Wild Dog City (Darkeye Volume 1) (16 page)

"I don't think he'd leave Kebero like that,
you know he's fond of him," Mhumhi said quickly.

"True. Not that I'd be sorry to see the
fluffy back of him." Sacha snorted. "You two had better not go
running off on any more excursions today, by the way. The police
are out in force. In fact, why don't the two of you come with me?"
Her little eyes suddenly took on a glitter. "I've been
investigating something around Oldtown anyway."

"What have you been investigating?" Mhumhi
asked, wagging his tail a little. "Found any more sources of
meat?"

"If only. No, I've been looking into our
neighbors," said Sacha. "The little foxes have been muttering away,
you know. They're less pleased about this whole situation than we
are. They're the ones getting the chewed end of the stick, and they
know it."

"It is strange how they took so many to eat
down here," said Kutta. "It's a long walk from Center Road, isn't
it? To go both ways in one day?"

"It is," said Sacha. "Which is exactly why
they aren't doing it, or so I've heard. I wasn't sure until that
dumb brute said it earlier, but the little foxes were saying last
night that a dispensary had closed down and that the police were
going to shift all of them here during the day."

"Shift them here?" Mhumhi repeated,
dumbstruck.

"How?" demanded Kutta. "How many dogs is
that…? Is it
all
of them? Where are they going to stay?"

"I don't know if they're splitting them up,
like they did with the Zoo Park dogs- some of them did go to the
other side, to the South Big Park dispensary, you know, so we don't
have all of the stupid deadweights down here. But the foxes say
that they're just going to evict everyone from the houses nearest
the dispensary and just put them there."

"That's-!" Kutta seemed at a loss for words.
"I can't believe they'd do that! How do they think they'll get away
with it?"

"Center Street is a big, rough lot," said
Sacha. "I imagine they'll do it quite easily. At least at
first."

"What do you mean, at first?" Mhumhi asked.
Sacha grunted.

"Let's go have a look. I'll show the two of
you. Kutta, fetch Kebero."

"Now?!"

"He's going to go out tonight anyway, so we
might as well take him for a practice stretch. It might be safer
for him outside the house today." Sacha turned and put her nose
against the crack underneath the door again. "We can sneak him out
when no one's around."

Kutta gave Mhumhi a bewildered look, then
trotted up the stairs. Sacha sat by the door and growled softly to
herself.

"That stinking Bii had better be back by
tonight…"

"Sacha," said Mhumhi, rather timidly, coming
to stand next to her. "Kutta and I- we've got something we need to
tell you."

Sacha sat down and turned her head back,
giving him the full benefit of her little bear's face over her
shoulder. "You're going to include me in your little secret
now?"

"Well- I- we- yes," Mhumhi stammered, tucking
his tail. "I'm sorry, Sacha."

"It's all right," said Sacha, turning back
away. "I'm fairly certain it was mostly Kutta's fault."

Mhumhi felt that it might have been
appropriate for him to jump to his sister's defense, but then again
Sacha was absolutely correct.

"Can your secret wait until later?" Sacha
glanced back at him today. "I'd rather pry it out of Kutta myself
anyway, and I don't want to get into a squabble right now.
Especially not in front of Kebero."

"I guess," said Mhumhi, feeling rather guilty
for the eventual browbeating that Kutta was going to receive, and
also wondering if he couldn't spirit himself away before it
happened.

Kutta returned then, trotting down the stairs
with Kebero in tow. He pushed ahead of her and fell into a
play-bow, wagging eagerly.

"Are we going outside? Am I going too?"

"The only little puppies who get to come
outside are the
quiet
ones," said Sacha. "The loud and
disobedient ones go straight back inside. Understand?"

Kebero yapped and ran up to whine and lick
under her chin. Mhumhi swooped in from the other side and did the
same, nearly lifting Sacha off her feet with one overeager nudge of
his nose. Kutta half-lunged as if she meant to do it too, but then
pulled herself back, perhaps taking pity on her oldest and littlest
sister, who was squalling and squirming in outrage.

They got themselves sorted out, finally, and
Kebero positioned in the line between Sacha and Kutta so he could
be under the sharpest scrutiny the whole time. Mhumhi was rather
amused by this, as it meant that they had inadvertently organized
themselves from smallest to largest. So much for not drawing
attention to themselves; they'd make the strangest train Oldtown
had ever seen.

"Come on," Sacha said, her nose pressed to
the door. "There aren't any police just now. Follow me, and be
quick."

She nudged the door open with her nose and
paw and they did so, all single file. Kebero was a mess of floppy
limbs and excitement, and Kutta kept having to gently tug his tail
to keep him in line, but at least the only ones around were their
neighbor foxes. They didn't spare them more than a glance or two.
It seemed the mood of the neighborhood was rather low.

Sacha hugged the line of buildings, leading
them through a narrow alley with cobblestones down onto Food Strip
Street, and then down even farther south towards where the city
started to get really faded and dusty. Mhumhi noticed that there
were more foxes in the area than he was accustomed to seeing;
perhaps Sacha was right, and they were already starting to be
pushed out of their homes.

Sacha led them across the street to a large
squat building with a faded blue awning. Mhumhi saw that the bottom
pane of glass in the door had been broken. It smelled like there
were a great number of dogs inside.

Sacha went purposefully towards the opening
in the glass, but before she reached it a large red fox emerged
from a turned-over trashcan that had been lying under the awning.
Mhumhi could see more movement within.

The fox was walking towards them somewhat
stiffly, but then she spotted Sacha and her bushy tail wagged.

"You brought your pack this time, did
you?"

"I said I would," said Sacha. She glanced
back at the rest of them. "This is Lisica. If you're polite to her,
she may let us in."

"Oh, small-ears, I'd let you in anyway," said
Lisica, and then she gave a huge yawn, showing all her teeth.
"Pardon me. The rabble has kept me up all night with their barking
and head-butting, I'm afraid."

"Is it about the Center Road dogs?" asked
Kutta, and Lisica gave her a startled glance.

"Oh, some of it is," she said, with a short
laugh. "But that's the shed fur of a much larger beast. Speaking of
which…" She looked at Mhumhi, sniffing in his direction. "Better
keep your head down in there, Dapples."

"You've got nothing to worry about with
Mhumhi," Sacha said, stepping forward a little, as if she could
shield him from view. "He's not police."

"I know that," said Lisica. "Just… don't talk
in there, big fellow, all right? It'll be better off for you."

She went back into the trash can. Mhumhi
could hear soft yipping and rustling from the darkened interior. A
bright-eyed fox puppy peeped out at them for a moment before
vanishing back inside.

Sacha redirected their attention with a grunt
and carefully stepped through the broken glass into the shop. Kutta
picked up Kebero by his scruff and squeezed after her, the puppy's
dangling legs just brushing the lower edge. Mhumhi went last,
sucking in his belly as he stepped through.

Inside the shop it was very dim and smelly,
and crowded with growling, whining, yapping little dogs. There were
a great number of booths and tables, as well as a long counter, and
the dogs covered these and the floor in a confusing mass of
shifting furry forms, leaping up and down from surfaces, getting
into minor squabbles, searching for family members that had gotten
separated into the mix.

Sacha lead them to a booth with dark leather
seats. There was a pair of chillas already sitting on top of the
table alongside a crab-eating fox, but they gave Mhumhi a startled
look and hastily hopped down, one after the other. The crab-eating
fox looked uncomfortable, but stayed, shifting aside to make room
as Sacha hopped up onto the booth and then on the table. Kebero
followed her, getting a bit of assistance from Kutta as his clumsy
paws slipped on the leather.

Kutta hopped into the booth and placed her
forepaws up on the table, tail wagging. Mhumhi jumped onto the
table and bumped his head against a low-hanging lamp with a
stained-glass shade. The thing swung wildly for a moment, casting
colored shadows every which way. The noise faded in their little
area as dozens of small faces turned around to stare. Mhumhi backed
back into the booth and tried to make himself look like a fox.

The stares receded when Lisica entered, along
with a male fox and three puppies. Mhumhi surmised that they'd all
been crammed into the trash can together. Behind Lisica there
walked a female golden jackal.

Sacha gave a soft growl of surprise and
looked back at Mhumhi from her seat on the table. Mhumhi sunk
further down into the leather seat, resting his chin on the wood.
It was the jackal he'd stopped from fighting with the blue-eyed
domestic.

The jackal herself was panting, flicking her
gaze around the great mass of foxes; it did not seem to fall on
their table in the back.

Lisica jumped up onto the high counter and
then again to sit upon a derelict soda fountain, affording herself
the highest vantage point, and gave a screaming bark for
silence.

"I've brought Sundu here to speak to you
tonight," she said, looking down at the jackal- a large space had
cleared around her on the floor. "But first, I'll tell you the
news: we've now got a few hundred squatters by the front of
Oldtown. I'll tell you the streets…" She listed them, and the
growling and muttering got louder with each name.

"Piss in their water supply!" shouted
someone, and a heavy-headed short-eared dog leapt up onto the table
alongside Sacha. "We ought to drive off the scum!"

The others around her roused in a brief
rabble of yaps and growls of agreement until Lisica gave her
chilling bark again.

"Be quiet for a minute. We still need to hear
from Sundu. This relates to our primary concern." Lisica's sharp
eyes scanned the crowd. Mhumhi thought they lingered on their
table, but perhaps it was to admonish the short-eared dog, who was
panting and smiling.

"I see that some of you haven't been here
before," Lisica went on. "But I'm sure you've been hearing that
there have been disappearances lately. Mostly puppies and young
dogs."

The crowd got quieter at this. Mhumhi saw
Lisica's mate nosing at their three pups.

"There's been no help from police, but of
course, we're used to that," said Lisica, to the murmured agreement
of the crowd. "But now we have evidence that these thieves and
murderers aren't just attacking the smaller dogs and the foxes.
Sundu, tell the others what you have to say, please."

Lisica jumped down from the soda fountain,
and Sundu the golden jackal cast around a bit before leaping up
onto a nearby table.

"I don't come from Oldtown," she growled. "I
come from the far edge of Brick-and-Iron, which is on the other
side of your dispensary here. That neighborhood's mostly jackals
and coyotes and red wolves. We don't mix around with any of your
fox business." She hesitated. "What I mean to say was, it was never
any of my concern, or my partner's. I had heard a few rumors about
disappearances, but never much cared for them- we had a litter of
pups."

She paused a moment.

"I came back from the dispensary one morning,
back to our home. The door was open and I could see my partner
there. Well- I- I won't jump around it. She was dead. Not just
dead. Most of her was gone. Just her- her head, bits of her pelt,
some bones…"

Sundu trailed off. Mhumhi could smell the
scent of fear rising in the room. He looked worriedly over at
Kebero, but the puppy had fallen asleep curled up beside Sacha. He
noticed that Sacha had put one paw on him.

"There was no other way to look at it," said
Sundu. "There were toothmarks on her bones. Something had eaten
her. She was a full-grown jackal, like me. Would take a large dog
to pull her down like that…"

"A dog?" That was the short-eared dog again.
"D'you know for sure it was a dog? What about one of them- you
know- hulkers?"

"No," said Sundu. "No flat tooth made those
marks. And a hulker always takes away what it kills. This… whatever
it was…
who
ever it was… it ate her up right there."

"You said you had puppies," called someone
else from the crowd. "What about them?"

Lisica spoke up. "Sundu has asked that we not
discuss the puppies."

A brief blanket of silence fell over the
crowd. Mhumhi saw all their staring eyes, wide and frightened,
showing white.

"We have," Lisica said, after a moment, "what
seems to be a dog- likely several dogs- that have been going around
killing and eating other dogs. Again, the police do nothing. I know
it's been put forth by several that the killers are in fact the
police-"

"Muck-coated killers!" bawled out the
short-eared dog. Lisica ignored her.

"-and there are some who think it's been done
by the domestics. Which brings us to today. The police are hunting
out all domestics in this part of the city. I don't know about
others, but it seems likely that it'll start happening
everywhere."

"Finally," growled Sundu. There were a few
murmurs of agreement, though there were also several derisive
hisses.