"Fuck white collar crime is boring as hell" Halstead griped as he flipped through the date book a whistler blower had turned in, "this shit blows, my eyes are crossing." He tossed the book on his desk, "I need a break."
Kevin closed his laptop, "Me too, man. I need fresh air."
"Grab lunch, be back in a hour or two. Be ready to work the case hard. We need something to go on." Hank stopped them before they made their way downstairs.
He had more than his fair share of hangovers, this was unreal. He had gotten blitzed last night for sure, never had he felt like this. Opening his eyes was an impossible task, his lids were heavy and his eyes burned. His head was heavy, his throat sand paper dry and his stomach queasy.
He was cold, his teeth chattering.
He was wet.
Soaked to the bone wet.
The unmistakable scent of urine hung in the air, did he get so drunk that he pissed himself? As he gathered his wits about him, the sickening feeling in his gut intensified.
Clearly it was going to be one of those days, if it could go wrong it did. The saying when it rains it pours was very apropos, and it had everyone on edge.
Once the names of a couple prominent Chicago residents started popping up in their investigation things started getting dicey. They started hitting roadblocks along the way, obtaining the necessary search warrants had proved tricky if not impossible.
Burgess and Atwater were doing their best to stay out of the line of fire, Voight had already ripped into Halstead and Upton both, and it was ugly. Kim wasn't clear on all of the details but she did know it was over something that neither Haley or Jay had control over.
Hank downed what was left of his coffee before addressing the team, he knew he needed to own up to his miserable ass mood and give them some insight on what he was dealing with.
He had brass breathing down his neck demanding he make an arrest, he had judges who didn't dare sign off on a warrant of any kind. It was hard to make any headway when he was hitting the wall at every turn.
It was coming at him from all sides, he needed this shit with Woods to be finished. He needed something off his plate, it seemed to be the easiest one to wrap up at the moment. Which was saying a lot in regards to their current case, it was a shitstorm and more then a few high ranking Chicago residents were in the thick of it.
"Listen up, I lost it earlier. I apologize, I'm sure you can imagine the tension this case has brought to the city. We've got serious names linked to this one. Once the dominoes start falling there's no stopping it. It's making our job difficult, but not impossible. Halstead, Upton. I'm sorry. I was out of line."
"No worries, Sarge." Halstead replied, "We get it."
"Absolutely, Boss. We understand." Upton agreed with her partner, "Our hands are tied, how can the brass be all over you if we can't get a single judge to give us a warrant?" She was confused as hell, "It's fucking ridiculous."
Olinsky adjusted the beanie on his head, "indeed it is. We can't do anything about it, we just need to keep plugging away, we need more to go on then a few hastily scrawled notes in a receipt book. We need something solid, something they can't explain away or ignore completely. Once we get that? Well..We're golden."
When he finally opened his eyes, he struggled to piece together the previous night. He remembered playing pool, drinking, lots of drinking. He could remember a redhead, she was all over him. Beyond that he wasn't sure, where the fuck was he?
The room reeked of vomit and piss.
He had pissed himself numerous times based upon the fact his jeans were still wet. He struggled to hold his head up for more than a few minutes. His hands were secured behind his bag, the plastic cutting into his wrists. His first clue that he must've struggled to get free, his legs bound to the legs of the chair.
The metallic taste of blood filled his mouth, as his head flopped like a rag doll he saw the splattering of blood on his shirt and the floor. His heart accelerated as the direness of the situation hit him.
He was fucked.
They had finally gotten a judge to sign off on a search warrant, they had removed at least a dozen boxes of files, and a half dozen notebooks filled with account numbers and transaction descriptions.
It would take them days to go through it all and connect all the dots, it was work they could do until the feds would take over.
In the interim they were left with going through it, they would need to list the biggest players and they needed to link the correct paper trails to their suspects. It was a serious insider trading ring.
It was shaping up to be much bigger than they could've ever imagined.
It was the last thing Voight needed, and for once he couldn't wait for the feds to arrive and take it off his hands, the fallout would be ugly and far reaching.
"Fuck!" Adam grunted.
The room he was in was small and windowless with just the small cot Adam had woken up on. He was covered in piss, puke, and blood, and the entire right side of his body ached. He was certain his nose was broken he had a nasty gash just below his eye. He finally found his footing and held his hand on the wall to steady himself as he tried to fight off the dizziness that hit him full force upon standing. He knew it was fruitless but he tried the door anyway, "Fuck!" He screamed out in aggravation when the door wouldn't open.
"Open the fucking door!" He pounded his hands on the steel door, he knew it was a reinforced door and it was highly unlikely that anyone would hear him. As he spun around he caught the video camera positioned in the corner of the room, it moved as he moved.
"Come at me! Unlock the fucking door!" Adam screamed, the action of screaming causing his busted lip to start pouring fresh blood, his adrenaline kicked in and he was feeling it. "Woods!" He was left with little doubt as to who was holding him, "I know it's you! I did what you asked! Let me the fuck out!"
Woods chuckled as he watched him unravel, he would deal with him in due time, but right now he was just going to enjoy the show.
It was the elephant in the room..or more appropriately the elephant that wasn't in the room. They'd put in an eighteen hour day and Adam hadn't stepped foot in the building or called in.
It bugged Kim.
It was unlike Adam to miss work, but even on the odd occasion when he called out he was always checking in. He'd call in at least a dozen times and actively work the case from home, calling CI's and chasing done leads from other agencies.
This not calling in was bizarre, but what was even stranger was that no one had questioned his absence.
"Are we just going to ignore it?" Kim finally asked, "This isn't sitting right with me."
Kevin barely lifted his eyes from his computer screen, "What is it?"
"Adam.." she glared at him, "He's not here. He hasn't called in. Has he called you?" She pointed to Kevin's phone, "He always calls you."
Kevin shrugged, "Nope, maybe he's busy." He checked the phone and had nothing from his buddy, "You know Ruz. His phone is probably dead, I bet he's working a case. Off the books."
Kim watched Olinsky and Voight. "What?"
Al curled his lip, "Nothing."
"Bullshit. I saw that look. You know something, don't you?" Kim questioned the pair, it was hard to miss the look they shared.
"Ruzek is working on a special project for me. Nothing for you to worry about." Voight declared, "The Feds will be here first thing in the morning. I expect all of you to be here before the suits. We will spend majority of tomorrow filling them in on what we know, then we will hand the case over."
"Hallelujah!" Halstead threw his hands up, "This one is a fucking nightmare. I can't wait to hand it over."
Adam was losing his fucking mind, he had lost all concept of time. He had no idea where he was, he was certain beyond a shadow of a doubt that Woods had him but he had no idea how.
He had raked his brain trying to figure out what the hell had happened the previous night and all he had were these fragmented snippets of memories they were all jumbled and disorganized. He could remember scents and sounds, he could remember getting shitfaced. He could remember seeing only buddies, their faces all distorted in his mind's eye.
He had to have been drugged, it wasn't the only explanation.
Adam jumped when he heard the door creak open, he was in a defensive posture he was at his captor's mercy and he wasn't going to go down without a fight.
Woods gagged as he stepped inside, "Clearly you're nose blind" he spoke from behind his hand, "Officer Ruzek, you've been sick?" He curled his face up in disgust, "and you've pissed yourself."
Adam took two steps towards him, "I suggest you sit the fuck down young man. I've got company." He motioned over his shoulder, three men joined him. Their identities covered by welders shields, "They're eager to please, so I'd advise you to have a seat."
"Whaddya want?" Adam asked.
"I've got it. I've got you." Woods sneered, "It's all I need. For now anyway." He leaned against the wall, "I have nothing left. Your unit did that, your incompetence killed my little girl."
"The fuck we did! She ran!" Adam bit back.
Woods snarled, his lip curled "Fuck you!" He yanked Adam up by his shirt, his hand curling around his neck, "Watch your fucking mouth, don't you dare speak of my little girl! I will fucking tear you apart..limb from limb..do you hear me?" He muttered. "I've got nothing to lose..."
He angrily tossed him down, "Beat the bastard down...stop just short of killing the son of a bitch. Leave that to me."