Chapter 35:

We have gone savage in the isolation cell; well, primal might be a better word. There are three things on a feral animal's mind. Eat, sleep, and mate. Because of who we are, we were hard on the whole precinct. We are projecting empaths. They could feel when we were going at it. Most made excuses to be anywhere else other than the precinct at those times. After the first day, dad, mom, and Bonnie came to see us. Bonnie holding a ball, was allowed to look in the port of the door. "See Bonnie, they're fine," said dad holding Bonnie up. I was curled around Susan with my eyes watching the door. Bonnie dropped the ball in the cell and, bouncing out of dad's arms, comes into the cell through the observation port. "Bonnie," screams Nick. I bound over to her and pin her to the ground growling at her. Dad fumbles to get his trank gun out as I growl at her. But my growling stops as her scent hits me, "Daughter," my mind says. I stop growling and sniff harder at her. Dad waits with his gun drawn and just watches me. I roll her over, pick her up by the scruff of her neck, and take her to our nest of blankets, and plunk her down in her mother's lap. Susan sniffs at her and starts to lick the top of her head.

"That was a stupid thing to do, Bonnie. A savage predator might have ripped you apart," says dad. "I know grandpa, but I trust my parents, but this head licking thing is kind of annoying." Dad lets out with a nervous laugh, "Alright, you've seen them, time to leave." Bonnie gets up to leave, but I stop her. I stand between her and the door. Every time she tries to go for the door, I block her and herd her back to her mother. "Guess I'm stuck here, grandpa; dad won't let me leave." "Alright, we'll leave you there for now, but you know your father's not going to be happy you did this." "Yes, I can see that, but I just missed them so much." "One day, that just might get you into trouble, granddaughter." "It might, but for now, I just love the attention." Nick shakes his head as he closes the observation port. Because of Bonnie being there, Susan and I stopped the mating. I guess the primal response was for procreation, not mating per se.

We started to come around to ourselves by the beginning of the third day. Bonnie was playing ball in the corner by herself when I rushed in, snatched the ball out of the air, and ran to the other corner. I shook my head from side to side, worrying the ball. Bonnie laughed as I walked back over to her and dropped the ball at her paws. She picks it back up, and I crouch down, wag my tail from side to side, waiting for her to throw it. She throws the ball high, and I jump to get it. We play like this for a couple of hours when we both get tired and fall asleep. By the end of the day, Susan and I are standing on our hind paws.

Early the next morning, I'm feeling a little randy, and I lick Susan's ears. I freeze as there is a small movement between us. Bonnie? How did she get in here with us? I have a vague recollection of her coming in, but I can fully remember the ball play yesterday. I move a little bit away to look at her; she's sleeping peacefully when I lick up the side of her body to the top of her head. "Ehww, dad." She rubs her head, where I licked her. I just laugh. "Dad,"? "Yes, daughter, that was a foolish thing you did." "Yes, dad, it was, but when I couldn't sense you and mom, I thought you were gone." Bonnie starts to cry. "I'll make you a promise, little love, if at anytime your mother and I are going to leave, we will come and say goodbye to you first, "Deal"? "Deal, dad, and thanks."

Susan turns to her and licks her as well, "MooOoom" Susan and I laugh. Later Mike shoves our meal under the door, "Hey Mike, the room service here sucks." "The observation port slams open, "what did you say"? "I said the room service here sucks. Can I at least get a coffee"? "Glad to have you back, Daniel Susan. I'll get you coffee and let everyone know you are back". "Have we been away on a trip Mike"? "Yes, you were, and it was hard on the whole precinct." "How do you mean"? "Not my place to say, but I'm sure the Chief wants to tear you guys a new one. Sit tight; Hofmeyr will want blood samples before we open the door". "Where are we going to go, Mike"? He shakes his head as he walks away. We continue to eat breakfast. He comes back about ten minutes later and passes us coffees. Ugh, cafeteria coffee, oh well, we'll make do. Bobby shows up about twenty minutes later and takes blood samples from us. We stick our arms out of the food port so he can do this. About a half-hour later, the cell door clicks open.

Grandma comes to the precinct to take charge of Bonnie; Susan has her in the shower with her; we were all a little ripe. Dad and Mom had brought clothes for Bonnie and spare uniforms for Susan and me. Once showered, we come out into the hall, hug grandma, kiss Bonnie and head for the Chief's office. Mike was right. It was an ass chewing. "Emptying his precinct with thoughts of sex." We apologized, but we knew he was having fun with us. The chewing out was for the benefit of the bug in his office. We wrote what we wanted to say on paper. He wants us to find the culprit who placed the bug. Rick's countermeasures told him it was there, and when it was activated.

"Alright, enough of that, your meeting with I.A. is for one-o'clock; get out of my office tell then." "Yes, sir." We leave and head up to the cold case office. As we unlock the door, we find Rick's countermeasures flashing at us. We have a bug in our office too. "Mavis, would you like a coffee"? "I'd love one, Daniel." "Two creams, one sugar"? "No, I'll think I'll take it black today" "Right on the way." We turn on our computers and the coffee pot and wait for Mavis to get back to us.

"Daniel, it's safe now; that bug is new and a very advanced design; there is a camera too, but both have been neutralized for now." "How new a design"? "It's almost as good as Rick's design, but it only uses binary computer language." "Can you tell us who placed the bugs in the precinct"? "I can; it was the night cleaners." "Where do the bugs report to"? "About four blocks away, according to the jam cams, it's a white van." We get mom and dad's attention, speak to them non-verbally, and tell them about the bugs. They get hard and agree to meet us a few blocks away. They have guns. We don't at this moment.

We reach into the bottom of the filing cabinet and taking out a belt and leg holster. We put the belt on and tie the holster to our legs on our left side. We then pull out our new "Weapon" and strap them to the holster. As we walk across the lobby, Clawhauser and other officers see us and the strange weapons, but before they can ask, we are out the door. We then leave the precinct and meet mom and dad about a block from the van. We all start to walk over to the van.

We see Ralph and Victor approach the van. They had been on patrol and noticed it was parked there for about half a day, in a thirty-minute zone. We are half a block away as Ralph knocks on the driver's window. The window rolls down, and Ralph is tranked. The passenger side door is flung open, and Victor is tranked as well. The four of us start to run towards the van. The motor starts up, and it's put in gear. But it doesn't have a chance to go anywhere. Susan and I, when it started up, put power blocks in front of the front wheels. Mom and dad pulled their guns, and dad tranked the driver while mom tranks the passenger. The back doors are flung open, and a cheetah jumps out and takes off. Why does it have to be a cheetah?

He's fast down on all fours. We grab our weapons as he runs towards us, and twirling them around our heads; we line up our shots; he's passed us before mom and dad can point their guns at him. We then throw them at his legs. Our timing was perfect, my "Bolas" connect with his front legs, and Susan connected with his back legs. He hits the pavement hard and rolls to a stop. He starts to struggle right away; as we run-up, I shout, "Stop struggling, sir, or you will be tranked." Mom and dad had run up by this time. I untangle his front arms and sit him up; Susan then cuffs him. I untangle his back legs and hand Susan back her Bolas.

"Well, son, daughter, you are full of surprises today; where did you get those"? he asks as he puts his gun away. "They are based on ancient weapon design. William had made them for us; they were used by the indigenous population of the southern continent for hunting game". "How old is this design"? "Well, all the information we could find about them says they were in use before recorded history. (we didn't tell him it was humans out hunting animals for food). William upgraded the design a bit. The originals had three stones on three one-meter ropes, but that was too cumbersome and the ropes tangled to easily, so he made it out of titanium balls and a retractable carbon fiber rope". "May I see it"? I hand it to dad, he looks it over, pulls on a ball, and lets it snap back. He then goes to twirl it over his head, "Don't dad, you could give yourself a concussion with one of the balls. It's not an easy weapon to learn. Susan and I spent many Sundays down at the plant learning these weapons. We came close to braining ourselves many times". He thinks for a minute and hands them back. I guess he is learning. "can you teach me"? dad asks. "Sure, dad, William can make more of them. They are very personalized. The weight and the length of the ropes".

We walk the perp back to the van and call for a wagon. We go in and look at the equipment. Rick, in the back of our minds, looks over the equipment. Kaylee shows up a few minutes later and shuts down the transmitter, but only after we find out where it's transmitting to. We're not happy, and neither is the Chief when he finds out it was communicating to the F.I.B.'s headquarters (Federal Investigations Bureau). We seize the van and lock up the personal.

Later in the day, the Chief has a scat storm in his office, talking to the F.I.B.; we're not privy to what is said, but the whole precinct can hear the chief tying into the representative of the F.I.B. Susan, and I have the same kind of storm in the office of I.A. They watch the body cams of our new "Weapons," but they can see the merit in the new weapons. There is no need to tackle a perp and get into a scuffle. But the weapons are limited to open spaces, with little in the way of crowds. They confiscate them to study them. We warn them of how dangerous they are and say we will demonstrate them if they want.

We then go over the incident in the square. We spend the rest of the afternoon doing that. At the end of the shift, we are handed our guns back but told by the Chief we can't leave the office till he has our report in front of him. We groan but go and do as he askes. We get home at about eight PM. William is all over us, asking about the new weapons. We hand him a copy of our body cams; he takes it with glee and heads for the office to watch it on Terry's computer with him.

The next day we take one of Rick's new detectors around and remove all the bugs. The Chief then asks us to go around to all the precincts and remove all the listening devices. We paw all that work off onto Rick. The Chief agrees, and Rick is signed onto the precinct as a consultant. It takes about a month for Rick to do all the precincts, and he comes back to the Chief with a box with five-pounds of listening and video devices in it. To say the Chief is floored is an understatement. The Chief then gets on the horn to the procurement department about Rick's countermeasures and asks them to look into buying them. He does this very strongly.

After pawning the work onto Rick, we go back to our office to find a representative from the treasury department waiting for us in our office, "good morning officers, I'm Jay Winger, and I was informed you two were the ones to talk too, about some funny money." "good morning to you Jay, I'm Daniel Wilde, and my partner is Susan Wilde; what kind of money are you talking about"? "Well, I was hoping you could tell me; I have two bills here with the same serial number. They are both real bills, but they have the same serial number". "Is one of them counterfeit, sir"? "Not as far as we can tell. They are both real monies. We are thinking one of them has been altered, but we can't see it or tell you how it was done". Susan and I look at the bills with power. There is a faint glow coming from one of them. "I believe Jay, that the bill in your left paw is the altered one, but let's take it down to the lab and look at it under the electron microscope." "We tried that, but could see nothing. My left paw? how can you tell"? "sorry sir, it's classified, but you may be able to see what we see with a color filter on the microscope."

We all head down to Bobby's lab and ask to use the microscope. He takes us over and flips the switch to warm it up. We place the bill in question onto the plate and look at it. Jay was right. It looked real even under magnification. We then flip through all the colored lenses. When we get to the green one, the bill lights up like a Christmas tree. We can see the faint outline of the original serial number. We take a screenshot of the bill. We remove the bill and, thanking Bobby, head back for our office. We lock the door and, firing up our computers, pull up the bill in question. I hit the key to get Mavis helping us. Jay, through it, all watches and says nothing. After about five minutes, we have the number of the original bill. On a hunch, we run it against all the bills from the bank robberies. We get a hit to the first robbery.

"Wow, you two are amazing, like wow… such teamwork, you are wasted here, care to come work for us"? We laugh, "We have heard that before from the , and we'll tell you what we told them; we're happy where we are at and won't be leaving, but all you have to do is ask for our help, and we will give it." "So, what should we do with this money"? "I suggest you leave it in circulation. It is real money after all". "But that will cause a headache for the accounting department." "Maybe, but the guy who did this is on the top of our list for apprehension, and if he thinks he got away with it, he has another think coming, where was that bill found"?

"It was found in the Kay Ram Islands it was part of a deposit, the bank that got it, sent us all the information and the bills, we sent them back the same denominations." "Can we have that information, please"? Jay reaches into his briefcase and hands us the info. "Can you catch this guy soon? We don't need fifteen- million in duplicate bills". "We are doing our best, Jay, but it could be a bit yet." "After watching you two in action, I would have to say you will catch him sooner than later. Well, it's been a pleasure meeting you both, and I hope we will work together again". He gives us a two-finger salute as he heads out the door and locks it behind him.

We talk to William, and the three of us agree a replicator could do this, but when did Carl have time to make a new replicator? A light bulb goes off in our heads; we cut the connection with Willian and relax, separate ourselves, and head for Carl's old complex. We get there and see the whole thing has been hit hard by the lava. But it has had a long time to cool off, and yes, Carl is back in business in his complex. There is no shield this time, but we go incautiously. Carl has repaired most of his complex, and he has a few people in the complex with him. All the robots are gone, were they deactivated? We hear a slight murmur coming from the speaker system. We follow the wires to the control room. The room had survived, the lave did not get through the door, but neither did Carl at the moment. Did he want to get to Mavis? He is very vengeful, after all. We could see Mavis was operating at a reduced capacity and power level. We touch her case to talk to her. We are thrown back with an electrical like discharge; an alarm goes off in the complex. We flee back to our bodies.

It takes a bit for us to come around; dad is pounding on the door as I stager to my feet. I open the door and start to fall over. Dad grabs me, and steering me back to my chair, makes me sit down. Susan and I pass out in our chairs. We come back to ourselves in a hospital bed. Susan and I are together, and our parents are asleep in the chair next to our bed. I reach for the water, and I share it with Susan (she gets the lion's share). I reach over and stroke dad's head. He snaps awake, which wakes mom up as well. "Damn it, you two, don't scare us like that; what happened"? "We found Carl dad, but you're not going to like it, he's back in his complex, and he has a way of detecting us in our astral forms. He hit us with a new kind of defensive weapon. It kind of blew our minds". "Yes, I can see that you have been out for thirty-six hours now; how are you feeling"? "Like we have been dragged through a key-hole backward, we need some food and a bit more sleep."

Dad pushes the call button, and a nurse comes in a few seconds later. "Oh, it's good to see you awake; I'll get the doctor." With that, she heads out the door again. I grab mom and put her between Susan and me. She lets out with a Squeak as I pick her up but settles between us and starts to cry. Dad just crawls in beside me and acts stoic, but he is crying tears of relief silently. The doctor comes in a few minutes later and checks us out. He gives us a clean bill of health but won't release us tell the morning shift. Susan and I fall back to sleep after some toast and tea. Mom and dad head for home after hugging us one more time.

The next morning, we get a clean bill of health from the doctor on duty; mom and dad come in a few minutes later with our spare uniforms; the old ones had been cut off in the emergency room. Wonder if the Chief would get upset if we had custom police uniforms made? We then all walk to the precinct. It's only ten blocks away. We stop at Molly's for breakfast. It tastes divine.

Clawhauser squeals at us as he rushes around the desk and hugs us both. I can hear my bones creak with the hug. "Younger Wilde's, my office now." "While I appreciate the sentiments Clawhauser, the chief is calling us." "Oh, right, right, can't keep the chief waiting now, can we"? He lets us go and heads back behind his desk as we head for the Chief's office.

"Morning chief, how's our favorite buffalo this morning"? He's about to respond when a look comes over his face. He just motions us to come in and sit down. "So, what would you like to tell me what happened two days ago"? "Well, it's like this chief….". "Spare me the theatrics. I already have a headache". "Right Chief, sorry, what happened is we found Carl, and he hit us with some sort of new weapon. This caused a sensory overload on our part. If it had been anyone else, it would have probably killed them, as it was, it was close for us". "You said he was dangerous; now I can see how dangerous he is. I WANT HIM CAUGHT, AND BEHIND BARS". "We will, sir, but we need to approach him cautiously. We don't know what this weapon will do to a normal individual".

"What, you're not normal"? he smiles at us and hides a silent laugh. "Well, as normal as we can be." "Right, going up the outside of a fire escape, how is that normal"? "I was under the influence of night howler at the time; it was the night howler." "Yes, that's the cover story we used, but I know it's not the truth. Do you remember what I said to you on your first day of patrol"? "Ah, not really, sir." "I asked you if this was to be normal for you two and hoped it wasn't, as I didn't need the headache. But I see it is; that's why this bottle of aspirin". The Chief holds out an elephant size bottle of aspirin. We can see it's half empty already. "Alright, I need you to plan how to get this Carl, I don't care how just do it." "Yes, sir, but now that he has been alerted to us, I'm sure he has moved again." "Don't care, just find him." "Yes sir." We get up and leave his office.

We work for the rest of the day in our office; no patrols today. Our minds still don't feel right. We come into the house at the end of the shift and head for the hot tub. Our daughter bounds down the stairs and greets us with her tears as we step off the elevator. We all strip down and get into the hot tub. Our daughter floats in Infront of us, keeping an eye on us. We kiss in front of her, and she splashes us with water. Before she can get away, we grab her and, standing up, throw her high in the air towards the pool. She screams with joy doing a few flips and does a perfect dive into the pool. Her shriek as she surfaced was loud enough to break the glass. We join her in the pool for a family romp.

At supper, Elisabeth and John pull us into a hug, "You think you and Susan can stay awake long enough to see John and I marry? We would like you to be there". When is it sis"? This Saturday same place and time as you two". "Baring an event of biblical proportions, we will be there." "Ah, what's a bible"? "Ask Mavis she can let you read it some time." "I will, so Susan, will you be my maid of Honor"? "I'd love to Elisabeth if your sure"? "I'm sure." Susan hugs Elisabeth. "Daniel, I would like you to be my best man, will you"? Asked John. "I'd love to, John, but don't think I'm planning a bachelor party for you; you're not old enough to drink."

"Sure, I am; Elisabeth and I have the same designate as the rest of you do. We were raised to an adult status like you two. They have simplified the procedure down at city hall. Once you have your G.E.D., you just have to fill out a questionnaire, a five hundred question questionnaire. If you pass, you are elevated. I was led to believe there are over five hundred kits now elevated to adult status". "Wow, I didn't know; look what we started, love," I say as I hug Susan; we then kiss. When we come up for air, we find Elisabeth and John doing the same thing.

The next morning at the precinct, we are handed back our bolas. We have been informed the bolas were the same as a trank gun. Draw the bolas, get an investigation. We nod yes, and strap the bola holster on to our left hips. We now have a weapon on both hips. The Chief asks for a demonstration of this new "Weapon," Ralph agrees to be our victim… I mean our perp. Ralph runs across the gym; we get him just as he hits the mats. The Chief is impressed, but he can see the weapon's limitations but feels the benefits outweigh the cost. We get the green light to wear them and use them if necessary.

We scout around Carl's complex; we are very Leary of entering again. We just watch, but nothing happens. Has he gone already? Our minds still don't feel right, well, to be honest, we are scared. We return to the precinct and continue to work in our office.

Mom and dad handled the interrogation of Doug and his brothers. They called us in for help. They move to observation, and we go to see Doug. His lawyer is a public defender as he has no money. "So, Doug, where have you been for the last eleven years"? "Who cares? You're not asking the right question". And what's the right question"? "Well, that's the question, isn't it." He sits back with a smug look on his face. "We smile at him and ask the question. "So, what did Carl offer you for your cooperation"? he gets a shocked look on his face and leans in to talk to his lawyer.

He sits back up, "what are you offering me in exchange for my testimony"? we smile at him, "Nothing, Doug, you pulled the trigger in the square, and I'm sure we can get your brothers to testify against you. We are done here". We stand up to leave, "WAIT, can the charges be lessened if I tell you"? "Sorry, Doug, you have two-night howler incidents hanging over your head. You were the shooter in both". We continue to walk towards the door. "Ok, if you lessen the latest one, I'll tell you." We turn around and sit back down.

"So, about a year ago, this strange lion found us hiding out in the wilderness of Bunny Burrow. We tried to run, but he tranked us all with the gun I used. That gun was amazing, it made mine look like junk, but I was attached to mine. Anyway, he took us to some sort of underground complex. Not sure where it is, we were never allowed to leave the complex. He fed us, had us groomed, and he trained me on this new gun. When I got good, he wanted us to create a diversion for him. He said we could ask for money from the Z.P.D.".

"Do you know what you were the diversion for"? "No, but he did let us go and gave us a date for the diversion. It was to be in two weeks from yesterday. We were planning to extend the night howler incidents tell then, but when you released Bellwether, we jumped at the chance to get her back. We wanted a little revenge as well". "You know Doug; we were not ever going to release Bellwether; you had to know that." he gets a shocked look on his face, "but that's who was at the table with you." "Sorry Doug, that was an undercover cop, her name is Mary Jane from precinct-eighteen." Doug deflates a bit, "you need to protect me, this Lion is dangerous, and I'm sure he will come after me." "He can't get to you here, Doug; the precinct is very secure." He will get to me; I'm a dead mammal." He starts to cry as he curls into a woolly ball. We left him at this point.

Jesse and Wolther have nothing new to add to the story. We don't have much to charge them with, procurement of night howler, and aiding and abetting a terrorist crime. All charges carried a maximum jail term of eleven years. If they had gone to trial back then, they would be out now. They were put into the same holding cell to await transport to a prison cell.

Later that day, we lost them all, a small disruptor bomb went off on the bus, we lost the Ramses and three corrections officers. The bus just vanished in a puff of powder. If not for the other traffic on the road, we would not have known what happened to the bus. We rushed to the scene but found nothing. We took more samples for William. We collected as much powder as we could to give to the families of the lost officers. We wished we could do more for them. We told the families of the officers; it was a new incendiary bomb. They were not happy, but they had something to bury. Carl was upping the ante.