The library was not a building, but a portion of a museum dedicated to the history of the mainland and neighbouring islands.
Ben was the only mammal in the oval room, walking the perimeter of the library in search of the section he wanted. A satchel hung from his body. He paused, wincing, then lifted his shirt to touch the cut in his side, slightly pushing aside the dressing to do so. Still no heat. Still no infection. He pulled out the tube of over-the-counter antibiotic cream, squirted out a small amount, and gritted his teeth as he smeared it over the cut. He lowered the shirt and continued his search.
He'd called the police as soon as he'd returned to the villa and retrieved his phone. Then he'd called Bogo, struggling to hold back tears as he did. The buffalo had cursed up a storm, but promised he'd be there as soon as possible.
He'd endured the questions; both the verbal questions and the questioning looks some of the officers gave him when he gave his version of events. One look at the feed from the security cameras was all it took to prove his statement. He'd half expected the kidnappers to have destroyed it, but the mammal in charge of that task may well have been the one he'd stabbed with a tranq dart.
In any case, they'd let him go in the afternoon, three days after Elba's abduction, on the condition that he not leave town for the next few days.
For some reason, they'd withheld his phone, citing it was evidence. The first thing he'd done after being released was buy a new one. Then he got some medical supplies from the nearby convenience store to treat his injury. Then he'd gotten a taxi back to the villa to retrieve his scooter and Elba's briefcase.
He'd found the briefcase in the driveway on the night of Elba's abduction, when he'd returned to the villa after he was sure the kidnappers were gone. After calling the police, he'd left the briefcase in the same thicket of bushes he'd hidden himself in. He knew Elba would rather Bogo see the contents than a bunch of strangers in another state, even if they were police too. He had to briefcase in his satchel now, not wanting to leave it in his scooter's storage box.
Ben didn't tell them he was going to the library. He didn't know who he could trust. But he did send a text to someone he could.
"There you are." He breathed when he passed a row of books bearing Roarcadia within their titles. Zoogle had failed to produce much information on any military organisations called NEST, expect for a tiny mention of NEST originating from Roarcadia, hidden in a tiny note in an obscure webpage about private military groups. He hoped the local library would have more information. He couldn't think of anything else he could do to help Elba.
Elba… please still be alive…
He pulled out the most promising looking book- HISTORY OF ROARCADIA ISLAND: 1970-2000s- and started from the beginning. He highly doubted he would find a link between NEST and Sedor, but he'd read the book carefully, just in case the name popped up in the text.
The first chapter was a brief but intriguing summary of the history of the island before Thomas Swinton had acquired it. For centuries before then, the island had been a safe haven for the Jaga, survivors of the conquistador invasion that had forever changed the course of South Animerican history. The island had no name, or any affiliation with Animerica or any other country. The book theorised that was why the Swintons had taken it over. They'd been able to build Roarcadia entirely in their image, and rule it as they pleased, without any interference from the government. Many of Roarcadia's descendants had been descendants of Jaga, and resented Thomas Swinton for not only taking over their island like a new apartment, but for withholding the most precious remnant of their culture; an ancient codex believed to contain the Jaga's most precious knowledge. From the way the book spoke so poorly of Swinton, Ben thought the author must have been a descendant herself.
He found his way to the nearest table and continued reading. The next few chapters spoke of the city itself, and the backstories of the various mammals who'd contributed to the society. Commissioner Elba was one of them. Even in Roarcadia, he'd worked to keep life for predators from becoming too unbearable.
It was in the fourth chapter, roundabout when the sun was beginning to set, where he found information on NEST. Nautical Exploration and Special Tactics. A secret police force masquerading as an elite private security organisation, entirely under the Swintons' command.
Swinton. Ben should have known. Nick had warned him the other day. And they'd succeeded in taking Elba.
If Swinton was behind it, that meant Sedor wasn't…
Ben frowned at the book. If Sedor wasn't after Elba, what was he doing here?
Leaving the book on the table, Ben returned to the bookshelf and hovered his finger over the line of books. Most of them were the predecessors of the one he'd just read, a series of history books devoted to the island that became Roarcadia. Chaac Flores was the author. The inside of the cover contained a paragraph detailing her backstory and a photograph of a vampire bat. The paragraph confirmed Ben's suspicion that the author was a Jagan ancestor.
Screw it. There wasn't anything more he could do, and his friend was expecting to find him here. He might as well stay put and start from the beginning.
The first book was titled HISTORY OF ROARCADIA ISLAND: 1500-1600s. It went into some detail about the Jagan empire before the invaders came, and the subsequent exodus across the sea until they reached the island. Ben read the passage again. The way Flores wrote it, the island had been their destination all along. Isla Itzamna had been its name, despite what the last book in the line had claimed. A quick look at Zoogle translate revealed it had been named after the Jagan god of the sky, specifically day and night.
There it was again. That recurring theme of light and darkness. First it was Project Twilight. Then it was the Alice and Wonderland theme, and the Red Queen's end goal to make Zootopia 'wake up' and smell the proverbial roses. And hadn't Doctor Slothfeld's secret lair been called XIBALBA?
Ben couldn't talk himself out of it. He had to keep reading. He had to see what other hidden facts Flores had been brave enough to put on printed paper.
He eventually came across a chapter devoted to Jagan mythology. He paid particular attention to the section on Xibalba and its devious trap rooms. There was a paragraph devoted to each one; the House of Darkness, the House of Cold, the House of Bats, the House of Jaguars, the House of Heat, the House of Blades, the House of Howls…
The doors opened. Ben looked up from the book, expecting to see one of the locals. Instead, he saw a grizzly the size of a rhino.
Ben froze. His mind unwillingly replayed a vision of Woolton's mangled body, and the dark, shark-like eye of the killer looming over his body. Blood-orange red sunlight shone through the library's one wide window.
Sedor's eyes showed none of that feral madness. He was wearing a trench coat as always, except this one was cyan with mottled red and black buttons. He looked unhappy to see Ben, but more out of regret than simple dislike.
Ben's body finally caught up with his brain, and he shot up from the table. The emergency fire exit was out of his line of sight, but he knew roughly where it was.
"You again?! I thought we were done with this cat and mouse crap!"
Before he could start to run, Sedor raised his massive clawed paws and spoke.
"Believe me, when I found out you were here, I wanted to leave you alone. But I heard what happened to the old commissioner."
Ben paused. It was weird seeing Sedor speak and act like a normal Eweropean bear after being stalked by the silent sheep-eater all over Zootopia.
"You wouldn't know anything about that, would you?" He started inching around the table. The emergency exit slowly creeped into his peripheral vision but was still on the far side of the room.
Sedor stayed where he was, halfway across the library and blocking Ben's way to the other exit. "No. I was hoping you would tell me."
"Someone called NEST." Ben said quickly, seeing no point in withholding that information.
Sedor's eyes narrowed. "NEST. I know them."
"Did you know they've been coming after my friends? Alyssa Skyefall? Cheryl's protégé?"
Sedor shrugged with one shoulder. "My informants aren't that informed, Ben. Why do you think I tracked you down?"
Ben threw his right paw up in the air, while the other creeped toward the book he'd left on the table. "Oh, I don't know? Tying up loose ends, maybe?"
He was startled when the doors behind Sedor burst open. In strode Chief Mansa Bogo, dressed in a short black jacket, twisting a tiger's arm behind his back and pressing a gun to his head as he forced him into the room.
He stopped ten feet from Sedor, stunned to see the bear again. Then his eyes hardened.
"Paws. Behind. Your head."
He shoved the tiger forward, the lackey Sedor must have ordered to watch the exits in case Ben tried to run, who promptly spun round and tried to rush the buffalo. Bogo stopped him by aiming his weapon at him and his boss.
"You too, tiger-for-hire."
Bogo's frame was silhouetted by the last remnant of sun light as the sun began to disappear behind the taller street buildings. Ben knew it was inappropriate to feel flushed at Bogo's blatant badassery, but he couldn't help it. He made his way to Bogo's side. "You remembered to call the local police, right?"
"Yes." Bogo was careful to not take his eyes off the two criminals. "What did they want with you?"
"They wanted to know what happened to Elba." Ben said.
"Oh, they know damn well what happened to him." Bogo growled.
"Mansa, it wasn't Sedor! It was NEST!"
"Who the hell is Nest?"
"They used to do Swinton's dirty work back in Roarcadia. They're a mercenary group now!"
"Mercenary-" Bogo grimaced. He seemed to be putting together pieces of a puzzle in his head. "Son of a bitch."
"Mansa?"
"I'll explain later. The police will be here soon. Then you're coming back to Zootopia with me."
"I am?"
Sedor, who'd reacted to Bogo's interruption with silent bemusement until now, shook his head and spoke. "Calling them is going to be a very costly mistake."
Bogo shifted his aim to point right at the bear's wide chest. "What's that supposed to mean?"
Sedor glanced beyond his tiger goon and to the window overlooking the street outside.
"I didn't know NEST was behind the mayor's abduction, but I do know that the local police have at least four former NEST members on their payroll." He sneered. "Then again, now that Ben here has cleared a few things up, I should probably say current NEST members."
Bogo snorted. "After all the shit that you pulled two years ago, you think I'm going to let you walk away just because some local police officers might be corrupt?"
"I'm sure you're right." Sedor replied. "But if you're not, they're not going to waste the opportunity you've just given them."
Bogo kept his gun on them, but no longer seemed certain of his own words. Ben was thinking it over himself with a growing sense of dread. If there were NEST spies in the force, they wouldn't have let Ben leave the station. They would have put him in jail for Elba's murder or some other trumped up charge.
But then, it occurred to him as a police car drove into the street and slowed near the window without its sirens blasting, that only reason they'd let him out of jail may have been so they could later make him disappear entirely.
There were three officers in the car as it came to a stop near the entrance to the museum, just a few feet from the library window. The sky was darkening quickly now that the sun was gone, but the museum's exterior lights had switched on. The driver was the first to get out, and Ben got a good look at his face.
Oh crap.
The cheetah felt a chill when he saw the boar's bruised face.
"Ben? What's wrong?" Bogo asked.
"That boar." Ben breathed, taking a step back. "He was there when Elba was taken. He tried to kill me."
That very same boar, the one he'd stabbed with his own tranq dart, had a new weapon now- a shotgun, fully loaded and ready for payback. He cocked it and approached the museum entrance, followed by the ox and mule accompanying him.
"Now what did I tell you?" Sedor asked with no humour whatsoever.
Bogo looked sharply at the window, then at Ben. The crushing realisation slackened his features.
"What have I done?" He hissed.
Ben grabbed him by the arm and pulled him toward the emergency exit. "Mansa, come on! You can't take them!"
Bogo looked around the room, and the poor cover the tables provided. Then he agreed and rushed past Ben to the exit, all intentions of apprehending Sedor and his goon forgotten. Ben kept his eye on the bear while Bogo checked the coast was clear beyond the exit.
Sedor stayed where he was. He opened his trench coat, exposing the body armour Slothfeld had made for him back when the late sloth had tried to turn him into his personal brainwashed super soldier. A customized crimson Desert Eagle sat in a holster beneath the coat. He pulled it out and turned off the safety.
"We're not done, Ben. I'll track you down as soon as I've cleaned up this lordura."
Ben bristled at the prospect. "What do you want with me, Sedor?"
Sedor motioned for the tiger to block the other exit with a table. "We've got unfinished business, Ben. The same business Elba has been collaborating with the President himself to find closure on."
"What?" Ben asked as Bogo took him by the wrist.
Sedor didn't even flinch as the NEST spies began attacking the barricaded door. The tiger pulled out a Uzi he'd been carrying under his own jacket.
"Subject 0."
Ben's heart seemed to stop midbeat.
"Get a move on, Ben!" Bogo half-dragged Ben through the emergency exit and into the alley.
They heard the ensuing gunfight as they ran for the street behind the museum, a vicious exchange of bullets which stopped just as quickly as it started. Bogo directed them to the green car he'd rented, parked beside a boarded-up nightclub. He made sure Ben was secure in the passenger seat before jumping into the driver's seat and taking off.
Neither of them spoke during the fifteen minute drive through the streets of Boarweaver. Bogo drove above the speed limit for the first four or so blocks before he was calm enough to slow down. When they reached the road parallel to the beach, Bogo decided they were safe and pulled over beside the public restrooms. He punched the steering, making the horn honk.
"Shit!" He cursed.
"Mansa." Ben said calmly, despite his own pounding heart. "You didn't know."
"I led the dirtbags right to you. Again."
It took a moment for Ben to realise he was talking about what happened in the Nocturnal District back in Zootopia.
He shook his head. His heart slowed to a dull ache. "Don't say that. If anyone's a curse, it's me."
Bogo gave him a puzzled look, but Ben didn't want to elaborate.
He supposed it was time to call his friends and tell them what had happened. The only number he knew off by heart, other than Elba's and Bogo's numbers, was Nick's. He dialled the number and put in on speaker for Bogo's sake.
"Hello?" Nick sounded nervous as he answered.
"Nick, it's Benji. Somethi-"
"Holy- where the fuck have you been?! I've been trying to call you for the last three days!"
"I'm sorry, I lost my old phone. Something happened."
"Elba got kidnapped?"
"How the hell did you know?" Bogo glared down at the phone, one hoof on the steering wheel.
"Why, Chief Buffalo Buff. What a surprise."
"Is Hopps with you, Wilde?"
"Yeah, she's right here."
"I want to talk to her. Tell her it's an order."
Judy's voice came on next, with the excessive cheerfulness of a little girl who got caught stealing apples from her neighbour's yard. "Good evening, sir. You sound like you're in perfect health."
"Start. Talking."
"I'm so sorry. We needed to find out what was so important about that ancient text and the only way to get to it was to bring Agent Savage into the party as a plus one and sneak into his secret illegal art gallery. We didn't steal anything, we just took pictures I swear, and on our way back we got ambushed by Lupine who stole our pictures and told us Mayor Elba was kidnapped by-"
"Woah-woah-woah-woah!" Bogo cut her off. "Koobus Lupine is involved now?"
"He sent his army to put collars on everyone, too. Who've thunk?"
Ben watched Bogo slump in his seat.
"I should've stayed a damn meter maid."