The Fire Triangle -- Part II, Oxidizer

The Fire Triangle: Book II - Chapter 53

Disclaimer: Zootopia stories, characters, settings, and properties belong to the Walt Disney Co. This story is written under Fair Use Copyright laws.

---------------------------------------------------------------

The Fire Triangle

---------------------------------------------------------------

Part Two:

Oxidizer

---------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 9: Conor's Story
(Continued...Part 5)

♪ "I am your Antichrist-Are you following me?-Show me allegiance
I am your Antichrist-Are you following me?-Pledge to me defiance.

Suffer, my pretty warriors
Suffer, my fallen child..." ♫

Marillion - Market Square Heroes

"Okay, NOW we're getting somewhere."

It was an apt thought on Vern Rodenberg's part. While he wasn't completely satisfied, things were definitely moving in the right direction.

Glancing upwards at Erin Hopps, he observed the wide-eyed stammering expression of a kid watching a slasher film for the very first time; desperately wanting to look away, but unable to move a muscle.

For his part, the grey rat was less perturbed. A lot of this was familiar ground to him. Anyone mouthing off like that to a guard in Lemmingworth would have also been treated to a little 'thump therapy,' as the officers had euphemistically referred to it.

Rodenberg also had to own up to developing a grudging admiration for the fugitive young silver fox lying on the bed in front of him. Conor had known that those punks were stalking him. True, his response could have been better-which was kind of like saying that the Ides of March could have gone better for Julius Caesar-but the kid had been absolutely right about one thing. If he hadn't moved first, those other boys would have. It came as no surprise to the rat attorney that the encounter had left his client's face literally bent out of shape. Prison fights were never a friendly sparring match.

But that was where the familiarity had ended. Even the most low-rent county jail would have offered the Lewis boy better medical care than he'd received.

And even that paled in comparison to what had happened between the fox-kid and the Zoo Jersey prosecutor. Oy vey! Vern Rodenberg had long suspected that something wasn't kosher in the Zootopia Attorney General's office but-as his father would have said-this 'takes it up to a whole 'nother level'. If what Conor had just told him was true-if the shpiel Rudy Gamsbart had given him really was identical to the one the Jersey prosecutor, Peter Shanks, had laid on him... In that case, this wasn't just a local issue, it was a big-time, stinking, interstate conspiracy.

Rodenberg felt his tail begin to quiver again. What was it that his client had said to him, only a few seconds ago? "You got no idea what you're dealing with...or WHO you're dealing with."

Well, now Vernon J. Rodenberg, Attorney at Law, was beginning to get that idea...and for the first time since his arrival, he was feeling some 'buyer's remorse' at having agreed to represent the young silver fox a second time.