Chapter 22: Documenting a Conspiracy

Judy stared out the window of the car, letting Jack Savage drive the two of them to their destination, City Hall. With them two being the only occupants in the vehicle, she was finding it rather difficult to fully relax and join in the conversation. Simply put, it wasn't the same as the carefree banter she would exchange with Nick while on patrol. Or, as was common recently, the not quite as carefree but still very casual banter while riding out with James and Trigger in the back.

Not that she was afraid of the ZIA agent, but simply put, Judy wasn't sure how much he would tolerate her normally casual attitude towards conversations while working. Sure, she worked with him a little bit a few times before, but he was still ZIA, and she was ZPD, and the last thing she wanted to do was to accidentally breach some code of conduct. So just to be on the safe side, she kept her mouth shut and stared out the window, choosing to instead wander what business they had in City Hall. After all, the last time she was there, it was because then-Mayor Bellweather wanted to promote her as the face of the ZPD for her 'great' work during the Nighthowler Crisis. The uncanny comparison of her visit with how she felt about her performance was the straw that broke the metaphorical camel's back and lead her to resign right then and there. So Judy couldn't say that she was looking forwards to returning to the building.

"Officer Hopps?.. Judy?" At least Jack noticed that she wasn't paying too much attention, and unintentionally or not, pulled her out of her unpleasant memories.

Blinking a few times to clear her mind, she took her gaze away from the window and towards him. "Yeah?"

"Something on your mind?" He was sporting a small grin as he glanced at her between staring ahead at the traffic. "Don't worry, I won't bite. That's more of Skye's thing, but I don't think she will be doing that to Fangmeyer today."

She let out a nervous chuckle. "Oh, I uh- I'm not worried about that. I was just thinking how I was just getting used to working with Ni- Officer Wilde again only to have him be pulled by Chief Bogo to some physical testing this morning along with Officer Wolford." City Hall was coming up very soon. Hopefully this conversation will end soon and they will concentrate on their work instead.

Jack gave her a curious glance before returning his gaze on driving. "Really? I was under the impression that I saved you two from writing up parking tickets." His grin widened when she made an uncomfortable noise and made a show of staring out of the window. "And yet you are saying that you're already starting to miss that? And… May I even inquire as to why you were slapped with parking duty?"

Judy felt embarrassment rise up within her. "Oh, um, I might have um, well..." She frowned when next to her, Jack started to chuckle at her stammering. "It's not funny!" When he started to straight up laugh, she groaned and pulled at her ears. "I got into an argument with Chief Bogo," she admitted finally.

"Really? About what?" He smiled playfully again as Judy tried to avoid answering the question. And not because of shame or fear, but because of embarrassment. In other words, something with a good story behind it. "Come on, Judy! I won't park the car until you answer!"

She groaned in frustration when he did in fact made a turn not to the parking lot to City Hall, but to the street that winds around it. This was behavior she expected from Nick, from from ZIA agent Jack Savage. "Okay, fine," she relented. "I… I was told that Bogo apparently knows Trigger's real name. So I went over to his office to see if it was true or not, and it in fact was. So then I… I demanded that he tell me, because well, Trigger's a person, you know? He has an actual name, not just some stupid call sign! But when Bogo refused to budge and tell me, I might have gotten a bit too angry at him… And said some things that I perhaps shouldn't have…" She didn't add about the part where she jumped onto Bogo's desk to get up close and personal with her boss.

Understatement of the century. Trigger being hush about his identity and his past was par for the coarse. But for Bogo to have been very clearly making up the lamest of excuses as to why she couldn't learn the pilot's name had been simply insulting to her. But it still didn't mean that it gave Judy the right to start calling Bogo names and insist that he didn't care.

In all honesty, a week of parking duty was the least form of discipline that he could have given her. But the fact that Nick was forced to do the punishment along with her only made it worse. Sure, he pretended to love the lazy nature of the work, but she knew that he secretly resented parking duty, and especially the safety orange vest, as any other officer. So while he was now today out on some training with James instead of handing out parking tickets for the fourth day in a row, Judy felt that it was still unfair for him that she was the one who got out of her punishment in being told to help out Savage instead.

Jack, for his part, lost his humor when he heard what she said, instead looking at her with a mix of sympathy and… guilt?

"Well that um, oh jeez, that rather sucks," Jack mumbled sheepishly. "One of my roles in this case is to find out all we can about Count and Trigger. We actually found Trigger's identity rather quickly, and as soon as Skye confirmed the identity, I sent it Bogo's way. Well, and then-"

"Really?" Judy's eyes were wide in excitement at this revelation. "Wait, that means you can tell me!"

"I'm afraid I can't," Jack said, eyes lowering to the steering wheel only to jerk back up to pay attention to the traffic in front. With a sigh, he toggled the turn indicator and peeled off into a small service road at the back of City Hall.

"Why not? It's just a name." Judy was already mentally preparing herself for another bullshit excuse or two. This was going down exactly as it had in Bogo's office…

"Because Trigger asked us not to," Jack bluntly answered instead, halting her thoughts dead in their tracks. "Personally."

"Tri- Why would he do that?" She knew for a fact that the pilot occasionally got fed up or upset at the officers only knowing his TAC name. So why would he be the cause of all the secrecy in the first place?

Pulling into an unmarked parking spot, Jack killed the engine, giving him the opportunity to turn in the seat to face Judy directly. "Judy, most of this I can only speculate from what I learned from my research in the ZIA and from what I learned from you all in the ZPD. But as it stands, what can I tell you..?" With a deep breath to both prepare himself for a long speech as well as to gather his thoughts, Jack proceeded with the explanation.

"As far as hard documentation on who Trigger really is, the paper trail both starts, and unfortunately, ends here in Animalia. Let's see… Some thirty years ago, his family immigrated over to our east coast from Yaktobania when the Iron Curtain fell. Trigger was born shortly after that, then they all moved here so that his father can work at our national research lab in Lynxamore. Then they stayed in the area until they all moved out to Ocelotia some ten years ago. From the school records we were able to look into, what can I say about him? Got rather good grades, stayed out of trouble, nothing out of the ordinary. After graduating from high school, he even went to the local community college for about a year before they all left for Bana City in Ocelotia. Applied to, accepted, and attended Bana University, earning his aeronautical engineering degree there. Unfortunately, that's where the trail ends, because sometime later he must have applied to their air force, which doesn't have any records for anyone under his name. If you try and follow that paper trail, he's still in Ocelotia somewhere. But if you try to work backwards by looking at who the pilot 'Trigger' is, well, unfortunately, that's all locked down so tight that we don't have any ways of getting through. Whatever his military record is, the Ocelotians don't want anyone seeing it. We do know that a pilot 'Trigger' exists as part of the 444 fighter squadron. What we don't have is his service number, sign up date, or well, anything useful really. And unfortunately, there's a very large gap between this 'Trigger' and the coyote who grew up here, and all attempts to link the two didn't work out." Jack shrugged, letting out a long sigh. "We have a name, but that's all there is to it."

Judy frowned at the dash in front of her. "Still doesn't explain why he doesn't want us to know his name. Does he not want us to… treat him more like a regular person?"

"Maybe he's afraid that his name might leak out," Jack muttered, deep in thought. "Again, I must stress that I don't know his personal reasoning for it, but all I know is that when we found his name, Bogo and I sat him down to talk about it, and his reaction was… I must admit that he genuinely looked rather scared for a moment there when I slid a paper with his name over to him. Practically begged Bogo and I not to use it, nor to let anyone else know, actually. Then the next day our polite inquiry to Ocelotia for more information was rather bluntly rebuked, so while I can only guess as to why he personally doesn't want his name to be shared, I can let you in that his country is keeping his real identity a secret as a matter of policy. My personal opinion? I think that they are getting a real kick out of this whole 'Three Strikes' persona that the Urusians came up for him, and are more than happy with leaving it a big secret. And as for why he himself also wants to keep it a secret? I honestly don't know. Orders from up higher perhaps?"

"It almost sounds like some kind of undercover identity," Judy commented. "Uh, does the military even do undercover operations?"

"Not with their air forces, not pilots." Jack answered after a moment of pondering. "Well, they might disguise their aircraft, but they don't do it with their pilots as far as I can tell. Remember that airplane crash that brought Trigger and Count here? Ocelotia didn't even try to disguise their plane, apart from telling our air traffic control that it was an airliner. Only admitted that it wasn't actually one when our news cameras broadcast the very much military gray cargo plane being hoisted out of the bay. As for the flight crew, when we finally pulled their bodies out of the water?" He looked quite uncomfortable recalling the memory. "Regular uniforms, ID's checked out with Ocelotian service records… Nothing out of the unusual really. Not like Count or Trigger." He gave Judy a small but knowing grin. "Talk about the odds that they were able to survive the crash when no one else on board did," he commented. He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel, lost in thought for a few moments. "As to not risk losing the entire day sitting in the car speculating about it," he finally said rather suddenly, "how about dropping this for now and lets head inside? I think that once you'll see what I have to show you, you'll agree that things are going to get interesting on this front as well."

"Well, okay, let's do that." While disappointed that they were dropping this subject, Judy was also quite eager to see exactly what Jack was being rather hush about.

At the same time, outside the city itself, pulling up to a guard hut, James and Nick confirmed the sign on the hut with their phone that they arrived at their correct destination. "Growler National Guard Regional Base, that's out stop," Nick announced, not liking the view past the gate and the fencing around them. A small collection of tin huts, the rare concrete block building, and a large expanse of yellow, grassy hills only occasionally dotted by trees and bushes past the whole lot.

"This is where Bogo told us to go. Hey, look at the guard, think he can be one of Judy's relatives?" James asked, wincing at the outside heat as it seeped in from his lowering his window to hand over a paper to the waiting uniformed rabbit guard. "Officers Wolford and Wilde, ZPD Precinct One," he told the rabbit. It wasn't quite the same heat as Sahara Square, but it was too close, and even worse, this was the natural weather here, instead of being artificially controlled.

The guard barely glanced at the paper before giving it back. "You two are late. Drive through, then turn left. Building 24D." Then almost rather sarcastically, he added, "have a nice day."

Closing up the window, James slowly crept the car forwards. "Well he was polite," he grumbled as even with the window closed and the air conditioning on full blast, the heat was still so strong that he was needing to force himself to keep from panting. Did his seat really heat up that quickly in the open air? Glaring down at said seat, he almost missed the cause of his predicament. "Why is the-?" His head jerked upwards at the giggling fox next to him. "Wilde, you jerk!"

"Got ya!" Nick shouted triumphantly, nevertheless flicking the seat heater off.

"You are a real jerk, you fox," James repeated with a huff. "A real piece of work." Honestly, he should have seen something like this coming, considering how often the two canidaes would pull pranks on each other. There was a reason why Bogo would often keep the two away from each other whenever he could, and why today was rather unusual when they were paired up together without any other officers to keep their behavior in check. In other words, despite Nick taking his time in starting this little war, James was already plotting his revenge, even as he found the tin building they were told to go to and pulled up next to it. Killing the engine, he motioned for Nick to also exit the vehicle. "Okay, Nick, out of the car. We've got work to do."

Nick was frowning at the building, tongue hanging out of his muzzle as the heat very quickly started to get to him. "Why do I have a bad feeling that I am not going to like what is waiting for us in here?" he complained, "I think yesterday morning I was finally able to wake up with actual feeling in my legs."

"You think I was any different?" James retorted, "get used to it, but sore muscles is going to be a constant for both of us for the foreseeable future. You can thank all of that post-Nighthowler poising testing others keep cooking up for us." Also grumbling at the appearance of the tin building they were supposed to go into, he added in a joking manner, "say, want to be fifty that we will find Count and Trigger in there? No other reason I can think for us to be sent to a military base just for some stupid physical."

"Oh how I hate those purple flowers," Nick agreed with Jame's first statement. "Think Bogo will let me shoot Bellweather for creating that drug?" Then to the bet that the wolf officer was proposing, he raised an eyebrow. "Sure, if you really want to do that. If we find them, I win, right?"

James frowned, looking at the building again. Perhaps it was the heat getting to him, but his silly bet was already starting to sound like a very bad idea. "Even better, why not raise it to a whole dollar?" he corrected, much to Nick's amusement. "Whatever, I hope they have air conditioning in there. Shall we?"

Inside of a small records room below ground in City Hall, Jack slid over a large stack of papers over to Judy. "These have to stay in this building, unfortunately," he explained, "which is why I had to bring you here. Hopefully they will answer all the questions you might come up with."

Judy scanned the stack up and down. "That's quite the tower," she commented with a chuckle, "any recommendations on where to begin?" Judy Hopps was not afraid of paperwork – her record with the ZPD was proof of that enough. But it didn't mean that she liked it any more than the next officer.

Jack grinned back, and slid the top paper off, tapping it. "Why not start at the top?" he joked back. He then turned serious in an instant. "Hopps, I know that Bogo had you sign all of the confidentiality forms that were required to help me and Skye out with this investigation, but I must stress that what you will see here many not leave this room. You won't even be able to share it to your partner or anyone else who isn't an immediately superior officer. Understood?" When she nodded in confirmation, he visibly relaxed before plucking the top paper off the stack and sliding it over. Tapping at the logo in the middle of the page, he asked her a simple question. "Recognize this?"

Sliding the paper over to her, she frowned at the rather generic government logo. "No, can't say that I can," she answered, uncertainty in her voice. "Um, should I?"

"I was hoping that you would have recognized it from that underground warehouse you've been to. Actually, all of these papers are whatever I was able to find here in records about that place. I- Bogo did have you did sign a NDA for this entire investigation, right? I'm certain either I or Skye already asked, but it's one of those 'need to be sure' types of deals."

"Yes, I signed all the required documents and know to keep my mouth shut," Judy said with a roll of her eyes. "Unless you have something else for me to sign?" Looking at the paper, she frowned when she saw that it was dated to more than two decades back.

Jack chuckled awkwardly. "Just making sure. The ZIA can be rather tedious about these things. But going away from this…" He grabbed the stack and shuffled through it, pulling out a group of papers from near the top. "Here, take a look."

Judy frowned at it, already getting a good feeling of what she was going to find out. "Let me take a guess, but I am feeling that I am going to read up on how the Nighthowlers are some military project, aren't they?"

"Read that first several pages and you'll see," Jack answered cryptically, shrugging again. "Try the executive summary."

Starting at the top, Judy scanned through the multi-page summary. While she had her thoughts about what this was all about, it was still a very unpleasant read to find out that, yes in fact, the nighthowlers were created within Zootopia for some sort of military experiment. It didn't even start out all that nefarious. Some chemists thought that they could synthesis a Midnicampum holicithias based compound that could improve solider fatigue and morale. But as the pages were flipped through, Judy was able to see even through the mundane and formal tone of the document the optimistic hopefulness of the start of the project ever so slowly morph into a grim acceptance that the whole thing was expectantly and frustratingly more complicated than initially thought. The first experimentation on insects and lizards proved promising.

Only for the first tests on mammals, bravely volunteering for the effort, to result in abysmal failure. All of the failures were carefully documented, dated, and indexed into what must have been making up the bulk of Jack's paper stack. But the summary was clear: Further refinements to the formula only seemed to bounce in effect between being completely inert to causing even more violent reactions.

Judy grimaced as she found herself reading, condensed as it was within the summary, about what took the Zootopian press only a day to come up with a name for: savagery.

But there was no denying that as further testing and formula modification proved fruitless, that the army was starting to get weary with the funding and the waiting. So eventually, at the end of the summary, was a simple line, dated to about fifteen years ago:

As of this notice, the project will undergo expatiated termination, with all resources under its domain to be liquidated, at the authorization of project lead, D. Bellweather.

Judy stared at the name. "B-Bellweather?" she struggled to find her voice after spending who knows how long reading through the papers, but it came back to her soon enough. "You're telling me that Bellweather was in charge, and after all of that... she used the nighthowlers on us?" So the ex-mayor had decided to continue the sick experiment after it was declared dead in the water.

"Not exactly," Jack answered slowly, "that's not actually her. The 'D' refers to Daniel Bellweather... Her father. And unfortunately, he passed away from natural causes years ago, so he's unavailable to talk to."

Judy's stomach sank as she realized what was going on. "You want me to talk to her, don't you?"

"We've tried everyone else we can," Jack said with a grimace. "But predators? She won't even talk to them. Other prey mammals? She's smart, and she figured out what was going on right away. And while it won't necessarily lead to prey riots like it did with her, I believe she is taking great pleasure at imagining someone else using her little experiment to light up the world. But you…" he stared at Judy intently. "You, she liked. And maybe, perhaps just maybe, she'll talk to you."

"Jack, she used me," Just muttered, disdain in her voice. "It's not that she doesn't like me, it's that she never liked me! Bellweather was really to kill me off as soon as it was going to benefit her. I- I can't talk to her! I'd rather punch the living daylights out of her for what she nearly did to Nick and me!"

"Judy-" Jack placed his paw on one of hers. "I know this is going to be difficult, but there's literally no one else we can think of who can talk to her. It's why I brought you here to read up on it all first, because I knew that you would object if I just came out and asked you what I wanted you to do. And I… I do realize that this is a lot to ask of you, especially out of the blue like this. And I also know better than to actually expect results out of this, but until we actually try, I can't in good conscious abandon this approach without even trying. So Judy, please, I don't want to ask you as a ZIA agent, but as a fellow rabbit and mammal. Whatever your personal thoughts are towards her, I am asking you to set them aside just long enough to ask her a few questions."

With a heavy sigh, Judy stared at Jack, deep in thought. "All right," she finally relented. "I'll do it. But what do I even ask here? And more importantly, when?"

In answer, Jack pulled out another slip of paper that he had been keeping with him the entire time. "Don't worry if you won't get any answers out of her, but if possible, I will want you to go over all of them."

Judy took the paper and scanned it over. Wasn't too long, which was a good thing. "Okay. What about time and location?"

His grin returned. "Think eating lunch on our drive to prison will work?"

The blazing outdoor sun and heat were really starting to get to James as he struggled through the obstacle course. Jumping up and grabbing the first of many parallel bars, he had a moment of panic when his sweaty paws nearly lost their grip and sending him to a muddy fall. But his remaining strength won out and he was saved from the embarrassment of failing this part of the course. The finish line was getting closer, and he hoped desperately that it will allow him to catch a break from this torture.

From somewhere behind, he was able to hear the also panting Nick struggling to keep up, his smaller size not doing any favors for most of the obstacles. As much as his training as a cop was telling him not to leave a fellow officer behind, they both were told explicitly that today was for testing their individual performance, and they were not to interfere with with each other, whether to benefit or hinder.

Finally crossing the parallel bars, James hopped down, only to break into an immediate sprint. A few unsteady moments through the dexterity section, and he leaped past the white chalk line on the ground. Diverting off the path, he allowed himself to collapse into a dusty heap onto a conveniently places plain wooden bench.

"That was surprisingly slow, you disappoint me, Scruffy."

He stared into the distance with frustration at hearing, after the years passed, his old academy nickname. "Good to see you too, ma'am." In the distance, confirming his and Nick's speculation from earlier, Count and Trigger were also struggling through their own obstacle course. The pilots were being monitored by a noticeable group of soldiers from the base, which actually made him feel glad that he and Wilde were left alone for the most part. At least he got to pant through the course without providing entertainment to a large group of strangers. Watching them climb up a wooden block, he didn't get to ponder in thought for too long before being interrupted by Nick's arrival.

"You too, tailbrush. I expect better results out of you." With a dull thump, a panting Nick collapsed onto the bench next to James. Unusually generous for her, the polar bear gave both of the officers a chilled bottle of water, which they both gulped down eagerly.

"Still cheerful as always, major!" Nick greeted his old instructor with a cheerful smirk, holding out his bottle in a mock-toast. "Not even letting the heat stop your attitude!"

"Can it, Wilde!" Despite her angry tone, Friedkin was sporting a wide grin, at least partially stemming from being able to 'torture' the two anew. "And I see that you still have that mouth of yours. Hmm, I would have expected that your years under Bogo would have mellowed you out."

Nick smirked. "Oh he tries, he really does try," he confirmed. "But it will take more than that to stop this fox!"

Friedkin's muzzle morphed into a sadistic grin. "Oh really? Sounds to me like you are up for another lap around the track. Thirty seconds off your previous time, no less!"

His eyes instantly fell towards his bottle. "Oh, no, ma'am. Still need to recover from my previous attempt!"

She rolled her eyes. Jerking her head in the direction of Count and Trigger, she added, "I never heard any complaints from those two pilots today, and they were out here before you both showed up. I need to find a way to bring them over to to the academy. The new recruits are, I am afraid to say, even worse than before."

James grinned despite himself. "I remember you telling me personally that I was the worst recruit that you've ever seen," he complained. "I lost count how many times I've dies in my first week!"

"Why does that sound familiar?" Nick asked sarcastically, bumping elbows with the wolf next to him. "Carrots also warned me to expect that lecture."

"Ever thought that I give that lecture to every class that goes through my academy?" Friedkin asked with a smirk. "Besides, there's two groups of mammals I put extra emphasis on: those who have no business being cops and need to wash themselves out, and those who need that extra bit of encouragement to truly shine."

"And which group did I belong to?" Nick asked, surprisingly serious suddenly. "And Hopps for that matter? How long did you expect either one of us to last for? Which group did you write her into when she showed up?"

She eyed him curiously. "Why not both at the same time?"

His ears fell, head tilting as he struggled to process just how much of her statement confirming that yes, she did in fact not think much of him nor Judy. But at the same time, there was no questioning that her reply was, hidden in plain sight, the closest thing he could ever expect as a compliment to come out of the major. Not that he was left pondering for a long time as it was in that moment that his phone decided to start ringing. And more specifically, the one ring tone that Judy set up for him to let him know when it was an important work-related call. "Sorry, have to take it. It's from my partner," he explained hastily, pulling the device out and pressing it against his ear. "Hey, Carrots! What's up?"

From her end, Judy honestly didn't expect Nick to pick up the phone. With Jack driving, he allowed her to at least complain about what she was about to do, but she could tell that he was listening in keenly to what she was saying. "Nick? Nick, you wouldn't believe who I need to go and interrogate now!"

His voice came through the phone slightly muffled, but she had no issues understanding him. "Carrots, are you driving? Slow down here. Who are you going to interrogate?"

Taking in a breath to think of what to say, she spoke carefully into the phone. "Don't worry, Jack's driving. I'm just riding in the passenger seat. It's just that we're heading over so that I can talk to Bellweather. Can you believe it, Nick? Bellweather!"

Seating on the bench, Nick groaned and palmed his face. "Smellyweather, are you serious? Are we really grasping at these short straws?" he asked with a groan, earning a funny look from both James and Friedkin. "Is there really no one better around then her?"

"We think that she's actually a very good lead, Nick," her reply came through the phone. "I… Jack won't let me tell even you why, but you just gotta take my word for it."

Nick let out a chuckle. "You can't tell me? Then why did you even call?"

"I think that- actually, I don't really know, Nick. Half an hour ago I didn't even know that I was about to be doing this. I guess I just wanted to vent. Prepare myself to see her again, you know? Anyways, how's it going on at your end, Nick? Doing all right?"

"Doing just fine, Carrots!" Nick reassured her. "Someone you know is killing me and Wofly by running us around another torture course. Hey, Fluff, say hi to your favorite polar bear!" he held out his phone to let Friedkin speak into it.

"Is that my favorite rabbit talking right now?" Major Friedkin leaned close to the phone, disappointed that Nick wasn't using a video call, but at the same time glad that the lack of a video feed meant that her voice was more of a surprise to the rabbit on the other end of the line.

And what a surprise it was, causing Judy to nearly drop her phone into her lap. "M-major Friedkin? I didn't expect you to be there? Did Bogo send Nick and James over to the academy for the physical?"

"No, not the academy. Outside the city, actually. I drove up to meet them where we can work together with those pilots of yours. They're still running the track, so you won't hear from them yet, but it's heat and sweat on our end otherwise. Good to hear your voice again, Hopps. Is Fangmeyer there with you? Wolford's looking rather all on his own here."

"Heyy..!"

"Officer Fangmeyer is helping my partner out in the docks today," Jack answered loudly, not tilting his head too much away from the phone. "We're all scattered all over the place today."

Judy couldn't stop herself from smiling. As much as she despised the polar bear when she was still in the academy, she had to admit that Friedkin had grown on her considerably since then. "Good to hear your cheerful mood too, James."

"Say, Hopps, before I forget," Friedkin's voice came out of her phone, "I want to personally thank you for tranquilizing these two. Something I wanted to do ever since they set foot in my academy."

"Was just doing my job, ma'am." Judy pressed a paw against her mouth to keep herself from laughing, as she head both Nick and James complain to the instructor about her latest statement. And truth be told, this was exactly the type of cop humor that, while she understood, she herself sometimes struggled to understand. Lessons upon lessons were stressed in the academy how, if you fail to judge the target's body weight properly, there was a not-insignificant chance of either not doing anything to them, or much worse, straight up killing them.

Ironically enough, she had at one point gotten into an argument with Trigger over this, about how, as he explained to her, a firearm didn't pretend to be anything less than lethal compared to the tranquilizer guns that were issued to the ZPD officers. Judy argued back that it didn't take too long to estimate someone's weight to within the dosage tolerance, and compared to a firearm, there was high chance of the target surviving getting shot.

But as it were, here they were, laughing over the phone about it. At least as long and Nick and James were viewing the situation with humor, there was no reason why she shouldn't either. However, out of the corner of her eye, she noticed that Jack was motioning at her that it was time to hang up, with them getting close to their latest destination. "We really need to get together and catch up properly, major," she spoke into the phone, "but I'm being told to wrap up this call, so I'm afraid that I need to go. I'll see you back at the station, Nick! James!"

"Actually, about that, Carrots, I guess Bogo didn't tell you, but we'll only be back late tomorrow."

Her mood dampened with this news, but only momentarily. "Well, in that case, I'll see you both tomorrow. Take care you two!"

"You too. Eh, we need to get going now as well, back to the torture, I guess. See you later then, Fluff! And do us a favor, will ya?"

"What's that, Nick?"

It was James who answered through the phone. "Knock her out cold when you're done for us! Bye, Judy!"

She grinned at the phone. "Bye!" With a beep, Judy killed the call and put the phone back into her pocket.

"So? Feeling better?" Jack asked from the driver's seat.

Judy nodded. "Yeah, I am." She glanced at the paper he had given her with the questions he wanted her to go through with the ex-mayor. "Don't worry, I won't back out of this. Just still had to process that we had… to go to Bellweather, you know? The last time I talked to her in person was when she was still pretending to be my friend. After that, it was all legal talk during her trial."

"I just hope that she will at least be willing to talk to you," Jack admitted again. "If she talks, and actually knows things, it will help our investigation a lot."

"Yeah," Judy agreed, "I hope so too." Her mind wondered back to what Nick and James were doing, finding it ironically funny that she would rather have switched situations with them. Nick loved the hustle of interrogating suspects, while she loved the physical aspects of her job. So of course she was the one now being driven into an interrogation while he got to run around through a obstacle course.

At the very least though, she hoped optimistically, she will have a lot to tell Nick when they will catch up in a day's time.