Chapter 55

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Catano knocked on the door, waiting for the call before stepping inside the classroom, its walls covered in posters detailing geological processes and maps of various types. "Is there a Beavis Chuckman in here?" she asked, hearing a hushed silence fill the room. The students all turned to the student in question, worried looks on their faces. It took a second for it to click in her own head. "You're not in any trouble, I just want to ask some questions."

The mood seemed to relax somewhat, the woodchuck in question casually walking up and out with her. Making sure that the door was closed, she was tempted to tell him that he was, only she knew better. Never stop a perp when they're walking right into a trap.

"Still on the hunt?" he asked, paws out.

"You could say that," she said, waving him down into a semi-private area. Finding a table and a few seats, they settled down as she began bringing out her files. "In fact, the things you told me last time you met have turned out to be very useful indeed."

"Yeah. Just helping you lock up the bad guys," he boasted, wearing a wide grin.

"Uh-hu. Indeed, we've been going around and I personally have found out about some very interesting things," she said, rolling out a map. He paused, focussing on it. "Do you recognise this place?" she asked.

He stood there, looking back and forth a lot, before making some particularly loud hmmmm and mmmm sounds. "No, I really suck at geography."

"Right," she said, nodding. Could be a bluff, could be the truth. Dyslexia, dyscalculia, dyspraxia were all official things now. Maybe Beavis had Dyscartogria or something? Regardless, humour him for now. "This is actually the map of the park that we talked about previously." She looked up, studying his eyes which, along with his entire face, didn't change as he spoke.

"Oh yeah, I see it. I've never seen a map of the place, but I think I get it now."

She nodded. "In that case then, could you tell me where you and the others all had this meetup with the weasel?"

"I…" he closed his eyes, thinking for a second. "There. Definitely there."

He pointed at a point far away from where it supposedly was.

Catano paused, before getting out her phone. A quick look on Zoogle street view and she showed him the place Kris had marked out. "Was this it?" she asked.

He paused. "Yeah. Totally, that's exactly where it was."

"Well, in that case then you were here," she said, pointing out the position on the map. "City centre is that way, coast down here, that side faces the rainforest and the other Sahara Square. Does that help make things more real for you?"

He slowly nodded.

"Okay then," she said, "in that case, which way did you go after you left?" She showed her phone and pivoted the street view around, showing him the two directions.

"That way," he said, pointing the other way down the path. Following the others out and taking him away from the route that Maisy would have taken.

"And where were you when you saw the other classmate walking by."

"What, Maisy?" he asked, his voice picking up slightly. "Let me look. Hmmm…" he closed his eyes. "I think, here." He dug his claw in right in an area of the park that was right up close to the path the weasel was on, yet completely off the path that Maisy would have been on.

Catano paused. "Which way would she have been walking?"

He traced a line, pointing directly towards the weasel.

She got her phone out, moved the street view, and presented him with the location. "And this was it, right?"

"Yeah," he said. "I know it was."

She paused. "How long before you met with this weasel was this."

"Not long. Five, ten minutes."

"Uh-hu," she said, looking along. That would mean she encountered Duke well before they all met, if at all. Moreover, the other kits who'd mentioned the encounter had said nothing that would suggest the meet-up was before their encounter with the weasel. Combined with it meaning Maisy had to back a massive diversion to find him, and couldn't have just bumped into him, coloured her very sceptical. "So after that you bumped into Nick and Judy, they bumped into the weasel, you all left together and then Maisy would have come across him?"

"Exactly," he said, paws out. "That's it. That's totally it."

The cheetah nodded, her glare hardening. "It all lines up, except for one small detail."

"Y-yeah?" he asked, his voice cracking a little. Her ears tilted forward, poised, as she figured out something else..

"They're barely five-hundred metres apart here," she said, "that timeline only makes sense if she was a sloth or something."

"I… Or she could have been grazing or something. Lots of poor prey can do that. Heck, I got screamed at by a rodent hating bunny for grazing some nice plants in the park before. Ask Nick Wilde or Judy Hopps, that actually happened!"

"Unlike the other stuff?"

"I… Hey, that was just a slip of the tongue. I thought you were chill!"

"Just clarifying some details," she said, "and I think it unlikely she was grass-grazing, nor does there seem to be much in the way of nicer stuff so to speak." She leant forwards, templing her paws, fingerpad to fingerpad.

"But what did I do?" he whined.

"Nothing, as far as I know. But I'd like you to know that wasting police time and interfering with an investigation, which can include giving false information, is a serious offense. You may well find yourself with a stint of community service like this weasel here."

"W-w-w-what? Because I'm crap with maps?" he asked. "That's not fair! I… I probably got these places wrong."

"Even though you double checked them in street view?" she asked.

"I...I… My memories' not good. I… Maybe she met with him before! There, that makes sense."

"Maybe it does," she agreed, "though you seem awfully scared and eager to jitter around with your story. Maybe you have something to hide?"

He froze up. Like a deer in headlights or a bunny all tharned up, his mouth cracked open to whisper. "I want a lawyer or something." His eyes narrowed. "I have my rights. Why are you doing this to me?"

The cheetah felt a brilliant idea snap into the back of her head. "We just want to confirm where everyone was on that day. It's not about nailing any one mammal down, it's about making sure our picture of what happened on that day is crystal clear. I mean, we really need to make sure that Maisy did go to that weasel, did keep on going down that way…"

"She did, I saw her."

"-Didn't come back up…"

"I was there the entire time, she didn't come back or anything…"

"-Given that her coming back up is the only way that your story and chain of events makes sense," the cheetah said, unable to resist letting a small smile out. She'd pinned him down, and couldn't help but be satisfied with her work.

"I…" he froze up.

"Here's the thing," she said, her eyes narrowing. "We have strong evidence an innocent mammal was stitched up. Now, I for one think that there are some crimes that are far worse than ones that sound similar. Assault is bad. Sexual assault, evil. And framing a mammal, that ranks high up there, and if it is the case I expect whoever did that to an innocent fox gets the book thrown at them. And, interfering with all that stuff? Interfering with me from the beginning, that ranks pretty high up there too."

He gulped. "Hey, where's all this coming from?"

"Let's just say I had a good talk with a bunch of different mammals, and all have a particularly low opinion of you."

"What? So you think I did this all because they like to bully me? Because they like to crap on rodents?"

"No," she said, cutting him off. "I think you're a particularly immature mammal who enjoys being callous. I also don't think you did this. But, you seem to be enjoying giving me a story that doesn't add up and throws others under the bus." There was a long pause. "There's also the fact that a faked image of your classmate doing the crime was released. Now, for someone like you, that sounds like the kind of prank that you might think of doing. Doesn't it?"

"No," he said, eyes narrowing. "Nu-uh, I totally never did that. Ask my art teacher or computer teacher, I'm crap at that stuff!"

She nodded. "I may well do. But first," she said, looking down at the map. "Anything you might want to confess?"

"What if I do?"

"That depends on how much and why," she said. "You just confirmed a series of events that contradicts itself."

"I… -maybe she didn't go out via the path," he said. "And I left that path near the end, maybe she did go back out and I missed here! There, see!"

She paused. Admittedly, though it very much sounded like he was clutching at straws, they were valid reasons. Unlike…

"Besides, I told you, I'm crap at maps! You can't just send someone to jail because they're crap at maps."

"Are you crap at maps?" she asked. "You were in geography just now, maybe I should ask that teacher too."

"That's different!" he said, words rushing out. "Geography is mostly about oxbow lakes, and all that crap! We actually do very little with maps, and that was a few years ago with a different teacher and it's about understanding them. I just have no clue where I am on them…"

Again, she thought just a bit annoyed, strictly true. "In any case," she rolled over, moving on. "Your testimony seems unreliable. You're not in trouble, for now," she said, standing up. "But I want you to know this. Interfering with police investigations, you get what's coming. Doing anything that might worsen a framed mammals situation, you'll get what's coming. Carry on with this cheap immature speciesist bullying I keep hearing so much about, you'll get what's coming. You thought you could sweet talk me early, well it doesn't last long. It's why the police talk around after all, and I'll be keeping a close eye on you moving on."

He stood there, rooted to the spot before looking down. "Yes officer," he muttered.

Catano breathed in and out, before grabbing up the map and sticking it in her bag. Pausing, she reached into her pocket to bring out a school information leaflet she'd received. "Right," she said, glancing through the index. "I need to talk to someone in the… Capro annex. Where is that? This place is like a maze..."

She placed the school map down, finger on the name. She glanced up to see Beavis look at the number, then down. "I'm sorry if we got off on the wrong hoof, officer," he said, sounding like he was trying to mend bridges. He leant forward and tapped on the place in question.

She nodded. "Right… Thank you. Hmmm, where are we now?"

He tapped in another place, and she forced a smile onto her mouth. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," he said, cheering up. "Uh… Anything else?"

"Yes," she said. "Remind me again how you're really bad with maps."

He froze, deer in headlights style, as she let her eyes cast their glare onto him. "I… -Four years I've been here okay? I had to learn this map. You can't hold this against me, you know you can't!"

"You can go now," she said, as he turned and quickly went back to class. "And as I said, your actions have consequences. We'll be keeping an eye on you."

She made sure he went back in, tail between his legs, before heading off on her way. Capro annex, where a certain vixen by the name of Agnes was currently having a lesson.

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By the time she got there lessons were emptying out and she easily waved the worried vixen down. "Is this about Kris?" she asked, worried.

"Sort of," Catano began. "We…"

"He didn't do it! Please! He didn't…"

"-I don't think he did too," the cheetah reassured the fraught vixen. "But we need to fill in some gaps, make sure that everything we know is accurate, to help us work out what really happened."

She was a bit confused when the map of the park came out, but quickly confirmed everything that Kris had said, and more. "When around the weasel, did you smell anyone on him? Any species at all?"

"No," she said. "I smelt enough dirty weasel as it was."

"And on the ground, did you smell anyone else there at all?"

"I… No, I'm pretty sure we'd been the only ones around there for a while."

Catano nodded. It seemed the odd one out was definitely a certain woodchuck.

"-Is this about Maisy?"

There was a long pause, the cheetah trying to work out how to go on. "Why do you ask that?"

"I… Ash found something out about Maisy, and her family, and he's not telling anyone as he says it would be unfair on her," she said.

Catano's ears drooped down. It seemed like the kit did care about the ewe, to a degree at least. She could certainly see lots of normal kids dropping the kind of news he knew, especially a certain woodchuck.

"And I get why," she carried on. "The last time you were here, he'd found this crazy Ewetuber making crazy things up about sheep. It was so silly, we could laugh about it, just a bit. But I guess it's not funny if you're a sheep who meets mammals who actually do believe it…" She paused, sniffing. "Yesterday, we… -We met a bunch of real jerks hating on foxes and…" She had to sniff again, and Catano couldn't help but put a paw on her shoulder. "They were just using these things dragged up against poor Kris to bully us!"

"I'm sorry."

"-And Ash, he really did try and stand up against them, but by the end they were all laughing at us and we had to leave, we…" She sniffed. "It was horrible… And Ash wouldn't want Maisy being bullied like that either!"

The cheetah nodded, holding her tight. "Yes. And that's why you shouldn't watch those videos, okay?"

"But… We were making fun of them."

"Ignore them, let them die," she said, Agnes taking a breath out.

"Okay. I… I will."

"Good," Catano said, and she felt it. Indeed, a lot of her worries about Ash were going away. It sounded that he wasn't ovinophobic, he just didn't know better about watching those videos. Something that, hopefully, the talk the headmistress had said she'd give would help out with. "Has he mentioned those videos again, after that?"

"No," Agnes said, shaking her head. "Though we were mainly busy with those jerks…"

"Jerks can keep you busy," the cheetah agreed.

The vixen nodded on, pausing slightly. "How long is this talk going to take, just… I have chemistry next."

"Don't worry about it."

"I'm just thinking about Ash," she said. "He's my lab partner."

"Not Kris?" she asked.

"No, he got paired with Beavis. And Ash is good with the subject, it's his favourite one. He's really great at it, not that I think he sees it." She looked down, wiping her eye. "He also gets really grumpy if I hold him up."

"Ah, that's why you're worried. Well, just tell him that you were helping me help Kris."

"That should work," she agreed, chuckling. "I remember on Kris' first day, Ash was really angry. I kept looking over and talking to Kris, and he was being a sweetheart, and Ash was really getting angry at me for holding everything up." She looked down. "He ended up saying that 'I'm supposed to be his lab partner'. I said I was, and he said I wasn't loyal…" She went off, sniffing, Catano putting a paw on her shoulder.

"Well, that wasn't very fair of him, was it?"

"I… I guess it was though."

"No it wasn't."

"Me going over to Kris, hurt him real bad…"

"And is that an excuse for him to treat you bad?"

She looked up and shook her head, Catano sighing with relief. Maybe Ash wasn't ovinophobic, but at the same time that treatment of Agnes felt controlling. She was about to carry on with that line when the vixen spoke out out of the blue.

"Did… Did some of Maisy's family help out in the nighthowler plot?" she asked, snapping Catano back to attention. "That's it, isn't it? That's why he thought she… and why he tried… and why he doesn't want to tell anyone."

"No," Catano said, "it's not that."

"Oh…" the vixen pondered, looking down. "Maybe Ash has his own crazy theories then…"

"What, like that ewetuber?" Catano asked, not sure if she liked where this might be going, but also curious. She didn't want Agnes to turn her suspicions from one friend to another, but what she said might help out.

"I… I don't know," she shrugged. "I… He just wants to be a hero and help right now."

"A hero for you?"

"I think, yeah, but mostly be a hero in general. I guess be a hero for Kris now too. He tried to be a hero against those jerks too, but it didn't go well. But maybe he thought he'd try and track down some missing members of the plot, and maybe he thinks Maisy's aunt was a helper in it."

"I promise you, paw over heart, that her aunt did nothing to help Dawn Bellwether," Catano said. After all, it was completely true.

"Right," Agnes said, breathing a sigh of relief. "I mean, maybe he has some other theories. Maybe he has a bunch of notes and stuff in that box of his, and thinks something completely different."

Catano's ears ticked up. "Box?"

"I… Kris mentioned it," she said. "He has this locked box by his bed, got it a couple of months ago. He said he kept some rare comics in there, but I don't know. I'm guessing that's where he keeps his tracking notes."

"That sounds like it," Catano said, nodding. "Anyway, thanks for the help. You can go now."

Agnes stood up, turning around to go only to pause, glancing back at her. "You will save Kris, won't you?"

"I will," she said. "I promise."

And with that Agnes was gone, Catano left thinking. After all, she really didn't think he'd have notes about that kind of thing in a box under his bed. Occam's razor, he did have comics or something else there. But, then again, it was an undeniable red flag. One that brought up another one. His room had never been searched, had it? She'd heard from Oates that they'd had a look around Kris' room, finding nothing. But Ash?

The thing was, while she was now very sure that Ash wasn't ovinophobic, at least intentionally so, she had a nagging feeling that he had big issues with Agnes. The way he'd called her out on 'not being loyal' in that chemistry lesson, the way she'd heard about them falling out after, the way he'd been trying to jump back into her life after all this mess. Again, occam's razor, he'd been hurt by the breakup, had some inherent issues with his treatment of her and only recently matured.

But, at the same time, there was a nagging red motive flag in her mind. If it was the weasel, it was a petty hit out on someone who 'helped' give him community service. If the Calrama's, a complex and indirect revenge hit done years after the event, even though the direct targets were probably easier to get to. Ash, though? Motive as old of time, get rid of the rival.

Motives and means, that was what she had to go on, and what exactly was, or had been, in that box?

And then her fur rose. Agnes had just gone on, to a chemistry lesson. Something she said the Ash was very good at. To distill nighthowlers meant you needed to be a reasonable chemist at the very least and, while the bulbs were now controlled, who's to say he hadn't found a few growing in the wild. The father went out on pest control jobs and the mother did a lot of home farm growing, who was to say that he hadn't stumbled on a few in his travels or she hadn't used them herself before the crisis.

Get a chemistry kit, distill them, destroy the means and store them in the box until it was time to strike. And heck, maybe he knew that she was going around the school, maybe he'd sniffed her that day. In that case, make a show of trying to be the hero, searching for the truth. All to throw everyone off it.

Yes, it was all a bit fanciful when she thought it through.

But also yes, this was by far the best lead she now had, and it had to be pursued. It didn't take her long to decide what to do. It shouldn't take long to get a warrant and, after that, she could go, look around, and hopefully find the truth of this matter.

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Jack and Judy sat out in the lobby of precinct one, the doe bunny busy explaining all she knew of a certain urban legend. All of it had come from her fox, a firm believer given his past, so it was second paw and had no additional context. Indeed, she was very much hoping for Nick to turn up, so he could fill in for the hare. Regardless though, it was taking some time for him to arrive, though fortunately Jack was very much in awe at what Judy was filling her in on. The doe bunny finished off her recount of all Nick had said, before suddenly remembering something. "-There's one other thing…"

"Ooooh!" Jack swooned, ears homing in eagerly.

"We met that banker wolf out on the protest field," she recounted. "Back when Honey had just had her episode. She saw her, Murana, and called her the Dark Flame Wolf."

"So it's true!"

"No, no, no…" Judy shook off, having to pause slightly as her head had begun to ache. She was regretting having a second coffee this morning. "She said it was just another one of her dumb theories. It wasn't as if it was something she knew was true, unlike Maisy being a Bellwether."

"But I mean, it could be true, couldn't it?" he carried on. "There's nothing stopping it being true, right?"

"By that same measure there's nothing stopping Kris being the one who did it either," she cut in. "In any case, this whole thing is just crazy."

"-Like a fox?" came a call from nearby. They turned to see Nick there, an uncertain smile on his face..

Jack turned to face him. "Dark flame wolf! Real or not?"

A smile that then immediately vanished, Nick's ears peeling down. "Yikes stripes," he said, finding himself a seat. "Where did that one come from?"

"The DA," Judy grumbled, piquing his attention. "His entire motive for all this, his entire reason for doing this job, is because he thinks that mammal is real and he knows who it is."

Nick's face twitched. "What!? How does locking up Kris help him there, or…"

"It's 'a principle'," Judy hissed. "That's all he talked about. Principles here, and principles there. The Dark Flame Wolf is 'toxic predness incarnate' so he must do everything he can to take her in, because if he doesn't she'll take over the world! And if he's gonna stand against 'toxic predness' then by golly he's going to stand against Kris 'getting away with it'."

Nick paused, looking on. "So, like, the Dark Flame Wolf is 'predator superiority complex' prime or something?"

There was a slam on the table, two heads turning to Jack. "That's a bingo," he announced, smiling. "That, and it was all this culture war stuff he's into."

The fox nodded. "I'm still not getting it. Why go to all this trouble to get some dirt on one of Lang's wolves, I've heard they're trying to go legit but still, look close enough and…"

"It's not one of Lang's wolves," Judy cut in. "It isn't Lang either."

Nick gave a lost expression for a second or two before collapsing into his waiting paws, snorting and laughing. "Oh god, don't tell me…"

"I think he's got it," Judy smirked at Jack.

"I mean, if I didn't know it was real I'd say he made the legend to try and get her…"

"You've got it," Judy said.

"Murana Wolford," he said, blowing out some air. "Whoooo… I mean, from what I know of her she'd probably take that as a compliment or something."

"What do you know of her?" Jack asked, leaning in. "Is she some kind of slick, ruthless, byronic heroine with black and white views on justice and a determination to set the world right?"

"She's good at burns, too," Nick agreed, looking off in the distance. "You know… I think I can almost see it. Then again, that involves imagining that banker wolf has expert combat training and is as fit as a seasoned athlete."

"So our evil hippo might be right?" Jack asked, drumming his paws on the table.

Nick snorted. "Who knows? The more important question is, how does this affect us."

"Well," Judy said. "We've got enough evidence to prove that he's not fit for public office, for a start. From what I gather, the intention is to show him what we know and let him resign, saving face. The thing is though, I don't think that's going to happen. He's probably going to contest it or something. At least let the whole world know his ideas and stuff, hoping it'll take down his enemy with him."

"So he goes down burning in flames rather than gracefully," Nick countered. "End of the day, we get him out."

"But what about her?" she asked, Nick's ears immediately dropping down. "You saw all the crazies he was able to rile up before! Now he'll be painting her as public enemy number one or something. Yes, we saved Kris, but she's got an adopted son about the same age, hasn't she?"

"I hadn't thought of that," Nick mumbled. "And it'd probably wreck our Wolford's career too, seeing his wife being dragged through the mud too."

Judy couldn't help but snort. "Especially if it really is true."

"Eh, if she is the DFW, then she'll have been retired for the last few years anyway," Nick waved off. "Probably locked all her stuff up where it can't be found and so on. Someone that skilled wouldn't have left any trails for us to pick up from. If they didn't have anything on her back then, they won't have now."

Judy's eyes narrowed. "I thought you said you feared for your life from this vigilante?"

"And I did," he said, paws up in a shrug. "And if I told myself back then that I'd become a cop, hear a theory about who she was, and hope that even if true she'd get off… I'd ask myself if she'd ordered future me to tell past me that on pain of darky firey death. But either way, now that I know it's not a crazed Lang wolf doing this, I feel a lot better. At least. I think that banker wolf is a nice lady, and now that she's stopped we can give her a pass."

"How many mammals did she burn alive?" Judy asked.

"They weren't the best mammals," Nick pointed out.

"I'm serious though," Judy said. "I mean, had that been a decent mammal with this theory, then I could see the point in her being a danger or something. No mammal should feel it's their right to go out and murder even one mammal, even if they're a monster. But the chances are he is wrong, and when given the chance to step down quietly he won't, and he'll tell everyone about this and everyone will turn against an innocent mammal who, unlike Kris, didn't have their name anonymised for their own protection. Yes, Kris gets out… But in a way, she and her children get a life sentence…"

"Oh don't worry about her," Jack cut in. "The people will love her!"

"What?" Judy asked.

"That silly old hippo," the hare waved on. "Culture war this and that, I'll tell you what all mammals like. A determined hero who goes out to set the world right! A mammal who rids the world of evil. A great crusader who gives the monsters of the world an appropriate fate for their evil crimes. He's already lost, that's why he was saying nothing out loud. He'll go quietly, else he'll make Murana Wolford the most popular mammal in Zootopia!"

…

"Yeah, sorry if I don't share in your optimism, Stripes," Nick waved off. "After all, this hasn't been much of an optimistic day so far."

The two bunnies looked at him suddenly, worried looks on their faces. The fox huffed as he brought out his phone. "I found this on the news, this morning."

Judy went over to take it, reading on. "Fire at local camper rental?"

Jack's ears shot up and he leapt out, grabbing the phone and scrolling through. "Oh no. Oh no no no no…"

"What's…?" Judy began, only for Nick to fill her in.

"I think that confirms it," he said grimly. "That's Duke's cousin's place. A few of the vans were torched late last night."

"The lion and tiger," Jack said, putting the phone down. "Extortion via arson…"

Judy's eyes widened and she began shaking. "If he told them where Duke was…"

"How much like Duke was he?" Nick asked, turning to Jack.

"I don't know!" he said. "I never met your guy."

"Fair point," the fox hissed. "Paws crossed he lied, or maybe rang up Duke to warn him. Otherwise, a lion and tiger might have found him by now."

Judy grimaced, only for her eyes to widen. "Big cats..."

"Huh?"

"I looked up Duke's testimony. He did say he had an incident with two big cats, but he said they were a leopard and a cougar. Think they could be part of the same gang?"

"That or he lied to spite us," Nick said. "Which would be really stupid, given that if he did his plead down to community service is null and void."

"Uh-hu," Judy agreed, drumming her fingers. "There was one other thing. Back, ages ago, we were looking for this orange goat, Petey, on his testimony." Jack's eyebrows raised slightly, but Judy kept on talking. "He'd tried to ask Duke if he was still into stealing nighthowlers."

"Yeah, so?" Nick asked.

"Duke also mentioned this 'crazy fox dressed in white' who claimed to be a spy and offered him redemption."

There was a long pause, before Nick cradled his face in his paws. "All this time, these two factions have been battling each other, haven't they?"

Judy nodded. "And once we clear this up, that's who we're tackling next!"

"One mission at a time, Fluff," he warned, earning a slight glare. "Let's fill in Bogo about this, then get back to base. If Duke's still out there, he's in serious trouble. We need all paws on deck helping Fenneko find him, don't we?"

Judy nodded at that, and got to work.

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Meanwhile, another trio were meeting up.

Down in the great charging hall, he sat upon his throne, paw in paw with a mammal far larger than him. Two minions to the left, two to the right. In front of them stood the two business partners. The smaller, red tail sweeping behind him, couldn't help but smile. "Do I need to be afraid of you lot taking my job?"

He laughed. "Oh, my dear friend. No, no, no… Consider this a mere tribute. Besides, the simple task I had my good servant performed." He paused, to let the orange furred mammal give a bow, carrying the small roosting one in his horns with him. "-Was more inspired by your partners earlier, excellent, little…. Heh... Heh, heh, hah! Plant! -Than anything else. Indeed, we would not of known of the opportunity, or many others, without it. See, my friends. The things we can achieve when working together."

The other, until now silent, business partner spoke. "But what now. Sadly, while we know their plans we do not know their target location. Hence why your other squad…" he pointed at the other two minions. "Had such poor luck. Indeed, now they're on to us."

"Let me worry about that," he said. After all, that is to do with my plans, and not yours. "And, speaking of project chaos." The two business partners felt themselves tense. "My new network of mammals includes a number with reasonable wealth, and good insurance. The grunts are currently poorly trained and prepped, yes, but I'd argue they'd be able to perform an adapted, lower reward but lower risk, version of your plan at very short notice."

"What about our high value targets?" the first business partner asked. "Are we giving them all up?"

"No. Not all, but most," he said. "Regardless, I do estimate that the total haul could still be in the nine figures range."

A hush fell across the floor. The two business partners looked at each other. "They are onto us," the first said. "Lower risks, less chance of the accellent being found out."

"If we get what we need without it," the second said. "Yes, the population out there is boiling. Yes, we could light the spark. But without nighthowler to truly set it off into the inferno we need, this chance might be wasted."

"In which case, nothing lost," he said. "You carry on as you would before, waiting for your time to come. But now, if we play the cards right, this very day might be that time."

"It would out Petey," the first business partner pointed out.

"True," he agreed. "His scope of works would be greatly reduced, but I have more mammals now who can take it on. Gentlemammals, this chance will only last for a few days more. I myself abandoned my old empire when I found my true calling, one I do hope to share with you so very soon. Adapt, improvise, win. We give this information to the crowd, we could have exactly what you two need. Are you in?"

There was a long pause, before the second business partner spoke. "I'm in."

As did the second. "Yes, let's do this."

He smiled. "In that case, my mammals will get into position. In a few hours, may project chaos begin."