The following takes place between 7 pm and 8 pm

07:00:01 --- 07:00:02 --- 07:00:03 --- 07:00:04

Behind the stolen car
Traffic is pulling over, loud screams can be heard.
"It just blew!"
"I think he was in a chase!"
Someone is calling 911 but it's too late. Officer Johnson's motorbike has failed to support him on his quest to catch a fleeing criminal.

The explosion is loud and rattles the car windows. Jack glances in the rear view mirror. A fireball in the middle of the street behind them reveals the end of their pursuer. Another good guy is dead and Jack's responsible for it. He feels terrible about it but he had to make a call and it was the right call at the time. He couldn't afford to get arrested right now. He glances at Kevin and says in a low voice. "Let's just get through this day."

Jack takes an exit off the freeway and heads toward the CTU building.

CTU
George has exited his office to take a look at what has been happening and fill in Lisa on the information he received from Division, not that she'll be happy. But something else catches his attention for the moment.

"Michelle?" He approaches and gently puts his hand on her back. "You look pretty tired and I know it can be stressful around this place. Is there anything I can do to help? Run anything for you? Feel free to take 10 or 15 minutes." George's smile is sincere. Michelle is the only one who has ever been completely truthful with him.

Michelle looks up and takes a deep breath. "Thank you George. But I'm fine. It's just... We're getting nowhere with this and I was hoping to finally find out something... I guess I'm just a little frustrated. Thanks anyway." She smiles back at him. Maybe he isn't that bad after all.

"Are you sure?" George glances from her to Tony, who is working intensely on something. "You let me know if you need anything. And I mean anything. We can't afford to lose our best people today."

He strolls to Tony's desk, "What's up?"

"Waiting for codes to filter. It's a process, George. It takes time." Tony isn't in the mood to be questioned or to explain himself.

"Heard from Jack lately?"

"Ask Lisa."

Another stroll to another desk on the opposite side in a corner far away from everyone.

"Lisa-"

"Dammit, George!" She jumps, her hand to her chest. "You scared me to death. What?"

He cannot help but smile as the old, carefree Lisa appears for a second. "Division's not happy with what's going on but I think they'll forgive me if we give them something on Mills' killer. Where's Jack?"

"Coming back to CTU. I'm working on trying to locate Kim. I've called hospitals in the area and so far nothing. See this picture?" She points to the capture of the person being helped into a car. "I'm trying to focus in. It may be her. Other than that we're still cross-checking information Jack's gotten about a Mark Codis who has been trailing Mills for a couple of months. Codis has disappeared but Andre's tracing back his activities."

Stolen Car
"A police officer just died." Kevin mumbles lowly and stares at Jack for a minute. It's almost as if this man has no soul. His eyes betray little emotion. Jack looks at him, but turns his eyes to the road almost instantly. And says nothing.

Kevin calls Lisa, "Yeah, we're coming in... about a minute away." His voice is low and it's obvious he's upset. But there will be time for that discussion.

"Kevin..." Jack stops at the red light opposite CTU, just like he did this morning. "In this job, you make decisions and you don't know if you've made the right call until the whole scenario plays itself out."

He remembers distinctly how Officer Hampton had made the call to help him. He tried to protect her. He failed. And now another cop is dead. The police won't love him for that.

"I did what I had to do and you know I wasn't planing to get that officer killed." He knows that Kevin won't understand. How could he? But at least it's been said.

The traffic light switches to green. Jack drives off and to the CTU garage, past Dave and into a visitor's parking space.

CTU
Michelle gets up from her chair and walks over to Catherine. "Where are you on that list?"

"I've got about hundred right now. And counting."

Michelle sighs. That will take some time to process. "Okay, send whatever you've got to me. I need to see it. And keep looking."

"Alright."

hospital
Heather is in a hallway, Peter holding her hand tightly. She spots a phone and walks over to it. She picks up the receiver and gets a tone. "Good.", she's thinking. "Kim will be able to make that call after all.", she mumbles to herself. She picks up Peter and carries him back towards Kim's room.

If she isn't awake by now, she'll wake her. An intense feeling overcomes her that they should be getting out of there as soon as they can.

CTU garage
Kevin says nothing to Jack as they return to where he should have remained in the first place. With a look of disgust on his face, he stalks through the entrance to Lisa who is with George - there's another surprise. "You just keep unfolding like a flower."

"What?" Lisa senses his attitude. It is quite unusual for Kevin to be unhappy or irritated. "What's wrong?"

"Why don't you ask him?" He points to Jack. "Anyway, Kim was at the compound. I found her bracelet and a washcloth with blood so she might be injured. Nothing else except a lot of dead bodies." Jack is getting closer now. "Leese, I'm leaving, going back to Sacramento. You can handle this without me."

"Kevin, wait!"

"Jack," George stops him as Lisa follows Kevin, "My office. It's not a request. Let's go."

"Fine." Jack answers curtly, as he watches Lisa walk away with Kevin. That guy was probably good in the field but he would never understand. Or maybe he would, once he had to start making sacrifices.

CTU main office
At 1500 test servers, the IMF router stops and pops up with an error message. No matches. That's not possible. The configurations showed a sequential match to IMF accounts. Tony starts the run again then opens another socket to begin a run of numbers to match with telephones.

"Michelle, is there anything else that could have a similar sequential match to International Monitary Fund accounts?"

"I don't know..." Michelle walks over to Tony. "It could be a false trail. Let me take a look at that." She starts typing on his keyboard. "Maybe it's just a wrong code or something."

CTU

Jack follows George upstairs. All eyes are on them again as they enter the main office area. Michelle looks up, too. Seems like it's not the moment to talk to him.

hospital
Heather enters Kim's room and closes the door. She sets Peter down in a chair and tells him to keep quiet. Then she walks over to the bed and gently touches Kim's forehead. She doesn't seem to have a fever. At least that's good. She'll be drowsy, though. She sits down beside her. "Kim.", she whispers loudly. "Kim, wake up."

The voice calls her back from the drug-induced sleep. Kim blinks her eyes to focus. It takes a moment... where is she? What happened? She glances towards the end of the bed and sees her wrapped ankle. The accident. And this woman... Heather?

"A phone? I need to call..." She struggles to sit up but is still to drowsy to complete the task.

"The phones are working, I checked. But I don't know if we have time for that. Kim, we need to leave. Maybe I'm just being paranoid, but I have a bad feeling about this place."

Kim can hear the worry in Heather's voice. After finally sitting up straight, she nods in agreement. "Okay..." Gingerly, she edges off the bed and finds her footing. "Where are we going?"

"We're leaving." Heather grabs Kim's clothes from the chair nearby. "Let's get you dressed. It will look less suspicious."

George's office

George shuts the door behind them and then closes the blinds. "Sheila, hold all my calls." He waits for Jack to sit down before beginning.

"It's been an interesting day around here, Jack. We have a dead political figure who's assassin is on the loose, the FBI had several men wiped out, I hear that a lead you were following has vanished, and your daughter is still missing."

George leans back in his chair, hands clasped together. "You don't like taking orders, well, I don't like my employees being insubordinate. It causes problems and dissension in the ranks. I'm in charge here and I've been left in the dark, that doesn't set well."

George walks to the closed window to glance out briefly. "Jack, you've walked this line too many times. I can't let you do it again. Division knows what's going on. Thanks to you, Lisa is in danger of being brought up on charges."

He turns to him, "Did you know she downloaded passcodes and sensitive information from my computer? That's a federal offense, even if she's helping the great Jack Bauer. So, you've got to ask yourself... Do I let a sanctioned agency do their job and find my daughter? or Do I take down everyone around me while pursuing my own agenda?"

Jack glares at him. Yes, they've been there before. It's true. But they won't have Lisa on a charge. He wouldn't let that happen. "Lisa was working under my orders. Whatever she did, she did it because I asked her to. I'm taking full responsibility for that." Jack pauses. "George. You know I had no choice but to do what I did. And this whole thing - it isn't over yet. Nobody knows what these guys are up to."

Jack stands up and walks over to George. "Let us find out what's going on. You know I can help. Let me help."

George glares at him, processing, calculating risks and benefits in his head.

CTU
Michelle is still working on that chip. "It doesn't look good, Tony. There's one more thing we can try here, but if we can't crack this, the whole operation was worthless."

"I didn't get shot at for nothing." Tony steps away to let Michelle work. Burton was killed. He wouldn't have given his life for a chip that was worthless. Unless he didn't know it was worthless.

"Could they be map coordinates? Anything? What if we break them down? Do any strings of numbers repeat?" Tony is thinking aloud.

"I'm trying, Tony. I can't tell."

George's Office
George finaly shakes his head, "I've got dozens of agents qualified to help, in the field or in the office. They've all been trained to deal with these situations and now Kevin is leaving, that eliminates one field op agent on loan. You aren't the only person who knows how to run a tough investigation. What do you think I was doing the years we worked together? I wasn't just sitting back twiddling my thumbs."

He moves away from Jack and picks up his phone. "We'll find Kim, but you don't seem to trust anyone to do that. We'll find the person who killed Mills but you don't seem to trust us." George calls Sheila, "Send up Lisa Elliott." He shakes his head as he hangs up, "You were good, Jack. But you're grieving and that's not good to have hanging on your shoulders when you're at work."

Bang! Those words coming out of George's mouth. They feel like a dagger through his heart. Of course he's grieving, but that doesn't mean he can't do the job. Jack gets up and stares George down coldly.

"George, think. These guys kidnapped Kim to make sure I'd blow up our communications system and our server. But we had it back up within the hour. Why do you think they did that? Why bother? Don't you think they knew we could bring it back? Why didn't they bug me before I got here? Why give me the chance to save our data? Because it never really mattered. I was brought onto this because they wanted me out of the way. They were counting on CTU taking me into custody. If I was good and I'm such a failure now, why do you think they'd even try to keep me off their tail?"

Jack pauses. His eyes intimidating now. He points a finger to George. "You take me off the case now, you'll be doing them a favor."

Hospital
Dressed and ready to go, Kim follows Heather and Peter to the edge of the door. "I don't think I can walk that fast." Her ankle still hurts and the medication has not completely worn off.

Heather glances around. "That's okay. We'll just go slowly. Take Peter's hand. Let's try to keep a low profile."

CTU - Tony & Michelle

"Okay..." Tony can't help but be impatient. Then he sees Lisa start up the stairs to George's office. He nudges Michelle to look. "The three are finally together again."

Michelle smiles a little. "Yes. Guess they are." Hopefully Lisa really is on Jack's side. Then she turns back to the screen. "Tony, this thing is going to be hard to break through. See, here." she points to a row of numbers on the screen. "The routing codes aren't right, I don't think we can do it from our workstations. We need a decoding specialist on this."

"And that'll take several more hours of time we just don't have." Tony pulls the chip from the computer. He doesn't even know where to turn on this. "What about the lead you're working on? And the information Lisa gave Andre?"

Andre throws up his head, "Codis followed Mills everywhere - even to his kids' school. We need to find where he is now, though, and that's what I'm currently working on. I've got possible matches and they're being filtered through for the best ones. Should be ready to go through in about... 15 minutes?"

"I guess I'll run Burton again, see if he's connected to Codis."

George's office
"You've got an amazing sense of self-importance.", George started. But a knock on the door prevents him from getting any further. "Enter!"

"George, whatever it is..." Lisa unconsciously bites her lip at seeing Jack. "Jack, Kevin told me about the officer. He understands it wasn't your fault."

"Wasn't his fault?" George closes his eyes. With a sigh, he takes a seat again. Sounds like he'll be getting a phone call from some angry LAPD captain. "Let's get back to why we're all here. Jack, it's possible Kim was in the wrong place at the wrong time and happened to get you mixed up into something. What proof do you have these men want you out of the way?"

He glances at Lisa, who is still standing at the closed door, "Jack now says what he did didn't ever really matter. It was all just a ploy to get him arrested and off the bad guys' tail. Right, Jack?" George is staring at him. "Did I cover it?"

Jack smirks. "You certainly don't believe that everything that happened today was a coincidence?" He glances at Lisa for a moment, then faces George again. "By the way, George. Where were you while I was in here? When your staff really needed you? I picked up that you were following a lead of your own, one that turned out to be a wild goose chase. What are the chances a fake source wants you out of CTU at the very same moment I'm supposed to sabotage our systems? Let's say, just for argument's sake, that the point was to have you go down as well because you couldn't stop me? Because you weren't there? Because you followed a phone call no-one ever heard and chased a source no-one ever saw. Would that make sense? I think it might.", Jack ends and leans back in the chair.

"He's pushing me, Lisa." George is now leaning forward on his desk, tapping a pencil. "Let's just say, for argument's sake," his stare is icy, "that this someone also wanted Sacramento involved and this someone knew Lisa would jump at the chance to get back into this office-"

"George..."

"No, no," he holds up his hand, "remember this is just for argument's sake. Let's say this was true and that person knew there would be too many distractions to keep us focused, would that make sense?"

Lisa can tell Jack is about to explode and this is only making George happier. She walks to the empty chair beside Jack, "I'm following leads to find Kim. I'm the only one on that. Everyone else is working on Codis, Agent Burton, The Attorney General...we're all doing what we should be. Let's leave it at that."

"Jack, is this a distraction for you?" George ignores Lisa. "Is Kim's kidnapping a distraction? Is Teri's death a distraction?" He stops and smiles, "Is Lisa a distraction?" George is pulling Jack's strings, waiting to see when he'll snap.

Jack heard Lisa's words, but never moved his eyes from George. He slowly walks around Lisa to George's desk, never losing eye contact with him. He stops opposite George and places both his hands on the desk, leaning forward. "You're the only distraction, George." Jack speaks slowly and calmly. He's not going to give George what he wants. Won't let him win this one. Jack stares him down for a few endless seconds, then continues. "Everyone is focused. Including me. If you're going to stop me from doing my job, I suggest you put me in cuffs. Otherwise, I'm out of here. There's work to do out there and sitting around here is not getting it done."

hospital
"It's alright. Just a little longer. We're almost out." Heather can already see the exit ahead.

Then, someone calls to them.
"Miss! Hold on!"

Kim's eyes widen with fear. She looks to Heather for help. There's no possible way she could run fast enough down the stairs to get out before security was called. Kim decides to take a chance.

"Yes? Me?"

"Yes." A man is standing behind them. There's something in his hand. "You dropped this." It's a small paper bag and he's holding it up for her to see.

George's Office
Lisa puts her hand on Jack's arm, "We'll continue to work. Come on, Jack. I need to show you what I've got on Kim."

"Get him out and start babysitting. Anymore screw ups," George points his finger in Jack's face, "You're gone. I don't care if your daughter is missing or not."

Not the time or the place but Lisa intended to finish what George started. She holds open the door for Jack. "At my workstation, corner right office."

Jack stands up straight and gives George one last glance before heading for the door. He won't screw up. But not because George is threatening him. "I'll be there in a minute.", he says to Lisa. She's staying behind anyway. So Jack heads downstairs, and to Michelle and Tony to get an update.

Lisa closes the door behind Jack, stays where she is, and faces George.

"I'm only going to speak once and then it's over."

George shakes his head. "He's a broken man who doesn't need to be here. How could you not see that?"

She clasps her hands infront of her. "You're a fool and you've made a fool of yourself before everyone. You owe your job to Jack and you can't even treat him with the smallest amount of respect. I'm shocked at what a little man you have become, but I'm glad that I don't have to deal with you anymore."

Lisa walks calmly down the stairs and over to Jack, who is speaking with Tony. "Jack, we need to talk." There is a glance from Tony which makes her add, "Privately."

somewhere
In the darkness surrounding them, the parachuters are approaching a high fence. KEEP OUT! NO TRESPASSING! and similar signs are everywhere. It is without a doubt a military institution.

Suddenly, they hear footsteps from behind. The man turns around and fires a shot, sending a silhouette to the ground. The woman instinctively dives. Another shot comes from somewhere in the darkness, killing the man. Within seconds, a unit emerges from the bushes around them and all are pointing their weapons to the woman's head. "GET UP! UP! NOW!"

07:59:57 --- 07:59:58 --- 07:59:59 --- 08:00:00