With the two canines now in the lab, the time was around 8:30 AM, meaning they'd have until about 9:00 AM to do their tests if Xander's predictions were correct.
"Okay," Daniel began, making himself comfortable as he sat at one of the lab tables, facing his friend. "What first?"
"Hmm. Well, let's start with the paw prints first. Get the cloth and Asher's phone out."
"Sure," Daniel replied, taking the blue stained cloth out of his satchel along with Asher's aging phone.
"Alright nice. Now, since we're gonna lift some paw prints. we're gonna need a few things." Slush thought for a moment, "Let's see, I've already brought some clear tape with me, but we're still gonna need some type of brush, Titanium dioxide powder, and possibly some acetate sheets to set the prints on. Maybe you can help me find them."
Despite Daniel having studied a field of science in college, none of what Slush was saying was familiar to the Environmental Science drop-out, so the wolf was glad to have his more experienced Bio-chem major friend take the lead.
"Alright, captain," Daniel said, enthusiastically.
The two canines then started to search the cabinets that lined the walls for the listed items.
"Let me know if there's any cabinets you can't reach, little guy," Daniel teased.
"Haha," Slush replied, sarcastically, "I may be short, but I'm not that short."
As Daniel opened a cabinet revealing beakers and test tubes of various heights, the wolf took one last friendly jab at the shorter canine. "Well, you sure? It's okay to be short, Slushy. Just Look at these beakers, some are tall while others are short, like you," chirped Daniel, with a chuckle escaping his smug grin.
Slush rolled his eyes before facing the taller canine and putting one paw to his own heart, feigning hurt. "Oh, how specist of you. You know, I'm actually a pretty average height for an arctic fox."
The wolf chuckled some more, "Yeah, I know, it's just fun messing with ya.'" The two mammals then shared a smile. Slush was happy his friend was getting comfortable to joke around with him again, and the fox could feel the atmosphere slowly returning back to the one the two canines shared in college.
Continuing their search, Daniel found some test tube brushes in a cabinet on the left side of the lab. "Would test tube brushes work? They're a little small."
"Yeah," Slush confirmed, "Take a few of them out of there. I also found some acetate slides over here."
"Alright," Daniel replied, setting the brushes on the lab table, which now also supported the phone, the cloth, and Slush's mini clear-tape dispenser. "What else did we need again?"
"Titanium dioxide powder. I'll get some from the chemical room," Slush answered, while also setting the acetate sheets, which essentially were just clear plastic slides, on the lab table as well.
"Titanium dioxide?" Daniel asked, "Well that doesn't sound dangerous at all."
"Relax," Slush laughed, opening a side door to the chemical room. "It's actually a very common ingredient. Food companies use it all the time to dye food white: like doughnuts, ice cream, and stuff. Mostly harmless," Slush paused as he located and grabbed the container that was labeled with the substance from a shelf. "Well, I guess there's some new research saying it's a carcinogen or something, so I mean.." The arctic fox shrugged, carrying the container out of the chemical room and setting it onto the lab table. "Anyways, I'm familiar with it because I work with food chemicals for my job, but it also happens to be a great tool for dusting prints."
"Alright. I see you, Mr. Genius," Daniel complimented, amazed at his friend's knowledge.
"Eh, It just so happens that I'm interested in science. It's not that impressive," The fox shrugged it off. "But anyways, we should probably get a move on. It's already 8:40, and we don't have too much time in here. And, if we're unlucky, the cameras might turn on earlier than expected too."
"How will we know if they turn on?" Daniel asked.
Slush pointed to an upside-down dome shaped camera at one corner of the lab's ceiling. "You see that camera there?"
"Yeah," Daniel replied.
"Well, if it's on it'll have a little red light glowing next to it. Like, there's none on that one, so we can tell it's off for now."
Seeing the absence of a red light, Daniel accepted his friend's words.
"But we'll be even more unlucky if we don't find any prints on the cloth, so let's hope for the best," Slush reminded.
He then got some gloves from the glove cabinet and passed a pair to Daniel; the canines took a few seconds to put them on. Afterwards, the younger canine grabbed a test tube brush and set the stained cloth in front of him on the lab table. "Here, I'll teach you how to lift prints. It's kind of cool actually. You can get the prints on Asher's phone, and I'll do the ones on this cloth. The phone should be a bit easier because the screen is firm and smooth." The arctic fox then gestured for Daniel to sit at the lab chair beside him, and Daniel complied.
With the two mammals side by side, and their trinkets in front of them, Slush began to give his masterclass.
"Okay," Slush began, "So first you're gonna want to powder your brush with the titanium dioxide."
Daniel then opened the powder container in front of them, and both canines proceeded to dip their brushes in it, coating them until the black fibers were fully covered in white.
"Sweet," Slush said, "Now for the moment of truth, we need to dust the surface of our items until some paw prints reveal themselves. There probably won't be a whole paw, but that's fine cause one circular digit (finger) print is all we need to analyze the evidence."
The pair then proceeded to dust their items.
Multiple paw prints appeared right away on the cell phone screen Daniel was dusting, but that was expected as prints usually stick easily to screens.
Finishing his dusting early, Daniel peered at the cloth Slush was dusting with eager anticipation. This was the moment right here. This was the moment that would decide if the current day and the one before were truly days of progress or a complete waste of time. The anxiety was too much for the wolf to bear, and Daniel found himself beginning to rub the bridge of his muzzle unconsciously.
Slush's face showed extreme concentration. His pupils narrowed as he dusted the tiny offending piece of fabric. The cloth itself went from 20% covered in white dust to 30% covered and then to 60% covered, where the blue stain was no longer visible. There were still no signs of prints.
Daniel's face was plagued with worry. This had to go right. It just had to. Daniel could not stop it; his mind began to race.
Please, world. If there's anything good in you. Just let there be a few prints. Just a few! Please, Just let me find my Asher!
Slush narrowed his eyebrows as he dusted the last remaining corners. The job done, the once light-gray piece of fabric now looked like a bed of white snow clear of any impurities.
Daniel's eyes blinked once before they settled on staring blankly at the fabric. Weakly, he muttered, "Nothing."
The wolf was about to sink to the floor before Slush caught his shoulder. "Wait Daniel," Slush declared, confidently. "We still have the other side."
And with that, Daniel's heart returned to a fast beat.
"The blue stain bleached through, so it's on both sides. There was no telling which side was the front or back, and the other side could easily be the one with the prints," Slush explained.
"You should have told me," Daniel gasped, still trying to recover from his feelings of horror. "I was scared to death!"
"Sorry, I'm going slow, so I don't accidentally destroy the prints. I'm going to do the other side now. Maybe you could look away if it's making you anxious.. Or you can hold on to me," The fox offered.
Unsure, Daniel hesitated.
Noticing this, Slush decided to gently maneuver his tail so that it was lightly touching the legs of the mammal beside him in a comforting gesture. He wanted to remind the wolf that he was not alone.
Slush then flipped over the piece of cloth and began to dust the other side. This time, a paw print popped up right away, followed by other ones in quick succession.
A wide grin grew on Daniel's muzzle. "Thank god!" The wolf let out.
"We got em'!" Slush chimed, happily, moving his tail now into a normal position, with the brush and cloth still in his hands.
"Okay," Daniel said, excitingly. "What next?"
"Circle the brush in the pattern of the prints," The arctic fox said. "It will help us get clearer ones. Yours looks like it has different sizes. The bigger ones are probably yours from when you grabbed his phone, so maybe focus on the smaller prints first."
The wolf nodded, and the two canines circled the prints with their brushes.
Momentarily stopping his brushing to look at the two prints on the cloth, Slush declared, "These are different sizes too! Hopefully we got some of those mystery wolves that kidnapped your brother on here!"
Daniel didn't like getting reminded about those mean wolves, but he somehow found his tail beginning to wag. And why wouldn't it? He was so excited! He was so thrilled that finally, after all this time, things were going his way. He was making progress on the case! He began to believe again. Began to believe he'd actually find his brother. And this time this belief was stronger than ever before. Finally, they got evidence! They got evidence right in their paws!
"Okay," Slush said, calming down, "We're not done yet. Get some of that tape (he pointed towards the tape dispenser on the lab table) and carefully tape over a big print and a small print. Don't tape it down too hard though, cause we still need to unstick it. I'll do the same."
After the pair taped up their different sized prints, Slush brought out three of the acetate sheets. Pointing at them and setting them apart on the table, Slush told Daniel how the sheets would be organized. "Alright," Slush began, "That one right there will be for the prints from the phone. This one will be for the prints from the cloth. And this one right here will be our own prints that we'll test right now, so we can make sure the prints we found weren't just ours."
Slush then used a new piece of clear tape and taped it onto one of the digits of his paws, before unsticking it and revealing his very own paw-print, which he then stuck on the appropriate acetate sheet. He then passed a new piece of tape to Daniel. "Here," he said, "Get a print from your paw real quick."
The wolf then followed exactly what the arctic fox had done just a few seconds earlier, before setting his print next to where Slush had put his on the acetate sheet.
Using more of the tape from his mini tape dispenser and a marker the todd had found, Slush was quick to label all the set prints on the acetate.
The pair of mammals then set the other prints from the cloth and phone onto their respective acetate sheets and labeled them by source and number. Pretty soon, they had a complete array of prints on the plastic slides.
"Now for the fun part," Slush said, with Daniel being unable to tell whether he was being sarcastic or not, "I got an app on my phone that lets you compare prints. I've played around with it before in my free time because a while back I was a bit interested in forensics, as you might already have been able to tell." Slush emitted a slight smile.
"Anyways, I can scan the prints with my phone camera and then save them on the app, where A.I. will compare them instantly and even say the likely species." Slush said, cheerily.
Daniel was amused at his friend's enthusiasm towards his passion, "Work your magic!" He encouraged.
Slush then scanned and saved his and Daniel's known prints into the app. Then, scanning the bigger paw print from the phone acetate sheet, the app was able to deduce that it was in fact Daniel's. Slush then saved the smaller phone print as "likely Asher" on the app. Next, the fox scanned in a print from the cloth, and the app instantly matched the print to the one that was saved as "likely Asher." The fox then turned to the wolf temporarily with a grin, "The small prints match! This cloth is indeed your brother's!"
After some shared excitement, Slush began to scan the other prints on the cloth, with them matching either Daniel, Slush, or Asher's prints. When the shorter canine scanned the last collected print, however, instead of matching the print to one that was already saved, the app asked for the print to be saved as a new print. In other words, they had found a print that did not belong to either the present pair of canines OR Asher; they had found a completely new print.
"Well?" Daniel asked, impatiently and on the edge of his seat.
Slush smiled again before he showed Daniel the phone. "We found a foreign print! And look here!" Slush then pressed on the "details" button, where some text popped up. "It says, species: Gray Wolf, Canis lupus. Do you know what that means?!"
The realization hit Daniel; he replied softly, "We got it." He then exclaimed, "We got the prints of one of those 'Canine Anti Drug Agency' wolves!"
Slush nodded his head ferociously. "Yup! We got it! But we can't celebrate yet. We still gotta pack this up and analyze that stain." Slush glanced at the time on his phone, which revealed a time of 8:47. "And we better hurry, we've got about thirteen minutes left."
"Agreed," Daniel said, "Do you know how we're gonna analyze that stain? I mean, I still think it's important, since I found it at my apartment that day and on the piece of cloth."
"Well, we definitely need to analyze it, but the question is how? Originally, I thought we could perform a swab test on it and test it with chemicals, but I'm realizing that the stain is probably way too dried up for that. Sorry." Slush angled his head towards the floor; he was frustrated with himself for not knowing what the next course of action should be.
"It's okay, Slush. Isn't part of science asking questions and trying to find solutions? Let's think about it for a second."
Competing against the ever ticking clock, the minds of the mammals were racing until an invisible floating lightbulb flicked-on on top of Daniel's head.
The wolf's eyes lit up, "liquids vary by pH and acidity right? I bet I could perform some sort of litmus paper test to help identify the pH and with that, the identity of the substance. I've performed countless litmus tests when testing water quality in my environmental science classes before! I could easily do one now."
"But the substance here is a dried stain. Don't you need running liquid to perform a litmus test?" Slush questioned.
"Traditionally, yes, but the litmus paper at U-Tundra is a higher-grade or something. It should be able to give the acidity of the stain if I just rub the paper on it."
"Well then, look at you!" Slush said, before continuing to tease the wolf, "I guess your old-mammal brain doesn't forget everything it learns after all."
"Har Har." Daniel said, before getting back on topic. "Since we're running low on time, how about you clean and return all this paw print stuff, and I can perform the test on the stain."
"Sounds good," Slush agreed, "The paw print scans and stuff are saved on my phone, so I don't think we'll need any of these physical prints."
The wolf nodded, and the two mammals went to work on their individual tasks.
Daniel grabbed a piece of red litmus paper that he spotted earlier in one of the cabinets. Returning to the lab table, the wolf used a wet paper towel to completely remove the titanium dioxide powder that was still on the cloth, which once again revealed the blue stain hidden beneath. He then rubbed the litmus paper on the stain, and the red litmus paper almost instantly turned into a bright blue.
"Aha!" Daniel exclaimed, "It's extremely alkaline."
Referring to a color scale on the packaging of the litmus paper, Daniel declared, "In fact, it has a pH of 12! That's so alkaline that it's almost toxic!"
"Wow, That was fast," Slush said as he was removing the pieces of tape from the acetate sheets. "Are you sure it didn't turn blue because the stain is blue though?"
"Yeah," Daniel asserted, "Like you said, the stain is too dry."
"Fair enough," Slush said, "Good job. But what can the stain being alkaline tell us about the case?"
"Well," Daniel reasoned, "Things that are highly alkaline are usually artificial substances, man-made ones inserted with chemicals."
Slush thought out loud, "Well, that's very odd. But then again this whole case is very odd... If that stain was from something mammal-made, and all of a sudden he began to go 'savage'..."
"Drugs," Daniel interrupted. He felt he was so sure of it, and the realization felt like a stab in the heart. "A lot of drugs are artificial nowadays, right? What if a drug made him act that way?"
Seeing tension and panic build inside his friend, the arctic fox was quick to try and get the wolf back to his senses.
"Listen Daniel, Let's not jump to conclusions just yet. We need to finish packing all this stuff up and get out of here. It's almost nine, and the cameras could turn on at any moment now."
Agreeing, Daniel was forced to compose himself, which he did quickly, as he knew that a failure to do so could result in him not being able to find Asher. "You're right. We can research it later."
The pair then finished cleaning, drying, and returning all the equipment into where they had got them from as if they were never there.
"Make sure to take the cloth and phone with you," Slush reminded, "And you might want to keep that used litmus paper as evidence too."
Daniel responded, "Right ahead of you. I can also take that tape dispenser in my satchel so you don't need to carry it in your pocket."
The fox thanked the wolf.
Slush then disposed of all that there was to dispose of into the large trash bin at the back of the lab, making sure the new trash was buried deep under the old waste that was already in the bin. He then proceeded to wash his paws, and Daniel followed suit.
"Alright, you ready to leave, old wolf?" Slush asked.
"Yeah, Let's get out of here." Daniel replied.
Exiting the lab at 8:59 AM and the science building at 9:02 AM, the red lights on the security cameras were still nowhere to be seen.
"I guess it's taking them extra long to figure out how to turn the cameras back on," Slush remarked, "Come on, let's get out of this campus."
Still trying to avoid attention, the two canines then speed-walked to the front gate, where they could see police outside of the administrative building nearby.
Finally exiting the campus, the two mammals found safety in Slush's 2015 Catillac.
"We did it!" Daniel exclaimed, "After all that drama, we somehow did it!"
"Yeah," Slush said, impressed, "I don't know how we just got away with that, but those police being over there doesn't seem like a good sign."
As the pair regrouped themselves inside the idle car, Daniel peered out the front window to try and get a look at the situation through the gates before noticing that the cameras now had a slight red glow to them.
"Well, I guess they figured out the camera business," Daniel said.
"Yeah," Slush replied, a bit worriedly, "But I bet they won't be satisfied with just fixing the cameras, but rather finding out who disabled them. But, for now, we're good. I mean, I don't know if Xander is though; he might still be frolicking around on campus. Let me text him to ask if he's okay and tell him we made it
"Good idea," Daniel nodded.
Slush then took a moment to text Xander, but there was no immediate response.
"No reply, but who knows, he might already be in his dorm. Maybe we shouldn't over-worry." Slush said, seemingly half-convinced himself. His pointy white ears began to twitch. "But anyways, we can't just wait here. Where should we go next?"
Daniel thought for a second, before he answered, "ZPD Headquarters."
Slush raised an eyebrow, "You wanna go to the ZPD Headquarters after we just broke into a university illegally? Plus, I thought you said you were done with the ZPD."
"I never said I was done with them," Daniel replied. "I said I was done waiting for them." He corrected. "They're the only ones that can actually do stuff with this evidence, and maybe they even have that mystery paw print matched somewhere in their records. If anything, with this evidence, there's no way they can ignore my story like that Chief Bogo did yesterday. Plus, I don't think we need to worry about this sneaking into the lab thing. We did everything by the book and stuck with the plan, so I don't know how they'd catch us now that we're out of there."
"Alright," Slush sighed, "I hope you're right about this."
The fox then shifted the gear to drive, and the pair found themselves on their way towards Savanna Central.
Exiting Tundratown and moving towards Downtown Zootopia, which was located in the broader Savanna Central, Daniel peered at his surroundings.
Thousands of years ago, the hot savanna biome would have emitted a certain stillness as mid-day would break, exposing the intense sun that had traveled so far from the edge of the horizon during sunrise.
Back then, mammals had recently evolved into their "sophisticated" stage, as they began to dabble in early architecture with straw and adobe, communicate verbally, etcetera. They even eventually learned to dig wells, a marvelous innovation that would transcend previous experiences of gathering by the lake amongst the crickets and snakes to get a sip of water. There was no more need to thirst. There was no more need to graze. And most importantly, there was no more need to fear. Predators no longer hunted mammal prey. It was something to rejoice!
But as Zootopia's historians and researchers had come to discover, there was no lion in an early evolved savanna prey civilization, no impala in a predator one, and no signs of intermingling whatsoever. Banding together in their large numbers, the Preys' civilizations dominated the preds'. There was no need to fear anymore, and any mammal at the time could have easily figured this out. But the prey chose to create fear: fear that led to exclusion and total segregation. In those times, from a young age, prey were taught about the dangers of predators, with older individuals citing predators' large, sharp teeth or historical diet. The fear did not spawn from the predators, but from the prey themselves.
Fast forward to now. Savanna Central is a beautiful place. The whole city of Zootopia is. Leopard shop-owners set up next to Pig ones. Weasels are neighbors with rabbits. The city is bustling: a place where 'anyone can become anything!' It was a perfect society!
At least, it certainly looked like one.
Savanna Central had the highest prey to predator ratio in the whole city, and as Slush and Daniel were making their way across the region, something just felt different. A certain intensity seemed to fill the air of the tropical grassland and seep into the arctic fox's car. This off-putting air was mild but not unfamiliar. Daniel had always felt it whenever he visited Savanna Central, even as a kit. The air was overwhelmingly humid but had a sense of being flammable, like it could explode at any moment if something were to occur.
After a few more minutes of driving ever so safely, Slush reared into an open parking space. Peering up to the circular marvel of a building in front of him, the fox declared, "ZPD Headquarters, Danny. We're here."
The two canines then unbuckled their seatbelts and hopped out of the automobile.
As the pair began walking to the front door of the ZPD headquarters, Slush turned to the Canis lupus. "Okay," Slush began, "so what do we do from here."
"We convince the chief." Daniel answered, plainly.
"And how are we going to do that?" Slush followed up, a bit worried by his friend's lack of a plan.
"I don't know. I tried to convince him before, remember? But I didn't have evidence, so he didn't believe me. But now, I- I mean we, do, so he'll have no choice but to believe us. And if things go south, you're here to back me up."
Hearing his friend's logic, Slush thought Daniel was being over-optomistic and possibly unreasonable, as the fox had no interest in going to the forefront of the law after committing a crime. But because he wanted to support his friend, he did not say anything against it. Plus, who was he to judge whether the plan was going to work or not? He knew that there was a possibility that the stubborn cape buffalo would listen to them, and so they'd have to give it a shot. But in truth, the fox was not that hopeful.
As Daniel and Slush entered through the front doors of the building, the cheery, plump cheetah at the front desk noticeably shifted his face to one of annoyance.
"Clawhauser, how you doin'?" Daniel asked, casually, knowing that he would possibly have to convince the feline to let them talk to the chief.
"Mr. Fullmoon," The cheetah replied, with a fake polite smile, "I see you brought a friend with you today. How may I help you?"
"Yeah, doing great too!" Daniel replied, blankly, but while keeping the casual tone. "Listen, I have evidence about the case - Really important stuff - and I gotta show the Chief. Can I talk to him right now?"
"Mr. Fullmoon," Clawhauser began in a serious tone, "That's what you said last time, and I know the chief wasn't happy about how your conversation went."
"Okay, but this time I really do have evidence that the ZPD needs to act on immediately!" The wolf pleaded.
"Sir," The cheetah said calmly, "If you want to make a report or claim, you can fill out a police report online. Chief Bogo is a very busy mammal, you can't just visit him at any time."
"I don't have time to fill out a police report." Daniel stressed, "I have paw prints! and evidence of drugs from the scene!" That last part was an exaggeration, as Daniel never actually confirmed if the likely-artificial blue stain was caused by a drug, but Daniel included it in his testimony to make his case sound more convincing. He then added, "See this arctic wolf here?"
Slush gave the wolf a questioning look.
"He's a scientist," Daniel continued, "He's the one who tested all the evidence. It's all real and relevant. You really need to let us talk to the chief."
Slush narrowed his eyebrows. Though he graduated with a major in science and used his science knowledge for his job, he was by no means a professional scientist in the traditional sense of the word.
Clawhauser sighed, "Mr. Fullmoon, we already did this before, and I'm not going to do this again. The only way you can submit the evidence is by filing a police report."
Not letting himself be defeated this time, Daniel muttered under his breath, "Well, I tried to do things the nice way."
He then grabbed the arm of his vulpine friend and ran towards the second door to the left: Chief Bogo's office, before Clawhauser could do anything about it.
Pushing the door open, the pair of canines found the Cape Buffalo scratching his head as he was reading some sort of paper file.
Peering up from the paper, a confused expression stood on the face of the large cape buffalo for what must have been less than a second.
The chief then slammed the file he was reading on his desk and angrily asked, "Mr. Fullmoon, how did you get in here?"
But before the wolf could answer, the present mammals heard loud, quick pawsteps approaching.
"Sir!" Clawhauser screamed, gasping for air as he finally reached the door of Chief Bogo's office, "Sorry, they just ran past me, I couldn't stop them."
The frustrated chief was about to speak, but Daniel beat him to it.
"Sir, I talked to you yesterday morning and told you about my brother being abducted, but you didn't believe me. But now, I have proof! I've got evidence, including pawprints." Daniel was speaking quickly so he could not be interrupted, "We even got a paw print of one of the kidnappers! If you could just compare it to one you got in your system-"
"Listen, Mr. Fullmoon," Chief Bogo raised his voice, "I already told you this yesterday, mammals don't just go savage! Your brother is not some lone mystery case, there were 13 other missing mammals as well, all of whom were predators. Do you know what you'd be implying?! I simply can't believe your story!"
The room was silent, and the Chief scratched the bridge of his nose under his glasses.
"Mr. Fullmoon, I don't know what incriminating evidence you could have possibly gotten your paws om over the course of one day, but if you really think it is important, I suggest you submit a police report, end of discussion. I'm sorry, but I have more important matters to deal with, and apparently this precinct's getting another recruit, so that's definitely not gonna mess with my schedule," The chief sighed, before beginning to walk out of the room.
Clawhauser, who was still present outside the door of the open office, made a whiny gesture, "That's exactly what I told them. Mammals don't listen these days." The Cheetah then proceeded to shake his head.
But after coming all this way, Slush would not let the pair leave defeated. As Daniel had said earlier, Slush's role was to back him up, and now Slush would not back down from that role.
"He's telling the truth, chief," Slush declared, breaking the newfound silence.
The cape buffalo turned around slowly.
"Oooh," Clawhauser sounded, always up for some drama.
"And who are you?" Chief Bogo asked.
"My name is Slush Vossen," Slush said, boldly, "And I helped Daniel here get the evidence. We traveled to the site of the supposed attack, found an object at the scene of the crime, lifted some prints, and the evidence we have now is very compelling. If you don't take a look at it right now, you're losing valuable time, and the lives of all of those mammals could be in danger because of you."
"And you're sure this information will help solve the missing mammal case?" The Buffalo questioned.
"We'll be more sure if you analyze it," Slush replied, sharply.
"Alright, fine. Show me the evidence, but make it quick." The buffalo finally agreed, unenthusiastically.
"Yes, chief. Thank you," The fox responded.
However, just as Slush was pulling out his phone to show Bogo the paw print scans, an officer spoke through the intercom connected to a speaker in the chief's office.
"Sir!" The voice on the intercom began, "We've got a couple of delinquents here that breached into and disabled the security cameras at the University of Tundratown."
...
Daniel and Slush held their breath.
The Buffalo replied, annoyed, "McHorn, don't you know how busy I am with this missing mammal case? Just deal with it!"
"Well, about that," Officer McHorn said, "One of them said that Mr. Fullmoon and some arctic fox were in on it too."
The chief stopped and stared at the pair of canines menacingly.
Turning back to the intercom, Chief Bogo ordered, "Send those mammals to my office right now. Please!"
The cape buffalo, who was now extremely agitated, spoke in a low voice. "You canines better have a good explanation for this." Then, returning to a regular tone, he spoke to Clawhauser, knowing that he would have to get the cheetah out of there so no gossip would be later spread throughout the headquarters: "Clawhauser, you're dismissed." The chief ordered.
"But-" Clawhauser complained.
"No Buts!" Chief Bogo demanded, "Now!"
The heavy cheetah then complied and trudged away. Moments later, a large rhino appeared behind the door, with a hippo and reindeer in front of him.
As the door opened, all the mammals present at the scene except for the annoyed chief were shocked.
Xander was first to speak, "Slush? Daniel?" He questioned, confused, before realizing that he had to clarify a few things to the canines quickly. "I'm sorry, I guess I told him (he pointed at the reindeer) too much. They interrogated him so fast! I couldn't stop him from -."
The reindeer looked absolutely terrified. He woke up today originally planning to help a friend open a gate, and now he was worried that he would be in some serious trouble, arrested even. He was not one to get into mischief. He had his head down on books, and he knew his family would kill him if they found out about this.
Daniel gave a stink eye to the hippo, sticking up his pointer digit in front of his lips briefly as a sign for the hippo to shut up.
Officer McHorn, who was still baffled to see the two possible accomplices in the room, shook his head and began to explain to the chief. "This reindeer was caught guarding the records room, the room with the computer that controls the cameras at the University of Tundratown, by a rhino student. And then the cameras of the University went offline. According to him, he was trying to cover for this hippo, who hacked into the camera system while these two mammals, I mean, I'm assuming it was this arctic fox, snuck into a restricted science lab to do some experiments."
There was a silence, before the chief put two and two together.
Turning to the canines, he questioned them, softly, "You broke into the lab to analyze the evidence, didn't you?"
"You don't have any proof." Daniel retorted.
"Well, Mr. Fullmoon," I'd say we've got some good circumstantial evidence right here, with you analyzing evidence the same day a break in at the University you went to , we did some background research on you, Mr. Fullmoon. Oh, and did I mention, this reindeer already said you were involved!"
Al, who was still standing in front of the officer rhino, made himself small. He was scared and just wanted to get out of this mess.
The chief then crossed his arms and raised his voice once more before going further, "And now, because of these reckless decisions you keep making, Mr. Fullmoon, I have to deal with all of this nonsense instead of working on finding your own brother and the other missing mammals! Oh, and don't expect me to take a look at that evidence you found illegally. I'm sorry, but what you did was actually crazy! And all of you will have to face the consequences for your actions, even if your little brother is missing, Mr. Fullmoon!" The cape buffalo was appalled at what he felt was the audacity of a mammal asking for help to solve a crime by committing another crime.
With events flowing like a water hose, Slush had no time to stop and think; once more, he stood up for his friend.
"You can't arrest us!" He jabbed, "What do you think's gonna happen when the media hears you've arrested the brother of one of the missing mammals? What do you think the city will do? The predators? They'll all riot! Are you joking? The only reason we committed that crime was because you guys at the ZPD are super slow and haven't found anything about this case. And guess what, we've actually made progress while you guys have been chasing your own tails!" The fox said that last part with real tenacity before he continued, "You can't arrest us, and you know it."
The powerful buffalo let out a large grunt in frustration and rubbed the bridge of his nose, fully knowing that what Slush had said was right: The ZPD simply couldn't arrest this group of delinquents at the moment.
"Fine," The buffalo conceded, "You win. But this University of Tundratown case is not over! You're off the hook until we figure out this missing mammal mess, but don't expect me to take a look at any of that paw print stuff now."
Daniel thought the chief was being an A-hole, "You're not gonna take a look at the evidence that might be integral to solving this whole case just because my friend was being completely logical and now you're butthurt?"
"No." The Buffalo replied, stubbornly, "I'm not going to look at it because quite frankly, I'm done talking to you criminals. Please make your way out of the building immediately."
"But chief!" Slush yelled, one last time out of desperation.
But it was too late to make amends. The chief already had his back turned, and Officer McHorn began to forcefully escort the two canines out of the office.
Passing Al, the pair could hear him weakly say, "I'm so sorry, you both. I didn't mean any of this." But neither canine acknowledged him.
Passing Xander, Slush shoved the hippo's key card into his chest but did not say a word, mad that the hippopotamus had overshared to the helpless reindeer.
The slow walk out the headquarters was eyed by all present bystanders.
Arriving at the front doors from the inside, Officer McHorn gave the two canines one last shove out of the building, and now outside, they heard the doors slam behind them.
Getting up, Slush and Daniel did not exchange any words. They felt a mix of emotions: lucky that they temporarily got away from all that U-Tundra Business, but frustrated that the chief did not even want to take the evidence to examine for later.
Making their way towards Slush's car in silence, Daniel's sensitive wolf ears picked up on some mammals talking in the distance.
Turning towards the audible stimulus, Daniel realized that it was a reporter reporting live from ZNN. In fact, it was the same reporter that Daniel and Slush had watched on television just last night.
Now directing their canine ears towards the ZNN crew, who were set up at the far side of the front of the building, the pair could hear the familiar panther reporter perfectly:
"Yes, Peter. We're here in front of the ZPD Headquarters, where the chief has said in a statement earlier today that even though the whereabouts of the fourteen missing predators remain unclear, a lot of progress has been made on the case..."
That last part did not sit well with a certain wolf.
"Making a lot of progress?!" Daniel muttered, furiously.
The wolf then began walking angrily towards the reporter and the live camera that was in front of her.
Eyes widening, Slush tried to stop his friend. He called out to the wandering wolf, but at a suppressed volume as to not get the attention of the ZNN crew nearby: "Daniel! What are you doing!? The chief will kill you!"
Now about halfway between the reporter and Slush, Daniel turned back towards his friend. "No," he declared, stoically, "I'm done with that chief! I'm done with all the lies! For real this time! I'm going to get the truth out to all of Zootopia so they could see just how much of a fraud the ZPD is!"