D-O-G.”

Jessica was hypnotized by Bob’s (the D-O-G agent they were talking to) typing skill. Well, not only his skill, but the computer itself. She knew humans had something like it, but the screens weren’t this big and they weren’t this fast at processing information. And only scientists had them. And they took up a whole room, while this one took up only about a foot (excluding the screen). But it was built into a transparent wall. And the mouse was funky. And the keyboard was funky. And there were many wires connecting the computer to…somewhere. Also in the room, there was a big 3x3 foot drawer with some kind of pipe running from it. And there were many dials and switches and lights and buttons around the screen. Jessica almost fainted.

 

 

 

Just like Bob said, in an hour and five minutes, they were off. Off on their way towards the C-A-T. C-A-T facility #304.

And Jessica was mystified again. This time by the aircraft. It, as well, had many dials, switches, lights, buttons, and this time small screens and a windshield, in replacement for the huge monitor in Bob’s office.

Bob was typing away at a keyboard, just as strange as the one in his office, and strange characters were appearing on one of the screens. Jessica guessed that either he was disabling the C-A-T alarms, if they had any, that is, or setting coordinates. Whatever Bob was doing, Jessica had no way of knowing, other than asking. But she was so busy watching the weird characters fly across the small screen and looking at all the dials, buttons, switches, lights, and looking out the windshield that she forgot about her question.

It was the perfect temperature in the cabin. Not too cold, but not too warm either. Aleu was watching the ground out the curved windshield when Bob said “Here we are.” There was now a medium sized building crawling into view. Crawling nearer pretty quickly. Bob slowed to a stop and lowered the aircraft down onto the roof of the building. He landed right on the – part of the A in what they thought said C-A-T. It wasn’t the best hand-painting.

“Everyone out. Amaroq and Balto are here,” He pointed to a red dot on a map of the building. “And we are here.” He pointed to the center of the map. “To get in, we go through that huge rectangular pipe. It’s for the air conditioning.” He pointed, not on the map this time, but at a large rectangle popping up out of the building.

“My!” exclaimed Jenna. “That’s huge!”

“Yes. Easiest way to get in. We won’t have to go far to get to the location of Balto and Amaroq. Wait, Amaroq? Norwegian, right?” Aleu shrugged. “I have a brother named Pietronaq. He is Norwegian. And obviously, that makes me Norwegian, too, but I don’t have a Norwegian name.”

“Where does Pietronaq live?” asked Jessica. “I used to have a friend named Pietroaq. He was kidnapped, but a letter was left in the snow. I still have it. Well, not with me, but I have it somewhere.”

“Pietronaq lived on Banks Island, Canada. And, yes he was kidnapped.”

“That’s where I came from! That’s where I met him! Actually, Lived with him.”

“Could you write the note out after we get back on the C-79?”

“C-79?”

“The thing we came here on.”

“Oh. I’ll try.”

 

 

 

They had gotten into the facility easily, and were looking down at millions of cats bustling around like ants. There were no security cameras that Bob’s scanner detected, now were there motion sensors, laser beams, or anything. So they crawled across the metal walkway, which they guessed was for maintenance to get to the cages.

Balto and Amaroq were the only ones in the cages, but the locks were tricky.

“This isn’t an ordinary C-A-T lock,” said Bob.

“Nope,” agreed Balto.

And they weren’t. They weren’t human locks that used dials or keys, they weren’t digital with a key pad, they didn’t have a retina scanner, paw scanner, only a small box.

“It must be activated by a remote. Maybe I could use my communicator to…” Bob pressed some commands into his cell-phone like paw-held device.

“To what?”

“To create a counterfeit remote to open the door.”

Amaroq thought for a second, and then said “Let me see it.”

Bob passed Amaroq his communicator to Amaroq through the metal bars.

“If I plug in the right number, aim the infrared port at the box, then…” The door opened. He did the same with Balto’s door.

“Good work. We’ve go to get out of here, fast, though. I have a C-79 Sky-Pilot parked on the roof.”

“A C-79? Weren’t those all demolished and replaced with the R-90 Lab-Flyers?”

“Not all of them.”

 

 

 

They were back in the C-79 and Jessica was writing out the note given to her pack after Pietronaq was captured. She was done in about twenty minutes. It read:

If you ever want to see Pietronaq again, you'd better get going to Nordbergen.

 

 

 

“I know this font. It’s Wingdings 3. Give me a second. I’ll type it into the computer and translate it.” … “It says “If you ever want to see Pietronaq again, you’d better get moving to Nordbergen.”

“Wait, here’s another note.” Jessica handed Bob another piece of paper. This one said:

Oh, yes. Signed agent 329 of the C-A-T.

 

 

 

“Wingdings. Wingdings 1.” … “It says “Oh, yeah. Signed agent 329 of the C-A-T.” Bob sighed. “He’s probably not around anymore. Agent 329 from the C-A-T is deadly,” he said sadly. “I guess ill be going to Nordbergen with a copy of these notes anyways.”

“Can we help?”

“Not really. I think I’d better do this alone.”

“OK.”

 

 

 

It was around 9:00 PM, Alaska time, when they got back. Bob was already on his way to Nordbergen, and the CWP was going to sleep. It was supposed to snow for 67 hours straight, at least, starting at about 5:00 in the morning. And it was supposed to snow hard. Good thing they had already hunted. Amaroq was drawing an out-of-date model of an atom. It had a nucleus with electrons orbiting it in a constant circular path. The correct ones look more like doughnuts or a bubble type O if you try to draw them in the snow. And it wasn’t even D-O-G model. It was human. The D-O-G doesn’t care much about the structure of atoms. Not DNA much either. The only DNA they studied was the DNA of machines-motors, computers, electricity, etc. (the parts)…not actual deoxyribonucleic acid. That’s one of the reasons why the D-O-G was founded.

 

 

 

The got a whole 12 hours of sleep that night. It was 9:00AM.

“What do you think that C-A-T agent wanted to do with Pietronaq?” asked Jessica.

“I don’t know,” answered Amaroq, “but I think we really should obey Bob and stay out of it.”

“What are the C-90 Skylab and the, the, the other thing?”

“The C-79 Sky-Pilot and the R-90 Lab-Flyer? The C-79 is what we were in. But the D-O-G built the R-90 and put all, uh, almost all of the C-79s into retirement,” was Amaroq’s reply.

“I don’t know what you just said, but okay.”

 

 

 

Chapter II: Bye-Bye Aleu and Jessica

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was a sunny afternoon in the springtime when it came. It had known no life other than the life of war. It would not approve of anything beating it either. It would accept a few scars to prove it, but it wasn’t at all a friend. And that was apparent to any other wolves that this one was an enemy.

Amaroq knew this, too, for he was, other than the fact that he was number two agent in the D-O-G, just another normal wolf. Well, just another normal leader-of-the-CWP wolf. But this is jumping a little too far ahead.

‘It’ should be Aleu, but this description doesn’t fit her. Let’s try this again.

It was a sunny afternoon in the springtime when it remembered. The word ‘leader’ was playing over and over again and it had a clear picture of Nava in it’s mind. How was he? Where was he? Was he worried about Aleu not coming? It had to go and see. It was Aleu, and she was who was supposed to be the leader of the ‘WUBNP’, What Used to Be Nava’s Pack. And she had to go soon.

Jessica was chasing a rabbit in the nearby woods, Amaroq was resting on the top of a frost heave, and Aleu was thinking hard. How was she to tell Amaroq and Jessica about what she had to go do? Maybe Balto had already told Jenna about this, but would Aleu also have to tell her mother? Hadn’t Aleu told her dad to tell her mother that ‘she had finally found a home?’ But wasn’t this her home? She’d just have to go talk to Amaroq. And this she did.

“Hi.”

“Hello.”

“Uh, well, I don’t think you know this, maybe you do, but…” She started talking really fast and it sounded like one word. “I’m-supposed-to-be-the-leader-of-a-wolf-pack-that-has-

it’s-territory-on-a-coast-east-of-Saint-Lawrence-Island.”

            There was a short pause before Amaroq asked “What?”

She spoke more clearly now. “I’m supposed to be the leader of a wolf pack that has its territory on a coast east of St. Lawrence Island.”

“Okay, this time it made sense…kind of.”

“I think Nava can explain it to you better.”

“Nava?”

“Follow me.”

Aleu led Amaroq across a small field and into some trees. Fortunately, Jessica was in their path, so Amaroq didn’t have to worry about her not knowing where he was. Jessica, too, followed.

 

 

 

After some strenuous sniffing, they eventually found Nava. He was standing on a piece of land that shot out into the water of the Bering Sea.

“So you made it? I was worried about you. I was afraid that you wouldn’t come,” said Nava.

Then came the session of questions and answers. This went on for some time, and Nava answered all of Amaroq and Jessica’s questions. And after that, the farewells. Bye-Bye Aleu.

 

 

 

This is where the original ‘it’ comes in.

It was a sunny afternoon in the springtime when it came. It had known no life other than the life of war.… blah, blah, blah. Amaroq and Jessica were talking together when its scent filled the air. Amaroq’s hair

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