He had always hated the term "mercenary." If anything, Stripe considered himself an independent contractor-whoever paid the most and offered the best received his services. With no one to answer to and a code of honor that was nonexistent at best, he had become one of the most feared figures in Zootopian crime. No less than Mr. Big himself had referred to Stripe as amoral, selfish, violent and psychotic. If anything, the zebra wore those words as a badge of honor.
This latest job, this counterfeiting business, had paid him extremely well. Granted, he had never met the boss face to face, but the money still arrived with every shipment of ink, paper and supplies he provided. And this latest payday was sure to be a sweet one now that he had the printing plates the crew needed. After looking around for a few seconds, he picked up the empty shell casings and put them in his jacket pocket while the plates went in the briefcase. As Judy watched him, all she could say was "That's really smart."
"Leave no evidence behind," Nick said to himself. Now that the zebra had everything he needed, he pulled out his cell phone and dialed his employer. "Hey, it's Stripe. I got the stuff. No, it was no problem. Fifteen minutes? I'll be there in ten." He hung up and started to walk back to his car. Back towards Judy and Nick. The partners pulled out their tranquilizer guns while Judy grabbed her radio and relayed their info to headquarters, making sure to keep her voice down.
"This is Officer Judy Hopps. There's been a shooting in the alleyway near the Snarlbucks on the corner of Mane and Steppe; we need a bus ASAP! The shooter is still here and approaching our position; we have a positive ID on him as Michael Stripe, mercenary for hire. Request permission to engage." By now, Stripe had made his way back to his car, using the key fob to open the trunk before tossing the briefcase into the passenger seat. He started the car and was just about to leave when he caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of his eye. His eyes narrowed as he exited the car while the repetitive dinging of the open door alarm rang out into the night.
That van in front of him...he'd seen it before. Two weeks ago at the drop site for the ink. And even though tonight it was parked just outside the range of the nearest street lamp, a slight tilt in the magnifier angled the light in through the windshield, giving him just enough of a vantage point inside. Nick had chosen that moment to turn his attention towards the wagon, but when he saw Stripe standing right in front of it, he froze.
"Uh...Carrots..."
"Not now, Nick!"
"Judy, I think he's looking at us!" The rabbit stopped her report and turned to look. Stripe glared through the windshield, straining his eyes to catch a glimpse of anything suspicious. As Judy looked outside, she found herself eyeball to eyeball with the zebra, with Stripe nodding his head and mouthing "I knew it." To the partners' relief, he began to walk back towards his car, and they breathed a collective sigh. But it was quickly dashed when Stripe spun back around, pistol in hand, and began to fire.
"OH SWEET CHEESE AND CRACKERS!" In a flash, Nick pushed Judy down to the floor of the van and laid on top of her, shielding her from harm as the bulletproof glass did its job, riddling the windshield with bullseyes and pockmarks. Since his ammo had no effect, Stripe dashed to his car, slammed the trunk closed, started the engine, dropped it into gear, and tore off into the night. By the time the station wagon was in motion, Nick and Judy were passenger and driver, respectively, of the van as the fox activated the sirens and flashing lights. Judy started the engine, put the van in drive, and slammed her foot on the accelerator, following Stripe as she continued her report.
"SHOTS FIRED! SHOTS FIRED! Officer Wilde and I are unhurt! Suspect is fleeing in a white Doeyota Yaris wagon, license plate India-Oscar-Five-Zero-Charlie-Three-Kilo-Uniform! We are in pursuit! Repeat, we are in pursuit!"
"Roger that. Be careful, you two!"
"10-4!" Judy hung up the radio and exclaimed, "Nick, I'm gonna need you to be my eyes!"
"Way ahead of you!" Nick grabbed the binoculars and put them to his face. "He's straight ahead! Keep going!" All of a sudden, Stripe swerved off of Mane Street onto Lynx Avenue in an attempt to shake them. No dice, as the van rounded the corner with a wider berth, but maintaining just enough speed to be visible in Stripe's rear view mirror.
"So the bunny wants to play," the zebra sneered. "I'm game!" He ejected the empty cartridge from his gun, reloaded, and began to fire backwards at the van. The bullets ricocheted off the hood with a series of metallic clunks, doing nothing to slow its momentum. All the while, Nick exclaimed, "Doesn't get the hint, does he?"
"Do they ever?" Judy replied. The Yaris made a sharp left turn and began heading northwest, with its driver cursing to himself as he pushed the engine as far as it could go. In the van, meanwhile, Nick watched the events unfold with a huge, childlike grin on his face and shouted, "FINALLY!" He reached into his pants pocket, grabbed his cell phone and plugged it into the stereo's auxiliary jack. When Judy saw this, she exclaimed, "What are you DOING?!"
"Sorry, Carrots, but I've been waiting for an excuse to use this playlist! Car chase music!" He tapped his claw to the screen, and soon the van was filled with the dulcet tones of Three Hoof Death Punch. Nick started to bang his head and cracked, "Gets you in the mood, doesn't it?"
"Not really! Do you have anything that's less angry?"
"Ask and ye shall receive!" He switched the music to an instrumental track, one that Judy recognized as "War" by guitarist Joe Sacheetahni. As the song kicked in, the rabbit grinned and said, "Nick, this'll do just fine! Let's get him!" The Yaris and the cargo van remained equidistant for the next mile and a half as the zebra weaved between and around cars in the road, keeping his eyes open for an escape opportunity. After they passed the Walrus-Mart outside of town, he found it in a sign reading FREEWAY BEGINS 3/4 MILE. If ever there was a chance to lose them, this was it. But it was not to be as Judy accelerated, pulling alongside his left. Nick rolled down the passenger window and cracked, "I'm sorry, sir, but you are clearly traveling over the speed limit! Please slow down so we can arrest you!"
Stripe's response was two shots from his gun, which Nick avoided by pushing his seat back. After the shots were fired, he put his seat back upright and leaned out the window. "Where do they find you guys these days? By my count, you've only got two more bullets left! You should really learn not to waste your quota on a bulletproof vehicle!" Nick pulled out his own gun, took aim at the Yaris' rear tire, and fired a shot, flattening the wheel and turning Stripe's attention to steering the car out of a tailspin, which, to the partners' shock, he did. The popped tire shredded completely off, leaving the axle to throw off sparks as the zebra continued to drive.
"I have to hand it to ya-that's some impressive defensive driving!" Nick said as he leaned out of the window. "If I was your driving instructor, I'd give you an F+ and a handshake!" Enraged, Stripe grabbed the steering wheel with his right hoof and jerked it to the left, ramming the Yaris into the side of the van. As if tempting fate, Nick leaned out of the window to taunt the zebra some more, and sure enough, fate answered.
"And that was such a nice paint job, too! Don't feel too bad, though! I'm pretty sure you could get-GYAAAH!" In one fluid motion, Stripe grabbed Nick by the collar with his left hoof, pulling him out of the van and into the Yaris. After a three second staredown, he flung the fox into the backseat and yelled, "SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP!" Judy could do nothing but watch this unfold in horror. "Nick, hold on! I'm coming!"
Before she could put her plan into motion, Stripe accelerated and pulled in front of her. He waited until she was able to see into the car, then grinned and grabbed his gun, aiming it at Nick. "You know, you're right-I do have only two bullets left. But that's more than enough to kill a cop!"
Though she couldn't hear what was going on in front of her, Judy could see it just fine. When Stripe aimed his gun at Nick, the rabbit accelerated and rammed into the back of the Yaris. The impact jostled both cop and criminal as the gun fell to the floor and slid under the passenger seat. Sensing an opening, Nick bit down on Stripe's arm and swung his legs around, kicking the zebra in the face. The jolt caused the car to bounce back and forth between the guardrails on either side of the highway like a pinball as the duo fought for control of the steering wheel. In the process, Nick threw a punch that Stripe caught with little effort, striking the fox in the face with a pair of jabs courtesy of his own paw and knocking him down. Now that things had been settled with the fox, Stripe glanced down at his watch.
3:01 a.m.
"Son of a..."
His ten minute promise long since broken, Stripe began to look for a way out of his predicament, and he found it when the streetlights began to reflect off of the water of a nearby reservoir. He locked a Club on the steering wheel and pinned the accelerator pedal to the floor with a knife, grabbed the briefcase and his gun and moved over to the passenger side of the car, moving Nick to the driver's seat while keeping his left hoof on the steering wheel. He jostled Nick with a corner of the briefcase, rousing him from his self-induced stupor in time to see the zebra opening the passenger door.
"What were you saying earlier about defensive driving? F+ and a handshake? Well, you'd better get a passing grade right now if you wannna live!" He gave Nick a mock salute, and with a final "Adios!" he jumped out of the car and landed in the water. He rose from the reservoir screaming in pain, but alive. Back on the freeway, Nick fought to regain control, but the Club blocked any attempt at turning. He tried to slam on the brakes, but the car wouldn't slow down. Panicking, he got on his radio and yelled, "JUDY! JUDY, ARE YOU THERE?"
"Oh, thank God, Nick! Are you okay?"
"I'm fine! Listen, Stripe put a Club on the steering wheel and a knife in the accelerator! I tried the brakes, but I think the line was severed when we were fighting for control! I can't stop the car!"
"Nick...Nick, listen to me! I'm gonna get in front of you and try something!"
"Try what?"
"Just wait!" Judy accelerated, pulling in front of the Yaris. "Okay! Here's what I'm gonna do! I'm gonna try to overheat the engine in your car!"
"HOW?!"
"Buckle up, Nick!" With no other option, Nick did as he was told. "On the count of three, I'm gonna brake, okay?"
"WHAT?! Judy, are you nuts?!"
"One..."
"Judy! Judy, wait! Please-"
"TWO..."
"I'm not ready! I'M NOT READY! I'M NOT-"
"THREE!" Brake lights. Nick braced himself as the car crashed head on into the van. When she felt the impact, Judy threw the van in neutral and pulled the parking brake, filling the night air with the smell of burning rubber and the screeching of tires. Thinking he had nothing else to lose, Nick pulled the emergency brake and, to his surprise, felt the car begin to slow down. Or maybe it was because of the Check Engine light and the fact that smoke was now pouring out from under the hood. Regardless, a quarter mile later, the two vehicles sputtered to a stop, the partners' ordeal over as Nick put his head in his paws and collected himself.
"Are you okay?" Judy asked over the radio.
Nick's relieved laughter was all the answer she needed. "I can't believe that worked, Carrots! Let's never do that again!"
"I hear you, partner!" Judy jumped out of the van and ran towards the Yaris, only to hop back in surprise when Nick threw the door open and fell out of the car, clutching his chest in a melodramatic fashion. The rabbit shook her head and chuckled, "Nick, you're still alive. There's nothing to worry about."
"Speak for yourself, Judy! You didn't just get your butt kicked by an angry zebra!" When he turned to look at her, Judy gasped at the sight of a nasty shiner, a bloody nose and two welts on the side of his face. "My photogenic good looks, ruined!"
"You look okay to me," Judy said as she took a handkerchief out of her pocket and wiped the blood from his face. "And in a few days, when that black eye goes away, you'll look even better."
Nick comically pouted and asked, "You pwomise?"
"I pwomise," Judy replied with a smile. "After we're through, that big, bad zebra won't hurt you ever again."
"Thank you, mommy!" Nick cracked as he gave her a hug. The rabbit grinned and rolled her eyes at her partner's histrionics before hugging him back. "I'm just glad you're safe, Nick."
"So am I." When they broke their embrace, Nick radioed headquarters with an update: "This is Officer Nick Wilde. The chase that Officer Hopps and I participated in is over. We are in the northbound lanes of the Eisencower Freeway in the Rainforest District by the 24-mile marker. Requesting a tow truck." Fifteen minutes later, the truck arrived with a police cruiser bringing up the rear. The driver, a burly ram, stepped out of his vehicle and asked, "How're you doing, officers?"
"We're fine, thanks for asking," Nick replied. "We've got a big ol' piece of evidence here that we need brought downtown."
"Fair enough, but I'm gonna need you to move that van."
"Sure thing," Judy replied. She moved the van away from the Yaris, allowing the tow truck to get in front of the wrecked car. The driver attached the towing mechanism to the front axle, and with the push of a button, the car began to slide towards the truck bed. When the front end began to leave the road and angle up onto the towing platform, a loud thump from the rear of the car caught Judy's attention.
"Hold on! Stop!" The trucker took his hoof off the winch, asking, "What is it?"
"I think I heard something!" Judy drew her tranquilizer gun and approached the trunk of the vehicle from the left while Nick came from the right. Tension filled the air as the fox put his paw on the door handle. "Be prepared for anything, Nick," Judy warned.
"Always am. On three. Ready?"
Judy nodded. "One...two...three!" When Nick opened the trunk, three large shrinkwrapped packages fell onto the ground with a dull thud. Judy grabbed her flashlight and shined it on the three pieces of evidence while Nick cut the shrinkwrap on one with his claws. When he tore the package open, a piece of paper with the words TEST PRINT #2 scrawled on it was the first thing that the partners saw. The second thing they saw, however, more than made up for the fact that their quarry had escaped.
"Money," Judy said as she and Nick each pulled a $100 bill from the package. They certainly looked and felt real, but a closer inspection revealed their true nature.
"They're fake, Carrots."
"How do you know?"
"A hustler never forgets. I've seen more than a few fake bills come my way-nine times out of ten it was some young wiseass trying to pull a fast one on me. But this is almost identical to the real thing, right down to the paper. The only caveat is, there's no watermark."
Judy took a $100 bill out of her wallet and compared it to the duplicate. The two bills were indeed mirror images of each other, but when she put them up to her flashlight, Nick's analysis proved correct. "Put a watermark on this and they'd be indistinguishable. This is impressive."
"And check this out." The fox opened the top of the shrinkwrap on the other two packages, and sure enough, papers reading TEST PRINT #1 and TEST PRINT #3 were the first things they saw. "Looks like whoever Stripe was working for has a little operation going."
Smiling from ear to ear, Judy clapped Nick on the back and said, "Partner, I think we've got ourselves a case."
"I think you're right."
