Nine Lives of a Cat Burgler

Followed by a feathered (and feline) friend.

"He is your dad!" I say in shock. Ace/Isaac glares at me and then goes back to attempting to light a fire. He is doing it all wrong but I think in the mood he is in, it would be safer for me to just not mention it. We are at an abandoned house on the border of the forest. It is one of my safe houses. I have a few for desperate situations. This is a desperate situation. The night grows cold around us

"We are genetically related, if that's what you mean. But otherwise, I prefer to think we have no other similarities." His fury softens. " He enrolled me with The Resistance as soon as I was old enough. I have spent the past 7 years forced to obey it. I think, he did it to keep me under control. I changed my name to Ace ,like you call yourself A.B, to try not to be associated with him."

"So how old were you when you were enrolled? And why didn't your mother do anything about it?" I ask, my curiosity getting the better of me.

" I was 10. The age you are apparently old enough to make your own decisions. My mum encouraged it. I think you met her as well. Agent Jones?" He looks at my blank look, " The lady with the cat? Yeah that's my mum. Not what you would call happy families."

" Cat Lady is your mum!" I blurt out and blush. He laughs and gradually I relax and laugh with him. "By the way, you are doing that wrong." I mention while he is in a good mood.

"Am I?" He looks amused. I take the lighter from him. It is one of the old ones, the sort you would use at a girl guide camp.

"You strike down, towards the flame." I demonstrate and a spark jumps off the lighter onto the bundle of sticks. As the bible says; Let there be light!

He looks at the fire and then at me. I look away.

"So how d'ya know about this place?" Ace says lying down to look at the sky.

" Well, I store stuff here so if a break in ever goes wrong and I get tracked back home, I can runaway, pick up my stuff here and leave. I haven't had to use it yet." I say as I lie down next to him.

We spend the next half an hour chatting about stuff. I learnt that he is 16, worked for the Resistance, lives on the far edge of town, and his birthday is in May.

He wanted to be a pilot when he was little and he know my side of town well because he had school friends who lived on the other side of it. Oh yeah! And he doesn't have a girlfriend. Not that I'm interested.... I told him about me, I'm 15, have no family except from a brother who I haven't been in contact with for years. I live on a roof and Fizzy is my best (and only) friend. And I'm a cat burgler who steals valuable items from rich people's houses ( although I think he guessed that).

We are just getting onto the interesting topic of favourite films when the bag rustles. The attentive ones of you will remember I took that bag from the Resistance. That might not have been such a good idea. The bag rustles again. And again. Like something is trying to get out. Ace steps in front of me in that manly, heroic sort of way. I consequently push him out the way to prove I am not the damsel in distress type of girl. I approach the bag. The thing screeches from it's prison. I bend down. I open the bag. And a giant furry creature bursts out and leaps at my face.

A giant furry tabby creature leaps at my face.

Or should I say a very very exceeding large tabby creature leaps at my face.

Ace jumps up and grabs the cat. " Bluebird! What are you doing here!" The cat is called Bluebird. Right....

Bluebird snuggles into his shoulder and grins at me. That cat is well creepy! " He must have gotten trapped in the bag just before you took it." Aces announces in a very logical and proud way even though the only ones here are me and Bluebird and I am in shock and Bluebird is just purring and clawing his chest so neither of us are listening.

"What do we do with him then?" I say indigently.

"Well we can't take him back an we can't leave him here so he will just have to come with us." I sigh in an annoyed sort of way and then take Bluebird off Ace before Ace puts his fingers too close to Bluebird's mouth. Bluebird then dribbles on me happily. Ace laughs but is hushed by my glare.

" So now I have to look after a small minded creature and the cat!"

Ace smirks and puts Bluebird back into the bag, using it as a makeshift catbed. I yawn.

"go to bed." Ace says. "I will keep watch," I nod wearily and leave the room. Walking into what seemed to be the dining room, I huddle into a corner and fall asleep. I wake up to the sound of heavy breathing and the occasional snore. Looks like the 'I will keep watch and wake you later' plan went out the window. I wander into the

living room (I guess) to find Ace lying on the floor, his head lolling to one side as he slept. Bluebird was stretched over him, pinning him to the floor snoring loudly. Great. The cat snores. I quietly creep across the living room to the reminants of the kitchen. I have food stored in the cupboards just in case and last time I was here, I made a water store so I know we won't starve or dehydrate. I pour some water into a chipped saucer and tip a tin of tuna into another. Bluebird's breakfast. I then look to see what other tins of food I left. Lots of tinned fruit, apricots, grapefruit that sort of thing. And some tuna and those weird spaghetti hoops. Mainly fruit though. Looks like I was on a health kick. I tip some apricots into a bowl and grapefruit into another. I hear rustling and put the Bluebird's breakfast on the floor. I then take the two bowls of fruit into the other room and put one in front of Sleeping Beauty's head. I flop down into the broken armchair and tuck into the apricots. I hear murmering from the floor.

"Wha-" His protests are muffled by Bluebird who sits on his face and stretches before going off to explore the kitchen.

"Wakey, Wakey, Rise and shine!" I say, a mouth full of apricot.

"I don't like tinned fruit." He says before joining me to eat. We eat in silence.

Bluebird comes through from the kitchen growling contentedly. At least someone enjoyed breakfast. He jumps up onto my lap and starts dribbling (again). I mean, what problem does this cat have with me? I push him off gently and take mine and Ace's bowls into the kitchen. Turning the tap hopefully, I am replied with a groan from the pipes. Sighing I then pour some water form the store into the empty sink. Lucky I planned in advance. I start to wash up, my mind wandering as I gaze out the window. How the hell did my life turn from normal (well normalish) to this? About three weeks ago I was doing small jobs in a quiet part of town. Now I was on the run.

With a fit boy.

And a cat.

Whilst wondering about my general life dilemmas (Did I need a haircut? What should I wear tonight? Is that spot on my forehead going away? Oh, yeah. And: Why I am on the run from the worlds largest rebel organisation who frequently commit terrorist actions and murder people? And more importantly, What happened to my life?) I notice something move. In the trees. Not something, someone. By the time I have made it out the door they are long gone but, and I don't know if this was a mistake or ( more likely ) a threat, something was left behind. There it was. Hanging on a branch. A coat. And the logo blared up at me. R.

And guess what it stands for.

"We have to leave. We can't stay here any longer!" I say whilst watching the trees nervously. Bluebird purrs nervously around my feet and Ace examines the coat further behind me.

"Well, Where else can we go?" Ace says exasperatedly "They are onto us now. The other safe houses are too far away, and we can't go back to your house."

"We have to leave, they will be here soon!"

"Yes and where ever we go they will be there soon! Where ever we go we will be hiding from the Resistance and the police!"

"The police? They have no clue what we have done! The most they can get us for is as suspects for a couple of burglaries and the likely hood they could find us guilty is like almost nil, even though I am guilty for most of them but that isn't the point!"

He sighs "The Resistance own half the police! How do you think they haven't been tried and executed for all those bombing raids, arson attacks and murders? No one would take us in. There is no where, no one!"

I have a brainwave, "There is one person..."

"Who?"

"Fizzy."