Preparedness

by Mr. David R. Dorrycott

the usual suspects copyright Mr. Simon Barber.

Soft music was coming from the bungalow’s half open window as Major Thomas William Hawkins approached. He stepped upon the stones that led up to a certain door, nodding to a sentry walking his post nearby. All lower grade bungalows were four to a building, and no more than five hundred square feet each. Tiny by American standards, still more than most who now lived in them had ever experienced. This ones occupant though being an exception to that rule. Still there had never been a single complaint from this bungalow’s occupant. Lifting his paw he rapped upon the wooden door with his knuckles. Less than half a minute later the music ceased, moments later the door opened.

“Good Evening Major” Millicent Wei, or was it Bryzov the bulldog wondered, said in greeting. “Please do come in from the dark.” She stepped aside, allowing him barely room to enter without brushing against her, and in Millicent’s case that was not easy to do. “Please, the divan is best for you sir” she continued as she shut the door. “Let me have your hat, and will it be tea or water?”

“Tea please” he answered as she took his hat. He noted that she placed it next to her open phonograph. Exactly on top of the delicate stature that hid one of Dashers microphones. It was a statement, not a complaint. “Have you found them all” he asked as he settled down.

“Tatiana showed me where every one is” Millicent answered from her tiny kitchen, actually a part of the bungalow’s main living area. “She makes a careful search for new ones each time she visits. If I allow her the time. Lately I have not been allowing her that time. Have I Major.” A sound of water boiling came at that moment, surprising Hawkins. It should take longer than this he knew. “We thought that the one behind my toilet was rather cheek. Understandable, but it does bother me somewhat. So I cover it with the paper I use while I preform my needs.”

 “I see. You have hot water ready always?”

Millicent giggled in response. “I never know when my wife will be able to escape her prison long enough to visit. She loves her tea, so I make certain to keep water warm in the oven at all times. Though it does cost me a bit in coal fees. And extra cleaning.” A clatter of crockery came from the felines position as she placed cups and the teapot on a tin tray “You are enjoying watching me Major?”

Hawkins laughed, setting the papers he had pulled from his jacket into his lap. “Dear sweet Millicent. Regrettably I was not watching you this time. My most dear apology for neglecting you.”

Millicent turned to face her visitor, her tea tray held carefully within her paws. “I am disappointed then. I thought that I was of some amusement to you sir.”

“Amusement?” Hawkins shook his head no. “You have been many things to us Millicent Bryzov, but amusing has rarely been one of those things. You have been visiting your mother-in-law?”

“Weekly sir, as instructed” Millicent answered. She placed her tea tray on a table near the bulldog. “One spoon or two sir?”

“None please thank you. But a little milk, if you have it?” He was amused to see the blush appear upon his young couriers face. “Tatiana does have a love for milk. Yes? Thus you must have some available for her.”

Millicent took a deep breath before answering him again. Obviously she had matured Hawkins observed. Her blush though made no attempt to fade as she spoke. “Sir. I regret that the only milk that I have is mine.”

“Yours? You are so stingy that you would not offer a single dollop to a visitor for his tea?” Hawkins was seeing how far Millicent would go before simply explaining her situation. He found himself quite surprised by her next action.

“Sir...” Millicent took a deep breath. “I am afraid that if it must be than it shall be.” She walked into the kitchen, returning with a small bottle from her icebox.

Quickly holding up a paw Hawkins almost laughed. “No need child” he explained quickly. “I am well aware of your source. Please, it was but jest.” A sound of liquid striking liquid was his answer. “MILLICENT” he gasped, trying, yet failing not to blush.

“You are my controller Major Hawkins” Millicent explained as she returned with his teacup. “Tatiana has made it very clear to me that both our lives lay within your paws, and her controllers paws. It is a delicate dance we must preform, least we dance at the end of a rope. Or in some filthy alley with our stomachs cut open. To deny you anything you desire is to endanger both our lives. She has after all displayed me fully to you already.” She placed Hawkins cup and saucer into the bulldogs open paws. “It is as you like it, as I remember sir.”

Hesitantly Hawkins accepted the offered tea, its surface showing the swirl of added milk. “Millicent” the bulldog whispered. “If you ever do this to me again I will have every fur on your body removed. One by one, with a tweezer. As of your marriage last week I am no longer your Controller little Millicent, I am simply your supervisor. After this meeting I am going to destroy that photograph you gave me. You deserve to be treated much better than you have been.”

Sitting in a chair across from her supervisor Millicent stirred her own tea. It too the bulldog noted, had the cream color of added milk. “You will not sir. Unless it is your desire to humiliate me still further. By doing so you tell the world that I am not worthy of your viewing. No woman likes that sir.”

“Very well, since you seem to insist. Still it will remain hidden. Now if we may, the reason for my unexpected visit?”

“Of course sir. I am, as always your servant.”

Hawkins laughed gruffly at those words. “Employee yes. Servant never.” He picked up the papers from his lap, offering them to his hostess. “Read these then destroy them. I suggest that you burn them then flush the ashes down your toilet. You will find that simply eating them will do nothing but cause you extreme pain, perhaps death considering the number of pages. Also, the popular writers have it completely wrong. Your enemies can retrieve them in still very legible form. Before or after your death. Though in either case you would die from their methods.”

Millicent accepted the papers, setting her tea aside while she read. Hawkins himself looked at his tea. ‘Host by my own petard’ he thought as he stirred the liquid. Not to drink would insult his hostess in such a way that he might never make amends. Still the idea. ‘Well’ he decided in his thoughts, ‘as a baby, so there is little difference now.’ Lifting his cup he took a sip. A lighter taste than he was used too, slightly sweeter with a hint of some local herb. So that explains the how he realized.

Millicent abruptly laid the papers in her lap, looking towards the bulldog. “I am to transfer this information to whom” she asked softly.

“Your new Controller” Hawkins answered. “It is information too delicate to chance transfer even under guard. I have spoken to Sergeant-Major Proud. He has informed me that you are more than capable of this little task.”

Millicent nodded in agreement, her tail giving a little twitch as if in annoyance. “As you yourself are sir.”

“As I am” the bulldog agreed. “I must be able to deny having transferred this information to those you will speak with. In front of a star nosed mole if it does come to that.” He sat his own half finished tea aside. “And it most likely will. You are now cleared for Most Secret dear Millicent. I must ask that you do not speak of this to your wife. Is that possible?”

Millicent laughed, holding up the papers a moment. “My dear Major. My heart and body may belong to Tatiana. My soul though, to Crown and Country. Forever.” She lifted a page, apparently reading for a moment. “She does not ask such questions. You are certain that this information is correct” she asked eventually.

“Very correct. So correct that I am to be re-posted home next year.”

Millicent nibbled on her upper lip, a dainty, suggestive action that she did without thought now. “I am still to be given to slavers” she reminded the bulldog. “This information may fall into their paws as well.”

Major Hawkins stood, his teacup still in his paws. Walking to where Millicent’s little record player sat he looked down at what was on the turntable. “Crown and Country dear Millicent. You, I, Dassher. Thousands of others. I am trusting you to take this information to your grave.” He turned to look at her. “Or your madness. It must be passed along, yet there are strict orders than no member of the intelligence group do so. An opening of course, there is usually one. But Russia can not know this. Not until it is too late.”

Millicent nodded in agreement. “Four, or five ships. The number is smudged.”

“Five.”

“Tatiana will still be your Romanov. Your’s or Starlings Major Hawkins.” She turned the page, still reading. “Flash paper leaves no ash” she abruptly reminded him.

Hawkins laughed softly, walking to another corner of the room. This one near the kitchen. “You are learning. I remember a stuck up self centered little kitten when I arrived. Now look at you.”

“You have” Millicent answered, causing that blush of hers to rise again. “Should I survive the slavers sir. I am to be Tatiana Romanov’s wife. I am to bear her kits. Heirs to the throne. It will be a difficult and dangerous life for us. Still I will do what I can to bring her Russia to England. You will take your American home with you?”

“Yes. If she will marry me.” Walking to the rooms only window he looked out into the darkness. Hawkins was aware of the target this made him, backlit as he was. Still the probability of danger was low enough. “She can never return to her country. Not as long as that crossdressing madman still has any power. Staying here really isn’t that good of a choice either.” He glanced to the feline, noting her tail was now curled tightly against one leg. “Your mother in law.”

“She does not love the otter.”

“But Annette still loves that mouse. I have had no trouble seeing that in her eyes.”

Turning another page Millicent declined to respond. It was a great deal of information to remember that Hawkins had given her, and her memory was not a photographic one. As she read Hawkins could hear her whispering to herself. Finally she sat the papers in her lap, still whispering to herself but with now closed eyes. It was long, long minutes before the top heavy cat stood, taking those papers to her bath. Closing the door behind her did not stop Hawkins from observing each flash of light caused by the papers explosive oxidation. When she returned there was a smell of chemical fire about the young woman. “No. Annette has no chance with Mother Oharu” she answered, as if just asked the question. “No more than I have of my Tatty giving me children of her own body. Though we will try most diligently all of our lives.”

She sat again, motioning with one paw towards the small sofa. As Hawkins followed suit Millicent ran her paws over her skirt along her legs. “Tatiana will not be here tonight” she reported. “Nor tomorrow. I will leave to speak with her after you are gone. I will take a taxi to Eastern Island, walking up to the gates. If I am lucky my Tatty is guarding tonight. It will be a good cover for this mission you place in my unready paws. Then Meeting Island. Major Hawkins. This is not the life I want.”

A gruff bark escaped the bulldog. “Nor the one I wanted child. I wished to be... It does not matter, does it. Millicent. Our best Ambassadors have played this game in their formative years. It sharpens the mind. Gives them an edge over lessor opponents. Your German friend for example. She too plays the game.” He shrugged, leaning back into the sofa. More relaxed than Millicent had ever seen him. “She works against the other Euro’s, as these people call us. Spontoon as a nation hold no interest to her. Were she a danger to this nation, her lifeless body would be found floating in the bay. A tragic swimming accident.”

“As would I” his hostess added. “Mother Oharu has warned me. Do not play this game against her people, for she would be unable to more than morn my passing.” Millicent took up her tea again, sipping the cooling liquid. “They like Tatiana sir. They understand her. She is like the American, grumbling about being sent to look at something, knowing all the well that they are listening. Perhaps one day they will like me as well. But we will never be citizens.”

Pulling out his pipe Hawkins slipped its mouthpiece between his lips for a moment, but made no move to light the device. For it hadn’t held tobacco in many years. Still it gave him comfort, and at this moment he needed comfort. “Tatiana will never renounce her Russia” he noted, now tapping the pipes end against his teeth. “You will not be the first daughter of Britannia to spend her life on Russian soil. It is an illustrious company that you would join. Should plans follow as they are supposed too. Dangerous though. Extremely dangerous. How is your Russian?”

“Improving sir. Tatiana spends at least half an hour each time we are together teaching me. Sometimes we have short conversations in her language.” Millicent fluttered a paw, as if it were a leaf. “She finds my accent very amusing.” Amusing was a weak definition Millicent knew. The Russian sable often ended up in gales of laughter. ‘You sound like French woman trying sound like Serbian’ Tatiana once admitted. It was probably due to Millicent’s formal training in the French language. A language required by all who wished to enter diplomatic service above the rank of clerk. It was a problem that they were working on, though there was no need to worry Major Hawkins about it as yet.

“Very good.” Hawkins looked about him, studying the room as though it held some great secret. In truth it did. There were few pictures on the walls, all of family. Yet not one of Tatiana or the wedding. He decided that this was important. “You have no photographs of your wedding, or your wife.”

Millicent shook her head no. “My photograph of Tatty is by my bed. Where I see it last each night, first each morning. All our wedding photographs were sent home to mother.” She sat her now empty cup aside. “Spontoon is a beautiful place Major Hawkins. Its environment is not conducive to long life for paper products. It is the humidity. Will you want more tea?”

Looking at his own empty cup the bulldog smiled at himself, his expression still sending a thin chill of apprehension down Millicent’s spine. “I think not. How many ships?”

“Five sir. Three destroyers, two cruisers. One is a heavy cruiser.”

“Very good. Destination and arrival time?”

Millicent brushed a paw down her tail, an act she had made when reading that report. “Cipangu on the nineteenth, in two months” she answered after touching her nose with a little finger. “To show the flag. Officially. To turn over certain documents and other packages. Very large. Very heavy packages.”

“Very good.” Hawkins stood. “Who taught you your mnemonic memory?”

“My Great Uncle sir. He was Governor of Tristan for thirteen years you understand. To amuse himself he practiced mnemonics.”

“Tristan, yes.” Hawkins sat his own cup down. “One wonders just who he upset to be stationed so long in such a place.”

“Queen Victoria” Millicent admitted. “He confided in me, and since both are now long past it matters not who knows this. He told her that she was a selfish woman to continue morning for a man so long dead, when there were others who loved her as much as he. You see, my Great Uncle had a place in his heart for the Queen, though there were so many years between them. He respected her greatly. Perhaps he may even have loved her. But to say such about Price Albert.” Millicent shook her head no. “I could never do such. I think she must have liked my Great Uncle much, for she only banished him to Tristan. Upon her death he returned and left Government life forever. Not even the Great War could cause him to return.”

Hawkins stood, walking towards the door. “You will leave to see Tatiana after cleaning those cups. As to Victoria. No, no I could never have said as much to her either. Though your Great Uncle was right, he was a fool. An impassioned fool, still a fool. She could have crushed him forever.” Putting his paw on the doors handle Hawkins thought for a moment. “Your farther is an impassioned man as well. I do not see any of the fool within him. Your Great Uncle stood before the wolf and told it what he believed was truth. It cost him dearly. Millicent, do not stand before the wolf, for your heart is for Tatiana’s dinner, not the wolfs. One last thing young Millicent. You are now working for the same person that Lady Allworthy, and her group are working for. Remember that.” Then he was gone, the door closing behind him.

Near midnight a single feline figure made her way up to Songmark’s sealed gates. It was Helen and Maria who stood guard that night, watching with interest as the heavily dressed woman approached. “Yah think she’ll try tah break in” the American tigress asked her Italian companion.

“No. Is not the way this one is” Maria answered. “I think she does hope her wife on duty is.”

Helen nodded in agreement, taking a moment to scan the compound behind her. Yes, that first year dorm had made it over the wire, but Miss Blande had taken away their paw-made rope. Considering who they were, it would be interesting to see how they managed to return to their room. She snorted softly, remembering her own first year experiences not so long ago. Returning her attention to the approaching Millicent she waited with Maria in silence.

“I have a letter” Millicent explained, stopping just within reach of the fence line. “For Tatiana.”

“Mail it” Helen suggested, wanting to see how far this would go.

Millicent looked back down the road that she had just walked up. “I do not believe that it would arrive. Please. You will take it? To give to her? Please?”

Maria waved the girl forward. When Millicent was but a few inches from the fence the bovine held her paw out. Gently Millicent placed her letter into the Italian’s open paw. “Thank you. Should I survive this coming summer, I will owe you a great favor. Goodnight, to both of you.” Then turning around Millicent left the way she had come without making another sound.

“Why take tha letter” Helen asked.

“Fear. She hold so much fear” Maria explained. “I have never seen such fear in one on this island. Ever. I think she walks a path she not like, and not to her desire.” Maria slipped that envelope into her uniform blouse, looking after the departing feline. “I think she fears not to see the sunrise.”

Albert Sapohatan mulled the words Millicent had just given him. Having left the feline sitting alone in his home office the ferret had gone to his kitchen. More to escape that shivering mass of nerves sitting in his office than to make tea, the excuse he had given her. So many things had changed since that day sitting in the shade, discussing a chess game with an old friend as though those pieces were not really living beings. Now his most important piece in this next game sat in his office, and she was very much a living, breathing being. This was the part he most hated about his job. As long as Millicent had simply been a name, no more than that, his decisions had been easy. Now he had spoken to her, she had given him critical information directly from his best friend. Information that, upon the British military learning he had would cause a witch hunt the likes not seen since the Dark Ages. Heads would roll, but the ferret was certain that those important to that bulldog were well insulated. As he was himself.

His kettles whistle woke him from his thoughts. Bemused that he had let himself wander through his thoughts like that Albert placed the hot water on a tray, then carried those things making tea required back to his office. Setting his tray down he studied Millicent, all the while she tried to ignore his eyes. Her tail though told the tail, it twisted under her. Nervous as a cat was the ancient saying. Well here was proof.

“Milk and sugar” he asked.

“Please” Millicent agreed, though she looked like she wanted to run at any instant. Tiki Six had brought her in, and had taken no effort to hide what they were. Elizabeth had noted who she was, said hello, then returned to bed as though nothing important was happening. Of course Millicent was her husbands pawn. She had her own pieces to play. Interfering with her husbands game without knowing exactly what his plans were wasn’t a smart thing to do. Carefully Albert placed a cup of hot tea before his guest.

“You will be returning now” he commented, noting the abrupt tenseness, as if Millicent could become any more tense, at his words. “When next you see your source, the word is snowdrop. You will remember this?”

“Snowdrop” Millicent repeated. She reached for the tea, her shaking paws causing cup to rattle against its saucer. “I feared death” she admitted. “When I saw her.”

Albert sipped his own tea. A bit hot still for his taste, still acceptable he decided. “You know her how” he asked, revising his opinion of the young lady before him.

“Mother Oharu spoke of her, of how she moved.” Millicent sipped her own tea. “And that limp, from Kuo Han if I remember the report correctly.” She sipped again. “Most important. She in my hero. She is what Tatiana will one day be. How many days I sat alone staring at the one clear photograph of her. Even so, with her new fur pattern and styling it was difficult to understand what I was seeing. It only just came to me as she walked away.” She frowned, looking down at her paws. “I must now admit my great sin. I stole that photograph, and the negative. I did not want her found.” A soul deep sigh escaped the feline. “In that little thing I was part of her life. When she died I cried all weekend. Did you know that Mother Oharu knew she wanted her? Only Mother Oharu’s honor kept her from allowing that. That was then, this is now. I think that my mother-in-law would take her now. For the amusement. What proof can I give you Controller, that I will not speak of her. Not even to my Tatty?”

Albert smiled, honest. And she had accepted her new position without complaint. “You just have” he answered. “You do realize that this makes you a danger to my wife. She will not be happy. Why, she just might cut your heart out for luck.”

Millicent managed to sit her tea down without spilling it. “As long as she delivers my body to Tatty. I am not equal to your wife. Not in any matter. It is pleasant to learn that ones greatest hero escaped her fate. That there is a chance of a peaceful life for even myself after death.”

“Hum. You are a problem young Millicent. I was made aware of your weakness. That was the main reason I chose you. You were already suicidal.” He smiled then. “And your obvious physical attraction to those who will take you.”

Laugher answered him as the feline lifted her rather expansive breasts with both paws. “Perhaps I should have these removed” she suggested. “Except that Tatty so loves them. They are her soft pillows as she sleeps.” She signed again, looking around her. “No windows. You will let my Tatty know that I am gone? I do not wish her to worry.”

“You are not gonna die this night hon” a female voice announced. “Albert, seem’s I have a fan club. First Two Red Stones. Now this one.” Leaning against the open door jamb Elizabeth Sapohatan looked a vision of loveliness in her sleepware. “If I start killing off everyone that suspects, discovers or knows. Then I‘d be no better than that cross dresser in Washington. Your gonna tell no one?”

“No Mam” Millicent answered, her eyes locked on Elizabeth’s face. “Never. Without heros to look up to, what purpose would dreams be?” Standing slowly, so as not to incite an undesired reaction Millicent found herself looking down at the bobcat. Elizabeth was, Millicent realized, at least three inches shorter than herself. “I did not realize. Your records state we are of a height. No wonder so many have overlooked you.”

Elizabeth reached out, poking Millicent in the stomach with one outstretched finger, though she kept her claw sheathed. “An everyone believes you to be ah self-centered little brat” she countered. “It was your weakness that caused yah tah act such, wasn’t it.”

“Yes Mam” Millicent admitted. “I could never allow myself to come close to anyone. If I did so they would soon discover my madness. I would then end my days under the care of a Sanatarium.”

Elizabeth nodded in understanding. “Where one of your looks an build would soon find herself tha toy of anyone who wanted yah. Probably have ah dozen kits scuttled away tah baby brokers before yah lost yer looks too. No, Tatiana has done well by you. She’ll rescue you. That I assure you. My husband is not gonna throw you to tha wolves simply to be torn apart as a diversion, while we hunters encircle their blood mad pack. That was tha plan true. Not now. Not for ah long time. Your gonna be bait honey, rich juicy bait. Yer not gonna be a sacrifice.”

“Your accent” Millicent noted.

“Changes as I feel young Lady” Elizabeth explained. “I am very tired, my natural west American accent slips out when I am tired. Or woudja rathe ah Brit accy?”

Millicent laughed, her dour mood shattered by Elizabeth’s horrible cheap British accent. “You are not from the wharves Mam” she finally explained, having gotten her laughter under control. “That accent does not suit you.” She brushed her face with both paws, settling her fur. “I am most honored to meet my hero” she continued. “Though I may never call you by that name, please understand that in my daydreams one like you served me while I was Ambassador to some great country.”

Elizabeth winked at Millicent. “Hon. Yer Tatiana’s gonna be that person. Your being ah Ambassador? Can’t say. Iffin you were Spontoon, but nah. Yer too Crown and Country loyal. Wouldn ask that of yah. Yah’d refuse, just like Oharu refused tha High Seat. Ahn for tha same reasons, or near nough. Now I gotta go get some shut eye before I pass out. Goodnight sweet Millicent.”

“Good night Mam.” Millicent waited until the door closed before turning back to face the ferret that was her new controller. “I will ask nothing of her, or you” she told that impassive face. “For it is not my place to know. I am but a pawn. May I know my next move?”

“Survive your capture. By any means you may” Albert answered. “You will have your month in Hawaii. Make good use of it. Be seen, see the sights. Be with your wife as much as you can. I will hold information from you young Millicent. I will never lie to you. You will be changed by what comes. That change may be small, or it may be your shattering. But you will be changed. They are that professional. What comes after your return I do not know, can’t know. Other than I will have no further use for you. That means you return to Major Hawkins gentle paws. Be strong, survive. Perhaps you may one day be an Ambassadress. Or wife to Russia’s new ruler. Or find the two of you sharing a cold grave in some unknown place. I can’t know that. Now you need to return to your waiting bed, for sunrise song is only hours away. Tiki Six will insure that you reach a waiting water taxi unseen. Their rough, but fully professional.”

“Yes Sir.” Millicent started to turn for the door then stopped. “Thank you sir. For your honesty. I hope. I hope that if I survive, that we may remain friends.”

Albert barked a laugh. “Only so you can visit my wife, steal her away from me with your charms.”

Millicent giggled. “Sir. It takes all I have to keep my Tatty happy. I could never dare expend even a moment with another. Good night sir, I will show myself out. If that is acceptable to you.”

“It is. We may not meet again Millicent, or we may. Good-night.” He watched her go, heard the front door close softly. A few minutes later his wife walked in, all signs of exhaustion gone.

“How were you so sure she would keep ‘er mouth shut” she asked softly.

Albert stood, stretching to release the kinks in his back. “Hawkins warned me about her obsession with you. Came to reason that she’d spot her hero. Hawkins also explained that for all she is still untried and certainly not liking her current situation, she does keep her mouth shut now. Never gossips, never gives information away. Never repeats anything she hears.” He yawned, “Tatiana trusts her, that counts too. Its all in knowing your subject before they know you. Its simply preparedness my love. Preparedness.”