Pour Richard's

Monsters Chapter 6

Disclaimer: This is really stupid. If I owned 24 would I really be writing fan fiction about it on my sister's computer because my own ancient steam powered computer finally gave up the ghost? Well anyway I don't own it so there!

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The one thing Chloe O'Brian had that she was proud of was her brain. It was the one bright spot in what would otherwise be a dreary life. She didn't consider herself to be beautiful , or athletic, or popular. She had no musical or artistic talent, social skills, fashion sense, and very few friends. But the one thing she had was her sheer intelligence. It was the one thing that kept her life from being a worthless waste of time and the only reason someone like Jack would even consider her as a friend. She might not have been very wise, the few men she's had relationships with in the past proved that. But when it came to brainpower she'd met very few people in her life who equaled or exceeded her. As a matter of fact she considered most of the people she met to be rather stupid but learned at an early age that they don't like being told that. The man standing behind her watching her screen had a very good education and some very good computer skills but for all that she considered him to be stupid.

And at the moment her brainpower was being strained to its limits. She had to type in complex codes to a remote computer while at the same time remembering Morse code, train schedules, and other clues she dropped in. That coupled with the abuse she's gone through was giving her a splitting headache.

But right now she was in The Zone. Concentrating. No distractions. So she jumped a little when she felt a gentle hand on her shoulder. She looked up at John's strong handsome face as he gently touched her cheek. She stopped typing as he leaned over and gave her a deep kiss on the lips. 'Eww gross! He's kissing me!' She considered making a grab for the .45 M1911 automatic on his hip but resisted. Speed and agility were never her strong suites and any wrestling match with Goldilocks was one she was doomed to lose. Outcome C. So she resisted her gag reflex and endured the kiss. Then he pulled away and smiled at her.

"You're doing well Chloe, Keep it up."

She suppressed the temptation to spit or wipe her mouth and gave him a smile back that she hoped didn't look too much like a grimace. "Thank you John."

He walked back to his chair , "Soon we'll be very rich Chloe. We can go anywhere we want. We can even give you those breast implants you've always wanted. Think how pretty you'll be then."

Chloe's fingers curled into fists. 'That does it!' She thought angrily, 'I'm gonna slap the fillings right out of your mouth! I'll tear your guts out and strangle you with them!' She became aware of Rick looking at her suspiciously so she flexed her fingers and wiggled them then went back to work on the keyboard. 'I bet you think you're God's gift to women with your nice hair, handsome face, and muscles. You know who I think is even hotter and sexier than you? Edgar! Yes plump geeky Edgar was way more attractive than you'll ever be. And who else? Rodney Dangerfield, Marty Feldman, Oh! And the Elephant Man! Yes! I would rather have wet sloppy sex with the Elephant Man than have you ever lay another finger on me! And why? Because they were all good decent men while you're nothing but an evil sadistic lying sack of shit wrapped up in a pretty package! I bet you even have some sad whiney story you're going to tell me about how your daddy was mean to you, your mommy never loved you and your uncle molested you. Well I don't give a shit! There's no excuse for the things you've done and I'm personally going to see you. . . Dammit! Now you got me distracted. Gotta concentrate.'

John Snow leaned back in his folding chair and smiled. He could see that his kiss flustered Chloe. She probably couldn't believe her good fortune. She was falling in love with him. He could sense it. Women did find him irresistible. Like all women all she needed was a little discipline. Normally he wouldn't waste any time on someone like Chloe but he needed her skills so he would play along. By the time he dumped her and broke her heart she wouldn't have anywhere else to go. The pain it would cause her would give him additional pleasure.

CTU

Shari Rosenthal was still sitting at Patrick's station scribbling ABDN IND BLDG so she wasn't able to sit in at the conference. Patrick McCoy was reading from a sheath of papers torn from his notepad. "According to O'Brian she is within a 40 mile radius of the railroad trestle where Mueller handed her over. There are 5 hostiles present with semi-automatic weapons." He did some work on his laptop. "That coupled with the train locations would put her somewhere in this shaded area." The map appeared on the large screen. Patrick paused to listen to his headset. "Shari reports that it is an abandoned industrial building near a stream. She recommends doing a thermal and electromagnetic scan on the next satellite pass and overlay with previous passes to check for new activity."

"Yes," Bill said, "That's just what we did in the Heller kidnapping. Make it so."

"Point Mugu has an unarmed Mariner drone launched and en route to the area." Audrey reported. "They will transfer control to us as soon as it reaches the target area."

"I've got a tactical team standing by." Curtis Manning declared. He was already dressed in body armor minus the helmet. "We have a helicopter prepped and ready."

"I'm going with you." Mueller stated. Manning just glared at him. "I know how short handed you are and I'm fully responsible for everything that's happened to Chloe which is why I should help get her back. She was willing to sacrifice her life for my kids. It's the only thing I can do. After that I'll take any punishment you want."

Manning glanced over at Buchanan who nodded. "Very well Mueller, go to the armory and get suited up. And you'd better hope and pray we get Chloe back alive."

Georgy Porgy Puddin Pie

Kiss the girls and make them cry

Kiss the girls and make them cry

Kiss the girls and make them die

That damned song kept playing in Chloe's head. She sensed that the words of the song were wrong somehow. She wondered if John had charmed Amy before taking her down into the basement. Maybe given her the last kiss of her life. Tat-Face brought Chloe an extra large mug of hot coffee. "Thank you very, very much for the delicious coffee Michael." Chloe said in a sickly sweet voice. Tat-Face just grunted and left the room. 'I guess I'm the only one who's supposed to be polite around here.' she thought. Chloe was starting to get worried. Even stalling as much as possible she would be able to access the Sigma File in less than an hour. Before that happened she was going to pull the plug and crash all systems. Outcome C. She then planned to charge Goldilocks hoping he would panic and shoot her through the heart but she doubted that would happen. John didn't seem the panicky type. He and Rick would probably wrestle her to the ground then it's death by slow torture and a shallow grave somewhere. 'Oh well, A crappy end to a crappy life.' she thought. 'I'm still in control. They won't get what they want. My life is mine to give.' She hoped those boneheads back at CTU had caught on to what she was doing. Probably not. No one ever listens to Chloe. Oh well, it was worth a shot. Chloe felt a sense of failure. Jack needed rescue and she failed him. Amy needed justice and she failed her. The only thing she succeeded at was rescuing the Mueller children. 'Be good,' she thought. 'Be happy. Live good lives and be good people. Make this worth it.'

CTU

"Sir we have a probable location!" Patrick shouted. He and Shari were sitting next to each other heads together. Closer than most people dared to sit with Shari. As Karen approached Shari looked up. "It's this place here, the Pour Richard's Cement Company. They went bankrupt in 2000. Now there's new activity and a new satellite dish."

"Zoom in on that van," Karen ordered. She squinted at the screen. "They must have swapped the plates but I recognise the old Ross Perot and Save the Whales bumper stickers. That's the Weber van. We are go!"

Shari transmitted the coordinates to various stations and caused a bustle of activity throughout the building. The tactical team scrambled to the helicopter pad. Satellite pictures of Pour Richard's appeared on several screens.

"Point Mugu has transferred control of the Mariner to CTU. Transferring telemetry to your station Shari." Audrey announced into her headphone.

"I've got it, setting up steady orbit around the target." Shari replied.

Bill Buchanan spoke to the helicopter pilot on the radio. "Hotel One, we are sending topographical maps of the area. When you get five miles from the target fly nape of the earth along the marked route and land behind this hill west of the target. We don't want them to spot us too soon. Delta team can proceed on foot from there. At Delta One's order proceed to secondary landing area in the parking lot."

"Roger."

After that all they could do was watch the screens and wait.

Chloe was getting more and more worried. Nobody seems to have gotten her message and it was looking more and more like Outcome C. Twenty minutes tops. Strangely the idea of being tortured to death didn't seem to bother her as much as it should. There wasn't anything she could do about it but accept it. Besides it was her choice not to cooperate with these idiots. She was still in control. No matter what happened she was still going to win. She just felt rather embarrassed to be killed by a pack of third rate terrorists like these guys. She wondered how they would do it. The blowtorch, more beatings, skinning alive, then she heard John's voice.

"I'm sorry if I seemed harsh to you but I've had a harsh life. My father was a cruel man and my mother never really loved me."

"Oh you poor man!" she exclaimed. 'Oh Dear God no!' she thought, 'He's going to bore me to death!'

Curtis Manning listened to Shari's voice in his earpiece as he scanned the building with his binoculars, "There's one sentry outside and five people inside. The sentry's near that tree."

"Which tree?"

"I think you're facing him. Which way are you facing?"

Curtis bit back his anger. Eye in the sky required a lot of training to do properly and Shari had never been trained. That was going to change. He made a mental note to spend next week doing extensive training and drills for all the newbies both night and day. He wished Chloe was his eye in the sky. She wasn't just good, she was magic. As he scanned the area in front of him he caught a flash of light from some bushes and focused his binoculars there. 'Oh man! Nobody's that stupid!' "Two yards to the left of that Y shaped tree." he whispered. To his right he heard the dull cough of a silenced sniper rifle. Curtis then made a hand gesture and the Delta team rose and moved swiftly and silently toward the Pour Richard's Cement Company.

From the other room Chloe heard a loud bang followed by gunfire and shouts. "Quick! Get your rifle and see what's going on!" John shouted to Rick. "I'll take care of this whore!" As Rick ran toward the door Chloe heard the distinct sound of a pistol being drawn from its holster. She grabbed the edge of the table and leaped to her feet flipping the table with all its expensive electronics over on its side. In the same movement she somersaulted over the top. A bullet caught a fold in her sweatpants as she went over the table and landed on her back on top of the monitor and keyboard. The blow to her battered back sent a shock of agony through her that nearly made her pass out. Struggling to stay conscious she rolled to her left just as two bullet holes appeared in the table where she'd just been. She immediately rolled directly behind the bullet holes just as new holes appeared where she'd just left. She rolled behind the new holes as new holes appeared in the far end of the table. Chloe then heard the clatter of an empty magazine hitting the concrete floor and look through the holes at Goldilocks as he slapped another magazine into the .45.

'Oh great! He's circling around the table to see where I am.' She tried to stand up but her foot slipped in the spilled coffee and she fell flat on her butt, feet spread apart. "Dammit! I can't even die in a dignified way." She muttered as John came around the table and aimed his Colt at her.

"What did you do Bitch!" He shrieked.

Chloe gave him a slight smile. "You can't take my life from me." She whispered and closed her eyes. The sound of the gunshot was deafening. The impact on her chest hurt, but not as much as she thought it would.

Chloe opened her eyes and looked at the bloody mess on her chest. She felt a sense of peace. "My life is my gift." Her breathing got rapid and shallow and it felt like the blood was draining from her brain. Something seemed wrong.