Chapter Seven

Checking In (Mimosa in Hand)

"Great job, guys, you could've killed your own ward with your little scam." Mina muttered irately. It went mostly ignored. She sat against a large flat rock facing towards the blazing fire. Spans of desert went around them all as far as the eye could see—they were situated in a small patch of rocks and a few sparse trees with the firelight as their only source of light. The sun had set beyond the horizon hours ago.

Nack poked at the fire. "It's a livin', popstar. Bounty hunting ain't quite as easy as being a celebutante, 'fraid to tell you."

"That doesn't give you the right to endanger children." Mina sniffed, ignoring his jab. "What is she doing here, anyways?"

"None of your damn business." Nack replied easily. Stella reached out from her sleeping bag with tired eyes to slap him on the arm lightly. He snagged her arm and dragged her out of the bag; the little girl gave an annoyed moan. Mina raised an eyebrow as the little girl fell onto the weasel. "Mornin' sleepyhead, its about damn time you woke up. How tired can you get when you sleep through the entire ride anyways?"

"Good for my…hair…?" Stella mumbled unintelligibly.

"Yeah, well, your hair is gonna have to wait. We have to call in to your uncle 'cuz thanks to your little idol's bff, I need some help from him. So go get the laptop." Nack replied, picking the little girl off his lap. Stella stumbled over to the motorcycle sidecar to push the sleeping Bean aside; he toppled off the side but didn't seem to wake at all. From the other sidecar, Bark sighed and scooped the duck up to rest the sleeping dynamo at his side. While he did so, Stella shuffled through the now-empty sidecar and pulled out an outdated laptop and booted it up.

Mina watched in confusion as she huddled next to the weasel with a cheerful smile on her young face. Nack swiped it and booted it up, pulling up a program with a loading box. For a few minutes, it was empty, but a small dinging sound confirmed that it had gone through. Immediately a video feed popped up.

"…I think….is this the right one? Did I get it? Stella?"

"Uncle Erik! How are you?" Stella cried happily, launching forward at the screen. Nack placed a hand on her forehead and pulled her back; to Mina, it seemed like an almost practiced motion. Carefully, nonchalantly, she scooted close enough to see the screen—a middle-aged red fox with blonde locks curving around his brown eyes and carefully trimmed ears. He wore a fine, expensive looking black suit with a kerchief in the left pocket and a half empty glass of wine balanced between his fingers. Most surprising to Mina, however, was the look of comfortable affection he wore on his face.

"Stella, love, how have you been? Has the weasel taken good care of you? One should hope so, as his next stipend for his work should be coming through in a week." The man laughed jovially as Nack's face drooped. "Cheer up, my friend. I'm just joking."

"Yeah, yeah, joke a little less. I'm not in the mood." Nack muttered. The fox on screen tilted his head to the side curiously. "We're on assignment right now. It's been a pain in the ass."

To all of their surprise, Erik laughed jovially.

"Yes, I saw it on the news. You kidnapped that international pop star girl, Millie Meerkat or something." Erik chuckled.

"It's MINA. Mina Mongoose." The popstar piped up lividly.

"Ah, there she is! It's nice to meet you, Missy. I'm sorry to say I'm not too familiar with you and your music, only your reputation." Erik laughed again; Mina would've wondered if the man was tipsy if his laugh wasn't followed by a stern expression. "You've kept a very poor low profile lately, I have to say. This assignment of yours is all over television. Including my niece's face."

"Wouldn't know, I don't watch much television. Kiddo here doesn't watch much anymore either." Nack replied absently. On the laptop screen, Erik shook his head.

"They say birds of a feather flock together, Nack, and the fact that Stella is your ward only proves it. You both are very bad at lying." The sophisticated man commented. "What's going on? Are you all having trouble with this little assignment of yours? What IS it, anyways?"

"It's nothing serious, we just had a few slip ups in a regular job." Nack grumbled; the copper fox waited patiently, staring intently at both the weasel and his niece. "…Okay, okay, fine. Jesus. We screwed up a few times on an unusual job from a freak client with one hell of a payoff. Happy now?"

"A man of the truth will always find the truth." Erik replied smugly; based on the expression on both Stella and Nack's faces, Mina had a feeling that history had proven the copper fox wrong and they were just holding back. She huffed. They might hold back, but SHE wouldn't. She wanted some answers and she wanted them right now.

"Excuse me, sir…" Mina interrupted, pushing Nack's head to the side and ignoring his indignant snort.

"Call me Erik, Miss Minnie. Or Mr. Fairfield, if you really insist on formalities. But I'm no sir. I like to think I haven't quite reached that far in my years." Mina couldn't help but be thrown off by the man's careless nature. This was not what she had been expecting from Stella's relatives…at least not in the presence of one of the Hooligans. "Did you have a question for me?"

"Ah! Yes, I uh, I did." Mina snapped to attention. "Sir, my name is Mina and I'm the current VICTIM of these idiotic jerks. Why is your niece travelling with them?! You don't even seem to mind."

Erik chuckled and raised his glass.

"Idiotic and jerkish as they may be, the Hooligans have done the Frost family a great favor in the past. And it was all for the good of our dearest heiress." Mina shot a disbelieving look towards Nack and Stella. "Ha ha, well, you don't have to believe me if you don't want to. I'd imagine it's a difficult story to buy."

"Just a little bit." Mina grumbled.

"Erik, can we perhaps push Popcorn's bitching and moaning aside for a second? I actually called for a reason." Nack interrupted. "See, our little assignment got a little off track thanks to some interference from the Freedom Fighters on the Spagonia docks."

"Yes, I heard about it on the news a few hours ago."

"Heard about it on the...Jesus, they'll report anything about this stupid case, won't they." Nack groaned. Erik laughed again, taking a careless sip from the wine glass between his fingers. "Look, Erik, long story short: I need a forward on that stipend. That little screw up in Spagonia means we're gonna have to take the long way and I ain't got enough gas money to get us through Efrika."

"Well, that's a shame, Nack, but I can't do that." Erik replied. Nack's eyes narrowed. "Sorry, my friend, I just can't. I group your stipends into a bill I pay every few months in order to avoid attention being drawn to it by my bankers. If I just threw it at you before that, they'd get wise to it and try to write me up on some trumped up bank fraud fees. Or, y'know, they find out I'm employing criminals, whichever sounds worse to you. It just can't be done."

"I'm sure you can spare something without them noticing." Nack hissed at the screen. He ignored as Stella gestured a cut mark across her throat, shaking her head dismissively.

"I really can't. What's the big deal about this assignment anyways? You've messed up plenty of others, I think your record is already too charred for anyone to care if you have another bad mark." Erik shrugged. "Is the payoff REALLY that big?"

"It's close to a hundred thousand if we don't screw it up." Nack said through grit teeth. That seemed to draw Erik's (slightly drunken) attention.

"Around one hundred thousand? That's a lot for just a standard kidnapping deal."

"I'm kidnapping an international popstar."

"Even then. This guy must really want to have Rina around."

"I don't know what the guy wants, I didn't ask him the specifics. He's just some fatass capybara named Thaddeus." Nack commented; his brow quirked when Erik seemed to freeze, his thumb and forefinger tightening visibly on his wine glass. "Somethin' wrong there, rich boy? You know this bastard?"

"…Are you SURE it was a capybara named Thaddeus? How was he dressed? What were his manners?" Erik asked hesitantly. He had begun to tug at the tufts of his muzzle—a habit of nervousness that the copper fox had displayed now and then, but rarely when tipsy.

"Big ol' guy, dressed in a big black cloak. Nice enough guy, I guess, always talked really formally and politely. Still was one creepy sonvabitch, though. He had some trouble breathin', though, so who knows, maybe he's just got asthma or something." Nack eyed the fox inspectly; Erik Fairfield seemed to be freezing up more and more with every word. "So DO you know this bastard? Yer acting awfully scared a' some guy you ain't even met."

"Stay AWAY from Thaddeus Corentine, that's what I can say to you." Erik was rubbing his temples on the screen. "The Frost family used to be very familiar with him—he's a leader of a pretty obscure and under the table cult. The Frost family were subscribing members up until Stella's mother formally decided that we would cut them off from our…generous donations. It was one of her first decisions as the heir to the fortune. Vanessa complained about it every now and then but didn't go into too much detail."

"Vanessa? Why would Aunt Vanessa care?" Stella asked, forehead knotted in confusion. It was obvious to the two beside her that this was the first she was hearing of this. "Uncle Erik, what's going on?"

"Oh, princess…it was the original cause of divide between Vanessa and the chosen heir. Her sister. I don't know how many centuries that this cult has been fueled on Frost donations, but it was definitely a long time." Erik sighed, shaking his head. "I wasn't there when it all went down but apparently between the two heirs, Vanessa was the one who wanted to keep the donations going. It was your mother, Genevieve, who shut down the money flow to a cause that her sister was rather devoted to."

"Aunt Vanessa was part of a CULT?" Stella gasped.

"News to me, too." Nack admitted. "I didn't do too much diggin' on her after we got her thrown in jail, though."

"Well, wait a minute now." Mina interrupted. Sweat was formulating at her brow. "Do you know what this so called cult was about? Why the heck would they want me? I'm not a politician, or a hero, I'm just a pop singer. Just because I HAVE money doesn't mean I'm going to give it to them!"

"I honestly don't know they could want with you, Mimi. My knowledge of their inner workings is decidedly limited—Vanessa wouldn't let me in on it. She said she wouldn't until she was in control of the Frost fortune." Erik took another sip from his wine as he rolled his eyes. "There were plenty of red flags with her, now that I think about it, but once you're married…"

"I don't care about your screwed up marriage and I don't really care about this cult bullshit either." Nack interrupted before the copper fox went into a tirade. "I do gotta ask somethin', though: how persistent are these bastards in gettin' their shit done?"

"Well, they hired you."

"…Okay, that may be a valid point, but do you think they were involved in…" Nack glanced over to the arctic fox sitting aside him. She cocked her head to the side in confusion at the long look he gave her. Mina watched, bemusement coursing through her at the silent stare being exchanged. Erik coughing awkwardly interrupted the stare.

"You mean Genevieve and Paul's, uh…disappearance…? It…MIGHT be connected to them, I'm not sure. Vanessa wanted to get rid of Genevieve and Stella so she would have direct access to the fortune, which I'm sure she would've funneled into Thaddeus' cult at some point." Erik said uneasily. "And I doubt that this cult was too happy that the Frost family was cutting them off. I've seen billing records from decades ago. They used to donate regular hefty sums."

"…Alright, Fairfield, do me a favor. Look into the Frost records and find me some more shit about this cult. It might be a clue into the, uh…disappearance…" Nack glanced at Stella again, who was beginning to look forlorn. "…of Stella's parents. If ya got the time then I'd like to know what the hell they need a pop singer for, too. And fer god's sake, just FORWARD me that goddamn stipend already, I'm sure one inconsistency won't hurt. I'll update you soon, or whatever."

"Can do, and no, I don't mean the stipend. It isn't happening. I'll get back to you as soon as I can with new information." Erik lifted his glass in some sort of pseudo toast and then the connection flickered out. It left them with just the light of the dying fire and the buzz of the screen to keep them company. Nack groaned and pushed the laptop to the side, swearing under his breath as he went to add another log to the fire. Mina, however, just looked onwards to the glum fox kit.

"Your parents…?" Mina asked uneasily. Stella bundled her knees up by her chin, sticking her feet out and hiding her muzzle against her legs. "Your parents, they're….I mean…"

"They're missing. I'm gonna find them." Stella said stubbornly, avoiding eye contact by staring at the blank video feed of the laptop. "I hired the guys to help me find my parents. And they'll help me find them."

Mina wasn't sure what she felt right then—half of it was her heart tugging at the child's determination, the other half was unease that the child was so unwilling to accept what…PROBABLY was the reality. Of course, she considered, she would've had a hard time accepting the reality too. Hell, she DID have a hard time accepting the reality sometimes. For such a long time with her father gone and her mother taken over during the wartimes…sometimes it was so easy to just deny that any of it had happened.

Really, she just had to come to her own personal conclusions and realizations, no matter what it took. And if it took searching and investigation to make Stella feel better about that probable reality then Mina couldn't down on her for it. Eventually she knew it would come around to the girl and she would have to come to terms with it. It always helped to have people like her uncle there supporting her in such a time of internal distress. Even the three goons of malicious misdeeds seemed to be there for the little girl in such a hard time—even if it was for an apparent stipend. A little voice in the back of her head, that Mina tried to ignore, told her that they probably would've done it without the money anyways.

Lifting up the blanket at her side, she paused for a second then moved forward to whisk the little girl close to her in a hug. Stella started a bit, shocked by the sudden embrace, and then looked up to Mina with big questioning eyes. The mongoose let out a dry, empty chuckle.

"I know it's hard sometimes to, uh…'find' your parents. I had a hard time 'finding' mine too." Mina whispered to the little girl. Stella held her hands over her mouth in surprise. "Your uncle seems kinda drunk, but he really loves you."

"My friends love me too."

Mina shot a disapproving glare at Nack, who just saluted her sarcastically as he lobbed another hunk of wood on the fire. Such a jerk. She supposed she couldn't understand Stella's connection with the Hooligans any more than they could understand her connection with the Freedom Fighters, though. Something about Erik Fairfield's words made her think that it was something more than some kid that they just picked up.

She sighed, resting her head on Stella's head as the little fox drifted off to sleep underneath her. Connection or not, she clearly had bigger problems. Running would be pointless right now—they were way too deep in the desert and the only way she was getting to the next city alive was on that junker bike that Nack seemed to be so in love with. And as if being kidnapped by the dingus crew without a hope of escape yet apparent, now she knew that they were taking her to a cult leader. She couldn't imagine what they could possibly want with her but everything her mind conjured sent shivers down her spine, even under the thin blanket on her shoulders.

She froze slightly when she felt a heavier weight pushing down on her shoulders. Looking back in confusion, she pawed at a thick wool blanket overtop the thin blanket—Nack wiped off his hands and headed back to the Marvelous Queen without comment on the sudden kindness. Mina knotted her brow; she supposed he couldn't have his expensive kidnapped paycheck getting sick and dying.

Though with the squirming girl in her arms stopping and resting comfortably in the warmth, something told her it was something else.