HFM: Chapter 10

Chapter 10: Trouble

Jazz woke first to a pounding head and a foul smell. She tried to move, but couldn’t. Looking down, she saw that she was tied up. Thick ropes wrapped around her body, tying her to Bageera, who’s head slumped forward. Her paws were tied behind her back with Bageera’s. Jazz looked around, trying to see where they were. It looked as if they were in the trunk of a car. But that didn’t interest her as much as who they were sharing the space with.

“Mistoffelees,” she muttered. “And the Rum Tum Tugger.”

“Please,” the curious cat said. “Call me Tugger. I think we can drop the formalities. Don’t you?”

The Rum Tum Tugger stood over Jazz, a small bottle in one paw. A foul smell came from it. It was probably what woke her up. He held it under Bageera’s nose as well, waking him. He woke, looked up and instantly began trying to get at the Rum Tum. But the ropes were thick. They held fast. Mistoffelees didn’t say anything. He just hung back, head down.

“Stop struggling,” Tugger said, fluffing up his mane. “It won’t do you any good.”

“I’m going to kill you,” Bageera said.

“Not like that you’re not,” Tugger said with a wicked smile. “Like that, all you’re going to do is sit there and tire yourself out.”

Bageera stopped only long enough to look over Tugger’s body, his eyes lingering for a moment on his right forepaw. Then he continued to struggle. Tugger went over to the side of the trunk and sat back against it. He tossed the foul smelling bottle to one side.

“Why did you have to come here?” he asked. “Macavity spares your lives, and this is how you thank him?”

“He killed our entire tribe!” Bageera shouted.

“No,” Tugger said. “Not the entire tribe. You’re still here, unfortunately.” He leaned his head back and closed his eyes.

“Why’d he do it?” Bageera demanded. “Why’d he kill them?”

“You want the honest truth?” Tugger asked. “Macavity has a much bigger agenda than your pathetic little tribe. He had a plan to achieve that agenda and wanted to test it out first. If it makes you feel any better, that test failed.”

“Macavity wiped out an entire tribe just to try out a plan?” Bageera spat, hate dripping from the words.

“Yes,” was the only answer.

“Why didn’t he kill us, huh?” Jazz demanded. “He had so many others killed, what’s two more?”

“Because he thought he didn’t need to,” Tugger said. “As hard as it may be for you to believe this, Macavity doesn’t kill just for the joy of it. He tries to avoid it if he can.” He looked up and gave the detectives a hard stare. “But that doesn’t mean he won’t kill if it’s the best way to get what he wants.”

He got to his paws and began to pace.

“That’s how I convinced him to let you two live. It was my sincerest hope that you would curl up and die on your own somewhere. Or at least join another tribe and get on with your lives. I honestly didn’t think you would start your own private vendetta to bring us down.”

“I guess you weren’t thinking, then,” Bageera said. “We swore to hunt him down to the ends of the Earth if we had to.”

“Yes,” Tugger said. “Unfortunate, really.” He walked over to where there was a hole in the floor of the trunk. “Now I must finish what he started so long ago.” He looked back and smiled. “This car you’re in is going to be crushed in a matter of minutes. In fact, I think I hear the sound of the machines warming up. If I were you, I would make peace with the Everlasting Cat while you still can.”

With one last smile, he vanished through the hole in the floor. Mistoffelees looked at the two detectives grimly before moving towards the hole as well.

“You’re just going to leave us here?” Bageera asked. “Just like that?”

Mistoffelees was silent for a moment. “I’m sorry,” he said at last. “But I can’t jeopardize my life in the tribe. I can’t let you go to Old Deuteronomy or Munkustrap and tell them what you know. Even if they don’t believe you outright, you could probably convince them in time.” He looked at his paws. “I really am sorry.”

“Sorry doesn’t count for much when you leave us for dead!” Bageera shouted.

“I didn’t want it to be like this,” Mistoffelees said. “Honestly, I didn’t. If Old Deuteronomy had just accepted me in the first place, if he had just set aside his stupid prejudice…” He trailed off and hung his hand. “I know it doesn’t count for anything, but I truly am sorry that it had to come to this.”

And then he was gone. There was no flash of sparks or a whirl of smoke. He just simply left through the hole after Tugger.

xxx

“Well, we’re screwed,” Jazz said as she struggled against the ropes.

“Looks that way,” Bageera said, also fighting to get free. “These are some pretty strong ropes.”

The car gave a sudden jolt as something large grabbed onto it. Then the car was lifted into the air. It moved for several moments before dropping onto a moving belt. The sounds of crushing metal could be heard up ahead.

“How long do we have?” Jazz asked.

“Well,” Bageera said calmly, “judging from the sound of the crushing machine and the rate at which we’re moving, while considering the muffling effects of the trunk, I would say at least three, maybe four minutes.”

“Plenty of time then,” Jazz said.

“Quite.”

Though their paws were tied together, they moved them as close to the ropes as possible. Then they began to snap. Sparks flew and landed on the rope. Slowly, it began to fray.

“And you said this would never come in handy,” Bageera said.

“Shut up, and keep snapping,” Jazz said.

They kept snapping for what seemed like forever, ever aware of the increase in volume of the crushing machine. Finally, the rope frayed enough for them to snap it. With their paws tied behind their backs, they began to roll to the hole Tugger and Mistoffelees had vanished through. Jazz rolled out first, followed closely by Bageera. They hit the conveyer belt and continued to roll. They rolled off the conveyer belt just as the front half of the car entered the machine.

Above them, they heard the scream of metal as it was crushed and folded over on itself. Jazz and Bageera looked up as sparks shot out of the opening of the crusher. They both shuddered at the thought of what almost happened to them.

xxx

“He’s on to us,” Bageera said.

“I don’t really need you to tell me that,” Jazz said.

They had cut their paws free on a broken hacksaw found near the crusher. Then, checking to make sure they weren’t hurt beyond headaches and bruises from the falling, they began to make their way back to the main tribe area.

When Tugger had struck Bageera, he had left deep scratches across his face. They were still bloody, but Bageera was fairly certain he wasn’t going to bleed to death. But still, scratches like that would definitely scar. He was looking at them in an old toaster he had polished slightly with his tail.

“So what do we know now?” Bageera asked.

“Mungojerrie is innocent. The Rum Tum Tugger isn’t. A rather powerful Grimalkin is in league with Macavity. Said Grimalkin will do anything to keep his secret hidden. And Tugger just tried to kill us and probably thinks we’re dead,” Jazz said.

“Okay,” Bageera said, wiping blood from his eyes. “And what can we prove?”

“We can’t prove any of it,” Jazz said. “We’ve got nothing solid we can show to anyone to prove what we know.”

“Solid, maybe not,” Bageera said. “But we…”

Bageera slowly trailed off. Jazz was really beginning to wish he’d stop doing that. She turned to him and still saw him looking into the hubcap. Only his eyes were wide. He grabbed the toaster and tilted his head from side to side, taking a good look at his reflection. Eventually, he moved away and began looking for something flatter. He came up with a stray piece of mirror from one of the nearby cars. He took a good, hard look at the scratches down his face, gripping the jagged shard of mirror hard enough to make blood leak out through his pads.

“Jazz,” he said slowly, looking up from the mirror. “When examining the crime scene, I said Macavity was hurt in the left side, right?”

“That’s what you said,” Jazz said. “I don’t know how you can tell from dirt, but-”

“I know where we can find our proof.”

“What?” Jazz asked.

“It’s not hard evidence, I know,” Bageera said. “But it should be enough.”

“What is it?” Jazz asked.

Bageera gave her a steady look, ignoring the blood dripping from the open wounds on his face.

“We need to find Mungojerrie.”