It had taken all night for Rai and Dene to walk from the anarchist base to the city of Verss, even counting the fact that they’d been able to hitch a lift to cover most of the distance.

It was taking a tiny fraction of the time for them to return, for the police car was outrageously fast, and Dene’s paw was heavy on the throttle.

Rai knew that their mission was urgent- certainly, rescuing orphaned Runge cubs was worth a great deal of hurry- but he also suspected that Dene would be racing just as madly to a bake sale, or a vacant lot. Her breath came in excited pants, and he suspected certain other signs were also present, indicating her general disposition. Rai couldn’t entirely understand why a lady wolf would find such a fast car unbearably erotic, but he consoled himself with the thought that clearly, it gave the act of driving her full attention.

Rai looked around, idly, as the landscape scrolled by with numbing speed. It really was very like being in an airplane doing a fly-by, only confined to the ground. There were no obstacles on the endless, smooth high-speed conduit: had there been, they would have virtually no chance to evade them at this speed. Almost nothing but a few very specialized vehicles could pass them. They sat well out in the highest-speed zone, and lower-speed vehicles swept by and were left behind as if they were themselves obstacles.

Once Dene had to dodge a slower vehicle, and Rai’s ears had laid back in alarm as the madly spinning tires screamed- it was very strange to experience. At lower speeds, the police car had taken corners with great abruptness, but at these unthinkable speeds, it was as if the slightest turn produced great screeching of tires and terrible unwillingness to change its course. Dene had missed the other vehicle with room to spare, and with a great blinking of lights and deployment of air-stabilizers, the police car had regained its course and quickly built up to full speed again.

Dene hadn’t blinked. She had panted much harder for a moment, though.

Rai stared at some upcoming hills. They looked a little familiar- cut off on one side to permit the road’s straight and level path, but surely… yes, this had been the place.

“Dene? Perhaps this would… Dene, we must stop here, ‘aons… Dene!”

He slammed forward against his harness, his ears laying back in helpless panic. Dene had braked at the last possible instant, and was taking them into the feeder road at apparently far too high a speed.

“Chos!” cursed Rai, clinging to the door to avoid being thrown into Dene’s lap by cornering forces. The Nerre obscenity had rarely been more incongruous- loosely translating as ‘don’t care’ or ‘whatever’, it rated as obscene to Nerre because it was an affront to their core values, but even as such it had probably never been used in a speeding car racing desperately to rescue two wolf cubs who’d narrowly escaped slaughter as their home was pillaged.

Or at least, who hopefully had escaped slaughter, so far. Perhaps the rush was justified.

“Can you… hhh… slow… down! ‘aons!” managed Rai, as Dene tore through a series of turns partly sideways.

“Sshh!” said Dene, “almost there!”

It was quite true. Another bit of road, another turn, and suddenly the familiar sight of a large hole in the side of a hill, surrounded by industrial debris, greeted them.

That wasn’t why Dene made a last frantic swerve, however. She was too used to the road being flat, smooth and clear, and suddenly, it was littered with dead vehicles- and dead Runge.

“Oh, no.” breathed Dene in horror. “Look, they were trying to get away…”

Rai, however, only had eyes for one little tableau, not out in the road- more over by the entrance. He could not stop looking.

He had fallen, apparently trying to shelter another Runge, a smaller one, and the bullets had made them nearly unrecognizable- nearly indistinguishable. But Rai recognized the fur color, the clothing- he had unbuttoned that shirt, those pants. Perhaps he was the last one to do that… it didn’t seem to matter, for now his casual lover was beyond anyone’s reach, forever.

Rai thought yes, very likely the smaller one had been female. Strange that the Runge, so prone to pair-bonding, would produce a guy like this, so eager for new conquests, mating even with strange visiting male Nerre, seeking no introduction. Yet here he lay- revealing who he had been ready to die for. Or… die with.

“I will save your cubs.” said Rai, very quietly. “I will. For both of you.”

Dene’s horrified stares at the carnage were distracted by something that Rai refused to be distracted by- blinking lights on the dashboard.

“Hsss…” she said, “quiet!”

Rai blinked, startled, as she pointed to a readout frantically. It flashed with desperate urgency, and showed a small text message.

PATTERN

RECOGNIZED

XARNAX

The instant Rai had read this and glanced up at Dene in alarm, her paw shot out towards a large red kill-switch… and the police car went dead. No engines, no lights, and most importantly, no computers- computers that could be turned against them by the wiles of artificial, alien intelligence, intelligence capable of reading and broadcasting all manner of radiation.

Heartbeats were radiation, too, of a sort, but hopefully less interesting…

The two sat, hardly breathing, in the afternoon sunlight.

Xarnax had been discovered by the Tompar. Discovered was an awfully gentle way to put it- Xarnax apparently hated Tompar, or possibly hated all organic life- it was a bit difficult to work out from their behavior.

Xarnax had taken to building increasingly deadly landing craft to hunt Tompar, if you wanted to call it ‘craft’ when the things were essentially flying robots. Craft implied the thing would land and something alien would get out and attack.

Of course, if you were flying a sophisticated computerized fighter plane, you might discover the Xarnax was indeed able to ‘get out’- when you noticed your computers no longer obeyed you, that they suddenly disabled any attempt you might make to regain control of your now-plummeting aircraft.

Nobody knew if Xarnax which infected an enemy computer were able to get out before the computer was destroyed in the kamikaze explosion- since they were AI, there was always a possibility they simply sent a clone of themselves to be destroyed with the enemy.

The Estrai, taking front lines in attempts to heroically defend the Tompar (who were in no position to complain), hit on a bold counter to this vulnerability- falling back on primitive mechanical forms of aviation and other technology, they fought Xarnax with their wits, reflexes and adrenaline, and three died for every Xarnax unit destroyed- but that robot craft would have exterminated at least ten Tompar otherwise.

The Nerre did not know what to make of Xarnax. No Tompar visited their home planet of Ause, and precious few other species ever had. It appeared that Xarnax did not know what to make of Nerre either- there had been fairly few killings, and on one occasion, a Nerre had faced down a Xarnax attack craft, and recited a Nerre poem at it, as fighting would have been useless… and had been spared, which was most unusual.

A distressing number of Resten figured it served the snake things right to be exterminated- but this did not win them favorable treatment from Xarnax. One Resten who’d heard of the Nerre poetry story tried a limerick on a Xarnax scout, and was obliterated for his trouble.

Nobody knew what the Vorsi thought- the dragonish hyper-technical aliens probably had the best claim to being able to outfight or outsmart Xarnax, but they made no statements one way or the other.

Aintar colonies seemed largely untargeted, and were certainly completely unable to either defend against, or attack, Xarnax.

The Runge hadn’t seen much Xarnax at first, but as their worlds were forever a chaotic, multicultural wrangle of varying species, they’d begun to see more and more, because Xarnax was learning with wide-bandwidth speed: Tompar came to the Runge worlds, more than the worlds of any other species, because they were more tolerated on Runge worlds.

The computer kill-switches and new interest in manual overrides were only the beginning of Runge adaptation towards the new reality- in which, every so often, they were hunted by shining, hostile machines.

Dene and Rai peered out at the quiet, unmoving carnage.

Rai’s feelings were a cacophony of ‘dis’: distress, dismay, distaste… he had felt already that this world demanded too much of him. He’d been on Restred, politely making the acquaintance of a shopkeeper fellow who seemed quite willing to explore what protocol might permit him to do… Restred seemed rather stultified, but it was green and pretty and the Resten seemed nice- true, some roughnecks had sneered and suggested that he was out after shopkeepers, but as this was perfectly true, it seemed odd to take offense. Besides, they hadn’t been armed with projectile weapons, so they couldn’t possibly have harmed him.

Rai had been asked to do this strange investigation, into the kidnapping of somebody who turned out to be in Verss of her own accord and running a house of ill repute- and it had led him to his present company, and his present situation- sitting with a Runge female who’d lost her job and place to live through trying to help him, staring out the window at the remains of another Runge who, such a short time ago, had been pleasuring him (and pleasuring himself, in no uncertain terms).

There needed to be a correct path, right things to do. On Ause that was always easy, if frustrating. On Restred, he could flirt with unexpected things to do, still in the leisurely expectation that he’d be able to manage what obligation arose. Here, duty rose like tangling vines, dragging him in conflicting directions, not allowing simple answers.

“You look sad.” whispered Dene, very softly, startling him.

Rai quirked an ear. Apparently silent didn’t really mean silent- yet another confused expectation. Momentarily, he looked even sadder.

“That guy there was my lover, while we were here.”

Dene’s paw flew to her mouth in horror. “Oh, no!”

“Yes. I assure you. I believe it is his female mate he lies across.”

Dene glanced nervously around, and looked distraught beyond endurance. “Oh, Rai! I recognize him too, now. Is that how you got the information out of him? The whatever about that Dinsam company?”

“That was just luck. I was with him by choice. I am… sorry I left him. I might have helped protect him from this.”

“Oh, Rai.” said Dene helplessly. “I wish I could hug you.”

“But you have, once, though it was rather improper. I am not sure this is a suitable time or place to do it again…”

“You can say th…”

Light glinted off bright, moving, metal.

Dene’s paw flew out to grab Rai’s, which was perhaps touching, but not what the little feline really needed right then- he fought to stay silent and not swat at the panicky wolf, knowing he could do her serious injury in an eyeblink, due to his claw implants.

Rising into view was a metallic nightmare, gleaming in the afternoon sun- yet, one might almost think it innocuous from a certain point of view. There were no ravening metal fangs, no stylized monster faces- indeed, there was no face to the thing at all, for it did not have a direction to point in.

This one was essentially a large, triangular wing- slightly scalloped to make the edges pointier. Almost every place on the wings’ edges revealed control surfaces. In a perplexing pattern across the wing lay jet exhausts, seared from hard use. They didn’t all point in the same direction- these creatures didn’t have to only fly straight, they were able to whirl. They could become propellers for rocketing straight up, or kamikaze whirling saw blades on a monstrous scale, should that suit them.

Strange manipulators extended from below the thing, and four- no, five- robotic legs. This was another distressing feature of Xarnax scouts and attack bots- they would not choose more animal-like appendages under any circumstances, had never been seen with bipedal or quadrupedal gait. It was always threes, fives, sevens, a strange smooth insectlike alien gait with rhythms unlike anything that balanced on an even number of feet.

Even the glint of camera lenses did not fit normal expectations. Rather than one lens like a monitor camera, or two lenses mimicking the vision of an animal, there were three scanning the area, weaving in and out between each other, turning to face the car…

Dene, Rai and the Xarnax scout all froze at once as the Xarnax lenses came to rest on the sight of a Runge female clinging desperately to the hand of a Nerre male in the front of a powered-down cop car.

Dene couldn’t speak, or tear her eyes away from the thing. Her gaze spoke raw, cringing terror. Xarnax, unless effectively attacked, killed sixty percent of Runge passersby they encountered.

One of the Xarnax scout’s cameras moved. From Dene and Rai’s position, the cameras now made a more perfect equilateral triangle.

Rai didn’t speak. The thing was so plainly beyond his physical reach, he did not understand the workings of the cop car, and it was powered down anyhow. Even if it had been operating, he didn’t figure his reaction times were faster than a giant computer-controlled robot, making it a moot point. He just stared, and his gaze spoke more of outright fascination and curiosity.

All at once, the cameras were swiveling away towards the rocky hillside, and the air was suddenly alive with a fusillade of faint zwipping sounds, flashing light, and the pop and crackle of burning rock.

Dene couldn’t help it- she yipped and whined and Rai held her paw more tightly, and then before either the Runge or Nerre could react more coherently, the air shook with sudden jet blasts and the Xarnax was roaring off, running with a strange circular gait and then taking to the air, the appendages and sensors withdrawn into a smooth geometrical metal shell that twisted in flight and clawed for the fringes of space.

It glittered in the sky for a little while, and then even that was gone.

Rai glanced at his companion. Dene seemed like she was trying to be brave. She gulped, and set her jaw, and it looked for a moment like it would work, and then all at once it was obvious the lady wolf was not okay. Tears sprang to her eyes and her lower lip quivered desperately.

“I shall hug you, then.” said Rai, and enjoyed a small feeling of rightness as Dene toppled awkwardly over into his lap. Rai hugged her just as awkwardly, scratched her ears cautiously, tried to hug her body as well but discovered he was shoving one of her breasts about with his paw and hastily abandoned the project. Nevertheless, Dene was inexpertly soothed.

She snorted- which she doubtless would have preferred to consider a sniffle- and looked up, teary eyes beginning to change over to delight and wonder. “We.. survived!”

“Indeed.” said Rai politely. It was, after all, the essential truth.

“What was it doing?”

“I’m not sure, Dene. It was certainly firing at something, but it wasn’t us.”

“There!”

It had been a small rock face alongside the hill. It still was, but it was… different.

“Do you think it’s safe to get out?” asked Dene.

“I’m not sure, but I’d like to.” said Rai. “Which button opens the door again?”

“Oh- we’re going to have to turn the car on again.” said Dene, and pressed buttons hopefully. The lights and displays flickered into life once more, and the pad-scanner whirred out invitingly.

“Oh, not this again!”

“Calm, Dene, ‘aons. We remember how to do it, I hope?”

Dene made a face and poked her nose against the scanner. “Biometrics my ass- I know who uses this car, and I shudder to think where that nose has been…”

“And the pass phrase?”

She typed in Anzende’s paean to his feline lover. “Oh, great, it says Status like it did before.”

“I know the cop said something about how he had it set to passive… and we got it going before by typing ‘reset’…”

Dene looked frustrated. “Passive-aggressive, more like. I’m going to tell it ‘active’, maybe it’ll be more cooperative?”

“I’m really not sure…” said Rai.

“I’m not either, but I’m the computer nerd, okay? It can hardly act worse.” She entered ‘active’ and hit enter.

The car beeped sharply, and seemed to shift on its wheels for a moment. Some technical-looking devices popped out of the fenders and began scanning the environment with regular sweeps.

“Interesting. I guess now we get out and go look for those kids…” said Dene.

As she said it, the doors opened obligingly, spooking Rai, but not so much that he didn’t scramble out immediately.

“Well, that’s more like it! Now let’s go see what happened.”

As Rai and Dene got clear of the doors, they shut firmly and sealed.

As they walked towards the rock face the scout had shot up, the car beeped sharply- and the scanning device quit sweeping and locked immediately onto them.

They looked back uncertainly, but the car just squatted there and did nothing, so they went on.

The rock face had been lasered into a pattern- but not in any sense a picture. Neat lines of holes, slightly spoilt by the tendency of the rock to crack and explode under the stress, made an array of holes and nonholes- a gridlike pattern of data, scornful in its chilling accuracy.

Rai and Dene stared at this mysterious pattern silently for a minute. Behind them, the car beeped, but when they whirled in alarm, it had only begun scanning the area again. Still, the associations with the recent Xarnax scout were enough to make both of them very uncomfortable- without saying a word to each other, they both headed for the entrance to the base, stepping over corpses on the way.

It seemed strange that these dead people had been killed not by the hostile alien robot so recently here, but by other Runge.

The entrance to the base was unlit. It seemed the cop squad given the task of obliterating this base had liked their job so well, they’d obliterated lights, communications equipment- anything they could find. Strangely, against one of the smashed video consoles it was possible to see obvious paint markings- a symbol like a C with Vs along the inside of it. Curious, Rai touched it and found the paint, from some spray can, still wet. He made an expression of polite distaste, and wiped some of the color off on another part of the wall.

“I’m not sure why they’d shoot up a thing and then paint on it.” he said.

“I suppose we should feel lucky they didn’t shoot it and then piss on it.” suggested Dene, and they continued on into the darkness.

Farther in, some lighting was working, but haltingly. There were pockets of working illumination, dark areas, places where the lights flickered and fizzed and made crackling noises and a smell of ozone. These distressed the two explorers in distinct ways- Dene disliked the smell, and Rai tended to lay his ears back at the crackling noises, for they carried a high-frequency gratingness that tended to go right up his spine.

They worked their way downwards, past many tableaux of Runge, who’d once lived here and had then died here. Once, it was a Nerre dead and splayed against the wall in several pieces. Rai did not respond to this any differently than to the Runge. Dene watched him curiously, but didn’t catch him showing any reaction. She considered that perhaps he didn’t think it likely that the Nerre had been true to its culture. There was always that, with Rai- that tendency to consider other kitties unpersons if they broke the rules.

They moved quietly- at least, Dene tried to move quietly, but she might as well have had her paws in tin buckets by comparison to Rai, who slunk along in eerie silence, the tip of his tail flicking about as the only counterpoint to his fluid motion.

“I think it’s over here.” whispered Dene, groping her way through another dark area. “There were lockers. Over where it’s brighter…”

In the distance behind them, there was a faint clatter, as of something falling over. Dene glanced frantically at Rai.

“Let us go forward, then.” Rai said softly.

The lockers came into view, lit from one angle by a flickering, shot-up light fixture, and from another by a surviving light. Dene’s paw shot to her mouth in alarm as she saw evidence the lockers had been shot up as well. There were a lot of lockers hanging open- and a lot that had been shot- and a lot that remained closed.

“Oh, God, Rai. Can I try looking in the ones without bullet holes first?”

“Calm yourself, ‘aons.” said Rai very softly. “You are Runge, are you not? You may not be Resten, but surely your nose can tell if our news is tragic?”

Dene blinked. “I was trying not to think of that. This whole place stinks of blood and fear and gunfire… but that’s good thinking. Um… got to say though, if I smell those kids dead, I’m going to start crying. You can’t really get away from the emotions of smell stuff…”

“Oh. Forgive me, ‘aons- it didn’t occur to me that would be worse for you…”

“Yeah, but it’s a lot quicker. Here goes…”

Dene paced along the lockers, sniffing. No reaction. She paced back, checking again- and paused. “Rai… this open one! There’s no bullet holes, but I swear, they’ve been here!”

“Do you mean, recently?”

“I’m talking recently! Maybe in the last half hour!” said Dene, and cringed as another crashing noise echoed in the darkness behind them. “Is this place caving in?”

“I’m not sure…” said Rai. “Perhaps. But if those cubs were here that recently…”

“Looking for these, crazy wolfess?”

Siertes stepped into the light, carrying one cub and leading the other.

Rai froze, ready to spring, but did not attack- Siertes stared down at him haughtily, with a sort of ‘I could kill you three out of four on your best day’ look- but the cub she carried, the little wolf girl who looked to be dull-eyed and in shock at the moment, had spotted Dene.

She blinked, not registering for a moment, and then suddenly she was struggling to get away from Siertes, and cried, “Other mommie!”

She dropped to the ground as the startled Tompar released her, ran heedlessly across the floor, and slammed into Dene’s embrace, leaving Dene unable to speak both for lack of wind and excess of emotion.

“They killed real mommie…” managed the girl, and couldn’t say any more- nor could Dene, then, because she was weeping too.

“Fucking right they did.” said the boy cub, not leaving Siertes’ side.

Rai asked carefully, “Are you safe for now?”

“If you try to hurt snake lady I’ll kick your ass.” said the boy cub.

Siertes laughed. “He can’t do that. I don’t think you need to worry about him, and your sister…”

“Half sister,” corrected the cub.

“Okay, so your half sister seems to have found a friend of mine.”

“A friend of yours? You know her too, Siertes?” said the cub.

“She’s my crazy wolfess, I like her. You guys met her too?”

“She sort of babysat for us. What’s she doing h… hey, she must have remembered my hiding spot!”

“Apparently. This Nerre’s going around with her- I guess you didn’t meet him before?”

“He might be the one Dad was… was talking about.” The boy cub was full of bravado, but it was all too plain that he was little better off than his sister. His voice had caught, for a moment.

“I expect I am. We have come here to rescue both you and your sister. Will you come with us, ‘aons?”

“I’m not leaving snake lady.” said the cub. “You don’t know what’s happening in here.”

Siertes gave him a look. “Suppose I go with them as well? Kitty here is probably nearly as good as me. I’m seeing claw implants, he’s a fighter too.”

“You’re not gonna hurt snake lady!”

Siertes sat, looking at him face-to-face. “Kiddo, stop being stupid. Is! You’re not making any sense, and this is not a good situation. We should be teaming up with these guys. Look at your sister with crazy wolfess. I couldn’t do anything with her, and now look at her.”

There wasn’t that much to look at, and the boy cub was actively trying to avoid looking, to maintain his self-control. Dene was hugging the crying girl cub, rocking her, the both of them oblivious to anything else.

“They need to stop it.” said the boy cub.

Rai blinked. “I’m sorry- it looks like something your s.. half-sister needs right now. Perhaps you might sympathize more, ‘aons.”

“No, I just mean that’s not going to get us out of here alive.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“Believe it, kitty.” said Siertes, as Dene looked up as well.

Rai chose his words carefully. “We had thought our rescue depended on whether the cubs had already been killed. Why do you behave like their danger continues?”

“I hate to break it to you, but it’s not just their danger. Wipe your eyes, crazy wolfess, I need you focussed. Didn’t you see the marks, kitty?”

Rai considered this. “What is the significance of a C with Vs inside it? I wondered why cops would shoot up the place and then paint on it.”

“Those aren’t Vs, kitty. They’re teeth.”

“Not cops, then?” said Rai politely.

“Very much not cops.” said Siertes.

“I’m guessing scavengers.” said Dene.

Siertes lifted an eyeridge in grudging approval. “Top marks, crazy wolfess! Next you’ll be giving me a situational analysis.”

“Um. We should run away, very fast?”

“Low marks. You fail. You have to see the teacher after school.” winked Siertes.

“You seem to know more about this.” said Rai. “Can you give us a situational analysis? ‘aons?”

“Delighted. The kid here told me a lot of it. This is a loosely knit pack of bad guys who’ve had their eye on this place for some time…”

“Wait a minute.” said Dene.

“We should really cover this and get moving.” said Siertes. “What do you care who they are?”

“No, I don’t get it. This was Ungovernment. This was an anarchist base. How can there be outsiders?”

The boy cub spoke. “Easy. They all want to convert us to Nenke Rizst.”

“Oh geez.” said Dene. “It’s those guys?”

“You didn’t tell me that.” said Siertes. “What’s a Nenke Rizst?”

Dene explained. “It’s a sort of religious cult. Very aggressive.”

“They would keep coming in, insisting that we join them and attack Verss…” said the cub.

“They’re like a civilization hater cult.” said Dene. “Sometimes they leaflet or march. The idea is that people are scum because they have vanity and live in luxury in big cities…”

“It’s not exactly that.” said the cub. “They’ve got some points. They know a lot about the lifeless zones on this planet, they know about pollution.”

“You guys agree with them there?” said Dene.

“The fact that they’re right doesn’t help when they come and want to command us to march on Verss and destroy it.” said the cub.

“Yeah,” said Dene, “that wouldn’t fly here, I guess. But… why do they want to come here now?”

The cub glowered. “They like destroyed places, but they won’t maintain them- they go live in wrecked buildings but then they wreck them more. Dad knew the place they were at was running out of time, he made sure everyone had the information about it…”

“That these Nenke Rizst wanted to come here and take over?” asked Rai.

“Yeah. It’s not the principle of it, it’s that we were using all of the space already, we were using it reasonably. There was no reason to think they were gonna cooperate and get along. They had a totally other agenda…”

“They’re bullies.” said the girl cub softly. “Coercers.”

“And then the cops came,” added the boy cub miserably, “and now everything is wrecked, just the way they like it.”

“Let’s get you out of here. Crazy wolfess, did you have a place to take them?” said Siertes. “That would be a nice trick since the last I saw you, you’d just become homeless yourself.”

“Between apartments.” said Dene. “Much better way to think of it. Oh, and jobs also… I guess I was going to bring them back to the Cathouse.”

Both cubs looked up. “Really?” said the boy cub.

“Oh, god, don’t tell me you’ve been there…”

“Ew! No! Dad likes… liked them. Says they understand the price of freedom…”

The girl cub started crying again. Siertes said, “We need to get them out of here. How’d you get here, crazy wolfess?”

“Do you think you could manage ‘Dene’ once in a while?”

“I could argue that worrying about etiquette while being hunted makes you die nicely… fine. Dene. How’d you get here?”

“Police car.”

“You continue to surprise. I like that. Where’s the cop?”

“He’s got a Nerre lovely stuck on him for the time being. He let us use the car without him.”

“Interesting.” said Siertes. “I’m guessing you mean literally. Verss cop, is it?”

“No- he’s from where I come from, Kiesens.”

“Figures. I mean, that it wasn’t a Verss cop. Is it a good car?”

“Oh yeah. It’s… exciting.”

Siertes lifted an eyeridge again, for lack of a proper eyebrow. The expression was still clear. “Really. I think I’ll ride in a front seat so I can watch. Crazy wolfess.”

“Wait a minute. Watch what?” said Dene.

“I could see your heart beat faster when you thought of that car. And, your temperature went up a teeny bit. I think you must like it in a special way.” said Siertes, teasingly.

Dene said nothing, just bristled with embarrassment and hugged the girl cub again. Between the distress of the cubs, and Siertes’ teasing, her feelings were very confused.

“It occurs to me…” said Rai. “Would these scavengers harm the car?”

Siertes looked away from Dene, to the latter’s relief. “Did you leave it powered down? I’m assuming it’s a normal Runge city patrol car.”

“I believe it is, and no- we got out, and it beeped and began scanning the area with some sort of antenna.”

“Then no. There might be a few more bodies if they get really determined, but they’re not going to hurt it. Our problem is getting to it.” said Siertes.

“Is it? We got here without event.” said Rai.

“I didn’t. I’ve killed three of the grubby creatures already, and they don’t taste nice, let me tell you. They hang out in such horrible places that there’s chemicals and oils on their fur, I’m lucky they don’t poison me just as fast as I poison them… they’re probably arranging an ambush.”

“What do we have that they want?” asked Dene.

“Us.” said the boy cub.

“Me.” said the girl cub.

“What, for hostages?” said Dene.

The boy cub looked away. “We started shooting at them on sight after they stole Wend’s kid. We never got her back, either. They’re too poisoned by chemicals and stuff to be able to breed, and you know how badly they want more followers…”

Dene stared at the girl cub, appalled. “Y… first of all, I never got your name, and second, you’re totally not old enough!”

“She wouldn’t be going anywhere.” said the boy cub. “Eventually she would be old enough. And you’re probably not ‘other mommie’ either, are you?”

“Oh- I’m Denenke Tieschtet. Dene for short.” said Dene.

“I’m Hallem.” said the boy cub. “Hall for short. She’s Aine.”

“Did you say eye-nay, or eye-nuh?” asked Rai.

The girl cub spoke. “Eye-neh, please. Hallem tries to get people to say it wrong.”

“My heart’s not really in it today.” admitted Hallem.

“Enough.” said Siertes. “We go, right now. Kitty, you go behind crazy wolfess and kids, okay? I get anything in front.”

“Including bullets?” inquired Rai, a little affronted.

Siertes stared levelly at him. “I protect crazy wolfess. Got a little crazy myself, and I like it. Yes, even bullets.”

Rai blinked. “Are you joking? I’ve not seen a Tompar Mued show loyalty in this way. Not that I am complaining.”

“Not joking. Pervy, yes, maybe, sure. Back home I’d be shot for that, most likely. I’m not there, I’m here. I protect crazy fluffy wolfess. What’s your excuse?”

“Um. Not that one.” said Rai, flustered. “Honor dictates that I get Dene and these cubs away from here safely- in memory of someone I knew here.”

Siertes seemed to look more sharply at him for a moment, which was an uncomfortable experience- Rai became very aware that this snakelike creature’s eyes could pick out a hair out of place in his fur, or the slightest eyeblink, and that he was being analyzed as if under a microscope.

“Poor kitty!” said Siertes approvingly. “Same excuse!”

“It was, yes.” admitted Rai. He wasn’t sure exactly what Siertes had seen to tip her off, but she’d obviously spotted what lay behind his obligations.

“Follow close behind. Not so close that you go pervy on my crazy wolfess!”

“Siertes!” said Dene. “Cut it out! Anyway he’s gay!”

“Good. Hush! All together- follow me!”

‘Snake lady’ certainly had the moves, that was clear.

Almost immediately, a scruffy Runge with burning eyes had lunged out, crying “You…” in contemptuous tones. Possibly he’d meant to say “You have no chance, you’re surrounded”, or “You need to give us the cubs”.

He got the one word out before Siertes hit him, and she wasn’t messing around. Her jaw dropped open and she lashed forward, fangs exposed, and got him on the top of the shoulder and in front of the collarbone. Dene had never seen anything move so fast.

She yanked free and the Runge dropped as she backed off, spitting and cursing. Out of sight, scrabbling noises could be heard. Other Runge, unseen, were backing off… for the time being.

“Don’t walk near where I spit on the ground!”

“I wasn’t going to touch it!” said Dene.

“Keep back. I mean it. You’d probably be okay, but it could affect kitty’s reflexes, or hurt the kids. We go on. I’ll try not to spit.”

They continued. Dene asked, “Would it really mess with Rai’s reflexes?”

“I want all his reflexes available in case anyone attacks from behind.” said Siertes. “Not the slightest impairment.”

Rai padded silently along, his eyes a bit wild with readiness to fight after the sudden appearance and death of the Runge cultist. “There shall be no impairment. I thank you for your concern.”

“But…” said Dene, “just to go near it?”

“Everything goes wrong, crazy wolfess. That’s the law of ‘is!’ You think it’ll be fine, and then one of the cubs trips and lands nose-first in a spot of venom, or gets it on their paw and licks it…”

“I wouldn’t do a dumb thing like that!” objected Hallem.

“Everything goes wrong.” said Siertes flatly. “That’s life. You’re not to go near where I spit.”

Hallem thought. “If that did happen… would I die?”

Siertes glowered. “Don’t want to talk about that.”

“Yeah, but you say not to even go near it…”

“Shut up, kid. It’s not you I want in that state.”

Rai blinked. “The state of death?”

“Intres orra tres. No more explaining, shut up…”

Dene considered this, as she followed the rangy, elegant Tompar down another blasted corridor. “Something to do with death, anyway- that’s their word for death but it’s being used differently…”

“How delightful that you know of intres, to get me thinking of it here.” said Siertes. “Can you please let me focus?”

“Well, you said it wasn’t the kid you wanted in that state, and unless you mean more dead cultists…”

“It’s you, all right? So will you shut up and let me get all of us out of this stinking place? I’ll give you intres later if you’ll just please let me focus…”

“Give me death?” yelped Dene. Rai, too, looked concerned.

“Damn it. Everything goes wrong. This isn’t the time, crazy dear wolfess…”

“But I just don’t get it! I thought you liked me! Or, well, uh, even more than that…” stammered Dene.

“Maybe not so much this instant.” snapped Siertes. “Keep moving!”

“If we keep moving, can you keep talking?” said Dene. “You can’t just let this slide.”

“Indeed.” said Rai, on full alert. “Explain yourself, ‘aons.”

“In front of the kids?” said Siertes with both frustration and resignation. Everything went wrong- but at least the group was still moving.

“I’m not sure why that would matter.” said Rai.

“Actually, I think I might be figuring it out…” said Dene.

“Oh, you will, pretty wolfess,” said Siertes, “you will. Intres orra tres is the sweet death before death. Doesn’t work exactly the same on fluffy things, but where there’s a will there’s a way…”

“She’s talking about intoxication on Tompar venom.” said Rai.

“If one of the kids touched my venom,” said Siertes, “at least in a serious way, we’d have to carry them. That’s no good right now.”

“What, even with a paw? On our fur?” said Hallem.

Siertes looked away, up the corridor. “…works better on what you call mucous membranes…”

“Slow down!” called Dene. “You’re rushing!”

“Keep up!”

“Hurry, Dene, Hallem, Aine- we’re nearly there.” said Rai.

They saw Siertes disappear through the light of the entrance to the place- and as they neared it themselves, they heard a shot, and froze.

“Oh, shit.” said Dene.

“Watch the cubs.” said Rai. “I must see what happened to her.”

As he slunk forward, a figure appeared against the brightness, approaching them.

“Your fucking car shot at my feet.” griped Siertes.

Dene burst out laughing, a bit hysterically.

“Very funny, fuzzybutt.” said Siertes. “Ready to turn it off now?”

As Dene stepped forward, the guy hiding in the rubble struck.

It was true- he didn’t attack Dene, didn’t try to face off against Rai or Siertes. He was so scruffy and unkempt he’d blended with the rubble, and when he sprang, it was with just one target.

Aine.

He slammed into her, knocking her to the ground. An earsplitting soprano yipe rang out, as Hallem flailed useless attacks. Dene grabbed the boy and dragged him away, as Rai moved in.

“Kill you, you fucker!” yelped Hallem.

“Quiet, ‘aons! Vrironste.” said Rai coldly. Siertes froze, though nobody else seemed to catch the significance- the Nerre had said the protocol word that translated as ‘may you flee or be slain’, the word that warned bystanders he’d gone into fighting mood. He would not be safe until he signaled that, in turn.

“Dene, keep Hallem clear of him. You too, stay back.” hissed Siertes.

The cultist got to his feet. He clutched Aine to him, wrestled a bit, and then looked triumphant. His right hand clutched a heavy stick. His left, twisted Aine’s arm behind her.

“I’m going to be leaving now…” he rasped.

“Doubt it.” said Siertes, as Rai inched closer.

“Get back!” yelled the cultist. “I’m going to be leaving. Any closer and I’ll hit you with this stick- and, I’ll break her arm! She can come with me like she is, or with the broken arm.”

“Careful, kitty.” hissed Siertes.

“This is not difficult.” said Rai quietly.

“What the…” snarled the cultist wolf, and then jerked and flailed with the stick as Rai moved in a flash. He appeared to fling Aine from him while also swinging the stick…

Dene blinked. No, that wasn’t what had happened. In an eyeblink’s speed, Rai had darted forward and slashed the wrist of the hand holding Aine’s wrist. The guy had tried to break her arm while hitting Rai, and suddenly his fingers didn’t have working tendons anymore, and he’d simply yanked his graspless hand off her wrist. Her own desperation to get away had done the rest.

There was a brief silence as Aine ran to Dene and clung, and as the cultist wolf stared at his injuries.

“You gonna finish him, or shall I?” said Siertes.

“He is defeated.” said Rai quietly.

“Everything goes wrong, kitty. Let me just make sure. Not that it’ll taste good, but it’s good to be sure…”

“No, he is defeated already. See…” said Rai, and he bared claws, and took a step towards the guy- who dropped his stick and took a step backwards.

Rai took another step, looking fixedly up into the larger Runge cultist’s eyes, a dainty feline step. The guy stepped backwards, his blood dripping onto the corridor floor. He stumbled over a bit of rubble, and glanced around frantically to see what he’d tripped over. He grabbed his injured wrist as if to try and hold the blood in.

Rai made a sudden dash just then, both his hands blossoming into splayed claws, and the cultist let out a yelp and fled awkwardly, running into the darkness, too terrified to even look back at the small but lethal feline.

Rai hadn’t moved a step the instant the guy had turned to flee. He’d simply stood there, sheathing his claws, his tail lashing in a curious aggressive way, his body still. He took a deep breath.

“Vranorche,” he said.

“That means all clear.” added Siertes helpfully. “You guys can approach him now.”

“Actually, it ooof!” said Rai, for two cubs had slammed into him in unison, delivering childish hugs. “Please! Siertes, how do you know this? And it means, may you be soothed, not ‘all clear’.”

“You spotted that I’m a Mued. Well- it’s not hard to spot you’re a Hse-Nerre. These kids have probably never been so safe… but you should’ve let me kill that thing. You handled it, though.”

“It is wasteful to kill when you can defeat.” said Rai, trying to avoid being licked. “Erf! Dene, help, ‘aons!”

“Come on, give him some space…” said Dene, coaxing Aine to settle down. Hallem had already remembered he was a tough, cool grown-up and quit hugging Rai, but his manner still betrayed some hero-worship, as if a known adult had suddenly been revealed as a master swordsman- which, given the manner of ‘vritere’ claw-fighting and the razored metal implants, was not far off the mark.

Rai took the opportunity to step several feet away from anybody, his tail flicking about- apparently the kids’ puppyish affection, though friendly, proved a bit overwhelming for the high-strung feline. His paws worked fretfully, the razored claws peeking briefly out and withdrawing again, before he regained his calm. Hallem, spotting this, was rather wide-eyed, and made no reaction other than to look even more respectful.

“Before anything else happens- we shall leave here.” said Rai.

“Couldn’t have put it better myself.” said Siertes.

They stepped out into the late afternoon sunlight, and on the one hand it was a big improvement on darkened hallways and lurking assailants. On the other hand, Aine clung to Dene and didn’t want to come out, and Hallem looked grim- for this was where they’d lost their dad, and he still lay here.

“Do you want to say anything to him, or do anything?” asked Rai, for he knew little of how Runge treated such matters and didn’t want to deprive Hallem and Aine of important ritual.

“He’d want us to escape.” said Hallem. “Come on, Aine… no, wait.”

Hallem left Aine with the others, and he hesitantly approached his late father. It looked hard for him to do- the dead man wore a fearsome snarl of rage and pain, and horrifyingly, he’d died holding his head and torso up even though much of the rest of him was missing. It was strangely awe-inspiring, though tragic. Rai wondered what had moved him so greatly that he could not even collapse in death.

Possibly, this.

Hallem warily moved closer. He dropped to his knees, looking into the dead, glaring eyes. He touched his father’s muzzle, without trying to smooth the teeth-bared snarl, and he lowered his head- and a small wolfish fist waved in the air, elbow slightly bent.

Having done this, Hallem came quietly back, wiping his eyes unashamedly, and told Rai, “Thank you- it was hard to do that, but it was important.”

“Was it a Runge ritual?” inquired Rai.

“Maybe just for us…” said Hallem, and then flinched, as a gunshot rang out right next to them.

Dene had tried to approach the police car, and it had shot at her feet as well.

“Fucking cops!” yelped Hallem, now showing tears of rage as well as grief. He made as if to dash at the car, grabbing a rock on the ground, but Rai caught him with hasty apologies and Nerre phrases, and prevented him from approaching it.

“We came in that.” said Rai. “Why is it attacking you?”

“I’m not sure it is!” said Dene. “We’re all within range. I think it’s just… keeping us at a distance.”

“That won’t do. We need to drive it back to the city. Reason with it.”

Siertes laughed. “Do you often reason with cops where you come from?”

“We don’t have any.” said Rai.

Siertes blinked. “You’re kidding. I thought you at least had kitties to deal with protocol violations, take care of problems, walk the streets…”

“Those are janitors, I think you would call them.” said Rai.

“They take out the trash, you’re saying?”

“It is an honorable service.”

“Any of that trash ever have ears and tails?”

“It is an honorable service.” repeated Rai coolly.

“We’ve got to get back into that car, quick.” said Dene. “Rai, can you maybe sneak up on it?”

Rairate Taistronn tried his best. He sidled around behind the car, he silently and stalkingly crept up on it with such delicacy that nobody could really see him move, as such.

It didn’t matter. A shot rang out, and Rai sprang back several feet, his tail foofing out into a nervously bristled state. He rejoined the others, giving the police car a wide berth, looking frazzled. Apparently the gunshot had broken his concentration in a particularly unpleasant way.

“This is bullshit.” said Hallem in his clear little voice.

“Yeah, but we’re stuck with it.” said Dene.

“We’re going to have to walk back?”

“Hope Anzende isn’t too mad. That’s the Kiesens cop whose car it is.”

“No, this is bullshit.” said Hallem. “I… Dad told me something once. Wait here.”

At this, Hallem stuck his thumb in his mouth, and began wandering away from them- towards the car. Dene’s paw flew to her mouth in horror, and she watched, transfixed.

“What’s he figure- smaller feet are harder to hit?” said Siertes.

Hallem continued aimlessly wandering about. He kept that paw’s thumb in his mouth like it was glued there. Back and forth he went, seemingly right into the range of the car’s weapons… definitely within range of the car’s weapons… away a bit, then closer… then, as if curious, Hallem reached for the door handle… and activated it with most unchildish strength and determination.

The door flew open. The car didn’t react- and Hallem was inside.

“Holy crap, he did it!” gasped Dene. “Hallem!” She started towards the car, and it snapped off another shot at her feet immediately.

“Keep back!” came the clear little voice from inside the cop car. “What do I type?”

“Oh, not this again, ‘aons…”

Dene called helpfully, “You use the biometric pad- um, if it’ll work for a nose your size… and then you type… um…”

Hallem waited for a moment, and then, not getting any better information, he said, “This should work!” and the car went dead instantly. He’d hit the deadman switch used to kill all circuits during Xarnax attack.

Dene advanced, at first hesitantly, and then everybody was scrambling to get to the disabled car. Through the door, they saw Hallem, sitting in the driver’s seat, arms folded, a look of disdain on his little face.

“How did you do that?” said Siertes.

Hallem’s lip curled in a tiny snarl.

“Dad was right. The cars shoot like they were cops, but they’re not real cops. …they won’t shoot children.”

There wasn’t much to say to that. After a few minutes of fitting everybody into the car, waking it up again, cajoling it into operation with nose-prints and Nerre-celebrating remarks… which interested Hallem, as he said it was out of character for a cop to love anything… the motley collection of Runge, Nerre and Tompar hit the road for Verss.