Arranging matters for deploying officers for tracking down Jeremy and dealing with the capture and arrest of his kidnappers would take time and a great deal of discretion, particularly in the sense that the kidnapping had occurred while the Halloween Carnival was still ongoing. In fact those who'd gone to the party at the "Slaughterhouse" probably wouldn't know about the fact that one of Horizon's scientists had been kidnapped from the Carnival. Shelly and White Fang both agreed that they didn't want to raise a panic as that would only cause chaos that would make work for both them and the first human officers from the Lyre PD as they arrived.
The fact that the kidnappers were Animalians, or suspected of being Animalians, also made things complicated. While technically since the crime occurred in Lyre, the Lyre PD had jurisdiction to take the lead in the case and apprehension, but since the Lyre PD only had a handful of Animalian officers, all of them being the canine units before the outbreak, it was agreed to let the Animalia PD take the lead in the case for safety. Particularly with the fact that since they would be going into a space with limited amounts of light and with the potential for scents other than Jeremy's or his kidnappers to be present, that raised the risks that related to the Animalia Virus.
While Horizon had records that showed that every Animalian in Animalia and Lyre had been vaccinated in accordance with recent laws, the scents didn't match various other rodent Animalians and a few brief checks with other Animalian and Lyre officers soon confirmed that Jeremy wasn't with them. This made this group of rat Animalians in Lyre's sewers a complete unknown. There was no record of them and thus they could be sure that they had been vaccinated, and if they hadn't they could still be infectious, and both the Lyre and Animalia PD officers agreed not to risk their infection spreading. The Lyre Officers would secure the areas above ground where they would have more light and more room to maneuver if needed. They'd also help with various communications efforts while the Animalia PD and their Stealth Division with Chel as a guide would go into the sewers.
The last major effort to cut down on potential interruptions to the carnival was quietly move Heather and Polly to the Lyre Police Station where they could wait in the station's lobby for any word on Jeremy's rescue. Marcy and Chilly went along for Polly's sake while Sophie and Roland went along for Heather's. The incident had interrupted their Halloween, but it'd be selfish not to be there for Polly and Heather. In fact Marcy was greatly surprised to see tears in Heather's eyes on the whole issue. She could see Heather agreeing to obey the law and Animalia's edicts under the realization on what she'd done wrong, but that didn't mean that Marcy had seen Heather in the same way she saw other Animalians or with the Humans she knew. However the main point was trying to rescue Jeremy...
++++++++++++++++++++++
"I will definitely need a bath after this," Chel gave a grumble as she walked along.
Lyre's sewers had periodic lights that were connected to the city's main power supply, and mostly to allow city maintenance workers to access the pipes as needed for small repair jobs. It allowed the uplifted Axolotl to see ahead and do her best to keep track of the path that Jeremy had taken, particularly in areas where rain water had collected and hadn't evaporated, and while it wasn't quite as bad as what the average person might have imagined when someone said: "sewer," it was clear that it wasn't super clean either. There pieces of garbage here and there. Most of it was simple litter, candy wrappers and pieces of newspapers or magazines and so on.
"I'd think we all will," Shelly spoke from behind her.
Shelly and White Fang had just managed to squeeze in after Chel, and would provide her with some security in case Jeremy Green's kidnappers proved aggressive and/or carnivorous. They both agreed with Chel's opinion. While there were electric lights in the tunnel, a few lights had burned out and would need to be replaced, and while the pipes carrying the sewage or water weren't broken, that didn't the area was devoid of dirt or scent free. In fact even with the water that had come in from the storm drains, there were some spots where a strong scent of excrement had deterred her from walking.
Now, Shelly understood the concept of marking one's territory, and scat and urine were effective ways of doing that, but since she'd been uplifted, she'd found that many of humanity's ways of claiming ownership worked better. People, if they wished to retain single ownership of their land built a fence around it. They didn't go out and continuously pee on it. But these rat Animalians seemed to still act as though they weren't uplifted and did their business in a way that reflected mundane animal behaviors, not Animalian behavior. It was odd but about all the two wolf Animalians had was a "gut feeling" on the whole issue.
They continued along the path for a few steps when the walkie-talkie that Shelly had came to life.
"Wolf Group 1, come in," a voice came in over the walkie-talkie's signal and bringing the group of three to a halt, "I repeat, Wolf Group 1, come in."
Shelly took the speaker and pressed the red button on its side before speaking, "This is Wolf Group 1. What do you have?"
"We believe we have a good guess on where Doctor Green is, where are you know?" came the voice at the other end of the line.
"You have a guess on where he is?" Shelly asked, sounding surprised, as they'd accepted Chel's help for the purposes of tracking these rats.
"Apparently they didn't take Doctor Green's cellphone from him... either they didn't know he had it on him or they wanted him to have it," came the answer, "we had to call our tech guy... but he talked us through it and we were able to turn to our own monitoring equipment to track the base signal that Doctor Green's cellphone gives off."
Shelly looked to White Fang and then to Chel.
"Doctor Green sent some kind of coded text to Heather about what these rats want... something about reversing the transformation," the Lyre officer continued, "and he relayed that to Heather. Based on the signal, he's about a block to your east and two blocks south. The Stealth Team is being deployed now and will cordon off the area as a whole with nets to make sure that the kidnappers are with him, that they can't get away."
Shelly frowned. This situation was a tight one and one that really didn't make the direct attempt reasonable. If these rats wanted something out of Jeremy, they'd likely use him as a hostage any sort of direct confrontation would have the potential that Jeremy is either killed or accidentally infected when the rats figure out they weren't getting what they wanted. In theory if the Stealth Team could move quickly they could grab Jeremy and get him out before the rats could respond, but that was only theoretical and would really only work in some sort of action movie for the basis of plot convenience that the bad guy either be A) stupid enough to be caught that way or B) inattentive enough that they wouldn't notice a counter. The problem for both scenarios was that Animalians had better senses than humans and if the cellphone signal was only a block or so away, it was possible that they'd even hear the conversation being had now, even with Shelly keeping her voice low.
"It might do better to lure them out of the sewers and into the open somewhere," Shelly said slowly, "the space down here is limited... Any sort of direct confrontation will put Doctor Green at risk. Especially if we're not to use lethal force."
"If they resist, you're free to use any means necessary to coral them, including lethal force," the Lyre officer answered, "and the Rhino Guard insists that the nets used in the net-launchers are effective... at least at entangling smaller Animalians."
This sounded like the Stealth Team tested it on themselves. Which made some sense, as most on the Stealth Team were smaller Animalians and were better suited to missions in such cramped situations like this. Sewer systems were not like what people saw in the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon where it seemed like a city's sewer system would have areas that would function in a way that they could be converted into rooms. Now, some things could be different in big cities, as New York also had various subway tunnels that could require some spaces be devoted for related uses, and some would end up abandoned as things changed, but Lyre was not New York. It did not sit on top of some elaborate underground city or where the foundations of buildings had direct access to the sewers. Lyre's sewers were straight line tunnels under the city streets that allowed for access to the pipes, nothing more than that.
"The key in this is going to be speed," the Lyre Officer spoke, "the message that Doctor Green sent, according to Miss Wrex is that they're expect a lot from him that he doesn't think is easily possible at the present time. And if they don't get their desired results... they may take it out on him. In this, we may not have time to lure the rats out or wait to see if they take him to a space where he'd have the room to do whatever science project they want him to do."
"Well... from what I've been told, the Stealth Team IS fast," Shelly spoke, "but we'll need to get eyes on him before making any sort of move. Let White Fang and I scout ahead before giving the Stealth Team the go ahead."
"You'll let us know what you find?" the Lyre Officer asked.
"Of course," Shelly answered.
With that the communications shut off for a moment and Shelly and White Fang looked to Chel. They had accepted Chel's help for the purposes of tracking as she could possibly track scents in water in case there flooded parts of the tunnels, but technology for the moment had done better in terms of locating Jeremy Green. If he was still there, Chel wouldn't be needed at it would be safer to get her out of the sewers, especially if these rat Animalians were violent.
"It may be wise for you to hang back," Shelly advised Chel, "if they get violent..."
"I won't get in your way," Chel promised, "but suppose they noticed and all you find is the phone?"
"We're hoping that that ISN'T what we find," White Fang sighed and lowered his ears for a moment, "but still... we don't want you to get hurt if this goes south."
"I can stay out of sight," Chel promised, "but I will not leave... just in case Doctor Green is not present."
++++++++++++++++++++++++
At the Lyre Police Station, things were a bit hectic. Many of the officers had hoped to enjoy a nice Halloween, as Lyre really wasn't a center for criminal activity. Things happened from time to time and well within the standard percentage of such activity, but because of Lyre's small size it wasn't something that was easily noticed. Complicating matters was that many of the officers couldn't help but notice the Syntixisaurus Rex Animalian nervously pacing the lobby/front desk area of the station.
Heather paced nervously, wringing her wrists and pulling her lips back as she worried over Jeremy's safety. Polly stood by nervously with her arms around Marcy's waist and had Chilly's hand resting on her shoulder. She cursed herself for what had happened. She had had to go to the bathroom, likely still some irritation at having eaten the apples at the "bobbing for apples" booth, and in that, she'd left Jeremy alone and someone had kidnapped him. If only she could have stayed with him. Her size would be enough to prevent anyone from getting rough with him.
"It's not your fault," Sophie said from a nearby chair, "you can't blame yourself for needing to go to the bathroom."
"And it's not Polly's fault for visiting with Marcy and Chilly," Roland added, "I don't think anyone could have known what these rogues would do."
"But they wouldn't have gone after him if I was there!" Heather blurted, her mind and heart so overcome with emotion and... fear that for the moment she didn't care that she couldn't remember where Tyra had said she was going. The only thing going through her mind was that Jeremy had been kidnapped and her own private guilt at not being there for him. "The only guy I've EVER really got along with... the ONLY guy that would give me the time of day now... after all that I've done... and I couldn't protect him!"
The others noted the tears starting leak from her eyes and darkening the scales on the sides of her theropod's muzzle. She then stopped and lowered her head into her hands.
"I couldn't protect him," Heather said weakly again.
"The code he sent you has provided some hope," Marcy spoke up. While she might have her concerns on Heather's behavior in the past and in Jeremy's behavior regarding Polly's custody, she couldn't fail to notice the honest concerns that Heather had for Jeremy. She also couldn't fully deny anyone the right to love or be loved, "The police said they did get a source for the signal."
"Hopefully they find him," Heather said weakly, fears of him turning up dead continually running through her head. "Hopefully they save him..."
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
In the tunnels, Shelly and White Fang had taken the lead and approached the intersection that would enable them to get a chance to see if Jeremy Green was in the spot that his cellphone signal was coming from. With the distance now closed to one block and around the corner, both of them pressed themselves against wall of the tunnel and they moved carefully. If the rats were there and were holding Jeremy hostage there, and were alert, any noise would potentially cause trouble. Shelly took a deep breath and then leaned over to let her eyes peak over the edge of the wall.
The sight she saw was surprising and to a degree astonishing. In the far intersection sitting on a throne of trash was an adult female Norway/Brown Rat Animalian with a makeshift cape and crown. Surrounding her where a host of other rat Animalians, many of the females appearing to be pregnant and some heavily so. There were males as well, and many of them seemed more interested in their female partners than anything else, and Shelly's triangular ears could hear every squeak of passion that came from them. The only ones that weren't engaged mating were guarding Jeremy, who was actually seated toward the edge of the group. It would give the plan to deploy the Stealth Team a chance of success if they could do it quickly, but it would still have the challenge of corralling all of the rats.
"They there?" White Fang whispered.
"Yeah," Shelly whispered back, "Dr. Green is seated toward the edge with two guards near him..."
Shelly then glanced to Chel who stood behind them before she continued.
"But there's about fifty of them packed in there," Shelly continued, "we may be able to contain them... but if they fight... it'll be difficult to be sure we get them all."
"Could the Stealth Team be equipped with tranquilizers?" Chel wondered quietly, "Something that would make them sleep? That would be better than using nets and having them struggle? I believe that the Zoo's medical staff had plenty of such darts on hand."
"A net may better serve to contain them once we get Doctor Green out," White Fang said slowly, "but the tranquilizers might due once they're contained."
Shelly nodded and they moved away and almost heading back almost toward where they'd first heard the call come from the Lyre PD. Once there, Shelly re-activated her walkie-talkie to report in to the Lyre officers.
"This is Wolf Group 1 to Lyre PD, come in," Shelly spoke, "I repeat. This is Wolf Group 1 to Lyre PD."
"We're here," came the same Lyre Officer as before answered, "Is he there?"
"He's there, with about fifty rat Animalians around him," Shelly answered, "A large crash net may work to cordon off the area where they are once we get Doctor Green out, but there are too many of them to net them individually."
"Fifty... aren't you Animalians built... big to fit that many in a sewer junction?" the Lyre Officer asked.
"They actually look to be a bit smaller than other rat Animalians... like something stunted it," Shelly answered, "but that's not the point. Netting them isn't going to work and there are too many to wrestle them down one at a time."
"Damn," the Lyre Officer answered.
"It was suggested that tranquilizers be used," Shelly spoke, "the Zoo's staff had them for all their animals before the outbreak and the equipment to use them... They may still be there. It may take some time, but they may be the better than nets for catching all these rats."
"They may not have enough darts," the Lyre Officer warned.
"Maybe... but I'm sure they have enough that we can subdue the remaining rats without risk of them escaping," Shelly spoke, "and White Fang and I can wait."
"Okay then," the Lyre Officer answered.
"Also... when you deploy the Stealth Team, make sure they enter at points where they WON'T be in direct line of sight of the intersection the rats are in," Shelly warned, "we don't want them being alerted to anything..."
"Right," the Lyre Officer answered, "We'll let you know when we have the tranquilizers..."
"Okay, and we'll keep an eye on them," Shelly answered as they prepared to wait for the logistics needed for the capture of these rats to be carried out.