It took more than an entire day for the results of the fur test to get back to the group. Jack couldn't run the test until the morning, and because of his unique schedule, he didn't see anyone until he got to his bunkroom that night. There, he gave the results of the test to Nathan, who passed them on to the rest of the group during breakfast the next morning.
Everyone had been waiting with bated breath to hear the news ever since they first found the fur, and had speculated about it for the entirety of the previous day. When Judy and Lannia arrived in the cafeteria to find Nathan already there, they practically sprinted to the table. Their dash, along with shouts of various variations on "What does it say!?" drew more than a few odd looks.
"It says you owe me fifteen bucks." Nathan grinned as he pulled a small tablet out from his pocket.
"You're kidding me," Lannia replied. Nathan shook his head. "Really?"
"Yup. It's fox fur."
Lannia didn't seem at all bothered that she had just lost a bet; instead speculating on what the unexpected, to her, results could mean. "Where would it come from? There are only three ways in or out of the dome, and they're all well monitored. There weren't any breaches of security, Mr. Jackson would've said so otherwise," Lannia said.
"...If the entrances are all monitored, then someone here would've had to let them in..." Judy said, concerned.
"You're right," Lannia replied, "Someone who has the power to remove any records of their passing through."
"Could it be... Mr. Jackson? He didn't want us poking around when we found the fur..." Nathan said.
"It... He's an instructor..." Lannia replied. "But... it does make sense. In his own words, 'If all signs point to one thing, it probably is that thing.' It doesn't really roll off the tongue, but it's true"
"So... what now? Do we investigate him? And find out why the fox was here?" Judy asked.
"I think so. How will we go about it? I'm in his class, so I can, I don't know, ask him stuff and generally observe."
"I don't want to jump into the deep end, we might be wrong, but chances are Jack could hack into his computer."
"He's the chief security instructor here. He's going to have some pretty good security on it, Judy."
"And Jack's Jack," Judy rebuked.
"...Good point."
Most of the points of discussion about the fur were exhausted, but they kept talking about it anyway for much of the remainder of breakfast. At one point, Lannia noticed Mr. Jackson sitting a few tables away from them, and immediately hushed the group, sure he was trying to eavesdrop. After a few minutes, he got up and left, apparently done talking with another instructor. Very tentatively, the conversation resumed.
Final confirmations of what they would do were exchanged as everyone got ready for their first classes of the day. Lannia would watch Mr. Jackson during her class with him, but not take it further than that. Everyone else had a similar plan of 'be aware,' but they didn't have any specific targets. The real fun would only begin once everyone regrouped after dinner.
"Did you notice anything?" Judy asked Lannia.
"Unfortunately, no. All of the seats closest to his desk are for larger mammals, so I couldn't get close enough for any serious observing. How about you?"
"No. I walked past the alley again during my lunch break, but I couldn't go in to investigate; there were too many mammals around. You, Nathan?"
"Same story, pretty much. A whole lot of nothing," Nathan replied. Judy sighed. She knew that they probably weren't going to find anything so easily, but she had still hoped. "...except for this." Judy's ears immediately sprung straight upwards, and her body seemed to follow them in a small hop. Lannia experienced a similar rush of joy, except hers involved less motion of the head. Even though female deer didn't have antlers, they still somehow picked up the habit of keeping their heads still when they got excited.
"What is it!?" They both cried, almost in unison.
Nathan had already pulled out his tablet and brought up a couple of images. "The door to the janitor's closet just down the hall from my general command class was open a crack, so I took a peek inside while nobody was around. I almost missed it, but there was a little bit of white peeking out from behind a jug of some chemical or other. I checked it out, and it was a note. take a look." He proffered the tablet to the two does so they could see the note.
Could I have a triple order this time? I've got a little get-together planned for later this week, and I'd like some extra fuel to share.
The pawwriting was slightly messy, but easily legible nonetheless. "There was also a wad of cash," Nathan said as he pulled the tablet back to make a few swipes, "Eighty-three dollars in total."
"That looks like a drug deal..." Judy noted.
"Exactly."
"And I bet that it has something to do with the fox being here," Lannia agreed. "Did you see any fur there, by any chance? If the fox is the dealer, they'd have to have spent at least some time there."
"I didn't. But I didn't really look for any either. Once I saw the note, I took the pictures and got out of there."
"Then fur's still a maybe... Oh! maybe we can make one of those conspiracy board things. Have stuff like 'fur' and 'drugs' and connect them with string!"
Judy's sudden outburst took everyone by surprise. Even she had the decency to look embarrassed. "...Why?" Nathan asked.
"Uh… So we could organize our thoughts better?"
"Why not just use a tablet?"
"Because… A conspiracy board is cooler?"
Nathan sighed. "And where would you get the cork, anyway?"
"Quark?"
"Corkboard. You can put pins in it. It's what conspiracy boards are made out of."
"I don't know. It was just an idea…"
Judy, Nathan, and Lannia spent the next few minutes fruitlessly examining the pictures for more clues. None of them recognized the handwriting, and Lannia didn't notice any of the 'telltale ten' that she had been taught to look for in Security. Once they had exhausted every possibility from the picture, they decided to take another look at the closet.
Nathan's General command class was in a hallway that experienced a lot of traffic between classes, and it was still somewhat frequent throughout most of the day. If they went at night they'd avoid most of the traffic, but that had the risk of being seen by guards on the way to or from the closet, and they'd have to find a way to sneak out of their rooms after curfew. During the day, they'd be free to get close to it without suspicion, but they'd have to get in and out without anyone noticing. While not a piece of cake, Day was definitely the easier of the two options.
One thing that they didn't have to worry about was the security camera in the hallway. While it did exist, it had been broken since before they had even arrived at the academy, which was both a curse and a blessing for their intended task. If it hadn't been broken, they could've asked Jack to hack into it or Lannia could've come up with some sort of cover project and asked Mr. Jackson for access to the cameras. As it was though, it didn't block them from entering the closet by themselves, and it posed another clue: someone with enough power to prevent its repair was in on the deals, if not doing them.
They still had a couple of hours until curfew, which would be plenty of time to get in and out of the closet. After taking far too much time, in Nathan's opinion, coming up with a plan for how to avoid notice and what to do if seen, they set off.
Precisely three and a half minutes later, three mammals entered a hallway in a building 810 meters away from their previous location. Their gazes swept over every inch of the floor, walls, and ceiling, confirming that they were alone. They began to walk, remaining alert. The shortest one, a female rabbit, suddenly stopped, her ears erect. She had heard something. She quickly whispered something to her companions and they began walking again.
Just moments later, a small brown goat entered the hall from the other end. As he got closer, they could see that he was looking down at a tablet. When he was only a few meters away, he glanced up, seeing them walking by him, but took no more notice and his gaze returned to the tablet. Even after they had passed him, they continued walking, not behaving suspiciously at all. Even when they passed a door marked 'storage,' they kept on walking, only pausing for an almost imperceptibly small moment.
As the clacks of the goat's hooves on the floor changed into lighter taps on the concrete outside and they heard the door closing, they slowed down and started walking in the other direction, back towards the door marked 'storage.' When they arrived and there was no sign of anyone else in the hallway, they stopped.
They briefly got into a huddle, not because they needed to, but because they thought it would look cool. But huddles don't really work when one of three members is only a third the size of the other two, so they got out of the huddle to go over the plan again.
"Everyone know their parts?" Judy asked.
The two ungulates replied with brief nods and began walking down the hallway, the rabbit remaining outside the door. When the impala and deer arrived at a set of two doors marked 'male' and 'female', they stopped and looked back. Judy nodded, leapt up to open the door to the storage closet, and slipped inside.
Once the door was closed, Lannia entered the door marked 'female' and Nathan leaned against the wall on the opposite side of the hallway from the doors that his companions had disappeared behind.
Not even thirty seconds later, the clacking of another set of hooves could be heard. Nathan turned his head towards the end of the hall where the sound was coming from, making sure not to do so too quickly as to seem suspicious. It was none other than Mr. Jackson.
Nathan definitely did not do a suspicious-looking double take. What he did do was pretend to lose interest, glancing back the other way for a few seconds and then to the floor. When Nathan looked at Mr. Jackson again, he was expecting to see him on a trajectory straight down the middle of the hallway. But he didn't; he saw the wildebeest walking directly towards him.
"...Can I help you?" Nathan asked, doing his best to hide how nervous he was.
"Yes, actually. Have you seen a female white-tail deer around here recently?"
"Umm… yeah. Why?"
"She's one of my students and I would like to talk to her about something. Which way did she go?"
As they were planning the 'Closet Heist,' Nathan was skeptical of how much fun Judy and Lannia were having putting together a 'plan so advanced that not even the dumbest fool could un-foolproof it,' but as Mr. Jackson was throwing wrenches into it, Nathan was beginning to see the wisdom in overplanning.
"She's in the restroom right now. You're talking about Lannia, right?"
"Ah. Yes, Lannia is my student," Mr. Jackson replied. "Oh, now I remember where I recognize you from! You were one of the mammals with her in the alley a few days ago."
"...I was…" Nathan expected the Wildebeest to say more, but nothing else came. "What do you want to talk to her about? Maybe I can give her a message?"
"I would rather talk to her in person, but thank you anyway." Mr. Jackson walked to a space on the wall a few meters away from Nathan and leaned against it, replacing the awkward conversation with an awkward silence.
Author's Note: I finally got around to posting chapter 18. It took way too long. Unfortunately, I don't expect to be able to maintain any sort of upload schedule anytime soon, so you're probably going to have to live with intermittent updates for the foreseeable future.
As for the next chapter, It will almost certainly take over two weeks because I'll be taking finals and then traveling for the holidays. I do have some fun plans for the next chapter, though. I won't say what, but I am contemplating a twist... granted, I'm leaning towards not including it, but that just means that if it twists it'll twist for me as well, and I'm writing it. Fun!