Happy 2017, folks! Hope y'all had a good New Year's week. I know this is a shorter chapter, but this is a bit of a breather between the last chapter and the next. I hope you guys (and gals) are enjoying reading this as I much as I enjoy writing it. Thank you for commenting and following! Almost to 100 follows! I honestly can't believe that many people like my writing so much that they actually want to get buzzed when I update. So thank you so much for a great 2016, and here's to an even better 2017!

Chapter 14: …To Be A Ghost

"WHAT?!" the angry hog screamed in anger.

The timid deer that sat opposite of the swine responded, "They got away."

"How in the HELL did they get away?" the pig asked again. He glared flaming daggers across his desk in the well-furnished, yet dim, room.

"The fox was…craftier than anticipated." The deer replied, eyes downcast.

The pig pinched the bridge of his formidable snout in frustration. "You mean to tell me that you underestimated the foxiness of a fucking fox?" the oinker asked. The deer remained silent. "Tell me, David. Just how fucking stupid are you that you were able to fail so stupendously?"

Here the deer looked up with an aura of anger. "I did not fail, Hamilton." The antlered mammal said low, "It was your officers, your men, who fucked this up. My legs are both broken due to their ineptitude. Don't blame me for a failed mission, when it was you who provided subpar forces."

At this point Hamilton was so hot under the collar that one could almost smell bacon. "How dare you accuse me?!" the ham bellowed. "The officers I have under me are the best! And it would serve you well, sir, to remember that I am the highest ranking member of the P.P.P. since Bellweather was locked up."

"Yes, sir." The deer hissed. There was a tense silence that fell over the small office that sat in the Zootopia Civic Center that was located near Savana Park in Downtown Zootopia. The only sounds that could be heard were those of the cars driving past the building. "So," David broke the silence, "what is you plan now, oh leader?"

"First, you address me with the respect I deserve." Hamilton stated pointedly, "Secondly, we put out a hit on those two." Here David's eyes opened slightly in surprise. "Let it be known throughout all of the chapters that if any soldier of The Cause brings either of those two down it will mean a five-hundred mark reward and twelve-hundred marks for both at the same time."

"Do you believe it to be wise to attack so openly? I mean the open hit on that bar the other night was a disaster." David cautioned.

"You mean the op that Thompsons ran? We both know that gazelle is a worthless leader. A damned lemming has more brains than he does."

"Very true." David nodded. "But still, such a large push might raise some flags. Especially with Big wanting our heads."

The pig chuckled at the mention of the mobster. "That shrew doesn't know what he's up against. Besides, he doesn't want all of us, just the ones that shot up his place. He'll track Thompsons down in a few weeks, maybe a month or so. Then he will have gotten his revenge and be out of our fur."

"And how will you cover up the deaths of a high-profile pred and the ZPD's mascot bunny?"

"Who said that there was ever going to be anything to cover up?" the swine asked with a maniacal grin. "If there are no bodies, there is no cover up."

"That 'no bodies' thing might be hard to pull off if every soldier in the city is hunting for these two." David pointed out. "Not all of our operatives are so careful as that; Thompsons comes to mind."

"For once you may be right, David." The pig sat in thought for a short time. "Release the announcement only to chapter leaders, minus Thompsons, and tell them to assign only their top mammals to the operation."

David wrote all of the information down. "Will that be all?" the deer asked.

"That is all, lieutenant. Dismissed." With that, David turned his wheel chair around and left the pig to himself.

Alexander Hamilton leaned back in his chair and stared out his frosted window at the yellowish haze of Zootopia. He loved his city. That was why he had become a cop so many years ago, to protect his sacred city. At the time he thought the threat to Zootopia was not predators, but the small street gangs that ruled many parts of the great city. It seemed that every section of Zootopia had at least three gangs to worry about. When he first became a beat cop, he was assigned to the 120th precinct in the Canal District. At the time the area he ran was under the control of the 53rd street Antlers, an all prey gang that consisted mostly of deer, gazelle, antelope, and the like. Their rivals were the Dockside Pride, an all pred gang lead mainly by lions, tigers, and other large cats. Most of his calls were to brawls between the two gangs. They were bitter enemies, but there was never an all-out war between them. That changed in '77 with the riot. It had been a gang hit, but on that was understandable from his point of view.

A couple of spooks from the Pride were skulking around Antler turf, when some Antlers confronted them a fight broke out. The cats sent three of the Antlers to the hospital, one of them being the Antlers' leader's younger brother. Three days later the two Pride members were shot at their job by the leader of the Antlers. This would have started a gang war immediately if not for the protests that took place. It just so happened that the judge presiding the case was the shooter's uncle and gave him a reduced sentence. When that happened all hell broke loose. The riots began. This was when Hamilton saw the true enemy of the city. It wasn't prey who had provoked the shooting, it wasn't prey who were destroying his section of the city, and it wasn't prey that killed thirty-three mammals over the next two months of gang violence. No. It was predators. Preds had crossed the line with the Antlers, Preds had reduced his beat to a pile of burning rubble, and Preds attacked those thirty-three prey in revenge. That was when he knew that being an officer wasn't enough that was when he joined the P.P.P. They saw the same truth he did; they fought the true enemy of the city. Even though he remained an officer of Zootopia, his true calling was to be a soldier for The Cause.

Chapter title credited to Jeff Rosenstock.