Thanks to everyone who reviewed part 1! Here's part 2, which takes place probably 10 minutes after part 1. Feedback is very much appreciated.
"Listen, I need you to talk to the warden," Jack instructs CTU Director Brian Hastings as they walk onto the roof toward a helicopter. "Make sure he understands that we need my visit to be kept completely off-book, and make sure we limit the flow of information on our end. I don't want anyone to know that I'm there to talk to Tony."
"Why's that?" Brian asks Jack skeptically, though he seems to already have an idea what the answer is.
Jack looks around to make sure nobody else is listening. "Because we might have the opportunity to use Tony to lure this guy in, and I don't want to blow that chance before we even know whether it's the right move."
Hastings sighs. "Isn't this how you always get yourself in trouble, Bauer? Your mission is simple here…go down there, find out what Almeida knows, tell us what he gives you and we'll see if we can use any of it to find Cardiff. No sting operations, understood?"
"Understood," Jack agrees. "I told you before, I'm just going to talk to Tony, see if he knows anything that can help us. But you don't close off options before you know what your options are. The fewer people who know I'm going down there to see him, the more options we have."
"Fine. But anything you do goes through me, do you understand?"
"I understand," Jack agrees.
"Good," Hastings says warily. "Agent Walker went to change…she'll be up here in a minute."
"Why is she coming with me?" Jack asks, clearly caught off guard and not happy about this news.
Hastings gives Jack a look that says "come on, Jack, what did you expect?"
"Well, for starters, you don't technically work for the government," Hastings explains. "We're asking the warden to violate at least 10 regulations…I thought it might be nice to have someone with you who actually carries a badge. And if I'm going to have to justify sending a chopper all the way out there to transport someone who technically doesn't even work for us to chase a lead that may or may not produce anything, I may as well send someone to help vet the intel so that when I do my budget sheets, I can certify that this was used for official business."
"Fine," Jack agrees reluctantly. "But I need to speak to Tony alone."
"I'll let the warden know," Brian agrees.
Jack sighs as he sees Renee walk onto the roof. Hastings sees the sympathetic look on Jack's face and takes that as his cue to leave.
"Are we all set?" he asks Jack. Jack nods. "Thanks, Brian," he says absent-mindedly, his mind focused on Renee as she approaches.
Hastings nods to Renee as he walks past her and goes back into the building.
Jack turns to Renee and places his hand on her arm sympathetically. "Listen, Renee, I know what you're doing, and take it from me, you don't want to do this," he says sympathetically, thinking back to the day Nina Meyers was released from prison and everyone had tried to get him to leave before she arrived, but he had found himself wanting to stick around for some odd reason, needing to catch a glimpse of her. He understands now why everyone tried to get him to go home before she got there.
Renee shakes off Jack's arm. She knows exactly what he means and part of her knows that he is right, but she does not want to accept that he may be right and she finds his tone and the implications of what he said to be a bit patronizing.
"Of course I don't want to, Jack," she says flatly. "You think I want to be anywhere near the man who killed Larry and over 20 of my coworkers?"
"No. And I think everyone would understand if you wanted to have one of Brian's people do this instead."
She sighs. She is about to snap that it's her job and he should just let her do it, but she realizes that Jack is just looking out for her. It's something she's not used to on the job, at least not for a long time.
"Listen, Jack, I appreciate your looking out for me, but this isn't going to work unless you let me do my job," she says firmly.
"You're right…I'm sorry," Jack agrees.
"Let's just get this over with, alright?" she says flatly, meaning it as a truce offering even though she's still feeling irrationally angry at Jack, as she has since he first said that he had to go speak to Tony about 10 minutes ago.
"Yeah," Jack says softly as they get into the helicopter, still uneasy as he senses a bit of hostility from her. He knows that this is a sore spot for her, and is painfully aware that disagreements over how to handle Tony's case had caused a rift between them once and threatened their "relationship" before it even got started. He just hopes whatever they have now is strong enough to survive this day regardless of what they end up having to do to avert this latest crisis.