Read Online Animalis by John Peter Jones - Free Book Online Page A

Jax. “Idaho?” It sniffed the air. “Oh, a rat! Who was the rat you were with?”
    Jax glanced over the fox. Orange fur, small black eyes above a slender snout, two tall triangular ears standing high on top of its head, a patch of white that extended from its chin down into its shirt, and a two-foot-long puff of tail coming out from behind it. The corners of its mouth were pulled up and its lips were slacked.
    “The captain arranged this?” Jax asked Hank, waiting at the bottom of the staircase.
    Hank shook his head. “This is a surprise.”
    Grimshaw walked back down the stairs and opened the animal cage. “Sorry if Hodge makes you nervous,” she said. “Jax, Hank, this is Hodge. Hodge, Hank and Jax. And Moxie, and, oh what is your name?” Grimshaw jingled her wrist in front of Little Hank as it poked its nose out of the cage.
    “An Animalis?” Jax said. “You mean, this is your copilot?”
    “You own him?” Hank asked.
    “Can I get you anything?” Hodge started to wave their guests into the plane. “Water? Food? Lay down before the jump?”
    “These two little guys could use a bite to eat,” Grimshaw said as she walked back up the stairs. Little Hank crept out and followed her. “Let’s get our departure request sent in as well,” she said to Hodge. Then she answered Hank’s question: “Neither of us own each other. Lifelong friends.”
    Grimshaw walked inside with Moxie and Little Hank following her.
    Jax started to follow them up the staircase. What made Jax uneasy about getting on the plane wasn’t fear that the fox was a militant Animalis—for now Hodge was helping humanity’s side—it was that Jax didn’t know how to treat it. It had to be well trained to handle flight plans, but should Jax expect it to wait on him? Or, as Grimshaw’s “friend,” would it have the tenacity to invade Jax’s personal space, sniff him, or whatever Animalis did in social situations?
    It isn’t any of that, Jax realized. I just don’t want it to upset Hank. I wonder if it will affect him.
    Hank was the last to enter, and from the look on his face, it seemed nothing could have spoiled his first time inside an Atticus more than sharing it with an Animalis.
    Hodge bent down and sniffed Moxie. Moxie sniffed him back. Little Hank joined in, and the three of them circled for a moment.
    “You’re some strange fellows. Been around that same rat. Mm, healthy, aren’t you?” Hodge said between sniffs. “Nice to meet you, yes, nice to meet you.” With his snout close to Moxie, she stretched out and started licking his nose. Hodge straightened up and left down the hall to get them food. He kept talking to them as they followed him. “You’ll like this. Oh, you’ll like this. My favorite.”
    Grimshaw’s hand softly rested on Jax’s back. His muscles tensed and he moved forward out of her reach.
    “Just closing up the hatch. Thank you, Jax,” she said.
    Her flip-flops landed in a small hamper by the door, and she stepped on a lever that sent the stairway beeping, driving itself back to one of the airport’s garages. Once she had pulled the door shut, she stepped past them and went to the right, where the hall opened into a kind of open living space.
    Grimshaw’s jumper looked plush. The wall screens ran video of rolling hills of wheat, a gentle breeze sending waves across them. Currents of warm air flowed through the cabin to match the wind in the video. With only a short hall and an eleven-square-foot room in front of him, Jax felt like he was walking into an endless expanse of nature.
    The floor was covered in a white, haptic surface that had a menu hovering above it in Jax’s retina monitor. He had noticed that when Grimshaw stepped on the flooring, the surface pillowed up just under her step, and then looked like a marshmallow trail as she walked by. When Hodge stepped, a geometric, textured pattern bumped up under his feet.
    “Well, he’s fun,” Hank said, hiding his sarcasm with what sounded