A Cat Called Kat

Chapter Twelve - The Chase

It was early afternoon when Terri came and found me. I'd had to miss my usual siesta because the meeting that morning had disrupted my normal flow and I still had mountains more lettuce to polish.

"I don't like to ask," she said, "but Uncle Alfredo is running short of money again. Could I borrow a bit more for him, please? I'll pay you back as soon as I'm back in charge at 'La Villa'."

She was looking totally embarrassed about it so I just had to turn round and give her a 'wet hands' hug. "Of course," I replied. But then I remembered something that Master had said to me once, "but I don't lend friends or family money. It'll be a gift... but if you want to give me a gift of the same amount, sometime, I'll be happy to accept it."

She thought about this then gave me a nod. "I'll put you on the list!" she said with a smile. "Don't tell 'em but, when this thing is all over, Uncle Alfredo and Zi'Anna are both going to come into a whole heap of money too."

She'd borrowed Uncle Alfredo's van so I didn't have to wait for the slightly erratic local bus and we had a fun time as we made our way down out of the mountains into the next small town. We'd been so busy looking after Master and with all the vertical expansion, lettuce polishing type stuff that we hadn't really had enough time to just do the sister thing.

It was a beautiful little town, set up on a bit of a hill with a lovely view and with the 'old town' bit squashed inside the ancient city walls. But of course parking was a total 'mare so we had a bit of a walk through a maze of pretty little back alleys and things to get to the bank.

But as we were approaching the place, Caroline's whole situational awareness thing kicked in and I could tell that something felt wrong. I didn't even know what it was at first but then I noticed this anonymous, black SUV parked across the road from the bank... and it had two people in the front seats trying to look inconspicuous - and somehow they seemed to be trying harder to do the inconspicuous thing when they saw us.

I didn't recognise them but they both had the familiar tan shirt and dark glasses thing going on - these were Slimeball's men

I did my best to look relaxed as I casually checked around for escape routes but, by the time I looked back, Terri had wandered into the bank, cheerfully unaware of the threat.

I followed her in - I didn't really have any choice - but I kept my eyes on the people in the van in the 'don't look at them directly' way that Caroline had taught me. One of them was on a phone and the other one was carefully watching us but they didn't make any sort of move to get out. That meant that they were planning on grabbing us when we came back out onto the street.

Once inside, I told Terri what was going on. She looked as if she was about to panic but I gave her a look and I could see her willing herself to calm down. Then, with an invisible Caroline watching over my shoulder, I did my 'situational review' thing.

Location: Bank, Large room, one exit, about two dozen people present, with another six behind security screens; no fire exit; windows secure. We've got to leave through that door.

Threats: two men in a van outside, almost certainly more on the way. I needed to act quickly.

Resources: I've got the folding knife in my pocket that Caroline had given me for Christmas, It wasn't really a fighting knife - that would just cause trouble if the police ever saw it - but it was good for pretty much anything else. I'd got a small amount of money and a bunch of keys. I also had a box of matches from my pizza oven lighting duties.

That gave me a flash of an idea. I had a quick look around and found what I was looking for: there was a 'confidential waste' bin. You couldn't get anything out of it but I might just be able to stuff something inside.