ADVENTURES OF MAL-LARCI: CHAPTER 20

Chapter 20: Trapped ©

I was well and truly trapped. The cage had come straight down over the top of me before I'd even had the chance to take one step.


We felines usually hate being in a cage at the best of times, but I'd been caught by a raving lunatic who hated cats. I figured I was in serious trouble.

Fortunately my partner, Lily the civet, another superhero, was hiding nearby and had received my distress call. She would have sent through a message to Headquarters by now. 



The man was Katzenjammer, a wanted criminal who had a pathological hatred of cats and would set bombs to destroy anything to do with them.


We'd been tracking him down and I had stumbled across him in this old workshop. 


"I guess it's just my lucky day," he'd said with a chuckle. "I'm sure I can arrange something special for you."

He had assumed I was an ordinary cat, not thinking for a moment that there might be such a thing as a superhero, let alone a superhero cat. But my abilities were flying, super-sight, hearing and extra-strong claws, not extra strength. I could probably scratch my way through the wooden floor beneath me, but then he would know that I was no ordinary cat. 

"Meow," I said, sitting back on my haunches and licking my paws. 

Hopefully fellow superheroes were already on their way here, and would grab this nutter before he decided to make me into a cat-skin wallet.

There was the softest of thumps on the floor and I realised Lily had jumped in through the open window. Her camouflage ability made her invisible in the dark and I felt reassured by her presence. I assumed she was checking the layout of the room, before the others arrived. 

"You've got perfect timing," Katzenjammer said. "I've got this place set to blow up as soon as I leave, which will be in about seven minutes. The bomb should make a lovely big noise, and there'll be one less mongrel cat in the world."

He giggled as he walked away.

"Hang tight," was the message I received in morse code from Lily as she jumped back out through the window, into the dark.

From behind the building I heard the sound of a motor turn over. It was the bomber making his escape. 

"Keep an eye on him," I transmitted to Lilly. "He's just leaving."

The vehicle reversed and I heard it drive out through the gate. 

I had less than seven minutes to get out of the cage, find the bomb and dispose of it. Wasting no time, I hacked at the floorboards beneath me with my claws and was through in under a minute. There was a crawl space beneath the building, and I quickly squeezed out from underneath the building and jumped back into the open window.

Using my super-vision I quickly scanned the room for an object that resembled a bomb. There were a variety of tools scattered about on the benches and other bits and pieces, and several unopened cupboards, but there was nothing unusual. Dashing across the room I flung open each cupboard in turn but found only empty shelves and an old carton of cola cans.

"Could it be hidden in a wall or in the ceiling?" I thought to myself. I wished Bob was with me at that moment. His x-ray vision would have spotted the bomb in no time.

I'd been tuning my ears in the hope of picking up a sound which might lead me to the bomb. Time was getting away from me, and I began to stress that I would never find it in time. 

Just at that moment I heard a tiny click. It came from the cola carton. It had to be the bomb. Would I have time to safely take the bomb away before it exploded?

A sudden thought flashed through my mind and I began to dig frantically at the floorboards of the building. Soon there was a hole big enough to push the carton through, but before I could do that, I jumped through the hole onto the ground beneath the building and continued digging. I figured I had possibly less than thirty seconds before the bomb exploded and I needed to find somewhere to place the bomb where it would cause the least damage. There were workers nearby and I didn't want anyone to be injured. I prayed that placing it into a deep hole beneath the building, would contain the detonation enough so that the explosive impact would be limited to this one building.

The earth was hard, but not as tough as the floorboards and I made steady progress downwards, until the hole was around 8m deep. I was fast running out of time, and my paws and claws were aching and bleeding. My heart was thumping as I flew back up into the room. Grabbing hold of the carton, I was pleased to find it wasn't too heavy, and floating upside down with the carton held stretched out in my arms, I gently placed it at the bottom of the hole.

Then with all my strength, I flew up to the space under the building, and crawled with all my might, expecting at any moment to hear the sound of the bomb going off. I reached the edge of the building and with a burst of speed I started to spring away, but it was at that moment, that the bomb detonated.

I felt the concussion of the explosion hit me. It slammed into me like an enormous truck and before the pain and shock of it caused me to lose consciousness, I felt my body spinning hopelessly, flung out into the dark sky and I wondered if I would ever see my family or Lily again.

Link to Chapter 21

ADVENTURES OF MAL-LARCI: CHAPTER 13

CHAPTER 13: My First Successful Solo Mission ©


Most of my assignments come in at night-time, usually between midnight and dawn. On this occasion, I was advised that I would be required to attend a cat-show to keep a watch over activities, because the organisers had received a bomb-threat.

While most bomb-threats turn out to be hoaxes, a faxed threat had been received from a known bomber who used the alias "Katzenjammer." Up to that point in time, no-one knew his real identity, but he had carried out bomb-threats at least four times before this.

Headquarters told me that Katzenjammer hated people, and governments, but most of all, he hated cats.

As a cat, I would be able to fit right in, and hopefully nobody would notice a spare cat wandering around at a cat show. 

This was to be my first solo mission and I felt butterflies in my stomach as I flew into the location, several hours before dawn. I had hoped to catch the bomber in the act of placing his explosives at the cat-show marquee. But there was no odd activity at all, and I hoped this would turn out to be a hoax. Unfortunately, from what I had heard about Katzenjammer, there was little likelihood of that.

Hiding nearby, I waited till organisers and cat-fanciers began arriving early in the morning, and then sauntered over to the large marquee. Using my super-sight and hearing I searched out the likely places where the bomb could have been placed, but there was no sign of any suspicious boxes or packages which might contain explosives. I then began looking in the toilets, and even in the framework that held up the marquee.

As the cat-show began, I sent a message to headquarters to let them know that I had been unsuccessful so far. The need to ensure the safety of the humans and felines became more urgent, and I wondered where a cat-hating bomber might place the device.

Cat-fanciers and breeders from across the country had brought along their best felines. Categories included all of the usual breeds, as well as some exotics that I had never heard of before including: 

I wandered over to the exotic breeds in their cages to get a good look at them. Most of the cats were happy to have a chat, though one or two were quite snobbish and refused to even look in my direction. One even deliberately turned her head away from me and gave a disgusted snort. Obviously I was too common for her to even look at. I just laughed.


Some breeds didn't seem all that unusual other than having odd coloured eyes, or crinkly kinds of coats. There were a couple that looked like small wild-cats and the Sphynx gave me chills. Most of the time the Sphynx sat quite still in its cage. Every minute or so it lifted up a paw and licked it for a moment, before putting it back down again. It wouldn't talk to me either, but simply stared straight ahead. 


I was about to continue past its cage when it lifted its paw for the fourth time and licked it. It was exactly the same gesture it had used the previous three times. Narrowing my pupils I looked at it more closely. It looked like a cat, it sat like a cat and even cleaned its paw like a cat. 


"How strange," I thought, that it should just clean the same paw over and over. "Perhaps it has a sore toe."


A few moments later it licked the paw again. The same paw. 


I looked even more closely at it. Could it be possible?


Looking deeply into its pupils I spied a tiny spark behind its eye as it lifted its paw again.


"Headquarters, you'll need to evacuate the cat-show marquee," I communicated urgently to headquarters. 


Around humans I had to send the message in code using an in-built device in two of my back teeth.


"I've located the bomb. It's in one of the entrants that looks like a Sphynx. If you can get the people to evacuate, I'll try to find somewhere to dispose of the bomb."


Suddenly there was commotion at the judges table and one of the organisers spoke into a microphone.


"Excuse me ladies and gentlemen. We have been advised to leave the area as a precautionary measure," she said.


"There's no need to be alarmed. Please exit as quickly and quietly as possible, and assemble near the front gates. We will restart the judging shortly. Thank you for your co-operation."


Competitors were quick to locate their cats and hurriedly left the marquee. I was not surprised to find myself alone except for the Sphynx. It lifted its paw again.


Somehow I had to get the cage out of here and away from the city as quickly as possible. I hoped that I would be able to take off so quickly, that no-one would see a ginger-cat flying off into the sky with a cat-cage in its paws. I had to take the risk because the bomb might go off at any moment.


Just at that moment, I heard a small click and a whir inside the cat. Grabbing the cage in my mouth, I dashed out of the back of the tent, away from where anybody was likely to spot me. Mustering all of my strength, I pushed off with all of the speed that I could muster and sprang straight into the sky and was away in a flash. 


Looking around me, the city sprawled in all directions and I desperately began to look for a safe place to drop my load where it could not hurt anyone when it detonated.


The cage vibrated a little and I pushed my speed to its absolute limit and very soon reached the Pacific Ocean. Taking just a fraction of a second, I flew well off-shore and dropped the cage. 


It seemed as if time stood still  - the cage with the Sphynx seemed to just hang in the air for a moment, and then it was falling and tumbling down and down, until it hit the water with a splash. As it began to sink beneath the waves, there was a muffled explosion and then a huge spout of water sprang up into the air and splashed all over me.


Headquarters called me and I turned on the communications link.


"What's happening Mal-Larci," an assistant said.


I couldn't reply because I was laughing so much.


"Mal-Larci is everything ok?" she asked again.


Trying to control myself, I managed to blurt out, "All ok. The bomb has been disposed of," and burst into laughter again.


"What's so funny," she asked curiously, "Have you been hurt?"


"No, I'm fine," I said.


"It's just because it's so absurd," I replied. "If a human being was to look in my direction with binoculars at this moment, they would see a soaked ginger cat, suspended in mid-air. I have water in my ears and up my nose and dripping off my whiskers, and I've just tossed a cat-bomb into the ocean."


She laughed and said, "Well it's not every day you see a cat-bomb!"


"Nor a soaked flying ginger cat."


Chuckling, I turned in the direction of headquarters and flew back to provide details of what had occurred. My fur dried quickly on the way.


From what I later heard, the cat-show was able to resume and no-one ever knew that there had been a bomb disguised as a cat, or that there had been a super-hero in the form of a common old ginger tabby. If only those snobby cats knew that I had saved their pampered bottoms.

Link to Chapter 14