Silent Enemy

Chapter 8: Devil's Arithmetic

"So let me get this all straight." Chief Bogo huffed, pacing his office as his steps rung out an agitated staccato. "Acting on information from an informant, to a case you aren't even assigned to, you decided to investigate the location of a possible savage mammal. You then proceeded onto the premises, without a warrant, and with the flimsiest example of probable cause I have ever heard of, in the company of a mammal who is currently a suspect in the same case you were investigating."

Judy started to raise a finger, but then thought better of the action. She instead glanced to her partner, seated beside her, noting his vapid expression. He could be so infuriatingly calm when getting dressed down, a skill that despite years of practice, she had never actually mastered. She turned dutifully back to the chief, and resolved to continue weathering the buffalo's verbal onslaught.

Surprisingly, Chief Bogo had stopped speaking, and had instead taken to staring at a large, colorful map of the city, spread across his office wall. The city wasn't overly detailed. A simple thing, it was stretched on a piece of cardstock which lent rigidity to the flimsy paper construct. Pins had been inserted into the map over the years, indicating particular heinous crimes, which the chief resolved never to forget. Entire sections of the map had been covered in red and white, sites where violence and crime were more common. She saw that one such section, a meeting of four streets in city central, were currently occupying the chiefs attention. She had never learned what had occurred at that particular sight, but she knew from the hushed whispers, and meaningful glances of some of the more senior officers, that it had been bad.

"Would you mind telling me where you screwed up in all of this, and why?" The chief prompted in a quiet, dangerous tone.

Judy cleared her throat. "Sir, we shouldn't have been where we were." Bogo waited patiently. Judy cleared her throat again, nerves causing her throat muscles to tense. "We weren't assigned to the case, and we didn't have permission to resume active police work."

"That's one. Keep going."

"Uhh, we shouldn't have brought Daniel." Bogo turned to Judy, noticing her use of the vulpine's first name. "He has a conflict of interest in the case, and any evidence we found last night would be suspect. But sir we..."

Bogo cut her off with the wave of his hoof, the digits straight in a slashing gesture. He then held up two digits. "What else?"

Judy wracked her brain, but her exhaustion prevented her from thinking straight. All she really wanted to do was to slink back to her bed, and cover her face with a pillow. Eventually, she relented, and shrugged. "I don't know sir."

"Wilde?"

Nick pursed his lips, and then mirrored Judy. "I thought Judy had it covered." The chief snorted, and turned back to look at his two troublesome officers. They looked terrible. Hopps was still in a splint, her leg was clearly bothering her from the way she kept grimacing when she moved it. Wilde was likewise disheveled, and sometime through the events of the evening, one of his stitches had popped. He would need to go to the hospital again to have it redone. They were both dirty, tired, and coming off adrenaline highs from the danger they had been in. He sighed, and rested a hip of the corner of his desk, as he looked the pair in the eye.

"You took an unnecessary risk. You didn't call in what you have found, and you should have left it to better rested and trained officers to handle the situation." Judy bristled, her professional pride stung by the chief's accusations, but he stopped her from speaking once again. "No Hopps, you need to listen. You are a tough mammal, especially so for one your size. But there are limitations we all must face. You and your partner where injured, going into a potentially dangerous situation along with a civilian. Things went well enough, but the situation could have gone much worse. What would have happened if that panther had attacked before Wilde spotted it? It could have killed you, before you knew it was even there. Would you have liked to have a civilian death on your hands, Hopps?" Judy nearly snorted, as the chief described the scenario nearly as perfectly as if he had been there. Of course, the chief couldn't have accounted for a wizard's magic in the story, but the irony wasn't lost on her.