EDITED BY: DrummerMax64

Chapter Nine - Double-take

"After you finish up with the interview, Charles, I'll send you the rest of what I've got so far," Anders spoke into his wireless headset.

The pig tapped away at the keyboard in front of him, inputting more data onto the digital spreadsheet on his left monitor. This document was the list of the predators who had gone savage up to now. So far the list had covered all the original missing mammals before former Mayor Lionheart's arrest, and six additional mammals who had turned afterward.

"Sounds good Andy," Charles spoke. "I'll be sure to try and compile the information myself when I get back home. With that interview about four hours from now, I should be able to get a bit more sleep before then."

"I wish I had that luxury."

"I don't blame you."

Anders felt only a slight bit of jealousy that his colleague wasn't bound to the building as he was. He wasn't the type of mammal to move around all the time. The comment was simply meant to move conversation. Anders was quite comfortable where he was. Gathering information and editing other coworkers' articles for the paper was a thrilling experience in and of itself—and whether that statement held a tad bit of sarcasm was up for debate. Besides, how else was he to assuage his childlike glee when nothing compared? Life was good.

Anders shuffled around in his chair and pushed back into a lounging position. He looked towards the ceiling. A thought of Edward poked his curiosity.

"So, where did Edward go exactly?" he asked into his headset. "I know he was supposed to take a trip back to the Burrows today to get some information for the story, but you never said where exactly he's going or who he's interviewing."

"Edward's..." Charles's voice trailed off. "Edward is going back to his old home."

Anders waited for something else to follow, but when nothing did, his brow raised, brown eyes staring curiously at the ceiling, unimpressed.

"That's it? Is he going anywhere else besides there?"

"Nope, that's his only stop as far as I know."

The pig crossed his arms and contemplated for a second. He let out a sigh. "Okay then… May I ask who exactly he plans on interviewing for the story?"

"He's… meeting with his father. Apparently there's something that might be of use to us for the story.

"Why?"

"Why, what?"

"Out of all the mammals in the Burrows—all 81 million of them that could help you with the story—you're going to focus on just one of those mammals?"

"Yes."

"Why?" Anders repeated.

"Well, we wanted to focus on Edward's father because he's a reliable source, plus he may have some info that may be of use to us."

"Yeah, I get that. That's all well and good, but there's a slight problem with this plan: we only focus on one mammal for information, Horn is going to catch you guys on it. Period." The pig's dark hooves pinched the pink bridge of his nose. "This is writing one-oh-one, Charlie. If you don't have sources, no one is going to believe you, and if no one believes you, your story will flop, and if your story flops—"

"We're out of a job."

"Bingo. Bottom line, if we don't have credible intel or if we have too few sources to go off of, then this story is going to fail, guaranteed. So, if you want to avoid that, here's something you can try: Start with a general group of mammals that fit the bill with whatever information you're trying to gather, then you'll have a nice pool of notes to go off of and, more importantly, more sources to use later on, just in case. If you find anything worth noting, do more research on the Internet and see what you can find. Doesn't hurt to check something that's always at your hoof-tips."

"Absolutely," Charles agreed. "I'm pretty sure Edward already knows what he's doing with gathering information. I'm the one who didn't attend college like that. I'm still learning even after a year of field work."

"Stuff like this takes time, Charles. You'll get the hang of it eventually."

"Hopefully," Charles uttered, his reply gaining a light chuckle from Anders before the tiger continued. "Listen, I'm gonna head back to my apartment to get some sleep, I'll text Edward about getting more sources in a minute."

"Sounds good, Charlie. Go on and get some rest. The file for the predators should be waiting in your inbox within the next hour or two."

"Perfect. Talk to you later, Andy."

"Have a good one Charles. Happy hunting."

Anders sat back up straight in his office chair and ended the call, lifting and placing back the office phone sitting on its base.

He looked at the spreadsheet on his screen and glossed over the information inputted so far. He was pleased with the current progress. Getting the information for each mammal was surprisingly easy if you knew where to look, and for some, it was as if their lives were an open book.

Take Emmitt Otterton for instance. Middle-aged mammal, a couple kids and a happy stay-at-home housewife, a popular and well-known business owner in a prime location; the tweets, articles, and reviews said it all.

Then there was that reporter for ZNN who got hit just after the news conference was broadcast to the citizens of Zootopia: Justin Brown. Fairly average bear, landed a job for ZNN fresh out of college, adamant, determined, high scores on all of his classes. He also made the front page of his college newspaper three times in one year, and achieved second place in a writing competition a few years back. Based on his skill level and love for reporting, it was an obvious choice that ZNN would snatch him up. If it weren't for the incident, he could have made it big.

These mammals, these predators, were normal functioning mammals that wished to excel in this prey-dominated city. A handful of them managed to achieve what they wanted, while others can only just barely reach it.

However, deep down and way past their evolved ways, these predators were still animals, and everyone knew it. According to information currently known to the public, there was still a lot more to learn about how and why predators in Zootopia were going savage. Anyone's best guess was that it had to do with biology, or even some kind of trigger that activated the ancestral part of themselves, locked away deep in their psyche.

If only there were some way to test it, Anders thought.

Maybe if they knew more about it, they could come up with a way to counteract this change.

But, no matter. It was only a matter of time before the secrets of this issue would come to head. It was only a matter time before a solution was found. For now, this story that Charles and Edward were writing was the priority.

"Gurrrrrr."

And then his stomach growled.

Anders swiveled his chair around in the direction of the kitchen. He could've sworn that he saw someone had brought donuts in for the floor, but he wasn't sure. He was so stuck in a drowsy trance on the way over to his desk earlier that he didn't even register it completely.

"Won't hurt to double-check," he spoke to no one in particular.

Anders went through his normal run down for leaving his desk—locking his computer, placing his headset onto the charging dock, and pushing in his chair—then made the trek over towards the center aisle. He said hello to various mammals that he had helped out in the past—George, Ferronica, and Bethany to name a few—all met with bright smiles, waves, and hellos.

Out of the corner of his eye, just as he rounded the corner into the kitchen, he saw a mammal slip into the lion's den. Horn's office. He silently wished them the best of luck.

Stepping into the space of the kitchen found him staring at the surrounding space. A couple of mammals were standing over near the vending machines while another pumped coffee into one of the paper cups their company provided. He didn't really know the mammals there; perhaps their faces from the floor, office parties, and meetings, but surely not the mammals themselves personally.

He looked at the top of the center island with anticipation, hoping to see something appetizing that could adequately fill his stomach. The sight before him made him frown.

On the plus side, someone did bring food into the office. On the downside, it wasn't donuts like he thought—they were an assortment of bagels from the local bagel shop down the street, popular too. The problem wasn't that he didn't like bagels. He loved them, but he just didn't expect them. However, Anders wasn't going to be rude and waste perfectly good food; he was raised better than that.

He had to give kudos to whoever brought the bagels in. There were plenty of options to choose from, and plenty more for butters and creams. In the end though, he settled for a nice cinnamon bagel. No cream, no butter, just a nice and sweet plain bagel.

Anders began walking over to the vending machines, but first noticed a bright pink sticky note placed next to the food on the island. It read, "Take one! They're for everyone! -Kristy"

Anders smiled. He knew Kristy well from the handful of times when he edited her work. Last time he checked the snow leopard loved to write about Happytown, one of the many poorer areas of Zootopia sandwiched between Savannah Central and the Rainforest District, and what went on there. From what he read when he edited for her, it was where she grew up, and she knew almost everyone there. On top of that, she had a heart of gold, and she sincerely cared about the people and the environment of her home. She was phenomenal at persuading her readers to help the people of Happytown, and Anders was almost positive that she would make it big in the journalism world.

However, the one thing that was holding her back the most from being a step up from the rest were her deadlines. She would get so caught up in gathering information and talking with the other mammals, she would miss when her story would actually air on the paper. This had only happened a couple of times when he was her editor, but it only took that much to put her in Danielle's crosshairs. If she conquered that, she'd be unstoppable.

With a smile, Anders continued towards the vending machine, pulled out a couple of bucks and got himself a bottle of water. Just as it fell to the bottom, he could hear commotion coming from the floor. He thought nothing of it at first, shrugging it off as he grabbed his drink and twisted the cap off, taking a sip before strolling back towards his desk.

When he entered the aisle, he could see a couple of mammals poking their heads over the monitors on their desks towards Horn's office. Before he got the chance to look himself, he was stopped by Ferronica, who was standing on the cushion of her office chair.

"Hey Anders," she said as she teetered on the edge of her seat. She hadn't taken her eyes off of Danielle's office.

"Hey Ferronica," he replied, his gaze joining his coworker's as he attempted to stare through the closed blinds against the windows. If only he had some form of x-ray vision.

Actually scratch that, he quickly objected. That would get me into more trouble than good.

"Do you know what's going on with Kristy? She got called into—WOA—"

Anders managed to catch the falling ferret before she made contact with her desk, a couple of heads turning in their direction as they stood there in silent shock. His bagel and water were sprawled in opposite directions from where he stood. He was thankful that he put the cap back on the bottle, as he wouldn't have wanted to refill it from the tap.

A couple of seconds later the two broke their stillness and shared a sigh of relief, then went back to gawking, Ferronica now sitting comfortably in her medium mammal-sized chair, while the pig grabbed his food and drink, keeping one eye on her and the other on the glass door.

"Thanks," she managed to say while she swiveled one of the monitors on her desk out of the way to see the office herself. "As I was saying, she got called into her office this morning when she was setting up her little bagel station in the kitchen. I see that you managed to get one yourself," she gestured to the cinnamon bagel in his hoof.

"I have a weakness for cinnamon," he shrugged. "But, I'm not really sure. I honestly didn't know she was in there until now."

"You think it's serious?"

"You're asking the wrong pig." Anders sighed. "I'm gonna try and enjoy this bagel at my desk. Try not to die while I'm gone."

"No promises."

With that, the two of them waved goodbye and Anders slowly strolled back over towards his space. As he walked down the aisle he found that he couldn't avert his gaze away from the door. He hoped that Kristy wasn't in it too deep. Depending on if it was Horn herself that made the request, which wasn't a far-fetched idea in the slightest, it surely wasn't going to be a meeting talking about her crowning achievements at the Gazette.

Anders just hoped that he was wrong.

The next fifteen minutes were spent eating the remainder of his cinnamon bagel while taking the time to finish up some of his editing work and adding the final touches to the spreadsheet for Charles and Edward, which he felt went fairly smoothly. When he was confident that it was complete, he put the file into an email and sent it to Charles, making sure to add Edward into the chain so he had the information as well.

Anders leaned back in his chair and popped the last bite of bagel into his mouth, savoring the sweet taste of cinnamon that blessed his taste buds. He let out a content sigh.

However, that contentment didn't last. Out of the corner of his eye he saw the door to Danielle Horn's office slowly pull open, and saw a certain snow leopard exiting the space. He watched her slowly shuffle back towards the center aisle and down towards her desk. It was hard not to notice that she looked distraught.

And for good reason.

Grasped in her paw was something that everyone working at the Gazette had come to lament: an empty cardboard box.

Anders stood up from his chair and watched her dip into her row and plant herself right at her desk. No one spoke. No one seemed to even acknowledge the leopard who was now beginning to pack away the bright decor from atop her desk—the mugs, the cute figurines from different television shows, the photographs of her and her family, everything.

He looked over at Ferronica, whose attention had planted her sullen eyes back at her computer screen, invested in whatever work that beckoned her call. Then he looked to George and Bethany, who didn't even bother to look in Kristy's direction. Even the mammals sitting next to her didn't even attempt to give the slightest 'I'm sorry' to their coworker who had just lost their job. It was awful to watch.

He couldn't help but wonder if it had anything to do with the fact that she was a predator amongst a sea of prey, but soon realized that it was more of a definite reason than just a question of probability.

When Kristy finally finished packing her belongings and sorting out some things on her computer, she logged out, pulled a portable drive out of the computer, then walked with the brown box in her paws towards the bank of elevators. Still, no one moved. No one acknowledged her. She exited the row and slowly strolled down the aisle one last time.

Anders clenched his hooves into fists. He had enough. If no one was going to say anything, then he would take it upon himself to lend a helping hoof to a mammal he cared about.

The pig locked his computer and ran over towards Kristy with haste as she entered the elevator lobby. The door didn't even finish closing before Anders caught it and swung it back open, revealing the sole mammal standing with her box of trinkets and photographs.

"Kristy," he began, realizing that his jaunt had let his breath escape him. "What's going on? What's all this?"

She sniffled. "It's… it's my things." She let out a sigh, looking down at the contents of the box. "A-as of right now… I am officially not a writer for the Daily G-Gazette."

She couldn't get out the last few words without shedding a few tears, the fur around her eyes beginning to dampen as she nearly crumpled to the ground. Anders quickly came to her aid as he put a hoof on her back, feeling the deep inhales of air she took into her lungs as she sobbed. Her claws sunk deep into the cardboard until eventually she dropped the box and wrapped her arms around him. He gladly returned the favor.

Some time later when she calmed back down, they both took a seat on a couch placed on the back wall of the elevator lobby, the cardboard box resting on the center cushion.

"What happened?" Anders asked.

"I missed another one of my deadlines," she hesitantly admitted. "She's always been up my tail about that. I guess I should have seen this coming." She let out another sigh, wiping away at the fur around her eyes. "I was actually just about to wrap up on a story I was writing too. I just needed today to implement the finishing touches, then I'd be all set."

"If you don't mind me asking, what was it about?"

"I don't mind at all. I was going to bring it to you anyways before I went ahead and sent it to Gerald for editing so I could get your opinion on it when it was done. But, to answer your question, it was nothing really, nothing groundbreaking. I was following some leads on some of the break-ins at the local flower shops in Happytown. Apparently the thieves weren't really after money or a simple bouquet of flowers. It wasn't really a flower at all really, it was some kind of… moldy onion or something."

"Onions? Why would they steal onions? Were the burglars homeless and just looking for a meal?"

"Not likely. Whoever these guys were, they knew what they were doing. Easy in and out, kept to that item only."

Anders leaned back against the back of the couch trying to wrap his head around the simple question of, why? Why would somebody care about some moldy onions? So he asked the question, "Why would somebody steal some onions in the first place?"

"That's what I was trying to figure out. So, I did some digging and asked around about what these things were, and apparently they weren't onions after all."

"Then what are they?" Anders inquired.

"They're actually a seed of a flower known officially as Midnicampum Holicithias. It's a Class C botanical that's used on farms to keep bugs off of produce. Highly volatile in smell. From what I read, 'its seed form resembles the look and smell of an onion, while the flower itself blooms into a bright shade of violet. Mammals should be cautious when handling the plant because of the volatility of the chemicals it produces. If a mammal comes in contact with the plant, get medical help immediately.' And don't get me started on how many times I had to hear that spiel.

"As far as leads go, the police want to believe they're looking for some overzealous farmer hoping to save a buck or two, but they think multiple mammals are involved. Whoever these mammals are, they're smarter than they look. The ZPD has little to go on aside from the security camera footage, and without a proper lead, all they're hitting are dead ends."

The two ends of the couch sat in silence as the information soaked itself in. Anders was trying to analyze it, trying to make sense of why anyone would go as far as burglary to start up a farm in the first place. Kristy just sat and watched mammals leave and enter the floor, a few of them looking in their direction. Although he was deep in thought, he could tell that she was a lot calmer than she was moments ago.

"This just doesn't make sense," the pig shook his head, gaining Kristy's attention. "Why would anyone go to these lengths to get this flower? How important are these things anyways?"

"Well, in terms of farming, it's one of the most effective things you could have besides chemicals, and they're super expensive compared to other types of protection. And because they're so effective, certain botanical stores have limited stock, which is most of the stores located in the city." She let out a sigh. "But you know what? I think I'm done with the story."

Anders shot a puzzled look in her direction. "What?"

"I'm dropping it."

"Why?"

"It's getting me nowhere, and I've got better things to do with my time. Plus, I need to focus on getting another job sooner rather than later. My rent isn't going to pay itself, you know."

Kristy picked up the portable drive sitting at the top of the mountain of things inside her cardboard box. She stared at the storage device for a couple of seconds before turning to Anders.

"Here," she offered, passing over the device in his direction. "Take it." Anders hesitated, but gladly accepted the device. He took in its features as she spoke, "There's nothing on there that my mom hasn't got stowed away in some box somewhere. Maybe you'll have better luck with it."

Before Anders could voice a reply, Kristy grabbed the cardboard box from the center cushion and started over towards the elevators, and after an awkward fight trying to push the down button to hail the next elevator, she waited patiently for one to arrive.

"Thanks," Anders finally managed to get out, his response implying a more confused tone than anything else.

The ring of the elevator's arrival filled the room. They both looked around for which elevator had been called up, then walked towards it. Kristy stepped into the elevator car, then turned to smile at him. "It's no problem. Thought I might pass it on to someone who'll appreciate the memories."

Her giving him the device wasn't exactly the most logical move—she could have used it to do some freelance work or even take it with her to another company if she wanted, but she decided to give it to him instead. And if he were being completely honest, he was going to miss having her around.

Anders gave her a grin of his own. "I will. I'll see you around Kristy. Good luck."

"You too Anders," she said as the elevator doors slowly met. She was gone.

The pig stared at the shut elevator doors for a moment, a small sliver of him hoping that they would just open back up to find that this all was some cruel joke, but that didn't happen. He then cast his gaze back to the device in his hoof. He gave it a smirk.

Maybe a little bit of reminiscing wouldn't hurt, he thought.