His mind had been the first thing to slowly come back to, trying to comprehend where he was and what had happened before his extended timeout period.
Even though Steve could hear faint noises from the surrounding area, he was too tired yet to open his eyes, much less getting his arms and legs to cooperate.
Off to his right he could make out another person, the occasional shuffling giving it away followed by a weary sigh that didn't sound like Mike at all.
Drawing in a deep breath, Steve fought the grogginess that continued to rob him of all clear thought, the exhale causing him to cough when his dry throat protested the move.
The sound of his wheezing made the person next to him fall quiet.
Cursing himself for alarming the unknown stranger, Steve tried to focus on shallow, even breaths again, too confused to understand the current situation.
But one thing was for certain.
The cold seeping through the floor he was lying on chilled him to the bone, making the numb and tight muscles in his back turn to solid rock when he attempted to move.
"Inspector Keller?"
The voice.
Something about the voice raised a warning flag in his sluggish brain he couldn't quite define yet.
The words were accompanied by a warm hand that appeared on his wrist, gently rubbing his forearm, causing barbs of fire to run up and down his hand, making it twitch.
Drawing in another deep breath, Steve felt his stomach cramp, his insides unhappy with the prolonged time spent unconscious on some godforsaken cold floor.
"Inspector, can you hear me?"
There was fear in that voice, panic almost, and the hand grasped his tightly, then eased up somewhat.
"Inspector Keller, if you can hear me, we really need you to wake up. Please…you need to fight those sedatives."
Sedatives.
That was beginning to make an awful lot of sense.
It went along with his stomach in a bind and his limbs feeling completely numb. Suddenly, his memory produced an image of the Galaxie, a call from a stoolie he'd followed up on after dropping off Janine. And then, there were three guys appearing out of nowhere, jumping him, smashing his head into the doorframe of the tan sedan until everything went dark.
They were images that made him wake up with a start, taking another deep breath that resulted in a coughing spell, before suddenly, his entire body rejoined the club, his nerves burning and twitching as he regained feeling of his limbs.
With his tongue feeling like sandpaper, Steve swallowed; trying to get some moisture back into his dry throat and managed to turn his head somewhat, feeling the restraint of a blindfold as he did so.
A quick survey of his arms revealed a similar fate, that of being spread out with either wrist bound tightly, away from his body, the tension enough that it would dislocate his shoulder if he were to fight it.
His dress jacket was gone, the .38 and handcuffs ripped out of his belt hard enough that it pulled his dress shirt up, exposing part of his lower back to the unforgivingly cold concrete.
Another dry cough rattled his body, causing the hand to shift to his forearm, warm fingers digging into his skin as if it would help his progress of coming back around.
"They took Lieutenant Stone out of here. I am not sure what they're going to do to him."
The haunting message did wonders for his brain to snap back to attention and Steve turned his head toward the voice, his mind finally connection the dots and picturing Claire Gifford right there, even though he couldn't see her.
"Who is they?"
"These…these people.", Gifford answered in a shaky voice, "They work for a …a Doctor Chong. The Lieutenant said you guys have come across him before?"
"Chong? You have got to be kidding me…damnit."
Clenching his hands into tight fists, Steve cursed this case once again, his memory vaguely producing the scene of a violent fight once he was brought here, punches and choke holds used to keep him on the ground, orders muttered in an eerily familiar accent until a needle in his elbow ended his protest unceremoniously.
"So, he switched from organ trade to reattaching limbs? And now Mike's with him?"
"Yeah, unfortunately. They took him…I'd say…an hour or so ago. This…Doctor didn't say anything about…you know…wanting to cut him up. Seemed like he just wanted to talk to him. You, on the other hand, he said he had some plans for and that he was looking for somebody needing organs of your blood type."
"That figures…", Steve breathed, trying unsuccessfully to tug on the tight ropes holding him in place, before pulling up his legs, relishing the feeling returning to them.
"Is there anything we can do in the meantime? Anything you can think of, Inspector?"
"Can you loosen these ropes around my hand? Once I can move around we can go after the Doctor and free Mike."
"I already tried. I can't get them open. I was only able to reach your elbow to manipulate the catheter in there and prevent this Doctor from giving you more sedatives. But that's all I could do. I am sorry…"
"Well, that's a start at least…", Steve said, trying to disguise his dismay and pushed himself back a little bit, hoping it would ease the tension on the restrains holding his arms in place to no avail.
Quietly, he suggested to the higher powers around that now would be a perfect time for backup to arrive.