Chapter 11 – The Journey Begins

To Judy's disappointment, she and Jack woke up after 8 am, when the MS Germania was already at sea. She had wanted to see the ship depart, waving to the mammals on shore as in the movie 'Titanic'. But obviously, the ship's departure was so silent, that they did not notice at all.

The reason for their deep sleep could have been that both had lie awake during half the night, each following their own thoughts…

Jack had never been so unsure what to do in his entire career. Normally, the situation would be a dream – he had fallen in love with Judy (he was not denying this anymore, to say the least) and destiny had given him a golden opportunity to travel with her as a married couple. But it was not so easy. Most mammals saw just the cool special agent and everyone had cliché expectations about his profession, like Nick. But Jack was afraid. This was the strangest mission he had ever been assigned to, he had no clue what to do when they would reach the strange tourist resort in the middle of nowhere. He had no back up, no assistance from the agency whatsoever. Well, he could call D on his VLF phone, but what could the director of the Secret Service do? Even with the fastest plane, it would take at least a day to get reinforcements down to Antarctica.

And Jack was the responsible type, he did not like at all to pull Judy in there. Sure, she was not a typical frail bunny, she was tough and very well able to take care of herself. She acted so naturally as his 'wife', she took his arm, she even kissed him without any hesitation.

In the beginning of his career, he had had a similar assignment with a much older doe acting as his spouse, but at least they had slept in a hotel room with no bugs or cameras. So he had slept on the floor while she had taken the bed. He had felt awkward then, even though he just had to walk arm in arm with her.

But now… He had never met someone like Judy, someone so ferocious, so alive, so strong, except for… Jack closed his eyes and closed his mind. No, he didn't want to think about the short, hot affair that had changed his life once and for all, that special feeling that had lasted only a few days before the subject of his love had died in his arms and left his life in ruins.

It was different, Judy might have some similar attributes, but she was not only married, but seriously devoted to Nick. Jack had not liked Nick when they first met, but the training in ZPD had changed Jack's mind a bit – and not only because that sly fox managed to trick him into losing a fight. Judy had turned that con artist into quite a good cop – and quite a good father, as far as Jack had seen.

No, there was nothing for him to do, except for waiting. Waiting what this crazy mission would turn into and waiting what that crazy bunny would turn him into.

Judy, on the other hand, was missing her kids. Those two little rascals had left a huge gap in her heart. At least, Nick would still be with them. She missed Nick, too, of course, but at least he would be on the same ship in nine days. When she was thinking about them, she never pictured them as 'foxes', for her they are so tightly connected that a species name meant nothing any more. Sure, the carnivorism was hard to ignore, but she had taken it as good as she could. She had become a rather good cook of carnivorous meals, she even had gotten used to the smell. And even if she couldn't look inside Nick's head, she was sure that he didn't look at her as a mere 'bunny'.

Judy remembered a scene shortly after she arrived with Nick at Bunny Borrows for the first time. One of her older sisters named Clarissa had asked her, "How could you trust him? How could you believe a single word he is telling you? He is a fox, but even worse, you said it yourself, he is a con artist, he makes his living out of lying to other mammals, stealing what's rightfully theirs, his whole life is a lie from day one!"

Judy smiled when she she thought of her mother reprimanding Clarissa, but Judy had stopped her, saying, "No, Clarissa is right. How could I know?"

The much younger Judy had lifted her head up high and said, "The truth is, I don't. He is much cleverer than me, if he wants to lie to me, he would most probably succeed. But I love him, I love him so much, that I decided to trust him a hundred percent. I will believe every word he tells me, even if it is a complete lie, as long as he still loves me!"

And that she had done, til today. Nick had proven to be the perfect partner in ZPD, the perfect lover, the perfect friend, and yes, even the perfect mate when it had come to sexual activities, even if it had hurt in the beginning. But Judy had accepted the pain as a part of the deal. She had never had a bunny lover, but she had never missed it. Nick had given her everything she desired.

When she had told Nick that during their last night before the flight to Europe, Nick had laughed, "But Carrots, you don't know what you are missing!"

"What do you mean?", she had asked.

"Well, I have had vixen girlfriends before you, you know that. Sex with a bunny is completely different. In a good way. I know that certain aspects are missing, but I don't miss them, clear?"

Judy had turned her head to look into his smiling face, "No, I don't get it… you want to say, that I may miss certain things when… when I never have sex with a bunny?"

Nick nodded.

"Sorry, Nick, but it sounds like that you want me to have sex with Jack, so I could find out!"

"Well, fluff butt, I wouldn't go that far that I want it. But when you want to pretend you and Jack are a newlywed couple… you can't just hold paws all day. Especially taking into account…"

With a malice smile he had whispered something in her long ear. Judy had grunted.

"Sometimes, I am freaked out by how good you know me…", she had said, "Oh, Nick, this is all so… shit, I don't know. I don't like the whole plan. But I promise you, whatever will happen, you will always be the love of my life!"

She had pressed her face against his chest, inhaling his sweet scent.

"But, Nick, that's… that means betraying you…"

"No, Carrots, it would be betraying if you would do it in secret… but you'll do it with a secret agent, that's different!"

"Can you never be serious?", Judy had growled.

Day 1 on sea

The Kreuzbergs had a delicious breakfast alone, as they came to the table rather late and the plate of their three travel companions had already been removed. Then, they went on deck. The weather was cloudy and windy, the pool was empty, some passengers had wrapped themselves in blankets and made themselves comfortable in deck chairs. For a while, Judy and Jack stood arm in arm and watched the continent vanish on the horizon. Then, they went inside as Judy wanted to go window-shopping through the large mall.

Deep down in the entrails of the MS Germania sat Xavier Rodriguez at his keyboard. The room the coyote was in had no windows and he had been staring on the screen of his PC for six hours now and felt a little headache. His name could be found on the crew list with the title 'chief purser'. The job was well paid, very well, to be precise, but right at this moment, Xavier would have given anything for being free to roam… well, everywhere, except this ship. Officially, the ship had a crew of 2,700 mammals, but Xavier knew better. More than 1,500 small rodents were sitting in a closed space in the tiny deck K-E, working their little asses off just as he did. They were listed as passengers, but they all worked for Maybach Enterprises. These little guys were constantly monitoring the cameras and mikes installed everywhere. They had to write reports about any suspicious behaviour among the passengers and forward them to him. He has to check and validate everything, collect background info for those passengers who act suspiciously and report to one of the ship's officers.

He would call that a futile job had it not been just recently that they found out about secret agents who tried to infiltrate big boss's lair in Antarctica. Xavier did not know what had happened to the poor fellows, and to be honest, he didn't want to know. He yawned and stretched. He had been clicking through numerous sheets with passenger details, one more boring than the other, all marked as 'harmless'.

He opened the next report and pictures of two bunnies appeared on his screen, a brown female one with white markings and a black buck. Xavier sighed. This ship was full of bunnies. He read the names, Judith and Jakob Kreuzberg, cabin A51 – the honeymoon suite.

"Great…", he murmured, "… those stupid bunnies probably stay in bed all the time…"

As his own love life was on an all time low, the last thing he wanted to do was to read how these two pieces of worthless prey tried to multiply…

He raised an eyebrow when he checked the relevant field ('sexual activity') in the table provided and found a big fat zero in it. He checked the data. According to the papers, they had married two weeks ago, so maybe they had already started to get tired… or they just needed to adapt to sea life, sea sickness was quite common during the first days.

He closed the file, when all of a sudden he hesitated. He reopened the pictures and stared at the blank face of Judith Kreuzberg. Somehow…

Xavier had an excellent memory when it comes to faces, even those of different species. A talent like that was rare, one bunny looked pretty much like the other for any other mammal. This special talent had brought him that job.

Somewhere he had seen this face before, but he could not remember where. He was concentrating deeply when suddenly someone knocked at the door.

"Fuck…", he whispered and quickly hid his coffee mug in one of the drawers as drinking was strictly prohibited in here, before he yelled, "Come in!"

His room was on deck F, only the cheapest inside cabins and crew rooms were located there. Of course, passengers could not enter the crew areas, but this part was even more restricted and only a selected handful of crew members could simply appear here and knock.

The door opened. A dark grey colored wildcat in a white uniform entered the room with a wide smile showing a magnificient set of teeth and long fangs. First Officer Xenia Fjodorewna Dikayakoshka marched in on her long slim legs, her bushy tail waving from left to right. There was not a single soul among the crewmembers that was not afraid of her uncontrollable temper. Rumors had it, that she had once killed a crewmember that had spilled food over her by cutting his throat with her claws. Most crewmembers did not believe that story (at least they say so), but Xavier was not so sure.

"How is my favorite chief purser doing?", she purred in her dark voice. She used English, the official language for crew communication with a strong russian accent. Not everyone on this ship spoke German and Xavier, who had lived the past ten years in Zootopia, was one of them.

She carried a tablet computer in her right paw, a black model with a red stripe bearing the Maybach logo. All high ranking officers had them and they always carry it around.

Since Xavier had managed to identify the secret agent on board some months ago, he was in her good book and he definitely wanted to stay in there as he had seen what happened to other crewmembers when she was in a bad mood.

Her presence had a strange effect on him. When he was alone, he thought of her as a feline, weak and unimportant except for her higher rank on this ship. But as soon as she stood in front of him, his nerves were tingling and he… yes, he was attracted to her in a strange way he could not explain.

She had moved behind him, her paws were on his shoulders and he could feel her razor sharp claws even through his uniform. She bent forward, her cheek was against his and she looked on his screen.

"What are you working on?"

Xavier cleared his throat. It was hard to concentrate, especially as she had started to massage his shoulders which felt very nice. "Well, erm, this is Judith Kreuzberg, however you pronounce this… the report is not suspicious, but I have the feeling that I know her… I just can't put her anywhere… maybe I am wrong and I just…"

"Oh, no, dear, when you say you saw her then you definitely have seen her… I trust your memory…"

Her paws were wandering down over his chest. Man, she was so hot…

She giggled in his ear, "Maybe you want to earn yourself another reward…"

Xaviers mouth opened and he started to pant. He hated doing this typical canine cliché thing, especially in front of a feline, but he couldn't help it.

After he had unmasked the female agent who had disguised herself as a cook, his 'reward' had been a candle light dinner with Xenia… She had worn a black dress that revealed a lot of fur (and more!) and the food had been the best he had eaten in his life. When he had asked her what kind of meat surrogate this was, she had smiled at him and just had said, "I made it myself. An old recipe from my home. Have you ever tasted… real meat?"

Xavier had nearly dropped his fork, "Hell, no! You mean… meat from a dead mammal? You now that it is strictly prohibited to even…"

"I know, I know…", she had interrupted him, "Relax, I was just asking… however, this stuff is supposed to come very close to the real taste!"

"Well… it's really great…", he hesitated and Xenia seemed to be distracted as she started swiping on her ever-present tablet computer. Suddenly, Xavier's thoughts went into a complete different direction. Wouldn't it be great to taste real meat? To hunt and kill like our ancestors did? To be rewarded for a successful hunt with that great taste, with hot blood and warm meat, ripped out of steaming bodies with bare teeth?

A kind of dizzyness had taken him, but when he had been able to concentrate again, he had noticed he was digging in full of delight. When he looked up, he saw Xenia beaming at him. He cleared his throat. Where had his table manners gone?

"Well, ma'am, may I ask a question?"

"You may, if you call me Xenia when we are alone", she had purred softly.

"Xenia then, okay… do you know what happened with that agent?"

Her smile had gotten even wider and she had bent forward so that her nose had nearly touched his snout.

"Oh, don't worry, my hungry friend… she is getting rid of just while we're eating…"

When she had taken him to the door of her spacy cabin, she had taken his face in her paws and kissed him. Just two days ago the thought of a cat sticking her tongue in his mouth would have maked him puke, but then he had answered her kiss ferociously, had enjoyed the fact that her saliva had tasted like that delicious stuff she had served him.

He had suffered from very strange and babaric dreams that night…

Xavier shook his head and tried to focus on the picture in front of him.

"Well, ma'… I mean, Xenia, I would like to put her on 24-hour observation, just in case… only if you agree, of course", he added quickly.

"Sure I do!", she replied. She opened his drawer, took out the mug of coffee and took a long sip, "Do whatever you deem necessary, darling. And don't hide your mug, those kind of rules do not apply to my favourite coyote…", she placed a kiss on his cheek.

She walked to the door, but before she left she turned around.

"Contact me as soon as you have news on that bunny. You can come to my cabin any time, okay?"

"Aye-aye, ma'am!", he said.

When she had vanished, he leaned back and exhaled slowly. Something was happening each time, that darn wildcat was present, he couldn't help it. He could not seriously fall for a cat, could he? But the massive erection he just had told him something different… He sighed and went back to work. He wrote an order for the surveillance team to have a closer look at Judith Kreuzberg. From now on, one team member would always listen to every word she said, watch every move she made.

Judy had spent a wonderful afternoon in the huge shopping plaza that stretched over three decks, then she had some cake and coffee. Jack had joined her for the first hour, than excused himself as he wanted to go to the gym. They had arranged to meet with Stefan, Pat and Vicky for dinner. This time, it was much more pleasant as Patrizia (Judy did not dare to call her 'Pat', she and Jack just used the name when they were alone) seemed to have warmed up a little. Her daughter was no longer shy, too, she sat next to Judy and chatted all the time. When they were nearly done, Stefan looked at Jack.

"Dear Jakob, would you like to join me in the saloon on deck C?", he said, and explained that he found someone down there who played a certain card game, called 'Scart', and Jack immediately agreed. When Judy asked, Stefan explained, that the game could only be played with three mammals, and that it was a century-old german card game.

Judy was a bit pissed, as they were supposed to play a married couple here and now she hardly saw Jack at all.

"So, Vicky, as the guys seem to not want us around, why don't we go down to E-deck? I heard they have a dance party there tonight!", Judy said and looked to Pat, "You can come, too, of course, if…"

"Me? Certainly not!", Pat immediately answered, "And you shouldn't go there, too!", she said in a rather strict voice to her daughter.

"Oh, mom, please, it sounds like fun!", Vicky pleaded.

"Well, then ask your fiancee, let's see if he approves!"

Stefan barely looked up from his talk with Jack, "What? Oh, sure, go there, have a little fun!", he said.

Pat frowned, obviously she had been sure that Stefan would forbid it, but before she could say anything more, Vicky had jumped up, grabbed Judy by her paw and pulled her away.

As soon as her mother was out of sight, Vicky turned into a typical teenager, laughing, jumping, skipping, having no care in the world.

When they reched the big hall on deck E, they were greated by loud pop music. The room was crowded with mammals, at least half of them bunnies. The dance floor was packed and Vicky jumped up and down full of excitement. Judy looked out for a free table as she wanted to sit down and have a drink.

"Look, over there!", she shouted to Vicky in order to get over the loud music.

She pointed to a table with four chairs. Two of them were free, on the other two sat two male weasels, showing each other stuff on their smartphones.

"I don't know…", said Vicky, "they are predators…"

"And what?", answered Judy, "We can ask them, they won't eat us!"

She moved over, pulling Vicky with her.

"Hey guys!", she shouted, "Are those chairs free?"

The weasels stared at her and the bigger one looked them up and down.

"Certainly not for you!", he snorted, "Get lost, or we might eat you!"

Vicky wanted to turn away, but Judy pushed her gently on the first chair.

"I think, this guy just said, the chair is free!", Judy said and sat down on the other chair.

"No, Judy!", Vicky whispered, "They might…"

"Yes, we might!", the bigger one roared and stood up, "Listen, bitch, I have just one word for you…"

But before they could find out what word he meant, Judy shot up and her left paw hit the right side of the weasel's throat so vigorously, that he toppled to the side and barely could hold on the table. But before he could regain control, Judy had used her powerful legs to kick his left leg hard and now he crashed with his head hard on the table. Immediately, Judy was over him, one paw pressing his head firmly on the table, the other one waving in front of his eyes, her claws extended to full length.

"Well, my friend, I have two words for you and you better listen if you want to keep your eyes!", Judy said and moved her mouth close to his ear, "Piss. Off."

She released him and he landed on the floor. Immediately he sprung up, his face full of rage, staring at Judy. Judy stared back, bared her teeth and hissed at him. After five seconds he spat on the floor.

"We wanted to leave anyway!", he announced loudly, "Way to much filthy prey here to have fun! Come on!", he shouted to his friend.

They marched off and when the big weasel turned around, Judy gave him a wide smile and waved, "Thanks for the drinks, guys!"

She grabbed one glass, sniffed it and drank it all up.

"Huh!", she said and shook herself, "Wodka! Good stuff, but two more of this and I will get all wobbly! Here, Vicky, take the other one!"

But Vicky just stared at her, "How could you drink that? He had touched it with his lips!"

"Weasels are not poisonous!", Judy just said.

The waitress, a slender mongoose with shimmering blue eyes appeared at the table.

"You don't need to drink from that jerk's glass!", she said smiling, "I'll get you anything you want… for free! Those two have pestered me the entire night!"

Judy smiled at her, "For me a Bloody Mary, then. With a lot of Worcester Sauce, please! And you Vicky?"

Vicky still had both paws pressed in front of her mouth in shock. Hesitantly, she said, "I'd like to have a coke, please…"

The waitress walked away and Vicky grabbed Judy's arm.

"Judy, that… that was amazing! He was so much larger than you are! And you… you…", Vicky was looking for the right word, "you really kicked his ass!"

She put her paws over her mouth again, being shocked over her own words. Then, she started to giggle.

"Those guys are not dangerous", Judy simply said, "They just want to show off."

"That was so cool!", Vicky continued, "Coolest stuff I ever saw! But please, don't tell my mom about that, okay? She'll freak out and lock me inside my cabin for the rest of the trip!"

After they danced for more than two hours the two bunnies retreated in the much quieter bar to have a final drink before they would go to bed.

"Why do you share a cabin with your mom and not with Stefan?", Judy asked.

"We're not married yet!", Vicky said as if that was so obvious.

"But, you know, we live in the 21st century and…"

"Yes, of course, but my mother is quite old fashioned. At our farm, she had even locked me up in my room, when… when I…"

"When you get into heat?", Judy grinned and Vicky just nodded without looking at Judy.

"How have you met Stefan, I mean, he is quite a bit older…"

"He is 54.", Vicky said and now it was Judy who stared at her. Vicky took a deep breath and started to talk.

"He is a widower, his wife died five years ago, their kids are all grown up, so he lives alone. You must know, the ancestors of our two families founded our village some five hundred years ago; but then, friends became rivals and our families fought each other. Hundred years ago, the emperor ordered an armistice, since then our families lived in the same village, but without talking to each other. Until recently. Stefan's family get more and more wealthy and my family had to sold more and more land until we were… well, not really poor, but just another farming family. My siblings are much older than I am, my mom received a litter when she thought she could no longer have one. But my two brothers died early, then my dad died and after my elder siblings moved out, it was just my mom and me. She thought I would never get married, because of…", she pointed to her scarred face.

"How did that happen?", Judy asked.

"When I was four, I helped during the cabbage harvest… I fell in the cutter, one of my sisters grabbed me by the ankle, so I wasn't killed, but she couldn't prevent that my face was cut badly and I lost sight on my left eye. Last year then, one week before Christmas, I rode my bike past Stefan's farm when I suddenly heard him whimpering. He had tried to move a big boulder with his tractor, but the boulder dropped right on his leg and no one had heard him crying for several hours.

"Well, I called an ambulance and two days later he came back from the hospital with a cast. He had broken his leg and couldn't move, so… I pitied him… and I walked secretly over to his farm to help him in the house. My mom would never have allowed it. I was surprised that she agreed when I suggested to invite him for Christmas so he won't spent the holiday alone.

"And then, after our Christmas dinner…", she looked up and her eyes glistened full of pride, "… he proposed to me! In front of my mom! And she agreed!"

"And you?", Judy asked.

"Me, too, of course! I would never had thought, that… that someone would ever… well, look at my face…"

Judy shook her head, "Vicky, I think that Stefan looked more in your heart than in your face. You're a good and kind girl and that makes you beautiful!"

Vicky turned away, shyly smiling, "Thanks, Judy. I like you, too… you are the coolest, toughest bunny I ever met. Wow, I think, you could even work as a cop!"

Judy smiled, "Strange ideas you have… a bunny girl working as a cop!"