AN. This installment expanded dramatically during its writing—threatening to exceed 18 or 19K words. Therefore I've again decided to split a chapter, this one at a point good for me, but maybe not so much for you! (Or a few of our characters) Still, this way you get some of it now, and don't have to wait another month for the whole unwieldy thing to arrive.
Thanks to my fine reviewers of chapter 28; Blkdragon7, J Shute, Medic27, pampuru, and Wolfx1120, you are a writer's vitamins! (If you want a healthy writer to reduce those update delays, feed him more vitamins)
Tinbuzzard11
Chapter Twenty-nine:
The Best Laid Plans
11:05 AM Monday, May 1st Inside the Deer Trail Correctional Facility's building #4.
Skye sat on the end of her wolf-size bed and stared out through her cell's narrow window—there was some sunlit color outside, even if it was mostly tans and browns. Not fully outside, just an intermediate form of outside, since they were backed by the shadowed gray of the old prison's wall. A small rectangle of blue sky at the top of the window was the only actual outside visible. Occasionally, it would turn white with the passage of a cloud.
For about two hours, mid morning to before mid day, it became a projection sundial, her only available way to note the passage of time other than the wall's shadow in the morning, and her building's in the afternoon. Today's chronological rectangle of sunlight had now thinned to a line on the floor to her left, and would be fully occulted within minutes.
Skye preferred her studied boredom. At present, the only other choices offered by the vagaries of her emotions and imaginings, were fear and despair. Nick Wilde's face at the window had been her last, brief encounter with joy—he'd then taken it away with him again to leave only a sliver of hope in its place.
Two and a half days isn't my definition of 'As Soon As Possible' Wilde! Still, these two days of unsettled anticipation have proven better than my previous two days of actual interrogations. They know about those—Wilde has to have told Jack by now—they must be having major problems of their own!
Maybe I'll have this third to myself too, she thought as the cell door clicked and opened. As far as she could recall, both of her interrogations had started early in the day, now it was closer to the time for her marginal daily meal. She turned to look at two large sheep as they entered—instead of a bowl of mystery gruel, one dangled a set of pawcuffs, the other made a show of pulling latex glovelets over each thick digit of his split hooves. Struggling would only cause more pain, so she put her paws behind her back.
"Been holdin out on us," said the one restraining her. "Gave you the benefit of the doubt and got lies."
"Who knows what else you've been hiding—and where. We didn't...properly search you earlier, so it's time we found out," said the other with a suggestive leer and gloved gesture at her pelvic region.
Skye went limp with the realization that unknown events must have reduced her value to that of a convenient target of revenge. No clean end awaited her; they'd likely been given leave to enjoy all the humiliation, pain, and injury their sick minds wished to inflict. They lifted her by the arms—her ribs forced out a whine to their pleasure—she was half carried, half dragged out of the cell and down the hall.
The exam table with its restraints waited for her, but she was instead seated in one of two chairs off to the side. Her bound paws went behind its curved back, which further restrained her as it poked up into her armpits. The other already held the badger doctor, topless, bruised, and with both her paws and feet tightly cuffed. She kept her muzzle down and didn't look over as Skye was placed alongside. Both sheep then went off into the other section of the building and left that door open behind them.
Skye looked over at her ally, who then looked back to briefly part her jaws and shake 'no'. That seemed clear—no talking allowed. Her morbid curiosity then noted the badger still had her tail.
Something else must be planned for them. For now at least, her threatened cavity search seemed to be just another round of opportunistic psychological torture. Unfortunately, it had been an effective one—her heart still pounded as if it wanted to try and use her bad rib as an escape route.
Her tormentors returned carrying a wire cage between them, it contained a naked, worn looking, and jittery opossum with its jaws taped shut. Doug Ramses was behind them carrying a small lab tray, followed in turn by three deer, two capybara, an alpaca, zebra, and one of the smaller equines—possibly a subspecies of onager. The cage was set on the exam table in front of them all.
"This is our last available one for now," Ramses said in his flat voice, "Pay attention...please." His last word was directed towards the arc of observers behind him. He then lifted a syringe that contained several CC's of light blue liquid.
"This is basic Holicithias extract that has been inactivated," said one of the capybara, "not by the protein complex in the National Health Institute's published and utilized cure, but by a developmental precursor of it that had insufficient affinity to separate the toxin from the limbic system cells it had initially bonded with." The large generically suited rodent nodded to the three sheep.
One of them used two sticks to push the opossum into a cage corner and shift the struggling marsupial until its tail stuck out through the wire mesh. Ramses grabbed and pulled it to immobilize his victim, and injected a small amount of the extract into its rump.
"Like the standard cure, this will remain mostly inert within the treated mammal's body until it is filtered and excreted after about two or three weeks depending upon the species. Notice I said mostly. As we'd desired, this weaker inactivation protein will slowly unbind from the Holicithias toxin and re-enable its potency." The capybara paused as Ramses and the sheep that had cuffed her approached.
That henchmammal pulled a large pistol and pointed it at the doctor's head. The not yet panicking part of Skye's mind noted that the highly illegal weapon had a customized grip for his hoof and an offset push trigger. Ramses then injected the badger's shoulder with the toxin as she slowly clenched her eyes shut.
"We don't have enough data points to be sure, but it seems to debond at the same rate in the three species we did test. It's a bit like radioactive decay, with a...well…chemical reaction half-life of about a week. We'll know more after monitoring these two for a bit."
Skye didn't get the gun pointed at her—just pushed back into her seat as she was dosed behind her left shoulder. Ramses wasn't gentle—he wiggled the needle a couple of times and didn't pull it out very straight. It hurt and she felt suddenly light headed, then somewhat nauseous. Her resolve to not give them the satisfaction of a reaction lost out to the induced syncope—her muzzle sagged and mouth opened.
"So what's different now from your regular briefings?" the zebra asked, "We've always been careful to avoid unnecessary trips out here—particularly in the daytime with this many of us at once!"
"This is why I wanted copies of all those boring papers written about the cure's development. To speed their testing, the labs used several enzymes to control the reactions they were interested in. One was used to test how firmly the final inactivation protein bound the extract. We found it to be much more effective on the earlier version—the one we just dosed our subjects with," the capybara said with evident pleasure. "It's stable, odorless, and like the toxin, can be applied externally!"
Ramses produced a glass rod that appeared frosted on its end, stuck it through the cage, and briefly poked the cringing opossum on the side of its neck. He stepped over to the badger and did the same to her upper arm, then it was Skye's turn. It was a minor prod—the sheep was being deliberately cautious.
"Patience," said the capybara, "I want a couple of minutes for you to observe the lack of reaction in our subjects." He stepped over, picked up a small squat bottle from Ramses's tray, and showed it around. It appeared to have small drops of condensation on the outside, and only a scrap of white paper within. "At present, we have only a small amount of that enzyme here; one drop was placed on this square of filter paper." He carefully uncapped the bottle, and let Ramses insert his rod and poke it against the paper for about a half second before he withdrew it.
"Several milligrams of it are now on the end of the rod. Unless exposed to excessive heat or strong sunlight for example, it will retain its effectiveness for several hours on many surfaces—doorknobs, handrails, podiums, pens, utensils—anything a target previously dosed with the inactivated toxin would be expected to touch. It is harmless to anyone else." The capybara crooked a finger at the caged opossum and Ramses chased his frantic, hissing victim around the cage with the rod for a few seconds before he was able to poke its bare tail.
"This will be slower acting than the original Holicithias extract, since the enzyme needs time to diffuse within the body, then encounter and unbind the toxin before it can act as before. This delay will make it more difficult for anyone to discover the...delivery vector."
They watched in silence as the now aware opossum first attempted to wipe off its tail where the rod had touched, realized its mistake, then tried to violently scrub its paws clean on the wires of the cage. It then grabbed and repeatedly scraped its tail against them to the point of drawing blood. That psychopathic capybara's small smile and intent gaze, told them it was too little too late.
The likely nocturnally abducted street derelict's movements slowly became more uncoordinated. It eventually flopped onto its side to hiss and thrash for almost another minute before it expelled the contents of its bowels. Then a final, brief series of violent convulsions twisted it horribly with a distinct snap of bone. One foot continued to tremble as blood leaked past the tape on its long snout.
Skye slumped and dry heaved, then cried out from the pain in her side and shoulders. Ramses lifted her muzzle with the middle of his glass rod—she swallowed down her choking and went rigid with fear.
"You'll have a few hours to think about this before you're required to answer more questions," he said, then flicked the rod away from under her jaw with a chuckle. "And remember fox, we have enough of this, and you just got enough of that, to let you participate in a game! It's called step on the wrong spot or touch the wrong thing and die! Another player gets it on them and touches you...too bad, you still die. Obey and give us enough, and you might earn a booster dose of the inhibitor before what's inside you degrades too much. If you really cooperate, you might even earn your new friend one too!" Ramses looked slowly over at the badger doctor to hammer home his point.
"This was the result of well over twice the fatal dose for this species, very slowly administered by the action of the enzyme, although he wasn't in good shape to start." the capybara said, unfazed by both Ramses' gloating, and by their victim's corpse still dripping on the table. "The severity of the reaction, from mild agitation to what we just saw, is controlled by the initial dose of the inactivated toxin, the delay and duration by the absorption of…"
11:20 AM Monday, May 1st Lower Rainbow Lake Campground—outside temperature -3 Deg. C.
"Warmer now? I'd better check again," Nick asked Kristen. She nodded, so he turned off the engine and quickly got out to retrieve breakfast from under the hood of Jack's car. Warm had become a precious resource and he didn't want to waste any more of it than he had to. The small pan set on top of the exhaust manifold had started to brown the rest of the turkey sausages, and the loaf of bread tucked alongside the radiator was warm as well. Kristen had paper plates and forks ready when he returned.
"I didn't exactly do credit to our pioneers, or my reputation as a good cook, did I?" Kristen said as she twisted the loaf roughly in two and gave him his part. "Or as a scientist! Why didn't I think of using the car as a heat source?"
"Because my little charcoal briquette, maybe you didn't need one since you were warm enough all last night and didn't want me uncuddling you until a couple of hours ago," Nick groused. "That tent was pretty useless, so my backside was frozen stiff—I couldn't have moved any earlier if I'd wanted to."
"Wasn't quite warm enough to really enjoy it—even if I hadn't known you were taken!" She took his orange juice bottle, realized it was still mostly ice, and passed it back. "Thank our maker for these tails, about the only decent protection we had." Kristen shifted forward in her seat a bit to wave it for him.
"You deliberately evolved smaller so you could be wrapped up on the inside didn't you? And now you cruelly flaunt your extra fluffy asset in my face! My own horribly exposed and frostbitten tail shall never again regain its former supple elegance!" Nick ignored his fork, managed to stab a sausage with his longest claw, and successfully convey it to his mouth.
"Such an aggressive predator in the Wilde you are. And the tail—should have tucked it inside your pants genius. And if you still can't feel it, massage it yourself. From now on, I'm gonna need written permission from both of you before I'll touch it!"
"You're so kind and snuggly Kristen. Really should have taken that comforter with us! Had no idea it'd get this cold—car said minus six when I first looked this morning, and it almost didn't start!"
"Probably wouldn't have push started either," she said, confessing her own fear over its first sluggish turnover attempt. "And the comforter? Remember, you were the one who said we didn't have room for it."
They really hadn't. Every nook and cranny of Jack's Roadrunner was filled with his break-in supplies and items from the house they didn't want the ZBI to find. He had brought a lighter blanket, but the ground had been cold enough to necessitate folding it under them instead of having it over them. He couldn't even blame her for the thinned state of his fur since that had been mostly mom's doing.
"Now we know why we're the only ones here," Nick deadpanned. "If I ever go camping again, I'll just have to bring some more warm bodies—there's another fox and a couple of bunnies that might do."
"You didn't seem to mind me last night sport! If I'm getting tossed aside now, you'll owe me a replacement fox first!"
"I thought you said you'd be happy with a skunk." He stabbed the last sausage with his finger and offered it to her. She pulled it off his claw with her teeth to chew the whole thing at once.
"Either is fine if you make sure they meet my standards!" she said after swallowing the last of it. "You're suppose to know everybody, so it shouldn't be hard for you to find me a hot, young, and adventurous paleontologist—or at least someone else with a natural sciences PHD."
"So I was never actually in the running you shameless tease; all that flirting was just an act!"
"Well...it did give me a lot of good blackmail material since you'd misled me about your single status, and then hadn't accurately updated it when it changed! Right in my own place! And you'll have to agree we both got a good friend out of this!"
"That we did," Nick said softly. He reached to scratch around her ears a little and let them lean together. "A good dear considerate friend that wouldn't think to use any of her blackmail material! At least until she'd given me the opportunity to earn enough trust and forbearance from my aggressively possessive mate, that I might survive her retribution."
"We might not have that chance foxy. She's already on her way and I don't think we could possibly be any more all over each other."
Nick's nose confirmed that they were irredeemably doomed. "It's late enough they might already be on the ground. I'll go pack the tent—should only take us a few minutes before we're down far enough for a cell signal."
Even driving slowly since they had no real destination, they were out of the mountains and approaching the outskirts of Concordia again before they were contacted. They both received Jack's succinct text—they'd landed, had good evidence, and he should stand by. Nick acknowledged receipt, and was happy they hadn't missed an earlier contact as time might become precious today.
And time is money. He'd used that phrase—even on Carrots long ago—now he'd experienced it in its pure form. At the moment, it equated to ten dollars a minute—fifty one of them. Kristen was still in the grooming salon, so the per minute cost might still drop somewhat since he'd already paid for them there.
Nick's own fur was still slightly damp in spots, but at least the shampoo they'd used on him had lived up to its cost—much of the gray dye was gone and he looked more like himself. He now wore a much better jacket than Mr. Holcroft's lend-me-down, and had a tie to match—not to his normal sartorial preference, but more elegantly subdued. He'd decided earlier it was best not to question a focused and frantic skunk.
She'd instantly transformed into that when he'd read Judy's follow-on text message to her. He'd been delighted to see that their soon to be reunited resistance now had some serious muscle in the form of Nadine Fangmeyer. Kristen came unglued over their planned—and hastily confirmed—rendezvous point.
Apparently it was a really big deal socially, and required an emergency shopping trip to make both of them presentable. Kristen quickly stopping to use her tablet to find the nearest upscale mall, then pushing it at him to navigate them there, meant no objection from him would have been tolerated. Then, the presence of an attendant at the mall's information booth hinted that it likely wouldn't be a cheap visit. At least their ready spending in the stores encouraged polite indifference towards their mismatched scruffy appearances.
His thankfully unremarked upon skunkette companion emerged, now changed into the electric blue top she'd worn back in the restaurant, and her newly purchased pleated skirt that better complimented it.
Nick nodded in appreciation—both for her, and his, improved appearances, but mostly to acknowledge the sacrifice of mom's money. Kristen just took the silent compliment. With fifty minutes left before their planned rendezvous, they hurried back to the underground parking level.
"If we'd gotten those texts a half hour earlier, we could have gone straight there and saved backtracking twenty miles," Nick said in order to get his expected look of horror from Kristen as they took the ramp up to street level.
"You really don't know about the Pinnacles? It's exclusively for those aristocrats well above dealing with ordinary rich people. I don't see how that code from Jack will even get us in!"
"Our ZBI agent must keep a lot about himself private, unless Skye's the one with the big bucks."
"That doesn't make sense Nick, not for them. Mr. Growley must have decided to provide more than just his jet. That would really expose him if we're caught, so he's been forced to rely more on us!"
She was right. They'd all been necessarily circumspect with their messaging, but it seemed now that things were coming to a head for everyone. Their earlier closeness, friendly bantering, and the shopping, meant that Kristen was as aware as he was that their success or failure, or even life or death for some of them, would be decided within hours. So they'd better make the best out of their remaining time.
He might have little of it left, but he could still give a lot more to her. Kristen had already done and risked enough, better to send her back as a repository of information about the conspiracy. Have her go to ground, write down and widely disseminate everything she knew about the background, initial cover-up attempts, and the ramifications of the Fairfield discovery. And maybe to redeem their reputations some day if the rest of them weren't able to.
Three quarters of an hour later, and fifteen miles past the road up to their frigid campground, they turned up another towards the sign advertised Sunrise ski area. It soon branched again, their well engineered and maintained new road marked only by a much smaller forest service sign saying 'restricted access ahead'. It took them alongside a rapidly flowing stream towards the mouth of a narrow side canyon, where they were stopped at a security checkpoint—their way blocked by a raised drawbridge over the stream that looked like whimsical artwork made real. A richly uniformed bear came to them, and scanned the coded image on Kristen's tablet. The fairly short bridge, hung on chains from long pivoted and counter-weighted arms, started to lower immediately.
"Welcome to Pinnacles," the ursine intoned. "Excuse the delay Ms. and Mister, your privacy is important to us. Reception shall attend to your needs." The bear stepped back, and Nick furtively nudged Kristen to get them moving before their lack of upper crust haughty indifference was noticed.
The gap through the ridge line ahead was short and very scenic—less than a mile. It opened up into a steep sided valley with several towering rock formations interspersed with similarly sculpted buildings. It was a whole fantasy landscape—without the condensed size and forced perspective you found in amusement park recreations. The smaller reception building and its convenient parking were well placed to intercept arrivals; the elegant vixen and skunkette that awaited them inside were—unexpected.
"These detail the full selection of amenities available at Pinnacles," the vixen said as she passed them bound and embossed brochures. "These provide your suite access and enable all relevant services for Patrons and Guests," the skunkette said in turn, giving them keycards in holders. "All staff members are ready to assist you at all times," she added obsequiously.
"Please exit parking toward the right and you will be guided to your residence," said the smiling vixen—Nick finally noticed that her name was Jasmine.
"Yeah Nick, that had to be orchestrated for us, my opposite there was a...Richelle," Kristen snarked as they walked to the car. "Bet they have cross trained staff and call up the appropriate species as needed."
"They were probably told what we were to help confirm our identification, since we're last minute arrivals. I doubt many have to check in here like us; their regular Patrons would have staff to take care of that! Not quite my style—I'm too self reliant."
"Some types really need to be acknowledged and fawned over! You never know, you could grow to like it. I would. Also, did you notice that mine wasn't a hunk skunk? They weren't sure if we were a couple and didn't want to possibly offend. And I could tell she was hastily groomed—kinda like me!"
"Hey you! Mavis. Get your uniform and get to reception pronto; inbound guest!" Nick barked as they turned onto the street. Kristen started to laugh with him, then stopped.
"Oh come on! Nick is this cool or just way over the top?" She pointed out at the road. There was a line of green LED's embedded in the lane ahead of them as they drove. It led them around two of the buildings and into the underground parking of a third taller one. It steered them right into a stall next to a larger SUV.
"Considering the likely expense, and the fact that I didn't see any burned out ones, I vote for cool," Nick said. They were off when they got out, but there was a bar of green above a nearby elevator. The door opened for them as they drew near, and they were soon automatically on their way up. "Good card readers," he commented dryly. "Although I really don't like being tracked wherever I go."
"Security and service for the privileged, surveillance and subjugation for the paranoid," Kristen said knowingly. "At least we're fairly comfortable with our present stations in life."
That deserves a response Nick thought as the rocky shaft around their circular, windowed elevator partially opened up to give a spectacular view of their valley. There appeared to be a ski area around its upper reaches—he was able to see the dots of a few large mammals on the slopes before the rugged lips of the cleft closed back around them as they slowed. They turned towards the door as it opened directly onto a large living area; it revealed Judy and mom standing just outside, Fangmeyer lounged on a sumptuous couch behind, Jack and a bobcat with drinks in paws way back at a bar—and Fabienne Growley off to one side. She had an anticipatory smile on her famous face as she examined them both.
"Officer Wilde and Deputy Agent LARP reporting in!" Nick managed to say brightly before mom cut in front of Judy to get her welcome nuzzle in first. She briefly gekkered in his ear over the introduction, and someone else snickered. Judy looked flustered as she pushed mom's tail out of her way, then puzzled.
"What on earth's a LARP?" Judy stepped forward at the same time Kristen did, and was thwarted again.
"It means live action role play officer Hopps," mom said down to her. "I take it you're not a gamer."
That put surprise on Judy's face and gave him pause as well—mom felt it and stepped back.
"I don't spend all of my alone time just knitting doilies and reminiscing, Nicholas!" she stated.
"That helps explain the bow," Fabienne Growley said to his further surprise. "She stepped onto the plane with it this morning like that forest fox of old."
"Don't know what other surprises she has in store for us," Jack said as he, and the bobcat in a pilot's uniform, walked over. "But I'm happy for the fire support."
Mom reached to firmly pinch his ear and pull him with her towards an unoccupied couch. "This is for neglecting to support me with timely information!" Her embarrassing action was explained when he saw Kristen and Jack move to engage with Judy—both careful to block her direct path towards him.
Which one of us worried them the most? About us doing something emotionally spontaneous—that would require an uncomfortable explanation for the curious ZNN correspondent. Probably my frustrated bun. I hope she realizes why her friends distracted her—before initiating violence!
Nick sat and was able to make uninterrupted eye contact with his Judy—she understood now and gave him a brief smile, then sat quietly along with Kristen. Jack wasted no time as he stepped away from them.
"Our being here together means we have each decided that this threat to society must be exposed and stopped regardless of the personal cost. Today we've gained the direct support of Fabienne Growley, who's provided this...uh refuge and other badly needed material; she is fully informed about the conspiracy we face," Jack turned his attention from him to the leopardess. "One of our earliest to become unknowingly entangled with this conspiracy's intrigues was Doctor Kristen Soren here of the Natural History Museum. Another was Agent Skye Winter of the ZBI, who first discovered the steady purging of predators from government positions, and whose very life now depends upon..."
"We're introduced now Agent Savage," Fabienne said tersely, "polish up your speech and lets get it on camera later! Officer Wilde, Dr. Soren, we've been recording interviews to provide context and to hopefully justify your actions; I still need yours along with Mrs. Wilde's. If I may start back in that room with you doctor."
"Do ours first," Nick said, "Doctor Soren will be staying behind so you'll have plenty of time with her—that'll probably take longer; there's some important science stuff that relates to a lot of our evidence."
Fabienne shut off the playback of the aerial imagery from her video camera on the wide screen TV. She had paused it at several points so that she and mom could offer commentary. He'd used a couple of those to try and estimate the Junction City project's capacity—far greater than he'd first realized.
"Well over a hundred thousand, maybe a quarter million if they finish everything," Nick said slowly. "That might take half of the large predators in Zootopia right there." He felt mom's paw on his shoulder.
"Agent Savage made some dire speculations about that," Fabienne said, her thickly furred tail waving slowly. "Go catch up with him and tell Dr Soren I'm ready for her. If lunch is here, could she bring ours?"
It had, and he helped Kristen push the large ornate cart with its polished covers and plates to the video room after mom had taken their own meals off. Everybody but Jack was eating when he returned and sat with her. Their slack eared hare was morosely pacing about the room with his drink in paw.
"We can't afford to have you fade out on us later Savage," Nick said firmly. "At least pick some high calorie rabbit food if there is such a thing!" Jack looked up sullenly and said, "It's just juice Wilde!" He then went to retrieve his plate from the side table near Judy where he'd left it, and mechanically started to fork it in. His mood had obviously collapsed when Mrs. Growley had cut off his voiced concern for Skye.
Two of their present company didn't know about that mixed pairing, so he didn't want to offer any overt comfort to Jack—but Judy had also noticed, she slid over to ask some leading questions and get him back on track. Nick looked over at the bobcat eating at the kitchen serving counter and waited to catch his eye.
"Nick Wilde, ZPD, thanks for bringing us together and helping them get their photo evidence."
"No problem, helps me too. Eric Broadpaw; if you need more gear, I'll go procure it before you deploy."
"Oh! Were you in law enforcement or the national guard?"
"Ex guard. Maritime patrol. Today's flight was more unsettling than anything I ever found out there! Join the guard! Log thousands of flight hours looking for fishery poaching and idiots needing rescue!"
"Yeah, there is something more I want," Nick said. "Everybody? When I went in the first time and got the photo evidence of the prisoners, I took several more to make what I was doing...look more transparent. I'm afraid we're really going to bend some laws tonight..."
"You mean break," Judy said. "After Chief Bogo got arrested, I thought about that and decided to take my badge with me in case I needed it. Brought yours along too Nick." She dug it out and tossed it over.
"Right. We shouldn't let Savage take all the heat. Anyway, I'd like for us to have a couple more cameras and document the crap out of everything that happens! I've a bad feeling we'll need that—this goes high enough in the government that they can legally justify protecting themselves however they have to."
"You have my camera with you Wilde?" Jack said, having recovered quickly after receiving their added support. "Good, I bought a similar one for back up; we'll swap. The one I used on the flight's too bulky to carry easily unless officer Fangmeyer wants it...if that's OK with Mrs. Growley."
"There's an audio visual service here for weddings and such," Broadpaw said, "They should have some smaller ones to borrow." He left immediately.
"He's been a gift," Jack said as their dedicated elevator's door closed off the bobcat. "Did you see that dark blue gray SUV down by the elevator Wilde? He rented that at the airport for our use—it's big enough that we can just squeeze someone officer Fangmeyer's, or Lionheart's, size in back with the rear seats down. That barely leaves room for all of us and our equipment, even using my car, just to get there.
"So we have to rely on Mrs. Growley's promised helicopter to get the prisoners out. I don't know yet if it will have the capacity for both our big cats at once. If just one, for evidenciary reasons we'll have to prioritize Lionheart and agent Winter. That makes our own overland exfiltration difficult since we'll certainly be exposed by then."
"Fabienne said only one helicopter would be available unless we wanted to risk a media circus," Judy said looking at him. "How long would it take for it to make a round trip; and get us a second flight out?"
"About fifty miles from the Federal Center to Deer Trail," Nick contributed as Jack thought.
"I know, I know. Usual four or six big seat turbine heli's can carry up to 600 kilos, and both have a cruise of 130 or so. It's weird Judy, I was just looking up some of this info four days ago! So, realistically, at night with controlled approaches at one end and restricted blind ones at the other? I'd guess an hour and a quarter absolute minimum assuming a quick turnaround at the airport. Wish I'd paid more attention to what one ZNN uses here."
"Also assuming we've secured the whole facility, and can hold it; since it'll have to land in the yard each time," Nick said to broach the big issue—not knowing the extent of the opposition they'd actually face tonight. "There's another problem—how do we get officer Fangmeyer over the wall? I had a...little trouble with that myself and had to...improvise."
"How big a wall?" Fangmeyer said. "Smaller felines are all good climbers, but we tigers really aren't."
"Twenty-five feet of fairly smooth concrete; about a foot thick on top with barbed wire," Nick said.
"I'm gonna need a ladder or some kind of rope pull sling for that! And then re rig it to lower me down inside, I don't think I could take a drop like that without spraining or breaking something."
"We'd rig the ropes for you," Judy offered. "Didn't you do rope climbing or rappelling at the academy?"
"Not required for anyone bigger than a wolf or without these." Fangmeyer held up and flexed a paw as large as his mate's head. "I'm almost as heavy as some male tigers! Sorry Hopps, unless we have gear for my size from some mountain outfitter, I won't have enough grip on your bits of string to hold my weight!"
"Too much time and effort would be involved to maintain the stealth Wilde deemed necessary," Jack said definitively to settle the matter. "You'll have to stay here and come in on the helo Fangmeyer."
Her horror stricken face reflected the realization that she faced at least one flight suspended beneath a rotor—at night. "If the helicopter doesn't work out, I could get a vehicle and crash the main gate? When you're ready for me?"
"It's a large mammal prison; pretty hefty double gate," Nick said to quash that idea. "Unless you can find someone's Tactical Assault Vehicle and hot wire it?" He saw that Mrs. Growley and Kristen had partway rejoined them to stand and listen from the hallway.
"Didn't see any of those at the rental place either," Jack said, also noticing them. "Our only realistic chance of pulling this mission off relies totally on our stealth and the enemy's complacency! Once we're in, our first priority is for our foxes to determine the extent and locations of our opposition without making contact. Next, we need to find and cut their communications to block them from calling in reinforcements. Then, we take out as many of them as we safely can before they raise the alarm. When they do, we converge, assault building four and call down the helo when we've secured the prisoners."
"None of you four are large mammals, several of them are by your own reports! Do you really expect to overcome all of them with those tranquilizer arrows you just made?" Mrs. Growley asked dubiously.
"No, we have a limited number of those tranks. I have secured other non lethal and lethal weapons. We must be ready to kill as the situation requires, if not, we fail and the prisoners die along with us!"
"No! I will require more assurances that you can avoid any killing before I allow this to go on!" Mrs. Growley said firmly, tail lashing. "My mate and I are already dangerously exposed by both this conspiracy and you. I don't want to add accessories to murder on top of that! I seriously feel that your chances of success are poor, however desirable a good outcome would be for us. Convince me now that my support of this endeavor is a wiser choice than cutting my losses and going with the evidence we already have!"
"The evidence we have might stop that hospital prison thing from being used, but it won't be enough to take down the whole conspiracy!" Judy said, incensed. "Their leaders will be well insulated from blame unless we have the prisoners testimony! We can't..."
"I'm talking to Savage!" Mrs. Growley said over her even louder. "I want to hear from him how he thinks this will succeed!"
"This conspiracy is short on trusted recruits, that's why it was so easy for me to insert myself," Jack said, trying to keep his voice calm. "They're relying on the apparent abandonment of Deer Trail for security to avoid having to divert extra resources to it. I expect that has not changed—they have no reason to suspect that anyone realizes they're there. From officer Wilde's prior unsuspected reconnaissance and communication with one of the prisoner's we're after, I expect a skeleton staff of no more than a half-dozen to be present. They've probably been there for a month or two at least, are likely bored by now, and lax with procedures if they follow any at all."
"That is more encouraging Savage, although I want your specific assurance that you won't leave a trail of bodies to explain!"
"We have the tranks, plenty of zipties for restraints, rags to gag them with; I can't guarantee that they'll be uninjured, but we'll do our best to let the legitimate justice system sort them out at the end of this! However, if any of them are armed and threatening, I won't hesitate to use whatever's at my disposal—even if it means theirs."
Fabienne Growley pondered for an uncomfortable half-minute before her decision. "Acceptable Savage. And I see that Eric's on his way back, so he can help us decide on those radio frequencies and when you want the helicopter standing by."
6:40 PM Monday, May 1st with Judy and Jack eastbound on rural route 52 just north of Concordia.
"I understand the logic, but I don't have to like it. I wanted to go with Nick!" Again, Judy regretted what had just escaped her mouth—it must have sounded incredibly selfish. "Jack I'm so sorry! I didn't mean..."
"I know, forget it!" Jack said sharply to shut her down. "Your excited because he's still got that new fox smell about him," he said more sympathetically.
"I suppose he does. It's just that we…" Judy tried hard to avoid flushing under her fur. "It's just the timing of all this!"
"I doubt there's any better one," Jack said as he sped up a bit on the vacant road.
"We could have gone along with and followed in sight of them. Nothing would really connect our two vehicles for anyone," Judy groused. "I know you wanted to keep yours away from the city, but aren't we going pretty far out of our way?"
"Sports cars out here don't attract much attention unless they see us racing, and the local sheriff knows it's too late in the day for that. They do their wreck check earlier in the afternoon, so we should be good."
"Is that the intercontinental already?" Jack had told her that this was supposed to be the longest straight stretch of empty road near Concordia, so she was surprised to see it rise ahead at a significant overpass.
"No. That's an alternate that follows the Prairie River to the northeast. We're going ahead to Prospect Corner, then twenty miles south from it. Your relations should get there first if they don't hit heavy traffic."
She understood once they'd crested the overpass. Dead straight and flat, she could see the road ahead stretch for a good ten miles across empty grassland too sparse to hide a watchful cruiser. Jack really opened it up as they came down the far slope.
Judy had never driven one hundred miles an hour before—not even in police training. Jack held his Roadrunner at one-o-five to one-ten for mile after mile, their long shadow projected ahead of them by the low sun behind. There were no other cars. It was exhilarating, and part of her mind waited for him to pitch the front of the car up and soar into the sky. Her concern over his blatant exhibition of speed slowly faded...
"Even if you have your ticket book Hopps, you're way out of jurisdiction," Jack said reading her mind.
Jack needed this, and maybe she did too. Prevented by circumstance from being able to rescue his imperiled mate for days, he could now satisfy his urge to rush to Skye's aid. Actually, he'd planned to do this Judy realized. That explained the careful walk-around inspection he'd performed upon retaking possession of his car from Nick and Kristen. She was simply thankful it wasn't a convertible—she'd be tightly hanging onto her ears otherwise.
They slowed as a small community expanded up ahead; it looked slightly larger than Derry had back home earlier this morning. Jack turned right at its one intersection and re-accelerated up to forty with the excuse that this road was in poorer condition. It was, but she still felt disappointed by their drastically reduced pace. It was mid twilight when they reached the intercontinental highway, and near dark when they rolled down the lonely off ramp Nick had designated.
Her foxes had their SUV parked under the highway bridge with lights off—they immediately started up, then pulled past them to lead. Once the road had turned to dirt, she and Jack leaned forward in an attempt to see better as the fairly slender crescent moon ahead of them provided little useful light. Its shifting reflections off of the SUV's roofline and luggage rack showed it to be slowly pulling ahead of them.
"Cuss-it Wilde, slow down," Jack muttered, "I'm not that nocturnal and don't have your ground clearance!"
The SUV slowed immediately; certainly not due to her mate's exceptional hearing, but more likely a timely glance at his rear view mirror. They jounced along the road until they turned up the one toward the prison and stopped at a closed gate. A dimly seen fox shape exited and sparingly used a small flashlight to help Jack turn them around and position his car to one side of the shallow road cut they were in.
Judy was immediately out of the car to bounce across its hood and tackle him on the fly. He staggered back a couple of steps as she tried to squeeze out her worries and frustrations on him. For the moment, she finally felt...secure.
"Good to know what I'm in for after you've endured...uh...twelve whole days of fox deprivation Carrots!" Nick said; one arm helping to support her and the other ruffling her head and ears. "I can understand the terrible cravings you must feel if even a dashing ZBI agent couldn't fulfill them!"
Judy turned her head to see that Jack had joined them and now stood with a pained expression on his face. Other paws grabbed her gently with enough of a finger wiggle to make her slack her grip on Nick. She was lifted away, then set on her feet.
"She's overreacting Nicholas, I was there for a couple of those days. And Judy dear, remember what I told you about appearing too dependent on your new mate. You do want to retain the upper paw with him."
"Mom! Whose side are you on!"
"Enough! Skye's still in there waiting for me!" Jack Savage cried, crashing them back to reality. "For us! To get her out of there before they…they…" he choked on his own words, paused and restarted. "We can't afford any more distractions. We got involved with this conspiracy, we saw the danger in it, we followed it here, it's up to us to get her...them out, however we can, right now!" He turned and went to a box in the trunk of his car—she, Nick, and Vivian gathered around and watched.
Jack was right, they'd all been slowly drawn into this case, this cancer within the government, pulled in too deeply to escape it before they'd realized its full extent. If they succeeded, it really would make the world a better place. If they didn't, it would certainly get a lot worse. Judy realized that she had never before considered failure and its consequences as a possibility.
Jack reached into his box and gave each of them a large knife in a sheath that could be secured with a Velcro strap. Judy pulled hers to examine it under the car's weak trunk light. It had a partially serrated six inch blade with a handle almost too large for her to grip. It must have been a display or collector's knife, and was way too long to be legally carried in public by civilians her size—or even larger. She looked at Jack, opened her mouth to object, and decided against it.
"We will be facing mammals much larger than ourselves, sheep and deer sized, possibly other species." Jack looked back at her. "If stealth fails and there's a confrontation, they won't hesitate to kill to stop us. Use both paws and put your body weight behind it. Use your agility and go for soft spots, throat, belly, anywhere you might reach an artery. That goes for your arrows too Vivian; don't waste them on bone!"
Jack continued to distribute the tape, small spools of wire, wire cutters, and the bundles of zipties she'd bought in Zootopia. Nick got a bolt cutter and a couple of small chisels. Vivian and herself got the cameras from the resort, and small flashlights. Finally, he gave Nick one of the old flash attachments she'd found for him and kept the other. She'd been embarrassingly slow to realize why he'd wanted them so badly.
"This fits in your paw Nick, and is much more powerful than what these digital cameras have. Lot better for us. This slide switch turns it on, and when the button lights, it's charged. There's about a ten second recharge lag. Completely cover your eyes before flashing it, closing them isn't enough, put your arm over them even if you've turned your head! It's one of our close in secret weapons, so let's not reveal it early!"
She and Jack moved their backpacks and a couple of coils of rope to the SUV while Nick and Viv snapped the rusty gate chain with a prybar. It took both of them to push the heavy steel tube gate open—with a sound Judy wanted to associate with a love stricken dinosaur.
"Prison's about three and a half miles away from here," Nick said, "they won't hear that with this wind. I think we can drive closer in this; there's a streambed just ahead, give me a few to check it."
Judy hoped so, their backpacks were all rather heavy, and it would be good to have their transportation more closely available. It was almost fifteen minutes before both Wilde's returned, which gave Jack time to tape some crudely ripped cardboard covers over the SUV's taillights. In spite of all their prior planning, and Jack's many admonitions, that simple precaution he'd just taken really drove home to her how carefully they'd have to coordinate and execute this operation.
"We had to move a few rocks," Nick said as he slowly bumped and twisted their way across a mostly unseen stream; both his and Vivian's heads leaned out their respective windows. At one point, she flicked her flashlight down at the water a couple of times and pulled the steering wheel her way without her sons objection. They seemed to be hitting all of the rocks instead of avoiding them—Judy suddenly realized that's exactly what they were doing, to avoid becoming mired.
Judy estimated that they'd gained a little over one mile on the straight road beyond, before Nick chose a shallow depression to the side and carefully backed them into it. He seemed to have known it was there. They helped each other strap on their backpacks and do a final check—Judy saw that Jack had not only a first aid kit, but a couple of extra waters and some wrapped food from the resort. She patted him on the shoulder in acknowledgment; he'd come fully prepared to care for his mate.
They walked further along the road as it went up a slight rise, enough to bring more of the prison into view—only the tops of the cell blocks had been faintly and intermittently visible as they'd driven closer. Nick led them off the road and eventually stopped where they could sit partially hidden, but with a clear view. He and Jack shared the binocular and seemed content to watch, so she did the same. Skyglow from the distant city dimly silhouetted the walled compound—a black band of cloud just above blocked even more of the light, making their surroundings quite dark.
Overall that's good for us, but not for me—I can barely see! If I wasn't following Vivian close enough to brush her tail, I'd be stumbling over everything on the ground. And why does our objective have to look like a spooky medieval fortress? It's already the embodiment of evil—even without having to add rain and lightning around it.
Her thought seemingly prompted Nick to get up and lead them onward. They went to one side of and partly around the back of the prison—it took them what felt like an hour to arrive at the spot where he'd presumably gone over the wall the first time. She felt its looming presence, but could only see it by the absence of stars from that half of the sky. Frustratingly, she could only wait on her nocturnal mate.
Judy heard more than saw Nick and the others shuck their backpacks. Then he and Vivian went off in opposite directions—they returned a couple of minutes later to report that all seemed clear on this side. Jack turned on a dim flashlight as Vivian and Nick pulled the coils of rope out of their packs, laid them out, and checked the attachment of their hooks. She and Jack stepped back as the two foxes started to throw.
Nick's first scraped against the wall as it fell back; Viv's went up and thumped down close to her.
"A little light? I need to see the top better!" Nick muttered to them through clenched teeth.
Judy dug out her own small flashlight. Shown up at the wall, it didn't make much difference to her, even in conjunction with Jack's—he'd taped deep yellow orange filters over them. It did seem to help Nick and Viv—they repositioned themselves and resumed casting their hooks high overhead. Their next several tries only resulted in more scrapes, pings, and thumps against the wall and ground—and soon a few relatively quiet, 'damns', and 'shits' from Nick and Jack.
Vivian's hook finally caught, but came back down when she tugged on her rope. Judy didn't hear anything from her, although the vixen's indelicate body language was eloquent enough. Vivian had been...
A pall of impending personal doom settled over her from the darkness above. The last two days of headlong meetings and necessary chores had blinded her to what had just happened back home in Bunnyburrow. Dillon's broadcast had shown, in spite of her texted warnings to both Viv and Jack to stop and stay at Gideon's, that Nick's mother had not only stopped at the main warren, but had likely spent significant time there.
With my mother. Who wouldn't miss that opportunity to grill Vivian about Nick and me. At length until she got what she wanted...or feared. I have to know what she told mom! But I can't ask until...after all this!
"Got it this time!" Viv said a little too loudly. She leaned back to keep tension on the rope as Nick stepped over with his.
"No more lights; stay back, I'm gonna drop stuff! Send Judy up when I signal." he said to them. "Hook mine to yours," he said to Viv as they swapped ropes. They exchanged a brief nuzzle and he swarmed up the knotted rope like he was being timed at the academy.
Once Nick was up, the rope shifted a bit as he presumably hooked it to something more solid, there were a few muffled clicks, then he pulled up the second one. The end of the first rope fell back down before the second went all the way up. More muffled snaps, and cut pieces of barbed wire started to fall. A half dozen pieces of various lengths came down, then there was a brief flash of light from the top of the wall.
Jack gathered up the cut pieces of wire and carried them away. Vivian held the rope steady for her—it was a high but easy climb since they'd spaced the knots to favor her and Jack. Nick was astride the wall and held the rope out a few inches from it to spare her knuckles—was he aware of how much she cherished these acts of consideration? He twisted to slip his other paw under her arm and hoist her into his lap. They shared their own nuzzle in the darkness that cloaked her view of their precarious position atop the wall.
"Not now children," Vivian's soft voice floated up, showing how capable her night vision was.
"You're first in Judy," Nick whispered in her ear. "Be ready for the packs and don't show light inside."
She climbed down the inner rope, and fully understood how difficult it would have been to get Nadine inside without having much heavier gear available. Logistically, the rest of their transfer over the wall went very smoothly to her relief. It took less than a minute each to move the packs, the archery stuff, and for Vivian to climb down beside her. It was extremely dark inside the wall, but her ears told her everything she needed in order to anticipate and guide each delivery. Jack was next in, he whispered apologetically to Vivian on arrival. Nick lowered the first rope inside to provide escape redundancy, then came down.
They all listened for a minute and heard nothing but the wind above them. Jack then gathered them tightly together against the base of the wall before using his light and unfolding his diagram of the prison.
"Step one, recon only." he reminded them yet again. "Judy and I will head this way over towards building four and observe. Nick and Vivian, you go the long way behind the cell blocks, come up behind building two here. We need to know if anyone's present in the guard dormitory or the administration building in front of it; that's number one here. See them, sniff them, hear them, use ESP, whatever, we need to know what we're up against before we try to engage. Mark them on your map!"
"I assume you'll wait here at the corner of block B," Nick whispered. "Draw us an arrow if you're not. You'll be in clear view of the tower guard if you cross the gap to number four. Skye's cell is the fourth window from this end."
Jack gave her a thick rag and they followed Nick mostly by sound and feel to the inner chain link fence. The amount of starlight that came down between the outer wall and cell block was minimal to her—even with his being nocturnal, she was amazed that her mate still had enough to work with. He applied the bolt cutter to the fence and they wrapped their rags tightly around its jaws—they pressed them against the fence as he slowly squeezed the handles. The wire finally gave with a gratifyingly dull pop. They continued in this manner, cut after cut, as Vivian listened and kept watch from behind them. Nick was able to unwind segments of one vertical zig zag wire after a few careful minutes of work. Cutting the bottom of the flap they were creating from its reinforcement was easy, but for the upper part she had to climb a couple of feet on a now wobbly fence in order to muffle the work. Jack finally grabbed her feet and placed them on his shoulders, then held her legs—which helped her maintain position and free up a paw.
Once done, Nick folded back the flap and tied it off with one of the twisty wires he'd cut. Jack whispered his approval; he'd wanted an opening easily passable for them, but small enough to still snag a larger sheep or similar sized mammal. She helped Jack don his pack, and he hers. Vivian got her bow and quiver, gave Jack four arrows, and left her pack behind. They all stepped through, stood for a few seconds, then Nick and his mom turned and stepped away. Judy lost sight of them within seconds.
"You see them?" Jack whispered. "Don't hear them now either. Foxes amaze me, I think Skye could have vanished that fast even in her winter coat!" He offered her the tip of his bow and led her with it at a slow pace further into the blackness. After a few minutes of painfully slow creeping alongside the cell block, Jack began to use his dimmed flashlight intermittently and move them faster.
"Why'd you apologize to Viv?" she had to whisper something to break the silent tension around them.
"Helping her up the rope from behind, she was struggling a bit with it. My paw slipped—can't believe she was able to stay silent!"
Judy's imagination chose a rather embarrassing version of that event. They rounded the corner towards building four—the illumination slowly improved to marginal as they moved further along this side. They came to the corner where they were to wait for the Wilde's—the end of building four was about eighty feet in front of them and looked exactly like Nick's photo. They took turns peering cautiously around the corner at the guard tower by the gate—it was at best just a shape against the sky even with his binoculars.
"Dark enough right next to this block," whispered Jack, "I'm gonna crawl out along it a ways to see around the front. Sit tight Judy, I'll be careful."
It was hard to stay behind the corner and not watch him. Jack was taking a calculated risk, and her exposing herself would only increase that—if only by a little. His suit was darker than the best she'd had available to wear, and she knew he couldn't stand to just sit and wait with Skye only a hundred feet away.
Judy watched the building and imagined Skye there in her cell—unaware of her imminent rescue, spirits willing. Jack had been gone maybe four minutes when a faint corona of light appeared beyond the end of the building around where the entrance was. She risked a glance around the corner to see if Jack had been exposed by it, and saw him hastily crawling backwards toward her, but thankfully not clearly lit.
"We've got a problem," he whispered in distress as soon as he felt her paws pulling him back into concealment. "There's an agency car in front and a suited deer just came outside to stand guard. I don't know what's going on in there—we need the Wilde's now!"
Jack, they'll have to see it too and come; you know we have to wait!" she hissed, and wrapped him up tightly from behind—knowing it was probably futile.
Note: Jack Savage's car is big enough to seat himself and Skye. That means it's considerably smaller than what most of you dear readers are used to. Therefore, the apparent speed for its occupants is a lot faster than a hundred miles an hour would feel for us!
It all comes down to this next installment—Chapter Thirty: Do or Die