Irene hung up the phone, glancing back to see how things were going in the tank. Naomi and Charlotte were emerging from the hatch in the floor, looking remarkably calm and smiling at each other. A bit like she'd been smiling at Lawrence this morning. Well, that would make for an interesting conversation eventually. For now though, she still had to call someone, but who? She really didn't know much of anyone outside the park except for family, and as far as she was aware, the park was a horrible dystopia now, controlled by gun-toting thugs. It was a miracle the other huskies hadn't already been rounded up and sent here, so who did that leave? After a few moments, the obvious struck her, and she dialed 911.
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Charlotte was in heaven. That experience had been like anything she'd ever felt before. Little Naomi there had the sort of raw power she could still recall from when she'd been a man, but the range of motion she was more familiar with lately. There was also that extra bit of spice from the possibility of getting pregnant. She'd always thought that if she ever wanted to raise children, the only option would be to adopt... and even that wasn't likely to pan out with how most people regarded anthros. Of course, there were some complications there. It wasn't safe for a pregnant woman to go through the transformation process. Granted, if she could experience more of this, she wouldn't mind staying a mermaid for the next few months, but Naomi obviously wouldn't go along with that. Plus she couldn't exactly do her job like this. At least not without some specialized equipment. Did they make waterproof computers? Of course, they could always try after changing back if she could somehow convince Naomi to stay a male... but then she might as well help for the sun to start rising in the west.
Glancing out of the tank, she saw Irene holding up another piece of paper.
BAD GUYS COMING, THEN POLICE. STAY SAFE.
Well, Charlotte thought. Nothing to do but wait. She glanced over to Naomi with a smile.
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Agent Sherman would have liked to get more names on tape, but had to rush in quick. Once Max started giving the gory details, it seemed Goldie lost her cool and started throttling him. From where he sat, she seemed like a bit of a lowlife who could stand to do a little time, but it wouldn't do to have to charge his own informant with attempted murder. After pulling her off and taking her back outside, she was called over to the desk. Apparently officers were being dispatched to deal with some sort of potential hostage situation that tied into the lead Johnson had been following today.
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"Fred Thrusher," Vinny said. "We talked quite a bit before any of us came here. I paid him plenty of cash, he said he'd work out all the details. Smooth sailing."
Tasha asked, "OK, who else?"
"Well, whoever he had to work with to pull it off."
"You said you could 'give up a lot of people.' You damn well better have more than one name."
Vinny was sweating. "OK... I think he mentioned getting 'Jack from legal' to smooth a few things over... said someone in R&D had just the thing for the does, and 'the big man' was curious to see how that'd work out..."
"You'd better think harder if you don't want to spend the rest of your life in prison." While he sweated it out, she made a quick call, trying to verify what little she did have to work with. Apparently, Thrusher's car had been on the park's lot since yesterday, and no one had seen him since the police had first arrived. Lovely. 'Jack' based on a quick search of company records would be Jack Jones, apparently, also missing since yesterday. That skunk might have something to go on though there. As she hung up and was about to put the pressure back on, her phone rang. Grumbling, she picked it up, surprised to hear Agent Sherman...
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Johnson was in his car the moment he was informed of the situation, with his head still throbbing. He hadn't been out long, but long enough to miss Sherman's first attempt at contacting him. Odds were he'd still be first on the scene, but given the circumstances, he had no problem waiting for backup.
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Once she was sure the police had the right address, Irene did her best to get as many of the transformees as she could into the elevator and out of the building. No sense letting them be caged back up after she'd just freed them all. Not all of them seemed to understand the situation though, and a few even tried to bite her. Having no interest in a direct confrontation, and especially not wanting to force Lawrence to confront anyone his past self had any dealings with, she decided to just head out with him for a walk while waiting for help to arrive. They seemed to be within walking distance of the coastline. Plenty of space to get some proper exercise, and most likely some privacy if they wanted to do more than just trot about.
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The jaguars were in for quite a shock when they arrived, wondering what could have happened to the staff.
"Forget this, just put a bullet in him and let's bail!"
"The whole point in taking him here is not to leave a body for someone to find. Just get him into a chamber, we'll work something out."
As it happened, while programming the chamber was quite a technically demanding process, operating it was fairly foolproof. Every template had been cleared from the system other than the last one used- "HRP004-M" according to the display, with just a few commands available underneath. Repeat, Switch Sex, Cancel. Easy enough to turn him into something if we aren't picky what thought Roberto. Shouldn't be too hard to put whatever came out down either.