"Does the Miranda warning say something about me killing her?"
"No, Wilde, it doesn't."
"You sure? Nothing like, 'you have the right to remain silent or I will shoot you with my gun. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a violent method of retaliation–'"
"No, Wilde," the Chief growled.
At this, Nick actually found himself snickering. He was finally going to finish this and take Judy home, which made him feel overjoyed, even deadly. The two were standing outside the abandoned office building on 34th Street in Downtown Zootopia, the address of which Nick had received a little under an hour ago from the same unknown number. It was still early in the day, the sun shining bright just before noon, a cold breeze in the air. Nick stood loading and reloading his gun – this one lethal with actual bullets, not a tranquilizer dart in sight. In fact, there wasn't a tranquilizer gun in anyone's paws or holsters as Nick glanced around at the ZPD's strongest officers; Chief Bogo had really spared no expense on this mission. Each and every animal standing outside of that building was heavily armed with not only lethal ammunition, but also a strong bond with and respect for the rabbit they were here to take home. Nick couldn't help but grin at that thought.
"Alright, circle up!" the Chief called as he laid out a blueprint of the building on the hood of his vehicle. "Delgato, Johnson, Snarlov, McHorn: take the east entrance. Wolfard, Fangmeyer, Pennington, Grizzoli: take the back. Rhinowitz, Jackson, Oates, Charles: stay here and cover base if anything goes wrong. The rest of us will take the main entrance. Stay close to each other, and no mistakes here today. Wilde, don't do anything stupid and I'll let you lead with me – oh, and Wilde?"
"Yes, Chief?"
"When we get Hopps, let's try to keep her out of trouble for good, shall we? I think this one's been through enough. I'm not trying to lose my best officer any time soon."
"Yes, sir," Nick chuckled.
"You got the ring, Wilde?" Officer Wolfard, a timber wolf and good friend of Nick and Judy's, asked. In response, a smirking Nick patted the left breast of his bullet-proof vest, where Judy's engagement ring sat nestled in his button-up Hawaiian shirt's pocket just beneath the vest.
"Good, you get that on her and marry her before she gets kidnapped again, yeah?" Wolfard chortled as he clapped Nick on the shoulder and all of the nearby officers joined in laughing.
"Sounds like a plan to me," Nick laughed.
"Let's move!" the Chief called out.
At the command, the massive group split into their sections and began progressing toward their assigned locations. Chief Bogo and Nick led Team A, which entered the building through the main entrance, Delgato led Team B on the east side, Wolfard led Team C through the back, and Rhinowitz remained at base with Team D. The entire operation wasn't expected to take more than twenty to thirty minutes, even if there was an emergency. An ambulance and paramedics were on standby with Team D mainly for Judy, but also for the off chance someone was injured. There were three main parts to the operation: infiltrate the building in a manner as low-profile as possible, take the suspect – Valerie – into custody or either take down by force, and extract the target – Judy. The building in question was large, but Nick had a feeling it wouldn't take long to find who they were looking for, as Valerie had invited them, and he knew she loved a good show.
Since Judy had identified that their main suspect was Valerie, the ZPD had done quite a bit of digging into her personality and her past, which involved Nick in more ways than one. Though there were some somewhat awkward words exchanged between Nick and the Chief, Nick disclosed everything he knew about the vixen. However, since Valerie had worked in the ZPD (something which the Chief did attempt to apologize for), there was no telling how much the fox knew about the department and its employees, even if she had only worked as a low-level officer for a couple of months. The officers could potentially be walking into a very bad situation, but Nick remained firm on the fact the officers easily outnumbered Valerie, no matter what she knew.
Nick was the first one to reach the glass revolving doors of the building, the Chief and the rest of Team A just on his heels. They went in pairs through the doors and began to spread across the lobby on the first floor. They didn't need to go far, though.
"I think that's far enough," Valerie called in a fruity voice as she stepped out carefully from a nearby hallway, which Nick believed led to one of the building's many staircases.
"Freeze!" Nick, the Chief, and a few other officers immediately hollered, as they quickly took aim at the moving fox.
The vixen only smiled as she pushed a small figure in front of her path. Judy stumbled forward, struggling to walk upright, a bad limp crippling her momentarily. The officers hesitated, refusing to fire with Judy in the way. Valerie kept a firm grasp on the rabbit's right arm and a gun aimed at her head until the two made it to the center of the lobby.
"Kneel," Valerie commanded as she shoved Judy to the linoleum ground, gun still threatening her.
Every officer was focused on the threat in the room, but Nick had his eyes somewhere else.
There she was.
First, relief flooded Nick's body and mind at the sight of the figure who sat slumped on the aged floor, but it was quickly replaced by an intense wave of nausea at the sight of the bunny's condition. There were large rips in her black t-shirt, blood staining her pink athletic shorts and matting her fur. In some places, the red was so dark that it was nearly impossible to make out Judy's light grey fur through the black. She looked broken, bloody, and bruised, but she still managed to sit with an unwavering strength.
Nick couldn't put the happiness he felt into words; the sight of Judy alive was overwhelming, but he also felt his anger rising once more, threatening to spill over like a boiling kettle left unattended. Both foxes looked up and made direct eye contact; it was clear Valerie was enjoying every second of the ordeal.
"You can come on out, I'm not gonna bite," Valerie called loudly, her words honeyed.
From a hallway off to the right, Team B emerged with a hesitant Delgato at the head. A few seconds later, Team C appeared from a third hallway just off to the side of the lobby, hidden by designer pillars made of marble that had crumbled with the passing years. With every officer's eyes and gun trained on Valerie, she finally had the attention she wanted, and her leer showed it.
Nick holstered his gun and took a single step forward.
"Put down the gun," he called, his voice echoing off of the lobby's walls.
"Nicky, it's so good to see you again."
"I wish I could say the same."
Another step forward.
Valerie's smile faltered slightly, but she kept the charade going.
"Oh, you've always been such a charmer, Nicky. That must be why this darling rabbit loves you so," Valerie spat with venom, each syllable dripping with danger. "But don't worry, Honey, I've taken good care of her while she's been away."
"Nick," Judy called out weakly, comfort in her tiny voice at the sight of him.
"It's okay, Carrots, I'm right here."
Another step.
"You have no idea how happy I am to see you," Judy said with a small smile, which Nick returned.
"Trust me, Carrots, I think I do."
With his words, Nick took another step, but it was one too far for Valerie.
"Don't take another step, Nicky."
Nick froze and held up his paws in defense.
"Alright, I'm not moving any further. Let's talk this through, Valerie."
"Yes, let's. Let's talk about how satisfying it was to inflict all of this pain," Valerie sang with joy as she gestured to Judy and her apparent injuries. "Or let's talk about how satisfying it was to inflict all of this pain when you could do nothing to stop me. You did such a wonderful job of protecting your – now, what do you call her? It's not 'wife,' I know that. Still have commitment issues, I see."
Nick felt his eyebrows raise at the taunt, but before he could return the snide remark, Judy beat him to it.
"The double standards in this room are unbelievable considering Valerie here hasn't laid a paw on me and she's the one with the commitment issues. You should talk to her new boyfriend, Nick, he's a real keeper."
"Shut up, bunny!" Valerie yelled, forcing the gun closer to Judy's head.
"Hey, hey, let's be rational here, Valerie," Nick stated gently, trying to keep Valerie's attention on him. "There are more than a dozen armed cops in here, and just one you, so let's not do anything stupid."
"Oh, that's a riot, coming from you, Nicky," Valerie's voice turned to ice, her stare just as cold. "Don't start acting like you care about me."
"Not what I was doing," Nick said with a shake of his head. "But you've always had selective hearing, Valerie."
The vixen's ears flattened against her head, and a low growl escaped from her throat. Nick decided to detract attention from her for just a moment.
"Carrots, who's the new guy?"
Valerie's eyes flashed with rage.
"Don't say a word," she hissed down at Judy.
The threat clearly wasn't enough to stop an ambitious little bunny.
"Culpeo. He's a fox who has quiet the fetish for torture. Case and point," Judy nodded down as a gesture to her wounds. "I wish I could tell you where he is right now, but I can tell you he's not far. He sticks to Queen Bee here like he'd die if he went three minutes without an order from her."
Valerie only growled in response, her attention momentarily focused on Judy. Nick took advantage of that, nodding to Delgato and Wolfard, who both immediately snuck back down their respective hallways to alert Team D of Culpeo's nearby presence. It wouldn't be long before the sandy fox was found and taken into custody.
"Never mind that," Valerie stated, shifting her harsh words to flirtatious ones as she turned back to Nick. "Culpeo is nothing more than an assistant. I'd take you over him any day, Nicky, Baby."
Midway through her sentence, though, Nick had become distracted as Fangmeyer had slightly lowered his gun, a confused expression on the tiger's face as his attention remained focused on Judy's back. In not paying attention fully, Nick made a fatal mistake, as Valerie immediately noticed.
The female fox's eyes narrowed as she followed Nick's line of sight, briefly glancing over her shoulder at Fangmeyer, then down toward Judy. As she turned to fully face Judy, a barely audible snap was heard throughout the silent lobby. Leaving the zip tie that had been bounding her paws on the floor behind her, Judy stood up and in one swift motion, struck Valerie in the face with one paw and disarmed her with the other. Valerie stumbled backwards and Judy immediately took aim.
"Stay where you are," the small rabbit stated in a penetratingly loud voice.
She then turned her gaze to Nick, a paw outstretched.
"Cuffs," she demanded.
Nick immediately removed his handcuffs from his belt and tossed them upward in an arch. Catching them with ease, Judy circled around Valerie, who was bleeding significantly from the nose, and firmly kicked her to the ground.
"You have the right to remain silent," Judy began as she latched the handcuffs onto the fox. "Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to speak to an attorney, and to have an attorney present during any questioning."
Finishing her required lines, Judy lifted Valerie up slightly by the back of her shirt so that the two were close once more. Smirking at an amazed Nick and the astounded officers standing idly by, guns half raised, Judy leaned in to say one final thing.
"You're going to prison for a very, very, very long time, bitch."
With a smug smile, Judy dropped the shocked and bloodied fox back on the floor and gestured to the officers.
"Get her out of my sight."