‘No they were pretty shook up and surprised by the whole thing.’
‘That just leaves Thaal and Jasper. Better bring Jasper in for questioning.’ The General moved off and Boot spoke to some of his squad. Two cats set off to find Jasper.
Boot returned to examine the body. It had been stripped of its dark clothes and lay naked on a gurney. Boot lifted the arms to inspect the claws and pads. As he lifted the second arm he noticed something slight up by the armpit, a different shade than normal. He bent down to get a closer look and discovered a small tattoo on the inside of the arm; a tattoo of the faith. This soldier was a religious cat. Boot knew that many cats wore symbols of their faith. It could be nothing, but it was a lead, however slight. He beckoned the rest of his squad over.
‘Discretion is paramount! We can’t go barging into the religious quarter and stirring up trouble. You all remember what happened in eighty-six?’ Boot looked around as faces recalled the horror of the eighty six riots. It had taken years for trust to return between the military and the Pope’s private army.
‘So a small team, in through the catacombs, civilian clothes, off the record and no weapons.’ The soldiers looked alarmed. They never went anywhere without a sword. It just wasn’t done. From the day you joined the military you never let your sword leave your side. Some cats even bathed with them.
‘Of course I’m only asking for volunteers and don’t expect anyone to jeopardize his career or life on this mission.’ The response was as expected, unanimous and so it was that within the hour four soldiers slipped into the catacombs dressed uncomfortably in civvies and without weapons.
***
The Cat Pope was asleep at his desk when he was awakened and made aware of Thaal’s arrival. He rose and trudged over to his chair by the little table, beckoning Grace and Thaal to join him.
‘I will take some tea with our guests,’ he instructed a servant who had appeared behind the visitors. With the Pope pouring fresh cups of hot steaming tea they were left alone.
‘Hello,’ said Grace, she wasn’t religious and didn’t know what protocol was expected when meeting with a religious leader so she simply smiled.
‘So this is the young human from the prophecy?’ asked the Pope.
‘The prophecy?’ said Grace, ‘What prophecy?’ She studied the cat in the chair before her. He wore a simple robe, probably an under garment for some more ornate overcoat thought Grace, who was quite the student of fashion. She looked around the room. A large red and purple cloak with gold trim hung from the coat-stand in the corner. Red and purple, Grace rolled her eyes. Bad taste is truly trans-dimensional she thought.
‘Ah so you haven’t spoken to her of it then Thaal? Good, good. Let me explain things to you child.’ The Pope adopted a fatherly tone and shuffled forward in his chair a little.
‘You see it is written in the ancient texts that one will come. One who can see beyond the barriers of her own mind, beyond the limits of her own reality. This one will find a way to weaken the enemy, and lead us all into a new age.’ It all sounded a bit rich for Grace. A bit silly even, I mean prophecies were for silly TV shows and badly written books. Why would I suddenly find myself in another dimension with talking cats and the subject of a prophecy? Gosh I hope they don’t drop to their knees and treat me like some kind of god. She flushed a little at the thought.
‘Are you all right my dear? You look a little hot?’ queried the Pope looking at Grace’s red cheeks. This merely served to embarrass Grace further and make her cheeks redder.
‘No I’m quite all right your Holiness,’ replied Grace hoping she had got the cat’s title right.
‘Well then we must prepare, we have much to do.’ The Pope looked at Thaal who nodded and rose.
‘Come Grace, there are preparations to make.’ Grace and Thaal left the Pope’s office and headed down the shiny marble corridors which had magnificent gilded artworks lining their walls. Grace saw epic battle scenes, glorious portraits and more pious paintings of a benevolent Pontiff amongst his people. Large carved statues of lions and other creatures filled the main halls.
Thaal finally led Grace into a room where servants had already assembled. They had vestments and bathing oils.
‘I will leave you here temporarily in the gracious care of these ladies,’ said Thaal smiling at Grace. He turned and left, closing the large wooden doors behind him.
‘I’m Tinus, and this is Amandus. We will wash you and dress you ready for the ceremony,’ said a smallish cat with a large smile and lovely turquoise coloured fur. Amandus was thinner and her long body gave her an elegant appearance.
‘Ceremony?’ asked Grace as Tinus led her towards a large stone bath filled with a milky coloured sweet smelling liquid.
‘Yes, you are the guest of honour,’ Amandus replied. Grace’s clothes were removed and she was led into the giant bath by the two cats. Tinus washed Grace with a large, soft, blue sponge while Amandus rubbed oils into her pale white flesh. The oils tingled and gave Grace’s body a subtle golden glow. It made her skin feel fresh and tight. She felt great, relaxed and happy.
The fragrances from a suspended censer wafted about the room and filled Grace’s nostrils with its sweet smells. Her head grew heavy and she felt a little dizzy. Tinus and Amandus led Grace from the bath and dressed her in a large red kimono. It was decorated in gold koi carp that appeared to swim about the garment right in front of Grace’s eyes. She suddenly felt very tired. So much had happened since she first came to this dimension and as she was led into a large bedroom, she didn’t resist as she was lifted onto a very large comfortable looking bed. Grace was asleep before Tinus and Amandus had left the room, she didn’t hear the door lock behind them.
Chapter Seven
Beneath the temple, deep below where the cats lived, down past the sewers and storm water pipes, in the most ancient of the catacombs, are ruins. Crude and dark pathways long since abandoned and forgotten by the inhabitants of the city above. In one such dark place a small light burned inside a tiny room. Assembled around a table inside this room were three figures, all dressed in dark, rotting robes, their faces covered. The three were already seated when Thaal arrived. He hesitated slightly before entering the room. From here on there will be no turning back. The air was dense and moist but the smell of the room caught him by surprise, the foul odour of death, decay and despair. It reeked and Thaal had to stifle the urge to retch. He covered his mouth with a handkerchief.
‘You take a great risk by coming here. What news have you that warrants a special meeting?’ asked the one sitting in the middle. Thaal drew in a deep breath and began:
‘It is time. There is much to be done and I need to know that you will be ready, and that certain…,’ Thaal searched for the right words. ‘Actions have been approved.’ He finished, looking at the assemblage expectantly. One by one the hidden faces nodded their agreement.
‘Then I will leave at once, everything is in place.’ Thaal paused as he turned towards the door. ‘Soon you won’t have to hide away down here, and we can meet in the open.’ He disappeared into the darkness.
***
Thaal was let in to see the Emperor without delay. General Titus and the Emperor’s personal secretary were already discussing matters of State.
‘Thaal at last, have you heard?’
‘Heard what General?’ Thaal asked with what he hoped was just the right amount of innocence in his expression.
‘The Girl from the third dimension, she has been kidnapped,’ replied Titus studying Thaal’s face carefully. Thaal, however, was a gifted liar and his face gave no hint of his recent activities.
‘The scientists succeeded in bringing her across?’ Thaal quizzed the General.
‘Yes but she was abducted soon after her arrival.’
‘Do you have any leads?’
‘A couple; we are chasing them up as we speak.’ Again the General’s eyes bored into Thaal and again Thaal shrugged his stare away.
‘Is th
ere anything we can do?’ Thaal asked helpfully.
‘You could consent to a search of the holy city?’ the General pressed.
‘But of course, I will have the temple guards carry out a thorough search from top to bottom,’ replied Thaal with a dry grin on his face. Not quite what the General had in mind no doubt, but it would buy them all the time they needed for the events ahead.
The Emperor looked up from his conversation with his Secretary and spoke to Thaal.
‘Good show Thaal, very helpful indeed. We must find this girl, something about decoherence and being lost in the voids; all a very nasty business.’
‘Your Imperial Majesty, I am your humble servant. I will attend to it immediately!’ And with that he bowed low and shuffled out of the room.
‘I think he is lying,’ the General sneered
‘Be careful my friend, he is still a very powerful and cunning cat,’ the Emperor advised.
***
Boot led his team down through the catacombs; the once roughly hewn granite was worn smooth by years of sandaled feet treading the path. The small group moved silently, melting from one shadow to the next. They arrived at the end of the passageways very close to the temple. The squad huddled together to discuss their next move.
‘How are we going to get in?’ asked Scooter, Boot’s most loyal and trusted squad member. Like Boot he preferred his human name to his real name, which he had asked never to be called again.
‘I was hoping I would have a plan by the time I got here,’ replied Boot, feeling inadequate because he hated looking indecisive in front of his squad.
‘I know one of the temple maids,’ suggested Vintus. He definitely didn’t like his human name, ‘Mr. Snuggles’ and threatened violence on anyone who used it. Vintus was a short haired Burmese cat, with yellow eyes and in no way resembled something you wanted to snuggle up to, but his eight-year-old human charge loved the name. She also liked dressing Mr. Snuggles in her doll’s clothes but that was just too shameful for Vintus to discuss amongst his squad members.
‘Excellent. If you can make contact with her we can find out if Grace has been seen in the city. Buso you go with him, report back here in half an hour,’ Boot ordered.
The two cats set off nonchalantly towards the temple, while Boot and Scooter retreated further into the shadows to work on an extraction plan if Grace was found. While they watched, they noticed the activity of the temple guards increased. It looked as though they were forming a search party.
‘What do you reckon?’ Scooter asked Boot. ‘Do you think the guys have been caught?’
Boot studied the guards, watching them closely. ‘No I don’t think so, but I think someone may have warned them about our presence.’
‘But how could they know? It’s off the record,’ Scooter protested.
‘I don’t know,’ replied Boot ‘but we can’t stay here. Let’s move. We will regroup here at the rendezvous time.’ The pair moved off further into the dark catacombs.
Buso and Vintus walked inside the palace without being confronted. They aroused no suspicion as the temple was a very busy place with worshippers and workers coming and going all day.
‘So how come you know this maid then ay?’ ribbed Buso with a smile so wide it threatened to meet up behind his ears.
‘Oh you know how it is, when you look this good,’ Vintus replied grinning to himself.
The friendly banter helped the two soldiers to blend in with the other workers entering and leaving the hallowed halls. There was a definite hubbub in the air however, as if the temple was getting ready for some celebration. Must be another offering to the gods thought Buso as he wound his way through endless corridors.
They arrived at the maids’ quarters and Vintus made Buso wait while he went to inquire after Amandus.
‘Hey sexy, what are you doing off duty?’ Amandus asked in a silky tone while she took Vintus’s arm inside her own and started to walk with him.
‘I couldn’t be away from you a moment longer so I went AWOL,’ replied Vintus tickling Amandus in the ribs.
‘Stop it,’ she cried as she tried to wriggle free, but Vintus drew her closer, his mood changing, and a serious look lit across his face.
‘You know I think you’re pretty cool,’ he said, more awkwardly than he could control. He had also started to sweat a bit, which was unusual because the room was quite cool.
Amandus said nothing, merely placing a very sweet kiss on Vintus’s head. What’s that supposed to mean? Vintus wondered. He was never really sure where he stood with Amandus. She was quite aloof, almost distant sometimes. He knew that she was part of the order, part of the Pope’s entourage, and was raised within the walls of the holy city. But she was still female and entitled to take a mate.
‘So anything exciting happening in your little part of town?’ said Vintus, with a calculated amount of condescension to bait Amandus into revealing if anything interesting had happened in the temple.
‘Oh the usual, toilets to scrub, beds to make, prayers to pray, an offering to prepare for…,’ she replied tracing a digit between the claws of Vintus’s paw.
‘An offering? What another basket of yams for the Gods?’ prodded Vintus searching Amandus’s expression for any tells.
‘Not quite so dull lover, this time our guest of honour is very special. A human would you believe!’ Amandus felt quite pleased with herself, I bet he never expected that. One of the most exciting things to happen in the temple since the chief bishop had got his head stuck upside down in the rooftop chimney of the temple bakery. How or why was still a mystery to this day, as he had taken a vow of silence since entering the faith.
Vintus was stoked. But he also felt guilty about deceiving the girl he liked so much. He had the information the Sarge needed, now if he could only find out where Grace was being held.
‘A human in the fourth dimension? Yeah right,’ he spat, rolling his eyes and shaking his head. ‘No human has ever made it to this dimension. They are all too stupid, and besides, their heads would explode if they ever did get here.’
It was a common myth amongst the inhabitants that their dimension was larger than the third, and as a result the pressure in the fourth dimension was lower than that of the third. Therefore humans with their large heads filled with blood, would pop if they ever entered the cat’s dimension. Of course this was discounted by elegant theories devised by the great cat scientist Newtus, who went on to subtly instruct the humans. This led to their discovering gravity when Newtus dropped apples on their heads. It did take many humans, many apples and many years before one of them managed to get it, however.
Amandus looked about. Everyone was rushing around busy with duties in preparation for tonight’s celebrations.
‘I shouldn’t, but I could sneak you in for a peek,’ she whispered to Vintus. This was fantastic news, but Vintus didn’t want to appear too keen.
‘Yes, let’s go have a look at your imaginary human, shall we?’ he replied, pretending to indulge his friend. Inside his heart was thumping twice as hard against his chest. He checked his watch, he only had a few minutes before he was due to report back, and Buso must be wondering what had happened to him.
‘Unless there is someplace else you’d rather be?’ scolded Amandus in a harsh tone as she caught sight of Vintus checking his watch.
‘No place I’d rather be, than whiling away my time with you beautiful.’ He replied soothingly. Darn woman has eyes like a hawk, he thought following her further into the temple.
***
Boot checked the time on the old clock face set into the building across from where he was hiding.
‘Time to go,’ he whispered as he nervously thumbed open and closed a container in his hand. It was a small bottle of bright orange pills. Scooter materialized from the shadows along the walls and together they made their way across to the rendezvous point.
‘She is here all right, in the temple,’ began Vintus, who had returned safely. ‘In a room about two
floors up. We can get to her, but it’s going to be tricky.’
‘Can we rely on your contact?’ asked Boot wishing he had brought his swords.
‘Would rather not Sarge, if things go bad.…’
‘Understood pal. Ok, here is how we are going to do it.’ The team drew in close as Boot explained the plan.
***
It was 11pm and Joyce was brushing her teeth ready for bed. She ran a thin thread of floss between her teeth and then finished up with a rinse of mouth wash. As she headed towards her bedroom she stopped outside Grace’s door. Prying it open ever so gently she peeked in. Grace was still as she had left her, buried under a large duvet that was tucked neatly under her chin. Joyce watched for the fall and rise of the duvet in time with Grace’s breathing. She stood watching for almost five full minutes.
‘Good night Gracie,’ she called softly before closing the door and going to bed.
***
Garvin was in a good mood as he walked briskly down the corridors of the great temple. As a senior member of the faith his position entitled him to learn many of its secrets and be party to some of the more clandestine activities. He pulled up outside a large wooden door guarded by two large armed cats. They recognized Garvin and he passed unchallenged into the room beyond. Two female servants were in attendance and Garvin approached them.
‘Is everything prepared and in order?’ he questioned the taller of the two.
‘Yes Monsignor,’ replied Tinus, ‘everything is as described in the holy texts. She has been purified in the sacred waters and oiled with the holy oils.’
‘Excellent, then bring her,’ he ordered and headed back towards the door. The two maids roused Grace from the bed. She was still groggy and it took both cats to hold her steady as the four of them headed off down the corridors once more.