Tolerance Book II

Chapter Seventy-Seventy-Seven: The Unknown

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Jay had waited a full ten minutes before deciding to check out his surroundings further afield.  To his surprise but relief he found the bedroom door unlocked.  The landing he stepped into merely affirmed he was being held in a high end property.  Hell maybe King like Voight just happened to know a lot of people with available properties.  Walking slowly along the plush blue carpet he passed two further bedrooms, their doors wide open for inspection.   Frowning he wondered if perhaps he was in a closed luxury hotel.  The opulence around him bespoke expensive tastes.  Mindful of being defenseless Jay manoeuvred his way slowly down each step.  He had yet to note any surveillance cameras but he found it hard to believe his movements weren't being monitored.  King had proven to have an almost supernatural ability to keep tabs on the investigation and he had no reason to believe anything had changed in that regard.  Pushing aside the discomfort in his leg, which begged for respite even after such a small trek, Jay stepped onto the wooden hallway on alert.  That he had come this far without being confronted did not lull him into a false sense of security.  Any minute now his nemesis would appear.  Of that he had no doubt.  He just hoped he could deal with whatever the unhinged man had planned.  He had recalled the brief conversation about Sniper work before he had been knocked out.  That conjured up a myriad of possible scenarios, none without loss of life.  The former Sniper wondered, not for the first time, just how much King actually knew about his time in the Rangers and the real work of a Sniper.  Kings' arrogance and propensity for lying made it impossible to guage his real military acumen.  Jay sighed as he paused to take in his environment. Still no sign of anyone else.  He'd feel better if King showed himself but lnew his absence was another mind game.  The large double white doors beckoned but his instincts were pushing him towards the other end of the long, wide hall where a half opened door teased his inquisitive nature.

Bucktown

Adam sat at his desk looking at the page in front of him with frustration.  The thirteen CIs he had reached out to had all been useless in providing even one helpful piece of information.  He angrily drew a line across the last name!  Their task was a daunting one and he knew the others shared his lack of confidence in making progress.  The hours since his friend had been taken seemed to mock him.  Like every LEO in the land he knew the longer a person was missing the less likely it was they would be recovered alive.  Too many times he had dealt with such outcomes and that added to his helplessness.  For all their collective experience it was clear they were well behind King.  The man had such an uncanny knack for escaping that he must have studied Houdini!

"We'll bring him home," Kevin spoke firmly as he too reached the end of his list without acquiring helpful information, "besides he can take care of himself."
"That's got nothing to do with it!   You saw him being knocked out.  Hell how many more times can he get hurt before it's one time too many?!" Adam scoffed in disgust.
"He knows we won't give up on him," Antonio joined in as he hung up the receiver on his final CI, "we'll track them down."
"Yeah but will he be alive when we do?" Adam demanded giving his anger free reign.
"I'm not going to accept any other outcome," the Italian-American spoke resolutely, "and you won't either."
"But ....," the anger dissipated as Adam looked at his companions, "what if ....,"
"Not going to happen," Kevin confidently assured, "with his stubborn Irish streak Jay can be quite tenacious.   King is going to regret messing with him!"
"Wish I shared your confidence," Adam conceded morosely, without rancour.
"Schucks you also wish you shared my good looks," Kevin winked mischeviously before adding in mock consolation, "but life isn't fair to some people.  Guess I got your share of confidence and good looks."
"Yeah right!" Adam shook his head, knowing his outburst had been forgiven.
"What say we start on the last CIs?" Antonio rose and handed each man a single A4 sheet, "which knows we might catch a break."
"Well we're long overdue one," Kevin noted as he accepted a sheet and settled down for some more calls relieved to see Adam doing the same with a renewed vigour in his posture.

Sharing a look with Antonio both men were asking themselves the  same question.  If Jay never came back how would they stop Adam from self destructing?   Each wordlessly vowed they would be there no matter what came down the line .......

tbc

CI - Confidential Informant

Authors' Note

I hope everyone can now see all the chapters again.  For some unknown reason Wattpad unpublished all of the chapters!  I have now republished same so everything should be in order.

Good grief!   I was halfway through this chapter and it disappeared!  Took a while but Wattpad retrieved missing work  ..... really going to have to take up drinking one of these days with all the stress 🤣.

If there are any more delays in publishing in the future it will either be over technical or health issues.  Please know I will always do my utmost to publish a new chapter every Monday.  I hope Readers will stick with the story and apologise for the delay in posting this chapter.