He didn’t sound angry, if anything surprised. His voice was sharp and considerably lighter than I had guessed.
“We’re twins,” I finally forced out.
“What a surprise, sweetheart.”
An ironic gazelle. His laughter sounded like little bells.
He observed me for a long time in silence. I didn’t dare move.
“But you’re not particularly alike,” he said at last. “Other than in appearance.”
I nodded. I agreed. After this evening, I knew that the abyss between Eric and me would never close up again.
“I need that package you got,” he said.
“You…” I stammered, “you’re not Otto Orangutan.”
“Sharp-eyed as a cobra,” mocked the gazelle. “Give it here.”
The gazelle attacked me. More or less. Before I had time to react, he had his hooves in my pants pocket, and I pulled back in terror. I must have gotten a bit of the drapery under my foot, because I stumbled and fell backwards. It was not a violent fall, it was more like I sat down.
The gazelle seemed not to care if anyone saw us. In his eyes shone the same desire that I’d seen in each and every animal in here. I admit that it frightened me.
“We can do this in one of two ways,” said the gazelle. “Either you just give me the package. Or else I have a little fun with you first. Then I take the package.”
I shook my head. The glow in his eyes was so intense that I was forced to look in a different direction.
That was how I discovered my salvation.
Eric came walking toward us.
Before I had time to answer, my twin brother put his paw on the gazelle’s back and murmured something I didn’t hear. The gazelle smiled, an ingratiating, repulsive smile. Then he backed into the shadows of the drapery and disappeared.
My brother extended his paw to me. I took it, and got up. With that I had used up my last bit of strength.
We stood staring at each other without knowing what we should say. In my soul a cry was being formed, a scream for help, and I understood that it belonged to Eric. It was Eric’s scream that was screaming inside me.
I knit my lips together. Not a sound.
Then I turned around and ran as fast as I could, running toward the exit. I continued to run when I came out onto the street, I ran the whole way home, not caring if Mother and Father heard me. I ran up the stairs to my room.
Eric maintains that I’m still running.
CHAPTER 10
Tom-Tom Crow dropped the screwdriver. It fell to the floor with an audible thud.
Eric Bear stopped in his tracks, paralyzed by fear. He could see how the silhouettes of Sam Gazelle and Snake Marek remained standing a few meters farther away in the dark room.
They had broken into Hotel Esplanade less than a minute ago. The weather was past midnight, and the Chauffeurs had neither been seen nor heard for several hours. They ought to be safe. But they were breaking into the house of death. If they were discovered here, neither police nor prosecutor could help them; then they were doomed.
The seconds passed.
The sound from the screwdriver spread through the dark building. Only when the sound had forced its way into every nook and corner without anything happening did Eric dare to set his paw down on the floor.
“We’re going in,” he whispered to Tom-Tom, who was standing closest to him.
The big crow nodded, and along with the gazelle and the snake they went straight into the hideout of the Chauffeurs.
A few days after the sensational discovery that the Chauffeurs were hanging out a wing-stroke’s distance from Yiala’s Arch, the four stuffed animals kept Hotel Esplanade under observation. The hotel was an ordinary building with a spackled gray and white finish, but with a peculiar feature. It lacked doors and windows on the street level. Apart from the secret garage entrance, which was a part of the façade itself, there was nowhere to go in.
“But we have to get the hell in,” the crow declared wisely. “How else are we going to get hold of the list?”
“It’ll work out,” replied Eric Bear. “We’ll lie low a few days, map out their routines, learn how the opposition looks. Snake is going to think up a plan. Aren’t you, Marek?”
Snake grunted. He was unsure whether Eric was flattering or teasing him.
They drew up a schedule. Because the Chauffeurs only worked at night, the four at Yiala’s Arch were forced to alter their