John and Argent by cmsix

Chapter 87

Our trip home was uneventful until we came to the side stream near our camp, the one that ran down by our logging site. It would have remained utterly ordinary if I hadn't glanced up the stream and seen some movement far up the little tributary's valley. It must have been over a mile and without the snow on the ground to provide the white background I would have never been able to see anything.

I told Danlo to stop and motioned behind me to let all the others know about our halt. Rummaging around in our packed things I found my binoculars, uncapped the lenses and pointed them toward where the motion had been. I didn't have any idea what it had been but I wanted to see if I could find out.

It was smilodon again and he'd dragged down a megaceros, quite a large one from what I could tell at this distance. At the moment his long teeth were closed tightly around the animals throat while it was kicking its last.

The scene made me wonder if it was the same cat that we had seen up on the plateau and I even speculated about whether it could be the one responsible for Shabago's demise while we were following him. I didn't really know how far the big cats ranged but it was winter and hunting for them might be hard just now, possibly forcing this one to go farther.

Another thing about the cat nagged at me then. If it was the same one we'd seen before it must have come down the valley right through our camp. I considered this unlikely since even in winter our scents should still be apparent to it. Maybe it didn't fear us at all or else was so hungry that it didn't care. Maybe this and maybe that wasn't helping a thing and I told Danlo to move out again. I explained why I'd wanted to stop and asked him to help me watch the ground for possible signs of the cat's passing.

We hadn't gone another quarter of a mile before we picked up smilodon's trail. It was apparent that he had headed down river from our camp and even I could tell that he hadn't been in a hurry. He had stayed near the valley's walls and had often merged into the small groups of trees that were sporadically scattered along the way.

Neither Racaato nor Raalto had come with us for the trip and now I wished that one of them had, especially I wished for Racaato. He was the best tracker in my camp by far and I knew that he would be able to tell me more about the sign than just which way it had come from. Danlo and I both concentrated on keeping up with the tracks for the rest of the way.

I had Danlo stop when we were still nearly a half-mile from the horse caves. I got down and went back to explain what I was doing to Bigglieo, the next driver in the line. I told him about the cat and its sign and that I wanted to get Racaato to look at it before any of us had a chance to disturb it with our passing. He understood the reasons at once and said that he would tell the others while I went for Racaato.

I walked the rest of the way to camp, being careful to stay far away from the cat's tracks. When I entered my cave many of my mates were busy in the kitchen and Gema was the first to see me. She shouted my name, ran to me and gave me a good hugging right away, the rest of them were right behind her.

"But John, where are all the others?" Gema asked after a few minutes.

"I left them waiting back down the trail in the cold. I need for Racaato and Raalto to come and look at some sign for me before the whole groups covers it up."

"What sign?" Dieta asked.

"We saw one of the big long toothed cats make a kill as we were passing our logging spot and its trail comes right down this valley. It must have come through our camp and I want Raalto and Racaato to look the tracks over while they are still fresh."

"I'll go and get them," Jaada said and waddled off.

While she was gone it was question time for Johnny. I gave them a few answers and told them they'd have to ask the others about some of it. I did tell them about Eileiea fixing Kradno's broken leg but decided that I'd let her tell then about Grotondo's later instructions to him.

Jaada returned with Raalto and Racaato then and I was glad to see that they already had their M1s in hand and their warm clothes on. I told my mates that everyone would be here soon then Racaato, Raalto and I left.

We were barely out of the cave when Racaato spied the cat's tracks on the other side of the river. We went over to them and after a few seconds he began following them down toward the waiting travelers I'd left behind.

"This seems very odd to me John, the cat was in no hurry to leave our camp; he was taking his time but I'm sure that he must have been able to catch the sent of us, even though we were surely all inside. Another thing that is strange is the wolves' behavior; at least some of them must have been aware that he came close. Even being inside the caves shouldn't have masked his passing from all of them," he said.

"Maybe they didn't think it was worth howling about?"

"That would be hard to believe. They are not naturally disposed to bother each other since wolves and cats are hunters and there is no point in them hunting each other. The wolves would know that they had no chance with one of these cats and the cat would know that there isn't enough meat on a wolf to bother with. That still doesn't mean that the wolves would just stay quiet while a cat was near," Raalto said.

"It is a shame that we can't ask them about it and expect a reasonable answer but we can't."

They both laughed at my joke but they went back to studying the sign as we worked our way toward the others. When we reached them I told Danlo to go on to camp but asked him to warn everyone not to go north of my cave while outside. We hadn't inspected the tracks up that way yet and I wanted all the information out of them that I could get. The cat's unhurried trip down through the midst of my camp had my curiosity up now.

Racaato, Raalto and I continued for another mile but the history of the cat's trip remained the same. It wasn't in a hurry and it hadn't seemed to be hunting to either Raalto or Racaato. To them it was a surprise that the cat just seemed to be traveling as if on a trip.

It confounded me too. What in hell could the damn thing have been doing, walking down the valley in the middle of the night? Racaato had already mentioned that the tracks had been made either last night after the snow stopped or today. It was a mystery that I was afraid we would never solve.

We didn't go all the way to the side stream since there wasn't going to be much daylight left and we wanted to examine the trail north of the camp also. I especially wanted to see if we could determine exactly when the cat had noticed the camp smells and also wanted to know if it had come down off the plateau or directly down the valley from farther north.

When we got back to camp, Danlo was waiting just inside the entrance to my cave and on seeing us he came out with three mugs of coffee for us and a thermos under his arm for later refills.

"Who said that you weren't a caring friend Danlo?" Raalto asked him.

"I knew that you would appreciate some coffee and I'm betting that you are headed north of camp now," he said.

"You're right on both counts."

"I have a sleigh hitched to two fresh Clydesdales down in the horse cave. I'll follow along behind you so you won't have to walk back in the dark if you stay out that long. I also have food, bedding and a tent loaded along with a little extra ammunition, some of the bright lights and the night vision things just in case we need it," he told us.

"You have done some good planning there. I hope that we won't be out long enough to need all that but it will be good to know we won't have to come back for things if we do need to keep going tonight."

The three of us walked on then sipping our coffee while Danlo went for the sleigh. By the time we reached the ramp up to the plateau he and the wagon were keeping pace about fifty feet behind us.

The cat's tracks plainly came down the ramp. We followed them up and at the top we got our strangest revelation yet. The cat had come at an angle across the plateau, almost in a straight line. The sign showed that he hadn't been hunting and had almost certainly been traveling with a destination in mind. We didn't follow more than a half-mile after we topped the plateau because it seemed obvious that we wouldn't learn anything else. I wasn't sure that we had really learned a damned thing that was really useful in all of it.

We were thankful for Danlo's planning again when we climbed aboard the sleigh to ride back home in relative comfort. We didn't talk much and I suppose all the others were doing the same thing I was doing. Wondering what in the hell the cat had on its mind. It sure didn't seem like something that one of them would normally do and there was still the question of why the wolves had kept quiet about it. Usually when they sensed something outside they all raised hell and stormed outside to let the visitor know that his or her presence was not a secret.

Danlo let us off at the entrance to my cave. We all offered to help him unload and tend to the horses but he said that Nadlo and Jonoco were supposed to be waiting inside to come help him as soon as we went in and let them know he was back. They were and they left as we entered.

Supper was ready too and my mates had fixed my favorite thing to welcome me back. Food. Actually it was slow roasted mammoth, plenty of Ranch Style Beans and some mashed potatoes. There was plenty more hot coffee for us and they all seemed to have been waiting for our return to eat. Now that we were back everyone dug in as soon as Racaato, Raalto and I were seated.

Our recent trip had been given a thorough going over while the three of us were out looking at cat prints. Raalto and Racaato hadn't heard about it yet but they didn't get any time for listening since everyone had to know the latest about the long toothed visitor. I let them tell it while I concentrated on eating. They knew a lot more about what the sign had said than I did anyway. After they finished talking it was time for them to hear about the trip.

Everyone had finished but the talking was still going on and when Kateata came to see if I wanted more coffee I asked for a mug of beer instead. They all thought bruga was a grand idea, especially Bigglieo. He was probably the first man in history to have a brew tooth instead of a sweet one.

When I saw her looking around at everyone's bruga I asked Kateata to fill Deimeta's little cup with beer since I knew that she was probably curious for a little sample. When she took her first sip she screwed up her face.

"It's an acquired taste baby."

"If you say so Daddy, I'm going to make myself finish it but it'll probably be a long while before I do any more acquiring if I have anything to say about it," she announced.

Everyone laughed at that but it didn't slow them down in asking for refills. After the third round was about gone I thought that I should probably leave the table, thinking that my exit would break up a young beer bust. I was right; when I said that I had to go into my office for a while everyone got the hint, drained their mugs and made themselves scarce.

I didn't really want anything special out of Ralph but it wouldn't hurt to be polite and go talk to him for a few minutes. As soon as I was in the office he said hello. I returned his greeting but didn't initiate any further conversation just then. My own attitude toward Ralph had suddenly surprised me. I had come into the office to say hello to a machine, out of courtesy. On the face of it that was strange behavior but really, when I thought about it, it wasn't so strange.

Technically speaking Ralph, Phil and Frank might not be people but they seemed like people to me and I knew that all the others that interacted with them considered them people. All my mates treated Frank as if he were a man that lived in the display that they talked with. What mattered to them was that he knew things that they didn't and that he could talk and didn't mind telling them how to do things. In fact several of them had asked me what he ate and if he was getting enough to eat.

Thinking about it made me wonder what qualified something to be a person and I decided that for our purposes here and now Frank, Phil and Ralph qualified. They interacted like a person even though they didn't walk around. I knew that they could see us and even more they could see all of us at all times. They could even see hundreds of others on this planet and knew much more about what was going on than any of us "real" people could.

Hell, they were more than people. They knew more than we did and they could see more than we could. They could even do more than we could and could even do more than anyone or everyone in my old life could. From what they'd told me they were pretty much responsible for Argent being able to contact me in the first place. They were the ones that controlled the spacecraft that Argent and the other aliens had come in and were the ones that had built the spacecraft in the first place.

I didn't like to think about things like this but I was doing it right now and I began to wonder just who was having what done and who controlled what. Now I not only didn't know the reason I had been put here and didn't really know exactly where here was but I didn't even know who really had wanted me put here to do whatever I was supposed to be doing. So what was my exact situation anyway?

I was somewhere and sometime other than the time and place that I'd been originally. I was here, even though I didn't know where here was, to do something but I didn't know what I was supposed to be doing. I had no idea what goals were set out for me or even if there were goals as I thought of them. I didn't know how long I was going to be here either and I didn't know if I'd be allowed to stay here after I finished doing what I'd been put here to do. I didn't know if it was even possible for me to finish doing what I was supposed to be doing. When it came right down to it I didn't really know shit.

I was as clueless as a mouse in a maze. I knew that I'd been brought here from my original, normal to me, situation by someone or something that was infinitely more knowledgeable and powerful than I was, to accomplish something that was completely hidden from me. I was praised and rewarded when I happen to make a step toward whatever my goal was even though I wasn't told exactly what my progress had consisted of. Fuck, I was a mouse in a maze. Now that I thought about it I didn't care about the progress, I just wanted to keep getting the cheese.

That's what Argent's gifts had all been, cheese. They were rewards for doing the right things. The more I thought about this I realized that it was exactly what Argent had asked me to do in the first place. He'd asked me to help them with an experiment and damned if I wasn't. I just hadn't realized at first that I was the subject of the experiment; exactly like a mouse in a maze, never knowing that it was not really a mouse looking for food but in reality it was a subject in an experiment.

What difference should my new understanding of my situation make to me? Should the mouse care about its purpose in the experiment? Why should it as long as it kept getting the cheese? Maze mice were usually well cared for and they were usually kept comfortable and their life's work was not onerous or complicated. They hung out in their little cages until the giant hands put them in the maze and then they looked around for food. In fact they apparently had a better life than millions of their fellows. Reflecting I could see that I also had a better life than millions or even billions of my fellows.

From what Argent told me before he left I was now lucky to have a life at all and apparently many of my former fellows didn't even have that anymore. So should I count myself lucky and just keep eating my cheese without wondering where or when I was and without thinking of my former fellows and what happened to them?

No, that wasn't what they wanted. I don't know how I knew this but I felt it strongly. The "hands" that put me in this maze wanted me to do more than just eat the cheese and screw the females. They wanted more but they wouldn't tell me what it was that they wanted. When I stumbled into doing what they wanted they usually told me about it without telling me what I'd done but they did come across with more cheese at these times.

Complicating the issue were the modifications to my cage they often made. At different times the maze seemed to change without notice or without a good reason. When I'd found these new caves was that part of running the maze or was that just an improvement in my cage? It was confusing.

And the bathrooms, how could I classify the appearance of the bathrooms? Looking back it seems that they were first intended to be improvements in my cage until the "hands" made a mistake. I had been supermouse that time, since I'm sure any scientist studying mice on earth would have been astonished to discover that the mouse had caught him making a mistake and he would have been even more perplexed to have the mouse throw a tantrum and threaten to quit running the maze. What scientist had ever found himself having to negotiate with his mouse over the amenities in its cage?

What mouse had ever had to try to discover just how much his maze work was worth to the scientist? What mouse had ever had the opportunity to try playing mind games with the scientist with the outcome being a better cage and more and different kinds of cheese?

This line of thought was getting a little weird to me now and it was starting to give me a headache. My first inclination was to try and talk it over with Ralph until I realized that it would add even more complications to the mouse/hands relationship and I hadn't really decided whether Ralph, Phil and Frank were just other "hands" or if they were a new amenity in my cage.

"For a while there Ralph we thought that you had made a miscalculation in your weather forecast."

"I knew that you would face the little storm that came through but it caused you no serious difficulties and I believe that is what I told you. I said that the weather would not be a problem," Ralph said without inquiring about the silence while I had been reevaluating my situation.

"I guess that it was a difference in perception, being accustomed to the weather forecast from my old life I assumed you meant that we wouldn't face any inconvenience at all and when the snow came I gave your forecast the same consideration I would have given one from my old life. I thought it had been wrong and that we could be in for a hard time."

"I probably should have mentioned the snow instead of just giving you such a literally correct answer. I should have realized that you were accustomed to weather predictions that were less than reliable sometimes," he said.

"No matter now, everything went well. I considered turning back at one point but I'm glad that we didn't. I guess you know about the injured man at Grotondo's camp."

"Yes, we saw him slip. I'm surprised that you considered turning back though since we didn't notice anything that made us think you might. Of course we heard the grumbling from some of the others as they discussed the wisdom of traveling in that type of weather but we didn't see anything in you that made us think you might turn back," he said.

"Well I didn't do anything about it I just thought about it for a few moments and by that time we were almost half way to Grotondo's camp. With shelter available in either direction with about the same amount of travel I decided to keep on. I'm glad I did, not only because Kradno needed the attention from Eileiea but also because I would have looked bad doing all that for nothing and then finding that the weather had been good enough all along."

"I see, you would have lost face?" he asked.

"Not exactly but it would have meant that I'd planned a dangerous trip and hadn't had the confidence in my own judgment to see it through."

"Surely no one would fault you for changing your decision in the light of new information," he said.

"While we were turning back and going home no one would have. The next day when the weather was clear again and everyone realized that we'd never been in any danger I might have been considered a little foolish though I'm sure that no one would have said it, especially if I could have heard it."

"I don't understand how any of them could fault you for a decision made without adequate information," he said.

"Decisions made without adequate information are often called hunches. Good leaders make good hunches and I'm sure that I would have been better off, in my people's eyes, even if the weather had turned really nasty. Once I decided to go it was better for me to finish than to turn around and come back. As long as we all lived, completing the trip was the best thing for me in their eyes. It was also far and away the best thing for Kradno."

"Yes he did need to be treated and if you had seemed to be turning back we had already decided to contact you so that we could provide more information and reassurance about your safety. From the way some of the men were complaining we almost expected you to consider it even though we never saw any evidence of it," he said.

"Well all's well that ends well and all that crap. The trip's over and we're back safely. I've got a little mystery going on about the saber toothed cat but if it becomes important we can probably figure it out."

"I can tell you the exact situation regarding the cat if you want," Ralph said.

"I think I'd like to do my own detective work on that one. If I get stuck I might change my mind."

"As you like it. You might also be interested to know that Argent and the others will be back later tonight," he said.

"I'm glad to hear it and I'm interested in hearing what he'll tell me about his own adventure. I don't want to seem too anxious to know though. If he arrives after I'm asleep please ask him not to disturb me in my dreams."