Chapter 6

Amy drove up to the house and tried to find a spot not taken by police cruisers and FBI government sedans. She finally parked on the next street over and grabbed her bag out of the back. She cut between two houses and approached the house through the back yard.

An agent with a buzz cut and an attitude came up to her, "This is a crime scene, what do you think you're doing?"

Amy was in no mood to deal with some low level agent assigned to back yard duty. "I'm walking."

The agent stepped in front of her, "Not anymore. Who are you?"

This guy was really getting on her nerves, so she shot back, "Who are you?"

Agent Buzz Cut dug in his jacket and whipped out his ID badge, "Agent Foote, Harrison Foote." He was smiling.

Amy rolled her eyes, rookies. She quipped, "Harry Foote? Were your parents brother and sister?" She kept walking.

He ran after her, "Ma'am, you cannot be here. I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

She stopped and faced him, "Listen Harry, my sister-in-law is in there in tears and I'm here to help her. If you don't let me by, my brother will hold you personally responsible for her pain. You've heard of Jack Bauer, right?" She turned and went in the back door of the house.

Agent Harrison Foote just watched her go; he was stopped dead in his tracks.

Kate turned and ran to her, "Amy, thanks for coming." They hugged tightly.

"How are you Kate?"

Kate wiped her eyes with her sleeve, "I just don't know what to do.... if something happens to Ryan, I—"

"Kate, he's going to be fine. Jack will find him." Amy tried to reassure Kate, "Ryan's a tough kid, and he's Jack's son—Jack is the strongest man I know. Believe me, I grew up with him bullying me around."

"Let's make some coffee, "Amy wanted to keep Kate busy. They went into the kitchen and Kate sat down on a barstool while Amy made the coffee. "So, what happened?"

"I don't know, he was here eating dinner with us. Jack got a call to come into the office and Ryan went to go ride his bike. The next thing I know, Angela finds his bike in the front yard and Ryan is gone."

Amy asked quietly, "Is there any reason for Ryan to run away?"

Kate shook her head, "No way, he's a good kid and gets into trouble sometimes, but Jack and I have always been fair with him and he accepts that. He is sometimes too curious for his own good, but he wasn't mad at either me or Jack tonight."

Amy nodded, "You know Jack ran away once? My mom told me, it was before I was born, after his dad died."

"Really, he never told me that. What happened?"

"He was about ten or eleven, got in a fight with mom. She was a mess after his dad died, didn't spend much time with him. Anyway, he made up his mind he could take care of himself, didn't want to burden mom anymore. Left her a note and took off. He made it all the way to the train station by himself, had been in a few fistfights and everything when mom finally found him."

Kate laughed, "Sounds like Jack." Amy sat a coffee mug in front of Kate.

"Yeah, I've got plenty more stories if you're interested." Kate just stared down at her coffee. "Kate, they're going to find him."

Ryan scurried from bush to bush, getting closer to the door every minute. It was a roll-up garage door style, pushed up about a third. The guard's shoes were visible underneath. Ryan was about ten feet from the entrance when another set of shoes appeared.

Ariz walked up to the guard, "Come with me for a moment."

He protested, "But I cannot leave my post, Hassan ordered me to stay here."

"It will be fine for a moment. It's not going anywhere. We can't talk here, the noise from the generator is too loud."

The guard's shoes disappeared from the doorway.

Agent Goodrich shook his head, "Jack, let us come up with a plan first. Think about it."

Jack's training and intuition were telling him that the agent was right, but his heart wanted to run in there and save Ryan, no matter the cost. He couldn't live with himself if something happened to his son. Not after all he had been through with Teri and Kim and even Kate. He had fought through so much to get to this point in his life and it was being torn down in front of him.

Jack nodded his agreement. "Ok, what do we know?"

"Well, from what my snipers can see, they don't seem to be professionals. All of the guards stationed by the doors are standing in plain sight and some of them aren't even carrying their weapons correctly. We could take them all out right now if we wanted to."

Jack shook his head, "No. We still have too many unknowns. We don't know how many hostiles are still inside. They could trigger the bombs to the rest of the plants the second we take out the guards. It's too risky. And with Ryan in there..."

Agent Goodrich noticed a look in Jack's eye, "What are you thinking, Jack?"

"I'll go in. Trade myself for Ryan. You can wire me, I'll get the intel, secure the hostages, then you come in hot."

"Jack, you're not as young as you used to be. Are you sure about this?"

Jack looked the agent square in the eyes and said, "Trust me."

Ryan leaned with his back against the wall next to the door behind a low shrub. His arms were bent in front of him; hands still clasped holding his pretend gun. "Special Agent Bauer is going in."

Ryan peeked under the door again to make sure it was clear and scooted underneath the door. It opened into a large cavernous room with a loud generator occupying most of the floor space at the far end. Ryan ducked under a nearby desk to look around. He thought he heard voices and crawled closer to hear. "Agent Bauer has infiltrated the enemy's camp and is gathering information."

The radio squawked next to Agent Goodrich's shoulder, "Sir, we have movement at one of the rear doors."

He grabbed the radio and pushed the button, "Go ahead."

"The guard's shoes are not visible, but I thought I saw a shadow moving outside the door."

"Copy that, look into it and keep me posted."

He looked at Jack, "Something's going on in there."

Jack's cell phone chirped in his pocket. He quickly grabbed it hoping for news of Ryan, "Kate?"

"No, Jack, it's Michelle." His heart sank.

"Ok, what have you got for me?"

Michelle sighed, "That's just it. We couldn't find anything. This group is not being funded by any known sources. They have no ties to any cells that we know of. No one has even heard of them. Their country is very poor, so whoever funded them is keeping a low profile. We pushed our sources pretty hard and came up with nothing."

Jack responded, "That makes sense, these guys seem like amateurs. They are making too many mistakes. "

Michelle questioned, "But if they have plants wired across the country, they would need a very large unit. We should have heard of them. It doesn't add up."

Jack thought for a minute, "No, it doesn't. Find out what you can about the troops that were sent over there, if any women and children have been harmed."

"Ok, Chloe worked up a list of the most probable targets, we have teams en route now, as well as bomb squads across the country searching the largest plants. So far nothing."

"Thanks, I'll get back to you."

"Jack? I'm sorry about Ryan, I'm sure he's ok."

"Thanks Michelle." He hung up.

Jack walked over to one of the CTU vans to get wired and equipped when the terrorist's phone line rang in his hand.

"Bauer."

"Mr. Bauer, are you ready to talk?" The voiced asked.

Jack replied through clenched teeth, "Listen to me, if you harm one hair on my son's head, you will regret it."

Ariz pulled the guard over, "They have accused Hassan of kidnapping the son of one of their agents."

The guard looked alarmed, "That was not part of the plan. Hassan is getting dangerous."

Ariz shook his head, "He says he didn't take the boy. But he is going to let them think we have him as leverage."

"I assure you Mr. Bauer, your son is fine. He will not be harmed unless you do as I ask." Hassan had decided to play the bluff.

"What do you want?"

"Good. Now we are cooperating. First, we want all American soldiers removed from our borders. Our women and children are not safe, they are being harassed and threatened by your so-called heroes. It is worse than a dictatorship."

Jack doubted the validity of his claims, but agreed, "Ok, we'll see what we can do."

"No! You will do it or this country will be see how it feels to live back in the stone ages with no electricity. I assume you saw the sub-station at UCLA. That was just a small message. Next time, it will be larger, I assure you."

"What else?"

"We want a large helicopter delivered to the roof over the generator in one hour. The pilot will be unarmed or he dies. We will leave him on the roof with the rest of the hostages; you can pick them up when we leave. Do you understand?"

This guy had balls, Jack would give him that. But if he had done his research, he would know that he is never going to make it to that chopper. "Done. But you will have to do something for me first."

"What?"

"A trade. Me for my son. That's the deal, and it's nonnegotiable. Otherwise, the deal is off." Jack was playing hardball and he prayed it wouldn't get his son killed.

"Deal."

Ryan sneaked closer to the talking men, hiding behind equipment and under tables. He glanced around and noticed several other guards carrying large guns over their shoulders at the far end of the plant. He started to get a little scared, suddenly realizing what he was doing. He stopped under a table nearest the men and hugged his knees to his chest.

Up until now, he had no concept of the danger he was in. Despite the fact that the guns were like those in the video games he spent hours playing at his friend Jake's house, he knew they were real. His curiosity had gotten the better of him and he had thought of this as a game, but now he was afraid. "Special Agent Bauer wants to go home."

To Be Continued: