Morte (8 page)

“Here’s the good news,” the cat said. “If you do have EMSAH, you can be my first feline vivisection. The ants usually clear out all the bodies—it’s safer that way, of course—so this will be my first chance to see the disease up close.”

Sebastian ignored this, and instead imagined the dogs that
had been infected. Were they walking upright? Were they lined up and shot?

Was Sheba one of them?

Was he doomed to think of her every time someone mentioned a dog?

The cat asked Sebastian his name. Sebastian said that he didn’t have one.

“But you were a pet, right?” the cat asked. “I mean, your claws were chopped off. And you’re a choker.” He motioned to Sebastian’s genitalia.

Choker
, Sebastian realized, must mean neutered. “I do not have a name,” he repeated.

“I’m Tiberius,” the cat said. “I was a pet, too, for a little while. But I lived on my own for a couple of years before the war.”

The cat motioned to his friends, all still standing on the rooftop. “We all lived in the wild at one point,” he said. “So you can bet that Tiberius is not my slave name. I picked it for myself. If you live through this, you can pick your own name, too.”

“
If
I live through this,” Sebastian said.

“If you have EMSAH, you won’t
want
to. Trust me.”

Tiberius pointed out that Sebastian’s status as a choker made him even more suspicious. Neutered animals—or any former pets, for that matter—were rumored to be more susceptible to EMSAH. It had not been confirmed, of course, but Tiberius had to be prepared for anything.

“People like us have to work extra hard to earn everyone’s trust,” Tiberius said.

“How long are you going to keep me here?”

“Until Culdesac gets back. He’s the boss.”

Sebastian asked when that would be. Tiberius said that Culdesac operated on his own time.

“He speaks for the Colony,” Tiberius said.

“The Colony?”

“The ants,” Tiberius said. “Don’t you know anything? The Queen started the war. We’re the soldiers who are helping to end it. In return, we will be in charge of the surface.”

Sebastian knew about the ants, of course, but the discarded newspapers and placards he had come across had not used the words Colony or Queen. There were only mindless hordes of rampaging insects without purpose or remorse.

“Why did the Queen start a war?” Sebastian asked.

“Because the humans are dangerous,” Tiberius said. “I’ve already told you about EMSAH. And that’s one of their smaller crimes against us. We fight them, or we die as their slaves. Maybe you could join us.”

“No.”

“I mean, if I don’t end up dissecting you, of course.”

“No.”

Tiberius had apparently taken too long. The black cat hissed at him, a signal to hurry up. Sebastian wondered if this cat had told him something he was not meant to know. Tiberius finished and retreated to the building.

“Hang in there, house cat,” he said.

IN THE DEAD
of night, after days of wriggling his tail, Sebastian was close to freeing it from the rope that tied it to the grate.

It was just in time. On that same night, he saw a human.

It began with a swooping sound in the air above him, like a massive bird. Something glided across the stars—a giant triangle made out of a translucent fabric. An object dangled from the bottom of it. When it landed on a building two blocks away, Sebastian realized that the triangle was some kind of motorless aircraft piloted by a single human. The man stowed the glider behind a satellite dish. He scanned the area, holding binoculars
and whispering into a communication device. Then the man was gone.

For a few hours, Sebastian allowed himself to think that this new development would somehow end up setting him free. But then he remembered what Tiberius had said. The animals were at war with the humans. The humans had given them some kind of virus. Sebastian may already have been infected without knowing it.

Sheba could have been infected.

There it was again—a thought like that jumped into his brain whenever it wanted, like a parasite, like the virus that frightened Tiberius.

Sebastian tried to squirm out of the knot, the joints cracking in his tail. Eventually the knot gave. He imagined himself as Sheba as he wagged his tail freely for the first time in days. There was no point in resisting the random memories of his old friend. She was with him no matter what.

CULDESAC ARRIVED SHORTLY
after sunrise. By then, Sebastian had shimmied all the way up the pole and hovered thirty feet above the street. But he could go no farther. The cables stretching across the top prevented him from pulling the rope over. He kept fighting it, trying to loosen the bindings. It was no use. The ropes were doubled around his wrists and ankles. While he could painfully go up the pole, he could not free himself. He dug his hind claws into the wood to hold himself in place.

Culdesac met with the black cat and several of her underlings at the base of the pole. While the other cats saluted her, she saluted him. Culdesac was no mere feral—he was a bobcat, much larger than the others. He had a shimmering sandy coat flecked with black, a camouflage suited to the wilderness from which he came. His charcoal-colored ears rose like horns over
his massive head. He wore the black armband along with a belt weighed down with a pistol and several devices Sebastian did not recognize.

“What are you doing up there?” Culdesac asked him.

“Ask your friends.”

“We’re holding you for your own protection,” Culdesac said. “And for ours.”

“He’s displaying the symptoms,” the black cat whispered to him, probably knowing full well that Sebastian could still hear her.

“He doesn’t look like it,” Culdesac said.

“Delirium. Talking strange.”

“Well, you’ve had him tied up for two days.”

“Ask him about Sheba,” she said. “He was screaming her name when we found him.”

Culdesac stepped closer to the pole until he was staring straight up. “My friend,” he said, “my name is Culdesac. This is my Number One, Luna.”

The black cat nodded.

“Do not ask me my name,” Sebastian said. “I did not give it to them. I will not give it to you.”

“Fine. But how about you tell me who this Sheba is?”

This bobcat had an ease about him that Sebastian found unsettling. Culdesac could talk like a human, much like the anchorman on the looped news broadcasts. Meanwhile, Sebastian struggled to use his growing vocabulary. It was a huge disadvantage, like being tied up for a second time.

“I already explained this to your friends,” Sebastian said. “I was looking for her.”

“There hasn’t been a living thing in this city for weeks.”

“I saw one last night.”

“What does that mean?”

“I saw a human.”

A stunned silence descended on the group. The cats looked at one another. It made him feel as though he had the power somehow, despite being a prisoner.

“That’s impossible,” one of them said.

“Where did you see the human?” Culdesac asked.

“He flew in on some kind of … triangle.”

“I told you,” Luna said, laughing. “We need to put this animal down. Before it spreads.”

It was a line Sebastian had read somewhere among the books he had found.
Put him down
. She had stolen it from a human.

Luna seemed pleased with herself until she noticed Culdesac glaring at her. “ ‘This animal’ is one of us,” he said.

“There are no humans left here,” Culdesac said to Sebastian. “The ants chased them away. We were about to rendezvous with the rest of the army on the other side of the river. Then we found you.”

“I am not stopping you,” Sebastian said.

Culdesac and Luna exchanged glances.

“Wait,” a voice said. It was Tiberius, forcing his way past the others to get to Culdesac. “I know what you’re thinking. We can’t leave him here.”

“You’re right,” Luna said. “That’s why we’re going to put him down. It’s the only way to be sure.”

“Sir,” Tiberius said to Culdesac. “We can’t do that, either.”

“Yes, listen to Tiberius,” Sebastian said.

Tiberius winced at this. The others, meanwhile, burst into laughter.

“What did you say?” Culdesac asked.

“I said listen to him,” Sebastian said.

“No, what did you call him?”

“Tiberius?”

They laughed again.

“Tell them your real name,” Culdesac ordered.

Shamed, Tiberius steadied himself. “Socks,” he mumbled. This provoked more jeers and catcalls.

“You see,” Culdesac said to Sebastian, “you have to
earn
your new name to be a part of the Red Sphinx.”

“What is a Red Sphinx?” Sebastian asked.

“We are the Red Sphinx,” Culdesac said, pointing to his armband. “We’re stray cats using our skills to fight for the Queen. We
love
killing humans.”

There were chuckles at this, along with a few approving nods.

“But Socks here thinks he doesn’t deserve to be called by his slave name anymore,” Culdesac said.

“I do not care about your Red Sphinx,” Sebastian said. “Are any of you listening to me? I said there were humans out there.”

“I believe him,” Tiberius said.

“Shut up,” Luna said. Then, turning to Culdesac, she said, “Sir, we have to make a decision here. We’re already late meeting up with the rest of the—”

“We’re staying here,” Culdesac said. Before Luna could reply, he added, “Orders have changed. We’re expected to report unusual activity.”

“But there’s nothing here.”

Culdesac responded by gazing up at Sebastian.

“Him?” she asked.

“Monitor his progress,” Culdesac said. “Socks wanted to take notes on EMSAH. Let him do it.”

Tiberius perked up.

“We’re on the front lines of this EMSAH outbreak,” Culdesac said. “We need to know what it can do. I expect reports on his condition every six hours.”

“Do you think there are humans out there?” Luna asked.

“I hope so,” Culdesac said as he began to walk toward the building. “I haven’t had a decent meal in a while.”

“Sir, may I ask where you’re going?”

“If it’s been as quiet as you say it has, then I’d like to get some sleep for once.”

“Yes, sir.”

The members of the Red Sphinx were left waiting at the foot of the pole. “We can’t feed you while you’re up there, you know,” Luna said.

“I did not ask you to,” Sebastian replied.

Annoyed, Luna went back to the stone building. The others marched behind her, with Tiberius bringing up the rear. He took one last glimpse at Sebastian before disappearing through the doorway.

FOR THE NEXT
twelve hours, Sebastian rocked the telephone pole back and forth. At first it was out of sheer boredom and frustration. From the top, he had the leverage to shift the pole only a few inches. The movement made the roof of the stone building bob up and down in his vision. The yellow-green eyes of the cats moved along with it. Once in a while, Culdesac joined the others, towering over them. Luna would sometimes stand next to him. When they both folded their arms in unison, Sebastian counted it as a small victory.

Right on schedule, Tiberius arrived with more food. “Come on, stop that,” he said. Sebastian continued to rock the pole, feeling it move slightly more each time.

“They’re talking about shooting you,” Tiberius said. “Luna really thinks you’ve lost it. Late-stage EMSAH.”

Sebastian did not respond.

“Culdesac overruled her,” Tiberius said. “It’s a good thing the boss got here in time. Luna would have asked me to kill you. It
probably would have earned me my name. But I wouldn’t have liked it.”

Sebastian picked up the pace, grunting as he shifted his weight.

“I can’t promise that this food will still be here in another hour,” Tiberius said. “Everyone’s wondering why we’re even giving you anything.”

He waited a full minute for a response, during which time he examined the base of the pole. Apparently content that Sebastian was making no significant progress, Tiberius told him to shout when he was ready to eat. Then he left.

WITH EACH INHALE,
Sebastian pressed his body against the unforgiving wood. It tipped backward, pointing his face directly at the blue sky, where the clouds congealed and spread out toward the east. And then, with his exhale, he thrust his chest forward, his flesh and fur digging into the ropes, forcing the pole to dip far enough for him to look down at the asphalt and the plate of food on the sidewalk. The sight of it shriveled his empty stomach.

Then he heard it, and felt it: a slight crack, like Daniel popping his knuckles at the dinner table. That one sound, vibrating through his spine, cured him of his hunger. He moved faster now, shoving his body side to side rather than front to back. This caused the pole to move in an ever-widening circle. There were other cracks, sometimes followed by a dull groan as the wood began to yield. All the cats were watching now. The bobcat’s hands rested on his hips. The spinning made Sebastian vomit onto his coat. A line of saliva and bile hung from his mouth and whiskers. Still, his eyes remained fixed on the Red Sphinx. They would not stop him from finding Sheba.

The sun began to go down. The gold-and-purple world
continued to sway to and fro.

IT WAS THE
middle of the night when Sebastian noticed a bright red dot dancing on the side wall of the building like a glowing ruby. The dot was from a light of some kind. Sebastian followed the beam until he spotted the human again, perched on a nearby roof. He had switched positions to a hospital farther down the street. The man stood behind a tripod, which propped up a device that focused the dot onto the building. If there had been a fog, the red light would have been noticeable. Only Sebastian was in a position to see it.

He imagined the man as his former master, somehow still alive, using this alien technology to plot his revenge under the cover of night.

With his strength renewed, Sebastian continued to shake the pole until his wrists and shoulders burned from the friction. The wires connecting the other poles rippled with each movement. He was so engrossed in it that he did not notice at first when some of the cats gathered at the base of the pole. All of them had guns. Luna and Culdesac stood at the front. Sebastian kept at it.
Maybe one more motion will snap this thing
, he thought. Maybe then he could scramble away.