《疯狂动物城》第18章

It didn't take long for Judy and Nick to find Assistant Mayor Bellwether¹ in city hall. She was struggling to hold a stack of files while keeping up with Mayor Lionheart.

 

"Sir?" said Bellwether. "If we could just review these very important—"

 

As Bellwether continued to struggle and dodge² out of the way inside the busy lobby, she almost stepped on a little mouse.

 

"Oh, I'm sorry...sir!"

 

"I heard you, Bellwether," said Lionheart impatiently. "Just take care of it, okay?" He set a folder³ on top of her huge stack. "And clear my afternoon. I'm going out."

 

"But, sir, you have a meeting with Herds⁴ and Grazing...Sir—"

 

Lionheart continued through the door, letting it slam right in Bellwether's face. All the files she was carrying were knocked to the floor.

 

"Oh, mutton chops," she said, trying to collect the scattered⁵ pieces of paper.

 

"Assistant Mayor Bellwether," said Judy, approaching her. "We need your help."

 

Bellwether led them to her tiny, cramped⁶ office. Judy and Nick looked around, surprised. Bellwether's office was actually a janitor's closet!

 

"We just need to get into the traffic camera database," Judy said as Bellwether typed on the keyboard of her computer.

 

Nick barely touched the wool puff⁷ on top of Bellwether's head and whispered, "Sooo fluffy⁸!" He was mesmerized⁹. "Sheep never let me this close—so fluffy—like cotton candy—"

 

"You can't touch that! Stop it!" scolded Judy, swatting his hand away as she tried to keep Bellwether from seeing Nick.

 

"Where to?" Bellwether asked as she pulled up traffic cameras for the whole city. She looked up at Judy, catching¹⁰ the rabbit in mid-swat.

 

"Rainforest District. Vine and Tujunga."

 

Nick and Judy shared a smiled. This time, Judy had pronounced Tujunga correctly.

 

"This is so exciting, actually. Well, you know, I never get to do anything this important," said Bellwether.

 

"You're the assistant mayor of Zootopia," said Judy.

 

"Oh, I'm more of a glorified¹¹ secretary," said Bellwether. "I think Mayor Lionheart just wanted the sheep vote...But he did get me that nice mug." She proudly pointed¹² to a mug that read WORLD'S GREATEST ASSISTANT MAYOR.

 

"Smellwether!" shouted Mayor Lionheart through the intercom.

 

Bellwether cringed as she got up. "Oh, that's a fun little name he uses. I called him Lionfart once. He didn't care for that." She pressed the button on the intercom. "Yes, sir?"

 

"I thought you were going to cancel my afternoon!" Lionheart yelled.

 

"Oh, dear...I better go. Let me know what you find. It was really nice for me to—"

 

"While we're young, Smellwether!" the mayor's voice boomed again as she opened the door and hurried out.

 

"Well, I'm gonna need a lint¹³ brush," said Nick.

 

"Oh shush," said Judy. "Okay. Traffic cameras. Tujunga, Tujunga...we're in."

 

Nick and Judy watched the footage onscreen. They saw Manchas acting¹⁴ wild, and then...a black van pulled up, skidding¹⁵ to a stop.

 

"Who are these guys?" Judy asked.

 

"Timber wolves. Look at these dum-dums."

 

They watched as wolves got out of the van and trapped Manchas with a net! Judy gasped¹⁶, but Nick just shook his head.

 

"Bet you a nickel one of them's gonna howl," Nick said.

 

One of the wolves howled.

 

"There it is. What is with wolves and howling?" he asked.

 

"Howlers. Night howlers," said Judy. "That's what Manchas was afraid of—wolves! The wolves are the night howlers. If they took Manchas—"

 

"I bet they took Otterton, too," said Nick.

 

"All we've gotta do is find out where they went," said Judy, examining the footage. As the wolves drove off, they disappeared through a tunnel and didn't come out the other side. "Wait. Where'd they go?"

 

Nick squinted¹⁷ at the picture. "You know, if I wanted to avoid surveillance because I was doing something illegal—which I never have—I'd use the maintenance tunnel 6B, which would put them out..." Nick clicked over to another camera's footage, then another, and another...and then the wolves emerged in the van! "Right there."

 

"Look at you," Judy said, impressed. "Junior Detective. You know, I think you'd actually make a pretty good cop."

 

"How dare you," Nick said in mock horror, trying not to smile.

 

Judy clicked through some more surveillance videos, tracking the wolves through alleys¹⁸ and back roads. "They're heading out of town," she said. "Where does that road go?"

 

"It's one of two places: it's either that very, very scary old building...or a Beaver¹⁹ Renaissance²⁰ Faire."

 

朱迪和尼克没费多大劲就在市政厅找到了羊副市长。她一边跟着狮市长，一边艰难地抱住一沓厚厚的文件。

 

羊副市长说：“市长先生，我们能不能先看看这几份重要的——”

 

羊副市长艰难地抱着文件，在忙碌的人群中躲闪，差点踩到一只小老鼠。

 

“对不起……先生!”

 

狮市长不耐烦地说：“我听到了，羊副市长。小心一点，好吗?”他把一个文件夹放在她抱着的那一大摞文件上说：“今天下午的安排全部取消，我要外出。”

 

“但是市长先生，您下午得跟兽类动物和食草类动物开会……市长先生——”

 

狮市长径直走出了门，将门摔在羊副市长的脸上，她抱着的文件散落了一地。

 

“哦，成羊排了。”她说着，准备把散落的文件拾起来。

 

朱迪走近她，说：“羊副市长，我们需要您的帮助。”

 

羊副市长领着他们进了自己狭小拥挤的办公室。朱迪和尼克环顾四周，惊讶地发现她的办公室竟然是门卫的壁橱!

 

“我们只是想要进入交通录像监控数据库。”朱迪边说，羊副市长边敲着自己的电脑键盘。

 

尼克碰了碰羊副市长头顶的羊毛，小声说道：“真松软啊!”他深深地陶醉了。“绵羊从不让我靠近，嗯——真软，像棉花糖一样——”

 

“你不要碰她!住手!”朱迪边骂，边把他的手拍到一边，让羊副市长不要看到尼克的举动。

 

羊副市长打开整座城市的监控录像，问道：“看哪里的?”她抬起头看向朱迪，正看到她在打尼克的手。

 

“雨林区，攀缘路与图洪加路交界处。”

 

尼克和朱迪相视一笑，这回朱迪把图洪加给念对了。

 

羊副市长说：“好兴奋啊!你们知道吗?我从没参与过这么重要的事情。”

 

朱迪说：“你可是动物城的副市长啊!”

 

“哦，我更像是荣誉秘书。我觉得狮市长只是想让绵羊投票……但是他确实给了我那个漂亮的奖杯。”她说着骄傲地指向一个杯子，上面写着：“世界最佳副市长奖”。

 

这时，办公室的对讲机突然传来市长的声音：“斯梅尔韦瑟!”

 

羊副市长畏畏缩缩地站了起来。“其实这是他叫我的小名，我也叫过他莱昂法特。他没在意。”她按了一下对讲机上的通话按钮说：“在的，市长先生!”

 

狮市长叫喊道：“我还以为你要去为我办取消下午行程的事呢。”

 

“哦，亲爱的……我得走了。你们有什么发现一定要告诉我。我真的很高兴能——”

 

“斯梅尔韦瑟，快一点去!”市长低沉的声音再次传来，她夺门而出。

 

尼克说：“嗯，我需要一只纱布刷。”

 

“嘘——好的，监控录像。图洪加，图洪加，就是这里了。”朱迪说道。

 

尼克和朱迪盯着屏幕上的影像。他们看到麦岔正在发狂，然后……一辆黑色小货车开了过来，缓缓停了下来。

 

朱迪问道：“这些人是谁?”

 

“伐木狼。你看这些达姆弹。”

 

他们看到那些狼下了车，用一张网把麦岔抓了起来!朱迪倒吸一口凉气，而尼克只是摇摇头。

 

“他们中有一个马上会嚎叫，我跟你赌五分钱的怎么样?”尼克说。

 

果然一只狼嚎叫起来。

 

他问：“看吧，狼和嚎叫代表着什么?”

 

朱迪说：“嚎叫者，夜嚎者。这些狼才是麦岔害怕的，他们是夜嚎者，如果他们抓走了麦岔——”

 

尼克说：“我打赌，奥獭顿也是被他们抓走的。”

 

“我们现在要做的就是找到他们去了哪。”朱迪一边说着，一边查看录像。狼把车开走之后进了一条隧道，但并没有从隧道另一头出来。“等等，他们去哪了?”

 

尼克眯起眼睛看着画面说：“如果我在做违法的事，又想不被人发现，当然我没有做过啦，我会开到正在维修的6B隧道去，那条隧道会让他们安全出来。”尼克切换着监控录像，换了一个又一个……最终，那些狼出现在了车里!“就是这儿!”

 

朱迪惊讶地说：“不错呀你!真是个小侦探!我觉得你挺适合做警察的。”

 

尼克忍着没笑，装作害怕的样子说：“你怎么敢这么说。”

 

朱迪又切换了几个监控录像，追踪着狼一路走过山谷和小路。“他们往城外去了，”她说道，“这条路通向哪里?”

 

“只有两个可能，要么是那个非常非常可怕的老房子……要么就是比弗康复中心。”

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