Hello all! Look, two updates within a decent amount of time! It's a miracle!

How much time I will get to write in the next little bit will depend, but I am hoping to work on the next chapter soon. (I have started it) Cross your fingers.

As always, thank you to my lovely beta Marie Allen and a giant thank you to my lovely readers for continuing to read this fic!

I hope everyone is saying safe! It's crazy times right now!

And now, please enjoy


Chapter 20

Freddy sidled up to the dumpster located behind the rear kitchen entrance of the Palm Hotel, his nerves completely frayed, his fur nearly standing on end, his blood rushing through his ears so loudly he could barely hear any other sounds.

Taking a shaky breath, he tried to calm down.

It had been terrifying dropping off the mail at the hotel reception desk and talking his way out of the situation with the rhinoceros, but this was different.

Although he had been willing to do this when they had initially been devising a plan of action of getting into the hotel, it had been with the assumption that they could be wrong about their theory and the location. Now, with what amounted to confirmation of the hotel being the location of a criminal ring that trafficked in kitnapped mammals possibly being pitted against each other to the death in an animal fighting ring, it had become dangerous in a tangible way rather than just a hypothetical one.

Worse, was that he had no doubt that security would be heightened. Only a fool would not make a connection between his delivery and Nick and Judy's sudden appearance not too long after.

Eyes darting back and forth, he waited for the opportunity to slip inside. A panda and a grizzly bear were currently standing at the open door having a smoke and chatting with each other.

Luckily, the mammals were larger than him, and he was preparing himself to slip in behind them when they had finished their break.

The grizzly snuffed his cigarette out first when a plaintive shout came from the building. Giving a huff of annoyance, the panda followed suit and the two Ursidae lumbered back into the building, kicking out the box they had used to keep the door open for them as they entered.

Sprinting from where he had been concealed, he slipped through the closing door nearly running into the back of the panda when his foot slipped on the wet tile.

Thankfully, he was able to stop himself from falling and hastily concealed himself behind a stack of boxes that needed to be crushed and recycled.

Taking note of his bearings as the bears moved out of the narrow hallway, he knew his best bet for success would be to make it to the employee lockers and find a uniform of some sort.

First, he had to make it through the kitchen without being seen… Or stepped on, he acknowledged as he watched two elephants, the two bears, and three camels move around the kitchen in a frenzy of pans, ingredients, knives, and tableware.

Freddy had never been more grateful for being born a rabbit. His small size made him less noticeable as he darted from one bank of stainless-steel counters to the next, able to slip in and out of the open spaces beneath that held the cookware.

It was the breakfast rush, the kitchen bustling with so many servers and kitchen staff, that he was able to easily make his way from the kitchen and down an employees only hallway leading him into the staff breakroom and locker area without being seen.

Taking a moment to survey the break area, he noted several mammals either rushing about, readying themselves for their shifts, or lounging at tables and chatting with each other as they took their breaks.

He knew there was no way he was going to be able to wait for the break room to be empty, if such a thing ever happened.

Smacking his forehead at his stupidity, he tried to remember where the laundry room was from where he was located. He knew it was in the basement, and if he could get down there, he had no doubt that he could find a uniform.

Orienting himself, he strode down the empty hallway as if he had every right to be there and stopped at the corner, taking a quick peak down the hallway that turned to the right.

He could hear the voices of several mammals and the slam of doors opening and closing as housekeeping carts were rolled out and into the hallway.

Sprinting down the hallway, he ducked behind one of the carts, two female deer and two female snow leopards chatting and laughing as they readied themselves for their rounds. Diving into a stack of fresh towels located in the bottom of the cart, he caught a ride with one of the snow leopards who was heading in the direction of the freight elevator that would take him to the basement.

Watching from beneath the stack of towels, he prepared himself, knowing that timing would again mean everything.

After waiting for the elevator doors to open, the snow leopard pushed her cart into the freight car and pressed the button for the floor she needed.

Unable to see what floor had been selected, he had no choice but to wait patiently and hope her floor wasn't one of the upper ones.

The car stopped and he slid backwards from between the towels, pressing himself up against the control panel as the snow leopard and cart left the elevator, his presence thus far unnoticed.

He quietly hit the button for the basement and the close door button, silently urging the doors to close and praying no one would enter the car before that happened.

Breathing a sigh of relief, when the car remained empty but for himself, he knew that this fleeting emotion could be very short-lived.

His luck held and when the doors opened, the sound of multiple machines churning water and clothing met his ears, the smell of detergent hitting his nose letting him know he had reached his destination.

Peeking around the door of the elevator, he nearly had a heart attack when someone rolled a laundry cart of fresh towels into the elevator.

He was able to slip past the elephant without being noticed, pressing himself against the wall and frantically searching the room for any other mammals and any cover he could find.

Glancing around he noted there was only one other attendant in the room, a badger that was busy loading a machine.

The room was large, bright fluorescent lighting illuminating the concrete floors, grey brick walls and water pipes that ran overhead. Five industrial washing machines were located on one wall and two industrial dryers on the far wall.

There was a large table in the center of the room for folding, stacks of towels that had already been folded were bundle and awaiting pickup. A huge bin was located under a laundry chute to his right. Two other bins had been pushed to the side, already full and waiting to be laundered.

From what he was able to see, the bins were all full of towels and bedding. He didn't see any uniforms.

There was one bin pressed up against the right wall that he was unable to see into and he wondered if that was where the uniforms were.

Glancing over at the attendant, whose back was now turned to him as the badger loaded the dryer, Freddy darted to the bin, knowing that he had to hurry. He didn't know how long the other attendant was going to be gone for and that every moment he wasted, was time being taken away from his search.

Leaping up, he glanced down into the bin and noticed that it was empty.

Repressing a sigh of frustrated defeat, Freddy dropped to the ground, his mind swirling with regret at having wasted so much time on his stupid plan.

The sound of the elevator doors sliding open behind him forced him to scramble behind the bin, hiding himself from view.

Heart beating a rapid tattoo in his chest, he swore that it would be heard even over the sound of the running machines.

A bin was pushed past the cart he was hiding behind, and he was positive he was about to be discovered in his position between the wall and the bin.

The visage of a timber wolf came into view and Freddy shrunk down as small as he could get, not that he was expecting this to help because timber wolves had an acute sense of smell that they used to their advantage.

Freddy wasn't sure if it was luck or just the strong smells of the laundry room that masked his scent, but whatever it was, the wolf strode past him, pushing his cart without a single glance in Freddy's direction.

Frowning in confusion, Freddy heard the cart slam into a set of doors that he had somehow missed in his initial perusal of the room.

Slowly easing himself from his position, he slid his head around the corner to what he had initially thought to be a small sort of storage area.

Boxes and discarded bins lined the walls but at the end of the short hallway was a set of double doors.

The elevator doors opened and the elephant who had left earlier strode back into the room, the cart she had been pushing now empty.

Listening intently to the two mammals chatting conversationally about work, he waited until she left again with another cart full of towels.

Soundlessly moving down the hallway, he opened a door and was met with another short hallway that led to another set of doors.

Sipping inside, he noticed that there was a green light above the door and a card reader to the left.

Swearing under his breath he was about to turn around when he noticed the light on the card reader was green as well. Deciding to test his luck, he pushed lightly on the door and felt it give way under his paw.

Slowly pushing on the door, he crouched as low as he could, opening the door enough to be able to see into what appeared to be the dry-cleaning room.

He wasn't sure why they needed a room for laundry and one for dry cleaning, but he supposed the dry-cleaning machines did take up much more room and judging by the racks of hotel staff uniforms, it was a way to keep the staff uniforms away from the regular laundry.

Unable to see where the wolf had gone, he eased himself into the room, intent on finding a uniform that would fit him and getting out so that he could start his search. He only had half an hour and he had stupidly believed that it would be enough time.

He guesstimated that he had spent just over ten minutes to get to this point and he had barely begun.

Freddy had thought it would be easy to get a uniform and snoop around, but he had discovered that it was much harder than movies and TV shows made it look.

Slinking further into the room he saw the chute used for the staff uniforms and the bin beneath it on the far wall. Three dry-cleaning machines stood to his right, while to his left, racks of uniforms and customer clothing zipped into hotel dry-cleaning bags sat, ready for delivery back to the rooms they had come from.

The bin that had been rolled in and the wolf were nowhere in the room.

His fur stood up on end as he fearfully glanced around.

Something wasn't right.

He stood in the open for a minute, a wave of confusion rolling through him before he shook his head to clear it.

There had to be another door he was missing, just like he hadn't noticed the door he had just entered through a moment ago.

He didn't want to psyche himself up because he was unobservant and had missed the door the wolf had gone through.

Eyes scanning the walls, he found a storage closet full of supplies, the doorway not quite big enough to fit the bin the wolf had been pushing.

Turning his attention to the wall where the dry-cleaning racks were located, his heart skipped a beat as he felt his adrenalin spike.

Dashing to the racks, he stared in shock at the customer dry-hanging bags that were neatly hung upon the movable racks. He hadn't paid much attention to the customer's dry-cleaning, more focused on the staff uniforms, but the tags that were clipped to the top of the hangers now garnered his full attention.

The tags were white, blending in with the white dry-cleaning garment bags, but they looked identical to the one Judy had gathered as evidence.

His heartbeat escalated, his blood rushing through his ears as he continued to stare at the round white tags with a black number stamped into the metal in the same font as the black one in the police evidence bag.

Noticing a second rack behind the one that had caught his attention, he climbed through the garment bags, standing in the space between the two racks. The garment bags on this rack were black, but he was unable to see the tags from his position. Reaching up and standing on his tip toes, he tried puling one garment bag down, but was too short. Huffing in annoyance, he leapt up trying to unhook one of the hangers but ended up knocking down five of the bags.

His blood ran cold.

Affixed to the top of the hangers were two red tags, one blue and two black, the last two exactly like the one Judy had in evidence.

Paws shaking, he remained rooted to the spot, the confirmation of the destination of the dry-cleaning from Howlett's shop on the day Judy and Nick had almost been killed sprawled out at his feet.

Indecision rode through him. He had the tags. He could take them and run out of the hotel right now and show Nick and Judy what he had found, but… That would only confirm what they already knew.

It wasn't enough evidence to get a warrant for the police to raid the hotel, he needed more.

That decided, he was about to move from his spot to continue his search for where the wolf and his bin had vanished when he heard the click of metal on metal almost like locks being slid into place.

A moment later, the hiss of hydraulics had him kneeling on the floor, trying to see what was going on.

Tucked down so close to the ground, all he was able to see was the bottom portion of the dry-cleaning machines, one of which looked to be moving to the left.

Unable to take his eyes away from the sight of the large machine sliding over to reveal a space beyond, he found himself creeping forward, around the far side of the rack to get a better view.

The bin that had been pushed into the room by the wolf rolled into view, and Freddy knew he needed to get into the room behind the machine.

The wolf turned his cart towards the door he had entered through and stopped, as if he was waiting for something.

Freddy glanced past the wolf and noted the red light above the door. The machine began to slide back into its previous position and Freddy understood that the doors in and out of the room were currently locked because the passage was visible.

He had a hunch that once the dry-cleaning machine slid fully back into place, the light was going to turn green and the wolf would be free to leave the room. It was tempting to see if he would be able to figure out how to make the machine move, but he had a feeling that if a key card was needed to get into the room when it was locked, then one was probably needed to access the passage.

He froze in indecision.

It was possible that there was nothing behind the dry-cleaning machine, but even he couldn't convince himself that this was in any way innocuous.

His window of opportunity was literally closing as he sat and debated with himself. The desire to run from this room and out of the hotel to let Judy and Nick know what he had found was so tempting. It was the safer, smarter option, but….

It would take time to get a warrant, to convince someone that having a super creepy secret passage in the basement was suspicious, and if he took a tag with him, there were issues with chain of custody and he could see a judge not giving them what they needed.

Finnick and who knew how many mammals were possibly being forced to fight to the death in there and held in who knew what kind of conditions, which meant that he couldn't just leave them there when he could have saved them.

Heart slamming against his ribs, his breathing unsteady, he watched the wolf staring intently at the light and paying no attention to the dry-cleaning machine that had nearly slid back into place.

He judged the distance, crouched down, and leapt forward with all of the strength and speed he possessed.

Making it through the opening, the machine missing his tail by less than an inch, he hit the ground hard and rolled twice before coming to a stop. Heart hammering in his head as he stared at the back of the machine, a card reader glowed red in the gloom of the empty niche he now found himself in.

For a moment he had been terrified that he wouldn't be able to make the leap, the thought of being crushed by the machine a decidedly unpleasant way to go, but he had made it and now he waited with bated breath to see if there would be a hue and cry of alarm.

Seconds ticked by that felt like small eternities as he stared at the back of the machine, noting, in a far-off corner of his mind that wasn't panicking over the thought of being caught, that it was not real. There were no vents, plugs, or wires, just a flat sheet of metal.

Positive he would burn a hole in the back of the fake machine with the intensity of his stare, he finally relaxed when it did not move again, indicating that his leap through the passage had gone unnoticed.

Able to breathe again after finding he had been holding his breath, he finally took note of the small antechamber he was crouched in.

It was empty save for himself and the key card reader. The walls were made of the same bricks that the rest of the basement was made of, though these ones were dull red in colour as opposed to the painted white of the laundry room.

He hopped forward, straining his ears, listening for any clue to tell him what was around the corner and found nothing but eerie silence.

Encountering a long, intermittently lit hallway with single bulbs hanging down from a cord, he swallowed roughly. There was no cover and no place to hide if someone entered the hallway.

Slinking down the hall, sticking to the wall and pressing himself into the shadows as much as he was able, he noticed that the hallway was devoid of any doors or any other connecting hallways but for the one at the end.

The silence continued to bother him, and he was trying not to think about the fact that he might actually be trapped in this place unless he was able to find a key card or another exit, one that didn't need a key card, but he did not hold out much hope for either of these.

The passage led to a T, and he had a choice of going right or left. Not having run into anyone, he listened and still heard nothing.

Both passages ended with a door at the end of them, but the one to the left had six boxes stacked outside of it.

Indecision caused him to remain where he had been crouched at the corner, and he had never been so thankful in his life that he hadn't been able to make a quick choice as the door to the left opened revealing a hippopotamus who walked out and picked up three of the boxes.

Ducking back, heart pounding at the thought that he had almost been caught, he listened to the hippopotamus as he spoke to someone in the room.

"Jimmy, get your tail out here and help me," the hippopotamus snapped in irritation.

"I was hired as a guard, not manual labour, that's your job," came the gruff reply of Jimmy.

Freddy's breath caught in his throat, his fur prickling with fear as he ran the words through his mind. A guard. Granted, he was beneath a hotel/casino, they had security everywhere, there were vaults with money, he wouldn't be surprised if there were guards hired to guard them, but the next words from Jimmy dispelled any uncertainties from his mind.

"Hey! You! Keep your snivelling down or I'll make sure you're the first one to end up in the Pit!"

Freddy heard it then, the faint, plaintive, terrified sob of a mammal, before they went silent.

"Hurry up, Neil," Jimmy ordered and Neil mumbled under his breath about unfairness, as he turned back into the room.

Hearing the door close, the grumbling of Neil abruptly cut off indicating that the room beyond had probably been soundproofed.

Peering around the corner again, Freddy studied the three remaining boxes, his mind flashing through various possibilities. Quickly dismissing hiding in the top box, he opted for the 'sneak in while they are distracted' tactic he had already used. Being small had its advantages and he was going to use every one he could get.

Neil exited through the door again and picked up the three remaining boxes. As Neil turned to go back into the room, Freddy darted out, remaining close upon the hippopotamus' heels.

Fortunately, Neil's rotund nature shielded him from view, unfortunately, it also shielded his own view of the room.

His other senses were less compromised, but it was the smell of too many furry bodies held together without adequate sanitation that assaulted his nostrils first that nearly caused him to gag as he halted his forward momentum.

Realizing he was leaving himself exposed, he ducked in behind an empty wooden packing crate.

He shuddered to think that this had been the instrument of travel for the wretched mammals that were currently being held in this room.

"Chow's up," Neil announced and Jimmy let out a huff of annoyance.

"You all know the drill," Jimmy's voice grated on Freddy's ears. "Any of you try anything, you don't even get a chance to survive."

Cautiously, Freddy eased himself around the crate trying to get a better view of the room.

Jimmy was a large Cape Buffalo who was standing between two rows of metal cages lined up against opposite walls.

The cages to Freddy's left appeared to be used for smaller mammals, three cages high by ten long, which totalled thirty, while the ones on the right were much larger; only a single row of ten.

Each cage had bars welded into a square pattern and were locked with a padlock.

Jimmy was currently unlocking each cage one at a time and allowing Neil to place a tray of food into the cage before relocking it.

Freddy was unable to determine how many of the cages were occupied, what mammals were housed within, and if Finnick was one of them, but he knew that he had no choice but to wait. He needed to get the key that Jimmy held and he had no idea if he was going to be able to accomplish this task.

Looking past the cages, he observed another set of doors, one of which was propped open, letting him see nothing more than another long, doorless hallway.

He wasn't sure where the hallway led, but it was possible that he would be able to find another way out, the way he had come in not being an option. He saw no key cards and even if Jimmy or Neil had key cards on them, there was no way he would be able to get…

Freddy blinked.

The mammals had been crated in here, which meant there was another exit.

Maybe even vehicles.

Freddy contemplated this revelation.

Help was not coming. He was on his own. Even if Nick and Judy came to find him, they never would.

Intently, he watched how many and which cages were opened.

He counted twenty-five on the left and three on the right.

Twenty-eight mammals were being held against their will in this room.

Fear, nausea, and apprehension churned in his stomach as his muscles began to cramp from holding himself in the same position.

Shifting slightly, his ears perked up when Neil spoke.

"Cages gonna be cleaned tonight?" Neil asked. "It's getting a little ripe in here," he complained as Jimmy clipped a set of keys to his belt.

"Supposed to, but the Pit events got cancelled, so that's a no," Jimmy explained.

"Why'd they get cancelled?" Neil asked in surprise. "We just got them back up and running these past two weeks!"

"Word has it a couple cops were snooping around today," Jimmy replied, walking over to a chair that had been set up at the far end of the room beside the door that had been propped open. Sitting down in the chair, he picked up a newspaper that had been placed on the floor beside it.

Seemingly unconcerned with the cancellation of whatever the 'Pit events' were, Jimmy gave a negligent shrug.

"Events are planned for tomorrow," Jimmy informed him. "Got a Black event going on tonight instead."

"Really?" Neil asked in interest. "Haven't had one of those this month. Which cage I gotta pull?"

Jimmy flipped the page in his newspaper, scanning the articles. "None," he answered. "They've got some kind of special event going on this time."

"What kind of special event?" Neil questioned.

"That's above my pay grade," Jimmy replied.

Neil gave Jimmy a withering glare. "That's…really? Usually these Black events take time to set up, and they just announced one this morning and you have no idea why and you didn't even try to find out?" he asked incredulously.

"Don't know, don't care," Jimmy replied offhandedly.

"Well, something must be going on for them to change things," Neil mumbled under his breath.

Jimmy gave another shrug before a grin spread across his face. "Since the Pit isn't going to be used tonight, they need it thoroughly cleaned."

Neil frowned, his shoulders slumping. "Well, that's just…perfect," he whined as Jimmy chuckled, turning the page of his newspaper like everything that was going on was the most normal thing in the world.

Freddy shuddered to think what the "Pit' was, but he could hear the capital letter and his stomach gave a heave of nausea at what it was being cleaned of.

He covered his mouth, swallowing down the bile as his mind provided him with very detailed images of the worst kind of horror it could imagine involving mammals ripping each other to pieces.

Closing his eyes didn't help.

His eyes snapped open the moment he heard Neil sigh, "Well, guess it isn't going to clean itself."

"Frank and Earl have been called in, they'll help," Jimmy informed the hippopotamus as he lumbered past the cages, and through the door Jimmy sat beside.

The sound of a walkie-talkie crackling and mumbled voices Freddy wasn't quite able to understand had him freezing in fear, wondering if he was about to be caught.

"'Kay," Jimmy said answering whatever had been said with the walkie-talkie he pulled off his hip.

"Frank and Earl are waiting," Jimmy informed Neil putting the walkie-talkie back on his belt.

Neil gave a grunt of acknowledgement, Jimmy never taking his eyes from the paper he was reading.

Eyeing the keyring hanging from Jimmy's belt, he hoped that Jimmy was the kind of complacent guard who liked to nap.

Freddy relaxed his stance and sat on the ground, prepared to wait for his chance to break the mammals free, no matter how long it took.


Judy opened her eyes, nothing but darkness greeting her sight. Wrinkling her nose in disgust at the smell of the bag that was still pulled over her head, she tried to get her bearings.

Her first instinct had been to call out for Nick, but realized that this would do nothing but reveal that she was awake to her captors and not gain Nick's attention, no matter how much she wished to.

She was on her side, arms bound behind her back, ankles tied together, lying in the back of what felt like a moving vehicle, most likely the van she had glimpsed briefly before her world had gone black.

Unable to smell anything beyond the stench of the black bag, she couldn't detect Nick's scent.

Listening intently, she tried to determine if Nick was with her, fear momentarily spiking through her at the thought that she was alone, or that they had done something horrible to him.

Heavy breathing alerted her to another presence and a moment later she recognized the tone of Nick's soft groan, indicating he had most likely just woken up.

Desperately wanting to call to him and ask him if he was okay, knowing that he had been in severe pain and clutching the left side of his head before they had been abducted, she contented herself with acknowledging that he was alive and they were together.

Shifting slightly as the vehicle they were in lurched around a corner, she rolled herself into Nick's side.

Nick stiffened and then relaxed, recognizing her.

Fearing Nick would say something, she was surprised when he continued to remain silent, apparently realizing that playing possum was their best bet for gathering information at the moment.

Several turns later, Judy was comfortable enough to conclude that she and Nick were alone in the back of the van being taken to who knew where.

Allowing herself to struggle against her bonds, she cursed that they had used a rope of some sort that had no give to it.

Realizing she was getting nowhere with her own bonds, she wondered if either of them would be able to untie each other's.

Inching her way closer to Nick, she tried to climb over him, as they were both facing each other.

Nick questioned her, his voice soft and rough, but before she could complete her movement, the van suddenly rolled to a halt.

Freezing, Judy flopped off of Nick and pretended she was still unconscious.

A moment later, the sound of the van door opening clawed across her eardrums, panic filling her even as she tried to quell it, forcing herself to calm down, relax, and find out as much information as she could so they could both make it out alive.

"They still out?" a high, nasally voice drifted to her ears.

"Doubt it," answered another in a low, smooth tone. "Doesn't matter though."

Rough paws grabbed her foot, pulling her across the floor of the van. She tried to keep herself as limp as she could, determined to fool them into thinking she was still unconscious and do her best to land a debilitating blow against her captors.

The gun suddenly placed against her temple caused her to tense. "One move, bunny, and I shoot your partner in the knee. Move again and the next bullet goes in the other one," a male voice warned in a silky voice that sent a shiver of unease sliding down her spine. "There are so many places I can shoot him where he won't die, but the pain will be agonizing and he will be crippled for life. Not that it matters since neither of you are walking out of this alive, but still. It depends how much you want him to suffer before he dies."

Judy immediately complied.

"Good choice," the voice mused.

She was slung over a lithe shoulder and she lay limply, making nothing more than a grunt when after a few minutes of walking, she was tossed unceremoniously into what she assumed was a metal cage, the door closing and locking with a heart-dropping click.

Nick was not with her, this much she knew, but she heard the sound of a second cage door closing and being locked and could take comfort in the knowledge that though separated, they were still together, and although she had no idea what was going on or who had kitnapped them, she wasn't about to give up.

They were going to survive whatever was in store for them.


Eeep!

I know, cliffie #2...

Not a ton of Nick and Judy in this chapter, but stay tuned!