A Friendly Hustle

by Blkdragon7

A few years after the Missing Mammal & Nighthowler cases, Nick and Judy are officially mates. They have managed to keep it a secret until they discover that their friends Lizz Fangmeyer and Mike Wolford are also in a mate level relationship. To help their friends, Nick and Judy draw Lizz and Mike to a restaurant to reveal their knowledge and their own relationship.

84. Chapter 84

Here is the 84th installment. Nothing else really to add at this time.

Additional notes live at the end of the chapter, when they exist, so here is the obligatory, on with the show.

Sadly, I do not own and thus can claim no rights to Zootopia or its characters. They belong to Disney.

It continues…. Enjoy.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

ZSID Conference room - Status meeting

Four days after Sheldon appeared and two days after meeting Bogo in the Sky-bridge lobby.

Judy looked over the assembled officers, lawyers, IT techs, ZBI agents, and others, from her position standing on the raised end of the table, Nick next to her. Both wearing clean jeans and button up shirts over their body armor. Something neither was ever not wearing when outside their home due to the constant targeting from Bellwether groups. Her shirt was a deep emerald green, while his was a deep amethyst. Benefits of being in their positions, no more uniforms, though if you caught her in a moment of weakness, she still had a fondness for the uniform.

The room was a cacophony of voices as they all discussed the situation from their individual standpoints and positions within the task force. Judy took a deep breath and using her best Bonnie Hopps, roared out to make even Delgato proud. "ENOUGH!" The room grew silent a moment later allowing her to speak normally. "Thank you." Giving a light cough it was clear that the newer members of the team were surprised. "We have done the first steps to deal with this situation. We're on lockdown. Our teams are doing what legwork they can from their remote locations. The city has a higher ZPD presence than normal with support from Von. This is, however, not! sustainable. Not by the city, by the ZPD, not by the public, and not by Von. Nor does it address the actual problem we have before us.

Sure, the public may appreciate the reduced crime right now, but the constant police presence will wear on them sooner rather than later. So let's start with first things first. We need information and confirmation. Kenny. What have you guys figured out about the drive? Were you able to decrypt it?"

Kenny, one of their IT specialists, nodded with a grim look. "We have, and what we found is terrifying. I took some sterilized details to a geneticist friend of mine, as authorized. It is definitely a tailored virus, just as described. My friend actually recognized Sheldon's work, which is kinda concerning in and of itself. He clearly wanted to ask questions but knew better.

We've confirmed that he, that being Sheldon, tested the virus on several subjects that were provided to him on three different occasions. A total of fifteen mammals were used, and killed, after the testing session was completed. They were all homeless predators that were subsequently put down and cremated according to the records. I've got their pictures taken from the videos ready to be sent to the appropriate mammals once we can do so without tipping our paws.

The virus is clearly designed to be used on predators. The video's confirm that his minder is a member of the terrorist cell that hired Sheldon to create the virus. The version he tested was thankfully not communicable, he was getting ready, according to the files, to add that part, but had not yet done so. He was doing some additional verification testing and simulations when he realized the potential issues with the plan as described once the communicable part was added. They planned, confirmed by his statement to you and videos of conversations on the drive, to infect themselves and then go out and spread it by getting into fights with predators. The recordings show him trying to explain to them that it wasn't a wise course because the virus would mutate in them, potentially impacting all mammals.

Just as he stated, they wouldn't listen. So he destroyed everything, and I do mean everything except the data on the drive he gave us, gave them the slip, and came to us. The videos show him destroying the samples, notes, all of it. I give him credit for his thoroughness. My geneticist friend stated that the techniques Sheldon created to target specific species and groups could revolutionize targeted treatments for cancer and such things. So there's that… I guess."

Jack spoke up. "One of our teams has secured his labs."

Kenny nodded. "Nine and SlowBurn have helped us isolate it digitally, confirmed the systems on site were wiped of any data related to this virus, and they have been tracking down any online backups. There were two located, and cleansed, so far. N and SB went so far as to cause the cloud systems they were housed on to immolate themselves. Hard drives spinning until they shatter, servers overclocking to the point of catching fire. It's impressive, and scary to know what they are capable of. Really glad they are on our side.

As for the data. If there is any data out there in the wild that we have not been able to locate, it is offline and likely will be in the possession of the minder or other high ranking member of the cell. As such, we have muzzle recognition running on all traffic cams, and anything else we can access to try and pin them down. As soon as we have their location, we will let you know."

Nick nodded and picked up the line from there. "Great. Erik, what of the Von forces?"

Erik grinned with a light chuckle. "Swiftspot is a force to be reckoned with. She has made sure none of the Precinct Chiefs have fought it hard. If anything most are probably glad to have the extra paws. Given we've been at this for four days, the relief on the ground is welcome. Having the Von officers step in has meant no one is getting burned out. At least not yet. The story about actionable intel about an international terrorist is fully believable and really helping with the public in general. It also helps that most of the Von officers are former ZPD that moved out of the city and were recruited by Von during the Nighthowler situation."

Nick smiled. "Good. In that case, I want everyone rested and ready to move out. When this starts, we are going to have to hit this, and any other cell we identify, hard and fast, and everywhere we can at the same time, or close to."

Judy nodded. "Last question. Given the number of mammals we are anticipating, are things progressing for the temporary processing and detention center? It's going to need to be able to handle minors as well as adults."

Skye spoke up. "Yes, it's ready to take in anyone we need starting now. Priority for processing will be for minors of course so they can be tagged and released to their parents or other vetted supervisory mammal. Sadly, some of their parents are going to be joining them in detention initially."

Judy nodded. "Sadly true. Alright. You all know what you need to do. Get to it. Dismissed."

The mammals of the ZSID broke up to find their place to rest, follow upon their active duties, and generally prepare as best they could. They were now in a waiting game. None of them could go home to their kits of loved ones. Lizz and MIke were leading one of the field teams, while all the kits along with family and a good number of friends were hold up in the complex under tripled guard from Nightwolves. Those that had jobs that couldn't be worked from home, like Vivian, had Nightwolf escorts.

xxxXXXxxx

It took twelve days after Sheldon appeared at the ZSID, seven days after the drive was decoded, before the first member of the cell was reliably located. It took another two days of tracking them to identify more members of the cell. A day after that, more members were identified, and the entire process began to snowball. Were it not for Nine and SlowBurn being able to conscript vast swaths of cloud processing, the job would have taken months. As it were, a number of cloud providers were very confused why their monitoring never showed anything, but their power bill suggested that their entire infrastructure was working at maximum output.

Warrants were issued, confirmed cell members had their homes bugged, phones tapped, and conversations listened in on.

At twenty days after Sheldon, or AS as the ZSID team members started to short-paw it, they had what they estimated to be 80 or more percent of the members of seven different terrorist cells identified and being tracked, listened to and arrest warrants issued under seal. They were also confident in the identity of a good 75 percent of the various cells' leadership, the part of the cells that actually communicated with each other.

What the ZSID knew without question. The leadership of the cells was nervous. They couldn't find Sheldon, and various conversations had confirmed that he never gave them even a sample of the virus. The lack of even a sample out there was a great relief to the team as they prepared. The team was also able to confirm that the cell members also couldn't get into his lab, the security codes having been changed before he left. It was bad enough, and they were worried enough, that they had their regular rank and file out searching for Sheldon despite the ZPD teams out in force in the city.

xxxXXXxxx

22 Days AS (After Sheldon)

The ZSID leadership and team leads assembled in the

larger conference room listening to and watching live surveillance.

Monitored Location: A small Rainforest cafe right next to a major waterfall.

A large, and very angry ram glared at a white tailed buck. "What the hell is goin on, Burlap? You're supposed to have been his minder! Where is he? How come your codes don't work anymore to get us into his lab? Seriously. What the actual rut is going on‽"

A data popup on the screen linked to the ram appeared.

Name: Jacob Woollston

Cell code name: Cotton

Occupation: ZIA senior analyst

Status: On personal leave.

The deer nearly growled back at the ram, giving an enraged sound. "I don't know, Cotton! Things haven't changed since I reported into the group the first rutting time! He went for his morning walk like he does quite literally every gods be damned morning and never came back!" Slamming a hoof on the table causing their drinks to slosh slightly. "He stopped at one of the secondary labs, which he has done for nearly three months, and then he was off grid. I found the tracker I put on him in the bushes next to that lab. He'd been using it for personal projects.

And before you get all high and mighty. My job as minder, was to mind him, watch out for him, to oversee and greenlight or block projects. Which is what I rutting did! I kept him focused almost entirely on the virus, but if he doesn't have a few personal side projects, he won't get any work done. He needs the outlet, the distraction, so there was nothing weird about what he did that day. So nothing tripped the alarm that there was an issue until he didn't reappear hours later. Hell! The bushes the tracker was in was directly behind his personal meditation spot. Right up against the bench he would sit at for hours just, as he put it, letting his brain, think. It was hanging on the branch he'd nibble at, so literally right where he would normally sit! Hard to trip something when it was right where he would be expected to be!

And again, no. I cannot babysit him every minute of every day. THAT would be weird and distract him. So… As we have discussed. I will remind you that this project is very clearly something that were I not on your side." Pointing at the ram. "I would have blocked it without a second thought. Not only blocked it, but those asking for it would likely be in some black site prison at this point, getting to know Bellwether personally. I did block something similar when Dawn approached him back when she was mayor. I also didn't report that. He was busy with THX1138B NH variant at the time."

The ram laughed sarcastically, crossing his arms with a huff. "A lot of good that did us. It didn't do anything but piss them off."

The deer, Burlap, rolled his eyes and snorted in derision. "If it had been used on any other mammal, and I mean literally ANY other mammal, it would have worked as advertised! IT DID WORK AS ADVERTISED! He told us specifically to not use it on them! That their constant exposure to various NH variants would make the results unexpected and unpredictable. So, because you can't let go, Jason ended up permanently cripled and in prison. Because you can't move on from that damn rabbit and her fox." Pointing an angry hoof at the ram.

A data pop up for the deer appeared.

Name: Aaron Grazerton

Cell code name: Burlap

Occupation: ZBI field agent, assigned as Minder to Sheldon Lee Camelton.

Status: Active

Grumbling, the ram waved it off, looking off towards the waterfall. "Fine. Fine. You're right. But what has happened? Have you heard anything? Do you have any leads whatsoever on where he may have disappeared to?"

The deer, Aaron, shook his head, still clearly agitated. "No." Crossing his arms and leaning back in his chair, glaring at the ram. "I have exhausted all the resources and contacts I can without raising undo suspicion and got exactly nothing. I was actually pinged a few days ago for a status update from the program supervisor. Another rutting rabbit fox pair, I might add. I had to lie and say the situation was normal and that he was just deep in a project. If I told them he was missing, the entire city would be in lockdown worse than it already is. You do know they pinged all the minders in the city, because of that damn terrorist, right? These guys are always high value targets, and no, I don't think Sheldon was taken. If he was, we wouldn't be locked out of the labs."

Jacob frowned deeply with a hard exhaled snort. "Damn."

"What about you? Have you heard anything?"

The ram shook his head. "No." Leaning back in his own chair. "ZIA intel has nothing, other than confirmation of the intel about the terrorist targeting the city. Given that, the city's response has been perfect and expected. Understated, but strong. They're ready. Even pulled in additional units from that nightmare of perversion, Von. Neither of the other two cells I'm in contact with know anything, and only one of those they are in contact with is still active. I'm on leave right now for a herd thing, so I can't make any deeper inquiries without raising suspicion."

The two glared off into the distance.

xxxXXXxxx

Judy pointed at Hendrixson. "We need tracking and identification on all three of those other cells before we move if we do not have it already. Go, Now!" Hendrixson left the room quickly while the rest turned their attention back to the monitor.

xxxXXXxxx

Aaron sagged in the chair he was in. "...chance that we're being monitored?"

Jacob shook his head. "No. There is zero indication that anyone knows anything about any cell I'm aware of or even those I'm not. Yeah, that new ZSID group suspects that there are more in the city, but as far as any intel I have, they don't know who they are. So as long as we continue to keep low profiles we should be fine. Plus, that's why we meet here and can talk freely. The waterfall prevents monitoring. At least so long as we don't have active mics on us or the table, and they'd need Cheth level skills to pull that off. The Cheth and their ilk are all thankfully long dead. Even if they weren't gone, we have the money to have all of them working for us. Now where the hell is Silk?"

A very silky voice joined them. "Right here, boys." A bongo cow approached in a very flatteringly cut dress. "No need to be so impatient. As you stated, here, we can relax and not worry. Even the proprietor and all his staff are on our side. One of the cells I control." A data pop-up again appeared, though every mammal present in the conference room knew exactly who she was.

Name: Virginia Raincast

Cell code name: Silk

Occupation: Senior City Council member, Rainforest District

Status: Active suspect monitoring by ZBI, no reports of contacts with known terrorists.

xxxXXXxxx

Jack growled. "Damn it! We are all compromised up the ass!"

Skye tried to placate him. "It isn't that bad, Jack. We already knew something wasn't right and have a team looking at the team that is looking at her. Now we have confirmation. Just as we take down these cells, we can take down those mammals too."

Jack grumbled but nodded, clearly not happy but placated.

xxxXXXxxx

Aaron nodded and motioned to the nearby chair which Council member Raincast took happliy. "Good. That's a load off my mind. Please tell me you have something?"

Virginia frowned. "Sadly, I do not. The mayor doesn't know anything more than we do, the ZPD and all of my contacts there, which are a spare few at this point, know the same we all already do. Until the feds have pinned down that terrorist somewhere else, doing something else, they are going to be on high alert, extra patrols, all that. The fact that they can call in reinforcements from Von is problematic but not unexpected. We have even less control and influence with their officers on the beat than we otherwise would and thanks to Hopps and her fox, along with Dawn's over zealous efforts, that influence was painfully weak already.

I tried to fight that, quietly, raising the fact that their laws are not ours. Unfortunately, they have a lot of officers that are former ZPD who left during Dawn's failed Nighthowler events and were recruited by Von. So those are the officers they are sending.

That complicates things because the rest of the ZPD knows these mammals. Sure, they have been out of touch for a while, but they're being linked back up with mammals they knew while they were part of the ZPD. Set up with former partners and in their original precincts. If they were mostly preds and from that damn stain of a city-state, I'd actually call it a good thing.

However, because of this, we cannot rely on our members in the ZPD. Worse, at least four of them are under active watch by that disgusting hybrid and new Chief of the ZPD. They got sloppy, and while they didn't get themselves taken down, they got their cells taken down. At least for now we are going to have to tread very carefully. They are useful only for information at this point, or as sacrifices if needed to distract from some actual action we might take."

Jacob nodded with a sigh and sipped his tea. "And we have lost our camel and access to his labs. Is there ANY good news here?"

Aaron shrugged. "I got a partial download of his data, but it is all encrypted. I passed that to the IT nerds. I can't believe those morons got themselves cut out of the city and ZPD networks. They got sloppy. Lazy. Selling access like that."

Vigina shook her head in clear frustration. "No argument there. Any idea how long until they can crack the encryption so we can know what you managed to get?"

Aaron shook his head. "No. They said it was some kind of rolling cypher, whatever that means. I know I got what we would want, I focused on that first, and got it before I started pulling other things. But you have to understand, he's been using P-Drives for almost a year. The amount of data is ridiculous."

Jacob glared at Aaron. "If you could know what you were pulling, how come the data is encrypted now?"

Aaron rolled his eyes. "Because, I didn't know that his setup was to have the entirety of his systems encrypted. If I could plug the drive, which was a five terabyte drive, by the way, and I filled it. If I could plug it into one of his systems, the data would be just as readable as it was when I pulled it. But without that, we have to crack that encryption."

"How does that even work?"

"I don't know, Cotton. I'm not a computer nerd. I confirmed with the Rat that they can crack it, but it's going to take them time because this is top level encryption. He even made a joke about reaching out to the ghosts of the internet. Someone calling themself a number. I don't understand what he's talking about at the best of times. It's mostly pop-culture references and jargon. He said if he hasn't cracked it in a few more days, he will reach out to this, number, person. Eight, or something stupid like that."

xxxXXXxxx

Nick barked at his phone. "Nine!"

The usual mechanical voice responded. "We are on it. Do not worry. The Rat is good. They are not as good as we are. We are already working on his systems and once we are in, we will purge his systems completely."

xxxXXXxxx

Virginia shook her head. "So, this is really just a strategy meeting then? Has Sheldon ever disappeared like this before?"

Aaron nodded. "Yes. Did this to a predecessor. That's why he was tagged with a tracker. Only, he apparently found it, or whoever took him found it and removed it. He was gone for three weeks. According to him, he needed to think. I've already checked his usual spots. He's gone missing like this on me a few times, but I have always had the tracker on him, and he was never gone for more than two days. He'd go to Oasis and get a bungalow there. He'd go and get a room at the Palm. Things like that.

He once booked a cruise and I barely managed to get on board before they left port. Took some tail kissing to keep my job after that one, but since I managed to get on the ship, I got away with it. These guys are unpredictable. They don't understand normal social cues. That's why they get assigned a minder like me in the first place. He hasn't shown up in the morgue. If he did, I'd have a bullet in my head the day after that, and it wouldn't be from my gun."

The rest of the conversation was a data gold mine for those that were trying to track and identify the still unidentified members of the cells, most of which were higher ranking lieutenants and such. It also gave them a gold mine of data on future attacks and plans.

One of Virginia's cells was planning on a future attack on a water plant by adding a nighthowler variant to the water supply. Jacob's cell was working on how they would add NH to the snow generation of tundra town. However, beyond their normal meetings and organization maintenance, with Sheldon missing and no access to the virus, they were stuck with those other comparatively mundane plans. Something the team was thankful for, despite the active threat the mammals being watched represented.

xxxXXXxxx

Once the meeting broke up and everyone cleared to go about their jobs and address all the information they now had from that meeting, Judy, Skye, Jack, and Nick met in Nick and Judy's office. Nick poured all of them a drink. "Jack for Jack." Handing the buck the glass, who took it with clear gratitude. "A Sky Blue Mojito for Skye." Handing over the glass. "Sangria for the love of my life." Handing Judy her glass. "And an Old fashioned for me." Taking a spot on the couch in their office's sitting area next to Judy. Jack and Skye took up a similar position in the large mammal chair.

Judy sipped her drink with a smile. "Thank you, Nick. Guess I'm not pregnant again, given there is alcohol in this."

Nick smirked. "No. Though not for a lack of trying. However, as much as I would enjoy ribbing our friends, we have something very serious to discuss. To deal with this, we're going to have to push the biggest operation ever. We're going to be doing raids and arrests all across the city, and we need to do them as simultaneously as possible. To pull this off we have no choice but to bring Bogo, Swiftspot, and Harcort into this, and then let them decide who else to trust. We do not have time to perform a full vetting. Von officers are a given, but we also do not have time to properly read them in, and they are on loan, so any actions will have to be greenlit through the chief's and commissioner anyway."

Skye nodded in agreement after sipping the drink and smiling. "Nice and strong, just like I like it. You missed your calling, Nick." After a light chuckle for all of them, Nick had been a bartender at one point in his life. "You are right, though. I can count fifty agents we can trust. It'll take two days to get them into place without raising suspicion. We can have twenty in place by tonight."

Judy smiled. "That's good. It should take at least that long to track down and have those other cells pinned down with confidence. We're in agreement then on bringing the Chief's and Commissioner into the equation? Any group we have even a question about will need at least an agent or one of ours as part of it. Ideally two, but we'll need a better read on who can and can only maybe be trusted."

Jack nodded. "Agreed. We cannot cover them all, so we will need to prioritize as well. The three we just saw need to be taken down by us. Aaron is ours."

Nick nodded. "The council member is so very much ours. The question is, who do we send after the ZIA scumbag?"

Judy chuckled. "He sounds like a good challenge for Lizz and Mike."

Jack nodded. "You have been training them, so it's a good thought. See if the prince and princess are learning, and they'll have backup. The question being, how is this going down?"

Judy looked between Nick and Skye and shook her head. "They are not going to say it, Jack, and you know it. Capture if possible, but lethal is authorized. We're not going into any of this with just tranqs. We all need to recognize that mammals are going to die. We know these scumbags are all armed with lethals. We are going to have to meet them with the same force. We cannot afford any protracted firefights. Both for our sakes, and that of the general public.

So that means snipers. That means live ammunition. That means no holds barred. The likes of the council members and the agents. We'll be able to hit them in such a way as to take them down without much of a fight. It's the rank and file that are going to be the problem. There is no way we can pick them all off. We'll do as many of them as we can, but once they realize what is happening, they're going to go for their safe houses and that's where the fight really starts. The fewer that make it there the better."

Jack nodded. "Agreed. Hopefully we can identify some of those as well and prestage things to simplify dealing with those that make it. I guess we need a copy of that meeting and to have one of our own."

Nick nodded, getting up and heading over to the bar again, mixing three new drinks. "They should be here…" A knock at the door caused them to all laugh gently. "...any second." Nick spoke up as he finished the largest of the drinks. "Come in!" Confirming it was the three chiefs. "Close the door, please and take a seat. We have some things to discuss with you."

Bogo chuckled, collecting his drink from Nick before taking a seat. "I told you as soon as they were ready to move, we'd be visiting."

Harcort grumbled from the chair he'd taken, accepting the drink from Nick. "So you did. So what nightmare scenario do you have for us?"

Swiftspot rolled her eyes. "Don't mind him. He's been losing bets all week. If I can ask, where is that terrorist that all this extra activity is being pinned on?"

Jack chuckled. "He's been dead for two years. Some of his pet predators may, or may not, have been dosed with a certain NH variant." Putting his paws up as he got sharp looks from the assembled. "Hey! Wasn't us! It was an underling of his. They slipped into the role, took on his mantle and all that. They keep up with what they have been up to and we may have to remove them from the terrorist watch list. However, that's known only in the deepest parts of Intel. Anyone not a director or an analyst directly involved still knows him as a top terrorist."

Switfspot laughed. "Nice. Useful. The truth coming out is a good way to defuse the situation as well." Seeing Skye nod with a smile, Swiftspot smiled as well. 'This is a damn good Electric Lemonade. That said, Gerald is right. What nightmare do you have for us?"

Judy nodded and set her half finished drink down, picking up a tablet, pulling up the recording and casting it to the TV on the wall. Turning off the meeting once it reached the more mundane parts, the rabbits and foxes simply waited until the three Chiefs finished processing what they just saw.

Bogo was the first to recover. "Well… Shit. I take it that you are verifying all the members of the mentioned cells, or at least as many as you can. You'll then what? Be sending arrest orders to specific cruisers and teams to take down these mammals. Most likely in their homes, at their day jobs, or walking down the street? Try to get as many of them as you can before they go to ground in their safe houses and you have a siege on your paws?"

Judy nodded with a chuckle. "Exactly Commissioner. There is of course the fact that all officers are already ordered to be wearing their lethals at all times right now. Even off duty. These takedowns are all going to be lethal force authorized. We're not in a Reaper procotol state, but we need to act like it a bit. That means that ideally they should be tranq'd, but putting them down is going to be fully authorized. Do any of you have an issue with that?"

Harcort shook his head. "Not really. I do want to understand what has warranted this reaction though? Adrian has speculated a lot, based on who you supposedly have on site."

Nick chuckled. "Oh, no. Sheldon has been enjoying some time in a lab in Von, under strict supervision since three days after he showed up here." Taking the pad from Judy, he cast onto the TV some abbreviated information about the virus Sheldon had been working on. Flipping through about a dozen slides, the interview he had when he arrived, and including the videos of the poor mammals it had been tested on before and how they were put down.

Nick let that sink in for a minute after turning off the screen again. "So, that's what he was working on and what they were referring to. As you heard him say in his interview here, one of the reasons he came to us was because their plan to infect themselves would cause unpredictable mutations. We are not going to have to deal with the aftermath of this virus. We are safe from it because a mammal who simply doesn't have morals the way we do, and needs someone, a minder, to look after them, realized that there was a problem. They realized that there was a problem with their minder and came to us.

We'd order a military missile strike on the lab. Blame it on a misfire. but there are just way too many other dangerous things in that lab. While the parts we would want to survive and therefore not release their very dangerous contents, likely would. Maybe not as dangerous as this virus, still stuff that would kill hundreds or more. It's simply not worth the risk. It is safer to leave the lab in its locked down state. Some of the more dangerous stuff has automatic purge protocols that will trigger if not reset after certain periods, essentially rendering them to their component elements. Not all of it has that however, so it will have to wait until this situation is resolved and Sheldon can let us back into his labs. We can deal with a better monitoring setup of more than one mammal later."

Skye nodded. "However, as you heard from their meeting, at least one of the cells has plans to bomb the lab. That plot is already dealt with. The explosives were located and replaced. Lots of flash, lots of smoke, no actual damage. Still, we need to take down the mammals in question because we cannot be completely sure we got all of their devices, since we didn't learn about the plot until after they were in place.

The minder agent is going to be taken down by Jack and myself. The council members are going to be taken by Nick and Judy, and I assume one of you three. There are actually two other council members that need to be taken into custody in the process, so the pending council meeting in two days is probably ideal. We'll have all the trusted assets we can get into place, in place at that time. Where you three come in is identifying who we can trust, who is suspect, and therefore needs some extra attention. That attention is going to take the form of ZSID team members. The ZIA agent is going to be assigned to Lizz and Mike to take down, as a test by their masters." Waving a paw at Nick and Judy who just smiled innocently.

Swiftspot rolled her eyes. "Fine. I'm going with the ZIA agent group. As for other Chiefs. I know you can trust Stripers and Burnsetter. I know, Burnsetter is the last name you expected. Least trustworthy is Elkerton."

Judy laughed lightly. "Yeah, Henry is really struggling, maybe worse than my dad. Though maybe not for quite the same reasons. You see… Burnsetter and Elkerton's sons have gotten together. Been together for a few years. Elkerton disowned his own son and contacted Burnsetter expecting him to do the same. Henry on the other hand welcomed the boys in, if begrudgingly. He doesn't understand, and is open about that fact, but he is actually trying. He attends regular meetings of parents who have inter-young and are trying to come to terms with that.

He makes a lot of mistakes, but both boys know that he is trying. It shows in the fact that he didn't throw them out, that they are allowed to be affectionate in the house. The fact he goes to those meetings. Yeah, some of the things he says off-paw are hurtful, but he is trying, and it's clear he loves his son more than the hate he grew up with. Unlike Elkerton.

Adrian. If you want, Elkerton has been confirmed as part of the cell that planned to bomb the lab. If you wanted to make a personal visit to the Forest district. Maybe take Burnsetter with you? Both of Henry's precinct captains are vetted and cleared."

Bogo grinned, but there was nothing nice about it. "Oh… Oh, I know you are not offering me what I think you are."

Judy shrugged. "Well. We would like them to be intact enough to interrogate, obviously. Ideally that means not paralyzed."

Adrian narrowed his eyes, the evil grin still in place on his muzzle. "Oh, this is going to be fun. Almost worth the rest of it. You know that every team from the Forest District is going to be suspect."

Nick nodded with a smile. "Yes, and that's why we are going to have to trust you three to make sure that is compensated for. As you said to begin with. The more we snatch before they can go to ground and get bunkered up in their safe houses, the better. We simply do not have a way to know what all of their contingencies are. We don't expect them to be many, but we expect there to be some. The Elkerton cell is responsible for several bombings over the past few years. Now that we have gotten the links, we can link them, and him, to those bombings. So I wouldn't be shocked if explosives are part of the contingencies of his group. Wouldn't even shock me if the device we found last year belonged to him. We never were able to locate the trigger source."

Bogo nodded with a frown. "Right, which was why it's disarmed and the fissionable material was removed, but the device itself is still in place."

Judy nodded with a grim smile. "Exactly. We can track the trigger signal to whoever tries to set it off, but without the resultant 50 kiloton boom."

Swiftspot and Harcort visibly paled. Swiftspot speaking. "Fissionable material? Someone had a nuke in the city?"

Bogo groaned. "Yeah, a stolen device from a decade ago. It had been assumed lost to some third world dictator without the ability to use it. Was found in a spot that, were it to go off, it would set off the volcano, as well as the devastation of such a blast underground on the city."

There was no response after that explanation. After a few minutes to process that, discussions were had on who else they could trust, who they knew they couldn't, as well as who they might and likely could not trust. Slight tweaks were plotted out for the patrol routes to take normal movement of those mammals being tracked into account for easier pickup. The ZSID crew would be sending priority pick up orders to the closest cruisers to each target when it was time to move. Bogo was at least glad that the answers to the press was going to be easy, and the truth. They were taking down terrorist cell members, which is why they were picking up so many mammals off the street.

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A/N

Remember to share the love. Review and Fav. It is the life blood of every writer to know you are enjoying their work. I also want to thank everyone who has Fav'd, followed, and reviewed this little project. I know that isn't much, but to me, it's huge. Even as a writer of original fiction, that you enjoy this means a lot to me as an author. You can check out my original work and link to my Blog, Scribblings, where a lot of it lives by hopping over to dcballard . com ( Direct: ascensionnovel . / scribblings (remove the spaces) because the forwarding is misbehaving.)

If you enjoy this, and you are not also reading my original Log Entries series over on my Blog. Why aren't you? (takes a Nick-esk pose of hurt) Also. I am now posting them on AO3, so you have even less excuse. It's free, ORIGINAL fiction. "An original story told through the log entries of the pilot and captain of an experimental star ship."

You should really be checking out my bestest bud, Bear678, and his story What Foxes May Come.

So keep those reviews and comments coming. And also remember, if you see issues, misspellings, etc... Let me know in PM, I'm under no illusion of being perfect and want to fix those things I miss.