The guards hauled Nick back to Wolford's office and stood in front of the warden's desk, holding tightly to the fox's arms as he made one desperate attempt to free himself at the sight of the animal standing next to the big wolf. There was no getting away, and Nick stood there quietly as Dawn Bellwether walked up to him, looking him up and down with a bemused expression. "So what was it, Nick?" asked the sheep in her quavering voice. "I was watching you from the bathroom, I saw something Wolfie said got to you."
The fox said coldly, "Judy and me never told anyone about how I bit her on the throat. Even between us, we didn't talk about it. And you never mentioned it either. At least not in any official records. So how did Wolfie here know about it?"
Bellwether laughed merrily. "Imagine a little thing like that tipping you off! Not that it matters. You'll be joining Judy soon enough. But before you go, there's one thing I've always wanted to ask you." The little sheep came right up to the fox's face, staring into his eyes. "I totally believed you had gone savage. I helped develop the Night Howler toxin, I saw what happened to predators after they were darted." Her voice dropped and her eyes glowed. "The best was when I could go with Doug and watch him shoot somebody. Watch them go savage. And you, Nick...you were the best of them all. You totally fooled me. Or did you? Did you enjoy it? Seeing the fear in Judy's eyes, feeling her throat in your mouth?" Bellwether was so close Nick could feel her breath on his face. "Did you want to bite down? Taste her blood? Be the savage predator you were always biologically predisposed to be?"
Nick thought back to that night in the museum with Judy and that terrible moment when they realized there was no escape.
Judy thrust the case at Nick. "Take the case. Get it to Bogo."
He was appalled. "I'm not gonna leave you behind. That's not happening."
"I can't walk." She held the case out, looking at him pleadingly.
"Just…" The fox held up a paw. "We'll think of something." The blueberries caught his eye and he snatched the case and opened it, taking out the gun and extracting the pellet of Night Howler serum.
"What are you doing?" whispered Judy.
"What do you think Bellwether would have done if you gave her the case?" Nick loaded the gun with blueberries and went on without waiting for an answer. "She would have shot me and I would have killed you." His voice shook but his paws were steady as he tucked the gun back in its case. "I say we give her what she wants. If she thinks I've gone savage and you're about to die, she'll talk her head off. All you have to do is record it." He held up the carrot pen.
The bunny took the pen, then shook her head violently. "Nick, no! I don't want you to do that."
Nick looked searchingly at Judy. Her eyes were full of tears but her nose was completely still. "Not afraid of me, are you?" he asked teasingly.
"Oh, Nick!" Judy buried her face in his chest and his arms went around her. For a brief moment they clung to each other, then she sat back and said fiercely, "Let's do this."
Nick's expression relaxed and his eyes softened as he got lost in his memories and Bellwether snapped, "Are you listening to me?"
He came back from his reverie and smiled mirthlessly. "I was just thinking of something myself. How you stood there after you shot me, right at the edge of the pit, watching me go after Judy. You wanted to see it all, the pain and the fear and the blood." He leaned over so he could look directly in her eyes. "Is that what's really bothering you, Dawnie? That the closest you could get was watching, that you're just not equipped to tear someone apart yourself?" Bellwether was breathing very fast, her face going red, and Nick said mockingly, "That's it, isn't it? You'd like to be a predator yourself, instead of a weak little sheep with a bad hairstyle and no sense of fashion."
Bellwether screamed then, hitting Nick across the face with her hoof and splitting his cheek open and Wolford grabbed her and held her back. "Get him out of here! Make it look like an accident!"
"A painful accident!" howled Bellwether.
The guards pulled the fox over to the door and opened it to find Lionheart standing there. The ex-mayor took in the scene, the bleeding fox in the grip of two guards, the hysterical sheep held tightly by the warden, and he took a step into the room, frowning. "What the devil is going on here, Wolford?"
"This fox attacked me!" shouted Wolford. He gestured to the guards. "Take him to solitary."
They nodded and tightened their grip on Nick as he struggled with them. "Don't listen to them, Lionheart! What do you think Bellwether is doing here?"
"That's a very good question, Wolford," said Lionheart. "Dawn Bellwether is a dangerous prisoner with a personal grudge against this fox. Why was she here while you were talking to him?"
"Wolfie! I want that lion dead too!" screamed the little sheep.
Lionheart blinked in surprise, then dropped his big paws on the guard's shoulders, unsheathing his claws. "Before you two do anything you might regret, let's all just take a moment to calm down."
"This is none of your business, Leodore," the warden blustered. Bellwether kept trying to pull away from him and he had his paws full trying to restrain her. "Nothing's going to happen to Wilde. He's just being taken to solitary."
"Like this?" Nick held up a paw red with blood.
Lionheart's eyes narrowed. "He has a point, Wolford. He should go to the infirmary first."
The warden bared his teeth and pulled open a drawer, taking out a gun and pointing it at Lionheart, then he jerked back, clawing at a steel dart in his shoulder. His eyes rolled up in his head and he fell to the floor, the gun dropping from his paw. Bellwether scrambled for it, and Chief Bogo shoved Lionheart and the guards aside to put his hoof on the gun. Behind him, several other officers grabbed the guards and hustled them out the door, while Bogo snapped cuffs on Bellwether and shoved her at Francine, the elephant officer from Precinct One. "Take her to the hospital. Psychiatric ward."
"You got it, Chief." The elephant held the tiny sheep off the ground as she shrieked curses at them all. "What about Nick?"
The fox was huddled on the floor, holding both paws to his bleeding face, and Bogo knelt next to him. "Let me see." Nick lowered his paws and the cape buffalo whistled softly. "That looks bad. I'm going to take you to the prison infirmary to get it patched up, but you're going to need to go to the hospital yourself, Wilde."
"Good thing it's not the morgue, Chief," said the fox as Bogo helped him up. "It would have been if it wasn't for Lionheart here stalling them." He looked keenly at the big lion. "Just how did you happen to show up?"
"I didn't like the way the guards took you away so I followed you." Bogo and Nick started out the door and Lionheart roared, "Just a minute! I demand to know what's going on!"
Bogo and Nick exchanged a look and the cape buffalo said gruffly, "Well, come on, then. I suppose you've earned an explanation."