At the residential compound two police cars can be seen in front of the buildings, while some agents were already coordinating an evacuation. Jack parked the car and headed straight to the agent who seemed to be in command, followed by Tony.
"I'm federal agent Jack Bauer and this is Tony Almeida, do we have a 20 on Egorov?"
"I'm special agent Jason Meyer, we believed he locked himself up in one of the apartments, we have the order to evacuate the whole buildings."
"Agent Meyer, that man has four uranium rods, if a dirty bomb goes off here, it wouldn't make much difference if these people are inside or outside the building. This way, you're just giving him a chance to blend in the crowd and get away", explained Jack, a little annoyed.
"Agent Bauer, there are 90 apartments in there, we can't just go throughout all of them to find him, it would take hours. We'll make everyone get out and then we'll check the buildings with thermo scan."
"Ok, but it might not be enough. It's night, he could have a disguise on, it would be very easy to miss him – continued Jack – I've a better way. Even if the rods have a protective shield on, they do emit low levels of radiations. With a portable Geiger counter, we can easily identify the person who carried them among the others."
"Ok, I'll ask for it and we'll separate all the men to test them."
"Thank you."
As the minutes were passing by, the lines of people getting out of the buildings got longer and maintaining order was becoming harder. Two agents with Geiger counters were checking every man who was waiting in line without a positive response for now.
"Can you tell us what's going on? Are we in danger?", voices from the crowd were starting to express their fears and concern.
"Everyone, please stay calm. You are not in danger, we're just looking for a man", responded agent Meyer.
"But what is that? –insisted one of the men, pointing at the counter – Is this man armed?"
"This is a metal detector. We just need to be sure no one is carrying weapons."
"That is not a metal detector! – said another voice from the crowd – That is a Geiger counter, they're checking us for radiations, there's probably a leak or something!"
Hearing the word "radiations", everyone got alarmed and started panicking and asking questions. Jack, who was standing a few steps away, quickly got back to handle the situation.
"There is no leak, everyone please calm down! – continued agent Meyer – Yes, this is a Geiger counter, but it's just because the man we're looking for might've been exposed to low levels of radiations, so this is a way to detect him."
While the discussion went on, involving more agents and people of the crowd, Jack noticed a white man with dark hair towards the end of the line, appearing pretty detached from everything that was happening around. Immediately, he glanced at Tony, who was closer to the man, to keep a look at him. Seeing Tony making a few steps in his direction, the man, somehow, realized that something was wrong and started running. Instantly both Jack and Tony started running after him.
"FEDERAL AGENT, STOP!", Jack screamed at him.
The men kept running.
"STOP RIGHT THERE OR I WILL SHOOT YOU!", continued Jack.
Not seeing any intention of stopping from the man, Jack decided to shoot him in a leg. The man fell down and, a few seconds after, Tony was already blocking him on ground, followed by Jack a moment later.
While the man was on the ground, panting in pain, Jack removed his dark wig to confirm that his face was matching to the picture he had seen of Egorov before.
"You son of a bitch, where is the uranium?", Jack asked with anger, while leaning his weight on the man's injured leg.
The man screamed.
"ANSWER ME!", insisted Jack, forcing him to look at him.
"You're too late – the man replied with a strong Russian accent and with difficulty due to the strong pain.
"What's that supposed to mean?", continued Jack more alarmed.
"In less than 15 minutes we'll be all death, you'll never find the bomb in time."
"We have found the third detonator at the lab, you're just messing up with us!" said Jack, getting more upset with him.
"Do you really think there is no other way to detonate a dirty bomb?"
Hearing those words, Jack froze for a moment. He couldn't take the chance to underestimate his words. In the meantime, two agents arrived to arrest the man.
"Take him into custody", Jack ordered to them.
Then, he glanced at Tony to follow him and picked up his phone while running towards the building.
"Renee, it's Jack – he said on the phone – We got Egorov in custody, but he said that he armed a dirty bomb with the rods."
"How could he do that so fast? We found its detonator back in the lab", she shared the same doubt as Jack.
"I know but he probably created some other primer. We can go back in the building with the Geiger counters and see if they can lead us to the bomb, but it may take too much time. When the NEST team is gonna be here? We need more sophisticated instrument to find it faster!"
"I just spoke with them, they're gonna be there in 20."
"Damn it, Renee, it's too late! He said that the bomb is gonna blow up in less than fifteen minutes. You need to put me in contact with them right now."
"Ok, Jack, hold on."
While heading for the entrance, Jack, passing by the agents that had the Geiger counters, took them from their hands, giving one to Tony.
"I need these – he said not so gently – Make everyone got away from here as fast as they can."
The agent nodded.
"Jack, what are we doing? We can't sweep the whole building in a few minutes", asked Tony while entering the building with Jack.
"I know, but we have to try anyway. Where would you detonate a dirty bomb with a rudimental trigger to amplify the fallout and dispersion of radiations?"
"I don't know, probably on a high floor or even the roof of a tall building."
"Yeah, that's what I was thinking ", replied Jack while checking the elevators with the Geiger counter. "Elevators are clean, he must have used the emergency stairs."
While running towards the stairs, Jack's phone made a noise again.
"Agent Bauer, this is Doctor Robert Cassar from NEST", said a male voice on the phone.
"Doctor Cassar, hold on, I put you on speakerphone –Jack said while doing so in order to let Tony hear too – Ok, go ahead."
"Ok, agent Walker told me that the man who placed the bomb had to replace the original primer with an improvised one."
"Yeah, do you think it could still lead to a massive dispersion of radiations?", Jack asked while they were climbing up the stairs to see if the Geiger counter showed some variations while going up.
"Well, it's hard to tell without seeing the primer or knowing the exact location of the bomb – replied Cassar as he was looking on a screen a picture of the rods – What I can tell you is that, due to security reasons, the protective shield of the rods would need a powerful explosive to breach it, unless it was preventively removed or damaged. "
Cassar paused for a moment to collect his thoughts, then he resumed talking:" Agent Bauer, do you have a Geiger counter with you?"
"Yeah, we're using it to help us locating the bomb right now."
"Ok, have you noticed any sudden raise in its measurement?"
"Not initially, but I'm seeing that now that we are the third floor, it shows around 180 CPM", replied Jack while checking again its display.
"All right, the protective shield is built to avoid the dispersion of a potentially harmful quantity of radiations, so if you are already seeing values bigger than 200/300 CPM while still not being in proximity of the bomb, it means that the shield must have been broken."
Seeing the measurement getting closer to 200 CPM, Jack stopped and looked up at Tony.
"I understand, Doctor Cassar. The number is still raising. How far away are you?"
"We're about 15 minutes away. Agent Bauer, do you have a protective suit?"
Jack shared another concern look with Tony. "No, sir, we don't."
Cassar sighed. Then, he tried to find the courage to say the last thing he would've wanted to.
"Agent Bauer, as you have surely understood, without a protective suit, over 300 CPM, there could be permanent damages to biological tissues and, getting closer to the rods, the Geiger counter could raise over 900 CPM, which would cause severe radiation poisoning leading to death in a few hours or days."
"I understand, sir, but we don't have any other choice if we wanna stop this bomb in time. I'll do it."
"I'm sorry, Agent Bauer. I wish we had enough time to get there."
"I know, thank you. I'll call back as soon as I find the bomb so you could help me disarm it."
"Ok, thanks."
"Jack", Renee took over the phone, after having heard everything. In a hopeless and emotional way, she added: "Maybe they could still be there in time, maybe Egorov gave us a wrong deadline on purpose…"
"We can't risk it, Renee…I'm sorry", Jack said with commotion, starting to realize only in that moment what was going to happen.
Renee felt like chocking while tears started streaming down her face.
"We'll talk later – continued Jack – I've gotta go now."
Jack put down the phone, regained his composure, and immediately turned to Tony:
"Go back to the entrance and send them here as soon as they arrive, ok?"
Without waiting for an answer, Jack had already turned around, ready to go up another floor.
"Jack, wait", Tony made him stop.
"What?"
"Let me do it."
Jack froze. "No."
"You have a daughter and a granddaughter who love you, you have Renee…you have a life. I don't have anything left. If it wasn't for you, I would have probably died anyway in a few days. You know it's the right thing to do."
Jack couldn't help but being clearly conflicted about it. Hearing about his daughter was his weak point and Tony knew it too well.
"Tony, I don't–
"I have no secret agenda this time, if that's what you're worrying about."
"Oh, come on, it's not that!", Jack felt a little resented that Tony still thought that he couldn't trust him.
"Ok, good – Tony felt somehow relieved – I can do this, I promise."
"I know you can. But I can't ask you this."
"You're not asking, I'm telling. Come on, we're running out of time, give me the phone."
Jack waited a few more seconds trying to think if this was really the right thing to do. Tony did some terrible things the previous year and this could have been his chance of redeeming them, but, still, a terrible death by radiation poisoning was something he wouldn't want for anybody. Then, his mind flew back to Kim and how she had already almost lost him last year and everything she went through to give him a chance to survive the prion. He couldn't have done this to her another time. In almost an unconscious way, he gave in and passed his phone to Tony.
"Ok. Now get the hell outta here", Tony said before heading back to the stairs.
"Thank you", Jack whispered while Tony was already too far away to hear it.
