The following takes place between 4:00am and 5:00am on January 7th, 2002, in Washington, DC unless otherwise noted.
He had been in pursuit of her when he heard the explosion. She hadn't been as stealthy as she hoped in her exit and thus, he had crawled out of bed with the intention of following her. He stepped out onto the balcony where she stood motionless, unable to look away from the flames. He stood beside her, staring in awe at the sight before them, until several agents burst through the doors.
"Mr. President, the Secret Service is invoking Section 23. The Service has the authority to take any precautions necessary to ensure your safety. Any and all protests made on your behalf will be ignored."
Before they had any grasp on the situation, the agents were talking at them a mile a minute and within seconds, they were back inside their bedroom.
4:02
Numerous agents filtered through the West Wing giving instructions to the employees and directing them to the safe locations nearest to them for the Crash. CJ, Hogan, Carol, and Toby found themselves contained in CJ's relatively small office, Josh, Will, and Donna were confined in his, and Leo, Margaret, and Lord John in the Chief of Staff's office.
4:08
Lord John Marbury sat on the couch calmly sipping his Earl Grey as Leo paced the length and breadth of his office anxiously. Lord John patted the cushion beside him and beckoned for Margaret to sit beside him and join him in a cup of tea. Despite her worry for his boss' frenetic state, Margaret was pleased that the British Ambassador had remembered her name and thus was unable to refuse.
"Come now, Gerald, have a seat. A cup of tea will do you good."
"You know, you're right, John. Except for the fact that one of the most beloved symbols of my country has just been blown to pieces, you're right."
"Pacing like a dotty little expectant father is hardly going to change that. Isn't that right, Margot?"
"Margaret, sir."
"Oh, yes, you're absolutely right. Terribly sorry. I had it right just a second ago, didn't I?"
"Yes, sir," Margaret replied.
"Well, that is a miracle in itself."
Leo groaned in frustration at his colleague's nonchalance, sat down at his desk, and reached for the phone. Margaret and Lord John watched him intently, waiting for his next move.
"Ryan, Leo McGarry. Yeah. What the hell is going on over there! Well, the Washington Monument just blew up, you don't think that's cause to…yeah. Okay. Time's up, Ryan. I want you to get in there and interrogate the hell out of them! Understood? Thank you."
Leo slammed the phone down onto the receiver and looked up at the two pairs of eyes that were locked upon him.
"You should be grateful this happened when it did," Lord John pointed out.
Leo glared at him angrily.
"Why is that?"
"Well, it's simply all too fortunate that no one goes sightseeing at four in the morning. And don't think for a moment that the IRA doesn't know that."
"What are you saying, John?"
"I'm saying that there's no body count. That's not a mistake."
4:18
Abbey sat on the couch and hugged her knees to her chest as she watched her husband pace around their bedroom, just as Leo had done in his own office. Her eyes followed him back and forth, back and forth, until she became dizzy. She knew he was kicking himself for succumbing to his fatigue and leaving the West Wing. Now he was stuck in the Residence, far from where he needed to be.
"Honey, come sit down. You're gonna making things any easier on yourself."
"I should be down there, Abbey."
"You would be doing the same thing in the office as you're doing right now and you know it."
He reluctantly collapsed on the couch beside her and sighed. She draped an arm around his shoulders and rested her head against him.
"I don't know how the hell I'm supposed to react," Jed admitted. "I don't know if I'm supposed to be scared or if I'm supposed to be strong and unaffected."
"How do you feel?"
"I'm pissed as hell, Abbey."
"That's a start."
"I want to know why the Irish Ambassador has gone AWOL, I want to know why my goddamn former media director has suddenly become a terrorist, I want to know why Stanley Keyworth is dead, and I'm still waiting to find out why the hell we're being targeted by the IRA in the first place!"
"You'll find out soon enough."
"These are things I should have known hours ago."
"Things will fall into place. In the meantime, we do the best we can because it's all we know how to do."
4:32
Ryan Chappelle slammed the door behind him as he entered the main interrogation room at CTU Headquarters. His eyes locked briefly with those of Colleen McGann when he dropped his files and a large notepad on the table and sat down across from her. She was bound to the chair she sat in and had, by this time, given up any hope of breaking free. Ryan adjusted the microphone clipped onto his jacket and checked to make sure hers was securely fastened, then glanced up to make sure the camera was in place.
"I want a lawyer," Colleen demanded.
"You're a terrorist. You don't get a lawyer."
"An alleged terrorist."
Ryan rolled his eyes.
"And anyway, this isn't a police station. The same rights do not apply. There's a camera in the corner and see that mirror behind you?"
"It's a two-way mirror."
"That's right. There are four or five people set up back there watching your every move, so don't even think about trying anything."
"You've got me shackled to a chair, Mr. Chappelle, what the hell am I gonna do?"
"You'd be surprised at what I've seen over the years, Ms. McGann. Shall we begin?"
Colleen shrugged.
"Doesn't look like there's any way out of it for me, so, by all means."
"You're aware that your husband gave you up."
She merely glared at him in response.
"You fled to Baltimore shortly after his confession, you must have known."
"Maybe I did."
"Why Baltimore?"
"I enjoy the scenery."
Ryan pushed his chair back suddenly and stood up.
"All right. There are two ways this can go. You can give me straight, direct answers to my questions or I can bring in a guy named Richards and trust me, you won't like what's in his bag of tricks."
"What is he, Mary Poppins?" Colleen responded with a scowl.
"What's it gonna be? Are you gonna answer my questions or do I need to ask Richards to bring in his army of needles?"
"I was meeting someone."
"Who?"
"Mandy Hampton."
"For what purpose?" Ryan questioned.
"For dinner and a movie."
"All it takes is one phone call to get Richards down here."
"Ellie Bartlet," Colleen mumbled.
"Ellie Bartlet? What about Ellie Bartlet?"
"That's where we were headed, all right!"
"What did you intend to do when you found her?"
"I don't know, we hadn't fully decided..."
"Damnit, Colleen, you don't expect me believe that you were gonna go in there without a plan!"
"We thought…we thought that kidnapping her would be a reasonable distraction for the President."
"You were going to take Ellie Bartlet hostage."
"Yes."
"When I go into the next room and ask Ms. Hampton the same question, is that the answer she's gonna give me?"
"It's the truth."
4:47
"Chappelle's interrogating McGann now?"
Sitting on his bed, Jed held the phone to his ear as he spoke to his Chief of Staff. He fleetingly glanced over at Abbey, who was glued to the news stations reporting on the explosion.
"Yes, sir," Leo replied.
"I want him to give them a polygraph. I know Crawford insists the White House isn't a target, but Crawford isn't as involved as McGann is. And I don't know how deep into this Mandy has gotten herself, but I suspect she knows more than Crawford does. The Service is gonna pull that Section 23 crap and make us get up into Air Force One if this continues."
"Maybe that's something you should start seriously considering, Mr. President."
"No."
"Sir."
"No way, Leo."
"It's your life versus your pride. You have to pick your battles, sir, and this shouldn't be one of them."
Jed nodded pensively in rumination.
"You know, Abbey was out on the Truman Balcony when it happened."
"I heard that. How's she doing?"
"She's as good as can be expected right now. A little shell-shocked, I think."
"Then it's a good thing you're up there with her. There's nothing we can do until Chappelle finishes with Mandy and McGann."
"Do you feel a little strange referring to a terrorist as 'Mandy'?" Jed asked.
"I try not to think about it."
"Does everyone else know?"
"About Mandy?" Leo questioned.
"Yeah."
"No. I haven't told them."
"You have to tell them, Leo."
"I know. I'm just not sure how."
4:54
When Ryan Chappelle first caught a glimpse of Mandy Hampton bound to her chair in the interrogation room, he could think of nothing else besides how out of place she appeared. This wasn't a terrorist. She looked like some lost little girl who start running with the wrong crowd. He shook away these thoughts in order to focus on, as Leo McGarry had requesting, interrogating the hell out of her.
He sat down across from her as went through the general procedure with her. She nodded her head once or twice, glancing warily at the cameras stationed in several corners of the room.
"Ms. Hampton, you spent nearly a year working as Media Director for the President of the United States and a year as a senior official on his campaign staff. You are now under arrest for engaging in terrorist activity with a well-known terrorist organization that has targeted the U.S. for unknown reasons and which, fifty-six minutes ago, blew up the Washington Monument. What do you have to say for yourself?"
"Not much," Mandy replied with a shrug.
"Okay. Fine. What were you doing in Baltimore?"
"Meeting with Colleen McGann, as you no doubt are already aware."
"What was your intent?"
"Oh, like you don't already know what our intent was."
"Ms. Hampton, as I told Ms. McGann, you make this easy or you can make this hard. Just be aware that the latter comes with consequences you are likely to regret."
"You gonna bring in some guy with ten different kinds of needles whose gonna inject me with sodium pentothal so I'll spill my guts?"
"You're very familiar with our procedures here, Ms. Hampton."
"I'm not exactly a little doe lost in the woods, Mr. Chappelle. I know how it works around here."
"Then you know what'll be like when Richards comes in here and sticks you with a bunch of needles."
"I imagine that'll be a tad unpleasant, but I've seen worse."
"Are you or are you not going to tell me, voluntarily, what you were doing in Baltimore this evening?"
"I'm thinking not," Mandy replied. "But I do have another piece of information you may find useful."
"Oh, yeah? What's that?" Chappelle questioned skeptically.
"A question, actually."
"I'm all ears."
"Have you checked up on the whereabouts of your Surgeon General lately?"
The question itself, combined with the glimmer of evil shining in her eyes, sent Ryan Chappelle running out of the room at a speed even faster than Mandy had anticipated.
4:59:57 4:59:58 4:59:59 5:00:00
