The vulpine guard didn't reply as he and the others hefted Karogen further down the corridor.  In moments, they had reached an elevator and jostled inside, letting it lift them to the uppermost level of the palace.  The doors opened and they thrust Karogen out ahead of them into a large, lavishly-decorated foyer.  A few small, lanky attendants bustled about the room - all varying species of anthro-feline.  The Lady preferred having small felines to wait on her hand and foot, it was rumored.  A large wooden door decorated with reliefs of foxes feasting - a relic of times long past - stood to Karogen's right, and the guards dragged him towards it.  One of the feline attendants gently opened the door and swung it wide into the chamber within.<br/><br/>Beyond the door was a long room with a vaulted ceiling hewn from stone.  A large table stretched the length of the room, lined on either side and its ends with tall-backed chairs - chairs meant for nobility, with holes cut in them to accomodate the occupants' tails.  The chair farthest from the door had been moved away and replaced with a crudely-fashioned chair made of wooden planks.  To this chair the guards ushered Karogen, standing him up beside it.  Karogen could see that the table before it was set as if for a meal, but with the plate missing.<br/><br/>The massive wooden door swung shut with a dull bang.  There was a moment of stifling silence in the room.  Then a door hidden behind tapestries near the end of the room opposite Karogen was heard to open.  Without ceremony or fanfare, the Lady Alhanda Shenzai of Kazmer walked powerfully into the room, eyeing Karogen with a closely-guarded expression.  She wore her informal gray outfit with the silver circlet and jewelry.  The moment she entered the room, the guards holding Karogen wrenched him into a bowing position, as if he didn't know the proper protocol when being entertained by the Lady.  When she took her seat directly opposite him across the long table, the guards forcibly sat Karogen on the crude chair and stood slightly back at attention.<br/><br/>Lady Alhanda seemed unimpressed with Karogen, but also very suspicious of him.  She let a moment pass before she spoke in her ominous low voice.<br/><br/>"Marcus Lucidia Karogen, Jr.," she said, locking his gaze with her deep green eyes.  "Head of the 'Sentience Equality Movement.'  Get no ideas that your pithy title as leader of that... organization... gives you any authority within these walls.  You are here under my power."  She ran a claw along the knife set before her, also as part of a place-setting devoid of a plate.  "I will ask you questions and you will answer them.  That is the extent of this audience."  Two feline attendants passed into the room from the main door, bearing plates.  One of the felines set before Karogen a feast of cooked vegetables and exquisitely-roasted meat.  Before the Lady, an empty plate was set.  She acknowledged her aides with a slight nod and they departed.  "We will start with this question," she said.  "Do you know why you are here?"<br/><br/>-----<br/><br/>Most of the humans in the safe house were coughing and hacking from the gas, though Halvorson and O'Toole managed to get the gas masks Bane had brought out and threw them on.  Halvorson went about masking the others, starting with Fenson, while O'Toole searched madly for her weapons.<br/><br/>Outside, the lieutenant could barely hear Baz's ultimatum.  He scoffed silently at it, thinking, "Nice try, sewer scum."<br/><br/>Chiro's roar cleared the room of most of the tear gas, but most of the humans still suffered its effects.  Even those who had masked right away were bleary-eyed and coughing.<br/><br/>The lieutenant watched the gas and canisters get blown out the front of the building by some unseen force.  Infuriated, he took out a grenade and tossed it in front of the front door, his idea of a warning.  Then he made his way silently around back to see if anyone had escaped.  To his surprise, he saw the large silver anthro-serpent doubled over a dumpster, apparently violently ill.  He raised his rifle to his shoulder and sighted on the serpent's back, his finger tightening on the trigger...<br/><br/>Out front, the grenade clattered to a halt in front of the open doorway.  O'Toole saw it a split-second later and screamed, "GRENADE!!"  She hurled herself to the ground behind a piece of furniture, as did all the humans in the room.  A deafening blast shook the building, sending fragments of hot shrapnel screaming in through the door.