Zootopia: Secrets And Deception

Chapter 3. Contact

It had only been a few minutes when Judy left to get them some coffee, Nick was still drowsy from working late last night, but felt fine. He stood up to stretch his legs and walked to the men's room. He turned the sink on, put his hands in, and wiped his face down. It was a warm month in June and a stressful week at the ZPD. He then looked in the mirror and stared for the longest time, then reached into his pocket and pulled out a small box. "What would be the perfect place and time to do this?" he thought to himself, but couldn't think of a good place at the time. After sitting back down at his desk and began looking for any more leads in the case, he glanced down at his watch and saw that it was almost a quarter after ten. "What's keeping her? She's never been this late before?" he thought. It was bugging him why she was this late. "And just when I wanted that latte too....." he thought jokingly. After about ten more minutes, he decided to call her, but only went to voice mail. Then he began to worry, "carrots has always answered her phone, even when she's stressed and is almost never late.....something must have happened to....." at this point he grabbed his wire and drove down the route she always takes, it was a red light and a perfect chance to try and call her again. He redialed her number and waited. Just then a cell phone went off, he looked and saw nothing but an alley. He stopped his call and dialed, again the ringing came from the alley. He turned on his lights and pulled up against the curb in front of it. He got out and dialed her number again, the ringing was coming from behind a trashcan to his right. He looked and found her cell right next to her weapon and her wire, he almost panicked in fearing the worst. Then he called it into the ZPD, "Officer MIA! I repeat, officer Hopps missing in action!"

Crime scene tape and investigators began sweeping the area, but tire tracks that lead out onto a public road was the only thing they could find. Nick was panicking, thoughts and emotions were rushing through his head. "If anything happens to her I'll....." he thought, stumbling and almost lost his balance, and kicked something. He bent down and looked at it for the longest time, then he put gloves on and picked up to what appeared to be a flat, smooth, and shiny rock. It was black and green in a puzzling way, and had no clue what it was from or what it could be, but bagged it anyway as a precaution. He then gave it to the lab so they could analyze it, but couldn't ID whatever it was.
"It does have some DNA, Nick. But whatever it is, it isn't in any information we can match it to. The only good news is that it confirmed it to be male DNA, I tried matching it to any DNA, predator and prey, but came up negative. We could be looking at a completely different species that is uncatalogued." Freddy said. Freddy was the best analogist that the ZPD had, he catalogued every species throughout Zootopia, and was a good friend of Nicks. He then went to the security room, where they can look at the cameras all around. After combing through so many tapes and angles, Nick found the right one. It showed Judy going through the alley, weapon ready. Then getting taken and thrown in the back of a van, but could only see half of it. "Oh, Judy....." Nick said as he saw the hostility of her captors. "Wait, what was.....?" Nick said as he backed up the tape, and paused it. There in the background, of to the left, was a figure completely dressed in black armor. Helping those that were taking her, but what was even more confusing was the other figure completely covered in white armor. Above them, like he was watching them take her, making sure that no harm came to her. "Please, Judy. Come back to me, safe." Nick said as he put his hand on the screen. He feared the worst, but hoped that she would return home to him. What he didn't know, was that she was taken for a specific reason.....

Judy woke dizzy and confused, and felt herself being dragged on the cold hard ground. She still couldn't see with the hood over her face and had no clue what was happening. She then felt herself being picked up and placed in a chair, then cuffed to the arm rests. Then they left the room without even saying a word and left the hood on. "Hello?" she tried to call out, but remembered that she had been gagged. The men that brought her in closed the door and locked it. Silence filled the room, it felt like an eternity just sitting there. Then something filled the silent air, a dragging sound across the floor. It seemed to come from the left, then right, then left again. It seemed to be circling her, and there was that strange hissing sound again, then everything went quiet. "What could it be?" she thought to herself in the silence of the room. Whoosh! The hood flew off her face so suddenly, it startled her. She opened her eyes in time to see a small dagger coming right for her! She tried moving but it was too late, the blade struck and she closed her eyes!
Only to reopen them because she felt no pain or the trickle of bloodshed. It did however cut the gag that was disabling her voice and strike the wall two feet behind her. She looked all around the darkened room and saw that she was under a light that only covered her. Then she heard that sound again, it was as if someone was dragging something heavy behind them, but there weren't any footsteps, but this time, a voice spoke out through the silence.
"Did I startle you? Sorry, my workers shouldn't have left you gagged in such a manner that was unmammal like." He said. His voice was soft and gentle.
"Who are you? Where are you? Why did you bring me here?" Judy asked, still a bit groggy from the weird gas in the van.
"My dear....." he said, sounding like a gentleman. "Why ask so many questions? I brought you so we could talk." He added.
"Talk? Talk about what?" Judy asked still trying to find the figure that this voice belonged to.
"I wanted to talk about what you took from me. Do you know what it is?" He said, it almost sounded as if he was upset about something. Judy was beginning to see who it was, but it was only a shadow.
"I didn't take anything from you, you must have me confused with someone el....."
"Silence!" he roared in anger, interrupting Judy in the process. "I'm not confused, I know who you are Judy Hopps!" he said.
"How do you know my name?" Judy asked.
"It's easy. 'First bunny cop finds missing mammals.' In a hearing you said and I quote, 'are these mammals the same species? Yes, yes they are. They are all predators, they are the only ones going savage. We need to start looking at their biology.' You put the blame on all predators, shifting the mantle of criminals being the only danger to Zootopia, to all predators. Oh I know very well who you are, Judy." He explained. The reminder of what she did in the past, almost brought tears to her eyes. "I saw where you put two guards on him in front of his establishment." He added.
"Put guards on him? What are you.....wait, do you mean Jake? The otter that escaped from you?" she asked.
"Yesssss." He replied. She noticed that this figure was moving closer towards her, but she only caught a glimpse of him, and only saw that he was tall. Very tall. But still kept hearing that same dragging sound. "Four years ago, his father took something from me and he was entrusted with it. I want you to bring him to me, or at least whatever it is that he took from me." He said.
"What is it that he took from you?" Judy asked curiously.
"That isn't of your concern, what you should be concerned with however, is of that sweet foxes safety." He said as he was getting closer to her. "He wants to ask you something but can't quite find the words. What's his name again? I seem to have forgotten.....oh that's right, Nickolas Wilde." Upon hearing this, Judy became angry.
"You leave him alone!" she shouted, "He doesn't have anything to do with this!" she added. At this point he stopped and she only saw a silhouette of him, but still had no clue what he was or is.
"You care about him.....about his safety.....Good. Then returning Jake or whatever it is he stole from me shouldn't be a problem, should it? Nickolas' safety, for the return of my property. Sounds like a fair trade, don't you think?" he was close enough to her now, that she could see that one of his eyes was yellow, but the other was milky and that side of his face was scarred. He had shiny scales of black and green, and his body was wrapped around the room.....around her.
"What.....what are you?" Judy asked. She was so perplexed by his appearance.
"I am a reptile, which means I am cold blooded, or the more appropriate term for my kind would be snake. My name is Jeremiah Hissserpent, and I have a job for you if you want Nickolas to remain alive. Bring me the otter named Jake and/or my property and Nickolas will be unharmed. Fail me, and Nickolas will die a slow and painful death. Do you understand?" he threatened. He was looking straight into her eyes, she felt fear run through the back of her spine.
"I.....I understand perfectly." She muttered, and was too afraid to say anything else.
"Good, now comes your release." He said, and she was sprayed by the same chemicals that made her unconscious in the van. Everything went dark, and she awoke on the side of the road feeling cold. It was dark, and was almost 11:30pm. She got up and rushed home, still feeling drowsy and sick from the chemicals that Jeremiah had given her.

Judy burst through the door to find Nick awake and red eyed from the loss of sleep, and when he saw her, he almost collapsed. "Carrots?" he said as they ran towards each other and hugged one another tight, "I thought.....I thought I would never see you again." He said as he felt happy and relieved that she was alright and back in his arms. "What happened?" he added.
"It.....it's a long story, Nick. I will tell you tomorrow in the morning. Right now, I just want you." She said as she felt secure and safe in his arms.
"Okay, just let me call ZPD that you are home safe." Nick said, it sounded as if a huge weight had fallen off his shoulders. He then picked up the phone and dialed ZPD headquarters.