Chapter 11 – Volunteers?
Nick didn't meet Judy outside his apartment the next morning. "That's weird," she thought. Nick usually waited for her so they could walk into work together. Judy continued on to the precinct texting him. Judy wanted to make sure he hadn't overslept. Nick replied quickly, telling Judy that he was already at work.
When Judy arrived, she waived to Clawhauser who was merrily chomping on his morning box of donuts. Nick was already in their seat in the Bull Pen. He was leaning back against the chair with a full cup of coffee in his hand and his aviator sunglasses on. When Judy said hello, he just grunted at her. Before Judy could demand an explanation, paws and hooves pounded on the table as Chief Bogo came in.
"Alright, alright, everyone, lock it up!"
Chief Bogo stomped over to the podium and glared at his troops, then smiled. "We have finally have a potential lead in the missing females case."
The officers started muttering with surprise to one another, causing Chief Bogo to quite them again. "Last night we received a tip about a new prostitution ring that may be behind the abductions and murders. We were able to capture one of the mammals that have been importing females from outside Zootopia to be sold into sex slavery. We have the perp in custody now and expect to have another in custody later this morning. We will be following up with any information we can get out of them. This is to be kept on a need to know basis, we don't need to lose any advantage we have by this leaking to the press. Now, assignments."
As Chief Bogo rattled off assignments and the room slowly emptied, the remaining officers noticed two strange things. First, Chief Bogo had split up the normal partners, only assigning half of the officers. Second, the room was slowly emptying of all the males and not the females. Chief Bogo told the remaining officers to standby for assignment by Deputy Chief Tuskwell, then yelled for Wilde to follow him to his office. Judy looked at Nick with a raised eyebrow, the tod just shrugged at her followed the bull out the door. The female officers stared open mouthed as Chief Bogo left, never had anyone but Chief Bogo given assignments out, EVER!
Francine moved to the podium and gave a small trumpet to draw the lady officers' attention away from the door Chief Bogo slammed on his way out.
"Alright ladies, now that the males are out of the way. I have an assignment opportunity that the Chief is a little too… delicate to tell you about himself," the elephant shaking her head. "As Chief said, we have some information on this new prostitution ring. We are going to mount an undercover operation. We are sending in two officers, one to act as the pimp and we need a female officer to volunteer to be his "goods" so to speak."
Francine held up her trunk in caution, "Before any of you volunteer," she said, eyeing Hopps' half raised paw. "There is a reason this is a volunteer assignment. The perp we have in custody is a very specific kind of trafficker who only serves "selective" clientele. Since the other undercover officer will be impersonating this perp, we have to stick with his line of business. This sicko specializes in virgins." This draw a gasp and angry muttering from the officers.
"Because of this, we expect that the officer who takes the assignment will be… examined in the process." Francine paused to allow this fact to sink in. "To prevent this from being anymore embarrassing than it is already, I'm going to ask all of you to hand in a page from your note pad. Just write your name and either yes or no. Yes, you are volunteering and meet the requirements for the mission, or No, you don't volunteer."
Judy pulled out her notepad and stared at the first blank page she turned to. She had been waiting to go on her first undercover mission for two years, but this… All undercover operations are dangerous but this would be…personal. Judy continued to stare at her page, then looked up and asked, "Deputy Chief Tuskwell, what happens if no one volunteers?"
Francine look at Judy sadly and said, "Then we will probably have to make one of the poor mammals this pimp has brought down here with him. They are all kidnap victims, but this mission is vital to putting a stop to this trafficking."
Judy looked at Francine horrified. Those poor mammals, dragged from their homes, rescued, then forced to go through the hell they were rescued from. Judy looked back down at her page, then closed her eyes and grimaced. She joined the ZPD to make the world a better place. Shutting down this sick prostitution ring, full of murderers and rapists, that would make the world a better place. "I came here to help other animals," Judy thought and opened her eyes. She then wrote carefully on the page:
Hopps Yes
Once the words were written, Judy felt her body relax. Now that she had decide, she was confident that it was doing the right thing. Judy joined the line of female officers as they all placed their ripped out page, face down on the podium in front of Francine.
Once all the officers had turned in their slips of paper, Francine dismissed them to join their partners in their assignments. She told the officers that she would contact the officer who got the assignment shortly. Judy trailed slowly out of the bull pen, she didn't feel up to joining the other officers in their muttering about the case. Once outside, Judy realized that she didn't know what she and Nick were assigned to that day. She walked over to the reception desk to see if Clawhauser knew where Nick was.
Clawhauser waived cheerily when he spotted Judy. Judy managed a small smile at the big cat's sunny disposition. "Hey Benny, do you know where Nick and I have been assigned for today?"
"Hang on let me check," the cheetah licked his paws clean of pastry residue before turning to type on his computer. "Looks like you two are patrolling Sahara Square. Presence Patrol. But, it doesn't look like Nick has checked in yet, I saw him go into Chief's office a little while ago. Maybe he's still there?"
"Oh, I guess I'll wait here then," Judy said slumping against the desk, crossing her arms. Clawhauser frowned at the normally bouncy bunny's despondent mood. He leaned over his desk, looked down at Judy, and held out a donut in front of her nose. "It's carrot cake!" he purred.
Judy turned and accepted the pastry from Benny.
"So, how was the date. You owe me the scoop I believe," Clawhauser grinned at her.
"Hah, not much of a date!" Judy said through a mouthful of carrot cake donut.
"You promised you would tell me!" the big cat pouted.
"Here are the highlights: Found out the Doc was a speciesist asshole at dinner, Nick shows up on my doorstep to tell me the Doc is a dick, Doc shows up on doorstep and is a dick, the Doc ends up face down of the floor for a bit then runs away after a death threat. I ended up spending the night eating take out and watching Sharknado with Nick. So all in all, not a bad night," Judy finished with a smirk at the cheetah's mouth hanging open.
"Wait! What!" Clawhauser sputtered. Judy couldn't help but laugh at Benny's reaction. Her laughter died as she saw Francine exit the bull pen and come her way. Judy's ear drooped a little as Francine called out to her. Judy turned to the desk sergeant and said, "I promise to tell you the whole story later, Benny. Got to go."
Judy scampered over to Francine. The elephant turned and said, "We'd better go see the Chief."
Judy padded softly besides her enormous companion. Outside Chief Bogo's office, Francine turned and looked at Judy. "I'm sorry, Judy. I… I admire you for doing this." The elephant gently placed her trunk on Judy's shoulder, "You're the only one who volunteered. I promise I'll do everything I can to look after you while your undercover."
Judy gave Francine a brave smile and place her paw on her friend's trunk, "Thank Francine, that means a lot to me."
The elephant knocked on the door, and walked into the office.
It had been a loooooooooooooooooooooong night for Nick. It took him a whole hour to convince the Chief to follow up on his tip. Nick withstood the larger animal's fiery snorts and seething looks and refused to name his source. Nick ended up striking a bargain with Bogo. Nick staked more than his reputation on his trust in Lola's information. If the raid at the Chateau Marmot turned up nothing, Nick would be suspended for 2 weeks without pay and Bogo with file for an internal investigation based on his criminal contacts. It was a gamble, but it paid off.
At midnight, ZPD SWAT raided room 430 at the Chateau Marmot. They discovered an artic fox, passed out in front of a pile of cocaine. When they did a background check, he turned out to Demetri Petrov, from Moscow. The hotel room also contained several letters from an Ivan Petrov that he would be arriving the next morning at the Zootopia International Airport with the next "shipment." Once they had him downtown, the young fox held up fairly well under questioning until they confronted him with the letters from Ivan. Once Demetri was informed that the Customs and Boarder Protection at the airport were standing by to detain this Ivan, Demetri leapt at the deal that the District Attorney had offered him. Information and his testimony in return for a lighter sentence and placement in a witness protection program. Apparently Ivan was Demetri's eldest brother and was less than tolerant of his little brother's mistakes. Demetri knew this was he had blown his last chance and would be "kicked out" of the family business.
As cooperative as Demetri was, he was just the set-up mammal. Show up early, ensure the dates for the "auction" was correct. Get the hotel lined up and pick up his brother and his "friends" from the airport. Apparently buying hookers, doing blow, and bragging about the quality of his females was not part of his job description.
The questioning took almost all night, mostly because Demetri would not say a word until he had a signed deal with the DA. Nick was at the precinct the whole night, watching part of the interview through the single-sided mirror in the observation room. They finally stopped the questioning around 5 in the morning, to resume once Ivan was in custody. Nick was able to grab a quick nap in an empty cell only to be woken by a text from Judy, asking him where he was. He had just enough time to crawl into the spare uniform he kept in his locker, grab some of the shitty station-house coffee, and make it to the bull pen right before Judy turned up.
Nick had almost nodded off in Chief Bogo's office, waiting as the bull made some phone calls. Nick was pretty sure he knew what this was about. He was going to get his ass chewed out by the Chief and then assigned to the most boring paperwork the Police Office could create. Probably reviewing expense reports, those were the worst!
Bogo slammed his coffee cup down on his desk, waking the half asleep fox.
"Wilde, I'm sure you know why you are here."
"Yes, Chief. Let's just get this over with. Unless you want to skip the yelling and I'll just walk out of the office looking politely ashamed of my no good self," the tired tod yawned.
"Oh, believe me, I want to give you the chewing out of your life," the bull grinned nastily. "But, we have more pressing issues. We have Ivan Petrov in custody."
"Good! Will he talk?" Nick said, perking up.
"We have our best interrogators working on him," Bogo replied, brushing off the question with his hoof. "That's not what's important, I want to send you in undercover."
Nick sat back on his chair, surprised. "I haven't done undercover work before, Chief."
"I know, I wouldn't even think of sending an inexperienced officer in if it wasn't necessary. Besides, with your days of being a con-mammal, I have faith that you can do the job."
This really surprised Nick, the Chief had always been wary of the fox, his past didn't help the matter. Nick couldn't help but ask, "You trust me?"
The burly buffalo huffed at the fox, "I wouldn't keep you around if I didn't trust you, just a little. Besides, you have kept a clean record. Officer Hopps trust you, and I trust her. Plus, your loyalty to your source last night, while irritating… impressed me."
Nick was geared up to make a joke, but the first fox officer of the ZPD was… touched at the faith of his Chief. He merely said, "I won't let you down, Chief."
"Good," grunted Bogo. "We are going to have you infiltrate this new prostitution ring by impersonating Ivan Petrov."
"Uh, I don't know if you noticed, Chief. But I'm a red fox. That's going to make anyone who met baby Petrov to wonder why his brother ain't white!"
"That's why we keep a cosmetic artist on retainer," Bogo said dismissively. "She can work miracles, but she can't turn another animal into a fox."
"All that talk of trust, Chief, and you just want me for my body," Nick said shaking his head.
The buffalo ignored Nick and continued, "You will go in as Ivan and find out everything you can about this new ring. I want you to focus specifically on where these females are coming from, who is killing them, and why. I want as many names as possible, who is running the operation and who are the johns."
"Roger, sir. Do we know if anyone here in Zootopia has talked to or seen Ivan before?" Nick asked keenly.
"As far as we know, no one has had direct contact with Ivan, only Demetri. Their operation in Moscow is still fairly minor. Apparently this was their opportunity to gain wider distribution."
"I'll need all the information we have off the Petrov brothers. I'll also need to observe Ivan so I can copy his mannerisms."
The buffalo nodded, impressed at Nick's professionalism, "Once the interrogators are finished with him, we'll get you a full report. We know from Demetri that the "auction" won't be going down for three more days. That will give us time for you to talk with Ivan."
"Only one problem, Boss. If I'm infiltrating the auction, I'd imagine it would be weird for me to turn up with no one to auction."
"Yes, we are working on that. Deputy Chief Tuskwell is asking for volunteers now," the buffalo said, putting on his reading glasses to look at a file.
"Volunteers? Sir, you know Judy will volunteer! I don't think that's a good idea," the fox blurted out. Judy had handled the naturalist club ok, but playing a prostitute at an underground prostitution auction was quite another thing.
"Relax, Wilde," the Chief said, looking at the fox over his glasses. "Officer Hopps is my last choice, as the face of the ZPD she's too recognizable. Hopefully, one of the other officers will volunteer."
Nick was just about to ask about the females that Ivan traveled with when there was a knock on the door.
Francine opened the door and said, a little sadly, "Chief, we have our volunteer." Nick craned his neck around to look through the door. His ears fell flat against his head and his heart droped at the sight of Judy shuffling in after the elephant. She was standing up straight, ears erect, almost bracing herself in front of the Chief. Nick was surprised at her hesitant attitude. He had expected her to be bursting with excitement. Judy had wanted to go undercover for a long time.
Chief Bogo looked a little startled and asked, "Was there no one else?"
At the bull's question, Judy's face visibly fell along with her ears. "Oh, stop that Hopps. It's not personal, you are only the most recognizable mammal in Zootopia. Hardly ideal for an undercover officer," the chief snorted at her.
"We're lucky she volunteered, sir. She was the only one." Francine added giving the chief an angry look.
Chief Bogo squeezed the bridge of his muzzle, warding off an oncoming headache. It had been a long day and night for him as well.
"Very well. Officer Hopps, thank you for volunteering. I'm sure… uh… it is not easy. I mean…," the big mammal faltered. "Well, thank you."
Judy gave a crisp nod and stood at attention, awaiting the Chief's instruction.
"All right, you two," the Chief said nodding at both of them, drawing Judy's attention to Nick for the first time. She had been so preoccupied with meeting with Bogo that she hadn't noticed he was there. She gave him a small embarrassed smile. Judy was torn between relief that her partner would be there with her and embarrassment that her volunteering broadcasted her personal information to her male friend.
"Your assigned to do a presence patrol in Sahara Square, but I'll give you a half-day off to make your personal preparations. Wilde, fill in Hopps with what we've discussed so far. We are going to put you up in the Chateau Marmot where we apprehended Demetri. I don't know how long you'll be undercover for, but pack light. It's also best if you let your family know you'll be incommunicado for a while. We'll have you meet with our cosmetic specialist in the morning. I should have the reports ready for you before you leave for the day."
As Nick and Judy turned to leave, Francine nudged the Chief and whispered, "Don't forget about the doctor."
"Oh, hold on Hopps. We need you to get checked out by a doctor to… You know… Uh," the big buffalo trailed off turning red. The elephant shook her head at the embarrassed male. She put her arm around Judy's shoulder and walked her out, "Come on, Judy. I have her number in my office."
Nick stood in the office, looking confused as the two females left. He turned to the recovering buffalo and asked, "Why does she need to get checked out?"
"Oh, well," Chief Bogo said straightening his tie. "I guess you missed the part where Demetri told us what his and his family's business model was. They kidnap young females from the countryside and uh, only keep the virgins. That's why they are here."
Nick just stood there, frozen, then put two and two together. "I take it that these new bastards won't take it on faith that these sick artic foxes are… honest, huh," Nick spat out bitterly. "That's why no one else volunteered," he stated matter-of-fact, looking straight at the buffalo who wouldn't meet Nick's gaze.
Nick shook his head and walked out of the office, thinking that Judy was too brave for her own good. He would do everything in his power to keep her safe on this mission, whether she liked it or not.