While Callie was busy wheeling and dealing with investors, Feral was working his way steadily through OPR's that had been on the back burner for too long. There were many deserving officers that should have been promoted by now but the reports had to be accomplished first and omega attacks had shoved them aside. With peace achieved (more or less), he needed to get these done as fast as possible.
By late morning, he was a quarter of the way through the stack when Major Simonton came into his office looking tired and wane.
Feral's eyebrows rose in surprise. "Aren't you supposed to be sleeping right now?"
"Would love to be sir, however, that project you gave me has already borne some nasty fruit and I wanted to get it to you, personally, as soon as possible."
"Oh?" Feral asked, giving the tom his full attention.
"It seems sir, that when First Lt. Smithdorn retired, someone unknown made sure the request for a replacement, submitted six months earlier, was deliberately buried within the system. Lt. Smithdorn made several inquiries as to why he wasn't seeing a replacement to train but, from the message traffic, I could see he'd been stonewalled by messages that simply said, "it's in the works," and nothing more. He finally gave up and retired. Since it was a one person position due to budget cuts, no one noticed it was never filled, so background checks were either being done by those asking for them or not at all. Naturally, that was exactly what our mole wanted but finding that person has turned into an impossibility. From what I'd been able to find out, the mole never stepped foot inside this building, choosing instead, to slave Lt. Smithdorn's computer to theirs and using some pretty impressive tech to hide any trace of their IP address, were able to keep tabs on requests they didn't want done. I haven't asked for Cyber Squad's assistance as I felt I should go through you first, sir," the major finished, anger and frustration plain on his face.
Feral sighed and rubbed his face. With the cyber world still relatively new and, of course, chronic budget shortages, the Enforcers were, embarrassingly, behind the rest of the city in it's use. It was not surprising to learn their enemies had used this new technology to infiltrate them very neatly while he was preoccupied by the omegas.
"I was afraid that would be the case."
Simonton growled, "It was all because we entered the internet world later than our peers, sir! If we'd only got the funds..."
Feral raised a paw to halt the start of a bitter tirade. "Yes, I know. However, nothing can be done about the past, only the future and plugging up the leaks is how we can ensure this doesn't happen again. As for requesting the Cyber Squad to look into this, I already have them doing something else but will add this as well. Thank you for your diligence."
"You want me to keep probing, sir?"
"No, others are already doing that. There'll be more for you to do soon enough. However, don't reveal the problem to anyone as yet. We don't want to tip off our mole. You get some rest now and keep on top of the regular stuff for me as I will now be preoccupied with this problem. Dismissed."
Not really happy, Simonton nodded, saluted his superior and briskly took his departure.
Sighing, Feral picked up his phone and called Captain Berny Fetlock, head of the Cyber Squad, to come see him.
Frowning, Fetlock, walked into his commander's office some ten minutes later. "You wanted to see me sir?"
"Yes, I've just spoken to Major Simonton. He's discovered the background check officer had retired and no one had replaced him due to a deliberate over sight perpetuated by our hidden enemy."
Fetlock hissed in anger and surprise.
"Apparently, the mole that caused this, never actually came inside Enforcer Headquarters..."
"They slaved their computer to ours or at least the one in that office," Fetlock interrupted, guessing correctly.
Feral just nodded. "That's what Major Simonton surmised as well. So how do we plug the leak without letting the mole know they've been spotted?"
Fetlock shook his head and grimaced. "We're attempting to do that as we speak, sir, but it's really tricky not tipping the mole off. However, I have my best people on it...we'll get it done."
"Fine. Are you able to do background checks at all?"
"Oh, yes sir! And fortunately, I had decided to do it with new software we received which appears to have been a good thing with the mole utilizing the older one. The new system is much faster and more thorough. Our mole won't know we're undermining him until it's far too late. Two can play this game and I intend ours to be the winning side," the captain said with smug satisfaction.
"We deserve a break somewhere," Feral agreed grinning wolfishly. "So, though I know you haven't had much time on it yet, anything you can tell me yet?"
Fetlock's expression fell and he sighed. "Sorry, no sir. We're just getting into it and have barely touched the heart of this mess. Give me a few days more and I should have something concrete for you."
"Fine, do your best but remember, time is already against us," Feral warned."
"Yeah, I know that only too well, sir."
Feral gave a brisk nod and barked. "Dismissed."
The captain saluted then turned on his heel, leaving the office at nearly a run.
Chaffing at the continued delay, Feral was nonetheless relieved he had the best they had on the job. Sighing, he set again to work on the OPR's. He had to get them done today as he had a feeling the undercover investigation would be kicking into high gear very soon.
~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~
It was several days later when he received his first tangible lead.
It was a rainy morning, when Captain Redfur, chief of the black ops team, and Fetlock sent word that they had some preliminary findings. Feral immediately called for a meeting in the strategy conference room an hour later.
After the three arrived, Feral got down to business quickly, "So, do we have mob involvement?"
After glancing at each other, Fetlock was the one to speak. "About 80% certainty of it, sir. Two among the names you gave me turned out to have some suspicious holes in their resumes. It appears both deliberately left off the fact they own companies that do business with ones that have been verified to be run by Mob Boss Tiger Frostburn. Of course, Frostburn has stalking horses running the operations to make them appear legit. The companies in question deal with construction and shipping. So far our preliminary research has found a lot of unusual late night activity going on at both these facilities and an increase of message traffic between the pair of council kats and Frostburn's offices, so I think it's safe to say, there's something less than legal going on."
Redfur cut in, "We confirmed those suspicions, sir, when we encountered RICO agents on a wiretapping recon in a van not far from the construction company named in Fetlock's report. The agent in charge, one Faris Genstooth, wasn't all that happy about talking with us. I didn't give away our mission, sir, but did convey that learning what Frostburn was up to was a high priority item for you. That helped make him more cooperative. He told us they've been monitoring Frostburn for a few years now, for money laundering, espionage, and gun running."
"Really...hmm...I've not seen anything about it cross my desk..." Feral rumbled, his eyes narrowed in annoyance. He hated it when other agencies thought they could run operations without keeping him in the loop. It caused nothing but grief and allowed criminals to escape the law because of inter-agency squabbles and snafus.
Redfur looked just as annoyed. "I'm not surprised sir. Genstooth said, the operation was being limited to just a small group of RICO agents and the director to ensure no leak would occur."
Feral rolled his eyes in disgust. "Too bad we can't tell him that train has already left the station."
The captain snorted. "That's true, sir. Anyway, we do have some cooperation out of them now. Unfortunately, knowing there's something going on with Frostburn's mob isn't enough to get us the hard evidence we need to get a warrant to dig deeper because there's nothing illegal about doing business with a company that is putting on a very good cover of being legitimate. So, unfortunately, the only thing we can get the two council kats on is a misdemeanor charge."
"You're right about that. So what have you been able to do to improve our chances?" Feral asked.
"We know they're dirty so we've made arrangements to set up a piggyback surveillance with RICO's in hopes of catching a mistake by the two and Frostburn," Redfur answered, promptly. "However, it's slow going as Frostburn is far cannier than we ever thought. He's managed to set up a very tight security perimeter around his operations and on-line."
"Which means we have to go very slowly to try and find a way to break into his security without him catching on," Fetlock interjected.
Feral sighed and leaned back in his chair to think. A legal surveillance could take months or even years to produce any results and the mob knew that and he had no doubt, was equally aware they were being watched. Of all the mob families, Frostburn was the smartest and most likely boss to set up such a grand scheme as taking over the mayor's position.
"It burns my tail that someone like Frostburn was smart enough to see such an opportunity to expand his empire and have the money and moxie to pull it off," he grumbled more to himself than his officers. "And now I have to try and dig his ass out."
The two officers definitely agreed with him by their twin expressions of disgust and anger.
"I have one small hope that when Ms. Briggs announces her run for Mayor that Frostburn might be irritated enough to make a mistake, though that's really a long shot as he's had ample time to become thoroughly entrenched, enough that even that won't shake his confidence. He'll most likely just find a way to eliminate her before the election."
"Then her life will be in danger, sir," Redfur warned.
"I'm fully aware of that, which is why I have Furlong and Clawson guarding her. However..." Feral paused as another idea came to him. Only he was aware of the pair's extra abilities and special weapons that made them so effective as Callie's guards and that Callie herself was no easy pushover with her special training.
And it was that information that had given him an excellent idea for getting the goods on Frostburn. Though the pair were already guarding Callie, this new task was right up their alley and more likely to succeed, especially with Jake's new toys from the Loonatics. It was a very timely thing that he'd gotten them reinstated so he could have them do this. Of course, Redfur wouldn't be very happy. Too bad.
Smiling grimly, he continued what he was about to say, "...since a long surveillance is not in our best interest and would keep Ms. Briggs in grave peril for too long, we'll just have to be more 'creative' in gathering the evidence needed. While you continue with your methods of surveillance, I'm going to send two special spies into Frostburn's camp he'll never suspect so when Ms. Briggs makes her announcement, they'll be in the right place to hear anything incriminating the mob boss might say when he reacts to the news."
Refur eyed his leader in confusion. "Pardon me sir, who are you talking about?"
"Furlong and Clawson."
"What? But how can they do both guard duty and why would you entrust them with something this important?" Redfur objected sharply.
"They'll handle the spying for a bit while you release a couple of your own to guard, Ms. Briggs," Feral ordered frostily.
Redfur snapped his mouth shut. He, like many of the upper rank, hated what the pair had done to earn that disgrace and weren't too happy about them being reinstated. His mouth tightened with disgust at the thought of it. However, if he was being honest with himself, his feelings were tinted by heresy rather than facts. He hadn't been at paw when the incident had happened so wasn't really certain of the true facts.
And after all, Furlong was the Commander's mate and it made no sense that someone as powerful and aboveboard as Feral would accept anyone less like himself for a mate. So despite his, admittedly, prejudiced feelings, he had to accept the Commander was certain Furlong and Clawson could and would do the job well. It just grated on him that his own team couldn't get the information themselves.
"As you wish sir. Do I inform my team of their involvement?" He asked, his voice flat.
"Yes, so if Furlong and Clawson need assistance or a way to hand over evidence, someone is there to do so for them."
"Understood, sir. When do you want me to get meet with them?"
"I'll summon them and have you all meet in your office tomorrow night so they can get on the job as quickly as possible," Feral told him while making a note to contact his mate as soon as he got back to his office.
"Yes, sir," Refur responded, making a note to himself.
"Anything else, you uncovered?" Feral asked them both.
"We've only gotten about a third of the way through the list you gave us, sir. No other hits as yet. My team will be keeping at it around the clock until we've gotten every little thing on each of them we can," Fetlock assured him.
"Good. Now, what are the names of the two you've identified? Were any from Ms. Briggs' list?
"No sir," Fetlock said promptly. "They have squeaky clean backgrounds even if they are a bit on the quirky side as well as somewhat radical in their ideas. It was the ones she thought were clear that turned out to be the opposite. They've been very canny in hiding their true agenda and allegiance under a charismatic and philanthropic facade. And it doesn't hurt they've curried favor within high society circles as well, which, I suspect, is how they managed to charm their way into their present positions."
"Except for those nebulous points of contact with the underworld you discovered," Feral added, sourly. "So who are they?"
"Council Kats Daniel Longsfur and Casey Murrin," Fetlock said, reading their names off his notes.
Feral grimaced. "Crud! I hate those two and now I know why. They just seemed too smarmy for me but that's what made them perfect politicians," he said shaking his head. "I'll let Ms. Briggs know who to watch out for. Have you gotten wiretaps on them?"
Redfur grinned ferally. "The moment Fetlock told me who was dirty, I wangled a warrant to do just that, sir. The RICO team has already added it to their standing orders for Frostburn. Before I came here, Genstooth called and informed me that the wiretaps were in place on those two and I have tasked two of my best to dog them. We'll see what shakes out, especially after Ms. Briggs' announcement."
"Excellent! Then there's nothing more we can do but hope for a break or make one ourselves when the chance arises. We've got to stop them before they get their dark horse in place and we end up tearing our city apart trying to get rid of them. It would have worse consequences than any attack an omega had done," Feral growled.
"Oh for certain, sir, and we have ourselves to blame for this happening in the first place," Redfur growled, face glum.
"That's unfortunately true. Dismissed!"
Both males rose, saluted and hurried out of the conference room for their respective offices.
Feral sighed, wrote up a few more notes, then rose and left the strategic area for his own office. He bypassed his desk and went to stand before the wall of windows. He stared at the skyline without really seeing it, worry making his face look older.
I've just got to cut the head off this hydra and soon. I won't stand for some damn mob boss taking what we've only just got back from the omegas. After we clean up this mess, I and Callie will set up a better system of checks and balances so this never happens again.
He brooded for awhile longer, worry for his mate rising to add to his other concerns.
Kat's Alive! I hate involving Chance in this mess but he and Jake are the only ones who don't scream "Enforcer" to everyone who meets them so their chances of being able to infiltrate Frostburn's gang is better than anyone else I could send. Still I hate endangering my mate. He sighed and shook his head. No help for it. I'd better set up a meet for us tonight.
With new determination, he turned from the view and returned to his desk. Sitting down, he reached for his phone to make the first of two calls.