Fighting for Salvation (4) part two
Jul. 13th, 2007 01:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
failegaidinAnd here's the rest....
As Ava dragged the unconscious police officer into the nearest supply closet, it struck her that this was far too easy. The man had been surprised to see her, was polite when she smiled and admitted that she was lost. Giving his back to her, he pointed further down the corridor, explaining how to get to the bathrooms. It was then that Ava put him in a chokehold from behind, squeezing the air out of him until he finally passed out.
She glanced warily down the hall as she closed the closet door, but no one was coming. Quietly, she moved along the corridor until she found the door that she was looking for. Reaching into her jeans, Ava pulled out the white key card and swiped it. There was a buzzing sound, and then she was inside the room.
Penticoff was sitting on a bench against the far wall. He was a small man, with a face that strongly resembled a rat. One foot was tapping on the floor rapidly, his unease obvious. His head snapped up when she entered the room, and he shrank back against the wall slightly.
"Who are you?"
Ava rolled her eyes. "You have information on Kim Bauer?"
"Maybe."
She strode over to him and grabbed him by the throat, hoisting him up and slamming him back into the wall.
"You have information on Kim Bauer?" she repeated.
"Not exactly, but…" he hurried to continue as she squeezed tighter. "But I can put you in touch with someone who does. Someone directly involved."
Ava studied him for a moment, weighing her options. Then she let go of his neck suddenly and watched as he fell onto the bench in a heap.
"Let's go then," she said, heading for the door.
Penticoff stared at her. "But…how do you expect to get me outta here?"
She smiled at him as she pulled a pair of handcuffs from her back pocket.
"Easy."
***
Jack dropped his head into his hands as soon as Mason had left the room. The day was quickly spiraling out of control, and the sun wasn't even up yet. He sighed as his mind wandered to Kim. If there was even the smallest chance that Penticoff had information, he had no choice but to break him out. Unfortunately, his options were few, and they were disappearing as time dragged on.
The door opened again and Jack looked up, steeling himself for another argument with George. Instead, he found himself staring at a grinning Ava, who had Penticoff handcuffed at her side. He couldn't help but return her smile.
"I think my plan worked better than your lack of plan."
"So it seems."
"You ready to get out of here?"
"Absolutely."
***
Alarms were going off by the time they reached the parking lot. They hurried to Jack's car, Ava throwing Penticoff into the back before activating the child safety locks and climbing into the passenger seat. Jack was driving out of the lot before she even had her door closed.
"Where are we going?" he growled.
The guy looked between Jack and Ava nervously. "I'm supposed to get a call…a couple blocks from the warehouse where you found me."
Jack drove faster.
***
Ava leaned against the car as Jack and Penticoff stood at the payphone. They had Nina running a trace, but as she watched, she saw that the call was coming on a cell phone taped to the back of the booth. Tracing would be impossible.
She crossed her arms and closed her eyes, letting herself rest for the moment. Sleep was something that Ava looked forward to every night, and right now she was being deprived of precious hours. At least she had managed to eat something – otherwise she would have ruined everyone else's day as well.
Her mind started to drift, sinking into the darkness from her closed eyes. It seemed like her car crash and the fight with Nina had happened ages ago. It hadn't even sunk in yet that she had just broken a prisoner out of a police station. She decided that she would deal with that later.
Ava snapped her eyes open as she heard Jack calling her name. She frowned as he and Penticoff ran to a silver car parked to her right. Following them, she watched as Jack popped the trunk with the remote. She was at his side as he stared at the trunk a moment longer before opening it fully. They were met by the sight of something large wrapped in a sheet of plastic. Ava could see splashes of blood all over it, and she felt her stomach turn as possibilities flooded her.
She moved her eyes to Jack. He wasn't moving, his gaze unwavering as his greatest fear played across his face. Reaching out, she took his hand in hers and squeezed tightly. He turned and gave her a terrified look. Knowing that he would be unable to do it, Ava let go of his hand and moved to undo the plastic.
They both sighed audibly when the body was revealed to be a middle-aged man. With shaky legs, Jack moved to the car behind him, leaning against it for support.
"I thought…"
"I know. But it's okay, Ja-"
Ava's words were cut off as police cars came to a halt all around them, their sirens angry in the darkness. She watched in mild amusement as George Mason came flying out of one of the cars and stormed over to them.
"Bauer! What the hell were you thinking!?"
Jack simply pointed to the trunk. Mason frowned as he moved closer, recoiling slightly at the sight of so much blood. He turned back to Jack and Ava, his gaze moving between them wearily.
"Alright. Who's going to explain this one?"
Jack sighed. "My daughter's missing, George. And it's connected to the hit on Palmer somehow. Penticoff was supposed to get a call here. The guy on the other end wanted him to dispose of that body."
"So you decided to break him out?"
He shrugged. "I didn't think the cops were going to let me take him out for a field trip."
Mason turned his attention to Ava. "Jack failed to mention you were there as well. I might have had them up security."
Ava shrugged. "I was eating."
He frowned at her, struggling to find a suitable response. Jack cut in.
"George, there's a mole at CTU."
"What are you talking about?"
"I thought we weren't telling people about that," Ava interjected.
Jack ignored her. "Richard Walsh passed me a keycard before he was killed. Information was stockpiled on the strip. Jamey traced it back to Nina's computer, but we've already determined that she wasn't here when the information was uploaded."
"Why didn't you tell me this before?"
"Honestly? I thought you might be the leak."
George nodded. "Alright. You two get back to CTU. Take this car and have somebody ID the body. The cops are going to take Penticoff back into custody. Unless one of you has any objections?" They both shook their heads. "Good. Now go. Before one of them accidentally shoots you for breaking the bastard out."
As they walked to the front of the car, Penticoff called out to them.
"You promised you'd get me out!"
Ava turned to him. "And we did. Made no promise about how long you'd get to stay out."
Without another glance, they climbed into the silver car and drove off.
***
Nina was waiting outside for them when they pulled up. Ava tried to conceal her smirk as she noticed that the other woman had a black eye from where she had punched her earlier. Jack looked between the two of them for a moment, wondering if it was a good idea to leave them together. He only hoped that Tony and Jamey would be able to keep them from each others' throats.
Popping the trunk, he turned to Nina. "I need you to ID this body for me."
"Any guesses on who it is?"
"None. Only that it's somehow connected to Kim and Palmer."
Whatever Nina was going to say in response was drowned out by the appearance of a helicopter as it landed nearby. Jack started moving toward it, yelling his last words over his shoulder.
"Just find out who it is, Nina! I've got my cell!"
The two women watched as he boarded the helicopter and it took off again. Slowly it faded into the distance, taking its noise with it. Finally, Nina turned to Ava.
"Where the hell is he going?"
"To the hospital to be with Teri. The girl that Kim went out with tonight was found in the middle of the road. They're hoping when she gets out of surgery she can tell them something about the people who have Kim."
Nina crossed her arms. "So I'm stuck with you?"
"For the time being. Don't worry, Nina. I'll try not to break your face again."
With that, she turned and walked into CTU, leaving Nina with her mouth open as she tried to think up a suitably scathing response.
***
"Milo!" Ava greeted as he walked into the lab they were using to identify the body. She walked over to him and enveloped him in a big hug. "What are you doing here?"
"Jack called me in. Needed some help breaking a keycard code." He paused as Jamey grunted. "But what about you? I heard you totaled another car."
"Jack's fault."
"As usual." He looked around the room curiously. "Did you guys figure out who the corpse was yet?"
"We'll know in just a second," Jamey mumbled as she typed a few things into the computer and waited for the page to refresh. "Alright…our John Doe is…an Alan York."
"Excuse me?" Ava asked, her face registering shock.
"Alan York…do you know him?"
"I met him."
"When?" Nina asked.
"Today."
"Um…that's not possible," Jamey informed her. "He's been dead for more than six hours.
Ava frowned as she tried to reconcile the information. Her brain struggled to put the pieces together, and when it finally did, she slammed her fists down onto the table, making the others jump.
"Fuck!"
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