Chapter 14

Piercing the Veil

June 14th, Thursday, 1:30 pm

Finnick waited patiently in front of his laptop, his eyes glued to the screen to the point where he couldn't tell what time it was outside. His van in the alleyway was consistently dark, regardless of how bright it was elsewhere.

The small fox took another swipe of popcorn, and had just started swallowing when he spotted the first sign of life on his screen in a while, as white text appeared.

JJ has entered the chatroom.

JJ: u called?

Finnick grinned and swallowed his mouthful, typing his response into the otherwise unremarkable forum interface, with a black space taking most of it. His own response came out in blue.

DD: no, dumbass. we don't do that kind of shit.

JJ: well… not literally. i'm not that dumb.

DD: where's G?

JJ: dunno. but those two really don't understand the meaning of "urgent".

Then, as if on cue, red text appeared.

GG has entered the chatroom.

GG: soz, but our favourite fishing show ran a bit late.

DD: learn your priorities, man! :

JJ: or men.

GG: /:

Finnick sighed. It was never easy to get these mammals to buckle down and focus. Then again, their skills were worth putting up with a few quirks.

They'd never told each other their real names, as their past dealings made discretion invaluable. Finnick had only met "GG" once, and had never met "JJ" in person. However, they all shared one talent: controlling and manipulating lucrative information. Once they'd dealt with each other long enough to appreciate the other's talents, they decided to form a small group, using nicknames derived from their first and last names, while using letters close to what they actually were. Hence, Finnick chose DD.

GG: you can't blame us too much. how long has it been? four years since we've all gotten together like this?

JJ: long enough for me to have finally gotten some respectable employment for once. i'm using my lunch break for this :(

DD: jeez, it's the end of the world.

JJ: well, ur not far off

Finnick frowned, but decided they had gone off topic for long enough.

DD: look, i – or rather, friends of mine – need some "help"

GG: |: friends, huh? if its not us, then there's only one mammal it could be

DD: ur a riot, G

GG: (:

JJ: r u talking about that red fox?

DD: …yeah

GG: what, he sleep with a politician's wife or somethin

JJ: i thought he went straight

GG: ! wats that supposed to mean

JJ: ?

DD: … the other friend IS his wife

DD: guys, this is serious, and I don't wanna give away too much

JJ: fine fine, what u need?

Finnick sat back on his sleeping bag for a moment. How do I phrase it…?

DD: he's gonna try and talk to a council prisoner

GG: well, that was anticlimactic. can't u just request that anyway?

DD: he's been trying to do it legit, but he's outta time

GG: outta time? how you mean

DD: just trust me on it

JJ: so that means…

DD: yeah

The typing ceased for a moment.

DD: so either of you still able to cover tracks? it's gonna be the prison building that they're hush-hush about

JJ: depends if there's any stealing or breaking

DD: no, he just wants to talk, crazy as it sounds

GG: definitely sounds crazy. smells… fishy, in a good way

DD: i'm flattered

GG: so how much u offerin

DD: what, none of my previous favours count for anything?

GG: I bailed you out just after our last meetin, don't pretend you don't know

DD: fine, fine. I'm putting up 50G

JJ: two Gs is bad enough

GG: ): fuck you

DD: what about you, J?

There was another pause.

GG: J?

JJ: on the house for me

GG: :0

DD: sorry, what?

JJ: i have my reasons

GG: well, speak for urself. I'll just take the whole hoard. still… that's quite a sum, i guess the council has more influence than I thought

DD: getting cold feet?

GG: plz, that just makes it more fun

JJ: fine by me GG, money's not a problem for me right now

GG: i can handle the technical stuff

JJ: I can get u in

GG: that's what I like to hear

DD: so you guys DO know what ur doing

GG: you had doubts?

GG: anyway when's ur friend doin this thing

DD: this arvo

GG: well, I was bored today anyway, though I'll have to monitor on and off for a few days coz dna samples

JJ: I should have plenty of time before I go home today to plant

Finnick sat back for a moment, steeling his nerves long enough to ask.

DD: ill also need access, J

JJ: what for?

DD: i have my reasons

JJ: (:

GG: I was wondering why u weren't doin it urself. turns out ur just lazy

DD: OR it's a safeguard that we've always used

GG: yeah yeah

JJ: do you guys still have my phone info?

DD: you still got the same phone?

JJ: …I'll send you the new ones. Remember to destroy it later

DD: plz, i'm no amateur

GG: is that all u needed?

DD: for now, if my hunch is correct ill be contacting u guys soon

JJ: be careful

GG: don't do what I would do

DD: cheers guys

JJ has left the chatroom.

GG has left the chatroom.

Finnick sat back and sighed. Yet, he couldn't help but smile. Dealing with these two was always a pain, but it was usually worth it. Fifty-thousand dollars wasn't exactly chump change, but as far as Finnick was concerned, it was only a slightly longer number than his usual dealings.

He did find it odd that JJ was willing to forgo any financial compensation that they would have gotten anyway. However, despite never meeting the mammal, Finnick knew that JJ was incredibly moralistic, to the point where it got in the way a few times. If their target party was not definitively guilty of a crime, JJ would refuse to participate. The only exception was if the job itself would shed light on said party's guilt during the process.

So that means the Council is guilty of somethin'… probably. But what?

Well, treating straight predator-prey couples like shit, for one thing. But the fennec had a hunch that only scratched the surface.

JJ's usual procedure usually entailed sending DD and GG notifications through pagers when they could proceed with the next step. It usually didn't take long, but regardless, Finnick would have to wait before he could proceed with his own investigation.

He had half a mind to tail Nick anyway, but one thing he had to admit was that he could not keep up with the red fox when it came to sneaking in and out of places.

June 14th, Thursday, 3:30 pm

The afternoon sun was still high in the sky, but that wouldn't make a difference inside the prison building. Sources of light from within were few and far between.

Nick had to admit; he wasn't expecting to find so much infiltration gear that suited his purposes from the ZPD, while still wearing a simple shirt and shorts underneath. He knew they had some convincing mammal suits, as his first day on the job bore witness to a sheep suit from Wolfard. But he wasn't expecting artificial odorants that covered almost every major mammal he could think of. Wolfard must have used the ram scent if his disguise was to convince any mammal with a decent sense of smell.

There wasn't much he could use in the way of mammal suits. Covering up his tail proved difficult, given how much he relied on it for stability when doing quick dashes. Nick settled for a dark grey stealth suit that covered everything apart from his tail and face, and found matching cloth that Judy helped wrap around his tail without impeding it too much. He had to improvise to get some additional covering over his face; not that it would help him much if he was spotted. Grenn was already onto him, after all. He was also carrying a light shoulder bag with some essentials, as he predicted he would need somewhere to store the suit later.

Nick had chosen 3:30 pm as his infiltration time, as the guards were set to swap shifts at 5:00 pm. There was a wolf guard at the front entrance, and only two pigs patrolling the halls – one of which would arrive through the back entrance that Emma had shown him previously. He wanted to avoid the wolf if possible; he had done what he could to cover up his fox scent with swine, but that could only go so far. Too much would end up suspicious, as councils would have their own policies about personal hygiene.

The scattered plants in the shade of the various shrubs and small trees made perfect hiding spots for the fox. Despite being in his element, he found the waiting nearly unbearable. The confident front he'd given Judy had masked his inner terror at the whole operation he found himself in. If he got caught, it was all over for Judy, unless she somehow changed her mind and got an abortion without complications. If he succeeded, there was no guarantee that Ethan would even talk to him. And even if the badger did, Nick had no way of knowing if it would help them at all. His gut clenched at the thought.

Don't think like that – this has to work. They went through a lotta trouble to get Ethan in here. And… I've tried everything else…

He shook off the thoughts as he spotted the pig guard that he was expecting. The boar gave the wolf at the entrance a respectful nod as he passed, opting to go through the back way like Nick expected. Nick had picked a shrub with some flowers, and the pig passed by uneventfully.

The fox dashed from one hiding spot to the next while maintaining a good distance tailored to the pig's hearing and smell range, which detective training had drilled into him.

Finally, the guard arrived at the entrance. The pig turned around to check his surroundings, but Nick was well hidden behind a thick tree trunk. The guard then swiped his card, and the metal door slid open to the left.

Nick waited with bated breath. The pig passed through, but the automatic door remained open for a couple of seconds, which were all Nick needed.

The fox dashed as soon as the door started to close, and pressed himself against the cold steel wall inside. The pig was several metres ahead, and did not turn around. The darkness enclosed Nick as the steel door thudded shut.

Nick continued to follow the guard, taking advantage of any open doors he could. From his previous trip, however, he knew that the doors were well-maintained and wouldn't creak if he had to open them himself.

He hugged the right wall as much as possible until he arrived at the first storeroom. Making sure not to disturb the cleaning buckets and assorted parts, Nick managed to slip between some steel beams and find a secluded corner. Having removed the SIM and disabling the network on his personal mobile beforehand, he took the images that Hamish had provided, stored in the local memory, and studied the map.

There was only one other storeroom between him and Block G. Thankfully, there was only one guard on duty in this half of the building, as the boar he'd followed in had gone to patrol Bellwether's area. There were enough empty cells that Nick could use as hiding places – at least, those with wide-set bars built for the bigger mammals.

He also needed an escape route. The ideal case was that there was a spare door pass around – either in the security room, or on one of the guards. However, there was always at least one guard in that room, regardless of the time of day. If that didn't work, the other option would be the messier one – the same he and Judy had used in the cliffside asylum. The prison was close enough to the nearby lake for the exit route to be the same.

I'll… think about that when the time comes.

Nick shook off the memory and switched off his phone screen. He took a deep breath and pressed himself up against the storeroom door's edge as he began to scope out the guard's patrol route.

Finnick waited patiently for nearly an hour, until he felt a familiar vibration from his pocket. He took out the small, grey device, and saw a numeric code: 06171607. That was his signal to begin.

He opened the remote viewing software on his laptop, and using JJ's information and administrator password, he was able to see the mobile phone's interface. Piggybacking off of its own internet browser, he was able to access the council's internal network with some old details he'd kept from a job he'd done a long time ago.

I guess this info would've made G's job easier… but then what am I paying him for?

The one annoyance he had to deal with was the phone's speed. The fennec would have much preferred a laptop with more power, but with JJ's anonymity, he had to take what he could get. JJ had removed any trace of their personal details from the phone as a precaution already. A curious part of him wondered exactly who JJ was with such easy access to council premises, but he had learned a long time ago to keep his curiosity in check in this line of work.

Then he remembered in a huff that GG's involvement would slow the thing down even more. However, this was a necessary evil. Finnick only needed GG's brute-force approach as a distraction for a little while, until he found the information he needed to use his laptop directly.

After half an hour of intermittent waiting and pauses between loading webpages, Finnick found the information he was looking for after loading the details through a command prompt. He kept the mobile phone interface open until he was able to connect to the same source using his laptop's mobile data.

Once he got through, Finnick closed the phone's window with a relieved sigh.

Alright… just what kind of skeleton am I gonna find in this closet?

Unfortunately for Nick, the second storeroom was dusty and smelly, and had a close call with some decayed wooden beams nearly hitting the ground as his tail brushed against them. As he gently pushed them back against the wall, the tension in the air was causing him to freeze up, and he began to feel light-headed.

He did his best to control his breathing as he peered into block G, which seemed just as empty as Bellwether's cell block. However, there were a few inmates in cell blocks D, E and F, but most of them were so noisy with their barks and growls that the pig guard didn't even register their presence. Fortunately, all the inmates were in closed cells, so Nick was able to keep out of sight.

The entrance to block G was only signalled by another steel door in another thick wall. Nick's one way in was the guard on patrol, when the swine would swap shifts with the other in the security office at 5:00 pm. He was early, however, and had to crawl up the door and through the window of the nearest empty cell. The security office was facing off towards the left, and so wasn't in direct view of the door. If Nick was unlucky, however, the guard in the office would be facing the door as Nick slipped in, and there would be no way out then. He had to hope there was some kind of chair or table he could duck under when he got in there.

As he waited, barely breathing, he suppressed a self-depreciating chuckle. The Nick Wilde from three years ago would never have dared breaking into a prison like this, even if the potential reward was great.

What love does to people…

He felt his chest tighten as he thought of Judy, alone at home and likely still worrying about him, just like he was worrying about her. He quickly shook it off and concentrated on the incoming guard as he heard heavy footsteps.

I'm doing this for her.

Nick couldn't deny that Judy's presence would have helped him right about now, as he had to rely on hearing to figure out where the guard was. The moment he heard the card beep, he would need to climb back through the hole he came in and slip through the door without being noticed, and before the door closed. He could wait until the other guard came back through the door, but both would have the same level of risk.

The fox climbed up to the door window just as he heard the card reader beep, and when he heard nothing from the other side, he slipped through and sped along the floor. He narrowly made it to the next room, instinctively ducking under a waiting chair to his right, set against a bare stone wall. After staying still for several seconds, he relaxed as the boar in the office had his head down pointed away from the entrance.

Close call.

'You awake, Barry?'

The call echoed throughout the cell block, as the security office on the far end, at least twenty metres away. Nick managed to spot his name tag – "Vince", as the incoming guard frowned when he got no response. The boar strode across the cell block and tapped on the glass impatiently. Barry then stirred and blinked at Vince with dreary eyes.

'Uh… yeah… just resting my eyes…'

'You can sleep when you get home! Seriously…'

Barry groaned as he waved the door open for his fellow guard, who began looking for the day book for any notes.

'Too bad I'm not going home until midnight… probably.'

'Then find some way to entertain yourself,' Vince responded shortly.

'I usually rely on the prisoners for that, but Hodge in the far corner is way too quiet.'

Vince glanced over at the cell, and Nick's ears perked and eyes widened as he spotted the top of the badger's head.

'Can't argue with that. The kid shouldn't even be here… but orders are orders.'

Barry shot the badger's cell a sympathetic glance before he waved himself back through to Block F, leaving through the door Nick had just slipped through.

The tod studied the cell block from underneath the chair. Ethan's cell was the first one on the left coming in, and the security office was quite far from it. He wasn't too sure how good the boar's hearing was, but the tod wasn't in a position to test it by throwing things around.

Thankfully, once Vince settled into his station, Nick spotted a couple of white earbuds being plugged into the boar's funnel ears. The metal music was loud enough for Nick to hear; evidently, this was how Vince planned on staying awake. The boar kept a lookout, but that didn't matter much to Nick –he knew that pigs' eyesight was their weakness compared to hearing and smell. The bigger danger was the two cameras overhead that he needed to avoid.

However, the biggest problem was the cell itself. Just like the previous block, Ethan had a closed room all to himself. There were metal bars in the door window up off the ground, but that was in plain view of the security guard and at least one camera at all times. In hindsight, it would make sense for a high-security prisoner to have only one entry point into their cell.

However, he noticed there was no door slot in the middle for meals to be put through. Evidently, the prisoners that would be held here wouldn't necessarily be in a sound mental state, at least enough to accept any food trays that would have been pushed through them. That meant one of three things: the guards didn't feed them; the guards took them out for a meal, or they entered the cell in person.

Even Nick doubted they would refuse to feed prisoners, which meant he would have to wait until Vince opened the door for him.

He sat himself on the cold floor, still hidden under the chair. He remained still and controlled his breathing, one tense minute after the next, and even when seated, Nick's joints began to ache. He couldn't afford to sneeze, which forced him to pinch his nose several times throughout.

Finally, Vince turned off his music and got off his chair. The boar exited his office, and though Nick couldn't see, he heard a large pneumatic door opening and closing.

Nick watched the guard carefully as he brought a tray with a plain meal towards Ethan's cell. It was quite the distance, but he was confident he could cover the distance once the door was open.

Finnick's frown deepened as he went through the familiar systems. He had long since stopped taking jobs with the council – in the end, even he couldn't stomach their lack of transparency.

At first, they had him take on smaller jobs with two-bit crooks that were using legal loopholes to avoid paying their taxes. After he'd proven his capabilities, they began to assign him more dangerous jobs that usually involved the criminal underworld in some way or another. He had no qualms about these sorts of jobs; such crime families were not going anywhere, and it was far better for Zootopia to maintain balance between them than letting full-out gang wars break out.

Following that, Finnick quickly felt a shift. They began to pay a lot more, but were far less prone to disclosing details. He'd often maintained a single contact in the council; while keeping a few at arm's length for odd jobs here and there. When dealing with the lower-rung crooks and mafia, the council was at least willing to give him some context behind the job. But when they began asking him to hack into their own department's records, they suddenly became tight-lipped.

That didn't stop him from accepting them, as the payment for these jobs was lucrative when they came around. As far as he could tell, it was only removing information that no normal person would ever want to know, or would go chasing for.

He was soon looking at the very record he had changed in the city's BDM department. However, out of Births, Deaths and Marriages, he was only ever concerned with the 'Death' part. After scrolling down to the "B" surnames, he found Rachel Banner's record.

Finnick had never been one to pry into personal matters, and he definitely didn't like it when others tried it with him. The one exception was when Gabby's daughter died.

He didn't find out from the doctor; instead, he found out from a job he'd been offered by a Council member, who only identified himself as "Quincy". Finnick and Gabby rarely spoke back then; maybe one phone call per year. And after that day, they hadn't talked to each other since.

His job was simple: hack into the BDM's records, and remove or change Rachel Banner's cause of death. As long as the real reason wouldn't be gleaned by someone from the public requesting the information, Quincy would be satisfied.

Finnick didn't accept the job immediately. Jobs relating to past friends wasn't completely off the table for him, as long as it didn't really harm them. He had known, and became friends with Gabby, because they both found it easy to talk to the other, when almost all other mammals were irritating to them.

Thus, when she hadn't mentioned her daughter's death to him, it gave him pause. He called ahead to her clinic at the time, and was able to see her during her break. Without giving away Quincy, he asked her what happened to her daughter. Gabby, being as prickly as him, simply brushed him off.

'It's not your problem, Finnegan. There's no point discussing it. She's gone, and nothing will bring her back.'

She wasn't willing to give him any details. Based on her cold demeanour, Finnick figured that she knew exactly why her daughter had died, but it was too personal to share with even an old friend.

Carrying this with him, that meant that she just wanted to move on from it and continue with her life, as there was no point brooding over Rachel's death. At least, that was what Finnick had told himself as he accepted the job.

With GG's assistance and his laptop at the time, he soon found the record with which he had been tasked with altering. He was expecting something significant, like some rare disease that only gazelles got. Instead, it was something comparatively tame; childbirth.

There was no information about who the father was, or what specific complications the young gazelle faced before she passed away. Nor was it in Finnick's interest to ask these questions, as Quincy, based on jobs in the past, would reduce or refuse to pay him if he dug too hard.

It wasn't as if the fennec hadn't seen something similar before; he'd had several jobs in the past that concerned similarly-fated individuals. What bothered him about this one, especially now, was that Gabby – a gynaecologist – should've had everything she needed to help her daughter.

Did she even try? Did they have a falling out? Did she even know before it was too late?

He had asked those same questions before, but Gabby never spoke of it. And like him, the doctor kept most mammals at arm's length, so he couldn't get any information out of her colleagues.

And now, a few months later, too many things about Nick and Judy's case lined up with Rachel's. He had thought Gabby's silence was solely because of personal reasons, but with the stonewalling Nick and Judy had been getting, he suspected Quincy's group had a paw in it.

Before, he would have had his payment revoked, or worse, landed in hot water over his assets if he dug too far into BDM's records. But he wasn't being paid for this one, and thus he was willing to check the real reason behind these simple "childbirth" deaths.

As he began the search, he could only pray that his hunch was wrong.

Vince groaned to himself as he held the tray in one hand and pulled out his keys from a back pocket. He fiddled with the lock before fully inserting the key and pushing the heavy door open.

The prisoner was facing the opposite wall, as usual. Despite the obvious entrance, the badger made no indication that he'd heard the interruption.

'Hodge… dinner for you,' Vince said as he propped the door open with his foot.

Ethan waved over his shoulder after a delay. 'Whatever, just leave it in the corner.'

Vince gave a troubled frown, but after a moment, did as the badger asked and left the plain meal in the corner. As he backed off and began to close the door, he got a strange whiff of sheep scent, which only lasted a second. Then he smelled sweaty boar, and with slight embarrassment, ducked his head as he closed the door, while continuing to sniff under his armpits.

The badger quickly smelled the same scent; the sweaty boar was no surprise, but he'd never seen a sheep in this cell block. Unless a sheep had handled his food, which was unlikely.

As he turned to his inevitably plain meal, he froze. A lithe figure clad in black was pressed against the wall, just behind where the door was ajar.

'Wh-!'

The figure frantically pressed a silencing finger to their muzzle, before pressing their ear up against the closed door. Ethan frowned, but their behaviour was strange enough for him to keep silent for the moment.

After waiting several seconds, the figure relaxed and faced him once again, their green eyes pleading and desperate.

'Please don't shout. I'll lose… everything, if I'm caught.'

The badger continued to frown, but kept his voice low. 'That voice…'

The figure clasped the black cloth hiding their face, and pulled it off to reveal the fox.

'You!'

Ethan tried to keep his voice down, but Nick's face brought back memories he would rather forget. The badger tensed up with anger flaring in his eyes.

'Why are you here? Did Grenn send you to finish me off?'

Nick regarded him with a mixture of desperation, guilt and sympathy, before showing his empty paws.

'How would I even do that? I came here to talk to you.'

Ethan narrowed his eyes, but studied the fox long enough to see he wasn't carrying any weapons.

'…Fine – you're not here to kill me. That doesn't mean I trust you.'

Nick bowed his head. 'I'm sorry about what happened to you. But given the hostage situation, I didn't have a choice. Especially after Grenn came.'

Ethan continued to study the fox suspiciously, though his glare's intensity lessened as he studied the fox's dishevelled fur.

'I never wanted to hurt anyone, either.'

Nick took a step forward. 'Then… why? What happened to you?'

Ethan stood up and came closer, while Nick firmly stood his ground.

'Before I tell you anything, I need to know whether you were on the up-and-up about Greg.'

'Greg… your friend, right?' As Ethan nodded, Nick exhaled. 'Alright – what do you want to know?'

The badger backed off a bit and folded his arms. 'If you actually met Greg like you claimed – tell me what he looks like.'

It took Nick only a second to recall the image of the impoverished lion – it was not one he'd forget easily.

'He was wearing a green sweater and frayed brown trousers. He had blue eyes and a small gold mane.'

As he paused, Ethan slowly shook his head.

'Not good enough. You could have looked him up in that police database of yours and gotten that information. I need proof that you really met him.'

Nick tightened his muzzle as he wracked his brain for anything else he could use.

Wait… he was carrying something around his neck. Delgato and Johnson didn't take it off him for some reason…

'He was wearing something. A necklace, maybe, around his neck. I think it was gold.'

Ethan's eyes slowly widened, unfolding his arms and staring at him slack-jawed. He stepped back, and slowly sat on the floor, holding his head in his paws.

'So… it's true… he's actually alive…'

Nick gave him a moment before he continued.

'What was in that necklace? If he kept it despite being on the streets, then it must have been important to him.'

Ethan was silent for a few seconds, before running his paws down his cheeks with a longing sigh.

'Yeah… that's putting it mildly.'

With the badger gradually calming down, Nick took one more moment to listen at the door. From the booming soundtrack even he could hear, Vince was going to be preoccupied for a good while.

As he returned his attention to Ethan, Nick found the badger studying him intently – the previous hostility more or less gone. The tod slowly approached the badger and sat before him at a respectful distance.

After a few more seconds of silence, Ethan closed his eyes, as if he had come to a decision.

'Look – maybe I can trust you. Maybe I can't. But… I guess it doesn't really matter anymore. Even if Greg's alive, I'm never going to see him again. Nor am I ever going to see the light of day. Or… if I was, it wouldn't be in Zootopia.'

Nick frowned before a grim possibility came to him.

'They wouldn't–'

Ethan shook his head, his mind having gone in the same direction.

'No, I don't think they'd kill me. If they were, they'd have already done it. Most of the guards aren't as… bloodthirsty as I'd thought.'

'Have they questioned you? Or worse… interrogated you?'

The badger shook his head again. 'No. Grenn simply read my charges and said I would be placed under arrest indefinitely. The decision as to whether I'll be thrown out of Zootopia will be decided later.'

Nick finally came to the question he had wanted to ask.

'Why?'

Ethan's eyes glimmered with many overlapping emotions, including guilt, anger, and most of all, grief.

'I know too much. It's that simple.'

Nick waited patiently, as the badger hesitated. It was no longer from distrust, as that had long gone by now. The badger tightened his jaw grimly, as if debating whether it was worth someone learning this information.

'Are you sure you want to know?'

Nick nodded vehemently.

'I came this far – that should make it pretty obvious.'

'Well then… your turn. Why? Why are you going so far just to talk to me? A lowly hostage-taker, no less.'

Nick's ears folded back with sympathy, as the badger shame dripped through his words.

'It's… Judy. My partner.'

Ethan's ears shot up after a moment, alarm spreading across his muzzle.

'What… about her?'

'She's pregnant.'

There was no shock this time, but Ethan's gaze fell to the floor with silent despondence for several seconds.

'No… not you too…'

Nick's paws clenched as he froze. He dipped his head in an attempt to establish eye contact.

'What do you mean? Greg said something similar, but couldn't tell me.'

Ethan fell silent.

'Tell me… please. I need to know.'

The badger took another breath, before finally meeting Nick's eyes.

'… Okay. But this goes back to that necklace that Greg wears. Inside that necklace is a picture of his girlfriend… Rachel Banner.'

Nick stared wide eyed.

'Banner? As in… Gabrielle Banner?'

'The doctor? You know her?'

'I tried to get her to help Judy, but…'

As Nick shrugged helplessly, Ethan slowly nodded to himself.

'I can relate. I had only met Rachel's mother a couple of times, but she kept to herself.'

The badger paused, and took one last breath, fixing Nick with a long, hard look.

'Alright. You asked for the full story, and I'll give it to you… but I can't guarantee it'll help you. Even now, I find myself wishing that they'd listened to all those doctors that we thought were against them.'

'I guess I'll start with the three of us. I'd known Greg since the beginning of high school, but Greg had known Rachel since they were kids. We all ended up in the same high school, and despite being interested in different things, we got along well. Greg wanted to go into law, Rachel wanted to study medicine, and I wanted to become an architect. Luckily, or… unluckily – we all ended up in the same university once we graduated.

'I remember since high school there was… always something between those two. Rachel came from a well-off gazelle family with a lot of high performers – you know, movie stars, doctors, Olympians. Greg also came from a wealthy family who had their hands deep in real estate. And yet they never treated me, some kid from a working household, any differently.

'It became more obvious to me when we started our first year of uni. We didn't have many overlapping classes, but we managed to get together for lunch any chance we got. I noticed the looks they shot each other constantly when they thought the other wasn't looking. And I could tell they were miserable because of it.

'They were both smart, so we all quickly caught on; but something was stopping them. Once, when hanging out with Greg, I asked him why he didn't ask her out. Apparently, his parents had never approved of his friendship with Rachel, and had taught him all his life that if he was to marry, it had to be a lion. Or… in other words… not a prey.

'I got around to talking to Rachel too. She was in a similar boat, but it was only her Mom that was involved – I think her parents had gotten a divorce a long time ago. Anyway, Gabrielle had specifically warned Rachel against dating predators because it was "dangerous". Now, I should say that Rachel was far more… rebellious than Greg was. As she talked to me, it was clear that she and her mother were not on good terms. Especially because, according to Rachel, her mother never went into any detail or gave her proof of this "danger". It was bad enough she was convinced her mother was lying to her about it.

'Being the idiot that I was, I gently pushed both of them to be honest with each other, and if their parents couldn't give them a good reason not to be together, then there was no reason for them to listen.'

Ethan then let out a long, dejected sigh.

'I wish I hadn't…'

Ethan exhaled before he continued.

'Things went… pretty fast after that. Obviously, I wasn't there when they… Well, you can guess what. But they were a lot happier when I met them after, and for a few weeks, all of us were in a good place. They didn't go overboard in public or anything, as they still hadn't told their parents.

'But then we all started getting these looks. Greg and Rachel could only hold back to a certain degree, and both the teachers and other students began to distance themselves from the pair. And it became obvious over time that it was specifically Greg and Rachel, as I wasn't really grades began to drop, because the teachers and lecturers were less willing to give them help. Their part-time jobs became harder. They were stressing out. I tried to talk to some of these mammals myself, but the most I got was "you should be careful who you associate with".

'Then… after a half a year… Rachel finds out she's pregnant. She and Greg met me in private to tell me first, as they had told no one else. We took some time off to talk to some doctors, but they all recommended abortion. While Greg and Rachel definitely didn't plan for this, they both loved each other a lot, and the very notion broke their hearts. We kept trying and trying but after a couple of weeks we still got the same answer.

'Then, I finally suggested we go to Rachel's mother. Greg was scared, Rachel was against it. But it didn't take much effort to convince them, as Rachel was very much aware of how good of a doctor her mother was.

'We decided to go to Rachel's house. We worked up the nerve to tell Gabrielle what was going on, but I got the feeling the old gazelle already knew before we opened our mouths. All things considered… she took it quite well.'

Nick, who had been mostly silent, spoke up.

'Define "quite well".'

'Gabrielle… didn't raise her voice. She wasn't even angry. It was like she felt… guilty. And scared. But she agreed to try and help us. Emphasis on "try", as she made it clear that she had never dealt with a predator-prey pregnancy before.

'Rachel was a couple of months along, so we only had a few more. Rachel went to her mother regularly for checkups. From what she told me, Gabrielle was pulling all-nighters and calling in every favour she had to get some sort of prototype dialysis machine put together.

'Close to the beginning of it all, Greg's parents somehow caught wind of the pregnancy. I'm not exactly sure what happened, but one day, he looked normal – the next, he had bruises all over his face. He ended up staying in my dorm from then on. Not long after, he started a second job, but it was clearly too much for him to handle. I guessed it was his Dad, Marco, and when Greg confirmed it, just by this pained look he gave me, I had half a mind to pay Marco a visit myself – but Greg begged me not to, as it would only make things harder for him.

'He somehow kept himself together through it all. I… admired him, in a way. He was willing to work that hard if it was for Rachel.

Ethan paused again, and sighed quietly.

'When Rachel finally went into labour, we were able to get her to Gabrielle's hospital, with the transfusion machine set up and everything. Though... I guess "transfusion machine" is a bit of a simplification; it was specifically for artificial blood replacement, in the event that it was unknown whether normal mammals' blood would do the job. The doctor explained to Greg and I that, in layman's terms, the machine was supposed to counteract the likely internal haemorrhaging that would occur as a result of Rachel trying to give birth to Greg's child, which seemed to be a lion, but they couldn't be sure. They did know it was a boy, though.'

Then Ethan bowed his head and covered his face.

'I had to stay outside, but even from there… It was horrible. Rachel was in so much pain, and Greg was forced out by the other nurses. There were calls and a defibrillator and everything… but then… nothing. When I finally went into the room, the nurses and Gabrielle were staring at the bed. Rachel was just lying there, with blood on the sheets. She… wasn't breathing. The closest nurse began dragging me out when he noticed me, but I saw that Gabrielle was holding something bundled in blankets. I never found out for sure, but… I'm guessing that was the baby.'

Nick's breath caught in his throat. Was.

'Greg… I thought he had lost the will to live. He disappeared from our dorm right after that – never showed up to classes. I couldn't get through to his mobile. I even resorted to asking his parents, but they made it clear they had nothing more to do with him. Then I called the ZPD to report a missing mammal, but they never got back to me. Lastly, I went back to Gabrielle.

'I had kept my distance from her for a long time, for… obvious reasons. I was processing it in my own way, too. She didn't know where Greg was, but I got the feeling that she blamed Greg to an extent for what happened to Rachel. And knowing what I do, I can't really blame her too much for that, either, as much as I was on Greg's side.

'Then I asked what happened to the machine. After all, I thought – even if it didn't work for Rachel, it would need to be worked on more so this kind of thing didn't happen in the future, right? Gabrielle then told me matter-of-factly that the Council had seized the machine, and she no longer cared what they did with it. I argued with her – why would a doctor who lost her daughter to something like this, not do everything in her power to make sure it doesn't happen again? She wouldn't listen. I decided to take matters into my own paws.

'I contacted the Council, asking about the dialysis machine. They always denied any knowledge of it. No matter what method I used, or who I talked to, the answer was always the same.

'I couldn't accept that. One of my friends had died, and until you came along, I was convinced the other was dead too. I dropped out of uni, and I couldn't concentrate on my work, so I took extended time off. I… guess I became obsessed. I poked around the council building, followed any guard I could. They had already intercepted my phone, and chased me out of my own dorm to try and arrest me. It didn't amount to anything, though… as you probably guessed. I never found where they took it. When I met you, that was when they finally caught up to me.'

There was a long, empty silence. Even Vince's music sounded distant.

'And… now you know.'

Finnick's gaze hardened as he began to look through the lists. As he continued, however, they eventually widened to disbelief, all the while his own stomach squirmed with guilt.

Why did I ignore the signs? Why did I have to be so damn focused on getting the dough that I wouldn't–

He quickly shook his head – now was not the time to lose focus. Every moment he spent still in the system could mean getting detected, and possibly traced back. If that happened, all this subterfuge would have been for nothing.

Still… even he, a grouchy fennec fox who mostly concerned himself with payout to payout, backstabbing mammals when he felt it was worth it, found it difficult to swallow what he was seeing.

Periodically, over decades, mammals on the death register simply had no cause of death. He knew that they weren't in the "missing" category either, as he found traces of similar handiwork to his own. Most of them prey, but several predators were also in the mix. Finnick was old enough to at least have heard of these mammals disappearing, but only from second hand sources. He had never concerned himself with it; as he did most things.

Not my problem, I told myself.

He found enough evidence going back several decades, and had to settle for that. The moment his download was done, he cut his losses and severed the connection.

The fennec fox sat in the darkness for several seconds, now sitting on information that, for once, he had no idea what to do with.

Nick slowly shook his head.

'That… can't be. There has to be a way…'

Even as he said the words, he knew he wasn't sure if he believed that anymore. Even if he could find this machine, there wasn't enough time for Judy if it didn't already work. This led him returning to a dark corner of his mind, that he had refused to acknowledge… until now.

'There's nothing you can do. It's too late – abortion might be the only choice left.'

Nick clutched his head in his paws. His brow was clenched so tight that tears began to drop just from the tension. Then, they began to flow for real as he came to grips with a reality that he was so desperate to avoid.

I can't lose Judy… I can't…

The kneeling fox shut the room out. At that moment, all he could think of was a certain rabbit. Judy's smiling face, slowly fading away.

He felt a badger's paw coax his shoulder, but he no longer cared.

'I'm sorry. Truly, I am.'