3.

It was only a few minutes' flight back to headquarters from the tower. Judging by the way the rabbit's nose and feet wouldn't stop twitching about as the ZPD transport they rode in ducked and weaved through layers of sky-traffic, Nora guessed that the little journalist was positively dying to ask her questions, but Juno didn't say a word. Nora appreciated her new companion's composure; the short jaunt from the Tower to headquarters was brief, but it was also the most time Nora was going to have all evening to take in the quiet, and to reflect on everything that had happened. Earlier, when Nora had been looking down from her watchful perch, the smudgy mass of Zootopia's eternal lightscape had seemed cloudy and unreal, like looking at the city through the foggy film an old, physical photograph that hadn't developed right. The aircar had brought Nora and Juno into the thick of that vibrant neon haze, now, and there was an almost physical weight to the pinks, blues, and greens that bled through the car's narrow windows.

This wasn't the first operation Nora had been a part of that had thrown some curve-balls her way, of course - it was a messy line of work she was in, and any mission that got them even one step closer to closing a case was usually considered a net positive, in her eyes at least, if not necessarily the higher-ups'. In the end, the all-important data-drive had been secured, which was Ursa-Corp's top priority, and Nora was also fairly certain that Dallis and Brody would be more than a little excited to get their paws on the laser-powered death machine she'd nabbed from the cat. There was even a half-conscious wolf landing right on the ZPD's doorstep that was ripe for interrogation; Nora wondered if she would even be allowed to take part in the shakedown this time.

Growing up, playing the whole "good cop/bad cop" bit was a huge part of what drew her into joining the force in the first place – those scenes were always her favorite parts of the old cop movies she watched with her father. Lately, though, Nora, along with the force's other agents and detectives, had been playing a smaller role in the post-arrest interviews, especially when a suspect's guilt was all but certain. AI-driven Forced Interrogation Units were becoming more and more prominent, especially since the IP Laws had started to cascade through Zootopia's legislature, and so much of the ZPD's work became driven by corporate contracts.

They were quick, clean, and had a borderline perfect success rate, which was more than Nora could put down on her resume, and she knew it. It didn't make the shift away from real, snout-to-the-grindstone detective work any less disappointing, though.

A glance down at her sleeve's info-screen told her that it was only 04:03 AM - barely half an hour had passed since she had first leapt from the roof of Ursa-Corp Tower. Wasn't that how it always went with operations like these? Days of meticulous planning and preparation, all thrown into the air and distilled into a few chaotic minutes of improvisation, recklessness, and a bit of dumb luck. Brody had a special name for the way Nora tended to get in and out of most sticky situations: "Khatri's Razor", which he said was a principle that stated: "The most ridiculous, unpredictable, and needlessly reckless approach is what will probably happen no matter what anyone else says, so you might as well plan for the worst".

Nora might roll her eyes whenever Khatri's Razor came up, but she wasn't about to argue that it was entirely unfair, either. Last month, a raid on a warehouse front used by illegal stimplant smugglers resulted in a fire that spread across half a city block (though how was Nora supposed to have predicted that an elephant would ever have wanted a flame-thrower grafted to the inside of his trunk?). Now, there was some kind of ninja-cat running around Zootopia with millions of dollars of corporate IP data stashed along whatever other science-fiction guns she just happened to have lying around. Nora wondered whether or not she should be concerned over how blasé such SNAFUs had become.

This case was different, though; it went beyond the scope of usual corporate crime, and collecting only one of the two thieves responsible for one of the most literally explosive cases of IP espionage ever would not be enough; not for Ursa-Corp, not for Chief Dasher, and not for herself. In Zootopia, a missing spy with potentially destructive knowledge of the city's most closely guarded trade secrets wasn't so much a loose end as it was a time bomb just waiting to go off, and the real job wouldn't be done until Ursa-Tech got back what was stolen from them, including whatever priceless secrets were rattling around in that crazy cat's head.

She eyed Juno, sitting across from her, her tawny feet still dancing this way and that as she traced the streaks of neon outside the window with her big violet eyes. The first thing any cop did when digging their claws into an investigation was to look for pieces that didn't fit the way they were meant to. A precocious little journalist who just so happened to sneak into a well-guarded tech office on the night of a major heist? That was some nonsense ripped straight out of a dumb old spy flick.

Well, even more so than usual, Nora thought. Either way, the rabbit clearly wasn't dumb - she had to know that the ZPD wasn't going to let her story go without them asking her a few questions to straighten out the details.

Juno's eyes didn't stray from the outside lights, but her ears turned ever so slightly toward Nora, and the fox wondered if the rabbit had somehow heard that Nora was puzzling her over.

Breaking the silence, Juno said, "I always pictured the inside of one of these things to be...I don't know. Scarier? I travel using the Underground mostly, too – aircars always seemed too…chaotic, the way they're always zipping about up above us, around and over each other like a bunch of months all heading for a different flame. This has actually been pretty nice, though, maybe that's just because I'm comparing it to the whole 'almost dying' thing from a few minutes ago."

"There's nothing to be scared of," Nora said, "FringeTech has made sure that the ZPD always travels in style. Our transports are top of the line, real primo stuff. Even if we did hit someone up here, they'd bounce off of us like raindrops off a rhino's butt." As Juno settled back in, Nora saw that her nose was still twitching. Nora continued: "Unless, when you say 'scared', you mean because I'm a cop, and you're not?" Juno didn't respond, but the way she shifted her feet together spoke volumes. This girl was either very bad at hiding her emotions, or very good at showing off exactly what she wanted people to see.

"Like I said, Miss Mori," Nora said, "you aren't under arrest; you're just being escorted back to headquarters so you can help piece together whatever information you might have that we at the ZPD don't. It'll make tracking down that psycho ninja that much easier in the long run, and take it from me: Talking with the Chief one-on-one will save you a lot of time filling out paperwork." Nora gave a mock shudder of horror, and Juno laughed.

"Sure," Juno said. "And I'm happy to help, of course. You still can't blame a girl for being nervous in this sort of situation, though. I'm used to writing articles about low-income housing and job scarcity; if I'm lucky, I might get to interview the Mayor's Deputy Vice-Chief of Corporate Citizen's Relations for a few minutes before they blow me off for a game of virtual water polo. Explosions and fist fights are somewhat beyond my expertise, not to mention being 'escorted' by a super cop in a robot suit who is on the payroll of the most powerful entity in all of Zootopia."

Juno was still keeping a conversational tone, though Nora caught the faint spark of sarcasm in the word 'escorted', and it wasn't hard to spot the undercurrent of carefully managed intrigue in the rabbit's voice her voice.

"I've been keeping tabs on the stories, you know," she said, "Especially with all of the IP Laws that have been passing through lately. People have been sued into total bankruptcy, or charged with corporate felony, or both, just because they didn't dot there I's and cross their T's exactly how the corporate suits wanted them to. A few people have even disappeared completely, if you believe the word that's been going around. If the cops can use technology to turn themselves invisible so they can fight corporate ninjas with laser guns, who's to say what else is going on in Zootopia that us regular citizens are being kept in the dark about?"

Nora was impressed with how quickly their chat had transitioned into an informal interview; she was even beginning to suspect that Juno didn't much mind the opportunity to have a ZPD agent all to herself like this. Yes, Nora believed that the anxiety in Juno's eyes was very real; fear in animals like her was exceptionally hard to fake for a fox with senses as sharp as Nora's, or so she wanted to believe. As real as that fear was, though, it could also just as well be one of the many tools a resourceful journalist could rely on every now and again to get the scoop she was after.

"Miss Mori," Nora said, "I'm not going to pretend that I love Ursa-Corp, or FringeTech, or any of the other companies that help pay my bills any more than you do. They're in it for their profit margins, and their bonuses, and all of the good PR that money can buy, and personally speaking? I haven't met one cop that's dumb enough not to figure that out for themselves. We're all just cogs in a machine, and all that. An impossibly huge and apathetic machine; a machine that breaks down way too often, and doesn't always work the way it should; a machine made out of crummy rules and crummy regulations, and it chews up and spits out any animal that's unlucky enough, or stupid enough, to get their fur caught in the teeth of the gears." Juno's eyes were still wide, but focused, and her ears were fixed directly on Nora, who was certain that the rabbit was committing every this entire conversation to memory, just in case.

"And of course, Miss Mori, nobody on the top of the food chain is shedding tears when this happens, because that's just the way the machine works, after all, which is to say that it doesn't work. We just go along with it, because what else are we supposed to do?" Nora paused, partially for effect – Juno wasn't the only one who knew how to play up the drama for an audience – and partially because she wanted to make sure she got the next part right. It had been a long time since she'd been comforted by this particular sentiment, and even longer still since she'd voiced it aloud to another person.

"I can tell you this, though: We're living in the 22nd century, and even in this crummy old future of ours, I want to believe that there's still good to be done. It doesn't matter how much cash is lining the companies' coffers; I won't accept a world where someone can just get away with…well, with murder. The thing about a broken machine is that it can be fixed. We just need to find the right parts, and someone who can put them back together."

Nora watched Juno carefully, and though her twitching nose and alert ears relaxed somewhat as she nestled back down into her seat, Nora couldn't quite tell what she was feeling. Juno's ambiguous expression could have read as wistful, resigned, amused, or even a little sly. For a fox to be giving a rabbit credit for her slyness was a small absurdity that Nora felt was the perfect cherry to put on top of the ice-cream sundae of weirdness that was this whole night.

"So, Officer Khatri," Juno said. "Is that why you got into this line of work? To be the cog that finally fixes the machine?" Nora had to laugh at how the question felt both like an earnest query and a backhanded compliment at the same time. She was really starting to like this rabbit.

"To tell you the truth, it wasn't even my bit. Someone much smarter and more optimistic than me has been using the "Fix the machine" routine for years, trying to get me to feel better about, well, all of this." Nora motioned to the endless ribbons of neon and glimmering steel that had been zipping past them from the moment the transport took flight.

"So, the whole 'karate chopping the bad guys and blowing up office equipment' thing? Is that your way of fixing things?"

Nora shrugged. "It's the same as your articles, I guess. I don't know how much good it's all for, in the end, but it has to count for something, right?"

Juno didn't have anything to say to that one, but brow furrowed in thought. Before Nora could ask what Juno was pondering, the transport swerved and jerked, beginning its descent from the skyway to the landing pads of ZPD Precinct Zone D-19. Officer Tasana, the gruff zebra who had been in charge of ferrying the two of them back to headquarters, banged her hoof on the glass viewport from the driver's seat as her voice buzzed over the comms.

"Khatri, we're here. The Chief is waiting." Juno started a bit in her seat, and Nora stood first, offering a paw for Juno to steady herself with as the car landed with a soft thud. The vehicle's landing struts hissed and steadied themselves, though they jostled again when Tasana climbed out and opened rear doors. Immediately, Nora and Juno were met with the stony, spotted face of Chief Dasher, who was flanked by Tasana, Dallis and Brody too. Apparently, the two technicians just couldn't wait to get their hands on the brand on the evidence Nora had tucked under her arm. The barely restrained wolfish glee that sparked in Brody's eyes as she offered him the evidence bag was a cozy sight that Nora was happy to indulge.

Though Chief Dasher wasn't the tallest animal of the bunch, her lean figure cut an imposing silhouette in the rain, and she towered above Juno, who the Chief regarded with an inscrutable stare that Nora knew all too well. Juno, obviously, wasn't as prepared for the cheetah's unwelcoming countenance, though Nora was impressed at Juno's composure in this stare down. There wasn't even a hint of the uncertainty she had exhibited during the flight over.

"Juno Mori, is it?" Chief Dasher said, taking just a few steps closer. "I'm Chief Dasher of the Zootopia Police Department, Zone D-19. We're going to sit down and run over your story, the whole thing, to make sure we've got the record straight." Juno nodded and, without missing a beat, pulled out a pen from her jacket, along with a small rectangle that she began writing on.

I knew she had one of those! Nora thought, though she was still was mildly surprised to see that it wasn't a digital tablet, but a leather-bound notebook filled with actual paper.

"Of course. Though I hope everyone knows that I'll be writing everything down, too. For the sake of posterity, and all. And though I'm sure Mayor Cantor is doing his best to scrub this particular law out of the books as quickly as he can, Article 73, Subsection 8-Dash-7 of the Zootopian Citizens Rights Act of 1967 makes it clear that I have every right to keep documentation of conversations between myself and officers of public service, unless I am being officially charged with an offense and my legal counsel has been contacted." Juno regarded the rest of the officers, including Nora. "And Officer Khatri has reassured me that I am not being charged with anything tonight." The confidence Juno was now brimming with was so infectious that Nora could almost ignore how plainly irritated Chief Dasher was already.

"You aren't being charged yet,rabbit." Dasher said. The cheetah's voice was low and hoarse, having that feline quality of a stringed instrument that was wound just a bit too tight before the bow dragged across it. "Though, the morning's only just begun, and I'm pretty sure one of our interns already has a couple energy brews ready to go. I'd love to have this all over and done with before the sun comes up, but whatever happens next is up to you. Are you ready to talk?"

"Yes, I am, though I would like to request that Officer Khatri join us for the interview." The Chief laughed humorlessly.

"Sorry, rabbit, but no. Officer Khatri will be plenty busy debriefing with our ground crew here, and something tells me that there will be quite a lot of paperwork for her to get started on, given her…conduct in the field tonight." Shifting her glare to Nora, the Chief added: "I saw one of Ursa-Corp's insurance agents scurrying about - the weasel with the bad toupee? You've met him before, I'm sure. He looked especially flustered, so you'll want to get started before his little heart explodes out of his chest, or something." Nora had at least three or four sarcastic quips at the ready to protest with, but she knew that it wouldn't do either herself or Juno any favors to drag this night on longer than it had to.

"Looks like this is where I get off, Miss Mori. Do me a favor, and don't tell the Chief about all of the top-secret office memos I stole from Ursa-Corp. My performance review is in just a couple of weeks, and I don't want to spoil my perfect marks."

"I'd be happy to put in a good word for you," Juno said, and then held up her hand for Nora to shake, which Nora accepted, and she immediately noticed the little square of paper pass from Juno's paw to hers. She must have folded up the note while nobody was looking, or if anybody had seen, none of the other officers expressed any concern to Nora as Juno, the Chief, and Officer Tasana made their way towards the precinct's exterior doors. Looking back over her shoulders one last time, Juno called: "If you'd ever be interested in sitting down for a more formal interview, Officer, here's my information. I would love to have someone from the ZPD on the record, for a change. In the meantime, I'm going to consider everything we said tonight as off the record!"

There had been at least a half-dozen microphones in both her suit and the ZPD transport that were recording everything Nora and Juno had said all night, which she was sure Juno also knew, but she appreciated the sentiment all the same. Dallis and Brody were the only ones left with her now, and the grumpy pig was clearly eager to return to the confines of the precinct's tech-lab. Brody and Nora followed him to the elevator platform just beyond the eastern landing pad where the transport was parked. One of the perks of being the Head ZPD Technician and Science Officer, as Dallis often liked to remind anyone who would listen, was that it was all too easy to commission things like direct elevator access from the basement labs to every floor of headquarters. The pig would always explain that it was a security and efficiency measure, but that really meant that he just didn't want to share either the regular elevator or the building's stairwell with anybody he didn't want to.

Safety bars sprung up around the metal platform, and the trio began their descent into the building's sublevels.

"I'm not even going to begin with the headaches you've caused all of us tonight, Nora," Dallis growled, "because I know you don't care how much misery your friends go through on your behalf, and it's too damned early in the morning for me to start pushing that particular boulder uphill."

Body's focus remained on the evidence bag he was turning about in his paws. "You know he doesn't mean anything by it, Nor," he said. "He's just mad that he didn't get to see this baby in action with Delilah's cameras." Delilah, Nora figured, was the name that the two had christened their bugbot with. They always liked to give cute nicknames to their creations – it was, point of fact, just about the only subject that didn't even around a playful amount of bickering between the two.

"I'm sure you two will have plenty of alone time to play with your new toy," Nora said with a wink. "Just make sure you don't start any fires or anything. Then the Chief might actually kill one of us. Or all of us."

"Speaking of which," Dallis said, "What's that little note the bunny passed you all secret like?" Nora looked down gave Dallis a raised eyebrow the pig simply waved off with his hoof.

"It's like I always tell you, fox, there are some advantages that come with being the shortest fella in the room. The rest of you might have been playing "Who's the Alpha" with your staring contests, but I was actually paying attention. She slipped you that square of paper like a schoolgirl passing notes when the teacher ain't looking. It was pretty cute, to tell you the truth." Dallis nudged Nora's still closed right paw. "So, what the big secret?"

Nora opened her palm and unfolded the paper, angling it carefully so her two friends couldn't get an easy look at it.

"Let me guess," Brody said, his eyes still fixed squarely on the gun and not the note, "She confessed to being the mastermind behind the whole break in? Or did she kidnap your brother and hold him for ransom?"

"I don't have a brother, dummy," Nora said as she scanned the paper. Dallis tapped his hoof impatiently.

"Well? Come on, you know we're not going to rat you out to the Chief."

"Don't be insensitive, Dal," Brody chided.

"Oh, you all know what I mean."

"Sure thing, buddy" Nora said. "But it's nothing exciting. Just an inside joke, I guess."

"Sure it is," Dallis grumbled, but he knew well enough to drop the issue. Instead of prodding any further, the pig turned his attention to the fancy gun, which he had decided was too important for Brody to break with his big clumsy wolf paws. While the two of them bickered, Nora turned Juno's message over in her mind. It was a bit of an inside joke, Nora hadn't lied about that. It wasn't just a joke, though. It was also a lead, scrawled in a hasty yet somehow perfectly legible scrawl:

Won't lie to the Chief, but this scoop is just for you:

Former Ursa-Corp: Terrence Padfoot – Missing two wks, maybe foul play? Worked with w/ever was on Floor 128

This crummy old future of ours might = broken machine, but it can be better

Find me at the March Hare,

J

"Sly bunny," Nora said, and smiled.


A/N: And that's the end of Chapter 1! Please, feel free to leave your thoughts and comments - any and all feedback is greatly appreciated - and be on the lookout for the beginning of Chapter 2, which should be posting in week or two.

Up Next: We'll catch up with a couple of very familiar faces from Zootopia's present day, and then we'll take a jump back into the city's past to meet another rabbit and another fox, whose meeting will set the stage for a very different kind of mystery than anything we've seen before...