Chapter Eight- Intermission
Zootropolis Police Dept, Precinct One
August 7th 2019
9:00 AM
Officer Leonard Grizzoli stood in front of Precinct One of the ZPD, he walked up the front steps and through the door to the building.
Beside him was Officer Fangmeyer, he was bandaged, bruised and walked with a slight limp as the two approached the station. Fangmeyer was the only officer that was sent out of the hospital the night before and reluctantly deemed as fit for duty, Mchorn was also sent out of the hospital with minor injuries, but for Fangmeyer's condition it was surprising.
The two walked through the front doors and into the main lobby of the station to be greeted by Benjamin Clawhauser, the chubby cheetah leaned over his desk upon spotting them.
"Fangmeyer, oh my gosh are you okay?!" The portly cheetah asked in frantic worry, the wolf in question only brushed it off "yeah I'm fine, it's just a broken nose" he said with an oddly placed smile "well what about Nick and Delgato?" The officer asked, still worried "I haven't seen them since last night, I'm sure they're fine though" Fangmeyer responded.
"Why don't we go to the SWAT room? See who's around?" Grizzoli interrupted, Fang nodded "sure, I should check my gear for when we go back in" Grizzoli chuckled a little as the two made their way over.
Despite the raid going on, there were at least three SWAT teams on standby at the station, Teams 5, 6 and 7, the reason being that they were less experienced than the teams sent in.
However when the two officers walked into the SWAT room they were hit with the pungent smell of cigar smoke and as expected, Officer John Price was sitting on one of the benches with a cigar in his mouth.
"John? Surprise seeing you here" Grizzoli said as the two walked in, the grizzly looked at them and nodded "I can say the same" he said getting up.
"You alright mate?" Fangmeyer nodded "I feel a lot better than I did yesterday, that's for sure" the arctic wolf said, walking over to his locker and then the armory. Grizzoli and Price followed.
. . .
Johnathan Fangmeyer stared at the myriad of assault weapons on the racks of the armory, almost all of the equipment he brought three days ago now was either shot, broken or completely destroyed, including his kevlar vest and his weapons.
He heard a sigh from behind him "I know what you're thinking Fangmeyer" he looked behind him "what am I thinking then?" "You want to go back in" the wolf huffed "don't you?" He asked, turning to them.
"Damn right I do, but going in with four men down will get ourselves killed" Fangmeyer nodded in what he considered as frustration "I know, but the least we can do now is prepare" he watched Price walk forward with the cigar in his paw pads.
"I think you're getting ahead of yourself John" Grizzoli said with a hint of concern "you're the point mammal right?" Price asked, ignoring the lion's concern, Fang nodded "yeah, why?" Two of the guns were grabbed off the shelf "you used these?" He looked at the M4 Carbine and the M1014 shotgun in front of him as he nodded "good, stick with that then, I'd recommend you bring both buckshot and slugs though" the wolf grabbed the shotgun.
"Don't think we have slugs, buckshots all we have" the bear's eyes squinted "tch, you're already set then, I'd just bring a secondary this time" he nodded.
"What about you then?" Grizzoli asked as the three mammals stood there, the grizzly puffed the cigar in his mouth and grabbed an M16A4 from the rack "the M240 works well, but the M16's saved my hide on more than one occasion" he said loading an empty magazine and cocking the weapon before inspecting it.
"I don't doubt it, this thing's pretty reliable" Grizzoli said looking at the gun, Price shook his head "this is the A4, I used the A1 way back when" Price added, putting the rifle back on the rack.
Suddenly all of the mammals in the room turned as the door opened "I guess everyone's running overkill then" the voice of Nicholas Wilde spoke as he walked into the SWAT room.
"What?" Price asked in confusion "it's a . . . Never mind" the red fox said walking up to them "Nick, why aren't you in the hospital?" The fox laughed and shrugged as he did "well, who knew that falling three stories and almost dying was so minimal?" He said smugly, though there was silence from the crowd.
The fox walked up to the trio of mammals and spoke as he did "the doctors said that I'm apparently fit for duty, so I came here" Price looked confused at this but only for a second.
. . .
Officer Nicholas Wilde watched officer Price grin and walk up to him "unexpected, but I'm glad you recovered so quickly Wilde" the bear said outstretching a massive paw for a pawshake, Wilde took the offer "I can't agree more, just wait till Judy sees me, she'll probably jump on me till I'm dead" the fox joked.
"So what's going on?" He asked as the trio stepped back "just getting ready, we're planning on going back in to find that bastard" Fang answered. It didn't take any convincing for Wilde to speak "oh? Count me in then" Nick noticed that those words seemed to make Price smile.
The grizzly stood up "that's good to hear, anything on the hostage?" "Wolford's all bandaged up, last I heard was that he's stable and recovering just fine, but what's the plan?" The fox told them as he walked over to the armory.
"No plan yet, Wilde, the chief hasn't even confirmed we're going back in" Grizzoli looked at the guns on the wall "but we're prepping just in case" Nick nodded "gotcha . . . Oh and, I didn't get to say thanks for saving us all back there, I owe you a drink" he said looking at Price.
The bear laughed "you're definitely not the first, but you owe me nothing Wilde, I know a good soldier when I see one" Nick laughed too "I wouldn't call myself much of one but alright . . . I guess I'll do some prepping too" he said looking at the armory.
"You know, that was some introduction to SWAT" Nick said, grabbing an Mp5 from the rack "well it doesn't get much better, and I'd run a shotgun if I were you" Price said in response "twelve gauge? It's tempting" the fox said, raising a brow as he looked at the different shotguns on the wall.
He watched Price nod "either that or an M4A1, they both suit your size" Nick scratched his chin for a moment before reaching up and grabbing the M4 "eh, I've always been more of an assault rifle guy myself" he said a bit smugly as he held it in his arms.
"I say always save preferences for last, but it suits you Nick" Grizzoli said as the fox loaded the weapon "well let's just hope I don't lose these this time" he said placing it in front of him.
Nick nodded "uh question, are we even going back in? Delgato is still recovering and I may be out of the hospital but it doesn't mean I don't hurt" Nick explained, expressing his uncertainty.
"Soon" was the only answer he got, before it was elaborated "once Delgato and Frost recover, we'll find Rouen and the missing members of Team 4" Price said assuredly "that's enough for me then, but I doubt that cat's gonna stay in the city for long" Nick said nodding.
The fox saw Price shake his head "nah, the thing with Rouen is that he's cocky . . . As long as he thinks he's winning he'll stay in there" Price then looked at Fangmeyer.
"What I do want to know is . . ." The grizzly paused for a moment and put his cigar in his mouth "you said someone fought you with night howler serum?" Fang shivered as he remembered "yeah . . . It was some kind of inhaler, but that bitch just wouldn't stop" Price's face looked perplexed.
"When we go back in, we need to be careful for that" Price said as Grizzoli nodded in agreement "I didn't get to see it but I agree" "it's good to know these bastards are cowards though, I kind of expected it" Price said holding the cigar in his paw pads.
"Whether their cowards or not, somebody with that drug can kill us," Fangmeyer said in seriousness.
The four mammals stepped away from the armory and walked back over to the bench "what I wanna know is where the hell those jets came from" Grizzoli questioned as they sat down.
"This case is top priority, and given the severity of our situation, central command was willing to provide means for extraction" this only made the lion even more confused "what?" "It was central command, we wouldn't've been able to get out if I hadn't called them in" he said calmly still.
"Honestly I don't care, that was straight out of Call Of Duty or something" Nick said as Fangmeyer nodded "I can see it" Grizzoli nodded too.
Suddenly the door opened to reveal Chief Bogo, all of the officers stood up as the buffalo walked in "Wilde, Fangmeyer, I'm glad you recovered so quickly" "thank you sir" the arctic wolf said in response. Nick watched the chief walk up to Price and stop "Price, I need to speak to you in my office" all the other officers were silent as the grizzly simply obliged "continue on" Bogo said walking out.
. . .
"How the hell did those two manage to recover so quickly, Adrian?" Frederick Manson asked Chief Bogo as he led him to his office.
"I don't know, but I'm glad they did" the buffalo said as the two officers walked towards his office. Adrian Bogo had some matters to discuss with the operative, mainly in terms of their plan and most importantly what Manson was planning, because he knew he was.
The door was locked upon closing it, all the lights in Bogo's office were off, his desk only lit by the large open windows behind it.
"What's this about?" The grizzly asked, taking a seat "the plan, what is it?" Bogo said earnestly, Manson held his cigar in his paw pads. Bogo could see the smoke billowing from the red hot edge of the cylinder.
"I'm still working on it" Bogo shook his head "just give me something" the bear looked confused for a moment "what do you want me to give, Adrian? I've got nothing" as much as he wanted to press him, Bogo backed off for a moment and reached down into his desk. He pulled out a full bottle of whisky and two glasses.
AN: Looks like Team One wants to go right back into the fray, who wouldn't after taking a beating like that? But Bogo seems to be out of a plan and unless Manson has one, they won't be going anywhere anytime soon . . . Also in case anyone's wondering (which I hope you aren't), Nick saying "guess everyone's running overkill" is a COD reference, "Overkill" is a skill that allows you to carry two primary weapons, you probably already knew that but just wanted to clarify.
As always, ciao.
Laughing Wolf