Acorna's Rebels Part 16

The tasty tang of fresh blood, the deeply torn tracks of claws, the warmth of fresh footprints, these were a few of RK's favorite things, even if he hadn't realized it until presented with them.

He felt that his years of being first mate on the salvage vessel had all been leading up to this, his true calling, stalker in the dark of things even darker. Yes, he was in his element now. He had found his calling. Seeker after hidden truths, defender of that which was good, righteous, hut. Destroyer of that 'which he didn't like.

He alone could rise to this occasion. The other felines, the Temple residents whose job this might otherwise have been, were still too weak from their long illness. Frankly, they were a bit over the hill, anyway. Becker had no liking for damaged organic things, which were not useful as salvage. Nadhari had other rats to catch. Acorna was... was... well, she might be useful, once RK was able to lay out the facts for her like a neatly a.s.sembled row of cleanly killed rodents, but for this kind of tracking she was not suitable. She was too conspicuous, too alien, too white and silvery and glistening, and she smelled too good. And she was too tall. She might come in handy as an a.s.sistant operative later on in the game. But this kind of job called for someone closer to the ground, someone whose heart beat with the planet's underlying rhythm.

Someone like him.

It helped too that he had actually seen what he considered to be the chief murder suspect-that roof-hopping cat impersonator. For all his poetic thoughts about being close to the ground, he soon took to the roofs instead, following the scent of his prey. This was better sport than tracking Khleevi, who were so stinking obvious even Becker could track them.

As the suns rose, more people came out of their lairs and started walking around in the streets below. RK smelled smoke, though it didn't issue from any of the roofs. He realized that he had actually been smelling it ever since he arrived on this world, but that the smoke was old and no longer had flame behind it. It hung in the air like the red dust and made his nose itch and sting. It carried an unpleasant odor made more unpleasant by the fact that what could have been the lingering scent of a cook fire was overlain with that of singed hair and the stench of rotting meat. RK wouldn't have turned his nose up at that sort of thing if he was hungry enough, but never once since Becker rescued him from a derelict ship had he ever been that hungry.

The trail had started with spurts of blood on the ground, but that smell disappeared and the scent changed, as RK followed it over the rooftops. The traces of the killer's pa.s.sing were soon augmented by another type of sign-hairs. The cat impersonator was shedding his fur. That seemed a strange thing for a cat wannabe to do, especially since the killer was shedding it a tuft here, a hair there, instead of ditching an entire hide-and RK did not even want to think how the suspect had come to possess that. The early discarded tufts were black, which jibed with RK's shadowy memory of the felonious feline or felinious felon-he wasn't sure which applied.

The suns rose higher until the roof tiles under RK's feet were hot enough that, had his particular paw pads not been blessed with extra fur between the toes, they might have been toast. About this time he caught other, fainter scents and found a tuft of golden fur caught between two tiles, and later three striped hairs similar to his own.

He looked around, sniffing, curling his outer lips to try to pick up a keener scent that way. Other cats had been here within the last day or two. He had received the impression that the only others of his kind in this city were the four remaining Temple cats, but that idea appeared to be wrong.

He sat and considered the roofscape around him. Although all of the roof surfaces were flat, they were not all the same height. Second floors, little spare rooms, and other irregularities threw sharp shadows onto the broader baked-red roofs.

RK a.s.sumed his best thinking position, which was spread out to absorb the maximum warmth through his furry parts. He was now at the city's outer wall, and beyond it "was the countryside, such as it was. He saw huge charred circles in the red dirt where big bonfires had been, and, being driven toward them, herds of various sorts of beasts, some of them familiar, some more distinctly alien.

Some of the beasts were already being herded into pens, and into long lines of troughs. On both sides of the troughs, men with big knives and b.l.o.o.d.y clothing stood waiting. RK felt a certain fang-thrilling fascination with all this gory slaughter, but it wasn't the particular kind of murder he had set out to investigate. He saw a small cloud of black and white hair bounce across a roof just north of the one he occupied, also ab.u.t.ting the city wall.

To his surprise, he found that the trail now led him in a spiral back inward toward the Temple to a rooftop only two streets away from where he started. The trail had been fresher than he thought. Had the suspect been there when the investigation began, RK knew he would have sniffed him out without the circ.u.mnavigation.

Now, within sight of the bloodied doorway, he smelled something from the deep shadow cast by a rooftop storage room. Approaching, he saw a foot -or was it a paw? No, a foot wearing a strange shoe. Perhaps even a black furry shoe with claws on. No. RK reached out a paw as far as it would stretch and touched the long pad. Paw. With a foot-shaped sole.

And this close he heard something, too. Very shallow, very fast. The exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide by a pair of good-sized lungs.

RK jumped to the top of the storage cubicle and looked down. A man who wore his ears on top of his head, with paw-feet and paw-hands, whose belly was bare flesh streaked with blood, lay there. A yard of black tail curled around one thigh. And as RK watched, as the man/cat breathed, his tail appeared and disappeared, and his ears p.r.i.c.ked to the top of his head and lowered to the human position. This fellow was extremely undecided about his species, RK realized. He was also badly hurt and depleted.

RK was disappointed. The guy looked more murdered than murderous. He nosed the suspect a little and almost automatically the paw turned into more of a hand and gave RK's back a feeble stroke. Okay, maybe not all murderers were bad murderers.

It was time to get Acorna, he realized. Of course, he could get Becker or Nadhari, but they wouldn't necessarily understand what he needed, and he'd have to explain it to them in charades, which took time. Thought-talk with Acorna was faster. Also, she could heal this creature if she arrived in time. None of the others could do that.

The man gave a groan that was half a yowl. RK knew speed was of the essence, but after all, injured parties needed encouragement to maintain their will to live. Besides, n.o.body was watching. n.o.body would see him.

He hopped down beside the suspect, and rumbling a rea.s.suring purr, thoroughly but quickly washed the man-cat's pain-sweaty face for him, then bounded away across the rooftops to that ridiculous cat-shaped Temple.

Acorna stared at the chief warrior priest. She wondered how to change the subject from the murder investigation to the vaccination of future Temple cats, when Miw-Sher came racing out.

"Mem-Baxi, here you are! And you are well?"

"Very well. I brought the medicine I spoke of," she said, handing it to the young acolyte. "Here it is, enough for all your cats, with full instructions for its use. Now I must return to the Temple to seek transportation, or perhaps it would be better if I got maps and directions, if I am to save the cats from all the other Temples all across the planet."

"Other Temples?"

"Why, yes," Acorna said. "I a.s.sume this Temple is not the only one on the planet, and also not the only one guarded by sacred cats. If this is a widespread problem, as seems likely, and if other cats are stricken, I must treat them, too."

"His Holiness will never allow that," the chief warrior priest said sternly.

"No? I find that surprising. I thought all the cats were sacred to those of your religious persuasion - regardless of affiliation. Nadhari, you never told me some cats were sacred and others should be allowed to die."

Nadhari shrugged. "It was not that way when I lived here, Amba.s.sador Acorna. I'm sorry. You know how governments are. Change of policy every time you think you understand what's going on."

"I really must speak to the Mulzar, then. Miw-Sher, perhaps you would escort me back to the Temple?"

"I'll go, too, Acorna." Nadhari dusted her hands off, as if washing the site from them. "The Mulzar has the investigation in hand, I believe. Miw-Sher and I came only to see that your trip last night was safe. With the murderer abroad, we feared you might have come to harm."

"I was fine," Acorna said. "That poor priest must have been killed while Miw-Sher and I were with the cats."

"Is it true that you cured our guardians, Lady?" the chief of warrior priests asked her.

"They are still underfed and weak from their illness, but they were working on remedying that themselves when last I saw them," Acorna told him.

"Perhaps one of them will be well enough to help us track our killer," Nadhari said. "We should return to the Temple and see."

When they arrived back at the Temple, they discovered that Becker had waited up for them, though Captain MacDonald had retired some time earlier, pleading that he wasn't worth much unless he'd had enough sleep.

"Girls, there you are!" Becker greeted Acorna and Nadhari, with a glance that included Miw-Sher. "Sweet Mother Nature, but I'm glad to see you, Acorna! Where have you been?"

"I was perfectly safe, Captain, on the Condor. I wanted to develop a vaccine to prevent further outbreaks of the disease afflicting the cats. I had..." She realized that she'd been about to say that she had RK with her, but she thought better of it as Edu Kando strode into the hall. "... a.s.sistance."

"There's a nasty people-eating monster out there," Becker told her. "But one with thumbs-it garrotes its victims first. You shoulda seen the corpse."

"I know," Acorna said. "The priests and Nadhari found a trail they think is the murderer's. I ran into them as they were investigating it."

Edu Kando was scowling as he rounded the corner, but by the time he reached them his expression had turned to benevolent concern. "Cousin and esteemed guests, I owe you all an apology. We have offered you the hospitality of our Temple, and then we keep you up till all hours with our own petty problems. Please, you must rest. It is cool in your rooms, and I will personally guarantee it will remain quiet outside of them until you have slept. Afterward, you will no doubt be hungry again. Perhaps at that time you and I, Amba.s.sador, can discuss your mission?"

"Yes," Acorna said, "thank you. I am very tired. A morning consultation is ideal for me. I have a matter of some importance to discuss with you."

"Have a nice night, Acorna. I'm going back out to track the murderer," Nadhari said.

"My men will deal with that, cousin," Kando told her. "If you are wakeful, I would love to spend time talking with you. You must learn what has happened here in your absence."

Becker said, "Sounds fascinating. I'd like to know all about that, too."

Kando said smoothly, "Alas, Captain, there are concepts my cousin and I must speak of that may be expressed only in our own language."

"That's fine," Becker said stubbornly. "Nadhari can translate for me. I'm feeling really out of my depth here, Mulzar. I want to find out what's happening."

Nadhari gave him a fond smile and a pat on the cheek. "You look tired, Jonas. And it will be family news, very boring - "

"If you say so," Becker agreed finally.

She gave him a light peck on the cheek and whispered, "I'll be fine. If not, you can rescue me again. You know I love it when you do that. It's so cute."