Sandcastles

by Tinbuzzard11

A month-old unresolved police report leads ZPD officer Nick Wilde back to the Natural History Museum, to gather evidence that reveals a more fundamental conspiracy against inter-species relations. Along with Judy Hopps and ZBI agents Jack Savage and Skye Winter; he embarks on a dark exploration of mammalian society's development, structure, and the fractures that lie beneath it.

30. Do or Die

AN Here it is, my longest to date! Now, loyal readers, you have something to read on these long, cold winter nights. The resistance is now in open conflict with the conspiracy, and no-one will be the same afterwards. WARNING! Unlike the majority of this work, this long built up to chapter does contain violence, injury, and death. Although this fic uses characters and settings from Disney's Zootopia, this particular story remains mine, as my contribution to the fandom. Enjoy!

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Chapter Thirty

Do or Die

10:15 PM Monday, May 1st Alongside the Deer Trail Correctional Facility's cell block A.

Vivian followed after the dim shape of Nicholas just in front of her. They made no sounds beyond an occasional whisper of clothing or the muffled shift of something unexpected beneath their feet. The slightly damp ground she could smell helped with that. There was no detectable scent of the prior or present occupants of this oppressive place other than themselves—just a slight musty old building smell lingered inside the wall. She'd already noted the new smells of the land outside it, and could ignore them.

This...adventure will make quite the addition to my diary; if I ever start writing it down. Maybe my civilian's view of law enforcement activities could eventually be used in one of the police academy's classes? Assuming I have that chance to write them. It would be best to remain anonymous of course—learned that lesson. I could be the venturesome vixen, or the vengeful vixen—no, that implies that things don't go well for us. There's a question about the legality of what I'm doing—maybe the vigilante vixen would do. Or you could stop with the flights of fancy Viv, and concentrate on the fact that you're actually engaged in a serious life or death stalk for the first time in your life!

They rounded the corner of the massive concrete block intended to confine elephants, hippos, bison and the like, then moved along its south side. Here it completely blocked the meager amount of city glow—that left only the restricted star light from above. Nicholas held them behind the far corner, with the guard barracks building twenty or thirty yards in front of them. That extended back to the inner fence, which was secured to its corner by a stout pole and several brackets.

"Damn," Nicholas whispered, "if we'd stayed outside the fence we could have gotten around in back. Be worth it to know if there's a door or something there." He cocked his head and stuck it even with the corner. He listened for a few seconds, then reached to tug her forward.

It was too faint to identify, but it had to be music of some kind. He pointed at the guard tower to the near side of the main gate, both just visible against the sky. She turned her head slowly, the sound definitely came from that tower. They watched for motion behind its dark windows and saw nothing.

"Mom, we're gonna run for that corner by the fence as soon as you agree nobody's watching us."

Vivian waited a few more seconds—there was no discernible activity up in the tower, but she didn't want to appear rash. She gave a little push to his shoulder and they took off. Halfway there, she turned to glance out across the prison yard and her heart almost seized up when she saw a car parked under a light. Nicholas was crouched at the base of the building and reached out to grab her as she staggered up to him.

"What happened mom? Are you hurt?" he hissed at her in what was likely his best compromise between concern and their need for silence.

"I'm OK, we're not! Light outside building four; someone there with a car!" She pressed Nicholas back when he tried to stand and see—which finally put a proper look of dismay on his face. "You didn't see that?" She helped him remove his backpack when he turned around and started to shrug it off—he then fished around inside and pulled out a thin telescoping rod with a small mirror.

"Was watching the tower for any response up there...sorry." He maneuvered to find a spot closer to the front of the building that was concealed from both the guard tower and their final objective, then extended the rod and held it to the side and somewhat above him. "No reaction from this one either, just leaning against the car, seems we're good for now." He folded his mirror, motioned for her to stay put, and disappeared around the corner.

She wasn't too worried, he'd only be briefly exposed before the administration building sheltered him from view again. It was curious that Nicholas had held his inspection mirror and head at such awkward angles—until she realized that was to prevent any possible revelatory reflection of that light across the yard up towards the guard tower. All of these individually trivial precautions—any one of which, if neglected, could betray them to their enemies. They're prey, we're predators, and success for either of our factions depends upon who can better assume the other's natural role.

As Vivian waited, she felt the tension stretch taut within her; it magnified simple whispers of breath into virtual gasps that cried out to expose her. Any act she did, or choice she made here might decide the outcome of their endeavor—one that went beyond their own futures to one that millions more would face. Oddly, the terror that heavy responsibility should have invoked in her was muted, suppressed by an elation that she now mattered again. Previous decades of mere existence had been abruptly replaced by something she'd once naively assumed, but then had later thought stolen from her forever. A consequential life.

Nicholas had also achieved that after a long lapse in his own. Random fate had him meet his mate to be and help her solve a criminal conspiracy that affected their city. Their success turned her son's life around and restored much of the happiness in hers. Then a nervous arctic vixen outside her kitchen window had revealed not only the meta-conspiracy, but both her and Nicholas's unconventional choice of mates later that same night.

We five here together now in this place are the mammals fate has chosen to fight for our society's preservation. And three of us may define what future we foxes will have within it!

That sent a shiver up her spine. Fortunately, Nicholas returned then to drag her thoughts away from that overwhelming obligation, and back to the moment.

"Sheep scent leading up to and around the front door—I think from two individuals and less than an hour old," he whispered in her ear. "Confirmed the scent and listened at the crack under the door, one might be asleep—very faint sounds. Weak light visible through it."

"That should be enough to satisfy Jack, we should get back to him as soon as we can!" she said in kind. "He must be frantic being so close to Skye!"

"We can't really position ourselves and breach that building with a guard present outside—that changes our plans—we don't know when someone else might come out and the one in the tower will be keeping fairly regular watch over them—there's nothing else for him to do. If we do make a move and take out the guard, the alarm goes up and these two will be reinforcements to however many are inside building four. I want to take them down now rather than later when they're alerted and we're occupied," Nicholas stated. He then took a bundle of zip ties, a small flat pouch, and the bolt cutter out of his pack. "Take your camera and a couple of trank arrows, leave the bow—it'll just be a hindrance inside. If we're found out, don't try the trank unless you're close and can quickly jab hard enough to set off the cartridge—be prepared to use your agility and your knife even if you do—tranks aren't immediate."

They'd already discussed in detail what each of them might have to do in order to succeed. Nicholas's reminder about her knife was not only a warning to be ready for trouble, but his worry that she'd be forced to kill within the next few minutes. She reached out to him, and he welcomed the hug and nuzzle. She could feel the tension within him too, and almost without volition her nuzzle became a badly missed comfort grooming for her kit. Nicholas closed his eyes and allowed her to repeatedly drag her tongue along his muzzle and up to his ears—until she stopped herself. They broke apart, she removed the quiver from her shoulder, set it by her bow, and decided to take three of the six tranquilizer arrows with her.

They hugged the concrete wall of the barracks and moved up to its front corner. From that vantage, building four's idle guard was a couple of hundred yards away, and just visible past the edge of the admin structure. She watched that mammal while Nicholas watched the tower. He squeezed her paw and she responded—they slipped around the corner and sidestepped through a partially open gate in a fence that ran between those windowless blocks.

Nicholas went to the closest door in theirs and stretched to examine its handle and lock. She took the opportunity to survey her surroundings more carefully, not having been here before—his diagrams and photos had offered only a limited perspective. There were at least two, maybe three fences that separated them from the main yard—they seemed to provide corridors for moving prisoners, and to isolate the main yard from each big cell block and this services area.

Like the fence they'd just passed, they seemed to be made of much heavier wire than similar link fences back in Zootopia, and had angle braced support poles—necessary, she realized, to absorb and halt the charge of a mammal weighing several thousand pounds. That explained the bolt cutters.

Vivian turned back to see that Nicholas had the larger than wolf sized door cracked open, and had poked his mirror in through the gap. She could just see a much bigger door for the far half of the barracks—it made sense for the prison to have provided for guards that would physically match their prisoners. She joined him, and could detect the sheep smell near the door—two were distinguishable, like he'd said.

"Unlocked," he whispered. "We're lucky it's not just bunks inside; looks like a lounge area with doors along the right and back walls, stairs going up along the left one with a likely bathroom under them—light there. Two doors closed, not next to each other, several ajar; we'll each have to find one and take them at the same time so they don't alert each other."

"Did you check by the other big door?" That could be a major lapse of caution Vivian thought.

"Nothing there or along the back of the admin building. No sign either's been used recently mom." Nicholas looked up at the tower—they were exposed to it, but it was still quite dark where they were. He pushed the door open very slowly, and thankfully almost silently, they slipped in, and he closed it more quickly—except for the last bit where he turned the handle first so it wouldn't make a click.

The light over the bathroom wasn't very bright, but was more than adequate for them. He motioned for her to check the right side while he went left. They converged at the second door from the corner in back. He swept his paw past the rooms she'd sniffed out—she shook her head no. He lifted a finger and pointed at the door they were in front of with his other paw; he lifted a second and pointed up the stairs, then tapped her shoulder. She understood—she was slightly shorter and noticeably lighter than he was—thus potentially stealthier. He took one of her trank arrows, then stepped back from the door to watch her as she climbed the stairs, being careful to step slowly onto a supported end of each tall riser.

At the top, a hallway went off to the right with mid-sized rooms on either side. She looked back and Nicholas waved her on—he wanted her to scout. This sheep's odor trail was strongest outside the closed door second from the stairs, and like the light from below, diminished as she went further down the hall. Satisfied there was no one else up there, Vivian retraced her steps to her target's room, where she heard either a deep sigh or moan along with the creak of a bed inside.

She hurried to the stairs, took two steps down and caught Nicholas's eye. She leaned her head over onto clasped paws with eyes closed, then quickly pantomimed waking up, pointed, and jumped back to the top. There was more creaking from inside the tall door as she stepped past it to crouch low with her back against the wall just beyond it. Then she heard and felt two heavy steps before the door unlatched—it swung inward just as she turned right to face towards it—she quickly set one arrow on the floor and grabbed the other with both paws and aimed it up.

A pungent wave of male and a satisfied sigh accompanied the ram as he emerged in profile against the light that filtered up from the stairs. Vivian leaped up and also thrust with her arms to jam the arrow in a few inches below the rams ear and behind his jawline. She felt a deep sponginess, a firmer resistance that stopped her thrust, and a distinct twitch through the arrow shaft before she drew it back—too fast in succession for her to immediately realize her success.

The ram made a loud shocked bellow, slapped a cloven hoof to the side of his neck, and turned slightly to look over her, not down at, as she dropped and made herself small on the floor by the wall. She fumbled a bit and drew her knife. There was an answering bleat from below, followed immediately by two meaty thumps that made her wince. Her ram turned away and quickly moved to the top of the stairs—and went straight on into the wall. He turned around unstably, came back a step and faceplanted in the hall a few feet away. Vivian held her knife up with both paws—poised to slam it down into the ram as she slowly stood and stepped around him. He wasn't moving, so she shakily re-sheathed it.

Jack's voice cried out from her memory. 'Never leave a downed but live and unsecured enemy behind you!' Vivian pulled out her bunch of zipties, pushed the ram's legs together, and used three ties to hobble him. That had been another admonition, 'Don't rely on just one!' She stepped around her conquest again to retrieve her unused arrow, then flew down the stairs to find and help Nicholas.

He met her, panting, at the foot of the stairs—she had to pull back her arm with the arrow to avoid sticking him as he reached out for her shoulders with his knife in one paw and the bolt cutter in the other. They stiffened and smiled at each other nervously. "Mine's down; yours?" he said urgently, and looked up the stairs past her.

"Down and tied by the feet," she said as calmly as she could, trying for that appearance of steady professionalism in the face of danger. She needed to remain in control for his sake. Nicholas looked impressed, although she realized that things had happened too fast to allow her to hesitate or worry about the right course of action. He led her back upstairs with his flashlight out—she followed, her shaking invisibly intensifying behind him.

The ram was where she'd left him; Nicholas's flashlight revealed that he was naked—she wrinkled her nose in disgust—and already had a paw sized bloodstain through the wool on the left side of his neck. She got a look of shock and...respect? He turned his light to look at her sheathed knife and adjacent paw.

"No, I...no," Vivian stammered. "I stuck him with the trank, he ran, hit the wall, came back and fell!"

"How fast did it happen mom?" he asked curiously.

"Six or seven seconds? You kept saying these wouldn't work that fast."

"This might be bad. Hold this on him and stay alert." He handed over his light and kneeled next to the ram. "We were warned in class this could happen; I think you hit an artery and he got a shot of trank straight to the brain." He felt for a pulse on the cleaner side of the sheep's neck, then put an ear against him. "OK, he's alive...slow breathing...pulse not too bad...though I don't know what's good for sheep."

Nicholas got up, found the lights for the hall and the ram's room, then pulled his camera out of a pocket. He pointed for her to do the same. "Here's the drill mom, we'll need timestamped evidence to defend ourselves—we're all gonna end up in court afterwards if we survive this. I want you to take a picture of me taking a picture of this dude, then I'll take one of you taking one of him. That way, we have full redundancy and traceability of who did what. Criminals don't document their activities, so we will." Her first photo was of him re-examining the sheep—Nicholas even seemed obsessive about maintaining a proper sequence of events.

They took the other shots, then with considerable effort together dragged the ram back into his room, sat him against his bed and tied him to its frame. Two more pairs of photos and they searched the room. Nicholas found a wallet—they took photos of that...

"Judy and Jack are waiting Nicholas! We're wasting time here!"

"This is gold mom. We tie specific individuals to this place, get away and make it public—even a corrupt Justice Department will have trouble covering this up or releasing a false account of events!"

They left the comatose ram and turned out the lights, she collected her spent arrow and they went downstairs. Nicholas's ram was already securely bound in bed, a brief search turned up nothing useful there, and another minute sufficed for photos and to unscrew the bathroom light. They still waited a couple more to recover some of their night vision before they'd exit.

"What happened with you?" she asked, "I heard yours bleat and what sounded like a fight!"

"I was inside the room but not quite in position when yours yelled. Mine woke and I had to give him a couple express tickets back to dreamland. Nicholas briefly hefted the bolt cutter. "Didn't get him all the way there, but he was woozy enough for me to stick him easily. He gave her his expended trank arrow. "Why are you keeping these? I'm worried you might confuse them for a good one if you're in a hurry."

"Bend the needle over then. I want them for ballistic shots. I need to know how much more they'll drop compared to my regular ones—in case I need to make a longer shot with one."

A brief look and listen after they cracked the barracks door open—there was still faint music coming from the tower. They went quickly to the gate in the fence, where Nicholas made a nerve-wracking stop to prop his camera against a pole and get a shot of the distant car by building four. They slipped around the corner together with her paw on his waist and finally back into concealment.

"Really Nicholas!" she hissed, "This camera obsession of yours is going to be our undoing in spite of all our other precautions!"

He reached into a pocket and pressed keys into her paw. "These are for the SUV Mom, odds are we won't get the prisoners out, too much has to go right for that to happen. So we need to at least get in there, take good shots of them, of anyone else, and of what's gone on in there! That evidence is our minimum goal. When things go bad, Judy, Jack, and I will have to hold and distract the opposition long enough for you to get back over the wall with these cameras. Then you run straight back to Pinnacles and get them to Mrs. Growley." Nicholas seized her. "This is more important than us. If I say go, you go immediately. Car's set up for a fox, you can evade better at night, so don't waste whatever time we're able to give you!"

It's not supposed to be this way Viv. It's my obligation to sacrifice for my only kit, but his sense of duty won't let me! We're the strongest, we should stay together, Judy could go and use Jack's car for this, but I know none of them would allow it. Particularly her. Curse their profession!

As soon as she'd picked up her bow and quiver, and he his pack, they dashed across the gap to cell block A, and were off behind it. Nicholas pulled the filter off of his flashlight and lit their way as they ran. He turned it off before they crossed over to the other block, paused to let her retrieve her pack, then they ran again. Judy and Jack had seen their light coming, since they'd turned to watch them as they arrived.

"Dammit Wilde! What were you ruddy foxes doing out there! Gone over thirty minutes. We've got a real situation here! There's an agency car and a gu…" Jack said in an initially low, but rising voice until she reached and stifled him roughly with her paws. He started to twist free—she'd been closest—Nicholas stepped up and pressed a paw on his back to hold him there.

"We saw, Jack," he hissed into the hare's ear, "We took down two ram guards in the barracks; they're unconscious and restrained. Got some personal evidence. No one else over there except the guard in the gate tower. He's oblivious." Jack slowly relaxed in their grasp as Nicholas reported—so they released him.

"Helo might already be on station Wilde!" Jack said urgently, gesturing at the sky. "They can't get in too close or they'll be heard, and we agreed they'd loiter for just an hour. That guard out front forces a surprise assault, it's our only shot and we have to go soon. I'd wanted to confirm where the prisoners are first—I couldn't because I'm too cussed short to get a look!"

"OK," Nicholas took off his dark jacket and gave it to her. "Mom, we three need to plan the breach—go back to that fence, crawl along the base and get to those windows in back, lion's the second, Skye's was the fourth. Don't show a light inside unless you're sure the cell's secure. When you're done, stay along the near side there until we come over, there's a narrow wedge of concealment."

Vivian trotted over to the inner fence, and watched Jack lean past the corner to monitor the tower with his binoculars. It was only a few seconds before he waved her on. She secured her quiver and bow over her back, then crept steadily forward on all-fours. She felt the guard—presumably another sheep—would need similar optical aid to see her. If sheep binos were even a thing, considering their lateral eye placement.

Once safely behind building four and on her feet, she went to the first dimly lit narrow window. The bear and the lion were in their cells, but Skye's was empty. The bed looked like it had been recently occupied, and Vivian hoped she was still somewhere in the building for Jack's sake.

She wouldn't have noticed the tiny scrap of cardboard tucked in the window's bottom corner, if its sill hadn't been just below her eye level. Jack really would have had a problem trying to see through it—even on tip-toes. Her flashlight showed disturbed dust right by the scrap—it had been placed there.

It was only an irregular brown scrap with nothing more than a couple of barely visible tiny scratches or creases. Nicholas had come to her window, had Skye expected him, or them, to look in here again? Vivian partially blocked her light with a finger, then sharply angled the narrowed beam to graze it in through the window—she saw more of a pattern of faint impressions on the fragment. She leaned in, and shifted the illumination around, which finally revealed the subtly made tiny letters.

TH HV GNS

You clever clever vixen! Sheep, or many other prey eyes, would never have been able to notice this—even if they'd suspected. Micro calligraphy with what? A claw tip? While injured?

She retreated just around the corner of the building onto the side toward the others, and waved them over. The flick of a flashlight from the darkness showed they'd seen her, but it was a few more minutes before a misshapen tortoise began to slowly slink over. She took the opportunity to stick her flashlight in her mouth, shine it out behind building four and pick a weedy target for her expended trank arrows—they did drop significantly more. Nicholas arrived; she whispered her findings to him as he dumped two of their packs, reclaimed his jacket, and then immediately went back. They all then came over bunched together, with Judy and Jack's exposed lighter fur mostly concealed behind the larger, darker fox. At least from the guard tower's viewpoint—she could see them—and that Nicholas's tail was covering Judy's white puff.

"Sorry Mrs. Wilde, we've no other choice here," Jack whispered sincerely enough that she didn't correct his formality. "You'll have to take point for the assault. Nick'll watch from the corner with his mirror; as soon as the guard's attention is elsewhere you'll have to run around the corner, get as close as you can, and take that deer down. He'll be about twenty met...seventy feet away in front of the door. Use however many tranks you need, your knife, whatever—we need him down fast because we're sure the door's unlocked at the moment, so we need to go as soon as we can! Don't let him make it back inside!"

"Just give me a couple of seconds to get inside twenty yards, I won't miss. I've done challenge shoots from further away," she whispered in reassurance, neglecting to remind them she'd last done that over thirty years ago. Or that it involved swinging or rolling targets that were rather more predictable than a spooked mammal that could possibly shoot back.

"Good. You're just stronger and more proficient for this," Jack admitted as he leaned John's bow against the wall and gave her back one of his two trank arrows. He produced and passed a paw sized canister to Nicholas, who pocketed it. Jack then urged them closer to the front corner of the building.

"We'll be right behind you mom," Nicholas whispered as he extended his mirror. "As soon as we're sure he's down, Jack and Judy will secure him while I boost you onto the roof—looks over twelve feet up so get on my shoulders and I'll grab your feet—we both jump hard, you should make it. Get right above the door, we'll try to lead or force some of them outside where you can snipe them!"

Vivian nodded, unlimbered and took her bow in paw—a finger holding Jack's extra arrow alongside it—and nocked one of her own. Judy and Jack whispered 'ready' from behind as Nicholas stared at his mirror and held a paw up. It seemed like the whole world held its breath interminably before he slashed it down.

She took three quick but deliberate steps past him and around the corner, as he pressed against the wall for her to pass. Not the time to lose her footing. She broke into a hopefully silent trot as she caught sight of the uniformed deer ambling away from her along the front of the building. Vivian picked up her pace…

Two steps per yard! Four, six, eight, ten! Might make half the dist...he's got an extra jacket, have to aim higher. Enough! Slow down! He's turning back!

Vivian pulled up hard with a slight sway forward, finished her draw, drifted the syringe tip up towards an aim point the buck deer was turning into, and loosed it a fraction of a second too soon as the guard caught sight of her—she was now close enough to be fully illuminated by the buildings exterior light.

The moment stretched as she watched her arrow curve out and down past the spot on the deer's neck where she'd intended to plant it—his head started to twist up and to the side as he tried too late to avoid an apparent arrow to his face. It barely caught on the side of his neck, an acute angle entry just above his jacket's collar. It stuck and sagged down, eliciting a gasp of pain as he reached to grab and pull it away.

Anger at her failure to get a cleaner shot impelled her two steps closer and automatically set and drew her second arrow—although her haste had nocked it incorrectly with the cock feather rotated to the inside. No matter. The guard's brief falter allowed Vivian to hit her mark this time, centered, and a few inches higher than the first. Nicholas swept by on her right at a full run, and body checked the off balance cervid to the ground. The laid out buck stared up as Nicholas put one paw on his chest and showed the raised knife in the other—he fearfully clenched his eyes shut and let the tranks take him.

"He had this Taser, but no gun," Nicholas muttered after a quick pat down of the now limp guard. Judy and Jack dropped alongside as he rose and urged her with him. "Fantastic mom! Completely by surprise!

"We'll go up here, there's a drain opening below the top you can grab," He spread his legs slightly and leaned far forwards with his paws against the wall. "Go ahead, jump on my back, get up on my shoulders—we don't have time!" She slung her bow over her back and hopped up on his.

He rose as she shifted her footing, both of them walked their paws up the wall. He brought his paws back as she stabilized them with hers, then stepped into his. "OK, get ready to jump mom, but don't start until my arms are almost straight...ready? Unnnngh!"

Vivian marveled momentarily at his strength as he boosted her up. She pushed enough with her own legs to successfully stick an arm in the drain and get a hold on top of the wall with her other paw. It was precarious—her legs scrabbled for purchase as her tail thrashed for balance. She finally curled up tight enough to possibly perform an ear scratch with her leg, and managed to get a purchase with that foot in the corner of the drain. Then it was much easier to lever herself over the wall and flop onto the roof just below.

A few seconds later two of her regular arrows looped over the top of the wall and clattered nearby—her struggles had seemingly dislodged them from her quiver. Vivian collected and re-stowed them reflexively, annoyed by her show of incompetence when it had really mattered. Nicholas's praise-in-ignorance of her compounded beginner's mistakes only made it worse.

Fifteen yards away and I almost missed! Not set, bad release, couldn't even nock my follow up properly! You haven't mastered an ancient combat art Viv—at best you're an adequate amateur! Whose going to be really sore by tomorrow—I haven't exerted myself like this in decades...but I did in fact accomplish my assignment...they don't know any better...just be quiet and perform like they expect from now on.

She looked down over the wall, Nicholas was behind the car pocketing his camera, Judy and Jack left the prostrate guard; they conferred briefly outside the door, then abruptly pushed their way inside.

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11:04 PM. with Jack Savage.

"Lights should be much brighter inside, keep an eye closed to preserve your adaptation until Judy kills them! We should still have the element of surprise, so we'll have maybe five seconds of grace before they can fully react—hit the biggest threat and keep moving, don't give them an easy target!" Nick would undoubtedly draw their attention first, they shouldn't expect Judy and himself going in low. That might give the two of them several more precious seconds to assess the situation and locate Skye. "OK, let's light em up!" Jack flicked, and his came on.

Nick pulled down on the handle and shoved hard to get the fairly large door moving out of their way. Judy stepped in quickly through the widening gap and looked about as a fairly short hall was revealed ahead of them. He kneeled behind Nick to wedge the door open.

"What? We didn't call for you to…" was deeply brayed out at them in annoyance.

Jack looked up to see a large ram walking towards them inside the hall some four meters away, looking above him at Nick and the open door behind him. Nick dropped onto all fours between them, as Judy whirled and leapt up beside him—the lights in the hall went off—there was a lit room further behind the ram. Nick slipped around the now momentarily frozen, open mouthed ram, turned and stood behind him with his canister out, and sprayed up at the back of the sheep's head at fairly close range.

It's not working! Jack thought frantically as he ran forward with Judy—she dodged past the ram and went straight on into the further room—he shied back into a holding or waiting area to the side as Nick quickly turned away and followed his mate. Now this was his threat to deal with. The fox's strategy came to him in an instant. It had been just seconds, the surprised ram had first caught sight of the other two, had yet to shout a warning, and only now looked down at him. Jack raised and fired his improvised aerosol blowtorch—a meter long plume of flame aimed up at his antagonist's face.

Yellow-orange light flickered in the hallway as the ram finally bleated in shock and recoiled back into the wall. Jack moved around further behind him, played his torch back and forth, and the wool on the back of the ram's head lit. He turned and fled outside through the open door, slapping at the smoky flames.

Damn Wilde—perfect set-up! He'd prepped the ram's wool, and saved a few seconds before I had to reveal our offensive surprise! Hope Vivian keeps him off our backs!

Jack turned to follow them further inside—the light in the room ahead suddenly dropped by half. He ran hard into it from the hall, weaved to make himself a difficult target and opened both his eyes.

Another ram straight inside. Nick up before him flaming. No threat to the right. Flat table to the left with a small deer behind...more movement there...and Skye glowed in the firelight!

Jack veered hard towards his mate as his feet threatened to slip. Nick's torch continued to whoosh close behind him—which forced him to glance back and catch a yellow glint off metal in that ram's hoof—he stopped and pivoted to add his flame to Nick's attack. The light level abruptly dropped again which helped with their torch's effect. He concentrated his fire on the ram's hoof and arm as he recognized a drawn gun.

"Nick!" Skye's cry was pure desperation. "Don't let her touch us! Poison!"

He spun back to her, a comet tail of flame arcing with him. The slight deer, a doe, had lifted something slender from the bench against the back wall. Jack peripherally noticed by his torchlight that a larger deer was seated off to her left—there was a thump and that buck pivoted over backwards with Judy on his face. The doe abruptly moved toward the table—he leaped between them to shield Skye, and swept his flame across the doe's front as his aerosol's pressure waned—he landed by the table; she flinched away, dropped what she held, then sat down hard in the room's corner.

"Don't any of you touch me," Skye cried again. "Jack, stay away!"

That froze him as he'd reached out to her. Skye's look of terror backed him up a step.

"I'm here for you! I won't hurt you!" Jack said in confusion and looked around hurriedly—the gun was on the floor and the ram was gone. Nick was coming back from a hall that was now brightly lit from behind. The deer buck on the far side of Skye's table, by an overturned chair, groggily tried to get up while holding his head. Judy had her knife at the doe's throat in the corner. "Nick, another one down here," he said, unable to decide who needed his help first—his hesitation allowed the buck to suddenly jump up and bolt past Nick to blunder his way outside.

"We've both been given a fatal dose of inactivated nighthowler," said a gravelly voice—he now saw another mammal, the badger, shackled closely alongside Skye on the table. Both were naked from the waist up, save for a wide bandage on Skye's torso. The badger spoke again hoarsely. "There's an activation enzyme here, any contact with it, even a touch will kill us. It could be anywhere, even on one of you now!"

"Jack!" Skye said urgently, "Doug Ramses is still in this building! I think he went in that far room!"

---

11:05 PM with Vivian Wilde on the roof.

Vivian leaned farther over, bow at the ready; she could only listen to events from below now. A large mammal said 'What', and queried the intruders almost immediately—there were footsteps and a faint hiss, then a whoosh and thud. It frustrated her that she'd been abruptly excluded from the assault right after leading it to take out the guard. Was it for her safety? What about theirs! She should have stayed at ground level behind them where she could have provided more timely support…

A large thickly fleeced ram burst out from the entrance beneath her, beating at his noticeably smoldering head. Her surprise didn't prevent her from automatically tracking him with her trank arrow, and coming to a full draw. The ram pulled up short and briefly leaned against the car—his muzzle was lowered and his hooves momentarily came clear of the back of his head. Her realization of the opportunity, choice of a spot centered below a line between his ears, and planting the arrow there—took less than two seconds.

That's better—much better—nearly stationary target only fifteen feet away—picked a thin spot in his wool—and hit it precisely! So Nicholas had really planned on my being up here...and might still be serious about me having to make a quick exit if things go wrong. If so, I'd best go off the backside of this building into darkness and take...

Another ram, this one more closely shorn, but also smoldering in spots, made a hasty exit and almost collided with the first. He grasped his compatriot by the shoulders and said, "There's only three, they're small, and all they've got is surprise and a short range torch! Need your gun quick, come on back!"

He didn't get an immediate response, and realized a few seconds later that something was wrong with his wavering fellow ram. He pushed him against the car and searched around his hips briefly before he retrieved a gun and started to turn back towards the building. He hadn't seen the expended arrow on the ground right by his foot and in his own shadow—which was abruptly erased by a searchlight beam from the guard tower.

Suddenly motivated again, and above the intense center of the beam, Vivian dropped to her knees and leaned back mostly out of his sight. She whipped another arrow out of her quiver and nocked it. Correctly she briefly noticed—and that it was a regular one, not a trank. No time. She stood quickly, put a knee on top of the wall, and leaned enough to aim almost straight down past the building's light fixture—where the brightly backlit second sheep was only a wary step or two away from re-entering. Head and gun held level; he hadn't seen her either.

Can a field point penetrate a sheep skull? With a twenty pound bow? I want to avoid killing if I can. Where's it thin? Viv! Shoot now before he does!

She staked the arrow in the center of his long muzzle and got a drawn-out agonized bellow from him as he stiffened, dropped the gun, and stumbled off to his side—the searchlight from the tower wavered at the same time. The ram continued to stagger and twist and she could see from the visible length of the arrow shaft that it had to have penetrated to and through the roof of his mouth. She had only a momentary revulsion at what she'd just done to him.

He would have happily done worse to any of us! Now get reset, you're not done yet! You've got three tranks—no, only two left—Jack's still got one. Make them count.

Vivian wasn't quite ready when a third mammal, a shed-antlered buck deer in undistinguished business attire, ran outside and skidded to an abrupt halt. That buck's head went unsteadily from the sight of one of his own down behind the car, then over to the first sheep slumped alongside it, and finally to the still on his hooves, bleeding from both mouth and nose, obvious archery target closer beside him. He collected himself rapidly, spotted the dropped gun close by, and swiftly bent to scoop it up—which allowed her to easily and safely place the trank near the middle of his back.

The buck twisted around towards her fast enough to dislodge the arrow, then raised and fired the gun in one motion. She helplessly watched the flash, and flinched from the near simultaneous bang. There were sharp stings on the side of her muzzle and left forearm as the slug chipped the edge of the wall and whined off into the darkness. She tried to drop behind the inadequate wall extension above the roof, but gravity didn't seem up to the task as another bullet split the air close to her ear. A third hit the wall now in front of her immediately after, hard enough that she felt it through her paws as well as heard it. A bare second later, a sharp crack followed from the direction of the guard tower. The searchlight beam from there wavered around randomly—adding to the action movie ambiance she'd fervently wished to avoid.

Deer has to be a trained agent! The one in the tower has to be too; that was an accurate shot. I'm stuck under a crossfire with my bow and arrows! Have to warn them before they come outside! I did hit the buck, is it enough? Is he down yet? How long dare I wait to look?

She had to contact the rest before they walked out into a rifle bullet. And she'd lost track of the closer threat. Vivian scooched over several feet so she wouldn't be seen at the same spot along the wall. She wanted to flatten her ears before she popped up to look, and realized they were already firmly down.

The deer was at the driver's door on the far side of the car—his gaze lowered as he fumbled with it. The searchlight beam swept around the near side of the prison yard. She stayed up to nock and aim a regular arrow from a kneeled position—he was obviously an important conspirator, and she had to make sure he couldn't leave the scene. She also didn't want to waste her last trank on an iffy shot. Vivian's increased tremble from having just been a target herself did cause her to miss—the arrow glanced off the roof of the car and slowly drew the attention of a now degraded mammal. The buck was able to look up at her, and tried to raise his gun—he ended up sitting slumped on the ground.

Things had suddenly calmed—the searchlight was aimed at a random spot out in the yard, three of her...targets were either unconscious on the ground before her, or soon to be so. Vivian leaned forward to look down from the restored darkness of the roof, the fourth was on his side at the end of a random walk trail of blood droplets, cradling his skewered muzzle in his hooves.

This was all her doing, and would put her away for the rest of her life...if she was lucky. A less horrified part of her mind mechanically set her bow aside and pulled out her camera.

Nicholas said that criminals don't document their activities.

So she would. She steadied the camera on the top of the wall, and took several overlapped shots of the car, the tower and light, and her scattered foes. Camera stowed and bow slung over her shoulder, she turned and started to step back over the wall—now desperate to find out what had happened down inside.

Vivian was suddenly pinned by the glare of the searchlight. She gripped the edge of the wall, quickly lowered herself over it by the length of her arms, and let go as the light swung away again. A bullet spanged somewhere above her as she dropped to the ground and kept her footing with a paw against the wall. She pulled out her knife as she rounded on the entrance of building four and ran inside.

---

11:06 PM with Judy Hopps inside the back room of building four.

After a frantic couple of seconds to assess the threat situation, Judy jumped back and swiped her paw down over the light switch she'd missed the first time. It didn't finally plunge the room into complete darkness, as Nick had already triggered his aerosol torch—but it did replace the harsh fluorescent light with a wavering yellow flare. That hopefully took care of the ram—she hit the floor and turned back to the other threat, a deer buck on the left side of the room. She ran as hard as she could, as Skye cried out for Nick from the table beside her, five steps to accelerate, then a leap straight at a head that was still fixated on Nick's flamboyant attack.

No time to turn and add a kick to her impact—she slammed into the side of the buck's head and wrapped her legs around his thick neck. They tipped—the buck's arms swung out for balance instead of onto her—slowing—Judy had a flash of fear—but her momentum had been just enough to carry them all the way over. She pushed with her arms to make sure his head hit the floor hard and hers didn't.

Judy pulled her legs up underneath and leapt back to her feet before he could try to hit her. She drew her knife and knew this was her long dreaded moment of truth—he was a larger threat adjacent to the prisoners—she had to kill before losing her brief tactical advantage—Judy gripped the handle hard with both paws.

"Don't any of you touch me," Skye cried again from above and behind her. "Jack, stay away!"

The torch flames were gone, but enough light still came from the hall for her to see. Jack's ears were visible over the table as he tried to soothe Skye—there was motion beyond its end—a smaller deer looked up at Jack while slowly reaching for something on the floor. A quick glance showed the buck still prone on the floor; relieved, she went for the more imminent threat. Judy remained unseen until she was able to kick the seated deer's hoof away from whatever it was reaching for, and press her blade against the middle part of its long throat. She stepped against the wall beside the deer and put one paw behind its head.

"Freeze or die!" Judy said as deeply and menacingly as she could; desperate for quick compliance as she held the knife against its neck. Small for a deer, her foe was still several times her size, but might not realize that yet. The slight build and a pleasant fragrance revealed it was likely a fairly young doe.

Jack noticed and called Nick's attention to the buck, who'd now rolled back over and sat up cradling his head. Before her mate could react, the buck leapt up and bounded past him, then out the hall.

A different voice up besides Skye informed them to their horror that both had been exposed to a latent form of nighthowler, and that their lives hung in the balance. Skye then said that its creator was still at large in the building. Everybody stayed frozen for a few seconds—until three loud and closely spaced gunshots sounded from outside.

"Nick," Jack said decisively, "Secure that one and find a way to release Skye. I'm smaller, I'll go find out!" He pointed towards her and the deer doe, quickly said "sorry" to Skye, and slipped off into the hall.

Nick quickly zip tied the doe, including her muzzle, which made her writhe in outrage. He then turned to examine the prisoners on the table. Judy stepped up to what proved to be the table's head—once up on her toes she was able to make brief eye contact with Skye, and the badger stretched out right alongside her. They were both absolutely terrified. So was Nick now, the pause in the action had let him remember that Vivian was still outside.

"We don't want to die locked down like this," Skye screamed loudly enough to refocus Nick, "let us go, get these off!" The vixen squirmed a bit while hissing in pain as the badger rasped, "Metal wall cabinet behind you—smaller T wrench!"

Nick had to leap up onto the bench along the wall to reach it—it was thankfully unlocked and he gracefully jumped down a few seconds later to bring the wrench to bear on the badger's foot restraints—they were closest to where he'd been. From the motion of his paws, it was some sort of twist lock arrangement, and took some force to release.

"Get my arms free you idiot," Skye screamed hoarsely this time—on the verge of losing it.

Nick realized that too—he twisted one more lock, which freed the badger's feet and one of Skye's, then moved around the table to their extended out fore paws. Judy stretched up to see that each mammal's inner arm and leg had been crossed over the other's; then shackled. She couldn't understand why they'd been pressed together that way—together they occupied less than a third of the table's surface.

Nick took only a couple of seconds each to release the half dozen locks that pinned the clamps over their arms—he carefully pushed Skye up to a sitting position as soon as she was free. The badger had already seated herself on the edge of the table—she flexed her feet and slowly rubbed her paws and wrists. Motion by the hall caught Judy's eye, Vivian and Jack came back in together to her great relief.

"Four of em down outside; there's a sniper up in the guard tower," Jack stated as Nick released Skye's other foot, then started to turn towards his mom. "We have to assume..."

"Door on your left Nick!" Judy cried out as it was yanked open. Doug Ramses barged through—with a heavy hooked spear in his hoof that he immediately heaved low into Nick's belly. Her fox had both paws on it as he folded over while still on his feet. Ramses spotted the gun on the floor and lunged for it.

Vivian screamed in horror as Ramses scooped up the gun, stood, and brought it to bear on Nick, who looked into it as he appeared to pull out the spear. Alerted by her shriek, Ramses caught Jack's leap in from his left—he swung the gun toward him, then screamed in agony and put a shot into the wall. Nick clubbed the gun out of the ram's hoof with a whine-grunt of effort, lost his footing and slipped to the floor.

Ramses's screams and sharp gasps overlay a vicious snarling and growling from beneath him. He was only able to stagger a final step while he was torn into from below by a blur of badger. Ramses toppled over, his gasps irregular—copious blood loss revealed his imminent doom. The badger, head and forequarters also soaked in crimson, pulled away, barely able to stand again.

Frozen throughout by the sudden shock and brutality of the brief combat, Judy forced her way over to her downed mate. Nick was pushing himself away from the spreading gore—with none visible from or on him. He looked at her with a grimace, and said haltingly, "Not that bad. Hurts, but I'm not bad." She helped him to his feet—still somewhat hunched over—and lifted his jacket to look at his wound.

"How is he?" rasped the badger, as Nick's reassurance spurred Vivian out of her stunned immobility.

"Broke the skin, a little blood, doesn't look deep at all," Judy announced in relief as Viv leaned in to see.

"Still hurts, and I'm gonna have a good hip bruise," Nick said, not yet standing straight.

"Wasn't sharp," Jack said as he picked up the implement. "It's an elephant prod! No wonder they closed and memory holed this place." The ZBI hare stretched over to remove his knife from below Ramses' ribs—one that Judy hadn't even seen him thrust in. He then used the prod to drag the gun away from the body.

"They were just about to kill her," Skye said softly, looking at the badger who stood in silent wonderment, watching herself open and close her paws. "They wanted me to feel her go," Skye finished.

"We're not done yet!" Jack said loudly as he flipped some of the room lights back on. "Nick, Vivian, as soon as you can, see to opening Lionheart's and that other prisoner's cells! Skye, help your Badger friend, she looks close to collapse; we have food and water for you both outside, to the right around the corner of the building in a backpack! Judy, with me, we have to take down the tower guard and call in the helicopter."

Judy understood; he had to keep them busy, and provide hope of escape, especially for Skye and the badger who were both in the grasp of emotional extremis. She was closest to Skye and reached to help the now seemingly immobilized vixen down from the table—who suddenly shied back from her in terror.

"Don't touch me! You're contaminated since you held down that psycho doe!" Skye cried in panic and managed to point at the angry deer tied in the corner. "She had the enzyme; it's got to be on the floor now too, I can't risk it—I've seen what it does!"

"Don't put your knife away hare," the badger said as clearly as she seemingly could. "They threatened to put the enzyme places we might touch—I've probably already done that. Worth it to take out that son of a Promisc-ewe. Need a favor. If I start to go, don't hesitate—I'll need the mercy."

Jack looked as sick as she felt—the badger's request obviously went beyond just her. He then locked eyes with his Skye. They all had to have the same thoughts; death still waited with them, not having been fully sated by the room's grisly centerpiece.

"I haven't touched anything in here since I entered, Skye," Vivian said with a quaver in her voice. She sheathed her knife and stepped around a now gesticulating Jack. "I'll carry you outside," she stated more steadily, and reached out to lift the smaller vixen after Skye had nervously nodded assent.

"Watch her ribs mom," Nick reminded, before he led them towards the now darker hall. "Go as soon as I turn off the outside light."

"Stay with her Vivian, keep out of sight, you've done more than enough," Jack said after them, also realizing that Nick's mom had reached her limits. "Judy, could you clear these rooms while we figure out our sniper? And Ms. Badger? We've got three sheep and three deer down, was that everybody in here?"

Judy hesitated, not eager to go find out that answer for herself.

"Don't know. There's another sheep regular I've seen on site….not here. Whole bunch...deer…not that one...other deer...en equines were here this morning...for the demo...didn't want to stay...probably left," the badger panted out. She went back to staring at her stained paws again—seemingly confused by them.

"Our foxes tranked two sheep in the barracks across the yard earlier," Jack prompted her.

"That should do it then," she said with more control. "I'm gonna live? I should have reacted by now. Guess I could use some of that food you have—I'm well into ketosis—they've been starving me for days." The badger turned to look at the doe tied up in the corner. "Like to clean up before dinner first," she said with sudden conviction as she stepped closer to the wide-eyed doe.

She and Jack stood as reluctant witnesses, loath to intervene due to the copious evidence of the badger's capability displayed on the floor. Nick had returned to stand with her—also unwilling to interfere, he merely placed a paw on her shoulder.

The badger stepped deliberately up to the slumped doe, and stopped to stare into eyes on a level with her own. Nobody spoke for several seconds as the doe tried to shift her legs to avoid occasional droplets of Ramses's blood that still fell from the mustelid's paws and muzzle—who noticed, then broke the silence.

"Does it excite you to take pred lives? Or was I to be your very first cull? Did you feel confident...and safe...that I was helplessly shackled for your pleasure? Did you plan on keeping a...memento of me?" The badger started to wipe at the blood soaking her muzzle and shoulders. "Turnabout is fair play. You do still have a death to commemorate; lets make it memorable!" She abruptly flicked the gobbets of gore into the deer's face, wiped up more, and did it again as the doe whined and tried to twist away.

The badger looked at the floor, and carefully backed away—likely realizing the risk she'd taken. Judy and the rest remained silent as that abused mammal reconciled with her own interrupted mortality.

"There's a sink big enough to rinse me off in that room. Kinda need to. There's also a fridge; look for a small clear bottle with some filter paper in it—that's a sample of the enzyme. There may or may not be more...he was playing with our heads." The badger stared towards Ramses's body as she wearily hobbled around it towards the door he'd burst through.

"I can help her," Nick declared, "Better do your sweep Judy. Go check on our vixens," he said to Jack.

Being smaller and faster, she first cleared that larger room for Nick and the badger. There was an imposing but evidently long secured door in its far wall—presumably for access to the really big mammal end of building four. On the way back, she jumped up onto the table to retrieve Nick's clamp tool—she then went down the rear hall and used it to bang on Lionheart and the bear's cell doors. There were muffled thumps in reply from one—the gunshots should have certainly awakened them to their possible change of status. They were locked, and also had simple security bars set in brackets across them—too high and heavy for her to lift away. Skye's and presumably the badger's cells stood slightly ajar.

Jack reentered the scene of their assault at the same time she did—the hare almost ridiculously encumbered by a bow and Vivian's quiver. It contained a few arrows, with the antenna of his aviation band radio nestled among them. He also had two small wrapped sandwiches in paw. He glanced over at her, then continued his turn the long way around in order to overlook the flagrant casualty sprawled on the floor.

"Nick? Hold the fort here and document what evidence you can, I'm leaving my camera with you and I've got some food here for the badger lady".

"She's a doctor Madge Honeybadger," Nick said from inside over the sound of splashing water, "Carrots and I kinda met her before when she and Lionheart got arrested last year."

That flash of memory identified, and put her presence here in context for Judy. For her, the badger had just dropped out of mind in the aftermath of the savage predator crisis.

"Noticed she was a honey badger, Nick," Jack commented dryly.

"That's what immigration stuck my past family with," said Madge tiredly, "It's really our name."

"Whatever!" Jack said with an edge of irritation. "Judy and I have to go do something about that tower guard—he's had plenty of time to call for reinforcements. They could arrive any time, so we might all have to scatter and evade! Nick, try to get the prisoner's cells open, and collect more evidence before that! Judy, with me now!"

She followed him outside after a pause to let the searchlight beam sweep past. The near side of the agency car gave them cover and allowed Jack to restrain the ram slumped there—slight movements showed that individual wasn't completely unconscious. They went around opposite ends of the car and did the same to the deer by the slightly opened driver's door. He exhibited more signs of awareness; offering enough ineffectual resistance that she had to help Jack zip tie him. They crouched and froze at one point when the searchlight swept past again—and didn't immediately return. Jack retrieved the deer's gun and checked it, then motioned her back with him partway under the car.

"I think we have a window of opportunity if we take it immediately. You carry this," Jack gave her the large oddly shaped gun. "It still has a few shots left."

"What am I supposed to do with it? We're both too small to hold and aim this properly—let alone safely fire it—I couldn't even throw it very far!" She set it down to emphasize her point.

"Keep it, might be good for shock value at least if we're able to prop it against something and fire it—it's an asset, and we don't have too many of those right now! I have one trank, Vivian insisted on keeping the other." Jack let go of the bow and held her arm.

"Judy, that guard's got to be nervous right now; he had to see Vivian take down some of the others out here, and didn't come down to reinforce them, he's staying put. That means he likely called the barracks and didn't get an answer, and realized he's probably alone now until outside help comes. He's looking for activity with that light and might not have thought to barricade himself yet—we need to get to the base of that tower now and try to get in before he does that! I can't call the helo while he's got a rifle up there!"

"Even running, we have to go through those gates they opened for the car! Can't he anticipate that and target us there!"

"I doubt he's a nocturnal, and he might have trouble pointing the light and trying to shoot at the same time. We're small, just keep zig zagging until we're under that tower! We go now!" He pushed her out and up by her arm, then grabbed his bow. She had a flash of irritation that he'd planned to do that.

They both jinked sharply as they ran, careful not to cross paths and become a joint target. They made it through the gate in the first fence before the searchlight swung closer, peripherally caught, then centered on them. Jack widened the distance between them and the light followed after his whiter fur—it wavered unsteadily shortly before a shot cracked and dirt puffed beside him. They had to converge to go through the next fence, but there were no further shots as they crossed in front of the main gates, through another fence and came to the guard tower's base—a D shaped buttress that ran up the inside of the wall.

"Viv said he was accurate," Jack panted. "Wouldn't do to stop and shoot back. He had more clear shots at us...didn't take them...conserved his ammo...must not have much, they really didn't expect trouble!"

"Jack! Lights coming up the road!" As she spoke, the outer of the main gates started to rumble open, and a couple of lights came on to illuminate them. The rest arrayed with them on their poles remained dark.

"Shit, we gotta keep them outside; where's the way in?" Jack found an open door on the side towards the admin building. He'd been right to expect and plan for this—they really were lax with their security.

Inside was very dark—their flashlights revealed a cast metal spiral staircase. Jack looked up at it and left his bow behind—they turned off their lights after the first few steps and continued up by feel.

"Bout twenty more steps," came Jack's barely perceptible whisper, his having obviously estimated, then counted off the number of them. They were tall, Judy had to push down on each step with her arms before getting a foot up on it to stay quiet. That stupid gun also made it difficult to avoid any revelatory clunks.

A creak, and a hint of light above them froze them in place.

"Judy, cover your eyes when I say...look here," he whispered. He made faint rustling noises, then a tiny click. She closed her eyes and put her arm over them right away—he'd been adamant about that.

She heard faint motion higher up and a soft "Oh" from Jack.

"Look here," he then said in a surreptitious, but not very quiet voice, before she heard the tiny 'pop' of capacitive discharge.

The orange-white flash still filled her blocked vision, and was disorienting enough for her to fear what she would have suffered without her arm in place—and of what they'd done to the mammal above them due to the moan and stumbling noises.

"C'mon Judy! Go, go! We gotta keep that gate closed!"

Flashlight in one paw and the barrel of the weird gun gripped in the other, Judy leaped up the remaining helical stairs after Jack. She came out in the middle of the guard cupola's floor—a fairly dim overhead light was on—Jack had jumped up to a small sloped electrical panel by a window, to pound something with his foot and cuss—their antagonist, a somewhat chunky pronghorn, alternately rubbed at his eyes and tried to look about, his rifle on the floor between them. She froze momentarily as he caught sight of her, then was able to use her foot to push his rifle further away.

"Take him down now!" Jack screamed at her, as the dazed antelope repeatedly twisted his head to try and keep both of them in view of his seemingly more functional left eye.

She had the presence of mind to drop the gun she held down the stairwell—the pronghorn likely could have used it. Judy then drew her suddenly heavier knife through congealing gel as the pronghorn bent in front of her to reach for his rifle—his flank vulnerable before her. His head turned to keep her in sight as she struggled to overcome an irrevocable choice.

They've already killed for you—and need you to do it now for them. But if I kill—I'll kill all of what I've tried so hard to be.

Judy despairingly cried out for her loss as she forced herself and the knife forward—her hesitation allowed the antelope to react—he swept out a forehoof to hit and spin it out of her paws. With her disarmed, he went for his rifle again—and honked in dismay as Jack jumped off his perch and jabbed the trank arrow into his hindquarters.

That success motivated Judy to jump into one of the pronghorn's legs to unbalance him as he whirled to confront Jack—he swung the rifle at him with one hoof as Jack flattened himself on the floor to avoid it. Judy's assault only caused the antelope to stagger slightly—he jerked his surprisingly powerful leg and flung her off of it onto the floor. She rolled over to see Jack shy back from a snap kick, then jump up with a filled paw outstretched towards the rifle's barrel as the antelope changed grip and aimed it towards him. Judy barely got her eyes closed and head turned before the explosion of light.

As her amorphous afterimage faded, Judy became aware of the pronghorn stretched out on the floor, his legs only a couple of feet from her and spasmodically moving. He was down...alive...he needed restraint. She crawled over and shakily zip tied them together, as her paw had started to sting from his earlier blow. She could now see that Jack had secured the guard's arms, and as Nick had done with the doe, was presently muzzling him tightly with another. He stepped over to the window, glanced out briefly, then turned back to her.

"Get it together officer Hopps!" Jack screamed at her. "We've no time for your damn crises of conscience. You could've blown our whole operation!" He jerked her to her feet, then picked up and pressed the long, heavy rifle into her paws. "Get out on the balcony with this; I need fire support to stop that van!" He vanished down the spiral stairs.

Shame beat her relief—at having again avoided committing murder—into submission. Her legs obeyed Jack—she stepped through the door onto the tower's semicircular platform. She had to step gingerly, as its expanded metal decking was harsh on her feet. Below it she could see the van between the gates—the outer one closed, the inner already opening. Jack had failed to halt what seemed to be an automated sequence.

'Check your weapon' whispered the remembered advice of her academy firearms instructor.

She turned it over and found the release for its short magazine—two rounds left there—another already chambered. She shoved it back in, then balanced the bolt-action rifle against a corner of the platform railing where the lower bar met an upright. Judy took several seconds to stretch one arm out to find a good place to grip, reach the other paw alongside the generously sized trigger guard, and brace the oversize stock against her unsuspecting shoulder.

There was another silent flare of light below her. She went up on her toes to tilt the rifle and look down along it. The dark colored van was inside the gate, moving slowly in a gradual arc towards building four—Jack was down on the ground beyond it to the inside of its turn. He was moving—he got up as the van's rear doors opened and two mammals jumped out. One, yet another ram, swept its gaze her way, the other, somewhat lighter in build, possibly a goat, turned toward and spotted Jack—who immediately closed with and flashed his adversary.

Riveted by the action below, Judy couldn't have looked away—fortunately when Jack's strobe had fired, it was partially behind his opponent, and over ten times further away—the flash had only briefly dazzled rather than incapacitate her.

She blinked it away quickly, and was able to see Jack move towards her around the disabled and stumbling goat. The ram had turned back with a gun drawn—Jack dropped his strobe and pulled his knife...

Time had run out.

'Aim center mass,' whispered the instructor.

Judy pulled the trigger.

---

11:18 PM with Jack Savage in the prison yard.

It had seemed a good idea in the moment. He'd exited and come around the guard tower's base as the van had come through the inner main gate into the yard. He'd run hard through the gate in the intervening fence, timed a maximum effort leap to pass close in front of the slow moving van's windshield, and successfully strobed the driver from just a meter away. With one arm covering his face and the other holding the flash attachment, the landing had been...awkward.

Ignoring musculoskeletal protests, he'd rolled and gotten to his feet—fortunately facing the right way to see two mammals hastily exit from the rear of the van. He'd flashed the first and closest, a goat, then had seen the ram beyond him turn back and reveal his gun. Six meters away—seven or eight seconds before the flash recharged—he'd dropped it to pull his knife and run for his life straight at his foe, as he couldn't avoid catching a bullet in retreat. His only chance was to beat the ram's reflexive reaction to his charge.

A shot sounded from above before he'd covered half the distance; the ram toppled forward to hit the dirt before him with a solid thud of finality—as Jack stumbled onto him.

She granted you your life, be proactive if you want to keep it! Sweep for other threats, find the weapon!

Jack pushed himself off of the inert result of Judy's recovered ability to...discharge her duty. He couldn't resist a brief look up at the tower, but didn't see her in the dim light there. The ram's gun was on the ground nearby, he scooped it up, and threw the useless to him weapon out into the darker part of the yard towards the cell blocks—there was his flash! He hop-trotted over to pick it up—now it was recharged! He turned back to see the goat leaned against the now stopped van—it's passenger's door opened to let a large rodent exit—Agouti he thought briefly, until he noticed its blockier head. A Paca, there were a few of them in the agency—so this one could be a trained agent. He moved to engage with flash and knife.

Footsteps rapidly approached from his right; Vivian skidded to a stop and had an arrow aimed at the Paca's face before that mammal could react—it still appeared to be shaking off the effects of being flashed.

Jack exchanged a hasty glance with her, then moved behind the still disoriented goat and pressed his knife high against its flank.

"On the ground prone before I put you there!" Jack demanded as he rotated the knife so the goat could feel its point. He got grudging compliance, the goat dropped his taser, went to his knees, then stretched out. "Arms behind your back! Slowly!"

"I have trouble doing that, some of us aren't flexible that way!" the goat said hastily as Jack pressed the point a bit more, "I heard the shot, you're exposed out here, drop that knife and surrender and he won't pick you off."

"Not too worried since he already hit your ram buddy, and might hit you," Jack said evenly to put doubt in the caprid's mind—as he fervently hoped himself that Judy still had his back from up in the tower. The goat exhaled slowly and put his arms back. Jack kept the knife in place as he used his other paw to pull the hooves closer together—one at a time. He then held the knife in the crook of his elbow, so he could use both paws to loop and snug his last zip tie. It would have to do; he went to help Vivian.

The shorter Paca stood rigidly with spread arms and paws—Vivian's arrow aimed steadily at his eye from just beyond arm's reach. Jack made him aware of their dual threat, and the large rodent was soon securely zip tied—Vivian having several left over from her barracks action. Working together, they put him in the back of the idling van, further secured the goat, and walked him over and into it too. They used the last of her ties to zip them back to back so they couldn't gnaw each other free.

"I left the driver up front! Cover him through the passenger door; I'll take the driver's side." he softly told Vivian through clenched teeth—they both jumped back outside. He took a few seconds to grab the goat's taser, and get in position.

"He isn't responsive Jack," Vivian said in a normal voice from the other side.

He opened the door to find an insensate deer slumped over his arms across the steering wheel.

A poke with his knife on the driver's jacket elicited no response, so Jack asked Vivian to help push him out onto the ground—that got a moan out of him, and he curled up a bit. That made him worry that his strobe stunt had caused some neurological damage—just another charge to the list they were accruing.

"I'll watch him! He should be the last of them loose around here. Viv, stay up there and back the van over near that fence. I want the lights pointed out across the middle of the yard for the helicopter."

"I'm here...Jack," Judy said from close by in a distracted voice.

She stood and stared back at the ram's body with a paw pressed to her right shoulder. He'd better keep her busy before she latched up again. "Judy!" he said firmly, "Secure this deer, we're both out of ties."

It was an uncomfortable couple of seconds before she moved to assist.

"Where's my radio?"

"Still inside the bottom of the guard tower," Judy responded more normally as she dug several ties out of her ample supply.

"Stay here with Viv until I come back, don't tell her you shot the sheep!" he commanded. Judy looked surprised, but nodded—he took off for the tower. He grabbed his Av-band radio from Vivian's quiver and climbed to the top. He went out onto the platform after turning it on and double-checking the frequency.

"Insider to outsider, you're clear for immediate approach! Do you read outsider? You're go for approach and landing."

"Outsider confirms we're go! You cut it a bit close insider! What are the LZ and package conditions?"

"Two deliverable now, another probable on arrival outsider. You'll have lights; land on the spot." After their acknowledgment, Jack aimed the tower's spotlight at the middle of the yard—a little beyond the end of the van's headlight streak. Its gimbal wasn't balanced; he had to fuss a bit to make it point and stay where he wanted. He then checked the pronghorn's rifle—Judy had already unloaded it—he wiped it off the best he could using the comatose antelope's jacket sleeves. He'd already shot at them several times with it, but Jack wanted to obscure Judy's usage of it.

He then searched the pronghorn, and found the key to the gate control panel—an obviously newer addition to the facility—he turned the selector from 'auto' to 'off', then powered it down. Right now, he wanted to keep any other likely reinforcements out, even if it denied some of them a quick exit—since they now had use of the van. He set the rifle out on the platform near the searchlight, and headed back down.

The van was parked where he'd wanted, but Judy and Vivian weren't anywhere in sight near it—Jack started to run closer, then slowed when both emerged from the back pulling a box out with them.

"Food for the prisoners," Vivian said with a bit of a smile, "Goat told us. We'll take it over there."

"Can you handle it? I need to talk to Judy now. Tell them helicopter's coming in five minutes!" Vivian's smile grew, and she walked off with slung bow and wide arms, peering over the top of the box.

"She told that goat we could feed him to the lion, if there wasn't anything else," Judy said as she watched Vivian totter away with her burden.

"Yeahh...OK, now listen carefully Judy!" Jack said as he gripped her arms. "You did not shoot that ram! We engaged that van and its occupants before we got to the tower—the pronghorn up there accidentally shot one of his own during the skirmish—that serendipitously helped us prevail! Then, he'd leaned to take another shot, so I ran up underneath that tower with my bow like I was Foxley of the Forest, and tranked him in the ass! We then went up to confirm he was down and to restrain him! So I just wiped down and placed the rifle as if he'd dropped it!"

He certainly had her attention now—her eyes were impossibly wide in shock or disbelief.

"Judy! There's a good chance we'll get some of the prisoners out now, and maybe some of us as well. Regardless, we're exposed and will face justice for our actions—several powerful mammals need credible accusations and convictions against us to cover their own asses! Let's not grant their corrupted Justice Department a ready-made, unsanctioned murder charge to pin on all of us! You and I are the only direct witnesses to the ram's death—we can use it to help expose them, or go ahead and self-incriminate and give them a way to shift the blame and provide cover for themselves!"

"I...I took an oath to serve...with...integrity, I can't lie to b...bury this…" Judy said tremulously.

"You have to. We're up against very powerful, very corrupt forces, you know that many more lives will be at stake than just our own—we need to use every possible advantage, moral or otherwise—to make sure that we prevail for the greater good of society! There's what's expected, proper, ethical—then Judy, there's what's necessary."

Jack could tell that she was again staring at the ram's body behind him. He half-expected her to try and bolt off into the darkness, but she stayed rooted to her spot. He risked releasing her.

"I know you need to think this through Judy," he said gently. "But while you do, promise me you won't mention this to anyone at all! You need to keep this option open for us...can you do that?"

Her breath caught, then she gave him a small nod.

"I'll stay here to guide and coordinate with the helo crew—give me your flashlight, then you go help get things ready for loading, Skye and Lionheart have priority, we can't afford delays."

---

11:19 PM with Nick Wilde and Madge Honeybadger inside the back room of building four.

The second distant shot sounded as he was loading mom's backpack with their initial batch of evidence. Again, he flinched and restrained himself from trying to run out front to see. They all had a job, and Judy and Jack were well aware of the danger, and he had to trust that they wouldn't take undue risks. They were also smaller, more agile combatants—his painful hip still slowed him enough to be vulnerable in a fight.

Last, he added mom's camera to Ramses's gun, the enzyme bottle, and most critically, a dated ledger of prisoner medical observations—all had been photographed with each of the cameras, including several pages inside the ledger, and were now in labeled ZPD evidence bags. Also photographed.

"Madge, set this out front, or take it with you back to Skye and my mom, around the building to the right," Nick said, "You're sure you don't know who has the cell keys?"

"Not now. And I'm wet and freezing here, can you get me my clothes from my cell—it's the first on the right. Should be open...they just lock us in."

"Just come with me and get them while I go pick those locks. Time's not our friend."

"I...I'd rather not...go back in there. Having...a bit of an aversion to being inside here any more...you understand?"

"Yeah, I'll get them." Nick bade her go, and stepped past the restraint table into the cell's hallway. From the corner, the doe's eyes followed and tried to burn him as he passed. Too bad Nick thought, we'll find out who you are soon enough—he'd patted her down to find no identification, but did confiscate one of those high-end, nameless black credit cards that required an authorization code to enable access of any personal information. It was now in its very own evidence bag.

Dr. Badger's cell door was slightly open—its door lock's latch bolt either missing or stuck retracted. The heavy portal also had a rod up one edge that could rotate pawls into receptacles in the frame for securing more powerful mammals. The lever to turn it had a simple padlock hanging open on its end. He had to pull hard on the edge to get the door moving; a foot on the wall to help; his hip complaining mightily.

A searing pain suddenly put him on the floor; it pulsed through his lower torso. Taser! After a couple of seconds, he noticed that he hadn't jerked in response to several pulsations of the current—his hip felt aflame, but these shocks seemed no stronger than the reduced-charge demonstration he been subjected to at the academy. Yeah, do the fox had been the consensus among the other cadets to the instructor.

The door bumped him, then again as whoever was inside tried to push it further open. He'd fallen onto his sheathed knife—and trapped it beneath, that hadn't helped the pain in his hip. He was bumped harder and shoved back—he took that opportunity to position his paw by his pocket with the deer guard's taser. He was then kicked out of the way as he tried to remain limp, yet roll to see and give his good leg some better purchase. His assailant had stepped out into the light—it was a capybara that loomed over him!

I might have one short opportunity—if my body can respond! I've got to get to it, turn it on, and lunge enough to stick him! That's if he doesn't immediately follow up on me—then I'm screwed! He's got to be four times my weight!

The capybara unprofessionally left him behind and stepped out into the main room. Nick quickly pulled out the deer's agency issue taser—and popped the dart cartridge off the front. The capybara had fairly heavy clothes on, so he'd better make direct skin contact with it. That might be why he was only partially disabled—the darts pricked in him had to penetrate both his jacket and pants first, which were somewhat wet from rinsing off Madge. Now if he could only force himself to take advantage of that fortuitous turn.

His left leg wasn't cooperating. He could move it, but there was no strength there. Nick grabbed the lock bar on the door, and carefully pulled himself up to stand on his other foot. He saw the capybara's backside—motions and sounds suggested he was going through drawers looking for something. He kept mostly out of sight by the wall as he silently limp-hopped closer. He leaned to look past the hall's entry—the capybara had bent to saw at the doe's bonds—her head then stretched into view and turned back to spot him.

"Hold still!" the bulky rodent told the doe as she frantically struggled and moaned," I'll get these off as soon...annngh!"

She helplessly had to watch him jump in to push up the hem of the occupied capy's jacket, and jam the taser into his lower back. That situationally unaware mammal stiffened, then folded onto the doe's legs, taking Nick to the floor with him. He stayed down there to replace the tie cut from the doe's hooves, tase Mr. Incompetent again to keep him down, and give him his own set.

Nick couldn't get up again without hanging onto the edge of the table that had recently held Skye and Madge—that fact revealed how lucky he'd been. Any military, law enforcement, or even self-defense training on the capybara's part would have likely resulted in his death. Instead, he'd ignored his advantage of surprise, and gone immediately to the young doe's aid—she had to be important to the conspiracy—or connected to someone who was. As for that giant water rat, he'd likely retreated into the darker hallway and hidden in the first open cell available as soon as their assault had started. Then he'd lurked until an unaware officer had pulled the door open—one Judy couldn't have checked behind.

Except for taking down a recently awakened sheep, and chasing another away with his torch, he hadn't contributed much to their assault—mom by herself had already taken out four...no five, of their opponents. Under fire. He'd never live that down—if they escaped from here.

He worked his leg, and tried to clear his head of doubts—they all needed him functional as soon as possible. He could also hear a helicopter, and still needed to release the prisoners.

"Officer Nick?" Madge stood in the entrance hall shivering. "Skye told me a van came inside the prison with reinforcements; the bunnies stopped them all and your mom ran over to help. She's on her way back and the helicopter's coming." She looked at him standing there limp-tailed and shaking his leg—without having gotten her clothes.

Nick took several excruciating seconds to prove to himself and Madge that he was also incapable of—however much desired at the moment—dying from shame and embarrassment. He released a ragged sigh.

"We missed one...capybara in your cell." Nick pointed, and Madge came a few steps further inside to look. "He's down and tied, we...we tased each other." He'd take the further humiliation—as he needed the excuse more. "I'll get your stuff." He turned away from her gaze and managed to limp off without having to put a paw on the wall.

He got the shabby blanket off the bed, and a couple pieces of her loose clothing—one teased down from over the cell's light fixture—which proved the capybara hadn't been totally clueless. She gratefully took them, along with his instructions to get herself, Skye, and the evidence pack on the helicopter as soon as possible in case a quick exit was needed.

Getting Lionheart out in order to join them proved to be more of a problem. The bars across the doors were heavy but manageable; unfortunately the robust padlocks securing the shaft lever were the newer kind that used a cylindrical key—much harder to pick. He finally gave up and made his way back outside to get the bolt cutter out of his pack.

Wasted a lot of time trying to redeem myself and show off my light-finger skills. Couldn't just ditch my ego, think, and get the job done. Carrots and Jack and mom all got it done.

Nick was out in time to see the helicopter land in a cloud of dust; which accentuated the search and headlight beams aimed toward it. It said CNN on the side, which made sense for this regional affiliate of Mrs. Growley's employer. The rotor slowed but kept turning, the dust mostly dispersed, a door slid back, and a canid jumped out with a shoulder borne broadcast video camera. That mammal was followed by the much larger officer Fangmeyer, who almost stumbled and fell while exiting. She tried to straighten up—shouts were audible over the rotor noise, and the canid used a paw to keep her hunched over. They stayed that way as she was led out from under the rotor disk.

Mom was now with him again, and fussed over her kit's injury as she helped him over to where she'd already wrapped Skye and Madge in the blanket. Judy was also there to show her concern. He got the bolt cutter, and they helped him back—with his pride and self-reliance both floating face down in his despair.

They were met outside the door into building four by the newsmammal—who appeared to be a coywolf hybrid—who looked aghast at the scattered bodies around them as he panned his camera. Fangmeyer was behind him—carrying a limp Jack Savage.

"He was waiting for us, then just collapsed as we started to come over," Fangmeyer said, weak voiced herself. Jack appeared uninjured, and started to move, so she bent to set him down—looking like she might join him there on the ground. Judy reached to hold him—then said that they'd taken down the tower guard.

We're all traumatized—not done here yet—need to keep us all busy...

"We've still got to break out the prisoners," Nick managed to say clearly. He lifted the bolt cutter and caught the eye of the coywolf. "Ex Mayor Lionheart of Zootopia is one of those illegally held here."

That got the camera turned towards him in time to record mom helping him inside—Fangmeyer turned, pulled her badge, paused to let Judy dig hers out, then said to the camera, "ZPD undercover joint rescue operation, you can record, but stay back!"

The reporter's eager questions piled up on each other—until he caught sight of Doug Ramses's body. Nick ignored that and motioned the shocked coywolf to follow. He did until spotting the doe and her capybara leg warmer.

"I'll be damned! Are you Miss Verda!" He zoomed the camera in on her bloodied face as the doe closed her eyes and turned away from its light. "She's injured! A prisoner too? How was this kept hidden?"

"No," Jack said firmly from behind them, his self-control back. "Not injured! She helped torture them!"

Miss Verda determinedly shook her head no before Nick called the camera mammal away.

"Lionheart's in here," He let the camera steady on him before he applied the bolt cutter—he strained and failed to cut the lock hasp. His ears flattened in irritation, and he gave way for Fangmeyer. She tensed briefly, and the lock snapped as a piece of metal pinged off the floor. He got the cutter back and stood aside before she dramatically threw the lever over and yanked the door open to reveal the disheveled Ex Mayor.

"Mr. Lionheart, I'm Officer Fangmeyer of the ZPD! You're free now, we have a helicopter standing by to fly you to safety." He stumbled out with shackled feet—she caught and supported him—the politician in him finally saw the camera and tried unsuccessfully to respond to it.

"Hold up!" Nick said. He reached down with the bolt cutter, one of its jaws was broken short, but there was enough left to cut the lighter chain hobbling the lion. He dropped it, then tried to help Fangmeyer walk him outside, while Judy and Jack kept the reporter back.

Outside, Jack and mom ran to help Skye and Madge, already making their way to the helicopter, partly by relieving them of the backpack. Both smaller freed prisoners were loaded by the time they arrived with a badly weakened lion. It took all of them working together, even the reporter, to get him on board.

"Straight to the hospital with these three," Jack ordered. "Doesn't matter, you're a Life Flight now!" he cried after the pilot's objection. "They've been experimented on, and need immediate medical attention. Badger's an MD, she'll have the details for them! They're all witnesses to a government conspiracy. Tell them at the hospital not to let the FBI or anybody from the administration see or take custody of them! Agent Winter here uncovered the whole thing! You keep this evidence pack and don't turn it over to anyone without doing it publicly and on camera! Contact Fabienne Growley as soon as you can. Get going!" Jack jumped down, Fangmeyer slid the door closed and tugged to make sure it was latched. She seemed greatly relieved to be on its outside.

The rotor sped up as soon as they were clear—they all had to crouch and cover their faces as the helicopter lifted off and slowly climbed straight up to clear the dimly seen walls. It finally accelerated off in the direction of Concordia, and their local dust devil blew itself out.

Jack watched the helicopter out of sight, then raised fists to scream incoherently. He then grabbed Judy and bounced her up and down. Mom yipped, carefully held and nuzzled him, then rescued Judy from Jack. Fangmeyer looked at them dubiously and said, "You've all got stories, don't you?" The reporter just stood staring at them, his camera temporarily forgotten.

"We sure do!" Jack said in relief. "But we still need to finish this action installment and write a wrap-up chapter here. You're Alan Curry?" The reporter appeared gratified by the recognition. "I need to...go retrieve some of the evidence, you all need to get the bear out." He stepped closer, and Nick got scrutinized. "You move and look like shit Wilde, are you hiding some internal injuries? How is he Vivian?"

"We missed one hiding in one of the cells—I got tased and kicked hard," he admitted. "In a lot of pain—I'll work through it."

"Nick still got him down and restrained; a big capybara over by that conniving doe inside," Judy said firmly to slightly soothe his ego. "Madge told Viv and me he was one of the developers of the serum."

"That doe is Miss Verda! She's a very prominent mammal!" the reporter objected. "Serum?"

"Maybe it was the enzyme. She's part of this government conspiracy and already blackmailed another ZBI agent into helping them!" Judy said back.

"Govern...who are you really, and what's happened out here?" He looked about at all of them in plainclothes, then at the three inert bodies visible from where they were in the yard.

"Weren't you briefed about this Alan?" Jack asked the now plainly overwhelmed correspondent.

"Just that Ms. Growley wanted the chopper for a breaking story. She didn't come or want anyone else, just the officer...my producer insisted I come...we're just part of the late night shift at the studios."

"We've got at least an hour before the helicopter returns, this is what I want," Jack said. "Vivian, get our packs and put them outside building four under the light so we can consolidate our stuff and make up another evidence bag. Judy you find, sort, and document that, along with what you can of our activities. You too Mr. Curry. Officer Fangmeyer, you move our captives into the building—there's a suitable holding area just inside to the left. Nick, you and Vivian check their conditions and render first aid if possible. There's a kit in my pack. I don't want us to be accused of any neglect or abuse of them.

"Once they're sheltered officer, go break the bear out, but be careful. He's one of the original nighthowler victims, and I don't know what treatment, if any, that he ever got, or what they've done to him here. He could be in bad shape like Lionheart, or even violent."

"I've still got one tranquilizer arrow," Vivian said. "I'll keep watch when you're ready."

"Did you even tell the helicopter to come back Savage?" Fangmeyer asked.

"I'm sure agent Winter will insist they do." Jack dropped into thought with a paw raised. "If...the opposition forces get here first...assuming no air assets...they'll have even more trouble getting inside than we did. I shut off the gates. If that happens...Vivian will take the evidence bag and go back over the wall like we originally planned. She evades and takes the vehicle back to...our initial rendezvous point.

"Next depends on how armed and aggressive they are; I'll probably have to warn off the helicopter in that case. Then we negotiate our surrender in front of our eyewitness and his camera. Alan's our best security now. Any way you could transmit that live?"

"Fraid not. But there's a belly mount camera that recorded our approach and landing tonight. I also swapped mem packs when we loaded the lion, so they've already got my video up til then."

"Do some interviews with us—there's time, we'll show you what happened. Then give that memory to m...Vivian here if she needs to go," Nick said.

Jack looked like a kit who'd gotten that long-denied toy for his birthday. "Then we've done it! They can't stop this from getting out publicly now!"

"There's still us," Judy said morosely. "We'll get arrested eventually, they know we're involved. But I'd rather that happen in public, and not for personal revenge way out here since we've just exposed them."

"Yeah, us," Nick said. "What if our helicopter makes it back before they can react and get out here? It still can't carry us all out, and Fangmeyer can't go over the wall. What's your exit strategy then Savage?"

"Honestly, I didn't think we'd get this far," he said, sounding like Judy. "I'm open to options...let's get to work and think about it. I need to get my radio." He took off toward the guard tower.

"There's still two in the back of that van, should I drive them over here to be with the rest?" mom asked.

"That'd be great mom. Wait. Yeah, do this—park it behind the car after we move that deer guard out of the way!" She trotted off, and they all went in the opposite direction towards building four. Fangmeyer was able to carry both deer and drag one of the rams inside to join Miss Verda and the capybara in the entrance hall before the van arrived.

They transferred both captives from it, and had walked the muzzle-skewered ram in as well—Fangmeyer's mere presence gained his compliance—when Jack showed up. He walked over behind a somewhat disoriented deer with bound hooves, and hefted a large gun in each paw. Elated over yet another sensational video clip, the CNN correspondent followed them inside while recording.

"You forgot this one," Jack said dryly with a glance at Vivian, playing to the fact that several of their captives remained, or had regained consciousness. "There's two more tranked and restrained over in the barracks, and one in the gate guard tower." The looks exchanged among their nine captives seemed to indicate that they'd finally accounted for everyone there.

Jack held out the two guns, straining a bit under their weight, to allow the camera to focus in on them. "They had three of these; arrow face there attempted to use one on us, another's already left in our first evidence pack." The deer in the suit flinched slightly, and Jack singled him out. "This one's FBI, although I don't know him personally. These guns I do know, they come from the evidence vault at our agency—one's actually on display there—several were confiscated a few years ago in a major gang bust. These were custom made for sheep—quite illegally. They could only be here due to high level corruption in the agency—or those overseeing it."

"Get clear close-ups of all of them so we can match ID's," Nick whispered to the coywolf—just loudly enough to be overheard. Miss Verda looked particularly distressed.

"Won't do you any good." said the goat, "We called it in, you'll never get out of here in time."

"And who did you call in? Didn't have much trouble with your bunch," Jack taunted lightly.

"Shut up!" yelled the deer agent, "All of you! Don't tell them anything, they're fishing!"

"Maybe they'll listen to the bear," Fangmeyer said casually and went off further inside.

"Let's wrap things up here, I want to be ready to go in thirty minutes."

---

11:50 PM with Skye Winter onboard CNN's Sky 6.

"What about them!" Skye screeched out painfully over the increased rotor noise—as she curled involuntarily towards her injured rib. The pilot, just a helmet and flight jacket up front, with Madge the badger belted in the seat alongside, ignored her as she felt them lift off. It quickly became very dark, with just a diffuse glow from the instruments to vaguely silhouette them.

It was a surreal, rather nerve-wracking experience. She'd never been in a helicopter before—even cloaked by darkness—its motions felt different, more like hanging and swaying than flying. Lionheart, filling most of the space she was in, added to that with his part lucid, part incoherent ramblings. Once, he asked when they'd get to Zootopia General, other times he still seemed to think he was in his cell. That he remained in paw restraints at Jack and Nick's insistence had certainly reinforced that delusion.

It was hard to believe she'd been freed herself, it was so last minute. Had that been planned for some reason? Or did they really not know what was about to happen to them? To Madge—then her. They'd finally exchanged whispered names on the brink of her ally's death. Those bloodthirsty monsters intended to make her feel that death—the latest, and certainly final, psychological technique to pry the names they needed out of her. Then she'd be the one subjected to 'other means'.

Madge's last keycode message, conveyed by tensing her muscles, had been defiantly, brutally simple.

No. Don't.

Skye had managed to twist her paw enough to hold Madge's in helpless reassurance. That disgusting ram had made a disparaging remark about it—then burst into flames in response to her directed wave of hatred. A second later, she'd recognized Nicholas Wilde as its source.

I'm going to have words with that fox about his definition of 'as soon as possible', and for usurping my emergent superpower.

She had to laugh at her own absurdity, which her rib of course turned into pained gasps.

Stupid, but worth it—means I'm still alive! He must have gotten the idea from my Jack! I remember now—we both saw it on an episode of 'The Operative'! I'll have to admit, his spy obsession just saved my life!

"Are you really back there Skye?" Madge had twisted back to look down between the front seats toward her. "Are you all right? Talk to me...I really need to hear you."

"We're really here...this time's not a dream...those didn't have Lionheart in them."

"Never felt quite right about him...tried to help those drugged predators anyway...ruined my life. Can you throw him out for me?"

"Rib."

"Real convenient fox. Like you got to get rescued by your mate. Did you? Seemed to know em."

"If we were I would've killed him already...now I'm indebted, so I can't. Know who she is though...he's her problem."

"Big one if he takes his mom on police raids."

"You have no idea Madge." They lapsed into enough silence to let the pilot interject.

"Who-all's left back there besides Alan and the tiger officer? I can take only one big mammal at a time, and fuel's beginning to be an issue."

"Large bear prisoner, two foxes, two rabbits—time is their problem." Skye said, hoping they would have enough of it to even arrive at that awful decision point. They'd survived the first local response of conspiratorial reinforcement, next would be the agency in force. For now, it seemed their rescuers had merely swapped circumstances with them.

---

12:56 AM with officer Judy Hopps in the prison yard.

Judy felt extremely vulnerable standing inside the open main gates of Deer Trail Prison. Jack was above her in the guard tower having successfully overridden the system to open them both and let Vivian leave. He'd close them again and douse the lights if anyone approached from the north. In that case, she was to run outside with the second evidence bag and head south to hopefully meet her mother-in-law in the SUV. Then they were to immediately leave the rest of them behind.

Nick's overworked mom had left almost forty minutes ago to bring the vehicle much closer to the gates so at least some of them could make a quick exit. Three of their number could have driven it, but Nick had bitterly admitted that he'd have real trouble walking the three miles back to it in a reasonable time, and the newsmammal had wanted to stay here where the story was. Viv had just said, "I've already got the keys," and jogged away down the access road with quiver re-slung and her bow in paw.

Their three largest were inside ready to release the bear captive as soon as either Vivian or the helicopter were seen coming. She'd run to building four with that information and help out however she could. If needed, Nick had both tasers and the trank arrow ready, Nadine would hopefully give him a clear opportunity to use them. If the bear proved too difficult, or was unable to be moved, they were to abandon him to his fate and take the helicopter or the vehicles as needed. In that case, Nadine had offered to take the SUV or van herself, so they could all go on the helicopter. Nobody had brought up the issue of her ability to fit in either vehicle's driver's seat.

Nick had argued bluntly that his plan was the best to achieve their goals and get as many of them as possible to safety for the different scenarios he'd envisioned. Jack had concurred. She was horrified at the idea of leaving anyone behind—particularly civilians—but had to admit it gave them their best overall chances.

If she turned around, she would see where Jack had left Vivian's mate's bow. That memento had been left on the ground near the base of the guard tower—where it would stay to reinforce their...necessary fabrication. The body remained further back in the yard where it was darker.

Judy abruptly noticed the SUV when Vivian was already turning it around on the road to face away from the prison—a weak flash of red brake-lights had shown past Jack's taped covers. Vivian opened it's rear hatch, then joined her to take and don the backpack. They started to jog to building four as Jack shouted down at them that the helicopter was ten minutes out. Its return, and relative proximity, sped them both up.

The biggest problem with the civilian bear prisoner, was his general lethargy and obliviousness. Judy remembered the box of food left outside as they were slowly herding the shackled ursid through the building—he didn't even notice Ramses there on the floor. She came back and tore open several packages of cheap ready-to-eat with her teeth until she found one that had enough odor to attract him. It helped, somewhat, they were out past the first fence by the time the helicopter came in fast and steep. It rapidly decelerated in the last few seconds with the rotor slowing amid a torus of dust—and jounced to a stop.

"Hurry!" Jack shouted out as he came running over, "He's fuel critical, that's why he came in like that! Vivian, got the pack and trank? Good. You're up front..no other side! Car keys! Car keys! Just throw em down! Get him in Fangmeyer! You don't have to stay in there with him. Where's the damn reporter?"

They turned to see the CNN coywolf a hundred feet away recording all of the drama.

"Dammit Alan!" screamed the feline pilot from inside his open door—propped there by his foot, "I'm going now! Whoever's coming, get in! I've called the station, they'll have us met at Castle Rock Municipal—it's twelve miles closer." He slammed it closed and started to power up.

"One of us needs to go, you're it, take care of her!" Nick seized Jack and threw him in with the bear, then reached in and came back holding Jack's radio. He slid the door closed, slapped his paw against it, and limped away.

The helicopter was gone when the dust storm cleared and she'd coughed out the last remnants of it. Judy could still hear it, fading off to the west as they searched for the keys. Nadine found their reflection quickly with her flashlight as Alan walked over to join them with his camera.

The radio said something and Nick lifted it to his ear. "Wilde here 10-2...uh, receiving, go ahead." He looked back over building four while he listened—then turned and started to limp-trot towards the gates while waving them along with him.

"Pilot relaying from Jack. They spotted airborne lights eight or ten miles north; headed this way! Judy, can you get up there and kill these lights? Don't wanna invite them in!"

"On it," she said as she peeled off towards the tower at a dead run. He didn't need to know what she'd done up there before—she'd just have to be fast. Unfortunately, it was still very dark inside as she climbed the stairs—with no need to be silent now. She turned off the spotlight, then powered down the gate panel—the outside lights went off and she took a moment to look out to the north—one flashing light was visible.

Unfortunately, going back down went slowly, she didn't have her own light and it was now pitch black inside. It wasn't much better out in the yard—until a waving light guided her through the gates to the SUV. The motor was running—Nadine effortlessly hoisted her in back, and Nick immediately drove them away.

Uncomfortably fast since he was driving by starlight. They reached the north south road, he made the turn and she could now see a small cluster of lights close above and behind them, moving slowly. Likely another helicopter. A searchlight stabbed down from it, and scanned back and forth over the prison complex. It remained hovering as they left it behind.

Judy felt a cold draft and leaned over Nadine to see that Jack's 'damn reporter' in the front seat had his camera and head out the window, and seemed to be trying to aim it up at the helicopter.

"Damn it, slow down a bit, I can't keep this steady! There...it's...yes dammit! Channel eleven's traffic helo! They probably caught us on their radio scanner earlier talking to ATC! They've stalked us before for scoops."

"Caught some lights on the road way back there too," Nick said matter-of-factly, and sped up until their ride through the dark became downright rough and scary. He finally slowed as the road dipped to the streambed. He risked the foglights to see his way across, head held out his own window as before. A minute later they stopped next to Jack's car. She made her way past Nadine and her flashlight, bumped Vivian's bow behind the front seats with her foot, and leaned past to put a paw on Nick's arm.

"Nick, keep going! We didn't get the keys from Jack," she stated the obvious—before he held them up suspended from a claw. There was just enough interior light to see his self-satisfied smile.

"You'll drive it, I don't want it left here to point back to Savage. Except for Fangmeyer, none of us used our names around any of the perps here, and some at least didn't get a good look at us. Let's not make it easier for them. Just follow, I want to drop this one back at the airport; park his in long-term. Alan here can call us a ride from there."

Judy couldn't avoid a grumble as she snatched the keys and stepped across his lap to get out of his helpfully opened door. The last thing she wanted right now was to be separated from him again—why'd he have to make sense now?

Jack's Roadrunner started easily, which was good because Nick hadn't waited, he'd already moved further down the road. She put it in gear and was forced to use her own foglights to follow them—she couldn't see a thing otherwise. At least they were out of sight of the prison here.

Her lights were dim, which was good in one sense, but it forced her to follow them closely to keep them in sight. This went on for a couple of stressful miles as she tried not to bump or lose them—until two honks of the SUV's horn startled her.

Judy looked around to see why he'd done that since he hadn't slowed or stopped. She finally spotted, to her horror, that the helicopter's lights were much closer and higher in the sky now, with its searchlight sweeping up along the road behind them.

What attracted them this way? It's as dark as a bat's cave out here! Oh spirits, my brake lights! I've been using them to avoid overrunning Nick! Jack didn't cover those!

She answered Nick's horn with two bleats of her own, and Nick immediately sped away up ahead of her. She doused her lights, but only drove blind for a few seconds—the helo's searchlight was soon upon her. It lit the road ahead well enough for her to speed up—Nick's SUV was already out of sight.

Judy dragged her photonic leech all the way up to, then onto the Intercontinental highway back towards Concordia. She really had no choice, there was nothing but scattered farms and tiny towns for a couple of hundred miles in the other direction. She sped up to around eighty hoping they would find the doings at the prison more attractive than one small car. A few miles later, when they'd passed their closest point to Deer Trail Prison, she realized they weren't going to let her go.

Will they just follow me, or report me to the highway patrol? They might also be in communication with the conspirators, or at least being monitored by them. If I try to evade, I'll just rack up charges like every other roadway chase that mammals find so entertaining on TV. Road-running in a Roadrunner—great. At least my audience won't be very large at two in the morning.

She slowed to below seventy; even though it would be hard for them to estimate her speed at night anyway. It would also let Nick pull away unnoticed and leave her behind for them—that must be agonizing for him, but he understands the responsibility he's carrying. Judy realized now, as he had, that sacrificing herself to arrest would be the best way to ensure their safety. They also had most of the damning evidence and video with them—for both sides.

She passed the town of Deer Trail, there were already several vehicles with flashing lightbars on or near the road down to the prison. At least two must have spotted or been called by the helicopter, they turned back towards the highway to pursue.

I need to be taken into custody in public if I don't want to be disappeared! What's open this late? What's close? Like Nick said, the regional airport would be good, I might lose myself there and catch a bus or something! They're only going to be a few miles behind me—don't think I could make it that far—not familiar with the roads here—Spirits above, I need witnesses!

---

"We interrupt 'ZNN Sunrise!' for a special report. Here is Correspondent Albert Grunley." "We have breaking news out of the Federal District in Concordia from very early this morning. A ZBI special operations team has raided a major hidden drug running organization located in the abandoned Deer Trail Prison complex some sixty miles outside the city.

"Initial reports indicate that several mammals yet to be identified have been captured, injured, or even killed, during this operation. Others were able to escape the scene and are still at large. One likely member of this organization, captured by the ZBI at a truck stop while fleeing the scene, was none other than Zootopia's own Officer Judy Hopps, who, last year, was involved with the Savage Predator Case that saw the production and use of similar highly dangerous drugs to those just found at Deer Trail.

"Officer Hopps is thought to still be in contact with her ex ZPD partner Officer Nicholas Wilde, a red fox, who went on the run three weeks ago to escape his own arrest on drug charges. This shocking instance of internal corruption in one of our most trusted organizations, must certainly include the recent arrest of ZPD Chief Adrian Bogo, the once highly praised..."

---

Notes:

Vivian is barely a quarter of the size and weight of an average human archer, so a twenty pound pull bow is a heavy draw for her. My 38# Samick serves me well for hunting hay-bales and the grass around them.

ATC Air Traffic Control

Daring actions bring about repercussions. These are meted out in our next installment—Chapter Thirty-one: Spin Cycle