Chapter Sixty-Two
Calamity Banes
Under the watchful, scornful gaze of Judy Hopps and Nick Wilde, Finnick clambered up into the back of the ZPD armored truck, turning back towards the officers with a sly grin, as he stepped inside... a sly grin which fell a second later, as the reinforced doors were slammed closed and the back of the van was plunged into darkness. "Shit!" he spat, now no longer needing to hide his distress, kicking out at the metal wall and doing nothing more than hurting his toe that brought his ferocious scowl at the floor.
"Mister Banes, sir," said a voice beside him in the darkness, the voice of the bloodhound, "what are you gonna do now?"
"Knock your head against these doors, Philemon Take!" Finnick shot." And if that duz not shatter dem, an' I am allowed some peace from foolish questions, I will tryz and think up a way outta this."
...
Outside the van, Nick and Judy shared a nervous glance. "I don't like where this is going," Judy said. "Where's it gonna end?"
"I don't know... yet. I haven't had time to think this through. This is gonna need some careful planning."
"But what's he gonna do?" Judy pressed. "How do we proceed from here?"
"I don't know, Hopps! I haven't, had time, to think, it, through."
"Come on, Nick, we're both cops. Not only that, but Bogo wants us trained as detectives. I'm sure we could figure this out." Nick said nothing, but looked thoughtfully down at the cold asphalt. "Alright, Judy fussed, pacing round the side of the van and out of sight of the other officers, "let's look at this constructively. What is it Finnick wants?"
Nick mused for a brief moment, as he obliged to join her. "To get out of trouble, clearly."
Her gaze falling, Judy sighed soulfully. "Right. And the only way he's got of doing that right now is—"
"By going through me."
"Right again. But, surely..." Her eyes rose again in the hopeful hopelessness. "Even if it risks you losing everything?"
Nick huffed, his arms crossing upon his chest. "Carrots, I've known Fin a long time. We've had a friendship of a sort, yeah, but it's always been more for business-sake than out of actual fondness. Oh, we'd go out of our way to help each other out, sure... but it's every fox for himself underneath, always has been."
"No favors among thieves," Judy mumbled in gloom.
"That's the problem. Finnick, more than likely, is simply of the opinion that I owe it to him to help him out. He doesn't see that, me being a cop, as some great, honorable duty. If anything, he sees it as a great duty to him to get him out."
"But how does he even think you can get him out? He must know you don't have anything like the legal authority to just 'let him go free'. Not even Bogo has that power."
"No, I don't have the power," the fox said in slow clarity, "but I still have a position of trust. I can still freely move about the ZPD, without attracting much attention. That is more than can be said for pretty much one hundred percent of all Fin's other 'friends'."
"So what are you saying? How does that help?"
Nick thought for a moment more. "Blatantly, a straight-up prison break. Grab the keys, unlock the gate and try and slip him out without anyone noticing.
Startled, Judy blinked up at the fox in speechlessness. Then a sudden flush of anger lashed out of her. "This is ridiculous," the rabbit shot, turning and thumping her fist on the metal wall of the van, "we hold all of the cards against him! We have the legal authority, the evidence, the proof, the—"
"But for all that he still holds the ace. Now, not very long ago, I would've damned with me being put away, and owned up. I had nothing going for me, after all. But, now I've found you..." Nick reached out and took Judy's clenched paw in his own, holding it, tenderly, until the tensed-up fingers loosened and slipped around his. "I still would openly admit my past to Bogo," he divulged, drawing Judy' paw up to his face and rubbing it across his cheek, "if you wanted me to."
"No... no, you're more important to me than the fact you used to be a crook. I know it's selfish. I know I shouldn't. I know that practically undermines and jeopardizes everything I've worked for. It makes me a hypocrite for knowingly dating an unconvinced ex-Firm operative, but…" Trailing off, Judy withdrew her paw from Nick's, her head tilting to one side slightly, as she looked up towards him. "Do what you need to do, Nick," she said, her voice strained but steadfast, "just... just don't get caught, please, and... and when it happens… when you do it, I..." She sighed and her gaze fell away to her feet. Nick watched her carefully, as she raised a paw and nipped the bridge of her nose.
"I don't want to know about it," she declared faintly. "I don't want to know what happened, just... just feed me whatever story you feed Bogo, and I won't question you on it or judge you on what you say."
Nick held in a breath; silence lingered for a moment. "I thought we said no more lies?"
"I know, Nick," she surrendered, her eyes falling closed and her voice becoming a notch weaker still, "I know what I said, and I still stand by that belief. But... I just—"
"Ah, here you are. What are you two doing skulking back here?" Bogo berated, appearing from around the side of the van. He stopped before the rabbit and the fox, looking grimly towards one another and not saying another word. His brow furrowed at the lack of response, and then he turned to Wilde with a teasing smile. "What are you up to, Wilde? Leading Hopps here into the shadows. Not up to anything untoward, are you?" Nick shook his head, expressionless. "What's that, Wilde? No witty comeback?"
"Chief just... just shut it. I'm not in the mood."
Bogo made as though to goad the fox, but changed his mind at the last speck of time — this raid was a first time for both of them. A little leniency was more than deserved. "How's Wolfard," Judy asked, the strength returning to her voice.
"Oh, he'll live," Bogo said, purposefully trying to move away from Nick's interjection of before. "He's a little bruised, a little shaken. But that's normal. It'll make him a better officer too. It's surprising how much taking a bullet can bring things into perspective."
"Where is he? Can we see him?"
"Sorry, Hopps," Bogo informed. "Wolfard's already on the way to the hospital."
"I... you said he was just a little bruised?"
"He is, it's just standard procedure to spend the night in a medical facility after taking a bullet. He'll be back on Monday."
"So, you ever taken a bullet in the line of duty?" Judy asked from sudden curiosity.
"One or two, over the years," he answered to her surprise, with the indefinable air that this was a complete understatement. "I picked most of my old injuries up back when I was, well… you ever cover a gang called 'The Firm' in your training?"
"I've, ughm... yeah, I've heard of them."
"I was the acting chief of police for the Tundratown area, the precinct they operated in most vigorously. It took a lot of grueling and a lot of time, but I managed to clean the streets of them eventually."
"Oh, I... I didn't know that."
"Well, 'the powers that be' decided it'd better we swept that little gem of Zootopia's history under the rug. A shame really, there were quite a few loose ends I wanted tied up. Before the government sanctioned the whole thing as 'case closed'…" Judy's eyes flicked to Nick's, but she didn't allow her gaze to linger. "Anyway," Bogo continued, "talking of 'closed cases', how're you two holding up?"
"We're fine," Judy said. "It felt like we spent forever on the staircase, waiting for the raid to start. Now that it's happened, the whole thing feels like it was over in seconds."
"Something like, a half remembered dream?"
"Something like that."
Bogo nodded. "You did well, both of you. Now, if there is no further business to clear up here, I think the next step in our operation is to get back get back to the PD, unload our criminal cargo into their cells, debrief and retire for the night."
"You're keeping all the prisoners locked in the department?" Nick asked with widened eyes.
"Only overnight. We don't have the cell capacity to hold all of them. A van will be along early tomorrow to transport them all to Blackheath prison. They'll be trialed and processed for information there."
"What do you mean they'll be trialed there? Prisons don't have that kind of facility."
"It's the largest prison this side of the globe, Hopps. In terms of its cubic feet, Blackheath is probably the biggest of all the prisons in Zoophon. It has its own restaurant, hospital, church and, indeed, its own magistrate's court. All 'in house' as it were." Judy nodded softly, while Bogo turned to Nick and looked at him for a moment with a curious expression. "I need the both of you to hang back for a while after the debriefing. There are some matters to be cleared up."
"Oh, Sir," Judy started, "that's impossible. I have to see... that is, I have an appointment to keep."
"Don't worry, Hopps," Bogo assured, already aware from Jack of their planned meeting later on, "I'll only need you for a moment."
"Me? What about Nick?"
The Chief turned back to Wilde and held his eyes. "That's another matter," he stated without inclining to clarifications. "Now come on, the two of you. Grizzoli will be driving the armored truck back to the department. Auxiliary officers are making their way towards us with our standard means of transport as we speak." The Chief of the Zootopia Police Department turned and paced away from the two smaller officers, who watched him, quietly, as he departed. They looked back to one another, with partly troubled and partly revealed expressions, after he had left.
Inside the brightly lit premises of Erkin Electrics, the officers completed their sweep of the area. No further workers had been found hiding in the dark corners beneath machinery. And so, with a signal sent to Bogo, the armored truck was given the signal and was sent trundling its way back towards the ZPD. The officers lingered, the effects of the adrenaline still swirling inside their bodies. They paced back and forth, with no way of venting some of the adrenal energy surging through them. It would soon wither away, exactly like a sugar rush, and leave them utterly exhausted. This being in the heart of the industrial sector after nightfall, there were no public around to have witnessed the raid. No public meant no press, and so a soft and reassuring silence hung in abundance.
Shortly, the officers' ZPD cruisers arrived, their headlights shining down the long and wide roads, while they pulled up alongside the curb close by the officers. Their drivers were the auxiliary officers of the ZPD, elsewise known simply as 'the Auxiliaries'. They were a group of part-time and volunteer civilians. They were a range of college or university students, who were looking for some part-time income. The others were the elderly and mildly disabled, who had not the physical ability to pass the policing exams, but still wished to help keep the peace where they were able. It was true: they were the young and the weak. But their combined sense of civic duty and the diligence, with which they served, still granted them merit as a vital — though not widely appreciated — part of sustaining the law and order of Zootopia.
Hopps and Wilde's comparatively small police cruiser pulled up in front of them. A young, brown wolf stepped out and saluted them, smartly. The small officers gave their thanks, stepped inside the familiar comfort of their car, fastened their belts and, following the convoy of cruisers ahead of them, drove on their way.
They rolled towards the glittering lights and oppressive darkness that the stark juxtaposition of patriotic utopianists and crime-riddled squalor, which Zootopia offered in its abundance of contrasted magnificence.
Author's notes:
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