Copyright Disclaimer
The following is a work of fanfiction: there is no intent of this author to violate, transgress, profit from or infringe upon the Copyright and Intellectual Property (IP) rights of the parent Copyright or IP holders of characters, events or locations belonging to the same which may be contained within this work. To reiterate; this is a Derivative Work meant to be used under Fair Use as described in 17 U.S.C. § 101 and § 107.
All language is either through Google Translate, or the site 'Bits'n'Bob-stones'
The Sons of Efrafa
.
Jesus Christ, Tyrus! What have you gotten me into?! You said scare some prey, get payback for Bellwether; nothing about being accomplice to a gas attack that kills 30 people! I, I have to make it right. I have to…
"Hey Eddy!"
Gah! "Ty! Where the hell have you been?"
"Just drinking it in over at 'The Howl'! Have you seen the news? We hit prey across the city! I tell you, it's liberating you know; being able to tell those grass-munching cowards where they can go. It's gonna…"
Oh God! 40 people across the city are dead, half of them weren't even prey, and you went out to a freaking bar to watch it again?! I gotta get outta here!
"…Ya know what I mean, Eddy?"
"Yeah, definitely! So, what's next?"
"That's what I like about you, mam; you're ready to go no matter what! Anyway, I got a call from Maddy, they've got a plan for that traitor cat down in the Seventh and his DA Doe Ho. I'm heading to meet the team to do my part."
Shit! They're going after a cop directly? I've…
"Hey now, mam; I know you want in, but rules is rules, and they say you gotta be Blood to get inside. Don't worry, you'll get your chance. I'm outta here for a couple of hours. Do a beer run while I'm out, will ya? Thanks!" –slam-
I've got to wait… 30 minutes should guarantee he's really gone, then I go to the First Precinct and turn myself in! I get on Witness Protection for telling them that the Thule are going to attack Jean-Claude and Jean-Bonnette, or whoever they are! I can do this! What's this betrayal compared to my last one?
Chapter 26
Nick walked into the precinct house without his usual swagger. The Lorazepam seemed to be working okay, but he'd still needed to take the Ativan one other time, while in the parking structure attached to Zib's apartment building. Thankfully, she had been on the way up to meet him at her designated spot, but it was still a humiliating feeling; panicking because an old dhole had gotten her land-yacht stuck while backing out.
He was here, nevertheless. He had an appointment with Dr. Dun, and then a meeting with the Chief. As he was making his way towards the counselor's office, he saw Judy talking to Jacob while conspicuously standing in the middle of the atrium; he knew that feeling. The moment Jacob noticed Nick, Judy turned around. Nick saw his own pain, fear and self-doubt reflected in his friend's eyes. She didn't run as she headed over to him, and he refrained from any snark when she wrapped him in a rib-creaking hug, one he returned full force. "We'll get through this, Judy. We'll help each other get through this."
She sniffled as she buried her head in his shoulder. "I hate them Nick." Nick did his best to wrap his friend up as much as he could in the embrace. "I didn't even hate Dawn, after what she did, but I hate them so much. I've, I've never felt like this before and I don't like it!"
"Good." The deep rumble of Chief Bogo's voice came from directly over the two small friends. "There would be something deeply wrong with you if you enjoyed that kind of vile sensation, which is part of what drives mammals to the Thule Society; they thrive on hate and do everything in their powers to stoke that hate in others. You need to stand firm in the face of that kind of evil."
As Nick and Judy looked around, they saw nearly the whole precinct was there, keeping a respectful distance but ready to support them. The longer they looked, the more they saw mirror reflections of their pain in the various officers' eyes; the pain of loss, the horror of having to kill, the tragedy of having to tell someone that their loved one was never coming home again. They saw they were not alone.
The two stood up and saluted Bogo. "Sir, Sgt. Hopps and Det. Wilde, reporting for duty in whatever capacity Dr. Dun clears us for." There was a cacophonous cheer at Judy's declaration that followed them into the Counselor's office.
…
They were in the counselor's office for two hours. They talked about their respective feelings, as well as any incidents that had occurred since their discharge from the hospital the week before. They were both candid about their opinions about not wanting medication to function but were accepting of the necessity. They both also acknowledged that they were not ready for field work, but still felt the desire to see the case through. In the end, Dr. Dun cleared them both for station house work only; Judy could go back to the ZATC, and Nick could head to the detective's offices, but they would both need to come see her once a day for a week, and then once a week until she cleared them for full active duty. She also advised them to seek professional counseling outside of work, with a reminder that it was covered under their insurance and would go a long way to demonstrating a commitment to the process.
Once they were done, they both headed to Bogo's office. Their knock was met with a gruff, "Enter."
"Chief, Pauline cleared us for desk duty." Judy said with as much poise as she could in her emotionally exhausted state. "Where do you need us, sir?"
The Chief looked up from the pile of papers on his desk. "Hopps, I need you back in the SLECC. Wilde go with her and work with Swayze; Edward Dreys turned himself in 45 minutes ago." Both smaller mammals sucked in a breath at the mention of one of the two ZPD officers who had helped with the Thule attack on the Mystic Springs.
"Are you going to need us to talk to him, Sir? I can tell you that would be ill advised." Wilde's voice cracked with stress and he involuntarily bared his fangs.
"Not necessary, Wilde; I conducted the interrogation." Nick and Judy sagged in relief at the Chief's declaration. "What I need from you, Det., is to see if you can use one of the things he said to identify the local Zootopian head of the Society. Hopps, you're coordinating with Winterhorn and Raibert. There has been a direct threat made to Sgt. DuPrey and ADA Deaux by the Thule Society. Jacob is in the field with a team moving to secure them both."
Both of Bogo's smallest officers snapped to attention and saluted before heading out. Nick and Judy arrived in the SLECC to a hornet's nest of activity. They gripped each other's paws once, then headed to their respective areas. "Special Agent Swayze, I'm Det. Nick Wilde; I'm supposed to work with you on tracking down the Thule leadership."
The suited mustelid looked up from the table he was at. "You're cleared for duty? Not gonna have a panic attack on us?"
Nick could hear Judy bristling from across the room. Nick put his best con-mammal smile. "If I do, I'll be sure to claw at you in a panic first."
Jed snorted a laugh. "You'll do." He gestured towards a pile of hard copies, likely from Dreys' interrogation. "Our friendly neighborhood chronic traitor didn't give us a lot to go on; a nickname of someone he met once, a vague description of the two mammals they were with, and a very loose time frame of how long it took for Wallander to go to wherever these creatures skulk off to."
Nick easily ignored the species jab, as Jed's body language showed it was entirely subconscious; he was just an A-hole by nature. "Alright, let's see; 'she', … 'Maddie', … 'badger', … 'crazy'. I'm going on a limb and guessing you've already narrowed the selection down by demographics?"
Jed handed him another printout. "Yep. We've got it narrowed down to these ten, for female badgers named some variation of 'Maddie', old enough to scare a cop. We were starting to check probate…"
"Madeline Lewis." Nick set the paper down and looked at the Agent and his team.
Swayze gaped at the fox in front of him. "Wha… that's it? You're not even going to verify this?"
"He doesn't need to." Canidae walked up to the pair. "Lewis is a co-founder and now sole owner of 'Madd-Rusch Brokerage'; she has a reputation in local governmental circles for abusive behavior, strong arm tactics, and just being generally unlikable. She does have a kind of terrifying charisma, though."
Nick continued from there. "The Mayor is being politic; she said strong arm tactics, when what she meant to say was criminal abuse of power to force mammals out of properties she wanted. She generally targeted prey-dominated neighborhoods, then strong-armed or bribed city officials into not prosecuting her. 'Getting Maddied for Christmas' is a euphemism for prey getting evicted in the poorer parts of the city. She definitely has the connections to make Ronald Silver-Foxe get on board with the Lemming Brothers job."
Capt. Kamel looked at the various monitors thoughtfully. "DuPrey said something about 'finding their hall'. A corrupt land mogul would certainly have the connections to snatch up a property for their diabolical lair." He noted the curious glances his way. "What? My daughter is into superheroine cartoons."
The Agent threw his paws up in surrender. "Alright; I won't ignore the rest of the list, but we'll focus on the Lewis financial angle."
As everybody was getting back to work, Judy caught Nick's eye, and gave him a raised eyebrow. He simply smirked and whispered, "I, know, everybody!" Her snort indicated that she heard him just fine.
By the end of the first hour they stopped looking anywhere other than Maddie Lewis; a visit to her corporate offices found a Goldene Schlussel on display, next to an award for 'civic awareness'. Nick was looking into a recently identified 'Golden Valley, LLC.' Maddie had formed with three other mammals: Taylor Rice, a brown bear CPA who lived in the Meadowlands, Jason Hoary, an African lion bank manager for Pacifican Northwest Savings and Trust and father to the mammal who attacked Little Rodentia, and Dietrich Ramos, a grey wolf whose family had emigrated to Zootopia from Brasilia 45 years ago, who was also the only fatality in the attack on Roger Bove. He might have overlooked the matter, had Taylor's mangled body not turned up floating south down the marshlands towards the sound three days ago.
He and everybody else in the SLECC looked towards the monitoring stations following Jacob and Jean-Pierre. Jacob had left with a two car police detail to pick up DuPrey and Deaux. They were all just outside the Downtown district on their way to one of the Seventh Precincts TUSK block houses.
"Negative, command. Something's not right here." DuPrey's voice sounded tinny over the radio.
Capt. Kamel's frustration was clear to hear. "Do you have more to go on than 'bad-vibes', Sgts.? If not, then get back on route."
"Don't need more than bad vibes sir." There was a tension in Jacob's voice that Nick and Judy had never heard before.
As the captain was trying to get Raibert and DuPrey back on route, the ornicopter escort reported in.
"Command, Rescue One. I have eyes on multiple quad-rotor aircraft. They look like delivery drones: twelve un-mamed, 10 Kilo capacity."
Cpl. Foxglove chirped in alarm. "What are they doing?"
"Just loitering, Command; about 10 meters above the local skyline, but probably but of sight of the HVT. Orders?"
"Stand-by Rescue." The LoN bat turned to the ZATC. "What are your orders ma-am."
Canidae squared her shoulders. "Can you see any company markings? Municipal Aviation regulations require them for all aircraft, mamed or unmamed."
There was a moment of silence. "Command, Rescue Two; units are unmarked."
"I want you to locate where they are being controlled from, then forward that information to local ZPD units." There was certainty in her voice, but her expression towards Cpl. Foxglove asked if this was possible. The corporal nodded and smiled at the canid while relaying the orders.
Calm was just returning when Raibert burst over the radio again. "Spotter on the street; we've been made! Bugging out!"
"Command, Rescue One; all drones redeploying in pursuit of HVT!"
"Command, Rescue Two; burst of comms from the 1200 block west side just before drones moved. No joy on fix!"
"Ranger One moving to engage lead drone; wave pod hot." The various monitors showed pandemonium. "Splash one moving to…" The camera from Rescue One showed a fireball in the street.
"Drones are Aerial Bombs! Ranger One and Two are weapons hot!"
Before anyone could counter them, the two MQ-12's opened fire on the remaining flying bombs. Various cameras showed fireballs in the air as all but two drones were intercepted. Those two slammed into the road where DuPrey's car would have been, had he not swerved at the last second. The resulting blasts still hurled all three cars onto their sides.
"HVT and escort are down, Repeat HVT is down!"
"Precinct One units, thirty seconds out!"
"I have foot-mobiles in improvised armor coming out of the west side buildings!"
"Raibert's out of the vehicle and engaging foot-mobiles… taking fire! Taking fire! Foot-mobiles are armed! They're rushing the HVT car!"
"Ranger One, I have no shot!"
"Check fire! Raibert just rushed the… One foot-mobile down! Crikey, that's a vicious little rodent!"
"ZPD on scene, EMS and fire one minute out!"
"Foot-mobiles are retreating into the building, Ranger Two engaging! Splash one! They're inside the building, going IR."
"Ranger Two, I have two mobile heat sources, heading to the basement; crap, I lost them!"
"Shots fired! Shots fired! East side, second floor!"
Capt. Kamel's voice boomed over the chaos. "Suppress and detain! I want answers, not corpses!"
A round of, 'Copy's' was the reply, and thirty seconds of tear-gas and EM-pod attacks saw a black bear clutching a rifle tumble out of the building.
Once the smoke cleared and the area was declared secure, the damage was totaled. Several buildings were evacuated by the Fire Department, to check if the burning wreckage had damaged them. Two roads in Savannah Central had craters in them and building facades and glass on the first two stories nearest the bomb impacts were damaged. Both DuPrey and Jeannette were concussed, bruised, and cut but otherwise unharmed. Two of the five would-be attackers were declared dead on the scene; the jaguar hit by Ranger Two required special effort to get what was left of him into the medical examiners vehicle, while the red wolf Jacob had dealt with had a broken ankle, and a line of gunshot wounds running up her spine. The second floor where the black bear had been also had specialized transmission gear for controlling the drone attack. When police finally entered the west side building, they found a trail of blood leading to an old steam pipe service door. There were two gas-powered off-road quads, burn-out marks for two more, an empty FN-FiveSeven LoN service weapon, and a LoN blue beret just the right size for a hare.
…
City Safety Inspector Adam Grisleigh brought several pictures up on one of the large screens in the ZATC Conference room.
"It looks like each drone had about a Kilo of TATP explosives inside, all rigged up with a crude impact trigger. If every single one had impacted the same point at the same time, that would have killed any one of them, ZPD cruiser or not. Structurally speaking, both areas are fine; you should be able to start repair work right away."
Canidae looked drawn and angry. "So, was this an assassination attempt or not?"
"No ma'am," Capt. Kamel said, "… we found radios and sewer maps with multiple entry and exit points along Deaux's and DuPrey's commute. There were also tire marks at what would have been the ideal intercept point. This was a well planned out snatch-and-grab. If we hadn't been told about the grab, or if Raibert and DuPrey hadn't been so paranoid, there's nothing we could have done to stop it."
"This is getting ridiculous!" Canidae all but shouted. "First, it's fire bombs, then rifles, now remote bombs and EMP's! How is all this getting into the city?!"
Kamel was drawing himself up to speak when Swayze cut him off. "Aside from the guns, everything else could be bought at your local convenience or hardware stores. You just need to know how to make them. The pulse outside the Cloven Hoof was just a side effect when the car's battery was destroyed."
Canidae deflated slightly. "Alright. So, what else do we know?"
Judy swept into the room from the SLECC. "Patrol mammals in the tunnels just found Wallander; he apparently was a part of the grab team but wrecked his quad and got left behind. He's being taken to Zootopia General."
Kamel leaned forward. "How bad are his injuries, and will he be able to talk?"
"Not so much, sir; the blood-trail that starts at Jacob's fallen side arm seems to come from where Jacob pistol-whipped him, breaking his jaw. He just fell off or rolled the quad when he greyed out from the pain and gave himself a concussion when he wrecked." There was a grim satisfaction in Judy's tone.
Kamel nodded. "If his paws are okay, he can write his confession when he wakes up. I'll assign a squad to make sure he doesn't bolt, or the Thule doesn't decide he's a liability."
Canidae smiled wanly. "Good; I want answers and I want our officer back."
Judy fidgeted in frustration as the ZATC broke up. "Stupid, stubborn, Efrafan! I'm going to tell Val and his mother about this stunt! Ooh, he's gonna get an earful about this. If he had just stayed in the car…"
McCaffrey layed a paw on her shoulder. "If he hadn't charged the attackers when he did, they would have been on top of the car before anyone could respond and we'd likely be dealing with three missing mammals, or worse, three dead ones. He stepped into the breach and saved lives, and that is what we're all here to do."
Judy grabbed Frank's paw with her own shaking one. "He's my friend Frank. I want him back."
"We all do." Frank squeezed her shoulder gently. "We all do, and there's a very good chance we have the time to do so. This whole operation was aimed at capturing, not killing. If they didn't kill him before now, I doubt they'll do so until they get their house back in order. We'll get him back."
…
"How the hell are we supposed to find him?!" Nick's voice had a frantic pitch. "I've used those tunnel systems to hide out or escape before; there are hundreds of miles of tunnels crisscrossing under the city! How are we supposed to find Jacob in all of that?!"
Nick's audience was Cpl. Foxglove. "We've already ruled out the city; we need to know where the Thule are likely to have taken him." She told him.
Nick boggled at the declaration. "You've ruled out the city? What, you have some super spy satellite or something?"
The bat chuckled and waved dismissively. "No, that would be silly, and a breach of international treaty." Nick relaxed for a moment. "We used the city's cell network to ping his chip. We got two hits going north before he was outside the effective range of your tower network." Nick could only stare. "Realistically, we could subpoena access to the national network, but we don't have the time to do that. If we can get a region, however, we could send one of our Dragonflies to ping the area and pinpoint him that way."
It took a moment for Nick to regather his wits. "You LoJacked him?!"
"Oh no, the chips do way more than that. It just makes battlefield identification easier." She shrugged casually. "But for any of that to happen, we need to know where the Thule are right now. So: where are they?"
Nick looked from the diminutive brown bat to the reams of information in-front of him; it was on him, everyone was depending on him to find Jacob before it was too late. Nick grit his jaw against the shakes that were trying to cripple him. He would find his friend, and he would bring him home.
…
"Gott in Himmel, these idiots will be the death of us!" Albrecht Schultz whispered to his towering compatriot. Never in his sixty years as the head of Die Schwartzalfen had he come across a group of mammals seemingly more determined to enact their own annihilation.
"Agreed, Alf; even if the LoN aren't already homed in on their wayward Essende, when his remains make their way down the delta, they'll backtrack it here in days." Gunter Hann shook his head at the jubilant group of predators in the Zootopian Grosse Halle. "We've already hemorrhaged thousands of Deutschmarks into this fool's-errand. We just need to ensure they don't follow us and drag the Army behind like scenting hounds."
Madeline strode over to the two timber wolves. "Not the prey I had sought, but Jason is on his way back with the Essende pretender. Pah! Who ever heard of a hare in the military? It's only slightly less repulsive as the idea of a rabbit police officer."
Albrecht waved theatrically. "And the Truth reveals itself. This is a great victory!" He raised his voice to be heard throughout the Halle. "But it is your victory, not ours. With this hunt, you may blood a new pack of Jaegern. We shall return to Die Adolph and inform her of what has been done here today!" There were cheers all around as Madeline turned and faced the adoring crowd.
Once outside the Halle, Gunter helped Albrecht into their car. "I have safe houses set up in Haymarket and Hyenahurst. It will take a few months before I can arrange to safely leave, and we can't be seen together until then."
The aged wolf secured himself in his seat, as the car sagged under his partners weight. "Drop me off in Glacier Falls; my safe houses are in Ficus Grove and Otterdam. We shall meet at the Fishtown Market in three months."
"Agreed." Both mammals knew the other was lying about where they had their safe houses. If one was caught, the other could not be compromised. Conversely, one could not betray the other either. Such was the way of The Truth: sometimes, victory went to the cunning, not the strong.
…
There were dozens of mammals talking in the SLECC while Nick poured over the financial documents in front of him; the answer was right there, he just had to suss it out of all the background noise, like Judy trying to distract him. Nick dismissively waved her off. It was in the purchase history of the LLC. Madeline formed, he knew it!
Judy headed back to the rest of the ZATC. "I'm worried about Nick; it's almost Five, and he hasn't eaten anything since coming in."
Kamel glanced at the fox in question. "Perhaps it was a little too soon to bring him into something like this. Some mammals just handle stress differently than others." He turned to Judy. "Dr. Dun should still be in. Why don't you head to her office and see if she can talk some sense into..."
"I know where they are. I know where they are! I Know Where They Are! Ahahahah!" Nick suddenly bolted for the door.
The entire SLECC jerked at the outburst. Judy ran after him. "What?! Where?!"
"The Hippy Nazi Theme Park! AHHHHH!" Nick's response dopplerd down the hall.
Bogo soon stormed into the SLECC. "What in Bondye's name is going on? Why is Det. Wilde charging through the precinct screaming about 'Hippy NAZI Theme Parks'?"
Judy and Dr. Dun came in just behind. The slightly out of breath rabbit saluted. "Sir, I think Nick figured out where the Thule are."
Capt. McCaffrey looked at Judy. "Then why didn't he just tell us?"
Dr. Dun headed over to where Nick had been working. "Det. Wilde is on at least one Benzodiazepine right now; if he's having an adverse reaction, or more likely not reacting strongly enough to his dosage, combined with this," she gestured to the whole SLECC, "… that could explain his sudden mania."
The intercom cut in. "Chief, this is Larry in Motorpool; Wilde just grabbed his old patrol car and took off screaming about, 'saving Jacob from the Hippy NAZI's."
The Chief looked pointedly at the doctor, who simply shrugged. "In his current state, he really shouldn't be operating any vehicles. That said, his faculties are in perfect working order. If he figured something out, he probably can't communicate it until he's calmer."
"I'm on it!" Judy headed over to the dispatch terminal. "Highway dispatch, this is Precinct One. Patch me through to Highway 40."
"Copy P1, stand by."
There was a short pause, then Pearl's dulcet tone could be heard over the radio. "P1, this is Highway 40. What's up?"
"Pearl, it's Judy. Nick's," she looked at one of the monitors, "… heading westbound on Grand toward the Inter-District 20. He needs to get where he's going, but he shouldn't be driving."
"Got it, Jude-bug. I see him."
"AAAAAAHHHHHH!"
"And I see what you mean. I'll get him set."
Pearl lit the sirens on her pursuit motorcycle and followed the frantic fox. He pulled over rather quickly. Pearl reported her location, and that she would be leaving her bike for pick-up. "Nick, honey; are you okay?"
"Pearl! I'm on mind-bendy drugs and shouldn't be driving but I know where they are!"
Pearl flinched at the manic look in her friend's eyes but heard Judy over her personal radio. "Nick's figured out where the Thule are holed up, but they have Jacob, so we can't really wait for Nick to come back down. Drive him wherever he says; the Chiefs are mobilizing everybody to follow."
Pearl shook her head and got in the driver's side of Nick's car. "Slick, I surely do hope you're ready for this."
"I can think, I just can't talk! Go north!"
The patrol car took off. "How long for?"
"Until I tell you not to!" Once the vehicle was in motion and Nick wasn't trying to do multiple things at once, he seemed to calm considerably, though he seemed to be crashing.
"Nick honey, I need you to stay with me! Where are we going?"
"Walton's Wonder World park. Pacifican N.W. Savings picked it up in the fifties under foreclosure, kept it in escrow. Nobody wanted it or could keep it. Hippy religious retreat in the seventies came close; knocked down the old park rides, built log cabins and a stone church." Nick's head was lolling from side to side. "Golden Valley LLC. took a huge loan last year and bought it. Taylor was the loan officer. Missed their payment last month, and the bank started looking hard."
Pearl glanced at her friend as they drove. "You get all that Jude?"
"Yeah, just a moment… Okay I see what he's talking about, Taylor is on the LLC, and we think he was one of the Thule leadership. There are three other members, one confirmed Thule, also dead, and at least one mammal we strongly believe is their current leader. We have LoN on their way to confirm. ETA is about ten minutes."
Eight minutes later, the vehicle radio lit up. "City wide all available units, City wide all available units, this is Capt. Kamel. This is a general mobilization; proceed to the following coordinates…"
Nick gave an exhausted smirk as the whole police force began heading to the old WWW Park. His grin slipped as he glanced at Pearl. "Please don't take me back. I have to help him."
Pearl smirked. "Weren't you paying attention there, Nick? They said, 'all available units', and unless you have other orders, we're available!"
…
Jacob slowly came to consciousness. He felt a breeze through his fur, which seemed wrong; he should be in uniform. There was an acrid smell, blood and a burnt floral scent that was familiar, but just barely. He heard chanting in a foreign language. He opened his eyes, and was pleasantly surprised at the soft lantern light in the space he was in. He looked around and saw an African Lion in a stylized Black and Red Toga, and, he had Jacob's Sword!
Jacob was now fully awake and sitting up. He saw he was in a stone hall filled with lanterns and Thule banners. There were a dozen carnivores including the lion, though the only other one that mattered to Jacob was the badger. Everyone was looking to her, deferring to her; she was the leader. She was the one he was going to kill. He noted there were incense braziers; they were the source of the smell. What was it Jean-Pierre said? Nighthowler incense? It didn't matter, he had Inle-rah's work to do. He just needed that lion to come over and let him get his sword back. The whole assembly were now facing him, and were chanting as, oh goody! The lion was coming over. This would have been a pain if he had to go through the badger first.
The lion grasped him by the neck and pressed him to the altar he was on, and raised the paw holding Jacob's sword. Jacob grasped the lion around his thumb and coiled up his legs. When the lion sneered, Jacob realized the Pfeffa Nalnos thought he was afraid. Jacob sneered back and raked his hind claws down the inside of the lion's forearm, driving them into the inside of the elbow joint and the nerve bundle there. Claws that evolved for traction in dry, hard scrabble earth and stone devastated the soft flesh of the lion's arm. The cat roared in pain and shock. When the grip loosened, Jacob twisted his weight and rolled to the outside of the lion's shoulder, in the beginnings of a joint lock. Once completing the roll and on his back again, Jacob pushed against the stone with his legs, dragging the lion off balance over the altar. The lion dropped the sword, and there was a look of terrified shock in the his eyes just before Jacob kicked him in the throat, silencing him permanently.
Jacob stood up and calmly walked over to his blade, as the lion desperately pawed at his crushed trachea. When Jacob looked up, the hall was dead silent as the assembly gazed in shock at the mightiest of them falling before a hare. The badger shivered in rage and screamed. "No! Wir sind Jaegern!"
Jacob looked dispassionately at her. "Really? Huh, good to know." He then clenched the blade in his teeth and leapt for his foe.
…
Nick and Pearl were the first to arrive on the scene by ten minutes and relayed what they saw to Judy; a torchlight procession of a dozen mammals in robes going into the Grosse Halle, while four rifle-armed carnivores stood guard outside. Nick had wanted to try to infiltrate, but Pearl talked him down. "Really, what are you going to do? Go in there and say, "Heil-pfthbt, Heil-pfthbt, right in the Fuhrer's face?"
Bogo and Winterhorn were the first two officers after, each with a full squad of SWAT officers. Bogo readied his riot shield. "You two stay back; you've done your part. We'll take it from here."
At a hoof signal from Winterhorn, four Marksmammals tranqued the guards. The sound of chanting drowned out the sound of four mammals falling to the ground. The entire team moved forward, with Pearl and Nick following close behind. They were halfway to the old church, when the night was rent with a lion's pained roar. The sound ended as suddenly as it began. As they rushed forward, they could hear an enraged screaming from inside, then general chaos. They stacked up on the main entrance as the doors burst open. Three robe-wearing mammals rushed out into the awaiting arms of the police. A fourth was coming out when a black and silver blur flashed by the mammal's legs; he screamed and collapsed to the ground. The blur stopped in front as he was falling, and a blade flashed up. The screaming stopped as a wolf's head rolled to a stop at Bogo's pedal hooves, its jaw snapping reflexively for a moment. Everyone could now see that the blur was a naked, blood-soaked, blade-wielding hare.
Jacob turned and noticed a host of mammals. Were they foes? He screamed a challenge.
Nick came to a stop at the flank of the SWAT team. Everyone was staring in shock, while Judy was yelling into his earpiece. "Nick, we have to snap him out of it! Stomp the ground and shout, 'Mayzon In LaRue'!"
Nick gaped for a moment, then franticly whispered. "You want me to what?!"
"Stomp the ground and shout, 'Mayzon In LaRue'! Do it now!"
Nick, ever trusting his friend, did his best. He stomped the ground and shouted, "My Cylon's in the Loo!"
For an instant, all was still as everyone stared at the fox. Chief Bogo and Chief Winterhorn stared at the fox. Pearl Swineart stared at the fox. The half crazed, blood-soaked, murder hare stared at the fox.
-FZARK- "GRRK!"
Nick shot Jacob with his wireless taser. His chest heaved in great gasping breaths. "Oh my God! Oh my God! I shot Jacob! Is he gonna be pissed? Oh my God!"
Pearl looked to the assembled mammals as she gently disarmed Nick. "Perhaps we should get these two into separate ambulances before Jacob wakes up and does to Nick what Nick just did to his language?"
…
Jacob slowly came to consciousness. There was a rhythmic beeping, as well as the feeling of someone petting his forehead and subdued conversations. He slowly opened his eyes, only to pinch them shut and groan at the harsh fluorescent light. This elicited a surge of sound.
"Umbra amora!"
"Jacob!"
"Rah-Roo!"
Jacob opened his eyes again and saw his family, as well as Valerie, Judy, and Dickie. The doors opened to admit Zib, and a hospital-gown-clad Nick. Judy spun and hugged Nick, much to his discomfort and everyone else's laughter. Jacob waved the vulpine over, once he was extracted from Judy's grip and she was back in Dickie's arms.
"Hey, Nick?"
Nick advanced with a little trepidation. "Yeah buddy?"
"Where the hell did you come up with, 'My Cylon's in the Loo'?"
Nick lifted one of his manual paws and rattled a prescription medicine bottle. "Lovely Drugs."
