Officer Davies crept along the alley, stun gun drawn, wondering if his target was nearby. Through his helmet radio, he could hear the reports from his fellow Peace Enforcement Officers as they searched the area for the fugitive.

The same fugitive that had been giving them trouble the past few weeks, disrupting the peace of their perfect society by doing the unimaginable and questioning the validity of their glorious ruler.

Davies had no idea why anyone would do such a thing. After all, the Great Master, all praise his name, was responsible for giving them all a perfect society of peace and happiness. But yet, now and again, troublemakers emerged and had to be dealt with. It was why the Peace Enforcement Agency existed.

He turned a corner in the dark alleyway and there we was, a fox in bedraggled clothing, slumped against the wall, clutching an injured shoulder.

The bear officer approached, keeping his weapon pointed at him. “Don’t move, on I will fire!”

The fox was startled at the bear’s arrival, but didn’t move. “Please, listen to me…” he begged.

“You are under arrest.” Davies started, reciting the words from memory. “By the laws of the Great Master, all praise his name, you are to be taken to the nearest re-education centre for processing.”

“Listen to me, Davies!” The fox said. “Please try to fight it! Fight the control, the brainwashing, like I did! You can be free!”

The bear paused, a frown creasing his brow. “How do you know my name?”

“Because we used to work together!” The fox said, urgently. “It’s me, Finnegan! We were friends!”

“I’ve never seen you before in my life.” Davis said, keeping his stun gun trained on the fox.

“Because they’ve made you forget!” The fox explained. “With hypnosis and brainwashing! This whole society has been brainwashed and enslaved by the so-called ‘Great Master’…”

“All praise his name!” Davies added automatically, without even thinking about it.

The fox rolled his eyes. “See? That’s a programmed response. You’ve been brainwashed! But if you focus, you can break free of it, just as I did! There are lots of us in hiding, you can help us fight for freedom for all…”

The bear officer paused, wondering if there could possibly be any truth to the fox’s words. He was starting to seem familiar the more he thought about it, and he was sure he had heard the name Finnegan somewhere before…

Something suddenly clicked in Davies’ head, his mind going blank, and he found himself speaking, a message coming from somewhere deep in his sub-conscious. “Whoever you are, you are wasting your time. I have recently improved and strengthened the brainwashing of all the citizens of my perfect society, and they can no longer break free of my control so easily. All those of you resisting my control are doomed to fail. In a moment, the citizen reciting this message will not even remember anything you said…”

Davies blinked, momentarily confused. What had just happened? Nothing unusual, he was certain.

He suddenly noticed the fox fugitive he’d been hunting was standing right in front of him, looking strangely fearful. With no hesitation, he fired his stun gun and the fox collapsed to the ground unconscious, twitching slightly.

The bear then got on his helmet radio, reporting in that the fugitive had been apprehended. Before long a transport arrived to take the fox to the re-education centre to receive treatment for whatever was wrong with him.

As he joined his fellow officers in returning to base, Davies didn’t give the fox another thought. After all, it wasn’t his place to know anything further about the fugitive now that he had been caught. It was his place to be a good Peace Enforcement Officer for the Grand Master, all praise his name…