Chapter 7

Nina walked back the same path she had been coming, carefully watching out where to set her feet. She could feel her stomach muscles relax, the tension release with every step she took, and the fear letting go of her. It was over. There was only one thing left to do before she could leave and go ahead with her original plan or not. She had to see Jack.

It was weird and the realization probably hadn't really sunk in yet that something was really over now. She had been waiting for this moment for so long, at times longing for it so badly that it had hurt, at times doubting she would ever live to see the day. And now that it was here, she wasn't sure what she felt. She should be happy. After all this time, all these years, she would finally be able to get on with her life without having to look over her shoulder. Without fearing he would suddenly stand behind her, showing up to be true to his word, keeping the promise he had made after their last encounter.

She could still hear his words echoing in her mind, sense the menacing intonation in his whisper. Now you can go and live your precious life, but I'm gonna be around once you get attached to it, and make sure that we get even.

Even now the memory caused her a slight shiver running down her spine. The fact that he threatened her hadn't been a shock - she had been prepared for him to kill her right there. Who would have even bothered to stop him? The soldiers that had just shot her and taken her down? Not very likely. She had expected him to kill her, now that she had failed in killing him first. But she hadn't been prepared for what he had told her, the implications of his words: he would let her live, for now. But he would track her down and keep an eye on her and if she ever got attached to anything - or anyone - he would make sure that she would lose it. The same way he had lost the one thing he had cared about most. Because she had taken it away from him.

There hadn't been any doubt on her mind that he would stand by his word and the last three years had been a result of that belief. In the beginning she hadn't bothered too much. She was used to being for herself, not getting too close with people, keeping her distance on the inside. How hard could it be. But with nothing to do and no perspective, it had gotten harder on her. Day in day out she had felt useless and frustrated, going over and over it again: the mistakes she had made and what had ultimately led her there. Not exactly where she had wanted to be. So she had made a decision, fully aware that it was probably exactly what Jack had wanted her to do, what he had counted on. But she hadn't really seen an alternative.

Slipping in and out unnoticed hadn't been that hard and there had still been some people trusting in her skills and her capability. And after all, her time in prison had been good for one thing: she had proved that she was able to keep her mouth shut.

Being picky had been a luxury she hadn't been able to afford, at first, basically forced to take whatever job she had been offered. But she had done good work, careful and thorough, always delivered, waiting for her chance.

That would all be over now. She was free. Free to carry out her original plan or just hand the virus over to her client and rake in the two millions. It didn't really matter anymore. She no longer had to include Jack into the equation, he was finally out of the picture. All she needed was to see it for herself. Maybe it would melt in then. And in a strange way she really felt the need to say goodbye.

"Nina!"

She froze. Feeling everything falling apart. Again.

And not even caring if he could see it or not, she broke into a smile. A surrendering, sarcastic smile. She should have known. It was just too good to be true.

Slowly she turned to her left where he had been hiding in the dark, waiting for her. His gun was aimed at her and she knew he wasn't gonna order her to put her hands in the air or carefully drop the gun that he knew she was still carrying. The gun, slipped into her waistband under her coat. If she tried to reach it, it would just be the last justification for him to shoot and if she didn't - it wouldn't make a difference either. He just stared at her waiting for her to move or not.

She didn't.

"I take it you got rid off the Salazars," she took a chance, not sure if he knew she had expected to find him dead. Why wasn't he?

"About the same time you got rid off Ramon's men in the hills," he growled.

"Amador discovered them and suspected an ambush," she explained, not sure why she even bothered to try and talk herself out of this. Even if he didn't know she had double-crossed him when the chance had presented itself - it had all led up to this moment anyway. The two of them alone, both with a gun and her with the virus. Only that she hadn't been prepared for the encounter anymore. Which brought her back to her first question: why wasn't he dead? Amador usually didn't surround himself with amateurs so she had to assume...

"So you told him what?" Jack interrupted her line of thought.

How much does he know? What could she say? Did it even matter?

"I had to tell him about the Salazars."

"I'm sure you had to," Jack replied mockingly. "Guess it doesn't matter."

He took a step closer, still holding the gun in both hands, leveling it with her head.

"Put them down," he ordered, pointing at the briefcases in her hands.

Taking a deep breath she opened her mouth, about to say something, try something, state an argument. There had always been something she had been able to say to keep him from killing her. But now, she really couldn't think of anything. She was out of options.

Maybe I should just make this quick.

-x-

Noticing the weary expression on her face, he anticipated her next move in due time, and watching her bend down and place both briefcases on the ground, it didn't surprise him when she reached for her gun. Not the move itself at least. It was obvious what she was up to and if it hadn't been for Ramon playing the same trick on him just a few minutes ago, he would just have accepted her invitation. But now, to his own surprise, he waited just long enough for her hand to reappear from behind her back before he pulled the trigger.

The bullet hit her somewhere near her wrist and with a scream Nina let go off the gun and was down on her knees.

I'm really losing it, he thought, realizing the risk he had just taken. But he just couldn't let her get away with it. She didn't deserve to go that...painless. Fast. Easy.

Quickly he covered the distance between them and stepping beside her, he kicked the gun away that she had dropped. She was clearly in pain, her upper body bent forward while her breathing was slow and stagnant. He couldn't see her face, well hidden behind her hair, and he aimed at her head, struggling with himself not to waste any more time but to end it. Now.

But he couldn't.

You know why. You have known it since the shed. He blinked. Yeah, I know why. I have to make sure it's the virus first.

He peered down and saw that she was clenching her forearm but with the black cloth of her coat, he couldn't see where exactly she was hit or how badly. But he noticed the fine blood trickles pearling down her hand, the way she swallowed and tried her best not to groan with pain.

Pressing the barrel against her head, Jack hesitated a moment longer.

"Don't move," he hissed, his voice dangerously low, and picked up the smaller briefcase with his free hand, still keeping the gun against her head. Then he backed away from her.

He could hear her sigh with relief and instantly felt reminded of the last time they had been there. The staircase. Three years ago. The same sigh, the way she had lifted her chin up, as soon as she had realized the gun was no longer at her head. And as instantly, he shot forward again and hit her.

It was the hand with the gun lashing out, but only his knuckles connected with her skin. She almost fell over but managed to stay on her knees, groaning in pain, finally. Satisfied he backed off for the second time.

Far enough from her to feel safe, he kneeled down as well and opened the briefcase.

There it was. This was what he had been putting his life on the line, and what a good many of people had been dying for today. Not to mention the millions of people it had the capacity to kill. He had to call in.

"Give me your cell phone," he ordered and looked up to Nina. Her expression filled with anger and pain, she was staring down onto the ground. He knew that look. She was already in analysis mode again.

"Jack," she raised her voice but he cut her short.

"Shut up."

"Something is wrong," she uttered, glaring at him now.

"Oh yeah? I think everything is perfectly right," he replied icily, leveling the gun with her head again. "Give me the phone."

"It's not right," she objected but reached for her pocket, smothering a groan when she had to move the wounded arm.

"Slowly," he ordered and she did as she was told, not giving up though.

"Where were you when the sweep went down?"

"Toss it over," he commanded and only when he had caught the cell and flipped it open, he growled an answer in her direction. "There was no sweep. Hector and Ramon just killed each other and all of their men with them."

He dialed and brought the device to his ear, looking up and facing her again. She had cast her eyes down again, her mouth open, almost as if in shock. Only for a second but it made him wonder.

"Check the virus," she urged him, meeting his eyes with a piercing look.

Jack broke into a smile. That's how fast things can change, he thought. A minute ago she had been so willing to give up, practically begging him to put an end to it. And now she was up to something again. He just hadn't figured out what quite yet.

"Why?" he sneered, finally hearing the dialing tone as the connection had established itself. Pick up, he thought.

"Cause something doesn't make sense here," she insisted, sounding even more urgent now. "Just check if we really got the virus."

"We?"

"Just check it, Jack!"

She sounded angry but... Was she actually pleading with him?

"CTU, Dessler."

"Michelle, it's Jack," he answered, squeezing the phone between his ear and his shoulder. "Hold on."

He was still not sure what Nina was up to this time but she had never been the bluffing type. Usually she could back up her arguments.

Leaning forward he took the vial in his hand and examined it closely.

"Open it," Nina demanded and he darted a quick glance at her, sending her a tacit warning not to get any ideas. She just rolled her eyes.

"Jack?"

"Hold on, Michelle," he repeated. "Just a second."

Carefully he started to pull the metal ends of the vial apart, not sure exactly what to expect.

"Jack, our teams got to Amador but he ambushed them."

Jack hesitated and quickly met Nina's eyes, trying to read in them. Did she know this? Had she warned him? Of course she has.

"He got away," Michelle continued and Jack shot a murderous glance at Nina. "Jack?"

"I got you, Michelle," he growled and repeated once again: "Just a second."

One thing at a time. First he had to take care of this. Carefully he continued to open the vial and could already see the greenish looking fluid when the sound of a mechanical click, mute and hardly audible, startled him. He understood instantly.

Acting purely on his instincts, he slung the vial as fast and as far away as he could while a high-pitched sound affirmed his apprehensions. When the explosion went off, he felt himself flying through the air before everything around him went black. And when he came to only a moment later, coughing and struggling for his breath, he rolled around.

Nina.

Even she was flat on the ground now, although a few feet away from her earlier position.

Realizing that meant closer to the gun she had dropped before, she started to move towards it, slowed down though by her arm injury. He was faster.

"Forget it," he hissed, stepping over her and grabbing her by the neck, pulling her away from the gun.

She screamed out in pain and he turned her around, holding her down with his own weight.

"Did you know about this?" he snarled, pressing his forearm against her throat. For a moment she tried to fight him off, using her unwounded arm, but quickly gave up when she realized it was useless.

"If I did, I wouldn't have warned you that something's wrong," she objected hoarsely, staring into the darkness beyond him.

"Did you? Warn me? Or did you just speed up things a little? Cause if that bomb had gone off any later, you might not have had any use of it."

"Why would I carry a bomb around?"

"Because you knew I was gonna take it from you?"

"I didn't," she croaked.

Jack reconsidered.

"What did you mean when you asked about a sweep?"

"Amador told me about the Salazars," she explained surprisingly prompt, and he recognized fear flickering in her eyes. "But he also said his people had finished the job. He said there were no survivors."

It made sense considering how she had just come trotting along, not on her guard at all.

"That's what you were planning all along, weren't you?" he asked and pushed his forearm a little forward again.

"I wasn't sure what he would do," she hurried to say, contorting her face in pain as he moved and unintentionally shifted his weight on her wounded arm. "I couldn't exactly ask him."

Also true. She hadn't had a chance to contact him. But she seemed to know the man fairly well.

"But you were hoping for this. That he would get rid off all your problems for you."

"What did you expect me to do?" she retorted, sounding just as angry now as she was scared. But her eyes focused on the nightly sky above them, she avoided looking at him. And for some reason his own words crossed his mind. You would have done the same in my shoes.

Clenching his teeth, he kept staring at her, knowing he couldn't even be angry with her for trying to go behind his back. He had done the same earlier. Just for trying to get me killed.

But then again, he would have and had done that to her as well.

"I can still help you, Jack."

Roughly he placed his hand on her arm, close to where he knew she was hurt, and he could see how hard she tried not to convulse with pain.

"You wanna live, Nina?" he hissed. And repeated the question when she didn't answer. "You wanna live?"

"You know I do," she muttered under her breath, failing now to control her features.

"Then consider this your last and final chance," he explained, squeezing her arm just a little bit to stress his words. "You tell me everything you know and how exactly you can help me, and then I'll consider to let you live. Otherwise this ends right here and now. Are we clear?"

"Clear," she affirmed, still not looking at him.

"What deal did you have with Amador?"

"Just the one you know about. I went to pick up the virus, he confronted me about Ramon's men, and told me he had taken care of them."

"And you asked him to help you with the rest?"

For some reason he had expected her to at least try to defend herself. Explaining that they had both known it was either him or her once she got back. But of course, that wasn't her. No explanations, no defenses. She probably knew there were no excuses anyway.

"Yes," she just confirmed instead. As if it was nothing.

Not really having anything to comment either, he just glared at her for a moment.

"Go ahead," he growled.

"He delivered the virus, I verified it, I transferred the money. Then I left."

"And you had no idea about the bomb?"

"No," she said, her breathing still unsteady. "He must have done the swap while I was busy with the transaction."

I bet that's a real blow to your ego, he thought but knew better than to waste time on gloating.

"Any idea why he wants to see you dead?"

"No."

Come on, you must have thought about it. But they could rack their brains about that later. Or not. It probably didn't matter. He had never given it any thought but he could hardly be the only one who wanted her dead.

"And when exactly did you decide to tell him that CTU is in on this?" he asked.

"I didn't," she dismissed his question and rolled her eyes but dropped the attitude when he increased the pressure on her arm again, causing her to writhe with pain. Her healthy arm shot up to his shoulder, trying to push him away or maybe just to hold on to something, but he just shrugged it off.

"You really got no room for maneuver here, Nina. You're straight with me or this is over."

"I didn't...tell him," she repeated, holding her breath not to scream out.

"Then how could he ambush the delta teams coming for him?"

"He's been in business for quite some time," she stated quickly. "He's very thorough, very careful about the arrangements."

"So he's just prepared for everything?" Jack asked, not sure if he was satisfied with her explanation.

"I guess so," she replied, still trying hard to control herself and not let the pain take over.

Thinking that a part of him enjoyed this a little too much, he reduced the pressure on her arm. "Then how could you help me now?"

Closing her eyes, she seemed to collapse underneath him, trembling in every limb, relieved as she got her breath back.

"We know he's got the virus with him cause I verified it," she explained shakily.

"Yeah," he grumbled. "But wherever he went, he took it with him."

"I know someone who can help us find him."

"Who?" he asked.

"It doesn't matter who. But I can get us a location."

"Who?" Jack repeated urgently.

Still breathing heavily, she met his eyes and gave him a searching look, as if she was evaluating her options.

"My client," she said finally.

"And that would be?" he pressed her.

"You know I can't tell you that."

"I'm only gonna ask you one more time," he disregarded her objection. "Who's your client?"

And again he put a little more pressure on her wound, confident that she had reached her breaking point.

But she proved him wrong.

"I can't give you his name," she stood firm although the pain had to be immense, and the way she pressed her lips together tightly and her eyes were watering only affirmed it.

"Fine," he snarled and made sure to shift his entire weight on her arm for a moment, before he let go off her and with two swift steps reached her gun. When he got back to her, she was still writhing with pain.

Quickly he got on top of her again and placed the muzzle under her chin.

"Last chance, Nina."

-x-

She tried not to move but her breath came sporadically and she couldn't fight the shakes that kept running up and down her spine. Bending her head back as if that would get her away from the gun, she kept staring into the darkness above her. She was dead if she told him and she was dead if she didn't. This was insane.

They had been in this place before but this time her position was considerably weaker. In fact, she didn't seem to have any leverage. Jack didn't seem too convinced that he needed her or maybe he was just tired of making sacrifices and letting her get away. They both knew it wasn't about the name and for a moment she wasn't sure if he even cared about finding Amador. It was about her prospects of staying alive. About her trying to cut herself a deal. Again.

"Even if you knew who it was, what then?" she pleaded, biding time as if that was gonna help.

"We'll see," Jack replied coldly.

"What, you wanna arrest him, interrogate him?" she tried nevertheless. "And based on what? The testimony of a dead traitor who pointed him out with a gun at her head?"

"You're not dead yet," Jack shrugged her remark off. "Now stop wasting my time. I told you how we're gonna do this: you tell me what you know and I'll decide what to do. No more deals, no more bargaining."

She stared into his eyes and she knew it was useless. He really meant it. He wouldn't give her any chance to get away this time, no matter how she would state her arguments.

She tried to shut the pain out and closed her eyes. She couldn't believe she was really giving up. A few minutes ago she had been there already, knowing there was no way she would be able to even reach the gun before he would fire. But when the bullet had hit her forearm instead of her heart, she had actually been relieved. And figuring out what Amador had been up to, she had seen a chance to get back in the game. But she wasn't. This was really the end of the road. From this point on, she was dead no matter what she did or said. The only question was how she should go.

A part of her actually considered to be straight with Jack. She didn't want this virus to be unleashed either so if she was gonna die anyway, she might as well help to stop it.

A last good deed? If she had had the strength, she would have rolled her eyes. She was never the type for that kind of drama-thinking. And apart from that she couldn't deny that another part of her didn't want to give him that last satisfaction. After everything he had done to her, after everything he had put her through, not to mention the pain he was still inflicting on her now - why should she help him? Another, not so rational part of her.

Her rational part told her to shut up and get it over with. The only solid and safe solution. Cause even if he decided that he could still use her for a little longer - things wouldn't get any better for her. In fact they could only get worse.

He had already called in and even though - due to Amador's little bomb - he hadn't been able to give CTU a location, they would come and pick him up sooner or later. They were somewhere in the area and the explosion had probably been a good hint where to look for Jack. And once CTU got involved, she would no longer have to worry about whether she would live or die. Only about how she would die. And if she had a choice, she'd prefer a clean shot in the head over another round of torture and humiliation.

Of course there was still the vague possibility that someone at Division or in the government would apply the chain of command and overrule jurisdictions to offer her a deal - if she could somehow convince anyone that she had vital information. But what good would it do her once she had given the name of her client? She knew him. And she knew what was waiting for her at CTU. She was dead either way.

Opening her eyes again, she studied Jack's features, knowing what she had to do while she felt her time ticking out.

"What exactly are you holding on to so hard," he interrupted her line of thought. "What is it that makes your life so precious? Is it worth it? All the killing, all the...". He glared at her, his eyes showing hate and revulsion at her while he struggled for words that wouldn't come to him. "Just to stay alive? Whatever it takes just to keep breathing?"

Despite the pain she managed to smile sadly at his words, but that only caused him to push the gun harder against her skin, shoving her head further back.

"Why?"

"Cause I only got one life, Jack. It's all I got."

She could feel how disgusted he was as he stared back at her for a moment, before he seemed to remember their situation.

"Then what's it gonna be?" he asked.

She sighed inwardly, and for a moment, didn't even feel the pain anymore. This was really it.

"I can't," she said, trying to keep her voice stable and clear. "I can't give you a name."

Curiously, she looked into his eyes, waiting to see any signs of relief, disappointment or surprise. But he didn't get any chance to react.

"Freeze!" a loud cry was let out somewhere in the hills around them.

And while she was still pinned to the ground and couldn't move, Jack looked up, searching the darkness, while the sound of approaching vehicles cut through the silence.

"Put your weapon down!" the same voice shouted, by the sound of it a little bit closer already. Somewhere to their right, higher ground.

"It's okay," Jack shouted back, carefully straightening up as he saw the first vehicle arriving. "Jack Bauer, I'm with CTU."

"Until we got confirmation on that, I'm gonna have to ask you to put your weapon down, Sir," the voice repeated unmoved. "Step back and put your hands on your head."

Nina groaned and let her head drop to the side when Jack let go off her and got to his feet. Pain shot through her arm when the impact of his weight was suddenly gone and she rolled over on her side.

"You too," the warning came instantly. "Put your hands on your head, and don't move."

Feeling the tension release and her pulse slowing down, although her situation hadn't exactly improved, she just stayed exactly where she was. Right now she was too weak but with a little time... There had to be a way out of this.

"She's been shot," she heard Jack yell back, angrily and a bit reluctant. And was surprised, but definitely not disappointed, he didn't just let them shoot her.