Chapter Text
“Alright people.” Voight says, stepping into the bullpen accompanied by a wiry man with dark hair. “This is Detective Jason Marston from the gang unit. He’s been rolling a case against the forty-eight street riders for the last two years. The last week, bodies have been dropping and the Ivory Tower wants them shut down yesterday so we’ve been asked to assist.”
“I appreciate a fresh set of eyes on this.” Marston says. “They’ve been ahead of us at every turn.”
“Sounds like you have a leak.” Jay comments.
“Another reason the big wigs want us on this.” Voight says. “We’ve got a rep for rooting out corruption. They’re hoping we can live up to it.”
“What’s the plan?” Adam asks. “We gonna try a buy, bust?”
“Gang unit has tried that.” Voight says, shaking his head. “Either they get tipped to the identity of the officer making the sale and refuse to deal or the gang uses it as a chance to get rid of low hanging fruit and the punk they bring in doesn’t know anything.”
“So we need to get in closer.” Hailey says.
“And it stays in house.” Jay adds.
“Details of the op don’t leave this room.” Voight confirms. “Marston, I’m going to keep you out of the loop on the chance that they’ve got a line on your cellphone.”
“I’ve been careful about that.” Marston says, before sighing. “But it makes as much sense as one of my guys being dirty.”
“We want this to succeed, everyone involved with previous operations gets cut out.” Voight says. “We’ll keep you informed, after the fact.”
He receives a nod and the man hands over the file box with his case files and then disappears back down the stairs. Only once he’s gone does Voight speak again.
“Okay.” he says, looking around. “We’re going to pull a rip. Let’s find out where these people are keeping their drugs so that we can pull the floor out from under them.”
“Who’s going in as a supplier?”
“Atwater, you and Kim look over these files and figure that out. See if you can get on read on which of us they’d be most likely to trust. The rest of you work on digging out that stash house.”
Files are divvied up and the team settles in to work. It takes a few hours but Jay and Hailey are able to identify a mid-level player.
“Gang unit hasn’t even gotten close to a stash house in over a year.” Jay explains as they present it to Voight. “None of the ones they had identified before that are still active. But they do have this guy.”
“Niko Eskalov.” Hailey continues. “We sit on this guy, he’s going to lead us to a stash house. But boss, Gang tried tailing mid- level guys to find stash houses but their officers got made, every single time.”
“Alright,” Voight agrees. “Let’s set up surveillance. I’ll set up some different vehicles. If there’s a mole, they know Intelligence has picked this up. They may have given the gang descriptions of us and our vehicles.”
“What if the leak is somewhere higher up?” Jay asks. “You request new vehicles, it goes across their desk and the descriptions get to the gang anyway.”
“You got a better suggestion?”
“Get approval for us to use vehicles from the auction stock.” Jay says. “We’ll keep our own records of what cars we use and then file them later.”
“Higher ups could still get access to the information.” Hailey says. “Look into which ones are missing.”
“Take a lot more time though.” Jay says. “And If they have to go out of their way to get the information then we can use that to figure out who they are.”
“We’ll give it a shot.” Voight says, reaching for his phone. “Jay’s right. Even if it doesn’t get us a stash house, we might identify the mole that way.”
Jay nods.
“I’ll take first shift.” he volunteers.
“I’ll go with him.” Hailey is quick to add.
“Head for the auction lot.” Voight tells them. “I should have things squared away with the brass by the time you get there.”
It takes them less than two days to track Niko back to a stash house.
Which unfortunately proves their theory that a mole connected to the department is the reason for the Rider’s ability to keep from getting caught.
If it was just because the crew is careful they never would have got here this quickly. As it is, without the mole tipping them off, they’d never seen Intelligence coming.
The team is staged five minutes away, waiting for the full cover of darkness to settle in and allow them to pull off the rip.
They’re all wearing blackout gear, face coverings pulled down around their necks while they wait.
“Two days has got to be a record, right?” Adam says. “For Intelligence to clean up somebody else’s mess.”
“Especially with these guys working on it for two years.” Kevin agrees.
“Job’s not done yet.” Jay says, shaking his head as he looks over their breech plan for the twelfth time. “The rip gets us in but we’ve still got to close the deal. And then figure out where these bastards are getting their information.”
“Halstead’s right.” Voight adds. “Stay focused. We’ve still got work to do.”
The officers nod, suitably chastened.
Ten minutes later, the last glimmers of sunlight disappear on the horizon and they pull out of the parking garage.
Jay hits the front with Hailey and Kim while Voight takes the back with Antonio, Adam and Kevin. They corral everyone into one room in the basement, forcing them to their knees at gunpoint.
Adam and Kim fall back, collecting all of the drugs and piling bricks into duffel bags while the others cover the criminals.
Within minutes, bags are being thrown over shoulders and then the team is backing out, Jay throwing a smoke grenade to cover their retreat.
Adrenaline levels are high as the team piles back into the trucks with whoops and cheers.
Voight is driving, having left at the front of the pack to get the engine running and Jay can see him shaking his head as he leans against the back windows in the bed of the truck.
And yeah, maybe they’re acting like children but robbing drug dealers is one of the funnest parts of their jobs.
And with the hard work starting up again first thing in the morning he figures they might as well enjoy it.