Bob strolled down the forest path, glancing around at the bare, leafless 
trees to either side for any sign of squirrels. Where were they? They'd
dropped a note in his mailbox, telling him to come out here and not to
tell anyone, or look suspicious, although he wondered why they needed all
the secrecy... they'd won, right? The city was theirs.

Bob jumped as something flickered in the corner of his eye, and turned to
see a squirrel's tail flicking slightly from behind it. Finally! He stomped
off the path, and then followed the squirrel into a deeper section of the
woods.

"Wha --" he started, and the squirrel chittered at him. After a second,
another squirrel appeared from out of nowhere and gave some sort of signal.
The first squirrel sighed in relief.

"Good," it said, "You weren't followed. I didn't think there'd be any around
this close to the warren, but its hard to be sure. [flick] They're cunning."

"Jak?" he asked, recognizing the voice. The squirrel smiled and gave a happy
little flick of its tail.

"Yeah, Bob, it's me. Look -- I'll make this quick, since it wouldn't be a
good idea if we were caught here. I think you may be in trouble."

"Trouble?"

"The bunnies are back. [chitter] Well, they never left, but until recently
we had them under control. Now... [chitter] we don't."

"What happened? I thought we won, and it was over... why didn't you -- why
didn't any of you contact us? We were staying up night wondering if you were
alive, or dead..." actually, he'd been the only one. But they'd all been
jumpy about not knowing what was going on.

"We've been busier than you can imagine," Jak said, "A warren needs more
scouts than a small party, and Teral needs more scouts that any warren *I've*
ever heard of. [flick] That is one crazy squirrel. We've been spending every
waking moment either on the job or training the new squirrels... sometimes 
both... [chitter]"

"So why am I in trouble?"

"What?" Jak looked up. "Oh, yeah. [flick] The bunnies might know who you are.
You should probably leave the city --"

"What? I can't do that!"

"No, you can't. [flick] They've got the border sealed. If they know who
you are you'd never make it past the roadblocks."

"What roadblocks? I thought this was a secret war..."

"Construction, roadblocks, same thing. You slow down and they search you.
 Anyway, I want you to *quietly* get in touch with the others and tell them
 NOT to talk about us or the Fudds or bunnies or anything with ANYONE. You
 never know who might be working for the bunnies. And bury the hatchets, 
 they're a dead giveaway. And act cute."

"Cute?"

"Smokescreen. [flick] Look -- I don't know what to say, I just don't want to
see you dead... or worse. [chitter]"

"Worse?"

"Don't think about it. Just lie low. [flick]" Jak turned and started digging
in the snow. Bob watched for a second, then turned to leave. "Wait, this is
for you." The squirrel pulled a tiny plastic box covered with buttons. "It'd
take to long to teach you to use this, so I wrote a script. [flick] Just type
spiral-circle-X and hit return, and it'll open a voice link.

"DON'T USE IT!" Jak screeched, and Bob winced despite the fact that, while
this was a virtual shout compared to the rest of their conversation, it was
still far below the volume of normal conversation, "The signal's encrypted,
but the bunnies can trace it, and as soon as you use it, they'll know exactly
where you are and that you're talking to us."

"But if they've already found me..."

"Exactly. [flick] Now head on straight that way. You'll come out right by the
restrooms, and anyone following your tracks will figure you were just taking
a shortcut.

"And don't worry. [flick] Bunnies can smell fear."

With that, the squirrel disappeared. Bob looked around, but saw no sign...
no tracks, not even the relatively huge hole the radio thing had come out
of. Wierd. He shoved the device in his pocket and headed off in the direction
indicated, trying to look nonchalant.