'Crucial'
by Aria
Spoilers - All of season one, including my version of the last fifteen minutes of 24. You can find it at livelyaria.bravepages.com/love and war.html or on FF.net somewhere.
Summary - Wait and see...
Author's Notes - Stole the idea of a country called Qumar from the West Wing. Couldn't think up another name, and Fauxraqistan would have been too funny. I'm taking a cue from the show and taking a few minutes out every hour.
Never fear - there will be a bathroom scene, don't worry for all you people who were just dying to get to the loos, I don't know how I'll top 24 though - first Jamie does spy work in there, then Paula washes her hands and recently George took his pills - What will they think up next?
Rating - Same as the show
8-9pm
Basement office - the Pentagon, 11:00:02
Rakima Kasrati pressed the headpiece closer to his ear. He wanted to make sure that he hadn't made a mistake.
Rakima was always careful with his work; he was an Arabic translator for the US military - defence and intelligence. At the moment he was working on a conversation that a man named Kafir Mari had had with some of his connections in a convenience store in Al-Hakut. Mari was a known terrorist and Rakima didn't like what he was hearing, it sounded like the translation his lieutenant had worked on was right, and they were all in for a world of trouble.
Rakima closed the folder in front of him and signed the bottom of the file. He pressed a button on the underside of the desk.
Private MacDoughall entered the room quickly and he handed him the file. "Call the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs - he'll need to see that right away - tell him it's a code red assessment."
MacDoughall nodded and saluted and left the room.
Los Angeles, 08:03:01
Jack Bauer dropped himself unceremoniously onto the couch and let out a loud groan. He'd run an extra mile today than usual, deciding he'd rather drown a few more calf muscles in lactic acid than return to the house an few minutes earlier. Especially not today.
He took in a few staggered breaths. He'd always thought that when you were doing ten miles, it wouldn't matter if you did one more. It'd taken him three more minutes than he wanted - he noted, glancing at the sports timer setting on his watch and resetting it angrily. He turned it back to the timer setting and took in the time and sadly - the date, before he let his arm drop again.
He was wheezing a little - he didn't like that.
Jack bent forward into the sunlight from the bay doors to take off his shoes, and as he noticed the dampness, his socks. He let the shoes drop and bundled the socks in his hands, flopping, once again back on the couch.
His front doorbell rang suddenly and he glanced over at the door, up a step and to his right behind him. He couldn't see the ringer without x-ray vision, but he could see the dividing door and the thick Mexican door.
Having now repaid his oxygen debt Jack rose to his feet, hoping to make it to the door before the visitor rung the bell again. He took the step up and jogged the three feet to the door, pulling it open as he saw his visitor turn to look at the front garden.
His visitor turned to him just after he'd taken in her appearance - a shorter than normal black suit skirt and a green sweater, sleeveless with a 'v' neck, showing off her neck. He imagined the suit jacket was in the car. She rarely came to work in anything less than a suit, always looking professional.
She took a moment to look at him and then muttered a breathy "Hi."
"Hi." He replied. Not realising that he was blocking the doorway.
"Mind if I come in?" Nina asked, lifting a bundle of files out from under her arm. It was only then that he noticed them.
Jack slid to the side, and then walked back into the house leaving Nina to shut the door behind her. They'd spent a few hours working at her house last night - "Didn't we finish all those last night?" He queried, heading back into the lounge area. He passed the remote control on the way and switched the tv. It automatically turned to CNN from yesterday morning - he'd gone straight to bed after returning from Nina's last night.
"Yes, but we didn't sign any of the papers, and I need to get them off to Division by 10, so."
Jack nodded in response and gestured to the chairs, tossing the remote onto a seat and heading off to the kitchen. "Have a seat - can I get you something, OJ, coffee.?"
"A cup of coffee would be great, thanks." Nina muttered, taking a seat. She dropped the files on the table and reached down to move a pair of muddy running shoes.
08:07:43 James Codonn collected his tray from the tray-spot and looked down the queue of cadets, or potential young cadets. All of a sudden his shirt didn't seem starched or ironed well enough and his suit wasn't smart enough. His worries about his physical prowess weren't even possible to be put into words, but he knew that Darren, whose surname he didn't know, was the California Thai Boxing Champion, and only a year older than he.
James settled his mind on the problems he could sort, and straightened his back to get a better look at the food that the chefs were serving up. The bacon looked nice today, but James knew better than to load himself with fats - he had to eat a balance of complex and simple carbs if he wanted to have a peak energy level just before lunch for the aptitude tests.
A solid finger poke in the middle of his back caused him to turn and his vision trailed off just before he noticed the oatmeal and porridge at the end of the line. He turned to see the gorgeous and friendly Kimberly.again he lost the surname, but he knew the girl.
"Hey." She greeted.
"Hi." He replied, turning his back on his search for decent food and the Thai boxer. She offered him a big smile. "You sleep well?" He asked her.
She nodded happily and grabbed herself a tray. After a brief wrestle with the mechanism, she managed to collect a clean one, and collected a hot plate.
Kim, James had noticed, didn't stick with any sort of diet he could think of. She ate whatever interested her, even if she didn't know the taste. James wished he could be that adventurous. He wished he was that confident in his abilities.
"God, I'm so nervous about today." Kim confided. They shuffled along the line and he ignored the woman serving cooked fatty food until it was his turn to say 'no thanks'.
"Don't be, I'm sure you'll be fine." They'd gone for a run together a day earlier. She'd been a little out of breath, but then she wasn't expected to do as well as he. The women's criteria were calculated differently.
"You barely broke a sweat yesterday." She commented.
"Yeah, but I'm supposed to score higher than you." James consoled her. "Don't worry about it - that was a pretty brisk pace." Kim ordered her breakfast, a plate of fats and far too complex carbs. He was concerned. "You know you'll get sluggish - you won't be able to burn that."
Kim laughed at him. "I'm famished - and I'm not eating that slop." She nodded towards the soup steamer worth of porridge that they were approaching, she'd asked him a few days ago if he could still taste the previous night's soup in his breakfast, and to be honest - he wasn't entirely sure he couldn't.
"If you ate something like porridge and bread your body would break it down slower and you'd have more energy over a longer period. Chances are your body will deposit that instantly.especially if you have toast." He pointed out as she collected a slice of bread from the rack. ".which gives it instant nutrients so it ignores the fat."
Kim smirked and then pushed her tongue into the space under her lips, and groaned at him, and then turned away from the counter to find them a seat, just as Darren Marlowe, the Thai Boxer, shoved a ladle of oats into his bowl.
08:12:46 "And then the press conference that the first lady scheduled on health care is at three-twenty." Sarah finished as she glanced up at the President. He nodded at someone behind her and she angled her neck enough to see Lynn Kresgy standing in the doorway, waiting for entry.
"The first lady's press conference, sir - I thought we agreed that you were going to send Michelle?" Lynn interrupted, having over heard the end of the conversation. She rounded the sofas and took a seat on the edge of the white linen, on the table closest to the President.
"This is a join initiative, Lynn, I'm not ruining it by letting my petty."
"Sir, they aren't petty - as soon as Mrs Palmer says something about the dairy tax, it'll just incense you and things will get out of hand." Lynn argued.
"Things will not get out of hand."
"Sir."
"I'm telling you, Lynn, as an intelligent adult," he stood, slightly angry moving round the chair and back to the psychological protection of the desk, "I am capable of containing myself around my ex-wife - for the good of the country."
Lynn stood too - despite the fact that her yoghurt breakfast wasn't really enough, no one sat whilst he stood. She nodded wearily.
Palmer collected a pen from the desk and rotated it between his fingers, it was an anniversary pen, but it wasn't something that they commented on. He looked her in the eye - "Besides, even she knows - I'm the one who gets to be in charge." He laughed, sincere and deep, and Lynn smiled in response.
Sarah was still standing in the corner of the room. "Sorry, if that's all Sarah, you can go."
The young woman nodded and left the room. Lynn moved to stand squarely in front of the President's desk, especially as he sat down. "So Lynn, did you come in purely to criticize me, or was there a point to this little visit?"
"No, the Joint Chiefs need you in the situation room."
Palmer ran a hand down his chin.
08:18:13 Jack signed another file, and once again he paused long enough for Nina to close it and add it to the pile on the end of her knees. Jack watched as the paper moved onto her lap, letting his eyes slide down the papers and onto the skin of her thighs, and then completing his circle back to the next signature box, she placed a finger on the small square, and he added his signature to the box below hers.
His eyes escaped the pile and wandered to the television. The international news segment was on, at the moment a well-powdered woman was talking about a fire in a police station somewhere in northern England. Nearly ten people had died, including a few police officers and a teenage boy who'd been brought in after stealing from a nearby department store. They were interviewing his mother.
"Jack?" Nina asked.
He physically shook his head and lowered it back to look at the manila folder in front of him, as he signed he noticed Nina's hand reach to the corner of the page and ruffle the pages. "Only a few more to go." She muttered.
He nodded wearily, he wasn't sure if it would be better on him if he did monotonous tasks all day or if he tested his mind non-stop until he went to bed. He didn't even know if he was going to talk to Nina about it, although his typical practice would have been not to.
She was right, and three signatures - maybe only a minute and a half down the road, they were finished. She collected the last file onto her lap and patted them straight, whilst he capped the pen, still leant forward on his haunches.
Nina put the folders onto the table and leant back in the chair, she watched him for a minute, a thoughtful look on her face. He could feel her eyes on his shoulder, his neck, his hands. "Spit it out, Nina." He grumbled, not moving.
"I was about to ask you the same thing, Jack." She said in a light tone that he both hated and loved at the same time.
He laughed, rotating to look at her but moving ever so slightly away from him.
"You've been quiet, cold, isolated - not just today, or even last night. I've been noticing it for a while now." Nina told him.
He noticed she said 'I' and was thankful for that - he didn't like the idea that he'd been broadcasting his unease. It was only Nina who'd picked up on it when he and Teri had separated, nearly three years ago now. "It's just going to eat at you until you tell someone, it might as well be me." she quietened for the last phrase, and he caught her eyes for a moment - holding the gaze until she looked away.
She watched the manila folders for a period of mutual silence, and he regarded her face. She'd always been there for him. He told her that, catching her by surprise.
She gave him a look of puzzlement. "Even when I didn't believe you, you've just been around for me." They didn't talk about that day anymore, but they both knew when he meant. "I appreciate it." He told her quietly, placing a hand on hers where it played with the soft couch fabric. She stopped instantly, and Jack wondered how hot he was from his run.
Nina knew when not to talk, and so she didn't say anything when he sat in silence, still for a few seconds. "Today is." He shook his head and laughed bitterly, "Would have been - Teri's fortieth birthday - we said we'd pause for a few years, so I could catch up, and then we'd celebrate forty-one." He smiled. "My computer told me about it, and the strange thing is - if it hadn't done - I wouldn't have remembered."
Nina's hand turned in his and a finger stroked the skin inside his wrist. If she remembered anything from their relationship, she'd have known that was a sensitive spot. He met her eyes.
"I guess in the last few days I've been realising how much I've moved on." Nina collected their hands off his sofa and brought them onto her lap, still stroking her thumb over the two tendons in the centre of his wrist.
"Yeah." She whispered quietly, as he moved towards her on the sofa.
08:24:13 Kim smiled at James as she walked in the door at the side of the room. She had arrived with literally a minute to spare, she'd gotten lost on her way to find room 127, every guard she'd passed had been on sentry duty, and most had refused to even give her directions, save the guy at the bottom of the stairs.
He patted the seat next to himself and Kim wandered over, taking the seat between him and a girl from San Diego whom she'd gotten to know well over the last few days - they shared a room.
Lieutenant Bray - a woman in her early forties, the same one who'd given them a talk last night - took her place at the small lecture pulpit at the front of the assembled group - 30 or so eighteen to twenty year olds. She had jet-black hair with a red tinge to it - hair dye, but probably to cover the grey at her roots rather than to alter her natural colour, and harsh grey eyes. She wore a wedding ring and her dog tags as her only jewellery with her dress uniform, which comfortably flattered her padded hips. "Right, ladies and gentlemen - you are assembled here today because you want to join the United States Air Force. You've completed examinations, interviews - you've been recommended for selection, and so here you are."
She looked up from her black leather folder and offered the cadets a smile. "In a little over thirty minutes you'll be completing your tasks - the physical and mental challenges that will test you abilities as teams, as leaders - to see if you have what it takes to become an officer in the United States Air Force."
08:29:34 "Almeida." Tony answered his phone, not even looking up from the screen in front of him to collect the small black receiver. He dropped a sheet of paper on his lap and grabbed his mug of coffee - leaning back in the chair as he waited for the caller to speak.
"Hi, Tony it's Michelle - will you hold for AD Connor." Came a softly spoken voice out of the black tube.
"Yeah sure." Tony took the brief silence to take a sip of his coffee. Connor didn't usually have to call CTU himself - or rather, he wouldn't speak to anyone here himself, especially not a lowly floor dweller like Tony, they'd always want Jack or Nina.
"Tony?"
"Yes, Sir." He sat up as he spoke.
"Where's Jack?"
"He's not on, yet, sir."
"Nina?"
"Should be here in a half hour."
"Hmmm," Tony could hear a faint tapping of a pen on a desk - he could imagine the man sitting in his darkened office talking to him via the light of a desk lap. "I need you to call all your people, get everybody in - I need to brief the senior staff as soon as possible."
Tony nodded, "Right away, sir. What should I tell them is happening?"
"I'll be briefing you at CTU LA in approximately a half hour - I'm catching a chopper in a few minutes." He heard a phone ringing sound in the background. "Just tell them to get there."
08:33:24 Amir Halim rotated the cigarette so he held it between the pads of his index and forefingers to give him a better grip as he took the last drag on his camel cigarette. He chucked it to the ground and stepped on it, ensuring it was fully out before he rolled his suitcase over it and took a look at the queues of traffic.
His ride still wasn't here.
He settled the suitcase back on its legs and grabbed the cigarette carton from his right pocket - he pulled out a cigarette and then the lighter, which was stowed in the space created by the four cigarettes he'd smoked in the last few minutes.
Where was his ride?
Amir inserted the cigarette between his lips and clutched the packet under his arm as he flicked the coil and hoped for a flame. One came, and he lit his cigarette. He held it in his mouth for the first few succulent puffs, allowing him time to stow his packet and lighter back in his pocket.
A tan coloured Buick pulled up to the loading zone in front of him, and his colleague Reza climbed out of the drivers' side, slamming the door. He motioned for Amir to follow him, and he forced the cigarette to stay between his lips as he rolled his suitcase over to the car.
Reza opened the passenger side door to the back seat. "Will you put that out!" He growled. "I don't want to take any chances."
08:38:45 Jack and Nina writhed on the sofa, having blocked out the sound of the news broadcast. Jack's house phone was at a much higher volume to start with, so when it rang it jolted them. Jack raised himself up on his forearms and looked quizzically down at her.
Nina shut her eyes and took a long breath, opening them far more suddenly than she'd expected when she felt his arm move away from them, to reach for the phone, she gripped his forearm and spoke quietly. "Leave it."
Jack didn't speak, or move.
"Leave it." She said a little more assertively sliding her arm to his shoulder.
08:40:47 Palmer stood at the head of the table, signalling the end of the meeting. "I want those satellite photos by the end of the day - if this is even a possibility I want to know about it." He ordered the assembled men, and then stepped around his seat. He always waited for Lynn before leaving the situation room. She came to his side and they walked to the exit.
"I want to talk to the director of the FBI." David ordered her, as they walked to the stairwell - back to their retrospective offices. "I want to know exactly what he's got on this already - I don't care if it's just a list of the agencies involved - I want to know where he is on this."
Lynn nodded, mumbling her standard agreement to him.
"And have Brayburn meet me in the oval office as soon as possible." She nodded.
"I'll get Sarah on it." It was really his secretaries' job to call and make the meetings.
"No, I want you to do it - secure line if necessary. I want him to know everything we do." David's secret service agents watched the more ditsy members of staff, they had a tendency to walk to close sometimes.
"Sir, you may need to consider calling the FAA and asking them to up security." Lynn suggested.
David nodded, "Sarah can set up the call for me."
08:46:03 Kim rose to her feet and made a beeline for the coffee machine in an adjacent corridor. James came out after her, and shortly afterwards her roommate - Susanna. They worked their way around the other casually chatting cadets to the hot beverage machine, and joined the short queue.
"I've been dying for a hot chocolate all the way through that." Admitted Susanna.
"Oh my god!" Kim pointed to herself - "So was I, I think it's all that chocolate you were eating in the room." They laughed together, and then turned to see James' expression - then laughing because of his disinterest.
Susanna loved eating chocolate, but she had a rake thin figure, gorgeous long black hair, and contrary to the popular housewives tale, perfect alabaster skin.
They moved forward a step. "I don't know if I can stand to be bored like that again." Whispered Susanna, who'd previously professed worries that there were cameras in the shower judging her bathing technique as a method of assessing her abilities as an office.
"I know!" Kim joked. "And did you hear all the security stuff - If you notice an abandoned bag or anyone looking suspicious."
"Don't be a hero." Susanna added when Kim left her a gap to finish. It was followed by happy laughter that turned a few heads.
"And we're on code black too - there's no concern.surely if there is a concern then we shouldn't be here anyway. We're civilians at the moment damn it!" Kim laughed.
"And 'code black' what on earth are the other codes anyway?" Susanna wondered.
"Oh there's a notice about that downstairs." James added, his first entry to their conversation. "By the door."
"Really I didn't see that." Susanna commented.
Kim nodded, "Well you'll have to point it out to us on the way out this afternoon then - won't you, James?"
08:52:34 Jack gathered his clothing enough to find a pair of boxers and then piled them out of the way of Nina's search, into the ruffled seat cushions. He pulled them on and helped Nina with the remainder of her own search - letting her dress herself until she came to the last few buttons on her shirt. Then he stood and helped her with the small pieces of stone.
She watched him as he performed the careful task, meeting his eyes when he finished and accepting his kiss.
They smiled at each other as the kiss was broken, and then she ran her fingers through her hair. "Do I look presentable?" She asked. She had to be at work in less than ten minutes - it wasn't really a realistic goal, but she knew her boss would understand.
He nodded, and she smoothed her skirt and shirt over her limbs.
"I really have to go." She muttered after another lazy kiss.
"Yeah." Jack commented. "I guess I'll see you when I get there."
Nina nodded, and pulled away from their embrace, collecting the folders on the table and then heading for the door. "Bye." She called back to him as she grasped the knob.
Jack settled back onto the couch, collecting his bundle of clothing and tugging it into his lap. He separated his hands from the pile and looked at his hands. With a sudden bolt of courage he tugged his wedding band off of his finger, and after reading the inscription for the first time in years - he placed it in the centre of the coffee table.
08:55:34 The desert dust blew all over the tarmac around them - them being the sole drivers along this stretch of road. Amir hadn't really been paying attention to the road - but he was getting bored. Almost as if sensing the unease, Reza started speaking. "It should be just over the hill."
Amir followed the horizon, and when they passed over it he noticed a heavy goods lorry parked off the road on the baked red clay. Reza pulled his car up to the lorry, stopping in front of it, at an angle. He jumped out of the car at the same time as the people in the cab of the lorry.
"You're late." This new man pointed out to them.
"Yeah." Reza replied. Amir had called whilst at the airport to report on the tardiness of his ride.
"We've been waiting - they couldn't complete the next stage until you arrived." He spoke to Amir this time.
Reza looked around him. He could see the heat emanating off the ground.
"It won't happen again." The lorry driver muttered, pulling out his glock and shooting Reza in the mid-chest, once, twice - he dropped to the sand. He glanced at Amir. "Come on, let's go."
08:58:45 Tony waited in the shade on the roof for the chopper to land. It was kicking up all the stray grit and sand deposited on the roof by the showers and broken up by the tarmac.
The blades stopped spinning once the whirly-bird had settled, obviously remaining to escort Connor to where ever he needed to go after meeting with them. Tony jogged to the door as he noticed Michelle - one of Connor's aides step out the copter.
Connor followed shortly after her and didn't bother waiting for the other agents to dismount - heading straight to Tony and to the roof access points.
"Mr Connor." began Tony.
"Where are Jack and Nina?" He asked immediately.
"I've been unable to contact them." Tony informed him.
Connor paused his speedy gait and regarded Tony with a look that made him feel incredibly incompetent. "Then send an agent to their homes - get them here, Tony."
08:59:58 . . . 08:59:59 . . . 09:00:00
Death count = 1???
Spoilers - All of season one, including my version of the last fifteen minutes of 24. You can find it at livelyaria.bravepages.com/love and war.html or on FF.net somewhere.
Summary - Wait and see...
Author's Notes - Stole the idea of a country called Qumar from the West Wing. Couldn't think up another name, and Fauxraqistan would have been too funny. I'm taking a cue from the show and taking a few minutes out every hour.
Never fear - there will be a bathroom scene, don't worry for all you people who were just dying to get to the loos, I don't know how I'll top 24 though - first Jamie does spy work in there, then Paula washes her hands and recently George took his pills - What will they think up next?
Rating - Same as the show
8-9pm
Basement office - the Pentagon, 11:00:02
Rakima Kasrati pressed the headpiece closer to his ear. He wanted to make sure that he hadn't made a mistake.
Rakima was always careful with his work; he was an Arabic translator for the US military - defence and intelligence. At the moment he was working on a conversation that a man named Kafir Mari had had with some of his connections in a convenience store in Al-Hakut. Mari was a known terrorist and Rakima didn't like what he was hearing, it sounded like the translation his lieutenant had worked on was right, and they were all in for a world of trouble.
Rakima closed the folder in front of him and signed the bottom of the file. He pressed a button on the underside of the desk.
Private MacDoughall entered the room quickly and he handed him the file. "Call the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs - he'll need to see that right away - tell him it's a code red assessment."
MacDoughall nodded and saluted and left the room.
Los Angeles, 08:03:01
Jack Bauer dropped himself unceremoniously onto the couch and let out a loud groan. He'd run an extra mile today than usual, deciding he'd rather drown a few more calf muscles in lactic acid than return to the house an few minutes earlier. Especially not today.
He took in a few staggered breaths. He'd always thought that when you were doing ten miles, it wouldn't matter if you did one more. It'd taken him three more minutes than he wanted - he noted, glancing at the sports timer setting on his watch and resetting it angrily. He turned it back to the timer setting and took in the time and sadly - the date, before he let his arm drop again.
He was wheezing a little - he didn't like that.
Jack bent forward into the sunlight from the bay doors to take off his shoes, and as he noticed the dampness, his socks. He let the shoes drop and bundled the socks in his hands, flopping, once again back on the couch.
His front doorbell rang suddenly and he glanced over at the door, up a step and to his right behind him. He couldn't see the ringer without x-ray vision, but he could see the dividing door and the thick Mexican door.
Having now repaid his oxygen debt Jack rose to his feet, hoping to make it to the door before the visitor rung the bell again. He took the step up and jogged the three feet to the door, pulling it open as he saw his visitor turn to look at the front garden.
His visitor turned to him just after he'd taken in her appearance - a shorter than normal black suit skirt and a green sweater, sleeveless with a 'v' neck, showing off her neck. He imagined the suit jacket was in the car. She rarely came to work in anything less than a suit, always looking professional.
She took a moment to look at him and then muttered a breathy "Hi."
"Hi." He replied. Not realising that he was blocking the doorway.
"Mind if I come in?" Nina asked, lifting a bundle of files out from under her arm. It was only then that he noticed them.
Jack slid to the side, and then walked back into the house leaving Nina to shut the door behind her. They'd spent a few hours working at her house last night - "Didn't we finish all those last night?" He queried, heading back into the lounge area. He passed the remote control on the way and switched the tv. It automatically turned to CNN from yesterday morning - he'd gone straight to bed after returning from Nina's last night.
"Yes, but we didn't sign any of the papers, and I need to get them off to Division by 10, so."
Jack nodded in response and gestured to the chairs, tossing the remote onto a seat and heading off to the kitchen. "Have a seat - can I get you something, OJ, coffee.?"
"A cup of coffee would be great, thanks." Nina muttered, taking a seat. She dropped the files on the table and reached down to move a pair of muddy running shoes.
08:07:43 James Codonn collected his tray from the tray-spot and looked down the queue of cadets, or potential young cadets. All of a sudden his shirt didn't seem starched or ironed well enough and his suit wasn't smart enough. His worries about his physical prowess weren't even possible to be put into words, but he knew that Darren, whose surname he didn't know, was the California Thai Boxing Champion, and only a year older than he.
James settled his mind on the problems he could sort, and straightened his back to get a better look at the food that the chefs were serving up. The bacon looked nice today, but James knew better than to load himself with fats - he had to eat a balance of complex and simple carbs if he wanted to have a peak energy level just before lunch for the aptitude tests.
A solid finger poke in the middle of his back caused him to turn and his vision trailed off just before he noticed the oatmeal and porridge at the end of the line. He turned to see the gorgeous and friendly Kimberly.again he lost the surname, but he knew the girl.
"Hey." She greeted.
"Hi." He replied, turning his back on his search for decent food and the Thai boxer. She offered him a big smile. "You sleep well?" He asked her.
She nodded happily and grabbed herself a tray. After a brief wrestle with the mechanism, she managed to collect a clean one, and collected a hot plate.
Kim, James had noticed, didn't stick with any sort of diet he could think of. She ate whatever interested her, even if she didn't know the taste. James wished he could be that adventurous. He wished he was that confident in his abilities.
"God, I'm so nervous about today." Kim confided. They shuffled along the line and he ignored the woman serving cooked fatty food until it was his turn to say 'no thanks'.
"Don't be, I'm sure you'll be fine." They'd gone for a run together a day earlier. She'd been a little out of breath, but then she wasn't expected to do as well as he. The women's criteria were calculated differently.
"You barely broke a sweat yesterday." She commented.
"Yeah, but I'm supposed to score higher than you." James consoled her. "Don't worry about it - that was a pretty brisk pace." Kim ordered her breakfast, a plate of fats and far too complex carbs. He was concerned. "You know you'll get sluggish - you won't be able to burn that."
Kim laughed at him. "I'm famished - and I'm not eating that slop." She nodded towards the soup steamer worth of porridge that they were approaching, she'd asked him a few days ago if he could still taste the previous night's soup in his breakfast, and to be honest - he wasn't entirely sure he couldn't.
"If you ate something like porridge and bread your body would break it down slower and you'd have more energy over a longer period. Chances are your body will deposit that instantly.especially if you have toast." He pointed out as she collected a slice of bread from the rack. ".which gives it instant nutrients so it ignores the fat."
Kim smirked and then pushed her tongue into the space under her lips, and groaned at him, and then turned away from the counter to find them a seat, just as Darren Marlowe, the Thai Boxer, shoved a ladle of oats into his bowl.
08:12:46 "And then the press conference that the first lady scheduled on health care is at three-twenty." Sarah finished as she glanced up at the President. He nodded at someone behind her and she angled her neck enough to see Lynn Kresgy standing in the doorway, waiting for entry.
"The first lady's press conference, sir - I thought we agreed that you were going to send Michelle?" Lynn interrupted, having over heard the end of the conversation. She rounded the sofas and took a seat on the edge of the white linen, on the table closest to the President.
"This is a join initiative, Lynn, I'm not ruining it by letting my petty."
"Sir, they aren't petty - as soon as Mrs Palmer says something about the dairy tax, it'll just incense you and things will get out of hand." Lynn argued.
"Things will not get out of hand."
"Sir."
"I'm telling you, Lynn, as an intelligent adult," he stood, slightly angry moving round the chair and back to the psychological protection of the desk, "I am capable of containing myself around my ex-wife - for the good of the country."
Lynn stood too - despite the fact that her yoghurt breakfast wasn't really enough, no one sat whilst he stood. She nodded wearily.
Palmer collected a pen from the desk and rotated it between his fingers, it was an anniversary pen, but it wasn't something that they commented on. He looked her in the eye - "Besides, even she knows - I'm the one who gets to be in charge." He laughed, sincere and deep, and Lynn smiled in response.
Sarah was still standing in the corner of the room. "Sorry, if that's all Sarah, you can go."
The young woman nodded and left the room. Lynn moved to stand squarely in front of the President's desk, especially as he sat down. "So Lynn, did you come in purely to criticize me, or was there a point to this little visit?"
"No, the Joint Chiefs need you in the situation room."
Palmer ran a hand down his chin.
08:18:13 Jack signed another file, and once again he paused long enough for Nina to close it and add it to the pile on the end of her knees. Jack watched as the paper moved onto her lap, letting his eyes slide down the papers and onto the skin of her thighs, and then completing his circle back to the next signature box, she placed a finger on the small square, and he added his signature to the box below hers.
His eyes escaped the pile and wandered to the television. The international news segment was on, at the moment a well-powdered woman was talking about a fire in a police station somewhere in northern England. Nearly ten people had died, including a few police officers and a teenage boy who'd been brought in after stealing from a nearby department store. They were interviewing his mother.
"Jack?" Nina asked.
He physically shook his head and lowered it back to look at the manila folder in front of him, as he signed he noticed Nina's hand reach to the corner of the page and ruffle the pages. "Only a few more to go." She muttered.
He nodded wearily, he wasn't sure if it would be better on him if he did monotonous tasks all day or if he tested his mind non-stop until he went to bed. He didn't even know if he was going to talk to Nina about it, although his typical practice would have been not to.
She was right, and three signatures - maybe only a minute and a half down the road, they were finished. She collected the last file onto her lap and patted them straight, whilst he capped the pen, still leant forward on his haunches.
Nina put the folders onto the table and leant back in the chair, she watched him for a minute, a thoughtful look on her face. He could feel her eyes on his shoulder, his neck, his hands. "Spit it out, Nina." He grumbled, not moving.
"I was about to ask you the same thing, Jack." She said in a light tone that he both hated and loved at the same time.
He laughed, rotating to look at her but moving ever so slightly away from him.
"You've been quiet, cold, isolated - not just today, or even last night. I've been noticing it for a while now." Nina told him.
He noticed she said 'I' and was thankful for that - he didn't like the idea that he'd been broadcasting his unease. It was only Nina who'd picked up on it when he and Teri had separated, nearly three years ago now. "It's just going to eat at you until you tell someone, it might as well be me." she quietened for the last phrase, and he caught her eyes for a moment - holding the gaze until she looked away.
She watched the manila folders for a period of mutual silence, and he regarded her face. She'd always been there for him. He told her that, catching her by surprise.
She gave him a look of puzzlement. "Even when I didn't believe you, you've just been around for me." They didn't talk about that day anymore, but they both knew when he meant. "I appreciate it." He told her quietly, placing a hand on hers where it played with the soft couch fabric. She stopped instantly, and Jack wondered how hot he was from his run.
Nina knew when not to talk, and so she didn't say anything when he sat in silence, still for a few seconds. "Today is." He shook his head and laughed bitterly, "Would have been - Teri's fortieth birthday - we said we'd pause for a few years, so I could catch up, and then we'd celebrate forty-one." He smiled. "My computer told me about it, and the strange thing is - if it hadn't done - I wouldn't have remembered."
Nina's hand turned in his and a finger stroked the skin inside his wrist. If she remembered anything from their relationship, she'd have known that was a sensitive spot. He met her eyes.
"I guess in the last few days I've been realising how much I've moved on." Nina collected their hands off his sofa and brought them onto her lap, still stroking her thumb over the two tendons in the centre of his wrist.
"Yeah." She whispered quietly, as he moved towards her on the sofa.
08:24:13 Kim smiled at James as she walked in the door at the side of the room. She had arrived with literally a minute to spare, she'd gotten lost on her way to find room 127, every guard she'd passed had been on sentry duty, and most had refused to even give her directions, save the guy at the bottom of the stairs.
He patted the seat next to himself and Kim wandered over, taking the seat between him and a girl from San Diego whom she'd gotten to know well over the last few days - they shared a room.
Lieutenant Bray - a woman in her early forties, the same one who'd given them a talk last night - took her place at the small lecture pulpit at the front of the assembled group - 30 or so eighteen to twenty year olds. She had jet-black hair with a red tinge to it - hair dye, but probably to cover the grey at her roots rather than to alter her natural colour, and harsh grey eyes. She wore a wedding ring and her dog tags as her only jewellery with her dress uniform, which comfortably flattered her padded hips. "Right, ladies and gentlemen - you are assembled here today because you want to join the United States Air Force. You've completed examinations, interviews - you've been recommended for selection, and so here you are."
She looked up from her black leather folder and offered the cadets a smile. "In a little over thirty minutes you'll be completing your tasks - the physical and mental challenges that will test you abilities as teams, as leaders - to see if you have what it takes to become an officer in the United States Air Force."
08:29:34 "Almeida." Tony answered his phone, not even looking up from the screen in front of him to collect the small black receiver. He dropped a sheet of paper on his lap and grabbed his mug of coffee - leaning back in the chair as he waited for the caller to speak.
"Hi, Tony it's Michelle - will you hold for AD Connor." Came a softly spoken voice out of the black tube.
"Yeah sure." Tony took the brief silence to take a sip of his coffee. Connor didn't usually have to call CTU himself - or rather, he wouldn't speak to anyone here himself, especially not a lowly floor dweller like Tony, they'd always want Jack or Nina.
"Tony?"
"Yes, Sir." He sat up as he spoke.
"Where's Jack?"
"He's not on, yet, sir."
"Nina?"
"Should be here in a half hour."
"Hmmm," Tony could hear a faint tapping of a pen on a desk - he could imagine the man sitting in his darkened office talking to him via the light of a desk lap. "I need you to call all your people, get everybody in - I need to brief the senior staff as soon as possible."
Tony nodded, "Right away, sir. What should I tell them is happening?"
"I'll be briefing you at CTU LA in approximately a half hour - I'm catching a chopper in a few minutes." He heard a phone ringing sound in the background. "Just tell them to get there."
08:33:24 Amir Halim rotated the cigarette so he held it between the pads of his index and forefingers to give him a better grip as he took the last drag on his camel cigarette. He chucked it to the ground and stepped on it, ensuring it was fully out before he rolled his suitcase over it and took a look at the queues of traffic.
His ride still wasn't here.
He settled the suitcase back on its legs and grabbed the cigarette carton from his right pocket - he pulled out a cigarette and then the lighter, which was stowed in the space created by the four cigarettes he'd smoked in the last few minutes.
Where was his ride?
Amir inserted the cigarette between his lips and clutched the packet under his arm as he flicked the coil and hoped for a flame. One came, and he lit his cigarette. He held it in his mouth for the first few succulent puffs, allowing him time to stow his packet and lighter back in his pocket.
A tan coloured Buick pulled up to the loading zone in front of him, and his colleague Reza climbed out of the drivers' side, slamming the door. He motioned for Amir to follow him, and he forced the cigarette to stay between his lips as he rolled his suitcase over to the car.
Reza opened the passenger side door to the back seat. "Will you put that out!" He growled. "I don't want to take any chances."
08:38:45 Jack and Nina writhed on the sofa, having blocked out the sound of the news broadcast. Jack's house phone was at a much higher volume to start with, so when it rang it jolted them. Jack raised himself up on his forearms and looked quizzically down at her.
Nina shut her eyes and took a long breath, opening them far more suddenly than she'd expected when she felt his arm move away from them, to reach for the phone, she gripped his forearm and spoke quietly. "Leave it."
Jack didn't speak, or move.
"Leave it." She said a little more assertively sliding her arm to his shoulder.
08:40:47 Palmer stood at the head of the table, signalling the end of the meeting. "I want those satellite photos by the end of the day - if this is even a possibility I want to know about it." He ordered the assembled men, and then stepped around his seat. He always waited for Lynn before leaving the situation room. She came to his side and they walked to the exit.
"I want to talk to the director of the FBI." David ordered her, as they walked to the stairwell - back to their retrospective offices. "I want to know exactly what he's got on this already - I don't care if it's just a list of the agencies involved - I want to know where he is on this."
Lynn nodded, mumbling her standard agreement to him.
"And have Brayburn meet me in the oval office as soon as possible." She nodded.
"I'll get Sarah on it." It was really his secretaries' job to call and make the meetings.
"No, I want you to do it - secure line if necessary. I want him to know everything we do." David's secret service agents watched the more ditsy members of staff, they had a tendency to walk to close sometimes.
"Sir, you may need to consider calling the FAA and asking them to up security." Lynn suggested.
David nodded, "Sarah can set up the call for me."
08:46:03 Kim rose to her feet and made a beeline for the coffee machine in an adjacent corridor. James came out after her, and shortly afterwards her roommate - Susanna. They worked their way around the other casually chatting cadets to the hot beverage machine, and joined the short queue.
"I've been dying for a hot chocolate all the way through that." Admitted Susanna.
"Oh my god!" Kim pointed to herself - "So was I, I think it's all that chocolate you were eating in the room." They laughed together, and then turned to see James' expression - then laughing because of his disinterest.
Susanna loved eating chocolate, but she had a rake thin figure, gorgeous long black hair, and contrary to the popular housewives tale, perfect alabaster skin.
They moved forward a step. "I don't know if I can stand to be bored like that again." Whispered Susanna, who'd previously professed worries that there were cameras in the shower judging her bathing technique as a method of assessing her abilities as an office.
"I know!" Kim joked. "And did you hear all the security stuff - If you notice an abandoned bag or anyone looking suspicious."
"Don't be a hero." Susanna added when Kim left her a gap to finish. It was followed by happy laughter that turned a few heads.
"And we're on code black too - there's no concern.surely if there is a concern then we shouldn't be here anyway. We're civilians at the moment damn it!" Kim laughed.
"And 'code black' what on earth are the other codes anyway?" Susanna wondered.
"Oh there's a notice about that downstairs." James added, his first entry to their conversation. "By the door."
"Really I didn't see that." Susanna commented.
Kim nodded, "Well you'll have to point it out to us on the way out this afternoon then - won't you, James?"
08:52:34 Jack gathered his clothing enough to find a pair of boxers and then piled them out of the way of Nina's search, into the ruffled seat cushions. He pulled them on and helped Nina with the remainder of her own search - letting her dress herself until she came to the last few buttons on her shirt. Then he stood and helped her with the small pieces of stone.
She watched him as he performed the careful task, meeting his eyes when he finished and accepting his kiss.
They smiled at each other as the kiss was broken, and then she ran her fingers through her hair. "Do I look presentable?" She asked. She had to be at work in less than ten minutes - it wasn't really a realistic goal, but she knew her boss would understand.
He nodded, and she smoothed her skirt and shirt over her limbs.
"I really have to go." She muttered after another lazy kiss.
"Yeah." Jack commented. "I guess I'll see you when I get there."
Nina nodded, and pulled away from their embrace, collecting the folders on the table and then heading for the door. "Bye." She called back to him as she grasped the knob.
Jack settled back onto the couch, collecting his bundle of clothing and tugging it into his lap. He separated his hands from the pile and looked at his hands. With a sudden bolt of courage he tugged his wedding band off of his finger, and after reading the inscription for the first time in years - he placed it in the centre of the coffee table.
08:55:34 The desert dust blew all over the tarmac around them - them being the sole drivers along this stretch of road. Amir hadn't really been paying attention to the road - but he was getting bored. Almost as if sensing the unease, Reza started speaking. "It should be just over the hill."
Amir followed the horizon, and when they passed over it he noticed a heavy goods lorry parked off the road on the baked red clay. Reza pulled his car up to the lorry, stopping in front of it, at an angle. He jumped out of the car at the same time as the people in the cab of the lorry.
"You're late." This new man pointed out to them.
"Yeah." Reza replied. Amir had called whilst at the airport to report on the tardiness of his ride.
"We've been waiting - they couldn't complete the next stage until you arrived." He spoke to Amir this time.
Reza looked around him. He could see the heat emanating off the ground.
"It won't happen again." The lorry driver muttered, pulling out his glock and shooting Reza in the mid-chest, once, twice - he dropped to the sand. He glanced at Amir. "Come on, let's go."
08:58:45 Tony waited in the shade on the roof for the chopper to land. It was kicking up all the stray grit and sand deposited on the roof by the showers and broken up by the tarmac.
The blades stopped spinning once the whirly-bird had settled, obviously remaining to escort Connor to where ever he needed to go after meeting with them. Tony jogged to the door as he noticed Michelle - one of Connor's aides step out the copter.
Connor followed shortly after her and didn't bother waiting for the other agents to dismount - heading straight to Tony and to the roof access points.
"Mr Connor." began Tony.
"Where are Jack and Nina?" He asked immediately.
"I've been unable to contact them." Tony informed him.
Connor paused his speedy gait and regarded Tony with a look that made him feel incredibly incompetent. "Then send an agent to their homes - get them here, Tony."
08:59:58 . . . 08:59:59 . . . 09:00:00
Death count = 1???