As Nick looked out the window at the rising sun, he thought about the events of the previous night. Judy had called Nick to tell him she would be organizing an anti-terrorist task force that night, and thus be unable to get home in time for dinner. Sure enough, she had come home long after the kits were in bed and crashed on the couch so as not to bother Nick.
Nick tried not to feel too bad about it, but he knew that he was the reason why she wasn't able to come home last night. It was his fault that she wasn't able to enjoy her favorite part of her day and he felt awful about it. Still, he had a job to do and he was going to see it through to the end. His guilt though caused him to make sure that when she did get home, that he had some hot cocoa and pudding ready for her.
He had woken up the next morning to start his morning routine as Judy slept like a rock. He made breakfast, woke the kids and went over to the couch. She slept there, snoring with a sound similar to a misfiring diesel engine. Loud, low and oddly calming. He didn't want to wake her up, to make her go to work today to lead an investigation that he knew he had to try and thwart. Unfortunately, the only thing worse than a tired Judy Wilde was a late one so he sat on the arm of the couch and shook her shoulder.
"Hey carrots. It's time to get up." He gave her a little smile as she opened one lazy eye to look at him.
"Ugh… Five more minutes…"
"Come on Judy, I know that you will be furious if I let you sleep in."
"But I don't want to get up."
"Why is that?"
"Because I don't want to have to think about what I am doing today." Nick could tell that she hadn't slept well. That something was deeply bothering her.
"What's so bad about what you have to do?"
"I have to chase down a terrorist who has broken more than a few laws in order to protect the rights of a puma who hasn't broken any."
"That doesn't sound so bad. Sounds pretty straightforward."
"Yeah right. I am basically helping a puma to destroy a neighborhood Nick. Your old neighborhood. I hate this." Judy turned back over to one side and curled tightly into the back of the couch. Nick looked at the floor for a second collecting his thoughts before he responded.
"Well carrots, it seems to me that you are in a bit of a tough spot. Though I think I might have a solution!"
"Oh yeah? And what would that be?"
"Give up on trying to make Zootopia a better place and become a carrot farmer!" Judy laughed a little at this and smacked Nick with a cushion that she had been resting her head on.
"Ha! Alright, you've convinced me. I'll give it my best shot." Nick leaned in to give her a hug.
"That's my Judy. Never stop trying."
"I won't. So! What's for breakfast?"
"Glad you asked! I made burritos this morning!"
They went and ate breakfast and the morning started off as usual. Judy left for work and he took the kits to school. The new part of his morning routine though followed next. Driving his van to the hidden lot by the abandoned warehouse he stepped out with a bag of dirty laundry in one paw and his laptop bag in the other. Stepping inside he passed the bag of laundry to Finnick as well as a grocery list of food items that he would need for the apartment. The others greeted him politely as he walked past the various stations and headed to his desk and arrayed blackboards. Plastered across the blackboards were maps of Zootopia's roads, sewers, train lines and electrical substations. He set down his laptop and took a long hard look at the boards, trying to piece together where the scarlet rogue should strike next. Mike meandered over to Nick with a tablet in hoof.
"Well Rogue, it seems that your little stunt has generated more than a little support for us around the city." Nick didn't turn around to address the moose.
"Really? Am I to assume we now have several Furbook pages devoted to us and a few really thoughtful comments?"
"Well yes. But we also seemed to have drawn enough attention to put pressure on Lionheart."
"Really?" Nick turned around and looked at the tablet that the moose was holding. On it he had a video that was paused showing Lionheart standing at a podium.
"I assure you. We here at the city council are doing everything in our power to investigate these allegations of corruption." One reporter asked a particularly loud question in response.
"And what about the destruction of the Canidae neighborhood?" Lionheart seemed to look a little nervous.
"We're doing everything in our power to persuade the developers to reconsider."
"So nothing? You really expect us to believe that you are going to turn around on your biggest campaign contributor so quickly?"
"Uh… No more questions!" Nick stopped the video.
"Well, he's not going to be much help," Mike adjusted his glasses perplexed.
"What do you mean?"
"Look at his body language. He's nervous and he doesn't know what to do. If you ask me, it seems that he is worried about standing up to Santiago. Tell me Mike, do you know what the secret is to a good hustle?" Mike shook his antlers.
"Not really. Just figured it had to do with being cleverer than the mark." Nick gave a small chuckle.
"No! The trick to a good hustle is knowing the mark. It helps if you're smarter, but you don't have to be if you know who and what they are."
"Alright then, so who's the mark then?" Nick looked Mike right in the eyes.
"Santiago. I need you guys to find out everything about him. Get me the most comprehensive biography that you can. I want to know his birthday, where he's from and what's his favorite color." Mike shrugged a little bit, deciding not to argue with the fox that he had decided to put in charge.
"Alright, I'll get Mabel right on it."
Nick looked back at the board as he tried to figure out what his next move should be. Nothing coming to him, he started to just walk around the shop. Boris started to walk towards him, wrench in hand. Nick adjusted his tie instinctively, the large bear making him nervous.
"Nick. What do I do?" Nick stood there for a moment in thought.
"Well… You work on cars right?"
"Da, have been working on big engine for fast car."
"Right, well maybe you better think of something else to work on. You see, Zootopia is covered with Jam Cams and a car really isn't going to work."
"Then what do I do?" Nick shrugged a little.
"Don't know. Tell you what, surprise me." The bear stalked away back towards the garage, his face expressionless.
Nick kept walking around till eventually he passed Mabel's desk. She was busily tapping away at her keyboard as a coffee maker happily burbled next to her. If she had noticed him she didn't make it apparent. It seemed that friendliness was just not part of her personality. Nick tried to look over her screen, which seemed to annoy her enough to warrant a response.
"No hovering."
"Sorry, I'm just looking for something to do until I get a bio on Santiago," Mable snorted.
"Don't know why, it's standard rich corporate stuff," she shifted in her chair to let Nick get a look at her screen, "acquisitions here, renovations here. There's the occasional interview where he makes some personal remarks. Overall though, it seems that his online history is more carefully tailored than one of his stupid suits."
"So you're telling me that there's nothing unusual about this cat huh?" Mabel shook her head.
"Actually, there is something interesting about him."
"Oh?" Mabel switched to a search engine output and flipped around the options to show the oldest results first.
"The furthest back that I can find a record of him is thirty years ago. Here's a newspaper article from Bunny Borough back then." Nick looked over the scanned article. It said something about Santiago planning to tear down a trailer park and replace it with a golf course.
"Same old same old I guess." Mabel shook her head, a little more vigorously this time.
"No, you don't get it. Everything is online. There's no way that this puma should just start existing thirty years ago. Something feels weird here."
"Well, can you figure out where he was born?"
"Sure. He said so in an interview." She pulled open a video of an interview that Santiago had had a few months prior.
"I was not born in Zootopia, but I did grow up here and I consider this place my home." Nick gave a look of surprise.
"Wait! He was raised in Zootopia and there's no record of him until he arrives in Bunny Borough? That's odd." Mabel nodded slowly in agreement.
"Yeah… I don't get it either… Hey, wait a second!"
Nick stood watching as Mabel took the photo from the Bunny Borough Times and digitally snipped out Santiago's picture. Putting it into some sort of photo editing software, she adjusted a variety of properties faster than Nick could follow. Having adjusted the photo, she saved it and then dragged it back to the search engine and clicked on reverse image search. A mere second later there he was, a young puma standing in a high school yearbook photo only with a different name under his portrait. Julio Sanchez. Mabel reached over to the coffee maker and poured herself a new cup. Sipping at the black coffee in her refilled mug she smiled to herself.
"Ha! Not bad if I do say so myself. Like I said Nick, everything is online," Nick just looked on, trying to get the words out of his mouth.
"Yeah. I see that," an idea seemed to formulate in Nick's mind, "before we go public with this, we should find some stronger evidence."
"Like what? The certificate that he legally changed his name? That's probably stored in his safety deposit box, so good luck getting that."
"Any other places where we could look to find proof that he changed his name?"
"Sure, the county clerk's office. But that would require getting access to their database. To get into there I would need a terminal on the inside…" Mabel looked at Nick who was now grinning from ear to ear. "Alright Scarlet Rogue, but before you go running off to break into the County Clerk's office I am going to write some new applications for your phone so that I can tag along." Nick nodded to her, understanding that it would take a bit of time to write the necessary applications.
"Understood. We're also going to need to announce that we're doing something that night."
Nick started to walk back to the maps spread out over on his side of the warehouse. A few of the others had apparently overheard what he was on about and had now came over to investigate. Mable however was still more than a little confused.
"Why would we do that? Isn't it better to keep this all secret?" Nick gave her a knowing look.
"Yeah, but in this case I happen to know exactly how Judy is going to respond. If we tell her that we're going to make a move tomorrow, then she will put as many cops as possible in the Canidae neighborhood. Which," Nick went and pointed to the Canidae neighborhood on the map before dragging his paw towards the County Clerk's office, "is on the opposite side of town from the Clerk's Office." All of the rest started to nod in agreement to what he was planning. Hearing their murmurs behind him he took the time to take out his notebook and add another tally mark. Finnick walked over to Nick and threw his now clean laundry to him. He seemed a little upset at the scheduling of their next move.
"Tomorrow? We're supposed to go bowling man!"
"I know, and I am counting on Judy knowing that too." Finnick rolled his eyes.
"Great, but what are you supposed to do about your kits, huh mr. responsible father? If Judy is on call cause we're planning an attack, then she won't be home to watch the kits. Who're you going to get as a sitter?" Nick glanced up at Mabel. Meeting his eyes, she gave a deadly frown.
"I have someone in mind."
