Chapter 18

Chapter 18

The Following Takes Place Between 11:00 P.M. and 12:00 A.M.

"I think it's safe to say you're in over your head," Sark said calmly, as the men who had been about to kill him now helped him disarm and restrain Sydney.

"I don't understand," Sydney said in as strong a voice as she could manage. "If he's already gotten his immortality, why go through all this effort?"

"Because Sloane is a madman with a mission," Sark reminded her. "In his twisted, perverted way, he believes he's being heroic. Wants to make a world a better place, even if it means purging it of billions of lives. Me, I'm all about the wealth, power and glory that I will achieve once this is carried out."

"Sloane was about to kill you for all the mistakes you made," Sydney reminded him. "In fact, once he gets back up on his feet, I'm pretty sure that he'll do just that."

"Ah, but now we see the little flaw in Rimbaldi's solution," Sark told him. "He promised immortality, not indestructibility. He'll live forever, but he can still feel pain. And as you're well aware, taking one in the chest takes some time to recover from. Based on past experience, it'll be about twenty minutes by the time he's back to his old, lunatic self."

"And what exactly are you going to do in that time to get back into his good graces?" Sydney asked.

"Why, finish saving his life and help bring this project closer to the final phase," Sark said smoothly. "He's always been a man of expediency, and as much as he wants me dead, he wants this quest to be fulfilled more." He looked over at the guards. "Make sure that her hands and feet are bound. We won't be safe from her until she's dead, but right now, we'll take what we can get."

"You never had any intention of giving us Sloane, did you?' Sydney said, as they began to do tie her up..

"Sydney, I'm hurt. Don't tell me that you're surprised," Sark said smoothly. "Given the choice between reigning in Hell or serving in heaven, you know which one I'd pick, even without the added bonus of not actually having to find out either actually existed.."

Just then Sydney heard the very welcome sound of gunfire outside. "I wouldn't count your immortality before it's hatched," Sydney said.

"Ah, yes, that would be the cavalry," Sark said coldly. "Wouldn't be a show without APO riding to the rescue of our fair Penelope. However, they're going to be rather more than a day late and a dollar short." He looked at four more mercenaries who had arrived. "You two, get Mr. Sloane, and head towards the basement. The rest of you, make sure that Bauer and the rest of his people have no chance of catching up."

Vaughn still wasn't sure whether Sark had been telling the truth about the advanced surveillance equipment on the hotel, but he wasn't exaggerating about it being heavily guarded.. He counted at least a half dozen men at the front entrance, four more at the back, and a couple more guarding the perimeter. A couple of CTU teams could still have probably taken it without a huge expenditure of effort, but as they didn't have the time, they were going to have to improvise.

Fortunately, Vaughn knew both of his companions were experts at doing just that, so when Jack asked Vaughn to be the wheelman while he and Sydney's father helped get in through the front door, he just said: "No problem." He'd have been a little more comfortable if they'd come in a CTU Hummer, which was more equipped for this kind of charge, but he knew that whatever vehicle they used was going to take a lot of punishment regardless.

But that was after Jack had disappeared around the corner and came back with, of all things, a tractor-trailer, sixteen-wheeler truck.

Vaughn blinked as Jack pulled up. Michael slid in beside Jack while Sydney's father opened up a door on the side of the trailer. When Vaughn buckled in, he saw the muzzle of an MP5 sticking out the door that Mr. Bristow entered, and Jack drew his own handgun.

"Where did you get this?" Vaughn asked.

"You didn't think I was going to let Sydney walk into a highly fortified base without some way of breaking in, did you? Now drive."

Vaughn blinked only once more, then threw the truck in gear.

11:05:32/11:05:33/11:05:34

Sark was carrying Sydney himself, thrown over one shoulder in a fireman's hold. Sydney could honestly say she felt like nothing so much as a sack of potatoes.

He smirked over his shoulder at the front of the lobby—a smile that faded with the faint rumbling that made the hotel shake, and turned to stark terror as the cab of a truck burst through the front door. Several guards fell to the bursts of gunfire coming from the cab, and the buzz of automatic fire came from not too far outside.

Sark turned back towards the doorway and leapt through it, still carrying Sydney as he muttered under his breath, "Shit, shit, shit."

In all her years around Sark, Sydney had never known him to lose his cool that badly. The fact that he was had to be a good sign.

Sydney glanced around as soon as Sark stopped, swinging her into a sitting position on the floor. By now they were in the subbasement of the building. Someone had been hard at work constructing a tunnel in the middle of floor.

"What's the matter?" Sydney baited him. "Afraid that your people aren't man enough to keep three agents from getting into this so-called fortress your boss designed?"

Sark looked to Sydney, and his face went neutral, then slid into his usual, casual amusement. "I have every faith they'll get in," he told her. "They just won't be able to savor the victory for that long." He nodded to the hole in the floor. "You must hand it to Arvin. When he plans an exit strategy, he really goes the extra mile. I'm not entirely sure where this little hole in the floor goes, but, like they say, anywhere's better than here."

As they headed down, one of the guards asked: "How much time should I set the charges?"

"Three minutes," Sark told him.

"What now?" Sydney asked, as the men began hauling her and Sloane down the tunnel.

"Doing what Sloane would." Now Sark sounded almost like his old self. "Bringing the house down after us."

Back in the lobby, Jack had hardly waited for the truck to slow down before he jumped out of it, firing two three-round bursts into the gunmen in front of him as he ran straight ahead. He didn't even consider watching his left side—that fire zone was for Vaughn and the elder Bristow.

When three more gunmen from deeper in the lobby popped out from a doorway, Jack dropped to both knees, sliding across the carpet before slamming into the front desk. The bullets cut through the air over him as though a swarm of angry bees were after him. Bauer didn't even think before he threw himself to the side, firing around the desk and at both gunmen.

Both of the mercenaries fell over dead without any preamble, and Jack pushed to his feet a moment before more gunfire came—from behind him.

Bauer cursed as he swung around the desk to prevent him from behind shot in the back, wondering if Vaughn was really that bad a shot.

Unfortunately, it was obvious that there were more hired killers out there than they had though—either that or they were all smart enough to hit the pavement before the truck ran them over. There were four of them, down from the initial eight they had seen outside. One of them casually fired random bursts into the trailer, the bullets ripping into the side like it was tissue paper. The second riddled the back of the cab with bullets, at least keeping Vaughn's head down, if he hadn't already gotten out.

The remaining two gunmen were focused primarily on Jack, and they weren't going to be persuaded to seek out employment elsewhere.

"Where's the fucking cavalry?" Vaughn said into the radio.

A split second later, a CTU hummer that had been dispatched not long after they had made their initial report about Sark, drove on to the scene. Both windows opened up with a stream of assault rifle fire, cutting down the remaining enemies with ease.

Jack popped up from the desk, and swept the area with his handgun. There were footsteps behind him, and he turned to see Sydney's father, Vaughn, and Curtis Manning.

Bauer glanced as some of the CTU tactical officers swept past him, then looked to the others. "How many hostiles are still in the hotel?"

The elder Bristow said automatically, "According to our instruments, only a couple are left in the interior."

'That doesn't make sense," Jack said. "I'd expect Sloane to leave behind some kind of rear guard to keep us from finding him."

"There may be another explanation," Mr. Bristow said. "All of our heat detectors for this building cut off at ground level. I had Marshall check the blueprints to the hotel; the Northern has a sub-basement."

"Which direction?"

Before Sydney's father could answer Vaughn, a modest sized explosion shook the hotel, shattering all the windows on the first floor, and releasing a small fireball into the lobby from out of two of the stairwell exits.

"Let me guess," Vaughn said. "it's that way?"

"Call the fire department and make sure the building isn't going to collapse on us," Jack told his companions. "Then get back on the Marshall, and find out how many exits there are to this building. Sloane didn't do this for effect."

11:15:22/11:15:23/11:15:24/11:15:25

Sark had been right about Sloane's desire for an exit—the tunnel was lined with miniature light fixtures, and secured with beams. This led Sydney to what should have been an obvious conclusion.

"This tunnel was here way before Sloane showed up," she told Sark who was walking a few feet ahead of her.

"Right on the button, as always," Sark said, wiping some sweat off his brow. "It was owned by one of the shell corporations that Elena Derevko owned when she was in charge of the Covenant. Los Angeles has one of the largest sewer systems in the nation, and she found ways to utilize it to connect all of the properties that the Covenant owned. I can only assume for greater access in case of situations like this."

"How can you not know for sure?' Sydney asked. "At one point you were America's top man in the organization."

"Which didn't mean I was in on every secret meeting," Sark told her, as they continued on. "I didn't even know Elena Derevko was involved until after you and your associates helped neutralize it. "

"Then how did Sloane know about it if he wasn't part of the Covenant until he supposedly joined?"

"Why are you asking Julian?"

A voice that by all rights shouldn't have been speaking was now talking again. Now only that, but he was on his feet, his eyes open and aware.

Even given what she had seen not fifteen minutes ago, Sydney was still staggered. "I didn't think you'd be up to talking," she began slowly. "Fuck, I figured that your first move after coming back would be to finish killing the man who brought the wolf to your door."

Moving carefully, Sloane pushed aside the man who had been holding up. "Give me your weapon, " he ordered.

"Don't do anything dumb, Arvin," Sark was now speaking with his old level of confidence. "If it wasn't for me, you'd be in CTU custody now."

"If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't have gotten shot in the heart," Sloane told him.

Sark smiled. "As for that, I would blame your shoddy hiring practices for bodyguards. I would blame them, but I suspect they're both dead by now."

Sloane's eyes narrowed. "If you prefer, I could just blame you for putting CTU onto us."

"If you really believe that, you've spent the last three years significantly underestimating the abilities of the people who work there," Sark pointed out. "They got Wang, Anna, and Irina all on their own. Somehow Bauer managed to break a woman that the KGB and the CIA hadn't been able to get anything out of for thirty years. You really think that they wouldn't have found you even without my help?"

"So now you're not denying that you sold me out," Sloane said, lifting his gun on Sark

"They were going to find you anyway," Sark argued. "If I didn't pretend that I was switching sides again, we'd never have gotten our hands on her at all. As it is, we now have a way to get to Irina and Sydney's daughter before the deadline. Unless, of course, you changed the fallback strategy?"

There was a long pause as Sloane considered this. "Let's say I haven't," he began. "Give me a reason that I still shouldn't do to you what Sydney just did to me."

"They don't have any tracers on us, I blew the only way in, and CTU has no idea what our next step is," Sark told him. "And, in case you haven't noticed, you're running out of warm bodies, unless you have the number for 1-800-Dial-A-henchman. We still have a deadline to beat, and you can't pull this off without me."

There was another pregnant pause. Finally, Sloane lowered his weapon. "Don't misinterpret this, " he said slowly. "I don't believe for a moment that you're trustworthy. But there as an issue of time, and if you're the only way that this solution can be carried out, then I'll give you a little more time."

"You've never trusted me, Arvin," Sark's cavalier tone belied the sentence. "It's been the constant of our relationship. But I want this to work out as much as you do, if not more—I don't have immortality yet, you do."

"You just want the fruits of the labor," Sloane said. "Betray me again, and I'll make sure you never see another sunrise."

11:22:13/11:22:14/11:22:15

"How long until the place is secure?" Dixon asked Jack over his cell..

"Fire and safety are just finishing up," Jack said grimly. "From the preliminary reports, it looks like the explosion was localized to the area around to the western section of the hotel and the subbasement."

"There any risk that the Northern will collapse if you do something funky?"

"If Sloane wanted to blow the entire hotel, he could have done just that," Jack reminded him. "For some reason, total destruction was not part of his MO this time, only getting away."

"He did a pretty thorough job of it," Mr. Bristow said , as he came back from the entrance into the lobby. "Curtis's team just finished their first sweep of the place. There's no sign of Sydney, Sark or Sloane."

"If Sloane was even there." A new voice had entered the conversation.

"Tony, I heard him over the cell," Jack reminded him. "We all did."

"And you know as well as I do how effectively recordings can be manufactured and manipulated," Tony told him. "The fact of the matter is, you still don't have any hard evidence that Sloane was there at all or if he's still alive."

"Is that the idea that Division is forcing down your throat?" Mr. Bristow asked.

"Jack, you told me over a year ago that you saw Sloane blasted into atoms," Dixon reminded him. "If he didn't get the immortality and imperviousness that came with this prophecy, how the hell did he survive?"

Unfortunately, Jack had yet to come up with an explanation for that. "You don't think it's possible he used another one of those duplicates that Elena Derevko helped design?" he asked

"Sloane wouldn't have let anything keep him from realizing his quest," Dixon paused. "Which is one of the reasons I'm willing to argue that if there was a way to beat death, Sloane would have found it."

That was a little further than Jack was willing to go, but he didn't think that argument would help his case.

"To answer your question, Division thinks that your info on Sloane is bullshit, and is still pretty pissed that you essentially allowed Sark to walk off with Sydney," Tony told them. "And in all honesty, I'm pretty pissed that you made that decision unilaterally, and without putting the proper tracking devices or microphones on her."

"Sark would have gotten rid of them at the first opportunity whether he was working with or without Sloane," Mr. Bristow pointed out. "Besides, we found electronics near the front entrance that's around Sloane's level of technology. Sydney would not have gotten through it without trackers being detected."

"All that's well and good, but you still haven't told us, how the hell you're going to find Sark or Sloane without access to that kind of tech," Dixon pointed out.

"We're going over the bodies of the hostiles," Jack told them. "All of them had cells and PDA's. At least one of them has to have something to lead back to them."

"Maybe we don't have to go that far." Both men looked up as Vaughn, who had headed towards the subbasement the second that they had allowed him into the building, returned to the lobby.

"Find anything?"

"Bad news/ good news. The explosion did lead from the sub- basement. The rubble will take hours to comb through and we don't have the time. Which hurts us because according to Marshall, there's sewer access that led outside."

"So that was there exit strategy," Jack muttered.

"So what's the good news?" Sydney's father asked.

"We found this just outside the elevator to the subbasement." Vaughn took out a small laptop. "Whoever owned this thing didn't have time to encrypt any of the data on it."

"What did you find?" Jack asked.

"A series of building schematics," Vaughn said, tapping some buttons on the keyboard . "I'm having Kim run them through CTU's databases The first two buildings she uncovered were originally owned by Star-Crossed Industries, and we know from earlier mission that was a shell-corporation for the Covenant, and by extension Elena Derevko."

This got everybody's attention. "You think Sloane would use these as hideouts?" Tony asked.

"Sloane's never been one to create when he could steal," Jack Bristow reminded them. "You found this in the elevator?"

"Yeah."

"Sloane wouldn't just leave a potentially valuable instrument like that unguarded in a place like that," Sydney's father said bluntly.

"Maybe he didn't have anything to do with its location," Jack said.

"What do you mean?"

"Sark gave us his word that he would help us track Sloane," Jack pointed out. "In a twisted way, that means something to him. He proved that the last time that we captured Anna."

"Let's find something on this that actually helps," Vaughn said. "Because I'd rather not have the world's fate rest on Julian Sark's word."

11:31:38/11:31:39/11:31:40/11:31:41

"This tunnel, it does lead somewhere?" Sydney asked almost impudently.

This time, Sloane answered. "If we follow it for another five minutes, we will end up in the in a waterfront house just outside of Topanga Canyon."

"That's a hell of a walk," Sydney pointed out. "Why the hell would you want to have your hotel connected to that?"

Sloane considered this. "I suppose questioning the resident Judas never occurred to you?" he asked. Sark didn't even bother to respond to this

"I don't trust anything this man says as a rule," Sydney said. "I was opposed to this entire trip, but he convinced Division that he was willing to sell out. I'm not feeling particularly vindicated by being right." She stopped walking and turned to face Sloane. "I saw you die in Russia. How did you survive getting killed? Why don't you do what you do best when Rimbaldi's involved—pontificate. Explain why I have been burdened with being the Chosen One."

Arvin smiled congenially. "Who am I to explain the mind of the ineffable."

Sydney arched a brow. "Rimbaldi's certainly effed us enough times."

Sloane's smiled faded and he kept walking, Sydney easily keeping pace. "You're wrong about one part. Elena figured out the formula. Given that both you and your mother were considered by different interpretation of Rimbaldi's work to be the chosen one, she decided to do a lot of research on her side of the family tree."

"That must have been a trip down Memory Lane," Sydney said, not willing to admit that this same idea had come to her many years ago.

"It wasn't easy," Sloane admitted. "Even Elena was not sure of her family history beyond her parents. Eventually, she managed to learn what she needed.

"In the middle of the fifteenth century, when Rimbaldi was at the height of his genius, he began to work on an elixir, which roughly translates to 'Ascensio', meaning a higher level. " Sydney had been right about Sloane's need to talk, though none of the men took their eyes off her. Even if one of them rolled his eyes. They must have heard this before. "Rimbaldi was never exactly clear what this was—"

"Is he ever?"

"—only that once in a person's blood, it would be part of their genetic makeup. His journals only indicate that he gave it to a single woman-- his mistress, a courtesan named Marina Pameli, though it was rumored that she was the illegitimate daughter of Antonin Sforza—"

"What exactly was this elixir supposed to do?" Sydney cut him off.

"According to Elena's research, this potion was mixed with some of Rimbaldi's genius, though not even he is willing to tell how he did that. Though we know he managed to be in Nadia's head. For the next four hundred years, all the woman of Marina's bloodline-- and it was not untainted to begin with-- went on to live lives full of wealth and success."

"Until my mother's generation," Sydney argued.

"You can't deny that her life has been anything short of extraordinary. Not peaceful," Sloane pointed out hastily, "but extraordinary... Rimbaldi was afraid of the direction civilization was taking, even in the Renaissance. He believed that unless things changed radically, the world would slide into chaos. So he created a formula that supposedly would bring about a calming effect on the rest of society."

"Killing off 99 of the population doesn't strike me as particularly peaceful," Sydney argued.

"Extreme problems require radical treatments," Sloane said, in that casual manner Sydney had always found almost frightening. "Elena understood that. So did Irina, after a fashion."

Before Sydney could answer this, he added: "We've arrived."

The tunnel had come to an abrupt end. In front of them was a stepladder leading to a small slotted wooden door that was over their heads.

"Open it," Sloane instructed two of the men guarding them.

As they climbed the ladder, Sydney asked: "What does any of this have to do with what I saw happen to you less than an hour ago?"

"Elena Derevko was a great help to me in many ways," Sloane told her. "But we came to a parting of the ways as to how to bring about the radical change." He paused. "Her solution was far more... final than mine."

"Comparing two lunatics solutions doesn't make either one any saner," Sydney pointed out.

Sloane chose to ignore this. "With the help of some very valuable people—most of whom died in the quest—I was able to locate another device of his—one that could only be access with some of the Chosen One's DNA."

By now the door had been opened, and Sloane and Sark indicated with their weapons that Sydney was to go ahead of them. "Who?" Sydney demanded. "Was it me or Nadia that unlocked this special gate?"

For the first time since he'd started talking, Sloane hesitated for an instant. "At the time, I wasn't certain which one of you it was," he admitted. "So I used samples of both to get where I needed to go."

He regained his equilibrium as they walked into the property. "There in a cavern in Mongolia, I found what I'd been searching for all this time. The device Rimbaldi used to bring about life eternal. The device I needed to carry out his final solution. Once I had that, I no longer needed Elena's money and infrastructure in order to carry out the plan. I'd left enough information with your father at APO to know that whatever team he led to find me would be able to get her out of the way."

Suddenly, Sydney had had more than enough. Even though she knew it was in her best interest to keep Sloane stall long enough for Jack and the rest of her people to find her, she could not tolerate be around this madman lunacies any longer.

"Hell of a game you played," she said almost casually. "From where I was standing it looked an awful lot like you were playing for keeps."

"You were always good at seeing what you want to see," Sloane said callously.

"It even looked like you were willing to sacrifice Nadia. Tell me, Sloane," Sydney began, "were you really willing to use Nadia as Rimbaldi prophesied or was that also part of the act?"

She knew she'd struck a nerve almost instantly. The brief expression that flickered across his face was a cry of pain for anyone else who was almost normal. "I will not let anyone stop me from doing what needs to be done," he said in a lower tone.

"And that includes treating your flesh and blood like lab rats," Sydney said in a tone just as cold.

"Don't talk that way."

"Nadia got stabbed earlier today, did you know that?" Sydney asked.

Now Sloane actually blinked twice—by his standards, that was almost screaming. "I don't want to hear this."

"Anna did it. Neatly drove a knife into her lung. Lucky she didn't die on the table," Sydney continued to speak in that dispassionate way that she had long loathed of everyone else.

The skins on Sloane's face was so taut, it looked like dried leather. "Shut up,"

"Why? Because you nearly lost part of the prophecy? It can't be because you care about her, because that would mean you had a soul or a conscience—"

Sloane slapped her in the face, hard. "Shut up!"

Sydney almost tasted blood, but not even that could hide the bitter triumph she felt. "You may be immortal or indestructible, or whatever the fuck you want to call it," she said, "but you're still nothing more than a pathetic shell of a man. I can't believe I made so much out of you."

There was a long silence. Then Sloane turned to one of the hostiles who wasn't guarding Sydney. "Start contacting the rest of our people and get them ready to move. CTU could come through the door any moment; I don't think any of us want to be here when they show up. Sark," he reluctantly turned to him, "contact our people in the government. Tell them we're going to have move to our fallback position." Sloane looked at his guards. "Keep your full attention on her," he almost growled. "She says anything else, kneecap her. Both legs." He looked at her. "Alive, but not unhurt. I believe that's how your friend Mr. Bauer likes to play this game."

11:43:16/11:43:17/11:43:18/11:43:19

Going through the laptop had taken more time than any of them had wanted to spend, but even though there were some definite leads in the laptop, it had taken Chloe nearly ten minutes to get it sorted so that it was legible.

"You're telling me that for once we have too much information on where a terrorist might be?" Jack asked with disbelief apparent, even over the cell.

"I don't know if Sark really intended to leave us," Nadia told Jack, "but all of the information that we have here ties into previously unknown Covenant strongholds. Assuming that Sloane really is committed to this plan, it does seem kind of foolish that he'd actually hide out somewhere that we already associated with him."

"Nobody's ever been able to fathom Sloane's thinking," Jack had noted the way Nadia had referred to her father, and decided not to pick at that wound. "Besides, he and Sark left in a hell of a hurry. He probably doesn't know the information is in our hands yet. Maybe he thinks that one of them will offer temporary safety."

"Maybe, but that may not become an issue much longer," Nadia said reluctantly.

"What are you talking about?"

"It took us the better part of five hours, but Marshall finally managed to translate another part of the document. There were some numbers in the prophecy," Nadia told him. "If the formula is to work properly, the sacrifice—which I can only assume is the bloodletting—has to take place at a certain time. By the break of dawn today. According to the National Weather Service that's going to happen at 5:48 A.M." she told him. "All we have to do is hold out a little more than six hours, and it won't matter a bit what Sloane tries to do."

"Maybe, but that could also mean that Sloane's not in transit," Jack pointed out. "According to what Sark told us, he just needs to dump 'the sacrifice' in the Pacific Ocean. That one stretches pretty too far west."

"Call a spade a spade, Jack," Nadia said with some bitterness. "Don't start getting tactful on my account. It doesn't suit you."

"I'm not saying that to spare your feelings," Jack told her. "Like I told Dixon and Tony half an hour ago, I'm not a hundred percent sure that I buy what Sark was trying to sell us. Point is, the three people whose blood he needs are in one of the most heavily guarded facilities in the country," Jack argued.

"Like that's ever stopped either of them from trying to get what they want," Nadia countered.

Before Jack could come up with a counter argument, Kim ran up to her. "I think we've found what we're looking for," she said.

"Hang on," Nadia walked over to the room where Tony and Dixon were gathered and Chloe was gathering data. "Jack, Kim thinks she's found something."

"I'm been communicating with Marshall going through the blueprints we found on the laptop," Kim told everyone. "Of all of the former buildings, only two were in a five-mile radius of the hotel. Assuming that they escaped underground, which has to be a given, there are three locations within a five mile radius."

"That sounds a little arbitrary," Dixon said.

"Any further and it wouldn't make sense to go underground," Jack pointed out.

"The nearest location is a beach house in Topanga Canyon," Kim told her. "It's also in a pretty isolated section. Address is 1623 Kingsley Place. "

"Chloe, can you retask a satellite over that location?" Tony asked her.

"It's a going to take me a couple of minutes," Chloe told them. "But according to the address, you're less than six minutes out."

"All right," Jack said. "And Tony, however much of this bullshit prophecy you want to believe, Sloane's on a clock. Knowing Sloane, he's going to make every effort to get his hand on you Irina and Isabelle. If Sark really has gone over, he probably told them that they're at CTU, which means that he's going to make some kind of play to get at them."

"That's borderline suicidal," Tony pointed out.

"Except that half our people are in the field dealing with this crisis," Dixon reminded them. "Our numbers are spread a little thin."

"All right, I'll contact District, see if they can lend us an extra unit."

"You're asking too much of me."

"I don't want to hear any more excuses from you," came the voice on the other end. "We are going to launch an attack within the hour, and you're going to make sure there's a clear path." He paused. "Unless Maya's life means so little to you..."

"No!" Erin Driscoll of Division managed to stop her voice from quivering. "I'll do it."

"Good. And about the other matter?"

"Anna Espinoza is scheduled to be transferred in an hour," Driscoll told him reluctantly. "When I have access, I'll get you the route."

"You'd better. Or your daughter will learn that there are worse things to fear than the voices in her head."

11:52:46/11:52:47/11:52:48

"Have you contacted the men we need?" Sloane demanded of Sark, as he walked back into the beach house.

"Another team is being put together," Sark told Sloane. "They'll be ready to make their move within the hour. Transportation will be pulling up any minute."

Sydney had been tossed on a couch, was cuffed with her hands behind her back and had her legs tied together. She looked up and said, "I guess that means you're moving on to a contingency plan."

"I told you to shoot her if she spoke again," Sloane told him.

The instant the guard on the right raised his weapon, she kicked her legs out, catching him in the throat, his windpipe crushed. As her legs came down, she rolled out of the bed, her shoulders going straight into the other guard's stomach, making him bend in half over her. She tensed her legs and straightened, using her upper body to throw him over her shoulder.

The pistol came out of nowhere as it smacked her across the mouth. "Next time," Sloane said calmly, "the bullet goes into your stomach. Only unlike Jack Bauer, I can keep you alive without surgery."

Sydney blinked, then her eyes narrowed. "How did you know that Jack gut shot my mother?" She frowned a moment, her thoughts moving through possible candidates as she said, "You've got someone in CTU. Who is it?"

"Think whatever you like," Sloane said in a calm voice. "I'm not going to give you any help connecting the dots.

He turned his attention back to Sark. "We're getting out of here now," he told him. "We've got a schedule to maintain, and thanks to you I'm still two items short."

"They'll be ready to make their move soon," Sark said.

This little dialogue was full of revelations. "So what, you're planning to attack CTU now?' Sydney asked.

"For the love of God, knock her unconscious," Sloane said between clenched teeth to his other guard

Sydney watched as the guard tried to right himself. "Remember what happened to your friend."

Just then, Sloane's phone rang. "What?" he snapped as he picked up the phone. "All right, we'll meet you outside. " He turned to Sark. "Our ride's here."

"Thank the lord," Sark said. "We couldn't afford to lose anymore help."

Vaughn held the cell phone tightly in one hand as he held his seatbelt tightly in the other. Letting Jack drive was never high on his list of exciting activities—mainly because he wanted to survive the trip—but in this case, speed was of the essence, and Bauer should have been a racecar driver, the way he pushed it.

"Have you got satellite up around the address?" Vaughn asked Marshall.

"I'm working on it, but like I said, it's pretty isolated," Marshall told him. "Which is probably the reason Sloane chose this address in the first place."

Jack said he abruptly hit the brakes. "We may not need it,"

"What are you talking…?" Vaughn trailed off. They were less than half a mile from the address they had been given from CTU, but it was clear that this was a relatively quiet suburban neighborhood. Therefore the fact that there were now a group of people coming out of a house en masse into a fleet of cars seemed to be a pretty clear indicator they were in the right spot.

Jack took out his night vision goggles. "I count five figures coming out of the location," he told Vaughn.

"You see Sydney?"

"Hold on," There at the rear of the party, two agitated looking hostiles were pulling a heavily bound Sydney behind them. "There she is." Jack got on the line with Marshall. "How far out is our back up?"

"Mr. Bristow will be there any minute now," Marshall told them.

Unfortunately, at just that moment Sloane, whose attention had been somewhat divided while Sydney was being put into the first of the vehicles, looked ahead, and noticed the faintest flash of a mirror as the binoculars were adjusted.

"Tell the people in the lead car to drive out to the back of the block as quickly as possible" he said almost casually to the henchman on his left. "Assault weapon fire will be useless against it, but I want you to have all your men firing anyway."

The guard took out his radio and began to relay the instructions to his boss.

"Looks like we're taking a ride together," he said as he ducked into the car with Sydney.

"We've been made. Get down!" Vaughn yelled in the split second before the head car began turning its fire on them.

Fortunately, they were now in a CTU Hummer, which had bulletproof windows. Unfortunately, this also meant that they couldn't shoot back. Furthermore, the body of the vehicle, while strong, was vulnerable to armor-piercing rounds, and they had both already seen that Sloane's crew had been packing this kind of ammunition.

"Any ideas?" Vaughn asked.

"Can you tell what kind of vehicle they're driving?" Jack asked, as he pulled the car out of park.

"Looked like a modest sized sedan." Vaughn thought he knew where Jack's head was going and, though he didn't like the idea, also didn't think that they had a lot of options.

"Make sure you're belted in," Jack said grimly, as he began to drive the vehicle straight at the oncoming car.

What Jack was doing ultimately came down to a game of chicken, only most people who played didn't have two guys armed with Uzis simultaneously firing at them. Had Sloane been the ones behind the wheel, Vaughn might have been concerned-- the man was many things, but he couldn't be accused of cowardice. But, while these men may have been employed by Sloane, they didn't have Jack's determination.

They weren't that bad, though -- the cars were less than five feet apart before the driver abruptly swerved to the left It was, however, too late for their purpose-- the Hummer slammed through the body of the car, before falling backwards.

"You all right?" Jack shouted.

"Any crash you can walk away from," Vaughn said, as he tried to have his heartbeat regain a normal rhythm. "Where's Sloane?"

"Where do you think?" Jack said, as he gestured to the outside.

What little damage the car had taken was near the front end. Unfortunately, this meant that their radio was out. He took out his cell phone instead.

"This is Bauer," he said. "Right now, Sloane is headed west towards the Pacific Coast Highway. Notify Jack Bristow and tell him to send all pursuit in that direction!"

"We're on it," Dixon told him. "What about you?"

"Sloane sacrificed one of his cars in order to get his freedom," Jack told him. "We're in no condition to carry on with the chase. Get another unit out here to help secure the location."

"What the fuck, Jack?" Vaughn asked.

"Sark left us some kind of clue the last hideout of Sloane's we found," Vaughn reminded him. "Even if he has switched sides, I'm betting that there still is something at this how to help us figure out whatever Sloane's next move is."

"Maybe," Vaughn said, "but Sloane isn't that stupid. Two hideouts of his get busted in a little more than an hour, he's going to know Sark had something to do with it."

"So what's the down side to that?"

"Assuming that you're right," Vaughn reminded him, "and Sloane takes out Sark, that means that Sydney has no one watching her back. I know what she's capable of handling all those men, but so does he, which means he's going to put as many extra men around her as he can manage. And right now, we don't know how big an army that could be."

"He won't kill Sydney yet," Jack pointed out. "Not until he gets what he needs from her."

"You and I both know that there's a world of things we'd be surprised that she can live through."

"Then we better be sure we find her first."

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