CHAPTER SEVEN
Hour Three
6:00-7:00
Jack stayed behind with Bill while Danni was taken down to the medical station.
"The effects of the drug should wear off in an hour or so." Bill assured Jack.
"I told you she was our lead to Maliqe and to the bomb." Jack said in a warning tone. "Why did you proceed with the interrogation?"
"Finding this chip and stopping the bomb are the only things that matter to me." Bill answered back in a more threatening tone. "Don't tell me how to do my job, Jack."
"Then I need you to let me do mine." Jack told Bill decisively.
Bill sighed, knowing that, as much as he didn't want to admit it, Jack was right. And he was the best agent CTU had. Though in the past he'd sometimes gone against CTU protocol, he always did what was best; no matter what. That was one fact that had never wavered in the whole time Bill had known Jack.
"Alright, Jack." Bill conceded. "Take Danni as soon as she's released and let her know that this is her only way out."
"Thank you, sir."
xxx
Danni woke up in the medical section of CTU with an IV in her arm. She felt a lot better than she had not ten minutes before. Whatever was in the fluid being injected into her arm was certainly doing its job.
A man in a lab coat was pressing some buttons on the machine near Andie's head. "You're in our medical centre. I'm Doctor Bradley." He said. "We had to stabilize your fluids. The effects of the drug will be out of your system in an hour. Two at most."
Before the doctor could say anything else, Jack entered the room. "Hey Doc." He said. He nodded towards Danni. "Can you give us a minute?"
"Of course." Dr. Bradley made one final note on his clip board and hung it off the end of Danni's bed as he exited the room.
Jack walked up to Danni's bed. She looked a lot better than she'd looked not ten minutes before when he'd pulled her out of that interrogation room.
"Hey." She said to him as she pulled herself up further on the bed.
"How're you feeling?" Jack asked.
"Crappy." Danni answered truthfully. "But I'll be fine." She shrugged it off. "What happens now?"
"I have to take you to find the chip." Jack said with an air of humor. "But seeing as we both know it's in my pocket; we'll be going straight for Maliqe."
"I don't know where he is, Jack." Danni said in a soft voice. "I wasn't lying."
"I know." Jack didn't know if she believed him. He didn't know if he believed himself. But she'd always been honest with him. And had been so far today. "We proceed with our original plan. Call Maliqe and ask him for more money for the chip. We'll meet up with him and make the trade."
Danni had a thought. "But, wait, am I just handing him over the chip? Because LA will not thank you for that."
"It won't get that far." Jack assured her. "Maliqe will be in custody before he even lays eyes on the chip."
"When do we leave?" Danni asked expectantly.
Jack pulled back the covers of her bed and reached for her hand. "Right now."
