"Vengeance is a monster of appetite, forever bloodthirsty and never filled." – Richelle E. Goodrich
(YouTube: "llyADThAg5o")
Wednesday, 12:37 o'clock – Incoming video message to Bonnie Hopps phone
"Hey Mom… Dad… sorry for not calling you directly. I have… (closing her eyes shortly) … I am a bit in a hurry right now and just wanted to … (looking away from the camera and breathing deeply, eventually being on the verge of sobbing) … I want … (returning her look to the camera and smiling a bit sad) … I just want to let you both know how much I love you. All the love and support you gave me … (sobbing and looking to the side) … despite all decisions I made that you … (sighing, looking to the camera) … whatever. Thank you for everything. (smiling and giving a kiss on the camera)"
"Moooom" Annie called out of the window – "Your phone rang!"
Her mother was collecting some herbs from the garden outside the kitchen and smiled. "Just put it on the kitchen table, I will have a look later my dear."
Wednesday, 12:44 o'clock – Incoming video message to Evelin Hopps-Brooks phone
"(Judy's face looked as if she had cried, trying to smile now) Hey, sis! I tried to call you, but … (sobbing) … but cannot … (with another sob she nearly starts crying) … I … I am in some trouble and… (looking away, wiping a tear with her paw) not sure … shuffle out of it this time … (looking again to the camera) I sent already Mom and Dad a short m-message … you will have to … look after them and our siblings, okay? (wiping another tear away) You know that I love you, Eve… you … you always were my best friend. We had … (sobbing) … had so much fun together (smiling and shortly laughing with the memory of it) … always think of me this way, do you promise? (sniffling with a sad smile) I would have loved to see your first litter at least … they will be … (looking away sighing and breathing deeply, then looking back into the camera with tears in her eyes) … tell them how much their aunt Judy loved them! (starting to cry quietly) … I wished that Nick and I had kits, so they could play and grow up together with yours! (sobbing) You were right, we … I shouldn't have postponed it again and again … (wiping away her tears and trying to breath slowly) … Have a look after Nick occasionally, will you? (looking to the side) He will kick himself but … (sniffling) it is not his fault. (looking back to the camera, sobbing with a light smile) … I'm a dumb bunny, too emotional. (starting to cry again for a few seconds, then she pulled herself together with a last, wide smile) Love you all so much, Eve! Good bye … (giving a kiss on the camera with a smile)"
Evelin was talking on the phone with her mother-in-law when her phone notified with a single beep an incoming message. She took a quick look and smiled. "What? No, nothing, just a message from Judy. I will call her later. You were talking about Troi's newborns, congratulations!"
Wednesday, 13:04 o'clock – Car park of the ZPD
The wind was blowing coldly in Nick's face, but he couldn't care less. The colleagues from the bomb squad were standing near him, Fangmeyer had put his paw onto Nick's shoulder. Chief Bogo was snapping orders to everyone and a hyena was gleefully laughing. But Nick's only attention was on the blood and the body just a few meters in front of him, unable to speak or move.
"Code 10-108, 10-52 at Precinct One for 10-45c! I repeat, Officer down in the car park of Precinct One, immediate ambulance needed!" – Bogo snapped at his radio, then turned around to Delgato and McHorn, who were keeping the still laughing hyena under control. "And get this psychopathic piece of dung out of my sight!"
Monday (2 days before), 6:28 o'clock – Nick and Judy's apartment in Zootopia
Judy was polishing her badge, eyeing herself in the mirror with a satisfied smile. Nick was standing beside her, tying his black tie.
"Hurry up, foxtrot! If we want to get some breakfast from pawbucks before work, we have to go now!" Judy sounded as eager as always and was already standing at the door with one paw on the latch.
"How can anybody be such a ball of energy in the early morning." Nick yawned and smoothed down his jacket. "Okay, let's go, ca…" – he didn't even finish the last word when Judy already opened the door and stormed outside. "…rrots."
When he finally arrived downstairs with the elevator, Judy was holding the front door open, pounding impatiently with her foot. "If you would take the stairs, too, your cycle would come to live more easily!"
"You are really in a hurry to get back to work, aren't you?" Nick snickered and tried to keep step with her on their way to the tram.
"We were chilling out a whole week, it's about time to get working again!" she smiled brightly, walking backwards a few meters to face Nick, then turning around and leaping up the three stairs of the platform. They still had a few minutes until the tram was arriving, and Nick leant again a lamp post, watching how the city was slowly waking up and coming alive. When his gaze went down to a newspaper on the floor, a headline leaped into his eyes: 'Accident or assault? Hundreds of mammals without electricity!'
"Carrots?" Nick said thoughtfully; it was the rabbit who normally was reading the Zootopia Post online each morning while he was still showering. "Did you hear something about a blackout?"
"Mh? No, I didn't get around to read the Post today. What blackout?" Judy turned her head, following his looks to the scrapped newspaper. "Oh…!" – she grabbed into her pockets, searching for her smartphone.
"You are getting sloppy, fluffy." Nick snickered.
"I was looking through the mail we got during our little vacation. Some fox was too tired to do it yesterday after we arrived at home." Judy smiled to herself, already swiping through the daily news on a website. "Here it is…" she moved beside Nick and tilted the phone display so he could read it, too. "Several hundreds of mammals had no electricity on Sunday evening when an incident happened at a transformer station in downtown. When a large pickup broke through a fence and ran into one of the transformers and exploded, a blackout happened in a small area near the center of Zootopia. A few hundred residents, including a third of Little Rodentia, had no electricity until the electric company 'Zoolectric' could finally bypass the demolished transformer station in the early hours on Monday. No animal got hurt by the incident, the driver of the car could escape before the police arrived at the scene."
"We are barely back in Zootopia and there are exploding transformer stations … you are really attracting all kind of troubles, carrots!" Nick chuckled while his bunny rolled her eyes, getting in the just arriving tram, looking for a seat.
"If anything, we are attracting them both, foxtrot! But I would call that just an unhappy coincidence. It's not the first hit and run crash, maybe the driver was drunk. There should be quite some video footage."
Monday, 7:21 o'clock – Foyer of Precinct One
When Nick and Judy entered the precinct, they stumbled for a moment. There were quite a lot of people in the foyer; most of them colleagues but much more than usual at this early hour. They walked up to the front-desk where Clawhauser was on the radio. But instead of having some small talk with them as usual, the cheetah pointed to the bullpen with a sober look.
"It seems, as if you would get your busy first day of work, carrots." Nick said with a soft smile while they were walking to their mutual seat. They still had a few minutes until their shift would official begin, but had no time to talk with their colleagues what had happened because Chief Bogo was also entering the bullpen in that very moment. The room quieted immediately.
"Morning. Most of you already heard about the nightly events, but I will summarize them for all others. Yesterday at half past eleven in the evening, an unknown culprit drove with a stolen car onto the area of the transformer station 37-B by 'Zoolectric'. The car was packed with plastic explosive and parked directly beside the main transformer. Moments later the bomb was fired with a remote control and destroyed the whole transformer unit, which lead to a power failure in this area…" – Bogo pointed to a circle on the wall map. "For reasons of security we told the press that it was a car accident, no need to create a panic currently. Investigations regarding the bomb are made by the bomb squad, under the supervision of Fangmeyer. Forensics is on-site since yesterday. Officers Delgato and Wolford will be in control for the analysis. You will assist them as necessary. All others not directly involved with the investigation will make intensified patrols on their default routes today. Maybe this was an isolated incident, but until we can be sure I want you to be watchful."
It was rather quite in the room; everybody was thinking about what Bogo just said. "On a positive side-note…", Bogo finally said: "Officers Hopps and Wilde are back from their short honeymoon trip; welcome back." – a few were hooting with laughter while others were wolf whistling or applauding; Nick and Judy smiled, feeling awkward, when Bogo finally yelled: "Dismissed!"
The newlywed had to shake paws and hug nearly everyone, not without some naughty comments from their colleagues. When they were sitting in their police rover fifteen minutes later, Judy navigating through the early traffic, Nick was oddly shushed.
"A penny for your thoughts." Judy said with a short side glance.
"I sometimes forget, that this job not only is driving around, issuing tickets or arresting drunken mammals. But someone blasting a whole transformer station?", Nick sighed. "Those things are dangerous!"
"You are right, Nick. Sometimes our job is dangerous." She nudged him with her elbow, winking: "But I promise I will watch you."
"Oh dear…" Nick sighed with contrived despair.
Monday, 17:39 o'clock – Nick and Judy's cubicle at Precinct One
Nick printed out the last of his reports for the day, an attempted theft, and signed it. They were sitting opposite each other and he observed his partner smiling.
"What do you think, carrots: Are we going to call it a day?" Nick asked while putting the case file in his out-box.
"I'm reading the preliminary report of the forensics, regarding the incident at the transformer station."
"Well, something new?" The fox slowly walked around their desk, looking over her shoulder.
"Not too much. They found some footprints of probably a ram, but they are not precise. As it seems the culprit knows where all cameras are place, because he managed to avoid them; no clear picture is available." Judy turned a few pages of the report until some schematics were visible. "And this is a reconstruction of the charge. They didn't identify all components of it yet, but it's rather complex. The chemical analysis identified a self-made…"
"…binary explosive?" Nick asked wondering. Judy raised her eyebrows and turned her back to him.
"Exactly, how did you know?"
Her fox just shrugged his shoulders. "No idea, the moment I saw those schematics I somehow knew that there was a self-made binary explosive used."
"You recognized those?"
"Apparently, yes…" he looked thoughtful, but finally shook his head. "No idea, carrots."
"Well…" Judy turned back to the forensics report. "That's it already with the new information. There is another report by the electric company about the caused damage and what households were affected." She closed the report and put it into her drawer. "What time is it?"
Nick smiled and massaged her shoulders. "We are already making extra hours."
Judy sighed quietly with pleasure. "Let's change into something more comfortable and have some dinner at Giovanny's pizzeria." She smiled, putting her head into the neck and looking upwards to Nick.
"Sounds good. Oh, and Benjamin asked if we want to join him and a few colleagues on a new games night on Friday."
"A great occasion to ask him about his little adventure during our wedding party!" Judy giggled.
"I don't think that he wants to discuss this topic with so many colleagues attending." Nick winked.
"We will see. Are we going to meet downstairs in … let's say fifteen minutes?"
Nick gave her a quick kiss between the ears. "O.K. – see you in fifteen."
When Judy came to the foyer she wore a blue jeans and a dark red pullover, on her shoulder a small bag with dirty clothes. Nick was already waiting, standing together with Fangmeyer at the counter and talking about a file in their hands. When she approached them, she overheard the last part of the conversation:
"…just as an idea." Nick said and Fangmeyer nodded slowly.
"Thanks Nick, I will let this check even today. If you are right, we have a good trace!"
"Hey, Larry!" Judy greeted Fangmeyer with a smile. "Anything new?"
"Nick had an idea regarding the bomb schematics, but we are still tapping in the dark. You two are going to clock off?"
"Yepp, we want to go to Giovanny's. Do you want to accompany us?"
"Nah, I don't want to bother Zootopia's sweethearts." Fangmeyer chuckled with a wink. "Also I have a briefing in half an hour. See you two tomorrow!" he raised his paw to bid farewell and left.
"Well, are you ready?" Judy smiled to Nick, who put his own bag with clothes over his shoulder and nodded.
"Ready and hungry, let's go." He walked over to the entrance door and hold it open for Judy. The rabbit still stood there, her paw on her stomach and her ears wincing a bit. "Carrots?" Nick looked a bit worried.
"Everything alright, just some stomach rumbling." Judy smiled and walked over to him, linking her arm with his'. "What were you two discussing?" she asked him while waiting for the tram.
"Oh… I remembered why those schematics looked so familiar while I was changing clothes. They are nearly identical to some blueprints a bomber used about 10 years ago. I read about it while studying a few old case files a few weeks ago. Larry will check this possibility."
"I have no idea how you can memorize so many details about some schematics from a ten-year-old case, but it's amazing!" Judy gave him a kiss on his cheek and snickered.
Tuesday, 7:14 o'clock – Pawbucks store near Precinct One
"Hopps-Wilde!" the barista, a grey cat, shouted behind the counter and Nick took the delivery of two large latte macchiato and a blueberry muffin, handing one of the cups to Judy.
"And you don't want anything for breakfast for sure, carrots?" Nick asked while biting in his own muffin.
"No, thank you. I'm really not hungry."
"You didn't eat a lot for dinner yesterday, too. Is everything okay?" Nick looked a bit worried.
"Yeah, everything is fine! Come on, you can finish your muffin on the way." Judy was already walking outside the shop, heading for the police building two hundred meters away.
"Right behind you!" Nick replied with his mouth full, taking a quick sip from his hot coffee. Judy wasn't as fast as usual, so it was no problem to keep up with her. He opened the main entrance door of the Precinct for her and indicated a bow: "Milady…"
Judy smiled softly and they both walked directly to the bullpen. To their surprise Bogo was already there, talking with a few officers including Fangmeyer. After sitting down on their seat, Judy slowly rubbed her temple. She wasn't feeling too well, last night she could only sleep for one or two hours but didn't plan to bother Nick with it. After drinking some coffee, she would be okay for sure.
"Silence!" Bogo shouted and the voices in the room died at once. "Last night we had another attack on a transformer station. As far as we can say right now another car bomb was used with the same binary explosive. We are assuming a plan on those incidents, maybe some blackmail attempt on Zoolectric. Francine, Higgins, you are going to meet the corporate lawyers of the electric company. Wilde, Hopps, you will meet with Fangmeyer and Marki and join their taskforce. Delgato and Wolford are already on-site of the second crime scene. Grizzoli, Snarlof, you are going to join them. The rest is on default patrol. Dismissed!"
Tuesday, 8:02 o'clock – Conference room 1.12 at Precinct One
Fangmeyer was standing in front of about a dozen colleagues from different divisions, including forensics, behavior analysis and the Bureau of Firearms and Explosives. He started with a quick summary of the second crime scene: "A stolen truck broke through the fence and was parked between three transformer units. The binary explosive was ignited with a remote control again, destroying the whole transformer station and causing another blackout in the inner-city." On a big monitor he showed photos of the crime scene and a map with the affected area of the blackout. "Our technicians could restore most of the schematics of the explosive charge. Thanks to Officer Wilde we could identify the blueprint in the meantime: It's one of several blueprints developed and used ten years ago by a serial bomber, a hyena named Adrian Bale. Detective Muzzler from the Bureau of Firearms and Explosives is going to explain those schematics now."
An older lion stepped forward and thanked Fangmeyer. "I'm Detective Muzzler and my team and I analyzed the original blueprints. They are rather complex with a lot of traps and fake circuits and, once armed, nearly impossible to defuse. We didn't see this design again after Bale was arrested. As far as we know he is the only one using specific hallmarks…" the lion showed the schematics of a few electric circuits. When he finished, the atmosphere in the room was in low spirits; Bales blueprints had used sensors, timers or remotes to fire the bomb or even multiple of those. The use of a programmable microprocessor made most of the logic hidden, without deep knowledge of the used programming it was nearly impossible to defuse it.
The next one presenting was Marki as head of the behavior analyses unit of the ZPD. He presented the old case of Adrian Bale. "When we finally caught him after several months, our chief negotiator got him to surrender. But during the arrest Bale used his remote control to fire a bomb and killed nine officers. His disregard and insensitivity against the live earned him a life imprisonment without any chance for probation." Marki turned his head to Judy and Nick. "Hopps, you are one of our most talented interrogation experts. You are going to visit Bale in prison, we need to know who besides him knows about those blueprints. Wilde, you will accompany her. As Fangmeyer told me, you already have some detailed knowledge of those blueprints and may support Hopps during her interrogation!"
Both, Nick and Judy, nodded their head and Marki handed over to Fangmeyer again. "Okay, thank you. As we currently don't know any motive, we are investigating in all directions. Forensics brought a lot of data with them we are going to analyze together. At 14 o'clock we will have a briefing with Delgato and Wolford to get their latest results from the crime scene. Everybody of you is reporting directly to me. Dismissed."
Tuesday, 11:37 o'clock – Meadowland Jail
"I have read this police file now for the second time." Nick said to Judy while they were sitting in the visiting room of the Meadowland Jail. "Adrian Bale's efficient bombs killed every single target. They were highly accurate masterpieces, you could see and feel his passion for his work with every wire and electronic component."
"So, did he only wanted to proof that he could make the perfect bomb?" Judy asked curiously. "Do we have a psychological profile in his file?"
Nick sighed and nodded. "This hyena is a really sick bastard. He is a textbook example of a psychopathic personality. He even pushed the next button on his remote during his arrest when he knew, it would only worsen his sentence. He killed all seven members of the bomb squad and two police officers on purpose, just for fun because he could."
Judy's ears sank and her muzzle twitched slightly. "I'm unable to grasp why some mammals are doing such horrible things. Yes, we learn to creep into the head of criminals; but I find it more than difficult to understand psychopaths. They seem to have no real reason for their actions."
"Please be careful, Judy." Nick said softly. "It can be dangerous to creep into the head of someone like Bale. If you stare into the abyss for too long, he starts to stare back into you…" he put his snout on Judy's head between her ears, unwittingly scent marking her as a sign of protection.
"I promise, Nick." She smiled softly, but turned her head with a stern look back to the door when she heard it being unlocked. Nick closed the police file and took a step back. He was attending this interrogation because he knew the blueprints. But Judy was the one who would lead the interrogation, and as much as he hated it: Bale should only concentrate on her…
Tuesday, 13:04 o'clock – In the police rover
"I think I could need a hot shower now; this Bale is really a creep." Judy muttered while driving the police rover back to the precinct. "He seemed to be nearly aroused when we talked about the bombs!" she shivered with cold.
Nick was breathing deeply, grinding his teeth. "He was aroused, but not only because of the bombs."
"What do you mean?"
"You."
"Huh?" Judy looked a bit confused to him.
"He was aroused because of you. I could smell it. He wanted to put his fangs around your throat and bite, he even licked over his teeth absentmindedly a few times. It was … disgusting …" Nick mussitated, his paws clung into the armrest of the door.
"Okay, now I really could use this shower…" Judy shuddered with disgust. "But we did not found out to whom he gave his blueprints. He isn't allowed to have visitors and most of the time he was in solitary confinement."
Nick opened a second police file he got from the prison. "No visitors, not even police officers, in the last six years. And you are right, he was in solitary confinement for nearly the whole ten years, no personal contact to his fellow prisoners." He continued to read a few more pages of reports, created by the prison administration.
Judy drove on the parking space of a fast-food restaurant. "I need to go to the bathroom, maybe you want to get some lunch meanwhile?" she smiled and left the car.
"Good idea, what should I order for you?" Nick asked eagerly.
"Just a small salad and a coffee, I'm not very hungry after this interrogation." She headed directly to the toilet before Nick could say anything. With a quick shrug of his shoulders he walked to the counter and ordered a small salad and a coffee for Judy, and a veggie burger with French fries and a coke. He already sat at a small table in the corner of the room when Judy came back.
"Everything okay, carrots?" Nick asked worried after a short sniff with his nose.
"Yeah… ", she put the salad in front of herself and took a small sip from her coffee.
Nick put his paw onto hers and sighed. "You throw up on the toilet, Judy. And you eat near to nothing the last twenty-four-hours. Are you getting ill?"
Judy's muzzle twitched slightly. "Couldn't you have a small cold?" she smiled. "Yes, I had to vomit. But I'm not getting ill, it's just the interrogation and what you said about your observations of Bale."
"Sorry, carrots." Nick looked guilty. "I really didn't mean to horrify you about him. He is in jail after all, and I would never let him get close to you."
"It's okay." She crawled with her thumb over his paw. "Let's finish lunch, we have a briefing at the precinct in half an hour."
Tuesday, 15:19 o'clock - Conference room 1.12 at Precinct One
Fangmeyer finished his presentation with the details of the second crime scene and the comparison to the first one. "We still have no idea why those two transformer stations were attacked. The cooperate lawyers of Zoolectric didn't confirm the blackmail theory, neither. The only trace we currently have are those specific blueprints, but currently we cannot bring them into context. The footprints at the first crime scene couldn't be further identified, they are most probably from a sheep or ram. Our technicians are currently trying to identify a pattern for the attacks based on their effects. Rather unlikely are market manipulations at the moment. There are way too many transformer stations in Zootopia to watch them all; our analysts are preparing a list with the most likely targets and we will have patrols around those starting this evening. Chief Bogo ensured that he will allocate us most of the night shift for this, you all will get your mission order from Wolford, who is organizing the schedule. But first: Get a few free hours until 18 o'clock; it's going to be a long night and everyone should get some rest. Dismissed!"
As all colleagues were leaving their seats and started to talk with each other's, Fangmeyer called: "Hopps, Wilde, a word!"
Nick and Judy walked over to Fangmeyer, who was already talking with Marki. The dire wolf turned around to the rabbit: "I read your report about the interrogation of Bale. You wrote, that he had no visitors and no contact with other prisoners. Still you are sure that he has something to do with the bombing?"
"Yes, sir."
"Please, explain this…" Marki gestured to a few chairs and they all sat down around a small table.
"When we talked with Bale…" Judy began, "…it seemed as if he had expected us. He was self-complacent and wasn't surprised in the least about the fact that someone was using his blueprints. This is leaving the only conclusion: He already knew that someone was building and using bombs with his blueprints." She looked over to Nick and nodded.
"Well…" the fox started slowly, "…I suggested beforehand to the interrogation that we should try to spoof him for a suspicious expression." Nick pulled one of the copied blueprints of the current bombs out of the case file and put it on the table. "I made some ineffective changes to the blueprint, here… and here…", he drew a small circle around two wirings with a pencil. "This one shows clearly that the connected component is just a trap-circuit. And the second one…"
"Ah, I see…" Fangmeyer said, "…it's an electrical short that disables the second mercury tilt switch."
"Exactly." Nick nodded.
"When we showed him the first, unchanged blueprint, Bale seemed to be professionally impressed by the work." Judy continued, "Then we showed him the second one with the changes. He seemed to be hurt about those mistakes. He didn't point them out to us, but he pushed the blueprint away and stated what a miserable copycat had used his hard work. His annoyance wasn't played, and I'm sure he knows exactly who did those two bombings."
"But how could he pass his blueprints to someone without it being on records?" Fangmeyer asked but the other three had no idea, either.
"Maybe it didn't go on the record, because the accomplice was already inside the prison." Wolford said, standing near them and overhearing most of their conversation. "I don't speak of a fellow inmate…" he added when he noticed that Nick wanted to object. "…but one of correction officers."
Judy seemed to be shocked and offended by the idea someone working for the ZPD could be involved into the bombings. "Impossible!" she blurted, but Fangmeyer slowly shook his head.
"Nothing is impossible, and that would be a good explanation how Bale could communicate with an accomplice. But the real question is still: Why?"
Marki added: "Bale is a psychopath, he always tried to kill mammals. The destruction of buildings never was one of his priorities. The current modus operandi is different, even if the blueprints are the same."
"You two are exempted from the patrols this evening." Fangmeyer finally said to Judy and Nick. "I want you to screen everyone working in the Meadowland Prison, including those who were fired in the last two years. Crosscheck them with Bales jail file. If there is really some insider involved, we need to find him."
Tuesday, 21:47 o'clock – Nick and Judy's cubicle at Precinct One
"Those are all reputable and hard-working mammals." Judy said somewhat frustrated and closed another personnel file. "I'm really uncomfortable to snoop in their lives."
Nick stretched his arms. "I know, carrots. But we have to contemplate that one of them is in cahoots with Bale. Maybe not as the bomber, but as a contact person. It's only a question of time until someone gets hurt during a bomb attack."
Judy sighed: "I know, Nick. But take another look at this pig. She has a lot of debts, but only because her ex-husband was a gambling-addict; she is working more extra shifts than most others just because she needs the money to feed her son."
"But she also has volunteered a lot of those extra shifts in the section of the long-time inmates. And there are quite a lot of reports regarding Bale. We will talk to her and those other three guards…" Nick pointed to a short list with names. "Most probably she is innocent and just doing her job. But currently we are also just doing our job."
"I know…" Judy sighed again and opened the next personnel file. "I'm feeling just so disillusioned."
"Oh, I'm sure we have a personnel file at internal affairs, too. Well, at least I have. Or do you believe they aren't closely watching a fox and former con man?" he winked.
"I don't think, that…" Judy started, but Nick interrupted her.
"Our last audit was after we moved together into our new apartment." Nick was still smiling, but Judy knew instantly that he was hurt by it.
"How do you …?" she started, but was interrupted again.
"They also wrote into their report that you have a positive effect on me. And I agree with them." He smiled and gave her a short kiss. "I would never consider to do something that may disappoint you."
Judy had to grin and rubbed her cheeks against him. "I don't think that I really want to know wherefrom you know about the content of these reports." She winked at him. "Okay, let's continue with this list. We still have seven names to check!"
The next employee was a ram named Wooly Ramses. While Judy read his personnel file, Nick made a background check in other databases.
"Woah…" Nick hesitated with an amazed expression.
"Did you find anything interesting?" Judy asked with a bored expression, still looking through the rather unspectacular file.
"I don't know, carrots. Would you call a criminal cousin something interesting?"
"Maybe his cousin is the black sheep of the family…"
"Wow, such a lame pun from you?" Nick grinned – "Well, actually his cousin has grey wool. But you should remember him better, because you kicked his ass – literally – out of a subway car." Nick turned his computer screen in Judy's direction to show her the crime file of Wooly Ramses' cousin: Doug Ramses – the chemist and sniper who worked for Dawn Bellwether and created the night howler drug.
"Sweet cheese and crackers…" Judy's eyes grew big. "Wooly Ramses is his cousin?"
"Yes, this is also the reason why Doug was sent to Tundratown's jail instead of Meadowland. As it seems they wanted to prohibit a collision of interests. As far as I can see, Wooly has a clean slate himself. Not even a parking ticket on his name."
"Well…" Judy hesitated – "maybe it's really just an unhappy coincidence. Why should he cooperate with someone like Adrian Bale? Or why should he bust those transformer stations? As you just said, he has a clean slate himself. His only offense is a criminal family member."
"Maybe…" Nick sounded doubtful. "But his name is definitely going onto this list."
"Fine with me. But don't prejudge him only because of our own past with his cousin. Okay, the next one is…" they were interrupted by the radio.
"10-33 for all units. We have a 10-89 and 10-70 at transformer station 12-B."
Nick and Judy both gasped – that was another bombing at a transformer station. Judy was already opening some map on her computer.
"Transformer station 12-B is in Sahara Square and not on our list of guarded targets. We should go immediately!" she leaped from her chair, but nearly tripped, managing to get hold of the edge of their table in the last second.
"Woah, careful Judy!" Nick reached out his arm to support her. "What's the matter?"
"I'm just a bit dizzy. Give me a second." Judy closed her eyes and breathed deeply.
"Just sit down again…" Nick dragged her softly on her shoulder back to her chair. "There are more than enough officers on patrol to support on-site. We could help more if we try to find out how this last attack fits into the series."
Wednesday, 5:39 o'clock – Fangmeyer's cubicle at Precinct One
The Bengal tiger was rubbing his neck with a tired look at all the papers laying around on his desk. They had 54 officers on patrol last night, observing 27 high-probability targets. But the attacked transformer station was not on this list and the bomber could escape the third time in a row. And still no concrete trace they could follow. He didn't sleep for two days and Chief Bogo was breathing down his neck – because the city administration was on his tail. And he would have a briefing with the chief in less than an hour, but still no new information.
"Coffee, Larry?" Nick asked with three cups of coffee in his paws the same moment Judy knocked on one of the cubicle walls. Fangmeyer turned his head and smiled mildly.
"Thanks guys." He took one of the cups and yawned – "But some positive news would be better…"
"Well, as ill luck would have it …" Judy winked and walked up to his desk, unrolling a card of Zootopia.
"You worked out something?" Larry Fangmeyer was immediately wide awaken and sat straight on his chair.
"Maybe…" Judy started and unrolled an overhead transparency on top of the map. "This is the area that was affected by the first blackout. It's not very big, as you know. And this…" she unrolled a second overhead transparency – "…is the area of the second blackout. This time a much larger area was affected, including one third of the first area. After the attack last night, we made this third layer with the area affected this time." The rabbit unrolled the last overhead transparency on top of the other three. "As you can see, it's again a big area, but only a very small of it is overlapping with the first two areas."
"I see… this is just a small city block that was affected each time. You think that this was the bombers intention? To cause a blackout in this small area? But why?"
"We had no idea, either, until we took a look what buildings or companies are affected. And there is only one non-private building…" Judy looked over to Nick.
"The Zootopia pretrial detention center." Completed the fox her statement.
Fangmeyer looked down on the map and the overhead transparencies, drinking from his hot coffee. "You are right; the pretrial detention center seems to be the only possible target. But how could those blackouts affect it? They have several emergency generators to power the gates, cell doors and other security facilities even during a blackout."
"We are not sure, but there seems to be no other commonality between the blackouts. If you agree, Nick and I would visit the detention center and talk with the administrative head." Judy suggested, and Fangmeyer nodded.
"Good idea, it's the only trace we currently have. Did you find out anything about the employees at Meadowland Jail?"
"Well…" Judy hesitated and looked to Nick seeking for help.
"We have a short list of five names; nothing obviously, just a few saliences. But we should invite them for an interrogation just to be sure."
"Okay, I will ask Marki and his team to support you with those." Fangmeyer said – "It's not the big breakthrough, but we finally have some new traces regarding the motive and the perpetrator. Really good work you two! I will make sure that Bogo will hear about it." He smiled and looked down to the map. "Can you make me a copy of this? I have a briefing with the Chief in twenty minutes. And send those five names you've got per email, I will forward it to Marki."
"This is already your copy of the map, Larry." Nick took a sip of his own coffee.
"And we will meet the director of the pretrial detention center at 7 o'clock and will get back to you afterwards." Judy added and the two left Fangmeyer's cubicle again.
Wednesday, 7:10 o'clock – Office of the director of the Pretrial Detention Center
The director of the pretrial detention center in the inner-city of Zootopia was a middle-aged cheetah. He greeted Judy and Nick with a firm handshake and pointed to the chairs opposite his desk. "Hello Officers, take a seat please…" – and after he sat down himself, he leaned back in his chair, looking curiously. "How can I help you?"
"You were affected by some blackouts the last three nights, is that correct?" Judy asked.
"Yes, our main power supply failed three times for a few hours. It just came back two hours ago."
"Did you experience any negative effects?"
"Well… actually, no, nothing at all."
"What about your security systems or the cell locking mechanisms?" Nick asked.
"We would be really screwed if any of those systems would fail due to a blackout." The cheetah smiled mildly. "This is the reason we have emergency generators."
"And those were working every time the last three nights?" Judy chased up the subject.
"Like a charm. Whoever is causing those blackouts, he is not going to intimidate us with it. Our fuel depot last out for at least 48 hours of emergency power. And we already ordered new fuel to backfill it during the forenoon."
"How many inmates do you currently have?" Judy asked, writing down some notes.
"A few hundred, most of them waiting for their court hearing."
"Could you give us a list? We want to crosscheck those with our suspects." Nick asked, handing a USB stick to the cheetah.
"Of course, just give me a minute…" the director inserted the USB stick into his computer and started to type a few queries.
Tuesday, 9:07 o'clock – Conference room 1.39 at Precinct One
Nick and Judy sat together with Fangmeyer, Wolford and Delgato in the small conference room; they were talking about the possible motive to cause a blackout in the pretrial detention center when Marki entered the room and sat down on the last free chair.
"I arranged the interviews with four of the suspects you determined, beginning at 10 o'clock. The only one we couldn't reach is someone called Wooly Ramses. The prison director said that he had called in sick today and I sent Grizzoli and Snarlof to his house to check this." The dire wolf rubbed with his paw over his head and looked rather tired – like everyone else in the room, too.
"Okay, thanks for the update." Fangmeyer said, then turned his head back to the map of the inner-city that was laying on the table. "Our IT department didn't find any new relationships between those three attacks. There are only those three buildings affected by all three blackouts…" he pointed with a claw on a small area of the map – "But those two are just apartment buildings and this is the detention center. We are currently checking the background of all residents living in those apartments, but I'm not very optimistic that we will find anything suspicious. The best guess was the pretrial detention center. And you're sure that it wasn't affected in any way by those blackouts?" he asked Judy and Nick, but both shook their head.
"The director said, that their emergency generators did start up every single time and there was no power outage." Judy explained.
They were all silent for a few minutes, thinking about the facts.
"We have no chance to ascertain our unsub if we don't know why he is blasting those transformer stations." Marki finally said – "Something must be affected by those blackouts! How long can those emergency generators bypass a power-loss?"
Judy browsed through her notes: "Those emergency generators are powered with fuel, and their depots are sufficient for at least 48 hours of continuous operation."
"Well, they have consumed quite some fuel during the last nights, didn't they?" Marki suggested.
"I don't think that they would just let those depots run dry…" Fangmeyer replied.
Judy shook her head: "No, they ordered new fuel to backfill their depots for today."
Marki chuntered quietly and rubbed his eyes. "Okay, but you should still finish crosschecking their inmates with our case, just to be sure."
"Of course." Judy nodded her head – "We already checked the case files of about two-third of them."
"Arthur McCoy …" Nick uttered under his breath.
Judy's ears twitched a bit and Fangmeyer looked up to Nick. "A new suspect, Wilde?"
Nick seemed to be bemused and Judy had to nudge him with her elbow before he finally reacted. "What? Oh, sorry… I was just thinking about something." He thoughtfully shook his head.
"Who is this McCoy?" Delgato asked probing.
"He is the founder of Bunnyburrow…" Nick explained absently and all others were staring in his direction.
"Maybe you should get some rest, Nick." Fangmeyer said with a commiserating smile.
"Huh?" Nick looked irritated to him, then shook his head. "No, I'm fine. I was just thinking about Arthur McCoys plaster busts…"
"What are you talking about, Wilde?" Wolford sounded bugged.
"What is it with those busts?" Fangmeyer was calm and sounded a bit curious.
When the fox didn't answer for a few moments, Judy nudged him again. "Nick?"
"Yes?" – he replied, then noticing all those questioning looks. "Oh, right … well, a thief had to smuggle some jewelry and couldn't risk to be caught with them." Nick started to explain to them. "Because he was working at a company creating those plaster busts of Arthur McCoy, he hid the jewelry within the still fresh plaster of a bust before he was arrested for something else. After he was released, he found out who bought the plaster busts and stole them to get back his loot."
"Something like a Trojan horse?" Marki said thoughtfully.
"Exactly! But the other way around: With the Trojan horse they smuggled warriors behind the town walls. The thief used McCoy to smuggle his jewelry out of the factory."
"You think, that…" Delgato started, but then shook his head again. "I have no idea what you are talking about."
Then Marki was suddenly heads-up: "A Trojan horse! They want to use the tanker truck to get into the prison! An assassination attempt?"
Fangmeyer interrupted him exited: "Not a Trojan horse, a McCoy bust! They don't want to break into the prison, it's a prison breakout! Inside a tanker truck is enough room to transport several mammals and no one would examine it and take a look inside the tank when they left!"
"Yes, that's the idea…" Nick smiled a bit. "But that still leaves the question whom they want to free."
"Let's take a mutual look at the rest of this list of inmates…" Fangmeyer was rummaging around in his papers but Judy already pulled out her tablet and connected it to the wall monitor.
"Always prepared for everything, huh?" Delgato grinned at her and seconds later Judy had opened the police database when someone knocked on the door and entered the room without waiting for an answer.
"Hey there, sorry to interrupt you. But there are a few mammals for Detective Marki. They have an appointment with you?" Clawhauser had put his head into the room.
"Delgato, Wolford… would you two start with those interviews? We still need to know the connection to Bale." Marki handed the both colleagues the four personnel files he had brought with; they left the room together with Clawhauser. In the meanwhile, Judy finished opening the database.
"Okay, the last name we had checked before the briefing was Linda Nigrin, a forger of coins and jewelry." She tipped a few commands into the search mask and a list with about 80 names was returned. "These are all inmates we didn't check, yet. So, let's start…" and in the same moment she opened the first entry.
It was short past ten when the name and photo of a rather famous criminal was shown on the big screen: A small sheep with green eyes and light brown glasses was staring down at all six sitting at the table – the former Mayor of Zootopia, Dawn Bellwether.
"She! They want to help Bellwether to break out of jail!" Nick exclaimed at once. Fangmeyer and Marki both looked doubtfully to him.
"We know that you have a common past, but…" Fangmeyer started, but Nick was already rummaging around in his own papers.
"Wait a second… I know that I printed a copy of… ha!" he pulled out a printed personnel file, in the header the logo of the Meadowland Prison was visible. "Wooly Ramses!"
"One of the guards in Meadowland Prison you had on your list of suspects?" Marki asked and took the personnel file from Nick, running down the three printed pages.
"Yes, and his cousin is Doug Ramses, the chemist and sniper that Bellwether had under contract! This must be the connection between Bale, the attacks on the transformer stations and the blackouts. They want to free Bellwether!"
Judy looked concerned to the big monitor with Bellwethers photo and police file. When Marki finished reading the personnel file, he handed it to Fangmeyer who also started to read it. The dire wolf was visible brooding over those new facts and their possible connection among one another. Nick was still excited, he never got over Bellwethers attempt at using him to kill Judy. The pent-up anger was clearly written in his face and Judy softly put her paw on his arm.
"Excuse us for a minute…" she said to Fangmeyer and Marki, who just nodded, and drew Nick on his arm with her outside of the room. After she had closed the door, Nick snorted scornfully.
"You have to calm, Nick." Judy said softly, stroking with her paw over his'. "I know you hate her for what she did to you and all other predators, but that must not influence your judgment." Nick had a pained expression on his face and it gave her a sting to see him like this.
"She tried to kill you!" Nick finally said after a while with a trembling voice.
"I know…" Judy smiled softly.
"She tried using me to … ", he couldn't speak any further. Actually, Nick had nightmares for weeks after those events in the museum; most of the time they weren't able to exchange the night howler with the blueberries and when he went savage he hunted for Judy, and finally killed her. He never told her about those nightmares and he didn't have them for over a year. But now all of those memories came back at once. When he finally recovered his breath from his anxiety attack, he was looking into Judy's big purple eyes; she was holding his face with her paws, stroking his cheeks with her thumbs and smiled softly.
"Is everything okay again, Nick?" she whispered a bit worried.
The fox slowly nodded with an eased smile. "Yes… thank you." He gave her a little kiss on her nose and Judy snickered quietly.
"Always." – and after returning his kiss, she asked: "Should we go back?"
"Of course." He put on his con man smile and they entered the small conference room again.
Fangmeyer and Marki were discussing something and when Nick and Judy entered the room, they turned around.
"We think…", said Fangmeyer, "that we should further investigate in this direction. I will drive to the pretrial detention center with a Quick Response Force. Even if it's not Bellwether, chances are good that you are right with your theory of a jailbreak."
"Snarlof called me." Marki added – "He told us that Ramses wasn't at home, but they could identify suspicious items through a window. Grizzoli is currently getting a search warrant for his home and I will meet them there with a forensics team and experts from the bomb squad."
"Hopps, you are spelling Delgato and support Wolford with those interviews downstairs. We need to be sure that no other mammal is involved into this! Wilde, you are driving with Delgato to the Meadowland Prison, I want you to clear Ramses' locker and get his work plan. Also get Adrian Bale to the Precinct, Chief Bogo is currently making the transfer documents ready. We need his testimony against Ramses."
Nick wanted to object, but Marki said calmly: "I know that you two are normally working together, but these are particulars and we double checked with dispatch: Most other officers are currently not available and we need your individual expertise unfortunately at two different places. If there is any booby mine at Ramses' locker, you are going to notice it, Wilde. And I need the bomb squad at Ramses' home. Also you know Bale already. Hopps is one of our best interrogation officers, we have to make sure that none of the other suspects is involved with this."
Nick sighed and nodded. "Yes, sir."
"Okay, let's go!" Fangmeyer said with a determined look and they all walked out of the room.
Wednesday, 11:34 o'clock – Delgato's Police Rover
"Come on, don't pull such a face, Nick." the African lion said to Nick with a wink.
"Don't take it personally, Don." Nick smiled mildly. "It's just really a long shift and the possibility of Bellwether involved in this got me wrong-footed."
"I always thought it was that crime case that brought you to the forces. Didn't you even meet your cute rabbit during the night howler case?"
"Don't let Judy hear that cute-thingy." Nick smirked, then replied: "But, yes, you're right. I helped her as an… let's call it informant back then; and we are a really good team since then."
"So, shouldn't you be rather thankful to Bellwether then?" Don Delgato chuckled, but when Nick didn't answer him, he added: "Just joking, Nick. This crazy sheep is a terrorist and you shouldn't let her get to you."
"Will try it." Nick put on his aviator sunglasses and looked out the window when they passed the border to the Meadowlands.
Wednesday, 11:37 o'clock – Pretrial Detention Center
The tanker truck drove through the main gate and followed a short path to the backside of the building. Three sheep in an overall got out of the truck; one of them started to unroll a big hose to connect it to the fill nozzle of the fuel depot, while the second one watched out for guards and the third ram knocked with his hooves against the hollow sounding tank. The hatch on top of the big tanker slowly opened and five rams in a uniform of the detention officers of the jail left the otherwise empty tank. With a counterfeit keycard they tried to open the side-door, but the lock just beeped two times and a red LED blinked.
"Damn it." The ram with the keycard cursed and tried it again. But the lock just beeped again and stayed closed. "I don't believe it, Ramses goofed the keycard copy! Olaf, get the crowbar, we have to break it open!"
But in the same moment a small dart hit the ram with the keycard directly into his neck; a few seconds later he sank to the floor unconsciously.
"What the…?" another sheep barked, but two more of his accomplices were going down and just a moment later half a dozen ZPD officers in SWAT gear surrounded the other sheep with their weapons at the ready.
"ZPD, everybody freezes!" Fangmeyer shouted.
Wednesday, 12:14 o'clock – Wooly Ramses apartment
"Room clear, no booby mines or other traps." One of the officers of the bomb squad shouted and pulled his thumb up. Marki and the forensic team entered the room and the dire wolf shouted:
"Okay, box everything that could be used to build a bomb and all other evidences you find. I want to know what this ratfink was up to!"
After a few minutes going through some paper on Ramses' desk, one of the crime scene unit shouted: "Detective Marki! You really should take a look at this…!"
"What is it?" Marki walked over to the colleague who was working in another room. The puma handed him a bunch of photos he had found in a drawer: Surveillance photos made with a telephoto lens of a certain rabbit in a police uniform, in plainclothes, writing tickets, eating lunch, driving a police rover, … Marki handed the photos back to the puma, grabbed his radio and ran towards the front door.
"Bomb squad, immediately back to the ZPD!" he shouted to the officers of the Firearms and Explosive department, then into the radio: "Code 10-89, possible 10-108 – 10-05 for Judy Hopps at Precinct One!"
Wednesday, 12:29 o'clock – Delgato's Police Rover
In the back of the police rover sat Adrian Bale, fettered on his feet and paws. Nick bought some coffee for Delgato and himself in a small coffee shop while the lion was waiting inside the rover when the radio message from Marki came in. Delgato honked several times until Nick hurried out of the shop and jumped into the car.
"What's the matter, Don?" Nick asked puzzled while the lion stepped on the gas and switched on the siren. "I'm not functional without enough caffeine… I was next in queue."
"We have a Code 10-89 and a possible 10-108!"
"Another possible bomb threat and an officer in danger? Where and who?" Nick had some difficulties to hold on because Delgato was speeding into a curve.
"It's Judy, Marki just announced it over the radio…"
Nick didn't answer him; he felt like he had to vomit any second and a big lump was in his throat.
Wednesday, 12:32 o'clock – ZPD car park
Judy just finished the third interview and the fourth prison guard had not yet arrived. It was already noon and neither she nor Wolford had a breakfast, so Judy offered to go and get some lunch for them. Normally she would go to a takeaway near the precinct by feet, but after staying awake the whole night and those demanding interrogations, she was feeling too tired and decided to take the rover. She just sat down in the car when her phone rang and their wedding picture was announcing a call from Nick. With a smile she turned the car key and picked up the phone.
"Hey, sweetheart! I was just getting lunch, should I bring something for you, too?"
Nick breathed deeply: "Oh, god bless you! Where are you Judy?"
"In the car, still at the ZPD. Is everything okay, Nick? You're sounding…"
"Judy! Don't start the car! You're Wooly's next target, Marki found photos of you all over his place! They are trying to reach you via radio for minutes!" Nick sounded frantic, but Judy was staring on the screen of the satnav.
"I ... it's too late … I already activated the bomb, it is going to detonate in 29 minutes …" Judy could hardly speak, the shock was profound.
Nick screamed some curse and hit the dashboard in front of him with his fist. "Okay…" he spoke on his already low-battery-beeping phone again with Judy – "…just stay calm, the bomb squad will arrive at the ZPD in less than 10 minutes and I will be there in less than 15. We will defuse the bomb and get you out of that car." – his phone was beeping again, his battery already below four percent.
"I don't want you to come near this car, Nick!" Judy nearly shouted.
"What are you talking about?"
"You know those blueprints! It's nearly impossible to defuse these bombs, you know that! I will not allow you to get hurt by it, too!"
Nick was sure he could hear a bit of panic in Judy's voice, something he never heard before from his rabbit. "I'm not going to let you alone, carrots! I will be there in ten minutes, tops. And we will get you out of that car!" – the phone did a last long beep, then the call was disconnected and Nick's phone shows "Good Bye!" on the display.
"These bloody batteries, I forgot to charge them last night!" he threw the phone on the floor of the car while Delgato was avoiding a truck in front of them.
Wednesday, 12:35 o'clock – ZPD car park, Judy's Police Rover
"Nick…? Nick…!" Judy stared on her phone, but the call was disconnected. She tried to call him again, but only got to his mailbox. She tried to breathe deeply, but eventually started to sob when her look roamed over the display of the satnav – 'Bye, Bye, Bunny – 25:37', the timer counting down every second. All kind of different thoughts were coming to her mind, then she thought about her family. She knew that this was maybe the last chance to talk to them. But she couldn't stand hearing her mom or dad cry right now. Another minute passed on the timer, and Judy came to a conclusion, starting the video-messaging app on her phone…
Wednesday, 12:48 o'clock – Car park of the ZPD
The bomb squad arrived with Marki nearly at the same time as Delgato was driving onto the parking lot with squealing wheels. Even before his rover stopped completely, Nick opened the door and jumped out of it. A few colleagues tried to stop him, but Nick dodged them all – that is everyone but Chief Bogo, who obstructed him out of nowhere and hold him with a firm grip.
"Wilde! Just calm down! Our best experts are already working to defuse the bomb; you cannot go any closer!" he was surprisingly calm, but speaking with a determined voice. Nick was still struggling to get free and Bogo sighed, squatting in front of him. "Nick, listen!" – the fox still had panic in his eyes, but stopped struggling at least. "We do what we can, but I'm not willing to risk another cop's life without stringent necessary!"
"I need a phone… I want to talk with her and my batteries died. Chief, please…" Nick looked defeated and his body was trembling. Without hesitation Bogo took his own phone from his pocket, unlocked it and handed it to Nick, nodding slowly; but he still kept his eyes glued to the fox, ready to stop any attempt to run to the police rover.
"Hello…?" Judy's voice sounded thin and Nick was sure that she had cried, his heard feeling broken at once.
"Judy! I'm here! But Bogo doesn't let me get near the car!"
"Oh, Nick…" she started to sob. "Please, don't get any closer! I don't want you to get hurt!"
"I don't mind getting hurt, I would switch places with you without hesitation if I could. Just be patient, our guys are working on disarming the explosive." Nick ran to the van of the bomb squad, where a monitor showed the streamed picture of the helmet camera. He started to study the layout while Judy tried to stop sobbing.
"Nick, we only have three minutes left. They won't accomplish to defuse it."
"Judy…"
"I love you, Nick. You have absolutely no idea how much I love you." – she whined quietly – "I'm scared. I'm really scared, Nick. But I will be brave for you if you help me. Just, please… talk with me… I want to hear your voice."
Nick didn't know what to say or do. His thoughts were dashing through his head.
"We've got a problem here…" some voice came out of a speaker in the van. Until now Nick hadn't realized that Fangmeyer was standing beside him until he spoke into the microphone now.
"What is it?"
"We could identify several trap circuits, but the last one is different from the original schematics. It's a fifty percent chance that we fire the bomb immediately instead of defusing it, and there is not enough time left to analyze the circuit further."
"You have absolutely no hint which of those two circuits is the fake one?"
"Not with less than two minutes left, sir."
Fangmeyer stared on the monitor, trying to see the solution, any hint in the layout of the bomb, but to no avail. He turned his head to Nick, who was quietly talking soothing with Judy, but staring on the schematics, too. Fangmeyer sighed – if they cut the wrong wire, he would at least lose two officers; and he would lose at least one if he's doing nothing. A short look to the timer showed one minute and 17 seconds left. When Nick suddenly started to run away, Fangmeyer wanted to stop him but then realized that he wasn't running to Judy's car – but to Delgato's.
"Get him out of the car!" Nick shouted to Delgato, who looked irritated; but McHorn knew what Nick had in mind and a few seconds later the rhino had clutched the hyena at his handcuffs and dragged him out of the backseat of the car, shoving him over to the van of the bomb squad.
"Okay, Bale. This is your chance to get some brownie points to your file! You know this blueprint inside out, it's you design! Just tell us, which of those both circuits is a trap, and which one will defuse the bomb." Nick yelled at the hyena.
"What's in it for me?" Bale smirked a bit, and Marki stepped beside Nick.
"You applied several times in the last ten years for eased detention conditions. We will arrange that you are no longer in solitary confinement. Meeting some other mammals from time to time may even improve your character."
"I want also a visitors permit every weekend!" the hyena was now grinning widely.
"Once a month, Bale. This, or you will go stale for the rest of your lifetime sentence in tightened solitary confinement without seeing the daylight ever again. What is it?" Marki barked.
"33 seconds…" Fangmeyer said.
Bale stared at Marki for another three seconds, then made a step forward and looked onto the display. "The upper one… just cut the grey wire and the timer will stop."
"Are you sure?" Marki asked alerted, watching Bales face closely for any hint of scam. "Not the purple wire?"
"Are you deaf? I said the grey one, or you will blow us all up!" Bale replied Marki's look without any sign of a trick.
"You will get visitors permit and regular custody… is it really the grey wire you want us to cut?" Nick asked, the phone pressed to his ear.
"Yes, officer. I'm absolutely sure about this!"
Fangmeyer didn't hesitated any longer and spoke in to the microphone. "It's the grey wire, we talked with the designer and are sure…!"
"NO!" Nick yelled – "Cut the purple one!"
"What?!" Marki and Fangmeyer stared at him in disbelieve. "But I thought…"
Nick grabbed the microphone and repeated: "Cut the purple wire! It will defuse the bomb!"
"Sir…?", the voice out of the speaker sounded nervous and Fangmeyer looked over to the timer – eleven seconds…
"Nick…?" the tiger looked worried at him, then to Bale – but the hyenas face was a deadpan.
The fox slowly said: "Please, trust me… we are talking about Judy." – Fangmeyer still hesitated, five seconds left – "The purple one… please…" he repeated, and finally the tiger nodded slowly.
"It's the purple wire, cut it!" Fangmeyer spoke into the microphone.
The same moment Nick talked to Judy: "I love you, Judy…"
"I love you, Nick… thank you for everything."
One second left… and suddenly the display of the satnav went black.
The speaker cracked quietly, then the technician said: "Bomb defused."
Nick breathed deeply and let the phone sank. Fangmeyer stepped beside him, putting his paw on Nick's shoulder with a wide smile. "Good work, Wilde… really impressive."
The officer from the bomb squad opened the driver's door of Judy's police rover and with wobbly knees Judy slowly left the car. The bomb squad officer walked behind her in his armored uniform, supporting the rabbit who still was somewhat insecure while walking. Judy waved with a smile to Nick, but the very same moment an ear-deafening explosion shook the earth and nearby standing officers were knocked over by the shock wave or flying debris.
The wind was blowing coldly in Nick's face, but he couldn't care less. Chief Bogo was snapping orders to everyone and Bale had started to laugh gleefully. But Nick's only attention was on the blood and the body of Judy and the other officer in the armored uniform who were laying just a few meters in front of him. He was unable to speak or move, just staring open-mouthed, his whole body shaking and with jingling ears.
"Code 10-108, 10-52 at Precinct One for 10-45c! I repeat, Officers down in the car park of Precinct One, immediate ambulance needed!" – Bogo snapped at his radio, then turned around to Delgato and McHorn, who were keeping the still laughing hyena under control. "And get this psychopathic piece of dung out of my sight!"