Once again, thanks for all the feedback and encouragement. Couple of quick story updates:
I recently posted my first Horror/Supernatural mystery in a collaborative project, and I'm currently uploading it periodically to my profile. For those who read the original, this is the second draft with some input from historical fic whiz WANMWAD and several improvements of my own. Just put that part in bold because a lot of people saw the updates and thought it was just a repost. It's not, so if you liked the original then by all means check out round two. I'll be using this as practice for an even better one later on, so input's welcome as always.
More importantly, this past September I took some brief time aside to work on a kind of prequel to this story set during the events of the Night Howler crisis itself. I call it "No Stone Unturned 00: Sing Me To Sleep," and although it's just a one-shot and the connection to these stories won't be apparent for quite a while yet, I think it's one of the most powerful and important pieces I've ever published in any forum.
And last but not least, I've gotten wind of a few rumors concerning yours truly. One is that someone (haven't yet verified that he wants his name known) gave up writing fan fiction because of a review I posted. I'm sorry the ones circulating this story didn't think to address me directly, and I was even sorrier to think that my words gutted someone like that, but I got in touch with the guy and it seems I had nothing to do with his story stopping. So please, if you hear something about me or have a beef with me, come talk to me one-on-one.
If you get the chance, feel free to check these stories out and let me know what you think.
On this story, I've realized for a while now that I'm focusing pretty heavily on Nick and on various OCs or side characters, and kind of leaving Judy to her own devices. I do have my reasons for this, but I also did want to give Judy some attention and this chapter provided a good opportunity. Hopp you all enjoy it.
Proofreading, as in the past, by the illustrious HawkTooth.
Kraven: "Powers. Yes, that is how he beat me; the only reason he beat me. Give me powers."
Warren: "Spider-Man paid handsomely for his."
Kraven: "Why should I pay for what I can take?"
Warren: "You have no idea what I'm doing to you. Would you really trust me if it weren't in my self-interest to succeed?"
Spectacular Spider-Man
Judy looked anxiously back and forth between the two. The fact that they were big enough to literally talk over her head reminded her way too much of trying to intervene at Gazelle's rally. One wrong word from Nick could seal his fate, and one wrong move with Catano could slam the door on his chances.
Not like this, she thought, getting a rare sense of just how small and limited she was even as… well, herself.
Catano regarded Nick icily, ignoring the rabbit. "Wilde, I already know your past looks fishy. It's not going to help you now to try to dodge this."
"Hey," Judy objected, "he doesn't have to tell us…"
"Carrots, let's not," Nick interrupted, raising a paw. He looked up into Catano's face, meeting her eyes. "I've had a few connections with criminal types. Vanya's one of them."
The cheetah's eyes squinted a fraction more tightly. "And you?"
He coughed and glanced away slightly. "I may have, uh, fudged some paperwork here and there."
The cheetah betrayed no emotion, but Judy couldn't stand by. "Hey," she objected, "he's trying to make a clean start, and he's got insight that might help. Shouldn't we give him the-?"
Nick's paw slid deftly over her mouth, halting her objections. "Judy, I appreciate the backup, but this is really not the time to push things."
Judy stared at him, surprised that he was rejecting her support. Catano raised an eyebrow, meanwhile, clearly surprised that a fox who had just admitted to having a checkered past was being more cooperative than an experienced officer. "Agreed," she said, looking pointedly at Judy. Then returning her main focus to Nick, she added, "And if you're doing this to impress me, it's not working. I already know you've got doubts about this, and if I were in your fur so would I. The catch is, if I wanted to torpedo your shot at getting your records scrubbed, I wouldn't need your help to do that. I would need your help to get you the shot, though. So the only one you can hurt by playing tricks is yourself. Capiche?"
Judy sighed, looking anxiously at Nick as he took away his paw. She did not want to see him get in trouble, but he was right… and so was Catano. Whatever they thought of the cheetah's intentions, they had no choice but to work with her or give it up – and giving up was not going to happen. Thus cornered, the bunny braced herself mentally and nodded. "Okay. Go ahead."
"Good," Catano said curtly. "Then let's cut this short: if you can look me in the eye and tell me you've got no history of violence, I'll call that good enough… for now."
Nick met her gaze with unwavering certainty. "I guess you'll be calling it good enough for now."
Catano rolled her eyes. "Alright then. Your idea?"
Nick rolled a paw over, extending one index claw. "Here's my plan. We find out what the secretary knows, but we do it without letting on that it's a police investigation."
"Interesting," Catano mused, tapping a claw to her chin. "And how do you plan on managing that? Have a couple of un-uniformed strangers just walk up to him and start asking questions? How is that not going to be suspicious?"
"Oh, it'll be suspicious," he agreed. "So suspicious that he – and anyone he tells – will go off in a completely different direction if they go looking for answers."
Judy's stomach knotted. Nick… she thought. He could pull it off; she had no doubt about that. Exposing himself like this, though…
Please, Nick. Be careful.
The cheetah, meanwhile, regarded Nick thoughtfully. "And I suppose you have the know-how to make it that convincing?"
Nick smiled his best 'you know you want what I'm selling here, lady' smile and nodded coyly. "I might know a few names to drop that would keep any low-life from asking too many questions."
To the smaller pair's surprise, Catano actually smiled a little. "Keep talking."
Judy wished she could share her fellow officer's enthusiasm, but to her that smile had looked a little too familiar. It was the smile of one who had somebody right where she wanted him.
After Vanya left the precinct, she rounded a few corners, slipped through an alleyway, and got into a small silver car. Pulling out her phone, she punched in a number and held the device to her ear.
"Yes?"
"All set," she announced. "They took the bait like a school of starving piranhas."
A cold laugh came through the line. "Excellent. I assume you left everything in order?"
"I always leave everything in order. Did you get a chance to check my tip?"
Obearon snorted derisively. "I don't check tips. I have employees to do that for me. I'll be taking care of the snoop tomorrow night."
Vanya scowled. "I could do it in two hours. I know where to find him, and I'd do it for half of whatever you're paying whoever."
"We move when I choose," Obearon answered firmly. "That lab you pointed them to will keep them busy for now, and the next diversion should throw them into disarray. Then we'll take care of the spy."
Vanya was somewhat annoyed at basically having to accept being strung along, but remained willing enough to cooperate for the time being. "Whatever you say," she purred.
"That's better. Now go; enjoy yourself for a while. I'll be in touch."
The breakthrough in securing warrants and finding out about Stangahoof's antics pleased Chief Bogo – at least if he could ever be said to be pleased.
"I'll distribute these," said he, taking the search warrant for Poisson's farms and factories. "Good job."
"Well, thanks Chief," said Nick, smiling.
Bogo and Catano both gave him a look. Judy didn't look at him, but sighed at his chutzpah. As fun as he could be, did he want to ruin everything?
"And what exactly was your part in this, fox?" asked the buffalo skeptically.
Judy cleared her throat. "To be fair, sir, it was Nick who figured out how to question Stangahoof without tipping off Obearon."
Bogo blinked, then flicked his eyes toward Catano.
"He's been helpful," the cheetah affirmed passively. "He did point out that Obearon would retaliate if we went after one of his agents, and suggested the backup plan to avoid that."
The chief nodded slowly, and looked hard at Nick as if trying to see the inside of his mind. Judy couldn't help thinking with some amusement that if that were Bogo's goal, it would never happen. It was a small lift, but a lift none the less.
"Well, then I suppose I should thank you for your help," he uttered at last.
Nick threw a playful salute. "Glad to be of service, sir."
Bogo did not look amused. "I said I should thank you, not that I did. But this strategy of yours..." here he turned to the officers, settling his gaze at last on Judy. "You and Catano are in agreement on the fo… on Wilde's part?"
Judy nodded, her enthusiasm a bit dampened by worrying that the chief might figure out the same thing Catano had: that someone with an in-depth knowledge of criminal names would not be such a spotless dove himself. A chief, after all, did not haphazardly end up with that status. "He has what it takes, sir. There's not a doubt in my mind that he can pull this off."
"Hmm…" Bogo looked to Catano, who nodded. At this he seemed to shrug. "Alright. Assuming you're willing and available, Wilde, we can proceed with the plan tonight."
"I'm in," Nick agreed.
"I'll get Clawson," Catano volunteered, lifting a paw. "He's the best we've got for undercover."
Bogo shook his head. "I'll take care of selecting officers. You keep chasing down leads until you catch one and bag it. Dismissed."
The trio turned to leave, but as Catano held the door for the smaller two, Bogo called her back. "A word in private, if you don't mind."
Nick and Judy exchanged ill looks as the door closed behind them. As it clicked shut, Judy drew Nick as much out of the way as could be done and laid out her thoughts.
"You know what Chief Bogo wants to ask her about," she said in a low voice.
"Do I know that?" he asked, folding his arms and regarding the door dubiously. "Yes. Yes, I do."
Judy lifted her paws and let them fall. "Nick, could you please be serious about this? They could ruin you right now."
He shrugged. "Look, Carrots, we both knew this wasn't going to be easy. Thing is, I don't see how panicking is going to fix anything. I haven't told them anything they couldn't have used already to bar me. If I don't cooperate, it's only gonna make it worse."
She shook her head. "Okay, hotshot. So what's your plan for winning them over?"
A cool smile spread across his lips. "I can't tell you that when we're surrounded by cops."
Judy would have made some kind of comeback, but at that moment officer Catano emerged from her private conference with the chief and derailed her train of thought.
"Alright," she said, walking up to the two of them. "Hopps, you said you had a good idea how to destroy those Night Howlers discreetly."
Judy nodded and unfolded her plan, then turned to Nick. "Any idea where we can get the stuff as fresh as possible?"
Nick flashed a thumbs-up. "I know just the mammals and I already texted them."
"Good," answered Catano. "How soon can they deliv-?"
Nick's phone chimed in his pocket, cutting her off, and he smiled smugly. "That's probably… wait, no, someone else. I- oh." It chimed again in his paw, and after a tap and a pause he smiled. "Will two hours from now at Vine and Mangrove do? Told them it was urgent. I chose a pickup spot near the maintenance tunnel entrance, and… oh, we'll need a pickup truck. You don't want this stuff in the same airspace with you."
Judy wanted to hug Nick. It was obvious he was playing it up to get the point across to Catano, but oh, he was selling it hard.
It seemed to be working, too. Catano's eyebrows lifted… slightly. "I'm impressed," she admitted. "Any chance of you sharing how you get these things done so quickly?"
Nick shrugged. "Sorry, but I only share that info with co-workers."
The eyebrows dropped back down as Judy tried not to smirk.
Haggling, thought the bunny, smiling. So that's his game. I should have known.
Haggling, thought Catano. So that's his game. I should have known.
While Catano went to see about a pickup truck (she wasn't sure if the ZPD had one among their unmarked vehicles), Nick suggested he might go down to see Kevin in the tech department. Judy opted to go with Catano, and as soon as they were clear of Nick she gave the cheetah a piece of her mind.
"Just so we're clear," she asserted, "I'm not okay with what happened earlier. Nick is not an enemy, and he's not our suspect, okay? We're working with him."
Catano shook her head once, not breaking stride. "Correction, Hopps. He's working with us. Maybe short-term or maybe long haul, but don't get your loyalties turned around."
Judy frowned, her pace faltering for a moment. "Get my- wait a minute, are you saying I'd drop the ZPD for him? That's not going to happen. There's no conflict."
"I'd like to believe that, but tell me honestly: if you had to choose between Nick and the precinct, which would you choose? Suppose he did double-cross us?"
"He is not going to do that," Judy reiterated stubbornly. Then a thought came to her. "Anyway, didn't you tell me once that you'd never lost a partner? Aren't you loyal to them?"
Catano actually hesitated at that for the merest moment, and Judy dared to hope she had scored a point. It was premature, and died in like manner.
"I back up my partners because we have a job to do," the cheetah answered, "and because as a fellow officer, it's my duty to them. But if another cop turned crooked, I'd take him down without hesitation and not stop until I was done."
The conviction with which Catano spoke of 'taking down' a fellow officer sent a chill through Judy. She mustered her confidence, however, and kept her posture rigidly inexpressive. "Listen," she pressed. "I understand that, but can't you at least give Nick a chance or… or lighten up on the rules and not-?"
"Hopps," Catano cut her off, "I can and will tell Chief Bogo whatever he needs to know. No exceptions. For the sake of teamwork I'll withhold what I know about Wilde unless and until it becomes important. Don't ask me to lie to a superior, though – ever."
Judy got the message loud and clear. As far as Catano was concerned, Nick was an asset but not an ally. They were fighting uphill on this, as she'd known already, but now that Catano knew some of Nick's background they had lost a major piece of footing.
"That's not fair and you know it," she accused, leaning forward and stretching a little upward.
Catano snorted. "I missed the part where life was fair," she countered. The next part was much quieter, and even with her rabbit ears Judy could barely decipher it. It sounded like Catano had said, "Missed it around when I was adopted."
Judy's nose began to twitch at this. What's that got to do with Nick? she wondered. Then confusion gave way to frustration. And we were just starting to get somewhere. Darn it!
Finding a pickup they could use only took a short while. So with the pickup time being two hours away, they decided to use the time going over the maps and blueprints of the tunnels. Nick and Judy took a precinct laptop – made for a sheep, which was as small as the ZPD had at the moment – while Catano used a fixed monitor more to her liking.
"We should have asked your friend to stick around for this," Catano observed to Nick.
"Ex-girlfriend," Judy corrected. "So definitely not a friend."
It took all of Nick's willpower not to facepaw. "Thank you for summing that up," he uttered. He'd been hoping to downplay how much he knew Vanya. "And just for the record, I ditched her."
Catano said nothing on the subject though. "This area right here is under the moisture tree she mentioned," she said, pointing to an area of pipes and pump rooms on a chart. "We'll have to search them and see what we can find."
Judy glanced at Nick, tempted to ask if he had ever been around those tunnels. Considering his ready solution to the vanishing vehicle three months before, it was just the sort of thing he would know. On the other paw, it was also something that would make him look shadier in Catano's eyes.
She tried to catch his eye and signal him without being too obvious. When he noticed her staring at him, she twitched her head toward his tail and then wiggled her fingers as if drumming them. Then, as discretely as she dared, she pointed one finger towards her leg.
Evidently, Nick understood her paw signals about as well as she understood his. The impromptu game of charades got them nowhere.
Maybe I should try studying to be a mime, she thought. There wasn't much to do but keep going, though. Leaning forward, she touched the tip of one finger to the blueprints and began tracing along the different blue water pipes and white maintenance tunnels.
"What are you doing?" asked Catano.
"Looking for a pattern," she said. "If I were a criminal trying to hide something, where would I set up?"
Catano glanced at Nick, who shrugged helplessly. "Well, they need water for the plants, right?" he asked.
Judy's stomach dropped, wishing she could pick Nick's brain openly. Just then she felt a swat against her leg, and her mood instantly changed. He got the message! Yes!
"This spot, maybe…" she mused, backtracking her paw a little and keeping her voice calm.
Catano raised an eyebrow. "Why there?" she asked.
"Looks to be near pump rooms," Nick mused. "Water plus a waterproof source of electricity equals…"
"A perfect setting for Night Howlers," Judy finished. "But is it out of the way enough? Doug wouldn't want a maintenance crew walking in on him."
"Hmm," Nick mused. "I know a guy who works maintenance down there. He might even be able to loan us some keys to get into the tunnels."
Grinning, Judy glanced at Catano. Another point for Nick, she thought as the fox skimmed through his contacts.
Catano considered pointing out that they could just as easily access city records and procure the keys with their credentials and position, since the tunnels were city property. She kept quiet, however. Let's see how far Mr. Wilde can take us, she mused.
She continued to watch, checking their intel and speculations against what she was able to dig up from city maintenance records. As she had expected, their insights – Nick's especially – were uncannily accurate, consistently leading to the least-frequented areas and especially those where sinkholes and the like had produced ready-made cavities in the earth which would not be on most charts. When they changed into plainclothes later and went to pick up the product, Nick's personal skills proved equally impressive as they made the purchase from the two mongooses who showed up to make the sale. He spoke very familiarly with them and clearly knew them well instead of having just found them with a search on the sly. Moreover, as if to win bonus points, he sweet-talked them down to lowering the price as the product was un-aged and the cause a worthy one.
He's useful, she thought. Very useful.
She didn't make exceptions. She'd been an exception and knew how painful those could be. Wilde was helpful, and to her surprise she was actually somewhat pleased with him, but with his obvious back-alley know-how he could be the most troublesome crooked cop ever to wear a badge if his reformation wasn't legit.
Still, he wasn't the main objective. If he was willing to cooperate, all well and good. She might not make exceptions, but she could table a matter… for the moment, at least.
And I'm sorry, folks, but I'm going to cut it off here. I wanted to make this chapter go all the way to Nick's plan for questioning Stangahoof, but I didn't want to keep you guys waiting. So next time, we find out what Judy's plan is to knock out those Night Howlers. Fancy police worrying about not leaving fingerprints.
Lot of questions, though. What's up with Catano and her beef about exceptions? Is she starting to trust Nick, or just stringing him along until he becomes expendable? Only time will tell.
I admit to finding myself a bit torn on that aspect of this chapter, actually. I had hoped to start developing a little better standing between Catano and Nick, but recent information about police practices (and Catano's stubborn personality) hindered me. I also decided to put off some material on the matter because Hawken advised that jumping from one character's perspective to another too much could be distracting, and I wanted to focus this chapter on Judy. So stay tuned for more of Catano and Nick ahead.
For those who were wondering, police departments often use seized vehicles (as in fully seized; not simply confiscated) for undercover operations and the like, so it's actually fairly plausible that a large city police department would be able to get their hands – or paws in this case – on such rides as a nondescript pickup truck suited for the job. I've also done some research on how police departments purchase supplies which are not on their usual "shopping lists," but that will probably fit better into the next chapter.
And on a purely trivial note to my fellow grammar nazis, "mongooses" and "mongeese" are both recognized by Webster as plurals of mongoose – though strangely enough, only one of them is recognized by my spellcheck.
Easter Eggs:
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York
South American History (this one is rather fishy)
Guest Reviews:
Guest: Indeed. Once Vanya sets her sights on a goal, she doesn't let anyone or anything get in her way. She may be small, but she's savage.
Thanash: That's the fun of an adventure, isn't it? Follow the road and see where it goes. And on the profile matter, that's fine if you'd rather do it that way. Ideas are still welcome. Happy reading!
Easter Egg Answers
Chapter Sixteen:
The Looney Tunes reference comes in the name of Nicole's boyfriend, Willy Kai Yote (Wile E. Coyote). Fun fact: He teaches shop class. Don't think I picked that with Wile E in mind; I just really enjoyed shop class in my school days. Another fun fact: He's a Mexican Coyote (or whatever they would call them in that world), which I picked because in the real world red wolves and Mexican coyotes can crossbreed without any problems (i.e. they don't tend to have sterile offspring like a horse and a donkey would). And since I'm on a role, I'll see how many 90s kids are paying attention. If I were picking voice actors, Willy would be voiced by Jason David Frank, and Nicole by Amy Jo Johnson (who, as it happens, is a singer in real life).
Nicole's reflection on stepping on one's date is a nod to Captain America: The First Avenger when Steve remarked that ladies were disinclined to dance with him because he was vertically challenged.
Chapter Seventeen:
Kevin's game of choice was none other than Skyrim.
