Operation 007 (SpyxFamily)

Chapter Twenty-Two

Damian was admittedly nervous about getting on the bus again after what happened last time.
The bomb around his neck, the hijackers threatening their lives. The long hours that felt an eternity before the leader miraculously surrendered.
It was a comfort that the school had indeed installed emergency buttons that would alert the police if there was another hijacking, or other life endangering events.
Ewen and Emile seemed less effected, but they didn't have quite the experience he had. And Forger who looked completely unbothered, reaffirmed his beliefs that she must be a little insane.
The ride was uneventful however, and it soothed over any anxieties he might have had.
The hijacking was just one incident. It probably wouldn't happen again. He felt surprisingly better about it as he stepped off the bus and the Wald and Cecil Halls were lined up by their homeroom teachers.
A man who wore a dark green shirt tucked into light brown pants, met them at the zoo entrance to take them on a tour. He went over rules and the buddy system that they were all expected to follow. Ewen and Emile disputed who would be Damian's buddy, and in the end, neither of them were. Damian wasn't interested in dealing with their argument and paired them up together. His plans would be disrupted with them around anyway, and he found someone else to walk with as he considered.
He'd been thinking and thinking all week to come to a definitive conclusion on Anya Forger. The bit of info he received about the hospital not yielding much but inconclusive assumptions. There were so many questions he had that he couldn't answer yet, and she remained a mystery to him. This was taking too long, and he was making too little progress. He had to resort to a method he was hoping to avoid.
He had to talk to Forger.
Everything about the kidnapping intrigued him, but to be honest, he had other questions that he was more invested in having answered. He was too unsettled to leave it alone.
Damian stood beside his buddy in the double line and knew Forger was somewhere behind him. How did he approach her about this? How did he subtly ask these questions without her catching on? What did he say? Would Blackbell be a nuisance? Probably. . .
He contemplated this as the the zoo man, Mr. Gable, led them inside.

—————

Anya and Becky followed the line of students that trailed behind the tour guide while the teachers kept close by.
Mr. Gable proudly gave the name of the large pond that greeted them at the entrance, and they started down one of the many paths that bordered it, routes easily traversable on an otherwise empty weekday. The foliage grew thick between the pens and paths and wooden walkways transitioned smoothly to dirt lanes that some students complained would stain their uniforms.
"Bengal Tigers." The tour guide read the sign aloud to the children as they crowded the sturdy metal fence of the enclosure made to look like a rainforest, a small pond sitting picturesquely in a bowl of grey stone.
Mr. Gable went on and on about them as Anya studied a tiger taking shade from the early sun. Another lay in the open, but it wasn't staring directly at her like he was.
She'd found reading animals to always be a little weird, and sometimes hard. Their thoughts would be murky with the limited sense of consciousness they had, or simply be unintelligible. It depended on the species and their level of awareness. There was none of this however, and she felt his mindset with astonishing clarity. She easily understood that her bright pink hair that attracted his attention, marked her has his first meal if he could get at her. The in-satiating viciousness of tearing her limb from body was appealing to his savage instincts which he had never been able to partake in. Instincts that passed by with every walking meat stick that came through. Anya suddenly thought she could see it materialize as a hungry glint in his eyes. An intense want, no need, to break away from his resting place and rip out her throat. He would have if not for the fence blocking his way. If not for his astounding laziness in the slow mornings that weighed his sleepy self to the mossy floor.
Anya gasped. How rude!
"What is it?" Becky asked at her display of seemingly random aghast-ness.
"Nothing." She laughed sheepishly, rapidly changing her disposition.
"Who would like to see us feed the tigers?" The man asked and a wave of excited agreement raised from the children. They were led to a side of the fence, usually only reserved for zoo people, and the man's co-workers appeared from a building attached to the large enclosure. The raw meat was thrown and the tigers ran for them like the predatory animals they were. Anya thought there was not much difference in the other felines they saw in that regard. The leopards, lions, and mountain cats, all holding a dangerous hunger that turned the children into meat sacks in their perspectives.
Anya was glad to move on where it was easier to block out their fantasies to rip into them all, and Mr. Gable lectured them on the black bear they came to visit. A few brave students tested the waters first by feeding fruit to her through the fence. The bear, Navy, sniffling at their tiny fingers to leave their hands moist from her wet breath. Anya didn't get to feed her, but stood close to the metallic barrier.
The contrast was stark between the cats and the bear.
Navy didn't care at all they were there and had no aggression or defensiveness towards them. A feeling Anya could only describe as sadness took hold of her instead. She didn't like being locked in this cage, she didn't like the cold silvery bars that prevented her freedom. She acted in repetitive movements and ate from the kid's hands in habitual disinterest. A detached numbness to help her forget where she was and how she lived.
This did not sit well with Anya and she immediately went to the zoo man to tug on his pant leg.
"Oh, hello." He said pleasantly.
"The bear should be in the wild." She pointed to the animal, averse to telling him that Navy was sad, for fear he would wonder how she knew that.
"Why do you say that?" Asked the zoo man, instantly giving her pause in her quest for justice.
Crud, she thought. Anya should have planned this out. She really should have seen that question coming, it was so obvious "Cause. . . 'cause bears shouldn't be in a cage." She improvised, though felt it was the truth.
"Well, I'm afraid she was raised in captivity, she wouldn't survive in the wild."
"But. . .but. . ." Anya tried. She didn't want to think how miserable Navy would be for the rest of her life in the zoo.
"I know. She probably doesn't like it here, is what you're thinking, right?"
"Uh. . . " Could he read minds too?
"Sadly, some animals don't, but when their bred for this sort of thing, it strips them of their ability to adapt in the wild."
"Really?" A nearby kid said.
The man nodded and Anya knew she'd never be able to forget about this.