The following morning
Monday
Chicago PD, District 21
The new building had cost over $21 million and covered 44,000-square feet, over five levels.
The building was very impressive, which I assumed had been the idea when it was designed and built. I walked into the glass-fronted building and up to the front desk where I nodded at the desk Sergeant.
"David Lizewski to see Hank Voight."
"Come right this way!" The Sergeant said and came around the desk.
She led me through a door that had required the sergeant's fingerprint to unlock.
"Trudy Platt," The Sergeant said, introducing herself. "How is the Lieutenant?"
"Grumpy!"
"Sounds about right!" Sergeant Platt said with a brief smile. "Up the stairs to the top and then go through the door and down the corridor."
"Thanks."
..._...
Once through the door at the top of the stairs, I was in a corridor that ran between two glass-fronted areas. The one on the left had twin glass doors and a sign: 'Chicago Police Department, Intelligence'. Opposite, over to the right, were an identical set of doors and another sign: 'Chicago Police Department, Organised Crime Taskforce'. Behind the doors on each side was a small reception desk and beyond that eight desks arranged in two groups of four. Beyond these were a pair of offices for the senior officers, a small conference room, a kitchen and a locker room. It was all very smart and functional. I pushed open the doors into Intelligence.
"Dave!" Olinsky called, looking up from his desk. "Welcome! Hank's downstairs – you ready for this, kid?"
"Bring it on, pal!" I replied.
..._...
Olinsky led me downstairs, via another set of stairs and we came out into a large open area which housed the vehicles that belonged to both Intelligence and OCT. Sergeant Hank Voight was examining a large red stain on the concrete. He looked up as Olinsky and I entered.
"Detective Vincent Jackson. One of Marcus' crew, single bullet, 7.62-calibre, destroyed his heart. He died instantly."
"Sniper; we're still looking for his firing point," Olinsky added.
"Marcus was standing beside Jackson; they were talking according to the CCTV. Detective Jim Ransom was over there, by the armoury. The first shot took out Jackson, Marcus drew his pistol and ran over to the door, he looked out and the next bullet hit him in the shoulder, sending fragments of bone and bullet into his left side. The third bullet left Ransom drowning in his own blood."
I could tell that Voight was on the verge of losing it; those were not men under his command, but they were Cops none the less.
"We got lucky that afternoon; somebody found a sniper rifle in a dumpster of all places. They always wear gloves when handling the weapon and firing it, but many slip up when it comes to loading the damned magazine!" Voight explained.
"Two beautiful prints; one led us to somebody who deals in anything and everything, including guns – only he died when we breached his house," Olinsky added with a grimace. "Nevertheless, his place was a damned treasure trove of information. That started to lead us towards the bastard who actually took the fucking shot."
"It appears that Marcus was targeted because of his role with OCT, by the Genovese family," Voight went on. "Those fuckers from Europe, now they aren't stupid, so they told the dead fucker, err; Randy White his name was, to get somebody in from out of town to dilute and spread the blame somewhere else."
"In this case they used a man from Gotham," Olinsky finished.
"Thank you for being so candid; it means a lot."
"We owe you guys a lot," Olinsky said in reply. "Marcus too."
"We all believe in protecting this City," Voight said strongly before going on.
"Nobody fucks with my City!"
Safehouse F
The place was a hive of activity as equipment was brought together and vehicles were packed.
Everybody was on hand to help, even Sophia! There were magazines to load, boxes of ammunition to pull from storage and check, weapons to be selected and inspected from stock to muzzle. On the not so popular side, Cathy was packing various trauma kits that included everything that might be needed when entering into a major battle. I severely hoped that Gotham was not going to be a major battleground, but I did not hold out much hope!
The mood was sombre, as everybody knew that we already had two of our member operating in harm's way, including our de facto leader. We all knew that Mindy and Chloe were both highly trained and were a perfectly matched team. Privately, though, Cathy and I also knew that Chloe was the perfect balance for Mindy when I was not around to keep her emotions, and most importantly her darker side, in check.
Marty and Abby were testing and re-testing every piece of electrical equipment including the radios. The radios had fucked up only the previous week, almost getting Mindy and Megan killed. Marty had been able to trace the problem to faulty SD memory cards that held the equipment's encryption algorithms. Marty had resolved to replace these every six months and every team member carried a spare card, and each member had been trained to fit the replacement card and activate it.
Even Kyle was helping, packing equipment, inventorying supplies, anything that he could do to assist. In the Warehouse, we had additional vehicles being assembled for transport to Gotham, an eight-hundred mile drive. It was Monday; the plan was to be onsite, in Gotham, on the Friday night. Mindy would send back any information she gathered as she acquired it, until then. On the Gotham side, of things Marty had been very busy assembling equipment for Mindy and Chloe to setup, ready for our arrival.
Naturally, I was worried about Mindy and Josh was almost paranoid about Chloe's well-bring. We spent many sleepless nights at West Ridge worrying about our women.
Separation sucked!
The next evening
Tuesday
Safehouse F
"I miss you both, you know."
"I know Dave and you Josh, thanks for caring," Mindy said over the video conferencing setup.
Sitting beside her was a tearful Chloe. Beside me, I had a jittery Joshua. I knew that Mindy was very good at hiding her emotions, but I could read her like a book and I could tell that she was sad.
"You two been sharing the bathtub again?" I asked and both girls glared at me.
Joshua turned to me, questioningly.
"Even being eight hundred miles away from those two psychos, does not make me feel safe, so not right now, Joshua."
"Good boy!" Mindy laughed.
..._...
Then the talk became serious.
"Dave, this City is more rotten than a two month old egg sandwich!" Mindy explained with a grimace.
"Sounds a little like Vigilante heaven!" I said. "Knocked any heads together yet?"
"We've been tempted, but we've been good girls, haven't we Chloe."
"I have!" Chloe smiled innocently.
I rolled my eyes and glared at Mindy.
"What has she done?" I asked.
"I have done nothing!" Mindy replied indignantly scowling at Chloe.
"Let's just say that we gift wrapped a couple of cunts for the GCPD!" Chloe explained. "For now, we have not exposed ourselves."
"I should hope not!" Josh quipped tying to add some humour.
"One track mind, you, and that track runs in the damn sewer!" Chloe scowled.
"Runs right beside yours, lover!" Josh replied with a big grin.
"He's right, you know," Mindy said, enjoying Chloe's annoyance.
"What's up Josh?" Chloe asked, seeing Josh's expression and turning serious.
"I miss you..."
"Joshua, I miss you too, more than you can know. Being in bed alone is not fun."
"Well you're not sharing mine; you move about too damn much!" Mindy growled.
"Going back to self-stimulation is just not like the real thing!" Chloe laughed.
"And on that note; I'm out of here!" Mindy laughed. "Love you Dave; stay safe!"
"You, too, I love you," I replied with a smile and then looked at Chloe. "You keep safe Chloe and watch my girl for me."
"I will Dave, I promise," Chloe replied sincerely before she turned back to Josh. "We'll be together soon Josh and then you can fuck me senseless!"
"I'll hold you to that!" Josh said shakily as I killed the connection.
Josh turned to face me and he looked scared.
"They'll be okay, Josh, they've done this before; they're a perfect team," I tried.
"This is the first time that we have been apart since I found Chloe again and it's tearing me apart. It hurts worse than any bullet wound."
I could see tears in Joshua's eyes and they were spilling over and down his cheeks. He also looked ashamed by the tears.
"Josh, don't be ashamed about being human and having human emotions. We all have them; even those two cast-iron bitches in Gotham," I said. "When Mindy went to New York with Chloe, where they both found you? That had been the first time that Mindy and I had been apart since I had found her, here in Chicago. I am man enough to tell you that I cried that first night; it hurt so much. It is the only pain that I feel one hundred percent. It is a little worse because we both know that our girls can be more than a little hot headed at times and get themselves into impossible situations. On the positive side, we can balance that with the knowledge that they are both fully capable of getting themselves back out of those same impossible situations."
"I know. But I've never felt so much hurt inside me before," Josh replied, unable to stop the tears falling.
"It's called love, Josh. I know that you love Chloe with all your heart and I know that she loves you back, just as much."
Gotham City
It was ridiculous!
We were both sitting on the couch and crying our fucking eyes out. So much for being hardened crime-fighters! I was just glad that I had Chloe here with me and neither of us were shy about showing our emotions, or anything else for that matter, in front of the other. She had helped me the last time, in New York, when I was away from Dave. Now, though, Chloe was experiencing the pain of separation from the boy that she was madly in love with.
I was glad that Dave had cut the connection when he had, because Chloe and I had both been on the verge of losing it and I had noticed that Joshua had tears in his eyes and he was struggling to hold them back.
I had not wanted Chloe to see that, it would have just made things worse.