“Hey mon, he panicked me pretty good. I was just defending myself. You part of a circus or something? We didn’t see no tents outside.”
“More of a private traveling show. I’m kinda down on my luck. Got kicked out of the company. At least they let me take my animals with me. Maybe you could give me a hand? I understand about the leopard. Just tough luck.”
“Give you a hand?” Cruz grinned in a way Jon-Tom didn’t like. “What’s with the getup?” He indicated Sasheem’s vest and short pants, the sword lying next to the leopard’s body, and the bandolier of stilettoes that crossed his broad chest.
“I told you, they’re all trained. It’s all part of the act.”
“I never saw an act like that.”
“Hey, I deed once.” The pistolero’s eyes lit with recognition. “In Vegas. You know, mon, them Siegfreed and Roy guys? They dress some of their animals up.”
“Is this your place?” Jon-Tom asked innocently.
Cruz found this very amusing. “Let’s just say we use it as a stopover on our way north. You might say we’re traveling salesmen, Manco and I. A raccoon that big. What kind of tricks can your animals do?”
Jon-Tom stared hard at Mudge and Weegee. “They can’t do anything unless I tell them to. But I’ve trained them to walk on their hind legs all the time.”
“That’s about enough of this bilge-pus.” Everyone’s eyes went to the top of the high cabinet. Cruz gave Kamaulk the approving eye.
“Biggest parrot I ever saw, too. That’s a sharp outfit you’ve got on him.”
“What the blazes are you two morons blabbering about?”
Jon-Tom tensed, but Cruz and his partner found Kamaulk’s comments entertaining rather than insulting. “Hey, that’s pretty good! You teach him all that?”
“Not exactly.” Jon-Tom’s throat was dry. “He kind of picked up a lot of it himself. He’s very clever. I don’t know myself what he’s going to say next.”
“Bugger the lot o’ you!” The pirate folded his wings over his chest. “Do what you will with me. I’m not frightened of you.”
“Cute.” Cruz forgot about the parrot and turned his attention back to Jon-Tom. “You, I’m not so sure you’re cute. More like a problem.”
“Look, let’s just forget about the trained leopard and I’ll let bygones be bygones, okay? I didn’t know this was your house and I’ll be glad to pay for the food. I had to do something. My animals were starving. And I’ve got to try to catch the others before they’ve gone too far.” He took a hopeful step toward the far door, grunted as Cruz shoved the business end of the sawed-off into his belly.
“Your pets’ll just have to wait, compadre. You don’t need so many animals anyway. Why don’t you hitch a ride with us? We’ll drop you at a phone and you can call the local animal shelter.”
“Oh, that’s not necessary. I don’t want to cause you guys any trouble.”
“No trouble at all.” Cruz gestured with the shotgun. “We’re ready to leave right now. See, we just stopped for a few minutes to pick up some luggage we have to deliver up north. Chicago. We don’t mind company.” His expression darkened. “Out back now. Bring your animals with you if you want.”
“What about my stuff?” He gestured toward the backpacks and weapons.
Cruz walked over, picked up the ramwood staff, then Mudge’s longbow. “Check ‘em out, Manco.” The other man obediently went through both packs.
“Cleen.”
“Okay, you can have these.” He tossed both packs to Jon-Tom, who caught them gratefully. “These other toys,” and he admired Mudge’s short sword as he held it up to the light, “I think maybe we keep with us. I know a good pawn shop in Chicago.” He grinned. “Payment for your ride, no?”
Under watchful eyes Jon-Tom, his friends and Kamaulk were herded out back of the empty garage and into a waiting truck. With all the noise and confusion attendant upon the pirates’ earlier arrival he hadn’t heard it drive up. It was a U-Haul with a fourteen foot bed. The back end they scrambled into was filled with cheap household furniture. He frowned. Furniture movers didn’t usually travel with heavy artillery. Cruz secured their weapons in a steel footlocker.
“Go on, all the way back.” They obliged. The metal door was rolled down and locked. Jon-Tom heard the click as it was latched from outside.
There were no windows, but the truck had been heavily used and there were a couple of spots where roof and walls didn’t quite meet. Starlight was visible through the cracks. At least they wouldn’t suffocate. The truck lurched backward, then started forward, picking up speed. Heading down the dirt road that led away from the house, no doubt.
He smelled Weegee close by. “Is it all right to talk now, Jon-Tom?”
“What do you mean, is it all right to talk now?” Kamaulk sounded at once puzzled and bitter at the hand fate had dealt him. “What are the two strange humans going to do with us?”
Jon-Tom ignored him. “It’s okay to talk, Weegee.”
Cautious made a disgusted noise. “Your world not very hospitable, man. Doen think I like it much. Is always this violent, people throwing thunder and lightning at each other?”
“No. We just got lucky.”
“That’s right, mate, Lady Luck loves travelin’ in your company, she does.” Mudge was working his way back to the rolling door. “If they take us too far from that place we’ll never find our way back.”
Mudge, you don’t know the half of it, Jon-Tom thought worriedly. The one named Cruz had mentioned Chicago. They couldn’t go to Chicago. No way could they go to Chicago. They had to get back to the Cave-With-No-Name.
“You’re all frightened.” Kamaulk’s tone dripped contempt. “Even you, man, in your own world.”
“You bet your green feathered ass I’m frightened.”
“Pagh! You should prepare to meet your fate with dignity.”
“You meet your fate with dignity, buttbeak. Me, I’m goin’ down kickin’ an’ screamin’. Hey, wot ‘ave we ‘ere?”
“Where?” Jon-Tom could barely make out the silhouette of the otter. Mudge was fumbling with a large oak trunk.
“Somethin’ in ‘ere smells peculiar. Luv, ‘and me my pack, would you? That’s a good lass.” Weegee passed his backpack over. Mudge fumbled inside, removed a couple of small bits of metal and went to work on the trunk’s lock. Jon-Tom didn’t see the point of it, but at least it kept his companions’ minds off their incipient demise.
The trunk produced a pair of Samsonite suitcases, also locked.
“Can you make a little light, mate? These locks are new to me.”
Three matches remained in Jon-Tom’s back pocket. He struck one alight, held it close to the latch of the first suitcase. Mudge leaned close, squinting.
“Bloody tricky clever, this design.”
“Can you spring it?”
The otter grinned at him in the matchlight. “Mate, there ain’t a lock in any world that your bosom buddy can’t figure. Just give me a minim to think ‘er through.”
The match burned Jon-Tom’s fingers and he flung the stub aside, lit a second. “Only one match left, Mudge.”
“Don’t matter none, mate. I can work it by feel.”
“You always could,” said Weegee, and the otters shared a not so private giggle.
Two minutes of quiet, intense work remained before Mudge had all four suitcase latches sprung. He opened the first. Jon-Tom leaned forward.
“I can’t see a damn thing. What’s inside?”
“Nothin’ much, mate. Just some plastic bags full of funny smellin’ stuff. Maybe a better whiff.. .”and he used a claw to slit one of the plasticine sacks. As he did so he leaned forward and sniffed deeply.
Someone must have lit a fire under all his toes because he suddenly leaped off the floor of the truck and fell backward over a crushed velvet sofa.