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Part 4

After the main lab, Victoria ended up taking us down closer to the floor. She explained the whole process as she went, about how they used the ideas from the novels in order to perfect their process of cloning actual dinosaurs from fragments of DNA. Unlike the books or the movies for that matter, they used actual fossils to try and make the genes as complete as possible instead. It was a very boring speech on how the scientists managed to trick the natural world into having dinosaurs again and I was lost for more than half of the conversation. Fangmeyer looked about as confused as I did and Bogo seemed more interested in hanging onto Dr. Onna's every word than actually listening. It seemed to be only Judy who looked like she was understanding the information being fed to her.

Finally, we came to a stop. It felt more abrupt than an hour walk through the facilities, but we were now looking at a large scale wall with vertical blinds in them to hide what was beyond the door. Onna stood back proudly. "And there you have it." She said. "How we here at Genuvics revolutionized the cloning process for the dinosaurs."

"So, are the Allosauruses intelligent at all?" Judy asked. "I mean it's been so long since we've evolved into sentient sapiens of this planet, I can't imagine what dinosaurs would be like if they'd evolved too..."

"Not as intelligent as we've grown." Victoria answered as she typed in a few keys. "But for the time they were quite smart. With our tech though, they appear to have a longer term memory. We've had to randomize the feeding schedules because they would try to ambush the feeders."

As she pressed the sequence of keys on the keyboard, the blinds suddenly snapped open. I jumped back a moment, half expecting to be staring into the jaws of a dinosaur, but there was nothing beyond the blinds except what looked like an open field and trees. I crept closer, I was disappointed but there was no way I wanted to let her know it. I stared through the window for any sign of movement beyond the slow push of wind from somewhere overhead.

"This is their open area." She explained. "Kind of a habitat while we get them acclamated to the Sahara Square environment. They're put out here for three to four hours every day to run around and explore. It's too dangerous to put them out into the open where they could escape." She said, pointedly staring at me.

"A good precaution." Bogo said. "How far up does the shaft go?"

"The shaft doesn't lead directly to the outside, the lighting above is precisely to the intensity of the sun and the air that circulates emulates an arid environment. They've taken to it well."

"Why put them in the desert zone?" I asked. "Aren't they interested more in forests?"

"Very good, mister Howard." She said. "They are more attuned to areas like you would find in say the Rainforest District, but they are more populated. In case any of them do get out, it would be safer they were contained in the desert as opposed to the more popular zones."

"So you have a contingency in case they get out?" Bogo asked.

"Of course, Joseph. I am not stupid."

"Wow. These things are carnivores right?" Fangmeyer said. "How much do they eat a day?"

"Unfortunately quite a bit." Victoria said with a sigh. "I've been straining to find methods of keeping them fed, Zootopia's system for the carnivore diet is a bit extreme. Like taking a feline like yourself and suddenly forcing you to eat string beans instead."

"Yech." Fangmeyer's tongue flicked out in an awkward way that made me smirk. "I don't think I could--" Suddenly there was an excruciatingly loud slam that made all of us jump as the dinosaur hit the glass with such a violent tackle the ground shook under us.

It was cute... for a vicious man-eater. Tall, probably about nine or ten feet in height, it definitely towered over us as it rammed its head against the glass again. Its skin didn't look very feathery at all, from what I remembered in biology some breeds of dinosaur probably didn't develop them. The scales were a deep mud brown, stripes of lighter brown and yellows covered his body from head to tail as it snapped a massive amber/green eye at us. It opened its mouth, revealing rows of sharp teeth and breathed on the glass, leaving fog where it exhaled.

"Ah look, number three." Onna said, catching her breath from the start. "He's always on the lookout for an ambush. He's almost caught three of my scientists already."

"Number three?" Judy asked. "You didn't name them?"

"Not yet." She said. "I felt it wouldn't be right to name them until they are unveiled, Mayor Lionheart has even gotten the program in schools for letting students pass name suggestions along for dinosaurs. The real reason is obviously being kept hush hush."

I noticed a large gash in his tail that looked like a hunk of it taken out, it was misshapen and curved and as I got closer to the glass, he seemed to sense me staring at it too, and he turned to bow his face down nearer mine. He growled low, I could feel the rumble through the glass. "Well why can't you name them for the time being. Like code names... you could name this guy 'Hook'." I suggested.

"What happened to his tail?" Fangmeyer added. "I like the idea Howard, it could be more original, but I like it."

"That... happened during his first few months." Onna said. "He took a tail swipe at one of the feeding doors and it snapped closed, shearing the flesh off immediately. It hasn't impeded him though. He's still pretty feisty."

"You said you had six of these guys here right?" Bogo asked. "This one is male, what about the females? Are you certain they aren't... breeding?"

Onna smiled a bit, as if she was expecting the question. "No, we have four females and two males, but they are infertile. Sterilization is one of our top priorities of population control. I'm not sure where the others are though, they've been fairly restless lately. Your "Hook" seems to be the only one to actively interact with any of our staff. He is the youngest after all." She tapped the screen and red lines flashed across it, the image vanished and reappeared after a brief flicker of the lights. "Sorry, we've been having some electrical issues lately, nothing to be concerned about. The paddocks and the pen for the subjects run on a separate power grid in case there is an outage in the lab. Link, could you explain to me why we are having power issues still?"

A slim looking creature had gotten into the room, standing about three feet in height, the meerkat had slipped in almost completely undetected. He was dressed in a white lab coat and glasses almost larger than his face could hold. Giant green eyes peered at us through them. "I'm sorry, Professor. Routing this much power from the city grid isn't all cheese and wine, it takes a considerable effort to keep this equipment up and running for as long as we need."

"I don't like excuses, Mister Kat." She said. "Our guests need to feel assured that our methods of controlling the creatures are foolproof. Now please, check the power grid again, try to cut a few edges off the demand if you must, but sir I need this operational when the Mayor comes to visit."

"So. Mayor Lionheart is coming?" Judy asked.

"Eventually. He's promised once he's heard a review from Chief Bogo here, that he will come to finalize our efforts."

As the others talked, my eyes averted back to Kat. He briefly twiddled his fingers together then took off like a streak of lightning. I didn't like the smell of him, and I was suspicious too. I decided to slip casually away as well and find out what he was up to. Climbing the short staircase I listened for the sound of his foosteps and quickly followed him as quietly as I could. The hall seemed so much quieter without the professor's constant talking and I kept sniffing both to assert my position and to keep track of the slippery little devil.

Turning a corner, I saw just the end of his tail disappear through the access door on the right. I moved quickly, tugging my badge out of my shirt and slipped it into the door jamb, it caught the swing before it closed and I exhaled slowly. It was close, but I managed to push the door open and snuck into the room. It was very dark, a slow blinking red light showed me a staircase winding downward and as my ears picked up the sounds of the depths, I could hear the rodent's words.

"Yeah--ye-yeah, I got 'em... full access." There was a pause. "No, they haven't got a clue."

I started down the stairs quickly as his voice faded, curious now is what I was, and it wasn't always the smartest thing to make a cop curious.

"Mmhmm... the account's been set up. One hundred fifty million sounds pretty good for me." Another pause as I approached the bottom of the stairwell. "Sure, I can get 'em to you by tomorrow. Yeah, the samples and a copy of the study will be on their way tonight..."

The fur on the back of my neck rose. This guy was seriously selling this place out, could he even be aware of the risks? I felt my lips curl and before I could stop myself a growl escaped my muzzle.

"What was'at?" I heard him ask. "I gotta call you back."

I backtracked quickly, skipping up stairs in my ambling scramble toward the exit. I knew that if I could get to Bogo we could probably get this thing turned around.

"NOT SO FAST!" The words shot in my ears as the impressive strength of the meerkat struck me from behind.

I grunted and grabbed at his arms as they wrapped around my shoulders and neck. He was quick though and slipped through my grasp as quickly as I could grab him. He yanked my ear and nearly took me to the ground as I fumbled. He bit my neck and I let out a howl of pain as I slammed my head back to try and shake him off me. "Get---off of me...!" I said in between breaths.

"Don't bet on it!" He struggled. "You ain't gonna blow this one for me!" His meek voice had vanished and instead was replaced by the angered shrill of the meerkat that bit me again.

"YOWCH!" I shouted as another bite landed on my ear. "You little--"

I grabbed him this time, and firmly held him in my hands as I thumped him into the wall. "AHH! Why you big--" He grunted as I thumped him again.

"Who were you talking to!?" I demanded. "I know you were planning something!"

"HOWARD!" The chief's outraged bellow caused my blood to run cold, even before I turned to the rest of the group, I could see them gawking at me in a mix of confusion, shock, and fury emanating from Bogo's eyes. "What do you think you are DOING?!"

"C-Chief, hang on. I can explain everything."

Suddenly, the meerkat in my hands began to wail loudly, quickly forming tears in his eyes as he sobbed. "He-he suddenly attacked me!" He cried. "Talking about making me his new dog chew toy or somethin'! He was all savage, thank goodness you all arrived when you did!"

"Put him down!" Bogo demanded.

"I don't believe, this. Joseph, are you actually in charge of this wolf? Why did you bring someone like that to an operation as sensitive as this?"

"I promise, Victoria. He is not going to get away with it."

"Now, wait a second Chief."

"Put. Him. DOWN!" Bogo's last word echoed through the hall, and a forceful shove from the chief prompted me to do it immediately. Kat skittered off quickly and I found myself with my back to the wall."

Bogo said nothing for a minute, he only glared at me. The icy cold stare looking down on me. I'd blown it somehow; my promotion, any sort of respect he had for me... then he put his hand down in front of me; apparently my job was forefit too...

"I have had enough of this, Howard. You not only put the lives of all Zootopians in danger, but you've endangered your team and blatantly disregarded my orders. Give me your badge."

So, there you have it... you're all caught up. The end of my career, my way of life and--suddenly the lights.

The lights made a sudden winding down noise as the room went completely black. There were cries from others in other rooms for a few seconds before several auxiliary lights came on. Everyone was still in one piece, Bogo's glance on me broken by the sudden panic that swarmed the facility.

"Hey! Where's Kat?" Judy asked. The meerkat had taken the momentary diversion to slip away unnoticed. It was likely he'd caused it.

"Just... hold that thought, Chief." Howard said as he put his badge back on. "I think we'll have to finish this conversation later."