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Chapter 14 - Alea Iacta Est

I am a man who loves his sleep. I am also a man who hates it when his sleep is interrupted. I hated it as a boy and I hate it as a man, so you can guess how thrilled I was when I was woken up to the muffled sound of people being very loud.

At first I thought it was something in my room and reached for an item on the nightstand, but Tin, in his wonderful wisdom, had moved all the items off the nightstand since I had a penchant for throwing my alarm clock -- the blasted metal thing that had been a gift from Siro upon his departure. Thankfully it was as durable as my head and didn't break (I also tended to throw it near something soft) so it survived my tantrums. Tin had since then moved it out of reach.

When I realized it wasn't my clock I sat up and grumbled. I shook the tiger next to me. "You hear that?"

Tin was already up and looking alert, narrowing his eyes at the door. He jumped over me in his naked glory. If he didn't look so serious I probably would have groped him. Instead I saw him scoop his pants up and began to tug them on.

I got up and was pulling on my clothes when the door to our room was knocked on and then opened. Ethan was there, rubbing his aching leg from the limp he had, and frowning. "Mr. Tin, could you come downstairs? There's a mob of people outside and Mr. Oro and Miro says they need your size."

Tin frowned and quickly pulled on his shirt and went to the dresser. He pulled out his gun and looked it over, then checked the chambers before snapping it closed. I walked up to him and touched his arm.

"You think you're going to need that?"

"Man like me, we don't leave nothing to chance," the big cat said as he put the gun belt around his waist. He looked at me. "You gonna listen and stay inside?"

"I was going to--"

"Simon," he said firmly, "you ain't a fighter and you ain't exactly a big'un. So stay inside and be safe. Please."

I frowned. Tin didn't generally put me in my place like that and I had to nod. "Fine, if you promise to make sure you don't get hurt."

Tin grinned and grabbed his hat, putting it on his head and winking at me. "Gettin' hurt is part of the fun, but I promise I'll come back in one piece. Unless you want me to get hurt and play doctor or something--"

I rolled my eyes and shoved him playfully. "Just go!"

I was coming out of the room and buttoning my shirt up as I heard the tiger snickering. I saw Ethan down below as well as Ciel. Bas was on the upper level with me and peering out the window. He glanced at me and waved me over to look.

"What's going on?" I asked, fixing my shirt and tucking it into my pants.

"That stupid priest again," Bas said with scorn. "He got people riled up about the Arc. Says we're a den of demons and sinners and need to be washed clean. They look angry."

I peered down at the street. People did look angry, or at least spoiling for a fight. I saw that otter, Toddson, preaching in his vestments but couldn't exactly hear his words. Every now and then his voice would crescendo and the crowd would answer in some loud affirmative.

Oro and Miro stood outside at the front door. Both were dressed impeccably and I was certain one of them had a weapon. I also saw Gunther and Bradley, two of the workers that were helping finish renovations on the third floor. They weren't part of the Arc but they were staying by their employers. That's loyalty.

My heart skipped a beat when I saw someone in the crowd I had not expected. I grabbed Bas's arm tightly and squeezed, my eyes wide with horror. The black cat winced. "Ow! Simon, what are you doing?"

I was having to tell myself I needed to breathe, but nothing would happen. I gasped for air but nothing happened.

Down there, near the front of the crowd next to the priest, was a face that had appeared multiple times in my nightmares.

Mordecai Crossbell.

The caracal was in the crowd, wearing his handsome green suit and tophat. He had a new cane and he seemed to be favoring the side that had been wounded, but he looked annoyingly alive. Rage bubbled up in me but fear lanced through it like a bullet.

"TIN!" I screamed as I ran to the banister and almost fell over. Bas had grabbed the back of my shirt to keep me from tumbling. My hat did fall off. "Don't go outside!!"

Tin was at the door, his hand on the handle when he looked up at me. "Huh? But they asked--"

_"Mordecai's out there! Don't show your face!" _

All at once Tin grabbed the gun from his holster and pushed himself back from the door. He wasn't scared but this was the gangster I remembered from New York. He hurried up the stairs and around. "Show me."

We went to the window but didn't crowd it. I motioned for him to look down quickly. "Next to the priest. You can't miss him."

Tin walked over and peered down quickly. I watched his face go from serious to furious. His lips peeled back from his very long and very sharp teeth and I heard a growl come from his throat that I had never once heard before in my life. His tail had even puffed out and lashed quickly behind him.

"What's...going on?" Bas asked with a frown.

I turned to the small cat and grabbed his shoulders. "Someone is down there that I never wanted you or your brothers to ever see. You need to stay inside. Please. Stay inside."

"Simon, you're scaring me."

"It's okay, I'll protect you. Oro and Miro are going to have to handle the group outside on their own."

"Don't feel right," Tin said, frowning. "I should go out and help him."

"Mordecai is insane!" I whirled on the man, standing up on my toes. "If he sees you, or worse, me, you think he'll keep himself together? He is fine with killing anyone who stands in front of him. You're special, you're the one who got away. He may be obsessing over you just as much as he is me, but he probably wants you flayed."

"So Fiz and Mordecai are alike then?" the tiger said with a sigh.

That statement took me by surprise. "What do you mean, Tin?"

"Nothing," Tin said and waved his hand. "I'd tell you to go wait in the bedroom but I know you won't. If things go south though, you listen to me or I throw you out a window and hope for the best."

I gulped. "I'll listen. Let's just hope it won't come to that."

Bas was standing next to the window. Since Mordecai didn't know who he was, he could look down with impunity. He grabbed one of the small latches and pulled it open to let in more sound. He crossed his arms over his chest and stepped back. I saw him step closer to Tin, who put one of his big arms around the small cat. Tin was a nurturer even if he would deny it to his grave.

"Brothers and Sisters of God, you see now what this place, this den of depravity is? A bastion of vice and debauchery, where sodomy runs amok like the plagues of old and men give into the clarion call of the devil!"

The otter was being loud again, using that voice I hated so much. It was the voice of the church as I imagined it, the kind that sounds wonderfully parental but deviously controlling. The voice that leads you down the path they want rather than let you draw your own conclusions. Volume and tone inspired submissiveness while also feeling like it empowered you.

Shouts, cheers, and angry cries followed. Bas had dragged a mirror from the far wall over and turned it so we could see out while also remaining crouched in the shadows. I could see the otter walking back and forth, facing the crowd, with Oro and Miro standing there looking annoyed at having to deal with all this before breakfast.

"Father," Oro said as he stepped closer, "I believe you are mistaken. This place is a place of quiet comforts and companionship. We do nothing but find peace with one another here."

"He admitted it!" the otter yelled, turning to the crowd again.

"I admit nothing," the yellow-highlighted wolf said with his arms crossed in front of him. "Cultures from all over time and history have embraced homosexuality and sodomy, which is strictly not a male-exclusive ability, I may add."

Toddson was about to say something when I saw him again. Mordecai Crossbell. He stepped up and put his hand on the Father's shoulder, then cleared his throat.

"You seem like a learned man, my friend," Mordecai said, extending his hand in polite gentleness, taking his hat off with the other. "Mordecai Crossbell, a pleasure to meet you."

Oro knew the cat's name. Miro even stepped closer to his brother. I hoped Oro knew to pretend like I wasn't here. He took Mordecai's hand and shook it politely. "Your reputation precedes you, Mr. Crossbell."

"That comes with the territory of an old family." Mordecai flashed his damned charming smile that could fool so many people. He put his hat back on his head and looked at the blue-highlighted wolf standing nearby. "This is your brother?"

"Miro," I heard the smaller brother say.

"I was interested in what you said, Oro. About societies having accepted homosexuality for years."

This was a trap. I could sense it. My hackles rose and I guess I looked odd because Bas was holding my arm. I found myself trying to stand as a red mist started to come around my vision. All I could think about was this man, this demon, having been in my life and killing, or hurting, the people I cared about. I wanted him dead and out of my life forever and he was just so close...

"That's correct," Oro responded. "Ancient Greece, Rome, China, Japan...just to name a few. All these cultures didn't frown upon men loving men like they do today."

"'Like they do today,'" Mordecai parroted. "Why do you think that changed?"

"People started to care far too much about what other people did in the bedroom, for one. And they started having the idea that pleasure was beyond mortality and we, as a planet, should be doomed to a life of little joys or virtues, hoping that was enough to earn us a spot in the afterlife."

"I do agree that the world has leaned more to the Puritanical in recent centuries," the caracal said with a nod. "Pleasure is important. People are designed to feel good and that shouldn't be so shielded."

"Mr. Crossbell!" Toddson looked like he was about to strike the caracal. The cat held his hand up to stop the otter from screaming.

"But divinity has a price. Control and self discipline are important. Those countries you mentioned earlier, some have gone, come to dust, and others burned down like decrepit towers. Some are so different that you would not recognize them even as they are thriving."

"Subjective," Miro said. "You don't know that for sure."

"Oh, but I can infer it. Trade, stability, quality of life...all of these things have increased in recent years. All with the introduction of the finest thing in the world--Christianity, the love and warmth of Christ himself."

"And this has to do with my establishment, how?"

"You run a den of sin, Oro. And Miro. You do not exhibit the control a man should need to find salvation in the afterlife. No!" He slammed the end of his cane onto the ground so hard it got even the whispers silent. "You let men, weak men, give in to their more carnal and base instinct. They waste themselves on each other when they could be giving more to society, giving themselves and their seed to women to bring forth life into this world and continue on improving it and making it better. But here"--he paused and motioned to the Arc--"you spend your evenings with men, doing nothing but taking that pleasure and growing it without the benefit of bringing life into this world. You abuse the godly gift of your bodies for the sake of cheap thrills and damn each other every time you fornicate. You are vipers in this world of the blessed."

"We let people be who they want to be," Miro growled. "We don't judge them by what they do behind closed doors. They are allowed to relax here where even in their own homes they could have police called on them for laws no one has a right making, let alone enforcing."

"It is for their mortal soul that these laws must be enforced!" Toddson said as he stepped closer. "To ignore it would be un-Christian of us. We do not hold it against you and yours that you spend the time with other men, you are simply weak and given in to the allure of Satan and his princes, but salvation and forgiveness can be attained."

"That's insane." Miro got the crowd booing at him. Things were getting more and more tense. He didn't stop. "Your religion, your faith, it isn't ours and we have a right to conduct ourselves however we want."

"True," said Mordecai, clearing his throat, "but it is us righteous people who cannot stand by and watch as God's creation, this world, becomes tainted. We are obligated by our faith to root out evil, and this place, this den of sin and depravity, is a den of sin."

The crowd was cheering now, and I saw Mordecai turn his back to the two wolves and address the crowd.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, good people of the faith and the true way of being! You have been brought here by Father Toddson to stand against this moral blight on our fair city, and you are true warriors of Christ. I know I speak for the Father when I say you make God proud. The Bible tells us that all of us will have our faith tested, our convictions questioned, and our beliefs cast into doubt. How we come out of that darkness is how we know we are the true children of Christ and will endure every test that Satan throws upon us!"

Cheers went up even louder, more aggressive. I gulped.

"But this is not merely one brothel, my friends. No! This whole city is rife with poison that is assaulting the very fabric of purity and good will! This city, this beautiful city, this portal to the American West, was founded by the idea that every person could have it better should they try, and yet, with good people came darkness. Evil people, men and women selling themselves for money, foreigners who come to usurp your way of living, bereft of any respect for those who were here before them, and above all, the disregard for the sacred book! I ask you, my friends--is this the city we want to live in?"

Shouts of "NO!" echoed in response.

Mordecai was grinning as he raised his hands into the air, letting his voice boom out across the audience. He was enjoying himself. I would bet money he was probably horny right now from all of this.

"That is the true answer, my friends!" he shouted at the top of his lungs, the cheers getting louder. "And I am thankful for your honesty today, standing in front of a building that hosts such lecherous and foul ideas, that something like this could exist here...is a blight we must correct."

"Burn it!" a young man shouted.

"Tear it down!" a woman shrieked.

"Get the rope!" an older man roared.

Tin tensed up. I was about to get up but yanked back down. Was this going to get violent? My hands shook as I worried if this was how I was going to die. At least I wouldn't fall into Mordecai's disgusting fingers...

"No, my friends," the caracal's voice had taken on the tone of someone much calmer and moderate. "We are the children of God but we are still citizens of the United States and residents of this fine city. As much as I want to say we should burn this building, and these heretics to ashes, we are not above the law and should not act like it."

That got everyone quiet. What was his game?

"That is why you will need a champion, a warrior who will stand up against this darkness within the system, someone who will bring God's word to the forefront and make sure this city is transformed into a bastion of beauty and piety.

"It is with great pleasure, and humility, I am formally putting my name in for running for Mayor of San Francisco as of this moment. I stand here in font of this brothel of men and sodomy, promising you that if you put me in office my first measure will be to see it burned down brick by brick and have the land consecrated by the holy faith!

"I promise you that I will pull the toxic and rotten teeth from the maw of destruction and pestilence and begin to restore San Francisco to the ideal state it once was. I will root out the dens of the foreigners, pluck them from the streets and banish those who do not accept our ways and our faith!

"I only ask that you give me the chance to fight in your name for the honor of God and the Bible. Let me be the warrior you need in these trying times, and I promise you that in one year, you will not recognize San Francisco. These men, these wolves of sin, will be cast out if they do not repent! Sodomy will be illegal, homosexuality will be made a crime punishable by imprisonment or worse! We will not allow them to exist and continue to crawl over the fine skin of this city!"

Mordecai turned to the two wolves and smiled that evil smile none of the crowd could see. I would be told later what he said to them, so quietly only the brothers could hear: "Thank you, gentleman, you've proven most valuable today. I am certain we will see each other again. Be prepared to leave this city lest you find yourself in some unfortunate situation."

Mordecai stepped away from the street to cheers and hurrah's from the crowd. The otter followed looking as proud as a peacock, clutching his Bible to his chest.

I sat there, watching him walk away, and the crowd began to disperse. I felt empty inside. So that was his plan, his idea: run for the mayor of San Francisco! He would have real power if he joined the American political system, and since this was a new city, it wouldn't have any of the political Bosses like they do in New York.

I honestly had no idea what to do about any of this--I was not into politics, and I was a foreigner by all intents and purposes. I didn't even know who my senators were! I remembered feeling so small and unsure of myself. What were we to do now?

But then I saw Mordecai stagger to the right, his hand going up to his head and his green top hat toppling off. The crowd was silent as everyone wondered what had happened. Mordecai pulled his hand away and revealed a cut across his brow over his eye. Blood poured out and darkened his yellow and white fur, and worse, stained his nice suit. He looked to his left where whatever had struck him had come from.

I ran to the far window on the other side to see myself and my heart skipped a beat.

"¡Gato estúpido!" I heard Lucas shout. He was standing on the roof of a low building clutching a rock, his tiger friend crouched near him, also holding a rock. The boys looked furious.

"Lucas, no!" I threw open the window but Tin grabbed me and covered my muzzle before I could shout the words.

"Bas!" Tin hissed at the black cat next to us. "I need you to get out there and get them inside here, NOW!"

Lucas, unaware of my concern, shouted at Mordecai: "The men who live here are good people, and you are an evil man! The Bible teaches us to not judge but to love, and you'd know that if you actually read the damned thing!"

"Boy..." Toddson growled and stepped over. "You dare speak to your elders in such a disrespectful manner, and say we do not understand the grace of God?"

No one was looking at Mordecai but me. He looked furious and ready to kill. His eyes were the size of pinpricks, his teeth bared and his claws out. He was hunched over and his short tail had poofed out. He looked scarier than he ever did when he had been dressed up as Jack, and he looked ready to lunge at Lucas. I struggled to get out the window but Tin held me steady.

"I do!" Lucas shouted back defiantly. "You're one of those evil priests! The ones who use God for his own desires you--" The crowd was roaring mad then. The whistles of the police officers down the street were going off. I guess they had been near when the crowd was reported.

Bas was outside and grabbing both boys, helping them to the back. I would learn later that Bas got them both inside the Arc and behind two locked doors in a flash. I watched as a brick was thrown and went right across where Lucas had been standing just a second earlier.

The last look I had before I went down to see them was Mordecai staring where Lucas had been. His expression was cold and filled with hatred. I could hear him seething. He was going to be out for blood, out for Lucas.

I knew then that the die had been cast. Now, I needed to decide what to do next before I lost another friend to this madman.