More Good News

                            By:

                         Fox Cutter

01/31/99:

"Wake up!" a surprisingly loud voice ordered, forcing me out
of a sound sleep.

I groaned, forcing my eyes open and glancing towards Oria,
she was already sitting up, modesty be damned, gun raised
and pointed towards the door. I was also starting to become
aware that the light was on. Glancing at my watch, I
grimaced when I saw it was early morning.

This was not a good thing to have happen. Rising into a
sitting position, I plucked my glasses from the nightstand,
and placed them on my nose.

Standing at the far side of the room, his arms crossed in
front of his chest, and an annoyed look on his face, was a
white tiger. He was familiar to me; we had meet only a month
before when he had escorted me to see one of the Guild
Elders.

Oria stared at him for a few more seconds, the fur on her
neck going down slightly as her ears rose from her hair. Her
face relaxed as well, her lips fell out of her growl, hiding
the points of her teeth. She then carefully turned the
safety back on the gun and set it on her night table.

"I'm sorry to wake you," the tiger said, in the same type of
tone one would use to ask for the time, "but you are needed,
Mister Cutter."

Oria let out a little gasp, pulling the sheet up from where
it had come to rest on her belly, to cover her chest. "What
does the Guild want with Fox?"

"Ma'am, you have made it clear you wish to no longer know
the business of the Guild," he spoke to her in a
condescending tone, "so it's not of your concern." He turned
his head slightly, focusing on me. "Now, please prepare
yourself, Mister Cutter, there is much to do."

She sat back against the headboard, letting out a little
huff as I addressed our visitor. "You just can't come in
here and start ordering us around!"

"Yes, he can," Oria said, placing a paw on my arm. "He is a
Crystal Master, I am an Apprentice. His ranking allows him
to order me to do nearly anything he wants, and since you
know of the Guild, that applies to you as well."

"Damn," I muttered, crossing my arms as I turned to address
the tiger. "Step out of the room for a minute, I'll get
dressed."

He gave me a sharp nod that was almost a salute, then turned
on the ball of his left foot, and silently walked out of the
room.

"Do you know who that is?" Oria asked, her voice hissing
slightly.

"No," I answered as I slid out of our bed. "But I know he
works for one of the Guild Elders, as a bodyguard I
suspect."

Oria slide out of the bed, walking over to me. "There are
only three Crystal Masters at any time. One for each Guild
Elder. They are not just bodyguards, they're personal
assassins. They are the direct representatives of the
Elders. Being summoned by one is a prelude to bad news."

I nodded, quickly getting dressed, "I understand the
implications, and I'm worried even more by them. I can think
of only a handful of reasons why I would be summoned in this
fashion. Half involve someone taking out a contract on me,
the other involve Cain."

She pressed herself against my back, her paws rubbing my
shoulders softly, her belly warm against my spine. "Be
careful, I can't be there to help you if anything goes
wrong."

Taking a hair-tie from the table, I pulled my hair back and
tied it there. I didn't have the time to try and braid it.
Turning around, I hugged her tightly, giving her a deep
kiss. She broke it first, pulling her face back a few inches
from mine. "Take your guns," she ordered.

I nodded, turning back around, and opening my dresser
drawer. Resting inside were three guns. The two large ones,
both kin to the standard Earth pistol, they went on my belt;
one in front, the other in back.

The third weapon, a small plasma projection gun, was put on
my ankle, It looked strange compared to the other two,
barely the size of my palm, and the grip was a single tight
curve that felt cumbersome in my hand. It was strong though,
it could shoot off half a dozen rounds of plasma without
much fuss. It was a good backup weapon.

Taking my jacket from where it was hanging, I pulled it on.
"I'll be back as soon as I can," I promised her.

She nodded, looking slightly sad, her tail drooping low, the
tuff almost touching the ground behind her. "I know you will
be," she said, but it sounded forced.

Walking closer, I placed my hands on her shoulders, then
bending forward I kissed her nosepad. "Don't worry any more
than you have to, I'll be fine."

She nodded again, her ears twitching; I couldn't quite read
the emotion on her face, it was something akin to relief,
mixed with worry.

Giving her my best smile, I kissed her one more time, then I
left the room. The tiger was waiting outside the door,
standing in the hallway, his eyes locking on me as soon as I
closed the door.

"Where to?" I asked.

"Praxis," he said, "We will be taking your fold."

I nodded, turning as I did so to start walking down the
hallway. "I've never used a fold in that town. I can't
directly open a portal."

"Don't worry about trivial details," he answered, walking
next to me, moving just as silently as before, like a heavy
wisps of air. His paces were measured, well timed, almost
stiff in their precision. I suspected that he had once been
in the military, probably in one of the elite groups.

As we walked down the hallway, I tried to remember what I
knew about Praxis. The name was familiar, but I couldn't
place it right off. It was a small town in Prid's southern
hemisphere; a minor spaceport, not very many folds that I
was aware of, or many businesses that dealt outside of the
city.

Except for one, the 'Data and Troubleshooting Services of
Kenterra', Elena's company.

If that guess was right, things could be even worse than I
imagined. I knew Elena and the Guild were working together
to try and track down my double, AKA Cain.

Sie thought it was funny, quipping, "this is certainly a
novel way of committing suicide. It's even more unusual for
the killer to hire me to stop him from killing the target,"
once I had explained what I wanted hir to do.

I slipped from my thoughts as we arrived at the room where
the fold resided. The tiger was in the room almost before I
had the door open, tapping commands into a small bracelet
around his right wrist that had previously been hidden by
his shirt.

There was a slight pause as the air rippled, and the fabric
of the universe puckered, then tore open. The portal shot up
so fast that I almost didn't feel it; and when I felt it
with my powers I could tell that it was completely cold. No
one would be able to simply follow us from this fold to
where we stepped out the other side.

A portal controller made to do that to a fold was illegal in
every place that knew how to use the multi-verse. Then
again, my escort worked for the Assassins Guild; legality
wasn't something they were too worried about.

We both stepped through, coming out on an empty street
corner. There was a square of ropes around where we stood,
sectioning it off from the rest of the sidewalk. Which made
sense when a fold was commonly used, it kept people from
getting hurt.

Snapping the fold closed, the tiger stepped over the ropes
and started walking along the sidewalk, though it was more
of a stunted jog. It was still predawn; the only light was
provided from one of the twin suns, just barely under the
horizon

After only a few seconds, it became clear that he wasn't
going to be slowing down for me. So instead I sped up,
matching his short jog. Once I was even with him, he started
to move faster, finally breaking into a brisk run down the
street. I followed a few feet behind, doing my best to keep
up.

After five minutes at this pace, we turned a corner, and
came to the front of Elena's offices. We walked over the
well keep lawn, through the front doors, and past an
exceedingly well armed guard. Inside the lobby both the
Guild Elder I had met in the market and Elena were waiting.

The Elder, a human who look almost sixty years old, came to
me first. "I'm glad you could come on such short notice,
Mister Cutter. Something has happened."

"I gathered as much," I told him, glancing over to Elena.
Sie was in hir foxtaur form, bringing hir normally short
stature to be at eye level with me. Sie looked nervous,
glancing around the room with hir eyes as sie flexed hir
claws in and out at an almost rhythmic pace.

"I assume this is about Cain?" I said, bringing the more
pressing problem to the forefront of this conversation.

"Your assumption is correct," the Elder answered, "but it's
not my job to explain to you what has transpired. That I
leave to Elena."

Sie seemed slightly startled to be addressed, but instantly
recovered. "About fifteen minutes ago, a letter was
delivered to my office," sie explained, one of hir forepaws
digging at the tile floor. "You should see it right away.
Come with me."

Sie started forward, leading me, the Guild Elder, and the
tiger past the reception desk, and down the hallway. A few
people were working at this time of day, all of them had the
same worried expressions on their faces. Every ten feet
another guard stood, looking ready to shoot the first thing
they didn't like.

This was very bad. Anything that freaked out Elena to this
extent could be nothing less than... I couldn't think of
anything it couldn't be worse than. This was just not good.

As we approached the door to Elena's office, sie seemed to
hesitate just slightly, almost like she tripped over hir own
feet. It didn't last more than a second, even then I think I
was the only one who noticed it.

Stopping outside of hir door, Elena took a pair of long,
deep, breaths. "This is it," sie said quietly, before
reaching over and pushing the door open with one paw.

Stepping inside hir office, I looked around. Instantly I saw
the note sie had mentioned, and exactly how it was
delivered. It was hanging from the hilt of a knife, which
had been forced through the mouth of a raccoon morph. The
dead man's feet were hanging three feet in the air-- he was
being held up by the knife.

The rest of his body was a mess. It looked as if his tail
had been skinned, and his flesh slashed though and torn
apart. His paws were mutilated, each one ending in a bloody
stump, he had also been very messily neutered.

From the looks of the blood on the wall, and the way it was
streaked, this man had been alive when he was hung.

Turning around, I very calmly walked out of the office,
though when asked, everyone around me said I had bolted. I
went to one of the empty cubicles near the wall, picked up
the garbage can, and promptly emptied the contents of my
stomach

Once I was done, I found a glass of water shoved into my
face, held in a tiger's paw. Taking it from him, I rinsed my
mouth out, then drank the rest of it down.

I returned to the rest of the group, wiping my mouth clean
as I did so. "Sorry about that," I told them, "that's not
the kind of thing I take well in real life."

"It's all right," the Elder said, placing his hand on my
shoulder. "I did the same thing the first time I saw a
mutilated body. I know it's not pretty, but you just have to
keep it in."

I nodded. "So what did the note say?" I asked.

Elena shook hir head. "I'm not finished. That's just what I
found, and I gather from your reaction that you understand
he was alive when he was put up there."

I nodded.

Sie twisted hir ears, glancing back into the room. "Ethian
was my best man. He could find information that anyone else
wouldn't even suspect existed. I put him on Cain, in hopes
he would come up with something more than just shadows."

Anger was starting to creep into hir voice, though it was a
look of disgust that covered hir face. "I last heard from
him a week ago. He told me that he had some new information
on Cain, and would be getting it to me as soon as he could."

"Then you came to work and found him there," I muttered,
rubbing my forehead. I was starting to get a headache.

Sie let out a mutated, and almost painful, laugh. "I don't
come to work Fox, this is my home. I stepped out of my
office to talk to one of my staff. Most of my rump was still
inside the room. I had my back turned for no more than three
quarters of a minute, when I turned around I found him.
Still alive... I had the pleasure of watching him as he
died." A shiver cascaded down hir body, starting at hir
shoulders, and moving down hir back to hir tail, each of hir
massive feet twitched as it passed over them.

"This is bad," I muttered, quoting Bob, "This is very bad."

"We haven't heard from our agent in almost the same length
of time," the Elder said in a hushed, and worried voice.
"She wasn't as far a long as Ethian had gotten, but she was
following a different trail."

I shook my head. "I don't suppose you had the luck to get
who ever put him up there on your surveillance?"

Sie let out a grunt of anger. "No, but the building has been
locked down, all exits guarded, and we're doing a room by
room search." Sie rubbed the base of hir ears. "I don't
think we'll find whoever did this."

Looking around, I found a chair from another cubical and sat
down. "So what did the note say."

"To leave him alone," the Elder said, following my example
and finding his own seat. Elena just lay down, folding hir
legs under hirself. The tiger stood as still as stone,
watching over us.

"Not so simply, I suspect."

He nodded. "He made it very clear that we are not to try and
track him down again. When our man checks in, I'm going to
call her back. I do not wish to risk any more lives on this
hunt."

"I understand," I said, but I didn't like it. "Though you
didn't have to bring me here just to tell me this."

"You had to see what he did," Elena told me, hir ears
twitching slightly. "Someday you will meet this man, and you
have to know what he is capable of doing to other people."

'And what I maybe capable of,' I thought to myself.

Pulling myself to my feet, I shook my head. "I'm sorry, I
have to go back home. I'm sorry for what happened here,"

"It's not your fault," Elena said.

"That's not the point," I responded. "You both have done the
best you can to find out about this man. So if now is the
time to stop, now is that time. Talk to each other, put
together what little you have, and send me a copy."

Both the Guild Elder and Elena nodded at the same time. I
didn't give them any time to respond further than that, as I
turned around and started walking down the hallway. No calls
came, and I felt no one grabbing me to stop me from going.
That was good.

Stepping outside of the building, I took in a deep breath.
The first sun had crested the horizon, casting a pale light
over the early morning dew on the grass. I just didn't know
what to do about this Cain. He's tried to kill me, and I
suspected he would try again. I just wished I knew what he
wanted.

That was a question which I was almost loathed to find the
answer to.

Balling my hands into fists, I stuffed them into my jacket
pockets and started walking back towards the fold. I would
make it home earlier than I had expected, but I was happy
about that. Right now I just wanted to spend some time with
Oria.

Halfway there I ran into someone, hitting my shoulder
against his. I hadn't been looking where I was going, and
apologized as I went along.

I felt whoever it was grab my shoulder hard, fingers digging
into my skin. Suddenly I was forced back against the wall of
the building behind me, a hand digging into my side, and an
arm pressed across my neck.

It was then that I saw the face of the man I had collided
with. A twisted and leering parody of my own. Cain! The hair
was different, he didn't wear glasses, and there was a long
scar down the left side of his face, running from his ear to
the corner of his mouth, pulling it back into a sneer.

"So there you are," I muttered, short of breath.

He laughed. "Yes, here I am," his voice was different,
deeper, rougher. It sounded like he had some damage to his
vocal cords at some point in time. Something which I didn't
doubt at all.

"What the fuck do you want?" I managed to ask.

He pressed his arm harder aging my neck, smiling wider then
before. "That is a very dangerous question my doppelganger.
Are you sure you wish to discover the answer?"

I nodded grimly.

"Tonight, I'm just here to see that my message was
understood," he laughed softly. "I'm sure that it was. As
for what I want? Simple, I want you."

Stepping away from me, he let me fall to the ground. "Not
yet though, and not like this. I have... better plans." Then
he turned, and started to run.

I did the only thing I could think of doing, I pulled out
one of my guns, and shot at him. I off only got three shots
before he vanished around the corner. Pulling myself to my
feet, I started to run after him. I only managed to get
halfway to the corner he vanished behind before I was
stopped.

Spinning around to see who had prevented my chase, I found
myself looking at the tiger's chest. He glared down at me,
then at the gun that was still in my hand.

"Why did you stop me?" I demanded. "Cain was running that
way."

"And you surely were running into a trap," the Guild Elder
yelled, coming up behind the tiger. Elena was at his side,
and both were gasping for breath.

I swore, putting the safety back on my gun and returning it
to it's holster. The tiger stepped away as I did so. The
Elder was right, it could have been a trap of some kind...
or maybe not; it was to late to find out.

"Did he tell you anything?" Elena asked, taking a slight
step forward.

I started to rub my neck where my double had been crushing
it. "Not much, he did say that he wanted me. For what, I
don't want to know. It makes me worry."

The Elder bit his lip, a look of concern glossing over his
eyes. "Damn it, this isn't good. We need to keep you
protected from this son of a bitch. Ravindar," the tiger
seemed to snap to attention, "I'm assigning you to Fox until
further notice."

The tiger's face suddenly showed a rush of emotion. "Sir,
that will leave you defenseless!"

"I'm well aware of that," the human answered, glaring up to
the tiger. "It won't last long. I think we can do with a
fourth Crystal Master for the time being. Now go with Fox,
do you understand?"

He lowered his head, his ear sinking into his fur, "I
understand."

"Good." He turned to me, "Fox, Ravindar is a very good
bodyguard, he's saved my life more times then I care to
admit. He will watch over you."

"What about my family?"

"They will be watched as well," he said, folding his arms
behind his back. "In half a day we will know every single
thing you and your family do. You won't even know we're
there."

I nodding, rubbing my chin. "Thank you, I think."

"Now is not the time for thanks," he told me. "Go home, get
some rest, take the day off. That's an order."

I nodded again. "Yes sir."

With that said, the Elder and Elena started to confer with
each other as they began to walk back to the office
building.

Ravindar looked down at me, a frown on his face. "You must
be very important," he commented in a tired voice.

I shrugged. "Only to people I don't want to deal with."

He let loose a sharp and rolling laugh. "I like you, Fox."

I was very relived. "That can only help."

-----

This story is (c) 1999 by Fox Cutter, hardcopy reprints
limited to one a person, all other rights reserved. This
story may not be distributed for a fee except by permission
of the author, and this copyright notice may not be removed.
Elena is (c) 1999 by Chris Bradford.