42. Kitty cat

 

"My pet is a Kotrvayk, Mr. Zacharias. Do you know the kind? They are most impressive." Sygra stepped outside. "I named her Kernak."

Daniel was not prepared for the animal that was waiting for him. Impressive was a word he agreed on. Scary would do also.

On a small patio, just a few steps from the door, lay an animal the size of a lioness. It was covered in red hair, like a fox's. Its head was large and round. As Sygra came in its view, the Kotrvayk got up and slowly walked over to him, giving Daniel a good look of its immense, Komodo-dragon like tail.

Sygra scratched the giant animal behind the ears. "Hello beautiful, have you been good so far?"

The low rumble that came from the animal sounded frightening, but Sygra did not seem to have a problem with it.

"Look here, this is a new friend," Sygra said as if he was talking to a kitten, "this is Mr. Zacharias. If he comes here, that's good, Kernak. Mr. Zacharias is a friend."

Large yellow eyes took Daniel in. Then slowly Kernak walked over to him and gently nudged him with her big head. The gentle push conveyed an enormous strength.

"She seems to like you already, Mr. Zacharias. Feel free to play with her," Sygra said, looking sincerely pleased.

Playing was a bit steep for Daniel, so far, but he did reach out and gently patted the large beast on the head. Kernak's head reached up to his hip. As he stroked the massive head, he was surprised to see how calm the Kotrvayk was. Kernak closed her eyes and gave Daniel all the time to pet her. Her low rumbles were encouraging.

"Kernak likes you, Mr. Zacharias." Sygra's gentle voice pulled Daniel from the reverie of being friendly with such an immense animal.

"Can you tell?" Daniel asked, his hand still in the hairs of Kernak.

"Yes. That is easy. If a Kotrvayk likes someone it will release a special scent. It makes you feel good. It is easy to see that you feel good. She did that."

Daniel stared at the red-haired animal and shook his head. "Miraculous." To himself he grinned as he thought of the poodle that Malcolm had bought for his daughters. Little brother, you should see what kind of animal I am standing next to. She likes me, and not for breakfast.

"Shall we walk, Mr. Zacharias, or do you want to spend some more time with Kernak?" Sygra asked, not hurried at all.

Daniel tore himself loose from the Kotrvayk and joined the senator. Kernak calmly trotted along behind them.

"I believe, Mr. Zacharias, that you were about to mention something about your weaknesses," the senator said with a smile.

Daniel became careful and attentive again. Why did this man bring this up now? "We all have them, as you said, sir, and some people tend to talk about them whereas others just want to keep their weaknesses to themselves."

"Do you know, Mr. Zacharias, that this is a weakness in itself?"

Daniel tried to work that out but decided to attempt that later. First thing he was here for was the daughter of Clelem and Ugidra. "I am sure it is, sir, but I am not sure that finding out my weaknesses will help me to find... Rayko back."

Sygra looked at him. "Very good. I am sure she would be delighted to hear you talk like this."

Daniel seriously doubted that. He also was certain he'd never mention anything like weaknesses in her presence.

"It is one of the core values of the Litany of Nahmyo," Sygra explained. "When you are in touch with your weaknesses, you can anticipate them, and protect them a lot better, or even dissolve them. Use them to your advantage too, at times. And you can be more in synchronisation with the planet itself then."

Daniel nodded politely and looked around. He found that he was completely lost in what had appeared to be just a modest garden. Kernak had disappeared, as had his understanding of where the walk and the talk were going.

"You see, Mr. Zacharias," the senator continued, "I have turned a weakness into a strength."

"With your art collection?" Daniel tried.

"No, my dear friend. It is with drugs."

Daniel almost stumbled over his feet upon hearing that. So it was true... "In what respect do you mean that, sir? I mean, this is quite a revelation. Do you... uhm... use drugs?"

Sygra laughed. "Oh no, Mr. Zacharias. Far from, far from, I vow to you. I have, unfortunately, a brother who's weakness is drugs in that way. I am strongly opposed to them, and I have made it known that I will fight anything related to drugs because someone in my family is suffering from them. And suffering it is, Mr. Zacharias." Sygra's laughter disappeared as he said the words.

Daniel knew. "I have seen soldiers, good men, go down because of TSD, Rood, name them. I hate the stuff with a vengeance, sir."

The senator nodded. "Make everyone know this. They will know you for it. And fear you for it." Then, fully unexpected, Sygra reached out and heavily leaned on Daniel's arm.

Daniel felt the man falter and grabbed him under the arm. "Sir, are you okay?"

It took Sygra a while before he could respond. "I must go back inside, if you would be so kind, Mr. Zacharias." Leaning on Daniel, he made it back to the door. Kernak was lying near to it and watched interestedly as Daniel supported her boss into the house. Sygra lay down on a couch and seemed to pass out immediately. He looked the same way as when Daniel had seen him lying on the couch at Clelem's, during the soirée.

Sygra's servant seemed to sense what was going on, he came almost running and checked on his employer. "He will be fine, sir, thank you for assisting him inside. The senator suffers from a serious blood illness that at times makes him faint. Lying down will make him well again soon."

Daniel looked at the thin man who lay there with eyes closed and lips slightly apart. Weaknesses, he thought. "I think I should leave now," he said to the servant. "Please, would you thank the senator for his time and for introducing me to Kernak."

The servant nodded. "I will, sir. And it is a good sign that the beastie likes you."

"How do you know Kernak likes me?" Daniel asked. He was surprised by the certainty in the servant's words.

The servant smiled. "If Kernak did not like you, sir, you would not have been strolling through the garden with the senator. Please allow me to show you out."

-=-=-

Daniel sat in the carriage that was rolling towards Skarak. He was thinking about the remarkable visit that had ended so abruptly. A blood disease would make for a good cover if the man was using drugs. Perhaps Daniel had intruded on the man after he had taken something and had he witnessed- but no, that would be strange. And his talk about that religion. The Litany of Nahmyo. That sounded a bit simple also. Maybe it was a diversion of sorts. There were frauds in many religions.

The sign announcing that the carriage was now entering Skarak moved past the window of the carriage. Not long now, Daniel knew, before he'd be home. Lunch at the "Solid Rooster", which was a good place, was already on his mind when suddenly the carriage stopped.

"What's this?" he muttered. He had never been in a carriage that broke down. These things just didn't do that. They'd at best stop for something that was blocking their path. Daniel opened the door, stepped out of the carriage and was hit in the back by something. Or someone.

Daniel staggered away from the carriage. A blow had not been what he had expected. Before he really heard it, he already reacted to a sound that happened behind him. The combat training he'd had worked. He dropped himself to the ground, rolled to the side and as he was on his back he kicked at whatever would be coming up on him. His shoes connected with the legs of a heavy-set man. The kick did not throw the man over, but got him out of balance long enough for Daniel to get up and prepare for the next attack.

The man charged at Daniel. In his hand was something that looked like a knife, and he was waving it in a very skilled way. He was fast. He slashed the sleeve of Daniel's jacket and almost managed to slit part of his body too. Daniel got hold of the man's arm and yanked it hard. His arms were longer than those of the attacker, so he had the advantage of reach.

The man with the knife stumbled. Daniel kicked at one of the passing ankles, something cracked and the man went down. The pointy rocks that were placed along the side of the road became fatal for the man... he fell face down on one of them and lay still.

"Oh crap," Daniel said, watching the silent figure on the ground.

"Sir, are you unharmed?" Two gentlemen had jumped from their own carriage that had halted and had tried to come to Daniel's assistance. That had proven not to be necessary.

"Yes, I am fine," Daniel replied, looking at the sleeve. The knife had not even scraped his skin.

One of the other men took his hydger and was busy with it.

"He is informing the police," the other man said. "We are your witnesses, sir, we saw that you were attacked by this person. Do you have any idea what this ambush was for?"

Daniel shook his head. He now looked at his carriage and saw a thick branch stick from between the spokes of one of the wheels. The reason why the carriage had stopped was obvious.

About a quarter of an hour later, two black and yellow carriages had arrived. Policemen assessed the situation, and a medical examiner was kneeling on the ground next to the body of the assailant. The pointy rock that the unfortunate man had landed on, and the ground around it, had turned red. A nasty smelly kind of red.

Daniel made his statement to the police, and the two other men added theirs to that. One of the officers held the knife in a hand. "Do you have serious enemies, sir?"

"I am not certain," Daniel said.

"Well, it looks like it. This kind of knife," the policeman said, "is usually carried by murderers. Do you see this little tube?" He pointed at what looked like a slit in the blade. "If you get stabbed with this knife, pressing a little switch will inject a lethal dose of poison into your body which goes through this tube." The man showed Daniel where the switch was, conveniently located at the far end of the handle. It could be operated by the pinky.

"This is one of Dogom ko Tzuy's men," the medical examiner said, from his kneeling position. "You'd better be careful, sir, Seigner Dogom ko Tzuy is a powerful person. If he is indeed after you, then you are in trouble."

Daniel wondered how the examiner knew the killer had been with Huajo. The medical examiner showed him a tattoo of a ship, with the word 'Tzuy' beneath it. "Do you think I should file charges against Seigner Dogom ko Tzuy?" he asked one of the police officers.

The man shook his head. "I would advise against that, sir. There is no evidence. You do not know on whose orders this man really acted. And he won't tell us anymore."

The policemen then asked for Daniel's hydger identification, so they could get in touch in case they needed more information from him.

The two gentlemen who had witnessed the battle also presented their hydger information to one of the police officers. After waving away Daniel's gratitude, they boarded their carriage and went on their way.

The medical examiner was done with what he could do out in the street. Together with one of the officers he packed the body in a large sheet and hoisted that into one of the police carriages.

The number of people who had stopped their carriages and were observing the proceedings had grown to such an amount that a proper traffic jam was starting on the road. Once once of the policemen had left with the medical examiner and the corpse, the other officer start directing the people to move on, while Daniel worked on removing the branch from the wheel of his carriage.

"Will you be alright sir?" the policeman asked.

"I think I'll be fine, thank you." Daniel got into his carriage.

"Sir," the policeman said, leaning inside, "I do recommend that you do not take matters into your own hands. Someone has committed a serious crime against you. We do not want to come after you, the victim, for making the same mistake. I wish you a good day, sir." The policeman touched his hat and stepped back as Daniel told the carriage to take him home. And this time for real.