The greatest risk we run is discovery by the sewage workers. They'd report their amazing find to the powers that be at once, and the powers that be would feel obliged to carry out a rigorous cleansing operation. We eat rats; luckily humans haven't found any foolproof way of exterminating rats yet. Hunting them is quite dangerous and sometimes leads to bloodshed, because they've grown abnormally large and heavy in the Promised Land of the sewers. But all things considered we can feel quite pleased with the success of our mission - or we could if sinister shadows from the past hadn't surfaced a little while back ...'
'Shadows from the past?' I said, surprised. This whole story had sounded like the last word in horror: could there be worse to come?
'That's what you could call them,' Saffron growled, taking up the tale. The column of greyish backs and expectantly raised tails winding on ahead of us curved round to the right.
'There was only one shadow really. But of course the past is interesting mainly as it affects the present. I believe you encountered something strange soon after entering our territory, Francis.'
'One corpse, drowned. Probably European Shorthair. Head severed from neck and no longer present. Numerous very large bite-marks on the body. Had probably been in the water for several days, hence the extremely bloated appearance of the body. Is to be assumed that the killing was not preceded by a fight of the sort usual among us with its rituals of challenge and defence; killer did not employ the customary neck-bite. Conclusion: victim must have been in a state of shock at the time, rendering him unable to defend himself and making things easy for the murderer. The extent of the brutality can hardly be explained any other way.'
I thought, with some pride, that no expert in forensic medicine could have put the salient points better. Saffron and Niger seemed impressed by my lightning analysis too, and momentarily slowed down. However, the big boss wasn't going to show his respect for my little grey cells openly. He wouldn't want anyone encroaching on his own authority. So he just looked impassive.
'We guessed it was something like that,' he said gruffly, following up his remark with a mock yawn. 'However, you weren't to know that this was the fifteenth or twentieth corpse to have paid us a visit to date.'
Dread descended on me like black folds of mourning tulle. I thought I was going to stumble, because the horror of it temporarily made me lose my balance. Good God, what monster was working at this frenzied rate to prove his skill in butchery? What could the motive be? Sheer love of violence? Hunger? Madness?
'The twentieth corpse?' I murmured incredulously. Something inside me refused to believe the inconceivable.
'Or maybe the thirtieth. We stopped counting the mutilated bodies after a while.' Saffron was gradually forgetting to play the authority game; he sounded genuinely upset. His expression and the thoughtful way he walked showed that these incidents got right under his fur. In fact he was very worried indeed.
'Because of our living conditions here, we can't help swimming in the sewers now and then. I know humans think we avoid ordinary water the way the devil avoids the holy variety, but that's not true of all of us - much of it's based on superstition, and practice can make anyone a good swimmer. Anyway, recently we've found that when we go into the water we're more and more likely to find one of these mutilated corpses floating into our paws. We believe the murders are committed somewhere in the forest outside the city, because we quite often find pine needles stuck in the victims' wounds. There are some streams and ditches there which run straight into the sewage system. And the nearby farms have drainage feeding into the system too. So it's possible the murder victims were brothers and sisters of ours living with farmers in the country.'
'And you want me to go out into the world and discover who
'Shadows from the past?' I said, surprised. This whole story had sounded like the last word in horror: could there be worse to come?
'That's what you could call them,' Saffron growled, taking up the tale. The column of greyish backs and expectantly raised tails winding on ahead of us curved round to the right.
'There was only one shadow really. But of course the past is interesting mainly as it affects the present. I believe you encountered something strange soon after entering our territory, Francis.'
'One corpse, drowned. Probably European Shorthair. Head severed from neck and no longer present. Numerous very large bite-marks on the body. Had probably been in the water for several days, hence the extremely bloated appearance of the body. Is to be assumed that the killing was not preceded by a fight of the sort usual among us with its rituals of challenge and defence; killer did not employ the customary neck-bite. Conclusion: victim must have been in a state of shock at the time, rendering him unable to defend himself and making things easy for the murderer. The extent of the brutality can hardly be explained any other way.'
I thought, with some pride, that no expert in forensic medicine could have put the salient points better. Saffron and Niger seemed impressed by my lightning analysis too, and momentarily slowed down. However, the big boss wasn't going to show his respect for my little grey cells openly. He wouldn't want anyone encroaching on his own authority. So he just looked impassive.
'We guessed it was something like that,' he said gruffly, following up his remark with a mock yawn. 'However, you weren't to know that this was the fifteenth or twentieth corpse to have paid us a visit to date.'
Dread descended on me like black folds of mourning tulle. I thought I was going to stumble, because the horror of it temporarily made me lose my balance. Good God, what monster was working at this frenzied rate to prove his skill in butchery? What could the motive be? Sheer love of violence? Hunger? Madness?
'The twentieth corpse?' I murmured incredulously. Something inside me refused to believe the inconceivable.
'Or maybe the thirtieth. We stopped counting the mutilated bodies after a while.' Saffron was gradually forgetting to play the authority game; he sounded genuinely upset. His expression and the thoughtful way he walked showed that these incidents got right under his fur. In fact he was very worried indeed.
'Because of our living conditions here, we can't help swimming in the sewers now and then. I know humans think we avoid ordinary water the way the devil avoids the holy variety, but that's not true of all of us - much of it's based on superstition, and practice can make anyone a good swimmer. Anyway, recently we've found that when we go into the water we're more and more likely to find one of these mutilated corpses floating into our paws. We believe the murders are committed somewhere in the forest outside the city, because we quite often find pine needles stuck in the victims' wounds. There are some streams and ditches there which run straight into the sewage system. And the nearby farms have drainage feeding into the system too. So it's possible the murder victims were brothers and sisters of ours living with farmers in the country.'
'And you want me to go out into the world and discover who
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