Read Online London Wild by V. E. Shearman - Free Book Online Page A

the Matriarch and his supreme physical capabilities , Myajes was granted one of the coveted positions of bodyguard to the Lesser Matriarch. It was a great honor to hold such a position, although all it really meant was that it was his job to delay the human soldiers long enough to buy the Matriarch and her husband time to escape if it should ever come to it. Other than that, he was little more than a glorified servant, doing odd jobs about the house and running the occasional errand. 
    The particular errand Myajes had been sent on this time was really more than just an errand. Lara, the youngest daughter of the Lesser Matriarch , had been captured by the Elite Guard a day or two ago and was now residing in a small cell in the prison camp known simply as the Cattery.
    It had been more luck than anything that a Herbaht, out hunting, had seen Lara as she was taken , struggling, from the house in which she had been living for the last two years. Indeed, she hadn’t been in contact with her parents except through the occasional couriers. Lara didn’t trust the human phone system, postal system or even the internet, and would use them only when in the direst of need.
    The first step in the rescue was finding the camp. It wouldn’t be easy. The herd were well aware that if the location of the camp was common knowledge, then the Herbaht might try an attack in force and attempt a rescue of all the prisoners. Myajes knew that the camp was sited somewhere to the west of London, probably just outside its outskirts. Most likely, it was on some road that could be easily bypassed to prevent people from accidentally straying upon it, and then hidden in plain sight, pretending to be something it wasn’t.
    The problem was finding a map of the area. The herd seemed to be so protective of the area that even a map of just the roads that passed through the forest to the west of the city were virtually impossible to come by. Those that would drive those roads tended to use GPS pathfinders to direct them. And even they wouldn’t allow a close examination of the area in question, as they usually would for practically everywhere else in the country.
    He paused for a moment at a bookstore. Bookstores usually sold both paper and computer versions of books. They would also have readers for the computer books , small and fairly cheap mini-computers, no bigger than a paperback, into which the cartridge for the book was plugged and could be read. Paper was still the most popular way to read a book, though. He peered in through the windows; there was a stack of maps on a shelf in the corner of the shop, but they were the same ones that he had seen everywhere else. What he really needed was a specialized map. Even if it didn’t point out the Cattery, he might be able to make intelligent guesses. But obviously that was why finding such a map seemed next to impossible.
    The natural light was virtually gone now , replaced by big, heavy-duty street lights that illuminated the street more clearly than the sun had. Myajes felt that he was getting nowhere. He could head west and hope he’d be lucky, but with the amount of forest he would have to search, it could take all year. Lara would be dead by then unless they found out who she was. And if they did discover her true identity, she’d probably be taken to somewhere even more secure than where she was now, if such a place existed.
    As Myajes reached the next intersection, he noticed a large shopping mall right opposite. Above the main entrance was a large screen ; most of the time it was used for advertising, but today it seemed to have been hijacked by some authority. The screen was cycling through the country’s ten most wanted.
    Myajes decided he’d turn right here, but had to stop , as a large crowd had gathered under the screen to see who was listed, blocking the way on. It was interesting to consider that although many herd seemed quite interested in who was on the list, few if any would actually