One morning he woke up under a pile of catgirls and realized he wasn't sure what day it actually was.

This is getting out of hand.

He needed some new gear; he'd been offline for a few weeks but it was verging on irresponsible not to check in with people.

"Just me?" Meela said, staring down at him over the curve of Reema's leg.

"It's not that I don't want all of you with me," he said, feeling the other two sets of eyes on him. "But we need to be inconspicuous. Me plus the three of you is just too dangerous."

He could go alone. He probably should in fact, but he also had notions about taking each of them along one at a time on an occasional errand. Their trip out to the new apartment hadn’t lasted all that long, and he’d seen the fascination on their faces when they were watching anything about the outside world.

In any case he was suddenly feeling an urgent need to get connected again, so he ate yogurt straight out of the container instead of letting Meela make something, then downed a cup of coffee and threw on his clothes in record time.

Meela padded along after him down the hallway, sunglassed and wigged. Mike's normal clothes on the other hand were so nondescript that he didn't really need anything in the way of a disguise. Being unmemorable was a basic professional skill after all. They’d already scoped out as many public cameras as possible, and their route was planned before they left.

By the time they made it downtown the stores had only just opened. Mike took them straight to a seedy little used electronics shop that he knew. The manager kept a special stock for serious clients and knew how to keep his mouth shut.

"I wondered where you had gone," the manager said. Yang was a rail-thin and powerfully friendly old man who had run the place since before anyone could remember. "Haven't seen you around for a while."

"All work and no play, you know," said Mike. "I needed some time off."

Yang nodded at Meela.

"This your friend?"

It was his way of asking Mike how civilian he should keep the conversation.

"This is Diana," Mike said. "She's good. You can treat her as my agent."

Yang waggled his eyebrows, impressed.

"Super," he said. "Times change. I thought you were a solo player."

Mike shrugged.

"You know how business is. I need a couple of new phones. Nothing fancy, but current gen encryption. Oh, and decent storage. More than usual. Yanxia or Wu Lai maybe?"

"Should we let the lady choose, do you think?" said Yang, giving him a faux-serious look.

Meela shook her head.

"Thank you, no," she said. "I trust Mike's judgment."

But she moved forward and took Yang's arm as he led them into the back. The old man looked surprised at first, but then grinned and warmed right up. By the time they were done they'd walked out of the store again with better prices than Mike had assumed they would get.

He glanced sideways at her as they left the store, and she gave him a subtle wink.

Dang, she really is trained for politics.

Once again it occurred to him how scary the three of them would be if they weren't so fanatically loyal to their master.

In one pocket he carried the interface Reema had told him he'd need to get in touch with catgirl hardware. It had cost more than either of the two phones, but it was a necessary expense if he was going to get a look inside them. Yang had handed it over without a word, and Mike once again worried about security. The old man wouldn’t ask any questions out of professional courtesy of course, but there was no way to get that kind of specialized equipment without hanging his ass out on the line a bit.

He'd planned to grab a ride back home right away, but Meela whispered to him as soon as they were on the street.

"Master, I haven't detected anything unusual in the way of network traffic or RF noise. If you'd like, I think we're safe to stop for a drink. As long as it's somewhere you'd never normally go."

They had secure coms again, plus the catgirl interface, so they'd already achieved his goals for the day. But it seemed like a strange request.

"Why, Reema? You don't normally ask for things out of the blue like that."

"Seema suggested you needed a change. She's looking out for your psychological well-being. We've been hiding for weeks now. It's not good for you."

What else were they conspiring about behind his back, he wondered? Not that they would do anything shady.

I guess a conspiracy to keep me sane and happy isn't something I should be mad about.

He grabbed her hand, suddenly feeling a bit lighter. She looked surprised, but then smiled.

They headed into a little pub he chose at random - he'd never been there before. It seemed to be populated mainly by middle-aged couples, and there were sports feeds running all over.

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Definitely not my crowd. Perfect.

Once they were settled in at a table and he was halfway through a pint of a very decent Stout, he felt himself starting to relax. It was only at that point that he realized just how much tension he'd been carrying in his body.

"As usual, you're spot on," he told Meela quietly. "There's a limit to how long a man can stay paranoid before it starts to drive him batty."

Meela sipped her drink and nodded.

"We can't be happy if our master isn't," she whispered.

"Don't get me wrong, I have no cause to complain. Being trapped with the three of you is about as close to perfect as life can get. But it's not stable long term. They won't stop looking for us."

She nodded grimly.

"We know. We worry about it a lot. But if they took us away from you we would never stop trying to get back!"

She looked fiercely around the room, like she was hoping to find someone sneaking up on them that she could trounce.

"I appreciate it," he said. It was definitely a unique situation to have merchandise that would actively try to find him again if it got lost.

"What can we do?" Meela hissed at him. "We cannot think of a way to keep you safe, and with us. No matter which direction we take, we're not safe."

He suddenly realized this was not an easy situation for the girls, in their own unique way. They were made to look after their master. Being stolen property meant that everything about their situation put their master at risk. That was a setup guaranteed to drive them crazy too.

He took her hand from across the table.

"Don't worry," he told her. "I chose this. I accepted the risk. The problem isn't your doing, so you're not at fault if anything happens."

She shook her head.

"That's not good enough," she said. He realized there were tears welling up in her eyes. "We are working our hardest to bring in money now, but everything could fall apart in a day if we have a security breach. They could find us!"

"I have faith in all of you," he said. "Reema is probably better qualified than me to run security, honestly. Anyway now that we've got secure coms back, I'll find a solution. Promise."

She nodded but looked no less worried.

"This is why I wanted to talk to you alone, Master," she said. "Reema and Seema are also worried. Seema especially, since your physical security is something she takes very personally. If she couldn't protect you, I worry about what would happen."

Mike realized that he'd been blind to a growing problem. His merchandise was getting squirrely and he'd been too busy enjoying great food and naked catgirl massages to pick up on it. Who knew how much worrying they had been doing with each other during the seven or eight hours a day he was unconscious?

Bad business. The quality of the goods matters.

"Wait, should I have brought her instead?"

Meela sighed.

"It would have made her happy. When you need to go out again, it would be her pleasure to watch out for you. She's probably pacing the condo and growling right now."

Mike slapped his forehead.

"I never even considered that! My mistake. I promise I will consult you on things like this."

"Who you take with you is your decision," she said primly. "But right now it would probably be good for Seema."

"Thank you for telling me. What can I do to make them both feel better?"

She stared down intently into her drink.

"We're not stupid, master. We know what the risks are. But they need more reassurance. We're not computers, whatever we're made out of. You should hug Reema and Seema more. Tell them that everything will be okay. Even if it's not true. They need to hear it."

She suddenly looked frightened, like she'd said too much.

"I hope that doesn't offend you, master," she said. "Maybe it sounded too much like an order. I apologize."

Mike burst out laughing, loudly enough that a few heads turned. Meela's eyes went wide.

"Sorry," he said and leaned forward to whisper again. "You did good. If I'm missing out on something important like that, please do tell me. I promise, I'll pamper the two of them tonight."

And you too, he thought. She had been speaking for herself as much as for the other two.

She nodded.

"Reema does have one idea about what to do," she said. "But she doesn't want to bring it up because she's worried you wouldn't like it."

He shrugged.

"Everyone needs to be heard. I don't labor under the delusion that I'm the only one with good ideas."

"Thank you master," Meela said, staring down at her drink again.

"And don't hold back okay? I can't fix a problem if I don't know it's there! I will never get mad at you for telling me the truth."

Meela's hair did a little wiggle that must have been her ears twitching.

"I promise," she said. "And I will tell..."

But she never got a chance to finish her sentence. Without any warning someone was standing at the table, looming over them.

"It's not safe here."

Shit.

Mike looked up at the figure. It was a tall, thin man wearing a long dark coat, with a hat and sunglasses on. He might have looked ridiculous and out of place if his words weren't so dangerous.

Mike put on his best look of baffled innocence.

"Sorry? What do you mean?"

Meela shifted in her chair, and gave Mike the impression that she was preparing to jump on their visitor if she thought it was necessary. He held up a restraining hand.

"You need to disappear. Right now," said the figure. "Everyone knows about you. They're offering six figures just for information."

Mike's stomach lurched.

This was stupid.

He'd been a fool to let down his guard. The only question now was whether listening to their new friend was going to walk them straight into a trap.

He stood up as casually as he could.

"If I see you following us I'm going to have to assume the worst," he said. "But thank you."

They scurried out of the pub in the most relaxed manner they could manage. Their helper sat down at their table and made no move to go after them.

Mike waved down a taxi at random, his heart thumping. When the door opened he gave Meela a gentle push in. Before he could leap inside himself, a hand grabbed his shoulder.

Damn it

Running around with a weapon was bad juju. It made people twitchy and sent the wrong signals. But as he turned, Mike's hand quickly slipped into his pocket to tear loose the little polymer stun gun that was fastened tightly to the fabric of his jacket.

It would be nuts not to have something available for emergencies.

He turned to face the intruder with a big shit eating grin plastered on his face.

"What seems to be the..."

It was another stranger wearing dark glasses and a big hat. This one had a puffy blue jacket on.

"I'm not a threat," the stranger said quickly.

He pushed something into Mike's free hand and shoved him into the taxi, slamming the door shut.

Mike's head landed in Meela's lap, and he stared up at her in confusion for a moment. Then he barked a destination at the car and popped up again to see the stranger receding out of the back window, already walking away into the crowd.