The briefing.
(Judy POV)
It's been a few hours since we left the precinct this morning, and we are on our
way to meet agent Waterwood at the Tundratown FBI building.
We had been out patrolling since we didn't have anything to do until 10:50.
Nick insisted that he drive, and as usual it looks like were going to be a little late.
"Can you believe this!?" Nick blurts out suddenly. "The sun isn't even out and it's, THIS hot!"
I can understand Nick's frustration, the air-conditioner isn't working in this squad car.
We only noticed it about a half-hour after we left the precinct.
I turn my head to him before responding. "Well they said on the news, this is going to
be the last hot day of the year. so w-" I stop in the middle of my sentence, thinking back to last winter.
"NICK!" I blurt out excitedly, causing him to go a little hard on the brakes as we pull up to a stoplight. "I completely forgot!"
His ears quickly perk up as he gives me his full attention. I pull my lips into a little smile as
he peers at me through his sunglasses. "Forgot about what?" Nick asks.
"Think about it Nick." I start. "What happens when it starts getting cold?"
I can see his eyes widen through his sunglasses, as his ears slide back.
He then returns his attention to the stoplight before responding. "I was hoping you had forgotten about that."
"But you were so cute!" I say in a squeal, while remembering just how fluffy Nick gets when his winter coat comes in.
"Foxes aren't cute! bunnies are cuuuuu-" He trails off seeing the glare beginning to form on my face.
I begin to pull my lips into a smirk trying to look as smug as I possibly can.
I see the light turn green out of the corner of my eye, and the engine revs up as Nick accelerates too quickly.
"NICK!" I yelp as I brace myself grabbing hold of the seatbelt tightly.
"Sorry, Carrots." Nick says hastily. "I don't want to make us late."
"Since when do you care about being late?" I snap as I try to calm myself. I can feel my heart
racing in my chest, I wasn't expecting him to accelerate so suddenly.
"Well I don't, but you do." I look over at Nick, he's still focused on driving but his ears are pointing
back and he just startled me, so I know exactly what he's feeling.
"Just give me a little warning next time okay." I respond more calmly, as I feel my heart's pace begin to slow.
"Alright, I will." I hear Nick say calmly. His voice may be calm, but I know otherwise.
It suddenly gets dark, I was so focused on Nick, I didn't notice us driving up to the tunnel.
Flashes of dim yellow light fill the car, as we passed by the lights lining the tunnel walls.
I catch glimpses of him looking at me between the flashes. He must think it's too dark for me
to see, but I can easily make out his face each time he darts a glance at me.
It starts getting brighter as we drive out of the tunnel, and a light snow starts landing on the windshield.
Nick turns on the windshield wipers, as I start to think of how to get his mind off of him startling me.
It only takes a second to come up with a question.
"So." I start to ask. "Why do you think agent Waterwood requested us?" Nick's ears move back to their usual position, and I start to relax.
With out thinking it through I continue. "The only truly exciting case we had was the missing mammal case with-"
"Try not to think about that too much." Nick says suddenly, cutting me off. "You only just stopped having nightmares."
I glance back at him, his ears are pointing back once more, and hearing the word nightmares forces the memories to the front of my mind.
Nick snarling at me, and the feeling of fear that shot through my heart, when he snapped his sharp teeth around my neck.
I know it was all just an act, but part of me was scared that there might've been another nighthowler dart in the gun that we didn't see.
We didn't have much time to check it, so that little nagging feeling was at the back of my mind the whole time.
I remember the first time I woke screaming in the middle of the night, I immediately called Nick.
He was still in the academy at the time, but he picked up the second he saw me calling.
I told him what happened in the nightmare, and after that, every time he scares me he always looks like
he wants to hide his face from me, even when I laugh at being scared by him.
I've been trying to find a good time to talk to him about it. I guess now is a good a time as any.
"Nick." I say putting my paw on his arm.
"It wasn't you I was afraid of, it was the nighthowler serum. I was scared that it wasn't a blueberry you were shot with.
I was so worried that there might've been another one in the gun that we didn't see.
Don't blame yourself for my nightmares, blame Bellwether. You only did what I asked you to do, so we could get her to talk."
Nick's ears are now almost laying flat against his head.
"I know you would never hurt me. Please Nick, understand that it's not your fault that I've been having nightmares."
"Nick." I say as I grip his arm a little more tightly.
"Alright, Carrots." Nick says breaking the silence.
"You know, right Nick?" I say calmly.
I see his lip twitch as it's pulled into a slight smile before he replies. "Yeah Carrots, I know."
"Well, we're here." Nick says while turning into a nearly snow covered lot, mostly filled with solid black unmarked SUVs.
The lot is sitting in front of a very plain building, that's very unsophisticated in its design.
"It's kind of small isn't it?" I ask, examining it, as Nick looks for a spot to park, it looks to be only one floor.
Nick pulls into a open parking space, we hop out of the squad car and head to the building.
We finally get there and walk into a long mostly empty room, with only a few chairs and tables lining the walls.
The only thing with the most detail is that they have FBI written in big bold letters above a desk, at the far end of the room.
"Well, we're in the right place." Nick says in a slightly joking tone.
I shush him, and we start to walk across the room. As we approach the front desk the sound of typing becomes more apparent.
We step up to it, and find a rather annoyed looking tigress wearing a black suit, and tie.
"Can I help you?" She asks, sounding disgusted with our presence.
She continues typing without breaking eye contact with the monitor, completely ignoring us.
I glance at Nick to see him do the same. Our eyes only meet for a second, before our focus returns to the tigress.
"We're supposed to be meeting agent Waterwood here." I say trying not to sound angry.
"He's not back yet, you can go wait-"
"Agent Whiskers!" We hear a happy voice calling from the entrance behind us.
The tigress surprisingly enough stops typing, and her expression turns to that of rage, and is practically steaming.
"I hope your not giving my friends any trouble."
Now recognizing the voice, we turn around to see agent Waterwood walking across the room towards us.
"Well if that's everything, I'll get back to what I was doing now." The tigress we now know as
Agent Whiskers, says with the same disgusted tone as before, as she begins typing once more.
"Don't mind her, she's always grumpy." Waterwood says playfully, as he stops in front of us.
"Bite me Waterwood." Agent Whiskers barks, as her keystrokes seem to get even heavier.
"Don't tempt me." He respondes to her in another playful tone.
"Officers Hopps and Wilde, this way please." Waterwood says pleasantly, putting his paws
behind his back, and walking towards a hallway to the left of the desk.
We follow him down the hall, around a corner, and stop at an elevator. Above which is a display, that reads [-30].
"How far down does this place go?" I ask, as Waterwood pulls out a card, and holds it up to a sensor.
It beeps, and the light that was once red, turns green.
The numbers above the door begin to count up, as Waterwood starts to say. "This facility has 64
sub floors, 65 total, counting this one." He then looks up at the numbers.
The doors open finally, to reveal a very grim looking interior. Nick and I share a glance, as Waterwood steps into the elevator.
We quickly follow as he takes the card still in his paw, and puts it up to the sensor just above the buttons panel. It beeps, as he presses the number -44.
The doors close and the elevator begins to descend. Waterwood stands in front of them, in a authoritative fashion.
He starts holding his paws behind him once more, and starts to lecture about the history of the facility.
The way he's lecturing reminds me of college professors. I stop paying attention and look at Nick, who is still focused on Waterwood.
The wolf finishes explaining just as the elevator doors open. He then steps out into the well lit, but dreary hallway and turns left.
We step out of the elevator to follow him, as we look around the long empty hall.
The walls are painted concrete, and all the electrical wires run through pipes on the ceiling as well as the upper part of the wall.
There's a door every 10 or so meters, some of which are open.
"Well here we are." Waterwood says stopping at a door that has the number 1232 in the middle.
The sign next to the door reads. [Agent Volin Marcus Waterwood.] He puts his card into a slot on the door handle, that clicks as it unlocks.
He opens the door, then steps in turning the lights on in one fluid movement.
To the left of the room; is a white board with a map of the city. With bits of string taped to it, in different areas that lead to various pictures of warehouses.
On the other side of the room is his desk.
There are no pictures, it's mostly just paper work, books and a few pens. As we step into the office the wolf's sent hits me like a fog.
It's not unpleasant, just unexpected. He must spend a lot of time in here.
Waterwood stands next to his desk, and turns toward us, weaves his fingers over his stomach.
"So I'm sure your both wondering why I requested you two."
"Yes." I feel a little embarrassed at hearing Nick and I both say the same thing, at the same time.
We then quickly share a glance "Do you two do that often?" Waterwood asks in a chuckle.
"NO!" We both say with our focus back on the wolf.
"You two seam to be in sync, that's a good thing, it indicates trust... Among, other things."
Nick and I share a glance to express our concern, before returning our attention back to Waterwood.
Whom at this point has probably gathered that Nick and I can communicate with out words.
"Moving on." The wolf starts. "I'm sure the two of you remember the missing mammal cases."
"We do." Nick says as he starts walking towards the white board.
"Well, I had connected all the missing mammal cases into one big case. I was working on it for a month." He then pauses to watch Nick walk to the white board.
Nick stops in front of the white board, looking up at it as Waterwood continues.
"Then you two come in, and find them in a day. I was, and still am impressed." He then puts his paws behind his back.
Nick is still examining the map. I then decide to look more closely at it, but I'm focusing more on the way everything has been assembled.
The pieces of tape are cut cleanly, and each piece is the same length. As well, each piece is carefully placed on the string without any bubbles.
The string is also cleanly cut, and the pictures are perfectly lined up on the left and right of the map.
"I am hoping you two will be able to assist me in locating the weapons." Waterwood says calmly pulling my focus back to him.
I then glance over the items on his desk. Everything is perfectly lined up, each folder, book and pen, is neat and tidy.
I then quickly glance around the room looking for pictures, but the watercolor painting of a forest, is the only image in the room.
I put my focus back on the wolf before I ask with a confused tone. "So you want us to help you find the weapons?"
"Yes." Waterwood says. "You two found all 14 missing mammals in two days. If you two put the same determination into finding the weapons-"
"So." Nick says cutting him off. "The wolf needs help with tracking." Nick then turns around, crossing his arms with a smirk.
Agent Waterwood smiles at Nick before he responds. "It's not as easy as sniffing the air and tracking down the bad guy."
Waterwood then walks up to the white board, and points to some of the pictures next to the map.
"My investigation led us to these warehouses, all of them empty when we arrived."
He puts his paw back by his side and continues. "Evidence gathered at the scenes suggest the
weapons where at these locations at some point."
"What about the crime syndicate?" Nick asks.
Waterwood takes a deep breath. "My objective is to find and retrieve the weapons." He says crossing his
arms, and leaning on the wall next to the white board.
"That seems suspicious." Nick says swooping his ears back, as mine drop. "Why only the weapons?" He asks.
"There are other agents working on this case, they're takeing care of the syndicate." Waterwood responds reassuringly.
"How many agents are working on this case?" I ask, stepping closer to Nick.
"73." Waterwood replies.
"Why are there so many agents working on this case?" I ask, as my ears pop back up.
"I'm sure Chief Bogo showed you the censored case binder I gave him"
"Yes he showed us." I hear Nick say. I turn to look at him, and see him still focused on Waterwood.
I look back to the wolf as he starts to speak.
"Well, that was one of 31 case binders. It's a big case, and a big syndicate"
Waterwood walks to his desk and pulls one of the folders to him.
"There's a lot more to this case that I haven't read." He says picking out one of the carefully aligned pins.
"So you haven't even read the entire case." Nick says crossing his arms, as he steps closer to the wolf.
"The parts of the case that I haven't read are irrelevant to finding the weapons." He replies.
He then begins to write in the folder as he continues. "Weapons trafficking isn't the only thing they do."
"Wait." Nick says. "This is a new syndicate, how did they get so big so fast?"
"Well not new." Waterwood replies. "More like newly discovered. They have been in
operationfor a few years." Waterwood stops writing, and turns back to face us, the pin still in his paw.
"Can they not just, I don't know, move the weapons out of the city?" I ask trying to put the topic back
on the weapons since that's our objective.
"No, they can't." Waterwood respondes crossing his arms. "We're scanning everything coming in-and-out of the city."
Nick narrows his eyes before saying. "Everything?"
"It's very important that we don't let them move the weapons out of the city." Waterwood says
as he begins twirling the pen in his fingers.
"There's something your not telling us about the weapons, isn't there?" Nick asks as he focuses
more intensely on the wolf.
Looking as if he's trying to intimidate him into talking.
My ears drop, as Waterwood looks back at us with an unflinching expression.
"Yes there is." The wolf replies. "However, it's classified." My eyes widen at the
word classified, and I blurt out suddenly.
"They have classified weapons!?"
Waterwood drops the pen as he darts to the door, slamming it closed.
He exhales heavily from his nose, and turns to face us.
"Yes." He says quietly. "They got there paws on classified weapons."
He then raises his right paw before continuing. "However you don't have to worry about that."
"Oh I think we're going to worry about-"
"They will be more interested in selling them, not using them" He states sternly, cutting Nick off.
"And what's stopping them from using these, classified weapons?" I ask crossing my arms, with a stern expression.
Waterwood looks reluctant to speak further on the topic, but he then stands up straight as he lowers his paw.
"The classified weapons are still in the prototype phase, and they have a security feature to
prevent more than one individual from using them." Waterwood then crouches to pick up the pen that he dropped.
He walks back to his desk, and carefully places it with the other pens, lining it up perfectly before continuing.
"They can't sell a weapon that will only work for them, and THAT, is all I can say." He turns around to face us
once more, folding his arms before continuing."I'm not going to lie to you.
This is going to be very dangerous regardless if they use the prototypes or not."
"More dangerous then being chased through the jungle by a savage panther?" Nick says confidently.
"Far more dangerous." Waterwood replies. "Some of the weapons they have can blow us in half.
That reminds me, you two are going to be issued firearms for this case."
"Firearms?" I say putting my paws together. "I'm not really the best shot."
Waterwood squints his eyes at me before replying.
"Well you did get a passing grade."
"How do you know that?" I ask, dropping my ears.
"I've read your file." Waterwood states reluctantly.
"You read my file!?" I blurt out, immediately hearing my privacy had been violated.
"How much of it?" I can feel my eyebrows beginning to furrow.
"All of it." The wolf reply sternly. "And yours too Wilde."
"Why did you read our files?" Nick blurts out taking a step towards the wolf, balling his fist.
"I needed to make sure." Waterwood reply sternly.
"Sure of what!?" Nick shouts, each word full of anger.
Waterwood then takes a deep breath before responding. "This wont be the first time I've worked with
officers from the ZPD." Waterwood's ears lay back as he continues.
"Long story short, I ordered them to run, they didn't, and they got themselves killed."
"That still does not excuse this violation of our privacy." I say trying to control my anger.
"I do NOT want that to happen again." The wolf states sternly. "I read your files to see
if I could trust you on this case. I apologize for how this makes you feel." His apology only makes
me feel more angry towards him. We didn't like this wolf before, and I especially don't now.
I then exhale through my nose heavily, and with it goes my anger.
I only did I just met this wolf today, perhaps his heart was in the right place.
"That won't-" Nick and I pause as our focus turns to each other. Thinking of it
now, we do say the same thing, at the same time a lot.
"Happen with us." I continue calmly as we both look back towards Waterwood.
"I know it won't. Now I wanted to brief you two before I asked you if
you would like to assist me, and now I have. So do you?"
"Well Nick?" I ask looking at him before he replies.
"Well I don't like guns."
"You don't?" Waterwood says in a perplexed tone. "But you were the best shot in your class at the academy."
"That doesn't mean that I like them." Nick says. "They are dangerous, and I wish they didn't need to exist."
"Well they do." The wolf replies informatively. "And there are a lot of them somewhere in the city."
"What are you going to do with them when we find them?" I ask.
Waterwood turns his head to look at the painting before he responds.
"The more dangerous weapons will be destroyed, however the regular weapons like
handguns and rifles, will be put in storage." Nick and I look towards each other
once more, and without words we convey our feelings towards this wolf, but we
agree it's a good idea to help him find the weapons.
We look back up at him when he pauses, he looks back down at us once before continuing.
"As for the prototypes, they will be sent back to the company that created them."
I take a step forward before saying. "You really could've presented the case to us
better, and we don't like the fact that you read our files."
"I understand." Waterwood responds in a shallow tone.
"Despite that however." I continue. "Helping you would be the right thing to do."
"Are you sure?" Waterwood asks. "There's a very high risk of being shot."
"Yes." Nick and I respond.
"Excellent, I'm looking forward to working with both of you." He then reaches
back behind his desk and pulls out a case binder.
"This case binder is mostly uncensored." He states sternly. "So don't let it out of your
sight, and don't let anyone see it. Understood?"
Nick and I both say. "Yes sir." As Nick takes the binder from the wolf. Waterwood then
quickly pulls out his phone, he checks it, then returns it to his pocket.
"12:02." Waterwood states. "Well I'm going to go get some lunch, there's this lovely new
outdoor cafe in Uptown Sahara Square, overlooking the sand dunes.
They opened yesterday and I think that maybe my new spot."
He then opens the door to his office. Nick steps to the door and asks. "Don't you guys have a food court here?"
"Yes we do." The wolf replies. "However the food hear is toxic." He continues out of the office.
We then follow him back to the elevator. The ride back up is quiet. When we exit the building
Waterwood breaks from us and heads to one of the unmarked SUVs, and drives off.
"So lunch?" Nick asks, as we return to our squad car.
"I could eat." I reply. "The usual diner?" I then climb into the passenger seat, and begin to buckle myself in.
"Where else would we go?" Nick says, doing the same on his side.
"They have the best fish burgers in the whole downtown area." Nick then starts the car, and we had off.
End part #2