Zootopia: The Visitor

Close Encounters of the Worst Kind

Judy and I both sat in Police Chief Bogo's office. He sat across from us behind his desk, glaring. "So tell me," he began. "What exactly did you two find in that forest last night?"

Judy turned to me. "You didn't tell him?"

No, I hadn't told him.

"Right," I tried to get around the situation. "We found someone stealing an important piece of evidence pertaining to this new savage case. Unfortunately, we were unable to take him into custody. That's why I didn't report in to you last night. We spent today trying to find him and in turn, recover that evidence."

"Hmph," Bogo's nostrils flared. "That's a nice little spin on the story, but you don't fool me, Wilde," he turned his computer monitor to face us. "This is you two engaging in a pursuit after that... thing, is it not?"

On the monitor played footage of us chasing the suspect through the park earlier that day.

"Yes sir it is," I answered.

"And may I ask for the real reason you were trying to catch this animal?"

"Because we have reason to believe he may hold answers to who is responsible for the events of last night," I replied.

"What species does this animal belong to?"

"For the moment, we don't know," Judy chipped in. "But we can find out if you let us continue our search for him."

Bogo stared at her. "Hopps, did you have knowledge of Wilde's attempt to withhold this information from me?"

Judy looked conflicted. "Chief, I'm sure he has good-"

"Quit wasting my time and answer the question Hopps!" he didn't let her finish. "Did you know?"

Judy looked down at her lap. "No sir."

"You're dismissed," he told her. "Now leave."

She revolted. "But chief-"

"I said leave! That's an order."

Grudgingly, Judy slid down off the seat next to me and left the room, after which Bogo looked back at me. "Do you even realize what this could mean, Wilde? This thing you're after, it could bloody well be a new species of some kind, an alien, for all you know, and yet you tried to hide it. Keep it a secret," he scolded me.

"To be fair, sir, this is another mammal we're talking about. He's not just some creature to be sought out and-"

"Shut it, Wilde!" he sure had a habit of cutting everybody off. "Now I'm going to ask you this, and you had better answer truthfully. If you lie to me, I will know."

"I'm listening."

"Why did you withhold this information from me? Is there some reason for why you felt the need to keep it hidden?"

"You want my honesty Chief? I decided not to tell you about him because I don't trust you."

The big ox opened his mouth to say something else but I didn't let him. "I knew you well enough to realize that you would seek him out, only to turn him over to the ZIA, where they would, I don't know, imprison him? Experiment on him? Dissect him? Any of one of those things was enough to make me think twice about letting you know he exists."

He laughed at me. "What the devil are you talking about? Don't pester me about trust. Especially after you just lied to me. Besides, I hardly think they'd take it that far, but you can be sure that I'll be handing this animal over upon finding him."

"Of course," I sat back with my arms folded.

Suddenly, Bogo's receiver buzzed. "That fat cheetah always chooses the best moments to ring in," he pressed and held the microphone button. "What is it, Clawhauser?"