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Jillian stood over the grave, looking down at it as the rain poured down. Kevin held the umbrella over her, as she looked at the fresh dirt and hew headstone. Carl's funeral had been beautiful, Mr. Big spared no expense. But the wolfess barely noticed, as she stared down at what had been her future. She swallowed the lump in her throat as she put a paw on her stomach.

She was pregnant with his pup, and needed to make certain that the baby was going to be cared for. However, the wolfess could not let this go. This was a transgression that had caused her more pain than her family ever had. After a moment she put a paw on the headstone gently, whispering to Carl that she would make them pay.

Turning to Kevin she motioned to the car that was waiting for them. The polar bear nodded and walked with her. Jillian knew the ZPD was watching her. But with a car full of thugs to protect her, they would not risk grabbing her. They needed her alone. As both of them got into the car, Jillian leaned down and pulled a long gun case out from under the seat. As she opened it, the bears in the car looked in a bit of fearful surprise.

The rifle she had bought so long ago. It was the 45-70 Brandon had sold her the night she planned to kill her family. It had only been used for practice shooting to keep her skills sharp. Now it was time to use those skills. Jillian reached into the case and brought out a box of bullets. These were simple hollow point rounds. Taking a knife from her boot, she pulled a round from the box and began working.

Mr. Big had compiled a list of everyone the family knew was part of the Sahara Square family. Jillian had taken a copy of that list, and memorized their names. She kept a copy of each photo, so that she could identify them on sight. Now she was carving their names into the side of the casings. Her plan was simple. She was going to hunt them all down, and put them in their graves.

The Big family knew better than to get in her way, as did the other families. She had always been a good asset, and now she was furious. They stepped aside, not helping her but staying out of her way as well. This was a personal matter. As she was working, Kevin pulled out his phone and spoke quietly.

"Justin has been committed to the psychiatric ward in City Center. He is under heavy guard to prevent suicide. Best thing we can do is leave him there for now. He's too unstable and we don't have the means to help him currently. Also Jillian, Tammy called. She said your new round of medication is ready. This should be better than the last batch." He looked at the wolfess to see what she was going to do.

Jillian only nodded and continued her work, setting a bullet in the case next to each picture. She was going hunting, and her instincts told her this would be a hunt that would tax her body heavily. She would need to have plenty to eat on hand, taking long naps in a safe place and never let her enemies near her den.

Jason sat at his desk, looking over the evidence and files on Jillian. The ZPD had very little to work with. The wolfess was a good PI, and a perfect spook. Any images of her were just of her tail or an ear poking up from the crowd. The only time she was seen was when she wanted to be seen. The snow leopard put a paw to his face and groaned as he leaned back in his chair. It had been over a week and they had only managed to confirm that she was in fact who she said she was, and had a legal business license to operate as a PI in the city.

Other than that, they had nothing on her that was solid. Witness statements were sketchy at best, photos were worthless, and any encounter with her was on her terms. James was good at providing them details about her past behaviors and building a profile. But his help was limited at best.

Jason growled under his breath and then looked at the clock. It was lunch time, and he figured a meal would do him better than another cup of coffee. Standing up, he moved to the door to the stairs. He head Ana come up behind him and smiled. As they descended the stairs, he spoke softly.

"You as frustrated as I am with the case? Because I got nothing on this woman. She barely exists according to the records. How the hell does she stay one step ahead of us all the time? It's maddening. I honestly think she's intentionally toying with us. Teasing us along just to get her kicks." He thumped the railing of the stairs, making the hollow metal tube vibrate softly. Ana placed a paw on his shoulder and moved beside him. She was concerned and showed it on her face.

Jason sighed and nodded, moving to open the door on the floor below. The cafeteria was just on the other side of the door and Jason couldn't wait to get his paws on a thick sandwich. He was finally feeling better than he had all day. He and Ana went to the vending machines, made their selections and moved to sit. They had barely opened their food when several officer's radios went off. As everyone turned an ear to listen, they were startled by the announcement that there had been a murder in Sahara Square.

Listening in as he picked up his sandwich to take a bite, he heard the radio chatter about finding the body. No witnesses, back alley, and the mammal in question was dressed like a vagrant. This all pointed to either homeless against homeless crime, or the poor mammal had wandered into the wrong alley while someone else was using it. The only noticeable thing was a purple-blue paste on his lips that one officer described as looking like molded jelly.

There was nothing else to go on, so they had to wait for autopsy. Cause of death was evident enough at least, being a small caliber hole in the back of the poor sod's head. Jason shook his head and returned to his food. Ana was having a large salad with fish. She was working over the meal as she let their case mull around in her brain.

"She's almost like a feral mammal. Her actions are driven by almost pure instinct, and she uses far more power than is needed to do the job. She threatened her brother and his partner at gunpoint in front of most of the overnight shift in Tundra Town, she lets us chase her around a corner before vanishing, and she seems to be able to camouflage in plain sight. She shows so many traits of being like a Night Howler savage." The vixen muttered before taking a big bite of her salad.

She let out a grumbling grunt as she looked at Jason. He was thinking along a different line. The snowy was more concerned with how the hell she was up and moving about. She was supposed to suffer from an incurable genetic disease that prevented her from walking without the assistance of crutches and would eventually leave her paralyzed from the waist down without constant medical care. And yet, here she was RUNNING around like an olympic sprinter. And to top it off she was able to be impregnated by a polar bear.

It was not unheard of, but for a woman with her condition it was impossible. Jason wondered just what kind of medical treatment she was getting. That would help them keep tabs on her. Something that specialized would only come from a few places. He was wondering where she went for her doctor visits, when the idea struck him. He set his sandwich down and looked at Ana.

"Is there anything in the records of Jillian seeking medical treatment? Anything pointing toward a specialist in her condition or perhaps a very elite hospital? If we can find that, we might just have a means to catch her. Something that specialized has to come from a particular source, and not just every pharmacy is gonna carry whatever medication she is taking," he said as he leaned on the table a bit.

Ana thought about it, seeing the logic in it herself. She nodded and pulled out her PDA, checking over the casefile between bites of her salad. Jason watched her face scrunch up after a bit and knew there was no information there. But he was still happy enough. It was a new lead to follow, and it might lead them to a place away from her friends.

Jillian herself was standing in the back of the Tundra Town CICU. She looked at the kids in the beds around her. They were fighting for their lives, most of them against ailments similar to her own. She sighed as she heard the doctor approaching. Tammy was another wolfess, though she was from the forests, not the arctic. The timber wolfess looked at Jillian, seeing her worry and her somber attitude. She smiled at Jillian, and set down a small metal case. Opening it, she picked up one of the vials inside. The type that went into Jillian's dosage gun.

"This is a new formula. It doesn't kick up the predatory instinct as much, but it has a drawback. You have to take it every 24 hours. And given that you are pregnant, I would suggest you take it slowly. You know that you are the only test subject we have for this type of medication. If it works, we can save several of these poor children... and my own," Tammy said as she looked toward one room in particular.

There was a young girl on a ventilator inside. She had the same condition as Jillian, only far worse. She was unable to survive without the machines hooked up to her. Jillian was worried that might be her own child one day, and that was why she took this medication. She had refused at first, told herself it was not worth the risk. But from one woman to another, Tammy had pleaded with her. Jillian relented, and in doing so found she liked having the raw power the drug gave her.

The drawback was the addition to it. The first round of medication had to be injected right into her back, and it was as addictive as heroin. She had to be locked in a room until she was sober enough to speak, which took over two days. Five years and three variants later, this new one promised less of the feral urges, but she wondered just what it would also lose. Then a thought dawned on her, a question to ask the doctor.

"Tammy, did you hear about the club? The night howler variant they managed to get into the water supply was chemically similar to my medication, just extremely potent. Is there anyway someone stole your research? Perhaps an aide or an intern looking to turn a quick buck or claim it for their own?" She was hoping to be wrong, but all she could connect to the death of her fiance was this one thing she managed to steal from the coroner's office.

Tammy was shocked, having not heard about the connection herself. No one else had, the coroner had not even told the ZPD yet, as far as Jillian knew. Tammy thought hard, but she had no aides. No one else knew about her work in the private lab except Mr. Big, Jillian, and Carl. She had told no one, and the lab was sealed to everyone except her. She was the only one with an access card.

"No one. No mammal out there knew the research was even being done. Too many questions to answer otherwise. Just you, Carl, and Mr. Big were the only ones to know. I hadn't even gotten past the initial research when you three approached me. If they got something similar, they made it on their own. It wouldn't be that hard, given that you stole the data from the medical facility on the original serum used to turn those predators savage. If they wanted too, they could cook up a drug meant to be like Nip, and then mix that with a water soluble substance like baking soda. Compressed in a pellet form and dropped into a container of water, it would dissolve rapidly and disperse through to the taps of any nearby faucets or dispenser connected to the system."

Tammy took a breath and looked at Jillian, seeing the wolfess processing the theory. She could find it plausible, but not concrete. There were just too many loose ends to the theory, like how they had someone smart enough to figure the stuff out.

"Still, the medication is orally based, like the phase two of my drug. That was only discovered by you Tammy. You found a way to make it rapidly process into the body, latch onto the proper receptors in the brain and stimulate hormone and signal regulation. You found out how to get me out of that wheelchair. No other mammal could, even the mammals researching the original strain. It's just too much of a coincidence." She looked at Tammy, whom was growing nervous. She could tell the wolfess felt cornered, but she was not lying.

Then Tammy's face went deadpan. Something in her mind clicked and she hurried to a nearby terminal. Typing on it in a hurry, she let out a series of disparaging groans. Then she muttered a swear under her breath. Turning to Jillian, she motioned the wolfess over.

"I use the hospital's intramail system, just the same as every other doctor and nurse here. The thing is, every mammal is given a different access code so we can't see each other's files. There is nothing anyone can do to see my research in that lab..." she said softly.

"Unless they have your passcode and your username. Which for someone that is skilled enough isn't an issue. I know Sahara Square family has a few hackers on their payroll. If they were digging up anything on me, and found your files, they could have easily stolen the formulas." Jillian was starting to piece it together in her mind. This was not some new weapon of terror an organization cooked up to spook the mammals of Zootopia. This was a weapon of terror the Sahara Square family cooked up to destroy the city. But why was the question she needed to answer now.

Looking back at Tammy, she went to speak when her police scanner went off. Pulling the portable device from her pocket, she listened in about a murder in Sahara Square. The victim was homeless and shot in the back of the head. Jillian kept listening, finally getting the location and pulling out her PDA. She looked it over, scrolling through the apps until she pulled up the city map. Looking through it, she found the alleyway, and not so surprising it was right on top of a Sahara Family hideout. Literally right on their door.

She knew that was a connection, but as she was putting her scanner away, she heard something else. There was mention from an officer of something purplish blue on the victim's lips. Jillian glanced at Tammy, whom was thinking the same thing already. It was not mold covered jelly like the officers on the scene thought. It was concentrated Night Howler serum, made into an edible form. The poor sod must have found some, and gotten shot trying to eat it or after he went feral.

Now it was Jillian's turn to surprise the Sahara Square family. She clipped the medication case to her belt and reached under her trench coat, pulling out a revolver that once belonged to her beloved polar bear. It was large in her paws, but she planned on using it in a different way that pulling the trigger. She held the gun out to Tammy.

"Go back to your lab, print off all your files, work only from hard copies. Destroy all digital versions right now. Take this with you and keep it safe. It only has a few rounds in it, so don't fire it. It's too big for you to shoot anway. Just tuck it away somewhere safe for me. I'm going to Sahara Square to nose around the understreet and find out what the hell is at that hide out. It's too big of a coincidence for something like this to happen right at their doorstep. Now go on, I got work to do." Leaving the revolver with Tammy, Jillian headed outside, holding the case under her long trench coat to keep it hidden.

Once she was in her own car, she pulled her rifle froward from the back seat and secured her medicine case under the driver seat. She was a patient woman, and knew how to wait for the cover of darkness. No doubt they would move their operation with so many police over their heads, but they always left clues behind. And if you knew where to look, you could find the game trail. The huntress was on the prowl, and her prey was unaware she had caught it's scent.

To Be Continued.