Penelope watched the restaurant front door open from her vantage point behind the crack in the divider. She sniffed the air from the room outside coming through the crack. "I think I know who that is." Penelope sniffed further.
"So do I," Comet announced. "That's that old colonel from the military base. He's as evil as he's ever been."
"I know the other man with him too." Penelope continued sniffing. "I remember him. I crawled all over him at one of the colonel's press conferences when he was running for the Senate." Penelope snickered. "Kaggla was telling me through my collar what to do, and I had jumped onto him and evaded his attempts to shake me off. I even licked him like a puppy dog; the audience really loved that."
Felice twitched her tail. "That woman with them is a lot younger than the men; and very poised."
"Yes, very," Comet agreed.
"She's perfect," Felice whispered in amazement.
"Yeah, too perfect," Penelope replied. "There's something not exactly right about her, and I'm not sure I've figured it out yet."
"What's wrong with being perfect?" Comet retorted. "Are you feeling threatened by a confident human?"
Felice moved her head around, taking in the strange woman from all the view angles allowed her by the crack in the divider. "I agree with Penelope, Comet; and not because I feel threatened by that woman."
"I don't much like her either," Comet admitted, "but I'm not sure why. She seems very smart, but that's not it."
"She doesn't have the air of evil about her that Nash and Fitzsimmons have ... ." Penelope looked away to pull her thoughts together. "It's more like her mind is way beyond the other two, to the extent that it's not even human."
"Not human?" Comet nodded toward the three persons, now seated at the table outside next to their vantage point inside the divider. "She obviously is exactly human; just look at her. She looks more human than Colonel Nash and that Milt guy with him."
"That's the problem!" Felice exclaimed. "She is 'exactly' human. No human is exactly human. They all have distinguishing imperfections, like we have uneven or mismatched markings on our fur."
"She speaks perfect English too," Penelope observed. "She's also not at all afraid of them, and seems very much at ease in spite of their obvious malice."
"Oh, yeah," Felice added. "Those guys give me the creeps, and she seems to sense that about them too but isn't unnerved by it."
"I wonder why she is so confident?" Comet seemed unusually reflective. "People I've heard talk about Nash either have an air of discomfort about him or fawn all over him. But this woman seems to know and dislike these guys, but still stays so poised in the face of them."
"Well said, Comet." Penelope focused on the people outside the divider just under their noses. "Let's concentrate on what they're saying to see if we can figure this out."
