mazes?!"

One of the bears took a step forward, but Jenkins told him to stop.

"I'll handle this, Etienne," said Jenkins, walking towards the stranger in the corridor. "Um, Miss? Are you lost?"

Of course, it was Judy in disguise, pretending to be completely clueless.

"Allow me to help you, Miss," said Jenkins. "The lobby is that way."

"That way might as well be this way or the other way to a blind bunny, you silly goose!" snapped Judy theatrically.

"My apologies, Miss," said Jenkins, taking her arm gently. "Allow me to guide you."

They walked towards the exit. The two grizzly bears looked at each other and shrugged, suspecting nothing at all.

"Doggone flea-bitten dumb darn two-bit architects! Think they're so clever makin' twisted buildings more loopy than a contortionist's digestive tract. They ought to be workin' behind a fast food counter fryin' taters and flippin' carrot fritters, the scatter-brained numble-dumblings!" mumbled Judy as she waved around her paw and umbrella.

In one swift move, she secretly dropped a GPS dot into Jenkins's pocket.

They came to the exit and opened the door to the lobby. Nick was standing there, in his farmer outfit, his paws on his hips.

"Susan Eleanor Cottonbottom! What have I told you 'bout wandering off by yerself?"

"Ah, shuddup, Clyde! You're the one who insisted in comin' into this here joint 'cause you wanted them paper cups they serves water in for yer collection!"

"Now, Susan Eleanor, don't be makin' a hubbub and botherin' these nice folks," said Nick, taking her arm. "Much obliged, Mr Mole. I swear to Jiminy Cricket, this bunny gets her marbles more an' more lost by the hour, minute and second."

"Ah, can it, Clyde! Your marbles weren't never even there to begin with!"

"Now hush up, you. Get yer business done and let's skedaddle over to the grilled corn joint."

As Judy and Nick pantomimed and went over to the corridor that led to the ladies' room, Jenkins and his bodyguards exited the building.

"Did you bug him?" whispered Nick.

"Sure did," said Judy. "Garth should be following him now."

Jenkins and his bodyguards got into a black car and drove away. Judy and Nick came out of the building after a while and walked to one of the benches in the front courtyard, where Garth was sitting down and pretending to laugh at something on his laptop computer.

"They're heading towards the upper-class district," said Garth quietly.

"We should get ready for our next move," said Judy. "I hope Amber was able to convince Bogo."

"She's got a silver tongue, that gal," said Garth. "Smooth as glass, sweet as honeycomb."

They waited and watched the dot on the screen moving along a map of Zootopia. After about ten minutes, it stopped.

"There," said Garth. "Now let's Zoogle that address..."

He did and brought up a picture of the house. It was a large residence with a tall fence and a semi-circular driveway. It was smack in the middle of the upper-class district, surrounded by the houses of the wealthy and famous.

"Bingo," said Garth.

"Okay," said Nick. "Now we have to find out how well-guarded the place is."

"Phase two commences. Let's go to my place," said Garth. "I've got the tools of the trade."

They were back at Garth's place. Garth took several strange devices from random corners of his basement and they followed him to the far end, where there was a door hidden among all the piles of old computers.

"Time to get this show on the road," said Garth and he opened the door to reveal an underground garage.

Judy and Nick followed Garth into the garage and saw a pristine black-and-red van, painted in the colours of a famous van from one of Garth's favourite television programmes. It was impeccable and as Garth opened the back, they saw that it was decked with all sorts of electronics.

"I didn't know you had a ride, Garth," said Judy.

"Neither did I," said Nick.

"Hop on board and I'll give you two the fifty-cent tour," said Garth, opening the doors with a remote control.

They got into the van and Garth started the engine. The garage doors of the building opened as Garth pushed a button on the dashboard. He drove slowly outside and soon they were cruising smoothly along the posh avenues of the high-class district, looking at the lush lawns and sculpted shrubs and other fancy features of the residences of the rich and famous.

Garth came to a stop near the front gate of the house they had seen earlier on Zoogle Maps. He turned off the engine and climbed over the driver seat, going into the back of the van. Judy and Nick followed.

"Okay," said Garth, sitting down on a chair that was bolted into the floor of the van and turning on a small computer atop a fibreglass counter. "Let's see what Big Brother can spot in the house of the big bad bunny boss."

"Wire-tapping, are we?" said Nick with a wry grin. "Our list of questionable methods just keeps piling up."

"And I wouldn't have it any other way," said Garth with an ear-to-ear smile.

Judy watched as he tapped a few keys on his small computer and a progress bar appeared.

"Are you going to hack in remotely?" she asked.

"Yupperoo!" said Garth. "It used to be that you needed a hardwire connection to the security server in order to intercept the cameras. But now everything is wireless. The cameras, the signal, the servers…everything connects wirelessly. The cameras to the main computer in the security room, and the security room to the security company. It's almost an irony to be using the word 'security' so much while I'm totally playing Nineteen Eighty-Four with these fools."

He waited a few more second, then…

"Aaand…we're in!"

Judy and Nick saw several images of the inside of the house. There were corridors, a dining room, a ballroom, a main entrance hall, and they saw two enormous bears sitting in a lounge. There was a door at the far end of the lounge, and it seemed to be locked with chain and padlock.

"There," said Judy. "I'll bet you anything the Jenkinses are behind that door."

"No need for that," said Garth. "They're right there."

Garth pointed at an image in the bottom left corner of the monitor and they saw them. George Jenkins, his wife and their two daughters were sitting beside a pool in the backyard of the house, and close to them was an enormous grizzly bear in a suit.

"Bingo!" said Nick. "Okay, how many guards?"

"I counted nine, but only three of them are Keyes's guys," said Garth. "The rest are hired from a private security company."

Judy and Nick looked at the images and saw that Garth was right.

Then suddenly…

"Wait a minute! That uniform!" said Nick.

He snapped his fingers.

"I saw that uniform before! James Otterton!"

"Mr Otterton, from the hospital?" asked Judy.

"Yeah! He works for the same company!"

"It's a small world after all," said Garth musically.

"Maybe he can help us," said Nick.

"How?" asked Judy.

"Well, there's a chain of command," said Nick. "Private security guards are hired by clients, but they still respond to headquarters as their top authority. Maybe we can ask Mr Otterton if he can somehow get HQ to call them off for the night."

"Do you think he could?" asked Judy.

"It's worth a try," said Nick. "We don't want them caught up in this whole affair. They probably have no idea what's going on."

"I have a better idea," said Garth, tapping some keys.

They watched him enter the database of the security company, Sentinel Security, LLC.

"What are you up to, Garth?" asked Nick, narrowing his eyes.

"I'm going to pull a Vince McMane and fake-fire these six employees," said Garth. "That way they'll be out of the way for tonight."

"GARTH!" said Judy.

"Just for a few hours," said Garth with a nasty grin as he typed. "They'll get a company email tomorrow morning saying it was all a hoax and some mischievous hacker played a trick on them. Which will be the truth, by the way."

"I never thought I'd be the one to say this, Garth, but I think you're going a little too far," said Nick.

"Aww, c'mon. It's Halloween," said Garth, grinning broadly. "Trick or treat, remember? Let's just play them a trick, it'll be a treat!"

He pushed the ENTER key.

"And there!"

"When this is done, Garth…" said Judy and Nick in unison, then stopped and laughed.

"Yeah, I know, I know, long talk, yadda yadda, blah blah, zap zap, whatever," said Garth, flexing his fingers. "Let's go back to the Precinct. The next part of our plan will require all our expertise."

Amber was sitting in Chief Bogo's office, explaining the plan to Bogo, Fangmeyer and Wolford. She had had Fangmeyer and Wolford called into the office and filled them in on the details of what was going on.

"So you see, dear Officers Wolford and Fangmeyer, we will need your abilities if we hope to rescue this poor family from the clutches of this criminal," said Amber in her sweetest, most

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