Disclaimer: Zootopia stories, characters, settings, and properties belong to the Walt Disney Co. This story is written under Fair Use Copyright laws.
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The Fire Triangle—A Zootopia Fanfiction
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Part One:
Fuel
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Chapter 8—Where There's Smoke...
(Continued...Pt. 5)
"Sorry Officer Hopps, Chief Bogo went home about an hour ago."
The voice was high, flat, nasal, and also completely uninterested in anything she might have to say...either to him, to the Chief, or to anyone else.
Judy tried not to groan as she looked at her watch. Was it that late already?
The animal she was speaking to was Benjamin Clawhauser's night-shift replacement, Officer Robert 'Bob' Sparks, an Asiatic Wild Ass. About as upbeat as the average canker sore, he was known throughout Precinct-1 as 'The Melancholy Donkey', and NOT affectionately. Whenever he was on duty, folks tended to avoid the dispatch desk like the plague.
"Do you want to leave him a message?" Sparks was asking her, still speaking in a dull, lackluster voice.
"No thanks, I'll shoot him a text," Judy answered, quickly. She was not about to relay the results of her and Nick's efforts by way of this indifferent character; what they'd found in locker-room L was much too important for that.
"Okaaaay," Sparks responded in that same leaden monotone, and disconnected without another word.
"That guy brightens up a room by leaving it," Nick Wilde observed, as Judy thumbed out her text-message for Chief Bogo.
"Tell me about it," she answered, hitting 'send'. She put away her phone and then hugged herself, shivering slightly. "Brrrr, is it just me, or did it get really cool out here all of a sudden?"
Nick only smiled. "No, it's not just you Carrots—and you can thank the Climate Wall for the temperature drop." He pointed north, towards a line of glowing red slats in the far distance. "See, it doesn't just heat up the air; it also sucks out the humidity. And dry air cools off a lot faster than moist air. Over in the Rainforest District, they probably haven't noticed a thing yet."
"Is that something else you learned from Finnick?" Judy asked him. Was it really that much cooler now, or did it only feel that way? After the broiling day she and her partner had suffered, it was hard to say for certain.
"No," Nick answered, beetling his brows for a second, "I picked that up back in grade school, on a field trip to the Climate Wall. Funny how some things stay with you." He frowned slightly, "But speaking of Finnick, I wonder if he got that van sold."
His change of expression was not lost on his partner.
"If you don't mind my saying so Nick, you don't seem very happy about it."
The red fox growled and looked away for a second.
"Ummm...can't help having some mixed feelings Carrots. " He turned to face her again. "Look, I know it's Finnick's ride, and he can do whatever he wants with it, but still...I have a lot of memories of my own to go with that van."
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The Fire Triangle, A Zootopia Fanfiction -- Part One
Mystery / ThrillerIt's been two years since Nick Wilde and Judy Hopps broke the Savage Predator conspiracy. Now a brilliant and effective team, they're only a few steps away from making the detective bureau and growing closer with every passing day. But even as thei...
