Chapter Fifty Five: What Puts You On That Ledge

The atmosphere was tense when Antonio stepped into Voight's office. He took up residence beside the door, nodding his head in greeting to Commander Fisher and Lieutenant Guthrie who returned the gesture. It didn't bode well that the four of them were in this small room together, it meant that there was something wrong and he was either the cause of it or the tool they wanted to use to solve the problem. He hadn't done anything that would have warranted such a visit so he was guessing that it was the latter.

"You know Lieutenant Guthrie from Narcotics?" Fisher queried, tilting his head to indicate to the stout Latino man in the room wearing a long wool jacket.

"Yea, we've done some work together in the past." Antonio responded, bowing his head politely.

He could tell Guthrie was rattled, it was in his abrupt movements as he prowled by the windows like a panther waiting to be unleashed from it's cage. His expression was taunt and strained as he paced. Antonio didn't like where this was going, he could feel it in his bones that this was going to lead somewhere bad, the same way it had the last time he'd worked with Guthrie.

"For the last 18 months, Narcotics has had an officer deep undercover with a robbery crew flooding the city with Schedule II prescription drugs." Commander Fisher narrated spreading out a series of photographs out upon Voight's desk for them all to see. "Three days ago that officer, Rick Manning, went dark."

Three days, wasn't necessarily cause for alarm, hell last time he had worked with Guthrie, it had been longer. Then again that was also the time he'd nearly ended up going down the tubes so it appeared things had changed since then.

For the first time since Antonio had entered the office Guthrie had stopped moving, he stood in place, his arms crossed over his chest as he rocked on his heels instead.

"My undercovers check in with me every day." he told them before looking pointedly at Antonio. "If not in person, then by phone."

Antonio had the good grace to at least nod his agreement at the statement. It was clear that he was one of the reasons his superior had put that system into place. It had started to get messy last time and he knew that he had caused Guthrie more headaches than he'd needed to.

"Ivory Tower fears the crew made Manning for a cop." Fisher continued, his hands on his hips pushing back his windbreaker as Hank rose to his feet and flicked through the pictures on his desk.

"Well, let's round them up and find out." Hank stated before Guthrie interrupted him.

"No, we can't do that." he told the rest of them before pointing at the glossy images scattered on the desk. "This crew's part of a chain of suppliers my team's been working for two years."

His gaze flickered to Antonio, there was hostility in those eyes of his and Antonio found himself standing strong against it. He watched curiously as the other man turned his attention back to Fisher.

"Commander, this is the reason why you need to keep this investigation in Narcotics. No one understands the stakes better than we do." Guthrie implemented once more.

Voight moved around his desk coming to stand along side Antonio, in what seemed to be an action of solidarity. He understood that to mean that Voight had his back no matter that however he was still trying to figure out the context.

"We already had this conversation." Fisher reminded the other man firmly. "We're not having it again."

Antonio could see the muscle in Guthrie's cheek tick at the rebuke before he took a step back, adhering to the Commander's decision with barely concealed agitation. Fisher turned his attention to Antonio once more, their gazes meeting as the other man laid out the situation.

"You worked an assignment for Guthrie a few years ago where you connected with one of the crew members." Fisher informed Antonio, his expression deadly serious as he spoke. "We want you to reestablish contact and find out what happened to Officer Manning."

For a moment Antonio didn't speak, he simply stood there taking in the Commander's words and listening to the thrum of his own pulse as he replayed them over and over again in his head. Commander Fisher was still talking but Antonio wasn't hearing the words, all he could see where the words "deep cover" flashing like a neon sign in his head and he simply couldn't get past it. He knew he had no choice in this. Fisher's words were barely less than an order and there was another cop's life hanging in the balance. There wasn't the option to say no.

"There are some things I need to take care of first." he heard himself saying as his brain kicked into gear once more trying to figure out how the hell he was going to explain this to the important people in his life. It had caused enough problems when he had gone under back then, now he had no idea what would happen.

"You have a couple of hours." Fisher informed him before casting a glance at Voight, who stood beside Antonio silent and stoic. "Every second counts."