Chapter 45

The next morning I was in excellent shape again. I even managed to get out of bed with my women when they did. It left me plenty of time for a leisurely piss and then I got to hang around patting asses while they were trying to get breakfast on the table.

Rose tried scolding me away a couple of times and to show her it wouldn't work I concentrated on her ass for extra patting and pinching. She wised up and accepted her fate without complaint after a few minutes.

She must not have been real mad about the groping either, since we had bacon, eggs, biscuits, donuts, and coffee for breakfast and she made sure my plate still had something on it after I'd eaten every bite I could. I was about to get up and wander off when I heard a familiar voice.

"Daddy, you beat us to the table this morning. Did you leave us any food?" Kita asked, from where she stood beside her chair with Chiqa in her arms.

"Of course I did. There's a nice hot donut for you and I'm sure someone is making Chiqa's breakfast right now," I said, not actually lying.

I picked them both up in my arms and managed to hold onto Chiqa as I let Kita settle into the chair and get ready to accept her charge. For some reason they were both grinning at me when I sat back down. Rose handed Kita a bottle for Chiqa and after she had things going I slipped a bite of donut into Kita's mouth.

"Oh, those are so good, I just love them," Kita said, after she swallowed.

Apparently she just loved scrambled eggs too and she didn't dis the bacon either. She took a short break to give Chiqa a tiny spoonful of scrambled eggs then and when she turned back and opened up for me like a little bird I popped a piece of heavily buttered biscuit into her mouth.

"I love the biscuits too, but why does Mommy Rose call them cat head biscuits?"

"Because they're about the size of a house cat's head."

"But what is a house and what is a house cat?"

"A house is like a hut, but much bigger and all built out of wood instead of skins. A house cat is a small cat you keep in your house to catch any mice who try to move in and steal your food," I said, explaining.

"The cats must be small if their heads are so little."

"They are, but I haven't seen any of them around here. If I ever do I'll try to catch one for you," I said, promising.

Kita and Chiqa were full and back in the furs for a digestion improving nap a few minutes later and Rose came to sit beside me and have a cup of coffee.

"Since you and Kita talked about cats this morning I've been thinking. The fish still owe you a pair of dogs. The folks we got the others from were sold completely out after we bought up the ones they had for the last group. Sigfried thinks Rosco and the others hope you'll forget it, but you know I won't. In fact I might demand a few cats as interest over their late delivery."

"They might be a help for real. I haven't seen any rats or mice yet, but they're bound to show up sooner or later. A couple of cats would probably end up being a big help, and they increase quickly," I said.

"What breed should we get?" Rose asked.

"If there's a specific breed of cat which is a better mouser I don't know which one it is and I don't think breed is important even though I know the mothers are. We don't want any that are too wild to handle, but we do want to make sure the mothers know how to catch mice."

"I thought every cat knew how to catch mice," Rose said.

"So do most people, but they're wrong. I don't know who paid for the studies, but I saw a sort of documentary on TV once. It said if a kitten's mother doesn't teach it to kill and eat mice it won't learn by itself.

"I was just like you for a long time and thought all cats knew it instinctively. I learned better when I was just a kid working in a feed store. Now there was a place for attracting mice and rats too.

"The owner had cats and he took care of them. He's the one who convinced me the kittens had to learn from their mothers. I remember he was always as happy as if it were Christmas when one of his momma cats had a litter."

"So you're saying all we need is a mother cat we know will teach her kittens to catch and eat mice?"

"That's it, but I don't know anywhere to tell you to buy one who will," I said.

"We don't have to worry about it. I'm sure Roscoe and his gang will be dropping off another bunch of newbies before long and after they get killed I'll be approached for another bit of contract work."

"You don't think they paid attention to what you did and are going to copy it?"

"They paid attention, but mostly they bitched and kept telling me where and how I was fucking up, if you can believe it. Mostly they bitched about the age of the men I picked. Since they make them all young again I never did understand why. They also thought I should have picked men who had better educations. It's a wonder they grabbed you without help since they think a higher education is mandatory. I'm sure they went back to their old tricks as soon as I was out of sight.

"Sigfried knows the real story, but I made him promise not to tell them before I would clue him in. In fact he said he was going to start looking for good candidates without telling them about it. I'm glad because it will make things easier on me after they come sniffing around for more help. Believe me, I'm going to make them pay when they do."

"I don't guess it'll hurt a thing, but I can't really think of much else we need to get by. Seems to me we've got about everything we need now. We haven't even used a lot of the stuff we have."

"You're right, but I still have a few things on my list. They're not really things though. You probably figured out already Sigfried is responsible for the garage just happening to be where it is."

"I remember wondering about it right at first, but the things in it were such a shock the actual garage slipped my mind."

"The garage and the equipment were pretty much all I could finagle them out of for my help, but I've got things on my mind. We're going to get a real bedroom sooner or later. I had Sigfried make sure there was plenty of room for one between the garage and this cave. It'll be right up near the front, but I don't want it in the middle of the traffic way like it is now.

"Sigfried can do a hell of a lot down here, even from orbit. He was able to dig out the garage somehow and he didn't have to send down a bunch of their bots to do it. I plan on him hollowing out a bedroom for us in the space left between the garage and our cave."

"So that's how he made sure there would be enough room for the truck to make it down the path or back up to the upper plateau?" I asked.

"Of course it was, and I had him do it. I'll admit I forgot to ask him about a bridge, but hell, I can't think of everything. I was really surprised when you told me about the one from the plateau down to the river basin level," Rose said.

"Maybe it was just there all along. It didn't look artificial or anything, it just seemed too good to be true."

"Hell, I'm not saying he didn't do it, I'm just telling you I didn't remember to ask for anything like it. I don't think it would have been a problem though. I know it didn't take him long at all for the garage. Hell, he might have made the ramp/bridge you found for the hell of it. It's not like they're worried about doing things down here."

"Well do you have any idea what they are hoping to gain by all this?" I asked.

"Not a clue, and I'm not the only one. Sigfried told me from the start none of them knew. It's an orders from above sort of thing and it's not even very out of the ordinary."