Zootopia: ZPD Mysteries: Case #4: The Curse of The Pirate's Eye

Chapter 8: What Jack Would Want

A barb of stabbing pain poked into Jack's neck like the mother of all bee stings. It was obvious that he had been hit by something, and whatever that something was was also probably causing his headache.

All other thoughts were eclipsed by his pain; it was the kind of pain that one would get if you were stabbed with a hypodermic needle in a soft spot that was sore and raw.

He went to feel whatever it was that was causing the pain and suddenly realized that his paws were not responding to his brain's commands.

Why are you doing this, paws? he thought to himself.

His vision, which had been blurry and unclear, slowly returned to normal and he took stock of the iron cuffs, sturdy and medieval, that were now attached to his wrists.

He tried to move one of his legs and discovered, to his surprise, his leg was shackled to a boulder, like a prisoner in an old movie would be.

How had that happened?

But then he remembered—the Krakens; the gunfire at the marina; Judy, Nick and Skye diving behind a crate, and a large sting in his neck, followed by deep, sweet blackness.

He'd been shot with a tranquilizer dart, and captured by the Krakens.

And now, here he was in... wherever he was.

He looked around himself, not understanding what he saw.

The chamber Jack was in was... a cave?

No, it was too even and smooth to be a cave. It was a tunnel made entirely of worn tan bricks, and there was a damp, musty smell in the air. At the bottom of the tunnel flowed forth a slow-moving spring of water, making a lap-lap-lap noise as it gently collided with the hulls of the half-dozen motorboats that were moored on large wooden poles inside the underground space.

The stream's banks were docks, Jack realized. A level stone-brick platform stretched from the mouth of the tunnel to about thirty feet past where Jack was trapped. From there, it faded into a dimly-lit collection of short, squat, square buildings, each with a worn-down thatched roof and a small iron sconce for a torch.

The only hint of modernity in this otherwise medieval structure were the dozens of gas-powered spotlights that kept the tunnel and buildings lit enough for Jack to see. As he took stock of the buildings in the distance, Jack noticed that there were several dozen other openings into the tunnel, each framed with an arch of stone bricks like a honeycomb of railroad tunnels. Crates of all shapes, sizes and colors marked "supplies" were stacked up on the docks, all around Jack, and from what he could see.

Hanging above all this was a massive black banner, in the center of which was a ring containing flames, surrounded by characters in Arabic.

Black Flames banners.

Jack Adam Savage was a hostage of the Black Flames in an underground city somewhere beneath Zootopia, shackled to a rock.

Great, he mentally groaned. This was the second time he had been held hostage by the bad guys in just this past year. His heart immediately began to rip as he remembered Skye, his beautiful wife, who went into a near-panic attack the last time.

He hoped she wasn't a nervous wreck, and that Nick would help take care of her.

Thinking about Skye reminded him of when he was held hostage in that desert warehouse just a few weeks ago. That scaled jerk who called himself Squamata and his Elite, Travask, had planned to kill him and mocked him the whole time.