The heavy blackness started to clear. The fog which hung over the fox's vision started to wain as he came to. Opening his eyes weekly, Nicholas Wilde blinked as he tried to shift the dots in his vision. He could hear machines whirring in the background; the air was thick with the heavy scent of diesel.

Shaking himself into awareness, he tried to sit up, finding himself lying on his back on what felt like a cold, concrete floor - apparently dry and re-dressed as he lay upon the floor.

Starting to sit forwards, the blurs his vision cleared further as he gazed ahead of himself. One black blur in the center of his vision cleared... and became the muzzle of a handgun pointing directly at his head.

Panic and adrenaline coursing suddenly through him, his senses were kicked into overdrive. He took in his surroundings - walls of computer panels, pressure gauges and diesel generators with monitor on the walls. The gun was held by Robert McKern, who stood flanked by Roderick who sat at what appeared to be the main control panel.

Roderick sat forwards. "Nice to have you back with us," he said, "Mister MacWilde."

Focusing his vision past the form of Roderick, the fox gazed upon a computer monitor which, on its screen, depicted the CCTV footage of a small, one-mammal submarine being ushered out of an underwater pen.

...

The warm sun shone outside as it started to fall once again down the sky. Out through the front door, the figure of a rabbit marched from within and towards a rabbit-sized car waiting in the drive.

Opening the door, she threw in her large suitcase sharply and stepped inside, slamming the door shut and clanking the car into ignition before pulling back and down the drive.

Angus De'ath entered through the main gait at the opposite end of the courtyard, a smile growing on his face as the rabbit drove up to him. "Och, good-day to you, Miss Hop-" ...a smile which slowly fell as the car drove directly past; the rabbit not even glancing to him as she went, her face an expression of tight fury.

Watching with bewilderment as the car pulled away out of sight, Angus turned back towards the castle and made his way on.

...

Inside the main hall, Ian Death and McGnab stood by the large castle fireplace and conferred quietly between one another. The front door opened. Angus stepped in.

"Was that Miss Hopps I just saw driving out of here?"

"Aye," said Ian, "it was."

"When will she be back?"

"She's not."

"What do you mean 'she's not'?"

"I mean she's left."

Angus started back. "She's left?"

"I asked her to go."

"...you did what?"

"I made it plain to her that I had no intention of making this place a funfair and that she was wasting her time here."

Angus blinked at him, bewilderment starting to shift to anger. "Now who do you think you are?"

"The Laird! And it's about time you remembered that."

"Now just a minute, Ian-"

"That's enough! Now, I don't want to discuss it any further."

"But what about the castle, she's falling apart!"

"We'll manage, as the De'ath's always have."

...

In the control room, Nick listened carefully to all the information he could hear, watching the two McKern brothers. One, Roderick, stood operating what appeared to be the main control panel, overseeing the small submarine on the screen as it made its way slowly out. And the other, Robert, who stood just watching him.

"I'll never ken how you work that thing," Robert said.

"That's why McGnab has you on lookout rather then helping me down here," Roderick said. "You don't have to understand, just make sure you don't touch anything. Especially this big red one here."

"What, this big red button?" he said, pointing to a large button on the control panel.

"Aye. They open the seacocks and flood the pen."

"Oh," said Robert, leaning in for a closer look - Roderick holding out an arm to block him, fixing him with a stern stair before crossing the room, sitting at a desk and taking up a pen with which he began scratching out a number of calculations upon a notepad.

Nick grimaced in Roderick's general direction as the feline nodded a head towards him. "Has the Chief said what he's going to do with MacWilde?"

"He hasnae said."

"He's a diver. We could always have another accident."

"So soon after the lat one? No, but there will be some sort of mishap. One way or another," he continued, turning to Nick slowly, "when they go tonight, so will MacWilde."

Nick held Robert's gaze firmly, unimposing though he looked sat upon the hard castle floor with both paws cuffed to the wall behind him on long, iron chains.

"Robert," Roderick said, "stop gawping and go guard the entrance into here. You know how McGnab feels about keeping the passage to the Iron Maiden guarded now. We don't want any interference should Miss Hopps come back."

"Miss Hopps? Och, she's long gone."

"Don't argue, just do it!"

"Ach, alright," Robert said as he began pacing from the room, "but watch MacWilde. He's a slippery creature if ever I saw one."

"Away with you. What can he do chained up?"

Robert paused in the doorway for a moment and watched Nick mistrustfully, but said nothing before waling away.

Nick's gaze remained fixed on the empty door frame a moment longer as he made sure Robert McKern wasn't coming back. Once sure, his gaze rose and he examined the leather strap his paws were bound in. Checking that Roderick was busy with calculations, he started slowly to twist his hand back and forth, gradually stretching the leather strap a little larger and larger with every twist.

It would take time - probably more than he had - but he had to give it a shot.

...

Some hours later - in the darkness which had fallen upon the Highland Moors (a kind of heavy, primeval darkness which you could only get out here in the Highlands) - a slim, feline silhouette appeared on the horizon.

Jogging silently, the distant figure crossed the uneven moors swiftly, almost bounding in the shadows and the darkness.

Reaching the edge of the old, gravel road which lead up to the keep's outer gate, the figure dropped down onto all fours, stopping dead and checking alertly all about herself before smoothly crawling the rest of the distance to the front gate.

Creeping forwards, slipping just inside the castle courtyard, she scanned the square of castle walls with her quick, amethyst eyes. Confident she would not be instantly spotted by anyone, she suddenly exploded into motion, sprinting with incredible speed across the long courtyard towards the door to the main keep itself.

The female paused just outside the door for a few moments, breathing deeply after her sprint. She may have been in perfect shape, but anyone would need a moment to recover after running at those speeds.

After a pause, she edged the door open a crack, her large ears positioned to pick up the slightest sound before she edged herself in and shut the door with a soft click behind her.

Creeping forwards again, the rabbit's raised ears suddenly sprang up at the sound of footsteps approaching her. Having changed from her casuialwear into a sleek, full-body catsuit, the rabbit slipped easily into the darkness of a shadow, concealed by the black, leather outfit.

From around the corner, the large frame of the badger McGnab appeared and marched through towards the castle dining room, his face a low grimace of displeasure.

Ian De'ath stepped to intercept him, coming out of the dining room just before McGnab entered.

"I'm going out for a walk," Ian said. "How long will supper be, McGnab?"

"About fifteen minutes, sir."

"Right. Won't be long."

McGnab nodding, he stepped into the dining room and pulled the door shut behind him. Ian paced the opposite way towards the front door the rabbit had just came in through, passing hardly a foot away from her before stepping past.

The rabbit breathed deeply in relief as the front door swing shut with Ian on the other side, fully aware if he had decided to go for a walk but a few moments earlier, he would have caught her sprinting across the courtyard.

But with the scene now clear, stepping further in, she darted swiftly towards the door to the dungeons. Undoing a little of the long zipper which ran all the way down her chest, she reached for a pocket inside, taking out the pencil she had used to pick the dungeon lock earlier, picked it again, and opened the door.

Again, her head peeped around the door frame first before she slipped inside and pulled the door closed again. She headed down the slippery stone steps brusquely and crossed directly to the Iron Maiden in the corner.

Pulling it open, she managed to resist the urge to start back from the wall of spikes this time, before slipping into the capsule and edging the false back open gradually, peering out into the corridor behind it. She took half a step in, then froze.

On his back upon a number of waist-high crates, Robert McKern lay relaxing on his back as though the crates were a bed. It wasn't Robert's presence which alarmed the rabbit per sae... it was the efficient-looking rifle beside him that worried her.

The rabbit moved forwards a step. Robert appeared not to notice, his hands up behind his head as he daydreamed. Judy took another step. Again, Robert did nothing. Down low on all fours, she crept close to the daydreaming feline until she was right beside him and then, with sudden force, the rabbit stood and threw her weight into tilting the large crates, tipping the McKern down to the ground.

He rose unsteadily onto one knee, glaring at the rabbit, holding the pain in his head as his gaze quickly swept the floor for his mislaid rifle. Spotting it, the feline made a swift grab for it - but the rabbit was swifter - and kicked out his knee from beneath him, sending him sprawling back onto the floor before she sent the rifle clattering across the floor with another kick.

Judy made to straddle his waste as she had done earlier. Recognizing this position, Robert rolled quickly and used his momentum to stand. He faced the rabbit, his stance firm.

Judy slid into a low stance, her paws raised and her knees bent in preparation to strike the moment the time was right. The rabbit waited. The moment came.

The feline thew out a paw in a horizontal slice towards the rabbit. Judy ducked swiftly beneath the swinging claws and stepped in close, bring an elbow sharply up into the larger mammals chest in a single, swift motion.

Wincing, McKern recoiled a step and made a blind swing with his paw. Catching his arm by the wrist, the rabbit viciously twisted his arm the opposite direction it was supposed to go, sending the feline down to his knees as he called out in surprise - a cry of surprise which was cut short as Judy stepped in again and delivered a swift uppercut to the creatures chin.

His head drew back sharply into the hard wall behind him, Robert teetered on his faltering knees for all but a moment before, gradually, sliding silently down the wall.

Judy turned and checked the entrance ways into the room. The fight hadn't been a long one, but someone was likely to have heard it. Spotting the felines rifle, Judy crossed the room briskly picked it up from the floor.

The weapon was the old-style carbine rifle, several years past its prime. She checked the barrel and found it clean and loaded: the gun most definitely worked. She armed herself with it. It was two feet too large and not really her style, but she couldn't just leave it lying about, and besides, she thought, remembering her absent partner, it might come in useful.