Chapter 3
Tony woke up on the bathroom floor. He struggled to sit up, with his hands behind his back. This task was difficult. He walked back to the car with his hands behind his back. He hoped no one decided to mug him or anything, he was in the park late with his hands immobile, if he was a mugger he had good prey. When Tony reached the car Michelle was still sitting outside.
"What happened?" She asked as she saw him approaching the car.
"Jack. Damn him. He can't do anything the easy way. Help me get this off." He said turning around so that Michelle could untie his hands. When she was finished they both got into the car and Tony called CTU again, "Where is the car I asked for?" Tony yelled at Glen.
"It's on its way sir." Glen answered.
"Tell the driver to hurry up. Did you get the trace on the call to Jack's home?" Tony snapped.
"No sir. Wasn't long enough. We did get a recording though. The phone company allowed that. I told them that Jack was an employee here. He still needed the call recorded for National Security matters." Glen said trying to show Tony his abilities. He wanted to be able to move up the ladder, and with Kim here, he knows he had major competition.
"Good. Play it for me now. While I wait on this damn car to show up." Tony said in a calmer voice.
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The van halted suddenly. The woman that was sitting next to Jack order, "Get up." She helped him stand and pushed him towards the doors. "Step down." She said when they reached the inn.
When both people were on the ground the woman led Jack down some stairs and through what sounded like a hallway, a cement hallway. She stopped him, opened and door and pushed him inside. She close the door and left.
Jack stood in what he figured was a room, but he really had no way of telling. He just stood there like an idiot. Wondering where he was, and where Kim was. He stood for about a minute before he heard the door open. He turned around as if to look who was coming in, but he couldn't see because of the blindfold.
Someone grabbed his arm and led him to a chair. "Sit." The man said.
Jack sat down and asked, "Where is my daughter?" The man looked at Jack. He did not like this man, but because his boss told him not to mess with him or communicate with him, the man just shook his head and went and sat in the corner of the room.
A few minutes later the door opened again, Jack was not sure if it was the person leaving, or someone entering. He cursed the blindfold in his head. He hated not being able to see what was going on.
The woman from the phone spoke, "Hello Jack. Have you missed me?" She had always been able to read Jack's face. He was good at hiding what he felt, but there was always a slight twitch when he was confused. She noticed it and said, "What you don't remember me Jack?"
"I'm sorry do I know you?" Jack said trying to be polite. Besides being ignored, kidnapped, and having his daughter kidnapped everyone had been relatively nice to him, so why not continue the niceness.
"I'm hurt you don't remember me. It's been like seven years? Remember Kosovo? I was only twenty something then, but you didn't mind."
"Darla?"
"Bingo."
"But I thought you were de..."
She cut him off, "Dead. Nope but the first week you were gone I wished I was. The Drazen's were pissed off at you and your men. I heard that only one of the American's escaped. I figured it was you, you were always a survivor. I was happy years later when I finally got away that it was you. But than I began to wonder why you were the only one to survive? That was answered later."
"I did not sell anyone out and you know that Darla." Jack said letting his anger show.
"Don't worry that is not why you're here."
"Then why am I here? And why did you kidnapped my daughter?" Jack said still angry. "All you had to do was call." Darla looked at the man in the corner and said, "Can you go outside for a moment please."
"Can you take this blindfold off; it's bothering me." Jack asked.
"Yeah." She said. She gently pulled it off his head.
"I'm retired now. So whatever you want I'm pretty sure I can't do." Jack said.
"Jack people like us can not retire. The government loves us too much and they will always want more from us. Until there is nothing left. You still have something left Jack." Darla said smiling; she knew what Jack was thinking.
"So why am I here?" Jack said allowing his anger to show. He knew she could read him like a book, she had always been able to, and that is what originally attracted him to her.
"You'll find out later." She said not wanting to trust him yet.
Jack sat in silence. He was really pissed now. He would remember when he came back, if he came back to move somewhere they won't be able to track him. "You have to let my daughter go and I will do whatever you need me to do. Other wise I will fight tooth and nail. I don't want anything to happen to her." Jack ordered.
"I can live with that." She walked out of the room and told Jim, "Take Ms. Bauer back to her car. Leave her and come back. We should be on the boat by then." "I'll see you in a half hour."
Darla walked back into the room and said, "Let's go. We are moving to the boat. From there I'm not sure yet."
She led Jack through the back through the hallway and up the stairs. When they got outside Jack noticed the marina. It shocked him because he didn't hear anything that even suggested that they were there on their way there. He thought to himself that he was getting rusty.
Darla led Jack past men he didn't notice, but he could tell that most of them were not fond of him. She led him onto the yacht and down to a room that was across from the engine room.
When they got into the room she pulled out a knife. She noticed Jack's body tense. She cut the cuffs free from his hands and pulled a metal pair out. She took his hands and cuffed them behind his back again.
Jack heart was racing.
"Tell me about a few years ago. I heard a nasty rumor. Is it true?" Darla asked inquiring about the nuclear bomb year.
Jack looked at her. He didn't like to speak about it, but he had been very intimate with her once, and he couldn't lie to her without her knowing. Also it wasn't like it was top secret information. "A few years ago, I was asked roughly about some information I had, and they pushed a little harder and I wouldn't budge and I flat lined for a minute."
She looked at him and asked, "Is that why there is pain in your eyes?"
"No."
"Teri. I almost forgot. I'm so sorry. I know what she meant to you Jack." Darla said feeling stupid for not thinking of it earlier
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The man drove Kim for what seemed like forever. She thought that he was going to drive her to some desolate place and kill her, but when he turned into the city she wondered what was happening. She sat quietly wondering about what was going on. Was her father making a trade for her? When the man pulled down her father's street and stopped at her car Kim looked at him confused. "What's going on? Where is my father?"
"Your father is fine. And you are free to go. Please don't try to trace us because you won't find us. Please get out and go. Do not follow me." The man ordered.
Kim got out of the car a reluctantly stood at her car as she watched the man drive off. She was confused about why they were letting her go? She walked back to her father's house and went into the building. She went to his door and it was locked. She knocked thinking maybe he came back and went to sleep.
His new neighbor opened her door and said, "He and the others left a few hours ago. Is he ok? I heard what sounded like someone falling?"
"I'm not sure. If you happen to hear him come back can you do me a favor and ask him to call his daughter please." Kim said smiling at the woman, worried about her father. "Sure. No problem." The woman said trying to be helpful.
Kim left the building and drove to CTU. When she entered the building Tony rushed over to her. "What are you doing here? Where have you been?"
"I was grabbed by some people. They called my father and ordered him to go to the apartment and wait for their call alone. After that I don't know. They just dropped me off at my car. I went to his apartment and he's not there." Kim said trying not to show she was scared.
"I need to debrief you Kim." Tony led her to his office and asked her to sit. "Do you have any clue as to where they took you?"
"When I left we were at the marina. The woman that called my father she knew him before. She seemed to know about him and she said she has seen his work before. The way she acted they knew each other before. It was like she was trying to hide it, but I could tell. I'm not sure how."
"OK, Kim. I'll have Michelle look through his past to try to find a woman. Do you have a description of her?"
"Tall, black hair, blue eyes and a hint of an accent. Almost like Russian, but not quite and it was barely there." Kim said.
"That's good Kim. That will help us find her. Is there anything else you can remember?"
"She said he wouldn't be hurt as long as he did what she wanted."
"OK Kim. Why don't you go home for the night. I'll send some agents by to watch the place to make sure nothing else happens." Tony said in a gentle caring voice.
"Will you call me if anything comes up?" Kim asked worried.
"Yes. You will be the first person I call." Tony said trying to encourage her to go home. Before Kim left she stopped by her fathers office where Chase was working. She told him what happened and asked him to try to help her find her father.
"Kim I will find him for you. I don't think you should be involved. Do you have a key to his apartment?" Chase asked.
"No. But the manager will let me in if I ask." Kim answered.
"Good. I'll ask Tony to let me go and we can go to his apartment. He used to keep like a journal and files from his past. He wasn't suppose to have them either, but he kept them just in case he ever needed them. If we can find those we might be able to find this woman. After that we can try to find out where they went to. I doubt they're still at the Marina. Most likely they took off on a boat. It would make sense to escape with him because no one would know he was there, and he can't really escape." Chase said dreading Kim's reaction to her father not being able to escape.
"Fine. See if Tony will let you leave. I'll meet you in the garage area." Kim said leaving.
Chase ran over to Tony and asked, "Is it okay if I leave with Kim? She's sort of shook up and really scared. I don't want to leave her alone."
"Sure. If we get anything I might need you back here." Tony said.
"I'll have my cell phone on."
Chase ran down to the garage parking area and found Kim waiting at her car. He told her he would follow her in his truck. They drove to Jack's apartment. Kim woke the manager up who had clearly passed out. He walked them up to Jack's apartment and he unlocked the door for them. "I'm not supposed to do this, but since you are his daughter and all and you want to surprise him, I will this once." The manager said believing Kim's story of it being her father's birthday and she wanted to surprise him when he came home.
Once inside, Chase went to Jack's room. He figured if there was anything like he wanted they would be in there. When he entered Jack's room he was surprised by the plainness of the room. Inside all there was a bed and some boxes under it. Chase went through the boxes until he got the one he wanted. He walked out to the kitchen where Kim was making coffee for them.
"Found them." Chase said holding up the box.
"Good. Lets start going through them."
They sat at the table drinking coffee looking through Jack's Bauer's past. Chase took the journals and gave Kim the files. He didn't want Kim to read something that would hurt her and there was probably some of that in these. Some of the places her father had been to and some of the things noted in his file shocked Kim. When she finished she grabbed one of the journals, ignoring Chase's protest and began to read it. It was a journal from when he was over in Kosovo.
He described the area as being beautiful when he first got there, and now it was a wreck. Where houses once stood were piles of rubble. The women and children looked terrified at anyone in uniform or anyone they didn't know for that matter. He went on and on about how he would feel if that were his family. It made Kim almost cry because of the things he had written. As she continued to read her father began to describe his encounters with one of the families. He explained that he was there undercover. He was supposed to help the rebels learn to fight and finished the training with the tools to do so. He and a team of men went there undercover as a part of the peace-keeping mission, but in reality they were training the people.
He encountered a woman and her mother being tormented by a group of Serbian soldiers. Jack had heard about what some of them had done to the women and he made a split second choice and stepped in to help out. He walked the woman home after his intervention. He noticed the car of two Serbian men dressed in civilian clothes drive by them walking three or four times on the way to the ladies' house. When they reached the house the women invited him to stay, and he agreed to.
He figured that he might have saved them for that moment, but now the men were really pissed and would come back for more. He and the younger of the two women began to talk and discussed everything from religion to the current situation. She spoke of a group of people she was with that were trying to fight against the Serbians. At first he thought it was a set up, but later when she walked him to a meeting he decided it wasn't. He told her of his purpose there and the next day she and others followed him back to where they would be trained. He went on to describe his training her, and her ability to learn the things quickly.
When he finally described her Kim jumped out of her seat, startling Chase. "I found her. He doesn't give a name for her though. She's a little older now, and her hair is a different color, but it is her."
Chase took the journal from Kim and read it over again. "Maybe if we give this to Tony there will be some sort of record of her. If the government trained these people they had to keep some sort of record of who they were. They usually do."
Chase went to the phone and called Tony.
"Almeida."
"Tony, it's Chase. I'm at Jack's apartment and Kim and I think we might have a lead on the person who kidnapped Kim, and probably has Jack." Chase said in a hurried voice.
"What do you have?" Tony said. Knowing how they got it, but not asking because the information could get Jack into trouble.
"Jack might have trained her. Over in Kosovo as one of the people who our government trained to fight the Serbian government." Chase said.
"Okay. I'll try to gain access to the files and we can hope they have pictures." Tony paused and took a deep breath, "No more of this investigating behind my back Chase. Take Kim home and do whatever you need to do."
"I'm sorry. I didn't want to get Jack into trouble and I wanted to help. This was the only way I knew how I got the info." Chase said, truly sorry for having to lie to Tony. Tony was a great guy and Chase trusted him, but this was for the man Chase idolized.
Tony woke up on the bathroom floor. He struggled to sit up, with his hands behind his back. This task was difficult. He walked back to the car with his hands behind his back. He hoped no one decided to mug him or anything, he was in the park late with his hands immobile, if he was a mugger he had good prey. When Tony reached the car Michelle was still sitting outside.
"What happened?" She asked as she saw him approaching the car.
"Jack. Damn him. He can't do anything the easy way. Help me get this off." He said turning around so that Michelle could untie his hands. When she was finished they both got into the car and Tony called CTU again, "Where is the car I asked for?" Tony yelled at Glen.
"It's on its way sir." Glen answered.
"Tell the driver to hurry up. Did you get the trace on the call to Jack's home?" Tony snapped.
"No sir. Wasn't long enough. We did get a recording though. The phone company allowed that. I told them that Jack was an employee here. He still needed the call recorded for National Security matters." Glen said trying to show Tony his abilities. He wanted to be able to move up the ladder, and with Kim here, he knows he had major competition.
"Good. Play it for me now. While I wait on this damn car to show up." Tony said in a calmer voice.
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The van halted suddenly. The woman that was sitting next to Jack order, "Get up." She helped him stand and pushed him towards the doors. "Step down." She said when they reached the inn.
When both people were on the ground the woman led Jack down some stairs and through what sounded like a hallway, a cement hallway. She stopped him, opened and door and pushed him inside. She close the door and left.
Jack stood in what he figured was a room, but he really had no way of telling. He just stood there like an idiot. Wondering where he was, and where Kim was. He stood for about a minute before he heard the door open. He turned around as if to look who was coming in, but he couldn't see because of the blindfold.
Someone grabbed his arm and led him to a chair. "Sit." The man said.
Jack sat down and asked, "Where is my daughter?" The man looked at Jack. He did not like this man, but because his boss told him not to mess with him or communicate with him, the man just shook his head and went and sat in the corner of the room.
A few minutes later the door opened again, Jack was not sure if it was the person leaving, or someone entering. He cursed the blindfold in his head. He hated not being able to see what was going on.
The woman from the phone spoke, "Hello Jack. Have you missed me?" She had always been able to read Jack's face. He was good at hiding what he felt, but there was always a slight twitch when he was confused. She noticed it and said, "What you don't remember me Jack?"
"I'm sorry do I know you?" Jack said trying to be polite. Besides being ignored, kidnapped, and having his daughter kidnapped everyone had been relatively nice to him, so why not continue the niceness.
"I'm hurt you don't remember me. It's been like seven years? Remember Kosovo? I was only twenty something then, but you didn't mind."
"Darla?"
"Bingo."
"But I thought you were de..."
She cut him off, "Dead. Nope but the first week you were gone I wished I was. The Drazen's were pissed off at you and your men. I heard that only one of the American's escaped. I figured it was you, you were always a survivor. I was happy years later when I finally got away that it was you. But than I began to wonder why you were the only one to survive? That was answered later."
"I did not sell anyone out and you know that Darla." Jack said letting his anger show.
"Don't worry that is not why you're here."
"Then why am I here? And why did you kidnapped my daughter?" Jack said still angry. "All you had to do was call." Darla looked at the man in the corner and said, "Can you go outside for a moment please."
"Can you take this blindfold off; it's bothering me." Jack asked.
"Yeah." She said. She gently pulled it off his head.
"I'm retired now. So whatever you want I'm pretty sure I can't do." Jack said.
"Jack people like us can not retire. The government loves us too much and they will always want more from us. Until there is nothing left. You still have something left Jack." Darla said smiling; she knew what Jack was thinking.
"So why am I here?" Jack said allowing his anger to show. He knew she could read him like a book, she had always been able to, and that is what originally attracted him to her.
"You'll find out later." She said not wanting to trust him yet.
Jack sat in silence. He was really pissed now. He would remember when he came back, if he came back to move somewhere they won't be able to track him. "You have to let my daughter go and I will do whatever you need me to do. Other wise I will fight tooth and nail. I don't want anything to happen to her." Jack ordered.
"I can live with that." She walked out of the room and told Jim, "Take Ms. Bauer back to her car. Leave her and come back. We should be on the boat by then." "I'll see you in a half hour."
Darla walked back into the room and said, "Let's go. We are moving to the boat. From there I'm not sure yet."
She led Jack through the back through the hallway and up the stairs. When they got outside Jack noticed the marina. It shocked him because he didn't hear anything that even suggested that they were there on their way there. He thought to himself that he was getting rusty.
Darla led Jack past men he didn't notice, but he could tell that most of them were not fond of him. She led him onto the yacht and down to a room that was across from the engine room.
When they got into the room she pulled out a knife. She noticed Jack's body tense. She cut the cuffs free from his hands and pulled a metal pair out. She took his hands and cuffed them behind his back again.
Jack heart was racing.
"Tell me about a few years ago. I heard a nasty rumor. Is it true?" Darla asked inquiring about the nuclear bomb year.
Jack looked at her. He didn't like to speak about it, but he had been very intimate with her once, and he couldn't lie to her without her knowing. Also it wasn't like it was top secret information. "A few years ago, I was asked roughly about some information I had, and they pushed a little harder and I wouldn't budge and I flat lined for a minute."
She looked at him and asked, "Is that why there is pain in your eyes?"
"No."
"Teri. I almost forgot. I'm so sorry. I know what she meant to you Jack." Darla said feeling stupid for not thinking of it earlier
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The man drove Kim for what seemed like forever. She thought that he was going to drive her to some desolate place and kill her, but when he turned into the city she wondered what was happening. She sat quietly wondering about what was going on. Was her father making a trade for her? When the man pulled down her father's street and stopped at her car Kim looked at him confused. "What's going on? Where is my father?"
"Your father is fine. And you are free to go. Please don't try to trace us because you won't find us. Please get out and go. Do not follow me." The man ordered.
Kim got out of the car a reluctantly stood at her car as she watched the man drive off. She was confused about why they were letting her go? She walked back to her father's house and went into the building. She went to his door and it was locked. She knocked thinking maybe he came back and went to sleep.
His new neighbor opened her door and said, "He and the others left a few hours ago. Is he ok? I heard what sounded like someone falling?"
"I'm not sure. If you happen to hear him come back can you do me a favor and ask him to call his daughter please." Kim said smiling at the woman, worried about her father. "Sure. No problem." The woman said trying to be helpful.
Kim left the building and drove to CTU. When she entered the building Tony rushed over to her. "What are you doing here? Where have you been?"
"I was grabbed by some people. They called my father and ordered him to go to the apartment and wait for their call alone. After that I don't know. They just dropped me off at my car. I went to his apartment and he's not there." Kim said trying not to show she was scared.
"I need to debrief you Kim." Tony led her to his office and asked her to sit. "Do you have any clue as to where they took you?"
"When I left we were at the marina. The woman that called my father she knew him before. She seemed to know about him and she said she has seen his work before. The way she acted they knew each other before. It was like she was trying to hide it, but I could tell. I'm not sure how."
"OK, Kim. I'll have Michelle look through his past to try to find a woman. Do you have a description of her?"
"Tall, black hair, blue eyes and a hint of an accent. Almost like Russian, but not quite and it was barely there." Kim said.
"That's good Kim. That will help us find her. Is there anything else you can remember?"
"She said he wouldn't be hurt as long as he did what she wanted."
"OK Kim. Why don't you go home for the night. I'll send some agents by to watch the place to make sure nothing else happens." Tony said in a gentle caring voice.
"Will you call me if anything comes up?" Kim asked worried.
"Yes. You will be the first person I call." Tony said trying to encourage her to go home. Before Kim left she stopped by her fathers office where Chase was working. She told him what happened and asked him to try to help her find her father.
"Kim I will find him for you. I don't think you should be involved. Do you have a key to his apartment?" Chase asked.
"No. But the manager will let me in if I ask." Kim answered.
"Good. I'll ask Tony to let me go and we can go to his apartment. He used to keep like a journal and files from his past. He wasn't suppose to have them either, but he kept them just in case he ever needed them. If we can find those we might be able to find this woman. After that we can try to find out where they went to. I doubt they're still at the Marina. Most likely they took off on a boat. It would make sense to escape with him because no one would know he was there, and he can't really escape." Chase said dreading Kim's reaction to her father not being able to escape.
"Fine. See if Tony will let you leave. I'll meet you in the garage area." Kim said leaving.
Chase ran over to Tony and asked, "Is it okay if I leave with Kim? She's sort of shook up and really scared. I don't want to leave her alone."
"Sure. If we get anything I might need you back here." Tony said.
"I'll have my cell phone on."
Chase ran down to the garage parking area and found Kim waiting at her car. He told her he would follow her in his truck. They drove to Jack's apartment. Kim woke the manager up who had clearly passed out. He walked them up to Jack's apartment and he unlocked the door for them. "I'm not supposed to do this, but since you are his daughter and all and you want to surprise him, I will this once." The manager said believing Kim's story of it being her father's birthday and she wanted to surprise him when he came home.
Once inside, Chase went to Jack's room. He figured if there was anything like he wanted they would be in there. When he entered Jack's room he was surprised by the plainness of the room. Inside all there was a bed and some boxes under it. Chase went through the boxes until he got the one he wanted. He walked out to the kitchen where Kim was making coffee for them.
"Found them." Chase said holding up the box.
"Good. Lets start going through them."
They sat at the table drinking coffee looking through Jack's Bauer's past. Chase took the journals and gave Kim the files. He didn't want Kim to read something that would hurt her and there was probably some of that in these. Some of the places her father had been to and some of the things noted in his file shocked Kim. When she finished she grabbed one of the journals, ignoring Chase's protest and began to read it. It was a journal from when he was over in Kosovo.
He described the area as being beautiful when he first got there, and now it was a wreck. Where houses once stood were piles of rubble. The women and children looked terrified at anyone in uniform or anyone they didn't know for that matter. He went on and on about how he would feel if that were his family. It made Kim almost cry because of the things he had written. As she continued to read her father began to describe his encounters with one of the families. He explained that he was there undercover. He was supposed to help the rebels learn to fight and finished the training with the tools to do so. He and a team of men went there undercover as a part of the peace-keeping mission, but in reality they were training the people.
He encountered a woman and her mother being tormented by a group of Serbian soldiers. Jack had heard about what some of them had done to the women and he made a split second choice and stepped in to help out. He walked the woman home after his intervention. He noticed the car of two Serbian men dressed in civilian clothes drive by them walking three or four times on the way to the ladies' house. When they reached the house the women invited him to stay, and he agreed to.
He figured that he might have saved them for that moment, but now the men were really pissed and would come back for more. He and the younger of the two women began to talk and discussed everything from religion to the current situation. She spoke of a group of people she was with that were trying to fight against the Serbians. At first he thought it was a set up, but later when she walked him to a meeting he decided it wasn't. He told her of his purpose there and the next day she and others followed him back to where they would be trained. He went on to describe his training her, and her ability to learn the things quickly.
When he finally described her Kim jumped out of her seat, startling Chase. "I found her. He doesn't give a name for her though. She's a little older now, and her hair is a different color, but it is her."
Chase took the journal from Kim and read it over again. "Maybe if we give this to Tony there will be some sort of record of her. If the government trained these people they had to keep some sort of record of who they were. They usually do."
Chase went to the phone and called Tony.
"Almeida."
"Tony, it's Chase. I'm at Jack's apartment and Kim and I think we might have a lead on the person who kidnapped Kim, and probably has Jack." Chase said in a hurried voice.
"What do you have?" Tony said. Knowing how they got it, but not asking because the information could get Jack into trouble.
"Jack might have trained her. Over in Kosovo as one of the people who our government trained to fight the Serbian government." Chase said.
"Okay. I'll try to gain access to the files and we can hope they have pictures." Tony paused and took a deep breath, "No more of this investigating behind my back Chase. Take Kim home and do whatever you need to do."
"I'm sorry. I didn't want to get Jack into trouble and I wanted to help. This was the only way I knew how I got the info." Chase said, truly sorry for having to lie to Tony. Tony was a great guy and Chase trusted him, but this was for the man Chase idolized.