Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

He should have known right away from the cadence of the knock at his door that trouble was about to enter, but Police Chief Idris Bogo never was one to allow a little trouble to get the better of him.

Of course, it wasn’t a little trouble that ducked into his office at his invitation. Bogo was not a small mammal by any means, but the bull elk standing now just within the threshold looked like he could meet both the chief’s eyes and his horns without any discernible effort. His ears swept low while his chest puffed up and out.

“Tony,” he said plainly as he stood from his desk. “What a surprise. To what do I owe the pleasure today?”

His solid, muscular torso filled in the dark, crisp tailored suit that he wore. A peppering of gray about his temples alluded to age and experience, both of which he certainly had in spades. The broad rack of twelve points on his crown were polished and somewhat whetted at the prongs. A bit sharper tips than natural. But that was Antonio Staggno. Sharp. Precise. A cut above.

And he knew it.

Antonio closed the door and pulled his lips into a thin sort of smile that didn’t contain even a hint of humor in it. “Just stumping for last minute support among my friends.”

Bogo snorted at the obvious ego stroking. “The polls have you in the lead by a furlong, so you hardly need any additional support from me.”

“Nonsense, Idris!” In two long, quick strides the bull elk was at the desk and thrust a hoof out to the chief. Antonio’s smile turned almost predatory when Bogo took the proffered limb. “One can never have too many friends, especially in positions like ours.”

Bogo indicated the seat across from his desk and began to again take his own, but Antonio didn’t sit as he was offered. He cast cool, storm-gray eyes around Bogo’s workspace. Eyes that observed, assessed… judged. Bogo straightened himself up and instead took a step around the side of his desk.

Antonio tilted his head in what only slightly might pass for amusement as he considered the display of accolades on the wall to the left of the door. “I wonder if you’ve thought about what we discussed at dinner last week at all,” he said before turning to face the chief fully.

Bogo stifled the snort that threatened to escape his nose. “We didn't discuss anything; you dropped a bombshell proposal on me during dessert without giving me a chance to talk. You seem to forget I was the ringer on your debate team before I graduated. I know a rhetorical tactic when I see one.”

The elk chuckled. “Guilty as charged.” He turned his back to Bogo’s desk and leaned against it casually. “You’ll forgive me, I’m sure… I’m so used to fighting the City Council’s dogmatic attitudes that I sometimes forget that not every mammal is my opponent.” He crossed his arms over his chest and looked Bogo dead in the eyes. “It doesn’t change my question, though.”

The chief settled into an easy parade rest and met Staggno’s challenging gaze. “You can’t seriously expect me to turn on my officers as you’re suggesting I do.”

Antonio rolled his eyes. “Please, Idris, they’re hardly your officers, are they? They’re just the beneficiaries of Lionheart’s MII publicity stunt. A publicity stunt, I might add, that has worn out its novelty. Realistically, what has it gotten us? If you need to be reminded, I’ll tell you.” He stood away from the desk and threw his arms wide in unusually dramatic fashion. “A country bunny that nearly started a race war and a fox in uniform.”

“Careful.” Bogo’s voice took on a low tone, the singular word wrapped in warning as he tipped his horns towards the elk instinctively.

Antonio seemed unconcerned with the change in the chief’s stance and continued, pointing a hoof at the great cape buffalo as he did so. “I have taken particular care on this, I assure you. The only other mammal to even apply under the MII was a raccoon sponsored by Officer Wilde. Nearly every focus group and poll I’ve consulted indicates the public thinks the ZPD is being handed over to criminals.”

He brought his hoof to the burgundy silk tie at his throat and worried the Windsor knot for a moment. A long breath drew in through flared nostrils.

“We need a change,” Antonio said as he smoothed the tie down and then slipped his hooves into his pockets. “We need to shed the dead-weight of Lionheart and Bellwether’s misbegotten ideologies.”

“I wouldn’t include the MII amongst their misbegotten ideologies.” Chief Bogo crossed his arms over his barrel chest, feet planted as solidly as if they were rooted in the carpet. “Hopps and Wilde have both more than demonstrated their merit to the only mammals whose opinions I care about.”

Antonio blinked, although his perfectly neutral expression didn’t change at all. “It doesn’t sound like you’re including me amongst those mammals.”

If he was fishing for Bogo to reverse or amend his prior statement, the stalwart old bull seemed unwilling to take the bait. The elk sighed.

“Stubborn, as always.” Antonio smiled a sort of sad smile. “I want to work with you, Idris. I want you to work with me. We did work so well as a team, after all.” He took a step toward Bogo with one insistent hoof turned out toward him, a gesture of solidarity. “Just ditch the small fries and let’s get back to fixing this city. Together.”

“We can’t ‘get back to fixing this city’ by backsliding on issues like equality, Tony.” Bogo ignored the offered hoof and allowed a harsh snort to escape his nose. “And that’s the final word I care to have with you about this subject. You have my answer.”

Antonio held his stance for a moment before he clenched his fist and lowered it to his side. He shook his head slightly. “It would be unwise to oppose me on this. Wallace and I are shoe-ins for Mayor and Assistant Mayor, but to make any headway in cleaning out the entrenched old-guard we have to discredit and repeal any policies the lion and lamb backed. That includes the MII, and also,” he added with a significant look, “your appointment as Chief of Police, if that’s what it takes.”

Bogo’s eyes hardened at the implicit threat. “I’ll keep that in mind.” He turned his back on the elk and walked behind his desk. “Now, if you’ll please excuse me,” he said as he settled into his chair and gestured at the multiple documents scattered about the desktop. “As you can see, I have a lot of work to do.”

Antonio stiffened, his face darkening a shade at the dismissal before resuming its cool, composed expression once more.

“Yes, it seems so.” He turned his back and commented without looking at the chief, “Very important work, no doubt.” He threw a half wave over his shoulder as he opened the door and stepped into the atrium. “Be seeing you again soon.”

<… this office took a mammoth-sized step back from greatness recently, but as your mayor I assure you that I am committed to moving our great city forward to a brighter future. Fraud and deceit will no longer have any refuge in City Hall. The time has come for transparency, to set a floodlight on all the dark corners where treachery has been hidden away. Any remaining corruption left from the prior administration will be rooted out. Justice will be swift. It will be certain. And that, my friends, is a promise.>

The tinny breakroom television’s speakers blared with the sounds of raucous, though indistinct, jubilation as Mayor Elect Antonio Staggno finished his acceptance speech. The election was almost a formality considering his landslide victory. The ZPD officers assembled around the circular table were only partially paying attention to the elk’s display of political showmamship, with the exception of Officer Judy Hopps. She was standing up on the seat of her oversized chair, paws grasping the chair back and fluffy cotton tail twitching periodically throughout the speech. Her expression was one of barely contained excitement.

Nick flicked his partner’s tail and gave her an indulgent huff. “You grin any wider and you’re gonna sprain something.”

“Oh, come on, Nick.” Judy’s exultant smile took a short respite, and she wrinkled her nose as she turned to face him. “You can’t say this isn’t good for the city. Mammals have been on edge ever since Councilmammal Canidae stepped in as Interim Mayor. She’s good enough at the job, but the citizens didn’t elect her to the office and knew she was a stand-in until the general elections. Now we have a properly elected Mayor. You’ve already felt it out there.” She gestured to the front of the building and the city beyond. “You said so yourself last week: the people didn’t have a sense of permanence about the office. Well, now they do.” She turned back to the television and her tail twitched again. “It’s also nice to hear he’s going after corruption in City Hall.”

Nick shrugged. “That’s not really surprising.” Judy grinned at his almost non-pessimistic comment. “There isn’t a politician alive that doesn’t promise to ‘crack down on corruption’ or ‘drain the swamp’ at one point or another.” He made air quotes with his paws as he spoke. “Only the truly corrupt mammals would be upset by that kind of talk.”

Judy slumped in frustration. “Are you incapable of seeing the positive in this? We have a new mayor; that’s a good thing!”

Nick nodded while looking at the television. “Too true, too true. If we didn’t have a new mayor for you to depose for corruption or collusion, you’d have a conniption. Plus, what would I do with the scrapbook I’m making for you?” He smirked at his partner’s confounded expression. “Yeah, it’s gonna have big pages so you can have the candidates’ campaign bumper stickers and buttons and whatnot, and then on the facing page will be their mugshots and arrest reports. It’ll be a great keepsake for your family to pass down to future generations.”

Judy sputtered for a moment. “You aren’t making that scrapbook.” She frowned as the smirk on his muzzle deepened. “Let me rephrase: you’d better not be making that scrapbook or I’ll open it to Dawn and bludgeon you senseless with her face.” Nearly the entire breakroom started choking on their coffee while laughing. “I bet you’re just annoyed all your contacts in City Hall are going to vanish once Mayor Staggno roots them out.”

Nick visibly shivered. “Deals with City Hall? No thanks; the things they want in exchange for favors, blech. A loveable scamp I may have been, but I’m no villain.” 

“Ahem.”

The harsh, grating sound Officer Fangmeyer made caused the two bickering partners’ ears to lay flat back in a hurry as they turned their attention to her. Her expression remained neutral but her eyes were so stony serious that there was no possibility of looking away from them.

“Questionable conversation topic aside,” she said as she raised her coffee mug up, “you should take the changes in the political landscape a bit more seriously, Probie.” 

Nick’s ear flicked. It was a less than gentle reminder that he was still within the probation period, and would be for a while yet. 

“Shifts in City Hall trickle down to the ZPD,” Nadine continued. “Maybe it won’t mean anything for your status with the force, but maybe it will. You’d do well to pay attention to how the wind is blowing.”

Nick looked meaningfully at the television. “What’s one of those folksy sayings of yours, Hopps? ‘Ain’t no stopping a tornado’?” He looked back at his coworkers. “I’m fully aware of how vulnerable my position is right now. I’m equally aware that the only thing I can do at this point is to keep my head down and my snout clean, if for no other reason than I don’t want any political backsplash landing on Billy; he’s only got a few more months in the academy, and he can’t afford any distractions.”

The news program moved on to an abbreviated biography showcasing Antonio Staggno’s political accomplishments and history within Zootopia’s government since his graduation from Barkley Law. Judy’s ears sprung up.

“Barkley Law? Didn’t Chief Bogo graduate from there, too?”

“Sure did.” Lieutenant Higgins said, and ran his hoof around the rim of his mug. “They were in the same class, also. Thick as thieves back then, the two of them.”

Judy leaned over and backpawed Nick in the shoulder. “There, see? I bet Chief is thrilled to have someone he’s on friendly terms with in City Hall. They’ll really get things back on track working together, for sure.”

Higgins drained the last of the dregs from his cup and set it back on the table. “Having the Mayor’s ear can only be a good thing for the ZPD. At the very least, Chief should see less resistance from the Council on matters that affect the force.”

The rest of the veteran officers nodded in agreement as they rose to leave, break now officially done with. It certainly seemed that with this new addition to City Hall there were better days ahead for the city of Zootopia in general, and their own little corner of it specifically. Change was coming and they hoped, with cautious and fragile optimism, that it would be a change for the better, as all mammals do in trying times.

<…Any remaining corruption left from the prior administration will be rooted out. Justice will be swift.>

The cell phone speakers weren’t turned up terribly high, but Chief Bogo felt his ears ringing from the words that emanated from them. Antonio Staggno’s voice was bolstered by the sound system surrounding the stage, but he imagined it would have carried even without the additional aid.

<It will be certain.>

The elk’s eyes had been moving about the crowd—a standard public speaking tactic—but at that moment he leveled his gaze straight ahead, as though looking right through the camera, through the screen, and meeting Bogo’s head on. His nose dipped, and prongs tilted forward.

<And that, my friends, is a promise.>

Chief Bogo snorted and turned his cell phone off once more.

Ready when you are.

Chapter Text

“…and the last thing we need is accusations of species favoritism, so Francine and McHorn will be on security for the Pride Pride Rally at Unity park.” Bogo looked at the two megafauna over the rim of his glasses. They snapped to attention and headed out to the lobby where Clawhauser’s slightly raised voice could be heard. 

“Hopps.” Judy focused her attention on the Chief. “Bellwether’s case has been bumped to the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, so the State Attorney General’s office has asked for you to give a second deposition. They’re coming here for that today, so you’re on desk duty until they arrive. Wilde.” Judy flagged slightly while Nick perked up. “I don’t need both of you under hoof, and the DPW has requested traffic direction for their work crews in Hyenahurst…”

Nick smiled and gave a Scout Salute. “Got it Boss-mam: living traffic-cone duty.”

There was a round of chuckles even as the buffalo gave Nick an arch look. “I realize this may be difficult, but do attempt to rein in the tomfoolery for at least one day.”

There was an additional course of snickers, which immediately sizzled beneath the Chief’s heated glare. “Moving on, then,” he said pointedly, and flipped a page of his agenda on the podium up to glance at. “The newly elected Mayor has already appointed the new DA, which, in addition to everything else, means all our current forms and processes are being updated with his new contact information. Once the changes are finalized, please make sure any templates you have are updated and any old forms are immediately…”

His words trailed off and attention shifted to the door as Clawhauser’s frantic voice was heard outside. “Sir, you can’t just barge in—!”

“I’m the duly elected Mayor of this city.” The door was thrown open as Mayor Antonio Staggno dramatically swept in. “It will be a dark day when I am barred entry to my own police department.” He was followed by a tan and white painted mustang with a closely cut mane and eager expression on his face. A red wolf in a neatly fitted, but clearly off-the-shelf, business suit entered just behind him and immediately crossed her arms. Chief Bogo’s mildly surprised expression didn’t stick around for more than a second before he assumed a more carefully neutral one.

Already getting into it, then? he thought as the elk met his eyes with just a ghost of a smile playing on his lips.

“S-sorry, Chief,” Clawhauser wheezed, doubled over with his paws on his knees. “Mayor Staggno… here to see you…”

“Yes, I can see that. Thank you, Clawhauser.” He waved at the cheetah in a gesture of dismissal, and his officer nodded once and backed out of the room again slowly, closing the door behind him. “Speak of the devil and he shall appear, it seems.”

The three stood at the front of the Bullpen gazing out at the shocked faces of the shift. Antonio’s eyes settled onto Hopps and Wilde before he turned to look sidelong at Bogo. “Really Idris; you have them sharing a seat like a pair of children?” 

Judy’s ears drooped at the remark; beside her, Nick’s tail bristled. “Oh, no sir, it’s not like that,” she began with a feeble smile. “We’re… this is a preference, not a—”

The Chief snapped his hooves in her general direction and she abandoned explaining any further. Bogo maintained a hooded look at Staggno and his entourage. 

“Mr. Mayor, I’m sure I don’t need to remind you that this is a secure area and that entering unannounced stands to compromise ongoing investigations.”

The elk chuckled. “Indeed you don’t. I’m more than aware.”

“Then kindly state the reason you’re here before I have the Lieutenant escort you and your associates down to holding for this breach in protocol.”

His attention shifted to the stallion, who wilted slightly at the censure. The air in the room turned thick and heated; the officers witnessing the exchange held their breath. There was no movement from any of them as they waited to see how it would play out, none of them wanting to draw attention from the mammals at the front of the room.

Mayor Staggno maintained a steady gaze on the chief and smirked. “I hardly think that will be necessary. Truth be told, the reason for my impromptu visit is that I have a matter to discuss that simply cannot wait for the usual courtesies.” His smile deepened unkindly. “You understand, I’m sure, busy mammal that you are.”

Chief Bogo snorted. A tense few seconds passed, and then he said, “Normal patrols for the rest of you. Dismissed.”

The officers all moved to the exits with more haste than usual. Both Nick and Judy made themselves smaller than usual as they attempted to skirt around the immediate vicinity of the confrontation that was slowly building between the larger mammals at the front of the room.

They didn’t get far.

“Officer Hopps.” She froze mid stride; the words had the same kind of force as a bullet, though Mayor Staggno’s face didn’t seem to hold any malice in it when he turned toward her. “I wonder if you might join us for a few minutes.”

Judy rolled her shoulders and stood as tall as she was able, scraping together some small bit of confidence to bolster her words. The fur on the back of her neck stood on end as she regarded the other mammals also present. “Am I being reprimanded for something I’ve done, sir?”

The Mayor laughed lightly. “Oh, no no… no, it’s nothing you’ve done.” His laughter died on his lips when he realized that there was one more officer present than he wanted. Nick wasn’t exactly being conspicuous about hanging around, though the expression on his face was far from its usual smugness, eyes instead sharp and assessing. The elk tilted his head with just the slightest hint of irritation. “Your company won’t be needed for this conversation, Officer Wilde.”

A cheeky smirk rose to replace the piercing look he’d had on previously as he stepped up beside and just behind his partner. He placed a paw on her shoulder and said, “Ah, but as you’ve seen for yourself, sir… we’re something of a package deal. If my partner will be playing ball here with you fine mammals, I’ll join in the game, as well.”

Mayor Staggno’s grimace deepened. “I wasn’t making a suggestion. Please leave now.”

“Wilde.” Chief Bogo didn’t usually speak softly, but there was an earnestness in his voice. He nodded at the door. “You have your assignment. Attend to it.”

For a few seconds there was no change in the fox’s expression or stance except for the very subtle shift of his eyes. They turned down for a sideways glance, deferring to the mammal whose authority he held above all those present before him. The gentle squeeze he gave her shoulder probably wasn’t noticeable to anyone else besides Judy, but was all the conversation they needed. She gave the slightest shake of her head, and he tucked his paws behind his back with a gracious bow forward.

“Yes sir, Chief Bogo, sir.” Head high and gait made of nothing but swagger, he wove between them to the door. “Pleasure meeting you, Mr. Mayor.”

The fox slipped through the cracked door and let it fall closed behind him with a mild click.

Chief Bogo crossed his arms and gave a gruff snort at Mayor Staggno. “You’ve disrupted my briefing and are impeding my officer from fulfilling her duties. I would appreciate it if you would cut to the chase and say what this is all about now.”

“With pleasure.” Mayor Staggno waved his hoof behind him and stood aside as the two other mammals stepped forward. 

Reginald Pranceton, Esq., the city Policemam’s Union mustang lawyer, all but trotted forward and thrust out a manilla brief. “I’ve been waiting a decade for this, Chief. On behalf of Officer Judy Hopps and the Zootopian Policemam’s Local Number 1021, you are hereby served for gross negligence, abuse of authority, and reckless endangerment of an officer under your command.”

Judy jerked at the announcement. “Whoa, wait just a minute…” She turned immediately to Bogo, an almost apologetic expression on her face. “I never put in a grievance for any of that, Chief, I swear.”

Staggno cast a sympathetic look at the doe. “You didn’t need to, Officer Hopps. Your treatment during your first days with the ZPD is no secret and it’s a miscarriage of justice that it’s taken so long for proper action to be taken regarding the matter.”

The unknown predator stepped forward in front of the dumbstruck Judy. “Danielle New Moon, Animalian Civil Liberties Union. Officer Hopps, I want you to know that we’ll be handling your case with the utmost sensitivity and propriety.” She cast a hard glare aside at Bogo. “Something your superior here has withheld in clear misuse of his position as Chief of Police.”

Bogo looked up from the paperwork between his hooves to meet her toxic look head on. The space between their eyes all but crackled with tension. Rather than address the statement she made, he closed the folder with a light snap and tucked it under one arm. He threw the staring contest a moment after, turning his slowly softening face down to regard his horrified officer. Judy’s eyes were wide, almost pleading, and she gave a slow shake of her head in disbelief of what was happening. The words he most wanted to say to her then would have damned him and handed the victory to his adversaries, so he chose instead to only shrug slightly, and then rolled his shoulders back for combat once more.

“Do you need my officer to be present for anything else, then?” he asked, his voice taking on a gruff and low harshness that even Officer Hopps hadn’t heard before. “Or will you allow her to see to her very vital work now?”

Danielle stooped down and put her paws on Judy’s shoulders, an act of comfort for the apparently panicking rabbit. “Now, I don’t want you to be worried for your position. That’s why I’m here. Any perceived unfavorable treatment while this all resolves—anything at all, by anyone—you let me know immediately and I’ll handle it. You should not be made uncomfortable in your place of work by your colleagues.” Another hot glance was thrown Bogo’s way. “Or your commanding officer.”

Judy blinked and gave a single dull nod down at the ground in response. The wolf released her, pressed a small business card into Judy’s paw, and then stepped back beside the mayor once more. Judy clenched her paw around it and gave a respectful look up at her chief. 

“As you have nothing else of substance for my officer—” Bogo fixed his gaze on Staggno. “—then I would suggest we release her back to her duties. Officer Hopps.” He shifted his gaze to Judy for a moment. “You are dismissed.”

Judy gathered herself up to her full height and gave Bogo a parade-ground salute before turning to leave. The steps she took to the door dragged, weighed down with reluctance. She gave Bogo a final, pointed glance as she pried the door open and was gone.

The innocent bystander finally out of the way, Bogo fixed the sum of his intent on his opponents. “Now that we’re past this little bit of theater—” Danielle visibly bristled at the comment. “—I imagine you all can see yourselves out of my station, yes?”

Pranceton gave Bogo a harsh glare, but did turn on his hooves and headed for the door. Danielle gave a parting huff of her own in the chief’s general direction as she followed, and said, “We’ll be in touch,” as she closed the door behind her.

“Now then, why don’t we get down to brass tacks?” Bogo said, and pointed at Staggno with the folder. “What are you here for, Mr. Mayor?”

Staggno gestured to the manilla folder in Bogo’s hoof. “You have two options, Idris. Resignation, with full forfeiture of your pension is the first. The easiest, least humiliating option, in my opinion.”

“Or?” Bogo gritted out.

Staggno gave a vicious grin. “Or, if you’re keen to get dragged through a court case you will most assuredly lose, that is also your prerogative.”

The Chief chewed on his next words thoroughly and cast a glance at the folder once more. It wasn’t the move that he was expecting to come from the elk standing in front of him, but he couldn’t deny its effectiveness. The case wasn’t unfounded, and if it were anyone else bringing this to light at any other time for any other reason, he very well may have taken option number one. As Chief of Police, as a citizen of Zootopia, and as a role model to the mammals of the city he swore to protect, it was part of his duty to act in an exemplary manner. In that regard, last year he had failed. Owning up to it without spending the city’s time and money in the courts—to fall on his sword, as it were—would have been the proper thing to do.

But stepping down and out of the way meant his officers would see the full brunt of the Mayor’s intentions. The dismantling of the MII, the very law that ensured their employment, their work… and that wasn’t something that he would just roll over and accept. No, Bogo knew he couldn’t simply fade into the background; even if the case disgraced him, it would buy him and his officers the time they would need to rally against whatever Tony had planned. If Chief Bogo was going down, then he’d do so fighting. He squared his shoulders, tilted his head down and snorted a challenge.

Staggno shrugged and turned to leave. “Alright, then. Your funeral.”

Chapter Text

The work crews in Hyenahurst made record time that day, and Nick managed to get back to the precinct house at noon. The largely repetitive task had allowed him ample opportunity to ruminate on the morning’s events. Reggie Pranceton’s decade long feud with Chief Bogo was the stuff of watercooler legend, but he was stymied by the red wolf. He prided himself on his ability to read mammals, and to remember important ones. The red wolf from earlier was important, not just self-important, but he couldn’t place her. Based on the mean-mugging she had been giving Bogo, he guessed she had at least as big a bone to pick as the Union Rep. Mayor Staggno leading them into the precinct as publicly as he did smacked of a power-play. Lastly was their singling out and sequestering Hopps; Fangmeyer’s words from earlier that week rang in his memory like a church bell. He needed to get together with Judy and figure out how they were going to weather this political storm.

He found Judy in their shared cubicle staring listlessly at a card in her paw, her ears loosely hanging behind her. Nick immediately pinned his back as he sat in his chair.

“So… just how bad are we talking?”

Judy winced, and handed the card to him as she quickly broke down the conversation she had been pulled into that morning.

“… and that’s the card that the ACLU rep gave me at the end of it all.” She scrubbed her paws over her face and gave a grating groan of aggravation. “Can’t I just refuse the whole case? Isn’t it too old at this point, even? Why is this coming up now? I don’t even care and now Chief’s…” She cast him a miserable look. “What can we do?”

Nick gritted his teeth at what he was about to say; what he was about to tell his friend and partner to do. He knew the city would eventually grind the polish off of her rose-tinted view of the world, but he didn’t expect it to be the very institution she worked for that would do it. “We hunker down and wait it out.”

Judy jerked back, as though his very words had struck her in the face. “What?! We can’t just let this happen, Nick! It’s wrong, and unjust, and—”

“And entirely legal.” Nick locked eyes with her, unwilling to leave her emotionally alone. “This isn’t ‘Ewey, Shrewem and Howl, Ambulance Chasers at Law’ coming after the Chief.” He held the card up between two digits of his paw. “The ACLU is going after him, and if Pranceton was any indication so is the Policemam’s Local. You’re going to be insulated from the worst of this, since they’re doing it ‘on your behalf’, but you know how the courts can be; they can and will compel testimony to make their case.” His heart broke a little at the pain in his friend’s eyes. “If you’re cooperative, they won’t… shouldn’t try the ‘hostile witness’ route, and that may give you some leeway to keep them from painting him as a monster.”

“He isn’t one.” Her face turned fierce, eyes bright with a fire building in them. “Why is Mayor Staggno doing this, anyway? They’re supposed to be friends!”

Nick let his head tip back and rubbed his neck. “Campaign promises? Shadow Ministers whispering in his ear? Maybe Bogo owes him money from highschool? Who knows?” He looked back at Judy. “But it’s happening, and that’s what we have to deal with right now.” He slipped the card back into her paw and gave it a tap. “You already have an ‘in’ with the ACLU: she wants to help you, so use that. Work her to your advantage.”

Judy grimaced in distaste but nodded. “Alright. And what will you be doing?”

Nick huffed. “Keeping my head down and my nose clean.” He held up a digit before she could speak. “You saw how the Mayor and his posse were in there earlier when I tried to stay; Staggno all but chased me out with a whip and Pranceton and this ‘New-Moon’ didn’t say boo about it. I’m obviously not under their umbrella of protection. I make too many waves, and I may find myself sunk.”

Judy puffed her cheeks in indignation. “So you’re just going to tuck your tail and cower, then?”

Nick sagged. “It may be selfish but this—” He gestured to the precinct as a whole. “—is my shot, my one shot at a better life, or any life at all really. I screw this up and get fired, then I’ll probably have to leave the city for good.”

His partner’s ears sank and she dropped her head to stare at the floor. After a brief pause, she straightened her back and assumed a face of stubborn determination.

“Alright,” she agreed, and tucked the card in her pocket. “Some nice, innocuous info gathering first, then. A few harmless questions about what’s turning the gears shouldn’t cause too many waves, right?”

Nick grimaced. “Yeah… right.”

“Yes, I’ll just have to take tomorrow off so we can work on this.” Bogo rested his heavy head against his fist as he spoke on the phone. “I’m not a fool; I don’t think there’s a chance of winning, but Tony’s out for blood, and I just happen to be between him and his choice of prey. We should focus on damage control and mitigation. Let this come out and give folks closure. Maybe it’ll take some of the wind out of his sails and buy my officers some time. Anyway, I’ll be in by 8:15 tomorrow.”

He hung up and buzzed the reception desk. “Clawhauser, page Lieutenant Higgins and have him come up, please.”

<Yes, sir,> was the cheetah’s immediate response. <Right away, sir.>

“Thank you.” The Chief rubbed his weary, screen-strained eyes. What a nightmare this is about to become. He was jolted out of his ruminations by a knock at his door. “Come in.”

Higgins poked his head into the cracked door at the invitation. “Chief, you wanted to see me?”

“I did, Bill, yes,” Bogo said and indicated the chair across from his desk. “Have a seat, please.” The hippo was momentarily stunned to immobility by the familiarity before taking the proffered seat. “I’ll need you to cover down on command for the next couple of days.” He paused and added, “Maybe longer.”

Higgins laid his ears back. “Does this have to do with… the Mayor’s visit earlier?”

The Chief pulled his lips back into a grimace that was at least partially a smile; that was his second in command: quick to put the pieces together. He gave Higgins a quick rundown of the morning’s events, as well as his meeting with Staggno weeks earlier. His officer listened, nodding occasionally but saying nothing.

Higgins gave a single dull nod. His nostrils flared and expression hardened. “Sir, can I speak freely?”

“I wish you would.”

“What are you doing?” He rose from the chair and punched both hooves into the desk as he leaned over it. “Locking horns with the Mayor? Throwing your years with the force away… for a couple of rookies?” He shook his head hard. “If that’s all he wants, just get out of his way.”

Bogo thumped a hoof on the desk. “That’s not all he wants, Bill! He wants to undo the MII to discredit his political opponents, not because it’s good for the city.” The buffalo leaned back in his chair and stared up at the ceiling. “He’s going to ruin lives and chances for thousands, if not millions of mammals because it will get him more power.” 

He leaned forward and looked at his longest serving officer and friend. “If I cave in—if I let this little evil slide to protect my own hide—then my oath to ‘Serve and Protect’ is nothing more than empty words.

“I’ll need you to keep things status quo here while this all resolves, whatever that may mean.” Bogo tapped an emphatic hoof on his desk. “Keep the rumor mill from grinding everyone’s brains to mush. They need to keep focused on their work, not running their mouths about me. Clear?”

Higgins gave a hard glare before folding forward slightly; he deflated like the air had just been let out of him. His hoof came up to rub his temple. “Not one of your officers would want this. Even Hopps—”

“I said rumor control, Bill.” The Chief locked eyes with him. “Especially Hopps and Wilde. Keep them as low profile as you can.”

Higgins snorted. “Yeah, I get it… she’ll go off half-cocked like usual and make a mess of everything.”

“Glad we’re on the same page.” Bogo smiled, though it looked like it hurt his face. “Any questions about your assignment?”

“No, sir.” Higgins straightened himself back up at attention. “I won’t let you down, Chief.”

“You never have before, so I don’t expect you to start now.” Bogo stood with a grunt and leaned over his desk to shake hooves with the lieutenant. “A pleasure as always, Bill.”

Higgins nodded and swallowed hard. He turned to leave with a sinking feeling in his gut that somewhere at the end of that sentence there was an unspoken ‘goodbye,’ and he had no desire to return it.

Chapter Text

Antonio Staggno entered his office, feet dragging wearily. “Aggie, I’m back.” 

Agnes Cutter looked up from her desk adjacent to the Mayor’s office. She quirked her ears at the resignation in his voice. “Meeting with Bogo not go how you wanted?” she inquired.

“No, but it went about how I expected.” He slumped into his chair and rubbed his eyes with one hoof. Something cold was thrust into the other, and when the spots cleared there was a water bottle ready for his parched lips. The quick cheetah was already back at her desk by the time he cracked it open for a swig. “The old bull’s going to fight it the whole way.”

She began closing files on her computer and pulled out a tablet. “You knew you were likely going to have to face off against him. You can’t keep friends with this kind of campaign.”

Tony snorted. “This isn’t about ‘camaraderie’ or ‘the Bro-code’; fighting Bogo is going to take time and resources, neither of which I can spare if I want to get the city back on track.” He leaned forward and locked eyes with his assistant. “Is it ready?”

She nodded and opened several files on her digital assistant. “I’ve coordinated with the ACLU’s press office for the formal announcement of charges, and I’ve already got three political analysts ready to go on ‘The Hamidy Report’ to talk up the possibility of Bogo tacitly supporting Bellwether’s agenda. A week from now, Bogo will be a household name; a month after that, saying it in public will be a punishable offense.” Her tail swayed lazily in satisfaction. “What about Reggie? I know you brought him on to counter Bogo, but this is all about revenge and opportunism for him. Smart money says, push comes to shove, he’ll sell out.”

“Do we have the recordings of our negotiations?” Aggie looked up with an ‘are you serious’ glare and Tony chuckled lightly. “Of course, pardon me, what was I thinking. Then we have all the leverage we need on him. Focus on the existing problems and worry about ‘what if’s’ later.”

The cheetah’s ears folded back on her head. “I’m pretty sure Cudster thought the same thing right before Little BigHorn. We know how that turned out.”

“Cudster didn’t have you planning his campaigns.” His face softened with a kind of fondness before he waved his hoof in her general direction. “Like I said focus on the now; where are we on swinging Council-mammals Canidae and Swinton...?”

The officers were tense at the morning brief; everyone had been unsettled by the Mayor’s intrusion the day before. That tension only increased when Lieutenant Higgins walked into the Bullpen carrying the day’s docket under his arm. 

“Everyone, at ease.” The command was a formality that he knew no one was going to obey. There was no being ‘at ease’ in that room right now.

There was a short silence, the obvious question on everyone’s tongues but no one brave enough (or foolish enough) to ask it. 

Well… almost no one.

Judy raised a paw. “Lieutenant, where’s the Chief?”

Higgins didn’t look up from the agenda in his hooves. “Chief is taking a personal day to attend to an urgent… situation that came up.” Several officers shuffled nervously in the room. “I will pass on the Chief’s last orders to me,” he said, wincing internally at his choice of words, “and remind you that no matter the circumstances, our duty is to Protect and Serve the law, and the citizens of this city. That is our first and only priority, so focus on your assigned duties.” He looked around the room while shaking the docket for all to see. “Let the Chief handle this business with the Union and City Hall.”

“Alone.” The statement fell heavy as a hammer, and Judy crossed her arms in defiance. “We’re just leaving him to this alone. He’s our Chief!”

Nick rested a paw on her shoulder. “Carrots, we talked about this, remember? The Policemam’s Local and the ACLU? City Hall and the Capital? Ringing a bell? This is way out of our weight class.”

She grit her teeth as she leveled a stern glare at her partner and friend. “I don’t care. It’s not right, and we all know it.”

“This is way above us, Judy. All we can do is let this play out and not get caught in the crossfire.”

Judy shrugged his paw off and thumped her paws on the desk. “Where’s the justice in that Nick?”

Lieutenant Higgins leveled a stare at the smallest officer. “We are the executors of the Law, Officer Hopps. Justice is the purview of the Courts, and like it or not,” Bill leaned tiredly on the podium, “…we must leave it in their capable hands.”  

When Chief Bogo wasn’t at roll-call the next morning either, Judy decided to take Miss New-Moon up on her offer and requested a quiet, informal meeting over dinner that night at the I-Hop off of Woolston Blvd. Whatever conclusions Danielle had come to about Bogo seemed at least slightly off base, so Judy figured at the worst she could paint him in a better light for whatever proceedings were ahead. Nick supplied her with a few questions he was hoping for answers to, as well. As soon as their shift ended, she donned a pair of jeans and light T-shirt, then headed to the restaurant.

As a fairly frequent patron, Judy knew most of the staff by name. The hostess set her in the large booth at the far back corner near one of the television screens. The little gray bundle of nerves sat, talked herself away from the slowly building heart attack in her chest, and waited.

She didn’t have to wait long.

The prim red wolf walked in and was guided to Judy’s booth in short order. She sat as the waitress set down two glasses of water with the menus and moved on to one of her other tables.

Danielle opened the menu absently with a cool smile at Judy. “Thank you for meeting with me so early on, Ms. Hopps. I know this is a trying time for you.”

Judy nodded. “I’ve already ordered, so go ahead and get what you like. My partner swears by the Chicken and Waffles.” She sat back and crossed her arms as her expression hardened. “He’s the fox, by the way. The one you let be chased off like a thug.”

Danielle’s ears flagged slightly, though her patient smile didn’t change. “It didn’t seem to be in your best interests to have an audience of your peers, but I admit that wasn’t exactly handled well. I’d like the opportunity to personally apologize for how he was treated.” She circled a finger around the rim of her water glass. “What would you suggest? I don’t wish to offend any further.”

Judy’s expression softened slightly. “My suggestion? Something formal to demonstrate real contrition, and something else with blueberries as a peace offering.” She grinned slightly at the wolf’s puzzled expression. “He really likes blueberries.”

Danielle twitched an ear in curiosity. “I’ll keep that in mind.” She set her paws on the table. “On to the matter at paw; I would like to establish what we will actually be doing for one another in the near term as far as your case is concerned.”

Judy’s features hardened again. “I haven’t filed any charges so it can hardly be called ‘my case’ now, can it?”

“It’s on your behalf.” The she-wolf looked at the rabbit across from her. “More importantly, it is for future generations of officers. The discrimination you faced in those first few days on the force is nothing short of a grotesque abuse of power. You and your future partner were on several occasions placed in harm’s way due to negligent management, poor equipment, and the outright denial of basic law enforcement resources.” Danielle ticked digits as she made each point. “Case in point: did you or did you not have to resort to requesting the license registry information in the Otterton case from a DMV employee?” At Judy’s hesitant nod, she laid her own paws on the table. “Was that because you could get the information faster that way, or because you were sent out on assignment without even the basic systems access?”

As Judy's ears began to flag, Danielle pressed her advantage. “This is just one example of the systemic discrimination that Zootopian politics and government has been plagued with for decades. It needs to be confronted, and it has to start somewhere. Even if it’s a long shot, we have to change the system to make it better for everyone. In this case, change starts with you.”

The end of her statement rang like an echo in Judy’s ears, not the voice of Danielle New Moon but of Officer Judith Laverne Hopps. She bristled slightly at having her own words used to impune her Chief. “This isn’t the case to start with.” Judy sat up straighter and leaned over the table as though bracing against the arguments that the wolf had fired at her. “Chief Bogo isn’t the mammal to tar and feather, and drag through the street as an example. He’s not bad for the city, but running him out of the ZPD would be.”

Danielle withdrew her paws slightly. “It may not be the first case that needs addressing, but it is the first case to be presented to my office, and I cannot ignore it.”

“Who presented it to your office?” Judy took the opportunity to pose the question Nick wanted an answer to. “Not me.”

Danielle huffed slightly at Judy’s sudden change of tack. “If you must know, the case was put forward by Mr. Pranceton. He made a compelling argument that you would feel an undue amount of loyalty for the Chief, whether it was out of dedication or fear, and wouldn’t put the case forward yourself.” 

Judy boggled for a moment. “I don’t have Stockhound Syndrome. I just respect the mammal and what he has done for Zootopia, which is a great deal. Decades of service, in fact. You’re trying to paint him as a criminal, and he’s not.”

Danielle tapped the table with a claw. “In point of fact, Ms. Hopps, he is.” Judy’s face screwed up with indignation and she opened her mouth to rail against the blunt accusation. Danielle put a paw up to halt the brewing dispute and continued coolly. “Whatever moral character you see in Chief Bogo, he has broken Federal Anti-Discrimination laws and, as a mammal in a senior position of public trust, he must be held to a higher standard. He must be held accountable for his actions, so that other mammals in such positions don’t feel empowered to complacency, and so mammals serving under them don’t need to fear repercussions for demanding safer working conditions, or equal pay, or simple dignity of person.”

“But…” Judy searched the table as though it would give her the words to persuade the wolf across from her otherwise. “Okay, that’s not untrue, but… what purpose does it serve now? Isn’t it obvious that whatever… motivation or mindset that he might have had doesn’t exist anymore? My partner’s evidence of that, isn’t he? You don’t have to torpedo Chief’s career. Work with him, not on him.”

“I don’t intend to visit wrath upon Chief Bogo if that’s what you are implying, which brings us to my original point: what you and I can expect from one another. I am here in my capacity as a Civil Rights Lawyer; it would be grossly unethical of me to defend your right to dignity of person by violating his.” Danielle paused as Judy’s order was brought out and she placed her own. “I will be presenting the State’s case against him, but only to ensure that justice is done; not to pillory him. To that end, I will be--” 

<BREAKING NEWS FROM THE HEART OF DOWNTOWN ZOOTOPIA.>

Both mammals started at the sudden alert from the television. They snapped their heads up and gaped at the scrolling news banner at the top of the screen.

<ZPD Chief facing multiple indictments...>

ZNN's perennial anchor team of Growley and Moosebridge gazed levelly at the camera. “Good afternoon, Zootopia. We are reporting on a developing story as inside sources within both the Government and the ZPD have informed us of a growing scandal centered around Idris Bogo, Chief of Police for the Zootopian Police Force’s First Precinct.” Peter nodded to his co-anchor.

Fabien continued without break. “That is correct. Sources say a mounting case of discrimination, as well as possible charges of collusion in the Bellwether Scandal are being leveled against the once revered head of Zootopia’s Flagship Precinct. We now go live on the scene with Brock Sampson. Brock?”

The anchor’s desk cut to what could only be described as a swarm of assorted mammals surrounding the imposing figure of Chief Bogo somewhere in the streets of downtown. They were all at least a head shorter and thrust their microphones up overhead as high as they could reach as they shouted wheedling questions at him. Ever a mammal of stubbornness, he didn’t break stride or address any of them, though from the way his tail swatted and ears flicked it was apparent that the circling vultures were putting cracks in his normally impenetrable defenses. He managed to squeeze himself into his car door as camera flashes bounced off the tinted windows. The scene cut back to the studio.

Judy leapt to her feet on the seat of the booth, then slammed both paws on the table as she leaned over it and into Danielle’s face.

“Not gonna pillory him, huh?” Judy threw her arm out toward the mounted television. “What do you call that?”

Danielle stood without glancing at Judy, her lips curling in a suppressed snarl. “Excuse me, Miss Hopps. I need to make a call.” With that she marched out to the front of the restaurant while retrieving a phone from her pocket.

Judy plopped back hard against the booth seat and scrubbed her paws over her face. She stared at the sauteed vegetable platter set on the table, her appetite suddenly vanished. This whole thing was snowballing into a complete catastrophe so quickly. Maybe Nick was right… maybe this was beyond them.

But surely not beyond the combined resources of the whole ZPD family.

She dug out her own cell phone and started to type a text message. Her ears twitched and rotated around as the normal sounds of the restaurant shifted to hushed whispers. 

“Is that her…?”

“…looks just like the photo, huh?”

The distinct click of a camera somewhere close by made her snap her head up to meet an assortment of gaping eyes from the mammals seated around her booth. Her nose twitched and chest tightened as the buzz of murmurs wormed into her ears. Rabbit legs coiled beneath her, prepared to spring her out of there as fast as they could go. She dropped enough bills on the table to cover her untouched meal and tip, and then let them do just that.

Judy barreled through the door and out into the parking lot just as an angry voice nearby railed, “I don’t care how long it takes you! This is unacceptable, and if you don’t get me the name of the mammal who leaked this to the press, then it’s your collarbone I’ll be using as a toothpick, Francis!”

She didn’t stop, but shot past the red wolf as her tirade ended, wanting nothing more than to be away from her and her office and whatever mammals had decided to throw her Chief under the proverbial bus. Far too late Danielle realized who it was that had zipped by her as her heated phone call ended, and Judy could hear her call out behind her, “Miss Hopps? Miss Hopps! Wait!” in various repetitions until she couldn’t hear them anymore.

Chapter Text

The patrol teams of ‘Wilde/Hopps’ and ‘Wolf/Meyer’ met at I-Hop that night. Three AM, right after the third shift ended. “Three after three” was the phrase they coined for it, an after-hours meeting of the minds in times of uncertainty either inside or outside of the station. They hadn’t called a meeting such as this in two months, which was a testament to just how sideways they felt the situation had gotten.

The television screen mounted on the ceiling a few feet away only added to their rising apprehension.

<…an additional deposition was submitted this morning regarding the case against Chief of Police Idris Bogo. Mounting evidence pertaining to his handling of the Nighthowler Crisis last year and alleged withholding of police department resources from newly hired Officer Judy Hopps…>

Danny Wolford’s ears flagged as he looked at Judy. “I know I should have said this a long while ago, but I am so sorry about how we treated you when you first came on.” 

“It’s okay, Danny.” Judy tried to console the young wolf, even as Nadine Fangmeyer turned shamefaced to the service counter. “Guys, really it’s okay. I don’t blame anyone except Bellwether for any of that.”

Nadine poked at her lumberjack stack with the tines of her fork absently. “Bellwether didn’t turn her back on someone she swore to support. Well, I mean… I guess in actuality she did, but… you know what I mean.” She skewered a particularly large piece of flapjack and thrust it into her mouth rather than continue along that line of conversation any further.

Judy was about to comment when Danny shook his head. “Bellwether went into office planning to gain power at any cost. We swore an oath to protect the city and everyone in it, and we failed.” Nadine nodded at that. “We had the chance from the outset to do the right thing, the moral thing; to make the city a better place and we let pride and prejudice get in the way.” 

Their attention was drawn back to the TV as the report droned on.

<…have some city aldermem questioning if Chief of Police Idris Bogo may have in fact been in collusion with former Mayor Dawn Bellwether.>

“Bullshit.”

It was a quiet, matter-of-fact utterance that turned all heads—eyes wide and mouths hanging open—in Nick’s direction. Of the mammals at the table, it seemed only Nick was not wrapped in despair. His eyes were laser-focused on the news report, ears and tail twitching in agitation 

Judy rested a paw on her partner’s arm. “It’s… it’s alright, Nick. We’re in this together.”

Danny tried to smile at the smaller canid. “Yeah, we’re behind you on this, even with what the Chief did.” Judy and the others all nodded sadly. 

He didn’t take his piercing gaze from off the TV, but knew full well he had their attention. He continued in the same tone of voice as he pointed at the screen. “Not Bogo. That. This whole thing stinks something awful… I can practically smell it through the screen.” Now he turned away from the report, nose wrinkled as though to illustrate that he’d caught a whiff of something especially repugnant. “This—all this—is a hustle. Playing things up over here…” He pawed at the air to one side of him. “…to distract from what’s going on over there.” More pawing, now on the other side. “Pay no attention to the mammal behind the curtain. Chief is a lot of things, but a co-conspirator isn’t one of them.”

The others in the booth paused and looked between themselves. Nadine twitched an ear towards the ongoing TV report. “You think this is, what? A scam.”

Nick gave a derisive snort. “You don’t?” He started ticking points on his paws. “A new mayor is elected and immediately starts house-cleaning; then the Chief, part of the old incumbency, comes under increasing attack by ‘reliable sources’ who wish to remain anonymous.”

Danny looked pensive for a moment. “Reggie’s had issues with Bogo since before he was let go from the force. The Local pays well enough, but nobody in City Hall trusts him, so he can’t really go up from there.”

Nadine tapped the table thoughtfully, then snatched up a piece of garlic bread. “Trusted, past tense. Mayor Staggno’s ousted everybody from the old guard in an appointed position. Everyone left is in an elected position, or needs council approval to confirm or dismiss.” 

Nick nodded to his fellow officers. “The same mammals who approved Bogo, and would approve whoever would replace him.” His attention shifted back to the television. “Cum hoc, ergo propter hoc. They approved him, and now whoopsie! What if Chief Bogo wasn’t just incompetent? What if he was in cahoots all along?” His attention shifted to his now cool omelet. “It’s a smear campaign; I’d bet my probation on it. Mayor Tony’s still cleaning house, and he won’t be satisfied until all the ex’s stuff is gone.” 

Judy blinked. “Then… basically what you’re saying is he’s being systematically forced out?”

“Basically.”

Her ears flagged. “How can Chief even defend against all this?” Her nose wiggled and she answered her own question. “He can’t.” Judy looked around at the forlorn faces. “Then that settles it, right guys? Bogo’s going to get strung up if we don’t help him.”

Nick looked shamefaced at his plate. “Count me out, Carrots.” The others looked at him in shock, all except Hopps. “If I, Probationary-Officer Nick Wilde, was to get involved in anything like what you’re proposing, then all the Mayor would need to do is write a memo and out the door I go.” 

Judy twitched her nose and dropped her voice low. “If Officer Wilde can’t… anything maybe that Slick Nick could do?”

Nick froze in place for a second. “Before or after I took a piss on my badge?” Everyone at the table started at that. “No, that’s exactly what you’re asking me to do!” He locked eyes with his mentor and partner. “I swore an oath, Hopps, and until such time as this city tells me I’m no longer bound by it I will leave ‘Slick Nick’ in the garbage where he belongs!”

Judy could only watch as her friend threw down his share of the tab and stalked out, not sure which was more disturbing: the prospect of tackling this problem without him, or the fear she was certain had flashed in his eyes just before leaving.

Danny jerked a thumb over his shoulder. “Should someone go after him, you think?”

She shook her head. “No… just let him sort through this on his own for a bit.” She polished off her drink. “We all should, actually. It’s a real possibility… sticking your neck out only to get your head lopped off.” She looked around at the other officers. “We can all, sort of, afford to take that kind of risk; Nick can’t. But… leaving Bogo to deal with this alone is wrong. I believe that, so… I’ll take the chance.”

Nadine reached across the table to Judy. “We’ll take that chance. Right Danny?” 

The timberwolf nodded and added his paw to the stack.

It was raining when Nick left the restaurant. Of course it was. Just like the city to kick a mammal in the soft bits when he was at his lowest. All the same, the pitter-pattering of the raindrops on the sidewalk put a steady beat to the grinding gears in his head. They were turning fitfully… they wouldn’t stop.

How could she ask that? An angry footfall in a shallow puddle splashed high. A single droplet went up his snout, causing him to sneeze. It’s what she knows will work, like the Otterton case, and Bellwether. He shook his head. It was frustrating when his inner angel and demon were this articulate. They’d just never been so reversed before, with mini-Nick shunning the shady paths, while mini-Judy was telling him to throw caution and rules to the wind.

He ducked under a bus stop to gather his thoughts and shake off some of the rain. His dry-cleaning bill was going to be murder. He snorted as he sat down, elbows set on his knees as he leaned over and regarded the crusty cement under his feet. Work’s gonna be tense this week, with everyone scrambling to help the Chief… well, everyone except me. 

What was Bogo doing putting up a fight anyway? If Judy was right, and the Chief knew in the end he was going to lose the case, why was he even locking horns over it? Proud as he was, wouldn’t it have made more sense to just bow out quietly? It wasn’t like anyone else in the Precinct was under threat, right? 

Nick stared ahead for a moment through the curtain of rain. The Chief had always been a lead from the front type mammal, maybe even a bit of a micro-manager, but he was also image conscious after the whole Bellwether debacle; so why was he taking this on the chin so publicly? What was the point of fighting a lost cause against the ACL…

He bolted upright, remembering the Chief’s expression and demeanor when Antonio Staggno came into the Bullpen the other day. He wasn’t fighting the ACLU, or even the Policemammal’s Local. He was fighting the Mayor. But why? What could possibly be going on that the Chief felt the need to step into the line of fire with the highest office in the City? 

Nick shook his head hard. No. Nope nope nope, I can’t get involved; I could lose everything.

… but what is such a threat to Bogo? No, not Bogo… to the force. Nick squinted at the rain. Bogo isn’t scared of anything, only for something. If he was the only one in the crosshairs, he’d mam up and take it. So something must be a threat to the force. But what?

Nick stood up and started pacing the plexiglass enclosure. Not Reggie, but Pranceton is a symptom, I guess. The rash that lets you know something is wrong. Bogo’s locked horns with him before, so table him for the moment. New Moon, then? No, if what Judy said is true then she’s as much a white knight as Hopps. That leaves Mayor Tony; the mayor who’s trying to… what? Muscle Chief out. They knew each other, didn’t they? Higgins said they were friends once… so what’s got the Mayor going for Bogo’s throat and has Bogo taking it? There’s always room in a new order for allies…

Nick stopped. “But there’s no room for enemies.” So how was Bogo an enemy? How were any of the mammals Staggno had ousted so far enemies? What did they have in common?

A hiss of air brakes brought his thoughts up short. He looked at the city bus parked in front of him, and a poster on its side of a smiling Officer Hopps looked back. The decidedly less happy alpaca driver also looked at Nick through the closed doors before spitting in a cup and pulling away, never once opening the doors. Prejudice was something Nick was used to, though it was in much more sparring supply in the ZPD… Is that it? Nick absently stared after the bus. Is it prejudice on Tony’s part? No, his cabinet is pretty eclectic, but so are the mammals he’s pushed out. So what’s the thread tying them together?

Nick glanced around and saw the rain had let up some. Hunching his shoulders, he slunk out onto the sidewalk again. Slick Nick may be past and gone, and Officer Wilde may not be able to do anything, but concerned citizen Nicholas sure as hell wanted to know what it was that linked all the mammals Tony had let go.

And figure out who else may be on the chopping block.

When the neon green numbers on the clock turned over at three in the morning, Bogo was done waiting for sleep to grace him. He never was one to wait for what he wanted; as in all things, anything worth having he’d have to work for. He headed into his kitchenette to blend up his go-to exercise shake, then folded out the decades old resistance trainer in the corner of his living room. He turned on the TV to have some background noise.

One… two… three… four… Tracking each rep gave him something else to focus on, to distract him. Distraction from the day, from the swirling thoughts that still wouldn’t let him rest. Bits and pieces of the questions from the mob of reporters flying around like debris in the cyclone that his mind had become.

<…an additional deposition was submitted this morning regarding the case against Chief of Police Idris Bogo. Mounting evidence pertaining to his handling of the Nighthowler Crisis last year and alleged withholding of police department resources from newly hired Officer Judy Hopps…>

He almost turned the set off, but that felt too much like running; he wasn’t a Track-n-Field type mammal. He stood his ground and faced his opponent head on, even when that opponent was his own misdeeds. He shook his head and lay back on the bench. 

Tony always was the fast one; the speed he was moving at right now would have set some sort of collegiate record. Of course, Bogo had given him exceptional fuel for it, hadn’t he? With how he’d practically impeded his own investigation during the savage crisis, it was no wonder he could spin that kind of misconception, get the press to take the leap to that conclusion. How could he have done that, anyway? Set up one of his own for such failure, withhold the tools, the resources, the very chance of success from her like he did? 

Switching around for butterflies, he considered his own myopic history with Bellwether, with Hopps, with the MII and its implications for the future of Zootopia. Well, hind-sight was about as close to 20/20 vision as he was ever going to get. Three… two… three… four…

It wasn’t like he could come out with what he knew about Tony’s real motives; his PR team and the media in general would just claim he was deflecting. He needed to plan. Back to bench work. Higgins should be able to wrangle the cadre, and would make an excellent Chief. He had always had a more nuanced approach to police work. Flexible but firm, fair… he’d be able to move the force forward in the direction that it needed to stay viable now and into the foreseeable future. Bill was the sort of leader that the new creche of officers would follow without question. Maybe even keep Hopps and Wilde on the straight and narrow. 

Nine… two… three… four… 

His current hurdle was keeping Reginald Pranceton from putting him in prison out of spite. His own legal team was arguing for a plea deal, but his own research on Danielle New Moon said she would never accept anything remotely behind closed doors. A full trial was inevitable, and he knew he was going to take it on the chin. He needed to; to keep the attention off of the force as a whole and to keep Tony from blaming the MII, rather than the mammals that tried to abuse it. And because he had wronged Hopps and Wilde, as well as any mammal that would have followed after through his own short-sightedness.

Set up for bicep curls. Tony was always goal oriented, but he suffered from tunnel vision. Bogo would give him the goal to fixate on: the bull’s ouster. Once Tony had that, he’d lose sight of Bogo and move on to the next goal. That was when Idris would make his move; once he was out of office, out of Tony’s line of sight, and out from under the rules and restrictions of the Office of Chief of Police. He had more than 30 years worth of experience, contacts and debts to collect, and he intended to do just that. 

Chapter Text

“And so, councilmammals, I ask that you cast your votes now on this resolution.”

Tony stood tall before the city council. It wasn’t necessary for him to personally deliver any propositions, but in this case he really did need to be here in person. Not for the importance of the resolution itself; it was just a funding revision for the DPW. Tony hid a vicious grin as the aging razorback Majority Whip stood up.

“Point of order, gentlemammals.” Beauregard Hogan’s almost laconic drawl still managed to carry throughout the chambers. “We have here before us a proposal only, one that has neither a motion to put it before a vote nor a second, and all that without even any discussion.”

“What discussion is needed here?” Tony countered. “Such a poorly implemented program has no need for such a bloated funding bill. It’s a waste of the city’s valuable resources.”

‘Boss Hogg’ Hogan turned his beady eyes fully on the stag at the podium. “As I said, Mistah Mayuh,” Beau’s drawl thickening with his irritation, “it is a point of order; procedure must be followed in every vote for it to be considered legitimate.”

Tony tilted his head down in obvious challenge. “Procedure like marching the party lock-step behind Bellwether or appointing Idris Bogo to Chief of Police?” The hall erupted in a riot of sound as mammals of every type began calling out, either in alarm at the accusation or to accuse their opponents. Vice-Mayor and Council President Harold Wallace waited a full five count before he began banging his gavel demanding order. 

Exactly as Tony wanted.

Nick sat on his couch with piles of documents forgotten on the coffee table in front of him while the latest session of the City Council played out on ZSPAN. It took him a moment to reconcile that, yes, Mayor Staggno had just openly, politically attacked his own party’s Whip. He watched as the majority party fragmented, while the minority councilmammals swooped in like pigeons on a dropped sandwich bun. 

Was he trying to turn the whole council into a circus? These were mammals on his side of the political arena, and he just turned them against each other. Why? A paper on his desk fluttered from a slight draft, drawing his attention to his research on Tony’s targets. Council Majority Whip Beauregard ‘Boss Hogg’ Hogan was somehow an opponent, or an obstacle. But why? 

He glanced back at the television and studied the proceedings. Within a minute he saw a new dynamic forming on the Councilroom floor; not along party lines, but those with Boss Hogg, and those falling behind the Mayor. Where Tony’s party had once held a close majority that needed cross-aisle compromise to get bills passed, now it looked like he had better than 2/3’s of the council backing him against their own party members.

It’s in the rhetoric. Nick found a blank space on one of the sheets in front of him and began writing down the names of the various mammals that the Mayor seemed to be lumping into the…

He glanced up sharply. Did he just call them ‘co-cudspiritors? He shook his head. The rhetoric: anti-Bellwether sentiment is low hanging fruit, but Chief had no use for anyone smaller than a motorcycle before Judy, Bellwether included. Nick tapped his pen against the paper and frowned. So what’s the connection?  

He glanced between the TV, his paper pile and his phone. He knew there were info sources out there if he knew how to access them, but he could barely make ‘Macrosoft-Word’ do what he wanted, to say nothing about a deep-web search; that was for millenials like Carrots. He picked up his phone, his digits moving along the touch screen unconsciously to speed dial his most often used contact. He kept his eyes on the television as he listened to the ring in his ear.

It picked up. <Nick, hi.> 

“Hey Carrots.” Nick picked up the remote and lowered the volume to a softer din. “Got a few minutes to talk?”

<Always.> A pause. <I was wondering when I might hear from you after, ah…>

“Yeah, I know.” His words came out clipped, not that he meant to be impatient. He took a breath. “I wanted to talk to you about th—”

<Listen, I didn’t mean to put you on the spot like that,> Judy interrupted, words running fast and all together in a ramble, <and you have every right to look out for yourself so don’t make yourself uncomfortable and I totally understand if you don’t feel like you can help because of it so one of the others will—”

“Whoa, Fluff, slow down!” Nick gave a breath of a laugh and leaned back against the couch. “Thanks… really. I appreciate it, but I mulled over what’s been going on. Much as I want to keep my nose out of it, well… it smells too awful to ignore.”

Judy sighed into the phone. <It does, doesn’t it?>

Nick snorted. “Yeah. Anyway, I did swear an oath to ‘Protect and Serve’, and that includes the Chief and everyone else the Mayor seems to be going after. This may be a weird question, but do you watch ZSPAN?”

A little huff of disgust came from the phone. <Only if I really can’t get to sleep and need something to bore me unconscious. Why?>

“Well today’s session is likely to keep a lot of people up all night. Mayor Staggno all but publicly accused one of his own senior party members of collusion with Bellwether. The council hasn’t stopped yelling at each other for five minutes.” Nick looked at the chaos on screen. “Whatever the Mayor is up to, it’s way more than just a little house-cleaning. I need to ask you a favor.”

<That’s… different.> He could all but hear the grin on his partner’s face. <Do tell. What does the fox-of-many-favors need?>

Nick picked up his latest list of names. “I’m going to send a picture of a list of names: this is everyone Ol’ Tony’s gone after in the last month, including the Councilmammals he’s directly named in this recent attack. It’s all tied up in the rhetoric of the Nighthowler Scandal, but a lot of these mammals are as squeaky clean as a politician can realistically get. I need to know what they have in common that links them back to Bellwether. I’d do it myself, but the closest to a Dark Web search I can get is cleaning cobwebs out of my mom’s attic.”

<Well, you know, if there’s one thing we bunnies are good at, it’s digging.> Judy chuckled lightly at her own joke and Nick rolled his eyes. <Send me what you’ve got and I’ll get right on it.> She paused. <Maybe we could meet up later to talk through trends and patterns? Two heads are better than one.>

“Especially when those two heads are ours.” Nick nodded. “Text me when you’re ready to resurface.”

<Will do. Bye for now.>

“Bye, Fluff. Good luck.”

Nick smiled down at the phone as he hung up. His stomach ached from the terrible knowledge that he was sticking his neck out farther than was wise, and what it meant for him personally if this all went south. Even so, there was no one better to have watching his back than Judy. Let her do what she did best and root through these mammals’ dirty little secrets. She’d bring them to light and together they’d find what tangled thread wove through them all.

Agnes all but yowled in alarm when the office doors were thrown open and Antonio Staggno swept in. She refrained out of brute-force professionalism, though her heart hammered in her chest from the fright.

“Aggie, I could kiss you right now!” He paused long enough to close the doors behind him. “That whole ‘Cudspiritors’ thing was absolutely inspired!”

She resisted the urge to purr; that would definitely be unprofessional, though her tail did lazily sway at the praise. “I take it the Council session was a success?”

The stag plopped into his seat and spun almost playfully. “I have nearly the entire opposition and half of our own party going after the Old Guard like ants at a picnic.” He finally stopped his spin to look at her. “Conceded the funding revision and now I’m the Great Conciliator; they’re practically eating out of my hooves. There are enough of the career Councilmammals running scared that I’d likely get a 3/4 majority on any bill I bring forward just so they don’t get lumped in with the ‘cudspiracy’.”

He sneered as he leaned forward. “Won’t save them though. Come general elections in two years, we’ll have a completely new slate of Councilmammals. All the idiots that put Lionheart and Bellwether in power will be out and we can finally get down to fixing this city.”

Agnes blinked and then smiled a slow smile. “I anticipated making quick progress, but even this kind of forward motion so soon is a pleasant surprise.” She turned back to her computer and her voice picked up pitch and tempo, a little youthful enthusiasm in her words. “We need to start the groundwork for the first wave once the Council turns over. There are three… no, four… resolutions that you could start with to really get the most bang out of a new budget, and—”

“Ah, all in due time, Aggie.” Tony stood and stretched his arms high overhead. “Don’t begin planning until we’ve got this all locked down tight. Most wars are lost when you start fights on too many fronts at once, and I still need your laser focus on the here and now.”

Agnes’s tail began lashing in agitation. “Sir, an equal number of wars are lost when you don’t have your long term plans and contingencies in place when you have the chance.”

“Tell you what.” He walked over to her desk and closed the laptop screen. She just managed to get her claws out from beneath before it clicked shut. “Let’s just table that for now and get something hot to eat instead. You look hungry, and I am just dying to give you the play by play of that session in excruciating detail. How does that sound?”

She resisted the urge to growl in frustration; that would be soooooo unprofessional. Then her stomach decided to anyway, and she pinned her ears in embarrassment. 

Tony laughed. “See? What did I tell you?” He turned and started toward the door. “Come on, let’s go. My treat.”

He didn’t stop at the door but continued through the threshold and out into the hallway. Agnes hastily grabbed for her bag and keys and sprinted out to follow him down the hall then fell into step at his heels.

As usual.

Nadine looked at the other officers at the break room table. “Okay, we’re all here. Let’s—”

“No, we’re not.” Judy held up a paw and watched the door intently.

Daniel Wolford and Nadine Fangmeyer both looked with curiosity as Nick Wilde came in, arms laden with large mammal scaled manila brief folders. He wobbled as the door started closing and then huffed peevishly.

“Oh, please don’t get up,” he said. “It’s not as if these are at all cumbersome or anything.”

Danny reached over and took the folders from him. “Hey Wilde. I thought you weren’t getting involved.”

Nick scuttled into the seat next to Judy. “So did I when I just thought it was politicians being politicians. Plus Judy’s involved, so I can’t help but get involved. It’s the burden I must bear.” 

The officers chuckled as she slapped him with an ear.

Nadine cleared her throat and looked at the two diminutive officers. “Now that we’re all here, what do you two have for us?”

Judy shoved the folders out to the other two officers as she began. “The Mayor’s purge of appointed staff is pretty ruthless, but not uncommon. His verbal attacks on his own party members, however, were a complete surprise to everybody.” She pointed to a list of councilmammals on Nadine’s document. “All the ones Mayor Staggno named were either co-authors or signatories on several key pieces of legislation put forward by either Leodore Lionheart, or Dawn Bellwether.”

Nick pointed to a second list on Danny’s file. “On the other paw, every mammal Mayor Tony has appointed to fill staff vacancies were all vocal opponents of our dearly departed former executives.” He jabbed his claw at one name in particular. “Reggie Esq. in particular was almost arrested for harassment for how vocal he was in his opposition to Bogo’s appointment to Chief. He’s since been promised a senior position in the DA’s office; only two moves away from city DA.”

Nadine scrunched up her muzzle. “Yeah, I remember that. A lot of Union members were really upset by that whole thing. Bad case of Blue Flu that year. Bogo’s a good cop and deserved the promotion, but the Union still has a lot of sway.”

Danny nodded, then quirked his head. “You said they all co-wrote or co-signed a bunch of Lion/Wether bills, right?” He noted the odd looks from the others. “Just roll with it, okay? Anyway, does that include the MII?” 

Judy and Nick looked between each other. Nick then glared at the files as Judy looked at the two senior officers. “I found several draft bills under review by the Council Research Service (CRS); one of them is a retroactive repeal of the MII. It’s set to be taken before the Council at the end of next month.”

Nick slammed a fist onto the table. “I’m still probationary, so I’m out once that passes, and Billy isn’t even out of the academy so they’ll just bounce him out like a dodge-ball.” He looked to his partner. “Judy’s past probationary, but just barely, and they really can’t pull that with her while the ACLU is prosecuting Bogo for—”

WHAM! 

The four officers rounded toward the sound of the breakroom door slamming open. They froze under the heated—very Bogo-like—glare of Lieutenant Higgins. He surveyed the scene before him and stomped over to the table.

“This was just forwarded to me from Admin. Would someone mind telling me what I’m looking at here?” He brandished a ream of sheets which Nick and Judy recognized as the brief they had just been talking about. Nadine and Nick just shrunk beneath his critical eyes while Wolford and Judy attempted to sputter a halfway acceptable excuse like a couple of children that had been caught playing in their grumpy neighbor’s garden. Higgins held up a hoof to stop them. “Let me save you the trouble. I know what I’m looking at. Insubordination. ”

Nadine wrinkled her muzzle at him. “You think you’re Chief now?”

“Acting Chief, yes. And as acting Chief, I explicitly ordered you all not to get involved in Bogo’s affairs.”

Nick grit his teeth and looked at Higgins. “The sitting mayor is stacking the deck in City Hall so he can repeal the MII. That’s not just Bogo he’s going after, that’s my job, Sir .”  

Nadine sat bolt upright when she saw Bill Higgins’ eyes twitch to look at the two smaller officers. “You knew.” Every officer at the table went still. “You knew the Mayor intended to axe the program and you told us to do nothing.” Danny moved to put a paw on her shoulder as she stood up and looked the hippo in the eyes. “You knew he intended to go after our own and you came down here to what, dress us down? You going to do Staggno’s job for him and suspend Hopps and Wilde?”

Higgins straightened himself up even further as he met her plasma-hot stare head on. “I’m doing what Chief ordered. Exactly , to the letter, as he ordered. I have to trust that he knows what he’s doing to get us through this, and I’m not going to let you rut that up with whatever cockamamie plan you’re hatching.”

There was a rustling from the table as Nick wordlessly gathered the files. Once standing and facing the door, he spoke over his shoulder to his co-workers. “You know how I said, ‘until such time as this city tells me I’m no longer bound by it’?” 

He looked over his shoulder at Higgins. “The Mayor, the City Council, and now you and Bogo have all just told me ‘Oh well, guess we don’t want you as a cop’.” He turned back to the break room door. “I’ll come in and do the job until I get my Pink-Slip, but I’ll be damned before I just lay down and take it without a fight.” He opened the door. “And I’ll be equally damned before I call you ‘Sir’ again.” His tail slipped through the door before it shut.

“You know El-Tee,” Higgins turned back to Danny Wolford and saw Nadine and Judy leaving, “history isn’t really forgiving to mammals who hide behind ‘I was just following orders’ as an excuse for doing what they know to be wrong.” 

Bill Higgins could only look on silently as his officers left without giving him a single backwards glance.

Briiiiiiiiing! Briiiiiiiiing! Briiiiiiiiing!

Danielle New-Moon regarded her telephone with an internal feeling of irritation. An afternoon spent with the receiver against her ear was bound to do that, and now that the day was finally winding to an end taking another phone call was literally the last thing she wanted to do.

She did it anyway.

“ACLU Regional office Zootopia, Danielle New-Moon speaking,” she said automatically, tone pleasantly pitched to hide the weariness beneath.

<Ms. New-Moon, it’s Judy Hopps again,> came the voice at the other end, sounding as stressed as Danielle felt <I’m sorry to call so late in the day. Is this a bad time?>

After the debacle in the IHop, Danielle was certain she’d have to subpoena Officer Hopps to get her in the same room again. She still hadn’t made any headway on figuring out just how the specifics of her case were leaked to the press, though if she pressed her assistant any further she was certain he’d shut down completely, and then he’d be less than worthless to her.

“Not at all,” she said, and forced a smile to keep her voice somewhat cheery. “I was just finishing up in the office. How can I help you?”

<If you’re getting off work soon, could we meet up?> Danielle noted there was a slight edge to the young doe’s voice, though her tone didn’t seem to be directed her way. She was about to suggest someplace when Judy spoke again. <I’ll be with Nick, Officer Wilde, at the I-Hop in the booth we sat at last time.>

Danielle wanted to object, if only to remove the association of their last meeting, but she didn’t want to risk alienating Ms. Hopps. “Certainly. I can meet you there in, say, half an hour?”

<Perfect. See you then.> The call’s end was civil, if abrupt. But the call meant Judy was still willing to talk, so she could work with that.

Half an hour later found Danielle sitting across from the two very serious looking small officers. “I am glad you were willing to give me another chance.” She focused on the uniformed fox. “I’m also glad I have the chance to properly meet you so I can apologize.”

Nick huffed slightly. “Pick up the tab and take what we have to tell you seriously, and I call us square.” At Danielle’s tentative nod, he turned a tense smile to the nearby waitress. “Hey Gloria, darlin’, the usual for me and a Caca-Colta. And for you?” He looked at Judy.

“Unsweetened tea for me, and a cranberry/walnut short stack.” Judy smiled at the waitress, who looked to the wolf expectantly.

“I was told that I couldn’t go wrong with the Chicken and Waffles. Right?” Danielle gave a knowing look to Judy and Nick, then folded her paws on the table as the waitress left to put in their orders. “Now, if you would please, since you requested this meeting. What could you have to tell me that you think I wouldn’t take seriously?”

The two diminutive officers glanced at one another, and Judy passed a wolf-sized manilla folder to Danielle. She opened it and began to politely read the contents within. Politeness went out the window by the middle of the second page, and it was all she could do to keep from snarling at the words between her paws.

“You’re certain of this?” Danielle looked incredulously at her dining partners. “They intend to repeal the first meaningful piece of Affirmative Action legislation passed in Zootopia in twenty years?”

Conversation paused as meals were brought out, at which point Nick began drowning his Chicken and Waffles in blueberry syrup. “Pretty sure it’s just Mayor Staggno that ‘intends’, but he’s got the chamber rigged in his favor right now. With the PR campaign being waged, the Council would do a nude Macarena on the steps of City Hall rather than come under fire as ‘co-cudspiritors’.”

Judy picked up as Nick began digging in. “Bogo’s association with Lionheart and Bellwether seems to be the reason for the case being brought forward now. It looks like the MII Repeal Bill was first posted to CRS before Staggno actually took office, and before he started his smear campaign against Bogo.”

Danielle looked at the document in question. “This was less than a week after the case was brought to my office.”

Nick swallowed loudly. “Was that before or after you confirmed that you would take up the case?” Danielle felt another snarl rising unbidden as she stared at the offending page. “Thought so; Tony waited to post this to CRS until he was sure you would make every accusation he was making seem like a reaction, not cause and effect.”

The red wolf closed her eyes and took several calming breaths to ease the knot forming in her chest. When she opened them again she saw Nick and Judy staring at her intently. 

“I know what you want me to do,” she said, and set the folder down on the table, “but I can’t drop the case on Idris Bogo.” 

Judy was ready to leap up and start yelling when Nick lay a paw on her arm. She glanced over and saw he was looking at, no, evaluating Ms. New Moon. She relaxed and looked at Danielle. “Then what can you do?”

“I can offer him a plea deal; a formal acknowledgement and apology for his actions and he steps down. You make a formal statement of your own so the public can feel justice has been done, but there’s no court appearance.” Danielle looked at the file under her paws again. “Your Union Rep has been lobbying to have our two cases filed in a single docket. He’s on his own now; that’s the best I can offer.” She looked at the two again. “Bogo must be held to a higher standard, and he must be held accountable. That said, I refuse to have my office and agency used for petty political gains.” 

Judy fidgeted until Nick patted her arm again. “It’s better than before, and you heard the Lieutenant earlier today; Bogo knew what was coming down the pipe at him and ‘ordered’ us to let it happen.”

Judy looked tersely at her partner. “Oh, we’re following Higgins’ orders now?”

Nick snorted and popped a waffle chunk in his maw. “Nah, but he can’t lie to save his life; you saw how quickly he folded when Nadine pressed.” He coughed when Judy elbowed him and handed him a napkin. “Okay mom; no talking while I’m chewing. Anyway, Bogo’s taking this on the chin, and that’s not the Bogo I’ve come to know and tolerate. If he wants us to back off, I’ll bet it’s so he has room to maneuver.”

Danielle leaned forward. “But what could he do once removed from his office?”

Judy noted the tense look on Nick’s muzzle. “You think he’d go ‘Slick Nick’?” 

Nick nodded and turned back to Danielle. “Chief Bogo’s been a police officer longer than either of us has been alive; if I have tricks up my sleeve, the Chief likely has a whole magic act. Once he’s out from under the limelight and regulations of office, this fight’s going to turn ugly.”

Judy chewed on her ear. “Do we want it to come to that?”

“I don’t know if we have a choice.”

She nodded, and looked to Danielle, resolve forming creases in her face. “Do what you can for Chief, then. Please.”

Danielle began thoughtfully cutting up her food. “I can’t promise anything more than that I will be fair, and that he will get a fair chance.” She popped a bite in her maw and paused, looking down in surprise and obvious delight.

Nick simply smirked. “Told you.” 

Bogo looked incredulously at the she-wolf in front of him. “You’re offering me a what ?”

“A plea deal.” Danielle sat primly across from the massive duo of cape buffalo and grizzly bear. “Surely you’re familiar with those.”

Barnaby Grizwald looked up from the offer on the table at his client over his glasses. “Idris, this is more than we could have hoped for—”

“But not what we’ve planned for.” Bogo folded his hooves on the table with a piercing glare at Danielle.

Barnaby snatched his glasses off and stared at the Chief. “Idris, be reasonable! I know you think what you’re doing is right, but with the current acrimony in the city I can’t see how our case could go anywhere but hard time.” 

Idris squinted at the wolf. “Danielle New-Moon takes no prisoners, right Griz? Your very words, so one of you tell me why I’d be offered a slap on the hooves in comparison.”

Danielle was unperturbed by the massive animal in front of her. “A compelling case has been made that, while accurate, the case against you has been brought forward for political reasons, not for the execution of justice. I will not have my office used as a pawn to further anyone’s agenda.”

The grizzly lawyer laid a paw on Bogo’s arm. “Take it, please! I know why you wanted it this way, but I’m your lawyer; I’m here to defend you, not them.”

Danielle glanced curiously between the two across from her. “I understand you were already aware of this situation. May I ask why you seem so determined to fall on your sword?”

“The only reason I’m aware of this situation is that the source decided to throw it in my face. The real question is why are you aware of this situation?” Bogo leaned back in his chair, though his gaze never wavered. “I doubt Mayor Staggno would let his agenda slip to the one mammal who might have the ability to throw a wrench into the works.”

Danielle considered for a moment. “You have, much to my shock, several very dedicated and very loyal officers. They brought this to my attention.” 

Bogo grit his teeth for a moment, then slumped in his chair. “Hopps… of course. And wherever she is Wilde isn’t far behind or ahead.”

“Regardless of where the information came from,” Danielle said pointedly, “based on our conversation it appears that it’s sound. So I’ll ask again, Idris Bogo, Chief of Police: Why are you so intent on a ticket to almost certain jail time?”

“To save my officers.”

Danielle leaned back in surprise when Grizwald forged ahead. “We believe—” There was some skepticism in his voice. “—that the Mayor is on a finite time table. If we can draw the case out long enough, it will interfere with his legal maneuvering; for instance, the passage of any legislation that would affect the MII would come under tremendous scrutiny should it coincide with a court case centered around an MII beneficiary.”

Danielle laid her ears back as she gripped the edge of the conference table. The one option she could offer wouldn’t accomplish the end goal she was most interested in; to spare Chief Bogo in fact would result in the very outcome that the Mayor desired. He was the dam holding back a flood. To remove him from the court case now would destroy everything—every one—he sought to protect.

“Did you have any possible suggestions on how that might look,” she asked as she clasped her paws, “in court?”

Bogo gave a self-satisfied kind of smirk that would have made his fox officer proud. “As a matter of fact, I do.”

They spent the next hour haggling back and forth, trading tactics and names to use in order to stall the court proceedings down to a crawl while still reaching the inevitable outcome they saw coming. Danielle was loath to simply let Bogo off, but the longer she sat and spoke with the mammal, the more she fell into the worst trap a prosecutor could: she empathized with him. They all expected she would get her win at the end, but now all the satisfaction had been emptied out of it. The taste of this victory was anything but sweet.

Finally, they were in accord. She reached out her paw, somehow keeping it steady as she pulled the folder and the plea deal within it back from Barnaby. 

“I can see that we won’t come to an acceptable agreement, then,” she said coolly as she stood and tucked it under her arm. She leveled a pointed look at Bogo. “Consider my offer rescinded.”

He nodded. “I guess we’ll see you in court, then.”

She tipped her snout up as she stood. She extended her paw to him and then to Barnaby in turn. “Until then.”

Danielle left immediately afterward, mind reeling and a tightness in her chest as she took the elevator down to the ground floor. She’d been doing this sort of work for years, and had a great deal of experience with tough cases. Messy cases, where there were no real villains or heroes. The line wasn’t always clear, but she could always see her end goal of justice like a beacon in the distance. It had been a long time since that light seemed so muted, so far away.

She slipped into her car and slammed the door shut. The folder she set on the seat beside her as she pulled her phone from her pocket. She dialed Judy Hopps’ number from her recent calls and waited.

It picked up. <Hello?>

“Good afternoon, Judy. It’s Danielle.” The red-wolf ran her paw around the steering wheel, then took the next sentence like a bandage that needed to be torn off. “Listen… he refused the deal…” 

Morning debriefs had become a formality, if anything. Since his confrontation with the officers in the break room, Lieutenant Higgins had lost their respect. He wouldn’t have been surprised if they came down with a bad case of ‘Blue-Flu’. He couldn’t even blame them; the more he thought on what he had been asked, and how he chose to carry it out, the more he felt he had failed his fellow officers. 

He was finishing up the day’s reports when his cell-phone rang. Glancing down, he saw Bogo was the caller. He stared at the phone for a moment, then steeled his resolve and answered. “Good evening, Idris.”

There was a pause. <Bill. I just had an interesting conversation with the ACLU prosecutor. She’s under the impression that Hopps and Wilde are investigating Staggno. Care to comment?> The tense set of the buffalo’s jaw was audible over the phone.

Higgins grunted. “Funny you should mention them. I had a conversation a few days ago also, with them as well as Danny and Nadine. They’ve figured out what Tony’s up to, and how close he is to getting it. Your orders came up in the discussion. Care to take a guess how they reacted to being told to stand aside while City Hall destroys their collective futures?”

The Lieutenant heard Bogo give a tired sigh. <I can imagine, but there’s precious little that can be done to stop it, save to allow the case to play out as slowly as possible.>

Higgins glared into empty space. “You were the one who said we needed to stand against the Mayor’s push. I was reluctant because I didn’t see just what he’s pulling, but now I’ve had my nose rubbed in it and following your orders is costing me the respect of some of the best officers on the force!” 

<If you stay the course, they’ll come around eventually.>

Stay the course, he said, as if it were the only one suitable to stay on. But the more Higgins considered the inevitable path he was on now—one that ended without his Chief, without the support of his colleagues, and without a cohesive team—the more he could see that it didn’t fit him. Maybe this was Bogo’s chosen way of doing things, but it suddenly came into crisp clarity that it wasn’t his.

“With all due respect, sir, to hell with that.” Higgins stood, had to be on his feet ready to defend against what he knew would be Bogo’s arguments. “I can, on the surface, understand the course you’ve set and why; but that doesn’t mean we all need to, or even should, follow it ourselves. Even if the case falls through, and Mayor Staggno succeeds in everything he has planned, we owe it—I owe it—to my officers to fight for them every inch of the way.” 

<I thought I’d made this clear to you, Bill.> Bogo’s voice turned low, almost conspiratorial. <If they get involved, become visible in this, he will stop being subtle. This is the best possibility for the least amount of collateral damage.>

“You were clear, sir.” Bill’s voice steeled. “This is my precinct until a new Chief is appointed, and as long as I am in this office I will fight for it. How I decide to do that is my prerogative now… not yours.”

<Now, listen to m—>

Click.

It took a few seconds for the realization to set in and the sick drop in his stomach to catch up with what he’d just done, which was hang up on Bogo. He stared at the quiet receiver as though he expected it to jump up and bite him on the nose. With a harsh snort he reset, firmed himself for whatever fallout might come from that decision, and headed for the door.

No going back on that now, he thought, and headed with all the speed a two ton hippo was capable of straight for the workspace his officers shared. Better start moving forward.

Higgins had considerable time on the force, considerable time he’d spent tangled up in the intricacies of the courts. As with any case, all that they needed to establish was reasonable doubt. And he knew from plenty of experience, that there were plenty of ways to do that. Together they could cast a bright enough light on Bogo to make that happen.

Judy and Nick weren’t in the offices when he walked in, but Danny and Nadine were. They spared him brief glances before returning to their computer screens. Nadine at least threw a tepid, “Sir,” his way before continuing to tap away at her keyboard.

The lieutenant gritted his teeth so hard he thought he might crack one.

“I just hung up on Bogo,” was the only thing he could think to say, the only thing that might be shocking enough.

It was.

They both turned slowly, ears pinned and dumbfounded expressions on their faces.

“You what ?” 

He snorted and squared his shoulders. “You both have better hearing than me so don’t play dumb.” He then slumped slightly. “I’ve been trying to be the best imitation of Chief Bogo I could be. I should have known better, given how that turned out for him.” He huffed and started pacing the small space. “We’re both rather atypical for our species, you know; him, the herd mammal who has to go it alone, and me, the lone water horse who has to be part of something bigger.”

He stopped his pacing and looked at the two surprised officers. “I nearly threw that bigger something in the deep river to drown by swimming someone else’s current. No more. Like Wilde said,” he flagged slightly, “until told otherwise I am the Chief of Police here at the First Precinct. That means I stand up for all officers under my command, especially against any of City Hall’s political shenanigans.”

He looked his two subordinates in the eyes. “Alright Officers, what have you got, and what do you need from the office of the Chief of Police?”

Chapter Text

“Good evening, Zootopia, and welcome to ZNN,” Peter Moosebridge said as the six o’clock newscast began. “Tonight’s top story: the ongoing trial of Chief of Police Idris Bogo enters its third week. Fabienne?”

“Thank you, Peter.” Fabienne turned as the camera trained on her face. “Since the fiery opening statements were presented by both sides there has been little progress made in the case. The defense has presented a compelling argument for extenuating circumstances. We go live to Brock Sampson at the Courthouse. Brock?”

The scene shifted to the European badger standing in the foyer of the Municipal Courthouse. “That’s right Fabienne. Since the beginning of this case, the defense has asserted that the City Council’s political compromises in the final MII bill hindered Chief Bogo’s ability to adequately support any program recipients. Prosecution’s focus has instead shifted to Chief Bogo’s supposed ‘48 hour’ limitation placed on Officer Hopps. Defense has since countered with the anecdotal nature of those claims. It is anticipated that today’s session will see Officer Judy Hopps take the stand to put her version of events on record.”

Judy did her best to restrain her nervous foot tapping as she was sworn into the witness stand. At least her nose was staying put. Nick’s presence in the gallery directly behind Bogo was a balm for her nerves as Danielle stalked up to her for examination.

“Miss Hopps, how long after your graduation from the Zootopia Police Academy before you reported to Precinct One for your first day of duty?”

“One week, ma’am. I began the following Monday.”

Danielle leaned forward. “And had there been a clear indication during your training that you would succeed in graduating from the program?”

Judy was nonplussed by the overt invasion of her personal space. “Nobody gets that during the program, ma’am. You pass or fail based on your abilities and competencies.”

The wolf straightened and turned slightly towards the judge. “Allow me to rephrase the question. Was there any doubt by the last quarter that you were going to graduate?”

“No ma’am; not in my mind, anyway.”

“So, then, long before you received your badge and assignment, it was clear that you would in fact be a police officer. I have documentation entered into evidence, documented email communications from your Senior Training Officer Major Friedkin stating that Chief Bogo should anticipate your assignment.”

Danielle pointed a remote at the flat-screen monitor facing the gallery and a series of documents sprung up. “‘Exemplary progress. Exceptional perseverance despite a lack of accommodation.’”

Grizwald stood with a flourish. “Objection your Honor. Hearsay; Officer Hopps could not have known about the nature or content of communications, official or otherwise, between the Training Cadre and Municipal staff.”

Judge Carmen Grazer nodded. “Sustained.” She cast a neutral look at Danielle. “Get to the point, counselor.”

“The point is that Officer Hopps’ graduation was a foregone conclusion that was communicated to Chief Bogo well in advance of her so called ‘surprise’ assignment to Precinct One. There was plenty of time to research and to prepare for her, to ensure that the resources that she needed to do her job were made available to her. And yet, they weren’t.”

Judge Grazer looked between the two Councils. “While those points are valid, they do not pertain to the questioning of Ms. Hopps. Objection is sustained. Please remain focused on the current witness.” 

Danielle turned and gave the jury box a brief glance, judging subtle shifts in body language. The further along this trial went the more distasteful she was finding her own arguments, but they added time to the clock, and every extra day was worth eking out.

“Certainly, your Honor.” Danielle turned back to Judy. “Officer Hopps, when you first arrived at the precinct, what facilities were available for you to use?”

Judy fidgeted uncomfortably while looking at the Chief. He gave a subtle nod, so she pressed forward with the truth. “I had my service dress and tactical uniforms, as well as a field radio.”

“These were the only pieces of kit available for you to use?”

Judy hesitated. “No ma’am. There was also a small mammal gas-powered cart and safety gear.” 

“For what purpose?”

“…parking duty.”

“And was that your assignment, then?”

“Yes.”

“Was this what you were trained for, Officer Hopps?”

Judy clenched her jaw and found Nick’s face in the gallery again. His ears perked and he turned his paw over his wrist, a familiar gesture that she remembered from a similarly nerve-wracking interview. 

“Was I trained to uphold all levels of the law in this city?” She raised her ears and looked Danielle dead in the eyes. “Yes, yes I was.”

“You weren’t conveniently being assigned to such a menial task during a growing crisis?”

“Of course I was. But I didn’t know the area, the very streets I was to patrol yet. I came from the Burrows. What better way was there to learn the community—the mammals—I would be coming into regular contact with than with a non-hostile, albeit still necessary, task?” Judy shrugged her shoulders. “Besides, there weren’t any training officers available to assign me to, so who was I supposed to go on patrol with?”

Danielle paused and laid her ears back. This wasn’t part of her talk track. What was Judy doing?

“You mean to tell me that you were content to put tickets on parked cars while your colleagues were assigned to actual police work?”

Judy gave a bitter huff. “I wasn’t, and I made it clear. Insisted I could handle a case despite not knowing the city or having a partner yet. First day, and I went clear against normal, standard onboarding protocols because I thought I was better than that. News flash: I wasn’t.”

“Do you really believe that after everything you found? What you uncovered?”

“In hindsight the ends might have justified the means, but it also shines a spotlight on the danger I placed myself and civilians in at the time. The next officer that comes into the station on the MII should start where Chief Bogo suggested I start. Community policing, learning the streets… not every police task is so glamorous as thwarting a conspiracy. Doesn’t make them any less important.”

“But you were assigned a more prestigious case the next day, isn’t that correct?”

“Because I demanded it. The Chief handled it like you should handle a tantrum: with a wakeup call.”

Danielle straightened up. “This would be the ‘48 hour’ ultimatum?” 

Judy nodded, but was greeted with a stern look from both Danielle and Judge Grazer. “Yes.”

“Could you elaborate for the court what this ultimatum entailed?”

“A single missing mammal case that hadn’t any leads yet. I… bragged… I could solve it in 48 hours.”

Danielle quirked her ears for a moment, then pressed forward. “What was the consequence if you didn’t?”

“If I couldn’t find the missing mammals then I would resign.”

“So the Chief placed a time limit on you solving a missing mammal case? Despite the inducing and enforcing of quotas in policing being shown to be an impediment towards conscientious policing?”

Grizwald was on his paws again. “Objection, your Honor. This case is in regards to allegations of Civil Liberties violations by my client, not the interpretation of the legality of his orders.”

“Sustained.” Carmen turned a stern glare on Danielle. 

The red wolf almost sagged in relief; as much as she wanted to see justice served, she was no longer certain she could do that with this case. “Withdrawn; no further questions, your Honor.”

Agnes snarled into the phone, professionalism be damned. “We were assured this was an all but open-and-shut case that would be over in days; we’re into week three now! And why the hell aren’t you in the courtroom with her?”

Reginald whinnied in frustration as he talked. <New Moon convinced the judge to sever the cases, citing some crap about Federal precedence. Then Grizwald said Bogo would be willing to face the Union’s charges in a Bench Court. Grazer bumped my case-> He started slightly when Agnes snarled into the receiver. <-our case, to the State Court’s Labor Department. I could apply for a reversal of the severance with the appellate court, but that could take months by itself!> 

Agnes managed to rein herself in after a few breaths. “Fine, fine. Just start the inferior court process.”

<Why?> The sound of Reggie’s voice was quickly becoming a pet peeve for Agnes. <That’ll just drag the process out longer. At this point we’d get a better effect spray-painting racial slurs on his house.>

“Because, Reginald,” the growl was back in her voice, “if the Union backs off now it calls all the charges into question and draws attention to the Mayor and to you. Were that to happen, they might just learn how you paid off your student loans, and who you still owe money to. Are we clear?”

Reginald let out a squawk of alarm. <What?! You said that couldn’t be traced->

“Mayor Staggno said ‘wouldn’t be traced’, not couldn’t. Now, are we clear?”

The moment she heard the plaintive ‘yes’ over the line, she slammed the receiver down. She sagged back into her chair and looked at the wall calendar behind Tony with several circled dates. 

“One week until the MII Repeal bill goes before the City Council… even if the case is over tomorrow, the news cycle will still be on Bogo and Hopps. There’s no way we could sanitize this fast enough for mammals to not ask questions and demand answers.” She shifted her gaze to her boss. “We need to delay putting the bill before the Council.”

“Out of the question.” The sentence had a heavy finality to it. “If we push this off any further, we risk the debate entering the mid-cycle elections. The old guard can double down on supporting the MII and swing massive votes with the smaller demographics, then we’ll never be rid of them.”

Agnes considered the implications of both outcomes mentally, attempting to reconcile what would be the obvious fallout against the risk and the reward for each option. She sighed and leaned over the desk, her paws steepled just in front of her face.

“The best alternative option, then, would be to abandon the repeal altogether.”

“No.”

Her ears splayed back. “Tony, it’s the only other possible—”

“I said no.” The hard emphasis he added felt like a bop to the snout and her lip lifted ever so slightly in response to the almost scolding tone. “You just need to figure something else out.”

“I’m not a miracle worker,” she said, and rose to her feet. “The contingencies we’ve arranged hinged on the court case ending quickly, which was all but a foregone conclusion. If we continue to move against the MII now, it won’t matter when it ends or how it ends. If we move on other bills instead, we literally risk nothing that we’ve already built. Refocus attention away from it; let it go.”

“I will NOT let it go!” Agnes couldn’t stop herself from flinching at the sudden boom of his voice and the two sudden and deliberate steps that planted him directly on the other side of her desk. She didn’t back down or break eye contact, but her heart hammered as he stooped down in her face. “A clean slate is what this city needs. Fresh. Sterile. Pristine. Leave a single filthy weed behind, the whole garden stands to be overrun again. Get under it and rip it out at the roots.”

“Piss is sterile, but I doubt you’d want that in your theoretical garden.” Her muzzle wrinkled the tiniest bit more, a sharpness she usually never let out in the office turning her words crude and ugly. She resettled herself as a fleeting look of surprise flitted over his face and said more evenly, “We can’t delude ourselves with what we wish the variables were. We have to work with what we have, not with what we don’t have.”

He gave a derisive huff. “If you don’t want to get your paws dirty doing what needs to be done like those cudspiritors, then—”

“Do not finish that sentence, Antonio. Just don’t.” Agnes’ tail stood straight behind her, its tip angrily lashing until it tipped over her pencil case. 

Tony started at the sudden noise from her desk, then turned away. “Figure out a different angle to work.” Antonio settled hard into his chair, pointedly not looking at Agnes. “This isn’t negotiable. Just do it. Do I make myself clear?”

“Yes sir.”

Agnes closed her laptop and picked up her bag from under the desk before stalking toward the door. She felt his eyes following after her as he asked, “Where are you going?”

“Home. A strange thought, I know, but I don’t actually live here.” She never turned to face him. “I’ll be late tomorrow, so you’ll need to pick up your own coffee. Snarlbucks on Pack Street has your standing order and it’ll be ready at 7:54 am. Goodnight.” With every step towards the door she regained a small measure of her composure and poise until she closed the door behind her.

Tony stared into the suddenly empty office. It was strange, the silence. When was the last time she left before he did?

He snorted hard and picked up the phone. He didn’t need her advice, did he? He was Antonio Staggno, Mayor of Zootopia, and he’d be damned if he let a trumped-up Staff Intern throw a wrench into all his careful plans. He’d move things along on his own if he had to. Toward that bright and perfect future this city needed. Whatever it took.

Chapter Text

Higgins walked up to the Bullpen’s podium and faced his officers. His somber expression gave way to a ghost of a smile. “Good morning. Before we get started, I wanted to show everyone something.”

Pressing a few buttons, the lights dimmed and the projection screen behind him lowered. Moments later, the screen filled with the theme for the morning news ‘Candid with Canid’.

<Good morning Zootopia, and welcome back.> A badger in a sharp suit shot a winning smile at the camera. <I’m Brock Sampson, standing in for Candice Canidae. I’m here with Jasper Humpington. Good morning, Jasper.>

The dromedary sitting across from him shifted uneasily in his plush armchair. <Good morning, Brock.>

<Now let’s start with the question I think is on everyone’s mind this morning after yesterday’s landmark decision to acquit Chief Bogo.> The winning smile shifted subtly, Brock’s eyes now bright with an almost murderous gleam. <Why did the city bring an ACLU suit on behalf of an MII recipient if it was their intent to repeal the MII to begin with?>

<Well, I think we should focus on the broader perspective that—>

<No, we’re going to focus on the narrow perspective that the city drew attention to civil rights violations against one of our citizens, then immediately tried to violate those same rights for every small mammal by denying them equal opportunities.>

<It’s not that simple. The mayor needs to do what he can to protect the citizens of the city—>

<By breaking up—and I’m quoting Chief Bogo here by the way—‘one of the most effective patrol teams to serve the force in 25 years’?>

The screen went blank and began to raise as the assembled officers cheered. Higgins waited for a few moments for them to regain their composure. “Alright. As to why I felt the need to show you all that; ‘cause I like to start the day with a good chuckle.” 

Higgins waited another few seconds as the officers burst into a round of laughter. “First item of official business.” He stepped to the side of the podium. “Room! Aten-Hut!” The bullpen door swung inward. All heads turned and the laughter died immediately, replaced by the non-sound of a room holding its breath.

It had been more than a month since Chief Bogo last walked through those doors, yet once the cheering started it felt as if no time had passed. Striding past Lieutenant Higgins with a thankful nod, he settled into his rightful place behind the podium. His nostalgia faded once his eyes settled on the two smallest officers under his command; one jubilant and all but dancing in her seat, while the other looked on with cool disinterest bordering on disdain.

“At ease.” Bogo closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Everyone sat and looked at him as he once again leveled his somber gaze out at them. “I’d prefer to get down to business this morning, but I have some things I need to say first, things all of you need to hear. I’ll make it quick.

“More than a month ago, the mayor of Zootopia stormed into this building and leveled several accusations against me. They were scandalous, reactionary… and entirely accurate.” His gaze settled on Judy and Nick. “I won’t pretend my conduct towards Officer Hopps was in any way appropriate. Furthermore, I endangered the careers of two of my officers by ordering another one to cover up the truth.”

He looked to Lieutenant Higgins. “I’m a stubborn old bull. I like to do things my way, and that includes riding herd on grown mammals who don’t need me micro-managing them.” He turned back to the assembly. “You all know what you’re here for. You don’t need me looming over you every minute of every day. I, on the other hoof, do need a reminder from time to time,” he looked directly into Nick’s eyes, “what it is I am actually here for; to protect and serve all of you. You wouldn’t be here today if you couldn’t do your jobs, and I wouldn’t be here today if you hadn’t done them. For that you have my deepest respect and gratitude.”

There was silence for a few seconds, and then Nick gave a sharp snort. “Got a funny idea of quick there, Chief.”

“Shut it, Wilde.” The room burst out into laughter as Bogo stepped out from behind the podium and pointed at the door. “You all know what you’re supposed to be doing today. Get out now and do it. Dismissed!”

The line of outdoor bistros on Olive Street in Sahara Square were a popular spot for dinner, as one would expect. The tasteful, if sparse, landscaping and bright, almost ever-present sunshine made for a delightful atmosphere for those who could manage the heat. Ukudlela Ngaphandle was one such eatery on this stretch of oasis in the desert, known for exemplary cuisine and a comfortable atmosphere under the shade of native dyed awnings.

Bogo allowed himself a small treat here after the workday ended. He realized it wasn’t completely deserved, nor was it a celebration of any kind of victory. The outcome of the court case, even though it was in his favor, seemed hollow somehow. But as a recently surpassed trial, something in recognition of its ending seemed fitting. An acknowledgement that there was more yet to come, with new foes. He’d enjoy the calm before the next storm, however short it may be.

“Fancy meeting you here.”

He started at the now familiar voice of Danielle New Moon. There was a calm to her mien that seemed at odds with the wolf who had bedeviled him for the last month. “Indeed. I didn’t take you for a connoisseur of Zulu Cuisine.” 

He was sure she caught his question by the rise of her ears. She chuckled lightly, a sound he found almost jarring in its incongruity. A dish of Ugali and grilled ostrich was set in front of her as she said, “I’ve recently had my eyes opened to new possibilities, so I thought I’d take a chance. While not my preferred choice, I find it edifying, if not wholly satisfying.” 

Her meaning was well taken. “While I don’t regret being a free mammal, I can’t say this doesn’t taste like ash on the tongue.”

“Could just be a bad batch of arugula?”

He scoffed at the feeble attempt at levity. They both chewed in silence for a few moments until she gestured at him with her fork. “While I detest how I was used, I can’t condone your actions towards Hopps either. Don’t do anything that might bring me back here; I won’t be nearly so forgiving.”

That was the tone he had come to expect. It was strangely comforting to be back on familiar ground. “Perish the thought.” 

The rest of the meal passed in contemplative silence, until both of them were more pushing the remaining food around their plates than actually eating it. 

“I will say I do find some small consolation in the outcome of all this,” Danielle said, putting her fork down and pushing her plate away at last.

“Oh?” Bogo’s ears flagged as he set his napkin beside his plate and leaned back in his chair. “And what would that be?” He stood and offered a hoof up.

“I think you appreciate how lucky you are to have mammals like your officers in your corner. Whether you deserve them was up in the air, but… I believe you’ll do right by them moving forward.”

Bogo nodded his thanks as they shook paw in hoof and parted amicably. It was more than he could have hoped for.

Reginald Pranceton was in a bind, and not just because of his recent loss. He thought betting on the ponies was a sure thing, but the Bruins swept the Colts 4-0 and now he was short a grand. He looked at the slip in his hoof before crumpling it and tossing it at a nearby storm drain. Staggno wasn’t going to like him asking for another loan, but what else could he do? As the mayor’s alley cat had pointed out, he had debts to pay, and he needed his knees if he was going to stand in court.

He kept his head down as he trudged onto Olive Street. ‘Eyes only on what’s in front of you’ as his father used to say, ‘look too far up, and you’ll trip.’ God, he hated that old mule, but he had been right. He’d set his sights on a law degree, and was booted from the force. Tried to make it big in the casino, ended up in hock to the mob. Tried to bring down Chief Idris Bogo and secure a position in the DA’s office, ended up… hell, he didn’t know where he was now; maybe the best-known creek without a paddle?

He looked around to get his bearings when he saw them! Idris was just standing from a cafe table and extending a hoof to New Moon like bosom buddies. It was inconceivable! She had been brought into the city to put that stubborn bull away, not take him out for Shawarma! It was intolerable! It was disgraceful! It was…

He swiftly pulled out his cell phone and took several pictures of the two clasping hooves and paws. He ducked into a nearby Bazar alley and dialed the mayor immediately.

“Tony? Yeah, yeah, your honorable holiness or whatever, listen! I have exactly what we need.”

Agnes unlocked the door to the Mayor’s office so she could start another day as his Aide de Camp. Once upon a time, not all that long ago, that thought would have filled her with a sense of pride and determination. Now, she only anticipated another day of trying to rein in Ton… Mayor Staggno’s more self-destructive political impulses. At least over the last two days, he’d seemed to have his old focus back, even with Chief Bogo being returned to his former status.

She had just turned her laptop on when Antonio swept into the room. “Good morning, Aggie. Are you ready for things to get back on track? Especially after that blood-bath of an interview on ‘Candid with Canid’” He shook his head in disappointment. “That couldn’t have been messier if Sampson had beaten Humpington with a boom-mic.” He settled into his high-backed chair with a flourish.

Agnes shook her head in dismay; that interview had been meant as a bandage on Tony’s reputation. “Well, they certainly couldn’t have gotten farther off track.” 

She didn’t realize she’d spoken her thoughts until Tony looked up at her. “What?”

She panicked until she noticed his simple, inquisitive mien. “I said it will be very good to get back on track. What do you need from me, sir?”

He chuckled and put his hooves behind his head. “Just turn on ZNN, and enjoy the show.”

She opened the news feed on her computer, and hoped for the best.

<This is Allison Hornsby reporting live from the Zootopian Superior Courthouse. Mayor Antonio Staggno has just stepped off the podium. This surprise announcement follows an equally surprising civil suit filed against recently reinstated Chief Bogo by Police Union Lawyer Reginald Pranceton, Esq.>

Agnes felt her stomach twist a little and hoped it was just indigestion. She dared a glance over her computer at the mayor. His self-congratulating smile only filled her with more dread.

“Wait for it.” 

God, she hated waiting. For a species as quick as hers, waiting wasn’t something that she was built for. She dropped her eyes back to the screen as her heart sank little by little in the agonizing seconds that followed.

<Citing an alleged meeting between Chief Bogo and ACLU Prosecutor Danielle New Moon, Mayor Staggno has dismissed the chief from active duty until a formal inquiry can be completed regarding what he is calling “a potential gross breach of ethics.”>

Agnes gulped, swallowing only air; her mouth had gone dry. “How… where did…” She took a long breath through her nose and forced her shoulders to relax. “When was this connection brought to your attention, sir?”

He flipped out his phone. “Reggie came through in a pinch yesterday.” He spun his phone around to show her the pictures. “They say a picture’s worth a thousand words. This one only has to say one: collusion!”

“So you immediately—without consulting me—moved forward on an impromptu press conference to sack him, despite the public opinion polls that have been steadily trending in Chief Bogo’s favor since his acquittal.”

It wasn’t even a question so much as a summary of his base ignorance. The timing couldn’t have been worse; he anticipated this spin on a grainy cell-phone photo to somehow override the rulings of the courts, to say nothing of the potential backlash for slander of a Federal officer. 

Tony’s expression hardened. “You should be pleased. I basically just did your job for you, gave Pranceton another leg to stand on for his case—”

“It does not matter, Tony!” Agnes practically shouted, frustration lining her voice. “It is completely irrelevant. That comfortable majority you built in the Council is already starting to come apart as a direct result of this. You still insist on moving forward with the MII Repeal Bill, and I don’t have to look at the headlines now to know that tomorrow that connection will be established in big bold letters in every paper, news article, editorial, Blog, and Ewe-tube pundit tagline. The city won’t stand for it!”

Her fists clenched and shook at her sides. Why did he still have that simpering expression on his face, as though she were a petulant child having a tantrum? Well… maybe she could have been more composed. But this was skirting the edge of sheer madness! He was sinking a ship full of perfectly good legislation just to focus on driving out one single bill?

THUNK THUNK THUNK THUNK!

Tony turned his scowl on the door. “Whoever you are, I’m in a meeting—”

The doors swung open and Danielle New Moon walked in with another mammal; a snow-white ferret in a black suit and a cherry red scarf.

“Many apologies for interrupting,” she said, her voice coated in sickening sweetness that was not reflected in her cold stare. “Surely you can spare a few minutes for us?”

Tony’s jaw clicked shut as he instinctively jerked his head back from the clearly angry wolf. “No, in point of fact I can’t spare any time for someone who doesn’t do the job they were assigned.”

Danielle’s eyes narrowed even further; the smile she wore was as close to a snarl as one could ever get away with. “Mr. Mayor, you seem to be under a misconception of who it is that I work for. Allow me to set the record straight.” In two steps she was directly in front of him, nose tilted up as she stared without a single shred of fear into his eyes. “Not. You.”

“Ms. New Moon,” Agnes ground out, her tail twitching, “this is highly irregular. Unless you have a warrant or other legal permission to enter Chambers, then I will have to ask you to leave.”

The ferret who accompanied Danielle in took this opportunity to hurry up beside the desk where Agnes was standing. With a small leap he was perched on the corner, and held a tiny folder up to her. “Not to worry ma’am, this will only take a moment.” He turned to Tony. “-ahem- Antonio Staggno, my name is Dustin Hargrave, of Woolston, DuMount and Hargrave. On behalf of my client Danielle New Moon, I am hereby serving you.” 

Agnes took out the paw-held magnifier she kept for reviewing rodent documents while Tony sputtered. “Preposterous! What could you possibly charge me with?”

Agnes looked up from the subpoena, her tail thrashing in open irritation. Her answer was only one word. 

“Slander.”

Chapter Text

There is a point that exists in every mammal that they never quite know is there until they meet it. This was the point that Nick and the other officers found themselves the morning after Mayor Staggno’s impromptu press conference was broadcast over ZNN. They hadn’t seen Chief Bogo since the news broke, and Clawhauser confirmed he wasn’t anywhere in the station.

They filed into the office area like they were trudging into a coal mine. No one was more despondent than Judy, and even though he knew better, Nick was really letting it get to him.

Not that he let anyone else see that, of course.

“It felt like all this was finally over with,” she said with a long sigh and wilting ears. She all but threw her tablet at her desk in frustration and sank into her office chair. “Does the Mayor even have a case anymore? When will this end?”

Nick shrugged and leaned against the cubicle wall. “When the Mayor gets what he wants, or gets the boot would be my guess.” He waggled an eyebrow at her. “Any takers?”

Judy’s expression turned to fierce fury. “It’s a blatant abuse of power, and for what? A pissing match over a piece of legislation that has only improved opportunities for so many mammals in this city?”

“Mammals that aren’t him, or who he gives a damn about.” Nick’s ears flagged. “Easy to take pot shots from the other side of the river. What I haven’t figured out is his endgame. He’s got all these soundbytes about ‘getting the city back on track’, but what does he even mean by that?”

“Maybe he actually means he’ll make Zootopia ‘jump the track’?” Danny quipped feebly. They all groaned at him and his ears pinned back. “Geez, sorry. Just trying to lighten the mood.”

Judy tightly shrugged. “Well, he’s not getting the city ‘back on track,’ is he? He’s driving it off the rails and into a compost fire! Who gives a dandelion what he means?”

“We should, Hopps.” Nadine rumbled from her own cubicle. “If we knew where he was going with all this, we might be able to anticipate his moves and finally get ahead of him, like you two did with the Council voting.”

Nick huffed and crossed his arms. “Yeah, you got anyone in mind with an inside knowledge of what the future ‘Ex-Mr. Mayor’ has been plotting?”

“Given the state of the news channels,” she said, brandishing her cellphone at him, “I’m wondering if there’s a single mammal in the whole city who knows that.”

Nick gave a slight smirk at the tigress. “Including him?”

There was a tense round of forced and awkward laughter at his jab, but it died almost immediately as a boisterous voice and heavy gait came all but thundering into the office space.

“Alright everybody! I need all officers, and especially the Bargaining Unit Employees, in the training room in fifteen minutes for a Union meeting!” Pranceton strutted out and down the hall.

Nadine looked both irritated and thoughtful as she glanced at Danny, Nick, and Judy. “Maybe one mammal in this city.” 

The four locked their workstations and joined the throng headed for the auditorium. The atmosphere was somber as they filed into the station training classroom; it wasn’t difficult to get a read of the room from the mammals now standing together under the dim fluorescent bulbs. Of course, Reginald Pranceton wasn’t terribly literate when it came to reading his audience. He practically skipped to the podium at the front, and had a wide grin plastered on his face when he began to address them.

“My good mammals, today marks the end of an era, and the start of a new age of real progress for this city. Once I’ve been appointed to the DA’s office, I’ll be sure to remember everyone who stood by me, and the Mayor.”

“At least let Hopps arrest the current mayor before you start campaigning, Reggie,” Anderson called from the back of the room. A round of chuckles broke out. Reggie, however, was not amused. 

Before he could continue, Ben Clawhauser stood up with a ream of papers in his paws. “Um, Mr. Pranceton? I feel I should remind you that holding Union meetings during work hours or on police property is a violation of the Collective Bargaining Agreement.”

Reggie squinted at the cheetah. “I'm sorry, who are you again officer…?”

“Clawhauser,” he deadpanned, voice so devoid of its usual vitality that the officers standing nearby took a step back from him with apprehension. “I’m your Steward, remember? Oh, that’s right, you don’t attend the Local’s meetings. How silly of me.”

Ben gave a lazy swish of his tail, eyes scary serious and now boring holes in the previously prancing pony. Reggie pulled something out of his pocket and began rubbing it between his hooves. “Well, I… that is, in light of current events, I ah…”

“Also, your statement a moment ago about your potential appointment could be construed as ‘Use of Office to aid in promotion’, which is against the National Union Bylaws and City Ordinances. Sir.”

He looked ready to snap at Clawhauser when Lieutenant Higgins came into the room. 

“Pranceton, what’s going on here?” he demanded, gesturing at Reggie with incensed hooves. “I need these officers back on duty, not pandering to your ego.”

Reginald drew himself up. “Well, lieutenant, I was informing the Union Membership and Officers of the impending changes in—”

“I don’t care if you are announcing the imminent arrival of the Flying Spaghetti Monster!” The room broke out in another round of mocking chuckles. “You are not a police officer, you do not order my officers away from their duties! Are. We. Clear?!”

Reggie shrank beneath the hippo now towering over him. He mumbled a half formed apology as he edged around Lieutenant Higgins, and beat a hasty retreat out of the training room. The officers present broke out in a thunderous round of applause.

“What are you all clapping for?” he yelled at them, though his face was quirking a small smile even as he pointed at the doors that had just swung shut. “Show’s over! Get back to work!”

Despite the lack of actual authority being displayed, they still moved with significant speed out and back to the atrium. They were just quick enough to witness Reginald Pranceton leave out the front of the building, tail swishing nervously behind him.

Wilde turned to Wolford. “Was it my imagination, or was Ol’ Reggie worrying a poker chip?” Danny nodded slowly, only now getting his hackles back down. Nick watched after the stallion’s retreating figure, eyes narrowed and nostrils flared. He turned to Judy. “You good on your own for a couple of days? There’s something I’d like to look into.”

Judy noted the cold look in her partner’s eyes; the sort he got just before walking into Interrogation. “Yeah, I should be okay. But—” She locked her eyes to Nick’s. “—If you need any back up—”

“Judy, this isn’t exactly the sort of thing you would c—oof!”

She glared as he nursed his sore shoulder. “Any backup. You call me, okay?”

He chuckled at her ferocity and nodded. She nodded back and headed over to Nadine, while he walked over to the Lieutenant. “Higgins, I’d like to formally request personal time off for the next couple of days.”

The hippo flicked his ears. “Oh?”

“Yeah.” Nick gave an obviously fake cough. “Pretty sure I’m coming down with a serious case of the flu.”

Higgins hummed. “Mmm, that sounds pretty bad, Wilde.” He turned to regard the doors that the stallion had just walked out of. “Better take three, just to be sure.”

“Lieutenant,” Nick said aside as he began to saunter away, “it won’t take more than two days to deal with what’s making me sick.” 

Nick leaned against the high-backed chair sipping a pony glass of Calfados Apple Brandy. For a double-dealing gambling addict in debt to the mob, Reggie sure had good taste in booze. He almost wished it was more of the paint-thinner variety, really. This was the kind of liquor you’d drink to celebrate something, and while he had the scent of victory in his nose at the moment, it certainly wasn’t one that he saw himself relishing in any way.

It had been a long day slogging through some of the worst parts of the city to get to this moment. He’d visited every legitimate and illegitimate gambling hall, and every betting parlor and bookie he could remember. In the end, he’d tracked Reggie’s vice back to the very doorstep of the Big estate. One visit to an off-street tailor for a red-and-black three piece and fedora, and he’d been ready for an audience.

There was a part of him—a small bunny-shaped shadow—that almost wished he’d been thrown out onto his brush for what he did in there. He’d managed to not sell his services as a cop, though he was quite certain he’d do well not to stay in Tundratown too long ever again. In the end, he had everything he needed. His letter—old-time sloth mail—to a contact in ZNN ensured there was no coming back. No matter how this evening passed, Reginald Pranceton was done.

There was a rattle at the front door and a long creak, signaling Reggie’s return. Slick Nick tipped his fedora down slightly and waited. It didn’t take long for the stallion, even through his obvious distraction, to recognize that he wasn’t alone in his home. He gave an agitated snort into the darkness of the living room.

“Who’s there? Whatever you think you’re going to make off with, just put it back and maybe I won’t work you over before the cops get here to clean you out of the grout!” He flicked the light switch a couple of times before a pair of household fuses rolled along the floor to his hoof.

“Heh. As if anyone from the force would bother getting here in a timely manner for you, Reggie.”

He blinked into the pervasive darkness, trying to pinpoint the source of the voice that taunted him from beyond the range of his sight. “If you know my name then you know who I work for. This can only end one way.” He did his best to keep the waver out of his voice.

“Who you work for? Now that is the question, isn’t it.” The voice seemed to bounce around the room at him. “Do you work for the Police Union? We’ve already established that you’re on the outs with them. The current Mayor? He’s burning bridges faster than a retreating army. Or maybe you mean Mr. Big. After all, if you use his services and receive payments from him then you must work for him. 

“But that’s a little sticky for you, isn’t it Reggie?” The voice moved again. “A Union Lawyer taking money from the Mayor? A DA in debt to a Capo? If you’d picked one master or the other I’d at least be able to respect you.” A tiny form in red and black stepped out from beside Reginald’s coffee table. “You’d still be less than gutter trash, but at least you’d be consistent.” The shape tossed back a drink, then leapt onto the table and sat down without a care in the world.

Reggie quailed and backed away from the little demonesque figure until he hit the wall. “I… I’m sure I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

The little red devil sneered cruelly. “I am no fool, Pranceton, so don’t take me for one. You think I came into this house by accident? That I didn’t do my homework before coming here?” The small mammal leaned forward. “More to the point, do you think I came here first?”

“What—?”

“A mammal cannot have two masters, Reggie, and you have five.” Little Red ticked off on his paws as he spoke. “The Union, the Mayor, the Bigs, the Bank, and last but not least, the Ponies.” Reggie flinched as Little Red tsked. “Something’s gotta give, and I’m afraid that something is you.”

He could feel the blood draining from his face, and he clutched at the wall as though there were something there to grab onto, to take up and protect him from this sinister fiend. “Look, forget what I said earlier alright? You can take anything you want, no questions! I can even call my contact in the Mayor’s office; she’ll set you up for life! Just—”

“Oh Reggie Reggie Reggie,” Little Red shook his head, “you still don’t get it do you? I didn’t come here to take something from you, because I’ve already taken everything from you!” Light from his front window glinted off of pearl-white fangs and soulless green eyes. “I’ve already sent word to ZNN that you are in debt to the mob, and I’ve informed Mr. Big that you won’t be getting that big, beautiful promotion so you won’t be paying him back.”

Reggie’s knees gave out in shock as the Little Red Devil hopped down and sauntered towards him. “If you stay in the city, then Mr. Big’s #2 will come to pay you a visit, and he’s not nearly as nice as I am. If you turn yourself in you’re likely to be arrested. Mayor Staggno certainly won’t do you any favors under those circumstances.” He walked right up to the terrified mustang and stared him in one eye. “If that happens then every two-bit hood trying to earn a name on the streets will be looking to do Mr. Big a solid by way of your head in a trash bag.” 

“Why are you doing this to me?” Reginald pleaded.

“Why did God allow the Devil to torment Job?” Little Red stood up and shrugged. “There’s just something about you that pisses me off.”

The small, hate filled creature put its paws in its pockets and strolled towards the still open front door. “If I were you—which thank God I’m not—I’d get every little bit of nothing I thought I couldn’t live without or that I could sell, and I’d leave.” He paused at the threshold. “Right now.” He then disappeared into the night.

Nick had spent the better part of the night looking into something Reggie had said: “-my contact in the Mayor’s office; she’ll set you up-” It wasn’t even the first reference to a female associated with Reggie and his debt. Some of the bookies had mentioned an intense big cat who paid them off, and in one case chased them off. It had taken a good bit of digging to track down the mammal who matched that slim profile: Agnes Cutter, Aide de Camp to Mayor Antonio Staggno. 

Ever since Bellwether, there was enough social media footage of the Mayor’s office to produce a ‘Truman Show’. He didn’t need all those details, just one: two cups of coffee and a pastry from Snarlbucks, and there was only one within two blocks of City Hall. Tipping his fedora back as he sat at one of the high tops, he re-watched his video of Reggie’s unceremonious departure, and Raymond’s arrival one minute later. A tinkle from the door chime alerted him to his quarry. He deleted the file and waited.

He listened as she barely avoided yelling at the barista for giving her order away, and flicked his tail when the terrified white-tail doe pointed to him, as well as the three cups and pastry bag on his table.

There was a distinct difference in the way species moved when they were angry. Prey stomped and snorted to let you know they were coming. As for predators... the only indication she’d arrived at the table was when her delicate perfume drifted past his nose.

“Congratulations,” she said as she reluctantly sat. Like her movements, her voice was soft as a breeze yet laden with threat. “Somehow you’ve managed to find an outfit that makes you look even more ridiculous than your usual uniform.”

“Well, you and your boss seem hell-bent on taking that uniform from me so I thought I’d try on something new.” He gestured at her. “That does bring up a question I and my partner have been wondering ever since Mayor Antonio Staggno started his little crusade: why go after the MII?” He took his hat off and set it over the pastry bag. “Pardon me... it would be impolite to start things off. Ladies first.” He gestured with grand dignity, his own movements equally smooth.

Agnes snorted, then caught a whiff of something. “How’s Reginald doing? Is he enjoying the Apple Brandy as much as you did?”

Nick put a finger to his chin and looked up. “You know, I don’t think he is. At least it didn’t look like he packed it when he stampeded out last night.” Agnes’ tail froze mid-twitch. “I’m pretty sure he caught the 11:15 to Deerbourne. I can check if you like.

“So I’ve done the gentlemamly thing and allowed you to go first.” Nick gave his winningest smile. “My turn, and you know my question. So, let’s dish about the Mayor!” He folded his paws under his chin and leaned over as he batted his eyes. 

Agnes rolled hers. “Pranceton was a cat’s paw at best—”

“Not one of yours, obviously.”

The derisive snort was past her nose before she could restrain herself. Her opinion of Pranceton aside, the mammal across from her was the enemy and not just because of what she and Tony had been trying to accomplish. “He’s meaningless. Sweep him off the board, under the rug or under the bus; it makes no difference. He’s a deniable asset, and one who’s out of the city now.” 

She locked eyes with Wilde, and didn’t like what she saw: cunning. All her research said the animal in front of her was a class clown; an AD/HD goof who could once in a blue moon motivate himself and rise to mediocrity. The animal actually in front of her was a predator through and through, and she had the unsettling feeling she was his next, but not last, prey.

“Oh, I know Reggie was a boob. I’m a member of the Union; I’ve had to listen to him speak. But he’s much more than that to you and to the mayor.”

“And what’s that?”

“He’s an unpaid debt.” Agnes’ tail started lashing the air again. “He owes money. He skipped town so that debt still stands. Your boss promised to pay that money, through you, to several unsavory characters. Now your boss owes that money, and these aren’t the sorts of mammals that accept IOU’s. Mayor Staggno will be paying those debts off. If he’s smart, he’ll pay cash money out of his own pocket. Tell me,” he spun one of the cups around, “Aggie, is your boss a smart mammal?” Her pupils dilated sharply. “I’ll take that as a ‘no’. Then at best, it’s embezzling and you know some-bunny’s going to be looking for that. 

“At worst, he owes. He owes to a mammal who has murdered in the past over getting a dinner order wrong. He owes to a mammal who, himself, owes Judith Laverne Hopps a debt for saving the life of his daughter. And your boss has just spent how many weeks dragging poor Judy through the ringer?” 

Agnes went stock still as the faintest hint of fang showed in his smile. Was this what it felt like just before jaws clamped around your throat?

The door chime rang again, jolting her from her fugue as Idris Bogo walked up to their table.

“Pardon me, miss. Is this seat taken?” He never bothered to look at her.

Agnes felt this was a good time to make a dignified retreat, while there was still a chance for one. “Not at all. I was just leaving.” She snatched up her coffees and made for the door. 

“Oh, Aggie!” There was a saccharine tone to that voice that made her freeze. “Forgetting something?” Nick dangled the pastry bag from his claws. 

She paused, considering, and said over her shoulder, “Not really hungry after all the food-for-thought you gave me. Enjoy.”

Agnes was out the door in a blink, only the merry jingle indicating her departure. Nick smirked in appreciation; that had taken a lot of chutzpah. He refocused on the Ch… on Bogo. He waved the bag toward him glibly. “Care to share the spoils?”

Bogo snorted, and sat on the chair hard. “You look better in blue.”

Nick snorted back. “You look terrible in yellow. I should take a picture to show Judy every time she complains about my shirts.” 

“Nicholas.” Nick stopped at the use of his given name. “Do me a favor; look around, then close your eyes and take a deep breath. Tell me what you see.”

Nick indulged his former boss. He saw the barista, her eyes wide, and he saw two wolves near the bathroom, their tails tucked and shoulders hunched, heads bowed together. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. The air was rank with fear.

He let the breath out slowly. “A hostage situation.” The weight of the past day’s work settled on his shoulders, and he suddenly felt dirty. There was a reason he had wanted to leave ‘Slick Nick’ in the gutter where he belonged.

“Rather unbecoming behavior from such a fine officer.” Bogo’s voice was smooth, low, barely a whisper. He may as well have shouted the words at Nick, they hit with such impact it felt like he’d taken a sledgehammer to the chest.

“Yeah, well they saw the real me. ‘Slick Nick’ isn’t nice, isn’t civilized,” he slumped slightly, “isn’t a good mammal. Certainly not a fine officer.”

“I’ve seen him too,” Nick closed his eyes at Bogo’s words, “every time you’ve gone into an interrogation and tied a guilty mammal’s words into a noose, or tricked some accomplice into giving up their partner. Every time you’ve headed out with a fire in your eyes to catch some kit-snatcher or gang-banger, I see a little of ‘Slick Nick’.” Nick hesitantly raised his head when a hoof rested on his shoulder. “You’re right. He isn’t nice, but he’s a damn good cop. I think the force—and one bunny in particular—would be worse off if he ended up in jail over an animal like Antonio Staggno.”

Nick smiled weakly at the paternal mammal in front of him. “This is the point where I make some lame joke so we can pretend we’re not bonding or something, isn’t it?” His smile gained a little strength when Idris snorted. “How’d you find me, anyway?”

“You went to a lot of trouble to look the part of a made-mammal, but your fellow officers knew it was you from the first anonymous tip they got. Brothers in blue always have back-up close by… no matter what color they happen to be wearing at the time.”

Nick looked in the direction Idris had glanced, and saw Wolford, Fangmeyer and Hopps all standing outside. They were doing their best to maintain stoic stances, but their faces were awash with relief.  

“Now,” Bogo said, and rose to his feet. “I would appreciate it if you’d all get back to the business of keeping this city safe, and keep your noses out of mine.”

“‘Business,’ Chief?” Nick asked rhetorically. “This whole thing screams of ‘personal’ to me. It has from the beginning.”

“Mmm, I suppose it has. All the more reason for you-lot to keep clear from here on out. You’ve done enough.” Bogo reached down to the table and took up the pastry bag in his hoof. “Now, if you’ll excuse me. I have a long overdue dessert to share with an old friend.”

The staff and patrons of the cafe sagged with relief as Bogo “escorted” the dangerous fox out to the waiting police officers.

Agnes’ tail was brushed out like a snow leopard’s as she stormed into Tony’s office. She couldn’t remember the last time she had been so rattled. She needed to rein Antonio in now or looking bad in the polls would be a fond memory in comparison to what they’d be dealing with next.

“There you are,” he chided her as she dropped her briefcase down. “You picked a fine day to stroll in late. Pranceton was due for an update on the case this morning, but there’s nothing in the drive and he’s not answering his phone—”

“And he won’t, it would seem.” She brushed past the stag on her way to her desk, shoving his coffee into his hoof on the way. “I have it on… questionable authority that he took a midnight train as far as it would take him.” She flopped into her chair with a graceless thump. “There may or may not be reports of a ‘B&E’ at his residence on the police blotter later.”

Tony stared for a moment, then muttered an oath beneath his breath as he slammed the coffee cup down on the desk.

“I gave him one job; one simple job to keep attention on Bogo and his crimes while I try to wrangle the City Council back on track!” He paused to regain his composure. “How certain are you that he’s left, and not just daytripping?”

“As certain as I can be based on the word of one of the Chief’s miniature officers.” She put her coffee to her lips; her paws were still shaking.

Tony scoffed. “Which? Oh, nevermind, let me guess. It’s just the kind of behavior that one can expect from a fox. All bluster and lies.”

Agnes shook her head. “No. I have no doubt he ran Pranceton out of town.”

“Well that’s easy enough to deal with.” He rummaged in his desk. He pulled out a form. “Ah, here it is. I’ll just bounce him off the force like a tennis ball. Pull his fangs and then all he is is another wild-card pelt on the street.”

“With all due respect sir, this officer isn't just some ‘Wilde’ card. I know a predator when I see one.”

“Obviously; he’s a fox.”

She set her coffee cup down firmly. “I didn't say carnivore Tony, I said predator.” She then stood up and came around the desk. “He ran Reggie off overnight while on the force. What’s he likely to do when there is no oversight, nobody to keep him in check?”

He didn’t lift his head, didn’t acknowledge in any way that she’d spoken to him at all. His eyes were laser-focused on the form between hooves and the pen rolling over it. Her heart stuttered; did he really not understand just how over their heads they were about to become?

In frustration, she marched over to his desk and snatched the pen from his hoof. “Tony!” His head jerked up at the interruption. “Did you not hear a word I just said? Wilde dismantled Pranceton in a night! And he made it very clear that there will be backlash on us!” She slammed the pen back on the desk. “You throw him out of the force and we give up any hope of controlling his movements or actions.”

Her voice was a hair away from cracking. After years of being in the political arena, one would think that situations like this would be old hat, that they would no longer throw them. But all the years that the two had worked together—and they had been working together now for many years—she couldn’t think of a time when they hadn’t been of one mind on an issue. Not once had they been on a different page; now it seemed they weren’t even in the same library. 

She took a deep breath and a step back from the slowly tilting rack of antlers. “Damage control, Tony. We need to focus on that. To start with, Wilde made it very clear we would be getting some very unfavorable visits by mammals we really don’t want to be associated with.”

Antonio scoffed. “What ‘damage’ is there to ‘control’, hmm?” She stared incredulously for a moment as he reached for the pen again. “They want money, so give them money and they go away. That’s what the Mayor’s Discretionary Fund is for. Just take care of it.”

Agnes decided to screw professionalism. “Have you lost your mind?! We are not paying off the Mob with City Funds!” She snatched the form off the desk and shredded it in rage. “We have pissed off the Police, Tony: All Of Them! They will look for any excuse, any slip up and then crucify us!”

How could he stand there so calmly? He couldn’t be this thick, could he? Where was the nod and the smirk and the slow drawling voice full of praise for her insight and excellent analysis?

She glanced down at the jagged paper pieces wedged in her paw pads and let them drop unceremoniously onto the desk. Her fists clenched and shoulders sagged. “The only hope we have now is to abandon the repeal bill. It’s all they care about. So what if there are a few duds in the mix? We have enough support, we can pass almost anything we want. True progress is possible, even if we just work with what we have.”

“Settle for what we have? Compromise?” Antonio’s snout twisted into a scornful sneer. “You sound like the rest of those weak-willed cudspiritors!” 

He all but spat the last word at her and Agnes couldn’t help but flinch. He may as well have smacked her in the face. 

“What are you even saying? I’m trying to—!”

“True progress happens once I’ve cleared the board of the Old Guard and their mis-begotten legislation.” He jabbed a hoof at her. “You’re going to get back to work cleaning up your Pranceton mess, and I’m going to get down to the business of getting this city back on track!”

Nostrils flared and eyes narrowed as she drew herself straight and tall. Aim that rack at her?? He would dare speak to her with such venom? Well, fine then. If he insisted on burning everything they’d built to the ground around him, she certainly wasn’t going to stick around and join him. He’d never appreciated just how fast she could run, but she’d make sure her tail was the last thing he saw of her.

Agnes smiled a sickly sweet smile, just the tiniest flash of her fangs. “Of course, sir,” she said. She spun on her pads and stalked towards her desk. “I’ll get on correcting my mistakes right now.” She heard him snort and begin shuffling. A glance from the corner of her eyes showed Tony rummaging in his desk drawer again. She closed her laptop and disconnected the secure external drive, pocketing it as she grabbed her coat. “I’ll be going now, sir.” She looked back one last time, but all she saw was the top of his antlers. Seeing nothing was left here for her, she closed the door and set out to get ahead of this mess before Tony’s obsession landed her in jail.

An urgent inner rumbling accompanied the standard thunk thunk thunk at the Mayor’s office door. He didn’t look up from the pages between his hooves.

“See who it is and take a message, I’m not taking any impromptu meetings today,” he said. His ear flicked in response to the silence. “Aggie, what did I just ask—?” He looked up to find the office empty. “Aggie?”

“No,” came a bass rumble from outside the door. Antonio snorted in challenge as Idris Bogo strode in carrying a small paper bag. In stark contrast to Bogo’s normally poster-perfect precision, the mammal in front of him was as casual as a street fair: loose fitting jeans, yellow collar shirt, and a coat draped over his shoulder. “Your subordinate left this.” He casually tossed the bag onto the desk while leaning against the door frame. The message was clear: Tony was not getting out of this conversation.

“Come in then, since you will anyway,” he ground out, and leaned back in his chair. He was loathe to accept what he knew was in the bag, even though his stomach demanded it even more urgently now that it was within range of his nose.

“Oh, no thank you. Like you, I’m not going to be here very long.” He shifted so that he completely filled the doorway. “I’m just here to fill you in on a little detail. I don’t work for the police anymore, as I’m sure you recall.”

Tony snorted. “I might have heard about that.” He began levering himself up to stare Bogo in the eye. “Which means you don’t have any power. If you’re just here to make a delivery, then congratulations, you did. Now why don’t you get out of my office?”

“Or what?” Bogo asked in an almost conversational tone. “Are you going to call the police? You’ve spent the last several months attacking several of them, and they already know I’m here. You can’t threaten to fire me from a job I don’t have, or report me to the Council Ethics Subcommittee. Which brings us back,” Bogo’s demeanor suddenly shifted from conversational to confrontational without twitching a muscle, “to what you are going to do, if I don’t leave?”

Tony’s eyes darted to his phone and back to the bull filling out the doorway. The lack of Agnes’ presence held a sudden weightiness that settled over him like a shroud.  He felt conspicuously alone against an adversary that—for all the cool and collected words--still seemed moments from charging.

He lifted his lip as he lowered his head to angle his antlers in front of him. “I’ll make you myself, then, if I must.”

Bogo chuckled, then chortled, then threw his head back and bellowed in laughter. Each passing second was more unnerving for the deer. Finally he wound down. “No Tony, we’re not going to lock horns like a pair of teenagers caught up in their first rut.” His head came level again and all signs of mirth were gone. “I’ll leave in a few minutes. Like I said, I’m not here for long. I’m here to remind you that I no longer work for the police, so I’m no longer bound by their strictures.” 

He began moving into the room, looming ever larger. “Wilde chased Pranceton out of town overnight using nothing but cunning and a lifetime of contacts. I’ve been a police officer longer than he’s been alive, so as you can imagine, I have quite the collection of favors owed; the kind I could never use as a cop. But now?”

He let the implication hang in the air overhead, sounding distinctly like a waiting guillotine blade.

“You’re bluffing,” Tony practically snarled, fire coursing through his veins but his mouth suddenly drier than Sahara Square. “I have no time for base and idle threats, Idris. Unlike you, I do have work to do. Vital work, cleaning up after the likes of Bellwether and Lionheart and YOU.”

“I know you Tony; you’re single minded, and vindictive. You’ll go after Wilde and Hopps and anyone else between you and your precious vision of… what is it you see for Zootopia anyway? Do you even have one? You used to hang on Professor Rambrandt’s words like gospel: using rhetoric and emotional words to stir up the masses to buy time to come up with a plan. So what is it? What is the Future of Zootopia once all us ‘Old Guard’ are out of the way and you have the city ‘back on track’?” 

His mind went blank as canvas, and try as he might to form the picture he envisioned upon it he didn’t know what it was made of, or the tools that would create it. He shook his head hard and bulled through.

“Damnit Idris, why can’t you see?!” Tony hammered his hooves on the desk. “This city still isn’t what it could be. What it should be. We could have—”

“What ‘we’, Tony?” The bull elk recoiled despite the evenness of Bogo’s tone. “You've cast aside all of your allies. There is no ‘we’ with you. There never was.”

Tony’s ears drooped as he cast a forlorn glance at the desk that Agnes should have been sitting at, his right hand, where was she? His eyes settled back on the bull he had known all of his political life, yet suddenly seemed so alien to him. What would Bogo do? What could he, as Mayor, do to stop a mammal with as many connections as Idris had collected over the years? He needed Agnes, and his stomach churned at the thought that she wouldn’t be coming back to the office; to guide him, to counsel him, to bring him a coffee and a muffin to start the day on a positive note. 

Bogo shook his head slowly. “I told you before: you can’t fix the city by going backwards. Lionheart may have been self-serving, but he had a vision of the city as a better place, and it started by opening doors to all mammals. The more they are invested in the city’s welfare, the more they’ll support its future. Hopps and Wilde are that future,” his features hardened once more, “and I will protect and serve that future from any harm.” Bogo turned and put his coat on. “You’ve seen to it that I have nothing else to lose. Keep that in mind while you attend to your very vital work.”

The door shut quietly, and Tony was left standing in his empty office, with a bran and pistachio muffin from Agnes that he suddenly had no appetite for.

Chapter Text

“Good evening, Zootopia. I’m Peter Moosebridge.”

“And I’m Fabienne Growley, and this is ZNN News at 6.”

“In today’s headlines, Mayor Antonio Staggno has announced his intention to resign amidst allegations of gross abuse of power, embezzlement of taxpayer dollars, and malfeasance. His former aid Agnes Cutter is cooperating with authorities regarding these allegations, citing an ‘attack of conscience.’”

“The City Council, unsurprisingly, cast a vote of no-confidence and has reversed the decision to remove Chief of Police Idris Bogo from service. He returns to his position this week on the heels of an acquittal in criminal court. The civil case that was being spearheaded by local Union rep Reginald Pranceton has been dropped.”

“In other news…”

Nick walked into the Precinct atrium with somewhat less swagger than his coworkers had come to expect from him. Eyes from every level rested on him as he stopped in the center of the atrium and drew himself to his full, if limited, height. “Gentle mammals, if I could have your attention please?” He swiftly had a captive audience. “Normally I’d make a speech, some moralistic statement wrapped in snark, but I think we’re all too worn for that so I’ll get right to it.”

He spun on his heel and gestured to the front door. “May I present to you the ZPA’s most recent MII Graduate, and your new Rookie, Officer William Coonaly!” He started clapping and whistling as a young raccoon in police blues marched into the precinct. Soon the entire lobby and mezzanine were awash in cheers and applause.

“Don’t think this gets you out of Rookie-work, Wilde!” Francine called from the second tier. 

Bill Higgins smiled from his spot on the rail before heading back into the Chief’s office. Bogo stood in the center of the room, looking around with his hooves clasped behind his back.

“Idris please, take a seat.” 

The bull glanced over his shoulder and gave the faintest of head shakes. “Sorry Bill, not sticking around.”

Chief Higgins stepped fully into the room. “So it’s true? You’re turning the offer down?”

Bogo leaned on the desk with one hoof, the decades of time seeming to suddenly catch up with him. “It’s true. An acquittal isn’t the same thing as being proven innocent, and this position,” he thumped the desk with his other hoof, “needs to be above reproach.” 

He stood erect and faced his old friend. “I may have done some good while here, but that’s not enough. This position needs a better mammal.” He stepped forward and rested a hoof on Bill’s shoulder. “The best mammal, really.”

Higgins somehow managed to smile and grimace at the same time. “So what’s next for the newly not-fired former Chief of Police?”

Bogo stared at the wall that once held all his many awards and accolades. “Hadn’t given it much thought. Just having the opportunity to do anything wasn’t one that I thought I’d have the privilege to entertain.” His attention wandered to the window behind the desk. “Miss New Moon sent me a message that she might have something for me. Non governmental, obviously. I thought I’d head on down and talk to her in person.”

Higgins looked down in thought. “Isn’t she in the Capitol?”

Bogo nodded. “I thought I’d make a trip out of it. I never did the Great Animalian Migration when I was a young bull.”

“When were you planning to head off?”

Bogo shrugged at Higgins’ question. “Now?” 

“Well, you’re sticking around to say goodbye.” Bogo was about to demur, but the hippo’s harsh grunt forced his mouth shut at once. “I wasn't asking, Idris.” The harshness of the tone was softened by the grin on Bill’s face. Bogo grunted a laugh and nodded.

“If you insist.” 

He followed Higgins downstairs to the break room where a crowd was forming. Two crowds in fact, as one group was greeting Precinct One’s newest officer, while the other…

“Behold! I said it and it is so!”

Nick Wilde held proudly and loudly over his head a book that was almost as wide as he was tall. It was certainly bigger than his grumping partner. Judy was thumping her foot with arms crossed as she “glared” at him, fighting a grin creeping at the corners of her muzzle.

“Did you have to make it mattress-sized?” she asked and threw her arms up in the air. 

He turned with a wide grin at her. “Yes.”

She rolled her eyes. “Just how many mayors do you expect us to oust from office?”

He relinquished the book into Leo Johnson’s paws and gestured at Judy dramatically. “That depends how many suckers they find to stuff in there. We keep this up and I might need to commission a ‘Volume II’.”

She rolled her eyes and waved to the lion. “Leo, can I see that for a moment?” Once she had the book in her paws, she turned it to the second page: Bellwether. She smiled innocently at Nick for a moment. “Can you run?” She began brandishing the ewe’s mug-shot page at him. “I think not!” The room broke out in laughter as Judy began chasing her partner with the book raised as a cudgel. 

They weren’t watching where they were running until the very last second when they nearly collided with the new arrivals that had just entered. “Sorry Chiefs!” came the dual apologies.

Bogo couldn’t help giving a short snort of a laugh, even though it burned his lungs. He was going to miss that. Having been ‘chief’ for close to half of his life, it had become an integral part of him. Now that it was in its death throes… well, it wasn’t something he was quite ready to say goodbye to.

Looking around, it seemed the officers present were more than ready to say farewell, though. There were warm smiles from most, though there were a few strained ones. Oh well; it wasn’t like every officer would be throwing him a ticker tape parade, no matter the circumstances of his departure. It still wasn’t the walk of shame he’d expected a month ago.

The silence deepened until it became stifling, and Bogo cleared his throat. “Well? What’s all this lollygagging around for? Haven’t you all got work to be attending to?”

Nick took a chance while Judy was paused. “Well, the Vice-Mayor’s keeping a low profile since his old boss tucked his tail and scamp-thwump-ow! Okay, that thing really is too big.” 

“In point of fact,” Higgins said, and stepped past Bogo to join the rest of the officers gathered around him, “this is the first item on the agenda for this morning.” He squared his shoulders. “Room! Aten-Hut!” The confines of the break-room shook with the suddenness of the single motion. “Present, Arms!” As one parade perfect moment, every paw, hoof and trotter in the room snapped up. “The unit awaits your final command, Chief.”

Bogo’s ears drooped. Never one to shun the lead position, he was all at once at a loss for words. What words were adequate to leave his officers with, that would in essence become almost tantamount to his legacy in this place he loved with every inch of the husk that he called a heart? Were there any left in him that were worthy?

He stood at attention himself, and rendered his own salute. As every mammal's arms came down, he spoke. “At ease.” There was a shuffle as the officers relaxed. “Trust, Integrity, Bravery.” He tapped the spot over his heart where a badge had rested his entire adult life. “We each swear to uphold these words when we take on our oath of service. We each strive to uphold them.” He looked down at Hopps and Wilde. “Sometimes, we live them as an example to all others around us.” 

He looked back up. “And sometimes we fall short.” He held up a hoof to prevent interruptions. “I swore to uphold the law; to be it’s enforcer, not it’s adjudicator. I fell short of that oath. You,” he looked around at all the officers, “did not. In a time of trial, you stood up for what was truly right and just. You bore true faith with one another, and even with me. I will always be grateful that I could be counted amongst you all; yes, even you Wilde.”

“Aww, love you too, Chief.”

“Not your Chief anymore, am I?”

The assembled officers all started speaking, one after another; Judy, “Ah, on the contrary…”

Then Fangmeyer. “Maybe not on the payroll, but…”

Then Wolford. “Once our Chief…” 

And, finally, Higgins. “Always our Chief.”

Idris Bogo had seen a great deal of tragedy in this line of work, things that would send mammals older and more world worn into the fetal position. Somehow, in spite of it all, he’d managed to keep composed and—perhaps most importantly—without a single tear shed. Not here, in this building, not once.

He was moments from ruining that record.

“I am… honored.” 

Nick cleared his throat. “Well I hope you’re also hungry. Benji went all out on supplying the food.” From the side of the table, the effervescent cheetah smiled as he openly wept.

Idris chuffed a laugh. “Well, we wouldn’t want his efforts to go to waste. This is my final order to you all.” Everyone looked up. “Dig in!”

There was a general murmur from the officers in the Bullpen. Chief Higgins had an unusually somber expression on his face as he stepped up to the podium.

“As you all know, there has been a missing mammal from this city for the last month.” There was a confused stir from the assembled officers. “I have just received an update on their situation.” 

He pushed a button on the podium causing a picture to appear on the screen behind him. In the background, a wide river wound around an oxbow between a set of gently rolling hills and a series of bluffs. The foreground was dominated by a monstrous motorcycle, and a grinning Cape Buffalo.

Higgins continued amid the laughter and cheering of the officers. “He was last spotted outside Pawstin, Texas, and is reported to be in good health. His current whereabouts are unknown, but he’s not exactly being discreet anymore. I have no doubt we’ll be seeing him again.”

He gave the officers a few moments. “Alright, alright, that’s enough. Settle down now.” 

They did not settle down.

“Settle, I said.”

If anything, even less settling.

“SHUT IT!”

The reaction was almost instantaneous and the room fell to dead silence.

Nick snickered. “Nice enunciation, Chief, but you lose points on the accent. I’ma give you a solid 7.9 on the Bogo-scale.”

Higgins gave Nick a flat look. “Hopps.” Nick yelped as Judy jabbed his ribs. “Huh, that felt nice. No wonder he did it that way. Now then: Assignments...”

Precinct One had seen thousands of officers pass in through its doors, walk its halls, serving and protecting the great metropolis of Zootopia during the course of Zootopia’s colorful history. It would see thousands more in the years to come. Zootopia was the city where ‘anyone could be anything’; it continued to grow and to change and to become in all ways every day better than it was the day before. There at the city’s heart it stood, a bastion for upholding justice with Trust, Integrity, and Bravery and would continue to do so in all the years to come.