The following takes place between 1:00 am and 2:00 am. Events occur in real time.
The room grew suddenly tense with Tony's revelation. Tony himself couldn't believe what he had just heard but there was no way that he forget that voice. The voice that he had heard so many times before, the voice that he had once fallen in love with.
"I thought Nina Myers was dead. According to the report; Jack shot her." Erin said.
"That's what I thought too but obviously she's still alive. Erin what are you doing to secure potential bomb targets?" Tony said.
"The military is in the process of securing tourist locations around America but there are too many of them, any one of them could be part of the twelve. Our forces are spread thin." Erin said.
"Okay." Tony said.
"What does Nina Myers want with you two?" Erin asked. Tony and Michelle looked at each other, Tony knew that there was only one answer to that question and couldn't believe that anybody apart from the three people that had partaken in the conspiracy had known about it, certainly not a presumed dead traitor like Nina Myers.
"I have no idea." Tony lied. He felt Michelle's hand grab his and he squeezed it back, as long as they were in this together they would be able to pull through.
Driscoll's phone rang. Tony and Erin looked at each other before she answered. This was it. Driscoll picked it up.
"CTU Driscoll." Erin said.
"Erin, I think you are getting the hang of it by now; I expect that you won't make anymore mistakes." Nina Myers said. Tony couldn't believe what he was hearing.
"I've got Tony Almeida and Michelle Dessler in the room as well as Edgar Stiles." Erin said.
"Good, that was quicker then I thought you were capable of. I want you to send Edgar out of the room." Nina said.
"Why?" Erin asked.
"This doesn't concern him and it would probably be safer for him if he didn't know about it." Nina said.
Erin nodded towards Edgar who stood up and left the room as quickly as he could. He shut the door behind him.
"Edgar is gone." Erin said.
"Good, now I want to speak with Tony." Nina said.
"I'll put you on speaker." Erin said and pushed a button, she hung up the receiver.
"Tony are you there?" Nina asked.
"Yeah." Tony said.
"It's been a long time hasn't it Tony? What was the last thing I said to you?" Nina asked, considering it over in her mind. Tony on the other hand couldn't forget.
"Oh that's right; I said 'your neck's bleeding'." Nina said. "How is your neck by the way?" Nina asked.
"It's okay. What do you want Nina?" Tony asked.
"You aren't even curious as to how I'm still alive?" Nina asked.
"Sure I'm curious, but right now you have the capacity to kill thousands of innocent people so curiosity is just going to have to wait. My priority now is to bring you down." Tony said.
"You don't have to tell me about CTU priority Tony, I worked above you for a long time remember? I know that right now you and CTU are going to do everything in your power to find me but that's not going to happen, at least not until I get what I want." Nina said.
"What do you want Nina?" Tony asked.
"Last year you were involved in a conspiracy to fake Jack Bauer's death, you helped to organise his escape and you are the only one who knows where he is." Nina said.
"What the hell?" Erin asked, glaring at Tony. Tony could only look back at her with empty eyes.
"I don't know where he is." Tony said.
"You're lying Tony. Don't lie again or another tourist attraction is gone." Nina said.
"I swear to God I don't know!" Tony said.
Suddenly there was a gasp from the main room. The three looked down at the main screen to see the Hoover Dam in flames, water flooding out of it.
"You crazy bitch!" Tony swore.
"Tony, my demands are simple, I want the location of Jack Bauer, that's all." Nina said. Tony looked at Michelle, searching for an answer in the deepness of her eyes. Finding one.
"I can give you the location of Jack Bauer, just don't blow up another site." Tony said.
"Good." Nina said.
"Jack is staying in Mexico on a ranch just four hours to the north of Mexico City." Tony said.
"You've done well Tony. I'll call you back soon with further instructions." Nina said.
"Wait I thought you said that that was all I had to do?" Tony said.
"It is Tony, I'm done with you. The next task is for Michelle, you didn't think I dragged you both down here just so you could be together did you?" Nina asked and the phone went dead.
"Jack Bauer is still alive?" Erin asked.
"Yes. Last year the Chinese government wanted to take custody of Jack because he led a strike force on Chinese territory, we had to fake his death so he wouldn't be killed by secret service." Tony said.
"Why the hell wasn't I informed of this?" Erin asked.
"Nobody was. Only four people knew; Jack, Michelle, Chloe and I." Tony said.
"This is unacceptable." Erin said.
"Erin right now we don't have time for feeling left out. We need to do everything that we can to stop Nina Myers before she gets to Jack Bauer!" Tony said.
"What would you have me do?" Erin said.
"Send a CTU task force to that location to protect Jack." Tony said.
"And admit to the government that he is still alive? That you went behind the President's back? That's treason Tony, you've been charged of that before. I'm guessing that next time the judge won't be so lenient!" Erin said.
"I don't care. We need to protect Jack." Tony said. Tony stared Erin down, they were already beginning to argue.
--- -
Edgar was typing away at his work station, busily cross referencing endless amounts of data even though he knew that it was useless. He felt like he should have been doing more to stop Nina Myers.
Chloe approached him.
"What was that all about?" Chloe asked
"What?" Edgar played dumb.
"Don't try that on me Edgar, I know that Erin let you in on something that she didn't tell the rest of us." Chloe said.
"I don't know what you're talking about!" Edgar replied.
"Damn it Edgar! I thought we promised that we wouldn't hide anything from each other." Chloe said.
"We did, but we also agreed that we would keep our home lives separate from our professional lives. Go away Chloe!" Edgar said and tried to ignore her. Chloe looked at Edgar and saw that there was no way that he was ever going to budge.
--- -
"You need to set up the tracing software so that we can track her next call!" Tony said.
"That's not a possibility, she disabled our software." Erin said.
"What? How could she do that off site?" Tony asked.
"She couldn't, something like that could only have been done internally." Michelle said.
"What does that mean?" Erin asked. They were all silent.
"It means there is a mole inside CTU." Michelle said.
The phone rang. Erin picked it up.
"CTU Driscoll." Erin said.
"Put me on speaker. Make sure that Michelle is in the room." Nina said. Erin did pushed the speaker button and hung up the head set.
"Can you hear me Michelle?" Nina asked.
"I'm here." Michelle replied pulling away from Tony's grasp to get closer to the microphone.
"I read about what happened last year how you sacrificed your husband to catch an assassin." Nina said.
"I…" Michelle said.
"Deliciously cold of you Michelle, that's why you've been selected for the next task." Nina said.
"What do you want from me?" Michelle asked.
"You're going to organise a meeting with Jack Bauer, tell him that it's urgent, concerning his daughter Kim, and then you are going to kill him." Nina said.
"I will do no such thing!" Michelle said.
"I've got nine other tourist locations that disagree with you Michelle!" Nina said.
"Oh my God" Michelle whispered, preying that Nina wouldn't hear her.
"It's alright Michelle, if you just do what I say when I say it, everything is going to be okay." Nina said.
"This is bullshit Nina! Let me do it! I'll kill Jack!" Tony yelled.
"Settle down Tony, you and Jack have history and personally I don't think that you can do it. Michelle on the other hand, she's cold blooded." Nina said.
"I'll do it, don't put Michelle in this position!" Tony said.
"Shut up Tony." Nina said. Tony held Michelle, trying unsuccessfully to comfort her.
"Michelle, you're going to have to prove to me that you are capable of doing this. I need to know that you are as cold blooded as I believe you are." Nina said. There was silence.
"What do you want me to do?" Michelle asked.
"The other member of the conspiracy, the computer gal, where is she?" Nina asked.
"Chloe is downstairs cross-referencing data." Erin said.
"Chloe! That's her name. Erin I want you to summon her to this office, darken the room." Nina said.
"Why?" Erin asked.
"So that Michelle can kill her." Nina said.
1:59:57…58…59…2:00
