Chapter :19 Under Cover
We set up a rough sketch with the ZCIA and our lieutenant before the day is out. We can feel dad down the hall, his rage is less, but still active. We all walk home and dad just keeps staring at us, he has simmered down a bit, but he is still plenty hostile. Supper is eaten in relative silence, all of us can fell dad's hostility, but most are not sure who he's mad at. We ask our family and all our siblings and littermates to stay. "Family, Susan and I need to call a family meeting, we are doing something at work that needs all of your help". Dad's ears perk up. Susan and I explain what we need to do and ask for input from everyone. Some make jokes but most have constructive ideas to contribute. We decide on some ideas, and throw out others. Dad sits and listens to it all, he contributes some ideas as well, we haven't won him over, but it's a start. Our daughter is not happy, but understands what we are trying to do.
We spend a week tying up lose ends as best we can, dad finally agreed to help us, only if he was involved. We told him we wouldn't have it any other way. It took another week for this to come to a head. In the bull pen on Monday, chief Bogo comes in, in a towering rage. "All right you two what have you got to say for yourselves"? He says this looking straight at Susan and I. "Sir, what did we do"? "Oh, your going to play dumb, are you? Two weeks unpaid suspension, now get out of my sight". "Sir, what have we done"? "Really, you want to air your dirty laundry in the bull pen"? "GET OUT", he yells. "Fine chief, we didn't want to work under you anyway". We say this as we both take our badges off and throw them on the table. "WE quit". With out another word we get down and head out the door. The whole bull pen is in shock. The Wolford's most of all. We clean out our lockers, and storm out the entrance not even saying goodbye to Clawhauser.
Mom and dad stop by the front desk to say goodnight to Clawhauser. "So, what happened today Nick"? Nick deflates a bit, Sorry spots, it's classified, but Daniel and Susan have hurt us deeply, we are going to throw them out of the house when we get home". "I'm sorry Nick, Judy maybe they can apologize for what they did"? "They could apologize, but it won't erase what they did. Going home now spots, see you in the morning". Clawhauser could see and feel how Nick felt, and he was a little down for him.
Mom and dad come in the house, in a state of anticipation. "Are you sure you want to do this Son, Daughter"? "We have to dad if for nothing else than to bring closure to the families of the missing". "All right we are behind you, but don't do anything foolish". "Everything we do from this point is foolish". We get Izzy to help us with our disguises.
Izzy adds fat globules to the tips of my ears, from other parts of my body. This gives me the appearance of having frozen the tips of my ears off. She adds several knife scars to my body, this simulates the fact I've been on the streets for a while. She adds a fake bullet hole in my shoulder blade. I lock my wrist in an odd angle, this simulates having broken it, and not seeking medical attention for it. How could a street fox afford the hospital? Susan gets a scar across her larynx, and a scar across her right eye lid and cheek. Susan locked her eye to a pinprick of her iris. This adds the appearance of a damaged eye. Her ears are dyed black to about halfway down, this covers the spot in her ear. Early in the morning, we change into some weathered and dirty clothes, and grabbing some ratty back packs head down the emergency stairs to the court yard. We crawl under the juniper tree and pulling a ratty blanket out from one back pack, curl up under it pretending to sleep.
Mom and dad arrest us in the morning and have us charged with break and enter, and trespassing. They walk us to the holding cells, when Susan goes into seizures as they separate us. "Sir put her back with me, her seizures will stop". This is highly irregular, but they do it anyway, Susan stops the seizure as soon as her paw is in mine. It takes most of the day for all our false records to come out. Mavis had done a great job on a rap sheet for me, and a medical file for Susan. They grilled me, for hours about Susan, she just sat there in silence making the occasional noise. According to the medical file, her voice box was damaged in an assault on her, and she couldn't speak, she had also received a head injury and they thought this is why she appeared to be a little addled. "She has glommed onto me when I found her, and has not let me go since", I told them. Our life conditions were probably why the O'Hare's did something good for us.
The next morning our arresting officers came to us. "Well you two I have some good news for you, the O'Hare's have decided not to press charges for the break and enter or the trespassing charges". "So. what does that mean for Jessica and I"? "Well Thomas, it means that your free to go, but…" "There's always a but". "No, this one is a good one, the O'Hare's are branching out, and they were wondering if you would be willing to work for them"? "Right, when something goes wrong, and it will, I'll be blamed for it, and find myself back in here". "No, it's not like that, they are starting a low-income rental apartment, and they need some cleaners. You would have a small room, and a stipend as long as you clean the building".
I deflate a bit, "We can do that but we drink a bit, and I like to drink and I'm not ready to quit Drinking". "Well, I'm not supposed to tell you about a certain club down town, but they do offer free drinks". "What do we have to do to get the free drinks"? "You will have to "preform" for the club". "What kind of performance"? Ah, you will have to preform a sex act with Jessica". "I'm sorry I didn't hear you, could you repeat that"? "You will have to preform a sex act with Jessica, It's a voyeurs club". I look at Jessica and she just nods yes. "Alright we'll do it, and thanks for the extra info". "Good my son and daughter here will explain your duties and take you two to the complex". With that Terry and Cindy come to the cells, and lead us to processing. We're given our stuff back, and we all head out the door.
They take us to the supercentre and buy us some clothes, and then take us to the complex. "Now this is where you will live". She opens the door to a small one-bedroom apartment. We marvel at our luck. "Can I ask you, are Terry and you a couple"? "Very astute of you, yes we are. Terry here bought the whole complex, and this is the start of accommodations for the workers. The factory just over there, is where we manufacture some small things, if you like, later you can apply to work there". After Terry and Cindy leave, we meet the building supervisor, and he immediately takes a dislike to me. "All right you two you now have your chance don't screw it up. Your work begins after the workers leave for the day. Go get some sleep, you will need it for tonight".
We get up after the workers leave for the day, the work we are doing is not hard, just very repetitive. We are tired by the end of it, I think we are going to up our exercise level, we both have a new respect for Miss Watts, and all the people that work for the family in this capacity. We get the weekends off, as there is no work going on in the complex on weekends. We had received our stipend for the work we preformed, it wasn't much by our normal standards, but we were still playing our part. We went to the grocery store and bought ourselves enough food for the next week, and saved enough for the entrance fee for the club. By Saturday we are ready for the club.
We walk to the club, and get into the couple's line. When we get to the door, we are let in by a wolf dressed in black, he just says, "This way". He leads us to a small office with a white wolf behind the desk. "You two are new, do you realise what you are getting yourself into"? "Yes sir, we believe we do". "What about you, young lady"? "I'm sorry sir, she doesn't speak". "And why is that"? "Sir, she was attacked, and she received a head injury, and had her throat cut". I reach for her neck choker, and Jessica bats my paw away. "It's all right love they need to see". She relents and allows me to remove the choker. Both wolves gasp at the injury. "Will her injury stop us sir"? "No, we don't care about looks, just that you can "perform". I put the neck choker back on, and she hugs me. "Names please". "I'm Thomas Lasseter and my mate is Jessica, not sure that's her real name, but it is the one that appears on her medical file". "How did you see her medical file"? I blush a bit. "We were arrested a week ago, but the charges were dropped, and when the cops questioned us, they threw her file on the table as well as mine, so I got a look at it then". "All right, we charge an entrance fee of one-hundred and fifty dollars, but you will get it back when you leave out the exit. If you don't leave out the exit, we keep your entrance fee, is that acceptable"? For an answer, I just lay the money down. He smiles at us, as he sweeps the money into the desk.
We enter the club, and are blown away by the lights and sound, and keeping in character head for the bar. We down two drinks in quick succession, and take the third ones to the dance floor. We dance for a bit, and when we are winded, get two more drinks and sit at a table for two. We spend the next hour this way, if it wasn't for our metabolism, we would have passed out a long time ago, one couple did and were gently taken out of the club. The light turns green over the door upstairs, and as no one else heads for it, Jessica and I do.
We go up the stairs and down the hall to the room with the green light we are both nervous, but we are doing this for the missing, and this firms up our resolve. It's a very bright room with a fancy bed, bathroom facilities, and a clothes hanger system on the back of the door, to hang our clothes on. everything is glass and mirrors, so there is an unobstructed view from anywhere in the room. The walls are all one-way mirrors, and we can feel about twenty people behind the mirrors. We put on a show getting undressed, use the facilities, and put on our "Performance", which lasted about an hour. At the end of our performance we could tell the room behind the glass was packed. We had been projecting our emotions, and the people behind the glass could feel everything.
When we finally separate, we use the shower, and getting dressed leave the room through another door. We walk down the hall to the exit. A bobcat is waiting, and he smiles at us. "The management wish you two a good night, and hopes you will come back soon". He hands an envelope to us with our money in it. We walk home to the complex. We were sure our "performance" was appreciated.
"Sir we have another couple". "What do you mean another"? "Sir, their "performance" was second to none. They started with the usual amount but by the end, they had everyone". "Everyone"? "Yes sir, everyone. Roger on the desk ran a quick check on them, and their story seems to check out". "Well check them out further, I want to know if they are ZCIA ". "Sir, they can't be, the only mixed couple working for the ZCIA are a bunny and a vixen". "What about the ZPD"? "Sir, the only bunny fox combo are Nick and Judy Wilde, these two were not them. Though they are a fox and rabbit. She's a hare, and he's a fox with ear damage. He has many scars on his body, and so does she. We had them followed and found they are the new cleaners for the Wilde industrial complex. "All right check into them further, and let me know what you find". "Yes sir, you think "Mister" would be interested in them"? "Could be, but I want more info before we commit". "Very good sir".
We work the next week, and I tell everyone how great it is working here. Some of the staff start to warm up to us. By Friday we are ready for the week to end. The next floor is now finished, and a few of the new tenants have moved in. A lot of the new tenants are foxes, and some of the others discriminated against in society. Racoons, bobcats, weasels, and a sand fox. As we clean, some of them come out into the hall to greet us. We Make a few friends. Saturday rolls around and we head for the club again.
We are greeted warmly as we enter. We follow the same routine as last week; we even drink a bit more than last week. When we went upstairs to "preform", we could feel the excitement from behind the mirrors. We varied our "performance" and end with a shower scene. We scan the room and find one individual not there for the act. His feelings say judgement. We finish and getting dressed head out the door for home.
Later in the week we give the signal to our watchers, and they jump into action. Saturday night we again are warmly welcomed into the club. Our "performance" again was top notch, and we could feel everyone appreciating it. The same judgemental fellow was there, but he also had a satisfied felling as well. We leave and are walking down the street, when we are tranked, I can see a white van as I pass out.
A few blocks away, Skye Steps out into the street, the van comes to a screeching halt. Skye walks slowly across; they can see she is heavily pregnant. Jack slips from concealment from behind some garbage cans. He falls to his knees and attaches a tracker to the van. As they could hear something out back, the lion looks, and seeing a drunk rabbit with a bottle stager down the street, writes it off. As Skye gets far enough along, they hit the accelerator.
Skye and jack hurry over to the surveillance van, and crawl in, well Skye crawls in. Jack just hops in, and helps Skye in. Steve, DeDe, and Howard are in charge of the surveillance van. They follow the white van with the jam cams. The van they're in, pulls out and slowly follows the white van. They are about two-minutes behind it. Mom and dad are also shadowing the white van, the tracker is singing loud and clear to them all. We are driven a ways out of the city, about three-quarters of an hour out, on a lonely stretch of road, the strange happens, the tracker goes silent as we go through a tunnel and doesn't appear on the other side.
Everything kicks into high gear, and the tunnel is searched thoroughly. No trace of the van or contents (us) is found. The incriminations start shortly after that, between the ZPD and the ZCIA. Dad is leading the charge, but mom is not far behind. Still our cover is not blown, our friends and family keep a lid on it. We eventually came around, the sedative they used was different from normal, and it took us longer to burn through it. When we come to, we try to contact our littermates but all we can get is some white noise. What has happened? We look around and find we are in a kind of cell. We look out the bars and can see more cells like ours, and the two closest ones have mammals we recognize from the missing files.