Broken Pieces

Chapter Thirty

By Roofles

The menagerie, an exhibit for “wild animals.” It was one of the largest tax breaks Barnes had earned for himself over the years. Acting as a representative for the Wildlife Sanctuary and conservation of land. A front for his real business but an important detail that couldn’t be over look.

After all, it was the best place to announce to the world that you, the man taking care of history and the land, was running for office.

Across the world during the civilized era, special sanctuaries called Wildlife Safe Havens, or Menageries, were created to preserve the diverse life of the planet. To showcase it as a reminder to those who came before. Keeping wildlife and the native people of the planet separated from one another with steel bars and reinforced plexiglass windows.

It had become standard practice for the wildlife that walked on all fours to be separated by those who walked on two in such manner. Miles of land were marked off for these safe havens. A place for “animals” to flourish and live. Museums were built near these places. Able to showcase what was inside for curious minds or for people during school trips to attend.  

Throughout history, rooting back to several beginning text within religious books, there was a deep separation and distinction between these two groups. On one side was wildlife. Feral, untamed species that walked or slithered or swam in the rivers and seas; on the land they crawled or in the sky they flew. Mindless creatures, ruled by their instinct above everything else. Then there were the sapient people. Those who could think and feel, reason, and choose between right and wrong that walked on two legs and would, over centuries, would go on the create society we know to date.  

While their ancestors might’ve come from something close to the wild animals one could read about or see online, there was always a separation between “us” and “them.” Scientists to this day still try and link a wild four-legged wolf to the guy working in an office. Trying to find some ancestral root, a missing link to connect the two chains together.  

This, of course, created a massive backlash throughout history. No one wanted to be associated with their four-legged (possible) ancestors. A divide formed between the scientific community and religious organizations like a chasm, dividing it in two. The scientific community wanted to research, study, and learn the truth while the religious sects claimed no one evolved from primordial animals of old. That God, or whatever they believed, created them separate from them.

“Us and them.”

What one could call a true “animal.” While some groups over the years have tried to return to these roots, society as a whole ostracized them for wishing to do so. No one wanting to deal with the guilt of killing and eating someone else’s possible ancestors in the past, or present...

While others claimed it was perfectly reasonable to do so because there was no scripture that said they were one and the same, despite the closely link ties between them.

A debate that rages on to date.

The only thing they could agree on, was to preserve the “natural life” of these species in sanctuaries or zoos and museums and menageries to record in the history books. To not be forgotten in time. Either it be by “God’s will” or some natural form of evolution, no one denied they existed. Just if they were related or not.

It was claimed, then, that herbivores were the first to help them, these wildlife species, survive where others might wipe them out. As if they, herbivores, understood their blight above others at being hunted down, killed, and slaughtered to near extinction. Creating these sanctuaries to protect them as they created burrows to protect themselves. Living museums to their ancestors or religious ties to house their kind safely within, without fear of someone hunting them down for food or sport. Keeping them alive as if to say, “all livings things deserve a chance at life,” while also taking a jab at those on the other side that would “kill” them.

A political stunt in the end. Herbivores began seeing the positive outlook others gave them when they would go fighting for others “sanctuary of life.” A perfect excuse and ruse for Barnes to take hold of, as if he would care about such wild animals. Using the ancestral fear of old to turn neighbor against neighbor.

To force them to the voting booths during election day for fear that the opposition were supporting these monsters that wore clothes “like you and I.” Barnes speech went on. “Pretending to be civilized. They might’ve changed as the eras went by, but you cannot fool these old eyes.”

Carnivores who needed to hunt and kill and feed to survive in the dark ages were quickly looked down on for doing so as the herbivores began voicing their dissent against them and their ways. It was part of their culture, carnivores, celebrating death with life. It was their way because they had no other means back then to survive and the old hare latched onto it like a bird of prey. “To take a life, to sustain oneself? They claim it to be okay. That it was okay to take a life! It goes against our God given right to life! We deserve life just as much as them. They don’t see us as people, no, they see us as feed for their young.” Barnes would shout and scream to the crowd, and they ate it in like a child would candy.

Rekindling their fears and doubts and concerns. To stoke the flames of hate and build it up to a roaring fire that would sweep through the city, the state, the country, and the world. Setting everything ablaze.

“Where wildlife became sparse or carnivore nations grew beyond what the ecosystem could support, they would turn on herbivores in the past to meet their needs for sustenance. Us. Your friends, family… your children.” Barnes paused dramatically at this, looking away as he clutched a gnarled old hand to his chest.

Barnes was the picture-perfect for his campaign, an example of what a carnivore could do to one of them. Unlike Logan’s scars, Barnes couldn’t hide his. It was a mark of honor he wore these days. A red letter, a reminder to all who looked on him that a carnivore at the end of the day was still a predator. Half his face was scarred, his body hunched slightly with age that he would go on to claim was from previous injuries by a predator. The old hare’s powdery white fur had grayed over the years and parts had fallen out.

“The stress has weighed on me. All these years. Carrying this burden, this weight on my shoulders.” Barnes would sob and ask for a pity vote. “I cannot remain silent any longer.” He’d instantly jump back on the hate train that led his campaign forward. Fueling everyone in the crowd gathered that evening to spread the word tonight.

“Countless wars and bloody battles were fought over the centuries because of this. Men and woman alike breaking into their neighbors house and doing the unspeakable when pushed to such extremes… The one thing no man, woman, or child can go without. Food.” Barnes wiped a tear from his eye, something that even impressed Logan. The old hare could act. “We tried to share our harvests with them. To exchange our crops for safety. They wouldn’t take it.” Barnes went on, speaking to the crowd as if this had happened yesterday instead of centuries ago.

Everyone there knew a carnivore couldn’t survive on potatoes and carrots but Barnes, a Noble Hare, known for being farmers, could use that as another thing to use against them. That the hares of old had tried to reason and bargain with the carnivores. To trade their hard-earned yields for their lives.

Something the carnivores of old refused, “forcing even a hare to bite back.”

Barnes pounded his fist on the podium he stood at on the stage. The stage lights were centered on him as he went on. Yelling and shouting, spittle flying in the air as he demanded retribution for all that he and his people had lost over the years.

“What is a life worth?” Barnes continued and Logan was getting a headache about it all. While Barnes wasn’t technically wrong with what he was saying, there was huge parts of history he was leaving out. Such as European influence on the world.

While it was used a political stunt to go against these carnivores, another group rose up to fill this demand for food at the time. Able to eat meat or fish or nuts and grains… or vegetables. Omnivores.  

It was thanks to humans that domesticated cattle and the river tribes that create fish nurseries that the endless war between herbivores and carnivores came to an end. Settlers from overseas brought with them their trades as they explored these lands. Trading silk and fabrics and exotic spices for food, able to settle things between the two divided groups with the one thing everyone eventually craved. Or at least why the humans of Europe had come over here. Money. Profit. Goods. Seeing the land for what it was. Not the carrots it could grow or the rabbits that would get fat here, no. They saw the wealth lying in these lands and wouldn’t allow their feud to get in the way of profit. With force, and guns, they brought a peace to the land. Or at least, an uncomfortable truce between these different nations. Some nations spent their livelihoods forced to tend to these ranches and nurseries that humans created. Forcing the native cows and bulls to work on the ranches… Growing the very food that resembled them to feed to the stronger carnivore nations.

It might’ve been the first step in domesticating the wild tribes… giving them the meat they desired and craved, while taxing them in the process. Limiting how much they could have. Forcing the wolves and cougars of the land to work for them in order to get something no one can live without.

Food…  

As the years went by, the different groups tried to live in harmony with one another. Everyone wanting to live. To survive. To raise their family and enjoy life. And, as the years continued to pass by, they began to forget what had happened in the past. Choosing to ignore what their ancestors had done and instead go to the same school together. To live in the same apartment. Forming cities together as an unspoken silence weighed between the rabbit and the wolf waiting for the elevator together…

Never. Talk. About. It.

Ignorance was bliss for a reason and the sheep were happy to follow along to the shepherd’s tune. Even if that pied piper was a fox in disguise, making them dance to his tune. Everyone agreeing, without words, that this was better than what it had been.

That, maybe, they all could find happiness. The American dream. Life, love, liberty…

“Until the rifle was invented.” Then there were people like Barnes. People who would drag the cesspool of a past up from the pits it was buried within and force people to see what everyone already knew. To remind them of their hate, to force families to chose a side. That those “with them” were not “with us.”

Hate was a powerful tool. When there was an economic crisis or a major catastrophic event…? You could distract the masses from the source and, instead, point your finger at others. Blame them for what has happen to your “American dream.” To accuse the shark family next door instead of the politician who had sold out his country for money.

It was so much easier to blame a minority group, one that had hurt your ancestors in the past, than to pull the wool from your eyes and see the cold, harsh, truth of the world you lived in. No one wanted to see a herbivore, a rabbit for example, in charge being the bad guy. For why would you want to see one of your own as a villain? When it was so much easier, and more enjoyable, to see a “predator,” a “monster,” a “meat-eater,” as the bad guy.

The news, the media, tabloids, magazines, billboards… there was no end of this finger pointing. Highlighting that one carnivore that did something bad and ignoring the thousand others that were just trying to live their life. Claiming as if this one person was the same as “All the others.”

It made Logan sick to his stomach as he was forced to watch the scene play below.

Barnes knew how to play his part in all this. What words to say, to highlight and inflect on. He was a public speaker and it showed. A true actor. Even Logan had learned things from this man. How to… manipulate others. Pulling their strings and making the people dance to his tune like the puppets, the sheep, they were.

Standing there, in front of the group of people gathered, was the old hare with a scarred over face. Standing before the crowd gathered for his announcement, listening intently, and eating up all his lies as Barnes went over this his history lesson. Reminding them why The Noble Hare’s Animal Preservatory and Sanctuary in Washington, Northeast of Seattle within the dense forest that was protected by his family as native land… reminding them why his people had been given this plot of land by the government.

“To say sorry,” Barnes mocked. “Our people, MY people, were ravaged and killed, hunted down and brutally slaughtered… and the government was sorry. That’s it. They were sorry for what happened to us. To add insult to injury, they thought that this place would be enough. To give us this chunk of land, that was already rightfully ours! To give it to us as an apology and asking us to forget, to FORGIVE what has happened to us! By those… those… Predators.”

Predator. An outdated word used to describe carnivores. A word that Barnes’s campaign ran on. That he was forcibly bringing back. Using the word didn’t directly say carnivore but everyone in the world knew that was what he meant.

“This land, my people’s ancestral home… Given as a bloody apology.”

Marked down as a historical landmark for The Noble Hare’s people and tribes from old, the land was safeguarded from companies or carnivores wanting to swoop in to hunt the wildlife there or take the lands rich resources for themselves. Something that others claimed but could never prove to be true.

Everyone already knew that was a part of where The Noble Hare’s vast wealth came from. They claimed the land was untouched, but everyone knew better. The mines they secretly kept within their homelands were vast and numerous, ravaging their home for profit. Digging deep and throughout the earth to find rich veins of minerals and metals to harvest and sell to support their vast, ever-growing population. Something that was beginning to threaten to burst or collapse in on itself these days.

A possible reason for Barnes’s action now. To blame a minority group, the carnivores, for what his own people were doing to themselves. Instead of looking at the council within The Noble Hare’s, Barnes chose to point his finger at anyone else. Point until it stuck, and that finger just happened to land on carnivores.

Doubling down on this, Barnes jumped on the opportunity to persecute these people and the people, the masses….? They happily blindly followed along with it.

“Now, though. Now times are different. The gun, the rifle, changed everything. The musket of old helped us secure our home from these predators. My birth place! Stolen! Now, recovered…” Barnes went on as he held up the antique piece, a musket he claimed his ancestors had fought with, before carefully handing it off to one of his attendants. His hand was still bandages from where Logan had shot him. “My fathers,” he lied, “created such devices to safeguard my people. To allow us, them, to safely settle here, in Washington. I was born and raised here. With my brothers and sisters and now, my future offspring.”

There was a clap at this. Everyone politely showing their congratulations before letting the hare continue, knowing how little his offspring meant to him. Or to them. There was no profit or benefit in newborns. Not until they could earn their place. To pay their dues…

There was already plenty of hares and rabbits alike that were old enough to earn their value. Unlike the neglected masses of newborns every year within The Noble Hare colony. A group that was already severely overpopulated and underfunded, something Logan was still confused about.

Barnes was born with a silver spoon in his mouth and yet… The Noble Hare colony chose not to shower their children with wealth. Only those at the top ever saw a drop of their vast fortune. Everyone else fighting for what scraps of food was dropped down on them from above. The leftover bits of the carrot or celery stalk that was normally thrown away? Dropped down on the ground for their young to fight over.

“That is why I brought you all here today! To show you my hospitality… to remind you where I, where we, come from. I welcome you all here, to my home!” Barnes said loudly over the crowd that clapped then and there within these vast open halls. “Please. Enjoy yourselves. Read, learn, and see the history that I, and my people, have kept safe from others that would happily want to bury it away from the light of day. Or devour for themselves…”

There was a murmur at that, and Logan had to roll his eyes. The human overlooking the crowd as he performed this ridiculous job forced on him. Looking down on those gathered from his security post.

Bosch and the others were around here somewhere. Even Logan wasn’t sure as he glanced around the second floor for the others. There were security cameras everywhere and Noble Hare guards positioned at every entryway, making Logan question why they were even brought in.

What could Barnes gain from having them here for this ridiculous showcase? Logan needed to figure out as he continued to observe the others down below.

The crowd consisted mostly of rich herbivores and few omnivores, each fatter and wealthier than the last. Barnes really knew how to send out the invitations to this event. Choosing the juiciest members of society to bring in and try to milk as much out of them as he possibly could. One could never have enough donors after all. To milk them dry. A disturbing thought seeing as how the Milton’s had gathered, a family of cows known for their milk production.

Then there were the others, those servicing the crowd. Pouring fresh wines into their silver and gold goblets as they stuffed their faces with countless Hors d'oeuvres being served up on fancy platters as numerous unnamed nobodies attended to their every want and need.

Fat grubby hands with dull nails and hooves reached out and grabbed the various appetizers passing them by. Crushing them in their hand, turning them to mush before shoving them into their face. Being washed down by expensive wines shortly after.

Logan knew this place was supposed to be an almost kind of charity event... Looking down below? All he could see was the money and wealth they exuded and claimed to give to the poor and needy. Humorlessly enough, he had never seen any dollars being spent on helping others here. To them, these people, just like Barnes was doing now… It was a place where you could pat yourself on the back and boast about doing a good job while profiting until the end.  

As if, somehow, they were the ones to keep the peace going in the city and the world. Keeping such a place like this open, changing the world while never actually offering a hand to those in need. To accept others for their differences… This place stunk and not just because of all the bodies crammed into one room.

Barnes did his showcase at the front, flanked by two members of Logan’s current crew. Dozer on one side, Bern on the other. The rhino and bull had sunglasses on, looking like idiots, as they stood there flexing for the crowd. Everyone must’ve felt so safe and secure with such strong, large herbivores standing guard.

Dozer, Logan was sure, was eating up the attention as he made his pecs dance for a cute gazelle up front. Even cramming his dull gray lips together in a kiss at her.

Logan had to roll his eye again as he moved on.

“Checking the perimeter,” Logan pushed two fingers against his earpiece and relayed the information over before walking away from the crowd. He was getting sick to his stomach watching them eat. And he thought Sloan was a filthy eater…

The Menagerie, this animal sanctuary, was a large building looking more like a museum than anything else. It was mostly known for the vast land that remained off limits to civilians, keeping the wildlife inside safe within fortified walls. The Noble Hares were charged with monitory and controlling the population inside, ironically. Seeing as how their numbers were exploding. This was just the front entrance to the sanctuary. An open building with high walls and a stainless-steel glass domed ceiling above their heads. A place you checked in at, went through security before being allowed to admire the museum and history set up within. Then, from there, you could proceed through the security gate in the back and into the open areas in hopes of catching sight of wildlife.

It was like whale watching, but far more expensive.

Within the walls of the building, numerous exhibits had been set up. Showcasing the history of mankind. Taxidermy models of their ancestors had been set up in various positions and setting to show them picking berries, to fighting off predators, or even a very lewd one of a rabbit with saber teeth mounting another.

“Kinky fucks,” Logan did laugh at that. “Rabbits. Swear all they think of is fornicating.” The human rolled his eyes with a shake of his head. And he thought he was the horny one in their group.

The exhibits were protected by large panes of tempered glass one could easily see through. The glass was thick as Logan took a step closer, reaching up to touch it. It wasn’t the exhibit inside that bothered him or how thick the glass was, no.

It was the claw marks on the other side of the glass that made the pit in his stomach grow larger.

On the other side of the glass there were claw marks. Several of them. Faint and worn as if someone tried to treat them after whatever, or whoever, had caused them was removed. Whoever had been trapped in this exhibit had tried to claw their way out… which was strange.

Logan could see from where he stood the back of the exhibit. There was a door there, to the side, that blended into the wall. The room had been modeled to look like the environment of the Smilodon would’ve lived in. Even the walls had been painted and plastic plants stuck up against it.

“Someone of their right mind would’ve noticed the door…” Logan took a second on that. He knew what it meant. He just didn’t want to say it aloud.

Whoever had been trapped in this room hadn’t been in their right mind. The exhibit might look normal right now, but Logan knew that during the off hours, someone had been drugged and dragged into this room… then dosed. Shot up with Primal and gone feral and wild.

In their drug crazed state, they hadn’t thought about trying to escape from the doorway in the back.

“No, they’d have tried to attack the person standing here, on the other side of the glass. Looking in. Laughing…” Logan could picture it. Picture Barnes standing here, safe, watching as the man, a tiger maybe, was drugged up behind this glass and… “Just like Troy had been…” Watching as they tried to attack him.

Barnes getting off on the idea of controlling a predator in such a manner. To bring everyone here, to this place? His private… gallery? It could only mean a couple of things. None of which was good.

Logan reached up to touch his earpiece, about to let Bosch in on what he had just learned but stopped. Logan wasn’t sure if he could trust the jaguar. Bosch was clearly more aware of things going on than he was letting on…

“Did he know?” The very thought hurt. Hurt to think that Bosch, his mentor, could possibly have a hand in this.

Logan couldn’t see past it. Not this time. He had seen what Primal had done to Troy. The tiger had nearly taken his head off in his drug filled state and then he… cried. Cried about it. Yowling in pain at what he, what they, had almost made Troy do.

The imagine of the tiger sobbing like a newborn kitten was heartbreaking. Troy hadn’t wanted that. Wanted this. Barnes had forced him to play the role that Troy, and so many carnivores, spent their entire life fighting against.

“And Bosch is a part of it…” Logan couldn’t believe it as he thought it over. The jaguar was involved in this? Then, did that mean… “Alan.” Logan feared the worse for the human that had been kidnapped here. Kidnapped like so many other carnivores had been.

Did their families ever know? Know what happened to them? Were they at least able to see their bodies after Barnes had his fun with them? Logan didn’t know. And, right now, he needed to make it so that another family, a wolf family, didn’t lose someone as well as he proceeded further inside the building searching for clues.

With his phone out, Logan sent another text message over to Domino. Knowing the wolf would inform his Alpha about things.

“I’m here. Searching now.” Logan sent the text before pocketing the phone. Domino wouldn’t text him back. Logan had informed the wolf that he needed to keep a low profile and every text Logan sent was just as quickly deleted from his end.

Not wanting anyone, especially a certain jaguar, sniffing out what he was planning to do. Not yet. He couldn’t trust Bosch… not yet. Not until Bosch told him the truth.

It was getting late, and the sun was already blocked out from the heavy rainclouds hanging over their heads. An ill omen? Or just Washington? Logan wasn’t sure as he walked away from the crowd and down the walkway, down the stairs and towards the central hall.

The floor were made of some kind of nicely carved marble and the columns lining the walls were made of some sort of limestone mixture reminding him of some ancient Greek hall for the gods, like the Parthenon. Just with walls and a raised ceiling above. Maybe that was what they’d been going for? The room was wide and open, everything was put on display, and it reeked of wealth and inflated egos as they worship themselves.

Logan knew that several within The Noble Hares were suffering from malnutrition and, equally important, homes. Something often overlooked in the news or media these days. How important it was to have affordable housing and, just as important, space. Space for the housing and fields to grow the food required to keep such vast amount of people fed and healthy. To raise children in. A lack of food and space for the over inflated numbers could spell death. A populace that grew too big, too fast without enough support…

“And here they were trying to blame Sloan.” Logan groaned, shaking his head.  

Yet, here, and now as he walked through these halls… Logan wondered how those with such wealth couldn’t support their own. Blaming others? Predators? How did a predator prevent you from tearing this damn place down and creating homes in its place? Sell these ridiculous works of vanity that they claimed to be art to feed their young. To grow more farms and gardens to support your family at instead of…

“This.” Logan was speechless, covering his mouth with a hand to hide his disdain for the ugly piece. Logan wanted to laugh but knew his voice would carry around them in the open hall.  

In the middle of the central room was a massive statue. It rose above the rest, it’s long ears careening for the domed ceiling of the central hall above. It was that of a rabbit, or a hare. More likely a hare but Logan had trouble seeing the difference between the two species at times. As most did. Countless members and numbers all blended together with equally similar faces and fur patterns when you were also related to half the colony in some way or another. The statue was reaching out a hand and, on it, was a bird. Some colorless bird that sat on the hare’s outstretched hand as if it were saving it.

“Sad.” Logan could only say looking down at the base.

A golden plaque had been erected in front of the statue and Logan looked it over.

“The Marche Hare,” it read, and Logan laughed at the notion. “A valiant knight from… something something era… in England? The hell is it doing here then?”

“Brought over by those conceited long ears, no doubt.” A gruff voice growled from nearby. Logan glanced over to see the equally gruff looking gray furred wolf walk out from where he’d been standing guard.

“About time,” Logan muttered having been planning to meet him here. If the wolf took the bait Logan had left for him that very morning.

Logan doubted Gristle would even show up and yet, here he was. Making the human wonder what Bosch had on the wolf to get him to come into the metaphorical, tigers den. A predator like Gristle walking into a herbivore sanctuary? If anyone notice, no amount of howling would save the wolf from being torn apart.

And put on display, like the others. Locked behind one of these glass walls and force fed Primal until you couldn’t even call the wolf a man anymore. Just another animal, foaming at the mouth as he bit at the hand that fed him…

Gristle seemed just as bothered to be here as Logan was. The human watched Gristle closely as he walked over to join Logan in front of the statue. Logan kept his distance, knowing so very little about the man. Unsure if he even was the same wolf Reese and the others were looking for or if he was another pawn Bosch was using. Possibly both.  

Knowing Bosch, it probably was. The jaguar having another scheme in the works having him here. Or maybe one that already paid off…? A thought that left a discomfortable feeling inside. It would explain why Bosch planned to take Gristle out of the equation.

Gristle had already served his purpose and the wolf wasn’t even aware of it. Aware of the target the jaguar had put on his back. What that could be? Logan could only guess. Bosch kept so many things from him that he could only do that. Guess. Gristle had done his job and now…

Now Logan was going to be tasked with putting him down. To bury what evidence Logan could learn from him. Gristle would go down as another missing predator at the end of the day, and no one would be looking for him…

“Bored as well?” Logan asked looking Gristle over. He didn’t resemble any wolf he’d seen and could only assume Gristle had been the runt of his litter. Maybe from a different, outside, member of the pack. He was short but wide. Covered in scars with dirty gray fur that stuck up at odd angles. He was not a pretty man by any means. Seeing his fair share of fights along the way with all the scars prominent on his body. A rare thing to see for a furred covered species.

Unlike Logan who had to wear long sleeves these days to hide his.

“Not much else to do.” Gristle growled. He did that a lot. Growling and snarling as if the sound would make up for his shorter stature.

“What if someone raids us?” Logan jested in a jovial voice, trying to joke about it.

“Who’d be stupid enough to raid this place? Got guard towers, cameras in every god damn corner, walls thirty feet high, and enough members to put down a couple of packs…” Gristle just grumbled, shaking his head. “Just for a bunch of hares. If they weren’t so busy fighting amongst themselves, the rest of us would be dead. Then they could fight over who gets to pick our bodies clean…”

“I’m getting a distinct feeling you don’t like others.” Logan smirked, shaking his head as he kept an arm’s length away from the wolf. Never fully taking his eyes off the man. Gristle smelled dangerous and even a human could pick that up. “Even other wolves.” He noted, looking at the statue and frowning further at it.

“What good have wolves done for me?” Gristle snapped back, grinding his teeth after.

“Then why be here? Why work for some… cat?” Logan continued to inspect the statue as if he found it interesting. He couldn’t believe someone had actually given the giant statue genitals. Maybe this really was some ancient Greek piece they’d brought overseas and across the land…?

“Business is my own, human.” Gristle snapped back. “Better to keep your flat nosed face out of it before I cave it in.”

“Doubt Reese would think that.” Logan said in a soft voice, keeping his voice low so it didn’t echo around the hall. “Or PB…?” It was at his words that Gristle froze. Tensing up on the spot before growling at Logan. The tone of it was low, dangerous, and even Logan regretted his choice of words as Gristle got dangerously close after that.

“What did you say, human?” Gristle took two steps towards him. Logan didn’t back away, this time, no matter how much he wanted to kick Gristle in the groin and run away after like a scared little child.

“Alpha Reese.” Logan just said, glancing over at him. “Has PB.” He went on. “Did you know that…?”

“PB?” Gristle’s eyes widened before his scruffy brow fell back over them, glaring at the human as his lips quivered with anger. Gristle took several heavy breaths that rose up his shoulders before they dropped back down as he growled it out. “You are going to tell me everything you know, right here and now. Or so help me…”

“That’s why I called you over, didn’t I?” Logan asked, quirking an eyebrow at him. “Gristle of the Elysium pack. Or, rather, ex-member…?” Logan asked, needing the confirmation to his suspicions.  

Gristle paused once more, glaring at the human as he quickly looked him over. His short snout sniffed at Logan before shaking his head. Rubbing his nose on the back of one arm, Gristle turned away from Logan.

“You smell like cat piss.” Gristle growled low, a steady rumble that never fully stopped like an old lawn mower that had been forgotten to be turned off.

“I get that a lot.” Logan couldn’t imagine that he did smell of Sloan, not after the thirty-minute scrub down he’d done at the lion’s place that morning. Logan could only assume Gristle was making a jab at Logan for working for Bosch, a jaguar. “Your earpiece off…?”

“Not my first time doing this, sweetheart.” Gristle mocked. “I’m far older than you are, flat face. Lived this long for a reason.” Gristle snarled, showing one side of his fangs at the human. He kept his muzzle shut, talking in crude growls instead. From a distance the two must’ve looked as if they were standing there in silence.

Something Logan was hoping on. Bosch would only be so busy for so long before returning to the security room where the cameras were kept, and Logan needed to act quickly before the feline sniffed out what he was doing.

“Reese and the others will be here shortly…” Logan said. “To finish this.”

“Bury the mistakes. Right, right. Normal pack bullshit.” Gristle grumbled but didn’t say more about it. There was a serious issue he had with the pack and Logan worried he had gambled wrong here. Placing his bet on the wrong man. “How is… he?” Gristle suddenly asked.  

“PB?” Logan asked, confused now.

“No, numb nuts. Reese. How is… he… doing?” Gristle refused to look at Logan as he asked about his nephew. Instead, he grinded his teeth. A bad habit he had ever since he was a pup that he could never get over.  

“Well, he’s Alpha now. So, there’s that.” Logan offered weakly, giving a half assed shrug. “He seems happy enough…”

“Being Alpha? Never would’ve figured…” Gristle ground his teeth creating that horrible sound he was known for.

“No.” Logan corrected. “Reese hates being Alpha. That’s not why he’s happy… He’s happy because of Alan.”

“Who the fuck is Alan?” Gristle snapped. Logan wanted to tell him to keep it down but knew that would only anger the wolf further. Gristle seemed to have a short fuse, making it very difficult to work with the man.

“His mate?” Logan asked finally looking over at Gristle instead of just keeping a side eye on the wolf.

“His… mate.” Gristle’s face went blank for a moment and Logan could practically hear the rusty gears in the old wolf’s head turning. “What kind of respectable wolf is named… Alan?” Gristle snorted, shaking his head. “That isn’t even a bitches name!”

“Who said it was a wolf?” Logan knew Reese didn’t talk much to others, if at all. He figured he would’ve maybe let his uncle in on the fact he was dating a human. A male human at that. Logan suspected Reese was even planning to officially marry Alan by the years end.

The look he got from Gristle was confirmation enough to how oblivious the wolf was about this. Everything. He was just a grunt. A goon in the end. The man you hired to take someone out without asking questions. He wasn’t the brains, just the brawns.

Bosch had hired him to do something dirty before covering the fact by removing Gristle. A wolf that no one would miss. Using predators just as Barnes did…

“Reese… is happy with Alan. It’s a long story. One I think he should tell you.” Logan didn’t have the time for this. He’d wasted enough as it was meeting up with Gristle to warn the wolf what Bosch had in mind. “Just ask him, if you make it out of this alive.”

“Is that a threat?” Gristle glared back.

“It’s a warning….” Logan said before he stopped. He glanced over one shoulder, behind him, at the way he’d come. “Fuck… Just don’t hate me for this,” Logan said before the wolf even saw the fist flying.

Logan’s fist connected with the side of Gristle’s muzzle and the wolf jerked backwards as blood dribbled from his nose.

“The fuck you think you’re talking about? This human would kick yours and your entire packs ass.” Logan practically shouted as Gristle snarled up at him, about to tear Logan apart before he heard it. His stubby ears perked up and Gristle turned to look at the man walking towards them from the adjourning hallway.

Two steps, then a third. From a metal cane that hit the floor. Step, step, cane. Step, step, cane. It made a loud clanking sound as it hit the floor as the hare walked over to join them. A hobble in his step, being flanked by four guards that kept an eye out on everything around him.

“Logan.” Barnes said with a wide smile on his face, seeing the bleeding wolf in front of them. The look in Barnes eyes was one of pure elation. The joy he got from seeing a predator hurt and bleeding before him was akin to lust. “Here I was wondering where you got off to. Enjoying yourself, I hope? Did you hear my speech?”

“I did.” Logan said, without taking a step away from Gristle. He hoped it wouldn’t be too obvious as he looked back at Barnes. “You really do have a way of riling up a crowd.”

“It’s what I do.” Barnes shrugged before eying the old wolf. Gristle and Barnes might’ve been around the same age. While Barnes looked like he was about to croak on the spot, Gristle looked as if he would go fighting and screaming when death came to take him. “Whose this… wolf? Doing here…?” Barnes grumbled the words out at the end making it hard to understand him.

Logan could see the gears in Barnes head turning and quickly jumped in to explain and, hopefully, save Gristles life.

“New guy on the team,” Logan shrugged before turning away from Gristle. He spat at the wolf dramatically before walking over to Barnes. “Ignore him. Not important. He’s just dumb raw muscle, you know how it is… How’s the hand.”

“Been better,” the hare lifted it up to look at. From the corner of his eye, Barnes was still watching Gristle. Clearly not trusting the wolf here. Two of Barnes’s guards followed his every step, with two more behind them, and Logan knew there were even more nearby.

Unless he defused the situation, Barnes might kidnap Gristle on the spot when Logan walked away.

“Sorry about that…” Logan said, half-truthfully. “Kind of put me in an awkward position there, though. Almost blew my cover.”

“Yes. Bosch explained the situation,” Barnes nodded, and Logan was thankful for the jaguar. In a way, Bosch always had his back during a mission. “I jumped the hole,” Barnes shrugged, and it took a second for Logan to figure out what he meant by that. “Got to make a big splash in this community. Can’t just increase carrots stock price to impress these cotton coats.” The hare chuckled and nodded to the side. “Shall we? The air here… stinks.”

“Fucking rabbit,” Gristle snarled, and Barnes stopped, if only for a second. The hare placed his cane down and glanced back at him.

“Logan?” Barnes asked.

“Yes?” Logan worried where this was going.

“Bosch told you right…?” The hare glanced over at him, and Logan could see where he was going.

“No, but I figured it out.” Logan said casually, stuffing his hands into his pocket. He snagged something from his pocket and turned towards the wolf. “Let’s not discuss things in front of… this meat-eater, shall we?” Logan said, playing along.

Playing along as he always had previously with Barnes. Pretending as if they were two peas in a pod. Understanding one another where others couldn’t. Both being mauled and scarred by a predator left them as comrades, in a way. That others just couldn’t understand.

Gristle moved to stop him, and Logan shoulder checked him out of the way, arm brushing his side before shoving Gristle out of the way. It hurt. Gristle was built solid, and Logan winced from the impact, afraid his shoulder might be bruised after that.

“Fuck off.” Logan warned, pointing at him with an empty hand. “You have your orders. Being paid in kibble and bits for your services. Now fuck off. Stinking the place up with that rancid breath of yours.” Logan said, playing the part. Acting it up and even using the words Barnes might say about a meat-eater.

That their breath stinks. Something that might seem so juvenile or childish but addressed a serious issue plaguing carnivores. That the stink of their breath was from the meat they ate. As if to say they ate someone and that was why their breath stunk.

“You…” Gristle ground his teeth.

“Speak when spoken to, boy.” Barnes joined in and with that, Logan and the hare turned to walk away. Heading back down the way they had come. “I had my entire speech set up in advanced. Did you know AI can write speeches?” The hare laughed.

“It can’t fake emotions,” Logan rolled his eyes.

“Neither can I.” Barnes shrugged. “I’m just a dusty old relic of a forgotten era.” He joked and laughed, as they used to. The two knowing just what kind of silver tongue Barnes had. He had been the one to teach Logan how to talk to others. To cozy up to them and say whatever a carnivore wanted to hear to get close enough to gut them like a fish.

“Seem to be doing pretty damn good for yourself then…” Logan went on, flattering and compliment the hare as he dared to glance back at the wolf.

Gristle was looking down at the scrap of paper Logan had slipped him after rudely bumping into his side. A small note, a warning, and Gristle was already chewing the piece of paper up and swallowing the evidence away before turning away from the others. Claiming to return to his post, while instead heading to the side to make sure the side doors were unlocked for their guests arrival.  

“It’s only a matter of time,” Barnes brought Logan back to the present and the human looked at him.

“Uh, sir? What do you mean?” Logan wasn’t sure with the hare. Barnes seemed unstable at times, and others times perfectly in control. It made it difficult to read the hare these past couple of years and Logan had distanced himself from Barnes. Logan was left guessing as they broke off from the main hallway and turned down another side one.

“Sometimes, it’s easier to show you than tell.” Barnes said. “The security room is ahead. Don’t worry, your boss isn’t in. I checked.” Barnes said as if he always had an eye on Bosch. Which he most likely did.

Logan wouldn’t be surprised if every member of his team had a shadow following them. Barnes had enough hares to spare for the job. Keeping one or two following after them, keeping an eye on them and reporting everything they saw or heard. It was why The Noble Hares were such a powerful organization. They had eyes and ears everywhere.

“I swear if you captured another tiger…” Logan frowned.

“No, no. Nothing like that. Well, nothing what you think.” Barnes corrected himself. “See. I realized something from my mistake, Logan. I tried to bring you some random tiger! That just won’t do. No, if I want to win you over… you need something more concrete to who you are. Just like the others, in the hall? They wanted to hear the words I said. The words people were afraid of saying. I said what was already in their hearts. That’s how you win people over. To tell them exactly what they want to hear…”

“What… what are you talking about?” Logan wasn’t sure what the hell was going on as one of the guards opened the door for them and the two walked inside a large box shaped room. It was at least bigger than Barnes’s office had been back at The Red Room.

The rectangular box-shaped room had the lights off and only the glow from the numerous screens on the wall provided them with any light. Logan could barely see things as he winced, half-closing his eyes from the artificial light.

There was a single chair that Barnes took in the room in front of the screen. He spun to face towards the numerous monitors and TVs on the wall. It took a second for Logan to realize that this was a security room and every screen on the wall was a feed from another camera. It was how he had tracked Logan down after he left during Barnes’s speech.

“See. That’s one thing I like about this place. You get a live feed of, everywhere.” Barnes tapped on the console and several screens jumped around showing different parts of the building. He went from the main hall to the hallways, to the art room and even then around the building itself. Showing Logan everything one could see within this room.

As if this was the brains of the entire operation.

The cameras kept moving. Going out further and further and Logan wasn’t even sure what he was looking at. Not until Barnes flicked the night vision on for him. And Logan was speechless.

The camera feed was taken from spots outside, within the sanctuary, in the forest itself. There. In a small clearing within the trees were cages. Numerous cages, or rather, cage wagons. Red bars and yellow trimmed wheels looking like something out of a circus. And inside each of these cages were people. Or at least, Logan saw them as people.

He knew Barnes didn’t. They were just freaks. Freaks in a freak show that he planned to show off tonight for the people or… Why were they in the middle of the forest?

Logan got a bad feeling about all this but kept his mouth shut, needing Barnes to see him as the old friend he used to be to the hare.

“It took the past several months, maybe a year or more, to collect this amount.” Barnes scrolled through the camera, pointing his cane at them one by one before stopping. He clicked the end of it against the glass screen as if he was tapping on the glass to their cage. Trying to wake them up and the old hare smiled at the idea of poking a sleeping carnivore.

Logan was sure each of these people had been drugged. Just as Troy had been. Drugged with some kind of powerful tranquilizer before being shoved into a cage to be put on displayed. To be laughed at and, hell, knowing Barnes they might even throw tomatoes at them like in the olden days.

“Do you think I’d be okay with this?” Logan asked and Barnes spun in his chair to face him. He set the cane down, holding the top with both hands as he stared at Logan. “You know how I feel about innocent people, Barnes…”

“No. But that is where we differ. You see them as innocent? I see them what they are. The monsters they are. That is why I brought you here, invited you into my home, Logan. To show you the truth…” Barnes said truthfully before looking at the two guards who came in with him. “Get out.”

“Sir.” One of them said and Barnes clicked the cane against the floor loudly.

“Get. Out.” Barnes repeated himself and the two guards obeyed. They glared and bumped into Logan warningly before stepping out front. Logan was sure they could still hear them but that wasn’t why Barnes had asked them to leave.

The old hare wanted Logan to see something Barnes didn’t want the others to see.

“Gathering the carnivores here? Well, it wasn’t the real plan. Not really.” Barnes shrugged as Logan face him. The old hare turned back to the console, looking every image over slowly. Looking at them as if they were precious things to some kind of sick collection. “See. I needed a reason for them to show up… Bait. That’s what this has been all about. They won’t show up without it, after all…”

“Who?” Logan asked and Barnes changed the camera feed. It shifted from the middle of the woods, where the cages were at. Then to the main hall where he’d given his speech. Showing every herbivore there.

“Everyone who chose to ignore all the warnings I’d been trying to give them.” Barnes sighed, shaking his tired head. He reached up and touched the scars on his face. Trailing down the horrible claw marks with his fingers running down them. Still feeling where the claws had bit into his flesh and torn his eye out.

“Gathered together…” Logan said slowly after looking the screens over, trying to find something hidden within the image. “You gathered them altogether? For what?”

“They think they’re going to have some Big-Game Hunting event tonight, Logan.” Barnes snorted, shaking his head as he looked at the human. “They want to hunt the predators that used to hunt them. Did you know that? That was why this place was created. To bring the richest, fattest herbivores together… give them a gun and then have them go hunt a predator out in the wild. It was all staged. A huge event that my family held every year. I just had to give them a stage to do so…” He gestured at the screens. “But you see… that is for the old generation. Not the young. The young? They forget. They forget what they’re capable of… they need to be shown the truth.”

“It’s not going to go as you think, Barnes. It never does.” Logan opened his jacket to show the gun there. The one Barnes had given him so many years ago. “Even if you stop me. There are others…”  

“The others I have gathered? Yes. I know. After all… It’s not going to go as they think,” Barnes said almost at the same time. He laughed and it broke into a fit of coughing. “Fuck, I don’t got much time left…”

“What?” Logan looked back at him, hesitating now. “Barnes…?”

“Lung cancer, Logan.” Barnes gave him a look. “I’m an old fuck. If the predators didn’t get me, of course my body had to.” He coughed again. A raspy, wet cough before spitting to the side. “Fuck. Fucking hate this body. Born this way? Hah! Ridiculous. Pathetic. Weak, small and… helpless. Doctors gave me a year or two left if I behave.”

“We both know that’s not happening…” Logan said in a low voice. “Barnes… you really? Is that why you are doing this?”

“I haven’t been myself, for a while. Logan.” Barnes said his name as he rested back, looking at the screens. “I know what Bosch is up to. What he wants. Or roughly. What they want. I kept my medical condition a heavily guarded secret from them. Played along when they offered me the role, the position of power to take. Done it before in the colony. The only man who knows is my doctor... Or, should I say, my old doctor.” He hacked a cough again.

Logan knew what he meant. The doctor who diagnosed him must be out of the picture if Barnes was telling him.

“You planning on killing me?” Logan felt the need to ask.

“Kill you?” Barnes eyes widened before he laughed, shaking his head with another cough. “Ah, no, sorry my boy. If I wanted that… well, we both know you wouldn’t be here.” Barnes rocked back in the chair. “Bosch is kind of a dick, isn’t he?” The hare suddenly brought up. “Won’t even let me leave legacy behind.”

“Something like that.” Logan chuckled, looking at Barnes again. The old hare looked so tired and drained. It explained a lot, in a way. Knowing your death was around the corner… to live a life of fear like that. That was Barnes’s entire life, after all.

For any prey species.

“Ah, don’t you start looking at me like I’m about to keel over any second now.” Barnes waved his concern away, getting on Logan for it.

“Why tell me this then?” Logan asked.

“Because he likes you,” a soft female voice spoke up from behind Logan making the human jump. Logan spun around to see the snowy white rabbit from earlier step out from the corner she’d been crouched in. Ginger gave him a smile as she walked over to join them.

She was holding a silencer in her hand. The very one she’d shot Hendricks with. Logan hadn’t even seen her. Despite her snowy white fur, she had gone unnoticed, and Logan could only imagine the strict training she’d been through to pull that off.

“Gun, please.” Ginger said standing an arm’s reach away from Logan. “Don’t make me shoot. I’d hate that.” She said, faking a pouting face at Logan. “Pwease?”

“Urgh, don’t.” Logan said as he carefully took out his pistol and held it to the side.

“Drop it. And the other one,” Ginger said with a sweet voice that could’ve given Logan cavities. Logan groaned as he rolled his eyes, pulling out the other one. “Toss them aside,” and Logan did as he was told.

“Ginger, huh…?” Logan frowned before looking at Barnes. “Did you plant Hendricks and Ginger in the group? Not just Hendricks… no. You expected Bosch to sniff him out. This other one… She’s?”

“My daughter.” Barnes offered with a shrug. “It’s kind of in our nature to breed.” He laughed before breaking into another coughing fit. Ginger walked around Logan, never lowering her gun, handing Barnes a water bottle and some pills with her free hand. “There you go, daddy.”

Logan cringed at her words.  

“For the pain,” Ginger said but her face didn’t show as if she really cared as she looked at Barnes like waste that needed to be taken out. Knowing Barnes only had a couple of years left must’ve been the best incentive to someone like Ginger, vying for his position.

“She? Barnes… She’s your daughter?” Logan was surprised that Bosch hadn’t found out about this. Barnes must’ve scrubbed her records clean. Creating a fake persona for Ginger to use for this very moment when she might be… useful to Barnes.

“One of them.” Barnes shrugged. “Bosch thinks that getting rid of Hendricks foiled my plan. All he ended up doing is recruiting the very person I had placed as planted for him to take. That’s what a farmer is, Logan. They toil the soil, they work the earth, they plant the seed and carefully water it until it sprouts. Taking care of it until you pluck it.”

Ginger leaned against the older hare and nuzzling his face with her own. Barnes looked just as disturbed by the action as Logan did.

“Daddy says that once he croaks, I’ll get the position.” Ginger nuzzled her button nose against Barnes’s scarred side of his face making the older hare push her away. She just laughed, spinning on a foot before walking around them. Never once did the gun ever shift off Logan and he kept his hands raised. “Once Bosch is dead, then all I got to do is wait. Feign surprise that he died and go from there. Almost too easy. Carnivores are so easy to fool, aren’t they, Logan?”

Logan didn’t need to check; he knew the door was locked behind him. He was trapped in here. Walking into this trap like an idiot. Not that he much of a choice. Logan had even turned his earpiece off to converse with Gristle… did Barnes plan that as well?

Waiting for Logan to let his guard down? That was so unlike him. Logan usually was on edge… when around predators. He’d let his guard down around them because they weren’t lions or tigers, but rabbits and hares. Funny. Done in by his own prejudices.

“Going after Bosch now? What? One big kitty not enough for you?” Logan just used his snark instead, keeping his distance from her. Logan hadn’t even noticed her in the room when they’d come in. Snowy white fur and yet he hadn’t even seen her coming… She was dangerous. That’s all Logan knew about her.

This woman that showed up out of nowhere. Kind of like how Gristle had. Just there the next second. Logan hadn’t even seen them coming…

“What do you know of him? Your boss?” Barnes just asked, giving Logan a knowing look. “You think it’s a coincidence that you met him in that place…?”

Logan wasn’t sure how to answer that, so he didn’t.

“Ah, Logan. How can you be so smart and yet so stupid at the same time? I’ve warned you about this. About them! That cat has been playing you since the start.” Barnes rested back and Ginger leaned over one shoulder smiling at Logan.

“We have eyes and ears everywhere in this city.” Ginger just wiggled her nose at him. “That network? You can’t buy that. It’s something that’s… inherited. You think we didn’t know about you far in advance? Why do you think daddy wanted to meet you to begin with? You got some kinky tastes. I’m impressed.” And she looked genuinely so.

“Uh…” Logan was a bit loss for words. “What does this have to do with Bosch?”

“Mikhail. The Butcher of Seattle?” Barnes said the name with a deadpan face. “Bosch was the one to set that all up. Recruited him far before you... Then disposed of him just as you came back into the picture. Funny, right? Got rid of one tool to bring in another. I’ve known Bosch a lot longer than you have Logan…”  

“What?” Logan blinked. Then he blinked again. “Disposed…? I thought. I mean. I knew. But he’s… Dead?” Logan wasn’t sure how to feel about this. Any of this. “So, he really was… gone.” Mikhail. Milo. Logan wasn’t sure how to feel about this, any of it as he just stood there. Feeling as if one of them had punched him in the gut. “I always figured. Or assumed. I just… needed to know.”

“Of course, seeing is believing.” Ginger said as she leaned over and fiddled with the console for a second before pushing a button. Still, her gun never wavered. The barrel still pointing at Logan. No matter how fast someone was, they couldn’t dodge a bullet and Logan was sure Ginger was already a trigger-happy person.

All the screens changed suddenly and there, in a dark room with a dim light, was a tiger. Leaning against the wall, holding his stomach as he bled. Resting, leaning, and sliding down the wall as he sat there. Bleeding out before Logan’s eyes.

He knew it wasn’t a live feed and still, Logan felt choked up by the sight. The man he hated most.. gone. Just like that.

Over the heavy breathing, there was only a single word said. “Logan.” And then the video went dark.

“Where… how? How did you get your hands on this?” Logan had to ask, had to know as he faced towards Barnes. And there, on the hare’s face, was the look he had been expecting.

Pity.

Barnes looked at Logan for the man he was. A human betrayed, clawed in the back by the one he had trusted and loved the most… to be hurt exactly how Barnes had been. To still, even to this day, Logan had wanted to believe in Milo. A small, innocent, child like part of him had hoped that maybe he could at least have one last final talk with him.

“We have eyes and ears everywhere, Logan.” Barnes just told him. “We outnumber everyone in the city… if it wasn’t for our own personal disputes, we’d be running this city. That’s why I chose to do so. After seeing this? What Bosch and the others are trying to plan? Playing at? Playing with fire… no. It’d just be easier to let it all burn.”

“Bosch did… he shot? Did he… and he knew.” Logan wasn’t sure what to say. Was it the knowledge or the betrayal of his former mentor that hurt more? Logan didn’t know and that pain was soon being filled with anger. An unbridled fury that built inside of him.

“I’ve known… for a long time about him.” Barnes said as if apology. “It was why I thought you, of all people I could trust.”

“What do you mean?” Logan asked, hurt by all this. Who could he possibly trust? Bosch? No. Sloan and the others… they were just predators. Barnes’s lies seeping into Logan as it had done so many others. The old hare waiting for Logan to look at him, his face a silent plea for Barnes to tell him…

Tell him who he could even trust these days.

“Tiana was her name.” It was how Barnes had told Logan how he got those scars on his face. “She was an actress. A tigress, and so very beautiful. I worked as a stagehand at the time. Away from the family. I thought I could be different? I guess… when you have a dozen brothers and sisters? You try to stand out. One thing led to another, an accidental meeting and… well, we started dating. The two of us. A hare and a tiger, heh. Sounds like a fairy tale.  

“It was taboo at the time and that made it all the more fun. A herbivore and carnivore dating? Prey and predator? It was forbidden and we got off on it. She was so lovely, stunning and I got to see her behind stage every night. That was until she got famous.” Barnes had touched his face then, getting lost in the memories.

“You see, she began dating this football player. A publicity stunt. Get her name out there for her new movie coming out. She wanted to be a star! To be on stage! Our love had to remain in the shadows, buried away from all to see… I was okay with that. To be with her? I’d have given everything… she wouldn’t. Her boyfriend found out about us, about me, one late night. I tried to crawl out the window, but he caught me. What he did to me, Logan? No one cared… My family was so disappointed, they didn’t want anyone else to find out. They didn’t need to get paid off. They hid it themselves. My scars? My mark of shame…”

Barnes tapped his cane on the floor.

“To be betrayed by the one you trusted most? If anyone knows how you feel, Logan? I do. I always have. Since the beginning… it was only later I found out about Bosch’s involvement, or I’d have told you sooner. I always planned on it. Telling you the truth... You split ways with him before I could and… and I had hoped that was it… That would be it? Then Ginger informed me you had gone back to him.” Barnes reached up to touch her hand on his shoulder. “I knew you didn’t know then. As your friend, I wanted, needed you to know. To see. To see how things are. That you can’t trust them. All they do is lie and hurt those they claim to care for most.”

“You can’t trust a predator, Logan.” Ginger finished for Barnes as he coughed. “No matter how much you want to. They’re all dangerous.”

“And that’s why I gathered them here,” Barnes turned back to the console. Focusing on the main hall where all the reputable herbivores from around the city had been gathered together like pigs in a pen. Logan saw them for what they were.

Chum. Bait. It would’ve been easier if Barnes had just thrown pigs blood out over them for what he had planned.

“Drugging a bunch of predators isn’t going to turn out how you want it to.” Logan stared at the screen blankly. “They…” He wanted to defend them. Every time he tried to; he remembered the claws on his back. “They aren’t…” The bite of those nails, tearing into his flesh. Creating ribbons of red. “He’s not…” Sloan’s teeth biting into his thigh. The warmth of his blood filling the lion’s maw. “They wouldn’t…” Bosch dry humping him. Barbs flaring out and dragging on Logan’s insides, pulling, and tugging at him as the jaguar took him dry and raw. “It’s not like…”

Logan closed his eyes. Unsure what to say. Or how he felt.

“Of course it isn’t, dumbass.” Ginger sighed heavily, getting bored of this. “We’re recording everything, Logan. Think! All we need to do is some fancy editing here or there and change it to look how we want the public to see it. It’ll be the ultimate snuff film ever shown on live television…”

“The public…” Logan swallowed. “You are planning on recording th-these snuff films and show it everywhere?” Logan turned to go but the door was locked, and he’d been disarmed already. He felt uncertain, disarmed in more ways than one. He was breathing heavily, and he kept seeing flashes of the tiger. The lion. The jaguar. Who could Logan go to? Who would even help him… who would help a human? “How… Barnes, you can’t just…” And Logan turned around to see the old hare with the vial of golden liquid in one paw.

Ginger took it from him and carefully administered the drug to the older hare. Just a single drop for each eye that Barnes tried to blink away.

“The fuck,” Logan cursed. “You’re taking Primal?” Confusion and pain, loneliness and loss replaced once more by anger. It was a front and the two ignored his outburst.

“It’s a diluted solution.” Ginger explained as she carefully put it away. She took off the gloves she wore and tossed them aside. “Can’t be too careful though. Can’t be getting this stuff on the skin,” she licked over her paw padded finger. “It absorbs naturally, did you know that? We just administer it through the eyes because it gets into the system faster.”

“Helps take the edge off, Logan. Dulls the pain.” Barnes let out a slow breath between clenched his teeth. “Not like I have much longer anyways,” he laughed weakly.

“It’s fucking with your mind, Barnes!” Logan wanted to shout at him but simply taking a step closer caused Ginger to get in the way. She was ready for him, trained just as Logan had been. Was Bosch aware of this? Did he know? Or… “Bosch.” Logan said, unsure what to feel about the jaguar.

About anyone. Did he have anyone left?

“Very good, Logan.” Ginger clapped for him. “You’re figuring it out. This whole entire team? It wasn’t just for these fat pigs,” Ginger laughed hysterically. Finding the entire thing to be the most amusing thing in the world. “That jaguar? That fucking cat? Ordering me around? Like I’m some kind of mutton to be used? Planning to chew me up like the others and toss me aside… I’m not some nobody!” Ginger shouted at Logan, huffing heavily after as her body shook with anger. “He and the others had this coming. Looking down on me because I’m some rabbit.”

“Others…” Logan jaw clenched tightly. He needed to control his own fucked up emotions right now. The others were in danger and, just like always, that was the grounding force Logan needed right now. He could self-medicate later during his pity party.

“Why do you think we attacked that place?” Barnes sighed, resting back as the drug coursed through his system easing his pain. His limbs shook every now and then. Twitching as his muscles spasmed before easing back, practically melting into the chair. “We know exactly how dangerous it is to mess with Zhong and the big three.” He coughed again. “Fuck, wish that would at least help with that. Still feels like I’m coughing up broken shards of glass.”

“The three? You mean the lions, wolves, and hyena? This isn’t just about Bosch or the neutral zone… You planned to gather everyone here!” Logan made to move forward, but once more Ginger was there. Standing in his way. She might’ve been a foot smaller than Logan was, but he didn’t dare underestimate her.

Not with that pistol pointed at him.

“You’re safe.” Ginger explained. “Barnes said you and I would get along great. Once we get your… fetish, taken care of.” She shrugged, rolling her neck before looking at the screen. “See. They’re already here.”

Logan dared to look over. On the camera feed, on the side entrance, were a pair of sharks. Standing at the door that was soon opened and unlocked by someone on the inside. The sharks motioned behind them, and several others came out.

“They really were planning on raiding this place.” Logan said in disbelief. They were part of Zhong’s gang. Meaning the otter was back in the states and had learned what Barnes had done within his territory. The Asian small, clawed otter was just retaliating in kind.

Barnes had forced his hand. Zhong couldn’t overlook the blatant display the hare had done. That disrespect had to be repaid in kind and Barnes had planned for it. Luring them all here.

But it wouldn’t go as Barnes thought. Logan had convinced Sloan to stay behind. Even if the cackle and the wolves showed up… at least Sloan would be safe from this bloodbath.

Sure enough, Barnes switched the feed over and showed hyenas at the other door. Everyone being invited here. Brought into this place together. They were armed to the teeth. They were looking for blood and Barnes would give them it.

“Gather all the pieces together. Then let them kill each other.” Ginger smiled at the end. “We don’t even need to lift a finger. We can go on to blame them for everything after tonight. A few altered videos? Some alternative facts? That’s all it’ll take for people to eat up our lies. They want them to be the bad guys of the story, so we’ll make them that. Easy enough.”

“How do you plan to take Bosch out? The others I get… Bosch though?” Logan asked, wanting to get as much information as he could before he needed to force his way out of here.

“We have back up plans for that, Logan. Nothing for you to worry about.” Barnes sighed as he sat up in the chair seeming to balance out from the drug he’d been given. “We can just wait in here, the safe room, and wait it out.”

“What’s to say The Cackle and The Marina don’t band together? I’m sure Zhong has already worked that out…” Logan said, fishing for more information before he could act. Knowing Barnes? The old hare had half a dozen different escape plans in mind.

Logan had learned that from the hare, after all. To always have an escape plan ready.

“The entire building has a sprinkler system within it, Logan. In case a fire breaks out.” Barnes sat up slowly, carefully as he steadied his breathing. “We added a special… mixture, to it.” And the old hare looked at him with wide eyes, his pupils dilated from the drug.

“Be a shame if a fire went off. All those big shirtless aquatic goons will get rained on.” Ginger wiggled.

“And the liquid will absorb into their skin... They’ll go berserk with that much Primal introduced into their system. If they don’t just flat out die!” Logan couldn’t believe this. “You are planning to lure everyone here then make them go berserk?”

“Feral.” Ginger corrected.

“Showing their true colors.” Barnes added in. “Recorded for the world to see.” He motioned at the screens. “A perfect show to run my campaign on. Mayor? Governor? I’ll run for president! No one will be able to ignore it. Not after tonight.”

“And with some editing.” Ginger winked. “They can’t ignore it if a bunch of politicians end up on a carnivores plate.” Less competition.

She didn’t need to say the last part. Logan got it. As a rabbit within The Noble Hare colony, the less competition the better. That’s how she was raised. In a hole in the ground. Fighting for scraps of food that your parents would rain down on you from above. Fighting her brothers and sisters to survive. Clawing, biting, scratching… whatever she had to, to survive.

It was no wonder that Ginger got a taste for blood.

That look in her eye? She craved blood just as much as any carnivore did. It was the thing that Mikhail had always told Logan.

“You might not be a carnivore, but you are definitely a predator…”

And Logan would have to believe the tiger as he lunged forward.