Stool Pigeon
Falling in Reverse; Caught Like A Fly
Kanye West; Heartless
Adam walked down the hall straightening his back as he stopped at the door and knocked. It swung open as he shoved a paw in one pocket smiling. "Ariel, is she ready?"
The vixen nodded and stepped aside letting him come into the room. The fox bent to his knees looking at the couch the young vixen was sitting on and waved her forward. She slid off the cushion and walked to him as she clutched each side of her little white dress. "Hello Adyson. Are you ready to be given a fox name?"
"Are my brothers coming too?" Adam smiled as he nodded. "They will be there watching with everyone else.
"What about Mommy?"
"Oh," Adam said as he stood. "She's still sick." The little vixen dipped her head as Adam bent his knees again. "Adyson?" she looked back at him frowning as he took hold of her paw. "Your Mommy will get better as long as she's here. We won't let her do any of the bad stuff anymore." She nodded as he stepped back to the door holding one of his paws out. "Are you ready?"
The little vixen sighed as she nodded and took his paw. They walked down the hall and stopped in front of two large doors he pushed open as she looked up at him again. Adam smiled as they walked through the doors and stood above a small crowd of mammals all wearing shiny robes. He picked her up and set her on one of his hips as he pointed around the room. "These are the followers of Nine. Do you know how important you are?" She shook her head as he pointed out the crowd again. "All these mammals are here for you."
"Why?" she asked as she cocked her head.
Adam smiled as he looked around. "Because you are the last girl of our bloodline. You are the last hope for all of us, Demi."
"Demi?"
Adam snickered as he looked around. "That is your fox name. Demi…. TO THE FOLLOWERS OF NINE, DEMI. OUR HOPE, OUR FUTURE!" He shouted as he lifted her a little higher. The crowd around them dropped to their knees as she looked down smiling.
"Can I have a pretty robe like that too?"
Adam chuckled as he nodded. "You can have anything you want, as long as you stay here and learn." The fox handed her to another mammal who took her back to her room as he stepped back to the hall.
"Manny?" he asked as the hyena tipped his head.
"He's here, Boss." Adam stuffed his paws in his pockets and walked with him back to another room. The red fox took a seat in a chair as the hyena opened the door. He lifted his head as a young red fox walked in and folded his arms over his chest. "What have you found out?"
The fox looked at the hyena and curled his lip. "He's got that place running like a damn clock."
Adam nodded as he rested his chin on a finger. "And his mate?" he asked as the younger tod curled his lip.
"There doesn't seem to be much to her. She showed up the first few times he was there and no one ever sees her now."
Adam sighed as he looked the other direction. "She's changed her appearance if she hasn't been noticed. And the Den?"
"Getting closer to being what it's supposed to be. Someone else took over for him though. They asked for an appeal and the vixens on the council asked that anyone who knew anything of them keep it as an oath to the first Helm."
Adam sat up and tipped his head. "Who is the Helm here now?" He asked with a straight brow.
The younger tod shook his head. "They call her Madge."
Adam sighed as he looked off. "That won't do. We need to get his mother back in the Den. Was there a reason she didn't take the seat?"
The young tod nodded as he looked around. "I was talking to Zeek about it. They asked for an Appeal after his mother died. Said it had something to do with them not wanting to be found if someone from the main branch came looking around."
"His Mother? Everyone thinks she was his mother…." Adam almost growled as he frowned and then he hummed, nodding. "I'm sure they will get their appeal. Yes, that wouldn't be good if someone other than a council member came looking around. I think we should wait, leave their absence in the den to go unquestioned for a while before we try to do anything else. I'll talk to the council and see if they have plans on anything. If they are that popular here already it's probably best to let their presence in the Den fade a bit first. How exactly did they…get in so well with all the foxes here?"
The young tod curled his lip and shook his head. "Aside from the foxes who already knew him- That you'll have to figure out yourself. Nobody crosses that line."
Adam leaned back frowning. "I'm crossing it, spit it out."
The young fox in front of him glanced back nervously as Manny growled. "The mammal on the moon. It's the only thing anyone calls him because the guy can make anyone disappear. Big won't even mess with him. He's the one who helped get everything together in the den. Nobody understands why because him and John don't seem to get along. He's the only person the guy can't run over. Everybody noticed it."
"Hmm. Their son will be starting school soon. It would be better to get rid of his parents while they're absent from the den for a while and take him when no one is watching. A few years would probably do it. It will give me plenty of time to groom Demi, distance them from whoever that is and have everything here well underway when he arrives."
"Wait a minute." The younger fox said as he shook his head. "I said I'd tell you what they was doing. I didn't agree to help you hurt anybody."
Adam narrowed his eyes as he tipped his head. "Regardless of whatever or whoever it is you're afraid of there, you really should have asked who you were dealing with here. I know all about you. I know how many notches you have in that belt, how many mammals you've killed and what you were planning to do to …Zeek so you could take over. What did they name you in that Den? Stork? I think pigeon would have fit better. A stool pigeon."
The younger fox growled and lifted his lips over his teeth as Adam lifted his head and dropped his brow. "You wanted money, you wanted to take over the position above you. You don't think you can beat him, do you? My son."
"Son? Family? He's your family? You're doing this to your own…." The red foxes face fell as Adam curled his lip and nodded.
"My son." Adam growled as he sat straighter. "I taught him everything he knows." The younger red fox took a step back and turned sharply as he hit a solid mass of muscle. He looked up wide-eyed to see Manny snarling down at him. One glance to Adam was all it took before he laid lifeless on the floor. Adam stood up and leaned over his desk grinning as he looked down. "I definitely made the right choice with you my boy."
Manny tipped his ears back. "What you want me to do with him, Boss?"
"Take him down to the incinerator. Make sure no one sees you. No one's going to question the disappearance of a fox, especially one with the reputation he had. This does pose a bit of a problem however." Manny ticked his head to one side as Adam sighed. "I know they're here in Zootopia. I still haven't figured out where. I have no eyes in the den now. I can't go looking around for them with the risk of someone here recognizing me and most of the disciples here have the same problem…. we have to find a way to get them out in the open, to find them." He ticked his head to the side as his muzzle curled up. "There's a little bar in the outlands he used to go to all the time when he was younger. We need to make that place ours in case he ever goes there again. He used to go out there all the time when he got really upset about something. Took me forever to find him the first time he disappeared, and we have to find a way to get his mate back in the Den, get her away from home so we can get rid of both of them. She's going to be hard to spot if she looks like everyone else now, and he's going to be very cautious about them being seen." He tapped his fingers on the desk and shook his head.
"Boss?"
Adam looked back at him and motioned to the floor. "Take care of that Manny. I'll call the council later, see if they have any ideas…."
Adam stopped the hyena as he started leaning forward. "Take the back stairs Manny. The council said they were having some technicians come in this week and I don't want you accidentally running into anyone I may not know is here yet. The guy I have at the door gets a little overwhelmed with all the mammals who come and go here sometimes." When the hyena looked him over curiously Adam shrugged. "Something to do with communications? She said it was the latest technology and would allow us to talk to each other more clearly. Some kind of video conference system they are having installed." He waited as the hyena tossed the body over his shoulder and watched him leave through a hidden entrance before he picked up the phone, leaning back as it rang several times. "Hello My Lady…."
"BURNT DOWN?! THIS WILL SET US BACK YEARS!" Lilith slammed her paws to the table screaming and flopped back in her chair, dropping her head in her paws. The other does looked around at each other cringing as she raised her head. "Did they find anything?"
The doe to her right shook her head. "Nothing. It was investigated and deemed a natural fire, but with the way everything was destroyed there's just no way it could have been caused from faulty wiring or an overheated machine. There was nothing left of any of the research he had, not one living thing left in the building and almost everything was turned to ash."
Lilith sighed as she threw her head back looking at the ceiling. "We have the hybrid out though, right?"
She looked at the other does seeing them nod as she sat up straight. "Yes, his father perfected that years ago using the two flowers to create another one. A lot of our farms use them."
"And it's been shown to poison and repel insects?" She sighed heavily as they nodded. "What were the names of the two flowers he combined?" A yellow folder was handed to her and she opened it looking it over. "Hollycynthucrycis and Medicampodylithiatrum. What did he name the hybrid?" She looked through the papers and flipped an ear up as she found what she was searching for. "Midnicampum holicithias." The doe took a deep breath as she leaned back in her chair and looked around.
"Yes, but the general public has been calling them night howlers. We aren't really sure why. The name came from one of the sovereign regions of another country. For some reason it stuck with everyone except the rabbits. We use them more than anyone else. Of course, we farm most of the produce here so I guess it makes sense. Anyone else seems to avoid them but we aren't really sure why." One of the does said as she sat up in her chair.
Lilith scrunched her face and shook her head. "Maybe they know something we don't. We know what these two flowers do alone. Send these to the research guys and see what will happen if they are put together without the hybrid flower. Maybe we can figure out what is so special about the Midnicampum holicithias …. Nathan had kits, right?"
They all nodded as Lilith looked over the papers again. "Make sure his kits are well funded. We may not have him anymore but one of his children may be able to recreate this formula again. As far as the flower is concerned, I want it everywhere. I want it on every farm, every site and every factory we have. We may be able to use it for something else…. What do these plants do to bugs if they eat them?"
The does looked at each other shaking their heads. "We don't know. All the research he had was in the building. There's no way to know if it had any effect on the bugs at all. All we know is that he did manage to do something to the plants that caused the insects to eat them. He altered their scent or… something."
Lilith rubbed her temples as she sat back up looking at the folder. "Years of research gone in a single night. Three generations worth of work. Do we have any clues on who destroyed it?"
The doe to her left sighed as Lilith turned her head. "We're assuming it was Nathan Bellwether. He's the only one who had access to the entire facility and the only one who knew the shipment was going to be sent out the following week. They found the remains of two bodies under the ash, but they were so badly damaged that they weren't even identifiable."
Lilith growled as she curled her fists together. The doe turned her brow down and shook her head. "Wasn't there a security guard there?"
The doe to her left nodded. "Yes, but we have no idea who it was. The security tapes and monitoring for the facility were all maintained through the building with no external links. It had to be that way to keep the research secure. All of it was destroyed in the fire. We assumed the other body they found was the security guard."
Lilith shook her head. "Not if they found them together it wasn't. If Nathan is the one who destroyed everything, he wouldn't have taken the chance anyone would have seen what he was doing if he figured out what we wanted it for. That means more than likely he hired the security guard through someone else. If the remains were that badly damaged how do we know that it was Nathan at all? And who was the other one?" The does around the table looked at each other nervously as Lilith dropped her brow. "WHAT?"
She snapped her eyes to her left and the doe closest closed her eyes. "They found a revolver in the debris. Five out of the six shots were fired from the gun. It was registered to Nathan Bellwether. Maybe he had someone there helping him and figured out something else the flowers could be used for."
Lilith blinked. "Something else the flowers could be used for? A gun- How the hell did he do that? No one can legally own a gun unless they are…." her face dropped as she looked around the table. "Find out who he was talking to and do it fast. He had help with this from somewhere. That means someone else might know what we're trying to do."
"Well at least we got everything else on track. How is the little monster you have created?"
Lilith snapped her eyes to her sister with a sinister grin and laughed as she leaned back in her chair. "Which one?" They all snickered as she leaned forward smiling again.
"Lilith you are heartless."
The doe shrugged and smiled. "Adam has been well funded. I set him up as an owner for part of the company so he has a steady source of income that is …generous. Each time we send him money it will look as if it is from some kind of stipend from sales. The building he has was retrofitted to look like a regular home but has a lower level that is large enough to accommodate the following he's accumulated. Social services just granted him custody of the kits and it was official last week."
"What about the others?"
Lilith beamed as she sat straighter. "Right on track. He's back in Zootopia at the first Den. As long as Loki finds his way to the first temple everything should go according to plan. They have to convince him to take a second mate after all. With his father being the one who 'found' it I don't see how he could get off track at this point."
The doe to her left leaned forward. "How does that work? When he may not remember having the first mate."
Lilith grinned as she sat back and folded her arms over her chest. "Leave that to Adam. I'm sure he can decipher the scrolls accordingly. I think he already has a good idea of what's going to happen. He said he had to figure out who was one and nine and get them out of the picture." Lilith picked up the folder in front of herself as her eyes narrowed and one side of her lip curled in a sinister smile. "I think I already know how to take care of that. But it's going to take me some time to have the guys in the lab create something that will be easily used. We can wait, we have time."
"How do you plan on getting them out of the way?"
Lillith smirked. "We may not know what Nathan managed to do with this flower, but the two they came from are pretty nasty by themselves. One seems to make someone lose their mind and the other screws up internal body functions. Foxes have weak hearts. The best way to get rid of them would be to rip them apart."
The doe to her left cocked her head as Lillith giggled. "Break their hearts, make them think the other has done something unforgivable and let them tear themselves apart. We need their son to reach adulthood if he's going to sire the future." They all glanced at each other and laughed as she leaned forward. Lilith giggled as she swatted the air. "Now, now, you know he has to do that if the prophecy is to be fulfilled. Nine will rule them all."
"Nine will rule them all." They all repeated.
Lilith's ears set as the phone rang. "Impeccable timing." She grinned as she picked up the phone only one mammal in the world had the number for. She perked a brow as all the bunnies around her went silent. "Hello Adam….."
