Author's note: Sorry about the delay in the latest chapter. I'll try to be quicker with the next one.>

24: Day 1.5

Previously in 24: Day 1.5 . . .

On the day he was supposed to surrender to CTU, Russian arms dealer ANDREI MARENKOV learned his daughter had been abducted and left the rendezvous point to get her. CTU agent TONY ALMEIDA was able to identify ALEXI LENKOVICH, a former competitor of Marenkov's as the abductor, while CTU agent MATT HARPER learned of Lenkovich's location and headed there. However neither CTU nor Marenkov were aware that it was aware that it was a trap and GALINA MARENKOV was working with Lenkovich against her father . . .

The following takes place between 1:00 P.M. and 2:00 P.M.

1:00:00 . . . 1:00:01 . . . 1:00:02 . . . 1:00:03 . . .

Matt stopped his car around the corner from the warehouse, hopefully far enough that Lenkovich and his men wouldn't see him.

"George, Tony, I'm at the site." He said into his phone. "There's no sign of Marenkov or any of Lenkovich's people."

"Could the info on the address be wrong?" George asked.

"I don't think so." Matt answered. "It's pretty obvious Marcus Reynolds never intended for anyone to find that list. It's possible, though, that Lenkovich anticipated we'd link him to Reynolds and found himself another hideout."

"Or he had more than one to begin with." Tony added.

"Michelle, what's the ETA on the support team?" George called over the woman two stations over.

Michelle looked up briefly, hearing her name. "Twenty minutes."

George nodded his head. "All right, good. Matt, hang tight. The cavalry's twenty minutes away. Looks like this end well after all."

Matt's sigh was barely audible over the phone. "I hope so."

1:14:13 . . . 1:14:14 . . . 1:14:15 . . . 1:14:16 . . .

Agent Stan Shepherd habitually looked around at the nearby buildings as the SUV headed toward the warehouse. Nearly twenty years of military training had instilled in him the importance of knowing everything possible about one's surroundings. He saw no need to disregard that tactic when he went to work for CTU.

"Now remember," he said, glancing around at the five other men in the car with him, "we still don't have a clear indication of how many hostiles there are in the building or how heavily armed they are. But just so we're clear, these are weapons dealers, so it's a damn good bet they've got good hardware so" Shepherd paused as the vehicle slowed down. He glanced at the driver then ahead at the road to see what was making him stop.

A large semi truck and trailer were parked in the middle of the road, blocking both lanes. The driver stood at the front of the truck, apparently inspecting it.

"Excuse me." Shepherd said as he stepped out of the car. "Is there a problem?"

The driver, dressed like a stereotypical trucker with his jeans, bomber jacket and cap turned to look at Shepherd. "Yeah. Engine's a tad sluggish" he answered, his voice thick with a Midwestern accent. "I was just about to open her up and see if something's wrong."

Shepherd sighed. "Sir, I'm a federal agent. We have a situation. Is it possible for you to move your vehicle to let us by?"

The driver ran his hand over his mustache and goatee, both as jet black as his hair. "I'll try. I'm not sure I can get her running again." He nodded, gave Shepherd a smile, then turned and walked back toward the cab of his truck.

Shepherd turned and walked back toward his own vehicle, noticing for the first time since seeing that truck driver that he felt uneasy.

He glanced around felt his hand instinctively reaching up toward his sidearm when he heard a metallic screeching sound coming from the rooftops. He heard one of his men in the SUV shout something and the image of a small rocket sailing down toward the car registered in his mind an instant before it exploded, pitching him back several feet.

When the disorientation passed moments later, Shepherd found himself on the ground, on his back, struggling to breathe. Looking up where the SUV had been, there was now only a flaming hulk with several men he didn't recognize walking toward it. He wasn't sure if the small burning object he saw next to the car was an arm or not.

The trucker was now emerging from the cab of the truck, a cell phone to his ear. "It's Willem" he said, not a trace of an accent. "You were right. CTU did send people. They've been neutralized. You'd better tell Lenkovich to get the hell out of there."

His hand shaking, Shepherd again reached for his weapon but found that not only was he losing too much blood, but he no longer had enough fingers left on his right hand to grip the gun. He looked up in time to see one of the other men now standing over him, a handgun pointed at his head. The man had a smug, expectant look on his face, as if waiting for Shepherd to beg for mercy.

Forget that, you bastard. Shepherd gave the man the most defiant look he could muster as he moved his left hand toward his weapon, knowing it would never reach it.

The bullet slashed through his forehead. Blood splattered up into his killer's face, which he wiped away in disgust. Shepherd would have been amused at this final act of contempt.

1:24:22 . . . 1:24:23 . . . 1:24:24 . . . 1:24:25 . . .

Alexi Lenkovich had been waiting for the call so when it came he was prepared for it.

"CTU knows where you are." The voice said. "They sent a team in. My people dealt with them but more will be coming. Fall back to the safe house."

Alexi nodded. "Da. I understand. You do understand this will delay our obtaining Marenkov considerably."

"Don't worry about that." The voice responded curtly. "Just get to the safe house. You do not want to have to deal with CTU. And don't tell the drivers the destination until you're en route. I'm not taking any chances."

Dimitri winced at the sight of Galina Marenkov lounging in one of the chairs, staring at the monitors, a large cigar in her mouth. He hated cigars to begin with. The thought of a woman, particularly one with features as delicate as Galina's, puffing away on one, was even more unsettling.

"I just passed Yuri." He said, waving away the smoke drifting in his direction. "He was tending to a bleeding nose. You wouldn't know anything about that, would you?"

"He knows I am spoken for and even if I wasn't I have no interest in the things he proposed." She grinned, puffing more smoke at Dimitri, who suppressed a cough. "If there's one thing I can't tolerate, it is rude behavior."

Dimitri leaned forward, a scathing retort on his lips, when Alexi rushed in.

"Pack up. We're moving out now!"

Galina leaned back in surprise. Dimitri looked at Alexi, his eyes wide. "What?"

"CTU knows we're here." Alexi snapped. "They will be sending people soon. We must go!"

Dimitri shook his head. "How do you know that?"

"That's not important. We have to go now."

Dimitri gestured at the monitor. "What about Marenkov? He'll be here any minute!"

"I'll call him to give him a new destination."

Dimitri leaned in as close as possible to Alexi. Galina shifted nervously in her chair. "What's going on here, Alexi? How do you know about CTU? There's something you're not telling me."

Alexi glared at Dimitri and turned away. "You work for me. I do not have to explain myself to you."

A look of shock and anger fell over Dimitri's face. "You've been acting strangely since you met with that man in Prague. Those strange phone calls and now you say you know what CTU is doing. What are you keeping from me, Alexi? We have worked together for two years. We have saved each other's lives. Does that mean nothing?"

Galina flashed both men a smile. "I think we should tell him."

Alexi looked at Galina, then at Dimitri, and raised a finger. "Only the three of us know what I tell you, do you understand?"

Dimitri nodded, his normally hard features softened by curiosity. Alexi and Galina leaned in closer and both proceeded to tell, in great detail, their plans for Andrei Marenkov.

1:30:31 . . . 1:30:32 . . . 1:30:33 . . . 1:30:34 . . .

Matt glanced impatiently at his watch. "They should've been here by now."

"I'm not getting anything on the team, not from radio or G.P.S.." Michelle said.

Matt sighed. "Something's happened to them."

"I've got another team suiting up but they'll be at least a half-hour away." George said.

Matt shook his head. "If they were taken out by Lenkovich's people then he knows we have his location. He'll probably be making a run for it any time now. They'll never get here in" Matt went silent as a blue Mustang pulled into the lot in front of the warehouse. "Hang on a sec."

Matt pulled a small but powerful pair of binoculars from a compartment next to his seat and raised them to his eyes. "We've got a blue Mustang pulling into the lot." He adjusted the focus on the binoculars to get a better look at the man getting out. "It's Marenkov. I guess he switched cars." What did you do with the driver, Andrei?

He could see Marenkov looking around nervously several feet away as he exits the car. Matt felt his pulse quick as Marenkov's gaze remained in Matt's direction for a few second before the man broke into a run. Hell. Not again!

"He's spotted me! I've got to get to him!" Jumping of the car before George could order him not to, Matt sprinted after Marenkov.

Marenkov darted toward a large shed on the other side of the lot. Seeing a padlock on the door, he pulled out his handgun and shot it off. He rushed through, closed the door, and shoved a crow bar through the handle just as Matt reached the door.

Matt slammed his palm against the door in frustration, then began to look for another way in. Matt looked around at the shed. There was only the one door and both windows were too high and small to get through. Marenkov wasn't going anywhere, which meant the second support team could pick him up when they arrived but as long as Matt was here, there was a good chance Lenkovich's people would see him. He couldn't take the chance of Marenkov sneaking out and being captured by Lenkovich's people so all he could really do was wait and hope he wasn't spotted.

Matt banged on the door once, then leaned against it. "Andrei! Where's the driver you kidnaped? Where's Paul Garrett?"

There was a brief pause, then Marenkov's voice emerged from the other side of the door. "He is dead." He actually sounded remorseful. "You must believe me, I no choice in the matter."

Matt lowered his head. Lenkovich must have forced Marenkov to shoot the man to keep him from telling the authorities what he knew. "Andrei, listen to me. I know about Alexi Lenkovich. I know he has your daughter. You don't have to do this. There's a strike team coming soon. We'll be able to get your daughter out."

"So she can be caught in crossfire and die?" Marenkov shouted through the door. "Nyet!"

Matt's breathing grew harder, the stress of the last two and a half hours finally getting to him. "You don't want to cooperate, Andrei? Fine. You can just sit in that shed until the backup gets here and get dragged out just like Lenkovich and his people."

Marenkov said nothing. Matt could hear the man pacing.

He leaned against the door and sighed. It had probably been too much to hope for that Marenkov would be reasonable when cornered. Matt had to concede that if he were in a similar position and someone had Danny, he'd probably react the same way. Sometimes, being a father means being unreasonable.

1:41:22 . . . 1:41:23 . . . 1:41:24 . . . 1:41:25 . . .

George stepped into his upstairs office, relieved to see that Division had finally forwarded the info he'd requested on Lenkovich and his people. Pretty standard stuff. Most had backgrounds in the military or the KGB. If anything seemed out of the ordinary, it was the lack of background on Dimitri Simonov, Lenkovich's second-in-command. For someone that high up in Lenkovich's operation, there was surprisingly little on the man.

Before he could give it more thought, the phone rang. George suppressed the urge to ask "Now what?" and picked it up.

"Yeah?"

"Mr. Mason, this is security. We have a man here who says he's your father and needs to speak to you immediately."

George's eyes widened. You've gotta be kidding me!

"Hang on. I'll be right down" he answered curtly.

Most people would never guess Doug and George Mason were father and son. The elder Mason was half a head shorter and bulkier. What little hair he had left was well into grey and approaching white. Aside from the receding hairline, George had taken most of his looks from his mother's side of the family. He'd remembered his mother, a nurse, once saying in regards to her husband "there's a good reason some genes are recessive." I guess she gave me her knack for sarcasm as well.

Doug might have had a greater influence on his son's personality, if not his appearance, if he'd bothered making his presence more than just sporadic during George's childhood. The man had a distinguished twenty-four-year career with the LAPD, eighteen of them as a homicide detective. Constantly working late, on a stakeout, or moonlighting at any security job he could find, days when his father didn't come home usually outnumbered days when he did.

Not that the days when he was there were much better. The man wasn't particularly violent but his time at home typically consisted of shouting matches between him and George's mother when he got home and she smelled whiskey on his breath or saw lipstick on his clothes.

If George was a more reflective man he might have considered it had something to do with why his attempt at being a husband and father had failed so spectacularly.

While Doug, flanked by a bulky, uniformed security guard, seemed to light up at the approach of his son, George simply formed a look of disbelief.

"What are you doing here, Dad? I said I was busy. What part of that did you not understand?"

Doug held up his hands. "I know what you said. It's just I'm not gonna be here that long and I really needed to see you today."

George shook his head, incredulous that his father was giving him a guilt trip. He didn't have the strength to get into another argument with his father, however, especially in person. He'd promise the old man five minutes and then he'd get back to work.

Flashing a weary look at the guard, George said "give him a pass, I'll take him up."

George walked his father, who was still adjusting his visitor badge, toward the conference room. "We're still in the middle of something here. I'll just get you to wait in the conference room for a while."

"Yeah, sure, no problem" Doug answered, looking around expectantly at the many staff members around him, some noticing him, some not.

George gave his father an annoyed look when he knew the older man couldn't see it. If you're actually expecting me to introduce you to people here, you can forget it, Dad. George turned his father in the direction of the conference room then turned back at Michelle.

"How long until the backup team gets there?"

Michelle gave him a worried look. "They're still fifteen minutes away."

Patrick sat up. "I've LAPD on the line." He sighed and gave brief glances at Tony, Michelle and Lily before looking up at George. "They found the first team. Looks like somebody bombed their car. They found Shepherd's body a few feet away with a bullet in his head."

George closed his eyes for a moment and brought his hand up to his head. These guys took out an entire field team and Matt's alone right next to them?

1:53:46 . . . 1:53:47 . . . 1:53:48 . . . 1:53:49 . . .

Alexi looked around impatiently as Sergei, Boris, Vladimir, and the dozen other men he'd brought with him loaded equipment into the vans. "Quickly!" He shouted, clapping his hands. "They'll be here any minute!"

"There's still no sign of Marenkov" Sergei said nervously at the nearby phone. "He's not answering."

"Perhaps CTU got hold of him." Dimitri said. Alexi looked at him. Dimitri had barely spoken since Alexi and Galina had told him the truth. His silence was understandable, given what he'd heard.

"It's possible." Galina said, coldly. "Either way, we can't stay here. If he calls again, we will tell him where to go."

Boris, the only one of Alexi's men bigger than Dimitri stepped forward. "We'll still need to know where to go ourselves."

Alexi gave the man a hard stare. "I will tell you all the location when we are en route. We can't afford another hideout being compromised if anyone is captured. Once there we will try to contact Marenkov again."

"And if we can't reach him?" Boris asked, raising an eyebrow.

Alexi was spared from asking that question again when Yuri rushed in. "We have an intruder. I spotted an American agent outside near the shed." Yuri leaned in closer. "He was staying close the shed. I think he may be guarding someone inside until reinforcements arrive."

Alexi smiled. "That's where Marenkov is."

"We still have to get out of here. We don't have much time." Galina added.

Alexi nodded. "Yuri, take Boris to go kill the American. We'll leave the last van for you. Once you've got Marenkov, phone in and I'll give you the location of the hideout."

Yuri and Boris both nodded when Dimitri stepped forward. "Nyet." Everyone's eyes were on him. "I'll go with Yuri."

Alexi paused for a moment, lost in thought, then put a hand on Dimitri's arm, a solemn look on his face. "All right. Good luck."

Dimitri nodded as Alexi looked around at the others. "Let's go!" He shouted.

From the far side of the warehouse lot Matt could see two large vans pulling out. Ducking down to by the side of the shed where they couldn't see him. Both vans had several men in them, though he was too far to see if a woman was riding in either.

Matt mentally noted which direction before he saw a small red dot of light race across the pavement in his direction. He recognized it immediately as the beam from a laser pointer.

Like the kind found on sniper rifles.

The realization instinctively caused Matt to duck a second before the wall he'd been leaning against spat out dust and bits of concrete as bullets rained into the wall. Matt dove behind a massive metal container, firing off two rounds as he did so. Shots from what was clearly an automatic rifle pummeled the container.

In between shots, Matt could hear the door of the shed opening. He peeked out for a second, long enough to see Marenkov making a run for his car. This son of a bitch is giving Marenkov time to escape before the backup team gets here.

As Marenkov's car sped off, Matt struggled to figure where the shots were coming from. He wasn't having much luck pinpointing the direction but he could tell his opponent was getting closer.

Suddenly two shots rang out, definitely from a handgun, not a rifle. Matt heard a man cry out in pain, then silence. Finally, they got here.

"American agent, hold your fire!"

The Russian accent caused him to pause in bewilderment. It definitely wasn't Marenkov's voice, nor did it match the cry he'd just heard. Against his better judgement, he leaned out from behind the container to see two men several feet from him. One was laying face-down on the pavement, two bullet wounds in his back, a sniper rifle in his hand. The other, standing over him, was much taller with light-colored hair, kicking the rifle away.

Matt didn't lower his weapon. "Who are you?" he hissed.

Dimitri raised his hands slightly. "I am not the enemy."

"I said who the hell are you?"

Dimitri steeled his jaw. "My name is Nikolai Torumov. I am FSB."

Matt squinted his eyes. "Russian security?"

Dimitri nodded. "Da. I have infiltrated Alexi Lenkovich's organization for two years now. Believe me when I say it is imperative that he does not get Marenkov."

Matt looked down at the dead man, then at Dimitri. "That's what I was trying to keep from happening! Believe me, we don't want Marenkov working with Lenkovich any more than you do."

Dimitri shook his head and gave Matt a cold look. "You don't know the half of it. I must speak with your superiors. Lenkovich must not get his hands on Marenkov. The safety of both our countries depends on it."

1:59:57 . . . 1:59:58 . . . 1:59:59 . . . 2:00:00 . . .

NEXT: As Alexi's true agenda is revealed, the presidents of more than one country become involved, and both Matt and Tony wonder how much their new ally can be trusted.