Chapter Fourteen
“This is ridiculous,” hissed Chello from behind Torus. “Why are we doing this? We’ll probably get eaten. He probably doesn’t even know anything. We don’t need to know anything either! Why are we doing this? This is stupid!”
He had been keeping up the same refrain for the past half hour as he followed Torus, and as Torus followed Nevi along the tortuous path Mr. Nile had given them the day before. From the first floor mop closet, though the wall into the unused elevator shaft, up a broken cable, along a drainage pipe, back into the walls and under the floor of a vacant room on the third floor, Nevi had led them quietly and, when possible, swiftly from shadow to shadow. Chello struggled at the rear with a long, blue-tinted knitting needle. As far as they knew they were unseen, and had themselves only seen one rat from a great distance.
Torus held his nose up in the air and sniffed deeply.
“It smells like no one ever comes here. I don’t even smell any humans around here.”
“Stupid,” whispered Chello as he untangled his weapon of choice from an inconvenient spider web. “Waste of time.”
“If you can find some string I’ll make you a strap so you can carry that dumb thing on your back instead of having to drag it along getting it stuck all the time,” said Torus.
“You just wait, you’ll be glad I brought my poker when that cat tries to jump us”
“Hush!” hissed Nevi. She stopped them at the far side of the floor under the empty room, near a metal heating duct. “I think this is it.”
“What is what?” asked Chello. “A waste of time?”
“No, shut up,” she said. “There’s a gap somewhere in the duct here that we can get into. Help me find it.”
“Forget it!” said Chello. I’m not going in any heating duct. There’s no food in them and rats that go in them never come out.”
“Fine, then. Stay here.” Nevi walked the length of the duct carefully scrutinizing each seam for a gap. “Or go back, if you think you can find the way. I’ve never gotten lost, and I’m not starting now. Hey, here it is!” She beckoned the other two over to where the metal joint of the ductwork had separated and made a narrow space, just wide enough for a rat to squeeze through. Chello squinted at it skeptically and wouldn’t come too close, but Torus went up to it and sniffed the air inside.
“I can smell rat,” he said. “Maybe Mr. Nile, but from moons and moons ago. It’s hard to tell…”
“This is so stupid,” said Chello. “I’m not going.”
“Oh, come on, Chello,” said Nevi. “You heard what Mr. Nile said. The heating duct goes up into the fourth floor and takes us to the apartment where the cat lives. But we’re inside the duct and there’s a grille over the vent so he can’t get at us, we tell him we’re friends of Nile’s and he tells us all about the pigeons. Your mortal enemies, remember? We’re here to find out what’s going on so that you,” she poked him pointedly in the ribs, “can figure out what to do with yourself.”
There was a short silence while Torus looked at Nevi, Nevi looked at Chello, and Chello examined the point on his needle. Finally, Nevi turned and led the way into the duct. She only had to struggle a little, but Torus had trouble working his shoulders through. Chello reluctantly set his weapon down and slipped into the gap with no difficulty at all. He turned to grab the knitting needle, only to find it was too long to work easily into the narrow space of the duct. He could pull one end in, but it jammed against the top of the square metal tube before he could get the other end in.
“You don’t need that, do you?” asked Nevi exasperatedly. “Can’t you come back for it later?”
“I always need it,” he replied, grunting with the effort of wrenching the stubborn weapon. Finally he worked it through and the three continued on their way, Nevi creeping forward carefully in the near-total darkness, and Chello resuming his whispered monologue.
“‘Figure out what to do with myself.’ Cheese! This is stupid…”
They followed the duct for a short distance and came to a place where it joined another, smaller duct at right angles.
“We go left here,” said Nevi. “You can hang on to my tail if you want so we don’t get separated.”
Chello snorted. “The last time I pulled your tail you bit my ear off.”
“You deserved it!” she retorted. “Besides, I didn’t bite it all the way off, I only softened it up a little. Torus, you can hang on if you want.”
“No, that’s okay. If I get lost I’ll just listen for the sound of you two fighting.”
“Pff! This isn’t fighting,” said Chello. “This is like a friendly chat after dinner. I feel like I need a good fight. All this sneaking around gives me the heebie jeebies.”
“Where do we go after this?” asked Torus. “Is it much further? I’m afraid Chello’s going to get his heebie jeebies on me. OW!”
“Oh, sorry!’ said Chello. “I guess I couldn’t see you in the dark and I accidentally jabbed you with Sticker.”
“You named it?” asked Nevi, incredulously.
“All great weapons have names. It helps preserve their glory for future generations.”
“Whatever,” mumbled Torus, rubbing the sore spot on his rump. “So are we close? Or what?”
“Close, I think,” said Nevi. “All Mr. Nile said was ‘Get in the duct, take the left branch, then go up.’ So all that’s left is ‘up’.”
Torus was about to ask “What does ‘up’ mean?” when he collided with Nevi who had come to a stop in the narrow passage. Chello in turn ran smack into Torus and for a moment he couldn’t tell which end was up as he struggle to regain his footing. Once he did he felt around to figure out where his friends were and what the situation was in the duct.
“Is it a dead end?” he asked. “Are we lost?”
“No,” said Nevi. “Look up.”
Torus craned his head back and saw that the duct went straight up and far above them was a tiny glimmer of faint light.
“Wow,” said Torus. “That must be clear up at the fourth floor.”
Nevi nodded silently. He couldn’t see her, but could feel her whiskers on his shoulder, which gave him a sudden shiver.
“So, how do we get ‘up,’” asked Chello from Torus’s other side.
Nevi inched forward and reached up the sides of the shaft.
“I don’t know,” she said. “I don’t…wait! What’s this?” She lurched up suddenly and in a moment was gone from between the others.
“Nevi! Nevi? What is it?” Chello sounded almost panicked.
“It’s a rope!” came Nevi’s voice from close above them. “Nile must have put it here. That’s his style. Come on, it’s easy to climb.”
There was a slight scrambling sound from above and Torus could tell Nevi was making her way quickly up the rope toward the light. He reached up himself and felt for the end of the rope swinging in the dark. He found it when it swung into his head and he grabbed it quickly. It was a thick, coarse human rope and his claws found easy purchase in the twisted fibers. He pulled himself up and began climbing as quickly as he could, trying not to think about how far below the bottom of the shaft was.
“Hey!” came a shout from below. “What about me?”
Torus paused climbing and called down.
“What about you?”
“What about Sticker? How can I bring it up?”
“I don’t know,” said Torus, exasperated. “Let me tie a string on it next time like I said. Just leave it and come back for it.”
“But I need it,” called Chello, a little desperately.
“Oh, cheese, I don’t know,” said Torus, starting to climb again. “Hold it in your teeth or something.”
“Will you two pipe down,” Nevi called down in a harsh whisper. “You’re making the whole building shake.”
“How close is it?” Torus whispered up to her. “Is it much further?” B
ut before there was time for her to answer he found himself nose to nose with her at the top of the shaft. The duct leveled out and ran for a short distance to a vented grill that was the end of the path and the source of the light. Torus blinked in the relative brightness and crept forward as silently as he could toward the vent.
Suddenly there was the sound of a scrambling struggle behind him and Chello heaved himself up onto the level surface with his knitting needle in his teeth and flopped over onto his side.
“Foof!” he said, panting.
“Shush!” whispered Nevi tensely. “We’re practically inside a human’s home. We can’t attract any attention from it or we’re doomed.”
They sat in silence for a moment, resting from their climb, and then Torus asked, “Well, what now?”
“I’m not sure,” said Nevi. “Mr. Nile didn’t say. I guess we call the cat?”
Still lying on his side Chello stifled a giggle.
“That’s great,” he said. “Just what I’ve always wanted to do! Heeere, kitty kitty kitty!” he said. “Heeeeeeeerrreee, puss puss puss puss!”
“You stop that!” said Nevi, trying not to laugh. But soon she and Torus joined Chello in failing to suppress their giggles, and they lay on the floor of the duct and let the tension of their journey release into youthful hysterics.
An hour later, that mirth was a distant memory. Torus and Nevi stared out of the vent at the kitchen floor of the apartment while Chello lay snoozing on his back with one arm flung over his eyes and one hand on his knitting needle. Through the narrow slits in the vent they could see most of the floor, which was worn and colorless and spotlessly clean. In the middle of the floor they could see the feet and legs of a small table with two chairs and a patch of dim light from a hidden window. At the far side of the room they could just see the base of some cabinets with two plastic bowls on the floor in front of them. There had been no movement and no sound in the room the entire time they had been there. Torus yawned.
“This is great. The place looks vacant. How long has it been since Mr. Nile was up here? Maybe they left?”
“I don’t think so. It looks like there’s still someone here. I don’t think a cat would have allowed its bowls to be left behind.”
“Oh…” Torus tried and failed to suppress a second yawn.
“How come this place is so secret? It doesn’t seem very threatening.”
“I asked a couple of the other Scouts about that, actually. They said it wasn’t worth coming up here because, One: it’s restricted because of the cat, and Two: – ” Nevi yawned herself. “Two: the human that lives here is a total neat freak that cleans up everything and takes out the garbage every day. So it’s not worth getting killed to forage at a place with no food. So a convenient tunnel was never built.” She turned suddenly and jabbed at Chello. “Wake up! You’re putting us to sleep.”
Chello replied without moving or uncovering his eyes.
“I figure that human’s doing us a favor by putting all its garbage in a bag and throwing it in the dumpster for us. I hate having to sneak out into their kitchens at night to clean up after them. It’s so inconsiderate!”
“Yeah, well, you know humans,” said Torus. “Always thinking about themselves.”
“Yeah, that and their stupid cats. Where is that cat anyway? I want to poke it!” Chello rolled over and shuffled over to the other two dragging his weapon behind him.
“I don’t know,” said Nevi. “It better hurry, though. Judging by the light on the floor we’ve only got a little more time before we have to head back.”
Her words trailed off as they heard a sound from an adjacent room of the apartment, a metallic clinking and a mechanical click.
“Keys in the lock,” whispered Nevi. “The human’s home!”
They heard the sound of the door opening and closing, and huge footsteps coming across the floor. They saw the human’s feet come into the kitchen with short, shuffling steps in black rubber boots that were wet with traces of snow. Then, from far above, they heard its voice. It made strange, wordless, human sounds in a high-pitched, warbling tone. It paused, and then made the same sounds again, and this time there was a reply from some out-of-sight place in the apartment.
“Yes, yes, yes, I hear you. I’ll be there momentarily!”
The voice was smooth and liquid, with a strange combination of excitement and boredom. Torus craned his neck in the direction of the voice and tried to see where it came from. Chello sucked in his breath and tightened his grip on his weapon. Nevi stayed perfectly still without even blinking. They watched in rigid silence as the cat came in to view, mincing across the floor on silent feet that were remarkabley tiny, considering the creature’s bulk. He was easily as big as the three of them put together, and nearly as wide as he was high. He wore a faded blue collar with a few small rhinestones on it, and he was covered in long, fluffy, striped fur that added to his apparent size. As he walked he switched his long, plume-like tail from side to side.
Chello let out his breath softly and whispered, “He’s not exactly a lean, mean, killing machine, is he?”
“Shhhh,” said Nevi. “With cats it’s all about teeth and claws, and he’s got plenty of both.”
The cat went over to the human and sniffed disdainfully at its boots.
“There’s something wrong with your feet,” he said.
“I like his collar,” said Nevi.
“Maybe he’ll let you look at it while he eats you,” Chello replied.
The human made more warbling sounds and walked out of the kitchen, with the cat following. It returned shortly, wearing a pair of fluffy, blue slippers, stooped to pick up one of the plastic bowls on the floor and took a small can from one of the cabinets.
“Oh, lovely!” said the cat cheerfully. “Slices in gravy, please, and don’t skimp!”
“Yeah,” whispered Chello, “save some for the rats.”
“Shut up,” whispered Torus back to him, “If that human hears us she’ll set traps and then we’ll never get back here.”
Chello shrugged and stared out at the cat, who had begun eating happily.
“I’m starving,” he said.
The human’s fluffy blue feet shuffled out of the kitchen and didn’t return. The cat ate for a few minutes and then sat back and began licking his paws and rubbing his face contentedly.
“We have to go pretty soon,” said Nevi nervously. “Do you think we should try to talk to him?”
“I don’t know,” said Torus. “Do you think the human will come back?”
“Who cares?” said Chello. “This cat doesn’t know anything anyway,” he added almost hopefully.
“Okay, so what do we say?” said Nevi.
The cat paused its grooming and spoke up into the air.
“I know you’re there, you noisy things,” he said. “Somebody say something to me soon, or I’ll be forced to bring Mumsy back into the room.” He looked down and gazed directly at the vent behind which they were hiding, then quietly resumed licking his left paw methodically.
Recoiling from the cat’s glance, the three young rats slipped back into the shadow away from the light and froze. They watched the cat and glanced at each other back and forth for a few moments before Torus stepped back up to the vent and called out timidly.
“Excuse me? Sir? Mr. Gumble?”
The cat looked up with exaggerated surprise and put his paw down on the floor.
“Who calls?” he exclaimed. “Let me go and see.” He stood up and walked slowly toward the vent, taking a winding path, stopping to stretch and yawn hugely, showing a large number of very sharp teeth. Finally, he reached the vent and lay down comfortably on his side with his head pointed toward them and his tail twitching on the floor behind him.
“So,” he asked lazily, “who are you? And where is Nile?”
Torus knew there was no way the cat could reach him through the narrow sl
its in the vent, but he couldn’t help being nervous so close to it.
He cleared his throat and said, “We’re friends of Mr. Nile. He sent us. He says he’s too old to climb so far.”
The cat considered this.
“Pity,” he said. “I wish he’d come to see me. He knows the most interesting things…”
“I’ll let him know,” said Torus. “He’ll be glad to hear it. I think he would have come himself if it wasn’t so far.”
“No doubt,” said the cat thoughtfully. After a short pause he looked at them questioningly. “But he has sent you…?”
“Yes,” Torus continued uncertainly, “he sent us here to ask you some things. To get some…information, or something, about…about pigeons, I guess.”
The cat may have responded, but from their position inside the heating vent he appeared to remain perfectly still, gazing at them steadily without twitching a whisker.
“There’s something going on with them,” Nevi interjected. “We don’t really know what it is. It’s like we’re working together about food, but not really, and…” she trailed off.
“The Chief and his gang are making crazy deals with the pigeons, and the birds are always hanging around our dumpsters,” said Chello hotly. “It stinks!”
The cat remained silent, but shifted his gaze slowly from Torus to Nevi to Chello and back to Torus. The silence grew uncomfortable and Torus finally spoke again.
“So Mr. Nile said he had a friend that knows a lot about pigeons and stuff, so he sent us to you.” He shrugged. “That’s all…”
The cat looked thoughtful.
“Curious,” he said. “Curious indeed…”
“What’s curious?” said Nevi. “That we came up here? Or that the pigeons are up to something?”
The cat sighed heavily.
“Alas,” he said, “alas, no, my little rodent friends.”
There was a pause, and then Chello blurted out, “‘Alas’? What does that even mean? You sound just like the pig-birds and nutty old Nile! Nothing you say makes any sense!”
“Chello, stop it,” said Nevi, somewhat alarmed. “Mr. Nile said he could help us. Just give him a chance.”
“Phaa!” Chello waved his hand and turned to leave. “I knew this was a waste of time from the start. Let’s get out of here. My patrol starts in an hour and I’m hungry.”
Torus turned back to the cat who seemed slightly amused by Chello’s outburst.
“Do you know what’s going on?” he asked. “What can you tell us about them? The pigeons, I mean.”
The cat rolled lazily onto his back and appeared to be gathering his thoughts. Torus had not seen many cats in his life, mostly the scrawny animals that prowled the alleys and the vacant lots behind the building, and one or two pets glimpsed briefly from a distance. Still, even with his lack of experience, Torus thought the cat seemed uncommonly fat, like a round ball of fur with four stubby little legs pointing up into the air. He had thought that cats were supposed to have a certain dignity that was definitely lacking in Mr. Gumble.
When the cat finally said in a grandiose and sonorous voice, “I have had some acquaintance with the birds,” Torus laughed out loud.
The sound startled the cat and he twisted quickly and clumsily around and scrambled back onto his feet, with his eyes wide and his puffy tail thrashing.
“I’m sorry,” said Torus, regaining his composure with difficulty. “I didn’t mean to laugh, I just thought…I mean…” He couldn’t find a way to finish so he started over.
“Look, we’re just some young rats looking for answers when we’re not even sure what the questions are. Can you help us?”
The cat sat down heavily on his haunches and sat still except for his twitching tail.
“Yes, I can help you,” he said, “since you’re friends of Nile’s.”
“That’s great!” said Nevi, looking reproachfully at Chello, who was still lingering back in the tunnel.
“Yeah, great,” said Chello. “Great until he decides to eat us.”
At this the cat flinched and looked distinctly uncomfortable.
“Dear boy, don’t be absurd! I don’t know what sort of cats you have associated with in the past, but I have certainly never…” he shuddered slightly, “…eaten a rat.” He shifted his front paws. “I mean, the very idea! Quite un-neighborly!”
“We don’t associate with any cats at all,” said Chello, irritably. “Besides, what’s wrong with rats? Are you too good to eat a rat?”
“Well,” said the cat diplomatically, “it’s not that, exactly. And I certainly wouldn’t say rats are…unclean…necessarily. It’s just that the food that comes from Mumsy is so much more appetizing, and so much less…fuzzy, if you get my meaning.”
“It’s not fuzz, it’s fur!” said Chello, somewhat hotly.
“Mumsy?” asked Nevi. “What’s that?”
“Well, my human, of course, who did you think?
“It has a name?” said Chello incredulously.
“Of course she has a name. Everybody has a name. As I imagine you three do, friends of Nile?”
“Oh, yes, we do, sorry. I’m Torus, and that’s Nevi, and that back there with the knitting needle is Chello.”
Chello waved noncommittally.
“Hey,” he said.
The cat seemed interested in that.
“‘Chello,’ really? Son of Chello by chance?”
“Sure, why? Do you know him, too? He never told me he hangs out with cats?”
“No, no, not at all. I know of him, from Nile, that’s all.”
“Great,” said Chello. “My family’s reputation precedes me.”
“It does indeed,” replied the cat, “and quite favorably, too.”
“Whatever,” said Chello, barely audible in the shadows.
“So, do we have to talk here?” asked Nevi. “Is this where you talk with Mr. Nile? Behind the vent it’s like talking to someone in a cage.”
“I was thinking the same thing, my dear, but I thought you were the caged ones.”
“I guess it depends on what side of the bars you’re on,” said Torus.
“Quite right!” said the cat, “And now I’m on my side and you three are on your side, and if you like it that way, that’s fine with me. But if you prefer someplace more comfortable, that can certainly be arranged.”
“Yeah, I guess that would be okay,” said Torus. “As long as you’re sure you won’t eat us.”
“Maybe he should be afraid we’ll eat him,” said Chello, half mocking and half threatening.
“My boy, where would you start?” said the cat good-naturedly. “My fur alone provides a most daunting defense, and then there is far more of me than all three of you could eat in a month.” Torus and Nevi laughed, and Chello smiled a little despite himself.
“So where do we go?” asked Torus.
There was the sound of footsteps and the cat snapped his head around.
“Not now,” he said. “Mumsy’s up from her nap. Come back tomorrow between noon and mid-afternoon.” Then he sauntered away from them as if they were invisible and he had never spoken to them. He wound his way around the human’s ankles and purred.
“I’m in love with your feet,” he said, loudly. Then, in a sharp whisper from the corner of her mouth, she said, “Go now, silently. Return tomorrow.” He followed the human into the next room and the three rats turned around, beginning their slow way back to familiar territory and the evening’s activities.
* * *