AN: It's been Camp NaNoWriMo time for the last month… and before that I couldn't really think to write… in other words, it's been long enough, so let's get this next chapter rolling, why don't we?
"So you're telling me that the Mayor would've- pardon the expression- kitnapped my wife?" Mister Otterton asks, clenching his picture of his family in his paws as they tremble slightly. "Why the hell would she do that? I- I-," he stutters, starting to shake even more strongly than they were even just a few seconds earlier.
Putting a soothing hoof on Mister Otterton's back, Bogo sighs and shakes his head.
"There's two reasons I can think of off the top of my head, and well, I'm sure you can guess what they are, Emmitt," he says. "You know why…."
"But pred rights are mammal rights, what doesn't she understand about that?"
"A whole lot, apparently," Bogo says, gesturing to the stacks upon stacks of folders and files that are scattered all over his office. "There are fourteen missing mammal cases that I've been paying particular attention to. I take it you remember the Night Howler Crisis, yes?"
"Bogo, you remember that I was one of them, right?" Mister Otterton, whose first name I still haven't learned, says.
At that, Bogo smacks himself in the face with a hoof and sighs. "Dam it, you're right... so, what do you want to do, hmm? I mean, we could go to the libraries and try there, but the sight of an umcollared pred? Well, that's just asking to get ourselves tossed in jail and have our heads taken off… I like mine on, and considering the fact that our Dear Mayor has been itching to get mine mounted ever since I made my stance about her actions clear… I suppose we could get away with searching through old databases, since they're all public record… what do you think we should do, Otterton?"
"As much as I know how impossible it would be, Bogo, like I've said multiple times in the past, a savage winter is always appreciated… and we might even need it."
"Very well," Bogo says, and I have no idea what he's talking about. Savage winter? Huh? What? We don't get winter in this part of the city…. Not as far as I know… maybe I'm mistaken, but I seriously don't think so.
"And do you have any idea where they are? Last I'd heard, Bellwether had forced them underground, seeing as how they basically blew the Banyan Street Metro Station off the map… it was abandoned, but I know you know what really happened, right?"
"I was there, you remember?" Bogo asks, and Mister Otterton nods. "Then you know what happened afterwards, what with the blood everywhere."
"They never did find their bodies, did they?"
"Can't say they ever did… and besides, I wouldn't tell the police even if they did."
"That's fair, Senator, that's fair," Mister Otterton says. "So what should we do? I mean, it's not like we can just go looking up that information, right? I thought Bellwether had tracers in those files…"
"Oh, she does, she does," the Senator says. "Kinda why I want to go digging through them…. Bring her right to us, in a way…"
"Operation Blueberry?" Mister Otterton asks, and Bogo nods.
"Operation Blueberry exactly."
"Would someone mind explaining to me what's going on here?" I ask, feeling my tail twitch back and forth in the stale air that's surrounded us.
"Simple… we're going to get ourselves arrested again," Bogo says, smiling, and I'm a little taken aback that he's able to do that, smile, that is.
"What? No!" both Judy and I cry at the same time. "No, please," I say, pleading, "don't, they'd collar both of us! I don't want a collar!"
"You're not collaring our children," Mom and Mrs. Wilde say at the same time.
"They won't be, I promise," Bogo says… "there's a reason why I keep dummies in here," he says, handing them to all of us… I don't want to put one on, but if he promises me that they're not real, then… then maybe I can do it… maybe.
"Only if they're not actually real….," I mutter, and accept the steel band that's placed into my paws, almost retching and fighting back the taste of copper and bile in my throat.
I can do this, for my sake and for everyone's. Lucky for Judy, she doesn't have to wear one… this is going to be interesting when the mammals who come for us do.
Mister and Missus Wilde do the same thing, and I can see the fear in the look they share.
"It's going to be fine," I say. "We're going to be fine…"
"I know we're going to be fine, Nicholas," Mrs. Wilde- Aunt Marian- says, smiling at me as she straps her own fake collar on, and I can feel the weight of my own as I place it around my neck, and damn does it feel real or what!
"Now to call our winter," Bogo says, taking a red phone out of a drawer in his desk and punching in only one number and speaking into the receiver. "Operation Blueberry is a go… yes, at the Baker's. To go, please."
With that, he sets down the receiver and lays his hooves on the desk. "They'll be here any minute now… all ready? I'll be coming with."
"So what's the plan exactly?" Judy asks, and as much as she's trying to pretend that she's not absolutely terrified, well, she's not doing very well at that."
"We get ourselves arrested… there are already other people like us, part of the Order, per se…. They're on the inside, and they've been waiting for this for quite a while. Another rabbit and fox, both friends of the family…"
"So how are we supposed to get out then? We didn't actually do anything!"
"One bad apple spoils the bunch, you know," Bogo says. "We rot them from the inside out."
"And what if I don't want to go along with this plan?" I try to ask, and then I get cut off by a banging from outside, harsh and angry.
"Open up! Either you open this door or we'll break it down!"
"Well," Bogo says. "Seems like you don't have much of a choice now, do you?"
"No, I guess not," I say, gulping, trying to prepare myself for whatever could be coming. Needless to say, I can't do it, I'm too scared. Time's up, though. Let's hope I don't die, that would be kinda nice.