Read 24: Deadline (24 Series) for Free Online Page B

clothes in a loose heap on the bed, and the suitcases he had packed for his flight back to Los Angeles lay empty on the floor. As he expected, they had taken his laptop computer—not that there would be anything on there for the police or the FBI to use against him—and run a fine-tooth comb over everything else.
    When he entered the bathroom, he knew immediately that the investigators had found the go-bag he stashed there. A tile was missing from the hung ceiling over his head, and he peeked up into the darkness within, seeing nothing but dust and cobwebs. Like the escape route, the go-bag was another habitual tic that helped Jack Bauer sleep better at night; a small, waterproof drawstring sack containing a first-aid kit, a survival knife, cash and a few fake IDs. In the event that it all went to hell, it was the one thing he could grab and go. Jack nodded at his reflection in the bathroom mirror. He expected this. The FBI investigators knew the kind of man he was, and they would have known to look for the bag.
    And so when they found it, they probably wouldn’t have looked for the second emergency stash that Jack had hidden inside the smoke hood of the cooker in the kitchen. It was still there, a small bundle of dollars and Euros in high-denomination notes, along with a Canadian passport in the name of John Barrett, an emergency identity that was known in covert ops circles as a “snap cover.”
    Back in the bedroom, he discarded the clothes he had been wearing and found fresh ones. Like most of his wardrobe, Jack’s taste in colors strayed toward the darker tones, a conscious intent to blend in and stay inconspicuous. Packing light and quick, he found a black gym bag and threw in another change of gear.
    He picked up a jacket and there was a woman’s fleece lying underneath it. He didn’t need to touch it to know that it had belonged to Renee.
    Seeing it there triggered a flood of memory that he tried and failed to stem. To do the things that his nation had asked of him, to be the man that he was, Jack Bauer had learned to compartmentalize himself. Even as he walked into this building, Jack placed his memories of Renee Walker behind a wall and sealed them away.
    Or so he thought . In a heartbeat, it all came crashing back, and he sagged, dropping onto the unkempt bed. His head snapped up and his gaze found the bullet hole in the window, tagged with an evidence marker. A single round fired from across the street by Pavel Tokarev had impacted there, finding its target within.
    Suddenly Jack was reliving it. The sound of the breaking glass and the crash as Renee’s body fell. The weight of her in his arms as he gathered her up and raced through the hotel corridors. Her pale face, the life in her eyes fading away as he watched, the terrible sense of helplessness as he knew in that moment he would lose her.
    Anger and sorrow boiled up inside him. They pressed at his throat, a scream of raw fury pushing to be released. It took every ounce of Jack’s iron self-control not to give in to that need. Instead, he took the rage and held on to it, used it to burn away the exhaustion. He made it into his fuel, into the drive that got him back to his feet.
    At the door, Jack closed his eyes and let himself think about Renee Walker one last time, before he turned his back and walked away.
    *   *   *
    Kilner parked the black Ford Fusion close to the curb and approached the police unit, leading with his badge. “See anything?” he asked the uniformed cops inside.
    Both officers shook their heads. “No sign from here,” said one of them. Taped to the dash in front of them was Jack Bauer’s be-on-the-lookout bulletin, and Kilner’s lips thinned as he studied it.
    “Hey, level with us,” said the other policeman. “Is this guy really dumb enough to come back here? I mean, there’s so many cops on the street right now, every perp in the city is taking a powder.”
    “He’s not dumb,” Kilner told them, and