London, England
As long as I had ever wanted to do anything with law enforcement, I understood and relished the vital importance of the psychological aspect of crimefighting, from interrogations to how to get a jury to respond to you to how to play the field as if you've got more than you have to get what you don't have, especially the interrogations. My heroes growing up had been master television interrogators like Frank Pembleton, Mike Logan, John Doggett, Dana Scully, and Elliot Stabler, and I'd learned from them. Growing up, I got into the real thing, and I'd learned from real interrogators like George Mason, Jack Bauer, and Jackson Haisley. I'd sat in on a number of interrogations, tested my waters, but I'd never run my own room, not until today.
Outside of where I'd locked myself in things were on the move. Nina had been successfully transported and hooked up to an electroshock machine, the same thing they use in hospitals with the defibrillator paddles, and she was still out cold from the tazer and the two tranquilizer darts I'd gotten off. Tony was also getting ready to assist me in the room and I imagined his process was the same as mine. Lex and Weiss were hooking up the technical aspects, including making sure we had crystal clear videotape, audiotape and a direct line to CTU Los Angeles. The others were making ready to crash Nina's party when it came to that. I've never crashed an actual party in my life, never mind a terrorist get-together.
I turned off the Paul Oakenfold and unlocked the door. I'd ditched the jacket, the bulletproof vest, and all of my weapons, and I had my sleeves rolled up, so of course you could see the nasty bruises I had taken in the melee at the restaurant. Then again, I imagined you could still see where she'd tried to choke me to death. Striding purposefully over to Lex, I met Tony, and the both of us were wired up with hidden microphones and micro-transmitters he'd learned how to build at Langley. Our computer genius having done his part, my friend and I were now left to be doing ours.
"How far can I go?" I asked Tony as we walked toward the interrogation room door, knowing all eyes were on us.
"As far as it takes."
I probably should have expected that answer. The two of us opened the door to the room, standing across from this woman we had grown to hate so much, waiting for her to come to after we'd brutalized her the first time.
There's something I probably should mention now. Inside of me is a deep reserve of passion, intensity and energy that has to go somewhere. And as my life collapsed, it went into an increasingly darker place. I found myself to be capable of acts of violence, hatred and pain – such as shooting Nina cold-bloodedly in public – that I never would have been capable of before. Things I would condemn I could now execute without remorse. I had fought that side of me for a long time, but it was always right there with me. And like Angel becoming Angelus, I didn't really have a choice. Something gave way in me right then, and I did some horrible things, but I offer no apologies, except to maybe my friends that had to watch it happen.
"Get those warmed up," I said to Tony of the defibrillator paddles. "I want them on-line."
"She's coming to," he added needlessly as he walked over to get the machine running.
I nodded, watching Nina's eyes open slowly. Deliberately, I walked over and clamped my hand down on her throat, just as she had done to me. Her eyes went wide then, and she started choking. I let her choke for a few more seconds before I pulled back and stood there. "Now you know how it feels." Still she didn't register any recognition. "You don't even remember me," I said, realizing it then. "I'm sure you will, Nina." That was it at last: a flare behind her eyes – she'd been made.
"What do you want?" she said, still trying for breath, the statement weak.
"A confession that you killed Ryan Chappelle. The location of the Department of Defense key files. And you calling off your terrorist strike team from the Counterterrorism Center." At her look, I just nodded. "We know about it all, Nina. Chappelle I could care less about, you did us a favor, and you know it. But I can't let you go any further with the rest of it. So: where are the key files, Nina?"
She didn't say anything, so I nodded to Tony and let him shock her right in the heart.
*The pain inside, my love denied
Hopes and dreams swallowed by pride
Everything I need it lies in you*
"Ryan Chappelle thought he was giving the key files to somebody at the CC for something on the good. He probably dealt with you. As soon as you got them, you had him killed. You're going to take out the CC then you will use the key files to attack counter-terrorism and defense installations in America. Where are the key files?"
"What's he doing here?"
"Where are the key files, Nina?" Still no answer, so I upped the voltage. Tony knew just what to do. I didn't realize that outside, Michael, Lex and Weiss were cringing at the violence I allowed, no, instigated. They did not expect anything of the sort from me, and yet, there it was.
*Because deep inside I'm broken
You see the way I live
I know your heart is broken
When I turn away
I need to be broken
Take the pain away*
I threw the chair I was standing next to and it barely missed her head. That was a good bit of theatrics I'd learned from Baltimore's elite homicide detectives. "I killed Chappelle," she said, "and you know what, I don't care." I nodded again. "I don't care either. Where are the key files?"
"You should know I'm not just going to say it."
"You should know I won't give up until you do or I kill you." Tony was staring at me now, but I continued. "You trained me, Nina, when I came to CTU. I trusted you like everyone else. But unlike everyone else, I'll do what I have to do to protect everyone else. You're of no consequence to me."
That's when she got it. "Brittany?"
"Yes," I said. "Look at what you've created."
*I question why you chose to die
When you knew your truth I would deny
But I fail time after time
Daily in my sin I take your life*
I let this go on for another two hours, allowing Tony to torture her at his own free will. I had a feeling that while part of him relished that kind of control, he had locked himself down emotionally, just as I had, and he was just doing what he had to do, which was all I was doing. Or at least all I had started out to do.
Finally, she broke and told us where the key files were located – the Counterterrorism Center vault, linked to a hydra. As soon as they were extracted, the hydra would crash the systems and Nina's team would take out the entire building in a matter of minutes. She had had them all along. My initial lie had been, in fact, a truth. I told Tony to stand down and walked outside. My gun was in my holster, inside of my jacket, and I went for it.
Everyone backed away, not knowing who I was anymore. "She'll kill her," Michael said, wanting desperately to be wrong.
*All the hate deep inside
All these things I hide
Away from you again
My heart is cold and I believe
Nothing's gonna change
Until I'm broken*
I raised the Ehrlich, switched over to standard bullets, and aimed squarely at Nina.
"What are you doing?" Tony was saying, but I wasn't listening.
I saw the fear of God in her eyes. Jack was right: all she needed was someone to be afraid of. Well, I'd never scared anyone in my life, but I guessed it wasn't too late to start now.
In a split second, I dropped my aim and shot her square in the arm. She realized she wasn't going to die, but maybe next time she wouldn't be so lucky. "Get her out of here," I said to Tony, "that's just a flesh wound. I don't have the patience for another." I was right – the bullet had gone through, and with some minor surgery on the part of CIB's Dr. March, she'd be fine. But it had done what it had been meant to do.
Still holding the gun, I walked out of the interrogation room, unable to look anyone in the eye. "It's over," I said, my voice quiet. "I sacrificed myself for the greater good. I did … what I had to do."
"We know," Michael said. Lex was the first to come to my defense. "It'll be okay," he tried to console me.
"I can't believe myself," I said, "but we've got a job to do, so let's do it."