The scene is a field near a factory on the outskirts of a human town. A
squirrel lopes across the field, looking a bit out of place, if only because
it moves with such... purpose. Rather than hiding from owls and hawks, or
sniffing and digging for nuts, it scans the landscape, as if looking for
something.

Suddenly it stops, and changes course, heading towards a small clump of
grass, which close up turns out to be a clump of grass. It inspects it
carefully, prods at it a couple times, then suddenly vanishes.

Several minutes later it reappears, seemingly out of nowhere, panting
heavily, and carefully turns in a circle, staring intently in each direction.
It gets about three quarters of the way around before darting off towards...
well... nothing, at least nothing visible. And vanishes again.

---

The courier paused in the entrance tunnel to make herself presentable,
flipping the grey squirrel-fur harness (fake, she was reasonably sure) to the
dress black side (real, she was absolutely certain, she'd killed the traitor
with her own paws), and putting on the official armbands with the UCirc logo
(the new one, a silver disk split by three jagged lines that traveled from
the center to merge with the black background).

As she reached the central chamber, she wondered if she should have bothered.
A dozen squirrels lay strewn about the room in various poses, watching a
portable television that was the only vestige of civilization, if you didn't
count Twinkies wrappers, which she didn't. [flick]

"Excuse me," she snapped after a few seconds, the squirrels having totally
ignored her entrance.

"Shh! Gargoyles is on!"

Well! Looking around, there was only one other tunnel, so she edged around
the room and dove down it, determined to find the squirrel in charge. 
Assuming that he hadn't been zombied out with the rest, Gaia forbid, but
Science-wing discipline was better than that.

She passed several empty burrows and came to a darkened chamber. Muffled
giggling came from within. She popped her head through the entrance. 
"Excuse me!"

"Who are you? [chitter]" came a voice from inside the mound of shredded
paper that dominated the burrow. She didn't want to know.

"I'm looking for Zaphod."

"Try the bunny warren." The whole pile shook as several buried squirrels
giggled uncontrollably.

"Who's in charge, then?"

"Chit," "Kara," came the answers, almost simultaneously. "Is not!" "Is too!"
"Not not not!" "Too too too!!!" The courier retreated before the sudden
spray of confetti and continued down the tunnel.

The tunnel turned a corner and ended in a smallish chamber. Inside, two
squirrels, a (gigantic) male and a female, were working a portable, 
projecting it onto a wall. She crept up behind them and read the screen.

It was a tightbeam. From Loren. As she watched, the male keyed deleted the
message, without giving a reply.

"Are you Chit and Kara," she asked, startling the pair, who whirled around
to face her. She smiled slightly at their displeasure.

"Yes! [flick]" the female -- Kara, apparently, replied happily. Chit sighed.

"Who are you? What do you want?" he asked.

"I was sent to determine why you weren't recieving our tightbeams, since
 you seemed to have no trouble accessing the sattelite. [flick] I think the
 explanation is clear. I'm placing the two of you under arrest on charges of
 treason. [flick] Come with me."