Mandras was heading away from the containment rooms towards his office when he herd the sound of footsteps hurrying down the stairs. He moved to greet Kalah as he returned with his men and then informed him of the changes and how they would be waiting it out. Until either Peter arrived or the rescue teams found them, there was nothing to do but wait. Kalah took his men to the recreation room where there was a television and a pool table but Mandras turned down there offer of tag team game of pool and stayed in his office. Never good at sitting around waiting for something to happen he opened up his laptop and began to read through Jack Bauers file once more, it had certainly been an interesting read the first time and the fact that he held this person prisoner made it all the more intriguing. 'All the possibilities,' he thought wickedly as he continued to read.
Nina realised the floor wasn't as hard as had anticipated when she finally sat down; ignoring her need to be stood up and prepared in case anybody else came in as Mandras had. She was a little tired anyway, today she had done far more than what was expected of her while in prison; most days were spent asleep so today had been a real shock to her system. Still, old habits die hard, she wouldn't sleep. Her body would have to get its energy from elsewhere, her mind was too sharp to allow sleep, it always had been whilst on a job. Especially one as life threatening as this, she needed to keep her eye on all angles here.
Mandras was a card she had tobe careful of when playing, he was potentially useful while potentially dangerous at the same time. Jack was another challenging paradox, she could gain his help as he would want to kill her, but unless she tried, death was all she was going to get. Death or death, what kind of options were those! She needed to appeal to one of them, she just wasn't sure which one would benefit her most, or had the better odds of being successful. Right now things looked dull from every angel. If it weren't for the bomb she would hope for CTU to find her, but death was imminent through them too, she would be taken to LA where she would certainly die by her own hand as she had played as big a role as anyone in the Nuke. 'What comes around goes around,' she thought, 'today's clearly my turn to be dragged through the mud.' The thought didn't bring comfort, it was more like desperation.
After contemplating this for a moment she allowed her thoughts to turn back to Jack, she certainly hadn't expected to see him today. She grinned as she recalled how Mandras had instantly fallen for her trick, and even more so that Jack had also played him. Mandras coming back in was a message from Jack, 'you won round one, I got the second.' It also raised an important question, just who's favour would the third round fall in? She grinned even wider as she realised she didn't know the answer but she was more than up for the challenge.
Mandras was slightly startled when his office door was slung opened and a figure walked straight in with no hesitation. He jumped up angry, Kalah and the men knew the chain of command here. He was about to voice his anger to the person when he realised who it was, immediately his anger subsided and was replaced with a mixture of fear and relief.
"Mr. Kingsley, I didn't hear you come down sir."
The two shook hands as Mandras moved from behind the desk.
"Please Mandras, call me Peter. This is an equal partnership, and I don't intend to call you sir."
"Or course Peter," said Mandras, knowing the man wasn't being entirely truthful. On the outside this was a 50/50 relationship, but deep down both of them know it was Peter who called the shots, he had the connections, money and the power to get things to done, Mandras was a few steps below. Still, they both kept up this charade despite the discomfort it caused.
"How was the trip?" He asked, the silence between them was tense and Mandras wasn't comfortable with it.
"Not good, we were tracked. There's government agents all over the place, many heading this way right now."
Mandras was amazed at how calmly Peter displayed his revelation, there was almost a hint of amusement to it, as though this was some game to him. He closed his mouth as he realised his shocked reaction was showing, he didn't want to display any weakness to him, not even surprise. A feeling of dread grew in the pit of his stomach as he frantically wondered how they were going to do this, was this the beginning of the end of there plans?