Meet The Wretched
Mr. Big entered his private study; a small room tucked in the corner of the first floor of his home. He decorated it with black and white tile floors and an assortment of sculptures depicting mythical creatures. He briefly admired the small stone figures that shared space on the shelves with his books. A large safe was kept behind his desk in the right corner of the room. Over the last nine years, the four-foot shrew built a reputation for being ruthless, fearless, oppressive and dogmatic. He cherished every one of these adjectives and developed a set of binding principles in order to distinguish himself further. Rules that needed to be obeyed by his family and treated like religious commandments: Deliver on time and perform your best. Family gets the best and only the best and it is expected that family gives its best in return. Everyone can be bought. Payment comes in two colors: green and red.
Big pulled out a five-wheeled office chair from under his desk and sat down. He pressed his back into the chair and shrugged his shoulders before further pulling open a drawer that sat ajar. Inside was a large binder sticking out over the edge. He placed the binder on his desk, careful to avoid knocking over his bottle of Viper, an alcoholic beverage. There was much business to get to. Thankfully, his daughter Frieda was quite the secretary. I should treat her to something special, he thought.
He pulled open the rings of his binder and took out three colored folders that had notes recently scribbled on their faces. The purple folder read, "Pay the hustlers." The white folder had a note that read, "Clean the icebox," and the green folder read, "Business Deals."
He turned to the green folder first and pulled off the post-it note his daughter had placed on it the day before. On it was a phone number to a fabric shop. The shop was Finnick's Fabrics. Big had sent three elk scouts to Finnick's shop a month ago to have them do some scouting for a potential fence. One of the three elks managed to become friendly enough with the short fennec fox and picked up on some personal struggles that Finnick was dealing with. Finnick confessed to running a shop with an illegitimate license. Finnick missed the registration deadline to renew his license. But with a mix of coercion, bribes and cunning, Big helped the fox earn a new license in exchange for him being a fence to help move special clothing.
Big smiled as Finnick accepted the deal and their partnership became concrete. Finnick is a good fox. Loyal, reliable. Big threw away the note. He already memorized the address and phone number of Finnick's shop.
"Another one enters the family," Big said audibly. He smiled proudly of his new acquisition and expected obedience from Finnick, as well as Delgato and Grizzoli. He paid for their support and loyalty with many thousands of dollars and the teeth and tails of his opposition.
Big's daughter Frieda entered his study. He noticed her green silk dress and red high-heels. Her long black hair was fluffed up and stood tall like a proud ostrich puffing out its chest.
"Hey, Sweetpea."
"Daddy, are we ordering out tonight?" She loudly chewed her bubblegum. Big smiled and said,
"Sure. We'll be ordering those granola bowls with cinnamon worms tonight, yes. But if I get my way, every business in Zootopia would work for me." Frieda grinned through her teeth as she chewed. "Soon there will be a free market trade that rivals that of the riff-raff and their legal dealings. I'll make the laws. And the street hustlers will rule the markets under my wing. No goods will be off limits. Everything will be for sale. Nothing will be done without my say. And all of it will work out for the best." He sighed in a raspy breath and groomed his bushy eyebrows. Frieda spat her gum into a small trash can next to his desk. "Are the jackets ready, sweetheart?"
"Yes," Frieda said. "The jackets are being duplicated now. Our designer is brilliant," she chortled. Big nodded.
"We're going to need our strikers well armored for what is to come. Tundratown is mine. It's time to spread out. But one thing at a time. We need to...weaken the opposition." Big pulled out a small board with a painting of Zootopia's districts from the back of his binder. He picked up the shot glass holding his second serving of Viper and placed it on the map. He pushed it over Sahara square with one finger and onto a small red circle with the words, "Judge Hilo" written next to it.