"That's what I thought, but the screener came back with the same result. Should I do a background check and pull up his personal files? There may be more mention of his personal history and it may refer to Jack."
"Do it. Also, pull up what you can find from Jacks person records, the two may coincide, which would mean they are indeed brothers. I'm going to continue going through Tony's brief with Chappelle, and I need to get LAPD onto that blast." She turned to leave, but stopped short, turning around to face Adam. "Adam ....don't speak of this to Kim, she still doesn't realise that Jack may have been in the warehouse when it exploded..."
"I know." Was all Adam said, his eyes displaying concern for his co-workers. He gave her a courteous nod, then turned his attention back to the screen and began clicking away.
Michelle reached Tony office in seconds. She pushed through the door to see Chappelle placing the black phone back into its cradle on Tony's glass desk.
"Where's Tony?" She asked nervously, already missing him and worrying about him.
"Relax Michelle, I sent him over to the clinic, to get himself checked out." Michelle wasn't sure, but it actually seemed like Chappelle was genuinely concerned, not something she saw from him often.
"Oh. Right."
"Listen, Ive just been on the phone with Howard from LAPD he is going to take care of the warehouse for us, and will send over id's of the perpetrators he finds there. We have something bigger to concentrate on."
"What? I didn't think there was anything else, other than Jack being missing, but.... he may have been in the warehouse, when... when it exploded.... he may be dead." Michelle briefly closed her eyes as it sunk in, that Jack may be dead.
"Jack isn't the concern Michelle, I know it is hard for you, but you have got to imagine he was never there, something much bigger is at steak."
"What?" She asked, confused and a little angry at his remark about Jack.
"Tony says that the man in control in the warehouse, was gloating about the fact that they are going to detonate a bomb in Los Angeles some time today."
"What! Well, how credible is this claim? They may have simply been lying to take our attention from something else to distract us. Or simply trying to strike a cord with Tony, to get a reaction." She said, trying to connect everything in her head and make sense of the new information.
"We have to treat it as though it is credible. And it does make sense, they kidnapped Jack, Tony and ChloƩ. Without those three C.T.U. would fall to pieces and there is no way we could stop it. Right now we need to complete our identification of the men who are on the video image. We can cross reference that with anything remotely related to this threat, okay?"
"Yeah..." She replied, her mind still wandering, thinking about what he had said about Jack, Tony and ChloƩ. Did this mean people didn't think she was a key player at C.T.U?
"Good. What did Adam find?"
Michelle hesitated, she didn't know if she should tell him or not.
"Well what is it?!" He said sternly, annoyance present in his voice.
"He managed to identify somebody from the surveillance." Was all she said, her mind thinking frantically of a way out of telling him.
"And?" He asked, impatiently.
"And, it came up as a Daniel Bauer, Jacks brother it seems. I have Adam checking both backgrounds, make sure it fits."
"What!" He exclaimed.
"I know." She said, hanging her head, the possible scenarios running through her mind.
"What does this mean!" He said, sounding exasperated.
"I don't know. I guess we will have a better understanding once we get the background information on the two. It could be a simple coincidence."
Chappelle scoffed at this, and she knew it was a lame attempt at an explanation herself.
"I'll go help Scott, see what he is doing."
"Okay, I'm going to update Divison and Langley."
Once Michelle had left Ryan slumped himself down into Tony's cushion swivel chair. He rubbed at his eyes and let out a sigh. He wondered just what was going on today.
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Daniel sat in a cold metal chair typing at his black laptop that sat on a table. He had arrived at his location in ten minutes and had no trouble getting their. He had had a hard time getting Jack from the truck to the safe house by himself, and it had tired him out, carrying him body mass through the house into a suitable room.
At the moment Jack was still unconscious, laid on a bed. Daniel had grabbed some cushions to rest his head on, and had some blankets ready to. Every so often he would glance away from his screen to check on him, making sure he looked okay.
He continued to type, he was encrypting an e-mail he was sending to Joel, so he would know what safe-house he was at. Once the e-mail was sent he got up and sauntered along to where Jack laid, and carefully sat down on the side of the soft mattress. He looked at Jack and his mind wandered back to his younger days. He was overwhelmed with guilt for his actions; but felt some satisfaction from the thought of straightening everything out with him, and most importantly asking for his forgiveness. He knew Jack had been hurt as a result of his irresponsible actions, not just physically but mentally, he just hoped Jack would be past it, and was ready to give him another chance.
As he thought this Jack began to cough horribly for a moment, and then slowly opened his eyes. Daniel froze, not knowing what to do. Jack was covered in sweat and his mind was slowly processing his surroundings.
"Danny?" He asked, his words slurred.
Daniel didn't move, just stared at Jack, scared to move. Seconds after Jack had called his name he had drifted back to sleep again, and Daniel noticed he had gave a sigh of relief. For the first time he was scared. He wanted Jacks forgiveness, and realised that he may not get it, and that worried him.
Shaking the thoughts from his head he picked up his phone and called Joel's friend who played a secretary type role for the two.
"Mickey? It's me......... Listen, I need you to do something for me.................. uh huh.................................. I need you to tell Joel to bring a doctor with him..................... no, no, I'm fine................ it's... yeah...................... okay................... bye."
He hung up and pulled the metal chair over to the head of the bed and sat, watching Jack. He was an angry person and was often referred to as a machine with no use for human emotions by others, but inside his heart was in turmoil, he needed to fix things with Jack where they went wrong so long ago, he needed his absolution.
