FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

After I'd gotten control of my emotions Jack picked up the backpack that acted as well... my diaper bag and held out his hand for me. Earlier in the day I'd found that my sense of balance and ability to walk on my own two feet had gotten better and I could walk for longer, and more stably than the previous two days which was something I was very happy with.

Jack had to moderate his pace and I had to speed my own up to keep up as we went into the building where we were met by a different desk officer.

"Good morning, ah yes I already have clearance for you two." He pulled out a pair of visitor's badges and handed them to Jack. "Go right on in, the chief is waiting for you in his office and he's most interested in getting this issue resolved."

Jack grabbed the badges, before we quickly made our way to the office of the precinct chief who was, as the desk man implied, waiting for us to arrive.

"I'd thought you'd have gotten here earlier Mr. Mackenzie." He griped as he stood to shake Jack's hand.

"Sir you are aware that there are two different types of timetable, right?" Jack said smoothly,

"Yes, actually I am." The chief responded, "Without children and with children, though Mr. Ross hardly qualifies as the second since he is older than he appears."

"That may be true, but he does have the physical requirements of a child, and so the second timetable is the one that we have to live with."

The chief nodded and then looked at me, "I hope you're willing to work with us Mr. Ross, you're past doesn't give me the greatest confidence that you're really ready to turn over a new leaf."

I looked at the chief and nodded, "I want this whole sordid mess sorted out as much as you do." I told him, "I never did anything because I desired to do bad things sir, I did those things to survive in a world that didn't care about me." I told him. "Now what are we going to do to get this situation resolved?"

"The easiest method is to bring them in and perhaps..." He began before I shook my head.

"We do that and I can almost guarantee you that Amanda will die a horrible death." I told him bluntly.

"Then what would you suggest?" The chief, a rather grizzled looking older wolf asked roughly.

I sighed, "You are probably aware that the first step in any operation is the acquisition of information, otherwise we'd be blundering about in the dark."

"You don't have to tell me how to run an investigation." He growled.

I nodded, "Yes, I guess I don't, but we are working on a bit of time crunch here." I told him "So perhaps we should utilize my own particular talent for gathering information, I can almost assure you that I can gain information, without alerting the Nailheads that they are being watched."

"I don't trust you." The wolf stated without hesitation glaring at me with his deep golden eyes.

"Nor do I trust you all that much Chief, but under current circumstances perhaps it would be best for us to put aside our mistrust and work together. I can assure you that currently we are both working towards the same goal. That being the release of Amanda O'Shea, alive and unharmed." I reminded him quietly. "Though in order for me to assist I will need one of the restrictions that has been placed on me by the deal that Jack made with the Crown to be nullified."

He turned his gaze to Jack, "Can you sort this out Mr. Mackenzie? I mean I can give him a temporary dispensation, but I think that if this works out it could put a major dent in the operations of the Nailheads and he would then deserve a certain... lenience."

"Of course, I will need to talk to Adam Jennings, but I think I can persuade him to be reasonable." Jack stated before turning for the door, "You will make sure that Daren isn't pestered about what he is now?"

The old wolf nodded, standing, "I will personally assure you that Mr. Ross won't be harmed by my people. Now we all have work to do." He stated before stepping around the desk and taking my hand gently.

I looked up at him, I could still see that he didn't trust me, but I could also see an edge of softness in his eyes. I smiled slightly at that hint of warmth, and I knew that he was seeing me as a tiger cub, and not as the human wreck that I'd been before the change.

"I'm going to be assigning you to work with our resident code artist." He stated firmly as he guided me into an office where a thin looking weasel who was perched on a chair sipping a cup of coffee and staring at a computer monitor. "Davies."

"Yeah Chief," The weasel said looking at the Chief, before looking at me.

"We have a rather time sensitive matter that needs to be looked into, and this little cub here is going to help."

Davies snorted, "How is he going to help me? I mean he don't look much older than my little Ryan."

I smiled slightly, "I guess that depends, if you have ever managed to crack my Surface Pro." I stated, "Though I doubt it."

The weasel did a double take before looking at the Chief. "What is the meaning of this sir? This surely is a joke. The only Surface Pro I've had to work on in the last few weeks is the one that you confiscated off of Daren 'Hot Fingers' Ross."

The Chief nodded, "Have you made any headway on that device?"

Davies shook his head slowly, "No matter what you say about Mr. Ross, I will give him this much, he is probably one of the best code-smiths who's work I've ever had to try and crack. I mean we were able to copy the core drive of the device, but I haven't been able to crack any of the copies."

"Thanks, I was rather proud of that set-up, I hope you still have the original? Or did you tear the device apart too?" I stated before pulling my hand free from the grasp of the Chief and heading around Davies desk to see what he was working on.

"We still have the original and I've only just... Hey what do you think you're doing?" He hissed as I spotted the device on his desk, with a screwdriver and a few screws.

"I see, just putting it back together. You were hoping that perhaps, that the drive is keyed to the hardware?" I stated before grabbing one of the screws and the screwdriver.

"Chief who is this little brat?" Davies asked as he almost roughly, pulled the screwdriver from my hand.

The chief for his part laughed gruffly, "Davies that little cub is Daren Ross, in a new body, and he has a new outlook on life. Anyways currently there is an issue, that is a bit time sensitive, and we need his particular skills for this issue to come to a favourable outcome."

Davies for his part looked down at me as I gently grabbed the screwdriver back from him before quickly replacing the last three screws on my old tablet computer before finding the charger and plugging it in.

"I know that this is a bit of a shock, but we really can't delay for much longer." I stated while waiting for the charging indicator to light up as I found myself a chair on the other side of his desk.

After a moment of working to wrap his mind around what they Chief and I had said Davies nodded his head and sat down at his computer. "Okay cub, what do we need to do?" He asked me, his voice betraying his unease.

I looked up at him and offered him a sympathetic smile, "I know this is hard for you to get used to, but we need to get into the systems of the Nailheads."

He nodded roughly, "The issue, as I've seen it, is that though they are heavily computerized, they are also deeply paranoid."

I nodded and then smiled slightly as the device in my lap indicated that it was charging. "I would expect nothing less for a group in their position." I remarked, "The trick then will be to gain access to their network, without them being aware of it."

"That is a tall order to fulfill no matter who you are."

"I know but I should be able to do it, as soon as I get my tablet up and running, since I doubt you have SpiderWebCrawler browser installed on your machines or any of the number of tools that I use." I remarked, though that was probably a bit unfair to him since that particular browser was something of my own design. I wasn't so hot on commercial browsers for this particular capability since this wasn't a normal web browser.

Davies came over to where I was sitting and noticed that I'd already powered on the tablet and unlocked it, something that took a few more steps than normal since I couldn't use any of the bio-metrics access keys. As soon as I gained access I redid the bio-metric keys before I settled down to begin the real work of locating and gaining access to the Nailheads' systems.

Several hours later I heard a sniff and looked up to see Davies wrinkling his nose slightly, it took me a moment to realize that I'd made a bit of a mess of myself without even knowing it. "Sorry, don't really have much control over that..." I remarked slipping from the chair and wincing at the squishy thing in the seat of my diaper. "I'll just..."

He reached over and gently grabbed my arm before guiding me to lay down on the floor in front of his desk. "Relax, I got this," He stated softly, "Just give me a few minutes."

I looked up into his brown eyes and after a moment I nodded. I could see the tender look in those eyes and knew that, for the moment at least, he didn't see me as anything more than a cub who needed a change.

He headed out of the office for a few moments before he returned with the backpack that Jack had brought with him when we entered the station. "I have everything that I need right here, this is your's right?"

I nodded quietly before he took care of the problem, and though it was rather embarrassing he was quiet, efficient, and gentle. Once I was dressed properly once more we both got back to work on our projects.