Sunderance: Chapter 20.1 - In the Hall of the Mountain King

They changed cars three times in fifteen minutes.

She had seen this sort of thing happen in the movies but had never expected to be doing it herself. They returned to the office to give her a chance to collect anything she might have needed to continue investigating on her own while he was gone, a time during which he had made a phone call that even her sensitive ears picked up as light muttering. After announcing that she had everything she needed and following him outside again, she had been surprised to find that the car waiting outside wasn’t the same one they had been driving around in for the past week. Instead, it was a car designed for a mammal larger than Nick - maybe a lion or some other big cat – painted cherry red and modified with a seat lift and extended pedals to allow him to drive it with relative ease.

Three blocks later, in the shadow of an alley between a bakery and a bamboo-noodle restaurant, she learned that the car was designed for polar bears. She learned this because of the polar bear in a sharply tailored black suit waiting for them with another car, black this time. Before she could question, she was escorted out as the exchange took place without a word. The white bear climbed into the red car without a word and Nick ushered her into the new car, which was more bunny sized than fox-sized. With the seat pushed back all the way, and the steering wheel raised as much as possible, it was drivable though not at all comfortable for the slumped fox. But like the first one, they didn’t stay in it for long. This time they pulled into a public three-story garage where, on the second floor, a skunk waited patiently next to an aged white family sedan that was certainly more fox friendly. After the swap was again made wordlessly, Nick waited for the striped mammal to drive out and followed two minutes later.

There was another ‘exchange’ that took place when he pulled into another alley, though the bit of trickery that took place there almost had her wondering which car they were supposed to be in. Using a dumpster to block visual on the driver’s side door on the newer, sportier looking car, they exited the sedan like normal. Only when they reached the new car and were hidden from the road by said dumpster, the badger driver simply gave them a nod before driving off. She resisted the urge to peak around the green metal box, which smelled about as friendly as the badger had looked, as she looked up at the handsome red fox with a combination of nervousness and curious energy. After they waited a full five minutes, he quickly led her back to the car and they were off again.

Judy was loaded with questions, each one almost leaving her muzzle more than once, but it seemed foolish to ask the obvious. They were trying to lose anyone who might be trailing them and, with a single phone call, he had set up at least three throw away cars and mammals who would drive them. Her need to know who he was grew more intense, but she couldn’t risk asking them now. The receipt was important, too important, to let her curiosity about the male beside her delay that or have him change his mind entirely. As much as he seemed to agree with the idea that he worked for her, she wasn’t going to test it in the middle of a cloak and dagger operation that made the ones she had seen in the movies look easy to follow. So, she watched where they were going in silence, aware that they were taking no backroads or pointlessly evasive turns now to get where they were going. Not that she knew where they were going, a fact that irritated her almost as much as her own decision not to question him until she had the receipt in her paws.

It wasn’t until they reached the markets of Haytown, with the large arches of the bridge growing larger, that she started to understand where they were going. The Witty Arson Bridge crossed into the Nocturnal Ranges, a place that a nocturnal mammal like a fox was sure to have plenty of friends. This almost had her speaking, before he pulled off the main road that would lead to the bridge exit, dashing her idea and making her scowl inwardly as she stared out the window at the passing buildings. A while back, what had been the obvious clutter and larger structures of downtown had become the flash and touristy glamour of Savanna Square and the surrounding buildings. That had faded as they drove until the larger buildings gave way to a more suburban feel. Smaller apartment buildings, townhouses, shopping plazas, one-level office buildings, and eventually warehouses as they drew closer to the waterline.

Even those buildings came to a rather abrupt end, which surprised her. The undeveloped section of the city looked perfect for further development, with open spaces connected to the road they still followed. Yet she saw no ‘For Sale’ signs, no construction; not even agriculture. It didn’t take long, with the setting sun blocked by the ever-growing bridge to form an early artificial twilight in the area, for her to see the only structure that the road seemed to lead to.

In a city of massive buildings, it wasn’t the size of the building that was impressive: it was the flare of it all. The glow that seemed to surround it even when there were no lights turned on. It had been a warehouse at one point, of that she was sure. The arching, almost shell-like design of the roof, the square glass windows that were still visible on the front, the large front doors that had been designed to accept shipments from mammals of all sizes, the low and easily accessible location from the road. She was sure that it had been a warehouse.

It wasn’t a warehouse anymore. The roof had been divided into long downward facing segments of colorful pink, outlined with lights on either side that would bring out the pink in a nice, non-offensive way once lit. The front panels on either side of the door had been replaced with square segments that almost looked like add-on rooms. In fact, they were likely an extension. Before she decided on that, her attention turned to the fact that the building was on a dock over the water, across a short walkway bridge lined with lights, giving the whole thing a high-class appearance that she wasn't exactly sure it should have. In the end, her eyes were drawn to the sign that dominated the front of the building.

Wild Times.

It wasn’t some massive neon sign that could be seen for miles around. It was a massive wooden sign made up of individual letters painted yellow with red borders. Even when the lights that outlined every letter were turned off, you could easily read it once close enough. But more than that, they also seemed to fit the exterior of the building more than neon would have. It gave the entire building a classic, welcoming feeling without being too obvious about itself. And at the same time, it was made to be noticed by those who were looking for it. The huge star that dotted the ‘i’ in Wild made that clear enough.

Of course, she knew exactly what this place was.

“You’re kidding me, right?” she asked in the most cliché way she could as he pulled up to the curb in front of the main entrance. But it was simply too crazy to imagine that he would be bringing her to this… this… “This brothel is the ‘safe place’ you’re going to leave me?”

“You need the receipt,” he said calmly, showing no outward sign behind his sunglasses that her outrage had any effect on him at all. “You ordered me to take you somewhere safe. This is the only place I think you will be.”

Without another word, he popped open his door and stepped out without bothering to turn off the car. Flabbergasted, she scrambled to do the same, hopping down as he rounded the car, fuming and fully prepared to give him the verbal lashing of his life when the front door swung open. The throb of heavy base, background noise until that moment, vibrated through her long ears as the flicker of lights from within the building outlined and left the figure that stepped out mostly hidden in shadow for a moment.

“Well, well,” came the deep, unamused, masculine voice over the music. A voice that in no way seemed to suit the fox that spoke with it. “After a full week of seeing him on TV confusing the hell out of an entire city, he finally shows up at my door with all the trouble that’s following him.”

The massive front door did nothing to prepare her for the fox that stepped into the fading light until she could see him clearly. He was, at best, tiny. She was almost certain that he was half her height if the ears were excluded from the equation. The dark sports jacket he wore was open in the front, revealing a white t-shirt over a slim torso and what she could have sworn was a golden, gem-encrusted pacifier hanging from a length of chain around his neck. This didn’t seem to change the fact that somehow this tiny mammal, whose ears were as large as his entire body, came across as intimidating while his shaded gaze lingered on Nick for a long moment. Then that gaze shifted towards her, as he reached up with one paw to lift the sunglasses from amber eyes, sweeping his gaze over her until a small smile played over his narrow muzzle.

“And would you look,” he said, in a tone that caused her to shift closer to Nick even as he moved closer to the door and the fox that was eyeing her like a piece of meat. “He brought me a bunny.”