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 7-The Cascade Effect
(Part 1)
Monday, 07:27, ZPD Precinct-1, Savanna Central, Zootopia
The insanity began while Judy was in the midst of eating her breakfast cereal and wondering if it was too early to call her mother and sister. Mom would almost certainly be up-typical farm-family matriarch-but Vi would likely still be asleep. Flipping open her laptop to check the morning newscast, she was instantly confronted by a shrill, screaming headline:
Night of Terror in Savanna Central
At once, she found that she had no appetite. And when the overhead camera-feed of Savanna Central Plaza appeared on the screen, what little food she had in her stomach threatened to perform an about-face and head back up the way it had come-never mind that rabbits are incapable of vomiting.
And that was only the beginning. Next she learned was what had triggered the riot-a cyberattack; a cyberattack followed by a mass breakout from Precinct-1 Youth Detention.
Oh sweet cheez' n crackers!
Grabbing her cell phone from the charger, Judy punched the speed-dial button for the precinct, only to run into the same recording that had stifled her sister earlier.
"We're sorry, but all circuits are busy; please try your call again, later."
No sooner did she end the call than her phone began to peel like a church-bell, informing her that a text had just arrived.
When she looked, she saw that the sender was none other than the Chief of the ZPD himself. And his message was both short and to the point:
Hopps, stay home; we've got enough bedlam here as it is. Bogo
When Judy read it, she nearly said something in a language she never, ever used. How could he expect her to stay away at a time like...?
Before she was able to complete the thought, her cell phone chimed a second time.
Hopps, come in right away. Bogo
At once the doe-bunny's mood swung from bothered to bemused, "What the HECK?" It was as if he'd never sent that first text.
Things became even more confusing when she exited the Crying Pangolin Arms and found a ZPD Cruiser waiting at the foot of the front steps. Confusing...and also not a little frightening; the hood was bent into a half-concave and the passenger door now sported a message, crudely rendered in shocking-purple spray-paint.
WER'E NOT GONA TAKE IT!
Sweet cheez n' crackers; if Bogo was willing to send a vehicle in this shape out on the streets, the situation at Precinct-1 must be even more chaotic than she'd imagined.
Approaching the cruiser, Judy saw Claire Swinton, waiting at the wheel. She also took note of the remnants of several eggs and a rotten tomato, splattered across the windshield and fenders. The riot might be over, but the animosity that had fueled it still remained.
Then the driver's door opened and the pig cop's head popped up over the cruiser's roof. "Dangit Judy, hurry up before we get ambushed!"
There wasn't another soul in sight, but the doe bunny hurried as best she could; ignoring the lingering ache in her midsection. It seemed to take forever; a rainstorm had hit only a short while ago and the streets were slick and shiny...not the best footing when you're nursing an injury. It wasn't until they were well on their way that she finally turned and spoke to Swinton...whom, she couldn't help but notice, was decked out in full riot-gear, sans helmet.
"Why did Bogo send a car for me?"
"No choice," her porcine companion answered, keeping her eyes on the road, "Metro's down, there's no trains running...at least not into Savanna Central; no buses either...or cabs...or even Zoober."
"Oh-kay-y-y," Judy answered warily, "Do you have any idea why Bogo wants to see me?" He had never specifically said so, but she knew him well enough by now to appreciate at least a few of his habits. No way would he have sent a cruiser to pick her up unless he wanted to speak to her fursonally.
"Sorry, not a clue," the pig cop answered, still not looking in her direction. She seemed incapable of speaking in words of more than two syllables. That was hardly surprising, given her appearance. Her collar was open, the lower half of her face was scorched and grimy, and her eyes were shot with so much red, it looked almost like demonic possession. The night just past must have been hell-on-earth in Savanna Central Plaza,
But then, without warning, Swinton gunned the motor and the cruiser leapt forward, slamming Judy backwards into her car seat.
"Claire, wha...?" she started to say, but the pig-cop only waved her off. Looking ahead through the windshield, she understood at once the reason for their sudden acceleration. Perhaps twenty yards ahead, an overhead walkway stretched over the road in a rainbow arc.
It was lined end to end with what looked like a horde of young mammals; barely visible at this distance, and yet also clearly hostile.
Too late to question the wisdom of attempting to run this gauntlet; the only thing she could do was grit her teeth and cross her fingers.
As the cruiser shot streaking beneath the overpass, a deluge of objects came showering down all around it. Only one of them scored a hit; something squishy by the sound of it.
Judy barely noticed. It was the thing that landed maybe two feet behind the cruiser that REALLY caught her attention.
"Holy Carrot Sticks, was that a...VENDING MACHINE?"
Yes, it was...and if that thing had hit them...
She shuddered at the thought and then angled her gaze upwards; less than ten seconds had passed since they'd run beneath that flyover...and it was already completely deserted.
That was when Judy knew something; not a single one of those kids was ever going to be caught. The realization made her ears lay back and caused her foot to thump.
The remainder of the ride to Precinct 1 was uneventful, except for the checkpoint at the perimeter of Savanna Central Plaza. The bongo in charge of the gateway-an officer the doe bunny didn't recognize-insisted on seeing both her and Swinton's badges before letting them pass.
When they entered Plaza Circle, Judy had to force the tears to stay away. It was nothing she hadn't seen already, but the overhead view from that news camera had given only the merest hint of what to expect at ground level.
Surveying the scenery in front of her, she couldn't help but remember the first time she'd seen The Plaza; a bright-eyed rookie from Bunnyburrow, fresh out of the Police Academy and ready to make the world a better place.
The world before her now seemed wholly beyond redemption. Savanna Central Plaza looked like it had been hit by either a bombing run, or a missile strike. The trees were gone, the coffee kiosks were nothing but scrap-heaps and not a single bench or tram-stop shelter remained standing. Council Rock had been reduced to a tumble of shards and stony fragments, and even now, in spite of the cloudburst earlier that morning, plumes of smoke were rising from every corner of the common. Police in tac-gear seemed to be everywhere, many of them glaring into the surrounding streets, as if daring the rioters to come back and try it again. The Department's Armored Fursonell Carrier had by now been hauled away, but a coal-black rectangle remained branded into the spot where it had burned, in stark testament to its fiery fate.
Swinton took them around to the rear of the precinct-and it was only when they entered the parking lot that Judy understood; Bogo had sent a damaged cruiser to pick her up because it was practically the only one left still running. She counted 1...2...3...4...at least nine other vehicles on the disabled list and likely to remain there for the foreseeable future. Two of them appeared fit only for the boneyard, and the bigger one could have almost been put through a car-compactor already.
Judy's nose began to twitch almost uncontrollably; yet another realization had dawned upon her. Precinct-1 was that short on vehicles-and Bogo had still seen fit to send one to collect her at her flat and bring her here.
And THAT could only mean...whatever he wanted to talk about, it was in regards to something urgent.
But...what? What could it be?
Swinton let her out at the precinct's rear entrance and then drove away without a word of farewell. Judy let it pass; she'd seemed dazed rather than angry...something the doe-bunny was starting to feel herself and in no small measure. If it hadn't been for the lingering ache in her side, she might almost have expected to wake up in her bed at any second. It had all been just a bad dream-thank God
Even so, she wished that Claire had hung around a while longer. She was going to need some help in getting upstairs to Bogo's office; that injured diaphragm didn't lend itself to climbing even a gentle slope. Well, maybe someone could assist her after she checked in with dispatch..
She was just reaching for the door handle when her cell-phone buzzed again-and there was no question of not taking the call. It was her mother on the other end.
"Judy!" was all she said when her face appeared...and it was all she needed to say; the worry lines, the reddened eyes, and the dark circles underneath them told the younger bunny everything she needed to know; if such a thing were possible, her mother looked even worse than Claire Swinton.
And she was supposed to be the Hopps Family's tower of strength!
"Judy, where are you?" Her sister Violet's face appeared behind mom, looking every bit as careworn as the elder rabbit.
"I'm at Precinct-1, Vi." Judy told her, adding quickly as an afterthought, "Don't worry, I'm all right."
"What about Erin, is she all right?" Her mother's voice was almost a sob.
"Oh my God," Judy felt herself go numb; felt her heart fall into tummy, and then all the way down to her feet. Erin, Erin...oh, HOW could she have forgotten about her little sister, locked up in Youth Detention? And there it was; that was why Chief Bogo had changed his mind about wanting her to come into work. There was no other possible explanation. Something had happened with Erin, and it wasn't anything good.
Or...had it? Bogo had only told her to come into the precinct; he hadn't said anything about wanting to talk to her fursonally.
"Oh, really?" her inner voice countered, "That's not what you said when you saw Swinton waiting at the..."
"Judy, a-are you there?"
Oops...dangit again!
"Sorry Mom, I don't know anything more than you do right now. I couldn't get through when I tried to call the precinct..."
"Neither could we," Violet spoke up in the background.
"...and I only just got here a minute ago; I haven't had time to speak to anyone yet. I'll call you back as soon as I know something, 'kay?"
"P-Please," her mother whimpered, "Please let Erin be all right," as if her bunny-cop daughter somehow had the power to make that happen.
And ohhh, how Judy wished that she did.
"I'm sure she's fine, Mom," she said, although she actually had no idea. "I'll call you back later, I promise."
"We know you will Jude." It was Violet this time; she appeared to have taken the phone off Bonnie's paws.
"Okay Vi," she nodded, "Listen, I've got to..."
"We understand, we won't keep you," Her older sister said, "talk to you soon."
"I'll call again, I promise," Judy assured her for the third time...and then rang off.
At the last door before entering the precinct lobby, she had to stop and take a moment to collect herself; recalling her former partner's favorite adage, 'Never let them see that they get to you.'
No, she wouldn't let her fellow officers see her distress. She especially would not let them see her cry.
The moment she entered the lobby, her promise became moot.
Not fifteen feet in front of her, Officers Fangmeier and Johnson were holding each other tightly and blubbering into one another's shoulders. Over by the wall, seated on a bench by himself, Officer Grizzoli was sending up a mournful howl at irregular intervals. Even the ever-thick-skinned Officer McHorn was affected; sitting with his face buried in his hooves and mumbling the same words over and over.
"Just kids...just kids..."
Judy looked away and kept going.
"All right Jude, keep it together, you know what you need to do."
She hurried over, as fast she could, in the direction of the dispatch desk. Even on a day like today, proper procedure was proper procedure. Before anything else, she needed to check in with Benjamin Claw...
Wha...? Where the heck was he? The desk appeared to be unoccupied; today, all days? Noooo, that couldn't be right, but where could he have...?
Just then, her sharp rabbit ears detected a faint scraping noise on the other side of the partition.
"Benjamin?"
At once, the plus-sized cheetah's face lifted up into view. And as anyone could have predicted, he looked nothing like his usual jolly self. His eyes, streaked with red, were so puffy that he almost appeared to be suffering from an allergic reaction. His cheeks were wet, and Judy could almost have sworn that a couple of his fur-spots were running like ink-blots in the rain. His mouth, meanwhile, had shrunk to the same small, inverted crescent that the doe-bunny had seen on the day he'd been transferred to the records department, 'down in the basement...by the boiler.' Only his immaculate uniform served to deny the image of hopeless sorrow. In all the time that the doe-bunny had known him, Benjamin Clawhauser had never come to work looking anything less than spruce and spotless. It was his one and only point of honor.
"Oh, hello Judy," he said, trying and failing to manage a smile.
Unable to think of anything else, she pointed to the dust-pan, held shakily in the big cat's right paw.
"What's that for Benjamin?"
He answered by aiming a pudgy finger at the ceiling up above. Following his lead, Judy saw only a misshapen, blackened oval where the overhead casement window was supposed to be. At first she didn't understand...until her eyes took note of a hint of wood grain in the mix. Plywood...it was covered over in plywood.
"The rioters," Clawhauser explained, as she brought her gaze level with his again, "Some of them managed to get up onto the precinct roof last night and break out the skylight...left a ginormous mess." By way of illustration, he hefted the dust pan, displaying a small collection of glass fragments. I tried to clean up earlier back here, but I...I missed a few."
He looked away, shamefaced, and that was all Judy could take. She hopped up onto the countertop, threw her arms around the plus-sized cheetah's neck and gave him a big hug.
Benjamin immediately hugged her back...drawing a sharp, painful wheeze from the injured doe-bunny. It was her own fault, really; in the rush of emotion, she had forgotten about her bruised diaphragm. Luckily, Benjamin heard the noise and quickly let go of her.
Before either one of them could say anything, a well-worn basso-profundo boomed out across the precinct lobby from somewhere high above.
"Right...everyone listen up!"
Judy and Clawhauser turned and looked upwards. Chief Bogo was standing on the top tier of the concourse with his hooves splayed out on the railing.
His appearance was almost the diametrical opposite of Benjamin Clawhauser. His uniform was rumpled and dirty, and had several buttons missing; his left sleeve was gone altogether.
His face, on the other hoof, was a portrait in stoicism; gleaming eyes, a hard-set brow, and a chin jutting defiantly outwards.
"There's no denyin' that the ZPD has taken a knock," he said, sweeping a steely gaze over the lobby below, "I'd even go so far as to say this is the worst disaster this department has suffered since the day I became police chief. No, I take that back, since the day I joined the force." He paused momentarily, and then went on. "We've lost nearly half the vehicles in our motor-pool, and the computers are still down-and we've no idea how long they're going to remain offline. At least five of our fellow officers are in hospital, and at least a third of the detainees in the youth jail got away and are still at large. It's an emotional time for all of us, and I wouldn't expect any member of the ZPD to carry on as if none of this had happened."
Before anyone could react, his thick, hard hoof came thundering down on the railing.
"But carry on, we must! We're still police officers and the City of Zootopia is still depending on us...now more than ever. It's a lot to ask; nobody knows that better than I do." For the first time since he'd taken his stance, his expression seemed to mellow, just ever so slightly, "But I also know my officers-and I know that you're up to the task, every single one of you. You are, without question, the finest group of policemammals it has ever been my privilege to know. You can do this; you can muddle through this crisis, I will never doubt that for a moment." He paused again, this time lifting a finger. "And here's something of which you can be certain. For all the damage they did last night, the rioters never got inside the precinct...and that's all due to your efforts, especially those of you who were trapped outside on the riot line, with no one to help you when the doors locked. You're heroes, every one of you-and you'll be getting the commendations to prove it." He snorted for effect and continued. "And one more thing; through the struggle ahead, know that I'll be right there behind you, and I'll always back your play, no matter what." His finger arced downward, pointed in the direction of the precinct's front entrance and from there across the plaza to City Hall.
"And so will the Zootopia City Council; even as I speak, they're meetin' in emergency session to work out a response to this crisis. And rest assured; this is no idle debating session going on over there, I have that on the best authority. Something will get done today."
He paused again looking over the lobby one more time...and then went into his peroration.
"So let's press on with our work as well, then. Let's put our shoulders to the task facin' us...and show the mammals of Zootopia that the miscreants may knock us down, but they can't KEEP us down-and they'll never, ever, ever knock us out!"
At first, the big, Cape buffalo's speech seemed to have no effect, greeted with only a velveteen silence.
But then, somewhere in the foyer, a pair of paws began to clap, and then another pair, and then a pair of hooves. In mere seconds, every officer present was applauding their chief, none more enthusiastically than Judy Hopps and Benjamin Clawhauser. And then someone cheered, and then someone else cheered...and then a chant began to swell.
"Bo-GO! Bo-GO! Bo-GO! Bo-GO! Bo-GO!"
And that was all it took to break the spell. At once the big Cape buffalo blew an angry, bellowing note, through both nostrils.
"Right, shut it, ALL of you! What d'yer think this is, a football game?"
The officers instantly silenced themselves...but the look of proud defiance on their faces still remained. Bogo nodded approvingly, and then allowed his gaze to wander over the lobby, eventually settling on the bunny cop perched atop the dispatch desk.
"Hopps, there you are; I'll see you in my office right away."
She immediately turned to Clawhauser, clutching at her side to illustrate her situation.
"Ummm, is there someone who can help me up the ramp?" she asked.
"I'll help you, Judy." a voice answered from behind-and when the doe bunny turned around, she saw at least half a dozen officers waiting to assist her. In this dark hour, in the aftermath of 'Hell-Night ', as it would soon become known throughout the precinct, there were no predators or prey species here, no bunnies, canines, big cats or hoofed mammals; no desert species, no semi-aquatic species, and no arboreal species. In Precinct-1today, in the wake of their Chief's address, there was nobody here but us police officers.
Several moments later, aided in her ascent by Kii Catano, Judy was knocking on the door to Bogo's office. On the way up, Kii had taken the opportunity to fill her in some more on the previous night's events-and it had led the doe-bunny to a swift and immediate conclusion; the Chief of the ZPD had never been one for beating around the bush-and so she decided that she wouldn't either. The second he opened the door, she asked it
"Hello, Chief; is this about my sister, Erin?"
Before he could even begin to reply, she already knew the answer. The set of his jaw and the flick of his ear said it all.
"'Fraid it is, Hopps...mostly. But there's more I've got to tell you, and it's not good news either, sorry to say." He stepped aside from the doorway, gesturing with a meaty hoof at the chair in front of his desk. "Come in and sit down...please."
Judy's ears locked up and her twitching nose went into an instant freeze-frame.
"'Please'...he said 'please?' Oh, sweet cheez n' crackers, it's worse than I thought."
At least she wasn't going to have to wait to hear the news; as soon as she was in her chair. Bogo folded his hooves on his desktop and gave it to her straight
"At the present time Officer Hopps, your younger sister, Ms. Erin Janelle Hopps remains...unaccounted for."
Judy's whole world seemed to halt in its tracks. At any other time, she would have found such excess formality to be aggravating in the extreme.
Not now; it was the one thing she hadn't expected...an inconclusive response. Unaccounted for; Bogo didn't know anything more about Erin's situation than she did...any more than her MOTHER did!
Except...if her sister's whereabouts remained unknown it meant she hadn't stayed put in her cell and sheltered in place when the doors opened...the way she should have done.
And that was it; that was how Judy had managed to forget about her little sister until Mom had called. Until this moment she had assumed that the younger bunny would at least have enough sense to...
"Ohhhh, Erin, what's the MATTER with you?" She would have screamed it out loud if she'd been alone. "Why didn't you stay PUT, you dumb bunny?"
"Easy Jude," her inner voice countered, soothingly, "You don't KNOW what happened; Erin might have had a perfectly good reason for leaving her cell."
All right, maybe so, but that still didn't explain...
"Sir, how can...that...be?" Judy groped for each word as though it was a slippery fish. "Somebody must...know...something...I mean, what happened. Didn't...the surveillance cameras... pick up anything?"
Bogo took a short breath, his face morphing into a study in controlled anger.
"No Hopps," he told her flatly, "Our little silver-fox friend succeeded in disabling the recording system when he hacked into our data-base. We've got no footage at all from inside the precinct last night...or from the outside either, except for the city cams and the video from that dragonfly-copter Precinct-7 managed to get into the air." He pounded the desktop with his fist, causing several of the objects parked there to get up and dance. "The only thing we've got left on disc is a rather substantial collection of very rude messages!"
For a tick of the clock, Judy was unable to respond. What, the Chief thought CONOR was the hacker? No way; even in his worst moments, that boy would never dream of doing anything so cruel.
...Right?
Her chief, meanwhile, was still talking.
"None of the correctional officers on duty in Youth Detention saw anything either, I'm afraid. They took shelter in the Lieutenant's office when the sprinklers went off and then got locked inside. They couldn't see out the windows either; the detainees gobbed them up with wads of bathroom tissue."
"But what about those other kids?" Judy could hear the desperation in her voice; she didn't care. "One of them must have seen what happened to my sister."
Bogo rapped the desk again, but not as hard.
"No doubt one of them did," he muttered, as much for his own benefit as hers, "But so far, the only detainees willing to talk to us are the ones who didn't see her. The young mammals arrested along with your sister weren't even aware that she'd gone missing until they heard it from us." For the slimmest of seconds, his eyes darted away, and then came back again, harder than chips of onyx. "As f' the rest of 'em, they won't even tell us their names." His words must have prompted a look of despair on Judy's face, because he added a fast qualification, "Mind, though, we're not anywhere close to being done with taking their statements."
She felt like beating on the desk herself. Dangit, what was she supposed to tell her mother...or Violet?
But...wait a minute, hold it; another thought had just occurred to her. Maybe...just maybe...
"Sir...has anyone talked to either of those two young bunnies arrested at the Academy Auditions...Er, the ones caught trying to dig that tunnel under the stage?"
Bogo stared for a second with his ears flicking, as if trying to recall who she was talking about. Then they ceased their movements and he shrugged his shoulders. He remembered, but...
"I...don't know," he frankly admitted, indicating the blacked-out workstation on his desk as either an excuse or an explanation. "Why do you ask, Hopps?"
Judy mentally crossed her fingers.
"Because they're both from Bunnyburrow, Chief-and they know my sister; at least one of them does. If anyone might have some idea as to where she could have gone..."
Before she could finish, Bogo already had his phone out.
"Hullo, Lieutenant Barrow? Wha...who's this then? What? Hsing, are you still there...and what are you doing with Barrow's...? All right, never mind...there's a couple of young rabbits you're holding in Youth Detention, errrr..." He cupped a hoof over the receiver and looked at Judy.
"Max and Zack March," she told him.
"Max and Zack March," Bogo repeated into the phone, adding "Turns out they know the Hopps girl...yes, that's right, Officer Judy Hopps's sister, the one we've not located yet. Do you...?"
He pulled the phone aside and spoke to Judy again, "He's checking."
A moment of pregnant silence followed while they waited for the panda bear's return.
And then finally...
"Right...right then; and the other boy? Hold on a second." Bogo rummaged around his desktop until he found a pen and some scratch paper, "Right, which hospital? Mmm-hrm, d'yer know which room? Right then, we'll find out from here. Thanks, Hsing...and since you're on his phone, may I assume that Lieutenant Barrow is there, then?" He straightened up and his grip on the cell tightened noticeably. "No...I don't need to talk to him, I need YOU to get y'self home and get some sleep! Ahhh! Don't argue with me Hsing; that's an order. If I ring up Youth Detention again and find out you're still there... Ahhh, never mind just go home!"
He hung up, drumming thick, hard fingers on the desktop and fuming at no one in particular. "Mmmnnnngh...I blasted hate being so short hooved; y' can't threaten to suspend anybody."
"Ahhh, sir?" Judy was looking up at him, anxious and hopeful. She had caught the words, 'Which hospital?'
Bogo folded his hooves on the desktop again.
"The one boy, Zack, is still being held in Youth Detention, awaiting a release order. The other one...errr, Max, broke his ankle and got taken to St. Bart's."
The same hospital where SHE had been taken, after her fight with Conor-Judy couldn't help but remember. Good Lord; that seemed like ancient history now, even with the occasional jolt of pain in her side to remind her otherwise.
And that reminded her of something else.
"Sir, I know how difficult things are right now, but would it be possible for me to get a ride over to...?"
"Sit down Hopps, I haven't dismissed you yet."
"Oops, sorry Chief."
Crike, she hadn't even realized she'd been trying to get up from her chair. Luckily for her, Bogo wasn't that much of a hard-case. He was even good for a sympathetic nod.
"S'alright Hopps; I understand. I'd be anxious too, if it were my sister." But then the forbidding expression returned to his face; if anything he looked even grimmer than when she'd come in here. "But as I said in the beginning, there's more I've got to tell you." He looked away for a second, gritting his teeth, "And it just keeps gettin' worse and worse. According to Lieutenant Hsing, young Mister March received his injuries at the paws of a young coyote by the name of Craig Guilford," his eyes met hers again, "Who, I'm sorry to say, also remains unaccounted for."
Judy gasped before she even had time to process the information ...and then she was unable to stifle her worst fears.
The odds against that renegade young coyote encountering Erin on the outside were somewhere in the neighborhood of astronomical.
But still, Judy knew, she was the officer who had collared him-and he'd spent the better part of the ride back to Precinct-1 swearing revenge not only upon her, but on all rabbits in general.
Oh yes...Craig Guilford was perfectly capable of exacting his vengeance upon the sister of the bunny-cop who'd busted him; of that, there was little, if any, doubt.
She needed to speak to Max and Zack March right now; no, make that five minutes ago!
But Bogo still had more to tell her.
"And," he was having trouble looking her way again, "That's not all of it either, I regret to say. You're familiar with Burrow County Deputy Mac Cannon...errrr, I actually want to say, do you know him?"
"Uhhh, yes sir," Judy answered, feeling once again as if the contents of her stomach was about to spill out all over the floor-even though by now her belly was largely empty. Oh please...not Mac. "Yes sir, I know him very well. Um, wha...what happened?"
To her surprise...and to her immense dread, the big Cape buffalo got up and came around his desk, laying a massive hoof on her shoulder. "He's in hospital too, I'm afraid, in the ICU. He was caught outside on a walkway when the cell doors opened and got beaten very badly by some of the detainees." His lips pulled inward and he looked away, patting his knuckles. He seemed to be trying to make up his mind about something.
Eventually, his eyes found hers again.
"Some of the young offenders who didn't get away are insisting that Deputy Cannon assaulted and then killed one their number, a young sand-cat named...ehhh, Sade Zakkir; I-I think that's how it's pronounce..."
"NO!" Judy was standing on her seat with her ears laid back. "No...no way! Mac would NEVER do a thing like that-especially not to another feline..."
"Sit down Hopps!" Bogo bellowed, getting right in her face to ensure that she obeyed him-which she did. "D'yer think I'D ever believe such drivel? Good God, you know me better than that!"
"Yes sir." Judy answered, thoroughly chastened. Yes she knew him, and no, he'd never buy into a rumor like that one.
But even so...oh no, poor Mac! And poor Erin; the bobcat deputy's daughter was one of her besties. And poor... Her ears wilted as she remembered the sand-cat from the nighttime jam session on the Beach Promenade. "No...!"
She looked up at the Chief. "Saad... He's not really...?"
He only looked at her, and then turned away, eyes cast downwards while he silently pinched the bridge of his muzzle. It was the nearest to weeping that he'd ever come in Judy Hopps's memory...and it hit her like a dagger through the heart.
She folded halfway over and stifled a sob.
"The trouble is," Bogo had returned once more to his desk-chair, plopping himself down with a sigh so heavy, it nearly muffled the squeak of the springs. "They believe it-the young mammals in Youth Detention, I mean-and I've no idea how long we can keep the lid on, or even if it can be kept on at all."
Judy could only nod dumbly. It was not at all inconceivable that the rumor had already begun to spread beyond the walls of Precinct-1. What was that old saying again? 'A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is still putting on its...'
Someone knocked on the door, drawing an angry scowl from The Chief.
"What?"
"Sir, it's Clawhauser," the familiar meek voice responded timidly.
Bogo turned up the volume a notch.
"What d'yer want? I'm busy."
"Uhhh, Sorry Chief," the plus-sized cheetah sounded like Oliver Twist, asking for more gruel. "But Lieutenant Tufts is somewhere in the building."
"What?" The big Cape buffalo stood up and blew a double barreled note through his nostrils, splaying his hooves on his desktop for good measure. "He's not s'posed to be anywhere near Precinct-1! And how'd he get in here anyway...and what d'yer mean; 'somewhere in the building?'"
"Uhhh, I don't know sir." Clawhauser answered the first question first. "He may have slipped in with a group of officers. But anyway, he came to the reception desk and said he wanted to see you. I told him that he couldn't even be inside the precinct lobby while he was under suspension, and that he had to leave...and well..."
The voice trailed off into a bewildered silence.
"And then what?" Bogo belled in exasperation, and then groaned and waved a hoof, even though he knew the cheetah couldn't see him. "All right, come."
Clawhauser cracked the door open and stepped inside with his hat in his paws.
"Yes, sir. Well, when I told him he had to leave, he jumped up on the reception desk, and then he just...disappeared."
"Dis-ap-PEARED?" Bogo spoke every syllable as if he was stapling it to a wall. Judy didn't know whether to feel sorry for Benjamin Clawhauser-or relieved that it was him and not her.
"Y-Yes, Chief." the big cat clutched his hat even more tightly, "I...WHOAAAA!"
Something squirmed out onto the big cat's shoulder from beneath one of his cheek folds, and then leapt down to the floor.
Chief Bogo was out of his seat like a jack-in-the-box. "TUFTS!"
"Wait Chief; hear me out first, please!" The Kaibab squirrel had his paws thrown up like a revivalist preacher. "You need to know this...and right now." His plea was so compelling even Judy was inclined to let him have his say.
Bogo, for his part, was less impressed, rolling his wrist and pretending to scowl at his watch. "Five minutes, then. As f' you, Clawhauser; back to your station."
"Yes sir," the plus-size cheetah responded, almost grazing the floor as he bowed out the way he had come.
When the door finally closed, Tufts took in a breath and let it out slowly.
"Chief...I heard what you said on ZNN earlier...and you're wrong. The Lewis boy didn't..."
"I've already heard that from Councilmember Nizhang!" Bogo cut him off with a wave of his hoof.
"But you didn't hear everything!" The tassel-eared squirrel was practically begging on his knees. "Not only is Conor Lewis innocent of perpetrating that cyberattack...I think he's the one that stopped it!"
THAT finally did it; the big Cape buffalo fell back in his chair, staring wide-eyed at Albert Tufts. So did Judy.
"And you know this...how?" Bogo eventually asked him, quietly and thoroughly perplexed.
Tufts flexed his paws and then clenched them, as if he was preparing to enter a boxing ring in a championship bout. "I know because he's the one who tipped me off about the cyberattack; called me on my cell phone last night to tell me about it."
"So he knew about it while it was happening," the big Chief snorted and then offered an icy glare. "Well then, doesn't that prove he was responsible for the attack?"
Whoa, even Judy had to admit he had a point there. With Precinct-1 locked down and rendered virtually incommunicado by the hack, how had Conor come to be aware that it was happening?
Bogo let out another snort; "And why didn't you tell me about this earlier?"
"I tried!" Tuft retorted, at last showing a little fire. "You've been blocking my phone calls, don't you remember?"
"Ahhh yes...uh, so I have," Bogo looked away, patting his hooves together and tempting Judy to pull out her cell-phone camera; you saw this animal looking embarrassed about as often as you saw a green sunset. She wouldn't have had time anyway; the Chief's discomfort lasted for only for about a second before it was gone. "But that wasn't the only reason for his call, I take it?" He was raising an eyebrow.
"No sir, it wasn't," Tufts responded in a near rush. "He called me because he thought I might have the kill codes for the servers, which I did, by the way." His whiskers twitched and tail flipped. "But I couldn't upload them remotely-not in the middle of a cyberattack-and I couldn't get into the precinct to try and upload them man..."
"You tried to get into Precinct-1...last NIGHT?" Judy spoke up for the first time since the squirrel's appearance, staring incredulously. "You're lucky you didn't end up in the ER, Lieutenant."
He only favored her with a toothy smirk.
"Well you know how it is, Hopps; when you're cute, it's pretty hard to be pegged for either a cop or a rioter." He was talking about his own species, not hers, and she took no offense; squirrels get that label at least as often as bunnies. It was one of the few things they had in common. "Anyway," he shrugged, "I just told anybody who asked that I was a dad, out looking for my kid. That pretty much did the trick."
"Huh, that was clever," Chief Bogo conceded from behind his desk. "But if YOU were unable to upload the kill codes remotely, how d'you know the Lewis boy did it, then?"
"Because when I got home this morning, I found out my home computer was in sleep mode." Tufts folded his arms and flipped his tail, "I was sure I turned it off before I left. So I checked and found out someone else had accessed the kill-codes after I was gone."
"Hmmm," Judy muttered stroking her chin, "Doesn't sound like the Conor Lewis I know; he'd never be that sloppy." She was playing the Devil's advocate. Tufts' computer had been hacked mere moments after he'd finished talking on his phone to the fugitive young silver fox. It was Conor all right, who else?
"Unless he wasn't being careless," the squirrel counted, cocking a finger, "Unless he left my computer that way on purpose. And that's exactly what I think he did; his way of making sure we'd know that he was the one who uploaded those kill-codes." He looked up at Bogo, "and to make sure that HE wouldn't be blamed for last night's cyberattack." His tail flipped a third time. "You won't know for certain whether it or not was him until the servers are back online, but facts are facts. That fox-kid had both the kill codes and the will to upload them; you should have heard him on the phone last night. " He spoke without either malice or self-importance...but Bogo winced as if he'd accidentally sat on a wasp.
"Mmmnnnggh...I s'pose I'll have to issue a retraction then," he grumbled, tossing a pen onto his desktop. He sounded not unlike a kid who knows it's his turn to take out the garbage.
Judy, however, had not yet come around, not completely.
"Why would he want to steal those codes; why didn't he just ask you for them?"
For the first time since he'd entered the office, Tufts assumed his familiar, arrogant appearance. His eyes narrowed and his lip curled into a superior smirk. And then he turned and looked upwards at Bogo. "I'll let the Chief answer that. Sir, if I'd come in here and told you that I'd voluntarily given those kill-codes to the Lewis boy-where would I be right now?"
"In a holding cell downstairs," Bogo snorted, regarding him with a frosty smile, "awaiting your arraignment."
"Ohhhh, right." Judy had never wanted so badly to give herself a face-pawlm. If Tufts hadn't been here, she would have. Hand over the kill codes to a wanted fugitive-yeah, riiiight. "And of course, Conor would have known that too," she said, hoping to pre-empt any further condescension on the Kaibab squirrel's part.
In another time and place, that might have been a necessary action. Not today; he simply nodded and looked up at Bogo again.
"That's pretty much all I have, Chief. If you want me to bring in my home computer for analysis, I'll be happy to comply. Errr, Hopps, can you get the door for me?"
"Just a moment there, both of you," Bogo interrupted. He slid open a desk drawer, and extracted a small, rounded object which he flipped through the air like a coin.
Tufts caught it nimbly, and only then was Judy able to make it out for what it was-a police badge. She felt her ears go back but said nothing.
"In light of current events," the big Cape buffalo intoned gravely, "and with the understanding that, at the present time, the ZPD is seriously short-staffed, I have made the decision to temporarily-temporarily-reinstate you as an officer of the Zootopia Police Department." Before either the squirrel or Judy could react, Bogo leaned across his desk, aiming a finger like a thunderbolt. "But hear ME out, Lieutenant; you make another blunder like that last one and I won't just have your badge, I'll have your tail for a dishrag. And no, I'm not canceling your disciplinary hearing, I'm only postponing it-although how well you perform going forward will have a bearing on how it turns out." He withdrew the finger, replacing it with a glowering face, "Am I making myself quite clear?"
"Perfectly sir," the Kaibab squirrel answered. His tail was shivering like a whip-antenna in an earthquake.
"Good," Bogo sat back in his chair and pointed again-first at his workstation, and then at the door. "Priority number one; get that computer back online! I want it up and running yesterday, understand? And yes, I DO want you to bring in your home computer for analysis....no, wait, I need you here. Never mind...leave your keys at the reception desk on your way down to the server room. I'll have Clawhauser send someone to go and fetch it."
"Yes, sir," the squirrel answered quickly, "I'll get on it right away. Errr, Hopps can you get the door now?"
"May I ask you something first?' she said, struggling to keep the tension out of her voice...and her ears from laying back again. "Why, Lieutenant? Why would you, of all mammals, come to Conor Lewis's defense? I thought you couldn't stand that fox-kid."
"That's right, I can't," he admitted with his tail flipping. "It'd make my life to see that little troublemaker put away for the next ten years." His expression muted slightly. "But there's something else I despise even more than him; remember what they taught us, back at the Academy? 'Every time an innocent mammal goes to jail...'"
"'...A guilty one gets away with it.'" Both Judy and Bogo capped the line.
"Right," Tufts chittered, clenching his paws into knots, "And the last thing I want, in this life or the next, is for whoever DID hit us with that cyberattack to take a walk!"
He gestured towards the door again, and this time there were no interruptions.
When Judy turned around after letting it close, she saw Bogo regarding her with a raised eyebrow.
"You don't approve of my action, Hopps?"
She was more than ready for that one. "Yes sir...and no. I don't disapprove of your decision; in your place, I'd have probably done the same thing."
"But...?" his eyebrow arced up even higher.
Now, at last, Judy let her ears pull backwards. "But that doesn't mean I have to like it, sir. If Lieutenant Tufts hadn't tried to coerce the Lewis boy into giving himself up the way he did, my sister Erin would be home in Bunnyburrow right now, celebrating her acceptance into the Performing Arts Academy with her friends." Her foot began to thump; she didn't try to stop it. "And that riot and that cyberattack would probably never have happened."
For a second, she wondered if she'd gone too far...but Bogo only pursed his lips polishing his knuckles with his other hoof. "For what it's worth, Hopps, I don't like it any more than you. Councilmember Nizhang's probably going to have a conniption when she hears about it...and I can hardly blame her." He spread his hooves and fell back in his chair. "But there it is; until we can get that computer back online, we're flying blind, deaf, and dumb. And Lieutenant Tufts is still the best animal we've got for helping to make that happen."
Once again Judy could only nod dumbly...only this time without any feelings of contrition.
Then her cell-phone began to buzz again.
Had the moment not been getting awkward, she probably wouldn't have taken the call...but it was and so she pulled her phone from its holder without thinking-or even looking at the screen.
"This Ju.... Nick? Nick, what are you doing? You know we're not supposed to... Nick, this isn't a good ti...WHAT? You're kidding. You're not kidding... How did you ever find...? Oh, my God, are you sure? Mmmmm...yes...yes. No need; I'm here with Chief Bogo right now. Just a second," She stood up on her chair, holding her cell out in his direction. "Sir...I-I-I think you're going to want to hear this."