As he approached the stairs that led to the upper offices, Jack's step faltered slightly and he silently cursed himself. Upon spotting Chloe and himself, Sgt. Reese snapped to attention. Obviously, she was showing respect and deference to the role they played in resolving the latest nuclear crisis.
It was a move whose motives were pure, but still he flinched. Reese was a tall young woman whose features clearly spoke of Asian ancestry. Mixed to be sure, but still obvious. He supposed it was a bit of discomfort left over from his time in Cheng's company and he hoped it wouldn't linger for too long.
Feeling Chloe's hand on his arm, he offered the marine a nod and, willing himself to relax, ascended the stairs, rapping on the door and receiving a frustrated "What?" from the man within.
With an amused smirk, Jack glanced at Chloe, who was similarly entertained. Schooling their expressions, Jack opened the door then let Chloe proceed him into the room.
Graham was standing behind the desk, looking close to tearing his hair out as he shouted into the phone's receiver. "What do you mean the transfer is being delayed? The interrogation needs to begin and he's insisting he doesn't speak English! We can't do anything but let him set in holding….I…All right, fine!"
He slammed the receiver down and looked up at them with a glare. Obviously not the best time to see him, but oh well.
"Well, good of you two to finally show up," Graham practically snarled at them. He was looking a bit frayed from the stress of the job and clearly irritated by whomever was on the phone. Waving them into chairs, he demanded, "Do you have any idea the difficulties this place has been facing over the past few days?"
They stared at him for several moments before realizing it wasn't a rhetorical question. Then they gaped. He was seriously asking them if they understood the stress of the job? If it wasn't so horrifying, it'd be funny.
"You wouldn't be so screwed if your tech people weren't morons," Chloe said honestly and bluntly, folding her arms and returning his glare defiantly. Clearly, she felt no need to coddle the man who had brought in interlopers to touch her systems. "It's like watching a bunch of retarded chimps whacking away at the keyboards down there."
Graham blinked at her in shock, not sure how to react to that statement, so he transferred his focus to Jack. "I'm going to need both written and spoken de-briefs of your actions during the crisis and…before."
Clearly, the bureaucrat's attempt at discretion was a reaction to the death gaze Jack focused on him. It was good to know that, despite his months of incarceration, he could still make the suit and tie brigade shake in their over priced loafers.
"All right," he agreed after a moment, then asked, "Who will I be giving my statement too?"
The man gritted his teeth and said, "After the written, I'll speak with you…" The phone rang and he groaned. "If I ever get off the phone."
Ignoring Jack and Chloe again, he lifted the phone and muttered, "Graham…Not yet…No…The roads…We need a…Well, maybe. Hold on"
Stalking over to the door, Graham threw it open then shouted down onto the floor. "Sergeant Reese, could you go down to holding and help with Cheng's interrogation."
The young woman looked up from where she was comparing notes with Rivers and said, "I'm a little busy here."
Graham heaved a sigh and said, "He's insisting he doesn't speak English now and with all the craziness, we can't get an interpreter down here, so if you could…."
Oh, this was not going to be good. Jack could see that coming from a mile away and he was pretty darn screwed up himself.
"Could what?"
"Go translate."
From their seats, Jack and Chloe saw Reese exchange dumbfounded looks with Rivers, then glare up at Graham and spit, "I'm sixth generation American. I grew up in northern Maine. I took French in high school, not Chinese."
Graham's face turned a shade of red so livid it looked like he was about to stroke out and he retreated back into the office. That sort of assumption was not one the P.C. conscious higher ups would be pleased to hear about. Dropping into the chair, he appeared startled to see Jack and Chloe still peering at him. "Why are you still here! Go do…things."
Well, that was clear, Jack thought as he and Chloe rose from their chairs and made their to the door. Before they were out of the room, Graham said, "Bauer, you wouldn't happen to have picked up…."
"No," Jack said crisply and snapped the door shut behind himself before following Chloe down the stairs.
"He's a mess. Even I know that was tactless," Chloe said softly, showing the sort of discretion she usually reserved for their quasi legal world saving ventures. Jack supposed organizing a coup to depose Graham could fall into that category.
"That will work in our favor," he assured her, subtly indicating for her to look over at Rivers, who had been drawn into a discussion with Nadia, Bill and Karen while Sgt. Reese seemed to be intimidating Graham's minions into submission.
A quick scan of the room showed that Graham's chief incompetent minion had take up a place at Chloe's desk and was directing a largely futile attempt to access the CTU servers from there. All of Chloe's analysts and more than a few Division underlings kept shooting the man scathing looks. Obviously, he was not a well loved manager.
They reached Chloe's station and, as she stared at her workspace, her expression shifted. Outright contempt warred with barely suppressed homicidal leanings and Jack almost felt bad for the Division lackey still in her chair. Almost.
"What. Did. You. Do?" She barely got the words out through clenched teeth and her small hands balled into fists by her side.
The man at her desk turned slightly, then dismissed her with barely a glance that never ventured above chest level. "Look, I don't have time to explain everything to you CTU people," he said, arrogant condescension dripping from his tone. "This is a very complex system, so why don't you go do whatever it is that you do, m'kay?"
Chloe's shock was probably the only thing that allowed Jack to catch her hand before she punched Division Asshat 2.0 in the neck. Keeping a gentle hold of her hand, Jack growled, "Who the hell do you think you are?"
Around the Comm floor, CTU staffers tensed. Even those who hadn't heard Bauer use that particular tone had heard stories…stories that did not end well for whomever he was speaking to. Even the Division folks looked uneasy, and it was clear that only a few of them were bright enough to work with the CTU staff instead of banishing them.
Division Asshat 2.0 turned again and this time actually took in the expressions of the people glaring down at him. He swallowed, clearly not liking what he was seeing and said, "I'm Bert Abelard, Systems Protocol Manager. And you are?"
"Chloe O'Brien," she snarled, then leaned forward. "Get out of my seat and away from my station."
"But I'm working…."
"Find. Another. Terminal."
As much as Jack was enjoying watching Chloe browbeat the little paper pusher, he knew they needed to get to work. "I'd listen to her Bert," he said, tone falsely light and full of menace. "Chloe doesn't like it when people mess with her systems."
"All right," Abelard said, rising slowly, then added, "I'm supposed to be auditing your system, looking for the weak spots that were exploited to allow the terrorists to infiltrate this facility."
"Observe and audit all you want, but get away from me. I need to try and fix what you've done." Chloe dropped into her seat and glared angrily at the mess of circuit boards and wires protruding from the small, dedicated hard drive. "What idiot tried to do a work around from here?"
Abelard stalked off in a huff and a snicker came from a nearby desk. A young man spun away from the computer he was idly poking at and offered Chloe a big grin. "That was great," he said, extending one long, lanky arm towards her, fist extended. "Come on. Don't leave me hanging."
Adopting an expression Jack categorized as 'humoring the crazy man', Chloe somewhat awkwardly tapped her own fist against the man's. Peering at him, she said, "Are you from Division too?"
"Yeah," he shrugged, "But don't hold it against me. Most of us hate Ol' Bert over there. Seriously, the man's only appreciable skill is kissing ass but since he's the boss we gotta listen to him."
Chloe regarded the young man, then gestured to the mess on her desk. "This is his work?"
"Yup." The answer was short, but he added. "Bert didn't want to hear that we couldn't circumvent your protocols from out here, had to be done down in Tech 1, cause if he went down there Graham couldn't see him working."
Jack snorted. Neither he nor Chloe had any tolerance for people like that. In their world, you did your job, did it better than anyone else, credit and accolades be damned.
Leaving Chloe to her work, Jack sat at a nearby station, pulled up the proper forms and began trying to work on his report. He was fairly sure there wouldn't be a set form ready to handle everything he had to report, but that was okay with him. He wasn't sure he wanted to go into it all immediately.
After a few moments, he glanced up and caught Bills eye. The former CTU director was still talking with Chief Rivers, who seemed to have come around to their point of view. The nod Buchanan sent in Jack's direction was encouraging. Maybe there was a chance of getting some effective leadership after all.
TBC….
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