Here We Are (A Chicago P.D. ff)

4- Just a Bunch of Crazies

"It's getting dark out..." Jay stated. "I just hope that Mouse finds them. I don't think that they're around here." He opened the trunk of the car and grabbed a rifle. "Because if I knew that I committed a serious crime, I would definitely not stick around. You'd have to be really stupid to do that."

"Didn't doing what they did already make them stupid? It's as if they had a huge neon sign over the building saying, 'Hey, look at us! We're complete dumbasses!' I just don't understand why someone would want to do that."

"I ask myself that every case."

I turned my flashlight on. "Ugh, I don't want to search around here. He's probably running away to Michigan for all we know."

"And the mom could be going to Florida."

"A little too much exaggeration there, don't you think?" I joked.

"With this job, I've seen crazier. Trust me."

We paced around the building for a while, keeping our eyes peeled for the suspects. I felt a vibration in my pocket. I took a sharp breath in and jumped.

He laughed. "You ok there?"

I snapped out of my thoughts, confused for a second. "What? Oh, yeah. I'm fine. It's just my phone." I dug in my pocket to grab it. "Someone's calling me." I looked at the caller ID.

"Who is it?" He leaned over my shoulder a bit to get a better view of my phone.

"Mouse." I clicked the answer button and held it up to my ear. "Hey! Do you have something?"

"Yeah, I pinged Slate's phone. He's at an indoor kid's playground on 36th Avenue. And the mom, Ginger Asken, is at another place on the same road. A children's clothing store."

"Thanks. We're on our way." I ended the call and put my phone back in my pocket. "We need to go. He found their location. Slate is at an indoor playground and Asken is at a children's clothing store."

Jay stopped pacing and gave me an astonished look. "What in the hell are they doing there?"

"I don't know, but I have a very bad feeling about this."

"Give me the address and call the rest of the team," he demanded.

We drove to the location in silence. I guess we were just both trying to make sense as to why they were out in public and around kids.

When we arrived, Voight was waiting on the sidewalk.

"So here's the plan. You two are going in the playground undercover. Capture Slate and bring him back to the unit. I want to personally question him before he goes to prison. I need both of you to take off your vests and put in these earpieces and attach the microphones."

"So what are we posing as?" Jay asked.

"A married couple picking their child up after a sleepover. No one will notice that you don't actually have a child. So just pretend. He'll most likely be watching other kids. Corner him and put him in cuffs."

"Alright."

"Lindsay and I have Ginger." He turned away from us and headed for the store.

Jay put his hand on my shoulder. "How do you want to convince everyone that we're a couple? Erin and I used to do all sorts of things, so I'm open to anything."

"I don't know," I mumbled.

"How about we just walk in there like normal and just pretend to talk about a kid?"

"Sounds convincing enough."

He opened the door and held it for me. We both walked inside and tried to keep a calm exterior, but I felt like stress was practically oozing from me.

He leaned over my head to whisper in my ear. "There he is."

I looked to my left and saw Slate. "Uh, Jay, I think we have a problem," I muttered under my breath.

"What? Why? He should be easy to get."

"The bag."

Slate was holding a dark red suede satchel between his legs. He appeared to be struggling with its weight.

"What's in it?"

I pulled him aside in a corner. "Look, back in New York City, I learned how to identify weapons fast. If you didn't, you'd either die on the job or get fired. Slate isn't holding a bag. It's a bomb."

His look went from calm and collected to frantic in seconds. "How do you know?"

"The way he's holding it. He's cradling it although it's heavy."

"Why would he have a bomb here?"

"I don't know but we need to take him in. Now."

"Ok."

We both glanced at Francis. He was staring right back at us.

"He knows," I breathed.

Suddenly, he put his bag on the ground, clicked something in it, and ran like crazy.

We both darted to the satchel and took a peek inside.

"Call the bomb squad," I stated, trying not to let anyone hear me. "I'll evacuate people." I stood up and slowly walked over the the nearest parent. "Sir?"

He looked up at me with a confused look. "Yes? Do I know you?"

"I don't think so. You-"

"I know! You're Sydney Morell! It's me, John Wallen, from high school."

"Hey, John. Look-"

"Where's your kid?"

"I don't have one-"

"Why are you here? Someone ask you to watch their's?"

"John, I'm not here for that. I'm with CPD." I showed him my badge. His smile faded. "I'm going to have to ask you to leave. This place needs to be evacuated."

"Oh, right." He nervously collected his things. "Olive!" He called. "Time to go!" He turned to me. "Thanks."

I went around the rest of the place. It took forever to get everyone out, but I did it. By the time it was emptied, the bomb squad showed up.

Jay lead them in and directed them to the bag. "Sydney, we can leave if you want. Voight and Erin got Ginger, and Adam and Kevin are on the run with Slate."

"Yeah, we can go back to the unit."

"We can help-" He was cut off by one of the bomb squad guys.

"We can't disable the bomb! Everyone take cover immediately!" The man yelled.

Everyone ran outside and scrambled to find a safe place to hide.

"The car! Get behind the car!" Jay screamed.

"Why can't we go into a store?" I asked.

"We don't have time."

As soon as he finished his sentence, a loud bang went off. The ground shook, making me think of an earthquake. We both pressed up against the car for protection, but it probably wasn't a good idea.

The windows of the car shattered and impaled my scalp and upper left arm. That's when the fire began to roar from the building. Pieces of flying debris went everywhere, causing anything it landed on to catch on fire. A piece of metal struck Jay's side. Luckily it wasn't engulfed in flames, but it still caused him a great deal of pain.

The ground stopped shaking and everyone looked up from their barriers. The fire continued to eat the building.