The following takes place between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m.

10:00:00 --- 10:00:01 --- 10:00:02 --- 10:00:03

The Bauer house
"DAMMIT !" Jack shouts as he throws the phone against the wall. It shatters to pieces. This couldn't be happening. All he wanted since Teri died was to ensure his daughter's safety and now this.

But there's no time to waste. He composes himself quickly, puts on a shirt and opens a drawer to get his gun and his CTU ID from it. He hesitates as he stares at them for a moment, he never thought he'd put them to use again. Turns out it was good he only took a leave of absence instead of quitting altogether. Who knew? He grabs them, his car keys and drives off.

He's going to need a good reason to get inside CTU again. He turns on the radio to hear if anything has happened that he could use to this end.

Nick's place
Nick to Kim: "You almost took it too far. But I'll let you get away with this for once. Now, we're gonna make sure you're comfortable. Mick!" Mick grabs Kim's arm and pulls her up from the chair. He starts leading her out of the house. The other guy, Joey, follows.

"He's going to kill all of us once he's got what he wants!" Kim refuses to be taken silently. "You don't have to be a part of this! Come on! How much is he paying you? A couple thousand? Is it worth your life?"

The men still aren't talking to her and, man! Mick's holding her arm tightly. "You're... hurting... me..." She wriggles as much as she can and, somehow, manages to free herself. Kim is startled but runs. The tree limbs are thick and cut her face.

"AH!" She trips, scraping her knees and falling on her shoulder. It's impossible to get any further. Mick and Joey are right behind her.

CTU
The conversation with George made Tony consider a direction to look. While Michelle has been checking George's directory database, he has been cross-checking Burton's CIA files with known active or inactive terrorists. Whoever Burton had dealings with may have a vital interest in seeing Mills' legislation fail passage. And now he has just received another call from Miranda.

"Update," he's speaking to Michelle while checking files on his directories, "Miranda's bringing in the bodies and the evidence. The Sacramento CSI team is coming as well. They should be here in about 15-20 minutes."

"Okay. Can you have them scan a fingerprint of that woman they found on the highway and send it to my desktop? I can run it through the international database, see if something pops up. If we're lucky, we'll have her ID'd before they're even here."

Nick's place
Mick and Joey catch up with Kim and pull her up on her feet. "What do you think you're doing?", Mick shouts to her face. "Like there's anywhere you could go. We're in the middle of nowhere, why don't you just give it up?", he yells at her. They start half walking, half pulling her back towards the house. There's another little cottage behind it. Joey unlocks and opens the door and Mick pushes Kim inside. "Stay there!", he says and turns to leave. Joey stands quietly until Mick is out of sight and back inside the main house and then Joey walks into the cottage, locking the door behind him.

Jack's car
The news on the assassination is all over the radio. "That's my entry ticket.", Jack says to himself. But he's going to need help from someone he can trust. The only question is, who can he trust? He continues driving down the road but his thoughts are with Kim. What do these people want from him that made it necessary to kidnap her? All he's hoping right now is that she wouldn't get hurt. He slams his hand against the steering wheel. How could he allow this to happen!

CTU
"Miranda, put me through to Peter." Tony waits to be connected. "Peter, Tony Almeida, CTU L.A. I need you to scan a set of prints from the woman you're bringing in. Send them to Michelle Dessler's directory. Yeah, thanks." He waits behind Michelle for the download. "He said there wasn't much else to do but bring in the body. No other evidence other than to take pictures of tire marks but they won't yield much."

As they wait, Tony can't help but reflect on the morning's events. "Michelle..." he ducks his head a little. It's not easy to admit when you're wrong. "I know you've heard this before but I'm sorry for this morning. The stress and everything and... I can tell you're not comfortable with me right now. The weekend was very bad for me but that doesn't give me an excuse to take it out on you and it doesn't give me an excuse to hide things. I know I can trust you. I hope I can win back your trust."

The Cottage
Not again. Kim's eyes shift from left to right and all around as she searches for some place to go. "Get away from me!" She screams, still looking for anything heavy to grab. "If you do anything to me, my dad will find you and kill you! I promise he won't stop until you're dead!"

Joey glances out of the window, as if to make sure no-one is listening and then stops close to her. "Kim, don't worry. I won't hurt you." He pauses. "I'm a federal agent. I'm working undercover with this scum here. I'll make sure you'll be okay. Alright? I promise you, you can trust me."

A federal agent? Kim isn't sure about this. "Why should I trust you? You could be saying anything just to get me to cooperate." She continues backing away from him, but finds herself nearing the edge of the room. There's nowhere else to go. "Okay... so you're a federal agent. Help me get out of here."

Joey shakes his head no. "I can't right now... Kim, I assure you. What I'm saying is true. I'm with the FBI, we've been after these guys for a year now. I can't let you out now without blowing my disguise, but trust me, I'll watch over you. I'm sorry about before in the car, but these guys don't trust anyone easily, I had to play the game... Here, let me uncuff you.", he takes the keys from his pocket and stands waiting for her reply.

CTU
Michelle answers after thinking for a moment: "Yeah, well... We're okay Tony. We need to focus on the work, right?", she smiles at him. The download finishes. "There it is. I'm gonna run the prints through IAFIS and cross-check with what Interpol has. This is gonna take a few minutes."

Michelle's words don't sound too convincing to Tony's ears. But he has no time to reply because Andre interrupts.

"Tony, I'm getting word from CTU Sacramento that one of their field op team leaders is on their way up here." Andre has a look of question on his face. "Did we ask for help from Sacramento?"

Tony rolls his eyes. "Great... I'll deal with it. We could use the extra manpower, though. Might be a blessing in disguise." Tony sighs, "Andre, let security know to alert me when the person arrives."

Michelle has already gotten some results. "Tony, I've got something. This woman's name is Mira Vlasnik. She's Bulgarian and wanted by the Interpol."

"Vlasnik..." Tony cross-checks the name with Burton's CIA file. "Yeah, she's here. Burton tracked her for five years in Eastern Europe before declaring her presumed dead. Heh, guess no one's presumed dead these days. Okay, so we've got a Bulgarian connection. You're working Mills' connection with Burton, right? Check to see if he has any dealings with the Bulgarians - any reason why this Mira Vlasnik would cross his path."

The Cottage
Kim complies, if only to free her hands and give her a little leverage. "The coke isn't mine." Sounds stupid coming out of her mouth but she figures if he really is FBI she should get that part cleared up immediately.

Joey can't help but chuckle as he's taking the cuffs off her: "Nobody's gonna know about the coke as long as it's really not yours. Don't worry about it."

"What do they want? How do they know my dad?"

He takes a step back and takes a bottle of water from his jacket, handing it to Kim. "Here, you'll need this." She takes it, and he is serious again:

"Listen, this is all a part of an ongoing investigation, you'll understand I can't tell you anything or I'll be compromising my mission. They have something big going on, that much you should know. This place will be filling up shortly, I'll see if I can get you out of here while they're distracted. In the meantime, take this." he hands her a small hand weapon. "Hide it and don't use it unless you absolutely have to, they'll figure out who gave it to you."

Kim takes the weapon quickly and unhesitatingly. She feels a little better as she slips it into her pocket and then takes a quick sip from the water bottle. "I won't give you away, don't worry." The cottage is sparsely furnished but she finds a chair and sits down, her legs shaking underneath her. "Try to keep Mick away from me, he scares me."

Joey: "That could be hard, he's Nick's cousin, they trust each other completely. If he sends anyone down here to get you, it's gonna be Mick. But I'll try to be there with him." He glances out of the window again. "I have to go. Don't try any tricks, it'd just get you hurt, these guys aren't joking, ok?"

Kim nods, "Okay." She's been through this before. Play it until it's too bad to play anymore. Maybe. If there's a chance, she'll take it. "Look, don't do anything to get yourself into trouble. I need as much help as possible. They'll be looking for you."

Joey: "Don't worry.", he unlocks the door and goes out, locking it behind him again.

Jack's car
The car is waiting at the traffic light opposite the CTU building. Jack is staring at the entrance, he will soon have to face the people he had been avoiding for so long. This shouldn't be happening. The light turns green and he drives into the garage.

Dave, the CTU parking lot attendant, recognizes him and lets him in, although he isn't sure Jack should actually be here. But who is he to decide? The guys upstairs make the calls.

Jack parks in a visitor's parking place. He sighs and leans his forehead on the steering wheel for a few seconds to compose himself. Then, he lifts his head up again, and with a determined look on his face, he takes a deep breath and gets out of the car. Let the games begin., he thinks to himself while he walks up the stairs to the main floor.

CTU main office
"Tony, I think there might be something here-" Michelle is startled and stops talking as she sees Jack coming into the office. "What is Jack doing here?"

"I don't know." But he is going to find out. With determination, Tony strides up to Jack and blocks his path. "Hey, if you haven't heard, today's kind of busy. Whatever's on your mind can wait, okay? Want me to walk you to your car?"

Jack: "Yeah and good to see you too." Jack says sarcastically, holding his stare. "Tony, don't do this. You know as well as I do that you can use any help you can get."

"Jack, go home. We didn't call you to come in but if we need your help, we know where to find you." Tony motioned for a couple security guards. "Now, let's not make this difficult. Go home. Spend time with Kim. You can come back in a few months. There'll always be something to do."

Kim. Jack's heart stings when he hears Tony utter her name. It would be so easy to just tell him what this is about but that's not an option. All those people watching and listening, any one of them could be a mole. He can't take that chance. "Tony, this is not really your call. I'm still employed by CTU and I choose to return to work, effective immediately."

Andre, who once again has answered Tony's phone, passes a message to Michelle. "Sacramento says their operatives are stuck in traffic but should be here in a few minutes."

Michelle takes note of Andre's input only marginally and nods absently. She watches as the tension between Jack and Tony builds up. Before this turns into a brawl, she decides to intervene and walks up to Tony, slightly touching his arm: "Tony, let go. He's right."

Tony stares Jack down for a second longer. "Yeah. Welcome back."

Andre grabs Tony as he's returning back to his workstation. "Sacramento's on site."

"What?", Tony barks, his eyes still on Jack, who is now walking away from him.

"The field ops team? They're here."

Take a deep breath, Tony reminds himself. "Fine. Michelle, keep an eye on Jack. Make sure he doesn't do anything like talk to anyone. Don't let George see him. I've got to go meet the team from Sacramento."

As he walks towards the exit, Tony sends another look Jack's way. They never had a chance to talk. He never had a chance to apologize. Doesn't look like today's the day.

George, who has spotted Jack from his office, walks down to the main floor.

"Jack. What are you doing here? You having been taken off active duty and retired from CTU means exactly that. Go home, we're busy today."

He notices the Sacramento team arriving. Here we go. Hell hath no fury and all that. Oh well, George, time to face the music, or at least try and give as good as you get.

"Tony, any luck with the suspect list? Tell me there is, because I don't want to look stupid in front of Lisa. Not again anyway."

The Sacramento team gives Jack the moment he needs to disappear from George's sight for a while and slip into his former office. He closes the shutters and starts looking for anything to point him in the right direction. Who were these guys who were holding Kim? And what would they want from him? He'd have to know what CTU knows before they contacted him again.

Michelle notices Jack's excursion to Mason's office, but keeps her mouth shut. She'd heard about this man. Whatever Jack was doing, he was likely to have a good reason to do.

Tony stops what he's doing to give George a look of 'are you kidding me'.

"Michelle's cross-checking the information we have on Mills with a CIA agent he's had dealings with. So far, we've got one name - Mira Vlasnik, the dead woman dumped off the highway. She's a Bulgarian national wanted by Interpol. Michelle is still working up any possible connection to Mills. That's all we've got so far." He lowers his voice slightly. "Look, George, we won't let you look stupid. We've got your back today."

"It's good to see cooperation amongst coworkers.", George replies.

Tony turns at the voice to see a smartly dressed woman, black hair pulled up in a ponytail. A man is standing behind her carrying bags. She smiles and holds out her hand. "Lisa Elliott, CTU Sacramento Field Ops Supervisor. This is Kevin Donnelly."

Tony shoots a glance at George, "Tony Almeida. We've been expecting you..." They shake hands.

"I'm sure you have," Lisa smiles brightly, "Hello, George. Well, where do you want us? I don't go anywhere without Kevin. My title is Field Ops Supervisor but really it means I coordinate Kevin's team from behind a desk. Which I hate, but you know that already." It's obvious she's talking to George.

Uh oh. The look on George's face is not good., Tony notices.

"So," Lisa is being very friendly, "we might as well get started. I've been in contact with Miranda" - this is news to Tony - "and she sent me a picture of the bullet casing found at one of the crime scenes. I've seen it before but I'll need your files to find what I'm looking for. Is there anything else I should know? Suspects? Names?"

George's office

Jack is in George's office, thinking about who at CTU he can call to help him out. Obviously, George and Tony are out of the question. He looks around. As he slipped into George's office, he'd noticed Michelle Dessler watching him. But she didn't say anything to anyone. Jack immediately gets the feeling that he can trust her. He looks up her number on George's phone and then takes out his cell phone and calls her. She picks up.

"CTU, Dessler."
"Michelle, this is Jack Bauer. Is this a secure line?"
"Wait, I'll transfer it... Okay. Jack, what are you doing here? Mason can't wait to throw you out. He..."
"Michelle, you trust me, don't you?", Jack interrupts her.
"Yes", she answers instantly. There was no reason not to.
"Alright. I need your help. And you can't let anyone know."
"Okay.", Michelle answers and then just listens for several seconds. Then she hangs up the phone.

CTU main office

"Yeah being in a job you don't like is a pain in the ass, ain't it?", George says to Lisa. "We've cleared one of our IT rooms for your team to set themselves up. It's not exactly the penthouse at the Ritz but you should have everything you need. If not, don't hesitate to ask. Which I'm sure you won't."

He smiles at her, but there's no humor in it. "Our intel is still being processed, but technically you report everything to us, since we're the larger branch and the investigation is on our patch. So why don't you and Tony sit down and you can show him everything you've found."

Lisa looks as if she's about to process but doesn't. One- nil, thinks George.

Michelle calls Jack back: "There's an empty office just down the corridor, E.22.1. The code is 2461. You have clearance for all levels again. Good luck."

"Thanks.", he hangs up and opens the shutters again (gotta leave everything as it was, right?), then sneaks out of George's office and into a corridor. He glances at Michelle thankfully before disappearing from her sight.

CTU main office

The tension in the air is palpable and makes Tony quite uncomfortable. Kevin, however, was prepared for this. "I'll bring up our database so we can begin coordinating resources. The main files we'll need will only take a few seconds to pull up. Lisa?" he waits a beat. She doesn't answer which causes him to glance up.

Lisa is almost in attack mode. Kevin can tell she's trying to keep her cool but he's seen this before when she has been challenged by the boss back home.

"You know, George, I could really use some coffee. You do remember how I like it, right?", Lisa states, not moving her eyes from George.

Tony is watching the showdown from the hallway but catches Michelle out of the corner of his eye. He strides up to her quickly. "Sacramento's here," he nods in Lisa and Kevin's direction. "Where'd Jack go? I asked you to keep an eye on him."

Michelle, who is now more composed than she had ever been this morning, looks up from the keyboard and straight into Tony's eyes. "He went home. That's what you wanted, right?" She doesn't move a muscle as she tells him this.

Tony is shocked. "Jack left? Just like that?" His arms folded, Tony gives Michelle a questioning look then glances around more than once. "And you wouldn't be protecting him, would you?"

"Of course not." Michelle is unimpressed. "Are you interrogating me?" She gives him a cold stare that says we've got better work to do than fight each other.

Nick's place
Several vans pull up at the premises around the house. Nick comes out and greets some of the men.
"Are we on schedule?", he asks one of the newly arrived.
"Like a clockwork.", the other one replies.
Nick is contented and smiles to himself. This is going to be one successful operation.

The Cottage
The snapping of twigs in the distance catches Kim's attention and pulls her from the pathetic bathroom where she's been washing the dirt off her legs. Cars. She can hear more than one and smell the fumes. Are those voices?

Her hand instinctively falls to the gun Joey handed her. She would use it if she had to but if there was more than one or two...

Kim takes refuge in a corner and waits, the gun out of sight.

Jack in the empty office
Jack is browsing through the files Michelle sent him. "Mira Vlasnik," that name doesn't really ring a bell, but something about this whole thing sounds familiar. He continues searching.

CTU main office
"We have a lot of stuff on our plate today, Michelle. I wouldn't want anything interfering with the investigation of a prominent political leader's death." No reaction. Tony rolls his eyes. He's giving in. For now. "I need to know what you have on Mira Vlasnik - her contacts, what she's wanted for, that sort of thing. This woman," he motions behind him, "Lisa Elliott, she and George - well, surmise what you like but suffice it to say he got the job here that she was supposed to have, so we'll be dealing with that while she's here. We won't have a problem working with her but George..."

George: "Yeah. I remember. Thankfully, executive perks means I don't have to make it." He motions to one of the paper-shufflers and tells them to do it.

Lisa chuckles, "Well, I can see I'm lucky I didn't waste my life." She doesn't bother smiling this time, instead she returns to her laptop and begins organizing the files she'll need to share with Tony.

Kevin takes the coffee from George's minion and leaves it near Lisa. He knows she won't be drinking it. "Thanks for your help," he nods to George, "I'll coordinate -"

"Now don't send George away. I'm sure he wants to be in the know. You're welcome to stay." Lisa motions to a chair near her. "We could talk about old times or catch up."

"We'll manage.", Michelle smiles as honestly as she can as she says this. The tension seems gone. If she's ever going to make him trust her again, now is the time. She decides to accept his apology from earlier, she could probably use his help somewhere down the line. "Tony, about this morning. Things have been happening so fast and I know I probably overreacted. I'm sorry."

"Don't worry about it." Tony glances back at George. Talk about tension. "I think it's time to earn points with the boss."

Tony's in rescue mode. "Lisa," he's talking to her but he briefly glances at George, "we need to start going over the information you have on the bullet casings."

Good play, she thinks, save the boss, save yourself. "The casings are foreign made, Eastern European." Lisa flips her laptop around so Tony can see the model she's brought up. "Here's an original and here's your casing." She pulls the pictures together. "They're a match. The brand is Mocktav. It's primarily used by Chechan rebels, however we have just recently been seeing an influx of these entering the black market, but this is the first time I've come across the Mocktav on American soil."

"That fits with the information Michelle came up with earlier. One female victim was Bulgarian. Alright, we'll start looking into Eastern European terrorist groups. You're set up here..."

Lisa smiles, "Kevin and I will stay back here. It's cozy and out of the way. But I would like to meet Michelle. If she's working this operation, I should probably know her."

"Okay." Tony lets Lisa exit first.

"Michelle, this is Lisa Elliott, CTU Sacramento. Lisa, Michelle Dessler."

Michelle: "Nice to meet you. We really appreciate your help today."

"Same here. Ah, Tony? I'm going to get back to Kevin. I don't like to leave him alone for too long." Lisa is already heading back to 'her' office before Tony can say anything.

"Yeah, okay. Michelle, I need to stay with Lisa for a little longer. If anything comes in, let me know." A quick smile and Tony is gone.

Jack in the empty office
On the phone: "Michelle, it's Jack. Can you talk?"

Michelle glances around: "Not really."

"Okay, then just listen. I've been going through the files you sent me. This woman whose body the highway patrol found, Mira Vlasnik, I've cross-checked her name with some of my old files. Her name came up in connection with two former Russian mob head men, Michail und Nikolay Petrov. Ten years ago, they were starting to expand their circle to all of Eastern Europe. When the Bulgarian Government tried to break the ring, they had the Bulgarian President assassinated and some very sensitive documents disappeared. Sound familiar?"

It does. Too much so. "Yeah"

"Well, our Government sent out a secret operation to take them out. It failed. And nobody has been able to track them down until today. "

"And you think they might have a hand in this?"

"Yes. And they're likely to have big plans."

Michelle says nothing. This needs to get to Tony and George immediately. But she can't tell them how she knows.

"Michelle... I have to stay on this. I'm gonna need George to stay off my toes. "

"I'll talk to Tony. " She looks around but doesn't see him. She's gonna look for him immediately.

"Okay."

"Jack, one more thing. They've got a Lisa Elliott from CTU Sacramento to help us out. Just thought you should know."

"Good. Thanks.", he hangs up the phone. At least that was good news. Lisa was someone he could trust. But her presence here, it could only mean this was getting too big for George to handle on his own.

Michelle gets up from her desk and goes out to find Tony.

another CTU office

"The Chechen's aren't a problem for us. They pretty much stay on their own turf." Lisa is working on bringing up the latest intel on Eastern Europe's most wanted. "The problem is going to be so many terrorists, so little time. We need more to go on and, frankly Tony, I've got nothing unless you have something."

Tony shakes his head in frustration. "Other than the name I gave you, no."

"That does us no good. The woman's dead."

"Yeah, I get that..." He glances behind him to see Michelle lingering in the doorway, "Just a minute. What's up, Michelle?"

"Tony, I need to talk to you in private."

Tony leads Michelle to an empty room a few doors down. "What's up?" He has a sneaking suspicion but he'll let her speak first.

Michelle pauses for a second before she answers. "Tony, there's been a development." She's going to give him a piece of the news first. "This Mira Vlasnik might have had a connection to the Russian mob and two of their former head men could be involved in what happened here today." She raises her voice at the end of the sentence, it's clear she didn't say everything yet. But she waits for his reaction.

the cottage
Joey unlocks the door and walks in. He spots Kim in a corner of the room. "Are you okay? Something happen?"

"I heard cars." Kim stands up slowly. "Who's here now? What's going on?"

Joey: "They've got company arriving." Before he can say more, he hears footsteps behind him.

"Joey! Mick needs you at the house. Now.", somebody shouts. Joey turns around: "Be right there, Pat.", he answers and motions to close the door again.

"No, leave it open", Pat says. Joey does as told and leaves towards the main house. Pat stands in the doorframe for a few seconds, staring down at Kim. "Look who's here...", he says mockingly, obviously thinking about his next move. Kim stands there, frightened, wishing Joey wouldn't go.

Jack in the empty office
Jack's cell phone rings. He picks up immediately, suspecting who the caller is.
"Hello Jack."

It's Nick.

10:59:57 --- 10:59:58 --- 10:59:59 --- 11:00:00