Chapter 10: Rain Forest

The Rain Forest zone started as soon as you left the zone of the centre of Zootopia. In this place, there was mostly greenery of trees and other plants that grew around the city. The name of the city itself did not come from nowhere. The name Rain Forest came mainly from the fact that it always rains most and most often in this area, which is why the place got this name as a rainy place. Here you could never expect when it would rain, how long it would last, or if there would be no rain at all. Yes, there were days when it was 100 per cent sure that the day would be sunny without any drops falling from the sky, but there were also moments when, despite the sunny weather, the residents had an umbrella ready to put over their heads to avoid getting wet.

These areas Judy and Nick observed very few times. They usually patrolled Sahara Square, or downtown Zootopia, where there were usually few if not zero villains. It was different in Sahara Square. The road leading to this place from Zootopia was practically a highway for traffic pirates, who often broke traffic rules there, exceeding speed limits and setting new records. The partners had a full day's work then, as they had to chase the villains, who unfortunately had faster cars than them. They then had to use their wits to outwit the traffic pirate, enabling them to catch him.

Nick arrived in the vicinity of Rain Forest at around 2.00 p.m., when, having finally settled with Flash, he was finally able to leave the inspection from which he took the necessary document. According to the information on the paper the car was registered to James Catt, residing at number 55. Nick generally understood the details, the problem was that he couldn't see any house numbered 55 in the area. He wandered around the area, reversing several times into the main avenue hoping that he had missed the house, and when he realised that this wasn't the case he drove into narrower and smaller streets where he also couldn't see any house numbered 55.

"Hm strange, somewhere this house should be here..." thought Nick as he looked around the seemingly quiet neighbourhood. At a quick glance, the whole surroundings looked quite peaceful and relaxing. A few houses scattered around the area, with tall trees in the background, covered in vines gave a sense of isolation from the main part of the city, and thus gave a feeling of security.

Fox patrolled the area around Rain Forest for a good couple of minutes, until he came to the conclusion that the house number entry was simply a bluff. On the one hand he was surprised that such a trick had gone through, but although the house with that number could remain with only the number changed. Just when he was about to give up with the search, the fox remembered a certain road that he himself had once used when he needed to hide something. No one remembered the said road anymore, due to the fact that the road was overgrown with creepers and, to get there, one had to know the way to it. Its area was overgrown, so it was difficult to find its path. Fox knew the Rain Forest area like the back of his hand, having dealt with various visitors in the past who had trained him in the trade. Access to the path is difficult as the road is quite uneven (the tarmac road is led over a cliff which is not protected in any way). The road looked as if it was not completed and in truth it was. The project was not completed because it was too expensive to build, and to bring the cliff to a level of safety where people could drive there in complete safety, Rain Forest did not have the resources to do this. The worst affected were those who wanted to set up factories there and had already had them built, but had to stop everything in order to save as much money as possible. Despite the fact that the road was dangerous and possibly risky in vain, Nick decided that he had to take this path in order to quench his need to satisfy the curiosity he had ignited. Initially, he wanted to drive in through the deserted road, but on reflection, he realised that the road, which was not in good condition and if he met James, it would be more discreet if he went there on foot. His car, he parked near the nearest house, on the edge of the pavement, so as not to give any suspicious impression. He then proceeded along the road, where an overgrown road and a cracked road overgrown with vines, bushes and all sorts of plants awaited him ahead.

As Nick walked along the side of the road, he realised that he had chosen well by walking to his destination on this 'road' (the road could hardly be called that, the asphalt was poking out from under the ground, its slabs sliding out in some places and sometimes cracking).

"Well, at least I'll save the suspension on the car" thought Nick as he saw the terrible state the path was in. As he looked around he could see a multitude of trees, their branches drooping all the way down to the road, their leaves falling onto the asphalt covering the holes, and in some places there were also creepers piled up on the road. Nick was not particularly surprised by this, when he still lived his old life, he did not want the road to be rebuilt, he often hid here with his friends when someone did something wrong and this very often worked.

After a short stretch of forest, Nick soon came out into a clearing where he noticed, in it, the abandoned manufactory of an old factory, which was in a rather poor state. The windows were shattered, the brick walls were battered and there were even holes in some places. The structure gave the impression that it was about to collapse. Next to the dilapidated building, a white van was standing under a small house made of dark wood, covered with red tiles and white frames, windows that were beaten with boards.

'This is probably where he must be staying...a good place' thought Nick. The place was perfectly camouflaged, the large, lush Rain Forest trees made the clearing impossible to see from any direction, a bird's eye view wouldn't do much either, the leaves of the trees effectively limiting the field of view from all sides. Before deciding what to do next he reached into the pouch on his belt, holstered his pistol and clipped his police badge to his chest. Although he was stressed and a little apprehensive (after all, it was the first time he would be undertaking such a task and he would be on his own without Judy, who would certainly know what to do in this situation), he felt confident that he knew what he was doing and was aware that it bode well, Judy had said so and he trusted her for life. Nick decided to check out the territory of the old factory first. James' accommodation next to the factory must have been an indication that there might be something interesting there, and the fox guessed that James was not at home. He could see that there were no windows in the house or the factory, if he had been he would surely have heard some noises, staying nearby. He walked over to the large steel doors of the factory foundations and opened them. In doing so, there was an ear-splitting squeak of rusty metal bolts, which being all rust, opened the massive doors sluggishly. Once they opened, Nick had a view of an old workroom with broken windows and shattered walls, and a staircase to the first floor.

"Really this must be many years old."

Said the fox, the only thing that answered him after a few seconds was a deafening echo bouncing around the walls of the building.

"Well, I can look around at least" thought Nick. He began his inspection around the room by first looking at the cartridges that lay on the floor. Nick bent down towards them to look at what kind of gun it could be. He then lifted his head up so he could see in front of him some simple puppets made of cardboard that were perforated.

"Looks like this is where they trained," considered Nick. After a brief consideration, the fox decided to take some pictures of these items so that he would have evidence in the case if needed. Even though he was investigating on his own, he would prefer to have some evidence photos. After taking the photos, Nick headed to the stairwell to see what was on the first floor. As he entered, there was still a feeling of uncertainty and fear in his heart. Every, slightest sound made him think that someone was in the area and not necessarily friendly to him. Although he had his pistol on him he had doubts whether this was a good time to take it out. He was still not sure who he was dealing with.

The first floor was actually an even smaller room compared to the ground floor. The room was even smaller, divided by small columns which stood several metres apart supporting an already dilapidated foundation which was unfit for frequent use. Nick's attention was drawn to a table and a couple of photographs that were hung above the desk. After a quick peek at the ground floor to make sure he was alone, he headed towards the table, listening for any footsteps. There was a feeling of unease and fear especially now that he had only one way of escape. Upon approaching the table, Nick turned his attention to the plan that lay unrolled on the table.

"Hm... Looks like a map of the bank they raided" thought Nick after looking at the drawings. And indeed it must have been, after staring at the technical plan of the building that lay on the bench, Nick saw too many similarities to the South Zootopia bank to consider it a coincidence. He was reassured by the fact that the pictures showed photographs of that very bank.

"That'll work for me too," decided Nick. He pulled out his phone and started taking evidence photos. As he did so, the sound of a door closing from outside reached his sensitive ears. After hiding the phone, the fox walked over to the window seat leaning gently out of it to see what had happened. He spotted a black car by the old house and a single visitor walking inside the flat.

'That must be James' thought Nick. His heart rate immediately sped up as he had to make a decision: back off as long as he didn't know he was here, or start confronting him. His hand involuntarily reached for his gun belt, but the fox didn't feel the need to remove the weapon yet.

"It's too late to back out," Nick finally decided. He descended from the first floor and, being careful not to create any unnecessary noise, exited through the facade of a window that no longer existed. In order to avoid going through the front door, he decided to surround the old flat, hoping to find another entrance or to find a place to observe the pursuer. Being bent down Nick, in order not to stick out the window, did not realise that such creeping could be tiring. There was a lot of rubbish and sharp pieces of glass around the flat, the fox had to be careful at every step not to injure his feet.

"Hi Dominic, what's up...yeah, I did what you asked" Nick heard James' voice from under the window further down. Nick almost crawled under the window just to remain unnoticed. The feeling of anxiety was still growing, the stress was increasing, I don't think he had ever been so stressed in his life. He had to keep his composure though, any wrong move could destroy his plan.

"Yes, I hid the evidence where you asked. Where is Jack anyway? Ah yes, I forgot, he never reveals his position. Well, let's meet tomorrow, you know, where ever...no, or you know what let's meet at your place, I don't like the fact that we hang around in warehouses so much, we have too much money hidden there and the police are already looking for us...I don't know why, but putting a non-existent house number in the documents works because they haven't come for me yet hehe...fits Tomorrow 18? Ok, well see you later"

With the conversation over, Nick tried to remember as many details as possible, which he would undoubtedly need. Now he just had to retreat to remain unnoticed, but there was one problem. When James was in the house, there is a high probability that he would see Nick trying to walk away from the clearing.

'Damn it, after all I'm not going to wait for him to go...if I had a sleeping grenade' thought Nick. He found himself trapped in a trap that was hard to get out of.

Soon his problem solved itself as he heard the voice of the TV broadcast again from the window. Nick slid gently out past the window frame so that he could see the television set firing up, which was showing advertisements.

"This is probably the moment," decided Nick. Crawling, he backed up to the wall with the entrance to the centre of the house, which was open. Fox looked out through it, he couldn't see James anywhere, so he took that as a sign to take advantage of the situation.

Running as quietly as he could he entered an area of lush vegetation where he could take a moment to breathe and being bent over he was able to make his way back to his car.