Cliff and Noella sat alone in the Ant Observation Lab waiting for the end.

Just a few minutes before, the cat Bismarck seemed to go insane. It was she who swapped the pacifying pheremone with antagonizing pepper spray. But why?

Unbenownst to the humans, a squad of police cats were racing down the stairs. Bismarck could hear them with her superior hearing and knew her time was short. If they caught her, the plot would have been completely ruined. Most of her group of saboteurs were already in custody, captured before they could hand over the papers to Barry Spirito. It was up to her to enact plan B. As the ants rampaged, they could escape, retreat to the spacecraft and leave safely.

As a further distraction, Bismarck activated the emergency feline alert system. It is not known how she acquired one of these few remote controls. As soon as she hit the button, a network of satellites immediately broadcast signals to the old utility robots in hibernation around the globe. Like the ones in Easter Island's soil and others buried in mud on continental shelfs in the ocean, they all emerged from their waiting places and began walking to the rendezvous location: Manhattan, the current capital of Feline civilization.

Fortunately, the arthronauts were able to escape with only minor injuries, though their suits were shreds.

Inexplicably, Bismarck left through the airlock into the hive. It may have been an act of suicide, to keep from being captured by her countrymen. Or perhaps she calculated that she could evade the angry ants by going through their passageways wearing an ant protection suit. But even the most optimistic ant expert would concede that an ant defense suit would provide no more than three minutes of protection. At any rate, they left her to her fate.

With the ants now frothing in an angry mass, the birds initiated their evacuation plan. In cities all over the world, they retreated to underground stations and boarded trains to Antarctica. Their massive city hidden under the polar icecap was preparing for weeks for this possibility, cutting the ice with steam jets from below. In a few hours, a vast piece of the southern continent would rise from the earth's surface. They would rendezvous on the Moon, along with the cats who would be leaving from their capital and spaceport, Manhattan, where a score of skyscrapers were fuelled and ready to take off.

Sigma Squadron raced off to join their compatriots in Serpentopolis where a different contingency plan was under way. The massive gates would be shut. Then the city would retreat into a dimensional bubble, leaving the universe for good.

"It has been a pleasure to work with you Clifford," said Lasquis. "You are a consumate professional gifted with arbitration skills. My people could learn a lot from you."

He winked and boarded the transport capsule in which his team was already waiting. Cliff felt a special warmth at being complimented by him.

Twake said to Cliff, "I am sorry you had to endure all that abuse from me. It was all a ruse to cover our sting operation. We have known about Bismarck and his seditious group for some time. We thought that this would be a good way to keep our enemy close for observation. But it failed. We failed. And I am sorry. If we ever come out of this alive, and it is very doubtful, we extend an invitation for you to visit the Avian City. Plus one guest. We would bring you along, but you can see that our train is too small to fit you. Well, good bye and good luck."

And in a few minutes, everyone was gone but Cliff and Noella. Jets of bug spray kept the ants away for now, but in less than an hour, the ten thousand tons in reserve would be used up. Then it was just about a minute before the ants ripped through the thin metal and glass skin.

Noella found a switch that linked the video screens with the local human news broadcasts. They could see pictures on the monitor of ants streaming out of manholes into the streets of Luxembourg. People were being carried away, down into the manholes. Cars seemed to float like rafts down the street, carried on the backs of millions of ants.

Cliff thought there wasn't much time left. He was trying to figure out how to phrase a proposition to her that, in view of the circumstances, perhaps there was time for a...

But as he sidled over to her, Noella screamed. The windows were cracking. In addition, they could hear the rumbling of ants entering the ventilation system. They began to stream out of vents. Cliff and Noella held each other, waiting for the final moment. They closed their eyes tightly, expecting something very painful to happen.

They opened their eyes some time later and were surprised to feel themselves moving without any trace of pain. They also found that they lacked the ability to move. Somehow, they had changed position and were both lying on their backs.

"Cliff?"

"Yeah?"

"Just wanted to hear your voice. Where do you think they are taking us?"

"Don't know. It's strange, I would expect to be more terrified."

"Me too. I should definitely be freaking out. I hate bugs."

They both relaxed as the calming pheremones sprayed by the ants took the edge off their fear. It was a wonderful tingling sensation.

Cliff laughed, "maybe they are taking us to the food preparation chamber."

"You think? That would be an odd way to die. I've fought with assassins from Atlantis, traded punches with toughs in Dublin. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought..."

She fell asleep, followed shortly by Cliff, who wondered what would be the best recipe to prepare humans for ant consumption.

* * *

Bismarck raced through the ant tunnels. Everywhere he went seemed to be closed off or too clogged with ants to proceed. He paused in a side gallery to consult his sono-map one more time.

"This is impossible! The exit was clearly this way. The ants would not have changed the configuration, would they? OUCH!"

A guard ant hanging to his suit managed to sink its mandibles through one of the seams in his defense suit. There was not much time. He stomped around in a circle wondering what to do. He was so furious he did not notice the floor of the room swelling with psych ants.

"Gotta?" said one.

"Gotta." answered another.

In moments, Bismarck was curled up, peacefully snoring as he was carried away to the dissection rooms.