The following takes place between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m.

04:00:01 --- 04:00:02 --- 03:00:03 --- 04:00:04

The Compound
Terry sees it too. Kevin's down, but maybe not out. He also has something on the sensor panel in the chopper. A person crouching in the thick brush towards the clearing is visible. Terry swoops around fast. If this guy is willing to take out federal agents, he's got to get to him quickly. "Jack, I've got him." Balancing carefully, Terry dives and gets off one round, hitting the shooter in the back. "He's down! Fifty feet in front of you! I don't see anyone else!"

"Okay, keep him down!", Jack gets up quickly and runs at full speed towards the shooter. He finds him on the ground, face in the dirt. He feels the pulse on his neck. "Terry, he's alive. Get somebody to check up on Kevin now! How far out is that backup?"

Jack turns the guy on his back. The sniper is gasping for air, but at least he's still breathing. The bullet hit him in the side, an area unprotected by the flak jacket. He's bleeding heavily. It's clear at first sight that he's not going to make it.

Terry radios Lisa, "We've got to have C Team on site, asap! Where are they?"

Lisa checks the progress but..."Something's wrong."

"Excuse me?" Terry can't believe what he's hearing. "What's wrong, Lisa!"

"The team isn't going forward." And now that she checks her phone, she notices a message symbol. "I think we've got a problem. I'll have to call you back."

Terry radios Jack, "There's a situation with the back up. I'm waiting for Lisa's call."

"Jack!" Kevin pulls himself up from the ground, slowly. "Hey... ow," He's going to feel this tomorrow. One look at the hole in his shirt makes him grateful for the flak jackets they put on.

"Where's the shooter? Are you okay?" Kevin's ready for action.

CTU
"It's been a crazy day, hasn't it?" Andreand Catherine are back at the main office area.

"We've got cross-refs to complete but I think we should really work on back up. That hasn't been done since all this happened." Together they survey the scene. Not too bad. Could have been much worse.

Garage
Slowly, Tony exits his car and begins to walk towards the man. He notices the eye movement. This man's nervous.

"You said you had information. I'm here on your terms. Let's talk." Before removing his hands from his jacket, Tony pushes record on a pocket recorder.

CTU
Michelle is now hacked into the surveillance camera system of the garage. She sees Tony approaching the man. She zooms in on the man's face and snaps a photo to later run it through the database for identification. She monitors what is happening. But she won't be able to reach him other than through his cell phone. Too late now. The meeting is under way. She sits there, hoping nothing will go wrong.

She quickly glances over to see Andre and Catherine walking back into the office. Good, he found her. They could really use all the help they can get right now. She turns back to the screen. Hopefully Tony can get some information out of this guy, whoever he is.

garage
The man walks over to Tony. "First I want you to turn off the recorder that you're doubtlessly carrying. And I know that you are because I would do the same thing if I were in your place."

When Tony hesitates, he continues. "What I am about to tell you is confidential information and I don't want to be quoted on it."

the compound
Jack is relieved to hear that Kevin is okay. "Over here!", he shouts. He has to try to extract at least some information from this guy before it's too late.

"I'm not gonna make it anyway Jack, so don't even try scaring me.", the guy speaks first.

"No, you could make it. We have a team arriving. If you give me information they can save you."

"And then what? Take me prisoner?" The guy coughs. "I'd rather die. You're a soldier, you understand that."

Jack understands this all too well... Maybe trying a different appoach can help. He pulls his gun and holds it up.

"It could take you hours to bleed out." It's not true in this case. This guy has minutes at best. But it's worth a try. "Tell me what Petrov is up to and I'll help you die quickly."

"No thanks.", the guy moans in pain.

"Come on, you can end this agony right now."

"It's too late Jack. You can't stop him." The man rolls his eyes as a wave of pain hits him.

"Come on stay with me.", Jack turns the man's head towards the center. "Where's my daughter? Where is Kim?"

No reply. Jack realizes this interrogation is nearing the end. There's one more thing he needs to know.

"Did you radio to anyone that we're here?"

The guy coughs again, but says nothing further. He's obviously drawing his last breath. Jack tries once more: "Do they know we're here?"

Jack's question still hangs in the air as the man's eyes go into a motionless stare and he exhales. They lost him.

"Dammit!" Jack gets up and walks over to Kevin who arrived in the meantime. "Glad you're okay."

Jack radios Lisa. "Lisa, I've got confirmation that Petrov is behind this whole thing. Other than that, we've got nothing so far. We're checking out the rest of the compound now." He gets up and gives Terry a sign to keep circling, then turns to Kevin. "Take the cottage, I'll take the main house. Be careful." The two men separate now, running off.

The compound/ctu
"Kevin," Lisa radios to him on a separate channel, "someone's on to me. I think I know who it is..."

"Lisa, we can't be bothered by this. You'll have to secure this location. Get back up in here to start taking photos and setting up a perimeter. Keep George off our backs. Out." Kevin runs in a crouch up the hill to the cottage.

Garage
Tony pulls out the recorder, shows it to the man, and clicks it off. "Total confidence and off the record. It's just me here and no one else. Now, show me your hands so I know we're clean." He doesn't want any surprises either. This guy's smart.

CTU
George approaches Michelle, who is hard at work. "Act naturally." He smiles at Andre and Catherine who are returning to their work stations. "My entire system has been compromised. It's not a security issue, just a personal one but it's going to have to be dealt with." He hopes Michelle understands so that he won't have to go into specifics. "When I pull this person from her duties, I'll need someone else assigned. Do we have someone who can run field op surveillance?"

Michelle has had to quickly switch to another frame as George approached her. She didn't want him observing Tony's meeting. "Uh, George, look, if you have a personal problem with Lisa you have to put it aside. We need her help around here."

Ah ha, now he is getting somewhere. "Maybe I misspoke." George looks around and clears his throat. "Michelle, Lisa has broken the law. She stole my files, broke into an encrypted system. I need to know why she did it." He stares into her eyes. "Ten to one you know and you've been helping in some way."

garage
The man grins. "Alright." They both know how to play the game. He lifts his arms a little, so that Tony can check him for wires and when he's done, he starts talking.

"Mr Almeida. My name is Burton, I'm with the CIA, as you may have found out by now. Earlier today, when AG Mills was assassinated, his briefcase was stolen. The briefcase contained a disc with our most recent intel on terrorist activities, locations and plans to apprehend them. I was working on coordinating the missions. I don't have to tell you what consequences this could have on our counter terrorist measures if it reaches the open market."

So there was a briefcase, Miranda's team was right. "We work with terrorist threats on a daily basis, Mr. Burton. If this disc is as important as you say, surely you would have a back up somewhere? The CIA wouldn't let sensitive information travel around with an unguarded man."

Burton rolls his eyes. "Of course we have a backup. That's not the issue here. This information leaking out would compromise every mission that is under way or planned to begin in the next six months. Mills wasn't even supposed to have it. I gave it to him and I'll take the fall for that. But that's not the only problem we have."

The compound/
"Jack, we've got another body up here and empty water bottles." He checks Pat's pulse. Yep, dead. And then he sees something else which startles him. "Jack, you'd better get up here."

Kevin holds a charm bracelet in his hand. He hopes this means Kim's alive and hasn't been taken elsewhere.

Jack is in the main house. He finds Joey's dead body next to the door. From the two bullet wounds in the head and the position the body is in, Jack concludes he was obviously executed. Was this the undercover FBI agent who was helping Kim? Jack kneels next to him for a few moments and stares at him. "Thank you.", he whispers.

Jack buries his face between his hands. Hopefully Kim managed to escape anyway. Then he hears Kevin call him on the radio. "Okay, I'll be right there."

Jack runs a hand over his face, gets up and, after taking one final look at the body, walks into the adjacent rooms to see if any clues can be found. He finds the receiver Nick had probably been using to communicate with him when he was wearing the earpiece. It's still here. The Petrov's are obviously not planning to use it against him again. As he walks out of the house and uphill to the cottage, it hits him: of course, they assume he is still held by the CTU for what he did earlier. Maybe that was the point of it all? To keep him out of the way...

He arrives at the cottage. "What have you got?" Kevin hands him the charm bracelet. Jack instantly recognizes it as Kim's. Emotions are taking over as he holds it firmly in his hand and tightly closes his eyes, forcing the tears that he can already feel coming back inside. Hopefully she got out. Hopefully she did.

Kevin gives Jack a moment to himself and makes a brief sweep of the place. A few empty water bottles, a used wash cloth in the bathroom. There's dirt on it, like someone was washing up.

"Jack," Kevin stays to the side to not interfere, "this guy's dead. He's not dressed like the others. If she's anything like you, she probably left this for us." He passes Jack the washcloth then notices a small amount of blood mixed with the dirt. Kevin says nothing. A cut was probably why she was washing up in the first place - he hoped for Jack's sake that was all it meant.

CTU
Lisa has just entered the main office area after having no luck getting through to her NSA contact. Something about an emergency meeting. Sure, whatever. Jackie has always willingly talked with her before and this only proved something was up. Now George was at Michelle's desk and she could only imagine what threat was being leveled against this woman who had done nothing but put her best foot forward all day.

But it wasn't time to give up.

Lisa contacts Terry for an update. "I don't know how long I'll be able to reach you on this line. Kevin has my private cell number. If you can't reach me at CTU, get that number from him. I always have that on."

"Got it. Listen, the shooter that I took out... he's dead. I've cleared the surrounding scene but back up still isn't here." Terry continued his routine sweeps overhead.

"I know," Lisa speaks softly as she watches George and Michelle, "There's been a problem. If you're not in immediate danger, I'm not going to chance things here."

"No, no. I don't see anyone else. Alive at least."

"Jack and Kevin? Are they?"

"Alive?" Terry chuckles, "Yeah, they're the only living creatures. Even the animals have left this place. It's real creepy. Looks like a fortress with a pathway leading up a hill to a road. Haven't gotten up there yet because it would take me out of visual range."

"Don't lose contact with them. Jack and Kevin may need transport any minute now and you're their only way out." Lisa watches George shift his stance. For a minute, it seems as if he's going to come her direction. "Got to go. Keep watch, Terry." She quickly ends the call and turns her back hoping George will not notice her.

compound
Jack swallows hard. His mind is racing as he takes the washcloth from Kevin and notices the blood on it. The blood stain is too small to be from a serious injury, at least that's somewhat good news. But if they hurt her, he'd kill them. He swears to himself he will track them down and he will kill them.

If only he knew where to start looking.

Jack turns away from Kevin and fights to keep his eyes from watering. How could this happen twice in two years? This job was no good for a man with a family. He'd realized that. That's why he quit. That's why he tried to keep Kim safe. But once the walls you've built start to come down, they'll keep coming down no matter what you do.

CTU
"It's hard not to take things personal when it comes to Lisa." George smiles at Michelle. "If I were you, I'd watch Tony carefully. Lisa tends to, well, play the field." He places his hand on her shoulder, "And that's not a person I'd want to help. I mean...if I were in your shoes..."

Michelle stares back at George. Of course she knows what's going on, but telling him about it is the last thing on her mind right now. She'd like to get rid of him somehow and continue monitoring Tony.

"George, right now, it doesn't matter what there was between you and Lisa and my personal life is none of your business." Since he isn't reacting at all, it is clear he wants answers to his previous question and he won't back off. She holds his stare for a moment longer before continuing. "Look, I really don't know what you're talking about. But I do know one thing: this isn't the time or place to engage in a personal vendetta. I'm not sure you've noticed, but we're in a middle of a crisis right now and while we're doing everything we can to solve it..." she pauses and takes a breath. "I'm not sure what it is that you're doing to help."

garage
There's more to this than just terrorist information floating around? Tony runs his hand over his face as he sighs. "Was Mills mixed up with something big? Why would you give him the disc if it was so sensitive? If this information being leaked isn't your biggest problem today, then what is?"

His frustration and anxiety levels have increased dramatically. "Give me specifics, something to work with, a name. I'm losing valuable time here." Tony starts back to his car.

Burton rolls his eyes again and shakes his head: "Mr. Almeida, wait. I didn't come here at my own risk to withhold information from you." Tony turns back, his eyes give away his impatience. "The disc also contained a hidden file about a project that's been officially aborted but somebody continued it in secret. It was-" Burton's voice breaks off as he falls to the ground, bullet wound in his temple.

compound
Jack rubs his eyes and takes a deep breath. Standing around here won't help find Kim. He has to pull himself together. They need to leave. He puts the cloth in his pocket and turns to Kevin. "We gotta go. Come on."

Jack is the first one out of the cottage and is walking swiftly down the hill.

Kevin radios Terry to come in for a landing, "We're leaving. Let the back up team take it from here."

Bringing the helicopter down, Terry relays Lisa's message concerning the teams delay and one more item of interest. "When I was coming in, I noticed a vehicle up over the clearing, on the road. It was smoldering and appeared to recently been on fire. There were bodies, too."

Kevin glanced at Jack, "You want to take a look or go on?"

Climbing back inside the chopper, Jack replies: "Let the back up team handle that. From what Agent Brown had told me, that must be the FBI van they had sent to pick up Kim and their undercover agent. I found him executed in the main house."

CTU
George nods in response to Michelle and maintains an even tone, "I'm trying to follow protocol, which is more than I can say for some people. My contact didn't show up and no one gives me the hourly updates like they should. Really I'm in the dark here. But I think the best thing might be to work with those who have a handle on what is going on."

With a smile, he adds, "Keep up the good work," and heads off in Lisa's direction.

The familiar footsteps cause her to turn around swiftly. "George..."

He holds up his hand, "You know what you did is illegal."

"I did it for the right reasons and the fact that I knew you'd never help me if I asked for a favor that involved Jack."

She is right. But he also knows she wouldn't just break rules without a legitimate reason. "Bring me up to speed, no one else here will."

A slight smile crosses Lisa's face for a second. "Um...well, what you need to know is Jack has reason to believe Nikolay Petrov is behind the Mills assassination. Tony and Michelle are primarily working on connecting the dots and following paper trails. Jack has other problems, though, and that's where I've come in." She's watching his face carefully. George is obviously uncomfortable but is listening. "Kim has been kidnapped by Petrov. Why, neither he nor we know yet." Lisa explains the reason behind the need for his authorization codes. "I need you to get the back up team back into play. George, I'm not doing this to spite you."

George makes a phone call. The team is moving in to secure the area. "Look...out there...what I said..."

"Don't." Lisa interrupts him with a shake of her head. "We're all under a lot of stress and we just need to focus right now. We can talk later."

Garage
Tony has dropped to the ground and waits. From his vantage point, he can already see the blood pooling onto the cement. In a rush, he crawls to the man. No pulse. Tony has never felt such immediate defeat. He calls Michelle as he goes through Burton's pockets just in case there was anything useful. "Michelle, someone killed the guy right in front of me," Tony's voice is quick and fast, "He claimed to be Agent Burton, the CIA agent whose name you came across earlier. I'm looking for ID to confirm."

His mind is running with the information Burton provided earlier. That and the knowledge that, had he not turned back to his car, he would have been in the line of fire.

"Burton said Mills had a briefcase that contained a disc with sensitive terrorist information on it. Also on the disc is a hidden file that has information about a supposedly abandoned project continued in secret. That's all I got before he was shot. The disc and briefcase are missing." Hearing no footsteps, he decides now is the time to move.

"I'm coming back in." Crouching, Tony enters the car, starts the engine, and pulls away from the scene, "We've got a dead CIA agent, an assassinated government head, a dead Bulgarian terrorist, a dead neighbor of Mills', and a kidnapped 16-year-old. What is going on?"

CTU

Michelle switches back to the surveillance cameras. She sees the man Tony met on the ground, Tony's car driving towards the exit. There's no-one else in the garage. Whoever shot Burton, is already gone or hiding from the cameras very well. She is relieved that Tony's okay but warns him nevertheless to get out of there as fast as he can. "I'm sorry I didn't see the shooter in time, Tony. George was questioning me about what we're doing here and I just couldn't keep watching." She can't believe Tony almost got shot and she did nothing to protect him when she could have.

Michelle has run the photo she took of the man in garage through the database. It now yields a result. "Tony, I've confirmed the identity of the man, he was indeed Agent Burton, like he said. I'll start the search on projects that were abandoned by the Government in the last ten years, maybe we can find something. You get back here soon, ok?"

She calls up Catherine and gives her the assignment. Catherine protests a little, she was just starting to do the backup with Andre. Michelle hangs up and walks over to her. Today is not the day to argue.

"Catherine, just do two things at the same time. The search will run itself."

"But Mi-."

"Just do it! I'm giving you an order, I expect you to follow it." It is clear Michelle won't take no for an answer. Not now.

compound
Jack is back on track and more determined than ever to find Petrov and his daughter. "We have another lead to check out."

The chopper rises in the air. They can finally see the back up team arriving from a distance. Jack takes out his panel and shows the address Michelle gave him earlier to Terry. "Take us as close as you can to this location. We're not going back to CTU yet."

04:59:57 --- 04:59:58 --- 04:59:59 --- 05:00:00