"Hopps. Judy? We've got an assignment, are you nodding off? Is a stakeout too much for you?" Nick's tone was taunting. He shifted and eased into the seat of the car a bit more, the darkness obscuring his plainclothes attire.
Judy snapped her chin up quickly, "I wasn't sleeping!" She half-shouted, causing Nick to put his paw against her mouth.
"Shh!"
"O-oh, right… Nick, do we even know they're in there?"
"Tip's good, Carrots. I'd like to think these guys know their own business."
The car's heater was on and Judy was bundled up, but she still felt cold. She leaned forward, peering through the glass at the view of the street from the alleyway. It was covered in snow and more was slowly falling from the pitch-black sky. Every so often a skidoo would zip by, headlights flashing a lantern glance over the two officers.
"What do you think, Nick? A wolves-only gentleman's club calls in a tip about some of their members having 'extreme views' and even the possibility of an attack? You don't suppose they'd prefer to keep something like that quiet?"
Nick shrugged. As he listened, his eyes fixed on a side door in an alley across the street. His night vision gave him a keen insight into what the darkness hid. So far: no activity.
"It's a good policy. Imagine if Lionheart knew about Bellwether's plot and turned her in? We'd have heralded him as a hero instead of tossing him in jail. I bet these cigar-puffing bozos are just upset that some members are harshing their gin-soaked mellow."
Judy blew a puff of air into her paws and rubbed them together, then she put them on the steering wheel to feel the vents on either side gushing hot air. It felt good, and she couldn't help but remember winters in Bunnyburrow. What she wouldn't give to be snuggled up with Nick beside a fireplace right about now.
"Time to review the file again." Judy said, leaning over to tap at the standard-issue laptop sitting between her and Nick. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Nick peeking over, eager to have something to do other than watching an empty alley.
"Order of the Bared Fang. Two-hundred-year-old boys club where wolves get together to bay about, I don't know, howling, having teeth, and scratching themselves. Late last night a wolf in a suit comes into the ZPD with a tip for our tippo."
"How is Eartha, anyway?"
Judy shook her head, jolted out of case-review mode. "She's still hoping for a bigger office. I had lunch with her the other day. Never thought it'd be so hard to be a hippo in this city, the way she complained about answering the hotline phone all day in that closet." She explained, impatiently glancing up at Nick.
"Ha! That bad Eartha."
"Anyway. Wolf's name is Chaucer Howelton. He says he's a member of this order, and that he was in one of their clubs the other day when he overheard two wolves talking about 'primacy of the spirit' and 'making the sheep pay.' Names of these two are Laurence Packsley and Victor Wolfdorf."
"Geez. Nick Wilde isn't sounding so bad."
Judy caught herself laughing. "Back on topic: we're watching their movements now because…?"
"Because Howelton said he's heard radical talk before and he doesn't like where it leads."
"If you see something, bray something."
"Bray."
"Right, so-"
"Bray, Judy, bray!" Nick interjected, shaking Judy's shoulder. She looked up to see two wolves bolting out of the alley across the street, dragging someone between them. "That's a sheep, Judy."
Judy felt her heart race. She struggled between the urge to jump out of the car and put a stop to it then and there, and the urge to follow them. Waiting could endanger a life.
There was no time to decide. Before she could react, the wolves had dragged the sheep into a skidoo that had been sitting on the street for hours. It revved up and hastily zipped through the snow away from Nick and Judy's line of sight.
"Wait for it Judy. Wait for it. We might as well tail them quietly now that they're already driving." Nick spoke in a smooth, soft manner, and it calmed Judy's nerves immensely. If he wasn't her partner, she wasn't sure she'd be half as good a cop as she was. Perhaps it was the age difference between them; even though he hadn't been a cop as long as she had, he had a certain worldliness to him.
Judy counted five seconds in her head, then turned on the car. In a whoosh, their undercover skidoo slipped out of the alleyway and onto the icy Tundratown streets. Two blocks ahead she spotted the suspects' vehicle skirting down the barren streets. If this was going to escalate into a car chase, 1 A.M. couldn't have been a more perfect time.
"Nick, you don't think… I mean, wolves and sheep? They don't always see eye to eye."
Nick was frantically tapping away at the laptop, holding it steady with one paw as he did so.
"Hopefully they're just taking him out for a little chat, maybe teach him how to howl… Judy, file says this Order of the Bared Fang has held a bunch of 'mutual respect and understanding' picnics with prey species… Huh. Maybe those two tailwaggers aren't buying into the whole 'let's play nice and get along' thing."
As Judy drove, streetlamps passed overhead, the light broken by a dusting of snow that had slowly increased in density. The red glow of the pursued skidoo's tail lights reflected on the white-coated streets as the vehicle in question headed out of the more densely populated downtown area and toward the mountains ringing the southeast border of Tundratown. It was traveling slowly, but Judy was sure the sheep inside must have been struggling. These wolves had teeth, and claws, and they didn't need weapons to be a danger to others.
Judy stuck to the plan and tailed the vehicle at a good distance. To her side, Nick had finished reviewing the files and stared keenly ahead, his night vision invaluable on the darkened highways. Both of them were on edge, shoulders tense and ready to leap out of their skidoo at any moment.
After a half-hour of tailing them with the headlights off, the skidoo slid off the road into a patch of trees, slowing down to avoid crashing. The snow had ceased to fall, and visibility was improving. Judy hung back and crept their vehicle along to the edge of the line of trees.
"This is our stop, Nick. They can't move quickly in these trees. Let's go." Judy was direct, even if her tone was hushed.
Nick nodded silently as they both palmed their side arms – powerful Taser CN2s with add-on lithium cartridges for subduing larger mammals.
The air outside, while still, was frigid and painful to breathe. Judy hunched over and hugged herself, thankful for the dense civilian clothes she was wearing. The sweater and thick tights kept her body heat up as she held herself down to the snowbanks and crept forward. To her flank, Nick skulked along without needing a word of direction. Apart but together in mind, their noses twitched in cautious anticipation. Nick's tail dropped and dragged in the snow. Judy kept her ears lowered.
Sounds of an altercation erupted from ahead, somewhere amidst the stifling rows of tower-tall pines.
There they were, tucked away in a small clearing with the skidoo providing a visual barrier between them and the two encroaching cops: two timber wolves in thick jackets and pants, and a sheared sheep wearing a torn grey jumpsuit.
They traded blows, fierce claws swiping out only to be ducked under. The sheep bobbed and weaved beneath their attacks, striking them with his hard hooves and dealing dizzying hits.
"ZPD! Hooves up!" Judy shouted as she took the safety off her Taser and raised it to eye level.
As Nick and Judy rushed to intervene, the captive turned the tables on his captors, beating them into unconsciousness with swift strikes to the forehead and throat. The two wolves collapsed into heaps of fur in the white snow, and the sheep, huffing and puffing, threw up his hooves.
"Thank goodness you came!" He gasped, puffs of white breath escaping his mouth as he stood in the freezing cold. A sheared sheep didn't have much to protect him from the elements.
Nick and Judy lowered their side arms, adrenaline still pulsing in their veins.
"Th-that was incredible!" Judy exclaimed, "Your kitnappers! They… You took them out!"
Nick chuckled, gesturing as if he was dusting off his paws. "Didn't see that coming, I have to say. Hey, buddy, come on, we've got the heat on and we'll get you home once we collar these guys and ask some questions." He reached out to the sheep with an open paw.
The wind picked up.
Nodding, the sheep stepped forward. "Thank you so much, I-I-I don't know what happened, they had me in the car and when they dragged me out I knew I had to d-defend myself." He was stammering, shivering as he approached Nick.
Judy holstered her weapon and crouched over the wolves, pulling two pairs of handcuffs out from a hook under her sweater. The metallic clicking snap of the rings closing around their wrists was satisfyingly crisp. Something behind her made her ears perk.
It was too quick. The sheep pressed his body against Nick's smaller form and drew the Taser back out of its holster. His arm wrapped around the fox's; then he jerked upward, popping Nick's shoulder out. One second later, Nick felt a hoof in his chest sharply kicking him onto his back.
Judy didn't make a sound, her own motions fluid and practiced as she reached for her sidearm. But she couldn't beat a drawn gun in a shootout. There was a crackle, then a flash and a burst of white, searing current behind her eyes. Her body convulsed and tensed and she dropped to her knees, then her stomach, a tortured groan escaping her.
The snow resumed falling.
Nick was in pain, but dragged himself to his feet. The sheep was already inside the car he had been driven in. As the engine started, Nick ducked toward Judy, ripping the probes out of her leg – one of the only spots where her clothing was thin enough to pierce – and scooping her up in his good arm. The bright lights of the skidoo's headlights chased him through the treeline. He managed to fall against their undercover vehicle as the sheep drove by, narrowly avoiding a collision. Was the sheep trying to crush them? His mind raced as he opened the door and dragged Judy inside, only moments to spare.
"Judy… Judy stay with me…" He reassured, placing his paw against her shin as he reached for the radio installed under the dashboard.
"Dispatch this is Officer Wilde we have a 10-00 Officer Hopps is down at my location I repeat 10-00 officer down!" He barked, his voice nearly breaking. As dispatch responded affirmatively, he whispered down to Judy, "Help's on the way Judy, just breathe, keep breathing."
"Nick, his voice." Judy managed the words only barely.
"Judy, shh, save it for the hospital bed, huh? Just stay still." Nick winced, trying to re-set his shoulder. The physical pain melded with the emotional, and he fought back bitter tears.
"That was Doug…" Judy whispered, "Doug Ramses."