'I know Miss Bellingham quite well. I don't think her eyesight is all that reliable, do you?'
Jenny was lost for words for a moment. 'Now just wait a minute...'
The Warden held up a restraining hand. 'Please, Jenny, let me handle this. You go along with Mr. Fender, will you?'
The tutor stood, glanced at Fender, and walked from the room. Milton grinned feebly and Fender followed the girl.
She was halfway down the narrow gravel path before he caught up with her.
'Just wait a minute, Miss Hanmer,' he said, taking her arm and bringing her to a halt. He selfconsciously dropped his hand when she pointedly looked down at it. 'He is right, you know. These things can snowball into panic if they aren't handled carefully.'
'But I saw them,' she said resolutely.
'No one's doubting that. But it has to be checked out before the alarm bells go off.'
She began striding down the path again and he kept pace, walking on the grass beside her.
'Look, ever since the Outbreak people have been panicking over real or imagined rats. Usually, the ones we've found have been normal, either Black or Brown, but no giants. More often than not, they've been animals of a completely different species. Bad light, optical illusions, over-nervous people all sorts of things account for the sightings. It's become as popular as spotting UFOs.'
'I am not over-nervous. Nor do I imagine things. Nor do I believe in flying saucers.'
Then you're a better person than I am.'
'Possibly.'
He grinned at the sarcasm. 'Probably,' he said.
She stopped and faced him. 'I'm sorry, Mr. Pender...'
'Luke,' he told her.
'Luke?'
'Short for Lucas.'
'Lucas?' She couldn't help smiling.
'Not my fault. Parents. I was conceived on honeymoon in a place in lower Italy. Lucania.'
She laughed aloud.
'I was lucky. They could have gone to Ramsgate.' His smile broadened as she laughed again.
You sound like something out of a bad western,' she said.
The way certain people regard my profession, I sometimes feel like it.'
'Okay, I'm sorry, Luke. I didn't mean to get hurry with you.'
'It's all right. You've had a shock.'
Jenny frowned. 'I meant it, you know, I wasn't mistaken.'
'Let's check it out, then, eh?'
They began walking again and the tutor glanced down at Fender's feet.
You're going to get awfully wet.'
'I've got boots in my car, and an old leather jacket. I have to be prepared to get mucky in this job.' He pointed towards his Audi and they headed in that direction.
'How did you get into rats?' the girl asked as he opened the back of the car and reached in for a pair of hefty high-ankled boots.
'I wouldn't say I'm into them, exactly,' he replied, removing his shoes and lacing up the boots. 'It's just a living. I was an entomologist until an old friend of mine from Ratkill told me rodent control was the thing of the future. Big money, he told me, and all the vermin you can eat.'
Her reserve was beginning to break down. People were usually wary of him because of his profession, even though he and his colleagues had become latter-day heroes due to the 'dangerous' work they carried out, but he sensed a natural wariness in this girl, as if she rarely took people at face value. Maybe she had learned not to the hard way.
'And is it? The thing of the future?' she asked.
He took off his coat and reached for the short, worn leather jacket inside the boot. Well, it's big business now, but I suppose the fear of rats will fade with time.'
'It'll be a long while before people forget what happened in London.'
'Yes, it will. But that was a freak. They'll forget it eventually.'
'Unless it happens again.'
He said nothing and lifted up a folded bundle of silver material that lay on the floor of the boot. He pulled out two pairs of large gloves made from the same tough fabric and handed one pair to the tutor who looked quizzically at him.
'Just a precaution,' he told her. 'If by any chance we do run into your friends, slip these on. They'll give you some protection.' He saw the fear in her eyes. 'Don't worry. It really is just a precaution; nothing's going to
