A Cat Called Kat

Chapter Twenty-Five - The Non-Battle of Strangiato

About half an hour later, Caroline emerged from the study. She looked grim but she was smiling. "All done," she said simply.

"What do we do now?"

"We wait," she answered, "and just before five, we go down and get the lower gate open.

"But that'll mean fighting our way up to the house!" I said.

"That's why we get paid the big bucks," she answered with a bit of a laugh.

"But there'll be our own people on both sides."

"That's the way things go sometimes."

I stared at her for a long time, with my brain basically in overdrive. "I think I can bluff our way into the guard office," I told her.

She looked at me and her face seemed to light up. "You want to bet your life?" she asked. "And your sister's?"

I thought about this then nodded.

So ten minutes later, I was standing outside the reinforced door to the guard office. Caroline was in front of me with her hands apparently tied behind her back. I guess it said a fair bit about how much the security level had slipped that the two of us had been able to get this close without being noticed but it certainly suited our purposes.

Caroline seemed to sag against the wall as I rang the bell. "What's up?" a bored sort of voice asked in Italian.

"Look who managed to get out and tried to attack me again." I answered in English.

There was a bit of a pause as the guy studied the monitors which was followed by a stream of wild swearing in Italian which I didn't really understand. The lessons from my lovely Italian tutor, Francesca, had been distinctly lacking in that regard.

I thought I recognised the voice so I wasn't that surprised when a laughing Captain Moretti answered the door

"Kill him!" I told Caroline briefly. He fumbled for his gun but, before he could get it all the way out of its holster, she had kicked his hand and sent the thing skittering across the floor. As the two started to exchange blows, I pushed past him into the room though I did manage to drive an elbow into his kidneys as I passed.

There was one other guy on duty in the office but he was just sitting behind his desk and looking stunned. Before he had got his head round what was happening, I'd already drawn my pistol and was aiming it at him, centre mass. "Don't do anything stupid," I told him in Italian. "Leave your hands flat on the desk and you ought to survive the night."

He did this sort of dumb nod thing and we waited whilst Caroline finished bashing Captain Moretti's head against a metal filing cabinet. "You really want this guy dead?" she asked, all mildly, as if she was asking me if I wanted a cup of tea.

"He tried to rape me," I explained.

She did this sort of nod thing, basically agreeing that it was as good a reason as any, then dropped him to the ground, put a knee in the back of his neck and twisted his head until there was a vaguely unpleasant popping noise

I turned my attention back to the stunned looking guard. "You know who I am?" I asked him in Italian.

He nodded vaguely though his eyes were still on the Captain's body.

"We have just killed Slimeball Simone," I told him, "and my sister will be arriving soon with a small army to claim her rightful control of the Family. Now, I have no reason to believe that you, personally, have betrayed us so far so I strongly suggest you keep it that way."

He nodded. No matter who's side he'd been on before, I guess he could see the game was up. I suppose Captain Moretti's body on the floor was pretty convincing.