Chapter 54: Plan
"So what's your plan Judy?" Bogo asked as the three of them gathered in the courtroom. They were practically alone, it was still early for anyone to want to come here to meet. At this time there was usually a changing of the guard, those who patrolled the city at night could go to bed and, those who were free at night would arrive at the police station to start their guard.
"Quite simple. Just to be sure, the ceremony will take place in the nature museum in the centre of the city correct?"
"Yes, exactly where you and Nick managed to foil the Bellwether attack," confirmed Commander Bogo.
"Good. So, you know, if there are a lot of influential foxes at the gathering you know the kidnapper will be there too. He's not kidnapping a random guy, that's not why he raided the rich streets. I bet they all have something in common."
"The question is what? Everyone who was interviewed said they didn't know what could have happened. They behaved normally, zero strange behaviour that would be suspicious. Besides, if he's only raiding the mostly rich streets, why would he kidnap Nick?" Caroline asked.
"That's something I can't really explain, also he could have just as well taken me and he just took Nick, who is a fox..."
"Okay, Judy. Go back to your plan Judy," Bogo interrupted them. Caroline burbled something under her breath, but didn't interrupt for the doe, who laid out a map of the city of Zootopia on a green board.
"All right. This is a map of our city. The museum where the event will take place is about three to four kilometres from where we are now. So we have enough vehicles to catch him if he wants to escape once he's kidnapped someone."
"Okay, but you know he can't cart anyone off, we can't let him just destroy the whole party like that!" Denied Caroline. Judy calmly and confidently continued her argument as Bogo reassured Caroline again.
"Well, that's exactly what it is, not exactly. My plan is to trick him into poisoning the whole room, then we'll walk the guests out, it's possible he'll try to kidnap someone, and we'll then be ready to capture him!"
"Hm...sounds quite interesting, but how are we supposed to be ready if we are also going to be under the influence of gas?" Commander Bogo asked.
"It's quite simple. We'll be carrying gas masks, when we put them on we'll be able to quickly locate and attack him. And it will all start when I give the signal."
"And how will you know if the kidnapper is planting the gas?" Caroline asked.
"I'll be sitting in the camera room, watching everything that's going on and monitoring everything. When I see something suspicious I'll give the signifiers on the walkie-talkie to have masks at the ready. After all, we can't let anyone know we have masks! That could spoil everything. When we catch the kidnapper we will find out everything from him and any problems will be solved!" Judy replied. Bogo and Caroline glanced at each other and, thinking for a moment, Bogo stood up and nodded with a movement of his head. He was visibly pleased with Judy's plan, which is quite risky admittedly, because what if it fails? Then all would be lost both as their jobs and their reputation. Although, on the other hand, they were in such a situation that it might be better to take a risk than to worry about what would happen. This is where you have to act fast.
"In my opinion, this is a very good plan! It might even work. What do you think of it Caroline?"
"It's pretty good, we just have to hope the kidnapper doesn't see it coming," the vixen added.
"However, Judy. We need permission from the mayor to carry out such an operation" Bogo communicated. A look of surprise was painted on the doe's face.
"For what? Why?" Judy asked.
"We are being put in a bad light, we cannot do such rash things without his knowledge. The plan is good, it can work, we just have to have permission from him," replied Bogo. Judy still didn't understand it a bit, but she didn't want to argue.
"That's fine. Just have to make sure that only the mayor knows about it. It has to be a secretive secret plan, and you have to get the equipment ready too."
"And consider the terrain" added Caroline.
"Great idea Caroline. I have an idea. You both go to that museum to look around the what and how and I'll go to the mayor to discuss the matter, what do you think?" The commandant suggested. Judy had mixed feelings about the idea, on average she wanted to go with the vixen, but she had no choice.
"All right, the sooner we do this the better." Accepted Judy.
"Great. The hearing's in half an hour, go and have a coffee during that time. Then we'll go to our places. Just Judy, when are we going to tell the other officers about this plan?" Bogo asked.
"In the evening," replied Judy.
"All right. So I'll see you at the trial and then later in the evening at the same place" replied the commander. Both girls nodded with a movement of their heads and headed for the room designated for officers.
After the hearing, where Commander Bogo announced that he would be making an important announcement in the evening about the upcoming event, the Commander went personally to the Lord Mayor to present a plan of action against the kidnapper, who was a serious threat to the success of the conference. The announcement that the special guests would be foxes had caused waves of criticism as to the safety of the figures gathered there, recent events having alienated everyone from the Zootopia police, who were failing to cope against the increasing assaults. However, the organisers did not seem to have any problem with this, the award ceremony was to be held in the nature museum and nothing could change their decision. Everything was planned.
When Bogo went to talk to the mayor Judy and Caroline went to the museum to survey the immediate area around the building and infiltrate the entire interior of the architecture to have a whole plan of the building. In their situation, the best solution was to prepare as hard as possible for the upcoming operation, this was their one last chance to repair their reputation, which had declined badly in recent times. In addition to this, Judy had another goal, far more important than reputation - she wanted to find Nick. Why would she need a reputation if she was going to lose her beloved? It would all be pointless then.
On arriving at the museum's snow-covered car park, you could see that the preparation work for the conferences was in full swing. Several vans equipped with all sorts of decorations and equipment stood in front of the entrance to the museum, several workers were assembling decorative welcome columns in front of the entrance.
"Go take care of Judy with the inside of the building, I'll look around it okay? I'll see if any additional roads need to be cleared," Caroline offered as they headed towards the building.
"Alright, just join me later" replied Judy after a moment's thoughtfulness.
"Don't worry, I'll find you" said Caroline. The girls separated and went their separate ways.
"At least she'll be gone," thought Judy. To be honest she didn't like Caroline's presence, she didn't like her very much, she had a slight insecurity about her, she felt she couldn't be trusted, but she didn't want to talk about it to avoid causing...controversy. Her private problems were enough, and she didn't want to create problems for herself at work.
"Welcome to the nature museum in Zootopia. Unfortunately, but you have to leave, the museum is closed" Communicated a moose who stood at the entrance talking to the staff. Dressed in a suit, his serious stature and facial expression made it quickly clear to Judy that he was a high-profile figure in the museum.
"Good morning, this is Judy Hopps, police," Judy introduced herself. She took her badge out of her pocket and showed it to Moose. He looked at the badge for a few seconds and sighed catching his chin and nodding slowly with a movement of his head.
"I'm John. Deputy director of this museum. What do the police need with us at this time?" The deputy director asked.
"Well, it's a bit of a sensitive subject. Can we talk in private?" Judy asked.
"Yes of course, please follow me." John agreed immediately. They both headed up the marble staircase that led to the 1st floor of the building. There was John's office, who, judging by the fact that he was alone here, was in primary charge of the conference to be held. Moose took the keys out of his pocket and opened the glass door to his office, letting Judy in first.
Admittedly there was nothing of interest in the study, what caught Judy's attention most was the glass wall opposite the door, through which there was a view of Zootopia. Adding to the impression was a miniature dinosaur skeleton set up next to John's desk, who sat down behind it, spread his hands on the top of the furniture and asked Judy to sit down.
"So tell me please. What do the police expect from us, the museum? Haven't you guys been having trouble with the Fox Quarter kidnapper lately?" Moose asked.
"Well, problems I wouldn't call it, we just need time for this case. That's what we're talking about. We suspect the kidnapper will want to attack during the gala, we want to secure the area thoroughly and gain access to the CCTV," replied Judy. John straightened up in his chair and looked at Judy, who maintained her seriousness throughout.
"I don't quite understand. As a museum, we have our own security, and you guys haven't been making it lately. You're not much use," John replied after a moment, denying it with a shake of his head.
"This is a serious matter Mr John! The museum's security doesn't have the equipment and training, everything has to be perfect, especially the security" countered Judy.
"You were supposed to protect the Fox Quarter, you failed. "
"Ugh... please trust us, extra security is essential with conferences like this " asked Judy. John pondered for a few moments until he finally agreed, much to Judy's delight.
"Guess the mayor would have told me to trust you anyway. So be it. I'll take you to the monitoring and show you the whys and hows," replied the vice mayor. He got up from his chair and left the room together with the policewoman.
The CCTV was at the other end of the building, in a small wing that was practically devoid of light; it was quite dark there. The only source of light in the narrow corridor was a single lamp, which illuminated the corridor with a light beam.
John opened the door to the monitoring room and ushered Judy inside so that she could scope out the room a little, which was nothing new to Judy. Several monitors with the ability to view several cameras, a ventilation shaft behind them, a fan on a desk and a push-button iron door looked suspiciously familiar to the doe.
"We have two cameras in each room in the museum. They have a panning function, so you can adjust the angle from which you want to view the halls. "
"I can see, though, that the quality of the cameras is not the best..." Judy pointed out.
"Mrs Hopps, we are in a natural history museum, not a jeweller's! There is nothing here to attract thieves...much to our delight" replied John.
"Mhm...how about cameras outside? Are there any?"
"There are two overlooking the car park" replied John.
"Only two? That's a bit low" burbled Judy. Saying nothing more she used some of the cameras to familiarise herself with their working system and look for Caroline, who seemed to have vanished into thin air.
"Where could she be?" Judy thought. She couldn't find her on any of the cameras, which surprised her a little, she should be by now.
"Can I help you with something?" John asked, Judy declined to help. She quickly concluded that they would need better cameras, and more of them. What the museum is offering is clearly not enough.
"All right, Mr John. We'll have to install more cameras, in case. Our people will come tomorrow and do it," Judy communicated.
"Do whatever you want, as long as the conference goes according to plan. The director doesn't want our museum to lose its reputation because of the police who can't catch one visitor" chuckled John. Judy did not respond to his comment, she lacked the strength to argue on the subject.
"Yes...we'll do our best. I'll ask for the building plan some more and that will be all from my side for today" asked Judy. John opened one of the desk cabinets on which the monitors stood and took out an already somewhat dusty blue map of the museum's architecture.
"Here you go, it's lying around a bit, but it's in good condition" John communicated. Judy nodded. A quick glance at it didn't give her much to go on in terms of the layout of the halls and emergency exits, but she could see that, apart from the dust, there weren't large amounts of signs of use.
"Thank you, that's all for today. Goodbye," Judy said goodbye. She left the room together with the deputy director and was already heading towards the museum exit herself.
Outside, Caroline was waiting for her, who must have been walking around the muzuem the whole time since she couldn't be detected on the cameras.
"Where have you been all this time? You were supposed to join me," Judy said immediately when she saw the vixen. She was looking at the work going on at the entrance of the building as if nothing had ever happened.
"Hm? I checked the back, there's not likely to be an escape route there. And it would be a good idea to add some cameras, because there aren't any outside," Caroline replied.
"Yes, that I know. They'll be put in tomorrow. In the meantime we have a plan for the building, we just need to work out tactics "
"Don't worry about that anymore. We'll get it all figured out. In the meantime, let's go to the car already, the commander called me. He got permission for the operation" replied Caroline. The two of them made their way to the car and drove off towards the police station.
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