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Part 5

"So, wait a minute. Let me get this straight... we're all *trapped* down here?" Fangmeyer asked under the dim lighting that projected from the emergency spots surrounding the room. "Is it getting hot in here or is it just me?"

"Claustrophobia can have that effect on people." Onna said. "But in this case I'd have to say the generators on the air conditioning have stopped running."

"So we're gonna... suffocate?" The tiger asked, clasping his hands around his throat.

"Oh come on, Fangmeyer. You weren't this bothered by it until the lights went out."

"No, no I can manage tight spots if I've got an easy way out... being trapped is a little different, Chief."

"We aren't trapped and we aren't going to suffocate." Onna said with a sigh as she turned to the computer she sat down in front of a few moments before. "We just need to wait for the backup system to kick in. It takes about fifteen minutes."

"Are the dinosaurs secured?" Bogo asked.

"I don't know." The vixen responded somewhat sharply. "It's not exactly like checking if your children left their nightlights on. The safest way is to wait for the system to boot up and we can check from there if their gates are secured."

"Right, like nothing says surprise better than an Allosaurus leaping out of the dark." Howard said sarcastically.

"I am doing the best I can under these circumstances but--" She paused as the computer made a beeping sound. "Ah, it's coming back online." She typed in a few key words as lines of text began to blur across the screen. "It appears the paddocks are secured. The secondary power wasn't affected by our blackout."

"Man, if I ever catch that meerkat I'm going to wring his tiny neck." Judy said, giving an expression that made Bogo even take a step away from her.

"Why would you hire someone like that anyway?" Bogo asked.

Onna shook her head. "There wasn't anything nearly as serious as this on his record. A couple of traffic tickets, nothing at all resembling a felony."

"Well, whoever he was talking to sure seemed to buy his conscious." Howard said. "For a hundred fifty million, I bet he would have turned a dinosaur loose in this lab at the drop of a hat."

Bogo sighed. "Howard, I am sorry I doubted you. But for now we need to figure out who we are up against."

"Well his name is Lincoln Katt, but he always preferred to be called Link. Kind of a solitary person, he liked working on his own."

"What was his job?" Judy asked.

"Systems analyst." She said. "He's responsible for every bit of power that runs through the facility, from our security systems right down to our coffee machines. He was kind of a one-man show. When we started, we weren't offering enough for a lot of people to take us seriously. He eventually came on, I think it was more out of desperation for work than anything else."

"What were you offering him?"

"Forty-thousand." She said.

"That hundred fifty million probably sounded like a nice pay raise to him if he was that desperate." Judy said.

Onna typed onto the computer. "Hmm... main systems are still offline, power and phones are down. Whatever he was planning, it was supposed to go unheard until he was long gone."

"But you can open the doors and get us out of here right?" Fangmeyer asked.

Onna shook her head. "Nope, looks like the elevators shut down too." She said. "I find it curious though how he expected to get out of here with all the power down."

"Maybe he's planning some other route?"

"Well... that is a possibility, there is a maintenance shaft that leads to the sewers that service Sahara Square, from there it would be possible to get to the surface. But the doors are always--huh..." She paused. "It looks like they are not secured after all."

"Well then, that will be our course of action." Bogo said. "If we can bring him back, then we might be able to get him to fix this."

Suddenly, there was the sound of something whirring down in the distance, an echoing clunk that resounded throughout the laboratory, making everyone present cringe. Judy bounced to her feet and slipped open the blinds to the labs down below Onna's office, there was definitely a change in their attitude as they scrambled together and began to press the buttons on the machines still coming back to life.

"Wh-what was that I'm afraid to ask?" Judy turned around slowly.

Onna was a bit absorbed in her computer, the glow of the lights on her glasses preventing them from seeing the shock in her eyes. "Apparently he expected your pursuit and deactivated the security protocols on the Allosaur paddocks. She turned. "If they notice the fences are no longer electrified, they will break through. It's only a matter of time."

"We need to get word to HQ." Howard said.

"But how?"

"He wouldn't have been expecting a police patrol coming today." Bogo said, reaching for his walkie talkie. "So he wouldn't have prepared any precautions for these."

"We don't know how well they're going to work underground though Chief." Fangmeyer said, gently pawing at his elbow as he somewhat hugged his arms. "What makes you think anyone's going to hear us?"

"I think we can amplify this." Onna said as she took the device from Bogo and hooked it into the computer. "It'll give you power to communicate to the surface."

The ZPD was buzzing with its typical storm of activity as Nick sat at Clawhauser's desk speaking with a brown bear wearing a flowery pink dress and a young cub standing next to her. The cub couldn't keep his eyes off Nick as his mother spoke with him, gently sucking on a pawpsicle, it slowly drooled down his chin as Nick laughed.

"Okay, now seriously. Thank you for the report ma'am, I'll get that over to our Chief as soon as he returns, and for you kid..." He leaned in and smiled toothily. "I do hope you've learned your lesson, you crafty little thief."

The words made the frozen concoction pop audibly from his mouth as he stared almost teary-eyed at the fox. "And the lesson for today is... conning two suckers out of a cop." He said as he revealed a pair of suckers from behind his back, which only made the bear's eyes widen in excitement as he snagged them. "Kids..." He said as the two of them walked off. "They just keep getting smarter younger..." He paused and looked at the microphone, which was flashing. "Ah, duty calls..." He cleared his throat and lifted the mic. "You're listening to ZPD-after dark, with your host Nicholas Wilde..."

"Wilde!?" Bogo's voice booming back through the receiver made Nick jump. "What are you doing there? Where's Clawhauser?"

"Oh ah--heya Chief Bogo, fancy hearing you now... here..." He stammered in his surprise. "I m-mean what's up?"

"Nick, where's Clawhauser?" He heard Judy's voice in the background.

"Hey, Carrots. Oh well, ye-olde donut lover took off about twenty minutes ago, I thought he'd be headed that way to pick you guys up. What's up?"

"I need you to listen very carefully, Wilde." Bogo belted out another gruff sentence. "You'll need to be responsible for evacuating everyone from Sahara Square and the Rainforest District and moving them to Tundra Town."

"Sahara Square and Tajunga?" Nick repeated, rubbing his hand along his face.

"It might be safe if he could get as many people out of the city as possible too." Another voice spoke in the background. "The colder, the better in case they get out--"

"Okay. Who's crazy lady and what are you guys talking about?" Nick exclaimed. "I mean those two districts... there are about half a million people to move--"

"Don't be ridiculous." Bogo snorted. "It's only about four-hundred and twenty-eight thousand."

"And if you include the city center---I mean... I didn't even realize how low population Tundra Town was, but I'm considering it now in comparison."

"You are going to have to make it work--where's McHorn?"

Nick sighed, wishing he'd taken the assignment instead. "He's responding to a twelve-eleven in Little Rodentia."

"Cat stuck in a tree?" Bogo asked. "Why would he prioritize that?"

"It's Little Rodentia... so a cat in a tree would be like Godzilla terrorizing Tokyo."

"You have a point." Bogo answered. "Get him on this as soon as possible. I want all the ZPD available in cas-e-*" At that moment, the mic went dead.

"He-hello? Chief? Are you there?" He clicked the mic a few times, but only got static back. "Oh great. Well Nicky, you got your work cut out for you don't ya?" He was glad he didn't mention the cat was a little four-year old lynx who was a bit of a troublemaker and McHorn probably would be a while getting him down. Sighing he turned to do his work as well.

"Why'd the mic cut out?" Fangmeyer asked, filling the silence after the walkie went dead.

"Not enough power to keep up that distance I'm afraid." Onna said. "You'll still be able to make calls, but they'll have to be a much closer range."

"I've already sent word to the station up top, let them know to evacuate to Tundra Town." Howard said, clicking off his own microphone.

"Well I say in the meantime we try and go catch that rodent before he gets too far." Judy suggested.

"A good idea." Onna said as she stood up and collected a small tablet computer from the drawer. "I have the schematics for the sewer system and tunnels we will be travelling through on my computer here. Perhaps we'll have the advantage, no one has these plans but me."

"Wait, wait now." Bogo said. "Victoria, you are not coming with us."

"Am I one of your officers now, Joseph? Do you expect that I obey your silly 'orders' because I am perhaps... a woman?"

"What? No... I mean, yes... yes you are but that's not the point!"

"Boy, I haven't seen this much scrambling since the last football game I watched." Fangmeyer said with a bit of a laugh, suffice to say at least he was starting to relax now."

"You're wasting time. The further he gets, the less likely we'll be able to get him to fix this."

"She's right." Judy said. "We've got to move fast."

"Alright. Fine!" Bogo said, finally giving into his defeat. He pointed at Howard and Judy. "You two take the point, Fangmeyer, you'll be guarding the flank. And you..." He said to Victoria as his expression lightened slightly. "You stay close..."