Chapter 8: Regroup
Zootopia…Zootopia General…9:37am
Judy's awoke groggy, the cool puff of oxygen filling her nose from the nasal cannula that was strapped to her muzzle. She raised her left paw and noticed an IV and tape on the top of it. She looked to her right to see a sleeping fox in the reclining chair next to her, he had pulled it close to the bed and draped his head and arm next to her while lying mostly in the chair. She reached over and brushed his orange fur delicately.
'oh, you sweetheart.' She thought to herself, as she felt her lips pull into a weak smile.
She remembered much of the events of last night, even some of the more vivid imagery and feelings, but she didn't remember much after that, she didn't remember being brought to the hospital.
Nick stirred as he felt the motion of his fur and awoke, his gaze immediately locking eyes with hers
"Carrots…Judy." He whispered softly
"Hey." She replied just as softly.
"Are you….alright?" he asked.
"Of course." She replied.
Nick nuzzled her paw. He was happy she was awake and ok, part of him wanted to hug and kiss her but in her weakened state he figured best save it for later.
"How did I get here?" she asked.
"I….I called in the Calvary." He replied.
"Huh?" she quirked her head slightly, an ear rising.
"Kaiden and Kit." He replied
Judy smiled when she heard the names of her dear friends.
"I'm just glad you're alright." He said as he petted her.
"I'm glad too, I should have been smarter than that."
"Do you remember what happened?"
"Yeah, I remember Jerome leading me down a catwalk and falling."
"Anything else?"
"Yeah, when the vapor hit me, I just remember the way he looked at me. And the fact he didn't even shoot, like as if he felt it would be a waste of a bullet. I'll never forget that stare. Did you get him?"
Nick hesitated not wanting to answer, he opened his mouth to speak but no words came out, after the third try he finally mustered a reply
"N….No, I had to….let him go."
"What?!" she exclaimed.
"I had him, and I had to let him go. Because he said you were….." he trailed off not wanting to say the word.
Judy winced at the realization, she mentally slapped herself, she put herself in danger AND let the bad guy get away, and to make matters worse, Nick had to call in Kaiden and Kit to bail her out. Nick saw this and comforted her.
"Look, don't worry, we'll catch him, we'll get the bad guy. I'm more worried about you right now."
"I know….I'm sorry Nick." She lamented
Nick was taken by surprise, he was almost sure she was going to argue that he should have arrested Jerome first and then come back for her, but she didn't.
"It'll be ok." He said.
Judy was fiddling with the sheet that was covering her; she looked up to look Nick in the eyes.
"Can I ask you something?" she started, changing the subject.
"Of course, Carrots."
"What do you remember…about the reactor?" she hesitated, looking down and then into Nick's eyes.
Nick's eyes went wide for a moment then back to normal.
"Oh wow, I haven't thought about that since, well since we woke up in those tanks."
"I know, but what do you remember exactly?"
"I mean um, same as you I guess. I remember going down there, plugging Clawhauser in, and the realization that we had to go in there. Pretty much right up until we opened the door." Nick replied, his gaze staring off as he was retrieving the memory.
"Yeah, but I mean, do you remember….dying?" she looked at him with sad eyes.
Nick looked at Judy his mouth slightly agape, unsure of how to answer.
"Do you?" he inquired his expression of deep concern.
"I remember, flashes, that rush stuff, must have kicked up some fragment. I remember you asking me something, a question. Maybe? And I remember your face, it seemed still, like a picture." She described her sad expression fixated on an image in her mind, if she could tear up she would have.
"Judy….."
"Nick, what did you ask me? What did you say?"
Nick was saddened by this, as if he forgot something important, left behind some crucial detail but not knowing what it could possibly be.
"I'm sorry…..I don't know. I don't remember." He whispered as he cradled her paw, caressing it.
The moment was broken when they both hear a soft knocking on the door. The pair looked towards the door, and a familiar fox head popped into view.
"Hey. Can we come in?" asked Kaiden with a relieved smile on his face.
"Sure." Judy smiled sweetly.
The door opened as Kaiden, Kit and Clawhauser came into view, Clawhauser sporting a small bandage on his cheek.
"Hey guys." She addressed them.
Judy looked around at the three of them, each of them was smiling back at her, she could clearly see the relief on their faces, and the concern they had for her.
"Ben, what's with this?" she said pointing to her cheek referencing Ben's bandage.
"Oh, this, it's just a scratch, one of the missions got a little rougher than we were expecting." Replied Clawhauser.
"Hey! You two are supposed to be taking care of him." Judy playfully scolded Kaiden and Kit.
"Oh that, it's nothing, it's not even going to scar." Kit defended in the same tone.
"Well it better not, or I'm gonna kick your butt. You can't be scuffing up my favorite feline." she replied.
Judy turned back to Clawhauser.
"Seriously though, how are things going, sweetie?"
"Things are going good, I'm making good on my promise, and I'm fixing my mistakes."
"I wish you wouldn't blame yourself Ben."
"I know, Judy. But I'm doing good, I'm making things right."
"Just be careful." She said concerned.
"I try." He replied with a smile.
Judy turned to Kaiden
"Did Nick tell you what was going on?"
"Yeah, he filled us in last night, why?" inquired the fox.
"Well I was hoping you might have run the name, Jerome Chandler, he's a tiger."
"We can worry about that later Judy, right now….." replied Kaiden.
"No! Look I understand how I probably look, but I am not some fragile flower. We are in the middle of a case, and we need to solve it, or more people are going to be where I am." she interrupted.
Kaiden glanced over to Nick as if looking for direction; Nick shook his head as if not knowing how to answer. Judy quickly glanced along the respective foxes sight lines and waved her paw in front of them.
"Hey, Hey, I'm over here. Look I'm fine." She said.
"You sure?" asked Kaiden with a raised eyebrow.
"Yes, I'm ready to resume duty." She said confidently.
"Ok, then stand up." Kaiden said flatly.
"What?" she replied.
"You heard me, stand up."
Judy stared determined into Kaiden's eyes, and she stood up on the bed.
"See." She replied.
"Ok, just stand there."
"That all?"
"Yep, just stand there." Kaiden replied crossing his arms.
After about half a minute Judy's legs started to tremble, she strained against it, and then felt her legs give away as she fell backward; Nick caught her in mid fall and put her back down in the bed. Judy had an angry and annoyed expression on her face.
"You're injured Judy, you're not going to help anyone like that, if you're that bad off you can't even carry yourself." The fox explained.
"Well, I don't need working legs to continue an investigation, my brain still works." She replied
"Point taken." The fox admitted.
Kaiden looked over a at Kit and nodded, the wolf pulled out a laptop from a bag he had been carrying and handed it to Kaiden, who in turn set it up for Judy on her bed tray and slid it in front of her.
"What's this?" she asked.
"Bureau 13's database, I figured you would want to research your leads yourself." Kaiden replied back with a smile.
"So what was that about?" Judy asked referring to her standing challenge.
"Because I care about you. And I don't want to see yourself get hurt even more because you're so damned determined."
"And I know why, I know you don't want to show weakness. But sometimes, you have to acknowledge you're at the disadvantage and pull back to regroup. " the fox explained.
"Sometimes you have to take a step back, before you can take two steps forward." Said Kit.
Judy held her paws up.
"Alright, I get it, I get it. I give you a day." She said insistently.
"That's all we ask." Replied Kaiden.
Judy shot a glance to Nick
"You put them up to this didn't you?" she asked slyly.
"I was sleeping, Carrots." Nick said innocently.
"Truly?" she asked.
"Scout's honor." He replied holding up his paw in a ranger scout salute.
Judy studied his face for a moment, she hadn't given him a good look since she awoke but now she saw, his eyes were slightly bloodshot, and the eyelids had a slight puff on the lower halves.
"Did you….sleep ok?" she asked concerned in a lowered voice.
Nick kept his smile and relaxed expression, not saying anything at first.
"Yeah, I'm fine." He fibbed.
Judy smiled and turned back to the others.
"Kaiden, thank you for the laptop, it will help a lot. Can Nick and I have a minute alone?"
The group at first wondered what was important, but Kaiden nodded to Kit and Clawhauser, and pointed to the door. The three walked outside, with Kaiden closing the door. "We'll be right out here if you need us." He said.
After Judy heard the click of the door, she turned to Nick.
"Another dream?"
"It's fine Carrots, I'm more concerned about the fact that you nearly died last night." Replied Nick.
"And I'm concerned about the emotional well being of my favorite fox, so spill it."
Nick took a deep breath.
"Alright….this one was…..different." he started.
Several Hours Later….
Judy was getting bored, the only medical appliance left was the IV, which they had given her a high density nutrient drip, which despite her protest of help was making her feel a lot better, the headache that she had since she awoke had vanished and she was walking around on her own. She desperately wanted to leave, but had been ambushed into giving another day.
She hated this feeling, whether it was feeling helpless or trapped, but on the other paw, she knew it wasn't being done out of malice or spite, quite the contrary, they were doing it out of care and love. And while that gave her a warm feeling in her heart, she still felt antsy. So she decided to do the next best thing, investigate. Kaiden had given her a laptop with Bureau 13's database, a wealth of information that could lead to finding Jerome, but where to start, the database had a plethora of sources, ranging from criminal databases to intelligence files on political groups.
She decided to start from where she knew and go on from there.
Nick was outside talking to the doctor, the diagnosis was good, Judy was recovering quickly, and the drugs that were in her system were mostly neutralized when they brought her in the night before, there was no reason for her not to leave in the morning. Nick had heard a discussion of voices behind him, not paying it any mind until one of them raised into his perception.
"And I am an officer of the law, and if you two don't get out of my way, there is going to be trouble." Said the voice.
Nick turned and saw Detective Rollins having heated words with Kaiden and Kit.
"And who are you exactly?" demanded the cougar.
"We are friends of Judy." Replied Kaiden.
"Is that a fact? Funny, she's never mentioned you." Rollins chided in disbelief.
"I could say the same about you." Replied Kaiden.
Rollins stepped closer; eyeing Kaiden in the eyes, there was something about the fox's eyes that didn't sit right with him. They had an air of unnatural look to them. In fact the rough looks of both of them didn't sit right with him at all.
"What's up with your eyes, fox?"
"They see." Kaiden coldly replied.
"Look, I don't know what a couple of Chompers like you are doing outside Hopps' door, but she's a cop, you mess with her, you mess with me." He said defensively.
Kaiden decided to play the hand he was dealt and tapped Kit to make a discreet exit, the two walked away.
Nick received a text on his phone a few moments later, he checked it.
'Kaiden: It's ok, can't afford to blow cover."
'Nick: I'm sorry, I've never seen Rollins go off on someone like that.' He typed back.
'Kaiden: Doesn't matter, we're used to it. Heard worse actually.'
Nick frowned, hanging around Judy, he had actually forgotten about the prejudice. He shook his head amazed that he actually forgot about it, being in Judy's world with her made everything else fall away. 'Amazing' he thought to himself.
Nick walked in behind Rollins, the two saw Judy working on a laptop, she looked up.
"Detective Rollins! How are you?" she asked.
"Better than you I hear. Are you ok kid?" he asked concerned.
"Yeah, I'm better, can't wait to get out of here." She replied.
The cougar smiled
"Well you get your strength back, and I'll let the chief know about things here."
"What about the case?"
"The case? Wow, you really are dedicated." The cougar chuckled.
"Well it's still there, as soon as you get out. You sure you wouldn't want to hand this off to anyone?"
"Of course not!" she replied forcefully.
Rollins chuckled again.
"Never seen anyone that hungry for a case. Well I will tell the chief, it's still yours."
Rollins patted Judy on the shoulder and turned to leave.
"Oh by the way, Wilde, it's your job as a partner to keep the skels away from her door." He chided, tapping Nick in the chest.
"Skels?" Judy asked her Ear and eyebrow perked up.
"I'll explain it later." Nick jumped in, interrupting.
"Ahh, it's nothing, don't worry." Dismissed Rollins, as he walked out the door.
Several minutes went by and Judy eyed the open door.
"Hey, where are Kaiden and Kit."
"Yeah, about that…" Nick starting trying to find the words to explain.
Kaiden and Kit appeared in view of the door, with a few snacks from a vending machine.
"…yeah we got snacks." Said Kaiden, answering Judy's question.
Kaiden nodded at Nick, as his smartphone vibrated in his pocket. Nick checked his phone, a new text had come in, and he pulled out his phone nonchalant and checked it.
'Kaiden: I think her world is shattered enough, and I'm not going to say anything….and neither are you.'
Nick nodded at the message and then back at Kaiden, then turned his attention to Judy.
"Cuz junk food will help me recover right?" she said sweetly with a smile.
"Hey, it tastes good, anything that tastes good can't be bad for ya?" Kaiden played back.
"Wait, I thought it was everything that tastes good is bad for you." Replied Kit.
"Yeah, well….whatever." shrugged Kaiden.
The group had a good chuckle when the laptop beeped, Judy's name search got a hit. She looked down at the screen. '1 Match found, Level 7 Access required.'
"Level Seven? What's that." Commented Judy
"What?" remarked Kaiden with incredulity.
He spun the laptop around and in fact the error was prominently displayed.
"Level Seven? Level seven is only required when…." He replied looking at Kit.
"Oh shit." Kit said as he arrived at the realization.
Kaiden, Nick swung around over Judy's shoulder while Kit closed the door and propped a chair against it, then coming over to the laptop.
"What is it?" Just asked wondering what the reaction was.
"Level seven is the security level assigned to the database we extracted from the Illuminati networks."
The room took a sudden air of seriousness; Kaiden quickly typed in his credentials and unlocked the database. The search brought up a personnel file for one 'Jerome Chandler'
"Jerome Chandler, age 34" Judy read.
"Previously Executive Shipping Manager for….."
Judy's eyes went wide eyed as she read the next line.
"Kai Ren Medical."
Nick huffed and shook his head.
"You mean this guy is Illuminati?"
Kaiden checked the screen pointing at a field that read 'Database Crossmatch: None'
"No, he was Kai Ren Medical."
"What's the difference?" huffed Nick.
"The difference is one is a large Mega Corporation, the other is the illegitimate conspiracy by a group of multi-national, multi-cultural elites." Explained Kit.
"That implies there is such a thing as a 'legitimate conspiracy'." Chided Nick.
"Well….that would be us." Smirked Kaiden.
Nick quirked his head and looked at Judy.
"Technically what they do is not….entirely legal." Explained Judy
"And you're ok with that?" Nick replied.
Judy just silently shrugged choosing not to answer a seemingly loaded question.
"Look folks we can debate the finer points of intelligence work at another time, but the task at hand please." Kaiden commented pointing at the screen to refocus the group's train of thought.
Kaiden's phone chirped with a text message: 'Chem Analysis complete. You have to see it for yourself, check your box -H'
"Judy do me a favor, access my mail, the little envelope. Access the vial's chemical report." Requested Kaiden pointing to the screen.
Judy did what she was told and accessed the report, the report listed a number of long chemical names that were detected in the vial, but one item of interest caught her eye, it was located under the 'Active Ingredients' category. Judy's taken enough cough medicine in her life to know that active ingredient is the actual medicine, with inactive ingredients extra substances like dyes or flavorings, things that don't affect the drug in any way.
"PNH-A113" Judy recited, and perked an eyebrow.
Kaiden straightened up and held the side of his head with his paws.
"Oh son of a bitch" he muttered looking at Kit.
"Could we have been wrong about his association?" asked Kit.
"No, it's even worse than that." Kaiden replied.
"Really now, because it looks pretty bad." The wolf fired back.
"No it's worse, there's no way he could have known what he took. He probably saw a lab report or something."
"Yeah K, but didn't Doc Boyd say you can't just stick that stuff in a person as is, it has to be refined first."
"Yeah, he did say that…." Replied Kaiden suddenly being struck by realization
"There's somebody else." Kaiden whispered.
It was at this point Nick waved his hands in the air
"S'cuse me, can you clue US in please, after all, Carrots did almost die to bring us this lead." Demanded Nick.
Kaiden and Kit looked at the two.
"Sorry, sometimes the thought process just runs away." Kaiden replied.
Kaiden grabbed the nearby stool and laid it out for everyone.
"Ok, first off, PNH-A113, the prefix PNH, stands for Project: Nighthowler."
"So this stuff is made from night howlers too?" asked Judy.
"No, actually." Corrected Kaiden.
"This is what we found out after you guys left, Project Nighthowler, experimented with A LOT of substances, actual nighthowlers was one of them, but as we pored over the files we dug up, we found out that the project dealt with something like over 150 different drugs and chemical precursors."
"Of which, this stuff….Uh what do you call it 'Rush' is chemical number A-113."
"Not a very useful combat drug, if it lands people in the hospital" commented Judy
"To be honest, Judy, I don't think half of what this project produced was solely for combat, maybe it's for something else or it's a failed experiment, I don't know. But what I DO know is, Jerome Chandler can't be the only one involved."
"How do you figure?" she asked.
"Because Project: Nighthowler was an Illuminati black ops research project, and Jerome is former Kai Ren Medical NOT Illuminati."
"So how could he have known about it?" asked Judy rhetorically.
"Exactly!" replied Kaiden leveling his paw at the rabbit.
"So we're back to square one." Said Nick.
"Not necessarily." She replied.
"Can this thing look up Illuminati employees too?"
"Yes." Kaiden replied.
Judy typed into the search for 'Project Nighthowler', the project files came up and she waded through the wealth of information till she found what she was looking for 'Project Personnel'
"Now you said that the stuff that Jerome took, has to be refined right?" she asked while keeping focus on the laptop
"Yeah, the stuff is stored in an unrefined state for transport and long term storage." Replied Kit.
"Ok, so it's got to be a scientist." She muttered as she filtered out the superfluous people, security, administrators, etc.
The list shrunk to a more manageable size.
"Were any of these scientists captured or killed? Asked Judy"
"Yeah, a lot of 'em were killed, we captured a few of them though." Replied Kaiden
Kaiden moved over to the laptop and clicked several search options to remove deceased or captured scientists from the search results, shrinking them even more down to five.
"And lastly, let's search for known associates." Muttered Judy
She typed into the associates field 'Jerome Chandler', and upon hitting enter the results shrunk to one record, Judy clicked the 'show results' button and the group waited with palpable anticipation as to the result.
The record loaded onto the screen showing the picture of a water deer, young, innocent looking, her file loaded populating all the fields.
"Doctor Annabel Doran, age 26, Ph.D. in Bio-chemistry. My god, she's only a year older than I am." commented Judy.
"This has got to be it. She's the one making Rush." Concluded Kaiden.
"So she makes it, he turns around and distributes and sells it, making a nice tidy profit for them both." Concluded Nick.
"Yeah, but he doesn't know where the stuff really comes from." Commented Kaiden
"It doesn't matter Kaiden, he's still making a profit off of a poison that he's selling to kids." Judy chided.
"That's not what I mean; my meaning is Jerome may be in this for the money, or to be some kind of Kingpin. But what's the deer's angle?" he asked.
"What are you suggesting?" asked Nick.
"Illuminati don't just do things for the money or the power alone, those are just means to an end. Who is she trying to impress?" asked Kaiden.
"Maybe she didn't get the memo, but the council is dead." commented Kit.
"Well, I'll tell you what, maybe once we catch her, you can ask all those wonderful questions you guys are coming up with." Chided Nick.
"Can we go already." Pressed Nick.
Kaiden turned to Judy
"You feeling up to this?"
Judy didn't hesitate and immediately stood.
"Oh hell yes." She replied with vigor.
"Kit, get the doc so we can get her released."
"You got it." As Kit stepped off to get the doctor.
"Don't we still have to find them first?" asked Judy
"True, but there is only so many places you can hide a sophisticated drug lab in this city, but I've got an idea that may help us find them real quick."
"And then" asked Nick.
"Then…..well then my fellow mammals, we resoundly kick some ass."