Good news guys, I'm changing the publishing schedule to tree times a week. You can expect updates on monday, wednesday and friday. And If I'm really up for it, there could be a fourth on sunday but really no guarantee there.

Foxlover91 : A life can't be crappy from the beginning to the end, sometimes, mammal get what they deserve. In that case, a bit of happiness.
That bunny is highly emotional, but she still have a working brain ^^ That was the challenge, making her seem jealous without overdoing it.
What ? A storm soon ? Naaaah.

Cemsay : At least, yeah. But what would they have at best ?

Robert Escher : Yeah, but I wanted to make my own lemonade... Technically, I am, you're just not tasting any of it (and trust me, you don't want to...)
And thanks for the compliment :)


Chapter 29 : It Could Be a Trap

Friday the 31th of March 2019

It's with a fleeting head that Nick went back to his flat that sunday. He felt sore, he felt bruised, but most of all, he felt happy. He had to try and hide his grin on the ZUG, because he knew he wouldn't be able to hide his fangs. It was ironically funny, those week ends were supposed to relieve his stress and rest him, it had achieved none of that. Well, at least it had been good stress. Now he needed a shower and good day and night sleep. And food. Something to replace the calories he had spent in the last twenty-four hours.


Monday the 1st of April 2019

"You seem awfully merry." The kid was taking the ZUG with him to a meet-up point Skye had given them that morning.

"Am I ? I guess I am." The fleeting-head sensation had followed the vulpine through his sleep, and he was determined to hold on to it as long as he could.

"Interesting week-end ?"

"Yes but you're waaaaay too young to hear about that stuff." Answered the grey fox with a smirk. "How about you, how is it to stay with your sister ?"

"Cramped, a bit. But we didn't spend a lot of time there. She took me outside, we went to a restaurant and to the park. I don't think she spends a lot of time at her flat."

Nick gave him an interested look so the kid kept talking. "She talked me more about her life. She's a waitress in a bar and she sings there. I think it's cool, she always wanted to be a singer. I think she actually likes what she does, I thought she would want more than just..."

"Just singing in a bar for drunkard's ears ?"

"Yeah. Anyway, she told me about her crush on you, even though it was pretty much obvious from the..."
Nick was a bit embarassed but he didn't let it show. He knew they had flirted and was partly at fault for having responded to her flirt, but aside from the kiss, it wasn't something he thought about much.

"She told me you were taken and I must say, until today and your stupid face, I didn't think it was true."

Nick shrugged, there was really nothing he could do about Scarlet and her crush on him. The most he could do was leave her some space until she got over it.
They finally arrived to the place in the far north-east of Tundratown at the edge of the city. Though it was still technically Tundratown, it wasn't that cold, they were beyond the 'frost-factories', the places that created the wind and snow for the whole district. Nick wasn't really well versed on how it worked but he knew it had something to do with the hot winds coming up from sahara square travelling north and keeping the cold wind down under. The whole thing was a scientific marvel and Nick sometimes wondered if the city's money wouldn't be of better use elsewhere. But then again, it was a show of what mammals could achieve when they stood together.

Another text from Skye directed them to a warehouse. Osman greeted them.

"Frank, Mike how are- erm." The fox seemed he couldn't maintain eye contact with any of them. Nick patted his shoulder.

"Seems you two need to talk a bit. I'm going in." And with that, Nick went through the front door.

Osman and Michael were left alone outside, an awkward silence growing. The older fox took an inspiration and closed his eyes before speaking.

"I'm sorry Mike. We've acted like assholes to you."

"Well, I stole and sold stuff. And I kind of put us all in danger, so..."

"Yeah, but you're a kid ! I mean, you're younger, and young foxes do stupid stuff. I mean I would know, I was one."

"I think that to Frank, we all are." Smiled the younger fox.

"Stupid or young ?"

"Both."

To be honest he had few memories from what happenned, he remembered that he had been beaten up and restrained by Sean, and that he had answered questions, but that was all. He knew that they were supposed to execute him, but he didn't remember much of them discussing it or of Nick's arrival.

"Yeah, well, from what it's worth, I'm sorry. I should have stood up for you, I've been an asshole. I'm glad you're back."

Michael had to look away, having people apologize to him and make him feel wanted was a new feeling, and he still had trouble with it. "It's all right. And it got Frank to get me off the dope, so it's more like a win than a lose."

"You're off the- That's great ! How's the paw ?"

Michael looked at the paw where his claws had been torn out. "It's healing, it's not really painful anymore."

"Good. That's good. You should go see Skye, I think she wants to apologize too, she thinks it's all her fault. And to be honest I think it partly is. I mean it's our fault. But she's the boss... And we were all... I can't even understand why we were going to do this. At least Frank stopped us... Lucas is not here but he's sorry too. Steer clear from Sean though. He was really pissed when Frank left with you."

The conversation ended there and they entered, taking him to the same view Nick had faced a few minutes prior.

...

Nick entered the warehouse, looking around. The inside had been repurposed as a mechanic garage. A half-dozen vans in different states were being repaired, assembled and painted. Mammals, all foxes it seemed, were going around with car parts, trying to figure out what was going where. It was a chaotic mess. He looked around and found Skye and two other foxes he didn' know arguing about something. As he approached he could get bits of the conversation.

"-and she just left, we just can't work like this !"

"It's a good thing she left us her plans and notes but none of us are real mechanics. And we're completely disorganised, we have too much on our plate and our people are just running around not knowing what they're doing !"

"Okay, I get that, I really do. We must set up a meeting and get this show running more properly."

Nick casually approached the mammals with a polite mask on.

"Seems like one of your guys are here. We'll talk about this later, Skye." Said one of them. The other nodded and they both left.

Skye turned around to face Nick. It seemed she had trouble maintaining her composure, probably a side effect of the event from a couple of weeks prior.

"Hi, how are you doing Frank ?"

"Great, I'm doing great. How are you ?"

"I'm-I... I think I owe you an apology."

Nick lifted a brow, waiting for her to say more.

"I put you in a shitty position and I ask- no, ordered you to do something that was wrong even though that's what our boss had ordered."

Nick scratched his ear.

"Did he personnally ordered it or.. ?"

The arctic fox sighed. "Kind of. Through mails. I was told that any form of betrayal was to be punished like that. And also to set an example, to record the thing. Oh gods, it's so fucked up, I should have kept this under wraps and talked with Mike myself. I kind of dumped that on you because, well..."

"Because I'm older and therefore more likely to have performed this kind of task before ?" Nick showed the corner of a grin.

"Yeah..."

"You would be right." He added a bit of teeth in his slight grin to add some weight to his lie. The imperceptible shudder she gave showed the punch had landed. "But I'm not doing that anymore. I accept your apology. I take it you're not really used to lead mammals ?"

"Not yet."

The grey fox scratched his chin. "Say, Skye, can I ask you a bit of a personnal question ?"

"I can't promise to give an answer."

"Fair enough. Why do you follow Lycus ?"

"Same as the other I suppose. Lycus is the only one to seem to give a damn about us. I'm not talking about predators but us foxes. Even the other predators look down on us. Whatever I tried to do, studies, carreer... Wherever I went, I was always looked down on upon, even when I was the best."

"The best at what ?"

"I studied to become a social worker. Well I tried, the merit-based grants always went under my snout even with the best grades. It doesn't take a PhD to understand why." She said, opening her arms showing herself. "Fox."

"Yeah, we can't very well prove ourselves if no one gives us the chance to do so."

"Exactly. So now, it's going to blow up in their faces."

Nick chuckled. "It's going to be so much fun. Going back to the apology, I think you owe it more to Michael."

"Yeah, I do. Do you think he's going to accept it ?"

He'd be willing to jump off a bridge just for a sense of belonging. Of course he will.

"Only one way to find out." Nick answered turning around as, right on cue, Michael and Osman entered the premises.

Skye was really nervous and if she was doing a really good job keeping a front up, Nick could see that she was on the verge of cracking. Realizing how big a mistake they made tended to do that to mammals. Osman had gone up to Nick.

"Hey Frank. I want to say I'm sor-"

"Don't apologize to me. It wasn't your choice nor your order. None of you wanted that to happen. Well apart for Sean."

"Yeah. This guy is a complete psycho." Osman whispered.

"On another matter, what's happenning here ? An how are things going ?"

"We're preparing another raid. Skye will want to brief you and Mike later about what it is. And on how things are going... Not that well. Our chief mechanic just quit on us, or more like disappeared."

"No shit ? He left ?"

"She. A melanistic ocelot. I'm usually not fond of felines but let me tell you this one..." He gave as silent whistle. "Anyway, I know she wasn't very implicated in our project, so I wouldn't be surprised if she just left."

Nick had been able to hide his surprised expression. "How did she call herself ?"

"Selina, but everyone called her Sel."

Nick scoffed. This was her. It was one of the three mammals he had asked Finnick to find for him weeks ago. To be honest, Nick had completely forgotten about it, but he knew that if Fin hadn't contacted him about that, it was simply because he had found nothing. If only he could have contacted Selina before, maybe she could have helped him dig around.

"So we can't fix the vans ?"

"Well, we can, she left her notes and stuff, but she was also coordinating everything, and since the other leaders can be a bit... Hard to work with, we're having trouble getting back on track. Plus the fact that none of them agree on how to use the notes she left."

"And when are we supposed to finish all this ?"

"The end of the week."

"Are you fucking serious ? Okay, I'm going to need to talk with Skye." He left Osman in place and went straight to the arctic fox.
She had finished talking with Michael a few seconds ago and had gone back to reviewing notes on a workbench. "Skye ?"

"Sorry Frank, I don't really have time right now. This is all falling apart."

"Skye, who leads this thing ?"

"Well it mostly leads itself..." She said, while continuing trudging in the piles of paper. "Shit, why isn't any of this labelized ?"

"Skye, put this down and breathe for five seconds."

"I can't, I don't have time right now. We've lost our only real mechanic and I have to find a way to do without her. Unless you know someone who can replace her."
Nick's brows furrowed. There was no way he could implicate Finnick in this, but himself could improvise reparations. He had learnt countless of things with the fennec, including how to fix a van with nothing more than tape and a bit of ingeniosity. Truth was, he could simply do nothing and let this operation sabotage itself, but the beginning of a plan was forming and the best course of action was actually that all this happenned. He simply had to check where it was going first.

"All this is an operation to capture this 'Doug' guy, right ?"

"You're perceptive."

Jackpot.

"Well, I've missed a lot of things that happenned in the city those last few years, so I've tried to do my homework. You know, I think the first thing you should do is to coordinate everyone. Those foxes running around are not doing anything good."

"Well, I'd try, but I'm not a mechanic, and you could think it's not important, but it's the main reason why there is no main leader right now. Every time someone tries to step up, they get shot down on account of not really knowing what they're doing. Which has been true every time."

Nick lifted a brow. "You want a professional mechanic ?" The mischievous grin appeared. "I'll give you one."

The fox quickly went away to look around the place. Skye shrugged, she had to find a way to organize this and had no time to lose to run after this old fox.

A few minutes later she heard a voice at her side.

"Hey lil' lady. A' heard ya needed a chief mechanic."

"What ? Yeah, I do but who are- Wait, Frank ? Is that you ?"

"Yup, it's me Frank, chief mechanic a yo'service." The fox had found a green overall and adorned it with black oil stains and a few tools.

"What are you doing ?"

"Well, the others don't know me I suppose, so I'm going to be your head mechanic and do a bit of management."

"Do you have any background as a mechanic ?"

"Maybe I picked up a few things along the way. And I'm older than they are, so there is the 'respect for the elder' factoring in."

"Are you going to use this stupid fake accent as well ?"

"You hurt me Skye, my accent was perfect. But no, I wouldn't be able to keep it up at all time." The fox took a few steps to face the workbench and looked at the pile of paper. Selina had done some good work. It was even more fun when you took into account that what the feline knew of the job was what she too had picked up from Finnick. Her true passion lied elsewhere, but it was no time to reminisce, he had to prove himself. All he had to do was find something he was sure was in this repurposed warehouse. There it was, plans for an old Cervy van from the seventies. One Finnick would have called a shag-mobile. Very similar to the fennec's too.

"That'll do nicely. Skye, tell me this one's engine still need fixing."

"They all do."

"Great. Let's go impress some foxes then."

Skye followed him. "Do you really think you can fix it ? Most of them had to be totally disassembled to clean them up, and had parts that needed changing."

"Don't worry, I know what I'm doing." He lied with a perfect mask of confidence while making his way to the van he had chosen. A large brown fox was trying to fit different pieces on an engine hanged to a pair of chains above the hood, where Nick was sure they weren't supposed to fit.

"Hey champ', what's your name ?"

"William, but they call me Bill." The large fox detailed Nick from head to toe. "You a mechanic ?"

"I like to think so. Can I take a look ?"

"Shure, I been stuck on this engine for two hours naw. I'd 'preciate the help."

Nick looked at the engine and compared it to the mental notes he had from the diagram.

"Ooookay, two things champ. One, your engine is upside down, so you'll have a fun time lowering it in place. Two, this isn't even the right engine for this van. The one you want is two vans away, over there." He said, pointing to his right.

"You shure ?"

"As sure as my name is Frank. I'll get a few more paws to-"

"Harumph !" the large brown fox had lifted the heavy engine on his shoulder and carried it, switched it with the right engine and came back to hang it on the chains.

"-Or that works too. Give me the wrench over there will you ?."

"Shure boss."

Nick went to work on the engine. Good thing most parts had already been cleaned up, since it wasn't the fun part of the job. "So this goes there – this fits... No – What sort of moron cleans a part like that ? - Oh shit, this valve has been put back in by a blind fox..." Grumbling and mumbling, Nick worked the hours away on the engine. He felt a bit like Finnick, cursing like he did when working on his own machine. When he stopped, not only it was in a relative working state, but a small crowd had gathered to look at him work. He casually turned to them while wiping the grease off his paws. "Oh, I didn't know I had an audience !" He said, which was a complete lie. He had been careful to work as loud as he could to attract attention.

One of the foxes that seemed to be a leader stepped in front of the crowd. "I didn't know we had a new mechanic."

"Well, I'm simply part of Skye's team. I never thought my studies in this field would come in handy. I had the understanding that those vans should be repaired by the end of the week ?"

"Yeah, that's the plan."

Nick scratched his chin. "I must say that it's not something I'd be able to do on my own, but if everyone lends a paw, I'm sure we could do it. I mean, from what've counted, we have at least twenty-five pairs of paws, I think it's doable."

"Well, we would all appreciate it if you could explain to us how to fix all this and help us coordinate our efforts."

"I'm not a leader, nor a very good teacher, but I think with the help of my boss," He said by pointing at Skye. "we could put some kind of plan in place."

"If you truly know what you are doing, it's fine by me. I'm Oswald, by the way." He presented himself, extending a paw.

"Frank. My paws are dirty."

"Don't worry, so are mine." The leader answered, shaking Nick's paw.

A few minutes later Nick and Skye were exchanging ideas on the best way to organize the mammals present. Skye interrupted it. "You know, the more I see you talk in public, or work, the more I'm wondering why I'm your chief and not the other way around."

Nick's head shot up, he lifted a brow. "You think I'd be a better leader than you are ?"

"Yeah. I pretty much screwed up with Mike, and was going to have him killed instead of helped. That wasn't how a leader should act."

"You're young, you have time to learn."

"I shouldn't be learning, I should be leading." She sighed. Obviously, she felt guilty about what happened. It was a good thing, it showed that she cared. Nick put away the pen he was using to write and put his paws on his thighs to straighten up his back.

"Well, you fucked up. It happens. It could have had dire consequences but it didn't. I won't say that you're being too hard on yourself because you aren't. It's a quality in your position. But if you're proposing to step down in my favor, I won't accept."

"I'm not stepping down Frank. I'm simply a bit lost."

"Tell me, when you discovered Mike's deed, when you decided to do what you had to do, what was your first thought ?"

Skye put on a reflective expression. "I... I thought it was wrong, but it was the directive I was given..."

Nick leaned forward. "But your guts told you it wasn't the right solution."

"They did, yes."

"So there you have it. You have good gut-feelings. Essentials to be a good leader." He smiled.

"Don't make fun of me."

"I'm not. You have instinct. Listen to them. Instincts are nothing more than your subconscious trying to tell you how to not fuck up."
Soon, they had given birth to a new pile of papers. Schedules, list of names and chores in priority order. Skye had a knack for organization, more than Nick did in any case.

"I think, we're done here. You really didn't need my help on this, do you do that a lot ?"

Skye looked at the pile of papers. She was making a few adjustment here and there. "I studied management, but I never found any work in the field, being a fox and all. This, I had to do it a bit with our group but not on this scale. But it's really easy, it works like a big logical puzzle."

Nick sat back on his chair. It was kind of depressing to see all those young foxes having completely given up on a normal life because of the specism. But he was past the point where he would consider it an excuse. An explanation sure, but just because one had a bad life, it didn't give them the right to make it rough for others. Rough being an understatement, after all, mammals had died. Still, he couldn't help but feel for all those predators.


Judy was facing her computer, like any other day. Until that point, everything had been usual enough. Waking up, changing from the rigid cast to the articulate one, taking her breakfast, going to the precinct with Blackfur, greeting Clawhauser and Wolford, drinking another decaf and checking her e-mails. Talking with them, she had heard Clawhauser was also the one Bogo had put in charge of supervising the Doug's witness protection program.

And then, she had heard the notification sound on her phone and looked at the text she had just received. A text that read 'Frank is Nick. Meet me at 86 Delta Street in Sahara Square tomorrow at 10PM. No cops.'

She had barely kept herself from gasping and had slowly put down the phone like she was handling an explosive. Now she was staring at her computer screen, her brain fired up at full speed.

She had to go. She simply had to. Whoever knew of Nick's identity could blow up his cover in a heartbeat. She looked at her phone again. Masked number, and if the one that had sent the text was anything else than half a moron, the phone they used was already at the bottom of canal district.
Now she had to seriously consider the fact that it could be a trap. Hell, it was most likely a trap. But Nick's cover, no, Nick's life was at stake, and in her place he would've gone. Not that she needed this kind of motivation to risk her life for her fox.

So she was going, no sense arguing with herself.

Should she warn Nick ? No. If she did, he would find her and follow her to the rendez-vous point, and he was still a cop. But of course, Judy couldn't go alone, she needed back up. Someone reliable and strong... She could ask Mr Big to send her a couple of goons, but she didn't really want to owe him anything, and even if he wouldn't consider it a favor, she didn't like the idea of implicating the mafia.

So what else did she have ? Well, there were only two mammals she knew that cared about Nick as much as she did, and she knew that only one of them could handle himself in a tussle, or so Nick had told her. She'd have to ask Finnick's help.

And so, one of the slowest day of her life began. Since they had finished analyzing the video records, what she had to do now was to compile every picture they had in one file an class them. Wolford and Blackfur were called as back up for some intervention, a group of pred-haters attacking a peace manifestation in the center of the city. Since the murder of the two sheeps, those kinds of manifestations had mutliplied, and having officers there to supervise them was a challenge. Even more so when some weren't officially planned with the mayor's office.

So on top of being a slow day she didn't really have anyone to talk too in the meantime. Not that it was a bad thing, Blackfur would have notice how stressed Judy was, and the bunny would have slipped up in the end.

At least, at the end of the day, the file was almost complete. She had been able to forget about the text for most of the day. Well, not forget, but she had been able to stop it from impeding on her work.

And then her phone rang.

The bunny almost jumped from her seat, looking at the device. Contrary to what she had feared, it wasn't from an unknown caller but from Nick, which was almost worst in this specific situation.

"Judy speaking." She answered.

"Hey, my preferred bunny, how was your day ?"

"It was great ? How was yours ? I suppose this isn't a courtesy call ?"

"I'm good. It's true, it isn't. I've spent my day working on vehicles. Vans. A half-dozen of them. The goal is to kidnap Doug."

"Oh crap. We have to stop them !"

"We have to, yes. But I have a better plan than barging in and arresting everyone. We'll have to set up something with the chief and agent Savage. If we play it the right way, we could end up getting to Lycus, but I'll need a bit of time to prepare."

"How-er- What do you need to prepare ?"

"A really solid plan for starters. I just wanted you to know that I think things are about to move really fast. Can you please tell that to the chief too ? We'll need to find a way to coordinate everyone, I think." The bunny didn't respond for a few seconds. "Hello ? Still there ? Is everything alright ?"
Judy was wondering if she should tell Nick that some mammal knew of his cover, but had decided against before Nick could derail her train of thought. "Huh ? Yeh, I'm alright. Simply a bit worried about all this. I don't know how they'll kidnap Doug though. He'll be transferred to a secured location at a random date, to avoid him getting harmed during his trip. And the secured location is even more secret so..."

"Yeah, I thought about that too. The whole principle of witness protection is hiding the concerned mammal. In any case, be sure that as soon as I'll learn more, you'll hear about it."

"Great ! Thanks for calling."

"You're welcome. I love you Carrots."

"I love you."

And he hung up. So first, someone had learnt of his cover and now Doug was in danger. Well, in relative danger, there was no way Lycus knew when he'd get out or where to he'd be taken. Was it ?