DISCLAIMER: I had my bid to own Zootopia ready when it got snatched by this cynical blue green blob thing who told me they needed it for some sort of soul thing. So I still don't own Zootopia, and now I'm also questioning my sanity
Thanks to GusTheBear and TheoreticallyEva for reviewing this chapter!
"I can't imagine what this would normally be like." Madison looked around at the almost empty subway car.
Her sister laughed. "Normally these things are so full, a mouse would feel cramped. They even have their own compartment. So do the quilled mammals, like hedgehogs and porcupines." The police doe pointed out the doors to the specific compartments. "It keeps injuries down that way."
"What about skunks?"
Judy shuddered. "Most skunks have had their scent glands removed. Occasionally, though, we ARE called to the scene if a 'pure' skunk—that's how some of them refer to themselves—has his tail stepped on or something." She shook her head. "No one ever comes out of that happy."
Madison turned a little green. "In my grade ten class, we had a skunk that accidentally sprayed someone. Rumour was that the other mammal tried to beat him up or something. Anyway, the other mammal got sprayed, and we didn't see him for two weeks. When he came back, he still smelled horrible, and no one would sit anywhere near him."
Her grey-furred sister let out a small chuckle. "I bet."
The two fell into silence. They'd opted to take the subway, since Gideon's van could only hold two. Nick had proposed they each accompany one of the others to their apartment. Judy had agreed and suggested Nick go with Gideon for some "male bonding time," while she caught up with her sister. They planned to take the two on a tour of the city the next day—through what areas they could, anyway—and at least show them a bit of the city that they had heard so much about.
"So how are you and Nick doing?"
Well, of course that had to be one of the questions out of the tan doe's mouth.
"We're doing OK. It's…" Judy hesitated. "I can't imagine trying to go through what we are right now without him. I…" She took a breath. "I killed a mammal to save him, Maddy. I mean, I'd do it again, whether it was him, or my colleagues, or a civilian, and I know I was in the right for doing it and that he'd have killed us if I hadn't, but…" She trailed off.
Maddy had no idea what to say. Here was her sister, Judy, the strongest, toughest bunny she knew—hell, mammal she knew—and she looked so vulnerable. Maddy nudged her sister. "Hey, you did the right thing. After all, I'm not allowed to be the only one crazy enough in our family to date a fox, right?"
That did the trick, and Judy laughed. "No, you aren't allowed to be the only one in our family crazy enough to do that. Besides, if I died, I'm pretty sure Nick would find a way to torment me in the afterlife." She thought for a moment. "Or maybe I would just haunt him." She grinned again.
Maddy joined in her sister's laughter as the train continued. When it blew past a station rather than stopping, Maddy turned to look at her sister with a quirked eyebrow, questioning.
"We're passing under the Rainforest District," Judy said quietly, eyes looking at the ceiling of the subway car.
That brought conversation to a sobering halt for a moment, until Maddy broke the silence. "Do you think everyone liked the bakery stuff we brought?"
Her sister nodded, smile returning. "It all disappeared before we left the station. You made some very happy cops today. Normally, the most we get is a thanks. Once in a while, someone will leave a Furbucks or Tim Howltons gift card on the window, but that's rare. These days, more often than not, we're getting yelled at for one reason or another."
Maddy nodded, remembering a news segment from a few days ago. "I saw that news report of the protest against the quarantine of the districts." The segment had included a small clip of video of several mammals yelling at a line of officers, before one civilian had broken away from the others and shoved a wolf officer to the ground. The news had cut the segment at that point, saying things from there on were "too graphic" to show on live TV.
The doe shook her head. "Ugh. Wolfowitz ended up in the hospital after that, and a couple others ended up needing stitches. They wanted access to their homes and businesses. One even threatened to shoot McHorn if he couldn't pass. He's the only one we arrested from that."
That surprised Maddy. "Not even the mammal who hurt Wolfowitz?"
Judy shook her head, looked around, then lowered her voice. "We don't have any more holding cell room. We have to pick and choose those we bring in, and we've had to let go of a lot of things." She paused. "Some of the other precinct captains have even been pressuring Bogo to stop speeding tickets altogether to focus on other stuff."
The tan doe thought about that for a while. "I think that makes sense. Get back to normal quicker, so you can focus on that normal."
Judy had to concede the point.
"I didn't expect the city tah be so…quiet," Gideon commented as he and Nick rolled through the streets of Savannah Central.
"Normally it's not. Normally, about now, you'll be following a wolf in a pickup truck with a giraffe tailgating you and a rhino trying to force his way into your lane," the fox in the passenger's seat quipped. "And that's not counting the dozen traffic accidents that would have already happened by now."
Gideon looked sideways at Nick. "You're kiddin' me. I knew traffic in Zootopia was normally bad…but THAT bad?"
"No." Nick smirked.
Gideon relaxed a bit.
"Normally, it's much worse."
The fox driving the van rolled his eyes. "That didn't help, Nick."
Nick couldn't help but laugh. "Trust me, Pie Guy, Zootopia drivers are some of the worst. Why do you think we have a TV show called 'Zootopia's Worst Driver' and it's run for fifteen seasons? They AREN'T faking on that TV show, much as it pains me to admit."
Gideon looked sideways at the other fox. "Pie Guy, huh? Maddy told me you liked to nickname everyone."
Nick smirked. "Of course I do. It's my name, after all."
Gideon was quiet for a moment, then chuckled. "OK, I get it. 'Nick' name. That's funny."
"Carrots thinks so." He paused. "How are things going for you guys out in the burrows?"
The fox driving the van shrugged. "Not much different for me. A little busier than normal, actually. Mammals have been spending more money than usual out in the burrows. Pies have been our bestseller lately, and Maddy brought in a light lunch and dinner menu, and we've been talking about adding a few small breakfast items, too."
Nick grinned. "Sounds like you and Maddy are turning the bakery into a full-fledged café."
"Yes and no. We're still focusin' on the baked stuff, but we want mammals to have a place they can come to any time of the day for somethin' to eat. Heck, we even had one of Maddy's brothers install free WiFi for customers, and I hear he's developin' an app for phones that mammals can order from." Gideon shook his head. "I'll never understand all that technology stuff. Way over my head. I can work the cash register, and Maddy and I learned how to work the accountin' software together, but all the fancy stuff…"
Nick couldn't help but chuckle. "Sounds like you and Maddy are about the same as me and Carrots, tech-wise. Neither of us really bothered to learn the ins and outs either. If it works, great. If it doesn't, I convince someone to help me out." He paused. "Carrots usually follows my lead, then gets angry and abandons the thing on the table to go to the gym or something. Or at least she used to. She can't do that now with her injury. Turn left here."
Gideon did as he was told, turning from empty street to empty street. "We've also gotten mammals on the other side of the spectrum, too. Predators who look down on Maddy because she's prey, prey who turn their noses up because I'm a predator."
"Carrots told me something about that. Seriously, why bother even walking into a predator-owned bakery if you don't like the fact that it's…you know… predator-owned?"
The portly fox let out a hearty chuckle. "Maddy and I have been asking that, too. She figures they may just be masochists. Or somethin'. You should hear the impressions she does of them when they're out of earshot."
"Oh, I bet." Nick cleared his throat before speaking up again in a screechy voice. "You can't trust a predator! He'll eat you or refuse to pay you!" The fox's voice turned deep. "You can't trust predators! They want to rule everything!" The third voice he used was a raspy, gravelly one. "How dare you lower yourself to consortin' with predators!"
Gideon laughed at the fox's goofy antics. "Yep, that'd be about the whole of it, though the voices she uses are funnier, and she usually uses more colourful language."
"Wow, a sibling of Carrots, using colorful language? I've barely ever heard her say anything harsher than 'sweet cheese and crackers' or rattling off a shopping list."
"Oh, Maddy does that, too, though she's started adding baking ingredients to that. I've heard her say something along the lines of 'oh, yeast and flour!' before."
"Damn, Carrots already gets some odd looks when she vegetable-curses. That might convince our colleagues she's certifiably insane." He thought for a moment. "That might not matter, though. I'm sure most of them think that already."
"In a good way, I hope. Judy done worked too hard for her colleagues to not accept her."
Nick nodded. "Turn right here. Oh, they do. She's a force to be reckoned with, and everyone knows it. Chief Buffalo Butt even had us on the warehouse raid that dismantled the terrorist organization." His ears fell. "It's how she got hurt. We chased a perp out of the warehouse, and he made a getaway in a vehicle. Chased him all the way to Tundratown and ended up in, as one of our colleagues put it, a 'Wild West-style shootout'. I'm inclined to agree with them."
Gideon was quiet for a moment. "Bet that didn't sit right with ya."
The other fox shook his head. "It still doesn't. My instincts scream at me that not only did I fail to protect my mate, but that SHE got hurt protecting me." He took a breath. "Don't get me wrong, she's more capable than I am on and off the force, but this is something I have a very hard time ignoring."
"You don't have to worry about Judy. She's the toughest bunny I ever seen. Way back when we were kits, when I clawed her face, I found out she just got right back up, put her cap on, an' told her friends she wouldn't quit."
"How'd you find that out?"
"Her old friend Sharla came into the store a few months ago on her way through town. She moved out of the region years ago. She wanted to become an astronaut. From the sound of things, she's well on her way."
Nick thought for a long moment. "Judy's mentioned her before, but it sounds like they lost touch. Maybe I should poke her to get back in contact."
"I'm sure she'd like that. Gotta say, I'm glad Sharla was as forgivin' as Judy was. I dunno if it helped that Maddy was standin' right next to me when I apologized." The fox sighed. "I really don't deserve their forgiveness, after what I did."
Nick looked over at the other fox. Normally, he might fire back with a witty comment, but this time, he felt he had to say something else. "I wasn't exactly the picture-perfect fox either, Gid. Got myself tossed out by my mom… But she forgave me, and now I have Judy… Or maybe she has me."
Gideon smiled. "You both have each other. You're her fox, but she's also your bunny."
Nick nodded. "Yeah, that's true. Anyway, I did things that didn't deserve forgiveness, too… Judy knows all of them, but I spent most of my life conning mammals for money. Not as bad as some mammals out there, but definitely skirting the law. Not things to be proud of. That's how Judy found me, her first day on the job."
Gideon was quiet for a long moment. "I can't judge ya, Nick, and I'm happy you're on the right path. I…probably would be in jail if I hadn't gone ta therapy."
"I was bullied, but by prey mammals. Muzzled, made fun of, beat up by mammals that generally get classified as prey. It's why I stopped believing I could be something worthwhile. I wanted to join the junior ranger scouts when I was a kit, and the troop laughed me out of the building." He paused. "I gave up on being anything other than a shifty fox until Judy came along."
"She has a way of inspiring mammals to be better, that's for sure."
"That she does."
The two stayed quiet for a few minutes, Nick only giving instructions to the other fox to take them to their apartment. Gideon again broke the silence. "This must be weird for you, seeing the city this quiet."
"I've lived in Zootopia all my life. The time I came to Bunnyburrow was the first time I'd ever been outside the city," Nick said, frowning. "I've never seen the city this dead. It's unsettling, to say the least."
"I guess when I saw things online, I expected it to be a little like the Hopps household. Chaos."
The older fox laughed. "Oh, yeah, but at least the Hopps household is ORGANIZED chaos. Here, it's just plain chaos. Mayhem. Pandemonium. Carrots and I have worked a few accidents on the beat. It's never pretty, especially accidents involving different mammal class sizes."
"I bet. At least in Bunnyburrow, everyone's about the same size."
"Yep. That's always a challenge for Carrots and me. Doesn't stop her, though. She'll lay a mammal twenty times her weight out if he ticks her off enough."
Gideon glanced sideways at Nick. "Seriously?"
"Yep. Rhinos, buffalo, even an elephant once, though I wasn't witness to that one. Wish I was. I was at the academy at the time. The news made its way around the academy quickly enough, though. I think it was an anti-predator rally just after Bellwether got arrested and Carrots was reinstated." Nick laughed. "I hear the elephant tried to claim excessive force, even though he was trying to 'pin her to the ground'. Apartment's just ahead. You can park in the street."
Gideon did just that, the brightly coloured van earning a few curious looks from the few mammals out and about. Those mammals didn't linger long, though, and just as the two got out, Nick heard the familiar voice of Judy Hopps calling his name. He turned and smirked. "You didn't actually think you could beat us taking the subway, did you? And Maddy got to miss out on all the wonderful sights!"
The grey doe rolled her eyes. "We'll get the chance to show her later. What we can, anyways. Some of the more touristy places are going to open again soon, so hopefully, we can visit them on our days off."
"I'd like that." Maddy looked around. "Seems like a nice neighborhood, though."
"Well, if you ignore the residents who don't think foxes should live anywhere but the slums, yeah, it is pretty nice. It's no Redmond Estates, but we like it."
"Redmond Estates? What's that?"
Nick shook his head. "It's where the richest mammals in Zootopia live. It's part of the meadowlands, on the north edge of the city. Nice area, but there isn't a single house there that's worth less than three million."
Maddy and Gideon both stared at Nick, wide-eyed. "You're joking, right?" Maddy clearly didn't believe him.
Nick shook his head. "Nope. Not at all. Want to take a guess at the price of the most expensive home out there?"
Neither visiting mammal said a word.
"It's Medina Hall—one hundred twenty-seven million and change." Maddy's mouth dropped open. "It's owned by a former CEO of Micro-com Software."
Gideon rubbed his forehead. "That kinda money just don't make sense. I can do just fine long as the bakery brings in about fifteen grand a month. I can pay Maddy and my other mammals and keep the place running and still have an apartment for myself."
Maddy, meanwhile, was swaying on her feet. Judy walked over and put her paw on her sister's shoulders. "You ok, Maddy?"
The tan doe just shook her head. "I can't even imagine having that kind of money to spend in a hundred lifetimes… Even a car sometimes seems out of reach."
"We know how that is." Nick led the group inside the apartment building.
Gideon and Maddy looked at Nick, but it was Judy that provided the explanation. "Police work doesn't exactly pay very high wages, especially beat officers."
The two visitors pondered that as they climbed the stairs. "I'da thought that police work would pay rather well, considerin' ya gotta get out there an' put yerself in danger. That's gotta be worth somethin'."
Nick snorted. "Oh, it's worth something alright. It's worth it for the politicians who say they are cutting costs instead of raising taxes. Helps get them another term."
"Huh. I wonder if the deputies and the sheriff back in Bunnyburrow have the same problem."
Judy shook her head. "Small town sheriff's detachments don't have the same crime rate a city does. From what I heard, Sheriff Deerson hasn't had to deal with a murder for over three years, and before that, ten years." The doe sighed as Nick opened the door to their apartment. "This month alone, we have the homicide rate of a world war battlefield."
Maddy and Gideon looked around the apartment. It was larger than the bakery, though not by much. The living room looked cozy enough with the decent-sized TV, coffee table, and couch. The place had a small kitchen with a bar table. Off to their left was a hallway with doors, and Maddy guessed that's where their bedrooms were.
"Go ahead and unload in the living room." Judy gestured in front of her. "Gid, are you staying the night?"
The fox in question nodded. "Yeah, figured I'd get a hotel or somethin', then go back to Bunnyburrow tomorrow."
The gray doe officer shook her head. "You can sleep on the couch if you want. Maddy can take my bed. Nick and I have a day off tomorrow so we might be able to show you a little of the city."
Maddy's ears perked up high. "See a little bit of the city where anyone can be anything? I'm up for that!"
Judy rolled her eyes. "I'd say that the last year, Zootopia has shown that it's most definitely not that bumper sticker slogan."
"… So I kicked him out. Couple days later, he called to claim whatever he had left in my apartment. I brought Fangmeyer over for that. He barely even acknowledged me. Just packed up his things and left."
The gruff voice on the other end of the phone hummed.
"I haven't heard from him since, Dad."
"Do you think he'll be a problem, Nol?" Amanzi Longtooth's voice betrayed nothing, but the lioness knew that was just a cover, and that he was probably fishing for a reason to pick her ex-boyfriend up.
Longtooth rolled her eyes. "No, I don't think so, Dad. It's OK. I can handle him if he does become a problem. I am a detective, after all."
The lion on the other end of the phone chuckled. "And I'm a captain. Technically, I could order you to dig up somethin' to pin on him."
Nolwazi laughed. "And I could cite conflict of interest regulations at you. How are things goin' on the Strip?"
The older lion sighed. "Say what you will about the lockdown and the lack of tourism—the crime rate here the last month has dropped to almost nothin'. Biggest thing we had to worry about was a group of cheetahs a week ago that got the bright idea to turn the Strip into a drag racin' track. Three pedestrians injured in an accident, and they lost one at the hospital because all of the emergency rooms were full. All for a mammal's idea of fun." He paused. "One even said as much in questionin'. More specifically, 'they got in the way'."
Nolwazi growled at that. She knew many street racers took certain lengths to minimize public danger, but some just couldn't care less. In their minds, a mammal on their road was the nuisance and invariably the one at fault.
Sahara Square as a whole was a hotspot for street racing in the city, with long, straight, flat roads crisscrossing the district and a selection of more twisting, winding roads in the nearby Canyonlands. As a beat cop at the Sandy Ridge precinct, it was her most frequent vehicle-related complaint. More than once in her career, a hotshot had decided he could try to outrun the cops, leading to a high-speed chase until HAWCS arrived on scene.
"Where'd you go, Nol?"
The lioness shook her head. "Sorry, Dad, just thinkin' back to my days as a beat cop. I don't miss chasin' down street racers, that's for sure."
"And yet I seem to recall that mammals in your charge ended up gettin' into a street chase a couple months ago."
The lioness laughed at that. "If you knew Judy and Nick—excuse me, Hopps and Wilde—you'll know that that kind of luck seems to follow them around. They happened to see those two suspects from their previous case, and engaged. The suspects didn't like it."
"I can imagine."
Of course, Shawn Dancing Rivers chose that moment to walk into the conference room carrying a stack of papers. He quirked an eyebrow at his partner.
"Hey, listen, Dad, I gotta go. I'll let you know if anythin' comes up with Alan. Love you."
"Love you, too, Nolly."
The lioness disconnected the call and shook her head. "Dad just found out about my ex. Wanted me to replay everythin' in full detail to him."
"Ah."
"Don't 'ah' me. Last I checked, you were single."
"And that's the way I'd like it to stay, to be honest. Not many females want to be in a polygamous relationship where the other partner is the elk bull's job."
Nolwazi stared for a moment before it clicked. "Oh. I get it. Married to the job. Ha-ha. You're funny."
Shawn grinned. "I like to think so."
She shook her head and looked at the stack of papers the other detective had brought in. "What do we have here?"
"More evidence from Cybercrime. They found a ton of incriminating emails, photos that put two or more of the mammals together, texts, you name it. The first fifty pages are—and I quote that cougar here—a 'recipe for chemical disaster in email form.' Apparently, it's a long conversation over the course of several weeks between McStripeson, Dade Walker, and Damian Hornby about the formula and its improvements after the Grand Palm attack, right up until about an hour before we busted down all of their doors."
"This I have to see."
"Cam said it had been deleted from everyone's phone, but they were able to retrieve a copy from the email provider, some small firm downtown."
"Do we need to be concerned about them?"
"He doesn't think so. They were more than willing to let us into their systems and sent over 'enough data to sink an aircraft carrier'."
"And we're goin' to have to go through all of that, eventually." Nolwazi slumped.
"Yep. I'm not looking forward to that, either." Shawn pulled two copies of the proverbial 'recipe for chemical disaster' off the top of the stack and handed one to the lioness. "We'll have to get Nick and Judy to help with this, maybe tap some of the recruits that Friedkin and Bogo have working in Records right now to help sort it all out." The elk harrumphed. "At least they're getting paid for some real-world experience."
The lioness nodded. "One could hope so, anyway. Last news I heard, city council had turned Bogo down for the overtime request he put in." She frowned. "And that's despite the lobbyin' Mayor Clawheed and Commissioner Pawnenberg put in on Bogo's behalf."
The elk's face mirrored his partner as he began reading. "If they don't approve the overtime, I'm gonna guess that the police union's gonna push for a strike when this is all over."
"Ugh. We haven't had a union strike since the force was founded. That's over a hundred and fifty years now."
Rivers shook his head. "Tell me about it. I know some mammals are also calling to cut our funding, with the claim that we weren't effective at controlling the disaster anyways." He snorted. "I don't know how we could have done things any differently."
"We lucked out with Marian and Felicity Stang. Without them, I don't think we could have figured it out, at least not how far up it went." Longtooth rubbed her temples as she stared at the page in front of her
"Or, even if we did, McStripeson and the elders would go to ground and start up someplace else, once they figured out we were sniffing them out." One sentence in the email chain caught his eye. "Or they would have arranged an accident for us. Take a look at this." He pointed to the sentence in question. It alluded to the 'head filth of the city' and his 'filthy circle' having a planned 'accident' on some future unknown date.
"Shit. They were plannin' an assassination on the mayor? Any idea who they were plannin' to use as a replacement?"
Rivers shrugged. "My guess is Caulfield. He's the one we know for certain was a part of this whole sham. And if you take out enough of the councillors as well, you could in theory install your own and have a majority government. Then you could legally enact any law you wanted. In theory, anyways. The opposing councillors might form an oversight committee to oppose the actions and challenge the changes in courts."
"Yep, looks like they were plannin' for that, too. It would 'help them get an idea of who was amenable to the cause.' God, even if I were a prey mammal, I'd sooner barf up my guts than serve their agenda." Even now, Nolwazi looked a little green.
"Between this and the data cybercrime sent over earlier with the coercive attacks, the progressive restrictions, and the curfews, and the 'party' at the end, I think it's sufficient proof that they intended to eventually have full control over the city government and law enforcement over time." The idea that someone could be this heartless was so far beyond what Rivers could imagine, even with his master's in criminology.
"Bogo wouldn't take this lying down. They woulda' had to plan an accident for him, too." It felt weird to be talking about their boss as an assassination target.
"Bogo suspected he'd be a target when Cam showed him the plans for their future attacks. He's on his guard already."
"You don't think we have any of these monsters on the force, do you?"
Rivers thought for a long moment. "We never found any evidence that there were. If we did, they would have most likely spooked when we moved on our targets to take them down and alerted their compatriots. We may have some pricks and assholes, but not any of these terrorists."
"Well, the Meadowlands raid was tipped off, but we traced that back to the city utilities director, and he got a bit of a karmic death there." Nolwazi shuddered, the images of that day fresh in her mind. She'd already been in one therapy appointment already, and she knew that she would need a lot more to be able to put this whole episode behind her. "Even that jerk of an IA agent that Nick and Judy got?"
"Maybe we should look into him. He's had a chip on his shoulder about Bogo being the chief for as long as I can remember."
The lioness frowned, her chin in her paw and one finger on her lips, deep in thought. "He wasn't in the know about the raids, either. He only came into the picture after the fact."
"That is a good point. Nick and Judy seemed to think he wasn't all that thrilled about a fox on the force, either. I wonder if that's just the usual hatred of foxes, or if it's something broader?" Shawn scratched his head.
Nolwazi shrugged. "Hard to say. We can't just go open an investigation into him, though. Until the IA case against Nick and Judy is resolved, he's protected."
"We wouldn't be allowed to perform the full investigation anyways. Professional connection to Nick and Judy." Rivers grinned conspiratorially and looked at the lioness dead in the eye. "Doesn't mean we can't passively gather evidence and file a harassment complaint later."
Nolwazi thought about that. A harassment complaint wouldn't be as serious as an investigation, but it would allow them to help their friends without compromising anyone. "That's a good idea. If we could get Judy and Nick to go along with it, we might be able to at least get that far. If anything becomes of it, someone else would have to investigate."
A knock on the door drew their attention, and the two looked up to see officer Antlerson poking his head into the conference room. "Pardon me, you two, but this just came from the justice department for you." He left an envelope on the table and left.
Rivers eyed it for a moment before opening it and reading the contents. A grin creeped over his face. "Well, looks like we have more work to do. This is our warrant for all of Furston's data on their wayward employees."
A/N
Another quiet chapter, and we finally get a look at one of the precinct captains, none other than Nolwazi's father!
I hope everyone had a great New Years! It was a relief to see 2020 gone for me and I have high hopes for the year ahead.
No one found last chapter's reference! Can you find any in this chapter?
Coming up on January 22: Tour Guides!
Questions? Critiques? Did someone set off New Years fireworks in your back yard? Leave a comment!
