CHAPTER 09
Disclaimer : I do not own Chicago PD.
Will all their efforts go to waste? was the question in Ruzek's mind when he observed with seethe how Al turned to another door and disappear before Maggie noticed him. Ruzek considered removing himself from the now 'gone south' plan but he was too late, Maggie had noticed him in the passage way.
"oh, crap" he muttered under his breath, why was he the lone ranger in this goat rodeo of a plan. So he hopelessly joined Maggie who was checking the soldier's pulse and started paging.
" what's wrong"Ruzek asked as he knelt beside her. Maggie shock her head indicating she had no idea. "He was guarding the room and then just fell flat, I've paged Dr. Choi"
"This room?" Ruzek asked as if he knew nothing about the isolated ICU unit. "guarding who?"
" there's a military person inside, and a doctor too" she said as her face slightly brightened up. Ruzek took this perfect chance to knock the door, realigning the plan to its original track. " maybe he knows why?" he added.
Shortly a man appeared in doctors garb. He was first taken aback by the scene in front of him but was quick to jump in to doctor mode. Two more nurses had crowded the scene by now and Will Halstead appeared from nowhere behind them much to Ruzek's addition was proving to be a better He squeezed in to the room through the door left open by the military doctor without wasting a second. Ruzek felt his heart beat leap with excitement both because now the plan was back in track and Halstead will now have only seconds to talk to the soldier inside, before he screw up the already almost screwed up plan.
Will Halstead on the inside of the room was feeling quite the opposite. He felt nervous, true, but this was the moment. So he felt empowered because he was doing at least something for his brother than just sitting and waiting for him to appear out of MIA. He cautiously but quickly walked to the patient and tapped his soldier. The soldier turned his head and opened his eyes clearly annoyed. His eyes wondered on Will for the briefest second because he was a new face in his isolated room, then the wondering eyes stopped at his name badge. Will opened his mouth to speak what he had planned in his head but was in total shock when the soldier grabbed him by his coat with amazing speed and strength. Will recognized his eyes were glued to his name badge. He was trying to say something but only a dry cough came out. So he quickly offered him the water glass with the straw all the while keeping an eye on the door. while the soldier took a quick sip of water Will spoke quietly. " I'm Jay Halstead's brother". Then he heard a stretcher being placed on the floor out side the door, it was his clue to go. Choi must be outside The soldier said something but it was still inaudible to him, sounds did not escape his throat. "I have to go, tell me something, anything, do you know him? is he alive" Will begged. The soldier shook to say 'yes' to all his questions. Then Will heard the familiar sound of a stretcher being lift up. The sound of the stretcher's metal wheels raking the floor left him with no other option but to leave, despite the reddened eyes of the soldier fiercely begging him to understand what he was barely sounding. Will gently removed the soldier' hands from his coat that were still clung to him. "I must go" Will said as he turned to go but a single lucky word escaped the soldiers mouth clearly.
Ruzek shuddered when Will Halstead stood outside the door a millisecond before the Military doctor turned to go inside. They exchanged a small smile before passing each other and Ruzek released a breath with relief. "Do you have anything?" Ruzek asked when all people were dispersed and only him and Halsted were left staring at each other.
Will Halstead's face was unreadable and before he said anything, he heard the cry of a man coming from inside the room. Dr. Halsted has heard many cries in his life as a doctor, but this was the most broken hearted and scariest cry he had ever heard. Hopelessness wrapped it. He shivered because he knew that the soldier had finally found his voice.
But by the time the lone soldier found his voice; the voice he had lost because he was threatened not to say anything , his sergeant and best buddy's brother was already out of his room. His one chance of having the company of someone who he could trust with the information he had was gone. So Harvey Copeland cried with the pain of loosing any hope he had of saving the man who joked him of having two surnames but saved his bacon a many times in the battlefield.
Hank Voight sat behind his desk. His eyes were going through the pages of an album he kept inside his desk drawer. One picture taken on the day Erin Lindsey graduated from school had Erin standing between Justin Voight and a proud Camille. All three of them were out of his life right now and Voight felt so empty. So empty that he begged god for Erin's safety. The other picture carried the man who, for his own surprise had started to grow on him; Jay Halstead with mouse and Ruzek, proudly standing in front of a pile of illegal drugs they were able to seize. Voight had a feeling he will one day become his family. He was an anchor to his pseudo daughter and Voight had grown fond of this man little by little everyday. Jay was one of the bravest at his age, accurate, smart and very trust worthy though it took Hank Voight a good amount of time to accept that only because his judgement was clouded by his need to protect Erin Lindsay. Now that he knows who the real Jay Halstead is, it would be a shame if he couldn't save him now. Specially after Ruzek confirmed that Jay was alive..somewhere, according to information obtained by Will.
"Hank, they are coming" AL said as he peered through his door. Voight looked up and saw Antonio running up the stairs. Ever since Antonio called from Erin's apartment he had been waiting like an anxious cat. Antonio wasted no time and plugged a flash drive to the PC. All the team gathered around. The video was dark, but clear enough to see what was happening. It was the back of Erin's apartment building. A van stopped and a few men got out of it. They got in to a suspended platform used for cleaning the windows. The platform went up and a quick minuet passed by without anything happening. The camera only caught the first two levels of the building so the team was left in a blind spot about what is happening at Erin's floor. Then it came down with the four men in it plus a body bag. They quickly lift it up and put it in to the van before it disappeared. A license plate was clearly visible and Voight shot a glance at Mouse. " Already on it!" mouse jumped up to work. They both knew it cannot be an original license plate but it could lead them some where.
The whole room was left in an odd silence. The fact that Erin could be in that body bag had silenced them all because it was hard to accept but it was staring right at their face. Ruzek of all was having a hard time accepting it.
"are we serious? " he asked. "Do we all believe Erin is in that body bag?"
"There is no doubt" Antonio replied. "Their foot prints were all over the windowsill, hadn't even tried to cover it up"
"This is crazy! but why?, we are not even in a case"
"But she was digging in to the lab manager's business" Antonio replied.
"Or more correctly; in to captain Reed's business" Voight said and everyone turned their heads at his way.
"What makes you so sure its the captain and not the lab manager ?" Antonio questioned.
"I had a talk with the manager" Voight said with a sigh. He had contemplated how to share the highly classified and highly sensitive information with his team or whether to share at all. But he was encouraged by the nod came from Al.
"He says that there is this new weapon inside the lab, and Reed threatened him and obtained his passwords of all access to the chamber that the weapon is housed"
"wait, what kind of weapon?" Ruzek jumped from his chair.
"didn't say" Voight replies blankly. "but, it does fit in with the information we received from Al's friend."
" captain Reed's team was suppose to retrieve and transport something back home. Something disastrous if fallen in to the wrong hands. The item was retrieved successfully but during the transportation the mission went south. Two military people went missing and here is the bad news. They think Jay and the other missing guy is part of it. They think who ever obtained the item most probably weapons smugglers, had help from Jay " Al filled in.
"So maybe they already have Jay" Ruzek exclaimed reccalling the words from the military person.
" Dr. Halstead got a few seconds with the military patient in isolation today, just a few seconds" he said sharing the information with Antonio who wasn't aware of His and Will Halstead's small adventure. Everyone exchanged glances but knew not to pry in to the fact as how he did that. In a case like this that an inquiry is surely impending it was better they knew less.
" This guy has lost his voice for the most part, maybe because he hasn't spoken a word since he was found. Will says it also happens when a tube is down your throat for a prolonged time. Anyhow this guy held on to wills name badge like a slug, didn't let go for the entire time, He finally managed to say a word that Will heard like "Prison". But when Will asked if Jay was alive, he had clearly nodded.
Antonio fell to the chair next to him in relief. He didn;t care where Jay was, in prison or on Mars. Just the fact that Jay was alive washed over him like rain on the dessert. The team shared his relief. Atwater pressed his hand on Antonio's shoulder to let him know his feelings were shared. "That's one hell of a mile stone in this" He celebrated. "Are you saying the military already found Jay and he is placed in a prison because he failed his mission ?"
"no, but probably because they think he did it on purpose " Al said deadpanned.
"We know Jay would never do that, and if Erin got..." Atwater paused and considered which word to use shoving aside the fact that she could very well be dead now. "If she got abducted because she was digging in to the lab's business the the only thing that connects the both cases is Reed"
"The bastard busted Jay for cover up, its all his doing" Antonio stood up pushing his chair back, ready to take on Reed right there, right then. But then he paused mulling over something. " we need to piece together another part in to this, remember how your CI gave us information about something planned to be transported out of the lab? Cant it be that Reed now has all the access he wants and he is somehow planning to transport the piece of weapon the lab is holding, "
"Let's say he did,Then what?" Al asked.
"What if he has the other part of the weapon, he connects the pieces and bang ! he has the full weapon? maybe he will blast it , maybe he will sell it, for all we know he spent most of his life in Afghanistan and other troubled areas, maybe he developed some profitable connections."
"Jay literally worships this man" Ruzek cut in. "are we talking about the same Captain Reed who, according to Jay; was his father in military?"
"well it wouldn't be the first time a mentor betrayed his protege" Al stated blankly.
" This is so sick" Ruzek murmured to himself. His knees had started to feel like giving in. "what if he blows up the whole of Chicago!"
" let's not panic now, you are over reacting. Clearly one half of what ever weapon this is, is still with the lab, so there is no chance for a blow up situation. Thank god who ever decided to build this in pieces. So let's think this through" Al cleared the flaming atmosphere within the bullpen, though just a little. But Ruzek wasn't having it.
"Oh! I thought it through." He chastised. "He has Jay covering up his ass, he has full access to the weapon, He has transport planned, and if he planned all of these then he definitely has the other half too. And when he gets both pieces together, I can assure you that bastard wont waste time sitting on it!"
"But one thing is missing here", Atwater said much to his friend's displeasure. "just because he can open all the doors, it doesn't mean he can just drag it outside and load it to the truck, someone has to take it out, just how will he manage that?
In all their history, the team had never found themselves in a tight spot as this. Sure, they have come face to face with many blank walls. But this time was different. They were having a hard time getting their head around where to start. Two of their detectives missing only made the matter worse.
"shouldn't we be contacting the military, the pentagon, Ivory tower or what ever?" Ruzek suggested.
" How do we know whom to trust? how do we know who is on whose side? If we take all the information to the military, it will be like offering Chicago to the wolves" Voight thwarted Ruzek's idea without mercy. "Right now the only people I trust, stands inside this bull pen. Don't underestimate the undercurrent in this situation, sabotaging a highly classified military operation is no easy task, Reed alone could not have achieved this"
"The license plate is of no use" Mouse announced what they already knew effectively braking the tension that was building. Voight bit in to his nails for a second. All eyes set on him in anticipation and it looked like he hadd made up his mind as he pulled the flash drive out of the PC.
" Mouse, contact my CI, put a tracker on his truck and tell him we are reopening the case. Antonio go and check the twins, see if they are getting ready to leave, Ruzek stay on guard at the hospital, Atwater trail the lab manager, Al try to find Reeds' whereabouts, I'm gonna meet a friend at Ivory towers main lab, he can do magic with facial recognition software, I'll try to see if we can identify any of the perks in this video." Voight started barking up orders as he waved the flash drive. "we need eyes everywhere"
