“Better.”
“Yesterday was pretty quiet,” I said, “for a change.”
“But last night was a different matter,” she said.
“Oh? What do you mean?”
“Then you haven’t heard about the fire?”
“Fire? No. Where? What happened?”
“The Good Doctor got burned out. It’s still smoldering. I took a walk very early this morning and I smelled it. Went over and watched for a long time. His storm finally stopped when the place caved in.”
“Is he all right? And the other fellows? Did they get out?”
“I don’t know. I’m not sure they did, though. I didn’t see them.”
“Maybe I ought to sniff around a bit,” I said.
“Might be a good idea.”
We headed off in that direction.
It was odd, coming on the place without a storm raging overhead. The house was blackened and still smoky, its roof and three walls fallen, the ground dark with ashes, debris, and the singeing effects of the heat, about it. Off to the west, to our right, as we approached, the barn stood unscathed. The ground everywhere near us was wet to the point of squishiness from the deluge that had descended upon it in past weeks.
We circled the burnt place slowly, peering into it. Past charred beams and fragmented walls, I could make out banks of broken equipment far below. The smell from the fire and the dampness of the earth made it impossible for me to detect any useful scents in the vicinity. I told Graymalk this, and she said, “Then you can’t tell whether the Good Doctor and his assistants escaped or perished?”
“Afraid not,” I answered.
We went off to take a look at the bam. As we departed the ravaged area and neared that structure,
I did pick up a fresh scent. Very fresh. Just ahead, in fact. I broke into a run.
“What is it?” Graymalk asked.
There was no time to respond to her. I’d glimpsed him rounding the corner of the building, and I raced that way. He saw me coming, realized that I could move a lot faster than he could, and dashed inside one of a number of wooden crates strewn there. I approached the crate and stuck my head inside, fangs bared.
Bubo crouched in its farthest recess.
“Remember what they say about cornered rats,” he said. “We can be nasty.”
“I’m sure,” I replied. “But what’d be the point? No one wants to hurt you.”
“You were chasing me.”
“I wanted to talk to you.”
“So you brought along a cat.”
“I can let you talk to her if you don’t want to talk to me.”
I started to withdraw.
“No! Wait! I’d rather talk to you!”
“All right,” I said. “I just wanted to know what happened here.”
“There was a fire.”
“I can see that. How’d it get started?”
“The experiment man got mad at the Good Doctor and started wrecking the lab. Sparks from some of the equipment set the place burning.”
“‘The experiment man’?”
“You know. The big fellow the Good Doctor put together from all the parts his assistant dug up for him.”
I recalled the smell of death and I began to understand.
“What happened then?” I asked.
“The experiment man ran out and hid in the barn here, as he always did after an argument. I got out, too. The place burned down.”
“Did the Good Doctor and his assistant get out in time?”
“I don’t know. When I went back and looked later there was no way I could tell.”
“What about the experiment man? Is he still in the barn?”
“No. He ran away later. I don’t know where he is.”
I backed up. “I’m sorry,” I said, and I withdrew my head from the crate.
Graymalk immediately moved near and asked, “Was the Good Doctor an opener or a closer?”
“Please,” he said, “let me be. I’m just a simple pack rat. Snuff! Don’t let her have me!”
“I’ve already eaten,” she said. “Besides, I owe you courtesy as a fellow player.”
“No you don’t,” he said. “It’s over. Over.”
“Just because your master is dead doesn’t mean I should treat you as anything other than a player.”