24- OPERATION: REVENGE
The following takes place between 12:00 am and 1:00 am. Events Occur in real time.
12:00
Joseph Burns looked at the phone and dreaded its ring. He waited and hoped that it wouldn't and that the whole thing would be called off. If it did ring he knew that he would answer it obediently. He had no choice. Right now he was willing to do anything for them, they had him right where they wanted him.
The cell came to life and Joseph picked it up, he held it in the sweaty palm of his hand for a few a seconds before he pushed the answer button. He swallowed hard and then he did it.
"CTU Burns." Joseph answered.
"It's me, the bombs have been set." A digitally altered voice said over the phone.
"What do you want me to do?" Burns asked.
"Shut down the tracer software. She is going to call CTU and if there is any possibility that she can be tracked; your family will be killed. If they suspect that it was you that disabled the software your family will be killed." The voice said.
"I…I don't think that I can do this." Burns said.
"It's simple Burns; if you don't do what I say when I say it your family dies." The voice said.
"Okay." Burns said.
The line went dead. Burns stood up and looked around the central room at the dozens of agents that were tapping away at their computers. The night had been pretty quiet but Burns predicted that it was going to get a hell of a lot busier.
Burns walked down a wing towards the computer room. When he glanced at his watch he knew that it would be five more seconds until he could exploit the camera's blind spot. He made sure he was alone before he entered and locked the door behind him. The computers were processing thousands of equations, creating white noise all around him. Burns approached the nearest terminal and began to type away at it. It didn't take long for him to sabotage the software that was famous for its ability to penetrate scrambled lines. He did this by deleting a few of the dll. Files within the folder.
Burns left quietly and nobody would know that he had ever been in there.
-----
The Director of the Counter-Terrorism Unit sat behind the desk, gazing down at the busy workers through the plain glass walls of the office. The phone on the clear desk rang.
"CTU Driscoll." Erin Driscoll said, she had only just begun her shift and it was going to be a long one.
"Listen to me carefully Erin..." A familiar voice said.
"Who is this?" Erin asked.
"Don't bother with the trace I've already disabled your tracking software." The female on the other end of the voice said. Erin had heard the voice before but couldn't put a name on it.
"What's this about?" Driscoll asked.
"I am the leader of a terrorist group who has planted enough C4 in twelve highly visited American tourist locations to bring them down with severe casualties. If you fail to do what I say I am more then willing to detonate every one of them." The voice said.
"Who is this?" Driscoll asked.
"For now we are going to keep this real quiet. Between you and I, I'm sure your itching to call division and you'll have your chance but it's important that we keep this simple for now." The voice said.
"I'm not doing anything until you tell me who I'm speaking to." Driscoll said.
"Do you still have a television in your office Erin, or did budgeting cut it?" The woman asked. Driscoll immediately focussed on the television set that sat directly across from her.
"Yes I do." Driscoll said.
"Turn it on. The channel you're looking for is CNN." The woman said. Driscoll obeyed, flicking the television on with her remote control.
A balding news-reader was standing in front of the Golden Gate Bridge, the bridge itself glowed orange with flames.
"Oh My God!" Driscoll said.
"If you hesitate again another site goes. I'll leave this up to you Driscoll." The woman said.
"Okay, okay! What do you want me to do?" Driscoll asked.
"As well as silence on your part I need you to set up a conference with two retired CTU Agents." The Woman said.
"Who?" Driscoll asked.
"Agent Tony Almeida and Michelle Dessler." The woman said.
"I don't think that's possible…" Driscoll said.
"Make it possible Erin! You know what happens if it isn't!" The woman said. Erin hung up the phone.
--- -
Tony Almeida woke up before the phone rang as if he could sense that a call was coming through. He sat up in his bed and looked at Michelle. The bedside telephone hummed to life and he grabbed it before it woke his wife.
"Hello?" Tony asked.
"It's Erin Driscoll from CTU." Erin said.
"Erin, its midnight…" Tony said.
"I know. Tony I'm sorry but I'm going to need you to get to CTU as soon as you can." Erin said.
"You can't be serious; we're two hours away." Tony said.
"I'm more serious then you will ever know. A chopper is on the way it should be in there in ten minutes…" She said. "Tony…" She continued.
"Yeah?" Tony asked.
"I need you to bring Michelle as well." Erin said.
"Out of the question, Michelle stays here." Tony said.
"Believe me if I could allow that I would but this is a matter of national security!" Erin said.
"What is it?" Tony asked.
"I really can't tell you over the phone. You will be briefed personally by me when you get here." Erin said.
"You're tough to love Erin." Tony said.
"I'm sorry." Erin said. The line went dead. Tony dropped the phone back on the hook and looked down at his sleeping wife, he had to work up the courage to wake her.
--- -
Erin walked down the stairs and noticed how quickly everyone had gathered around the main monitor which was lit up with images of the Golden Gate bridge on fire. As she came down everyone turned to her as if she had all the answers.
"Listen up everybody! I know that a lot of you are shocked by what happened but we need to get organised if we are going to catch the culprits behind this…" Erin said, she instantly had everyone's attention. Two people in particular looked at her with knowing frowns, they had been through this before. She immediately addressed them.
"Edgar and Chloe I want you two to analyse all the terrorist threats made against the Golden Gate Bridge and cross reference them with presumed active terrorist cells. Burns and Gavin I need you two to scan the latest reports coming in from the other agencies, flag anything that relates to this attack. The rest of you know what to do." Erin said. She walked down the stairs towards the workstation that Edgar and Chloe occupied.
"What's going on Erin?" Chloe asked.
"What do you mean?" Erin asked.
"I mean terrorists attacks don't just happen without us at least knowing about it. Why weren't we informed of this situation?" Chloe said.
"Terrorist attacks DO just happen if the terrorists know what they are doing, and the reason that we don't have any information on this situation is because these terrorists were good at what they aim to do; cause terror." Erin said.
"It just doesn't make sense that…"
"Chloe, I don't need you to inform me of what doesn't make sense surrounding this situation I just need you to do my job. Report back to me when you get anything of value." Erin said.
"Edgar, I need you to come with me." Erin said. Edgar looked up, shocked that it had been him that was summoned as opposed to Chloe. He stood up and followed Erin looking back at Chloe who had a sour look upon her face.
Erin and Edgar walked across the room towards a quiet wing, Erin led him down the hall way.
"Ms. Driscoll, what is this about?" Edgar asked.
"Edgar, I just lied to Chloe…" Erin said.
"What?" Edgar asked.
"A few minutes ago I received a phone call from an anonymous woman claiming to have planted explosives at twelve national tourist locations around America, she wanted me to contact two retired agents and keep quiet about it or she would blow them up. I initially hesitated which is why the Golden Gate Bridge was destroyed." Erin said.
"My God." Edgar said.
"It was my mistake and I'll have to live with." Erin said.
"What do you want me to do about it?" Edgar asked.
"The woman on the other end of the phone, the way she talked, it was like she knew this place. She knew that I had a television in my office and she knew that we had state of the art anti-tracking software installed that she somehow corrupted so that the call couldn't be traced." Erin said.
"She corrupted our software? How the hell did she do that?" Edgar asked.
"I don't know but it's down. I checked it just a minute ago. What I need you to do is run a manual trace from a laptop the next time she rings but you need to do it so that she doesn't know the call is being traced or she might blow up another land mark." Erin said.
"I don't think I can do that. I think that's more Chloe's line of work." Edgar said.
"I know that she is more proficient then you in that area but Edgar, I don't trust her." Erin said.
"What? Why?" Edgar asked.
"We departed on sour terms last year. Put simply I just can't trust her Edgar. Do this for me and I promise it won't go unnoticed." Erin said. Edgar just stood there and looked down the room at Chloe who was busy tapping away at a computer. He couldn't help but feel that he was somehow betraying his friend by doing this, then his eyes returned to Erin Driscoll's and he knew that he had to do it, in her eyes she saw a scared agent, a woman who had last her daughter only a year ago.
"Okay. I'll do it." Edgar said. Erin smiled, but he could tell that she was just as scared as him.
--- -
Michelle walked out to the kitchen bench wrapped in a silk night gown. She sat down and Tony poured her a cup of coffee as if that would somehow make up for everything that they were about to go through.
"I don't understand Tony, I thought you said we would leave CTU?" Michelle asked.
"I don't know Michelle, all I know is that Driscoll has a chopper in the air right now and that from the way she talked, it sounded important." Tony said.
"Why do both of us have to go in?" She asked.
"I have no idea." Tony said. Suddenly the harsh beating of a chopper could be heard. Tony looked at Michelle and they shared a moment, something told Tony that this was going to be the beginning of a very long day.
--- -
Edgar had a laptop on Erin's desk, there were dozens of electric cables feeding out of it into other technical gadgets, all of them were hooked up to Erin Driscoll's office phone.
"Ms. Driscoll, I'm not sure that this will work. I'm guessing that whoever is behind these attacks has scrambling software of their own." Edgar said.
"You can only do your best Edgar." Erin said. Edgar nodded and began typing away the computer, setting up the phone call.
Erin's phone rang. She looked at Edgar and he looked back at her. Edgar nodded. Erin picked up the phone.
"CTU Driscoll." She said. The voice on the other on of the phone laughed.
"I'll never get tired of that. How is everything going Erin? Did you do what I asked?" The woman asked.
"Yes. Tony and Michelle are on their way." Erin said.
"Good. That wasn't hard was it?" The woman asked.
"I need to know what is going on here. Why do you want to speak with Tony and Michelle?" Erin asked.
"All good things to those who wait Ms. Driscoll. It's a pity we never got to meet each other you know, I think you and I would have been friends." The woman said.
"I'd never be friends with a terrorist." Erin said.
"You'd be surprised. I'm going to leave now before Edgar can trace the call. For that little episode you just lost The Washington Monument." The woman said. The phone line went dead. Edgar and Erin looked at each other and then immediately looked at the television set.
Another reporter, this time standing in front of the Washington Monument, or at least where it once stood, now there was only rubble.
"Just minutes after the Golden Gate Bridge was attack the Washington Monument also suffered similar destruction. The American Government is yet to comment on the series of explosions or whether or not they are terrorist related." The reporter said. Erin switched off the television.
--- -
Tony Almeida and Michelle Dessler walked into CTU. Chloe looked up at them and then smiled unexpectedly, the married couple, as if a singular entity, smiled back. Chloe got up from her desk and jogged over to them. Michelle and Tony kept walking at a steady pace.
"What are you guys doing here?" Chloe asked.
"We don't know. Driscoll summoned us. She said it was important." Tony said.
"Did you hear about the attacks?" Chloe asked.
"Yeah, Erin couldn't have possibly called us in over that…" Michelle said.
"I don't know, maybe she needs people that she knows are stable…" Chloe said. Erin strolled down the stairs and looked at Tony and Michelle.
"Tony, Michelle. Will you join me in my office?" Erin asked and walked back into her office. Michelle and Tony walked slowly up the stairs and entered Driscoll's office as a wave of nostalgia rolled over them.
Inside the office Tony was surprised to see Edgar sitting at a laptop typing away and what sounded like a recorded phone conversation between Erin Driscoll and another woman.
"Ms. Driscoll, I tried scanning all the frequencies again but I couldn't triangulate the call. I'm sorry." Edgar said.
"Wait a minute, play that sound file back." Tony said. Edgar did so obediently.
"Do you know who that is?" Erin asked.
"Yes but it can't be her. It's impossible. " Tony said.
"Who is it Tony?" Michelle asked.
"It's Nina Myers…" Tony said.
12:59:57…58…59…1:00
