24: Day 1.5
Previously in 24: Day 1.5...
A Russian arms dealer named ANDREI MARENKOV had offered to surrender himself to CTU when he received a phone call from ALEXI LENKOVICH, a former competitor, saying he'd taken Marenkov's daughter hostage. Just as CTU agent MATT HARPER arrived to pick Marenkov up, he fled, highjacking a car and taking the driver, PAUL GARRETT, hostage. While the CTU staff, led by GEORGE MASON tracked down information on Lenkovich, Matt followed Marenkov for as long as could, before losing him...
The following takes place between 12:00 P.M. and 1:00 P.M.
12:00:00...12:00:01...12:00:02...12:00:03...
Patrick waited a few minutes after Lily had walked in to enter CTU himself. Lily had said she didn't really want everyone at work knowing about her personal life, so he figured coming in at the same time might give them some unnecessary ammo. He wasn't sure why she'd rolled her eyes when he suggested it.
To his right, he heard a phone ringing and quickly recognized the voice answering.
"Almeida. Matt, what happened?" Patrick heard a sigh. "Could you see which way they were going? All right, hang on. I'll transfer you to Mason." Tony looked up and spotted Patrick. "Patrick, look, there's been complications with the Marenkov meet. Michelle's bringing Lily up to speed. Go see her. After that I'll need you on communication."
Patrick nodded. "Yeah, sure."
George was seriously wondering if getting this many headaches was life-threatening.
"All right. Get back here. We might have a lead on why Marenkov's doing what he's doing. I'll need you on it"
Massaging his forehead, he stepped out of his office and walked downstairs. Maybe someone would give him and an excuse to berate the staff. It wasn't that great for morale but it'd probably be therapeutic for him.
"Tony, any intel yet on this Lenkovich character anyway? Any word on how this guy got into the country?"
"I'm getting some back from Division on that now. I've got Jeff working looking property bought by any foreigners in the last months that would make a good hideout."
"So in other words, we've got squat for the moment."
Tony sighed. "Every cop in the city's still got the make and licence plate of Marenkov's car. We're gonna find him."
George rolled his eyes. "In the meantime, the guy that was supposed to be surrendering to us this morning's making us look like fools."
Andrei Marenkov felt like a fool.
He'd been ready to give up on his daughter when cornered by the authorities, but this man he'd known for less than an hour, a man he'd abducted at gunpoint, had shown more courage than he had. He was willing to risk his life when Marenkov had been prepared to give up and leave his daughter for dead.
It was then that Marenkov realized he hadn't said a word to the driver, Paul Garrett, since their daring escape from the police minutes earlier. He'd been lost in his thoughts.
"I do not know what to say. My daughter might have been killed had you not done that."
Paul sighed and offered a small smile. "Yeah well, I didn't want her death on my conscience."
Marenkov nodded solemnly. "When all this is over. You must tell the authorities that everything you did I forced you to do. I would hate to see anything happen to you for helping me."
"Why don't we just worry about getting your daughter back for now? We're almost at 93rd and Vaughan."
12:08:36...12:08:37...12:08:38...12:08:39...
Paul looked around the area, stopping at the intersection. "Look, there's another empty lot. I'm betting that's where they want us."
Marenkov couldn't help but smile as Paul pulled the car into the parking lot. "Us?"
The brief moment of levity lasted only a few seconds before Marenkov's phone began to ring.
"Time to spare, Andrei, and without a policeman in sight" Alexi chuckled into his phone, while Dimitri watched impatiently. "It's amazing what you can do with the right motivation, no?"
"Spare me." Marenkov voice rasped from the receiver. "I have done as you asked. I want to speak to my daughter."
"Patience, Andrei. One last stop to make and then the two of you will be reunited."
"Nyet!" Marenkov hissed. "I speak to her now!"
The smile on Alexi's face faded. "You are in no position to be making demands. You will speak to her when I say-"
A short been emerged from the receiver, signifying that the caller on the other end had hung up.
Alexi looked at the phone and raised an eyebrow. "He's got nerve. I'll give him that."
Dimitri fixed his gaze on Alexi. "We've a long way to get him. We can't afford things to go wrong now. Just let him talk to her."
Alexi glared at Dimitri, then back at the phone.
The thirty seconds between the time Marenkov hung up the phone and the time it rung again were, by far, the longest in his life.
"Very well, Andrei." Alexi said. "You may have a moment."
The image on the phone's screen panned from Alexi to the young woman being led into the room by Dimitri, a firm grip on her right arm.
"Galina?" Marenkov asked, his voice dangerously close to breaking.
"Father?" The small, feminine voice responded.
Marenkov sighed. "Galina, moy dushyenka! All you all right? Have they hurt you?"
"I'm fine. I'm so glad to hear your voice. Father..." He heard a trembling in her voice as she took a breath. "I'm so afraid."
"Do not worry. I'll will get you out of there. You have my word."
A faint, hopeful smile crept over Galina's face "I love you, father."
Before Marenkov could respond, the image panned back to Alexi. "All right, Andrei. You know she's safe. Now if you want to keep your word, you will get to the lot at 43 Ganton Street within forty-five minutes."
The screen went blank and Marenkov looked up at Paul, noticing his worried look for the first time.
Marenkov stared at Paul. "Do you know where Ganton street is?"
Paul nodded. "Yeah. That's down by the docks. It's gonna be a bit of a drive."
Marenkov leaned back in his seat. "We have less than forty-five minutes."
12:19:16... 12:19:17... 12:19:18... 12:19:19...
If Matt Harper was a less focused man he might considered this insult to injury. Marenkov had managed to elude him for the second time. Now, also for the second time today, he'd walked into CTU and had to see Ryan Chappelle waiting for him. This time, however, he was in no mood to get any grief from the man. He was more in the mood to give some out.
"Matt, you're just in time." The smirk on George's face as he walked into the conference room was the closest he'd ever seen to a smile from the man. "I was just about to ask Mr. Chappelle here why Division neglected to inform us there was another Russian arms dealer in the city."
Matt nodded in agreement. "Tony briefed me on the way back here. So what's the deal, Ryan?"
Chappelle glared at Matt. "I don't have to explain myself to you."
George shook his head. "No, you can explain to Paul Garrett's wife how her husband was taken hostage because we sent a field agent in to pick Marenkov without sufficient knowledge of the situation!"
Chappelle shifted his glare to George. "I had orders from Brad Hammond to keep quiet on this, just like he had orders not to let anyone find out about this. Apparently, there were already people looking for Lenkovich."
"Not hard enough, obviously." Matt raised an eyebrow. "That's why you didn't want to grab up Marenkov on his schedule, wasn't it? You were afraid something like this might happen if we didn't him up as soon as possible. You couldn't just order us not get to him. Too many people already knew about it and Marenkov wouldn't trust anyone but me. But the longer we waited meant more time for Alexi Lenkovich to get to him. Am I wrong?"
Chappelle squared his jaw and said nothing.
Matt cocked his head slightly to the side. "I know Division thought it could save face by keeping quiet about this but the damage has already been done. Now I need whatever you've got on Lenkovich if we're gonna have any of grabbing these guys up."
Chappelle's eyes widened. "Did you hear what I just said about being under orders?"
"Yeah, and I really don't care. This is what happens when agencies don't keep each other in the loop: innocent people get put in danger. Now the longer we stand here arguing, the more likely we are to lose our chance of finding either of them."
George fixed a gaze on Chappelle. "And I'm not sending any of my people out in the field again without being fully appraised of the situation. And something tells me Lenkovich isn't gonna stick around long once he gets Marenkov!" Matt suppressed a smile. Even a guy like George Mason can have his moments.
Chappelle took a deep breath, then walked over to a terminal, punching in his access code. A grainy-looking photograph popped up on the screen of Alexi Lenkovich at a table outside a café speaking to another man. The second man was thinner and simply dressed. His five o'clock shadow and nervous look suggested someone who wasn't ideal to do business with. Neither George nor Chappelle noticed the glimmer of recognition on Matt's face when he looked at the man.
"This was taken two days ago at a café on 43rd street. The other man in the picture is Marcus Reynolds. He deals in real estate and has prior arrests for fraud and receiving stolen property."
"I heard about that case when I was at the bureau." Matt said, finally bringing himself to speak up. "Some of the agents I worked with were investigating him. He ended up cutting a deal to testify against some of his former clients and walked."
George raised his eyebrows. "If Lenkovich is the kind of person he dealt with, I would have thought he'd be begging for witness protection."
Matt shook his head. "For Reynolds, maintaining his businesses was his life. He wouldn't have been able to do that if he went into hiding. He probably went right back to his old tricks after the State's Attorneys were done with him."
"You're probably right." Chappelle said. "Only this time, he might not have been so lucky. Nobody's seen or heard from him since this photo was taken, and there's no shortage of people who wanted this guy dead."
"Wait, wait. Let's get this straight." said George. "So this Reynolds guy is in real estate, deals with shady characters, and is spotted having lunch with Lenkovich. I'm gonna take a wild stab and guess you think Reynolds found Lenkovich a hideout."
Chappelle nodded. "We raided Reynolds' house and found somebody had beat us to it. The place was ransacked, his hard drive had been stolen, and there wasn't a trace of anything useful."
"Where's his house?" Matt asked.
Chappelle gave Matt an annoyed look. "I just said they didn't find anything."
Matt nodded. "Yeah. They didn't. But I was an investigator with the Bureau for thirteen years. Maybe I can find something they missed, now where is it?"
Chappelle rolled his eyes. "13445 Dover Bay."
"I want a heads up the second you find anything" said George as Matt rushed out of the room.
George gave Chappelle a smirk. "And you thought Jack Bauer was a pain in the ass."
12:21:49... 12:21:50... 12:21:51... 12:21:52...
George walked out of the conference room in a better mood than he was used to. Walking over to Lily's station he found himself feeling lighter than normal.
"Lily, I need you to look up everything you can on a Marcus Reynolds. Any property he owns, anything he sold recently, things like that. I think Michelle and Patrick can handle looking for Marenkov themselves."
Lily paused then gave a somewhat awkward smile. "Uhhh... right, right. Yeah, I think Patrick should be able to... to manage that. I think he's ready."
George gave her an odd look. "Well it's nice to know you have so much faith in him."
"Uhhh... right. Well, I'd better get on that."
George walked away, catching in the corner of his eye the glance Lily sent in Patrick's direction. Great. Another office romance. He thought. Those always go over well here.
12:27:59... 12:28:00... 12:28:01... 12:28:02...
Reynolds' house turned out to be much closer than Matt expected.
Pushing past the yellow tape over the door he found Chappelle hadn't been kidding. Furniture had been strewn around, appliances smashed, the carpet torn up. Maybe I shouldn't have ridden Danny so hard about how his room looked, Matt thought
Given how thorough the intruders had been in their destruction of Marcus' home, it's likely they would have found anything worth looking for. But then again maybe not, Matt thought as he entered the bathroom.
A sea of pills and vitamins from opened bottles covered the tiled floor, as did the shower curtain, torn from the rings that had held it up. Even cover for the back of the toilet lay across the floor.
Matt knelt down on the floor, crushing several pills as he did so. Looking down at the back of the toilet, he saw something the intruders had likely missed. He'd just barely noticed it himself. A small plastic box cutter was stuck to the back of the toilet with two pieces of duct tape. What could this be for?
Matt thought back to his conversations over lunch with Phil and Jim. What was it they'd told him about the raid on Reynolds' old house? Looking at the stained tiles in the shower reminded him.
Matt began tapping his fingers on each one, every tile seemed to make the same noise.
Everyone but the one just to the right of the shower nozzle.
Opening the blade on the box cutter, Matt dug it in to the spackle around the tile until it came free, revealing a small hole only a few inches wide and less than a foot deep. Inside was a rolled up piece of paper, the edges faded from water seeping through. Matt opened it up and read it.
"Mason."
"George, it's Matt. I found something at Reynolds' house. It's a list of names with addresses next to them. I think it was his list of clients."
George perked up at this. "Is Lenkovich on there?"
"He is. The address is 697 Travis Road."
"Travis? That's in an industrial area. There aren't any houses around there."
"I know. It's probably a warehouse. Get a team ready, George and find out what you can about layout. I'm heading over there now."
"All right but wait for the team to come in. We don't know how many people Lenkovich has with him."
"Got it. I'm on my way."
George hung up the phone and chuckled. He shows up Chappelle twice today and actually listens to me when I give him instruction? Maybe Harper's not such a bad addition here after all.
12:46:23... 12:46:24... 12:46:25... 12:46:26...
"Is Marenkov there yet?" The voice on the other end asked.
"Not yet." Alexi answered into the phone. "He'll arrive within the hour. We'll begin extracting the information the moment he gets here."
"Good. I want to be informed the second you get what you want. By now it's likely that CTU knows he's meeting with you, which means they'll be looking for you as well as him. Time is not our friend today." The voice said.
"You really these CTU people could figure it out that quickly?"
"These people are very good at what they do. Trust me on that. Have you told any of your people the truth yet?"
"Nyet. They know nothing."
"Good. Keep it that way. I don't want to take a chance that some of them will react badly."
Alexi swallowed. "Most of these men have been with me for years. They are loyal. I don't care to abuse their trust."
"Loyalty is overrated. Trust me on that as well. Besides which, if you keep to the plan, you'll have more money than another decade of arms dealing will get you. But that's only if things continue on schedule, so make sure they do."
Alexi nodded solemnly. "I understand. It will be done." It was only after he hung up the phone that noticed Dimitri standing there, an unusually calm look on his face.
Dimitri smiled slightly. "Now I've startled you."
A look of impatience covered Alexi's face. "What do you want?"
Dimitri handed Alexi a piece of paper. "Vladimir has been building a list of Marenkov's known clients, particularly ones we'll want to contact soon when we get back to Europe."
Alexi nodded curtly "Fine, fine. Is there anything else?"
Dimitri shrugged innocently. "Not at all." He began to walk away, then paused. "Who was that, anyway?"
Alexi gritted his teeth. "I was speaking with one of our clients. You remember we still have a few of our own, no?"
Dimitri looked puzzled. "There's no need to be hostile. I was just."
"Sir!" Sergei rushed in, oblivious to the tension between the two men. "It's Marenkov! He's at the site!"
12:54:31... 12:54:32... 12:54:33... 12:54:34...
Staring at the phone was becoming a habit for Marenkov.
Paul looked at Marenkov in the mirror. He could see the man's breathing getting heavier. "They gotta know we're here, right?"
With the first ring, Marenkov had the phone to his ear before he even knew it. "Da!"
"Very good timing, Andrei, very good." Alexi began, speaking Russian.
"What now?" Marenkov responded, also in Russian.
"Fortunately for you, at your next stop, you get to be reunited with your daughter. First, however, you must change vehicles. At the other end of the lot is a blue car. The doors are unlocked and keys are in the glove compartment. Continue down the road you were on until you get to Travis road. Turn left and stop when you see a warehouse with the address 697. You have thirty minutes."
The knot in Marenkov's chest loosened slightly. At least Paul would be safe now. "I understand."
"Wait." Alexi's voice grew eerily calm. "I'm afraid chauffeurs were not part of the agreement. I can't risk him telling the authorities anything. Shoot him."
The knot returned, twice as tight. "Nyet. That's not necessary"
"As long as I have your daughter, I decide what is necessary." Alexi hissed. On the phone's screen, he pulled Galina into view. Pulling her to him, he pressed a gun to her temple. "Your choice, Andrei. Either the driver gets a bullet in the head or she does. You have ten seconds!" Galina only sobbed.
Paul looked at the phone, then at Marenkov. "What's going on, man? What's he saying?"
"Nine!"
Marenkov's hands began to shake.
"Eight!"
Forcing himself to ignore the sick feeling in his stomach, his right hand found his gun.
"Seven!"
The gun seemed to aim itself.
"Six!"
Paul's eyes widened. "Hey! Hey! What the hell are you doing?"
"Five!"
Marenkov's eyes moistened. "I am sorry, my friend." he choked.
"Four!"
"You son of a bitch! You gave me your word!"
"Three!"
"For God's sakes, I told you I'm a father!"
"Two!"
"So am I." Marenkov whispered.
"One!"
The car was completely silent for just a moment after the gunshot. Alexi said something to Marenkov before hanging up. Marenkov didn't hear a word of it.
He stumbled out of the Sable, the windshield splattered with so much blood it was opaque, and made his way towards the car at the other end of the lot, trying not to vomit along the way.
Dimitri watched solemnly on the monitor as Marenkov walked slowly towards the car. "Honestly, I didn't think he'd do it."
Alexi smiled. "Of course he would. Marenkov would do anything for his precious daughter." He looked down at the woman embracing him. "Wouldn't he, my dear?"
Galina smiled, nodding in agreement, before leaning up to press her lips against Alexi's...
12:59:57... 12:59:58... 12:59:59... 1:00:00...