Disclaimer: See Chapter 1
Chapter 21
Jack sprinted through the hospital corridors, until he reached the surveillance station at the other end of the building. The guard inside was only partially focused on the monitors. Jack quietly picked the lock and opened the door, sneaking up on the oblivious guard and placing his gun to the guard's head, while slipping his hand over his mouth. "You try to call for help, and I will kill you, you understand?" Jack hissed.
The frightened guard nodded and Jack let him go, while keeping his weapon trained on the other man.
"What do you want?" the guard asked.
"A woman was kidnapped from this hospital less than an hour ago" Jack told him. "I need for you to bring up the surveillance tapes from that time so I can figure out where they took her."
"Will you let me go once I do that?"
"Yes, I will. I don't want to hurt you, I just need to find her as quickly as possible."
The guard turned around and quickly began running through the archived tapes. "How long ago did you say it was?"
Jack glanced at his watch. "About 45 minutes ago. Bring up all tapes from then."
"There are over 700 cameras in this hospital, sir. It would take at least 2 hours to go through them all."
Dammit. "Bring up the exterior cameras. We might be able to pick something up."
The guard quickly brought them up and began running the footage back. Jack began to grow frustrated as each camera they checked produced nothing. Chloe, please hold on. I'm coming for you. He's not getting away with this. He was jerked out of his thoughts as he caught an image on the monitor. "Wait a minute. Back up. Check the camera on the SE entrance again."
The guard replayed the footage and Jack watched as 3 men carried an unconscious woman to a large van and put her in, driving off quickly. "Can you get a close-up of that image?"
The tape was stopped and the guard slowly zoomed in on the image, then cleaned it up. Jack watched as the image slowly revealed itself. There you are, Chloe. "I need a visual of that van's license plate."
"I can't get it from this angle. Let me try Camera 23." The picture changed and the license plate was brought up. "Got it. 4-Charlie-Foxtrot-Sigma-9-2-5."
"I need you to call local police, have them put out an APB on that vehicle" Jack told him. "Tell them once they ID the vehicle, they are not to engage the hostiles."
"I'll take care of it." The guard contacted the local precinct and Jack called Chase. "Chase, we have a lead. We got a license plate on the vehicle the men who kidnapped Chloe were driving. You still have your frequency scanner?"
"Yeah. I'll set it to the police frequency. The second they find it, we'll get them."
"I'll meet you at your car." Jack hung up, apologized to the guard, then ran out of the station, contacting both Bill and Tyler, telling them to meet him at Chase's car.
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"Dispatch, this is Unit 21. We have a possible ID on the vehicle- license plate 4-Charlie-Foxtrot-Sigma-9-2-5."
"Copy, 21. What's your location?"
"The old manufacturing warehouse 2 miles off the 10. Requesting backup immediately."
"Backup is on its way. Do not engage, set up a 10-block perimeter."
"Copy."
"Finally" Tyler said. They had been traveling for 10 minutes, waiting impatiently for any sightings of the vehicle. "How far out are we?"
"About 5 minutes" Chase replied and stepped on the gas. Jack said nothing, but sat back and grabbed his weapon. I'm going to finish the job this time. And no one will ever hurt you again, Chloe.
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Chase pulled into the vacant lot a block away from the warehouse and got out, the others right behind. "How are we going to do this?"
"We don't have the element of surprise this time" Tyler said. "Nor do we have the cover of night. But we can't just go in blasting. Chase, you and Bill will create a diversion and lure the sentries away from the entrance, while Jack and I sneak in and get Chloe out."
"All right. Let's move" Jack said. The 4 split up and Jack and Tyler stayed hidden, waiting for the sentries to move. They didn't have to wait long as one of the sentries was taken out and the other 2 quickly took off into the woods. Tyler started to get up, but was pulled down by Jack, who watched the entrance for a minute, then hissed "Go".
Jack quickly split off from Tyler once they were inside and headed in the opposite direction, his senses on high alert. He froze as he heard a scream and his heart skipped a beat as he realized it was Chloe. He turned around and sprinted off in the direction Tyler had gone, picking up the pace when he heard her scream again. Chloe, I'm coming. Hold on.
He skidded to a stop outside one of the rooms and saw Miles standing over a restrained Chloe, holding a bat over his head, preparing to strike her again. Jack felt a rage boil up inside him that he had not felt since he had been told that Kim was dead, and he blindly launched himself at Miles, taking the other man by surprise. Jack viciously pummeled Miles, peppering him with merciless blows, until Miles lay on the floor, weakly trying to defend himself. Jack pointed his weapon at the defenseless man. "You scumbag" Jack growled angrily.
Miles coughed a few times and attempted to stand up, but Jack forced him down. "I'm going to kill you."
"Jack, no!" Jack looked away to see Tyler running in. "You can't kill him, Jack."
"Why not? He should pay for what he did to Chloe."
"He will" Tyler said. "He'll be in prison for the rest of his life. He's not going to hurt Chloe ever again."
Jack looked back at Miles. "Tyler, take Chloe and get her out of here. I've got some business left."
"What are you going to do?"
"I give you my word, Tyler. I'm not going to kill him" Jack promised. "But I'll make sure he never hurts Chloe again."
Tyler looked at Jack, then busted the restraints holding Chloe and helped her sit up. "Wait a minute" Chloe said. "Bring him here." Jack hauled Miles up and dragged him over to Chloe. Chloe stared at him with unmasked hatred, then suddenly punched him with her unbroken arm. "You are so fortunate that's all I can do to you, Miles. Jack, you do what you have to."
Jack nodded, then motioned for Tyler to take Chloe out, taking off his jacket and covering her with it. Once they had left, Jack dragged Miles out of the room and down to the lowest level of the warehouse, tying his arms over his head and stripping his shirt off, stopping as he saw the faint scars on the other man's arms. "Now it's your turn."
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Jack landed a punch on his captive's stomach and watched with grim satisfaction as Miles gasped violently. He had been working on him for 2 hours and the rage he had felt earlier still flowed through him. "You deserve this, Miles. You picked the wrong woman to mess with this time."
"Stop" Miles gasped weakly.
"Stop. After everything you did to Chloe? You are responsible for everything that happened to her. You put her through 2 years of hell, and for what? To get some outdated information?" Jack looked at him. "Or was that only an excuse? You never really cared about that information, did you? Your only concern was making Chloe suffer." He grabbed Miles' hand and proceeded to break his fingers. Miles groaned in pain. "Why? Because you lost a job?"
"I'm not telling you anything, Bauer."
Jack brought his weapon up to Miles' neck. "I could kill you right now. No one would ever find you. You'll be forgotten. It's more than you deserve." He pulled the hammer back and held it there. He deserves it. I kill him, and he'll never hurt Chloe again. We'll finally be free. But I gave my word that I wouldn't.
Jack lowered his weapon. "No. I won't taint my hands with your blood." He cut Miles down and dropped him to the floor. Grabbing a crowbar, he smashed both of Miles' legs, then shattered his arms, binding them behind his back and gagging him. He hauled the man up and dragged him to a small room hidden in the wall, throwing him inside and securing him to the back wall. Jack turned to leave, but not before kicking him below the belt. He locked the door behind him and walked out of the warehouse, where Tyler was waiting.
"He's not dead. But I'm sure right now he wishes he was" Jack replied before Tyler could ask. "Let's take Chloe back to the hospital. It's over."