Gunfire.

Shouting.

Voices on the comms.

Adrenaline.

Running through yet another unmarked hall or storage room.

"Of course it couldn't be a clean op," Chloe muttered to herself, ducking behind a large packing crate in yet another huge, warehouse-like room. "Why is it these guys always have their bases at warehouses or refineries, usually by a river? Is there a handbook? Terrorism 101: Lairs and Other Dens of Evil Doing. Cause…."

Beside her, Jack reached over and placed a hand over her mouth. Rough palm and callused fingers on her skin silenced her and he murmured, "Shhh, ears open. Anyone else make it out?"

Over the comms there were a series of affirmatives and Jack continued, "Anyone got a distraction ready?"

"Big or little?" came Jo's reply.

Jack gave Chloe a nod, which she thought he meant to be reassuring as he said, "Big."

She could hear the heavy sounds of approaching footsteps and harsh, angry voices. She held her Glock at ready, prepared to fire if the need arose. Jack had his own weapons out and was angling his body in a way that positioned him between Chloe and the doorway.

That proved unnecessary, as an enormous boom rocked the building, the lights flickered and died, reddish emergency lighting flaring up as the assorted bad guys began shouting and the footsteps pounded off in the opposite direction.

"Well, that was effective," Chloe commented, then followed Jack from their hiding place and back out into the labyrinthine halls.

Less than 2 minutes (and only one guard subdued by a sleeper hold) later they emerged from the complex and made their way to the meeting point, where a CTU SUV quickly retrieved them.

Chloe didn't know how Jack did this as often as they did. Adrenaline was pouring through her veins, she felt sweaty and shaky, while Jack barely looked like he was breathing hard as she reported their success to Hastings.

Offhandedly, Jack asked the agent driving, "Reese?"

"Blew the top two floors off the building. C4. Jumped into the river. An extraction team is going to pick her up a few miles down stream."

Sitting back, Chloe wondered how many people could say their work day consisted of infiltrating a terrorist compound, hacking said terrorist's computer system, getting in a firefight and having a colleague blow up part of a building to help you escape.

She bet that number was pretty small.

Looking sideways at Chloe, Jack didn't bother to suppress his smile. She was still vibrating with adrenaline, cheeks flushed and eyes bright. Her breaths were rapid, but somewhat restricted by the Kevlar.

"Here," he said, reaching over and loosening the heavy Velcro straps that held the vest in place. "How are you doing, Chloe?"

She looked at him and let out a laugh. "Well, other than coming to the realization that I need to avoid field ops in the future, I'm just peachy."

"I don't know," he said, allowing a bit of humor to color his voice. It wouldn't do to sound too happy, as that might thoroughly shock the agents up front. "You did good in there, with the compute and facing potential hostiles."

"I did kick some ass, huh?"

He found himself chuckling at how pleased she sounded as she said that and nodded. "You did," he agreed, then had to tease, "One of these day's a retirement's going to stick. Someone's going to have to take over."

She raised a brow at him and huffed, "And one of these days you will find a durable field agent protégée to take up your mantle while you retire to Palm Springs or where ever, but it isn't going to be me!"

Pondering this, he asked, "Palm Springs? I was thinking one of the smaller, less populated Hawaiian islands."

"That's all well and good, but can we not speculate on retirement for when we're not in the middle of an operation." Hastings's voice sounded over their comms. He'd probably only let them chat for that long because, by this point, most people at the CTU were more than a little scared of Jack. Sure, they respected and admired him, but he knew they were just waiting for the day he'd snap.

Not Chloe though. Even when he was holed up in his office in the worst of moods, she would march in, unperturbed and call him out, demanding he stop scaring the rest of the staff. Not that she didn't find their terror a little funny. More than once, she'd seriously asked him to glower in Dana's general direction, just to freak the blond woman out.

"Yes, sir," Jack said, tossing Chloe another small smile. She grinned back and tried to push back the tendrils of hair that had escaped her ponytail. One stubborn lock remained clinging to her neck, and before he could think better of it, Jack brushed it back behind her ear himself.

With a soft smile, she said, "Thanks."

He nodded, because really what else could he say while in a car with two other CTU agents and live on comms with their boss. Certain things were not meant for public scrutiny.

TBC……..

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