1:00

Chloe sat next to David on the floor, gripping his arm, her hands covered and sticky with blood. She stared in a daze at the dead thug nearby that she had shot only moments ago.

"You can let go now, I'll take care of it." David said.

Chloe jerked in surprise, causing David to wince in pain as she released her hands from his bicep.

"Right," Chloe murmured, "I guess we should change locations again since whoever is after you knows we're here."

"We don't have time for that." David snapped, "You'll have to retrieve the information here. We can't afford to lose our advantage."

Chloe sat silent, glancing quickly at the man she had gunned down to protect David and herself, then glanced at the hardware that been discarded an instant before the fire fight had begun. She moved to retrieve it, brushing past David in the process. He was in the process of dressing his wound, but grabbed her arm as she walked by, stopping her where she stood.

"Wait. You should wash your hands before you do that. Blood is a bitch to clean off of anything."

Chloe paused at the awkward suggestion, sensing by his tone that it was more of an order. She gave him a confused look and turned to go find a wash room.


1:22

The phone rang only once. Jack picked up the handset and spoke into it quickly.

"Bauer."

"Director Bauer, this is Agent Don Wright with special ops for the CIA. We're going to need your complete cooperation."

"I'm listening." Jack answered.

"We understand that you've been in contact with the suspect –"

"No, I haven't spoken with Emerson." Jack cut in.

Don paused, hesitating to go on. "I'm … sorry, Director Bauer. We had reason to believe that you had spoken with Ms. O'Brian less than an hour ago."

"Chloe? She's not a suspect. She's a victim, if anything, in all of this. I was trying to locate her." Jack stated adamantly.

Agent Wright paused once more not sure how to continue the conversation. "I'm sure you realize, Director, that Ms. O'Brian was completely and undeniably the suspect who was caught attempting to access restricted files from Paragon Industries and because of that she was directly responsible for the death of Viktor Schuester, an innocent bystander."

Jack gripped the phone tighter, his knuckles turning white from the pressure. He wanted to hit something while listening to the agent on the phone unemotionally painting the picture of Chloe's guilt and supplying evidence that concluded only what Jack knew was completely wrong.

"Look, Agent Wright," Jack said, "I've known Ms. O'Brian for a long time now. She would never do something like this intentionally. She is in the custody of Mr. Emerson and as far as I'm concerned she's innocent. I'll agree that apprehending Emerson is our main priority but I will not allow you to assume Ms. O'Brian is willingly a suspect in this matter."

Agent Wright answered Jack as calmly as he was capable, "It would be irresponsible to disregard the threat of Ms. O'Brian in this case. Our main objective is to locate and apprehend both Mr. Emerson and Ms. O'Brian. If that is all, Mr.Bauer."

"Yes," he answered with a guttural tone.

Don threw in one last barb, "I'll be contacting Division Director Weston to update him on the situation. Be prepared to receive a call from him soon."

A crisp click signaled that the call had been ended.


1:38

Tapping noises emanated from the dank abandoned office in the warehouse as Chloe worked on the small laptop David had provided her. She was almost to the second layer of security, her face clenched in concentration.

David sat by the door frame, his arm crudely bandaged, gun in hand.

After a few minutes the first level was complete. Chloe looked at the lines of code recognizing familiar encryptions and paused. She had been prepared for a gruesome cryptic puzzle, a challenge, something to flex her hacker muscles with. Instead she was faced with a program she knew intimately. She had created it.

"David…" she began, "I'm through. I think you should know… I created this security program."

David looked at her and his eyebrows rose in surprise. "Really? I mean, that's good right? You can just access the information we need with your signature backdoor."

Chloe turned her head quickly around at him. "Yeah, but how did you know about that?"

David looked at her knowingly. "Come on, Chloe. Every program you ever created you left a backdoor in that only you could access. You always liked having that just-in-case entry that only you knew about. It was your thing."

Chloe huffed, annoyed that she could have become so predictable and that this man would still remember any of her unique quirks and mannerisms. She thought he would have forgotten everything by now.

She turned back to the screen, recognizing one of the many programs she created for private industries. The access path she had constructed within the code was one only she knew how to navigate and could not be detected or traced afterward. The idea that she was the only one with this unlimited access to Paragon resonated within her and she slowly began typing at the keys again.


1:52

Curtis was not comfortable with what he was ordered to do. There was no way around a direct order from Division and if it was for the good of CTU then it had to be done.

He couldn't help but think what a mistake it had been for Division to re-instate Jack as Director in the first place, considering what a loose cannon he had proved to be time and time again. Jack had just been through too much. His loyalty to CTU had become questionable. Jack was just too concerned with personal matters to pay attention to the details for the good of all.

Curtis only hoped that when he informed Jack that he would be assuming temporary control over CTU for this mission as Director, that he would not put up much of a fight. Memories of Jack choking him out of consciousness plummeted to the front of his mind.

This was not going to be easy.


1:58

Chloe paused from the remote station she worked at to peer behind her at David. He sat, engrossed in the screen, waiting for the scan to complete. His face filled with raw anticipation at the prospect of access.

He murmured, distractedly, "Chloe, I swear after this over I'll –"

The laptop crashing into his skull prevented him from finishing the endearing promise.

Chloe sprinted as fast as she could out of the warehouse.

2:00:00