Thanks again for all of the great reviews. Thanks, too, to those of you who went back and read some of my old stuff and took the time to review!
Chapter 4
Kate stood in the den staring at a picture on Jack's desk. It was a picture of she and Jack sitting on a hospital bed just a few hours after Ryan was born. She was holding their newborn son and Jack was holding two-year-old Mason. The smile on her face belied her exhaustion after twelve hours of laboring with a nine pound baby. Neither Mason nor Jack was looking at the camera, but were focused on the new baby. Ryan was amazingly alert for being only a couple of hours old. His blue eyes shone even then. She loved that picture. It captured the happiness of a moment like few others she had ever seen. It stood in such stark contrast to the moment she was living now. A moment in which she didn't think she had ever felt so utterly helpless or alone and that was saying something. She had felt pretty helpless and alone when her mother died and again when she was hit by the reality that her sister was working for a terrorist group and yet again the day Jack was shot. Then, of course, there was the day two months after her bitter break up with Jack that she realized she was carrying his child and he was on an undercover mission God-knows-where. When she thought back, that day had been by far the worst. She felt that she had no control over those other events. But getting pregnant while her relationship with Jack was about to collapse was her fault. She had no one to blame but herself and Jack and he was no where to be found.
But today… Today was worse. Much worse. Today her sons, whom she loved more than she had ever thought it possible to love another human being, were missing. No one had ever warned her how strong a mother's love could be or how broken that same mother's heart was when the child was gone. They weren't gone! She admonished herself for thinking it. They're lost. Jack will find them. She repeated it like a mantra in her mind.
That didn't make her feel any more helpful. Jack and Tony were out searching and Michelle was helping the local authorities coordinate the search. She sat at the dining room table, which was now strewn with laptops and maps and search grids, and helped plot the movements of the search teams. On top of that, Michelle had Carmen who needed her. Grace and Loretta were buzzing around taking care of everyone. Her father was dealing with the media. News reporters littered the yard. This was a big story. The sons of Warner Enterprise's CEO are missing…See the latest developments on the 11 o'clock news.
Thank God her father was dealing with those crazy reporters. But that meant everyone had a role except Kate who wandered aimlessly through the house wondering if her children would ever come home. What if they didn't? How would she go on? How would Jack react? Was their marriage strong enough to survive that kind of tragedy? Why had she been so against having more children when Jack wanted to try for a daughter? She could be like Michelle right now. Michelle had Carmen. Even if she had had another boy, she would have had someone to hold onto right now, like Michelle did. It was all pointless speculation. She had no way of knowing what would happen next nor did she have any control over it. All she could do was wait and pray and cry her heart out and she had been doing all of that for the last 24 hours already.
Peggy walked with the four children through the woods toward the lean-to shelter that she and Vernon and Roger had noticed several days earlier when they first set up camp nearby. She had been nice to the children and they had begun to trust her. They also felt badly that she had been beaten by Vernon while trying to defend Rico and wondered how their fathers would have reacted had they been there to witness it.
"There it is, up ahead," Peggy told her young charges as she pointed toward a crude shelter. "It ain't much but for tonight it'll be home. Guess it's not the kinda home you kids is used to, is it."
"It's just a little after six o'clock, ma'am," Mason noted. "It won't be dark for a couple of hours. If you would help us, we could get a good start on getting out to the main road where we could get some help. We just want to get home."
"Look, ya'll seem like real nice kids to me and I'd like ta help ya, I really would. But ya'll seen what I'm up against. I can't fight Vernon or Roger neither. Roger tol' me ta bring ya to the lean-to and I done it. I got some blankets for ya. Now get some rest and we'll get ya back home in the mornin'." Peggy felt bad for lying to the children. According to Roger, she and Vernon and Roger would be no where to be found by tomorrow morning. Besides, tomorrow was Saturday and they had to be in Seattle late Saturday afternoon to complete their mission. They couldn't play nursemaid to lost kids.
Peggy started to walk away and Lucy and Ryan both started crying. They were scared and tired and desperately hungry and the only person who had shown them any compassion was leaving them. Mason and Rico wanted to cry, too but as the self-appointed leaders of the group, they did their best to suppress their emotions.
"Now don't start doin' that," Peggy said in an exasperated voice. "What're ya'll cryin' for. I done tol' ya we'll git ya some help in the mornin'."
"Ma'am," Rico said as politely as he could. "We're just really hungry and scared and we know our parents are worried to death. We want to go home. Please don't yell at them for crying."
Peggy's expression softened and she looked down. "I know you're scared. Sometimes I git scared, too." She paused for a moment. "Maybe I can git ya some food and at least ya won't be hungry no more. That's the best I can do. Gimme some time. I have to do it when Roger and Vernon ain't looking or else… Well never mind. I'll be back soon as I can."
Jack checked his watch for the thousandth time. "Damn it! It's 6:30 and we're no closer to finding the kids than we were this morning." He was exhausted but refused to let it show.
"Come on, Jack," Tony said knowing his friend and business partner almost as well as he knew himself. "Let's take a break." Tony sat down on a large rock and opened his backpack to get water.
Jack did the same and took out a two way radio. "Base, this is Bauer," Jack said into the radio. "Do you copy?"
"We copy, Jack," came the reply from Wes Grimes.
"Have you heard anything from any of the teams? Have they found any evidence of the kids?"
"Negative, Jack."
"Are the chopper pilots seeing anything from the air?"
"No, the tree cover is too dense in most sections for them to get a good look. It's going to be dark in about 2 hours. At that point I'm going to have everyone make camp for the night. We'll start again with first light. If you and Tony want to come back to be with your wives tonight, I can have a chopper pick you up in the closest clearing."
Jack looked at Tony who shook his head declining the offer. "Negative. We'll stay out here tonight. We get an earlier start in the morning that way."
Jack didn't want to think about darkness or having to spend another sleepless night without his children. Nor did he want to think about what Kate was going through back at the house. The last time he was this scared, Kim was being held by the Drazens. He knew that in this case, it was most likely that the children had just wandered off and gotten themselves lost as opposed to all those years ago when he knew that his baby was being held by people who would happily kill her. But still, he worried. What if they were wrong? He and Tony and Michelle had all made plenty of enemies in their previous jobs. What if one of them was here now and had abducted their children?
"Jack," Tony said as if reading his mind. "If someone had the kids, they would have made some attempt to contact us by now. If they put time into tracking us down and finding a way to take our kids, they would want us to know who they were and that they were exacting revenge for whatever wrongs they felt we had done to them."
"I know," Jack said without looking up. "I still can't help but worry. I thought we would have found them by now. Kate and Michelle must be going crazy at home."
"At least Michelle has Carmen. I'm more worried about Kate," Tony said.
"Bob and Grace are there with her." Jack said. "They'll take care of her. I'm grateful she has them."
They each drained a water bottle without saying anything more. Revitalized, Jack looked again at his watch and then at the sky. "Come on," Jack said as he stood up with the help of his cane. "We can still cover a lot of ground before dark."
The Bauer and Almeida children sat dejectedly on the ground near the lean-to. Lucy and Ryan were no longer crying but none of the children was particularly cheery at the moment. They were all hoping that Peggy would come back with food soon and that the sun would set so they could sleep. The sooner night came, the sooner morning would get here and they could head home.
The four waited and waited for their food to arrive. The sun went down and plunged the woods into a deep darkness. The clearing they slept in the night before allowed them to see the moon and the starts. Tonight they were in a dense section of forest and unable to get much light from the celestial bodies.
"I really thought she would come back with food," Lucy said softly, her voice trembling. "I really believed her."
"I think she tried, Lucy," Ryan assured her. "I don't think she could get away from the two men. If they caught her Vernon was going to beat her up again."
"Let's try and forget that we're hungry and get some sleep," Rico suggested.
They spread out the blankets that Peggy had given them and bunched up their beach towels to make pillows. They had just stretched out on their makeshift beds when Ryan saw a weak beam of light coming through the woods.
"Hey, look!" he exclaimed as he jumped up and ran toward the flashlight beam. "I knew you would come back."
Sure enough Peggy was making her way through the darkness with a bag in her hand. Ryan grabbed her arm and pulled her back to the lean-to.
"See! I told you she'd come back," Ryan said with his faith in human nature now restored.
"It ain't much," Peggy told them. "I got some peanut butter sandwiches and some cookies. That oughta hold ya til mornin'. Oh, and I brung ya a flashlight. I thought ya might like that. It gets awful dark with all these trees."
The children devoured the sandwiches and thanked Peggy profusely. Ryan rewarded her with a hug and a small kiss on the cheek. She said good night to them and was barely able to control her emotions. She hated that Roger was going to strand the kids out here but she knew better than to argue with him. He stopped Vernon from beating her earlier, but she knew that he had no qualms about having Vernon beat her if she gave him a hard time.
The children settled in and tried to sleep. Ryan stared up into the darkness feeling particularly lonely. "I like that lady," he said. "She reminds me of Mom."
"What?" Mason exclaimed incredulously as he sat up. "Our Mom? Ry, are we talking about the same person? Our Mom, the woman who speaks perfect English and has never been that dirty in her entire life. Are you out of your mind? They have nothing in common."
"I didn't say she looked or talked like Mom, Mason. I just think she's nice like Mom," Ryan clarified his statement.
"She is a nice lady," Lucy agreed nodding. "She needs to get away from that awful man. Maybe Daddy would know how to help her. What do you think, Rico? Maybe when they take us to find the police we can tell the police how that man hit her."
"Maybe we can," Rico said, "but for now, let's just concentrate on getting some sleep and getting home tomorrow."
They all lay back and tried sleeping one more time. Rico and Mason and Lucy fell asleep pretty quickly. Ryan, on the other hand, lay awake worrying about Peggy. What if Vernon figured out that she brought food to them? He would beat her up again. The more he thought about it, the more worried he became. He finally decided that he had to go back to the campsite and make sure Peggy was okay. He found the flashlight that Peggy brought them lying between Rico and Mason. Then he crept quietly away so as not to wake the others.
Jack and Tony sat on the ground next to Chris and Nick, the officers they had been assigned to for the search. All of the teams had been told to make camp when it became dark. Now they were sitting in silence eating military style MREs and reviewing the events of the day in their heads.
The silence was broken when the two-way radio crackled to life. It was Wes Grimes calling the teams from his makeshift command center at the Bauer house to conference together over the radio. They reviewed and updated the search grids and discussed their strategy for continuing the search the next morning.
Carmen was sitting half asleep on Michelle's lap during the conference call when Tony's voice came through the radio. The little girl jumped to the floor suddenly awake and alert.
"Daddy! Daddy!" she cried as she grabbed the microphone from Grimes' hand. "That's my Daddy! Daddy, are you alright?"
Despite his exhaustion and his grim mood at the moment, Tony broke into a broad grin when he heard Carmen's sweet voice. "I'm fine, Sweet Pea. Are you okay?"
"I miss you, Daddy. When are you coming home?"
"I'll be home just as soon as we find your brother and sister and Mason and Ryan, Honey," he told her. "You've got to hold on a little longer, Carmen. I'm going to get back to you and Mommy just as soon as I can. I want to make sure that I bring Lucy and Rico with me."
"Okay, Daddy. If you say so," Carmen answered reluctantly. "Come home soon."
"As soon as I can, Honey," Tony said trying to get his emotions in check. "Hey, I think it's bedtime. Why don't you get some sleep. Mommy will give you an extra goodnight kiss for me. Okay?"
"Okay, Daddy. I love you."
Tony bit his lower lip trying again to keep his emotions from spilling over into his voice. "I love you, too, Sweetheart. I'll see you soon."
The poignant exchange between father and daughter had been heard by all of the search teams. Some of the men felt a little guilty that they had been a part of what should have been a private moment. But for all of the searchers, it was a much-needed reminder of why they were all camped out in the woods that night. In their exhaustion, many of them were beginning to wonder if finding four lost kids was worth all of this effort. Listening to Tony talk to Carmen and remembering their own families at home renewed their sense of urgency to find the children.
After the conference with the search teams, Michelle picked up Carmen and carried her to the Bauer's guest room. Loretta had turned down the bed and Carmen slipped easily under the covers as soon as Michelle set her down.
"Did you like talking to Daddy over the radio?" Michelle asked her daughter.
"No," Carmen answered without hesitation.
"No?" Michelle asked incredulously. "Why not?"
"I want Daddy to be here. I don't want to talk to him over the radio." Carmen retorted.
"Honey," Michelle said gently as she sat down next to Carmen on the bed. "Daddy is out finding Rico and Lucy. He'll be home as soon as they're safe. If you were lost, wouldn't you want Daddy to come and find you?"
"I'll never get lost," Carmen informed her mother.
"Oh, you won't?"
"No, I won't go that far away from you. I can't get lost if I just stay close to you," Carmen said innocently.
Michelle smiled. It was all so simple to Carmen. She liked the way Carmen's mind worked and wished hers worked the same way sometimes, but years of CTU and nuclear warheads and deadly viruses had changed her way of thinking. Carmen reminded her of simpler times with no worries. She kissed her daughter once for Tony and once for herself and sat on the edge of the bed while the pretty little girl drifted off to sleep. Michelle's heart ached as she sat watching Carmen sleep. She was worried about Lucy and Rico and she missed Tony. She was tired of putting up a strong front for Carmen's sake. She envied Kate at the moment. Kate could break down any time she wanted. No one was counting on her to be strong and, although Jack wasn't there, Kate's father was a wonderful source of support. Michelle wanted nothing more than to break down in Tony's arms. It always amazed her that she could derive so much strength from Tony. He didn't have to do or say anything; just having him near was enough to get her through every rough situation they had ever faced.
When Peggy left the children, she made her way back to the campsite in a roundabout manner. She had gotten away from Vernon and Roger by saying that she was going to a nearby stream to wash up. She needed to detour to the stream and at least wet her hair and make it look as if she had washed. She decided not to hurry back. Since Roger had decided that they would move their campsite, that meant that he and Vernon would be busy packing up. She was in no mood to pack all of their equipment. So the longer it took for her to get back, the less she would have to help.
Vernon and Roger sat on the ground outside one of their tents huddled near a battery operated lamp. They had a map spread out between them. Ryan caught site of the lamp when he was still a few yards away so he extinguished his flashlight to help preserve the battery. He looked around for Peggy but didn't see her; he crouched low behind some branches to wait for Peggy.
"Where's Peggy?" Roger asked.
"I dunno," Vernon answered. "She went down the stream to wash up and she ain't come back yet."
"That was ages ago. How long can it take her to wash up?"
"Considerin' how filthy she was, it might take her pretty damn long," Vernon laughed uproariously obviously proud of himself that he had come up with what he considered a hilarious joke.
Roger clearly didn't find the joke funny and Vernon seemed hurt when Roger didn't laugh. "Well she better get her ass back here soon. We need to review the plan and I only intend to go over it once," Roger said.
At about the same time, Peggy emerged from the tree line at the opposite side of the camp from where Ryan was hiding. She walked casually toward Vernon and Roger. She looked around the campsite and was disappointed to see that nothing had been packed. It figured the two men were waiting for her to do all the work.
Roger looked up from the map. "Oh, there you are. I thought you abandoned us."
"Not hardly. How the hell would I git back to civilization? Whether I like it or not, I'm in this thing for the long haul. I'm only here to make sure you don't try cheatin' Vernon here outta our share of the money. You're payin' us $50,000 and not a penny less. I ain't sleepin' out here on this cold ass ground 'cause I think it's fun, ya know."
"Nobody's trying to cheat you out of anything. You do your job; you get your money. Then you can go back to Arkansas or Tennessee or Alabama or wherever the hell you're from. Fifty thousand dollars in those back woods you live in ought to make you rich. Now, sit down! We need to review the plan."
Ryan stayed huddled behind the brush while listening to the conversation. Peggy sat down and Roger continued talking.
"Saturday morning we head out for Seattle. Once we get into the city, we need to separate. We can't be seen together and I have to verify that the layout of the Asian Heritage Festival is identical to the proposed map that we have. You'll meet our contact at 4 o'clock at a warehouse at the corner of West Road and President Street in an industrial section of the city. The area should be pretty well deserted at that hour on a Saturday afternoon."
"What do ya mean 'pretty well deserted'? You tol' us this was an abandoned warehouse," Peggy reminded him.
"It is, more or less. The property was recently purchased by Warner Enterprises. They haven't moved in yet so it's empty inside. They also haven't installed an alarm system yet, so you don't have to worry about that."
Ryan held his hand over his mouth to keep from squealing out loud. Peggy wasn't a nice person after all. She and Roger and Vernon were going to break into the warehouse that his mother's company had just bought. Ryan sat stock still trying to hear the rest. Now he had to get back home to warn his mother.
"Our contact has been staking out the warehouse and says it's safe."
"How will we reco'nize this 'contact'?" Vernon asked.
"He'll be the guy with the explosives, you idiot!" Roger hissed angrily. Roger took a breath to calm himself and focused his attention back on the map. "You two will be at the warehouse. This guy is an explosives expert. He was trained in the army, so he knows what he's doing. He'll walk you through it. You have to construct each of the bombs so that after the festival ends on Saturday night, we can go in and place them. They'll all be remote control accessed. At 4 o'clock on Sunday, when the festival is packed, we'll blow the charges."
"Yeah, and we blow them gooks all ta hell!" Vernon sang happily.
Roger chose to ignore the comment. Vernon's motivation here was his obvious prejudice against anyone he didn't consider "American." Roger's motivation was purely the money. He had spent a number of years in the Marines but, as far as he was concerned, they hadn't appreciated his talent. He had been considered "labile" and "extremist" by more than one commanding officer and further advancement in the military was unlikely. He eventually opted not to reenlist and take an honorable discharge. Since then he had become a mercenary. Actually the term "soldier of fortune" described it better. He had amassed exactly that, a fortune, selling out his services to the highest bidder working for terrorist organizations all over the world while managing to stay under the FBI, CIA and Interpol radar and living in a penthouse apartment in Manhattan.
This was the first time he had participated in an attack on American soil. Not that he felt any particular loyalty to the U.S., he just hadn't had the right offer. That is, one that paid enough and that didn't risk blowing his cover. That was up until now. A white supremacist group was looking for someone to place a terrorist strike in the heart of Seattle. They wanted a maximum of Asian casualties to make a point that the influx of Asians into, particularly the western part of the U.S. was unacceptable and would no longer go on unchallenged. Their reasoning wasn't important to Roger. What was important was that they were willing to ante up millions of dollars to make it happen. By the time Roger paid all of his expenses, he would net about $3.5 million hidden safely away in a numbered account in Switzerland.
"We also have to blow up the warehouse to prevent the police from finding any evidence there." Roger explained to them. He neglected to mention to Vernon and Peggy that they would be in the warehouse when it blew up. Soon after Roger signed them on he realized that they were a liability. He knew that Vernon's heart was in it, but the fool was too stupid to keep his mouth shut. He told Vernon not to involve his wife, but idiot that he was, he told Peggy everything thinking that she would want to be a part of it. Peggy was somewhat less prejudiced than Vernon but not so much that the plan bothered her. She, like Roger, was more interested in the money and decided to go along to make sure that they were paid their due.
"With an explosion and fire at the warehouse and the explosions at the festival, we'll have plenty of time to slip out unnoticed," Roger continued.
"Where'll we meet ya ta get outta the city?" Peggy asked.
"I haven't decided yet. I'm considering two different exit strategies. After I see both routes, I'll make a final decision and we'll set a rendezvous point," Roger lied without compunction.
Peggy and Vernon nodded indicating that they were satisfied with the plan.
"Are we gonna pack up now and move camp?" Peggy asked.
"Why would we do that, woman?" growled Vernon.
"So the kids can't find us in the mornin'," she explained to him.
"We aren't moving our campsite, Peggy," Roger said as he turned his back to her.
"Well those kids is gonna be here lookin' for us bright an' early tomorrow mornin'. They wanna go home, Roger," Peggy reminded him.
"They aren't going to come looking for us, Peggy. Don't worry about it," Roger responded.
"The hell they ain't. How ya gonna stop 'em from coming ta look for us?" Peggy asked.
Roger turned to face her. Ryan noticed that even from a distance Roger's face looked menacing in the light of the portable lantern. Roger spoke without emotion, "We're going to kill them."