Jack pressed his back against the wall, peeking through the gap between said wall and a fire extinguisher at the group of mammals standing in between the open partitions. The C4 tripwires had been triggered by the gunfight, leaving small craters where the bombs had been. The wolves were in the corner, bound and disarmed, their weapons in a pile far out of their reach. Jack recognized his and Alyssa's pistols in the pile, too small for a wolf's paws.
They must have kept the weapons with them in the unlikely event that their prisoners escaped. Smart.
Jack smiled when he saw his folded crossbow. They'd even kept the quiver and all its arrows. Despite this, he felt worry gnawing in his gut. The masked feline had taken this elevator. She had to have run right into these mammals. Yet there was no sign of her anywhere.
McHorn had just finished tying up the wolves with the already ragged pieces of his police shirt, leaving him in his tank top. He stood up, his bare arms red with numerous small cuts. "Jesus Christ, Hopps. Did you seriously just take out two gunmen with your voice box?"
Judy clearly couldn't help looking slightly smug. "Am I the only one who knows that when wolves hear howling, they howl too?"
McHorn huffed. "We've gotta add that to the corkboard. If we'd known that sooner, we might have avoided that crapstorm in the Canyonlands…"
Higgins looked at him incredulously. "That wasn't my fault! Those idiots issued me 45mms when I needed 9s!"
"Whatever." McHorn said. Standing just behind Judy was Nick, ears flat and tail wrapped around his legs as he stared up at the rhino. "Which way is the platform?"
"Through that door." Higgins said, jerking his thumb at a metal door further down the hall. "We should tread carefully. If the cable car's arrived, Sedor might have heard all that racket."
McHorn checked that his shotgun was loaded, and then checked how many extra shells were in his pocket. "Alright, here's the plan. Hopps, you come with me to deal with Sedor. Higgins, you stay here."
"Are you serious?" Higgins didn't like that. He quickly glanced down at Hopps, realizing how that sounded. "I mean, she did take out a rhino back in the academy, but he wasn't armored."
"Yeah, but I've got a plan to deal with that. And she's key to it." McHorn pointed down at Judy.
"Are you saying that I can't handle armored goons?"
"I'm saying that no-one here can both help Mansa and watch them at the same time!" McHorn pointed to Nick and Gabriel. Gabriel was leaning against the wall, watching the wolves. "And you've got Savage and that vixen to keep an eye on as well!"
Higgins threw his arms up and sighed, argument lost. "Ok, fine. What about the howlers? Want me to stick them in a cell, too?"
McHorn nodded. "Better safe than sorry. Come on, Hopps."
Gabe pushed off the wall. "When he showed up at the Arctic House, all three of you almost got blown up. I can help."
McHorn gave him a look that snarled 'hell to the no.' Then Judy spoke up. "Lieutenant, he saved you from that torture chamber. I think he can be trusted."
McHorn grumbled something under his breath before turning to Gabe. "Don't get me wrong, I haven't forgotten you busting us out. But you try anything and I bust a cap up your ass."
Gabe nodded. "Sure."
McHorn shifted his attention to Nick. "You. Stay with Higgins. Or else."
"Or else you bust a cap up my ass, too. Got it." He looked to Judy, looking more worried than he had when the two razorbacks were pointing guns at him. "Carrots?"
Judy's ears pricked. "Yes."
"Take care."
Judy smiled and nodded.
Jack realized he had a decision to make. If he kept up the Congressional Research Service act, he'd be stuck upstairs under Higgins' watch. He had a cover to maintain, but he still had the fake ZBI badge. He'd used it on Hopps already, so she could back him up. It was up in the air how the more seasoned cops would react to losing their jurisdiction.
But his crossbow was right there. They were blocking his path to the labs. He'd have to explain how he managed to restore communications. He'd have to explain his actions to Miss Morton, and he was dreading that discussion, but the pros outweighed the cons here.
"Ah, well. Time to come clean." With that, he stepped out of the extinguisher's shadow.
McHorn and Higgins' reactions were just as predicted, while the surprise of those who knew his true nature were more subdued. "Savage! What're you doing here, you're supposed to be sitting tight!"
"I know, but I think it's time you knew the truth." Jack flipped open his badge. "I'm not with the Congressional Research Service. I'm ZBI."
"Wait, what?!" McHorn snapped.
"McHorn, it's true." Judy said.
McHorn did a double-take on the rabbit. "Hopps? You knew?"
"I found out when I ran into him the last time I was on this mountain. I'm sorry I kept it from you, but we had to protect his cover."
McHorn looked ready to start shouting, when Higgins quickly stepped in front of him. "Cool it, Mac. She did the right thing and you know it. Let me guess, Savage. Your mission is to track down the bastards behind this conspiracy."
"Affirmative." Jack said. Things were too far gone to call anything classified now, except perhaps the mind control collars. "I'm looking for the same mammal you are, the one who created the serum turning predators, and now prey, into savages. My mission is to find him, and all the evidence he has connecting him to Mayor Swinton. To do that I need to get into XIBABLBA, behind that last partition."
"Where's the vixen?" Higgins asked.
"Upstairs, watching the cameras. I trust her, and you should too." Jack said. After the worrying conversation in the control room, that was no longer entirely true. "Look, we don't have time for this. Another one of the terrorists has entered the facility and has made their way down here. I'll go check out the laboratories over then and track her down, and find a way into XIBALBA, while you do what you were already planning to do. Then we'll talk more about my pulling the wool over your eyes."
"Change of plan. Higgins and Wilde go with you." McHorn said.
Jack nodded, knowing it would be unwise to argue. "Does that sound like a plan?"
"It does." Judy said. "Right, guys?"
McHorn snorted. Yes, definitely the juris-friction type. "It does, but only because Bogo still needs help. Let's move out."
Well, that went better than I hoped, Jack thought before he handed over the radio and told them about the disable jammer. Plans were made to call for assistance as soon as Sedor was dealt with, and they split up.
Jack watched Judy, Gabe and McHorn as they disappeared through the passage to the platform, and for a moment considered going with them. But the other mammal was still around here somewhere, and so long as they were those officers were in danger.
One thing at a time. Higgins and Nick waited by the laboratory entrance while Jack retrieved his crossbow and quiver. A keycard would not be necessary for this door, for it had been forced open so violently that one side looked like crumpled tin foil.
Wary for any sign of the feline, Jack and his unwanted companions entered a short hallway with a smashed ceiling light. There were three doors, all in the same condition as the first. One wall had smeared pawprints formed from aged brown blood.
"I know that geeks aren't very popular, but this takes the cake." Nick said.
They saw how right he was when he entered the first lab.
It was carnage, far worse that the asylum above. The metallic benches and machines were still in place, so Jack was able to recognize its purpose for experimenting with chemicals, but everything else was a mess. The lights were smashed, forcing Higgins and Jack to use flashlights. Broken glass was everywhere. A chemistry analyzer lay in pieces beneath a spider web crack in the wall. Some of the surfaces had blood and splattered chemicals on them. Great rage and hatred went into the destruction of this lab.
Probably similar to what Alyssa was feeling right now.
She would likely be quite cheesed if she knew the real reason Jack had made her stay in the control room. He should have seen it coming. Alyssa was far too often governed by her emotions, and she practically idolized Radames. If she was already upset about the likely possibility of Slothfeld getting nothing more than a slap on the wrist, how would she feel if she walked into XIBALBA, where the experiments on Radames and the other predators had taken place, and it sunk in just how much they had suffered at the doctor's hands? Jack knew the consequences of defying orders. Alyssa knew the consequences. But with everything they had learned, there was no telling what would happen if she and Slothfled ended up in the same room together.
"Hey, maybe we'll find something in that." Nick said. Jack pointed his flashlight at a large, normal wooden desk with both drawers fully pulled out, surrounded by notebooks and papers. Perhaps the predators had been so blinded by primal fury that they had missed the key to getting to the sloth responsible for their suffering. An unlikely situation, but he couldn't afford to overlook anything. "Wilde, make yourself useful." He and Nick walked over to the desk and bent down to search the scattered papers, while Higgins volunteered himself to secure the other two labs. Jack didn't pay too much attention to the contents, but when he did he saw enough to discern that the desk had belonged to Slothfeld's assistant, one Marvin Kaufmann. That reminded him of something else that had to be done once the primary mission was completed: identify and account for all the staff involved in this project. He'd have to find some sort of staff list once it was convenient, even though he doubted that any of them were still alive. He knew for certain that at least three were dead, the corpses in the jeep where he- where Judy had found the disk.
He lifted a raised pile of papers on the desk to find a thick high-quality notebook underneath, and almost ignored it when he noticed 'Kaufmann' written on it. Jack reached out, his paw freezing just before it touched the book. "What're you waiting for?" Nick asked.
"We're wasting time. The keycard isn't here."
"But this notebook belonged to Slothfeld's assistant. There could be a clue."
Unable to fault the fox's logic, Jack picked it up and flipped through the pages. Nothing was dated, and Kaufman's handwriting left something to be desired. Eventually he found a page that mentioned XIBALBA and started reading.
Had a hell of a show in XIBALBA today. Subjects #4 and #15 were ordered to have a knife fight in the central room of the testing area, as part of the latest batch of tests to determine if the collars were capable of giving very precise instructions. For this test, our subjects were given five instructions:
1. Do not kill your opponent.
2. Use nothing but the knives you are given.
3. Punches and kicks are forbidden.
4. Maria must avoid Starlight's head and abdomen.
5. At the sound of the alarm, Maria must immediately forfeit the fight.
The test had mixed results. While the first four rules were followed during the course of the fight, Subject #4 showed extreme reluctance to follow the fifth rule when the alarm sounded, forcing Slothfeld to shock her into submitting. During our routine discussion with Dr. Lemming, he surmised that Subject #4's resistance was caused by the Twilight Phenomenon. Maria Manchas, as a hitmammal and enforcer for Mr. Big's criminal organization, had a reputation for being extremely professional with her work, to the point of being compared to the 'Verminator.' After being injected with Version 1 and subsequently developing the Twilight Phenomenon, her behavior toward killing changed drastically. She now takes intense pleasure in slowly killing her victims, and will always see a fight through to the end. When ordered to stop the fight with Subject #15, being prevented from finishing the fight on her own terms had enraged Subject 4 to the point of disobedience.
As further proof of Dr. Lemming's theory, Subject #4 has spent the entire evening demanding a rematch.
The Twilight Phenomenon is essential to the effectiveness of the new TAME Collars, so resolving this issue has become top priority. Slothfeld has scheduled a meeting with Dr. Lemming to discuss how to prevent future incidents.
"We should probably warn Gabe that his wife has a mortal enemy." Nick said. "Don't you agree?"
"I do." Jack turned a couple of pages until XIBALBA was mentioned again.
The "good doctor" finally let me catch a break. Starting from tomorrow, I'm no longer dividing my time between assisting him with XIBALBA and developing the antidote, instead focusing entirely on the antidote for Version 2. In fact, he's put me entirely in charge. I'd feel honored, except there's not much use in an antidote when none of those predators will ever be cured. The antidote vials for Version 1, the 'Twilight' serum, are still under lock and key in Slothfeld's personal lab, in case of accidents. I guess he wants an antidote for Version 2 for the same reason.
On that note, I'm sort of glad I'm no longer doing much work in XIBALBA. I understand the need to test how much influence the collars have over the subjects, but Slothfeld is starting to go a little over the top…
Jack skipped ahead a few pages, feeling more at ease. Knowing there was a cure for Radames's affliction would make Alyssa happy. Nick made a small noise. "Version 2. That must have been the serum used on me. Hopefully there's more around here somewhere… what are you looking at, rabbit?"
"No reason." Jack said automatically. "Actually, I'm just wondering why you were the only predator given an antidote."
"Why did she spend weeks posing as my security guard?" Nick said with a shrug. "Maybe she only had so much antidote to work with, and picked me because I was Swinton's scapegoat?"
Nodding in agreement, Jack skipped some more pages until he saw a reference to Radames and Slothfeld.
I'm still in shock. Now Slothfeld wants to widen the age range in his test subjects. He's not just talking about seniors. He wants babies as well. Bloody babies! Now I know why he's so interested in that fox's pregnancy. Normally I can push my discomfort aside by reminding myself that the end will justify the means, but I can't stop thinking about one of the latest XIBALBA Behavioral Experiments. To put it simply, Subjects #1 and #2 were ordered to mate. It started as always, with Slothfeld giving the order while their minds were still their own. When they naturally refused, he activated the collars and repeated the order. They obeyed so readily that I almost thought they were genuinely enjoying it. I won't deny that it made me feel a little sick when I heard about it later. Slothfeld's always been lax with what he calls "petty morality," but this is going above and beyond. I'm starting to think he doesn't really believe in prey supremacy. He just wants a lifetime's supply of subjects to experiment on without consequence.
I'll call Woolton tomorrow, so he can pass the message on to Swinton. She has to put a stop to it. Forcing predators to do sick and twisted things to each other for our own amusement is not what the collars were built for. In the meantime, I'll continue to keep an eye on #1 and #2. They behaved erratically during the first two days since the experiment, and Dr. Lemming assured us it was typical behavior for victims of sexual assault, but now they're unusually quiet. When they look at the security cameras, we see pure hatred. I think they're catching on…
"That sick bastard." Nick muttered.
Jack lowered the notebook, feeling slightly sick himself. This was so much worse than he thought, and he wasn't just thinking about the 'experiment.' If Alyssa found out, she'd eviscerate Slothfeld for sure. Then Miss Morton would blame Jack for not stopping her, and nobody would win. He flipped until he reached blank pages and turned back until he came across an entry about something about the collars.
I was right. The behavioral influencing collar is only 100% percent effective so long as its function remains a mystery. Once the subject becomes aware that the collar is influencing their actions, effectiveness drops to roughly 60-15%, depending on the resilience of the subject. Subject #14, Gabriel Mossberg, had figured it out, and that was how he was able to fake his coma and escape. I shared my calculations with Slothfeld, and he agrees with me, but he insists that we wait until we have found a solution before we share our findings with Swinton. I warned him about #1 and #2, that their growing resistance to the collars is connected to my discovery, but he believes that they are of little concern.
The alarm has just sounded. Something's happening.
The next page was blank and torn.
Jack hoped that Slothfeld was dead. That his shriveled heart had failed him while he hid in that cursed place. That when they found him, his corpse would be so decayed that there was no way the investigators would hold Alyssa or Jack responsible. That Alyssa wouldn't be able to ruin her own life by murdering him in cold blood.
He owed her too much to let her do that do herself.
Before Higgins could come back and catch him, Jack flipped back to the page detailing what Radames and the bear had been forced to do to each other and ripped it out. Nick said and did nothing as the rabbit tore it up into little pieces and scattered them across the fallen papers. They looked at each other, nodding in an unspoken agreement. Alyssa could never know.
Almost completely hidden beneath the gentle pitter-patter of the paper shreds settling on the floor, was the smallest of creaks. Jack's ear twitched and he tackled Nick to the side, feeling a sting in his ear as it heard a knife stabbing loudly into the notebook right where he'd been kneeling. Jack rolled to his feet beside the destroyed chemical analyzer, crossbow aimed at the masked feline, and fired. She lifted the knife, letting the arrow sink harmlessly into the notebook skewered on the blade. She twirled the knife, ignoring that the tip had broken off.
"You need to pay more attention, zebra-boy." She sneered. "I almost took your ear off."
Jack felt blood trickling down his right ear. He dropped the crossbow and pulled out his handgun while Nick backed up against the desk. "You shouldn't have brought a knife to a gunfight, sweetheart."
The feline removed the mask, and Jack recognized Maria Manchas from her file. She had a reputation as one of the most dangerous predators in the criminal underworld... as did most of the mammals she'd killed.
The feline laughed. Her eyes were wide and dilated, even though it was dark. "Wouldn't be the first time. Or the sixteenth. And I'm still here, aren't I?"
Jack adjusted his aim to her forehead. "And how, may I ask, did you manage that?"
"By cheating."
She flung the knife and notebook straight at Jack's face. He ducked, letting the weapon pass over his head, and aimed at Maria again, only to see that she had gone. He swiveled on the spot, but there was no sign of her. And there were hundreds of places in this asylum where she could hide.
"This could be trouble." He muttered.
Just when he thought things couldn't any more complicated, there was the short screech of speakers coming to life. Jack looked up to the corner of the ceiling, at a speaker he hadn't seen before.
"Subject #2. You returned just in time." Jack's eyes narrowed. He recognized that voice from videos he'd watched before he started the mission. So he was still alive after all.
Higgins ran into the lab. "Who the hell is that?"
"The good doctor." Jack said. He wondered if Alyssa was hearing this, too.
Slothfeld's tone was blatantly sardonic. "I see that you've recovered much of your past since you escaped from your cage. Tell me, does this jog your memory?"
A child's voice came from the speak, high-pitched with fear. "Uncle Sid? Uncle Sid, help me, plea-" The voice cut off.
"Uh oh." Said a feminine voice from somewhere in the dark lab. Higgins raised his weapon and started searching. Jack did the same, while Nick stayed by the desk, listening to the sloth's threats.
"Do you recognize the voice of your godson? Of course you do. And if you thought the experiments on you were abysmal, believe me, they are nothing compared to what I will do to little Morris if you don't do as I command."
"Fuck…" Maria said from somewhere behind a row of workbenches. "Not good, this is not good…"
"Luckily for you, my instructions are quite simple. Kill the other subjects. Every last one of them. Kill the other mammals in this place. Deal with the traps. It doesn't have to be in that order. After that, when I give the order, you will stand back and do nothing as I walk out of here. If you try to come after me, Subject #15 here will start cutting pieces off of little Morris. I'll tell her to save the tongue for last, so you can hear him better. If I don't see a body in five minutes, Morris loses an ear. Understand?"
The speaker fell silent.
"Well, shit." Maria said.
Jack swiveled his ears, trying to determine her location.
"Why are you working with Sedor, Manchas?" Nick asked. "Mr. Big won't appreciate you defecting."
"Going back to Big right now won't help me get my paws on Slothfeld." Maria said from no discernible direction. How was she doing that?
"So revenge is your M.O. Funny, you don't seem all that bothered that you're a psycho now."
"True, but I don't appreciate being ordered to jump through hoops for science."
"You're not worried the Angry Bird of Black Death could turn against you?" Nick asked. Jack motioned for him to keep her talking.
"Hell, no." Maria said.
"And how do you know?" Nick asked.
"'Cause Uncle Sid's not stupid. He knows the Knave will kill the kid once he's home free." Maria said. Jack peeked around the corner of a bench, but there was no sign of her.
"Show yourself, Manchas!" Higgins yelled from the other side of the room.
Maria stayed hidden. "More likely he'll just lose his fucking mind."
"He's in Twilight, like the rest of you." Nick said. "Hasn't he lost his mind, already?"
"Not really. You know why he's in charge when the Red Queen's not around? It ain't because he's a boss. He's better at keeping it together than the rest of us. But when he loses it… he fucking loses it."
Jack heard Nick gulp. "That bad, huh?"
"Understatement of the century. I think I'll stay put here until he gets a hold of himself. I saw your friends heading his way earlier. Hopefully ripping them up into red and blue snowflakes will calm him down."
Nick's breath hitched. "Judy."
Jack turned to say something to Higgins, and that was when he spotted the black shape in the shadow beneath the desk behind the hippo, a knife gleaming in its paw.
"Behind you!"
Higgins spun in the nick of time. Not quick enough to avoid injury, but just quick enough to receive a cut across the shin rather than the intended severing of his Achilles tendons. He fired at the desk, but Maria had already vacated her hiding place. Jack hadn't even seen her move.
"Wilde, where the hell are you going?" Higgins shouted.
Nick was running for the door. "I have to get to Carrots!"
"Carrots? Aren't you a pred?" Maria asked, sounding genuinely bewildered. "Wait, you're Wilde?"
"Don't be stupid, you dumb fox!" Higgins charged after him. Jack initially followed before stopping at the door.
"Go. I'll take care of her!"
Higgins spared him a nod before continuing his pursuit.
Jack turned back to face the lab. For some reason he thought of the church in Liondon, where he'd captured Trevlyan and thought he'd killed Doug Ramses with a giant iron bell. One by one he'd eliminated Trevelyan's goons before he'd acquired the main target. Now he himself was no different from a goon, just standing here in the darkness waiting to be picked off.
To hell with that. Jack aimed his gun at the shadows, ears erect, eyes sharp. He was in control, and he was going to prove it.
"Come out and fight, Manchas!" He yelled into the gloom.
"And get a face full of Parabullum for my trouble? I might be psycho, cutey-boy, I'm not stupid!"
Jack flexed the fingers holding the gun. "Then we have ourselves a good old-fashioned standoff."
There was a giggle from somewhere in the room. "Yes, we do. Just until Sedor finishes off your friends and smells you out."
