The Fire Triangle -- Part II, Oxidizer

The Fire Triangle: Book II - Chapter 42

As the three of them came barging into the exam room, it became quickly obvious that the one in the center was the leader. He wasn't any bigger than the others, or any more muscular, but he carried an unmistakable air of authority.

Stepping to the forefront, he folded his arms, giving everything a quick survey.

His eyes remained focused on Conor for less than a second before they moved on...to the pair of young deer and the black bear, huddling in the corner.

"You...OUT!" he snarled, pronouncing the first word as 'Ju' and cocking a thumb at the door.

The three young mammals jumped instantly to their feet and went scuttling for the exit. As they beat their hasty retreat, none of them so much as glanced at the silver fox laid out on the examination table.

He didn't hold it against them; what the heck could they have done anyway?

"Not ju, El Tigre Tasmania," the leader snarled, blocking Billy's path to the door with his machete. "Ju stay here!"

"Cor, I weren't goin' nowhere!" Billy tried to protest...but the big otter just ignored him, instead turning his attention to Erin.

"Ju too, coneja blanca! Ju stay, too!"

"All right, all right," The young doe-bunny raised her paws, backing nervously away from him.

Meanwhile two more members of his crew were coming through the door. The first one held little interest for Conor...outside of the fact that she was the only female in the group.

That second one though; he wasn't the biggest animal either-but he was definitely the hardest, and easily the most heavily armed. In addition to a machete, he was carrying a tomahawk, two flash-bang grenades, a canister of pepper mace, a taser-flashlight...and strapped to one thigh, the piece-de-resistance; a short-barrel shotgun.

But it was the sullen look on his face that drew the bulk of the young silver fox's attention...mostly because it was directed elsewhere rather than at him. He filed that away for future reference, at the same time sending up a silent plea.

"Danny...if you were ever right about any of those things you taught me, please be right about THIS."

The Deguello leader, meanwhile, had become as jolly as a Pirate of Penzance.

"Heh, heh...what'd I tell you, socios?" he said, stashing his machete and letting out a belch of laughter, "Easiest 50 thou ever! An' right in our own backyard, too." He turned a beaming smile on the heavily-armed otter. "Somebody down there mus' like us, huh, Verdugo?"

The enforcer only grunted and shrugged indifferently. The rest of his crew, however, was a different story.

"You said it, Caz," the otter on his left sniggered, clapping him on the shoulder.

But not all of them...

"Hey let's collect the dinero first, before we celebrate, huh?" The female otter was also not laughing...and it brought the others instantly back down to earth.

"Yeah, Hechi's right." the leader growled. "C'mon lil' zorro, you're coming with us." He began to move in Conor's direction.

The young fox frantically threw up his paws. "Wait, hold it; listen to me. That 'wanted' poster's bogus. There's no reward out for me; you're wasting your time over here."

Caz only stopped and shrugged. "So...? Then it's two hours of our lives we don't get back, an' the ZPD owes us one. I can live with that okay."

He began to move forward again.