the Katsukami labs. There was a cot hung by chains from the wall with a threadbare mattress, a decrepit porcelain toilet and sink, and a shivering Wonder Kat, her white hair and fur that darkened to black on the ears and tip of her tail combining with her blue eyes to mark her as a Siamese. Like Annie had been, she was dressed in a white shift, and, as she clutched her knees to her chest, she looked up at me, tears forming in her eyes.