Chapter 2

The Following Takes Place between 9:00 A.M. and 10:00 A.M.

"You're kidding, right?" Sydney said, unbelieving.

"Yes, Bristow, because a day when a nuclear bomb is about to go off is the perfect time to make jokes." Mason seemed capable of operating on only two levels: mock-serious and sarcastic. "You saw Bauer in there; he's dynamite with a lit fuse. I need someone to make sure he doesn't go off before we get what we need."

Sydney blinked twice. "Leaving aside that it'san unattractive metaphor, how exactly am I going to follow Bauer without being killed myself?"

"When Jack was working his old cover, he hung out with a bunch of questionable women." Mason said seriously.

Bristow arched a brow "So not only is Bauer going to be showing up at a militia headquarters on the day of a major attack--- a building filled with people who want to see the man dead--- he's going to show up with a prostitute on his arm?" Sydney said derogatively. "Who came up with this master plan, Inspector Clouseau?"

"Interesting that you went right to the prostitute angle," Mason shrugged. "I just figured he'd pick you up in a bar." Sydney hadn't known George Mason for an hour and already she was really beginning to hate his wit.

"Why are you giving me this job?" Sydney asked hotly. "You've got to have someone who's more qualified to do this."

"Because right now I need all my people working on stopping this bomb. I need someone----"

"---expendable?" Sydney finished, outraged. In her years of working in intelligence, she had been told she was being used for all sorts of reasons. She couldn't remember if she'd ever been asked to do something because she was nonessential. Bristow didn't mind the undercover work. It was her job. She didn't enjoy the suddenness but she'd dealt with that before. It wasn't even that she needed to work with someone who was half-cocked. There were days she thought that she was going nuts herself. But this was certainly maddening.

"Well, when you put it like that---"said Mason, only half-facetiously.

"I don't work for CTU. You don't have the authority to order me to go to the bathroom!!"

"According to Executive Order 6A, chain of command in a crisis of this magnitude is handed to the director of the agency in charge of the crisis," Mason said calmly. "Thesecond you and all of the people on your team entered CTU, the chain of command stopped at me, notDirector Chase."

Bristow let out a breath. This needed to be over with, and soon. "Okay, how is the communications team going to follow us?"

Mason blinked. "I don't think you understand me. This isn't one of your usual operations—it's just you and Bauer in the field. No backup—you are the backup."

"You're out of your goddamn mind!" Sydney said.

At that moment, the phone on Mason's desk buzzed. He picked up without hesitation. "Mason." He was silent for a moment. "Well, get him in here!" He hung up. "Bauer's finished his sawing a man in half trick. Agent Bristow, in case you missed the meeting, there is a rogue nuclear weapon underterrorist control somewhere in LA. We have no other regional leads. None. The only hope we have of stopping this bomb from going off is an agent who hasn't been in service for over a year and who was maverick on his best day—and that day was the day he lost his wife.Someone needs to make sure that nothing happens to him, and right now you are the person for the job. Do you get this?"

And Sydney realized that she had no alternative. There was only one man in the city that could stop this bomb, and they needed to make sure that he stayed alive. Mason could have just said that, but she had the feeling this man only used tact to nail down carpets

Sydney looked at Mason. "Where do Igo?"

"Head down to the garage. Paula will get you set up."

Without any further hesitation, Sydney opened the door.

"Agent Bristow, one last thing."

Sydney looked over her shoulder at him. Mason smiled sadly. "If I'm out of my mind for putting you with Bauer, what are you for working with Arvin Sloane?

9:04:29/9:04:30/9:04:31

Michael Vaughn caught Bristow as she came down the stairs from Mason's office. "Hey Syd, what the hell is going on here? Bauer shoots a guy and now he's just gone? What's the game plan---"

She cut him off with fast, clipped words that belied her annoyance."Vaughn, I have to go. Right now." Sydney brushed him off and started walking back towards the screen where she had seen Paula working.

As she did, she ran into someone she had put off dealing with as long as possible. "Sydney, what did Mason---"Sloane started.

"Not now." she said trying to brush past him.

"Sydney---"

"I. Have To. Go." She said very slowly and clearly. "Talk it over with Mason. The two of you seem to be getting along swimmingly."

Mason walked by Arvin and Sydney. He didn't pay them any mind ashe walked towards Bauer.

Jack stared at him, bowling bag in hand, already dressed in his undercover 'uniform' for the day. Bauer's demeanor was emotionless--- Mason wondered if that was the look Bauer had given Victor Drazen before he shot him

"What's the hold up?" he demanded.

Mason jerked his thumb behind him"Your back-up's in the middle of getting set up." he said.

There was a slight, irritated twitch in Jack's lip as he leaned towards Mason."George, the only chance that I have of pulling this off is if I go in alone. I don't need some rookie agent stumbling around on me."

"Agent Bristow is hardly a rookie. She's been with the agency for eight years, and almost all her work has been done overseas. There's no way Wald or any of his crew will recognize her."

"I can't go into Wald's house with some new girl on my arm." Jack protested. "They'll kill me before I get in the door!"

"I swear I've just had this conversation." Mason said to himself. "Jack, I'll be blunt. We're out of time, this has to work, and we are not sending you in without any back-up. So get in the chopper, talk with Bristow and find a way to do this."

Mason saw that Jack would have argued but realized that Mason was right. So he growled: "Fine", and walked to the helipad.

George sighed, then turned toward Sloane and his expression turned even grimmer. "Oh, this is going to be fun." Mason muttered to himself.

"Mason, what did you send Agent Bristow out on?"

"Someone needs to baby-sit Bauer. I figured Bristow could handle it. If I'm wrong I should have been sent the memo."

"Seeing as that Sydney Bristow is someone whose welfare concerns me very deeply on a personal level as well as an agent under my command, I believe that I am entitled to some kind of notice about her activities."

Sloane's tone throughout the conversation had been calm as always. Nevertheless Mason fixed him with the same kind of glance he would have given a homeless person talking about the arrival of Armageddon.

"All right, rather thancount the number of things wrong with that sentence, I'm going to clarify some things." Mason said "Starting with your being allowed to participate in an effort of this magnitude at all."

Sloane remained unfazed. "Youheard Raeburn---"

Mason cut him off. "Yes, I did, and it astonishes me that so many high-ranking officials in this government would trust you to run a bake sale, much less a black-ops unit on American soil. If it were up to me I have you on the floor next to the other headless horseman Jack left us."He held up his hand to interrupt Sloane's response. "But since doing so might get me in to more shit with the wrong kind of people, I will use you and your people as I see fit"

"Very well." Sloane said calmly.

"I'm not finished. All you will do is aid and assist. You and your people, like everyone else in this unit, are under our authority. There is a chain of command here, and right now you are fourth in that line. You answer to me and you answer to Tony."

Mason stopped. Sloane reluctantly asked, "Who is directly above me?"

Mason leaned in. "Any other son of a bitch with a pulse." He turned around. "Now get back to work. Understand?"

And with that the director of CTU walked back to his office.

As was the case Sloane's taciturn demeanor gave no sign that he had just received a public dressing-down from a superior. But a close observer would have noticed that his fists had clenched and his eyes had narrowed before he calmly and coolly walked back over to Marshall.

9:14:17/9:14:18/9:14:19/9:14:20

The change Jack Bauer had undergone over the last ten minutes was remarkable. It wasn't just cosmetic (he had shaved and put on a brown leather jacket). It was in his attitude--- he no longer seemed like a caged animal; rather like one who was loose and ready to strike.

None of this, however, made him any more pleasant to Sydney--- Jack had only talked to her twice from the time they got in the chopper till they had walked into Atlas Auto Repair. The first had been to ask what kind of cover she was using.

'Laura Whitman." Pressed for time, Sydney had gone with one of the few aliases that she had developed for SD-6 that was still active in America. Laura already had a small record with the California PD; it wouldn't take much work for Wald's crew to find it. As for her appearance, she had changed from the clothes she had come in with to her jogging outfit--- dark pants, shorter skirt, old sunglasses. It didn't scream 'whore', but it did say 'easier'

She was just enough of a felon that Jack Roush might hang with her.

After looking at the sheet Sydney had handed him, Jack had been quiet for the chopper ride into LA. About two miles out, they got out and into a car that had been left for them. As they drove to the hideout, Jack had spoken again: "The guy we're likely to run into is Eddie Grant, Wald's second-in-command. Guy has a high bullshit meter. Fade into the background, and don't do anything unless absolutely necessary."

"Bauer, I've been dealing with people like Grant for a long time." Sydney said heatedly. "I don't need to be reminded how to work him over."

But Jack was already looking straight ahead, his mind on the job. He turned off the engine, got out of the car, and handed Sydney the black leather bag. "Open this at the right time." With that he awkwardly draped his right arm over Sydney's shoulder. Sydney wasn't sure why Jack was so uncomfortable--- then reasoned that this well might be the first time in over a year that he had held a woman. She grabbed his hand and tugged it tightly around her, making sure it looked awkward because she was hanging on him. If Grant was good as seeing through deception, she wanted it to look perfect

"Hey cowboy," Jack said as he and Sydney walked in the door.

The man at the counter looked up--- he seemed to focus more on Sydney then on Jack. "What do you want?" he said tonelessly.

"I'm here to talk to Joe."

The man--- a kid really, less than twenty--- played dumb. "Who?"

"Joe Wald. He and I used to work together."

"Sorry, man. Don't know who you're talking about."

"Look kid, why don't you get Joe on the phone, tell them that Jack's back in town and wants to talk with him?"

"Sure." said a new voice behind him. Jack turned to face the speaker and found that there were four other men with him. "Why don't I call Joe and tell him that Jack Roush is in town? Sure he'd love to see the man that put him in jail."

Jack knew the man who was talking. "Hey, Eddie. Look, I just came to square things up with Joe. You know I didn't put him in jail."

"Yeah, right."

Wald's crew moved fast. One of the men threw a rabbit punch at Jack, knocking him down. Before Sydney could react, two of the other men grabbed her and lugged her to the side. "Hands off, asshole!" Sydney said without thinking.

"Lady, I don't know who you are and I don't give a shit." Grant said, as he stood over Jack. "This is your only warning: get the hell out of here and don't ask what happened to your boyfriend."

This was getting out of hand. Sydney could only see one way out of this before resorting to force. "Before you do anything you'll regret, maybe you should ask aboutMarshall Goren!" she said quickly.

That got Grant's attention. "What about him?" he asked.

"You know, so high, grubby faced, had a thing for kids?" Sydney said quickly. "Word is he was goingto put Wald away for life." If now wasn't the time, they were both dead. "Why don't you take a look in the bag

Grant still seemed indifferent. "Why?"

"Call it a present for Joe." Jack said as he slowly rose from the floor "I want to make things right between us."

For a minute it seemed Grant was going to kill them anyway. Then he shrugged. "Frank, look inside the bag."

A guy with a scruff of beard did just that. "Open it." Eddie said calmly

Frank did so, slowly. When he saw what was in it, he reacted about to same way any man would upon seeing a severed head looking at him. He let the bag fall to the floor.

"Insert your own talking head joke here." Sydney said as casually as she could manage.

The hoodlum looked at Jack, then gave a small smile and let Jack go. "And what's the chick got to do with any of this?" he asked.

"She helped me get to Goren." Jack said suddenly

"How?" asked one of the other hoodlums.

Sydney squared her shoulders, thrusting out her chest, ever so slightly"Even the FBI wants to let down its hair occasionally." She said calmly.

For a moment Sydney thought she had gone too far. Then Grant gave a small smile. "What's your name?"

"Laura."

"Well, welcome to the party, Laura." Grant said.

9:23:10/9:23:11/9:23:12

"Marcus." Mason said as he walked toward the black man.

"You got something for me, George?" Dixon asked.

"You get your kids out of the city yet?"

Dixon nodded. "Grove picked them up about twenty minutes ago."

"What about Kim?"

"Apparently, she's working as an au pair for a wealthy couple on the Boulevard. Grove should be on his way there now."

Dixon suspected something was up. Hehad known George Mason from some exercises when he had been head of operations. Mason was basically the typical bureaucrat who avoided personal discussion like the plague.

"Five minutes ago, I got a call from Chapelle, who got a call from Hammond a few minutes before that. There's been a lot of fecal gravity about APO merging with CTU, and Division's not happy."

"George, in all the years you've worked here, has Division ever been happy about anything?" Dixon asked rhetorically.

Mason gave a humorless smile. "Even so, Chapelle says that there's a shortage of experienced heads, and that they need someone from your unit to go to Division and help with operations there. I figured because you have experience in both worlds, you're the most capable guy for the job."

"Careful, George, you almost said something nice about someone from Sloane's unit," Dixon said sarcastically.

"Look, I admit I'm not happy about this situation at all, but I don't have time to hold anyone's hands, and I shouldn't have to." Mason said. "We're up to our necks in shit. I've got to lead a hunt for a nuclear bomb while working with a known terrorist; I don't care how many times he's been pardoned. Right now I desperately need someone to make my job a little easier, and I'm asking you to do that. Normally I'd send Sloane, just to get him out of the building, but I'd prefer not to rely on him for anything other than fertilizer.

There were a lot of things wrong with Mason's statement, but Dixon knew enough about being in charge to realize that it was basically true. He decided to let it go---- for now, at least. "All right, give me two minutes to get ready."

Mason was about to leave when Dixon spoke. "There isn't a person in my unit who trusts Sloane any more then your people. Ifanything, we trust him less, because we know what he's capable of. You'd do well to remember that, George."

Mason looked out at the floor, his gaze fixed on Sloane. "I find that difficult to believe," he said slowly.

Dixon realized he wasn't going to win this argument--- at least not yet. "Have we heard anything from Jack or Sydney?" he asked.

"Not yet." Mason said.

Marshall Flinkmanwould be the first to admit that he reacted very badly to intense situations--- not a great characteristic for someone who worked for the CIA, but one you could get away with if you weren't in the field. However, he had never been involved in a crisis quite like the one he was in right now, and just to make things more fun, he was going to be reporting to a whole new group of people--- people who had not gone out of their way to be friendly. So he dealt with the situation the only way that he could--- by dealing with the work that was in front of him and not the fact that he was probably in the middle of the blast site for a nuclear weapon.

So when the computer in the background went on, he started to become--- well, like Marshall Flinkman. "Hey, does that mean… does that…"

Paula, the one person at CTU who had gone out of her way to be nice to him replied "He's in. They're on-line. They're checking Jack's background."

"Already?" said Michelle Dessler. Michelle had been working to try and get Bauer's----- or his cover Jack Roush, as it was --- recent parole in the national penal system's database. Unfortunately, it still had at least ten more minutes before it was ready for trained eyes to scan. More unfortunately, Bauer didn't have ten minutes.

"Are the arrest records from Gainesville ready?" Paula asked Tony. Supposedly Roush had just done five years up in Florida.

"Not yet. I haven't gotten the clearance codes yet." said Tony.

"Well, we need them right now. These guys are looking for it." said Paula.

"They don't waste any time."

And right now they didn't have any to waste. If it didn't get on line in one minute, these people would know something was up. Unless--- "Get the fax to me now." Marshall said.

Paula looked confused. "Marshall---"

"I can make this work for Bauer but I need you to get the data now!" Marshall hadn't known that he had this kind of attitude in him, but it worked: Paula gave him the keyboard.

Using an old insert-operation that he had used to get records from SD-6 agents years ago, Marshall's fingers danced over the keyboard. In less than thirty seconds, he had an arrest record for Jack Roush that would not bear close scrutiny but probably would get him past these people.

"Come on, come on." He said as he pressed the final sequence of buttons.

Though he would never know, at that exact moment Eddie Stark was taking out a.45 magnum and was about to check the clip when at the man at the computer said: "Hold on. I got it." There was a pause as the man looked at the data. "Yeah, it just took a bit longer for it to come up that I thought."

Maintaining the sense of relief he was feeling, Jack said cool as a cucumber "Told you it would check out."

"Hey, considering how quick we found your girlfriend, you can understand that we were a little concerned." Scott was still ogling Sydney. As long as they weren't looking daggers at Jack, she considered it a blessing.

"Well, now that you've checked our backgrounds, maybe now we can talk to your boss and we can get this party started." Sydney said daringly.

Eddie looked at Jack. "You sure she's a girl, cause she's sure got some stones." he said with a laugh

Jack fixed Sydney with a hard stare. "She's got a point, Eddie. I pass the audition?" he asked.

"Let me make a call." Eddie said, and disappeared back into the garage.

9:31:22/ 9:31:23/9:31:24/9:31:25

Vaughn was relieved to know that Sydney and Bauer had managed to at least get in the front door with Wald's crew but other things were beginning to unsettle him. So he had walked over to Weiss' station and decided to share his concerns with his best friend.

"Find anything?" he asked.

Weiss shook his head. "There hasn't been any chatter on any of the local cells about this threat."

Vaughn gestured towards Sloane. "Has he presented us with any leads yet?"

"He hasn't said two words to me in the last twenty minutes." Weiss looked towards Mason's office. "I guess Mason's little rant unsettled him more than I thought it would."

"You'd think he have a thicker skin by now."

Weiss gave a small smile. "When was the last time anyone even looked cross-eyed at him? ThoughI'd be lying if I said I felt a little like doing the wave when I heard that tirade." The smile disappeared. "Of course, the fact that CTU is looking at us like we stank of dead fish doesn't make me feel much happier."

"I know what you mean." Vaughn looked up. "I mean, we worked with some of these people before. And whether or not they like it, we're still all on the same side."

"Three years ago, would you like to have said that you were playing on the same side as Arvin Sloane?" Vaughn didn't answer. "I didn't think so."

"Sydney's gone, her father's out of the picture, Dixon's been sent to Division; does it seem to you like were running out of people to talk with?"

"Well, as Sloane would say, we're not here to talk to them; we're here to stop this bomb." Weiss looked at the screen and then back at Vaughn. "I hope that Bauer's having better luck with Wald. Because we're running out of options."

9:35:02/9:35:03/9:35:04

Jack Bauer didn't know about how empty the other resources were getting and at this point he wouldn't have cared. Pursuing this lead was his job, and right now it was looking like the chances of success were very remote. No one was being very friendly and most of them were being downright hostile. This becameclear when he tried to open a dialogue with a guy working with some kind of electronic fuse system.

"You're packing it too tight." Jack said as casually as he could manage.

"Who asked your opinion?" the man snapped.

"Whoa, Jack." Eddie had shown up suddenly--- Jack didn't think this was a coincidence. "Trying to make friends?" He put his hand on Jack's shoulder in a gesture that appeared to be friendly but that Jack didn't buy. "Come here."

"Your guy's a moron." Jack said frankly." What did Joe say?"

"Joe's busy. Come back tomorrow."

"Look I just need to talk to him for five minutes."

Eddie gestured towards the technician. "We got this going on. Swing by tomorrow, around four."

Jack didn't like this but he realized it was the only way to play it. "All right, man. See you." He shook hands and walked back to his car.

Sydney looked at Jack, waved and followed behind him.

The second they were outside, Jack speed-dialed CTU.

"Mason."

"It's Jack."

"You get to Wald?"

"No. I'm with his crew. They're shutting me out." He looked around. "George, I think you're gonna have to bring them in."

"Why?"

"They're packing charges. They're definitely involved."

"Look, if we pick them up, are they going to get us to Wald in time?"

Million-dollar question. "I don't know."

"Well, in that case you'd better stick with them until they do. NSA just upgraded their role in the threat. Puts them just a click away from the Second Wave terrorists."

Jack didn't need him to draw a map. "All right. I'll figure something out." He hung up and cursed.

"Let me guess." Sydney said. "We need to get to Wald."

Jack looked at her. An idea was coming to him. "They seemed friendlier to you."

"Of course they did. " Sydney said. "They all want to screw me."

"Can you work with that?" Jack asked.

"I've worked with less." Sydney looked at him. "Stall, keep the car from working something. Give me a few minutes to try and work my magic."

"Mr. Mason., I've got that upload from Division you wanted."

"Thank you, Paula."

George Mason really didn't want to see NSA's read out on the threat because he knew what it was going to say. It was going to be bad, and they hadn't received Jack's latest call. But he was the head of CTU, and the buck stopped here, and all that other bullshit, so---

He typed in his password, and the report was on his screen. It was a long page of text, but his eyes were drawn towards the bottom of the screen, where he new the real bad news was going to be.

Possibility of Detonation: 89 to 93.

Mason was not by nature an impulsive man. He wasn't anal retentive, but he did toethe party line as much as possible and didn't believe in going out on snipe hunts. And he wasn't a coward either. So when he made his next decision--- a move that could safely be called the worst he ever made--- he never understood what impulse made him do it. All he knew was that he found himself packing his suitcase, taking his glasses and checking his holster. Then he was moving.

Sloane spotted him as he came down the stairs. "George, where the hell are you going?"

"Bakersfield. Following up on a lead. We're shorthanded so I have to cover it myself."

Tony clearly didn't buy this, either. "I thought Peterson was covering Bakersfield."

"NSA pulled him to follow a different lead." George started walking again.

"George, if all you're trying to do is get outside the blast radius---"

Even though there was a grain of truth in that, George was offended. "How dare you say that? Do you have access to my intel?"

"No, but---"

"Then, just do your damn job." He glared at Sloane. "All of you."

And with that he left, without knowing it starting his own death-march.

9:43:15/9:43:16/9:43:17/9:43:18

In her years doing undercover work--- whether a double agent or not--- Sydney had occasionally been assigned to play the seductress. Sloane had never told her point blank that she had to sleep with someone in order to gain access--- in his euphemistic way, he had referred to it as 'earning a target's trust'---- and very few of her missions had been long-term enough that she had actually been in a similar position. She could only remember having to actually sleep with a target three times. (Julia Thorne no doubt had to several times, but since she had those two years erased, she tactfully was omitting them.) And she had never had to do it in this compressed a timetable, in this kind of an atmosphere. But she didn't have a choice. They needed to get in with Wald's crew, and they needed to do it now. Fortunately, as Saki had written, improvisation on short notice was one of her strengths.

So Sydney walked back into Atlas' Auto with her sleeves rolled up (figuratively and literally) and with her gun back in Jack's car. She didn't like the idea of going unarmed into a lion's den, but she didn't have much of a choice if she was going to make this work.

Things didn't get off to a good start. "Can I get some help here?" she asked to an empty counter. She needed the place to be empty in order to get his thing to work, but she disliked even temporarily looking like an airhead— even if no one else was around to see it.

She made her way to the back of the garage where Wald's crew was working. One of them was working with something electrical, another was packing something that looked like clay out of a box, and the third guy was working with something at a computer. Sydney would have bet every dollar in her pocket that they were making some kind of bomb. She also knew for damn sure that it had nothing to do with the nuke---- the design was all wrong, and everyone was wearing street clothes. Still, she needed to know more----

"Hey, can a gal get some service here?' she shouted.

None of the crew at work even looked up. Eddie Grant was nowhere in sight either. She did get the attention of the guy--- kid really---- who had been at the counter half an hour ago.

Seeing him look up and smile, se put on her most seductive smile and asked, "Help a lady in distress?"

A strange look came over the kid's face---- it was the look of the fat freshman who can't believe the head cheerleader is talking to him.

"Handle this, Mark," the guy at the computer said.

A look of anxiety came over Mark's face. "Don't you need me to----"

"I said handle it." There was just enough menace in the man's voice to make this kid nervous. Clearly, this guy hadn't been with Grant's crew that long

Mark slowly walked with Sydney towards the counter. "Jack can't get the car started, and he's stubborn enough to want to fix it himself," she said with faux good cheer. "So if we want to get out of here, I got to get us a ride. Can I use your phone?"

Disappointment came over Mark's face ---- the head cheerleader just wanted to ask directions. "Uh, sure, just let me get you the phone." Mark slowly reached under the counter ad pulled the phone out.

Sydney looked UP and began to dial a number. "So what's going on back there? They trying to build a better mousetrap?" she asked casually.

"I'm not supposed to talk about it."

The recorded voice was giving the correct time as Sydney looked at Mark. "Not supposed to? What are you, fourteen?"

"Nineteen!" Mark said belligerently. "Look, Scotty recruited me four months ago. He said the people he worked with needed some new blood. Said they were going to take America back." He scowled. "Big talkers! They won't let me doanything! All I do is watch the counter!

Had she had more time--- even a few more hours--- she might have tried to turn Mark. He showed every sign of being a willing convert. But she didn't have the time, and it was Jack who needed the in. So with great reluctance, she went on to the next step. "So you haven't seen any action." she remarked nonchalantly. Mark shook his head. "None at all?"

She smiled at that. Mark's guard slipped further.

"In that case," she said with a smile, "how'd you like a lube job?"

Sydney thought Mark was loyal enough that he wouldn't give away details of the plan to her. She was gambling that he was young enough not to turn away sex when it came gift-wrapped.

Mark's answer was to lift the segment of the counter that let Syd on to his side.

God bless hormones.

Sydney had just lowered herself below Mark's waist when Jack decided to reveal his presence.

"You son of a bitch!" he yelled. He then proceeded to grab Mark, and try to yank him over the counter hard enough to dislocate the unfortunate young man's shoulder. Jack didn't even look at Mark before he started yelling at Sydney. "I leave you alone for five minutes; you can't keep your legs closed?! God!"

Sydney was saved from further discussion when Grant reentered. "What the fuck did you do, Jack?" he yelled.

Well, part 1 had worked. Now it was time to see if the rest followed.

9:52:18/9:52:19/9:52:20

"Agent Almeida?"

Tony turned around to see the other female agent from APO approaching him cautiously. "What is it, Agent Santos?" he asked stiffly.

"It's going to be close quarters today" Nadia said with a small smile. "Call me Nadia."

Nadia couldn't have been more than twenty-five. How young are we recruiting? he thought wryly. "Do you have something for me, Nadia?"

"Maybe. I've been back-tracing some connections on Second Wave. All of our Intel on them is from the Middle East, right?"

Tony nodded. "That's where some of the money trail leads to."

"You haven't found anything connecting them to Eastern Europe?" Nadia asked.

"Next to nothing. Have you found something that would suggest otherwise?"

"I recognize two names. Tomarik Shareef and Alexander Trepkos. Both of them have links to an organization known as the Covenant as well the various terror cells. Most of the people in this unit know how they operate."

Tony considered this. "How does this help us find the bomb?"

"The Covenant uses a lot of American businesses to funnel through money and information." Nadia said. "It's a long shot, but right now---"

"Anything is better than nothing." Tony went to his desk. "Uplink the data to my server and we'll see if we can accelerate the search."

"Sure."

Before Nadia left, Tony asked: "How long have you been with the Agency?"

"Less than three months. Before that I worked in the Argentinean intelligence."

Tony looked surprised. "So why one earth did you agree to work in a unit headed by a scumwad like Sloane?"

He knew the moment he'd said it, he'd made a huge mistake. He didn't realize how huge until she said; "There are a lot of security reasons, but mostly it's because he's my father. The Intel on the Covenant comes from him. I'll get the data to the server."

Before Tony's mouth could form an apology, she had disappeared in a huff.

After Jack finished "chastising" Sydney, he went back to working under the hood..

Eddie followed close behind. "You haven't changed much, have you Jack?" he said.

"What's your point?' Jack said casually.

"Thanks to your thinking with your zipper, I'm now short a man and I'm on a schedule."

Jack slammed the hood down. "I'm looking for work."

"This isn't a job, Jack, you're gonna do this for nothing."

Now that he had them, Jack realized it was important not to seem eager. "My price is a thousand a day, you know that." he said as he got behind the wheel.

"Well Jack, I'd say you owe me a bit more than that considering what you did to Mark." Eddie crossed his arms. "You do this, I won't tell what happened to Joe. Don't do this, and you'll be too busy looking over your shoulder to find work."

This was as close as an invitation as he was likely to get. He opened the door, looked around nonchalantly and asked: "What's the job?"

Eddie clapped him on the back. "You're gonna love it."

Scott---- the guy who had been working the computer---- looked at Sydney. "If we weren't in such a hurry, I'd make sure spent the next month wearing sunglasses and long-sleeves." he said angrily. "But we have things to do, so it's your lucky day."

"Your compassion is overwhelming." Sydney said harshly.

Scott gave a look that would have made a lesser woman cringe. "Get out here. Forget Jack showed you this place." he scowled. "Or I'll do to you what Jack did to Goren."

Sydney barely heard that last part---- she was trying to get a last look at the van Grant and the other had finished loading. She wanted to have every detail memorized when she got on the phone to Mason in five minutes.

Scott was grabbing her roughly by the wrist before she pulled it away "I can find the door." she said and left without another word.

She hoped that this van led them to Wald, but she was no longer certain it would. Whatever Wald's crew was up to was bad news. She just didn't know for whom.

Jack knew that something bad was coming but he didn't realize the magnitude until the van was in motion and he learned they were heading to West LA."

"What's the job?"

Eddie laughed. "It's a conversion. Today we're turning a government building into a cemetery."

Jack gave a laugh of his own. "What building?" Ice shot through his veins when he got the answer.

"Branch that's been dogging us for years. Counter Terrorist Unit." Eddie chortled. "CTU."

9:59:57/9:59:58/9:59:59/10:00:00