24:A New Beginning
Jack pressed his back hard into the crumbling brick wall. The steady thud of automatic shells crashing into wall hit his ears. These guys really wanted him dead. Pulling the .45 from his concealed holster, He jumped the wall and let the bullets fly into the darkness.
In a second or more.. It had seemed like an eternity to Jack.. the fire fight was over. The three men lay dead in various positions . One was slumped in a chair against the wall, a dark red circle in the center of his head, blood trickled slowly down the deceased's face. Jack smirked quietly to himself, after all these years he still had the accuracy down to an art. The other two were sprawled on the floor bullet holes all over their bodies. He'd gotten the first one clean… Eh.. these guys had suffered. Walking to the back of the room he slid open the heavy metal door. It emitted a ear splitting screech that was surely heard miles around.
"Shit" He cursed silently to himself.
Suddenly from out of the blackness a voice rang out to him,
"Bauer, your efforts are useless. We have her and will detonate the bomb in a matter of minutes. Give up" The heavily accented irish voice smirked at him
"If it only were that easy my friend," Jack smiled and holstered his weapon sliding into the night.
It had been a rough couple of years. Jack was no longer the national hero that he was only a few years ago. He had been exiled, a wanted man in his own country, he did the only think he could think of. He ran. That was a little over two years ago, since that time he had been living in regular comfort in Venice, Italy. The nightmares of his past a long way behind him, He hadn't thought they would be able to track him down, much less think that they actually wanted to. It would seem that he was wrong.
It all started one morning in April, he awoke to find his door kicked in, a single compact disc, placed on a blue cloth lay on top of door. Furious he picked it up, Upon inspection it looked as if it were a DVD of some sort, He slipped it into the drive of his laptop, the motors clicked and whirred as it came to life.
An image of a dark room popped up on screen, a figure shrouded in white sat in the center of the frame. Whoever it was had blonde hair, it cascaded gently down the shoulder of the prisoner. Jack's breath caught in his throat… It couldn't be her… She was ok.. or he thought she was. His fears were answered as a hand reached into the frame and snatched the hood off.. There in the frame sat his daughter Kim.
"Dad…" She began quietly. "These men.. they need a favor from you.." She peered off into the darkness as if she was communicating with someone, the fright on her face grew alarming as an audible click came over the speakers.
"Take 5 million dollars to the Smoky Ruin Marina in Key West, you will receive more directions then"… She trailed off and pleaded to Jack with her eyes.. "Dad hurry"
The drive fell silent and the image of his daughter remained frozen on the screen.
The screech of tires on pavement echoed through the cavernous warehouse, Jack gave chase only to see a pair of fleeing red tail-lights disappear into the night. Before the car could race from his sight Jack caught the license plate and committed it to memory. They wouldn't detonate the bomb without their money, It looked like he was going to have a little spare time after all.