Chapter 4

The Following Takes Place Between 9:00 A.M. AND 10:00 A.M.

Once Sydney heard the message over the walkie-talkie, she knew that she had only a couple of options still remaining.

She could pretend that she hadn't heard it, go back into the air ducts, and resume picking off the remaining hostiles. The terrorists probably would start killing hostages, but the cold, hard truth was they were probably going to do it anyway, if the President didn't give in to their demands. .She could surrender herself to the hostiles, thus temporarily saving their lives at the almost certain cost of her own. Or --

She clubbed the back of the terrorist's head with the back of her gun, knocking him unconscious. She looked at the walkie-talkie, and decided against it. She picked up a hospital phone from the wall, and dialed the front desk.

Hsu Kar-Wai picked up the phone. There was only one person in the building that would be using the phone like that—and the line traced directly back to the extension she was using. He pointed to the readout and then to two of his men, sending them after her.

"I've already killed two of your men," she began. "Another one's life is in my hands, which means you're running out of men. You might be able to hold this hospital for a little while, but you most assuredly won't keep it much longer, and you certainly won't be able to kill everyone in this hospital."

He blinked. What sort of lunatic was this…this…woman? "Your President is going to give in to our demands. At this juncture, you are currently a greater risk to our hostages than we are."

"I don't think so. And even I did, there's no way that I'd willingly stick my head in the lion's mouth."

American arrogance, they were all alike. "There are thirty-five people in this area of the hospital. Are you willing to sacrifice all of their lives?"

"You start killing them, you're going to lose any collateral you have with this government," Sydney pointed out. "Your call as to which is the greater sacrifice."

The telephone clicked off. Hsu Kar-Wai, however, knew that if she had killed three of his men, she would have access to their communications. He growled in frustration and picked up his walkie-talkie. "Everyone to secondary frequencies, now."

Two of Hsu's men swept the floor with their weapons as they stepped into the hallway. Their assault weapons were at eye level, and they were both decidedly pissed. They had the extension number of the phone, and its precise location. They knew that it wouldn't be accurate by now, but she couldn't have gotten far—but they had to sacrifice caution for speed if they wanted to catch her.

They two of them dashed through the hall, splashing through a puddle on the floor, as though a janitor had spilled an entire economy sized bucket of water as the hospital was taken over.

Before they could sweep through an office door, two objects leapt out the door and into the puddle in the hall…neither one had time to notice that they were charged defibulator paddles.

The results were simply shocking.

Sydney unplugged the machine and made sure both gunmen were dead before she got back into the ventilation unit and dialed another number on her cell.

"Almeida."

"Bristow. Where's the cavalry?" she bluntly demanded.

"Our surveillance of the hospital has confirmed that each of the entrances to the hospital is lined with plastic explosives to bring down the surrounding walls," he told her. "We use conventional means, they could take the whole hospital down."

"Please tell me that you've been working on a contingency plan?"

"We haven't, but your friends at APO have been working on a way to get inside," Tony told them.

"How long will it be until they're ready to make their move?" Sydney asked.

"According to their best estimates, some time with the next half hour."

9:04:25/9:04:26/9:04:27

At that very moment, Nadia was just about ready to start climbing up the drainage pipe.

"Obviously, you're not going to be able to maintain communications while in the pipe, " Jack reminded her. "So this is all going to be on you."

Nadia was taping the charges to her vest. "I know that, Jack, you seem to keep forgetting that this was my idea," she gently pointed out. "Or is the fact that I'm in my underwear covered with grease forming a slight distraction?"

Nadia wasn't sure, but she thought Jack almost blushed. He covered by immediately going back to business. "Just get the charges laid down and get out," he told her. "The rest can keep until we're off the clock."

"I hate to break up this tender interlude," Vaughn said, from aboveground, "but Sydney's probably going to need our help by now."

Nadia bent down, and prepared to squeeze herself up the pipe. As she did so, Jack's phone rang. "This is Bauer."

"Jack, we may have a problem," Sydney said without warning.

"Syd, where the hell are you calling from?" Jack said, indicating that Nadia should continue to move.

"The ventilation system above the second chemical lab. Only I'm no longer sure that staying hidden is my best option."

Now Jack was starting to feel uneasy. "What are they doing?"

"The terrorists know that I'm in the building. They've threatened to start killing hostages unless I surrender myself."

"How did they even find out you were in the building?"

"I killed two of their men…to start with."

Some of Jack's frustration came out. "Christ, Sydney, what part of keeping a low profile don't you understand?"

"I was more interested in saving the lives of the patients of this hospital, and since it seemed that you weren't rushing out to save their asses, I figured I'd have to do it myself," Sydney paused "I guess you could say I pulled a Jack Bauer."

"Now is not the time to start sucking up," Jack told her. "What happens when they start killing hostages? Something that they might well consider doing, now that they think we've betrayed their trust?"

"They start killing people before the deadline is up, they lose the only coin they have to negotiate with," Sydney pointed out. "Besides, they'd call you saying you betrayed their agreement. That's standard operating procedure for this kind of scenario."

"Sydney, does this particular bunch of terrorists strike you as if they're doing things by the book?" Jack argued.

In point of fact, this exact thought had occurred to Sydney a half-hour ago, when she had seen that the hostiles weren't making any effort to try and secure some of the more infirm patients. But she didn't think that this particular insight would grant her much headway against Jack. Instead, she went back to the question she would have asked first. "When and how are you coming in?"

"Right now, it appears that the only access point to the hospital is through a drainage pipe the hospital uses to dispose of surgical waste," Jack told her. "We intend to widen the points of entry so that we can send a small assault team inside the back door."

"Wait a minute: you're going to blow a hole in the sewage pipe?" Sydney said apprehensively. "Won't that make a lot of noise?"

"Maybe, but since the terrorists already know we're there, it probably won't come as that big a shock."

Jack was picking a lousy time to hold a grudge, but she guessed that she had earned some of his hostility. "How long do you think until you're in?" she asked

"Around twenty-five minutes," Jack said, looking at his watch

"Anyway I can help you in here?"

"Just try not to get yourself killed." Some imp made Jack add: "Otherwise, I think you've done enough."

And before Sydney could protest, Jack hung up.

9:11:02/9:11:03/9:11:04/9:11:05

"Mr. President, your brother says he needs a few minutes of your time."

"Send him in," the President told Lynn.

Wayne walked into the office of the retreat that the President was using as a command center.

"Tell the National Security Adviser that statements to the press are hardly things that he should be concerned with," the President said into the phone. "Right now, my point of view is the only one that matters, and I'm not saying anything that could endanger the lives of the people in that hospital."

The President hung up and turned his attention to his brother. "Congressman," he said.

"Mr. President," Wayne responded facetiously "How good of you to set aside our differences for the sake of the party."

A brief smile crossed David Palmer's face. "Maybe I'm just glad to see a friendly face."

The smile disappeared from Wayne's face. "My face might be friendly, the news I have is not." Wayne paused. "David, I just had a brief conversation with James Heller."

"I didn't think he'd try to come at me this way."

"You postpone the signing of the treaty, but you refuse to tell anyone in the press your reasons," Wayne said. "Then twenty minutes ago, the networks start reporting about a hostage crisis in a hospital in Van Nuys. The press has connected the dots, and they're really pissed off that you're treating them this way. What did you expect would happen?"

"I can deal with the media, Wayne."

"I know you can. Heller is a different story. Look," Wayne made sure the door to the office was shut before walking over to his brother. "Heller's been talking to the delegation, both Republicans and Democrats, telling them that he disapproves of the way you're trying to handle the situation, and that you cannot do so unilaterally."

The President was normally a very patient man, but now he could feel the first stirrings of anger. "The people of this country have elected me to lead this nation so that someone would have to deal with situations just like this," he said, walking from around his desk. "Congressman Heller clearly has forgotten the Constitution if he thinks otherwise."

"You know Heller better than that," Wayne pointed out. "The situation he is talking about is the treaty postponement. He's arguing that since Congress has already ratified it, this is yet another example of the executive branch running roughshod over the legislative when it comes to how policy is carried out."

"That's not what's going on here, and he is well aware of that!"

"Yes, he is, and you are. The public is not, and you and I both know that the public will think what the media tells them to think," Wayne argued.

"The public isn't that malleable, either," the President argued.

"Maybe not, but they listen to whoever speaks the loudest, and right now, James Heller is the one who's doing all the talking. Look, David," Wayne tried another tack. "How serious is the situation at Wilshire Memorial?"

The President looked at his watch. "If I, acting in concert with the Russian and Chinese premiers, don't make a statement repudiating the treaty in the next forty-five minutes, the terrorists say they will kill everyone in that hospital."

Wayne took this in. "Have you tried making contact with them since? Have you told them you're going to meet their demands?"

"CTU doesn't want any one in authority even talking to these men," David replied. "They say it will jeopardize any rescue operation that they're trying to make."

"So Heller's position is that you're going to capitulate to the enemy."

"If I don't, hundreds of people will die." David argued.

"If you do, millions of people will die." Wayne argued. "David, this country cannot negotiate with terrorists."

"Mike and Lynn made that argument two hours ago."

"Well, Mike and Lynn are smart people." Wayne paused deliberately. "Mr. President, if the United States government begins capitulating to terrorism, we won't be able to maintain foreign policy anywhere. Now I know that the leader of this country has to deal with foreign policy in a case-by-case basis. But the Presidency doesn't work this way. You have to know that by now, and you have to start thinking in terms of the bigger picture."

The President listened. "The treaty will have no meaning if it's signed with the blood of American lives," he finally said.

"David, the final decision is obviously yours," Wayne said. "I'm just reminding you that the ramifications will be huge whatever choice you make. I will support you politically no matter what course of action you follow. But if you don't make some kind of decision, you won't find much backing anywhere else."

David Palmer considered this for several seconds before turning on the intercom. "Lynn, I need to talk with the Tony Almeida at CTU," he said.

"Right away, sir."

"Wayne," the President told his brother, "it might be best if you try to separate yourself from whatever happens next. I know you've got a tough race next year; being associated with this can only make your situation worse."

This was a situation that Wayne had wanted to deal with earlier, but he knew that this was the last thing the President needed to hear now. "You just do what you feel is in the best interest of our nation," he said instead. "It's how you always act."

With that, the Congressman walked towards the door.

9:19:50/9:19:51/9:19:52

Hsu Kar-Wai was getting incredibly frustrated. When Sydney Bristow had refused to surrender herself and the terrorists had come across two of her victims, he had decided to execute one of the patients in the ER. However, a split second before he could pull the trigger, he had received a phone call. Not from Wang, but rather from the mysterious man who was sponsoring their venture.

"I understand that there is a government agent in the hospital," he said with no preamble.

"How did you know?" Hsu asked.

"I have my own sources," was all he would say. "You're not going to do anything stupid, are you?"

"This entire operation could be compromised, and this is what you're calling me about?" Hsu said.

"Today's events have been in the works for quite some time, and the people in that hospital are irrelevant in comparison with the bigger picture."

"The President has postponed the treaty signing," Hsu argued. "They're going to capitulate!"

"You did hear what I just told you about the bigger picture?" the voice said with an arrogance that made Hsu wish he could choke the man through the phone lines. "Speaking of which, where are you in obtaining the secondary protocol?"

Hsu knew better than to argue with his employer. "It's in the hospital, but there's been an added level of security. Tsai is in the process is getting the keycard as we speak."

"Good."

"If you don't want me to kill any of the hostages, what am I supposed to do about the agent that's killing my men?" Hsu demanded.

"Who is this agent that's causing you so much trouble?"

"Her name is Sydney Bristow."

The name had meant nothing to Hsu, but it clearly shocked his superior into silence.

"Listen to me very carefully," the voice with a decidedly cold inflection "Under absolutely no circumstances is any harm to come to Sydney Bristow. Her life is of greater value than any of your men, and I want you to convey that to your colleagues very closely. Understand?"

Hsu didn't, but he knew better then to argue. "Yes, sir."

"Call back when you're ready to proceed." And with that the caller hung up.

Just then, his walkie-talkie crackled.. "Yes?" he said abruptly.

"We have another problem."

Tell me about it, Hsu thought. "What is it?"

"We found the storage unit they're keeping it in, but there's some added security," Jin told him. "The key card that we've obtained won't be enough."

"What else are we going to need?" Hsu said resignedly.

"We need the thumbprint of someone on the project's hierarchy."

A pleasant idea had just occurred to Hsu. It was a little messier than what the situation called for, but it would help get some of the frustration he was feeling out of his system. "I'll send someone down with it in three minutes."

He ended the transmission, and turned his attention back to Dr. Mancini, who had missed the import of the last conversation because it had been in Cantonese.

"Hey, hey, I told you everything I know!" he said as Hsu yanked him to his feet again.

"Agent Bristow has apparently decided that the lives of the people in the hospital aren't worth saving," Hsu said as he indicated to one of his associates hold Dr. Mancini still. "It is clear to me now that we need to, as you Americans put it, up the ante."

Mancini's eyes widened at Hsu removed a knife from the inside of his jacket, and saw what he planned to do with it. "No!" he shouted as Hsu raised the knife in an arc. "Not there! I'll do anything you want, just don't cut my--"

The air was split with a high-pitched scream.

9:26:32/9:26:33/9:26:34/9:26:35

The acoustics in Wilshire Memorial, like in many other hospitals, were not particularly good. Nevertheless, the scream that Sydney had just heard, would have registered in Malibu.

For a moment, Syd wondered if this was in response to her failure to comply with the hostage-takers' directives twenty minutes ago. If this was the case, the terrorists were being awfully casual in carrying out their threats, but then again, these hostiles weren't playing by any rulebook Sydney had ever encountered. Then she thought that they might be trying to accelerate some kind of response from the President (she didn't believe for a second that President Palmer would acquiesce to their demands). Again, if this was what was happening, she thought they were going about this the wrong way-- when a major hostage crisis is becoming undone, you don't kill one man, you kill a bunch of them.

Then she realized it probably didn't matter much why the terrorists were killing one of the hostages. The fact was, they were, and it was her job as the agent on the inside to try and gather intel.

So gradually she began to make her way to the front of the hospital through the air ducts. However, on her way to the front, she stopped in her tracks when she saw two people talking near the corner of one of the labs.

"Will this meet your needs?" one of the figures said in Cantonese, while handing a blood-soaked handkerchief to him.

The second figure looked at it, and said: "It wouldn't have been a lot neater to just bring the guy down here," he replied.

"You want to argue with Hsu, you do it," the first figure told the other. "Your job is to get the merchandise as quickly as possible. I've got some more important business at the front of the building."

"All right," the second figure said a bit coldly, and the two parted company.

Sydney registered what they had said, but only gave it the slightest thought. What had stopped in her tracks was that she had seen, for the first time, the face of one of the terrorists, and was able to recognize him. And not from any Scarlet Circle watch list -- no, this was someone that she had met in the flesh.

She waited until both hostiles were out of earshot, and then dialed a number she hadn't had to use in awhile.

"Marshall."

"It's Sydney."

"Syd," Marshall seemed momentarily at a loss. "Not that it's not great to hear from you, but are you supposed to be crawling around in the air conditioning, doing you know, reconnaissance for CTU?"

"Yes, but a more pressing problem has arisen."

"Pressing how? Like there's a slight delay in getting the rescue mission working, or as in Rimbaldi-artifact-end-of-the-world-type crisis?"

"Somewhere in between," Sydney told Marshall. "Marshall, you've been working with Chloe on identifying the hostiles in the hospital?"

"Well, I wouldn't call it working together, I mean, not to speak to ill of a colleague and equal in this field, but you know Chloe can really act as if she's got a… you don't want my opinion, do you?"

"Not now, no." Sydney chose her next words carefully. "I've seen one of these people before."

"What do you mean?" Marshall asked.

"I need you to take the composites of the photos I took at CTU and run them through any leftover databases that you may have on our missions with SD-6. I'm pretty sure one of them is going to have a connection to me personally."

Now Marshall hesitated. "Now, I'm going to do this, Syd, because you say it's important, but are you really sure that you know one of these people from before?"

"Positive," Sydney assured Marshall. "You never forget the face of someone who's watching you get tortured."

9:33:13/9:33:14/9:33:15

There was probably some word in the English language that accurately describes the process of crawling through a seventeen-inch sewage pipe transported the offal and waste from hundreds of surgeries, but it was eluding Nadia. The closest that she could come to was icky. She hoped that she would get a chance afterwards to take a long, hot shower, and get the gunk and detritus that seemed to have permeated every pore in her skin off.

However, she was beginning to have serious doubts that was going to happen, even if this rescue operation was a success, and that was assuming a lot. She had successfully managed to place two of the timers in their designated locations. However, the last one was going to be the bitch, because it was closest to the inside of the hospital. If Marshall's silent explosives didn't work properly, the terrorists could be upon them in seconds, assuming they decide to just firebomb the pipe.

The one advantage to doing this one was the closeness to the entry meant that the pipe had widened out a bit, so she had more elbow room. Unfortunately, it was also the location where the surgical waste was exceptionally viscous, and moving around was a lot tougher. The tape she was using would have been ineffective, if not for another Marshall invention, a small glass container that fit under her armpit.

She taped the last of the explosive in place, set up the charge, and then started to make her way down the pipe. Perhaps, given the way things worked, it shouldn't have come as a surprise, when at a point slightly past halfway, the surgical gunk became too slippery, her knees gave way from under her, and she skidded on her ass, all the way back to the entrance of the pipe.

"Nadia!"

Swell. She had landed on her ass, covered in the remains and entrails of human beings, in front of her brother-in-law and fiancée, both with mixtures of amusement and disgust at her condition.

"Well, now I'm glad I didn't volunteer for this assignment," Vaughn said as he handed her a towel.

"I think it'll take a bath in the Pacific to get this smell out of my skin," Nadia said as she made the best of a bad situation. "Did I knock any of the charges out of place when I completed my lap of the pipe?"

Jack had just come back from checking. "No, all of them are still in place," he said.

"Good. I'd hate to be an idiot instead of just looking like one," She turned her attention to Jack. "How much time before we launch the attack?"

Jack checked the monitor. "Five minutes and counting," he told them.

"Then I think we'd better get locked and loaded," Vaughn said. "Cause if this explosive is silent or not, we're still going to make a lot of noise getting into the hospital."

9:38:19/9:38:20/9:38:21/9:38:22

Mike walked over to the President. "I just got off the phone with the majority whip," he told his boss. "He says he's received eleven calls in the last hour from people who believe that you're having second thoughts about a treaty he had to push uphill for five months before he had enough votes."

"I've known Howard for seven years," the President said with an air of fake joviality. "Is he trying to tell me that he has a telephone but not a television? He doesn't have a clue as to what's going on in Van Nuys?"

"He wants to know why you've made no effort to resolve the crisis or make an announcement to the press about what the hell you're going to do about it." Mike asked.

The President abandoned his attempt at humor. "I have to walk a very fine line right now," he told the President. "If I announce I'm postponing the signing treaty, I send up a red flag to every group of extremist world that the U.S. is going back on a decades-old policy. If I tell them I'm trying to resolve the crisis, the terrorists could take countermeasures that would undermine CTU's rescue effort."

"So we go on playing dumb?" Mike asked

"I just got off the phone with Tony Almeida," the President told his chief of staff. "He told me that a rescue effort is going to be launched within the next five minutes. I've met with both premiers; they've agreed to be patient a little longer. The media will forgive me for appearing to equivocate when we give a full explanation as to what had to be done to save the lives of the people in that hospital."

"There's going to be political fallout from this," Mike reminded the President.

"Right now, whether or not this will weaken my approval ratings within my own base is the least of my concerns," the President told him. "None of my opponents are foolish enough to come at me for trying to do the right thing. "

Mike knew that the President was more interested in doing the right thing than the expedient thing, and that he knew how to talk to the American people well enough so that he could win them over to his side. However, he knew that his opponents didn't always play by the rules, and that they could manipulate the media a lot more shrewdly than he did. For that, he needed the help of his staff.

So he simply asked his boss: "What can I do to help, Mr. President?"

"Tell the media that I will call a press conference in the next fifteen minutes," President Palmer told him. "Ask them for a little more patience and understanding. Call our friends in the House back, and tell them not to listen to James Heller's huffing and puffing."

"You sound pretty confident, sir"

"It's part of the job." Some lines of tension reappeared on his face. "I have to look that way, even when the outcome is uncertain."

9:42:09/9:42:10/9:42:11

"Everyone's in position," Tony said to Sydney. "We're ready to start the count."

"What do you need me to do?" she asked.

"You've already creating something of a distraction for the terrorists," Tony said. "Now would be an excellent time to do some more of it."

Sydney decided the time for even fake secrecy had passed, and climbed out of the ventilation system to the floor. She readied the assault rifle that she had taken from one of the terrorists. "On it."

"Good. T minus one minute and counting." Tony ended the call and Sydney walked about fifty yards away from the administrative desk of the hospital.

At the present moment there were roughly two dozen people gathered near in a group near the area she had left nearly two hours ago. There didn't seem to be any additional corpses, although all of the people near the front looked exceptionally frightened. She still counted only three hostiles, armed what appeared to be Z85 assault rifles, all pointed at the huddled masses.

She ducked behind a wall, checked the clip of her assault weapon, as well as her Gock, then looked through the sight. Five… four… three… two… one!

She fired three shots at the hostile closest to her. The exact instant the terrorist head's disappeared, there was a sound of an explosion unlike Sydney had ever heard in her years in espionage-- it was both extremely loud, yet somehow it sounded muffled, as if she were hearing it in vacuum.

The combination of the muffled 'boom' and the death of their colleague was enough to throw the fear of God into one of the remaining hostiles. He whirled, trying to see in all directions at once, and while his head was spinning, Sydney managed to shoot him through the neck.

This was enough to finally cause the hostages in to a panic, and brought them all into a teeming crowd. The terrorist, who Sydney could now clearly identify as Hsu Kar-Wai, saw the ruins of his ambition around him. He pulled out a remote control, which Sydney knew was going to detonate the explosives, and there was no way that she could get a shot off without killing several innocent bystanders.

She was about to try and shoot over the hostage, when suddenly a familiar voice yelled: "Drop the remote!"

Hsu paid him no heed, and Jack Bauer shot him in the head.

Sydney quickly made her way through the crowd. "Give me your radio," she ordered Jack without preamble. Jack didn't even hesitate.

"Attention all units! " Sydney said, breaking into a run down the far side of the hospital. "Be on the look out for a hostile in the easternmost section of the hospital with a blue jacket with a green cap, approximately six feet tall. Do not use lethal force in subduing! Repeat, do not kill hostile!"

And just as Sydney ran into the east hallway, she saw the man that she was looking for, hauling ass towards the other end of the hospital.

Sydney fired two shots from her Glock, but either she missed or the man was wearing heavy Kevlar, because he didn't even break stride. Sydney was about to aim for his knees when she saw another familiar face-- her sister, who looked as if she'd been crawling through a graveyard.

"Don't kill him!" Syd yelled at her.

Nadia, who was on his left, heard and fired two shots into the man's kneecap. That did the trick; he collapsed like a ton of bricks, howling.

"You care to explain why I just did that?" her sister asked, as she got out her cuffs.

"We need to interrogate at least one of these bastards, and I think I can ram the fear of God into this one," Sydney said as she approached the prisoner.

"So," Nadia as she got the man to his feet, "how's it feel getting out of the office?"

Sydney managed a shrug. "Could be worse." She looked at her sister's dirty condition. "I could have been out here."

9:50:41/9:50:42/9:50:43/9:50:44

Given all the work the terrorists had put into securing Wilshire Memorial, when they finally managed to gain entry, the combined forces of CTU and APO managed to dismantle Scarlet Circle's attack plan in a little more than five minutes. The plastic explosives that had kept them from entering the building were safely removed in less than two minutes.

"All the hostiles have been killed or captured, " Jack told Tony and Michelle.

"I count nine civilian dead, probably two dozen smaller injuries caused when everybody started rushing for the exits a few minutes. We got off lucky."

"Well, that's good to know," Tony said, "because I just got off the phone with Driscoll. She wants Sydney to debrief back at Division."

"She does understand that this raid would never have worked without Sydney on the inside?" Jack said exasperatedly

"Yeah, but you know Driscoll. Her idea of being understanding is not having Syd brought back in restraints." Tony sighed. "Right now, I've got another concern. We've identified all of the terrorists that were killed in the raid. Most of them were low-level mercenaries, with the exception of Kar-Wai. However, there isn't any sign that Li Chen Wang was one of them."

"I'll tell you something that's even less comforting," Jack responded. "We identified thirty-seven terrorists at Cayuga Air Field this morning. Our teams have only located eleven hostiles involved in this action."

"That means that Wang must have kept the others in reserve for some kind of larger strike," Tony said. "Did you manage to get anything off the bodies?"

"Lot of PDAs and cell phones. Kim's heading back to APO to help Marshall start piecing through them. I've also arranged for them to text the data stream to CTU."

"What about the hostile that you and Sydney managed to take prisoner?" Tony asked.

Jack brought up his PDA. "His name is Jin Wu, a low-level mercenary associated with several minor criminal operations throughout the Far East. I don't know why Sydney insisted on sparing his life instead of any of the others."

"You think he and Syd have a history?"

"Maybe. Right now, he's probably our best chance at figuring out where Wang is and what else he has planned." Jack hesitated. "I'm going to recommend to Division that we hold off debriefing Syd until we figure out what this connection is."

"Bottom line, Jack," Tony asked. "Can I tell the President to go ahead with signing the treaty?"

"Tell him the crisis at the hospital has been resolved, and that there is nothing to be gained by delaying the treaty's being signed." Jack hesitated. "However, we'd be doing him a huge disservice, if we were to tell him that we're still not in some kind of state of emergency."

9:55:18/9:55:19/9:55:20

Vaughn had been so busy making sure that the hospital was finally safe that he hadn't actually seen his wife until now. He considered being reserved and low-key when he saw her. That resolve lasted exactly five seconds.

"Syd!" he said as grabbed her by the shoulders, embraced her and kissed her. "Why the hell did you have to make the 'no sex' threat two hours ago?" he asked facetiously. "Now I have no suitable punishment, and I'm pretty sure this tops not telling you about a mission you didn't have clearance to hear about anyway."

"Yeah, I think you win this contest," Sydney said, just enjoying her husband's warmth for a few moments.

"You're not the only person she owes an apology to."

Sydney turned around to see her father standing a few feet away. "Dad, you know as well anyone that no one could have foreseen this," she said, turning around but not leaving her husband's side.

"I'm well aware of that," Mr. Bristow told her. "Which is why I'm going to call District, and have them supersede Driscoll's cries for your head until we can resolve this situation."

"How'd you manage that?" Sydney asked that. "Isn't the crisis over?"

"You don't believe that," her father said. "Otherwise, you wouldn't have gone to such lengths to keep one of the hostiles alive."

"There's something more serious planned," Sydney said, "but that's not the main reason I kept him alive." She paused. "Have you identified the hostile?"

"If you don't know who he is, why'd you tell Nadia to keep him alive?" Vaughn asked.

"I never knew his name, " Sydney said, "but I'd never forget his face." She looked at him. "He was the participant on the first mission I took after Sloane had Danny killed." Sydney looked at him. "He held me down the first time I was captured on an SD-6 mission. He's not Chinese…not technically…he's from Taiwan."

Neither Vaughn or Jack Bristow's face changed, but Sydney knew them both well enough to know she'd surprised them. "What's he doing here?" her father asked.

"I don't know," Syd admitted, "but I think it's a lot bigger than one hostage crisis."

The majority of the authorities were concentrating on the front of the hospital, and the central corridors. So no one noticed when two men wearing biohazard masks walked up to a locked door near the back exit, swiped a keycard through a locked door, and then pressed the print of a still-warm thumb on a computer pad.

A steel door that would have been more suited for a safehouse opened and one of the men walked inside. He walked towards one of boxes labeled 'CAUTION-- BIOLOGICALLY DANGEROUS MATERIAL', opened it and very delicately removed a steel rack containing several sealed test tubes.

"This is it," he said in Cantonese.

The other man dialed a number on his cell. "We have the package. We'll meet you at the rendezvous point."

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