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Eternal Bonds Chapter 10
Chapter 10
"Burke here." The man in question was pacing angrily in his control room.
"It's Garrett." The hushed voice of Gilbert Taylor's secretary said.
"Why are you calling me?" He asked suspiciously.
"We have a problem, sir. Jack Bauer showed up at the office yesterday with two others wanting to see Gilbert. Then he took him out of there. He probably knows where you are by now."
"Dammit! You assured me that everything would be fine. How could you let this happen?" He snapped.
"I'm sorry, sir. I couldn't refuse to let them in. It would have looked suspicious" she replied.
"It's a little late for sorries, isn't it?" he growled.
"What would you like me to do, sir?"
"Cover for him. If the authorities discover him missing, that could lead them to us. As for Bauer, we'll take care of him. Perhaps the death of the one person O'Brian would risk everything for will be enough to break her." He hung up and turned back to the monitor. Chloe was curled in a ball, lightly shivering in an attempt to get some warmth. How has she resisted for 2 years? I've made a career out of breaking people, both terrorists and feds. Some of my subjects were the toughest men I've ever met, trained for years to resist all forms of torture, and I broke them all. Why won't she break? What is it going to take to finish the job?
He was interrupted from his thoughts by his phone. "What?" he barked.
"It's Miles."
"Are you finally done?"
"Yes" Miles said.
"Good. Have it taken to O'Brian's cell and get back here." Let's see if you can resist this, Chloe.
....
Chloe remained huddled on the hard shelf, staring blankly into space, trying to block out the pain. Her mind flashed back to the past few months. Burke had been very angered that she still had not broken after 3 days of absolute deprivation, and had ramped up his efforts. She had been taken back twice more, silently suffering, each time taking a worse toll on her damaged psyche. The last trip, combined with a particularly brutal beating later, had caused her heart to give out from the strain. Only a frantic effort by her captors had saved her life.
Burke had been furious that she had almost died and executed the men responsible on the spot. He had backed off for a few days after that, leaving Chloe completely alone, save for her daily rations. The new men he had brought in to break her were even more brutal, pushing her even harder, at one point locking her in cold storage for hours. She had gotten a nasty case of pneumonia from that, the sickness nearly taking her life a second time.
Chloe rolled on her side, gazing up at the window, her thoughts turning briefly to those she had once considered friends. What friends? If they cared about me, they would have found me by now. Jack isn't coming. He abandoned me, just like he thought I abandoned him in China. Morris is probably shacked up with some hooker, getting drunk. Chase cut me off years ago. Tyler wouldn't lift a finger to help me. My "friends" have abandoned me. I guess I better accept that. I'm going to die in this hell, and no one cares. A single tear rolled down her cheek.
She looked up as her cell door opened and Burke walked in, followed by 2 men wheeling a table with restraints. "Secure her" Burke said. They dragged her over to the table and strapped her in. Chloe didn't even struggle.
"Change your mind yet, Chloe?" He asked, in an almost bored tone. She chose not to respond and was struck in the face, just like she expected. "Answer me!" She said nothing. He slapped her again. "I said, answer me, Chloe!" She still said nothing and just stared at him. How dare she? "I'm going to ask you one more time, Chloe. Give me those files or else."
Chloe had had enough. "You know what? Go ahead, kill me! You'll just lose that information, and I'll be free of you!" she yelled angrily.
"Oh, I'll do worse than kill you, Chloe." He motioned to a third guard, who slowly walked toward Chloe, lightly tapping a large sledgehammer in his hands. Chloe felt sheer terror rising inside her as he approached.
"What's it going to be be, Chloe?" He questioned.
Chloe fought down the fear she was feeling and turned to her captor. "No" she said simply.
"Fine" He turned to the guard, who swung the sledgehammer down on his victim's exposed legs. The screams of agony echoed all the way to the control room, where the sole occupant smirked in satisfaction. The guards released the screaming Chloe from the restraints and dumped her on the floor, walking out of the cell. Chloe tried to drag herself to her bed, but her legs made her unable to move, and she lay on the floor, begging whatever force was out there to take her.
...
Jack steeled himself for his task as he and his allies sped down the road in the dark and arrived at the bunker that Chloe was being held in. He silently offered a plea to whoever was listening that he wasn't too late to save Chloe.
"Is this the place?" Chase asked their hostage.
"This is it." He replied sullenly.
"Good" Jack said, and promptly knocked him out. He carefully secured him in the trunk of the car.
"What's the plan, Jack?" Morris inquired.
"Morris, can you hack into their systems?" Jack asked him.
Morris began typing on his laptop. "I can get into their systems. I can't see the cameras, but I can disable them." He punched in a few keys. "Done."
"Bring up a map of the bunker and send it to our PDA's." Tyler said.
"Done."
Jack studied the map he had gotten. "Morris, stay here and keep an eye on our captive." When Morris opened his mouth to protest, Jack held up his hand. "Don't argue with me, Morris. We need you here to keep the coms running." He turned to Chase and Tyler. "Chase, go in through the west. Tyler, take the south. I'll take the northeast. The first one of us to find her, contact the others."
The 3 agents split and headed towards the bunker. Jack slowly made his way toward the entrance, killing one of the guards and taking the other hostage. "Tell me what I want to know, and I let you live." The guard nodded frantically. Jack showed the map of the compound to the guard. "What room is Chloe O'Brian being held in?" The guard pointed to a small room 50 yards from the northeast entrance. "Give me your keys." Jack growled. The guard handed them over. Jack promptly snapped his neck.
Jack made his way through the corridors, silently taking out any guards he came across, until he reached the cell he was looking for. He shot both guards and unlocked the door, walking in and securing it behind him. He then turned around. What he saw made his blood run cold.
Chloe was hanging limply from manacles fixed to the ceiling, her badly mutilated legs dangling uselessly beneath her. She had been stripped completely naked, and her back had been shredded, a mess of old scars and fresh wounds. Jack just stood in place, horrified at the level of brutality that had been inflicted on her. Oh my god. What the Chinese did to me is nothing compared to what's happened to her. He shook off the shock and unlocked the manacles holding Chloe, lowering her gently to the floor. Frantically he searched for a heartbeat, relieved when he found one. I'm not too late. He touched his com unit. "This is Jack. I've found Chloe. I repeat, I've found Chloe." He held Chloe gingerly, the tears he had held back for months falling freely.
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agentobrian) wrote in ![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small}
chlack,
