The Following Takes Place Between

3:00pm and 4:00pm

Los Angeles, California

A Disclosed Location

3:00pm

Everything happened so fast. That's the one thing that kept going through Jack's head as Ivanov, Vladimir, Vladimir's men were making their way downstairs of the high school; pushing Jack along the way. Just a few short hours earlier, Jack was attending his daughter's funeral and now he was being taken by unknown terrorist.

Vladimir's men were talking to him from their radios. They were speaking Russian but Jack still understood what they were saying. Vladimir's men were still looking for Chloe but they couldn't find her.

Jack only hoped that she got away.

They had made it out the building and Jack finally got a sense of where he was. Jack and Chloe were abducted hours earlier and brought to the abandoned high school but they were unconscious at the time. The surrounding area looked to be abandoned. Jack could only guess but they were probably in Hollands or maybe Eldoradoville, located right outside the city. Jack was exhausted and to make matters worse, it was mid-afternoon so the humidity as well as the temperature was pretty high.

3:06pm As they all walked out the high school, a black van quickly pulled up and out the back came four more men with black mask on. They took Jack and

Ivanov; they then put a black sheet over Jack's head as Vladimir said, "Put him in the back." As the men put Jack in the van and helped Ivanov in, the rest of Vladimir's men came around from the back of the school.

One of the men said, "We couldn't find her sir. She must have got away using one of the CIA vehicles."

Vladimir thought for a few seconds and said, "Alright, it doesn't matter anyway, you and the rest of the team depose of the bodies and torch the school."

One of the men then said, "But sir what if she tells someone and exposes us!?"

"Every law-enforcement and government agency in this city and country is focused on our attack on the highway of a couple of hours ago. By the time this woman exposes anything about us, it'll be too late."

At that point another van pulled up behind the first and out came several more men with black mask and they were carrying cans of gasoline.

Vladimir then said, "I need to go, you stay and take care of this, I want this place to be nothing but ashes do you understand me?" His men nodded and Vladimir simply said, "Me and Bauer have a plane to catch."

Los Angeles, California

South Spring Apartments

3:08pm

"Ok so to recap, we're going enter in from the west side of the complex. Now, we know the hostel is in apartment B12, which is on the second floor so I want men guarding all the exists on the second floor, as well as the first. We also know that there are children within the apartment as well so only use rubber bullets, I don't want ANY kids getting hurt here. Is that understood?"

Sergeant Brooks was walking his men through the plan for infiltrating the apartment and extracting the hostel, who ran into the complex several minutes earlier. John was doing damage control at the front of the complex. In just several minutes the complex became a media frenzy and people who lived in the apartments were all watching in terror as their complex had now been taken over by dozens upon dozens of S.W.A.T officers.

John could see that Sergeant Brooks and his team were getting ready to go in. John then ran up to Sergeant Brooks and said, "Sergeant I need to speak to you for a minute."

John and Brooks walked over and underneath a stairwell. Brooks asked, "How much does the media know?"

John replied, "All anyone knows at this point, is that this is a crazy man, holding children hostage in one of the apartments. No one knows that this man has something to do with the attack on the highway."

"Good keep it that way." Brooks was about to walk back, as John said, "Sergeant, I want to go in with you."

Brooks then said, "Look Lieutenant, I know you want to help but I can't allow it. You're not L.A.P.D. I need you to..." John interrupted, "Sergeant, I was there when those buses exploded, killing those men and women. I witnessed it first hand, I need to make this right. Now, I brought you to this man and if he knows anything about who perpetrated that attack, I want to hear it."

Brooks was still very hesitant. John then said, "I know combat and tactics, I fought in Afghanistan for 3 years and no disrespect, but I probably have more experience than most of your men."

Brooks started pacing as he said, "You know, I'm probably breaking several codes here but we don't have a lot time, this man could kill those kids any minute. Grab a vest and a gun."

3:15pm John quickly grabbed a gun and put on a vest.

All the apartments were connected so Sergeant Brooks and his men were going to be entering from one of the connected apartments. Brooks and his men were coming in from the left and John and several other officers were coming in from inside the apartment, right of the targeted one. As everyone made it to their positions, Brooks said through his com-unit, "Teams A is in position, check in Teams B and C?"

Officers from both teams said, "We're in position."

One of the officers had an infrared device that could see through walls and was able to pin-point the hostel as well as the children. Everyone checked their guns, trying to be quiet as possible. John's heart was beating fast and his forehead was soaked with sweat.

He then adjusted the com-unit in his ear as he heard Brooks say, "On my mark...1...2...3...GO, GO , GO. MOVE IN!" One of the officers threw in a smoke grenade. "MASK ON!" Brooks yelled as everyone rushed in. No shots were fired; the officers were able to extract the children but there was no sign of the hostel. Brooks then yelled, "GET THOSE KIDS OUT OF HERE. HAVE THEM TREATED FOR MEDICAL ATTENTION!"

John along with the other officers were trying to locate the hostel. John then saw a window was open, he peeked out and saw the hostel running up to the third floor. John yelled, "Hostel running up the stairs to the third floor, I'm in pursuit!"

John ran after the hostel and two other officers joined him. The man ran to the end of the third floor balcony. He stopped and was positioning himself to jump when John pointed his gun and yelled, "STOP! DON'T MOVE!" John kept aim at the hostel when he said on his com-unit, "I have hostel, he's on the third floor and..."

3:21pm John stopped talking cause the man started pointing his gun in John's direction. As John was aiming to fire, two shots fired out from behind him. The hostel went to the ground. As John ran over to the hostel, he noticed something. The man was bleeding profusely.

He took a quick look at the wounds and said, "Wait a second, these aren't rubber bullets." John turned around and saw that the two officers that had followed, take off their com-units. Brooks showed up behind them and said, "Take him in the apartment."

John wasn't sure what was going. As the two officers were taking him to a near apartment, John asked, "Sergeant, what are you doing, this man needs medical attention, he's going to die."

Brooks replied, "Not before I get done with him."

"I don't understand?"

"This man, along with the people he's working with killed hundreds of lives just two hours ago. He's going to pay for what he did."

John was a little confused, he said, "Look Sergeant this man is bleeding out, if we don't get him the attention he needs, any chances of getting this information dies with him."

Brooks's eyes started to fill up with tears as he said, "Don't worry about that, I'll get the information out of him."

"Wait, you're not actually to torture this man are you? Look I'm just as angry as you are but you can't torture someone, not here. Its illegal."

"Oh please spare me Lieutenant, you of all of us should know that there's no such thing as legal when you're dealing with these kinds of people. These people came on our soil and killed our people, we don't have time for due-process."

Brooks started to go into the apartment where the officers had took the hostel when John said, "Sergeant, you can't do this, he's going to die before you get anything out of him!"

Brooks replied, "I'll be the judge of that." Brooks looked at one of the officers and said, "No ones comes in here until I come out, you understand me?" John tried to go after Brooks but Brooks closed and locked the door.

John was becoming highly upset as he looked at one of the officers and said, "Look officer, you have to stop him from doing this. He's going to kill that man and we need him alive."

The officer walked up to John said, "You either back away or I'll make you." John then heard a loud scream coming from inside the apartment.

Glendale, California

3:32pm

Stephen felt like his entire life had changed within a matter of a few short hours. Earlier he had discovered that Kim's death was not an accident and that she was murdered. Then, on a hunt to find the truth, he now became part of an even bigger plan that involved the same people that not only murdered his wife but killed hundreds of American soldiers hours earlier.

Stephen was in the back of a van. Stephen, who was still shocked over the death of the woman that tried to help him, couldn't stop shaking. The leader of this group, that had abducted Stephen, was also sitting in the back of the van. Stephen still didn't know where they were going or what they wanted him to do.

He was then able to take a deep breathe and murmured, "Why did you kill those people back there? They were good people."

The leader, who was sitting across from Stephen, said, "Because we can, and if you really want an answer, then ask your president? "Stephen, who was hunched over, sat up and said, "Look you've already killed hundreds of people, you take me away from my daughter, you're forcing me to do god knows what, and you people killed my wife! I think you owe me a better explanation."

The leader looked at Stephen for several seconds.

3:36pm He then moved from his previous position and sat next to Stephen. Stephen began to develop tears in his eyes as he whispered, "Please, don't make me do this, I just want to see my daughter again... Please." At that moment, the leader took out a small knife and stabbed Stephen in the shoulder. Stephen could only scream in agony as the leader stuck the knife deeper.

He then whispered something in Russian and then said, "I don't owe you or your people ANYTHING! The only thing you need to know is if you don't do this, we will kill you and don't think for one second that we won't come for your daughter after we've killed you. THAT IS NOT A THREAT, ITS A PROMISE!

"Urie, we're almost at the house sir."

One of the leader's men had said from the front of the van. Urie then pulled the knife from Stephens shoulder and said, "Now get ready, you're almost home."

Los Angeles, California

South Spring Apartments

3:38pm

John was growing impatient, he felt somewhat helpless. It had only been several minutes since Brooks took the hostel in the apartment. John knew he had to act fast, the hostel was their only lead to the highway bombings. This was also wrong on a moral level as well. John was solider, so he knew that sometimes you have bend the rules for the greater good but this was too much for him. John hated the idea of torture and needed to get the hostel out as soon as possible.

John walked to the front door of the apartment and asked one the officers, "Why is the Sergeant doing this? Torture is illegal in this country."

The officer replied, "Look, if you must know, the sergeant had a son that died earlier today on the highway."

John was even more worried as he whispered to himself, "Jesus." John then said, "Why the hell is he still on duty? Look officers, I'm sure your sergeant is a good man, but today is not the day to lose site." The officer replied, "Look, lieutenant, I'm not going to ask you again, back up!"

John then said, "Officer, if this man dies, you two would be held accountable. If anything else happens today it'll be on your head." The officer then pointed his gun at John and shouted, "Move!" John took another step forward and said, "No, I'm not going anywhere, this is not right!"

The officer started to cock his gun when the apartment door finally opened. As the door opened, Brooks yelled, "Get EMT in here now! John peeked inside and saw the hostel on the ground, with blood all over his body.

"My god!" John said as the EMTs made into the room. Brooks pulled John over and walked him to the balcony. John quickly said, "Get your hands off me! You nearly killed that man, how are we supposed to get any kind of information out of him now?" Brooks, who was wiping blood off his hands and vest, said, "Look calm down, I did what needed to be done. These bastards killed my son, what do you expect me to do?"

John replied, "In war, you never let your enemies get the best of you. That's what we're in, a war and you can't..." Brooks interrupted, "Look, the man's name was Filip Petrov. He confessed to killing a captain Braggs a few hours ago at the air force base.

John stopped talking and then said, "He told you this?"

"Yes, not only that, he also told me that this isn't over. In fact the highway bombing was "phase 1", and "phase 2" is already in effect." John was getting more and more concerned as Brooks continued, "And you were right, this is Russian intelligence, he mentioned a group by the name of ARA. Lieutenant, these people killed my son and they're going to continue with their plan. I'm going to do whatever it takes to stop these people. Last thing he told me was that the next target will be a hospital."

John then asked, "Which hospital?"

3:45pm At that moment, a shot was fired and Brooks was unable to speak. John looked down and saw that a bullet had found itself into Brooks's throat. Brooks fell to the ground as John looked across the street at a warehouse and could see the gunman running.

As other officers rushed upstairs and over to Brooks, John yelled, "Tell your men you've got a shooter in the warehouse across the street heading west!" Officers began running to the warehouse, other officers were trying their hardest to keep people back, and the EMTs began working on Brooks. John could tell that Brooks was losing a lot of blood very fast and he probably wasn't going to make it. John knelt down and told the EMTs to move away for a second.

John then whispered , "Sergeant, there's a chance you might not make it. I need to know which hospital are the Russians going to attack? Is it here in L.A.?"

Brooks could barely speak but managed to murmur something but John couldn't hear it. John whispered again, "Which hospital?" Brooks eyes started to roll back and John yelled, "Christ, he's going into shock!"

The EMTs shoved John aside and hooked brooks up to the gurney. As they began to rush both brooks and the hostel downstairs, John's cell phone began to rang. John quickly answered, "This is Lieutenant Harper... Hello?"

The voice on the other end responded, "Lieutenant Harper, please don't hang up, they've killed everyone and now they took Jack and I don't know what else to do..."

"Ok, slow down, who is this and how did you get my number?"

The voice on the other end said, "It's Chloe O'Brian, and I remembered your number from CIA database." John was really confused as he said, "Ok you need to start explaining fast Ms. O'Brian,"

Chloe then said, "Hours ago this morning, me and my friend were abducted by the CIA and were forced to assist the Attorney General in stopping the attack that happened on the highway. But the terrorists found us and took my friend and I don't know who else to turn to. I know it sounds hard to believe but..."

"No it doesn't actually. Let me speak to the Attorney General now!"

"That's not possible, cause... cause I think he might be dead."

John was stunned as he said, "Oh my god, look where are you now?"

"I'm on 5th and Grand, I took one of the CIA cars."

John, who was walking back downstairs, said, "Ok, if you're telling me the truth then we don't have a lot of time. They could be trailing you, so you need get out of the car and I want you to go to my house and stay there. The address is, 8605 Santa Monica Blvd. There's a key under the mat, once you get inside, an alarm will sound and the code is 1224. You'll be safe, my wife will be home soon. "

3:51pm Chloe then said, "But I'm not sure if I'm comfortable with staying..." John interrupted, "Look we need to meet now O'Brian. I'll be there in about twenty minutes."

Glendale, California

3:52pm

Stephen had just got done putting on his scrubs.

The terrorists group had took him back home cause they wanted him to change into his work attire. Stephen was in the bathroom, crying as he was putting on his hospital shoes. He shuttered to think what the Russians wanted him to do. He wasn't sure but he knew it involved the very hospital that he worked at.

One of the terrorists banged on the bathroom door and yelled, "Hurry up Stephen!" As Stephen was wiping tears from his eyes, he saw the picture in the bathroom of Kim, himself and Teri. It was a picture of them playing with Teri during bath time. Stephen was obviously scared, he didn't want his daughter to see her dad as the man who helped terrorist.

He couldn't live that.

He wrapped his hand with a towel. As the Russian again said, "Hurry up now!" Stephen punched the mirror and grabbed a shard of glass. The Russian heard the noise and started to kick the door open. Stephen took one long, deep breathe and as the Russian was able to open the door, Stephen took the class and jammed it right the neck. As the Russian fell to the ground Stephen ran into his bedroom and locked the door. As he ran to the window, he could hear the Russians yelling and rushing up the stairs.

As they started to bang on the bedroom door, Stephen picked up the house phone and began to call the police. It wasn't no more than a few seconds after someone answered the phone, that the Russians opened the door. Without hesitation, Stephen opened the window and jumped out.

Some where outside the city of Los Angeles

Hanger 12

3:56pm

"Take them out the van." Vladimir said to his men. They were at an old air-hangar, just outside the city and a few feet away was a private jet that was ready to leave. As Vladimir's men were walking Jack and Ivanov to the jet, a woman walked out and said, "Vladimir, you have a phone call."

Vladimir walked over to her, kissed her and said, "The attack on the highway was a success, and we retrieved Ivanov."

The woman looked at Ivanov, who was boarding the jet and said, "My god Vladimir, he looks like hell."

"It was all for a good cause, is the doctor on board?"

"Yes he is, did you get Bauer."

At that moment, Vladimir pulled the black sheet off of Jack's head and the woman suddenly looked puzzled.

Vladimir asked, "What's wrong...do you know him?"

The woman replied, "No I...I've never seen him before." Jack, who remained silent, noticed that the woman had an American accent.

Vladmire grabbed the woman by the arm and whispered, "Elena, don't lie to me, do you know Bauer!?"

The woman looked at Bauer once more and said, "Yes we had an affair years ago."

Jack was the one who now looked puzzled because he tried to think long and hard but to his best knowledge, he had never seen the woman in his life. He didn't know her but she obviously knew him. Vladimir then motioned for his men to put Jack on the jet.

The woman then gave Vladimir a cell-phone. Vladimir took the phone and said, "Yes?"

The person on the other end replied, "Yes Vladimir, its Urie."

"Why are you calling me?"

"Sir, we have a little problem, the American that we were using has gotten away. But he couldn't of gone far, we'll find him."

"Then why are you calling me?"

Urie then said, "Well sir, you might want to hold off on phase 3 of the operation until we have fully completed phase 2 and with the American gone, its going to put us behind schedule and..."

3:59pm Vladimir interrupted, "Urie! I don't care what you have to do, the attack window is closing. Your target was the children's hospital and I don't want you calling me again until its done. Do you understand me? We've worked far too long to let one American and your carelessness get in the way of what we're trying to accomplish. We're heading back to Arizona to prep for phase 3, which means, within the next hour, I should be watching the news and hearing that hundreds of children were killed at the hospital.

Urie said, "Yes sir, phase 2 will be completed. Sorry to bother you."

Vladimir hung up the phone and as he looked at Jack through one of the passenger windows he yelled to the pilot, "Take us out of here!"

4:00pm