Chapter 19
Chapter 19
The Following Takes Place Between 12:00 A.M. and 1:00 A.M.
Well, it could be worse, Sydney thought in the back of the car, he could have remembered to kneecap me.
At that moment, Sloane was maintaining his placid exterior, but Sydney could tell that he was juggling so many things that he was having trouble maintaining his control. She knew if she could find a way to disrupt what little calm he had left, she might be able to escape or at least give CTU the edge in finding her.
"Are we being pursued?" Sloane asked the driver.
"No," the driver said, "and it shouldn't be that difficult to tell if we are." Though it was normally one of the busiest stretches of road in the city, right now the Pacific Coast Highway was practically deserted.
"Whatever danger will face isn't going to come from the rear," Sloane pointed out. "If Mr. Bauer and CTU really knew where we were, they'll have put up a series of road blocks along the way as procedure. Not to mention helicopters."
"And I suppose someone of your genius has figured out a way of learning exactly where they are," Sydney said sarcastically.
"I wouldn't try being clever given your situation," Sloane pointed out. "Remember, I'm the only one in this car who can survive a head on collision."
"You won't risk your precious sacrifice," Sydney taunted him.
"I need three generations of the Chosen One's bloodline," Sloane's lips puckered. "As you reminded everyone, I do have more than one option."
Sloane spoke almost casually about this, which worried Sydney. If the idea of hurting his daughter no longer bothered him as it had less than half an hour ago, it meant two things: one, Sloane was now willing to accept the death of the daughter as acceptable collateral damage for this ritual, and two, she had lost one of her major sore point to manipulate Sloane with. Neither possibility was very appealing.
"However," Sloane took out his cell, "let's see if we can avoid that."
He dialed another number. "Mandy," he said over the phone. "I need to know how to maneuver the roadblocks on the Pacific Coast Highway."
"I'll handle it," a cold female voice said on the other end.
"Make it fast," Sloane told her.
"So what hideout are we headed to now?" Sydney demanded. "How much real estate did the Covenant own in LA before you took over?"
"I'm getting real tired of your demanding information," Sloane said, and nodded to one of the men on Sydney's left.
Suddenly, there was a pinch in Sydney's shoulder. She had just enough time to register it before losing consciousness.
12:04:38/12:04:39/12:04:40
"Have you spotted them yet?" Nadia asked Jack Bristow.
"Not so far," Sydney's father admitted.
"He only had a two minute lead on us," Tony reminded them.
"When the President declared a curfew earlier, it basically left the streets deserted. He can go as fast as he wants in any direction." Mr. Bristow reminded them. "That and we never got a clear picture of whatever vehicles left when he and Sark got the hell out of there."
"Hey, don't look at me," Chloe said agitatedly. "There were no satellites to --"
"We know, Chloe," Tony pointed out. "There are highway cameras everywhere on the Pacific Coast Highway. Go through their network, and see if you can get any picture of those cars."
"Fine," Chloe said in a huff, knowing that without a clear direction or landmark, they were back in needle-in-haystack territory.
"We're coordinating with LAPD to set up roadblocks and checkpoints throughout the highway," Dixon told them. "Unfortunately with all the riots and general chaos, their numbers are spread pretty thin, too."
At that moment, Michelle walked up. "Tony, Driscoll from Division says she needs to speak with you. Now."
"I'll take it in my office," Tony told them reluctantly. "Keep me updated," he told the others.
"Almeida," he said as he picked up the phone.
"Tony, I understand that you gave an order to the LAPD to set roadblocks along the Pacific Coast Highway," Driscoll said in her stern schoolmistress' voice.
"CTU is currently in pursuit of the suspect who is responsible for all of today's events," Tony told her just as bluntly. "It seemed like this was worth the extra manpower."
"Which individual is that, Julian Sark or Arvin Sloane?"
Tony had been dealing with Driscoll and her nags all day, and by now he was used to her making sure that every i was dotted and every t was crossed.. For the first time, however, he thought he could sense the faintest tinge of emotion in her voice. For someone who prided herself on her reputation as an ice queen, this struck Tony as a little strange.
"Tony?"
"At the current time, we don't know which of the suspects is responsible," Tony said carefully. "It could be one or both of them. "
"One who you had in custody earlier today, and one who was declared dead a year ago," Driscoll responded.
"Erin--"
"The Commissioner of Police has called me three times in the past hour," Driscoll said in that detached, lecturing tone she could use. "They've been short on manpower since nightfall. The last thing he wants to here is that you've got his men manning roadblocks looking for a villain who doesn't exist."
"What do you want Erin?" Tony said tiredly.
"Where on the highway you've set up the roadblocks. The Commissioner needs to know where his men are going."
"I'll get it to you as soon as--"
"Now, Tony." Again that frayed quality entered Erin's voice. "I've already got enough people pissed at me today. The sooner he's off my back, the sooner I'm off yours."
Tony really didn't need this irritation. "I'll text them to you now," he said wearily. "Anything else?"
"I understand that Irina Derevko's out of surgery."
"As of an hour ago, yes."
"District wants a man over to supervise interrogation."
This was just another thing that Tony didn't need. "Erin, we've got people here who are far more qualified to handle this—"
"Tony, the last time you interrogated her, she got a bullet in the stomach, and she still didn't give you everything she knew," Driscoll argued. "Right now, she's still our biggest lead to this virus, and we want to make sure that we can get any more information out of her without killing her."
Tony didn't want to have this argument, particularly because he almost agreed with her. "Fine, is there anything else?"
For the first time almost since he'd known her, Erin paused between orders. "I realize that it isn't easy dealing with all these demands" Driscoll said in that frayed tone again. "But somebody needs to do the unpleasant part of the work."
Tony then broke a rule of his own. "Something wrong?" he asked his superior with a rare note of compassion.
"Nothing," Driscoll said. "Just…. you've done a good job, today. I want you to know that."
In all the years he worked for CTU, Tony knew getting encouragement from this woman was like pulling teeth. And no matter how hard the work, or how great the effort, Driscoll never said thank you. But before he could even make a joke about it, the Division head had hung up.
12:11:22/12:11:23/12:11:24/12:11:25
"We're finished up inside," Jack told the CTU agents, who had just showed up with a second vehicle. "Anything come out of the roadblocks?"
"Not so far," the agent told him.
Jack frowned at this, but decided to hold his complaints to someone who could do something about it, and dialed Marshall.
"What do you need?"
"Did you manage to pin down which way Sloane was going?" Jack asked.
'Well, that's actually open for debate," Marshall said carefully. "See, according to the satellite, there were three cars that came to the address. One of them was the vehicle that hit you, the other two I managed to trace to the Highway. Problem is, I can't tell which vehicle Sloane or Sark or Sydney-- man, we have alliteration there -- got into about twenty minutes ago. The lighting's better on the Highway, and I was able to get good footage There's a dark blue Ford, and a silver Chevrolet."
"Considering who the passengers are, that's pretty low-key for either of them" Vaughn argued
"Now, the Ford went west, the Chevy went east. I've been trying to use the traffic cameras set up along the highway to figure out which is going where."
"And?" Jack pressed
"Trying to cover the whole highway isn't as easy as sounds," Marshall pointed out. "The most recent stop we caught the Ford at came five minutes ago, just off Pacific Coast Park. For some reason, the one heading west has been harder to pin down, which means he might be leaving LA."
"Sark could be in one, Sloane could be in the other," Vaughn pointed out.
"Or they could be using one of the cars as a decoy," Jack countered.. "Have either of the cars hit the roadblocks yet?"
"Coordinating with LAPD's been a problem, considering that they're as busy as we are," Marshall reminded him. "They didn't get on it until five minutes ago, and as you know they could've gotten really far in the lead time."
"Which of the cars is Jack Bristow tracking?"
"The Chevy."
"Take us east," Jack told the driver, as they turned onto the highway.
"Have you gotten anything off the corpse and the phone we found in the address?" Vaughn asked.
"Fingerprints identified the dead man as Gary Jessup, arrested twice for assault in the past en years." Marshall paused. "If this the level of help Mr. Sloane is getting for this, his standards have started have really dropped."
Privately Jack agreed, but didn't wasn't to show any sign of approval for Marshall's bizarre attitude of respect towards the man who had once left him for dead while he was still working for him. "The cell, Marshall?" he asked
"You had me busy working the highway, so I tasked it to Kim," he told him. "I'm putting her on."
Without any preamble, Kim said, "No surprise, Jessup had a scrambled cell. Seems to be the rule for the thugs today. It'll take time to sort through the calls, but I did manage to get one he made around an hour ago, before he and Sloane had their rendezvous."
" 'I'm telling you things are starting to come apart at the seams'," a male voice said. "Sloane thinks were going to have to use the girl.'"
"The guy's supposed to be some sort of master criminal, and this is the best play that he can come up with?' The voice was that of a female, and had enough icy reserve to make Jack wonder if there was yet another Derevko sister.
"I don't think we should be that pissed considering how much we're being paid.' Gary Jessup responded.
" 'Do you know what I had to go through to get to this woman? She lives in a fortress. Even with the papers, it took me an hour to get past the guards.'
"As long as you've got her, nothing else matters.' Jessup paused. 'He'll call you when he wants to put her into play.'
" 'He could have told me that himself.'
" 'He's busy plotting the end of the world if he's to be believed.'
'And how does this lunatic fit into this?' " the woman asked.
" 'Because of who her mother is'," A pause on the line. "'They need me to move. Just be ready.'"
The call terminated.
"Clever people," Vaughn said. "Even though their call is almost impossible to tap, they don't give anything away. "
"Any voiceprint match on the woman?" Jack asked.
"Nothing," Kim admitted.. "And I have no idea who they're talking about, except that it can't be Sydney or Isabelle."
"Maybe it has nothing to do with Sydney's family," Jack said thoughtfully. "'Guard' and 'lunatic' suggests some kind of institution. Have there been any major recorded incidents in any of them?"
"I'll check the police reports," Kim said.
"What are you thinking?" Vaughn asked. "This call won't get us any closer to finding Sydney."
"But it will get us closer to finding another link to Sloane," Jack said. "Someone's got to know his next stop, and we've got find it even if we can't find him on the highway."
12:19:55/12:19:56/12:19:57/12:19:58
"Just heard back from LAPD," Nadia told Michelle, "They've got officers set up at five mile intervals up and down the eastern section of the highway.
"I don't suppose they haven't found any sign of Sloane or Sark," Michelle asked.
Nadia shook her head. "Personally, I think that this is a wasted effort," she said in a remarkably neutral voice. "When Sloane doesn't want to be found, he does a very good job of staying hidden."
"Unless?" Michelle pressed.
"He's looking for something, which is this case is Isabelle and my mother." Nadia argued. "That's where he's going to stick his neck out."
"By now, he has to at least be thinking that we know this," Michelle countered. "Security's already at double strength."
"Since when has that stopped him in the past?" Nadia argued. "You put up a brick wall; he goes through it even if that means he crushes his skull in the process."
Michelle was inclined to agree with this logic. "Assuming you're right, how do we find him before that?"
"My mother's in recovery," Nadia said bluntly. "I think it's time we find out all of what she knows."
"You're not thinking of interrogating her yourself, are you?" Michelle asked.
"Everything else is occupied on something vital. I've been doing busy work for the last three hours. Plus I have a much better idea on how she thinks than anyone here. Give me one good reason why I shouldn't be doing this."
"For starters, there's still an executive order from the President barring you from being in the same room with her." Michelle pointed out.
"Yeah, that chain of logic was supposed to get my mother to spill her guts, figuratively, not literally," Nadia was starting to sound pissed. "You didn't even learn that Sloane was behind this, until we caught up with Sark. The stick really got us nowhere, I think it's time we go back to the carrot."
Michelle didn't really want to say what came next. "Nadia, while I'll admit that Jack's method was way over the line, I have to agree with him that we've given Irina far too many passes as it is. No one's going to be willing to give your mother a deal, and without that she has no incentive to give us anything back.
Just then Tony walked up to both of them. "A man from District is on his way up," he told them.
"What do the bean counters want now?" Michelle asked tiredly.
"They want Irina Derevko questioned."
"Is that their euphemism or yours?" Nadia asked.
"I don't know," Tony said honestly. "They've made it clear there are to be no more deals, and if we interrogate too harshly, she'll die, so I don't know how exactly they plan to get anything of value out of her."
"This is just Division's way of covering their ass," Michelle said.
"What else is new?" Tony asked rhetorically. "Look, they've made it clear that no one else from CTU is to interfere with their job, but since I trust them as far as I could reasonably throw them, I want somebody to keep at least one eye on them. I'm tapping the person who has the least on their plate," he looked right at Nadia, "which right now means you."
Nadia smiled wryly. "Four hours ago, you said I shouldn't be allowed anywhere near her. As a matter of fact you were rather emphatic about it."
Tony sighed. "Yeah, well four hours ago I wasn't dealing with a nuclear standoff with China, riots across the state, and the possibility of the human race being wiped out in a matter of hours. If I thought that Division shared any of these concerns, I'd be more than willing to let them handle it alone, but we all know they're made up of people who fiddle while LA -- and pretty much the rest of the world -- burns. This needs to be done right, and the only way that's going to happen is if someone who knows Irina Derevko can monitor her. Which means you."
"It's always nice to be vindicated by default," Nadia said ironically.
"Watch from the observation room in medical," Tony told her.
"How high up on the bureaucratic ladder is this guy?" Michelle asked.
"Someone from the Seattle field office. Guy named Tom Philby."
The security guard escorted the man calling himself Tom Philby into the medical room.
"I'm going to need one of your people to set up an outside server," Philby told the guard.
The guard who had verified Philby's credentials nodded. "I'll tell Director Almeida."
When the man was out of earshot, Philby took out his cell, and dial a number.
"Are you in?" a voice with a British accent asked.
"Yes," Philby said casually.
"How long before you can insert the worm?"
"Less than ten minutes."
12:27:29/12:27:30/12:27:31/12:27:32
When the car came to a stop, Sydney had no clear idea of where they were -- she wasn't even sure that they were in LA anymore. Then she realized something even more important. "What did you do with Sark?"
Sloane looked over his shoulder at her. "What makes you think I'll answer that question?"
"Because if you still trust him after everything he's done, you're even crazier than I thought you were," Sydney told him bluntly.
"I never trusted Sark to begin with," Sloane told him. "But even the bluntest chisel can be used by the most talented artist. I'm going to utilize it for as long as possible before discarding him." He gestured with his weapon. "Now get out of the car."
As she got out of the vehicle, Sydney tried to get a handle on their location, but the lighting was poor. All she could tell was that they were in what appeared to be a row of warehouses near some kind of pier, but that didn't rule much out. "If this is your base of operations, you really have been slumming it," she said as her guards guided her into an open building.
"Another primitive concept," Sloane told her. "You make it sound like I'm just a common criminal. I don't need a hideout, because very soon there will be no reason to hide. Besides, right now all your precious CTU could do if they found me is kill my men. The pain of death is no longer one has any relevance to me."
"They can still stop you from carrying out your insane plan."
"Your confidence in your co-workers is touching," Sloane said, "but unless they were able to mobilize the world's police, they'll never be able to stop them in time. If even one of the vials get through, tens of millions of people will die. The powers that be are going to be focusing all their energy on that. By comparison, I'll have no trouble getting away."
"You're the most wanted terrorist on the planet," Sydney argued.
"And right now, most of them believe that I am already dead," Sloane pointed out. "They're going to focus all their energy on Sark. And in case they aren't, I'm going to turn loose one more surprise."
He took out his cell, and dialed a number. "This is Sloane. Is your man in position?"
"We're just waiting for him to give us the word."
"What about the diversion?" Sloane asked.
"They should be ready to move now."
12:32:19/12:32:20/12:32:21
"What you mean you lost them?" Tony demanded of Chloe.
"The car heading east went through a tunnel at the Santa Monica intersection," Chloe replied patiently.
"We had a roadblock established going in and out of that tunnel," Tony argued.
"I don't know what to tell you," Chloe continued. "LAPD says that no suspicious vehicle came through on either end within the last fifteen minutes."
"And how do you know that?"
"Police report came from Division," Michelle told them.
Tony considered this, then took out his cell.
"Jack Bristow."
"It's Tony. Did you make any progress chasing that car?"
"This a private line?"
By now, Tony had gotten used to the extra level of paranoia from APO. "Of course," he said calmly
"They've done a pretty good job closing down the city. Besides us, only two other cars went past the roadblock at the tunnel." Mr. Bristow paused. "One of them was the car that we were chasing."
"Are you sure?"
"I just got off the phone with Marshall. Using the police cameras located on this stretch of the highway, he tracked the black Ford going east down the highway towards Santa Monica. The police say when they called in to make the report on the car, they received a Code 1 verification to let it go by."
"But the only people with that level of authority are directors," Tony said.
"Hence my request to make this a private call," Mr. Bristow told him.
"Are you accusing me of something?"
"That depends," Mr. Bristow said. "How many people at CTU knew the exact locations of the roadblocks?"
"Jack, we've been monitoring this tracking for almost an hour," Tony assured Sydney's father. "No one at CTU received any calls from the LAPD."
Mr. Bristow considered this for a moment. "Outside of the people at your office, who else knew about the location of the roadblocks?"
A very plausible idea was beginning to gather weight in Tony's mind. "Driscoll at Division," he said slowly. "She called me less than half an hour ago saying she needed to coordinate with LAPD."
"The same people who brought us Ryan Chappelle," Mr. Bristow said coolly. "Can you get her into custody without a fight?"
"Not without attracting some kind of suspicion," Tony said. "I'll contact Hammond; tell her we need to discuss--"
Suddenly the voice on the phone was interrupted by a huge blast of static. "Mr. Bristow? Mr. Bristow?" No response
He ran over to Michelle. "What the hell is happening with our communications?"
"I don't know," Michelle said, sounding just as concerned. "Our computers and servers just went haywire simultaneously."
Tony and Michelle ran over to the center. "What the fuck's going on?"
"I don't know," Chloe said just as frantically. "Someone must have downloaded some kind of virus into our comlink!" She was typing on the keys. "Nothing's responding!"
A horribly plausible idea had just occurred to Tony. "What about our interior security?" he demanded.
"Everything's going haywire!" Chloe shouted.
Suddenly Michelle remembered something, and ran over to Sydney's station. "Sydney hooked us up with a Marshall designed cell a few months back, remember?"
Tony did. "Who do we contact?"
"The only people who can get us through this."
Nadia was dimly aware of the fact that the lights had started flickering and that there was feedback coming from the speakers, but right now her focus was narrowed to a more important matter.
Right now, there was only one person in CTU who didn't seem the least bit concerned by what was going on, and Nadia was betting that it was because he had caused the firestorm. In the past ten minutes, District Agent Philby had made no effort to interrogate Irina Derevko. Instead, he had made a couple of phone calls, typed on the nearest computer screen in the room, then went out into the hallway.
I should have known better than to trust anyone recommended by Division, Nadia thought as she reached for her weapon.
Though she was preparing for a fight, Nadia had doubts whether she had the capacity to engage in one. Her bitching to Tony and Dixon aside, she had undergone minor surgery less than seven hours ago. She was barely able to handle desk work right now, and she had no business going after another rogue agent. Nevertheless, since the cavalry didn't seem to be heading here, she'd have to hope adrenaline would help her carry the day.
She was halfway to the agent, when he saw her, pulled his gun, and fired two shots. Her reflexes allowed her to dodge the bullets, but it cost her as she almost wobbled when she tried to stand back up.
She reached for her phone before remembering that she had tried it a couple of minutes earlier, and had gotten no reception. These people had to be working for her father-- she didn't know any other reason they'd be carrying that kind of tech support.
She began walking as quickly as she could in the direction that Philby had been heading.
12:40:06/12:40:07/12:40:08
Tony had managed to reach Marshall on the cell, and he was now in the process of figuring out what was going on in CTU.
"It's gotta be one of those new Australian-designed communication worms," Marshall said, as he remotely tapped into their server. "Just type in a few keys, and you can block out all communications and destroy all the firewalls within a six-block radius."
"Can you stop it?" Tony yelled into the phone.
"If it were easy as pushing a few buttons, I'd have done it already," Marshall said. "I can fix it, but it's going to take at least ten minutes."
Dixon ran up to Tony. "Our security cameras dead, and I can't reach any of the agents on the outside perimeter," he told him.
"What about the cameras?"
"All dead," Dixon said. "These guys shut us down."
"Oh, that's all we need," Chloe said, as she typed on the keyboard.
"Now what?" Tony demanded.
"The electronic locks to the rooms," Chloe began. "The control mechanism must have been overridden. Someone's sealing everybody in."
Dixon ran back to the entrance, but it was too late.
"Fuck!"
It had taken them the better part of half an hour, but Vaughn and Jack had finally found the Chevrolet that had been heading down the Pacific Coast Highway. They still had no idea whether this was some kind of decoy or not, but both of them had agreed that they no longer had any time to dick around.
"Is the roadblock in place?" Vaughn said over the phone to their backup team.
"You'll hit in half a mile," Curtis told them over the phone.
"All right, get the chain of spikes ready. And be extra careful," Vaughn warned. "These haven't been the kind of the people who do kamikaze runs, but this might be when they start."
After all the effort they'd taken in order to run this guy to ground, the capture was almost anticlimactic. Less than a quarter of a mile from the roadblock, the chains went up, and the car traveled less than a hundred yards before it crawled to a stop.
Jack came out first holding a bullhorn. "Attention driver!" he shouted over the horn. "This is Jack Bauer of CTU. Open the car door, and step out of the vehicle now!"
There was just a long enough pause to concern Vaughn, but then the door opened, and the driver stepped out.
"Put your hands behind your head, and kneel down on the ground!" Jack ordered. The driver did just that so willingly that Vaughn was now ninety-five percent sure that it wasn't Sloane or Sark.
By the time Jack had reached the driver, he could verify that himself. "Get up," he ordered. He pushed the man into the car. "Where the fuck is Sloane?"
"Who?" the man had the nerve to ask
"Arvin Sloane, don't tell me you don't know the fucking name!"
"Sloane's dead," the man told him. "He's been dead for years."
Now Jack was even more pissed, if such a thing was possible. "Now is really not the time to start piling on the bullshit!" he snarled, as he took out his weapon and pointed it at the man's chest.. "I've had a lot of aggression building up all day, and right now I'm willing to take out of it against you, no matter who you fucking work for!"
An angry Jack Bauer could loosen the tongues of far stronger men, and the driver was no exception. "Sark isn't paying me nearly enough for this," he told him.
"You work for Sark?" Jack demanded.
"My orders were to rendezvous with one of our mercenaries, and deliver a payoff. There's a laptop for a computer transaction in the trunk."
By now, the other people at the roadblock had checked the vehicle for explosives. Finding none, Vaughn opened the truck to find the computer.
"Who is this mercenary?" Jack demanded.
"I only knew her as Mandy," the driver told them "The rendezvous was scheduled for the next twenty minutes, at which time there was to be an exchange. Money for a girl.."
"After which you were supposed to kill her?" Vaughn demanded.
"Not until I'd heard back from Sark," the man admitted.
"Where is Sark?" Jack pressed
"I don't know."
Jack pistol whipped the man.
"He said that he had two major pieces of business to take care of within the next hour," the driver said. "I don't know where or when, but that's what he told me."
.Just then, Vaughn's cell rang.
"Now is a really lousy time to--" He stopped mid-statement. "What? Well, why are we only learning this now?!" he demanded.
"What's going on?" Vaughn had paled noticeably.
"It's Marshall. Something's happening at CTU. Now."
12:47:28/12:47:29/12:47:30/12:47:31
It wasn't that hard to track Philby; all Nadia had to do was follow the trail of dead agents. What didn't make sense was that according to them, he was heading back towards the entrance. She didn't believed he created all this sound and fury, and then stealing away without doing what he had come to do..
Then Philby reappeared, and everything else fell away. "Freeze!" Nadia shouted, and trained her weapon on him.
"Well, this is an interesting twist," the hostile said. He didn't move, but he didn't drop his gun either.. "The wounded soldier is going to try and hold me prisoner."
"I'm not going to tell you again," Nadia said as she approached him.
Philby whirled around to fire. She shot him in the chest
"Nadia!" She turned to see Kim approaching with her weapon drawn. "You couldn't have winged him?"
"You really that think that this guy was our only problem?" Nadia pointed out.
Kim didn't answer. Nadia looked up, and saw why.
Seven heavily armed men were walking into the entrance. They were heavily armed and looking royally pissed.
"Drop your weapons," a man in a blue suit who appeared their leader ordered as they walked through the door. His accent was English, but not the same as Sark's
"You're going to kill us anyway," Kim shouted.
"My instructions are to use terminal force," the leader admitted. "However, I'd prefer not to shed blood until it was absolutely necessary. IF you drop your weapons, and don't put up any fight, you and colleagues might yet live to fight another day."
This was bullshit of the highest caliber, but Nadia didn't see many other options. They were outnumbered and outgunned. The only thing to do was at least pretend to play ball.
Nadia put down her weapon. Reluctantly Kim did as well. Two of the gunmen ran next to them, and put their weapons to their heads.
"Secure the entrance, make sure they don't have any backup. You two, find Derevko and the baby."
As the hostiles went to their location, Nadia took a look at the man who was leading this assault. "You know, I thought I knew all the spear carriers my father had working for him," she told him. "But I don't recognize you from any of his old stomping grounds."
"That's because I'm not a ghost from that man's Christmas Past," the head man told them. "I've been a free agent for the last four years."
"And you're not going to introduce yourself?" Kim asked. "Seems the polite thing to do after you've gone to all this trouble."
Blue Suit took a second look at him. "I recognize you," he said.
"Of course you do. You've probably got data sheets on this entire office," Kim said disdainfully
"No, that's not it," the man said. "You're Kim, aren't you? Jack's daughter?"
Knowing that Blue Suit was part of Jack's past was probably important, but for once that seemed to be a secondary concern. Nadia didn't like the look that this man-- whoever he was-- was fixing on Kim.
"When you were very young, Jack said he would do everything he could to protect you," the Brit was telling Kim. "Now here you are, right on the front lines. Guess his priorities have changed."
"I can take care of myself, " Kim countered.
"Really? You're being held prisoner by a small band of mercenaries in a government agency which has essentially become my property," Blue Suit said. "How exactly do you consider yourself safe?"
Before Kim could answer, the Brit's radio blared. "Sir, we've got a problem," a voice said.
"What is it, Tompkins?"
"Irina Derevko's going to be a bit of a problem to move, but we can manage her," Tompkins told him. "We're having trouble locating the baby, Isabelle."
The Brit considered this. "Reactivate the security cameras, and reenter the security room,' he told them. "One of the monitors will tell us where to find the Bristow's daughter."
"Cameras just went back online," Marshall told them.
'What did you do?" Tony asked.
"Not a thing," Marshall replied. "Which means they did it, and that they're looking for something."
"How long until you can break the locks on the doors?" Dixon demanded.
"Two minutes, " Dixon asked.
"Long enough for these people to get what they came for," Michelle muttered.
"How far out are reinforcements?" Chloe asked.
"Mr. Bristow's closer, but it's going to be at least five minutes before he gets out
"There's got to be something we can do," Tony said..
"Wait a minute," Chloe ran over to her keyboard. "If the cameras are back online, we can see who's behind this."
"What good will that do us now?" Dixon said.
"You asked for something we can do," Chloe countered, as she began typing. "At least this way we can see help chase down whoever's doing this violence."
Several seconds later, they were looking at the front entrance. Three men were standing guard over two women.
"Oh Christ," Dixon said. "They've got Nadia and Kim."
"At least they're still alive," Michelle argued.
"We just don't know for how long."
12:55:11/12:55:12/12:55:13
Given Irina's condition and the fact that Isabelle was being held in a secure part of the facility, Nadia had thought that it would take longer for these men to get them out. Instead, it took them less than two minutes to get what they came for.
"You people must have friends in high places," Kim mentioned. "Who gave you access to this facility?"
"You're very talkative," Blue Suit told her disdainfully. "I think that you would do well to speak only when spoken to."
"What are you going to do?" Kim countered. "Kill me twice?"
"No. I think once will be sufficient."
Before anyone could react, Nadia spoke. "What are Sloane's instructions involving me?" she demanded.
The man looked at her. "You're not in a position to ask about anything," he told her.
"You know who I am?" Nadia asked
"We wouldn't have come this far if we didn't."
"Spare her life, and I'll go with you voluntarily," Nadia said frantically
The man on her left looked somewhat shocked. "We've got guns at your heads," he pointed out. "You've got nothing to bargain with."
"You have to know how Sloane operates," Nadia said quickly. "As soon as you give him Irina and Isabelle, he'll take you out of the equation. The only way that all of you will get what you're owed is if you have something that he cares about. I'm basically all that he has left."
"Boss, we don't need--"
Blue Suit held up a hand. "Her life for your freedom?" he asked.
"Yes."
He thought for a moment. "Outside. Now."
The unwieldy entourage of seven armed men, three women, and one infant slowly made their way out of CTU. One of them held back for a moment while they left.
"That's it!" Marshall yelled. "Doors are open."
"Good," Chloe had gone rather pale." 'Cause we need to leave right now."
"What are you…" Tony looked at the monitor and saw what Chloe was seeing. The main entry hall was now empty. In it's place was a large grey box with flashing lights.
"Order an evacuation!" Dixon said.
"Code six!" Michelle shouted over the now working communications. Everybody began to rush towards the exits -- except for one
"How long before the charges go off?" Blue Suit asked.
"Less than ninety seconds," one of the henchmen said.
Blue Suit turned to Kim. "If you wish to keep the life Miss Santos has purchased for you, I suggest you run. Fast. Now."
They made their way towards their vehicles with Nadia now openly struggling. "You can't do this!"
"I promised you Kim's life. No one else's," Blue Suit reminded Nadia. "And I can still reverse my decision on that one."
Kim didn't know what she could do to stop this, but she was determined to try anyway. She had made her way to the entrance when she saw the last thing that she had expected to see-- a man emerging from the building, the bomb in his arms
"Tony?" Kim managed to say.
"Get down!" Tony yelled, as he started to throw the bomb.
The bomb had traveled less than ten feet when it exploded
12:59:57/12:59:58/12:59:59/1:00:00