Authors: James Swallow

24: Deadline (24 Series) (42 page)

Jack didn’t want to look away from the sight across the ship’s churning white wake. He didn’t want to waste one second of this view of his country, because on some level, he was telling himself that it could quite possibly be the last time he would see it.

Much of Jack’s turbulent life, from rebellious teenager to federal agent to international fugitive, had orbited around this stretch of the California coastline, and it seemed cruelly fitting that if he were to leave the land of his birth forever, it should be by this path.

It would take days for them to reach Australia, and once he was there Jack would not be able to rest. Sydney was just the first port of call for him, the start of a new existence that would happen under the radar, away from prying eyes. He wasn’t sure where he would go next, but there were plenty of possibilities.

Not for the first time, Jack thought about returning to West Africa, back to the school in Sangala that his old friend Carl Benton had built. He wondered how that beleaguered country had fared in the years since the attempted military coup.
Would they come looking for me there?
he wondered. He frowned. That was a chance he didn’t want to take, and a danger he didn’t want to bring to their door.

Instead, Jack considered all the places where he had the
most
enemies. South America, packed with drug cartels and militias fighting for power and control. Eastern Europe, where unsettled scores from past wars were still festering. As much as there were people out there who hated him, there were also people who owed him favors. And no sane person would think to look for him in those places, because to go there was to put his head back in the lion’s mouth.
But then I’ve never played a safe bet in my life.

He had the whole voyage to think it through. No one had seen him slip out of the city, and thanks to some help from Stephen, he had made it to the port unchallenged.

Jack watched the coast grow distant and thought about Kim and her family. He had meant what he said in the basement storeroom. He held no malice toward his son-in-law for putting his wife and daughter’s welfare before Jack’s, and if the roles had been reversed, he would have done the same. The fact that the young doctor had endangered his own life to save Kim’s father, that despite himself he had pulled that trigger, these things spoke volumes about Stephen Wesley. Kim had chosen a good man in him, someone who had a different kind of strength to Jack’s, but a strength nonetheless. Jack had no fears for his daughter’s safety—she was resilient, just as her mother had been—and with someone like Stephen at her side, they would survive.

The threat of the bomb had been very real, but Stephen had gotten to his wife in short order and after an anonymous call to CTU the device had been found and disarmed. That Kim and little Teri had come so close to death chilled Jack’s blood, and he knew that if he ever needed to remind himself why he had to stay away to keep them secure, he would recall that feeling.

Still, it wounded him to know that he might never be able to watch his grandchild grow up, perhaps to have a family of her own. The peaceful life, the retirement that Jack had been ready to embrace only a day or so earlier, now seemed like a fantasy.

You don’t get to have that,
said a voice in the back of his mind.
Not after all you have done, Jack. Not after all the blood on your hands.

He looked down at his palms, and for a moment he felt an irrational stab of dread, that if he turned around Jack would find Nina Meyers standing there behind him, that predatory smile playing on her lips.

He shook off the thought, banishing the ghost of memory, knowing that it was just the fatigue talking, playing games with his mind.

As he watched the land finally slip beneath the horizon and vanish, he nodded to himself. The truth was, there were many ghosts following Jack Bauer, friends and lovers, enemies and victims alike.

A long time ago, he had made his peace with that, and Jack knew that somewhere out there a final deadline for his life was inching closer, a clock ticking down toward zero. He knew that one day his ghosts would catch up with him.

But today was not that day.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

JAMES SWALLOW is the
New York Times
bestselling author of more than thirty-five books, including fiction from the worlds of Star Trek, Doctor Who, and more. His other credits feature scripts for video games and radio drama, including
Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Fable: The Journey, Battlestar Galactica,
and
Killzone 2.
A BAFTA nominee, James lives in London and is currently at work on his next novel.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

24: DEADLINE

A Forge Book

Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC

175 Fifth Avenue

New York, NY 10010

www.tor-forge.com

Forge
®
is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.

eBooks may be purchased for business or promotional use. For information on bulk purchases, please contact Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department by writing to [email protected]

The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.

ISBN 978-0-7653-7790-6 (hardcover)

ISBN 978-1-4668-5826-8 (e-book)

e-ISBN 9781466858268

First Edition: August 2014