Neal Asher - Mason's Rats

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Mason's Rats

NEAL ASHER

From Hartwell, David - Year's Best SF 11 (2006)

Neal Asher (www.nealasher.com) lives in Chelmsford, England. Since 2000 he has published six

novels: Gridlinked, a kind of James Bond space opera, was published in the UK in 2001; The

Skinner, in 2002; then Line of Polity, Cowl, Brass Man (a sequel to Gridlinked), and Voyage of the

Sable Keech (a sequel to The Skinner). All but Cowl are set in the same future, the "runcible

universe," where matter transmitters called runcibles link the settled worlds. Other books out in

2006 include The Engineer ReConditioned and a novella, Prador Moon. His short fiction is

appearing with some frequency in UK and U.S. magazines in recent years.

"Mason's Rats" appeared in Asimov's. It is short, biting, and to the point, and an interesting

counterpoint to the Dozois story in this book. Farmer Mason discovers that his cats are missing

and that the rats in his barn have become tool users and are carrying weapons.

The cartridges, with their environmentally friendly titanium shot, thunked into the shotgun with satisfying

precision. Mason snapped it shut and with pursed lips viewed his sprawling farmyard. Where to start?

Where would the killer stray be hiding? He hooked the shotgun under his arm and headed for the huge

enclosed barns where grain handlers could still be heard at work. There would be the place, but he knew

he would have to be careful where he fired. Micro-circuitry was robust, but not that robust, as he had

discovered after blasting one of Smith's cybernetic rat traps, mistaking it for a rabbit. It had run home

squealing and dropping chips like little black turds. He smiled to himself at the memory, then came

suddenly to a stop, his smile fading. Perhaps that was it. Perhaps Smith had reprogrammed one of his

traps to hunt cats, for revenge.

Mason's suspicions had only been aroused when the General had disappeared. The disappearance of the

other two cats he had put down to other things. They could have found another home with a more ready

food supply. He did not believe in giving them all they would want even though it was tax-deductible. He

called it motivation. They were working cats after all. Another possibility that crossed his mind was that

they had not been quick enough when the combine harvester had come round, and that he would find

their remains when he came to do the baling. But not the General; that raggedy-eared moggy had been

around for six years and knew the dangers. He also managed to grow fat on a stead diet of rats. Others

might have thought the culprit a fox, but foxes don't attack cats. Cats, after all, have more natural

armament than foxes. No, the greatest killer of cats is other cats. Mason shook his head and continued

on to the barns.

The doors to Gl slid back only halfway, then jammed. Mason was not surprised. He had not used them

in two years. The lights worked all right, though, and he could easily see into the dusty interior. Before

him was a mountain of alpha-wheat. He reached down and grabbed up a handful, gazed with satisfaction

at the pea-sized grains, then tossed them to the floor as a handler came whirring past him. He frowned as

he watched the bulky device. The handlers were the one inefficiency in the circuit. The grain went from

the harvesters to the barns, then, by handlers, from the barns up the ramps to the silos. Mason would

have liked one of the new harvesters with its fans that could blow the grain directly up fifty feet of ducting

into the silos, but he did not have fifty million Euros to spare. Still with a sour expression, he again gazed

up at the pile of wheat grain. It was then that he saw the gray shape crouching on top of it, regarding him

with glittery, avid eyes.

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