"What was that?" Detective Post was more than a little puzzled with Judy's surprise. They were in the interrogation viewing room with Wilde and Snarlov, leaving the suspect, Sherman, in interrogation to puzzle as to what just happened.

"You all know your geography?" She began, to hesitant nods and shrugs. "And that, especially over seas, how there are all kinds of little fractured states, many that are very group or species specific?" More nods, as nearly everyone could think of a country or region that was dominated by their own. "That accent came from Pottraina, or as they call themselves nowadays, the Pottrainian Democratic Republic. And it's pretty much all rabbit."

"It's pretty obscure for the most part, though some rabbits know it all too well. The Tri-burrows have a few ex-pats from there when it became the PDR. From what little I know, while it has always been a rabbit majority region, the domination had been fairly benign back in the olden days."

"After the War, the new regime got fiercely repressive to non-rabbits, taking away their citizenship and curtailing their movement. From what I heard, it's pretty nasty. So much so that there is a formal trade embargo between it and Zootopia, as well as travel restrictions."

"So - these guys are PDR rabbits?" Nick puzzled.

Post also puzzled. "If they came to Zootopia legally, then we ought to be able to sort them out in short order. Not exactly the smart move for enemy agents."

"Unless they came in via a third country." And everyone noticed Judy's somewhat guilty look. "It is a dirty little secret among some rabbits. There is an underground of otherwise embargoed products going to and from."

"Seriously?" Nick was clearly amused with this nefarious revelation of his innocent little Bunny.

"My family and I never had anything to do with that, but we knew of other folks who did."

Post mused, "Well, if this does mean that a foreign power is behind the posters, we can only assume that, like Hopps mentioned earlier, this could be a more existential threat to the notion of Zootopia as an ideal of interspecies cooperation. All it needs is some species to overtly denied or segregated to make false the claim."

Nick and Judy exchanged incredulous glances at that.

"But it also means that this is more than a ZPD case." The Coyote got grave, "We need to see Bogo."

Bogo was very impressed with the discovery, though too thought the possible foreign source needed special attention. "First, put the suspect in quarantined detention. Not only no one is allowed to contact her, and, for the moment, we won't even 'know' who she is or where she might be."

Bogo and Post exchanged a knowing glance.

"Second, none of you are to discuss anything you just found out about the possible source to anyone, and I mean anyone, until you have heard it from me, face to face."

"Third," And Bogo got on his intercom to records, "Get a load of PD files together for a run." Looking at Judy and Nick, "Take those files to the public defender's annex office. The address is on the card. Give it to them when you arrive."

Rabbit and Fox both gave an odd take at that, the files would be completely unremarkable, simple requests for legal aid and related case notes. Everyone at some point had to play delivery to get physical copies off to different offices. Then they noticed the look they got from both the Buffalo and Coyote, and knew something was up.

----

"What's with the courier service?" Nick poked through the file folders, looking for some clue as to why, in the middle a dramatic breakthrough in the case, they were off doing this.

"I really don't know, but we both saw the nudge nudge, wink wink between the Chief and Post." Judy was driving with a death grip in the wheel in concentration.

"A thought on that, any other rabbity secret society hints I might need to know? Handshakes? Signet rings? Blood oaths?"

Judy could only groan and look very ashamed.

"Seriously?"

"Even though they are totally unrelated and half a world away, the idea that a nation of rabbits could be as awful, as cruelly specie-ist, as the worst of anyone..." The despair and frustration from her was palpable. "Back in the Tri-burrows, those who still follow the Old Ways have a special vigil every new moon for all those victims, rabbit and non-rabbit alike, who suffered and died back in the day and still suffer now."

Nick was impressed, while his special partner was open to much of her life and background, as well as her passions to make the world a better place, this was a revelation. He fleetingly though of the Vulpine Ways, much of which he dismissed as superstitious whooey, even as he, though often grudgingly, still followed more of the moral tenants than he would ever admit to, even to himself.

---

The pair entered what appeared to be a modest office space, a receptionist Capybara was shuffling paperwork while talking to her headset to a client while motioning them to come in and sit and she'd be with them in a moment. And only a moment later, was done with her call and beamed at her visitors.

"Ah, more files from the ZPD?" And as Nick handed them off, also passed to her the card. "Oh, what a sec, and I'll buzz you through. Room five."

Nick and Judy looked at each other quizzically, but obediently went down a non-descript hall to a door marked 5. Inside was an unadorned room, a common height table and several chairs for a variety of sizes and another door on the far side.

A cat entered, not a towering Great Cat, but a smaller wildcat, about Nick's size. She wore a non-descript business suit that did nothing to compliment her tawny coat or lithesome body. Her green-gold eyes flashed surprise?fear?hate? at seeing Judy, but only a flash, then was carefully neutral.

"Before we begin, I must insist that you do not mention this meeting or my presence to anyone. You came to deliver paperwork and lingered a moment, just to kill a little time" Her voice was husky, and were it any other fem, could have been sultry, but it was only harsh and clipped, and had an unfamiliar accent. "So, tell me what you know."

Nick and Judy looked at each other and began a tag-team repetition of what they had found out about the likely PDR source. The Cat took no notes and asked no questions. She only paced behind the table between her and the pair. Unlike the flowing motion and posture of most cats, she was stiff, formal, or something more; she seemed to be all restrained tension.

When they were finished, there wasn't a lot to actually say beyond the few facts, they waited for the Cat to respond. She rubbed her chin a moment, then, "Do not pursue that lead any further, least you be noticed. If you find other leads going in those directions, you must inform this office."

"And that's it?" Judy snapped. She expected to be a full partner in any investigation and she was not having this one-sided conversation.

"This is not some ridiculous spy thriller, but a real investigation of an existential threat to the nation." the Agent coolly responded. "Compartmentalization is critical for security. What you do not know, you cannot tell."

Nick grimaced, "She does have you there, Carrots, you have the worst poker face, and ears, and nose, and..."

Judy's glare cut him off, then turned to Anlef, "Okay. So we will be ignorant cogs in you nefarious schemes. Can we at least hope to get some feed back once this is all over?"

The Cat could only shrug, then waved them to the door.

Once they were outside Nick made a 'what just happened' little face. "If this is what real cloak and dagger spook stuff is like, I'm not interested."

"She was right, however." Judy considered, "They've likely got the focused paranoia to afford to do this kind of thing the right way. Remember the section at the academy about intelligence, counter intelligence, and national security processes?"

"And how a lot of it was 'we're doing this for your own good', so just trust us but don't ask about the whats, whys, or hows of how we get it done." Nick was very not convinced.

---

The rest of the shift went simply enough. They picked up a few more security vids, helped reassure some nervous citizens, and saw the first of the copycat posters. At least it was a comedic one, a 'no dinosaurs' symbol, roughly done on simple copy paper. They dutifully recorded it.

Back at the precinct there was an informal debriefing; with the various beat cops comparing notes. There had been a few assaults, mostly just verbal, a few shoving matches, and, much to everyone's relief, plenty of helpful non-rabbit helpful citizen interventions. A small but worrisome trend, however, was several over-reactions from frightened rabbits, repellant spraying or tazing innocent mammals, usually, but not limited to preds.

There were also a fair number of new posters to deal with. All clearly low-budget copycats. Nick and Judy's dinosaur one being the funniest, though a couple did target other species. The rest were mostly political, against various political parties, specific politicians, some corporations, and even some products. "Who could hate Cheezy Poofs?"

Nick and Judy usually changed to street clothes after shift nowadays, but decided not to for now, and Nick escorted Judy back to her apartment. He didn't begrudge the long trip back to his end of town, it wasn't that far, and after a long and stressful than average day in a cruiser, he could use the hike.

It was getting on to evening, and he had just turned on to a quiet and empty side street, when he saw it.

Training and reflex kicked in as he slapped his panic button on his comm. It initiated a GPS distress beacon to let dispatch and every office in a programmed radius that something really bad had just happened. "Officer Wilde at this beacon, 10-33 medical emergency! Absolutely critical!"

It was a rabbit, terribly savaged, knife or claw wounds across the chest and abdomen, face battered, likely with a club or bat from the shape of impact wounds. He pulled out his inadequate little medical kit, a few seal-all bandages to attempt to stop the worst of the bleeding. The fellow was still alive but unconscious, and the smell of it was that he had been attacked just moments before.

Even as he did what he could for the poor victim, he kept an eye out for anything, especially the dangerous chance of an attack on him.

Multiple ZPD units were there in moments and a medical unit a moment later. The Medtechs swarmed the victim and had him up and out of there in record time. Nick recounted what little he had to the responding officers.

Nick didn't know many of the night shift cops, and they only knew him by reputation, first fox on the force and co-hero of the thwarted Bellwether Plot. So there were a few brief introductions once the immediate business was dealt with.

Finally, as things were wrapping up, "Wilde, could you use a ride?" It was Officer Kodiak, a Bear, though a smaller than average americanus black bear and very much not a arctos variant. Nick didn't need to consider, he was now emotionally spent and spattered with blood. No way was he in any shape to trudge the rest of the way home. "Thanks."

"Hope that wasn't related to the damn posters, eh?"

"Yeah." was all Nick could croak out. He'd seen some bad things on the street, but this was his first really nasty scene since joining the force. And since he'd known Judy. That it was a rabbit only shook him worse. Thankfully, the officer didn't try to engage with him, suspecting he was in no shape for chit-chat.

The cruiser's comm squealed, another panic button, but not for them to respond. Nick got the cruiser's data pad and searched for information. It was another serious assault on a rabbit across town.

The two officers shared a look of dread.