The following takes place between 8:00 P.M. and 9:00 P.M.
As fire crews arrived to get the flames under control, Jack met his daughter at a bridge over a small nearby river. A wool blanket was wrapped over her shoulders as she lacked warm clothing. "Where's Mac?" Was Kim's first question.
"He…he fulfilled his promise, Kim," Jack said holding his daughter's shoulders. "To the letter."
"No," she whimpered, "no he can't be dead…he can't." She buried her face into her father's chest as she sobbed heavily. Word of Macs death hit harder than she thought.
Water shot into the sky as a bruised and bloodied head burst from below the waterline. Mac shook the disorientation from his head and swam for the shore at the base of a bridge. He pulled his cold, sore body onto the mud and uphill and onto the road. He let out a few coughs and he turned his head to see two familiar people embracing on the bridge.
Kim looked in the direction of the coughs and saw someone return from the dead. "MAC!" She screamed as she burst from her father's arms, let the blanket fall from her body and nearly tackled Ingram.
"Ahh," Ingram grunted in pain. "Easy, easy," he pleaded. "I'm a little banged up." Kim let him go and kissed his cheek again."
"Thank you," she said to him again. Mac smiled his reply.
"Mac," Jack said approaching the vindicated agent.
"Ivan's dead," he said as he held his aching side. "I broke his heart." Ingram looked straight into Jack's eyes. "I won't resist arrest, Jack," Mac said standing up straight.
"Arrest?" Kim asked looking over at her father.
"I'm not arresting you, Mac. We know you're innocent." That surprised, Mac.
"You didn't think he had anything…?" Kim argued.
"Not anymore," Jack explained. "The photo was a fake."
"Hell, I could've told ya that," Mac replied.
"I know. I'm sorry." Mac just shook his head.
"Did you guy's find the bomb yet?"
"No." Was Jack's reply. "The bomb is gone."
XXXXX
In a lavish office man huddled over documents before he left for the night; but it would not be the end for this night. His number two entered the office with urgent news. "Marks' base has been attacked by CTU." He informed his boss in their native language.
"What?" The man demanded to know. "What's the status of the device?"
"It's en route but we should assume…"
"We should assume that their mission is compromised. Activate the backup plan, immediately."
"It'll take some time to activate."
"Then I suggest you get to it."
XXXXX
The shed was devoid of any explosive device. As Kim was taken back to CTU Jack and the 'acquitted' Ingram entered the shed. They were approached by the senior TAC member. "Agents, we found these," he handed them blueprints for what appeared to be an airship. The prints were partially burned in an attempt to destroy them.
"What does this mean?" Jack asked as he handed Mac the prints.
"What's this?" Mac pointed at the bottom of the paper. It read 'odyear' as the only intelligible print. "'Goodyear'?"
"The Goodyear blimp!" Jack shouted as both of them bolted from the shed. "That's where the bomb is."
"It's going to be flying over the bowl game," Mac said as they ran for a chopper sitting on the roadway. "If that bomb goes off it'll kill thousands, if not millions!" The pilot got the bird up in five minutes. On their way to the stadium Jack called CTU.
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"It's Bauer," Jack's voice echoed on the speaker phone. "The bomb is being placed on the Goodyear blimp! We believe the target is the bowl game!"
"All the TAC teams are at the refinery!" Manning shouted.
"So sue me!" Mac shouted. "But those bastards had a freaking army!" Jack put his hand on his subordinate's shoulders.
"We're sending a team to the airport in hopes they can stop it before it takes off."
"Likelihood of that happening?" Curtis asked the agents.
"Low," Mac answered. "They could have had as much as an hour head start. That blimp could be in the air already."
"Then how are you planning on stopping that bomb?"
"I don't know yet, I'm making this up as I go. But when I figure something out," he advised, "It's gonna be cool."
"We'll stop it, Curtis," Jack assured his superior. "Just make sure Kim is alright when she arrives."
XXXXX
Indeed the airship was in the air by the time the chopper took off. The original crew was jumped from behind and their bodies left in the hanger where airport security found them. Although it was already in the air, the chopper was faster and the agents managed to catch up with the airship.
"Have a plan yet?" Jack asked Mac.
"Sort of," Ingram replied. "But you're not going to like it." He laid it out for Jack as they approached.
"They're going to know we're coming," Jack said.
"Yeah but there shouldn't be too many of them inside. I say that as we're moving down through the ship to the control deck the chopper flies in the blimp's path and try to divert it." At that moment Jack's phone rang.
"Bauer."
"It's Manning," Curtis answered. "Two things: first, Kim just arrived. I'll have the doctor take a look at her. Second we've confirmed that Ivan Arkadeyevich was among the dead at the refinery along with Kolya Bratchenko."
"Bratchenko?" Jack asked as he looked over at Mac who shrugged.
"I needed someone to create a distraction so I could get Kim out," Mac answered Jack.
"Thanks, Curtis." He hung up. "Nice thinking with the Mafia."
"You mean you're not pissed?" Jack shook his head.
"You improvised. That's good in an agent."
"And what about my current plan?" Mac asked as they neared the airship.
"I'll answer that tomorrow."
XXXXX
The calls were made, the information distributed and the targets offered to the groups. All the 'corporation' needed to do was sit back and let the chips fall where they may. Once they fell they would begin phase two of the backup plan. There was only the question of where Marks was now.
XXXXX
The cable was hooked onto the harness Mac was wearing and he now dangled beneath the chopper which was racing at high speed. "This has been one hell of a first day on the job!" Ingram shouted into his mic.
"Welcome to my life," Jack replied. As Mac struggled to maintain his body's stability in the high winds with goggles wrapped around his head Jack guided the pilot into position. At a speed of nearly fifteen miles per hour Mac slammed onto the top of the blimp with a loud 'oomph' from him. But he managed to grasp a handrail by the hatch and pull himself up. He opened the hatch, climbed in and attached the cable to the rail so Jack could slide down to him.
"I got ya," Mac said as he helped Jack into the ship. He disconnected the cable and the chopper maneuvered around to distract the terrorists.
XXXXX
Back at CTU Kim Bauer was shown to the conference room where a makeshift evidence storage area had been set up. The dust from the explosion earlier in the day had all been cleared away along with most of the rubble. On the table were several items taken from the refinery: half-burned documents, electronics equipment and even computer hard drives. Audrey was inside helping the technicians sort through them.
"Kim," she said when she noticed her. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine," she replied. "I was…almost raped though." Audrey sighed in annoyance.
"Let's get you to the clinic and have you checked out anyway, okay?" Kim nodded and the two headed that way.
"Mac saved me," Kim said as they left the room. "He also killed Ivan."
"Are you holding up okay?"
"I will be…I…I was engaged to 'Barry'. I guess," she looked down at the floor. "The way I see it, Barry died when he shot at us in the mall."
"Audrey," Manning said rushing over to her. "Ingram and Jack have just boarded the airship."
"How'd they get aboard?" Audrey asked with Kim listening in from behind her.
"You don't want to know." They turned to watch the feed from the CTU chopper as it flew along side the airship.
XXXXX
'Well,' Jack told himself as they moved lower into the ship, 'at least we got on aboard in one piece.'
"Where do you suppose they put the bomb?" Mac asked the senior agent.
"From what I saw at the shed it would've been too heavy and too large for them to put high up," Jack replied.
"I agree. It's probably on the control deck with the pilot." He looked about. "But where are the…"
"HALT!" A voice shouted from the opposite end of the catwalk. The two agents turned to see three terrorists charging them. Jack drew his pistol but before any shots could be fired Mac dropped down onto the terrorists from above. He kicked them back and stood between Jack and them.
"Go!" Mac yelled to Jack as the terrorists got back on their feet. They weren't going to use firearms inside the blimp. The bullets might damage the structure of the ship and cause it to crash before it reached the target. They wanted it to go off; that was the problem with martyrs.
As Jack made his way to the control deck Mac fought off the three terrorists in hand to hand combat. Although he was out-numbered he used the rigid confines of the catwalks and the ships structure to his advantage. Due to the restrictions placed on the fighters the terrorists could not maneuver to surround Ingram. Mac used girders to block attacks and support him as he moved about the decks.
As he led the terrorists to the 'bow' of the balloon Mac picked up a think rope. When he reached the bow he spun around, looped the rope around the first terrorist's neck, spun him around, delivered a back spin kick to the second terrorist, kicked the third in the groin and while the other two were distracted he tightened the rope on number one. And with a violent twist he snapped the terrorist's neck; killing him.
XXXXX
Jack finally reached the control deck. On one side of the deck he saw the bomb. It was about the size of a desk and had cylinders filled with un-enriched Uranium attached to the sides. At the controls the pilot, he appeared to be European, guided the ship towards the stadium as he maneuvered to avoid the pesky CTU chopper. "Federal Agent!" Bauer shouted at the pilot. "Turn this ship around now!"
"Never!" The pilot shouted back with a French accent. "I will die first!" He quickly reached into his pocket and Jack fired a shot into his shoulder. The pilot fell to the ground and Jack approached. When he did he saw the dying terrorist pull out what looked like a remote. Before he expired he depressed the button, activating the timer on the bomb. "DAMNIT!" Jack cursed.
XXXXX
Number two was now holding Mac from behind in a Nelson. Number three had grabbed a fire axe and swung to attack but Mac kicked him away. Number three moved to resume the attack, but when the downward swipe landed Mac had twisted around and the axe smashed into the terrorist's back. Quickly Mac spun around and delivered a powerful punch to the last terrorist's face. He stumbled back and drew out a .38 caliber revolver. Mac ducked away as all six rounds were fired. Though the bullets missed their intended target they still ruptured two of the main ballast bladders.
Ingram rose up and in the same motion, removed the fire ax from the dead terrorist and imbedded the opposite pick blade into the gunman's head. He removed the ax from the terrorist and proceeded to the control deck.
XXXXX
"Okay, Jack," a bomb expert was called into the control room to assist Jack in defusing the bomb. "I don't have a full sketch of the bomb, but we should still be ale to do this."
"Okay, hold on," he switched his cell phone to speaker and set it on the floor so he'd have both hands free. "Go ahead."
"All right, there should be ten large cylinders along the outside. About the size of fire extinguishers."
"I see them."
"Okay, do NOT touch those. You may get radiation sickness."
"Just tell what I need to touch," Jack said as he looked at the timer on the device. "Less than ten minutes left."
"Alright, do you see the explosives?"
"No they're inside the device. I can't get to them."
"Okay. Do you see the detonators?"
"No."
"Anything that may be an initiator? Spark plugs? Receiver?"
"No, damnit! I do not see anything!"
"Okay hold on," the technician looked over the schematics. "There should be a large box in the center towards the bottom on the device."
"I see it."
"Okay, open it up." Jack searched for a tool kit and took out a Phillips screwdriver.
"It's open!" Jack answered after he removed the front plate. "Three minutes!"
"There should be three wires inside, sir," the technician said looking at the half-charred plans. "You need to cut the red wire."
"Damnit!" Jack swore as he looked at the wires. "They're all red!"
"Oh, no." The technician groaned. "You'll have to find the one leading from the power source. It should be the one on the left."
"Should? Is it or is it not?"
"Without complete plans I can't be sure, Jack." The picture was burned between the box and the power source. The expert couldn't be precisely sure which one it was.
"What if I cut them all?"
"NO! If you cut the wrong one the bomb will explode!"
"So how do you know the left wire is the righ-correct one?" Jack argued. At that moment, Mac entered with a bloody fire axe and droplets of blood covering his face and clothes.
"Then you'll have to find the power source and disconnect it from the unit. With the plans I have it should be large." Jack looked all over the device but couldn't find anything.
"I don't see one!" He looked at the clock. "Thirty seconds!" Mac looked over the unit as well and noticed a think cable leading from the device through a portion of the floor that had been removed. He examined the other end and saw that it was hooked up to the electrical supply from the ship; crudely but it still fed power.
"Stand back, Jack!" Mac said as he brought the axe up.
"What are you-?"
"HYAAAH!" Ingram brought the axe down so hard that it not only severed the power cable but broke through the wooden floor as well. Jack's eyes happened to be on the digital clock when power was cut and the device shut down. The clock read nine seconds left before detonation.
"That's it?" Jack asked. "That's all we had to do was cut one cable?" Mac shrugged his response.
"Jack," Manning called over the phone. "What's going on?"
"The device has been neutralized," he announced to cheers from CTU.
"We're not out of the woods yet, Jack," Ingram said.
"What do you mean?" The phone was still on and everyone at CTU, including Kim, heard the conversation.
"I think we're flying a little below FAA regulations." Mac pointed out the windows. The ship was falling closer and closer to the city below.
8:59:59