The Following Takes Place Between
1:00pm and 2:00pm on the day of
United States Presidential Elections
Los Angeles, California
A Disclosed Location
1:00pm
"Try again!" The Attorney General said to agent Reese. There was still no answer. "I just spoke to Captain Braggs like five minutes ago, try him again." Agent Reese tried again but there was still no answer. "He's not picking up sir." Agent Reese said. Jack looked troubled as he whispered to himself, they got to him. Jack then said, "General you need to call the President, now."
The Attorney General wasn't hearing anything that led to that option as he said, "We are NOT doing any such thing. This was and still is a convert operation, if we alert anyone else this could be on our heads."
Jack became very impatient, "You dumb bastard, this will be on your head regardless; you are the Attorney General of the United States. You're actually going to stand there and let an attack happen that you may be able to prevent?"
The Attorney General said, "Do you know who I am Bauer, you need to watch who you're talking to. You don't want to end up like your daughter."
"Sir!" Agent Reese yelled.
Immediately after that remark, Jack grabbed the General by the throat, pushed him against the wall and grunted, "You son-of-a-bitch! Do you know who I am? I'm the man that will cut your tongue out if you speak of my daughter again."
The General could barley breathe as he murmured, "Reese, get this man off of me now." Reese along with another CIA agent pulled Jack off. As the Attorney General stumbled down to his knees, he said, "Get him out of here, now." Jack was then taken back to the old, warn-down bathroom that he and Chloe were taken to when they first got there a few hours earlier.
As he was being taken away, Jack kept yelling, "You need to call the President! You need to do it NOW!"
1:07pm Chloe then stood up and said, "Mr. Attorney General, I think I..." The General interrupted and said, "O'Brian, unless you have an idea, I suggest you keep your mouth closed or else you'll be back there with Bauer." The General stood up, clutched his throat and said, "Reese, you get back in there and see what you can get out of Ivanov and Agent Burk you..."
Chloe then interrupted the General and said, "Look, with all due respect sir, I just wanted to say I think it's wrong that you brought Jack here to help you and then you get rid of him when he's actually right. We need help from the outside but..."
Agent Reese said, "Get to the point O'Brian."
"I was just going to say that despite my feelings of how I got here, I think I may have found a way to stop this threat or at least slow it down. We don't know what the attack actually is but all we know is that it'll likely have something to do with the troops that are being taken to the Staples Center. I can try to contact someone on the inside, someone whose overseeing the transportation."
"Do it." The General said.
Almost simultaneously of that response, Chloe said, "I found someone, a Lt. John Harper, he's one of the men overseeing the transportation, I found him in the security detail manifest while you were arguing with Jack."
"I know Harper." The Attorney General said. Reese then replied, "Can we trust him with this kind of information sir?"
"Right now Reese, all we need is eyes on the ground and to let someone know that Captain Braggs is (for all intensive purposes) out of the picture and someone is going to notice but by then it'll be too late. Make the call Chloe."
Los Angeles Air Force Base
1:11pm
Everyone at the base was getting ready to move out. There were over twenty-thousand troops at the base and they were going being transported by Greyhound buses to the Staples Center, where their respective families and the President would be waiting. The first set of troops were now on the first six buses headed to the arena.
Lt. John Harper was in-charge of the rear, he was getting ready to get in his jeep when another soldier told him of an urgent call that was on a scrambled line.
Lt. Harper said, "This is Lt. Harper...hello?"
"This is the Attorney General, Lieutenant.
Lt. Harper was surprised as he said, "Mr. Attorney General, good to hear from you sir I,..."
The General interrupted, "Excuse me Lieutenant, but I need to get to the point. How secure is the route for the troops as they make it to the Staples Center?"
Lt. Harper responded, "Well we have two jeeps in front and two in the rear. We've blocked off the highway from here all the way to the arena and we have almost every officer in the L.A.P.D at our disposal. We have eyes in the skies as well, safe to say we're pretty secure sir."
"Are you sure Lieutenant?"
"Yes I am sir, excuse me sir but what is this about?"
Lt. Harper could hear the Attorney General take a deep breathe as he said, "I believe there could be an attack of Russian intelligence today during the transportation of the troops or at the actual ceremony at the arena."
Lt. Harper suddenly became extremely nervous, he said, "Excuse me sir? An attack today? How good is the intel?"
"Very strong but nothing concrete yet, we're still trying to figure this out..."
"But sir, if there's the slightest chance we need to alert Captain Braggs."
"That's not possible Lieutenant."
Lt. Harper then said, "Why not!?"
"Cause we believe he's dead."
1:16pm Lt. Harper was becoming more and more nervous from every word the Attorney General was saying. He wasn't just scared for the troops, he was afraid for himself. He then said, "But if the Captain is dead, why are you calling me? Why not call the President, he's on his way here, he could be a target too?!"
"I'm aware of this Lieutenant, but we do NOT want to cause a panic, that might trigger something; all I'm telling you to do is just be aware and keep your eyes open, I'll be calling you back soon. If you need me, call me at this number."
"But sir, we're transporting these troops six buses at a time. This is going to take hours to complete."
"Lieutenant! Just proceed as planned, I'm fully aware of the time-line and tell no one about this conversation. Do you understand me, that's an order."
Lt. Harper reluctantly replied, "...Yes sir I understand."
Air Force One
In Route to Los Angeles
1:19pm
As Kathryn walked in the president's office, she could tell that her husband was nervous, which was a first for Paul. She looked at her husband's tired face and said, "Paul? Honey are you alright, you look tired and its only the afternoon?"
"Just thinking about my speech to the troops." The president responded.
"I heard that you're going to decommission the Russian Compact Act today at the ceremony and I for one think its a great decision."
The president stood up and said, "Yea, that makes one of us."
"What do you mean? I thought you wanted this."
"I thought I did too but now I'm having second thoughts, I just spoke to the Joint-Chiefs and they're giving me no support on this."
Kathryn then said, "What about the vice-president? He has to understand your reasoning for doing this."
"I have NO support Kathryn, none. I'm suppose to go down there to that arena and in front of the world, make a decision that I'm not even sure about."
"But honey..."
"No Kat. According to analyst, pulling out of Russia would be the worst thing to happen to this country and not to mention could cost me re-election. But I agreed, no, I created this Act as a way to bring Russia and America together again. Make both of our countries stronger."
"...And it has Paul. You're the president of the United States first. Which means you have to take care of all problems both foreign and domestic. Besides, no matter what happens by the end of today, I'm still your wife and I'm here for you."
Just then Kathryn noticed Paul was starting to sweat again and breathing heavy. She said, "Paul have you taken your medicine?"
Paul replied, "Yes I did, earlier before the press-conference. I'm just a little on edge that's all."
"Well we'll be landing in Los Angeles soon and you need to be healthy if you're going to speak, the ceremony is forty-five minutes away. Where are your meds?"
"They're in the lounge."
That response irritated Kathryn a great deal as she said, "What are they doing there, you need them Paul, you know that."
Paul said, "I know Kat. Look, can you go and get them for me I need to go over this speech...please?"
Kathryn kissed Paul on the cheek and quickly left to get the medicine.
1:20pm "Ok, tell me what I'm looking at Rob."
Victor was now in his office and on the phone with his assistant. He was also looking at a fax that was just sent to him.
His assistant on the other end responded, "This is a transcript of a phone conversation that happened about six minutes ago. The conversation was between the Attorney General and a Lt. John Harper, now look at section that's highlighted."
Victor read it to himself and the main words that stuck out were: attack, Russian, and today.
"Oh my god, are you sure this is real?" Victor asked.
"Yes sir, I checked the source twice, it was hard to intercept at first cause the call was on a scrambled line but my people were able to create a work-around. But I do wonder why did the AG tell this Lieutenant and not the president sir?"
"Probably cause he doesn't want to stop the ceremony from happening, this event would be the crowning jewel on Paul's presidency. If an attack happened on American soil and the Russians were behind it, the AG would want to leave the president out of it."
Victor briefly read the transcript two more times and asked, "Where did this come from?"
"We're not sure sir?"
"What do you mean, you're not sure?"
"Well as you requested earlier, the call came through the monitored frequency but we're not sure where exactly but we do know that the AG is somewhere in L.A."
Victor then said, "Ok and whose this Lt. John Harper?"
"He's apart of the security detail for the troops that are being transported."
Victor looked at his watch and said, "The troops should be on the highway by now, I'll call you back Rob. You tell no one about this you understand, erase this call after we're done."
"I understand sir but what are you going to do?"
1:26pm As Victor began folding the fax, he said, "I'm going to tell the president about this directly, if this isn't enough to make him change his mind about decommissioning the Russian Act, I don't know what will."
Victor hung up and started walking to the president's office. As he was walking, he noticed more and more secrete-service agents rushing past him as if something was wrong. He managed to stop one of the agents and asked, "What's going on?"
The agent replied, "The president has collapsed in his office!" Victor quickly put the fax in his pocket and ran in the direction of the other agents. As he made it to the president's office, he could see Paul unconscious on the floor and Kathryn next to him in tears.
As Victor started to comfort his sister, he overheard the doctor say, "He's barley breathing, we need to land the plane and get him to a hospital, NOW!
Los Angeles, California
A Disclosed Location
1:30pm
"Sir, you need to look at this." Chloe had said as she had just made a terrifying discovery.
The Attorney General told Reese, who was in the interrogation room with Ivanov, to come and look at the monitors. Reese said, "What's this about O'Brian?"
"I've been looking into the databases with agent Burk, trying to find out what the attack could be and I've found something."
Agent Burk then explained, "On the Russian ship that Ivanov stole, there were several weapons of mass destruction. Since the ship was destroyed a week ago, we couldn't find any trace of exactly what kind of weapons were stolen. But some of our CIA agents found a label just right off the coast. It had washed up on the beach along with several other debris from the ship. We're still not sure where Ivanov hid the weapons but this label reads, VBIED (Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Device)"
The Attorney General was trying to put the pieces together in his head and then asked, "So what does this mean?"
"Well as you know sir, extremist around the world have always used these weapons for years and these, "car bombs", have been used to take out cars, trains, and..."
Agent Reese interrupted and said, "Buses."
Suddenly the atmosphere of the room quickly became very tense. The Attorney General said, "So you're saying that the buses could be the targets?"
"I wouldn't rule it out sir." Agent Burk replied.
Reese then said, "It makes sense, Ivanov wanted us to capture him and keep us distracted while they made their move. Bauer was right. There are currently three-hundred plus soldiers on those six buses and they are already on route to the Staples Center. Sir, you need to call Lt. Harper and warn him of the information."
"The Attorney General quickly asked, "O'Brian, can you track them or disarm the bombs from here? You did those kinds of things at CTU?"
Chloe responded, "Um yes sir I did, but seeing how you don't have that kind of technology here, I can't. We don't even know if there are bombs on the buses or not."
1:38pm Everyone was becoming very scared, the Attorney General then said, "Make the call to Lt. Harper, unfortunately he's the only chance we got right now."
Los Angeles Highway 110
On Route to Staples Center
1:39pm
Lt. Harper was in his jeep with two other soldiers as he was driving behind the first jeep. Both jeeps were trailing the six buses. Lt. Harper was on edge the entire time, clutching his phone and hoping the Attorney General would call back with some good news.
Suddenly his phone rang and Lt. Harper answered instantly, he said, "This is Lt. Harper?"
"Lieutenant, its me the Attorney General, don't say anything just, just listen. I believe that the attack I spoke of earlier has to do with the six buses that are carrying the first set of troops. We believe that the buses are possibly rigged with explosives."
Those words sent chills up Lt. Harper's spine, he then swallowed hard and said, "Ok, and what should we do?"
"Let the others know that we're changing the route, you need to make this look as effortless as possible. You're going to get off on the next exit where we will have a swat team and a bomb squad available."
Lt. Harper knew that that option wasn't good enough, it would be at least fifteen more minutes before they would reach that exit and anything could happen between now and then. Lt. Harper then said, "Well what if I could do something before then?"
"No, it won't work just follow the plan, that's an order Lieutenant."
"I'm sorry sir, I can't do that."
"I gave you an order Lieutenant!"
Lt. Harper quickly hung up the phone and started driving along the left side of the buses, the other soldiers in the jeep were asking, "What are you doing sir, you're deviating from the route. Lt. Harper took out his radio and said, "Teams A and B pull back, I repeat, PULL BACK NOW AND STOP THE BUSES!"
Everyone that was part of the operation wasn't sure what was going on. As the six buses made a complete stop, Lt. Harper walked out the jeep and ran towards the buses. He then shouted, "Everyone off the buses!" He noticed that the bus drivers didn't hear him. Ignoring the calls from the soldiers behind him, he shouted again, "Everyone off the..."
1:48pm Lt. Harper's shout was instantly met by a series of explosions that was followed by tire screeches and blaring horn screams; Lt. Harper's body slammed against the jeeps and the shattering glass sliced across his face and arms. He looked up only to see all six buses were engulfed in flames.
Los Angeles, California
A Disclosed Location
1:53pm
"...All of the buses exploded sir...the reports are in." Chloe said to the Attorney General.
Everyone was quiet not sure what to say or how to react. The Attorney General kept saying to himself, "We failed...we failed." He then walked away from the monitors and went into another room. The air was dead and everyone had that same sense that the Attorney General had, the sense of failure.
Agent Reese, who could barley speak uttered, "Agent Burk, contact the president, its time he knows the truth."
Suddenly another CIA agent came into the room and said, "Sir I..."
Reese quickly responded, "NOT now, agent."
The agent replied, "But sir I think we may have a problem, the other agents that were guarding the first floor haven't checked in yet."
"Maybe they're just using another frequency?"
"No I don't think so sir, its been almost ten minutes and we check in every five minutes."
Reese went over to agent Burk, who was trying to reach the president, and said, "Agent Burk, check the cameras on the first floor."
Reese was shocked by what he saw, all four agents that were guarding the first floor of the school were dead.
"Check the second floor."
The second floor had at least seven men raiding and searching each classroom with guns. The men were unfamiliar to Reese and they had black masks on.
Reese quickly looked up at Ivanov, who was in the interrogation room, and said, "Dammit, their coming for Ivanov!"
As Reese took out his gun, he told the CIA agent, "I want you to go out into the hall and tell everyone we have left to get in here now! Agent Burk, you get Ivanov cleaned up and ready for transport. O'Brian you go and alert the Attorney General."
"Ok but where are you going?" Chloe asked.
Reese ran into the bathroom where Jack was being held and said, "Jack I need you to come now."
Jack simply responded, "I'm doing anything until you tell me what happened? Did the Attorney General call the president?"
Reese responded, "No Jack, we thought we could handle it but we couldn't, six buses that were transporting the soldiers to the Staples Center exploded several minutes ago."
"My god."
"But Jack we have a another problem, we have hostels on the second floor and it won't be long until they make it to the fourth floor. We need to go now."
1:58pm Jack was struck with surprise as he said, "You know they're coming for Ivanov."
"Yes Jack I know, that's why we need to leave now."
Jack then said, "Fine let's go."
Reese then stopped Jack for second and took out another gun, gave it to Jack and said, "Here, you're going to need this."
"Do you really trust me with this?"
Reese then said, "Right now Jack I don't have much of a choice."
As Reese left the bathroom Jack suddenly felt a strange sensation coming over him. He was breathing hard and started to point the gun to his chin. "Don't fight it, DON'T FIGHT IT!" He kept thinking to himself and as he started to pull the trigger, Reese called out, "Jack we need you, now!"
Jack then held back the tears and said, "I'm coming!"
2:00pm
*The following takes place simultaneously within
the last ten minutes of the hour*
Glendale, California
An abandoned construction site
1:53pm
"Get out of the car Stephen!" Turner had said for a second time.
Stephen was too afraid to move so Turner pointed the gun to his shoulder and escorted him out of the car. Turner instructed Stephen to keep walking until he told him to stop.
As Stephen was slowly walking, he said, "Look Turner you, you don't have to do this. I believe that you didn't kill Kim, you were just doing your job, so you still have a way out and I can help you!"
"Keep walking." Turner said.
"Please Turner, I'm begging you. Please don't take me away from my daughter, she's all I have left. She already lost her mother, just please re-think this."
Turner then said, "Stop."
Stephen stopped near the edge of the cliff they were walking on.
Turner then said, "Get on your knees."
1:55pm Behind them, off in the distance, there was a woman walking down the dirt road. As as she saw tire tracks she began to walk faster, following the tracks.
Stephen, whose hands were stilled handcuffed behind his back, turned around and said, "No, if you're going to kill me, to kill a father...then you are going to have to look me in my eyes."
Turner pointed the gun towards Stephen's head said, "Fine, if that's what you want."
"HEY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" The woman had suddenly yelled out.
Turner turned around, saw the woman and yelled, "Lady get back!"
A second after, Stephen shoved his shoulder into Turner's body and they both fell to the ground. Turner quickly grabbed the gun and got up. He began to point the gun but Stephen kicked it out of his hands and off into the distance. Turner punched him in the mouth and then in nose.
Stephen fell back to the ground.
1:58pm Turner reached into his pocket and pulled out a knife. He held it high above his head to perform the execution when a gun shot was fired. Stephen tucked his head, not sure where the shot came from and as Turner slowly turned around, he saw the woman with his gun her hand. Turner then looked down at his chest which was bleeding profusely and collapsed.
The woman dropped the gun and looked in horror at what she had just done.
2:00pm