Judy confidently led the cops up to the canopy. "I thought this was just a missing mammal case, but it's way bigger. Mr. Otterton did not just disappear. I believe he and this jaguar...they went savage, sir."

Bogo scoffed. "Savage? This isn't the Stone Age, Hopps. Animals don't go savage."

"I thought so, too, until I saw this." Judy turned the corner where she had handcuffed Manchas—but he was gone! Even the handcuffs had vanished.

"He was right here," she said, confused.

"The ‘savage' jaguar," said Bogo, scoffing once again.

"Sir, I know what I saw. He almost killed us," said Judy.

"Or maybe an aggressive predator looks savage to you rabbits," Bogo said. He called out to the other officers, "Let's go."

"Wait—sir, I'm not the only one who saw him!"

Judy called to Nick, but before he could explain, Bogo said, "You think I'm going to believe a fox?"

"Well, he was a key witness, and I enlisted his services," Judy said.

Bogo shook his head, annoyed. "Two days to find the otter...or you quit...that was the deal. Badge," he said, waiting for her to hand her badge over.

Nick watched Judy stare at Bogo's outstretched hand. "Sir, we..."

"Badge," said Bogo firmly.

Judy slowly reached for it as Nick spoke up. "Uh, no," he said.

Bogo glared at Nick. "What did you say, fox?"

"Sorry, what I said was ‘no.' She will not be giving you that badge," said Nick. "Look, you gave her a clown vest and a three-wheel joke-mobile and two days to solve a case you guys haven't cracked in two weeks? Yeah, no wonder she needed to get help from a fox. None of you guys were gonna help her, were you?"

Judy stared at Nick. She couldn't believe he was sticking up for her. Bogo stood silently.

"Here's the thing, Chief. You gave her forty-eight hours, so technically we still have ten left to find our Mr. Otterton...and that's exactly what we are gonna do. So if you'll excuse us...we have a very big lead to follow and a case to crack. Good day."

Nick turned to Judy. "Officer Hopps?" He guided her to a passing gondola, leaving Bogo and the rest of the officers stunned.

"Thank you," she said as the two sat in the gondola while it soared over the Rainforest District.

"Never let them see that they get to you," said Nick.

Surprised, Judy turned to Nick. "So things get to you?"

"No...I mean, not anymore," said Nick. "But I was small and emotionally unbalanced like you once."

"Har-har," said Judy.

"No, it's true. I think I was eight, maybe nine, and all I wanted to do was join the Junior Ranger Scouts."

Nick decided to tell Judy a story about when he was a kid. "So my mom scraped together enough money to buy me a brand-new uniform." Nick explained how badly he wanted to fit in—even though he was the only predator in the troop. "I was gonna be part of a pack," he said.

Nick described the scene. He was taking the oath with the scouts when the other kids suddenly tackled him, yelling, "Get him! Get that pred! Muzzle him!"

They strapped a muzzle onto his snout and continued to mock him. "If you thought we'd ever trust a fox without a muzzle, you're even dumber than you look," one of them had taunted.

When they finally let him go, he ran away, limping, with his uniform torn to pieces.

"I learned two things that day," said Nick, lost in the terrible memory. "One, I was never going to let anyone see that they got to me."

"And two?" Judy prodded.

"If the world's only gonna see a fox as shifty and untrustworthy, there's no point trying to be anything else."

"Nick," said Judy gently. "You are so much more than that." She touched his arm as the gondola pierced through the clouds. They gazed down at the busy city buzzing below.

"Boy, look at that traffic down there," said Nick, changing the subject. "How about we go to Chuck in Traffic Central," Nick continued, pretending to be a cheesy radio announcer. "Chuck, how are things looking on those Jam Cams?"

"Nick, I'm glad you told me," said Judy.

"Wait! The Jam Cams!" said Nick urgently.

"Seriously, it's okay," said Judy.

"N-no, shh-shush! There are traffic cameras everywhere. All over the canopy. Whatever happened to that jaguar—"

"The traffic cameras would have caught it!" said Judy, excitedly, suddenly realizing what Nick meant.

"Bingo!" said Nick.

Judy chucked him on the arm, impressed. "Pretty sneaky, Slick."

"However. If you didn't have access to the system before, I doubt Chief Buffalo Butt is gonna give it to you now."

"No. But I've got a friend at city hall who might!" Judy smiled, feeling hopeful again.

朱迪自信地领着警察们到树冠处的高地。“我原先以为这就是个简单的动物失踪案件，但后来发现实际比这严重多了。奥獭顿先生不仅仅是失踪，我相信他和这只美洲虎一样……都发狂了，长官。”

牛局长揶揄道：“发狂?现在不是石器时代好吗，动物是不会发狂的。”

“我之前也是这么觉得的，直到我看到了他。”朱迪转向她将麦岔铐起来的那个角落——但他居然不见了!就连手铐也消失了!

朱迪疑惑不解地说道：“他刚刚就在这儿的!”

牛局长接着揶揄道：“就是那只‘发狂’的美洲虎?”

朱迪答道：“长官，我确定我看到了，我们差点死在他手上!”

牛局长说：“在你们兔子看来，也许稍微凶一点的捕食者都像发狂一样吧。”然后他对着其他警察说：“我们走吧!”

“等等，长官!不止我一个人看到了他!”

朱迪叫来尼克，可还没等他开口，牛局长便说道：“你觉得我会去相信一只狐狸吗?”

朱迪说：“他是重要的目击证人，是我找他帮忙的。”

牛局长摇了摇头，生气地说：“我们之前说好的，两天之内找到水獭……不然你就辞职。警徽。”牛局长等着她交出警徽。

朱迪盯着博格伸出的手，尼克看着朱迪说：“长官，我们……”

牛局长坚定地说：“警徽。”

朱迪慢慢地抬手去取警徽，这时尼克开了口：“不要!”

牛局长怒视着尼克道：“狐狸，你说什么?”

尼克说：“不好意思，我刚刚说‘不要’。她不会把警徽交出来的。你想想，你给了她一件巨丑无比的马甲和一辆可笑的三轮车，就让她用两天时间去办一件你们这些人两个星期都办不好的案子，对吧?是的，难怪她要向一只狐狸求援。你们这么多人没一个人帮过她，是吧?”

朱迪望着尼克，她没想到尼克会站出来为她说话。牛局长站在那儿，沉默着。

“长官，情况是这样的。你给了她48个小时，所以确切地说，我们还有10个小时的时间来寻找奥獭顿先生……而这也是我们将要去做的事情。所以，很抱歉……我们还有重大线索等着我们去追踪，还有一桩大案等着我们去破解呢。再见!”

尼克转过头对朱迪说：“走吧，霍普斯警官?”他领着朱迪上了一辆缆车，只剩下目瞪口呆的牛局长和一众警察。

“谢谢你!”当他俩坐在缆车从雨林区上空划过时，朱迪说道。

尼克说：“千万不要让他们看出他们能影响到你!”

朱迪惊讶地看着尼克：“这么说，有事情影响到你了?”

尼克说：“没有……我是说，我现在不会了。但是我也年轻过，也曾像你一样感性过。”

“哈哈。”朱迪大笑起来。

“不，是真的。那时我才八九岁，满脑子想的都是参加兰杰童子军。”

尼克决定告诉朱迪他小时候的一个故事：“于是我妈砸锅卖铁凑了钱给我买了一套新制服。”尼克诉说当时他有多想融入组织，虽然他是部队里唯一的食肉动物。“我那时正要进到一个队里。”

尼克描述起当时的情景：他正在与其他童子军一起宣誓，突然其他孩子将他擒住，大喊：“抓住他!别放过那个捕猎者!给他戴上口套!”

他们给他戴上了口套，继续嘲弄他，其中一个讥讽道：“如果你觉得我们会信任一只没戴口套的狐狸，那你真是蠢到家了。”

最后他们还是放他走了，他一瘸一拐地逃跑了，新买的制服也被撕成了碎片。

沉浸在痛苦回忆中的尼克说道：“那天我明白了两件事情。第一，我不会再让任何人看出他们能影响到我。”

朱迪提醒道：“那第二件呢?”

“如果这个世界认定狐狸就是狡猾的、靠不住的，那我们试图变成别的样子也毫无意义。”

朱迪温柔地说：“尼克，你比那强多了。”她碰了碰他的胳膊，这时缆车穿过了云层。他们看着底下忙碌地运转着的城市。

“嘿，你看那边的交通。”尼克换了个话题说道，“我们去查克交通中心怎么样?”他模仿着电台主播的语气，虽然装得并不像：“查克，贾姆·卡姆那边的交通情况怎么样?”

朱迪说：“尼克。谢谢你告诉我这些。”

尼克忽然说：“等等，贾姆·卡姆!”

朱迪说：“可以啊，我说真的。”

“不是，嘘——到处都有监控摄像头，空中到处都是，不管美洲虎发生了什么——。”

朱迪忽然明白了尼克的意思，兴奋地说：“监控摄像头都会拍到他的!”

尼克说：“对极啦!”

朱迪轻轻拍了拍他的胳膊，意味深长地说：“你真聪明，老滑头。”

“但是，如果你之前看不到监控系统，我觉得牛局长现在也不会允许你看的。”

“是的。不过我有个朋友在市政厅，他可以让我看到!”朱迪笑了起来，感觉事情又有希望了。