Chapter 36

"Are you still mad at me?"

Chloe shot a glare at Jack, then turned away from him in disgust.

"Chloe, sweetheart-"

"Don't you 'sweetheart' me, you jerk!" she snapped. "You are not going to sweet-talk your way out of trouble this time."

"I'm sorry, Chloe."

"You're sorry? You made me look bad in front of our children, and all you can say is 'I'm sorry'?" She sat up hastily. "I thought we were supposed to be equals in this whole parenting thing, Jack."

"We are."

"Are we? Well, that's not the message you're sending to your son. When I punish Edgar for breaking the rules, and you go behind my back and let him off the hook every time, you're telling him that he can do whatever he wants, and you'll bail him out every time."

Jack looked away. "It was just a harmless prank, Chloe. Edgar is an 11-year old boy. They get rough, they play pranks."

"Edgar should know better. When I was his age, I didn't act like that. You have got to be tougher on him when he breaks the rules."

"How? By beating him? Like your father did to you?"

Chloe looked hurt at his words, and Jack knew he had gone too far. "I-I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that."

"No, you shouldn't have" she replied, tears forming in her eyes.

Jack sat down next to her, taking her hands in his. "Chloe, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said what I did. But we promised each other that we would never go to bed angry at each other. I don't want tonight to be the first time we do. I promise, from now on, I won't go behind your back like that. Okay?"

"...All right."

He smiled. "Thank you." He leaned in for a kiss, but Chloe turned away. "Not tonight."

Jack stared at her for a minute, opening his mouth to protest, but was cut off by his phone ringing. "Hello?"

"Jack, it's Tyler. Is Chloe there?"

"Yeah, she is. Do you want to talk to her?"

"I need to talk to you both. Put me on speaker."

He shut the door to the bedroom, then pressed the speaker button. "Okay, you're on speaker. What's going on?"

"I need you two to come by the office tomorrow morning. There's something I have to talk to you about."

"Why can't you just tell us now?" Tyler was silent. "Tyler, what is going on here? What is so important that you need to see us for?"

"It's about your father's company."

Jack was confused. "What about it? I assured you when Anderson Enterprises acquired BXJ that we wanted nothing to do with it. You want to tear it apart, go right ahead."

"Jack, I know. And I know you don't want any part of this. But that's not why I'm calling you. I found out about something. Something that involves you, Chloe."

"Me?" Chloe whispered. "What are you talking about?"

"I can't explain over the phone. That's why I need you to come down to the office tomorrow. There are some other things I need to discuss with you as well." Tyler leaned back. "Look, you know I wouldn't ask if it wasn't extremely important."

I don't like this. Something is not right here. "Okay. We'll be there tomorrow after we drop the kids off at school."

"Thank you."

Jack set his phone down next to him, rubbing his forehead wearily.

"What do you think she wants, Jack? What would BXJ have to do with me?"

"I have no idea. But whatever it is, it can't be good news."

Chloe scowled. "I hate when you say that." She yawned. "I'm tired. Good night, Jack."

"Good night, sweetheart." Jack kissed her cheek, then lay down, staring up at the ceiling. Here we go again.

2424242424

"What is taking her so long?" Jack muttered, pacing around the conference room, staring at the door.

"Stop that, Jack. You're making me nervous. I'm sure Tyler wouldn't make us wait if she didn't have a choice. She might have gotten tied up with business." Chloe looked up as the door to the conference room opened, and Tyler walked in, followed by, to Chloe's surprise, Reilly and Bill.

"I'm sorry I made you guys wait" Tyler said apologetically. "The conference call with Delhi went long."

"No, it's fine, Tyler." Chloe glanced over at the two men. "What are you two doing here?"

"Bill was our government liasion for the BXJ deal. He's the one who found what I need to tell you about. And Stuart, well-"

"I was on my way back to New York when I got a phone call from one of my sources at DOJ. He gave me some bad news." Reilly sat down. "Chloe, Jack... Erin Driscoll's out of prison."

Jack shot a glance at Chloe. "It's been 10 years. Wasn't she supposed to be released by now?"

"Yes, but she's not just out of prison. She's totally free. No house arrest, no surveillance, nothing. For all intents and purposes, the government has no interest in her anymore."

Jack slammed his hand down. "Dammit, Stuart! How could you let this happen?"

"What was I supposed to do about it, Jack? Stop them? I don't work for the government anymore. I don't have the power to make that happen. Neither do you. Let her go."

"I don't want to let it go" Chloe interjected. "I can't, not after what she did to me, to my family. If we don't do anything, what's to stop her from coming after us again?"

"We are going to do something" Tyler replied. "If the government won't keep an eye on her, we will."

"How do you plan on doing that?"

"I still have some friends from my time in the CIA. Not many, but a few. And I have the resources of the largest multinational corporation in the world at my fingertips. We'll use whatever we have to to makes sure she leaves you alone. She won't be able to do anything, legal or otherwise, without us knowing about it. She tries to make one move against you-"

"No." Jack shook his head. "I can't let you do that. Tyler, you've already done more than enough for us."

"This wasn't her call" Reilly told them. "I was the one who asked her to do this. After everything you two have done for this country... please, Jack, let us take care of Erin."

Jack turned to Chloe. "What do you think, Chloe?"

"I think we should go along with this. We're out of that line of work, Jack. I don't want to get sucked back into it. I don't want our children exposed to it." She grabbed his hand. "Please?"

He felt his resistance melt away under her pleading look. I hope I don't regret this. "Okay." He fixed Reilly with a hard look. "But this had better work."

"It will."

Jack merely nodded. "Tyler, you said last night that you needed to tell us something about my father's company, something that involved Chloe."

"That's right." Tyler booted up her laptop, cursing under her breath as the computer slowly loaded. "Stupid piece of junk." She sighed in relief as the documents finally loaded. "There we go." She looked up at Chloe hesitantly. "When Anderson Enterprises was first approached about acquiring BXJ last year, I didn't want to go along with it. It didn't look like a good deal for us. Why would we waste our money on a company that was being run into the ground? But the contracts they had with the government, as well as some interests in markets that we hadn't touched, was enough for the board to push for the deal."

"Now, you two should know me better than that. I've never made a business deal without thoroughly checking out what I'm getting into. Jack, you made it clear to me that you and Chloe wanted nothing to do with this deal, so I asked Bill to help me look into it. Most of what we found was legitimate business interests. One of their companies, however, wasn't." She turned the screen around. "Roland Financial Services."

"What about it?" Jack asked.

"The records for Roland show that they haven't done business in over 10 years. But according to BXJ, it hasn't been disbanded. I couldn't figure out why. There was no address for headquarters, or anything like that. But I dug deeper, and I found some GPS coordinates. Bill traced those coordinates to an abandoned industrial complex- 30 miles west of Provo, UT."

Chloe gasped, going pale. "That's... that's the-"

"The location of the bunker you were held captive in." Tyler took a deep breath. "I thought it was just a coincidence at first. I was wrong." She pointed to the screen. "The CEO of Roland, a man named Donald Brinkman. The only problem is, he doesn't exist. All the records on him are forgeries. Convincing forgeries, but forgeries, nonetheless. His real name is David Burke."

Jack felt his heart beating furiously as he tried to wrap his mind around what Tyler was saying. "You're telling me that the man who kidnapped my wife, who tortured her for two years, was working for BXJ the whole time?"

"Yes. And if you don't believe me, watch this." She pressed a few buttons on the keyboard, bringing up a video screen.

"Hello, David." Jack clenched his fists with rage as the first figure turned around, revealing the calm visage of his brother.

"Graem. I would say it's nice to see you, but I'd be lying."

"Are you still holding a grudge over that deal? If I'd known what a bad deal it was, I would have let you have it."

"No. That was business. No harm, no foul. Just because I despise you, doesn't mean we can't do business together. That's what you called me for, isn't it?"

"Yes, I did." Graem turned his back on Burke. "Your interrogation skills are the best in the world. I have need of that skill."

"Oh, really? Let me guess- one of your business deals has gone south, and you need someone to put a little pressure on."

"Oh, it's not a business deal." Graem held up a small device. "This is a prototype hard drive. The only one of its kind in the world. Apparently it will only open for the person who designed it. I want what's on this hard drive."

"So what do you need me for?" Burke asked. "Just ask whoever designed it to get in there for you."

Graem shook his head. "It's not that easy. The person we're talking about is a government agent named Chloe O'Brian. She's a patriot. She's not going to give up what's in there without a little persuasion. That's where you come in."

Burke grinned evilly, cracking his knuckles. "A government agent, eh? Very well. I'll get you what you need. I'll have this O'Brian broken for you by the end of the week."

Graem held up his hand. "No. I have other concerns to deal with right now. This country's under attack. The disappearance of a federal agent, combined with the theft of this hard drive, will make things much harder. I'll contact you when the time is right. Lay low until then."

Tyler stopped the video feed. "That's it."

Jack didn't take his eyes off the blank screen, staring at it in disbelief. "That's not possible."

"I'm afraid it is, Jack. Your brother was the one who set everything up. There's more on there- phonecalls, emails, videos- you name it."

"No. I mean, that's not Burke. That's not the same man I killed."

"Yes, it is him." Jack looked over at Chloe, stunned at the look of hatred on her face. "That's the son of a bitch that did this to me."

"Are- are you sure?"

"Yes, I am" she replied. "You think I'd forget the bastard that put me through hell? That's him, all right."

Son of a bitch. "Where is he?"

Tyler looked down. "I don't know. No one does. Apparently, he disappeared after we rescued Chloe from that bunker."

Jack glanced back at the laptop. "How long have you known about this?"

"...A few weeks."

He stood up. "I need to talk to you alone, Tyler. Now."

"Why? If you have something to say, then say it-" She was cut off by Chloe moving away from the table, wheeling herself rapidly towards the door, tears running down her cheeks. Jack made a move to follow her, but Bill stopped him. "Let us handle this, Jack."

Jack nodded, then turned back to Tyler once they were alone. "What the hell were you thinking, Tyler?!"

"What?"

"Chloe spent years trying to get over what happened to her, and you just destroyed that!"

Tyler got up in his face. "Don't you dare blame me! She had a right to know about that! We were the ones who screwed up by killing the wrong man!"

"You should have left her out of this!"

"Chloe can take care of herself! Even after all this time, you still think you need to protect her! Well, you're wrong! After what that scumbag did to her, she can handle the truth!" She pointed to the laptop. "It's all on there, Jack! Everything she went through in that bunker! I saw it! I know I wouldn't have survived all that! And neither would you!" She shut down the machine. "I only waited until now to tell you because you had enough problems to deal with at that time. That and I wanted to make sure this was real."

Jack let his hand drift down to his weapon, fingering it lightly. Tyler shook her head. "What are you doing?"

"I'm going to finish the job I started years ago."

She crossed her arms. "No, you're not."

He pulled his weapon out, pointing it at her. "Yes, I am. I let my guard down once before, and Chloe paid the price for it. Not this time. Don't get in my way, Tyler."

She pushed the gun out of her face. "Use your head, Jack. You have a family to think about. You've been out of the game too long. Besides, if he was going to go after Chloe again, he would have done it years ago. He's probably dead by now, or too busy running for his life to worry about you. Burke's not a threat to us anymore. Now put the gun away."

Jack shifted his grip on the weapon. Maybe she's right. I'm over 60 years old. I can't do that job anymore. If Burke is still alive, and I went up against him, he'd probably beat me. He stuck the gun back in its holster. "I hope you're right."

"So do I, Jack. For all our sakes."