Chapter 3: The Feds get Involved

The alarm clock went off far too early the next morning, jolting a previously asleep fox into a rude awakening. "Gah, why is it so early?" Nick muttered to himself as he flayed around for the button to shut the noise off. Feeling it, he smashed down on it, glaring at the device with half-opened eyes. The time on the clock told him that he didn't have any time to spare laying about in bed.

Groaning in complaint, he tossed his legs over the side of the bed and sat up, trying to rub away some of the fatigue from his eyes. Nick was never a morning fox, but today was especially hard on him. On a stool next to the bed, he saw a neatly folded pile of clothing that was his uniform for the day. Well, at least a part of him last night remembered to spare him some agony for the morning by preparing part of his routine ahead of time.

Still trying to collect his thoughts, Nick picked up his uniform and headed for the restroom in his apartment, walking into it muzzle first in a dull thud as the handle didn't turn to open the door for him. The fox stumbled back rubbing his nose while wondering why his own bathroom door was locked.

"I'll be ready in a second Nick!" Came Judy's voice from the other side of the door, "Coming right out!"

Nick stared at the door, mind still turning too slowly to comprehend everything. Why had Judy answered him? And was she the reason the door was locked? His gaze was still locked on the handle when it turned, opening the door with it, and revealing a certain bunny behind it.

"Morning, Nick!" Judy announced, smiling brightly, only to chuckle at the fox's appearance in front of her. "Someone's not enjoying their morning," she teased, moving out of the way and nudging him towards the open door. "Come on, get changed so that we won't be late for work!"

Walking inside on autopilot, mind still wondering what Judy was doing in his place and not in hers, Nick was half way done with changing when it all finally clicked together. Oh, right, the extended shift last night happened. By the time they got back to his place, Nick had immediately started to form a bed for the bunny as she got changed for the night. Good thing for them that they kept a minimal change of clothing in a bag inside their police vehicle. The fox also vaguely remembered coming up with the realization that with even less sleep that usual, it would be a smart idea for him to get the uniform ready to put on ahead of time. The rest was still blurry to him, but Nick remembered just enough to recall that as soon as Judy was done preparing for the night, he followed suit with his own pre-bed routine followed by an immediate faceplant into his pillow.

Only for the stupid alarm clock to go off immediately afterwards.

Uniform on, Nick exited his bathroom, nose instantly filling with the smell of fresh if low quality coffee. Wandering into the kitchen like a zombie, he found Judy, standing on one of his chairs to comfortably reach over the counter, pouring a pot of the stuff into two tall thermos cups.

Noticing the fox, Judy finished pouring the drinks and closed the lids on the cups. "I made this with whatever I found in your pantry," she told him, "but something makes me think that you don't care about the taste too much right now." Reaching into her pocket, she took out her phone and looked at the time. "We still have some time to grab breakfast to go if we leave now."

Nick walked over and grabbed one of the two cups, opening the lid and taking in a deep breath of the caffeinated brown watery goodness. "Sounds like a plan to me, Fluff," he replied back, "I don't think you'll approve of cuisine that I have ready to be made in the time we do have left." He looked at his own watch to double check the time. His eyes widened when he saw the result. "How is it this late already?" he whined in complaint, causing Judy to giggle again.

"You completely slept through the first alarm, dumb fox," she told him as an answer.

Nick didn't know how to reply to that one. "Yeah, well, you know that I'm not a morning fox," he finally settled. With Judy's help, he made sure that he had everything that he would need for the day before the two of them left his apartment. Locking his front door, he tried to ignore the cold morning air as he settled into the passenger seat of their interceptor. Holding onto his coffee with both paws to try and warm them up a bit faster, the fox eagerly waited as Judy started the car up for the engine to warm up enough to start blowing warm air into the cabin.

As the bunny drove them in the direction of the precinct one headquarters, he occasionally sipped on the coffee, not really noticing the lack of flavor. As the temperature slowly rose, he took the opportunity to set his coffee down and relax into the seat, closing his eyes. Surely Judy won't mind if he relaxed his eyes for just a little bit…

"Nick! Breakfast!"

The fox snorted awake, nearly toppling his coffee down as he sat up quickly, trying to pretend that he hadn't actually fallen sleep. That was when the enticing smell of the meal filled his nose… Okay, trust Judy to get him a vegetarian sandwich rather than, say, a bug burger, but truth be told, he couldn't complain to her right now. As he took his breakfast, it served the two most important things he wanted out of it: it was warm, and as he bit into it, he knew that it would fill him up for a while. "Thanks, Carrots," he remembered to say in between bites.

If anything, he even felt a pang of guilt over his breakfast. Not only had he fallen asleep in the car, but Judy not only ignored it, but even went and bought breakfast for the two of them. There was no way that she would not have noticed him dozing away after parking the car to buy the sandwiches. He would have to find a way to spot her for this, say lunch, perhaps.

Nick hadn't even noticed where specifically Judy had chosen to stop to buy the meals, but she chose well because he had just enough time to finish the breakfast and sip up the last of his coffee when they arrived at their destination of the precinct one headquarters.

Unlike their normal routine of going in through the front door, the two of them got to enter the building through one of the side doors that connected to the motorpool where Judy left their interceptor. Walking though the familiar halls, in the direction that he would normally go through near the end of the work day rather than the beginning, felt a bit weird for Nick.

A sense of normalcy returned when the duo entered the main lobby of the building, making their way to Clawhauser's desk. The chubby cheetah was already at his post, talking with officer Wolford. Standing next to the wolf, and leaning against the desk for support, Fangmeyer looked even worse off than Nick when it came to trying not to fall asleep. In her free paw, she held as though her life depended on it a large cup of the cheap stuff from the building's kitchen area.

Judy bounded over to her fellow officers, Nick following close behind with far less enthusiasm. "Good morning Ben!" the bunny greeted, hopping up onto a tall stool so that she can be seen from over the desk, "James, Dahlia," she nodded towards her fellow officers from the previous night.

Fangmeyer groaned at the sudden assault of noise to her ears. "Bunnies, so full of energy," she complained, "I am starting to understand your pain, Wilde."

Nick shrugged with pity at the tiger. At least he was used to Judy's boundless morning energy. Plus, that sandwich and coffee really helped out. "Late end yesterday, Fangmeyer?" he asked, wondering why the tiger was looking so tired.

"Early start," the tiger complained, "our shift didn't end that much later than normal, but Bogo made sure to ask us to arrive for the morning brief."

Next to her, Wolford grunted in agreement. "So much like the two of you, our night was wrecked. Figures."

Nick observed the wolf closely. No coffee cup in hand, and yet the wold looked awake enough. "So how did you get yourself up this morning then?" he asked, "inhale coffee grinds straight?"

Wolford shook his head. "Sheer force of will," he answered, "but speaking of coffee, if you all excuse me..." leaving the others behind, the wolf wandered off in the direction of the kitchen.

Judy took the opportunity to get some answers to what she wanted to know before the morning brief was supposed to start. "So Ben, and news on the two mammals from last night?"

Clawhauser blinked at Judy for a few seconds before seemingly realizing what she was asking about. "Oh, those two mammals, I actually don't know," he admitted, "I just know that we have it on file that late last night, a coyote and a whitetail were admitted overnight for holding." As he spoke, he typed away on the keyboard, looking up more information on his computer. "Yeah, sorry, Judy, but nothing's coming up. Only the most basic of files for both." Something interesting caught his eye, causing the cheetah to lean towards the computer monitor to get a better look. "Who goes around with a name like 'Count'?" he asked, as though not believing what he was reading, "and… 'Trigger'? Well that's odd."

Judy giggled at the cheetah's confusion despite herself. "Those are radio callsigns they go by," she explained, "that's the closest we have for names on them. Well, Nick and I left them to James and Dahlia before we got around to asking for their real names." The bunny looked over to the tiger, now curious to see if she had any news on this little mystery.

Fangmeyer simply shrugged as she took a sip from her cup. "We asked, but neither of them wanted to give us any names. Strange, if you ask me, they almost looked ashamed about it when we asked-" the tiger paused, recalling what had gone on in the previous night. "No, Count was angry. Eh, he seems mad at everything, so I don't put much stock into it. Trigger though..." She paused as echoing footsteps announced the return of Wolford, now holding a cup of wake-up juice in each paw.

"Poor pup's looked downright squeamish if you ask me," the wolf completed for Fangmeyer. "I know some mammals have a hard time telling anything about themselves to cops, but I don't think I've seen quite the same reaction as that. Since it was late, we decided to drop the matter." Leaning over, Wolford glanced at the screen on Clawhauser's desk. "So the booking guys didn't get a name out of them either? That's strange."

Making sure that he won't drop his coffee by accident, Wolford motioned towards the bullpen. "Well, I don't know about you lot, but there's a table and chair with my name on it where Bogo's gonna want me to be sitting in soon. Not the worst of places to polish off two cups of brown water." With Fangmeyer in tow, the officers bid Clawhauser a good morning and left for the meeting hall.

Judy didn't watch the two walk off for long. A quick glance at the large clock behind Clawhauser confirmed that there wasn't even that much time left before the morning briefing. "We'd better go too," she told the cheetah, "thanks for the help! Nick?" Grabbing the fox by his tie, and ignoring his protests, she pulled him after Wolford and Fangmeyer into the bullpen. Luckily for him, she needed to let go of him and use both of her paws to open the door.

Inside was the usual rabble of large mammals either sitting and relaxing for the last few minutes of the morning, or chatting amongst themselves or messing about with each other. Fangmeyer and Wolford were sitting next to each other at their allocated seats. The wolf was looking like he was starting to crash hard, drinking one of his two coffees like his life depended on it. Considering what Bogo would do to an officer being caught napping during the briefing, it could be said that his life really did depend on staying awake.

Nick and Judy took their seats in the front of the tables, exchanging pleasantries with their fellow officers as they passed by, but declining any challenges. Judy was infamous for being able to knock out a rhino with a well placed kick, but she knew that even Nick would easily best her in an arm wrestling competition, just as he would be pummeled if he took on, say, officer Johnson the lion. Not that it stopped the larger mammals from constantly inviting them for a friendly game of strength for a good laugh for everyone involved.

For his part, Nick had just enough time to polish off his cup before Officer Higgins entered the room, meaning that Bogo was about to walk in. As usual, the room filled with noise as the large officers pounded on the tables and hollered in welcome to their chief.

The noise died down with one glare from the large buffalo. Snorting in contentment when everyone sat down again, Bogo started the day's brief, reading from his clipboard. "Nothing too interesting today. Word from the MTSB is that they might need a pair of officers or two to finish up hauling out the last of that crashed plane in the harbor. So if you think you lucked out with only one shift of that job, you'll be out of luck." Bogo looked up from his notes towards a tiger officer and a lion. "I'm looking at you, Jackson and Delgato." He then locked gazes with two officers. "Grizzoli and Krumpaski, if they ask for it, you are next in line to help out with the salvage operation." Bogo's eyes returned to his notes. "There was a case of vandalism reported last night. Higgins, you'll be helping our detectives with that one..." The buffalo continued to hand out assignments to the rest of the assembled officers. "...and lastly, Hopps, Wilde, Fangmeyer and Wolford," Bogo looked at his watch to check the time, "my office, fifteen minutes. Dismissed!"

The room filled with noise again as everyone got up at the same time to get on with their assigned tasks for the day. The two pairs of officers that were singled out to be in Bogo's office lingered together while waiting for the time to pass. It didn't take any guessing to know that they were going to have to go over what had happened over the previous night.

Wolford let out a loud yawn, acting rather casual. Normally, officers would be rather scared of having meetings in Bogo's office. "Well, Bogo didn't sound angry, so I don't think we're in trouble or anything," he explained. "I suspect we are going to get a lot of questions answered about last night. Or maybe Bogo would rather get a verbal debrief from us before getting our written reports."

Their conversation was cut short by a new voice from the direction of the main entrance. "Officer Hopps! Officer Judy Hopps!" The owner of the voice turned out to be a white male hare, with unusual black stripes running along his ears. "Agent Jack Savage, ZIA," the hare introduced himself, "you must be Judy Hopps, ZPD's first rabbit officer," the hare suddenly looked nervous, "I'd love to stay and chat for a bit, but I am already running late. I need to meet up with Chief Bogo at his office, but I'm afraid I already got lost after being given the directions by the cheetah at the reception desk."

Judy was automatically curious with talking to a fellow lepordiae who also chose to pursue a career not outside the usual agricultural array, but duty calls when someone asks for help. "Sure, you are quite close, just go this way..." she quickly proceeded to give him the instructions to how to get to Bogo's office, and as soon as she was done, agent Savage was already gone in the blink of an eye.

Nick tilted his head in the direction the hare fled off to. "Well that's one odd fellow. ZIA, he said?"

Fangmeyer grunted in agreement. "Bet you twenty bucks he's gonna be in that office with us."

The fox chuckled but shook his head. "No, no, you see, Fangmeyer, you're doing it wrong. When creating a bet, the odds need to be unknown, otherwise there's no fun in the bet. I'm happy with keeping my twenty, thanks. Besides, I'll need it for later." His response earned him another grunt, though one of disapproval, from the tiger.

The four officers continued to talk on and off about various things as they waited for the time to pass. Before not too long, a nearby clock told them that it was time to head up to the office. And sure, while they knew that there was no logical reason to be afraid of the buffalo this time around, there was always that carnal fear that came with heading up to Bogo's office. After all, there were only ever two reasons to be summoned there: either something important needed to be discussed in private, or far more often, you messed up bad and needed disciplining. For all four officers, at least a part of them was telling them that they somehow did something wrong last night, and Bogo was going to skin them alive for it. One can never tell with the Chief.

Well, there was no point in delaying, unless they wanted to actually make the buffalo mad. As the most senior officer, Fangmeyer was the one who knocked on the door.

The reply was instant. "Enter!" Opening the door, the four officers entered the room. Bogo barely glanced at them at they came in. "Pick a seat, but leave the middle to chairs empty," he instructed. "Officers, meet agent Jack Savage, ZIA. He will be representing the federal government while we figure out what to do with what I presume to be his jurisdiction. Am I right?" Savage gave a quick nod. "Savage, these four officers were the ones involved with apprehending yesterday's two arrivals."

As the four officers sat down, they nodded in greeting at the hare. "We bumped into him just outside your office," Judy commented, not earning a reply from Bogo.

With everyone settled, the buffalo took some papers on his desk and glanced over them. "Officers, if you would be kind enough, I would appreciate it if you will run down the events of last night that lead to the apprehension of the coyote and deer. This isn't a formal debrief, but will greatly help later today in getting things moving. So please, don't leave anything out." It was hard not to notice that next to the papers on his desk sat a familiar gun, disassembled, but still very much recognizable. "Agent Savage, if you will have any questions, try to save them for the end, if you may."

The hare nodded, but also spoke to add in a brief introduction of his own. "Thank you, Chief Bogo. While I am not normally the best person to be involved in such matters, I am qualified enough to oversee this meeting, and more importantly, was available to show up on a short notice. However, I will remain in contact with others in the agency, communicating with them on my phone throughout the meeting. So if you are talking and see me typing away on it, do continue, and don't think that I am ignoring you, for I will still be listening. If all goes well, Chief, I imagine that we will have a plan of action on what to do with the two mammals. Also, while I can, I would like to preemptively thank you on behalf of the agency for taking initiative with the two mammals." His phone sat on top of a note pad, pen at ready, on Savage's knees. Glancing at the screen, the hare nodded at whatever he read it. "I believe we are ready to begin," he announced simply. "So first thing would be if you can give me a rundown of the events of how you caught the mammals."

Fangmeyer cleared her throat. "I guess I'll start since Officer Wolford and I were the ones who were originally tasked with investigating a series of reports about a pair of suspicious mammals in the Rainforest district..." She proceeded to tell how she and Wolford would try to approach the two mammals once they were initially found, only to have trouble actually getting close. Wolford occasionally interrupted to add in a detail or two if the tiger missed a point.

Bogo, for his part, remained silent as the officers told the events that transpired the previous night. The only time he spoke was right before Nick and Judy started to talk where they got involved with the search. Reaching for the small microphone on his desk, the chief spoke into it quietly. "McHorn, bring them in, thirty minutes, my office. Might need to wait a bit, so don't hurry it."

With the interruption out of the way, the recount of events continued. Judy stumbled a bit when she got to the part where she found herself staring at the business end of a gun, but a quick glance at the device on Bogo's desk convinced her to just metaphorically bite the bullet and continue on without trying to hide the fact. That being said, she also noticed how when she got to that part, Nick was suddenly looking at her with not an insignificant amount of concern on his muzzle. This was in part why she made sure to add that, "I am fully confident that even if officer Wilde had not arrived when he did, nor the coyote, for that matter, that should I have needed to, I would have been able to disarm the deer by myself."

Feeling that this would be sufficient to diffuse any immediate concerns, she continued to recall the events. When she got to the part where Nick tackled Trigger in an an ambush, Judy could have almost sworn that she saw a hint of a grin escape the corner of Bogo's mouth, but it disappeared as soon as she blinked. It didn't take long to reach the end where Fangmeyer was able to take over again. And when the tiger finished with the booking of the two mammals, a brief moment of silence remained in the room when the talking ended.

As the most important mammal in the room, Bogo spoke first. "On my end, until written documentation is submitted, I can say that from what little I had time for in listening to the recordings of the appropriate radio communications, I can corroborate to what you have just been told. Considering that, agent Savage, do you have any questions for the officers?"

The hare looked down at his notes. "Officers, you decided that it would be best to split up in a location with very limited mobility and even less visibility. What lead to such a decision?"

Bogo responded before any of the four beat cops could. "Agent, I would appreciate it if your questions remained on topic to what would be applicable to your jurisdiction. My officers' methodology doesn't fall under that category. So, officers, if you do not feel comfortable answering that question, you may ignore it."

Fangmeyer raiser her paws up in a harmless position. "It's all right, sir, I'll answer it. The main reason we decided to split up was that we had no reason to expect hostility from the mammals. For many hours, they proved to us that they knew that they were being followed, and never had they shown any hostility, only a strong ability to lose us repeatedly. This was also our main reason for requesting backup: it was never to get more firepower on scene, but rather just to get more paws on the ground to close off escape routs."

Savage hummed as he looked down at his notes again. "But did you suspect that they might have turned hostile if they got cornered? I am choosing to ignore what happened when Hopps made first contact, and am asking about the decision process before that."

"I understand that, sir," Fangmeyer replied, "at one point, several hours prior to first contact, Officer Wolford and I did have them cornered at a dead-end street. They only got away by jumping into a fast-current canal nearby. If they were ready to fight, why risk their lives trying to escape?"

The hare nodded at the answer he got. "Very well. If I may, I have done field work myself, so I can assure you that I am aware of the benefits of hindsight over the in-the-moment thinking officers such as yourself have to do on a regular basis. I asked this question to get a better understanding of your assessment of the two mammals, and not to judge your performance as police officers. Moving on, Chief Bogo, I have a question directed at you, if I may ask it?" Bogo gave a nod, so Savage proceeded with his question. "I am under the impression that you were not too surprised when the two mammals were reported as potential pilots of a foreign nation. What clued you in as to their identity?"

The buffalo, before replying right away, took a few moments to shuffle through the stack of papers on his desk, pulling two out and handing them over to agent Savage. "The infrastructure in the city of Zootopia is incredibly complex, often described as a modern Wonder of the World. However, with all its moving parts and components, sections fail. All the time. For the vast majority, it's just expected end of life behavior for weak components. Sprinklers failing, small pipes leaking, things like that. Also as expected for such a system, mammals tend to get a good laugh out of seeking to destroy it. While stopping a plot to blow up a section of the climate wall might make national news, what you don't hear about even locally are the countless of acts of vandalism and hooliganism that go on all the time. A group of drunken teenagers betting on who can knock out a sprinkler with a tossed rock, a curious onlooker wondering what will happen if they plug a sand blower in Sahara Square, things like that. When repair crews check on a failed section, they send me a report if they suspect foul play. Most of the time, it's just paperwork clutter: if the mammals responsible weren't caught right away, it's just not worth the cost to investigate and try to catch and deal with every single incident. The city simply repairs the damage and tries to fine those who do get caught to try and offset some of the costs. The rest is covered by taxes, both local and federal."

Chief Bogo motioned at the papers he handed over to agent Savage. "But occasionally, I even get a report that is worth paying attention to. The same day as the airplane crash, I got two. It was only a couple of hours after the crash that I received these two reports for damage inspection on the climate control system. One, a water sprinkler in the Rainforest District was knocked out of commission. The other, a complete blockage of a snow distributor in Tundra Town. Even with the timing after the crash, it was nothing out of the ordinary: these things happen all the time. But what was unusual was the cause: Both incidents were caused by contact of large canvas materials, revealed to be parachutes upon closer inspection. Matching the type used by Ocelotian air force pilots in the event of a bailout. That gave me a very strong suspicion that we should be on the lookout for survivors of the crash. So when reports came in about a pair of suspicious mammals, I couldn't simply bet everything on them being the survivors, but I did have my suspicions. Does that answer your question sufficiently?"

Agent Savage read over the two reports, using the end of Bogo's short speech to organize his thoughts. "Yes, Chief Bogo, that would suffice," he replied. He then motioned at the gun sitting on the desk. "A quick question this time: This rifle, which I can confirm is a standard issue personal defense weapon for vehicle crews in the Ocelotian military, is the deer's. Did the coyote also have one of his own?"

Bogo shook his head. "No other weapons were recovered from either one of them. Nor, I can add, were any weapons recovered in either of the two locations where the parachutes were found. When we booked the two mammals into the precinct, they were checked for personal belongings as well. Neither one had anything more significant than their identification papers, which leads me to the conclusion that they either hid their gear prior to our contact with them, or they dropped down onto Zootopia without anything." The buffalo glanced at the gun components. "Apart from this. Would most likely be a better question to ask them in person, agent, assuming they will cooperate."

Savage typed some things on his phone, only pausing briefly to wait for replies from whoever was on the other end. It was during this lull in the conversation that a sharp knock from the other side of the door was heard.

Bogo glared at the door in an almost automatic fashion. "Just a minute!" he called out.

Agent Savage set his phone down on the pad again. "I believe I only have one more question before we bring them inside," he said, "when the two mammals were brought in to this station, were they interrogated in any shape or form?"

Fangmeyer gulped nervously. "Well, no, we didn't, sir," she muttered with some hesitation, "we expedited booking them into the station and placed them in a cell for the night. Last I or Officer Wolford saw them, no one interrogated them even informally."

Eyes on his phone, Savage asked, "not even during the drive over to the station?"

"No sir," Fangmeyer replied again. "The coyote slept through the whole ride back. The deer was awake, but never spoke to either of us. Whenever we tried to talk to him, he would just glare back at us, so we didn't try too hard to converse with him."

The hare nodded. "No worries, officer. Like I said, I am not here to judge you on your performance. I just want to get an understanding of the events."

Fangmeyer gave a slight grin. "I understand, sir."

Finally glancing up away from the phone screen, agent Savage nodded at Chief Bogo. "I feel we can conclude this portion of the meeting, Chief. Let's invite the two mammals in and see what they have to say. Agreed?"

Bogo looked at his officers to see if they had any objections with moving forward with the meeting. When non of them spoke up, he glanced at the door again. "Bring them in!"

The door opened, revealing a trio of Count, Trigger, and officer McHorn towering behind both of them. A quick snort from the large officer's nostrils was all it took to push the two smaller mammals into the room.

Bogo was wearing his usual glare as he stared at the two 'guests'. Motioning at the two empty chairs facing his desk with a hoof, he eyed the two mammals, visually daring them to ignore him. "Have a seat," he ordered.