The Fire Triangle -- Part II, Oxidizer

The Fire Triangle: Book II - Chapter 12

Disclaimer: Zootopia stories, characters, settings, and properties belong to the Walt Disney Co. This story is written under Fair Use Copyright laws.

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The Fire Triangle

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Part Two:

Oxidizer

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Chapter 2—Finding Conor
(Continued...Part 3)

Making certain to stay in the shadows, the young fox moved silently along the covered walkway adjoining Ainsley Hall. A minute later, he reached a juncture where the route branched off in two directions. To the right was the pathway leading to the Hoofington Library and beyond that, his goal.

To the left was the path leading into a large, grassy enclosure known as The Quadrangle. There, at a roundabout in the middle of the courtyard, the walkway merged with another one. Planted firmly in the center of that concrete circle, was his first stop.

It wasn't necessary for him to have made this detour. As a matter of fact, this whole stinking expedition shouldn't be necessary—except for one thing. Some whiles previously, he had set one of his browser apps to alert him to any news relating to the Zootopia Academy of the Performing Arts.

And two days ago, it had delivered a corker. Owing to a promised spate of nice weather, the school would be moving the musical auditions from the Lionheart Auditorium to the Gazelle Amphitheatre. When Conor had learned of the change, he let out a scream that made the walls rattle...and then kicked and punched his hard bag until he was barely able to stand. Three scouting trips and a whole month of planning—right down the drain! He'd have to sneak back on campus and work out a plan all over again.

And so, here he was—but first thing's first.

Checking his smart watch, he noted that it was ten after midnight; more than enough time to accomplish his mission, even with this little side-trip. Outside in The Quadrangle, the grass was soaked and the walkways were covered by a thin sheen of water; it had rained hard earlier in the day, and while the downpour had long since ended, the cloud-cover still remained. That, combined with a new moon had made the decision to move tonight a no-brainer. Still, he wished he had more time; the musical auditions were scheduled for this coming Saturday. Agggggh, grrrr, he would have sold a kidney for just one more week to prepare.

"It is what it is," the young fox muttered to himself, shrugging off his backpack and extracting the laptop Kieran had given him. Dropping into a hunkering crouch, he opened it and called up the ZAPA security cameras. Hmmm, a total of two were positioned overlooking The Quad. The first camera would be of little or no consequence; it was trained on the walkway leading to the parking lot. The second one, however...ahhh, that could be a problem. It had a wide-angle lens and was aimed almost directly at the sculpture. For a moment, Conor considered skipping the detour and heading straight for the Gazelle Amphitheater; he could manage that without having to worry about any CCTV cameras. It took him all of two seconds to reject that notion and type a quick set of instructions into his computer, ordering it to record a moment of footage from the number two camera. Now, moving quickly, he shut down the video feed and substituted a loop of the copied footage in its place. This was the trickiest part of the maneuver; the monitor hooked to camera two would blip out for a half a second while he made the switch.