Chapter Text
Six days passed by in a hurry for the very busy fox that was Nicholas Wilde.
In fact he had almost forgotten the little bunny he had met after completing his job in the burrows.
The mammals he had killed had been extorting their own father, who just happened to have been an asset for the Pack.
All their smuggling operations in the burrows ran through a network provided by the ambitious bunny.
And so when the higher ups had found out that internal strive threatened to compromise their operations on such a scale, well, that problem had swiftly been dealt with.
And that was that, over and out, the police was investigating a random fox who had gunned down two rabbits and noone would dare to disturb the grieving family.
So things would probably be alright on that front, especially since almost all of the burrow cops were on the Pack's payroll.
No the problem that had keep Nick up at night for the last few days had been a botched hit on a tinpot dictator down south in an area commonly known as the Desert Commonwealth.
No botched was not quite the right word.
One of his closest associates, by the name of Jack Savage, had been assigned to this hit and had been planning it for months.
And as far as reports went, all had gone well, except for the fact that one of the dictators doubles had taken it upon himself to replace the old dirtbag.
This wouldn't have even been a problem in the slightest though.
If not for the fact that this double had started to crack down even harder on the mob drug operation in the area than his predecessor.
Now the commission was breathing down the necks of every member of Murder Inc. to get this particular problem in order, since they had created this problem in the first place.
Which lead Nick and some other members of his crew to assist Jack in his current endeavor.
So it happened that Nick was sitting by the window on the second floor of a dusty old appartment building with a heavy case in his lap which contained a control unit for a remote targeting system.
This time they had spared no expense, he would hit the main target of their hit while the others took out the remaining two doubles, to prevent this from happening a second and possibly a third time.
The tablet in his paw displayed a live feed from the remotly controlled machinegun they had installed in another appartment building down the street.
This particular weapon was most definitely overkill and most definitely the most expensive weapon Nick had and probably would ever operate, as it fired caliber .50 armor piecing bullets at sixhundred shoots per minute.
The Capitano, as the doubles former employer was known, was scheduled to parade through this part of the city today to show that he was indeed not dead, to pacify even the most doubtful citizens.
And he would be accompanied by an entire army for this occasion.
Which in turn was the reason that this weapon was necessary in the first place.
Hitting the target with this kind of weapon was easy, and incredibly so, since the target had to stay out in public for the duration of the whole event.
But getting away afterwards was another problem entirely.
One which Nick hoped to solve by not having to flee at all.
He would simply hole up in the hidden basement below and wait the whole mess out until Jack came to pick him up.
The bored fox almost jumped out of his fur when his phone suddely started ringing.
The display showed a number he was not familiar with, so he cleared his throat and answered the call professionally.
"Wilde here, how can I be of service?"
He could hear a chuckle from the other side of the line and a muffled female voice tried to shush someone away.
Where had he heard that voice before?
"Ma'am are you still there?"
He inquired while his head went through all the important females inside the mob which could possess his number.
Meanwhile the voice from the other side answered hurriedly.
"Um..yes I am still here! Please don't hang up!"
And he remembered, this was the little bunny from the burrows.
"Don't worry, I won't. So who was that in the background?" He inquired to find out what kind of mammal was possibly listening in on their conversation.
"Just my..." He heard a grunt from the other end of the line and a light crashing noise. "...nosy sister, is all."
She then went on in a louder tone which was definitely not directed at him.
"WHO SHOULD KNOW, that LISTENING to the conversations of OTHERS is rude."
The way she emphasised these words made Nick chuckle.
Something which did not go unnoticed by the bunny on the other end of the line.
"Sorry, I can call you back later when she is not around and..."
"Don't worry too much." Nick had decided that it wouldn't matter too much and he had come to the conclusion that he indeed made the right choice back in the burrows, he wanted to help this little bunny as much as possible.
She reminded him of Jack when he was younger.
The young doe had the same kind of goofy determination that his friend had. And just like him she also tended to overthink things.
"Instead, tell me how has your week been?" Asked Nick in an obvious attempt to steer the conversation away from the possible deadlock the bunny was trying to maneauver it into.
As expected, the young bunny was confused.
"My week?!"
A smirk formed on Nick's muzzle,"sure."
"Uhmm...well...something happened in the town and we were not allowed to go outside for two whole days. And then I started running in the mornings, since you said that I need to do well in sports. And I looked up selfdefense courses and..."
The little bunny droned on for another five minutes. She sure had done a lot, mostly research to help her plan her way to the top. Her enthusiams and vigor were scary, to say the least.
And Nick wondered if the little bunny was still the same little bunny from that bridge. Had his little intervention really changed that much already?
He could barely remember the days after he had met the boss. He knew that the boss had tried to get him to continue school and get an honest job.
But his younger self had been angry and hurt. And he could hazily remember how his younger self wanted to get back at the mammals who had treated him like a bug his entire life. Especially after he had tried his best to fit in...to do good.
Alcohol had been involved, he remembered as much, that had been his first contact with Finnick.
Sometimes he wondered what exactly had transpired back then, but he still remembered that there had been a huge ruckus and that his mother just died of shame after it had happened.
The boss had once told him that even with his lawyers, things had been rough. Which he know knew meant that things must have been almost beyond repair.
Nick had looked up the event years later when he found the courage to do so. And apparently he had stolen a handgun from the boss, or Finnick and killed two of the mammals who had muzzled him, in broad daylight.
His brain did it's best in shielding him, but that wasn't enough. It was after this event that the boss decided to take him in and made him into an enforcer.
A smile formed on his muzzle, even after all that had happened, the ups and downs, the pain and the gain, the secret glory and the infamy that clung to his name in the hidden circles of society, he was glad that things had gone the way they had.
Nick was sure that there was nothing in the world, which could mean as much as simply being in the Pack meant to him.
The young doe on the other line stopped her little report on her activities and Nick took his turn to talk.
He told her that his week had been rather uneventful and how he was currently on a work related trip down south.
This exited the young doe and she started bombarding him with questions.
Most of which he dodged skillfully, while he answered choosen questions just satisfy her curiosity.
Time passed and Nick told the young doe to go through with the plans she had made.
At this point this was definitely the best option for both of them.
Nick was just about to tell the younger rabbit that if she couldn't get her parents to pay for selfdefence courses that he would chip in, knowing fully well that this could only benefit her in the future no matter where she ended up.
When he heard he noise of a marching band passing by.
His eyes darted to the screen before him immediately.
It had begun, the first members of the parade had entered the street he had positioned himself in and things would get messy soon.
"...I am sorry but I need to hang up on you Carrots, duty calls!" Said Nick and he could not help but smirk when he heard her teeth grind a little as soon as he uttered the nickname, of which he had only grown more fond of during their little conversation.
Her reaction to his words was a much warmer "reaally?" which almost sounded like a soft whimper.
She really still was a little kit.
Knowing this he cheerfully pressed on,"it sure does, I will call you in a week though to check on your progress, this is your number right?"
A quick "yes!", came from the other end of the line that sounded almost a little panicked.
"Great I will call you soon, have a great week."
There was a not too cheerful, "you too" from the other end of the line and he hung up.
It was obvious that she did not like the fact that their conversation had been cut off so abruptly.
But she would get over it, he was sure of it
He placed the phone on the windowsill and took a lo ok outside.
More mammals filled the street, the marching band was leading the parade with the military personel marching right behind them.
The full might of a dirty tinpot dictator at work, plain green uniforms coupled with weapons which made even the oldest of civilians on the sidewalk look young.
He was sure that some museum in Zootopia would have paid fine money for at least some of these antiques.
This caused Nick to make a mental note to actually grab some for his way home, who knew maybe he could make a nice profit when he returned.
This way he would compensate for the losses that this operation made, at least a little bit.
More and more soldiers and now even vehicles entered the street.
Old tanks which were probably more rust than steel on the inside and jeeps which were just in good enough condition to be called oldtimers.
Flags were waving through the streets and the crowd cheered while Nick, up in his vantage point, entered the passcode into his monitor to unlock the controls of the maschinegun down the street.
He prayed that this would work, they had tested the weapon out in the desert...once...and there had been no stone walls between him and the weapon when he had controlled it back then.
A jam would be even more disastrous, not to mention emberassing.
Stripes would never let him live that one down if it happened.
Then it things finally got serious, the target came into his view, an old coyote in his full glory.
And a rather well fed coyote Nick had to say as his target was standing half inside, half outside a tank with his belly barely fitting into the hatch.
The tank itself would have been the newest piece of equipment in the entire parade, it was probably ten to twenty years younger than it's brothers and sisters.
However, something even newer had come into sight with the tank as it slowly rolled forward at walking pace.
The presidents personal guard, armed to the teeth with top notch weapons and bodyarmor.
A read scarf like collar marked them and at least twenty of these guards marched in perfect sync before the tank while just as many followed just behind the tank.
Meanwhile the 'president' was lazily waving at the mammals surrounding him. It was clear that his mind was not really one hundred percent commited to this display of power.
Nick could easily guess what had the newly appointed leader of the small nation so captivated, the possibility of being killed was too real to be ignored.
And not many mammals could deal with that sort of pressure. And even if they could, you can only put so much weight onto a table before it breaks.
Mammals were essentially the same, some had an extreme tolerance and others were outright frail when it came to the dangers around them. Becoming strong enough to carry a burden that heavy was hard work and most mammals would break long before they managed to get to that point.
He was sure that 'El Capitano' here was not cut out to bear that pressure, if his movements were any indicator to go by.
Which was a shame since stronger mammals with power usually made for easier targets, as long as they thought themselves to be untouchable, they were not.
The tank with his target rolled past his house and Nick got one last good look at him before he concentrated on the screen before him.
About a minute more and the tank would be in the perfect position to be ambushed.
Nick gripped the joystick which controlled the gun harder and turned a key in the case which released the safety.
The weapon was now ready to fire, ready to rip his target and the mammals around him to shreds.
Just around twenty seconds more chimed Nick's internal clock.
And just as always his instinct was right, the tank reached the designated spot seventeen seconds later and the display before him showed the target waving right at the camera.
Nick chuckled, no better moment than this one...and all hell broke loose when he pushed the red button on the joystick.
The thunder of mashingun fire echoed through the busteling streets and was soon followed of the sound of metal piercing metal or hammering into the cobblestone street.
The tank stopped almost instantly and after the initial shock had passed fire was returned by the military in the streets.
Once he was sure that his target was a bloody pulp Nick used his remaining ammunition to cause havok among the soldiers.
He pushed the joystick forward and the muzzle of the mashinegun lowered quickly, causing some of the guards who noticed the movement in the hail of bullets raining down from the building before them and tried to duck into cover. While others were simply ripped to shreds by the bullets who were designed to shred metal rather than tissue.
Blood quickly tainted the streets and soon Nick ran out of bullets.
He sighed before closing the case before him and grabbing his phone.
More ammunition would have most certainly been a worthwhile investment, he could have killed some more hardliners and softened things up for his collegues in the region.
But he had run out and there was no changing that.
So he jumped onto his paws and made his way towards the first floor.
There he entered the bathroom and threw the case down the shute that was located beneath the bathtub.
A bathtub which was normally at ground level. Now however it was raised to reveal the ladder below which lead into his new hideout.
Nick took his place at the top of the ladder and pulled on the valve which was connected to the mechanism at the bottom of the tub.
The tub was easily lowered and he made his way down as he pulled the tub back into it's normal position.
The mechanism which allowed the tub to be moved made a snapping noise as it locked into position, but Nick was not finished yet.
He turned the valve anticlockwise and two steelbolts locked the construction firmly in place.
This way, even if someone were to accidentally find the switch to unlock the mechanism, there would still be no way to raise the tub from the outside.
Nick climbed down the last rungs of the ladder and pressed the light switch to his right.
A single old lightbulb flared up angrily after being woken from its long slumber.
The old bed at the very end of the room was his immediate destination after he had decided that a nap was a worthy reward for this job well done.
When he woke up Nick sighed as his first thoughts turned to the task at paw.
To make Carrots happy he had to make her able to join the ZPD, a monumental task, really.
How would he enforce a new law as ridiculous as this?
And more importantly how would he spin this to benefit the Pack?
It just had to, there was no way around it. He couldn't just ask for something like this without a good reason or someone owing him a favor.
Natually there were many mammals who did, but which one would have the power to move the neccessary pieces?
He needed someone to help him plan this all out.
Only one mammal came to mind and Nick couldn't help but sigh once more as he picked up his satellite phone.
He entered the well known number and added the monthly changing end combination.
The line crackled and the well known fast beeping sound started sounding while Nick made his way over to the only table in the room and slumped into the chair next to it.
There was another crack followed by a far softer silence and the familiar voice of his sister.
"Hey bro, whats up? I thought you were in the desert hunting fake coyotes."
Nick chuckled,"you are behind the times sis, we already finished that mess up."
"So I've heard. But then again I heard that one before." Came the smug reply he had waited for from the other end of the line.
"Sure, but that was when stripes was on the case, all by his lonesome if I might add. And we both know what that means."
A snort came from the other end of the line.
"Modest as always I see, I will have you know that stripes has a better record than you do. Especially after what happened in Aruvana."
Nick flinched at the mere name of the place he had almost never left. A messy event indeed. The police had known and somehow that military had gotten involved. Even he himself was not quite sure what had happened back then, a complete and utter disaster.
"We don't talk about that time."
There was a pause and he could hear his sister preparing herself for another jab at his ego so he deflected before she had the time to do so.
"I am calling you today because I need your expertise."
More silence, followed by a cautious question was all that followed his statement.
"What would you need a socialite like me for?"
"Do you know if we have any letherage with Chief Bogo?" Asked Nick, knowing that he had just revealed his intentions with one move. A mistake in negotiations, ususally, but the mammal he was negotiating with was his sister.
And he knew that he could trust her.
"Not that I know of...the boss might. But I am not quite sure." Jessica stated calmly. "More importantly what would you want with the chief of precinct one? We literally have dirt on almost every other high ranking cop in the city. Hell, Chief Whittecat used to run a prostitution racket for us before she became chief in precinct five."
Nick started to pound the claws of his free claw against the table as he went on.
"I know, but I need political leverage and if Bogo makes a decision then the mayor will listen."
He heard another crack in the line and some clicking and clacking noises that sounded awfully like a computer being used.
"What are you even trying to do that requires this level political leverage?"
A little bit more of the clacking in the background could be heard and he was sure, his sister had already started working on his request.
"I mean, aren't you usually the guy who provides the leverage and removes any obstacles?"
Nick stopped his paw on the table and stared blankly into the the room.
Yeah exactly, he was usually moving in the shadows. He was a soldier, a prime mover who would fulfill the wishes of his contractors faithfully.
So why was he trying to do something that could get him entangeld with something as difficult as this...for what reward even?
It only took him a moment to think back to that moment on the bridge and then to that moment with the ranger scouts so many years before that.
And he smirked, he would have given everything for the chance he wanted to provide for her, for a mammal that still had a chance.
"I met a very special mammal not too long ago. And I made a promise to change the law which bans small mammals from becoming officers in the ZPD."
On the other end of the line his sister started throwing a coughting fit.
And for a split second he wondered if she was actually choking and needed help, until she finally stopped and asked with a now fairly rough voice.
"You WHAT?!"