Chapter 6

A siren howled somewhere in the distance. Judy’s head pounded like someone had driven a nail behind her eye. She tried to lift her arm—dead weight, as if she'd been bolted to the stretcher. Her eyelids felt like they were glued shut. With a strained groan, she tenderly reached up, finding an oxygen mask secured around her muzzle.

“Hey! Chief Bogo, she's starting to wake up!” Someone shouted. Judy swatted at the noise as she forced her eyes open, recoiling as the lights felt like needles piercing into her brain, while the sting of antiseptic filled her nose.

Her thoughts slammed back in, jumbled and frantic, as her heart rate spiked. A dry cough cracked from her throat. She drew a ragged breath, the oxygen sharp and sterile against her tongue.

“Officer Hopps, take it easy.” Chief Bogo hunched over beside her, his horns brushing against the top of the ambulance.

“Wha— Nick? Is Nick…?” Her panic was evident as she dissolved into more coughing. The world around her was still spinning, not yet fully in focus, but it was becoming clearer. She looked around. The heart monitors beeped, slowing back down as she relaxed slightly.

“Nick's fine, he's already awake and giving the EMTs a hard time because they won't let him get up to check on you yet,” he replied with a snort.

She heard a laugh to her left and looked over, seeing a gazelle in scrubs writing something on a tablet, adjusting some of the medications along the side of the ambulance. “You are a much more cooperative patient, Officer Hopps.”

She stared at her blankly for a moment. Red and yellow lights flickered across the brick wall outside. She snapped her attention back to Bogo as the fog in her mind started to disappear. “And Jack? Is he okay?”

Bogo rubbed his muzzle and shook his head. “Gone. Wilde saw someone take him before you were fully knocked out. One of the few benefits of him being slightly larger than you is that it took a bit more gas to knock him out.”

Judy took a long breath, slicking her ears back with the weight of the news. “And the gas that was used?”

“Our initial assessment is that it was a low-grade knock-out gas. All the effects are very temporary, and with a little bit of oxygen and rest, they should mostly be out of your system in 12-16 hours,” the gazelle answered.

Judy's ears twitched as the muffled sounds of footsteps and voices drew closer to the back of the ambulance. “Yeah, yeah, get rest, 12-16 hours. It'll be that long whether I sit in the back of the stupid ambulance or if I sit down over here,” Nick barked over his shoulder.

His eyes narrowed with irritation, his face half hidden by his oxygen mask. It quickly turned to one of relief as he saw Judy staring at him.

“Carrots!” he shouted, stepping into the ambulance and setting his tank next to hers. “Not to brag, but my tank is bigger than yours.”

“They got Jack. Do we know who it was or why? Have they found any clues in the house? Jack has a decent security system, maybe we can pull something useful off it,” Judy rambled.

Nick placed a paw on her shoulder, giving it a squeeze. “Whoa, Energizer Bunny, slow down. Wolfy and Fangs are already here. They're downloading the security footage as we speak, and are dusting the place for any evidence.”

“Yes, it's well covered, Hopps. Go get some rest. We will see you at the station when you have recovered tomorrow.”

He stared at the two officers for a moment. “I know you two, because I’m like you two. I have patrol units canvassing and taking statements, and detectives on the case already. Go home.” Bogo scooted out of the ambulance, pausing to look over his shoulder, and walked away.

The door shut with a heavy thump, shaking the ambulance slightly. “He’s right. Even if we tried to help, we would mostly be in the way right now.”

Judy readjusted her mask, her ears dropping behind her. “I know. Still doesn’t make me feel great. It feels like we keep being a tad too small or a tad too slow. I don’t want this to end the same way as the last time I felt that way.”

Nick sat on the stretcher next to her, squeezing her paw. “If I were a betting mammal, which obviously I’ve never placed a bet in my life, I would bet that Jack is okay. That kind of surgical precision isn’t to kill Jack. They want something from him. We’ll find him.”

“We’ll find him.” She echoed, leaning against Nick’s side.

The gas was still swirling in Nick's system, his head was aching. Sleep evaded him. He tossed back and forth restlessly.

He blinked, a thin stream of light spilling under his door, the red digits on the clock alerting him that it was still the middle of the night. He rubbed his eyes and got up, shuffling out of his bedroom and poked his head across the hall, finding Judy sitting on her bed, typing away at her laptop. “You made Fangs send you the security footage and canvassing report, huh?”

Judy flinched, her shoulders tight. She went to snap a reply, deflating as her eyes met Nick’s. She rubbed her temples, trying to shake the haze clinging to the edges of her thoughts. It had yet to leave her head. “I know. Bogo said rest, but every time I closed my eyes, I saw the door blowing open again, and then everything was fading.”

“You figured if you weren't going to sleep, you might as well be productive,” He finished, climbing onto the bed beside her. “Alright. What are we looking at?”

She tilted the laptop towards him, showing a video around the perimeter of Jack’s estate. She let out a soft cough, clearing her lungs. “They cut the power at Jack's, but the neighbor had a camera that faced his backyard and got a decent video of what happened. Watch. Our perp knew what they were doing for the most part.”

She hit play, and Nick watched as the masked mammal picked the lock on the back door, then cut the power. As soon as the house went dark, they chucked a gas canister through the open door, then charged in after it. There was no hesitation in their steps, and they were in and out of the house in a few minutes.

Nick leaned in, eyes narrowing. He didn’t say anything at first, just tapped the screen intensely where the intruder moved like a shadow. “That’s some T.U.S.K. level precision and speed. I’m not saying they were an officer, but I feel like maybe we should keep an eye out for anyone who has some sort of tactical background or fascination.”

Judy’s ears stood straight up as she typed away on her keyboard. “That was exactly my thought as well. Sylvia sent over those hate mail letters from the PR team yesterday. We can check any suspect's background to see if they have any tactical background or maybe relatives in T.U.S.K. It may not be a silver bullet as far as evidence goes, but it could be a helpful nudge.”

“They're bigger than a bunny, but not significantly so. Broad shoulders, so probably male. Look at how he carries Jack over his shoulder. We can use that to get an approximate height and build. I’m sure there's some brainiac in the Nerd Herd that has software that can figure that out.”

“Females can have broad shoulders as well,” Judy mumbled.

Nick hummed in agreement. “Can't be Claire, though. You saw the photo of her, she's no heavyweight champ.”

Her face fell as she stared at the laptop. “Maybe someone’s working for her?” she sighed, rubbing her temples. “Sylvia also sent over 108 hate mail letters dating back 3 years. That’s a lot more than I was hoping to have to sort through.”

“We can get rid of any sent by someone smaller than Jack or larger than Wolfy. It will still take some time to get through it all, but it should help us narrow down the amount we have to sort through.”

Judy yawned, her ears twitching slightly as she inhaled, the smell of gas still lingering in her nostrils. “It’s a bit too much to get anything out of right now.”

Nick reached over and closed the laptop. “Well, I think we have some working theories, and I also think we need to get some sleep. Bogo will have our tails if we show up late and not rested.”

“How can I sleep when we have so much that needs to be solved?” Judy grumbled, setting her laptop aside.

Nick paused at the doorway, grinning as he looked over his shoulder. “Why don’t you try counting sheep?”

Judy laughed as she finished the quote. “Can’t. I’m scared of them.”

The harsh noon sun filtered in through the window. Outside their office, the cacophony of an active police station drifted down the halls. Radios buzzed, dispatch rerouted cruisers, and the murmurs of other officers provided a somewhat comforting background soundtrack as the pair dug into the mounds of information in front of them.

“It looks like they uploaded the interrogation transcript of the Coyote.” Judy skimmed through the document, shaking her head. “He barely said a word. He kept whispering, ‘Everything must adhere to the Great Reset.’ Over and over like it was sacred.”

Nick's ears flattened as he flicked his tail. “‘Great Reset’? Like a computer? Maybe that’s what he was trying to accomplish when he shot our best lead?”

Judy flipped through another printout, scanning it for a moment before tossing it onto the pile to the left. “Not sure. It’s pretty vague. Maybe there’s something in the hate mail.”

The pair were sliding any that were too large or too small to have been the kidnapper off to the side. They had set up base at their shared desk, files spilling around them in a controlled chaos. Sylvia’s packet of hate mail sat half-sorted, many now linked to the senders’ Muzzlebook pages, for those they could find.

Judy chucked another profile into the discard pile. “Mouse.”

Nick raised an eyebrow. “What about a hare? The chemical‑plant LARP guy?”

She typed his name into the search bar. “He rants about Jack nonstop. And his LARPing is centered around military stuff. That's promising.”

Her shoulders dropped. “Never mind. He’s been in lockup for a few weeks over a drug bust. Dead end. One minute we’ve got a lead and the next, it’s gone.”

Nick nodded as she tossed papers to the side, then opened the next one. He tossed the letter on top and recoiled.

Judy stared at the red smeared words on the page. “Is that…blood?”

“I do believe it is.” He grabbed an evidence bag. “I’ll send it to the lab and get a rush on it. Can’t say they aren't creative. ‘You stand for everything wrong in this world, and are the reason why aliens have refused to make contact with us.’ How much do you need to hate someone to send them certified snail mail in blood like that?”

She snorted as she turned towards him. “This one has potential. Calvin Dusk. He's a Bobcat. He writes, ‘I know you think you're some hotshot putting preds in our place, but find one of us in the real world without your security and see what we can really do.’

“What's his background?”

“He manages a grocery store, but get this. His father is a retired T.U.S.K. agent.”

“Bobcat's too big, though. Toss it in the no pile.”

“Except bobcats are one of the smaller felines.”

“Barely. Still outside what the Nerd Herd gave us. We can’t waste time on the wrong size. We have a dozen mammals that fit the profile perfectly. We have to start with the most likely targets; we can circle back to the long shots later.”

“That's an estimate. This guy is barely outside that estimate, and his background is a great fit. We can't exclude that!”

“We can't chase a lead that doesn't match what we're looking for! We really don't have time to waste, and using it chasing bad leads is as good as letting the sicko do what he wants with Jack!” Nick snapped back.

“And what if this is the guy that has him, and we tossed it because he's slightly too tall? We can't afford that, I can't lose… We've already lost too much.” Judy's voice cracked slightly, and she took a breath to calm herself.

A quiet radio crackled from down the hall, disrupting the silent tension.

Judy absentmindedly rubbed her thumb across her badge. “I'm sorry. This case is hitting me harder than I think I realized.”

Nick closed his eyes, rubbing his temples. “I'm sorry too.” He finally said softly as he reached over and placed his paw on hers. “This one’s tough. Stupid rabbit made me kind of like him.”

They sat there silently, paw in paw, for a moment. “I was thinking the more we cut, the faster we can find him, but you're right. It's better to do a little extra work and not miss anything. Let's add it to the suspect stack.” He let go of her paw, smacking the table as he gave her a confident smile. “You're Officer Judy Hopps, damn it. Criminals fear you! And they find me obnoxious. This guy won't get away from us.” He gave her a weak smile, his eyes drooping slightly.

She studied him for a moment. The bags under his eyes were more prevalent, his tail had lost its wag, and even his fur had lost a bit of its shine. There was no denying that the past few days were taking their toll on them both.

Judy nodded, slouching back in her chair. She ran a paw down her muzzle, rubbing her snout, and cracked her neck. “My body is screaming to take a break, and my brain feels like it's been deep-fried by Bug-a-Burger.”

She glanced over at the clock on the wall. “It's been 18 hours since he was taken. Bogo wants an initial suspect assessment before we hit hour 20.”

Judy reached blindly behind her and grabbed the protein bar from Nick’s half-eaten stash pile. “Is this expired?”

He didn’t look up. “If it’s chewy and bitter, that’s the flavor. If it crunches, that’s mold.”

She took a bite anyway, grimaced, then shrugged. “Better than starving to death.”

Nick frowned as he tossed the new pages back and forth. “Wait. Didn’t you say you had a badger in your stack earlier? Was his name Asher Maddox?”

She reached over and shuffled through the mess of papers in front of her, looking briefly at each one. “That sounds right. I think… where did I put it?”

“Your filing system is an actual cry for help,” Nick snorted.

“It's intuitive. You don't have intuition.” Judy picked up a folder and held it up. “Here. His note was pretty tame; it just says, ‘Hello, Mr. Savage. I enjoy the spy genre, but you are hurting the credibility of real predators. Please stop making such laughable movies.”

Nick peered over her shoulder, studying the features of the badger. “Does he have some kind of tactical background? I found a second letter from him. It's slightly angrier in tone, and I'm thinking that this could be an indication of him escalating.”

She tapped at her keyboard for a moment. “It looks like his grandfather was one of the soldiers of the Great War for the watering hole, before the peace contracts were made. If his Muzzlebook is anything to go by, that seems to be one of his main interests.”

“It's certainly not concrete, but I like him for our suspect pool.”

“What's that bring the suspect pool up to? Five?”

“Yeah, five. We have the badger and bobcat, as well as the Wolverine, who blames Jack for his sister's death, the gray wolf who sealed the envelope with his blood, and the hyena, whose punchline to every joke they wrote was ‘you, but as a corpse.’ If none of these took Jack, we should lock them up anyway.”

Nick opened the next folder. He shook his head and tapped the top page. “Do they think Comic Sans makes death threats feel like birthday invites?” Nick snorted. “What’s next, scented paper? You might as well draw hearts and flowers around the words ‘I wish you were dead.’”

“Most sane mammals probably aren't sending death threats to movie stars. Is that the last one?”

Nick nodded as he tossed it aside. “Yeah, if I ever get taken and they use Comic Sans, shoot them on sight. Regardless, that one is from a lion.”

“Divide the suspect pile and deep dive on who we picked out?”

“Yup.” Nick snorted as he divided up the piles. “Remember when we told Jack most police work is boring, just paperwork and sorting through info?”

Judy grabbed her stack and cracked the first one with determination. “It's the best place to start to find a lead. Our perp may have gotten the initial drop on us, but I refuse to let him win. Let's find the jerk.”

It took another hour of deep diving before Nick sat up straight. “Look at this,” he said, flipping the screen to Judy and rapping his paw on the screen. “Asher Maddox. Months ago, he posted on a forum and specifically used the term ‘The Great Reset.’ That's the same phrase the coyote used. That can't be a coincidence. He posted it in a fringe tech-paranoia group a couple of months ago.”

“We can’t tie him to the abduction yet,” Judy muttered, glancing at the time. “Bogo wants a check-in within the hour. I’ll take the other four suspects and run background; you keep digging into Asher. Maybe we will get lucky.”

Nick gave a sharp nod as Judy grabbed her notes.

The bullpen lights buzzed overhead as Nick stood at the front display monitor, flanked by Judy. Across from them, Bogo crossed his arms while other officers filled the nearby desks, eyes flicking between screens and printouts.

Nick brought up Asher Maddox’s driver’s license and Muzzlebook profile on the monitor. “First and most promising, Asher Maddox. Badger. Size matches the estimate from the footage almost perfectly. He’s posted in fringe forums, used the phrase ‘The Great Reset’, the same as our coyote. Has a family history in the military. And he’s sent multiple letters to Jack, escalating in tone.”

Judy took over. “He’s active in predator supremacy and tactical response groups. No criminal record, but enough red flags to make him our top lead. We don’t have concrete proof yet, but he fits the behavioral and physical profile better than anyone else on the list.”

She clicked to the next suspect. “We’ve narrowed it to five primary suspects based on size, motive, and threat history. The others include Calvin Dusk, a bobcat barely outside the size estimate but with a retired T.U.S.K. agent father and open hostility in his letters.”

Bogo grunted as he stepped back up to the podium. “Hopps and Wilde are going to run surveillance on Asher. The rest of you will be split into teams, each taking another suspect. If you see something, call it in. Do not approach on your own.”

He turned and glared at the two officers beside him.”That goes for you two as well.”

Judy half raised her paw, ready to argue. She frowned, her shoulders dropping as she resigned to Bogo's order. “Yes, sir.”

“All right, everyone, you have your assignments! Dismissed! Hopps, Wilde, stay back for a moment.”

Judy glanced at her partner, earning her a shrug as the other officers lumbered out, their voices trailing out as the door closed.

“You two can't seem to do anything halfway, can you?” Bogo asked, leveling them with a tired look.

Nick sat on the edge of the desk and shrugged. “Do or do not, there is no try. We keep an all-or-nothing mentality, sir.”

“Yes, well, fuel burns faster when it's being burnt at one hundred percent, and you two have been redlining since all this started.”

Judy took a step back and frowned. “You aren't taking us off the case, are you, sir? I won't say it's been an easy couple of days, but we can handle it. We need to see this through.”

“Relax, Hopps. I'm not taking either of you off the case. It's just a check-in. How are you two feeling? Any lingering effects from the gas?”

Judy shook her head. “No, I—well, ok… Maybe a little? My head is still a little foggy, but not any worse than it is if I didn't have enough sleep.”

“I'm fully incapable of work and need at least 3 weeks of paid recovery time.”

Nick let out a soft ‘oof’ as Judy's paw connected with his stomach.

Bogo gathered up papers, walking towards the door. “You are definitely not fine, but you’re functional. Go get eyes on Asher. Call in anything suspicious. Backup should be readily available if you need it.”

Nick rubbed his stomach and glared at Judy. “That's police brutality. I could arrest you.”

She rolled her eyes as she started to walk away. “You can put me in handcuffs later, right now we’ve got a suspect to surveil.”

Nick choked back a laugh as Judy shot a look over her shoulder. “Nick! Not like that! Oh my—you are such a kit! Come on, I want to stop by the Nerd Herd before we leave. They should have Asher’s GPS data and a list of his frequently visited places by now.”

He chuckled as he took the stairs two at a time, following behind her. “You're too pure, Carrots.”

She ignored him, pushing open the door to the tech department. It was an open floor plan, with multiple desks and mammals typing away, keeping the precinct moving. Judy stopped in front of a small squirrel, wearing blue-tinted glasses. “Hey Jen! Have you had a chance to finish up with Asher's data?”

“Judy!” The squirrel waved, passing over a tablet to the officers. “I got it right here for ya. It was chaos here with the emergency update, but the new RooVault integration is a lifesaver. It let me pull his GPS history and cross-reference it almost instantly."

“We owe Max at least two thank-you baskets. With muffins.” Nick passed the tablet to Judy.

“This is fantastic! Thank you, Jen! Honestly, I don't know what we do without you guys here; you don't get nearly enough credit.”

She shrugged, waving them off nonchalantly. “I stick with IT to stay out of the public eye. We help, you take the credit, we all win.”

“Still, thank you. Once this is all over, we'll need to bring you guys some real coffee.” Judy turned to walk out of the office, tapping the screen. “Looks like our guy got to the gym a few minutes ago. We should be able to make it there before he leaves to start our tail.”

Nick frowned as he opened the door to the motor pool. He glanced over his shoulder, lowering his ears. “Let’s hope it’s just Jack’s photo on the punching bag,” he muttered. “And not him, breathing through broken ribs.”

Judy opened the door to the cruiser, jaw tight. “Let’s get eyes on him. No more being a step behind. It’s our turn to be out in front.”

Nick slammed the cruiser door shut a little too hard.