Kitty Hero Chronicles

Chapter 5

Java looked around at the other cats passing her by. "Okay," she told herself, "you can do this. Everyone else is too busy getting to where they need to go, so just go for it." Java did.

She felt the force of the word exit her vibrating vocal chords. She could almost visualize the shape it would take as it traveled to it's mark: a ripple, similar to one created when throwing a pebble into a pond; only, it was a ripple in the air, not on water.

The German shepherd jumped from below, and turned his ears in Java's direction. "Hey!" she said. "Up here! I'm up here!" He turned his head to look up.

"I see you," he said. "What seems to be the problem?" She introduced herself and told him what she had heard and the direction it had come from. "I'm sorry, miss, but that's out of my jurisdiction; I've been told to watch the town square. You'll have to find the patrol dog in charge of the district you just mentioned."

"Seriously? I don't have time to find anyone else. By that time it may be too late!"

"I'm sorry, miss, but orders are orders, and I must obey."

Java thought of what Twitchy had said to Dach a few days earlier: good dog. That was one downfall of dogs, they were always loyal to a fault; never willing to take a risk, even if it meant someone was in trouble.

It was useless. But something had to be done. The screaming was getting louder, scratching on her conscience like sharpened claws. Java searched for the catwalk exit nearest to the direction the distress call was coming from and made her way down to it.

Time was running out. She opened the gate and ran as fast as she could, following the sound of the screams for help. They finally led her to an abandoned alley way. Great, she thought, a remote location. "Hello?" she said, peering into the dark alley, looking for any sign of the victim. Her pupils dilated in response to the darkness. Seeing no one, she cautiously crept into the alley.

"Hello?" Java said again. "Is anybody in here? I heard a scream and thought I'd—"

"Stay right were you are, missy," a maleficent voice said. "Don't move one muscle or the kid gets it."

From behind an empty dumpster, a dark brown alley cat wearing a flat cap and chewing on a toothpick emerged. His sharp claws were extended. Looking closer, Java could see why. In the other arm, he had his paw around the mouth of a small kitten she recognized as one of the children of a local patron that came around the cafe often.

"Let her go," Java said with as much authority in her voice as she could muster.

"Or you'll what, missy? Talk me to death? No, you just move along and forget this ever happened. I got business with this little one and it's none of yours."

She had to keep him talking, had to come up with a plan to save the kitten. "And just what sort of business would you be wanting with a little child?"

"If you must know, miss nosey, this one here's gonna make me a lot o' dough. I been watchin' her and her fam'ly, and they ain't exactly what you'd call poor."

"So what you're telling me," Java said, "is that you're too lazy—or incompetent—to find a job on your own, so your willing to leech off of the good fortune of others?"

"You shut your mouth, missy, or the kid gets it." He pointed his sharp claws at the kitten, and seemed to extend them even further. Java couldn't tell whether he was bluffing or not. What did he have to lose? And what was one little child to him? There would be more, after all, if he continued to roam the streets and wasn't brought to justice.

"Okay," she said, "just let her go and I'm sure we can work something out. No one has to get hurt here."

"What, are you rich too? 'Cause if that's the case, then I got myself not one but two pots o' gold right here in this alley. Yessir, I do believe it's my lucky day."