AN Sorry for the lengthy wait for this installment of Sandcastles. I could blame this on Judy's being arrested at the end of chapter thirty, or on an overlarge (and thus very slow to arrive) plot bunny. Instead, I'd like to assure those readers with enough patience to have waited for this one, that the last few chapters of this tale should be posted in a far more timely manner! As always, reviews, even of earlier chapters, are greatly appreciated!
Chapter Thirty one
Spin Cycle
4:00 AM Tuesday, May 2nd with Jack Savage at Aurora All Mammals Medical Center Concordia.
"Coming up on the ER," said the CNN broadcast van's driver, a usefully large boar pig. Without him, it would have been nearly impossible to have transferred their freed bear captive over from the helicopter. That mammal's increased agitation during the flight had forced a physically vulnerable Jack to jab him with their last trank arrow.
"He's still out," Jack said as he looked back from where he stood next to Vivian on the front seat. They turned in, pulled under the wide canopy, then slowed to a stop. "I'll find someone with a gurney. You stay here with the evidence." She held the door open for him as he gingerly climbed out with a now thoroughly sprained ankle in addition to his hurt shoulder and elbow. His earlier refusal to let his injuries impede his actions had only exacerbated them. He limped over to the ERs elephantine entrance and had to do a one footed hop and stomp on the mat to trigger the automatic doors.
Fortunately only two others were in the waiting area, a bison in a wheelchair almost the size of his Roadrunner, and apparently a younger relative—with no one in line for the reception window. He had to stretch up and rap on the glass to draw the attendant equine's notice. She had to open it and lean over to get a good look at him.
"This is the large mammal side of the ER," she said in weary annoyance. "You look ambulatory enough to go back outside, turn left and make it the two hundred feet down to your end."
This is what I get for being the hero. Take down the bad guys, push past my injuries, rescue the captives—and be treated like another needy indigent. Although I must look the part—so don't criticize her, just convince her.
"It's not me! There's a comatose bear outside in the back of that van, malnourished and possibly poisoned. He's the emergency!"
"What is your connection to the patient? I will need some identification from a responsible party that can fill out this paperwork and provide his insurance information." She produced a clipboard with forms and a pen that would be a good drafting table setup for someone his size.
"I helped get him here to the hospital! Now I…uh...not out here," Jack dropped his voice and pointed to the two bison that now appeared to be listening, then walked purposefully up to the door into the treatment area. It clicked open, and he was able to rather painfully push his way in. She swiveled to face him over the high inside counter. "Alright sir, it seems you need some help too, so what is this about?"
"I can wait. You had several other patients brought in tonight that were...involved in the same incident we were. You need to follow the same...contamination and security protocols as with those and do it stat!" That was a mistake Jack realized, as her expression soured and she leaned further out over him.
"I'm not aware of any incident, and we will evaluate and determine this patient's needs since I'm certain you don't have hospital admitting privileges here!" the ER admitting mare said coldly. "Now I need to see some identification from you to get things started."
Jack passed up his agency ID—and although he'd badly wanted to, he was unable to jump up and slam it down in front of her. At least her expression moderated somewhat as she peered at the small badge.
"Well agent...Savage," she said skeptically, "why didn't you bring him in with you? Didn't anyone else respond to this incident of yours?"
"I need a doctor, and some people with a gurney that can handle a large bear right now!" Jack exploded. "And I need to find out the location and condition of the patients that arrived earlier so move! They're an arctic fox, a lion…" She abruptly waved him to silence, turned away to call for assistance over the inside PA system, then leaned back out over him.
"If this is a multiple patient...ongoing incident agent Savage, why hasn't there been any EMT or police response? We've received no notification. All I've heard is you asking about other patients medical status—information that we are not permitted to divulge. Even to you." She reached to return his ID, then abruptly froze. "You can't bring that knife in here!" she brayed.
"Right, forgot about that." He pulled the knife and sheath off of his belt and held it up. "Bag this and put it in a locker or something, I'll want it back."
"Bag it agent Savage?" she said warily.
"Yeah, bag it, tag it, put it somewhere safe! Since it's covered in blood it counts as evidence so you shouldn't be touching it," he said in weary exasperation. The look on her long face almost made his indiscretion worth it—even though he had rinsed it off back inside building four.
She finally found and emptied a plastic paper tray for him to drop the knife into, then lifted it away.
"Now about those other patients status." Jack continued. "If you're able to ask the fox or badger, tell them about me and they will give permission. Otherwise, for all of their safety, keep their presence here confidential, don't inform anyone unless I, or they, allow it!"
"This is highly irregular! Since you haven't, I'm going to inform the police about this—they'll provide some more of that protection you seem concerned about," said Ms. Difficult.
"That would be fatal for your patients!" Jack snapped at her. "Any, and I do mean any, public disclosure of the presence of these patients here will inform mammals that can force their transfer out and disappear them to prevent any interviews or testimony. I need to talk with whoever is in authority here right now to settle this."
"Are those the ones that came in on the news chopper earlier?" said a cougar, who along with a wolf, pushed up a large gurney with a manually operated bridge hoist and wide adjustable strap near one end.
"Yes!" Jack said eagerly, then pointed outside. "That's the last one we rescued. He's unconscious."
"Doctor Piedra is the one you want to talk to. Just follow us up after we get this one in so you don't get lost in here," the cougar said back over his shoulder on their way outside.
The admissions mare seemed relieved to relinquish her gatekeeper's responsibility, and quickly printed out a paper access badge for him. She passed it down along with the admissions billboard.
"Do a websearch on 'missing nighthowler victim from Zootopia', and then you'll know more about him than I do." Jack told her, then pointedly returned the oversize clipboard. He didn't have long to wait, the doors soon banged open with hospital drama alacrity to admit the burdened gurney pushed by the attendants, with Vivian trotting along just behind.
"Stop fox! You can't bring that backpack insi...you have another knife?" The incensed mare reared back and reached presumably for her phone.
"Put it down!" Jack screamed. "You've seen us alive. That's enough to make you another loose end to be cleaned up if word about this gets to the wrong people! Vix, put your knife in the tray. And you print her a badge, then sit there and do nothing. We'll have your doctor in charge call you as soon as we can." They all stopped for a moment; even the gurney moving down the hall had slowed. The mare finally collected herself, then reached the tray down to collect Viv's knife.
"Your name is Vix?" was asked skeptically.
"For now. Best if you don't know any more," Vivian said evenly, following Jack's example. She received her stick-on badge, and then helped him down to the first triage room where the wolf and cougar were already taking the bear's vitals. The wolf caught Jack's eye momentarily.
"Abducted, missing for months until now, malnourished, possibly experimented on with nighthowler variants, became agitated during the rescue so he got a police trank about an hour ago," Jack summed up for him as a gray kangaroo in scrubs carefully entered—mindful of his lengthy tail.
"I heard that Dr. Denton," said the kangaroo, "status?"
"Temp thirty-five, pulse thirty seven, moderately depressed BP and resp. consistent with a tranquilizer Dr. Quorn," the cougar replied, adding another introduction as Vivian helpfully left them one of their expended darts. "I'll take these two up to isolation; you'll need to watch Nyssa up front." He bade them follow and left immediately.
Jack felt relieved, but only allowed himself a few seconds to enjoy it. This would all blow open soon enough and there was so much they still had to do. At least Skye or the badger must have gotten through to some of the staff here.
"You weren't very careful back there mister agent," Vivian muttered from close alongside him.
"Not gonna matter in a few hours...Vix. As soon as they discover their prize captives are gone, all constraints are off—they'll do whatever they have to to regain control and silence them. That happens as soon as they find them, and this is obviously the first place they'll look."
"They're being treated in a secure area, and we do have entry controls for the hospital," said Dr. Denton as he ushered them onto a card-controlled elevator. "You make it sound like that won't matter to your…'they'."
"It won't," Jack stated while showing his agency badge to the doctor. "Myself and one of your patients discovered a criminal conspiracy within our agency that has high-level political support. That means you can expect corrupt armed FBI agents, or possibly Capitol Police to respond and cover this up!"
"Mr. Savage? Wouldn't this have to be a very small conspiracy to remain hidden within the government? How could it remain undiscovered when they're taking prominent people?"
"So you're aware you've got Lionheart and his accomplice in here doctor?" Jack said. He got an affirmative nod as they exited the elevator one floor higher. The isolation ward with its closely sealed double doors, gowning area, and bio-hazard signage was directly in front of them. The doctor poked panels and led them straight through both sets.
"No significant cases in here at the moment," he reassured them. "Dr. Honeybadger managed to tell us enough before she collapsed; she won't be waking up anytime soon. It was hard to believe until we looked in the pack they brought."
The doctor's acceptance and apparent trust in them was further explained when they got to the nurses station. Some of the evidence from their first pack was spread on a counter—including the gun in its bag—and a lady coyote around Vivian's age was engrossed in the lab notebook they'd confiscated at Deer Trail. It was out of its bag, but its reader was gloved.
"This is Doctor Piedra," Dr. Denton said clearly to break her concentration.
The coyote looked up with a flash of irritation, spotted them, and rose to silently lead them down the hall ahead.
"Fox first," Jack stated flatly, aware now that he had to really rely on Vivian's helpful arm.
"Stable, in fairly good condition all things considered," Dr. Piedra said without looking back. "Broken fifth rib, not displaced, greenstick fracture of the sixth. Significant bruising; she's asleep in here."
Skye and Madge were in the same room, his mate with one IV, the frankly deflated and dead looking badger with two. At least the slow activity on the mustelid's bedside monitor dispelled that observation.
"They're both on nighthowler protocol with the proper inhibitor," continued Dr. Piedra. "That's normally a seventy-two hour slow infusion, but from what I've read in those notes, we'll keep them on it for at least ninety-six to be sure. As for Dr. Honeybadger, I've rarely seen a mammal that fatigued remain conscious. Severely malnourished, still somewhat dehydrated, critically low on potassium. No doubt, it was a life or death effort for her to tell us what she needed to."
"She was in a physical life or death fight with a larger mammal four hours ago—she lived," Jack said. "Keep her that way. Death almost touched both of us tonight as well." Jack felt a slight tremble come through Vivian's steadying paw on his shoulder. "He reached for both your patients, and we were able to intervene. He'll get another chance if we're found again by their original captors."
"That must explain the sheep blood," Dr. Piedra said slowly. "Lion's down there. Also quite weakened, he's mildly sedated and stable for now. We'll need significant testing to determine what's wrong with him, and we can't get a lot of that started until around nine this morning."
"Will we...they have that long? The full four days?" Vivian asked him.
"Doubt it, certainly not enough for them," Jack said, "all they have to do is stop their treatment."
"They cannot interrupt this treatment protocol! We won't permit it," said Dr. Piedra firmly.
Skye's asleep...she needs her treatment, so I still can't take her away with me! How can I make this safe for her? I'll have to rely on these doctors to protect her. Thank the spirits they're nocturnal predators!
"You...you'll find that FBI agents with a pawful of Justice Department search and arrest warrants can be quite insistent doctor. They'll not only come to take these patients of yours, but all records associated with them, and likely anyone treating or even aware of their presence here. Sorry to get you involved, but we didn't have much time or many options earlier." Jack paused to consider which would be best of the limited options still open to him.
"Which means I now realize that you'll have to drop any patient isolation or confidentiality, and get word of this out in public to protect them. Take video of them in here, make copies of their lab tests, consult other doctors, disseminate what happened to these patients as quickly and widely as possible—before these anti-pred conspirators can get here and cover it up!"
"Health Department management must have suspected this wasn't over yet...they issued guidelines several months ago for major hospitals to maintain stocks of the nighthowler inhibitor. If your opposition is...developing variants...to continue what was tried in Zootopia last year...shouldn't they have tried to...forestall that?" Dr. Piedra seemed to be talking to herself as much as them.
Thank you doctor, you do understand what's happening.
"Some in our agency, and in the Zootopia PD, became aware that this hadn't been completely stopped last year, it was far broader in scope, and went right up into the federal government." Jack told the coyote physician. "We were fortunate to discover this before they were ready to re-implement it, so they are still...recruiting supporters and are short on mammalpower. That allowed us to effect this covert rescue, and may have kept them from noticing your health department memo."
"Jack! Most of our evidence is right here with us!" Vivian rustled her pack to emphasize that. "We can't stay here with it!" She had to grip him harder as he abruptly sagged against her in realization.
I haven't really rescued anybody yet, or actually secured our evidence! Stupid! I brought them all here, if we're found out we lose back everything we gained from Deer Trail. What the ZPD officers have isn't enough by itself—if they even got away in time! I didn't game this out past getting Skye on the helicopter!
"That seems wise Ms. Fox," Dr. Denton was saying from behind them. "We'll shield these patients—I saw those lab notes too. And I'd better tape up your ankle before you go Mr. Savage, I can see the swelling from here."
"No! Can't go! Vi...Vix, go repack...agent Winter's pack." He forced his words. "Take both of them...to the...the place...we haven't heard...shit, we haven't let them know either!" He started to slip down—strong arms lifted him away from Vivian and carried him—he no longer had the energy to object.
"I'll check him out. You get your things repacked, but leave those lab notes behind—we're not finished with them!" said Dr. Denton.
"Jack said that's our most important evidence!" Vivian objected, her voice growing faint.
He needed, maybe deserved, the pain from his swollen ankle as it was wrapped. At least it had fully reawakened him. He'd also been given a sling for his arm—and his own IV. For six days, ever since he'd felt his mate's wordless cry, she'd never left his thoughts. Nothing should have been able to stop him from going to her, holding her, protecting her—except apparently his present physical condition and the last few meters between them.
At least I didn't wake up in custody! Or maybe never at all! Yeah, I'm a marked mammal—a known renegade—they'd have disposed of me ASAP.
"What time is it?" he managed to ask after drinking down something thick and sweet held to his lips. "How long have I been...out?"
"Just past five," said the cougar above him, "and about thirty minutes. You little guys don't have much reserve once you've maxed out your fight or flight response, and you started to crash pretty hard. Your..uh partner was pretty wrung out too. You called it a covert rescue—that's amazing—you being there I can sort of see—but I don't think anyone would have suspected that she's an agent too!"
Jack followed the doctor's glance and saw Vivian sitting nearby with her cellphone held up by her muzzle. She looked back at them with a mixed look of surprise and gratification.
"I've notified the rest of the team about our successful operation and the status of our freed victims agent Savage," Vivian said carefully, milking the doctor's compliment for all it was worth. "Officer F also updated a few minutes ago, they've left the studio after dropping off the...embedded reporter."
"So that's why you all arrived in a CNN helicopter, maybe they'll assume you went to the studio too."
"No, I overheard the pilot talking to ATC," Jack said amid a wave of relief that they'd all gotten away from Deer Trail. "We have to assume the conspirators monitored that and know we came here first, so we certainly can't stay." He already felt re-energized—either from the good news, or the medication, and became aware the ward was a lot more active now. He was given a second bottle of the nutrient solution by a ferret physician's assistant, who then un-taped and removed his IV after a nod from Dr. Denton. Vivian was being tended by a buck rabbit—getting spots on her cheek and arm dabbed with a swab. An adjacent tray held two empty bottles like his, and the window behind her showed a strong dawn light.
"Vixen's awake now," said the wolf he'd met in the ER, now coming from the hall that led to her room. "Asking for any news."
He and Viv were up immediately. Once down the hall, they were let into the room first, the physicians probably realizing they were the best medicine Skye could have right now.
Her initial look of joy was squelched by their trailing medical entourage—Skye actually clenched her jaw to apparently avoid saying something revealing. Her eyes however were quite eloquent.
"Everybody got out safely," Jack said quickly. "All captives and evidence temporarily secured. Conspirators know we're here, these doctors are informed and will protect you. We two will have to leave soon to avoid implicating you further, and disperse our evidence."
Vivian stepped forward and did what he could not, gently nuzzling and whispering to his mate.
"I need you two to leave now Savage," Skye said clearly as Vivian withdrew. She then looked away from him and up at her IV. "Unfortunately, I'm no longer effective and you still have a job to do, so get our evidence out of here before we lose it!" She started to lean forward to shoo them away with her paw—then thought better of it, the paw dropping to her side.
"I'm packed and ready," Vivian added. "Uh, I'm certain the CNN van's long gone."
"Follow me then," the wolf said, "I'll take you out to the staff lot and give you a ride off the grounds."
"The rest of you contact CNN and ask for Alan Curry," Jack said, "he witnessed what happened out at Deer Trail and should be able to get a crew back here for interviews..."
"Yes!" Skye said eagerly with strain in her voice. "Get us on camera!" She paused in thought—then in a softer voice asked, "Could they bring a makeup mammal along with them?"
Jack smiled; she'd obviously recognized, as he'd done, what their best course of action was...but she was still his beautiful Skye regardless of the state of her fur! They only broke eye contact when Vivian gently turned him away by the arm.
The wolf took both packs in paw when they left the ward, so that Vivian could continue to help him. Doctor Denton followed them after he'd declined the larger mammal's offer to carry him again. His ankle sharply disagreed with his pride's decision.
"Do you work with these foxes regularly?" the doctor asked in genuine curiosity.
"They're actually really nice once you get to know them well," Jack said—neglecting any protective sarcasm in his voice. Vivian noticed and pounced on it.
"He's been an excellent addition to our clandestine little family; he fits right in!" she snarked.
"Where are you going to go with these?" Dr. Denton asked her, pointing at the packs.
"Better that none of you know," Jack said. "We'll have to split up so that at least one of us can get this to some uncompromised authorities or out to the media."
"Take this." Dr. Denton produced a card. "I live out in the town of Conifer if you find you need a bolthole. It's nearly all feline, we've kept to ourselves for a very long time, but I can let my neighbors know to keep an eye out for either of you."
"Know where it is; let's hope it doesn't come to that." Jack took it and Vivian got another. The doctor took his leave, and the wolf checked outside before he let them follow him to a modest car.
"I'm Loren by the way, I'm an orderly here; but this whole shift's been way beyond my usual duties! Now where do you need to go?"
"If you don't mind, could you head west over toward Bear Creek park?"
6:06 AM Tuesday, with Nick Wilde back inside the Growley's suite at The Pinnacles.
'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...'
A sudden burning wave of despair erupted and consumed everything that remained to him; the soreness in his hip, the anticipated message sent by mom, his last faint hope for his partner's successful evasion...
They had her. He'd failed her—he'd abandoned his mate to them...
'Officer Hopps was thought to still be in contact with her ex ZPD partner Officer Nicholas Wilde...'
That damn news pig's calm, measured words continued to crush his soul. Worse than not fully pulling his weight earlier, he'd gone and made their last mistake.
"Get...yourself...together...Wilde!" said the voice behind the huge orange paws that enveloped his shoulders. "We got the captives and ourselves out of there! She knew we needed a decoy. Yes, she's been arrested; but it's public now, it's on the news; and we have plenty of evidence to clear her!"
"No! That won't matter, she knows way too much—they have no choice but to silence her! She's also exposed them twice now—they'll want their revenge!" he shouted the obvious to them.
"Then I need to publicize our side of this as rapidly as possible," Mrs. Growley said. She shoved her laptop computer under his muzzle. "I need your context comments about these downloads before I go to the studio. One shot of her with Lionheart or Verda Kinsley would probably be enough!"
He mechanically started reciting into her recorder as she swiped through the images from Deer Trail—around forty of them from Jack's camera. Two perusals later, they had to accept that not a single one showed Judy.
"Do you think that Alan might have caught her on video?" Mrs. Growley asked carefully. One of her paws had replaced Fangmeyer's.
"That's our best chance," Nick admitted after some thought. "Although Mom might have taken some."
"I have no time to wait for Eric to pick them up; he just left," Fabienne Growley said firmly, closing her laptop and standing up. "I have to get a response on the air before we're censored—they have to know by now our helicopter was used, and that gives them the justification to do so! If Savage and Vivian have anything useful, email it to CNN's tipline...but not from here!" She strode to the elevator and was gone.
"Who else can we notify?" Fangmeyer said quickly as she started to pace. Only the two of them remained in the suite, they'd been told Kristen was already on the overnight train to Zootopia.
"Who've you got," Nick said morosely. "I purged most of my contacts before I came back here."
"I'll just do my whole ZPD list. Word needs to get out, and if there's a few conspiracy sympathizers still on the force; our success might make them rethink their support!"
"Yeah, it's all out in the open now," Nick said, "I suppose I'll let Kristen know too—so she doesn't think we all got caught. She should be able to get it when they go through a big enough town."
He tried to be optimistic; texting her that they'd rescued all the captives, and that Judy's arrest was widely publicized which should protect her. He also suggested the skunk emphasize that Judy did undercover work in case her criminality came up in conversation after the news reports.
Fangmeyer was still working on her message when he sent his; obviously including as many details as she could. That was Judy's best hope, have them build as much official and media pressure as quickly as possible to force the conspirators to reveal her in public. Even a brief perp walk or appearance before a certainly prejudicial court would help keep her alive.
"On the half-hour," Fangmeyer said, "Let's see what they're saying now." She used the remote to turn up the volume—the breaking news banner was already on screen.
"The Justice Department has announced that the Federal Bureau of Investigation will remain the lead agency examining the shocking and confusing events that transpired last night at the Deer Trail Prison complex outside of Concordia. We have now learned that at least five mammals, species and identities withheld pending official confirmation, lost their lives during a possible inter gang conflict interrupted by the FBI raid on their drug operation. Several suspects remain at large. We will interrupt our regular programming as new details emerge!"
"Try another station!" Nick demanded. Unfortunately, they only caught the latter part of what seemed the same released statement.
"That's not right," Fangmeyer said slowly, muting that channel's ongoing rampant speculation. "There was Ramses, and the one shot out in the yard...two of the tranked ones I brought inside were already coming out of it."
"Cleaning up the failures. They recruited a lot of unsavory help that are now more usefully dead. One of the rams I fought off in Junction City was disposed of the same way—I hadn't injured him that badly."
"What about the one your mom shot through the muzzle? Nasty, but I don't think it'd be fatal."
"That's going to be a hard one to explain, but since everyone saw him sitting inside awake, I'd guess he's still alive. We took them totally by surprise, so I'll bet they're still trying to sort out a coherent story; they still might need to push that count up to plug more leaks."
"Wilde? I know Concordia's an hour ahead of Zootopia, but it's still six-thirty in the morning here! The Justice Department released a statement? What time do the Feds go to work?
"Never heard of the government keeping nocturnal hours Fangs...this just proves Justice Department corruption to anyone who's already had their coffee. They have to have someone well-placed there on-call to justify or cover up events. I'll also bet we get conflicting statements from them since they had to release anything before we did! Now that they have, suppressing our evidence will be their top priority!"
They switched back to CNN, and time crawled to the top of the hour without any interruptions—or texts. The same two bulletins they'd heard were repeated without anything new—Mrs. Growley either hadn't gotten there in time for the morning show opening, or was still prepping her story.
The simultaneous chime and light above the elevator announced that someone authorized was on the way up. The light went off as the doors opened to reveal mom leaned against its side, and Jack leaned against her. Both looked utterly fatigued and didn't move to exit. Mom's eyes solicited his help to get them to the nearest sofa—his right arm hooked under Jack's un-slung one, his left around her. He felt Savage's limp, then noticed his wrapped ankle. Mom let out a distressed groan as he eased her down.
"Are you all right Mrs. Wilde?" Fangmeyer asked as she moved to collect their evidence packs from the elevator—thankfully preventing him from having to immediately drop the dire news on them.
"Tired...and sore—badly need my rest—he's worse, collapsed again after we got to the hospital and needed an IV to revive him."
Jack was collected enough to glare his displeasure at mom's unwanted revelation. "Yeah, we're done in Wilde," he said wearily, "we both really stiffened up waiting for our ride back here. We got 'em all to the hospital, they're under treatment, doc's know everything, all we can do now is let things play out."
"They've got Judy."
Mom gasped and leaned forward enough to hug him around the waist.
"Six o clock news. Pursued and arrested at a truck stop. No further word," Fangmeyer added. "We were followed by a helicopter on the way out, she was in Savage's car and decoyed them so we could escape."
"Never should have let her go. She didn't want to! But I didn't want to leave your cussed car behind!" He slowly kneeled to let mom shift her grip and bury her muzzle under his. "That helicopter would have never caught up with us if we hadn't stopped to cover your tracks Savage!"
"We don't know that Wilde." Fangmeyer said, watching them questioningly, "not Savage's fault; it just happened."
"I know! It's mine!" He eased mom back against the sofa. "She isn't nocturnal; she had to use her fog lights to follow us! Led them right to us! And I tucked tail and abandoned her to em."
"Wilde!" Jack cried in obvious discomfort. "Shit happens! You both made a snap choice to protect a civilian, another officer, and evidence we all fought for. She could have realized, stopped, and turned her lights off until the helo was gone! Why didn't she? Cussit Wilde! Shit happens! Not your fault, not hers, not ours; just a bad break."
"I think they were almost on us from behind with their searchlight before any of us even noticed. They would have gotten all of us if Hopps hadn't drawn their attention away," Fangmeyer said, trying to remain the calm voice of reason.
"Jack is right, so put this aside Nicholas. Now what can we do for Judy?" mom asked. "What do we know about where they might take her? They might still be blindly reacting to our rescue of Skye and the others without having considered their best response. Where would they take her first to give them time to think about what they want to do with her?"
"I don't know mom. Jack, do you think they'd take her straight to ZBI headquarters?"
The striped hare thought about it long enough to illustrate his extreme fatigue. "No...not feasible Wilde. There are two security checkpoints for everyone that enters—verifiable ID is required plus sight recognition by someone inside for both. The few executive cars that rate the underground parking structure undergo an entry scan that would catch a mouse. Same with containers. Not even the director could vouch for anyone to get past security without inspection—that's as severe as a violation gets!"
"Someone got your guns out," Nick said.
"Probably in a secure briefcase attached to a courier. Only the cases are logged in and out by the checkpoints—they're only scanned coming in! The system is basically set up so multiple mammals are aware of all entries and exits. They could not sneak Judy in without being found out and word of that spreading."
"Even if security was fully controlled by the conspiracy?"
"That's the beauty of the system Mrs. Wilde, all the procedures are easily visible, and we offer rewards for anyone that sees a violation or finds a hole. I also feel that she won't be held by the Capitol Police or any local precinct! Prisoners are booked in and out, get mugshots, and trying to bypass all that would be too high a risk of exposure. She is famous and in the news again; they won't risk taking her where non-conspirators might recognize her. This conspiracy isn't all-pervasive, they can't buck the system with impunity yet."
"Makes sense," said Fangmeyer, "Illegally holding a suspect without immediately booking them into the system was one of their justifications for arresting the chief! Tarija was all over that, and Clifton wasn't as visible as Judy is now."
"What about safe houses?" Nick said glumly.
"No, ours are centrally monitored; we're pretty thorough, I'm sure somebody they don't control would notice. At least we have one unintended consequence working in our favor," Jack said, "all of that subtle anti-pred propaganda engineered by the conspiracy has motivated a lot of sympathetic predators. There's still enough in the agency aware of officer Hopps to make it risky for them to use our assets openly."
"Nicholas? Agonizing over this now won't help any of us; we need to wait for more information to come out. Even if we had it now, we'd all need to rest and recover before we could do anything about it. None of us have slept, you're still hurting, and Savage has a severely sprained ankle and a partially separated shoulder according to the doctor at the hospital."
"She's right, that'd be the most productive use of our time right now Wilde," Fangmeyer said. "You help your mom back there; we stripes gotta stick together." She effortlessly scooped Jack up without any objection from him beyond a wince, and headed down the hall to the suite's bedrooms.
Early morning with Judy Hopps, somewhere on the road.
This was a higher intensity of fear to endure—more pervasive, unrelenting, and promising unavoidable tortures to come. She'd experienced those panicked adrenaline rushes that resolved quickly for better or ill—the dread felt during the anticipation of personal embarrassment—and even the despair of abject failure.
But this—being crammed into a wire cage in the trunk of an anonymous car—had inexorably squeezed out her last vestige of hope in spite of the futile push-back of her hammering heart and shallow panting. Chief Bogo had warned that her impulsiveness, and defy the odds attitude, might lead to something like this. He would not like to have been proven right.
She had to admit; the conspirator's snatch had been perfectly executed. Although she'd been continuously pinned under the persistent newschopper's nightsun, her ground pursuers lights had dropped more than a half-mile behind—she'd exited toward, then into, the dubious sanctuary of a generously sized truck stop plaza. That should have given her enough time to pull into a regular spot by the store and get inside among the witnesses promised by the three other parked vehicles.
Except for the two large cruisers that had been running dark much closer behind her. They'd boxed her in, and had her out of the car, cuffed, and in the back seat of one of theirs within a minute. They drove away immediately, leaving Jack's roadrunner to be searched by the now arriving light barred cruiser.
Less than twenty minutes later, they pulled to the side of the road in the dark and stopped. She could hear radio traffic up front, but not make out any words. Eventually, an unmarked car had pulled up behind them, and she was transferred to this hidden cage.
And all of them—conspirators, agents, whatever—had been deer. Unlike most larger prey species, white-tail deer have excellent night vision. They might have deceived me, but they still never saw Nick!
To be drained of information, then disappeared; no one except these vengeful conspirators would know her ultimate fate. And she'd never know if they'd succeeded in successfully bringing down this now apparently mostly cervid conspiracy. Their rescue had been exposed well before they'd left the prison, the helicopter had gotten out there in time to catch her, the hospital was an obvious destination for the hostages, the ZBI would have had plenty of time to get there and intercept the arrivals.
Judy lay curled on her side—she'd been hastily cuffed wrist to ankle and they had not bothered to change that when they'd tossed her in here. She finally surrendered to soft sobs and tears.
2:45 PM, inside the Growley's suite at The Pinnacles.
Nick's nose awakened him with that most basic of messages—food sensed. Vision was next as he came awake—there was a polished cart at the foot of the bed with several covered dishes—one wasn't, the lid held up by a well dressed bobcat. The bed was huge, with mom stirring on the far…
"Anything about Judy!" he demanded.
"Some, but nothing on where she's been taken yet," said Eric Broadpaw hastily. "Officer Fangmeyer's in the video room collating the news reports we've recorded. Come eat something, we'll be ready to bring you up to speed in a few more minutes!" He pushed the cart back out into the hall.
"Nicholas," mom said rubbing her face, "If he had important news, he would have awakened us before now. Let's wash up and brush first, then do what he suggests—you've got to be as hungry as I am.
"Yeah," he conceded, "you're right, it's just that I've failed her! I can't wait, I have to find her!"
"You haven't. Tend to yourself first son, so your fully able to help when you do find her." Mom climbed down gingerly from the high bed and led him to the bathroom with her tail dragging.
She looked more disheveled than he'd ever remembered seeing her—he had to be even worse. She moved stiffly enough to require a fair amount of his help to clean up—he gave her one of the shirts from his case to replace what she'd worn last night, then left her to change and finish up.
Mom emerged from the hall a few minutes later, supporting a hobbling Jack. If anything, he looked worse than he had this morning, being shirtless, bandaged, and with bruises starting to show through his short fur. At least he appeared somewhat alert, and his ears were up. They all exchanged glances and nothing else.
The breakfast buffet was probably wonderful and certainly badly needed, but Nick doubted any of them would remember a bite of it. Once they were topped off, they went straight to the Growley's media room.
"We monitored the news bulletins on CNN, channel four, and channel eleven," Fangmeyer said. "We arranged them chronologically—this is the earliest and most relevant one about officer Hopps. No audio."
Eric started it, and the screen lit with a slightly wavering ellipse of light centered on Jack's Roadrunner. It was moving at a high rate of speed and turned off the highway onto an access road a few seconds later. The camera zoomed out a little and showed a large and well lit road services facility ahead. Two dark cars close behind Judy were revealed by the brightening scene as they approached—they converged and forced her to a stop short of the buildings and fuel pumps. Several deer exited both cars—two held their arms out in a weapons stance. The Roadrunner's door slowly opened and Judy came out. She looked up towards the helicopter briefly as the camera zoomed back in—the two deer that blocked the ends of the narrow lane left between the cars then approached and forced her to the ground. She was presumably cuffed, then one of the larger mammals just tossed her into the rear seat of their car and slammed the door. The video clip ended right after the deer had re-entered their cars and started to drive away.
Eric backed up and paused it at the point where Judy had looked up at the helicopter.
"There's a lot wrong here to discuss before we go on," Fangmeyer said. "First, channel eleven broadcast this clip only three times before they put up a notice that it had been embargoed. No other station has shown this as far as we know."
"When was it aired?" Nick asked, "Judy would have been...taken sometime around two."
"Five, five-thirty, and six," Eric said. "Mrs. Growley and I were up most of the night waiting for any news of what was going down out there—we started recording the news feeds around four AM."
"Nobody should have known Hopps was back here," Fangmeyer said, "We flew in only a day ago, and we were very careful about being seen before we left. But it looked like they were waiting for her!"
"Shit! It was me! I mean my car!" Jack said in realization. 'They weren't after Judy, it was me they were after! They must have gotten enough of a look to run my plate."
"Only that one station showed this?" Nick confirmed for himself. "So how did CNN have her ID-ed at six in the morning—those deer would know who she was, she had her badge with her! Makes no sense that they'd pull a quick seizure like this and then tell CNN about it right away."
"No Nick, that seizure was meant for me. Only thing that makes sense. I've been on their radar for over a week, and they have to have realized I'd become a renegade agent and thus a priority target for at least the past two days! They didn't know it was Hopps until after they had her!"
"Doesn't explain why they'd still tell CNN about it!" Nick stated.
"Maybe they didn't," mom said. "Blaming the hero of Zootopia for being involved in a drug operation centered in Concordia seems a stretch."
"So does blocking one station from showing the video of the arrest, then telling another one about it," Fangmeyer said. "So maybe someone else told CNN about it?"
"They would have to have been in contact with the conspirators involved to even know about that arrest—or have seen the video on channel eleven," Jack concluded. "It seem very far fetched that anyone directly involved with the Deer Trail operation would blow this open so thoroughly in the aftermath of our assault." Jack paused with an enigmatic smile on his face. "But what about a conspirator who was unaware of our assault last night, and that happened to see the video on channel eleven?"
"Does this channel eleven broadcast locally—or nationally?" Nick asked very carefully.
"I'm sure they're part of a national network," Eric Broadpaw said in curiosity.
"And wouldn't they have to have been personally familiar with Judy to recognize her from that short bit of video?" Nick pointed at the screen where she remained frozen, looking up towards them.
"And personally familiar with me!" mom said with understanding.
"And that's had most of us under surveillance—you, me, Skye, and Judy," Jack said with a face-cracking smile. "I think our drama llama station chief contacted some other at-the-moment unaware conspirators within the agency too quickly—maybe to claim credit for being right about us—and she accidentally exposed what would otherwise have been a clean untraceable abduction of officer Hopps."
"Isn't it kinda coincidental that chief Tarija would have watched this at...four in the morning, and then informed the ZB...FBI back here...or CNN directly...in time for their six o clock news?" Fangmeyer said.
"Not really," said Jack. "The FBI can't be everywhere at once, so we regularly monitor the media. Some minion of hers probably alerted her that something major was happening back here—knowing about Deer Trail, and Skye's activities, Tarija would have checked it out immediately."
"Judy met with that Tarija person three days ago—so was possibly still on her mind?" mom said.
"We still don't know where they took her, or how long this CNN story might protect her," Nick said darkly. "Will they keep her as a kind of bargaining chip, or claim that news about her arrest was wrong?"
"Then you'd better watch the rest of these news clips," Fangmeyer said. "Those might help decide which of those possibilities is more likely."
Broadpaw cued up the next—it was channel four's seven-thirty news broadcast, and opened with a slanting aerial view of Deer Trail. Several agency and police vehicles were visible both in front of the open main gates, and inside, along with a thin plume of smoke rising from near building four—still shaded from the early morning sun by the east wall of the prison.
"This is Chet Hutchin in Skyhawk Four over the infamous, long-abandoned, Deer Trail Prison well to the south-east of the metroplex! In today's predawn hours, a coordinated raid by the FBI and Capitol Police, assisted by the Bureau of Drug Enforcement, disrupted the establishment of a major drug development and distribution center sufficient to supply this whole region. Due to ongoing resistance by armed criminals still trapped inside, a Notice to Aviators has been issued, which prevents us from giving you a closer view of these law enforcement operations!"
"They're keeping the press away to buy time to clean up their mess," Nick said flatly after Eric paused the playback. "CNN already reported five deaths early on."
"Eliminating liabilities now just postpones awkward explanations for the conspiracy," Jack said. "And knowing that the media would be coming, I'll bet they lit that fire to add veracity to their 'ongoing resistance' claim. They'll want to salvage as much of their agenda as possible from this debacle—which means somehow making preds responsible for it."
"Which means we need to remain out of their clutches," Fangmeyer said, "they've got nothing without us—I mean who's this ongoing resistance they're supposedly fighting? They'll need results to show for claims like that—casualties, arrestees, credible physical evidence from a large scale drug operation."
"All they've got is Judy, who only raises more awkward questions if they utilize her," Jack reasoned. "Nick, I doubt they'll try to squeeze her for intelligence like they did with Skye; they already know who we all are in the resistance. Same for...Winter and the others in the hospital. Now that I've slept on it, I feel none of them could be brought forth as credible members of a major organized crime syndicate. Self-aggrandizing politicians aren't usually found working in remote drug labs. Neither are doctors and advertising icons with upscale lifestyles."
"What about that Miss Verda? Vivian said. "She was there, and even I've heard of that brand!"
"Nice shot mom," Nick deadpanned.
"Unfair, I can't evade!" Jack pantomimed pulling out an arrow. "Still, that's another problem for our conspirators. They've grossly exaggerated last night's events, and have no captured predators to parade, which can either serve to lessen our culpability, or eventually make us look like movie heroes!"
"Shall we continue?" said Eric unctuously, "this next one's a brief shot by our side!"
The CNN intro graphic played, and was replaced by what looked like a stock image of the prison overlaid by their 'Breaking News' banner. The unnamed announcer got right into it.
"The latest from the Deer Trail assault! CNN now has exclusive direct imagery and video of the events that occurred within Deer Trail Prison last night! Reporter Alan Curry was witness to a successful joint rescue operation carried out by agents from the FBI and officers from the Zootopia Police Department."
The video that started during the opening narration panned across the prison yard outside building four to show the ZBI sedan, the two tranquilized deer nearby, and the ram mom had shot through the muzzle lying in the background. He heard himself say, 'We've still got to break out the prisoners,' then, 'Ex Mayor Lionheart of Zootopia is one of those illegally held here.' The camera turned toward him to show mom helping him limp towards the building. It then moved a little more to bring officer Fangmeyer in frame; she faced the camera, pulled her badge, and said, 'ZPD undercover joint rescue operation, you can record, but stay back!' Judy's ears, and raised paw with her badge, were briefly visible at the bottom of the screen before the video froze for a second, then went blank.
Eric paused it and said, "That was the entirety of CNN's eight o clock news broadcast. It hasn't been replayed there again, or shown on any other channel as far as we know. There was almost a minute of dead air before we got this no video statement."
"This report has been interrupted, as it portrayed sensitive, and ongoing law enforcement operations. All subsequent reports from Deer Trail will now be reviewed and released through FBI or Capitol Police command staff. Viewers are reminded that initial reports and video regarding law enforcement activities, can be erroneous, incomplete, or misinterpreted before events conclude and undergo expert analysis."
The voice was different from the previous announcer, and sounded less polished in delivery. Programming then returned to CNN's regularly scheduled morning personality's show.
"Nothing since on CNN or the other channels except for official news releases," Eric said.
"They cut it off!" mom cried in outrage, "media censorship along with our best evidence! Can they really get away with this?"
"Don't think so," Jack Savage said sardonically, "Someone was rather late with the kill switch. They probably heard 'successful', 'operation', and 'agents from the FBI', and didn't pay enough attention to the rest of it! There's enough that got out in that broadcast to blow open their cover story—however they try to spin it! And this spin of theirs said 'ongoing law enforcement operations' while showing us!"
"If enough people saw it—or recorded it," Fangmeyer said dryly. "Maybe we should send our copy to some of the other stations."
"Good thought," Eric said, "but hold that; now here's one's from forty minutes later."
"This is an emergency alert from the FBI's operations manager." Text appeared on screen over an FBI logo along with the voice-over.
Jack rolled his eyes and said, "not how we do this!"
"The public is advised to be on the lookout for several criminals that successfully escaped Deer Trail Prison before the Federal Bureau of Investigation agents arrived—likely due to tips from other corrupt entities hidden within law enforcement. All of these mammals are armed and very dangerous! Please call the number on your screen if you have any..."
Three named pictures replaced the text and logo, and Eric paused the playback. Nick was in uniform, grubby, and had a serious expression on his face. Skye was in summer coat, business attire, and looked annoyed. Last was Dr. Honeybadger, named without her title, who looked to be seated in a courtroom.
"This one's been on repeat on several stations," Eric said.
"How did they know who escaped before they even got out there?" mom wondered.
"Oh, that's easy!" Jack said quickly, "Skye's a double agent, her arrest will be how they extract her—from the hospital I guess. Seriously, this whole scenario is ridiculous! Any viewer that actually uses their brains would realize that Deer Trail is about the worst possible location for an illicit drug operation."
"That's why the Great Spirit puts abandoned warehouses down by the docks," he said dryly, "Now has there been any mention of Judy since those first two early ones on CNN?"
"Not that we've seen Wilde. None of Jack, or the rest of us either...yet," Fangmeyer said looking over at mom.
"Ummm." Jack had his good arm up to hold their comments. "Nick I can understand—already wanted—and you couldn't see his face in the clip. Couldn't see Viv's face either—public would have no idea who they were. But they didn't show Judy or me as wanted even though they knew we were there! I understand keeping their options open about her, but why not me?"
"Because neither of you is a scary predator, and that's where they're going with their narrative about last night," Fangmeyer said with the last half of her tail becoming active. "and I'm not there because I'm right up front in the CNN clip justifying our rescue mission!"
"I'm going to find Judy!" he stated harshly to get them back to their most critical issue. "Now, if not the FBI or police, where would they take her!"
"There's going to be several highly placed conspirators in government that are going to need to distance themselves from this debacle," Jack said. "Garwood, Kinsley, our Deputy Director and several others at the FBI and over in Justice. Even though we haven't found hard evidence of their complicity, they might still be very worried we have something on them. But I don't see how having Judy in custo..."
"What was that name?" he shouted at the hare. "Fangs, who did Growley mention earlier! That bitchy little deer! Miss Verda something!"
"Verda Kinsley," said mom and Fangs nearly simultaneously. Jack's eyes widened.
"Oh shit," said Jack Savage.
"Judy kicked her down and had a knife at her throat while I zipped her up! We weren't gentle about it and she was pissed! What the cuss was she doing there in the first place!"
"Nick," Jack said carefully, "Vail Kinsley is Arbiter Garwood's chief economic advisor and the likely corrupt financier of this whole conspiracy. Verda runs a well-known fashion company here. She only uses her first name for marketing, so I missed the connection!"
"Kinsley's niece," mom interjected. "And remember what Madge did to her."
"Great. Anyway, the Kinsley's are a very prominent local family and have an extensive private estate outside of Concordia. There's a major revenge motive working here, so there's an excellent chance Judy's been taken there. There's also another good reason for them to want her..."
"She's there!" he interrupted, "everything fits! I'm going to get my partner! Where is it? I need a map of the area and a ride out there!"
"Whoa Wilde! Plan, prep, arrange some backup!" Fangmeyer's shout was a roar to anyone smaller.
"No backup! I'm going it alone. You and I are the only trained officers fit to go, and I'm far smaller and stealthier than you are. No jungles to hide yourself in here Fangs—Judy needs a fox! After last night they won't expect any of us to either know where she is or to rescue her this soon. Empty one of the smaller packs, I want to travel light—just some food, water, a few small tools—and your first aid kit Savage."
"Nick! Take a moment and game this out," Jack said, getting up and placing his good arm on Nick's. "You were right earlier about Judy being a bargaining chip, she's too valuable to the Kinsley's right now to be in any imminent danger. Think about it! If word gets out that Miss Verda was at Deer Trail—and it will, we have pictures and video of her there, and she knows that—it directly implicates Kinsley. So Judy's their get out of jail free pass if they can strike a bargain with her."
"She'd never agree to something like that with them!" he said as his heart sank into his churning gut. "She really takes that badge of hers seriously."
"I think your partner's more pragmatic than you think about what's been going on here. She'll realize that we've achieved our goals and that she just needs to buy us some more time!"
"Savage's right Wilde, We've got a few hours to prepare you—since we should insert you at dusk anyway," Fangmeyer conceded.
"Here's the area Mr. Wilde!" Eric said from in front of his keyboard; pointing to another monitor. "It's called Rainbow Meadow—only about twenty five miles south of here!" They converged in front of it.
"Damn," he said, "that little valley's only six or eight miles from where Kristen and I camped the other night! We were right about...here! This is lower...right by these foothills...along this national forest border...Can you find a trail map of that area? Want to go in the back way if I can."
"Can do," said Eric, "I'll try to get you a Terra view of the estate too!"
"Everybody make sure your cellphones are charged," Jack said, "Nick should have one for Judy too in case they need to separate. Let's make sure we give them every chance we can!"
Our next exciting installment will be: Chapter 32 Foxhunt!