EXODUS

— by Jeff Karamales

Chapter 28
Unfettered
 

Winter passed slowly, though Halley often found her days extremely busy as she conferred with Dimitri Kavalos and the medical sciences team that had been brought together by Ásmundr Gustavsson. Much of the material the group studied was Halley’s transformation, the continuing process as her body made the final small adjustments to her voluntary genetic alterations the subject of intense scrutiny. Question and answer sessions often lasted hours and nothing was left out as the savannah cat let herself be poked and prodded, examined from every possible angle, both inside and out, and the stream of endless inquiries that were directed at her. What Dimitri and the others learned was often compared with the research material that had been gathered by Emily Lesko and the experiments she and her team had carried out.

While necessary, Halley found certain portions of the studies that cross referenced everything that had happened on the island that held Fort Freedom and her own transformation to be challenging. It all served as a constant reminder of what was one of the darkest times of the young Fur’s life, and at the same time one of the brightest. Halley had been part of illegal experiments that had caused the deaths of a number of people and the unwanted forced genetic alterations of the prisoners against their will. As such there were episodes of dark depression she suffered and Halley often found herself seeking out Dimitri Kavalos to help her get through those trying moments or she sought out the company of other Furs, finding their simple acceptance and presence to be reassuring. More and more often Halley found herself going to Todd Farbes and his unique perspectives or the simple comfort of the man’s solid seeming presence.

It wasn’t until one afternoon when Halley watched recorded footage of Lesko’s experiments, many of them not only unnecessary but carried out with tools and equipment that were several decades out of date that the savannah cat felt the stirrings of a panic attack and fled from the viewing room. The particular subject that had been on the large screen had been Wyatt, his transformation at the point where Halley herself had been put in the floatation tank and the agony that he was in was clearly evident. Then to see Lesko and one of her other underlings inserting probes and needles into his body until Wyatt first wept with the pain and begged for them to stop before giving in to heart-wrenching screams and wails was more than the Fur could handle.

Halley found a secluded room and sat in the corner trying hard to calm her thudding heart and fighting past the constriction in her chest that kept her from drawing a proper breath and panted fitfully in an effort to fill her oxygen starved lungs. It was while she was still in the throes of full on panic that Dimitri found her with one of the other doctors that had been added to the group, Olya Mirinov, a Russian born physician that was focusing her attentions on learning about the Felis Furs as her specialty.

“I think that we will not be needing you for the rest of the viewing,” Olya said as she knelt down next to the savannah cat and stroked the trembling and traumatized female between the ears, something she’d learned calmed a great many of her chosen charges, and ran her nails through the thickening scalp hair of the Fur. “We should have previewed the video recordings, devotchka. Our need to learn has caused a serious lapse in good sense and compassion. You will forgive us?”

Halley nodded slowly, the contact from the woman having the affect similar to a mild sedative and Dimitri was there with a disposable cup of cool water and one of the drinking straws he’d taken to carrying in one of the pockets of his lab coat. The Fur sipped at the water gratefully as she finally calmed enough for coherent speech. “Sorry,” she finally breathed as she let the straw slip from her bifurcated lips. “I thought…I thought I could handle…” Her voice trailed off and she shook her head slowly. “What was done was so terrible,” Halley told the two physicians. “Beyond terrible. It was just as criminal as what the others were in prison for!” When she was able to raise her head and look at the two doctors it was with raw eyes and fur that was slicked with hysterical tears.

“It was,” Dimitri agreed with a sober expression and single nod of his head. “Sometimes that is the nature of science when it is pursued by unethical and immoral people. But there is a redeeming aspect to all of this as well, Halley.”

The savannah cat snorted darkly as her chest continued to heave with gulped breaths. “If that’s true I’d like to hear what it is.”

The Greek raised an eyebrow. “Very well. What was done was indeed terrible. It was cold and callous and reprehensible. However, the knowledge that has been gained, from the initial experiments, from what you’ve done, from all that we have learned and are still learning can be used for good. The furmankind process still eradicates cancer. It still remedies a number of diseases and illnesses.

“By helping one become a Fur we can repair damage on a cellular level. Viruses that we still don’t have a cure for can be rendered null and void. Did you know that the process reverses certain congenital defects as well? Spina bifida for one. Heart and liver defects for another. It can repair certain forms of neurological damage and I think that we can even use the process to help those that have suffered grave injury to be whole again, in a manner of speaking. Why we can even help those that are born with HIV become free of the disease. Some of the others include Lupus, or even halting and reversing the effects of Alzheimer’s disease. I’ve seen what these things can do to a person and to become a Fur is a small price to pay for many that have no other option left to them save a short, wretched existence until their illness kills them.”

Dimitri smiled and placed a comforting hand on the savannah cat’s shoulder.

“I will also wager that you know nothing of some of the letters that we’ve received from people willing to undergo the very same process the others were forced through and you have chosen…just for a chance to become whole, healthy and productive individuals regardless of the cost. Live with a debilitating infirmity long enough and you will take any opportunity available to be free from it. Our projections are also indicating that we can fix a wide variety of birth defects that really aren’t more than scripting errors in genetic matrices.”

The pair of doctors stood and helped Halley to her feet, the savannah cat only needing a moment to get her balance as she’d become more comfortable with the revised configuration of her lower extremities.

“There is more,” Olya said with a twinkle to her steel grey eyes. “We are working with one of the most advanced cybernetic corporations in the word and have the basics for advanced gene sequencing equipment that we can use to plot the changes that future clients will undergo. We will be able to determine what an individual will appear like at the end of the transformation period. We are all part of truly exciting developments,” the Russian woman enthused.

“It is certainly amazing,” Dimitri agreed as the Fur regained her feet and he steered Halley to the building’s entry foyer, a buffer that all of the structures had incorporated into their designs due to the severity of the winters in that particular part of the world. The Greek helped the catwoman retrieve her boots and parka. “For now, though, I recommend that you simply relax for the next couple of the days. Don’t think of what bad things were done. Think instead of the good that we can do with what has transpired and be assured that we will never abuse this power.” Dimitri paused long enough to point outside the glass door of the entry room to a group of Canis and Vulps that were playing in the snow outside. “And remember, despite what they might have done, those people out there that you see have definitely paid the debt that they owed to society and would be dead and gone if not for what was done to them. They are alive with a chance to be better people now because of events that have transpired. They are alive because you helped to save them.”

“Look for the good,” Halley said softly as she pulled her parka on without turning away from the energetic play happening outside.

“Most certainly!” Olya agree with a large, warm smile that seemed incongruous with her black hair cut into an almost aggressive mannish style and dark crimson lipstick.

Halley only nodded before zipping the thick winter coat closed and pulling on the odd boots that had been made for the various Furs of the Institute and headed outside. The savannah cat pulled the hood up less out of a reaction to the cold and more to cut down on the glare of the thin sunlight that made the snow seem to pulse with an overly intense luminescence and ambled towards the area that the rest of the former prisoners were still calling The Village. Grounds personnel and staff had made sure that the sidewalks were clear of both snow and ice after the latest round of flurries and the soles of her boots made no noise on the path that was pea gravel imbedded in concrete as Halley started first for the dining hall before changing her mind and angled off in the direction of the residential section.

Like so often as of late, whenever the Felis woman had doubts or problems that she was working through she sought out the various friends she’d made with those that were still human and the ones among the Furs. Her original plan had been to spend the day with Julie Valance, the other savannah cat often lifting her mood with her effervescent personality. When she neared the other female’s apartment and heard the strange noises from within Halley burst through the door worried that the other female had hurt herself.

“Julie?!? Is everything okay? It sounds like…”

The sight that greeted Halley was anything but an injured Fur. Julie regarded her friend with a look of guilty surprise, though it was more comical than worrisome, as was the expression of the anthro-tiger that stood behind her. Considering the way the pair were situated with Julie gripping the back of her sofa it was easy enough for Halley to tell what was going on and with a strangled noise the black and auburn furred savannah cat slammed the door closed and fled the dorm-like appointment. It was several minutes before she could get her heart beating in something more akin to its normal pace though her ears still felt overly warm despite the frigid air outside. It wasn’t until she’d gotten her embarrassment at finding her friends in such an intimate moment under control, along with the flare up of her own long-denied needs and wants, that Halley opted to seek out one of her primary venues of support and comfort and set off to find Todd Farbes.

She’d learned that the man had a very unique perspective on life related problems and was quite the amateur philosopher-poet, though she shouldn’t have been surprised. Todd had both done and seen things to an extent that Halley was only now learning over several weeks of regular contact and conversation. As she neared the three stories tall series of Bavarian style buildings that held the staff apartments the man that she was searching for exited the entryway, one hand slipping a pair of sunglasses on against the glare while he held his coat and gun belt in the other.

“Afternoon, Halley,” the man said pleasantly as he slipped the heavy parka over his arms and situated the long coat on his broad shoulders. He continued walking towards the Fur as he zipped it up and began to fasten the belt around his waist. “I thought you were with Doc Dimitri and the others today.”

Halley nodded, her breath fogging around the opening to the hood of her own parka when she answered in her soft, thrumming voice. “I was but some of the videos they were reviewing started to get to me. Dimitri and Olya thought it would be a good idea for me to take the day off and the rest of the week to relax.”

Farbes nodded in understanding. “Might not be a bad idea,” he agreed. “You’ve been pushing yourself again and that can’t be good.”

“So what are you doing today?” the savannah cat asked as she fell in step with the man that had been placed as the head of the Institute’s security detachment.

“I’m just waiting for my guys to finish downloading the operation programs for the drones that’ll be running the fence perimeter and the rest of the Institute property. I was able to convince Ásmundr that they’d help out a lot, especially as they have night vision cameras. They’ll be able to pick up a lot more than just my people alone would.”

Halley glanced over as Todd finished buckling his belt around his waist and adjusted his coat. The only sound was the cold breeze that whistled softly through bare trees and a few conifers and the muffled crunch of feet in the snow as they stepped off the path and angled to a field near the security operations building that Todd and others were calling ‘the Shack’, or variations of the same in Swedish, German and Norwegian. “You don’t know where Ramad is, do you?” The savannah cat inquired when her companion was silent for too long. “I haven’t seen him since just before going into the tank.”

“It’s no secret,” Farbes said with a quirk to his mouth as he fished a skier’s knit cap out of his pocket and pulled it on before resettling his hood. “He’s been in the States with his family. Among other things his sister is getting married and Ramad’s family wanted him there.”

“Is he alone?”

Todd detected the worried tone in the Fur’s voice and chuckled. “No. He’s got his family with him.”

“That’s not what I meant!” Halley said with feigned irritation as she lightly cuffed the man’s shoulder in exasperation while smiling.

“I know. I just like picking on you,” the man admitted with a return smile of his own. “Actually I have two people from my staff with him. Ramad should be back in a few weeks. Ásmundr wants him to do a couple of interviews while he’s there and there’s going to be a photographer at the wedding for Institute publicity shots that will be used at a later date.”

“Okay,” Halley said as she strolled along the walkway with the man. “Mind if I tag along? I don’t really want to hang out in my rooms, and to be honest I don’t want to hang out with the others right now either.”

“What about Julie? Don’t you normally spend time with her?”

“She…um…she was busy,” Halley replied with a catch to her throat and felt her ears redden under her hood once more.

“Were she and Perry going at it again?” the man asked with a snort, the dark lenses of his sunglasses giving him an almost cartoonish expression as his mouth split into what the Fur could only call a guy-grin when another male knew a friend was ‘getting lucky’.

“You know about them?” Halley asked in a shocked mewling squeak of surprise.

The laugh that the man let out was genuine and highly amused. “Everybody knows about those two. When you were in the tank they became the talk of the Institute. They’re the reason why all the Furs have gotten BC in the way of supplements and implants as well as more traditional means.”

“BC?”

Todd nodded. “Birth control. A lot of the doctors, Dimitri included, are curious as to the potential offspring, but Ásmundr isn’t ready to set up daycare for a bunch of Fur babies. Normal precautions are too easy to forget, especially as most of the Furs are functioning at an adolescent level and forethought isn’t nearly as important as forepla-”

“I get the picture,” the savannah cat said in irritation as she threw her paw-like hands up over her ears to ward off any more descriptive information. As the pair continued walking Halley turned her thoughts inward for a moment and tried to determine if her irritation was that two of her friends had managed to hide something from her or if it stemmed from a sudden pang of jealousy. She still recalled the powerful urges and desires the white and black striped tiger had filled her with. “So tell me about these drones.”

“Changing the subject?”

“Definitely,” the savannah cat said. “The less about that sort of stuff, the better it’ll be for me.”

“If you say so. But don’t expect this afternoon to be all that exciting.”

***

The drones weren’t what Halley had been expecting, the actual units looking more like popular toys than anything else. The main bodies were cylindrical though the entire front was a transparent bubble with a camera assembly with a similar bubble at the back. Four struts extended from the center of the drone in an X shape with dual propellers in narrow ducts that would not only lift the whole device but could also speed it along at almost a hundred miles an hour and turn the small remote-controlled aircraft with surprising agility. Todd showed the savannah cat how each was controlled from the Shack that housed most of the security staff’s gear and technology, or how any of the people under the man could access any remote with the closed-system touch-screen phones that Ásmundr had supplied.

By the time the group was done testing the new equipment the sun was well past the horizon and the thin crescent moon sat over the western horizon with the temperature dropping drastically. Todd ordered his team to go ahead and put the drones to work as long as the weather didn’t put any of the helicopter-like devices in danger of being damaged and headed back to the center of the Village.

Halley, once more in step with Farbes, shivered a little and pulled her parka tighter around her as they neared the renovated dorms. “And those will really help?” she asked indicating the drones.

“Absolutely,” the man said with a nod. “Drones have been in use for years, now. They’re only as good as the people using them, but they can make a big difference with overlapping the surveillance capabilities of human elements on the ground. The police in a lot of cities all around the world use them to help patrol neighborhoods that used to have high crime. You should see how much the crime rates dropped from when all they had were uniformed officers. Military applications have had equal success and not just from surgical strikes that reduced or completely negated collateral damage. Base surveillance decreased hostile incidents by nearly sixty percent in foreign countries.”

“If you say so,” Halley replied in an off tone.

Todd looked at the Fur, the savannah cat’s face hidden by her hood but the sound of her voice told him that she was still in something of a dark place, which considering everything Halley had been through was completely understandable. It had taken Farbes years to get over some of the things that he’d seen and taken part of and still suffered moments where the past intruded on the present.

“Hey. Let’s go get something to eat,” the man suggested. “We’ve both been out in the cold too long and a good hot supper would do us both a world of good. That and I was able to get some of my favorite beer from home. Granted it’s an imported brew here, but it goes really well with what I’ve got sitting in the crock pot back in my apartment.”

Halley pushed her hood back to look at Todd. “You cook?” she asked in surprise.

“What?” he asked with a lopsided grin. “Don’t think I can cook?”

Halley shook her head slowly. “It’s not something that comes to mind when I look at you, no,” she admitted, though she was curious.

Todd gestured in an exaggerated and grandiose bow towards the buildings where he and some of the human staffers lived. “Then allow me this opportunity to astonish you with my mad culinary skills.”

The Fur’s stomach took that moment to rumble menacingly causing both to grin. “Astonish away,” Halley challenged with an amused expression.

It only took a few moments for the mismatched pair to make it to the man’s apartment, the layout a little more substantial than what the Furs had in that there was a slightly larger kitchen, an expanded living room that doubled as a small dining area with the bedroom and bath in the back section. He hung his parka up on a hook next to the door before tossing his gun belt onto an easy chair and took Halley’s coat and put it next to his. No sooner had the Fur entered than the aroma of something absolutely delicious caressed her nose and set her mouth to watering.

“Wow,” the Fur breathed as she closed her eyes and breathed deep the aroma. “That smells incredible!”

“You wouldn’t believe how simple it is to make,” Todd said as he stepped into the kitchen area and washed his hands, a look of contentment softening the lines of his face as the warm water chased the chill from his fingers. He dried them on a small towel and moved to the aforementioned crock pot. The smells from within grew stronger when he pulled the lid off and used a wooden spoon to stir the contents. “I found the recipe on the Net. I just throw in diced tomatoes, mushrooms, tortellini, cream cheese, vegetable broth and spinach. Granted I had to make the meatballs myself. I’ll sometimes put other things in just for fun. Just dump it all in and let it slow cook all day.”

“That does sound simple,” Halley agreed. “I hope it’s ready. I don’t know if I can stand smelling it much longer without having some.” As if to prove her point she was leaning over the counter that separated the kitchenette from the rest of the apartment with her head stretched forward as far as it could go, her triangular black nose wiggling rapidly as she sniffed at the enticing aromas wafting from the crock pot.

“Looks like it should be,” Todd said before setting the spoon on a small resting dish and exiting the kitchen. “Let me take care of one more thing and we’ll eat.”

Halley watched as the man moved to the wall that held the door to the bedroom and bathroom and opened a brass panel that hid a small fireplace. There was already wood set on the thick iron grate within and after getting a long necked lighter that he used to set the starter blocks of wood shavings and paraffin wax afire he closed a mesh screen.

“You guys get fireplaces?” the anthrocat asked in jealous annoyance. “We don’t have those.”

“Halley,” Todd said with a short chuckle at her disappointed tone, “you and the others have fur and that tends to be more than a little flammable.”

“Oh. Yeah. I guess it is,” she admitted, though the irritation that the man had something in his apartment she didn’t clearly irked her.

“Stop trying to pout,” Todd admonished lightly with a light tap to the triangular pad of her nose. “C’mon get a bowl and spoon and find a place to sit,” he instructed as he reentered the kitchen and pulled down the necessary items from a cabinet. “If you want we can even watch a movie while we eat. It’s what I normally do. When I get off duty I just like to relax because I never know when I’m going to get a call because of some problem.”

“You don’t eat with the others?” the Fur asked as she did as instructed after slipping her winter boots off and setting them by the door.

Todd shook his head. “Not normally. I spend too much time running around during the day and if anything ever crops up I’m the first one that’s called, which is how it needs to be. I like my personal time so I normally wind up cooking for myself. I don’t mind and as I like to cook and it works out fairy well.”

Halley accepted the bowl and dipped deep into the crock pot, the sauce looking thick and wonderful with no shortage of tortellini or other goodies like meatballs and bits of mushrooms in the thick cream cheese concoction. Unable to help herself Halley spooned a large bite into her feline maw, sucking in a couple of breaths to cool it off before her eyes closed in complete bliss. “Oh. My. God,” she husked in an almost sultry tone. “I think I have a new favorite!”

“It’s not bad,” Todd agreed. “And it does a pretty good job of filling the stomach and warming you up from the inside,” he added as he filled his own bowl. “Now, what kind of movie do you feel like?”

“Something that doesn’t take a lot of thought,” Halley said as her attention stayed on the food under her nose. “And no romantic nonsense. I’m frustrated enough without seeing idiots in a movie getting what I can’t.”

Todd nodded with a wry smile. “Then I’ve got just the thing,” he told her as he led the way into the living room area. “And, if you want, I might have something of a dessert for you when you’re done.”

The Fur looked at her friend with curiosity as he only smiled with a smug expression while turning on the smart screen that was plugged into the entertainment system.

***

“Someone shoot me…” Halley growled as she rolled over and threw her arm over her head to block out the sunlight that made it past the shades on her bedroom window.

“Don’t know ‘bout shooting you,” Julie said brightly as she flung herself onto the other savannah cat’s bed, the jostling causing Halley to mutter particularly foul swear words under her breath as she hauled her blankets up over her head, “but I got this for you to drink. Todd said it’d make you feel better if you woke up with a hangover.”

“I don’t know if I have a hangover,” Halley moaned and looked out with one eye from the shelter of her covers. “I’ve never been hungover before because I was never stupid enough to drink so much.” The Felis regarded at the bottle of liquid that Julie offered her, one of the more high powered sports drinks on the market. “I think…I think I’m going to die…” she husked, panting heavily as she closed her eyes and willed her stomach to settle. Once she was fairly positive that the contents of the supper Todd had cooked were going to stay in place she took the bottle from Julie.

It was an unsavory green color and wholly unappetizing, though if it helped get rid of the pounding in her skull and nausea that roiled in her gut she was more than willing to drink something that apparently had essence of sea greens as the main ingredient. As she prepared to open the bottle Halley stifled a belch that caused her eyes to widen as her pupils dilated. Slapping a paw to her muzzle she thrashed her way clear of the blankets and bolted to her bathroom on unsteady legs only to collapse in front of the toilet.

“Hey! You okay?” Julie asked in alarm, following her friend until the other savannah cat retched noisily and something splashed into the bowl with an accompanying whine of misery.

“Oh…god…” Halley muttered before heaving again.

Facing the task with dogged determination, Julie went to aid her fellow Felis until the smell hit her sensitive nose. “Whoa,” she muttered with a disgusted expression and waved at the air in front of her face. “What did you drink? That is so nasty!”

“Real cream line milk and…schnapps,” Halley husked with her eyes closed, futilely willing her innards to calm down. “Bu…buttersc-scotch schnapps…”

Julie lifted an eyebrow. “And you had how much?”

“All…all…of it…” the other Fur said between panting breaths. “Waaay…too much. When I see Todd…again…I’m going…to hurt him.” She lifted her head a little and regarded her friend. “Badly.” The savannah cat panted lightly as she sat back after tripping the lever to flush the contents of the toilet away. “No. It was my fault,” she said, more to herself as the other Fur pressed the cool cloth to her ears and used another to mop at her mouth. “Just a night that saw a lot of bad decisions. I wonder he’s up yet so I can tell him how sorry I am about how I acted.”

“Well, you’ve got time,” Julie told the other Fur as she wet down a washcloth with cold water. “He left about three hours ago on something for the Institute. He won’t be back for at least a couple of weeks.”

Halley looked up with bleary, irritated eyes. “He left?”

“Yeah. He carried you here then came and got me to keep an eye on you. Said he had to leave on some kind of job for Ásmundr. I’m not sure…” Julie trailed off when she saw that the other female’s lower jaw trembled slightly and her eyes filled with chagrin. “Hey. What’s wrong?” The spotted savannah cat knelt next to her friend and put an arm around her shoulder, snugging Halley closer in an attempt to comfort the other Fur as she groaned in misery.

The violent purge helped to restore Halley to something akin to normal, or as normal as she thought she’d ever feel again. “I think…I came on to him. I wanted to apologize.” She rubbed at her face in exasperation. “I really screwed up last night. All the guys that are like us and I make a stupid play like a drunken prom date for one of the few people that’s been a real friend.” She looked up to regard Julie when the other savannah cat gasped and found her friend with a look of surprised wonder.

“You got the hots for Todd!” the spotted Fur almost sing-songed. Julie clasped paw-like hands with her friend and leaned close, not unlike a young girl would when sharing the deepest possible secrets with her closest confidant. It was moments like this that reminded Halley pointedly that Julie might chronologically be the same age as her, but mentally she was much, much younger. “I can’t blame you,” the other savannah cat pressed in a high, girlish whisper. “He is so completely scrumptious!” She lowered her head and grinned mischievously. “I know he could climb my-”

“Julie,” Halley said in a soft but firm tone, cutting the other Fur off before she could elaborate on just what the head of Institute security could do to her, or what she would be happy to do back. “I don’t have the hots for Todd. I was drunk and stupid and I shouldn’t have done anything like that. Todd’s been too good a friend. And don’t you have your great romance with Perry to think of?”

“Sure I do!” Julie purred. “Todd could be fun, but I’ll always go back to Perry. He does this thing with my neck that-”

The black and auburn Fur covered her ears and closed her eyes tightly. “Nope. I’m so not going to listen. Walking in on you two…again…was more than enough, thank you. I don’t need to hear about all of the things you two get up to.”

The admonishment only caused Julie to grin even wider with a negligent shrug.

Before either could say or do anything more, Julie simply giggling while Halley finally opened the electrolyte rink that Todd had left for her, a knock followed by a voice called from the door to the small apartment.

“Halley? Are you about?”

The voice belonged to Ásmundr and with a grunt Halley got up and staggered from the bathroom to the combination entry/living/dining room. She found the tall Swede pushing back the hood of his parka before slipping a pair of designer sunglasses from his cold reddened nose. He paused when he saw Halley.

“Not to put too fine a point on it, but you look like hell,” the man observed with a wry grin. “Bit of a late night?”

The savannah cat took a long swallow of the sports drink in her paw-like hand, wincing a little at the raw feeling in her throat and nodded slowly. “Todd introduced me to something that turned out to be too much of a good thing.”

Ásmundr gave her a curious look and stepped forward to help the suffering Fur to the simple couch that dominated the main room. “Do you think that you’ll be recovered enough to accompany me on something of a business trip? We’ve been invited to attend the European Space Agency’s yearly symposium.” He smiled when Halley looked up and blinked in surprise, both her recuperative drink and physical condition forgotten for the moment. “Actually,” the Swede continued as he took a seat on one of the simple chairs that sat around the small dining table, “I was told in rather pointed terms that my invitation hinged upon your presence specifically and another Fur if possible. I’ll let you choose who it is that you’d like to have come along.”

“I don’t know if I’m up to choosing someone for something like this,” Halley admitted as she slumped back and rubbed at the point of her head between her left eye and ear. “Do I really have to go?”

Ásmundr relaxed, his arm draped over the back of his chair, giving the impression that he was both completely relaxed and still the most important person in the vicinity, and whether it was conscious or not, commanded the attention of both savannah cat Furs. “Of course you don’t have to go,” the man said with a half-smile. “I just thought that you might enjoy a week or so in Malta. Spring is in full bloom there and where we’ll be staying is already seeing daytime temperatures of twenty-seven degrees, Celsius. The weather tends to be spectacular in that part of the Mediterranean this time of year.”

Halley looked thoughtful while Julie all but bounced in place. “If you don’t go I’ll replace half your shampoo with Hair-B-Gone!” the other Fur informed her friend.

“It’s going to be hosted by the University of Malta. I’m expected to send word that I’ll be attending with a specified number of guests by this afternoon. That and some rather notable people have asked for you personally,” Ásmundr informed the recalcitrant catwoman.

“Who asked for me?” Halley repeated in a surprised but small voice. “Why?”

The Swede shrugged. “There have actually been a number of influential people that have asked for you by name. One is the newly appointed Deputy Director of Colonial Operations for the TCC. I think that some of the people in that agency wish to make a long overdue apology to Furs in general and you in particular.”

The savannah cat sipped at the contents of the bottle with a small furrow forming between her eyes as she thought about what Ásmundr said, Halley cudgeling her thoughts past the throbbing of her head. Going somewhere warm was definitely appealing, but the task of having to deal with people from an organization that had been responsible for Wyatt, Ramad and Julie along with the others being experimented on and was enough to cause a flutter of anxiety. The TCC had also been responsible, in a very roundabout way, for her own decision to undergo the same forced genetic alteration to become a Fur. What news she had listened to had told of a complete revamping of the Terran Colonial Coalition. There was also an international oversight committee that monitored all levels of the TCC’s operations from selecting potential colony settlements to the purchasing of office supplies. Maybe it was time to see if the group that had caused so much pain and suffering had really changed or if it was still the same entity that had sent a less cynical and relatively innocent young woman to Fort Freedom to assist in one of the worst crimes the world had seen in recent history.

“When do we leave?” Halley finally asked, realizing that her wants had nothing to do with what she needed to do for the rest of the Furs that she’d had a hand in helping create.

“Five days,” the man answered. “I was tempted to have a crew take us there by sea, but the North Sea is rather unforgiving at this time of year so we’ll be flying. We’ll be staying on the yacht while there, though. The crew departed the day before yesterday. I don’t get to enjoy some of my things as much as I’d like and it would afford us a bit more privacy and security than any of the hotels and resorts. Just one more yacht in a bay full of them and we’ll have the Maltese Navy providing security as well as our own personnel.”

“Except Todd,” the orange eyed Fur said.

“No. Mister Farbes is on special assignment of which I will tell you of at a later date,” the man informed her with a direct look.

Halley nodded slowly, the sports drink helping her more than she’d thought it would. “Okay. I’m in. I don’t know who else to ask along, though.”

Ásmundr nodded and smiled, the serious expression he wore just a moment before melting into something far warmer and more affable. “You have a couple of hours yet. If you’d like I can give you my recommendation on one of the Furs I’ve think would be a suitable choice.”

Halley’s head tilted in curiosity, a little more interested in the conversation as she continued to recuperate. “If you’ve already selected others why not just tell me?” When the Swede’s only response was to look pointedly at Julie the reason for his evasiveness Halley understood that it was most likely something that the other savannah cat shouldn’t hear and nodded slightly in acquiescence.

“As it stands I’m having Ramad diverted to the airport at Valletta and he’ll meet us there,” Ásmundr said as he stood and moved to where his parka waited for him. “Oh, and come by my office later this afternoon. I have some clothing that you’ll be wearing for the symposium that Fräu Ginzler made specifically for you.”

“She’s the one that made Wyatt and Ramad’s clothes, right?” Halley asked.

“Correct. She would’ve come to deliver them personally but she’s at the age where winter takes a heavy toll on her,” Ásmundr said as he closed his parka. “I hope you feel better soon.”

Halley smiled and nodded as the man exited. Julie moved about the apartment with a cheerful if empty monologue of the goings-on of some of the other Furs before turning to the topic of the other savannah cat’s lack of a romantic partner. Julie was more than happy to give a rundown of all of the attractive males that she might consider inviting along on her trip. “I mean, you’re going to there for who knows how long so you might want to take someone that you can cuddle up with, right?”

Making noises that were noncommittal but sounded appropriate, Halley picked up her phone from the small side table and looked at the screen. A message from Ásmundr appeared with a name, his recommendation for the other Fur that would travel with them to the symposium. She recognized the name but couldn’t place who went with it. Halley opted to wait until after lunch to talk to Ásmundr’s choice to accompany them to the symposium. She shooed the other savannah cat from her apartment and headed for the shower with the hopes that the blast of hot water would drive the last of her bender from her head. When she emerged almost an hour later the fiery-eyed Fur felt almost normal.

— NEXT CHAPTER —

Unless otherwise noted, all material © Ted R. Blasingame. All rights reserved.