Hour 2
With several men restraining Jack, facedown with their knees firmly implanted into the small of his back, they clasp a new pair of handcuffs around his wrists. Jack’s feet are then shackled to limit his kicking ability. The men yank on the chain connected to his cuffs to bring him to his feet. Jack sneers to hide the jolt of pain that surged through his shoulders and neck from that jerk. It isn’t the worst pain he’s ever felt, but it was enough to remember that those muscles and joints still exist.
Despite his desire to cooperate for the moment out of sheer curiosity, his instincts were in high gear examining his captors. If he were to attempt an escape, this is not the opportune time. Even if he overcame all these men, he knew nothing of the facility outside the confines of his cell. He assumes that he’s below ground, but beyond that is speculation.
With a shove, Jack is pushed into the hallway. Just then, Jack could taste some blood on his lips. Was it his or the Colonel’s? He wasn’t sure, but Jack wondered how much they would clean up the room before bringing in the next prisoner. A blood-stained room may open the mouths of some prisoners a little easier than not, and a good interrogator uses everything to his advantage. Jack’s mind drifts on this thought briefly as he is lead down the corridor.
…
“Hopefully he was able to find something out,” a woman’s voice came from the other room.
“I hope so,” Kate replies, looking behind her. “We’re running out of options.”
“And time,” the woman says, walking into the room.
…
“It was never your government I was after,” Jack said. “I was exacting revenge on key individuals that had a price to pay. They just happened to work for your government.”
“Passion. That’s the other part of you I can respect.”
…
“No, sir,” replies the driver. “And we have the device ready for remote detonation.”
The woman pulls the flip phone from her coat pocket and hands it to Lebedev.
“Perfect. Within the hour, Moscow will know just how serious we are. Then they’ll have to listen to us after all this time.”
Hour 3
The intruder sat in an old wooden chair, his hands placed on either arm rest and restrained by zip ties at each wrist. His casual black t-shirt had been ripped off and dumped in tatters onto the floor. Kate nervously paced the room, concerned with how they had been found and, by whom. Just how many others had he told or knew of their presence here?
Belcheck emerged from the kitchen with a large glass, filled to the brim with ice-cold water. He walked behind the bound man and emptied the glass over his head, prompting him to awaken and jolt back and forth where he sat, sputtering weakly.
Chloe stared at him, arms folded. She continued to rack her brain, attempting to work out how this guy could know her, but to no avail.
Now awake, their captive threw a wry smile in Kate’s direction. She stopped pacing the room to look at him in disdain.
“You’re making a mistake here,” he challenged before she could say anything.
“No, you made the mistake by coming here,” Belcheck intervened before Kate could respond. “You are going to tell us what we want to know. Let’s start simple. Who are you?”
…
“I just wanted to tell you how glad I am that I joined your cause. Russia deserves what’s about to happen.” There was sincerity in her words, but mostly Katya has said this to impress Lebedev. But he continued to look at her with the same blank expression. Behind her back her hand began to tremble again.
“Thank you, Katya, for your loyalty. You have done some good work for us so far.” But his praise was flat and the words had a cold edge. Lebedev paused, and looked towards the rest of the group. “But we are far from finished yet. This is only the beginning.”
…
After what felt like an eternity, Jack was led towards a nearby car, black with tinted windows. Despite this it didn’t seem to stand out as a government vehicle. As Jack approached the car, the driver standing next to an open door identified himself as Ivan.
“He’s one of my best bodyguards. I’m sure you know what will happen if you test him,” Morozov informed Jack. Morozov’s constant reminders were beginning to irk Jack.
He got into the car, and much to his pleasure, it contained leather seats. ‘Nice to sit on something comfortable, for a change,’ he thought to himself. Ivan turned to face Jack. “Do not even think about escaping, Mr Bauer. Mr Morozov would not prefer not to have to go to Plan B, and I’d prefer not to get your brain cells all over my back seat. Are we clear?” Jack nodded, all the while thinking about how sadistic that sounded. He contemplated Ivan’s words for a while, mentally questioning whether that was how others perceived his own threats. He looked out of the window at Morozov as the car pulled away, and breathed a sigh of relief to be getting away from the prison, even if it was only temporary.
…
“You can’t stop it, or us.” That was the text message.
Before he could contemplate this message, Jack heard a loud sound from the east. He rushed to one of the windows and looked out towards the city. A large cloud of black smoke billowed above the buildings.
These were just snippets from the posts. Hour 2 can be found at 24faithful.com, while Hour 3 won’t be available until March 2nd.