Copyright Disclaimer
The following is a work of fanfiction: there is no intent of this author to violate, transgress, profit from or infringe upon the Copyright and Intellectual Property (IP) rights of the parent Copyright or IP holders of characters, events or locations belonging to the same which may be contained within this work. To reiterate; this is a Derivative Work meant to be used under Fair Use as described in 17 U.S.C. § 101 and § 107.
All language is either through Google Translate, or the site 'Bits'n'Bob-stones'
The Sons of Efrafa
.
'Oh, oh oh oh ohhh, Try everything!'
Another beautiful day! Let's see what I have to start? Filing to case records, filing to personnel records, Detective Crossman meeting with Jason Howe representing Byron Howlton; monster, I hope you rot in… deep breath Benjamin, have a donut, file, and forget. I wonder if today's going to be as exciting? OOH! It's Judy, Nick, and Jack!
"Jesus, how many times did you two go at it last night? I ached just watching you two?"
"What can I say Nick? I'm a rabbit, we have a lot of energy and stamina!"
-gurgle Oh…Em…Goodness! -
"Hey Clawhauser, how… are you doing okay?"
-AH! - "I'm fine, Emanuel!"
"Are you sure? You look pretty peeked. Maybe you should join us sometime; it's good exercise and…quick, catch him…
Ch. 12
The trio of officer looked on with concern as the precinct medic examined an unconscious Clawhauser for the second time in 24 hours.
Judy shook her head. "I'm really starting to worry out Benjamin. Maybe someone should get him on a diet?"
Nick watched as the portly Cheetah was carted off. "Careful now, 'diet' is a four-letter word to Ben."
Jacob looked at his compatriots. "So is 'tomb', which is where he'll end up sooner rather than later if he doesn't start making changes." He turned and headed towards the Bullpen. "So anyway, those were some pretty fancy moves you two put on last night. There's a civic defense group that meets in my hometown three times a week. Think you'd be interested in teaching some self defense classes?" He continued at their skeptical looks. "There's a potluck dinner at every meeting."
Wilde excitedly jumped in front of Jacob. "Will there be Grubb Puffs?!"
Judy snickered. "Maybe this vixen Emanuel mentioned will be there, and you can marry into the recipe!"
Nicks' friends were slightly concerned when he didn't move. Judy rested a paw on his arm.
"Nick?"
"Quiet, I'm thinking."
Jacob snorted and grabbed Nick's other arm. "Come on, Petruchio; let's get to work.
…
"Fangmeyers, Savannah Central patrol: West Broad St. to Appaloosa Blvd. Wilde, Hopps, Savannah Central patrol: Appleton St. to Appaloosa Blvd. Higgins, Grizzoli…"
Jacob had learned the chief's workaround for Nick and Judy's rookie training vs. PR issue: always keep them within two blocks of a veteran patrol team. It was quite elegant, really.
"Raibert, see Oates in Major Crimes (MC). Dismissed!"
Jacob had been expecting to be called up after the conversation the day prior, but he was still surprised at how quickly it happened. There was a mix of congratulations and condolences from the various officers for, 'being invited to the breakfast club'. This bit of gallows humor was due to Major Crimes handling any crime that started with the word 'serial'.
Jacob had no small experience with the sort of crimes that MC handled: mammal trafficking, smuggling of all types, as well as particularly heinous hate crimes. These were all crimes he had investigated for the SID during Operation: Noble Garden. Maybe when the NDA he signed for that operation came up for reclassification review in four and a half years, he'd get the chance to sit down with his fellow police officers and commiserate. That was going to be a two-drink ante conversation.
Oates and the MC unit were on the second floor, along with the other special crime units: the Vice, Gangland and Organized Crime task forces. This was also the location of the Strategic Law Enforcement Coordination Center (SLECC), or Sleek as it was called, which oversaw all integrated investigations throughout all twelve Precincts. Jacob thought the entire affair was quite overdone. When he contrasted it with the intel center in Incirlik, the ultra-top end computer systems made him feel like he was walking through a Gala™ computer store, or some kind of modern art expo. The MC work center itself was close to the rear of the building. The offices and workstations were arranged in a semi-circle around a central briefing area, at this moment dominated by Det. Oates and a white board covered in evidence photos and notes.
"Ah, Officer Raibert! Good, let's get started."
…
The MC was living up to the moniker, 'The Breakfast Club'; the case Jacob was being called to assist on was that of a serial rapist. The individual, either by contempt or intent, was now also wanted for murder, as two of his victims had died due to injuries sustained during their assault. At present, what was known was the perpetrator was a caracal of average size, well dressed and well spoken, and was targeting successful female herbivores and prey-classed omnivores. Jacob's role, in what he found out was to be a sting, was to act as bait. This was how he found himself in a salon chair with an undercover makeup and wardrobe specialist hovering nearby. Much to his chagrin, it seemed as if half the precinct, including Nick and Judy, were there to see his 'debut'.
Nick glanced at his partner. "You sure you're okay there Fluff? You seemed pretty hot when you heard what this was all about. We all heard you threatening to bring the Equal Opportunity Office down on the Chief's horns."
She looked at him for a moment, then gave a pained smile. "Yeah, I'm okay. It just smacks of sexism: they needed a young female prey mammal to act as bait in a sting, and instead of tapping the young female prey mammal they have on the force, they go with Jacob in drag." She huffed. "I may be within my rights, but I might have overdone it. I guess I should really just learn to..."
Nick snorted. "What, settle? Accept the status quo? That's not what got you this far, so don't slack off now. All the little guys and gals are counting on you, on us; if we settle or accept the status quo, then change never happens. It starts with you, after all." He gave his partner a warm smile.
Judy looked stunned for a moment, then giggled. "That was incredibly deep Nick. How are you the same mammal that insisted on trying a 'Sho-Ryu-Ken' on Jacob last night?"
The two were broken from their reverie by an exclamation from the makeup area. "You look fabulous!" The polecat specialist, Percy Dovetail, was giddy with delight.
Jacob scowled into the mirror. "I feel like a clown, and I look like a Bunny!"
The androgynous mustelid cocked their head to the side. "But, you are a bunny." It took both officers Lupinski and Winters to keep Jacob from throttling the mammal. Judy stepped between the hare and his prey.
"I think he meant Bonnie, and if it's any consolation you're not one of those either."
Wolford looked at Judy in confusion. "What's the difference?"
Oates ushered the terrified skunk out of Jacobs kicking range. "A Bunny is a sex worker, while a Bonnie is an Alban or Caledonian rabbit of Pictish descent."
Jacob paused in his efforts at murder and considered both Nathan Oates and Judy Hopps. He knew that, like his ancestors, the horses from Alba and Caledonia, especially those from County Clyde, were bred for war. The Clydesdales of the Gallowglass mercenary company were the stuff of legends. On the other paw, he should have seen that Hopps was a descendant of the Wode Warriors who stopped the Reman Army in its tracks. His estimation of both rose.
"Alright, I'm not going to kill them." Once standing upright, Jacob turned to Oates. "You've got me all dolled up, what's next?"
The Clydesdale turned to Jacob. "Now, we get you to look helpless."
The next hour was spent with various officers trying to advise Jacob how to, 'look helpless'. The general din of so many officers laughing attracted the Chief's attention.
"What is going on here?!"
Everyone stopped in their tracks and looked sheepishly at Bogo. It was Nick who offered up an explanation.
"We're trying to get Raibert in touch with his helpless, feminine side, but I think it was shot off during the war."
There was a rustle of chuckling at that, though the Chief seemed unimpressed. He turned to face Jacob.
"What is there to understand? You get up on your toes, like this!" Putting words to action, the towering Cape Buffalo rose up onto the tips of his pedal hooves, causing his flank to suddenly stick out. "Then, you hold your arms to the side like this, for balance, and then walk, one toe directly in front of the other!" By holding his arms at his side and bending them at the elbows, the Chief did an admirable job of masking the shape of his hips. His method of walking also caused his hips to move in a hyper-exaggerated runway model sway. He reached the end of the room and pivoted around.
"Now you…Winters?"
Everyone was torn from the spectacle of the Chief's strut, when they looked to see Mitch Winters convulsing on the floor. Jacob thought the lynx had had a stroke, until…
"Bwa HA HA HA HA!"
Beside him, Moira Lupinski looked ready to pop as she desperately toe kicked her partner.
"Shut up! -snerk- Shut up!"
In short order, the entire crowd was desperately trying not to laugh. Bogo shivered in place for a moment before bellowing, "Not, One, Word! Get back to work!" before storming off.
Once the Chief was out of earshot, Nick headed out. Judy noticed the direction he was heading.
"Nick, the garage is the other way."
"Yeah, but the CCTV monitoring and records section is this way, and I want to get there before the Chief orders that footage purged!"
There was a general rush of mammals as they went to, 'Save the Strut!'. All that remained were Jacob, Ferdinand, and Oates. Standing in the doorway were Nadine Fangmeyer and a female badger Jacob wasn't familiar with.
"Jacob," the tigress approached him, "…this is Dr. Pauline Dun. She's the precinct's chief psychiatrist and grief counselor."
Jacob considered a humorous comment for a moment, but the serious expression on the doctor's face made him hold his tongue.
"Officer Raibert," there was both pain and determination in the voice of the mammal in front of him, "…I'm here to help you understand the mindset of a victim, which is what you'll need to portray in order to catch this, creature."
…
The guise Jacob was to assume was that of an up-and-coming business Jill. 'She' was to remain aloof, but visible; dismissive, but wary of predators. To add to the image, Jacob was chauffeured to and from locations by an undercover officer. To date, the attacks had all occurred along the border between Savannah Central, and the Meadowlands District. The operation focused on having Jacob visible in various bars which the previous victims had frequented. In order to ensure that their prey didn't catch wise to the sting, Jacob went to multiple bars and restaurants, at different times and on different days. Some days were more of a bust than others.
The Chevalier Town Car was sitting at a gas station after another unsuccessful evening. Luckily, their prey was an infrequent predator, and there had been no additional attacks since the start of the operation. That being said, Jacob was usually on edge by the end of every night. He just wanted to get off shift and head over to Nick's place for Bad Movie Night and to plot how best to torture/tease Judy's cinematic innocence, once she finished her current semester of night classes. That, and use the bathroom; the copious water he needed to drink to maintain the ruse of a tipsy business mammal meant frequent rest stops during the night.
Jacob signaled to his backup, Officer Cynthia Reynolds, where he needed to go. In short order, Jacob was finishing up and heading back to the car, when his worst fears were realized.
"OOF!"
Jacob and another mammal collided, both stumbling at the contact.
"I am so sorry miss, I didn't see… Jacob?!" There, standing in front of him, was ZHIP Officer Pearl Swineart in her duty motorcycle gatorskins.
Jacob tried to silently convey that she should say nothing. Luckily, six months at the Academy had instilled enough of a rapport between the two that she quickly gathered his meaning and simply headed to the bathroom. It did nothing to stifle her peals of laughter, once the door was closed.
…
Judy Hopps was unwinding with several of her classmates: Zabrina Alescu (silver fox), Catherine Montaigne (mountain lion) and Dolores Twitchle (grey squirrel). The four of them had formed an unusual friendship, as the only four career minded females in the Rhetoric, Persuasion and Culture course (WRA 230) at the University of Zootopia. They studied together and relaxed together. This night, they were at the Coyote Moon Bar and Grill. Catherine, who was recently divorced, was the driving force behind the evening's festivities, much to Judy's chagrin.
"Come on, Judy, you have to have a type? What about him?" Catherine gestured towards a dapper tan feline relaxing in a booth near the entrance.
"Nope."
"What, you didn't even look at him!"
Judy took a sip of her beer. "Sure, I did, when we came in. I looked at him, he looked at me, and it gave me the creeps. So, nope."
"Is this about species? Cause let me tell you doefriend, there's nothing wrong with playing in different fields."
"Says woman who recently divorced murderous wolf." Zabrina quipped over the rim of her Martini glass, alcohol making her Wallachian accent more pronounced.
"Hey," Catherine pointed the celery stalk from her Bloody Mary at the vixen, "…I'll have you know that charge made securing a 'no-contest' divorce a cake walk, though I can wish it hadn't cost that poor ewe her life. Honestly, he didn't get bad until he started associating with those out-of-towners."
Judy huffed into her beer. "Cathy, it's not about species; there are plenty of non-lagomorphs I find attractive."
"Like your partner, maybe?" Delores asked with a twinkle in her eye.
"Again, nope."
Zabrina set her glass down. "I call B.S. I know you've mentioned how good he looks."
Judy picked up a pretzel stick and pointed with it. "I've also mentioned how much of a kit he can be, sometimes. He's okay at work, and when the situation gets serious, so does he; but I know him well enough and I know myself well enough, that while we're good friends, we'd be a disastrous couple. Not as bad as Cat and her ex but…" The table laughed as Catherine threw a wadded-up napkin at the doe.
Once her friends calmed down, Judy continued. "But seriously, I'm not looking right now. I've only just started my career, and It's hard enough climbing the ladder as a female; If I want to break through the glass ceiling, I'm going to need a running start, and I don't see that happening with some guy's delicate ego at dating a career minded doe weighing me down."
"So, play for my team." Dolores said while leaning back.
Catherine leaned forward. "I thought you and Lilly were doing good?"
"Oh, we are! Doesn't stop me from recruiting." The energetic squirrel looked around the restaurant for a moment. "How about her? The black Jill in the Two Piece?"
Judy looked to where her friend indicated and went dead still. A quick review of the restaurant showed her that the feline Catherine had pointed out earlier was paying an alarming amount of attention to the hare at the bar. Judy rapidly tapped on the table top and waited with her ears pointed erect. Within seconds, she heard a response from the 'Jill'.
"Girls," Judy said in a low voice without taking her eyes off of the building entrance, "…when the Jill and the Caracal leave, we wait five minutes then head to Cathy's place."
The three with her balked slightly. Catherine furrowed her brow.
"Now wait a minute, we just ordered…" She stopped cold when Judy looked at her. "O…okay, sleepover at my place."
A quiet settled over the table for the next 12 minutes, until the hare at the bar stood to leave. At that moment, the feline in the booth signaled for his check. Precisely five minutes after their departure, Judy and her friends paid, and left. It was an hour later at Cathy's up-town apartment when Judy felt her phone vibrate in her pocket with a text message. When she looked at it, she saw it was from Nick, its contents causing her to all but deflate in relief.
"Okay Judy, you're scaring me here. What's going on?" Dolores asked while perched on Catharine's shoulder.
"I'll tell you as much as I can over White Zinf and Rocky Road. Tomorrow's going to be a long day."
…
It was another two weeks before everyone's schedules lined up for another Lady' Night.
"I don't buy it." Zabrina shook her head. "I know the Jack you're talking about, we grew up in the same neighborhood and that was not Emanuel I smelled."
Judy chuckled as she could almost hear Jacob sigh in frustration, despite not being there. "And I'm telling you, that it was. We have an incredible makeup team for undercover work. They just tapped him for this case. He's been real busy since he started at the precinct about two and a half months ago." Judy pointed at Catherine while sipping her whiskey sour. "He's the mammal who caught your ex, after all."
The catamount grinned. "Really? I might give him a kiss then; maybe more than a kiss if that two-piece pants suit was any indication of his bod."
Judy quirked an eyebrow. "God, do you ever turn off?"
Catherine assumed a wounded air that Nick would have been proud of. "Hey, I don't judge; you do you, and I'll do me."
Dolores threw a peanut at the feline. "And everyone between you and her while you're at it."
While everyone was cleaning up from the laughter induced spit-take, the squirrel looked around the restaurant.
"Hey Judy, this co-worker of yours: jet black, super tall for a hare?"
"Yeah, why?"
Dolores pointed to a booth in the back. "He's right over there, with some Jill who looks familiar."
Everyone turned to look, just in time to see the two hares staring back at them.
"Oh, sweet cheese and crack…Cathy! Stop waving at them!" Everyone but Judy started laughing again.
Jacob waved jauntily and looked back at Valerie. "What?"
Valerie just smiled over her meal. "Subtlety, thy name is not Jacob."
"I blame Lapinius the Lesser; he's the hare that took off with all the subtle Efrafans in the first century, BCE."
"Are you calling me the child of thieves?"
Jacob waited until she took a drink. "Well, you did steal my heart."
Valerie swallowed and mock scowled. "That was baaaaaaaaaad!"
"Well, like you said: I don't do subtle." He took one of her paws in his own. "I am, however, big on honesty. Thanks for agreeing to come out tonight." They smiled at one another for a moment. "So, you said you had something for me?"
"Yes, but I'll hold off on giving it to you." Jacob looked quizzically at her, to which she rolled her eyes. "Oh, come on! Rookie cop who was at the center of two high profile arrests in two months, meets stunning, brilliant, talented…"
"Humble?"
"I'm Lapino so no, not even remotely; field reporter at a restaurant where they exchange notes and other media, while his nosy co-worker and her very flirty friends…"
"Is the cougar still waving at you?"
"No, but the squirrel's blowing kisses and making 'call-me' paw motions."
"Should I be worried about my chances with you?"
"Absolutely, she's gorgeous! You're going to have to step up your game, mister. What about you: should I be worried about 'the other woman'?"
"Not a chance in hell; you'd hurt me."
Valerie snorted, then leaned over to kiss his nose. "Damn right I would. So anyway, I pulled what I could on what you gave me: the phrase, 'We are Hunters', and the crest are both from something called the 'Thule Society'. They were a cult, and one of the driving forces behind the NAZI's rise to power during the Weimar Republic civil war and the Austro-Hungarian/Baltic war in the 1930's and 40's. They were the ones responsible for all those awful camps the History Channel is always doing specials about. They preached carnivore dominance and species purity as existential necessities for the survival of a healthy society; hit the Eweden community in Europa pretty hard." She saw Jacob frown. "What is it?"
"Something I heard recently, I'll need to double check." Jacob's thought went to the two recent arrests.
Jacob wrestled the wolf to the ground as he read the mammal his rights: "You worthless grass eating pest, do you know who I am? I am a Hunter!"
Jacob kept his back to the unsuspecting serial rapist: "You don't fight the natural law, little morsel: you are the prey, and I am the Hunter!"
