Zootopia: Secrets And Deception

Chapter 17. The Talk

The next morning, Nick woke to find Judy getting ready for work.
"What time did you get home last night, sweetheart?" he asked, beginning to stretch his arms.
"I think it was around 11:30pm or 45pm, I don't know. It was late and I was pretty tired." Judy replied.
"Pretty is right." Nick said with a smirk, making Judy turn around and give him a teasing glare. "Are you sure you need to go to work today?" Nick said, sounding like he was going to complain if she didn't go.
"Yes, Nick. I am sure I need to go back to work, but I will try to get off early if Bogo doesn't see me." Judy replied as she sipped her coffee.
"What if I went with you?" Nick said trying to persuade her.
"You heard Bogo, you can't come into work until you are feeling 100% like yourself." She said as she finished polishing her badge, and placed it on her uniform. Nick was a little disappointed that he wasn't going to see her and be with her again, but knew that there was nothing her could do but stay home and out of trouble. Just before she left, they hugged each other and Nick kissed her softly on the forehead.
"Be safe out there, carrots." He said sweetly.
"I will, Nick." Judy replied with a smile, walked out the door, and headed for work. After she left, Nick took a shower to help wake him up, then went over to the computer and logged into his ZPD account to view the files in the missing mammal case they were working on. After looking through a few files, he found that there wasn't any connection between any, if not all the missing mammals.
"Strange, all of these mammals are completely random. Some are in the predator category, others are in the prey category. All the abductions are random as well, they all happened in different locations, times, and dated from a few days, to weeks, and even months." Nick thought to himself, but felt like he was forgetting something. He went through it all in his mind trying to remember, and as he thought his phone went off. It was a text message from Judy, and then in hit him like a train. "Jeremiah!" He exclaimed as he grabbed his coat and ran outside towards the address that he marked on the map app on his cell phone.

It took almost an hour before he came to the location, and found that it was a scrap yard full of rusted cars and pieces of broken heavy equipment. "Great, now how am I going to find it?" he thought to himself. After a few moments, he decided to text Jeremiah and ask him where it was, and almost got an immediate response.
"Look straight ahead, see the red car sitting beneath the blue truck next to the broken in half limo? It will be inside the half-limo glove box." Now his time was cut shorter, but he still had to cross all the machines that were pushing everything onto an industrial belt. There were two belts that these metals and garbage rode, one was a shredder that would completely destroy metal and whatever else is caught inside, ready to be reproduced and recycled as spare parts. The other was an inferno that burned and melted everything that fell inside, turning all into ash and debris. Now the machines were built as an automatically controlled bulldozers, specifically for moving destroyed cars and pushing them onto this belt. Just as Nick made his way towards the limo, one of the bulldozers almost hit him head-on, but he moved out of the way from its destructive path. Then almost getting pushed from another, and he had to duck and slide on his knees to avoid getting hit in the head with a long metal pole. Finally making it to the limo, he got inside and opened the glove box to find a plastic bag that had a thumb drive for a computer, and two small drives for their phones. "What could be on these?" he thought to himself. Suddenly, the door to the limo slammed shut and wouldn't open! One of the bulldozers had started to push the car towards a belt, with nick still inside! He tried going out the back where it was completely open, but the car began to turn causing Nick to stumble and fall on his face, just before he and the car were pushed above a conveyer belt and he felt light and weightless, before he landed on top of the belt. Nick had hit his head pretty hard on what should be the roof of the car, was now the floor on impact. He raised his head, and saw the drives laying outside the car on the belt as they moved forward into a tunnel, but also saw these giant presses that flatten anything on its table! He had to move, and fast! But he had to time it just right, or he could lose both the drives and/or himself! Just as it flattened some metal and debris just before the drives, he leaped out of the car, grabbed the drives, and rolled out of the way of these presses that left the limo he was in just a moment ago, thinner than a pancake.
"Well, that could have been worse?" he thought to himself as he put the drives into his pocket, then looked forward to see an inferno of fire and ash at the end of the belt he was on! "Spoke too soon!" He said to himself and began running towards the edge to escape, but a piece of metal wrapped around his foot, and made him fall on his face again! Nick tried removing this piece of metal with his pocket knife, but it was no use, it was made of steel and almost impossible to cut without the right kind of equipment. All he could do now was watch the fire get closer and closer, before the belt dumps him to be burned to nothing but ash!

Just as he closed his eyes and a single tear fell from his face, a gunshot rang through the tunnel and sliced the metal that trapped Nick and gave him a chance to grab the ladder at the end of the tunnel that swing out above the flames. Nick could feel the heat of the fire that rose at him, but he didn't want to stay and climbed the ladder towards an opening that led inside the industry, but out of harm's way. "Who or what shot that metal that trapped me?" He thought to himself as he walked outside his almost near-death experience, and put in one of the drives into his phone that Jeremiah gave them, and it started downloading something into it. When it finished, it showed that it couldn't be hacked into manually, or wirelessly, and updated it with the ability to go off of a satellite. Just in case he was in an area where his cell couldn't get service. "Why would I need this to go off of a satellite?" Nick thought to himself as he began walking back towards home.

Just as he walked inside and closed the door, almost immediately ha plugged the thumb drive into the computer, it too began to download something. "Is the computer going to go off a satellite too?" He said sarcastically, but got something else entirely. It was a file full of information about both the box and key! Everything was here except for the information about the boxes contents. "How could this have everything and yet not explain what was in the box?" he thought to himself, right before he texted Jeremiah and asked him what was inside it.
"Honestly, I don't even know what is in it. After I got it, I had placed it on my desk without opening it. A mystery this great doesn't require you to open it immediately, what if you find inside isn't what you expected and are disappointed? No, you need to savor this moment and wait for the right time, because if you jump in without knowing what it could be. How much do you think it would disappoint, or impress you?" came the response. Jeremiah seemed to be more of an intelligent and ingenious creature, but still no less of a villain. Even though he is giving them information, Nick didn't trust him and wondered if Judy would be safe out there without knowing Jeremiahs' unknown location.

Jeremiah knew that Nicks' trust will be unearned, and remembered the promise he made Nickolas. "If she delivers the box and key to me, both of you will live out the rest of your lives with no unnecessary interruption's, or death to either of you." He remembered, but felt like if it came down to it, would he have the strength to keep his word, or would he break this promise. This was a puzzle that even he couldn't comprehend, but still knew that he keeps his promise. No matter what.