She lead him back to CTU where Kim was trying hard to focus even though grief shone on her face.
Tony rubbed his face. He was hanging over Michelle's shoulder and staring at the computer. "We need those disks. Teri!"
Jack's new partner Theresa, or as he liked to call her, TC, hurried over to Tony. "What?"
"Do you have any idea where Jack kept those disks?"
"He kept pretty much everything close to the chest the past few days." She scratched the back of her neck, something she did when she felt cornered or uncomfortable. "I can see if I can find them but we went over the apartment at least ten times."
"Then go over it ten more times, we need those disks!"
"Tony!" said Michelle, outraged but TC just nodded submissively.
"The disks are not at the apartment, I hid them in the GPS system of the car" muttered Jack. He knew that they couldn't see him or hear him as this had not yet happened. This was after his death.
"They are never going to find the disks before it's too late and the virus you and your partner thought was completely destroyed will be released upon a small village just south of the border. Hundreds of people will die but they will be able to save thousands because they have come up with an antidote. But those hundreds of lives could have been spared if you hadn't decided to take your own."
He just looked down at the tip of his shoe. "How long after my death is this?"
"Two months. Kim is grieving because she has lost her child because of stress both of loosing her father and pressure from work."
"Jeez."
"When you died valuable information was lost with you and the people who cared about you were lost, not only because someone they could rely on was gone but because information they needed to save other lives died with you." She stared at him and saw that he was watching TC.
"Theresa Christine Lancaster, Half British, one third Mexican and one third Native American. She was the one who took the news the hardest."
He stared at Teri.
"She cared about you more than you could possibly imagine and she thought from the day she started working here that the two of you would be a indestructible team. She thought that the two of you were close friends, that the two of you could share everything. It was quite a shock for her to realize that you were a Heroin addict. She was completely devastated when she found out that the man she respected and everything but put up on a pedestal was nothing more than a-"
"Enough!" He didn't know how much more of this he could take.
"Not enough. This is purgatory, Jack. It's not a state of mind as you once thought, it is real. This is your punishment for your ultimate sin, ending your own life. You will watch and learn what will happen after your death."
"Please, it's enough to know that I could have prevented those people from dying."
"You could have prevented someone else's death as well."
He stared at her. "Please, no."
Suddenly they were in a dark and damp basement. It was hard to adjust the eyes to the darkness but after a while he could clearly see a rack, medieval style, in the middle of the room. His eyes fell on the person tied to the rack. "God, no."
"I'm afraid so. That's your friend, TC. The story leading up to this is that shortly after the case in Mexico she got a new partner. A good man but hardly of the caliber she was used to, he wasn't you. This will happen, with you dead or alive, the motive is just different. Anyhow; she is the most valuable agent CTU has at the moment and she is vital for the survival of the unit and terrorists know this and kidnap her."
"What organization?"
"I don't know. What difference does it make, you can't save her anyway, you're dead."
He ignored the fact that she was being harsh, he knew why. This was his punishment and he just had to kick it but he couldn't watch his partner, his partner being tortured. "I have to stop this."
"You're dead, Jack."
"Please, I don't want to see this" he said as a man walked into the room.
"I'm afraid you have to."
The man walked up to TC. "Will you give me a word now?"
She opened her eyes and stared at him. She had a busted lip, several bruises and a black eye and her hair was sticky with blood. "Here's two; fuck you."
The man smiled before he slapped her across the face.
She winced from the pain and turned away from him.
"Please" begged Jack.
"You care about her, don't you?"
He stared at the woman on the rack. "She's a friend."
"She's more than that, isn't she? She's the source of a crush and the reason why this is so painful is because you never got a chance to love her."
He stared at her before he turned back to TC. He then took a deep breath. "I never forgot you."
"You are allowed to love again. You would be inhuman if you never looked at another woman again and she is truly worthy of you. Too bad the outcome is what it is."
"No, please…"
"I'm sorry, but you have to."
The man stepped over to the wheel at the side of the rack. Ropes that were tied to TC's wrists and ankles were connected to that wheel and one didn't need much imagination to know what would happen next. "You know, Lancaster, the rumor has it that victims suffering the rack are longer when they die than when they were first tied up to the rack."
"Don't believe everything you hear."
He turned the wheel slightly and she screamed in pain as the ropes tied around her limbs tightened and stretched her body.
Jack instantly turned away. "Not again, I can't listen to this again."
"Sing out, little songbird" said the torturist. "Tell me where the information is and I will let you die in peace."
"Yeah, the information he wants…" started Teri. "Kim has it. If she gives it up Kim will die."
He stared at TC and propped his ears up as her cries slowly faded to whimpers. He could only imagine the pain she had to endure.
"Fuck you!"
"Hmmm" muttered the torturist. "Not the answer I wanted." He turned to the table behind him. "Apparently the rack isn't enough to tame you. Perhaps this will help." He picked up a scalpel and showed it to TC. "What do you think, Lancaster? Do you want to talk now? Everyone has a breaking point."
"Good luck finding mine."
"Much obliged." He cut through her tank top with the scalpel and folded it aside to reveal naked skin before he started cutting her.
Her eyes reflected the pain she felt and she gasped but before she started screaming everything turned black.