Chapter 8 – Jack's First Mission


(32 Years before the events of Zootopia The Movie)

The plan was massive in scope requiring numerous parts and resources, contingency plans and alternate plans. It was all planned to be executed in a five day span with full invasions of the Sahara Square, Savanna Central and Tundratown districts and smaller scale attacks on three sex clubs operating in the Meadowlands and two sex clubs and a prostitution ring operating in the Downtown district. Reynard would need Jack Savage in place two days prior in Sahara Square to gather intel on the child slavery ring and then move him on liberation day to the next region in Tundratown for undercover operations. The thing that he was depending on was bosses keeping everything that happened compartmentalized between their districts. He was assuming these bosses would perform a full review of anything that happened over several days before taking any actions. Each of these districts condoned or actively participated in each of these horrific abuses of children, but publicly they denied having any connection to any such operations, and that was what Reynard was banking on to keep word from spreading in advance.

If they did find that the district was prepared for his operations, they would have to switch to a different district and pull Jack out if he was already embedded altering their timetable accordingly. One thing that hampered operations is that they were forbidden to kill anyone during each attack and the safety of the children was paramount. The thing Reynard was hoping worked in his favor was that the other districts men would be unauthorized to kill anyone either until they got authorization from their bosses and hopefully they would be long gone before that happened. During the initial attack anyone witnessing their presence was to be gagged, subdued and removed along with the kids and patrons of the establishments. Each of these would be sorted on the ships as all attacks would be carried out in stealth via numerous ships that would arrive with the crews and carry everyone back to hidden ports in the Docks District.

Reynard would be coordinating operations on the ground during his scheduled visits to each of those districts housings developments for his kids. He was allowed a security detail of five which would consist of his spy master, Coal, two top lieutenants and Alexei his real security, the biggest and toughest Amur Tiger (Siberian Tiger) known to exist. He would be visiting his kids during the evening which he was allowed to do, but secretly coordinating all operations later that night using secure two way radio communication modified by his spy master Felix.

For most of this work, he was hiring mercenaries which he had used on many occasions in order to minimize the presence of any of his actual gang members in the territory. If any of his own people were found to be present in the district besides himself and the five authorized members, it could mean open warfare between his district and the one that were actively involved in operations. Stealth, the elements of surprise, and quick quiet operations were vital to the success of each mission.

It wasn't that Reynard thought each of the bosses wouldn't figure out who was behind each attack fairly soon, but it was making sure they didn't have any direct evidence of his involvement that was most important. Most likely each boss would be very embarrassed that a large scale operation had been executed in their territory and seek to cover up the fact that it occurred in order to not lose face in front of the other bosses. But eventually word would get around that such attacks occurred and bosses would talk. Hopefully by the time this occurred, all operations would be complete and all of the children would be safely moved to secure locations. Even after each operation, the logistics were enormous as they would need to try and return children to their parents or their rightful guardians once they were all medically cleared. All other operatives as well as captured hostages would need to be medically treated as well. Employees of the bosses would be held in isolation for release once operations were completed at the end of the five day period. The fate of patrons or voluntary employees of the slavery and sex clubs were yet to be determined, but they were to be unharmed until outside of the districts and their crimes, if any, were reviewed.

Jack Savage had successfully executed Felix's plan pretending to remain sick in bed while all the other kids were busy in classes or doing chores. When one of the older kids working at the facility found him and left to find the headmistress, Jack took the pills preparing for the next part of the plan. It was not a pleasant time for the bunny as the pills caused enlargement of the lymph nodes, diarrhea, vomiting and a temporary rise in his body temperature. For his part, Jack would fake fever, chills, headaches and muscle pain. The bunny hated to soil his bed and scare his caretakers so, as they had been nothing but kind and loving, something he had never experienced before. But such were the sacrifices of being a secret agent, as fooling innocents to maintain his cover was just part of the job and the sooner he got used to this the better. A very concerned Silvia saw the diarrhea and vomit in bed and all the other symptoms, and immediately called their doctor who happened to be available immediately.

The doctor checked Jack over and had Silvia feel Jack's swollen lymph nodes and the fever displayed on his thermometer to further confirm his diagnosis. On occasion kids had pretended to be sick, and showing Silvia these symptoms that could not be faked was part of the plan. Not that any kid would have gone to the extremes Jack had, but Jack was not a normal kid and his caretakers learned to never underestimate him. The doctor explained to Silvia that the bunny had Tularemia, also known as Rabbit Fever, which was infectious and could be spread to foxes, beavers, skunks and numerous other species, many of which were housed at The Warehouse. He explained that wolves should be okay, but she needed to shower and change her clothes immediately and have her current clothes burned as she could potentially spread it to the kids. They had the small bunny immediately put into a sealed bag with oxygen and carefully carried him out and taken to the doctor's clinic for treatment.

Jack was kept under observation for a few hours until the symptoms disappeared and he was then put into surgery for the implantation of the secret pouch just large enough for the tools he would need for his mission. Once he was in recovery, Silvia and a few others were allowed to check on him to see that he was in isolation and resting comfortably. His fever had been reduced and he would just need a few weeks for recovery. They were told he would be moved to a clinic downtown as soon as he was stable where he could be better treated as well as better isolated to prevent any possible spread of the disease.

The bunny was then moved, not to the clinic, but instead to the private quarters of Felix Razel where he was woken to begin his intensive week long immersion training to learn all the skills he would need to know for his mission. For any other six year old mammal it may have taken many months to master the skills, but this was no ordinary six year old. Jack was taught basic lock picking using the tools in order to remove any pawcuffs on him and open most doors and basic locks. He was taught how to get out of most any normal type of restraint using the knife in his pouch as well as movements or common objects that might be available. He was taught how to use his senses even blindfolded to keep a mental map in his head of any place he may be taken. The list of skills was long and difficult, but Jack took to their learning like he was born to do them as if they were innate skills given to him by his dead mother. Nor was Jack left without training on how to ingratiate himself to someone so that they found him useful. Every situation and individual was different, so Felix went over all the possibilities with Jack and how best to know what would work on a particular person. Jack was then told how to spot his watchers and let them know where he was if he was out of contact with them for some reason. He was also instructed on the exact times and manner to contact his handlers in the area and via his communications device.

While Jack worked on his training, all the other components of the operation were readied with Reynard's men and mercenaries trained on the use of chloroform, tranquilizer darts and proper methods to silence and remove any witnesses. Kids would be silenced as well, but only for the protection of the mission, and all were trained on how to handle the children and keep them calm during the whole process. It was possible that some of the kids had Stockholm syndrome and may attempt to warn their captors, so all kids were treated as if they were at risk of this because of the incredible danger and potential shitstorm if word got out to the district boss.

Jack was then put into play by an independent agent of Felix who had a cover as a known slave trader. He sold Jack to a contact who was a known gang member of Isengrim the Wolf, the district boss, whose job was to buy slaves for use in the Sahara Square District. The agent did a good job of haggling for a great price for Jack in order to avoid suspicion as small nimble bunny paws were in high demand. Jack did a good job of acting defiant and earned extra pay for the agent because of how spirited and energetic he was further solidifying the cover. Jack was then taken to a pen area where a couple other kids were being held while their fates were decided. The agent then released Felix's team of tiny rodents who took off scurrying in the direction Jack was taken.

As a bobcat named Grenz came in to look over the new acquisitions, Jack caught his eye and when the bobcat came over to examine the tiny defiant bunny, Jack asked, "Hey, I want to see whoever is in charge."

Grenz grinned and replied derisively, "Yeah and I want to fuck Zella Shelley too but that ain't happin'."

(Note: Zella Shelley is a famous beautiful sexy female snow leopard singer during this period)

Jack looked at the bobcat, taking his measure, and responded, "I can make it worth your while."

Grenz laughed at that, "Really now? And how would that be? Ya got some cash up your ass we didn't find, cause we searched everything on ya."

The bunny looked unbothered replying, "I have some information for him. A location where he can find more bunnies for the taking."

The bobcat looked amused by that, "Sure, sure… could it start with Bunny and end with burrow?" The bobcat chortled at his joke.

Jack looked unperplexed, "No… I mean in the city. Was together with a whole group of kids on a field trip. I can tell him where."

"And why in the fuck would you do that runt?" Grenz asked glaring at the bunny.

"So he would let me go." Jack answered and upon seeing the bobcat laughing at him continued, "I figured six for the price of one is a good deal for him."

Grenz grinned at him, "You'd sell out your buddies?"

Jack grinned back, "Don't know a one of them. My mom sent me on the stupid trip and they spent the entire time picking on me for being so small."

The bobcat seemed to understand, "Ah… payback… I can understand that. But Fredo don't make no deals with slaves. Especially not some runt bunny barely off his mom's tit."

The bunny decided to enhance his story to make it more believable, "Well I really don't have a mom. She died when I was little. I was living with my aunt and I annoyed her all the time which is why she got rid of me forcing me on the stupid trip."

Grenz considered that, "Well that makes a lot more sense. I mean what mom would send such a youngun' alone. Fuck, my mom hated me and she would never've done that. But I agree with your aunt. You are a fucking annoying little runt."

Jack looked up at the bobcat, "Maybe… but don't mean I am wrong. I'll give up the other kids so I can go back and annoy her instead of you."

Grenz laughed at that, "Good one kid. Tell you what, I'll take ya to the boss just cause I think you would entertain him. You can try and make a deal or whatever. Don't give a shit."

Fredo was a large transcaspian urial with large curving horns which he had decorated with gold jewelry. He was in his office on the second floor of a run down three story office building that had seen better days. Jack had his paws tied together with a simple cord and had a collar around his neck with a leash. He was led into the boss' office.

The urial didn't even seem to notice the visitors as he leaned back in his chair and had his feet up on his desk reading a magazine.

Grenz stood in front of the desk holding the leash and patiently waiting until the boss noticed him. The bobcat knew better than to interrupt his boss. He had waited for fifteen minutes or more sometimes before being noticed. However after a minute, his young slave didn't understand the rules, and had become impatient and started to tap his foot loudly on the floor. Grenz pulled on the leash and glared at the bunny trying to warn him. If this little runt was not quiet, he may end up paying the price. The bunny stopped thankfully and the boss seemed to have not heard the disturbance, or so he thought.

After a couple of minutes, the urial suddenly stood up and bent over the desk grabbing the leash from Grenz paws and yanking upward pulling the bunny into the air hanging by his neck with his legs thrashing helplessly. Fredo continued to glare at him until he finally stopping moving going limp gasping for breath trying to put his paws in between the collar and his neck to make enough space for him to get a breath. The boss stared into the piercing light blue eyes of the tiny bunny and then tossed him down onto the table.

Grenz started to open his mouth to speak when the boss put his hoof up to silence him, and stood staring at the bunny sizing him up, "You have a death wish fuzz ball?"

Jack coughed a bit and finally managed to speak, "No… no sir… I just wanted to talk to you."

The urial turned to the bobcat who looked back uncomfortably and then back to the bunny and laughed, "Really now… just a friendly chat with me. You really do have a death wish."

Jack looked unphased by the boss replying confidently, "I figured you would want to meet me. Figured we could make a deal."

Fredo turned to the bobcat with an annoyed look, "Grenz, is this a fucking joke? Didn't figure you had the balls to try something like this."

Grenz quickly replied fearfully, "Ah… no… no sir… just figured you'd get a kick out of this runt."

Fredo considered this and nodded at him turning back the bunny, "We'll see. I do like my amusements. But he is too small for anything fun… but he is quite fluffy."

Jack stared up at Fredo without fear, "I am much more useful than that. I thought we could make a deal. My name is..."

Fredo interrupted the bunny, "Death Wish… I like it. Not sure how long you will be around to enjoy it. So wear it proudly while you have it."

Jack smiled at the boss, "That sounds great sir. So you are willing to take my deal?"

The urial was confused for a minute trying to figure out what the bunny was talking about until he finally realized and cackling malevolently, "Oh… you thought I was talking about letting you go. That's a good one. Never seen one so optimistic before. Guess you have no clue about your situation."

The bunny considered the boss and then responded, "I am a slave. Your property to do with as you please."

Fredo was surprised by the answer, "Well now… maybe you aren't a complete idiot. You are just living up to your name. So what is this deal you had for me?"

Jack grinned at the urial happily explaining his deal, "As I told your helper here, I know where you can get six bunnies in the city in trade for me. I came here with them, and have no love for them as they all bullied me like tailholes."

The boss glanced at the bobcat who had raised his eyebrows hoping his boss was amused. Fortunately for Grenz he was, "Well now Death Wish, what's to stop me from pulling the information out of you for free and having myself seven bunnies?"

The small bunny considered his words, "Because it would be bad for business. You couldn't be certain the information I gave you was good, and you would harm a valuable asset that you paid quite a lot for."

Fredo stared at the bunny in shock for a moment and then broke out laughing, "Oh… ha ha… that is good. Thanks for bringing me this one Grenz… you can leave. I'll figure out what to do with Death Wish here and let you know."

Grenz got a slight smile, nodded at the boss, and promptly turned and quickly left the room.

Jack grinned up at the boss and put his tied paws up toward the boss as if to shake his hoof, "So do we have a deal sir?"

Fredo glared at the tiny bunny, "There's one problem with your deal Death Wish. There's a good reason why we work through middlemammals, very low risk. Sending a team to attempt to snatch up six bunnies downtown is about as risky as it gets. I'd rather attempt a heist… better risk to reward. The reason you were picked was cause you were an easy target of opportunity. Those agents are experts at finding perfect targets alone, with no witnesses, for a quick snatch and grab. They know about low risk and that's what they do for a living and why we pay them well."

Jack looked at the boss hesitantly, "So… you are saying… it's too high risk?"

The urial smiled, "Yes… now you get it. One bunny in the hoof is worth six in the bush."

The bunny looked disappointed for a moment and then brightened, "Well if that's no good… can I work for you? It's gotta be better than being with my aunt anyway."

Fredo chortled and grinned, "Where the hell did they find you? So you think this is a job interview?"

"I can do stuff for you. Others always underestimate me." The bunny offered.

The urial considered that thoughtfully, "I bet they do. Humor me… what can you do?"

Jack had a good answer for this, "I can be your eyes and ears, boss. I can hear all kinds of things without others knowing as they usually ignore me. I can find out who is loyal to you… if any other slaves are planning anything… who is stealing from you… really anything you need sir."

The boss actually took a moment to consider what the bunny offered, "An interesting offer. Tell you what… I have a few slaves and others I have some suspicions about. You bring me information on them and I will consider your offer."

Jack's face brightened, "I won't let you down boss."

The boss called Grenz back and had the bunny assigned to a certain work crew he had been having problems with recently. They told the bunny to just mainly keep quiet and stay out of the way keeping his ears open for anything the boss should know about and just do his job.

Jack was introduced to the work detail consisting of a young bear of around fifteen named Chucker, a seventeen year old skunk named Frankie, a sixteen year old elk name Barker, and a middle-aged warthog named Wilson who was their overseer.

Grenz presented their new charge to the group cutting the cord on his front paws and handing the collar leash to Wilson, "This is fresh meat. His name is Death Wish so make sure he don't try ta tell ya otherwise. He don't listen so good so just break him. But don't be hurtin' him. He's a littlin' so go easy. You know what to do."

The warthog nodded his head and Grenz left Jack to the tender mercies of this new group. He looked up hopefully at his new friends, "Hi… it's nice to meet yaaaaaagh!"

Wilson decided to greet him lifting the bunny by the neck with his right hoof choking him and pressing him against a wall.

Chucker laughed at this display, "So cute and fluffy. We can use him to wipe our asses with."

Frankie grinned, "They gave ya a pretty good name. Not sure how long you're gonna survive around here, but good advice. Keep your yapper shut."

The warthog released the bunny and he dropped to the ground laying on his side clutching his neck.

Barker glanced at the warthog sarcastically telling him, "Oh don't hurt him. He's just a little bunny."

Wilson laughed at that, "Just tickling him. He'll know when I'm hurtin' him."

Frankie walked over and stepped on Jack's front paws causing him to wince in pain, but he kept his mouth shut, "Good. New meat is learning to keep quiet. Your ass is ours now, to do with what we want. So just shut your fuckin' mouth and do what we say and ya just might survive."

They dragged the bunny around checking on other groups of slaves reviewing their progress. Wilson would check with any foremen or owners to make sure the slaves were behaving properly. Any receiving complaints received a not so subtle cuffing across the head, arm twisting, punch in the stomach, kick to the groin, strangling, or a variety of many other punishments the group of slaves wished to distribute. Wilson just stood back and let them have their fun grinning.

This would all seem quite normal except to the trained eye of the bunny who noticed that during some of punishments where all three surrounded the subject for a beating, they were pulling their punches and in the scuffle the subject of the beatings would give the skunk usually a small bag which Jack's trained hearing could just make out the clink of some coins or other metal. The skunk would glance at the contents quickly and drop it into his bag and reach in and give the supposed subject of beatings various foods such as a small loaf of bread, a piece of fruit, dried fruit or fish, nuts, cookies or random other items. In some cases notes would be passed and writing devices such as pens and a pad of paper would be given to the subject.

Jack noticed the trio of slaves didn't wear collars. Only Jack got the honor of being dragged around by the collar. They went all over the district visiting pockets of slaves with the occasional exchanges of little bags and notes for food or other items continuing throughout most of the day. The group was quite talented at doing this so well that only the expert eyes of a thief, magician or trained secret agent would have even noticed anything was even going on. Jack continued to keep a mental picture of each of the locations where the slaves were located. The bunny didn't think the bored warthog, following them around yanking him by the neck when he didn't move fast enough, even knew what was actually happened. That is until they stopped for a meal break. Wilson tied Jack up to a post on the wall far too high for the bunny to reach, and joined the other three where he heard a crate being opened and the tiny sounds of clinking which had to be the collected bags being transferred. He caught the warthog whisper to the three, "Nice haul. Let's get ya guys setup with some goodies."

Jack heard the sound of a cabinet being opened then smelled the faint whiff of food and some clinking of metal. After a few minutes, the warthog walked outside and tossed a couple of old carrots and a piece of moldy bread on the ground within reach of the bunny. Jack nibbled on the offered food and listened while the four other mammals laughed inside telling jokes, stories and acting quite chummy. Jack didn't learn anything of import from their discussions except to understand that these four knew each other quite well and were thick as thieves.

After about an hour they came outside and decided to have some fun with the bunny.

As Jack sat down on the ground, Frankie leaned down low looking him in the eye and speaking in a baby voice, "Awww da littlin' bunny is feelin' lonely aren't ya?"

Chucker followed the skunk's example leaning down making sad eyes, "Feelin' all by yourself. Would ya like to feel useful?"

The bear stared at him nodding his head. Then the skunk and Barker did the same nodding their heads while the warthog stood back leaning against a wall looking amused.

Frankie grabbed the bunnies chin and moved his head up and down in a forced nod, "See… looks like he agrees. He's lonely and wants ta be useful. Let's help him."

The bear leaned down and picked up the frightened bunny, and the skunk and elk backed away about five meters from each other. Chucker looked at the warthog who tied the bunnies paws and feet together tightly and removed the collar.

Frankie grinned at the bunny, "You're about to be useful Death Wish. Oh look… his nose is quivering and he's shakin'. How cute."

Chucker laughed at that, "Yeah… don't worry Death Wish. We don't miss… that often."

The bear then tossed the bunny into the air at the elk who caught him and quickly tossed him to the skunk.

Frankie laughed heartlessly, "Finally something small enough for me to play with for a change." He then tossed Jack high into the air and he was caught by the bear.

The three tried backing away from each other even farther and then had a contest to see how high into the air they could toss the helpless bunny.

Jack was terrified. His quivering nose and shaking was not acting. It was quite real. The kids at The Warehouse were pretty mean and sometimes cruel, but they never physically hurt him. These three saw him as a ball or plaything and not even a living creature. They would setup some objects on the ground and use him as a bowling ball. A couple times during the tossing he got dropped and took some painful falls. If they had not partially caught him before dropping him, he could have had serious internal injuries or broken bones. He was fortunate to only have bruises all over so far. But each time he was tossed he cringed expecting to feel the pain he knew was coming. With his paws and feet tied there was little he could do to protect himself and land gracefully. He had to depend on these cruel sadistic creatures to catch him. Even most of their catches resulted in excruciating pain.

Finally after almost thirty minutes of this, the warthog interrupted their fun, "Okay... okay... enough. Let's stop before we break something. I think Death Wish is getting a good idea of how much worth he has to us aren't ya Death Wish?" The warthog grinned into the face of the terrified bunny putting the collar back on him and removing the bindings on his paws and feet.

Barker shook his head, "Why the fuck they give him to us? What did they expect us to teach him?"

Frankie had an answer, "Think he was a reward for our good work. He does make a fluffy toy."

Chucker agreed, "Guess they gave him to us so everything would be an improvement for him from now on. He'll be beggin' for manual labor. Don't matter if he can't hop if his little paws work."

Wilson was pulling Jack across the ground with his leash, "Come on Death Wish, we have some more stops."

But Jack couldn't move. He wasn't faking. His whole body was one big pain. His muscles were cramped and screamed. His nerves were all jabbing into him making even the slightest movement an exercise in misery. He tried to hop but the pain was too great and he fell over being dragged along the ground by the neck. The torment of the slow choking preferable to any attempt to move.

Frankie stared at him with a frown, "Ah fuck… we broke him."

Wilson shook his head glaring at the three, "You broke him… you carry him."

The warthog lifted the bunny off the ground and tossed him to the bear who put him under one arm and followed behind the warthog.

The bear spent the rest of the day as the designated bunny bag carrier between their stops. It was all Jack could do to focus on remembering the locations as the excruciating pain in his body was distracting him. Fortunately the trio went easy on him the rest of the day finishing their rounds and tossing him into a pen with a water bowl, a pot to shit into and a small filthy mattress in the corner. It took several minutes for Jack to drag himself over to the mattress and collapse. He had to keep stopping to rest and let his screaming muscles have a brief break. An hour later a slot in the door opened and some old vegetables were tossed in, but he had no energy to crawl over to retrieve them. He tried to close his eyes and sleep, but the pain kept waking him. His mind went in and out of consciousness until he thought he heard tiny voices. He figured he was dreaming, but he felt the pain, terrible excruciating pain. If this was a dream, it really sucked. But no, he definitely heard voices sounding very far away and tiny.

"We found him guys."

"Can you see him?"

"Yeah… but… fuck… he looks in a bad way."

"Can we get to him?"

"Yeah I can chew this hole bigger but may take me a bit."

"All good… will give me time to get some supplies for him. Gonna need em."

"Alright see you in a bit."

Then the only sound Jack heard was a gnawing sound. He figured his mind was hallucinating now and he closed his eyes and just saw blackness.

He woke sometime later to find something patting his nose… something tiny. He opened his eyes to see a mouse dressed in all black with black face paint staring at him twitching his whiskers.

Once the mouse saw Jack had his eyes partially open, he spoke to him, "Bunny… bunny... you awake?"

Jack weakly answered, "Yeah… who… who are you?"

"Your fairy godmother." The mouse laughed at his joke, "We're your help. Who'd you think we were? You think anyone else would take this risk to see you... to what… steal your shitty vegetables." The mouse glanced at the old dirty carrot and small turnip on the ground.

"Oh… sorry… not exactly myself." Jack admitted.

The mouse got a sympathetic look on his face, "Damn… they messed you up. I have some stuff to hopefully help with that." He pulled out some pills from his backpack which looked huge in the paws of the tiny mouse. The mouse then looked around and found a small cup and dragged it over to the water bowl and dunked it in and filled it partially and yanked it out upright onto the floor. The mouse then spent a good minute hauling it across the floor to get it within reach of the bunny.

"Here... take these… you'll feel better." The mouse promised.

Jack gathered all his strength and fought through the pain to bend his neck and put the pills in his mouth and chew on them. They tasted horrible, but he didn't really give a shit at this point. He lifted his head and stretched his paws out enough to grasp the cup shakily putting it to his mouth and tilting it enough to drink a few swallows to wash down the bitter grainy powder on his tongue. He collapsed and closed his eyes. He just lay on his side focusing on breathing. He could feel the mouse was next to him gently rubbing his face.

After a couple minutes he began to feel a good bit better and opened his eyes and was able to sit up and lean against the wall. The mouse smiled at him twitching his whiskers and then spoke, "Feeling better I hope. Names Mini… no jokes please." He went over and held the bunnies paw in his two paws giving them a bit of a shake.

"Me and Razer up there are part of your team. Razer is the rat up top there." Mini informed the bunny pointing up high.

Jack looked up at the corner and saw a very long thin piece of dental floss with knots every short distance extending from the ground all the up to a dark gray nose and whiskers up in the top corner of the room.

"Razer is too fat to get down here and through the little hole he was able to make. But he made it just big enough to get me through. You feeling any better yet?" Mini wondered.

Jack lifted up his paws and slowly moved a bit realizing he did feel much better. He could still feel a lot of soreness, but the intense crippling pain was gone at least.

"Sweet… I would bring you the food… but it's too big for me. You'll have to get that on your own I'm afraid." The mouse informed the bunny.

Jack nodded feeling too tired to talk and slowly hopped over to the carrot and turnip and hauled them back to the mattress in the corner and began to nibble on them. The mouse waited patiently for the bunny to eat and when he was through Mini asked him, "Can you report?"

Jack found he finally had some energy to speak and let Mini know he had contacted the boss and knew who he was, where he was located during the day, and what Jack had been doing all day.

Mini listened and nodded and looked pained as Jack described them using him as a toy, "You have done amazing. Far better than we ever could have hoped for. I would be tempted to pull you out now, but we don't have a way to easily do that. See if you can get the boss to leave you on some detail tomorrow where you can just rest. Tell him whatever he wants to hear, and make sure he knows you need a rest."

Jack thought about this, "There may be more locations I don't know about. Also how will you know where the boss is at night?"

Mini answered, "We will have eyes on him when he leaves that office and tail him to wherever he sleeps. Don't worry about the other locations. What you have done so far is more than we could have hoped for."

Jack had given the mouse the information so he could draw a tiny map on a sheet of paper he had brought with details of each slave and location.

Mini pulled two more pills out and gave them to the bunny, "Save these two until the morning. You will need them. Jack… remember what they said. Your safety is more important than taking a risk with the possibility of finding more locations. You may not survive if you attempt that, and we have a lot more to do in the next week. We need you rested and as healed as you can get for the rest of the missions. Get yourself the rest you need. Make sure the slave boss knows you can't move. It should not be too hard for you to fake. You know the contact time tomorrow night?"

Jack nodded, "I send a call at 1 AM."

Mini shook his head affirmative and twitched his whiskers, "Good… if you are in this same spot we will probably stay with you until the guys can release you. If you are not here, we will try and find you. Just try and keep your head down and stay safe until tomorrow night. Got it?"

Jack nodded his head. It was difficult being his normal chipper confident self. The torment had taken a lot out of him, but he kept his resolve as he knew a lot of kids and the success of the mission were depending on him.

He watched the little mouse climb nimbly up the dental floss rope and wave to him, and then they were gone through the hole. An hour later the lights went out, and he tried to rest and get as much sleep as he could. It was not easy with the soreness, thin smelly mattress and stench of mold and decay.

The next day he took the pills and ate the meager breakfast offered him. The bobcat came to get him to take him to the boss. Jack weakly told the bobcat he couldn't move. Grenz seemed to have an idea what happened and picked the bunny up and carried him into the boss' office. He sat the bunny down on top of the desk and backed up a step and waited.

Jack just sat there looking miserable. He felt miserable, but he was acting as miserable as he would have felt if he had not taken the pills Mini had left him. He didn't need to imagine how to act as he had firsthand knowledge.

Finally the urial looked up from a report he was reading and noticed the not so enthusiastic bunny looking at him from the top of the desk. Fredo grinned at the wretched bunny before him, "Well Death Wish, it seems you are not so full of yourself today, eh? But if it is any consolation, they have broken much bigger and tougher mammals than you. You musta at least kept your mouth shut or you woulda been in much worse shape."

Jack looked up at the boss pretending to have difficulty focusing on him, "I… I did what you asked boss. I kept my eyes and ears alert."

Fredo looked at the bunny curiously, "So… did you learn anything? Have anything to report?"

Jack told the boss all about the little operation the four had going on. Exchanging notes and food for stolen items from slave owners by many of the slaves. He told him how Wilson collected everything and rewarded the other three. He didn't tell them about what they did to him, only what he observed.

The boss silently stood watching the bunny for awhile considering all he told him and finally responded, "Well you have surprised me. You did far better than I could have imagined. Not many could have picked up on all of that."

Jack looked at him and gave the boss a slight pained grin, "Thanks boss. I want to do good for you."

Fredo smiled and then laughed, "So eager to please. Well you did do well. And survived your first day. I will reward you. What would you like?"

Jack considered this and knew it could be another test or a trap so he responded, "I want to help you boss."

Fredo grinned, "Even beaten to a pulp… little Death Wish wants to please. Well you are no good to me like you are. I'm gonna put you in a room here and have Doc look at you. And no… don't argue. You are no good to me dead or crippled. We'll see what more things you can do for me tomorrow."

Jack nodded and asked, "What will happen to them?"

The urial smiled with sinister purpose, "Oh they'll get what they deserve."

Jack realized something based on the way the boss had acted during his entire report and made a mistake speaking his thoughts out loud, "You already knew all I told you." Too late… he had said it before he realized what he was doing. He had been too tired and abused to think clearly. Mini was right, I really need rest, but I think I just blew my cover.

Fredo looked at Grenz and the two of them smiled and laughed. Fredo turned back to Jack, "Of course I did. Who do you think most of that take goes to? Nothing goes on here I don't know about Death Wish. But you are quite the clever bunny… almost too clever. Fortunately I can use some clever slaves for things. We'll get you fixed up a bit and see what mischief we can get you into tomorrow."

The boss nodded to Grenz who picked him up and carried him to a room down the hall with a real bed. Grenz put the bunny on the bed and told him get some rest and that Doc would check on him in a bit. Jack didn't have to be told twice as he had already crawled under the covers with his head on a real pillow and was instantly asleep.