Nick Needs a Family

Chapter 14

Karla knew Nick must have heard her coming, since she found him sitting stoically and staring at the wall when she stepped through the door. The vixen tried not to look at him as she made her way to the opposite side of the room.

After walking out the door and up a flight of stairs, Karla found herself in the empty gallery overlooking the throne room. She grimly chuckled to herself; of course, no mammal dared call it that in front of Boris.

Karla gazed down into the room, where long ago incorrigible criminals had once been executed, and saw several mammals gathered around the large wooden chair where Boris would sit while he held court.

The vixen scanned the room for John, and spotted him standing between the two wolf guards. They were at the end of a line of mammals waiting to speak to Boris, behind one of the other guards she despised, a wolverine named Cecil. Aside from Boris, he was the only wolverine in the compound, and Karla was pretty sure the two were distantly related. For the longest time, Cecil had been a raging drunk, but lately he'd calmed down somewhat. What Karla hated about him were his constant demands that she bring him things from the kitchen, as if she were some servant to be ordered around.

The room grew quiet when Boris burst through the door, followed by his raccoon second in command and several other mammals. Once Boris was comfortably seated, he addressed the room. "Do my eyes and ears have anything to report?"

Karla found it odd that the only time Boris ever used a mammal's name was when he was angry with them. The vixen nervously reached up and touched the shock collar on her neck, a reminder of how lucky she'd been the one and only time Boris had uttered her name.

A badger stepped forward and shook his head. "No sir. We ain't seen nobody near the warehouse since we caught the fox."

"And his car?"

"We drove it to the train station an' left it like you asked. Locked it up an' didn' touch nuthin'."

Boris nodded. "Good... very good."

Karla watched in silence, while the wolverine spoke with each mammal in line, until it was finally Cecil's turn. Boris motioned him to step forward and said, "Are we taking our medication?" Cecil nodded and Boris smiled. "Excellent. We don't want to be punished again, do we?"

Karla had forgotten that Cecil was taking medication. She was trying to remember what it was, when Boris dismissed Cecil and nodded at the two wolves guarding John.

The wolves roughly pushed the tod forward, and the wolverine's voice cut through the room with an icy sharpness. "Ahh, Wilde. My ears told me about your little reunion. I had no idea you'd managed to hide your family from me so well. No matter. Tomorrow we'll have a most festive celebration in the pit, and you two will be the guests of dishonor."

There were jeers from the other mammals in the room, and Karla's heart sank. She shuddered and remembered the one and only pit match she'd ever watched. A weasel had been injected with a large dose of nightshade, and Karla left after he savagely tore the eye out of his much larger opponent.

Boris stood and the room quieted. "Put him back in isolation." He clapped his paws together. "There is much to arrange before tomorrow. I'll talk with the traitor's son later. Bring the car around."

As Boris and his entourage left the room, Karla knew what would happen tomorrow: either Nick or John, or most likely both of them, would die. John was a jerk, but even he didn't deserve that. And Nick... her heart twisted at the realization that he'd be hurt, or worse.

So much death surrounded Boris. Karla thought of her mother again, and angry tears streamed down her face. She hadn't wanted to admit it to herself before, but the more Karla considered it, the more it became clear that Boris was probably responsible for her mother's death.