Chapter 58: Ethan

"Hello Hopps," repeated the fox, who came out of the door last. The other two had already overpowered the doe pinning her to the ground so tightly that she couldn't even move her body. The fox knelt in front of her to catch eye contact with her smiling sinisterly staring into her terrified eyes.

"How did you get here? How did you know there was an emergency exit here?" The fox asked.

"I just knew it...let me go!" Judy replied, but no one took her seriously here. The foxes holding her arm pressed her even harder to the ground which was met with even more pain on her side. The fox who had risen from his knees in front of her dodged out of the doorway where the doctor was standing, the same one who had given directions to the doe in which direction to go. He was all battered and bruised.

"Excuse me," the doctor said quietly. He had his head bent down the whole time, most likely he couldn't even lift it from the pain.

"Haha, now let's move on to you. You need to talk to someone more important than me" replied the fox. He took a syringe out of his pocket and dropped to his knees in front of Judy again.

"But first you have to take a dose of this" finished the fox. Judy tried with all her might to pull herself out of the hug, but her body, compared to that of the fox, was simply too weak to be able to do anything. The needle was jabbed into her arm and the fluid quickly made its way into her body.

"Relax, it's just the same substance Caroline gave you. Nothing will happen to you... at least for now" The fox communicated, then walked off towards the exit catching the doctor by the neck leading him out. Judy, after several cries for help and attempts to get out of his grasp, lost consciousness again for an indefinite period of time.

"What do you think they're going to do with her?"

"Like what, what a stupid question at all! They'll probably give her that failed injection, or dispose of her in a stupid way."

"Yes...it's enough that there are failed attempts reigning in other floors that vandalize and murder everything that moves. Don't you think that's a bit of an exaggeration? It would have been better to kill them, they would have suffered less..."

"Shhh! Are you out of your mind! After all, you know that nothing can be said against the board here! Such thoughts are better kept to yourself if you don't want to end up like them. Anyway, sooner or later they will die of hunger or the poison will stop their heart. We still haven't succeeded in solving this problem, but soon we will be ready to show our strength."

"Let's hope so. A little more and Hopps would have discovered something! Oh, here comes the boss, sure the board wants to see her."

"Hello gentlemen. Please take the prisoner out and bring him to the office."

Two foxes took the doe by the shoulders carrying Judy out of the cramped room. Judy didn't know anything as she still felt stupefied and had something like a sack over her head, most likely so that she didn't know where she was or how to get out. Without any resistance whatsoever, she allowed herself to be carried into the study from what she had heard, to talk to someone. The question was why and with whom? If she wasn't somehow important she would most likely have been killed or neutralised straight away so that she couldn't escape from here in one piece. But for some reason they wanted to talk to her, she knew she had to get as much information out of them as possible to have a better understanding on the subject. She knew from the very moment she got here that there was more at stake here than mere kidnappings.

When they arrived at Judy's office she heard the door close behind her and felt the cold metal on her hands - they were placing handcuffs on her hands, which were then locked with a key. Then finally the bag from her head was removed allowing her to see a fox dressed in a suit in front of her, who was sitting behind a desk playing with a pen. She knelt down in front of the desk and looked around the room - she had two security guards behind her, there were framed TV interviews about foxes on the walls.

"I'm delighted to meet you in person Officer Judy Hopps" said the fox calmly.

"Who are you? And how do you know my name anyway?" Asked the doe. The fox laughed hearing this question, put his pen down on the desk top and crossed his toes.

"It's hard not to associate you, best policewoman in Zootopia, that's a noble title, making it rather hard not to know you. And I have to congratulate you, you almost got on our trail. However, almost is not enough."

"What is this place? Where is it even located?" Judy asked.

"It's a place where something will be created that will give all foxes honour and hope for a better tomorrow. With this, we will break out of the dictatorship of shame and humiliation because we are who we were born to be. Thanks to this preparation, everyone will start to respect us and we will be equal... " explained the fox.

"...And where are my manners...my name is Ethan. Unfortunately, for some reason, the name alone will have to suffice for you" added Ethan.

"Preparation? Wait...this is the effect of...this fox from the ground floor...what do you guys want to do?" Asked the doe.

"Uhm... we have some issues with it that we're working on. "

"So you want to make monsters out of innocent foxes? Is that your plan?" Asked the doe.

"We have no intention of harming anyone! That's not the outcome we want, we just have some problems, but we're very close to having what we want " shouted Ethan slamming his hand on the desk. He did it so hard that the sound of the impact spread throughout the room. Even the security guards standing behind the doe twitched at the sudden movement of the fox.

"Damn, it's a shame I don't have anything to record this with," thought Judy.

"So these are the lunatics I saw? They looked like they had just taken something."

"Because they have. They've been given a dose of the formula...as you can see it's not working right yet. But we're already slowly getting to what we want to achieve"

"You are monsters! You are poisoning innocent foxes who have done nothing and condemning them to horrible torture!" Shouted Judy, but it didn't seem to make much of an impression on anyone. Ethan got up from behind his desk and sat on the edge of the desk to be closer to the doe.

"We're not monsters, they agreed themselves. It's not our fault they were what they were...the ground is that our ...kidnapper...as you called him worked smoothly and without complaint."

"Why would you kidnap people who are well-known and wealthy in the Fox District? It doesn't make sense...why do you need them?"

"Kidnappings you say...well, they weren't so much kidnappings...rather something of a provocation "

"Provocation?" Judy murmured.

"It wasn't kidnappings, we just needed something to distract us and we could work without problems. As you can see it worked perfectly. The whole of Zootopia was alive with kidnappings, no one was paying attention to us. As for those who were supposedly kidnapped. These are our sponsors," Ethan explained. Judy was already starting to piece everything together slowly. It would make sense why only the richer ones disappeared and the rest didn't have to worry about their danger. That's probably why they also always arranged to go to one place before disappearing, presumably to work out the details.

"Ugh..., but what about the corpse that was dropped?"

"Him? He's a participant in the first dose of the formula, completely unsuccessful. He died just a few hours after taking it," Ethan countered. It was all starting to make sense. The kidnappings were just why they were so precise and perfectly done because everything had been discussed beforehand. Everything had been thoroughly discussed and planned, there was no way something could go wrong! Anyway, during the post-mortem it was discovered that something had been injected into him, only it was too late to be able to examine the substance.

"Are you the boss of all this?" Judy asked. Ethan hesitated over his answer. He shrugged his shoulders, correcting his position on the desk.

"Depends. I'm only in charge of research development, the rest is handled by the main boss. However, there's little chance of meeting him. He sits alone on the top floor behind a titanium door that only opens when he wants something. I've only seen him maybe twice myself," Ethan explained.

"Actually, why are you telling me this? Aren't you worried I'll get away?" Judy asked.

"Haha... really funny. Anyone who has tried to leave without my permission has been executed. And besides, he doesn't want to kill you if you want to cooperate," replied the fox. This intrigued Judy. How would she cooperate with them?

"Cooperate?" Asked the perplexed doe.

"Something like that. You see, Caroline is good at what she does, but we need someone who is more trusted at the command...and who can have more trust from the commandant than you?" Ethan asked rhetorically.

"And what would that collaboration look like?" Judy asked.

"Quite simply. You would leave here come back to the police station and give us all the information the police contain so that we are always one step ahead of them. " The fox explained. Judy began to think about this quite seriously. In theory, it's a good way to get away from here and call in information under this pretext.

"And a catch?"

"A hook? Maybe one. We'll implant a chip with a microphone in your head that will give us info and, as if you want to betray us...kill you. Sorry, but we want to make sure 100% that no one betrays us...it's quite an expensive project" Ethan replied. The doe's plan quickly went haywire, as you can see all that was left was to wait for further developments.

"So what do you say, do you want to work with us?"

"Never!" Replied Judy with a shout.

"Well, suit yourself. Call Nick, he'll know where to take her," growled Ethan. One of the security guards left the room and Judy hearing that name her heart began to beat harder. Would this be the Nick she was looking for?

"Nick?" Asked Judy immediately when she heard that name

"Oh relax, it's just an old friend of yours. You didn't think we were going to send him to be executed, did you? He is one of us after all" explained Ethan calmly. Judy, despite her tenuous situation, felt at least a little joyful to see her loved one. She had spent so much time worrying about him and it turned out that he was okay! Moments later, the office door opened and through it came the security guard again followed by Nick! The same fox that Judy had missed.

"Nick! " shouted Judy upon seeing him, she smiled modestly at him. He, however, seemed...different. his stony face made it clear to Judy that there was something wrong with him. When he saw her he smiled slightly, but quickly made the stony face of a stern fox who clearly wanted nothing to do with the doe.

"Blindfold and lead our guest to the observation sector" Ethan communicated. Nick unscrupulously placed the blindfold firmly over Judy's eyes, who, still in shock, tried to free herself but had no chance of doing so. Moments later, Nick led her out of the room heading in a direction unknown to her.