Jay kept Kim behind him with an arm, and she kept close with a hand on the back of his shirt, as each step pushed them farther away from their team and closer to unknown danger. The two members of Intelligence searched the roads for any sign of Perez. What they didn't realize, what none of them realized, was that Perez might have already found them.
Strong arms wrapped the two officers around their throats and pulled them off the main road and into an alley. Kim scratched and clawed as a large forearm pressed against her throat until she was choking. She tried to remember what she learned from the academy about being observant. Her job depended on it, and sometimes her life depended on it. She felt herself lifted off the ground and the strength of the man holding her made her think he was easily 6ft 4, 200 lbs, with white skin, and a red snake tattoo sleeve on his right forearm.
Jay managed to put one man to the ground, but that was before another man struck Kim in the face hard enough to make Jay wince and struggle from the grip of two men holding him, angry at the situation, angry at feeling helpless, angry that he couldn't help his partner. Right now he was only hurting her unless he could get his emotions in check.
It was a sick but effective way of controlling the duo. Whatever thought Jay had of fighting he had to control because these bastards were not above hurting a woman and Kim's face was already turning purple.
One man took great pleasure shoving them against the brick wall off an historic Chicago building as they were checked for wires, phones, and cameras.
"Cuff them." An older man commanded gruffly. Suddenly a sweet smell overcame him, and he and Kim were gone.
A victorious Chicago crowd emerged from Wrigley Field with much noise and fanfare. An unusually warm Spring Day had people lingering around the ballpark right near where Jay and Kim were to have been watching a meet up. It was too hard for the team to keep eyes on them. They would have to rely on sound and signals from Kim and Jay to communicate.
"Halstead, Burgess Sound Check." Sergeant Voight commanded seriously over the police radios. Over the shrill of the excitement of a baseball game, the hum of the people of a city, was the silent static of the radio that he heard.
"Trudy, do a search for their phones. I want a location now." He shouted impatiently at the desk sergeant of the 21st police district. "Hailey, I want street and building cams now, somebody saw them."
Adam was as impatient as Voight. Kim was missing, again and he felt helpless. It brought back so many memories of the case where Kim and Hailey had been taken by gun dealers because they wanted money. He felt some sort of comfort knowing Jay was with her, but he was ready to jump out of his skin. Suddenly, his phone dinged. A video message from Kim?
"Hey Boss!" Adam shouted as he ran over to the mobile unit, catching the Sargent's attention. Kevin Atwater came over too. "A video from Kim's phone just uploaded to my drive" He stated nervously.
"Okay, play it." Hank directed, hoping it would provide a lead. Adam Ruzek hit the play button on his phone, willing his hands to stop shaking. A side effect of his coffee habit. More importantly, a side effect of worrying about her habit.
Quiet whispering between their two missing friends was the first sound as they followed discreetly behind the targets. Nothing uneventful and yet Adam had this feeling, like he's had this feeling before.
Once when Kim and Roman had been trapped in the warehouse and no one could find them, when Erin and Kim went undercover to catch the guys who had raped and assaulted Kim's sister, when Kim and Hailey got taken at the gun convention,and mostly when Kim had gone to rescue the poor girl from the sex traffickers and lost their baby.
Everything changed in the next minute. Out of nowhere two unidentifiable figures jumped out at the undercover officers, dragging them down the next alley, Kim's phone still recording.
"Chill Bitch!" yelled one attacker, followed by a loud slap and a shout by Jay to "Calm the F*ck down.", as the scuffle continued. Stunned, the intelligence unit forced themselves to keep listening in case there were any clues to be had. "2030WHmBB200Snake" Kim kept repeating quietly until her phone dropped to the ground.
"Can you zoom in on the street sign?" Hank inquired of Hailey who was holding the ipad with video footage. The blonde detective followed her sergeant's orders and carefully manipulated the keyboard. "N Kenmore Ave." She responded, "The opposite direction of where the exchange was supposed to take place."
"What is Kim saying?" Hailey asked, confused. Was it a clue? She wondered, her heart pounding at this sudden turn of events. She tried to keep the fear for her partner and friend at bay.
"When Kim and I were working the streets, we would shorten everything down to a code to retain information about a suspect or a crime scene or whatever if we didn't have time to write it down." Kevin spoke up. "20-30 years male, white or hispanic male brown hair brown eyes 200 pounds snake tattoo." Even Voight was impressed at their shorthand.
"Glad you speak Burgess bro." Adam said gratefully, any clue would help figure out what went sideways on this crazy ass case. Giving Atwater a bro handshake and hug despite the circumstances. Hopefully, these clues would be helpful and Kim and Jay would be home before midnight.
"Sarge, they're on the move." Upton declared urgently. Jay and Kim's trackers were moving slow and steady. Unfortunately, Jay and Kim were moving in the opposite direction, and with the ball game traffic, it would put them even further behind
"It was a set up." Hank Voight declared loudly. He was pissed. Two members of his team were taken on what should have been a low risk operation, and he did not like it when plans went south. He does not take risks when it comes to his team's safety. Period.
The intelligence unit was gathered around the communications van. They were using it as a mobile office instead of going back to the 21st.
"Why did they change locations?" Atwater inquired in shock.. "When exactly were Kim and Jay made? He continued, worried about his best friend and Jay.
"Kevin, I want you and gangs working on this angle." Sergeant Voight instructed..
"Copy that Sarge", and met up with Detective Anthony Alvarez across the street.
"Maybe there were lookouts in the baseball stadium looking for people watching Perez's crew?" Ruzek suggested and Voight allowed him to follow that lead by going to get tapes from inside Wrigley Field.
"Maybe it was bad intel." Hailey offered up as a different option. "Track down the CI's who gave this information." Voight ordered her.
"I'll go with you." volunteered Sergeant Platt. " I need to do something."
With the team now down two members they needed all the help they could get. Hailey wasn't surprised, Trudy was always there when they needed extra support and she knew she was very protective of Kim.
"They're both very strong." Hailey reassured the older woman as they drove the city streets. Or was she reassuring herself? They had no idea what happened to them after they were pulled into that alley.
Both Kim and Jay had a quiet strength to them. They were stronger than they looked, and had survived numerous times before. They weren't always the loudest or the most recognized but they had a lot of meritorious awards between them and a ton of respect from those below them, next to them, and above them.
"What are we going to do with them?" the younger man, who was nervously looking around to make sure they weren't followed. Kim and Jay had been handcuffed together, chloroformed and tossed haphazardly into the rental van.
"We are getting rid of them as soon as possible, making the deal later tonight and getting the hell out of Chicago." The driver made it clear that the directions given were to be followed.
Jay felt nauseous as he rolled in the back of the van, bumping into everything but could hear some of the plans being made, he just hoped he could remember it when he became more alert. For now though, he relaxed so no one would catch on to the fact that he was somewhat awake. He looked over to Kim, who seemed relaxed despite the horrible circumstances they found themselves in, albeit with a bruised face and neck and still knocked out cold.
Suddenly they weren't moving anymore and Jay didn't know why. But he didn't have much time to figure out why because he felt the ground shaking before he heard it. And by feeling it, he was able to grab Kim up and pull her into his arms and protect her head as much as he could before everything went black. Again.