Tolerance Book I (Chicago PD/Med FF) by Frances51163

Chapter One Hundred and Sixty-Six: Trying Times

Silence greeted the end of the letter reading. Al looked across at Voight and caught his eye, letting him know they needed to talk.

"Why would he think Jay could stop the attack? It's not his jurisdiction," Kevin looked around the men gathered in the open plan office.
"He hasn't given much to go on," Adam scratched his head, "apart from the name we know nothing about this guy."
"But we know where he intends to set off the bomb," Antonio decided to concentrate on the positive element of the situation.
"Ye really think the guy will try to set a bomb off where it details on these plans?" Jay finally joined in the conversation after passing the note and papers over to Al for his scrutiny.
"You think it's a trick?" Kevin checked.
"If he genuinely left the plans by mistake he won't target the area they specify. If he left the plans as a decoy the target is somewhere else," Jay pointed out then continued sombrely "according to the note Petrocelli had picked this weekend for the attack. He hasn't given me much notice."
"Let's get one thing clear Halstead he gave us notice. We're in this together."
"We all are," Al reiterated solemnly.
"We don't know if Wells will use the same timeframe," Voight stated after a brief silence as he turned back towards his office after signalling for Al to follow him, "I want everything we can find on Wells. If Petrocelli used him it's because he has experience. An army recruitment office would not have been a soft target. Maybe he's done time."
"Hey Sarge are we working this?" Adam asked in surprise.
"For now yeah. I'm going to contact New York but in the meantime I want as much information as we can get."
"Yes Boss," Adam looked over to the youngest member of the Unit trying to guage what he was thinking, "you obviously made a big impression on Petrocelli. Probably saved a lot of lives."
"That bomb goes off people will die," Jay observed succinctly, how was he going to stop that happening?!
"Hey man if the worst case scenario happens it won't be on you!"
"Petrocelli seems to think I can stop the guy."
"We'll do our best to deal with this but at the end of the day Wells is responsible for his own actions not you," Antonio countered firmly, no way was he letting the younger man shoulder anymore unnecessary guilt.

In the office Al looked across the desk at his friend and grimaced.

"Kid doesn't need anymore stress. You sending him to New York would be a bad idea."
"This is out of our jurisdiction," Voight
explained mildly.
"That's not going to stop you."
"True but I'm not letting the Kid go."
"Well that's good then," Al rose and headed for the door.
"You don't usually get involved in operational matters."
"No I don't," the unkempt Detective concurred readily before giving the only explanation he was going to offer, "the Kid's special."
"Preaching to the choir," Voight said as he gave a curt nod, "now get back to work."

True to his word Voight had given the NYPD a heads up of the intended bombing. Unfortunately Simon Wells was an unknown entity to the New York law enforcement Officers also. It was only agreed to have the section of Central Park identified on the plans closed off. The Mayor had balked at closing down the whole park, especially when there was a chance the plans found were merely a ruse. Mouse had been working for hours trying to find something on Wells but for once he was coming up against a brick wall. Tossing his pen on the desk before him he glared at the monitor as if it was the source of his displeasure.

"Take a break man," Jay advised softly as he looked over at his fellow ex-Ranger.
"I can't find anything! Do you know how many Simon Wells there are?"
"A lot," Jay shrugged.
"Thousands," Mouse noted crossly, "and none of them stand out as a Bomber."
"Might not even be the guys' real name," Al pointed out from where he stood at the whiteboard examining the information they did have.
"So how the hell do we find him?!" Mouse demanded in frustration.
"He'll make a mistake. Everyone does at some time."
"Well he better make it soon," Jay responded to the senior Detectives' words.

--‐-------------------

Five days later found the Unit in New York, much to Voights' dismay. Homeland Security had come looking for Halsteads' help since they had nothing at all to go on. Voight had argued that neither did Halstead. Several phone calls and heated discussions later the Sergeant had been given firm orders from above to co-operate fully with HS. That mandate had been followed up with a request for the young Detective to travel to New York. In the midst of more arguing Jay had received a phone call from none other than Simon Wells. Voight knew at that stage he had no bargaining chips to play so instead agreed the Detective could travel but only if his team could accompany him. While the various parties argued about the practicalities of such an operation, including the financial costs, news came in of a bomb going off in Central Park. Arguing ceased and everyone threw themselves into doing what was necessary to travel. Three people had been killed but the chilling note found on the scene addressed to one Jay Halstead confirmed many more would die in the ensuing weeks.

Jay stood at the back of the packed Briefing Room in the Homeland Security Head Office. There were people from various agencies present, including the ATFE and FBI. The tired man had picked out a couple of men as CIA. It really was a meeting of the alphabet brigade he thought wrily as he stifled a yawn. It was gone ten after eight in the evening and they hadn't even checked into their hotel when they had been summoned here. The urgency was explained when the presence of another note for Jay was revealed. He hated this. All of it! For some reason Wells was trying to engage with him and no one, least of all him, had any inkling as to why he was doing so.

"So Detective Halstead we'd like your views on this," James Murphy, the Assistant Director of the HS Head Office, "why is he focusing on you?"
"We've been over this," Voight intervened before his subordinate could answer.
"Sergeant you've been vocal in your opinion that there is no connection between your Detective and Wells," Special Agent Tim Jefferson noted mildly without rancour where he sat beside his two ATFE colleagues, "it would be good to hear from Detective Halstead directly however. Unless there is a pressing reason for his reticence to speak."

The Sergeant looked from the speaker to the young man and back again. He had a reason for trying to deflect questions from Halstead and it was a damn good one. He knew, as did everyone else in the room, that once the Detective started dealing with questions his relationship with Petrocelli was going to come up and he knew some of the men and women in the room would have already decided the Kid had to be dirty to some degree. Voight also knew however that suspicion was the nature of the beast for law enforcement and it was unrealistic to expect everyone to simply believe his Detective was one of the good guys.

For his part Jay appreciated the Sergeants' gesture but he was a big boy and could handle the upcoming unofficial interrogation. He just didn't want to ......

Authors' Note

I am truly sorry for the large gap between Chapters. Real life has been effecting my concentration so writing had been difficult.

tbc