Immortenity - Chapter 18: Dog Eat Dog
Created | Updated Mar 19, 2023
Chapter 18: Dog Eat Dog
The car stopped with a jolt.
Ava woke up due to a lot of outside noise. Midnight, said her watch. Although it was still dark outside, it actually wasn’t.
'Bing-Bong! You have reached your destination! Fines will be deducted from your future salary. Have a good night.'
With that the AI driver shut down.
Looking out to the right, Ava saw the dark, shiny back of a guy on a horse on a white-ish pedestal. On the other side there were some bored lions, another non-apocalyptic horseman and a massive pillar with some guy on top of it. (No horse there, which seemed logical, given the height). The noise that woke Ava was caused by car horns all around her. There was also the tinkling sound of something very hot cooling down from the back of the car.
Eddy and Wolfgang were still asleep, so Ava re-activated the AI driver screen and said 'Can you take us anywhere else that is a little less disruptive than parking right in the middle of the road on Trafalgar Square please?'
'Query not accepted. Please rephrase.'
'Can you get us to the parking lot closest to 10 Downing Street, please? Maybe we can already sort out some of the requirements from the verdict?'
Ava then hit 'CONFIRM' again and held on tight.
The car drove the half mile at an annoyingly sedate pace, apparently because the launch control functionality hadn't fully been recharged yet. Ava had some trouble trying to figure out how they cleared the fences, barriers and bollards blocking the entrance into and out of Downing Street. Had they really flown over those? She did see some scattered guards getting up rather dazed in the rearview mirror. Better not to dwell on that too much…
Once safely parked, Ava tried to wake up Wolfgang and Eddy. This took some effort. Both were curled up cosily against the warm engine casing and emitting purring sounds. Screaming at the top of her voice did the job eventually.
In order not to scare anyone too much, Wolfgang submitted to have a piece of string loosely bound around the neck, to turn him into a dog. Eddy asked if he could get a leash too. Apparently he had become an admirer of the big wolf. Ava voted against it, because it might confuse people.
They nonchalantly sauntered up to the vertical people nearest to the door they needed to get past.
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Looking the middle guard sternly into the belly button, Ava said:
'We are here on a mission of peace and it is of the utmost importance that we speak to the Prime Minister immediately.'
The snorting laughter of the guard was cut off abruptly by the low growl from Wolfgang. Baring his teeth and the flimsy piece of string might also have played a part in sorting out his priorities.
'I will need to confer with my superiors to see what the procedure is when unaccompanied minors want to enter the Prime Minister’s house at 1 am.'
'We can also just let the dog have a go. He’s not minor. In fact, he’s rather major I would say,' replied Ava.
'That may fall under the chapter ‘harassment with a lethal weapon’. Hold on. Let me have a look.' Said the guard as he pulled out a slim volume from his fur hat. 'Ah, here. Penalty is deporting to the colonies.'
'Yes, can we go to Australia while you pay?!' Eddy cried out. 'Cool!'
'Hang on, I didn’t say that. Stay right here while I make a call!' The guard said as he reached for a wall mounted phone, his other arm outstretched to ward off the evil kids with their wolfhound with the highly suspicious claim to come in peace.
After several minutes of ever more frantic phone calls higher up, the guard finally turned back to Ava, Eddy and unknowingly to Wolfgang. 'The Prime Minister will grant you a short audience since she is already awake now, just to get it over with. Since the dog can’t come in because of the Prime Kittens, she will now come to ‘The Downstairs Window’.'
With that, the guard quickly turned on his heels like a pro, to start organising the security detail around ‘The Downstairs Window’. He quickly had to turn on his heels again, because he still had the phone receiver in his hand. Ava helped him untangle from the helical cord now tightly wrapped around him.
