24: Deadline (24 Series) by James Swallow Page B

for a second. “You said you have a kid, right?”
    “What?” The question seemed to come out of nowhere, but then he remembered. Years earlier when they had first met, Jorge had talked to Bauer back in DC after the FBI had him in lockdown. Just the two of them in the car, talking about what they believed was true, about their families and their jobs. “Yes. A daughter. Fiona .” Now it was happening all over again, but the circumstances were markedly different.
    “You just do what I tell you and you’ll see her again.” The next intersection was coming up fast. “Make the turn.”
    Kilner swallowed. It wasn’t like he had a lot of options. As they came up on the junction, he swung around a car rolling along in front of them, and tires screeched as the Fusion left a black streak on the asphalt, the rear end fishtailing into the turn.
    More gunfire lanced after them as they bounced onto Tenth Avenue and raced north. Jack shot back. Kilner guessed he was keeping his aim low, trying to put rounds into the wheels or the engine block of the SUV.
    Hadley didn’t seem to be extending them the same courtesy, however. A bullet barely missed Bauer and blasted a fist-sized hole in the windshield, and in the moment that followed Kilner heard a grumbling crackle issue out of the tactical radio laying were he had left it on the front passenger seat.
    “ Stop the vehicle, ” barked Hadley over the open channel. “ Kilner, are you hearing me? Pull over, man! ”
    “That guy the one in charge?” said Jack, as they passed Twenty-Sixth Street and continued on through the encroaching traffic.
    Kilner nodded. “Agent Hadley. Yeah. He’s got a real hate on for you.”
    “He can take a number and get in line. I don’t even know him.”
    “He was Pillar’s guy…”
    “Jason Pillar?” Jack scowled. “I’m not responsible for what happened to him.” He reached forward and grabbed the radio, squeezing the push-to-talk switch. “Hadley. Back off before someone gets hurt.”
    *   *   *
    “That’s not going to happen, Bauer.” Hadley shot a look at Markinson, releasing the transmitter switch so his next words wouldn’t be broadcast. “Where does he think he’s going?”
    “Gotta be making a break for the Lincoln Tunnel,” she told him. “All he needs to do is ditch the car halfway and get into the service passages. It’s a rat’s nest down there, we’d never find him.”
    Hadley glanced at Dell, who was hunched over a laptop in the backseat. “Converge any units we have on Thirtieth Street. If he is going for the tunnel, he’s going to have a nasty surprise.”
    “Air support is unavailable,” she told him. “We have two more cars and another tactical team.”
    “That’ll be enough.” He spoke into the radio again. “Last chance, Bauer. Because if I have to blast that vehicle off the street to take you out, I will do it.”
    “ I have a hostage. I’ll kill him if you don’t pull back. ”
    “No, you won’t.” Hadley dropped the radio and held out his hand to Dell. “Give me the M4.”
    *   *   *
    Kilner blinked at the exchange he had just overheard.
    “He’s right,” said Jack. “I won’t kill you.” Then he pressed the muzzle of the M1911 against Kilner’s kneecap. “But I will put a hole in your leg that’ll mean you’ll never be able to take a walk with your kid again.”
    “Understood…” His hands were sweating and he kneaded the grip of the steering wheel. As they crossed Twenty-Eighth Street Kilner saw a blur of white and blue, and an NYPD patrol car swerved out to meet them.
    The two cars slammed into one another, running parallel as they bumped, trading paint and sending flashes of sparks out across the roadway.
    Jack acted without hesitation, blowing out the Fusion’s side window and the toughened glass of the police car’s rear compartment. Kilner heard the familiar tink sound of an arming pin being pulled and a faint whiff of sulfur. Jack lobbed a smoke grenade