"The car stopped close to the 10th and Pack Street intersection, it's on Pack Street." Sounded Wilde on the radio.
"Shouldn't you guys radio for backup?" Judy's voice sounded from the radio in the car now.
"I think we are good. We are still jus' trying to find them." Replied Clawson.
Danielle held the wheel tight and drove fast through the waking Zootopia. The sea horizon shone red as they drove away from the port. A red dawn for a bloody morning.
She pulled the radio's communicator close to her mouth. "Wilde, how many mammals left the car and how many hours ago?" She stopped the sedan, a few tens of meters away from the blue car. The street was still deserted, being that early, but a bakery seemed to be opening.
"Six." The radio sounded. "One seemed like a big squirrel or something of the sorts."
"Details Wilde…" Answered Danielle, impatiently.
"Ok, ok. I told you she was mad with something." He seemed to say a bit away from his microphone. "We have a deer, the squi-"
"Nick, that's meerkat." Said Judy, in a parenting tone.
"Oh really Miss Bunnywin? Care to continue then?" Poked Wilde.
"Can you two focus for a moment?!" Danielle released her communicator's button, her eyes fixated on the blue car half a block away from them.
"Sorry Howell." Answered both Nick and Judy.
"So… we are looking at a meerkat, a deer, a warthog, a pig and…" She paused a bit, some clicking sounds soon followed. "A llama. The driver was a llama." Proceeded Judy.
"Ok." Danielle put the communicator back on the radio console. "Clawson, what did you get from the place they got in?"
"It's… an office building." Peter tapped furiously on his small notebook.
"Anything of note?" Danielle pulled her pistol. Pressure is ok. She pulled the clip and counted the pellets. Five stun rounds. She then tested the shooting mechanism, the fssss sound was always relieving to hear.
"Oh…" Peter paused for a moment. He then did a bit of tapping here and there and paused again. "Danny, this is bad."
"What Peter?" Danielle reloaded her clip and cocked her pistol.
"There are a lot of lawyer offices, accountants and a Commercial Representative of Schweinburg. That town is just 10 kilometers from Beavertown." Peter turned the notebook towards her. "You know how mammalpedia has census data from the prefectures now? Take a look."
Danielle pulled the notebook towards her and started to read. Pig 31%, Warthog 25%, Rabbit 20%, Sheep 23%, 1% other species… "Their population doesn't follow the 9-1 proportion…"
"Not just that." Wilde sounded again on the radio. "They have a confirmed Hunter's cell there."
Danielle flicked her pistol back on safe and holstered it. "I can't say that I'm surprised…"
"And now we know what happened to all those Nighthowler shipments." Peter added.
"Damn… so we are back on this tune…" Danielle picked back the radio's communicator. "Guys, thanks for the help, I'll change the channel and call for backup. Bye."
"Bye Danny!" Replied Judy.
Danielle tuned the radio on the main ZPD channel. "Central, this is Detective Howell and Detective Clawson. We tracked the 10-10V involved in this night's 10-33. Over."
It was a brief moment before they got a response. "Detective, this is Central, proceed, over."
"We had assistance from Detectives Wilde and Wilde and we've determined that the suspects are in the building. We request immediate level two assistance. Over." Followed Danielle.
"Detective, please provide the location, over." Dispatch answered.
Peter pulled the communicator from Danielle's paw. "Central, this is Detective Clawson, the address is Pack Street 10452, office 33. Over."
"Detective, 10-7. Over" Replied dispatch.
"Central, that is Pack Street 10452, office 33. Over." Answered Clawson.
"Roger Detectives. 10-6. Over." Ended dispatch.
Peter put the communicator back on the radio and leaned back, putting his notebook on the backseat. "Now we…" He jumped in his seat, hitting the roof of the car.
"Peter are yo-" Started to ask Danielle.
"Shush!" Peter's ears turned wildly. "The hell?!" He shoved his head outside and shouted. "Shit!" Picking up the communicator again. "Central, this is Detective Clawson, we may have to scrap that 10-6, suspects might be destroying evidence, we are moving in. Over."
"What?!" Asked Danielle, and that was when the smell of burning paper hit her. "Are you… ?!" Danielle looked outside of her car and as sure as the day is bright, white and gray smoke was coming from a window on the third floor of the office building.
"Detectives, we strongly advise you waiting for backup! Over!" Replied dispatch in an alarmed tone.
"No-can-douken Central, we are moving in. Over and out." Replied Peter, pulling his pistol from inside his black coat.
Danielle unholstered her own and stepped out of the car, setting the pistol to unsafe. They moved quickly, approaching the office building's front door. At the reception they could see an old beaver in a security garb sleeping silently.
She knocked on the glass door and slapped her badge against it, waking up the now alarmed security officer. He took a few seconds to understand what was happening and unlocked the electronic door, letting them in.
"Officers what is…" Started the guard.
"We have a high risk situation underway. Please do not alert any of the tenants and do not let anyone in that is not a ZPD Officer. Backup is on its way, stay safe!" Said Clawson, cutting him off.
They quickly climbed the staircase to the third floor without even thinking, all attention focused on what was in front of them. Once they reached the emergency exit door for the third floor they paused for a moment.
"Peter, I'll be spearhead, cover my six." Danielle barked, feeling exasperated.
"Roger!" Answered Peter, a smile under his whiskers. "Oh, hey, Danny?"
"What Peter?" Danielle turned and saw his extended fist towards her. She smiled and gave a hard bump with her left paw closed into a fist.
"Lets rock!" He replied.
They moved quickly, silently. No hesitation, just their rhythmic breath and the approaching 33 door. Danielle positioned herself on the left, Peter on the right, they could clearly hear the ruckus and confusion inside.
Peter counted to three with his paw and kicked the door hard. Danielle moved in first, a deer right in front of her to receive her loud shout of "ZPD, NOBODY MOVE!". Her reaction took only a fraction of a second, the first pellet was already hitting the deer's head and the second flying towards her chest when she started to turn thirty degrees left and moving deeper into the room. Reliable as a clock Peter's pistol sounded right behind her, first two times, then a single time. Danielle saw as the llama tried to move towards something, but his reflexes weren't quick enough and she already had him under her sights. Plac Plac sounded her pellets, when they hit the llama's torso and mouth.
She scanned her side of the room, no one was there, just a mess of an office and a burning trash can close to a window. No doubt a lot of evidence destroyed. "Clear!" She whispered. "Two suspects down."
"Clear." Peter whispered back. "Two down, one missing."
She could now scan the whole room, three office desks, computer towers seemingly disassembled in a hurry and smashed hard drives here and there in the room. A flag pole stand with the zootopian flag on one side and a parade blue flag on a spear pole, sporting a white wind rose in it's center. Schweinburg's flag, I presume. An opaque glass door stood on the farther side of the office, Mr Tusk - Commercial Representative could be read in golden letters over the glass.
Both of them approached the door, their breath a rhythmic and calm symphony. Like a clock, they both dropped their empty clips and loaded new ones, leaning against the walls on each side of the door.
"The door is open Detectives, please come in." Sounded a voice from inside.
Peter signaled to his ears and Danielle paid close attention to sounds. She could faintly hear talking inside, but the voices were a bit mechanical. She extended her paw and slid open the door, slowly, the sound of the radio flooded her ears now.
".. Patrol #101, 10-6. Over." … "Patrol #32, please move to Pack Street 10452. Over." … "All patrols in Savanna Central, please move to Pack Street 10452. Over."
Danielle glanced inside, a small RAM radio stood on a table alongside a whisky bottle. In the middle of the room a turned over table, only a pair of ears standing over the table's edge. From the street she could hear approaching some sirens now. "Sir, come out with your hands in the air! You are surrounded and have absolutely no chance of escape."
"Oh I know that Detective." Said the hidden warthog. "I'll be right out, I just have to… uuuuurg…" He grunted. "I hate needles."
A syringe flew from behind the table and clinked on the floor close to their paws. Danielle glanced at Peter, confused, his expression was of pure terror. The warthog grunted again, this time pushing the table out of his way. He was on all fours, one of his tusks had gotten lodged into the table. With a twist from his head he released his tusk, breaking part of the table. His eyes were dark, staring straight through them, his hooves scratched the floor.
Peter got the best over her and started shooting, she immediately followed. The warthog then charged the door, the tranquilizer seemingly having no effect. The large boar broke through the doorframe, hitting Peter stomach height. His body spun in the air as the mass of muscle moved past. Peter tried to fall back to his paws, but one of his hind legs ceded, broken.
Peter screamed and Danielle felt something she hadn't felt for the longest time: panic. She squeezed her trigger against the warthog, but only a faint fssss came out of it. Fuck. Was all she could think off. The boar charged her now and the best she could do was to dodge away from it. On her clumsy landing she hit the flagpole, knocking the pole and flag mess over herself.
The noise seemingly triggered the boar and it turned its razor sharp tusks towards her once more, charging. It's hooves sounded like thunders on the wooden floor and the beast moved like a train going off rails, all the mass focused on the single objective of moving forward, against her. Danielle had little to no time to do anything, so she picked up one of the flag poles and extended it towards the charging boar, trying to stop, or at least, deter the hog from crushing her against the wall.
The boar hit the tip of the pole and it passed through its body, coming in from under it's neck and coming out through it's last rib bone, stopping only centimeters away from her snout. The boar vomited blood over her and still moved it's hooves, even if slowly, when she let go of the spear.
Danielle stood up and tried to clean the blood from her fur, from her face, from her paws to no use, only being able to smudge herself more in the thick substance. She sat close to Peter, her eyes wide open, and tried to calm him down, but who would calm herself?
That was when the other officers charged in.