That morning news finally leaked that another mammal was suffering from exposure to Nighthowler toxin. By itself that might not have been much of a story, but the antidote's failure to reverse the wildebeest's savage state was more than enough to ensure that shrill headlines dominated the front-page news and morning talk shows. As expected, public officials urged calm while stating that it was too soon for them to make any definitive statements. A few sources that didn't wish to be identified were willing to speculate that whatever drugs the kid had been on might be interfering with the cure, which got every pundit on the air discussing the dangers of drug use and the recklessness of teens in the modern world.
Nick already knew from the lab results that it was just a smokescreen to keep everyone calm, Judy had been able to explain that much to him before they reported to receive their weekly assignment. Chief Bogo had decided to keep them both off the street in favor of having them stay at the precinct to interview the kids whose parents they'd been able to contact. That was one silver lining of having the news break, there was suddenly political pressure to get the problem solved now, so the courts had moved quickly to produce the necessary documents to compel testimony.
The chief claimed his decision was based on their existing involvement in the case, but Nick suspected the cape buffalo really just wanted to make sure his injury had time to fully heal. He appreciated the consideration, the bruise he'd gotten had spread over most of his side and gradually turned sickly yellow under his fur. It wasn't quite as tender anymore, but his fur had just started to grow back in so his whole body itched. Just that morning he had shocked himself awake while thoughtlessly scratching and nearly doubled over from the pain.
Judy took being sidelined quite a bit harder, though she didn't try to protest. Apparently she had some sort of lead that she wanted to run down, not spend an entire week conducting interviews. Once they had gotten out of the bullpen she had launched into a mini-rant about the injustice of it all. It made for an adorable scene, but Nick couldn't stand to see her so frustrated so he'd offered to take on the bulk of the interviews so she could sniff out whatever she was after.
Which had been fine up until one kid showed up in the company of the high powered lawyer his family apparently kept on retainer. The extravagance of that nearly left Nick speechless. Most parents simply brought their kids, who had already been properly chastened, and prompted them to answer everything. The process took maybe five minutes since most didn't know anything useful. In each case they were let off with a warning to watch their behavior in the future.
In contrast, the young wild dog's lawyer, a camel from Humpfry&Humpfry, absolutely forbid the kid to answer any questions about the party. Nick had tried every single trick he knew to get the camel to let up, but any time the conversation began to drift toward the day of the party or the details surrounding it the camel always stopped the kid from talking. The excuse was always the same: he wasn't going to allow the police to trick the kid into incriminating himself.
The lawyer wasn't better than him, that simply wasn't possible, however he did have a much better grasp of the law. In fact, the camel probably knew the law better than Judy, though Nick supposed that was to be expected. He wasn't used to coming up against mammals able to put such a wall in front of him, but there were better ways to get past a wall than trying to ram his face through it. He just needed to find another way around it, and that meant picking a softer target.
So he set his phone on the table and sat back quietly, silently watching the kid for the remainder of their time together. The lawyer was clearly unimpressed by the tactic, but the younger wild dog got more and more uncomfortable the longer they sat in silence. Several times the kid tried to speak to fill the empty space, but his lawyer always immediately stepped in to silence him.
Which was perfectly fine, because it wasn't the kid Nick was after. It was his parents, currently observing the interview behind the two-way mirror with the chief. Parents were by their very nature protective, and judging by the lawyer these ones were especially so. Give them enough reason to be concerned and they'd jump to give him anything he wanted if it meant keeping their child safe.
"Officer Wilde, as pleasant as this experience has been you seem to be wasting my client's time," the camel said as time inched closer to the end of the interview.
"Oh, I'm really not," Nick assured the lawyer, putting on his most confident smile. "Just waiting on a text from my partner."
At last the camel began to look concerned, but Nick continued to sit in silence while keeping an eye on the kid. With just five minutes to go his phone chimed, a reminder he had set previously to make sure he didn't let time get away from him. He quickly scooped it off the table and looked at the notification, silencing it as he gave a bigger smile.
"And there it is," he said, chair scraping across the ground as he stood. "Thank you so much for your cooperation. I'll just be a moment."
"And then my client will be free to go?" the lawyer asked.
Nick smirked. "Sorry, but no. I need to check with the chief to make sure I'm clear to book this little guy," he lied.
The kid jumped out of his chair. "What? What do you mean?"
"Well, not everyone's mommy and daddy can afford a big expensive lawyer when their special snowflake lands in hot water," he explained, slowly swishing his tail. "Seems your friend was pretty quick to roll over on you once my partner cut him a deal."
The camel pushed the kid back into his chair and hushed him before turning back to Nick. "What friend?"
"Why not ask your client? I'm sure he can tell you." Nick then glanced back at the kid as he headed out of the room. "Don't worry. I'm sure your parents will be able to make bail. You'll probably only be locked up for a day, at least until your trial."
"Wait, I want a deal too! I know—" the kid started, but the lawyer quickly spoke over him.
"Be quiet!"
Nick quickly left and immediately headed to the observation room, pleased to see he had been right. The parents both looked scared out of their wits as he politely informed them that they could go be with their kid while he talked to Chief Bogo. As he'd hoped they quickly did as he suggested, leaving him alone with a very annoyed cape buffalo.
"Wilde, what are you doing? There isn't anyone else being interviewed right now."
"They don't know that," Nick said, watching as the parents entered the room. The mother quickly went to comfort her son while the father began arguing with the lawyer. "As long as they think their son is going to be locked up if they don't cooperate they'll do anything to cut a deal."
As if to emphasize his point the father began to yell at the camel, saying that they had paid him to keep their kid out of jail while the lawyer did his best to calm both of the parents down and urged them to wait until they had more information. That, obviously, didn't go over very well with either of them.
"You can't arrest the kid," Chief Bogo said, clearly uncomfortable with the scene unfolding in front of him.
"I don't think I'll need to. They're going to be begging for a deal the moment I walk back in."
"What kind of deal can you possibly give them?" Bogo demanded. "You can't arrest him in the first place."
"Don't you know chief? I'm going to be selling them something they already have," Nick said, slowly swishing his tail. "That is the best type of deal we could possibly hope for."
He checked the time and decided he'd given them just enough time to panic, but not enough to think things over too much, so he quickly returned to the interview room. The moment he stepped in the room went silent, so he motioned for the young wild dog to stand while reaching for the handcuffs hanging at his belt. He made it all of two steps before the lawyer spoke up again.
"My client has decided, against my legal advice, that he is willing to speak with you," the camel said, giving the parents a reproachful look. "However he wants blanket immunity first."
Nick released the cuffs, walking over to the table so he could lean against one of the legs. "Bad time to be cutting a deal. How do I know you can tell me anything we don't already know?"
"I know where the drugs came from," the kid said before anyone else could speak, eliciting a groan from the camel.
Nick felt his ears perk up but kept his expression neutral. "Well, that is a little interesting."
"That was not an admission that he was involved," the lawyer said sharply as he glared at the kid. "Before my client talks I want a guarantee of immunity. One that doesn't depend on your ability to make an arrest or prosecute this case."
"I think we may just be able to work something out."
Judy had been buried up to her ears in the ZPD's database all day thanks to Nick's generous offer to handle the interviews. The morning had been spent looking into everyone who had knowledge about the Nighthowler toxin and its antidote, but as "Red" had predicted the field was vanishingly small. All told, there were perhaps a dozen with twice that many interns and assistants. Running background checks on all of them would take some time, but from what she had been able to find from publicly available data they were unlikely to be the ones she was looking for.
That let her focus all her energy on the only remaining suspect: Doug the sheep. The last time he'd been seen by anyone had been when she and Nick had found his lab in the underground rail line. Since then he had simply vanished, most likely to some sort of prearranged safe house, and despite the city-wide hunt they hadn't found a single trace of him.
She had been able to participate in that investigation, and considered its failure one of the rare blemishes on her otherwise exemplary case record. Time hadn't brought in any fresh leads, but she hoped reexamining everything from square one might give her new insights. At the very least refreshing her memory might help her make a connection if Nick's interviews happened to turn anything up.
Right then she was looking at the plans for the underground track Doug had placed his hideout on. It was an older line that had connected Savanna Central to the Nocturnal District, intended to serve as a major point of traffic between the city surface and those areas built into the limestone caverns below. The traffic had never been high enough to justify the expense however. Eventually the city had decided to shut down the line to help trim the budget. Now all that connected the areas was a network of elevators and a couple of subterranean roads.
The initial investigation had already combed through the obvious places: the stations along the route in both Savanna Central and the Nocturnal District. Nothing had turned up; in fact, nobody seemed to have seen anything despite Doug being perhaps the most wanted mammal in Zootopia. At the time the investigation had concluded that he had merely managed to slip out unnoticed somehow, although the cameras that watched the entrances to the stations had failed to spot him, and as far as Judy knew the cameras covered every exit.
And that was exactly what she was trying to confirm, though it was slow work. In addition to the underground rail line there was a tangle of maintenance tunnels that came into contact with one another at various places along the line. Tracing every one to find every possible exit was no small task, but once she was finished she would know for sure if they had left any out.
So far that didn't appear to be the case, but Judy wasn't particularly surprised. Arresting Doug had been a high priority before the trail went cold, so the ZPD had no shortage of resources to throw at the problem. She had gone over these same plans with several other officers back then, so it was unlikely they had missed anything. Only Doug was still missing, so obviously something had been overlooked.
Her eyes began to blur so she stopped and rubbed her face roughly with both hands, then took a break to watch the surveillance footage she had running on her computer. There wasn't anything of note to see, she just had it playing in the hopes that she might see something that would give her ideas. It wasn't working, unfortunately. Mostly she just found herself wondering how Nick would try to pull a vanishing act like that. He would probably say she was simply overlooking something, but she was already well aware of that.
With a sigh she looked back at the diagrams and wondered what else there was. Every station along the line had been searched, even the ones that had been shut down. A couple stretches of the track were still used, but trying jump onto a train that was already moving at full speed was suicidal, and the unused sections had been cleared multiple times. That left the maintenance corridors. Theoretically someone could hide there, but they definitely weren't intended for it. Cramped spaces without room to do more than stand for an animal as big as a sheep. Judy couldn't imagine it was comfortable enough to sleep down there, and there definitely wasn't a way to get enough food for an extended stay in without drawing attention. Somehow he had gotten out without being noticed, but everything she looked at told her that they'd covered every possible exit.
Even Nick needed something to work with to pull off one of his hustles. When they'd met he'd been playing off her sympathy and naivete, and then during her second encounter had zeroed in on her self-doubt. With Mr. Manchas he'd hinted they had the answers to the questions that had been plaguing the black jaguar. And then against the then Mayor Bellwether he had helped her take advantage of the sheep's overconfidence thanks to a simple swap. But even Nick couldn't make an escape route simply appear where there was none.
That thought made her stop for a second. No, that was thinking about everything the wrong way. A careful criminal didn't try to make an escape route when things went wrong. Nick hadn't forged paperwork on the spot when she'd questioned him. He had fully prepared and legitimate documents at the ready just in case. From the beginning they'd assumed Doug had parked his mobile drug lab where he did because it would be difficult to find, and maybe that was a factor, but who said it had been the only reason?
So he already had a way out just in case things went bad. One that avoided the street cameras. He couldn't have dug it out himself; everything had been built of solid concrete. It had to be something that was already there and just hidden so it would be missed during a search. But she had the plans right in front of her. There wasn't anything—
"Cheese and crackers…Bellwether," she muttered under her breath.
Mayor Lionheart had given the sheep access to practically everything so he would be free to focus on his political career while pushing off most of the work onto her. Moreover, as long as she got everything done he didn't see any need to keep tabs on what she was doing. The conniving ewe had every opportunity to alter the records to help keep her conspiracy safe. The more Judy thought about it, the more convinced she became. Only problem was, how could she prove it?
Nick's conversation with the kid, or more correctly his conversation with the young wild dog's lawyer while the juvenile whispered into the camel's ear, had been productive. There hadn't been any case-breaking revelations, but there had been some useful information and that was all he had really expected.
Saying that the youth knew how the victim got the drugs was a bit of a stretch. It would be more accurate to say that he had been told about some sort of new designer drug that was going to be coming out by a dealer, and had been given a number in case he was interested. The victim had apparently been one of his school friends, or a friend of a friend, or something like that. Whatever the nature of their relationship, he had given the wildebeest the phone number. And now Nick had it as well.
A quick check told him the number belonged to a pre-paid flip phone. He sent a request for information about the purchase just to cover his bases, but already knew it would have been paid for in cash. A burner phone, an old favorite. Still, perhaps the manufacturer could tell him where the phone had been sold. With any luck there would be footage of the transaction. It would take at least a week before the company could get back to him though, so until then the best he could do was wait.
Which sadly meant he needed to return to his desk until another kid showed up for an interview. Judy's seat was empty when he got back, the top of her desk covered in confusing schematics and town hall records. One look was enough to dissuade him from trying to make sense of whatever it was Judy thought she had, so he settled into his chair and put his feet up while keeping an eye on the clock.
Eventually Francine walked past, so he waved the elephant down. "Hey, Trunks, do you know where Judy got off to?"
"Don't call me that."
Nick blinked, then folded his ears back. "Oh, sorry. Didn't think you'd mind," he said. "Judy?"
The elephant waved vaguely upstairs. "I think she's talking to the Chief."
He went completely still, the fur on his neck standing on end. Slowly, he pulled his feet off of his desk and sat properly, looking up at Bogo's office as he wondered what was being talked about in there.
"Are we in some sort of trouble?"
Francine snorted lightly. "Why do you think I know?"
His ears folded back and kept his mouth shut, deciding it was best to leave her alone for now. He lightly drummed on his desk for a second, then scooted over to his computer as the sudden urge to look busy took him. With a resigned sigh, he settled in to summarize the interviews he'd conducted so far. Out of habit he created two separate documents, one for the official report and a second to serve as the special addendum he'd be writing for Chief Bogo. He hadn't done anything questionable, not since the stakeout at least, but the chief hadn't told him to stop writing them yet so he figured it was best to tread on the safe side.
One thing Nick could say about playing everything straight: while it might be boring it certainly made doing the paperwork less of a headache. The report almost seemed to write itself as he simply related the events that had happened during each interview. The end result was a much drier read than what he usually turned in, there was simply no need for his usual flair unless he wanted to deceive someone, but he was well on his way to being finished when he heard a familiar scampering and looked up just in time to see Judy bounding down the stairs in five large hops, a massive grin shining on her face.
"Careful there, Carrots. Keep smiling like that and mammals might think you enjoy your job," Nick commented even as he felt his worries melt away.
Judy barely even slowed, grabbing the keys off her desk. "Get up, get up, get up! The chief agreed to let us check on my hunch, but we only have until the end of the day."
Before he could say anything she grabbed the schematic that was covering her desk and ran toward the precinct's garage, a noticeable spring in her step. Nick watched her disappear with a bemused smile, slowly shaking his head as he saved his work and stretched, then followed her out.
While driving to Doug's last known location Judy explained everything to Nick. After so much frustration it all seemed so obvious that she just had to share her revelation. Bellwether had the records changed, either when she was assistant mayor or after Lionheart had been shuffled off, and all they needed to do was take a look until they found something that was out of place.
Chief Bogo was a bit skeptical of course. It wasn't that he thought her idea didn't have merit, but he had calmly explained that one hunch wasn't enough to justify a complete re-survey of Zootopia's underground infrastructure, and that even if she was right it wasn't uncommon for there to be discrepancies between building plans and the final result. Sometimes there were factors that hadn't been accounted for by the architects, or the foreman on site decided to handle things differently. Still, he'd given her a day to see what she could find.
As they walked the final stretch Judy noticed the tattered remains of police tape—DO NOT CROSS—that someone had failed to take down when the previous investigation had concluded. She'd been back a couple of times since she and Nick had tracked down the location of Doug's mobile lab in the company of other officers, but this was the first time she'd been back with Nick at her side. She almost expected to see the train car sitting on the tracks, waiting for them to find it again.
"Well, now that we are here, I think it is time I told you something," Nick said as he pulled a flashlight from his pocket. "I don't want to get in any more train wrecks."
Judy rolled her eyes at him. "No trains, I promise."
"In that case, this is your show. Where are we headed?"
She had been wondering that exact thing the whole drive over. What would someone like Doug consider a safe escape route? Obviously not out the way they'd come in, he would have assumed that any police to show up would come from that direction. And not toward where the tracks reemerged above ground. That was another direction the police would have covered. That just left one option.
"Come on," she said, pulling out her own flashlight as she followed the tracks deeper underground. "Let's check this way first."
They stayed on the maintenance walkway just along the tunnel wall while Judy kept track of their progress by referencing the tunnel markers against the schematics. At regular intervals a train barreled past, moving so fast it was reduced to a sleek blur, and they both had to cling to the safety railing to avoid being sucked off. One time Nick dropped his flashlight and it rolled off the walkway to be smashed under the train wheels before he could catch it.
"Carrots, I know I've never said this before, but I liked it better in the precinct," Nick said over the rail at the ruined remains of his flashlight.
Judy ignored him as she kept pressing on. According to the schematics the ventilation access was only a quarter mile away, and that was as good a place as any to search first. It wasn't that far. If the city would only bother to send someone down with a bunch of new lights to replace the ones that had burned out it wouldn't even be that bad.
She almost missed the door on the other side of the tracks; she'd been so busy tracking their progress against the schematics that Nick had to point it out. At first she'd been confused, wondering if she had made some mistake. There wasn't supposed to be anything on that side of the tracks until they were far deeper, but a quick check of the nearest tunnel marker confirmed she hadn't gotten their position wrong.
A smile broke out on her muzzle and she hopped over the safety railing, quickly running to the door while Nick scrambled to keep up. The ground near it was covered in a thick layer of dirt that had been kicked up by the passing trains. She tentatively reached out and gave the knob a gentle twist. It turned.
"Someone left this door unlocked," she said, looking back at Nick.
"That's great," Nick said anxiously, peering into the tunnel. "Can we hurry inside before a train decides we'd look better spread across several miles of track?"
"Oh just clam down—" she said, though the laugh died on her lips as she gave the door a push only to find it didn't move. Her ears perked up a little and she tried again, this time putting her weight against it. Again nothing. "It's stuck."
"What?"
"The door is stuck," she repeated. "It won't budge."
Nick glanced down the tunnel again, then lightly pushed her out of the way and tried it himself with no better success. Then he threw his shoulder into it, this time forcing the door in ever so slightly though he staggered back with a yelp.
"Did you hurt yourself?" Judy asked anxiously.
"Just used the wrong shoulder," Nick grumbled before he threw himself against the door again, leading with his other shoulder this time. "Keep forgetting about the stupid bruise."
After several more attempts he opened a gap just big enough for her to slip inside while he continued to work the door open. The moment she was through it became obvious why the door was stuck shut. Someone had moved a sizable storage locker to barricade it.
"I think someone didn't want to be followed," Judy called outside as Nick continued to work the door open.
"I hadn't noticed," Nick grunted, finally able to squeeze his larger frame in. "Keep up the fine detective work and you'll be in command of the ZPD in no time."
She started to shine her light around the room they'd found, keeping one hand on the wall as she moved into it. "Do you smell anything?"
"Only hydraulic fluid and oil," Nick said, moving the other direction. "If this is the place, then our wanted sheepie was careful to make it impossible to track him by scent."
Judy wasn't sure what she expected to find. The room was fairly bare however. Other than the locker there didn't wasn't much of note. A few hooks on the wall. A light with a broken bulb. The place was clearly intended to serve as a temporary storage of some sort. She'd nearly made her way to the far wall when she stepped on something cold, then looked down to see a metal hatch under her foot. A quick look at the schematics confirmed that, like the storage room they were currently standing in, there wasn't supposed to be anything nearby that would require an access point.
She stepped off the floor panel and heaved it open with a soft grunt. The metal clanged sharply when it landed against the cement floor, but the noise was quickly drowned out by a train as it thundered past the door outside.
"What have you got there?" Nick asked, walking over to peer inside, then quick took a step back. "That is disgusting."
Judy didn't disagree as she stared at the tangled mass of partly decomposed white fluff. A bunch of small bugs seemed to have made the mess their home and quickly scurried out of sight when her light fell on them. Apparently Doug had sheered himself.
"That is wool," she said finally as she angled her light to shine on the crawlspace they'd uncovered. "I'll bet he needed to do it so he could fit in there."
Nick sighed. "Just great. Well, after you."
"Excuse me?"
"You're the one that found it," he said.
"Exactly," Judy agreed. "So now it's your turn to do something."
"Ladies first."
She turned and tilted her ears toward Nick. "Age before youth."
"We're both going to get fleas," Nick muttered before he jumped down. The moment his feet touched the floor he made a retching sound. "Oh God, it feels even worse than it looks. Smells worse too."
"Then stop standing in it and get moving!"
Nick made a face as he stooped low and started into the crawlspace. The moment he was out of the way Judy tucked the schematics away and jumped in after him. Unfortunately Nick hadn't been exaggerating. She didn't waste any time getting out of the disgusting mess, and tried to imagine how difficult it must have been for the sheep to wiggle his way through. Even small as she was, she had to move while hunched over, while Nick had shifted to crawling forward on all fours.
High voltage cables were strung neatly along the wall on either side, hooked into what she assumed were fuse boxes at regular intervals. The best Judy could tell, they were headed roughly parallel to the track, though she thought the shaft was angling gradually away. That was just an educated guess, however. There was no way to track how far they'd traveled in there. At least they were making relatively good time.
"I think my ancestors are turning over in their graves," Nick commented from up ahead.
Judy looked up at his fluffy tail, the very tip of it swaying several inches in front of her nose. "Why?"
"Because, I must be the first fox ever to be followed down a hole by a bunny," he said, then huffed as he scooted forward another few feet. "Pretty sure it was always the other way around before."
She watched as the tip of his tail continued to dance in front of her, slowly shaking her head as she smiled. "Yeah, well that wasn't very good for us bunnies. I think I like it better this way."
"You know, I do too."
The tip of his tail kept bobbing and weaving almost hypnotically before it suddenly bopped her right on the nose. She stumbled back a couple steps, eyes closed as she shook her head, then let loose a series of sneezes that set Nick to laughing.
"That wasn't funny," she huffed and rubbed her nose.
"No, maybe it wasn't," Nick said as he leaned over just enough to peer back at her. With only the light cast by her flashlight his eyes almost seemed to glow. "It was adorable though. Your sneezes are cute. They sound so tiny."
"Nick, you know I don't like being called that."
"Relax Carrots, I wasn't calling you cute. Just your sneezes," he said and started crawling once more. "I promise not to do it again."
Judy huffed lightly. "Thanks."
"At least not today."
She would have glared if Nick had still been looking to appreciate it, but all she could see was that impressively fluffy tail once more. The spot where it had brushed over her nose still tingled lightly, that distinctly foxy scent lingering even as he moved away, so she rubbed vigorously at her nose for another second. When that failed she simply shook her head and hurried to catch up before Nick got too far away.
"We're almost at the end," Nick said after another few minutes. "I can see the hatch just ahead."
She tried to see around him, but again all she could see was that tail. For an instant she regretted not going first, this was exactly the sort of thing Nick did when he wanted to get on her nerves. Then she heard Nick let out a frustrated huff and the clink of metal on metal.
"Is it locked?" she asked anxiously.
"No, something is over the hatch," he said. Another huff followed by him flopping over onto his back. "Really heavy. Seems our sheepie was really worried that someone might follow him."
He pushed again, using both hands this time, and she heard something shifting up above. Then he settled and panted for a second. "I don't suppose you're going to let us turn around after all this, huh."
"Nope."
Nick gave a dry chuckle. "Think you can squeeze up here then?" he asked and took a deep breath. "I think I can lift it enough for you to squeeze through."
"I probably can," she said, eying how much space there was with Nick pressed against the floor like that.
"Then get up here. Not sure how long I can hold it up and I'd rather not drop it on you."
The fit was slightly tighter than Judy expected, and it took a bit of squirming before she was in place. She planted her feet against Nick's body and waited, tail flicking until she noticed Nick watching her.
"Fancy meeting you here," he said, giving her that sly grin. "Do you come often, or is this just—"
"Nick, please…"
"What? I just got comfortable," he said, managing to pull off a surprisingly innocent expression.
She lightly shoved his muzzle away, grinning in spite of herself. "Stop goofing off and get this open."
"You're no fun," Nick said, then took a deep breath and grunted as he pushed up with both hands.
The hatch lifted slowly, but there was just enough space for her to see outside. Standing up on Nick's chest, she tried to help and drew a light rumble of protest from the fox. Together they managed to lift it just enough for her fit, and she scampered through the gap before Nick let the weight fall once more with a sharp clang.
This room was similar to the one they'd come from, though noticeably closer to the surface. Her ears could just make out street noise up above. A heavy steel drum that had been re-purposed as a trash can had been dragged over the hatch. It took a bit of effort, but Judy was able to knock it onto its side and roll it out of the way to release Nick.
"So, where are we now?" Nick asked as he pulled himself into the room and brushed himself off.
Judy pulled the schematics back out and looked them over, shaking her head slowly. "I have no clue."
Fortunately they weren't locked inside the room. Outside was one of the main maintenance halls and within a few minutes of walking Judy was able to figure out where they were. This particular hall wasn't supposed to connect to the main tunnel in any way according to the diagrams, and as she'd already suspected they weren't that far underground anymore.
"Do you think Doug went for the closest exit, or kept running for a while?" Judy asked.
Nick considered the question. "He didn't exactly look like he was in the best shape. His friends were the ones that chased after us, he didn't help," he decided at last, "and most criminals prefer a fast escape unless there is a very good reason to go with something more complicated."
"Speaking from experience there?"
"I'm sure I have no idea what you're implying," he said. "Which way do we go to get out of here?"
As it turned out, the nearest exit wasn't very far at all. Around the first corner was a narrow staircase that brought them up into an alley. The moment they stepped back outside Judy was almost blinded by how bright the sun was. Nick merely pulled his sunglasses out and put them on, looking supremely pleased with himself as he started to check out the area.
"Hey, I know this place," he said once he'd regained his bearings. "There's a bookstore with a Snarlbucks just down the street."
"I'm not going to ask why you're so familiar with the city's back alleys," Judy said, squinting against the sunlight as she looked for any traffic cameras that might have a view of where they were standing. There were none, of course. "Do you think Doug had a getaway car waiting here?"
"Just sitting unattended in an alley? I doubt it. Something like that draws attention; at best it would've been stolen."
"Then he probably called someone to pick him up," she reasoned. "He wasn't about to go walking out in the open. Someone would have noticed a freshly sheered sheep. Maybe if we pull the footage from the cameras in this area we'll be able to figure out who helped him."
Nick didn't look too hopeful, but he nodded anyway. "At least now we know how he gave the ZPD the slip."