The Shooter
Rating: PG-13, atleast for now
Disclaimer: I don't Own 24, but you guys all know that...please don't sue me :-P
A/N: This is the first story I have ever let anyone read...please review and let me know if I should continue this. And this story is totally A.U. I have a thing for Tony/Michelle and Chappelle so I refuse to let them go...
10:00am- 11:00am
"Charles, he needs the transfer numbers now," a voice from the other room yelled out.
"I'm getting it, it takes time" Charles yelled back. "DONE! Alpha-nine-seven-two-nine-six-one-four-seven-delta"
Charles lets out a deep breath and sits back in his seat. His job is finished, now finishing job is in the hands of others, with that he feels relief. Through a door behind him a man dressed in all black enters and walks up behind Charles.
"Great work Charles, well done" with that he pulls out a silenced gun and shoots Charles in the head. Blood splatters across the window and computer and Charles slumps forward. Dead.
10:12am
Tony Almeida rolls over in bed. His slumber is cut short by his ringing cell phone. He reaches over and retrieves the phone from his side table.
"Almeida" Tony answers still half asleep.
"Tony you need to get down to CTU now! You and Michelle, we need you" and the phone goes dead. The urgency in the voice on the other end resinates in Tony's ear. He sits up in bed and glances at the clock, 10:13am. It's the weekend, he and Michelle had a late night at work and their Saturday is supposed to be theirs...they had plans. But work is work and they need him and he knows he has to go.
Michelle lay next to him. She is sleeping peacefully, he really doesn't want to wake her. But he knows a work emergency is one thing she doesn't mind losing sleep over...they were used to it.
"Michelle?...Michelle?..." she stirs slightly, enough for him to know she is listening, "they need us at work, something happened." She quickly opens her eyes, although she is not fully awake, and starts asking the usual questions.
"What happened, Did someone get hurt?"
"I don't know, he didn't say. Just that they need us to come in now," Tony repeats getting out of bed and heading for his closet.
"Who said?"
"Huh?"
"Who is he?" Michelle repeats, rising herself from the bed and tossing the covers back haphazardly in a false attempt to "make" the bed.
"I don't know, didn't recognize the voice" Tony yells from the closet where he is dressing.
"Oh..." Michelle is visibly confused about the lack of knowledge on Tony's part.
"You know CTU, its probably someone new" Tony says now exiting his closet.
"Yeah, your right." Michelle leans over and she and Tony exchange a quick kiss. "I'll be ready in a minute"
10:19 am
"Chloe, did you update the logs yet?" Ryan Chappelle, current head of CTU asked over the loud speaker phone.
"No Ryan, Kim was supposed to do it" Chloe answered irritated.
"Well did she do it?" Ryan matched Chloe's irritation.
"I don't know Ryan you would have to ask Kim that. She is taking a break...as usual" Chloe muttered the last part to herself.
"Well get her off her break and get the logs updated. They are two hours behind and only getting worse." Ryan ended the phone call abruptly before Chloe could argue. Ryan Chappelle was a seasoned agent of CTU, and had more then once put the job above his own life. So in his mind irritation was warranted, how hard could the logs be to update. He had faked his own death to ensure the flow of CTU continued uninterrupted so Kim Bauer should be able to get those logs up. Ryan had been back now just over a year and had seen that little had changed in his time away. However as of lately things at CTU had been running smooth and Ryan planned to keep it that way.
Sitting behind his desk now he is engaged in busy work to start the morning, currently checking his email. His inbox handled a steady flow of information in and out each day which required several email checks a day to keep that process going, this however would be his first check of the day. Immediately he senses something wrong. The time date on the open emails, which should have read yesterday around 7pm instead, read 8:42 am just over two hours ago. He reaches for his phone.
"Yeah?" Chloe answers distracted by her work.
"Chloe, did you read my email?"
"What?...No...why would I read your email Ryan?"
"Someone accessed my email this morning...my address book as well...were you looking for something?" Ryan looks through the already "read" emails hunting for a clue as to why someone would want to read them.
"Sir, I did not read your email. I would have no reason to, aside from personal information to you I get all the same emails and info. I don't appreciate your insinuation that I snooped through your email...sir" Chloe answered indignantly.
"Fine, Chloe, Just find out who did it." Chloe hung up before he continued his barraute on her, she knew she had not done it she did not need him yelling at her for something she had not had a chance to do. She figured either Ryan or Division had read them this morning and he would eventually figure it out on his own. However, she was not currently engaged in anything so she would run an IP search and a virus scan on his computer anyway, just to cover her ass.
10:37am
"Michelle, you ready?" Tony stood in their kitchen finishing a glass of Orange Juice and flipping through the news channels trying to get an idea of what had gone down to caused them being called in today.
"Yeah," Michelle entered the kitchen behind Tony and walked to the fridge to get her own glass of orange juice, "Figure out what's up?"
"Huh?" Tony asks distracted by the report on the news of a car bomb in Iraq. There are few things that can get him distracted but car bombs are one. He and Michelle had their own experience with a car bomb about 3 years ago that to this day still bothered Tony.
"Why do you think they are calling us in on a Saturday? Our first Saturday in a month," Michelle used her hand to guide Tony's glare from the television. She smiled at him, she knew what he was thinking but thought better of mentioning it. Because, despite her strong face in the situation, the car bomb, that had forced them to live in hiding with the world thinking they were dead for six months, still bothered her just as much.
"Oh you know Chappelle he probably found some mistake in the Readon case that we need to go over now," Tony answered frustrated both with Chappelle and himself but not Michelle.
"Come on, lets go," Michelle placed her half drank glass of Orange juice in the sink next to Tony's empty glass and grabbed her coat. The two of them headed out their front door and securely locked it behind them. Job hazzard, Michelle and Tony trusted no one but each other.
10:40am
"What did you kill him for?" A tall lanky man stood over Charles' dead body, "What if we need him again?"
"He had this in his bag, even if we needed him he would have been no good to us," The Mystery Shooter in black handed the Tall man a piece of paper. The Tall Man takes it quickly and reads over it. Then looks up again.
"Who's Jack Bauer?"
"A problem we don't need" And with that the Mystery Shooter stalks out of the room. Leaving the Tall Man with the body.
10:42am
Kim Bauer re-enters CTU swiping her proximity card at the door. across from the counter the desk clerk smiles at her.
"Kim, Chloe is looking for you, she seems angry"
"Great," Kim half smiles "when isn't she?"
"Kim!" Chloe yells from across from the room, "get in here, you need to do the logs, Ryan is looking for them, and I am not going to cover for you"
"I'm coming" Kim half hurries across the room and Chloe meets her half way.
"You know Kim, if this job is too much responsibility for you or you really just don't want to be here, please quit so someone who wants the job and is probably more qualified can take it" Chloe states flatly as they walk back to their stations.
"Chloe I like my job, get off my back"
"I'm just saying, you hardly work when you are here, you always seem to be else where and this job requires you to provide your full attention"
"I know Chloe I get it" Kim takes her seat and starts to bring the logs up to update them.
10:50
Michelle and Tony are in their car stuck in traffic on the Los Angeles 405. Their silver Range Rover has not moved in five minutes, both Tony and Michelle are getting restless. Michelle is reviewing the Readon case. Rereading it line by line trying, unsuccessfully, to find an error, ANY error that would bring them in on their Saturday.
"Tony I don't think it's the Readon case. Everything was surprisingly by the book. Not even Chloe could find a problem in it." Tony laughs slightly and Michelle closes the file satisfied with her reread.
"Maybe its with Jack's last case then, God knows that case didn't go smoothly. And Chappelle has had it out for Jack ever since the Salazar case. Not that Chappelle's hatefulness is totally unfounded," Tony shrugs "either way we are going in, no real arguments at this point. It will be faster to go there and do this then even try to get home at this point, we are over half way there."
"Yeah I know, just not enough sleep. So I'm not in the mood for this game with Chappelle." Just as Michelle finishes a black car cuts them off causing Tony to slam on his breaks and mutter something under his breath.
"Jesus," Tony shakes his head at the reckless driver but knows in LA its in his best interest to keep his thoughts to himself. What he had not noticed was at the same time he was getting cut off, by the black Chrysler 300, an identical Chrysler 300 was cutting off the car behind them. However that one was much closer, causing the SUV behind them to jerk into the center of the road before readjusting its course to the road. Before Tony had time to notice the commotion behind him, the Chrysler in front of him put on its breaks suddenly and the Chrysler behind them gunned its gas. Tony and Michelle's Rover was caught in the middle.
10:57am
"Ryan?" Chloe stuck her head into Chappelle's office.
"Yeah?" Ryan steps out from behind the door in his office.
"You accessed your email by an offsite IP. It looks like you were on for about three minutes then off." Chloe sat the IP report on Chappelle's desk.
"Not me Chloe"
"Actually Sir, according to the report it was you, You used your cell, its there in the report" Chloe points at the IP.
"It...was...not...me." Chappelle talks as if he is trying to explain the situation to a child "now find out who it was...NOW"
"Okay ...yeah..."Chloe leaves his office in a hurry and Chappelle sits down to make a phone call.
...11:00am...
I will plan on posting the next chapter VERY shortly if you guys seem to like it...so Read and Review pretty please!!!