Gabe pressed his ear against the fourth locked door he'd come across, the one leading up to the roof, and thought he could hear the monotonous hum of some large machine. The other three doors had been as quiet as tombs, so this one gave him a bit of hope. Depending on what sort of machine was inside, there may be someone inside who was maintaining it. But without a keycard, or someone who knew how to pick a lock that couldn't be picked with a credit card, he had no way of knowing.
After falling into the trap in the Director's Office, Gabe was reluctant to try kicking the door open, which looked sturdy enough that kicking it wouldn't have worked anyway. He moved on, stopping before a wall map of the asylum. He examined it, mentally noting the remaining rooms on this floor, and the bottom floor which had yet to be fully explored.
With caution an absolute must, searching the asylum had been slow going. Every room he'd entered so far had shown signs of recent habitation; a general lack of dust on the chairs and floor, stained beds that looked like they were being used by jackhammers, and fly-ridden avian cadavers piled up on tables and various other surfaces. The smell from that last detail was especially repugnant. Gabe couldn't remember being in any of those rooms during his time in captivity. He didn't even remember everything about the area he had been kept in, but he was sure it would come back to him once he found it. Every room, however, had been empty. No hostiles, no Starlight, no Slothfeld, no mammalian corpses… no anyone.
"The male ward." Gabe muttered, eyeing the specified section of the map, the last area of this floor he had to explore, located at the very end of the main hallway he was currently standing in. After that, the only place left would be whatever was on the other side of the thick metal partition underground. With a kukri knife in paw, he set off in that direction.
His heart jolted when his ears caught the sound of voices. They sounded masculine, but after hours of searching a creepy asylum soaked in old blood and gore, any sign of life was better than none. When he reached the doors to the male ward, he found it held shut by a makeshift security bar built from metal scraps. Gabe used that bar to pull himself up to look through the window; the hallway beyond was empty, but the voices were definitely coming from that direction. Gabe dropped back down and lifted the bar. When he opened the doors, the voices became clear.
"… you think he's coming back?"
"Don't jinx it, Higgs. Just don't."
Gabe raised an eyebrow. "Sergeant Higgins?" He stopped in the middle of the hallway, focusing his hearing to determine which room the voices were coming from.
"I'm just asking." 'Higgs' said. "I'd find out myself if that jerk hadn't taken my watch."
"He took your watch so they could flay your arm elbow to wrist! If the other ones hadn't radioed him, you- you really want him to come back?"
There. Gabe crept up to one of the left doors. He looked through
the keyhole and saw-
"Shit, wrong room." Gabe moved to the next door along, the one bearing the name DAY ROOM. When he looked through the window, he saw two gurneys standing side by side in the middle of the room. Restrained to each one was two police officers Gabe recognized almost instantly.
"Did you hear something?" Higgins asked, turning his head left and right.
"What?" McHorn asked grumpily.
Gabe dropped down and tried the handle. It was locked, but the door had been hit by something, warping it just enough to widen the vertical crack between the door and the frame.
"Fuck this." He slipped the tip of his kukri into the crack.
"Ok, now I hear it." McHorn sounded tense. "I told you not to fricking jinx it."
Gabe opened the door and stepped warily into the room. He didn't see tripwires, bombs, or anything else that indicated a trap. McHorn and Higgins had turned their heads toward the door. Their bruised and bloody faces grimaced when they saw Gabe.
"Aw shit, they're taking turns." McHorn groaned. "You can cut off my cajonesshove them up my ass and you still won't break me you little piece of-"
"Save it for the real bad guys!" Gabe snapped. "I'm not one of them."
"Then what's the carving knife for?"
"It's not a carving knife, it's-" Gabe took a deep breath and shut the door behind him. If they really thought he was one of the terrorists, this was going to be difficult. "Would you mind explaining to me what the hell you're doing here?"
Higgins tightened his fists. One wrist had a deep cut that was leaking blood onto the filthy sheet beneath him. "We ain't telling you nothing."
"It's an easy question. It's not like I'm asking you for your mama's grass pie recipe."
Higgins started to look uncertain. "Maybe he's telling the truth, Mac. That other bastard wanted to torture us just for the sake of it."
Gabe decided to press on. "Higgins, right? I overheard you saying that wolf was called away. Any idea what that was about?"
Higgins chewed the corner of his mouth, visibly debating. McHorn glared at the hippo, daring him to talk. "If you're not one of them, who are you?"
"Gabriel. Gabriel Mossberg." Gabe said, not wanting to risk a lie. He wasn't that good at it, and cops were trained to tell the difference. "I'm looking for someone called Slothfeld. Know him?"
McHorn and Higgins traded glances.
"I'll assume that's a yes. Do you know someone called Starlight Foxtrot?"
"Now that we don't know." Higgins said. "But we heard that wolf say her name on the radio."
"What the hell, Higgs?" McHorn growled.
Higgins tried and failed to shrug with the restraints holding him. "What? I don't want to give him a reason to use that thing!"
Gabe held up the blade, letting it flash in the light of the ceiling lamp. He walked up to McHorn's gurney. "It's a kukri knife, and I'll use it to cut those restraints if you want me to."
"'Scuse me if I call bullshit." McHorn said snidely.
Gabe sighed and cut the strap of the restraint holding the rhino's right arm. "There. You're free. Now are you going to cooperate or not?"
McHorn wasted no time freeing his other arm before glaring down at Gabe. Gabe glared right back, ready to fight back if the rhino tried anything. McHorn scrutinized the mammal, specks of dust flashing in the bright light above his head, and then he huffed. "Fine."
Gabe stood back as McHorn freed his legs and got off the gurney. Gabe frowned when he saw his full body. His clothes were full of bloody slits, like someone had taken a scalpel and tried to carve him like a Halloween pumpkin. In fact, as Gabe kept examining the cuts, he could make out jagged words. AKELA WUZ HEER was the most distinct, carved in large pointed letters on McHorn's exposed chest. He knew then that freeing them had been the right thing to do. "Christ on a stick."
"What?" McHorn asked before realizing that Gabe was staring at his wounds. "Oh, yeah. Expect some severe police brutality when I get my hands on that bastard." He went to free Higgins, and Gabe decided to resume questioning.
"So why was the wolf called away?"
"His buddy said that someone called Starlight had come back, and they had to catch her before she made it back into zibalba." McHorn freed Higgins' arms first.
"Starlight?" Gabe repeated, heart nearly stopping again. Could she really be here?
"Yep. Sounds like a codename from one of those stupid Marvole movies." McHorn freed Higgins' legs, and the hippo got off the gurney. Other than the cut on his arm, he didn't look as brutalized as his larger comrade. "He took off as soon as he heard, and he hasn't been back since."
Higgins' eyes grew big as he took in Gabe's appearance. "Christ, you look like a one-mammal-army! What kind of predator are you?"
"Trade secret. Just know that I want to stop these mammals as much as you do. And I think I know how we can help each other."
McHorn's response dripped skepticism. "How can we help each other?"
"I'm going a hazard another guess and say that neither of you have seen anything outside of this room. I know where the control room is, but without the keycard I can't get inside." Gabe traced McHorn's robust, muscular, massive form. "Not by myself, anyway."
To his relief, after threatening to turn Gabe into roadkill if he tried anything, McHorn and Higgins consented to let him lead the way. Along the way, like many officers do, they asked questions. Had he seen their captain? Were there any weapons they could use? What the hell was going on here? Fortunately for them and Gabe's patience, they had the sense to keep their voices down.
"I don't know where Bogo is, but if you're looking for answers, you've come to the right place." Gabe said. "These predators were being used as test subjects for the serum used to target those predators back in the city."
"You mean the serum the fox claimed turned him savage?"
"That's the one. As you may have already guessed, the experiments turned them insane. And now they're using that same serum to exact retribution against Zootopia."
"Unless we stop them." McHorn said. "If this Project Twilight was using dangerous mammals, they've got to have some kind of armory."
To their mutual disappointment that was one of the rooms Gabe hadn't found yet. "Pity that peashooter of yours is too small. Bastards took my Python." Higgins muttered.
McHorn snorted. "Since when did you have a pet?"
Higgins stopped dead. "Seriously? You think I'm talking about a pythonpython?"
McHorn snorted again. "I did. Right up until you started staring at me like that."
"Am I going to have to put a gun to your head before you'll read that book?"
Gabe held up a paw. Further down the hall leading to the control room was a camera panning left to right. Timing it carefully, they passed right underneath the camera and continued on. "The door's right around this corner. Take a look."
McHorn peeked around the corner. "I've busted through walls tougher than that."
That was exactly what Gabe wanted to hear. "I'll handle anyone waiting on the other side." He rounded the corner and pressed his ear to the control door. He heard the tapping of fingers on a keyboard. One mammal was in there, maybe two. He looked at McHorn and jerked his thumb. "After you."
McHorn was through the door faster than Gabe could think 'take them alive if you can.' The shocked curse of one at least one hostile was almost consumed by the thunder of the door hitting the floor. Gabe spun and charged into the room after McHorn, who was already gunning for the single wolf standing beside the monitors.
There was a clank to Gabe's left. A meaty hand grabbed the hood of his jacket before he could turn to look, and he felt himself being yanked backward. Something huge and metallic raced past his face, and there was a sharp crunch of a wall cracking. Dangling from Higgin's grip, Gabe tried to figure out what had happened as McHorn dealt with the wolf, pinning him to the floor before looking back at the doorway. "What the hell is that?"
Higgins released Gabe and they both stepped into the control room. Embedded into the right-hand wall was a large saw blade from the abandoned sawmill, built into a pendulum-like mechanism. Beneath said pendulum was the slack string of a tripped tripwire.
"Thanks." Gabe muttered, squeezing his kukri hilt in fury. He'd seen the bear trap and shotgun in the lodge. He knew that there'd be booby traps here in the Red Queen's lair. How could have been so stupid?
"Rama, right?" McHorn growled at the wolf trapped beneath him after ripping off his helmet. "Lucky for you, you're not the one who cut his name right into me. So where's the asshole who did?"
Rama spat at him. "I'm top dog, you fuck-ugly, fucking piece of fucking fuck! Get outta my office!"
"Higgins, check the feed!" McHorn shouted. Higgins obeyed quickly, while Gabe walked over to Rama and his captor. The wolf blinked at the sight of him.
"You? Aren't you the one who got away?" Rama snickered. "Retarded geniuses thought you were a freakin' vegetable."
McHorn looked up sharply. "What's he talking about?"
"I escaped a few months ago, before Slothfeld could turn me crazy, too." Gabe admitted. "I didn't tell you before because I didn't want you thinking I was one of them." Ignoring McHorn's glare, he knelt down beside Rama. "If you remember me, you'll remember the vixen I was brought here with. Where is she?"
"Savage Starlight? You just missed her. Hot stuff slipped right past the traps. Again. With a fuckin bear cub. Can you believe that horseshit?"
McHorn grunted and stopped looming over Rama but didn't take his grip off him. "At least he's cooperating."
Gabe leaned over Rama. "Where is Starlight?"
"Back in XIBALBA, with the good doctor. He's been stuck down there since we broke out. One way in, no way out. Not without getting a face full of C4 or us cutting him up into little pieces."
"You mean the partition underground?" Gabe asked. "Is that where they are?"
"Which partition?" Rama asked. "All of them, I guess."
Gabe pressed his kukri against his throat.
"The machine jamming communications. Where is it?"
"Now that, I'm not telling."
Higgins spoke up from where he was watching the monitors. "Hey, there's some kind of signal jammer on the roof. A big one."
Rama dropped his head to the floor. "Fuck."
Higgins pressed another button. "Oh, and I found our stuff, by the way. Locked up in this room with a whole smorgasbord of weapons. In the armory."
Gabe peered at the image. "That door was marked as the handicapped toilet! Sons of bitches must have switched the sign."
Rama held up a paw. "Guilty as charged!"
Gabe looked at McHorn. "I'm going to go see about those partitions."
He joined Higgins's side before the monitors, flicking through different feeds before finding the feeds displaying the underground floors. Higgins was busy rewinding the feed of hidden cameras at the lodge, muttering about Bogo. As it turned out, there were three partitions. The first one, the one that had blocked Gabe's path before, lead to a white hallway loaded with tripwires. There were two doors in this section, one leading to a laboratory and another leading to the glass cells Gabe had recalled. The second partition led to a small lobby, where the third, sturdier partition was also sealed. In this lobby stood the other two wolves, watching the third partition with assault rifles. There were no feeds displaying the interior of XIBALBA itself.
"Starlight." Gabe whispered. He dropped down and started rummaging through Rama's clothes. The wolf made some strongly worded complaints, but McHorn held him firm to the floor. In the rear pocket of the wolf's pants, he found a ring of old keys and a keycard. Time to let the spies out of their cages.
It was also time to lose these officers. He'd done enough freeing them from those gurneys, and he couldn't risk them changing their minds and trying to arrest him. They seemed like honest cops and hurting them was not preferable.
Gabe was taking fleeting looks at the doorway, debating how easy it would be to simple cut and run, when Higgins suddenly muttered. "Son of a bitch! What are they doing here?"
Gabe held a kukri back to Rama's throat so McHorn could see for himself. "Hopps?!"
Gabe's ears pricked. So did Rama's. He cursed under his breath but wasn't entirely surprised. He and the agents had been gone a long time, and they were working against the clock. And that bunny was a tenacious one.
"I think that's the lodge. What've they got cameras there fo- what the hell, is that the fox?"
"It's like a fucking Wild Times reunion." Rama chuckled.
"Shut up, you psycho." Gabe muttered.
"Come on, you can be more original than that."
"Fuck off, you fat, useless sack of fucking yankee dankee doodle shite."
"Nice try, Ramsay used that one in Hell's Game Trail! And I'm not a born Animerican!"
"Okay, enough!" McHorn snapped. "This was two hours ago. Which way did they go?" He nudged Higgins aside to fast forward the footage himself. "Jesus, they're headed right for us. Higgs, keep checking the cameras. They might already be here." He strode past Gabe and Rama and grabbed the tripwire. He pulled it free and motioned for Gabe to stand aside so he could properly truss up Rama. "Someone has to go turn off that jammer so we can contact Hopps."
And that's my cue. "Leave that to me." Gabe took off like a shot, 'conveniently' taking both the keys and the card with him.
Minutes later at the first-floor cells, Alyssa wasn't at all pleased. She had the aura of a pressurized soda can being exposed to intense heat. "First of all, what took you so long? Second, what the frig are Hopps and Wilde doing up here?"
"The three of us going out of contact for nearly two days may have something to do with it." Gabe said sardonically.
Alyssa sighed and walked out the cell. "Let's just free Jack and find that bloody tiger."
"Also, I ran into our missing police officers."
The vixen stopped dead. "Which ones?"
"McHorn and Higgins. Last I saw them, they were in the control room with one of the wolves as their prisoners. We should probably try to avoid them."
"Why?"
"Because I kind of took the keys and ran off."
"Kind of?"
Gabe rubbed the back of his neck, "Yeah, kind of, so let's not run into them again. Otherwise we'll have a lot of explaining to do."
Alyssa's ears flattened. Her gaze went over Gabe's head. "Yes. We do. You might want to turn around."
Gabe closed his eyes, put his paws on his hips, and lowered his head. "… Okay, which one are you?"
"The hot one." McHorn said slowly.
Gabe turned around, head still low, feeling the frigidness of the rhino's glare. "I tried to give you the slip because I didn't want to compromise my friend here."
"And who is your friend?" McHorn asked. Gabe looked up and saw a little recognition in the officer's eyes. Did he recognize her from the Arctic House Incident? There was also a pistol in the rhino's holster, radio on his belt and a shotgun in his hoof, likely borrowed from the 'handicapped toilet.'
"I was being held hostage by these predators." Alyssa said quickly.
"Haven't I seen you somewhere before?" McHorn asked.
"You caught me hooking a few years ago." Alyssa gave herself a hint of resentment. "And I've been keeping my legs closed since then, thank you very much. I came here looking for my mate. His name is Ben. He's a cheetah who used to work at a Bug Burga. Seen him?"
"Your boyfriend's a cheetah?"
"Not that kind of mate, you twit!"
"Easy there, Snow White." Gabe roughly patted Alyssa's shoulder before things could get out of hand. "He's obviously not familiar with your mother tongue."
McHorn peered at the vixen. Gabe was beginning to think he might need to get his gun out when the rhino grumbled. "Let's get something straight. I don't trust you, and neither does Higgs. You run off like that again or pull any other crap, I'll come after you with some cuffs and a very, very big gun. Got that?"
"Got it." Gabe said.
"Sure." Alyssa said.
"Now that that's settled, is there anything else we oughta know about?"
It was Alyssa who answered. "They're holding a member of the Congressional Research Service here, too. Or so I heard."
Jack Savage did his best to look scared and relieved when he was finally freed from his own cell. He was doing a good job of it as well, even though Gabe knew that the added complication of two police officers had to be pissing him off more than his long stint in that cell. Like Alyssa, Jack quickly came up with a convincing story. He'd escaped the chaos of the Palm Hotel only to be abducted by mysterious mammals wearing masks, and had been held prisoner in this asylum since then. McHorn had seemed more convinced by that yarn that he had been with the fox's.
"It's not surprising that no-one saw it happen. I like to work alone." Jack said. Gabe detected a hint of truth in that particular statement. "So what now? Have you called for backup yet?"
"We can't call anyone until we stop that jammer." McHorn said. "I'll drop the three of you off with Higgins, then I'll go- Oh for God's sake, what are you doing here, Higgins?!"
Higgins had come barreling around the corner, Rama's bound body over his shoulder, panting like bellows. "Mac… it's Bogo…"
"Bogo? You found him?" McHorn stomped past the three small mammals and grabbed Higgins by the shoulders. "Is he okay? Spit it out, you bastard!"
"There's some kind of cable car station under the building. I saw it on the cameras…" Higgins took another heavy breath, almost pale with fear. "Valentino's on his way here right now. With Bogo and Clawhauser. He's got both of them, Mac."
McHorn audibly and visibly swallowed. "Alive?"
"I think so. Come on, we've got to get down there."
"Hold up, let me think…" McHorn paced a little, rubbing his head. "Hey, short stuff. You mind if I take those keys?"
"Nah." Gabe threw them to him.
"Good." McHorn pulled Rama from Higgins's shoulder and tossed him unceremoniously into Jack's former cell. He shut the door, cutting off the wolf's vile threats, and locked it. "That's one down. We should take care of the others before Valentino gets here, so he doesn't have backup."
"Wait, what about us?" Alyssa asked.
"You and the rabbit should go hide. You, on the other hand," He added, pointing at Gabe. "are staying with me so I can keep an eye on you."
Gabe held his paws up. "Fine, whatever." He looked Alyssa dead in the eye. "If you see a handicapped toilet, don't be fooled. The control room's clear, and there's plenty of places in there where you can hide. See you two, later, alright?"
Jack and Alyssa nodded. "Sure." Alyssa said. "And something still needs to be done about that jammer." Leave it to us, her eyes told him.
Gabe turned back to the officers and held out a keycard, diverting the officers' attention from the other paw reaching down to make sure his radio was still on. "This might open that partition."
"Thanks." McHorn took the card with a grunt. He pocketed the card and cocked his shotgun. "Come on, Higgs. It's Bear Season."
