Tony and Jack were standing at the other end of the corridor, looking over to the eight members of the committee, who had left the room through the other door, along with their advisor.
Come on, are you still trying to butter her up? The hearing's over.
Who? Audrey Raines?
Yes, who else? You've been soft-soaping her for hours yesterday.
And yet she seemed to have only eyes for you.
Jealous? Michelle's in L.A. waiting for your return.
You don't have to remind me of that, trust me. But better be careful, Jack, she's married.
Michelle?
No, Audrey Raines.
I know, I saw the ring. Trust me, I'd never compromise the mission like that. She's still got her fingers in the play, even after we got the committee's approval.
We don't have the go yet, Jack. It's still subject to the condition of you passing their fitness test tomorrow.
I wouldn't worry about that.
Really?
They stopped their talk as they saw her come over. Nobody of them said a word, because they didn't want her to hear what they'd been talking about. Tony's worries that Jack might fail the committee's fitness test? Or that they'd openly discussed the fact that she was married and off limits because of her position?
"Agent Almeida, Agent Bauer", she greeted them again, though they'd already met in the committee hearing.
"Ms. Raines.", Tony put on his biggest fake smile again.
"I guess you'll be flying home to coordinate everything?", she asked.
He nodded, yes. "My flight leaves at seven. I'll start coordinating everything as soon as we have the final go."
She turned to Jack, looking at him from head to toe. "That should be determined by tomorrow afternoon. You're expected to be here at eight thirty tomorrow for a routine check with our specialists. Please don't see this as an offense, Agent Bauer, but the United States of America will be spending a lot of money on this mission. The committee wants to make sure that you're really up to this."
"It's not an offense", Jack shook his head, "I already said I'm okay with it."
She was glad that he accepted what others would probably see as a personal offense. "Thank you for understanding. I better let the two of you finish whatever you still need to do today, but…", she took a deep breath and held it, "… could you come see me in my office, Agent Bauer, when you're finished here?"
For a second, Tony and Jack exchanged worried glances. What the hell was that about? The hearing was over, what else could she need?
"Room 412, down the hallway, right side.", she added, "It was a pleasure to meet you, Agent Almeida, if you need anything, feel free to call me." They shook hands and she left them back alone.
"What does she still want from you?", Tony hissed at Jack, after she was far enough away.
He shrugged. "No idea. Must have something to do with tomorrow."
"Whatever it is… don't let her lead you up the garden path", he told Jack, "I don't have a good feeling. And don't get into a fight with her again, that's an order!"
"I won't." Jack looked after her, she just disappeared round he corner.
"I'll see you back at CTU", he heard Tony say. He said his goodbyes and then he followed her, down the hallway, turning right at the point where he'd last seen her, to get to room 412. He was still curious, what she could want from him, why she had ordered him into her office.
The door stood open as he arrived there. She was standing at the window, telling him to come in.
He closed the door behind him and slowly went over to her table. For the first time, he was alone in a room with her. The tension grew. She was only an advisor to the committee, but even advisors had quite some power around here. They could filter all the information the committee would get, or sugar-coat it or even make things look worse.
"Please, have a seat, Agent Bauer.", she said, walking back over to her table to sit down as well.
Then she looked at the man sitting in front of her. "You might not know why I asked you to come here.", she began.
He shook his head, "I don't. But most likely it has got something to do with tomorrow?"
"Yes, indeed. The standard DoD test to clear an agent for field work includes a fitness test and a psychological evaluation."
"A shrink?"
"Exactly." She could see the surprise in his eyes. "After all, you'll be going on a mission trying to maintain an extensive cover story. That includes some degree of mental stability."
"The cover story isn't that extensive.", Jack cut in. "Most parts of it are just reality. I won't even use a fake name, I'll go there using my true identity."
"Don't you think that this makes it even harder?", she asked.
He silently shook his head. "No."
"There will be an awful lot of questions tomorrow, Agent Bauer", she sighed and opened up the file on her table, "About your life, about the death of your wife, about your work at CTU, about your family relations…"
"What?!" He felt his level of anger rising.
She saw it, too, closed the file and leant back into her chair. For a moment she wondered why she wasn't afraid right now. She could see his anger boiling. She knew that just opposite the table, there was a trained killer. There were over one hundred and fifty confirmed kills in his file.
"I'm on your side, Agent Bauer.", she silently added, trying to calm him down again. "I read your cover story quite some times, also critically. Now that the hearing's over I am allowed to say that I personally believe this mission plan is a good one. I don't want this mission to fail tomorrow."
He sat there, staring into her eyes. Was she playing him? Was she already probing him, for tomorrow? Or was she really on his side, trying to prepare him for that psychological evaluation?
"So you know what they'll ask me?"
She silently opened up the file and showed him the list of questions. But she kept it at her side. "I'm not allowed to hand that over to you."
"Do you also have the answers?", he asked her.
"What answers?"
"There must be a 'right' answer to each of their questions."
"That's not how a psychological evaluation works, Agent Bauer.", she smiled. "You know that."
He sighed and also leant back into his seat. "Unfortunately.", she murmured. Tony had given him a list of possible questions the day before yesterday, thinking that the committee might ask them. But they had escalated that to the next level, letting a shrink ask him these unpleasant questions. "What are they gonna ask?" He knew that he should be thankful for getting the chance to know their questions beforehand.
Audrey left out the unimportant intro questions and read the first interesting one. "Why did you volunteer for this mission?"
"I was the only logical choice. There is no-one else at CTU Los Angeles who qualifies for field work but has a history like me."
"Why do you believe that the operative's history is that important?" It was not a question from the list, but she guessed that this would be the logical follow-up question. "They could use your history as a reference and create such a background story for any other agent."
"We don't know how deep their connections into the U.S. administration are. We can't rule out the possibility that there's a mole. They would find out about the cover story right away if it wasn't supported by real-life evidence."
"But that shouldn't be one of your concerns, right? You're talking about a mole possible anywhere in the administration and in the agencies."
"We can't know if there is one."
"If we thought like that, we could never again send any agent on an undercover mission, Agent Bauer. That can't be your primary concern.", she looked into his blue eyes. "Are there any other reasons why you think that the strong connection between reality and the cover story might be important?" She knew the concerns of the committee, which the shrink would address with the following questions.
Even Jack could sense the way into which this was going. "They're drug dealers. We can't be sure if they'll use psychoactive substances to assess if the operative's cover story is a fake or not."
"So you expect them to put you on drugs and question you about your history?"
"The chances are fifty fifty in my opinion."
"Do you have a problem with this?", she asked, eager to hear his answer.
"No."
She hadn't expected such a quick, cold answer. "Are you really sure, Agent Bauer?", she asked him again, "After all we're not talking about clinical drugs. The Salazar's are known for heroin and cocaine trafficking. Do you really accept getting in contact with that?"
"Yes."
Again, his answer was cold, determined and quick. "My cover story is gonna say that I've already had contact with that. I guess I shouldn't give them the impression I'd be afraid to get in contact with drugs."
"Have you ever had contact with drugs?" She was back at the list now.
"No."
"Will the drug test - that they'll certainly do tomorrow - confirm that?"
"Yes, it will."
"What will you do when the Salazar's use the same drug test on you?"
"Nothing. The cover story says I'm an ex-junkie. Ex." He put the emphasis on that last word.
"Hair tests can look a few months into the past."
"I'll shave my head a month before I go there. Believe me, Ms. Raines, we've already had numerous discussions at CTU about that. Of course the Salazar's will do a drug test. But there is no test in the whole world that could really prove to them whether I was addicted or not. Maybe they'll see the past month, but that was it." Slowly he was getting his confidence back. If those were the questions that they'd ask him tomorrow, he was well prepared.
She didn't let loose. She knew that if she wanted to prepare him for tomorrow, she had to grill him now. Slowly she even felt that his anger towards her had disappeared, and that he was showing some kind of gratitude towards her for trying to prepare him.
"But nevertheless you think that they'll put you on drugs for questioning?"
He nodded. "Yes. The chances are there."
"Don't you believe you might get addicted then?"
"No."
"Why not?"
"I'm heading there to become a high-level operative in their cartel. They wouldn't want their own operatives to be users."
"Or it's gonna be right the other way round. Maybe they want to exercise some kind of control over their own members by keeping them on a short leash… even with the help of drugs?"
This time he didn't answer that quickly.
"Your pause tells me that this is a scenario you've already been thinking about, Agent Bauer.", she added.
He took a deep breath. Yes, it really was one of the scenarios that he feared most. "The chances are small, I guess." What did he actually fear? Being addicted to drugs? He couldn't imagine being like the drug abusers one knew from the bad city parts. They wouldn't let it get that far, he guessed, even if they'd put him on drugs to make him comply, they'd still keep him in a state where he was still useful, able to work, right? There was no other scenario that made sense.
"So if they used drugs on you, what would you do?", she read another one of the questions from the list.
"I'd let them do it."
"You'd get addicted right away."
"No.", he shook his head. "I've talked to numerous specialists about that. One-time use doesn't automatically make you an addict. You can still fight it."
"Do you believe you would be able to fight it?"
"Yes."
She looked up from the list, into his eyes. "What makes you so sure about that, Agent Bauer?"
"I've fought worse", she silently answered, staring into her eyes. "I was told that after all, fighting addiction was just one sort of a painful process."
Audrey looked at the papers, for a short moment, before she turned back to him. Do you believe you can handle this kind of pain? What makes you believe that? were the next two questions on the list.
She had read his file. All the details of how Peter Kingsley's men had tortured him. He wouldn't have a problem proving to the shrink that he was able to withstand physical pain. But she guessed that a withdrawal also came with enormous psychological effects. She skipped a few questions on the list, continuing, "Are you over the death of your wife?"
She saw an instant reaction in him.
"No.", he spoke, after a few seconds of thinking.
"Why do you still believe then that you're ready to go on this mission?"
"Not being over it qualifies me for that mission.", he sighed. It felt uncomfortable to talk about Teri in such a blunt way, "It even supports the cover story."
"Of becoming an addict due to her death?"
He nodded his head, "Yes."
"After the death of your wife, have you ever considered doing drugs?"
"No." He felt the anger getting back. Of course, the whole questionnaire was designed to get him angry, to get his emotions out. He really needed to control himself. "What do you think would be the right answer here, Ms. Raines?"
She looked up from the papers. "Sorry?"
"What shall I answer, regarding that question?"
"You said 'no' – I guess that's the right answer, isn't it?", she asked back, taken by surprise.
"If I say 'no', it tells the shrink that I have no history with drugs. On the other hand, it totally ruins the cover story. I wouldn't be credible any more in Mexico, saying that exact answer."
He really made no impression on her, like he'd ever touch that stuff voluntarily. But she could understand his way of thinking. She took the sheet of paper out of her file and slowly slid it over the table, even though she wasn't allowed to.
Jack leant forward and had a look at it. From that point on, there were two sets of questions, depending on him saying yes or no.
He looked up from the paper, for a second, wordlessly asking her what to do with this information. She was overstepping her boundaries by far, showing him this. She had already been, when she had started to tell him tomorrow's questions, but even showing him the evaluation profile was one step more.
"Have you ever seen this document, Agent Bauer?", she asked, in a very certain way.
"Never.", he shook his head, winking.
She slid the sheet of paper over to him, to let him take it. "You know how to handle this.", she commented. Well, he'd been an intelligence officer for years. Of course he knew how to handle such things.
He silently said yes, folding the paper, putting it into his pocket. He'd read it in his hotel room, and he'd burn it afterwards.
"I better look for a hotel room for tonight. And I have to rebook my flight."
"Re-schedule it for Wednesday evening.", she spoke, "under what name are you travelling?"
"Henry Fletcher", Jack told her, "We can't leave traces of me coming to D.C. for a meeting at the Pentagon."
She nodded her consent. "That's wise. If you want to, I'll organize you a room at the Cliffside Regent's Hotel. They don't list any records for our bookings."
"Would be great.", he thanked her, drowned in thoughts. Well, actually he didn't have anything else to take care of. Kim didn't expect him home until Friday, Kate… well, Kate was a different chapter. One that the needed and wanted to close anyway. The little piece of luggage that he had was in a locker, downstairs. He was free to stay here, as long as needed.
.
.
Well, we need a little prequel here... right? Can't just have Jack and Audrey run into each other's arms though they don't even know each other!
