Judy stood by as Bellwether picked out another dozen bobby pins from her impressive pompadour to relinquish to her attending officer. The alpaca prison guard gave the fluffy lump of wool a few perfunctory pokes and prods, knowing full-well who this little sheep was, before sliding over the sign-in clipboard.

"You know, I don't think the bobby pins actually did anything to hold that up," Judy noticed.

Dawn finished her neat little signature and politely handed the clipboard back. "It's just a habit these days. I get it sheered like this."

Judy ran her fingertips through the fluff on her cheeks. Like her nails, Oswalt had ordered that she stop keeping it neat and trimmed, like a hare. Of course, rabbits actually had longer claws, and hares didn't always look shaggy and unkempt, as she'd tried to tell him, but he'd insisted. "It's how others think a hare should look," he'd said. Now her claws were past the point that she'd normally have been running to the nearest small mammal manicurist.

Still...Judy caught her reflection in one of the one-way windows she and Dawn were walking past and hazarded a smirk at the bunny looking back at her. She looked like an undercover. Unused to the blue uniform, in bad need of some grooming, and even scars on her cheek (from Gideon, of course. Oswalt had also insisted that she stop covering them with foundation).

She felt a tug on her sleeve. Dawn had stopped. "Ah, not that I'm not interested in seeing all of this, Judy, but where are we going? Why did we have to sign in back there?"

Undercover was just her current job, though. Judy Hopps was a police officer first and foremost. "I told you, we're going to help you with your problem."

Dawn's eyes tightened and she looked over her shoulder at the alpaca guard too far away to overhear anything. "Judy, I don't have a problem. It's a natural response for us prey to be like that around predators," she insisted. "Maybe you have the problem for not being careful around them."

"Funny, mom and dad make that same argument," Judy laughed.

The ewe's eyes narrowed a bit. "Then they seem like smart and well-adjusted bunnies."

"They're scared to even leave their den once a week to sell carrots, Dawn." Judy darted around behind Bellwether and pushed her forward for the last few mirrors. "Come on, just a bit further! I'll be worth it, I promise."

Eventually, after a lot of stuttered complaining and a doomed attempt to overpower a bunny who weight lifted for fun, the pair made it to the active windows. It had been a guess, but an educated one on Judy's part, to bring the assistant mayor down to the police-side of Interrogation. Now that Dawn was there, her attention naturally gravitated to the large mirror Judy had positioned her in front of.

She nearly bolted again when she saw the angry coyote staring straight at her from the other side, but Judy was ready. "He can't see, hear, or smell you. It's one-way." She firmly pried Dawn's hands away from her eyes. "His name's Vincent and I arrested him last night."

"You did? But...but he's so big! And, and look at his teeth!"

Judy snorted. "He's smaller than the wolf I took down at the academy and he's down an incisor after he caught my baton with his mouth." She tugged on Dawn's arm again and led her to the next window, where there was a disgruntled serval licking her wounds while an officer peppered her with questions.

Dawn got closer to the glass by herself this time. "Did you catch that one too?"

Judy shook her head. "Taken down by Lieutenant Oswalt's special force on the roof. His rodent special force." Judy giggled at the way Dawn spun around. "They have these little harpoon guns with chords attached that let them swing up onto bigger animals. You wouldn't believe it even if you saw it on a television show or something."

The ewe looked skeptical, but she seemed to accept it with the same doe-eyed wonder she'd accepted a bunny beating up a coyote.

But, then she caught herself. The smile faded and the ewe stepped away from the window. "You're amazing, Judy. You're that one in a million outlier they tell us about in school."

"That's not the point I was trying to make," Judy groaned. "I used to get beaten up in school all the time. There was this one fox that made my life a living hell, but you know what? He's stick back in Bunnyburrow and I'm here, in Zootopia, doing what I've always wanted to do."

Judy gestured do the lines of holding cells. "Do you think I just woke up one morning and started taking down mammals bigger than me? I'm a bunny, Dawn! A tiny little bunny! I had to put in more work than anyone else at the Academy, but if I can do it, any animal can do it." Dawn looked extremely dubious of that fact, and Judy just about threw up her arms. "How many rams have you seen on the force just this afternoon? I counted three in the cafeteria!"

"They're rams, Judy," Dawn explained in a voice Judy was quickly starting to identify as Dawn's 'politician' tone. "They have horns and muscles."

"And you're bigger than I am. How do I take down predators without horns and super-charged muscles?"

Dawn's eyes narrowed and her lips pinched into a tight line. "That's not the same thing," she muttered.

"But it's close." Judy reached out and tugged on the ewe's arms, pulled them away from her chest until she was fully stretched out.

"See? Stand up straight, don't slouch all the time, and you're almost as big as a fox! If you take some self-defense classes, you'll be throwing around predators with the best of them."

At the mention of self-defense, Dawn yanked her arms back. "I can't do that, Judy. If the public found out their assistant mayor was taking self-defense classes...the press would have a field day, it's an election year next year...I just can't."

Now Judy couldn't help but throw up her hands at the flimsy excuse. "Dawn, that's just-"

"Hopps!"

Judy nearly jumped and Dawn darted behind her as Chief Bogo's horned head poked through the doorway to the police side of Interrogation. The poor alpaca guard was so shocked she snapped the sign-in clipboard in half, but Bogo's little eyes were locked onto Judy.

And he looked anxious rather than angry. That was much more frightening than the bull being livid.

He stormed into the hallway and threw a clumped up orange jumpsuit at her. "There's been a change of plans. Get changed and find your arm sling."

Judy knew better than to argue. She ducked behind one of the dividers separating the interrogation windows and tried to ignore the unknowing staring of the bored several still sitting on the other side as she slipped out of her uniform.

"What's happened, Sir?"

"The porcupine made bail. Kozlov is in the lobby to pick him up and to pay the bail of any other mammal that's eligible."

"They're already making bail?" Judy gaped. "They just got processed!"

"And a Tundratown judge pulled jurisdiction since the bar is owned by an 'upstanding member of the Tundratown Chamber of Commerce', whose country club is coincidentally across the street from a certain shrew's limousine business," Bogo replied with a snort. "Arraignments were pushed through an hour ago with bails set for ever mammal arrested. The district attorney is working on finding a judge not in Big's pocket, but for now we've legally got to cut them loose if they can pay."

Judy, disgusted, wrenched her shirt down over her ears and instantly regretted it. Stupid small neck holes not made for bunnies! "There goes all of our hard work," she snapped.

"Not quite. Kozlov is here to post bail for all the arrested animals. Every porcupine, coyote, elephant, rhino, and bunny. That includes…"

"Judy Lopps!" Bellwether clapped her hooves together. "Oh, this is just so exciting! It's like a television show!"

"Yeah," Judy mumbled, hopping into her pants and marching toward the door with a purpose. "One where the cop ends up at the bottom of the river wearing concrete shoes. What's the plan for this, Chief?"

Bogo ran one of his hooves thought the cropped hair behind his horns. "Still what it always was – try and get close to Kozlov and his lackeys. Focus on the fennec fox. If Kozlov wants to make you one of his regulars, agree to it and get back to us as quick as possible so we can run any kind of interference."

A titter of a lamb's bell heralded a question. "But…won't that mean Judy will have to be a criminal? Can she do that?"

Judy smiled back over her shoulder at the ewe. "You would be surprised at how much an undercover can do, Dawn." She caught Bogo's glare and amended, "Ah, Assistant Mayor Bellwether. We can do certain crimes as long as we don't break basic police regulations like entrapment or coercion."

"But you need to inform us before you go on a crime spree so we can set up a sting," Bogo stressed – to both Judy and the Assistant Mayor. "Which is why your first order of business will be to establish some kind of secure line of communication."

Bogo motioned for the pair to stop a few feet away from the main first floor hallway. There was light traffic, and no one was looking at them, but the giant bull moved to block the view anyway. "Alright, Hopps. The story is going to be that we were getting you checked out by medical and you tried to slip away again. Put this on." He slapped a long cuff onto his own wrist and dangled the other end down to Judy to slip on. "Assistant Mayor Bellwether, it might be best if you go out there first."

"Oh! Of course, Chief Bogo." Her little bell rang as she darted out from behind Judy, but she caught Judy's shackled hand before she did. "You be careful, Judy. And, um…thank you. For, you know."

"We're not done yet," Judy warned with a smile. Dawn, skeptical but still smiling, nodded and cantered off with a jangle, disappearing around the turn in the hallway.

The pair didn't move until a few minutes after they couldn't hear her anymore, but Judy knew it was time to go when Bogo gave her a rough push to get moving. "Give a good showing, Lopps."

Game time.

They joined the general flow and drew pretty much every eye. Judy used the opportunity to practice her glower, meeting confused looks with as much hostility as she could project. In addition from the little thrill she got intimidating animals twice her size or more, she imagined it would also help firmly separate her from Amada DuVault. Other animals had trouble telling rabbits apart anyway and DuVault seemed like the smiling, bubbly sort of bunny. He didn't say anything, but once in awhile Bogo would nod at her as they walked.

The holding cells were at the far back of the station, behind a glassed-in guard checkpoint. Judy thought she recognized a few familiar faces poking their snouts through the bars for a better look at her and the massive police chief.

There was a lion officer in the checkpoint. Bogo slid some some piece of paperwork or another through a little slot and received something in turn. The long handcuff jingled as he began filling it out. Judy waited until he was about halfway down the page before she gave it jerk so hard his pen ripped the page in half.

"That was just childish," Bogo growled as mammals up and down the bloc had a laugh. "Do it again – I'll get Officer Hopps and she can take care of you."

"Get her," Judy challenged right back. "Without all that backup I'll knock both her little bunny teeth out. Bend down low enough and I'll do some dental work on you, too!"

Bogo groaned and carried her over to her cell by the scruff of her neck. Pinyon and Vincent had both scurried back away from the bars when Bogo showed up, but that didn't spare them from his glowering as the tossed Judy inside. "I would say don't try and escape again," he called out as he slammed the bars back shut, "but that wouldn't give us an excuse to add more charges."

"'That would give us an excuse to add more charges.'" Judy mocked as he left. "How about you get back here and we can add another charge of assault and battery?"

Pinyon slapped his hand over her mouth. "Judy, you can't say stuff like that!" he hissed. "Just cool it! Be cool!"

"No, let her keep digging that hole. It'll be funny," Vincent laughed. The porcupine glowered at him, but he shrugged and went back to reading a magazine on his bunk. "What? The more heat from this she takes, the better we all look."

Judy (carefully) pried Pinyon's hand away. "Great to see you're looking better after that rabbit cop kicked you in the head. Still got a footprint up there?"

The coyote snorted. "She kicked your little cotton tail too, so don't get smug. While you were goofing off somewhere outside, we were getting raided by the cops. Did you even remember what a bouncer was supposed to do?"

"Right, because I can take a full SWAT team," Judy snapped back. This cover, at least, had been planned. "Got away from them at the door, but Hopps was waiting up on the roof." Vincent rolled his eyes at the excuse, but he didn't question it and didn't seem to realize that the very rabbit who'd laid him out was now in the cell with him.

Pinyon gestured to the other bunk, farther away from the mouthy predator. "Come on, you look like you could use some rest. Get your thoughts together. How's the arm?"

"Bruised," she said. The plan had originally been to fake a fracture so she could reguarlly check out of her prison cell without raising too many questions, but now she might need a functioning arm. Judy made a small show of easing it out of the sling and testing it out. "One of the cops got rough cuffing me."

"When you talk to your lawyer, mention that. Have you ever been arrested before?" Judy shook her head. "Right. Keep your story straight about everything and don't change it. Even if you get caught in a lie, keep it the same. Looks better during testamony."

That was, strictly speaking, sound advice. She pretended to mull it over. "Whatever. I'm not getting out of here anytime soon anyway."

"Sooner than you might think," Pinyon whispered. "There are contingencies for this sort of thing, Judy. The boss won't leave us in here for too long."

Judy tried not to seem too eager. She fell back onto the single pillow and huffed. "Aren't you the boss? I don't remember seeing anyone else back in your office."

"Right now isn't the time for this conversation," the porcupine said. He was still fearfully looking at the bars. "All I'm going to say is that you shouldn't cause any more trouble."

"Yeah, sure." Judy glared at Vincent as he snorted over on his cot, but Pinyon took her at her word and went back to standing up by the bars, peering out as far as he could see.

Judy knew that Kozlov was in the building, but could Pinyon know that too? She didn't see how he could, locked up and isolated like he was back here, but clearly the porcupine was waiting on someone. This was the first time since she'd met him that he seemed anxious about something; he'd been in his element back at the Oasis, a lot like Oswalt down at the UC office. Professional. It'd been easy to fall into the same kind of rhythm with him that she had with her real boss.

Now, though...Judy decided not to make any sudden moves in case she spooked him and his quills went flying.

The next hour was spent trying to fight off boredom, surprisingly. Pinyon waited by the cell door for the most part, sticking to his notion that they shouldn't be talking too much. Vincent was pretty absorbed in his gossip rag, so even verbally sparing with him wasn't available. Not that she liked talking to that fleabag, but it was better than just staring at the ceiling.

If only Dawn could see me now, Judy thought. Sharing a cell with a vicious, criminal coyote...who was laying on his back, reading a tabloid column about which tiger Gazelle was supposedly sleeping with this month (she rotated weekly, any real Gazelle fan could tell you that).

She was seriously considering roughing up Vincent for that magazine when the heavy door to the holding cells finally slammed open. Judy hopped down off the cot and smushed her face up against the bars, just like Pinyon.

The first thing she noticed - polar bears were big. Bigger-than-Bogo big. Her chief looked like a rabbit next to a wolf as he stormed down the hallway with a massive white shadow trailing him.

But someone else was leading the procession. Someone red, loud, and familiar.

"Well, well, well. This must be where they keep the really dangerous animals. I bet that drunk goat over in the corner gave you a heap of trouble, Chief Bozo."

Vincent put down his magazine. "Sounds like Wilde," he said, hopping over to the bars next to Pinyon. "I'll be damned! Nick! Down here! Nick!"

The red fox looked eminently pleased to be the center of attention. Animals were pressing in from both sides of the hall, each trying to get a piece of his mind, and he strut out in front like a king as Bogo began unlocking the cages.

"Early Christmas, ladies and gents. Really, next few early Christmases. I had to dip real deep into my piggy bank for all of you to make bail." He flashed a smile as Bogo pulled open the cell Pinyon, Judy, and Vincent were in. "Real deep in your case, pin cushion."

"I'll forgive your outstanding tab in return," Pinyon said. He stepped out at a very quick shuffle, but he gave Nick a sincere grip on the shoulder. Judy heard him whisper, "Thank you, Nicholas," as he went by.

Judy didn't move. The fox was still sporting a lump on his snout where she'd kicked him, and he didn't seem too pleased to see her. Not surprised, though. His attention didn't stray from her, even as Vincent happily slapped him on the back.

Nick suddenly smiled, mouth a like a zipper of sharp teeth, and leaned against the cell door.

"Looks like I'm the one with the magic guest list this time, Carrots. Assaulting a police officer, resisting arrest, and two counts of inciting a scurry. Do you have any idea how big your bail is?"

Judy sniffed. Judy Lopps didn't take sarcasm from a bright red throw-rug. "I can add to that if you don't get me out of here."

"You and your one working arm?" Nick scoffed. "Coincidentally, that looks an awful lot like unnecessary roughness. If we pay her bail, we might need to get that checked out by a good Tundratown doctor..."

"Or you can get her out of my horns and she walks with just resisting arrest, her pre-existing burglary charge from Bunnyburrow, and one count of obstruction of justice," Bogo interjected. He projected his usual look of annoyed disinterest, but Judy could read him well enough to know she'd have to answer a few questions later about how she already knew Nick - especially after being told to stay away from him.

The big polar bear, in his glasses and lounge suit, spoke up before Nick could. "Da," he said. "Done. We will post bail for the rabbit."

"Hare," Judy mumbled as she pushed past Nick. Pinyon and Vincent were waiting at the end of the hall and she fell in with them while Kozlov and Bogo talked bail.

"You're about the scrawniest hare I've ever seen." Unfortunately, Nick followed her.

"Like you can tell the difference," Judy shot back.

He caught her free paw in his and pressed his thumb into the pad there, making her claws jut out.

"Nice diggers," he said, smiling like she was the world's biggest joke. Judy jerked her hand back and he held his up.

"What's this all about?" Pinyon wondered, looking worriedly back at Bogo and the lion cop behind his glassed-in cage a few feet away.

Nick shook his head. "Nothing much, just proving a point to Carrots." He stepped ahead, motioning over his shoulder at them to follow. "Come on, the car's out front. Kozlov wants you three to ride back with us."

It wasn't a request, Judy could tell. Pinyon and Vincent didn't even question it; they just fell in behind the fox as he walked out of the pits like he owned them and for as much as Kozlov probably had to pay to get all the mammals they'd busted out, he might as well have.

Of course, they didn't leave the police station unnoticed. Nick delighted in the attention, smiling, nodding, and winking his way through the halls with his bright white visitor's badge pinned proudly on his tacky Hawaiian shirt. Judy, being the center of so much earlier attention, didn't escape any notice herself. She didn't scare easily, but being stared at like a rabbit-sized snack by half the police force made her want to dig a hole and crawl down it. Her ears picked up more than a few curses and crude remarks about how badly 'Officer Hopps' was going to take her down next time, too.

"You're so popular," Nick mused as he held the station's side door open for them. It led to the visitor's parking lot instead of the main entry plaza. "Did you know there are still two news crews and a mobile radio station out front? Two guesses who they want to interview."

"I guess - you, for your sparkling personality and a face that was made for radio." Judy smiled. She had been saving that one for a while and she saw the fox's perpetual smirk dip for a moment.

"Don't see why she's so popular," Vincent muttered, loud enough for everyone to hear him. "All she did was get her arm busted."

There was a limousine idling by the curb. It was white, with windows so tinted they might as well have been painted over. Nick tapped on the window and the door popped open...revealing another massive track suit-wearing polar bear that took up two seats by himself. Between him and Kozlov, there wasn't going to be much room.

"Vinnie, you can have shotgun," Nick said, but the coyote looked ready to argue. "Come on, Pinyon can't sit up there and we've got to watch the new girl."

He went, but only grudgingly. Judy didn't confuse his look of anger with anything else as he pushed past her and crawled into the front seat. The window separating the front and back went down and Nick didn't tell him to put it back up, which seemed like concession enough to keep Vincent from being too sore about it.

No one had very much long to squabble over the seating arrangements. Kozlov lumbered out of the station right after everyone was settled. The one open seat was next to Judy, and even small as she was she was still squished when he squeezed in. The bear was not happy. His anger wasn't directed at Judy, but it filled the back of the car like second-hand smoke.

The car lurched forward without any directions from Kozlov. It set in that they were leaving the station when she watched it turn into a small speck outside the window. Two hours ago she was eating lunch with the assistant mayor and now she was in the back of a limousine with the second-most prolific crime boss in Zootopia. Judy could barely believe at how shattered all their plans were now - it was well and truly time to wing it.

But, Bogo be damned, she was not going to be the first mammal to break this silence. Even Vincent wasn't that stupid.

Flickering streetlights lit the cab every few seconds. Kozlov opened up a small compartment under his chair and pulled out a bottle of strong-smelling alcohol, which he didn't offer to anyone else. Judy wondered if getting buzzed would make the inevitable explosion from him better or worse.

In the darkness, Judy's eyes wandered to the fox - Nicholas Wilde. He was slouched, staring out the window with casual ease. Whenever Kozlov erupted, it likely wouldn't be at him. He had basically done all the talking at the station. She couldn't exactly make out his expression, dark as it was, but he must have been wearing that same self-satisfied smirk she'd begun to associate with him.

His head moved and a passing headlight lit his face for a moment; he'd caught her mid-stare. Foxes can see in the dark, Judy reminded herself. She turned away and stared out the opposite window until the skyscrapers of Downtown were swallowed by spires of ice and snow.

Tundratown was pitch-black. There were city ordinances here governing how much ambient light the district could have, because many of the mammals living here were used to six months of darkness naturally and could either almost as well as a fox in the dark or had noses that could guide them just as well. Light was an unneeded luxury.

The other polar bear in the car cracked his window and a blast of chilled air swirled in. The night was unnaturally quiet as well. Only the crunch of snow under the tires followed them to...wherever they were going. Judy had gotten lost the moment they'd left Downtown.

Everyone jostled when the car slowed to stop in the pillowy snow. Judy saw a flickering, onion dome-silhouetted sign that read "Kozlov's Palace" through the window, attached to a massive, snow-covered wooden building that stretched up higher than she could see without leaning forward. She didn't need three guesses to know who the boss here was.

Kozlov was the first one out. He didn't wait for anyone to open the car door for him, even though Judy saw an otter hurrying from inside the 'palace' to do it. The entire limo rocked with his passing as he emerged out onto the curb.

"This is our stop," Nick mumbled as he climbed out after the bear. Everyone else was getting out, so Judy left as well and immediately started shivering.

A second car, a big van, pulled up to the curb behind the limo. The side doors slid open and out hopped the other mammals who'd be collared at the bar. The hyena bartender, a few of the mongoose waiters, and the big hippo bartender that took the daytime bouncer shift.

Kozlov motioned for them all to come to him. "The Palace is open to you tonight," he said. "Dobro pozhalovat - you are welcome here. Get food, get drunk, forget troubles. Tomorrow we work."

It wasn't the warmest of welcomes, but Judy wasn't picky. Everyone else was taking it at face value and heading toward the front door, so Judy fell in behind Pinyon and Vincent, trying to stay out of Kozlov's direct line of sight.

"Bunny. Stoy." Judy didn't know a lick of Russian, but she knew an order to stop when she heard one. Pinyon looked back at her with pity, but he didn't stop moving. He wasn't that dumb.

It was just the four of them out there, now - Kozlov, Nick, Judy, and the other bear that had ridden with them. That one reached into his coat and Judy prepared herself to make a run for it, but it only turned out to be a cigar and lighter. Kozlov took a moment to puff the cigar to life and took a deep drag that seemed to ripple contentment through his body. His stony look thawed and a wide, satisfied smile broke through.

"Ah, that is da stuff." Behind his bottle glasses, which looked patently silly with the smile he was wearing, Kozlov looked down at Judy. "You smoke?" Judy shook her head. "Pah! Rabbits need to smoke. Too twitchy otherwise. Boris, get her one."

Another cigar was produced, which Judy struggled to hold with one hand. She completely dropped it when she took her first experimental puff. It wasn't like the hookah pipes she had come to somewhat enjoy at the Oasis - it was more like wrapping her lips around an old stove pipe. The hot smoke burned her lungs and she started hacking up a storm, much to Kozlov's guffawing amusement.

His paw came down hard on her back. It was probably supposed to be friendly, but it only pushed Judy over and into the snow. "There! Now we have smoked together!

He waved his paw at the palace. The glowing cigar flicked around ash and soot that sparked in the slight snowfall. "We will go inside in minute. You are good boychik for trying!"

Judy crawled out of the snow to the ringing of Nick's snickering. "Yeah, I'll give anything the old college try once," she muttered, still coughing.

The bear took another deep drag from one of his now two cigars. "Is good to keep an open mind. Especially you." He pointed one of his cigars squarely at Judy. "Find office tonight, in two hour. Nicholas will keep you company until then."

"Way more than I signed up for-" "No way in hel-"

Kozlov leaned down until he was eye-level with both. Judy's entire vision was filled with white, fluffy polar bear. And teeth bigger than her fist as he smiled at her. "I-I guess I wouldn't mind. For two hours. We're good friends."

"Is good. Nicholas, he's a mensch. You can rely on him." The fox in question pinched his long lips and it didn't take a mind reader to know what he thought about being voluntold for this. "Remember," Kozlov called back as he lumbered toward his bar, "two hours. Enjoy yourself until then!"

"Oh, we'll try to contain our excitement," Nick spat (after the door had slammed shut behind the bear, of course).

His eyes slowly slid from the door over to Judy. They shone like polished coins in the low light, but it wasn't as unsettling as it once would have been. Judy knew firmly where she stood with this fox.

Nick stomped over through the snow and shoved a claw-tipped finger under Judy's nose. "Look. I don't like you, Carrots. I wanted to leave you in that jail cell, but I was overruled. Now you're here, where I do business, and if you mess it up for me I'll find a way to make your little hippity-hoppity life a living hell. Got it?"

I can take him, I can take him, I can take him, Judy repeated to herself like a mantra as she fought the urge to take a step back away from that one pointy little claw. She turned that fear into anger as she roughly shoved his hand away. "Crystal clear, fox. You're out of my fur in two hours. I can play nice."

"Play nice and sane. If you remember how to do either." Nick realized that was as much of a concession as he was going to get and waved his hand for her to follow into the warm, loud den that was Kozlov's Palace.