-24-
Jack ran an exhausted hand across his face, and watched his second in command retreat back across the van to her chair. She lowered herself into it, and for a moment he was worried when she placed a hand on her abdomen. She moved it as soon as she was seated, and he breathed a sigh of relief that she wasn't in pain. She rested her forehead on her fingers, and rubbed her eyelids with her fingertips.
They both knew that a single, unnoticed sharp shooter could get off a shot to kill him in a few seconds. Unfortunately during a few seconds, he could easily press a button, flick a switch, or do whatever this control required to blow the bomb. Here they weren't talking about an easy entry, a SWAT team would get noticed, and chances were they wouldn't get the first shot as a perfect kill.
Jack had seen these missions go sour, they rarely went anything but, and it was always catastrophic. He glanced around the room, the technicians had resumed working, and Copell was talking to the SWAT analyst. Jack wasn't sure what they could have been doing, he had yet to formulate an idea for plan B, and so he moved back to Nina, perching on the ridge next to her, because she usually seemed to exude ideas.
She glanced up at him, and they listened to the conversations around them for a few seconds before they began their own. "I don't understand why we didn't get any warning about this one." Nina eventually admitted, giving her eyelashes the last rub before she took her hand away from her face. "I'd like to know how he plans to get out of there...I wonder what the range is on that remote...did Carrey mention anything about any detonators or remotes when he called?" she asked, she was referring to a call that Fred Carrey had made to him moments before they'd gotten the first hotline call.
Jack didn't bother to answer her question, he had some fundamental queries about where they came from, "and you think he intends to get out of there before he blows it?" Jack asked her, frowning and angling himself towards her.
Nina nodded, and then looked up at him, "Why? What do you think?"
Jack wasn't exactly sure what part they differed on; it made it harder to specify what he thought. So he started with the basics. "He made this bomb, to bring to the station as his last act..."
"You think it's a suicide bombing?" she asked him, realising their difference in opinions.
"You don't?" Jack queried.
"Well," Nina let out a breath of air, and scowled, "I presumed he was going to plant a bomb and get out, but then he was recognised and had to take hostages..." she trailed off, thinking about the validity of their respective contributions.
"They're both possibilities..." Jack muttered.
Nina's cell phone rang, and she reached to her belt clip to collect it, flipping it open whilst she continued his train of thought, "...the problem is they're mutually exclusive, and it's a pretty crucial conjunction." She pressed a button to answer the call and pressed the device to her ear. "CTU, this is Myers." She answered, maintaining eye contact with Jack to indicate she wanted to continue the conversation when she was done with the call. Her expression changed when she heard beeps on the phone line, "Davison." she mouthed to him.
-24-
Jack whispered, "it's Davison." to Copell across the room as soon as he realised that was what she'd mouthed to him.
"Her personal cell?" The older black man asked, making his way to stand next to Jack. They both watched her as she listened intently to the other side of the phone. Neither of them could hear the conversation, they couldn't trace the call because they didn't know her cell phone signal, and amplifying the volume would have, for a few seconds at least, meant that she couldn't hear what he said. Just as soon as Copell had come over and settled down, Nina hung up the phone. She hadn't said anything at all during the call.
"What did he say?" Jack asked as she hung up and flicked her phone shut.
"He wants me to go in." She said, she paused before continuing, she could see Jack's temper rising up, and so she addressed the rest to Copell. "He says we've got a half hour."
"You alone?" Jack queried.
She looked at him, he was angry; his voice was low and angry. "Just you."
"No guns, no escort." She leveled her vision to his eyes. "Just me." Both of them wanted to look away, she could hear Jack's silent protest, and she wouldn't let him stop her.
"We've got some light-weight Kevlar vests in the SWAT van..." the analyst offered.
"And I can fit you with a wire..." Jerry added.
Copell nodded to both of them, taking over from Jack for a moment. "Hanrahan," He hailed the analyst by name, "take her to the SWAT van, have your guys fit her with a vest. Jerry, find her the smallest mike you've got, I don't want this guy to know she's wearing either."
Jack and Nina's stand off continued until Hanrahan tapped her elbow and lead her out of the van into the newly falling rain.
-24-
It took Jack a few moments to decide whether or not to follow them to the SWAT van or not. He ended up rushing out into the rain, and caught up with her in a few seconds, the rain was falling heavily and made it hard to see where you were going, and the SWAT team and police officials standing every few feet had to be maneuvered past. Nina had only just reached the van when Jack grabbed her and turned her.
She raised her eyebrows at him, letting the rain drip into her eyes. "It's not a good idea."
"Why?" she asked, "because it's not safe? It's not safe for the civilians in there either, but at least I'll be wearing a wire and a vest."
Jack was getting grilled. He knew when to keep quiet. He'd already realised that her not going in was stupid; he wasn't about to back up a viewpoint he himself knew to be false.
"You know what's funny?" She asked, laughing, joylessly. "If I didn't want to go in you'd probably be persuading me to." She turned around to walk the last few feet to the van and hugged her coat closer.
"That's not true." He called after her.
She glanced at him "Last week it would have been." She yelled back, and a hand reached out of the trunk to help her inside.
Jack looked over at the entrance to the station, letting himself get even more soaked before he rounded the back of the van and climbed inside. The back of the van had seats on either side, fixed to the wall, but Nina was in the sectioned off part of the van, for the transport of criminals. He walked further into the van and pushed the door to the holding area further open. Nina was on the right as he walked in, taking her coat off. The analyst, Hanrahan was on the left, squatted down in the corner, digging out a trunk.
Nina didn't acknowledge him when he walked in, but when she reached for the hemline of her shirt Jack pushed the door almost closed behind him. Jerry was coming through at the same time with a briefcase and fiercely objected to having the door shut in his face. "Hey!" he grumbled, recovering quickly. He pushed the door wide open and walked over to Nina. He set the briefcase down on the bench and flipped it open. Stored inside huge layers of foam were two tiny clear plastic plugs, and a darker black item wrapped in smooth plastic. "This is the perfect thing for the job." He announced, delicately picking up one of the clear plastic plugs. "It's the Onimike 2K...put that in your ear..." Nina did as she was told, pushing the piece of clear plastic far enough in so that no one could see it. "...It's got a digital receiver, and sender, all in these tiny ear plugs. Unfortunately they still need this box..."
Nina pulled off her shirt as Jerry pulled out a flat black pack. "...Cos the signal doesn't get far. Where do you want this?" he asked, peeling off the back of some adhesive strips. Nina shrugged her shoulders, and Jerry frowned. "Uh, back?" he suggested and she turned. Jerry slapped the black pack onto her back above her bra strap, below her shoulder blades. He pushed it on a little too hard. "Uh, sorry." He muttered.
Jerry knelt down to the case and pulled out the second clear plastic plug. He held it out gingerly in front of her. "Where do you want this?" he asked.
"It has to be connected to the back pack?" she asked, glancing at the plugs at the end of the cables. That limited the places she could put it on her body.
Jerry nodded, and pressed a finger to the crook in between her breasts where the middle of her bra strap was. "It usually picks up quite well here." He said, almost shyly and Nina took the bug from him, feeding it through her bra strap and letting the black cord dangle in front of her stomach. She didn't have time for him to be coy.
She turned and passed the lead to him. "Plug it in.," she ordered him.
"Okay," said Jerry, still fiddling with the black patch. "Say something."
"Testing, white noise." Nina said leveling her gaze at Jack as she spoke. They needed a reading from her normal voice; she couldn't speak into the mike.
"Okay, it's picking up." muttered Jerry, moving over to his briefcase, "Say something else."
"Jack in the box."
Jerry watched a device in the suitcase, the sound level on the display changed, and he was satisfied. "And it's transmitting." Jerry clapped his hands together, and looked around the room, the poor guy couldn't catch a break, once again; his enthusiasm was met with silence and glares. "Okay, well it looks like my work is done." He muttered, and shut up his briefcase. Jack moved to let him past, but he didn't notice he was doing it.
Hanrahan passed Jack a white vest, thin and with a low 'v' at the front, designed to be discrete and accommodate both women's clothing and wiretaps. "Give me a call if that doesn't fit." he mumbled, and also walked past him out the door, shutting it loudly behind him.
Nina snatched the vest off of Jack.
Jack settled down on the bench and scratched behind his ear. "I thought we were okay." He said resentfully looking up at her. She stopped wrestling with the vest to look at him. Jack could see her thinking for a minute.
"We are." She relented and released the Velcro underarm on the shirt.
Jack lifted his hand from his lap and scratched a cheek; he tugged on her wrist and pulled her closer, running a finger along the underside of her bandage. "How is this feeling?" He looked expectantly up at her face.
"Like its the only thing keeping me warm." She pulled her wrist from his grasp and pulled the white vest sideways over her head. She fastened the Velcro as best she could, and then accepted her shirt from Jack, pulling that on quickly too. The neck rolled in and she had to straighten it, but she pulled the sleeves all the way down and hugged the material to herself.
Jack got off the bench and stood in front of her. "If this is a suicide bombing...he could just be waiting for you to enter to blow the building." He warned.
"It's a possibility." She commented.
"Yeah." Jack pushed the palm of his hand against the door, checking it was shut before he scooped up her arms and pressed his lips to hers, kissing her quickly.
Nina softened at this and let her fingers fold into his shirt, kissing him again quickly before they had to go back out into the rain. "We haven't got much time." Nina muttered, and collected her coat once more, and then walked past him out of the holding cell and the van.
Jack ran an exhausted hand across his face, and watched his second in command retreat back across the van to her chair. She lowered herself into it, and for a moment he was worried when she placed a hand on her abdomen. She moved it as soon as she was seated, and he breathed a sigh of relief that she wasn't in pain. She rested her forehead on her fingers, and rubbed her eyelids with her fingertips.
They both knew that a single, unnoticed sharp shooter could get off a shot to kill him in a few seconds. Unfortunately during a few seconds, he could easily press a button, flick a switch, or do whatever this control required to blow the bomb. Here they weren't talking about an easy entry, a SWAT team would get noticed, and chances were they wouldn't get the first shot as a perfect kill.
Jack had seen these missions go sour, they rarely went anything but, and it was always catastrophic. He glanced around the room, the technicians had resumed working, and Copell was talking to the SWAT analyst. Jack wasn't sure what they could have been doing, he had yet to formulate an idea for plan B, and so he moved back to Nina, perching on the ridge next to her, because she usually seemed to exude ideas.
She glanced up at him, and they listened to the conversations around them for a few seconds before they began their own. "I don't understand why we didn't get any warning about this one." Nina eventually admitted, giving her eyelashes the last rub before she took her hand away from her face. "I'd like to know how he plans to get out of there...I wonder what the range is on that remote...did Carrey mention anything about any detonators or remotes when he called?" she asked, she was referring to a call that Fred Carrey had made to him moments before they'd gotten the first hotline call.
Jack didn't bother to answer her question, he had some fundamental queries about where they came from, "and you think he intends to get out of there before he blows it?" Jack asked her, frowning and angling himself towards her.
Nina nodded, and then looked up at him, "Why? What do you think?"
Jack wasn't exactly sure what part they differed on; it made it harder to specify what he thought. So he started with the basics. "He made this bomb, to bring to the station as his last act..."
"You think it's a suicide bombing?" she asked him, realising their difference in opinions.
"You don't?" Jack queried.
"Well," Nina let out a breath of air, and scowled, "I presumed he was going to plant a bomb and get out, but then he was recognised and had to take hostages..." she trailed off, thinking about the validity of their respective contributions.
"They're both possibilities..." Jack muttered.
Nina's cell phone rang, and she reached to her belt clip to collect it, flipping it open whilst she continued his train of thought, "...the problem is they're mutually exclusive, and it's a pretty crucial conjunction." She pressed a button to answer the call and pressed the device to her ear. "CTU, this is Myers." She answered, maintaining eye contact with Jack to indicate she wanted to continue the conversation when she was done with the call. Her expression changed when she heard beeps on the phone line, "Davison." she mouthed to him.
-24-
Jack whispered, "it's Davison." to Copell across the room as soon as he realised that was what she'd mouthed to him.
"Her personal cell?" The older black man asked, making his way to stand next to Jack. They both watched her as she listened intently to the other side of the phone. Neither of them could hear the conversation, they couldn't trace the call because they didn't know her cell phone signal, and amplifying the volume would have, for a few seconds at least, meant that she couldn't hear what he said. Just as soon as Copell had come over and settled down, Nina hung up the phone. She hadn't said anything at all during the call.
"What did he say?" Jack asked as she hung up and flicked her phone shut.
"He wants me to go in." She said, she paused before continuing, she could see Jack's temper rising up, and so she addressed the rest to Copell. "He says we've got a half hour."
"You alone?" Jack queried.
She looked at him, he was angry; his voice was low and angry. "Just you."
"No guns, no escort." She leveled her vision to his eyes. "Just me." Both of them wanted to look away, she could hear Jack's silent protest, and she wouldn't let him stop her.
"We've got some light-weight Kevlar vests in the SWAT van..." the analyst offered.
"And I can fit you with a wire..." Jerry added.
Copell nodded to both of them, taking over from Jack for a moment. "Hanrahan," He hailed the analyst by name, "take her to the SWAT van, have your guys fit her with a vest. Jerry, find her the smallest mike you've got, I don't want this guy to know she's wearing either."
Jack and Nina's stand off continued until Hanrahan tapped her elbow and lead her out of the van into the newly falling rain.
-24-
It took Jack a few moments to decide whether or not to follow them to the SWAT van or not. He ended up rushing out into the rain, and caught up with her in a few seconds, the rain was falling heavily and made it hard to see where you were going, and the SWAT team and police officials standing every few feet had to be maneuvered past. Nina had only just reached the van when Jack grabbed her and turned her.
She raised her eyebrows at him, letting the rain drip into her eyes. "It's not a good idea."
"Why?" she asked, "because it's not safe? It's not safe for the civilians in there either, but at least I'll be wearing a wire and a vest."
Jack was getting grilled. He knew when to keep quiet. He'd already realised that her not going in was stupid; he wasn't about to back up a viewpoint he himself knew to be false.
"You know what's funny?" She asked, laughing, joylessly. "If I didn't want to go in you'd probably be persuading me to." She turned around to walk the last few feet to the van and hugged her coat closer.
"That's not true." He called after her.
She glanced at him "Last week it would have been." She yelled back, and a hand reached out of the trunk to help her inside.
Jack looked over at the entrance to the station, letting himself get even more soaked before he rounded the back of the van and climbed inside. The back of the van had seats on either side, fixed to the wall, but Nina was in the sectioned off part of the van, for the transport of criminals. He walked further into the van and pushed the door to the holding area further open. Nina was on the right as he walked in, taking her coat off. The analyst, Hanrahan was on the left, squatted down in the corner, digging out a trunk.
Nina didn't acknowledge him when he walked in, but when she reached for the hemline of her shirt Jack pushed the door almost closed behind him. Jerry was coming through at the same time with a briefcase and fiercely objected to having the door shut in his face. "Hey!" he grumbled, recovering quickly. He pushed the door wide open and walked over to Nina. He set the briefcase down on the bench and flipped it open. Stored inside huge layers of foam were two tiny clear plastic plugs, and a darker black item wrapped in smooth plastic. "This is the perfect thing for the job." He announced, delicately picking up one of the clear plastic plugs. "It's the Onimike 2K...put that in your ear..." Nina did as she was told, pushing the piece of clear plastic far enough in so that no one could see it. "...It's got a digital receiver, and sender, all in these tiny ear plugs. Unfortunately they still need this box..."
Nina pulled off her shirt as Jerry pulled out a flat black pack. "...Cos the signal doesn't get far. Where do you want this?" he asked, peeling off the back of some adhesive strips. Nina shrugged her shoulders, and Jerry frowned. "Uh, back?" he suggested and she turned. Jerry slapped the black pack onto her back above her bra strap, below her shoulder blades. He pushed it on a little too hard. "Uh, sorry." He muttered.
Jerry knelt down to the case and pulled out the second clear plastic plug. He held it out gingerly in front of her. "Where do you want this?" he asked.
"It has to be connected to the back pack?" she asked, glancing at the plugs at the end of the cables. That limited the places she could put it on her body.
Jerry nodded, and pressed a finger to the crook in between her breasts where the middle of her bra strap was. "It usually picks up quite well here." He said, almost shyly and Nina took the bug from him, feeding it through her bra strap and letting the black cord dangle in front of her stomach. She didn't have time for him to be coy.
She turned and passed the lead to him. "Plug it in.," she ordered him.
"Okay," said Jerry, still fiddling with the black patch. "Say something."
"Testing, white noise." Nina said leveling her gaze at Jack as she spoke. They needed a reading from her normal voice; she couldn't speak into the mike.
"Okay, it's picking up." muttered Jerry, moving over to his briefcase, "Say something else."
"Jack in the box."
Jerry watched a device in the suitcase, the sound level on the display changed, and he was satisfied. "And it's transmitting." Jerry clapped his hands together, and looked around the room, the poor guy couldn't catch a break, once again; his enthusiasm was met with silence and glares. "Okay, well it looks like my work is done." He muttered, and shut up his briefcase. Jack moved to let him past, but he didn't notice he was doing it.
Hanrahan passed Jack a white vest, thin and with a low 'v' at the front, designed to be discrete and accommodate both women's clothing and wiretaps. "Give me a call if that doesn't fit." he mumbled, and also walked past him out the door, shutting it loudly behind him.
Nina snatched the vest off of Jack.
Jack settled down on the bench and scratched behind his ear. "I thought we were okay." He said resentfully looking up at her. She stopped wrestling with the vest to look at him. Jack could see her thinking for a minute.
"We are." She relented and released the Velcro underarm on the shirt.
Jack lifted his hand from his lap and scratched a cheek; he tugged on her wrist and pulled her closer, running a finger along the underside of her bandage. "How is this feeling?" He looked expectantly up at her face.
"Like its the only thing keeping me warm." She pulled her wrist from his grasp and pulled the white vest sideways over her head. She fastened the Velcro as best she could, and then accepted her shirt from Jack, pulling that on quickly too. The neck rolled in and she had to straighten it, but she pulled the sleeves all the way down and hugged the material to herself.
Jack got off the bench and stood in front of her. "If this is a suicide bombing...he could just be waiting for you to enter to blow the building." He warned.
"It's a possibility." She commented.
"Yeah." Jack pushed the palm of his hand against the door, checking it was shut before he scooped up her arms and pressed his lips to hers, kissing her quickly.
Nina softened at this and let her fingers fold into his shirt, kissing him again quickly before they had to go back out into the rain. "We haven't got much time." Nina muttered, and collected her coat once more, and then walked past him out of the holding cell and the van.