The Island of Doctor Meow.

The Island of Doctor Meow.

It was to be Nick Wilde’s first major field mission with the ZIA, which he had joined after growing bored of the tedium of working as beat cop for the ZPD, or so went the official story at least. The truth was that Chief Bogo had caught him fraternizing with his partner Judy Hopps one too many times, and told him he that must chose between resigning, transferring to another department, or being fired; Nick chose the second option, and thankfully he was soon accepted into the ranks of the ZIA. Since Nick was new to the world of spy-craft, he was partnered up with an experienced agent, a rabbit who went by the name “Jack Savage”.

The time soon came for Nick to meet the mysterious head of the ZIA, and he struggled to contain his laughter at the sight of a tiny mouse riding atop a specialized Zegway scooter. Sensing his amusement, the director scowled at Nick and said “you would be wise not to underestimate me Wilde”, which caused Nick to look down at the floor and say “sorry sir” in an apologetic tone.
Speaking though a tiny microphone, the mouse cleared his throat and said “now then, let’s get down to business; a scientist named Doctor Meow, who was doing classified work for the ZIA, disappeared without a trace after he was told to put a stop to his research.”
He took a tiny photo out of a mouse sized folder and handed it to Nick; it showed a tiger that certainly looked the part of a mad scientist, as he was wearing a lab coat, gloves and goggles.

The mouse continued reading from his notes “A few months later our satellites detected construction of a fortified base on a remote tropical volcanic island, and we sent one of our best agents to investigate. After successfully infiltrating the facility, our agent reported that it was being run by none other than our rogue doctor, and that he is continuing his illegal biological weapons research. Unfortunately, it seems that her cover was blown, as we have not been able to contact her for the past two weeks.”
The director looked Nick in the eyes and stated with a tone of cold authority “your mission is to put a stop to Doctor Meow, recover his research so that we can develop counter measures to it, and to recover our missing agent, if she is still alive."
He then handed Nick another photo and said "she goes by the code-name ‘Skye’"; the photo showed an attractive tan colored female fox, who was wearing a skin tight wet-suit and posing with a speargun.

After giving Nick a few moments to look over the tiny photo, the mouse said “Skye and Jack were partners for several years, before they recently had to be split up, due to excessive fraternization, and a lack of focus on their missions.” Looking up at Nick he said, “our records show that you and Jack have this problem in common, so hopefully you can understand the issues that these situations can lead to"; this provoked a guilty look from Nick. The director continued, “Nick, you are here to make sure that Jack does not loose sight of the primary mission, which is ending Doctor Meow’s research, permanently. To that end, you will be accompanied by a sea otter demolitions team, who will, if necessary, destroy the facility using explosives... hopefully after the three of you are safely outside of it. This mission will likely require actions outside of the scope of what we are officially allowed to do at the ZIA, so secrecy is paramount and officially this is just a training mission.  As he was packing all his tiny papers back into their envelope, the mouse said "My secretary will give you all the information we have gathered on Doctor Meow and his facility; that information is all to be destroyed once you have memorized it. Jack has already been briefed on the mission, and he will of course be the agent in command. Good luck Nick... you'll need it.”

Once Nick finished his three day crash course in ZIA techniques and tools, they were ready to head out. Jack and Nick were dressed in sharp black suits as they boarded an unassuming and unmarked sea-plane at the Zootopia International Airport. Once the plane was in the air, they were lead to the back of the plane by an otter, where they saw several additional otters who were already busy opening up a pair of crates. Inside the larger wood crate was a small sleek black speedboat, just big enough for four mammals around Nick’s size. Inside the second smaller crate was a fairly substantial pile of explosive charges,  which the otters then began loading into waterproof backpacks along with what appeared to be detonators.

By the time the plane neared the drop point, a few miles north of the island, it was the dead of night. The plane had already been flying low for a while, and now it dropped even lower, such that it was skimming the surface of the water. Nick and Jack boarded the speedboat, which the otters then pushed down a wooden ramp they had assembled, and then out the now open rear cargo door. The speed boat landed in the ocean with a big splash, but thankfully it didn't capsize or take on too much water, and after a few moments, Jack started the engine, which made a barely audible rumble. The pair then took off for the unoccupied north of the island, going slow as to avoid making noise or a noticeable wake, just in case a guard happened to be watching.

By the time Nick and Jack reached the small cove that was to be their landing point, it was two AM local time. The pair then pulled the boat onto the beach, and covered it with a tarp that matched the black volcanic sand. They then took off their dry-suits, revealing their black spy suits, and tucked the discarded gear under the tarp. Leaving the boat behind, Nick and Jack then began the long walk through the sparse forest that filled the space between the volcano and the beach that surrounded the island, towards the compound of Doctor Meow.


The pair of ZIA agents reached the chain link fence surrounding the compound at just after three AM, and thankfully they did not hear any signs that the alarm had been raised. They surveyed the base through the surrounding chain link fence for a few minutes; there were no guards to be seen, and at this time of night, most on the island should be asleep.
Using a pair of bolt cutters, Jack made a hole in a secluded portion of the fence, behind a discarded piece of plywood that had been left leaning against the other side. The fox and rabbit then slipped through the fence as quietly as they could, and then moved to the secluded side of a nearby shed.

Their target was the largest building on the island, a converted warehouse which had been built such that half of it rested on a concrete pad, while the other half rested on a large wooden dock that jutted out into the sea. To reach their destination, they would have to sneak past several huts, where most of the inhabitants would likely be sleeping.
Just past the huts was a small concrete storage building, and Jack noticed that the windows had been crudely barred up with scrap metal. Jack turned to Nick and whispered “Skye has to be in there, I need to get her out”. Nick whispered back, “you know that’s not our primary objective, and it could be a trap.” After a quiet argument, they agreed Jack would sneak over and take a peak in one of the windows.

Jack made his way to a window that conveniently had a crate in front of it, and climbed up it quietly. The glass of the window was missing, and had been replaced at some point with a now rusty screen.  Jack peered through it to the interior of the makeshift prison, and the first thing he saw was the head of a tiger poking out of the blankets on a cot opposite the window; it was not the face he was hoping to see. “That must be must be a guard, this complicates things” Jack thought to himself. He then looked around the room until he saw a second smaller cot, right under the window he was peaking through. The nearer cot was occupied by a tan colored fox wearing a t-shirt and shorts, who Jack recognized immediately as Skye, and that sight brought a big smile to his face.

The rabbit agent then began to formulate a plan in his head; he couldn’t rescue Skye without  making enough noise to wake the tiger, and the the tiger could easily overpower them both if he woke up, so the he would have to be dealt with. His decision made, Jack reached into his suit and pulled out his silenced pistol, then took aim at the tigers head through a small hole in the rusty screen. The gun hardly made a sound, and the same was true of the tiger as the bullet went between his closed eyes. However, the combined sound of the silenced gun and the bullet hitting the tigers forehead was loud enough to awaken Skye, who was sleeping right under the window Jack fired through.

Skye bolted upright and turned her head first to the tiger, and then to the window where saw the barrel of a gun and the broken silhouette of a figure, who she didn't recognize right away.
“Please don’t shoot me” Skye pleaded softly. “I would never do that” replied Jack, taken aback. Recognizing his voice, Skye said "Jack!", but her tone then shifted to anger and she said “why the fuck did you shoot Henry?!” said Skye, her voice now angry.
“The guard? Well he certainly wouldn’t be on board with my plan to break you out” replied Jack in a slightly sarcastic tone. “He wasn’t a guard you stupid asshole, he was a prisoner here too!" replied Skye. After suppressing her anger, Skye continued, "Dr. Meow had Henry thrown in here a few days after he locked me up, for sabotaging his bioweapons research."
Jack tapped his gun on the screen, and then said in an apologetic tone “well I'm truely sorry but, unfortunately there’s no undo button on this thing, so we have to move forward here”.
“He could have helped us you impusive idiot, but yes, I still need to get out of here” said the fox as she walked over to the other cot and pulled the sheets over the dead tiger's head, before shaking her own.

Skye heard a scraping sound and then the thump of something heavy landing on her cot, which she quickly returned to. Jack then whispered “I think I hear someone coming, use these bolt cutters to get yourself out after they check on you. Oh and take this just in case”.
Skye pulled the small handgun through through the hole in the screen, it’s was the one Jack kept hidden in a chest holser for emergencies. She cocked the gun and tucked it under her pillow, then laid down on the bolt cutters, feigning sleep.
As Skye laid there listening for approaching footsteps, her mind raced and she began to think about how she would escape. There was no good angle to cut off the big padlock on the door with the bolt cutters from the inside, and they weren’t strong enough to cut through the bars, so someone else would have to let her out. Skye though to herself “Jack really fucked everything up this time, the director was right about him, he can’t think rationally about anything that involves me.”

After a minute of tense silence, Skye finally heard footsteps approaching the window.  The guard walked right up to the crate in front of the window, and she hoped that it kept him from getting close enough to notice the damage to the screen between the bars.
The guard then walked up to the door, looked at the fox pretending to be asleep and said, “I heard voices here a minute ago, so I know you’re awake; who were you talking to?”
After a moment Skye answered “I know we're not supposed to talk to each other, but I got into a bit of an argument with Henry and...”
The guard cut her off by saying “why do I smell blood in there?”, to which Skye replied “oh uh, Henry slipped and hit his head, but I think he’s OK.” The guard then yelled “hey Henry, wake up, are you OK!?” He received no reply, so he took out the key for the padlock on the door and said “if you killed him, you’re dead too”.

This guard had been close friends with Henry before he was locked up for sabotage, and that made him carelessly walk right over to Henry, without searching Skye and her bed for weapons first. As the guard leaned over to lift the now bloody sheets over the “sleeping” tiger’s head, Skye knew she had no choice. In one fluid motion she hopped to her feet, swung the pistol out in front of her, and then fired a single shot into the base of the guard's skull. The small short barreled pistol was not especially powerful, having been made for use by a rabbit, but her aim was true, and it dropped the guard dead. Unlike Jack’s main gun, this one was not silenced, and firing it in the small cell left Skye's sensitive ears ringing. The sound of the gunshot was also heard by almost everyone on the island, including Jack and Nick.

Jack was moving quietly towards the main building when he heard the guard talking to Skye, which made him slow down and swivel his ears back. He knew what the primary mission was, so he kept moving forward, at least until he heard the cell door open. Knowing that Skye was now almost certainly in danger was too much for Jack, and so he headed back towards the cell, stopping between pair of generators where he was somewhat hidden, but had a diagonal view of the front of the cell. Whe he heard the gunshot ring out, he immediately recognized the sound as having come from as the gun he had given Skye.  Jack was able to see the guard fall over dead onto the cot containing the other dead tiger, and while he was glad Skye wasn't the one getting shot, he knew that sound would draw in others who would try to do just that.

Thinking quickly, Jack decided that he needed to cause a distraction so that they could escape, and he also needed to prevent them from easily being hunted down. Luckily, he just so happened to be standing in place where he could do both at once. Jack fired his pistol at the fuel pump of the generator that was running on his left, and it quickly ground to halt, taking out the camp's lights. The rabbit then ran to meet the fox, who had taken her chance to escape, but just as they met on the grass between the generators and the cell, they heard the second generator rumble to life, which brought the lights back to life with it.

Nick was sneaking alongside the warehouse that Jack had been on his way to, and had been busy looking for a discrete way in when he hear the gunshot. Unlike Jack, Nick he had no idea who had fired that shot, so he dove behind a group of crates and barrels that had been left in front of the building. Nick's heart was racing like it was going to burst, but he drew his own silenced pistol and cocked it, hoping that he wouldn't have to use it. Seconds after Nick hid himself, a metal door a few feet away from him burst open, and a pair of tigers dashed out, with rifles in hand. The fox knew this was his probably his best chance to get inside the building, and he didn't hear anyone else coming, so he caught the door just before it closed and slipped inside.

Skye and Jack could hear the shouts of the approaching guards, and they knew they had to move quickly. Jack motioned for Skye to follow, and as they ran past the second generator, Jack fired two shots into it's circuit breaker panel, which produced a shower of sparks and again plunged the camp into darkness, but left the generator running. Unfortunately for the pair of them, cutting the camp's power didn't change the fact that tigers have excellent night vision, and they were soon being fired on by several of them, who thankfully were not very good shots. Jack and Skye ran towards the warehouse door which Nick had just entered, and now that the magnetic locks had no power, they were able to enter as well, just in time to escape a hail of gunfire.

Poorly aimed gunfire from the pair of guards stuck the large propane tank adjacent to the warehouse, causing liquid propane to flood out onto the grass. The boiling liquid propane quickly reached the damaged generator and ignited, producing a large fireball that then engulfed and detonated the damaged tank.  Jack looked at the flames raging outside the window and said "we have a few minutes at most before this warehouse or the dock it's on collapses, if the fire doesn't suffocate us first". Hearing Jack's voice, Nick emerged from the storage cabinet that he had hid in when he heard the door open, and said "I'm so glad it's you, come quick, I think I found what we are looking for".

The trio the walked over to front of a large plexiglass chamber full of equipment and cages. They could see that at least some of the cages were occupied by lemmings. "We have to help them!" said Nick as he reached for the handle of the door to the chamber.  Jack put his paw on Nicks and said "no Nick, you can see that they look ill, and I hear them coughing, we don't know what they are sick with". Nick pleaded "it could just be from the smoke, we can't leave them in there to die". Jack pulled Nicks hand off the door handle and said "we cant take that chance". Their discussion was then interrupted by the appearance of an enraged tiger wielding a fire ax.

It was none other than Doctor Meow himself and he yelled "you've ruined everything! I'll kill you all!" as he charged at them with the ax raised over his head. Jack, Nick and Skye all opened fire on the tiger, who fell dead on the floor at their feet, while his ax ended up embedded in the plexiglas right above Jacks head.  Looking up at the ax, Jack said "that was a close one, but on the plus side we just achieved the primary objective". Nick walked over to a computer next to the bio-security chamber and Jack said "that's too big for us to carry". "True, but this is small enough" replied Nick as he unplugged an external hard drive from the computer. Seeing the drive, Jack said "good thinking, I hope that contains what the director wanted, because we don't have time to look any further".

By this point the building was filled with smoke and the ceiling was beginning to cave in, so the trio needed to make their escape; luckily, the means for that had been obvious from the time they entered the building.  In the front of the warehouse was a beat up looking fishing boat that was hanging from a hoist over a hole in the floor, which was open to the ocean below. The trio hopped into the boat, but now they needed to get it into the water, which was about  twenty feet below, and the hoist had no power. Taking a chance, Jack fired his pistol at the old hoist's gearbox, shattering it and sending the boat plummeting down, as fast as the unspooling straps would allow. The boat hit the water hard, which caused all aboard to fall onto the deck, but both the boat and it's new crew survived the impact. Skye got to her feet and then sat at the controls of the boat. There were no keys in the ignition, but she was able to hot-wire it in just thirty seconds. Skye gunned the engine, and they got clear of the burning dock just seconds before it collapsed, sending the burning remains of warehouse down into the water with it.

Skye soon heard water sloshing around in the boat's hold, and said "the hull must have cracked when we hit the water, I don't think we're going to make it very far!" Jack replied "circle around the island, Nick and I brought a boat of our own, and we can use that to get to the rendezvous point". They made it most of the way to where they had left the speed-boat, before the rising water entered the engines air intake, causing it to seize. Skye turned the crippled boat towards the nearby shore and it came to rest on a sand bar. The trio then hopped out into the water and waded to shore. After a few minutes of walking they came to the spot where they had left the speedboat, which was just as they had left it. Nick and Skye pushed the boat back into the water, while Jack folded up the tarp.

They sailed in silence for a few minutes before Nick cleared his throat and said "well that didn't exactly go acording to plan, but we got away safely anyway". "Don't jinx it!" replied Jack and Skye in unison, before laughing and then saying "jinx!", again in unison. The trio shared a laugh, which releived some of the tension.  After a more few minutes of quiet converasation, the sea-plane came into view. When they reached the rear of the plane, the team of otters, who's services hadn't been needed, were there to great them. One of the otters attached a winch cable to the front of the boat and they hauled it aboard. As soon as the rear door was sealed, the pilot throttled up the engines and they headed off into the rising sun.

Since the three agents had been through a lot, the director allowed them to sleep a few hours in the base dorms before debreifing them. When they awoke, the director congratuated the three of them on their success, even though the mission had not gone according to plan. The base had burned to the ground, and all it's inhabitents were presumed dead, though that wasn't one of the objectives and it left Nick with an uneasy feeling. As to the hard drive that Nick had recovered, the director said "the data is heavily encrypted, we likely won't be able to recover it"; Nick thought that it was probably for the best that the ZIA couldn't access the mad doctors research, but he kept that concern to himself.

After the debriefing, Nick was driven home in a black car by one of the ZIA's drivers; it had been a full week since he last saw the apartment he shared with Judy. Nick really wanted to just rest for a few days, but the sight of Judy in the doorway perked him back up. After a big hug and a passionate kiss, Judy said "welcome back Slick, how was spy camp?" With a weary smile, Nick replied "there were lots of fun activities and we even had a big bonfire".