‘I think that went quite well, Winkworth don’t you?’ Bango said as he rested his large shoes on the desk.
‘Very well, Sir, everything according to plan.’ Winkworth replied, handing the chairman a large tumbler of whiskey.
The clown twirled the glass, gazing into the liquid. ‘This will be the making of us. Can you imagine the opportunities that will arise, the technology itself…?’ He took a sip, a small smile of satisfaction on his lips as he savoured the liquid.
‘Indeed, Sir. You persuaded them the human was a threat, and now they will accept anything that happens to him. Masterly.’
The Chairman gave a hollow laugh. ‘There is always a downside. But, the fate of one cannot outweigh the need of the many.’
‘So, he will not be killed immediately, Sir?’ Winkworth asked.
Bango allowed his lips to stretch into a smile that almost matched his make-up. ‘Not until we know exactly how this device works and how it can be used to our advantage.’
‘You will go down in history as the chairman who took Morpheus to new levels Sir, new frontiers, an empire!’ Winkworth clapped his hands in delight.
‘But, of course, that will simply be a by-product of protecting our personal safety. This is purely about self-defence.’ Bango said pointedly.
‘As you say Sir.’ Winkworth bowed his head in deference as the smile returned to his boss’s face.
~~
‘You are an idiot! You were so close you could smell him, and you let him get away!’ The wolf’s ears flattened to the side of his head.
‘Mistress angry?’ He whined.
‘Angry? I wonder why? Here you are minus the thing I sent you to fetch? I thought even you could manage ‘fetch’!’ She raged.
The wolf cowered.
‘You’ll have to do it yourself. I am just too annoyed!’ She snapped as her arm extended, index finger pointing towards a newspaper. Reluctantly a hairy paw took the paper and thwacked it down across the wolf’s own nose.
He whimpered in confusion. ‘You say me come home; you promise me bone?’
‘I said no such thing you stupid animal, what makes you think you deserve anything? You were tricked. This woman, you say she was me, and there was a man with her?’
TBB emitted a low growl. ‘Two man, one, Bounty hunter, me know, Hawke.’
‘So, Ceun Hawke is after our prize as well, that is very interesting. And he had a polymorph with him? I can’t think of anyone who would take that risk.’ She rubbed her chin, ‘polymorphs out in the world without their paperwork. I wonder if he’s working officially.’
’Mittee find man, me take then?’ The wolf sat up, ears pricked, his tail flicked hopefully.
‘And how do you think are you going to do that, flea boy, after your resounding success today?’ She nodded towards the newspaper. With tail between his legs, the wolf smacked himself again. ‘No, we have to be clever, difficult for you, I know. They’re out in the open now. We just have to make sure we get to them first, when I say me of course I mean you.’
‘Yes, mistress.’ The wolf said miserably.
‘You have to try to understand what this means.’ She bent down so that her face was close to a furry ear. ‘They have to learn their lesson. They have to be trained. They are bad, and we know what happens to bad things, don’t we?’
The wolf swallowed nervously.
‘They are destroying everything they have. They need someone to take them in hand, show them the error of their ways, and I am that someone. All I need is…’
‘Will get man.’ The wolf growled.
His mistress turned away. ‘Just see that you do, now get out of my sight.’
~~
Anaya was trying to keep her patience, but it was becoming increasingly difficult.
Ceun squatted on the ground staring intently at a rock here or a mark there and then, discarding it as irrelevant, would move on to the next.
‘You have absolutely no idea what you’re looking at, do you?’ She said eventually.
‘I will know when I see it.’ He said, ‘But my concentration is not helped by your constant fidgeting in my peripheral vision.
‘Oh very cryptic, what are you expecting to find exactly, a big arrow and a message saying ‘he went thataway’?’ She said, her arms sweeping into a big arc off into the distance.
‘How many people have you ever tracked?’ He snapped, staring up at her.
Anaya just tapped her foot impatiently.
‘Well? How many?’ He insisted.
‘None.’ She muttered reluctantly.
‘As I thought so shut up or at least make yourself useful and look for some tracks.’
A while later as the polymorph was kicking sulkily at a shrub. Ceun suddenly called out. ‘There’s our arrow.’
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