Decisions, pt. 1
Monday, 23rd of October, 2018, 2:40p.m.
Somewhere over Ohio / New York

„Jack?"

A gigantic load was taken from his mind as he heard Chloe's voice. „Hey…", he silently answered, relieved to the bone. „Did Morris already tell you about it?"

„Not really.", Chloe answered and put the phone on speaker while opening up her notebook. „What's going on, Jack?"

From Morris' view she had already been able to read that Jack was in the middle of a crisis- again. But what shocked her most was, that Morris suddenly grabbed a suitcase and started to stuff in their and Prescott's most important things, getting ready to leave.

„I'm on a plane, Chloe. It's a German transport aircraft, carrying two nukes home from Europe. It has been hijacked but I got back in charge of the situation…." he looked around in the cockpit once again, „…they programmed a routing into the fight management system, Chloe, but they destroyed the input field. I can't change it any more, unless you could access the flight management system via a data link."

„Alright, I'm going to see what I can do.", she answered and opened up a tool to connect to the flight management system. „But why can't you deactivate the auto pilot and fly manually?", she asked in between, aware that Jack had had a pilot license some time ago.

„I've been thinking of that already, Chloe.", he answered, taking a deep breath. „But the plane is not autoland capable- and the bombs are set to detonate on ground contact. I don't know if I could make that landing to be so smooth not to set them off."

„What?", Chloe froze for a moment. „Are you saying the bombs are already armed?"

„Yes." He sighed. „Set on G/C"

„Yeah, that's Ground contact.", Chloe spoke. „Jack, what kind of bombs are these? Can you try to dismantle the triggers?", she continued and switched from the flight management system infiltration tools to her data base, „tell me about the triggers."

„Wait a second.", Jack stood up to go back to the cargo hold.
In the meantime, Chloe watched Morris pack their things. Turning away from the phone she hissed at him what's this going to be?

An angry look came back at her. „Has he told you where flight's aimed?", he hissed back.

Chloe was taken aback. Looking at Morris, who pointed at the ground in between them.
New York.

„Jack…?", she began,

„Yeah? Give me a minute", he said, climbing down the few steps into the cargo hold.

„Is it true what Morris said to me? That you're flying towards NYC?"

Jack stopped. „Yes." Slowly he went over to the bombs, imagining how Chloe must feel right now. Probably she felt the same as he did right now, looking at the bombs- threatened by immediate danger.

„Chloe, are you still there?", he asked.

She needed a few moments. „Yeah.. yeah, I am.", she finally replied as she had found her composure again. „Do you have any serials of the detonators, make, model?"

Jack bent over the metal frame and looked at the trigger of one of the bombs. „They removed the original ones. In there are… Russian models.", he stammered, „I didn't know that they fit…"

Morris had been standing nearby, listening. „They copied a lot of building plans.", he cut in, „no wonder that they fit somehow." He had been an expert on that once. „What class of bomb is it?"

„Delta class, I believe.", Jack replied, examining the bomb. There was nothing written on it about it's type. „But I have a stock number."

„That's the registration code.", Chloe cut in. „Tell me."

„223592-220-950032", Jack read the numbers from the frame.

As Chloe searched the database, Morris moved behind her, also looking at the computer screen. Soon they had a result. Jack had been right- it was a delta class bomb.
„Search for triggers.", he said to her.

„What do you think I am doing here?", she spat back, already having typed in the search command.

A variety of known trigger mechanisms came onto the screen. Among it also a handful of derivations from russian models that had been originally designed for other types of bombs.

„Leave you fingers from those triggers Jack, if you don't want to blow yourself up.", Morris derogatorily spoke and went away again. „There are a hundred variations of that thing and they all look the same. You'll never find out which wiring you're actually facing."
He continued to pack their things.

„Chloe?", Jack asked.

But she didn't answer him. Instead, she angrily looked at Morris, packing their things. „What are you doing?", she hissed.

„That's called leaving.", he spat back.

„Chloe?", Jack asked again. He heard one pieces of her conversation with Morris.

„I'm here Jack.", she answered, still looking angrily at Morris, who wasn't interested in her and Jack's problems.

„Do you think so, too, Chloe? No way to deactivate the triggers?"

No matter if she was angry at Morris right now, he still was one of the best in his field. „I don't believe there's a way. We have to continue on the flight management system. How far out are you?", she asked, calculating how much time she'd need to break the locks to get into the airplane's systems.

„Reading the locations on the moving map, I believe somewhere over Ohio." Jack hurried back into the cockpit.

Chloe made a rough estimate. Two hours probably. She was relieved- as she had heard that he'd come to NYC she had feared that he'd be closer already.

„Okay, Jack. First I need the token number. You need to screw the input panel of the flight management system out of the frame and turn it upside down. Be careful, not to disconnect any of the cables."

„Roger that. I'm on it.", Jack replied. He saw the four large slotted screws that held the flight management systems input panel- feverishly he started to search for something that he could use as a screwdriver.

The same feverishly, back in New York, Morris continued to pack.
„He's two hours away Morris", she hissed at him. „That's enough time to redirect the flight."

He didn't seem to listen and kept on packing.

„Do you hear me?", she angrily added. „Stop this."

Angrily, too, he threw their passports into the suitcase. „Damn it, Chloe. That FMS has a 256kbit encryption with an asynchronous token. You won't get in there.", he emphasized every word.

„I won't if you stand around here and shout at me!", she shouted. „You stop the packing and come here right away and help me with this!"

He had to admit that he had never seen her so angry ever before.

A bit more silent, she added, „It's a delta class bomb, we have easterly winds and only two hours left. Where do you wanna go, Morris?"

He looked at her, and the empty chair next to her that she had pulled back for him. „I'm going to get my notebook.", he answered and left.

Chloe was relieved.

„I've got the token code.", Jack said.
He had laboriously removed the four screws and lifted the FMS input field out of the frame. „Ready to copy?"

„Yeah, go ahead."

„AC6698-335", he read the code. „Need anything else?"

„No, you can put it back."

Chloe typed in the code and tried to find a reverse engineering table that would allow her to make a passphrase out of the code. She'd access the via the maintenance interface- if she'd be able to break the codes.

One floor above, Morris grabbed his notebook. Walking past Prescott's room he looked inside through a little gap in the door- seeing the boy playing peacefully.
He could have damned Prescott's mother for doing what she was doing right now. Where was this about to lead her? To have anything to do with nukes, access codes, breaking in to the flight management system of a military aircraft… it could only get her into troubles.
And why, after all, had Jack not contacted somebody who could maybe help him even better? Like the military intelligence unit, or the remains of CTU?
There were a million questions in his head, that Morris couldn't answer in any satisfactory way.
Walking by, he grabbed the telephone and dialed an old friend's number.

One floor down, Chloe was trying- but getting frustrated- by the access codes and firewalls of the flight management system. It was better protected than the FMS of civil aircraft- those she would have broken into already.

„How long is this going to take you?", Jack silently asked. He didn't mean to stress her.

„I don't know, Jack. But ten minutes at least. Relax.", she answered while typing.

Jack sat in the captain's seat and sadly smiled about her instructions to ‚relax'. How could he? With two armed bombs in the back, he was constantly closing in on New York City at a speed of more than three hundred miles per hour.
He had no goddamn intention to ‚relax'.
Silently he sat there and leant back. The phone was on speaker and lay on the pedestral between him and the dead co-pilot. He heard her and Morris discuss some things in the background… actually there was really nothing that he could do right now.
He closed his eyes for a short moment, wishing that everything would be different when he'd reopen them- knowing already that this wouldn't happen.

„Jack, why did you call us and not CTU?", Morris asked out of a sudden.

That question caught him totally off-guard.
„They've got Renee.", he stammered out the truth.

Chloe froze and even stopped hitting her keyboard. „Jack?", she asked, guessing that he could be hallucinating. That couldn't be true.

„I'm not joking, Chloe.", he answered, „she's alive."

What worried Chloe most about his talking was, that he didn't sound happy about it. „Jack, tell me what happened.", she murmured.

„They staged her death and got her out."

„What reason would they have had?", she cut in. She could see no sense in trying to kill her at first and then getting her out alive. But as she had asked the question, the scales fell from her eyes: there was one reason. One single possible reason.
„Don't tell me she was…", Chloe stammered.

Jack stared out of the cockpit windows. With an indescribable speed some low clouds flew by. Now and then he could see the ground in front of them, wide fields, no greater city was in sight. „Yes.", he silently answered. „She was involved with them."

Even Morris had stopped now. „How would you know that?"

„I met her."

Morris and Chloe exchanged non-believing stares. It was ghostly silent for a few seconds. Both of them wanted to ask Jack about the details- and both refrained from it, not knowing where to start and not sure how much he could take right now.

Jack noticed that, too. But he didn't want to talk about it right now, although he knew that he had to.
He hated to take those words into his mouth - ‚she was a traitor' - and at the moment, he hated her, too, for that.
But some piece of him, the little piece that felt responsible for her, that voice in the back of his head that told him that he could have saved her, if he hadn't made so many mistakes, was also the voice that had told him to call Chloe instead of CTU.
He owed Chloe an explanation, but

„How's Audrey?", he asked instead.

Again, Chloe was totally caught off-guard by his question. „She's fine…", she stammered, as an answer. „… after you had been abducted she was found by a tac team of the military intelligence section. She's safe."

Jack closed his eyes and leant back into the seat. Thank god, he whispered, again and again. Not knowing what had happened to Audrey had weighed heavily on him- even worse than the fear what they'd to to Renee.
All that time he had feverishly tried to look, if she was around somewhere- but there hadn't been a trace of her. He was sure that they would have used Audrey against him, like they had used Renee. Not seeing her could have only meant two things: either she was dead or she was safe.

But she was safe.
„That's good.", he silently said to Chloe.
A tear of happiness, one that nobody could see, ran down his cheek. He sat there, listening to Chloe's and Morris' talking, as they were trying to hack into the airplane's systems. But they weren't making any progress, it seemed.
His thoughts were taken away by Audrey first, then by Renee, and at some place it seemed his mind called the thoughts to a halt before they'd take him over completely. He starred at the instrument panel before him. The briefing package with the weather charts lay right there.
Jack grabbed it and leafed through the pages, looking at the general synopsis. Looked at the fuel remaining, then the fuel flow. Made a few calculations. Estimated the wind situation on the fallout.

„Jack?", Chloe asked.
He didn't answer.
„Jack?", she asked again, hearing on the phone that he moved and that something was going on. She heard a ‚click' and another one and another one. „Jack?"

It were the clicks of the Captain's seat belt, that Jack fastened. Each of the four straps snapped into the lock making that distinctive noise. He heard Chloe ask for him again, as he tightened the straps and reached for the autopilot disconnect button.
„I'll go manually off track, Chloe.", he said, „I have deviate off track now if we want to save the city.", and banked the airplane into a wide left turn.

The Pentagon / Military Intelligence Section

„I need anything on Agent Renee Walker. Now! And anything on those detonators!", Tusker commanded his team rudely. He had received the relay message of one of his outposts at CTU Washington- a phone call of former agent Morris O'Brian, who had unobtrusively patched them into his conversation with Jack Bauer.

„Sir?", one of his other analysts knocked at the door to the situation room, where at the time only he and two other military intelligence members sat. „Flight G1Z is deviating off track now."

Tusker waved him over. „Show us."

The analyst typed in a few pass phrases and the air traffic control picture came onto the large screen. The blip of G1Z and it's trace of the past 30 seconds were marked red, showing that the plane made a wide left turn.

„Call the air force for an escort… and the generals and set the joint chiefs on alert.", he called.

Another one of the analysts came back in, carrying the file of Agent Walker. It was not as huge as Bauer's, but in a way, it was thick, too.
„Give me a debrief.", he told him.

The man started right away. „Renee Walke, age 39, former agent of the FBI. She had to leave service three years ago after crossing paths with Bauer for the first time. In the wake of events she was found guilty for torture of a suspect and faced disciplinary action. We have barely any information of the following two and a half years. Half a year ago our sources reported she was about to leave the country for Europe, permanently, but she stopped that, crossing paths with Bauer for the second time, in New York, this time privately. Most likely they were in a relationship until four months ago, as Bauer had worked for CTU again. Agent Walker was shot at - and declared dead after being shot - that day. End of the file.
What else is important to say is that she worked undercover on behalf of FBI on some Russian gangs. On the day where Bauer joined CTU again and when when she was shot she had also been in service of CTU again, undercover with Russian conspirators."

Tusker thanked the man for the briefing and then leant back into his chair. What he had heard right now was a lot to grasp. Well, Jack had obviously had a life before Audrey. Or… in between, or whatever.
He wasn't so sure right now, how that relationship of Jack and Agent Walker had looked like- but that was a core question right now.

„When are the joint chiefs and Secretary Anderson ready?", he asked.

„In ten minutes, Sir. You'll be wired in on a video conference."

Tusker stood up. „Prepare everything. I'll be back in nine minutes." Walking out, he grabbed out his tablet. „Can I get a live transcript of O'Brian's and Bauer's phone conversation on this?"

„Will be right there."

„Good."
And then Harry stormed out of the room. He had eight minutes left to get a real picture of what was happening in Bauer's mind.

The first thing that Jack had seen of them had only been a small black spot, somewhere in the side windows. Then the black spot had gotten bigger and turned into two spots. Now he saw the contours of the two F-18s that were closing in on him again.

For sure it were other pilots than before- he had made more than two hundred miles of way in between.

He searched for the radio panel and switched to the frequency 121.5 MHz, the international emergency frequency. Soon after, he heard their first call for him.

Golf one Zulu, this is Falcon 2, report

Jack looked outside. They were flying so close now that he could even see the pilot inside that cockpit. He didn't want to argue with the air force, given the two bombs on impact detonation trigger. Falcon 2, this is Golf One Zulu, go ahead, he called back.

Golf one Zulu, report your reasons for off-track deviation

Jack wasn't sure how much the pilot of the fighter jet knew already. Falcon 2 what do you know about my cargo, he asked him.

Confirm cargo are two nuclear devices.

Affirmative, Jack answered, they are armed and set to detonate on impact. Do not shoot, I repeat, do not shoot.

This time the pilot didn't answer anything.
Jack looked over to him. For sure, that man was communicating with his own headquarters.

After a while, the fighter jets drifted a bit away and kept more distance than before. They kept about fifty yards away from him.

Golf One Zulu, Falcon 2

Go ahead, Jack answered.

Golf One Zulu, you will be escorted.

There was no sign that they'd interfere with his routing. They kept away. Jack wondered, what orders they might have gotten in the meantime. He also suspected that somebody from the government had already listened into his and Chloe's conversation. She was still trying to hack the flight management system.

Roger that, Jack radioed back.

„Chloe, I've got company. Air Force.", he told her on the phone.

„I already heard that, Jack. It's only the two of them, according to the air traffic control picture.", she said, sighing, „Jack, I need a bit more time. It's not easy."

„Are you and Morris both on it?"

„Yo.", Morris answered, in his usual tone. The pressure had gone off, as he had seen Jack turn the plane away from the heading to New York City.

Jack looked at the moving map on the display in front of him, his current heading, and compared these two with the meteorological chart, especially the upper wind charts. „Chloe, I need you to do something else for me."

„What is it?" She didn't want to turn away from the airplane's firewall right now.

„Chloe, I fear I can't make it beyond the coast any more. This is going to be a land detonation."

Both, Morris and Chloe looked at each other, shocked.
„Jack, are you sure?", she asked, opening a map on her screen.

„I think so.", he said, „listen: I've got 8 tons of fuel remaining, current fuel flow a bit over a ton an hour per engine and 285 knots true air speed."

She typed in the data and looked at the circle that soon appeared around his position on her map. Jacks rough estimate had been right. „Jack, you're right… you can reach the great lakes, the Boston area, and anything in between. Even if you'd make it into the Atlantic… we have easterly winds around Boston and New York. That would bring the fallout right back."

Jack glanced at the map and the weather picture that lay beside him. „Chloe, just tell me if there's any scarcely populated place in the direction I'm going- not to make things worse."

Chloe heard the tension in his voice, as he spoke those words. She hadn't heard that often, from Jack. It frightened her- showing her once more how severe the situation was.

A population grid came over her map picture, showing the densely populated areas. All along the coast, and all around the great lakes. He was heading somewhere in between right now.

„Jack, turn ten degrees left and keep away from the coast. You should find a place there…" Chloe took a deep breath, „it it really comes to the worst."

Acompanied by the two jets, he brought the plane to the new heading, trying to maintain the altitude as well as he could. He looked at the fuel gauge- just over 01:40 remaining until empty.

„Audrey?"'

Once more, Harry had been able to unobtrusively slide into the private areas of the secretary of defense and his family. He had been sure that he wouldn't accidentally meet the Andersons since he had called them to the meeting downstairs.

She came running towards him, seeing in the very first second that something big was going on. „Harry?"

He would have so wished to have the time to start their conversation in another way- or to be a bit more sensible… but he could only throw the truth right at her feet. „We found Jack.", he began, handing over his tablet to her. „Morris O'Brian secretly patched us into a conversation between Jack and Chloe O'Brian. He's on a plane carrying two nuclear bombs that had been hijacked."

If Harry hadn't still held his tablet, she would have dropped it.
Audrey stared at him.

He damned the situation for that he hadn't more time- asking her bluntly „Audrey, what do you know about a person named Renee Walker?"

„She's dead.", Audrey answered.

Tusker shook his head.
„No. And she's involved into all this. I need to know how far Bauer is going to save her, if it comes to that point."

„Don't ask me that, Harry.", she whispered, honestly not knowing what she should base her answer on.

He grabbed her hands and looked deeply into her eyes. „Audrey- I'm not here to ask you for official means. This is completely off-protocol. But I need to know how he thinks."

She looked back into his eyes. She knew it too, that this was important. „He told me had loved her. I don't know how far he's going to go, Harry.", she began, „they were in a relationship for only two months and she left him, he told me. He had met her again on the day when she had been shot in his arms and he had completely freaked out upon that." An uneasy feeling speed inside her stomach, as she added, „he's unpredictable."

The answer didn't calm Tusker down. On the contrary- it was bad to hear that the relationship of Jack and Renee had been more than just a brief romance.

„Apparently, she was part of the enemy conspiracy.", he added, „do you think that will change the situation?"

She stood there, looking at the tablet, where always new lines appeared, as Jack and Chloe kept talking about the encryption of some system. „What's going on there?", she asked Harry, pointing at the tablet.

„That's a live feed from Jack's conversation right now with Chloe O'Brian. I thought you should have that.", he murmured.

She looked up into his eyes, knowing how far off-the-record it was of Harry to give her such an insight.

He softly smiled back, and then looked at his wristwatch. One minute left until the video conference. „I've got to go, Audrey. They expect me." He broke away.

As he already was at the door she called him back.
He turned around, their views met.

„Jack'g going to do the right thing.", she spoke, „even if it hurts."

Tusker gave her a last smile before he left. He hoped Audrey would end up being right.

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Witten to: Audioslave - Shadow on the Sun