Read Global Warming Fun 6: Ice Giants Make Manhattan Page 21

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  Mouse wasn't surprised to finally confirm that the tiny creature she had been luring towards her was in fact a common mole. The tiny mammal had no difficulty climbing up through the little hole in the concrete floor that the girls had made through their many hours of toil. Mouse calmed the tiny jittery creature telepathically and through petting it, such that it did not bite or use its sharp earth-digging claws in its defense. Tracy fitted it with the little harness that she had been fashioning from a section of cotton cloth torn from her t-shirt and two of the safety pins that Mouse always carried with her 'just in case'. She tied it as tight as she dared around the critter's neck, torso, and front legs, but the little creature was so furry, flexible, and plastic that she had no confidence at all in the result.

  By then the girls were hungry but their captors had given them no additional food this morning. They received no response at all to their repeated verbal requests for food and pounding of the metal walls that rang like thunder. Their captors seemed to have deserted them.

  "Maybe they have other places to be and things to do," Tracy commented. "I don't know if that's good or bad, but I am getting hungry."

  After feeding their tiny visitor the last bits of cheese and ham they had horded, Mouse sent it on its way. 'Leave us and go far from here,' she had told it. That was doubtlessly far too much for the mole to comprehend, but she did fill it with the strongest motivation she could think of: fear.

  It left wearing a raggedy little harness that bore no notes or talismans, for they had no materials with witch to fashion a written note. Use of human blood as ink was suggested by Tracy but Mouse feared that the harness would become too tasty to the still hungry creature if it was bloodied. They briefly considered putting Mouse's big diamond in the harness, but judged it to be far too heavy and bulky for the little mole to carry.

  "Reassure me again by explaining how the hell this is going to work?" Tracy asked her little cousin.

  "By sight and scent, I hope," said Mouse. "The Tribe will see a silly looking mole wearing clothes, and jants will be looking for our scent on the harness."

  "Sounds like a ridiculous long shot to me," said Tracy. "The harness probably fell off the little critter already as soon as it was out of our sight."

  "Maybe," said Mouse. "But I was holding and petting it, so I gave it my scent and the harness gave it your scent. Maybe that will be enough. And maybe other little ones will use its tunnels and will find us at the end of this one. I hope! If we're still here. And maybe even alive."

  "That would be totally nice. Where is it now?"

  "Moving fast for a mole through tunnels already dug. She's already too far away for me to sense her. I hope I didn't scare her so bad that she does something crazy."

  Tracy had no idea what crazy behavior would be for a mole. "We'll have to be absurdly lucky," she said.

  "I'm praying to Tharuhyawa:ku and Tsino:wen," said Mouse. She sat next to Tracy on their sleep-pad and they snuggled up to each other for mutual warmth and reassurance.

  Tracy nodded, remembering her Mohawk. "Sky Holder, high god of the Mohawk Iroquois, and Old Mother, your recent ancestor and friend to my dad that they named you after. I guess praying couldn't hurt. Besides, I don't know of anything else we can do."