"I particularly like the whole idea of being boss. It's the slave quality that I find alluring!" - Hugh Grant.
"So, let's talk business, shall we?" Jack began with a hearty, but almost weary smile.
Nick stifled a slight grin on his face as the male rabbit continued to sift through the various papers strewn across his desk, no doubt gathering information on his latest employees.
"Alright," He spoke aloud. "I know that the two of you are here for job opportunities, yes?"
Both Nick and Judy nodded their heads in agreement and confirmation.
"Of course... Now, correct me if I'm wrong," He pointed to Judy. "You're here for the secretary position, right?"
"That's right, sir!" Judy replied jovially.
She may have been undercover, but her joyous attitude still seemed to leak through. Nick would have to remind her later on that having her true emotions showing might give them away for who they really were. Jack then looked in Nick's direction.
"And you would be here for the office-coordinator position! Perfect! Two empty spots, now occupied once again!" Jack beamed excitedly.
The fox raised his hand in slight apprehension, attempting to ask a question. Jack didn't seem to notice, so he took the chance to speak out.
"Sir... Uh, where exactly will my job be located? I know that J-" Nick briefly stammered. "Alaina will be working directly under you, respectively, but where do I play in?"
The male rabbit nodded his head and furrowed his brow before responding.
"Well, I was just getting to that, Mister Leyfur. I'll jump into it immediately now that you've brought it up."
Jack leaned over in his seat and opened one of the drawers embedded within the back of his desk. Moments later, he pulled out another sheet of office paper, seemingly adorned with many different definitions or vocabulary words of some sort: Likely some sort of startup document for Nick's own personal convenience.
"You Mister Leyfur, will be on floor one-o'-two. As an office-coordinator, your job is vital for ensuring an orderly environment in the work place. It will be your responsibility to maintain a stable work-place scenario, to ensure proper incident notification and documentation towards all higher-ups in the chain of command, and for you to organize the schedules of all the mammals working in your sector, which is Sector-A, to be specific. Oh, and here's your badge!"
The rabbit tossed him a security-badge with his photograph on it, already well prepared and accounted for in the building's employee workforce, no doubt.
Meanwhile, Nick's head was still throbbing with all the words that the rabbit had just listed off.
He made a mental reminder to thwack Bogo upside the head the next time he saw him: Why couldn't Nick get an easy job, like a janitor, or an elevator bellhop?
"Meanwhile, Miss Ryder will be my secretary of course!" He then turned towards Judy. "You'll be accompanying me on business events, scheduling my appointments, documenting my meetings, and filing my work-place, all while being directly under my personal management!"
Sparing a glance at his mate beside him, Nick could tell that she seemed just as frazzled as he was.
"Yes, yes..." The rabbit donned a triumphant smirk as he leaned back in his chair and eyed his two latest employees. "Good business... Good business."
For a few short moments, there were no sounds emanating from any of the three mammals; But eventually, Jack's voice broke the silence one more.
"Well, time is money people! Felix, you go and report to Sector-A, floor 102... And Alaina; if you would stay here, I'll fill you in on what must done for today."
Nick shifted his weight anxiously before rising from his chair and pacing a few steps backwards, keeping his eyes locked on Jack. He said aloud,
"Yeah... You got it boss! I'll be sure to, uh... Hop to it! Yeah!" The fox cleared his throat, taking note of the two bunny's unimpressed faces. "I-I'll see myself out, now."
And with that, he shuffled over to the door and lightly closed it, sparing one final glance at Judy, whose eyes momentarily locked with his before the door closed shut.
Great... The fox thought to himself.
He hadn't expected this to be his job: He'd walked into the building hoping that perhaps he and Judy would be able to work together to some degree, but instead, he gets spat into some D-list desk job 200 floors away from Judy.
That thought made him mad... It also made him mad that Judy was all alone up there with Jack... Nick didn't trust him one bit: All of his years on the streets have hardened his perception on the way that mammals acted... He always took other mammal's attitudes with a grain of salt, not truly letting them in until he deemed them worthy of it.
The fox shuddered: The entire fiasco with Vladzotz and his mob served as an unrestricted reminder of that fact specifically.
As that short thought passed through his conscious, Nick suddenly became aware of the locket that he had in the breast pocket on his suit.
The silver talisman seemed to become heavier and grow colder in his pocket at the mere thought of the bat lord's name...
He shook his head before coming to a halt, stopping right in front of the same elevator he had came up in... Only this time, he would be taking it back down all by himself. After pressing the button and being forced to wait for the elevator as it made it's way to his current floor, he tried to think of more positive thoughts.
Maybe getting split up is a good thing. Perhaps it'll allow us to broaden our area of search, so we can find out if this clown has actually been playing people... He told himself.
Eventually, his elevator dinged audibly, and the doors slid open to reveal a brand new hallway. Nick stepped out and began walking down the hall. There wasn't much to see: Mostly just benches, potted plants, and doors embedded with hazy windows. He soon reached an area labeled under 'Sector- A', and recalling Jack's previous words of instruction, the fox began his journey into the new area.
It was a bright-colored place; with yellow-ish colored walls and lots of green from the potted plants. The color combinations seemed to blend together in a rather uplifting sort of lemon-lime mixture. Most of the cubicles were manned by animals more or less around Nick's height, the majority of them being bunnies. Many of them typed away at a computer of some sort or filed documents into cabinets, likely just organizing the numbers from all of Jack's profits.
It felt welcome enough, but Nick's brief sense of acceptance was soon shattered when a pair of male rabbits came into view and stopped him in his tracks. They were both dressed identically in matching security guard uniforms, complete with white button-up shirts and tiny little radios holstered to their left shoulders. They didn't have guns, but Nick did see one of them hovering his right paw over what looked like a close-range taser, and the other doing the same with some sort of night-stick.
"What business do you have here, fox? Can't you read the sign?" One of the rabbits spoke out, pointing behind Nick.
The fox turned around and eyed the aforementioned sign.
It read: 'No unauthorized personal beyond this point.'
From behind, the other rabbit spoke aloud,
"This work-place is off-limits to anyone who doesn't work here, such as visitors like yourself." He said flatly, pointing to the little sticky-badge that he'd stuck onto his collar.
Glancing down at his shirt, Nick caught sight of the sticker that he'd planted on his collar back at the reception's desk downstairs. An idea suddenly formed in Nick's conscious. Technically, he would be running this entire sector from now on. These guys had no right to boss him around! If anything, he would be the one giving orders, now.
Wishing to mess with these dumb bunnies some more, he quickly formulated and stated a sardonic response of his own;
"Oh, I'm terribly sorry... I didn't know that there were visitors today! If I see one, I shall inform you immediately."
And with that, the fox gave the security guards a mock salute and then tried to wordlessly maneuver his way around them, but they simply blocked off his path once again.
"Take a hike, fox." One of the guards spat. "Your kind wouldn't be welcome even if you did work here!"
Nick pursued his lips and furrowed his brow.
"Well you see... The thing is, I do work here, actually. In fact, I'm the new office-coordinator for this sector!" Nick smirked coyly as he whipped out the badge that Jack had given him earlier and showed it to the guards, who both frowned disapprovingly before a look of fear suddenly seized upon both of their twin faces.
"Oh dear..." One of them muttered, beginning to turn red around the ears. "I am... So sorry, sir!"
"We are so sorry, s-sir!" The other one piped out. "Eh, go on ahead! Your office is at the end of the hall, t-to the right of the cubicles, sir!" He stuttered.
Nick huffed softly to himself.
Sir... I could get used to going by that!
And at that, Nick pushed his way past the guards and walked farther down the hall, into the room with the cubicles. He walked around, getting the gist of what everyone was doing. Most of them were just filing paperwork and crunching numbers... Nothing Nick found very interesting.
And to think that he had to manage this joint for who knows how long?
It was only when he found his own office did he truly realize just how many bunnies were working in this sector. In this cubicle room alone, there must have been 50 or so of the little guys running around, going about their business. Nick wondered how they all would take to the idea of having a predator, a fox in specific, running their sector from now on.
He had a bad feeling that they wouldn't take it very well.
From across the room, he briefly locked eyes with one of the security guards that had hassled him earlier. The fox bared his fangs and showed his claws in a joking manner, but it certainly did it's number on the bunny, who paled in the face and hurriedly turned around, walking away from his line of sight.
As he sat down in his chair with a thump, he chuckled out loud to himself, eyeing the contents strewn across his desk all the while. He placed his paws behind his head and kicked his legs up onto the desk, doing so in exactly the same way that Jack had been when they both first met.
"Yeah... I think I could get used to this!" He mumbled aloud to himself.
As Judy watched the door close behind him, she couldn't help but wonder if Nick would be able to handle himself out there: If he was going to be scheduling appointments and filing paperwork for an entire cubicle, the bunny seriously doubted that he'd be very successful in his endeavors.
Then again... This is Nick we're talking about! If he puts his mind to it, he can squirm his way out of anything thrown his way... She mentally reminded herself.
She had to tell herself again and again that splitting up was the best plausible scenario: The two of them could cover more ground than if they were side-by-side, thus making this entire mission go by faster. If there was anything to be hopeful for, it was that.
Movement ensnared in the corner of her eye grasped at her attention.
Jack Savage had risen from his chair and walked over to the couches in the center of the office. He promptly gestured to one, beckoning Judy to come and sit: She did as she was instructed.
As she plopped onto the floofy sofa, Jack had gone over to the small coffee table in the middle. From the surface of the table, he plucked a glass of dark, amber-colored liquid.
"Care for some scotch, Miss Ryder?" He inquired, one of his eyebrows raised questionably.
Judy was about to formulate her denial, but Jack must've seen the momentary look of apprehension on her face, because his smirk grew even wider and he chuckled aloud.
"Aw, don't be like that Alaina! This stuff isn't cheap, and I have so few people to share it with..." He trailed off, eyeing the bottle almost sympathetically.
His blue eyes shot up and locked with Judy's once again.
"I'll ask again... Care for some scotch, Miss Ryder?"
Something about the way he said that sent a chill down Judy's spine.
It almost sounded... Like a threat...
She wasn't one that was intimidated very often, her only recent memory of true hesitation out of fear came from the time that Nick and her had escaped from the Nocturnal-District, and when she had seen Vladzotz tearing apart their police cruiser... That was something you didn't see everyday.
But the way Jack had worded that sentence sounded almost threatening, and for a moment, Judy wasn't sure what to say: She wasn't very fond of alcohol, as she didn't like having her mind and rational-thought process overtaken by intoxication.
Besides... Dhe'd had some bad run-ins with alcohol before...
One time, she and Nick had gone out partying with Clawhauser for his birthday, and had gotten VIP access to the backstage and special outings, including some rather expensive beverages. Seizing the opportunity to prove herself as adventurous (and to sate Nick's consistent teasing and tempting), she had downed at least 3 glass of wine that night.
Later on that evening, Nick had been subject to a thoroughly forceful mating session: Much to both animal's surprise, it was apparent that if you intoxicate a female bunny in heat, it will result in very lewd and unpredictable behavior...
That brief thought brought a blush to her face, but she quickly hid it as best she could.
She still didn't know whether to deny to accept the scotch. In the end, temptation and a desire to seem reasonable took over, driving the bunny to accept his offer.
When Jack heard her speak out "Sure", he then poured two glasses of scotch; one for himself, and one for his guest. He walked over to the couch rotunda and handed Judy her glass before seating himself on the opposing couch to hers.
As soon as he sat down, Jack began drinking his scotch: Gulping it down in hard and dry chugs that caused some of the scotch to spill out the side of the glass and trickle down his face.
It was obvious that drinking must've been something he was used to.
The rabbit's smooth voice broke her train of thought.
"Go on then... try it! Good stuff, I say!" He claimed as he placed his now completely empty glass back onto the table.
The male rabbit then turned towards Judy expectantly, his eyed edging her to take a sip of the drink in her paw. Judy looked distastefully at the amber-colored liquid as it sloshed around in her glass. It smelled like juniper, and was admittedly an alluring looking drink.
Raising the side of the cup to her muzzle, she felt a few small drops seep between her lips and pitter onto her tongue. The taste wasn't sweet at alllike she had expected. Instead, it was bitter and sour, almost. She almost set the drink down, but in order to show some appreciation and respect towards her host and brand new boss, she quickly swallowed a few more small gulps of the drink.
She felt the bitter liquid travel down her throat as she swallowed it, each gulp almost painfully being forced past her collarbone as it made its way toward her stomach.
Judy Hopps was not a drinker, and was by every sense of the word, a light-weight.
Nearly gagging, she devolved her wretches into light and powdery coughs as she placed her glass down on the table and slid it as far away from herself as she could.
Meanwhile, Jack was grinning as he watched her try to drink the scotch, and as she set down her glass with finality, Jack let out a hearty chuckle.
"I take it that you didn't like it?" He asked.
It didn't matter how much she needed to suck-up to this cocky bastard... Judy would not be drinking more alcohol anytime soon: She gave him her honest opinion.
"Honestly Mr. Savage, that's the worst thing I've ever had the displeasure of tasting!" She muttered, averting her gaze from the male rabbit.
She thought that he might be insulted or offended by her words, but instead, he started laughing some more. He spoke out once again,
"Well Miss Ryder, as I've always said; The first drink of scotch you have always tastes like burnt cork, the second, like leather, and any more after that, well... And you'll be a confirmed scotch drinker for life!" He said jovially, jabbing his thumb to himself when he mentioned the third point.
He laughed, and Judy couldn't help but stifle a slight giggle at his words as well.
Jack tipped his head and smiled before speaking out again.
"And please, do call me Jack... Mr. Savage is my father! Ha!" He then leaned back on his couch. "Well, since I suppose you'll be working with me for some time now..."
He trailed off, breaking eye-contact with Judy and momentarily looking towards the ground before reconnecting his gaze.
"It might be best if we get to know each-other, yes?"
Judy had a feeling that it was less an offer and more of a requirement, but she decided to give in to his small-talk: Whatever got her one step closer to the evidence she needed for the case... They still didn't know if Jack was guilty of all his accusations or not, and she knew that it might take time to worm information out of him, so she'd take every chance she could get to pry as much knowledge out of him as possible.
"Of course!" She said, beaming a pleasant smile at the male rabbit. "Is there anything in particular you want to know, sir?"
Judy hatched a quick but clever plan to worm her way into his head: It was obvious that Jack would be getting intoxicated soon, as he'd downed nearly the entire bottle of his scotch at this point, and was now drinking out of the bottle itself, completely skipping over the use of the shot-glasses. Judy had a feeling that if he was drunk while he spoke about himself, that she might be able to peel some private information out of him while his mind was altered and his thoughts were scrambled.
So naturally, she volunteered to go first so as to give the alcohol enough time to settle into Jack's system. Given the fact that it didn't seem like he had eaten anything earlier, and that he was a light-weighted rabbit, it would only be a matter of time before he was completely hammered.
"Well..." Jack mumbled. "How about where you were born? Oh bother... cross that: I'll take it that you're from Bunny-Burrow, yes?"
Nodding her head, Judy hummed a confirming mmm-hmm to her boss's question. Jack himself laughed out loud at her response.
"I knew it! Honestly, what rabbit isn't from Bunny-Burrow, eh?"
Judy smiled and just kept nodding her head back-and-forth like some timed bobble-head, giving fake answers to the many questions Jack had to ask her. As time drew out, it was clear that the scotch had started to settle into his system, as Jack had begun to show symptoms of intoxication: His eyes and ears drooped, his words gradually became more drawn-out and slurred, and he seemed very passive and relaxed, but at the same time, incredibly alert and anxious.
In the end, Judy was disgusted about the way he was acting: Openly getting himself drunk on her first day of the job! How rude was that?
She bounced off many of Jack's questions, and after a few more minutes had passed, she was about to start asking Jack about himself, when he pulled a single question out of thin air that made her hesitate.
"So... Are you married, Miss Ryder?"
Of all the things that he had inquired about thus far, none of them caught her more off guard than this one.
She briefly stuttered, unsure of what to say. Eventually, she found her words, and managed to force them out of her mouth...
"No, sir... I'm not married to anyone..."
It was slightly painful for her to say that last statement, but at least Jack bought it. He nodded dutifully and grinned, gazing at her eyes without speaking. As Judy stared back at him, she thought that she saw a flicker of something carnal pass over his vision.
Beginning to feel uncomfortable, she then decided to ask Jack her own questions.
"So, are you married, sir?"
The male rabbit lolled his head back and let out a dry laugh, nearly devoid of humor., before he pulled his head back and responded.
"Nope. Never have, never will: T-time is money, and I don't got the time for a family..." He admitted.
Thinking about what he just said, Judy formulated a plan: She intended to direct the tipsy-minded Jack down a path of various questions, eventually leading to more personal things, such as his emotions, and business practices, and what he did in his spare time.
Time went on, and slowly as it did.
To keep the male rabbit as drowsy and drunk as possible throughout the ordeal, she continued to offer him glasses of scotch: He accepted each and every one.
She also took the chance to sit next to him, her ankles crossed, but about as close to Jack as she was willing to get at that moment. She wanted to appear friendly and appealing, so as to make Jack feel comfortable about telling her important information.
Judy wasn't sure how long she had been sitting there with Jack ever since she'd first picked up the scotch glass, but by the time she spared her most recent glance outside of the large windows; it was dark outside, and the moon was shining through the glass-panels.
Night-time.
Refocusing her attention back on Jack, she quickly tried to think of another question to ask him, this one even more personalized to something illegal that he might be doing part in. Remembering Bogo's words about how there were rumors that Jack had done business deals with some of the crime-lords from the city districts, she decided to use that Intel against him.
"So Jack... With some or your more recent business deals... Has there been anything... Out of the ordinary, that you might have come across?" She questioned him, batting her fine eye-lashes for effect.
Jack placed his palms to his face and wiped away at his eyes: He was visibly getting tired, so it was clear to Judy that she didn't have that much time left before he conked out.
"Uhh... Heh..." He slurred for a second. "Well, there was that one guy... Real prickly fellow, by the looks of 'im! Urghh..."
At the notion of this supposed 'prickly fellow', Judy's ears shot up in anticipation: She had a feeling that this was gonna be good...
"Prickly fellow?" She repeated. "What do you mean by that? Who do you mean by that?"
Judy had a few ideas come to mind: One of which was definitely not going to mean less paper-work for Bogo...
"Eh... I shouldn't tell, love... That scaly son of gun wouldn't like it..." Jack grumbled, his head lolling away from Judy as he trailed off. "Wouldn't be... good business..."
She didn't particularly like how he had called her 'love', but she just wrote it off as a good-manners sort of thing. It also appeared that Jack liked using the words 'good-business', as he'd brought them up at least a total of eight times throughout her talk with him.
"But I would like it. If I'm going to be working with you, I need to know every business detail you can think of! Who is it?"
Jack blinked a single time as he stared at Judy. He leaned his face in a little closer, almost until his mouth was touching the inside of her ear.
"I forget the bloke's name..." He spoke softly. "Hard to pronounce, w-while drunk... Sazz... Shaz... Somethin' like that. Oh wait... He's... Shahazzzzzz..."
The male rabbit slurred the final letter of that name before promptly falling asleep, his head resting on Judy's shoulder as he snored away his intoxication.
Judy swallowed.
Shahaz... She knew that name...
Shahaz 'The Stinger' Pholmok... One of the ZPD's most wanted active criminals. According to Nick, he was a pangolin, and one of the four remaining crime-lords that controlled the majority of the city's organized crime, his district of choice being the Sahara-Square.
So it was true: Jack Savage really was doing deals with the crime-lords. She wondered if there were any more that he had worked with, like Al Catpone, or Iluka Rombahe.
And to think, she hadn't even started her working day!
She went to Jack's desk and pulled out a post-it note, writing on it about how Jack had feel asleep, and that she had walked home as a result. She had a good feeling that Jack wouldn't remember what had happened in the morning, and probably wouldn't even care if he did, as he'd be too busy fighting off a massive headache to think about it.
As she pulled the note away and placed it on the counter next to where Jack had dozed off, she briefly considered snooping around some more in his office, so as to gather even more information. She quickly scratched that idea though, as Jack could end up awaking any moment, and finding her snooping around through his stuff might not be the best thing to wake up to.
Besides, after slowly directing that conversation to the end result that was his confession, she thought that she deserved a break... She wanted to head back to the hotel and crash with Nick.
But in the end, no matter what she did: She had all the evidence that she would need.
As she turned off the lights and carefully closed the door shut behind her as she left Jack's office, she held up the orange-colored carrot pen that she had been hiding from Jack while she listened to him talk.
Pressing the button, she heard the recording scratchily squeak back to it's previous usage, and Jack's slurred words suddenly filled the hallway.
"I forget the bloke's name... Hard to pronounce, while drunk... Sazz... Shaz... Somethin' like that... Oh wait... He's... Shahazzzzzz..."
The recording ended to the sound of Jack's head flopping against Judy's shoulder as he passed out.
Turning off the recorder-pen and slipping it away into the folds of her dress, she smiled to herself as she strutted off towards the elevator, all the while imagining how unprofessional Jack must look right about now; flopped across his couch and smelling like whiskey.
"Dumb-rabbit." She muttered to herself as she pressed the elevator button.
It wasn't much, but she figured it enough to tell Nick at the very least: She doubted it would be enough evidence to lock Jack up behind bars though...
There would need to be more hustling to do: But judging from how easily she'd managed to play Jack that time, she had a good feeling that she'd be able to do it again.
As she stepped into her elevator compartment and watched the doors slide shut, she briefly saw another elevator door on the opposing side of the hall-way slide open. The little button that signaled when an elevator was going up or down didn't flash: Instead, the door itself just opened without warning. She didn't see whoever was inside, but the thought that they had managed to come up in an unmarked and untracked elevator made her slightly suspicious.
Shrugging it off as perhaps a mechanical error, or a technician working on the elevator, she promptly closed her eyes and listened to the sweet sound of classical music as her elevator glided down and to the lobby.
When she stepped out, she only had one thought on her mind...
Nick...