Chapter Text
They’re going over a lead that Kim has found, Jay just opening his mouth to order their new suspect be brought in, when the gate buzzes.
Two men dressed in fatigues walk in.
Hailey smiles when she sees Mouse but the smile that her husband’s oldest friend gives her in return is tight; strained.
Something’s wrong.
“Sergeant Halstead.” the man at the front says. “Can we speak in your office?”
“Of course General.” Jay says, rising from where he’s perched on the corner of her desk.
As he turns, the General turns to her.
“Detective Upton, you may want to collect your children from daycare.”
Jay whirls back, alarmed.
“What?”
“I’d like to discuss the details with you privately before I share specifics with your team but your family may be in danger.”
Jay locks his jaw, looking at her.
“Hailey, can you ask Trudy to send uniforms to pick up Will on your way out? Kevin, go with her please. Kim, take Dante and Adam and go pick up that suspect you identified. General.”
He disappears into his office with the two men on his heels without waiting for a response.
Hailey is on her way down the stairs, Kevin on her heels, before the door closes.
Stopping just long enough to pass Jay’s request on to a worried looking Trudy, she is out the door and practically running for her jeep.
If an Army General thinks her family is in danger, she wants to get to her kids now.
The door closes but none of them sit down.
“What the hell is going on?” Jay demands.
“Emmanuel Sharak is in the states.”
“What!?!”
Adrenaline and barely controlled panic flood through him.
“When? How?”
“An FBI anti- terror team got a possible sighting in Colorado a week ago. Two more hits since then, in Kansas and Iowa. The Iowa event was caught on a gas station camera with high enough resolution for a confident ID. I had Specialist Gerwitz flown in two days ago because of his prior dealings with him.”
“Iowa.” Jay mutters, leaning against his desk.
“He was in Illinois as of this morning, Jay.” General Rolf says gently. “The credit card he used in Iowa hit at a QuikMart at the southern end of the state an hour ago.”
In the state.
And using a credit card more than once, allowing himself to be tracked.
Sharak is too smart, has spent too long successfully evading the countless groups hunting for him, for that to be a mistake.
He wants to be noticed.
“You think he’s coming for me.”
“The one that got away.” Mouse says quietly.
“Why now?”
“We suspect a recent alliance with a Mexican cartel is what got him into the country.” Rolf offers up. “Military Intelligence will worry about what his superiors are after with that but we suspect the timing of this boils down to little more than opportunity.”
Jay nods, running a hand through his hair.
He’d nearly died at Emmanuel Sharak’s hands.
Had been subjected to brutal, nearly unending torture for nearly six weeks before his unit had been able to find and rescue him.
Somehow, in the chaos of the rescue and with his unit’s focus on getting Jay out of the box he’d been trapped in and to medical, Sharak had slipped away, vanishing into the night.
And now he’s back.
Ready to finish what he’d started.
“We’d like your team to assist us in finding him.” Rolf says. “You have an impressive solve rate. You guys are good and you know this city. And nobody knows Sharak like you do.”
“Mouse is the one who found his base.” Jay reminds him.
“He knows tracking him.” Rolf agrees. “And he will continue helping us do so. But you spent time with him, told investigators that he came to speak to you daily. You know him. That means you may be the only person who can get inside his head.”
Jay nods.
“I’ll have to speak to my superiors.” he says slowly. “Make arrangements to hand of our current case to another unit.”
“I’ve already made contact with the Superintendent’s office so they shouldn’t give you any push back.” Rolf tells him. “Gerwitz will stay here to liaise between you and the rest of the task force. We’ll see to protection details for your family.”
Jay runs his hand through his hair again.
Voight will let Hailey and the kids stay with him. That will get them away from the house, the first place that Sharak would look.
He’ll beg Hailey to stay with them too. As much as she’ll hate stepping back from the action, from covering his six, he thinks she’ll agree if it means protecting her babies.
Will is going to be harder. He won’t want to leave the hospital short handed, especially without a time line.
“We can put extra bodies in the ED at the Gaffney if need be.” Rolf offers. “Keep your brother on the job.”
Jay sighs.
“He’ll appreciate that.” he says tiredly.
“Just let me know what you need.” Rolf tells him. “We’ll make it happen.”
Then the man leaves and his alone with Mouse.
His phone dings, a text from Hailey that she and Kevin have the kids and are on the way back.
“We’ll get him, Jay.” Mouse promises.
The call to Voight is quick. The man will no doubt want more details at some point but for the time being he easily agrees for them to stay with him.
He even offers to make room for Will so that things are easier on the task force.
The call to the Ivory Tower takes much longer.
The Army has been in touch, they don’t really have the option to say no, so it isn’t a matter of selling them on the idea of his team assisting.
And yet somehow there’s twenty-five minutes of bureaucracies to sort through nonetheless.
He can hear extra voices in the bullpen, his brother, wife and kids chattering loud enough to hear even through the closed door.
He’d gotten the brass to assign another unit to their original case early enough to text Adam before they’d brought the suspect back.
They’ll drop him off at the 98th and give Area Central the cliff notes on the case.
Kevin is boxing up their files and notes now so that they can be run over.
“Yes sir.” he says for the hundredth time. “I understand. I’ll keep you posted.”
And then finally he’s off the phone, standing up and favoring Mouse with a small smile.
“We’ll hold off on briefing until everyone’s back but how about you finally meet your niece and nephew in person?”