Cat and Mouse {Twin Fangs}

[Justice, The Cloaked Cavalier]

Egad! How had he got so high up! Of course, Mr. Khan's office would be on the top storey, but the building was so dashed tall. Perhaps even higher than the clock tower on the Houses of Parliament.

Shaking the stray thoughts from his head, Justice lurched to his feet and hurried along the ledge round the corner of the building. He knew that, despite their bulk, cats could navigate such a narrow spot quite as easily as he, and that they were relentless hunters.

He knew as well that he was leaving a trail of blood behind, a trail that would lead invariably to wherever he tried to conceal himself. Basil really ought to bind that arm wound with his handkerchief, but there was no time, even for that necessary task.

Once round the corner and out of view of the window, the Midnight Mouse stepped to the very brink of the ledge, making certain that some blood pooled there. It had been his original plan to climb down the side of the building; perhaps his pursuers would be fooled, even for a moment or two, into looking for him there.

Instead, Justice clambered upward. It was merely one storey to the roof, and there he might find space to get his breath until some new idea presented itself.

Hoisting himself swiftly onto the top of Khan Tower, he paused, nursing his wounded limb, taking in the surroundings. The arm was usable, though it hurt like the very devil; loss of blood was the greatest danger. Well, time enough for that later.

As to the rooftop, it was a bleak, windswept expanse, broken by a few bulky devices the nature of which Justice could not know. Litter gathered in the unused corners: dead leaves, those ubiquitous synthetic-polymer sacks, pigeon feathers...if only feathers were all it took for a mouse to fly like a bird.

Ah! There was a door leading back into the building. Locked, doubtless, but locks could be turned with tools and a certain skill.

Everything depended, however, on the location of those fiendish felines.

[The Twin Fangs]

Having squeezed out of the open window, Si and Am now perched on the window sill. As the cats were more focused on their hunt, they didn't pay much attention to the vast distance between the ledge and the city streets below.

Their noses twitched as the familiar aroma of blood entered their nostrils -- there was a noticeable amount of it on the edge of the ledge. Even from where she was behind Si Am could easily smell it.

Neither of them could no longer see Justice. They remained where they were, trying to decided on the best course of action. Moving carefully, Am bend down to sniff ar the sides of the ledge. "I don't smell him over here."

Si arrived at the same conclusion that her sibling did. "Then he has gone up. Come, let us finish this!" She said, giving an upward jerk of her head. They only had one story story between them and the roof.

****

After a climb that threatened to turn precarious at a few points, the Twins finally found themselves standing atop the roof of Khan Towers. They had never been up there before, and they had lost some time in climbing up here, but Justice was injured, which gave them an advantage. He would be weaker due to his blood loss, and probably slow-moving. No doubt he was hiding somewhere.

The sinister siblings decided to split up in order to cover more ground. Si prowled along the perimeters of the roof in case the mouse was hiding amongst the piles of refuse that had collected there, while Am stalked towards the door in the center of the area.

[Justice, The Cloaked Cavalier]

The starlight was quite enough to see by, at least for a mouse with enhanced senses. And a cursed cat, Justice reminded himself.

He'd just made it to the door, without even a moment to examine the lock, when the first feline began to appear over the parapet. Basil barely managed to hide himself behind the smallish shed-like construction that housed the door, a steel affair about the size of a broom closet.

Now what? Those fiends would be upon him in seconds. From his place of concealment, the masked mouse leaped upward and onto the roof of the shed.

Had his landing made a sound? He was certain he hadn't been seen, but the effort had been much more taxing than it ought to have been, and he landed badly.

Justice had used up much of his internal energy, which only time could replenish. With it went his leaping abilities, and added to that, the physical drain caused by loss of blood was wearying the rodent hero.

Willing his laboured breathing to silence, the Midnight Mouse remained in the perfect center of the square roof, where there was no chance of being seen by his adversaries. It was absolutely bare, and he strained his ears, sword at the ready, for some clue to his pursuers' location.

They were coming, he had no doubt whatsoever, and would be upon him far too soon. Was that a stealthy step? Or merely the rustling of refuse in the wind?

As the breeze increased in intensity, it whisked one of those sacks through the air like a parachute, and although Basil wouldn't know what that was, it gave him the idea that this might be the escape route he'd been searching for.

Calling upon his last ounce of energy, Justice leapt at the sack, catching the handles with his good arm. His added weight caused it to bobble uncertainly and begin an erratic descent.

Still, he cleared the ledge of the building and drifted downward at a moderate speed, leaving Khan Tower and its denizens far behind.

Although his eventual landing in an empty alleyway was less than graceful, Justice congratulated himself on what he thought a brilliantly clever escape. Dawn was even now breaking, and the exhausted detective began to make his way toward his tiny flat.

It's only a bit further, old man, he encouraged himself mentally. You can manage it. You didn't escape those blood-thirsty monsters to die on the street. One more step...just take one more...step...one...

Then the darkness closed in.

The End
To be continued in Angel of Mercy