Chapter Text
They'd woken to find ZPD had arrested almost a dozen protesters last night, both downtown and in another nasty engagement in Tundratown, after the crowds pushed on the police line around the move-out zone.
A coalition of mammals from the scrum outside Pinnacle had sent an open letter to Claremont and to the press, petitioning for more dialogue. They wanted her to speak to the mammals outside her headquarters, in the fur. They all paid taxes that funded the climate wall, they argued, and the usual methods of public feedback hadn't made any progress.
It had Park's hoofprints all over it, and that was making Judy uncomfortable. He made points that mammals out there were going to agree with. Heck, even she thought some of it sounded reasonable. But it meant that when Claremont forged ahead it would just rile the masses and the police up even further. Park would have more cover. He might have even guessed it was coming.
Maybe even worse, Everett was out on bail. Judy had stared at that one for a while, and she'd had to watch Patch take it, too. They'd known it was coming, but it was still beyond frustrating to watch another lead slip away. Nightly call-ins weren't enough of a leash, as far as she was concerned.
At least their warrant for Park had cleared, and in record time. The courts were apparently as concerned over the stability of the climate wall as everyone else.
The team keeping an eye on Park's listed residence reported it had been quiet for two days now. Judy and the others were running their perimeter through a nice part of the city, all manicured landscaping and wide sidewalks of a light commercial district on the edge of the corporate core downtown. It wasn't the kind of place she expected a demagogue to be trying to undo things.
But here they were, not to sample anything from the nearby restaurants or take in the art installations, but to walk a slow pattern from intersection to intersection, where they jacked into the traffic consoles and started co-opting cameras and cell towers to watch for Park.
Beside her, Nick swung the latest panel closed. "How's that?"
"Got it," Shay's voice came over the radio. "Two more and we'll have almost a full ring around Pinnacle."
"Vista and 22nd Street should be up," Patch radioed.
"I thought that console was still down until Utilities repaired it."
"I went up the pole."
Nick gave her an amused glance.
"Of course you did," Shay chuckled. "Be careful."
"Always."
She let Nick lead as they started for the next light, past an open-air cafe that spilled out onto the sidewalk. The televisions inside were on mute, but Judy could still see the footage of last night's confrontations. It cut to a skunk reporter live from Tundratown, wrapped up against the cold, pointing behind him to the scenes of families leaving their homes in the shadow of the climate wall. The views lingered on the police line, on pepper pistols in holsters. The chyron read shots fired.
Some of the morning diners watching the coverage turned to watch her and Nick instead. Judy kept her eyes forward, but it was an effort. There was no missing how some of them seemed guarded and tentative, for no reason. What did an elephant have to fear from a fox and a rabbit?
Nick noticed, too, enough to slow down and walk beside her until they were out of sight and earshot again.
"I didn't know Precinct Three broke out the heavy deterrents last night. Tear gas and rubber rounds?"
Nick cast a grim glance back the way they'd come. "Neither did I."
The scene must have been as tense as ever, to justify that kind of response. And it was already knocking on. Us vs. Them was already starting to solidify in everyone's minds, even if it was wrong. ZPD was doing what it had to - but it seemed that no matter how many times it explained that point, no matter the even-pawed judgement it showed in its arrests and reactions, no matter the access it granted to media to tell their stories - it kindled suspicion and distrust.
And the work Judy did with Nick wouldn't make it to those headlines, she thought as he unlocked the last panel and plugged in Shay's drive. Nobody would know about this little dragnet.
"Perimeter is up," Shay said. "Nice work, everyone."
"What's your range?" Judy asked.
"These are just the fixed municipal cameras, so not as far as they could be," Shay said. "But the IMSI boxes will catch most everything inside the ring every thirty seconds, and a good half-mile the other way. If Park's phone shows up anywhere in there, we'll have a fix on his location within a couple minutes, tops."
"We need a spot to stake out," she told Nick.
"You expecting him to come through here today?"
Judy craned her neck to look back toward the protests. "If anything is going to draw him out, it's Claremont deciding to accelerate things."
"Fair." Nick followed her gaze. "Which street did we come down? Delamar? We'll start there."
---
They parked close enough that with the windows down, Judy could still catch the buzz of continued demonstration from in front of Pinnacle. It was calmer now, but probably only thanks to the time of day.
Patch had gotten back in touch at Shay's sensor van - and then he'd climbed a tree on the other side of the plaza with a pair of field glasses. Nick had smirked over at her when he'd explained it, but Judy suspected that was just how things were done in Rainforest. It would keep him out of sight while he watched the approach to Pinnacle, too, which might come in useful. If Park came through here, they would want to watch his every step.
But an hour in, and Shay hadn't spotted anything suspicious. Nick had leaned over and told Judy to stop checking with her every five minutes. If there was a hit, they'd see it.
So instead, Judy scanned back and forth through the streets and paths that fed this little plaza, looking for antlers.
"Relax." Nick poked her in the ribs, so she jumped and scowled.
"I'm focused."
"It's like you're hunting."
That got her to aim the scowl over at him.
Nick shrugged in his seat and eyed the dashcam. "Normally you're twitchier."
"I'm okay," she said. Okay okay. That's what it was about, she saw in his ears. He was still quietly worrying about the engagement at the wall, and probably every little thing they'd dealt with since then. Last night was only the briefest of breaks from the stress. She hoped he was savoring it the way she was. "Just working hard."
Too hard, he would probably be thinking. But Judy couldn't help it. It was how she dealt with that stress, while she was on duty: Do whatever it took to find the root cause, and stop it. It had worked so far. Even from the hospital bed.
And it would work for the city, too. The sooner they came down on Park, the sooner everyone who was watching this whole mess stew would go back to normal.
"How you doing, Patch?"
"It's quiet." He sounded calm and focused. "I don't know exactly what a local looks like around here, but none of them are acting suspicious. No sign of Park."
"That's good," Shay cut in. "Frankly, I'd like it if these scopes stayed blank all day."
Nick pointed a claw at the radio and shook his head yes.
"Horrible influence on the new guys, you are," Judy said. She clipped the pawset back onto the dash. "That would just mean he's off causing trouble somewhere else."
"Probably," Nick said. "But it's not like we can arrest him just for showing his muzzle here. He's on thin ice, sure, but it's still ice."
"No," she agreed. "When has he ever backed down, though? I want to be the one watching if decides to push it."
"ZPD's one-bunny police force," Nick murmured, and he had a gentle smile to counter her frown. He reached over to take her paw. "Just don't stress it too much, okay?"
She nodded and squeezed him back, so he'd know he'd gotten through to her.
And almost right at noon, Shay jumped back on the circuit.
"I've got a match."
"Park?" Judy scanned the now-quiet cross streets again, just in case. "Where?"
"Up north," she said. "It looks like he came in on a vehicle, but right now he's not moving."
"That was way too easy," Nick muttered.
"Do you have an address?"
"Soon. I've got the program chewing on it. If he stays in range for a couple more minutes I can send the ID to his carrier and get tracking data for a week. I'll keep you posted."
"We can't go after him," Nick said.
"Not yet," Judy said. "But we can put this on a list." She toggled. "Thanks, Shay."
"It gets better," Shay said. "Check your email. This just went up on Claremont's site."
Judy's work phone buzzed, and she heard Nick's go off, too. Her stomach wobbled, as if she were keying up for action, as she pulled the cruiser's computer around to bring up the message.
It was in black and white now. On official letterhead, even. To honor its commitments to the citizens of Zootopia, Claremont Energy Group was accelerating its plans to finish vital repairs and start new construction on the climate wall, with "all necessary speed." Its resettlement agreements would match pace.
"A comfortable, timely transition is our highest priority," Nick read. "...and common ground with all of the members of the community we serve, yadda yadda." He sighed. "The lawyers can defang this all they want, but it's not going to matter."
"They acknowledged the protesters," Judy pointed out as she scrolled through it. "That's odd."
"No shareholders to piss off, remember? Just Park. Maybe they think they can be a bit more direct."
"Wilde, check in."
Nick gave Judy a significant look and pulled the radio off the dash. "Sergeant, have you seen this?"
"Yes," Marki said. "Is Park moving?"
"Great," Nick said, and depressed the vox button again. "Not yet. We're still on the perimeter."
"Stay put, then. We might need you to intercept."
"Yes, Ma'am," Patch sent.
Marki signed off - and the distant ripple of an LRAD siren cut through the afternoon ambiance. Judy looked around as nearly everyone she could see out here on the street reacted. That hadn't taken long at all. ZPD would be pushing back on a freshly angered crowd, and it was barely noon.
"So much for our profile," Nick said.
Judy struggled to pull his bulkier riot pads out of storage and pass them over. "I don't think we were fooling anyone."
That got more obvious, as the foot traffic outside started its subtle shift away from the Pinnacle building. Their cruiser was parked in the shade on the edge of this plaza, and mammals were giving it a wide berth. Judy saw cafe staff helping their patrons move off the patios and into dining rooms. A whole herd of wildebeest making their way through weren't even bothering to disguise their wariness of the the ZPD presence on the corner. Judy scowled.
Shay had sent them the feed from her scanners, so at least they were able to watch the motionless icon that represented Park's phone. Everything up that way was light commercial: more restaurants, and real estate agents and dental practices.
"Why there? He's not just getting lunch."
"Pay dirt," Shay said. Judy twitched in her seat. "Sergeant, are you here?"
"Go."
"I ran Park's phone location records against the carrier logs. He didn't use it much, but the timestamps put him in Tundratown near the wall on the night of the arson."
Judy fumbled for the pawset. "Right there?"
"No, it's only close. There are a couple pings two blocks from the evaporator that got hit, and then another set less than five minutes after it happened. They show him moving away, short distances at first. I think he got in a vehicle."
Turn off his phone long enough to cut in, power it back up after he got clear to call for a ride. Judy drummed her claws on the dash. It worked. Enough for deniability, if the police were checking where he was exactly at the moment of the arson.
But there was the prodding Park had done to inflame the situation - and more importantly, the fact that he'd told Setter he'd been at home in Rainforest when his phone put him in Tundratown.
"Sergeant, the timing checks out," she said. "That has to be enough for charges to stick."
"Maybe. Shayler, send it."
"Yes, Ma'am."
Judy kept eyeing the tracker. He was right there, just blocks from them.
"She's right," Nick said. He might have given her grief for her focus earlier, but they were both at it now. His ears were straight up, like hers. "You know we can't jump now."
It was just like yesterday. "He'll just walk out of the net. Shay spent hours setting it up."
"We know where he is, and we know where he was," Nick said. "One step at a time."
Judy hung up the pawset and hovered on the edge of her seat to watch the map. They waited for almost an hour like that, quiet but for the reports chattering over the general channel, until Patch called in from the wrong side of the plaza.
"Judy, I think I just saw Schafer down here."
It wasn't as good as grabbing Park, Judy thought. But she would take it. "Where?"
"He's already past me, on his way toward Pinnacle. There's another polar bear with him, and some deer."
"Nick, go."
---
It was a fast two blocks back to the cordons in front of Claremont's HQ. They ditched the cruiser and made the final approach on foot, to draw a little bit less attention.
Patch had shadowed Schafer and his pals right up to the back edge of the crowds around Pinnacle, where the chanting was back in full swing. By then Marki had picked them up, and watched them slip through the protesters until they approached the western edge of the skyscraper. From their spot in the shadow of a service alleyway across the street, Judy and Nick could see the same entrances they'd followed Park past yesterday.
"Why don't we have anything on this side, again? I thought we warned Verdegrand about this."
"Play this careful," Nick said. He had his paws on her shoulders, and he'd obviously been thinking the same thing. "We don't have the backup to force anything here."
She twisted an ear for him. "You sound like Marki."
"There's a reason for that."
She reached up to squeeze him back.
Judy didn't intend to move until Marki herself was posted to watch over the intercept - but that meant she had to sit with Nick and watch Schafer cross into view, on the wrong side of the statutory police line that ran down the center of the street. He and the others were looking up at the service doors, and the second-floor windows, and the cameras and lights that dotted the exterior. They were all wearing dark clothing, just like last time. The deer had hoods, with the usual cuts for their antlers. Schafer carried a backpack.
"In position," Marki sent. "Confirm four."
"Four," Judy said. "Two polar bears, two reindeer, and all getting a bit too close." As she watched, one of the deer crouched to fiddle with the lock mechanisms on the heavy shutter. "They're trying to force one of the garage doors."
"Careful, Hopps." Or maybe it was Marki who sounded like Nick. "Backup is en route."
"We might not have time for backup."
"Verdegrand knows," Patch sent. He was breathing hard. "I called him, but I don't know if he'll be here in time."
"Where are you?"
"Right around the corner," he said. "North side."
They'd forced the door. The two deer slipped through the half-open shutter. "Marki..."
"Go. Stay out of my shot from the north."
They broke cover and started across the street. Judy threw a look down to the end, where Patch was coming around the corner himself, wide to the other sidewalk so he wouldn't foul Marki's field of fire. He wasn't wearing riot pads. Judy's stomach rolled.
Their targets saw them coming. One of the bears turned and Judy caught him muttering the alert.
"Schafer!"
She'd forgotten how large he was. Worse, even now, even as they'd caught him trying to force entry in a protest zone, he and his companion still had time to share a grim smile.
Patch was coming up hard, and Judy saw two more big cops in proper plates make the corner and hustle down the near side of the building, fire fields be damned. Five on two, but the police still wouldn't have a weight advantage. She heard Nick's taser click out of its holster behind her.
"Stay where you are. Put your pack on the ground."
"Or what?"
"You're under arrest for trespassing. Put the bag down, Schafer. Now."
They were moving. Spreading out. Judy stopped where she was and drew her own taser.
"Stop where you are."
"Last warning, Schafer." Nick's voice was tight, and for good reason. Their sidearms wouldn't stop a polar bear for long. They might just ignore the incapacitating charge. It happened sometimes.
Schafer, on the left, took two steps closer. Judy took one back. If he made it any further into the street where they were, Marki would drop him.
Patch was here, charging his own tiny taser. Schafer seemed to recognize him - and his grin only got wider.
"You just don't give up, do you?"
And then the bear on the right offered a startled curse.
Schafer whirled - and froze.
The reindeer came one after the other out of the door they'd entered, with their hooves cuffed behind their backs, marching ahead of two lions in padded CEG security vests. Verdegrand ducked underneath the half-open garage door, with a stun gun of his own trained on Schafer.
"Officers." He nodded to Patch. "Thanks for the call, LeCarroll."
"Schafer," the other bear growled. "You never said-"
"Zocchi." Schafer had the leer stunned off his face. "Stop talking."
Their backup arrived in McHorn and Higgins, who pulled Schafer around and started processing him right there. He didn't offer any more resistance as they pulled his pack off and slapped on a pair of cuffs.
Instead he was looking from Verdegrand to Patch, and the loathing on his muzzle as he put it together was making the squirrel get physical distance.
"What's in the bag, Schafer?" Judy asked.
He bared his teeth in a full-on threat display. His huge shoulders rolled against the restraints. "That's twice now, you little rat. Do you really think this is going to matter?" He jerked his head up at the building above them. "After what she just pulled?"
Only now that the bears were trussed did Patch fumble his taser back into his holster, Judy noticed. His eyes were huge.
"Trespassing not enough for you?" she asked Schafer. If he was going to run his mouth, they might as well try to get something out of it - and maybe she could get his attention off Patch, too. She ignored the adrenaline curling in her own stomach. "You want threatening charges, too?"
"You don't have anything on me. Just like you didn't have anything on Everett."
Nick's ears twitched in Judy's periphery. "And where is Everett?"
"You'd like to know, I'd bet. And you." He was still staring at Patch. "I hope it's you who finds him."
The anger wobbled into something uneasy and cold. Judy waved a paw. "McHorn, get him out of here."
"That's enough of that," the rhino rumbled. He shoved Schafer to his knees on the concrete and reached for a muzzle. "Higgins."
They got all the interlopers seated in a rough line on the curb for processing. Judy caught Marki on the radio with the scene commander, arranging for cruisers.
She put her back to the other mammals and pushed down on the feeling. Schafer was going to operate just like Park, and go just as far as he thought he could get away with. It had finally caught up to him this time, but he was too far over that line, or too angry now, to care. Fine. But she wasn't going to let him hurt anyone else in the process.
Patch was trying not to watch Schafer. Judy could see it in his ears, and she knew all too well what it was like to sit there with the fight or flight racing around after an angry perp stared you down. She stepped between them.
"Hey."
It seemed to help. He shook out his tail again and focused on her instead. "I'm all right."
"First arrest?"
"First time I've had to draw on a big predator." Patch shook his head. "Sorry, Nick."
"Guy scares the pants off me, too." Nick safed his taser and put it away. He spared a glance for the bear on the sidewalk. "Don't worry about it. That was a good call, letting Verdegrand know."
"Yes, thank you." Verdegrand was still here, and so quiet that Judy hadn't noticed. He nodded toward the deer. "We caught those two poking around just inside the back stairs. They didn't get to anything important."
"ZPD will have a full report for you as soon as we can," Judy said. "I'll even bring your cuffs back myself. We might be able to get you interviews, if you want them."
"I need to brief Claremont." Verdegrand's taser had disappeared, along with his security staff. Now he had a tablet, so he could key in repair orders for whatever the intruders had done to the garage door. "But then I might take you up on that."