The prequel starts out 12 hours after the end of Day 5. Enjoy and if you get a chance please review.
HOPE MEMORIAL HOSPITAL - 07:00:00 PM
SECRETARY OF DEFENSE JAMES HELLER is sitting up in his hospital bed talking to Audrey on the phone.
"I don't understand…he just disappeared?"
"I don't know…" Audrey replies tearfully. "He got a phone call from his daughter…or at least, that's what someone told him…a few minutes later I went in to check on him and he was gone."
"Is it possible he could have escaped?" her father asks. "I understand he made a deal with Logan yesterday that he would disappear again when this was all over. Is it possible he may have still felt obligated to honor that deal in spite of everything?"
"No, that's not it," she insists. "He…he promised me he'd be right back. He wouldn't make a promise he didn't intend to keep…not to me."
Heller sighs, knowing she is probably right.
"Alright, sweetheart, I'll make some calls and see what I can find out. Are you still at CTU?"
"Yeah, I'm working with Chloe and Bill to try to find Jack."
"Alright, they said they needed to run more tests, but I'll get over there as soon as I can."
"Okay…I'll see you soon," she says, trying to keep from breaking down completely.
"I love you, sweetheart."
"I love you too, Dad."
As Heller hangs up, his assistant, SCOTT BOREN, enters the room.
"Mr. Secretary, I'm sorry to disturb you, but I have Charles Logan on the phone for you," Scott says.
Heller is surprised.
"What does he want?"
"I don't know, sir…he said it's private," Scott replies.
"Alright, give me the phone."
Scott hands him the phone and leaves the room.
"Charles," Heller says coolly.
"You're probably wondering why I'm calling," Logan begins.
"No, I have a pretty good idea," Heller says impatiently.
"First of all, I wanted to apologize for last night."
"What, for having your men try to kill me?"
"I never instructed them to do that," Logan insists.
"Yeah, yeah…and I'm sure you never told your henchmen to frame my daughter so that CTU would subject her to a medical interrogation either, right? Let's just cut to the chase...what do you want?"
"The Attorney General and I agree that it would not be in the best interests of this country for me to go through a lengthy and public trial…"
"What, so you're going to cut some kind of a deal to get off in exchange for going quietly? And you want to make sure that I'm going to keep quiet about it?"
"James, I know that you agree it's in the best interests of this country. If you didn't you wouldn't have come to me last night to try to resolve this quietly."
"That was before your henchman practically sliced off my daughter's arm! For Christ's sake, Charles, she nearly bled to death!"
"James, I understand that you're angry, and I don't blame you…"
"Spare me the appeal to patriotism, Charles," Heller snaps. "You had your chance to resolve this quietly last night..."
"Alright, alright," Logan says. "I know you've been through a lot, and I supposed it's only natural that you can't get past your anger at the moment in order to see what's best for this country. But before you schedule a press conference, I'm sure you're wondering what's going on with Jack Bauer, are you not?"
"How the hell could you…" Heller begins. Anger flashes through his eyes as he puts the pieces together.
"Alright, I'm listening."
CTU – TWELVE HOURS LATER
Audrey is on the phone with a navy admiral. With information that Charles Logan gave her father, they were able to locate the ship Jack is on, and the Navy is preparing to storm the ship after flagging it with a distress signal in hopes that that will enable them to peacefully engage.
"Admiral, how far out are your men?" she asks.
"Within 10 miles…they should be able to put out the signal as soon as they can come into plain site."
"Chloe, did you reposition the satellite?" Audrey asks.
"Yeah, I should have it up any minute," Chloe replies.
"Admiral, is the distressed vehicle disguised?" Audrey asks over the phone.
"Yes. From the ship alone the Chinese won't know it's an American naval vessel. But they will be on the lookout for interference, and they may not respond to the signal."
"What happens if they don't respond to the signal? What's your contingency plan?" she inquires.
"We're going to do everything we can to get him off that ship safely, ma'am. But we're going to have to stop that ship from reaching China by any means necessary," the admiral explains.
Audrey sighs, knowing full well the implications of that statement.
"I…I understand," she says shakily.
CHINESE VESSEL – LOWER LEVEL
JACK BAUER is tied to the bottom of the ship face down, his face all bloody. With his legs, he is slowly making progress loosening a plank of wood. With a hard kick, he eventually yanks it loose, then begins the painstaking task of moving the plank to within reach. After a few kicks, he strains his arms as far as they will go in a position that looks painful, missing a few times until he is able to move the wood to within reach of his hands. He then struggles to rub the plank of wood against the wood poll to which he is tied, with the goal of igniting a fire. The process is painstaking, as being handcuffed limits his ability to rub the two pieces of wood consistently, and for every time he manages to successfully rub his piece against the pole he misses two other times.
He stops short and hides the wood as he hears and we see DENG approach.
BACK AT CTU
"Alright, I've got a live feed," Chloe announces.
She puts it up on the big screen. Audrey, Bill, and Morris gather around. Audrey flinches when she sees the ship.
On Audrey's screen, the Admiral speaks through the video messaging system. Audrey runs back to her computer to talk to him.
ON SCREEN, an unlabeled sailboat appears to be having a problem with its sail. The ship tosses around violently as the crewmen appear to scramble to fix the sail. When they are unable to fix the problem, an Asian "fisherman" on board waves a distress signal.
EXPAND TO FULL as the distress signal is seen from the deck of the Chinese vessel.
"Admiral, we have an SOS from what looks like a civilian sailboat," the ship captain says.
"It is a trap. It's the Americans. Do not engage," the admiral orders.
"It is just a sailboat. The captain looks like one of our own," the captain says.
"Of course. That is what they want us to think," the admiral replies.
"What if we are wrong? We can't ignore a cry for help from one of our own. And even if you are right, if we ignore a distressed vessel, the Americans will know this is the ship. We can't take the risk that the Americans will attack."
The two men continue to argue as the captain begins to steer the ship toward the distressed sailboat, which continues to thrash around violently as its crew scrambles to stay afloat without the sail.
Back at CTU, everyone watches hopefully as the Chinese vessel appears to take the bait and starts moving toward the "distressed sailboat".
"Come on…that's it," Morris says, acting as if he is coaxing the ship in the right direction.
Chloe gives him a LOOK.
"Something's wrong," Audrey says nervously. "Why would they take the bait? It seems too easy."
"They don't have a choice," Bill explains. "They must know we're onto them. If they ignore the distressed ship, it'll give us a confirmation that Jack's on board. They can't risk the chance that we'll take out the ship covertly."
Audrey nods but doesn't seem convinced.
SPLIT SCREEN shows Audrey biting her nails nervously and Jack continuing to struggle with the plank of wood.
Behind Jack is a CAN OF OIL, which he is attempting to kick.
Audrey stares up at the screen nervously, along with Chloe, Morris and Bill.
ON THE SCREEN, the Chinese vessel edges closer to the navy sailboat.
Suddenly, a LOUD NOISE is heard, and the ship instantly goes UP IN FLAMES.
Everyone gasps.
"Admiral, what's going on?" Audrey asks shakily.
"I don't know, ma'am…we're seeing the same thing you're seeing."
"Why is the sailboat moving further away? Tell them to do something!" she demands.
"They're not equipped to put out what looks like an oil-induced fire, ma'am. They need to get to safety," the admiral explains.
"You can't just leave him there!"
"I'm sending two vessels designed for maritime fire intervention as well as some search and rescue teams. They should be on site within ten minutes."
"Ten minutes? That's way too long! Are you out of your mind?" Audrey cries.
Bill sees that she is starting to behave irrationally, and he approaches her cautiously.
"Audrey," Bill says calmly.
He gently pries the headset she is wearing to talk to the admiral off of her and signals to another CTU employee to come take over.
Morris grips Chloe's arm reassuringly. Chloe is too shell-shocked to push him away.
"I don't understand," Chloe says numbly. "Why would the Chinese blow up the ship if they wanted to use Jack as leverage?"
Bill glances hesitantly at Audrey, who is willing him not to state the obvious.
"The Chinese wouldn't," he says softly.
Audrey shakes her head defiantly.
"NO! Don't say it! Please, just don't say it?" she begs. Her tone changes from defiant to desperate as she breaks down and starts to cry hysterically. Bill gently coaxes her away from the room, her eyes fixated on the burning ship that remains on the screen.
END WITH a blurry shot of the screen, which Chloe and Morris are still watching with disbelief, as seen through Audrey's tears.
OUTSIDE THE RUSSELL SENATE BUILDING – ONE MONTH LATER
Audrey is walking with a Senator outside the Russell Senate Office building, two Secret Service agents in toe.
On a nearby street corner, a young Asian woman is passing out leaflets.
"I'm sympathetic to your cause, I really am, but you have to understand…"
Audrey is offended by his choice of words.
"My cause? That's what you think this is?" she asks indignantly, looking at the senator with disbelief.
"I'm sorry, maybe I used the wrong word. I'm not trying to imply that..." the senator stumbles. Audrey cuts him off, looking him square in the eye.
"I watched the man I love kill himself because he had no way out. He couldn't have been put in that position without the help of someone inside our government, and I am going to find out how the Chinese were tipped off if it's the last thing I do. So cooperate with me or don't cooperate with me, but at least have the decency to take me seriously."
"I'm sorry," the senator apologizes. "I know you're serious about this, but what you're asking me to do could be very dangerous. Our relations with China are fragile enough as it is. An investigation will open up a can of worms that could end up implicating other people in the consul's death, not to mention risking exposure of classified information. A lot of people could be put at risk if this goes public. Surely there's something else I can do for you, some other way we can resolve this."
"If you think I can be placated or bought you're mistaken. There will be an investigation with or without your help," she says icily.
As they continue to argue, the Asian woman approaches with leaflets. Secret Service starts to intervene but Audrey waves them away, clearly intrigued by the flyer.
A CLOSE UP reveals that it is a pamphlet detailing alleged Chinese human rights violations.
A little piece of paper falls out of the pamphlet, and as Audrey bends down to pick it up she stops DEAD IN HER TRACKS.
We do not see what she picked up, but we see the terrified look on her face. The camera rotates to show the world spinning for Audrey as she digests the meaning of whatever she just saw.