Benjamin wasn't exactly sure when his head ended up resting against Bogo's side, but when he woke up he was nestled in the space between the buffalo's torso and his thick arm. He blinked, wincing slightly when a bright streetlamp flashed in his eyes as the car turned into the road right outside Precinct One and slowed to a stop.
"Welcome back." Bogo sound weary. Benjamin wondered if he had fallen asleep at some point as well.
Bogo removed his arm from around Benjamin's shoulders, then scowled when he noticed a tear in the seam connecting the sleeve of his black t-shirt. Then something caught his attention outside the window, and he lifted his eyes from the sleeve to the mammal charging out the front entrance.
"Ah hell."
Benjamin recognized the mammal when she got closer and her silhouette became less obscure from the bright glow of the lobby light shining through the windows. Bogo got out the car as his sister stormed straight up to him with a face like thunder.
"Mansa Idris Bogo! What the flying fuck did you get yourself into?!"
"Nice to see you too, Kathy." Bogo held up a hoof when two ZBI officers stepped forward. "What did Elba tell you?"
Kathy put her hooves on her hips. "All he said that I should 'refrain' from trying to call you until you got back! Hah, even if I wanted to, those damn riots put so many mammals in the hospital that I never had the time! Where're Higgins and McHorn?"
Bogo grimaced. "They're okay. I'll explain later. Kathy, I'm sorry, I should have called you before I left."
Kathryn balled her fist. "Yeah! You should have! I was starting to think you were somewhere in City Hall or one of those other places! I've never been so scared in my whole life!"
Bogo and Benjamin both looked toward City Hall. Benjamin raised his fingers to his lips when he saw the glitter of shattered glass and the dark shapes of fallen mammals.
"What happened?" Bogo asked hoarsely.
"Another terrorist attack, that's what happened!" Kathryn snapped. "That madwoman unleashed the toxin on every mammal in about five buildings!"
Benjamin gaped in horror as Bogo spun round to stare at the mammals congregating in around City Hall. He could see Cheryl and Sedor's twisted sense of irony. Five buildings. Hundreds of lives. Founder's Mount Asylum revisited.
"How?" Bogo asked.
"From what I overheard, they somehow managed to contaminate the sprinkler systems and then activate them." Kathryn said.
Bogo gritted, cursed, and punched the side of the car hard enough to sway Benjamin's body. Only his sister's presence seemed to keep him from reacting more violently. He propped his hooves against the car, his breath fogging the window, as he worked to regain his composure. "If the ZBI are responding to more than one incident, then that explains the skeleton crew outside City Hall. Tell me the ZBI are handling it."
"I watched them enter the building about twenty minutes ago." Kathryn sounded calmer now that most of her pent-up anger had been released. Benjamin watched as she gripped her baby brother's shoulders, her index fingers almost touching the bandage around his neck, her eyes moist but intense. "Mansa, promise me you won't go in after them. I've almost lost you too many times already."
Bogo embraced his sister. "I promise."
When they let go, Kathryn wiped her eyes. "Good. I gotta get back to the hospital before my break finishes."
The ZBI officers, having by now seen that Kathryn wasn't a problem, were busy trying to get in contact with their co-workers via their radios. None of them seemed interested in confining Benjamin to the car, so he took a risk and got out. He immediately regretted it when Kathryn spotted him.
She froze, her eyes widening as she recognized him. "Is that who I think it is?"
Bogo nodded.
Before Benjamin could muster a meek greeting, Kathryn seized the cheetah and hugged him.
"You disappeared right after Mansa pulled through." She sniffled into his shoulder. "I never got the chance to say… what the hell can I say about what you did?"
"I'm sorry..." Benjamin whimpered. "If it wasn't for me, Cunninghorn wouldn't have…"
"That bastard cut his jugular. His jugular. If it wasn't for you he never would have had a chance." Kathryn said in a constricted voice. "Cunninghorn always hated my brother. There's no telling how long he was planning to kill him, and he would have succeeded if Mansa had never met you at that party. I guess God really does work in weird ways."
Benjamin might have burst into tears had Bogo not gently encouraged his sister to let go. "Kathy, I need to find Chief Trunchbull. Is he in his office?"
Kathryn replied that she hadn't seen him since yesterday, but it was possible that he was indeed upstairs. With that, Bogo spoke a few words with the ZBI before he escorted Benjamin inside.
When he saw an empty lobby, Benjamin thought at first that the precinct had been completely abandoned, but then the weary receptionist emerged from behind the round desk.
"Captain Bogo!" He exclaimed. "Where've you been?" His look of surprise turned to complete shock when he saw Benjamin.
"Long story. Where's Chief Trunchbull?" Bogo asked.
The receptionist paused. "I don't know. He went across to City Hall about a day or so ago, but he hasn't come back."
Bogo looked sharply back through the windows at the building across the park. "A day, you said."
The receptionist swallowed. "He may have come back through the underground parking lot…"
"But?" Bogo asked.
"But he hasn't been answering the intercom." The receptionist admitted. "I guess you can still head to his office, just to be sure."
"Don't worry, I intend to." Bogo ushered the cheetah on which increased urgency. He kept Benjamin in front of him along the way, likely wary of letting the cheetah out of his sight and risking a third kidnapping. Upon entering the elevator, away from the dimness of the blood-drenched asylum, Benjamin looked in the mirror and saw fully for the first time how he and Bogo looked. They looked like they'd both spent a night in a mine, which they had, and Bogo's black shirt was covered in faint brown patches. The arm that Subject Zero had bitten was covered in a pattern of dried blood. As for Benjamin himself, blood had left an uneven round stain on one side of his mouth, and the mining coat he had acquired made him look smaller than he really was. Then again, the slight reduction in his wide figure was no illusion.
Benjamin tried to wipe the blood from his mouth, but it had already dried. He sighed and pressed his forehead against the cool glass.
"This sure is a case to remember, isn't it?" He asked.
"This is one case none of us will want to remember." Bogo said grimly. "I'll gladly let ZBI take the credit for this one, so longer as I never hear the words 'Twilight Phenomenon' again."
Benjamin turned away from the mirror to look at the real Bogo. "You said Nick and Hopps were going after the Red Queen. You still don't know where they went?"
Bogo snorted angrily. "I swear to god if that careless rabbit and her fox are anywhere near City Hall..."
Judy and Nick pressed themselves against sand-coloured rock wall of City Hall, right at the edge of the tiny shutter at the base of the building. There were still at least two dozen ZBI officers watching the building, so they had used the cover of shrubs and darkness to bypass the smallest group of feds at the back of the building. The ZBI would never let Judy into the building, even if the commissioner's life was at stake, so they and Honey had planned their entry carefully. Using the binoculars and years of experience dabbling in not-so-legal activities, Nick had picked a small window leading to the basement, concealed by shrubs, and that was the blocked window they were standing by now. Judy had worked out the cover story they would use to explain themselves to the ZBI afterward; she'd entered City Hall to speak with Elba right before the building locked down, and in the few hours before the Red Queen had unleashed her 'Tears of Alice,' had discovered Nick being held captive in one of the basement storerooms. With the amount of evidence building against Swinton, it shouldn't sound too far-fetched. Finally, it had been Gabe who had pointed out two major problems; pawprints left in certain areas that could contradict Judy's cover story, and the fact that almost every floor surface in City Hall would be coated in Night-Howler laced sprinkler water. Judy's waterproof footwear and latex gloves had solved that problem for her, but Nick had to borrow Starlight's spare set. He'd complained on the way down the stairs that he looked like a Prohibition-era gangster, and his mood did not improve when a pair of one-hundred percent bio-degradable carrier bags were all they could find to cover his feet. It was only after he pointed out that plastic bags were noisy that Judy let him steal a small hazmat suit from one of the trucks.
"Ok, Honey. Lift the shutter." Nick had been given control of Judy's phone so she could have both paws on her weapon. Her moral code had made her obligated to forsake live rounds for her usual tranq gun, but at the cost of feeling tremendously underprepared. Sedor may have been a tremendously powerful threat, but he never had the training that far outclassed anything at the police academy. Cheryl Radames obviously had that training and was using it to terrifying effect.
The shutter slid open. Judy held a paw out and looked Nick in the eye. Even through the suit's visor, she could see the bright green of his irises. "Are you sure you want to do this?"
The irises flashed as he nodded. "We talked about this. It'll look better for me if I appear to be another one of Swinton's victims."
"You are one of Swinton's victims." Judy said.
"Who's been evading capture for over a month, and they already have Higgins's eyewitness report that two TUSK officers tried to kill us both." Nick said.
"Good point." Judy got out her little emergency hammer, quietly smashed the window and slipped inside.
She did not fail to see the irony of finding herself in one of the basement storerooms, metal shelves pull of cleaning products. Perched atop the vacuum cleaner she'd landed on, she didn't bother checking the tiny, rectangular room, instead checking the floor for tainted water. The room was dry, she could see that by the single bright light in the ceiling, so she dropped down from the cleaner and signalled for Nick to come in after her.
Nick dropped down, and the shutter closed behind him. This was the part of the plan that scared Judy most, but it was essential to create the illusion that the broken glass was on the inside because someone had tried and failed to break through the shutter. She'd watched that alien movie, the one with the air duct scene, and had felt that same dread when the ill-fated captain of the spaceship had ordered all hatches to be closed behind him. This was different, she told herself. She wasn't facing off against an alien creature from another world, just an untold number of savage mammals that would sooner trample her and Nick into pâté than listen to reason.
Judy and Nick went up to the door, and she nodded for Nick to open it while she kept aim. Nick gulped, reached out for the doorknob with a slightly trembling paw…
And leapt back in fright when another explosion rocked the building, causing the ceiling light to sway. Shadows flew about the room as Nick collected himself and rubbed his fur back down.
"On second thought, how about you-"
"Not this time, Nick." Judy jabbed her finger toward the knob.
Nick sighed, muttered "What the hell am I doing?" and opened the door.
Judy saw nothing but darkness beyond the door, and she smelled smoke, too. "Best be careful, that explosion seemed close…"
She didn't realise how right she was until she turned to the left and saw the murky glow of a fire consuming a pile of boxes containing paper that had been left in the hallway.
"Perfect." Nick groaned. "Just perfect. Bombs, psycho serums, and now we have a fire. Good thing they had that new sprinkler system installed when they did. Oh, wait!"
He threw his arms up, spun around, and froze at a sudden squelch beneath his foot. Judy froze along with him and slowly looked down.
"I… really don't want to know what that is, do I?" Nick asked steadily.
Judy covered her mouth and looked away.
"Not to speak ill of the dead, but these feds aren't having a very good time of it, are they?" Nick said.
"That wasn't ZBI." Judy said weakly. "That's a suit sleeve. It was one of the civilians. They wouldn't spot the trap if they were, you know, feral."
Nick fell silent. "… Jesus."
Judy's lip quivered. If they'd been a minute earlier, they could have shot the mammal with a dart and prevented this. Cheryl would pay for this. Her and that vile, two-faced pig who allowed this all to happen.
"Come on." She said. "Watch my back, and I'll watch for traps."
CRASH!
A door on the other side of the fire exploded open, the massive grey form of a rhino barrelling into the hallway, bellowing and grunting. It was one of the security guards, his white and red shirt tinted slightly blue from the toxic water soaked into the fabric. He charged, scattering flaming boxes and paper all over the place and illuminating the lightless room.
Dragging Nick behind her, Judy fired. The dart bounced off the rhino's horn as he closed in, snorting like the beast he had become. Judy and Nick leapt to the sides, the rhino's bulk glancing off of Judy's shoulder and slamming her painfully into the wall, before he tried to turn in the narrow hallway to finish them off.
Judy quickly loaded another dart and fired again, barely hearing her own shriek of terror, almost as primal as the raging, rattling howl of the rhino when the dart sank into his back. It turned around completely, his rear and shoulder leading wide wet streaks on the wall, and prepared to charge again.
A third dart fired into its neck brought the rhino down with a final, wheezing wine. Judy kept her gun aimed at the behemoth, her nose twitching, and her shoulders heaving with each shuddering breath. The rhino's legs jerked suddenly, streaking through the wet floor, before he finally, fully succumbed to the tranquiliser. Judy stared at her gun, still empty after firing the second dart, and the dart in her other paw. A shaky laugh drew her to look at Nick, who was hefting a dart gun that was far too big for him.
"Good thing he dropped this while he was passing through, huh?" He asked weakly. "I'm just gonna put this down, now." He lowered the gun to the floor, taking care not to touch the puddles of water.
Even with that unflattering suit, Judy felt a thrill of a different sort, a familiarly fierce heat that surged through every part of her body.
She used her tongue to wet her dry mouth and reloaded her weapon. "Let's keep moving."
With Cheryl's insidious resourcefulness, the elevators were a no-go, but fortunately there were signs on the walls giving directions to the nearest stairwell. In a hallway on the next floor up, they came across another savage prey mammal, a stag whose wet horns had a lethally sharp-looking gleam. One of his rear legs was curled up and bloody, but that didn't stop him from approaching the pair with violent intent.
Judy missed with the first dart, but the second hit his chest, and he slumped to the floor before he got within ten feet of them.
"Carrots, another one!" Nick whispered pointed through a smashed interior window into one of the adjoining offices. The horse hadn't noticed them, however, too busy pacing the trashed office to notice their altercation with the deer. Judy shushed Nick and signalled that they should sneak by the mare. They found an open door and slipped into another, empty office.
Judy carefully closed the door behind them as Nick pulled the phone back out. "Honey, Honey, it's pretty bad in here. Tell me you have a location on the commissioner."
Honey responded after about a minute. "He and Trunchbull are hiding in an office on the fourth floor. Apparently, he, Trunchbull and Swinton tried to hide in the mayor's office, but a pack of crazies tore their way through the door. They got separated from the Swinton in the fight, and since then they've been waiting for the feds to rescue them."
Judy kept one paw on the door handle. "Does you have any idea how the ZBI are doing?"
"I do now that Elba gave me access to the system, and they're doing pretty okay, all things considered. From the looks of it they're holding their own against the crazies."
"Bad news?" Nick asked.
"Bad news is that a couple got killed by traps. So far as it looks it's just tripwires. Watch where you step. As for Gabe and Starlight, they're still working their way down from the top floor."
"Thanks, Hon. We'll talk more back in the stairwell." Nick said.
They opened the door and got a shock when they found that the mare had left the office and was now in the hallway less than a foot from them. Judy aimed for the neck again, bringing down the mare before she could try to trample them.
Once in the stairwell, Nick gave the okay for Honey to keep talking as they climbed the steps.
"Cheryl's been a pain in the ass to track, but it looks like she's somewhere on the fifth floor. She's been staying on the move, killing the ZBI and any civvies that didn't get sprayed by the sprinklers… Oh Jesus, she just got another two. Oh god, what is she doing…" Honey's voice trembled with horror. "Oh Jesus… she's…"
Judy gripped the stair rail just before the door to the fourth floor. "Honey, what is it?"
"Holy shit, she's out of her goddamned mind…" Honey sounded in shock.
Now very worried for Elba and Trunchbull, Judy grabbed the handle and opened the door to press on. "Honey, will you snap out of it and tell us what's going…" She stopped dead. "Oh."
Nick came in after her, and his jaw dropped. "What. The. Fuck."
About a month ago, Judy had been the first to respond to an anonymous tip about an incident at the clinic of Dr. Lemming. When she'd gotten there, she'd found him in the kitchen, strapped to a coffee jar, the top of his skull surgically removed and stuck full of toothpicks in a twisted symbolic representation of the part he'd played in Swinton's conspiracy.
The display before her was far worse. Illuminated from above by a yellow sconce, the bright red surface of an enormous corkboard usually used for pinning memos was marred by the dark, viscous fluids trickling down it and dripping on the floor. A group of rodents, mice, lemmings, gerbils, had been stapled in a serpentine pattern all across the board, climaxing in the 'head,' a chinchilla, a black zip-tie holding a large cigar in his paw. The cigar and the paw holding it were point to the left, like a direction sign.
"Caterpillar." Nick said hoarsely. Judy turned to see him bent over with his head between his knees. "That's what this is."
Judy was shaken. It seemed like only now that she fully understood exactly what king of mammal they were dealing with. With her gun aimed straight ahead she strode down the hallway on autopilot. "We gotta find them. We gotta find them."
Nick caught up with the rabbit at the end of the hall and grabbed her shoulder. The sudden stop snapped her out of her shock, and she forced herself to calm down while the fox spoke to Honey.
"Carrots? Carrots!"
Judy blinked a few times and looked up at Nick. "Huh?"
"Didn't you hear her? Elba and Trunchbull are in the office just across from the elevator. I guess they didn't want to risk using the thing either. In any case, Honey's anonymously tipped the ZBI and they're on their way."
"Where's Cheryl?" Judy croaked.
"It's like playing Five Nights at Teddy's on four/twenty mode, gimme a sec… Ah, okay, she's moved the body into one of the hallways. I guess she wanted to put it somewhere where you'd more likely find it. I suggest you hurry before she finishes and goes after the commish and his buddy."
Judy turned to Nick to tell him to get a move on and stopped when she saw the look on his face, directed away from her. Distrust, but not toward Judy. The phone buzzed before she could ask what was wrong, indicating another caller beside Honey.
"HOPPS!" Benjamin's ears flattened as Bogo roared into the phone in Trunchbull's office, his own phone having run out of juice. Minutes before he'd attempted to contact Trunchbull's mobile to no avail, and he'd been in angrily distressed mood ever since. "What in god's name do you think you're doing?!"
"Of all the stupid, reckless, foolish, idioti- THAT IS NOT THE SAME AND YOU KNOW IT!"
He started pacing behind the desk as if it was his own, seething with rage as he listened to Judy's response. He'd been especially enraged when he'd found out which buildings had been affected by the attack: City Hall, ZNN Headquarters, Hausen Security's Head Office, Bisoniing's Head Office, and the administration building of the university where Dr. Lemming had gotten his degree. Despite the very early hour every one of those buildings was populated to an extent and would be rendered uninhabitable for weeks at least. Then there was the public relations disaster to deal with…
Standing in the corner beside the coat stand, Benjamin risked a question. "What's going on?"
Bogo put a hoof over the phone. "Apparently, Radames threatened to kill Elba unless Hopps continues to play her sick game."
Benjamin anxiously stepped up to the buffalo. "Ask her where Nick is!"
Bogo asked her, quietly this time, so as not to draw unwanted attention to Nick and Judy on their end. At Benjamin's request he put the phone on speaker, pressing a button on the landline and laying the receiver on the desk beside a case file. "He's with me, and before you start, I didn't want him out of my sight."
Benjamin's paws tightened around each other as he brought his face closer the receiver. "Nick, can you hear me?"
"… Benji?" Nick spoke nervously from the receiver. "Uh… hey. How ya doin', buddy?"
Benjamin slid his paw over his face. "For goodness sake, Nick, why do you keep putting yourself into these situations?"
"I've got a lot to answer for, Benji. That's why."
"Nick, please. You've done enough already. Just take Judy and get out of there."
"I would, but if you knew just what Cheryl's been up to, then you know that pissing her off further is a- woah crap!"
Benjamin clapped his paws over his mouth in horror when a loud bang erupted from the receiver, then another. And another.
"Hopps?!" Bogo reached for the receiver, but Benjamin snatched it off the desk first as the banging continued for a few more seconds, and then suddenly stopped.
"Nick?! Nick, what's happened?!" Benjamin cried into the shiny black device.
It was another few awful seconds before Nick responded. "I'm okay. We both are. Something tried to ram their way through the door, but it looks like they've given up."
Judy spoke up. "Look, sir, it's really bad in here. Savage mammals aren't the only thing the ZBI are dealing with. Before the shutters lifted, Cheryl and her rodent buddies set explosive traps all over the building. The ZBI are holding their own, but they won't get to Elba and Trunchbull in time. We have to see this through."
Bogo balled his fists on the desk. "Are Elba and Trunchbull alright?"
"For now, cap." Nick said. There was a short pause before he spoke further. "Look, there's something I need to tell you, and you're not gonna like it. You know how Cunninghorn was responsible for most of the missing predator cases?"
"Yes." Bogo growled. Benjamin felt a pang as he thought of that hybrid monster tearing the rhino to shreds, a horrific death which Benjamin himself had caused.
"Some of the abducted predators, Cheryl, Sedor, those two secret agents, they're real badasses. Capturing them discreetly would have required a lot of TUSK resources, there's no way the chief of police wouldn't have noticed-"
"No." Bogo cut him off, his tone at its most dangerous yet, and took the phone from Benjamin. "No, no, absolutely not. There is no way. Got it? Find Elba and Trunchbull and get yourselves the fuck out of there before you get yourselves killed."
He slammed the receiver into its cradle with enough force to shake Trunchbull's computer out of its sleep. The screen was at maximum brightness, enough to sting Benjamin's eyes. On his desktop was a massive picture of lush green island in the middle of a sapphire blue sea, with the name ROARCADIA in the corner in big white letters. In the centre of the screen was a box asking for the password.
Bogo leaned over the desk, his hoof still clenched around the phone, until his eyes fell upon the case file on the desk. "What the…" He muttered under his breath and picked up the file.
That was when Benjamin noticed the symbol on the file, the rectangular field of black and red stripes alongside a coat of arms, a pig clutching a sword and a set of scales with a red heart floating above its head. He had seen that flag before.
"Koobus Lupine?" Benjamin read the name on the file out loud. "Who's that?"
"He's the crazy son of a bitch who led the bombings in Zootopia." Bogo said, his confusion becoming more pronounced as they skimmed the contents. "Or so they said. But this case is supposed to be classified, even for the ZPD. What's Trunchbull doing with it?"
He pulled the wireless keyboard toward himself and started typing.
Benjamin didn't bother asking how Bogo knew the pass, having already made an estimate of his relationship with the elephant. Bogo looked up to Trunchbull, and Bogo was Trunchbull's pride and joy. "What're you doing?"
"If Trunchbull was on to something, I have to know what it is." Bogo entered the password, revealing a beautiful photograph of the Zootopia skyline shining like glass candles. There were two documents open, an email and a note app. The email was completely blank; Trunchbull hadn't started typing it in yet. The note app, on the other hand, contained an extensive list.
1. Cheryl Radames
Species- Tiger.
Age- Unknown, possibly late twenties.
Occupation - ZI6 Agent (First predator. Did the Brits take inspiration from the RII?).
District- N/A but was captured in the Nocturnal District.
2. Sedor Valentino
Species- Grizzly Bear.
Age- 43.
Occupation- Crime Boss.
District- Tundratown.
3. Ryan Roarson
Species- Lion.
Age- 31.
Occupation- Drug Dealer (Crimson Mane Gang).
District- Savanna Central/Happytown.
4. Maria Manchas
Species- Jaguar/Panther.
Age- 29.
Occupation- Enforcer/Hitmammal for Mr. Big.
District- Tundratown, formerly Rainforest District.
5. Raksha Bhediya
Species- Wolf.
Age- 34.
Occupation- Enforcer for Koslov's gang. Mechanic by trade.
District- Sahara Square.
6. Rama Bhediya
Species- Wolf.
Age- 34.
Occupation- Enforcer for Koslov's gang. Mechanic by trade.
District- Sahara Square.
7. Akela Bhediya
Species- Wolf.
Age- 34.
Occupation- Enforcer for Koslov's gang. Mechanic by trade.
District- Sahara Square.
8. Emmitt Otterton
Species- Otter.
Age- 41.
Occupation- Florist. Former member of Liberum.
District- Rainforest District.
9. Reginald Rhodes
Species- Rat.
Age- 38.
Occupation- Back Alley Doctor. Self-taught.
District- Canyonlands
10. Archie Little
Species- Mouse.
Age- 26.
Occupation- Chemist.
District- Little Rodentia.
"It's all the missing mammals." Bogo said, looking more bewildered than ever. "But some of the information here isn't in our case files. How did he know Radames was ZI6?"
Benjamin moved around the desk to Bogo's side. He had a bad feeling about this. Bogo gripped the mouse tightly as he scrolled down the list.
11. Susan Wade
Species- Lemming.
Age- 50.
Occupation- Chemist.
District- Little Rodentia.
12. Stuart Levvar
Species- Bat.
Age- 40.
Occupation- Career Criminal/Informant.
District- Nocturnal District.
13. Martin Lidel
Species- Shrew.
Age- 27.
Occupation- Engineer.
District- Little Rodentia.
14. Gabriel Mossberg
Species- Fox/Cheetah Hybrid.
Age- Unknown, possibly early twenties.
Occupation- Unknown. Suspected spy.
District- N/A but was captured in Savanna Central.
15. Starlight Foxtrot
Species- Artic Fox.
Age- Unknown, possibly early twenties.
Occupation- Unknown. Suspected spy.
District- N/A but was captured in Savanna Central.
16. Sherry Furson
Species- Cheetah.
Age- 6-7
Occupation- Elementary School Student.
District- Sahara Square.
Bogo's wide-eyed look of shock made him suddenly look ten years younger. "Mossberg, Starlight, Sherry… they're not on our list. What the hell is Sherry Furson doing on here?"
"I know her." Benjamin said softly. "Mossberg saved her from a kidnapping a few months ago."
Bogo stared at the cheetah. "A kidnapping?"
"Someone called Antlerson was taking her up Founder's Mountain."
"Antlerson…" Bogo whispered. He started reading through the file on Koobus Lupine again, agitatedly flipping through the pages as if he hoped to find something to disprove the terrible conclusion they were both coming to. Benjamin saw that they hadn't quite reached the bottom of the list, took the mouse and made one last scroll with his finger.
17. Benjamin Clawhauser
Species- Cheetah
Age- 20
Occupation- Servant at Pottermass Residence.
District- Sahara Square, but was captured in Nocturnal District.
Will pass information on to Swinton once I receive confirmation of subject's arrival from FMA.
"No!" Bogo slammed the file down onto the desk with his full weight and snarled the horrible truth under his breath. "He was in on the whole thing!"
Benjamin stared at the screen. He'd had very little interaction with Trunchbull but the revelation still made him feel sick to his stomach. Trunchbull was Cunninghorn's direct superior, having promoted the rhino to commander at Swinton's recommendation, and Cunninghorn had to have learned that Elba was harbouring Benjamin from somewhere. Well-meaning, uptight, misguided Trunchbull, Bogo's friend and mentor, working with Slothfeld…
"Where the fuck is my phone?" Bogo pushed away from the desk and stormed out the office, shoving the door open so violently that the window cracked when it hit the wall. Benjamin followed him all the way down to the buffalo's own office, where they'd left his phone to charge. Bogo picked it up, switched it on, and he and Benjamin saw that he'd received a text from Judy in his absence, along with a video.
Red Queen has Elba. Watch this video and make sure the ZBI gets it. I'm sorry.
The video was almost three minutes long, and it opened with a low view of a hallway within City Hall. Cheryl Radames, her gas mask gone, had one red-soaked paw pressing its claws into the sides of Elba's neck, in prime position to cut through his arteries. The other paw held a striped gun to his temple. She was inching him toward a pair of elevators as Trunchbull followed them at a distance. Judging from the angle and a blurred leafy branch poking in the edge of the screen, it appeared that Judy was concealing herself in the hopes of getting the drop on the insane tiger. The tip of Judy's ear emerged for a moment, revealing who was actually holding the phone.
"Let him go, Radames." Trunchbull said sternly, aiming a large handgun with his trunk. "You know this won't end well for you."
Cheryl tilted her head into the crook of Elba's neck, her smug face spattered with blood. "How this ends is not up to you, chief."
Trunchbull advanced another step. "Playtime's over, you crazy-"
Phew!
Fast as a black mamba, Cheryl fired and struck Trunchbull in the neck, and he recoiled as the tiny projectile exploded against his leathery skin, leaving a small blue mess. The elephant slapped his hoof against his neck even as the stain began to rapidly sink into the epidermis. "What have you…"
Elba stared in horror while his captor chuckled, her deadly fangs, gleaming white against the red that rimmed her mouth. "Swinton wanted savages in the street, and now he's getting the most dangerous one of all. You should be fucking proud of your contribution."
Trunchbull started to sway as the effects kicked in. His back was to the video, but it was clear that he was in pain. "You devious little bitch."
"Pretty high and mighty coming from you." Cheryl paused, drawn by the scent of blood coming from the claw marks her paw had left on the side of Elba's neck in her efforts to keep him in her grasp. With her gun on Trunchbull, Cheryl licked the blood from the wounds. Elba's revulsion was transparent, but he didn't dare resist. "Hm… maybe Sedor was on to something. Where was I? Ah, yes, that's a bit rich coming from a liar and a traitor, Trunchbull."
Trunchbull gripped a doorframe for support. "Everything I did, I did for Zootopia."
"Really? Absolutely everything? Including the selling out of a scared and innocent boy?"
Elba looked between Cheryl and Trunchbull in astonishment as the police chief rumbled from the agony of resisting the toxin. "I did it to protect Swinton."
"You did it because you were jealous." Cheryl pressed the button and waited for the elevator to arrive. "When your precious golden boy Mansa Bogo rejected Swinton's ideals, it jeopardised your plan to make him your successor. It took five years for him to reconsider despite his anti-collar sentiment, but then sweet little Benji Clawhauser walked into his life."
The elevator opened. Trunchbull lurched forward, trying to stop Cheryl from dragging Elba inside, but collapsed onto the carpet. "You… you've ruined everything. All of you!"
Cheryl holstered her gun and gripped the elevator door, stopping it from closing. "Because you're a dickhead. You thought that by getting the cheetah out of the picture you could bring Mansa back to your side."
She let go of the door and let it close, leaving Trunchbull to suffer.
Bogo kept staring at the phone even after it ended, only looking away when Benjamin wrapped his arms around the buffalo's midsection and hugged him tight. "Bogo? Are you gonna be okay?" He asked.
Bogo blinked a few times, pocketed his phone and returned the embrace. "Y-yes, I'm… just wishing I'd been a little less biased."
