"What?" Daniel replied.
"Well, I don't know how else to describe it, Daniel. I mean, he turned back into a vicious predator!" Nate answered as he took a few steps back.
Daniel stiffened, "Turned back into a vicious predator?!" He could not believe it. "My brother has just gone missing and you decide to talk to me with some specist crap!?"
Nate became nervous, bringing his hooves in front of his long face in a shaking gesture that made it look like he was trying to stop the wolf's confusion.
"Calm down.. I'm sorry, that sounded wrong. I promise, I don't fully know what happened either. I just know, he tried to attack me! I didn't mean anything offensive." Nate said, cautiously as he put together a dry smile.
The wolf could sense the zebra was telling the truth. He could not detect any rising scents that would indicate what the zebra was saying was false. After all, Daniel had developed a keen sense of smell as he had tried to live a life of caution after his parents had passed.
Daniel took a deep breath in and continued, "He attacked you?"
The crowd of mammals in the large edifice had stopped. They all had the facade of being busy, but together they shared the common reality of watching what had turned into a show.
Nate hesitated, "Yes, and I told the mammals in here already. It was during my break. At around 4 or something, maybe a bit later." The zebra's glance lowered slightly. "You know me? I was just jogging outside the office building." Nate paused, and Daniel waited in deep anticipation. The story would have to commence. The zebra gulped, "Anyways, I ended up going a bit north to get something to snack on near the border of Tundratown and Sahara Square. As I slowed to rest a bit, I saw him darting at me from about 50 yards away. I hadn't noticed it was him at first, but as he drew nearer, I made no mistake of it. He resembled you too much." He stopped to look at the muzzle of the opposing wolf. Daniel was horrified. "He had his claws out, and his fangs..! I was going to die! Everything indicated I was going to die! He was savage! But, in the end, as he was leaping towards me, some mean wolves in dark uniforms shot 'im with a net gun and muzzled him. They saved me." Nate studied Daniel's expression, worried that he may have upset the canine once more.
"And then what!?" Daniel exclaimed. This was too unbelievable to be real life! His Asher? His sweet, sweet Asher?
But Daniel had reason to believe it. All of it. He knew something had been off the moment he entered his apartment complex. It may not have been a murderer or kidnapper after all. It might have been just Asher. But how? Why!? Poor, poor Asher. It was Daniel's fault. Daniel knew it to be his without hesitation. He was distraught. What had he done to make Asher go this mad? Asher was but a child! The unsent text on his phone. Could this have been it? Why Asher, What has happened to you!? Please, Return home!
Daniel wanted to run. Just run. He wanted to flip over every rock in the magnificent and magical city of Zootopia until Asher was found. Until Asher was safe. Until Daniel could give his dear Ashy his gift that had been for Asher's seventeenth birthday. How long ago was that? A few days? But alas, he knew that he had to finish listening to the irritating zebra if he was ever to extrapolate any real answers about Asher's whereabouts. After all, Nate had just said someone had captured him. But then that worried him too. He began to rub the bridge of his muzzle.
The zebra replied, "They told me your brother, what was his name again? Asher? They told me he was under the influence of some certain kind of crazy artificial drug. He said this insanity was a common effect of it. They said they were the Canine Anti-Drug Agency, or CADA. They told me he was going to be brought to a rehabilitation facility. I told them I knew who he was, your brother, but they told me that all the appropriate mammals have been or will be consulted and notified about the issue, and I was to stay out of it. They told me I was not to speak of this to anyone because it was meant to be undisclosed. I bet they would have made me sign an NDA if they weren't in such a rush. I guess they didn't tell you though... Thats horrible. I should have asked them more questions, but I was too traumatized to speak. If anything, I'm glad I made it out of there alive!"
Daniel was on a rollercoaster of emotions. He was glad, because, if true, he knew where he would start looking for Asher. However, the thought of Asher taking drugs, especially without telling him, upset Daniel. Still, he was skeptical. He never heard of this "CADA," which was a bit concerning. Plus, why would there be an anti-drug agency for just canines, and most importantly, Why had they not told Daniel about any of this! After this conversation, he would have to go through all his emails and messages to make sure he did not miss anything pivotal. But first, he would have to get more information.
"CADA? Are you sure? I never heard of them in my life!" Daniel's voice was so sharp it was almost as if he was accusing Nate of murder.
This time, Nate stood firm, "I promise, I am sure. But, I also have never heard about it before. They told me only canines really know about the organization... Don't get mad at me though, I'm just telling-"
Daniel was now fuming, "Well apparently no one told me about it!"
The emotional and now heated discussion had not went unnoticed. Two tiger security guards had shared a glance at each other and made their way to the two rowdy, warring mammals.
As they approached them, one of the guards turned to Daniel and deadpanned, "Sir, you need to leave the premises." Of course, Daniel had known both the security guards, as he had worked in the building, but at this instance he could tell that the guards were not playing games. They began to forcefully escort Daniel outside of the building. His view of the zebra was getting fainter and fainter. But he remembered one more important piece of information he had to have.
He shouted from just by the building's main doors, which was now across the room from Nate the zebra, "Wait! What happened next? After they captured him? Where did they go!?"
Nate replied, half-shouting, "They took him in some black van. I don't know where they went after that! I went back to the office to get my things as soon as I could. Sorr-!"
Thud. The guards had successfully flung him out of the premises. The doors shut behind him. They had purged him from the establishment. They had purged him from possibly the only way of gaining more crucial information about Asher's location and state of being. Daniel had Nate's email, but he decided the matter was too intense and lengthy to be hosted through an email log. Plus, he felt the chances of Nate just ignoring any email Daniel sent would be very high.
He was on his own again.
But all hope was not lost. Now he had a place to start. And now, if this so called "Canine Anti-Drug Agency" truly does exist, Daniel would finally have a foothold in this aggravating case.
It was 5 PM, Daniel quickly got on the train to Taigasnow Stop. He would solve this conundrum one step at a time. He was sure of it.
His apartment unit was pretty quaint. It consisted of a small living room, which was where the destruction had happened. The living room was full of makeshift furniture now as a result of the incident, and so any character the room once possessed was now stripped away. The flat also also had two tiny bedrooms: one for Daniel and one for Asher. Though, in reality, one had original been designed to be a small game room, but Daniel had quickly converted the room into his own bedroom, allowing Asher to have the more spacious one. The unit also had a humble kitchen, a pantry, a single bathroom, and a cramped laundry room. They didn't used to live in an apartment complex, but Daniel had lost the house after his parents had passed, and he worked tirelessly to be able to live in this space with Asher. It wasn't much, but he was proud of it.
Making his way to his ancient, table-side computer, Daniel slumped into his chair and took a deep breath.
First, Emails.
Nothing.
Okay, surely there's some new messages on my phone.
Nothing.
My Files?
Nothing.
Remembering that physical mail existed, he made the trek down to the apartment lobby, where the mailboxes were kept in neat rows.
Please,...
Nothing.
Then, back to his computer.
He was beginning to panic. His tail was ruffled. He was not mistaken, they truly had not sent him anything. Something did not feel right. He began to sweat as he checked every single form of communication he knew.
Absolutely nothing.
His heart pacing, he opened Zoogle and searched the phrase, "Canine Anti-Drug Agency." But sure enough, there was nothing to be found. After a few more long minutes of searching that to Daniel had felt like an eternity, he capitulated and concluded that the off-brandish stories that had been told to Nate had in fact been lies. He pulled on his ears in anger. He was raving. He yelled at the top of his lungs without paying much thought into how his neighbors, especially Ms. Honey, would perceive it. "It doesn't exist! It doesn't exist! Asher, where could you be!?"
Daniel thought about contacting Nate again for more details. He wondered whether Nate had remembered what the wolves had looked like, or whether he remembered the plate-number on the van, but it was no use. The zebra had been so frightened that he couldn't have remembered those minor details. So, Daniel saved the trouble and decided against it.
But wolves! Most mammals, especially predators, would love being around the same species, and wolves were definitely the same too. But Daniel had understood long ago what Zootopia had carved the average wolf into. He knew that society left not much room for wolves to be anything except for cold and self-centered. Wolves often were able to work in much more diverse occupations than other predators like hyenas or foxes due to their many biological adaptations, but still, the thought of some mysterious wolves kidnapping his own brother and then effortlessly lying about is was deeply upsetting to Daniel.
Daniel paced around his room for a while trying to come up with any sort of solution to all of his questions. He then decided he had to know for sure what this CADA association really was, or if it somehow really did exist, and so he made a visit to the local courthouse which contained a large percentage of Zootopia's public records.
The courthouse was downtown, and Daniel had to take another Zoober to get there. The courthouse, the biggest in Zootopia, was a magnificent structure filled with loads of history. The marble columns that held the outer frame together were truly something to behold. But Daniel had no time to stop and stare at the spectacular architecture. He had only one thing on his mind.
Entering the grand courthouse building, he was greeted at the front by a female impala receptionist. The impala showed Daniel the way to the seemingly thousands upon thousands of stacked file cabinets of records organized neatly by the ever handy tool of alphabetical order. Scanning the labeled letters with his increasingly narrowed pupils, Daniel had made his way backwards from the middle of the alphabet to the letter 'c'.
Flipping through the files, he tried desperately to find any account of this "CADA," but again, just like on Zoogle, he could not find any.
His pointed, furry ears drooped backwards. He was livid! And, his frustrations were pointed directly at himself.
How could you have let this happened, you stupid wolf! He was your brother! You were supposed to protect him!
Daniel wanted to break down in tears. In fact, falling to the floor, he nearly did. But he realized this was not a time to weep. He had to stay strong. He had to stay strong for his dear Asher. Daniel had to stay strong if he had any hope in finding his brother! He picked himself back up again. He needed to make sure. He needed to be 100% certain that this agency did not exist.
He then made his way back to the receptionist, who he assumed knew a lot more than himself about government records and public agencies.
Weakly, and with one last act of desperation, Daniel asked the Impala the million dollar question, "Excuse me ma'am, I don't know if you're the right person to ask, but do you no if theres a drug rehabilitation agency or something for canines called the 'Canine Anti-Drug Agency?'
With a noticeable expression of confusion, the receptionist stated, "Not to my knowledge, sir. I'm pretty sure the Zootopia Drug Agency, or ZDA, would be the only such organization, otherwise it would be written somewhere in the records."
And just like that, Daniel's suspicious had finally been proven correct. Nate had been finessed, and therefore Daniel had been finessed. There was no Canine Anti-Drug Agency, and Asher certainly wasn't being taken to a rehabilitation facility after all.