Though it had taken a precious minute to get their attention, he and the two officers were hot on the trail. In the snow they had followed footsteps. Now back in Savannah Central, they followed witness testimony. They had found discarded baseball bats and winter clothes in a dumpster along the way.
This was Frank's chance at redemption. Catching the murderous wolf might wipe away some of the scarring on his ruined life. The departed souls of AniTech were rooting for him.
They stopped in front of a line outside the Zootopia Playhouse movie theater. The coyote rose from the dark cloth of the back seat and they exited the vehicle again, and approached a zebra in pink at the back of the line. Just last night he was a plaything of evil terrorists. Now he was working shoulder to shoulder with the city's majestic force for good.
"Ma'am, a wolf and a hyena may have passed through here. Have you seen any two predators like that together come through recently?"
The zebra opened her mouth to respond, when a voice crackled over the chief's radio. "Officer Milton Bogo, Mayor Bellwether has ordered you, Fangmeyer, and the coyote accompanying you to immediately return to the precinct."
That was untimely.
"What? Who is this? What is the meaning of this? We're on an important case!"
The next voice was female. "Officer Bogo, you have your orders. Return to the city hall immediately."
"Mayor Bellwether?"
But there was no response.
"Mayor Bellwether, we have a terrorist on the lose. One of those involved in the attack on the AniTech offices."
"That's precisely my concern. Return to city hall immediately."
What on Earth could she mean?
"Mayor, if I may-"
"Now, Chief Bogo."
The words were like the thrust of a dagger.
The dismayed bovine put his radio back, as Francisco stared, stunned, caught completely off guard.
"Dammit. It looks like this cuts our investigation short. Come on. Both of you. Back in the car."
Even a hulking police chief was helpless against the orders of his superiors. What could possibly deserve more attention than this!?
Frank climbed back in the giant vehicle, though the previous task had terminated, the police car becoming a graveyard of dead endeavor. Worry and helpless and bafflement fizzled in his mind. He was confident the feelings were the same among the other two.
Bogo started the car again, as the butcher of AniTech was left to run off pursued.
Mayor Bellwether must have a had a better lead, somehow. Somehow they had made a mistake. What could it be?
The city hall could not be far. Maybe they had a chance to get back on the trail after whatever this was. But Frank noticed the police chief had not put on the sirens, forcing them to submit to any traffic along the way. He seemed to have submitted to the idea the chase had just become a lost cause.
Frank's mind was tethered Wolfowitz, who was growing ever more out of reach by the second. He wondered what the hyena's place was in all this, too. He had never seen a hyena at The Stained Fang. Where had all the terrorist ambition started? The VIP lounge of the bar? A private message exchange on Spearhead? David Lennox, the lion, had been outwardly in charge, but he seemed so calm and level headed. Maybe Wolfowitz was really the epicenter of this darkness.
They passed the Herds & Grazing building, where Frank had once been contracted. He knew where they were, they would be at the city hall shortly, but the loss in pursuit was devastating. His mind danced for a possible explanation for this interruption, but he got none. He itched desperately to see what news the diminutive mayor had to offer, how it could justify this derailment.
Chief Bogo maneuvered into an empty spot, parked the car, and they all got out, exiting the vehicle that had just minutes ago been pursuing justice.
They walked from the sunlit outdoors and entered the rotunda, the floor bearing the streaks of a fresh mopping. Bellwether was about thirty feet away, waiting with a scowl on her face and arms folded. Two towering, woolly rams in uniform flanked her.
"Cheif Milton Bogo," she said sternly, voice echoing slightly through the massive room. "I expected better from you. Enlisting a terrorist to help your investigation?"
"Yes ma'am. A terrorist to find a terrorist. But this one didn't know what he was getting into when he went to the AniTech offices, he-"
"No buts, officer. I'm demanding this coyote immediately be sent to the Savannah Central Penitentiary and held without bail until a trial can begin!"
The words cracked through the air like slap to the face.
"Under what authority-"
"The Emergency Powers Clause." Bellwether said with ostentatious confidence. Obviously, she had expected this question.
There was a brief silence. Francisco had stopped breathing.
"I've heard of no such thing, Bellwether. If you're trying to-"
"It's Mayor Bellwether," the sheep retorted angrily, a fire burning behind her soft, blue eyes, trapped in her tiny frame. "And if you're planning on disobeying the authority of the mayor, that's grounds for immediate termination!"
Frank could hardly believe the words being flung. There was a choking silence as the two stared at each other. The canine could not see Bogo's face, but the mayor's gaze was hard, hot, and determined.
Finally the buffalo spoke up. "And if the mayor doesn't have said authority?"
"Are you really willing to take that chance, Officer Bogo?"
Again, silence, her mighty proclamations simmering in the air.
After a few seconds, the silence had been enough.
"William, Terrance, take the coyote! I've already notified the detention center."
The buffalo stood frozen as the rams went around him. Frank's chance for redemption, to stop a terrorist, was cut short for this.
"Arms forward," said the one on the left. Frank complied, meek and boneless with shock, and they cuffed him. Such a short time free, fighting for redemption. At first he thought fortune had done him a great grace. Now things had tumbled back down.
"Follow me."