Sunday
March 10, 2002
Los Angeles, California
Ryan sat on the cement steps and gave a curt nod as one of the agents walked past him to the parking lot. After lightly tapping the lit cigarette in his hand, Ryan watched as the ashes floated away in the darkness. He had promised Vicky that he was going to give up smoking for Lent and he had almost made it too. The disaster that was the past few days, however, had left him smoking like a chimney. Not that his wife would know anytime soon that he had started smoking again, Ryan had barely even been home in the past few days. He had stopped by the house this morning to change and was able to spend a few minutes with his wife and daughter before hurrying back to work.
He had spent the majority of the past four days interrogating Nina Myers. The Justice Department had given them ninety-six hours to try and find out more about who she was working for before they took her into custody. From the moment Myers had been apprehended he had been put in charge of the interrogation.
Of course, interrogation was really a euphemism for what had transpired these past few days.
Myers wasn't the first suspect he had tortured, unlikely that she'd be the last. He had conducted a couple dozen interrogations over the course of his career and he remembered every single one. The first time was during one of his early operations in Honduras where Ryan had been asked by the Team Leader to step-in during the last minute and conduct the interrogation.
Afterwards, one of the operation's senior officers had praised Ryan for the job he did and told him he would put in a recommendation with Washington that Ryan be given more assignments like this. He said Ryan was a "natural" for this kind of work. Ryan remembered thinking what a strange compliment that was and his confusion was evident to his superior who then asked him if something was wrong. Rather than admit the truth and risk upsetting the senior officer Ryan admitted that he was still a little rattled by the whole experience. His superior gave him a friendly pat on the arm and told him that in time it would get easier.
Ryan took a final drag from his cigarette before flicking it on the ground.
Interrogating Myers had been useless. She had given them all her information on the Drazen operation but nothing more. Nothing but that same bored, blank look.
Her ability to hold out for so long was worrisome, it seemed to confirm his worst suspicion that she wasn't an agent who had been turned but a deep-cover mole who had been planted within the agency. Ryan had never heard of such a spy who had lasted as long as Myers had being found in an American intelligence agency but he knew it was possible. More frightening still was the possibility that she may have had some help from someone higher-up, that they were still vulnerable.
Not that the little snake would ever tell.
Secret cabals and shadow governments, it was like every anti-government crackpot's wet dream. The kind of conspiracy that would be found in some pulp spy novel.
He hated conspiracy theories.
Every phone call he got that day was more incredible than the one that preceded it. A conspiracy to kill a presidential candidate, a network of moles working in CTU, personal vendettas that had compromised various government agencies, secret DOD prisons -- it was too much believe. The whole thing was just one chaotic, incomprehensible mess.
He had been so focused with dealing with each individual problem and trying to restore some semblance of order that he hadn't even seen the bigger picture. Ryan hadn't believed Bauer when he insisted that the Drazens were going to continue with their plan -- it didn't make any sense. Their plan had failed spectacularly on both fronts, the logical thing for the Drazens to do would be to leave the country. Between failing to produce any concrete resolution to the days events and having Senator Palmer interfere in agency business and go over his head about Bauer, Ryan became fed up and left. At the time, he thought the worst was over and Alberta could clean up at CTU while he faced their bosses at Division.
He never should have left CTU: LA that day.
Logically, he knew there was little he could have done to help things. There probably wasn't much he would have done differently than George, but it still bothered him.
Ryan hated the thought of going to his superiors empty-handed. Tuesday had been a cock-up from start to finish and he knew they were looking for someone to blame. Ryan had hoped to have Nina Myers' confession to present to them Monday morning but instead he needed to think about what he would say in his final reports to them.
His report was half-written and so far he had decided to go for the vague but still plausible "miscommunication" track for his spin on what went wrong that day but there was time to change that if necessary. While he hadn't spent much time really thinking about it, in some part of his mind he had already sized up all the viable candidates and knew who his best choices would-be for a scapegoat.
Ryan picked up the two folders that he had set on the step and began flipping through the top one.
Alberta and George had gotten their reports in immediately and -- as if in testament to his miscommunication spin -- not only had they chosen the most ridiculous scapegoats possible but they hadn't even picked the same one!
For reasons that eluded him, Alberta had settled on Almeida as her fall guy. Despite his attitude problems Almeida had been helpful to their investigation, loyal to Jack and yet still managed to follow procedure. She was probably lucky that George had decided to make an even bigger ass out of himself by choosing Jack as a scapegoat. He had no idea what was going on with George. His report was little more than a series of scathing remarks about Bauer's actions, he barely even tried to hide his contempt for the man.
The funny thing about the whole situation was that either George or Alberta would make an ideal scapegoat. They had both made the kind of crucial mistakes that if Ryan chose one of them as his fall guy their career would be over. Alberta's mishandling of the Hanlin situation at the plaza was going to hurt her -- although Ryan knew he shared some of the blame for allowing someone with no field experience call the shots for that operation. She might bounce back, Alberta was young and had connections, but she would never have the kind of career with CTU that she wanted. George, was in an even more precarious position. He had spent the most time at CTU that day out of the three of them and because of that George was seen as bearing most of the responsibility for what happened. Pinning the blame on him would end George's career with CTU.
What was really going to hurt George was Saugus - he still didn't understand what had happened there. Why would George risk his career to help out someone he tried to ruin in his reports?
When the DOD had called him about Saugus he barely had time to digest the whole story before he had to call George and tell him to leave Jack behind. Ryan had tried, then, not to focus on what that meant but he knew exactly what he was doing. He had lingered by the phone for a few moments after the call had ended and he thought about calling George back and telling him to send some teams in for Bauer.
But in the end he had chickened out.
Ryan realized, not for the first time that his senior officer had been wrong -- these things never got easier, not really. He just had become better at accepting it.
March 10, 2002
Los Angeles, California
Ryan sat on the cement steps and gave a curt nod as one of the agents walked past him to the parking lot. After lightly tapping the lit cigarette in his hand, Ryan watched as the ashes floated away in the darkness. He had promised Vicky that he was going to give up smoking for Lent and he had almost made it too. The disaster that was the past few days, however, had left him smoking like a chimney. Not that his wife would know anytime soon that he had started smoking again, Ryan had barely even been home in the past few days. He had stopped by the house this morning to change and was able to spend a few minutes with his wife and daughter before hurrying back to work.
He had spent the majority of the past four days interrogating Nina Myers. The Justice Department had given them ninety-six hours to try and find out more about who she was working for before they took her into custody. From the moment Myers had been apprehended he had been put in charge of the interrogation.
Of course, interrogation was really a euphemism for what had transpired these past few days.
Myers wasn't the first suspect he had tortured, unlikely that she'd be the last. He had conducted a couple dozen interrogations over the course of his career and he remembered every single one. The first time was during one of his early operations in Honduras where Ryan had been asked by the Team Leader to step-in during the last minute and conduct the interrogation.
Afterwards, one of the operation's senior officers had praised Ryan for the job he did and told him he would put in a recommendation with Washington that Ryan be given more assignments like this. He said Ryan was a "natural" for this kind of work. Ryan remembered thinking what a strange compliment that was and his confusion was evident to his superior who then asked him if something was wrong. Rather than admit the truth and risk upsetting the senior officer Ryan admitted that he was still a little rattled by the whole experience. His superior gave him a friendly pat on the arm and told him that in time it would get easier.
Ryan took a final drag from his cigarette before flicking it on the ground.
Interrogating Myers had been useless. She had given them all her information on the Drazen operation but nothing more. Nothing but that same bored, blank look.
Her ability to hold out for so long was worrisome, it seemed to confirm his worst suspicion that she wasn't an agent who had been turned but a deep-cover mole who had been planted within the agency. Ryan had never heard of such a spy who had lasted as long as Myers had being found in an American intelligence agency but he knew it was possible. More frightening still was the possibility that she may have had some help from someone higher-up, that they were still vulnerable.
Not that the little snake would ever tell.
Secret cabals and shadow governments, it was like every anti-government crackpot's wet dream. The kind of conspiracy that would be found in some pulp spy novel.
He hated conspiracy theories.
Every phone call he got that day was more incredible than the one that preceded it. A conspiracy to kill a presidential candidate, a network of moles working in CTU, personal vendettas that had compromised various government agencies, secret DOD prisons -- it was too much believe. The whole thing was just one chaotic, incomprehensible mess.
He had been so focused with dealing with each individual problem and trying to restore some semblance of order that he hadn't even seen the bigger picture. Ryan hadn't believed Bauer when he insisted that the Drazens were going to continue with their plan -- it didn't make any sense. Their plan had failed spectacularly on both fronts, the logical thing for the Drazens to do would be to leave the country. Between failing to produce any concrete resolution to the days events and having Senator Palmer interfere in agency business and go over his head about Bauer, Ryan became fed up and left. At the time, he thought the worst was over and Alberta could clean up at CTU while he faced their bosses at Division.
He never should have left CTU: LA that day.
Logically, he knew there was little he could have done to help things. There probably wasn't much he would have done differently than George, but it still bothered him.
Ryan hated the thought of going to his superiors empty-handed. Tuesday had been a cock-up from start to finish and he knew they were looking for someone to blame. Ryan had hoped to have Nina Myers' confession to present to them Monday morning but instead he needed to think about what he would say in his final reports to them.
His report was half-written and so far he had decided to go for the vague but still plausible "miscommunication" track for his spin on what went wrong that day but there was time to change that if necessary. While he hadn't spent much time really thinking about it, in some part of his mind he had already sized up all the viable candidates and knew who his best choices would-be for a scapegoat.
Ryan picked up the two folders that he had set on the step and began flipping through the top one.
Alberta and George had gotten their reports in immediately and -- as if in testament to his miscommunication spin -- not only had they chosen the most ridiculous scapegoats possible but they hadn't even picked the same one!
For reasons that eluded him, Alberta had settled on Almeida as her fall guy. Despite his attitude problems Almeida had been helpful to their investigation, loyal to Jack and yet still managed to follow procedure. She was probably lucky that George had decided to make an even bigger ass out of himself by choosing Jack as a scapegoat. He had no idea what was going on with George. His report was little more than a series of scathing remarks about Bauer's actions, he barely even tried to hide his contempt for the man.
The funny thing about the whole situation was that either George or Alberta would make an ideal scapegoat. They had both made the kind of crucial mistakes that if Ryan chose one of them as his fall guy their career would be over. Alberta's mishandling of the Hanlin situation at the plaza was going to hurt her -- although Ryan knew he shared some of the blame for allowing someone with no field experience call the shots for that operation. She might bounce back, Alberta was young and had connections, but she would never have the kind of career with CTU that she wanted. George, was in an even more precarious position. He had spent the most time at CTU that day out of the three of them and because of that George was seen as bearing most of the responsibility for what happened. Pinning the blame on him would end George's career with CTU.
What was really going to hurt George was Saugus - he still didn't understand what had happened there. Why would George risk his career to help out someone he tried to ruin in his reports?
When the DOD had called him about Saugus he barely had time to digest the whole story before he had to call George and tell him to leave Jack behind. Ryan had tried, then, not to focus on what that meant but he knew exactly what he was doing. He had lingered by the phone for a few moments after the call had ended and he thought about calling George back and telling him to send some teams in for Bauer.
But in the end he had chickened out.
Ryan realized, not for the first time that his senior officer had been wrong -- these things never got easier, not really. He just had become better at accepting it.