The next morning, Nick was started out of his sleep by some sort of horrible cacophony of noise getting inside his skull and shredding his mind to pieces. He opened his eyes and instantly regretted it. A light with the burning intensity of a thousand exploding suns shot into his eyes when he did. He threw out a hand to block it and heard a loud crash, making him flinch and then groaned loudly and rolled himself over as he did. After some thought, he was able to realize that the light and sound were his phone ringing, and that he was massively hungover. He did his best to piece together the memories of last night, and then realized what it was.
"Fucking Tepes… Whatever he gave us had better have been worth this." he whimpered as he curled up around himself and pulled the covers over himself. There was no way he was going into work today, he physically couldn't. He peeked an eye open and saw a note, a bottle of water and some ibuprofen on his nightstand.
"Nick, you have the next two days off, just rest up, I'll be over after my shift ends to check on you. Drink water." he recognized Judy's handwriting. He did his best to open the water, wincing at the cracking of the plastic seal, his hearing was painfully sensitive and then he took the smallest, tiniest sip of water, not wanting to upset his stomach. He then took two of the pills and another small sip of water, wincing at the sensation. He groaned and looked at the clock on his nightstand, it was just a little bit eleven in the morning. He hadn't slept this late in a long time. Even when he slept in on days off he was usually out of bed by ten. He pulled the covers back over himself and did his best to shut out everything, light, noise movement, anything that would hurt.
He nearly started crying when his phone rang again. He reached a paw out from under his covers and grabbed it, wincing at the dim light it created. It was Judy. He declined the call and sent her a quick text.
"Too hungover, talk later."
After that, he put his phone on silent and put it away, closing his eyes as he waited for the pain to go away.
Judy, meanwhile, got the text and sighed. She'd give him some more time. Boho had called the chief of Precinct five, the main precinct in Tundratown, in so Judy could show tell them what Mr. Big had told her. Chief Clawson, a large polar bear, mulled it over in her head.
"We need to move on this quickly," said Chief Bogo. "If they find out that we know about these guns, we might not get another chance like this."
"I'm a bit wary to trust the word of a known crime boss," replied Clawson, folding her arms over her chest. "What if he's involved and is trying to cover his tracks?"
"Mr. Big isn't like that," replied Judy, doing her best to make it sound like she wasn't defending him. "He's into financial crimes, racketeering and the like. He's not a gun runner, and he especially woolen distribute them in his own neighborhood, not when it could put his daughter and granddaughter at risk."
Clawson considered her words. "Chief, do you think moving on this is a good idea?" She asked Bogo.
"Judy Hopps is one of my finest officers, she has fantastic instincts," he explained. "If she thinks we should move on this then I agree with her."
Clawson considered this for a few seconds. Officers like Judy were handpicked by Bogo himself to form a sort of elite group of officers who handled the toughest and most dangerous cases. If Judy had been here long enough to make Detective, then she clearly knew what she was doing.
"Okay, I'll have the place scouted out and see if we can obtain a warrant to raid the premises," she decided.
"Move fast. We need to get this done before the next attack."
Clawson nodded and departed.
Bogo turned to Judy. "Don't look so smug, Hopps," he told her. "Just tell me what you got from Tepes," he ordered.
"Right…" she reached into her pocket and pulled out the thumb drive. "Here."
Bogo took it and made sure his computer was disconnected from the internet. He plugged in the drive and watched as it was read. It was empty except for a sound file and a text file. Bogo clicked it and it began playing.
"Boss?" Came a tired voice.
"Tomorrow night, Hooveson will be arrested by the ZPD and head in Precinct One. Listen to my instructions very carefully. Don't talk, just listen.
"In a garbage can outside the precinct, there will be a brown paper bag with the usual code written on it. Inside, there will be a syringe. Inject it into Hooveson somewhere discreet and then get out," said a heavily-modulated voice. "You're on shift tonight, so no one will be suspicious of your presence. Do this, and the usual fee will be deposited at the usual location. I trust you understand."
The call ended abruptly.
Bogo and Judy looked at the screen in silence.
"That doesn't give us much to go on," he sighed. "But at least we can know for sure that Hooveson was murdered. And that it was an inside job…"
"What does the text file say?" She asked.
Bogo clicked on it and it opened.
"This was all the information I could recover from the call. The number was encrypted and the line was routed through several mirrors. Impossible to trace. Here are the locations of the towers the call was routed through. They're all over the city. If I intercept any more calls I'll supply you with the relevant information, free of charge. It might help you find who did it.
"Goodbye for now."
"Must be Tepes," remarked Judy.
"Why would an information broker give away free information?" He muttered.
"I don't know. Nick seemed to know him. I'll ask when I see him later today. I'm sure he has an ulterior motive."
"Good to see you're not completely naive, Hopps," said Bogo. "In the meantime, I'll go and meet with the Coroner, get them to check over every last inch of his body for a needle mark."
Judy nodded. "Will that be all, sir?" She asked.
"Yes, Hopps. Dismissed."
Judy hopped off the chair and exited the room, needing to jump to reach the door handle. She missed Nick. He was just tall enough to reach the handle and get the door for her. As she walked back to the room they had been provided by Major Crimes for the investigation, she thought about how strange it felt to be at work without him. She had grown to enjoy his presence in her days, always backing her up with a snappy comment or a witty one-liner. He brought a levity with him that balanced out her seriousness.
She went into the room and looked over the whiteboard walls and the pin boards, a big question mark in the center of the room indicated the mastermind behind the guns. A picture of Hooveson with a red line drawn though his face was linked to him with a marker line. A second question mark indicative of a hypothetical second dealer. She sat in her chair after writing "Tundratown" below the mark, wanting to keep all the information in view. She stared at the board, trying to think of any possible connections or anything that might have been overlooked. She began thinking deeply, but her thoughts drifted to Nick.
"Crackers.. I really have it bad…" she groaned internally.
Just then, Fangmeyer walked in and asked her how things were going.
"I'm stumped. I have no idea what to do about just seems to lead to a dead end."
"You want my advice?" Asked Fangmeyer. "Don't drive yourself crazy. You got us some great leads with those tips from Big and Tepes. Maybe wait to see if those do or don't pan out before you drive yourself up the wall."
"You think that's smart?" She asked. "This is dangerous."
"All I'm saying is that if you can't keep a cool head and relax when you need to, then you'll end up burning out and end up that depressed detective who gives up on every case and hangs out in a bar all hours of the day," he explained. "Take it from someone with a few years under his belt, sometimes, all you can do is wait for a lead to pan out."
"You really think so?" She asked.
"Yeah. That's why we all like Nick as your partner. You two really compliment each other. You pull him along and keep him on task, and he pulls you back and stops you from working yourself into an early grave."
"I wouldn't say.. 'Early' grave," she replied weakly.
"Okay, we'll say a premature grave."
"You're an ass, sir."
"Duly noted," the tiger replied, smirking. "Come on, come with me to the break room, I'm sure you'll get more figured out there than you would by just sitting here. Bit of conversation to get your mental juices flowing."
Judy smiled and hopped out of the chair and followed him to hang out with the other officers.
A few hours later, Nick rolled out of bed, feel by a it better. His head still hurt, but the water and medicine had done their job and the pain in his head was now a dull throb, a significant improvement over "white-hot railroad spikes through the temples." He looked at the clock and saw that it was past noon. Even by his standards, this was really late. He dragged himself into the shower, hoping that it would wake him up.
It actually did. By the time he got out, he felt a lot better and was ready to talk to Judy.
Provided he kept the volume on his phone low.
He sent her a text, telling her that he could talk now.
He began snacking on some blueberries and enjoying the fact that he had blackout shades on all his windows. Useful for privacy and keeping the unholy abomination that was the sun at bay.
It wasn't long before Judy called him. He answered his phone when he heard it vibrate.
"Hey Judy," he greeted.
"Hi Nick,"
He winced. She wasn't particularly loud, but he turned down the volume on his phone anyway.
"How's work going?" He asked her.
"Fine. We're working on some stuff, and I gave Bogo the information that Tepes gave us. Apparently he said he was willing to give us any more relevant info free of charge," she told him. "And idea why? Bogo and I are kind of suspicious about that."
"What, you don't think he's doing this out of the kindness of his own generous heart?" He teased.
"No."
"Good, because he isn't." Nick sighed. "I can think of two reasons. One, he's trying to curry favor with the ZPD by helping us out, if we consider him a good source of information then that means more money and more blood for him," he began. "And two, he probably wants to stop things before those guns spill over into his neck of the woods and sees helping us as the most pragmatic way to go about it."
"Makes sense," she replied. "I'll come over later and we can have a nice conversation. I actually have a few things I wanted to ask you about."
"Okay, I'll be here, not like I feel up to moving."
Judy chuckled and hung up.
Nick looked at his phone and sighed, wondering what she wanted to ask him. He noticed for the first time that the box he kept his bow in was open, he closed it and slid it back under his bed. Then he went to the couch and sat down, taking some more ibuprofen and grabbing another drink of water.
After her shift ended, Judy went over to Nick's place, where she looked around before seeing him on the couch.
"Carrots, would you do me a favor and keep the voice low?" He pleaded. "Still hurts from last night. Thanks for the water and the medicine, though."
Judy smiled. "No problem, I'm glad they helped. How are you feeling?" She asked, keeping her voice low.
"I've been better," he shrugged, trying to play the tough guy.
"Uh-huh, I have Bogo the information, looks like the killing of Hooveson was an inside job, and we have a possible location on weapons shipments, we're coordinating with the main Tundratown precinct to investigate where the guns are being stashed. Hopefully, we can make a move on them tomorrow."
"Great, so the mother of all hangovers was worth it?" He asked.
"I hope it will be. We're banking that we'll be able to find someone who can tell us who the mastermind behind this all is."
"Any working theories?" he asked. "Motivations, connections, goals? Anything?"
He asked. "No one just sells high-powered weaponry to young predators just for shits and giggles."
"Sorry, no. Whoever is behind this is good at keeping themselves concealed. No one has been able to name any possible suspects. It's possible we're dealing with a newcomer. An exceptionally well-prepared newcomer."
"Fun…" Nick snarked. "Well, hope that the raid gives us some kind of breakthrough. We need to figure out what's going on or we're screwed."
Judy sighed. "So, anyway, I had some stuff i wanted to ask you about," she said.
"Shoot," he told her.
"What's up with that bow?" She asked. "I saw it in your room when I dropped you off last night, and I'm just kind of curious. You never mentioned that you were into archery."
He shrugged. "Never came up."
"Why archery?" She asked.
"You know about Robin Hood?" He asked. "The old stories of the noble rogue who stole from the rich and gave to the poor?"
"A little bit," she said, "but not a whole lot, just a few things mentioned offhandedly by Gideon Gray."
"Well, he's sort of a paragon for foxes, a mammal to be admired, something that all foxes aspire to be. Archery was his thing, so a lot of foxes practice it, sort of a way to pay tribute to him and the Maid Marian," he explained. "Finnick practices it as well. We sometimes hand out at Archery Ranges to keep our skills sharp."
Judy took a moment to process that. She hadn't expected something so deep. "Wow, that's really interesting."
"Glad you think so," he smirked. "Maybe someday I'll give you some lessons, if you want."
"I might just take you up on that." She replied with a smirk. "Also, last night you…" she wanted to ask him about what he said to her in the limo, that he loved her. But the words died on her lips, she got cold paws and decided to drop it. "Never mind, I forgot."
"That's not like you," he replied. "Is my poor little bunny facing some early senility?" He teased.
"Ha.. ha…" she rolled her eyes. "Keep that up and I'll play that song you hate at full blast, let's see how your hangover likes that!"
He winced, both at the threat and the volume. "You wouldn't dare." he replied.
"That's right foxy-loxy. ," she replied triumphantly. It was hard to get one over on Nick, so she took her victories where she could get them. "Anyway, you seem to be doing alright, I'll see you later."
"Later, Carrots," he replied.
Meanwhile, Two Officers had been sent out to investigate the tip that Mr. Big had given them. The owner of the warehouses had given them permission to poke around after they explained what was going on and who had told them what. The owner agreed to let them look around and keep it quiet. Grizzoli and Wolford had been assigned to the case.
They snuck over to the warehouse Mr. Big had pointed out and climbed the fire escape on the outside as high as it would go, sand then looked into the window. Unfortunately, they were covered.
"Yeah, that's not suspicious at all," quipped Wolford. They continued along the outer perimeter of the warehouse and found a window that could be opened from the outside. Grizzoli carefully unlocked it and Wolford cracked it open and peered inside. Luckily, no one was looking at the particular window they had opened and they had a clean view.
"Sweet mother of god," breathed Wolford. There were guns alright, hundreds of them, and what looked like enormous crates of ammunition, tens of thousands of rounds. "Call Bogo, he whispered, closing the window before anyone saw them. "We just hit the motherlode."
Swinton pulled up to her house. She stepped out of her car and walked in before kicking off her Preyda shoes and threw her matching bag on her couch. She poured a belt of scotch out of a crystal and downed it all in one big gulp before pouring a second helping, taking the decanter with her as she collapsed on her couch.
She never would have thought that being Mayor was so much fucking work. How did Lionheart and Bellwether make it look so easy. She grabbed her remote and switched on her television before pounding down her second glass.
Then, her phone rang.
"What?" She asked, annoyed.
"SWINTON!" Screamed Claw. "Turn on the fucking news!"
"Claw? What the fuck is going on?" She asked.
"Right the fuck now!"
She did as Claw demanded and turned on the television. She squeezed the crystal glass in her hoof hard enough to shatter it.
After contacting Bogo, a raid was hastily planned. Clawson and Bogo rapidly coordinated their forces, mostly Clawson's arctic-adapted officers to deal with the cold night climate. A team made mostly of arctic wolves and polar bears. All dressed in the standard Tundratown arctic white SWAT armor. The breech and clear went perfectly, no one was expecting to be attacked at the Tundratown warehouse so security was slow to react.
The officers suffered minimal casualties, no dead and a few wounded.
After clearing out the criminals, Bogo and Clawson stepped in to observe the bust.
Bogo whistled. "Enough firepower here to take over a small country. Where the hell are they getting so much?"
"And where are the funds coming from?" Asked Clawson.
Even as ZPD trucks were moved in and loaded up with the weapons to have them stored in evidence and examined, the sense of victory was bittersweet. They may have stemmed the tide, but there was nothing stopping the dealer, whoever they were, from setting up elsewhere.
"Fuck yourselves! I'll never talk!" Screamed a Russian snow sheep as she was dragged into a paddy wagon by two officers.
"This is technically your jurisdiction," mused Bogo. "Will you be taking her?"
"Your case, your perp," replied Clawson. "She's all yours. We'll just hold her overnight. She'll be yours first thing in the morning."
"I appreciate it," replied Bogo, holding out a hoof.
"No problem. You're the one with the elite officers," she teased.
He smirked and punched her in the shoulder.
Back with Swinton, the news was reporting the breaking news about the giant raid that had just happened, and about the weapons had been seized, with many predicting that this might be the end of the deadly plague of weapons that had been seizing Zootopia.
"I am not happy, Swinton! Keeping this under wraps was your task!" He yelled at her. "If we don't get this sorted out soon we won't be able to keep the plan on course! TUSK was supposed to keep the weapons from being discovered!"
"They haven't had enough time to get into position! I had no idea that this was even happening! They must have planned and executed it overnight!" She yelled back at him. "Look! We have TUSK already set up, we just need to justify their presence until the next attack. We can move them into position early and they'll look like heroes."
"You had better hope you can keep them in place!" He growled through the phone. "Natasha has been arrested. I know that she won't talk. In the meantime, just Keep TUSK in place while I move up the schedule. I'll have to rush the shipment of new weapons."
"Fucking fine. Why call me just to yell at me if you can just do that."
"To warn you. You're valuable, Swinton, but not irreplaceable. Further failure will not be tolerated."
"What the fuck is this?! You need me!"
"We have a mutual partnership. I benefit from this as well. We had a bargain, you have your end to hold up. And I will cut you loose if you continue to disappoint." He hung up before she could respond.
Swinton screamed and hurled her phone across the room, sending it crashing into a wall and shattering it. She took a long pull from the decanter, draining the expensive scotch until the entire decanter.
An attractive snow leopard anchorwoman was on the television, praising the "quick and decisive action ZPD chief Bogo," and how the bust may have just secured the position of Commissioner in a few years. Every single word made her temper boil higher and higher. And when Judy hopps was mentioned, Swinton lost it. She threw her decanter at the television and shattered both the crystal bottle and the screen. She grabbed a second phone, a secure, difficult-to-trace line supplied by Claw.
She dialed up a number. It was picked up quickly. "Matthew, don't talk, just listen. I think that it's time to deal with a particularly annoying thorn in my side…" The image on the shattered television flickered, displaying a picture of Judy hopps, a long crack on the screen running directly through her smiling, insufferable face.
Notes:
Well, that was (by my standards) fast. I'm doing this new thing where I write every day, even if only a little. And sometimes the Motivation strikes me and I'm able to write half a chapter all in one sitting! Highly recommend that for all my readers who want to write themselves. Also, a new setup where I display the document on my TV and write with a keyboard in my lap, combined with a really nice Mechanical Keyboard has made the writing feel really good.
Feedback is appreciated and reviews are love.
