Judy attempted to watch Nikolai the whole night. She figured she must've dozed off pretty early as he seemed to have vanished.
The repugnant stench of cheap spirits, much stronger than even the other day, hung in the air. A dreary groan drew the rabbit's attention to a crumpled heap in a lab coat.
"Doctor? Dr Katzendale?" called Judy, warily.
Another wordless groan.
"Nikolai, are you okay?"
The sorry looking creature rolled over and gradually stood up. Unsteady and leaning on a nearby pillar, Nikolai adjusted his glasses to see Judy.
"J-Judith?" he asked, slurring.
"Yup. It's me, I'm right here," she said.
Nikolai sniffed and shook his head, saying "Not for much longer…"
"What are you talking about?" asked Judy, striving as hard as she could to speak gently.
The Doctor hobbled over and kneeled beside the chair Judy still sat in. Then the cat started to cry.
"I… I tried to reason with him, but he just won't have it!" cried Nikolai.
"Who? Who won't have it?"
"Ezra!" he wailed, "I was a mere pawstep from greatness, and he stole it all away!"
"Stole what?" plied Judy.
"It doesn't matter. You wouldn't care anyway. You didn't care before," said Nikolai, dismissively.
"Well," said Judy, trying to figure out when 'before' actually was, "I care now, and I'm listening now."
The cat doctor stopped at looked up at Judy, "R-really?" he asked, sheepishly.
Judy nodded calmly with a forced smile.
Nikolai stood slowly, then looked Judy in the eye and prodded her forehead, saying "This! In here," he paused and pointed at his own head, "And this, are the same! All of us have the same brains!"
Judy didn't know what else to say. Nikolai took a step back and once again gave way to weeping.
"I could've have proved it, academically! But now…" he lamented, slumping down against a wall.
"Why?" asked Judy. "Why did you agree to this?"
Nikolai sniffled, "I didn't want to. But if I didn't, there would've been another! I thought that, maybe, if I agreed, then I could have some control! I had no choice!"
"There's always a choice!"
"I don't think so, you see, my mother, she is deathly ill. And my brother, my baby brother. He's smart, helpful, but so naive!"
Before Judy could ask any more questions, the door to the lab swung open. Ezra Bisonhower himself entered with an authoritative strut, as usual, armed thugs accompanied him.
Nikolai stood again and started wobbling toward him, "Ezra, I'm so glad you're here. You see, I was really hoping that maybe…"
"Dr Katzendale, please. I can see, or rather I can smell that you are not in a fit state for discussion," said Ezra, directing his henchmammals with an adroit wave.
Ezra's companions nodded and began to approach Judy with zip ties drawn. Already strapped to a chair, she could do nothing to stop them from restraining and dragging her away.
Ezra began to follow his minions to the door, Nikolai however, stumbled between them and grovelled before him.
"Please, Ezra," started the cat.
Bisonhower frowned, "Doctor Katzendale, we have discussed this already. Get out of my way."
"I-I know that, but you see, you are nothing if not reasonable," said Nikolai, tugging on the Bison's garments.
"I said no!" roared Bisonhower, as he seized Nikolai by the throat with one cloven hoof.
Ezra's followers stood by and watched, bemused. Tightly bound zip ties forced Judy to do the same.
"Now," started Ezra, and as he effortlessly tossed Nikolai across the room he bellowed: "I said get out of my way!"
"Doctor Katzendale, no!" cried Judy as the feline tumbled over and over. She tried to wriggle free, but still weak, she could not.
Ezra Bisonhower cleared his throat and straightened his suit; "Forget about him, Ms Hopps. He was a tool, and has fulfilled his purpose. Today is the day for you to fulfill yours.
Pleased with having caught some Zs during the night, Nick Wilde set a decent pace down the steps of the Grand Pangolin Arms. A horn's toot from below drew Nick's eye to the street - Isaac had already arrived, waiting for Nick with a slight grin.
"Can't wait?" said Nick, seating himself in the passenger side of Isaac's coupe.
"Well, today is the day," said Isaac as he pulled away from the kerb.
"It is indeed."
"We're headed North out of town, right?" asked Isaac.
"Uh, yeah."
After some quiet traversing of city streets, Isaac's deeply thoughtful expression gave way to speech; "So what is the actual plan when we get there?"
"Hm?"
"That is to say, hypothetically, if we were like, around the corner, what'd be our next step?"
"Hmph," started Nick, "first I'd get the lay of the land, so to speak. Then I'd find a way in, quick and quiet."
"All by yourself?"
"At first, yeah. You know Judy Hopps?"
Isaac frowned, "Yes… We've met."
"Ezra wanted her out of the picture, but also alive. My gut tells me that wherever he is, she can't be far away."
Isaac said nothing, he just kept watching straight ahead, staring into the road.
"I can't shake the feeling that time is running out. That is exactly why I have to find his hideout. I need to get Judy out of there before it's too late!" exposited Nick, desperately curbing his emotion.
"So, you're saying it's all about the rabbit, that is, everything we've done until now."
"At face value, I guess so."
Isaac didn't say another word until they had reached the road leading North out of the meadowlands district.
"Is something wrong?" asked Nick.
"No, it's just…"
"Come on, you can tell me," said the fox, trying to be reassuring.
"There's this rumour, about an old building upriver from the city. Some disused hospital. It's called cliff -something. Cliffside! It's called Cliffside," explained Isaac.
"Oh my god. Why didn't I think of it before? Yes, I heard that it was being converted into a hydro-electric plant. That's a perfect front!"
"So…"
"Go!" cried Nick, "go cat! Go, go, go!"
Isaac sped away as fast as legally possible. Nick's guidance on good shortcuts made it a quick trip.
Nick tapped frantically on Isaac's shoulder; "hey, stop, stop, stop."
"Wh-what is it?" asked Isaac, pulling over with a muddy skid.
"Alright, the front gate is just over that rise," said Nick, opening his door and clambering out, he added, "pass me the tranq."
Isaac huffed, "You really insist on playing lone wolf? I mean, isn't that why i'm here?"
Nick leant in and put a paw on the young tom's shoulder; "This trip has already put you in harm's way once. If anything were to happen to you…"
"I can handle it!"
"...It's not that simple, Isaac. Besides, it could get really ugly in there. I need you here. In case I need a quick getaway."
Isaac resentfully passed Nick the tranquilizer saying, "Good luck, fox. You are going to need it."
As he began to step away, Nick said, "I'll be twenty minutes, tops."
"And if you're not?"
"Hundred feet down the road is the river access, wait for me there."
Nick made it all the way past the security checkpoint and across the road-bridge to Cliffside undetected - though there didn't actually seem to be anybody around to detect him. An unattended forklift and tarpaulin-covered equipment lay near the grandly drab entrance to the old asylum.
Nick entered through the same drain pipe he and Judy used two years earlier and even came up into the same rotunda. Unused work lights and piles of building materials stood in place of the old hospital cots that had been there last time.
Tranquilizer drawn, Nick approached the now empty doorway that led to the room that was used as a lab by Dr Madge Honeybadger. In place of a damp, mixed chemical scent, the rooms smelled of sawdust, caulk and plaster.
The overcast weather outside filtered dim, grey light through the interior of the complex. Tools, bundles of cabling and discarded construction rubbish littered every corridor Nick traversed. A fine layer of dust - along with the eerie quiet - made it abundantly clear that no one had been here in some time.
Nick came to a stop in a relatively untouched hallway and eased off a tad, 'Oh well,' he thought to himself.
A quiet rustle behind just about gave Nick a heart attack. Nick's eyes darted.
'Must've been the wind… But, inside?'
Nick advanced cautiously, checking every corner. More rustling gave away the presence of multiple others in the ghostly institution. Blood roared in Nick's ears, he crept low to the ground and his claws threatened to tug on his weapon's trigger with every beat of his tense heart.
Turning a corner and seeing a paw disappear behind a door frame had Nick lurch backward and hide behind a pillar. Looking ahead, Nick saw the front entrance to Cliffside, wide open, and not a soul in sight.
Nick sprinted for that door with all the swiftness nature gave him. Although, no amount of speed could have stopped the thug who waited just outside from putting an arm out at just the right height to clothesline the eager fox.
Dazed and surrounded, Nick lay defeated.
"You got him! That was even easier than he said it would be," said a gruff voice before a goat came and stood over him.
A nearby cheetah grunted nonchalantly.
"What about the kid?" asked the goat.
The cheetah answered: "That pitiful excuse for a feline has done his part. The boss doesn't need him anymore."
Nick's mind became impenetrably clouded with many despairing thoughts:
Isaac set me up? How could I let this happen?
I was so blind.
What if I had let him come with me? Would that have made a difference?
I'm sorry, Carrots. I failed.
I'm so sorry.
Isaac's face carried a vacant expression all the way from Cliffside to a dated looking structure North West of the city. An old hydro-electric plant built in in the 1950s, Ezra Bisonhower moved in and converted it for his own use, calling it a 'Bastion of Freedom'.
As the cat pulled up outside, one of Ezra's numerous 'liberation transports', or simply, unmarked black vans, rolled up. Thugs exited the back carrying the semi-conscious Nick Wilde in tow. Isaac hesitantly followed them into the facility.
Halfway down a hallway, Nick perked up a tad and took in his surroundings. He near immediately spotted spotted Isaac and bared his teeth.
"I was foolish to trust you."
"Yes. You were, I had no choice. I actually thought I could trust you. You, and all your empty promises!"
"Isaac, please! Those weren't empty promises! There is always a choice!" cried Nick.
"I've had enough. Take this slime to his precious rabbit!" commanded the young tomcat.
The cheetah pulling Nick stopped and frowned at Isaac, "Who exactly do you think you are? You're not special, kid. Go back to your playpen."
Isaac stood and watched Nick be taken away before leaving himself, to report to Ezra. A short traipse through some drab corridors brought Isaac to the room from which Bisonhower called the shots. The well-dressed Bison himself sat in the center of the room in Chief Bogo's swivel chair that he stole, personally.
Seeing Isaac, he said, "Oh, you're back? Well, I had heard that Mr Wilde is indeed in our custody."
"Yes. I did exactly as you asked."
Ezra glanced this way and that before addressing Isaac again; "Y-yes. Excellent work, my boy."
Isaac still didn't leave.
The bison huffed quietly then explained, "Look, I'm not getting anything from this. What is it that you want from me?"
"Well, you said," started Isaac nervously, "you said you'd help me find my brother."
"Well, I must admit I am in somewhat of an unpleasant situation: I may have stretched the truth as to my knowledge of Doctor Katzendale's whereabouts."
Visible confusion.
"You see, Doctor Katzendale and I have been working together for some time. I felt that if you knew his situation in detail, the ensuing collaboration could have wrought havoc with everything we've been fighting to build!"
"So... Everything you've had me do," started Isaac again.
Ezra finished Isaac's sentence and resumed explaining: "Was to keep you busy, but not without purpose! I apologize in advance for such... Glaring honesty, however I must be clear - Mr Wilde was superfluous. And you did an excellent job at keeping it that way with your mundane defects. This was more or less, for the same reason as my withholding of the 'truth' as you would perceive it."
The young cat silently turned and began to trudge away.
"Oh, my son. Do cheer up! The show is about to start, and an excellent show it will be. You see, the common animal merely wishes to live in peace. That could be considerably easier if the 'heroes' of society, their meddlesome 'civil servant' drones, and countless others were not present. And so, on this very day, in front of a captive, public audience, these so called heroes shall serve as an example. They will be brought to justice," explained Ezra with a theatrical pump of his fist.
"Brought to justice? So, you, you're going to-"
"Have them killed. They are to be executed. It's grim and I'd prefer any alternative were it only possible. At least I can rest easy as after today, there shall be no one mammal who'd dare stand against the unyielding tide of progress."
Isaac turned away in horror.
What have I done?
Nick could have stopped this.
I let him walk into a trap...
They're not dead yet. It's not over until it's over!
The feline zipped through hallways to reach a little-used corner office. Checking the surrounding area was clear, Isaac picked up a landline phone and punched in a number. After a painful delay, a voice crackled through the receiver:
"Hello? Who is this?"
"Am I speaking to the police?" asked Isaac.
"This is police Chief Bogo speaking. I ask again, who is this?" responded the voice, however this time far sterner.
"Perfect. I'll keep it brief. My name is Isaac Horatio Katzendale Jr. and I'm at the Meadows West hydro-plant. If you want to hit Bisonhower where it hurts, listen up."
End Notes
The entire last segment originally played out quite different. At first, Isaac's betrayal of Nick was for more direct, that is, he was to tranq Nick and present him personally however it makes more sense for him to be merely involved.
It was kinda fun revisiting Cliffside if a little briefly, I think it's quite an underappreciated locale from the Zootopia world.
Chapter name is yet another reference, but this time to Halo CE's eighth level.