Chapter XXV: Beyond the Boundary

Officers Pardus and Onca stood silent, smiling as Nick ripped into them. The entire affair was a spectacle, with most of the officers present grinning madly at the sight of Nick losing his cool. For once, he'd let them know that they got to him.

"You two," he began, holding up his paws as if to strangle the two big cats. "You two are complete, utterly terrible animals. What's with those suits!"

Pardus and Onca didn't answer, resorting to bringing their arms around the others' shoulders and grinning at Nick, still incredulous. Bos walked up in between them and Nick, holding out his hoof to explain the situation.

"You see, Nick," he said. "we needed eyes and ears on the inside. As your section's newest officers, these two raised the least suspicion for taking a contract with the SST when the plan to replace the police was raised. They received their commission that morning."

"The greedy mooks didn't even bat an eye when we said we'd stay on. They were ecstatic to have the support of former cops," Onca said, his black fur blending in perfectly with the combat armor. "I bet they figured they'd have an easier time winning hearts and minds if they had familiar faces patrolling the neighborhoods."

"So," Judy jumped in, "you two rookies got yourselves in deep, huh?"

"Yeah," Onca said. Unlike his partner, his spotted, yellow-orange fur stood in stark contrast to the armor he wore. It was almost an eyesore. "And with surprisingly little effort, too. Something big is coming down – the Zootopia Aerospace CEO came by the station the day after Chief got taken away to tell us that all hands were on deck. Said that the company needed as many cops they could take into their ranks to help 'pacify' the city."

"Zootopia is pretty large," Judy reminded them. "Even the ZPD had almost 60,000 officers."

"No," Onca said, shaking his head. "Their figures were way higher than that. He talked about over one hundred thousand."

"One hundred thousand?" Nick asked, stroking his chin. "That's not policing. That's an occupation."

"Problem is, what for?" Judy asked, joining Nick in his pose. They stared at the concrete floor while Lionheart reached into his coat pocket, pulling out the data chip Judy had given him earlier.

"Lucky for us, we might just have the answer," he said, taking a step forward and handing the chip over to Pardus. "Let's see what they see, shall we?"

Pardus nodded, walking over to his patrol car. He put the chip into a card reader before inserting it into the laptop straddling the center console, booting up the system and navigating Judy's files. He made a few noises as he searched, eliciting curious glances from the other animals gathered around the van. He motioned for them to come over after a few moments of cursory investigation.

"Guys, you may want to see this," he said, holding a paw out for someone – anyone to take it. Bos obliged and Pardus brought him close, the yak's head hanging over his shoulder just inside the car as he explained the situation. "Alright, so according to this picture," he said, bringing up the picture Judy had taken in Warrens-Den, "these spots on circled and dated on the map, right? Well, look at this."

Pardus brought up Ax and Hammer, the SST's proprietary personnel management program, and loaded a map of Zootopia. Clicking around the user interface, he brought up an image with several areas of Zootopia highlighted. Mr. Bos tilted his head in confusion.

"Just what am I looking at here?" he asked.

"This is a map of permanent garrison stations for SST guards. It matches perfectly with the image that Judy took. Hey, Judes, what was that anyway?" the leopard asked.

Judy took a deep breathe, struggling to find the wherewithal to break the news so nonchalantly. "That," she began, "was a map of sites where the Zootopia Transit Administration has been smuggling and storing explosives."

"You mean for digging the tunnels?" he asked, confused. "I don't understand, why would they need permanent guards for that?"

"Not for the tunnels," Nick said. "Judy showed me the cargo manifest on one of these shipments. It should be in her files."

Pardus went back to the image window, clicking around until he found the bill of lading for the ammonium nitrate. It looked alien to him – totally incomprehensible. "I don't understand," he said. "What's so significant?"

"Each shipment contains a thousand kilograms of ammonium nitrate," Nick said. "It's enough firepower to blow up a city block. And there's tens of thousands of pounds of the stuff inside the city right now."

"That's not all," Judy said, interrupting Nick. "Check out where it's all parked. Every single depot in along a border wall. And not just the walls themselves – they're all up against a climate control node."

An gasp filled the air as the other officers behind them began piecing things together for themselves. Most of her colleagues were old time bruisers, more comfortable working in Tundra Town SWAT than the detective-type policing – and paperwork – that attached itself to big breaks like this, but even they began to understand the severity of the situation.

"Zootopia depends on those nodes," Grizzoli said. Lionheart agreed.

"Not just Zootopia. There are fifty million animals in the Zootopia metro area – in The Burrows and across the bay – start messing with the climate control systems and you'd have an environmental disaster beyond imagining," the former mayor said.

"And if they go down totally?"

"This entire region would be uninhabitable until you got them running again. It would be one thing to take them offline for regular maintenance – we do that all the time every time there's a severe thunderstorm rolling over the city, but causing damage to them and the climate border walls? I don't know. None of us have lived in a Zootopia without them," Lionheart said. He ran a paw through his mane, concern showing across his face.

"I don't suppose Felis was kind enough to dump a schedule for when this is all set to take place on your lap, would she?" Pardus asked over his shoulder. Judy shook her head in the negative and the leopard sighed. Bos removed himself from the car, standing up tall in front of everyone and crossed his arms.

"Right, then," he said. "I suppose we have no other choice."

"It's still too dangerous, Leonard," Lionheart said. "We still haven't located the chief yet."

"Nor will we, until we get inside, Leodore," Bos said, pausing. He looked directly at Nick and Judy before continuing. "We needed someone inside the SST to eavesdrop on their movements and access their systems, but what we have is limited, at best. The best, most reliable way for us to find Chief Bogo and stop all of this from going down is to head to the source."

"And that would be?" Nick asked.

"The Zootopia Center for Information Security," Bos said. "You remember it – it used to be a ZPD system before being contracted out several years ago after Felis won the election. At the time, we all thought it was just a cost-saving measure, but ever since the ZPD was replaced, we've noticed something else, too. All the orders coming to these guys," he said, pointing over his shoulder to Pardus and Onca. "Are coming from the CIS. It's acting as a central relay to every SST soldier in the city. And from its old mission as a data analytics unit for the ZPD, I think it might be able to coordinate mass surveillance across Zootopia, as well."

Judy and Nick looked at each other at the last part, recalling how often they were tracked through the city's traffic cameras. The modified hardware came from Mouse and his workers, they knew, but the software had to come from somewhere, too. It didn't surprise them that it would come from the CIS.

"So, what's the plan?" Judy asked.

"Take it, get all the information we need from it, and shut it down," Bos said.

"Which sounds a lot easier than it is," Lionheart said, holding a paw out to raise a point. "The place is a fortress. Not only is it located right in civic plaza, but it's also the home of ZPD SWAT's old armory – every animal in the place is going to be heavily armed and dangerous. I don't know how we'd even try."

"I might," Nick said, putting his paws in his pockets and looking off into the distance. "Breaking and entering is my thing, remember? I can guarantee there's a way into that place, especially since it's in civic plaza. Come on, I'll show you."

Nick began walking over to Bos's car while the other animals gathered there looked at Judy, who only offered a shrug in response. Just what was Nick planning, she wondered. The other animals got back into the van, with Pardus and Onca following close behind in their patrol car. Bos and Lionheart buckled themselves in as Judy found herself back beside Nick, his face lost in thought.

"At least, I think it should work," he said.

"Just what do you have planned, Mr. Wilde?" Lionheart asked as they pulled out of the parking garage, heading out into the streets. They took the lead, with the SST patrol car in the middle and the van bringing up the rear of their little convoy. If anything went south in either vehicle, at least Pardus and Onca could bring their arms to bear in either direction quickly.

"Let's just say that it's a good thing we've got some big mammals on our side with this one, since I sure as hell won't be able to do this. Do you know where the Grand Hotel is?"

"The derelict?" Bos asked, incredulously. "What could possibly be over there?"

"Just head there," Nick insisted. Bos obliged, turning down a side street, weaving through the crowded, diagonal avenues that criss-crossed the downtown street grid. They parked outside of a small, community drug store across from the hotel and got out of their vehicles, staring up at the empty monolith in front of them.

The hotel's glory days were long gone. Large wood letters spelled out the word "GRAND" immediately above the boarded up entrance, and the windows of the first three floors were similarly boarded up. The white paint on the sign was faded and chipped. Graffiti graced the upper floors of the otherwise regal monument. Where the windows had been, they could see inside the structure, where decay and time had taken their toll – the ceilings of several rooms had collapsed in on themselves. Through the light mist of rain, they could faintly see water dripping down through the structure, indicating that, at least in one section, the entire roof had given way. Nick hadn't bothered explaining why they were there, instead opting to walk across the street toward the empty, overgrown grass lot next to the hotel, kneeling down to get beneath a small hole in the chain link fence.

Judy looked at the others before following, offering an example of trust for the rest to follow. It was one thing for Judy to follow him, barely having to kneel to get beneath the hole in the fence. Nor for the more nimble animals like Fangmeyer to fit through the fence. It was another matter entirely for Francine and Clawhauser to fit through. Luckily, Pardus and Onca had had the foresight to bring a pair of bolt-cutters from their patrol car – standard issue for the ZPD and SST alike, and cut a larger hole in the fence. More conspicuous, yes, but hiding in plain sight had become Nick and Judy's specialty of late and they needed to get into the building.

After they had all gone through, Nick walked over to the side of the building, patting down each of the boards before finding a loose one and tearing it off of the windowsill. He climbed into the building, helping others follow.

As they stood in the grand lobby, looking up toward the broken skylight above leaking water into the building, Bos and Lionheart took stock of the fox, confidence exuding from him as if he were taking a stroll through an old childhood home. Bos was forced to speak up.

"You still haven't told us what we're doing in this," he said, looking around, "hulk of a building."

"Mr. Mayor, when was the first Zootopia subway built?" Nick asked, ignoring Bos entirely and walking over to the central staircase. The stairs on the outer rim led upstairs to a second lobby, while the central stairs led down, further into the structure.

"At the end of the 19th century, why?"

"And is that system in use today?" Nick asked again.

"No, it was pretty much all abandoned after the redevelopment of the system in the 1950s."

"Right," Nick said, motioning for the group to center around him. "But in the interim, the old subway system connected most of the old neighborhoods in Zootopia, and the downtown area was the most developed. You'd have subway stops for individual buildings, even – the ones where bankers and socialites would gather and couldn't be bothered to walk a couple blocks to after getting off the subway."

"Is this-" Bos said, being cut off by Nick.

"The answer is yes, but we'll need Francine and Lionheart and Grizzoli over there to help us get in there."

Nick descended the stairs, bringing them to a regal waiting area still filled with wooden benches and holding areas. A sign, partially faded, welcomed them to the Grand Hotel on one side – on the other, it bid visitors farewell and safe journeys on their travels. They came upon a brick wall, newer than the structural bricks surrounding them, whose color had yet to fade.

"We have one brick wall separating us from that old tunnel system, which incidentally is going to take us to city hall and the CIS headquarters."

"Why would it take us to the CIS? That unit wasn't founded until the internet was invented," Judy asked.

"Because, my dear Carrots," Nick said, "the CIS building used to house the Zootopia Inquirer back before it turned into a trashy tabloid and moved to Sahara Square. Come on, altogether now."

Nick pushed against the brick wall, looking for assistance. The other animals joined him. Judy at first, followed by Clawhauser, Francine, and the rest. The combined weight and force of two tons of animals' weight bearing down on the solitary brick wall caused it to buckle and they fell through in a cloud of dust and rubble, collapsing into the platform on the other side.

"We're through!" Bos said, picking himself up and dusting himself off.

"And off the grid, too," Nick said. "It's a straight shot from here to civic plaza, come on."

Several of the animals present had brought their cell phones, illuminating the way with their built-in flashlights. The tunnels here were hardly eerie, despite almost a century of disuse, but instead filled Judy with wonder. The ceiling was high above them, marked with decorative bricks that would have gone unnoticed and unappreciated by the subway-going public.

"This place is beautiful," Judy found herself saying.

"It was built by my grandfather," Lionheart said. Judy turned her head to face him. They were still walking, but Judy could see the former mayor half looking at her and half admiring the tiled artwork along the walls as they passed by. "My father and grandfather practically built this city. I just wanted to do them proud. Look in a place they hadn't – do what they hadn't. I reached too far and too greedily and got burned. Now it's all in danger."

Judy stopped in her tracks, waiting for the lion to catch up to her before continuing along. She looked up at him, and he at her, before deciding to speak. "Don't worry, Mr. Mayor – we've saved this city before. We'll save it again."

"That's the attitude I like to hear, Carrots!" Nick called out, way ahead of them. They had been walking for several minutes, almost entirely in a straight line, before Nick stopped and pointed at a platform ahead of them. "This is it."

Shining their lights at the signage on the platform, it greeted them to the home of the Zootopia Inquirer and wire news services. Ancient advertisements urged them to purchase tickets to the newest movies in town, only twenty-five cents and debuting next year – in 1950. Stars from an age gone by greeted them as they climbed onto the platform and repeated their brick wall performance at another, smaller barrier preventing them from entering further into the station. This wall, more decayed and smaller than the first, gave way almost immediately. A single set of stairs, dark and unwelcoming, sat on the other side. Once again, Nick was the first one through the portal, leading the way.

"Nick, how do you know this place so well?" Judy asked, catching up with him and keeping pace along his heels.

"Those old advertisements back on the platform there? The old subway system is just full of stuff like that. I used to come in here and scrounge up whatever old artifacts I could so I could sell them. It was pretty lucrative, but I never liked coming down here – plus, the entrance at the Grand Hotel got closed off about five years back, so that killed my prospects of coming back. Still, though, this place brings back memories – a lot of good times I spent down here with Finnick trying to make a buck or two," Nick said. "Here we are, I think?"

Nick pointed to the top of the next flight of stairs. The exit portal was blocked – not by bricks, this time, but by weak drywall. Officer Grizzoli gently pushed Nick out of his way, rushing forward and breaking through the drywall to land on the other side. The rest of them followed suit, shielding their eyes from the dust cloud kicked up by the breaking wall. Coughing, spitting, shaking, they got up and surveyed their surroundings. They were inside a sub-basement – at least, that's what the bare-walled room with no windows looked like. Surrounded by server racks, Nick and Judy looked up. To their left was a small control room. Inside sat several stunned SST soldiers and a bull wearing a crisp suit. Lionheart and Bos had recognized him instantly, while Nick and Judy made an educated guess: Paul Moo, head of the Zootopian government's IT division and a central part of Mayor Felis's cabinet. His voice greeted them over the intercom system as they saw the SST troopers rush out of the side of the control room. It was more than likely they'd be in the server room shortly.

"If it isn't the city's two most wanted animals and their more annoying friends from the central precinct. I knew you'd make it back into the city eventually, but I didn't expect you to be so brazen as to attack us directly. What do you want here?"

"All we want is information, Mr. Moo," Judy shouted. "We're not here looking for a fight."

"Sorry, Ms. Hopps," she heard him say. "We don't negotiate with terrorists."

"Terrorists? You're branding us terrorists?" Nick asked, his voice a mix between a high-pitched groan and a shout. "You're the one's smuggling explosives into the city!"

"I don't know what you're talking about," he said. "But after what the public sees, they'll have no choice but to accept that their heroes have failed them. You had your chance to join us, Mr. Wilde – you had your chance and you gave it up, freely."

Mr. Moo stopped talking as several SST troopers rushed into the room, their tasers drawn. It seemed they didn't want to kill them. Not yet, anyway.

"Arrest them. We'll let them hang with Bogo!" Mr. Moo said, turning his back from them and leaving the control room.

"Don't let him get away!" McHorn said, shifting into a stance that would allow him to rush the attackers. "We'll deal with these goons. You get Moo and get our information!"

Nick and Judy were frozen into place, unable to move until McHorn began charging the SST troopers. They saw him get hit with several tasers at once, but owing to his size and inertia, he was able to take down several of them during his charge, pinning them under him as he collapsed on the floor. Fangmeyer bounded atop a server rack, tacking another soldier and throwing him across the room.

"Go!" he shouted, getting him by a taser, which only seemed to enrage him, leaping onto another soldier and using him as a shield.

Reluctantly, Nick and Judy left the fight, jumping on top of a server rack and bounding across the room toward the doors, following Moo. Various crashes and chaos lingered as they ran further out of earshot, indicating that the fight was far from over, and they ran through the hallways, tracking down the bull partially responsible for the events unfolding across the city. Running up a flight of stairs, they caught him just before he opened a door to the ground floor. He looked down at them, quite literally, and shifted himself into a position to charge.

"There's no chance in hell I'll let you two undo the work that's taken decades to get here. No way you'll undo this revolution!" he said, rushing down the stairs to meet them.

Nick jumped on top of Judy, flinging her out of the way of danger and she heard a crash. Dust settled over them and in the air, and faintly, Judy's could hear the overhead lamp careening from the force of the animal's impact on the wall, crashing to the floor and shattering below. The emergency exit sign was the only source of light, faint as it was. She heard Nick stand up and scream and she heard a struggle ensue – the unmistakable noise of claws ripping into flesh and pained shouts. Judy shut her eyes, enveloped by darkness.