The Following Takes Place Between 6:00 PM and 7:00 PM
The rain slowly started to fade away, coming to a slow pitter patter, it was almost calming. In the distance you could see the sun trying to burst in through the thick, heavy gray clouds. It's to bad it would be night soon, it looked like it would end up being nice out after all. Jack kept staring out side of the chopper windows, ever since he first entered that prison he had looked into things like that. He never before believed in signs, or luck or anything of the sort. He thought it was all skill, and as long as you knew what you were doing you'd make it through. But being in there made him realize a lot of it is luck. He never knew if Han's would actually allow him into his group, he could of wasted a year of his life for nothing. But luckily, Han's had accepted him, believed that Jack wanted to help. And it got Jack right where he wanted. Jack's eyes left the window, and he met Shane's gaze. Shane reminded Jack of him self, about the same weight and height. Shane might have been an inch or two taller, brown eyes, and black hair. However, they both had similar facial features. Stress marks, a weary look, and painful eyes. Jack could tell Shane had been through a lot, but he didn't know what exactly. The silence finally broke thanks to Shane.
"So, Jack. Before you got locked up, what exactly was it that you did?"
Jack dug deep into his brain to bring up the back story that the government had set up for him,
"It's a long story."
Shane smiled,
"We got about ten minutes before we get back to our warehouse, shoot."
Jack sighed,
"I graduated high school in L.A. I took carpentry classes. My father owned a business, and when I graduated he wanted me to join him, but we had our fare share of disagreements. So instead of doing what he wanted, I ran off and enlisted into the services. I spent about five years in the services. I then got an un honorable discharge. I was leading a team on a recon mission in Iraq, we came upon a village. One of the members of my team went behind my back and told the rest of the team I gave orders to have the villagers executed. They carried out the execution, and I was blamed for it. Everyone told command I gave the orders, I was betrayed by my country. With that kind of thing on your record it's hard to get a job, me and my wife split. She took my daughter, after that I started using to pass the pain. But soon after using I had no more money to use so my life was a mess. I then become a hired gun, working for anyone that needed it. The last contract I had was someone needed help robbing a series of banks, and that's what I got put in for."
Shane was still looking at Jack, he hadn't once removed his eyes of Jack, it seemed like he was almost captivated by Jack's story. Once Shane realized Jack had finally stopped talking he cleared his throat,
"It seems me and you are very similar my friend."
Jack yawned a little bit,
"And how's that?"
"I was betrayed by my government as well. Our government works a little differently than yours. They felt that officers weren't doing enough to keep confidential information, well confident. So they ran undercover tests, that had some officers captured, and tortured to see if they'd give up vital information. After being tortured for three and half months I had finally cracked. They thought of me as a disgrace, and let me go. That's when I turned on any form of Government."
Jack nodded his head in agreement,
"I feel you on that, you work your ass off. Serve your country and you get jack shit in return."
Jack thought about those words for a minute, and was surprised when he actually believed those words. He had done so much for the country, and what does he get? Nothing. Jack quickly pushed the thoughts out of his head when Shane started to speak again. Shane looked at Hans and laughed,
"You picked a good one to help you out."
Hans laughed and looked at Jack,
"Sure did."
Jack smiled with the two men then looked back at Shane,
"So, besides getting you're brother out. What brought you to the U.S.? It surely wasn't our government."
Hans smiled,
"Well, if all goes well you will find out in a few hours. Lets just say we have a little something up our sleeves for the so called, government. If you prove to be as useful as Hans says you are, then I will gladly let you in on that little secret."
Those were the words Jack wanted to hear so bad, it pretty much confirmed that they were indeed planning something.
"What do you mean if I prove to be useful?"
"I got some work I need done, it's a part of this little plan that I have. If you're interested I'd like you to take care of it for me. You'll get plenty of money out of it."
"What kind of work?'
Shane looked at Hans and smiled,
"Lets wait till we get back and have something to eat, I hate discussing business on an empty stomach. Don't you agree?"
Jack nodded and felt his stomach rumble at the idea of real food.
"Yeah, I am rather hungry. That shit they served in there did absolutely nothing for me."
Han smiled,
"Aint that the truth."
Wayne was talking on the phone with his public relations worker,
"Yes Mary, I agree. I do need to make a statement to the public about the prison break. Set it up for me, can you get me on within a half hour?"
"Yes, of course sir."
"Thank you."
As soon as the phone was back on the receiver Tom Lennox walked into the room with a grim look on his face,
"What is it Tom?"
"The warden from the prison Jack broke out of is on the phone, it's not good sir."
"What's wrong?"
"Just take the call sir."
Wayne picked up the phone and dialed the flashing red button and cleared his throat.
"Hello, Warden. What Can I do for you?"
"With all due respect sir, this plan was shit!."
Wayne kind of figured out what he was calling about, but went along anyway.
"And why do you say that if you don't mind me asking?"
"Four of my men were killed by that damn man you call an agent. And two more in critical condition. No one was suppose to die."
Wayne sighed, closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead in his hands.
"I'm sorry for your loss, but it was…."
Wayne stopped him self, but the warden finished.
"What, necessary? I didn't ask to have that piece of shit criminal and your federal agent in this prison. You could of transferred him to another then had your agent go in damnit!"
"Listen, they won't die in vein I can promise you that."
"I want to know what happens with these possible terrorist, if nothing comes out of this you can guarantee I will make sure an investigation is launched."
Wayne suddenly no longer felt bad, but enraged.
"Is that a threat warden?"
"You bet your ass it is."
"I can tell you this one thing, the President of the United States is not an enemy you want to have."
"Well, I'll take my chances."
The warden slammed down the phone, and Wayne sighed heavily. He was angered by his threat, but knew the warden was right. The thought of blaming Jack almost entered his head, but he couldn't. After everything he had done, how could Jack be to blame. He did the right thing by going to the warden, he had no other choice. The reality of the matter was that he himself was to blame. He sent Jack in there, anything that followed was on his head. Wayne pushed the thoughts out and shook his head, he had to get back to work on his speech.
Kim stared at the T.V. screen in front of her, which was showing the nightly six o' clock news. She yawned and kind of let out a sigh of relief. After having a rough couple of days with Ryan being sick, he finally went down to sleep for the night, and she had time to relax. She was however, getting a little nervous. It was now 6:10 and Chase should have been home by now, or at least called to let her know that work was running late, but that's also the other thing that bothered Kim. She knew Chase was going in after a high class suspect, and one days like this, she learned with her father, she had to be prepared for the worst. She wasn't normally one to worry, but under the circumstances she couldn't help it. Kim picked up the phone and dialed a number, which connected her directly to the police chief.
"Chief Ronson speaking."
"Brian, it's Kim again."
Brian sighed,
"Kim.."
When she heard him sigh she instantly knew what was wrong, she put the phone to her ear and started rubbing her engagement ring.
"What is it, what happened?"
"We don't know, we sent a second team over to the location of where everything was going down. We found the bodies of everyone apart of the operation, except for Chase. It seems he either escaped or has been taken into captivity."
Kim closed her eyes and felt her heart sink, she almost started to cry but held it in.
"If he had escaped, he would of contacted someone by now."
There was silence,
"I know, that's why were assuming the worst. We are launching a full investigation, if he is alive we will find him."
The word hit Kim hard. She had already made up her mind and nothing could stop her,
"I'm coming down to the station, I want to be there for any updates."
"I understand, we have Joe Copeland, Chase's partner here. I will have him meet you."
Kim nodded to herself,
"I'll be there soon."
Kim hung up the phone and dialed another number, the phone rang a few times then an elderly sounding voice picked up.
"Hello."
"Hey Nana it's me, Kim."
On the other line Jack's mother began to speak,
"Hey sweetie how are you doing?"
"Alright, listen I need a favor. There are some problems with Chase. I need to head down to the station, do you think you could watch Ryan?"
"Is everything alright sweetie?"
"I don't know, I'm going down there now to find out."
"Sure thing, I can be there in twenty five minutes."
"Ok, thank you nana."
"No problem, I'll see you soon."
Kim hung up the phone, pushed herself up off the couch and went up stairs. She looked down at Ryan, and stared at his face. He looked so much like Chase, same hair, same cheeks, same eyes. Her eyes wandered off of Ryan, and moved across the room until she came upon another crib. She ran her hand down to her stomach, to feel the four month pregnant belly. She began to rub it up and down and prey to herself.
6:16:04
Jack looked down to the ground below him as the chopper began to get close and closer to the wet ground. The rain had finally completely stopped, but there were still very large puddles all around. The area they were landing in was on the roof of what seemed to be an abandoned warehouse. The roof was gray, with a couple of ventilation shafts sticking up from the ceiling. There was just enough room for the helicopter to land. The moving finally came to a stop, and the sound of the helicopters engines started to fade into the distance. Shane stood up and walked over to he helicopters sliding door and opened it up, he hopped out and looked back in at Jack and Hans.
"Welcome to freedom boys."
Hans took a deep breath, smiled at Jack and hopped out. Jack stood up and hopped out as well. His feet slammed into a puddle, which sent water flying up and making his pant legs wet. Jack stretched and looked around,
"So, what's the plan now?" Jack asked the two men.
"We have a van waiting for us on the other side of this building. Some of my men are in it, their going to take us back to our, "base" so to speak."
Hans and Shane started walking forward and Jack followed closely behind them. They all walked to the edge of the building, which lead to a ladder that went down to the ground. Shane got on the ladder fist, Hans got on second and Jack followed closely. They all got the bottom of the ground and the white van Shane had been talking about pulled out around the corner. On cue, following the van a helicopter flew over head and flashed a light down on them.
"This is NYPD, stop right there!"
They all looked up,
"Shit, how did they find us?"
"Must of followed us!" Jack yelled.
Sirens followed the sound of the chopper and Jack new that police were closing in. Jack looked at Shane and Hans and started screaming over the sound of the helicopter.
"Give me a cell phone! Call me in about five minutes, I'll loose them and you guys can take off on foot and head back to your base!"
Shane tossed Jack a cell phone and Jack put it in his pocket.
"As soon as I take off run into the warehouse and try to find a way out."
Jack ran over to the drivers seat of the van, opened the door and threw the man who was driving out. Jack heard the words,
"Stop we will shoot!"
Jack closed the door and he heard gun shots hit the van, Jack slammed on the gas, completely turned the wheel and peeled out of the alleyway. Han and Shane bolted into the warehouse, distracted by the van the helicopter pilot didn't notice them go into the warehouse. Jack took a sharp turn right onto the main road and pushed the van as fast as it would go. Police car's started passing Jack, but when they got the word from the helicopter to follow the white van they all quickly mad U-turns and started tailing the van. Jack quickly pulled out the cell phone while he was driving and dialed a number. A woman's voice picked up and before she could even speak Jack started shouting,
"This is Jack Bauer, I need to speak to the President now!"
"One moment please."
Jack was placed on hold, he put the phone to his ear and slammed on the breaks as a police car was beside him. The car went flying past him, Jack pulled the wheel all the way to the right and slammed on the gas again. He started flying down a road, swerving in and out of cars when the President finally answered,
"Jack?"
"Mr. President, were out."
Wayne heard sirens on the other end of the phone,
"What's going on Jack?"
"The police must of followed us from the prison, I had to take a van to distract them from Hans and Shane. I just wanted to let you know I was out, and I will contact you when I can."
"Thanks for the update, Jack."
Jack hung up the phone and saw that at the other end of the street there was a dock leading out to the ocean. Jack pulled the battery out of the back of the cell phone, and put both the phone and battery in the glove box. He then put his seat belt on and kept steering the car straight forward. He finally got on to the dock, and sent the van flying into the water. The van, along with Jack Bauer hit the water, and started to sink.
President Palmer walked slowly down the long, white hallway and he could hear the popping of bulbs from cameras, and many people talking. Wayne looked at Tom and Tom said,
"How'd the speech come out?"
"Short and sweet, just how I want it."
"It's kind of odd that the President is making a statement on a prison escape only a half hour after the fact."
"I am going to let the public know that one of the men who escaped has potential ties to a terrorist, and it is imperative that he is captured."
Tom nodded his head,
"Good idea sir."
Wayne stopped in front of the door and he heard someone on the other side of the door announce.
"Ladies and gentlemen, The President of The United States."
The doors opened and Wayne walked out into the small press conference area and started waving to all the journalist and photographers out in the room. Wayne walked up to the podium, placed his hands firmly on either side and began to speak into the microphone.
"Please, be seated."
Everyone in the room sat down and Wayne looked directly into the camera.
"Citizens of The United States. It has been brought to my attention that two inmates in a New York City prison have in fact broken out, and are now on the run from the law. Now under any normal circumstances I would let the proper procedures be taken to find these suspects, but the fact is that this is no normal procedure. The first man that broke out, Jack Bauer, is of no real immediate threat, that we know of. But the second man that broke out, Hans Gushov is possibly a high value threat to his country. His brother, Shane Gushov is believed to be the leader of a terrorist cell Shadow Haven. We ask if anyone has any information on these men, or has seen them recently to please contact your local authorities. I thank you for you're compliance. Have a good day."
Wayne quickly turned around, ignoring any questions anyone had and walked back towards the hall, Tom Lennox followed beside him.
"Short, sweet, and to the point like you said."
Wayne swallowed hard,
"Yeah, I just hope it doesn't get Jack killed."
6:32:03
Jack quickly jerked his head up and grunted in pain. He moved his hand to his forehead and his fingertips instantly became warm and wet. Jack wiped his forehead and felt water rushing over his leg, and rising up. Jack looked down to see that the water was to about his knee caps. Jack quickly unbuckled his seat belt and reached over to the glove box. He opened it up and pulled out the cell phone and battery, he popped the battery back in and noticed a small zip lock bag inside the glove box. He pulled the bag out and it contained a fairly good amount of pot. Jack quickly opened the bag, emptied all the pot onto the floor and put the phone inside the bag, and put it in his pocket. He looked out the front windshield of the car and saw some fish swimming around him, the van had already sunken pretty far. Jack turned to his left and tried opening the door but the water pressure was too much. Jack leaned back and started kicking the window as hard as he could. After a few kicks the window gave in and water spewed into the van. The pressure sent Jack back slamming into the passenger side door. Jack quickly took a deep breath and pushed him self towards the window. He was now all the way under water and swam out of the window. He kept on swimming as far as he could before he ran out of breath and slowly came up for air. He barley had his head above water as he looked around, he was still kind of close to shore, but far enough to the right so the cops couldn't see him. He saw another small dock, and heard some choppers coming in over head. He swam over to the dock and sat under it while the helicopters came over head. Once the helicopters passed he quickly got on shore, and tried running, being soaked made it a little harder. He ran to a building across the street, with an alley beside it. He went down to the end of the alley and sat down. He pulled out the cell phone from his pocket, unwrapped it from the bag and turned it on.
Kim quickly walked through her living room, towards the kitchen. Only to be stopped by what was playing on the television. She walked backwards until she was back inline with the television. She watched the screen as the President's speech that he had just delivered was being replayed.
"The first man that broke out, Jack Bauer, is of no real immediate threat, that we know of. But the second man that broke out, Hans Gushov is possibly a high value threat to his country. His brother, Shane Gushov is believed to be the leader of a terrorist cell Shadow Haven. We ask if anyone has any information on these men, or has seen them recently to please contact your local authorities. I thank you for you're compliance. Have a good day."
Besides the fact that her husband was missing, Kim felt suddenly relieved to hear those words. Her father had actually been honest with her about his work for once in her life, and told her what he had to do. And after eight months knowing that he was finally out made her feel happy. It was like some of the weight was lifted off her shoulders, for the past eight months she did nothing but worry for her father. He had to of gone through hell in there, especially after coming out of a Chinese prison only twelve months before that. As Kim started to walk back towards the kitchen her house phone rang, hoping it was something about Chase she quickly picked up the phone.
"Hello?"
There was silence for a minute, then the voice at the other end finally spoke.
"Kim?"
The sound of the voice she hadn't heard in eight months made her smile, and feel even happier than she had felt.
"Hey dad, I was just watching the Presidents speech about you breaking out. I'm so happy you're finally out."
Jack also smiled after hearing Kim's voice,
"Oh yeah, what'd he say?"
"Just that you were of no real immediate threat, but the other guy that you had to go in there to break out could possibly be connected to a terrorist group. What I don't get about this whole thing, is if they send you in there to break him out. Why is the President going to come out, make a speech, and have your face plastered all over the news?"
"We need to make this look as legit as possible, for both the public and my sake. I mean if we break out, and there is nothing on the news about us, they people I'm trying to get in with are going to be suspicious about it. Don't you think?"
Kim sighed,
"Yeah that's true, I just want this to be as easy as possible for you so you can come home."
"I appreciate that sweetheart, how have you been?"
"Up until today, good. Chase went on some bust, and at the scene where the bust was suppose to take place, they found Chase's whole team dead. The only person who they didn't find was Chase, and now he is missing."
Jack wanted nothing more than to comfort his daughter, and be there for her support. But he knew while he was on a job, he had to push any emotional feelings aside, until the mission was complete.
"Kim, I'm so sorry."
"Yeah, I'm heading down to the station now. Grandma is coming over to watch Ryan."
"How is grandma? And Ryan, and the new one on the way?"
Jack smiled at the thought of meeting his second grandchild.
"Ryan and grandma are both good, she has been around a lot for us. And the other one is coming a lot great, it's as healthy as can be and we found out the sex of the baby."
"Oh yeah? What is it?"
"A girl, we are going to name her Terri."
Jack smiled,
"That's great Kim. Listen, I don't want to be rude but I just wanted you to be the first person I talked to after I get out. When I get the chance I will contact you and see what's going on with Chase."
"Ok, I need to go anyway. Grandma is here."
"Let her know we talked, ok?"
"Sure thing."
"Ok sweetheart I love you."
"I love you too dad."
Kim hung up the phone and walked towards the sink.
Jack sat in the back alley waiting for the phone call. After the rain had stopped it had become surprisingly warm and Jack was starting to get hot. The wet t-shirt on his back didn't help at all either. He peeled the shirt off his wet skin and threw it to the side of him. The cell phone started to ring and Jack picked it up.
"Yeah?"
There was a loud laugh on the other end of the line,
"Jack fucking Bauer, you avoided the police didn't you."
"Yeah, the van is under water right now though."
There was more laughter,
"That's all right, thanks to you we managed to escape, where are you?"
"I'm down at Peters Point Pier, across the street behind the FedEx Kinko's."
"Ok, that's like three minutes out and two minutes away from our warehouse. We had one of our men pick us up, were on our way."
"Ok."
Jack hung up the cell phone, rested his head against the wall he was sitting against and closed his eyes.
Manny sat in his comfortable seat in the airplane. Sipping on a bottle of water, and watching the news about his "business" partner. When his cell phone rang, he quickly flipped it open.
"Yeah?"
On the other end the voice of Shane Gushov began to speak,
"My brothers out, were going to pick up Jack Bauer, the man who helped him escape then to the warehouse. Where are you?"
"On the plane, we should be there in three and a half hours, four at the most."
"Ok."
Manny shifted positions in his seat,
"Listen, are you sure this Jack Bauer can be trusted?"
"Why wouldn't he be able to be trusted? He was already in prison, and is pretty much the reason my brother is out."
"I don't know, you're probably right. I just want today to go as smooth as possible."
"I understand your concern, and appreciate it. But there is no way we can fail now. Everything is too perfect."
"The mall this is all going down, it closes at ten P.M. right?"
"Yes, the target will be there at eight. I plan on being in by nine."
"Ok, I'll call you when we touch down."
"Ok."
Manny hung up his phone and looked over to his other partner, Christopher.
"Their picking up Jack Bauer, the man that helped break out Hans. Then heading over to the warehouse.
The dark figure in the corner named Christopher looked up,
"Good."
6:57:43
Jack heard a vehicle pulling into the alley, he quickly sprung up and hid behind the dumpster across from him. A dark blue ford escort pulled up and Jack noticed Shane's face in the passengers seat window. Jack came out from behind the dumpster, and the car stopped. Hans came out of the car, embraced Jack in a quick hug and pulled away.
"Jack Bauer my savior. I owe you a lot."
Jack smiled,
"A job would be nice."
Shane stepped out of the car and smiled,
"We get you're job interview right here in the trunk."
Jack's heart dropped, he instantly knew what Shane was going to ask of him. Jack walked over to the trunk, which was now popped open only to see a New York Police officer tied and gagged in the trunk, struggling to get free.
"He went after us, and instead of killing him. I decided he'd be a good way to prove your worth."
Jack wanted to kill Shane and his brother right there, he collected his cool and looked up at Shane.
"I already have about eight or nine authority figures on my belt today. Can't someone else do it?"
Hans thrusted a silenced USP 40 in his hand. Jack looked down at the gun and thought, "at least he knows how to pick a good gun." Jack pulled the clip out of the gun to check it, one bullet and it wasn't a blank. He knew once he fired the gun the officer would be dead. And with one bullet, and three men around him, there wasn't much Jack could do. Jack took a deep breath, cocked the gun back and aimed it towards the officers head.
"I have some heart, his family is going to need to identify him. Can't we atleast pull his fist off and shoot him in the heart? I'm a family man, and I can say this is something no one should have to see."
Shane nodded his head,
"I respect that, I'm a family man myself. Hans pull his shirt and vest off."
Hans grabbed the officer and threw him to the ground, he ripped off his shirt and vest so the officer sat on his knees, he was starting to breath heavy and shake, as if he was trying to plead but the gag in his mouth was stopping him. Jack placed the gun directly to the mans chest, where is his heart would be and pulled the trigger. The bullet sent burst of blood and gore against the car and a little bit on Jack's bare chest. Hans smiled,
"I told he was good."
Jack kept a straight face, even though his eyes started to burn. Jack handed the gun to Shane and Shane smiled,
"Test one out of two complete. What do you say we go get some food in your stomachs, and get you guys some fresh clothes? Then we'll talk business."
Jack forced a smile,
"That's what I've been waiting to hear. Jack got in the back of the car, Hans followed. Shane got back in the front seat and the car took off down the alley.
6:59:57
6:59:58
6:59:59
7:00:00