9

Safari Joe crept silently through the half darkened halls. For some reason it brought back a memory of walking through his school when he was a child during one of the night activities, a concert or something, and there only being lights on in a few places. The rest was darkened and silent, his bare footfalls being the only sounds on the cold tile, and that was barely a shuffle. He had shirked his protective "armor" for lack of a better word, and was once again clothed comfortably in his tan breeches and coat-shirt.

As he skulked, he asked himself again why he was creeping around in the dead of night like some kind of bat, there was nothing solid to tell him that something was wrong, but all the same, there was. A hunter's instincts are nearly as finely tuned as they prey he stalks.

A noise in the hall... Safari Joe narrowed his eyes and turned around to see. Only a mouse. He chuckled a bit. The man he had met here seemed to be as avid a hunter as he, though not as good, and he had mice running around. It was then he hear a loud snap, echoing lightly in the empty corridor. The skittering of the tiny paws stopped short; maybe he did have that taken care of as well, he thought. For some reason the thought disturbed him.

Shaking off the thought, Joe made his way to where he remembered the office having been. He'd walked into a few other doors on the way, finding they'd been used for storage; storage of skins and stuffed animals. The real kind. Apparently, ol' Kairo Zarack had a skill for taxidermy, more skill than Joe in that particular aspect, but that was something the hunter would only admit to himself, and maybe not even then.

So, he was a hunter as well, not only that, but he seemed to be in the shipping business. Well that explained the security, and the location on this god-forsaken moon. The authorities wouldn't like Kairo too much, as most the creatures he had seen in there were illegal to hunt, and CONTROL could bust him good. He'd be the kind of guy Joe would hang around with had he not spooked him so much.

Ah, here was the office. The hunter opened the door onto a small kitchen. Okay, maybe not. Joe Gregor could find his way anywhere, on any moon, on any planet, if he was outside...even in the densest jungle, or the most barren desert with nary a landmark to go by; he could find north or south, or whatever passed for those directions on that particular world. But in a building he got turned around.

Grumbling in mild aggravation, he turned around again. The thought occurred to him that he might be on camera right now, but the further thought occurred that he didn't care, Kairo could jump into a quickpit so far as he was concerned.

After a few more mishaps, Joe stumbled upon the office and grinned wildly as he found it unlocked. Ahhh, files. Files could be such entertaining things, full of useful information.

An hour later he amended his thoughts: sometimes they were entertaining. Right now they held exactly no entertainment value for him, and about as useful at the moment. The hard copies were nothing but names and dates, and information on what he supposed were shipments. Safari Joe did sometimes sell his catches or his taxidermy work, but he did things a little differently in the way of paperwork. It wasn't really relevant, but it did make reading the files a little more difficult. But he managed. Kairo's name was all over the place, but he still found nothing that told him who he was. The name meant nothing.

Two hours later, he was frustrated, and his fingers were cramping up on him from shuffling through the folders. "Hell!" he spat softly as he put the last of the files away. He turned towards the computer.

Turning it on, his eyes squinted a little bit from the bright green glow of the flat holoscreen that quickly shifted into a more likable color of dark gray. Dull, but easy on the eyes.

"PASSWORD, PLEASE."

"Damn." He tried a word: "Hunt"

"ACCESS DENIED."

"Predator..." He spoke the word quietly aloud as he typed it in. He was never very good with computers; his workers, namely Kamata, dealt with most the computer and paperwork.

He tried a few more phrases:

"ACCESS DENIED."

"ACCESS DENIED."

"ACCESS DENIED."

Joe pounded the desk lightly in frustration. The password could be anything! Any combination of letters, even numbers! It could be the name of an old girlfriend, or the species he had first hunted, or the name of his college, for all he knew. He sighed and sat back in the chair.

Needless to say, he was badly startled to hear an amused voice at the doorway. "Having some difficulty, Mr. Gregor?"

Joe was on his feet in less than a second, sending the chair flying across the large office to skid into the fur covered wall. Angry he'd allowed this meek looking old man to sneak up on him, he angrily replied, "Don't call me that!" Then he looked at the computer. "I was just, uh..." Damn it all! Say something for Pete's sake!

Kairo chuckled. "All you had to do was ask." He gave his guest that infuriating grin and leaned over to punch in a few keys. Unfortunately, Joe could not tell what he had typed, as it had been too fast.

"Well, never mind. I'm going back to bed." The words were spoken in a slight rush, the rush of one trying to cover up embarrassment, or a similar emotion.

"Pleasant dreams." The man's cold gray eyes told Joe that he wished anything but.

"Right..." Safari Joe stalked out, muttering something derogatory about the man in another language.

Kairo Zarack smiled amusedly after him and chuckled as he shut off the monitor. He had seen the whole thing on the carefully hidden cameras and the monitors that he had in his own quarters, of course but he'd chosen to let the hunter find his way around. It was good for entertainment value, as well as let him know the man's weaknesses and strengths, his intelligence and his cunning. But he had not been able to resist walking in on him; he had been concentrating so hard on his password. A simple one, really, but one his guest would never guess: "Gregor".

***

Back on Safari Joe's resort planet, the days stretched on once more. The new captives found out what the others had already known: that the exhibits were not allowed to sleep in the day, not the sentient ones, and not the feral ones either, unless they were nocturnal. Usiko had argued that cats were nocturnal, and had gotten the good natured admonition from Kamata that he was also smart enough to be able to sleep when he was told to. By this time, Usiko and Ze'ev had been through enough training sessions that neither of them were willing to push it any farther.

Usiko was bored out of his mind. Once in a while Kamata was nice enough to give Usiko a book to read, but he was a fast reader, and they didn't last long. He'd finally taken to using the equipment in the cage to relieve some of his pent up frustration and emotions. He had planned on doing that anyway, at night when there were not many people around, but they had made it clear that if he wanted to sleep, he had to do it then. And so he swallowed his pride for now.

Ze'ev, as usual, was quiet and obedient. The human scum that ran the place was getting used the cub's inability to hear, but the meaner-tempered ones still usually smacked him for it. Fortunately, they had little contact with the captives.

After they had been there couple of weeks, and he had watched the young cub and seen the sadness in his eyes, Usiko couldn't stand it anymore. After a long time of haggling, he managed to convince Kamata to let him stay in the same cage with the hyena cub, at least for a little while. He had to talk to him, do something.

Ze'ev was looking curiously at him as Kamata let him in, two burly guards with her to assist if necessary. They needn't have bothered; Usiko didn't want to cause trouble.

As the fleeting though that he was getting used to being naked in front of everyone flashed through his mind, a disturbing thought somehow, the young Thunderian smiled at the Mutant child. "Hey," he said softly. There was no need to talk loudly; he couldn't hear him.

Keeping his eyes trained on the feline's lips, he crossed his arms over his skinny chest, looked down, and said, "Hi."

Usiko frowned, not sure how to start, but then approached the boy. "Hey, kid...Ze'ev..." He sat down next to the child and looked at him, trying to muster a friendly expression. "I hope you don't mind, I just wanted to talk a little bit, I got kind of lonely over there by myself." It was mostly truth, but also he hoped to set the boy more at ease by admitting that of himself. It seemed to work, a little.

The boy looked a little shyly at him. "I don't mind."

Usiko smiled. "Hey, you know you might want to try and talk quieter. Those jerks over there can probably hear." Now he only mouthed his words carefully, knowing the boy could understand where no one else could.

He was pleased when Ze'ev smiled a little. "Okay."

Usiko was a little surprised that he knew how to lower a voice. Had he been deaf from birth, he didn't suppose he would understand that concept. "Hey, have you always not been able to hear? Were you born deaf?" He spoke in a tone of gentle curiosity.

Ze'ev bit his lip, looked down, and shook his head.

"Oh? What happened?" Ze'ev didn't answer.

"Okay...how about your family? You have any brothers or sisters?"

Ze'ev looked down a little and blurted out, "I used to, now they're sold!" he burst into tears, the most emotion he'd seen on his face before then.

Usiko felt bad He hadn't meant to make him cry. "Hey...hey," he said in a soothing voice, although he realized it would have little effect. So he did the only other thing he could think of. He cautiously reached out to hug the boy.

Ze'ev accepted the comfort. Both had their backs turned to the crowd, and it was rainy, so there were few visitors. That was good, this shouldn't happen with an audience.

"Who...who sold them?" he asked when the boy looked at him next.

Ze'ev looked down, looking ashamed. "My parents."

This was said so low that even Usiko could barely hear it. "Your what?" He was glad the cub could not hear that outburst, and was looking away. The feline's anger at the boy's parents and the Mutants in general grew. He lifted the child's chin. "You too?" Ze'ev nodded, and Usiko drew him back into the embrace. No wonder he was so submissive.

They talked a while. Usiko's anger only grew when he found out how the boy had been deafened. It had been done on purpose by one of the many slavers on Plundaar. Ze'ev had been only six.

"Hey," he said to the cub. "Would you like for me to stay here with you from now on?"

Smiling a little, there was no hesitation when he nodded.

Usiko smiled back. "Good. I am sure they will let us." He looked down at the cub and did not even notice a child reaching up to pet his back as he leaned against the cage.

Part 8

Part 10

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