The Chronicles of Ether Drive

 CHAPTER 3: El-Beyda Remi was experiencing a strange, contradictory feeling, one that would be hard to understand for anyone in this world who leads a normal life guided by a strict, monotonous routine. In her mind, she was still a rational woman. But on the other hand, the white cat whose body she inhabited had a reasoning of its own. Following a skinny, olive-skinned boy she had only just met through the labyrinth of streets in a city where she was setting foot for the very first time—that was all part of this feline reasoning. “Thank you, White One! El-Beyda! In our language...” “Why do I understand your language?” Remi interrupted, her voice calm, without a trace of panic. “It is the collar, but not just that,” the boy whispered. “Maktub!” “It was written!” Remi echoed in her mind, proving once again, if only to herself, that she understood this tongue all of a sudden. “In the writings, it is called Samatein.” “The Collar of the Two Skies,” the white cat murmured back in her th...

  Chapter 2 Tummy Aches and Missed Calls  While the Cairo team, made up of the Professor, Anemo, and Remi-Bise, was doing everything they possibly could to tackle all the obstacles in their way, the furry team back in Ireland was trying their hardest to keep in touch with them, either by phone or via FaceTime. Every single day, straight after school, Fleur would come over. She would fill the furries’ bowls with biscuits, and then they would call from Remi’s phone. Because, you see, Fleur was only seven years old, and her parents didn’t think she should have a mobile phone at her age. On Thursday, 24th September, Fleur ran home after school, completely out of breath. First, she burst into her own house, dumped her schoolbag in the hallway, and then grabbed the key to Anemo’s house from the peg. She dashed out impatiently, shouting: “I’m off to feed the cats!” to her mum or dad, or whoever was home and could hear her. Inside the House of Winds, the furries were waiting for her, ...

 CHAPTER 1: THE CITY THAT NEVER SLEEPS Professor Simoon and Anemo were fast asleep, completely dead to the world, the son on the sofa and the father in the armchair. Their snoring—a chorus in canon, neither too soft nor too loud—would not normally have bothered Remi, but right now, still trapped in her white Angora cat body, she could not catch a wink of sleep. The air inside the old Cairo apartment was still scorching and heavy, thick with the scents of tea, spices, and the smell of asphalt, fuel, and dust. Throughout the day, the thick walls had fed on the blazing sun, and now they breathed out a stifling heat that was hard to bear, especially for people who had lived their whole lives on an emerald island where heatwaves had never been an issue. And for an Angora cat, with her long, fluffy coat, it was an absolute nightmare. Remi moved onto the mosaic floor, hoping the stone would feel cooler, but sleep simply would not come, and through the open window, the city that never slee...

  Epilogue After the whole ordeal of failure, the two Gales fell fast asleep, felled by a heavy mixture of exhaustion, desert dust and despair. All their logic, paperwork and high-level diplomacy had failed in front of a showcase in Tahrir by a mere twenty seconds. The awakening came abruptly, far too early, shattered by a shrill sound that had absolutely nothing to do with the peace of home. Somewhere, on a nearby balcony or in the inner courtyard of the building in Zamalek, an Egyptian cockerel was repeatedly shouting its greeting to the sun that was barely dawning, partially drowning out the city's first horns. Anemo started and opened his eyes, feeling his back stiffen. He had fallen asleep with his clothes on, on the old sofa in the living room. Professor Simoon rose from his armchair as well, passing a tired hand over his face, whilst the ceiling fan continued to turn lazily above them, moving the warm air. On the cedar table, Anemo’s laptop screen had remained on all night, ...

  Chapter 28 The twenty-four-hour mystical window of the Autumn Equinox had begun to tick since midnight, but for Remi-Bise, the first twenty-one hours had slipped away in a bureaucratic nightmare of utter absurdity. In the veterinary office at Terminal 3 of Cairo International Airport, the air conditioning could barely cope with the heat outside. The room smelled pungently of Turkish coffee with cardamom, cheap tobacco, and old paper. An Egyptian official with a thick moustache and glasses on a cord had repeated the same infuriating chorus to them since the first hour of the morning: ‘The Ministry of Agriculture’s electronic system is blocked. Return after afternoon prayers.’ Then a special fee was required, which could only be paid at Terminal 1, followed by a missing stamp on the legalised copy of the anti-rabies certificate from Ireland. From inside the plastic carrier, Remi felt her heart thumping like a drum. Yet above the panic, a mystical tingling had begun to spread across...

  Chapter 27 The flight turned into white noise for Remi-Bise, and even though she did not manage to fall asleep, she felt calm, left with her own thoughts about life, about what had been and what was yet to come. From down there, she realised that both Anemo and the professor had fallen asleep. Frost, exhausted by the rush of so many overwhelming emotions, had also drifted off, generating a fairly steady snore. When the Airbus’s wheels finally struck the runway at Cairo International Airport, Remi let out a long sigh, taking a deep breath of air. Her ears were blocked again, but at least the high-altitude nightmare was over. ‘This is it,’ she thought the very second the aircraft’s massive doors opened. A wave of hot, dense, and heavy air hit her straight in the face, as if trying to push them back down the crowded aisle of the plane. The transition from the air conditioning to Cairo’s thirty-five degrees made Remi breathe heavily in her plastic carrier, as if she could not get eno...

  Chapter 26 The EgyptAir aircraft, a modern Airbus A320neo, looked impressive even from the tarmac. On its towering, dark blue tail fin sat the Eye of Horus, drawn in bold white and gold strokes — the ancient symbol of protection, which now seemed to watch over their direct flight to Cairo. The cabin interior exuded an understated elegance, with seats upholstered in grey-blue eco-leather and individual screens built into the headrests. For Anemo and Simoon, having seats in row four, fairly near the front, was a first victory. However, the true blessing was discovering that the middle seat between them had remained completely empty. ‘We’ve got space,’ Anemo whispered, carefully placing the plastic carrier on the floor, precisely under the seat in front of him. From inside the box, Remi-Bise let out a long sigh. The aircraft’s air conditioning had already begun to blow a cold draught that ruffled her whiskers, and the cramped space made her feel like a prisoner. She pressed her pink...