Chapter Fifty-Two
Apparition's Inhibitions

'T' minus 82 minutes and counting.

Sitting back into the leather upholstery of his gray car, Jack Savage clicked his tongue against his lips as he mused, his scrutiny sweeping slowly this way and that across the face of Erkin Electrical Enterprise. Jack sighed and shielded his chest with his crossed arms; thus, he brought a paw up to stroke at his chin. He couldn't see any easy way in. The wall he was faced with was all solid and unclimbable brickwork, with no window ledges, missing bricks or convenient drainpipes anywhere near close enough to help him scale the wall. With a lot of time and energy, he might have been able to carefully climb up the solid wall of bricks, perhaps managing to dig the small claws of his paws and feet into the mortar. But even then it solved little, as the windows were all sturdy and armored with industrial-looking locks from the inside.

There were no secondary entrances or alleyways alongside the building, and no exterior fire exit he could access, for the sets of identical structures carried on for more than half a mile either way. Savage huffed into his seat. This was intolerable. The more defenses a location had, so to speak, the easier it was to find a gap in it. When it was a simple door and single brick wall like this, it was almost impossible to get in unseen. Coming to a decision, Jack turned towards his car radio, reached out a paw and fiddled with the dial. Yes, his orders were to keep close behind Hopps and Wilde, and yes, he could have easily gained access to the building, had he had to. But that would only risk blowing whatever cover they had used to get in there themselves; hence, letting the organizers of the drug gang know that the police were on to them. Different steps had to be taken.

Flicking his radio on and turning the dial halfway to the right, the rabbit tugged upon it sharply... and then the whole stereo system flipped back and was replaced by an LCD screen that was built into the structure of the dashboard. A smile growing, Agent Savage worked dexterously with the controls and, in the space of an instant, the screen had switched to a green-scale display of the front of Erkin. Pressing another button, the image flickered and the outlines of a dozen or so people, inside the building, came to life on the screen in red.

It wasn't that much of an elaborate piece of kit — just a high-power thermal camera that was mounted discretely on the top of Jack's car — and yet it always gave the striped rabbit a pang of delight to see his dashboard lowering down like that. It was this kind of super-spy high-tech stuff he lived for, after all. Changing a dial on the controls, the image zoomed and focused in upon the figure of a fox and a rabbit stood side-by-side within. Only able to see a fogy outline of where the walls and doors might be, Jack watched as the two small officers apparently pushed open a pair of doors and stepped into the main work room, where all the other people were bustling in activities.

Savage knew this wasn't what he had been ordered to do, but it was as much aid as he could provide without risking too much. From here, at least, he could keep an eye on them, call for backup and intervene with guns blazing if he had to. By the shape of it, what looked like a beaver had spotted the two small officers inside — probably the foremammle — and had started marching towards them. Nick visible took initiative and engaged in deaf conversation, but Judy remained at where she was.

A sly smiling growing, Jack zoomed the camera in a little more, focusing it solely on Judy. That was quite an ass she had on her. All in all, he was quite looking forwards to his little chat with her tonight, and what they'd sure as hell'd be doing together after. An impatient shiver ran up the striped rabbit's back. He shot upwards, thinking, for just a second, that it was his conscience or fate or God or something, telling him not to use MI-Z equipment to stalk young rabbits — but then he realized he didn't have a conscience. That fate was just a myth and there was no God. The recollections brought him to remember something else.

When you were in Jack's game long enough, you came to know what a shiver meant. You had to, if you wanted to stay alive. You had to intimately know the hot itch you'd get on your neck the instant; before, someone'd make an attempt on your life. The flush of heat when someone was lying to you and the cold chill which stiffened all your muscles, whenever you were being watched by something... nasty.

The fur on the back of his neck prickling up, Jack leaned back nonchalantly to gaze into the rear-view mirror. He stared quite still as he searched — checking in every window, beside every car and every crevice he could spot. He found nothing, but knew better than to ignore that cold chill… that gut reaction that he was no virgin to.

Jack Savage was no romantic — nor was he a believer in superstitious fantasies such as destiny and luck — but what he did know, is that a 'gut' reaction to something was a genuine part of all the senses. It was the result of the subconscious mind, which operated far quicker and sharper than the frontal mind. It was trying to tell him that something was amiss. When a mind was trained, such as his was, a pang of doubt could mean that a small part of his mind had spotted an assailant hiding in the shadows. And it was not to be ignored.

Unbuckling himself, Savage shifted fully in his seat, and looked intently around him. He again checked all the windows of all the buildings around him, glanced inside every single car and into every lurking shadow.

There!

The tiniest flicker of movement, concealed deep in the gloom beneath a car that was parked across the street. It was almost impossible to see, betrayed only by the slightest of inconsistencies in the biblical blackness — the shadowiest tinge of gray in the black. Jack stared attentively into the obscurity. Something was definitely there, and he never would have spotted it if he wasn't looking. But whatever it was, it was there. The car was for a larger person, but there still wasn't much space beneath. It was either a rodent-sized creature observing him, or someone very supple and dexterous. A narrow alley beside the car suggested to Jack that this had been the route of entry, to whom or whatever was there in the stalking unknown.

Squinting into the darkness, Jack Savage reached out silently towards the controls of his thermal-imaging camera. He fiddled with them, still waiting for something to wobble in the deep void, as the camera turned towards the car. And then...

In the instant the red figure of the creature had appeared on the screen, it was gone, springing with almost unnatural dexterity away to somewhere uncharted. For a long time, the rabbit panned about the local area with the thermal camera, his breaths heavy and his eyes unsteady with the intoxication of... fear?

The small, striped creature was at a loss to explain why, be he suddenly felt very lost and alone. And frightened. His breathing was sporadic, his heart was beating all too fast and his palms were itching, while his eyes darted from the thermal camera to checking about him again and again. It reminded him of things he didn't want to remember — couldn't explain how he knew them at all — it reminded him that he was just a small rabbit, a prey in a world full of predators. It was like he had looked through a portal back to the past, like he had come face-to-face with a real predator of old, almost as though he had seen the very face of death himself.

On the verge of hyperventilation, Savage grabbed for the glove box and yanked it open, snatching for his gun which laid within. His paws literally shaking, he struggled to load the cold, metal device. But then he caught himself and stopped whatever he was methodically doing. With experienced relaxation, he fumbled in the mess of his thoughts. What in the world had that been? An illusion? Did he just have a stroke? Had his drink been spiked without him noticing? The windows of the car were closed, so he couldn't have been blowpiped by acetylcholine…

The desire for fresh air was then upon him, and so he pushed open his door and pulled himself out. The stuffy air cleared and became almost icy-cold, yet calming and cooling his mind. His legs felt wobbly beneath him, and he felt sick. Therefore, the rabbit supported himself upright on the car. "Some fluffed-up hallucination," he muttered. "What was that damn thing, some kind of wolf?" But it was too big for a wolf... head and shoulders weren't as they should've. And there was something wicked in the way it had leaped away from the scene, something subtle, but unnatural, about the swiftness of its movement.

Jack knew now that it was just in his head, of course. But it didn't stop him from being unnerved by the occasion. "Maybe I've been working too hard," he mumbled, his mind trying to rationalize what he had been a witness to. "I've gotta take a break." Still somewhat shaky, the black-striped rabbit lowered himself back into his car. He knew that what he had seen had been just in his head, so he didn't bother in checking for it again — instead just rotating the camera back around to face Nick and Judy inside, finding them as they were leaving from the area of now-crowded workers.

Once they had left, Jack knew, it would be straight back to the ZPD with both of them. After that would be an hour of preparing, while the paperwork was pushed through. Then the raid, where they both would constantly be with all the other officers, and then back to the HQ again. Ergo, there was no point between now and when he was meeting Judy later, where the two of them were in any position to be attacked.

On these grounds, Savage decided there wasn't a need for him to remain in close proximity to them, since they were almost out of danger from Erkin. And so, bringing the car into life, folding the radio back up into its standard position and pulling the car away, he decided to give himself a break.

And besides... he needed to get another strong drink.

Author's notes:

Hesitance jumps around your mind,

Grooms decision thus chosen blind.

Your thoughts most succulent of snack,

All delivered by luscious feedback.

So don't hide like a tiny shrew,

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