15 months later…

day 2

Part III: What's Lying Ahead

"So, where are we going, guys?"

No answer of course this time either, but it couldn't hurt to ask. You're being transferred for questioning, was the only explanation she had been given so far, and it wasn't exactly of much help to the task offiguring out what this could be about. They had given up to ask about her employer some time ago, and she hadn't been interrogated since…not for quite some time. That she was being transferred now could only mean something had come up.

She took a deep breath and leaned back some more, relaxing her muscles and trying to find a position in which the shackles didn't cut into her ankles. Maybe this was the day she had been waiting for. Maybe some of the information and the knowledge she had kept to herself all this time would set her free today. Free. The mere thought was so comforting, she closed her eyes, stifling a smile of relief. How many nights had she lain awake, imagining how life could be, would be, once the day had come. Maybe she would know sooner than she had dared to hope.

Don't get ahead of yourself now, she warned herself. After all, she didn't even know yet what this was all about. But the fact alone that they rather moved her than having someone come over to question her in prison spoke for itself, indicated urgency and – more importantly – a likeliness that they needed her for more than just answering a couple of questions. Maybe to activate one of her contacts, maybe even to go out in the field. She couldn'tfail to seethe irony: seven years with CTU and not once had she been sent on a field mission.Being the tech-nerd, she had pretty much been tied to her desk. Who would have thought that killing a few people and committing treason might just bethe thing to do to get her a field assignment.

Opening her eyes again, she noticed one of her guards scowling at her, obviously disliking the satisfied expression on her face. Unaffected, she held his gaze until he looked away, tilted her head back then and rested it against the cold steel. Easy now, you don't know anything yet. Correct, for the moment she was kept in the dark. But she would find out soon enough, and if she played her cards smart this might very well be the last time she took a ride in the back of a prison transporter.

They stopped and the doors opened, and she was helped out of the transporter, squinting against the bright sunlight. It took a moment for her eyes to get used to it but she would have recognized the place if she had been blindfolded.

CTU.

She had to take a deep breath. She had considered the possibility of this being their destination, still the blend of confusing emotions hit her somewhat unexpected now. And it didn't help that she immediately noticed the marks of destruction.

"Let's go," she heard a voice and was dragged towards the remains of the main entrance before she could start walking on her own. Realization hit her and confirmed what she had known all along even though she had indulged in the bliss of uncertainty. They had never told her and she had never asked, but deep down she had known of course. There weren't too many reasons for a terror group to get a hold of the schematics of a federal agency, especially not if it was a counterterrorism unit.

They reached the entrance and she recognized one of the guards, a gash on his forehead and blood stains on his white shirt bespeaking he had already been on duty when the explosion had hit the building. She wondered who else had been in there. But only for a second. This was not the time.

They walked inside, turned around the corner and she got a full view of the floor and the level of destruction. And catching sight of the first familiar faces, she took a last deep breath and lifted her chin up as they kept walking, focusing solely on the nature of her transfer. She knew now what this was all about. At least she had a pretty good idea.

¤¤¤

"Yeah, let me get back to you about that. Alright. Thanks."

Nick put the receiver down and scribbled a short note for himself before he reached for his coffee cup. Greedily swallowing, he glanced at his wristwatch, waiting for his phone to start ringing again. Twenty minutes past noon. He hadn't had a calm moment all day. Since early morning something had been going on and hell had broken lose after the bombing down at CTU.

"Nick," he heard his name and turned around to see Chappelle walking up to him. "What are you working on?"

"I'm helping out coordinating the agencies –" he started but Chappelle cut him off immediately.

"Get someone else to do it. We need you in Section C."

"Right away?"

"Yes," Chappelle nodded hastily, walking past his desk and signaling him to follow. "Taking CTU out was a pre-emptive strike to slow us down. We also know the people who executed it. A local terror group that has been on our radar for some time. We already took care of them. What we don't have yet is a connection between those people and the ones behind the nuke. CTU is working on that, they think they got a lead."

"Are we taking over?" Nick asked, walking next to his superior.

"No. They are operation-capable for the moment but we lost a lot of staff there and until we got them all replaced they're going to need some assistance. I wanna make sure we don't miss anything. Based on the updated profiles they sent us over from earlier this morning, I want every single terror group in the area checked out. It's at least possible that who ever is behind this whole thing tried to hire someone else for the job first or that there were rumors, maybe someone heard something."

"You want us to talk to all of them?"

"Every single one of them," Chappelle replied, of course fully aware of what he was demanding. No wonder he needed more people on this. "We already started with the ones we have in custody, the others are being brought in as we speak. Davis is already on this, he'll fill you in on the details when you get there."

"Okay."

They had reached the elevators Chappelle was obviously heading for and Nick waited for a sign from his superior that he was dismissed. He had to delegate his work to someone else and then hurry over to Section C.

"You report to me personally as soon as you get something in case you get something. Is that clear?"

"Clear."

"Alright."

Nick turned around and hurried back to his desk, and less then ten minutes later he was on his way.

He found Davis standing in the corridor outside one of the interrogation rooms when he arrived, the usual cigarette in his mouth.

"I thought this is a smoke-free workplace," Nick joked while approaching him.

"Yeah, to hell with that," Davis replied scowling.

"Taking a break?"

"More or less," the older one replied the same moment as the door behind him opened. Nick glanced inside and it only took him a second to grasp the situation. On the monitors he saw the medics packing together and someone had already covered thebody with a blanket.

"What happened?" he asked curiously.

"Weak heart, apparently no one noticed," Davis explained calmly, taking another drag from his cigarette and releasing the smoke from his lungs into the corridor. "At least it wasn't in the damn files."

"I guess he didn't say anything?"

"He didn't have anything to tell."

"Well, no harm done then," Nick concluded. "Imagine if he had and we would have lost him before he could spill his beans."

"He had nothing to spill, trust me."

Nick nodded. One name less, he thought soberly. One suspect less they had to interrogate, not only in the ongoing but also in future investigations.

"So, who's next?" he asked indifferently.