of the rifle like the Sphinx, resting his black paw on the trigger. Ahmad lingered to see them at work when they fired a shot. The cat taking aim was brown, had his paws slung on the stock like a gambler at the tracks leaning against the railing following his horse. He held his tail up straight. The other was tricolor, lying on his stomach, relaxed except for the paw on the trigger. It happened in a fraction of a second: the brown tail came down and the black paw pulled the trigger and a loud bang rang out with from the muzzle. Kicked back to their feet, the two cats lay back in place, ready for their next shot.
News came by the hour: the people occupied the national television stations, soldiers joined the people ten at a time, waiting for the opportune moment to detach themselves and taking off their uniforms as they ran to the opposite side in undershirts.
Two hours after noon, the soldiers in front of the university were still resisting. After a round of bullets was fired, Ahmad ran back and turned onto one of the branching streets, and it was there that he saw a company of cats of all colors running into the open door of the six-story building on the corner, last in a row of buildings of more or less the same size that formed the southern edge of the main street. There was something about those cats, their lean, lithe build, the way they ran strong and confident, that made Ahmad follow them. None of them turned a head to check anything in the street: they were a focused line, hurrying to do something they knew well.
The corridors were dark but for weak streams of light from small windows. Ahmad ran up the stairs following the soft footsteps of the agile felines, until he went through a metal door onto the roof. The cats jumped over the short parapet that separated the roofs of the adjacent buildings. Ahmad ran after them, and a few roofs ahead came to a stop. He could see what the cats were planning to do, one roof ahead from where he stood. About twenty cats stood in a line, sitting on their hind legs, tails slowly swaying. On their turn each cat stepped forward and stood still on all fours to get strapped with a pair of black plastic wings. At that moment, Ahmad realized: those cats were going to fly. Or at least try.
A three-legged black-and-white and a fat tabby carried the wings from piles on either side of the installing station. The pilot cats stepped into the straps of the right wing, which the black-and-white fastened with the help of the tabby. Trying with difficulty not to lose his balance on one hind leg, the black-and-white pushed on the velcros to make sure they were secure. Then the tabby got a left wing from the pile on the left and installed it with the help of the black-and-white.
Ahmad hurried to the edge of the roof, bending over so as not to be seen, and looked down. They were very close to the line of soldiers, almost on top of them. He dashed back to the separating parapet to watch. In that moment, several cats in line noticed his presence, turned their heads, and watched him for a few seconds, but then turned back to their work, perhaps deciding Ahmad would not be a problem. When all the pilots had their wings on, the tabby opened the lid of a wooden case. Inside were guns, small handguns no bigger than half of Ahmad’s palm; he recognized a semiautomatic Beretta among the different kinds. The winged cats stood in line again and Ahmad realized that the strapping on the right side had something like a holster where the tabby and the black-and-white fit the guns in place. A miniature string and pulley system made it possible for the pilots to pull the trigger by yanking one end of the string in their mouths.
A siren wailed in the distance. The cats were ready, their guns pointing straight down, the ends of strings in their mouths. Ahmad ran to the edge of the roof, again keeping his head low. He wanted to see it all. The cats stood in rows of four—Ahmad could count them now: there were sixteen—bodies lowered, ears flat, and the tips of their wings almost touching. Then as if by a silent order, the