From Gun Clips to Money Clips
A/N: Thanks to Long Live BRUCAS for the review!
Chapter VIII
The edge of the phone bit into his hand and pulled him back to the task at hand. Adam pushed air out of his lungs and relaxed his grip on the cell. Squirming in the chair, he looked at the neat checkmarks beside his driver and enforcer's names. The vault men were a packaged deal so there was only one text left to send. He'd told Kim that he was calling the crew but Frank had left clear instructions on how to contact his 'subcontractors'.
Subcontractors. And their rap sheets were their resumes.
Adam shook his head. Frank could slap any word he wanted on his activities, but it still landed him in jail in the end.
Dropping the phone on the table, he leaned back and scrubbed his hands down his face. The bedroom-turned-office didn't have great venting so the air was stale and still. He wanted to finish the texts, but then he knew he'd have to leave the room. As uncomfortable as the morning's humidity seeping through the sorry excuse of a window was, he was actually enjoying the quiet.
"You done yet?" Halstead called through the door from his post on the couch.
Adam turned and glared at the door. He knew Jay had lied when he claimed to have been in the area and stopped in when he saw Adam's truck.
"The neighbours are going to get suspicious if they keep seeing us meeting here."
Jay laughed. "There's no one around. Besides, why do you think I brought this?" he said, pointing to the battered mini fridge and the case of beer on top. "Anyone who is still around is going to assume I'm dropping off necessities for my buddy who got kicked out of his now-ex-girlfriend's apartment."
"One more." He called out. Grumbling, he tapped out the final text message and hit send. Now he just had to wait for the responses. Maybe he could stay in this stale, dank room until Jay gave up and went back to the precinct.
No such luck as he came off the couch and into the room. "Great, let's keep up the façade and go get a beer."
Adam gaped at him, "It's not even ten in the morning."
"Irish coffee then. C'mon, I know this great spot that's an absolute dump." He grabbed a fistful of Adam's shirt and hauled him out of the chair. Adam trod along behind him, lacking the desire to put up a fight.
Kim stepped through the final doorway and into the enclosed exercise yard. This last step of contacting Frank's client had to be completed by the man himself. There were too many codes that Frank employed and Voight didn't want to take the chance of Adam being sniffed out because of a guess.
Frank was waiting by the weight bench, hands behind his back, staring at one of the four brick walls.
"Is it quiet enough for you to think?" Kim looked at the bench and decided remaining standing was the better choice.
He turned and quirked the side of his mouth. "All the great masterminds prefer solitary confinement."
She wanted to roll her eyes, but instead handed over a tablet. She flipped open the case on her own and gestured for him to begin. "The screens are mirrored, I'll see everything that you do."
Frank gave her a full smile and started tapping away. Once he logged in to a throwaway email account, she handed over a post-it note with the details of the planned meet. He switched over to an architectural mapping site where he looked up an address.
"Interesting. Do you plan on taking down the target here?"
"Do you think we shouldn't?"
Frank glanced at Kim's innocent face. He went back to his tablet, encoding the meet's time and location in an email. He left it in the draft file and logged out.
"What I think is you should never underestimate this man. Thomas Radler is dangerous. Full stop."
Kim nodded. "We've heard. We've also had our share of dangerous criminals before."
Frank stepped forward and squeezed Kim's arm. Her reflex was to move her other hand to her empty holster but this wasn't an aggressive move on his part. She looked up at his face and saw fear.
"Not like him. Never like him."
All she could do was nod and take the tablet away. She walked back to the doorway but turned back before she stepped through. She found his staring at her, almost as if he was wishing her luck.
The tablets had been returned to their rightful spot and Kim had updated the board with the confirmed meeting time. She'd seen enough of Frank's encoded emails when they were cleaning up the investigation that put him behind bars to know that he hadn't sent some warning to Radler. She pinned a copy of the draft on the board just for reference in the future.
"Boss." Kim caught Voight as he carried a cup of coffee into his office. "I want to talk to you about something Frank said during our meeting."
Voight dropped down into his chair and waved at the visitor's chair. "Go ahead."
"He emphasized how dangerous this target is. Like, really emphasized it." Kim ignored the chair and paced with arms crossed instead. "It's almost like he's scared of him. I looked over Radler's file again, and I don't see the boogeyman in there, no more than other cases."
"We just make sure our take-down plan is rock solid. There's nothing else we can do. Halstead and Atwater swept the entire building, there's no basement tunnels and they sealed all but the two exits. We'll have them caged." Voight leaned back in his chair. "The only way we don't take him down is if Ruzek doesn't give the signal."
Jay looked around the bar. It was half full on this mid-week morning. There were the graveyard shift workers who hadn't conceded their post-work pint regardless of societal norms. There were the hard alcoholics who guarded their drinks and regarded the other patrons with distrust. Then there were those who hid inside the darkened room with the window that was so dirty it blocked the light, most likely by design.
They had both taken to dressing more like tradespeople when this operation started, so the heavy boots and sweatshirts allowed them to pretend to fit into the first category even though they were definitely in the last.
"Ruz, back when I was in the Corp…"
Adam's sigh cut him off. "Dude, can't we just sit here and drink like normal people?"
"…my unit was a team." Jay continued, ignoring the interruption. "We worked, ate, bunked, and burned time together. It wasn't always pretty; we'd fight and rag on each other. I saw a guy burn all of another guy's underwear when we were under a supply freeze just for borrowing his toothbrush." He took a deep breath. "But regardless of the spats and the names, we always had each other's backs."
"Except when someone's boxers were on fire, apparently." Adam gave an eyeroll.
"Windchime kinda deserved it. That guy had sticky fingers." Jay stopped himself and glared at his partner who was trying to deflect the conversation. Something Jay had noticed he did often. "I need you to know, whatever is going on between us, whether we're good or fighting or something in the middle, I'm always going to be on your side when it counts."
Adam opened his mouth, probably to release another deflection but Halstead glared at him. He closed his mouth and gave a short nod.
"Now we can drink like adults." With that, they both hefted their bottles in silence.
"Windchime?"
"Y'know, swinging in the wind?"
"Ya'll need help."