"You gotta be kidding me, Sherman." Zack snarled. "This issue was settled back when people were changing sex with knives and black market estrogen. She identifies as female, presents as female, is accepted by her peers as female, she goes in girl jail. You can't even pull that 'but she has a dick' crap, because she doesn't. You don't have a leg to stand on here, and you know it. Even as far as documentation goes, she's down on our NHR [non-human resources] database as female." Zack was in full-blown "protect the pack" mode and for the first time felt like a pack leader, not just a guy filling in for Harry. He turned to the husky beside him. "Sam, escort Goldie to the female holding cells."
Agent Sherman knew Zack was technically correct. Agent Yereminiva, who didn't like him anyway, (Sherman's dislike of anthros was widely known in the Bureau) was notoriously sympathetic to people, even scumbags like James, who changed forms--not to the extent of ever letting a transformed person off the hook for their offenses, of course, but to the degree that a gender essentialist "once a man, always a man" argument would be a certain flop. And that was leaving out the possibility of Steve's involvement. Time to change his approach, working on Goldie's fairly obvious need for redemption.
"Look, I really don't give a crap about your arrangements. This isn't about fitting perp A into slot B. But what I need is for Max to start talking. We know of several kills that Max was around for, but we don't have conclusive evidence that he committed the murders. If he starts threatening, Goldie, here, he might divulge some details we can use." He turned to Goldie, who hadn't moved despite Sam's hand on her shoulder. "Look, I'm asking you, I'm begging you, help justice be done here. You'll be wired, so we can pick up whatever Max says. This scumbag needs to pay for his crimes, all of them. Do it for the victims."
++++++++++
Huh, thought Charlotte. This is what it feels like to be bi. They must have figured out how to mess with people's sexual preference, although they don't seem to have been able to do much with poor Naomi and her (she still thought of Naomi as her, even when she had her hand on her penis) gender issues. She had put her partner on discreet suicide watch, keeping any sharp shells far from her.
What the hell was going on with that hatch? Charlotte had a creepy feeling that they were about to see how two unarmed merfolk lasted against a great white shark, but maybe not.
++++++++++
"This is our opportunity, Lawrence." said Irene.
"Our opportunity to what?"
"Our opportunity to liberate all the slaves and captives here."
++++++++++++
Mark was glad Tran had decided to go along with him. These transformations were very delicate, and Tran was definitely the best person, other than himself, to work the chamber to make Mark an, ugh, female harpy. He wasn't sure how far he could trust the guy, but Nguyen had been putting in enough work on the fully aviform harpy project that he wouldn't be able to resist actually trying it out. Mark usually thought the role of guinea pig was for other people, but this time he would have to make an exception.
Mark relaxed on the transformation table and gave Tran the signal to start.
++++++++++++++
Tim knew that when Katerina had handed over her position to him that in egalitarian rabbit society, the title "Lord of the Warren" was kind of a joke. As Katerina had explained it, there were four basic responsibilities of the position, none of which involved bellowing orders like some kind of predator:
1. Be the contact person with the huskies, although they don't come by very much.
2. Welcome newcomers, and give first-time rabbits the tour and the orientation talk.
3. Katerina had emphasized that this was the most important responsibility: MAKE SURE THAT THERE IS A PLENTIFUL SUPPLY OF CONTRACEPTIVE BERRIES AVAILABLE AT ALL TIMES AND THAT THE GIRLS ARE TAKING THEM REGULARLY. Nobody wanted to deal with a pregnant rabbit girl.
4. Keep track of people's departure times. When people are reluctant to leave when their time is up, help ease the transition. In theory, the huskies could come into the warren and drag people out, and that would be traumatic for everyone.
Hmm, Tim thought. Is Terry's time up before or after mine? Because she sure didn't seem like someone who was willing to leave. Speaking of Terry, it felt like she had decided to distract him from his new responsibilities. . .
+++++++++++++
Agent Johnson waited alone in the Minotaur's study for ten minutes, then figured that something was wrong.