Chapter 21: CTU Entry Inside the Building

"Hurry, hurry, the people behind."

Urgent footsteps rushed by, with people constantly urging. Owen listened quietly until it became quiet outside again before he carefully pushed open the door.

In a corner of the wall, Owen emerged from between the pipes, covered in dust and grime. Perhaps as a precaution against police raids, the robbers had been moving frequently during this period. Owen had already encountered three groups along the way, but luckily, he managed to avoid them each time, going undetected.

He didn't know where to go next. When he was with McClane, McClane made the decisions. Now that they were separated, Owen felt somewhat lost. However, thinking that McClane might come looking for him, Owen decided to head upwards.

In the elevator shaft, Owen looked around to see no one, then used tools to pry open the elevator doors and stealthily climbed in.

He and McClane had climbed through the elevator shaft before. Compared to the stairs, the elevator shaft was currently the safest route, and Owen felt there was a high chance of encountering McClane there.

Outside the building, Javier was furiously scolding a junior officer because the media had relayed a message through him, wanting to interview Javier. Was this guy an idiot? He had just lost two elite teams, and now the media wanted to interview him, to laugh at him? Waving his hand to dismiss the junior officer, what really troubled him was the recent assault. He had seen the live broadcast, thankfully, it didn't contain anything about Owen and his connection, or he would have lost all face.

When he received Owen's warning, the operation had already started, and it was too late to issue any orders.

Who would have thought the robbers would have anti-air missiles? Javier felt the world had changed; it was not the same as when he was a front-line officer. My God, they were just robbers, and now the firepower of criminals was so fierce. Would bank robbers need to carry nuclear bombs in a few days? In the sky, two helicopters and an elite team were annihilated by two missiles, and the ground operation was also unsuccessful.

As Owen said, the robbers must have been professional soldiers. These guys had planted bombs at various locations on the first floor in advance, and as soon as SWAT entered, they were blown away. Then the robbers began to harvest, finishing off the injured officers one by one, as seen from the video collectors carried by the team members.

A 12-man squad was wiped out, even their bodies still inside.

For Javier, this was no longer a robbery; it was war.

Now, the media were overwhelmingly reporting his incompetence, those damned media, what else can they do besides spouting nonsense, just a bunch of mad dogs, only knowing how to bark wildly.

While Javier was furiously cursing those guys, his assistant hurried over.

"Chief, we've found out."

The assistant stopped in front of Javier and handed him a paper, saying: "McClane's identity has been verified, he is indeed a New York police officer."

Javier wanted to hear the essentials, impatiently interrupting him: "Get to the point!!!"

"Oh, okay."

Knowing the chief was in a bad mood, the assistant quickly focused on the most important part: "The leader of the robbers is named Hans Gruber, a member of the West German People's Liberation Front.

The West German People's Liberation Front is an emerging terrorist organization that has carried out several terrorist attacks in Germany in recent years, including the Berlin train station bombing earlier this year.

However, it's strange that the West German People's Liberation Front mainly operates within Germany and rarely ventures out. And not long ago, Hans Gruber was publicly expelled from the West German People's Liberation Front.

Moreover, intelligence from CTU indicates that Hans Gruber and the Red Front probably don't know each other, and he likely has no connections with Sara and others."

It was indeed a smokescreen, the release of hostages from the Red Front was just an excuse, their target must be the vault.

But Javier's brow furrowed again, from ordinary robbers to terrorists, he wanted some peace. Waving his assistant away, he lit a cigarette for himself. Before he could take a few puffs, he saw a duty officer leading two men in bulletproof vests towards him.

"Chief Javier, these two are from CTU, they say they're looking for the person in charge of this operation."

CTU? Javier suppressed his irritation and said to the two: "What can I do for you, I am Wayne Javier, the person in charge of this operation."

"From now on, you're not."

The other party was unapologetic, one of them showed his ID to Javier, then put it away and said: "I'm Jack Bauer from CTU, from now on, I'm in command here."

Javier was stunned, then felt a surge of humiliation, but he quickly forced himself to calm down. Yes, losing command was embarrassing, but on second thought, it wasn't without benefits.

He knew about CTU, the Counter Terrorist Unit, newly established in the last two years, originally a branch of the CIA but now an independent entity specializing in domestic counter-terrorism operations in the United States.

American law is such that the state police have the authority to handle all types of cases within the state, but once a case crosses state lines, the FBI has the authority to take over. Similarly, as soon as a case involves terrorism, even just terrorists, CTU has full authority to deal with it.

Now that Hans Gruber's identity as a terrorist has been confirmed, CTU taking over command is completely within their rights, and Javier must fully cooperate. After all, terrorism is different from other crimes.

And Javier was more than willing to do so. If CTU took over, then he would just be in a supporting role, and the responsibility would naturally fall on CTU.

"What's the situation now?" Jack Bauer asked gravely, unaware that Javier had already pegged him as the scapegoat, not that it would bother him if he knew.

Javier hesitated for a moment but decided to cooperate fully: "The robbers took over the building half an hour ago, hostages are held on the 46th floor, the number is still uncertain. We attempted two assaults just now, but both failed, losing two helicopters and two elite squads.

The enemy is equipped with anti-air missiles, and from their style, it's very likely they are professional soldiers, or were at one point.

Currently, we have two of our people inside, you must have seen the live broadcast just now. One is a New York police officer, named John McClane, whose identity we have verified, no problem.

The other is one of my officers, named Steve Owen. Additionally, we have positioned snipers in the building across."