**A/N So this chapter morphed into something completely different then what my outline for this story had. But with the addition of Finnick in the first chapter and once I started typing I got an idea and ran with it so I ended up having to split it and add another chapter but i feel its going to help and add a bit more depth to what I had initially planned. I also read the reviews and took on the suggestions of splitting up the speaking and thoughts so hopefully it will flow better and be easier to read. Again thank you for reading and following, Im going to try and do weekly updates so stay tuned next weekend for the next chapter.**
Five days and nothing, we cracked the night howler case by ourselves in two and with Finnick able to talk to mammals we can't why haven't we have solved this by now. Judy couldn't sleep, besides her neighbors always causing a ruckus next door this case was eating away at her. Sure the night howler case they essentially lucked out in solving it so fast but Nick and she are known for solving the tough cases fast. Also, the slow speed of the case was bugging her but something else was to, the kit. When Mrs. Otterton showed her the picture of Emmitt she felt sorry and wanted to help but with Lisa she felt a connection as well. Maybe it was because she was a female or her own mother kept bugging her about kits but it pained her to think of Lisa out there all alone probably scared out of her mind. "We have to find her Nick," Judy said aloud to herself, "if for no reason other then I can get a decent nights sleep." She looked at her clock, 5 am might as well get up and go for a run maybe exercise will clear my mind. She got up and put on some running shorts that hugged her curvy figure along with a tight top that left a bit of her stomach exposed. She stood up and looked in the mirror, "If only Nick could see me now." She shook her head, where did Nick come from? They were getting closer over the past few days especially after the events at the dinner but actually wanting him to see her in these tight revealing clothes was new. Run, just go for a run and clear your head she finally said to herself walking out the door and heading downstairs. The cool air of the morning was a welcome change to the normally hot day out in the patrol car. She put in her earbuds, turned on the newest Gazelle playlist, and took off down the street on her normal running route.
While Judy was racking her head about the case and not sleeping Nick had no problems falling asleep, *DING*. Except when an annoying text comes along waking him up, turning he saw the clock glaring 5:30. Too early for carrots so who could be texting me, Nick thought to himself. Grabbing his phone from the nightstand he opened it up and was instantly wide awake when he read the text.
YO we need to talk NOW, in the alley. Get dressed and get down here.
Finnick was never one to wake before 10am so something major must be up, Nick rushed to get dressed and took the back staircase to the alley. Looking around he saw Finnick's van in the darkest part and walked to the back door and knocked. The door burst open with the little fox brandishing a baseball bat.
"Get in, no-one saw you right," Finnick slammed the door after taking a quick look.
"Whats with all the secrecy, you've never been one to be paranoid," Nick took a seat on the wheel well. Sitting in the van took him back to all the cons Finnick and him had planned and done.
"You right, but this shit I found is crazy and you're not going to like it, I found the girl." Finnick now had Nicks undivided attention. "She's going to be sold into the trade, today."
The trade, Nick knew exactly what that meant. Mammals, usually female kits who ran away, being sold to the highest bidder and taken to who knows where and forced to do whatever their buyer wanted. Prostitution, drug mule, weird scientific experimentation, personal sex slave there was no end to the perverse things these buyers would do. Those cases were usually handled by a special task force but now Nick and Judy had been thrown headlong into it.
"So how did you find out about it, certainly not talking to other runaways?"
"Well, the kits I managed to convince I was one talked about the camps and places other runaways would hunker down for the nights. I went to one when a snatch went down, lucky for us I knew the wolf doing the grab from other dealings. I pushed my luck and harassed him about grabbing the one I was looking at getting for the night myself," Nick gave him a disgusted look, "Hey I was acting, I knew why he was there and possibly he could lead me to your kit." Nick relaxed a little but now began to understand why all the secrecy. "He told me that one was already selected and purchased but there was plenty more to select from down at the docks and a big sale was happening today. he showed me a few pictures and the kit you're looking for was one of them. He'll call me with the address 30 minutes before the sale and I'll give it to you."
"You need to go as well and be there for the sale otherwise they will know it was you." Nick could see the rage building in Finnick's face.
"The hell you say! Be there, when I know you're going to bring all your fuzz buddies and get roped in with them. Not a chance." Finnick picked up an empty can and chucked it with rage narrowly missing Nicks' head.
"Yes, you will be arrested and charged. But as long as you don't make any bids I can get the charges dropped against you and you can go free. Otherwise, if you give me the address and don't show up, what would happen when word gets out that the raid happened with you not there after just getting the address." Finnick just stared at Nick with the realization hit him.
"I'll end up at the docks permanently, or more specific at the bottom of the docks." He slid down the side of the van realizing the no win situation he was now in, "You sure you can get me out?"
"Absolutely, just don't make a bid. We'll have to release everyone else who doesn't bid and buy to cover you getting out but we can get them later." Nick needed to completely assure Finnick's freedom for the plan to work otherwise they may never find the girl.
"All right, you got a deal." Finnick stuck out his paw and Nick took a firm grasp.
"Just call me right away with the address and then message one more time after the first sale, we have to make sure we sure we grab as many as possible." Nick was already trying to figure out how to coordinate all the pieces they would need to make this work on such a short timeline.
"Ok, this better not come back and bite me," Finnick opened the door as Nick stepped out and shut it before he could say goodbye. The van fired up and drove out of the alley as Nick grabbed his phone and dialed Judy.
"Hey, this is Judy leave me a message at the beep, beep."
"Judy I have a lead, meet me at the station right away. We have a lot of work to do and very little time to do it. We miss this chance and the parents will never see their kit again." Nick tried his best to keep calm but he left the message while sprinting up the stairs to his place. He threw the door open and get changed into his uniform faster than when he was at the academy. He snatched a blueberry muffin on his way out and made his way to the precinct. Bursting there the doors he yelled the Clawhouser if Judy was in already making him drop his donut.
"Nick you scared me, now where did you go," He looked under his desk for the missing donut.
"BEN!" Hearing his first name be called brought the chubby cheetah sitting up fast, "if she's not here I need you to send a car to get her right away. We have a major lead in out case and no time to waste, it's usually an hour tram ride for her to get here and we don't have time to waste." Seeing the fire in Nicks' eyes put Clawhouser immediately to work.
"All stations is anyone in the vicinity of Officer Hopp's residence, She needs code three ride to the precinct." Clawhouser dropped his normal high pitched chatty voice and was all business on the radio.
"Squad five here, she just jogged past me heading back to her place. I'll get her and bring her in"
"Copy squad five, ETA"
"Fifteen Minuets, traffic isn't bad right now"
"Precinct copy's fifteen minutes, out"
"Thanks Ben," Nick reached up and snagged a donut, "I'll buy you a box on Monday." He ran upstairs towards Chief Bogo's office with Clawhouser's voice trailing behind him.
"Better make it two boxes you took my favorite one."
Nick flew up the stairs scarfing the donut before he got to Bogo's office. He didn't even knock he just threw the door open to Bogo's office slamming it into the wall making the huge buffalo jump.
"WILDE! Just what do you think you're doing barging in here like this!" The rage was building as Nick jumped onto the chair across the desk.
"Chief we need to mobilize SWAT and the Trafficker Preventers immediately. I have a lead from our missing kit case and apparently there's a huge sale going down today by the docks. We need to get everyone mobilized and ready to move, we'll only have a thirty-minute window to stage before the sale goes down and it will move fast once the bidding starts. " Nick could see the rage drain from Bogo's face and be replaced with the normal stern look.
"How do you know all this Wilde. I know you took part in some "questionable" days before joining but if you have anything to do with trafficking I will not hesitate to lock you up and not just throw away but melt down the key." Bogo bore into Nick's eyes trying to see if there was any hint of lying.
"No sir, I never dealt with traffickers. If any deal I did even had a hint of them I backed away. My source as well, he knew what to say to gain their trust but he would never work with them either." Bono relaxed, released to see there was no lying in Nicks' eyes.
"We have been trying to break up this ring for years, it's been the biggest pain in my side beside's the drugs. If you're telling me the truth we'll throw everything we have at them to shut this down." Bogo slammed his huge fist on his desk at the last work making papers scatter everywhere.
"Chief, my source is going to be there at the sale as well. I told him he needed to be there so he wouldn't be targeted after the raid. I also said as long as he doesn't make a bid we can get him out." The anger started to build back in Bogo.
"If he's there, he'll be arrested and charged just like everyone else. Just being there is enough to throw them away for good."
"Chief I can't go back on my word to him, and I can't tell him to stay away otherwise he'll be targeted after the raid. We also can't do this without him, and be freeing him later we can have a huge ally that can get the places and talk to mammals we as the police force can't." Nick knew pleading wouldn't do much good with Bogo but for Finnick's sake, he had to try.
Bogo leaned back in his chair, slightly lifting his glasses as he pinched the bridge of his nose sighing. "I'll see what I can do with the DA but no promises, Like I said we've been after them for years and it's very tempting to lock them all up at once. I'll begin the calls to the Trafficker Prevention and SWAT, YOU better have a plan for them when they arrive."
Nick figured that was the best he was going to get, "Thanks Chief, I won't let you down. We'll get them I promise." He hopped down and was making his way downstairs when Judy came flying up the stairs.
"Nick! I tried calling you, what a way to scare your partner have a car fly up like that. What's wrong?" Judy was shaking fearing they may have missed the window to save the kit.
"Let's go to our desk we have a raid to plan and only an hour before SWAT and Trafficker Prevention get here and brief them." Judy followed Nick to the office and sat in her chair staring at him.
"So what happened and Trafficker Prevention, it's really that bad?" Judy couldn't stop shaking with fear, she had heard the horror stories of the treatment those mammals went through. She had even seen the aftermath of one time when a fellow rabbit apparently did something her buyer didn't like. The multiple bags needed for the parts to be taken away still haunted her.
"Finnick texted me this morning saying last night he ran into someone who is a snatcher. Managed to convince him he wanted a girl and was giving information about a huge sale by the docks today. So now we have a raid to plan and get prepared for that can happen at any time." Judy just wrapped her arms around herself hugging tightly.
"Oh no, those poor kits," She began rocking uncontrollably in her chair, "why, who, how could any mammal do this!" Tears began streaming down her face.
Nick went over and took Judy in his arms, instantly she stopped shaking and rocking. She sniffed a few times and looked deep into his emerald eyes. "I don't know Judy, but well get them I promise. We won't let them touch another kit ever again." Judy could see the fire and sincerity in his eyes, she knew he would do everything in his power to save and protect those kits.
"Like any loving father would," Judy said quietly under her breath.
Nick eased up on his grasp of her, "What did you just say?"
"Nothing," Judy composed herself wiping off the tears and straightening her uniform, "we have a raid to plan right? Well, lets get to it."
"Ok, I'll look up maps of the docks area and see if I can find any possible locations. You look up some of the buildings and see if you can find blueprints or layouts."
"Will do." Judy spun her chair around and began typing feverishly at the keyboard.
Nick smiled at his partner and the way she could instantly get back to her normal tough bunny demeanor. He turned and began looking at maps and overhead images on the docks.
The hour passed quietly as they both worked, Nick would give suggestions of buildings to grab prints of and Judy would ask suggestions of breach points and overwatch positions. They were in the middle of debating the last building when Bogo knocked on their cubicle.
"Everyone's here in the bullpen you two, have a plan ready?" The big buffalo towering over the two didn't faze Judy one bit.
"Yes sir, everything is right here in this folder," Judy walked past Bogo clutching the folder. She marched into the bullpen chest out ears straight up making herself all big as a bunny can. Walking into a room full of nothing but wolves, tigers, rhinos, and elephants you have to make yourself as big and important as you can. However Judy didn't need to, everyone on the force respected her and Nick with everything they've been able to accomplish together.
Judy hopped onto a stool behind the podium and played the folder down. "Good morning everyone and thank you for getting here on such short notice. We have a credible source saying a major trafficking sale is going down today by the docks. We don't have a location or time yet as our source will only get it thirty minutes before the sale goes down."
"Thirty minutes and an unknown location, if these are the same guys we've dealt with that give us a very tight timeline to get into position and hit." One of the wolves from the TP Squad piped in.
"Yes it is a very tight timeline I understand, I figure we have a max of thirty to forty-five minutes to get into position and conduct the raid as we obviously can't be in position before and can't move in until the sale starts otherwise we might scare them off. However there are several outlying buildings that would be too small or obvious to have the sale but be good spots for us to pre-position ourselves." Judy slid a copy of the dock overhead under a camera that projected it onto the wall. On it was four buildings circled in red as probable sale locations, six spots circled blue for staging spots and two towers for sniper and overwater locations.
"We've all been down to the docks multiple times before so expect lots of debris, containers, buildings falling apart, heavy equipment moving around, etcetera. You all know your teams better so I will allow you all to separate out as you see best, we'll depart for the staging locations once we are done here. We looked up the four most potential locations and in each of the handouts you'll receive are blueprints and suggested breach locations. Once the location is secure we will have medical coming in to take care of the kits so we need one hundred percent accountability before they can come in." Nick started passing out folders to everyone containing all the overhead maps, building drawings, pictures, and blueprints.
"What if it's not in one of the four locations you scouted," a SWAT rhino questioned.
"Semper Gumby, be flexible. If it's in another location the guys in the look out locations can help guide us to the best breach spots," Nick answered before Judy could.
"Because we don't want to draw attention, SWAT you won't be able to bring your heavy vehicles. We will all be arriving in unmarked vehicles and in plain clothes. If they so much as get a bad feeling they'll split and either take or kill the kits. Overwatch do your best to stay out of sight but be ready at a moments notice to provide cover fire. That covered everything unless anyone else has any questions," Judy looked around the room but everyone seemed to understand their role already. "Ok team leaders I'll leave the rest to you, once your teams are selected head for the docks we'll be waiting for you." With that, Nick and Judy walked out of the bullpen as everyone started gathering in their teams to go over the breach procedures and ordering.
"You were great in there carrots. No nonsense just straight to business." Nick was very impressed at how she handled herself, she had come a long way from the press conference.
"We'll with what were dealing with there's no time for nonsense, straight to the point is the best way to go. These teams are true professionals and if you show an ounce of weekends they'll jump all over that and not trust a word you say." They went to the locker room and changed into regular clothing placing their vests and tranquilizer guns in oversized gym bags.
Stepping out of the precinct a black utility van was waiting for them, if honked and they walked over and go in. Inside was chief Bogo and Leon a tiger in charge of the SWAT team. The outside of the van looked like any old contractors work van, faded and chipped paint, ladders strapped to the roof a cheesy service on time or don't pay a dime quote on the side. Inside though was a high-tech surveillance center, multiple TV screens to monitor live feeds from the different teams, radio and listening gear to hear everything around and four seats bolted to the floor to monitor everything. "You sure of your source we've been burned a lot lately," Leon definitely didn't seem convinced anyone would be there.
"I trust this source, he's never led my astray yet. I have no reason to doubt him, he hates traffickers just as much as we all do. He actually has a very personal reason to want them all arrested." Nick said staring right at the tiger not feeling the need to explain Finnick's family being taken by traffickers before he met him.
"A lot of resources and mammals have been thrown together for this, and even more trust has been given to you two because of all you have accomplished in such a short time. If anyone else had come to us with this plan it would've been thrown out. Just remember all you have done can be wiped out with a single failed operation and all your credibility would be wiped out. Remember that for future planning and who you select for sources." Tiger stared out the back tinted window as the buildings changing from the new shiny glass skyscrapers to the gritty run down docks. Shipping containers stacked alongside new and old buildings, mammals moving around some carrying clipboards trying catalog everything and others just carrying their lunch to the next job site. They pulled into a rundown warehouse near the water and started contacting the teams.
Within an hour all teams were in the staging locations waiting for the call. Leon and Bogo were discussing the last details of the takedown while Nick and Judy watched the cameras the sniper teams had placed giving them a full overview of the docks. It was going on two and some of the teams were growing restless when several gray vans pulled into the docks from multiple locations.
"There all pulling into a warehouse on the outskirts, number three on our list." Judy was getting excited, this had to be it. They just had to wait for Finnick.
"All teams get geared up this may be it, we just had five gray vans drive into warehouse three. Get ready to move you all have your assignments for that building so when I say move get to your spots and ready to breach." Leon called into his radio and got the response calls from the teams signaling they were ready.
*ding* Nicks phone signaled from his pocket, pulling it out he say the text from Finnick giving the address. Nick double checked the address and it was indeed the warehouse the vans had just pulled into. "Bogo, Leon that is the location. The same starts in twenty minutes."
"This is it gentlemen, twenty minutes we will move into position on warehouse three. With the amount of vans that went in, there will be a lot of hostages so watch your shots when we move in." Leon was all business now, watching the cameras intently as the teams geared up.
The four in the van watched the overwatch cameras intently, seeing everything from lions in business suits coming from limousines to a hyena riding a dirt bike pull up to the warehouse. Nick was watching very closely as Finnick's van pulled up, he walked in very casually with no hint of nervousness.
Good, keep playing it up buddy I will get you out of this. Nick had to make sure he got him out of this otherwise he would not just lose a valuable source but a close friend as well. They had been through a lot together, he was the one who warned him not to go back to Mr. Big after the skunk butt rug debacle, he had to help him.
*ding* Nicks phone went off again, "The first sale is starting, now's our time to move."
"All teams move to breach positions and await my go call," Leon called into the radio and the screens came alive with the movement of the teams.
"Command, overwatch one," one of the sniper teams was calling in, "We have two wolves guarding the main entrance we'll need to take them out before the breach charge can be placed."
"Once the other teams are in place take them out together then the main breach move in." Leon didn't have any concern on his face Judy was skeptical.
"Leon can your guys take them out at the same time and how fast will it take for the darts to work," Judy was scared the shots would make too much noise, the guards would call out, something would go wrong.
Leon could tell she was concerned, "Don't worry, my otters have never missed and the wolves will be asleep before they even realize they were shot."
Watching the cameras Nick and Judy were amazed at the speed the teams moved, wolves and tigers moving with incredible speed on the ground to the back entrances to the warehouse as Jaguars and Cougars raced up the side of the building to get to the skylights to rappel in. The only ones waiting were the rhinos for the main breach.
"All teams and charges set. Overwatch, after you take out the main guards watch for squirters trying to run after the breach. Ok, take out the guards and main breach move in." Judy was amazed as she saw two darts hit the wolves in their necks and they drop instantly as the rhinos charged to the wall, a single otter ran straight at the door and set something on the edges.
"All teams move in 3.. 2.. 1.. BREACH BREACH BREACH!"
