Operation sandstorm

The unit

It's about operation sandstorm.' 

Jay held his eyes closed and his head worked on top speed. He let his friends words sink in for a while.

'I will fill you in on the details when you get here,' Mouse said. 'Have a safe flight.'

'Thanks, see you tomorrow,' Jay greeted and he hung up the phone. He sat up and rubbed his forehead. He was not excited to get sucked back in an army operation but he was happy that he would be seeing his best friend again. While Mouse was on tours they called and texted a lot and in between tours Mouse would always visit him but it was not the same as before, when they served together. Jay worried about his friend a lot and he missed him. It has been almost a year since he saw him in person. He sat a few more seconds on the couch before he stood up and walked into the bullpen. He knocked on Voights door before he sat on his desk with his head looking down.

'Hey guys, can I have your attention for a second?' he asked while sergeant Voight opened the door of his office and leaned against the doorpost with his hands in his pockets.

Everybody looked up from what they were doing and gave Jay their attention. He hesitated before he said anything so Voight gave him a little push.

'What's this about Halstead?' he asked

Jay looked at his sergeant and nodded. He held up the phone and waved with it a little bit before he put it down again.

'I just got a phonecall from Mouse. The army needs my help at Benning. It's regarding a mission from a long time ago. The colonel asked if you guys would be willing to help out with the case since they are understaffed and drowning in work.'

It stayed quiet for a while.

'Of course with all the risks included and the signing of confidentiallity papers,' he added. 'I can't give you anymore details for now, but it is completely your own choice. Nothing is obligated.'

Voight was the first one to break the silence.

'I'm in.'

'Me to.'

'Yeah, me to.'

'Count me in.'

Everybody was coming. Jay smiled and he looked around the room. He was gratefull for his friends. It felt good to know that they had his back.

'Thanks guys,' he said. It was obvious to everyone that he meant it.

'How are we going to get there?' Hailey asked.

'Mouse has a helicopter ready at the army base here in Chicago. We can leave tonight or tomorrow morning, that's up to us.'

Everybody waited for Voight to say something. He was the sergeant after all. Voight looked at the faces of the men and women in the bullpen. They all looked exhausted.

'We'll go tomorrow,' he decided.

Jay nodded, he was thinking the same thing. 'Allright, I would like it if we were at Benning by noon and it is about a 5 hour flight. So let's say we meet at the main entry by 6.30 tomorrow morning. Everybody one bag with clean clothes for a week. Most other stuff they have at Benning as well.'

They all agreed and went home to pack up and get some sleep. Jay went to the bathroom and when he came back the bullpen was empty. He looked around to make sure that everybody was gone and then he kneeled down at the back of his desk. The backpanel of his desk was a fake and he removed it. Now he could reach the back of the cabinet under his desk. He unscrewd the back and put it aside. There was a safe hidden in his deskcabinet. He scanned his thumbprint, entered a code and opened the door. The safe wasn't very big or deep but it was surprising how much stuff he had hidden. On the bottom shelve there was a sniper gun with a box of ammo next to it. The middle shelve had several army fatigues and a lot of casefiles. The top shelve had a brown box with medals and 8 silver cups. The inside of the door had some pictures taped on it. Jay grabbed one of the cups and the brown box and stared at it, his mind far away.

'Do you miss it?' sounded it suddenly behind him. Jay startled and turned around quickly. He saw Voight who was sitting on Haileys desk with his hands crossed in front of his chest.

He sighed and nodded. 'Some of it, yeah.'

'How long has that safe been here?'

Jay stared him in the eye. 'You don't want to know,' he said.

Voight nodded. 'What's that?' he asked. He pointed at the silver cups. Jay smiled.

'I'm not supposed to tell you this, but every year there is an event in Washington for active soldiers and veterans. It's really like an annual fieldtrip for the military. It's called: The Armyolympics. A whole week of games, simulations and matches. Everybody can sign up, doesn't matter if you are a general or a soldier. When we were on active duty Mouse and I used to go every year, now we go whenever he is stateside. The best of the best of all military from whole America is there. I usually join the sniper competition and from the nine times we went there I won it eight times. I'm sure Mouse will tell you all about the one time I lost. It is actually quite a funny story,' Jay smirked. 'Don't tell him I said that,' he added quick.

Voight smiled. 'Okay, I won't.'

He points at the brown, wooden box wich Jay still held in his hands. 'Those your medals?' he asked.

Jay nodded.

'Can I see them?'

Jay gave him the box while he turned around and started looking trough the pile of casefiles.

Voight took the box and whistled between his teeth. Damn, he tought. He saw three bronze stars with valor, one silver star, two distinguished service crosses, one medal of valor and two purple hearts. He saw a medal he didn't recognize and he turned it around to see what it was. The back said: rewarded to lieutenant Jason Halstead for distinguished service while POW. His eyes turned big. He didn't know that and before he was thinking he already asked it.

'You were a prisoner of war?'

Jay stopped looking trough the files and froze. Hank inmediatly regretted the question.

'Yeah, I was,' Jay said. 'Three times actually.' His voice sounded sad and full of pain.

'For how long?' Hank asked carefully, not sure if he should keep asking.

'Three weeks, the first time,' Jay answerd with a big sigh. 'Five days the second time and four months the last time.'

'I'm sorry,' Hank said.

Jay nodded. 'Thanks.' Hank sensed the tone and he dropped the subject. Jay continued looking trough the files until he finally found the one he was looking for. He pulled it out and put it in his bag, together with the sniperrifle, ammo and the armyfatigues. He took the brown box from Hank and put it back on the shelve. He closed the safe, screwed the backpanel from the cabinet back on and put the back of his desk in the original place. Nothing made it clear that there was a safe behind. Jay picked up his desk an walked towards the stairs.

'Night sarge,' he greeted.

'Good night kid,' Hank said while he staired after the detective. He knew he was about to see a whole other side of the kid in the next couple of days.