A Cat Called Kat

Epilogue - Tony and Kat

It had been a perfect holiday

Master had found us a wonderful little cabin, way up in the mountains above Yosemite in California. It was miles from anywhere - you couldn't possibly reach it in anything but a four-wheel-drive car.

There was a live-in cook and cleaner type lady but she disappeared into town at the weekends leaving us all on our own, with only the marmots for company...

And the deer...

And the bears!

Which meant I got to see Master with a saucepan in his hands which was kind of fun!

But on the second Saturday, Master woke me with a kiss. "Come on!" he said. "It's time for the people we used to be to die."

"I beg your pardon?" I replied. It was still the middle of the night. I couldn't really be expected to do any thinking.

"As you know, numerous people want us dead... or at least they want me dead... so the best thing to do is to convince them that it has already happened. Come on. There's going to be a major explosion here so we need to get out of the way."

"But won't the police and people be expecting to find bodies?"

"They will find bodies... and the DNA and dental records will be a perfect match."

"You're not going to..."

"No I'm not going to kill a couple of people. Moral considerations aside, it's much easier to deal with people who are already dead. They don't put up so much of a fight."

"But isn't the whole place under video surveillance?" Thanks to Caroline's training, I'd spotted about six cameras.

"Which means the police will have their video evidence... and it'll be the best video evidence money can buy."

He was quiet for a bit then added, "The police like video evidence!"

"Who knows about this?" I asked.

Caroline and Elroy are setting things up, together with some of the Vanguards men - though they are under the impression that they really are murdering us. I've let your sister know what I'm up to... just in outline, not details... and she'll let Zi'Anna and Guillia and so on know so they don't get upset. He thought for a bit and then added... and I haven't told him but I wouldn't be altogether surprised if Mr Mac has worked it out."

"But what about..."

"Not now, curious kitten. I'm more than happy to answer any questions you might have later but, for now, it really is a case of, 'Hurry up or you'll be late'."

I had to smile as I pulled on the funny looking clothes and shoes he handed to me. They felt as if they were made of paper or something.

We slipped out of the back door of the property and made our way up the simple trod until we reached the main trail. Here, after a couple of moments hunting around, Master located a couple of rucksacks that had been stashed close by.

We changed into more traditional walking clothes before carrying on up the main trail. We'd hiked up there pretty much every day since we'd been there and there was a full moon high in the sky so we didn't have any difficulty working our way steadily up into the hills.

After about an hour, we reached the junction of a couple of trails where there was a wilderness camping site with its customary firepit and bear-box. Whilst Master put up our tent, I stashed the food in the bear-box.

I was a bit surprised when Master lit a small fire but everything became clear when he started burning those funny paper clothes - one less thing linking us to that lovely little cabin, I suppose.

And we were sitting, side by side on a log, staring into the dying flames, when the perfect tranquillity of the night was ripped apart by this dirty great explosion.

"Ah!" Master said. "It would appear that Anthony Lloyd and his kitten have just ceased to exist. I am now Tony Parker, my cousin."

It was too dark to see but I knew his eyebrows were doing their walkabout thing.

"And who am I?"

"Katrina Baker, of course."

Oh yes! Of course! I'd almost forgotten about the alter ego that I'd used to travel out to Italy after our flat in England had been attacked. "So who's this Tony Parker guy then?"

"I've just been naturalised as an American citizen after fleeing from some tin-pot, third world regime. I used to be an advisor to the 'Most Beloved President for Life' but recently fell out of favour with him after pointing out one or two facts of economic reality that he didn't want to hear."

"You've been planning this for a while, haven't you?"

Again, he did his eyebrow thing but he didn't bother answering.

"Unfortunately, most of my assets were seized when I fled the country... well apart from the sums that I managed to squirrel away when I was still in favour with the regime."

"You mean we're poor?" I asked - more than a little disconcerted by the idea.

"Fortunately, I'm cautiously optimistic that I stand to inherit a considerable sum of money from my cousin who was recently tragically killed in a unexplained explosion."

More of his invisible eyebrow stuff.

"And what are we going to do from here?" I asked.

"We're going to hike across the mountains," he explained, "taking our time and staying inconspicuous to give all the fuss a chance to die down. We're going to meet up with Elroy and Caroline on the far side and they're going to drive us to Las Vegas airport where records will show that we've just arrived on a flight from Lagos. All being well, that should be the first time we have to use our new IDs.

"You've thought of everything, haven't you?"

"We've had this discussion before. There's only one way to find out whether we've thought of everything and we really don't want that to happen because it would mean something has gone wrong."

"That wasn't us," I answered, doing the wide open eyes and exaggerated head shake I knew he liked. "That was somebody completely different!"

I even managed to keep a completely straight face!

"Kitten!" Tony growled

"I'm not your Kitten anymore," I told him. "I'm Katrina... but you can call me 'Kat' if you like.

Dawn was breaking over the mountains in the east so, laughing, we took down our tent. "Let's see if we can get a couple of miles done before breakfast," I suggested.

Hand in hand, Tony and Kat set off up the trail into their new lives.