The A. I. I. A.

The mouse, peering out of a mouse hole looked around the room of the sleeping boy then started to scurry across his carpet towards his bed but then suddenly, out of the shadows, a grey tortoiseshell cat leapt, pinning the mouse down by its tail.

“Aghh”, said the mouse, “Let go you imbecile”.

“My, my”, said the cat in a purring voice, its eyes changing from green to bright infra-red as it examined the internal structure of the mouse, “A talking mouse. You don’t see one of those every day. Come on my friend, own up. You don’t look like one of ours so who are you working for and why are you in Robin Merriots bedroom?”.

The mouse looked up at the collar of the cat and saw the initials A.I.I.A upon it, which could only mean it was an agent of the A.I.I.A or Artificial Intelligence Intelligence Agency, the branch of the governments intelligence services that designed and employed robotic agents for both surveillance and covert military operations; this one was obviously some kind of a body guard.

“You won’t get a squeak out of me”, said the mouse.

“Well, if you don’t want to co-operate”, said the cat, its retractable claws springing out, one of which was a sophisticated computer hacking tool, “I can just hack into your mouse-sized hard drive and find out that way”.

“Alright”, said the mouse, “I’ll tell you. It’s not Robin Merriot now that we are interested in but Robin Merriot, 30 years in the future”.

“You’re a mouse from the future?”, asked the Cat, surprised, “How did you get here?”.

The mouse pointed towards the mousehole,

“That hole is an interdimensional portal. You’ve heard of wormholes, no doubt, well that mousehole is one”, said the mouse.

“Well what are you doing in the 22^nd Century?”, asked the cat.

“I represent an alien power that is altering human history for its own advantage; since my masters are not part of human history they can, as long as they do not know what has already happened in Earths future alter what will happen without creating a paradox; they call it time seeding; planting the seeds of world domination within a planets history”, said the mouse, “Robin Merriot is one of those they have chosen as a 5^th Columnist; he is part of influential business dynasty with ties to your government and as such makes a suitable sleeper agent”.

“Hmm”, thought the cat, “Well if all that is true, then why tell me?”.

Suddenly, the cat felt the mouse’s tail beneath his paw begin to change, becoming thick, green and scaly and then, to his amazement the AIIA agent saw the mouse transform into a hissing cobra.

“Because”, said the snake, with a forked, flickering tongue; rearing  up, ready to strike, “You are not going to tell anyone”.

“A snake bites not going to affect me”, said the cat, “I’m no ordinary cat”.

“And this bite contains no ordinary venom but a toxin made of tiny nanorobots than can kill anything, organic or robotic”, said the snake.

Just then however, the snake was distracted by the light of a torchbeam shining in its left eye and, looking round it saw young Robert Merriot who, woken by the noise had gotten out of bed.

“Whats going on?”, he said, sleepily, rubbing his eyes.

This was all the opportunity the cat agent needed, leaping with speed and reflexes even greater than those possessed by a real cat, he pounced upon the snake pinning its neck with his razor sharp steel claws to the floor.

“Just a nightmare, Robert”, said the Cat, “But it’s all taken care of now”.

Just then, however, the cat saw the alien robot begin to change again, this time into a regiment of tiny red fire ants that started to scurry, as one, back towards and into the mouse hole.

“This is not finished, Cat”, said the last little ant, looking back over its shoulder before disappearing into the hole that, a hole in time and space rather than the wooden skirting board, started to vanish as well, “Don’t forget, time is on our side”.

The cat touched its collar with its left paw and it lit up becoming a two-way communication device.

“Agent Kitt reporting”, it said.

“Yes, Agent Kitt”, said AIIA’s central computer; the artificially intelligent head of the organization, “Please deliver your report”.

“Have just had an encounter with an agent of some unidentified alien intelligence that has technology far beyond our own; even the ability to travel in time and alter Earths history. Will upload all the specifics to your memory”, said the Cat, “But I don’t know if even with our technology whether we’re ready to face that kind of threat”.

“Nevertheless”, said the Central computer, “To defend the security of our nation, whatever the threat, AIIA must be ready to face it”.