17. A Bad Move

==Judy==

"Judy, are you alright?!" Nick called out.

I stopped squeezing my eyelids, removed my hands from my ears and peeked underneath the car to the van. The wolf, at least that's what I figured it to be, had collapsed onto the ground with the AK47 next to him. The green plume of the tranquilizer dart in his neck contrasted against his dark clothing. Seconds later, the shells bouncing on the hood resumed as the partners of my victim began to unload their pistols at me. I saw that one of them plucked the projectile from the motionless body, cursed and threw it aside. Suddenly I felt a firm grip on my shoulder. It scared me so much that I cried out. It was Nick. I had completely forgotten to answer him. The anxiety in his eyes was readable.

"Are you hit?!" He asked panicked.

I shook my head.

"Oh thank god."

"Haul that idiot in the car and let's go!" someone shouted.

I reared up to try and get another shot off, but quickly duck back down as the mammal that had spoken was waiting for me to unload his pistol. I checked if any of the others were able to get a clear line of fire. Behind the third and nearest car, Higgins was talking through his radio, whilst McHorn firmly clasped his own arm. It looked like he had taken a hit, that was bad. The officers from the other two cars were pinned down under the AK47 of the second gunman. I realized he was quite hairy.

My ears twitched as I heard someone pick up the gun of the fallen guy. I seized my chance to take a shot at him, barely missing as he dashed into the truck and closed the doors behind him. Immediately, the tires began to screech as the driver floored it. He passed by the second gunman, who agilely swung himself into the passenger's seat as the door was opened for him.

Unwittingly I grasped Nick's shirt with my left hand as I saw the van ram into the two police cars opposite us, bashing them aside, even toppling one of them. Shattered glass rained down on the street as the rear windows failed to endure the force of the impact. Fangmeyer and Grizzoli only just managed to escape from getting crushed under their vehicle. I was unable to see whether Wolford and Snarlov, the occupants of the first car in the row, had been equally lucky, yet the lack of agonizing screams gave me the hope that they had. I released Nick and apologized, but he already rushed over to McHorn. I followed closely.

"Oh my god, you're hit!" Nick confirmed my worries.

"You think?!" The rhino replied cynically.

"Ambulance is underway!" Higgins said, putting away the radio.

He pulled the car's first aid kit from underneath one of the seats and retrieved a bandage, which he started to wrap around the bleeding hole in McHorn's arm.

"What are you waiting for?" McHorn shouted at us. "GO AFTER THEM."

"Yes. Of course." I answered dazed.

I was so shocked by seeing one of my colleagues being shot that I totally forgot about it. Higgins would take care of him, we had to give chase before they got away. As we stepped into the car, Wolford and Snarlov had already taken off. Nick put the pedal to the metal and I reactivated our siren. Fortunately, they weren't that far ahead of us yet. At the far end of the street, I could see the flashing lights of the other police vehicle, headed onto the highway. We were able to slowly closed the distance, as a path was already cleared for us. When we were no more than eighty feet behind them, I took notion of the tremendous beating of the rear end of Snarlov's car, as well as the absence of the bumper. It must have come off at some point after the crash. Gauging the severe damage, I was more than glad my colleagues had gotten out of the way.

I radioed Wolford that we had caught up with them and we planned a manoeuvre to bring the criminals to a halt. They would catch up and get in front of the van, whilst we would push them to the left side of the road. Snarlov accelerated to pass then by, when something happened none of us had foreseen. One of the backdoors of the van opened. The hairy gunman balanced on the edge of the bumper, securing himself on the inside with one hand, whilst holding an AK in the other. With a rattling noise, the hood of Snarlov's car was turned into a Swiss cheese. They tried to get in front of the van, however it was too late. One of the left front tire was punctured and blew up with a loud bang.

"Oh god. Hang on!"

As the drag of the flat tire swallowed up their velocity, Nick was forced to make a serpentine movement to avoid running into them. That left just us following the van.

"You good?" Nick glanced at me.

"I'm okay. Just pay attention to the road."

"What do we do now?" He asked, this time without breaking eye contact with the taunting wolf hanging outside the van.

"We chase them."

"Oh good. I thought you wanted to turn back." He remarked.

I wasn't in the mood for a discussion, yet I wasn't able to provide him with a better answer than the one I had given. My mind raced over possibilities to stop the white van. If we got closer, we'd get shot like Snarlov and Wolford had been, but coming up from behind was the only option as shortcuts weren't exactly plentiful at a highway. All we could do, was keep up the pursuit.

This wasn't easy. Having disposed of the other car, the hairy thug continued to discharge his AK at us instead. This forced us to keep distance, as well as to stay right behind them. If we didn't, we'd risk exposing our tires. I feared however that getting taken out wasn a matter of when rather than if, considering their meandering driving style.

Unexpectedly, the gunner ceased fire and returned inside. Before either of us could wonder why, the van made a sharp turn and got onto the highway exit, a move impeded to us by the traffic on the right. Luckily, Nick showed himself to be very gifted at driving. He accelerated, slammed the brake and made use of the drag to copy their manoeuvre. As we drove down the sloping road, I wanted to compliment Nick on his responsiveness; a sentence I never got to finish. The reason behind the sudden exit of the van, was to get us in a narrow spot. Once Nick hit the brake pedal to avoid what was coming, it was already too late.

As we ran over the spike strip that was left for us, he lost control of the car and we started spinning. The metal wheels scraped the asphalt like a howling banshee and sparks shot over the sides of the car. We held ourselves in position as best we could, but both of us were delivered to the mercy of the vehicle's random movements, on its bouncing path along the concrete sides. The sound of the metal suffering from the impacts, reminded me of the car bomb. I had heard this kind of noise there too and like there, it made me shiver with fear. I sought Nick's paw, yet before I found it, another bump made me grasp the dashboard again. When I thought we were going to get flung out of the our seats, the airbags blew. My body was pressed in the puffy balloons and my sight was white entirely. A split-second later, we were motionless at the bottom of the sloping road. The white van had disappeared, being followed only by a well-aimed curse of my partner.

==Nick==

"McHorn's gonna be fine. The bullet missed all vital parts in his arm." Judy said, tucking away her phone.

"That's good to hear."

We were in the locker room, where she had just stashed her stuff. I sat on the metal bench and tended to a big bruise on my lower left arm. The dim, yellow light made the extravasation look an odd kind of greenish. I pressed the icepack against the swelling. It stung harshly. Surprisingly, it was the only real injury I had sustained during the crash. Judy even said she had none at all. Fortunately for me, she already had a doctor's appointment this evening. He'd be able to tell me whether that was indeed true. She always undervalued her own pains over those of others.

"I've been thinking. Maybe you're right."

"About what?"

"The tactics of the robbers today. The masks, the timing, the spike strip. It was all planned out professionally."

"Yea, it seemed that way."

"And all the suspects were the same size."

She raised an eyebrow.

"I don't see where you're going with this."

"If I had to make a guess, I'd say this has Vlad Lupinski written all over it."

"Well, hopefully we don't have to make a guess."

She kneeled down and moved my hand with the ice pack aside. She drew a concerned look. She measured the swelling with her finger. I gritted my teeth, not wanting to let her know how much it hurt. Her tender care was one of her most loveable features. Eventually she kissed her hand and tapped it on the bruise. She winked.

"There, that's should do it. If you need me, I'll be upstairs tracking the licence plate of the white van."

I smiled and pressed the icepack against my arm again. I followed her with my eyes as she hopped off. After a moment of realization, I looked around frightened. There was nobody around to have seen us. I sighed. Maybe hiding all this was too much fuzz.

I rose to my feet and put my things in my locker. On my upstairs, Clawhauser called me over in the central hall. I had seen that donut crumbs covered grin before. After he had seen Judy hug me in the parking lot. Having him draw it again, could not be a good thing.

"Psssh, Nick!"

Reluctantly I went over. The icepack was still in my hand. Good. If he would say something wrong, I'd shove it in his face.

"What is it, Ben."

I always used his first name, although I didn't exactly know why. Nobody else did that.

"Did you know Judy attended a gala?"

How did that cockroach know about… Judy. Their conversation this morning. The laughing. Damn, she had promised me not to say anything. And of all animals at ZPD, she picked this guy to tell it too first. I had to keep calm. I mustn't let him get to me.

"Really?"

"Oh don't play dumb. You knew that already didn't you?"

See, he knew that we went together.

"Where are you going with this?"

"I bet she looked great in that dress."

"I didn't know you were into dresses, Ben. But then again, a man's pastimes should be his own business, right?"

He looked at me confused for a few seconds, then it hit him.

"What, no. I'm not-"

I smirked. I had him.

"There's nothing to be ashamed of, my friend, I know plenty of animals with strange habits."

"Hang on!" Clawhauser frowned.

"Nick, there you are!"

Judy had called from the third floor. She jumped down the stairs, 3 treads at a time. In her hand was a case file and she waved it to me like it was a flag.

"It appears you were right, Nick. The van was originally reported stolen, but the owner's CCTV showed a group of four mammals that stole it. One of them wore the emblem of Vlad's Nighthowlers."

She looked at me and Clawhauser quizzically.

"Is there something wrong?"

"Maybe."

Judy's expression remained without understanding.

"What do you mean, maybe."

"Well, for some reason, Big Ben here knows things he shouldn't. And I think it has to do with your conversation this morning."

She shifted her clueless gaze to the cat behind the reception desk. He shrugged.

"I only told him about your gala."

"Yea right. That's all you said." I replied sarcastically.

In my head, I replayed our conversation. I felt a painful uncertainty when I reckoned it was indeed all he had said. The nasty feeling crept up on me that, in my fear of our relationship getting out, I had been hearing things there weren't.

"I don't see how this has to do with me?" Judy asked.

The stone in my stomach became heavier. I had made a terrible misjudgement here. Judy probably hadn't said a thing.

"I think he means our talk about you encountering my mom when buying a dress." Clawhauser explained.

"You met his mom?" I let out stupefied.

"Yea, when Fru Fru and I left the mall after buying the gala dress." She furrowed her brows. "Wait a second. So that's why you were so snappy in the car today. It had nothing to do with that you were driving. You think I told him!"

"I-I just… I thought you told him about our night. I-I'm sorry…" I stammered.

I had accused her unfoundedly. Basically, I told her that she had damaged my trust in her, while in fact, it was the other way around. I should've asked her instead of blindly doubting her word. Suddenly I felt very dizzy. I was such a jerk.

"How dare you, Nick! I had given you my word. How can you think I would intentionally break my promise to you?"

"Carrots, I-"

"Don't you Carrots me, Nick Wilde! I can't believe you question my sincerity about something this important. On our very first day no less!"

She smacked the dossier angrily on Clawhauser's desk, scaring him upright from his forward leaning position.

"And don't even bother showing up for my doctor's appointment! I'll find someone else to go with!"

"Judy, please."

She no longer listened and stomped out through the main door. The entire entrance hall was staring down at me. I felt cold, but not because of all the eyes that drilled in me. It was the chill gust of guilt that wrapped itself around me. How could I have doubted her so easily. It wasn't until she was outside that Clawhauser dared to speak up again.

"So you were her date on the gala!" He smiled amused. "Does that mean you guys are an item now?"

"I'm afraid I'm equally unsure about that as you right now."