Page 37 of On A Rift's Edge
Not a diplomatic thing for an animal ambassador to do.
“Is this one a hybrid?” Paul wisely took a step back from Snow. “I’ve read articles trying to explain how aliens can mate with Earth species. It didn’t sound like science has come up with a satisfying answer.”
“We don’t understand the natural laws of the Riftworld well enough to do that type of analysis.” Kat loved to chat about interesting biology topics, but at this moment he was more focused on stopping a Snow inferno. “Maybe it would be best if you let the bird simmer down while I grab the fire extinguisher.”
After making sure that Paul wasn’t going to do something stupid, like try to pet Snow, Kat walked over to the small building inside the fence that surrounded the petting zoo. He gave a quick knock on the door and was disappointed when Kaveh didn’t appear to open it. The door wasn’t locked, though, as it should have been if Kaveh wasn’t inside.
He stepped inside the clinic room, which held a few cages for smaller animals to recover in after procedures, an examining table, and storage cabinets for supplies. There was a small closet in the back which held emergency items, and Kat opened the door and grabbed a fire extinguisher. It was strange for Kaveh to be late if Garreth had already asked him to come to the petting zoo to meet Paul, but he certainly wasn’t here.
Not wanting to leave the devilish parrot alone with a VIP donor for long, Kat hurried back to the entrance and stepped outside.
Snow and the phoenix sat next to each other on the fence post, fire dancing around both of them. The hybrid parrot was sexually mature, so he might be overprotective of the female phoenix, even if she was twice his size.
There was no sign of Paul.
That was odd. Maybe Snow had scared him off. Paul hadn’t seemed nervous around the bird, but he might not have wanted to admit that to Kat. In that case, the misbehaving parrot had spared him hours of dealing with the venture capitalist’s long-winded discussions about buying anything and everything in sight. He owed Snow a few treats for that favor. He turned around to go back into the clinic to look for some but stopped as a voice called out behind him.
“Hello, gatito.”
Kat wondered for a second why the voice was so familiar and then felt his stomach clench in fear when he realized who it was. He turned around and immediately put his hands up.
Teo stood, grinning, in between the Pouch Twins.
The two giant ratkind enforcers looked every bit as nasty and intimidating as they had when they tried to kidnap Kat months ago. Fable loomed to Teo’s right, carrying a metal-tipped baseball bat. Mabel had the gun this time, a rifle he recognized as the one they kept in the emergency closet. That explained why the door was unlocked. They must have been here before his arrival and taken the weapon, then waited to ambush him. He could scream for help, but it was unlikely any of the wranglers would be close enough to hear him, and Mabel had the rifle pointed right at him.
“No guard dog this time?” Teo, standing fully clothed in a relaxed pose between the two hulking ratkind, didn’t look dangerous at all. The dark-haired hopper had no visible weapons, and there was no sign of anything amphibian about him. If Teo had walked into the ranch happy hour, half of the wranglers and guests would have asked Kat if he was single.
“Lyall’s around.” Kat did his best to sound nonchalant. The truth was that Lyall wasn’t going to come and save him. The hellhound thought Kat was safe with Kaveh, whose absence must be due to a diversion the mafia enforcers had created. Not a direct attack, since the ratkind knew better than to take on a drakone. The ranch’s VIP guest might be in trouble, though.
“Where’s Paul?” Kat demanded and wasn’t happy when both Pouch Twins burst into laughter. What had they done with him? He hoped the venture capitalist wasn’t hurt, but he was in no position to push them on the subject. Mabel was sloppy and careless with the rifle, but her smaller clawed fingers could pull the trigger well enough. They were outside the rift, and the gun would work just fine against Kat.
“Don’t worry about Paul.” Teo held out his hand. “Worry about Arimanius. He wants to have a chat with you. Come along, and I’ll make the twins here behave.”
Kat didn’t want to go quietly to meet the terrifying boss of the ratkind mafia, but he also didn’t want to get shot. “I don’t think Kaveh or Lyall are going to be okay with you kidnapping me. Do you want to take on a hellhound and a drakone?”
He caught the quick glance of worry between Fable and Mabel, but Teo shrugged. “The Azdaha won’t get here in time, and Lyall thinks you’re safe and is long gone. Don’t do anything stupid, little gatito. You’re coming with us.”
14
Lyall had found that long runs calmed him down. In his true form, he could lope for hours, working off the restless energy that built up when he had to keep himself in one of his two Earth forms.
Keeping a human shape took the most out of him, and Kaveh’s suggestion to enjoy the outdoors and then talk to Kat at lunch had made a lot of sense. He headed out from their meeting and transformed, enjoying the beauty of the saguaro forest that surrounded the ranch.
Eventually though, the exercise wasn’t enough. The sun was nowhere near its zenith, but his underlying anxiety about Kat’s safety had resurged. Lyall didn’t think of his different forms as separate entities. He was himself, no matter what he looked like.
There were times, though, when being in his Riftworld form opened his mind to other sensations and thoughts.
And Lyall felt something was wrong.
There was no rational reason for him to think so, but Lyall’s instincts had saved him more than once, and he wasn’t going to ignore them now.
He headed toward the outer boundary of the ranch, staying upwind of the tasty smell of the ranch’s small herd of cattle. Picking up Kat’s scent wasn’t difficult, and he sniffed around the older trail that began outside the main building before following it out toward the petting zoo.
The sight of a hellhound stalking the manicured grounds of the dude ranch stopped a number of humans in their tracks. He ignored them, tracking Kat’s entrancing scent. The nagging sense of wrongness kept growing, even though the ranch should be the safest place for the young human.
Then other odors came to him, familiar and unwelcome, and he broke into a run. He smelled ratkind, and not the pleasant scent reminiscent of fresh hay that Remi tried to cover up with cologne.
The Pouch Twins were back.
