Any place is good for eavesdropping, if you know how to eavesdrop.
~Tomcat Waits
"Cornelius Wilde is alive!?"
Was all that Emilia could say after hearing what Bogo just told her and her uncle.
"Chief Bogo, are you sure this information is reliable?" Marceli said, in a much more controlled manner than his niece, and Bogo nodded at him.
"This is I just heard from Hopps through the phone." The buffalo confirmed. "The freelancer affirmed to have been hired by this Cornelius Wilde. He was very specific when saying that name. According to them, he seemed to be sure. Black fox with yellow eyes."
"Well, that sounds like him." Emilia said, "I mean, the descriptions I heard of him, anyways. I never met the guy. Or anyone of the Wilde family. That is, before I came to this city."
A while of silence followed those words, and then Bogo said:
"And, about this Cornelius." Bogo said, looking at the foxes.
"Yes, he is of the Wilde clan." Marceli said, "What makes him directly related to Officer Wilde, even though they most likely never had any contact before."
Bogo looked at Marceli with a raised eyebrow.
"I wasn't going to ask anything of that." Bogo said, and a bit more of silence followed, as Marceli and Bogo looked at each other, before the buffalo continued:
"I was going to say that my officers gave me a certain information regarding Cornelius." Bogo said, as he leaned forward, resting his arms on his desk as he looked at the two foxes, who stood on the chair on the other end. "An information about his involvement in... other event."
"What, the mall?" Emilia asked, looking at him. Bogo looked at her, as if he was trying to figure out if she really had no clue or if she was just playing dumb.
She looked at the buffalo, and then her eyes widened, as if in realization.
"Ohhhhh..."
"Yes." Bogo said, "Oh."
He looked at the two foxes.
"So, are either of you going to tell me anything, or do I need to ask?"
He looked at the two foxes, who shared a look between themselves. Marceli nodded.
"Cornelius Wilde is quite famous in the Moonlit World." Marceli said, "Not only for being a member of one of the most powerful clans of the world. But also because he has a lot of personal aspirations. Most of which revolve around a certain achievement that he has been trying to reach for years now."
Bogo raised an eyebrow.
"What kind of 'achievement'?"
Marceli looked at him, and said:
"Instantaneous spatial transportation."
Bogo continued to look at him.
"Instantaneous?" Bogo asked, looking at the black fox. "You mean, like teleporting?"
"Pretty much." The black tod said, shrugging. "He spent years trying to find a way to perform instantaneous transportation over long distances. Put nearly all his time and effort into doing it."
"Is that what the Wilde do?" Bogo asked, "Try finding out how to teleport things?"
"Nah, that's only Cornelius." Emilia said, "The rest of the family has more realistic goals. They are not stubborn like Cornelius."
"Stubborn?" Bogo asked.
"Instantaneous spatial transportation is impossible." Marceli said. "We are talking about a high-level distortion of space that should be impossible with anything lesser than True Magic."
"It is possible to distort space in small ways." Marceli admitted, looking at Bogo. "But only to achieve smaller feats, like reducing the distance between two spots to cross them faster, when they are within a short distance from each other, but even that is hard. Cornelius aimed to achieve the actual feat of crossing long distances within a single second. That's just not realistic, and all mages know that."
"And everyone told Cornelius that." Emilia said, "He was told that by his family, by the guys he worked with, by the mages of the Association when he went to visit headquarters. They all told him he was wasting his time and that he should try to do something else, but the guy just didn't listen. He continued trying teleporting even though everyone told him it was impossible, and even though he kept failing. Talk about a stubborn tod."
Bogo looked at her, and then nodded.
"Right, so, we have a fox who makes his life's work to inventing a teleporting spell, and is so stubborn he doesn't gives up on it no matter how many times he fails or how many times everyone tells him it cannot be done." Bogo passed the information, and he looked at the foxes. "And, what this has to do with anything?"
Marceli looked at him, and he sighed.
"Cornelius Wilde was obsessed with the idea of making it possible." Marceli said, "So much that he was willing to take part in a high level ritual with other mages. An unpredictable ritual, which could very well end with his death."
He looked at Bogo.
"A ritual performed on the city of Fangtropolis."
Bogo looked back at the tod, and he nodded.
"So, the guy was part of the Darkest Hour." Bogo said, "You could have just said that without going on that little story about Cornelius Wilde's aspirations for teleportation."
"Well, those were his reasons to taking part on the ritual." Marceli said to Bogo, "A chance to have his greatest aspiration come true."
"And that ritual could do that?" Bogo asked.
"If he won? Of course it would!" Emilia said, "That's how the whole thing works. Winner gets anything they want."
Bogo looked at the vixen, with a raised eyebrow.
"Anyways, knowing Cornelius Wilde is alive is important." Cornelius said immediately. "I need to report this back to the Association as soon as possible."
Bogo shifted his gaze to the tod.
Was he trying to diverge the subject?
"Cornelius Wilde was partially responsible for the Darkest Hour, and he was assumed to have died when it happened." Marceli said, "If he is alive, then he must be found and taken into custody. He needs to answer for what happened."
"Yeah, I can agree with that." Bogo said as he looked at the two foxes. "But, there is another thing I need to talk with you at the moment."
"Hm?"
Marceli and his niece both looked at Bogo, who looked at them with a serious expression.
"So, Joshua Clawhauser is the mammal whom you trusted to keep that thing, no?" He said. It was the kind of question that didn't needed answer. They knew the moment Bogo asked that he was already aware of the facts.
Bogo heard it all from Hopps' report on that same morning, informing him of everything.
Joshua Clawhauser was the one who got the suspect to talk (Hopps also explained how he got the suspect to talk, and it was something that made Bogo slightly uncomfortable, mostly for knowing mages could actually do something like that if they wanted) and got the information out of him.
He got more than the name of the hirer, but also why he had been hire.
Of course, it was because of that package the MTC wanted back. It seemed that everything that has been happening lately somehow related to that darn package.
He was hire to go after the package and get it back from the one who was holding it. He was inform that it was a "Clawhauser", but not which one. As a result, he went after Benjamin, thinking he was the one who held wat he wanted.
Bogo was more than a little upset that the cheetah ended up becoming a target of some psychotic mercenary because of a case of mistaken identity. The idea that Ben could have been kill due to being mistake by his twin...
Bogo didn't even wanted to think about it.
Anyways, this served to understand the motivations of the freelancer, as well as to reveal to his officers, and then himself, that the package was in power of Joshua Clawhauser.
And Joshua had taken it to the Manechester mansion.
Now the thing that destroyed Fangtropolis was sitting among the cheetah's things on the bedroom given to him by those horses.
Adrian and Yahya were surprised, according to Hopps, and Bogo was pretty sure she was downplaying it. Finding out that they had something like that on their house would make the horses more than surprised.
Yahya would keep calm, like he usually did. The dark horse was not the type of panic and make a scene, he never was. His son, however, was another story.
And they were keeping it a secret from the other guests. No surprises at this point. After all, they also kept a secret from them that there was another attack and that they had a mage as their prisoner, to "keep them from worrying without need".
Honestly, Bogo was getting fed up with those horses. Both with Adrian for his non-sense and with Yahya for enabling him.
Anyways, Bogo was now aware of the presence of the package there in the mansion, and it was something that caught his attention.
"It is natural we would resort to Clawhauser." Marceli said, looking back at Bogo. "He is an enforcer as well. Also, his reputation as a member of the Berserker Squad makes him very qualified to keep the package safe."
"If you say so." Bogo said, looking at the fox. "Still, he took the thing with him to a mansion party."
"To keep it under watch and properly secure." Marceli argued. "He probably thought it was a good idea to keep it close after the MTC tried to steal it from our apartment."
"He still brought it to a place full of mammals."
"Is that a problem?" Marceli asked the buffalo. "The package is inert. It won't randomly activate, and it cannot produce the same effects it produced when it was still whole in Fangtropolis. You don't need to worry for the safety of anyone on that house."
"So you say." Bogo said, looking at the fox. "Still, I would be calmer if he had taken it to some bunker outside of the city."
Bogo relaxed on his chair as he said that to the fox, who looked back at him with a raised eyebrow.
"At least, if he did, then I wouldn't have to worry about one of my subordinates being attacked for being mistaken by him."
Marceli said nothing in answer to this.
He had really not expected for someone to go after the package. He had assumed that, after all that happened, the MTC would give up on the package and leave, as they had already took way too many risks for it. However, it seemed he had been wrong.
They truly desired that.
And that was a matter of worry for the fox.
Especially considering what they could use it for...
"You know, I didn't got one thing." Emilia said, interrupting her uncle's trail of thought, and making both him and Bogo look her way. "How did Shepard knew that Clawhauser, Joshua Clawhauser, had the package in first place?"
Bogo and Marceli both shared a look.
"Well, that would be because his hirer told him." Marceli said, and Emilia was about to beat him to it, when Marceli himself said:
"What raises the question: how did his hirer knew Clawhauser had the package?"
That was the question being ask there.
A question that needed to be ask.
"Maybe he had inside information." Emilia offered. She then turned to Bogo.
"Did any of your guys babbled something about it around?"
Bogo glared at the vixen.
"We haven't informed anyone of the ZPD to whom we gave the package." Marceli deadpanned to his niece. "We haven't even informed Bogo. So, there is no way this information may have reached the hirer coming from them."
"Oh..." Was all that Emilia said, and she looked at Bogo in an apologetic way, as she shrunk on her seat and the buffalo looked at her, before he turned his attention back to her uncle.
"And, any particular reason why you didn't informed us of this, Mieczyslaw?" Bogo asked, and the fox simply shrugged as he looked back at him.
"None in particular."
Bogo looked at him with a raised eyebrow, while the tod looked back at him with a neutral expression. After a few seconds, Bogo sighed, and he continued:
"So, someone is coming after your package, and this put one of my officers in danger." Bogo deadpanned, "What now?"
Marceli looked back at him, and said:
"Now we continue as it is."
Bogo looked at him with a raised eyebrow. Marceli simply said:
"The fact that a freelancer was sent to recover the package is worrisome. But, I still believe that Joshua Clawhauser is probably the most qualified, and trustworthy, mammal on the city to watch over such an important item. Besides, with the investigation, we cannot properly focus on protecting it ourselves, and we need to entrust this to someone else."
Marceli then concluded:
"I'm in favor of keeping the package under his care, so we can continue to focus on our job."
Emilia shrugged.
"I'm in favor of what Uncle Marcel is." She said simply, and Bogo looked at her.
The Chief looked in between the two foxes, and saw that this was their decision.
Bogo wanted to protest. However, he saw himself with no reasonable grounds to do so. He knew that those two were not going to cooperate with him if he protested. Marceli would probably take his worries into account, but he would remain firm on his decision, and Bogo could see that on his expression.
The same expression he saw on Yahya's face when the horse made a decision. And sometimes on his son Adrian.
Sighing, Bogo seemed like he accepted defeat.
"Fine. But I'll call Clawhauser and tell him to tell his twin to be more careful with that thing." Bogo said, looking at the two, "And if anything happens to someone on that house because of that thing, including my officers, you can be sure I'll be holding all three of you responsible."
"Fair enough." Marceli said simply. "Now, I believe we were talking about looking into the anonymous tip regarding a possible area where a member of the MTC could have settled a temporary workshop."
"We don't know who gave it?" Emilia asked.
"No, we don't." Bogo said, "That is how anonymous tips work."
"Still, it is an interesting one." Marceli said, "It may help us get more clues regarding them and the work they were doing here. A workshop reveals much about a mage, even if it has long been abandon. We should definitely look there. But we will have to be careful, because it there could still be traps there."
Marceli continued to explain how they should be careful, all the while he and the other two failed to notice someone was hearing and seeing all they were saying.
So that's where it is. The mammal thought as he looked at them through the opening of the vent on Bogo's ceiling. It had been a pain to sneak in there, even more finding his way into the right place where he could hear Bogo's conversation with the enforcers. However, it was worth it, as he was able to hear what he wanted.
The package was with Benjamin's brother, back on the Manechester mansion, in Vole Gardens.
Of course, knowing where it was didn't made it any easier to get it back. But it was a start.
With this, the mammal started maneuvering his body, moving through the duct and crawling his way back. As he did, his knees scrapped into the metal of the passage, producing a small sound.
"Did you guys heard that?" Emilia asked, as she picked up a metallic sound. The two males, however, failed to pick it up, even Marceli, who normally had very keen senses. As they tried to hear, there was no more sound, as the one responsible for the sound was moving away into the vents, letting the three mammals on Bogo's office to resume their talk without ever acknowledging his presence.
As the mammal crawled his way back to the air duct, he couldn't help but think he really didn't liked this. He didn't liked spying on others like that (except when it was to make a special surprise for someone, or to make sure they got together with their soulmates). He didn't liked having to go around hiding like that (except, again, when it was to make a nice surprise). And he certainly didn't liked sneaking around the ducts like a gecko (no offense to all geckos out there, including the three or four he found while sneaking on the duct and that actually looked pretty cute).
However, he had no choice on the matter.
He had to get that thing back.
That was the only way to ensure Chloe would be safe.
With this on mind, Eliot made his way back through the vent to the starting point, hitting his head a couple times on the dark of the ducts as he went, and finally falling back into the vertical line he had to previously climb to come up there. He came out through the same vent he came inside, right behind a column where no one could see him. Eliot wasted no time placing the grille back and placing the screws back to hold it in place. He couldn't let anyone know he had used it, after all.
"Eliot?" The voice called right when he was placing the final screw in place.
"Just a moment, Gerald." Eliot said, and continued to work on that screw. He finished and was proud of himself for having done it. No one caught sight of...
Wait.
"Gerald!?" Eliot cried out, jumping back and standing on all fours as he looked up at Clawrence, who looked back at him with a raised eyebrow.
"What are you doing?" He asked, seemingly unimpressed by Eliot's reaction, as if he was used to it already.
"I-I... I was..." Eliot said, looking at all sides, trying to find an excuse. That's when he caught sight of a small, scaly head peeking out of the grille's bars, before it quickly retreated back.
"I was chasing geckos!" Eliot said, thinking it was a good excuse. Gerald only looked at him.
"Geckos?"
"Yes, geckos!" Eliot said, "I hear how some of the cleaning crew were complaining about how they were finding gecko droppings out there, and how they were thinking about calling an exterminator, and I thought 'why don't I help with that?'"
Gerald looked at the wolf for a few moments.
"By climbing into the air ducts?" The panther asked, and Eliot was quick to nod.
"Of course! Don't you watch movies? Geckos love to run around the air ducts! To look for bugs. So, I thought I might look for them in there, and I actually found some. Couldn't catch them, though, the little suckers are fast."
Gerald continued to look at his partner, and Eliot kept smiling at him.
Oh, by my ancestors' fangs. Did he believed it?
Apparently, he did. Because he then shrugged.
"Well, I assume it makes sense."
Eliot mentally sighed, glad he was able to dodge that bullet. With this, Gerald seemed like he had decided to continue:
"But, was chasing geckos so important that you had to go do it the moment Chief Bogo walked out of the briefing room to do it?" The panther had crossed arms as he asked that. "And without telling me? I spent the last twenty minutes looking for you so we could go to our next assignment."
Eliot looked down, rubbing the back of his neck.
"Yeah, sorry about that." Eliot said, and he was sincere with it. He felt bad for having caused this problem to his partner. However, he had to find a way to find out more about this package Tasman wanted back so bad. For that, he needed to somehow approach the enforcers and, since the enforcers were tagging with Chief Bogo, tailing him and finding a way to listen to their conversations seemed like a good bet.
And it was. He found out where to find the thing.
"It's alright." Gerald said, relaxing and looking at his partner. "Just give me a warning next time you need to do something like that, okay? So I can advise you if it is a good idea or not. And better don't let Bogo find out you pulled something like that so early in the morning. He will probably not be pleased with you."
I know he won't. I just spied on his office through an air vent. Eliot thought, but he only said "Yeah, you're right."
"Anyhow, we better for or assignment, before Bogo realizes we have not gone yet." Gerald said, "You are the one with the keys, after all."
Eliot blinked, looking at his partner, then he searched on his pockets and, surely, there it was the keychain with their cruiser's keys hanging from it. The wolf smiled sheepishly to the panther, who simply told him they should be going, and they went.
As they went to their cruiser, climbed inside, and started driving to their next assignment, Eliot was deep in thought.
He now knew that Ben's muscular twin had the thing Tasman wanted him to get. However, Eliot still had the problem of how to get it.
Could he appear on the house and claim to need it for an emergency? Maybe say the enforcers wanted it back? No, that could raise questions. Maybe Judy would call Bogo and talk to him to talk to the enforcers to confirm they sent him?
Sneak into the place and take it without anyone seeing? No, he didn't knew how the mansion was inside. He would get lost. Also, he didn't knew where Joshua was keeping the thing. He could run all around the place and not find it, and then they would find him and demand him to tell what he was doing there.
Could he confront Joshua and demand him to give him the thing? He would say no. In that case, he would probably have to fight him to make him give him the thing...
Who am I kidding? He would wipe the floor with my butt. Just like Tasman did. I can't take a mage on a fight.
"...Eliot are you listening?"
Gerald's voice called the wolf out of his thoughts, and made him look to the side to see the panther looking back at him, now that they stopped on a red light.
"Huh? What?"
"Normally I am the one who is not listening." The panther said, looking at the wolf, who looked back at him, "I just asked if you are okay with me talking to another one of my old contacts to see if they can find more information on K.T."
"W-what? No!" Eliot blurted out, what caused the panther to look at him, and the wolf recovered:
"I mean. Well, I'm not sure about that, I mean. The last contact you tried found nothing."
That didn't came out as he wanted. He immediately felt like a jerk for saying this, and was about to apologize, but was surprised when Gerald agreed with him.
"He would not agree to help, anyway." The panther said, once more turning his attention back to the road. "He is in worst terms with me than my previous contact, and the previous one only did this for me because of the debt we had. This one has no reason to help me at all. If anything, I would be the one owing him a favor, and that is not a good idea, by any means."
The way the panther said that, and then asked:
"Would you have any ideas of how we could find out more?"
Eliot looked at his partner, and then said a simple "no", before turning his attention to the window and looking at the city outside their cruiser.
He was quiet.
Much quieter than Gerald ever heard him on the one year he had been the wolf's partner.
Quiet enough for Gerald to actually find it weird.
Weird enough for him to talk:
"Eliot?"
"Huh?" The wolf turned to him, and looked back at the panther, who was looking at him while he drove.
"Is everything alright?" The panther asked, as he continued to drive while looking at the wolf. Eliot looked at him for a while, before saying:
"You know, it would be safer for both of us if you kept your eyes on the road."
Gerald continued looking at him, making a curve on the right road without getting his eyes out of the wolf sitting by his side.
"Is everything alright?" He repeated the question, still looking at the wolf. "You are acting unusually."
"Don't I always?" Eliot asked, looking at the panther, who looked back at him without blinking.
After nearly an entire minute without either of them looking away, before Gerald finally turned his attention back to the road, as he resumed driving.
Eliot looked at him for a few more moments, before he turned his attention to the window once more. Normally he would feel bad for having a fight like that with his partner (if you could even call that fight), but he was too immersed in other subjects to actually give it a lot of thought.
All he could think about was the problem he had at paw.
How he would be getting what he needed to get to be sure that Chloe would come back home safe and sound.
Gerald, on his end, continued to drive silently, not being able to help but still think on how weirdly(-er than usual) Eliot was acting that day...
Judy was going her way across the mansion. She had no problem navigating through it now, as she had pretty much memorized all paths and ways across it already. Once more, she was thankful for her good memory and facility to absorb information, and she now pretty much had a mental map of the place on her head.
Still, that didn't made it easier to find another mammal in such a big house. Especially when you considered the effort she had to make to open the doors meant for much bigger mammals. Luckily, there were some very polite servants on the way to help her by opening the doors and giving the information she asked for.
Right now, she was looking around for Joshua, as she wanted to ask him further questions that she didn't had the chance to ask last night.
Knowing the package was on the mansion certainly changed things, and Bogo clearly agreed with her, as she could tell even through the phone at the talk they had. And the fact that the MTC, and those associated with them, were still willing to come and try to get it back put a whole new X factor on the whole situation.
After all, if they were desperate enough to send a freelancer to the mansion to recover it, through obviously violent means, then they could very well send someone else. This meant that, at any moment, the house could be attack by someone who was after that package, and would have no qualms about getting through every mammal on their way to get it.
The idea that other mages could come on the future to get the package by force added an extra worry to all that already happened. Judy had been on her toes since last night and, when she finally got to sleep, she woke up again after having a dream where an army of trident-wielding dogs attacked the mansion, destroying it in the process as they tried to find that box.
She woke up on a particularly nasty part of the dream, when a bunch of them were attacking Nick. She was sweating when she woke up with her nose twitching, and found out that part of the moistness came from tears coming out of her eyes. However, she didn't gave it much of a thought, as she knew she had other things to do on the morning.
After calling Bogo, Judy discussed with her partner, and he agreed about things having gotten complicated now that they knew about the package being there.
"And it might be just me, but I have the feeling that Spots' twin is hiding something else." Nick said, and Judy nodded at this. She also had the feeling that the muscular cheetah was not telling them everything he knew. He was still upholding information from them, just as he upheld information about having the package with him on the first place.
Which was why Judy was currently looking for him, as she wanted to confront him to know what other things he was not telling them. In particular, if there was any other kind of information that was relevant to the safety of everyone on the mansion in the case of more attacks.
However, finding Joshua Clawhauser was proving to be quite a challenge on that big mansion. There were too many places where he could be, and it didn't helped that none of the servants seemed to have seen him after breakfast.
That was, until Judy spoke to one of the maidens, who has confirmed to have seen the muscular cheetah dressed as if he was going for a walk, and that he walked out the door saying he would "make some new friends on the city" and that he would "be back in time for dinner and the game".
"Cheese and crackers..." Judy said under her breath. She had really wanted to talk to Joshua as soon as possible. It was really important to have a word with him about those matters, and now it seems he had left the mansion and the property, and would only be back later on.
"Make new friends"... Considering the last "friends" he has brought to the mansion, Judy had a feeling of what he meant by that.
Sighing, the bunny decided to go on with her day to look for something. Maybe she could get one of the empty rooms to practice her morning exercises...
"Do you really want me to do it, Chandler-sama?"
The voice Judy heard made her stop. Judy she looked to the side, to see that Chandler was talking to Ogami. Charles was standing there as well, with his arms crossed, and the wolf looked worriedly at the two.
"Yes, this is something that needs to be done." Chandler said, looking at the wolf "So, you can do it?"
"I... I'm not sure..."
"What, you are not capable of doing it?" Charles asked, looking at the wolf with a condescending expression. "What, are you not good enough?"
"I-is not that!" Legoshi said, seeming to panic for a moment, but then recovering. It looked like he was trying to come up with words.
What were they talking about?
Where they admonishing the wolf over something?
Well, guess it was none of her business. Judy turned and was about to go her way, but the next words of the wolf made her stop dead on her tracks.
"I just... didn't thought you would actually tell me to go and kill..."
Judy twirled her head immediately.
"What, are you saying you are squeamish about it?" Charles asked, "I thought you freelancers were used to do dirty job."
"Look, we really need this done, and you are the guy for the job." Chandler said, looking at the wolf, "Well, I actually think Horne would be better, but you look better for this job in particular."
Ogami was looking at the two horses, who looked back at him. As a result, none of them saw the bunny, who looked at them, and was now hiding behind a vase and listening to what they were saying.
Judy knew eavesdropping was bad, but what they were saying really caught her attention, for several reasons.
"But... to actually go and kill..."
"Look, it is no big deal." Chandler said, "You just need to go there and do the job. There won't be anyone there to stop you. We'll make sure there will be no one there to bother you. You will have full freedom to do as you want."
Chandler then added:
"It is a request from Mom and... to be honest, I kinda want to see this dealt with until sundown as well. You know, so I won't have to worry about that during the game and stuff."
"Yeah, it would be much more convenient this way." Charles agreed. "I would prefer to play the game without thinking on those vermin crawling their way towards me."
"So you want me to kill them?" Ogami asked, "Just like that? Go there and kill them?"
"Yeah, that's right." Charles said, sounding lightly annoyed by this. "What, do you actually have some kind of moral that prevents you from doing it?"
"I-I... I just that... I've never did anything like that..."
"Seriously?" Chandler asked, looking surprised. "I mean, you never have ever...?"
The wolf just shook his head, no.
"Well, it is not hard, I assure you." Charles said, "You just have to go there and do it. They are in there, and you gotta put an end to them before they can get out and cause more problem. You can do it however you want, just get it done."
Judy was growing more and more concerned the more she heard that. A concern that was slowly turning into a form of horror, as it seemed that the two really wanted the wolf to go and kill someone.
"There... there ain't another option?" Ogami asked, looking at the two. "Maybe you could just open the door and let them out?"
"No, no." Chandler said, "Already talked with Dad about it, and he is totally against it. They could come into the house and cause problem."
"But, do I really need to kill them?"
"Oh, for crying out loud!" Charles said, sounding like he was losing his patience with the wolf. "Look, this is how it is! They came into our house without invitation, so they are intruders! They caused problems, so they are nuisances! They are despicable, so we need to get rid of them! We cannot 'open the door and let them out', so we need them to be kill! And since you are here and your job is to do what we tell you, we are telling you to deal with it. Especially because you clearly have experience with this kinds of matters! So, you just go and get this over with!"
Judy heard it all, and her mind worked to process what Charles was saying, and to make a connection.
Chuckles! And Sheppard too!
They have invaded the house and have caused problem while in there. Now they were being held in the dungeons.
Did they wanted Ogami to go down there and kill the two!?
"I... I don't think I can."
"Why not?" Charles asked, sounding like he truly didn't understood the question, what shocked Judy.
"Because I can't!" Legoshi said, "I might be a freelancer, but I have morals."
"Morals?" Charles asked, "Do you have morals about killing those things?"
"Things"? He was referring to Chuckles and Sheppard as "things"? For real?
"Yes I have!" Legoshi said, "I was taught to value life! I cannot just go and kill like that! I don't want to become a murderer!"
No one on their right mind want! Judy thought. Neither would they be asking someone else to! She had heard enough, she was about to come out and confront the two horses about what they were asking Ogami to do, when Charles said:
"Murder!? They are bugs!"
Judy stopped on her tracks.
"Just a bunch of beetles, crickets and caterpillars!" Charles said, "You are talking as if we are asking you to kill mammals! I know that your whole magic revolves around bugs, but are you saying you can't even kill a few bugs?"
Judy blinked.
"SAY WHAT!?"
After the startle that the three mammals had with Judy's outburst, and the incoming explanations from the bunny, followed by the bunny asking for an explanation as well...
"Two weeks ago a batch of new plants arrived to our greenhouse." Chandler said to the bunny, "They are some rare types of plant that Effie is planning to breed. She loves plants. The thing is, someone didn't checked the plants properly before bringing them. A lot of bugs came riding along on the vases, and no one noticed until after they placed the plants on the greenhouse. Now the greenhouse is totally infested. Those are bugs that breed really fast."
Judy took in what he said, and she couldn't help but feel relieved that they were talking about exterminating bugs, instead of killing mammals.
"Now everyone is worried about it. Effie is worried that the bugs will destroy all of her plants. Dad is worried the bugs can carry diseases. Mom is worried they might escape from the greenhouse and infest the entire house."
"Infest the house?" Judy asked, and Chandler explained to her that the greenhouse connected to the main building through a hallway. You just needed to cross two doors to go from the mansion right inside of the glass house full of plants. Which now was also currently full of bugs, as it seemed.
"Mom went into the greenhouse by mistake yesterday, and she freaked out when a few bugs crawled into her dress. She wants to have the place fumigated, but Effie is against it, because it could be bad for her plants. Some of them are sensitive."
"So we had the idea of asking Ogami to deal with it, since he has this whole 'bug magecraft' thing." Charles said, gesturing to the wolf, "But we didn't expected mister bug mage to be a huge bug lover."
Legoshi looked down for a few moments, but then, he had an idea.
"What if I made a trap?" He asked, causing the two horses to look at him as he explained. "I can prepare a box to trap the bugs. I'll use a spell to create a beacon inside that will lure them, and create a miniature bounded field around that will only allow movement from the outside to inside. This way, they will be able to go inside but will be unable to get out. When they are all inside I can just take the box and maybe let them go somewhere else. Maybe I even make them my familiars. What do you think?"
The horses looked at him, and then at each other.
"Sounds good to me." Chandler said as he shrugged. "As long as it gets them out of the green house by tonight, I'm okay with it."
Charles looked at Chandler, before snorting.
"Yeah, whatever." He said, and then looked at Ogami.
"You know, for a mercenary, and a predator, you are a wuss." He said. Ogami's ears went down, and he looked at his feet, rubbing his arm as he said:
"I... I'll start working on it... On the trap... Excuse me..."
With this, the wolf departed, leaving the three mammals on the room. Charles then looked at Judy.
"You should not eavesdrop on people's conversations, Officer Hopps. It's incredibly rude." The horse said, before going his own way to deal with his own things.
Judy looked down, and then she looked up at Chandler.
"I thought you were talking about murdering someone."
Chandler looked at her, and then he tranquilized the bunny.
"Don't give Charles too much attention." Chandler said, "He wants the thing to be deal with as fast as possible since it is something that my mother really wants done. He is hoping to get on her good side."
"Get on her good side?" Judy asked, "Why?"
"Just to be on good terms with her as well." Chandler said, "So, he is pretty much kissing up to her the same way he always does to Dad and Grandpa."
Judy noticed the tone of the horse, which clearly told her that he didn't liked the fact that Charles was brownnosing to his family.
"So, you want this bug problem dealt with as well?" Judy asked, and the horse nodded.
"Yeah, I want" He admitted, "I mostly asked Ogami because Mom insisted on it and she 'didn't wanted to deal with more mages'. But, to be honest, I kind of hope that this bug problem gets solved before the night. Hannah is really freaked out by bugs. Even more than my mom. I want the greenhouse to be bug-free for when I take her there."
"Oh." Judy asked, "You plan to take her there tonight?"
Did he planned a date with her on the green house? Well, Judy could think of one or two things more romantic, but walking among plants could be romantic as well, depending on the circumstances.
I mean, if Judy had a chance to be on a nice place with Nick... Wait, what was she thinking!?
Chandler prevented the bunny of reflecting on her own surprising line of thought as he spoke to her:
"All of you, actually." He looked down at the bunny, and said with a smirk:
"The next challenge will be there."
And this concludes yet another chapter of this story.
To all of my readers and followers, thank you for the patience while waiting for this chapter. Like I already said on the chapter of another story, I had some personal problems regarding my files. There was a problem with my pendrive and I nearly lost everything. I managed to recover many of my archives, but a good number of them are lost forever, and I'll have to recover them from memory. Now I'm working on having my files backed up on the cloud so I won't go through this again.
Anyways, I was able to conclude this chapter, and I hope to resume a consistent work on this story from now on.
Hope you have enjoyed it, and thank you once more for having waited patiently. I'll see if I can work more on this story and on other ones I'm working as well. Stay tuned for more chapters.