Chapter 10: Signs and Portents

Zootopia…On the road…

Kaiden and company were making their way away from the FIB building and towards a destination to the south end of Gnu York towards Mole Harbor.

"Ok so tell me what you found out?" asked Kaiden.

"This mammal, Max Hedgeright is an alias, an alternate identity to another mammal." Explained Vivian.

"So Nick and I did a facial recognition search for any pangolins even close to the description, and we got a hit."

"And?"

"Brandon Meeks, age thirty seven, moved to Zootopia about five years ago with his wife Nicole, they set up a bar in south Gnu York, which is kind of an industrial area, ya know those docks by Mole Harbor."

"Yeah, I know the place."

"Well take a guess who Mr. Meeks used to work for?"

"Out with it, Carter." Scowled Kaiden.

"Oh sorry, he used to work for Takashi Mining Group. And get this; he was dismissed for 'emotional stability issues.'" Vivian explained.

"Really now?" commented Kit.

"Well let's be fair, according to the reports he had good reason, he was involved in a serious cave in." added Nick.

"Yeah according to the disaster recovery psychologist, he claimed he was seeing things and that the mining crew wasn't killed in the cave in." continued Nick

"Well that was probably a post-traumatic stress response." Rebutted Vivian.

"Ok, and then what?" Kaiden asked trying to continue the conversation.

"Well, he signed a non-disclosure agreement, given a bonus on his pension and moved to Zootopia with his wife. Where they bought the bar and set up shop."

"So what changed?"

"Well, his wife died almost two years ago."

"How?"

"Apparently a tiger went savage in the bar, started a fire and got everyone including himself killed."

Kaiden scoffed and shook his head, muttering 'Good god.' under his breath.

"He has definitely got a lot to be pissed about." commented Kit.

"So we're heading to this bar?"

"Yes, Mr. Meeks never rebuilt or sold it after the fire, simply condemned and boarded it up, perfect place for him to hide out considering Max Hedgeright as far as anyone knows has no connection to that area."

"You're sure he's there though?" asked Kaiden.

"According to the psychological profile on Mr. Meeks, yes it's very likely that he will seek out a place of comfort and familiarity, the fact that he has gone out of his way to craft an identity to be his public face while his real identity was obscured."

"What do you mean?"

"According the records Mr. Meeks went missing around the same time Max Hedgeright came into the system."

"It's also the reason why in our list of current licensed demolitions operators, why Mr. Meeks never came up. He was listed as missing presumed dead."

"Ok, you've convinced me…Plus it's the only shot we got." Replied Kaiden.

"Guess you got a good head on your shoulders, eh Snowball?" Kit complemented Vivian with a smile.

"I wish people would stop calling me that." Vivian replied with an annoyed huff.

"Ah don't take it personally, it means we like you." Kit replied with a playful wink.

Vivian rolled her eyes and shook her head.

Meanwhile…

Brandon was going through the file box and organizing the information into piles that he could scan into his computer, presumably for his next transmission. Judy still strapped to the chair, she looked around trying to figure out where she was, it was clearly underground, no windows and the cold damp feeling despite the fact that it was the middle of summer, it told her that they must be underground, far enough where the heat would bleed away into the surrounding earth. She watched Brandon as he worked, there was sadness to him, it explained his anger, his frustration. Like as if he viewed life with the inevitability of a ticking clock.

Judy actually found herself feeling sorry for him, though her thoughts would drift to trying figure out what plan he had for her.

"Can you tell me about her?" she asked.

The pangolin stopped and turned to Judy, at first she was worried he would be angry, but his eyes shifted around in his head as if mulling through memories, as the thought of her seemed to fill his every waking thought.

"Why do you want to know? I would think you would be trying to figure a way out of here."

"Because I want to know about her, about you."

"Why?"

"Because clearly you've gone through a lot of trouble, and you must have cared for her very much to do all of this."

"Of course I care about her. She was my reason for living, she was the one thing that kept me alive when I was down in that hellish pit."

Judy simply looked and waited. Brandon shifted focus and sat down in a chair next to the box.

"Nicole is….er was, the best thing that ever happened to me."

"Nicole was kind and gentle, she would never hurt a fly. She saw the best in people."

"I always tell myself that maybe that's why she came to the aid of that tiger, that maybe he was a good mammal, And good mammals need to be protected."

"When we came to this city, all she ever wanted was to be in business for herself. She didn't want a handout, just a chance, an opportunity. Can you understand that?"

"Yes, I can." Judy admitted.

"We came here to start a new life, to build something together, and we had it, for a while."

"She had always been there for me; I just wanted to do something for her."

"When that blasted cave in happened, when they pulled us out, she was…there for me."

"Keep going." Judy encouraged.

Brandon looked up from his seemingly distant gaze and focused on Judy for a moment, then his gaze move past her again.

"I was a mining engineer for a very prestigious company, we were on the cutting edge, willing to go anywhere for the motherlode. My life seemed very average, and then I met her, she was working as a waitress for the local restaurant in town. It being a mining town, the only customers they had were the workers."

"I think back and realize, she could have picked anyone she wanted, but she chose me. And even now I wonder what she saw."

"We had discussed what we were going to do with our lives when it happened."

"There was a collapse, one of the tunnel braces must have come loose, but it was enough to drop half a mountain on us. It was cold and dark, the pumps had stopped working and the water started to pool up around us."

"I could hear my coworkers, my friends calling out for help, we were down there three days before 'it' found us."

Judy suddenly had a chill creep up her spine.

"What do you mean, 'it found you'?" she asked

Brandon looked right at Judy, locking gaze with her.

"I firmly believe it knew we were down there the entire time, hell, I think it knew we were there when we first started digging."

"Whatever it was, wasn't natural, someone…some…thing put it there and it wasn't us."

"It showed me things. Horrible things, visions, dreams, memories, I don't know."

"It showed us all, but they couldn't understand, they couldn't survive it."

"It made them crazy, they started killing themselves. They did things to themselves, tried to stop the visions, my friend Marcus, he took a drill to his skull to try and bore the images out."

"I was the only one, the only animal who didn't go mad…" Brandon had an almost crazed expression on his muzzle.

"The next day, when they pulled me out, they found me covered in blood, I tried to tell them it was Marcus', I tried to stop him, I tried to tell them what had happened, but they didn't believe me."

Judy felt a twinge of terror at the back of her mind, she wasn't sure what he was describing, was Brandon recounting some full blown hallucination or maybe he did something down there. She couldn't be sure, but she focused on not succumbing to the fear.

"And then what happened?"

"They labeled me as 'Emotionally Unstable', so they pulled me from mining duty, they had lawyers shove a big fat non-disclosure agreement in my face and told me to sign it."

"At first, I didn't want to, I wasn't going to let them get away with this, I wasn't going to let them hang it on me and let those poor mammals be buried in a lie. I'm almost certain they wanted it, whatever it was, they knew it was down there. And they sent us to find it."

"But they found out about Nicole and they told me that if I didn't sign it, they would make sure she would never work again, and they would make sure that whatever opportunities she would try to build for herself, would fail."

"So I signed it. I signed it and let them get away with it."

"They paid me my pension, even gave me a huge bonus on it, they called "Extreme Hazard Pay". Truth is they wanted to shut me up and they figured threatening her was the best way, the money just greased the wheels even more."

"Truth is, it worked." He said with a huff.

"So we gathered what little we had, and got the hell out of there, never to return."

"I married her the second we got here, and I used that pension money to give her the business she wanted. A little tavern on the south side of Gnu York, a place of food and drink and merriment."

"I think I understand." Said Judy.

"Oh?" Brandon replied.

"You're striking back at mammals who are trying to get away with doing wrong, punishing them for what they did to her, and trying to make up for not standing your ground before." She continued

"But there is one thing I just can't understand. Why prey? Why strike back at prey?"

"Because of what they did to my wife." He replied matter-of-factly.

"I still don't understand."

Brandon stood up from his chair, the light catching his eyes, tears welled in them. He went over and retrieved a photo from a drawer in the makeshift desk and brought it over to Judy, showing it to her.

The photo was of the bar, filled with a small group of patrons and Brandon behind the bar.

"What's this?" she asked.

"A little grand opening party on our first night of business."

"Myself, my wife and a few of the neighborhood friends we made."

Judy looked around the photograph, there were several mammals both predator and prey but confusion set in, when she realized the photograph only contained one pangolin and that was Brandon.

Her confusion must have been written on her face because Brandon chuckled half-heartedly.

"Confused?" he offered.

"I don't…where is your wife?" she asked.

"She's right there." Replied Brandon pointing.

Judy followed the pangolin's claw as he pointed to a female hyena who was sitting across from him, as she was passing out drinks, Judy could clearly see the ring on her left paw, as well as Brandon's as he was cleaning a glass in the photo.

Judy looked up from the photo and looked Brandon in the muzzle.

"She was a hyena?"

"You assumed she was a pangolin didn't you? Or at the very least prey?"

"I did, I'm sorry."

"I know, most people do."

"I've just never heard of a Hyena and a Pangolin." She commented.

"And I've never heard of a Fox and a Rabbit." He countered.

Judy shared an unlikely moment with Brandon, in that moment they seemed to have very much in common, though she has skirted the line, come close, Brandon willfully crossed it, not for the reasons of hate that Judy assumed but out of some misguided sense of loyalty and love.

Though of course that didn't absolve him of his crimes, it did put them in perspective. Brandon for all his faults, and his deeds while criminal, was in turn victimized by other criminals. The true tragedy of all of this is that in another time and in another place, Judy could see herself calling him, a friend.

She acknowledged her contribution to all of this; she realized what she has done. The press conference and what she said was more than just the ramblings of a, at the time close-minded bunny rabbit.

What she said didn't just emotionally hurt Nick, or offend predators everywhere, her words opened the floodgates to hatred and animosity over the whole city, it gave mammals the likes of Dawn Bellwether the climate to grow and flourish, all the while clothing themselves in their apparent righteousness.

And moreover, the fact that she didn't stand by her conviction, wrong as it was, but turned tail and ran back to Bunnyburrow, leaving these mammals to the very villains she sought to protect them from. A regret she will always carry, doing what the stereotypical bunny rabbit does "to run away", the cold reality of that fact stabbed at her heart

"I'm sorry Brandon, for what my words did to you, and I'm sorry that I ran. I realize that now, I made two mistakes back then. Both of them out of fear. I realize now that I can't just fix this, that there are people who are hurt or dead because of this."

"But I'm asking you to stop, killing more people won't bring you the peace you're looking for."

Brandon walked a few paces.

"I don't need to kill more people."

"I just need to kill one more person."

Judy stared ahead with a sad expression, wincing, trying to hold back the tears, but willing to face her fate. Brandon walked back over and tilted her head back up with his claw.

"I'm not talking about you Judy."

"What?" she asked almost in disbelief.

"My ultimate revenge isn't you. You're just a means to an end."

"Then why did you kidnap me?"

"Because, I need YOU to know why I have done this."

"Because despite what they say about me, despite what they WILL say about me, I wanted you to know the truth."

"Those dreams I had, those visions. For years, I thought that's exactly what they were, just dreams."

"It wasn't until I heard Mayor Lionheart on the television, announcing your name that I became certain."

"Certain of what?"

"That what I saw, what 'it' showed me…will happen."

"You can't be serious." She replied

"Of course I am. Haven't you felt it Judy, the inexorable pull towards something. Something you can't see or hear, but can feel its presence, its influence on your life."

"All the world's a stage, and we are but players in it."

"There is something coming, a dark and terrible time. And what I've done will be nothing compared to what's coming."

"At first I believed you to be evil, a kind of harbinger of our doom."

"And now?" she asked.

"I'm not so sure anymore. I know that you are the center of what's coming."

"What….What's coming?" She stammered.

"The end of everything as we know it."

"What?" she replied with a whisper.

Judy didn't know what to make all of this, the ramblings of a mad pangolin that has lost everything or something more. She could tell that HE believed it, but of what substantive value it had remained to be seen.

"You don't believe me, do you?" he asked.

Judy was unsure what to answer.

"Nicole didn't either."

"I told her once, what the visions were."

"It scared her just as it's scaring you now."

"We even got into an argument once about it."

"But I couldn't ignore it. Especially once they started coming true."

"We think we have all the time in the world Judy. But the truth is, life is a lot shorter than we think, and for some tragically so."

"I loved Nicole, I still love her, I would do anything to have her back. But I know no matter what I do, she will be gone forever."

"I do this for her, these horrible and eldritch creatures who call themselves righteous mammals, yet plot and plan in the darkness."

"You want to know WHY I kidnapped you."

Judy simply looked at him waiting for the answer..

"Because I NEED you. to help me get close to my last target, the one person responsible for my wife's death, who set her fate in stone, more than the prey who started the fire, or the judge that acquitted them…."

"….Dawn Bellwether" Judy realized.

"Very astute."

"No." Judy replied sternly.

"What?"

"I'm not going to help you kill." she stated adamantly

"Why not? She's guilty. She deserves this." Brandon explained.

"It's cold blooded murder!" Judy exclaimed.

"You can't honestly tell me that's enough? That she deserves anything less." Brandon scoffed.

"I understand why you feel this way, I know she's responsible for this, but you can't just go around killing people even if they've wronged you." She said.

"But blood calls out for blood, if not then, then why not?" Brandon rebuked.

"Because….Because it makes you as bad as them." She defended.

"I've already crossed that line! There is no going back for me, even if I give up now, I will still be sentenced to execution or worse." he exclaimed.

"No…I won't let that happen." He replied, trying to reassure him.

"Why? Because of your faith in the vaunted system, a system you know to be corrupt and cruel."

"No Judy, our fates were written long before the stars came into being. We can only be who we are, what fate makes us out to be."

"I don't believe that, people change, sometimes better, sometimes worse. But we control what we do, what we choose." Judy replied.

"Not from what I've seen, not from what I already know." He replied.

Meanwhile…

The van had pulled up to the burned out bar, the sign "Condemned" plastered across the front door. The four mammals inside the van stepped out, Kaiden, Kit, Vivian and Nick.

"Kit, check the door for triggers." Ordered Kaiden

Kit checked the door for signs of modification, running his paw down the door frame, using his augmented vision scanned the door for any signs of tampering or bobby trap triggers.

"Nothing." He stated.

Kaiden and Kit were the first to draw their side arms, Vivian and Nick followed suit. Kaiden considered kicking the door but reconsidered not wanting to make any noise; instead he forced the lock using the tip of his arm blade as a pry bar.

The wood popped and cracked giving way eventually giving them entrance, Kaiden with a sharp motion opened the door, stepped in and panned around the doorway with his gun. Stepping into the dark he disappeared except for the tap of his footsteps, Kit followed then Vivian and Nick.

After checking the immediate area, there didn't seem to be any traps or presence of any kind. The bar looked like pretty much any other, at least in design, the state of the building was another matter, the fire had pretty much burned everything to a crisp, even the heavy oak bar itself had a heavy char on it, the tables, booths all skeletons of their former selves, there was an open hole in the roof peering out into the sky above which was starting to turn blue as the coming morning sun was starting to rise.

They looked around the bar for any clues, other than a few scorched pictures, they didn't find anything. The group went up the nearby stairs to the loft apartment above. The furniture was in disarray, the place torn up, possibly due to vandals or vagrants who came after the building was condemned. They looked around; Nick happened upon a photo, it was of the bar downstairs, with Brandon tending polishing a glass, patrons around the bar and a hyena across from him passing out the drinks.

Nick looked at some of the other pictures, one was a couple, Brandon on one side the other was scorched, and barely recognizable, though Nick could make out the black tipped ears, he looked back to the bar photo and studied the patrons. The hyena had black tips on her ears, as if starting to realize something, he looked around at the other photos, one was a framed newspaper clipping, 'Local Business Owner Helps Beautify Neighborhood.' as the headline and the Hyena smiling at the camera holding a shovel, as Brandon is smiling holding a sapling, presumably about to be planted.

"His wife…was a pred." whispered Nick to himself looking with downcast eyes at the bar photo in his paws.

"Vivian." Calls out Nick.

"What is it?" she replied walking over to Nick.

"You said there was a tiger that went 'savage' right?"

"Yes."

"What happened exactly?"

"What do you mean?"

"You said there was a fire, but why didn't they just leave out the front door."

Vivian pondered the answer to the question, and then pulled out her phone, she went through the copy of the file she sent to herself, scrolling through to the witness statements.

"Oh my…."

"What?"

"According to this the prey mammals outside barricaded the door."

"They what?!"

"That's what it says, they barricaded the door for fear of being eaten. They claimed 'self-defense' in court."

"So you're telling me they locked those poor animals inside a building that was on fire." Nick replied.

"All because of a 'savage' predator, which terrified them." Commented Kaiden.

"But that doesn't justify locking people in a burning building." Added Nick.

"No…it does not. Even IF the tiger was savage, it doesn't mean you can essentially lock him in a death trap along with a number of innocent bystanders." Replied Kaiden.

"I can only imagine how pissed Meeks was when everyone found out it was a conspiracy." Said Kit.

"Vivian, whatever happened to the perpetrators?" asked Nick

Vivian scrolled down the list and went wide eyed as she read the court documents, the summary judgement alone made her queasy.

"They were acquitted."

Kaiden spun around and looked at Vivian.

"I'm sorry, say that again?"

"They were acquitted, the judge in the case cited that at the time, it constituted 'extraordinary circumstances'."

"…And what moron came up with that conclusion?" replied Nick.

"Judge Evans." She answered

The rest all perked their ears in surprise.

"Judge Jeffrey Evans, as in the judge that just got assassinated." Kaiden requiring clarification.

"Yes."

"Let me see that?" requested Kaiden offering his paw.

Vivian handed the fox her phone, he immediately scrolled through the documents until he arrived upon what seemed like a 'Eureka' moment.

"It's a goddamn revenge case."

"I mean at its core, the politics came later, but this pangolin is trying to get back at those who wronged him."

"Wronged his wife." Corrected Nick.

"Yeah, the whole political angle was because it wasn't just these mammals, but a breakdown of the system."

"So where does Judy factor?" asked Kit.

"Possibly because maybe he blames her for her involvement, I don't know. I mean she did say a few things that were…a bit incendiary." Replied Kaiden.

"Carter, can you pull up what ever happened to the actual perps themselves, are they still around?"

"I can try."

Kaiden tossed Vivian her phone and she went to work on it, as they regrouped.

"Look, I understand this guy has a bone to pick with people, but to be honest, I don't really care, I just want to find Judy. I don't even want to think about what he could be doing to her." pleaded Nick

"Look we will find her, we're close I can feel it." Replied Kaiden

"Oh god." Called out Vivian as she was looking at her phone.

The three turned to her awaiting an explanation.

"They're dead…their bodies were all found last month, incinerated. Apparently it was caused by thermite infused vests that were placed on them. Literally burning holes through them."

"Fuck." stated Kit flatly.

"Yeah, that's definitely not a pleasant way to go." Kaiden added.

Kaiden turned back to Nick, who had an even more worried expression on his face.

"Don't give me that face, I know ok, just let me think." He spoke softly.

"Carter!" barked Kaiden over his shoulder

"Is there anywhere else this guy would go?"

"I don't think so, he didn't have a job in the city, he worked here with his wife, they both lived up here. He didn't go anywhere generally." She explained.

"Really living up to his name." muttered Kit.

The group tried to ponder an answer to the mystery and Nick's perception of things kicked in, Nick for all his years as a con man, criminal and now cop, gave him a unique view of the world. Some would say it was 'out of the box' thinking. Sometimes his odd sense of perception gave him wacky ideas that Judy would find amusing, but often times it was very astute in its process and way.

"He was a mining engineer right, dug and built tunnels?" asked Nick as a general question.

"Yes he was." Reported Vivian.

"What's your point?" replied Kaiden.

"Well…..Does this place have a basement?" Nick replied plainly.

As if hitting a collective moment of clarity, the group immediately went back downstairs, looking through a couple doors they eventually found a descending staircase, they carefully walked down together. Kaiden taking point saw a drawstring to a light, he pulled it.

The light illuminated, surprisingly, this meant there was power on the circuit, but more than that, what it illuminated, the basement had old rotten storage boxes and crates, but the back wall of the brick was partially removed, creating a hole which lead into a nearby underground tunnel.

Kaiden looked at Nick.

"Well…Gold star for Wilde."