Nine Lives - Chapter 10 (the Crownedclown13 Roundabout Project)
Well, here it is, the 10th chapter in the continuing saga of Asher, Claudia and Cory. I had a hell of a lot of fun writing this, and I hope that it brings you countless minutes of reading pleasure!
Thank you to CrownedClown13 for inviting me to participate. If you like this chapter, and/or like the project in general, PLEASE tell all your friends, fave, watch. This kind of collaborative work is hard to find on SoFurry, so do what you can to get the word out!
If you need to catch up on the story, here is a list of the previous chapters:
-TGU.
And now we join our regularly scheduled program already in progress...
"We're not doing anything!" Cory protested, defensively holding up hands white with soapy bubbles.
Melanie chose that moment to un-hide herself. Strutting into the bathroom, tail held high in the air like a flag, she looked first at the two men in the shower, then up at Claudia, then back at Cory and Asher before sitting squarely in the middle of the bathmat. "MEOW!"
Everyone froze, the rushing of the running water from the showerhead the only sound. All eyes were on Melanie, who sat, as cats do, with a slightly haughty aplomb and a regal, almost bored bearing.
As the moment dragged on, however, and the revelry did not resume, she raised her eyes to look at Asher, who was still fixedly staring down at the small feline with a nonplussed expression. Melanie's eyes narrowed almost imperceptibly.
"Did your cat just say 'meow?'" whispered Cory to the air, as if loathe to address the subject, for fear that he was still experiencing hallucinatory effects from the poison.
Asher, who hadn't moved a whisker for a solid minute, his own unblinking stare held by Melanie's, noticed her eyes almost imperceptibly widen, and her upper lip barely twitch. His jaw dropped open in disbelief.
"Oh my go--"
Klaxons suddenly broke the morgue-like silence, as the lights blinked out with an accompanying thud, replaced by the sallow glare of amber safety beams a couple of seconds later. Xenon strobes located around the room's walls began to flash periodically, giving the whole scene the hyped-up look of a low-rent rave.
"They've broken the perimeter!" Claudia shouted above the din, as she bolted from the bathroom, "and why the hell did you make those alarms so damn loud, Asher?"
"I'm a sound sleeper!" whined the tall male, who, slapped out of his reverie at the hands of the intrusive sounds, had already begun pulling on a pair of camouflage cargo pants over his damp, striped legs. "You wouldn't want me to sleep through an ambush would you?"
Pointedly ignoring his last comment, Claudia consulted the screen on the wall which now had several images in little boxes around a central readout that appeared to have data streaming by on it. "They must've cut the power," she yelled over her shoulder. "I heard the mains go out. Cory, get dressed we've gotta get out of here fast."
Still trying to clear his head from the surreal events of the last couple of minutes, his ears ringing, Cory glanced over at Asher, suddenly aware that the camouflage pattern of his pants and jacket were olive drab tiger stripes.
Claudia reappeared at the door and noticed him staring. "In answer to your first question; no, it wouldn't hide him from anyone. In answer to your second; he got them at a clubwear store in San Francisco."
"They're comfortable." Asher said simply, breezing by his sister. He immediately began collecting medical supplies on the stainless cart and sweeping piles of them into two large duffel bags with a thick forearm.
"And more than a little camp," replied his sister with a shrug as she moved back to the screen. "The decoy drone is about 10 miles out. There's a chase boat in pursuit. Looks like they're hanging back. Jesus Asher, can you silence that damned horn?" Claudia's ears were pressed flat to her head, a scowl on her muzzle.
Asher flipped open a laptop he pulled out of another duffel and pressed a few keys. The klaxon went silent, but the strobes continued to flash. "Your wish is my command," he intoned, crossing his arms over his chest, and blinking, his large head dipping sharply as he did so.
"What I wish right now, brother dear, is to get out of here alive. So could you please get your stripy ass in gear and help me with Chris?" Claudia began fastening straps and buckles around the unconscious white tiger. "Cory, in the lower drawer of that cabinet is a Pelican case. Get it and add it to the supply pile," she called to the slightly bewildered human just coming out of the bathroom, pulling his shirt on as he went. "C'mon, hon, we need to go, NOW!"
Cory jumped over to the cabinet almost involuntarily at the command. As he opened the lower drawer, a new alarm went off, causing him to jump back with the case as if he'd set off an explosion.
"They're in the house," Claudia announced, piling duffels and cases on and around the sleeping feline on the gurney. "We've got three minutes to get out, or we make a stand here. Asher?"
"Minute and a half, tops. We'll make it," he said, tossing the medical duffels to his sister, who added them to the load."
Cory watched the dizzying flurry of striped activity, still not understanding what exactly had happened in the bathroom, nor what was happening now. Asher looked over from his current check of the laptop display, and noticed Cory's fearful gaze. "Hey," he said softly, walking over and putting a warm and comforting paw on Cory's shoulder, looking down at him with a gentle smile. "We're gonna get out of here, but you've gotta move. I can't carry you and all this stuff too." He motioned to the gurney and the assorted boxes and bags still on the floor around it.
Cory looked up at those emerald orbs as if for the first time, unconsciously leaning into the big, comforting paw. Those eyes; they seemed to be telling him something - it was just at the back of his brain...but what? "But the boat's gone, and we can't get past the men outside to get to the car. How are we gonna--"
"Asher! Tick-tock!" Claudia barked.
Asher crossed his arms in front of his chest and blinked again. "Open says me!"
An electronic beep sounded from the corner of the room opposite where they entered. Then a metallic clunk and the low drone of a hydraulic ram filled the space. A second later, part of the wall depressed itself slightly, and slid smoothly to the right, out of sight.
Asher, noticing Cory's eyes widen as he glanced over to the source of the sounds, caught himself replaying the events in the bathroom from just moments before. Melanie's eyes.
"Asher!"
Asher moved his paw to gently push Cory forward, dropping his other paw in front of Cory's gaze. In his fingers he held a small black remote. "Sometimes it's more fun when you know how to...do a trick." He grinned, showing just a bit of fang, winking at the awed human.
"God Asher, you two don't have time for that now," sighed Claudia.
Asher's ears went flat, and his nose turned a rosier hue. A second later, Cory's eyes flew open for what seemed like the hundredth time today, and felt his face get hot.
"We're not...I'm not..."
"God you two are easy," the female feline chirped. "T-minus 10 seconds, boys."
"Coming mother," pouted Asher, rolling his eyes. "Where's Melanie?"
In all the confusion, they had lost track of the small cat. Normally, Melanie seemed to appear and disappear at will, and no one worried about her safety; but this time, they weren't coming back, and didn't have time to mount a full-scale cat quest.
"She's already in her carrier. I guess she ran in there when the alarm went off," Claudia groaned as she began to push the loaded gurney toward the newly opened portal.
Asher walked over to the cargo cage and looked inside. Melanie was indeed inside. As Asher peered in at her, he could have sworn she looked...worried.
Gunshots outside the entrance to the hidden room made them all jump. "Time's up!" Claudia called from halfway through the portal.
Asher handed Cory Melanie's crate, and a couple of loose duffels, reaching into one of the remaining cases - the one Cory had retrieved. "Go on, Cory, follow Claudia. I'll be right behind you." He withdrew his paw from the case holding a rather large and heavy-looking gun. "I promise, now go."
Cory nodded, feeling an empty pit forming in his stomach as he looked helplessly at the strong, furred male in front of him. Damn it, he was an architect; a man of logic and science and dependability. There was no room in his world for thugs and gunfights and running for his life. Still, it did take his mind off his kids and - his kids!
Cory snapped back to reality and headed out the portal. He had to get to his kids somehow. He began to run down the narrow passage created out of cinderblock and mortar, the dim light courtesy of exposed low-wattage lamps connected by conduit. His eyes had a hard time adjusting to the alternating pools of light and blackness. "Where are we going?" he called to the slim striped tail just out of reach in front of him."
"To the boat. Where do you think?"
"But Ash sent the boat away a half-hour ago."
"Different boat. He didn't tell you the plan?" Claudia huffed through her effort.
"No." Cory felt lost - again.
"First boat is an unmanned drone. GPS guidance, radio controlled. Got the main group to follow it in hopes of chasing us down. They'll follow all the way to the island, most likely, because they think we have what they want, and they won't risk shooting at 'us' or blowing 'us' up for fear of losing it in the ocean. And they won't think of coming back to the scene of the crime."
"So there's another boat?"
"Mmm. You do catch on quick," she mused. "Guess Ash doesn't just like 'em young and dumb and full of--"
The pop and whizz of a ricocheting bullet sliced through the air near Claudia's ear. "Shit! Get down!" she yelled in that command voice.
Cory dropped to the cement, his packages clattering, his back against the cinderblock. To his right, Claudia crouched behind the gurney, peering out from behind the gun she had removed from her waistband. To his left, he heard muffled shouting and banging, and then a single gunshot. Asher!
Claudia glanced back hearing movement near her. "You can't help him, Cory. Just stay put. He knows what he's doing."
Another gunshot zipped through the air to Cory's right, and he dropped further to the floor. Claudia shot three rounds in quick succession and ducked back behind the gurney. The concussion and reverberation rumbled in Cory's chest, and made his ears ring painfully.
"Move!" Claudia called, pushing the gurney like a rolling shield. " C'mon Cory, move!"
Cory crawled on all fours behind the crouching tiger, dragging his cases and bags. No more gunfire assaulted his ears, and as they inched forward, he became bold enough to stand up and walk more quickly, hunched over. They rounded a curve, and suddenly, the gurney jolted to a stop, upsetting a couple of the cases, which fell, clunking on the hard, slick concrete.
Claudia motioned to Cory to stay where he was, as she carefully peered, meerkat-style, over the top of the gurney, before standing up to full height. "Here, help me move this," she said, pushing the gurney to one wall.
"Move what?" asked Cory, "You just moved it."
"Not that," countered the tiger, "this."
As Cory approached, he could now see a dark, lumpy shape in the shadow of the gurney. Upon closer inspection, he realized what it must be, and drew back a little in spite of himself.
"No time for second thoughts, Cory. You had the chance to back out back at the house. You're in this now, and I need help." Claudia was squeezing her larger form along the narrow space between the gurney and the wall, grimacing as the rough, cinderblock surface scraped at the exposed fur near her elbow. Once through, she reached down to relieve the lifeless coyote of his weapon, which she poked in between a couple of bags on the gurney. "He won't be needing this..."
Cory reluctantly moved forward, and carefully set his items on the gurney. Then, he squeezed himself through the same narrow space, his passage a bit easier since he was markedly smaller than the commanding feline. He began to pull at the coyote's legs, noticing how the fur wasn't nearly as soft and silky as Asher's. Asher! Why wasn't he here yet?
Tired of waiting for Cory, Claudia wrapped her arms around the coyote's chest, and with a grunt, cleaned-and-jerked the body to an upright, if not quite standing position.
Cory looked up, surprised.
"We've got to get him on the other side of the gurney," Claudia explained, slowly and carefully, as if to a young child. "The corridor isn't wide enough to pass by. We can't just pull him off to the side."
"You mean?"
"We've got to lift him up and over the gurney."
Cory's stomach did a little flip.
"Not here, Cory. We don't have time for that," said the feline, sensing the bilious reason behind Cory's expression. "You can do this. I'm counting on you. Your kids are counting on you." It was a dirty trick, true though it was, and she knew it. But desperate times..."On three. One. Two. Three."
Cory's face hardened with resolve, and grabbed the coyote's legs again. Simultaneously, he and the tiger-at-arms groaned and hefted the leaden man over their shoulders, and carried him, log-style, squeezing their legs painfully back through the narrow passage between wall and the cartful of bags, boxes, and unconscious white tiger.
"And down." Claudia instructed, adding quickly, "Carefully." Like her brother, she respected life, even of those trying to kill her.
They both did a deep-knee bend, and rolled the coyote corpse off their shoulders and back onto the floor. Vacant eyes stared back at them. Claudia reached forward and glided her paw over the lids, gently closing them. A growing red blot on the coyote's tight gray t-shirt attested to Claudia's aim.
"Damn it. Why couldn't they just leave us alone?" she sighed, sounding exhausted.
"Who are 'they?' What is this all about anyway?" Cory had had enough. Vague answers about making collections notwithstanding, no one had really said anything about why he was now running down a creepy corridor, depositing corpses out of the way so he could go...where exactly? "Why the hell won't anybody tell me what the fuck is going on?"
"Move it." Claudia responded, "I'll tell you on the way."
This time, Cory stood alongside the tiger and began to help push the gurney. Their pace increased, and Cory thought he saw the dim corridor begin to lighten slightly as they progressed.
"Four years ago, Ash and I took a job to uncover evidence of corporate espionage. It was going to be a quick in-and-out, information-gathering gig, and it was going to pay extremely well."
"Who hired you?" Cory asked.
"Never knew. Our contact, a big Russian bear named Luka, only ever referred to him, or her, as 'The Client.' Said he didn't even know the identity, and that that was partially why the pay was going to be better than average. We were told that The Client suspected this government contractor of stealing patented information from his company, and that he needed proof so he could sue. Problem was that the supposed evidence was in a top-secret and heavily guarded tech park in Rochester, New York. Not exactly a place you could just take a guided tour and snap pictures while the tour guide wasn't looking."
They were moving along at a good pace now, and Cory realized that even though it seemed like hours since they'd started down the corridor, it had been at most 10 minutes. It was definitely getting lighter. "So what did you do, break in?"
"Don't sound judgmental, Cory. We had it on solid authority that this contractor was guilty of tens of millions of dollars worth of theft. We hadn't contracted to steal anything, we were just supposed to copy the information from a memory module we were told would be there. Slow down."
The corridor floor had begun to slope upward, and Cory knew they were coming to the end of the passage. Claudia put a fingerpad to her muzzle and looked meaningfully at him. She took the gun she had stashed between the bags, and handed it to him, and he gingerly took the weapon and cradled it in his hands as if it were a delicate eggshell.
The tiger clasped his hand around the automatic with a firm paw, and glared down at the smaller man. Cory adjusted his grip and held the weapon as if he knew what he were doing. He had already killed one man today, and didn't relish the idea of having to repeat the performance.
Claudia had once again squeezed past the gurney, and was creeping up the slope. Cory marveled at how closely she resembled the cats he had as a child, when they stalked their prey in the backyard: body low; back arrow-straight, parallel to the ground; tail quivering, held low and stiff as it trailed behind.
Silently, paw over paw, Claudia inched forward. Then, she sank slightly lower, and did a small waggle of her shapely rear end, as if kneading the floor beneath her, gun held rock-steady in front of her. Without warning, she let out a fierce yell, nearly a roar, and launched herself up the last of the slope and around the final curve.
Cory dropped to his knees automatically, his hands to his ears in anticipation of another ear-splitting volley. Nothing. He let out the breath he hadn't realized he had held, and slowly stood up to look over the gurney. His pulse quickened as he saw a shadow play along the wall at the top of the slope, and ducked again out of instinct. He waited for what seemed an eternity, wondering if he would have to fire the unfamiliar gun in his hand, when he felt a warm chuff of air on his head and neck. He froze, paralyzed with fear, the delicate hairs on his neck standing stiffly despite the warmth.
"You know," growled a low velvety voice, "it's not such a good idea to leave your rear flank unprotected. No telling who might try to take you...unaware."
Cory slowly turned, as he began to raise his arms over his head, and came face-to-crotch with his assailant. Tilting his head up slowly, his mind, blurred by the fight-or-flight rush of adrenaline, finally cleared enough to make out the form of a smirking tiger, wrapped in designer camouflage.
"Miss me?" chuckled the evil cat.
Cory blinked, stumbled to his feet, and fell headlong into that broad chest, wrapping his arms awkwardly around the larger man's torso.
"Hey, hey," purred Asher, "it's OK. I told you I'd be OK, didn't I?"
The reunion was cut short, however, by the faint but distinct metallic click of a hammer being cocked into place. Cory froze again, and Asher looked up suddenly, the barrel of a gun inches from his muzzle.
"Shit Claudia," Asher huffed, "sooo not funny. You scared the crap out of Cory."
"Oh yeah, Cory's the only one, right?" Claudia retorted, easing the hammer back down, and slipping the gun into her waistband. "Don't you know better than to let your guard down in a combat situation? Didn't you learn anything from New York?"
"That's a low blow," Asher spat, his eyes narrowing, shoulders slumping and ears laying back. He held tight to Cory.
"Well, it's beginning to look like Rochester all over again. We'll talk about this later," she said waving her empty paw to her side. "Help me get this stuff onboard. There may be more of them. Let's get out of here while we still have a chance, hmm?"
With that, Asher patted Cory's shoulder, picked up the bags he'd set down and moved past him to help push the laden gurney up the slope. Cory followed the siblings up and around the curve and entered a well-, but still softly, lit vestibule where Asher and Claudia were standing.
"Third floor, wigs and haberdashery, going up." said Asher in a sing-song and strangely familiar cadence, though with slightly less enthusiasm than before.
Suddenly, doors appeared from either side of the entrance to the vestibule, and silently slid closed behind the escape party. The room gently lurched upward, and in a few seconds stopped with a small jolt. A second later, another pair of doors opened in front of them.
The light was almost blinding at first, after the murk and gloom of the corridor. As Cory's eyes adjusted, he saw a fifty-foot, enclosed-bridge yacht in the slip, engines rumbling.
"Holy crap! Where did you get that?" Cory stood, gaping like a kid at Toys 'R' Us for the first time.
"Some of our clients can be, um, really grateful." Asher said, as he tossed bag after bag to his sister, who had already positioned herself onboard. "We upgraded some of the systems, and added a few non-standard items. Kept it here for emergencies," he explained, pointing to the lift mechanism now hanging empty above their heads."
"While you two were snuggling in the hallway, I was lowering the transport and prepping her for departure," grumbled a muffled, disgruntled cat somewhere below deck.
Asher looked over at Cory and mouthed, I'm sorry. At that moment, Claudia reappeared, and she and Asher lifted the gurney, with Chris still strapped in place, - and surprisingly looking no worse for the trip - over the railing and onto the deck. On impulse, Cory walked around the boat, untying the mooring lines, and tossing them to the deck. Claudia pushed the gurney into the cabin.
Asher had climbed the stairs to the enclosed bridge, and pressed a large button on a remote. The boathouse doors began to swing open. "Sonar looks clear. I guess they didn't leave us any underwater surprises."
"Cory, get on and get down!" Claudia called curtly, crouching behind the built-in grill on the stern and drawing her gun. "They probably didn't anticipate a water escape - especially a second one."
Cory jumped aboard, and dashed down the short stairway to the main cabin. Eyeing the panorama windows, he hoped that one of the upgrades was bullet-proof glass. As he looked around, he noticed Melanie's crate on the carpeted floor, turned on its side. In her haste to load everything, Claudia must have tipped it over. Cory righted it, and peered inside to see a pair of dilated pupils and a most definite scowl on her little muzzle.
Cory blinked, and it was gone. Melanie placidly regarded him as if he were a picture on a TV monitor. What was going on?
The boat picked up speed as they neared the exit to the marina. Cory hesitantly poked his head up now and then to see where they were, but from his angle, he couldn't tell one vista from another. Animated and then combative voices drew him out of hiding.
"So you're gonna blame me after all these years! I told you, how was I supposed to know Luka was dirty?" Asher yelled over the engines and the wind.
Cory peeked out from the deck below the bridge, hoping to find out, once and for all, what he'd gotten himself into. The windows to the bridge were open and the breeze blew firmly, rippling against the sibling's fur.
"Well, you're the one who scoped the job. Why didn't your background check turn up anything?" Claudia's voice could certainly be shrill. "Was it because you were more interested in Lance than our safety?"
"You think I jump at every tail that wags my direction? Business is business, Claudia. I saw what happened to Mom and Dad, remember? You really think I would let my guard down for a cheap lay and put myself and you in danger?"
"You've put yourself in danger plenty of times, brother dear. For what...well you tell me."
"We each deal with grief in our own way, Miss Eating Disorder, don't we?"
There was an uncomfortable silence that stretched on for a couple of minutes. Cory was just about ready to climb the stairs, when Asher sighed.
"Look sis, I know we're lucky to be alive after all that. And I know that you have always been the one to take care of me ever since Mom and Dad died. I know it's been hard. But you know I had no idea Luka would try to kill us. I checked everything. The people we were dealing with and the way it all went down - that's got The Company written all over it. You said it yourself."
Claudia chuffed softly at the memory of their parents. "So why are they back? Luka's still alive? How could he survive the explosion? And we don't even have the goddamned memory module."
"He doesn't know that. We destroyed it after the explosion, when we thought everyone was gone, remember? As far as anyone would know, we still have it."
"All that work, all that planning, and for what? No money, running under cover of darkness, and on the lam for a year before we settled here. I liked this place." She sounded exhausted again, and emotional. She yawned, emitting a slight squeak before smacking her maw a couple times.
"Me too." Asher looked off to the horizon. "The question is, why now? When we resurfaced, why didn't he come find us then? Four years, and now he tries to hit us?"
"I don't know Ash. Something tells me we're not going to figure this out now." Sighing again, Claudia casually looked over the back rail, and right down at Cory, his startled eyes meeting hers.
"You know," she growled at him, her pupils dilating, "eavesdropping can get you into a lot of trouble." With the agility and speed only a cat can muster, she slid down the stair rails like a fire-pole, paws on either side, and still growling, jumped toward the smaller human.
Cory, terrified, yelped and tore back down the stairs, slamming into the empty gurney, and bouncing backward, flopping onto the floor like a fish. With bleary eyes he looked up at his pursuer, upside-down in his vision, her muzzle a pronounced downward frown.
"Please," he squeaked helplessly.
"Jesus, you are too easy." Claudia barked, her expression never changing. In fact her mouth curved down harder. Titters and then peals of laughter assaulted Cory's now-sensitive ears.
Puzzled and a little angry at being laughed at, he swiveled around on the floor to face his attacker right-side up, and realized that Claudia had possibly the biggest grin on her muzzle she had ever had. Mentally facepalming himself, Cory realized that, like those optical illusion pics that got sent around the web, Claudia's grin had only looked like a frown because he was upside-down.
She extended an open paw to him, and he hesitantly grasped it, and realized that even her paw dwarfed his hand. It was surprisingly warm and soft, however. Just like Ash's, he thought. What?
Ash appeared behind his sister. "Claudia, what the hell? Cory are you alright?" He pushed past the female perpetrator and helped Cory over to a built-in couch along the side of the cabin. "Do you need some ice, where did you get hit?" His arm was instantly around Cory, and again, Cory unconsciously leaned into the warmth and strength.
"No, I'm fine. I'm sorry, I just..." he began.
"Hey, it's alright. I was just kidding," Claudia laughed, as she stood awkwardly in the middle of the floor, one paw clutching her other arm. Her laughter became self-conscious now that her practical joke had caused Cory physical pain. She had been irked before that Asher might be letting his feelings impede his professionalism, but she would never, ever want to hurt the smaller human - he didn't deserve that. "I was in the middle of telling you the story before anyway. So, no harm done. Two birds and all that, right?" She giggled again. "You should have seen the look on your face!"
They stayed there for a few minutes in silence. Claudia fidgeted a bit, scratching her neck and shifting on her footpaws, Asher unconsciously kneading Cory's shoulder.
Cory suddenly started and looked up at Asher. "Who's driving?"
The large feline chuckled, "It's insane what you can do with Google and GPS."
Cory looked back in disbelief.
"Autopilot. Standard issue. Sorta." Asher mumbled. "So, who wants dinner?" He fairly leapt off the couch, and began moving boxes and bins this way and that.
"We've only got rations until we hit port." slurred Claudia, eyes closed, head nodding a bit.
"Well, then, it's lucky for you I brought real food, then, huh?" grinned Asher, obviously very pleased with himself.
Claudia's eyes flew open, and fixed on her brother. "What? You went back into the main house to appease your stomach? You crazy-assed--"
"Hey, stop talking about my ass, you'll embarrass Cory." Asher smirked at the blushing human. "Besides, you know I hate those rations, and I had a little time. Only one guy to take care of." His ears drooped a bit as he remembered the fight.
"Yeah, don't you think it's a little odd they only left two operatives behind? Kind of a rookie move, wasn't it?" Claudia was waking up a bit now at the prospect of a real meal. "I mean, it was pretty easy to get out of there. You think Luka is doing this on his own? No budget for a proper team?"
"I dunno. I'm not gonna look a gift horse..." Ash threw over his shoulder as he rummaged through bags, trying to find the treasure that would satisfy their tired bodies and rumbling stomachs.
"That's kind of speciesist, brother dear."
"Well, feral horse, then."
"Meow."
Cory , who had had his eyes closed in the first moment of rest he had enjoyed in what seemed like days, sat bolt upright and stared at Claudia. "What did you say?" He shivered a bit.
"What's wrong, Cory, you look like you've seen a ghost." Asher immediately abandoned his search for sustenance, and was at the human's side in a blur of stripes and camo. "What's wrong?"
"What did you say?" Cory repeated, emphasizing each word, trembling now.
"Hey, calm down there, sport," Claudia said, moving over to sit on Cory's other side. "What's up?"
Cory looked from feline face to feline face, really taking in the features. Funny how he had never really considered a fur's face before. They were so like the faces of their non-evolved counterparts, and yet their range of expression eclipsed any housecat or pet dog. In the old days, before the Meinhoffer therapies, furs not only had to have surgeries just to walk upright, they had to spend countless hours practicing in a mirror, trying to get muzzles with underdeveloped, and sometimes absent facial muscles to approximate human expressions.
But after the DNA treatments, each succeeding generation found it easier to express themselves facially, just like their human counterparts. Still, some furs, even today, sought further genetic modification, in the hope of a greater range of expression; opting to actually change the shape of their maws, and ending up with something of an amalgam of both fur and human face. Some of the unions, depending on the species, were more successful than others; but the treatments, which were not reversible, were highly controversial.
Some victims of unscrupulous 'doctors' were so disfigured they sometimes resorted to costly and painful surgeries to 'correct' the problems. These were never realistic, and resulted in many scars, and frozen countenances. Pop culture, ever a cruel beast, referred dismissively to these unfortunates as 'Splices.'
Facial expression was one of the enduring dividing lines between anthro furs and their four-legged progenitors. That and intelligence. That and intelligence and speech. Cory's head spun. "Claudia. What. Did. You. Say." He stared hard at the clueless tiger, trying to seem as serious and commanding as he could; nearly craning his relatively thin neck up at the feline who seemed to tower above him at that moment.
"I said, 'That's kind of speciesist, brother dear," Claudia repeated hesitantly, puzzled why that would cause so much anxiety in their human friend.
"No. After that--"
"She said 'meow,'" Ash interrupted, his eyes focussed on the middle distance in front of him, as if someone had hit his 'pause' button. He slowly turned his gaze to Claudia, frowning slightly in concentration.
"Did I? I usually come up with something better than that. Wow I must be tired. OK then. I said, 'MEOW!'" Her eyes widened a bit as she chuffed in disbelief, shaking her head slightly that she would have such a lame comeback.
That did it. Cory and Asher, both flashing back to the forgotten memories of the morning, each turned to regard the other, their eyes wide with...fear? Claudia looked at them both. "What? Geez, dramatic much? It wasn't that bad."
Asher realized as he stared down at Cory, that the human must be thinking the same thing he was - that he wasn't imagining things. Carefully, as if in a trance, he got up and walked over to Melanie's crate. He cautiously bent down to look through the wire, and what he saw made him weak enough in the knees to fall over backward with a whump onto his firm rump. Melanie was...grinning; a small, not altogether happy grin; more like a sheepish grin, really - but a grin nonetheless.
"OK." said a small, soft voice from somewhere in the vicinity of the crate. "I guess we should talk."
Now it was Claudia's turn to register the impact of the moment. "Asher, what the hell is going on?" she snarled, jumping to her footpaws, any trace of sleepiness driven out by a massive jolt of adrenaline. "Who is that?" she demanded, her paw moving to the gun in the waistband at the small of her back."
A hesitant and quavering reply came from the same spot, "Claudia, I can explain, really. Just...don't do anything...rash. OK?"
Claudia froze. "Asher?"
The big tiger just stared into the crate like a doe in the headlights. Not even a whisker twitched.
"Ash, can you please undo the latch. I, ah...well...I can't do it myself."
Hesitantly, and with effort, as if moving through quicksand, Asher reached forward, and twisted the catch with two fingers, then sat back and continued to stare, muzzle slightly parted as he breathed through his maw. His head spun a bit from the onset of hyperventilation.
Cory, Claudia and Asher simply stared as the little door to the crate slowly swung outward, pushed by a dainty spotted and striped paw, as the Bengalese freed herself from her confines. She breathed a tiny sigh and walked slowly, carefully out of the crate, one deliberate pawstep at a time, ears swiveling on her refined head like diminutive satellite dishes. Her deep-amber eyes darted from feline to feline to human and back as she made her way to the low table in front of the couch where Claudia and Cory still sat. Her ruff was slightly puffed, and her eyes dilated with worry as she assessed her situation.
Gracefully leaping up to the cultured-marble tabletop, she backed up to the edge farthest from the human and her tiger caregivers. She sat slowly, never ceasing her continuous scan of the larger creatures in the cabin, her mahogany-and-cream striped tail twitching nervously of its own accord. Once seated, she carefully arranged her paws on the slick surface, mentally judging how far she could leap without traction, and wrapped her now-more-placid tail around her, the very tip end still flicking periodically.
"Sooo...I guess it's a lot to take in, huh?" she said, her ears drooping slightly. "I'm sorry about this morning. I kinda...well, I screwed up. I've always wanted to tell you, but..."
The tension in the cabin was stifling, and a casual onlooker might have been forgiven to mistake the motionless masses of fur and flesh positioned around the small feline for a particularly odd display at a wax museum.
"You see," sighed Melanie, "this is why I never said anything before." Her eyes lost a bit of their shine, and she looked for all the world like she might cry.
Cory, responding to a fellow creature in distress, was the first to breathe. "How...how is this, er um...I mean, how are you...possible?" His voice was soft to match the lower volume of the delicate cat, as if normal volume might scare her away.
"Well, when a mother cat really loves a father cat, they get together and..." Melanie intoned, trying desperately to relieve the tension.
Cory just gaped. Claudia and Asher remained mute.
"Too soon?" Melanie sighed again. "Well don't blame me if I have a bad sense of humor, I learned everything I know from watching you," she said looking straight at Asher, who in reply, said absolutely nothing.
"Wow, tough room." Melanie said with just a hint of annoyance. "OK, look, we don't have much time, and you need to know some things for your own safety. We're all in danger, and I'm gonna have to rely on you to do the heavy lifting, since, well, I don't have thumbs." She raised one slim paw and waved it slightly in front of herself as if in demonstration.
Claudia tore her eyes from the fantastical site on the marble table to look at her brother. "Asher, did you know about...this?" she whispered.
Asher looked up and met his sister's gaze. "Why would you automatically think I knew anything about this? Why, whenever anything happens, do you always assume I'm to blame? I'm nearly passing out here, and you accuse me of keeping this from you?" he hissed.
"Well you're always doing something or other, and I always end up cleaning up your messes," Claudia said, louder. "I'd think that something like this might just be important enough to let me know about...but I can't count on you for--"
"Oh here it goes again, my little brother the fuck-up, right?" Asher snarled. "This is freaking me out just as much as y--"
The yowl that pierced the cabin connected with the primal part of Asher and Claudia's brains, and set Cory's teeth on edge. The stunned silence that followed was broken by a curt and haughty proclamation.
"Jesus Christ you two. If I have to hear that tired argument one more time, I'll yank your tongues out while you sleep! Then the cat really will have your tongue!" Melanie growled, ruff up, tail straight up and puffed, back arched, standing on her tip-toes. She eyed each sibling in turn, lip curled, fangs glistening. "And I've got a name, and it's not 'this.' We don't have time for- What part of we're in danger don't you understand? You're just gonna stand there spitting at one another like a couple of dumb ferals?"
"Who the hell are you calling me a dumb feral?" Claudia turned on Melanie, who shrank a bit at the force of the comment. "What the hell are you and what do you want?"
"Look," Melanie said more calmly, settling her fur and dropping her tail, which nevertheless continued to whip from side to side in agitation and anger, "I'm sorry but we only have time for the basics, because by my estimation, we're gonna have to deal with incoming in about three minutes."
"Your estimation?" Cory asked, still staring.
"It's complicated. Long and short of it is, Luka doesn't want the memory module. You forget that you didn't just take the module from the lab before it exploded? You also took...me. Thanks for that, by the way." Melanie had settled down into her customary seated posture, looking up at the tigers with calm liquid-amber eyes, her tail languidly undulating behind her.
"You? Luka wants you? Oh my god. This is worse than Cats and Dogs." Asher facepawed and pinched the bridge of his muzzle.
"Welcome to the brave new world, cousin," Melanie said simply. "Did you really think that no one but Howlywood would dream of the possibilities of sentient ferals to be used as undercover agents and spies? Trust me, never underestimate the deviousness of the military."
Cory finally found his tongue. "But human intelligence can't be contained in brains that aren't equal to or larger in mass than humans. That's why so many species went extinct after The Great Release."
"Science marches on. Better living through chemicals. Whatever. Look, all I can tell you is that I'm the only successful hybrid they were ever able to create. Since the memory module, the lab and the scientists that created me are all gone thanks to you..."
Asher and Claudia both winced remembering the devastation they had left behind in their struggle to escape alive.
"Hey, they were bent on what amounts to global domination - you did the world a favor." the small feline continued.
"But why you? Can't they just create other, um, hybrids?" Cory interjected, regarding the small feline less with fear and awe as with incredulity.
"Out of twenty years of perfecting the process, I am the only one to evolve fully, and the only one to survive. They want me to...dissect me," Melanie shuddered and drew her tail tighter around herself.
"How do they even know you're alive? And how do they know you're with us? How do you know anything? How?" Cory fired questions at her like a quizmaster on a gameshow. "Even the first generation of anthros didn't progress further than a four-year-old's intelligence." Cory stated. He was always good in history and social studies. Who knew it might actually come in handy one day?
"Well, let's just say you learn a lot when you keep your muzzle closed and your ears up. But you have to--"
A shrill, pulsing alarm broke through the quiet of the cabin, startling everyone and causing Claudia to cover her already flattened ears.
"Jesus Asher, are you deaf? Why is this one so loud?" she said as she scrambled up the stairs to the bridge.
"Cory, take Melanie down to the below-deck cabin and lock the door. Stay there until I come and get you. No matter what you hear, stay there!" Asher said firmly, jumping to his footpaws and squeezing the human's shoulder as he nudged him to the stairs that lead down.
"Asher I--"
"Keep Melanie safe. I'll be fine. This isn't my first rodeo, ya' know." The tiger smiled hollowly.
"C'mon Cory, leave the fighting to the professionals," Melanie said as she leapt from the table and started down the stairs.
He watched as Asher pounced onto the bottom stair of the opposite staircase, and vaulted himself up to join his sister. Cory suddenly felt that pit gnawing at the center of his being. Would he ever see his kids again? Would he see Ash?
A yowl behind him shook him out of his head, and he ran downstairs, and slammed the cabin door shut behind him. He threw the hasp and turned around, just as the boat shifted in the water, and he was propelled forward onto one of the beds, falling beside Melanie, who had already taken up residence there. Her claws were extended, providing extra traction as they dug into the linen bedspread.
He sat up, grabbing handfuls of the bed cover to try and stabilize himself. Gradually, the boat shifted back to a neutral attitude. He stared at the top of the door, imagining the strong tiger just beyond it. What the hell is wrong with me? he thought.
"You really like him, don't you? Not that I blame you...I've loved him for the last four years." Melanie said wistfully.
"You love him?" Cory asked, wide-eyed.
"Not like that...it...wouldn't work obviously." Her ears flipped backward, and her eyelids drooped slightly. "But, yeah. I mean, he's taken care of me, fed me, bonded with me, kept me safe. He's a beautiful soul Cory. I'm happy for you. You couldn't do better than Asher."
Cory began to protest, "ME?"
Suddenly, the boat pitched violently again, and sent him headlong into the bulkhead. "OW!" he yelped, his voice trailing off as his world faded to black.
Melanie regarded the unconscious human with a mixture of sadness and envy. "Hey, that's my line." She walked over to place her paw lightly on his forehead, stroking it as she had seen Asher do.
"Oh, crikey! What's this then?"
Melanie froze. Chris was awake.