The Denis Cherche Affair: 1

The Denis Cherche Affair is the secret prequel to Alfred's legend - the story he never tells, and the one the pigeons won't stop invoicing for. Long before he became the universe's most dangerous cat, before the Red Cap of Power, before the sardine cartels and interdimensional jazz tours, before Anna and John, Alfred was just a grey British Shorthair living an ordinary life in Perth, Western Australia. Then he met Denis Cherche, a golden Labrador scientist with goggles, a van full of kettles, and a habit of making the Classified become Everyone's Problem. When rumours of "Project Quackdown" ripple through the animal underworld; when pigeons begin selling consulting hours and ducks form paramilitary strike teams; when red wool trembles with nonlocal vibrations; when an aikido dojo becomes a >Alongside Denis and the enigmatic Felicia Fortescue-Harcourt, aka, Pussy Galore, cream-furred, brilliant, and very much out of his league, Alfred discovers that the universe is stranger, sillier and far more dangerous than any radiator could prepare >And in the collider's blinding storm of neutrinos and God particles, one moment of hesitation changes everything. This is the story of Alfred's first great loss, his rise, his fall, and the spark that will eventually carry him to John Longbottom's doorstep. A tale of courage, comedy, disastrous science, and the birth of THE Cat.