Free Norton, Andre - Anthology by Catfantastic IV (v1.0)

bouncing
animal off his keyboard, and surveyed the damage. "Nuisance, you are NOT
to come in here," he told the animal, quivering in its eagerness to play.
                   "Screep," said Nuisance. (Whatever
her permanent name would be, she was Nuisance for now.) She twisted around to
lick Boris' wrist, then made a wriggle and landed on the keyboard. Its clicks
seemed to fascinate her, and she did a dance on the keys.
                   "That does it," Boris roared. This
time he picked up the kitten and tucked her under one arm. "Loi! Come get
this miserable cretin!"
                   "But, Daddy, I'm doin^ school work."
                   "I'm working, too." Ffe was heading
into her room. Oberon, who had opened one eye at the furor, closed it. His
wheezing snores followed Boris and the wriggling infant cat out the door.
                   "I'm almost through." Loi looked up
from her console, all innocence. "Then I'll take him, Daddy."
                   "You promised," Boris muttered. He
stayed there, petting the little bundle of mischief, until Loi turned off her
console and held out her hands.
                   It wasn't until he was back in his study that
he realized that he had, in essence, ordered his daughter to stop doing her
schoolwork to play with the kitten.
                   But that thought lasted no longer than his
first good look at the chaos caused by the kitten's paws on the keyboard.
                   His howl of anguish penetrated even the closed
door of Loi's room. But she only smiled smugly and held the soundmuffs she had
taken off just before letting the kitten out of her room higher, for Nuisance
to leap for.
     
                   Harry went through his routine in a haze of
pain and fear. Diavolo was getting plenty of pleasure out of playing cat and
mouse, with Harry the mouse. The sentient cat had all his feline instincts.
Just frightening the prey wasn't enough. Every so often, what looked like a
near miss wasn't. Harry was having trouble keeping the angry scratches and
resulting scars from Amii.
                   At least he could be proud of Linda. About a
year ago, she had worked up an amusing version of his routine using Jetlag the
cat. Even Amii chuckled as Jetlag refused to obey commands, leaving Linda in
her imitation lion tamer's gear, begging and pleading, while her father's
animals went through their act flawlessly. Now it was part of the act, although
outside the cage. Linda was a wonderful performer, and timed the amusing parts
of the act (as when Jetlag hopped off the tiny bucket and ran away from her)
for the parts of his act where he was merely rearranging the animals.
                   Linda's act was becoming very popular. He had
noticed that it was up more and more on the giant repeater screen.
                   But it made it worse for him, because she now
rehearsed with him, to be sure she had the rhythm of his act down pat.
                   She was very observant. Suppose she noticed
something wrong?
                   Even Diavolo complained about her. A leg
touched his. **get the child and that ridiculous excuse for one of us out of
here **
                   Harry pursed his lips. "I can't," he
muttered, with a glance over his shoulder. Linda had flopped to the dust of the
practice floor, and Jetlag was purring as he made biscuits on her tummy.
"I would if I could," he added desperately.
                   "Did you say something, daddy?"
                   "Just mumbling to myself, sweetheart.
Nothing important."
                   **you have three cubs and a mate, you won't
miss that one**
                   It was a threat and Harry knew it. He
straightened. He was panting in rage and fear for Linda. He put both hands on
the beast's shoulders and glared into topaz eyes. "I'll turn you in