[Hi folks, after long absence due to sickness, I am back! Thanks for the IM asking for my wellbeing, I am much better now and hope to can finish this asap]
Chapter 21 – A Hard Night
Bogo had left Kitty alone in the room to give her enough privacy to get ready for bed. He had climbed the stairs to reach the roof of the small hotel and up there his cell phone got a connection. He called the ZPD headquarters to receive a status report from the shift supervisor. No news regarding Judy and Nick. The mayor had asked several times why he had missed their weekly meeting and Bogo wrote a short message to her, writing something about a family emergency that needed his attention.
When he was ready, he went down again and after taking a deep breath, entered the room. Kitty had turned off all the lights. Her eyes glowed in the dark and in the weak light from the lamp in the corridor Bogo could see her lying in bed, sheets pulled up to her chin.
Without a word, he walked in the bathroom. Kitty's beauty case stood on the little sink. His own small bag with his bathroom stuff stood on the floor. He washed, brushed his teeth and changed in a pair of large boxers and a baggy old T-shirt.
Hesitating, he opened the door. He walked to his side of the bed and entered as carefully as possible, however, the bed squeaked and made terrible noises and for a second, Bogo thought the legs would break. But then, finally, he laid still on his back. He heard Kitty's breath right next to him. In order not to touch her, he was lying as far outside as possible, half of his left buttock was hanging outside.
"Good night, MacMahon!", he said in a voice as if he would leave the office right now.
"Good night, Chief!", came the response.
Bogo thought he could never sleep in, however, the long flight and the jet lag took their toll and within sixty seconds he was fast asleep.
Xavier felt a bit nervous. He was sitting in his best uniform in front of the giant screen in the big conference room on board of the MS Germania. Xenia sat next to him and he was pretty sure that she was nervous, too. On the screen appeared their big boss, Viktor Maybach himself. The bunny looked tiny in his oversized chair behind his huge desk.
"Ah, there they are, my two heroes, Xavier and Xenia, the X-men!", said Maybach and chuckled at his own joke.
Xenia and Xavier both managed a nervous grin.
"Xenia, my girl, I always knew that my trust in you would pay off one day. And this must be handsome Xavier, oh, my friend, you should hear Xenia when she talks about you…", Maybach went on.
Xenia let out a cough and interjected a quick "Very funny!"
Maybach's face turned straight and he looked directly at Xavier now.
"Well, my friend, I heard you disclosed our police officer Judith Wilde for us… you don't know how thankful I am for that. She is currently waiting here in my palace, thanks to you, and I will meet her this evening!"
Xavier was not sure if the grin on Maybach's face was positive or not.
"What…", he said slowly, "What will you do with her?"
Xenia kicked his leg under the table, but Maybach gave him a friendly nod.
"Oh, don't worry, she's absolutely safe here. With your help, I found out that she is a one in a million exception, a rare carrier of the L4 enzyme. She will propel my scientific researches so much… promoting you to officer rank is the very least I could do!"
"Thank you, sir!", Xavier said quickly.
He had not understood at all what Maybach meant, his English was full of strange expressions even though his German accent was barely noticeable.
Suddenly, Maybach lifted his right paw.
"But there is one thing I do not understand…", he said and both Xenia and Xavier knew instantly that something was wrong.
"How could a simple fox get on my ship with a false identity, sneaking up to my most valuable asset on board without any of you noticing?"
Xenia gulped and said, "I am sorry, sir, I do not know what you…"
"Yes", interrupted Maybach, "Yes, that's exactly what's worrying me, that you don't know. I had selected a new girl for my… let's call it scientific collection… a young vixen from the U.A.K., her name is Tracy Whitney…"
"Yes, I know her. We treated her as a first class passenger, as you had ordered, sir!", said Xenia.
"Well, it seems that she had a quarrel with her father about coming to me, so he had sneaked aboard using a false identity and was able to contact her!", said Maybach and Xavier did not need full HD to see that he was really pissed about it.
"I would have to get rid of him, but we noticed only when they arrived and now he is sitting here in my palace watching every step his daughter makes!", he slammed his paw on the desk.
"But sir, I do not understand, we checked the ship for foxes, because of that Wilde bunny, she is married to a fox, you know…"
"OF COURSE I KNOW, YOU IMBECILE!", screamed Maybach. He took a deep breath.
"Sorry, this was not helpful", he said quietly, "So, please tell me what you found out!"
Xenia continued, "Sir, we had three foxes on board, Miss Whitney and two others, I checked them all myself!"
"Before or after the ship stopped in Ushuaia?", Maybach asked as casually as if we ask for the time.
"Well…", Xenia hesitated, "before, I think… yes, definitely before!"
Panic started to rise in her. She may have overlooked a very serious thing here… Xavier had already turned around and was hammering on the keyboard of his laptop.
"Three more foxes boarded the ship in Ushuaia!", he said, eyes wide with panic.
"A third class passenger named Nick Vulpes, a first class passenger named Klaus Becker and a crew member named Gerhard Vortmüller!"
"A crew member?", Xenia screamed, "No way! I will be informed of any new hires and I didn't know that we got new crew members in Ushuaia!"
"My dear Xenia", Maybach said calmly, and somehow this was worse than his yelling, "the things you don't know about your ship seem to fill books…"
"Where does he work?", she yelled at Xavier.
"Kitchen! He's a cook… but wait… something's wrong here… I can't find him on any duty roster!", Xavier continued typing.
Maybach shook his head, "I bet on Nick Vulpes. Tracy's father's name's Nick, too… and 'Vulpes'… what a stupid false name for a fox. Show me the picture of him!"
When Xavier clicked the pictures open, he gasped in shock.
"What?", Xenia and Maybach asked simultaneously.
Xavier clicked, bracing for impact when he sent the pics to the big screen.
"That's Vulpes…", he said.
"I was right, that's him!", grinned Maybach.
"Wait, sir… that's Becker… and that is cook Vortmüller!"
All three stared on the screen.
"I'll be darned…", said Maybach, "they all look the same!"
"Because they are the same, sir!", said Xavier.
Maybach shook his head, "This clever son of a bitch, this foxy fox! He used three identities! That's why he could wander around my ship and find Tracy!"
"But sir…", started Xavier.
"Sir, I can assure you, I didn't know!", Xenia was now really in a panic, "Our surveillance department should have noticed a thing like that! They should have checked that! I will make them personally responsible…"
"Sir…", tried Xavier again.
"Xenia, it's no use trying to blame someone else…"
"WILL YOU SHUT UP, IT'S EVEN WORSE!", yelled Xavier.
Xenia and Maybach stared at him open-mouthed. He was pale, his tongue was lolling out as he could not sweat. His eyes were so large and bulgy, Xenia feared they would pop out.
"What do you mean, it's worse?", asked Maybach.
"I know who this is!", said Xavier.
"Yeah, of course, that's Nick Whitney, the father of…"
"NO!", yelled Xavier again.
"Listen, if you do yell at me once again, I will personally…", started Maybach, but to Xenia's horror, Xavier interrupted him yet again.
"Sir, this is Nick Wilde! The cop! The husband of Judy Wilde!"
For ten seconds there was complete silence.
"Sir, I'm sorry, but I'm sure. I never forget a face… and I have seen her wedding picture and he was the groom, I am absolutely certain about that!", said Xavier.
Xenia looked from Maybach to Xavier and back again like watching a tennis game. She was sure that her career, maybe her life was about to end. If this was true…
Maybach started laughing. First low, then he threw back his tiny head and laughed and laughed, hammering his fists on his desk, burying his head inside his arms. It took him two full minutes to recover, then he sat back and wiped the tears out of his eyes.
"Isn't life great?", he said to Xavier's and Xenia's utter astonishment, "This opens a million of opportunities for me… I have spent sleepless nights thinking of how I could possibly put pressure on dear Judy and now it turns out, her dear fox husband is already sitting at my table! Well…", he looked at the clock, "at least, in one hour he will…"
He clapped his paws.
"Xenia, it has been a great pleasure chatting with you again. Xavier, you are a great guy, you will make your way, I'm sure of that. I will inform the Captain of your promotion. Congrats. I have tons of things to take care of, so you will excuse me…"
Xenia listened but couldn't believe it, "But sir, what about…"
"Oh, don't think about it, for once your mistake had solved my problems, so everything's pardoned, we will simply forget about this… security glitch… and never mention it again. Except, of course, if you insist…"
"NO!", yelled Xavier and Xenia at the same time.
"Well, I thought you wouldn't!", grinned Maybach, "Macht's gut!"
The screen went black.
Xenia slumped on the floor where she stood.
Xavier stood up from his chair, his legs felt like rubber, checking if she had fainted, but she lifted her feline head and stared at him.
"Tell me, this wasn't a dream, was it?", she gasped, "I really thought I was a goner…"
"Yeah, me too!", grinned Xavier.
Sometime later, Nick was surprised. After ten minutes with Viktor Maybach, he was totally relaxed. He had expected to be tense, to say the least – this guy was, according to the Secret Service, one of the most dangerous villains in history. But Nick had to admit that he felt sympathy for the rich tycoon.
Maybach ("Oh, please, call me Viktor!") was much smaller than Nick had expected, he was smaller than Judy. Even though everything in his office was huge or even enormous, for some strange reason the bunny was not dwarfed by it – on the contrary, somehow this looked like this was the correct size for him. Not that Viktor was one of these 'Hey, look at me, I'm rich, I'm the boss, I'm always right' guys, on the contrary. He had shaken Nick's paw in a humble, but the affectionate way and Nick told himself to be careful not to be too much taken by him. Remember, this is our target! he said to himself.
Viktor seemed to be very impressed by Tracy. She was downright nervous, but after some time, she seemed to be flattered by the compliments Viktor made to her.
"Your daughter is wonderful!", Viktor said while pouring a glass of wine, "She is not only beautiful, she is so vivacious! Of course, you know that, but you really should have seen her at the model contest. She walked there, no care in the world as if her future life was not depending on it at all! Her tail swayed from left to right and her eyes! Her eyes! Ohh, I knew she would win after ten seconds!"
"She was there without my permission!", said Nick and forced himself not to smile, not to look too friendly, "A lot of these so-called model contest are just some rich geezers way to lure in young girls…"
"Daddy…", said Tracy softly.
They played their roles and Nick had the impression that Viktor was buying their story.
"When I noticed she had run away and was on that ship…"
"Oh,I can imagine!", said Viktor, "You are a real father, you must protect your girl, of course. And what an adventurous story, to sneak on the ship using a false identity!"
Was there some irony in Viktor's voice? Nick was not sure.
"It had cost me all my money to get the airline ticket and the third class passage…", Nick said with a stern voice, looking to the floor.
"Oh, dear Nick, I will pay that back, just tell me the sum, I'll write a check! I'm so sorry, I really think we should change our process, maybe having a form where parents could give their approval…"
"The girls who really want to participate would just fake their parents' signature…", said Tracy laughing.
"Hm, yeah… well, my people will think of something", Viktor smiled.
"You are so different from what they say in the news…", Nick said.
"Yeah, typical!", Viktor waved off, "He's rich, he must be bad! He's a prey, he must be unfair to predators! He has strange ideas, he must be mad! I've had it all!"
Suddenly, he lifted his glass.
"I'll give you an example, Nick! Do you like the wine?"
Nick shrugged, "Yeah, it's not too bad…"
"Not too bad, eh?", repeated Maybach, "What do you think one bottle of this stuff costs?"
"I hope, not too much…", said Nick hesitantly as he did not know where this would lead.
"Ahhh!", Maybach smiled, "And why do you hope that?"
"Well… I think this wine is rather ordinary!"
Maybach clapped his paws, "Exactly! It's my favorite wine, I like the taste… but you can buy it everywhere, even in the duty-free shop down in the resort, for just 2 Euro a bottle! But when I have important guests, rich guys, politicians, they all think that this wine must be extremely expensive and they nearly fell down on their knees before me when I give them a bottle!"
He leaned back and looked at Nick, "But not you, of course. I could never outfox a fox, could I?"
There it was again, the little trace of irony in his voice that Nick noted before. But before he could think of a clever answer, Maybach suddenly jumped up.
"Oh, I nearly forgot, Tracy, my dear girl, our doctor wants to see you after lunch. Nothing serious, just a check-up and…", he hesitated, "… maybe a little vaccination shot, we all had problems here with a certain virus. No one thought a mean little 'flu could live here in the ice, but obviously, it does!"
As if he had waited, the door opened and a badger came in, dressed in a white lab coat. Tracy looked a bit hesitantly at Nick when she realized she had to go with him.
Maybach nodded at Nick, "Don't worry, she'll be fine. Why don't you walk around a bit, maybe go and check out the resort, we have quite a nice mall there!"
Nick still looked at the badger. He had the feeling that he knew this guy, but couldn't put a paw on it. However, the meeting with Maybach seemed to be over, so when he had left the dining room, he sighed. Nick had the impression that they were not closer to solve this puzzle as they had been weeks back in Zootopia.
Bogo took a deep breath and opened the door to the bull pit, as the briefing room of the ZPD was called. The room was crowded with officers and pandemonium reigned. No one looked at him, no one shouted 'Atten-hut!' There was loud talking, laughing, joking, arm-wrestling and when Bogo shouted 'Silence!', no one reacted at all. It was as if he was invisible. And in addition to all this, a strange noise hummed through the room, as if someone mowed the lawn directly in here.
Bogo smashed his clipboard on his desk but still, no one reacted. Tony was telling jokes to Fangmeyer and Wolfowitz, McHorn was eating – eating, in the briefing room! And in the front, Judy and Nick Wilde were passionately kissing right in front of everyone!
'What's wrong with you, guys! I will not tolerate this behavior…', Bogo screamed, but still, his voice seemed tiny and with no power at all. The strange mowing sound got louder, the officers jeered when Nick sat Judy on the table and started to unbutton her blouse.
'Stop that! Now!', Bogo screamed.
Finally, the crowd seemed to have noticed him as they all turned their heads and looked at him, a wide grin on their faces. They opened their mouths in sync and… started making this strange noise, that noise, that had reminded Bogo of a lawn mower, but in reality this was…
… not a lawn mower at all! Bogo woke up, gasping. It took him a while to realize that he was not in the bullpen, not even in Zootopia, but on a faraway island, in a crappy hotel, in a small room, all alone with… Kitty! Due to his massive horns, he was unable to turn his head so he turned his eyes as far to the right as possible. The noise was still audible and Bogo realized it was Kitty snoring. Well, snoring maybe was a little too much, it just sounded that loud because… because her head was pressed against his and she was breathing right in his ear! He gulped. Even worse (or better?), her whole body was pressed against his, he could feel her long bare legs against his rib cage and her arm was wrapped around him.
Just when he decided to clear his throat in order to wake her up, a loud knocking on the door make him flinch.
"Chief? Kitty? Are you up? It's half past seven already…"
The baritone voice of Tony rang through the tiny room.
"Coming!", yelled Kitty, jumping elegantly out of the bed. Typical cat, she could switch from deep asleep to wide awake in a second. Bogo turned his head and froze in shock. In the dim light, he saw Kitty reaching for the door handle, her slender curvy figure dressed in a string tanga that could easily have been stored in an empty shotgun round. A white, semitransparent tank top tried its best to hide her voluptuous breasts. Don't open the door like that! he wanted to yell, but after opening his mouth his brain refused to operate his vocal cords as it was too busy imprinting Kitty's image permanently on his retinas.
Kitty opened the door and Tony was about to say something, but obviously, the brain of the huge tiger was wired the same way as Bogo's as he just opened his mouth with the words stuck.
"Tony, what's wrong?", Kitty said, obviously unaware of her influence on the situation.
"Nothing…", he finally managed to say, "I just thought we should… you know… we need to charter a plane… and it's already pretty cat… I mean pretty late… and breakfast is ready down there!"
"Go!", yelled Bogo, "we come down as soon as we are ready!"
Tony started to grin and was just about to say something, but the look on Bogo's face made him just nod and close the door.
Kitty sighed and pressed her paws in her hips, "Should I shower first or…"
"YES!", interrupted Bogo quickly. There was no way he could get up in front of Kitty as his flimsy shorts would not hide his massive erection. Kitty looked surprised at his loud voice but then she shrugged and vanished inside the small bathroom.