The following takes place between 3 am and 4 am

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

CTU
No one moves as Catherine's cell rings. But Tony still has the information about Kim and Lisa to tell Jack yet now... Now may not be the time. "Andre," Tony points quickly to the phone.

"Got it." Andre hooks a wire into the base of it and immediately plugs into it's cellular panel. "Once it's answered, I'll need 60 seconds for a good trace."

"If it's not answered and this is the Petrovs, we're going to blow it, Jack. Get Catherine."

"Transfer it to the holding room!" Jack grabs the phone and runs to the holding room. "Answer the phone!", he yells at Catherine as he hands it to her. "Keep him on for at least one minute!"

Not wanting to provoke another gun-to-her-head moment, she takes it, reluctantly, and answers. "Yes?" Jack puts on a headset and listens in.

"Catherine, can you talk?"

She throws a glance at Jack. "Yes."

"Where is Bauer?"

"They sent him home."

John pauses. Did they? "Really... And he left? Just like that?"

"Not voluntarily. The security has been ordered not to let him back in. He's gone."

"Fine. Listen carefully. The mission is under way. It is absolutely crucial that their whole team backs off. Of course, Nick could simply take them out, but he can't find them. They're well covered. You need to send their location to Nick's panel immediately."

Catherine shivers at the killing glance Jack is giving her. "I... I don't think I can do that. Like I said to Nick earlier, they might be on to me, I have to be careful. Besides, Mason ordered the team to stand down a while ago, they shouldn't be there any more."

"Well, I'm not so sure they have left. Catherine, do what you can. We need you now."

"Fine. I'll try."

The line disconnects. She turns to Jack. "Great. Now what?"

Jack places a call to Andre. "Did you get him?"

Andre glances at Tony while he speaks to Jack, "We only went 50 seconds. I can triangulate the signal but that'll take awhile, probably 15, 20 minutes. It would have been immediate had we gotten the full minute."

"Jack, it's Tony," Tony breaks into the conversation before Jack can start yelling, "Lisa's car was found. Indications are it was forced off the road and she and Kim were taken." George is now by his desk. "We don't have a clear lead yet as to where they are but we're working on it and we'll get it. Another thing... there was an explosion at Miramar while you were with Catherine. Michelle got through to Baker but we don't know what caused the explosion."

The building
Lisa can't see her but Kim's eyes are wide. The thought of this man, or any of the men, coming near her is enough to send her into a panic. But Kim believes Lisa wouldn't put her into danger. She wouldn't.

"You could do that?" Lisa smiles again though her heart is pounding heavily in her ears. The fear... it has become so... intense. Like nothing she has ever known. This isn't like her, she would never talk to her captors in a different situation. "Are you a doctor? You know..." she takes a deep breath, "doctors have compassion, like you. You don't belong with these people."

"A doctor? Not exactly.", he laughs. "But I've had some experience with broken limbs." He starts to Kim and begins loosening the rope around her ankles. Their eyes meet for a moment, but he looks away instantly. "It doesn't look too good... but you know that already. Listen, I'll go get something for you, ok?" He gets up again and walks away and out of the room.

"What do we do when he comes back?" Though Kim whispers, the words almost seem to bounce across the room.

"We don't do anything." Lisa closes her eyes in thought and fatigue. "Kim, you're going to have to gain his trust. Make him think your arms hurt from being tied behind you and see if he'll loosen those ropes any. Can you move your legs more?"

Kim stretches to test both legs and ankles, "Given a little bit of time, I could get the ropes off. Lisa?"

"Yeah?"

"Are you scared?"

Lisa can't answer right away. Her thoughts go back to the day's events - the fights, the encounters, the situations she never thought she'd be in. And now Kim asks her... is she scared? She can't be, she is a trained federal agent. But for the first time... she is.

CTU

Baker. He would need all the support he can get now. "Tony, I'm coming over." Jack hangs up and pulls Catherine up from the chair, grabbing her cell phone from the desk. "You're coming along."

He half drags her to the main office. Everyone is staring at her, but she tries to tune it out. At her desk, Jack pushes her into the chair. "How do you contact Nick? Do it." To Michelle. "Find out which channel she was using and feed them bogus information. Get me Baker on the line."

"Got it." Michelle answers and starts working immediately.

George heads downstairs for an update only to find that things seem to be going faster than he anticipated.

Jack calls to him. "They've called back. She's supposed to send them details on our team on site. They don't believe you've called them off. What did the President say?"

"The President has given us his full support and permission to negotiate. But, Jack, Baker's teams are in and I have a feeling these guys are good."

George gives Catherine a disgusted look, "What's the deal with this place anyway? Does it just encourage people to become traitors? Anyway, there's only so long I can stall before they're going to find out the teams are in place. And we've got explosions now?"

Tony nods while pulling up schematics to show the locations. "A series of them on the north end of the base, on the runway and where a fence line should be."

"Should be?"

"Well, we're assuming it's still there."

"Jack, get her," George points to Catherine, "to help us stop having to assume."

Palmer
The President sits in an armchair, staring straight ahead for a few moments.

Then he calls Mike Novick. "Get me Stephen again. I need to speak to him now."

"Mr. President, it's 3 am..."

"I know what time it is, Mike. Just do it."

Mike nods silently and leaves the room.

Miramar
Karen and the RA are slowly and cautiously heading towards the south of the port. She is now dressed smartly, and the blood cleaned off her face, wearing a blonde wig and eyeglasses. When they're at the gate, she pulls out an ID. "Annabelle Peterson. I'm here to update your security system around the submarines."

The soldier takes it from her. "Just a minute, Ma'am." He scans the ID. It comes back fine. She obviously has an appointment with someone. "Thank you Ma'am." He pushes a button and lets them both in. The RA addresses him before he walks through. "What's with the explosions?"

"I have no idea... Sir. We're working on it."
"Alright." He walks through the gate and they head towards the submarine port.

Nick's team is now quickly closing in on the main building. Mick's men are sweeping the woods for the CTU team. Every move is dangerous as it can give away their positions to their pursuers. Going forward means looking back and staying covered.

CTU main office
Jack is speaking to George but glaring at Catherine.
"George, Catherine is going to help us, because she knows I don't care about protocol and if she doesn't do whatever she can to stop these people, I will hunt her down-"

"Jack. I've got Baker." Michelle is holding a headset for him to take.

Catherine hardly dares look back at him. Having Jack hold her at gunpoint once today was quite enough.

"Great, thanks." He leaves Catherine with George and grabs it immediately "Tom? Do you copy?"

"Jack. The signals have normalized. I can hear you. Give me the green light, Jack, we can't wait much longer."

"I know..."

Jack reflects on this, albeit briefly. If he says go, Kim might die. If he tells them to wait a little longer, both teams might get discovered and taken out, destroying the only chance they'll ever going to get to capture Petrov and prevent him from stealing mass destruction weapons and sensitive technology.

"Jack?" Tom needs an answer.

He's a father, a man who lost his wife doing his job, but he's also a sworn government agent. He cannot put the whole country in danger like this. What is it you always say, Jack? The mission comes first. Jack decides quickly, though his heart is heavy. "Go ahead. Don't let them steal the SSBNs and be careful, we do have evidence of radioactivity around the port."

"Understood. Over."

Jack turns away. "Everyone, work with Baker, give him all the support he needs. Tony, get me a chopper. I'm going to try and find Kim and Lisa before they get hurt. They won't live long after the word of our teams moving in gets out. Andre, how far are you on their location?"

"I've got the signal down to a 30 mile radius in Oceanside off the 5. I'll keep working and get the exact location. It won't take me much longer."

Tony holds the phone he's been on away from his ear, "Jack, chopper's ready when you are."

"Jack, I've got it from here." George gives him a pat on the back, "Michelle's in contact with Baker, Tony is great at multi-tasking, and I don't think Catherine's going anywhere. Jennie's running our back ups. We've got it. You just let us know what you need and when you need it."

"Thank you George." It's time to get Kim back. "Andre, stay in contact with me. Tony, I'll be at the chopper in five minutes."

"Jack..." Michelle touches his arm. "Good luck."

Jack nods. "Thank you.", then turns away and goes to get more weapons and ammo before he leaves the office.

The building
The man comes back in, holding a syringe and a bag of ice. "This will help the swelling go down." He notices the fear in Kim's eyes.

"What are you going to do with that!", she exclaims.

"Don't worry, my boss needs you, I wouldn't do anything to hurt you or he'll kill me."

Lisa doesn't like the sound of Kim's voice. It's killing her that she can't see what's happening. "Kim?" Sure, the man said he wouldn't hurt them...

"Look, just tell me what the needle is for!"

Needle! Her hands may be tied behind her back but that won't prevent her from doing what she can to move. Lisa struggles to turn to the side as much as possible, closing her eyes while trying to block out the pain that comes from her tied wrists. "He has to relieve the pressure. Right?" She looks directly at the man as a trickling sensation falls down the palms of her hands. Lisa shifts her hands and pain is followed by further trickling. The skin on her wrists is starting to break as she moves.

Kim relaxes at Lisa's explanation then asks her question, "My arms are really sore from being back like this," she tries a smile, "Can you loosen them too? Think about it, you just said your boss needs us so it's not like we'd be able to go anywhere anyway."

"You want me to ease the pain? That I can do. But I cannot untie you, I'm sorry." He sticks the needle in her ankle and empties the contents of the syringe. "You'll feel better soon."

Feel better? Kim fights back tears as the man is just inches away from her. "I want my dad," she suddenly says softly as a sob escapes before she knows it.

What has happened? Lisa can't protect her like she promised. She failed. Failed to save Kim from these men and now... Lisa hangs her head. The man is still here but she can't think of anything more to say or do. "Are you telling me that you can't simply loosen the ties on her hands because you're scared of your boss? He's going to kill you anyway!"

"I'm not afraid of my boss, I simply have my orders, Miss. I am sure he'll come over to see you soon, why don't you ask him." He gets up and leaves the room, not turning back once.

Miramar
"We're going South, towards the port.", Baker instructs the team. "The explosions have happened on the North end of the premises, Almeida said the SSBNs are on the South end. It's more than likely the blasts were just meant as a decoy."

Baker contacts the other team that had backed off earlier. "Come back in. We're clear to go." Baker motions to his men to start moving.

CTU
There is no way to explain the way CTU felt as Jack left. To say an office could 'feel' is odd, but it did. The entire building seemed overcome by the sudden need to remain silent yet move into action.

Andre moves forward with his task. 29 miles, 28, at the edge of the city, nowhere near a neighborhood - that's good news.

Tony picks up Jack on the outside surveillance cameras. George and Michelle huddle with him to watch Jack board the chopper and lift off, as ever a lonely wolf.

"Okay," George clears his throat forcing him and the others to focus on what is inside and not outside, "you two work on finding Baker's team a clear path to the port. I want as few casualties as possible."

As George steps over to Andre's workstation, Tony and Michelle combine forces. "You know... continuing the mission was a good call. You did the right thing by overstepping George."

Michelle sighs. "Maybe. We'll see how it all turns out."

Catherine calls to them. "I hate to interrupt, but... I'm online with Nick."

"Okay. Tony, we need to feed them something, keep them quiet. I'll lead Baker towards the south of the base. Try to give them the feeling our teams are moving away."

Michelle doesn't know how he's supposed to do it, but it's the only thing they can do, if Jack is to even stand a chance to get to Kim and Lisa before they are killed.

Tony begins to filter fake stand down orders through the system and directs Catherine to let the Petrovs know she's getting them. One thing is for sure, he wouldn't want to be Catherine if Kim doesn't live.

CTU chopper
Jack lifts off and immediately gets on the radio with Andre.
"I'm in the air. Andre, you're my eyes out there. I need to know everything you know as soon as you know, alright?"

As he waits for Andre's reply, his mind is focused on the task lying ahead, his eyes firmly on the instrument panel.

"Jack, head due south over the 5th. I'm locking in right now. You've got a clearing 50 yards from the where the call came from." Andre locks into the beeping icon on his screen. "I'm sending you the coordinates. Looks like it's an abandoned cannery ten miles from the highway. It'll take you ten minutes tops to get there."

"Copy that, Andre. Thanks." Jack glances at his cp. "I'm receiving the coordinates now. Get back to me if you have anything new. Out."

Jack turns off the com for a minute. He needs to focus. There is no way to tell what is going to expect him once he gets there. If these people have found out about the teams moving in, Kim might be dead already. Lisa too. He has no idea how many people are in there, what state Kim and Lisa are in. And worst of all, he doesn't really have a plan.

Palmer
There is a knock at the door. Palmer opens it. "Stephen..." But it's not the Secretary of Defense, it is Sherry.

"Hello, David."

"Sherry, what are you doing here?"

"I'm still your wife, David. I enjoy certain privileges."

The President says nothing as she pushes herself past him and into the room.

"David." She smiles as friendly as she can. "I know how you're feeling right now. But this - " and she holds the divorce papers up - "is simply not the right thing to do."

David sighs. He knew that she wouldn't just grin and bear it. "Sherry, please. You schemed behind my back, you withheld information from the police, you covered up-"

"David." she interrupts. "Believe me. You need me. Your Presidency needs me."

"No. No, Sherry. I cannot trust you. I will not allow you to manipulate me into making the wrong choices. My decision is final."

Sherry steps up to him. Though he is much taller than her, it feels like she's staring him down. "You don't want me for an enemy, David. Think about it."

"You don't scare me, Sherry." He holds her stare. "Sign the papers. You'll never be the First Lady. You were never meant to be. Get out."
"David -"

"Get out. Now." He walks over to the door and holds it open. "Aaron! Escort Sherry out."

"Mrs. Palmer," Aaron holds open the door but Sherry isn't coming without a fight. He steps up to her and takes her arm. "Mrs. Palmer, the President has asked you to leave and I have to make certain that order is followed. Come with me... Sir," he nods to Palmer as he gently but firmly escorts her from the room.

The building
"They're going to kill us." Kim leans her head against the pole and closes her eyes. She wants to sleep, her body is telling her she needs it but she is fighting against it. "I'm so tired, Lisa. I can't do this anymore. No one is coming for us anyway."

"Yes they are, Kim, yes they are. You've got to stay with me!" Lisa gets as far down to the ground as she can in hopes of turning on the large pole to finally grab Kim's hand. She pushes along the floor and then...she reaches her, the burning pain not matching the feeling of success. "You can do it, Kim. We have to fight these people."

"They killed my mom," tears fall from her eyes and she doesn't notice, "I don't want my dad to die. I don't want to die but we can't get out. It's over." Her last words sound muffled, she can feel her body giving in.

Why was she so sleepy? The syringe. The man gave her something instead of relieving pressure. Lisa muffled an anxious scream. What could it have been? "Kim," Lisa squeezes her hand tightly, "talk to me. Tell me more about your mom. Talk to me!"

Palmer's hotel
Sherry walks out and David closes the door behind her. But instead of walking away, she faces Aaron.

"Aaron, we've known each other for so long, you cannot do this, come on. I need to talk to David. Let me back in." She smiles at him. "For old times' sake."

Aaron stays locked in place between Sherry and the door to the President's room. "Ma'am, I'm going to have to ask you to leave right now or you'll be in violation of federal law protecting the President of the United States from hostiles."

"Hostile, Aaron? Is that how you see me now? I'm the President's wife, for God's sake!"

The door opens and David walks out. "Sherry. Stop causing trouble. Go."

"David, I just want to talk to you..."

"We're done talking, Sherry. Just leave."

Sherry glares at him for several seconds. He doesn't move a muscle. Neither does she.

"Fine." Sherry finally gives in. "Alright, David."

She turns away from the door and walks toward the elevator, Aaron following close behind her. Both say nothing until they're down in the lobby.

"Tell David that this isn't over yet.", Sherry threatens as she enters the car waiting outside the hotel. Aaron watches her leave, shaking his head in disbelief.

CTU chopper
Jack is following the coordinates he's been given. 50 yards. And a clearing? That's too close. They'd notice him. He'd be dead before he even lands the helicopter. Jack begins to look around for another landing site as he slowly nears the target area.

"Andre. I need a secondary landing site. The clearing doesn't work, it's too close. Can you give me any information about the cannery? Any indication of how many people there are on the site?"

Miramar
Shots ring out from everywhere. Nick's men are rapidly progressing towards the south of the base. Baker's team are following their trails, trying to stay as covered as they can. The second CTU team is caught in the firefight with the soldiers. Their team leader radios heavy losses.

CTU
George decides to stick to Catherine's side like glue, it's not like she's going anywhere. Besides, it could be interesting to hear her conversations with Petrov.

"So," he whispers, "what did they promise you? Fame? Power? Money? You do know they're just going to kill you when they have the chance, right? They don't care about you anymore than your father cared about the people he ruined."

That does it! No-one talks about her daddy like that. Catherine forcefully pushes back in her chair, so she hits George with it before she gets up and faces him.

"Back off, George! I'm doing what I can to help now, aren't I? My father was a respectable man. Jack put him in jail and yes, I hate him for it! Then he comes back in here, places the gun to my head and forces me to help him get his daughter back alive? What a great way to convince people to switch sides."

She waits for a reaction. Nothing.

"But you know what, George? Jack isn't here any more and I don't think you have the guts to do the same kind of thing, so I don't see any reason why I should keep helping. I'm going to jail, fine. But his family is going to hell. And so is Jack. That doesn't sound like such a bad deal to me."

Catherine stands facing George, her arms crossed.

The feeling of hatred has taken over instead of fear.

03:59:57 --- 03:59:58 --- 03:59:59 --- 04:00:00