Plannin Attaks on the Prizn

Mom Says:

That night, Agent Octavian slept on an unfamiliar knee. Not Ibrahim’s, because he was up half the night preparing for the following day, but that of his wife, Zaina, who quite liked cats, and wished her husband would bring more of them home, particularly in comparison to the British and American humans he more frequently brought home.

She quite fell for Musashi’s charm, and she told him (when Ibrahim was busy in another small room of their tiny apartment) that, as long as the government was not chasing him for his life, he should consider their home his; they would protect him from the smaller of life’s violent obstacles, anything that would not put them directly in danger. Agent Octavian, thinking of how his mother might similarly take in a British agent, acknowledged his gratitude at her offer, and hoped strongly that he might never have to use it. He fell into a fitful sleep, and when Ibrahim woke him from his slumber on Zaina’s knee, at first he was disoriented and confused. But when Ibrahim fed him a small lump of tuna (not as fresh as it might have been) and clear water, Octavian roused himself.

It was still dark outside, but he traveled on Ibrahim’s broad shoulder, seeing the night streets from a human point of view, practically empty and therefore open to human habitation. Such a view disheartened Octavian, and he tucked his head under Ibrahim’s hair until they reached the outskirts of the prison. It seemed to Octavian that they had walked for a long time, but the sky was still dark when they saw a high fence that encircled a large building, pale in the gloom. Ibrahim stood next to a tall palm tree a distance from the fence.

At a scramble of claws on the pavement, Ibrahim turned slowly and Octavian jumped down from his shoulder. Together they faced two small , lumpy shadows.

Gatto’s disillusioned voice came from the smaller shadow. “Sabaka say he weel meet us heer. Yu kin talk to heem an then he weel go an talk to heez hoomin. Then he weel com bak, an yu kin see eef yu has a deel, OK?”

“Shur,” said Octavian, not knowing what such a simple acknowledgment of such a simple-sounding agreement might mean…..