Chapter 42
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The night hung quiet over the high reaches of the Rainforest District. The odd rustle of leaves and the far off occasional rumble of the last sky-tram cabins of the day rang out but other than that the bamboo forests were quiet.
Almost quiet…
A low soft whine filled the air, like a single large insect on the hunt for a snack.
The whining increased and, emerging from a copse of trees, a large eight-rotor drone rose up, a black clad figure slung underneath. Holding himself tight, shivering from not just the cold air leaking in over the mountains from tundratown, he looked through his nightvision goggles and set his eyes on the target ahead.
A large low slung compound, thickly built walls holding within them a variety of large eastern style buildings, most prominent among them a large pagoda rising up out of a central parade ground.
Looking down from above, Jack wondered if there was going to be a reserve of kung fu warriors or something waiting in there, ready to pounce out and attack him once he landed…
'Yeah…' He thought to himself. 'This is actual, genuine, secret agent stuff…' He didn't feel any thrill or excitement, rather a low rumbling dread. He closed his eyes, reminding himself it was no different to waiting in line to go on a rollercoaster, rattling and shaking around you, passengers screaming all the way as you got ever, ever closer to being in their place.
"Cross that bridge when you come to it," was all he could whisper to himself.
"Can you repeat that?" came his handlers voice over his communicator. He let out a little flinch before pressing in and speaking out.
"Sorry, just mumbling to myself."
"I suppose better now than later," she mused. He could imagine her giving a little smile, tail coming up into her paw. "Anyway, we'll rise you up before autorotating you down on top of one of the buildings. After that, we'll guide you through. Should anything get too bad, we have the unsubtle option waiting outside for fast and violent retrieval."
"I…" Jack began, before narrowing his eyes. "Affirmative. Agent Savage, ready for insertion."
"Confirmed," she said, as the hare crossed his fingers, hoping she'd get it done before his firm conviction became less so. "Commencing autorotation in three…"
Too late. "Uh, Question."
"Two…"
"What's…"
"One."
"-Autorotation?"
"This." And with that, the ever present whine of the rotors above him vanished along with their downdraft, soon replaced with an ever growing updraft as the ground began getting closer and closer at an ever faster rate.
Jack closed his eyes and clenched his teeth, before they opened up again, adrenaline starting to pump through his veins. He was over this first hill, and the big dipper had begun.
Down he dropped, the air slowly getting faster and faster as the silent drone was guided downward and forward, closing the gap between it and the Kung Fu Temple where their mammal of interest was supposedly hiding out.
The wall rushed up to meet Jack, and he sailed over, thinking he caught a glimpse of Doug, waiting down there ready to barge in should the need arise. It was only for a moment though before he was gone. A second later, the whole ground went too, the entire drone pitching upwards, Jack thrown up almost to the vertical as the pilot killed as much of their horizontal momentum as they could. A few seconds later and, pitching down, a flat roof was right in front of Jack, coming up to smash him in the face. Eyes closed and he winced up out of instinct, only to feel himself get slammed forward, his restraints cutting deep into his body.
His eyes opened enough to see him start to tip forwards, his momentum trying to lever the drone up and over its front landing legs. The motion slowed though, the whole thing rocking back and soon settling.
Jack panted, heavy breath in and out, before a shaking paw hit the release button and he dropped onto all fours, rolling himself to the side and then standing up.
The roof was empty, bar the top of an air conditioning unit and his drone, silent and waiting.
He looked around at the rooftop expanse around him, all quiet.
He felt a newfound thrill, and a long expanse of nerves and worries plateauing out around it.
He was in.
Limbering up, he bounced on on all fours, quiet and swift as he made his way to a nearby drainpipe, leading off of a taller building. He looked up it, gaze hardening. He may have been a particularly lazy mammal in his past, but at least as a theater actor he'd kept somewhat in motion. A lot better than most of the population, certainly. However, that didn't necessarily translate into things such as upper body strength or so forth, and whatever intensity of training he'd been put through in the last few weeks wasn't enough to really make that up in any game changing way.
Thankfully, though, he had gadgets! And, while things like suction cup attachments were still the things of very fun cliche, he had something less exciting but all the more practical to use.
Clicking onto his two reinforced protective boots were a pair of claw-like appendages. Moving one up to the pipe, it clamped on, hard. Paws holding him close, he stepped up, letting the other fix him on.
Slowly, leg over leg, he rose up, soon approaching the lip of the roof. Heights thankfully not something he had any issue with, thanks to years of gantry work, he pulled himself over and, after doing a quick scan around, stowed away the foot grips and made his way to the crest of the roof. From there, he looked down, seeing the compound stretching beyond him and seeing something new for the very first time.
"What the…" Came the voice over his earpeace.
Jack could only grin. "I mean, I'm mad," he said, paws coming and rubbing together. "But I'm cussing smiling!"
Beyond him, through the main walkways and in the buildings that were open to him, were security systems seemingly stolen right out of a heist movie. Scanning spotlights, criss-crossing laser lights, beams that spanned across the floor, in some cases alternating between one patch or the next.
The hare looked down one of the nearby alleys as a large gate of yellow laser lights moved down the wall like a net trying to catch any wayward fish, before it pulled around the corner, continuing on its circuit.
As if to top it all off, the occasional guard was posted around or making his or her rounds, lights illuminating a bright patch in front of them.
"Can you see this!" Jack said in an excited whisper.
"Yes…" Lt Vixen said. "Who on earth did they use to set up their security?"
"I don't know, but I want to thank them."
"I mean… Yes. This is a decade or two out of date. Pointlessly flashy, while leaving seemingly deliberate holes for mammals to sneak through. Was the mammal in charge of designing this plucked from a video game or something!?"
"You know," Doug's voice came in. "Maybe you should not complain about this and do the job. Unless you were kind of expecting it to be harder and thus nip your hare in the bud. I wouldn't put it past all of you…"
"I mean I'm not complaining," Jack smiled, limbering up.
"And neither am I," Lt Vixen said. "Though, as your partner back here is very much bugging me to remind you, just because it looks like a game doesn't mean it is."
"Affirmative," Jack said, breathing out and making his way along. Ears out, he scanned around to see if he could hear anything in the building below. That was the plan, to begin with. Listen around, see if they could pick up any clues to lead them to the mammal of interest hiding here. All while making their way to the large tower at the centre, where they'd learned at least one major player was based.
Nothing below him, Jack looked up, fixing his eyes on the next building across.
Not necessarily a hard jump.
But the layout made it seem like one.
The nerves and chills returned but Jack swallowed them down. He'd chosen this after all. And so, making his way back along the top ridge, he shuffled down onto the sloping tiles, doing his best to find his footing. A few practice runs and, squaring it up, he raced off, all four limbs pumping as he leapt and bounded across the clay slope. Halfway across, he fixed his gaze at the target, coming up on his right and requiring a cut down and then a leap up onto the corner, a foot or so above the nearest point on here. It was a balancing act between distance to leap and rise and… His back swung from behind him as one of his rear feet slipped out, the other following it. His eyes widened in shock as he was facing the wrong way and then instinctually kicked, facing the right way again but now racing towards a precipice, all too early. Ears and body twisting up slope he did his best to yank and haul himself back along the horizontal, legs burning as the moss and debris they threw up bounced and rolled over the edge now cutting right next to him, his course corrected but no room left for any mistakes.
Breathing in, breathing out, he fixed his eyes forward, doing his best to jump from one patch of moss to the next, getting as much grip as he could as his target came up, over to his right and well above him. Wrong angle, highest jump, part of him told him to abort but a larger part…
One last long leap, his whole body tightened up, before his coiled legs kicked out at a twisted angle, sending him sailing across the void.
Fore-limbs out, his eyes were closed for a second in dread before they opened up again, seeing his landing area pulling in just a hair's width below him.
Forelimbs went over and pushed down, lifting the rest of him to safety.
Momentum carried him on and up, Jack letting gravity bleed it off as he hopped and jumped to the crest of the roof and then just sat there, catching his breath as fast as he could.
His body shook and trembled, and a massive grin was on his face.
One down…
And onward he went. Ears out and scanning as he slowly crawled across the roof.
They paused and swivelled down as he made out some coughing from inside. Slipping down to the edge once more, he laid the large appendage down to confirm it, before pulling out something new. It looked like a glass pendant, but was in fact a fish eye lense on a piece of string that doubled as a transmitter.
Lowering it down off the edge, he listened in to the instructions from his home base, moving it around until it faced a window.
"Hold… Ah," came the quip through his earpiece.
"Bear?" Jack asked.
"Yes, but not ours."
"You sure?"
"Unless he received two black eyes and a sex change, yup," she said.
"Right," he nodded, "what now."
"Plant one of our smart bugs. We might get some information yet."
He nodded, bringing out another string, this time with a sticky black object on the end. Leaning out, stringing it over the edge, he let it swing and attach to the wall before roping it back in.
"Okay, carry on as before."
That Jack did, taking the odd, usually far easier, leap over the rooftops. Listening in, bugging one or two more rooms of potential interest. He slowly made his way around, getting closer to the tall centre of the compound.
All while laying the fishing lines for any catch that might come about.
And then a far off gong sounded, single and solemn, the hares ears jumping up and focussing in.
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The air was thick with incense.
Tigress looked on, almost thinking she could see the ripples of the sound in it.
An idle thought, one she put to the back of her mind as she walked on across the stone floor and towards the central pit and the large, older, panda sitting in the middle. Legs crossed, eyes closed, his breathing steady as he rested himself at the small shrine in the centre.
She paused, looking down on what he'd set out on it.
Incense, for sure, but also photographs. The old one of him and the old group of mammals and even reptiles who he'd once ran with, comrades in arms. Newer ones of his daughter, and Po, together. Some more of the whole community they had here, high up above Zootopia.
They were an odd outlier amidst all the ceremony he was putting on.
It didn't sit right with her.
It seemed to sit even less well with the heavy set polar bear sitting across from her, invite only. From what she'd gathered, his upbringing had very much ruled out anything in the way of spiritualism, and his life after had scrubbed any of it out anyway.
Yet…
It was oddly fitting that he looked forever haunted by something.
Her eyes lingered on the coppery pendant in his paws, one end cracked and damaged.
The panda opened his eyes and opened his palms, clearing his throat. "Let me begin."
There was a long pause before, finally, Kozlov snorted. "Begin what?"
"Communicating."
Kozlov's eyes glanced down, then up again, a look of incredulity on his face. "What is point?"
"To learn. To understand. To…"
"Pah," Kozlov snorted. "There is nothing to learn. There is nothing of honor. No great deeds. Is dangerous, repulsive, you are fool if you think anything should be done. This only deserves destruction, de…"
"-And in all your years," the panda spoke, a faint smile on his face. "You have destroyed it how many times?"
There was a long silence.
The black and white bear leant over. "You can damage it clearly, but if worth is only ever to be destroyed, then it seems oddly intact. Yes?"
Kozlov snorted, pushing it over. "Fine, run on your fools chase. It is only you who will be hurt by it."
Tigress' ears flicked up and she turned to the older master. "Master King, if it is true, if whatever you are going to do is dangerous, let me…"
He raised up a paw, slowly. "There is much I haven't told anyone. Of my greatest sins. Secrets. Of the four I followed before I found my six." He looked down. "If I must call on you I will, but for now I hope…" Suddenly he winced, paws gripping around the item in his paw tight, teeth gritting, body trembling. The tiger began to move out of instinct but held back, not sure whether she should shake whatever this was out of him.
Before she could make up her mind it ended and he settled down.
Finally, looking up, he spoke, almost managing a chuckle. "Angry. Like young child."
"Lucky," Kozlov hissed.
"No ammunition," the panda pointed out, finger up. He paused, looking back to the old group photo, a paw touching onto the raccoon front and centre. "I am sure against others, true terror could be used." There was a shrug.
"Master King," Tigress began, settling down and nodding. "I understand these issues are very much personal. Likewise, I was never much for the spiritual matters, something I, you, Po, even Shifu agree on. But… From what I gather… Is there…" She chewed her lip a little before forcing it out. "-Some form of tortured soul in there? Some ghost? Is that it?"
"Pah," Kozlov snorted. "Not living, not a soul. Cold, hard, electric, some product of twisted science most likely."
"So… An… AI? Is that it?" she asked.
"And would you say those can not coexist," the panda asked, eyes fixed on Kozlov. "Or one precede the other? We do not know, and I feel it is my duty, even if doomed to fail, to try and know."
"Why!?" the polar bear exclaimed. "What could you even learn?"
"I do not know yet."
"Is doomed to fail."
"Maybe not."
"Is doomed to cause you pain, suffering…"
"I know," he said, as Tigress cut in.
"If that is the case I do feel I would be failing in my duty if I was not there for you…"
"You are here for me now," he said, looking up into her eyes before looking down again, a grim expression growing on his muzzle. "Neightzsche say, stare into void and void will stare back." He looked down grimly. "It is why I, for as long as I can, I will take this burden. And knowing you are here," he said, before pointing to the pictures. "And they too, they will help pull me back." He leant forward, the female tiger flinching a little as he gripped his paw. "If I am forced to call on you, I am sorry. I hope I do not."
She let her teeth work over and under her lips. "Master, if this is all the case… If you need your loved ones here to help you get through what this, whatever this, is… Surely Po and Jing…"
"No," he said sternly, before softening. He looked up into Tigress' eyes. "A long time ago, in an orphanage in this city, was demon. Demon who no one thought could be made right. To whom there was nothing of worth in there. Then one day a red panda came and reached to where no one felt there was value, and rescued you." He sighed, turning to Kozlov. "Long time ago in Tian-Shan mountains was a warlord, ruling with iron fist. I had partook in murder, extortion, many great sins. And one greatly hurt, the greatest hurt, came to my domain one day and faced me. Defeated me in a dance of fire in the sky. Left me facing a defeat I deserved. Only, years later, to come back and reach in. To save me." He looked up, then looked down. "Tell me, did I deserve that?"
"I…"
He turned to the feline. "Did you?"
Tigress let her tail flick behind her. "I was just a cub."
He shrugged. "Maybe. But I wasn't, and yet I still earn redemption. Do you believe in karma?"
The tiger mulled it over. "In some way, yes."
"Then you may ask what good deed I did to deserve that redemption? If you look at my life before, I would say you wouldn't find it. Yet, I believe in karma. And with karma, who is to say that the good deed comes first."
Kozlov shook his head. "No. Silly little myths. You are fool to let idea you have debt to made up superstition to lead you."
"Then what do you follow?" the panda asked, eye rising. "To whom do you owe debts?"
There was a long pause. "The dead," he finally said. "The many, many dead."
The seconds ticked away before the panda finally sighed. "Maybe is true. But still, if I was given gift like this. The chance of redemption from he who I wronged most. Surely I have duty to try to pass this forward. To reach in. To see if buried below, beyond all we can see, there is good. There is a chance. Or at least, to understand how things came to be."
Kozlov didn't verbally answer. He just rolled his eyes, looking up and shaking his head as the panda held the pendant close to him, eyes closed, breathing in and out and humming.
Three mammals watched on as he breathed in and out, eyelids beginning to flutter, hums starting to turn into grunts and whimpers, teeth gritting and face beginning to buck around as it was riven with lines of pain and…
With a jolt forward his eyes were wide, breathing hard and ragged, body trembled. "No…"
Kozlov only raised an eyebrow.
"He could not… Not that…"
"Which 'that?'" the white bear asked.
Slowly, putting it down, he turned to the larger ursid. "The disaster…"
Kozlov raised his eyebrow further. "Da. Which disaster?"
"The one you saw with your own eyes. Thrust into the sky far away, reflected in the lake, I…" He paused, closing his eyes, counting. "That was six years before we did our deed together."
"On that terrible April night," was all Kozlov said. "When, for this…" He pointed at the damage on the pendant. "It deemed we were to be all taught… 'humility'."
The panda bear was silent, his face gaunt. Finally, he handed the pendant back, closing his eyes. "Maybe we try tomorrow night." Kozlov growled, shaking his head, only for a paw to be held up, the panda staring at him. "Tell me, you try and reach a child that needs help and doesn't want it. What does the child do?"
The polar bear rolled his eyes, opening his mouth to speak his dismissal, only to be cut off as Tigress answered the question. "She lashes out," she said. "She gives the mammal trying to reach him her worst. Her nastiest. The worst she's ever done, the worst she can ever imagine. Everything to stop that mammal from getting through."
"And a long time ago a panda of red carried on," the panda said, nodding as he looked at her. "Carried on until, as Jim Boarison say, he break on through to other side. And now, a panda of black and white will do so too."
"After knowing that?" Kozlov asked, taking the pendant back.
The other ursid shrugged. "Maybe redemption not possible. But tell me? Ever wanted to know where your demon was born. What could create something that could do that?" There was a pause. "What it was, before it became what you know, and what caused him to change?"
"Is your curiosity worth the pain?"
"Is all you have done?"
There was a long pause before the polar bear huffed, walking away. The panda looked to the tiger and nodded. "We retire, for tonight," he said.
"And if those hunting him come?" she asked.
"We have the security," he smiled, threading his fingers between each other and stretching them out to crack his knuckles. "I must say. I may be on side of good now. But I have not lost my touch." There was a chuckle. "If Sly is in town, I would be honoured to have him test it out."
"Sly?" Tigress asked.
He looked at her for a second before smiling, leaning down and touching the picture of the raccoon.
"Ah…" she said. "He's the one who…"
He nodded.
There was a pause before she smiled. "Maybe I would be honoured to try sparring against him, if he were to come."
"It would be most entertaining show," he smiled, before giving her a bow. "We will see," he added. "We will see."
And with that, off they went, not noticing the mammal outside making his way as well.
.
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Outside, pulling his ears back down, Jack Savage slipped down into a small sheltered area, finger on his ear as he spoke into his communicator. "Get all that," he whispered.
"Yes…" Came Lt Vixen's voice. Jack paused as he heard the tone. It was different. There was interest in there, curiosity, but also… not quite surprise.
"Something very new and different has come into your game, hasn't it?"
"Not a game," she whispered. "Tchhh… I'm having to think this through. It goes against all my logic for the Soeviet Union to have built their own version of Skynet. Yet that's almost what it sounds like."
"Uh-hu," Jack said, pausing as his ears rose. A door shifted open and was closed and, looking on, he saw the polar bear, Kozlov, walk on, the mysterious item, whatever it was, in paw. Shuffling forward on all fours, careful leap after careful leap, the hare slowly followed him in the shadows.
"-And would be entirely impossible," Doug Ramses yawned, through the communicator. "Analogue architecture based AI may have been theorised back in this era, but it was only truly proven a decade ago… Have they gotten around to making chips that emulate that yet or not? The prison system isn't very accommodating in terms of supplying science papers."
"For a long time mammals would have said a persistent hormonal binder enzyme, removing the ability for a chemical agent to be broken down by the liver and thus let it persist in the bloodstream, was also impossible," Lt Vixen said, the sound of tapping paws coming out. "But a certain Doctor I know very much proved the world wrong on that account."
"Why thank you," the sheep said, Jack not sure if it was sarcastic or appreciative. It didn't matter that much though as he had bigger issues on paw. The white bear was moving up along a passageway and into the cast light of one of the guards waiting up above. He coughed to announce himself, the guard waved him through, and then the long watch continued. Blocking Jack's path.
The hare glanced around before his eyes widened. On both sides of the path was a drainage gutter! Looking around, he darted to the side closest to the watching mammal and lowered himself in as far as he could go. And then, balancing above the resting water inside, he began crawling forward, doing his best to not make a sound.
Ears down.
Muscles tense.
Slowly shifting his limbs, one pace forward after one face forward.
Sparing a glance up, he saw the guard high up on a half-storey step of some kind, raised up and given a bright overwatch of the path thanks to his light.
One which the hare was slowly approaching.
If the mammal, a rhino, looked down, then he'd have to run. However, he was in as close to a blindspot as he could get and so he hoped that, bored eyes focussing ahead, he could slip by unnoticed. He heard the mammals had poor eyesight, so hopefully that would help.
'Hmmm-HMMMMM!'
Jack froze, his limbs and body doing its best to vanish in on itself, worming its way into the gulley so tight he felt the cold flow of the water at its base run all down his front.
Eyes up, he looked at the rhino, almost towering over him, his eyes… Not visible.
His head moved a few times left and right before beating on his chest once, then twice, before settling down on his watch once again.
A tiny hum rang in his ear, a warning that a much louder voice message was going to come in. It did, even Lt Vixen's whisper sounding out like a bullhorn to the rabbit. "I'm going to use our closest bug to set up a distraction for him. It's not much, but it'll give you a bit more space."
He nodded, tensing his body and waiting for the moment until…
'Tuh-Whit…'
The guard shifted, and a shocked grunt sounded out from off in the distance.
'Tuh-Whit…' Jack, glancing up, saw the rhino looking up a little surprised at the sound of an owl call.
'Tuh-Whit…' Sensing his moment, the hare bounded forward as fast and as quietly as he could, making his way from under the guard and then past him.
The sound of a flutter from a different location filled the air, Jack looking back to see the guard's gaze pulled in the opposite direction from him.
He breathed a sigh of relief, only for a new sound to come through the air. The bear.
Ears up, Jack narrowed his eyes, focussing as he honed in at the mumbling of the white ursid. He at least knew where he'd gone now and, slowly, carefully, shot across the odd passageway as he caught up.
Finally, back against the wall, the hare leant over to see what faced him next.
The daunting sense of foreboding was just enough to stop him binkying from the glorious sight.
Security lasers.
Whole lines of security lasers.
Criss-crossing the passage, slowly scanning this way and that for any target that might cross their path, they were complemented by roving searchlights.
The white bear, pulling out some kind of device, tapped it a few times and all the lights went off, letting him walk right through. Jack followed along as fast as he could through the clear breach, keeping to the corner, keeping a distance, but doing his best to keep track as the bear came to the end and brought up the remote and…
Jack's eyes widened and he thrust himself into a tight corner just as all of the security systems came back on line.
Yellow beams of light criss-crossed around him, while a searchlight slowly made its round, crawling along the floor and then slowly flowing up onto the wall, getting ever, ever closer to the jackrabbit as he breathed in, before realising he should actually be breathing out, trying to force and squeeze himself into a sheltered position behind a drainpipe as much as possible.
He bit his lip, tensing as he saw the exposed tips of his claws and so forth lit up, wondering if this was it, was he screwed, was he going to just have to leg it out and…
The light passed on by, and he took a deep breath in and out before bouncing out in the direction it had come from.
It wasn't plain sailing though, not with both the fixed and moving beams of light criss crossing his path like a spider's web. The first few were easy. Duck below. Jump over. Then came a pair he had to squeeze through.
Up next though, things were getting harder. Various ones moving in different directions, trying to get you caught in and pinned down, tripping yourself up.
Taking his time, looking at the paths, the hare breathed in and breathed out before entering the breach. Foot over one and back arced to get under the other, he leant awkwardly to one side to let a light beam graze past him, only to then pivot around, staring it in the face as he sidestepped along, legs tensing before he leapt over another at the lowest point in its arc.
Landing light on his feet, he shuffled along into what he trusted was a safe space, taking the time to catch his breath and just confirm that was the case. Up ahead and against the walls, nothing seemed to be coming this way, and he knew the way he'd come was safe from the light beams.
The next set of obstacles were an awkward criss-crossing of beams that kept close to the ground and closed off a high leap. Nibbling his lower lip, observing their movements, his eyes widened as he saw a potential way through in the middle of the walkway. While normally criss-crossed, their movements opened up a large-ish gap at about head height. If he could jump through there…
He might hit the fixed low level beam just beyond it.
He kept on looking on trying to figure out how…
He smiled, walking on back and tensing up his legs. Waiting for the gap to open and…
He leapt through sideways, the world tipping over as he came down on his side, his momentum carrying him underneath the low beam in a quick roll, the world spinning around him, showing the way he'd come and…
Paws out, Jack slammed himself to a stop and stood up, eyes wide. The spotlight beam he'd hidden from earlier was tracing back fast and heading straight for him.
He scanned, quickly seeing a small alcove on the wall he'd hidden against earlier. The beam was coming off it and onto the floor, so if it carried on that area would be unlit and…
Light beams were in the way, a bunch of them.
No time to think, Jack went forward as fast as he thought he safely could, ducking under and hopping over, squeezing his body through the gaps and shrinking it down as much as he could as one whose path he hadn't quite figured out came closer and closer to touching his scalp.
Foot paws kept moving, the spotlight beam kept getting closer and closer, as Jack passed through the high beams and began bouncing as fast as he could, legs skimming perilously close to detection as he pushed and pushed and then leapt, turning his back onto the wall and watching the large spotlight slowly scan past, a hair's width from him.
Breath in, breath out, breath in, breath out.
"That was close," came a relieved sigh through his earpiece. "Really close."
"Yeah," Jack huffed. "Yeah…" Watching as the spotlight reached the end of its arc and began returning back, he let his knees buckle a little. Well, he mused to himself, eyes closed. He'd wanted thrills. He'd wanted a rush. He'd wanted that feel of being on the edge and playing the hustle through that he'd got before. That he'd felt when infiltrating City Hall on that ZPD sting, pretending to be a janitor first to find his target and then some member of an international Prey Supremacist cabal to test whether that DA really was in league with them or not.
But no, he realised. This was something different. Back then he'd been acting, been pretending, and had the ZPD backing him up. A temporary setback and a mission failure was the worst he could face. Here though, sneaking through security lasers practically taken from a pulp heist film or so forth, so much more was on the line. What would happen if he tripped them, failed.
He bit his lip, slowly moving in, past the spotlight as it scrolled past and carefully making his way through the last lines of detection lasers. It was practically childs play at this point, and as he slowly moved forward again he felt his mood change. He was almost there, he was going to make it, just a few more past and one last leap and YES!
He didn't yell it out loud, but he still let himself thrust his arms up in the air.
Before his knees buckled and he fell to the ground.
He'd made it.
"Excellent work. But still, be careful," Lt Vixen said. "We don't know how much more security like that there is?"
"I didn't even know they still used security like that," Skye added, Jack pausing as he heard the tone of her voice. Relieved, but exhausted. "It's… I mean you can easily get motion or heat detectors that mammals wouldn't even know about. Why would you do painfully obvious lasers?"
"Deterrence," came the voice of Doug. "Those modern hidden cameras and such are excellent at detecting an intruder, but an intruder doesn't know they are there and will still try and intrude. This method, even if avoidable as shown here, gives a visual and intimidating warning that'll scare off most chancers before they even step foot in the place."
"... Okay, yeah. That totally makes sense," Skye said. "Clever."
"You see, it's not so hard to compliment me for my achievements."
"No. Well done."
"...Thank you. And now for you to put it all down like you always do…"
"I'm… not."
There was a pause before Doug spoke. "Sure. You say that now…"
"Admit it," Lt Vixen chirped in. "The Doctor is charmed."
"Yeah, yeah 'sure'. Don't think I'm letting my guard down to all your foxy tricks though."
"Back to the topic at paw," Skye carried on. "I think I saw some of those still in use in Mesa City once. Left over from the time that the mob practically ruled the place. If intimidation was the main purpose, I guess that would make sense…"
Jack, sneaking along, felt it was quiet and safe enough to whisper his own little reply. "Must have had the same supplier then."
"Who knows," Lt Vixen said in an authoritative tone. "The important thing is you didn't trip them and, if my notes are correct, turn on their incineration function."
"Their what!?" Skye asked.
"Upping the power level to a factor of around a thousand…" the Lt trailed off, to the sound of rustling papers. "So as to torch any interloper… Hmmm, I suppose that's why these systems are visible. Don't want anyone accidentally tripping them, after all."
"But okay, what does this mean now!?" the swift fox vixen asked.
"It means we really made the right decision in sending Jack in instead of Doug."
"I… Good point."
"Huh?" the sheep asked.
"If what my surprisingly still alive sister says is true, Jack has two big advantages for this kind of work over you. One, he's a lot smaller, helping with the sneaking in. And two, he's less flammable."
"See," Lt Vixen chirped. "She does care."
The line remained oddly silent after, as Jack slowly snuck along to a door to what he assumed was a guest room. Ears up, he could hear the sound of a large mammal inside, moving around, getting ready for bed.
A quick scan around and Jack coiled his legs and leapt up into a small wall nearby, then up onto a small overhang in front of the door, and then up onto the roof. Breathing hard, he made his way along, looking for any open chimney or anything.
No dice.
"Okay," Skye said. "Try lifting a few tiles…"
Jack paused before nodding, leaning down and working his paws under one near the top.
"Good idea," Lt Vixen mused, as he lifted a few more, leaving some of the battens underneath exposed.
They were too narrow for him to slip through as was. But… If he took out the middle one, just a small section, he might be able to squeeze through. First though, as advised by his handler, he made a small cut in the sarking felt underneath, just to see what he'd be facing below. If it was all plastered up, there was no point. Instead though there was a drop down into a loft area, soft matts of insulation laying there.
He could get in.
However, realising it might be hard to get out, they advised him to try it lower down. So, he placed the tiles back and went over the top of the roof and down the other side, into a small back alley area. A quick check to confirm there was no easy way in that way and, just above the gutter, he slipped out a few tiles and began getting to work.
Paw into his tool kit, he brought out a small length of diamond studded wire, weaving it underneath the piece of wood and, paws on the soft handles, starting to work his way.
Slowly.
Carefully.
Trying to avoid making too much noise.
Giving bursts of activity when the wind rose and trees rustled.
Carefully looking around when it wasn't.
His arms were aching by the time he made the first cut through.
He took a short breather before pushing on with the second. On and on, working his way through until, finally…
"Got you," he whispered, placing the removed bit of wood down next to the tiles. He then cut through the felt and slipped in, stepping down onto the soft insulated matting. A few careful steps onto an exposed beam and he balanced his way over and around to a loft hatch. It wasn't anything fancy, no ladders or anything. Just a sheet of wood that needed to be lifted out.
Something far easier said than done as, at an awkward angle, Jack did his best to try and work his blunt digging claws underneath what was to him a bed sized plank of wood. Paws bent backwards, wrists straining, elbows doing their best, he grit his teeth as he managed to make it shift up, pushing his fingers underneath to get a better grip.
It slipped down onto him, his teeth gritting harder as a huff of air escaped them before, closing his eyes, he pulled up and shuffled back, dying inside just a little at the odd scrapes the wood made as it was angled backward and slid towards him.
The edge of the lid went over the lip of the surround and Jack let it rest, catching his breath for a second, massaging his fingers and listening out, seeing if he could hear anything.
Nothing.
Sliding it back further, ever so gently to avoid making a sound, the hare quickly had a space he could slip down into.
But getting back up?
He reached onto his back, bringing out one of the infiltration gadgets he'd been supplied with. Sure, he'd got in via drone and his jumping ability meant he could mostly travel around by rooftop. But, an emergency rappel device had been included just in case. He made sure it was fixed on securely, before giving one last scan with his ears and letting the rope fall down. Grabbing the climber attachment, he let it slowly carry him down into the black hall, his night vision goggles picking out the features.
Ears rose as he heard some soft snoring coming from behind one of the doors.
Weapon in paw, off he went, using a telescopic stick to go up and pull down the latch and, after silently guiding the door open, stepping inside into the bear's den.
The room was dark and silent, Jack looking up to see the bear slumbering on a bed, his arm hanging down below him.
"Right," came the tense overture of Lt Vixen. "Let's see if what my sister and Dr Ramses came up with will actually work. Though I must say I have complete confidence that it'll meet the design brief."
"Uh-hu," the sheep muttered. "My complicated electronic system functioning to its full ability, and her metal shell looking as similar as possible."
"I said I'm not good at electrics," the swift fox muttered.
"Yeah. And I'm a highly qualified biochemist."
"-And if we're being really honest," Lt Vixen cut in. "It's Peter from systems and developments that whipped up ninety percent of this. But there's just me trying to give my subordinates a little morale boost. That went down so well, didn't it."
The line went silent as Jack slipped his paw into his pocket and reached out the item in question. To the best of their knowledge it looked like the coppery pendant, though there was almost certainly going to be plenty different. It was bent and damaged at one end, likely not the same as before. But, while it was only a rough approximation on the outside, it was the inside where the magic happened. It had two core functions. The first was to detect electromagnetic waves, particularly in the wavelengths that, from their images of the wolf mercenaries receiver, they assumed they were hunting for. And then, and this was key, replicate the signal.
"Of course, I was also being very careful with my words," Lt Vixen added, far more quietly. Jack paused, eyes shifting a little as he thought he heard a sigh come over the line. "Before, I was thinking this device might be some kind of key. Now… the most likely answer is some kind of AI."
"Which is impossible," Doug cut in.
"Does the Dr Ramses have any other suggestion for this conversation," she said, just a little bit of irritation seeping into his voice. Jack paused and smiled, wondering just what his vixen was thinking now that she-who-could-not-be-flustered was beginning to crack.
"Well for a start, 'the Dr Ramses' is grammatical nonsense."
"And about the item of interest?" she asked, turning up the sweetness to saccharine levels.
"Well, they were lying and being irrational back then."
Skye cut in. "And if you're wrong?"
"... No. I am not wrong."
"Sure," she said.
"In any case Jack," Lt Vixen said, cutting back in. "If it is some form of computer programme, we might have an issue. We built this assuming some form of constant or patterned transmission that was being used to track the actual item down. However," there was a pause, and the hare could imagine her biting her lip. "If it is that case that this items contains some form of… intelligence… Or, oxam's razor, just some complex program. Then it might send out data based on data received, or vice versa. In such a case a dummy item like ours would not be able to do what we need it to do."
Jack let his teeth grind together for a second or two, until…
"Ah, though it seems we have found one telltale signal. It's… varying… altering… Like some kind of pattern, though I'm not seeing any repetition yet. Scan it around?"
Jack held it up, pointing it towards the nightstand, then over to the bed… "Warmer," came a soft response.
The hare stepped forward, pointing towards the bear, moving his arm down lower towards his tail…
"Colder."
Up towards his head. "Warmer, warmer, colder…"
Back down, focussing on his chest. "Got it," she said, as Jack walked around and hopped up on the nightstand, pointing his copy right at the bear's chest. He had the necklace on and, having rolled over, it was hidden from view. The hare grumbled.
"Right," Lt Vixen said. "Not able to spot any pattern in the signal yet, but I know it's there." There was a sound of tapping. "Let me just get a rough fake copy of the signal going, and if you pop him with a sleeping dart we…"
Whatever she planned to say next didn't register to Jack, his attention instead snapping forward to the polar bear, eyes suddenly wide open and staring at his night vision goggles.
"-Can swa…" the voice in his ear froze to a halt as the bear roared and lunged. Jack immediately jumped out of the way, the nightstand smashing apart as the roaring bear lunged into where he'd been, teeth bared and claws slashing. Down on all fours, the hare skittered away as the huge ursine turned around, lunging after him, a massive avalanche of flesh and fur and killer muscle.
"Wait, we can talk this through…" Jack urged, legs and arms pumping as he raced around in an arc, his back end sliding out from the angle and sending him skidding under the bed.
Kozlov didn't even bother with a reply, instead just leaning down, gripping the bed with two paws to toss it up and over, revealing the hare. He set his eyes on him, and Jack met his gaze with his own, on his feet.
Shaking paws pulled the trigger on his bolas launcher and in a second a woosh filled the room as the wire shot out, slamming into kozlov's legs and tying themselves around them. Without even noticing, the bear lunged down to crush the hare, who leapt through the gap between his legs, brushing the inside of the white furred limbs.
Kozlov turned to run him down, only for his legs to lock, his balance to go, and the floor to race up to hit the underside of his muzzle, hard.
The hare stood in front of him, heaving in and out, and the bear kicked and pushed, his rear end flipping and flopping like a fish on land. His forearms though dug in and hauled him out like a walrus onto the sea ice, muscles burning as he did his best to drag himself on like a legless zombie from a horror fic.
The hare hopped back, keeping his distance. "We can still talk this through," Jack said, paws up.
Kozlov ignored him, pulling himself on, murder in his eyes.
"We rescued your friend, Vasily, from those wolves."
"Sounds like thing wolves would say," Kozlov scoffed, kicking out and lunging at Jack. The hare bounced out of the way, launching another set of bolas at the arms. There was a sharp bang as the lower one hit the ground, sending up a cloud of splinters, and bounced back up, but they still wrapped his arms… somewhat. Down on his front, Kozlov growled as he began pulling at his arms, working them out of the less than perfect wire wrap.
"The wolves who tracked you down and have no qualms about killing you to get what they want?"
Kozlov jerked to the side, trying to wipe out at the hare, pushing down with his semi-joined arms to lift himself up, as if he expected to be able to fall down and crush him flat.
The hare saw it and leapt back, but not before launching one last set of bolas. They hit his arms when they were close to his chest and wrapped and wrapped around his body, tying it all together. The bear pulled his arms forward to carry him forward only to find them indisposed, instead only able to watch the floor come up and meet him.
He crashed down and settled, necklace pinned far beneath him, before glaring up, teeth bared, at the just a little cocky looking hare. "Well," Jack said, arms crossed across his chest. "That ties that up."
There was a long, silent pause, before things got serious again. "So, as I said, I am working for a group of mammals working against those wolves who hunted you down in Tundratown. We saved Vasily from them. He's safe. And we want to keep you safe too!"
The bear's eyes narrowed. "So if you good guy why am I trussed up like turkey for oven?"
Jack paused before shrugging. "If I am bad guy why you not shot up like turkey for plucking?"
"You wish to haul me off alive, do you not?"
There was a pause. "Yes, actually," Jack said, taking up a stance and picturing the bear with his paws. "Now, it was a bit of a strain on my muscles, but I've hauled wild Syrian ass before…"
"YOU WHAT!?" Kozlov yelled, leaping forward and snapping. Eyes wide, Jack took a leap back. "What you do to Jorin!"
"Who?"
"Jorin! You talk of Syrian wild ass. I know your game, I know…"
Jack tuned out of his ranting for a second, before shaking his head. "Of all the species in all the world I had to make a joke of, it's the one he's got a friend in."
The bear ignored his lament, still yelling curses and such. Finally, though, Jack looked him in the eyes and brought out a certain item from his pocket, dropping it on the ground so the bear could see it. "You know what this is?"
Finally, Kozlov froze. "You have another?"
For a moment, Jack almost said 'there are others' before going silent. He wasn't going to confirm anything. "Yes, we…"
The bear closed his eyes for a second before staring back. "Is fake."
Jack paused. "And you have the original, don't you?"
The bear remained silent.
"The original that those wolves are after, that all sorts are after, and you can't let them have."
"Sure," Kozlov said. "And that includes you. Tell me, you work for Rattigan too?"
Jack froze for a second before shaking his head. "I work with Judy Hopps. You trust her, don't you?"
He paused.
"You trusted her with whatever it was, and took it back off her when she was discharged from hospital."
He sighed. "Da. Was cruel thing to give bunny that burden. But I trust her." He looked up. "I not trust you."
"Sure," Jack said, leaning down. "But here's the thing. We're not against you. We're against those wolves. Infamous arms dealers. We wanna shut them down. And they are going to find you, you know that? You can't hide here forever."
"Why not?" he tried to shrug.
"They know the transmissions that your item releases," he said, pointing down at it. "They triangulate its location using it, and follow it to you. That's how they knew where you were in Tundra Town. They'll be coming. They'll be coming to attack this place. And then, there, you'll have a choice. You give them the real 'thing they must not have.' Or you give them this fake, transmitting an imitation signal and with a GPS tracker inside." Jack smiled. "In which case, we'll go and deal with these guys, all nice and safe."
He dropped it down in front of him, all while Lt Vixen, silent through all the conversation, spoke up through his feed. "Okay, clever. But, knowing what on earth that thing is would certainly be of great interest."
Jack paused, wondering how to move on that front. By the looks of it, the bear was considering taking on their fake device… But actually swapping it for the real one. Then again, he could just tranquilise him.
It felt a bit cruel though.
Which the hare clocked wasn't really that good of a motivation for a secret agent on a top secret mission to infiltrate a kung fu temple to investigate a polar bear carrying around what at best guess was a malicious AI.
-Dishonorable.
That sounded better.
And, more practically, Jack had a new idea about what darting him right away might not be the best move. Sure, they could take the real thing, but would they actually know what it was? -And for that matter, if the fake signal was only poor quality, then if they swapped them wouldn't the wolves soon clock that the real one was in a different location? Though, given that they wanted to face the wolves, that might not be a bad thing.
Hit grit his teeth before shaking his head. Okay! Let's go fishing. "I think I've worked it all out," Jack began, watching the bear jerk his head up. "You madmammals actually did it."
"Did… what?"
Jack chuckled. "You madmammals! You absolute madmammals. Oh, all the sci fi shows… well they did predict this. But, you! You made it real, and it's all on there."
He cocked an eyebrow. "What is on there?"
"Hirschler's brain!"
The bear gave an odd look. "What?"
Jack, smiling, pointing forward. "It's Adolf Hirschler's brain on there, isn't it! You guys secretly captured him alive, with some of that crazy tech they were working on. You plugged him in or whatever, and now you don't know what to with it. And that has the added bonus that all this time I've been fighting…"
"No."
Jack let his ears go overly askew. "Well if it's not that… I mean, from the sound of your talk with the others…"
"You were there for that!?"
"I am a secret agent of many talents," he waved off. "Anyway, there was obviously talk that something or someone of some level of intelligence is in that thing, and…"
"And it is like what I said," the bear growled. "You overheard, da? This is not thing of honour. There are no high esteemed deeds commemorated here. Nothing of value. It is dangerous. Repulsive. Why you no listen to my warning!"
Jack shook his head. "Why you no just tell what this thing is?"
There was a long pause, before he shrugged. "Because you would not understand. You could ask the great fox with blue hair, or the raccoon who flew over the burning fire, who together did what I and so many others could not. You would not believe. Like world would not believe."
"Believe what?"
There was a long pause. "That we in the land that abolish god… Were home to the devil."
Jack's ears twitched and he walked forward, only for his ears to perk up as he heard something outside. Fast footprints, hushed voices, all familiar and all getting closer. He looked down at the bear, lying on his stomach, too heavy to move off if he tranq'd him.
He grit his teeth and ran.
"What are you doing!?" came the voice over his wire.
"Getting out," he hissed, "they're coming!"
"I…" she grumbled. "Right, drone on its way."
He jumped onto the holds on his wire and flicked the switch, getting pulled up as the sound of the lock shattering rang out, accompanied by a grunt by the male panda. Jack didn't waste any time to visually confirm it, pulling himself and his gear over the lip and into the loft before hopping around and sliding the hatch back down.
A fist shot up out of it, splitting it apart, the remnants falling back down. A second later, two red, white and black paws hauled their owner up over the lip, two burning orange feline eyes staring out as a full split held her up on that level.
She saw the back end of a figure jump out through a hole in the roof.
She pounced, making her own, racing forward immediately at the small lapin figure now turning and running, unable to keep up as she came close and…
She suddenly noticed the high pitched wine, just as a drone swept past, the intruder jumping and grabbing on for dear life as it took off. All four of her limbs pounding, she raced after it, giving one last pounce her claws swiping and coming within a hair's width of the hare, before he was carried away.
She landed in a crouch, turning back before running to the guest room.
Their visitor was already stepping out, shaking down his limbs. "Are you okay?" she asked.
"Da," he said. "Thank you."
The older panda, stepping from behind and putting down a knife, nodded. "He does not seem harm. Appeared to be interrogation for information, and to steal the item. Not to harm him."
Tigress nodded, pausing. By their tone she was pretty certain, but it was worth making sure. "And did he succeed? Fail?"
"Fail," the panda king said, holding a chain. "Seems to have dropped it while running."
Kozlov nodded and took it back. "Da," he said. "Da."
"What now?" she asked, hoping for an answer.
Instead the black and white bear just nodded, thoughtfully. "Indeed. What now?"