NitLO Oct 27
"Remember what they say about cornered rats," he said. "We can be nasty."
"I'm sure," I replied. "But what'd be the point? No one wants to hurt you."
"You were chasing me."
"I wanted to talk to you."
"So you brought along a cat."
"I can let you talk to her if you don't want to talk to me."
I started to withdraw.
"No! Wait! I'd rather talk to you!"
"All right," I said. "I just wanted to know what happened here."
"There was a fire."
"I can see that. How'd it get started?"
"The experiment man got mad at the Good Doctor and started wrecking the lab. Sparks from some of the equipment set the place burning."
"'The experiment man'?"
"You know. The big fellow the Good Doctor put together from all the parts his assistant dug up for him."
I recalled the smell of death and I began to understand.
"What happened then?" I asked.
"The experiment man ran out and hid in the barn here, as he always did after an argument. I got out, too. The place burned down."
"Did the Good Doctor and his assistant get out in time?"
"I don't know. When I went back and looked later there was no way I could tell."
"What about the experiment man? Is he still in the barn?"
"No. He ran away later. I don't know where he is."
I backed up. "I'm sorry," I said, and I withdrew my head from the crate.
Graymalk immediately moved near and asked, "Was the Good Doctor an opener or a closer?"
"Please," he said, "let me be. I'm just a simple pack rat. Snuff! Don't let her have me!"
"I've already eaten," she said. "Besides, I owe you courtesy as a fellow player."
"No you don't," he said. "It's over. Over."
"Just because your master is dead doesn't mean I should treat you as anything other than a player."
"But you know. You must know. You're toying with me. Cats are that way. I'm not a player. I never was. Have you really eaten recently?"
"Yes."
"That's worse then. You'll toy more."
"Shut up a minute!" she said.
"See? There goes the courtesy."
"Be still. I am starting to get angry. What do you mean you were never a player?"
"Just that. I saw a good thing and I decided to jump aboard."
"You'd better explain."
"I told you I was just a pack rat. I used to hear all you folks talking - Nightwind, Quicklime, Cheeter, you and Snuff - as I lurked about my business. I got the idea pretty quick that there was some sort of strange Game going on, and you were all players. You all had it pretty good and you all left each other alone, even helped each other sometimes. So I decided to learn as much about your Game as I could and figure out how I could pass for one of you. I realized pretty quickly that you all had pretty weird masters and mistresses. Then I knew that I could do it. After all, I'd been hanging around the Good Doctor's place already, for the leftovers from his work. So I let on that he was in the Game and that I worked for him. Sure enough, I got respect and decent treatment from the rest of you. It made life a lot easier. What a tragedy - the fire. It'll be rough spending winter in the barn. But rats are adaptable. We - "
"Be still," she said again, and he obeyed. "Snuff, do you realize what this means?"
"Yes," I said. "There was no secret player. What it was, was that I had one player too many in my calculations. The Good Doctor must just have come here seeking a little privacy for his work."
". . . And that explains why the divinations concerning him were always ambiguous."
"Of course. I'll have to do some new figuring, soon. Thank you, Bubo. You've just helped me quite a bit."
Graymalk moved away from the crate and Bubo peered out.
"You mean I can go?" he said.
I was feeling generous, happy even, at the final piece for my puzzle. And he looked kind of pathetic.
"Or you can come with us, if you like," I said. "You don't have to live in the barn. You can stay at my place. It's warm and there's plenty to eat."
"You really mean that?"
"Sure. You've been a help."
"Of course you do live near a cat. . . ."
Graymalk made her laughing sound.
"You gave us professional help," she said. "I'll leave you on my professional courtesy list."
"All right, I'll do it," he told me.
He emerged and we headed back.