PART II UNDERCOVER
THREE WEEKS LATER
Everything was proceeding as plan. Kit had already established his cover and was working successfully with the group he was infiltrating, some terrorist organization said to have links to the terrorist attack on Palmer the previous year. Jack was set to go undercover, and just waiting the phone call to tell him when and where. He still did not have much work done because his mind was elsewhere, but he decided before he went home tonight he would have the work done because he knew that in the next few days, he would be gone. He had spent every night since he told Kate of his leaving with her, and was comfortable with her. She still had not repeated the three words again, and he knew his luck was running out. His phone rang bringing him out of his thoughts.
"Hello?"
"Jack?" A deep voice said on the other end.
"Yeah." Jack knew what the call was already about. Very few people had the number to this cell phone. It was the phone he was going to use undercover. Along with it, there was a watch both equipped with tracking beacons and a recorder if needed.
"Meet us at the bar around 7 tonight."
"Fine." Jack said hanging the phone up.
Michelle walked into his office and asked, "What was that all about?"
"I'm going undercover tonight at 7." Jack said allowing his smile to show through.
"You're not kidding?"
"Nope. Let me call Tony to tell him." Jack said picking up the phone to call Tony. He asked Tony to come over to his office. He wanted to tell Tony in person. He did not want CTU to know that he was going undercover that night so he would tell Tony in person and come up with an excuse such as he was taking time off before he went undercover so that no one knew it besides Chase, Tony, Michelle, and Kim at CTU.
"Good luck." Tony said after Jack told him he would be going undercover that night. "I think it's a good idea to use the excuse. It'll help keep any leaks from happening if we have any." Ever since Nina's betrayal, Tony thought, you could not trust anyone he learned. He trusted Jack, Michelle, and Kit. The only reason why he trusted Kit was because Jack trusted Kit, and Tony was sure that Jack would not make the same mistake twice. Tony remembered how torn apart Kit was after he found out Nina was a mole shortly after returning to CTU. Tony knew that Kit had feelings for Nina, and did not act on it because Nina was with Tony at the time.
Jack called Chase into the office to join him, Tony, and Michelle. Jack was going to go over his procedures for the next few weeks and possible ways for them to keep track of him if he stops having the beacons with him. "I'm going to leave around five to get out of here and change into clothes from my apartment, and then get a hotel for the next few weeks. I'll be moving a lot after I get in. I don't want to live at the apartment in case they follow me one night. I don't want them onto where Kim or I live at. Check all of the local hotel listings for the name Jack Wood or J.W. depending on what is going on. I might not even register under my name sometimes if I think that something big is going to go down with another gang. I'll try to report every other week, but when I get in with the Salazars, that'll be almost impossible. I might be able to report once a month then, or possibly never. If I still have the beacons, I'll turn them on every now and then to let you know the location, other than that, I think it's all covered. If you need help, Chase, ask Tony or Michelle. You are to report to Tony whenever he wants. Any questions?"
"No. None that I can think of. Good luck." Chase answered.
Jack looked at the clock. "I'm going to leave now. I got to go change and pack the things I need for the next few months. I'll see you when it is all done." Standing up, Jack turned off his computer and left the room.
He walked past Kim's work station and interrupted Adam training Kim and said, "Let me borrow her for a few minutes."
Kim followed Jack back towards the exit and into one of the tech rooms. She knew what was about to happen. She had seen his face so many times before he went undercover and knew it all too well.
"Kim, I'm going undercover tonight. I'll see you in a few months. I love you very much. If you need anything while I'm gone Tony will help you. And make sure to call your aunt Carol every now and then. She gets worried about you. If she asks, I'm on a mission and that is all you know. Good-bye honey." Jack said hugging his daughter and kissing the top of her head as they hugged.
Kim wanted to cry because she knew her father was leaving on a dangerous mission and this could be the last time she ever saw him. It took all her will to hold back the tears. "Bye daddy." She said kissing him on the cheek pulling out of the embrace. She left the room and went back to work with Adam.
When Jack left the room, he walked out of the building to his car. After he got out of CTU and on the route home he called Kate. She was at work and he waited for her secretary to patch him through to Kate. She answered the phone happy to hear from him again.
"Kate. I just called to let you know I'm going undercover tonight. It was a last minute thing that happened. I'm sorry about the short notice. I was thinking maybe you could leave work a little early, like now, and meet me at my house. I have to pack a few things and I need to talk to you, too." Jack said trying not to convey any worry in his voice.
"Sure Jack." Kate said knowing this would probably be the last time in awhile she would get to see Jack.
"I'll meet you there, then." He said hanging up the phone.
He was nervous and not because of the mission he was about to embark on. He had one last thing to take care of before he left, and that would be the hardest of all. It was funny how he could kill a terrorist and torture people, but the thought of hurting someone he loved or cared for made him nervous. Thinking about what he was going to say to Kate, and how to say it, he was home before he knew it. His mind driving him without him knowing it or thinking about it. Kate was already sitting in front waiting for him.
"You got here quickly." He said getting out of his car.
"I wanted to see you as much as I could before you left." Kate said walking up to him and kissing him. He returned the kiss, but she could feel that his heart was not in it. "What's wrong?"
"Let's get inside. I got a lot to get done and little time to do it." Jack said putting his arm around her waist and walking her inside his apartment. She followed him back to the bedroom where he began to pack. He stopped for a moment and had her sit on the bed. He kneeled down so he could look into her eyes, and be level with her as he spoke to her. "Kate, I'm going to be gone for a long time, and I don't think it's fair for me to expect you to wait for me."
"What are you trying to say, Jack?"
Swallowing hard, Jack could feel the lump in his throat as he tried to hide everything he felt, "I think you should find someone else, Kate. I'm not the man for you. You want a family and a normal life, and I can not give you either of those. I love my job, it may suck and may have caused a lot of pain in my life, but someone has to sacrifice these things so that people can live the life they live. You could never be a part of the world I live in, nor should you." Jack paused and Kate took it as a time for her to interrupt and speak.
"I've seen your world, Jack. Remember?"
"Yes, but that was a taste of it Kate. You have never seen it nor should you have to. As long as I do my job you, nor anyone else in the U.S. should have to see the world."
"Jack I don't have rose-colored glasses. I know what the world is really like."
"Do you Kate?" Jack paused his train of thought could not be verbalized without really hurting Kate. "What I am saying is that we will never work Kate, and I think you know that deep down. I think we should call it quits." He swallowed hard again trying to hold back the pain it brought him to see the tears well up in Kate's eyes.
Kate wanted to hit him, but at the same time she could read him and tell he was in as much pain as she was. "Jack, I won't accept it. I love you and if that means I have to take the rose glasses off I will. I love all of you Jack, even the job."
"No you don't, Kate. I'm sorry, but I hope you move on." Jack said getting up from the floor. He could not look into her eyes anymore, he had to pack keep moving and all of the pain will go away. Keep moving, and his mind will leave the state it is in. He finished packing the few items he was going to take.
Kate still sat on the bed watching him in disbelief and pain. She stood up and went to hug him good bye, but he moved away from her.
"Good-bye, Kate."
She was truly in pain. She now knew what it was like to have her heart broken. If felt like he had reached inside her chest and squeezed her heart. After she got out of his room she took off running towards her car pissed at herself, and pissed at him. She wanted to hurt him, but she could not because she still loved him.
Jack thought to himself, I need a drink and something else. He contemplated using before he left that night to go to the meeting. Would it affect him? He better not just to be safe, he thought as he turned off the light to the bathroom after grabbing his shaving kit, and some other toiletries. He opened the safe in his closet to make sure that the note to Kim was in there. He had written it after his wife died, and he seriously thought about killing himself. He edited its contents over the years adding some things and subtracting others. Either way he wanted Kim to know how much he loved her, that she should live her life after he is gone, and how sorry he was for her mother's death and his own if he happened to be dead. He knew it would be found by Tony or someone who came to make sure that he did not have any CTU documents in his house in the event that he went missing for awhile or was found dead. He turned the light off and went through the house one more time. He stopped in front of a picture of himself and Kim last year when they went to the pier and just hung out the entire day, one of the few outings they ever had. He never took anything with him that related back to his life, but for some reason, he needed the picture to remind him of who he was, so he took it out of the frame and put the frame in a drawer somewhere. He walked through the house one last time turning of all of the lights. When he reached the door he looked back to his empty apartment and left locking to door behind himself.
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Jack drove to a hotel not to far from the bar. It was a cheap place that had an hour rate if needed. He told the desk clerk he needed a room for a week. The clerk had him feel out an index card and told him it would be 140 dollars for the week. Jack calculated it to be about twenty dollars a night, not too bad. Checking his watch, he noted he had a half an hour before the meeting. He was not hungry; therefore, he could not waste the time getting something to eat. He decided to unpack and get as comfortable as he could in his new home for the next few weeks. He figured he would leave about ten minutes early to scope out the bar before he entered. He did not want a surprise like he had last week. He checked what he had left of his supplies and decided. He could hold off getting more throughout the weekend and possibly into next week.
He changed out of his clothes putting on a black shirt with a black wife beater on underneath. He got out of his slacks and put on a pair of jeans. He looked at himself in the mirror and noticed what a difference the clothes made. He read in a short story once that a person does not have to change their appearance to make a disguise, but the person who is able to change his surroundings is the real master of disguise. He was no master and needed the slight appearance change to help. Putting on combat boots, he left the hotel room locking the door behind himself. He walked towards the bar, all of his sense going on fully alert and ready for anything. He felt in the small of his back under his black shirt and felt the reassuring touch of his 9mm Berretta loaded and ready for action if needed. He walked around the back of the bar and checked the alley behind there. Carlos's car was already parked in back, and a man leaned against the driver's side smoking a cigarette. When Jack passed by, he lowered his head as if he were trying to keep the chill out, his hands in his pocket, and avoiding looking at the man. The man went on smoking his cigarette as if Jack was not there. Walking around back to the front he checked the cars leading up to the bar and did not notice anyone sitting in any of them. Feeling comfortable that this was not an ambush, Jack walked into the bar and smiled at the bartender from the second-to-last time he was in there. She smiled back and him and looked towards the back room again.
Walking back Jack looked around the room and checked for any familiar face or anything that might be a sign of danger. He did not notice any thing out of the ordinary as he walked opened the door to the back room. When he walked in the room was full of smoke as was the bar. There were four guys in the room: the dealer who sat on the couch, two big guys leaning against the wall right off the door, and Carlos sitting at the dealer's desk.
Carlos smiled as Jack walked into the room declaring, "Right on time. I like that in a person. I think it is rude when people show up late to meetings. Not only are they wasting your precious time, but they are disrespecting you. I respect a man who is on time."
Jack nodded in agreement. He was in full character now. The semi- psycho, macho, military guy he always played. This time, there was a new aspect that he did not really have to act out the junky. He was a junky, but he would never define it in that connotation because it would make him feel like a bad guy, he would use a euphemism like substance abuser.
"What's the job for?" Jack asked trying to get the guy to the point otherwise he would be standing there all night as this guy rants on and on about things. He knew the type well. He had worked with them before. He was the type of guy who thinks he's bigger on the food chain than what he really is. In the pecking order. he's near the bottom if not the bottom, but you could not convince him of that.
"Protection of the product while it is being delivered and paid for by the buyers. You'll drive the me to the sight and Salvador and Ximen will deal with the main part. You will stay in the car and watch out that's all for right now. If you pan out than we'll see."
"When?" Jack inquired.
"Tomorrow around noon."
"How much?"
"Five hundred after the deal. If you pan out, more will come your way later."
"Fine. See you then." Jack said turning around. As he did so the two big guys he assumed were Salvador and Ximen stood in front of the door.
"One last thing." Carlos commanded.
Jack turned around and asked, "What wrong?"
"Nothing, just a little test. In this business as you know you can never be to careful." Carlos remarked.
"Yeah sure." Jack said looking at Carlos.
One of the big guys walked up to Jack and said, "Take your shirt off."
Jack unbuttoned his shirt and took it off revealing his tattoos on his arm and the gun in the small of his back. The man took the gun out and set it on the desk in front of Carlos.
"Why did you bring that?" Carlos inquired.
Jack retorted, "In this business, you can never be too careful."
"Fine. Take your other shirt off."
"Is this a ploy just to see me without my shirt on?" Jack joked as he pulled his black wife beater off. "See, no wire." Jack said holding his shirt.
Carlos stared at the scars on Jack's abdomen and chest wondering where those might have come from. "Fine. Go sit on the couch. One last test."
Jack walked over to the couch feeling a little exposed without his shirts. He had noticed Carlos studying his chest and abdomen where he had scars from many different things over the years. It was not rare for someone like the Jack he was playing to have scars, but some of his were unexplainable.
Carlos walked over to Jack with a needle and some of the product in a vile. He handed Jack the needle and the vile and said, "I want to watch you shoot up here. Cops never do drugs while undercover. If you do it, you must not be a cop then."
"Fine." Jack said grabbing the needle from him. The dealer next to him handed him the rubber tourniquet and Jack expertly put it around his arm. He drew the heroin out of the vial into the needle. This time without hesitation, Jack put the needle into the vein that pulsed outward. Pushing the plunger down without a second thought, he felt the drug enter his blood, and then the sudden rush of ecstasy that he was so used to now. He untied the tourniquet and set the needle and empty vial down on the small wooden coffee table in front of him. He let his head lean back against the back of the couch as the drug took over his body.
Jack put his head back up and smiled at Carlos asking , "Anything else?" He said with his eyes glassing over from the drug.
"Are you a cop?" Carlos asked just to be safe.
"I'm not stupid enough to be a cop." Jack said grinning.
"See you tomorrow then." Carlos said leaving the room with his two thugs following behind him.
Jack stood up afterwards and said good-bye to the dealer as he walked out of the room. He stopped at the bar in no hurry to get back to the hotel room and ordered a shot of Southern Comfort and a screwdriver, a drink that consisted of orange juice and vodka, to wash the shot down with. After finishing off three screwdrivers and six shots, Jack stumbled out of the bar towards his hotel room. He noticed the man follow him out of the bar. He tried to keep his distance from Jack, but even inebriated Jack could notice someone following him. Acting as if he didn't notice the guy, Jack continued on to his hotel room. He figured it was someone from Carlos's gang still trying to figure out if he was clean or not. When he reached his hotel room, Jack fumbled with the keys trying to get them in the lock. It was hard task for a drunken man. After a few minutes of missing the lock, he finally got the key in. When he got inside, he set the junky old alarm clock to the proper time of one in the morning, and then set the alarm to go off at eleven, giving himself enough time to wake up, take a shower, and grab something to eat. He turned the light off and passed out on the bed.
Everything was proceeding as plan. Kit had already established his cover and was working successfully with the group he was infiltrating, some terrorist organization said to have links to the terrorist attack on Palmer the previous year. Jack was set to go undercover, and just waiting the phone call to tell him when and where. He still did not have much work done because his mind was elsewhere, but he decided before he went home tonight he would have the work done because he knew that in the next few days, he would be gone. He had spent every night since he told Kate of his leaving with her, and was comfortable with her. She still had not repeated the three words again, and he knew his luck was running out. His phone rang bringing him out of his thoughts.
"Hello?"
"Jack?" A deep voice said on the other end.
"Yeah." Jack knew what the call was already about. Very few people had the number to this cell phone. It was the phone he was going to use undercover. Along with it, there was a watch both equipped with tracking beacons and a recorder if needed.
"Meet us at the bar around 7 tonight."
"Fine." Jack said hanging the phone up.
Michelle walked into his office and asked, "What was that all about?"
"I'm going undercover tonight at 7." Jack said allowing his smile to show through.
"You're not kidding?"
"Nope. Let me call Tony to tell him." Jack said picking up the phone to call Tony. He asked Tony to come over to his office. He wanted to tell Tony in person. He did not want CTU to know that he was going undercover that night so he would tell Tony in person and come up with an excuse such as he was taking time off before he went undercover so that no one knew it besides Chase, Tony, Michelle, and Kim at CTU.
"Good luck." Tony said after Jack told him he would be going undercover that night. "I think it's a good idea to use the excuse. It'll help keep any leaks from happening if we have any." Ever since Nina's betrayal, Tony thought, you could not trust anyone he learned. He trusted Jack, Michelle, and Kit. The only reason why he trusted Kit was because Jack trusted Kit, and Tony was sure that Jack would not make the same mistake twice. Tony remembered how torn apart Kit was after he found out Nina was a mole shortly after returning to CTU. Tony knew that Kit had feelings for Nina, and did not act on it because Nina was with Tony at the time.
Jack called Chase into the office to join him, Tony, and Michelle. Jack was going to go over his procedures for the next few weeks and possible ways for them to keep track of him if he stops having the beacons with him. "I'm going to leave around five to get out of here and change into clothes from my apartment, and then get a hotel for the next few weeks. I'll be moving a lot after I get in. I don't want to live at the apartment in case they follow me one night. I don't want them onto where Kim or I live at. Check all of the local hotel listings for the name Jack Wood or J.W. depending on what is going on. I might not even register under my name sometimes if I think that something big is going to go down with another gang. I'll try to report every other week, but when I get in with the Salazars, that'll be almost impossible. I might be able to report once a month then, or possibly never. If I still have the beacons, I'll turn them on every now and then to let you know the location, other than that, I think it's all covered. If you need help, Chase, ask Tony or Michelle. You are to report to Tony whenever he wants. Any questions?"
"No. None that I can think of. Good luck." Chase answered.
Jack looked at the clock. "I'm going to leave now. I got to go change and pack the things I need for the next few months. I'll see you when it is all done." Standing up, Jack turned off his computer and left the room.
He walked past Kim's work station and interrupted Adam training Kim and said, "Let me borrow her for a few minutes."
Kim followed Jack back towards the exit and into one of the tech rooms. She knew what was about to happen. She had seen his face so many times before he went undercover and knew it all too well.
"Kim, I'm going undercover tonight. I'll see you in a few months. I love you very much. If you need anything while I'm gone Tony will help you. And make sure to call your aunt Carol every now and then. She gets worried about you. If she asks, I'm on a mission and that is all you know. Good-bye honey." Jack said hugging his daughter and kissing the top of her head as they hugged.
Kim wanted to cry because she knew her father was leaving on a dangerous mission and this could be the last time she ever saw him. It took all her will to hold back the tears. "Bye daddy." She said kissing him on the cheek pulling out of the embrace. She left the room and went back to work with Adam.
When Jack left the room, he walked out of the building to his car. After he got out of CTU and on the route home he called Kate. She was at work and he waited for her secretary to patch him through to Kate. She answered the phone happy to hear from him again.
"Kate. I just called to let you know I'm going undercover tonight. It was a last minute thing that happened. I'm sorry about the short notice. I was thinking maybe you could leave work a little early, like now, and meet me at my house. I have to pack a few things and I need to talk to you, too." Jack said trying not to convey any worry in his voice.
"Sure Jack." Kate said knowing this would probably be the last time in awhile she would get to see Jack.
"I'll meet you there, then." He said hanging up the phone.
He was nervous and not because of the mission he was about to embark on. He had one last thing to take care of before he left, and that would be the hardest of all. It was funny how he could kill a terrorist and torture people, but the thought of hurting someone he loved or cared for made him nervous. Thinking about what he was going to say to Kate, and how to say it, he was home before he knew it. His mind driving him without him knowing it or thinking about it. Kate was already sitting in front waiting for him.
"You got here quickly." He said getting out of his car.
"I wanted to see you as much as I could before you left." Kate said walking up to him and kissing him. He returned the kiss, but she could feel that his heart was not in it. "What's wrong?"
"Let's get inside. I got a lot to get done and little time to do it." Jack said putting his arm around her waist and walking her inside his apartment. She followed him back to the bedroom where he began to pack. He stopped for a moment and had her sit on the bed. He kneeled down so he could look into her eyes, and be level with her as he spoke to her. "Kate, I'm going to be gone for a long time, and I don't think it's fair for me to expect you to wait for me."
"What are you trying to say, Jack?"
Swallowing hard, Jack could feel the lump in his throat as he tried to hide everything he felt, "I think you should find someone else, Kate. I'm not the man for you. You want a family and a normal life, and I can not give you either of those. I love my job, it may suck and may have caused a lot of pain in my life, but someone has to sacrifice these things so that people can live the life they live. You could never be a part of the world I live in, nor should you." Jack paused and Kate took it as a time for her to interrupt and speak.
"I've seen your world, Jack. Remember?"
"Yes, but that was a taste of it Kate. You have never seen it nor should you have to. As long as I do my job you, nor anyone else in the U.S. should have to see the world."
"Jack I don't have rose-colored glasses. I know what the world is really like."
"Do you Kate?" Jack paused his train of thought could not be verbalized without really hurting Kate. "What I am saying is that we will never work Kate, and I think you know that deep down. I think we should call it quits." He swallowed hard again trying to hold back the pain it brought him to see the tears well up in Kate's eyes.
Kate wanted to hit him, but at the same time she could read him and tell he was in as much pain as she was. "Jack, I won't accept it. I love you and if that means I have to take the rose glasses off I will. I love all of you Jack, even the job."
"No you don't, Kate. I'm sorry, but I hope you move on." Jack said getting up from the floor. He could not look into her eyes anymore, he had to pack keep moving and all of the pain will go away. Keep moving, and his mind will leave the state it is in. He finished packing the few items he was going to take.
Kate still sat on the bed watching him in disbelief and pain. She stood up and went to hug him good bye, but he moved away from her.
"Good-bye, Kate."
She was truly in pain. She now knew what it was like to have her heart broken. If felt like he had reached inside her chest and squeezed her heart. After she got out of his room she took off running towards her car pissed at herself, and pissed at him. She wanted to hurt him, but she could not because she still loved him.
Jack thought to himself, I need a drink and something else. He contemplated using before he left that night to go to the meeting. Would it affect him? He better not just to be safe, he thought as he turned off the light to the bathroom after grabbing his shaving kit, and some other toiletries. He opened the safe in his closet to make sure that the note to Kim was in there. He had written it after his wife died, and he seriously thought about killing himself. He edited its contents over the years adding some things and subtracting others. Either way he wanted Kim to know how much he loved her, that she should live her life after he is gone, and how sorry he was for her mother's death and his own if he happened to be dead. He knew it would be found by Tony or someone who came to make sure that he did not have any CTU documents in his house in the event that he went missing for awhile or was found dead. He turned the light off and went through the house one more time. He stopped in front of a picture of himself and Kim last year when they went to the pier and just hung out the entire day, one of the few outings they ever had. He never took anything with him that related back to his life, but for some reason, he needed the picture to remind him of who he was, so he took it out of the frame and put the frame in a drawer somewhere. He walked through the house one last time turning of all of the lights. When he reached the door he looked back to his empty apartment and left locking to door behind himself.
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Jack drove to a hotel not to far from the bar. It was a cheap place that had an hour rate if needed. He told the desk clerk he needed a room for a week. The clerk had him feel out an index card and told him it would be 140 dollars for the week. Jack calculated it to be about twenty dollars a night, not too bad. Checking his watch, he noted he had a half an hour before the meeting. He was not hungry; therefore, he could not waste the time getting something to eat. He decided to unpack and get as comfortable as he could in his new home for the next few weeks. He figured he would leave about ten minutes early to scope out the bar before he entered. He did not want a surprise like he had last week. He checked what he had left of his supplies and decided. He could hold off getting more throughout the weekend and possibly into next week.
He changed out of his clothes putting on a black shirt with a black wife beater on underneath. He got out of his slacks and put on a pair of jeans. He looked at himself in the mirror and noticed what a difference the clothes made. He read in a short story once that a person does not have to change their appearance to make a disguise, but the person who is able to change his surroundings is the real master of disguise. He was no master and needed the slight appearance change to help. Putting on combat boots, he left the hotel room locking the door behind himself. He walked towards the bar, all of his sense going on fully alert and ready for anything. He felt in the small of his back under his black shirt and felt the reassuring touch of his 9mm Berretta loaded and ready for action if needed. He walked around the back of the bar and checked the alley behind there. Carlos's car was already parked in back, and a man leaned against the driver's side smoking a cigarette. When Jack passed by, he lowered his head as if he were trying to keep the chill out, his hands in his pocket, and avoiding looking at the man. The man went on smoking his cigarette as if Jack was not there. Walking around back to the front he checked the cars leading up to the bar and did not notice anyone sitting in any of them. Feeling comfortable that this was not an ambush, Jack walked into the bar and smiled at the bartender from the second-to-last time he was in there. She smiled back and him and looked towards the back room again.
Walking back Jack looked around the room and checked for any familiar face or anything that might be a sign of danger. He did not notice any thing out of the ordinary as he walked opened the door to the back room. When he walked in the room was full of smoke as was the bar. There were four guys in the room: the dealer who sat on the couch, two big guys leaning against the wall right off the door, and Carlos sitting at the dealer's desk.
Carlos smiled as Jack walked into the room declaring, "Right on time. I like that in a person. I think it is rude when people show up late to meetings. Not only are they wasting your precious time, but they are disrespecting you. I respect a man who is on time."
Jack nodded in agreement. He was in full character now. The semi- psycho, macho, military guy he always played. This time, there was a new aspect that he did not really have to act out the junky. He was a junky, but he would never define it in that connotation because it would make him feel like a bad guy, he would use a euphemism like substance abuser.
"What's the job for?" Jack asked trying to get the guy to the point otherwise he would be standing there all night as this guy rants on and on about things. He knew the type well. He had worked with them before. He was the type of guy who thinks he's bigger on the food chain than what he really is. In the pecking order. he's near the bottom if not the bottom, but you could not convince him of that.
"Protection of the product while it is being delivered and paid for by the buyers. You'll drive the me to the sight and Salvador and Ximen will deal with the main part. You will stay in the car and watch out that's all for right now. If you pan out than we'll see."
"When?" Jack inquired.
"Tomorrow around noon."
"How much?"
"Five hundred after the deal. If you pan out, more will come your way later."
"Fine. See you then." Jack said turning around. As he did so the two big guys he assumed were Salvador and Ximen stood in front of the door.
"One last thing." Carlos commanded.
Jack turned around and asked, "What wrong?"
"Nothing, just a little test. In this business as you know you can never be to careful." Carlos remarked.
"Yeah sure." Jack said looking at Carlos.
One of the big guys walked up to Jack and said, "Take your shirt off."
Jack unbuttoned his shirt and took it off revealing his tattoos on his arm and the gun in the small of his back. The man took the gun out and set it on the desk in front of Carlos.
"Why did you bring that?" Carlos inquired.
Jack retorted, "In this business, you can never be too careful."
"Fine. Take your other shirt off."
"Is this a ploy just to see me without my shirt on?" Jack joked as he pulled his black wife beater off. "See, no wire." Jack said holding his shirt.
Carlos stared at the scars on Jack's abdomen and chest wondering where those might have come from. "Fine. Go sit on the couch. One last test."
Jack walked over to the couch feeling a little exposed without his shirts. He had noticed Carlos studying his chest and abdomen where he had scars from many different things over the years. It was not rare for someone like the Jack he was playing to have scars, but some of his were unexplainable.
Carlos walked over to Jack with a needle and some of the product in a vile. He handed Jack the needle and the vile and said, "I want to watch you shoot up here. Cops never do drugs while undercover. If you do it, you must not be a cop then."
"Fine." Jack said grabbing the needle from him. The dealer next to him handed him the rubber tourniquet and Jack expertly put it around his arm. He drew the heroin out of the vial into the needle. This time without hesitation, Jack put the needle into the vein that pulsed outward. Pushing the plunger down without a second thought, he felt the drug enter his blood, and then the sudden rush of ecstasy that he was so used to now. He untied the tourniquet and set the needle and empty vial down on the small wooden coffee table in front of him. He let his head lean back against the back of the couch as the drug took over his body.
Jack put his head back up and smiled at Carlos asking , "Anything else?" He said with his eyes glassing over from the drug.
"Are you a cop?" Carlos asked just to be safe.
"I'm not stupid enough to be a cop." Jack said grinning.
"See you tomorrow then." Carlos said leaving the room with his two thugs following behind him.
Jack stood up afterwards and said good-bye to the dealer as he walked out of the room. He stopped at the bar in no hurry to get back to the hotel room and ordered a shot of Southern Comfort and a screwdriver, a drink that consisted of orange juice and vodka, to wash the shot down with. After finishing off three screwdrivers and six shots, Jack stumbled out of the bar towards his hotel room. He noticed the man follow him out of the bar. He tried to keep his distance from Jack, but even inebriated Jack could notice someone following him. Acting as if he didn't notice the guy, Jack continued on to his hotel room. He figured it was someone from Carlos's gang still trying to figure out if he was clean or not. When he reached his hotel room, Jack fumbled with the keys trying to get them in the lock. It was hard task for a drunken man. After a few minutes of missing the lock, he finally got the key in. When he got inside, he set the junky old alarm clock to the proper time of one in the morning, and then set the alarm to go off at eleven, giving himself enough time to wake up, take a shower, and grab something to eat. He turned the light off and passed out on the bed.