John Brosnan - The Sky Lords

“No, I won’t touch,” Jan assured it nervously.

The panther continued to stare at her with its great yellow eyes. Jan considered throwing the flashlight at it as a diversion, but knew that would be futile as well.

Finally she said, “Why are you following me? How did you find me?”

The panther hissed. “Follow you …? I not follow you.”

“Yes you did,” Jan told it accusingly. “All the way from Minerva. Where you killed Carla after I refused to let you into the town.”

“Young Missssy talk crazy,” said the panther and gave a dismissive snort.

“You’re playing with me,” said Jan, remembering how she had watched Minervan cats torture mice before killing them. “Why don’t you just kill me and get it over with.”

“Why me kill missy?” said the panther. “Only kill missy if you try hurt me. This cat only kill male people. Always trust women people. They have never tried to hurt cat.”

Jan frowned in puzzlement. What kind of game was the panther playing now? Then it occurred to her to shine the flashlight beam lower down on the animal’s body. She almost laughed aloud with relief at what she saw. Or rather, at what she didn’t see.

It wasn’t the same animal. It was a female.

Even though she was relieved that it was a different panther from the one she had encountered at the gate of Minerva, and a female at that, Jan still didn’t trust it. But she was going to wait and see what developed before she attempted any reckless move. The panther had told her she’d spotted her entering the plaza and was curious as to what a human was doing in this ‘death place’. Jan, in turn, asked the panther what she was doing in the city. Wasn’t she scared of the sickness too?

“Been here long time now. Not sick,” said the panther. “Mother warn me keep away. Mother’s mother warn her. But I old cat. Tired. Hunting not good Out There …” The panther turned its head to indicate the blight lands. “Decide to come here. Take chance. Wait, but nothing happen. Water good. Hunting better. Animals come here. No People. You the first.”

Jan wondered whether or not to believe the panther. A ‘long time’ could mean anything in the animal’s time scale, from a couple of days to a couple of months. But then, even a couple of days would be more than sufficient for the plague to strike and the panther looked healthy. Jan was hot, thirsty, hungry and desperate for a pee. There was no way she could stay sealed up in the suit for much longer.

“Have you seen a machine in the city?” she asked the panther.

“Maccchine?”

“One that walks on two legs. Like a man.”

The panther flicked its thick tail. “No see machine that walks.”

Well, that’s something , thought Jan. She shifted her position on the uncomfortable stair, taking care to move slowly so as to not alarm the animal. Then she came to a decision. “I’m going to take my weapons off. I don’t mean you any harm. Understand?”

“Understand.”

She put the torch down on the floor, the beam still pointing at the great cat. Then she slowly unstrapped the projectile weapon from her shoulder and, holding it by the barrel, placed it on the floor beside the torch where it was clearly visible. She then removed her back-pack and weapons harness and dropped them on the floor as well. The panther watched her every move with its unreadable yellow eyes. Jan said, “I’m going to get something out of my bag here. It’s not a weapon. Just a water container.”

The panther gave a nod. Jan got out one of the two canteens. Then, after a long hesitation, she undid the seals and pulled back her hood. She took a deep breath. There , it was too late now. She lifted the canteen and drank.

When she next awoke dawn was breaking over the city of towers. The panther, she saw, was lying about fifteen feet away. It was awake and watching her. It hadn’t eaten her while she slept, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t saving her for breakfast. Jan sat up on her makeshift bed, which consisted of the anticontamination suit and the back-pack, and said, “Good morning.”

The panther made a growling sound deep in its throat. Jan decided to interpret it as a friendly response. Maybe it was purring. She felt strangely cheerful, mainly because she was still alive. The panther hadn’t eaten her and she didn’t, as far as she knew, have the plague. Not a bad start to the day, all things considered.

She got up and walked out into the plaza. The panther stayed where she was but turned her head to watch Jan as she left. Jan went to the fountain, cupped water in her hands, and drank. The water tasted cold and fresh. She then looked round the plaza, but nothing moved. She felt confident that the clanking Ezekiel wouldn’t be able to get close without being detected by the panther. She took off Ashley’s clothes—a shirt, trousers, briefs and boots that the dead girl had last worn centuries ago—and climbed into the fountain. The water was shockingly cold as she lowered herself into it, but at the same time it felt marvellously invigorating. She lay on her back in the water and stared up at the Sky Tower. All she had to do was climb to its top, find the computer, insert Ashley and Carl’s ‘software’ into it and then order it to summon down the Sky Angel all the way from its home far beyond the blue sky. Simple!

She didn’t reach the top of the tower until the middle of the afternoon. She had been obliged to stop and rest several times, her legs throbbing with pain and her lungs heaving. The panther, who had accompanied her, stopped when she did, though it didn’t show any sign of undue exertion. Jan guessed it could have loped to the summit and back down again without any problem.

During one of her first rest-stops she had asked the panther why she was coming with her. By that time they had reached a position of mutual trust—Jan had the laser strapped over her shoulder again. The panther, who called herself Frusa , had shrugged and said, “Cat bored. Cat curious.” Jan had accepted this. Unlike normal animals the enhanced animals were prone to such human ills as boredom. She’d tried to explain the reason for her mission to the Sky Tower, but she wasn’t sure how much the panther understood.

“Thank the Mother God!” Jan cried with relief when she reached the end of the staircase. But then she saw she still hadn’t found her destination. The floor she was on was devoid of equipment and was obviously once used simply as a viewing platform, as it was encircled by windows. The Sky Angel’s control centre had to be on the floor above, but how was she to gain access to it?

In the centre of the circular floor was a thick metal pillar which appeared to be the only means of support for the uppermost section of the tower. As the panther sat watching, she went to the pillar and examined it. It took two circuits round the pillar before she noticed the outline of the door set flush in its shiny surface. There was also a narrow opening about two inches long which presumably took some kind of key. She tried to prise the door open with her fingernails but it was useless. Out of frustration she kicked it, and jumped back with alarm when a voice said, “Do that again and I’ll call the police.”

Jan looked around, but apart from Frusa the place was empty. She looked back at the door. The voice had come out of the pillar. Was there someone behind the door? “Who are you?” she asked warily.

“I’m a public information facility and for your information, you being a member of the public, you can’t come in here. The summit of the Sky Tower is off-limits to unauthorized personnel.” The voice, a man’s, sounded testy.

The panther had come over and was sniffing at the door. “Sound like man but no man. No one here,” she told Jan.