Chapter 20

THE FOLLOWING TAKES PLACE BETWEEN 4:00 A.M. AND 5:00 A.M.

When she had heard what was going on around her, Sydney had been reluctant to return to CTU, considering how cold the trail was getting on - well, just about everybody who was behind the day's attacks. But the fact was, she was basically running on fumes. Her daughter might be able to knock her over by now. And while there were no leads in the field, there were a couple of people at CTU who might be able to point them in the right direction.

So she had yielded to Scully's protests, and sat as she drove them back. Halfway there, she learned that Jack was now under the control of the alien contagion. The fact that John Doggett had somehow managed to subdue her brother-in-law was of small comfort, considering what she knew about it. She also knew that now they had a pretty ugly choice facing them.

What she had learned from Scully was not encouraging. "People can survive exposure to it," she told her. "but a lot of time, they're shells of their former selves. The only reason that Mulder and I managed to survive more or less unharmed was because we were each given a version of the vaccine. And even then, you have to be inoculated pretty fast or the virus will take over."

"And when they're in the condition Jack's in?" Sydney asked.

Scully hesitated. "To be perfectly honest, I don't think I've ever heard of the virus going after the system the way it's affecting Agent Bauer," she finally admitted. "We'll need to get a look at him, but from what I'm hearing-" She didn't finish the sentence. She didn't have to.

Sark had brought himself a little leeway with her thanks to his actions at the clinic, but it was pretty clear that this was not a Get Out of Jail Free card. All of the information that he had given them so far, was only for stuff that they already knew - with one exception. He claimed that Henderson and Follmer had hard evidence to implicate the real power authorizing today's events. Sydney had heard a lot of shocking things today, but the idea that Senator Charles Logan was capable of masterminding a senate picnic, much less this entire operation, was almost too much for even her to accept. "You're sure about this?" she asked.

"I'm surprised one of those tech wizards you have working for you hasn't already produced it," he had told her.

Come to think of it Jack had mentioned that Chloe had come up with some corroborative evidence last night... the pain and the shock must have been getting to her if she couldn't clearly remember. Still, she was pretty sure that Chloe had come just short of proving anything. Whatever this evidence was, though, he was sure that Henderson and Follmer would move heaven and earth to make sure that they had it, and that would include one last strike. What kind of strike, even Sark was not sure.

Sydney wasn't inclined to trust Sark to help her cross the street, but she also knew that the triple-crosser wasn't stupid enough to try and fuck with her head any more. Fortunately, they had other sources, and Syd intended to squeeze them dry before she tried to make any kind of deal with him.

CTU NEW YORK

4:07:37/

4:07:38/

4:07:39

Nadia saw her sister to walk in, either carrying or being carried by Sark, depending on how you looked at it (and she was inclined to give Syd the benefit of the doubt). It took all her willpower not to rush up to her and first hug, then hit her, for all the shit she'd been putting them through in the last few hours. But, she was afraid, given their luck, it would cause Syd to drop the vaccine.

"Holy shit," she said instead, looking at the rather sizable amount of dried blood that was over her clothes. "Please tell me at least some of that blood is Sark's."

Sydney actually managed a grim smile. "I'm not convinced that bastard has blood in his veins," she reminded her. "I'd say you'd should see the other guy, but most of them are piles of goo by now."

"Your concern for my well-being is touching," Sark spoke up. "I know I've done some pretty shitty things to you over the years, but don't I ever get credits instead of debits?"

Sydney rolled her eyes. "Lock him down. As many guards as you can spare."

While Nadia was pulling the still protesting Sark into their hold, Scully came forward, holding the vaccine. "Where's Agent Bauer?"

"Doggett's bringing him in," Nadia replied. "He's ten minutes out."

"Wait just a minute," Mulder's voice came through the speakerphone. "After all the shit that we went through to get the damn thing, and now you're just going to waste it. Based on what I know of the man, he'd be the first person to tell us that there are higher stakes than just one man's life."

For a moment they were all a little appalled by this. Only Scully could understand how Mulder would say something so abhorrent in front of the man's wife and sister-in-law. At least his daughter wasn't privy to this; Mulder could have gone for the hat trick

All Scully said was: "You're okay sentencing Agent Bauer to die?"

Mulder at least had the grace to flush a little at this. "I'm just saying you still have a man whose touch brings the dead back to life in custody," he spoke up. "Shouldn't he be your first phone call?"

Even though they'd gone through hell and high water to help him earlier, they'd all but forgotten the existence of Jeremiah Smith. Nadia didn't even think she'd exchanged more than two words with him over the last few hours. Of course, a lot was going on, but that was no excuse. "Get him out here," Nadia instructed Edgar.

"No matter what happens with Jack, we need to focus on finding Henderson and Follmer," Sydney replied. "Flying saucers aside, I don't think they're just going to vanish off the face of the earth."

UNDISCLOSED LOCATION

"Your people have been dropping the ball left and right," Charles Logan berated Follmer. "This entire operation is turning into a disaster."

"It's a little late to be getting cold feet," Follmer replied.

"I haven't lost any nerve," Logan was actually starting to sound confident now, "but I don't think, given your track record, that you deserve any more bailouts."

Other people might have blanched facing their possible deaths. Henderson actually had the nerve to gloat. "Before I considered terminating our little arrangement, I wouldn't count my chickens before they're hatched. You're not President yet."

"Perhaps, but you've arranged things so well, that little could stop it. Not even if you wanted to."

"What we can do is make the first hours of your administration incredibly messy," Follmer told him. "And you'll be too busy cleaning up that particular mess to see the knife coming at you."

With that, Follmer terminated the call. "Get in touch with Payton," he told him. "Even if she doesn't have the recording, we're moving to Plan C. We've got one last trick before we head for the high ground."

4:13:26/

4:13:27/

4:13:28/

4:13:29

CTU LOS ANGELES

Michelle had held off mentioning Jack's status to Kim until in they were about to land Aside from a brief shiver when she realized Peyton had been telling the truth about her father, Kim managed to remain calm, mostly because she knew that her step-mother and aunt would move heaven and earth to find a way to make him whole again.

After insisting that she be updated constantly on what was happening to her father, Kim told them what they had found in the vault. The big question was what to do next. The next step would be to arrest Charles Logan. It would be ugly, but compared to the machinations that were being played out on the East Coast, it was a cake walk.

That is, until John Byers came in, looking like death warmed over. "I realize that I'm in no position to be asking for favors," he told them, "and that compared to whatever these bastards are planning-"

Marshall cut in. "Ten minutes ago, I received a transmission," he began.

"...I think it's simpler to just play the recording," Langley told them. And that's just what he did.

The background of the video was from a moving vehicle. None of them had actually seen her yet, so it took Kim and Michelle a few seconds to realize that they were looking into the face of Kelly Payton.

"A few minutes ago, despite the best efforts of my men, you obtained a recording that is invaluable to the people I work with," Payton began. "You are well aware of it's importance to both me and my associates. It's also an action against the government, but given what my friends in New York tell me, that's irrelevant to you." She paused. "So I'll be blunt. Unless that recording is in my possession one hour from now, I will release a contagion into Los Angeles' water supply. It's not the same version as the one that Agent Bauer's father," she paused deliberately, "is infected with, save that it's effects will be just as fatal, and lead to casualties in the millions." Payton paused again. "In case you have any doubts as to the seriousness of this threat," she paused, "I'll make it real enough."

The screen cut away to an attractive blonde woman, screaming through her gag. "Mrs. Byers will be the first to feel its effects. And let me assure you, they are very painful." Back to Peyton. "I will call with a location for an exchange at exactly half-past one. Don't waste the time you have trying to trace this call."

With that the screen cut to black.

Kim took out her phone and speed-dialed Sydney.

CTU NEW YORK

"How can you not do anything about the virus?" Nadia was demanding of Jeremiah Smith.

"Agent Santos, I'll admit my powers may seem miraculous, but there are limitations," Smith began. "I can heal any damage that man can do, but as you well know this virus doesn't have that origin. I might be able to bring Agent Bauer back to life, but I would become little more than a container for the virus. Little better than one of those aliens you killed earlier today."

No one here had to be reminded how lucky they had gotten in order to kill the aliens they had. Hell, Jack had been the only one to lead a mass charge, but still... There were all kinds of ironies in this situation.

"So we're back to the vaccine," Nadia replied to Mulder who had been very quiet through the last few minutes of the exchange.

Then Sydney reemerged from the medical room, and updated them on her conversation with Kim. Talk about a situation beginning to spiral out of their control. And that would leave them with next to no leads.

Then suddenly Mulder spoke up. "I'd be willing to surrender the vaccine, but I have a condition. Waking the President might endanger his life... "I think it's time that Mr. Smith came to Washington."

Everyone was so astonished by what he was saying that they seem willing to let this horrible, inappropriate pun pass. Not only would it solve at least some of their difficulties, it would definitely be something that not even Follmer and Henderson could ignore. Sydney finally spoke up. "I'll agree to it, but we're not the ones you have to sell on this. As you pointed out, this really is a decision that needs to be made by next of kin. That means, all you have to do is sell Congressman Palmer."

4:22:15/

4:22:16/

4:22:17

Jack hadn't so much as blinked in the last twenty minutes and Doggett couldn't tell whether this was a good sign. They were willing to sacrifice another vial of the vaccine in order to save his life, but John wasn't sure that Jack would be in any condition to be revived

They were finally pulling into CTU when his phone rang. He expected that it was either Mulder or Agent Vaughn. It wasn't.

"I'm sorry to call you," It took him a moment to place the voice, even though he'd heard just a few hours ago. "But I don't have anyone else to talk to."

"What's the matter, Byers?" John asked carefully. "Is she-"

"No," John actually sounded relieved to have to explain, and in his typically brusque way, he was well-served. "I realize that Susanne's life doesn't amount to much in the grand scheme of things, but to be discarded like she were chattel-"

John knew the people at CTU were dedicated, but despite the familial ties that bound most of the people he'd met, he knew they were country first, anything else second. And it did bother him that Monica had died embracing their values instead of their own. "I don't know what you think I can do from over here," he began.

"I realize you're dealing with a lot," Byers made this grand understatement like he'd made so many others, "and I don't want to make a bad situation worse, but I think I know what they're planning to unleash in half an hour."

"Hang on," John stuck the phone to his chest as they wheeled Jack into the medical unit. "Give me some good news. Tell me he's viable."

Scully now seemed to be at the point where she could take these comings and going in stride. Unfortunately, she now had to deliver the bad news. "I'll do what I can, but, as I told his wife earlier, I've never actually administered it. And I've got no idea how long it will be until we see results. Could be five minutes, could be six hours."

Doggett had been expecting as much, but it rolled a stone against his heart the same way. And now he had to tell them this. "Byers' thinks he's found something."

"Agent Doggett," Byers said, "I realize you have a job, but for the moment I need this to stay among the people in the X-Files."

If there was one thing Doggett knew, it was that you couldn't keep secrets among these people. However, he understood Byers' state. "What have you found?"

"Ringo and I went through the last of the files we downloaded to Omnicron before they blasted it back into the stone age. Most of it's beyond even our reconstruction abilities, but we did find one recently accessed file that might give us a hint what's coming next."

"What was the file called?" Doggett asked.

"Purity Control."

It was familiar, but Doggett couldn't place the name. Scully could. "John, you need to talk to Sark. Now."

"What the hell does that file mean?"

"That this isn't even close to being over."

4:28:36/

4:28:37/

4:28:38/

4:28:39

CTU Los Angeles

"They've administered the vaccine to him," Nadia told Kim. "Scully is monitoring the situation. Beyond that, all we can do is wait."

Kim took a huge breath. She hadn't given much thought to God since the day her mother died, but for the first time she wanted very badly to have something to believe in. Something to watch over her father.

"You sure you want to stay in on this Kelly Payton business? I understand the need for distractions, but still-"

"I can't just sit around if she's serious about unleashing this kind of hell," Kim replied. "I'm pretty sure you'd do the same thing."

Then Marshall walked up to Kim. "Um, I realize this isn't the kind of thing you want to hear about, but, um-" Kim was about to hang up, when Marshall indicated that they should keep Nadia on the line. "I've finished going through the audiofile. It's been wired through a magnetic imaging center, so if I were to attempt to duplicate the data or transfer it, the file would completely corrode. "

"There any way around that?" Nadia asked.

"I could use one of my retrieval programs to strip mine it, but the process is so intricate it would take at least an hour to strip it down." Marshall told them. "Attempt to rush it, and we'd lose all the data anyway. "

There was something intrinsically wrong with Marshall's reasoning, but before Kim could pin it down, Michelle ran up to her. "A call's being relayed on a scrambled server. It's Payton."

Marshall ran back to the computer banks to begin what would probably be a futile attempt to trace the call. Kim gave them a few seconds before picking up the line. "This is Bauer."

"Tell your lab rats to get off the line, or I terminate the call right now."

Payton wasn't wasting any time. "You do that, you'll never get the recording."

"The difference is my employers can live without the tape. The people of LA will not survive if I introduce our little gift."

Silently, Kim ordered Marshall off the line. It probably wouldn't do much good anyway given how thoroughly Peyton had prepared for this conversation. "Fine."

"Bunker Hill Towers. Eastern side of the Freeway. Twenty minutes."

"The woman and child are of no consequence to this. Let them make the exchange."

"Compassion from a Bauer?" A dry excuse for a laugh spread over the line "Color me shocked."

"Do we have a deal or not?"

There was a long pause. "Fine. But you're going to be there to pick it up. Needless to say, I see anyone else, their deaths will only be the first you have on your conscience." And before Kim could come up with a retort, she hung up.

"You can't tell me we're going to go through with this?' Marshall demanded.

Kim actually didn't have to think more than five seconds. "We are. But our way."

CTU NEW YORK

Mulder knew very well that Purity Control was one of the earliest names referring to the alien-human hybrids, dating back at least as far as 1994. But as far as anyone on the X-Files knew that protect had gone up in smoke the same way that the rest of the Syndicate had when it had fallen to the resistance five years later. He had no idea what this project meant to anyone now.

"They pull anything else off the file they found?" he asked Scully.

"New York's busy working on it now," she told him, "but unless it provides us with an exact location, we're probably going to be chasing a ghost. "

"Scully," Edgar walked over to them. "the files pretty heavily encrypted., but we were able to pull off a couple of things right away. Looks like some kind of schematic."

Scully was still a little shocked how casually these people were able to hack into the most elite places. She had a feeling that, if Mulder wasn't still over the moon about what these people were doing, he would've been somewhat terrified of what he was seeing.

"If I'm reading this right, these are files for water mains." Sydney told them. "They're trying to poison the water supply now?"

Then it hit Scully that she had seen this before. "They don't have to," Scully was looking shell-shocked. "They already have. "

She then explained- in the briefest terms about the flouridizing plans for water that had been part of the conspiracies major attempt to make the world ready for super-soldiers. "We never did figure out how far along the conspiracy got at it," she told them, "but Follmer was still at the Bureau when we began to uncover it."

Sydney looked up at them. "Those connotations at the bottom. They're abbreviations for East Coast, not the West. I think this may be their next target."

"No, they're not," At this, everybody whirled around to look at Jack Bauer, who just as abruptly began to cough and hack up fluid. "They're not doing any more damage to this country then they've done already."

Jack slid off the gurney, lost his footing a moment, catching himself. His gaze swept the room, a slight tick in his right eye … Sydney knew it well. It softened only slightly as Nadia rushed to hug him, but the gaze was still there. Hard and burning with rage, Sydney had seen that look when he killed Nina Meyers.

Jack was back, and God help anyone who got in his way.

4:36:13/

4:36:14/

4:36:15/

4:36:16

Given what Doggett had reported, there was understandably some doubt as to whether the real Jack was facing them. Sydney almost reached for her weapon, while Scully gingerly approached him, and began examining his eyes for the black fluid. She was not comforted to find none present, but was understandably more satisfied when she found that some of the fluid on the ground was the black oil. Still, Sydney wanted to be sure that this was for real, she decided to wait until Scully finished giving him a full workup.

In the meantime, they were monitoring, through the closed circuit camera, Doggett's Q and A with Sark. Unlike previous interrogations, Sark seemed inclined to be on the level. "The water processing has been going on for years," Sark was telling Doggett. "Even if I could give you the exact locations, in the long run, you wouldn't be able to do any good. This can't just be reversed by pushing a button."

"Well, if it's such a big part of their plan, why leave it there for us to find?" Doggett asked. "Just to have us chase our tails?"

"Judging from your reaction, I'd say yes, and that it seems to be working," Sark didn't bother to give one of his all-purpose grins, but the smugness was implied.

"Is he blowing smoke?" Sydney asked Scully.

"Unfortunately, no," Scully asked. "We heard about this particular branch of the conspiracy the last year I was with the Bureau. We knew something was going on, but we weren't even able to sell anyone else."

"Assuming this is true," Jack asked "how does this relate to Henderson and Follmer? Or do we really think that they've made a run for the border?"

Scully was inclined to think they would if they were smart. The smash-and-grab had all the earmarks of the final effort to get out of the country, God knew that they were considered expendable by the conspiracy considering how many times they had failed today, and they were being hunted down by the few remaining law enforcement agencies that weren't on their side. Sydney and Nadia, however, seemed to feel otherwise.

"They have manpower, and they have Prescott and Logan," Sydney told them. "That's enough to keep them alive a little longer. What they will be looking for is assurances that they aren't killed, which means they need leverage against both of them."

"Which leads back to the recording, which they're trying to get their hands on as we speak," Nadia replied. "But if that's the case, then events really are out of their hands, and in Kelly Payton's."

Jack clearly didn't like the idea that Kim was going to have to handle this particular problem (no one quite had the nerve to tell him that she'd through in the last hour alone). He also wasn't sure whether their two nemeses would go about something so elaborate as an apparent attack on the city water as an elaborate distraction, rather than take the much safer course of running. And with what Sark was telling them (even though none of them would trust him if he said the sun was hot), this wasn't the kind of attack that they could just make.

'Is there any approach that they could take to use the virus to infect the water?" Doggett was asking.

"I don't see how," Sark replied, "As far as I know, those were parts of two complete separate biological attacks. One wouldn't affect the other."

"He's lying." Everyone jumped a little as Smith reentered.

"What is this, some kind of alien bullshit detector?" Sydney said sarcastically.

"No, but this virus is very versatile and has made many mutations," Smith replied. "The people behind this conspiracy wouldn't have made this part of the plan if they couldn't find a way to utilize it." He looked at Sydney. "I'm ready."

Jack liked the idea of this exchange even less, but he couldn't argue that they'd made the wrong call. "You sure you're up to full strength?" he asked Syd

"Look who's talking," Syd replied

Scully was almost positive there was no residual signs of the contagion, but she warned Jack to stay off his feet... as though he would listen. "However, I think there's a way that we could ferret out the truth from our resident rat."

4:42:48/

4:42:49/

4:42:50

"So where the hell do we find your immediate superiors?" Doggett demanded.

"Agent Doggett, as far I know they had a half dozen bases throughout the five boroughs" Sark was telling them, "and those are just the ones they told me about. I'm willing to give you a list of addresses, but the sad truth is, they could be halfway to their next fallback position."

"Why do I think you're not telling the truth?"

Sark had maintained his level of calm, but now he noticeably paled. Small wonder as he saw Jack Bauer standing over him like the Lord.

"Oh, that's right," Jack went on. "Your lips are moving. Did I mention I never thanked you for leaving that little toy surprise at the waterfront?"

"I didn't have anything to do with-"

"Shut up," Jack said quietly. "You admitted as much to Sydney and Vaughn less than three hours ago. Fuck, you tried to use it as a negotiation ploy. That's low even by your subterranean standards."

"But- but-" Sark was now reduced to monosyllables.

"I've still got some of the virus hanging around. I'm interested in seeing what happens when it affects nonhuman life." Jack was now practically on top of Sark. ""Will your skin turn to jelly or will you end up cover with radiation burns? There's a pool in the next room. Want to get in on it, John?"

"What do you want from me?" Sark half-wailed, half shouted his demand.

"What's next on Henderson and Follmer's schedule?" Doggett spoke up for the first time. "The truth, if you even know what that means!"

"The audiofile!" Sark shouted. "They're waiting for Kelly Payton to recover the hard copy. If they don't recover the file the next step is to leave a mess so big, the cleanup will be enough of a distraction for them to get out of the country!" Sark replied brokenly "A timed hit on multiple targets just before Prescott's news conference."

"Using what?" Jack demanded.

"All I know is that it had something to do with the water pipelines on the East and West Coast!" Sark spat out. "I don't know anything more specific than that, I swear!"

Doggett got to his feet, and pulled out a pad. "Their remaining points of operation," he demanded. "The ones we haven't blown to kingdom come. And you'd better hope that they have decided to hop a UFO."

He walked out of the room, with Jack behind him. "Glad to see the vaccine worked," he mentioned almost casually. "And while I appreciate the help, you might want to spend the next couple of hours recovering. Physically, mentally- whatever."

"John, I know it's been a long day-"

"That has nothing to do with it," Doggett replied. "See, less than two hours ago, you killed two cops and tried to kill me. I know in my head that you weren't in the driver's seat at the time, but it's going to take more than a smile and a handshake to get me all right with this. And I hope like hell you don't file and forget it, like we've done everything else today."

Jack smiled at him unpleasantly. "Agent Doggett, I didn't try to kill you today."

"Really? Then my bruises must have come from thin air then."

His eyes narrowed. "If I wanted to kill you, you'd already be dead."

4:49:44/

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4:49:46/

4:49:47

Bunker Hill Towers, Los Angeles

Kim had been glad to hear that her father seemed to be recovering, but had purposely dodged a call from him. What she was going to be doing was an incredible risk- even by the standards of her family- and though her father would be mad as hell, she needed this to work perfectly if they were going to pull it off.

Four other CTU team leaders- including Curtis and Lee Castle- had been sent out to assume positions surrounding the areas of the meet. Using the advanced scanning technology they had acquired from Marshall and the two geeks they had liberated (Michelle was doing her damnedest to keep all of their new trios assistance from winding up on Divisions radar), they were able to completely flood the two miles surrounding the drop point with what amounted to sonar using the power grid. If anybody made a move within the drop point, they should be able to track it. (Kim had spent several years nudging Marshall, and even she had a hard time following this.) With this data flooding into the PDA's all the agents were carrying, they seemed to have set up an electronic net. There seemed no way for Payton to elude them. Kim should have taken this as a warning something was going to go wrong, but she had her own set of worries, and right now.

After every agent checked in, it took two minutes for another vehicle to arrive on the site. Granted, it was a humvee, but Kim had serious doubts that there was an army inside.. Infrared revealed that their were five bodies in the car, and three of them got out. None of them was Payton, but there was a woman there, and judging from the pictures it was Suzanne Byers. There was a goon on either side of her, one with a gun aimed at her head, the other at her heart.

"Here's what's going to happen," the goon on the left shouted. "She's going to step forward. You're going to hand her the audiofile. We're going to verify it's the real thing, then we'll hand over the girl. Any of you deviate, she and the little girl die- and that's just the start."

Considering how much effort she'd put into this, this was laughably easy. She knew there was a snare nearby, but Kim figured she had to play it out. "I accept your terms," she said slowly.

"Get ready to move," Curtis whispered.

"You have to help my baby," Suzanne whispered brokenly as she moved forward the fifty feet.

Kim got ready to hand the doctored disk she was going to hand over to Suzanne. And then there was a screeching sound, like magnified feedback, and she had lost contact with her team. All across the perimeter everyone was frantically checking their equipment only to be greeted with a blank screen.

The only ones who didn't seem unsettled by this were the two thugs who hit the dirt, only seconds before a rocket-propelled grenade hit the SUV that Kim had driven in. Only years of training allowed her to leap clear of the explosion. Suzanne wasn't nearly as spry and she was hit by several pieces of rubble. But it was not that caused her to shriek, but rather the fact that the vehicle that was carrying her daughter was driving away.

Kim grabbed her weapon and began firing at the two thugs, who by now had pulled out automatic weapons of their own. Despite all her training, she was not nearly as good a shot as the rest of her immediate family. It took her three bullets to take out one of them, but the second managed to grab Suzanne before she could get to them.

"Hand over the real disk or she dies here!"

Kim had been trained well, but even if she hadn't, she knew that the disk was worth the lives of everyone at CTU, certainly more than Suzanne's. But she was not a machine anymore than her father was. She couldn't allow an innocent person to die, so very carefully she took the disk out and made a big show of putting it on the ground. "How do I know you'll keep your word?" Kim demanded.

"Because we're going to be taking something far more valuable than her with us."

Kim was about to smash the disk underfoot, when she felt a pinch in the back of her neck. She had just enough time to realize she'd been tranquilized before she blacked out.

"Somebody tell me what the fuck's going on!" Michelle demanded. For the last three minutes, Marshall and the rest of CTU had been trying to raise anybody on the ground level, and were coming up with zero. The only explanation was that a miniature signal jammer had temporarily knocked out communications with Bunker Hill. How they'd known exactly how to do this was something not even the three brilliant techs had been able to explain.

Suddenly, they had audio and video again. Curtis was the first to report in, though he was as clueless as to how this had happened as anybody back at CTU. He gave them an explanation, though they could see what had happened. He could not begin to figure out how something that they had planned so well had erupted into total disaster, nor could he explain why Suzanne Byers was there apparently intact, while Kim had disappeared.

"Expand the perimeter fast before we completely lose them!" Michelle ordered, "Start tapping into every available traffic cam! I'm not about to tell Jack that I lost his daughter if there's even a chance in hell of saving her!" She ran over to Marshall. "Please tell me you tagged her with something!"

Marshall nodded. "I put a silent transmitter on one a bracelet. It'll give out a UHF signal that I should be able to track!" Before Michelle could nudge him, he started typing on his keyboard.

Just then, the main phone rang. Michelle didn't know what to expect. "Dessler," she said slowly.

"Bauer's daughter's nearly as good an actor as he is," Peyton spoke up. "Stomping on the disk - nice touch. Which of her in-laws taught her that little skill?"

"We knew you'd never go through with the exchange," Michelle snarled.

"You'll never know for sure now, will you?" Payton replied. "Millions will still pay the price. The big difference is now Kim Bauer will be the first to suffer the consequences, not Byers' wife. Be sure to tell her father that. This will be our last conversation."

And with that promise, the line went dead.

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5:00:00