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Chapter XXXI - Sao Paolo Redux

In a dirty motor hotel somewhere in rural France, Simon Gecko laughed into the phone.

"He actually used his slush account? The only reason I didn't take it back from him was that I was amused by his initiative!"

The voice on the other side reminded him how difficult the fund had been to find.

"Yes yes, quit your warbling. Call Collin and Gavin. Get them back to Sao Paolo. Bring me my nephew. If they find that bitch, they can do what they like with her as long as they tape the whole thing for me."

Arlen stepped onto the plane and turned his head back and forth twice, taking in the two rows of young furs along either wall of the fuselage. Twenty, in total, split into four teams, and to his eyes they looked like little more than young kids.

As he walked down the aisle, most looked up from whatever they were doing, their eyes reflecting some combination of anticipation, curiosity, and a little touch of nerves. One young tiger stared at him with a wide-eyed expression and elbowed the fur next to him.

Goddamn, did I look that young my first time out?

The black tiger stopped once he reached the front of the cabin and turned, facing the unit he'd been put in charge of. For a second, he couldn't think of the words.

"My name is Arlen Blacktiger. I'm your captain. My job is to make sure we succeed in the mission, and that you all come back as intact as possible."

I wonder if Buck felt this much gut-flutter the first time he addressed his men...

"You are all employees of Goza Securities. Let me be the first to congratulate you. You've finished the training, and now you're about to put your skills to the test."

The very young wide-eyed tiger nodded his head enthusiastically, as the others took this in with the stoicism he knew both to expect and was a façade over their nervousness.

"Our mission is more complex than it sounds. We need to recon a major private hospital without being noticed, find someone who used a bank account connected with an enemy firm, and be on the lookout for that firm's men. The last time we were in Sao Paolo, our furs on the ground got sloppy and nearly got themselves and our CEO killed. So watch your backs, stay professional, and everything will be fine."

Some shuffling shifted through the cabin. He knew they had all been given information on what had happened last time. Even though the boss expected this mission to be largely training in fieldcraft, they all knew that there was a strong possibility someone might have to get killed out there.

"You've been split into four teams. Your gear has a color-coded strip of tape on the inside of your front backpack compartment. Green, Blue, Gold, and Silver. Green, your main job will be to keep our safe house secure and to coordinate the other teams. Blue, you'll be in charge of intelligence gathering. Gold, you're our main field combat team. Silver, you're vehicles and escape routes. Everyone is backup. Understood?"

The chorus of "yes sir!" he received gave him a chill he managed not to show. The idea of being in command after so long taking orders from a captain he'd seen as nearly omniscient in his command of the battlefield was daunting.

He nodded once, firmly, and spoke again over the sound of their jet's engines starting to spool up.

"Any questions?"

Rene's voice came over the intercom when nobody responded.

"This is your in-flight crew speaking. Four hours from here to Sao Paolo. We'll be landing at a rural strip, so expect a bumpy landing. Also, turbulence over the jungle is normal. If its time to start crying and pants-crapping I'll let you kids know."

Arlen gave the intercom a raised eyebrow, as if Rene could see it, then nodded to the new guys and moved into the flight crew area.

A snowy-furred, burly cat turned to the Dalmatian next to him and gestured with his thumb towards the door Arlen had just gone through.

"You see that guy? The Serbians call him the Shadow Devil. People say he killed a hundred men in one night! What do you think of him?"

The smaller dog shrugged and adjusted his neck pillow so he could lean up against the window in something approaching comfort.

"I think we'll be fine."

The cat nodded and grinned, digging out a notepad to start doodling.

"And I think you need to stop drooling over him. Legends are always fictional."

The otter felt like he was underwater, and as an otter he ought to know. The humidity had to be around 95%, and he was sweating into his wife-beater and jean shorts enough that he looked like a local covered in sweat stains rather than a tourist trying to look local.

Which was, he figured, for the best as he sat in the mouth of an alleyway between two flop houses a few blocks away from the target hospital. Gav chewed calmly on a bit of salted fish and took a slug from his water canteen to stay hydrated as he waited for the heavy lump of a cell phone in his pocket to buzz.

Approaching the hospital too directly was dangerous for the unit at large. Even a year later, some of the guards might be the same ones who lived through their prior assault. The otter knew they wouldn't recognize him, as he was never in sight of the brawl Collin's men had been trapped into. However, the lion was his partner in this as he was in most things, and Gav needed to wait for him to get into position or else the lion would be worthless for the recon.

Also, quite a few of their team had been captured and subsequently cut loose by their boss. While the otter was a calm and rational sort, he was pretty certain he would've been very sore if that had happened to him too. No doubt most of their old team was either dead or languishing in some Brazilian hell-hole of a prison. A few might have gotten smart and ratted out the rest, including himself.

His phone buzzed once, then a second time, and Gavin uncoiled from his alleyway crouch to make the several-block walk to the hospital. As he went, he popped a small unmarked grey pill into his muzzle and swallowed it, washing it down with his water bottle.

Several stories above, Collin felt like he was going to sweat himself to death. The excitable lion had taken nearly an hour to get up into the building across from the hospital without being seen, and bereft of any sun cover had been forced to curl up against the wall lip and wait.

He'd signaled Gav to get to work, and now he was lying there sweating and worrying about his friend. The lion didn't have many of those. Most furs couldn't handle his general lack of care for other sentient life, and found his battle lust disturbing. The otter seemed to be mostly emotionless, a perfect cool and logical counterpoint to his laughing, raging, bull-headed tactics.

Collin rose up high enough to sight down the set of binoculars he had.

There he is. I hope this works.

He winced as the otter got to the street corner, visible from the front of the hospital, and fell flat on his face without so much as putting out a paw to break his fall. Collin could see the muscle twitches running up and down the otter's slender body, curling him into fetal position as he started vomiting foam.

Sure enough, one of the hospital's four armed door guards broke from the others and ran down to check the otter, and started gesturing and yelling, though Collin was too high up to tell what was being said.

Here we go.

Tristan stood with his paws against the glass of the two incubators, looking down on his two baby girls. They were tiny, each barely bigger than one of his paws, and their skin an alarming mix of pink and yellow thanks to the jaundice he was told by doctors was common with premature births.

He felt like there was a void next to him.

Tosh should be here with me...They're beautiful.

A nurse coughed next to him before speaking in slightly accented English.

"Sir, you've been here for two hours. Why don't you go take a break and sit down, we promise they'll be well cared-for."

He nodded his numb thanks to the nurse and wandered off in a haze. Eventually, he found himself in the cafeteria, and not long after was munching some kind of bright orange soup, his mind too lost in thought and worry to realize he was eating something that would normally gross him out too much to swallow.

After, the new father walked back up to his fiancé's room, slipping inside to sit down next to the vixen.

She was hooked up to IVs and some sort of machine he didn't recognize, unconscious and helpless, and he felt even more so for not being able to do anything about it. Checking carefully to make sure her paw didn't have more IV's in it, he took hers with his and lifted it up to kiss the cool flesh before rubbing it between his paws in the effort to feel like he was helping her stay warm.

He didn't really register the crash cart rolling by their room or, a few minutes later, when a new patient was rolled into their ward. If he had, he might have realized it was time to run.

Blue team had set up a reason to get into the hospital and were now using it, the four of them touring the building in rented but very nice suits as 'representatives for a foreign interest that wishes to remain anonymous.'

On Tamra's recommendation, Kiyosato had been willing to shell out for a pretty solid operation, and Blue team wasn't going to waste the opportunity.

As they reached an area marked as off-limits in Portuguese, Blue one gestured up with a stripey orange finger.

"What's in that area?"

The helpful tour guide, some kind of PR agent for the hospital, smiled and bobbed her head.

"Employee offices and our patient data center. I'm afraid its off-limits for tours. You understand, I hope, our patients' need for discretion."

The tiger grinned and nodded, gesturing for her to continue down the hallway.

"Absolutely. Glad to know you're looking out for us."

The tour guide continued, not noticing as one of the more quiet members of her tour group stayed behind and slipped past those doors.

"This is Blue three."

Arlen was sitting in a booth at a nice café, maybe five minutes' walk from the hospital, waiting for the host to come back with his to-go order. The four members of Gold team were in their panel van in the parking lot, waiting for lunch.

The black tiger tapped his ear once, to indicate he wasn't able to verbally respond, and listened as the concealed bud gave more information.

"I'm in their computer system now. Their banking software tells me that our person of interest is on the 14th floor Intensive Care Unit. Hold one."

He heard soft shuffling sounds, as the merc on the other side of their communication system hid and waited for a guard to pass by. Arlen accepted the lunch order from the café host, paid, and was outside the van knocking when his man spoke again.

"Okay, um...Looks like there's two other patients tied to the transaction...In the maternity ward? Boss, do you think this might be a red herring?"

He got into the panel van, surveying the three heavily-armed wolves as they hid against the wall to stay out of view of the street. One of them slid the panel shut behind him as he stepped up and sat down on one of the bench seats, offering out the food as he finally responded.

"Maternity ward? Hm. Something doesn't add up. Can you get more information?"

"Patients' personal and medical files are in the other room I think. I had to get the patients' in-hospital tracking number out of their accounting software first. I'll call you from there in a second."

"Roger."

Arlen opened his Styrofoam box and started munching on his reuben sandwich, as the van shifted underpaw and started rolling.

A few minutes later, the ear bud chimed in again, in a whisper amplified up to audibility.

"Natasha Castillas. The hospital notes say it's a false name. I guess they investigate their patients more than we thought. Reading, hold one."

Munch munch. Arlen made a mental note to eat reuben at the café again, should the job grant him an opportunity. Around him, the other furs of Gold team chewed and slurped various sandwiches, and checked their weaponry.

"Premature birth, complicated, two six-month births, both female. I'm sending Castillas' picture to the email server for ops to check into. Um...Notes say her husband is here also. Detached placenta led to serious hemorrhage. Whoever she is to us, she's in a coma. Doctors give her 70% chance of survival. Both premies are looking to survive."

Arlen nodded and set his food aside, swallowing before responding. Mouth-full-itis never sounded good over a cellular lash system.

"Good work, Blue three. Find a way out without getting detected. Meet back up with your team if you can."

"Roger that, boss. Blue three out."

"Boss," jeez, how old do they think I am? Note to self, Trevor Lehnerr is good at stealth and computers.

Tamra's voice came in, then.

"Just got the picture and ran it through all of our data files. She's not an employee of Gecko Corporation anywhere on the records we recovered. However, I did find a...Uh...Video she matches."

"Video?"

"Of Simon Gecko and one of his guards raping this poor woman. Not physically violent. Sound file indicates her name is actually Tasha, accent indicates Russian..."

What the fuck?

"...She's got a real calculating look. I'm guessing she's probably an independent contractor that pissed him off somehow. Gecko is gay as Mardi Gras, so she's not an escort."

Arlen rubbed the bridge of his snout in annoyance. He didn't like ops in which they had no idea what was really going on.

"Summarize for me, Tam. What're we dealing with?"

The cat shuffled paper in the background, and Arlen heard some muffled words he couldn't make out, likely from Buck's girl.

"If she'd been out for financial revenge, she wouldn't have waited a year. My guess is that this is an emergency. She stole information from Simon Gecko and her husband knew to use it if something went wrong with her pregnancy. Lamia tells me the account was probably set up without Gecko's permission, but he might have known about it - It was pretty well-hidden, but not un-findable to someone with the know-how and the time."

Arlen scratched at the scar on his chin.

"Uh...Arlen, our informant with the banks just sent me a message. Apparently Gecko just drained the account. My guess is that means he's about to terminate her. Otherwise, draining the account would warn her he knows."

The tiger looked out the van's window at the hospital, which they were just then passing by. Nothing seemed amiss, unlike the last time he was here. Security looked better, too. More guards, better armed, and the windows all had the sheen of ballistic glass.

"Blue team, I want you to find the room belonging to Mrs. Tasha Castillan. Do whatever you need to without drawing too much attention, but be on the lookout. Gecko's boys are on their way to cause a real mess, and I want to know why. Priority is on live capture."

Blue one's clear, crisp, businessey voice came through.

"Not a problem."

Everything was spinning still, and Gav knew he'd been zapped. The slightly burnt and very achy feeling in his chest was familiar enough, because of the last time he'd used this trick. Just enough of the drug to knock his heart out for a few seconds was plenty enough to leave him feeling like death warmed over for a while after.

His clothes had been cut away, leaving him in a basic hospital gown. It was the worst part of this play - No tools. He also had to rely on others to make a distraction good enough to keep the nurses from noticing when he pulled the heart monitoring equipment off so he could get out of the room and to his objective.

He watched through carefully lidded eyes, waiting for the sign of his distraction.

It took Collin almost an hour, by Gav's count. In that hour, he managed to stay awake and to mostly not think about what was about to happen. Moral qualms weren't helpful to the otter, not on the job anyway.

When the bus full of tourists was t-boned in front of the hospital by a rickety pick-up truck full of improperly safetied gas cans, he heard the dull 'whump' of the fireball going off. The otter waited patiently about three more minutes, as nurses were pulled from most of the stations to go help with the carnage and triage.

Since the doctors couldn't get his drug screen back that quickly, they'd strapped him to the table. Dislocating both of his thumbs by jamming them against the bed rail and twisting, he slipped both paws through the restraints, and spent about thirty seconds relocating the two joints with grunts of pain while rolling the paws against the wall.

After he was satisfied they were working again, the otter plucked monitor leads off of himself, and pulled the IV out of his arm, rubbing at the injection site, and then stole out into the hall, his small, dark-furred form helping to stay out of sight as he moved.

One block of rooms down, he looked up into a hall mirror, and saw something that made his brows furrow in curiosity. Three furs, all in business suits, were standing just outside the room he was headed to. Their tour guide was nowhere to be found. Gav kept looking, shifting a bit until he could see the cover of the vixen's medical file. His eyes narrowed, and he slid back into the hall, back-tracking to look for a way to get clothes.

Getting in there would be impossible. Those three weren't businessfolk, at least not the normal kind. He'd noticed slight bulges in their coats, the sort that meant these furs were armed. Their calm demeanor had belied their chatting - They were on watch. And he had no way to warn his team that they might be compromised somehow.

Tristan was in the cafeteria again, eating something he wasn't even tasting, and watching through the numbness of exhaustion as doctors quickly finished whatever they were eating and ran out of the room en masse. He was too lost in his thoughts to really know what it meant.

Finishing his untasted food, he started back towards his circuit; neonatal care, ICU, neonatal care, ICU, restroom...He didn't notice the otter following him, dressed as he was in nurse's scrubs. Likely he would not have recognized the fur even if he had looked.

Gavin had spotted the wolf and at first not been sure of his identity. The loss of weight, the exhaustion around his eyes, the difference in his posture...It was like little Tristan had become a whole different male.

Reflexively, the otter reached up to touch his ear and signal the team he'd found one of the targets...But remembered he didn't have the earbud any more, and lowered his paw as he followed the wolf into the neonatal care unit. Looking around, he saw glass walls, behind which were a number of incubators, some of them occupied, most empty.

Tristan was alone here, he saw, few nurses around, no orderlies...All too easy. However, he knew the purpose of this mission was about to change. The presence of other armed individuals on site meant he had to be more careful.

The wolf was leaning his forehead against the glass, having gazed down on his daughters for a few minutes, when someone sidled up next to him and spoke, in a soft voice.

"First time father, huh?"

Tristan turned his head just enough to look, forehead still against the glass. Next to him was an otter, short, dressed in nurse's scrubs. He gave a slight nod, feeling the warm glass against his face.

"Yeah...My two little girls."

The nurse put a paw against the glass, and got a half-smile that seemed somehow tired and yet happy.

"Congratulations. If my guess is right, they'll be fine. You're in good hands here."

The wolf nodded, numbly, before turning his eyes from the otter back to the kids. Something was bothering him, and he wasn't sure what it was.

"Didn't know the hospital had any Americans on staff."

The otter shrugged and started walking towards the employees door into the neonatal care area.

"We're from all over, my friend. Look, things are going to get pretty busy soon. Big bus wreck not far from here. Better go back upstairs, alright? I'll make sure your kids are taken care of."

Tristan nodded and waved his thanks, arm loose with exhaustion as he trudged toward the elevator.

Gavin waited for the wolf to lead, as the friendly mask slid from his face, vanishing like a water-illusion. The key card he'd stolen from the lockers slid into the door lock, and the security glass portal unlocked with a click. The otter nodded to the other nurse on duty, and she smiled back before leaving the room as a page came over the intercom system.

He went for the phone first, to update his team. All the while, his eyes stayed on the two tiny infants in their incubators.

"You want to do what?" Collin glowered in the general direction of the hospital. He'd managed to get down off the hell of that boiling-topped highrise he'd been on earlier, and was now regrouping with his team.

The lion nodded to his five men, all armed to the teeth, as he stepped inside the empty auto shop they'd taken over as their base of operations.

"Seriously? And here I thought I was the sick one. Heh, the boss is going to love this shit."

He waved a paw in the air, and the five hardened mercenaries turned their eyes to him.

"Here's the plan. Gavin's going to take one of the two kids. Why kill the targets when we can control them, right? He's going to replace the body with some dead kid from the morgue. Heh."

The lion smirked, and the other mercs kept the uneasy looks off their faces. Gecko was infamous in the mercenary community for paying better than anyone, but being willing to take some truly twisted work.

They all knew this job was personal, though, and their team leader was clearly a bit...Off.

The lion reached over the passenger seat and patted the wolf there on the shoulder.

"Gimme your seat, I gotta call the boss."

A few seconds later, he was dialing, and seconds after that, the always-amused voice of Simon Gecko was on the phone.

"Better be good, Collin. You're interrupting my fun."

The lion raised an eyebrow, hearing a buzzing sound in the background. He didn't want to know.

"So we found your nephew, and you wanna know something great?"

"Certainly, regale me, Collin."

"Looks like he and Ms. Sniper had kids while they were on 'vacation'."

The buzzing sound stopped, and Gecko started laughing, a snickering that gave Collin chills even after years of exposure to it. He had to admit it, he liked working for the bastard. Never a chance to get bored.

"That's amazing! Who found this out for me?"

"Gav did. Sneaky little bastard."

Gecko laughed uproariously, and the lion could almost see him rubbing his paws together with a thunderstorm overhead, like some kind of supervillain.

"Abduct the children. Don't kill little Tasha, and leave Tristan alone. I have...Other plans for them now. Ooh! Even better, take one kid, have the otter microchip the other."

"You got it boss."

Getting the body had been easier than getting it into the incubator. The things were monitored by machines for vital signs from the kids, in order to detect problems before they got out of hand. The only reason he'd been able to get the tiny corpse out of the morgue and into the neonatal ward was thanks to the distraction in the ER downstairs.

Despite the lack of doctors and nurses, though, at least a skeleton crew was left at all stations even in emergencies, and the security hadn't gotten any lighter. Unable to find a way to get the body into the incubator without setting off the alarms, he'd doubled back to the nurse's station nearby, and leaned up against the counter to give the nurse there a light, winning grin.

She was a young, pretty thing, all whiskers and ear tufts. Lynx, he was pretty sure. After a bit, she looked up at him, and blushed at his stare, while quickly scampering paws to close the websites she'd been reading.

"MySpace on the job? Tsk tsk. You know that's a security breach they'll fire you for." Gav's Portuguese was good. No real accent, and fluent enough for the job. Beyond her arm, he saw the computer readout of the incubators, though he wasn't sure what all the little bits of color and light meant.

The way she stammered and fidgeted told him what he needed to know; manipulating her away from the desk would be easy enough. Though he needed to do so without alerting anyone else, so sending her away to talk to someone in HR wouldn't work...

His smile curled slightly, taking on a slightly sinister cant that was entirely affected. Inwardly, he was apologizing to his wife, though she would never know about this. His paw went down to her collar, flipping it a bit between fingers as she bit her lip and looked down, then back up at him as he tugged.

"I'll make you a deal. Come with me to the restroom and we'll...Work this out. Don't do it again, and nobody needs to know."

She turned bright red under her fur, and seemed about to steel herself for a refusal. Gavin hooked his foot around the back of her chair and pushed with his paw on her blouse, leaving her balanced and wobbling, ready to be dropped. It had the desired effect, making her widen her eyes and stare up at him, as her arms tried to reach for purchase so she couldn't hit her head on the desk.

"Make your choice."

The girl looked on the verge of tears as he dragged her towards the bathroom, and nearly fell as he shoved her inside and pulled the door shut behind them. His eyes flitted about and told him what he was pleased to have guessed; a single commode, a sink, air-blower for paw drying. Nobody would interrupt them even if someone happened by.

He slapped the deadbolt into place and walked over to the pedestal toilet, sitting down on it as nimble paws untied his scrubs. The girl was on her knees, staring at him with fear in her eyes. Gav gestured, crooking a finger at her, until she crawled forward on her knees.

"Give me a good blow, and we'll call this even, alright?"

Hurting her would have been a no-go. He would either have had to kill her and risk her body being found, or risk her waking up and finding someone to warn. Gavin had no drugs to knock her out with, or rope to tie her up in, and using bundled clothes for that wouldn't last long enough for him to make good his escape.

So, this would have to do, despite the emotional consequences he figured it might have on her. Small price, he figured.

The tufted ears quivered as she got between his knees, and dug in his scrubs for his cock. When she looked up, it was with tears in her eyes.

"You bastard..."

Gav whipped a paw down, and smacked her hard across the face. When the lynx pulled back, stunned, he grabbed her by the scruff of her neck and forced her face down, his hardening point digging into her cheek as she let out a yelp.

"Suck it, you silly bitch, or I'll do worse."

He had to keep the illusion of authority. It was the only reason this rookie nurse was going along with his ploy. She thought he was someone who could actually get her fired. If she'd called security or questioned him too much, he would have had to kill her, lessening his chances of getting out alive and with the child.

She was crying, as her lips wrapped around his prick, and he grabbed her hair with a forceful paw, pulling her down till she nearly gagged. He wasn't huge downstairs, but he knew what to do with it, and by the time he was done moving her head for her, the lynx was coughing and crying, her tears streaking down around her lips, her eyes averted.

He wasn't so much letting her suck him off as he was using his paw to guide a face-fucking. A quick glance at the clock told him he needed to hurry things along. Collin would be waiting for him, as he'd need to brute force his way through the last couple of security spots.

The otter let go of the girl's hair and pushed her back.

"Top. Off."

She was shivering, crying, compliant...He'd managed to psych her into being exactly where he wanted her. The otter quietly mused that it should bother him to do this, as the lynx was stripping out of her top. When she dropped it to the floor, he crooked his finger at her, and she got back down on her knees in front of him, reaching for his shaft again.

His paw on her throat stopped her, making her eyes bug, and he pointed to the top.

"Bring it to me. With your teeth."

She was humiliated, beaten...The cant of her ears, turned back, told him that as much as her quiet acquiescence did. She laid down on the floor, breasts pressed to the vinyl, and picked up her top, carrying it back to him to lay in his lap.

The otter picked it up, rolling the thing over in his paws, and spoke without looking at her.

"I didn't tell you to stop sucking, so get to it."

The lips wrapped around his dick again, and this time she slid her tongue against him, playing over his pointed prick hesitantly. As reward, he scratched his paw through her headfur, and stroked one of her ears with his fingertips. Her shiver indicated she was taking the reinforcement well, her tears slowing as she realized there was a way to get through this all right.

He unsnapped her bra, and balled it up in his paw as his other one went down to fondle her breast, taking a pert mound in paw and pinching the flesh just enough to make her wriggle in discomfort and speed up her ministrations, bobbing her tufted little head.

Gavin felt the urge to orgasm starting, low in his balls and creeping around his groin, and he looked to the clock again.

Ten minutes to get the child and find my way out. Doable, but not cleanly.

He set the bra an top down on the toilet's tank, and grabbed her by the hair again as he felt the first surge making its way through his balls and up his cock.

"Smile for the birdy, bitch."

She gave a soundless little sob, a heave of her shoulders as he sprayed across her tongue once, then stopped his second shot with a quick clench of muscles he'd learned long ago. Then his dick was free of her hot mouth, chilled by the refrigerated hospital air, and he released his muscle clench. Ropes of white shot up out of his shaft, spraying across her face once, then down her front, staining her professional gray skirt right down the front as the otter made sure to dump enough there to make there be no doubt as to what it was.

The second he was finished cumming, he coldly shoved her backwards by planting a foot on her chest and pushing, dispassionately watching her breasts flop as she fell with an 'eep'.

Standing, he stuffed himself back into the scrubs, then turned and tossed her blouse and bra into the powerful hospital toilet, flushing her things down.

"H-hey!"

He glared at her, and shouted sharply, calculated to make her flinch, which she did.

"Shut up. I'll get something fresh sent up to you. Get rid of the evidence." He pointed at her skirt, then at the commode, and she started shakily moving to strip nude, trying to cover herself belatedly with her paws.

Gavin didn't look again. He just walked out into the hall, letting the door swing shut behind him, and walked back to the neonatal ward. He felt angry, and wasn't certain why.

Within five minutes, he was approaching the rear exit of the hospital.

So much for 'less security at the back.'

The five guards at the rear door seemed wary, talking into their earpieces. He put his back to a wall, staying out of sight as he double-checked his package. Inside the shoebox he'd scrounged from the supply room, the tiny pink infant was sleeping peacefully, wrapped up in nested blankets.

He hoped the kid could survive long enough to be re-hospitalized somewhere under their control. He also reasoned that even if she didn't, the parents wouldn't need to know that. Lies were as good as truth, when one held all the proof at their chest.

Gav took a few deep breaths, holding each until he started to show a sheen of perspiration, then walked around the corner with the shoebox held under one arm, walking straight for the door.

One of the guards held out a paw, stopping him short of stepping through the door by about five feet. He frowned inside, gauging his chances of getting through the security glass as being poor if they made him fight.

The canine in front of him was big. Six foot four, muscular, with piercing eyes that weren't going to miss much. As the dog opened its mouth to speak, Gavin shrugged, smirked, and leaned in to whisper conspiratorially.

"Dildos. Um...For me. Please don't make me report it?"

The guard frowned and flushed, but nodded sympathetically.

"Don't do it again."

Gav walked past, breathing a mental sigh of relief that his story had worked.

The best lies are the ones that make you look guilty of something else...

Gavin dismissed the sense he had of being watched, knowing it for nothing but nerves and paranoia. The otter padded down the concrete rear steps of the hospital and down to the street pickup area, as a grey van pulled up, followed by a pair of black Towncars.

The van's door slid open in a flurry of tropical flowers, as the crazed lion that was his partner grinned and took a photo like some kind of ridiculous tourist.

Gavin snorted at him and got in, sitting down on the bench seat as the wolf hidden against the door slid the panel shut. They were rolling already, as he buckled himself and the shoebox in.

"Heh, how'd you get it past the guards? Don't they search things for contraband nowadays?"

Gav gave a slight smile he barely felt, and shrugged.

"I gave them the 'its my box of dildos' ploy. Hook line and sinker."

Collin slapped his shoulder and laughed.

"Kick ass."

Arlen was in the passenger seat now, next to his team leader for Gold squad, who kept the wheel steady as they rolled through the traffic circle just behind the hospital. His eyes were glued to the rear entrance of the place, as he resisted the urge to drum his fingers on the dash.

"Captain, we've still got nothing. The husband seems too exhausted to be distraught. Didn't even think it weird that we're here. You think it might have just been a bus crash?"

The black tiger scowled. Doubt had entered his mind, but somehow he was just sure this was more than it looked like.

"Gas cans? A fireball like that? Not likely, even here in Brazil. Keep your eyes open."

A minute or so passed, before he heard from Blue team again.

"Shit. Captain, they just told him one of his kids is dead. This wolf's freaking the fuck out."

Arlen put a paw to his face and rubbed at it.

"Alright, back off him, the hospital will notice you're sticking too close if you don't move a bit. If nothing happens in another hour, rendezvous at-"

A light turned green, and a grey panel van nearly identical to their own white one rolled out of the hospital parking lot. The fur in the driver's seat was a canine, German Shepard type. His eyes, however, missed the dog entirely. They fixed on that familiar profile. The grinning, smug lion in the passenger seat.

Whose eyes turned and met him at that moment, a second that burned like the sun, a thousand years in an instant of hot hate.

"AFTER THEM!"

The driver was startled, and about to ask Arlen who when the tiger grabbed the wheel, jerked it towards the grey van, and slammed his footpaw down on Gold one's accelerator footpaw.