Author's Note - The Passing of a Cat

In regards to the last chapter, I hadn't intended to kill another cat but on Monday afternoon my husband and I had to put down his cat, Dearecca. What does this have to do with Erik? Well the original four cats of Clouder Number Nine are based on our four cats - Nala, Fiamain, Dearecca, and Phoebe. When I started I knew that the names Fiamain and Dearecca would be hard for readers so I changed them to Fiona and Erik. I also didn't want an all female clouder so I changed Dearecca to Erik.

Dearecca had had some neruological damage from a cheap flea treatment I had used on her. Her back legs didn't work so well for the last few years. But a month ago, she lost a lot of her movement and moved into the bathroom to be close to her food, water, and litter. Then late last week, she wasn't even able to move that much. So we had to do the hard thing and put her out of her misery.

That left me with a fictional cat counter part still living. I wasn't sure I wanted to continue with writing Erik with his counterpart gone. And I wanted a way to pay tribute to Dearecca, so Erik died. I didn't want to have him killed in a fire fight but I also didn't want to have him put down at Liz's office so I came up with the series of strokes.

Rest in Peace Dearecca! Rest in Peace Erik!
(These pictures are of Dearecca in her prime before she got sick.)

The Job Completed

While Natalia was sleeping the sleep of a feline villainess, Angus and the agents of M.E.O.W.- both feline and human- were seeking intelligence about the island. The aerial drone pictures showed the anti-cat measures. Down to the last ball of yarn.

After the intel had been gathered, the several clouders of feline agents and their humans sat around the large kitchen table of the house that was there headquarters in this part of France. The computers and speakers needed for the cats to air their thoughts were set up on the counter near the table. Several piles of papers and carts were at one end and

“Well, that rules out cats,” Nala said through the computer speaker.

“Natalia does seemed to have planned for you, Nala,” Angus agreed. “Have we any good sonar views of the island's bases and any security measures in the sea?”

Lt. Brewster pulled out a couple of charts. She spread them out in the center. Lt. Smith and Angus each grabbed a corner.

“It looks like the only sea based defenses are aimed at the two docks and the single path to the sea,” Lt. Brewster reported.

“She's counting on no cat deigning to set paw in the water,” Nala said. “I'd love to prove her wrong.”

“You'll get your chance but I think I'll need to go in first,” Angus said.

“So you have a plan?” asked Fiona's computer voice. The big, fluffy black and white cat was studying the map. “I really want to catch Natalia but I'm not sure I'm up for a mile swim.”

“If the plan goes right, no cat will be swimming,” Angus pointed out.

He detailed the plan and the various cats and humans prepared for their roles. Liz and Erik would stay be hind. The doctor would ready the supplies for any treatment beyond field first aid and the feline would run the computers.

Angus and Lt. Smith took a boat out. Angus was in SCUBA gear to make the stealthy approach to the island. Lt. Brewster and a couple of the other human handlers had two boats with cats ready to infiltrate when Angus gave the all clear.

Angus rolled backwards over the gunwale of the boat into the Mediterranean Sea. He dived down and swam to the island. Just as he thought, there were no anti-human measures. He disabled the sea defenses before he climbed out on shore. Then he made his way up the shore and stashed his tank and flippers in bushes that surrounded the cat nip field. He went back down the sides of the paved path and disabled the sensors. Finally, he signaled for the others to land.

It took ten minutes for the boats to come ashore, as they had been far out to sea to avoid detection. In that time he rounded up the cardboard boxes nearest the path so there would be a wider path for the invading felines to take to the house. The invasion force landed and started carrying out the plan.

The invasion went as exactly according to plan, for once. All the human lieutenants and cats working for Natalia were rounded up. The humans were taken to the French authorities to hold until Interpol could deal with them. The cats would be taken to the French Gendarmeire Chat for interrogation and sentencing.

Angus, Lt. Brewster, Nala, Fiona, and Phoebe had Natalia surrounded on the patio of her bedroom. She had just woken up and was enjoying a moonlit repast of fresh salmon when the invasion began but she had trusted her defenses and kept eating until they had breached the room.

“Natalia,” Nala said. “You've no where else to go, so just come with us.”

“Never,” Natalia backed up from her towards the low wall around the patio.

“Angus,” Liz said over the comms. She sounded a bit anxious but still professional.

“We're just getting Natalia now,” Angus answered.

“Good,” Liz replied. “But you and Fiona need to get back here. Now.”

Angus looked around at the situation and the mentioned cat. They could wrap this up in five minutes and be back to the house in just over a half hour. Fiona looked at him. The others briefly glanced his way. Natalia took the opportunity to get up on the ledge of the wall.

“Go,” Lt. Brewster said. “The rest of us have this.”

Angus nodded and Fiona and he left. They ran to the boats. One had already pulled away to take a load of captives back to the mainland but it halted a few feet from shore. Angus picked up the black and white fluffy cat and waded out to it. He handed the cat to Lt. Smith and climbed in.

“Ifrinn,” came Brewster's voice over the comms. “Natalia just jumped for it. All teams on the beach look out for Natalia.”

“Angus,” Liz came into the comms conversation again. “You and Fiona had better be on your way back.”

“We are,” Angus answered. “We'll be there in twenty minutes.”

“We got eyes on Natalia,” Brewster replied.

“Ifrinn,” this time it was Nala's computer voice. “That evil sister of mine has a personal watercraft and has escaped again.”

“Ifrinn,” chorused all of Clouder Number Nine. (Everyone had learned that but of Gaelic cussing from Angus and used it liberally.)

“Brewster, you and the rest of Clouder Number Nine get on the next boat out and leave the others for mop up operations,” Angus ordered. “Now, Liz, I assume something has happened to Erik?”

“He had a small seizure right after you left,” Liz explained. “He seemed all right after that. Then about ten minutes ago he had another, and is still unconscious.”

“We'll be right there,” Angus said. The boat captain looked at him in question. Angus nodded his permission and the captain opened up the throttle to maximum. It cut the transit time in half. When they reached the docks, Fiona allowed Angus to pick her up and carry her. The house they were running the op from was just a few doors down, so Angus just ran with the cat under his arm.

Liz saw them coming and opened the door. Angus put the feline down. Liz lead them to the bed room where Erik was laid out on the bed. Fiona jumped up on the bed and curled around her brother. They had been through much since they had been from the same litter. She started grooming his head and though Erik didn't wake he leaned into his sister.

Twenty minutes later, the rest of the Clouder entered the house. The cats all curled around the siblings and purred. Erik's breathing got shallower and shallower.

“Can't you do anything?” Angus asked his wife.

“If we were at HQ, I might be able to but by the time we get to a vet's now, nothing can help,” Liz said. “Either he comes out of this or he won't.” She took Angus's hand. “With two seizures so close together, I'm afraid he won't recover.”

Angus gripped tight to her hand and with his free hand, he stroked Erik's head. This was the hard part. Cats didn't live nearly as long as humans and Erik was fourteen. He had lived a full life and been useful to his country.

An hour later, Erik slipped away. The other cats concentrated their concern on Fiona. Liz made the official pronouncement and Angus made arrangements to take the body back to Wales for burial.

Lt. Brewster and Fiona took Erik's body home and did the necessary preliminaries while everyone else completed the job in France. Erik would have wanted that. Fortunately that only took a day and then everyone was gathered graveside for the service. As the cat sized coffin was lowered, Angus and an honor guard, culled from the humans of various Clouders whom Erik's computer skills had saved, fired a three volley salute. Then Lady Gwen read a condolence letter from Her Royal Majesty.

The ceremony over, Clouder Number Nine retreated to their quarters. They were on stand down for the next fortnight to grieve. They would do so while pouring over the records of the villa in France. They would go back in the field with Lt. Smith at the computers until they could find a new cat to work with. But until then, they'd console each other and drink cream.

A Hideout at Sea

Natalia looked over the moonlight on the blue green water and admired the view. It was pretty to look at but she wasn't tempted in the slightest to venture into it. The sea would get her fur wet and salty. As a cat, she had an aversion to being wet and the salt was a pain in the tail to clean. Not to mention, it tasted funny. Even though she didn't want to swim in the Mediterranean Sea that surrounded the latest of her hideouts. Though the term hideout conjures the image of a shack deep in the woods and this was more of a luxury villa on its own island in the French Riviera, but it still served that function. Though hideout wasn't exactly what it was either. It was more like a trap. A trap designed to capture the secret agent cats that M.E.O.W. would send after her.

Natalia might be a former M.E.O.W. agent with no current contacts in the Ministry, but some of her contacts had contacts. So what if the news was second or third hand, it was still news. The latest was all about the mission in Turkey that went sideways. It was bad luck that by keeping her rivals close that she and her followers had been next to where three cats and two M.E.O.W. handlers had died. Natalia knew Lady Gwen and Angus well enough to know they'd be after those responsible and then Natalia and her культ кошки. Hence the retreat to the island.

The island was very nearly cat invasion proof. Natalia and a half dozen cats resided on the island with a similar number of humans. The rest of the культ кошкиhad founded a commune in the hills of the Western United States where they could live in relative peace until it was time to rise up and take out M.E.O.W. once and for all. No cat could get on the island because a boat would be seen from miles away. M.E.O.W. cats might parachute in, but the element of surprise would be lost because the island was not on the regular flight route of planes capable of deploying parachuters and the noise from such a plane would be a dead give away of the plan. The drop from far enough away not to be noticed would be too far for a small cat to make. But if it was tried and a cat made it to shore, there were other anti-cat measures. Empty cardboard boxes, arranged in concentric circles on the ground, would be the first such measure. The boxes would only delay cats as highly trained as M.E.O.W. agents were, but even a delay could be helpful. After the boxes came patches of cat nip. Again, a M.E.O.W. agent wouldn't be stopped, they were trained to work through the high, whether they went manically nuts or became stoned. It would further delay the invasion until Natalia could escape. After the cat nip came the balls of yarns and the feathers on sticks. A delayed cat could be captured and interrogated. That was what the humans were for.

One would think with all the cat traps, the resident felines would succumb to the traps themselves, but they knew where the traps were located and could avoid them. They used the easy paved paths around the island. If the sneaking agents used those paths they would be easily spotted and taken out.

The moonlight had given way to the beautiful yellows, oranges, and blues of dawn. Natalia yawned. It might be early morning but it was late for a cat. She took one last circuit of the island and made sure her traps were ready. Once she was sure no strange cat would breach the island's defenses, she headed into the house.

Natalia made her way to the kitchen, where the cook had made a bedtime meal of chicken tidbits and warm milk waiting for her. After consuming her repast. Natalia visited the necessary box. The litter was fresh and at the perfect depth, so she had bit of fun playing in the stuff. She may have made a bit more of a mess than necessary but that would give the humans something to do later. After shaking the last of the litter from her paws, she padded up stairs to her room.

The room was a corner room with big windows in the South and East walls. Natalia made her way over to the large, soft, velvet cushion positioned in the space where the light from both windows fell. She climbed onto the cushion where the sunlight fell and turned around three times and settled with her head on her crossed paws. After a moment she realized she had forgotten part of her bedtime ritual. She stood up, hopped off the cushion and cleaned her nether regions. Once she had all the last litter bits removed, she returned to her spot in the sun, turned around three times and settled in for her sleep. Sometimes it was very good to be the head of a villainous conglomerate.

Cat Cult

Colonel Angus MacDougal led an unprecedented strike force of M.E.O.W. agents. Never in M.E.O.W.'s history had so many agents been deployed together. Sure, during the World Wars, all of M.E.O.W. worked on intelligence but the various clouders were all on unique assignments. This was a strike force of clouders One through Seven, Nine through Seventeen, and Twenty-One. That was seventy cats and forty- two humans. Forty – three humans since Dr. Liz MacDougal insisted on coming along. She wanted to be close in case of injury and with that size of clouder, injury was almost certain. The Turkish Government was warned about the size of the force and had agreed to allow it if the humans blended in.

Angus was dressed like a tourist in cargo shorts and tee shirt with a camera around his neck. Liz was playing the vacationing wife. They were posing for pictures with interesting backgrounds. Some were typical tourist photos at the Grand Bazaar but others were at the scene of the explosion with the zoom on max over Liz's shoulder. They found where the explosives had come from, exactly. It was indeed a rival gang. One with Russian ties and a cat cult religion.

A Russian cat cult sounded strange since before Communism, Russia had been Christian but there were people who had given up on both Communism and Christianity. Those people were looking for something and there was a gang with a seeming feline leader, one who was strong, ruthless, and efficient. The cat cult, 'культ кошки', had attracted a couple dozen former military men and women. The took their security seriously and thus the concussion bombs. Their compound was next to the original target.

“Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.” Something that was reported that the cat leader Natalia had said, when they had taken over the compound. So культ кошки moved next door to their rivals and started booby trapping the approach. And because their leader was supposedly a cat they planned for attacking forces with cats.

Angus looked closer and saw that while cats had been planned for a force such as he had assembled could defeat the counter measures. It would take most of the humans and half the cats working simultaneously to disable the traps. They would be back tomorrow with the dawn so they had as much time as needed. Now it was time to rendezvous and share intel.

Clouders Number One and Two took off to deal with the intel about the original target while there rest dealt with the культ кошки because an enemy that prepared for an army of cats was the bigger threat. The remaining humans and cats went right to disarming the booby traps. It had to be done simultaneously or they would all go off and kill everyone.

A few hours later, the trap was disarmed and the cats were exploring the compound. Once again it was abandoned but it had been left in a hurry. It took the rest of the day but the compound was searched and the other assets of культ кошки were revealed as well as the next base location. When the majority of the compound had been searched, Clouders Number Three and Four went and joined One and Two in securing the original target.

All the members of the original target gang were rounded up and left to the Turkish authorities. The original mission was completed in the original time frame and the clouders involved went home to other missions. Shortly after their departure, Angus determined that Clouders Number Five, Six, and Seven were better used back at headquarters and on their other missions, as were Clouders Number Fifteen, Sixteen, and Seventeen. This left him with six clouders – twenty- four cats and eighteen humans- a large enough force to face anything that культ кошки could have in store for them.

Angus, Liz, the other humans and the remaining cats packed up for a three and half hour flight to the airport at Nice, France. The humans settled the felines in for a nice nap with easy access to covered water and food bowls and litter boxes should they wake mid flight. Twenty-four cats on a plane was a very interesting proposition. Once the feline agents were settled, the humans found their seats for the flight and tried to get a little rest. There might not be another chance as good for a nap, for either feline or human agents, for a couple days so everyone took advantage of the opportunity.

Not In Vain

Lady Gwenllian, Directress of Ministry of Espionage Observation and Whiskers, really hated this part of her job. The interviewing of the kitten recruits was exhausting (she hadn't been a kitten in a couple decades so keeping up was a challenge), the pinning on of badges to the graduating kittens was rewarding, and seeing cats succeed where human intelligence agents failed was satisfying. But seeing small coffins draped with the Union Jack was the part that made her reconsider her job. Maybe it was time to retire. After all she was approaching the dreaded 2-0. Not many cats, even pampered pets, made it to twenty. She had been extremely lucky in her career to have no major injuries and to have avoided serious illness. It also didn't hurt to have the best feline veterinarian on staff. But there were things that even Dr. Elizabeth MacDougal couldn't fix and that was why she was in the chapel of MEOW Headquarters staring at three flag-draped cat coffins. There were also two human sized coffins with flags over them in another chapel waiting another service.

The humans of Clouder Number Eight would have their service tomorrow at the Birmingham base that was their recorded duty assignment. The humans of MEOW would attend both services, but Lady Gwenllian would only attend this one. She would be there if she could but it would be strange to have a cat attend the service of two SAS officers killed in the line of duty. She would have to rely on Colonel MacDougal to represent her and MEOW.

Clouder Number Eight had gone on what was supposed to be simple recon mission. But the first rule, as always quoted to new recruits, is “What looks simple, never, ever is.” The mission went sideways from the moment the Clouder landed in Istanbul.

Major John Kincade had reported their arrival and that the customs agent was approaching the plane. The next thing anyone had heard was two days later when Snowball had called in the distress call that three cats were down as well as the two humans. Send help now.

Clouders Number Ten and Twenty-One had gone in and returned – a little battered and a little worse for wear, but alive. They rescued the remaining cats and returned with the bodies. The rescue clouders tried to determine what had gone wrong but it wasn't exactly clear. Near as they could make out was that Clouder Number Eight had gotten caught up in turf war between their surveillance target group and a rival.

The original target was thought too extreme by the rival. The rival thought to stop them by blowing them up. The cats had managed to identify the threat and defuse the explosives. Except there had been a smaller explosive triggered by the disarmament. It was a concussive blast that would have only knocked out a human but cats are much smaller. Major Kincade and Lieutenant Jones each worked on the explosive device with help of Sparkles and Bane, respectively. The secondary explosion went off. Sparkles and Bane were killed and the humans were injured. The Major and Lieutenant survived to get the cats back to the rendezvous point and went back out with Fluffy.

Fluffy had gone into the rival's camp and brought back good intel. Unfortunately one of the sentries followed her and saw the humans. A fight broke out and while normally one man against two SAS commandos would end badly for the one man, the two SAS men were injured. Fluffy got in the way and now the re injured Major got her out as the more hurt Lieutenant took care of the sentry. Both men made it back to the rendezvous point before succumbing to their injuries. Fluffy hadn't made it either. Snowball, Rexxy, and Sushi had various cuts, scrapes, and Sushi had a broken leg, but they made it back.

Lady Gwen looked at the coffins again. She made a silent promise, to the dead, that M.E.O.W. would get the bastards that did this.

“We'll get those bastards,” Colonel Angus MacDougal said as he entered the chapel. He was in his dress uniform, not the usual utility kilt.

“I was just promising that same thing,” said Lady Gwen's computer voice. “It is M.E.O.W.'s number one mission – bring down both organizations.”

Angus was about to speak up.

“Of course the continued tracking of Natalia will be mission number two,” Lady Gwen continued. “I have a feeling that mission one will lead to two. That rival gang seemed to be on the look out for cats.”

“Very good, mum,” Angus replied as the door to the chapel opened and the Vicar and the other mourners filed in. Soon the first of two funerals, Angus would attend in as many days, began. Then he would take his clouder and others to make sure that these funerals weren't in vain.

Strike Out in Siberia

The MEOW jet touched down in Yekaterinburg. From the outside, the jet looked like just another plane owned by a rich businessman and was at home in the executive section of the airport. It pulled in to the hangar space as directed by the tower. The door opened, the stairs descended, and Angus, dressed as the business man cover complete with a briefcase, exited the plane. The briefcase contained the papers that Clouder Number Nine and their support humans needed to enter Russia and carry out their mission.

“Colonel MacDougal?” asked the approaching Russian immigration official.

“I am,” Angus answered as he extended his free hand.

“I'm Colonel Boris Pieteroff,” the Russian said as he shook Angus's proffered hand. “I'll be you liaison while you're in my country.”

“Is there somewhere we can talk?” Angus asked as he noted the busy airport and the ramp workers everywhere. His briefing of the Russian would be better with less ears to hear.

“We should go review your papers in my office,” Pieteroff suggested.

“Lead the way,” Angus agreed.

An hour later, the paperwork was completed and the other arrangements for the mission were completed. The arrangements weren't what Angus would have preferred but he could deal with them. Chief condition was that if the Clouder split up, each group needed a Russian observer. Boris Pieteroff, himself, would accompany Angus and Nala. Tatiana, Pieteroffs's secretary, would stay on the plane with Erik, Alexander, and Lt. Steven Smith. She would be both the Russian baby sitter and facilitate cutting through the administrative colored tapes, since Russia enjoyed bureaucrats in such large numbers that red wasn't the only color tape tieing things up. Lastly, Pieteroff's lieutenant, Oleg Federoff, would keep tabs on the Fifis and Lt. Jane Brewster. Angus didn't like having the Russians know more about operations than absolutely necessary but it could be helpful for Russians to interface with local officials.

Lt. Jane Brewster and Oleg Federoff took Fiona and Phoebe to inspect the area where Natalia was last seen. They were hoping to pick up her trail, either going or coming. One would tell them where she might be. The other would give context for the meeting.

Angus, Pieteroff, and Nala would find out who the man the fugitive feline met with was. That would hopefully tell them what the meeting had been a bout. So they started tracking down the car. It was a part of a fleet of personal drivers for businessmen. Pieteroff would be handy in intimidating records out of the company's administrative personnel.

Tatiana and Erik were deep into requesting and hacking, where needed, to access CCTV cameras and requesting records before the others had even exited the hangar. Tatiana was was searching for property records for Natalia or any of her known front companies. Erik was searching for any more security footage of the cat in question.

That left Lt. Smith and Alex to patrol around the plane. The lieutenant was also the pilot of record for the plane so he could hang out in the pilot's lounge and other places a pilot would be expected to be. It would look strange if he kept circling the plane on patrol so that task was left to Alex. Most people would never notice a stray cat. If they did, it would never occur to them that the cat was doing anything other than searching for a mouse for its next meal. Alex might tire of patrol if the mission lingered on for several days, but he was still new enough to field work that he was still pleased to have a job to do.

It took twenty-six hours but all three lines of inquiry led to the same place – an abandoned estate of a really minor branch of the Romanov family. It was exactly the kind of place Natalia would like – secluded, opulent, and Royal. It was also a three hour drive away. There was no place closer to hide the plane in plain sight, so Erik, Alex, Lt. Smith, and Tatiana would remain in Ykaterinburg, but the others would go scope out the place.

Angus was continuing in his role as a wealthy business man for a cover. Pieteroff was taking the role as his driver and would drive the Colonel and his cat to the estate. They would enter by the front door. The story was that Angus had some business he wished to discuss with Grey Import and Export, one of Natalia's holding companies.

The Fifis and the humans with them would arrive separately, by helicopter to few miles away, and sneak in. The estate was built into the side of foothills of the Ural mountains. It would take humans and cats working together to get inside.

Phoebe took point. She was the smallest and an able to squeeze into the smallest of openings in the wall. She scaled the wall and caught the grappling hook that Lt. Brewster shot. The feline anchored the rope and the Lieutenant climbed the wall with Fiona in her pack. (The black and white feline couldn't follow Phoebe since Fiona was both fatter and fluffier and thus had to suffer the indignity of being carried.) Lt. Federoff followed as the cats and Lt. Brewster were taking in the lay of the land.

It was odd but the grounds and what they could see of the house, or more accurately- the palace, looked deserted. If Natalia was here there would be patrols at the very least. Either she wasn't here or she had left a very clever trap. The foursome worked their way down from the walls searching for the answer.

The limousine with Angus, Nalla, and Pieteroff came up the drive as the others entered the palace. The car was not challenged at the gate. In fact Pieteroff had to get out from the driver's seat to open the gate. The car pulled up to the palace and parked. Pieteroff opened the door for Angus and Nala. They played out the fiction of Angus being a business man and Pieteroff his hired help as they entered the palace. Again there was no one there.

They rendezvoused with the others and together they searched. No one was there and no on had been there for a few days. They found papers for several other holding companies and the deeds to three other estates.

“Colonel MacDougal,” came the computer voice of Erik over the comms.

“Yes, Erik?” asked Angus.

“There is a message coming from HQ,” Erik said.

“Go ahead,” Angus said.

“The message reads, 'if mission is done, then return home immediately',” Erik said.

“That is it?” Angus asked.

“All that can be said over comms,” Erik said with the implication there was more but had to said in person.

“We'll rendezvous as planned,” Angus said.

Three hours later, the MEOW agents – both human and feline- bid farewell to the Russians and left for home. The part of the message Erik hadn't relayed over the comms was the sad news that Clouder Number Eight had suffered heavy losses in an ambush meant for cats. Lady Gwenllian was recalling all Clouders until the larger implications could be evaluated and the Ministry formulate a plan. Clouder Number Nine took off in the airplane with heavy hearts and headed for home.

Citius, Altius, Fortius

Captain Ross and the cats of Clouder Number Twenty- One looked around the room in the athlete village in Rio to make sure they hadn't left anything behind. They had been living there for the last month doing security for the athletes of Great Britain at the Olympic Games. It had been an eventful games – in the exciting feats of skill by the athletes with a few minor jobs for the cats to do.

They had arrived a week before the athletes themselves. They had scoped out the venues and gotten the lay of the land. They had met the security details of the other countries. Among the details was a familiar face for Rhys, one of the British cats, Beruthiel Beauregard of DERP. That was the great things about the Olympics, every country with a cat spy program set a detail of cats. It was part job and part international spy cat conference with war stories and techniques being exchanged in the off hours. The cats of the Mossad being the cats everyone else stood in awe of and slightly scared of. The others learned from them.

Once the athletes arrived, the atmosphere changed from congenial conference to actual work. The first event for security was the opening ceremony. The cats of the larger nations – Great Britain, the United States, Canada, and Australia were easy to get into the ceremony among the humans. The greater numbers of humans disguised the cats among them. But the smaller teams it was harder. Three cats were assigned to the Refugee team but those cats were able to get by because no one was looking farther then the remarkable story of each of the ten members of the team. The ceremony went off without a hitch and the games began.

Rhys had been given the job of escorting the Synchronized Divers. He witnessed the surprise gold by Jack Laugher and Chris Mears. In fact he was doing his job, patrolling the pool area – the surprisingly green pool- when the dive happened and the celebrations started. Then The American dove and the lead held and then the Chinese went and the gold was Great Britain's. The celebrations poolside got out of hand and Rhys was nudged and then shoved into the pool – the green pool. He sunk down sputtering and then remembered the hated swimming training. He kicked and gained the surface and swam to the ramp and walked out. By that time the celebrations were winding down and Mears noticed the wet cat. He picked Rhys up and laughed at the soggy feline. He scritched the fur and then grabbed a towel and rubbed the cat dry. Rhys wasn't exactly happy at the treatment but it was the fastest way to get dry so he put up with it. Besides it would be a good story to tell Nala when they were both back at headquarters.

After the diving, Rhys was assigned to Copacabana Beach for the beach volleyball. Late nights in the party atmosphere was just the kind of place for a former street cat. No problems there, except staying out of Liev's way.

Liev was one of the Mossad cats. The most terrifying of them. The tiger striped cat actually sat a round sharpening his claws so that the merest touch would draw blood. Of course the claw had to get through fur for cat on cat violence, but most of the other international cats steered clear of Liev. Beruthiel had private lessons in feline Krav Maga from Liev's partner, Rachel, so she was the one exception to the fear.

Liev and Rachel were also on the Copacabana patrol. The most exciting thing, besides the late night antics of the US Olympic coverage, was the upset in the ladies competition and the favored team winning Bronze instead of Gold. The problem with patroling the beaches was the sand in the fur.

Rhys was happy when that duty was done. He was tired of eating sand when he groomed. It was a relief to help with the security of the marathon. It might be wet and rainy, but Rhys was Welsh. Rain was nothing new to him. In fact it felt like home.

The games proceeded through the closing ceremony with no problem. The cats walked in the parade and enjoyed the party. The cats kept getting scritched and picked up for selfies with the excited athletes. Myfi was turned into an Instagram sensation when one of the US women's gymnastics team posed with her. All in all it was a very easy first assignment. Though the next one wouldn't be so easy.