Thirty Balloons

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Yn's POV

"Babe, you have to get up" Archie said and kissed my cheek. "Why? I don't have to go in until regular time unless someone texts me with a new case" I say. "You've gotten 5 texts from Antonio, 3 from Jay, 1 from Erin, and 1 from Adam" Archie said. "What" I ask and sit up, grabbing my phone to see what Archie was talking about. He was telling the truth because all of them had texted me saying that we had a new case and that they needed me at the district. "Shit. Voight is going to kill me" I say and climb out of bed. I got dressed in less than 5 minutes, and after that, I kissed Archie quickly before leaving the apartment.

I arrived at the district to find the team all gathered upstairs with new information up on the whiteboard. "Ln, you're late" Voight said when he spotted me. "I know Sarge. I'm sorry. It'll never happen again" I say and take a seat at my desk. "It better not" Voight warned.

"All right, so our girl in the E.R. is Amber Morris. Amber and her three friends here are all undergrads at Central Chicago University. This is who we're looking for" Jay said. "We checked Amber's Facebook page. There's pictures of them living it up in Cabo, but not just from this trip. Amber's been down there twice in the last three months" Erin said. "The first time, she did the run herself. This time, she recruited friends" Antonio said. "We've got to assume all these girls are mules and ingested the same type of balloons packed with coke" Voight said. "You guys, I ran down those girls' addresses. All three live on campus" Jin said. "We've got to move. Let's go" Voight said.

Antonio and I pulled up to the Briarwood campus and climbed out of the car. Then, we headed inside the building and began looking for a certain room. When we found it, the door was ajar. "Megan Benson" Antonio said. When there was no reply, Antonio and I pulled out our guns and entered the room. Megan was nowhere to be found, but her suitcase was open on her bed. "Looks like she started to unpack, but something stopped her" I say.

As Antonio  and I headed down to the garage, Voight came over the radio. "We're looking for two white males. The could still be in the area. They've got our girls." That's when I heard a woman scream, and the sound of tires screeching. Antonio and I pulled out our guns and made our way into the driving lane of the parking garage. Just then, a black van sped down the lane straight towards us. Antonio pulled me out of the way just in time. "Thank you" I say to him. "No problem" he replied.

Once Amber Morris woke up, Erin and Jay went to talk to her. She told them that her boyfriend and his brother were the ones that had them be the mules, so now, we were looking for Sean and Brendan Collins. While Al and Adam went on a stakeout in front of the Collins' tattoo parlor, the rest of us kept digging.

"The Collins brothers are known thugs from Bridgeport. Both have records for armed robbery and aggravated battery" Voight said. "So they've graduated to drug smuggling using naive college girls" Jay said. "I had uniforms check their LKAs. These guys are in the wind" I say. "DMV came back that Brendan Collins owns a black Ford van" Antonio said. "I'm assuming that these brothers are using throwaway phones now that they know Amber's been arrested" Jin said. "All right, keep digging. Get me any known associates" Voight said.

Minutes later, Jin found the location of the van, so we all climbed into our cars. This time, I drove my car with Antonio in the passenger seat. "All right, Jin, work your magic" Voight said. "Stand by. Let me get comfy" Jin said. "Do we have eyes on the van yet" Erin asked. "I said I'm getting comfy. Okay, I've got eyes on them. They're coming up 76th towards Western. Turning into an alley. Heading south towards 77th" Jin said. "We're on it" Erin said. About a minute later, Jay got on the radio. "I've got a visual on Brendan Collins." "The van is on the move, headed north on 76th" Erin said. 

"Jin, do you have it, or what" Antonio asked. "I've got him. He's going west on 75th" Jin said. I stepped on the gas, and my car sped up, going over 60 mph on a 30 mph street. "You drive like a maniac" Antonio said as I swerved around cars to pass them up. "Believe me, this is nothing. My old partner Johnny got us into 3 bad car crashes in my 2 years at Homicide. He drove way worse" I say. "There's the van" Antonio said and pointed to the black van that was heading towards us. "All right, let's box it in" I say and turn the wheel sharply. My car swerved right in front of the black van, so Brendan had no choice but to turn the other way, resulting in a truck hitting the passenger side of the van.

Brendan was gone because he had hit the windshield with such force, he went right through it and lay motionless over the dashboard. The girls weren't in the back of the van either. "He had a 9 mil and a throwaway phone. No trace of the coke or the girls" Antonio said. "Get that phone over to Jin asap. Have him run the calls on it. You're coming with me" Voight said to Jay. "Where are you going" Erin asked. "Higher up the family tree" Voight replied.

Voight went to talk to Gavin Collins, the uncle of the two boys we were after. He pointed us to the place where we might find Sean, and when we got there, we only found the dead body of Megan Benson. "The girl was 19. Still in school. What a waste" Voight said. "Why do only one? Where's the other two" Jay asked. "We're not dealing with a pro. Collins probably got squeamish and ran" I say. "Whoever cut into her cut into the condom balloons and destroyed most of the cocaine" the examiner told us. "Thanks, doc" Voight said. "There's no way Collins can afford to do that to the other two" Antonio said. "Look, I've got some business to take care of. See if Jin's got anything" Voight said.

...............................................

"I was able to obtain subscriber info for all calls from Brendan's cell phone that you found in his van. There were only two numbers. One was to Sean's prepaid cell which has since gone dead, but I was able to track it to a dumpster on Ashland. Second, six calls to this guy, Ryan Porter" Jin said. "Ryan Porter. Male, white, 26. Long sheet for possession. He worked as a paramedic for three different ambulance companies, and was fired from all of them" Erin said. "I know that M.O. Ten-to-one Porter's a play doctor. I busted a few when I worked vice. EMTs who work for private ambulance companies, they barely make 10 bucks an hour, so the ones who want to make extra cash sometimes provide under-the-table services like patching up gangbangers. Forward Porter's picture to Olinsky asap" Antonio said.

Minutes later, Al reported that he saw Porter, Collins, and the two girls enter the tattoo parlor, so we all got into our cars and drove over there. However, by the time we got there, Al and Adam had handled everything. "Good work today" Antonio said to me. "Thanks. You too" I say. "You want to grab a drink" Antonio asked me. "Uh, I can't. I'm having dinner with Archie's parents tonight, so maybe another time" I say. "All right, well, have fun" Antonio said. "Okay. I'll see you tomorrow" I say.

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