Chapter 13: You win some, you lose some…

Two weeks later…

Finding Milton Hamilton Jr. was a lot harder than it was made out to be after investigating several leads with Kerberos ultimately turning up empty. But along the way they had learned, though from rumor, that Hamilton has been abducted and it was suggested that he was being tortured for the design information behind his invention. A number of people had been using it and the Illuminati wanted the key. At least that's what the rumor was, another rumor even more bizarre was that they weren't interested so much in Hamilton's invention so much as his mind.

Whatever the reasoning and ultimately the truth, Mr. Hamilton was as far as they were concerned a resource to them.

They had managed to track down the transport that the squirrel was on, move to the Zootopian Center for Diplomatic and Economic Prosperity, but known quite simply as the Zootopian Embassy. It was a building in which representatives from all over the world were invited to send ambassadors to study how Zootopia works and operates, acting as a model to the world of how mammals of all types can live, work and play together.

So being the obvious political center that it is, of course the council would somehow be involved. Kaiden and Kerberos were approaching towards the building by air, being flown in on a helicopter, quick and quiet, the hope was they would be able to find Hamilton and get out without any conflict. The pair were sitting in the back, the door opened looking down on the city below.

"It's amazing isn't it?" Kerberos pointed to the city below, the crackle of the headset catching the wind as he yelled over the helicopter's rotors.

"The city? Yes, yes it is," answered Kaiden.

"First time here?" asked Kerberos

"Passed through Central Station once, but yes, I've never lived here before."

"It's a lot different than the burrows. Mammals are more dense, hustle and bustle."

"It'll be different that's for sure." Kaiden looked sadly out on the city.

"It will be ok… You're a good fox, don't' let anyone tell you different. She would be proud of you." Kerberos comforted

Kaiden looked at his compatriot puzzled.

"Why do you say that?"

Kerberos moving his gaze from the city to Kaiden.

"Because you never enjoyed this type of work, you did it because it was expected of you, because you were told to, Jarod enjoys the killing, I knew it the first time I saw him spar. You were different, you didn't toy with your opponents, you just ended the fight."

"Thanks…I guess."

"I'm saying I'm sorry."

"What for?"

"I should have drummed you out. Failed you, they would have sent you home. I didn't know that your wife's parents would have raised you. I'm…I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault, Humphrey, it's the MIA's when they murdered my parents."

Kerberos, winced when he heard those words, he had suspected the MIA procurement of their 'recruits' was suspect, but he figured they had picked up runaways and wards of the state, but to know that the MIA could have been assassinating parents put a chill in his bones. But then realized, from his point of view now, he didn't put it past them. Hindsight it seems was 20/20.

"Still, I wanted to apologize."

"Thank you. For what it's worth, I never blamed you. I blamed them, they put me there, you were just trying to make sure we stayed alive. I understand. It was a shitty situation all around."

The bear smiled softly but still sadly, he knew he would never forgive himself, but to hear those words gave him a momentary reprieve from the pain, a blessing he knew he didn't deserve but accepted graciously anyway.

"Looks like family day or something down there." Kaiden replied as he pointed towards the main park in from of the embassy.

Kerberos looked along the fox's sight line. There was indeed a gathering of some sort in the park, in fact he could smell the aroma of bugaburgers and fried fish on a stick from here. Some kind of gathering of people, and a stage towards the back end of the park closest to the building. There was a picnic atmosphere down there, children playing, a plethora of blankets dotted around the landscape, families enjoying themselves, Peace and happiness, and yet a few hundred feet over their heads, evil lurked. Kaiden decided he had to get used to the irony, this was Zootopia, where anyone can be anything. And in such a densely packed place, I made sense that good and evil would rub elbows on a regular basis.

The helicopter settled over the building at a height, Kerberos went to the back of the chopper, Kaiden looked out and down puzzled then back at the grizzly bear.

"Are we not going to land?" asked Kaiden.

Kerberos came back to Kaiden with a couple of black objects, looking like a small backpack but with a hard plastic and metal shell.

"Put it on," ordered Kerberos

"What is it?"

"It's what keeps you from being a big red and orange splat on the roof." Kerberos fired back.

Kaiden did as he was told, strapping the device onto him, it clearly wasn't a parachute.

"How do I use it?"

"You don't, it activates automatically 500 feet from touchdown."

"I don't like the sound of that."

"It'll be fine just go."

The two mammals readied themselves at either side of the helicopter and jumped. The experience down was as could be expected, noisy, windy. Falling like a pair of stones towards the helipad on the roof. The plan was to have them drop in quickly and use the element of surprise and only have the helicopter make a landing for their extraction. As they came near the roof as expected the devices whined and they created an intense sphere of electromagnetic energy pushing against the magnetic field of the planet itself slowing their decent, instead of slamming into the building at a suicidal 120 miles an hour, they slowed and touched down as a relatively gentle 5 miles an hour, making two loud 'thunks' as they each touched the roof.

They walked to the nearby stairwell and broke in through the access door pausing just inside.

"Ok, what's the plan?" asked Kaiden

""