Gallop Good's Arc

Chapter 2 of 2

The flood was mopped, the fish safe in jars, but the librarian gave Gallop no rest. She knelt by a cold vent in the floor and pointed down. "A new retrieval unit lands soon," she said. "It scans for heat the instant it arrives. Your body runs hot. It will tag you before you blink." Gallop's skin prickled. One machine was dead. The next already hunted his warmth. He needed to hide his heat, and fast. He pressed his flank to the stone wall. Still warm. He rolled on the wet tiles. Still warm. The librarian shook her head. "Water cools you for a minute. Then you glow again." Gallop paced, hooves clicking. He had crossed three towns to find his maker. He would not be dragged back now by his own blood heat. A wet, buzzing noise came from the shelves. A small black cat strolled out, green eyes bright, a gold bell swinging at his collar. He let out a loud fart and sat down, unbothered. "Merlin," the librarian sighed. "He sleeps in the cold cave by the back wall. The one made of thick stone." Gallop stared at the cat. Then at the low stone shelter tucked in the corner, dark and deep. Thick rock. Cold inside. Heat could not leak through that. But the cave was built for a cat. Gallop was a horse. He would never fit. He trotted over anyway. His head went in. His shoulders jammed. Merlin followed, farted again, and curled against a gilded bead box someone had stored in the dark. Gallop backed out, chest tight. "It won't hold me," he said. "Then stop trying to hide the heat," the librarian said. "Hide what it reads as." From a crate she pulled a sturdy brown creature, part cow, part chicken, warm and breathing and twice Gallop's bulk. "Barn beast. Runs hotter than you. Stand close. The scanner reads one big warm shape, not a tagged horse." A hum rose beyond the doors. Light flickered under them. Gallop pressed himself against the cow chicken's feathered flank. Their warmth blurred together. The retrieval unit slid in, red eye sweeping. It passed over the shelves, the jars, the stone cave where Merlin snored. Its light brushed the big warm mass and read livestock. No tag. No lock. The unit paused above a spilled cluster of foil candy bars, buzzed once, and drifted back out the doors. Gallop breathed again. He had beaten the scan. But the librarian's face stayed grim. "It didn't find you here," she said. "So it will widen the search. Tomorrow they send trackers that read scent, not heat. Standing by a cow won't fool a nose." She wiped her hands. "You hid once. Now you run. The name I owe you lives two towns north. Reach the scientist before their hounds reach you."