Veronica Winters had just completed chapter three of the fourth Harry Otter book when Starlight knocked on her door and entered. "It's time to go."

Starlight dropped the book in her bag and joined the other two agents in the living area of their hotel, a rustic two-star on the other side of town. Their bags were on the square coffee table, zipped up and ready to go. Their weapons, firearms and melee, were well hidden beneath their clothes.

Beside the bags was a laptop bearing Honey's face. She'd split off from the group to take refuge in a temporary safe house. Her new apparatus helped her to walk quite well, but so much travel was not good for her. It was better that she stayed behind the scenes, in some random booby-trapped apartment in some random neighbourhood where NEST and Neo Liberum would never find her. She still could feel the phantom sensation of the badger patting her wool tuft before leaving, muttering about 'cotton candy.' If we didn't need her help with that antique pamphlet….

"He's upstairs in Stratos Bar. Can't say for how long, though."

"Kudos. Send us the address and we'll take it from here." Starlight zipped her jacket over her purple hoodie.

"Just be careful. He may have taken the antidote, but we don't know how much of Plague Doctor Sedor is still in him."

They'd be checking out tomorrow night, then regrouping with Savage and Skyefall. Hopefully the civilians would be on their way back to Zootopia with Bogo by then. That also was for the best. Hopps and Bogo were capable enough, but their part in this affair should have ended a long time ago.

They left the hotel and drove their rented convertible in the direction of the eastern side of the town. It was eleven in the evening, the traffic minimal, the pavements crawling with night owls. The windows were cracked to keep the interior cool, allowing Winters to catch hints of music from the various bars they passed. She sat in the backseat in a state of ceaseless vigilance, gun resting on her lap, eyeing every mammal and vehicle. She remained cautious even as they parked in a street one block away from the Stratos Bar. Winters slid her weapon in her concealed holster and got out first, keeping watch as the freelance spies applied the parking brake and emerged themselves. Gabe placed a tiny piece of tape over the gap over the edge of the hood. If anyone tried anything, like planting a bomb in the engine for example, the tape would let them know. Winters grabbed the open bottle of beer and shut the door.

The Stratos Bar was a flashy joint on the corner of the street, one of the biggest in the town. They even had their own upstairs bar for private events such as work parties and wedding receptions. Tonight, the bar was hosting a work event for a company in a neighbouring town. Allegedly.

They reached the street and immediately spied the big neon Stratos sign atop the sturdy steel doors. There were two big bears outside in black shirts. Winters had scouted the place earlier and confirmed that they were bouncers who worked at the bar, and were not under Sedor's payroll.

"There it is." Winters said. She was the first to spot the black car with tinted windows, Sedor's vehicle of choice. "Ok, Mossberg. You know what to do"

They lurched forward, staggering across the road like perfect little drunks. Starlight gulped down the beer, posing as the least intoxicated of the trio. Gabe and Winters, on the other hoof, gripped each other for support, giggling like schoolkids. They reached the other side of the road and made their way down the path toward the black car. The windows were too dark to see how many armed mammals were inside, keeping an eye out for trouble like she had. Winters kept her gaze away from the car, focusing on the pavement five feet in front of her. This next part was up to Gabe.

As they reached the car, Gabe 'lost' his grip on Winters and she collapsed against the black car in a cackling heap, sliding down the door to the ground. Her arm found itself under the car, where her hoof quickly jerked up to stick the metal coin to one of the pipes.

The driver's window whirred down. "Oi! Move the fuck on before I make ya pay for the paint job!" The jaguar inside shouted.

"So-so-sorry!" Winters made of show of being helped up by Gabe and Starlight. They continued on, waltzing past the pounding beat of the Stratos Bar's speakers and around the corner. They didn't quit the act until they almost completed their round trip to their own car.

"You did it?" Starlight asked.

"Yes. Nice fumble, Mossberg."

"I do my best."

"Let's get back to the car. Sedor could finish his meeting any minute."

They returned to the car and lay in wait, Winters once again in the backseat with her tablet in hoof. The yellow blip of the tracking device hadn't moved from the street since she'd planted it. Gabe and Starlight were sharing a flask of coffee and bag of salted beetles up front, chatting quietly to each other. Winters kept her ears to herself- if they were up to something, they wouldn't be discussing it right in front of her.

Suddenly an icon beeped on the screen. Two purple letters. MM. An incoming call.

"Excuse me, this could be confidential." The due didn't question her when she got out the car and strolled down to the bench further down the street. She sat down and answered the call. The screen opened into a video conference call with Miss Morton.
"Good evening. We're still on Sedor's trail, if that's what you're wondering."

"Actually, I'm here to update you." Miss Morton said coolly. "I hope I'm not interrupting anything."

"We located Sedor's car and planted a tracking device. If our luck holds up, he'll lead us right to his hideout, and you can take it from there."

"Good, good." She said. "I meant to say, well done for that operation at the Redwood's residence. The body count's high enough as it is without adding the rich and famous to the mix. We've already raided his home and retrieved every stolen work of art he has taken. On that note, when can we expect to receive the Swineton Codice?"

"There must be some mistake. Savage and Hopps took photographs for translation. We never touched that artefact."

Miss Morton's scowl was slight. "And we have no way of knowing who did. They must have snuck in after you completed the mission."

"We led them right to it." Winters ground her teeth. "It must have been Lupine. He didn't want anyone else to see its contents."

"Perhaps. But there's nothing we can do now. We have another trail to follow."

Miss Morton reached for her unseen keyboard. A screenshot popped up in the left-hand corner of the screen.

Winters didn't flinch. She had seen corpses in much worse condition than this. A middle-aged deer in a dressing gown was slumped in an armchair, head tilted back from the force of the bullet hole that had been punched through his forehead.

"This is Roman Horne, of Mouseton Law Offices. Honest mammal. Former lawyer of the late H. P. Pottermass. Killed in an alleged robbery about four days ago."

"What really happened?"

"He was tortured. With Pottermass dead and no family still living, he must have been the only mammal left to question."

"What does he have to do with this?"

Miss Morton banished the gruesome photo from the screen.

"By the time of Pottermass's death, he'd accumulated over thirty billion dollars in liquid assets. The first copy of his will stipulated that all the liquid assets, as well as his personal property, would go to his wife. When she had that accident, the will was rewritten. Upon Pottermass's death, all thirty billion dollars went to the Swineton family… or was supposed to. Instead, ten billion dollars was given to Commissioner Elba, the rest disappeared."

"What do you suppose made him turn on them?"

"That, we don't know. The will was rewritten in complete secrecy, some time before Mr. Swineton faked his death. Until now, we'd thought the entire fortune went to Elba. Now it seems Swineton wants it all for himself."

"NEST was behind it. Go figure. One would think his own billions would be enough."

"Not anymore. Dead men don't have bank accounts."

Winters smirked. "So, he was depending on the inheritance to fund his operations. I bet he wasn't too happy to find out it's gone."

"We need to find where the twenty billion is. Horne's files were destroyed, so his killers are one step ahead of us. Given the lengths NEST has gone to to capture them alive, I have a suspicion that one of your group is the other recipient. If NEST gets a hold of them, they'll force the mammal to give them access to the account. We can't let that happen."

"Shouldn't be too hard to narrow it down. Do you want a clean kill or do you just want the money?"

"Do whatever it takes to keep the money out of Swineton's hooves. Meeting adjourned."

Miss Morton's image disappeared, and Winters could see the map once more. The tracking device was still on the street where she'd put it.

So one of their group was a multi-billionaire. Winters had to admit, until now they'd done a good job of hiding it. But Miss Morton's report had pulled the wool up from over her eyes. She bounced her foot on the ground and ran through all the seemingly useless details in her mind. Elba's handling of the Pottermass estate. Pottermass's connection to one of the mammals in their group. Elba's relationship with that same mammal.

Ah well. They're probably halfway to Zootopia by now.

Winters returned to the back seat of their car, keeping her eyes on the tracker and her ears on her surroundings.

"What did she say?" Gabe asked.

Winters rested the tablet on her lap. "A lawyer was tortured and murdered a few days ago, back in Zootopia. Intelligence reckons NEST was behind it."

Gabe turned in his seat. "And that's it?"

Winters looked up from the screen. "For now. They'll update me when they learn more."

She heard Starlight's finger tapping the steering wheel. "So, they have no idea what NEST would want with a dead billionaire's lawyer?"

Winters did not miss the sarcasm. She picked up the tablet and turned it over. There was no sign of tampering. She scowled and folded her arms.

"Okay, where did you hide the bug?"

"Bug? What bug?" Gabe smirked and crunched down on a small pawful of beetles.

"You know damn well-" Winters froze. She dug through her tuft and pulled out the tiny pill-shaped device. "Honey. Never should have gotten close to a Truther." She crushed the device between her fingers and threw them out the window. "Did you bug Savage and Skyefall, too?"

"No, just you." Starlight said.

"Why?" Winters asked shortly.

"Because whoever tracked us down and shot at our kids probably had help."

Winters resisted the instinct to reach for her gun. Her next question came out cold as ice.

"And why would I work with these people?"

"Why wouldn't you? Your cousins did. And your partner killed one of them."

Winters shouldn't have been surprised that they knew this, but she was. If their hacker friend could crack Slothfeld's data disk within two years, she was more than capable of making a background check on a ZIA agent. Furious at herself for not seeing this coming, Winters chose her next words carefully.

"I had nothing to do with their actions in Zootopia. We grew up together. We trained together. We parted ways because I didn't want to use my skills for terrorism. That's it."

"But you were still family. If someone caused the deaths of my family, I wouldn't let them get away with it." Starlight had one paw on the hilt of her long knife.

"Even if he helped Lupine murder hundreds of innocent people?"

Starlight paused. She glared at the sheep, considering her response like Winters had.

"If Jason is working for Lupine, I will stop him. As for you, we've heard enough to know we're not on the same page." The tip of the knife quivered before Winters's throat. She kept her eyes on the fox. "We don't have the money, but we know who does. Stay away from them or you'll have us to deal with. If we find out you betrayed your partner, the same applies."

"Are we clear?" Gabe asked.

Winters slowly pushed the knife tip down. "Clear as glass. Can we get back to the mission, now?"

Gabe and Starlight turned to face the front, but Winters could still see Gabe watching her through the rear-view mirror. She ignored him and turned her attention back to the tablet screen. The dot was on the move now, making its way steadily across the digital map. She watched as it slowed to a stop beside a large building in the north eastern corner of the town. She gave her companions a heads up. As their car took them into the streets in subtle pursuit, she wondered how her situation could get any worse.

They were three blocks from Sedor's location when Honey called in with some very bad news.