Disclaimer: Zootopia stories, characters, settings, and properties belong to the Walt Disney Co. This story is written under Fair Use Copyright laws.
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The Fire Triangle
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Part Two:
Oxidizer
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Chapter 2—Finding Conor
(Part 1)
To gain access to Zootopia's Police Precinct-1, visitors are required to ascend a short flight of steps, six at the most.
For Judy Hopps, on this hazy, sultry, Savanna Central morning, it felt as if she were climbing the slopes of Mount Doom.
Chief Bogo's call had come in two days ago. "Hopps, be in my office the day after tomorrow, 9:00 A.M. sharp...and come in uniform."
He had offered no explanation.
"Yes sir," Judy had said, and when the Chief had rung off, she had caught herself fighting back the tears. His call had contained only about a hundred harbingers of bad things to come. First of all, he had told her to come in 'the day after tomorrow.' Not good; if he'd wanted to talk some more about her meetings with the Red Pig, and Joe 'The Shadow' Porcini, he would have instructed her to come in right away. And then there was the matter of that '9:00 sharp'; he never set a specific time for a meeting unless it had something to do with your performance record. And, last but not least, he had ordered her to appear in uniform. That had been all she wrote as far as this doe-bunny was concerned. She was being summoned to a disciplinary hearing; it couldn't be anything else.
Reporting first to Benjamin Clawhauser, as instructed, Judy was told to take a seat in the lobby and wait for Bogo to call her. The plus size cheetah's face showed neither sorrow, nor sympathy as he delivered the order. He was, in fact, his usual bubbly self. That told the doe-bunny it would be pointless to ask him for any clarification; he wouldn't have known what Bogo wanted her for either.
After several minutes of searching, she managed to find a bench that was currently unoccupied, (she didn't want anyone else near her right now.) Checking her watch, she saw that it was 8:55, a few minutes early; as always she had been punctual to a fault.
To a fault...yes, that was a good way to put it. These next five minutes were going to seem like centuries.
Maddening centuries; for all of those next few minutes, the animals passing by her offered only the briefest of glances, if that much. Nobody stopped to talk to her; nobody said a word to her. On the plus side, nobody pointed a finger in her direction and whispered an aside to their companion—and nobody seemed to be going out of their way to avoid her either. It was just another day in Precinct-1 as far as everyone here was concerned. At one point Judy spotted Detective Lieutenant Charles Saw, on his way up the concourse to Chief Bogo's office, but he didn't look at her either. (Of course, he was all the way over on the other side of the Precinct's front foyer, so he probably wouldn't have noticed her anyway.)
"When I'm done here," she told herself. "I need to go talk to Dr. Hind. Oh, wait a minute...will I even be eligible to see him after today? And what about Mom and Dad, what will I tell them? Oh, sweet cheez n' crackers, they're going to be here on Friday with Erin; her ZAPA audition is coming up Saturday, I forgot all about that. Ohhhh, how can I face them? Will they let me come home, after that business with...my former partner, and now THIS? And I just renewed the lease on my apartment. And how am I going to get packed up in only....? QUIT GETTING AHEAD OF YOURSELF, DUMB BUNNY!"
Quietly acquiescing to the command of her inner voice, Judy hit the air-brakes on her train of thought. And then slumping down in her seat, she leaned forward with her elbows on her knees and her ears drooping over her shoulders. She would have thought it quite appropriate had she known how much she looked like the weary warrior in the famous sculpture, End of the Trail.
That was when her cell buzzed. She didn't need to look at the screen to know who was calling.
"Hopps, come on up."
If negotiating the stairs leading to the precinct's front entrance had felt like a steep climb, the ascent up the concourse to Bogo's office was like scaling the face of a vertical glacier. With every step she took, Judy's feet seemed to acquire an extra six pounds of weight.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity of putting one foot in front of the other, she found herself standing at the door to Chief Bogo's office.
But now it was her paws that failed her, refusing to rise upwards and knock; for a number of long seconds she remained like that, frozen in place.
And then her ears shot backwards, her mouth set hard, and she reached up and rapped briskly on the door. "The HECK with this; whatever's going to happen, bring it on, (help!)"
"Come." Bogo's contra-bass voice was as flat as a slab of concrete.
Judy swallowed, gritted her teeth and stepped in through the doorway.
Entering the office, she was unsurprised, if not reassured, to find that The Chief had been joined by Lt. Saw—except this time the sun bear was seated beside his desk rather than in front of it.
It was another 'not good' sign.
"Sit down, Officer Hopps," Bogo nodded at the chair in front of his desk; 'Officer' Hopps, still another bad portent.
One thing you had to say for the Chief of the ZPD; he had never been one to waste either words or time. No sooner had Judy taken her seat, than he thrust out a hoof across the desktop.
"Right Hopps, let's have your badge."
"S-Sir?" She felt her eyes go wide and heard a mantra unspooling in the back of her head, "I-will-not-cry, I-will-not-cry, I-will-not-cry, I-will-not-cry..." But at the same time, what the...? Wasn't she even going to get a HEARING? Or...was she being suspended, pending a...?
Bogo snapped his fingers and his hoof shot out even further.
"I've no time for shilly-shally, Hopps; BADGE!"
"Yes sir." She sniffed, and reached up to unpin it from her tunic. At once, a thousand memories flooded through her. She remembered the first time Bogo had demanded her badge, that night in the Rainforest District when Mr. Manchas had turned savage on her and Nick. She would have given it up then, if it hadn't been for her former...if it hadn't been for Nick. Then there was the time shortly afterwards, when she'd surrendered it of her own choice. She had gotten it back after her reinstatement, and then how many times since then had 'it' happened? Some idiot would start to call her a dumb bunny...only to pull up short, when they realized that THIS bunny was also a cop. Ohhh, she'd been so proud to wear her badge these last two years. "I will NOT cry!"
Standing up her chair, she rose on her tiptoes, laying the badge on the desktop, and sliding it in Bogo's direction with a pair of fingers. He took it without ceremony and slipped it into a desk drawer.
Watching him, Judy tried to find some appropriate words, but none would come. Dangit, she had to say something; she couldn't just meekly let this moment happen without...hang on, what the...?
Now Bogo was sliding something across the desktop, in HER direction. What the heck...what was that? It looked like a scaled-down billfold, only much thinner...what now?
She looked up at the Chief, who only nodded and arched an eyebrow as if to say, 'Well...?'
With a trembling finger, Judy reached out and flipped the 'billfold' open.
...And gasped.
Inside was another badge, this one in white gold and shaped like an oval starburst. Embossed around the edges were the words, Police Department, City Of Zootopia, and in large digits across the bottom was a number, 3416.
And in the center of the badge, clearly visible, was the word...
"Congratulations...Detective Hopps." For the second time in three days Bogo was reaching out to offer her his hoof. She took it and began to recite inwardly again. I-will-not-cry, I-will-not-cry, I-will-not-cry...like HECK I won't!"
"Th-Thank you sir," she said, and burst into tears.
It wasn't exactly an unemotional moment for Chief Bogo and Lieutenant Saw either. Caught unawares, they regarded each other with awkward expressions for a moment.
It was the sun bear who recovered first, and he seemed to grasp instantaneously the reason for the doe-bunny's emotional response.
"You didn't...know why you'd been called here, Hopps?"
"N-No sir," she sniffled, "I thought I was going to be suspended; maybe even fired over that unauthorized meeting with Mr. Big."
"Oh f'heaven's sake, Hopps," Bogo passed her a tissue across the desk and waited while she blew her nose, "Don't you ever check your email? You were only notified about this twice."
"Uh yes sir," she said wiping her mouth, "But after that...after those videos of my former partner and me went viral, a-and Rock Hardesty began talking about them...us...well, I started getting all kinds of harassing messages on my cell and my laptop, and I had to put up a whole bunch of new filters and..."
"Right, right...I f'got about that," the big Cape buffalo snorted, nearly face-hoofing himself and settling for a head-shake instead.
"But didn't the trolling stop after you two decided to separate?' It was Lieutenant Saw again, raising a quizzical eyebrow.
"Uh, yes it did," Judy admitted, rolling the tissue into a ball. In fact she hadn't experienced any online harassment in weeks—or in real life, for that matter. She couldn't remember the last time someone had catcalled, 'Pred and prey, keep AWAY!' at her. Even Rock Hardesty seemed to have lost interest, not just in her and Nick, but in predator/prey relationships in general. Shaking her head, she added, "but I never did take those filters down, I'm terrible at that."
"Well, you'd best not ever let Lieutenant Tufts hear you say that," Bogo grunted with a lopsided expression, "He's agreed to have you back, but he'll be looking for any excuse to get rid of you; you can count on that."
That brought up a question Judy couldn't help asking.
"Did he go to the Attorney General's office?" Relevant or not, she had to know.
Bogo snorted again. "Didn't get the chance; Gamsbart called HIM." He folded his massive arms, "I made sure of that."
"Thank you sir," the doe-bunny said, not exactly sure what she was thanking him for. Yes, he'd gotten Tufts to take her back, but she knew what was coming when she reported for duty; the most menial and demeaning jobs that the Kaibab squirrel could come up with. She could probably forget about making it to Erin's audition, too. He'd absolutely have an assignment for her on that day, probably way up in the Meadowlands; you could take that to any bank you cared to name. Not that it mattered to Chief Bogo, Judy realized; the only important thing to him was that he'd kept his part of the bargain with Vernon J. Rodenberg. Judy Hopps was back on the Conor Lewis case and if the Lieutenant in charge shunted her to the sidelines...hey tough cheese, rat. You never specified that she was to be given an active role in that investigation.
Ohhhh, the more Judy thought about it, the more she had to wonder, what the heck had she been crying for? Her new badge might have looked like a promotion, but in fact, it was an e-ticket to purgatory. And speaking of her promotion, the whole business felt jury-rigged, thrown together, almost as an afterthought.
"So, what are you going to do Jude, give BACK your detective's shield?"
The emotional whirlwind must have shown on her face because Lt. Saw was scrutinizing her with a probing eye.
"Something wrong, Detective?"
Judy jolted in her seat; Detective...? Detective who; who the heck he was talking to? There was no one here besides... Oh, riiiiight; she was going to have to get used to being called Detective Hopps.
And on that subject...she flipped her new badge open, holding it up for all to see.
"Lieutenant...Chief? W-With all due respect...this...my promotion. I-I'm grateful, you understand, but the way that...well, it was hardly normal procedure."
"No Hopps, it wasn't," the Chief agreed solemnly, "But then these are hardly normal times. We've got a possible gang war brewing, an ex-member of The Company on the loose somewhere in Zootopia, and we're no closer to recapturing Conor Lewis than we were the day after his escape. The ZPD needs more detectives...and not now, yesterday!"
This, in fact, was actually nothing new. On an average day the Department always had enough detectives to go around. But bring on a crisis—like say14 missing mammals—and it was a whole 'nother ballgame.
...And there were still more innings to go in this one.
"We just got word yesterday," Lt. Saw informed her," Captain Visent will not be returning to duty. As of this morning, I'm no longer acting chief of the Organized Crime division."
"Oh," Judy started to say, but the sun bear swiftly cut her off.
"No Hopps, NO congratulations; I won't pretend I didn't want the job, but I never wanted it this way!"
"No sir," the doe-bunny answered, nodding her understanding.
"And he's not the only one going, is he?" Bogo rumbled. "Lieutenant Laroja, down in Missing Fursons is set to pull the pin next week." (Police slang for retiring.)
"Laroja," Saw was scratching thoughtfully at an ear, "She's a wolf, right?"
"A maned wolf, but yes that's who you're thinking of," Bogo told him..
"Ouch," the sun bear winced as if he'd stuck himself, "Tough luck for the Department; she was GOOD at what she did."
"Yes, I know," Bogo sighed, "But she's put in the time and she's eligible. And you heard about the close call she had last year, the estranged husband who nearly took her head off?"
"Yep, Siberian tiger wasn't he?"
"Yes that's right," the big Chief nodded, and then his face became portrait in grim irony. "Mind, a perp's species doesn't matter all that much if they've got a shotgun aimed between your eyes."
"Ouch!"
Judy watched the exchange with mounting frustration; it was as if she'd disappeared from the room. "Hey, dangit... what about ME!" Wait, oh no, had she said that out loud? Nooo, not this time, thank heaven, but still...
She coughed and cleared her throat. "Excuse me...sirs?"
To her considerable surprise, they both stopped talking and looked at her—leaving her speechless for a second. She hadn't expected the interruption to make even a dent in their conversation.
"Sorry, but we're getting off topic here," she said. "And...I have to ask, what about that unauthorized visit I made to Mr. Big's house?"
"Oh yes, that." Bogo rolled his eyes as if he'd been wondering for hours when she was finally going to get around to that subject. "I'm calling it an unauthorized intelligence probe, Hopps...and being as it proved to be fruitful, the police board has agreed that I should let you off with a verbal warning. However," his finger shot out like a bolt from a crossbow, "Don't you EVER pull an end run round me like that again. Next time, I will have your badge; do I make myself clear, Detective Hopps?"
"Perfectly sir," she answered, relieved and terrified, all at the same time. And then raising her paw in a bunny-scout salute she said, "It won't happen again Chief, I promise."
"Better not," The sun-bear seated beside the desk chimed in, "You don't want to make me sorry I went to bat for you, Hopps."
"I-I won't Lieutenant," Judy answered him, feeling her ears shoot upwards. It hadn't surprised her in the least that Bogo was in her corner, but Saw? It was a good thing neither one of them had a feather handy; they could have used it to knock her for a loop right now.
Just then, someone rapped on the door. Judy turned, wondering who the heck that could be; Nick perhaps? "Nooooo...no WAY!"
"Come," Bogo grunted, nodding in the door's direction
It swung open, and Zootopia City Councilmammal Claudia Nizhang came hobbling into the office on her gold-headed cane. "Morning Chief, morning Lieutenant."
"Good morning Councilmammal," Bogo replied, only a little surprised by the red panda's appearance. "How's the knee?"
"Like always, when it's humid out," Claudia grumbled, patting her bum leg. "Hope you brought your raincoat today; it'll be coming down in sheets by this afternoon."
At this, the big Cape buffalo grimaced and looked at Judy. "Better take notice, Hopps; that knee of hers is never wrong."
"Yes sir," Judy answered, unable to suppress a grin.
"You're early, Councilmammal," Lieutenant Saw observed, giving the doe-bunny even more reason to suspect that this wasn't an impromptu visit.
"Yes I know," Claudia Nizhang replied, almost bursting with excitement, "But I wanted to let you know right away; we just heard back from Mr. Camelson's office, and he's agreed to cooperate with us, 100%"
At once the atmosphere in the office became festive. Chief Bogo whooped and Lt. Saw threw up his arms as if he'd just scored the winning goal in a soccer match.
"Wonderful!"
"Fantastic!"
Judy, for her part, was a little bewildered—but only just a little. She'd find out soon enough what was going on here.
In fact, Chief Bogo was already indicating her with a wave of his hoof.
"Well, before you give us the details, Councilmammal, allow me to present the officer who obtained that information; the ZPD's newest detective, Judy Hopps."
"Oh, we've met," Claudia told him, and then transferred her cane to her left paw, smoothly as a stage magician, at the same time, offering the right paw to Judy. For a disabled animal, she could be surprisingly deft. "Congratulations, Detective."
"Thanks, Councilmammal," Judy answered, taking the paw and shaking it warmly.
"Uh-uh," the red panda responded, smiling and wagging her cane like a finger, "YOU call me Claudia, got it?"
"Got it."
"So, what have you come to tell us, then?" Bogo asked the red panda. He seemed slightly annoyed that Judy was on a first-name basis with her...and he wasn't. "Lieutenant, would you get the Councilmammal a chair, please?"
The sun-bear started to get up but Claudia promptly waved him back again.
"No worries, I've got this." Using her cane as a miniature pole vault, she flung herself through the air, landing next to a chair behind and to the right of Judy. Grabbing an arm, she pivoted on her good leg and, using her body weight as leverage, flung the chair forward. It scooted along the floor settling nicely into place beside Judy. In less than half of another second, Claudia was there and had seated herself. Glancing from Bogo to Lieutenant Saw, the doe-bunny saw that the Chief was mightily impressed by what he'd just seen; the sun-bear even more so.
Oops, Claudia was whispering something to her.
"Nice guy, that Bogo, but I keep on having to remind him; I'm disabled, I'm not helpless."
Judy forced herself not to giggle.
"Now then Chief," the red panda said, getting down to business, "As I said, Mr. Camelson says he fully understands our situation and he's agreed to help us out in any way he can. He says he'll make it very clear to Rocco Peccari that if he even thinks about trying to retaliate for the Flora and Fauna fire, their deal is kaput."
"But, what if it falls through on its own?" Judy blurted out, unable to contain herself. From the moment she'd learned of this possibility, it had always been her worst fear. If The Red Pig's deal with Sheldon Camelson failed, there'd be nothing to stop him from going to war with Mr. Big—which he would and in a heartbeat.
"It won't," Claudia smiled, "Or if it does, Peccari isn't going to find out about it until we've got this matter settled. Like I said, Mr. Camelson is eager to cooperate with us in this matter. He's promised us that until this gang-war business is resolved his offer is going to remain on the table."
And once again there was much rejoicing, capped off by a cynical growl from Lieutenant Saw.
"Amazing, isn't it—what you can accomplish by threatening to withhold a gaming license?"
Claudia immediately raised her paws. "Actually, it never came to that, Lieutenant. Mr. Camelson agreed to help us right out of the gate." Noting a quizzical expression on Bogo's face, she turned in his direction. "He's a sharp cookie, Chief...he understands that a gang war in this town would be devastating for the Palm Hotel casino. And, as the Red Pig's consigliere said to Officer...er, Detective Hopps there, he wants that place very badly."
Everyone eased down into their seats, Judy included. They hadn't entirely avoided the possibility of a gang-war—there was still that unknown third party to contend with—but at least they didn't have to worry about The Red Pig starting anything on his own. And with him safely sidelined, the ZPD would be free to concentrate their efforts on trying to unmask the real arsonist.
Zootopia wasn't out of the woods just yet...but at least the tree-line was visible.
Bogo looked at his watch, and then at Judy.
"Right Hopps, we're done for now. Best be on your way; y'don't want to keep Lieutenant Tufts waiting." He sounded almost sympathetic.
"Yes, sir," Judy answered, slipping out of her chair...and sounding a lot more than almost unhappy.
When she had gone, the office fell into a short, hard silence, broken only seconds later by Lt. Saw.
"Aren't you going to...?"
"No, let's give it a minute or two," Bogo scratched briefly at his nose. "I don't want to take a chance on having them run into each other...again." A brief smirk crossed his face, "Dead lucky that he didn't notice her the first time."
The Chief was right to wait a while; Judy was in no great hurry to get to Cybercrimes Division, a wise decision on her part. The moment she walked in through the door, she was whisked into the baleful presence of Lieutenant Albert Tufts—who proceeded to climb up onto a tabletop and look her up and down in a manner not unlike a drillmaster sizing up a raw recruit.
"I didn't ask for you Hopps, and I don't need you." he chittered, "As far as I'm concerned you're dead weight around here. You have exactly zero computer skills, and you already let our suspect get away from you at least once."
Remembering Bogo's warning, '...any excuse to get rid of you,' Judy gritted her teeth and said nothing.
It wasn't easy, Tufts' last observation had not only been way out of line, but patently false; Judy hadn't even been on duty at the time of Conor's jailbreak.
"Keep it together, Jude."
"With all due respect Lieutenant," she said, keeping her tone neutral "I wasn't brought on board for my computer skills..."
"You weren't 'brought on board' at all!" The Kaibab squirrel interrupted, snapping his incisors as he spoke. He leaned forward, showing their full length. "You were FOISTED on me Hopps." His tail began to flap with anger and Judy was about to respond, when he added bitterly, "I don't suppose you'd care to tell me why I'm being forced to take you on, either."
"Sooo," the doe-bunny mused to herself, "he doesn't KNOW about the deal with Mr. Rodenberg. Hmmm, and if I know what's good for me, I'll make sure to keep that little item under wraps."
"It's because I happen to know the suspect, sir," she said.
"Feh, yeah," Tufts chittered again, putting his paws on his hips, "and a fat lot of good it's done you so far. The first time you tried to take him down, you almost got yourself electrocuted and HE had to come in and save your fluffy little tail."
Ouch...okay, that stung. Judy tried not to grimace but was unable to stop herself, (much to the Lieutenant's ill-concealed delight.)
"Anyway, I'm stuck with you—for now," he said, jabbing a bony finger in her direction, "but understand something, Hopps. You step out of line by even a fraction of a centimeter and you'll be off this case so fast, you'll make a sonic boom when you go."
Judy suspected this was pure bluff; Tufts wouldn't be able to jettison her except for a major infraction...and she wasn't about to make that kind of mistake.
"Except for the meeting with Conor that Mr. Rodenberg said to forget abou... SHUT UP!"
The Lieutenant, meanwhile, was pointing to a far corner.
"That'll be your desk over there. Get it cleaned out and then you can go around and take everyone's lunch order."
Judy almost bristled, but somehow managed to hold her tongue. She might not have managed even that much if the Lieutenant hadn't already hopped off the table and been skittering away. It was an even better thing that he wasn't nearby when she found her workstation, a monstrosity that could almost have passed for something out of a haunted-house movie. The desktop was covered with what looked like half an inch of dust and there were cobwebs plastered to both corners of the cubicle. Perhaps a third of the letters on the computer keyboard had been smudged into oblivion, and this had to be the last work-station in the ZPD still equipped with a CRT monitor. When she attempted to open the drawer underneath, it point-blank refused to budge. She tried it once, twice, and was about to make a third attempt when a pink-fringed hoof reached past her.
"Hold on Judy, there's a trick to it."
Turning quickly, the doe-bunny saw that Claire Swinton had joined her. Hallelujah heaven, if she had ever needed to see a friendly face, it was right now.
"You need to shake it to the left a little and then pull," the pig cop demonstrated, easing the draw open. It was completely empty, thank goodness. After her experiences so far with her new workspace, Judy had been half-expecting to find a nest of cockroaches inside.
"Thanks Claire."
"No charge," the sow replied and then spread her arms wide, "Soooo, welcome to Operation AD-Smash."
"Operation AD...Smash?" Judy repeated the name slowly, ears erect and nose twitching.
"A-D...stands for Artful Dodger," Swinton explained, and then corked a thumb in no particular direction, "Lieutenant Tufts' nickname for the Lewis boy."
Judy rolled her eyes, she couldn't help it; Operation AD-Smash...as if they were trying to take down an international crime cartel instead of a 14-year-old kid. Sweet cheez n' crackers, how pretentious can you GET?
The look in her face was not lost on the pig cop.
"Believe it or not, the Lieutenant isn't usually that much of a jerk; you just happened to catch him on a particularly bad day. He's seriously ticked off right now about being one-upped by your former partner."
Judy's ears went up higher than ever. "Wait, what...? Nick...one upped...how?"
Swinton's eyebrows also stood to attention. "Huh? You don't...know?"
"Uh, no I don't." Judy lowered her voice and leaned in closer, "Nick...that is, Officer Wilde...ummm, we try to keep our distance these days as much as possible."
"Right, right, right," the pig cop said, nodding quickly. And then her eyes narrowed and the corners of her mouth turned impishly upward, "Well you're going to love this, hon. He figured out who the Phantom is."
"He did WHAT?!" Judy almost screamed.
"Shhhh, keep it down." Swinton looked furtively around and then relaxed. No one seemed to have overheard.
"Sorry, but...seriously?" Judy was staring as if the pig cop had just turned bright purple.
"Well-l-l, he didn't get a name, but...yeah." Swinton's mouth had pulled halfway to the side. She spent the next few minutes filling in the doe-bunny on all that the fox had discovered.
"Remember that lavender diamond from Rafaj Brothers sting? Well, three of the bills used to pay for it ended up in the bank account of...of...ahhh, I can't remember, but it was the stoat who left the money in that beach locker. Ahhhh, what was his name again? Oh right, Ian Shortal."
This time Judy remembered to keep her voice down, though it took her a considerable effort.
"Whoo-hoo! Yay Nick!" Whoa, had she ever been right to give HIM the job of interrogating the Rafaj brothers. "If YOU don't make Detective too," she swore, speaking silently to her absent former partner, "then there's no justice in this world. I'll quit if you don't, I mean it!"
As a matter of fact, it was a superfluous oath on the doe-bunny's part—because there was justice in the world. At that very moment, Chief Bogo was sliding another gold shield across his desk, "Congratulations, Detective Wilde."
"Thank you sir," the red fox beamed, genuinely grateful but far less surprised by his promotion than Judy had been. After all, HE hadn't committed any major procedural violations of late, (and he had also been keeping up with his e-mail.)
Bogo waited until he put the badge away and spoke again.
"Wilde, you're the one who discovered the existence of this—for lack of better name, I'm calling him the Runaway Courier—and so I'm giving you the task of tracking him down."
"Hmmm...it could be a 'her' Chief," Nick pointed out, instantly wondering if correcting his boss like that was out of line. Ordinarily even he would never have been so forward, but being placed in charge of locating the missing diamond courier...the same day he made Detective? It didn't get a whole lot more heady than that; he felt almost as if somebody had slipped him a shot of catnip.
The response to his suggestion came not from Chief Bogo but from the red panda seated in the next chair over.
"Nope, not The Mister, Detective Wilde...not him; there's been never a more chauvinistic jerk than that sea-mink and there probably never will be. Believe me, he wouldn't trust a female with a job that important if it meant an extra $100 Grand in his pocket. I can almost hear him now." She cleared her throat, and when she spoke again, her voice had dropped into the Zoo York gutter. "Hire a BROAD to deliver those diamonds? Yeah, riiiight...and then watch her open the package 'for just a quick, little peek', nuh-uh, no thanks!"
Both Nick and the Chief nearly fell on the floor laughing. Claudia Nizhang wasn't laughing, and neither was Lieutenant Saw...but then that was because he'd departed several minutes earlier.
Recovering quickly, Chief Bogo indicated her with a hoof for Nick Wilde's benefit. "As you know, Councilmember Nizhang was once herself a Zoo York City police detective. What you may not be aware of is that she was also a member of the task force charged with bringing down The Company." He flashed a quick sardonic grin. "And as I think you can judge for y'self Wilde, she's quite familiar with both their history and with how they operated. Accordingly, I wanted to begin this investigation by having you speak to her."
"Yes sir," Nick nodded agreeably. He would have asked to see the red panda himself, had Bogo not thought of it first.
The Chief nodded back and then turned to speak to Claudia.
"Before we begin Councilmammal, I should like you to know how much the ZPD appreciates your help in this matter."
"Hey, no problem, Chief," she replied, waving an airy paw. "You had me at, '...a third survivor of the Finagles raid;' nearly blew me through the back wall of my office when I heard." Turning to Nick she said, "Oh-kayyy, where do you want me to start?"