The following takes place between 10 pm and 11 pm
10:00:01 --- 10:00:02 --- 10:00:03 --- 10:00:04
CTU main office
"Andre, I want you on this. You're working up Codis' bio and movements, find out who he's met with recently and let's get this picture into our system and search for recognition in your camera feeds." George pats Jack on the back, the earlier argument forgotten. "Good work, Jack. We're closing in, thanks to you."
"Thanks." Jack doesn't waste much time on long speeches. All that matters now is getting the work done. He sits down at Michelle's desk and starts running a search on the name Codis. "Let's see if we can find her this way."
Then he grabs the Codis file. There has to be something in there to indicate the meaning of Annabelle Peterson, if there is nobody who goes by that name. Then he glances at George, and speaks to him quietly, raising an eyebrow.
"George, you are helping Catherine with the projects list, right? Think she can handle it? If not, get someone else to do it, please, we have no time."
George just nods silently, knowing Jack is right.
hospital
Bill and John have now changed, wearing the uniforms of the security guards they killed.
They walk out of the surveillance room, take the staircase down and head towards the exit. As they come closer, they notice Michael and Lisa and overhear her words. John keeps his hands in his pockets. As Lisa takes the right hallway, he jostles her accidentally.
"Oops." He chuckles a little. "I'm sorry Miss."
They move on. What Lisa didn't notice is that he had slipped a tracker into her jacket pocket.
Lisa barely glances at the security guard who ran into her. She's got a bigger task at hand than to worry about someone not paying attention. And now Michael has set off down the hall.
military compound
The heavy door to the cell opens and two soldiers walk in. "Get up! Someone wants to talk to you!"
The woman complies, but slowly. She remains standing in the center of the room until one of them grabs her by the arm and pushes her forcefully out of the room.
She is taken down a darkened corridor and into something that is doubtlessly a soundproof interrogation room. A ranking officer and a scary looking guy are already inside, waiting.
"Sit.", the officer says. "We're gonna have a little talk."
She eyes him but doesn't move. "I don't have anything to say."
"Oh, we'll see about that... I'll try this nicely first. Why did you parachute down here tonight? You surely didn't think you and just one other guy could do any damage to an entire military compound?"
"I told you I have nothing to say."
The officer glances at the scary guy, who gets up and paces slowly towards her.
Coffee room
"Maybe he'll go easy. It's my first big mistake." Tony chuckles as he shrugs his shoulders. The impact of his 'mistake' is a heavy burden to bear. He likely allowed everything that had happened today to happen - well, except for the assassination.
"You know..." He turns to Michelle, "Regardless of how this turns out for me the fact still remains that someone on the inside accessed my system. There's no indication the information was routed from the outside. But I do need to talk to George as soon as possible."
He holds the door open for Michelle and follows her out. Clearly something has happened while they've been away.
"Tony, Michelle! We need you on this. The Mills' nanny is Codis' daughter and we've got to find her." George is urging them over.
"George, I need to talk-", Tony begins.
"Not now, get working. Trace funds, the nanny's account, whatever you can find on her and Codis. Michelle," George physically takes her by the arm, "You'll have to work with Catherine on the projects search we've been doing. Filter by Eastern European involvement."
Now George stands by Jack, "Where do you want me to start?"
"George, get Andre to help Catherine. I need Michelle working with me. We need to know everything about the daughter-" Jack stops talking when the search on Michelle's computer yields results on females named Codis.
Michelle joins Jack at her desk, looking at the screen and brings up the photos of the women. Scrolling down the results page, after a short while, she finds the face they're looking for.
"Here she is, Jack."
Jack: "Great, Michelle. Print it out." She does, then gets up.
"Jack, I'm gonna go help Catherine. Andre should keep working on Codis.."
"Okay."
Hospital
Lisa pokes her head into the rooms, occupied and unoccupied. Charts reveal names and ages that couldn't be Kim. She stops a nurse in the hall. "Excuse me, have you seen this girl? It's very important we find her."
The nurse looks at her. "Why?"
"Have you seen her?"
"Yes, but she's a patient here and I can't give out any information-", she begins to walk away.
Lisa stops her quickly, "Look, I'm a federal agent," she shows her badge, "The girl is a witness in need of protection. Do you understand? She's in imminent danger and I have to find her."
"I can't just give you information-"
"Show me her room or I'll have you brought up on charges of interfering with a federal official in the line of duty."
With a heaving sigh, the nurse leads Lisa to where she last saw Kim. It sure isn't worth losing her job over this. "She might be sleeping," The nurse opens the door but gasps causing Lisa to force her way in, gun drawn quickly.
"Where is she!", Lisa exclaims.
The nurse shakes her head nervously.
Lisa calls Michael, "Kim's gone. We need to get a search underway. Initiate a lockdown on your side and get security to start searching. Meet me in five minutes at the main security room." Lisa is running as she speaks. "LOCK IT DOWN!" She orders, "GET SECURITY ON EACH EXIT! NOW!"
CTU
Jack now turns to George. "Call Division, tell them we're getting somewhere, keep Hammond busy. We don't need him over here checking up on us, and stalling, okay? Tony!" Jack grabs the printout of the file and holds it up for Tony to take. "This is Codis' daughter Karen. We need the locations she's been to, her contacts, whatever you can find. I'm working up her profile and this "Annabelle Peterson" thing. I wanna know what's going on here. Now."
Tony refuses the print out. "I can't, Jack."
Everything seems to shudder to a stop.
"What do you mean you can't? You've been given an order." George stares him down.
"I've been trying to explain but... something happened earlier and-"
"That doesn't matter now." George jerks the paper from Jack and gives it to Tony. "Do it. I'm making the call to Division." He storms upstairs. Facing Hammond, literally or on the phone, is not fun.
But Tony is stuck now. He knows he has a mistake out there and where his responsibility lies. "I'll get right on it," he mutters, not looking at Jack or Michelle.
Jack glances at Michelle. Tony is acting strange. The look in her eyes tells him something's wrong, even though she doesn't say a word as she walks over to Catherine.
hospital
Michael is running back through the hallway. He pulls out his badge and holds it up.
"CLOSE THE EXITS! This is a federal investigation! No-one walks out of the building! You!" He points to the false security guards, who were about to exit. They stop. "Stay right there. Keep this closed. No-one walks in and out." Michael glances at the other guy. "Go to the ER, now! Allow admittance to the ER, but no-one leaves. Understood?"
"Yes.", John answers and sprints towards the ER, glancing only briefly at Bill. They have to play along for now. Maybe the CTU will lead them directly to Kim.
Michael turns to the admit nurse. "Call the security. I want a guard at every exit. You have a patient missing. No-one leaves until we find her."
Hospital
Lisa comes to a guard's station, "You have camera access?"
"Yes, ma'am. We've got the lockdown in place. No one has come in or out in the last few minutes." The guard lets her into the station to see the camera feeds.
"Go back two hours. How long will that take?"
"Um..." The guard begins rewinding and checking times. "A few minutes maybe."
"Okay." Lisa hands him Kim's picture. "I'm looking for this girl. The minute you see anyone who looks remotely like her, give me a yell." She gets on the radio quickly, "Michael? The cameras are running. I think we'll have results -"
"Hey!" An orderly is running up to her, "You looking for a blonde girl and her friends?"
"She look like this?" The guard shows Kim's picture to the orderly, who nods affirmatively. "That's her. She left here about two hours ago with a woman and little boy."
Lisa shoots a look at the guard, "Go back that far and start a search. I want to know which exit she went out of and who this woman is." Again she radios Michael, "Get over here. I've got a lead and need your help."
Michael runs up to Lisa and glances at the screen. "You found her? Want me to call Jack?"
Lisa is engrossed in security tapes being played in reverse. "Call... Jack?" She shakes her head. If anyone will call him, she will, but not now. "We don't know if she went voluntarily or was forced to go."
Meanwhile...
Unaware anyone nice is looking for her, Kim is making her way through a corn field up to a well-kept farm house. She knocks on the door and smiles as best she can when it's opened.
"I'm sorry to bother you but I'm really lost. Could I use your phone?"
Paula wipes her hands on her jeans and lets Kim in. "Hon, you look more than lost. You okay?"
"Yeah, I just need to get a hold of someone to pick me up."
Hospital
Lisa: "Stop right there." She puts her finger to the screen as a blonde girl, woman, and boy are exiting a hallway. "That's her. Move the frames forward slowly." Lisa watches intently as they move step by step. Kim is scared briefly by the orderly from earlier then regains her composure and leaves with the woman and boy. "Do we have the street cameras cued up?"
"We should," the guard punches a couple of buttons and new images appear, "The camera pans around so you should get her exiting."
And they do. Kim appears to willingly follow the woman and boy to the car and is helped in. Lisa gives Michael a look, "That's the car I saw at the office. Now we call Jack."
CTU
Jack joins Tony and places his palms on his desk. He waits until Tony finally glances up before speaking.
"Tony, what was that about? You know the situation we're in and we need everyone focused on this 100. George won't listen, fine, I will. If there's anything going on, I need to know. Now." He tries to keep his voice sound normal and not like he's interrogating him. But the nature of the question remains. "What happened, Tony?"
"Not here." Tony motions for Jack to follow him to the coffee room he exited earlier.
After the door is securely closed behind them, arms folded, back to the wall, Tony starts talking. "I'm not working at full capacity, Jack, I haven't been since Nina killed Teri. I've never had the chance to tell you I'm sorry and that I know I'm responsible, that I should have caught on to her. But that's not all..." he knows what he has to say next won't set well with Jack, especially because of Kim. "There was a major security leak this morning that Michelle has been keeping quiet. She traced it to my system. Access codes, back up data, it's all been compromised because I failed to log off when I went home this morning."
"What!"
hospital / CTU
Lisa steps away from the security hub and finds a quiet hallway to make her call. She dials quickly but can only breathe slowly to stay calm. When the phone is answered Jack sounds busy but she knows this is important - too important to wait. "Jack, it's me. We found the hospital. They treated Kim for an ankle injury. Um," she pauses, "she disappeared. We think she's okay and with the woman and child who helped her earlier. Michael's working on getting a license plate off the car she got into."
Jack breathes a sigh of relief. "Thank God. Lisa, I can't thank you enough." To Tony: "They found Kim. She seems to be fine." Then back to the phone. "Lisa, I'm in the middle of something here. Get back to me as soon as you've found the woman, okay? And thank you."
"Sure, Jack."
Jack hangs up the phone and turns back to Tony, glaring at him. He says nothing for a few seconds as he's trying to process the information he has been given. Then he replies and he knows Tony won't like it.
"I don't need to tell you what consequences this could have, and if whatever investigation George decides to launch shows your responsibility in what's happened today, you could be facing serious charges. But as far as the Nina subject goes... I trusted you to protect my family. You couldn't. That's all you're guilty of. But I know you tried and I'm thankful to you for everything you did. But Tony, Nina is a traitor. You're not responsible for her actions."
Tony nods numbly.
Jack pauses. He wants to say 'Get over it already' but he knows how hard it is. Time to change the subject. Now he is speaking fast, his voice is low. "We need to focus on today's events now. Under normal circumstances, I'd suggest George to suspend you immediately as I'm sure you realize yourself. And that's probably what you were trying to tell him earlier. But today there's too much going on and there is no-one to replace you. We can't afford to lose a good ranking agent. So, you need to get your act together and do your job, help us get through this. Just don't make another mistake. Can you do that?"
His words sounded like he's the boss, although technically he isn't. Several long seconds pass before Tony barely says "Yeah."
Jack smiles a little to ease the tension. "Come on. Let's go back to work." Jack moves toward the door but turns around before opening it. "The security leak, has that been taken care of? Who knows about it? You know this means we have another mole on the inside. The information has to be kept dark from as many people as possible."
"The data loss was the first thing I noticed when I started the morning." Tony does not mention his outburst. "Michelle knows, Mason might know. I'm not sure how much information was in process prior to the assassination. But, Jack, really think about it. Another mole?" He has a questioning look on his face. "Do you think our vulnerability is still that low?"
Jack sighs. "I don't know... I really don't know, it might be nothing. Someone might have accessed the information from the outside and just covered their tracks too well... Don't talk to anyone about this, okay? Let's go."
Jack holds the door open for Tony and they enter the main office again. "Find Karen Codis' profile and where she is. I wanna know everything."
hospital / CTU
Michael is enhancing the licence plate. "Here. That's a nice, clear picture." He calls up Michelle to run the number through the databases, find the address.
"Okay, I'll get back to you. It may take a couple minutes.", Michelle answers as she punches the number to the search machine.
"Thanks." MIchael finds Lisa in the corridor. "I got the number, Michelle is tracing it. Right now, all we can do is wait." He takes a deep breath. "Uhm... Lisa, about earlier... I'm really sorry. You're doing a good job."
"Nothing matters so long as we find Kim, okay?" Lisa smiles and knows it's time to repair the damage with Jack's Field Ops man. "You're doing great yourself. Not many people could get a plate enhanced that quickly. I'm sorry for the way I acted in the car." Her voice is lower to prevent the guards from overhearing. "This one's personal. I've got to bring her home."
Michael smiles back. "We will. We'll find her." He's glad they're working together now. "You're a good person Lisa. Jack is a lucky man."
"Thanks," Lisa replies instantly, without thinking then she stops. "What?" She takes Michael by the arm, "Um... let's just not say anything okay? To anyone."
M ichael giggles. "So there is something between you two. I knew it. The way you were avoiding each other's eyes earlier. I figured something was up. Hey, don't worry. I'll keep it under the belt."
She hates standing around and waiting. "I need to walk. Do you want to come? I'm going to go back to her room, see if anything's there. Hopefully Michelle will call soon."
"She will. Okay. Let's go check out her room."
CTU
Jack sits down at Michelle's desk and takes a look at Codis' file. Then it hits him. "Son of a bitch..." His voice is suddenly loud. "People, listen up. "Annabelle Peterson" is nothing but a sentimental daddy providing an alias for his daughter. Tony, get that profile up, if she needs an alias, she's probably still up to something. See if she was ever in the military."
Michelle goes over to him. "How'd you figure that out?"
"It's thin, but she was born in Annaheim, and his father's name is Peter. You didn't find any Anabelle Petersons that fit. I'm thinking an alias is all there is to it."
Farmhouse
"I don't understand," Paula listens to the phone and shakes it, "It worked yesterday. Haven't made a call today but it still worked. I'm sorry, honey. You're welcome to sit a while and wait. It's these stupid canyon lines, never can tell when they'll be in service. Could be in just a few minutes."
Kim shakes her head but dares to ask, "Canyon... how far to the main road?"
"'bout two miles. Wouldn't be too long on foot. Can't take you 'cause I've got a cake in the oven."
"Thanks I can make it." Kim had unwrapped her ankle at the bus stop so she wouldn't attract more attention. She was getting used to walking on it. "Have a good day."
CTU
Talking to Jack didn't help. If anything, Tony feels worse actually hearing that he wasn't able to protect Jack's family. If he couldn't do that, why assume he could complete any assignment given him?
But this one was simple. Follow a trail. He barely flinches when Jack announces his discovery of where Annabelle Peterson came from. Tony inputs 'Karen Codis' into a search. Her birth certificate is the first result followed by school records. Now it's a matter of following the last of those records.
"Andre, what did you get on Codis' daughter?"
Andre sends the file to Tony's system. "Graduated college early, after that, I couldn't find her."
Tony filters through college records to find her major - computer science. There has to be a reason why this girl graduated early.
CTU
Jack goes over to Catherine. "Let me see that list. Both parts."
"Jack, we're not done yet.", she protests.
"It doesn't matter. Just give it to me. Thank you. And it's Bauer."
Catherine sighs. "Okay." and clicks on print. "Here you go. Bauer ." She accentuates the last word.
Jack gives her a look but doesn't make a comment. He grabs the list from her and starts going over it.
George catches the tone of Catherine's voice as well. He notices Jack giving her a look but saying nothing. "Jack, I worked on some of that list..." he pulls Jack aside, "What do you know about Catherine? She was here when I came in, hired by Division."
"Tony, each branch has a military science unit.", Andre calls to Tony.
"Yeah, thanks," Tony is still working to find Karen after college. Facial recognition is being used and results are showing up. "Bingo. Air Force. Andre, she joined the Air Force. We're both going to work on her military record. I'm sending you her i.d. number."
"Why both of us? One person can handle it."
"Because I want you to double check! We can't have any mistakes!"
Andre backs off and begins his work. The Air Force data are loading.
Hospital
Lisa grabs the chart at the foot of the bed upon entering Kim's room. "It says she was taken for x-rays after being sedated. The doctor... here it is, suspected a possible fracture to the right ankle bone." She is now purposely avoiding Michael, who does not give her a sense of being able to keep anything under the belt. "Might as well see if anything's come back. Excuse me, ma'am!" She stops the nurse she saw earlier, "Did you ever get results for this girl's x-rays?"
"Lemme see," she flips quickly through a stack of paperwork, "Yep, right here. We've got her listed as Jane Doe. X-Ray tech says it's not broken."
"That's great news." Lisa checks the chart again, "And she was given Vicodine. Okay that should have worn off by now or be wearing off." Finally, she gives in and turns to Michael. "Would you mind calling Michelle and seeing where she is on the address? Tell her we need it asap."
"Sure. I'll check." Michael is all helpful now. He leaves the room to make a call and flips open his cell. But before he can dial, a doctor shows up.
"You can't use that in here. It is disturbing our instruments."
"I'm a federal agent investigating..."
"I don't care who you are, you can't use that phone."
The doctor is playing tough. Jack would have knocked him out by now, Michael is thinking. But he's not Jack. He complies and slips the phone back into his pocket.
"Lisa", he says as he enters the room again. "I'm gonna go out a second. Be right back."
And with that, he leaves towards the exit, to make that phonecall.
CTU
Catherine watches as George pulls Jack aside and glances at her while speaking. "You're not going to fire me now, are you Mr. Mason? You promised!", she calls across the room.
"Keep working Catherine!" Jack interrupts her plea. Then he continues silently. "George, let's walk." They move away. "I have never seen her before today. Do you have reason to mistrust her?" Jack knows something's up, otherwise George wouldn't ask. Does George suspect she's mixed up with what Tony told him about?
"I don't know her enough to mistrust her. I feel like I don't know anyone anymore." George keeps walking with his head and voice low. "The crack about firing her - I never said anything about that. And she constantly talks about working together as a team. I dunno," he shakes his head, "maybe I'm just paranoid. The Nina thing got to us all." He glances at Jack apologetically, but continues. "She seems off. I was going to run a background check but haven't gotten to it with everything that's been happening."
"Paranoid? I dunno, George, she's been giving me a hard time since I got here. She never takes an order without grumbling, everything I want her to do is just too much." Jack rolls his eyes. "I'm surprised Division hired her in the first place."
Jack stops walking and glances around before continuing. "Didn't she get injured this morning? You could send her home, tell her to get some rest, anything. Do you have anyone to replace her?"
CTU
"She aced parachuting class. In fact, looks like she was the top." Tony scrolls through Karen's military record. "As of last year... she dropped off their radar though. There's nothing. No mention of a discharge - honorable or dishonorable. Okay, I think this is good stuff. Michelle," he prints the information out, "Karen was a parachute class An Air Force member. That's an elite group and could lead us somewhere."
Hospital
She hates to be suddenly split like this - even from Michael. Lisa watches him walk away and has a feeling to tell him not to bother, come back, but doesn't. She'll wait. He'll be back soon.
"Excuse me," she stops the doctor who just harrassed Michael, "where's the nearest ladies' room?"
"It's just around the corner.", the doctor smiles and turns away.
CTU
Michelle grabs the printout from Tony and smiles. "Finally. We're closing in on her." She glances around. "Where is Jack?"
Tony glances around, "I saw him walk off with George. Probably talking about what we were earlier." He said nothing more, she knew what he meant. "Anything else we can trace?"
"We need to check for recent chute jumps across the country. That's the only lead we've got. If she disappeared earlier today and she aced parachuting class..." Her phone rings. "Excuse me... Dessler."
hospital
Michael walks past the security guard at the hospital exit. He notices it's a different man than whom he had placed to watch the exit. The new shift must have arrived. He stops by the exit door outside and flips open his cell phone, dialing CTU.
"Michelle?"
"Michael. I've got the woman's address. It's 24..." Michelle stops talking when she hears a groan on the other side of the line. Then the line disconnects.
"Michael?... MICHAEL!"
10:59:57 --- 10:59:58 --- 10:59:59 --- 11:00:00