After Forever (10 page)

From the roof, I can see the train beginning
to pick up speed.
Damnit!
I think as I start racing across
the roof, leaping from roof to roof as fast as I can. I cut across
the fifth roof in the opposite direction of the train knowing it
has to loop to head to the next stop. This roof has nothing but
open expanse in front of it. Just as I reach the roof’s ledge, the
train starts to flash past. I mutter a silent prayer to whatever
god will listen, though I’m sure I was forsaken long ago, and leap.
I land on the last car, barely. My claws scratching and scraping
for purchase on the metal domed roof. After a moment of panic where
I am certain I am about to plummet to the tracks and break every
bone in my body, I finally get a grip on the tin can and hoist
myself up.

I keep myself flat to the top of the car, my
front claws all dug into the metal as the scenery flies past me.
It’s going to be a long few hours.

It’s around eleven at night when I see a
sign fly by with the words “Kitten Caboodle: Populations 43,000”
scrawled on it. I groan. It figures Valdez would send me to the
place he took me from for my last job.

The city is virtually deserted. I assume
this has a lot to do with Valdez and his gang of mutts catnapping
the population. There’s still the odd cat out here and there. I
hear a group of young boys in the alley across from me. The area
reeks of catnip, I can bet it’s coming from them. The further into
the city I go, the brighter it becomes. The lights are almost
blinding after being in the dark for all these hours. I know I
can’t afford to be spotted, especially not in what I’m wearing, so
I backpedal until the lights are once again dim. Finding myself in
front of a club called The Litter Box, I slip into the ally between
it and the building beside it. The ally is nice and concealed in
shadows so dark I can’t even see the whiskers attached to my face.
I grin to myself as I pop open the pouch on my belt that holds my
claw extensions and pull out a metal claw that has three hooks on
the very tip. I slip the claw onto my front left pointer toe and
then point to the roof of the Litter Box. I still want to know who
thinks that name is appealing… I mean
really?!

Anyway, so I point to the roof of the Litter
Box, and nothing happens! I arch a brow and look at the claw and
sigh before tapping it a few times against the brick of the
building.

“Let’s try this again shall we?” I sigh as I
once again point the grappler claw clad finger at the club’s
roof.

This time it works and the tri-hook shoots
silently out of the claw tip. I hear it latch to the roof’s ledge
almost silently. Wrapping my other front paw’s toes around the
grappling line, I give a sharp tug on the line and am instantly
whisked up to the tri-hook.

Don’t look down. Don’t look down.
I
chant in my head as I launch myself over the ledge and onto the
roof. I’m terrified of heights, it’s a wonder how I even manage not
to plummet to my death on a daily basis... Damn Valdez! I hope he
gets mange for making me do this crap!

The roof is nothing special. One of those
hasty tar overlay jobs that makes everything smell like melted
rubber on a hot day. I scrunch of nose causing my whiskers to
twitch. It had been a hot day after all.

Forcing myself to ignore the stench tickling
my smell preceptors I drop the grappling claw back in the pouch and
make sure the clasp is closed, then I begin my race across the
rooftops of Kitten Caboodle. I know I only have an estimated four
hours to get in and get out with the bone. And with how this city
is designed it will take me almost an hour to get to the
museum.

I finally spy the museum about across the
four lane blacktop from the roof I’m perched on. “Are you
kidding
me?!” I almost scream in frustration. There’s not a
chance in the pound I can jump across this distance without
becoming one with the tarmac.

I pace along the ledge of the roof for what
seems like at least two of my nine lives, paws on my hips,
contemplating how to get over there without being seen.

I look both ways from my perch and smirk.
There’s a medical delivery truck displaying “Nine Lives Medical:
Where all your lives count” on the side stopped at a red light to
my left. To my right a food delivery truck promising that “Fluffy’s
has the best gourmet wet food within 3 towns” stopped at that
light.

My head snaps back and forth between the two
lights. I have to time this just right or I’ll either be seen or
die. Personally if I had to choose I’d rather be seen, but that’s
just my opinion.

The lights turn green almost simultaneously
and I ready myself to pounce as if the medical truck is the
sneakiest mouse I’ve ever seen. When the truck reaches below my
position, I pounce, landing hard on the top of the small truck. I
have no time to assess the damage as the larger, trailer wielding
truck comes up alongside and begins to pass me. Taking a deep
breathe, I throw myself at it and slam harshly into the side of the
trailer, barely keeping my claws dug into the metal.

Gasps assaulted my ears as I clambered to
the top of the trailer as it made its way away from the museum.
So much for not being seen…
I think with a sigh.

As the truck stops at a red light about a
mile from my destination, I slip on the grappling claw again and
torpedo myself up to the closest roof on the correct side of the
street.

It only takes me a few minutes to find
myself atop the hotel next to the museum. Lucky for me, the hotel
is a lot taller than the museum so getting onto the museum will not
be a problem.

Once I have the grappling claw back in
place, I watch the tri-hook sail down to latch onto the framing of
the multi-faceted windowed dome of the museum’s roof. Popping open
a pouch on the right side of my belt I pull a thick scarf out.
After securing the pouch, I loop the fabric over the grapple line
and wind it around both paws.

I take a calming breath and talk myself up,
then step off the hotel’s roof into nothing. I bit my tongue,
literally, as I fly dangerously across the space between the hotel
and museum, to prevent myself from screaming. I stick my slippered
back paws out like landing gear and touch down on the roof on my
butt skidding to a complete stop then retract the line.

“That was quite an impressive landing.” A
deep baritone voice says.

I look up into the brightest green eyes I
have ever seen. Those alluring eyes however apparently belong to a
cop. “Crap!”

I have to admit, the cop was kind of cute,
in that “I’m going to make sure you never see the light of day
again” kind of way. He’s bigger than I am, but more than a couple
of inches. His fur is pitch black which makes the blue of his
uniform shirt stand out all the more.

I sigh in defeat as he grabs my wrist and
hauls me to my feet. “Look I don’t know what you’ve heard about me
but...”

“Everyone knows the name Puss in Boots.
You’re a legend.” The cop chuckles as he interrupts my
rambling.

“I see... Lovely…” I mutter lowering my
head.

This makes the cop laugh even more. He
almost doubles over as he grabs his stomach while laughing at
me.

I growl, my agitation apparent by the harsh
movement of my tail. “Just what’s so funny?”

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry… But you have to
understand Puss, you’re a legend! I mean mothers tell stories about
you to their kittens who refuse to clean their rooms! And to think,
here I am meeting you in the fur!” The cop goes on and on.

My whiskers twitch. I am not amused. “Look
if you’re here to arrest me then be my guest. If not, then get the
hell out of my way I have a job to do.” I say as I push the cop
aside and study the aerial view of the museum through the
glass.

“Arrest you?! I’m here to
help
you!
Is my disguise that good?” The cop, well fake cop, states.

This new information halts me. A cock a brow
and look to him in confusion. “How’d you even know I would come
here?”

He shrugs. “It wasn’t hard to guess. The
Bone of Riches is the most valuable thing in the city, probably in
the whole country.”

“I see... What do they call you?” I ask
curious to this overly intelligent feline. I mean he has to have a
brain since he’s the only one that figured out I would come for the
bone. Right?

“It’s stupid... My name’s Shadow. I don’t
know what my mother was thinking when she gave me such a common
name.”

I hold my tongue. Sometimes a normal name is
better than a different one. Do you know the name variations there
are for
Puss
?! Some of them would make a trucker blush.
Instead, I nod to Shadow. “Nice to meet you Shadow. If you’re here
to help, we better get a move on it. I don’t have much time to
finish this job.”

Shadow nods his head and slips off the roof.
I pay him almost no notice when he leaves and only slightly wonder
if he decided it isn’t in his best interest to help me after all.
My suspicion is quickly shot to hell as I see his unmistakable form
swagger into the room the bone is on display in.

So it wasn’t a cop uniform. It was a
security one.
I think to myself. I have to give the kid credit,
he used his head to get inside the building. Oh well. I find it’s
much more fun to break in. I
am
a cat burglar after all.

I hum softly to myself as I open the claw
extension pouch and remove the diamond tipped claw. I slip it on
then knock lightly on the glass of the dimly room’s roof. Shadow
looks up and I gesture to the alarm panel to his right. The wiring
is rigged to the window. He shakes his head no and draws a circle
in the air.

“Well duh! I know I’m cutting a hole in the
glass, I however would like the alarm
not
to go off.” I
mouth this to him with my sassiest expression and place my paws on
my hips.

Shadow shakes his head and again draws the
circle in the air and nods his head yes. Then he draws a square and
places his paws on the imaginary sides and shakes his head no.

It finally clicks. The alarm won’t go off if
I cut the glass, but touching the framing will set it off. I nod to
him that I understand and root around in the pouch I had gotten the
scarf from and pull out a glove which I slip onto the paw without
the diamond claw, over the other glove already on it. This new
glove has a huge suction on the pad part.

I press the suction cup coated paw onto the
window pane and then test how well it holds. Once satisfied, I take
the diamond tip claw and cut a large circle around the stationary
paw. When that’s done, I let myself fall off my haunches onto my
back, a circle of glass comes with me. Damn I’m good!

After slipping the suction glove back in the
pouch, I open a pouch closer to my tail and pull out a long length
of rope. I tie off one end to the central air exhaust vent and drop
the rest through the hole. Shadow is watching me, I look at him
stupid and gesture dramatically toward the entrance where he’s
supposed to be keeping watch. I’m beginning to think the boy has a
crush!

I coil my form around the rope and slide
down letting myself fall the last three feet to land gracefully on
my feet. Did you expect anything less?

Shadow comes up to me “The coast is clear
Puss. No worries there’s only me and old Frisky here, and between
you and me Frisky hasn’t lived up to his name in a long time. This
should be easy.”

As if to mock me, the alarm goes off. I
shoot a narrowed glare to Shadow. With the alarm already going off,
there’s no reason to be stealthy anymore, so I make a break for the
bone.

The bone is maybe the size of a chicken
drumstick. It has the nicest shading of gold on it. The bone alone
is worth a fortune! Using my slippered right back paw, I lift and
side kick the glass display case housing my treasure. I snatch the
bone and shove it unceremoniously into a vacant pouch on my
belt.

I start off racing toward my rope but I skid
to a stop as I see Shadow has a gun pointed at me. I look at him
mildly confused, really I should have known better, but we won’t go
there.

“Puss, drop the bone and lay down on the
ground.” Shadow says in a calm, steady voice.

“Do as he says Miss Boots, no one wants to
hurt you.” An older male voice says. Putting two and two together I
figure the voice must belong to Frisky.

I turn my head and glance behind me. Sure
enough, an old tom tabby cat that has be on the last day of his
nine lives is standing there holding his gun on me with shaky
paws.

Well shadow’s behavior makes sense now. I
decide I won’t let this kitten, let’s face it he may be bigger than
me, but he’s clearly younger, get in trouble because of me.

Taking a deep breath I resume my run, I know
Shadow won’t shoot me. I don’t know how I know this I just do, call
it a gut feeling.

I hear both guns go off back to back. A
sharp, burning pain begins in my back causing me to stagger. I look
to Shadow slack jawed before realizing his gun isn’t trained on me.
A few seconds later, I hear Frisky hit the floor.

As I stumble passed Shadow, I grab the cuff
of his shirt and pull him with me. The kid can’t stay here they’d
haul him off as an accomplice.

The pain is unbearable as I climb the rope
back onto the roof. My breaths are rushed, god it hurts to
breath!

I don’t say anything to Shadow as I gather
what strength I have left and race across the roof. I don’t even
bother to look before throwing myself off it.

I land in the bed of a pickup, not even a
heartbeat later, Shadow lands beside me.

“Are you okay?!” Shadow’s face is a mask of
concern, it’s unnerving.

“Do I look okay?!” I snap back. I don’t mean
to be mean, but obviously Shadow has never been shot before.