On his way to get to the ambassador on the second floor, Jack had found a grid beyond the fire breaking wall big enough to be used as an exit point from the vent. Once outside, his plan was to go to the room adjacent to the ambassador's office, get out of the window and try to reach the balcony of the office, possibly without falling off.

Still without a gun, while arriving to that room Jack had been looking around for a weapon to use in case the security guard who was with the ambassador would have decided to shoot him after seeing him entering through the window, but there was nothing. He had to come up with a distraction.

Looking around, what caught his attention was a fire extinguisher, a good distraction, but a heavy boulder to carry on a cornice. Seeing no other usable tool around, he decided he had no other choice but to try.

Jack opened the window and went out on the balcony of his room. Around the embassy many police cars were now surrounding the area. The FBI had arrived. Thinking about the mess that could have happened shortly, he realized that he had to move even faster. Without thinking twice, he quickly climbed over the railing and walked on the cornice the few meters that separated him from the ambassador's office, avoiding looking down. Once on the balcony, he took a rapid look inside: Golubev and the guard were talking and they both seemed very shaken by the whole situation.

Just when he was about to break the glass and enter, Jack's phone started to viber.

"Bauer", he answered in a whisper.

"Jack, the FBI has arrived and it's ready to break in. What's the status there?", asked Renee.

"Renee, they can't break in now, there are about twenty hostages downstairs and I think they're gonna start killing them if the FBI tries to enter without a proper standoff"

"I know it's risky, but we've just spoken to President Suvarov and he wants us to intervene immediately or he'll consider the US responsible for what has happened to his embassy."

"But this is crazy, the assaulters are indeed Russian, I've sent you their photos, how could he even think to put this on us?"

"You know Suvarov, he's always looking for an excuse to create problem with us."

"Listen, just give me a few more minutes, I'm about to talk to the ambassador and then I'll get back to the hostages and me and Tony will try to help you on the inside to make the irruption safer, ok?

"I'll try Jack, but I can't assure you anything."

"Ok thanks, I'll get back to you", he hanged up.

Jack broke the windowpane with the base of the fire extinguisher and then used it inside of the room. A white smoke spread quickly in front of the window, hiding everything behind. The guard immediately started to shoot blindly at whatever had just broken the glass, while Jack crawled under the desk and grabbed his feet, making him fall on the ground. A second later, Jack had already taken control of his gun and knocked him unconscious with it.

The ambassador stood there in terror, able only to raise his hands and to scream in Russian not to shoot him.

Jack aimed his weapon at him.

"You'd better do what I told you now", he threatened.

Golubev gave him a confused look.

"You're not one of them", he said to Jack.

"No, but, trust me, I could be even worse – he responded with confidence – Where is the uranium?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

Jack punched him hard, making him loose his balance and fall. Then he took a chair and put it besides him.

"SIT!", he ordered with rage.

"Who are you? – asked Golubev with fear and pain – You are American…"

"I'm a federal agent and you'd better start talking. We know you are involved in the smuggling of nuclear material, Burwell told us. You'd better start collaborating with us and help us find it before it could do any damage or I can assure you that things would get very hard for you."

"This is Russian soil, I have complete inviolability here, you can't do anything to me."

"The weapon that you smuggled in our country and tried to sell to a terrorist group is now on our soil, so I don't give a damn about the privileges that you have here, you're gonna tell me where is the uranium, one way or the high way!"

"If you torture me or kill me, this could be considered an act of war for my country."

"You're forgetting the fact that some of your own compatriots have just assaulted this embassy to get to you, probably looking for the same thing or trying to shut you up about it. So, if something happens to you, it won't be hard to make the fault fall on them."

Golubev was now looking at him with more fear. What he was saying was right, they could've turned the situation whatever they like, plus he sure wouldn't want to be there if his felon compatriots, who he had betrayed selling their weapon to some lousy Americans, could make a breach in the wall and reach him. At least, with the police, he could still have some advantages.

"I want complete immunity from your President and extradition to a country of my choice. Then, I will tell you anything I know", he demanded.

Jack looked at him for a moment. It was always a challenge to decide whether to try to break someone with the use of the force or to grant them immunity to gather vital information. Usually, find an agreement was faster and more reliable.

"I see what I can do", Jack replied picking up his phone.

On the ground floor, the run of Tony and Anna to the lobby where he had previously entered the vent, ended up abruptly when two hostiles were spotted at the end of the hallway leading to its door. Tony stopped Anna with his arm and glanced her to come back the opposite way in order to try to reach the room where the hostages were hold from another passage.

Turning a corner, another assaulter was seen in the corridor, walking with his rifle in his hands. Tony decided to take cover in a room along the way, letting Anna go in before him as soon as he had checked it was empty.

"We can't go that way, we have to wait for them to move away from here", he told her once inside. Anna nodded and then started walking through the room while Tony was waiting near the door.

Since the waiting was getting longer, Anna thought it could have been a good moment to leave her curiosity unleashed.

"You know, there's still something I don't get – she was thinking out loud – You said that the FBI was unaware of this assault and that they're just coming now, but you and your partner were already here and managed to hide in time…did you know that this would happened?"

Tony turned to her, a little surprise by the question. "No, we didn't. We just went here to find proof on the ambassador and then we got caught up in the middle, but we were able to take cover before they could take us hostages too."

"So, you two just came here alone? Was the FBI at least aware of this alleged involvement of the ambassador?"

"They knew that we were following a lead, but we would have given them more details once the situation was unfolded."

"Ok, but how could you follow a lead in here? Technically, this is Russian soil, how could you get an authorization to interrogate the ambassador without any proof on him? It feels a little odd to me", she insisted.

"We didn't need an authorization because we didn't get in here as officers.", he responded, getting more annoyed by the questions. "Before all of this blew out, we were working undercover with one of the contacts of the ambassador."

"So, you're not an agent, but you follow leads for the FBI, work in the field and go undercover for them…what exactly are you?", she asked him still confused.

Tony felt that all this pressing was really starting to get on his nerves.

"Why are you so interested in me or what I'm doing? In case you didn't notice, we're still under attack, so we should be focusing on staying alive, instead of answering some stupid questions", he said in anger.

"I know, but we're stuck in here together and I just thought it would've helped me to know the truth instead of being lied or treated like a child."

"Trust me, it's better for you if you don't know it."

"Oh, come on, I'm a big girl, I can handle it, whatever it is that you're hiding from me."

Tony sighed.

"Fine. You want the truth? I'll tell you", he said while walking and stopping in front of her. "Until this morning I was a prisoner sentenced to death for conspiring with a terrorist group, hijacking an airline and homicide. Then, it came out that one of the persons behind today's terrorist threat was a man who used to work with me when I was in a criminal group, so I was granted a partial pardon in exchange for restoring a cover with him. That cover was the one that led us here to your ambassador. What will happen from now, I have no idea, but I'll probably gonna end up in jail again after all this. So, that's who I really am and that's the truth you wanted so bad. "

Tony stopped for a second to look at her while she was listening in shock to all his words.

"Are you happy now?", he then added cheekily, sure that she would regret wanting to know more about him.

Then, he simply moved back to the door, leaving her paralyzed by what she's just heard.

Back in the ambassador's office, Jack was holding his phone to Golubev's ear. The ambassador was talking in Russian with his lawyer who had been recruited to validate the immunity agreement. After having assured that everything was correct, Jack called Renee again and put her on speakerphone to make her hear whatever Golubev would say.

"All right, you have your agreement and your lawyer has approved it. Now, you must start talking with us. How are you involved in all of this?", Jack asked with impatience.

"It all started a few months ago when I knew about the arrival of this package from Russia. I didn't know exactly what was all about, but my task was to coordinate the delivery to this group of Russian separatists which I supported back in Russia. It was only a couple of days ago that I discovered that the package was indeed nuclear material and that they wanted to use it in a terrorist attack in order to let the fault fall on Russia and provoked a retaliation of the US against Moscow. At that point, I tried to divert the delivery to some American contacts I had, but I guess things were already out of my control."

"If you really knew about this and wanted to stop it, you should have gone to the authorities. Right now, you are as guilty as the people who are looking for you - said Jack with resentment - Anyway, we can discuss this later, let's focus on what really matters now: where is the uranium?"

"It's in a lab downtown, where they are arming three dirty bombs with it. I can mark its position on the map. Maybe you're still in time to reach it before the bombs leave for their destinations."

Jack handled him his phone to make him mark the position.

"What are the final targets of the bombs?", he asked while he was looking for the right spot on the map.

"I'm not aware of that, I was just in charge of the delivery of the material."

"Look – Jack began again with a brooding tone – I could still rip off your agreement if you're hiding information from us or if we cannot secure the bombs in time."

"I'm telling everything I know. I have no reason to want them to explode now. If you want to stop them in time, you'd better start moving."

Jack took back the phone and sent the position to Renee.

"Renee, did you get it?"

"Yes, Jack, we'll send a team immediately."

"Thanks. I'll call you back.", he hanged up.

Then, he ripped some wires from the computer and used them to tie up both the ambassador and his security guard to their chairs.

"What are you doing? I've already done what you asked", Golubev got surprised and scared again.

"The FBI's gonna burst in here very soon, but I have to take care of something downstairs, so I just want to make sure you won't move or do anything stupid, at least until we've found the bombs.", replied Jack, still with a menacing tone.

"But what about the assaulters? What if they're managing to get in here before the FBI arrives?", Golubev continued in panic.

"You should've thought about that before getting involved with terrorists who wanted to detonate three dirty bombs – closed Jack with a grin – Good luck."

After finishing tiding them, he headed back to the balcony.

Back on the ground floor, Tony noticed that the man who was blocking the corridor, had now moved away. It was time to go. Without turning to Anna, he simply said: "The hallway is clear now, I have to go and check what's happening with the hostages."

Not hearing an answer back, he turned around to see her, sat on the floor with her knees in her arms, still deeply affected by their previous conversation.

"Anna? – he continued – Did you hear what I just said?"

Still no answer but a brief glance with her eyes full of tears.

Tony felt a cramp in his stomach. He'd been such an asshole to a person who had just seen death in her face. After a sigh, he decided to go closer and sit before her.

"Listen – he began with a soft voice – I'm sorry if I scared you before, it's been a hell of a week, I haven't slept in days and I'm really nervous."

Anna was listening quietly, keeping her eyes down.

"I know I did some terrible things in the past and you're probably thinking I'm a monster now…I can't blame you for that, I'm the first who's thinking it every night when I wake up in cold sweat remembering what I've done. The problem is that, even if I do regret them now, there's nothing I can do to erase them. Not even the good that I'm trying to do today."

Tony paused for a second, feeling overwhelmed by emotion.

"Anyway – he continued, trying to bottle it all up again – what I want you to know is that, despite everything I told you about my past, I have no intention to hurt you. You're safe with me, you don't have to worry about that, ok? What I'm trying to do here is just to stop this attack and make everyone get out without getting harmed. You've got to believe me."

Anna felt sincerity in his words and was fighting hard to keep avoiding his look.

"Now, would you please look at me again…or start asking another hundred questions if you prefer?", he added with a smile.

By instinct, she felt the tension relieved and couldn't help that raise her eyes at him and smile back.

"Good", he stated, feeling relieved himself.

"I don't think you're a monster by the way, or, at least, not anymore – she felt like she ought to say – If you were, you wouldn't have risked your life and your mission to save me, you wouldn't have lost your time to suture my wound and you wouldn't have come to me right now to apologize for just being completely honest with me after I stressed you to tell me the truth."

Tony remained speechless. It had been so long that someone hadn't taken his defenses or addressed to him other than to accuse him or despise him, let alone to comfort him. It had been so long that he had almost forgotten how good it was to be considered other than the selfish strategist willing to do anything to get his revenge. In that moment, he felt like the rest of the world had disappeared. He just wanted to kiss her. But he couldn't do it, it wouldn't have been right for her. Pushing that thought away from his mind, he reminded that he had a task to do.

"I need to go now", he told her in a detached way, pretending to ignore everything she just said.

"Can I come with you?"

"No, it's safer if you just wait here. I'll be back soon."

"But what if someone comes in here?", she asked, a little worried.

Tony thought that it was indeed a real possibility.

"A'ight, take this", he told her while handing her one of the guns he had previously taken from the hostile and the security guard. "Have you ever shot?"

"Does the amusement park count?"

Tony made a small grimace. "Were you at least good at it?"

"Is one can out of ten shots good?"

"Not really."

"Then no."

"Look – he turned serious again – If someone comes in here to threaten you, just shoot at the chest. It's bigger than a can, you won't miss it."

She nodded. Then, he came closer to her and gently grab her hand and put it on the gun she was holding with the other one. "Keep the gun with two hands, it will give you more stability." He went on unfolding her elbow. "Also, keep your right arm straight, it will allow you to control the weapon better once the recoil kicks in. Finally, remember to remove the safety. This is off – he pushed her finger against the small lever – And this is on – he pushed it again – Any other question?"

Anna gazed at his dark eyes. She was still scared about having to defend herself alone, but, somehow, he had given her more confidence.

"No", she replied.

"A'ight."

Tony stood up, headed to the door.

"Tony", she felt like an urgency to call.

He stopped and turn around.

"You said that once you were a federal agent. What made you turn to the dark side?"

Tony paused for a second, thinking if sharing also the vulnerable part of his story.

"I've been devoted my whole life to the government, sacrificing everything I had because of my job, but all that I've ever got in return was an unfair sentence for high treason. But I still was willing to leave everything behind and start a new life away from that world with my wife. Until…"

Tony paused again, feeling a lump in his throat. No matter how many years had passed, recalling that moment was still devastating to him. He tried to suffocate his emotions and went on: "Until they bombed our car and she got murdered. She meant everything to me and after that I…I just lost it."

Anna felt the weight of all that sufferance crushing her.

"I'm sorry about your wife", was all she was able to say.

"Yeah", he whispered. Then, he got out of the room.