Casey and the hotel manager watched as they carried Jack off in the
car. She was afraid to call the cops so she called the next best thing,
Ximen. She knew his number because Carlos made sure she had their numbers
after they took over the bar in case anything happened while they were
gone. She told him what had happened and he told her he would call Carlos
and then be over.
Carlos decided to call Pedro to let him know what happened. Casey had told them she thought it was from the other gang that was there earlier that night. Carlos knew Hector would want a piece of the gang since they had threatened his life earlier that night. Carlos and Ximen went to the hotel first to check on Casey.
Casey sat inside with one of the hotel manager's shirts on and a blanket around her. She repeated the events for the two men and sat with the hotel manager as the two went over to the bar to wait for Hector and Pedro to show up. Casey was worried about Jack. She had only known the man for a short time and while he could be an asshole, he also had this caring side to him. He put his life in danger to save her. Most people in her life would never think of doing that or actually do it.
Pedro pulled the car into the back alley and slammed on the breaks suddenly. Hector had not been paying attention, nor would be able to notice that anything was going on because he was too drunk. "What the F$$K?" Hector shouted as he flew forward.
"Someone is lying in the alley." Pedro said getting out of the car. When he got around to the front he say what looked like Jack's unconscious body. Blood dripped down his face and pooled on the ground under his head. His body was in a weird position on the ground. Pedro walked over to him and gently turned him on his back, taking note of the different areas in which blood was coming out of. "Hector, I'm going inside to get some water to wake him up with." Pedro said after he stood up.
"Yeah. Get the others too. They are inside waiting on us." Hector said as he got out of the car and looked at Jack who now lay on his back.
Pedro returned with Ximen, Carlos, and a bottle of water. Pedro took the water standing over Jack and poured it out onto Jack's head. Jack jumped into semi-consciousness coughing. When he tried to sit up, his body ached. He stopped trying to sit up and returned to laying on the hard ground. He opened his eyes and looked around noticing everyone standing over him, not sure why he was on the ground.
Casey had walked over to check on the men to see if they wanted something while they were there and heard Pedro walk in and get Carlos. She trailed slowly behind hoping not to find Jack dead. When she walked outside, she noticed him laying on the ground eyes open, looking confused. She walked up to him, "Jack! Are you okay?"
Trying to sit up again ignoring the immense pain that shot through his body, Jack managed to slouch against the bumper of the car. He looked up and saw Casey, even though his head was pounding and every movement including his shallow breaths hurt he felt sudden relief that she was safe at the moment. "I'm fine." He answered finally in a deep rough voice.
"What happened?" Hector asked wanting to know who did this.
"How about we go over that later, Hector? Why don't Ximen and I take Jack to the hospital to get looked at, and then he can answer your questions. You already know who did this because I gave you the information. Do you absolutely need to know anything else?" Casey said trying not to anger Hector by telling him what to do.
Hector looked at her. At first, he was angry that she was trying to tell him what to do, but after awhile, what she said made sense. He thought about purposely going against what she recommended just to make a point, but he looked down at Jack who sat slouched against the bumper of the car blood draining down his head to his neck and then his wife beater.
Jack interrupted and said, "I don't need to go to the hospital. I'm fine."
"No, you go to the hospital with Casey. Get your head checked out, and get her checked out." Hector said putting an end to any debate. "Carlos, you go with them and handle any bills that they incur while you're there. When you guys get back, we can talk then."
Ximen helped Jack stand up. Once he was on his feet, Jack felt dizzy and was teetering. Casey walked over to him and gently put her arm under his to help him balance as he tried to get his bearing back. Together they walked to the front of the bar and got into Jack's SUV. Carlos refused to drive them in his car because he didn't want Jack's blood all over his car.
At the hospital few questions where asked about how the injuries where caused. The nurses noticed who Carlos was and figured the man and woman with him were just in his gang. They did not want any trouble and were not forced to report anything of this manner. A doctor sewed the holes in Jack's head and told him, "I believe we should do a CAT scan. You took a couple bad hits to the head and the ribs and that could have broken or fractured any of the bones."
Jack did not want to do a CAT scan, but Carlos had answered for him, "He'll do it." Carlos looked at Jack.
Both of them knew that if Jack continued to refuse, all Carlos had to do was call Hector like a bratty brother and tell him and Hector who was the lead role of the group, would be like the father, and make Jack take the CAT scan in the end. Jack decided to forgo all the trouble and just do what the doctor wanted for once. "Fine." He answered.
Casey and Carlos waited in the waiting room for Jack to remerge from the room with the doctor. When he came out the doctor asked him to stick around for a few minutes while they went over the scans. Jack asked Casey, "Are you okay?"
"I have a few bumps and scratches, but I'm fine. Thank you." She said thanking him for helping her and preventing yet another rape.
"My pleasure." Jack said smiling at her.
The doctor walked back out and said to Jack, "You have a few bruised ribs, nothing broken, but it will feel like they are broken, and you also have a fractured skull. You need to be careful and not take any more hits on the head until it's healed. If you feel anything out of the ordinary, please come back to the hospital. The swelling should go down so I'm not overly worried about it. Here are prescriptions for both you and Ms. Feger. You both need to rest and relax for a few weeks."
"Thanks doc." Carlos said stepping up to grab the prescriptions "Is the pharmacy still open?"
"No, but if they need me to, I can go fill the prescriptions for them."
"Please, would you?" Carlos asked smiling at the doctor.
The doctor left the room to fill the prescriptions for them. The three just stood there, no one speaking, each exhausted from the long day. When the doctor returned, Jack and Casey thanked him and promised to take his advice.
When they returned to the bar, Hector was asleep on the couch with the others sitting out at the bar continuing their drinking. Jack walked into the back and relaxed into a chair. He was tired and all he wanted to do was fall asleep.
Hector woke up when he heard Jack walk into the room. Hector sat up and looked at Jack, "You look like hell."
"Thanks." Jack said smiling. He was not sure how to go about Hector at the time and his head hurt too much to think about it.
"Why don't you go home and get some sleep? Be back here by noon tomorrow. I need you go pick someone up for me at the airport." Hector said getting off the couch.
"Sure." Jack answered as he got up himself out of the chair, with the pain-killer kicking in and clouding his mind again. He walked out of the bar not sure of who Hector would want him to pick up. He knew Ramon would not come to the U.S. at the same time as Hector. It was too risky that they both could get picked up by the DEA or FBI. Jack said good-bye to everyone, assured Casey he would be fine, and walked across the street to his hotel room. When he got inside, he collapsed on the bed, every muscle trying to relax. He closed his eyes and allowed himself to drift off into the drug-induced state of mind, hoping it would lead to sleep.
He woke up from a knock on the door. It felt like it had only been moments ago when he had laid down to sleep. He opened his eyes to find the room full of light. Getting out of bed, his beaten body ached as he stumbled towards the door. When he opened it, the light came in blinding him.
"Jack, I knew I would have to wake you up." Pedro said walking past Jack who squinted in the light to acclimate his eyes to the light.
"What time is it?" Jack said in a rough voice with a hint of exhaustion.
"Eleven A.M. You better get ready. Hector wants you at the airport at noon." Pedro said sitting in a chair.
Jack closed the door and walked over to the chair grabbing whatever clothes that laid on the chair. He walked to the bathroom taking a quick shower and dressing up. He was ready to leave for the airport at 11:30.
Jack walked across the road to the bar to get his keys from Carlos who still had them from the other night. When he walked in, Ximen handed him a cup of coffee and said that Carlos was in the office with Hector.
Jack walked back and knocked on the door once waiting for the command to come in. He almost felt like saluting and reporting, "Sir Captain Bauer reporting as ordered." His old military ways were coming back to him, with that thought he heard Hector command, "Enter."
Jack opened the door and said, "Good morning. I need my keys." Looking at Carlos.
"Catch." Carlos threw the keys to Jack who caught them.
"Claudia is at the gate FF. Her flight should be on time. Take her to the Hilton and wait with her. Take her anywhere else she wants to go. If she needs anything or something happens, call me on Carlos's cell phone. Bring her around by seven and we will have the events from last night worked out."
"Yes sir." Jack said turning around and walking out of the office. He was not sure exactly what Hector's motives where at the moment. It could be just to get him out of the way or that he actually trusted Jack to pick up what he presumed was his girlfriend. Jack walked out of the bar with his cup of horrible coffee in hand. He took big gulp of it hoping to clear away the cloudiness and pain in his head.
As he got into his car, he noticed the slight stain left on his seat from his blood last night. He made a mental note to try to wash that out after he got done playing chauffeur for the day.
When he reached the airport he was only about five minutes late. The traffic was heavy going in and out of the airport causing him to have to drive slower than usual. He ran into the building, leaving his gun safely under the seat of his car. He found the gate and was relived to find that the plane was just now letting people off. He was not sure who he was looking for. There were a lot of Mexican women coming off the plane and that did not help. He hoped in vain that maybe she would find him. He watched the faces of the women hoping one would be searching for someone. He stopped on one woman, when he saw her he felt his heart jump a beat. She was beautiful and not just in looks, but everything about her was just right. He noticed she was searching for someone and decided she was the most likely candidate for being Claudia. Cautiously he walked up to her and asked, "Ma'am, are you Claudia?"
"That would be me. You must be one of Hector's new flunkies." Claudia said with a biting tone. She noticed the man as soon as she got off the plane. How could she? He was very attractive and at the same time rugged. She noticed the bruises and the cuts on his face, at least what she could see. He had sunglasses on that blocked some of the cuts out. She thought he was a man who looked good in sunglasses even if they were used to hide the marks of whatever fight he had last been in.
Jack smiled at her for a moment he found it weird to be labeled Hector's flunky. "That would be me." He said looking down at his feet as if he were not too happy with the label and then looked back up into her brown eyes and said, "I'll be your chauffer for the day. Why don't we go get your luggage?" He almost felt like saying Miss Daisy but that might have been taking it too far, and he did not want to piss her off because if she hated him, Hector hated him. He could already tell Claudia could wrap Hector around her pinky just by the way she acted. She did not take shit from no one nor did she dish out any shit.
When they reached the luggage carousel, Jack waited for her to point out her luggage he grabbed the big suit case and carried it out to his SUV. He put it into the back and walked around and opened the back door for her to get in.
"I'll ride up front with you." Claudia said brushing past him and opening the front passenger door. She looked at the seat and noticed the small blood stain.
Jack walked up to her and said, "Sorry about that. It just happened last night and I didn't have time to clean it up."
"Whose is it?" She asked not really caring to much.
"Mine." Jack said.
"Where does Hector have you taking me first?" She said not sure of how to proceed. She had not expected him to claim it even with the battle wound apparent.
"The Hilton to get settled in, then anywhere you want." Jack answered closing the door for her and walking around to the driver side of the car. He got into the driver's seat cringing slightly as he moved wrong and caused his ribs to scream in pain. He turned the car on and on the radio Neil Young's soothing voice came over.
You know I lose, you know I win
You know I called for the shape I'm in
It's just a game you see me play
Only real in the way that I feel from day to day
"You are more than welcome to change the station." Jack said figuring Claudia was not one to listen to Neil Young. He had always been a fan. Neil Young was the music he would listen to when he needed to relax or mellow some. It was almost like listening to a mother singing her child to sleep. His voice was so calming. His words full of a wisdom that most did not have.
"No, it's fine. It's your car anyway." Claudia said. She could tell in his voice that he wanted to hear this music. She started to think about him. He was not one of Hector's usual. He was kind and funny. The music said a lot about him too. Most of Hector's flunkies listened to rap or some other form of music she detested.
Although the answer is not unknown
I'm searchin', searchin', and how I've grown
It's not all right to say goodbye
And the world on a string doesn't mean a thing
To start a conversation up Claudia asked, "How long have you been working for Hector?"
Jack thought about the question had he really been working for Hector yet. "I'm not sure. I actually have been working with Carlos and running around for Hector. Does that constitute as working for him?"
"Yeah. If you work for Carlos, you work for Hector. What happened to you?"
"I ran into some people who were not too fond of Carlos and they made it known." Jack answered her, looking over to see her expression. She showed nothing as if he had just told her something she had known forever. She continued to stare ahead at the road as if everything he said was nothing. It drove him crazy to think such a beautiful woman could be wrapped up with Hector, but that was the way of life he thought pushing his thoughts out of his mind. Jack parked in front of the Hilton and helped her with her luggage to the check in counter. He carried the stuff up to her room and sat in the living room area of the big hotel room and waited for her to finish whatever she was doing.
Claudia had noticed the man trying to study her in the car. He was not a regular flunky. Most of the regulars would have just drove her to scared to look at her because she was Hector's. She hated the fact that they were all too scared of Hector; she missed the causal eye looking at her, admiring her. This man was different he acted as if everything was casual, as if he had no fear. There was more to him too, but she could not label it. There was this since of pain and sorrow he hid behind the mask of being the casual person with no fear. She had noticed the pain and sorrow in his eyes, or what she could see of them through the sunglasses. They were also a way of hiding himself, by using the glasses no one could see his eyes, or so he hoped. Because the eyes, as her mother had told her, are the doors into a person's soul. The eyes never lie.
With this revelation, she changed her clothes if she was to do whatever she wanted for the next few hours she would go shopping at Hectors expense, but first maybe lunch. She did not eat before she caught the flight and she was not fond of peanuts, especially airline peanuts. She walked back out to where he had been waiting and noticed his eyes quickly look her over. He still had the sunglasses on she noticed, even though they where inside and it was dark. "Shall we go?" She said walking up to him.
He stood up and answered with a smile, "Where to?"
"I'm hungry so how about some lunch? I assume you know your way around L.A. and will be able to find a good restaurant, just no Mexican. I'm tired of it." Claudia said walking towards the door.
Jack hurried in front of her opening it for her and holding the door as she walked through. "How about Chinese?"
"Sounds great. Can I borrow your phone to call Hector to let him know I am in?" She asked wondering if he had a direct line to Hector or if he had been so low on the food chain that it would explain his lack of fear.
"Yeah." Jack said grabbing his cell phone out of his pocket and handing it to her. "I assume you have the number?" He asked he had not put any numbers in his phone nor would he ever so the number Hector had given him was still in the car.
"Yes." Claudia said dialing Hectors cell phone number.
Hector answered the phone wondering who was calling him. "Yeah."
"Hector, it's me. We are going to lunch then shopping." Claudia said wanting to let him know that she was going shopping, which meant money would be spent.
"Good, spend as much as you want. Let me know and I'll make sure it is replaced in your account." Hector way of making up for keeping her confined to himself was letting her spend what she wanted, when she wanted. He set up a bank account for her so that she could do just that. "I'm really busy right now. I'll see you tonight." He said hanging up the phone and going back to the battle that ensued.
"Let's go." Claudia ordered getting into the car as Jack stood by the door he opened for her. That was something else she noticed about him, he was always kind. Opening the doors for her, Hector's other flunkies never did. They just got into the car and drove they had never learned any manners or at least didn't use them, whereas this man did.
"The Chinese restaurant isn't too far from here." He said as he started the car. Neil Young's voice coming over the stereo again singing about the Stringman. Jack subconsciously moved his fingers on the steering wheel as if he were playing the notes out on the guitar. Claudia noticed this and asked, "Do you play?"
Jack looked at her confused he did not know what she meant by play. "Play what?" He asked hoping his mind was going in the wrong direction.
"The guitar?" She answered smiling knowing where his mind had went to.
"Not really." Jack answered as he turned into the parking lot of the restaurant that Kate had introduced him to when they first started to date. She had been the one to take charge and asked him, which had caused him to blush that day. He never was good with the opposite sex, it was something that was not taught to him, and he could only do what was taught.
They both got out of the car and walked towards the entrance. When they got inside the waiter asked, "Do you want your usual seat, sir?"
Jack mentally kicked himself for bringing her to someplace where they knew him. It could only cause trouble. How was he supposed to be both people at the same time? "Sure." He said hoping that everything would work out.
"You bring a lot of women here?" Claudia said raising her eyebrows.
"No, I like Chinese food." Jack quipped back smiling at her. It was like two children playing with each other. Flirting back and forth, but both knowing it meant nothing or could mean nothing.
Jack watched Claudia's eyes study the restaurant and then turned to him. He watched as she looked at the clothes he wore and his body language. He could feel her dark eyes penetrate past the layers and feared for a moment she would see he was a fake. He took his sunglasses off because the restaurant was dark and it was hard to see with them on. He avoided making eye contact with her, he was not sure what his eyes would convey to her.
The waiter came over and took their orders and brought a bottle of wine over for them to drink on. Jack poured each of them a glass. They each took a sip and sat in an awkward silence neither knowing what to talk about. All of the small talk had been exhausted already.
"So I figured after lunch, we could go shopping." Claudia said to break the silence. She looked at him again and said, "If you are going to be my chauffer as long as I'm here, you have to dress differently. I can't take you in public places looking like a mafia wanna-be. We will go to a men's store first getting you some clothes. I'll pick Hector and Ramon something up while I'm there, too. You are a little smaller than Ramon so I'll use you as a guinea pig for getting him new clothes."
Jack was going to protest when Claudia interrupted him and continued on, "I figure that you aren't getting paid much therefore it is like pay so you won't have to worry about the amount spent. After that, you can give me your opinion on the different clothes I'll try on. In the end, it should be enough torture for you to go through."
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Kit and Nina had reached the building where the meeting was to go down. When they walked in there was already a large group of the guys ready to move out. The man Kit knew as Jim ordering people around. It looked like organized chaos.
Jim noticed them walk in and he said, "Finally, you got here. We are leaving out for L.A. in twenty. Get your stuff and be at the airport then. I hope your people have the money ready."
Nina inquired, "Why are we moving the mission up?"
"Word is that CTU has or is going to have someone undercover soon and are hot on our trail. If we want to get this done, we'll have to do it now or never. And we always finish what we have started so we go now."
Kit looked at Nina and for a moment was scared she would turn him in. Nina ignored Kit and said, "Fine. I'll let my people know. I'll meet you at the airport in twenty." She turned around and left the room for the car. Kit walked behind her still worrying. If he was older, he probably would have had a coronary at the moment.
When they got outside she was sitting in the driver seat so he got in the passenger seat and waited for them to be out of site of the building when he asked, "Why didn't you turn me in?"
"I don't know. Shut up. You are not going to warn CTU about this or I will turn you in." Nina said looking at him with a new cold look in her eyes. She was trying to answer the question herself. She had no real connections with him. He had always been the flunky around CTU. She was the one who recruited him, but that was just to maintain her cover as being Nina Myers the CTU agent who could find talent. She sort of hoped on turning him so when her cover got blown, as all covers do, he would still be there to feed her information. It did not quite work out that way.
They reached the hotel and quickly packed what ever they could and than drove off towards the air port. They reached the airport in just enough time to get on the plane which was a C-130. Jim bought it from the U.S. government a few years ago when they where selling some of their older plans off. He had used a friend in the British government to get it and it had paid off because he had now enough room to move his operation whenever he felt like it.
Kit sat next to Nina on one of the hard benches and contemplated what he was going to do as the plane took off. Somewhere along the flight, he must have fallen asleep because Nina woke him up when they landed laughing that he had slept through all the noise. When he walked off the plane, he noticed the medium sized airport and felt some relief at being home again, or at least what he had called home now.
Jim came off the plane behind Nina and said, "You two go get some sleep and meet back here tomorrow at three in the morning. We'll get set up and start the mission."
Nina and Kit walked to a grey Ferrari that awaited them and drove off. Kit asked while driving the car, "Where to?"
"We need to get some sleep. How about your place?" Nina said not wanted to stay in another hotel. She was tired of living in hotel after hotel and really missed having a place to call home.
Kit was taken off guard by her frankness. He had been thinking about it since he knew they were going to L.A., but at the same time he was not sure. It all was like a dream coming true, except that she still was a bad guy and he was one of the "good guys" in a sense. "Sure." Kit said after a moment of hesitation.
Nina felt his hesitation and for a moment felt sort of hurt. She was starting to like him more than she should. It was almost like her relationship with Jack again. She had a unexplainable tendency to find a guy she should not be with and want to be with him. Why? She never knew, but it always happened. "Good. Do you want to stop and get dinner?"
"How about we order a pizza? How long has it been since you had an Antonio's pizza?" Kit knew that used to be her favorite pizza and the only place to get it was L.A. from the small restaurant who made it.
"God, it's been ages. You know how to get to a girl's heart." Nina said smiling at him.
"No, just your heart. You are not a typical girl." He answered back before he thought he sat for a moment cringing mentally waiting for her to snap at him.
She looked at him and was not hurt by his words, "You're right on that." She answered as she pulled out her phone to call the number she knew all too well from her time in L.A. and ordered her favorite pizza with extra onions.
The rest of the night was uneventful. They had pizza and then fell asleep in front of his fireplace. Both were too exhausted from the lack of sleep to try to make a move on the other. Nina woke up in the morning by her phone ringing. She answered it and looked down at Kit who was still sound asleep. "Yeah." she said in a half-whisper.
"Just a friendly wake-up call. I know you're at his house and neither of you set the alarm." Jim's cold voice said over the phone.
"What are you doing calling me? You could blow it all." Nina said looking down at Kit who she hoped was really asleep.
"He just better do what you expect him to do or it's both of you. Get ready, we have to move today." Jim said before he hung up the phone.
Nina hung the phone up and gently shook Kit awake. "Rise and shine, we have work to do today. You are going to be able to go through with this, right?"
Kit half-awake mumbled, "Yeah. No problem. What time is it anyway?"
"It's one in the morning. Come on if you want to get in a shower and change I want to be there early to get all of the financial business done."
Kit got off the floor stretching and yawning. His back and shoulders popping he walked into the bathroom and turned the water on for the shower. After it warmed to a good temperature he got in and a few minutes later was joined by Nina. After they finished their shower both got dressed quickly finished off the pizza left over from the few hours before and left the house to meet back at the airport.
When they reached the airport, Kit was surprised to find there was just as much activity going on as there had been earlier. Jim sat in the back of the C-130 going over the final plans of whatever was going to happen during the mission. Each man was assigned a task and a certain part he was responsible for.
Kit and Nina waited in the back for the meeting to finish. Sirens were going off in Kit's mind. He knew he should call CTU that this would be the time to take the people down, but at the same time he did not want to betray Nina. He sat there, the angel and devil debated over and over what to do with neither side really winning against the other. Jim walked back to them and asked, "You ready?"
"Yeah." Nina said handing him her phone. She had already called his bank to confirm the transfer of the last amount.
"Good. Let's go. You guys are riding with me. How much do you know about this, Kit?"
"Nothing." Kit answered following behind him.
"Okay. So I'll brief as we drive over. Get in." Jim said as he used his remote key to unlock the car doors.
Kit got into the back of the car and awaited for Jim to fill him in on what was going to go down. He was reluctant at first to listen because if he knew he would not be able to feign not knowing if it came to it.
"Well. What's going to happen here is we are going to try and get a new virus that is on the market. We are going to set up bombs around the building we want to throw the power off and make it virtually impossible to track our entrance and exit. Then we are going to just walk into the place, grab what we want, and walk out. That simple hopefully." Jim informed Kit.
Kit looked at Nina, his conscience screaming for him to stop this before it got out of hand. She noticed the look in his eyes and tried to convey that everything was going to be fine the virus would not be used inside U.S. borders.
Kit noticed her and did not relax, but allowed himself to go along with it. He could always stop it later. At the moment he was enjoying the other side. Really, what did he get working at CTU? He was Jack's flunky and nothing else. He would always live in the shadow of Jack and if it wasn't Jack, then it was his father outside of work. It just wasn't worth it. Nina had seen him for himself and not as his father's son or Jack's protégé.
They reached the street the research lab resided on. Kit's nerves were in full gear and were ready for anything. Jim sat in the front seat and started the countdown. Until the bombs went off, they had ten minutes. With every passing minute, it felt like years had gone by. When he reached one minute, he started to count down from sixty, and when he reached zero, there were four or five loud sounds after one another in a timed sequence so it sounded like one long boom. Kit followed the two into the building with three other men and continued down the hall with them.
Jim stopped abruptly pulling out his Beretta that he secured a silencer to. He waited a few seconds for everyone to prepare to rush the room and used the gadget he brought with him. The gadget was a meter-like thing with a swipe card connected to it via a wire. He swiped the card and watched as the meter like thing figured out the number sequence needed to open the door. A few seconds later, the sound of the door's locks releasing filled the eerily quite hall. They all rushed in shooting anyone in the room. Kit rushed in, but did not fire. He was not that far removed yet that he could kill a innocent person. When they were getting ready to leave the room, Nina stepped out first and was met with a bullet that collided with her shoulder sending her to the ground in a screech. Kit reached out and dragged her back into the room.
A small squad of men in S.W.A.T. gear stood and the end of the hallway. Someone had tipped them off about the mission. They were ready to kill everyone in the room to keep the virus from getting out.
Jim pointed his gun at Kit and asked, "You sold us out, didn't you?"
Kit said while applying pressure on Nina, "NO, I didn't. I swear."
Nina tried to sit up but with a wave a nausea and pain she slumped back to the floor, "He didn't, Jim. I was watching him."
Kit felt hurt she was "watching him." Did that mean everything meant nothing?
"F$$k!" Jim screamed pissed off. He never failed and this was quite hard to get out of. He hoped the men outside were fighting to help them inside. "We got to get out of here. You two, I want you to get to where Kit and Nina are and cover fire for us. Kit, you are going to carry Nina out down the back stairs. There should be a car there to take us away."
"Fine." Kit said moving Nina farther back into the room and then hoisting her up to carry her out of the room. He waited ready to run as the two men started to cover fire through the door Kit took off out the door and down the hallway as quick as his feet could carry him and Nina. Behind him, when he reached the door, he heard Jim scream in pain. Kit did not look behind him. He assumed Jim had just been shot, and he was not going to stop to save the man. He had to get himself and Nina out of the place. When he reached the first floor, he looked out the back and noticed a black SUV sitting in the alley. There was no one in sight. Kit exited the door and placed Nina in the passenger seat and ran to the driver seat. He looked for the keys and found them under the seat. Starting the car he roared off into the early morning hours with Nina and the virus in the car.
Carlos decided to call Pedro to let him know what happened. Casey had told them she thought it was from the other gang that was there earlier that night. Carlos knew Hector would want a piece of the gang since they had threatened his life earlier that night. Carlos and Ximen went to the hotel first to check on Casey.
Casey sat inside with one of the hotel manager's shirts on and a blanket around her. She repeated the events for the two men and sat with the hotel manager as the two went over to the bar to wait for Hector and Pedro to show up. Casey was worried about Jack. She had only known the man for a short time and while he could be an asshole, he also had this caring side to him. He put his life in danger to save her. Most people in her life would never think of doing that or actually do it.
Pedro pulled the car into the back alley and slammed on the breaks suddenly. Hector had not been paying attention, nor would be able to notice that anything was going on because he was too drunk. "What the F$$K?" Hector shouted as he flew forward.
"Someone is lying in the alley." Pedro said getting out of the car. When he got around to the front he say what looked like Jack's unconscious body. Blood dripped down his face and pooled on the ground under his head. His body was in a weird position on the ground. Pedro walked over to him and gently turned him on his back, taking note of the different areas in which blood was coming out of. "Hector, I'm going inside to get some water to wake him up with." Pedro said after he stood up.
"Yeah. Get the others too. They are inside waiting on us." Hector said as he got out of the car and looked at Jack who now lay on his back.
Pedro returned with Ximen, Carlos, and a bottle of water. Pedro took the water standing over Jack and poured it out onto Jack's head. Jack jumped into semi-consciousness coughing. When he tried to sit up, his body ached. He stopped trying to sit up and returned to laying on the hard ground. He opened his eyes and looked around noticing everyone standing over him, not sure why he was on the ground.
Casey had walked over to check on the men to see if they wanted something while they were there and heard Pedro walk in and get Carlos. She trailed slowly behind hoping not to find Jack dead. When she walked outside, she noticed him laying on the ground eyes open, looking confused. She walked up to him, "Jack! Are you okay?"
Trying to sit up again ignoring the immense pain that shot through his body, Jack managed to slouch against the bumper of the car. He looked up and saw Casey, even though his head was pounding and every movement including his shallow breaths hurt he felt sudden relief that she was safe at the moment. "I'm fine." He answered finally in a deep rough voice.
"What happened?" Hector asked wanting to know who did this.
"How about we go over that later, Hector? Why don't Ximen and I take Jack to the hospital to get looked at, and then he can answer your questions. You already know who did this because I gave you the information. Do you absolutely need to know anything else?" Casey said trying not to anger Hector by telling him what to do.
Hector looked at her. At first, he was angry that she was trying to tell him what to do, but after awhile, what she said made sense. He thought about purposely going against what she recommended just to make a point, but he looked down at Jack who sat slouched against the bumper of the car blood draining down his head to his neck and then his wife beater.
Jack interrupted and said, "I don't need to go to the hospital. I'm fine."
"No, you go to the hospital with Casey. Get your head checked out, and get her checked out." Hector said putting an end to any debate. "Carlos, you go with them and handle any bills that they incur while you're there. When you guys get back, we can talk then."
Ximen helped Jack stand up. Once he was on his feet, Jack felt dizzy and was teetering. Casey walked over to him and gently put her arm under his to help him balance as he tried to get his bearing back. Together they walked to the front of the bar and got into Jack's SUV. Carlos refused to drive them in his car because he didn't want Jack's blood all over his car.
At the hospital few questions where asked about how the injuries where caused. The nurses noticed who Carlos was and figured the man and woman with him were just in his gang. They did not want any trouble and were not forced to report anything of this manner. A doctor sewed the holes in Jack's head and told him, "I believe we should do a CAT scan. You took a couple bad hits to the head and the ribs and that could have broken or fractured any of the bones."
Jack did not want to do a CAT scan, but Carlos had answered for him, "He'll do it." Carlos looked at Jack.
Both of them knew that if Jack continued to refuse, all Carlos had to do was call Hector like a bratty brother and tell him and Hector who was the lead role of the group, would be like the father, and make Jack take the CAT scan in the end. Jack decided to forgo all the trouble and just do what the doctor wanted for once. "Fine." He answered.
Casey and Carlos waited in the waiting room for Jack to remerge from the room with the doctor. When he came out the doctor asked him to stick around for a few minutes while they went over the scans. Jack asked Casey, "Are you okay?"
"I have a few bumps and scratches, but I'm fine. Thank you." She said thanking him for helping her and preventing yet another rape.
"My pleasure." Jack said smiling at her.
The doctor walked back out and said to Jack, "You have a few bruised ribs, nothing broken, but it will feel like they are broken, and you also have a fractured skull. You need to be careful and not take any more hits on the head until it's healed. If you feel anything out of the ordinary, please come back to the hospital. The swelling should go down so I'm not overly worried about it. Here are prescriptions for both you and Ms. Feger. You both need to rest and relax for a few weeks."
"Thanks doc." Carlos said stepping up to grab the prescriptions "Is the pharmacy still open?"
"No, but if they need me to, I can go fill the prescriptions for them."
"Please, would you?" Carlos asked smiling at the doctor.
The doctor left the room to fill the prescriptions for them. The three just stood there, no one speaking, each exhausted from the long day. When the doctor returned, Jack and Casey thanked him and promised to take his advice.
When they returned to the bar, Hector was asleep on the couch with the others sitting out at the bar continuing their drinking. Jack walked into the back and relaxed into a chair. He was tired and all he wanted to do was fall asleep.
Hector woke up when he heard Jack walk into the room. Hector sat up and looked at Jack, "You look like hell."
"Thanks." Jack said smiling. He was not sure how to go about Hector at the time and his head hurt too much to think about it.
"Why don't you go home and get some sleep? Be back here by noon tomorrow. I need you go pick someone up for me at the airport." Hector said getting off the couch.
"Sure." Jack answered as he got up himself out of the chair, with the pain-killer kicking in and clouding his mind again. He walked out of the bar not sure of who Hector would want him to pick up. He knew Ramon would not come to the U.S. at the same time as Hector. It was too risky that they both could get picked up by the DEA or FBI. Jack said good-bye to everyone, assured Casey he would be fine, and walked across the street to his hotel room. When he got inside, he collapsed on the bed, every muscle trying to relax. He closed his eyes and allowed himself to drift off into the drug-induced state of mind, hoping it would lead to sleep.
He woke up from a knock on the door. It felt like it had only been moments ago when he had laid down to sleep. He opened his eyes to find the room full of light. Getting out of bed, his beaten body ached as he stumbled towards the door. When he opened it, the light came in blinding him.
"Jack, I knew I would have to wake you up." Pedro said walking past Jack who squinted in the light to acclimate his eyes to the light.
"What time is it?" Jack said in a rough voice with a hint of exhaustion.
"Eleven A.M. You better get ready. Hector wants you at the airport at noon." Pedro said sitting in a chair.
Jack closed the door and walked over to the chair grabbing whatever clothes that laid on the chair. He walked to the bathroom taking a quick shower and dressing up. He was ready to leave for the airport at 11:30.
Jack walked across the road to the bar to get his keys from Carlos who still had them from the other night. When he walked in, Ximen handed him a cup of coffee and said that Carlos was in the office with Hector.
Jack walked back and knocked on the door once waiting for the command to come in. He almost felt like saluting and reporting, "Sir Captain Bauer reporting as ordered." His old military ways were coming back to him, with that thought he heard Hector command, "Enter."
Jack opened the door and said, "Good morning. I need my keys." Looking at Carlos.
"Catch." Carlos threw the keys to Jack who caught them.
"Claudia is at the gate FF. Her flight should be on time. Take her to the Hilton and wait with her. Take her anywhere else she wants to go. If she needs anything or something happens, call me on Carlos's cell phone. Bring her around by seven and we will have the events from last night worked out."
"Yes sir." Jack said turning around and walking out of the office. He was not sure exactly what Hector's motives where at the moment. It could be just to get him out of the way or that he actually trusted Jack to pick up what he presumed was his girlfriend. Jack walked out of the bar with his cup of horrible coffee in hand. He took big gulp of it hoping to clear away the cloudiness and pain in his head.
As he got into his car, he noticed the slight stain left on his seat from his blood last night. He made a mental note to try to wash that out after he got done playing chauffeur for the day.
When he reached the airport he was only about five minutes late. The traffic was heavy going in and out of the airport causing him to have to drive slower than usual. He ran into the building, leaving his gun safely under the seat of his car. He found the gate and was relived to find that the plane was just now letting people off. He was not sure who he was looking for. There were a lot of Mexican women coming off the plane and that did not help. He hoped in vain that maybe she would find him. He watched the faces of the women hoping one would be searching for someone. He stopped on one woman, when he saw her he felt his heart jump a beat. She was beautiful and not just in looks, but everything about her was just right. He noticed she was searching for someone and decided she was the most likely candidate for being Claudia. Cautiously he walked up to her and asked, "Ma'am, are you Claudia?"
"That would be me. You must be one of Hector's new flunkies." Claudia said with a biting tone. She noticed the man as soon as she got off the plane. How could she? He was very attractive and at the same time rugged. She noticed the bruises and the cuts on his face, at least what she could see. He had sunglasses on that blocked some of the cuts out. She thought he was a man who looked good in sunglasses even if they were used to hide the marks of whatever fight he had last been in.
Jack smiled at her for a moment he found it weird to be labeled Hector's flunky. "That would be me." He said looking down at his feet as if he were not too happy with the label and then looked back up into her brown eyes and said, "I'll be your chauffer for the day. Why don't we go get your luggage?" He almost felt like saying Miss Daisy but that might have been taking it too far, and he did not want to piss her off because if she hated him, Hector hated him. He could already tell Claudia could wrap Hector around her pinky just by the way she acted. She did not take shit from no one nor did she dish out any shit.
When they reached the luggage carousel, Jack waited for her to point out her luggage he grabbed the big suit case and carried it out to his SUV. He put it into the back and walked around and opened the back door for her to get in.
"I'll ride up front with you." Claudia said brushing past him and opening the front passenger door. She looked at the seat and noticed the small blood stain.
Jack walked up to her and said, "Sorry about that. It just happened last night and I didn't have time to clean it up."
"Whose is it?" She asked not really caring to much.
"Mine." Jack said.
"Where does Hector have you taking me first?" She said not sure of how to proceed. She had not expected him to claim it even with the battle wound apparent.
"The Hilton to get settled in, then anywhere you want." Jack answered closing the door for her and walking around to the driver side of the car. He got into the driver's seat cringing slightly as he moved wrong and caused his ribs to scream in pain. He turned the car on and on the radio Neil Young's soothing voice came over.
You know I lose, you know I win
You know I called for the shape I'm in
It's just a game you see me play
Only real in the way that I feel from day to day
"You are more than welcome to change the station." Jack said figuring Claudia was not one to listen to Neil Young. He had always been a fan. Neil Young was the music he would listen to when he needed to relax or mellow some. It was almost like listening to a mother singing her child to sleep. His voice was so calming. His words full of a wisdom that most did not have.
"No, it's fine. It's your car anyway." Claudia said. She could tell in his voice that he wanted to hear this music. She started to think about him. He was not one of Hector's usual. He was kind and funny. The music said a lot about him too. Most of Hector's flunkies listened to rap or some other form of music she detested.
Although the answer is not unknown
I'm searchin', searchin', and how I've grown
It's not all right to say goodbye
And the world on a string doesn't mean a thing
To start a conversation up Claudia asked, "How long have you been working for Hector?"
Jack thought about the question had he really been working for Hector yet. "I'm not sure. I actually have been working with Carlos and running around for Hector. Does that constitute as working for him?"
"Yeah. If you work for Carlos, you work for Hector. What happened to you?"
"I ran into some people who were not too fond of Carlos and they made it known." Jack answered her, looking over to see her expression. She showed nothing as if he had just told her something she had known forever. She continued to stare ahead at the road as if everything he said was nothing. It drove him crazy to think such a beautiful woman could be wrapped up with Hector, but that was the way of life he thought pushing his thoughts out of his mind. Jack parked in front of the Hilton and helped her with her luggage to the check in counter. He carried the stuff up to her room and sat in the living room area of the big hotel room and waited for her to finish whatever she was doing.
Claudia had noticed the man trying to study her in the car. He was not a regular flunky. Most of the regulars would have just drove her to scared to look at her because she was Hector's. She hated the fact that they were all too scared of Hector; she missed the causal eye looking at her, admiring her. This man was different he acted as if everything was casual, as if he had no fear. There was more to him too, but she could not label it. There was this since of pain and sorrow he hid behind the mask of being the casual person with no fear. She had noticed the pain and sorrow in his eyes, or what she could see of them through the sunglasses. They were also a way of hiding himself, by using the glasses no one could see his eyes, or so he hoped. Because the eyes, as her mother had told her, are the doors into a person's soul. The eyes never lie.
With this revelation, she changed her clothes if she was to do whatever she wanted for the next few hours she would go shopping at Hectors expense, but first maybe lunch. She did not eat before she caught the flight and she was not fond of peanuts, especially airline peanuts. She walked back out to where he had been waiting and noticed his eyes quickly look her over. He still had the sunglasses on she noticed, even though they where inside and it was dark. "Shall we go?" She said walking up to him.
He stood up and answered with a smile, "Where to?"
"I'm hungry so how about some lunch? I assume you know your way around L.A. and will be able to find a good restaurant, just no Mexican. I'm tired of it." Claudia said walking towards the door.
Jack hurried in front of her opening it for her and holding the door as she walked through. "How about Chinese?"
"Sounds great. Can I borrow your phone to call Hector to let him know I am in?" She asked wondering if he had a direct line to Hector or if he had been so low on the food chain that it would explain his lack of fear.
"Yeah." Jack said grabbing his cell phone out of his pocket and handing it to her. "I assume you have the number?" He asked he had not put any numbers in his phone nor would he ever so the number Hector had given him was still in the car.
"Yes." Claudia said dialing Hectors cell phone number.
Hector answered the phone wondering who was calling him. "Yeah."
"Hector, it's me. We are going to lunch then shopping." Claudia said wanting to let him know that she was going shopping, which meant money would be spent.
"Good, spend as much as you want. Let me know and I'll make sure it is replaced in your account." Hector way of making up for keeping her confined to himself was letting her spend what she wanted, when she wanted. He set up a bank account for her so that she could do just that. "I'm really busy right now. I'll see you tonight." He said hanging up the phone and going back to the battle that ensued.
"Let's go." Claudia ordered getting into the car as Jack stood by the door he opened for her. That was something else she noticed about him, he was always kind. Opening the doors for her, Hector's other flunkies never did. They just got into the car and drove they had never learned any manners or at least didn't use them, whereas this man did.
"The Chinese restaurant isn't too far from here." He said as he started the car. Neil Young's voice coming over the stereo again singing about the Stringman. Jack subconsciously moved his fingers on the steering wheel as if he were playing the notes out on the guitar. Claudia noticed this and asked, "Do you play?"
Jack looked at her confused he did not know what she meant by play. "Play what?" He asked hoping his mind was going in the wrong direction.
"The guitar?" She answered smiling knowing where his mind had went to.
"Not really." Jack answered as he turned into the parking lot of the restaurant that Kate had introduced him to when they first started to date. She had been the one to take charge and asked him, which had caused him to blush that day. He never was good with the opposite sex, it was something that was not taught to him, and he could only do what was taught.
They both got out of the car and walked towards the entrance. When they got inside the waiter asked, "Do you want your usual seat, sir?"
Jack mentally kicked himself for bringing her to someplace where they knew him. It could only cause trouble. How was he supposed to be both people at the same time? "Sure." He said hoping that everything would work out.
"You bring a lot of women here?" Claudia said raising her eyebrows.
"No, I like Chinese food." Jack quipped back smiling at her. It was like two children playing with each other. Flirting back and forth, but both knowing it meant nothing or could mean nothing.
Jack watched Claudia's eyes study the restaurant and then turned to him. He watched as she looked at the clothes he wore and his body language. He could feel her dark eyes penetrate past the layers and feared for a moment she would see he was a fake. He took his sunglasses off because the restaurant was dark and it was hard to see with them on. He avoided making eye contact with her, he was not sure what his eyes would convey to her.
The waiter came over and took their orders and brought a bottle of wine over for them to drink on. Jack poured each of them a glass. They each took a sip and sat in an awkward silence neither knowing what to talk about. All of the small talk had been exhausted already.
"So I figured after lunch, we could go shopping." Claudia said to break the silence. She looked at him again and said, "If you are going to be my chauffer as long as I'm here, you have to dress differently. I can't take you in public places looking like a mafia wanna-be. We will go to a men's store first getting you some clothes. I'll pick Hector and Ramon something up while I'm there, too. You are a little smaller than Ramon so I'll use you as a guinea pig for getting him new clothes."
Jack was going to protest when Claudia interrupted him and continued on, "I figure that you aren't getting paid much therefore it is like pay so you won't have to worry about the amount spent. After that, you can give me your opinion on the different clothes I'll try on. In the end, it should be enough torture for you to go through."
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Kit and Nina had reached the building where the meeting was to go down. When they walked in there was already a large group of the guys ready to move out. The man Kit knew as Jim ordering people around. It looked like organized chaos.
Jim noticed them walk in and he said, "Finally, you got here. We are leaving out for L.A. in twenty. Get your stuff and be at the airport then. I hope your people have the money ready."
Nina inquired, "Why are we moving the mission up?"
"Word is that CTU has or is going to have someone undercover soon and are hot on our trail. If we want to get this done, we'll have to do it now or never. And we always finish what we have started so we go now."
Kit looked at Nina and for a moment was scared she would turn him in. Nina ignored Kit and said, "Fine. I'll let my people know. I'll meet you at the airport in twenty." She turned around and left the room for the car. Kit walked behind her still worrying. If he was older, he probably would have had a coronary at the moment.
When they got outside she was sitting in the driver seat so he got in the passenger seat and waited for them to be out of site of the building when he asked, "Why didn't you turn me in?"
"I don't know. Shut up. You are not going to warn CTU about this or I will turn you in." Nina said looking at him with a new cold look in her eyes. She was trying to answer the question herself. She had no real connections with him. He had always been the flunky around CTU. She was the one who recruited him, but that was just to maintain her cover as being Nina Myers the CTU agent who could find talent. She sort of hoped on turning him so when her cover got blown, as all covers do, he would still be there to feed her information. It did not quite work out that way.
They reached the hotel and quickly packed what ever they could and than drove off towards the air port. They reached the airport in just enough time to get on the plane which was a C-130. Jim bought it from the U.S. government a few years ago when they where selling some of their older plans off. He had used a friend in the British government to get it and it had paid off because he had now enough room to move his operation whenever he felt like it.
Kit sat next to Nina on one of the hard benches and contemplated what he was going to do as the plane took off. Somewhere along the flight, he must have fallen asleep because Nina woke him up when they landed laughing that he had slept through all the noise. When he walked off the plane, he noticed the medium sized airport and felt some relief at being home again, or at least what he had called home now.
Jim came off the plane behind Nina and said, "You two go get some sleep and meet back here tomorrow at three in the morning. We'll get set up and start the mission."
Nina and Kit walked to a grey Ferrari that awaited them and drove off. Kit asked while driving the car, "Where to?"
"We need to get some sleep. How about your place?" Nina said not wanted to stay in another hotel. She was tired of living in hotel after hotel and really missed having a place to call home.
Kit was taken off guard by her frankness. He had been thinking about it since he knew they were going to L.A., but at the same time he was not sure. It all was like a dream coming true, except that she still was a bad guy and he was one of the "good guys" in a sense. "Sure." Kit said after a moment of hesitation.
Nina felt his hesitation and for a moment felt sort of hurt. She was starting to like him more than she should. It was almost like her relationship with Jack again. She had a unexplainable tendency to find a guy she should not be with and want to be with him. Why? She never knew, but it always happened. "Good. Do you want to stop and get dinner?"
"How about we order a pizza? How long has it been since you had an Antonio's pizza?" Kit knew that used to be her favorite pizza and the only place to get it was L.A. from the small restaurant who made it.
"God, it's been ages. You know how to get to a girl's heart." Nina said smiling at him.
"No, just your heart. You are not a typical girl." He answered back before he thought he sat for a moment cringing mentally waiting for her to snap at him.
She looked at him and was not hurt by his words, "You're right on that." She answered as she pulled out her phone to call the number she knew all too well from her time in L.A. and ordered her favorite pizza with extra onions.
The rest of the night was uneventful. They had pizza and then fell asleep in front of his fireplace. Both were too exhausted from the lack of sleep to try to make a move on the other. Nina woke up in the morning by her phone ringing. She answered it and looked down at Kit who was still sound asleep. "Yeah." she said in a half-whisper.
"Just a friendly wake-up call. I know you're at his house and neither of you set the alarm." Jim's cold voice said over the phone.
"What are you doing calling me? You could blow it all." Nina said looking down at Kit who she hoped was really asleep.
"He just better do what you expect him to do or it's both of you. Get ready, we have to move today." Jim said before he hung up the phone.
Nina hung the phone up and gently shook Kit awake. "Rise and shine, we have work to do today. You are going to be able to go through with this, right?"
Kit half-awake mumbled, "Yeah. No problem. What time is it anyway?"
"It's one in the morning. Come on if you want to get in a shower and change I want to be there early to get all of the financial business done."
Kit got off the floor stretching and yawning. His back and shoulders popping he walked into the bathroom and turned the water on for the shower. After it warmed to a good temperature he got in and a few minutes later was joined by Nina. After they finished their shower both got dressed quickly finished off the pizza left over from the few hours before and left the house to meet back at the airport.
When they reached the airport, Kit was surprised to find there was just as much activity going on as there had been earlier. Jim sat in the back of the C-130 going over the final plans of whatever was going to happen during the mission. Each man was assigned a task and a certain part he was responsible for.
Kit and Nina waited in the back for the meeting to finish. Sirens were going off in Kit's mind. He knew he should call CTU that this would be the time to take the people down, but at the same time he did not want to betray Nina. He sat there, the angel and devil debated over and over what to do with neither side really winning against the other. Jim walked back to them and asked, "You ready?"
"Yeah." Nina said handing him her phone. She had already called his bank to confirm the transfer of the last amount.
"Good. Let's go. You guys are riding with me. How much do you know about this, Kit?"
"Nothing." Kit answered following behind him.
"Okay. So I'll brief as we drive over. Get in." Jim said as he used his remote key to unlock the car doors.
Kit got into the back of the car and awaited for Jim to fill him in on what was going to go down. He was reluctant at first to listen because if he knew he would not be able to feign not knowing if it came to it.
"Well. What's going to happen here is we are going to try and get a new virus that is on the market. We are going to set up bombs around the building we want to throw the power off and make it virtually impossible to track our entrance and exit. Then we are going to just walk into the place, grab what we want, and walk out. That simple hopefully." Jim informed Kit.
Kit looked at Nina, his conscience screaming for him to stop this before it got out of hand. She noticed the look in his eyes and tried to convey that everything was going to be fine the virus would not be used inside U.S. borders.
Kit noticed her and did not relax, but allowed himself to go along with it. He could always stop it later. At the moment he was enjoying the other side. Really, what did he get working at CTU? He was Jack's flunky and nothing else. He would always live in the shadow of Jack and if it wasn't Jack, then it was his father outside of work. It just wasn't worth it. Nina had seen him for himself and not as his father's son or Jack's protégé.
They reached the street the research lab resided on. Kit's nerves were in full gear and were ready for anything. Jim sat in the front seat and started the countdown. Until the bombs went off, they had ten minutes. With every passing minute, it felt like years had gone by. When he reached one minute, he started to count down from sixty, and when he reached zero, there were four or five loud sounds after one another in a timed sequence so it sounded like one long boom. Kit followed the two into the building with three other men and continued down the hall with them.
Jim stopped abruptly pulling out his Beretta that he secured a silencer to. He waited a few seconds for everyone to prepare to rush the room and used the gadget he brought with him. The gadget was a meter-like thing with a swipe card connected to it via a wire. He swiped the card and watched as the meter like thing figured out the number sequence needed to open the door. A few seconds later, the sound of the door's locks releasing filled the eerily quite hall. They all rushed in shooting anyone in the room. Kit rushed in, but did not fire. He was not that far removed yet that he could kill a innocent person. When they were getting ready to leave the room, Nina stepped out first and was met with a bullet that collided with her shoulder sending her to the ground in a screech. Kit reached out and dragged her back into the room.
A small squad of men in S.W.A.T. gear stood and the end of the hallway. Someone had tipped them off about the mission. They were ready to kill everyone in the room to keep the virus from getting out.
Jim pointed his gun at Kit and asked, "You sold us out, didn't you?"
Kit said while applying pressure on Nina, "NO, I didn't. I swear."
Nina tried to sit up but with a wave a nausea and pain she slumped back to the floor, "He didn't, Jim. I was watching him."
Kit felt hurt she was "watching him." Did that mean everything meant nothing?
"F$$k!" Jim screamed pissed off. He never failed and this was quite hard to get out of. He hoped the men outside were fighting to help them inside. "We got to get out of here. You two, I want you to get to where Kit and Nina are and cover fire for us. Kit, you are going to carry Nina out down the back stairs. There should be a car there to take us away."
"Fine." Kit said moving Nina farther back into the room and then hoisting her up to carry her out of the room. He waited ready to run as the two men started to cover fire through the door Kit took off out the door and down the hallway as quick as his feet could carry him and Nina. Behind him, when he reached the door, he heard Jim scream in pain. Kit did not look behind him. He assumed Jim had just been shot, and he was not going to stop to save the man. He had to get himself and Nina out of the place. When he reached the first floor, he looked out the back and noticed a black SUV sitting in the alley. There was no one in sight. Kit exited the door and placed Nina in the passenger seat and ran to the driver seat. He looked for the keys and found them under the seat. Starting the car he roared off into the early morning hours with Nina and the virus in the car.