Chapter Six – Hostages

Michelle shook hands with Nick Wells in the corridor outside Tech One. Chloe was fitting the pair of them with GPS tracking chips and telling them both, in the way only Chloe could, how risky this mission would be and how much she didn't like what they were about to do.

Nick was a similar height and build to Tony, but he was a couple of year younger. His golden brown, sun-bleached hair was longer and thicker than Tony's dark hair. His skin was darkly tanned and his eyes a deep green colour. Nick had greeted her with a smile that broke the tension and helped to ease Michelle's nerves. At least she wasn't going into this alone, Michelle thought.

Michelle glanced up at Tony's office; although the blinds were closed she could make out his silhouette pacing up and down. She sighed. Tony clearly felt how she would have done if it were him going into the field and not her. But office relationships were frowned upon for exactly this reason, and Michelle could not let Tony's feelings stop her from doing her job.

Even so, Michelle hoped she would get a chance to say goodbye to Tony before she left.

Tony wanted to kick the desk or smash his mug against the wall but neither of those things would help.

This was their only lead so they could not afford to miss the opportunity to trace the terrorists, if all went well then CTU could end all this within the hour, but still, the risk was too great. Especially when it was his Michelle who would be in danger.

The phone rang and Tony answered it instantly. It was Jack.

"Cynthia is about to hand Michelle and Nick over, I thought you might want a word with Michelle before they leave, to say good luck."

Tony hesitated, of course he wanted to see Michelle but he wanted more than to talk to her, he wanted to hold her in his arms and if that happened he might not be able to let her go.

He was starting to have doubts about this mission, he had a bad feeling in his gut, but there were not other options. "I'll be right down."

Tony made the short walk to Tech One and found Michelle with Nick and Chloe, he called her over and the two of them stepped into the empty room opposite. Neither spoke immediately.

"We're leaving in a minute" Michelle said to break the silence. Tony nodded. He paused, then held out his hand for her, she took it and their fingers linked together tightly. "I'll be OK, Tony" his face broke at her words and he pulled her into a hug, pressing his face into her neck.

"Be careful Chelle." Michelle clung to him tighter, needing him to be as close as possible. Tony backed her into the wall and pressed his body into hers, he kissed her neck over and over.

It was strange seeing this side of Tony, they had only ever kissed twice but the feelings between them were already very strong. As they pulled apart Tony's eyes fixed on her face, burning her image into his brain.

Michelle gave him one last weak smile before leaving.

Once alone Tony fell into the nearest chair and forced himself to breathe, she would come back to him, she had to come back, there were so many things he still needed to tell her.

Michelle met Jack, Nick and Cynthia a little further down the corridor. It was time to go. Jack nodded at Nick and Michelle and wished them luck before they turned and followed Cynthia towards the stairwell. None of the three spoke to each other as they walked, each lost in their own thoughts.

They went down two flights of stairs, into a part of CTU Michelle was not familiar with. Cynthia push open a door on her left and gestured for them to follow her inside. The door slammed shut behind them.

"What took you so bloody long?" Standing behind the door was a man with dark red hair. He pointed a gun at them. "Never mind, I don't have time to hear excuses. How do I get out of here?" The man hissed at Cynthia.

"Down the stairs, there's a fire escape."

"Won't that set off another alarm?"

"I've disabled it" Cynthia said quickly, Michelle was amazed at how well Cynthia was playing her part, but didn't dwell on that for long.

"What's going on?" Nick said, stepping into role. The man grinned; he pulled Michelle against him and pointed the gun at Nick's head.

"The three of us are going on a little trip, if you're quiet and do as your told I might not shot you." He turned to Cynthia, "get out of here." She left.

"Who are you?" Michelle asked.

The man paused, "To you I'm Kevin, now shut up." He gave her a hard shove towards the stairs. Nick moved forward too his eyes fixed on the gun in Kevin's hand. "Go ahead and open the fire escape, if you try to run I'll shot you." Nick did as he was told.

Once all three of them were out side a black car skidded to a halt in front of them and a second man shouted out from the driver's side.

"Get in the back! No talking!" The new man turned to Kevin and snapped, "you're late, I nearly left without you."

"I'm here now, lets just get moving."

The road was busy and the cars slow moving, which only made the two men in the front of the car more edgy. From the corner of her eye Michelle saw Jack's SUV pull out from a side road and take its place in the long stream of traffic only two cars behind theirs.

Less than twenty minutes later they turned off the main roads, followed only by Jack's car, although fortunately this went unnoticed by the others. With no traffic to stop them, they picked up speed and quickly put distance between them and CTU.

Michelle spent the journey thinking of Tony, his eyes as she had left still haunting her. She had never seen Tony lose it like that; he had needed to hold her as much as she had needed to be in his arms. Michelle felt herself fall a little more in love with him and swore to her self that if she got back to CTU in one piece she would tell Tony just how deeply she cared about him.

The car started to slow as it turned off the straight road they had been travelling on, ahead were a row of simple corrugated iron warehouses. There were lights shining from within the third warehouse and this was where the car finally stopped.

The man called Kevin roughly grabbed Michelle's shoulders and forced her out of the car, while the second man did the same to Nick, then all four of them set off.

Inside the air was stale and stank of sweat. Kevin pushed a gun into her back and steered Michelle into a large brightly lit room.

"Search them. Remove anything we can sell or they could use to escape" A voice shouted from the corner of the room, Ash Calorman got up from his chair and approached the two CTU agents. Ash looked older than he had in his picture, the pressure of the day was obviously getting to him.

The men who had driven them this far began searching her and Nick for valuables. Michelle watched anxiously as one by one her GPS chips, hidden in her phone, watch and belt, were removed and put into a black bin liner.

Ash turned away from his two hostages, a smile playing at the corners of his lips, "take their shoes too, so they can't run away. Then take them out to the van." Michelle felt her stomach drop unpleasantly; the last tracker was in her shoe, her last hope.

And worst still, from the look on Nick's face, all his trackers had been removed too.

They were on their own now.