Chapter Forty-Four
The Matter at Paw
A current of cool air flowed through the chief of the ZPD's office. Its source: a small, electric fan set upon the desk beside the large cape buffalo. A small smile grew on the buffalo's face, as he scratched marks onto the blueprints he was examining with a red pencil, marking out the main entrance and exit points to the building and deciding how best the raid might proceed. His focus traced along the map of the Erkin Enterprise building, but then his radio's beeper buzzed beside him to a slight jolt of surprise, derived from the disgruntlement of whirring peace.
He reached out a hoof automatically and pressed the respond button. "Yes?"
"Chief," he heard Clawhauser say, "it's Wilde on the line."
"Well tell him to get down from there, damn it."
"Erm... no, Sir. I mean on the radio."
"Oh." Bogo remained motionless for an instant, then, "well, put him through then."
"Right, Sir." There was a click as the line was changed.
"Chief," Wilde greeted.
"Officer Wilde, how goes business? I trust Officer Hopps is with you?"
"Actually, Sir… she had to visit the ladies room."
"Very well. You call in to report you have Nyilas, I assume?"
"Well, not exactly, Sir, no."
The Chief glared into a spot on his desk, yet he snorted and asked, as if believing that Wilde was just being the usual of jackass, "Pardon?"
"In actual fact, Sir, we, actually… sort of, lost him, Sir, actually." Bogo tapped his pencil on the desk and was about to huff from annoyance, yet something in his stomach dropped and a new sort of heat was starting to envelop the gap between his fur and clothes.
"Say, that, again."
"What I said was, Sir, we... we lost him." After an eternity of listening to nothing but the sound of his own rapidly beating heart, Bogo pierced the unyielding gloom…
"I see." A shiver ran down the fox's back and all the way to the tip of his tail. Bogo was never this calm; only when he was very, very angry.
"I'm sorry, Sir," Nick kinda squeaked suddenly, "it wasn't our fault. Nyilas managed to set the fire alarm off, he grabbed an extinguisher, and—"
"I'm sure it wasn't your fault, Wilde," the Chief assured with an impossibly calm voice, "it was my fault for believing you and officer Hopps could handle it. I'm—"
"Hey," Nick cut in, his voice sharp as a razor, "now you can not bring Judy into this. She works harder and longer than any other officer in the ZPD and you know it. Punish me for this by all means, but don't even think of—"
"Only someone very brave or very stupid stands up to their chief like that. Fortunately for you, Wilde, I know exactly which of the two you are."
"Sir," Nick tried again, "I—"
"Know that there is nothing directly personal in this, Wilde. But if you and Hopps are unable to detain a goat in his seventies then this throws serious doubt upon the wisdom of promoting the two of you to Detective Inspector."
"Chief—"
"And while I do appreciate the faith you have in Officer Hopps and admire, somewhat, how readily you stand up to her at a moment's notice, even against your own boss, you must remember that her safety and yours are my chief concern." The fox sighed. He may not have liked it, but it was true. "Call me mean if you must, but it is imperative I do not overestimate yours or Hopps' abilities. And I cannot have detectives who fail to apprehend elderly dons. The two of you are supremely capable, yes. But you do not have the experience to go with it."
Bogo knew that Nick was going to articulate some kind of retort, thus did not allow such to happen, "Whatever the excuse may be, I am legally obliged to reconsider. Do you understand the position I am in?"
"I guess."
"Do you understand!" Bogo bellowed into the phone.
"Yes, Sir."
"Good." Bogo paused for a moment, sitting slowly back in his heavenly padded seat. "Now, Wilde, answer me honestly: are you and Officer Hopps capable of getting me this warrant?"
"Of course, Sir."
"But are you also capable of doing so without putting yourselves at an unnecessary amount of risk? With assurance that you will show restraint and the ability to control a difficult and dangerous situation?"
"Sir," Nick said, bringing all the self-assurance into his voice as he was able, "you can count on us."
"Alright, fox," Bogo shot, "but listen. I am putting a tremendous amount of trust in your and your partner's abilities here. You must get us this warrant legislated tonight and within the appointed time, else word that we are onto them may somehow reach gangs' ears. They will relocate and there will be even more crime on our streets. Do you understand me?"
"Yes, Sir."
"Good. There have been enough drug-related deaths in the past few weeks without adding more to the list." Bogo grunted, grimly. "If only I had spotted the signs sooner, moved in and quell this before it began. All the same, if you and Hopps are unable to see this through, well... it'll be more than just your promotions that'll be brought into question."
The fox forced down an audible gulp. "Understood, Sir."
"So you failed to arrest Nyilas. I hope to hear you found something from your investigation at Registry House wasn't all wasted?"
"Not at all, Sir," Nick beamed, "in fact, we had some quite interesting results."
"Enough to have the warrant put through?"
"Oh, err, not quite, Sir."
"Then what have you found?!" Bogo roared with the thinning of his nerves.
"The management," Nick said, hurriedly, "the management of the company's changed. But it's still down as being owned by the same mammal. Pretty suspect, huh?"
"That's it?"
"Well, Sir, I—"
"You honestly think a minor administrative error like that is going to convince a judge to sanction a search warrant?
"But—"
"No, Wilde! Follow your original orders as planned. You have three and a half hours and counting."
"Sir," Nick tried to assert, "I have some ideas in how we might—"
"I don't want ideas, Wilde! I want results. We— you are rapidly running out of time on this matter and I need to know, without a shadow of a doubt that, that you will be able to get me this warrant to me on time. Am I clear?"
"I—"
"Good!" The line went dead. The fox stared down at the lifeless radio in his paw. He sighed and pulled himself to his feet; hence, he gazed about at the empty lecture hall he was in, — the students and teachers still fussing over the report of a fire — before, slowly pacing his way towards the nearby door. He pulled it open a notch, whistling softly to the rabbit waiting patiently outside and sat on the bench like a misbehaving schoolgirl about to receive a telling-off, while Judy's ears slacked and her head drooped; her legs swinging slowly back and forth on the high chair.
Judy shifted to him with one tall ear and smiled sadly, but fondly, as she stood and walked over towards him from her prior seating. "How did he take it?"
"As well as could be expected," the fox replied, flopping back down on the office chair and smiling at her easily. A beat passed and then Nick's set smile twitched, for a moment, info a frown. "Not to bore you with details," he added, his voice cracking just a little, "but, suffice it to say, that promotion might be out the window by this point." His forced joy broke as his confidence fell to the floor and he raised a paw to rub his eyes.
The rabbit took the fox's paws in hers, waiting until his gaze rose to meet hers again. "Thank you," she whispered, "for making that call for me."
The fox looked on falteringly for a few moments, but then acceptance, true acceptance, broke upon his face. "It's alright, Hopps. Anything for you. You know that."
"Yeah," she grinned, "I know." Her main desire in that moment was to crawl up into the fox's lap and simply stay there for as long as she could, but she knew she had a job to do. Not only that, but they had to get back into Bogo's good books. She shuddered visibly. If their promotions were already on the line, what would happen if they were to mess Bogo's warrant? If they were the reason for the raid falling apart, the reason for—
The fox squeezed her paws, reassuringly. "I'm here, Fluff," he said, earnestly. "We'll make it through this, whatever happens."
Her divided attention returned to his, and she took in his warm expression and breathed the foxy scent which filled her head. A different desire made itself known to her. It was the damned heat… With a tremendous display of emotional strength, she managed to hold down the desire — telling herself they could sort everything out in a few short hours after the raid — and spoke to the fox, formally, "So, what are our orders?"
"Well," Nick trailed to memory, "turns out a, so-called, 'minor administrative error' isn't nearly enough to get the judge to ordain a warrant. Perhaps if we had more time—"
"There's no point in thinking of the might've beens, Nick. Let's just focus on the here and now."
Nick nodded. "We're to follow our original orders as planned. Find a way to infiltrate the warehouse without being seen, find incriminating evidence, photograph or record it and get it back to HQ."
"So was the trip to Reg' all a waste of time?"
"I've been thinking about that one, Hopps. It might be a bit of a longshot, but it might just work."
"Well, what is it?"
"I'll explain on the drive over. Bogo wants us back by four and it's half past ten now. That only gives us three hours to work with. If you count the time it's gonna take to get us there and to the HQ… So we'd best get a move on."
"Okay," Hopps huffed, starting to make her way from the lecture hall with the fox following suit. "I'll drive again and you run me through your plans."
"Follow me, Hopps," Nick said with renewed enthusiasm, "I'm right behind you."
Author's notes:
Hesitance jumps around your mind,
Grooms decision thus chosen blind.
Your thoughts most succulent of snack,
All delivered by luscious feedback.
So don't hide like a tiny shrew,
Thus share that belovable review!
- One of our montly gifts for our supporters! Monthly updates.
Social Links:
* To use a link just replace {dot} with a full stop/peirod.
- Youtube: youtube{dot}com/c/inlet
- Twitter: twitter{dot}com/inletreal